Angel of Justiceby wonderkid125ChaptersChapter 2: Things That go BumpChapter 3: The Assault on Zecora's HutChapter 4: The Slayer's PastChapter 5: Home Sweet HomeChapter 6: The Return to the ForestChapter 7: Into the CavernChapter 8: Finding HelpChapter 9: A Well Deserved RestChapter 10: Residential MalevolenceChapter 11: Sinister IntentChapter 12: Winding DownChapter 13: Hitting the BooksChapter 14: WaterloggedChapter 15: HydrophobiaChapter 17: Dark and DampChapter 18: Dead Man's FloatChapter 19: Change of PlansChapter 20: History LessonChapter 21: DowntimeChapter 22: Lights OutChapter 23: Into the DarknessChapter 24: What Lurks in the Shadows?Chapter 25: The Boogieman ComethChapter 26: Flashlight TagChapter 27: The Midnight MenChapter 29: New ArrivalsChapter 30: Getting to the Bottom of ThingsChapter 31: The AftermathChapter 32: Team SpiritChapter 34: Troubled SleepChapter 35: Party GamesChapter 36: Something WickedChapter 37: Into the WoodsChapter 38: Playing With Dead ThingsChapter 39: Mind the GapChapter 40: The Investigative ApproachChapter 41: Meetings and MisdeedsChapter 42: The Graveyard ShiftChapter 43: Making PreparationsChapter 44: Heading to the SquareChapter 45: The SpeechChapter 46: Dry BonesChapter 47: Unwelcomed GuestsChapter 48: House ArrestChapter 49: Pain and MiseryChapter 51: The Fight For The SquareChapter 52: ReunionChapter 53: RepercussionsChapter 54: Rest, Relaxation, and SleepoversChapter 55: Not a Creature was StirringChapter 56: Storm FrontChapter 57: Rude AwakeningsChapter 58: Demonic DilemmaChapter 59: DownpourChapter 60: EpicenterChapter 61: The Calm BeforeChapter 62: The StormChapter 63: King of the SkyChapter 64: RecoveryChapter 65: DiscoveryChapter 66: InterrogationChapter 67: EntrapmentChapter 68: Running ScaredChapter 69: Safety in NumbersChapter 70: Risky ManeuversChapter 72: Preparing for BattleChapter 73: The Last Stand on the RoofChapter 74: Picking up the PiecesChapter 75: Planning AheadChapter 76: A Moment of RestChapter 77: The Lair of the BeastChapter 78: The Best Laid Plans...Chapter 79: Point of No ReturnChapter 80: Around Every CornerChapter 81: House of HorrorsChapter 82: Out of the ShadowsChapter 83: Grave DangerChapter 84: The Long Way BackChapter 85: Endless TortureChapter 87: Descent into HellChapter 88: Running out of TimeChapter 89: Searching for a Way OutChapter 90: Fighting to SurviveChapter 91: RegretChapter 92: RequiemChapter 93: City Under SiegeChapter 94: Fighting BackChapter 95: Holding FastChapter 96: ComplicationsChapter 97: Together AgainChapter 98: ConfrontationChapter 99: The Battle for Equestria (Part 1)Chapter 99: The Battle for Equestria (Part 2)Chapter 100: The Journey's EndChapter 1: An Unexpected JourneyChapter 16: Blood in the WaterChapter 28: Code BlueChapter 33: Getting to Know the TeamChapter 50: Slayer Vs. ShadowChapter 71: Searching the DarknessChapter 86: Critical ConditionChapter 2: Things That go BumpTwilight was still at a loss for words as she watched the human. It looked like it was a boy in his mid-teen years, but where did he come from? What was he doing here? And why did he speak in a language that she could understand? All of these questions and many more flooded the unicorn’s mind in an instant. Finally, she could take no more. She had to speak to the creature and ask what was going on. “Uh… hello?” Twilight spoke hesitantly to the human, who in return spun around to face her. He seemed excited at first to hear someone else's voice out in this forest. “Oh, thank goodness I’m not alone out here… Who are y- Whoa!” He jumped slightly, having not expected to see a pastel colored unicorn when he turned around. “Did you just talk...? Can you understand me?” He stated with a shocked expression, eyeing her curiously. Twilight nodded weakly before suddenly remembering where she was, and what she was doing. The thought of those creatures returning made her heart pound in her chest all over again. “We need to get out of here!” She squeaked frantically with intense fear. The unicorn struggled to get up before realizing she could still barely move. “Hold on… easy there, you look tired.” He spoke gently, sounding genuinely concerned for her. “Why don’t you tell me your name before you hurt yourself trying to get up?” The fact that he had gotten past the fact that she was a talking unicorn so fast and instead shifted to being concerned for her confused the purple mare. Twilight still felt nervous and wanted more than anything to get up and go find her friends before those things returned. “Twilight… ughh,” She could barely get the words out while working herself onto her knees. She hyperventilated in a panic as she thought she heard a noise nearby. “We need to get out of here before they come back!” Twilight tried as hard as she could to convey the urgency of the situation. “Slow down… before what comes back?” The human looked at her quizzically and spoke in a mixture of confusion and slight concern. Before Twilight could get out an answer, she was silenced by another odd occurrence. The human gasped for a moment as a surge of blue mist came from his mouth. It was as if he was standing out in the middle of winter and his breath could be seen. Along with this blue mist came a high pitched hiss. It did not sound like it was the human, as Twilight could hear his own gasp along with the noise, as if he had the wind knocked out of him along with some other strange sound. Twilight was struck with curiosity again, however the human looked more urgent now. He eyed around the dark woods that surrounded them and appeared to scan them for any signs of movement. It was almost like he knew there was something out there. “What did you say was coming back again?” the human sounded more serious now as he waited for a reply. Before Twilight could say anything further she was silenced by the sound of growling all around them. She looked around in a panic, trying to locate the source of the growling. Her heart almost skipped a beat when she saw black shapes moving towards them from all around, trapping them in a circle. “Ok, look… you said your name was Twilight, right?” The human spoke very calmly and directly to her, backing closer with his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Y-yeah,” Twilight stammered nervously while trying not to have a mental breakdown. “Ok… Twilight I need you to listen carefully,” The human sounded much more urgent as he tried to make himself as clear as possible. The unicorn could barely hear him over the sounds of the growling beasts and her own heart pounding in her chest, but she listened as intently as she could. “I need you to stay calm, and stay right where you are, and I promise you... nothing bad will happen to you,” The boy looked back at her with a serious expression on his face. Twilight wondered how anyone could sound that calm in a situation like this, much less comfort a unicorn reduced to a shivering mess on the floor, but she nodded weakly while mentally preparing for the worst. “Do you know how many of these things there are?” He asked while eyeing the shadowy creatures approaching them in unison. Twilight thought for a moment before replying. “Three of them chased me and my friends, but I lost them while running… I guess they decided to chase me instead,” The unicorn explained in a disheartened tone. She tried not to think of what might have happened to her two friends out in the forest, or even if the creatures managed to get back to the house where the rest of her friends were. “Well Twilight… I have some bad news for you. There are more than three of them here… it’s more like five or six of them,” He stated calmly with a slight inflection of worry in his voice. Twilight was almost in tears from fright at the situation, so logically, knowing that there were more of those things out there than she originally thought did not help to calm her nerves. She whined in fear as she darted her head around to look at the approaching monsters. “Like I said… remain calm and nothing bad will happen to you,” The boy spoke softly in an attempt to calm her down. Something about the human was reassuring to Twilight. Perhaps it was the way he was looking at her or something about his tone of voice, but Twilight believed this person was sincere and wanted to help her. “AHHH!” Twilight cried out in fear as one of the beasts jumped toward the human. He quickly grabbed his sword and unsheathed it, causing the steel to ring out a shrill tone. The sword looked like a rather simple katana with one very unique feature. The blade was tinted a light shade of blue that seemed to glow softly. It looked oddly peaceful and pleasing to the eye despite its violent purpose. The human quickly swung the sword vertically at the beast, aiming for the center. The sword cut through the beast as if it weren’t really there. The two halves of the creature flew past the human and would have hit Twilight had they not erupted into a cloud of black smoke that forced her to shield her eyes as it enveloped her. The force of the thick smoke flying past her blew the unicorn’s hair back as it evaporated a short distance from her. When Twilight looked up there was no trace of the creature around her, a few thin wisps of smoke disappearing into the air. The human held his sword horizontally in one hand, preparing for another attack. Two of the beasts came from behind the hapless unicorn and raced towards her with their claws at the ready. Twilight flinched instinctively and shielded her face with her forelegs. The human jumped in front of her and planted his sword into one of the beast’s heads. The creature screamed in agony as smoke poured from its wound. While the creature writhed as it slowly turned to smoke, the other monster raced past the human in an attempt to get at the defenseless unicorn behind him. “Oh no you don’t!” The human quickly grabbed one of the beast’s legs and pulled hard. With its forward momentum, the beast flipped sideways onto its back and whipped its head around to bite the offending hand of the human with its razor sharp teeth. With his other hand still on the hilt of his sword, the boy pulled it out of the beast, which completely erupted into smoke upon exit of the blade. The sword flew in the air and flipped around to face the other creature. The human quickly grabbed the sword out of the air and stabbed it into the monster before firmly shoving the blade the rest of the way into the ground with both hands. The creature let out a cry before rapidly turning to smoke as the others had. The three remaining beasts snarled at the human before retreating back into the shadows of the forest. After waiting for a moment and surveying the surroundings. The human let out a sigh of relief before looking over to the strange unicorn still huddled into a ball on the ground. She was shivering in fright and quietly whining to herself with tears in her eyes. “You’re still alive… you can open your eyes now,” The human said to Twilight, extracting his blade from the earth. Still in disbelief at what she was hearing, Twilight slowly removed her forelegs from her face. Looking in front of her at the last bits of smoke escaping the area a few inches ahead, Twilight stared at the human with a mixture of shock and relief plastered on her face. “Y... you saved me?” She stated in disbelief. Still unsure as to whether this was real or if she was in a pain induced coma from being ripped to shreds by the beasts, Twilight touched her face to make sure she could feel. “Yeah… you kinda left me no choice. What was I supposed to do, leave you here to die?” The human tilted his head curiously at the unicorn. He then re sheathed his sword and brushed himself off before extending his hand to help Twilight up. “Come on, let’s get out of here before they come back with their big brother or something,” The human smiled lightly at her waiting for her to stop staring at him like he wasn’t real. “Oh! Of course, sorry...” Twilight said with embarrassment while wiping her still wet eyes. She finally found it in herself to stop gawking at her savior for a moment and reached her hoof out to grab his hand. The human felt her grip his hand without any fingers to do so and was slightly shocked as he pulled her to her feet. “Whoa... how did you do that?” He asked curiously. “Do what?” Twilight replied unsure of what he meant. “How did you grab my hand...? I expected to have to grab you myself. I mean… you don’t have fingers after all,” Twilight thought for a moment before looking at his hand and then her hoof. “Oh…! Sorry, I forgot that you just popped out of nowhere for a second there. I’m so used to our culture and physiology that it’s hard to explain to someone new… but I’ll try to give you the short version. I’m a pony… more specifically a unicorn, but anyway,” Twilight caught herself, trying not to get off track and overload the human with too much information at one time. “We ponies can grab things with our hooves almost like we have fingers. It works because of magic that is shared between all of us,” Twilight inhaled preparing herself to explain the use of magic to the human when he interrupted her. “Oh ok, so it’s magic… I get it now,” He nodded his head confidently. “Wait… you know about magic?” Twilight looked at him bewildered. She was confused by the human’s sudden understanding of the concept of magic, seeing as humans didn’t use magic except for a few individual practitioners, and even then it was a different type of magic than what ponies and unicorns used. “Yeah… see, in my line of work I run into unexplainable things from time to time. Magic seems to clear up a lot of gray areas for me,” The human looked completely serious as if he were recalling the basic requirements for his profession. “Your line of work...? I’m sorry, but… who are you exactly?” Twilight said, feeling slightly embarrassed by the fact that she had not asked the person that saved her life his own name. Before he could answer her question, his breath turned blue and Twilight heard the high pitched gasp of air again. “My name isn’t important right now. There are more of those things and who knows what else still around here. Just know that where I’m from… they call me the slayer,” He explained with a small grin, as if he had just told the unicorn that he was the king of a country. The odd title didn’t mean anything other than its gruesome implications to Twilight, but as long as those things were around, perhaps having a slayer nearby would be useful. Twilight nervously eyed her surroundings. How could he be sure that more of those creatures were out in the woods? Nothing like those beasts had ever been found in the Everfree Forest before. Still, the thought of more of those creatures sent chills up her spine. “What were those things...? How do you know there are more?” Twilight asked nervously, managing to calm her voice back to a more sensible tone. The boy looked at her in between carefully scanning around them for movement. He seemed to be pressed for time, as he was focusing more on keeping them safe rather than answering the purple pony’s questions. “I will answer all of your questions to the best of my ability, as well as ask a few for myself…” He stated with a sense of curiosity as to his current whereabouts. “But first we should get to somewhere a bit safer. Besides, didn’t you say there were others out here with you?” The human’s statement created a new sense of dread and worry inside Twilight as she suddenly remembered her two friends. “Oh my gosh!” The color drained from Twilight’s face as she thought about her friends being just as lost as she had been. What worried the purple unicorn even further was the fact that they had no one to protect them from the fierce beasts that almost claimed her life. Before she could think about a means of searching for her friends, Twilight’s train of thought was derailed by the sound of bushes rustling in front of them. Twilight tensed up as she hid behind her strange new companion. The human cautiously kept his hand in reach of his sword as he stared at the bushes ahead of them. Twilight tried to steel herself for whatever horrors awaited in the forest, but before she could, she was interrupted by something orange jumping out from the bushes. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed happily while rushing toward her earth pony friend, who gladly embraced her in a hug. “Twilight! I’m so glad you’re ok!” Applejack exclaimed, joyfully holding the unicorn tight. She was starting to think that she would never see her friend again, so to be finally reunited with her nearly brought the orange mare to tears. After holding her friend close for a few moments, Applejack looked up and noticed the human watching the scene unfold. The unexpected sight made her flinch in surprise. She immediately became very uneasy, considering that the last creature she had never seen before tried to kill her and her friends. “Twilight… what is that?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone while inspecting the odd creature. It seemed friendly enough, although the orange mare wondered why it had a sword on its back of all things, and why it was dressed so oddly. Before she could answer, Twilight was interrupted by another form jumping out of the bushes and onto her body, sending her into the ground. As she looked up to see what had pounced on her, the unicorn realized that it was her friend Rainbow Dash. “Twilight!” The cyan pony shouted with elation at the apparent safety of her friend. She was also crying tears of joy, considering the circumstances of how they were separated. Twilight struggled for a moment before speaking. She wasn’t used to having a full grown pony sit on her body like the pegasus currently was. “Rainbow Dash!” The purple mare cheered in excitement, she then took a moment to inhale sharply. “Ughh… Rainbow, you’re kind of crushing my lungs here,” Twilight heaved from the sudden weight on top of her. Rainbow Dash quickly jumped off of her friend and looked slightly embarrassed. In her rush to greet the unicorn, she had forgotten that she could be harming her. “Oh… sorry,” The cyan pegasus apologized while helping her friend to her feet. “We were just so worried! We heard you scream and thought those things must have gotten to you,” She explained with concern and relief prominent in her voice as she stepped back toward the bushes to give Twilight room to breathe. “That reminds me,” Applejack piped up. “I’m glad you’re not hurt, but how did those things not rip you to pieces?” She stated, curious at her friend’s miraculous survival. Although the prospect of her friend dying was horrifying, Rainbow Dash also wondered how she had managed to fend off the creatures. “Oh… this person appeared out of nowhere and-” Twilight turned to face the human, but was interrupted by the sound of something jumping out of the bushes behind Rainbow Dash. “Heads up!” The human shouted before quickly unsheathing his sword. In one fluid motion he flipped his body around and threw the sword toward the group. The blade flew in the air, and whizzed past the ponies heads. The three mares flinched and tensed up instinctively as the sword missed them by mere inches. They heard the sound of the blade smacking into the tree, along with a startling cry of pain from some kind of living creature. The ponies slowly turned their heads and looked over to where the sword had landed. Dangling from the tree by the blade was yet another one of the strange beasts which had already started emitting smoke from its wound. “AHH!” All three ponies screamed and jumped back in unison. Rainbow Dash jumped the farthest out of fear, having been inches away from the beast before its sudden impalement on the tree. “W-w-what in the hay is that thing?” Applejack stammered nervously while standing in front of her two friends instinctively to distance them from the frightening creature. The human walked between the ponies and up to the pinned creature. After grabbing the hilt of the blade, he paused and turned to the frightened mares huddled together. “This… is a darkling,” He explained while gripping the sword with both hands. With relative ease, the human twisted the blade out of the tree, being careful to keep the creature impaled on the tip. The creature offered no more than a shrill cry mixed in with a low growl as resistance while the human planted it on the ground. “Darklings are shadow creatures that form in dark places with a lot of negative energy… which this place looks like it has no shortage of,” The human surveyed the surrounding forest which appeared as bleak and foreboding as ever. He then settled his eyes on the intently listening ponies. He wasn’t sure if they were listening out of curiosity or silenced from sheer fright; judging from their expressions, he wagered it was a mixture of both. “They come in many different shapes, sizes, and varieties. They hunt in packs, they can move very quickly should they be a more intelligent variant that actually decides to use their powers, and they detest light of any kind,” The human pushed the sword sideways into the creature before pulling out the blade, causing an eruption of smoke around him. He then wiped the blade on his leg before twirling it around and placing it back in its sheath. “Now then… we need to get out of here. Do you know the way out of this forest?” The human asked while getting a better look at the three ponies. While they seemed strange to him, he decided to wait until they were safe before asking any questions himself. Twilight’s cheerful attitude from being reunited with her friends all but left her face as she remembered their grim situation. She still had no idea where they were, or even what direction they were facing. “Unfortunately, I lost the path we came here on when we started running… I’m afraid we’re lost,” The purple mare looked down with a disheartened expression on her face. The two ponies beside her looked at each other happily for a moment. They then turned to the unicorn and smiled warmly. Twilight was a little bit confused as to why they were so cheerful, but decided to let them explain. “Actually Twilight… we found the path after we lost those monsters. It’s just a little ways back where we came from,” Rainbow Dash explained happily while motioning toward the tree line she had emerged from. Twilight could barely contain her joy from hearing the good news. She was already starting to contemplate whether they would starve, freeze to death, or get mauled by more of those creatures if they stayed out here too long, so to hear that they would be going home in no time filled her with a radiant sense of happiness. “That’s great!” The unicorn exclaimed while looking over to the human. “Come with us. We can lead you out of here and back to our other friends!” The relief of finally escaping this forest of nightmares was obvious on Twilight’s face as she followed her friends into the bush while motioning for the human to follow. Well I might as well follow them for now… I don’t exactly want to be stuck out in a forest in a place I’m unfamiliar with. Besides, they don’t look like they can fend for themselves.The boy thought to himself. He looked ahead to the three ponies cautiously walking towards the apparent path. The human ran a short way to catch up to them so he could be close in the event another one of those beasts popped out of the darkness. After finding the path, the group marched forward, occasionally taking a moment to jump at the noises of the forest around them, wondering if they were natural or otherwise. Although it was dark and the possibility of more creatures finding them was high, the three ponies felt slightly safer with the strange boy travelling with them, keeping his eyes open and ready to pounce on anything that might gobble up his three companions in a single bite. Finally, Twilight could make out the familiar shape of Zecora’s hut just beyond the treeline. A wide and somewhat goofy smile crept across the unicorn’s face. She never thought that seeing such a simple thing would be able to fill her with such joy. “We’re back! Thank Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed with relief prominent in her voice. “I hope everyone is ok,” Rainbow Dash voiced her concerns to the rest of the group. The sudden thought that those creatures might have gone after their friends made everyone gulp nervously. After pushing these grim thoughts from their minds, the ponies decided to head into the small hut sooner rather than later. “What are we waitin’ for? Let’s hurry up and get back inside!” Applejack exclaimed, excited to be going into a safe place, even if it was still inside the forest. The group rushed into the clearing and made a beeline for the front of the house. Twilight reached the door first and knocked eagerly. Everyone listened as muffled voices and other noises could be heard inside. Soon, they heard the sound of someone walking to the door. The door opened and the bright smiling face of Pinkie Pie could be seen. “Girls! Thank goodness you’re ok!” The pink pony practically bounced with joy from seeing her friends’ safe return. “We were so worried! We were starting to think something happened to you,” Pinkie stepped back revealing the happy faces of the rest of the group. The three ponies stepped in and greeted their friends. As the human stepped into the house, everyone eyed him curiously. “What is that thing?” Spike piped up from the back of the room where he had been leaning against the wall. Pinkie Pie examined the human closely, possibly too closely as she rapidly went from top to bottom examining every bit of the strange human that caught her eye. “Yeah, it doesn’t look like anypony I know… it doesn’t even look like a pony,” Pinkie stated curiously. The human gently pushed the energetic pink puffball away from him as she tried to examine his sword and holster. “Let me explain, everyone,” Twilight announced to the group. “But first…what’s your name...? You said you would tell us once we were somewhere safe, and here we are,” She said, perking up a bit. “Oh, of course… My name is Thomas Greene, but my friends call me Tom,” The boy stated while looking around at the group. “Oooo… Can I call you Tom?” Pinkie asked lightheartedly and smiled, still trying to examine the boy’s clothes and weapon. “Uhh... sure, but could you back up a little bit first...? You’re making me kind of uncomfortable,” Tom said, trying to keep track of the pink pony darting around him. “Oh, sorry… hehe,” Pinkie smiled awkwardly and stepped back into the line of ponies. Twilight sighed before returning her attention to the group. “Anyway, we were out in the forest collecting the plants that Zecora wanted, when suddenly these strange monsters appeared. They chased us and we eventually got separated. I tripped and fell, and thought I was a goner,” She shuddered from the mere thought of the creatures, while everyone else shuddered at the thought of the purple pony possibly getting mauled to death by monsters while they sat and talked idly. “When suddenly, a bright flash of light made me shut my eyes… and when I looked up, Mr. Greene was standing there. He fought off the monsters like they were nothing to him. After that, Applejack and Rainbow Dash found us and lead us back to the path… that about covers it,” Twilight sat down and rested. She had not realized just how tired all that running and life endangerment had made her. “We were all getting worried for your health, I was about to go out and look for you myself. But I am glad that all of you are safe and managed to find your way back to this place,” Zecora spoke up from her spot near the glass jar that held the black blob. Apparently she had covered it with a red cloth to shield it from the light since the three mares left. “Oh yeah! That reminds me,” Twilight exclaimed suddenly. Her horn lit up and she lifted the plants that started their journey out of the bag that still hung from her side. Amazingly the plants had not been crushed with all that had happened to her. “Here are your plants Zecora,” Twilight gently placed them on the table next to the glass jar. Before Zecora could reply, Tom gasped again as blue mist came from his mouth. “There’s that blue mist again… What does that mean Thomas?” Twilight asked, genuinely curious as to the purpose of the odd occurrence. “Well, you know how I said that they call me the slayer?” The boy explained. Twilight nodded in remembrance at his previous conversation. “I slay evil things, and that mist you saw is a kind of warning that lets me know when some sort of evil creature is nearby,” Tom stated apprehensively. Twilight looked at him nervously as she figured out what he was insinuating. “Wait… so does that mean-” Almost on cue to answer the purple unicorn’s question, a series of noises erupted from behind the house. It sounded like a horrible racket of howling and clawed feet scraping on the ground as numerous animals ran towards the hut. Soon, there were scratching noises and low growls surrounding the house. The frightened ponies huddled together at the back of the hut as the noises grew louder. It sounded as if a pack of hungry wolves was surrounding the small hut. “T-t-that sounds like a lot of them,” Rainbow Dash stuttered, trying to remain as calm as possible. “What are those ghastly things?” Rarity squeaked in fear as she listened to the horrific noises. “Those must be the things that chased us through the forest,” Twilight felt a chill run up her spine as she listened to the familiar sounds around them. The group was nearly frightened out of their wits. The ponies looked around, following the sounds of the creatures outside, when suddenly it grew quiet. Chapter 3: The Assault on Zecora's HutThe return of the silent atmosphere in Zecora’s hut did nothing to comfort the group of ponies huddled in a corner. The light bubbling of Zecora’s cauldron in the background and the sound of wind whipping through the trees outside failed to make the frightened bunch forget about the creatures that waited just beyond their wooden sanctuary. Spike, who had been cowering in a ball behind the group, peeked over the shivering mass of ponies and searched the front of the house for any signs of the creatures. He noticed Tom carefully looking out of the window with his back to the wall, scanning the surrounding area outside the house. “A-are they gone?” The young dragon asked, making no attempt to hide the fear in his voice. The human carefully leaned closer to the window and searched for a moment before turning to the group. “I can’t see anything… it’s way too dark out there,” He spoke lightly, but made sure that they all heard. Satisfied that his visual search would yield no more results, Tom leaned closer to the door to listen for any sign of the beasts outside. *Thump* Tom jerked back from the door as the creatures outside started to ram into it. The noises of growling and low howling returned as well. The human stood between the door and his group of companions with his hand on his sword and his body arched sideways in preparation to fight. *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Each blow to the door shook the very walls of the hut, causing candles to jump slightly on their tables and books to vibrate on the surrounding shelves. The cowering band of ponies, baby dragon, and zebra could barely keep themselves composed as each subsequent blow on the door rattled their very beings. Fluttershy let out a shrill whimper and looked down and away from the danger while shielding her face with her forelegs. Rarity attempted to comfort Spike, who had clung to her after the creatures started their barrage on the door, but the best she could do was put her foreleg around him while she stared fearfully at the door. The rest of the group occupied themselves with either mentally coping with the situation while blankly staring in a mixture of fear and despair in the general direction of the door, or staring fearfully at Tom and hoping with every fiber of their being that he could protect them from the beasts outside. “D-do you think they can get in?” Pinkie stuttered nervously, looking at Tom with tears in her eyes. “Don’t worry, darklings aren’t known for being the most persistent monster,” The boy glanced back at the group while trying to console them and ease their fears. “B-but… what if they walk through the walls? I saw them pass through a log while they were chasing me, like it wasn’t even there,” Twilight stated fearfully. She was expecting the creatures to be able to come from anywhere, even from behind her. “Don’t worry… they’re either too stupid to realize that they can do that, or they are just trying the less direct approach to rile us up. Judging from how they’re acting though, I think they are just stupid,” Tom replied with a calm, almost cocky expression. “I’m sure that once they figure out that the door won’t immediately break, they will go aw-” He was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering and the ponies all screaming in unison. The slayer whipped his head around just in time to be greeted by a black mass in the shape of a mouth full of teeth heading in the rather specific direction of his face. Apparently, one of the beasts had gotten frustrated with the lack of headway on bursting through the door, and decided to take the more direct route of jumping through one of the nearby windows. “Ok, nevermind!” Tom exclaimed in surprise while quickly sidestepping out of the way. The creature landed beside him and skidded to a halt with its claws dragging on the floor. Having missed its initial attack on the human, the darkling suddenly turned its attention forward to the group of ponies cowering in the background. The beast growled fiercely at the sight of its prey. Twilight and the others gasped in fright as they saw the monster staring at them with its mouth agape, as if it were showing them its teeth so they could admire them while it was ripping them apart. Before the monster could react, Tom whipped his sword out of the holster on his back and forcefully swung it down into what he could loosely identify as the creature’s neck in one swift motion. The monster’s shadowy form offered little resistance as the luminescent blade cut through it, separating head from body. As the darkling collapsed into a satisfying cloud of black smoke, Tom turned his attention back to the source of the danger. While the door gradually kept jolting more and more as the hinges and lock weakened under the pressure of constant abuse, more of the shadowy beasts had gotten the same idea their friend had gotten. The sharp sound of glass shattering cut through the air once more as another beast flung itself through the other window. Two more of the feral creatures flooded in through use of the new passageways to get at their prey. With a soul rending howl, the creatures ran straight towards the human with their mouths dripping eagerly with saliva. If they failed to attack the boy, then they could just get behind him to get at the ponies while the others distracted their protector. Tom quickly dispatched the first charging beast by running his blade clean through the middle of its body. The beast gave a whimper as the sword was lifted up and out of its form, causing it to fade into smoke as it collapsed to the floor. The two other darklings jumped Tom in unison. While he was preparing to dispatch the one that rushed at his legs, the other one jumped into the air towards him. Caught off guard by the sudden charge, Tom quickly held the blade sideways in between him and the monster as it careened into him. Despite his attempts at bracing against the flying creature, the boy was knocked backwards and landed on the ground with a harsh thud. The ponies all gasped in surprise as their protector was suddenly plowed to the floor. They watched helplessly as Tom wrestled with the beast on top of him while also kicking at the other creature which was trying to rip at his lower half. Fortunately, the beast that jumped him had caught his sword in its mouth and was held back by it. Tom grunted while wrestling to keep the beast from getting too close to his face. He could feel the cold saliva the creature was producing drip onto him as it snapped and growled at him, trying to get past the obstruction in its mouth. The darkling seemed to be burned from contact with the blessed weapon, but it ignored any semblance of pain it might have felt as its mouth smoked while it growled and snapped. Tom heaved heavily as he found the strength in him to kick away the second beast hard enough to knock it on its side. He then quickly lifted the monster on top of him up slightly and kicked it into the air above him. Acting on instinct alone, the boy managed to stick his sword up vertically and aimed for the creatures head. The beast snapped at him while falling, managing to catch the sword in its mouth as it fell on top of it. The blade made a sickening crunch as it pierced through the monster’s skull. Tom grunted in pain as the beast’s head came to a stop just above the hilt of his sword, causing the creature’s elongated teeth to sink into his hand. After shielding his eyes while the heavy creature’s weight was lifted off him by its conversion to smoke, Tom quickly jumped up and faced the other creature. The darkling backed up, growling fiercely at the slayer, when suddenly it turned its head to look at the door. The hinges, after minutes of holding fast through the onslaught they were facing, popped off the door and landed a short distance away with a loud clatter. The rest of the door subsequently flew onto the floor once the next bash from the creatures hit it. A line of five or so darklings slowly walked through the opening to join the one already inside. Beyond the line of creatures flooding into the small house, there was a seemingly endless wall of the beasts lining up in front of the doorway, pushing and clawing past each other to get a chance at entering. The creature Tom had briefly fended off turned its head and joined its friends in stalking closer to the human, who in turn started backing closer to the conglomerate of petrified ponies behind him. “W…we…” Spike tripped over himself trying to get the words past the knot in his stomach. “Are we going to die?” He looked over to Twilight in tears waiting for an answer from the unicorn that had been his sisterly figure ever since his birth. Twilight glanced at her number one assistant before looking around at her other friends. They were all trying their best to remove themselves from the situation, to imagine that this was just an awful nightmare they would wake up from at any moment. “I don’t know, Spike.” The purple unicorn sullenly looked down at the young dragon before returning her gaze to the bleak scene in front of her. Tom kept backing closer to the group while looking around at the sea of horrific beasts descending upon them. Judging from the expression on his face, Twilight could tell the human was frantically thinking of anything he could do to circumvent their imminent demise. Damn it…. There are way too many of them to fight off. Tom’s mind raced to find a possible solution. “Well then… I guess I have no other choices,” He thought out loud to himself with a stern tone of voice. Tom stopped just in front of the group of ponies and stood his ground against the shadowy legion approaching them. With a steely look of determination, he raised his right hand in the air and held it out in front of him. He opened his palm and steadied his feet before focusing all of his attention ahead. “Take this you glorified shadow puppets!” He shouted fiercely at the approaching attackers. Suddenly, a beam of blue light shot out from his hand. It shined fiercely in front of him, enveloping the entire front of the small hut in its wake. The group looked on, awestruck as the creatures were all but obscured from their vision by the blinding light. The Beasts let out a deafening cry, and those immediately next to the human were almost instantly blown into smoke before disappearing into the light. Tom walked forward while concentrating heavily, causing whatever creatures remaining in the house to retreat as their entire form burned in the light. Once at the doorway Tom shouted again as he focused his energy into the beam of light, causing it to grow in intensity. The light surged out of the hole and into the clearing outside, completely eradicating any of the beasts that lingered near the house. The light faded from sight as Tom stood on the fallen door, breathing heavily with his arm still outstretched in front of him. He then backed up a few steps before falling backwards and catching himself with his hands. The human sat there on the floor while breathing deeply as if he just ran a marathon. Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends stood in the back of the room where they had gathered and stared at each other for a moment. They took a moment to process what had just happened before finally looking back to the human resting on the ground. “We’re… ok?” Fluttershy was the first to break the silence that hung over the group. She blinked a few times to make sure that she wasn’t just imagining things. “We’re better than ok, Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash spoke up while looking around at her friends in disbelief. “We’re alive!” The cyan pegasus exclaimed joyfully, jumping triumphantly in the air. Everyone else started cheering and bouncing happily with the vigor that only a near death experience could bring. After taking a few moments to celebrate and hug each other to make sure they were in fact alive, the group quickly made their way over to Tom and gathered around him. “You did it Thomas!” Twilight exclaimed happily, moving in front of the tired out human to offer him help getting up. She almost couldn’t believe that the human had managed to pull off such an impossible victory. The unicorn felt like hugging him until his face turned blue, but she instead decided to offer him a helping hoof to get up. “Yeah… I guess I did,” The boy wheezed heavily while reaching forward to accept Twilight’s outstretched hoof for support. Twilight gasped in shock as she looked at his hand. Numerous puncture marks and a few lacerations were bleeding profusely from where one of the creature’s teeth had come down onto him with full weight. “Your hand is bleeding...” She observed while carefully helping him up. “It looks pretty bad…we should take you to a hospital,” She suggested with concern brimming in her voice. The group looked at the injury with worry and sympathy evident in their faces. They felt horrible knowing that the boy had gotten injured while saving them. Tom looked down at his hand before inhaling sharply as he ran his fingers over it. The ponies cringed in shock as they wondered why he was being so reckless with his wound. “Owch… this feels bad… but don’t worry,” Tom winced in pain as he held up his hand and bent his fingers to check if he could still move them. Suddenly, the injuries glowed orange as what appeared to be crackling flames appeared around them. Tom grimaced in pain as the wounds started closing up from the inside out, as if the process actually burned as much as it appeared to have. Soon, the glow stopped and the human’s hand looked good as new. He clenched his fist to assure himself and the others that the pain was gone. “One of the perks of being the slayer… Better than any band aid I know of,” He spoke up while looking around at the group staring in curiosity and wonder at the feat they had just witnessed. Twilight wanted to ask the human so many questions. Where did he come from? Just what is a slayer exactly? What other strange abilities did he have? But before she could act on her curiosity, Zecora spoke up from beside Tom. “Interesting… you seem to hold such great power. How fortunate that you were here during our darkest hour,” She spoke softly, still trying to calm her nerves after the ordeal they all just went through. “What kind of creature would want to harm us all...? We should inform the princess of our incredible close call,” The zebra suggested while pondering why they would be attacked by these strange beasts. “I agree completely, Zecora. Spike, take a letter… we need to let the princess know about everything that’s happened tonight.” Twilight spoke up while looking over to the young dragon standing off to the side. After settling down and taking a moment to catch their breath, the group started to calm themselves down from the nerve racking experience they just had. Everyone took a seat and got comfortable as Twilight reached into her bag and pulled out a feather quill and a piece of paper to give to Spike. The young dragon waited eagerly while the unicorn thought for a moment on what to write to the princess. “Dear Princess Celestia, there is a frightful matter that I need to discuss with you. Upon reaching Zecora’s home and showing her the package you sent, she asked us to search the woods behind her house for materials needed to research the odd substance.” Twilight took a moment to inhale as Spike quickly wrote down her words. “While searching for these materials, myself, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were attacked by three monsters that I have never seen or read about before. I got separated from the others and most likely would have died had it not been for the sudden appearance of a human from an odd flash of light. He saved my life and fought off the creatures, even when more of them showed up at Zecora’s house. I am unsure of what any of this means, but I was hoping you could shed some more light on the reason you sent us out here. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle… There... that should do it,” The purple unicorn finished as she watched Spike roll up the scroll and light the bottom part of it on fire to send it to the princess. Tom looked curiously at the phenomenon and scratched his head. It was unlike anything he had ever heard of or seen before. “You use a baby dragon to send messages back and forth to your princess?” He looked at Twilight with a confused expression. “Yeah, it’s convenient… I thought magic explained a lot of gray areas for you?” Twilight looked back at the apparent expert on the supernatural with a perplexed look on her face. “Some things are just too weird to understand, even with the excuse of magic…” The boy sighed in annoyance. “So how long does this usually take?” He leaned back against a wall and placed his hands behind his head. Twilight thought about the process for a moment before explaining. She had never really taken much thought as to how long the process of writing the princess took. “Well… it takes a few minutes for the scroll to reach the princess, seeing how she is all the way in Canterlot… and then it takes a few minutes for her to reply and send it back,” She stated in a helpful tone. The unicorn wasn’t sure if her explanation had answered the boy’s question, or just confused him further. “That reminds me… In all of the commotion I forgot to ask, where am I and who are all of you?” Tom spoke up while inspecting the group around him. “Oh... of course, I must have forgotten as well considering the circumstances,” Twilight replied, turning to the group and preparing to introduce them, everyone perked up from hearing that they were about to be introduced to a new person. “You already met Applejack and Rainbow Dash… Over there is Pinkie Pie and Rarity,” The unicorn pointed to each of them respectively as they nodded in return. “Hi there!” Pinkie grinned and waved at Tom. The human felt slightly uncomfortable while looking at the hyper pony smiling ear to ear at him. In his experience, most things that happy were either mentally disturbed, trying to kill him, or both. “Pleased to meet you, darling,” Rarity added while smiling openly and nodding her head in their direction. She gave a courteous bow to the human which gave him an insight to her personality. Twilight continued naming off her friends to Tom as he watched them introduce themselves. The boy seemed genuinely interested in each of them, rather than just sitting by idly and waiting for the long winded introductions to cease. “Over there is Fluttershy and Zecora,” The purple mare gestured to the two sitting in the back of the room. Fluttershy smiled timidly at the boy and spoke softly. Tom could tell she was a bit more fragile than the others from how she was still shivering in fright. “T-thank you for helping us out Mr. Greene,” The yellow pegasus stuttered slightly while still trying to calm herself down. Zecora turned from the table where she had been reading and nodded at Tom before speaking. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance… even if your arrival doesn’t quite make sense,” She stated curiously. The human felt a little confused as he tried to process the zebra’s need to rhyme. “And this is Spike… he lives with me and helps me out from day to day,” Twilight smiled and looked over to the last person she had to introduce. The young dragon smiled openly at Tom while waving at him. “I’m glad you showed up when you did. I don’t think we could have lasted long without your help,” Spike stated, chuckling nervously as he thought about what would have happened if Tom had not dealt with the monsters. Tom took a moment to inspect the group of strange animals smiling at him before smiling back at them in a friendly manner. Seeing the human’s accepting expression made the ponies happy that he wasn’t too weirded out by them. Twilight looked back at him, thinking of how best to explain his current location. It was a lot of information to put in such a concise and timely manner. “You are in a land called Equestria. In it, ponies live in peace with most of the other species that inhabit the land. As you may have noticed, there are three kinds of ponies that live in Equestria,” The purple unicorn explained while motioning toward the members of each race of pony. “There are unicorns like myself and Rarity, we can use magic. There’s pegasi like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they can fly as you may have gathered on your own. And then there are earth ponies like Applejack and Pinkie Pie, they are typically stronger and heartier than other ponies. There’s also alicorns, like Princess Celestia, but they are pretty rare.” Tom nodded understandingly as the unicorn finished her explanation. She was surprised to see that the human seemed to be catching onto Equestrian customs faster than she expected. Tom thought about his situation for a moment before turning back to the group, who had already started chatting with each other. He wondered how much time he would be spending in this strange new world, and why he was sent here in the first place. The boy finally shrugged his head and gave up on figuring out his surroundings for a moment before joining the others in conversation. After a few minutes of waiting and talking, Spike exhaled sharply as a flaming scroll popped out of his mouth. He reached out his arm with the scroll and waited for Twilight to take it. After levitating it out of the young dragon’s hand and opening it, Twilight read the letter aloud. “Dearest Twilight Sparkle, I am terribly sorry to hear about your life threatening experience. Had I known that there would have been any danger on your journey, I would have taken the trip myself. In regards to the sudden appearance of a human, I am thankful for it happening, but I cannot offer any insight as to why. In light of the appearance of the mysterious black substance and aggressive new monsters in the Everfree Forest, I believe it is time that we start investigating the causes of these phenomena. I will arrange for either Luna or myself to come to Ponyville tomorrow in order to talk with you further on the issue and to meet this human. Stay safe, Princess Celestia.” The purple mare read over the letter a bit more, dwelling on her thoughts for a moment before rolling up the scroll and putting it away. “I guess we should just go home and wait until tomorrow to investigate this any further,” Twilight sighed before turning to look at the gaping hole where Zecora’s door had once been. “But what are we going to do about Zecora? It’s too dangerous for her to stay out here alone.” Tom’s face brightened up with confidence as he formulated an idea in his head. “I think I may have a solution to that problem... Do you have any spare candles Zecora?” He asked, turning to face the alchemist. Zecora thought for a moment before replying. With her mind still being the foggy mess that it was, the zebra wondered if she could remember where the simplest items in her house were. “I think I might have some in the back, but how will candles protect me from a monster attack?” She motioned toward Tom with her hoof, looking at him doubtfully. “Just trust me… After all, what do you have to lose?” He added, looking over to the door, which was still lying on the ground. Zecora sighed at the sight of the broken door before turning to search for the candles. After finding a few unlit candles, the zebra placed them on the table in front of Tom and waited to see what he could do to solve her problem. Tom grabbed two of the candles and walked over to the door. “I may not be able to fix your door, but I should be able to make it safe for you to stay here,” He explained before concentrating for a moment. Everyone looked on in curious wonder as Tom’s hands started to glow with a similar blue light to the one he used on the beasts just minutes before. The light enveloped the candles with a dim glow as they started turning blue themselves. The light died down, and Tom was left holding two deep blue candles. “These are blessed candles… I can make them by imbuing any regular candle with positive energy. A single one can be used to ward evil away from its glow, and two or more can be used to make a barrier that can keep a room or other enclosing safe from any minor evil creature,” He explained, placing the candles just behind the fallen door in a line between the front and back of the house. “Just light these up and they should keep your house safe for the night. I also recommend not stepping outside until daybreak,” Twilight looked at the candles for a moment curiously. “Here, let me light them for you,” She suggested, concentrating for a moment. She figured that it would be easier if she just used her magic to light the candles for the zebra. She also wanted to see the effects of the candles herself. Soon, Twilight’s horn lit up a bright purple. As she performed the spell, the wicks of the candles started glowing as well. After a moment of concentration, one of the candles lit ablaze. To everyone’s amazement, the flame on the candle was a bright shade of blue that threw off a mesmerizing glow of colored light. After both candles were lit, a puff of blue smoke lifted into the air above them suddenly. After the smoke dissipated, a thin blue aura flashed between the candles and encased the area in front of the door. The forcefield-esc aura flashed for a few times and then faded from view, leaving only the candles aglow with blue flame sitting on the floor. The ponies looked on in awe at the spectacle before moving closer to investigate. Twilight was the first to act on her curiosity as she stuck one hoof past the area between the candles. Once she breached the line the candles had made, the blue aura partially appeared again around her outstretched hoof. She waved her hoof around the aura, causing thin waves to ripple around it. She then pulled her hoof back in, causing the strange aura to disappear completely once more. Twilight inspected her hoof briefly before eyeing the candles themselves. They were unlike anything the unicorn had ever seen or read about before in her life. “Odd, it doesn’t feel solid… kinda like it isn’t even there. Are you sure this is going to be strong enough to protect this place, Thomas?” She asked, more curious than doubtful while turning to face the human. Most magical forcefields Twilight knew about were solid to anything that the caster didn’t let through beforehand. “It only becomes solid when something evil tries to pass through it,” Tom replied while stepping past the barrier to demonstrate the rippling effect. “As long as Zecora stays behind these candles, she should be safe until she gets her door fixed. These things last for a long time on their own, unless something powerful extinguishes them they should last for a few days,” He explained, taking a moment to soak in the bright glow of the aura as he glided his hand through it. It was a rare occasion that he slowed down to appreciate the beauty of some of his abilities. Spike looked at the blue flame of the candles for a moment, mesmerized by their gentle glow. “Will it work on Timberwolves?” He asked quizzically, poking the aura once with his claw. Tom looked at the dragon with a slightly confused expression. “What’s a timberwolf? I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Rainbow Dash looked up from one of the candles she had been inspecting and gasped in surprise. “You mean to tell me that you hunt monsters for a living and you have never heard of timberwolves?” She asked in a state of disbelief. The boy shrugged and shook his head in response. “I guess they just weren’t around in my world,” Tom reasoned. The cyan pegasus nodded in revelation. She then exhaled while thinking of the best way to describe the beast in simple terms. “Timberwolves are nasty monsters made of wood… they look like wolves and act like them, hence the name,” Rainbow shook her head to rid herself of the frightful thoughts about the creature in her head. Tom furrowed his brow in thought while calling upon his knowledge of the supernatural. “Sounds like an inanimate object being possessed by living energy and morphing to fit its surroundings,” He explained to no one in particular and turned to Spike. “So in answer to your question Spike, yes it should work on timberwolves,” The young dragon looked confused at the explanation given, but nodded in satisfaction of his question’s resolution. Twilight yawned and looked outside at the night sky. She couldn’t believe that so much had happened to make her stay out this late. “Now that that’s settled, I think we should be getting home now,” She stated tiredly, picturing her warm, safe, and cozy bed at the library. Realizing how late it was getting, everyone nodded in agreement. “Where am I going to go? I don’t exactly have anywhere to crash for the night,” Tom sighed, thinking about his situation further. Spike perked up as an idea popped into his head. “Hey, maybe you could stay with us! Don’t you think that could work out, Twilight?” He turned and looked to the unicorn pleadingly. Twilight thought for a moment about the matter. The human had nowhere to go and didn’t know anything about Equestria, much less Ponyville and the surrounding area. She could find no objections to Tom staying with them in the library, and the fact that he had just saved her life twice made her feel that the least she could do was to offer him a place to stay. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, Spike,” She smiled at the young dragon’s suggestion before turning to the human. “You are more than welcome to come stay with us for as long as you like Thomas,” Tom smiled warmly at the proposition. He wasn’t used to getting this much gratitude for his actions. “Thanks, and please… call me Tom,” He explained with a friendly smirk. Chapter 4: The Slayer's PastAfter saying their goodbyes to Zecora, the group started to make their way back into the Everfree forest on the path toward Ponyville. They walked silently, thinking about what could be lurking around them in the woods. The wind was still blowing around them, making the tree branches move as if they were alive. The normal sounds of wildlife in the forest, which would have creeped most of the group out on any average night, now made all of them nervous, save for Tom, who walked just behind Twilight at the head of the group. Twilight eyed their surroundings nervously as they followed the path. She tried to think of a way she could get her mind off of the cold chill creeping its way up her spine. Suddenly, she thought of something that could occupy her and her friends while they made their way through the forest. “Hey Tom,” She spoke up suddenly, turning her head to look past Spike at the group following her. “Hmm?” Tom’s head perked up from the sudden break in silence. “Since we’re going to be walking for a while, I thought that maybe you could tell us more about who you are.” Twilight suggested while motioning with her hoof. “What a slayer is, where you came from, and if you know about it, how you got here,” Tom looked around at the others, who were all looking his way. He wasn’t surprised that they were curious about him, but he was hesitant to explain his past to them all the same. “Yeah, I think we could all stand to learn a bit more about the person that saved our lives,” Applejack stated happily from the back of the group. Everyone nodded in agreement before looking back to Tom and waiting for him to answer. Tom thought for a moment about the request and scratched his head. He was unsure of whether or not the ponies would be comfortable hearing his origins, given how sensitive they seemed, but he figured that they deserved to know if they asked. “Well if you really wanna know, then I suppose I will tell you what I can,” He said, deciding to give in to peer pressure. The group continued along the path through the woods as they looked intently to Tom while he thought about what to say and how to say it. The boy finally looked up and sighed. “Guess I should start from the basics before I get into my life story. A slayer is a person chosen to fight the evils of the world. They are given the power necessary to fight the forces of darkness, and the knowledge of evil creatures accumulated by previous slayers. People are chosen to be tested as a potential slayer if they have been wronged by a great evil and possess the willpower and heart to fight for what is right. I was chosen when I was fifteen, a little while after I died.” He explained nonchalantly. The ponies gasped in shock at the news they were hearing. They stood around in silence for a brief moment, processing the information they had just been given. Finally, Rarity looked up from her thoughts and spoke up on behalf of the curious group. “Wait, you died...? How is that possible? You look alive now.” She stated, giving the boy a confused look. Tom looked back at the majority of the group before continuing. “Technically I’m not. It’s kind of weird how that works… anyway I’ll get to that later. Before I became like this, I was born and raised in a town called Oak County. I lived with my two parents and my little sister in a small house for the duration of my life. I had a decent amount of friends at my school, I was excelling in several subjects, and I was even head of the school’s track team. Everything was going perfectly fine for me until…” The boy’s eyes trailed off as he thought about the rest of his story. He sighed sadly and took a moment to recollect himself. The group looked at him sympathetically. Fluttershy looked up to him with a concerned glint in her eyes. Whatever happened to him must have been horrible if he died in the end. She stared at him sadly as he attempted to go over the details of his past in his head. “You don’t need to tell us if it’s too painful for you,” She spoke to him gently, offering him a sympathetic expression. Tom sighed and looked back at her. He was surprised to see that someone was actually concerned for his story. Most people just ignored him or gave him passing thanks as he performed his duties. “It’s ok… I need to remember this just as much as you need to know it,” He took a breath and looked forward before continuing. “There was a man by the name of Jonathan Pike that lived in my town. He was a notorious serial killer that only targeted teens and small children,” Tom’s fist clenched as anger filled his voice with each passing second. “That sorry son of a…” He took a moment to look around at the group watching him and calmed himself down before saying something that would upset present company. “He killed three kids at my school over the course of 4 months. Nobody could catch him because he was so meticulous that he didn’t leave any evidence behind. After he killed his third victim, a curfew was put into place to keep children off the streets after dark,” The boy suddenly flashed a brief smirk and chuckled in a sad sort of way. “Me, my sister, and this one friend of mine, Henry, were really close. Everyone in town practically knew us like family from how often we would cause trouble. Anyway, on this one night in particular we had decided to hang out after midnight at an old abandoned house that was supposedly haunted… kind of ironic considering my current position if you think about it.” Tom kept a nonchalant disposition throughout most of the story. The ponies were confused at the display. It was like he was simply telling them about an old camping trip he had gone on. All the while he seemed to be gloomy and sullen at the same time. The group was concerned that he was emotionally unstable due to his odd behavior. Regardless of how he felt on the inside, he continued without missing a beat. “The trip was fun and all. We got to scare my sister a little, had some laughs, the usual stuff a group of friends would do. After a while, my friend got the sense to check his watch to see the time. Sure enough, we were about a half hour past the time we were supposed to be home. We rushed out of the house and took a shortcut through the park. Little did we know at the time that there was a certain masked man hiding out in the bushes by the path. He jumped out and attacked us… gave Henry a nasty blow to the head that sent him to the floor immediately. I told my sister to run home and get help while I wrestled with the guy to keep him away from my friend. Last thing I remember, I turned to make sure my sister had left, when suddenly the guy jams a needle in my neck. I blacked out, and that’s when he must have grabbed me and my friend.” He became more monotonous and gloomy as he progressed through the story. The ponies were understandably anxious and uneasy as they listened to the grim tale. “When I woke up, I was strapped to a chair in a dimly lit room with gray cement walls. I looked around for a bit and found my friend strapped to a similar chair off in the corner of the room. I tried calling out to him, when I realized that both of us had gags in our mouths. We stared at each other for a while before the guy in the mask came into the room. He was holding a scalpel in his hand, and to top it off he was staring right at me. He walks over to me and starts toying with me by slowly bringing the blade of the scalpel as close as possible to my face. I shut my eyes and prepared for the worst possible pain in my entire life.” The boy explained apprehensively. Everyone gulped nervously as they mentally envisioned themselves in the same position the human had been in. The thought of a sharp object being shoved in their face by a crazed psychopath sent a myriad of tingles through their faces as they tensed up instinctively. “Before I felt him press hard enough to cut me, he suddenly dropped the scalpel and I heard a loud thud that sounded like someone hitting the floor. I looked up to see that my friend had apparently broken free and smacked him with the nearest object he could find. He quickly untied me and helped me up and towards the door. Then, all of a sudden, the man got up and charged us with another blade. My friend grabbed his arm and struggled to fight him off. He yelled for me to get out of there and run for help after I escaped.” Tom looked down sadly as he went over the scene in his head for the first time in a while. “I wanted to help him so bad… but something told me to listen to him and just run. I bolted out of the door and rushed to find a way out of whatever place he had taken us to. After running through a few corridors, I put together that we were in some kind of basement or something… nothing good ever happens in basements I guess. Unfortunately for me, I tripped and fell into a large pit in the floor. I landed in something wet, and when I smelled what it was I started panicking. I had fallen into a pit too deep to climb out of that was filled with flammable fuel.” Tom started growing uneasy himself as he got closer to the climactic end of his story. The ponies felt a sense of dread and sadness as they came to the conclusion of how the human died. “I heard footsteps approaching from down the hall. At first I thought it was my friend, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t when I saw a tall masked figure standing at the top of the pit. I can only imagine what he did to my friend, but whatever it was I just hope it was over a lot quicker than what he was about to do to me. He stared at me for a while in a creepy sort of way that only a psychopath like him could have, and then he took off his mask. I recognized him to be a guy from my friend’s neighborhood downtown from mine. He seemed like a nice enough guy… When he wasn’t busy kidnapping kids he helped out at community events and kept to himself mostly, but that didn’t really matter to me at the moment. He pulled out a match from his pocket and lit it. He could obviously see that I was covered in fuel, and so was the surrounding area. I felt that it was pointless to scream or beg for my life, so I just watched silently as he tossed the match at my feet.” The human finished, a grim tone in his voice as he relived the moment in his head. The ponies could only keep walking in silence as they looked at Tom sadly. The human looked down at the ground and sulked as he reflected on his death. He spoke nothing more for a few moments, leaving the group to process the wave of sadness washing over them. Finally, he looked up and smiled sadly. “Death wasn’t so bad actually… in my situation it was actually the most pleasant part of the whole ordeal.” He added with a forced smile. The bleak attempt at lightening the mood did nothing to quell the uneasy feeling everyone had in their stomachs. Applejack and Rainbow Dash wiped freshly formed tears from their eyes while the rest of the group just let them fall down their face in a light stream. Twilight sniffled softly and wiped her eyes before turning to look at Tom. “I’m so sorry I asked you to remember that, Tom… I had no idea,” She said, her voice trembling slightly from the feeling of sadness she felt. “It’s ok, Twilight. And besides, I came out on top in the end anyway,” Tom smirked to himself before turning to her and smiling. Everyone looked to him flabbergasted at his sudden upbeat attitude. They decided it would be better to let him explain rather than ask any more questions. Tom looked around at the curious group and chuckled before continuing. “As I said before, I was tested to become a slayer a little while after I died. I hated Pike, I hated what he did to me, to the other kids, and I hated every fiber of his evil being. And because of this, I was chosen as a potential slayer. I was suddenly conscious of my surroundings once more when I woke up to a puff of fire surrounding me and then parting away from my eyes. I was standing outside of some alleyway in town, wearing the same clothes I died in.” He took a moment to grab his blue jumpsuit and stretch it out to feel its material. Rarity looked closer to it and inspected it in its entirety. “I was wondering why you were wearing such odd clothes. They don’t seem fitting for a monster slayer.” Tom looked at her and back to his outfit, tilting his head a bit before nodding in agreement and continuing. “My parents gave these to me when I started exercising for the track team. I guess I just kept them because I died in them… and besides, they serve as a keepsake of my family. Anyway, I could feel that something was different. Somehow I felt more alive than ever. I looked down at my arms and saw that they were badly burned. This didn’t last long, however, as the same flames you saw earlier washed over my body and restored it to health. My breath turned blue and I suddenly became aware of my heightened senses. Along with all of this, I was suddenly aware of what I was and what my purpose was. I had been brought back to deliver justice upon the head of one Jonathan Pike.” He spoke fiercely, enthusiasm brimming in his voice. “I had one thing on my mind, and that was vengeance. Call it whatever you may… justice, revenge, karma, I didn’t care. I only wanted Pike to be given what was coming to him, and I wanted to be the person to do it. And to help me accomplish this, I was given the weapon I needed to do it.” Tom explained. “You mean your sword?” Rainbow Dash asked while pointing to the sheath on his back. The katana seemed like a fitting weapon for delivering justice to evil-doers. Tom chuckled briefly before turning to the curious pegasus. He then held out his hand and spread his fingers apart. The ponies watched him silently, curious as to why he was showing them the back of his hand. “Nope. I picked my sword up sometime later. These bad boys are what I’m talking about.” The boy stated before pausing, as if to concentrate. Suddenly, sparks appeared from Tom’s fingers just below the knuckle. A flame washed over each of his fingers, as had happened when his injuries were healed; only, instead of healing an injury, something was being formed over his fingers as the flames passed over them. Metal blades were slowly coming into view as the flames passed his fingertips and extended into the air. After a short distance the flames stopped, leaving fully formed metallic claws attached to Tom’s hand by the knuckles. Tom waved the newly formed blades around and showed them to the whole group. Everyone looked on in curious wonder and amazement at the odd weapon. “Wow! That is so cool!” Rainbow Dash stated excitedly, admiring the human’s claws. The others were silent, but judging from their awestruck expressions, they were equally impressed by the sudden appearance of the weapon. Tom chuckled for a moment, articulating each of his fingers and further showing off the blades to the ponies. He seemed to be taking a fair amount of enjoyment in showing off his abilities to someone else. “These are my claws. I have two sets of them, one for each hand. They take a fair amount of energy and concentration to summon up without good cause, so I’m going to put them away for now,” The boy concentrated for a moment before the claws started vanishing into glowing embers and flickering flame. Soon, his hand was empty once more. He clenched his fist a few times to show that the blades were in fact gone before resting his arm at his side again. “With my newfound ability to heal, and my heightened strength and agility, I knew Pike stood no chance against me… it was just a matter of finding him. But before I could hunt Pike down, I needed to know a couple of things. I grabbed the nearest newspaper I could find and read the date. Judging from that I figured out, I had been dead for roughly two weeks. I also read a story about my death in an older issue. Apparently, the authorities had ruled my death as an unsolved kidnapping case. Me and my friend’s bodies were never recovered, so all they had to go on was my sister’s retelling of what happened.” Tom snarled quietly through his teeth at the thought of Pike escaping authorities even after what had happened. “After that, I ran to my house. Thankfully, my family moved away shortly after my death, so Pike didn’t even have a chance to get to my sister. Kind of bittersweet now that I think about it, although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to reconnect with them due to my newfound duties. Finally, I started to track down Pike. With my new evil sense at its peak, I could smell the sin on him from a mile away.” He shook his head in disgust as he thought back to the evil man. “You can sense evil in a person? Like if they have done something wrong in the past?” Twilight’s curiosity was piqued again as she decided to interject to find out more about how the human’s senses worked. Tom looked ahead to her and noticed her curious expression. He thought for a moment on how best to explain. “At the time, I had full use of the powers of a slayer. See, before a slayer finishes the test that brought them back, in my case, killing Pike… they are stuck in a kind of altered state. Their powers are at a higher level, they’re stronger and faster, that sort of thing. Now that my test is over, my powers have dulled slightly as they returned to normal… well, normal for me anyway. Different slayers have different levels of control over their abilities, or different abilities entirely.” The human explained to the ponies as if he were merely describing a simple math problem. He seemed to be more confident in the group’s ability to comprehend his explanation than they were. Twilight was more puzzled by this answer than she had been before she heard it. Still, she decided to quell her curious mind and let Tom get on with his story before they reached Fluttershy’s cottage and she had to leave. “I quickly tracked Pike down to his hideout, the same one he led me to on the night I died... I guess he didn’t catch enough attention to warrant moving out of that dump. I stepped inside and found him hard at work on pasting together a few newspaper clippings. He looked very surprised when he noticed someone had entered his seemingly abandoned hideaway, he looked even more surprised when he saw my face and recognized me… I will spare you the details, but my vengeance was carried out swiftly and with great prejudice as I laid my judgment upon him.” Tom stated with a slight smirk of pride. The ponies cringed as they thought of what must have happened. Although the boy had saved them from the actual depiction of the event, their imaginations ran wild as they pictured the scene in their heads. The human sighed heavily from remembering the whole ordeal. He then turned to look at the majority of the group for emphasis. “So there I was, gifted with immense power and given a choice. I could either use my powers as they were intended and stay on earth as an official slayer, or I could fade back into the afterlife now that my unfinished business was finally finished. You see, it takes a lot of energy to use the powers a slayer has. I can heal most wounds I sustain and use all of my other powers freely, so long as I have the will to continue. Not many people choose to become slayers after their initial test, even fewer stay longer than a few years due to the immense strain on the body and soul. At first, I decided to stick around to help those in need, but I’m just not sure if being a slayer is right for me. After all, I haven’t accomplished much, and I’ve been doing this for a few months.” He stated nonchalantly. Rainbow Dash gasped in disbelief from hearing this. She would have figured that the human had been hunting monsters for years judging from how good he was in combat, so to hear that he had only been a slayer for a few months came as a great surprise. “A few months?! But you handled those monsters like it was your birthright!” She exclaimed in shock as she thought back to how he had fought that army of creatures. Tom was slightly flattered by the cyan pegasus’s statement. He smirked for a moment while rubbing the back of his neck bashfully. “As I said before, I was given the knowledge needed to fight the forces of evil. This includes combat expertise, and my background in martial arts sped the process up a bit as well,” He explained with a lighthearted smile. Twilight tore her head away from the group as she looked forward onto the path. She then recognized where they were and how close they were to their destination. “We’re almost out of the forest everyone,” she announced cheerfully. Applejack offered a sigh of relief at the news. “Thank Celestia. I think I’ve had enough of the Everfree Forest to last a lifetime,” She remarked happily as she thought about leaving the forest and never returning. The others nodded in agreement while imagining themselves back in their comfortable homes. The thick vegetation of the forest gradually opened up before the group. Soon, the group exited the forest and stepped onto the more clean looking path that awaited them. Everyone looked up as the moon shone brightly in the sky. A line of clouds seemed to hover in place at the edge of the forest, leaving the sky past them open and clear. Tom stared a little longer than everyone else and marveled at the spectacle. He seemed confused and amazed by it, all at the same time. “Is that normal?” He asked while looking back and forth at the vastly different skylines. Twilight looked up herself to see what he was talking about. While oddly pretty, the occurrence was nothing out of the ordinary to her. She then looked back over to Tom, who was still looking skyward. “We’re out of the forest now. The weather out in the rest of Equestria is monitored and controlled by pegasi,” She said, hoping that her explanation would be enough for the human. Tom looked befuddled at the Purple unicorn as he tried to rationalize her explanation. When he thought of a weather forecast, he never imagined that it would be possible for it to be accurate and controllable. “Doesn’t that seem a bit excessive? I mean, the weather seems to do just fine on its own,” He stated in confusion. Being more seasoned in the topic, Rainbow Dash stepped forward and spoke up. She hoped that her insight on the situation would help more than any scientific babble that Twilight could come up with to confuse the human. “We like to keep the weather nice and predictable… wouldn’t want any stray storms forming anywhere. But, we usually leave the airspace above the Everfree alone. It seems to take care of itself anyway,” She shook her head as she tried to rationalize how such a complicated system like weather could operate by itself. Tom started to question the process further, but decided against it, as the explanation would probably just leave him more confused than when he started. With nothing else to say on the matter of clouds, the group continued on their merry way. After a few more minutes of walking, the ponies could make out Fluttershy’s cottage against the dark landscape. The property sat on a lush plot of grass complete with a stream running under a stone bridge leading to the yard. The house itself was comprised mostly of wood and grass, with various holes and perches built into the roof to accommodate the many animals Fluttershy cared for. The sight of the small cottage impressed Tom. He took a moment to take in the surroundings as the group walked up to the house. “Wow, this place is pretty nice… So, which one of you lives here?” He asked while still admiring the décor around him. Fluttershy smiled warmly at the compliment. To her, the house was nothing special, serving as a modest space for her to live and care for the surrounding wildlife. “This is my home, I’m glad you like it,” She added while walking up to the door and turning to the group. “If you want, you could come over and stay for dinner sometime,” She motioned with her hoof and smiled at Tom. “Sure, I don’t see why not,” Tom nodded in agreement to the proposal while returning the smile. Fluttershy was pleased to hear that the human readily accepted the offer. She then became aware of her fatigued body and drooping eyelids. “I think I’m going to go ahead and turn in for the night. Besides, you guys probably need to get home as well.” The pegasus yawned and sluggishly lowered her head, fighting to not fall asleep on the spot. The others all yawned as they became aware of how tired they were. Spike slumped forward onto Twilight’s head as he fought to stay awake. Rarity shifted her weight back and forth uneasily, trying to find the least tired of her legs. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Applejack spoke up, trying to keep from sounding too groggy. “The others are probably already in bed, so I should probably run on home. Bye everyone, and it was nice meetin’ you Tom.” She said, waving at the group as she started making her way back towards her home. “We should probably start heading back to Ponyville, don’t you think Twilight?” Pinkie Pie could barely keep her eyes open, but still somehow managed to sound upbeat and chipper. Twilight nodded in agreement to her pink friend. It was getting late, and they needed to be up at a reasonable hour to meet the princess in the morning. So the remaining group waved goodbye to Fluttershy one last time before walking toward Ponyville. Chapter 5: Home Sweet HomeThe group eventually found themselves walking through the empty streets of Ponyville. Tom was impressed by the architecture of the buildings. After finding out the dominant species of the land was colorful talking ponies, he hadn’t expected much in terms of the technology they were capable of. After a short while, Rainbow Dash left the group to head in the direction of her house. And after reaching a crossroad, the group bade farewell as Rarity and Pinkie Pie headed off in the general direction of their homes. Tom was left with only Twilight and Spike to lead him through the strange town. “So, where do you guys live? I hope it won’t be too much of a problem to accommodate me,” Tom spoke up to break the monotonous silence. Twilight turned around to face the human walking closely behind her. She had not thought about where she would put him once they reached the library, but she was confident they could work something out. “We live in the town library… I happen to be the librarian and use the upstairs space as a living area. And don’t worry… I’m sure we can find some place for you to stay,” She said in a reassuring tone. Spike yawned as he laid back and put his hands behind him to cradle his head. “I hope you don’t mind, but I think I’m going straight up to bed. It’s been a long day after all,” He explained tiredly. “You would be a lot more tired if you spent a good ten minutes running for your life in a dark forest Spike,” Twilight sighed, remembering the ordeal she went through earlier. Spike winced at the thought of what Twilight must have gone through. Those monsters seemed scary enough to him from the relative safety of Zecora’s lit up house, so the notion of Twilight running through an unknown section of the Everfree while being chased by them sent shivers up his spine. “Sorry, I must have forgotten... I’m just glad that Tom showed up when he did,” The dragon looked back to the human as he relaxed on Twilight’s back. Twilight looked back to Tom as well and made a curious expression. “That reminds me, how did you get here Tom?” She asked with a burning sense of intrigue. The boy looked at the two as they awaited an explanation eagerly. “I take it humans aren’t very common around here?” He asked. Twilight was a bit caught off guard by the boy’s reply. She let her expression droop and avoided looking at him briefly as she tried to think of a way to explain what she knew in a gentle manner. “Umm… I’m not sure how to tell you this, Tom, but humans have been extinct for a really long time. I’m sorry.” “Huh…” Tom blinked, far more casually than either of the pair expected. “Sounds about right. I was wondering why a bunch of talking horses were the dominant species. I was betting on an alternate dimension… but time travel works I guess.” He shrugged. Spike shared an uncertain look with Twilight. Neither of them expected the boy to take the news of his species’ destruction so casually. “Ok…” Twilight cleared her throat uncomfortably before turning to the human with renewed curiosity. “So, you time traveled?” “I’m not sure. I just remember walking through some woods and hearing a cry for help. Next thing I know I was enveloped by a blue light and transported here,” He explained, scratching his head in confusion. Twilight looked at Tom confused as she thought about his answer. “That is a little odd… Maybe the princess can help us find out why you’re here? But first we should focus on where those monsters came from,” The unicorn rubbed her muzzle with her hoof as she tried to think of an explanation. Tom scratched his own chin as he thought about the matter. “Darklings aren’t usually that aggressive and persistent. Having a group of them that large chase after you would be very unlikely under normal circumstances,” He explained in an attempt at shedding some light on the creature’s odd behavior. Twilight chuckled sadly and shook her head. On top of her almost getting killed, she was now an exceptionally unlucky case. Still, the thought of random chance being stacked against her didn’t make much sense to the purple mare. “Well something made them attack us. The chances of a creature like that randomly showing up in the Everfree and choosing me to be the one it hunts down seem slim to me,” She stated cynically, reflecting on her supposed bad luck. The slayer thought about it further, but could not come to any sound conclusions. “I don’t know what else to tell you. I have never come across any instance where this has happened before,” He shook his head in defeat and gave up trying to think about it any further for the moment. Twilight thought for a moment on how to reply, but was interrupted by the sight of the library coming into view. “Ah... good, we’re almost there,” The unicorn moaned tiredly, trying to keep herself moving forward. She could hardly ignore her aching muscles as she thought about lying down and sleeping. The immense strain on her body from running so much was weighing heavy on her mind. Meanwhile, Tom was taken aback by the sight of the library in the distance. He found himself surprised once again at the architectural capabilities of these talking ponies. The library looked like a giant tree with a few features on it to suggest it was a building, such as the simple wooden door, the windows, and the balcony on the upper portion of the tree. “Wow, so you live there? I must say that is one impressive library... Certainly looks a lot better than the one we had in my town,” Tom groaned in disgust from remembering the old run down building his town called a library. Twilight was flattered by the compliment, but was also curious as to what the human world was like. “Speaking of which, what were the buildings like in human times? Not much information exists on the human race and their culture,” She asked curiously. Tom could tell that Twilight was a sort of book worm. The way she carried herself and her genuine interest and curiosity for his culture, plus the fact that she was a librarian, led him to believe that she loved learning. Being a history buff himself, he could only wonder what it was like for her to hear about ancient civilizations from a member of said civilization. He thought for a moment about how to describe human architecture to her in the best way possible. “Well, thousands of years before my time, Humans used primitive means of building structures out of anything from wood and stone, to mud and grass. Around my time of living though, humans made homes and buildings out of various materials including refined wood, bricks, and metal alloys like steel.” He explained, thinking of the many ways humans fended off the elements. Tom thought for a moment before turning to Twilight with a curious expression of his own. “That reminds me, just how did the humans die out?” The boy asked with an intrigued tone. “No one is sure about the details. Theories range from climate change to some kind of plague or even war. Some scholars think it was a mixture of all three.” She stated as gently as she could, considering the circumstances. The unicorn couldn’t imagine how knowing that every other member of their race was dead would affect someone. “Well, that figures. Whatever happened, I’m sure we had a hand in it. Humans as a race didn’t exactly make the best choices at times.” Tom chuckled lightheartedly. The two were confused as to how the boy could be so high spirited about the destruction of his race. Deciding against asking any questions on the matter, the three marched on through the night in silence. Finally, after all that had happened that night. Twilight and Spike finally managed to reach home, with a new friend to boot. The purple unicorn opened the door to the library and motioned for Tom to step in. Once inside, Twilight levitated Spike down to the floor and breathed a comfortable sigh of relief. Tom took a moment to look around at the large room they were in. Shelves filled with books took up most of the wall space, while a decorative rug covered the floor. To his right there was a staircase leading up to the second floor, and to his left a doorway led into another room, which was too dark to make out many other details besides more book shelves on the back wall. Twilight looked around the room and thought about where Tom could sleep. She didn’t want to just leave him on the floor with nothing comfortable to sleep on, but she didn’t exactly have a guest room for occasions like this. “Spike, would you please go find a spare blanket and a few pillows?” She asked gingerly to her assistant while expressing her gratitude via a pleading smile. As tired as Spike was, he couldn’t refuse a request like that. The young dragon yawned and thought for a moment as to where such items would be. His mind was foggy, but he was confident that he could find anything around the library in his sleep, which might have been necessary if it took much longer. “Sure, I’ll see what I can find.” He said with a helpful smirk. He then walked off into the other room to search the library. Twilight then turned to Tom and attempted to look more awake than she actually was. ”I guess you can sleep upstairs with us for now. Come with me, Spike should be up soon with some blankets for you,” She stated in a peaceful daze that only sleep deprivation could bring about. The purple unicorn started up the stairs and motioned for Tom to follow her. The boy walked up the stairs with her until they reached the landing on the next floor. Twilight then opened the door in front of them which led to her bedroom. Tom could see two beds in the room. One larger one that was made of wood with colorful sheets and fluffy pillows which he assumed belonged to Twilight. And a smaller bed which looked more like a basket that sat on the floor a short ways from Twilights bed, Tom assumed this was where Spike slept. “Ughh…” Twilight moaned as she sat down on her bed sideways. She laid back width wise on the bed leaving her legs dangling off the side. She then closed her eyes and attempted to relax for a few moments. Tom smiled at the sight of a pastel purple unicorn sprawled out on a bed with half of her body drooping off of it sideways. He certainly did not think that he would see anything remotely close to this when he got up that morning. “After all that you went through it must feel good to relax huh Twilight? Umm... Twilight?” The boy waited for a response before hearing a low snoring sound. As he looked back over to Twilight, he could see that she had already conked out. “Wow… out like a light,” Tom spoke more softly so as to not wake her, although he was confident the noise of the apocalypse happening outside wouldn’t be able to stir the sleeping unicorn. After standing around for a few minutes, Tom could hear the sound of Spike struggling to climb up the stairs. He walked into the room carrying a blanket and two pillows that were stacked higher than his head. Tom wondered how he managed to walk over to the stairs and climb them without being able to see. The dragon walked up to Tom and placed the items at his feet. He looked over to Twilight sleeping on the bed. Spike could see that a puddle of drool was already forming as Twilight’s mouth hung open at an odd angle while her head was planted sideways into the covers. “She must have been really tired. I hope we can get enough sleep to not be exhausted tomorrow,” Spike droned on tiredly before yawning and walking over to his bed. ”Well good night Tom, if you need anything feel free to wake me up. I think Twilight needs all the sleep she can get.” The two nodded to each other in agreement while Spike climbed in bed and got situated under his covers. He rolled around a few times trying to find a comfortable position. Tom looked down to the blanket and pillows at his feet. He picked them up and placed the pillows in a line so one would support his body while the other would support his head. Finally he unfolded the blanket and laid down while pulling it over him. The boy laid there staring at the ceiling for a while, thinking about his current situation. He decided that he could have ended up in worse places all things considered, and closed his eyes to fall asleep. The next morning, light from the sun started to shine into the library. Streams of the bright glow hit Twilight’s face causing her to tighten her eyelids. She opened one eye part way and sat for a moment, letting her body wake up a bit more. She could feel coolness on her cheek as she lifted her head up a short distance. As she looked down to determine the cause of the sensation, she noticed a stream of drool connecting her face to the sheets. After wiping her face with her hoof and moving her jaw a few times to get the stiff feeling out of it, she sat up and yawned while stretching. Hearing movement a short distance away from her, Twilight turned to see Spike moving around in his bed as he started to wake up as well. “Ughhh… morning already? It seems like just a few minutes ago that I finally got to sleep,” The dragon groaned and rubbed his eyes while trying to shake the tiredness from his body. Twilight sympathized with the young dragon as she too would have climbed back in bed if she was given the chance, but she needed to get up and start a new day. “I know… ughh... But we need to get up and about. The princess should be on her way over already,” The purple unicorn groaned as she climbed out of bed and onto her four legs. While she was still sore from yesterday, she at least felt a little bit better. “Now then, we just need to wake up…Tom?” Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she noticed the human was nowhere to be seen. She would have thought she dreamed him and the events of last night up had it not been for her aching muscles and the blanket folded up and placed in the corner of the room. Spike hopped out of bed and blinked his eyes rapidly to better acquaint them to the light. “I guess he woke up before us... maybe he’s downstairs,” He reasoned, observing the neatly folded pile of pillows and blanket in the corner. Twilight nodded in agreement before walking to the door and heading down the stairs. Spike followed closely behind her. Twilight stopped midway down the stairs as she noticed Tom sitting in the far corner. He was leaning his head against the wall reading a book, which Twilight could judge from the title to be a book on old fairy tales and ghost stories. After they continued walking down the stairs, the boy looked up from his book to see the pair descending the steps. “Oh... you’re up,” He closed the book and got up from the floor. He quickly placed the book into an empty slot on the shelf he apparently got it from, he then walked towards them and smiled openly. “I made breakfast in the other room if you guys want something to eat,” He motioned with his hand toward the other room. Twilight looked at him surprised. “Breakfast...? How long have you been up?” she asked curiously. Tom chuckled under his breath at the question. “Oh... I don’t know… about three hours,” He stated nonchalantly. The two looked at him slightly shocked. “Three hours?! But it’s just now morning!” Spike exclaimed looking out the window at the sunrise. Tom smiled and tapped his foot on the ground to occupy himself. “Yeah well, I don’t need as much sleep to be fully rested as most people. And I decided I didn’t want to sleep in for the sake of sleeping, so I busied myself with reading a few books,” He stated, gesturing towards the bookshelf beside him with his head. Twilight looked puzzled as she wondered how many new things she could possibly find out about the boy, when she suddenly felt her stomach pleading for sustenance. “You said you made breakfast right?” She asked eagerly while sniffing the air to take in the odors of cooked food. “Yep… figured you guys would be getting up soon, so I thought you might like some food,” Tom replied, walking toward the dining room. Spike rubbed his own stomach as he felt it rumble as well. “Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s go eat!” The dragon exclaimed eagerly The trio made their way into the dining room. A single table sat in the middle of the room with a few chairs strewn around it. On the table sat two plates with lids on them, presumably to keep the contents fresh. “I didn’t really know what all you ponies eat, so I guessed from whatever ingredients I found lying around that a couple of cheese omelets would do,” The human said, leaning on a counter for support. The two eagerly sat down and removed the lids to their dishes. Their mouths practically watered at the sight of the fluffy yellow omelets with red sauce drizzled on top. “What all did you put in them?” Twilight asked curiously while grabbing two forks. She handed one to Spike before further examining the dishes to determine their contents. “Cheese and olives mostly… I made the sauce on top from some tomatoes and red peppers I found,” Tom explained, looking at the two as they enjoyed their meal. “Wow…these are pretty good. How did you know how to make the sauce?” Spike asked in between bites. “Eh... I had an interest in cooking, so I asked my mom to teach me some tricks of the trade. I’m no pro, but I can make a few things,” Tom smirked proudly, admiring his own skills. Upon finishing their meals, the pair hopped up from where they were sitting and put away the plates and utensils. Spike then set about performing his morning routine of chores while Twilight sat and chatted with Tom. “So Tom, what things have you done as slayer so far? You said you have only been slayer for around a few months right?” The purple unicorn tried her hardest not to swamp her new house guest with too many questions, but she was surprised to see Tom had no problem answering most of her queries to the best of his ability. Tom placed his arm over the back of his chair and leaned back. He then trailed his eyes off as he thought about the high points of his career. “Well, other than dealing with the occasional roaming monster or two. I usually just wandered from town to town. I would pass through, stay for a few days to see what was going on, and clear up any problems I encountered... As for the more unique stuff, I have cleared a few haunted houses, dealt with a rather large sea monster, and even went to blows with a cult or two that got a little too touchy feely with the more nasty black magic. You would be surprised how much can happen in the life of a monster slayer in just a few months,” He explained in a friendly manner. The purple unicorn listened intently to Tom’s stories of his past for around half an hour. Even Spike spared an ear when given the opportunity while dusting a few bookshelves. The idle chatter was a good way to keep the two occupied as they waited for the princess to arrive. Sooner than she would have liked, Twilight heard a knock on the door forcing her to pull herself away from listening to Tom. The unicorn asked the boy to stay put while she got the door, to which he nodded and placed his head on his hands for support. The purple pony got up and walked over to the door with a brisk pace. Upon opening the door Twilight was greeted with the face of her mentor princess Celestia, who smiled warmly upon seeing her student. Twilight smiled in return before opening the door wider. “Princess Celestia! It’s good to see you, please come right in,” The purple unicorn stepped aside and beckoned for her mentor to step inside. The regal white horse nodded before stepping inside. “It’s good to see you as well Twilight. I hope you managed to get some rest after what happened last night,” Celestia looked to her student with slight concern in her voice. The unicorn could tell that the alicorn had beaten herself up over allowing her student to be placed in harm’s way. Twilight swallowed uneasily as she thought back to the events of the previous night. “Yeah, I was fairly exhausted from being chased so much. I’m just glad Tom was there to save me,” She stated with relief evident in her voice. The princess looked intrigued at the mention of the mysterious new arrival into Equestria. From what stories she had heard, humans weren’t the friendliest bunch. But if he had saved Twilight and her friends, then the alicorn had no problems with him. “Ah yes the human, his name’s Tom is it? I think I would like to meet him,” Celestia stated with a sense of curiosity. Twilight looked over to the doorway to the other room. “He’s in the dining room with Spike, right this way,” The purple unicorn walked ahead as the princess followed her into the other room. Upon entering, Twilight could see Spike and Tom chatting with each other. Once they noticed them, both looked over to where Twilight and the princess were standing. Spike smiled upon seeing the alicorn enter the room, while Tom merely studied her appearance. The alicorn appeared much taller when compared to Twilight and the others. She actually managed to come up to eye level with the human. She had golden shoes on each of her hooves, a crown atop her head, and a necklace adorning her neck. Even her hair had a mystical appearance to it. The princess’ mane was made up of varying stripes of blue, green, and pink which all seemed to move with a sense of fluidity that was unnatural to regular hair. “Hi princess… it’s nice to see you,” Spike jumped up from his chair and walked over to greet her. Celestia looked down to the young dragon and smiled in return. “Good morning, Spike. It’s nice to see you as well.” The princess then looked over to Tom, who had stood up from his seat and walked over to join the group. “So, you must be the one who saved my student and her friends... I must say, I am incredibly thankful for your bravery, Tom.” The princess extended her hoof and waited for the human to grasp it for a formal handshake. Tom looked at her and smiled while accepting the gesture. “Wasn’t a problem your highness, I am always happy to help out a lady in distress.” The human said in a friendly manner. Celestia smiled and chuckled warmly as Tom made a lighthearted bow to her. She then walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. Once comfortable, she motioned for everyone to come over and join her. “Now then, I think it’s time we discussed a few things. Namely how you got here, and what those monsters were doing in the forest.” The alicorn asked the boy with a more serious tone. Tom nodded and started telling his experience to her. After explaining everything he knew about how he arrived in Equestria, and his knowledge on the mysterious creatures, Tom waited for the princess to think of what to do next. Celestia furrowed her brow in thought while she took in what the slayer had told her. “You said these creatures don’t usually act this aggressive?” The alicorn asked to be sure she had heard the human’s explanation correctly. Tom nodded in response. “Darklings normally only attack whatever wanders into their territory, and even then it’s usually only in groups of two or three. I have never seen a case where a pack that large would chase after someone over that great a distance. They would have to be influenced by something or someone else.” He explained, troubling over the matter himself. The alicorn closed her eyes and sighed. The mere notion of some sinister plot to murder the purple unicorn and her friends unsettled her deeply. “In that case, I think it would be best if we went back to the area where Twilight was attacked and investigated,” The princess stated grimly to the group. “What?!” Twilight jumped in place and became pale at the suggestion. She thought that she would have issues going on the marked path to see Zecora after what happened last night, so the notion of going back to the area where she found those beasts terrified the purple mare. Celestia gently placed a hoof on her student’s shoulder to calm her down. “It’s ok Twilight, I will go with you to protect you… and besides, Mr. Greene here has proven himself more than capable of dealing with anything the Everfree has to offer,” she spoke softly, giving the frightened pony a reassuring smile. The panic stricken unicorn looked over to Tom smiling back at her. She felt a little calmer knowing that her mentor and a seasoned slayer of evil would be there to keep her safe. “Ok… I’ll go. You need someone to lead you to the area after all,” She sighed in acceptance and looked down nervously. Spike looked to Twilight with determination in his eyes. “I’ll go too if it makes you feel any better Twilight,” He offered confidently. The purple unicorn shook her head and looked down with concern to the young dragon. “No Spike, I want you to stay here. I don’t want you to be put in any danger at all.” She explained sympathetically. Twilight could see the concern on the young dragon’s face. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to protect his best friend, but at the same time she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something bad happened to him. The young dragon winced as Twilight ruffled his head with her hoof. She then lowered herself to be at eye level with him. “Besides, I would be lost without my number one assistant around to help me out,” She spoke in a praising tone to lift the dragon’s spirits. “Ok…” Spike looked at her with an expression of defeat on his face. “Just be careful and be sure to come back in one piece alright?” Although he had given up the issue, he still wanted her to be as cautious as possible. Twilight smiled at seeing the young dragon perk up a bit. “Alright, I will be back before you know it… I promise.” She stated confidently. Chapter 6: The Return to the ForestAfter bidding farewell to Spike, the trio walked out of the library and set out on their way. For Tom, walking through Ponyville during the day seemed like a vastly different experience from traveling at night. Ponies of all sizes, colors, and races wandered through the busy streets on their daily routines. The human felt a little uneasy from being stared at by so many people, though no one seemed to look at him harshly. They seemed more curious than judging as they gave him a quick glance before carrying on with their business. Celestia noticed the human uncomfortably maneuver his body around any approaching onlooker. He seemed very anxious and predicted the movements of anyone that walked by him so he could avoid contact with them. “Not used to seeing ponies yet?” The alicorn looked to the boy and smirked playfully. She figured that he would get used to his surroundings soon enough. Tom looked to the princess with slight anxiety apparent on his face. “It’s not that… although I must admit I didn’t expect talking ponies to be the dominant species after humanity was wiped out,” The boy chuckled at the prospect of his surroundings, still trying to wrap his head around the world he was in. “It’s just that I’m not used to so many people in one place. I lived in a small town for all of my life, and after I became slayer I didn’t go to many large cities or interact with many people.” He explained his behavior in as clear a manner as possible. Twilight looked over to him and chuckled lightheartedly. “It’s usually a lot less crowded around town, but we’re walking through a popular route in the morning. Lots of ponies walk through here to get to and from work, drop their children off at school, and to get to other sections of the town,” The purple unicorn smiled as she saw Tom loosen up and get more comfortable. She then thought about their mission for a moment. “I think we should take Rainbow Dash with us… she and Applejack got separated from me while we were being chased. They might be able to help us find something. And I’m sure that Applejack is busy at the farm this early, so Rainbow Dash seems like the only option we have.” The princess thought about it for a moment before turning back to her student. Whatever made the nervous pony more comfortable with their task was fine by her. And besides, the cyan pegasus would be in no danger. “That seems like a good idea. Let’s swing by and see if she wants to help us.” She stated with a compliant smile. The purple unicorn was excited and relieved that Celestia agreed with her. On top of Rainbow Dash being able to help them with their investigation, Twilight would feel a lot safer with her pegasus friend around. So without delay, the group set off toward Rainbow Dash’s house, which conveniently lay on their current path. After a few minutes of walking, the trio found themselves on the outskirts of Ponyville where the cyan pegasus made her home. Tom looked curiously at the structure. It seemed to be made out of clouds and floated in the air. Various streams of colorful rainbows flooded off the sides of the building as if they were rivers. As the group walked to the edge of the mass of clouds, Tom looked up and studied the colors and textures of the clouds that made up the apparent ground in front of the house. Twilight could see the expression of utter confusion on the human’s face. Though he had studied their architecture curiously before, he seemed to be in a state of disbelief at what he was witnessing. “I take it humans never used clouds to build houses with?” Twilight smirked as the boy shook his head in silent bewilderment, still studying the underside of the house and how it actually cast a shadow on the ground. After taking a moment to close his gaping mouth, Tom finally turned to the two and looked at them curiously. “So how do we get up there? I mean, clearly such a structure would be designed for people with wings in mind, but I seem to be sorely lacking in that department,” The boy stated, looking back up to the odd puffy white structure. Twilight lit up her horn and looked over to Tom in response. “We’re going to teleport up there… after I cast a cloud walking spell on you and myself of course,” She replied confidently, already recalling the details of the spell. Celestia put her hoof on the unicorn‘s shoulder and gently pushed down. “Don’t bother with that, Twilight. I will just fly up there and see if Rainbow Dash wants to come myself,” She suggested kindly, trying not to interrupt the purple pony teaching her human friend. The unicorn backed up and dimmed her horn. Celestia then spread her wings and flew up and out of sight as she disappeared inside the mass of clouds. While waiting for the princess to return, Tom sat on the ground and looked to Twilight as she shifted her weight between legs and looked around. “So uh… how exactly do you make anything out of clouds? They aren’t exactly solid… at least they weren’t when humans were roaming around,” He asked curiously, mulling over the concept of clouds evolving over millions of years. Twilight looked to the human knowingly. It was new to her to have to teach someone the ways of Equestria. Despite her lack of training in dispensing knowledge, the unicorn enjoyed the opportunity to enlighten some curious visitor to her world. “Pegasi can touch clouds with their hooves. They use this skill to manipulate the weather and build things out of clouds. Rainbow Dash built her house to resemble where she used to live… a city entirely made out of clouds by the name of Cloudsdale,” She explained slowly, looking off in the distance towards the direction of the far off city. “Cloudsdale huh...? Just who comes up with the names for these places?” Tom looked to the purple unicorn hoping she would also realize the absurdity in the name. Twilight looked at the human with confusion evident on her face. She had never thought of anything odd about the city or its name. “Why…? What’s wrong with Cloudsdale?” She asked in bewilderment. The boy looked back at her and twitched in disbelief. “Umm… uhh… nothing, it’s just that… ugh never mind. I forgot that I was talking to the unicorn named Twilight for a minute there,” He sighed in defeat as he gave up on using his own logic to make witty comments. Twilight chuckled to herself. “I suppose Twilight does sound a bit odd,” She said lightheartedly, considering how ridiculous the name sounded. Tom was excited to see that she was at least aware of the odd nature of the names her culture used. “It’s ok though, my friends just call me that for short. My full name is Twilight Sparkle,” The unicorn added with a naive smile. The human sighed in frustration, pinching his nasal root and rubbing it. He then regained his composure and looked back to the unicorn, who had a straight face on the whole time. “That is a lovely name… let’s move off of the subject for a while though.” He stated with undetectable sarcasm, ushering the conversation to its end. The two sat in silence after that. Tom tried to avoid conversation as best he could for fear of discovering something else to make him question the logic of the new society he found himself in, while Twilight remained silent yet confused as to why the human was suddenly unwilling to talk. After a few minutes of waiting, the two looked up to see princess Celestia flying down to them with Rainbow Dash in tow. “Rainbow Dash! You decided to come after all,” Twilight smiled happily at the sight of her friend. The cyan pegasus chuckled as she hovered in the air a few feet off the ground. “Like I’m going to turn down an offer to come and help the princess on a mission!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a smirk. She then noticed Tom standing behind Twilight and smiled at the slayer in blue. “Hey Tom, nice to see you again,” The pegasus greeted. The human smiled back and gave a friendly wave. “Wow… that’s a pretty big wingspan you got there.” Tom studied the feathered appendages further, having not seen them outstretched before. Rainbow Dash looked to her wings and tried to keep from blushing. As proud as she was of her flying skills, it was always nice to hear compliments from someone, especially someone she had barely met before. “Thanks… I’m glad someone appreciates a good set of flappers when they see them,” She stated bashfully. The cyan mare then landed and walked over to the group. The ponies talked for a brief moment before deciding to set off for the Everfree Forest once more. After a few minutes of walking, the group found themselves standing at the entrance to the forest. While it looked less threatening in the sunlight, Tom couldn’t help but worry as to the short amount of time it took them to get there. “Why do you guys live so close to such a dangerous place? I mean, Fluttershy practically lives on the edge of the forest,” He observed worriedly. Rainbow Dash looked into the dark forest and couldn’t help but think about what sort of creatures lurked within. “Well it didn’t used to be all that dangerous… granted it wasn’t the picture of safety before,” The cyan pony shrugged as she remembered the various times someone had gotten in trouble for wandering into the forest. “Most of the creatures that lived in the forest before kept to themselves unless you wandered off of a path, but I’m not too sure about these new monsters that showed up last night,” Twilight walked up to the edge of the forest and turned to the group. She lowered her head with concern as she tried to comprehend how such evil things could exist, even in a dark place like the Everfree. “Which is why we’re out here searching for clues about the origins of these monsters,” Celestia spoke up with a serious expression on her face. The ponies could tell that she was very adamant about getting to the bottom of the problem they were facing. Twilight sighed and started walking into the forest on the path before them. Not much had changed in the forest overnight. Muffled noises of wildlife and branches rustling in the wind dominated the ambient noise around the group. And although they could see a little better, the ponies weren’t sure if that was good or bad. A thick fog seemed to linger in the distance on every side of them, leaving them a medium sized viewing window to the trees around them. Everything else seemed to fade into the white mist, leaving the ponies with only their imaginations to process what the hazy shapes in the distance were. Twilight walked alongside her mentor while Tom and Rainbow Dash hung back a ways to chat amongst themselves. The purple unicorn suddenly turned to the princess and spoke up. “I think we should check up on Zecora. We need to swing by her place to get where we’re going anyway,” She stated with mild concern as she wondered if the zebra was safe. Celestia nodded to her student in agreement. “If you say so, Twilight. We should be getting close to her house any minute now,” The princess observed, struggling to recall their position from her limited knowledge on the area. Even though she was extremely familiar with most places in Equestria, Celestia did not travel through the Everfree Forest often enough to take note of where everything was. As if on cue to match up with the alicorn’s statement, the clearing of Zecora’s hut opened up into view through the fog. In the distance Twilight could see that Zecora’s door was still missing, but it appeared as though she had moved it from the floor. After walking up to the hut, the group could see that the two candles Tom had set up the night before were still burning brightly. And in the back of the house, Zecora was sitting at a table with small metal instruments, meticulously poking at the black substance Twilight had delivered the night before. Upon noticing the visitors, the zebra placed the small tools onto a rag next to the petri dish that held the substance. She then got up and walked over to the front of the house and gave a warm smile at the group huddled around her door. “Ah Twilight Sparkle and friends, it is wonderful to see you again,” Zecora said with a friendly smile. She then stepped between the candles causing the blue aura to ripple around her form. “What a strange looking ward, it doesn’t look like anything I have seen before” Celestia stated, examining the barrier. It was an odd sight to see that such a simple item could prove to be so powerful. Twilight was surprised that her mentor was clueless about the type of magic employed by the candles, but then reflected on her own knowledge of magic and how the strange barrier did not seem to fit anywhere into the realm of magic she was used to. “Glad to see the candles are still lit, I don’t know what you would have done if Tom hadn’t come up with this quick fix,” She stated, taking note of her unintentional rhyme and who she was speaking to. “These candles really do work like a charm. They did a good job of keeping away anything that would have caused me harm,” Zecora laughed heartily and looked back at the candles on the floor. The alchemist marveled at the brilliant blue flame of the candles as they danced in the breeze. The purple unicorn was surprised at how well two candles placed in a row could keep the creatures of the forest at bay. She quickly regained her train of thought and looked to the zebra standing in the doorway. “We’re investigating the area where we found the creatures last night. I figured that since your house was on the way, we could check up on you. Have you found out anything new about the black stuff Zecora?” She asked quizzically. The zebra looked slightly disheartened as she peered over her shoulder toward the back of her house. “Unfortunately even though I tried my best, I couldn’t seem to discover much of anything about that black mess. I just know that it is very cold to the touch, and it starts to numb your skin if you feel it too much.” She explained, taking a mental note to be more careful of random substances and her own hooves in the future. Tom perked up with interest at hearing the description of the odd substance. Last night during all the commotion, he neglected to think much of the substance in a jar that was lying around on a table. “Can I take a look at it? I might have an idea as to what this stuff is,” He chimed in eagerly. Twilight looked at the human with intrigue, she was very curious to see what the odd substance in the jar from last night was. Zecora then nodded and stepped aside, motioning for Tom to follow her. The group walked over to the table where Zecora was keeping the substance. Twilight had not noticed before, but Zecora had kept this area of the hut as dark as she could to prevent the black mass from having any violent reactions to light. Tom observed the dark blob that was undulating in its glass home. It seemed just as energetic as it was last night, although it wasn’t trying to jump around. The human then reached his finger forward and touched the black mass. To everyone’s surprise, the blob started to smoke at the slayers touch. The mass shrunk in size around the human’s finger until nothing more remained of the black substance. Tom seemed to pay no heed to this seemingly unfruitful endeavor and nodded to himself in satisfaction. “Just like I thought… what you have here is a small sample of dark matter,” He spoke up suddenly to enlighten the ponies to his findings. The group behind the boy looked as confused as ever while he gave them a matter of fact explanation on the odd substance. Rainbow Dash tilted her head and looked at Tom with a confounded expression on her face. “Umm… For those of us without extensive knowledge of the supernatural, what is that?” The pegasus asked in confusion as she failed to wrap her mind around the name of the substance. The human looked to the group and sighed, realizing his own expertise on the odd subject matter. He gathered his thoughts and prepared to explain the substance in simpler terms. “Dark matter is formed in areas that have had a large amount of negative energy. This can happen over time, or it can happen suddenly for a wide range of reasons. A lot of people could have died in those areas, or someone could even form dark matter through more magical means,” Tom looked back to the petri dish and observed the last escaping puffs of smoke leave the area. “However it happens, what you get is this black substance that appears to be moving even when stationary. Because of its appearance and its tendency to form in dark areas with little to no light, dark matter has been given the nickname of living shadows. It reacts violently to light, and direct sunlight or positive energy can destroy it, which is why it disappeared when I touched it.” He explained, motioning towards the empty petri dish. Twilight grew more intrigued by the minute as she listened to the explanation of the black mass. But she was confused about a few things. “If positive energy destroys it, then how did this small sample get in here? I’m no expert on alchemy or anything else Zecora practices, but I’m pretty sure she has a couple of wards in place to deter anything evil that might wander in from the forest,” Twilight looked to Zecora for confirmation of her suspicions. The zebra nodded as she too wondered about the failure of her own magic to protect her home. Tom looked around at the interior of the hut, it was clear that Zecora practiced what humans would have called voodoo or alchemy. Many objects lay on shelves that resembled ingredients for magical charms, hexes, or alchemical potions. “Dark matter can come in different variations depending on how much of a negative punch it packs. This particular sample seems to have been strong enough to negate any wards you might have had in place. Thankfully the sample also seems to have been small enough to not form into anything larger or more dangerous.” The human stated, optimistically pointing out the fortunate occurrence. Princess Celestia looked concerned at the news that the substance posed any danger in large quantities. She never imagined the odd substance could pose a threat when she first laid eyes on it. “Wait, so this dark matter is dangerous?” She asked nervously. Tom looked somber as he thought about the possible abilities of the shadowy substance. “In large enough masses and with enough negative energy behind it, dark matter can do a lot of nasty things. Like drain energy from living things in contact with it, hence the cold feeling you get from touching it. It can also form into any number of intelligent shadow monsters, like darklings for instance,” He explained grimly. “So that’s how those monsters are forming… but there were many large clusters of this substance scattered around Canterlot and several other cities…” The princess sounded more concerned at the realization of the threat to her kingdom and its subjects. Tom nodded with a more serious expression. He felt bad that the ponies had such a problem on their non-existent hands, but he wasn’t sure about what he could do to help them at the moment. “Given the lack of other unique circumstances, that seems like the most logical conclusion as to the sudden appearance of monsters you have never seen before.” He stated somberly. Celestia grew slightly pale as she thought further about the possible worst case scenario. She had never come across any problem this severe that posed such a real and immediate threat to her kingdom. Twilight noticed her mentor was struggling in her mind over what to do next. “Don’t worry, Princess...” The purple unicorn placed a reassuring hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder. “I’m sure we can fix this. We just need to find a reasonable place to start,” She reasoned hopefully to lift her mentor’s spirits. The princess looked to her worried student. She suddenly remembered that she would have to be strong for those around her. Celestia briefly took a moment to restore her confident appearance. She then sighed and turned to Tom. “I think we should start by finding out where the monsters are forming in the forest. Maybe we can find more information about the cause of the problem there.” She nodded in determination as the human returned a nod of agreement. The group waved farewell to Zecora as they prepared to set off again. Twilight led the others out of the hut and around the back where the trail led off into the forest. The purple unicorn hesitated for a moment, staring apprehensively at the thick woods that lay before them. Even though it was still morning, not much light seemed to penetrate the canopy of branches and leaves that stretched above. Despite the dim atmosphere, the white fog still loomed in the distance. But due to the lack of light, the eerie white mist seemed to have changed into an ominous grey cloud. “Uhh…” Twilight whined uncomfortably. She tried her best to calm herself down, but memories from the encounter last night flooded through her mind causing her to stiffen up in fear. Rainbow Dash walked up to her shaking friend and placed a hoof on her shoulder. Although the dark woods ahead of them made chills go up her own spine, the cyan pegasus tried her best to comfort her friend. “It’s ok Twilight. You’ve got nothing to worry about with me, Tom and the Princess here…” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously, staring into the gray void along with the unicorn. Twilight smiled weakly at the pegasus huddled next to her. Despite the reassuring look she was giving, the unicorn could tell that Rainbow Dash was just as scared as she was. The purple pony gulped audibly and slowly inched her way onto the path before her. Celestia and Tom hovered close to the two shivering ponies in order to make them feel a little more comfortable. As the group walked along the path, Twilight looked around meticulously at her surroundings. She wanted to be sure that she did her part and lead them to the right place in order to shorten their time spent in the forest. The troop followed their lavender leader through the twists and turns of the forest path. Before long, the group had wandered off of any recognizable path. Regardless of their gloomy surroundings, the three had confidence in their purple leader to find their way through the dense vegetation. However as she searched through the trees around them, the unicorn found no familiar landmarks anywhere near the group. She paused for a moment and studied the area further. Frustrated and annoyed at her lack of success, Twilight mumbled to herself as she grew more worried at the thought that she had gotten the group lost. “I don’t recognize where we are anymore. This must be around the area where I was running through. Rainbow Dash, do you recognize the area?” The unicorn anxiously turned to her pegasus friend in the hopes that she might have an idea of where they were. “I’m not sure… we were pretty focused on running ourselves when we separated from you Twilight,” Rainbow Dash shrugged while eyeing the surrounding tree to search for any familiar sights. Twilight grew even more anxious as she nervously looked around her. Suddenly Tom walked up to her and looked back to the group confidently. “Don’t worry. I have been paying attention to where we have been going once we left the path. As far as where we need to go, I think I might be able to save us from needlessly scouring the woods for hours.” He stated with a confident tone. Twilight looked at the human, curious as to what he had in mind. The boy walked in front of her and looked around meticulously. He then exhaled as blue mist came from his mouth like before. He seemed to be more in control of the phenomenon as he did not gasp or flinch while summoning the blue mist. Celestia looked intrigued at the occurrence. Although Twilight had mentioned the way that Tom sensed evil creatures, it was still a surprise to see the event in front of her. Rainbow Dash watched Tom curiously as he walked around while letting the mist out every few steps. She was unsure of what he was doing, but any time he had used his senses before, bad things happened. “What are you sensing? Is it more of those things?” She asked nervously at the thought of more of those creatures being nearby. Tom looked back to the confused group for a moment before returning to his search. It was normal of them to be in the dark about what he was doing, but he still wasn’t used to explaining every action he took. “I can use my sensing abilities to pick up on negative energy. Hopefully I can get a trace of the darklings that were here last night and follow their energy to where they came from.” He continued walking around the area and looking around seemingly at random. He suddenly perked up at looked back to the others. “Aha...! Found something,” He announced excitedly. The boy stood still for a moment and looked off to the side, letting his senses go off a few more times. “Feels like… darklings for sure… definitely the ones from last night. Let’s see here,” The human motioned with his arms as if to trace some animal only he could see. “Lots of movement in a straight line over here… must be from where you were chased last night. That seems to go on for a while in that direction before spreading out… must be where they caught you and fought with me.” The boy muttered to himself. He then followed a seemingly random path with his hand while looking down to the ground. The group looked slightly confused as they watched the human wander around them, looking in various directions. They could only stand out of Tom’s way and trust that he knew what he was doing. The boy concentrated for a moment, tracing the beasts back to where they found the ponies, and where they came from before that. “Ok, I think I know where they came from. I can sense a trail from the ones that I presume chased Twilight that leads back to where they were before they came across you guys.” He stated confident in his ability to follow the trail. Twilight smiled excitedly at the news, she was glad that someone finally knew where they were going. The group anxiously followed Tom as he led them off to the side from where they were going originally. After a few minutes of wandering through the thick woods, the ponies were beginning to wonder if the human was just leading them on a wild goose chase. Rainbow Dash sputtered disgustedly as she walked into a spider web anchored to a nearby branch. She feverishly wiped the web from her face and shook her head to rid the tingly sensation from her skin. “Tom, are we almost there? We have been walking for a while now and we haven’t found any… thing,” The pegasus was cut off suddenly as the group burst through a clearing in the trees. The area in front of them was almost clear of any obstruction for several feet. Thick trees sat on either side of the group at the far edge of the clearing, and in front of the group in the middle of the clearing sat a rather large cave. The group was awestruck at the sight of the cavernous opening that made up the mouth of the cave. The opening sat on a stretch of rock so large that it seemed almost impossible to miss even through the thick vegetation of the forest. Tom looked back at the group as they stared at the large landmark with their mouths agape. He didn’t know anything about the forest they were in, so he had no way of knowing how strange the sight of the cave was. “Well I’m no expert detective, but I think we might find something interesting in there.” He stated jestingly. Chapter 7: Into the CavernThe sound of water dripping could be heard even where the group of ponies were standing as it echoed off of the cave walls. And despite the sunlight shining into the clearing through the hole left by the lack of trees, the mouth of the cave seemed pitch black save for a few stalagmites and stalactites jutting from the rock at the opening to the cavern, as if the large opening was a mouth full of sharp gnarled teeth. Twilight and her friends couldn’t believe that such a structure could have been hidden so well in the forest without anyone from Ponyville discovering it. However awe inspiring the sight was, the purple unicorn had to force herself to stop gawking in wonder and amazement. Rainbow Dash looked up to the sunlight streaming down into her face and squinted, shielding herself with a hoof. “Wow, sure is bright here… I guess they must be coming out at night. How big do you think that cave is?" She asked, curiously observing the cavernous opening. Twilight stared at the cave apprehensively. She was getting a bad feeling just from looking at the pitch black opening. Suddenly, the unicorn dawned on the fact that she would have to go inside of the cave. The realization made her break out into a cold sweat. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up and every muscle in her body becoming tenser. As she noticed her friend growing more pale and nervous, Rainbow Dash thought about what could have spooked the unicorn, and suddenly realized herself what they would be doing. “So w-what will we be looking for in there anyway?” She stammered slightly, gulping nervously. “We will be checking for any signs of foul play. Darklings and dark matter appearing this suddenly seems to suggest that something else could be going on,” The human explained somberly. The cyan pegasus seemed confused by the statement, but thought about it for a moment. She didn’t like where the human’s train of thought was going, but she felt compelled to ask him anyway. “Something else… Like what? You don’t think somepony caused all this do you?” She asked apprehensively. Tom sighed at the thought of someone intentionally bringing about all these problems for such a seemingly peaceful race. “It’s definitely a possibility that someone could have done this on purpose, but we won’t know for sure by staying out here.” He stated with resolve as he readied himself to charge headfirst into the foreboding cave. As Tom walked toward the cavern, Twilight and Rainbow Dash gave each other a nervous look before turning and hesitantly following the human. Celestia let the boy lead the way into the dark cave as she stayed close to her two nervous charges. Twilight stayed close to Tom and lit up her horn so the group could see in front of them. Celestia decided to light her horn as well to provide a larger comfort zone of light for Rainbow Dash, who stayed between her and the two in front of them. Regardless of the amount of light in the cave, a thick layer of shadows seemed to permeate the area around them. It was entirely pitch black outside of the radius of light provided by the two magic users, leaving only the echoed noises of water dripping and the ponies own minds to determine the size of the cavern. The only comfort the group had was the entrance of the cave being illuminated very brightly by the sun outside, but even this uplifting ray of light was quickly growing smaller as the group ventured further into the depths of the blackness. Twilight tripped over one of the larger rocks that jutted out of the cave floor, causing the group to pause briefly as she regained her balance. The unicorn took this time to look around and try and make out any shapes around them that could indicate any walls or other such features of the cave. Small streams of water seemed to flow past them and toward what Twilight hoped was the direction of the entrance, while drops of water seemed to fall into view from the darkness above, presumably coming off of the stalactites that were scattered on the ceiling somewhere above the group. A wall sat to her right side, with many cracks and uneven crevices permeating the damp grey rock. And to the unicorn’s surprise, she could make out a dim light coming from an area on the wall. “What is this?” Twilight uttered barely loud enough for the others to make out as she leaned in closer. As her eyes adjusted to the shapes, she could make out small symbols inscribed into the rock. The symbols seemed to glow a dull shade of white that would easily have been missed had she not been right next to the area. Tom noticed the unicorn inspecting the wall and crouched down next to her to see what she was looking at. “Whoa… Nice find there Twilight. What are they though?” The human ran his fingers over the symbols while trying to analyze them. “Don’t seem to resemble any arcane glyphs I’m familiar with. Doesn’t even look like they belong to any ancient language I’ve seen before.” He scratched his head curiously as he compared the strange symbols to his memory of the arcane arts. Twilight squinted while trying to get a better look at the strange glyphs. They seemed slightly familiar to her, but in a strange sort of way. It was like they were an altered version of something she had encountered before. “They look like symbolic writings of a magical spell,” She looked at the group hoping they would understand her findings, but Tom seemed confused at the explanation given. Rainbow Dash looked at the human with an understanding expression on her face. “Don’t feel bad Tom, this time you’re not the only one who’s clueless,” She gave him a pat on the back and shared in his confusion. Celestia looked knowingly at the two as they tried to mull over the possible meaning in their own way. “I’m not surprised, Rainbow Dash. Not much on the subject of magic is taught to anyone other than unicorns,” The alicorn reassured the pegasus that it was normal for her to be clueless about the topic. Twilight sighed and tried to think of a way to simplify her knowledge on the subject for the two. She hoped that the human’s background as a slayer would help him to understand. “Unicorns sometimes use symbols to help them learn how to use magic or perform spells that are new to them. We can use our magic to sort of read over the symbols to get a feel for how the spell is performed… It’s kind of hard to explain to anyone that isn’t a unicorn, so I’m sorry if that seems a little vague.” She explained as clearly as she could to the two. Both of them nodded, but Twilight could only guess as to whether or not either of them comprehended her explanation. The unicorn then returned to studying the symbols. She lit up her horn and moved across the glyphs to try and decipher their meaning in her head. But even with the knowledge of what they were, Twilight let out a grunt of frustration as she struggled to comprehend the odd glyphs. “Ughh… I can’t seem to translate these into anything sensible. It’s almost like they are either not finished, or written partly in some other language... and the small section I can read doesn’t look like any spell I know of. Maybe you know what this goes to, Princess?” Twilight stepped aside and pointed to the section of symbols she was referring to. The princess stepped over to the wall and lit up her own horn before gliding across the wall and concentrating. After going over the entirety of the symbols, Celestia then ran over the section Twilight had identified a few times to see if she could figure out their meaning. “No, I’m afraid I can’t understand these either. This section here reads like a spell for gathering energy, but I can’t decipher enough of it to make any sense of what its purpose is.” The alicorn frowned as she shook her head in defeat. The group decided to move on and keep exploring, whilst keeping an eye open for any other symbols that could be littering the walls of the cave. The darkness of the cave seemed unending as the group walked in a straight line for several minutes. The ponies searched feverishly through the pitch blackness looking for any sign of something to further their cause, while the princess hovered close by to act as their protection should anything hostile emerge from the shadows. Tom walked in front of the group, staying just behind the veil of light Twilight was creating. He stared off into space occasionally, presumably to pay attention to his senses to see if anything lurked in the cave along with them. The sound of wind rushing through the cave via cracks in the walls mingled with the constant noise of dripping water, causing a feeling of dread and fear to swell up in Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they nervously pressed on. The unicorn felt incredibly uneasy in the stark silence. Even in the presence of friends she felt as if her heart would explode any minute from the feeling of sheer terror that was welling up inside her. Twilight looked back to Rainbow Dash hoping to gain confidence from her friend, but judging from her pale appearance, the cyan pegasus was not doing any better in coping with her fear. “How you holding up back there?” The purple unicorn couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say, but felt that some light hearted conversation could do both her and the pegasus some good. Rainbow Dash jumped slightly at the sudden break in silence before calming down and looking to her friend. She mustered a nervous smile and sighed. “I think I’m starting to get sensory deprivation from being in here so long. You can only stare at pitch blackness in a giant cave for so long without going crazy,” She stated in an attempt at lightening the mood. Tom perked up from hearing the conversation behind him and turned around to face the pair of ponies. “You know, we’ve only been in here for like fifteen minutes,” He remarked playfully. The cyan pegasus shook her head in annoyance and rolled her eyes at the human’s statement. “It feels like we’ve been here for an eternity. I almost want something to jump out and try to kill us. It would be better than whatever my hocked up imagination can think of.” She spoke her mind while secretly wishing that her statement would not come true. Twilight hummed curiously at the statement. She couldn’t help but notice the distinct lack of horrific monsters trying to rip her to pieces. Despite how fortunate this might have made her feel, the unicorn knew that something was off about the peacefully dark and silent cavern. “That reminds me, we haven’t seen any sign of darklings since we got here. Shouldn’t this place be crawling with them if this is where they are coming from?” She asked while puzzling over the issue in her head. Tom started to say something but was caught up in thought. He looked around curiously and scratched his head. “Actually that is quite strange now that I think about it. I haven’t sensed any dark matter in here at all, and the only sign of darklings I can think of was the trail leading in here,” The boy stated in confusion as he searched the area around the group with his senses. “Well, maybe your senses just aren’t picking them up? I’m sure there are probably hundreds of them waiting for us in the darkness,” Rainbow Dash looked around nervously as she let her imagination run wild. Tom turned to the group and chuckled confidently. “Don’t worry, not many things get by my senses. After all I am a profession- Whoa!” The human was cut off mid-sentence as he walked backwards into a rock. He tumbled over the rock and landed on his head before the rest of his body settled to the floor. The others quickly rushed over to the human concerned for his wellbeing. Tom blinked rapidly and stayed on the floor, trying to process what had just happened. He lifted his head up and looked at the knee-high piece of rock that he fell over, cursing under his breath. “As I was about to say… professional in training, there is still some room for error.” He said with mild humility as he tried to hold on to whatever shreds of his dignity that remained. After making sure that their friend was ok, the ponies chuckled under their breath as the boy had his ego deflated by an inanimate object. Tom then picked himself up and dusted himself off before taking a look around the rock. Lined up in a row were several other rocks around the one that he tripped over. Upon closer inspection these rocks bore similar glowing symbols to the ones found before. Twilight then stepped forward, allowing her light to fall on a bigger area around the rocks. “There are more of those symbols here.” She observed, scanning the row of stones and taking note of how many symbols were on each. Tom inspected the symbols to see what they looked like before shaking his head. “Can’t understand these either. I don’t suppose you have a way to write these down for future research?” The human asked the unicorn hopefully. Twilight thought for a moment before turning to answer the question. “Well, I didn’t bring a quill and paper. But due to the nature of these symbols, I should be able to use my magic to store them until we can write them down,” She explained with an optimistic smile on her face as she planned out her success in her head. Tom looked at her, confused as ever. “And just how do you plan on doing that?” He asked before immediately regretting his request for more information that he would probably not understand. Twilight inspected the symbols closer to confirm her suspicions before answering. “Even though I can’t understand these glyphs, they do appear to be some sort of spell. I can use my magic to read over them and hopefully I should be able to recreate them later on paper,” She clarified slowly. Tom was surprised at the simplicity of the unicorn’s explanation. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s copy these symbols so we can get out of here. If I stay in here any longer, I swear I’m going to forget what sunlight even looks like.” Rainbow Dash chimed in, eagerly anticipating leaving the darkness of the cave. Twilight nodded before lighting up her horn and concentrating on the symbols, she passed over each of them before moving on to the next rocks. While the unicorn memorized the symbols, Tom decided to investigate the immediate area. Walking forward a few steps He noticed something just outside of the ring of light created by Twilight as she ran from rock to rock. The human could just barely make out what appeared to be chalk markings on the cave floor. They formed what appeared to be part of a circle, but Tom couldn’t see them well enough to make anything else out. He stepped forward into the darkness and stood in what he assumed to be the middle of the large circle. He bent down to examine the markings closer, but shrugged at his inability to make any of them out in the blackness. “Hey Celestia, could you come over here? I think I found something on the ground, but I can’t see two feet in front of me,” The boy asked with intrigue as he inspected what few lines he could make out. The princess looked over to where Tom’s voice was coming from and walked over to him. Once she got within range of the circle and cast her light upon it, she could see several intricate markings on the floor. Various symbols similar to the ones on the rocks were spread throughout the design of a circle with numerous decorative lines. “These look a bit more complicated…” Celestia inspected the odd design on the floor while stepping into the middle where Tom was sitting. Upon setting a single hoof in the center of the circle, the entire design lit up in a violent display of light. The circle of light on the floor made a loud humming noise before emitting a blinding flash of light that made everyone cover their eyes. When the light dimmed and everyone looked over to the area of the circle, they discovered that the odd symbol had disappeared, leaving Tom and Celestia standing where the center had once been. Suddenly, a low rustling noise enveloped the group from all around. It sounded like something was gently scraping along the rocks of the cave floor, walls, and ceiling. The ponies looked around, nervously backing closer to each other. Rainbow Dash tried to pinpoint the source of the sound, but could not determine whether the noise was coming from above or around her. “Is that bad?” She asked in a slight panic while huddling closer to her friends in anticipation. Tom suddenly gasped as his evil sense went off, causing a surge of blue mist to rush out of his mouth unexpectedly. He searched around frantically trying to determine the cause of the reflex. “This doesn’t make sense. I can feel something all around us, but it feels too big to have snuck up on us this suddenly,” He stated in a perplexed sense of dread. Twilight looked to the ground beneath them and tried to find an explanation for the sudden disturbance. “Maybe that flash of light had something to do with it?” She suggested in an attempt to rationalize the situation and ease her growing anxiety. Tom started to reply, but was silenced by the noise suddenly growing much louder. Now that it was closer, the noise sounded more like a high pitched shrieking sound, almost as if a swarm of angry bats was descending on them. The group’s eyes darted around as they started to see something move in the darkness outside of the sphere of light. It appeared to move rapidly all around them as the odd shapes blurred together while whipping around. Upon looking up, the group noticed the same shapes moving above them and through the air just outside of the barrier of light. The sight, combined with the noise made even the princess and Tom nervous. Twilight and Rainbow Dash stuck close to each other and darted their heads around fearfully while trying to determine what the mysterious forms surrounding them were. “I… I t-thought darklings couldn’t fly,” The unicorn stammered nervously, trying not to picture what a darkling with wings would look like. Tom took on a more serious expression as he used his senses to try and identify the danger around them. He suddenly gasped in surprise as he realized why the shapes felt oddly familiar. “This is not darklings… This is much worse.” He said grimly as he paled slightly. Twilight and the others were about to question the slayer’s statement, when suddenly the shapes moved closer to the light. A large mass of black shadows crashed through the threshold of light. The mass seemed to be one large cloud of darkness as it swirled around the group. The shadows appeared almost foreign in comparison to the darklings and sample of dark matter back at Zecora’s house, which had softer shades of purple and black which seemed to shift around their skin in constant motion. The cloud of darkness currently swirling violently around them was void of any sort of color, it appeared as if the blackness of the cave had come alive and decided to suffocate the intruding ponies. Celestia seemed flabbergasted at the immense negative energy she was feeling. “What is that thing...? It looks like living shadows,” She observed as she tried to make sense of the strange smoke like mass around her. Tom took on a more stern tone of voice and turned to the others. “Precisely, that is a rather large mass of dark matter,” The explanation caused the ponies to turn to the slayer with shocked expressions on their faces. Twilight seemed the most shocked as she grew more frightful as to their situation. “What?! But the stuff the princess described looked nothing like this! It was nowhere near this active either!” The unicorn squeaked nervously as panic started to set in. “This mass of it seems to be charged with a frightening amount of negative energy. We need to get out of here now!” The slayer announced loudly as the cloud of darkness closed in on the group, shrinking their sanctuary of light down to a small bubble. Celestia steeled herself and adopted a determined expression. She wasn’t about to let a cloud of living shadows harm the two ponies next to her, not when she was the princess of the sun after all. “This stuff hates sunlight right? I should be able to get us through.” The princess lit up her horn and prepared to blast a ray of sunlight at the swirling mass, when suddenly a section of the mass broke off from the main cloud and rushed forward after her. The alicorn yelled in pain as the black substance hurled into her body with enough force to send her to the floor. The black shroud latched onto the helpless horse and seemingly started hurting the princess as she cried out in pain and fear. “Princess Celestia!” Twilight and Rainbow Dash screamed in unison at the sudden attack. They were forced to watch helplessly as the alicorn struggled on the ground in a vain attempt at removing the cloud that was suffocating her form. Tom quickly sprang into action and got closer to the princess. He then quickly pointed his open palm at the black substance wrestling with her. A bright flash of blue light hit the shadowy mass on top of the princess, causing it to erupt into smoke. The two ponies quickly rushed to the princess and stood over her, waiting for any sign that she might need their help. The princess groaned in pain and weakly got up. “Ughh… T-thank you, Tom. I would have been a goner if you didn’t…” Celestia winced as she dropped to her knees weakly. “Princess! Are you ok?!” Twilight frantically rushed to her mentor and helped her stand up. She could feel the princess shift her weight onto her as she failed to support her own body. Celestia breathed heavily a few times before looking to her student and smiling weakly. “I’m fine, Twilight… I just feel weak… ngh… I think that thing must have drained my energy.” The alicorn lit up her horn and tried to muster enough strength to use a spell. She then groaned from exhaustion and practically fell onto Twilight as her horn puttered out. The purple unicorn struggled to keep the heavy alicorn upright. She looked at her mentor with a concerned expression. “You’re in no condition to be using magic right now, Princess,” She stated with worry evident in her voice. Twilight and Rainbow Dash then looked at each other and to the swirling black cloud around them as they realized what that meant for them. “That thing is going to kill us if we don’t do something!” The cyan pegasus could hardly contain the panic in her voice as she watched the cloud move in closer to the group. Just before the dark mass got any closer to the cowering ponies, Tom jumped in front of them and stretched his arms into the air around him. Using both hands, the boy conjured two streams of the blue light which bounced off of the cloud as it tried to resist the assault. The light was bending off of the cloud, almost forming a bubble between it and the group as it pushed against the light. Tom grunted as he concentrated on keeping the dark cloud at bay, he then looked to the surprised ponies and drew in a breath to yell over the noise of the cloud pushing against the barrier. “I can’t keep this up forever! Help her up and let’s get moving!” He exclaimed urgently. The two ponies snapped back to reality as they both nodded to each other and got on either side of the injured alicorn. They both supported her weight and helped her walk faster as Tom carefully moved forward, keeping concentration on his powers. The walk to get into the cave did not take very long, but with the constant grinding noise the dark mass was making as it pushed on all sides of the blue force field, the slow walk towards the entrance seemed to take an eternity. On top of the nerve racking tension in the air, the group could not see past the dark mass attacking them, which made the heart pounding venture all the more tense as they wondered whether they were walking towards the exit, or further into the cave. The ponies struggled to carry the princess’s practically dead weight, but somehow they managed to stay right behind Tom as he shuffled forward while fighting the unrelenting shadows. Twilight could see Tom sweating as he struggled to keep the strenuous use of power up. “How are you holding up, Tom?” The purple unicorn looked to the boy concerned. She was afraid that he would pass out from exhaustion, leaving them alone to fend off the shadowy mass and sealing their fate. Tom shook his head quickly as a sign that he didn’t want to waste energy on talking. He winced and groaned as he pushed against the barrier forcefully to acclimate to the cloud’s attempts at applying more force. Twilight nervously looked at the mass of negative energy slamming its weight against the shield. It seemed to be unfazed by the same energy that had instantly defeated the monsters that attacked them the night before, only being kept at bay from prolonged exposure to the light as it tried to pass through. She then looked to Celestia, who was drifting in and out of consciousness causing the two ponies to pause briefly and apply more force to keeping her upright and moving. The unicorn was deeply concerned for the princess, she had never seen her this weak and helpless before. “Don’t worry, Princess. We’re getting out of here soon. You’re going to be fine.” She spoke softly and reassuringly into her mentor’s ear. The alicorn weakly shifted her head to look at the two ponies beside her before going back to staring blankly at the ground. The princess tried to put more energy into standing on her own, but faltered once more before being caught by Rainbow Dash. “Take it easy, Princess. We’ve got you.” The pegasus said in a reassuring tone. Suddenly, the cloud seemed to react slightly different. A shrill noise filled the air followed by the sound of several solid objects thudding on the floor just outside of the group’s bubble of protection. A familiar growling noise made the ponies spines tingle with terror. “Oh no, not these things again!” Rainbow Dash darted her head around as she noticed new shapes approaching the light from behind the cloud of shadows. The familiar form of darklings started walking through the barrier of light, pausing briefly and struggling against the slayer’s attempt at protection. “Ugh… They’re breaking through!” Tom wheezed in between breaths. “Twilight, I can’t fight these things and keep the shadow at bay at the same time. Is there anything you can do with your magic to fight them?” He asked while giving the pony a look of desperation. Twilight’s pupils shrank and her eyes widened as she was now required to act. She wasn’t sure if she could handle the stress of being responsible for saving the group. The unicorn looked over to Celestia and Rainbow Dash for reassurance. The alicorn was in a daze as she occasionally moved her head around slowly to observe her surroundings. While the cyan pegasus was darting her eyes around nervously, Twilight could tell that she was scared out of her wits. Having decided that she had to at least try to do something to save her friends, the unicorn raced her mind in an attempt to find a spell to use. “Umm… Uh… I got it! I can knock them back out of the barrier. Hopefully they won’t be able to get through twice,” She spoke up with anxious excitement as she came up with a sound plan. Tom was slightly concerned at leaving it up to an innocent bystander to fight off a dangerous bunch of shadow creatures, but he realized that they were out of options. “Alright, do your best to keep them away from us... Just be careful!” He stated in an attempt to reaffirm the need to be as cautious as possible. Twilight looked over to her pegasus friend sympathetically. Rainbow Dash would have to support Celestia’s entire weight while she focused on keeping the creatures from getting in. “Just go! I can take care of the princess.” The cyan pegasus nodded to her friend confidently as she prepared to carry more weight. Twilight slowly let the princess shift over to Rainbow Dash, she then walked into the middle of the bubble of light and darted her eyes around to see which direction the creatures would come from. One of the beasts slowly stepped through the barrier, Twilight could see that these monsters were as pitch black as the dark mass that spawned them. The beast smoked briefly as it struggled to pass through the barrier. Once on the other side, it quickly lunged for the princess and Rainbow Dash. The pegasus flinched briefly as she prepared for her demise, when suddenly the beast was sent hurtling out into the darkness by a concentrated blast of light. Rainbow Dash looked over to see her friend with her horn lit up in anticipation. “Nice shooting, Twi! Keep it up!” The cyan pony cheered her friend on as she readily confronted the attacking beasts. The purple unicorn smiled confidently as she blasted away another one of the beasts that had gotten through as it tried to lunge for Tom. After a few minutes, multiple creatures started to come through at once. Twilight struggled to keep up with the monsters as she frantically whipped her head and body around to face the attackers. Although her tense nerves assisted her as she spun around to fend off the beasts, there was only so much she could do considering she had a full wide open area to contend with. Suddenly one of the creatures lunged for Twilight, catching her off guard. The unicorn screamed in surprise as she just barely missed the opportunity to blast the creature before it reached her. The beast tackled the frail unicorn, sending her flying to the edge of the barrier where her body skidded to a halt against the rough stone floor. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash screamed and reached out a hoof as she was forced to watch helplessly as her friend struggled against the monster pinning her to the floor. Twilight could feel the coldness of the dark cloud trying to leech her energy as her body just barely stopped within the confines of the barrier. The dark smoke lunged back and forth against the thin film of light as it tried to make contact with the purple pony. The unicorn cried out frantically as she tried to keep the beast’s mouth from clamping down on her throat. She whimpered in fear as her muscles were slowly failing her and allowing the monster to get closer to her neck. “No!” Rainbow Dash cried out defiantly at the scene before her. She wanted nothing more than to run over and help her friend, but realized that she couldn’t leave the princess unattended for fear that she might collapse and be left behind the barrier of light. Twilight shut her eyes as she let fresh tears stream down her face. She could practically feel the beast’s teeth grazing against her throat as it drew closer to her body. She mentally accepted her demise and hoped that whatever pain would come would be brief. Tom looked over to his side at the struggle taking place. He then grimaced as he focused more energy into one hand. He then quickly dropped one of his arms and pointed a quick blast of light at the monster. The beast flew off of Twilight from the force of the blast, making her wince in pain as the creature’s claws raked across her forelegs. She quickly got up and ran to the center, trying to compose herself. “Thank you, Tom.” The unicorn panted heavily and smiled at the human before looking down to check the severity of her wounds. Blood ran down her legs from the jagged cuts, but they did not look deep enough to cause much concern at the moment. Finally, the cloud started to move away from the front of the barrier. Through the gaps of the waning mass of blackness, the ponies could see daylight as they approached the mouth of the cave. “We’re almost out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly as she watched more pieces of the cloud flee from the front of the barrier and join into the rest of the mass. Tom focused more energy to the back of the group as the cloud focused more force into one direction. The cloud began to emit large quantities of smoke as the group backed out into the sunlight. Although it seemed harmful, the sunlight seemed to only weaken the black mass as it pushed defiantly on the barrier to make one last ditch effort at getting at the escaping intruders. Twilight quickly ran to Rainbow Dash and helped her move the princess out of the cave and into the grassy clearing where they gently sat her down. They then turned to look at Tom, who was still battling the mass. The further into the daylight it pushed, the more weak it seemed to get as it ignored its own survival to get at Tom. The slayer planted his feet on the ground firmly and pushed back with great determination. He let out a yell as he put all of his energy into the stream of light in front of him. The light finally went through the cloud as its strength gave out from the combined forces of Tom and the sun. The cloud was rapidly reduced to smoke as the light surged several feet into the cavern, leaving a more natural shade of darkness in its wake. Tom practically hyperventilated as his entire body shook from exhaustion. Finally the boy’s legs gave out and he fell to his knees and went face first into the floor. Chapter 8: Finding HelpTom placed his hands on the ground beside his head to push himself up. He struggled for a moment before managing to barely lift his face off the floor. His chest heaved in and out rapidly as he made a vain attempt at catching his breath while beads of sweat fell freely from his face. Twilight looked at the pitiful sight with concern as she sadly thought about the strain he must have gone through. She looked back to the princess lying on the ground a few feet away. After confirming that the white alicorn would still be alive if she left for a few minutes, the lavender pony slowly walked over to the human. “Tom, are you okay?” She looked at him sadly as he refused to leave his current position to respond to her. Twilight could barely see Tom’s eyes shift over to her position. The response filled the unicorn with a slight sense of hope. The boy kept breathing rapidly, giving the concerned pony beside him a look that pleaded for her to give him a break before talking. He finally turned his head weakly, and slowly to face the unicorn. He flashed her the biggest smile he could muster, which at the time was just barely noticeable, and opened his mouth to speak. “I’m good... Just give me a few minutes.” The human rolled his head back to face the ground and planted his head forward onto the hard grassy floor. He continued to breathe rapidly and showed no further signs of wanting to talk. The boy’s response did little to make Twilight any less worried, but she decided to leave him to rest. The purple mare walked over to her friend before sitting down on the ground herself to relax. In a moment of carelessness, Twilight rubbed her open wounds against her leg. The unicorn winced and let out a shrill cry of pain. After mentally coping with the pain, she looked at her front legs and shuddered in despair at the sight of the bleeding lacerations. Taking care not to cause any undue pain, the unicorn gingerly wiped the excess blood off of her legs. “Those look pretty bad… are you sure you’re alright?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned frown. She watched sadly as the unicorn grimaced from trying to place her legs on the ground without letting anything touch the sensitive areas. Twilight winced as she rubbed the area around the wounds. Although she wasn't used to getting injured this bad, it wasn't actually as bad as it looked. Despite this, she could tell that her friend was extremely concerned for her. “It stings a little, but I think I’ll be fine. I’m just glad that this was the worst thing that happened,” The unicorn chuckled in disbelief as she thought about the close call. She looked over to the pegasus, who was shooting her a sad sympathetic look. "Still... you had me worried back there. I thought I was going to watch you die," Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. “I thought that I was a goner there too. If I hadn’t stopped when I did, or if Tom hadn’t intervened, I don’t think I want to know what would have happened,” The thought of how close she came to dying made Twilight shudder nervously. She still felt the icy cold numbness of the dark mass trying to latch onto her and suck her life out of her through the barrier. The unicorn shivered fearfully at the remembrance of the sensation, she could now understand why the princess felt so weak after having only been exposed to the shadow for only a few uninterrupted seconds Twilight’s train of thought was interrupted suddenly by the sound of Tom groaning loudly as he tried to get up. He managed to get on his feet and paused briefly while his legs wobbled uneasily. He placed his hands on his knees for support and lurched forward to make himself comfortable with his stance. He then inhaled sharply as he started walking slowly over to where the ponies were sitting. The boy was still breathing heavily as he looked to the princess resting behind the two ponies. She looked almost peaceful as she breathed calmly and deeply with her eyes closed. “How is she doing?… We didn’t really have time to look at her back there.” Tom looked to the two ponies to ensure that they themselves were unharmed. He quickly glanced to Twilight’s wounds to see if they needed immediate attention. Satisfied that the injuries were not an immediate concern, the exhausted boy then shifted his eyes to look to whomever would answer his question. Twilight was about to answer when she was suddenly surprised by the princess stirring. The sickly alicorn raised her head up without much difficulty and opened her eyes to look at the others. She appeared to be far less pale than she was a few minutes ago. The ponies were surprised yet thankful at the princess’s sudden improvement. “I’m fine, Tom… Just a little weak is all. That was a close call in there… If you weren’t there with us, I don’t think we would be alive right now. Thank you very much for your help,” Celestia smiled weakly at her strange blue suited savior. Tom finally regained his lighthearted attitude, but was distracted by how exhausted he was. “Sweet lord… I don’t think I have ever used that much energy at one time. I feel like I’m going to pass out… Hopefully we can find out a little more about who did this from those symbols… you still have them right, Twilight?” He asked curiously, hoping that they didn’t just go through that ordeal for nothing. The unicorn lit up her horn and searched through her magical reservoir just to be sure that the symbols were still where she had left them. “Yeah, I got them. But wait… How can you be sure that somepony did this on purpose?” She asked quizzically, still wanting to believe that this was not the intentional work of a sentient creature. Tom closed his eyes and sighed, confident in his hypothesis. “In all my months of experience as slayer, and with all the inherited knowledge I have on the supernatural, I have never seen dark matter that powerful or aggressive. That stuff actually tried to ignore the sunlight to get at us. No shadow creature acting of its own free will would do that.” He explained uneasily. The ponies did not know much of anything about the supernatural, but the genuine nature of the boy and the surprise and amazement in his voice made them comprehend that this was an astounding event. Rainbow Dash looked curiously at the darkness of the cave. The thoughts of what laid within sent chills down her back. The pegasus eyed the shadows carefully, satisfying the part of her mind that told her that the thing might still be in there. “Good thing you managed to overpower it. Hey, why didn’t you try to do that earlier?” The cyan pony wondered at the relative ease that Tom employed to dispatch the darklings from the night before. She had no doubt in her mind that it should have been a snap for the slayer to have dealt with the shadowy conglomerate while they were in the cave. Twilight was also curious as to why the human chose not to try and destroy the shadow creatures earlier, but she also remembered how stressful the event seemed on Tom’s body. Tom closed his eyes and grunted a sigh of annoyance as he thought of an answer to the question. His reasoning seemed obvious to him, but he had to remember that they were not accustomed to him or his methods. “I didn’t know if it would work… I’m pretty sure the only reason it did work was because the sunlight already weakened it. And I didn’t want to try and destroy it in the cave. If I failed, I wouldn’t have had the strength to fend it off long enough to get us out after using that much energy.” He stated in a concerned tone. The ponies shuddered at the thought that they would have been left to fend for themselves in that dark cave had Tom not kept a cool head. “We should probably get going. The princess needs to rest somewhere, and I need to get these wounds fixed.” Twilight sighed at the sight of her own injured legs. She didn’t know how she would keep Spike from destroying himself with guilt once he found out that she had gotten hurt with him absent. “Yeah and besides, I think we could all use a little rest after that ordeal.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly at the thought of relaxing at home. Between the experience in the cave and the events from last night, the pegasus just wanted to take a few minutes to unwind in an environment she knew was safe. Tom nodded enthusiastically at the thought of leaving the forest. He then thought for a moment on which way to go to get back to the path. Luckily for the group, he had been paying attention to where they had been going. He then walked to the edge of the clearing and waited for the others to catch up. Rainbow Dash heaved and groaned as she helped Celestia get up. She then decided to help the princess walk on her own to let Twilight avoid using her injured legs for anything other than moving. The group quickly followed Tom into the woods and started the journey back home. After finding the path and walking for a few minutes, the group found themselves back at Zecora’s hut. The ponies looked at each other and nodded silently, they decided that they would rush straight home instead of stopping by the zebra’s hut. Not wanting her to worry about their wellbeing, Twilight hobbled in front of the door and waved to the Zebra inside. Zecora noticed the group walking away and nodded while waving back. The unicorn then winced in pain as she picked up her pace to catch up with her friends. As soon as the group made it out of the forest, the princess moved away from the cyan pegasus assisting her and turned to face the others. She looked at the three in front of her with a sad expression. She had to leave to return to the castle and deal with a few things. Most important of these things was to find a bed to collapse into and sleep while she got her energy back. “I’m going to head back to Canterlot,” The princess sighed as she tried to look less exhausted for the sake of the worried ponies. Twilight looked to her mentor uneasily. She wasn’t sure if she should even try to make the long journey by herself. “Are you sure you’re okay enough to travel alone?” She shifted her expression into a frown as she watched the princess wobble trying to steady herself. Celestia smiled weakly at her concerned student to cheer her up a bit. She wasn’t sure if she appeared as healthy as she wanted, but she had to ease the unicorn’s fears somehow. “I’ll be fine, Twilight. I just need to rest for a while once I get back. You all should investigate this further and see what you can find out about the purpose behind these strange events. I will send my sister to help you out should you need it. She should be here in a few days.” She stated happily while ignoring her intense desire to return to a tired stupor instead of a cheerful smile. Twilight was still doubtful about the princess’s health, but was confident that she would ask for help if she really needed it. She waved goodbye to the alicorn along with the other members of the group as the princess walked away. The unicorn then shifted her attention to her pegasus friend. “Hey Rainbow Dash… I know you probably want to head on home, but could I ask you something first?” She asked pleadingly. The cyan pegasus smiled at her friend. She felt exhausted herself from the ordeal in the cave, but she could spare a few more minutes to hear what the purple unicorn wanted. “Sure, what’s on your mind?” Rainbow Dash spoke softly while looking at Twilight with a quizzical expression. The unicorn sighed as she thought about the odd events that took place the night before and just recently. She had never come across such a challenge before, and she was certain that a lot of work needed to be done before she could get any answers. “We’re probably going to need some help studying these symbols and checking to see what purpose they serve. And after we find that out, there will probably be a lot of other questions that need answering. I was just wondering if you would drop by the library tomorrow to help us do some research.” Twilight invited with an imploring tone of voice. Rainbow Dash hummed curiously and placed a hoof under her chin as she thought about the request. She then nodded and smiled warmly. “I’d be happy to help. I’ll drop by a little while after morning, does that sound good?” She clarified happily while planning out what time she should get to sleep once she got home. “That sounds perfect,” The purple unicorn smiled back to her friend as she accepted the offer. “Hopefully I can convince the others to come by and help as well.” She stated optimistically. Rainbow Dash waved to her friends before spreading her wings and taking off to fly home. Tom and Twilight watched the pegasus rapidly disappear from view before turning and walking toward Ponyville. After a few minutes of walking, Twilight decided to stop by Fluttershy’s house to see if she would be interested in assisting them with their investigation. She then turned to walk toward the shy pony’s cottage. Thankfully, the yellow mare’s cottage wasn’t too far out of their way. After walking for a short while from the edge of the forest, the pair could already see the house in the distance. Once the two reached Fluttershy’s home, Twilight walked up to the door and knocked gently. After a brief wait, the yellow pegasus opened the door and smiled at the sight of her friend. Her bright smile then shifted to an expression of horror and worry as she noticed Twilight’s wounds. “Oh my goodness, Twilight are you okay?! These look horrible!” Fluttershy's face immediately paled from the shock of seeing her friend injured so severely. The sight of the bloody gashes on the unicorn's legs made her heart sink. Twilight winced in remembrance of the wounds. Although they had stopped bleeding, they still stung occasionally as she moved. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m going to drop by Rarity’s to see if she can patch me up,” The unicorn carefully lifted her leg up so both herself and Fluttershy could see it better. The size and severity of the gashes made the shy mare squeamish, but she didn’t want to make her friend feel any worse than she obviously already did. The yellow pegasus put a hoof to her mouth to catch her gasp as she surveyed the two at her doorstep. Between Twilight’s injuries and the look of exhaustion on Tom’s face, they looked like they had just been through a war. “What happened to you two? Are you sure you’re ok?” Fluttershy asked with shrill concern evident in her voice. Twilight felt bad for letting her friend worry over her injuries. She spoke calmly in an attempt to quell the gentle pony’s fears. “It’s a long story, nobody got hurt too bad thankfully. Anyway, we’re here to ask for your help with something… Something unrelated to how we look… well sort of,” The unicorn rolled her eyes at the thought of what they had just been through. Fluttershy looked at her friend with intrigue. She was always willing to lend a helping hoof to anyone that needed it. “Of course I’ll help. What do you need?” She smiled and waited to hear about the purple unicorn’s request. Twilight was glad to hear that her friend would help their cause. She smiled briefly before thinking about how to phrase her explanation. “We’ve been investigating the spot in the forest where we got attacked last night. We found some things that are going to need a lot of research done on them, and we were wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming to the library tomorrow to help us out,” She asked with a hopeful expression. The yellow pegasus nodded and tried to avoid looking at Twilight’s wounds squeamishly. “I need to do some things around here, but I’ll be there as soon as I finish up.” Fluttershy stated eagerly. Satisfied at the answer given, Twilight closed her eyes and smiled brightly. She then said her goodbyes and walked away with Tom in tow. The unicorn walked back to Ponyville while leading her human friend around. She decided to visit her other friends to see if they would want to help. Seeing how Sugar Cube Corner was closest to them, the pair decided to enlist Pinkie Pie next. Once they arrived, Tom couldn't help but to marvel at the building's decor. The sweet shop was about as subtle as Pinkie Pie was mild and laid back. Despite its flashy exterior, or perhaps because of it, the shop seemed like the perfect place for the party pony to work. Twilight walked up to the door and opened it. As the shrill ringing of the bell above the door rang out, the unicorn politely waited for the human to walk inside before joining him and closing the door behind her. “You guys don’t know the meaning of the word subtle do you?” The boy added, thinking about the design of the building and looking around the interior. Twilight chuckled at the thought before walking up to the counter and waiting for someone to come in so she could ask for Pinkie. It was odd seeing nobody at the counter. Usually either Pinkie or one of the Cakes' were always manning the front of the store during business hours. “Hi!” Pinkie stated enthusiastically. Tom jumped back in fright and surprise as the energetic pink pony suddenly popped up from below the counter. As the human clutched his chest and breathed deeply to recover from the scare he was given, he looked over to Twilight to see that she was only slightly startled by the unexpected jolt. Tom looked at the pink pony with disbelief before letting out a sigh of relief. “Good lord, Pinkie, how do you do that?” He walked up to the counter and eyed the cheerful pony. He then took a glance at the height of the counter and made an analysis in his head as to how the pony could jump out like that on accident. “Do what? All I was doing was looking at something,” Pinkie Pie giggled and smiled at the human. The pony seemed oblivious to her own almost creepily cheerful nature. She looked curiously at Tom before returning to her casual smile. “Never mind… it’s nothing,” The boy shrugged and gave up on trying to rationalize a logical explanation for how the party pony could seemingly defy nature with how she was able to move so suddenly. Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over to Pinkie Pie, who met her gaze and waited for her to speak. “Anyway, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming to the library tomorrow Pinkie. We need as much help as we can get with investigating this case for the princess,” The unicorn explained pleadingly. Pinkie trailed her eyes off as she thought about the matter. “Weeeell, I guess I’m free tomorrow... Sure! I’ll be there bright and early,” She bounced happily in the air and giggled innocently. She then looked to Tom and smiled sweetly. “Hey, Tom, you want to try a cupcake?” Tom was caught off guard by the sudden question. He looked down at the glass sample area of the counter at the delicious looking treats kept inside. He then looked back up and smiled contently. “Sorry, I don’t have any money to pay for one. Maybe another time,” He declined in a friendly manner. “Oh… don’t be silly! The first one is on the house!” Pinkie smiled at him and giggled at his kindhearted tone of voice. She then turned around and walked into the other room. She came back with a tray that had three cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles all over them. “Here, one for each of us. You look like you could use one too Twilight,” She added, noting the exhausted appearance of the two in front of her. “Oh, umm… thanks, Pinkie,” The unicorn smiled at the gesture, she then reached forward and grabbed one of the cupcakes off the tray. Pinkie gasped upon noticing Twilight’s cut up foreleg. “Oh my gosh...! Are you ok, Twilight? Where did you get hurt like that?” She asked in a concerned tone of voice. The chipper pony suddenly became more concerned as her smile was replaced with a shocked expression of worry. Twilight looked sad as she reeled her injured limb back. She didn’t want to make her friends worry about her, even if their worry was justified. “Oh… right, I guess you weren’t there with us. We went out into the woods to investigate where those creatures came from. We found some more of them in a cave, one of them jumped on me and left these when Tom got it off of me,” The purple mare explained. Pinkie gasped quietly upon hearing the news. She put a hoof to her mouth and looked sympathetically at the unicorn. Twilight let out a fake chuckle in an attempt to cheer her up. “It’s ok, I’m going to have Rarity stitch me up, so there’s no reason to fret over these,” The unicorn smiled and hoped her friend would do the same. Pinkie then slowly returned to her cheerful self. She picked up her own cupcake and ate it feverishly. Upon seeing this, Twilight took a bite out of her cupcake. Tom picked up his confection and looked at it for a moment. He hesitantly took a bite and savored the sweet taste. “Hmm… these are actually pretty good,” He quickly finished the treat and wiped the crumbs from his hand off on his pant leg. Pinkie grinned upon hearing the satisfaction in the human’s voice. “I’m glad you like them. Come back here some time, I might be able to give you a couple more freebies every now and again. I mean you are a friend now,” She went over to Tom and placed a hoof around his shoulder and held him close. Tom pushed her away gently as she started to hug him a bit too tightly against her. “Well you never know. I’m sure a guy like me can earn some money in a town like this, so hopefully you won’t have to give me any more freebies.” He smirked at her warmly. She returned the gesture and walked back behind the counter. Twilight said goodbye to the pink pony and walked out of the store. Tom gave her a quick wave and followed the unicorn out the door. Twilight breathed in and out as she took a moment to take in the fresh air. She then started heading towards the Carousel Boutique where Rarity worked and lived. Upon reaching the building, Tom couldn’t help but face-palm mentally as he thought about the lack luster nature of the names in this world. He was going to a building aptly named Carousel Boutique, in a town called Ponyville, and he was being led around by a pastel coloured purple talking pony named Twilight Sparkle. He decided he would have to temper his sense of judgement if he were to live here without going daffy. Twilight opened the door to the boutique and held it open for Tom to step through. She then went in after him and took a look around the inside. Rarity sat at one of the chairs in the back of the building. She was working tirelessly on fixing the hair of a young filly. Twilight recognized the white filly to be Rarity’s little sister Sweetie Belle. Rarity frantically tried to smooth out her sister’s ruffled mane with a comb. Judging from her appearance, it looked like Sweetie Belle just went through a tornado. The white mare stopped what she was doing and looked up to the two visitors. She smiled and put the comb down for a moment. “Twilight, Tom, how nice to see you two!” Rarity greeted before looking to her sister, who was curiously looking at the human and studying his appearance. “Sweetie Belle, I would like you to meet Mr. Thomas Greene,” She pointed to Tom and cheerfully introduced him to her sister. “Wow, so this is the person that beat up all of those scary monsters you told me about?” Sweetie Belle looked to her sister and then back to Tom. She smiled and seemed very eager to meet the human. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Greene… you must be very brave to have fought all those monsters out in the Everfree Forest,” She stated with an intrigued tone of voice. The filly seemed genuinely impressed by the feats accomplished by the human. Tom chuckled humbly. He wasn’t used to getting this much admiration, even from a child. All things considered, it was an experience he could learn to enjoy. “Please, call me Tom. We’re all friends here after all, right Sweetie Belle?” He said lightheartedly. The young unicorn smiled brightly and nodded with confidence at the human’s statement. “What happened to your hair, Sweetie Belle? It looks like a mess.” Twilight looked at Sweetie Belle’s messed up hair and gasped with mild shock. Sweetie Belle sighed in annoyance and felt her soaking wet hair. “I got sprayed by a leaking pipe at school. They must be having some trouble with the plumbing, because there is an awful lot of water leaking in the basement,” She pouted sadly as she thought about her own misfortune. “I guess I must just be unlucky. I mean what are the odds of me finding the one bad pipe in the entire upper floor?” The filly threw her hooves up in frustration and huffed in annoyance. Rarity stroked her sister’s hair before shaking the water from her hoof. She then turned to Twilight with a curious expression. “Enough of that dreadful business for now… Anyway, why are you two here?” She asked quizzically and glanced between the two. “Well I need to ask you something.” Twilight got right to the point of their visit as Rarity listened intently. “We need help with researching things for the princess. It has to do with our trip to Zecora’s last night. I was hoping you could come to the library tomorrow to help speed up the process,” Rarity sighed to herself and looked annoyed as she thought about doing any kind of research. “Well darling, I’m not much of a bookworm… But I guess if it would help you I’ll come,” She stated contently at the prospect of assisting the unicorn. Twilight shifted around joyfully at her friend’s acceptance. Unfortunately, she got a little too enthusiastic as she brushed one of her injured legs up against the wall. “Ow!... oooh.” The unicorn jumped in pain and gingerly rubbed the area. She could see that the wounds were starting to show signs of getting infected. Rarity cringed as she saw her friend in pain. She quickly walked over and examined the injuries closer. Twilight bit her lower lip to prevent herself from crying out in pain as the white mare inspected her wound. Even with Rarity being as gentle as possible, the cuts sent twinges of pain coursing through the unicorn’s body with each touch. “There’s one more thing too, Rarity. Oww… As you can see, I seem to have received a rather nasty bunch of cuts on my legs,” She droned sarcastically as she tried to downplay her wounds. Rarity looked at her friend with prominent concern. “Cuts, Twilight? These look more like gashes to me! How on earth did you get these ghastly injuries?” She asked while bringing the unicorn over to a chair. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise as she saw a passing glance of Twilight’s injury. “I would rather not talk about that right now,” The purple pony winced while looking over to Sweetie Belle, who was looking at her with concern as well. “Do you think you can give me some stitches... and maybe some disinfectant as well? … Oww!” She cringed while the white mare inspected the wounds closely. Rarity sighed in frustration and thought for a moment. She had experience with patching up Sweetie Belle from her escapades with the cutie mark crusaders, but the unicorn was unsure of whether or not she could fix injuries this size. “I don’t know, Twilight… these look a lot larger than anything I’m used to handling, but I’ll see what I can do.” Rarity offered in a friendly manner before walking off to search for medical supplies. Chapter 9: A Well Deserved RestTwilight sat patiently in her chair while Rarity went upstairs to search for the supplies she would need. It was clear that it would take several minutes for the unicorn to rummage through her house to find the necessary items. The purple unicorn kicked her feet and looked around to pass the time. She looked over to Tom and Sweetie Belle chatting beside her and smiled. The filly seemed genuinely interested in learning about Tom and humans in general. But she seemed mostly interested in Tom’s duties as slayer as she pelted him with a flurry of questions with a level of enthusiasm that only a curious child could offer. Twilight was amazed at Tom’s lighthearted attitude. He seemed like a different person every time the situation grew dire, but outside of serious combat he seemed genuinely cheerful and accepting of those around him. The human answered all of the filly’s questions with charm and character. He even played to her sense of adventure by telling her some stories of his time as slayer. Twilight could not tell if he was exaggerating details in his story or not. When most people say the fish they caught was ‘that big’ they are usually putting on a show, but the unicorn had no doubt in her mind that the human could be telling the truth when he said that ‘the monster was as big as a house’. Sweetie Belle laughed at something Tom said. She then looked at his hand curiously and thought for a moment. “Hey, Tom…” She asked innocently. Tom smiled and rested his arm on the arm of her chair. “Yeah?” He asked and gave her a genuine look of interest. “Do you think you can show me the light you used to scare away those monsters? My sister says that it was amazing to see,” The filly pointed to his hand with her hoof and asked with intrigue. She grinned with anticipation and waited for a response. Tom sighed and looked to Twilight. He didn't want to disappoint the excited filly, but he was still exhausted from his time in the cave. “Well, I don’t know. I’m still pretty tuckered out from when I beat up some monsters earlier,” He explained with a smirk. Twilight chuckled as Tom looked knowingly to her. He then shrugged when Sweetie Belle started pouting sadly. “Awww… Come on. Please, would you do it for little old me?” She tried to look as cute as possible while coaxing the human to agree to her request. Tom chuckled at the attempt to convince him. He thought for a moment about his own energy level before looking to the filly in defeat. “Fine, I guess if you really want to see it,” He said compliantly. Sweetie Belle bounced eagerly in her seat as Tom got up and lowered his outstretched arm to her level. The human then breathed a few times to steel himself. “It’s not going to be as bright as when your sister saw me using it, but it should suffice. Just don’t feel too disappointed when I have to stop. This is really taxing work and all,” Tom explained to the eager filly, who nodded in acceptance to his statement. He concentrated for a moment while focusing energy to his palm. Sweetie Belle looked on in wonder and amazement as blue light started emitting from Tom’s hand. The light softly hummed a pleasing tone as it shot upwards a short distance away from his hand. Twilight found herself transfixed on the light along with the excited filly. Sweetie Belle hovered her hoof near the edge of the light. She hesitated and looked to Tom for confirmation that it was safe to touch. He nodded and motioned with his hand for her to stick her hoof into the glow. “Whoa…. It feels so warm and tingly!” She exclaimed, giggling at the odd sensation. It felt like her hoof was placed inside a load of clothes that had just come out of a dryer. She frowned in slight disappointment as the light flickered out, leaving her hoof to cool off in the air of the relatively cold boutique. Tom breathed in a few deep breaths. He simultaneously gave the filly a pat on the head to cheer her up. “Don’t look so sad. I plan on being around for a while, so I’m sure this isn’t the last chance you will have to see it,” He explained in an optimistic tone. Content with the human’s answer, Sweetie Belle nodded and removed her sad expression. The three then shifted their attention to Rarity as she came down the stairs while levitating the items she found in front of her. She placed a spool of thread and a needle on the tray beside Twilight’s chair. She also placed down a cotton swab and a bottle of green liquid labeled disinfectant. After organizing her supplies, Rarity pulled up a chair and sat down, kicking up a leg rest for Twilight to use. She levitated the cotton swab and disinfectant bottle with her magic. She then unscrewed the cap and poured a few drops onto the white puffball. Twilight cringed instinctively as she watched the cotton swab hover near her wounds. She then stared at the thread and needle beside her, causing her pupils to shrink to singular dots. Rarity looked at her sympathetically and sighed. “I’ll try to be as gentle as I can darling. It shouldn’t hurt too much,” She tried to sound as reassuring as possible. The purple unicorn gulped nervously as she braced herself for the stinging pain that comes with sterilizing a wound. Twilight had to bite her lower lip and concentrate to not whine in pain as the white pony dabbed the cotton swab over her legs. She then put the cotton swab down and picked up the needle. The purple mare started sweating nervously as she watched Rarity clean the needle with warm water and disinfectant. She did not like shots or anything else involving needles, so naturally thinking about how long the suture process would take, frightened her a lot. “Gahh!” Twilight yelped in pain as the needle pierced her skin. She tried to avoid moving while Rarity steadily sutured her wound. The white mare tried to think of a way to keep her friend occupied and to get her mind off of the pain. “So, Twilight, where did you get these anyway? If I’m going through the trouble of patching you up, I would at least like to know what happened,” Rarity glanced up at her and asked curiously while being careful not to mess up. Twilight shrugged in defeat as she thought about explaining her ordeal. The white unicorn had a point though. If she was going to patch up such a large wound, she deserved to know why she was going through the trouble. “Well, if you must know…tch! ... We were investigating the Everfree Forest trying to find out more about the monsters that attacked us,” Twilight spoke in between jolts of pain. She thought back to the events of the morning and paled as she thought of the dark cave. “We found out where the creatures were coming from... it turned out to be an undiscovered cave out in the forest,” She explained casually. Rarity hummed with curiosity at hearing about the interesting find. She listened intently and allowed her friend to continue. “We found a few strange glyphs that resembled the writings of a spell, and…” Twilight’s eyes trailed off as her voice cut off from fear. “This thing suddenly attacked us and tried to kill us… It was so horrible, it... it was like a big swirling cloud made of shadows,” She said in an uneasy tone. Rarity gasped at hearing her friend describe the ghastly monster to her. Even Sweetie Belle shuddered nervously at the description of the creature. Twilight remembered how Tom risked his life to help her and her friends. She felt bad for him as she thought back to how stressful the experience must have been on his body. She fought back a buildup of tears as she put the thoughts past her and continued. “The princess got knocked down by a part of the cloud. It must have drained her energy, because she suddenly became so weak that we had to help her walk. We thought we were going to die without the princess able to help us. Then, Tom leaped into action. He used that light of his to push the cloud back so we could escape. That’s when I got these,” Twilight nodded toward her legs due to her being unable to move them for reference. “More of those monsters from last night appeared. They were going to break through the barrier, and Tom was occupied so… he asked me if I could do something. I figured that I could blast them back with my magic, but it seemed like a bit more than I could handle,” Twilight shivered as she remembered the creature pouncing on her. She shuddered in disgust as she could still feel the beast’s cold drool hitting her face as it tried to maim her. Rarity stopped stitching up the wound to put a hoof to her mouth in shock. She quivered sadly as she thought of her friend being brutally attacked by one of the monsters she saw in Zecora’s hut. “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry that you had to go through that! I’m terribly sorry that I brought it up… just try to forget about that okay,” She looked down sadly as she mentally chastised herself for letting her curiosity getting the better of her. Twilight frowned as she looked at the sad unicorn. She smiled in an attempt at brightening up her mood. Rarity noticed her friend smiling cheerfully at her and soon joined her. “It’s ok, Twilight. You handled those darklings like a champ,” Tom spoke up in a reassuring tone of voice. Twilight was shocked to hear the slayer compliment her on her performance. She looked at him with disbelief that he really thought she did well. “Really...? But I let that thing pounce on me and almost got the rest of us killed by making you have to help me,” She eyed him sadly while recounting her poor experience. Tom’s smile never wavered as he gave her a straight face. “Most people would have frozen up and let those things eat them. But you did exactly what I asked for and more. You were doing a great job of keeping those things at bay. Just because one caught you off guard doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up about it,” The human said in a praising tone. Twilight smiled coyly at the remark. Hearing the slayer commend her for her supposed bravery made her swell with pride on the inside. “Thank you, Tom, you really know how to cheer someone up,” She closed her eyes and smiled at the human before leaning back and preparing to endure the rest of the painful experience ahead of her. After sitting impatiently through two legs worth of stitching, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as Rarity put down the needle. The unicorn admired her work for a moment before looking up to Twilight and smiling. “There you go darling. These should heal up just fine now.” She gently tapped the side of Twilight’s leg in a manner that she was sure wouldn’t hurt. She then put the leg rest back and got up from her chair. Twilight moved her legs a few times to test out how they felt. They were still tender from the stitching process, but she was no worse for wear. “Thank you so much, Rarity. I really didn’t feel like going through the trouble of going to a hospital for this,” The unicorn smiled to her friend and got up from her chair with a new pip in her step. She then walked to the door and waited for Tom to follow her. Sweetie Belle pouted sadly as Tom got up to leave. "Aww... do you really have to leave?" She asked with a dismayed tone. Tom looked sympathetically at the young filly. He could tell that she had really enjoyed her brief time with him, but he never expected to have such a grand impact on her. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll meet up again sometime,” He patted her on the head and ruffled her already messed up hair. This made the young unicorn smile cheerfully as she watched the human depart. Twilight walked out of the door along with Tom as she looked at her legs with intrigue. She stamped on the ground a few times to test if the stitches would hurt. Satisfied at her newly patched up legs, she then looked to Tom thoughtfully. “We should head over to sweet apple acres to see Applejack next, and then we can go home and relax,” The unicorn shared a sigh of anticipation with the human as they thought about resting. Twilight wondered how Tom could remain so chipper when he was still clearly exhausted from the earlier struggle. The two walked across Ponyville until they reached the plot of land where the Apple family farm sat. The breathtakingly lush fields of apple trees left the two in awe. No matter how many times she visited her friend, Twilight would never get over the sight and smell of fresh apples growing plentifully. Twilight led Tom around the farm as she searched for Applejack amid the fields. Failing to find her orange friend at work anywhere nearby, Twilight figured that she would be in or around the farmhouse or barn. Sure enough, the two could see the farmer talking with her brother, a red stallion that Twilight knew as Big Macintosh. The pair seemed to be discussing something passionately as they sat near the front of the house. The unicorn trotted up to the two and smiled as they turned to look at her. Twilight was shocked to see that Applejack and her brother looked even more tired than she and Tom felt. The two could barely keep their eyes open as bags had formed under their eyes. Twilight put a hoof up to her mouth and gasped as she noticed many bruises and scratches littering both of their bodies, and a rather decent sized laceration was plastered on Applejack’s left shoulder. “Howdy, Twilight, hi Tom,” The orange mare tried to perk up at the sight of her friends. She yawned heavily and shifted her weight around uneasily. Twilight stared at the two for a moment in shock before getting up the nerve to ask about their appearance. “Oh my goodness… you two look awful! What’s wrong?” The unicorn examined her friend closer as she walked over to her. The farmer sighed deeply and stared blankly toward the inside of the house. “Well ya see… after I got home last night, I found out that everyone was still awake. Not because they were worried about me, but because they couldn’t sleep,” Applejack explained with a disheartened expression on her face. Twilight looked on in a mixture of confusion and worry as her friend droned on tiredly. She wondered about what could have possibly kept the apple family from getting a good night’s rest. “Couldn’t sleep...? What kept you up?” The unicorn asked quizzically while looking between the two. Almost as if on cue to answer her question, the group heard a loud crash coming from inside the house that resembled the distinct sound of glass shattering. The farm pony stared toward the noise and growled under her breath in frustration. She then looked back to Twilight and shifted into a sad and desperate expression. “Somethin’ keeps throwin’ things around the house. Picture frames, plates, flower pots, even tools around the barn keep movin’ through the air like a unicorn was pickin’ ‘em up. And when things aren’t flyin’ over your head, it’s still impossible to sleep ‘cus of the noise the dern thing makes.” Applejack huffed angrily as she explained the hardships that had befallen her recently. Twilight and Tom looked on sympathetically as she vented her frustrations. “What thing, Applejack? I thought it was just objects moving around?” The unicorn tilted her head quizzically and asked her friend to elaborate. Applejack shrugged as she tried to calm herself down. “The thing that’s causin’ all this fuss... We know it must be some sort of critter, because it seems to target us specifically. If it’s not throwin’ somethin’ at you, it’s makin’ some kinda bangin’ noise against the floor… Or worse,” Her eyes trailed off as she cringed from the large cut on her shoulder. “Oh my goodness… how did all of those marks get on you? They almost look like cat scratches…” Twilight pointed out with concern as she observed the two in front of her. They seemed to be covered from head to hoof in the small scrapes and scratches. Applejack groaned in frustration as she thought about the plague on her family. “Well, when we noticed that it started throwin’ things at Apple Bloom, we tried to get it to leave her alone. Me and Big Mac here stood in front of her and caught anythin’ that flew at her. I think we might’a made it mad with how we hollered at it to stop. Now it scratches and smacks around whoever it seems to fancy at the moment. Even poor Apple Bloom is all beaten up.” She looked down sadly at bringing up her failure to protect her little sister. Big Mac put a hoof on her shoulder for support. “See that mark on her shoulder there?” The stallion looked to the two and spoke up to allow his sister a moment to recuperate. Twilight gasped upon studying the wound closer. She had been too occupied with the rest of her injuries to notice it. Big Mac sighed sadly before continuing. “A hoe almost flew right into Apple Bloom’s face. AJ pushed her out of the way and caught the thing in her shoulder. It dug in pretty deep, not surprisin’ seeing how fast it was going,'' He shook his head sadly as he thought back to the incident. Twilight gasped upon hearing the tragic retelling of the family’s problems. She was nearly reduced to tears as she thought of the hardships her friend had faced all night. Tom sat beside her and put his hand up to his chin in thought. He then looked up confidently and stared at the two. “Tell you what, guys. I think I have a rough idea of what you’re dealing with. And being the slayer of evil I purport to be, I would be happy to take a look to see if I can fix your problem,” He offered with a confident grin on his face. Applejack looked up and smiled genuinely at the human. Big Mac also perked up and joined his sister in smiling. The orange mare walked up to Tom and placed a hoof on his side gently. She looked at him desperately and chuckled. “Tom, if you somehow managed to make this thing stop… I think that I would be the happiest pony in Equestria. I might even hug you on the spot if you would do that much to help us,” She stated happily. Tom looked confidently at the farmer. He nodded and smirked warmly at the two. Twilight looked at the boy with intrigue. She wondered if he was able to deliver on what he claimed. But judging from past experience, the unicorn was confident he at least knew what he was doing. “I’m going to need you to show me around the place and introduce me to your family members. Anyone who has been affected by this thing, I want to meet them,” He instructed slowly and sternly to the two. Applejack smiled and motioned with her hoof for the two to follow her and her brother. “Right this way.” She stated, walking into the house. Chapter 10: Residential MalevolenceTwilight followed from the back of the group as Tom stayed close to the two farm ponies as they showed him into the house. Upon taking a look around the living room, the purple mare was appalled at the dismal appearance of the place. Several notable decorations she had remembered such as pictures or vases were missing from where they originally sat. Some of the more sharp objects had been secured with tape in an attempt to prevent them from flying around. Amid the chaotic ruins of the formerly warm and inviting room, a few glass shards littered the floor from where the noise they heard just moments ago most likely originated. Applejack seemed distraught at the appearance of her once proud home. She sighed and looked to Tom and Twilight. “The only other person here right now is Apple Bloom… Thankfully, Granny is out of town this week on one of her errands. I shudder to think about what could happen to her if she were here,” The orange pony looked down sadly. Twilight walked up to her and put a hoof on her good shoulder. “Don’t worry, Applejack, I’m sure that Tom will be able to help you,” She looked to her friend lovingly with an optimistically bright smile. Applejack smiled weakly, still being unable to let go of her frustrations enough to offer a complete smile. “I just don’t know, Twilight. Anythin’ we try seems to just make it madder,” Applejack sighed in despair as she looked to Tom. “Apple Bloom is right upstairs in her room… follow me. Big Mac, you stay down here with Twilight. The less people gathered in one place, the better,” She instructed gloomily. “Eeyup…” Big Mac sighed sadly. The orange pony beckoned the human to follow her as she walked up the stairs. She stared ahead blankly as her thought process was reduced to a tired jumble of mush. Tom looked around the house as he followed Applejack, half to admire the homey atmosphere and half to survey the area for any possible clues that could serve his purpose. The cow pony suddenly stopped at a door and put her head up to it to listen. She knocked a few times on the door and raised her voice to be heard through the wooden frame. “Apple Bloom… you okay in there sugarcube?” She asked with an inflection of sisterly care in her voice. The two could hear muffled sounds of something moving around inside before they suddenly heard the young filly reply. “I’m fine, sis. You want somethin’?” Apple bloom asked curiously. Tom could hear the soft southern accent even through the door. “We found someone who might be able to help us out. Can we come in and introduce you?” She put her ear to the door and listened intently. The filly was silent for a moment before speaking again with a hopeful tone in her voice. “Come on in,” She said with a friendly tone. Applejack opened the door and stepped into the room while looking around. All of the small objects in the room had been taken down and put somewhere safe. The room looked barren and empty, save for a few pieces of furniture and the bed, which had Apple Bloom lying on it wearing what appeared to be two pillows strapped to her body. The odd suit seemed to be very restrictive of motion as it sandwiched the young filly tightly. The suit didn’t obscure the many scratches and bruises covering Apple Bloom’s body, however. Applejack found it difficult to look at her sister in this beaten up state. The farm pony stood by the bed and looked at her sister lovingly, talking to her eye to eye. “Apple Bloom, this is the human I told you about… the one that saved my life last night along with everyone else’s. He is here to try and help us, but he said that he needed to meet everyone first,” Applejack explained, trying to sound as cheerful as her exhaustion would allow. Apple Bloom looked at the human with a doubtful yet curious expression. She loosened up a little bit as Tom bent down to her level and smiled at her. “Hi there, Apple Bloom… my name is Thomas, but you can call me Tom if you want,” He said in a friendly tone. The filly looked at him for a moment and thought about his name. She then slowly returned his smile before looking at him in a lighthearted manner. “Tom huh? That sounds like an odd name,” Apple Bloom stated in a half joking half serious kind of way without seeming harsh. The human chuckled warmly. He had not expected to be criticized on his name in a place like this. “Well, where I come from, Apple Bloom would be an odd name. Tom is actually pretty standard fare as far as names go for humans,” Tom spoke softly in a friendly manner. He looked puzzled as the filly frowned at him. “I’m glad that my name isn’t odd around here. I have enough problems at school without being made fun of for my name,” She looked down sadly as she sulked internally. Tom and Applejack looked at her sympathetically. The human looked to the filly in a puzzled sort of way. He couldn’t imagine why a young girl would be made fun of in this seemingly peaceful society. “What problems could you possibly have at school? You seem pretty enough for a little pony, and everyone I have met in this place so far has been mostly nice to me,” He observed while thinking back to everyone he had interacted with. Apple Bloom sighed and took off the pillow suit she was wearing. Tom expected her to show him the rest of her cuts and bruises, but instead she turned sideways and pointed to her blank flank. “I don’t have a cutie mark yet. That alone is reason enough for me to be made fun of at school… and now I look like even more of a mess,” She huffed in dismay as she noted her numerous scratches and bruises. Tom scratched his head curiously. Of all the strange terms he had heard thus far, cutie mark had to be the strangest sounding one. “What is a cutie mark? Twilight failed to explain that one to me,” He looked to Applejack in the hopes that she could fill him in. The farm pony looked at him with surprise and turned so he could see her cutie mark better. “Oh right! Humans must not have cutie marks then I s’pose... A cutie mark is somethin’ a pony gets when they find out what skill they are good at,'' She pointed to her own cutie mark. “Eventually, what you end up with is a symbol on yer flank that is unique to every pony. It gives you a clue as to what that pony is good at, and sometimes can give you a hint as to what they are like.” The orange mare explained the concept as best as she could. “Oh, so that’s a cutie mark. I was beginning to wonder why everyone had strange pictures on their side. I assume that yours represents how you work on an apple farm?” He pondered out loud. Applejack smiled and nodded as the human caught on. “Yep, I love working with apples. But it can represent a lot more than that, like how I enjoy working in general. I think that with hard work and determination, anything is possible,” She explained cheerfully. Tom nodded as he thought about how important determination was for him considering his powers. Apple Bloom sighed in frustration. Tom looked back to her puzzled. He had no idea why the filly would have been tormented for such a trivial reason. “So why do people make fun of you for not having one yet? From the sound of it, you will get yours soon enough,” He asked quizzically. She looked up to him and pondered about it for a moment. “I don’t know why they do it, but there are a couple of mean filly’s in my school that already have their cutie marks. They like to tease us and call us blank flanks, and now they are probably going to laugh at me even more now that I look so beaten up and tired,” Apple Bloom shuddered as she thought about the harsh comments she would undoubtedly hear at school tomorrow. Tom thought for a moment before smirking at the filly. “Well you might not have a cutie mark, but I can think of something you have that all those mean ponies don’t,” He stated confidently. Apple Bloom looked at him with doubt and curiosity. “What’s that?” She looked at herself as she thought about what unique qualities she could have that her classmates did not share. The human smiled warmly, giving her a confident expression. “The next time someone makes fun of you for not having a cutie mark or anything else, tell them that you are friends with a human. And not just a regular human, a human that beats up monsters and other mean things for a hobby.” He eyed her deviously. She chuckled and smiled devilishly as she pictured the scenario in her head. Tom took a final look at the filly before getting up and shrugging. “Alright then, Apple Bloom, let’s see about dealing with your problem here. Can you tell me your own experience with this… thing?” He asked quizzically while looking around the room. Apple Bloom put a hoof up to her chin and trailed her eyes off in thought. “Weeell, I guess it started a little while after Applejack left with Twilight and the others to go see Zecora. I was about to get in bed and go to sleep, when suddenly I heard Big Mac hollering from downstairs. I was kind of scared, because I could hear things breaking against the wall. I went down to check out what was happening, and I found Big Mac trying to dodge things that were flying at him.” The filly motioned with her hooves in an animated fashion as she told her story. Tom listened intently while Applejack frowned upon hearing about what happened after she left. “Me and Big Mac tried our best to sleep after about an hour of dealing with things flying against the wall. I was in my room trying to shut out the noise with my pillow, when suddenly everything got really quiet. I could have sworn that I heard something walking up the stairs and outside my room. I thought it was my brother coming to check in on me, but the door never opened and the sound stopped. I sat there fer a while staring at the door, when all of a sudden I felt something smack me across the face.” The filly grew more fearful as she described what happened to her. She was on the verge of breaking down into tears as she thought back to her terrifying experience. Applejack sat on the bed with her and looked at her sadly. She wrapped her hoof around her while pulling her close. The filly cried into her sister’s side for a minute before wiping her tears and continuing. “I... I was so scared. I hid under the blankets and tried to convince myself that I imagined it, but then it started scratching me. I yelled for Big Mac and didn’t stop until he came running in. The thing didn’t even stop smacking me around when Big Mac picked me up and took me downstairs. He yelled at it to stop and leave me alone. After that, it was off and on between it picking up things and throwing them at us or the wall, making scratching and banging noises on the floors and ceilings, and scratching and hitting me and Big Mac until Applejack came home.” The filly explained in a sad tone. Apple Bloom sobbed in fear and buried her head into her sister’s coat. Applejack held her closely, rubbing her head gently. She looked up to Tom sadly and sighed. “Once I got home, the only thing that changed was that it started attackin’ me too. We hardly got a wink of sleep last night. This mornin’ we tried to keep Apple Bloom close to us and out of the house, but it followed us to the barn. That’s where I got this cut on my shoulder here,” She looked to the laceration and frowned. She then turned to Tom and looked to him pleadingly. “Is there anythin’ you can do to help us Tom? I’m at my wit’s end here.” Tom looked to the two sisters embracing on the bed. He felt sorry for all the trouble they had been through. He took in a deep breath and smiled to try and cheer the farm pony up. “I think I know just what is going on here. Lucky for you guys I should be able to take care of this with no prob-” The boy was cut off mid-sentence by a high pitched scream coming from downstairs. Applejack jumped to her feet and joined Tom in staring at the door with a concerned expression. “That sounded like Twilight! Come on, Tom, let’s get down there!” The farm pony exclaimed in a panic. She motioned for Apple Bloom to stay put and ran to the door with Tom. Applejack ran in front of the human as she scrambled down the stairs. No amount of exhaustion or fatigue was going to stop the orange mare from helping out a friend in trouble. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and gasped as she took in the scene before her. Big Mac was on the ground with glass broken near his head. He groaned in pain as he writhed on the floor. Twilight was pinned in a corner with a terrified expression. Zipping around the room were several household objects that were of various sizes. The objects seemed to swirl around in a cloud as they hovered menacingly through the air. Every so often, an object would break free of the circle of projectiles and hurl itself near Twilight. The unicorn was bleeding badly from a wound on her chest that still had glass sticking out of it. “Twilight!” The farm pony stuck out a hoof as she shouted to her friend in terror. The unicorn uncovered her face and looked at her friend. She suddenly grew pale and her eyes widened in shock. “Applejack, look out!” She exclaimed frantically while pointing behind the farm pony. Applejack darted her head around to look in the direction she was pointing. She gasped as she saw a knife from the kitchen had apparently been picked up and added to the cloud of objects. The knife pointed at her menacingly as it hovered in the air just outside of the swirling mass. “AHH!” The orange pony cried out in surprise as the knife flew at her face in a blur. She closed her eyes and prepared for the pain to come to her, but was surprised when she felt nothing happening. Applejack squinted one eye open partially to see if she had been killed instantly and was now in the afterlife. To the pony’s excitement, she saw that she was still in her living room. She then gasped and backed up in surprise as she saw the knife being held an inch away from her face. She turned to see Tom holding onto the knife tightly as he looked at her with a serious expression. “Quick! Grab your brother and pull him over to the door. Twilight, Make a break for it! I will deal with this.” He stated urgently. Applejack and Twilight nodded as they rushed to do as they were instructed. Applejack swiftly ran to her brother and shook him to see if he could walk. He got to his feet and started staggering, relying on his sister to guide him in the right direction. Twilight got low to the floor and rushed behind the two as they made a beeline for the door. Tom looked to the swirling cloud of objects as it threw a few plates at the group of escaping ponies. One of the plates hit Twilight in the back, sending her to the floor as she cried out in pain and surprise. The human used his senses a few times to see if his suspicions were true. Before he could get a solid reading however, he widened his eyes in shock as he saw several more knifes break off from the cloud at the same time. They pointed to Twilight while she struggled to get up and shook in the air as they prepared to plunge into the helpless unicorn. “Alright, that’s enough out of you!” Tom exclaimed angrily. He then lifted his arm to point straight at the center of the mass of flying objects and fired off a quick flash of light. The light completely filled the room, blinding the ponies for a brief moment before it disappeared. After the light faded, the objects suddenly crashed to the floor as they stopped floating, causing a deafening wave of sound to ring out. The ponies looked around in shock before settling their eyes on Tom, who was panting quietly as he tried to regain his breath. “You did it Tom! You made it stop! Thank goodness fer that.” Applejack let out a sigh of relief before wiping the sweat from her brow. She looked at Tom puzzled as he shook his head. “Don’t get too excited just yet. I only stopped it temporarily… it will be back once it gets its strength back up and it decides the time is right. But don’t worry, I should be able to stop it for good once it comes back and I can sense what it is for sure,” Tom explained in a reassuring tone. “Aww horsefeathers.” Applejack cursed under her breath at her misfortune. She was glad that Tom had intervened before anypony got hurt, but she also felt a sense of defeat, almost like she was expecting the human to fail at ridding her house of the affliction. “Do you know what it is at least, Tom?” She asked while trying not to sound too harsh and cold. She did not want her gratitude to be lost amid her tired and frustrated exterior. “Yeah, it’s a poltergeist,” The boy gave them a matter of fact explanation as he observed the broken objects littering the floor. The ponies looked at each other in confusion. “What in the hay is a polter... whatever you just said?” Applejack asked and eagerly awaited a simplified explanation. Tom stopped himself from going off on a more complicated tangent. He then sighed at his own thought process before turning to the ponies. “Poltergeist is a word from a language that was spoken half way across the world from my country. It translates to noisy ghost, and means just that.” He stated. The ponies gasped upon hearing the explanation. “A… a ghost? But nobody has died on the property from what I know,” Applejack stammered in surprise as she tried to think of why a ghost would be in her house. Tom shrugged before shaking his head at her to halt her terrifying thought process. He didn’t want her to get too fearful of something before she even knew what it was. “Wait, wait… hold on before you jump to any conclusions. A poltergeist doesn’t necessarily have to be the ghost of a dead person. It can also appear if a large amount of spiritual energy in an area suddenly comes to life… which is probably what we’re dealing with, because once I shot a blast of positive energy at it, it stopped.” The human tried to alleviate the farmer’s growing fears with his explanation. She shook her head in frustration and growled under her breath. “I don’t care what it is anymore. I just want to be able to sit in our house for a few minutes without somethin’ flyin’ at me!” She huffed in an upset manner. Twilight looked at her friend sympathetically as she steadied her brother against a wall. Big Mac seemed dazed, but he looked like he would recover. The purple unicorn cringed as she looked down at her own wound. She grabbed the piece of glass stuck in her and pulled it out. The unicorn cried out in pain as she pulled the large fragment out of her body. Applejack looked at her with sympathy and concern. She put a hoof on her shoulder for support as Twilight threw the glass shard on the floor with frustration. “I think at this rate I’m going to start looking like Swiss cheese if I keep getting cut up,” She looked at her wound sadly and held back a painful tear from leaving her eye. Meanwhile, Tom pondered as to how Swiss cheese could exist still if Switzerland no longer did. His thoughts were interrupted by Twilight shooting him a serious look. “Tom, you said that thing will be coming back right? So, when do you think it will return?” She asked fiercely. The unicorn seemed hell bent on helping her friend to be rid of this horrible thing plaguing her. Tom admired her spirit before adopting a more serious look himself. “It depends... It could be back in a few minutes, or it could be back in a few hours. I doubt it’s still regaining its energy by now with how strong it seemed, but it’s probably biding its time while waiting for an opportunity,” He shrugged upon delivering the news. As he expected, Applejack did not seem happy to hear that the thing might be around for a while. “Oh for cryin out loud! I swear if I could touch it, I would give it the worst beating of its life! … Its non-life… Daww you know what I mean.” She fumed with frustration. Suddenly a high pitched shriek erupted from upstairs. The sound of the scream drove Applejack’s blood cold as she paled with dread. “Apple Bloom!” She exclaimed fearfully as she recognized the terrified shriek to be her little sister. Chapter 11: Sinister IntentThe group hastily made their way to come to the aid of the young filly. Applejack led the charge in a panicked sprint up the stairs. The orange mare was focused on one thing only as she fought through the pins and needles sensation taking over her body, she had to get to her sister. The cowpony was closely followed by Tom as he struggled to keep up with the fearful pony. Twilight was left to bring up the rear and steady Big Mac as he tried to dauntlessly climb up the stairs after his sister. Applejack skidded to a halt to prevent herself from overshooting her little sister’s room entirely. The orange pony threw open the door and charged in with determination. The farm pony widened her eyes and gasped in shock as she had not been prepared for what she would see inside. All of the furniture in the room was being lifted through the air and spun in place or shook violently as they hovered menacingly. The curtains to the window were even dancing around as if they were caught in a windstorm. And in the midst of all of this chaos, a terrified yellow filly was being lifted into the air against her will. Applebloom looked at her sister with a sort of fear that the farm pony had never seen before. Her eyes were red as tears streamed off of her face from being shaken around so much. “A…a..a.Applejack! Help me!” The terrified filly cried out in desperation and fear while reaching out a tiny hoof to her sister. She could hardly speak from how much she was being jostled around. The farm pony looked at the scene with a pale sense of dread slowly filling her body. “Hold on Applebloom, Ah’m comin’!” Applejack exclaimed urgently. She furrowed her face into the most impressive look of determination she could muster over her fear and prepared to charge forward to rescue her sister. The cowpony heaved as she felt her body being pulled back a little ways. She turned to see Tom looking at her with a serious expression. The farm pony looked at him with confusion and disdain, she was about to snap at him angrily before he spoke up to stop her from talking. “Hold on! I know you want to help her, but you’re not going to be any use to her if you get picked up and flung out of the window.” Tom stated while pointing to the far wall. Applejack looked on nervously as she watched several objects jerk around in the air. The windows themselves were opening and closing rapidly as the entity exercised its power on them. If she charged in there without a plan, there was no way of knowing if the entity would throw either her or her sister out of the window to a painful and possibly deadly fall. Applejack grunted in frustration. She looked back to the human with a mixture of urgency, doubt, and slight anger plastered on her face. “Well, you better think of something fast! I’m goin’ in there myself if you won’t help her!” The orange mare glared at him with anger and determination. All of the fear had left her body by that point as she stared at her sister being jerked around in the air. The sound of the filly yelping in surprise as she was violently shifted in different directions made the farm pony boil with the need to come to her aid. Tom sighed and looked back to the scene. He stepped forward a ways and studied the pattern of objects moving around the room. The frightful amount of power the poltergeist was capable of made the human nervous for the filly’s health. “Ok, ok! Just let me find the best way to do this without getting yourself killed first alright?!” Tom looked back to the unimpressed pony behind him and reasoned for her to think rationally before getting herself killed in front of her sister. Tom quickly allowed his senses to go off a few times. He scanned his head from left to right across the room as the blue mist repeatedly came from his mouth. Satisfied with his findings, he backed up and turned to the anxious pony in the doorway. “Alright listen up, I’m going to need you to run in there and grab her when I say. I’m going to see if I can distract it enough to prevent it from picking you up, but you will need to be fast. After I flash it with my light, you run in and grab Applebloom from out of the air… I don’t care how much it pulls on her, you get her out of this room understand?” The human looked her in the eyes seriously and calmly informed her of his plan. The orange pony looked to her frightened sister briefly. Her face softened up when she saw the filly was closing her eyes tightly while trying to find a happy place in her mind. She then looked back to Tom with newfound spirit and shot him a look of determination. “Ah’m ready whenever you are.” Applejack nodded confidently while answering him with a serious tone of voice. The human nodded back before getting up and breathing deeply. He looked back at her as she watched him diligently to await his command. He stuck out his hand and pointed up one of his fingers. “One…” Tom counted up to alert her to his plan. Applejack reeled back as she prepared to charge in. Tom stuck up another finger and looked forward to the flying objects around them. “Two…” The human slowly stepped to the side to provide her more room to maneuver. He raised his other hand and pointed it to the epicenter of the room. Applejack tensed her muscles and sweated nervously as she looked ahead to plan out her route. Twilight and Big Mac watched anxiously from the hallway as they prepared themselves for whatever would happen once the two kicked into gear. “Three!” Tom yelled loudly signaling Applejack to close her eyes tightly for a moment. The room turned bright white with a hint of blue for a second as the human blasted his light at the mass of floating objects. After she heard the noise of the flash of light die down, Applejack opened her eyes up and darted forward into the room. The objects had not stopped floating, but all spinning and jerky movement had ceased as the blast interrupted the entity’s normal flow of energy. Suddenly, a few of the objects around her started shaking as Applejack quickly made a beeline for her sister. She dodged to the side as she saw a dresser being flung at her from the left wall. Confident at her successful evasion of the object, she heaved loudly as she jumped up onto the floating bed to use it as a platform to leap for her sister. The filly floated high up in the air near the ceiling, forcing the farm pony to reach up to her on her way down from a jump. Applejack ran to the end of the bed and jumped as high as she could. She reached for the small filly and wrapped her arms around her before turning her body in midair to protect her from any harm. The two slammed against the wall and floor as they descended. Applejack grunted in pain from taking most of the impact. She shook her head to rid herself of the dazed feeling before getting up and running for the door with her sister placed firmly against her chest. The room shook violently as the entity realized that its prey was escaping. Applebloom screamed as a lamp post slammed into her sister, causing the orange mare to fall to the floor and release her. Twilight quickly ran forward and grabbed Applebloom as she slid along the floor towards the door. She then looked to Applejack as she lay on the ground. The orange pony held her ribs as she writhed in pain from the impact. She squinted one eye open and looked up to see around her. She suddenly felt something pulling on her back legs. The invisible force yanked hard on the hapless pony, pulling her backwards slightly. Applejack looked in a panic to her feet as she felt them being picked up into the air. She suddenly felt something grabbing onto the upper section of her body to lift her up easier. “AH!” Applejack yelped in surprise as she felt herself getting lifted into the air. With as much strength as she could muster, the orange mare flung herself downwards and clung to the floor in an attempt at escaping the invisible threat. To the horror of the group of ponies watching on from the doorway, the far window jerked open as something pulled Applejack’s back legs toward it. The cowpony dug into the floor desperately with her front hooves as she felt herself being yanked toward the open window. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for the worst as she felt the invisible force envelope her entire body to fling it out the window in one swift motion. Suddenly, Tom grabbed hold of her arm. He grunted as he threw the farm pony behind him and out the door. Applejack slid along the ground and turned her body to watch the human as he looked to the objects floating in the air. “Time for a bit of spring cleaning up in here!” Unfazed by the cheesy one liner he just made, Tom let his arms fall to his sides casually. Suddenly, fire sprang from his fingertips as he summoned his claws. The blades made the sound of metal scraping against metal as the flames quickly sputtered out once the claws had formed fully. Tom yelled as he ran forward and jumped into the air. He landed on the bed and continued along his war path. He then jumped off of the bed and reeled his arm back to strike something in the air. The ponies looked on with puzzled expressions at the human. He seemed to be fighting something they couldn’t see. They watched as Tom suddenly thrust his arm forward to stab the air with his claws, and paused in the air as his arm collided with something solid. Everyone’s jaw dropped as Tom swung from hitting the seemingly invisible object. He hung in the air for a moment dangling from his claws when suddenly the object started to take shape. It looked like a mass of colorful wisps was slowly forming in a cloud around where Tom had struck. The human suddenly plummeted to the floor along with the strange mass. Tom grunted as he forced his other claw into the mass right next to where his other hand had struck. He lifted the thing into the air in front of him and ripped his hands to the side. The odd mass tore into two pieces, which quickly disappeared after being sent on their way. Everything in the room suddenly stopped hovering around in the air and grew still. The ponies flinched as the furniture made a loud crash as it fell to the floor all at once. They then looked up to see Tom brushing his claws off on his leg before making them disappear in a puff of fire. He stood and stared at the group of awe-struck onlookers. He then chuckled and smirked in his usual lighthearted manner. “And that is how you perform extreme housekeeping with Thomas Greene.” Tom stated lightheartedly while giving the group a confident smile. The ponies blinked their eyes in disbelief. They then looked at each other and suddenly became very elated. They cheered happily for the slayer and gathered around him while expressing their gratitude. The orange mare looked up to the human and smiled warmly. “Thank you so much, Tom! Ah’m so happy, Ah could just hug you to death right now!” Applejack exclaimed joyfully while wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing tightly. He grunted from the tight grip of the farm pony, he could feel the air escape his lungs as he was nearly snapped in two by the cheerful mare. “That’s nice and all Applejack, but… could you not?” Tom managed to croak out timidly in an attempt to get the pony to temper her strength. The orange mare loosened up her grip and chuckled nervously. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly as she watched the human gasping for air. “Hehe… sorry about that sugarcube.” Applejack stated in slight embarrassment. Elsewhere, while the apple family was rejoicing at their well-earned peace being restored, a hooded figure ran through the trees of the Everfree forest nervously. The figure appeared to be a male unicorn with white fur, brown eyes, and a book and feather as a cutie mark. He ran through the thicket of vegetation and panted heavily. Soon, he found himself standing in a clearing before a large structure. The building looked to be an old mansion that seemed like it was plucked straight out of time. Various windows on multiple floors of the building had broken shutters that dangled by sheer imagination. The stone pillars at the front door matched the rest of the wooden structure and crumbled with age. The old wrought iron fence around the property creaked as the pony placed a hoof up to glide along it. “*Huff* I hope Ms. Raven Feather isn’t upset with me when I tell her about this…” The stallion spoke to himself with apprehension evident in his voice. He looked to the seemingly abandoned structure and sighed nervously while walking towards it. He turned to glance at the few trees that were scattered around the yard of the property. All the leaves had long since gone from the wooden husks as their branches swayed ominously in the wind. He paused for a moment to admire the symbol written on the nearest tree. The white glyph seemed haphazardly placed on the bark of the tree with paint, being smeared in numerous places. Despite the shoddy design of the symbol, it looked complete enough to serve whatever purpose it held. “Guess those things have a bit of artistic freedom with how exact they need to be.” The unicorn chuckled before moving on towards the house. He walked through the spacious yard and up the crumbling steps. He then walked up to the large front door and opened it. The hooded pony gritted his teeth while the frame made an unearthly squeal as it slowly opened, revealing the gloomy interior of the mansion. The door came out into a large and aged foyer area. There was a set of almost decrepit looking stairs placed along the right wall directly in front of the front door. The guard rail on the side of the stairs was broken in various places. The wood that made up the steps was faded and cracked. The various pictures adorning the wall next to the stairs were either tilted or shattered in places, revealing faded black and white pictures of various humans underneath the glass. The only thing that made the stairs even remotely appealing to the eye was the red carpet that covered the first floor and traveled up the steps to the upper floor, and even that was faded and torn with age. Despite its dusty and gloomy appearance, the decor of the mansion created an almost warm and fanciful atmosphere. At least it would have in its prime. Now the atmosphere prevailing the room was an eerie sense of silence and gloom. Scattered around the first floor of the room, various other ponies in similar gray hoods were tending to their own business. They either chatted quietly amongst themselves while performing some sort of task or walked through the room and exited through one of the numerous doors to the rest of the manor. The unicorn quickly closed the door and traveled up the stairs. He grew more nervous as he listened to his echoing footsteps ring out across the house. He started to break out into a cold sweat while he drew closer to his destination. After traveling through the twists and turns of the manor, the unicorn suddenly turned into a doorway, only to come out into a rather large library. Dust and cobwebs seemed to cover the entirety of the shelves in the room. On each of the shelves was a myriad of books and tomes on various subjects. There were numerous decorative rugs on the floor, although most of them had many holes in them. The rugs along with the green wallpaper would have given the room a warm comfortable feeling, had they not been faded and decayed along with the rest of the house. The only light in the room was coming from a set of flickering candles placed in intervals along the floor, and a few stands with larger candles held inside of them which remained unlit save for one. Waiting in the glow of the flames, was a small gathering of ponies of various races wearing the same gray hooded shirts that the unicorn was. Upon hearing him enter the room, one of the ponies looked up to greet the unicorn. “Ah yes, Cotton Quill… please do come in and sit down.” The pony was a female earth pony with a slight inflection of grandeur and class in her voice. The hood cast a stark shadow over her face, only revealing a few tufts of dark gray hair, a glimpse of black fur, and her bright emerald green eyes looking at Cotton Quill with an expression of tolerance. She beckoned with her hoof for the unicorn to join her circle and talk. “Y-yes Ms. Raven Feather, right away ma’am.” Cotton stuttered nervously while gulping. He felt intimidated by the odd welcoming expression he was being given, she almost sounded like she was expecting him. He slowly made his way over to the group and sat down next to a rather stern looking brown furred teenage pegasus stallion. The unicorn smiled nervously at the pegasus, who offered a harsh glare in return, forcing Cotton to avert his eyes quickly. Raven Feather cleared her throat loudly, causing everyone to turn to her and listen intently. She looked straight through the unicorn, sending a cold shiver down his spine. “Now then Cotton Quill… what news do you have for me?” Raven Feather asked quizzically while tilting her head. Cotton Quill stammered nervously as he tried to put his words together to form a sensible sentence. “Umm… well uh…” Cotton fiddled his hooves together nervously. The other members of the circle sighed in annoyance as they watched the unicorn awkwardly address their leader. “Twilight Sparkle entered the cave out in the forest as you said she would… she brought the element of loyalty and the princess with her.” The unicorn explained hesitantly. Raven Feather hummed with curiosity at the mention of the princess. She stared at him and waited, eager to hear more. The timid pony swallowed uncomfortably and spoke again. “The spell worked exactly as you planned. The dark matter swarmed them and incapacitated the princess without any trouble.” Cotton explained with a slight tone of fear in his voice. He was caught off guard by the hooded earth pony chuckling warmly. “Hehehe… So the princess and her student are dead then. Tell me Cotton, how long did they last?” Raven Feather perked her head up excitedly to hear what the unicorn had to say. Cotton Quill started sweating as he looked away from her piercing gaze. “Well, that’s why I’m here actually your ladyship. You see, they… survived.” Cotton clenched his eyes shut in preparation for her to snap at him. She gasped in surprise and stammered in shock. Suddenly, one of the members of the group looked around in surprise. It was a female pegasus that sat next to the male beside Cotton Quill. She had blue eyes, white hair, pale and grayish blue fur, and a pitch black storm cloud with rain pouring from it as a cutie mark. She looked at the unicorn with confusion and dismay. “What...? but... but how? There’s no way those two could have lived without the aid of the princess. Those darklings and the mass of dark matter should have ripped them to pieces!” She became very upset and animated as she waved her head around and growled in frustration. Cotton Quill waited for her to be silent for a moment to interject the rest of his tale. “Well, they had someone else with them… a human.” Everyone became silent and looked to the unicorn intently as he explained. “Not just any human mind you… he appeared to fit the description of a… umm… well.” He looked down nervously and stuttered. The female pegasus grew more agitated by the second as she listened to the unicorn babbling incoherently from fear at what the others might do to him. “Out with it then Cotton! What did the bucking thing look like?!” She yelled angrily at the unicorn, causing him to jump in fright. “W-well he looked like a s-slayer!” Cotton rapidly spit out the last words and flinched instinctively at the enraged pegasus. She shook violently as she tensed her muscles and clenched her teeth. Just as Cotton Quill thought she was going to strangle the nearest living thing, most likely being him, Raven Feather put her hoof out and signaled for the pegasus to sit down and be silent. “Calm yourself Raincloud… there are more important things to do than to kill the messenger of bad tidings.” The green eyed mare nonchalantly glanced over to Cotton Quill while speaking. This made him gulp nervously. The earth pony then let her gaze linger and stared at Cotton intently. It was like she was trying to make sure he would tell the truth by shattering his psyche with a soul-crushing glare. “Now Cotton, are you certain that it was a slayer? There haven’t been any slayers since the humans died out.” Raven Feather asked calmly and made herself very clear. The unicorn nodded slowly while glancing over to see Raincloud shooting him death glares. The black mare then placed her hoof up to her face and rubbed her temples. “*Sigh* this could complicate things quite a bit… Okay then, new plan… we move ahead of schedule and prepare for the next phase.” Raven Feather announced in a troubled tone, everyone looked up in surprise at the news. The male pegasus beside Cotton looked at the earth pony in shock. “The next phase? But Raven Feather, we don’t even have a plan for the next phase. We don’t have any safety measures planned out, we don’t have a location picked, and hell… we don’t even have a creature picked out for crying out loud.” He looked annoyed at the rest of the group before focusing back on the earth pony in front of him. Raven Feather returned a devious smile to her face and chuckled warmly. She seemed unfazed by the negative implications of her plan. “You’re right Dust Kicker. I had not anticipated taking such a large step forward. But we have our friend Cotton Quill over here to figure all of that stuff out.” Raven Feather got up and walked over to the nervous unicorn. She got really close to his face and gave him a playful look as she tapped his head with her hoof in rhythm with her words. “I’m sure he can use that big… smart… brain of his to figure out all of that for us… Except for picking the monster, that’s really fun, so I think I will do that myself. Grimwood?” The black mare turned and spoke softly to the younger earth pony that sat beside her spot. The pale white colt appeared to be no older than eight years of age and had short, black hair, but suspiciously seemed to be missing a cutie mark. The young pony looked over to Raven Feather quizzically. “Yes, sister...?” Grimwood spoke in a blank sort of tone, with only a slight inflection of childlike innocence in his voice to express that he showed any sort of interest. Raven Feather smiled at her younger brother. Although he was slightly smaller than her due to his age, she knew for a fact that he was as skilled as she was in the dark arts. “Would you be a dear and bring me a book on summoning. Go ahead and surprise me as to which one.” Raven Feather chuckled lightly at the thought. The young colt merely looked toward a bookshelf and started walking over to it. “Alright, if you insist...” Grimwood spoke innocently while still maintaining his cold tone of voice. The colt stopped at a row of books on the shelf, he then covered his eyes with one hoof while he used the other to switch back and forth between the tomes. He stopped his hoof and touched one of the books by the spine. He then uncovered his eyes and pulled the book out to bring to his sister. Raven Feather smiled cheerfully at the young pony as he placed the book in front of her and went back to his seat. She picked up the book and flipped through the pages to look at the various illustrations of the creatures contained within. “Let’s see here… too small… too slimy… too big.” Raven Feather sighed in annoyance with every page she found that did not catch her eye. “No... no... no… Oooo, what have we here?” She hummed with intrigue and buried her face into the page, reading further about the creature she stopped on. She put the book down and started giggling to herself. Soon, her giggling turned into full blown laughter as she pictured the potential havoc the creature might cause. The mare then picked the book up and held it open on the page she chose. She carried it over and shoved it into Cotton Quill’s face. He grabbed the book and scooted it away from his nose to read the page she selected. After skimming over the basics of the spell, he took a glance over to the illustration of the creature and gagged in disgust and fright. “Yikes… You want me to summon this… thing?” Cotton looked back up to the earth pony, who nodded eagerly while smiling at him. “Okay then… But where should I summon it? What time? Who will you send with me?” The unicorn suddenly fired a list of questions at the hooded pony. She shrugged and grabbed Cotton Quill with her arm to pull him in close. He dropped the book in surprise, causing it to land on the floor. He then watched nervously as Raven Feather waved her hoof around in front of him to inspire him. “Don’t focus so much on asking yourself, where do I put this? Cotton Quill… instead, you should be asking yourself, where can I put this to insight as much fear and chaos as possible? I’m sure you can figure out a suitable location yourself, and once you do we can start putting together the setup.” Raven Feather released the unicorn and walked toward the door while chuckling. She motioned for the others to follow her. Soon everyone got up and started to follow the earth pony as she left the room. Raven Feather paused at the door and looked back to Cotton Quill, who was sitting on the floor by the book. She shot him a coy look and smiled. “Make sure you pick a good spot for our little friend there to call home. I want him to cause as much panic and terror as he can.” The black mare laughed heartily and exited the room with the others, leaving Cotton Quill staring blankly at the door by himself. The unicorn got up from the floor and dusted himself off. He then looked down to the book lying on the floor. It had fallen onto the ground open on the page Raven Feather had selected. Cotton shuddered as he looked at the page on the left, which held a very detailed artistic illustration that took up the whole page. He could feel chills going up his spine as he looked at the depiction of the monster. “I certainly hope I don’t have to stick around long enough to see this thing in person.” Cotton stated uneasily. He then picked up the book and walked out of the door. Chapter 12: Winding DownOver at Sweet Apple Acres, the group of ponies was sitting downstairs in the living room chatting cheerfully with each other. Now that peace and quiet had been restored in the quaint home, the members of the apple family seemed much more like their usual selves as the tiredness they had felt before was replaced with joy. The orange mare beamed cheerfully at Tom and Twilight. She could hardly contain her feeling of happiness as she smiled from ear to ear. “That was some mighty fine work you did up there Tom. Ah would like to personally thank you on behalf of the apple family for getting rid of that pesky polter… thing.” Applejack sighed as she failed to recall the pronunciation of the strange word. “And for saving my sister…” The cow pony smiled as she looked over to the young filly beside her, who happily returned the gesture. Tom smirked as he swelled with pride over his work. He tried to remain humble however, as he could not take full credit for the job well done. “Come on Applejack. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if you hadn’t grabbed your sister and gotten her out of there. You should be thanking yourself and not me. I was just doing what comes natural.” The human’s comments made Applejack blush as she smiled coyly. She giggled to herself for a moment as she thought about how brave she had been in the face of danger. “Aww shucks Tom. Ah was just doing whatever Ah had to do to save Applebloom. Ah don’t know how Ah would live with myself if Ah let something happen to her on my watch.” Applejack hugged her sister close and nuzzled her head with her nose. She then looked up and turned to Twilight in surprise. “So now that all of that business is taken care of… what did you come here for, Twilight?” Applejack tilted her head in curiosity at the unicorn. Twilight was surprised that she had forgotten about the matter herself in all the commotion. “Oh! Right… of course. I came here to ask you if you wouldn’t mind dropping by the library tomorrow to help us do some research on what happened last night.” Twilight shrugged at hearing herself repeat the same sentence so many times in one day. “Hmm… You know what Twilight? Ah would be happy to help you out after what you guys did for us. But first Ah think we could use a loooong nap.” Applejack yawned tiredly before looking around at her family. They seemed to share the same sentiment as they nodded in agreement. The purple mare smiled and nodded in agreement herself. “You guys have certainly earned a day off, so I think we will be going. See you tomorrow Applejack.” Twilight bade farewell to the family and got up to head to the door. She turned and waved to her friends before heading out. Tom got up and waved as well before following the unicorn outside. During the time they had been at the farm, the sun had traveled a far ways from the middle of the sky. In a few hours it would start getting dark. Twilight looked up to the sky and gasped in surprise. “Wow, we must have been out and about for a while. It was around noon when we started wasn’t it?” Twilight turned and asked her human companion quizzically. “I guess time flies when you’re in a dark cave surrounded by ferocious monsters.” Tom looked at the sun’s position in the sky and shrugged. “I guess so…” Twilight added drearily. The two then started making their way home. Now that she had gotten all of her friends to agree to help her, she was free to think more about how they would go about the situation. She lit up her horn and closed her eyes to concentrate. Reading over the symbols stored in her memory, her face crinkled up in frustration as she failed to make any new progress on deciphering the odd glyphs. “Ughh… I keep going over these symbols in my head, but I can’t seem to get anywhere with them.” Twilight fumed in annoyance. Tom could see the unicorn pout angrily as she cursed her own inability to understand simple magical glyphs. “Don’t focus on those too much right now. I’m sure we can find a book or something that might be able to help us. Heck, I might be able to read those things if you teach me the basic symbols used in writing spells.” Tom suggested optimistically. “Really? You think you could do that?” Twilight looked at him with eager curiosity. He nodded slowly in return. “Think about it for a second… It seems like those symbols are a mixture of things you are familiar with, and things I am familiar with. So if you teach me how to read the regular symbols used to write spells down, I might be able to determine what arcane style they belong to, and what their purpose is.” Tom smirked eagerly at the unicorn. Twilight smiled a bit as her face became less tense. After spending a few minutes walking back through Ponyville, the two found themselves back at the library. After opening the door and heading inside, the purple mare let out a sigh of relief. “Feels good to be home...” Twilight stated in a relaxed tone. Suddenly the sound of small feet scampering down the stairs made the unicorn look up to the landing. Sure enough, Spike was eagerly descending the stairs in a rush to see the pair. “You guys were gone a long time. I was starting to get worried.” The young dragon chided with loving concern as he walked up to Twilight. He then gasped in shock as he noticed the various injuries littering her body. The wounds on her legs looked much better in comparison with how they were before Rarity cleaned them up. However, the large gash on the unicorn’s chest worried Spike the most. “Oh my gosh! Twilight are you alright? You look like you just came from a war zone!” Spike stared at the bloody laceration wide eyed as it trickled onto her fur, staining it crimson. Twilight looked down at the cut on her chest and gasped in shock. She had been too preoccupied with removing the glass shard from the wound to fully understand how big it actually was. “Oh my goodness! I didn’t think that it was this bad when it happened…” The purple mare looked to the worried dragon with a frown and sighed. “I’m sorry Spike. I didn’t want to make you worry about me so much, and now I’ve gone and gotten myself hurt.” Spike watched the unicorn as she looked down sadly. He couldn’t help but feel bad that she was feeling guilty over herself getting injured. He placed his hand on her leg tenderly, causing her to look up from the floor to face him. “It’s alright Twilight, I just don’t want to see you get hurt… especially after what happened last night.” Spike smiled at her in an attempt to lift her spirits. She lightened her face up and smiled back to the dragon. “Don’t worry Spike, I promise I will take better care of myself in the future… Ack!” Twilight suddenly jolted in pain as she put a hoof to her chest, forgetting that she had a large wound there. Spike frowned with concern and studied the wound. “Come on, let’s head upstairs and get that cleaned up.” Spike suggested while tugging on her arm to make her follow him. Tom decided to stay downstairs as the young dragon led the unicorn up the stairs by her hoof. Twilight followed the dragon into the bathroom and sat on the floor as he rummaged through a cabinet to find some peroxide and bandages. She heard him exclaim in triumph as he discovered the items he was looking for. He pulled out some gauze bandages and a bottle of peroxide. Twilight looked at the bottle apprehensively as she thought back to the earlier pain she had experienced. She quelled her fears as she realized that it would not hurt as much due to the size of the wound. Spike started the process of cleaning and dressing the wound on the unicorn’s chest. “So how did you get this cut? It looks pretty jagged.” Spike tilted his head in curiosity as he waited for an answer. “A glass vase was thrown at me at high speeds.” Twilight explained apprehensively. She decided to come clean and answer truthfully. The dragon gasped silently and paused what he was doing. “A glass vase? Who threw it at you? I don’t see why someone would want to hurt you.” Spike asked with a concerned tone. The purple pony sighed before turning to the dragon. “We were at Sweet Apple Acres, and we found out that something had been levitating objects around the house and attacking Applejack and the others. I got caught up in the middle of one of the more violent fits the thing threw.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. The dragon didn’t seem any less worried by the unicorn’s answer. “And what about those big gashes on your legs? Those don’t look like a glass vase made them.” Spike observed the stitched up wounds and cringed sympathetically. Twilight looked away from the dragon and closed her eyes. She did not want to remember the experience for herself, much less tell Spike that she had almost been killed while getting the injuries. The dragon looked at her sympathetically in understanding. “It’s ok. You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to.” Spike stated kindly. The unicorn nodded slowly to the baby dragon as he continued working on her chest. After spending a few more minutes on the wound, Spike patted the bandaged cut gently as he looked at Twilight with pride. “Alright, it’s done now… looks good as new if you ask me.” Spike remarked cheerfully while admiring his work. “Thanks Spike.” Twilight smiled at the innocent little dragon and stood up to look at herself in the mirror. She looked like she had survived some sort of disaster as her body was now covered in first aid supplies. After shrugging at her appearance, the unicorn went back out of the bathroom and went downstairs. She walked into the living room and sat at a table next to Tom. The human looked up suddenly as he noticed the unicorn next to him. “Well you look a lot better.” Tom remarked in a friendly manner upon taking in her appearance. Twilight gave him a passing smile before looking to the table. She levitated a quill and paper over from a nearby shelf and placed them at an angle in front of her. “I better write those symbols down before I forget them. Might as well see what we can find out from looking at them with fresh heads.” Twilight sighed before closing her eyes and concentrating on the symbols in her head. She started writing down the symbols from memory and imbued them with the magical energy that comprised the magical part of the glyphs. She then sat down the quill next to her and admired her work. “I didn’t manage to get too many of the symbols before we had to… relocate.” Twilight nudged Tom and glanced back to Spike as he walked around the living room. “But I should have gotten enough of them to make sense of what they are when we finally do figure them out.” Tom was impressed at how well the unicorn was able to recreate the symbols. Even if she had a perfect image of them in her head, she would still have to manually draw them to get them out on paper. Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she started to read over the symbols again. The human gave them a few once overs himself to be extra sure that he didn’t miss anything. After a few minutes of feverishly reading over the symbols, Twilight began to rub her eyes from them getting strained. The human looked at her nervously as she groaned in frustration. “I don’t think we’re going to get anything else without hitting some books. Why don’t we put this off until Tomorrow?” Tom looked at her and calmly hinted at her own growing state of agitation. Twilight could feel a slight headache coming on from focusing so hard on something so frustrating for so long. “ughhh… I guess.” The unicorn pouted in frustration and turned her head away from the glyphs. She then started to think about other things to occupy herself with until it was time to head on to bed. “Say, Tom…” Twilight suddenly turned to the human quizzically. “Hmm?” Tom looked back to her while leaning back on his chair. “What do you think you’re going to do in the long term around here? I’m not sure if we would be able to send you back to your time, but would you go back if you could?” The unicorn asked with intrigue in her voice. The human hummed with curiosity as he furrowed his brow and thought about the matter. “Well, there wasn’t exactly much to go back to… I don’t age, so if I went back I would have to live through the end of the human world should I decide to keep my powers that long.” Tom stated while imagining what the experience would be like. Twilight looked curiously at the human as another question popped into her head. “And just how long do you plan on being slayer? I mean… I know you have barely started but…” Twilight trailed off as she waited for a response. “It’s not quite as simple as choosing how long you stay sometimes. A slayer can only exist and use their powers if they have the will and drive to keep using energy. If a slayer gives in to overwhelming exhaustion, and they no longer have the spirit to continue and fight through the pain, they will fade out of existence and essentially die again.” The human’s explanation struck a nerve in Twilight. She suddenly thought back to how Tom had fought off the swirling mass of shadows in the cave, the notion that he could have died while trying to save her made her look down sadly. Tom noticed the unicorn as she sulked silently. He could tell that something was troubling her, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “Hey, what’s wrong? Why the long face and puppy dog eyes?” Tom asked with genuine concern. Twilight glanced at the worried human briefly before looking back down at the table. “I can’t help but think to back in the cave… I could have gotten us killed back there.” The purple mare sighed in a depressed sort of manner. “What if more of those things had gotten in while I was being attacked and they went after you, or the princess and Rainbow Dash? You were already under so much stress, what if your shield broke down while you tried to help me?” The more she thought about the negative things that could have happened because of her, the sadder the unicorn grew. Tom looked at her blankly as she started sniffling and tearing up. He let her cry silently to herself for a moment before trying to comfort her. “It’s ok Twilight. You don’t need to worry about that. All of that stuff is in the past… there is no use in beating yourself up over something that could have happened.” Tom stated in a sincere tone. Twilight stopped sniffling for a moment and looked at the human as he gave her an earnest and caring look. “If being too weak to protect your friends is what you’re getting at, just forget about that. I saw the way you acted back in the cave. Like I said earlier, you did extremely well for someone who isn’t accustomed to tense situations like that.” He reached forward and gently wiped a stray tear from her eye. She hiccupped as her sadness ran its course through her. “T-thanks Tom... That means a lot coming from you.” Twilight wiped her eyes and brightened up her expression a bit. “I just don’t want anybody to get hurt because of me.” She spoke softly with a worried tone of voice. “Well you don’t need to worry about me ok? While I might get exhausted from using my powers, I wouldn’t run into any major problems unless I repeatedly used some of my more taxing abilities. And even then as long as I had the will to continue, which I do mind you, I would probably just end up passing out… And any injuries I sustain will heal up pretty fast, so aside from the pain I’m pretty much indestructible.” Tom stated happily. He smiled at her cheerfully before trailing his eyes off in thought. “And as an answer to your previous question, I think I will stay around here for the long term.” He said with a slight smile. Twilight perked up a bit from hearing this. “R..really?” The unicorn asked in a surprised tone. “Yep, you all seem like decent people to hang around with. And judging from the events that unfolded during the past few days, I would say you could use a friendly neighborhood slayer of evil around here.” Tom smirked at her in a friendly manner. The unicorn nodded in agreement and chuckled. Her chipper attitude finally returned to her fully. She then yawned and stretched her arms. “I think it’s about time to head up to bed. We can worry about this tomorrow when the girls are over to help us out.” Twilight suggested tiredly while looking over to the symbols and sighing in annoyance. She then looked around the room in search of her number one assistant. “I guess Spike must have gone up ahead of us… Oh yeah! We will need to get you something more comfortable to sleep on at some point if you intend on staying here.” Twilight stated eagerly while starting up the stairs. The human was slightly taken aback at the proposal. “Really?” Tom looked to her with a surprised expression as they ascended the stairs. He never expected to have someone offer to give him a bed to sleep on. She turned to him and smiled warmly. “Yeah, you are more than welcome to stay here permanently with us. I think that Spike would agree with me.” Twilight said happily. The two chuckled to each other and went into the bedroom to settle in for the night. Chapter 13: Hitting the BooksOnce again, the sun rose over the quiet town of Ponyville. The golden rays streamed vibrantly over the horizon as the giant orb poked its head over the landscape. Twilight Sparkle stirred from her sleep once more as she noticed the light coming in from the windows and balcony. She yawned and pushed the covers away from her body. She stretched and let out a groan of pleasure at the tender feeling in her muscles. She felt much more relaxed and rested in comparison to the previous night’s sleep. Twilight looked down to the small bed on the floor below. She shrugged as she noticed it was empty. She also noticed a neatly folded pile of pillows and a blanket in the corner. “Why am I always the one that sleeps in?” Twilight sighed and shook her head. The unicorn then hopped out of her bed and quickly tidied the ruffled sheets up. She made her way to the door of her bedroom and exited into the rest of the library. She walked downstairs and unsurprisingly noticed Tom sitting at a table and talking to Spike. What the unicorn did not expect to see was a pink mare bouncing happily in her chair as she laughed heartily at something that was said. “Pinkie… What are you doing here so early?” Twilight tilted her head and looked curiously at the pink pony. The three turned to look at the unicorn as she descended the stairs. Pinkie Pie giggled to herself and looked to the purple mare cheerfully. Despite how early it was, she seemed to be as energetic as ever. “Well I wanted to get here as early as I could, so I dropped by as soon as I woke up. Sure enough, Tom and Spike here were already up and let me in.” Pinkie explained innocently. The unicorn looked at her pink friend in bewilderment. “I Umm… I guess that’s good. That’s one less pony we need to wait for.” Twilight reasoned while walking over to the group and sitting in a chair beside Spike. The dragon had already gotten out a few books on magic to study with. They lay in a pile next to the paper Twilight had written the symbols on last night. The unicorn softly sighed and quickly looked over the small pile of books while glancing at their titles. “Ughh… This is going to take forever. I hope that something important is in these symbols for all the trouble we are going to go through.” Twilight huffed in annoyance and rested her head on both hooves. Reading through the immense heap of books wasn’t going to be a problem, for her at least. What bothered the purple mare was how long it was going to take. Time she spent reading pointless books was time she could be spending making more progress in the investigation. “Well we better get started.” Spike stated with optimism. “I picked out a few books on spell writing, but I wasn’t really sure what other topics would be useful.” The young dragon added while picking up one of the books placed on the table and opening it. Twilight levitated two of the other books over to Pinkie Pie and Tom. She then picked up her own book and looked to the group to signal for them to get started. The unicorn furrowed her eyes in mental strain as she went through book after book in search of anything useful to deciphering the symbols. The elongated time spent on reading made Twilight slip into her usual daze of concentration as she flipped from page to page with ease. The others seemed worse off at the tedious task than the egg headed unicorn. Pinkie Pie let out a dull sigh as she tried her hardest to be productive for her friends. The party pony bounced her leg back and forth as she read through the hefty book in front of her in an attempt to keep herself from getting bored. Spike and Tom seemed a little more content with doing this much research. Spike spent much of his young life helping Twilight with her studies on magic, making him proficient at doing large amounts of reading. Tom was lost as he read through most of the book. He had much experience and knowledge of magic under his belt due to his inherited memories from past slayers, but he lacked any sort of knowhow on pony magic. Still, he was intrigued enough to keep reading without getting bored. The group pressed on for an hour and a half as they finished reading through the books that Spike had picked out. Twilight shut her eyes to rest them for a moment as she closed her book and placed it down. She looked over to her friends and sighed as she realized that they all had nothing in their hands as they stared back at her with dull, blank expressions. They now had to think about what to do next. “Well great… we’re out of easy things to read. Now what are we going to look at?” Twilight fumed in annoyance as she ran over the logical topics to look over next in her head. Tom placed both of his hands on the piece of paper and rested against the table as he looked over the symbols. Despite how many times he had gone over them by this point, they were still indecipherable to him. Still, they seemed at least somewhat familiar to him. “We should be looking at nontraditional books on magic. Think about it for a minute… someone put those symbols in that cave, and I am the only living human in Equestria, so that leaves us with a pony as the culprit. This means that said pony would have to have access to human knowledge on arcane arts.” The boy looked to the group as he explained his methodology to them. Spike scratched his chin in thought as he mulled over the slayer’s reasoning. If a pony was the culprit, they had to have gotten access to human magic somehow. “I think a few books survived on human knowledge, but from what I know only a few scattered pieces of information on their culture exist.” The dragon motioned with his claw as he thought about the topic of human history that was preserved past their destruction. Twilight looked around them at the many shelves littered with books. She lightened her expression as she thought about a sensible direction to put their efforts into. “If there are any books containing knowledge of human magic, I’m sure at least one of them would have ended up here at some point. Spike, could you look through the records and see if we have anything on ancient magic?” Twilight turned to the dragon and asked politely. He hopped up from his position on the floor and walked into the doorway to the next room. He then turned to the unicorn and smiled. “You got it boss.” Spike gave her a playful salute and marched confidently on his way toward his goal. Twilight chuckled lightly at the innocent dragon before turning her attention to the door. A series of gentle knocks suddenly broke through the relative silence of the library. Curious to see if any of her friends had arrived, the unicorn trotted over to the door and opened it up. Sitting outside the door were her two friends Rarity and Fluttershy. They brightened up their faces and smiled warmly at the unicorn. Twilight returned a smile to the two ponies as she lifted up her hoof jovially to welcome them. “Girls! It’s great to see you made it!” Twilight exclaimed happily to the two as she stepped out to see them. Rarity brushed her hair out of her face as she cleared her throat to greet the unicorn. “I’m terribly sorry to be so late darling. I had to make Sweetie Belle presentable for school, you understand. On my way here I ran into Fluttershy. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one to get here at this time.” The white mare looked over to the cheerful pegasus standing beside her and smiled. “I would have been here earlier, but Angel made a mess in the kitchen this morning as I fed him. It took me a bit longer to clean up than I thought it would.” Fluttershy chuckled nervously as she remembered her own reason for arriving later than she had planned. Now that she was here, she tried to appear as eager to help out as she could. “That’s fine, you two are actually here around when I would have expected you. The only other person here is Pinkie Pie, and you can imagine how she got here so early.” Twilight looked back to the doorway knowingly as she thought about the party pony. She then motioned with her hoof for the two to follow her inside. The ponies walked into the library and spread out through the room. Rarity and Fluttershy gave a friendly wave and greeting to Tom and Pinkie as they sat against a wall conversing with each other. Rarity then stole a glance at the various stray books and notes littered around the table holding the symbols, she raised an eyebrow and exclaimed in surprise at the amount of work the group had already done. “Wow… you guys must have been at this for a while. Did you come up with any results?” Rarity asked with intrigue as she walked over to the table to read over their work. The purple mare sighed before looking back to her to respond. “We just ran into a dead end before you got here. I sent Spike to look through the library for any books that could be useful.” Twilight stated in a disheartened manner. “And I have some good news and some bad news for you.” Spike spoke up as he walked back into the room with a dull expression and nothing in his hands. He shrugged in disappointment before walking over to the others. “I found out that we had two books on human superstitions and ancient languages that seemed like they would be helpful.” The dragon explained with a slightly hopeful tone as he looked to the others with optimism. Twilight perked up from the news, she was certain there would be something in those books to help them. “That’s great Spike! ...” The unicorn suddenly looked more doubtful as she thought about what the dragon had just said. “But what’s the bad news?” She asked uneasily. Spike sighed and trailed his eyes off in annoyance. “We donated those books to Ms. Cheerilee a few months ago. The school needed them for a course on ancient civilizations.” The dragon explained in a dull tone. Twilight furrowed her brow in frustration. She then sighed before looking at the others with a determined expression. “Well then I guess we will have to go get them… besides, I’m sure we can find some other books along with them in the school’s library.” The unicorn stated optimistically before turning to the three ponies and human watching her. “Tom… I need you, Rarity, and Fluttershy to come with me to the school so we can find those books and look around the library for any more information.” Twilight instructed to the band of ponies eagerly awaiting purpose. “Oooh… can I come too Twilight? Pleaaaase?” Pinkie Pie jumped up suddenly and stared at the unicorn pleadingly. She seemed eager to assist the group with their task as she whined to be able to come along with an innocent pout. “Alright Pinkie, I guess you can come with us.” Twilight smiled and sighed to the pink pony as she begged to go. “Yay!” The pink mare exclaimed happily as she threw her arms in the air with excitement. Twilight couldn’t help but admire the cheerful nature of her friend. The unicorn then turned to Spike and looked at him with purpose. “Spike, I need you to stay here and wait for the others to arrive. Once they get here, I need you to help them with finding whatever you can here.” Twilight instructed confidently. The dragon nodded eagerly as he thought to himself about where to start with the research he would be doing. The purple mare smiled as she saw her plan coming together, she then looked over to the four who would be traveling with her. “You guys ready to go?” Twilight asked quizzically. Fluttershy and Rarity nodded slowly, while the human got up and walked over to the unicorn. “I’m ready whenever you are.” Tom stated confidently. Twilight nodded to her troop and turned to walk out of the door. The group waved to Spike and started on their trip to the school. The ponies walked contently through the streets of Ponyville as they took in the views of the town around them. Several commuters gave them a passing nod before lingering their eyes a bit longer to study the human traveling along with them. Tom did not feel as uncomfortable as he did when he first traveled through the streets. He could see that the ponies were not looking at him with disgust or disdain, but were instead simply curious about the sight of an odd creature walking next to Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Fluttershy looked back to the human as he surveyed the ponies around them while they studied him intensely. She figured that he would feel alienated by the townspeople as they sometimes shot him judging looks while passing by. “Don’t worry Tom. I’m sure ponies around here will get used to you eventually.” Fluttershy spoke softly to him to get his mind off of his surroundings. The boy looked at the shy yet friendly pegasus and smiled. “Its fine, they are just curious. So what if some of them think badly of me from first appearances. I don’t care so long as they keep their judgments to themselves.” Tom stated confidently. Fluttershy smiled upon hearing that the human wasn’t letting himself get affected by the opinions of others. If she had been an outcast amongst people she had not known, the pegasus would have certainly become scared and depressed from not being understood. “Good to hear that… I’m glad that you feel comfortable here.” Fluttershy smiled warmly at the human while expressing her care for him. “Most of you seem friendly around here, but you seem the most kind and welcoming Fluttershy.” The human smiled as he made the observation. Fluttershy giggled at the compliment. Even given her important position as element bearer, she still found it flattering for people to tell her that she was nice. “I think it’s very important to show others kindness. Even if I wasn’t the element of kindness, I would still want to treat others as I would want them to treat me.” The yellow pegasus beamed with confidence as she explained her feelings. Tom tilted his head curiously at the yellow mare’s statement. She alluded to herself being the element of kindness, but this concept was only confusing to the human. “What do you mean by element of kindness? Is that something important?” Tom asked with confusion evident in his face. Before Fluttershy could answer, Twilight exclaimed in revelation at the fact that she had not explained the elements of harmony to the human. “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you about the elements of harmony. I guess it didn’t really come up before, sorry about that.” Twilight chuckled nervously at her own lapse in explaining her world to the newcomer. “Basically there are six elements that keep peace and harmony alive throughout the land; loyalty, honesty, generosity, laughter, kindness, and magic. The elements of harmony are upheld and regulated by six ponies that hold each quality within them. Fluttershy is the element of kindness, I am the element of magic, Applejack is honesty, Rainbow Dash is loyalty, Rarity is generosity…” She started naming off the list of element bearers. Tom looked at her smugly and interrupted. It didn’t take much deduction to realize where the pattern was in this situation. “And let me guess, Pinkie Pie is laughter.” Tom stated confidently. The party pony gasped in surprise and looked back at the boy with a shocked expression. “How did you know that?” Pinkie asked in a playfully confused manner. Tom shrugged his shoulders at the pink mare staring at him curiously as if he were some kind of psychic. “Must have been a lucky guess…” The human stated sarcastically. Twilight and her other two friends giggled at watching the pair conversing. The group continued through town for a few minutes before finally coming up to the property line of the school. The building seemed like a modest education facility for young colts and fillies to spend their years at. Tom studied the surroundings curiously as they marched up to the school. Upon entering the doorway, the group bumped into a purple pony with pink and white striped hair and a cluster of white flowers for a cutie mark. The pony stopped as she noticed the group while they entered. Twilight immediately recognized the pony in front of them. She gave her a friendly smile and walked up to her. “Ms. Cheerilee, it’s nice to see you.” Twilight greeted warmly. The teacher returned a smile to the unicorn and her group of friends. “Good to see you as well Twilight Sparkle, what brings you here?” Cheerilee asked quizzically before turning to look at Tom. She lit up with intrigue as she studied the human. “Is that a human? Oh my goodness, what an interesting looking species.” She stated with curiosity as she examined his appearance. Twilight observed the curious pony as she reached out a hoof to shake Tom’s hand. “That is part of why we’re here… we’re doing some investigating for the princess on some puzzling things that have been going on recently, including the sudden appearance of our friend here.” The purple mare explained while motioning toward Tom with her hoof. Tom smirked in flattery at the curious pony. He was not used to being thought of as an interesting new experience for people to meet. “Pleased to meet you Ms. Cheerilee, my name is Thomas Greene.” The human stated in a friendly manner while gripping her hoof for a hearty handshake. Ms. Cheerilee smiled gleefully at the human. “The pleasure is all mine Mr. Greene. I have always dreamed of meeting a human ever since I read about them when I was in school.” The teacher said in a cheerful manner. She then relaxed her grinning face before clearing her throat and turning to the rest of the group. “Ahem, enough of my curiosity... You all clearly have something important to attend to, so I will leave you to it.” Cheerilee nodded to the group before turning to leave. Rarity spoke up suddenly to stop the pony before she could start walking. “Oh Ms. Cheerilee, could you be a dear and tell me where I could find Sweetie Belle? I would like to check up on her while I’m here.” The white mare asked in a friendly manner. Ms. Cheerilee thought for a moment about the whereabouts of the young filly. “I believe that she is with Applebloom and Scootaloo over at the library. It’s recess, so I can’t help but wonder as to why they would be there.” The purple mare furrowed her brow in thought about what the three mischievous fillies could be up to. Rarity smiled in satisfaction at the convenient news. “Oh lovely, we were just heading to the library anyway. Thank you for your help.” The white unicorn gave a friendly nod to the teacher as she walked away. With that, the group then made their way through the halls of the school to find the library. After a few minutes of searching, the ponies found a set of double doors with a decorative sign above them that read library. Twilight let out a satisfied breath of air before opening the doors to step inside. The group walked into the room and took a look around. The library seemed smaller than Twilight’s home, but this was mostly due to all of the books being held in one room. Several shelves of books sat in rows before the ponies, as well as lining the walls of the room. At the back of the room, the group could see three young fillies talking with each other near a desk. As they got closer, the ponies could hear the trio discussing something intently. “I say we head down to the basement to find the main problem.” The orange pegasus filly that everyone except for Tom knew as Scootaloo stated confidently to her two friends. “Ah think that we should just stay up here to look at the pipes. There’s no need to go down to that musty old place just to find out what’s leaking and what’s not.” Applebloom sighed heavily as she voiced her opinion. The three fillies stopped their discussion and looked at the group as they walked up to them. Scootaloo looked at Tom with intrigue before turning to face her two friends. “Is that him? He doesn’t look like he could beat up a monster…” The orange filly whispered to her friends as she studied the human and his feeble appearance with a wary eye. “That’s him alright. He is more awesome once you see him in action.” Applebloom whispered back to her doubtful friend. “He saved me and got rid of that thing I told you about.” She boasted confidently to her friends about the way the slayer had handled her family’s problem. “What are you girls doing in here? Shouldn’t you be with the other kids playing outside?” Twilight asked the three fillies to interrupt their whispering. The three got up from their seats and lined up in front of the group with eager expressions. “We’re going to try and find out why so many pipes are leaking.” Sweetie Belle explained their purpose cheerfully. “Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders plumbing experts! ...” Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly before pausing to realize how that sounded out loud. “Okay, maybe we need to work on the name a bit… but we need to try nonetheless!” The ponies giggled as they watched the three excitedly plan their venture. It was always nice to see the enthusiastic fillies try to find their cutie marks through the most unconventional means. Despite their misguided approach, it was hard for one not to admire their spirit. “Well just be careful and don’t get into any trouble darlings.” Rarity chimed in to keep the three fillies in line. They looked back to her confidently before saluting and trying to appear as serious and genuine as possible. “Of course, we will be as careful as careful can be.” Scootaloo stated eagerly before trotting away with her troop following her. Twilight sighed as she watched the three exiting the library with excitement. The unicorn almost envied how the trio could go off on a whimsical adventure rather than spending the next century trying to find the literary equivalent of a needle in a haystack. She then looked around to the surrounding bookshelves before turning to her friends. “We better start looking guys. The faster we find those books, the faster we can be done with this.” Twilight instructed with a serious expression as she nodded to the three ponies and single human watching her. The group immediately got to work by heading to various shelves in search of any sections or clues that might help them find the relevant books. While the group of ponies got to work with their research, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were getting to work with their search for their cutie marks. The three fillies walked down the hallways of the school while talking with each other. “Recess is almost over, we need to hurry up and choose what we want to do.” Scootaloo shrugged in annoyance as she tried to come to a compromise with the other crusaders. Sweetie Belle looked on in indifference as she watched her two friends bicker about where to go. Applebloom huffed in frustration as she thought about both sides of the argument. “Ah suppose we can go to the basement… we are pretty close after all.” The yellow filly smiled in a friendly manner as she tried to put her hard headedness behind her. Scootaloo nodded confidently as they agreed on her plan. “Great, let’s get to it then!” The young pegasus exclaimed in excitement before leading her two friends to the door that led downstairs. The trio opened up the door and stepped onto the dimly lit landing to the basement stairs. The three stared down the stairs and into a pitch black doorway that led into a larger and more open space. Sweetie Belle gulped nervously as she tried to fight off the feeling of dread she was getting from looking into the eerie blackness. The orange filly chuckled light heartedly at her friend before giving her a sly expression. “What’s wrong Sweetie Belle? Are you afraid of the dark?” Scootaloo asked while walking closer to the stairs confidently. Sweetie Belle tried to put her fears behind her and put on a brave face. “I don’t know… I just feel a little uncomfortable.” The white filly said timidly. Her voice was a little shaky from her nerves being on edge. Scootaloo smiled and put a hoof onto her friend’s shoulder. “It’s alright. Me and Applebloom will keep you safe, right Apple… bloom?” The orange filly was slightly surprised to see Applebloom quietly shivering to the side of the group. She offered a frightened glance to the two as she stared into the darkness nervously. Scootaloo sighed in slight disappointment. She then looked back to Sweetie Belle and put on a reassuring expression. “Well at any rate, I will keep both of you safe.” Scootaloo spoke softly while walking down the first few steps. Once she was halfway down the stairs, she took a better look through the dark doorway and looked back to the two onlookers as they watched her cautiously. “See? Nothing down here to worry about... Now come on you two, we won’t get our cutie marks by staying up here and doing nothing.” The orange filly stated confidently before turning around and descending the rest of the stairs bravely. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom watched nervously as their friend walked through the blackness into the next room. They looked at each other with a frightened expression before swallowing nervously and pushing forward to join the young pegasus down the stairs. After picking up their pace to huddle close to their friend, the fillies looked around the room they were in. It was a large room with three other doorways in the middle of each wall. Various boxes and other objects littered the walls and the middle of the floor, giving the otherwise open room a sense of fullness. A few pipes of varied levels of size and thickness went along the ceiling and down the walls a short way. “Now where should we go first…? I think this place is pretty big.” Scootaloo observed while looking around at the three doors leading around the basement. “Maybe we should head to some high traffic areas for the pipes. I think I heard that a few areas were leaking really badly.” Sweetie Belle added while thinking back to what she heard about the problems with the pipes. The orange filly picked a direction and led her troop toward the door, when suddenly the sound of approaching footsteps made the crusaders perk up and listen. The noise sounded like it was rapidly approaching from the doorway across the room to their rear. “Ah thought that the maintenance ponies went off on break for the day.” Applebloom stated nervously. “They did… come on, let’s hide somewhere!” Scootaloo exclaimed to her two friends urgently. The three fillies scrambled through the room to find hiding spots. After they all found places to keep themselves hidden, the fillies waited and listened intently as the noise entered their room. Two ponies walked in through the far doorway. One was a male unicorn, while the other was a relatively young pegasus mare. The two wore grey hooded jackets that concealed their faces. The unicorn had his jacket unzipped, revealing a rather fancy looking vest underneath. Scootaloo had decided to hide in the crawlspace between two boxes along with Sweetie Belle. She could see that Applebloom was hiding across the room behind another box. The orange filly placed a hoof to her lips to hush her unicorn friend as she poked her head out to spy on the two. Applebloom eyed to the orange pegasus nervously from across the room as she remained hidden from the two strange ponies. Scootaloo signaled for her to stay in place while she strained her ears to hear what the ponies were saying. “Ughhh… where did you tell the others to go Cotton? This place is freaking huge!” The pegasus exclaimed in annoyance and frustration as she looked to the unicorn. “Patience Raincloud, the spot should be right through here. I had to enter a different way when I was looking for a suitable place earlier, but I think I should be able to lead us to it.” The unicorn spoke calmly to the pegasus to try and sooth her concerns. He then walked across the room nearby the box Applebloom was behind and went through the door. “*Sigh* you think or you know?” The pegasus huffed in frustration as she followed the unicorn into the other room. Once the strange ponies had moved on, the three fillies got out of their hiding spots. They gathered together while hesitantly looking into the doorway of the room the two had gone into. “What were those two doing down here? Applebloom whispered uneasily. She had never seen or heard of those ponies around the school before, so she had no idea why they would be in the school’s basement. The thought of whatever malicious activity the pair had in mind made the filly shiver nervously. “I don’t know…” Scootaloo stated curiously. She then slowly smirked before turning to her two friends with an adventurous gleam in her eye. “But maybe we should find out.” She exclaimed eagerly. Before her friends could stop her, the orange filly slowly and cautiously walked into the other room. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked to each other with concern evident in their faces. They then concluded that they would have to bail out their friend if she got into any danger. The two fillies slowly walked into the other room to go after the brave pegasus. Chapter 14: Waterlogged“Owch!” Twilight Sparkle yelled in pain as a book fell on top of her from above. She had been reaching for a high up book and didn’t want to be bothered with using her magic. As she rubbed her head to feel the newly forming bruise, she immediately regretted her lazy decision. “You alright over there darling?” Rarity looked up from the book she was reading and spoke up from across the room. She looked with mild concern to the unicorn that was sprawled out across the floor from where she had fallen back. Twilight stopped caressing her tender head for a moment to return a reassuring expression to her friend. “Yeah… oww… I’m good.” The purple mare exclaimed while getting up and brushing herself off. She then picked up the book from the floor and walked back over to her table. Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she skimmed through the book to ascertain its contents. She and the others had been through a veritable pile of books in their search for information, all of which had turned out to be useless. “This is taking longer than I expected… have any of you guys found anything useful?” Twilight looked up to her friends scattered around the room. She hoped that they were having better luck than she was. “Nope! Nothing over here!” Pinkie Pie announced enthusiastically as she poked her head out from behind a row of shelves. “Nothing but a few indexes on spells here.” Tom looked up from the book he was reading and gave a short glance over in the direction of the others. “Sorry Twilight, nothing of note over here.” Rarity huffed in frustration as she reported on her lack of discovery. “Nothing here as well I’m afraid.” Fluttershy droned softly as she continued reading over the few books she had opened on the table next to her. Upon hearing the demoralization of her band of fellow researchers, Twilight sighed heavily before glaring down at the book in front of her. She then planted her head down onto the table in frustration, letting out a loud thud as her hair flopped around from the impact. She closed her eyes and huffed in defeat. She felt like staying in this position and falling asleep, but decided against it and instead gave herself a break. Lack of progress was starting to get to her. She needed a moment to relax and recompose herself. Suddenly, Twilight was disturbed by a strange whirring sound. She opened her eyes to look around and noticed that the lights were flickering. Everyone in the room dropped what they were doing and watched in confusion as the lights steadily started blinking on and off. The lights gave a dragged out fizz as they flashed off one final time, encasing the room in darkness. The ponies looked around uneasily as they tried to find their way around in the blackness. “W-w-what was that?” Fluttershy squeaked nervously as she darted her eyes through the dark room. “I think the power must have gone out.” Twilight reasoned in order to calm the nervous pegasus’s fears. “Tom, can you open up that window over there?” The unicorn asked as she observed faint rays of light streaming in through the closed blinds on the wall. Tom felt his way around in the dark as he cautiously approached the windows. He then gripped ahold of the pole dangling from the side of the window and spun it to open up the blinds. Sunlight immediately streamed in, making the room at least navigable amid the shadows. “What the…?” Tom recoiled in surprise as he felt water running onto his hand from the pole. He looked to the window and stared in bewilderment as he saw water streaming from the frame of the window down onto the pole and window sill. Twilight and the others shared in his surprise and confusion as they looked over to the window. They then noticed water running down the walls in small lines at various spots at the top of each wall. “Water…? I didn’t think that there were any pipes around here.” Twilight observed in confusion as she put her hoof onto a wet spot on the wall to feel and see if it was in fact real. “Pipes wouldn’t explain water coming in from above the window would they?” The human retorted quizzically as he looked around to the steadily dampening walls. Suddenly his senses went off, causing a puff of blue mist to eject itself from his mouth. He looked around while trying to process the feeling he was getting. “Odd, I’m sensing a lot of ambient energy throughout the school.” Tom explained while not really expecting a thoughtful reply. “What does that mean Tom?” Fluttershy asked nervously while inching closer to the group to feel safer. “Well, it might explain all the water. If enough energy is used with the right purpose, anything can happen to change a location. From simple things like making water run down the walls, or more complex things like changing the layout and size of rooms within a building.” Tom explained slowly while facing the group. The human’s explanation made the ponies even more nervous than they were before. “We should go see what’s going on.” Twilight suggested while heading toward the door. The others followed her cautiously as she opened up the double doors and stepped into the hallway. The school looked entirely different from when they had gotten there. Not just because of the newfound lack of artificial light, but also due to a wholly different atmosphere. The air seemed much cooler and damp; almost as if they were out on a lake, which didn’t seem like too far a stretch for comparisons as the walls and floor of the school were completely darkened from excessive dampening. Streams of water fell down steadily across the walls and ceiling as far as the eye could see, and puddles of water seemed to sit on the floor, or more precisely, in the floor. The puddles seemed to be placed inside holes in the floor, setting them flush against the sides of the floorboards as if the floor in those areas had been transformed into an indeterminably deep puddle. The ponies gasped in shock as they surveyed their surroundings. They looked horrified at the strange and sudden transformation of the once humble school. Tom surveyed the area curiously as he made note of what transformations had been made. “Wh…wha…w-what in the name of Celestia happened here?” Twilight stuttered in bewilderment and shock as she moved out of the way from a dripping stream of water coming down from the ceiling. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Stuff like this usually doesn’t happen by itself. There is normally some kind of monster that goes along with it.” Tom remarked warily as he eyed the rather large puddle of water that blocked off the entirety of one fork in the hallway. “Oh my goodness, what about the kids?!” Rarity exclaimed in surprise as she thought about Ms. Cheerilee and her class of children. Her face paled even further when she thought about Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders. Twilight and the others widened their eyes as they too thought about the other ponies that must have been in the school. “You’re right… We need to find them and get them out of here. Who knows what kind of danger they’re in?” The purple mare suggested in a serious tone of voice. “But how do we find them? This place is so big.” Rarity said in a concerned tone while glancing around at her surroundings. Even on a normal day, there were a lot of places to look in the building. And if what Tom suggested was true, the school could have gotten bigger when it changed into the misty wetland that it is now. “Maybe we should split up? We could cover more ground that way.” Twilight suggested. Their efforts would be better used if they could search multiple places at once. Tom frowned in concern as he thought about the idea. He didn’t know anything about the situation before him; so he didn’t want to let the ponies out of his sight for a minute, let alone letting them wander around a supernaturally flooded school by themselves. “I... I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” The human stated hesitantly as he had to consciously adjust his expression from one of nervous concern to a more stoic look. “What? Why…? We would be able to accomplish more if we spread out.” Twilight pleaded for the human to see the merit in her reasoning. “I’m… just not comfortable with leaving you alone.” Tom trailed his eyes off to avoid looking any of the ponies in the face. The others smiled a bit from hearing the concern the slayer had for them. Twilight nudged him and smiled confidently when he turned to face her. “Hey… We’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about us. We wouldn’t let anything happen to each other, right girls?” The purple mare looked behind her for support from the others. They smiled and nodded. “Yeah, we stick together! Nobody is going to hurt my friends on my watch!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed eagerly while putting an arm around Rarity and Fluttershy. Tom sighed uncomfortably as he mulled over the issue in his head. He finally shrugged and looked to the group of ponies in defeat. “Alright, alright… if you guys are so adamant about it, I guess we could split up… It’s not that I don’t agree with you about the benefits, I just… *Sigh* Just be careful out there girls. We don’t know what we could be dealing with, and I don’t want to see anybody get hurt. Am I understood?” Tom spoke up near the end to make himself clear. The ponies all nodded with serious yet confident faces on. Twilight then went into planning mode and took ahold of the situation. “Alright… Rarity, you take Pinkie Pie and go look for Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders.” Twilight instructed to the two ponies. Rarity nodded while Pinkie gave a stoic salute. “Fluttershy, you come with me to find Cheerilee and the other kids.” Twilight asked while looking at the yellow mare with a serious expression. The pegasus fought through her nerves and became more confident as she thought about how frightened the others could be. She gave the unicorn a silent nod and stood by her side to wait. Tom interrupted the unicorn before she could suggest something for him to do. He had his own method of finding out what was going on in situations like this, so he wanted to take his own direction. “And I will try to get to the bottom of this.” The human stated in a serious tone. Twilight nodded to him before turning to face her troop of ponies. “Okay girls... just remember, we are the elements of harmony. Others should look to us for confidence in times of need. So let’s get out there and help some ponies… Just be careful and stick together, we don’t know what we’re dealing with here.” Twilight spoke seriously to her friends and tried her best to prepare them for their assigned duties. The group gave each other one last nod of confidence before going their separate ways. Tom took a running start and jumped over the patch of water that was blocking one of the hallways, Rarity and Pinkie went down the left hallway from the fork and started to look for the crusaders, While Twilight and Fluttershy made their way down the hallway to their rear as they set about to find the other children and any other ponies who needed help. The soaked floorboards squeaked underneath Twilight’s hooves as she made her way through the water damaged halls. Even in places where there were not any spontaneous spouts of water coming from the walls, the wallpaper shriveled and wrinkled as it was soaked through completely. The two ponies walked slowly and cautiously as they nervously pressed forward. They scanned each classroom they passed carefully for any signs of life. Many of the rooms seemed flooded as the chairs and desks slanted into the puddles that had opened up in the floor. Some of the rooms were completely submerged, leaving only the chalk board and supplies hung on the walls above the floor of water. “It’s so cold in here… It wasn’t exactly toasty before, but now…” Fluttershy spoke up from behind Twilight to calm her nerves and have some sort of conversation. Twilight could tell that the eerie atmosphere was making the shy pegasus very uncomfortable. “I know… I wonder what could be causing this.” The unicorn replied back to her friend softly. The two walked for a while in silence before coming to the end of the hallway, forcing them to make a choice. They turned to the left and looked up in surprise as they noticed the sight of the entrance to the school. “Hey look… the door! At least now we have a way out.” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while stepping forward. Fluttershy gasped in surprise and grabbed the unicorn to pull her back. The force of the sudden pull made Twilight fall on her back and grunt in pain. “Ugh… hey, what gives?” Twilight looked to the pegasus for an explanation. Fluttershy only pointed with her hoof in front of them in response. “Look!” The yellow mare exclaimed in shock as she pointed ahead. Twilight followed her outstretched arm to see what the problem was. She suddenly widened her eyes and dropped her jaw in shock. Sitting in front of the two ponies was a rather large stretch of water that went from where they were standing all the way to the door. “Wow… Thanks Fluttershy.” Twilight looked to her friend and offered her gratitude. The two then got up and walked over to the edge of the body of water. Twilight laid down at the edge of the water and stuck her hoof in to test its depth. The water was practically freezing cold, making the unicorn jump slightly from the shock to her system. She quickly discovered that her entire arm fit into the murky trench, and she still could not feel the bottom. She couldn’t even feel the side of the floorboards. It was like there was a space just underneath them that had an infinite stretch of water filling it. “This doesn’t make any sense. I can’t reach the bottom… how is this water not falling into the basement?” The unicorn turned to her friend and asked with bewilderment evident on her face. “I don’t know… I just hope we can find another way out of here. Who knows what could be down there?” Fluttershy stated nervously while looking down into the cloudy depths. For some strange reason, perhaps due to Fluttershy’s comment, Twilight suddenly felt uneasy with her arm dangling into the water. It was like she was expecting something to swim up and grab her, pulling her down to a watery grave. Twilight nervously pulled her arm out of the water and got up. She shook the excess water from her arm and looked back to her friend. “If we really had to, I suppose we could climb out through a window.” Twilight stated lightheartedly while trying to shake the jittery feeling she had from reaching into the water. Fluttershy giggled briefly at the thought, when suddenly the two heard a scream emanating from a room down the hall. The two quickly raced down the hall and searched feverishly for the source of the noise. They skidded to a halt next to one open doorway as they noticed several colorful shapes inside. Inside of the classroom, several desks and chairs floated precariously on the surface of a large body of water that stretched clear to the back of the room. Bobbing up and down on top of the overturned chairs, several young fillies and colts eyed around them in a fearful state. At the back of the room clinging to the teacher’s desk was Ms. Cheerilee. The purple mare noticed the two ponies at the doorway and looked to them with pleading eyes. “Twilight, Help us! I can’t swim and I know some of these kids can’t either!” She yelled in a panic to the two as she balanced her weight across the desk as it shifted around in the water. Twilight could see the fillies and colts as they gripped the tops of their chairs tightly. The small chairs barely kept them above the surface of the water as they floated at odd angles. “H..help!” A young pink filly that Twilight recognized as Diamond Tiara cried out fearfully as she clung to her chair. The sight of the urgent situation sent Twilight and Fluttershy into an adrenaline filled rush. They ran to the edge of the water and darted their heads around rapidly. “I’ll lift a few of them over here, you pick some of them up!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic to her pegasus friend. Fluttershy put aside her lack of elegant flying skills and spread her wings. She jumped into the air and did her best to stay airborne in the small space. She slowly hovered out to one of the colts and picked him up to take him back to safety. While the pegasus rushed to fly the children to safety, Twilight tried her best to concentrate in the tense situation. She lit her horn up and carefully lifted up Diamond Tiara, she then slowly brought her to the small section of solid ground in the room. After the filly slid to the wall to rest her tense body, Twilight then turned to lift another kid up. The two continued rescuing the children while keeping a close eye on Ms. Cheerilee. After Fluttershy carried the last filly to safety, she turned around and prepared to go after Cheerilee. Suddenly, the desk the frightened teacher was sitting on dipped to the side, dumping the purple mare into the cold water. Twilight and Fluttershy watched in horror as Ms. Cheerilee desperately tried to keep herself afloat. She dunked her head under the water briefly before popping back up and gasping for air. The unicorn quickly realized that she was too exhausted to lift the pony out of the water with her magic. She turned to Fluttershy and frantically made a decision. “Keep the kids safe!” Twilight exclaimed before suddenly taking in a breath and running forward. She jumped into the cold water and splashed down next to one of the desks. By the time she resurfaced, Ms. Cheerilee had gone under the water again, only this time she did not come back up. The unicorn swam frantically to the spot where the teacher had gone under, she then held her breath and dove under the surface. She was relieved to see that the frightened teacher had not lost consciousness as she held her breath under the surface. She reached her hoof out to Twilight as she sank into the seemingly bottomless pit. Twilight tightly grabbed ahold of Cheerilee and pulled her close. She then kicked hard to carry them both to the surface. The two gasped for air as they burst through the threshold of water. Fluttershy had ushered the children out into the hallway and came back into the room to watch for the two. She cheered happily as she watched her friend treading water to carry the teacher to safety. Twilight huffed in exhaustion as she approached the side of the floor. She lifted Cheerilee up to Fluttershy and pushed her along her way as the pegasus pulled on her from up top. The unicorn let out a sigh of relief as she saw Fluttershy pull the soaked pony to the wall with her. Twilight sat still in the water for a moment to catch her breath. She floated peacefully in the water and bobbed up and down, when suddenly she felt something solid brush up against her leg. The unicorn looked behind her, thinking that one of the chairs had drifted over to her, but suddenly widened her eyes when she saw that none of the chairs were anywhere near her. “AH!” Twilight cried out in fear and frantically scrambled to get up onto the ledge. Fluttershy saw the unicorn in a panicked distress and quickly ran over to help her out of the water. Twilight clung to Fluttershy protectively and brought her closer to the wall, she then turned to the water and inspected the surface. The lavender pony looked anxiously to the water as it returned to a still state from her hasty exit. Much to her surprise, the water moved no further as she darted her eyes back and forth in expectation. Fluttershy looked to her terrified friend with a concerned expression. “Twilight… What’s wrong?” The pegasus asked in a worried tone as she looked to where the nervous unicorn was staring. Twilight slowly calmed herself down as she began to think about the situation logically again. She reasoned that her imagination must have played a trick on her. “I… I… It’s nothing, I just…” The purple mare slowed down her frantic breathing as she watched the calm water ripple gently. “I could have sworn that I felt something touch me.” Pinkie Pie and Rarity found themselves wandering through a rather large room. The ponies had a difficult time in telling the original purpose of the room as half of the floor was opened up into a watery pit. The pair could only wonder if the room even belonged to the original school or if it just appeared with all of the water. As maddening as that thought was, there were no other logical explanations. They walked through the room and observed their surroundings curiously. “Ugh… this damp air is absolutely horrible for my hair.” Rarity whined in frustration as she ran a hoof through her hair. The two were walking along the edge of the water leisurely as they admired their surroundings, however bleak they may have been. After all, it wasn’t every day they got to see the odd sight of a schoolhouse soaked through with supernaturally appearing water. “Hehe, I think it feels kinda nice… kinda like we’re on a misty shoreline.” Pinkie Pie giggled innocently as she tried to turn the white unicorn’s view around. “Well I’m sorry darling, but I don’t think that would be any more pleasant.” Rarity shrugged as she watched the chipper earth pony walk beside her. As she kept her eyes on her friend, Rarity slipped on a wet patch of floorboards and tumbled sideways into the water. “Whoa!” The unicorn cried out in surprise as she felt her legs slip out from under her. She then flinched and shut her eyes as she went headlong into the chilly liquid. She bobbed her head up and sputtered as she blew water off of her mouth. Pinkie Pie chuckled lightly at watching the white mare’s hair floating around beside her. As much as she wanted to be upset at the party pony, Rarity failed to ignore the humor in the situation as she let out a light chuckle herself. She tried to get up on the ledge when suddenly she felt something resisting her leg pulling up. She tugged at the trapped limb for a few moments before concluding that she was stuck. “Pinkie, could you be a dear and help me up? I think my leg is caught on… a plant?” Rarity tilted her head curiously as she felt the organic texture of the object wrapped around her back leg. Pinkie Pie stopped laughing and nodded as she went to assist her friend. She tugged on her a few times as hard as she could before realizing she was getting nowhere. “Hold on a sec. Let me jump in and see if I can’t get a better angle to work at.” Pinkie said to the unicorn as she prepared to jump in. Rarity shut her eyes as the pink pony hopped into the water, causing it to splash in her face. Pinkie Pie quickly popped up and swam over to the trapped unicorn. She held her breath and dove under the surface to determine the source of her distress. She was surprised to see a long strand of what appeared to be kelp and moss was wrapped around the unicorn’s leg. Further down in the water, Pinkie could see several more plants reaching up in an attempt to get to the surface. Wasting no time on pondering the strange sight, she grabbed the unicorn’s leg and yanked it at an angle. The kelp stretched taut as the pink pony wrestled against its pull. Suddenly the plant snapped in two, freeing the white mare. Pinkie pushed Rarity out of the water and watched as she shook herself dry. The white mare turned to the floating pink pony and smiled. “Thanks for the help.” Rarity stated cheerfully. Pinkie smiled in return as she admired her good deed. “No problem… now could you help me up? It’s freezing in here.” The pink mare asked while reaching her hoof up to the unicorn. Rarity stooped down to pull the pink pony out of the water, when suddenly Pinkie gasped in surprise as she was pulled forcefully underwater. Rarity widened her eyes in shock and gasped herself as she watched the pink pony shoot back to the surface and gasp for air. “Pinky! What happened?!” Rarity asked frantically as her friend looked around in fear. “*cough* *sputter* I don’t know! I think something just gra-” Pinkie stated in a panic when she was suddenly cut off by being pulled back under. Rarity stared at the spot where the pink pony had been violently yanked under. Her eyes shrank to tiny dots and her jaw quivered in fear and horror as she desperately waited for her friend to resurface. “Pinkie Pie!” She yelled in horror while watching the rippling water. Chapter 15: HydrophobiaRarity’s mind raced with fear and worry as she stared into the water where her friend had just disappeared beneath the murky surface. Judging from what little the pink mare had gotten out before she went under, Rarity deduced that something had pulled her under. But she had no idea what could have done it. “Pinkie! Are you okay?!” The unicorn yelled frantically as she watched the rippling water. Not that she was expecting a response, but the jarring silence in the room only made her panic more. She looked to the far doorway and contemplated running for help, but by the time she returned with someone else, Pinkie Pie would be long dead. Rarity had a revelation in her head that filled her with both determination and terror. She would have to save the pink pony by herself. “Come on Rarity… Pinkie needs you to be strong right now.” Rarity steeled herself to calm her frantic nerves. She didn’t manage to quell the fear inside her, but the unicorn stood up and stared into the water with resolve anyway. Rarity concentrated and lit up her horn. She started sweating nervously as she searched the water with her magic, desperate to come across the form of her friend below the surface. She then gave a sigh of relief as she wrapped her magic around a pony shaped object. Rarity was relieved to feel the pony showing signs of life underwater. She squirmed around desperately, trying to escape the thing pulling on her. But the unicorn’s relief quickly turned back to panic as she realized that she could barely move the pink pony an inch upward. She strained heavily as she tugged on Pinkie. Whatever was fighting her for the life of her friend wanted her badly enough to put up a good battle. Rarity started panicking as she felt Pinkie going limp in her grasp. Her panic set in further as she saw air bubbles flood to the surface. “I am not about to let my friend die in my grasp!” Rarity heaved angrily as she pulled with all of her might. Slowly but surely, the pink pony started traveling upward as the unicorn gained the upper hand over the strange force. The force suddenly let go of the pink pony, causing her to shoot to the surface. Rarity quickly lifted the unconscious pink mare onto solid ground. She dragged her away from the water a short ways before feeling confident that they were far enough away for the mysterious creature to leave them alone. Rarity’s face grew pale as Pinkie rolled her body on the ground like a lifeless puppet. She put her ear to Pinkie’s chest to see if her heart was still beating. She was relieved to hear the weak pitter-patter of the pink mare’s heart. “Come on Pinkie… You’re going to be ok… Please be okay.” Rarity spoke softly to the unconscious pony while thinking back to her knowledge on first aid. She then started compressing her chest forcefully to perform CPR. After a few cycles of compressing her chest and giving her mouth to mouth, the white unicorn was starting to get more and more fearful for her friend’s life. Pump, pump, breathe, and repeat. No matter how many times she compressed the party pony’s chest, or breathed into her mouth, nothing was happening. Pinkie still remained unmoving and lifeless. Rarity could feel a wave of sadness rushing over her, as if her body had already come to the conclusion that her mind refused to. Just before the unicorn was going to give up, the pink pony sputtered forcefully as water came out of her mouth. Rarity rolled her onto her side and watched as Pinkie coughed and sputtered while ejecting the water from her system. After spending a few minutes coughing repeatedly, the pink pony laid on the ground silently while breathing deeply in and out. She then looked around in a lethargic and confused manner. “*Cough*… What happened?” Pinkie spoke weakly as she looked around her. Rarity quickly pulled the pink pony close to her and embraced her in a tight hug. Pinkie looked at her in confusion for a moment before wrapping her arms around the white unicorn slowly. “Thank Celestia you’re alive! I was afraid that I was going to watch you die for a minute there.” The white mare cried joyfully into the pink pony’s soaked fur. Pinkie Pie pushed her away for a moment and looked at her with surprise as she remembered what had happened. “What happened?! Where did that thing go?! Where are we?! I…” Pinkie asked frantically. She would have continued asking questions had Rarity not gently put a hoof to her lips to silence her. “Sshh… That thing can’t hurt us now. We’re far away from the water.” The white mare softly droned to comfort the pink pony. The two nervously looked forward into the watery pit. The surface was deceptively calm, as if the intense struggle had all been in the ponies’ heads. Rarity slowly helped Pinkie Pie to her feet. She shouldered the pink mare’s weight as her legs trembled weakly. The two then hesitantly walked close enough to the water to watch it without getting too close. The white unicorn was slowly filled with dread as she thought about their close brush with death. She thought about what would have happened if their positions had been switched around. The only reason she had saved the pink pony was because she was a unicorn. “Thank you for getting me up so quickly Pinkie… If you hadn’t jumped in, and I was the one that got grabbed, I don’t think we would be talking right now.” Rarity looked to her friend with sorrow and gratitude. “It’s ok… I wouldn’t trade places with you if I had the choice.” Pinkie brought herself to smile a little, returning her cheerful disposition slightly. Rarity smiled warmly to the pink pony before looking back at the water somberly. “What was that thing anyway? Did you see it?” The unicorn asked curiously. Pinkie looked back to her with sad confusion. “I don’t know… It just grabbed my leg suddenly and tried to pull me down. I managed to get away from it at first, but then it grabbed harder and forced me under. I didn’t see anything when I looked down at my leg either.” The pink mare shuddered nervously as she thought back to the cold feeling of drowning. “It’s ok now darling, you’re safe…*Gasp* What about Twilight and the others? What if there are more of those things and they don’t figure it out until it’s too late?!” Rarity exclaimed fearfully as she thought about her other friends. “What about Sweetie Belle and the others? We can’t go back for Twilight and Fluttershy and search for them at the same time.” Pinkie Pie reasoned in a worried tone. The pink mare shared her friend’s concern, but she was also concerned about the three fillies missing somewhere in the school. “Ughh… You’re right. I will look for the girls… you go back and warn the others.” Rarity groaned in frustration as she came up with the only solution that made sense to her. “What?! That’s crazy! You could get hurt, or worse!” Pinkie gasped in surprise as the unicorn adopted a more serious expression. “I’ll be fine… we just need to stay away from the water.” Rarity stated with false confidence as she tried to convince the pink pony to see her things her way. “No… I’m not leaving you. We’re just going to have to trust that Twilight and Fluttershy will be fine. The girls need us right now. Who knows what kind of danger they could be in?” Pinkie retorted adamantly as she refused to leave her friend alone. “I suppose you’re right… let’s hurry up and find the girls. The faster we get them to safety, the faster we can regroup with the others.” Rarity sighed in defeat as she thought about how her little sister must have been faring. The two nodded to each other in determination before walking to the door, all the while being sure to avoid walking too close to the pit of water. As they walked through the damp hallways, they found a new sense of dread as they observed how many puddles and large pools of water were scattered around the school. They knew that the thing that had almost drowned Pinkie Pie would almost certainly be waiting for them to fall into the water again. Twilight and Fluttershy joined Ms. Cheerilee out in the hallway. The teacher and children were still shaken up from their ordeal. They looked around the bleak corridor fearfully as they tried to wrap their minds around why the school suddenly became so different. “Thank you so much Twilight, I am eternally grateful for your help.” Cheerilee smiled in gratitude as she looked around to the children gathered around her. “It was my pleasure Ms. Cheerilee. I’m just glad everyone is safe and sound.” Twilight smiled in flattery as she rubbed the back of her head shyly. “What’s going on anyway? Why is there so much water everywhere? I didn’t think the pipes were this bad…” The teacher pondered as she looked around the soaked school. Twilight gave her a puzzled look as she tried to think of a logical conclusion herself. She had never come across something like this before. And now that she knew the extent of the damage, the matter only confused her further. “We don’t know… but Tom should be getting to the bottom of this mess as we speak. Now, are there any other children or ponies in the school?” the unicorn asked quizzically as she turned her attention to the dire situation around them. “Most of the other children were outside for recess, and I think all the staff was on a collective break. The only ponies that are unaccounted for as far as I know are Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo.” Cheerilee listed off the three fillies names and shifted her face to a more concerned frown. “I hope nothing bad has happened to them… as much as they make me want to pull my hair out some days, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to any of the children in my class.” She stated sadly. The sight of the teacher worrying so much about her students made the two frown sympathetically. Fluttershy gave her a reassuring smile and put a hoof on her shoulder. Cheerilee lightened up her gloomy expression slightly as she looked up to the yellow mare. “I can promise you that we will find them, but for now we need to get you guys somewhere safe.” The pegasus spoke softly while looking around to the frightened colts and fillies. Cheerilee and Twilight nodded before starting to walk down the hallway. They decided that the library would be a safe enough place for them to stay until all of this was over. Once they arrived, the group of kids flooded into the library along with their teacher and got relatively comfortable. Twilight smiled at the group before settling her eyes on Ms. Cheerilee. “You guys will be safe here. Just stay put until we sort this thing out okay?” The purple pony spoke reassuringly to cheer up the sad looking teacher. Cheerilee flashed a brief smile to the pair. Fluttershy and Twilight briefly waved goodbye to the children and their teacher. They then turned around and walked out of the library. The two took a moment to look at each other apprehensively. Despite how confident they tried to sound to the others and to each other, the ponies had no idea how they would go about finding the three fillies. “Now what do we do?” Twilight asked her friend, hopeful that she would come up with somewhere to go. “I don’t know… I guess we could try to meet up with the others.” Fluttershy stated dully while looking over to where Rarity and Pinkie Pie had walked off. Twilight sighed and gave a slow nod before walking off with the pegasus in tow. They walked through a few corridors of classrooms before turning off and coming across a large pile of rubble blocking their path. Through a few holes in the rubble, the two could see a trench of water leading over to another stretch of floor. “Ughh… guess we can’t go any further this way.” Twilight shrugged in annoyance while looking closer at the rubble. “Well, we looked in most of the other areas… do you think you can lift this out of the way?” Fluttershy asked while inspecting the size of the debris. “No, I think this is too big for me to move. *Sigh*” Twilight huffed as she observed the large pieces of the barricade. Even if she weren’t so tired from using her magic so much in such a tense situation, she wouldn’t be able to move the large barrier. Fluttershy looked closer to one of the holes in the rubble. She perked up with intrigue as she noticed something that caught her eye. “You might not need to… look over here.” The pegasus beckoned Twilight over to her and pointed through the hole. Sure enough, there was a hole in the wall just beyond the rubble. It was just large enough to squeeze a pony through it, and it appeared to lead into a room. “That looks like it goes to a classroom… But it’s before the next room past the rubble, which means…” Twilight observed while looking over to the door on their left. It led into another classroom that they had previously overlooked. The two nodded to each other confidently before walking into the classroom. The room was no different than any of the other classrooms they had come across. The floor was mostly comprised of pits of water. However, a small gangway of floorboards connected the side of the room the ponies were on with the small island that sat at the other side of the room along with the hole in the wall. Twilight stepped closer to the thin path across the water. She put a hoof onto the planks and pressed them down to test how sturdy they were. The boards creaked under her weight as they sank a little ways into the water, getting the unicorn’s hoof wet as pools of the cool liquid ran over the board in streams. “Looks like the only way across without getting wet is over this path… I hope it can hold us up, I don’t feel like taking another swim today.” Twilight stated uneasily while looking down into the water. She couldn’t quite shake what happened earlier out of her head. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself that nothing happened, the memory of something brushing against her sent chills up the unicorn’s spine. “Can’t you teleport over there?” Fluttershy asked quizzically, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts. “I used a lot of energy lifting so many things in such a short amount of time. I don’t think I could muster a complex spell like that.” The unicorn sighed in frustration as she checked her remaining strength. Fluttershy looked at her friend sympathetically as she stared nervously into the water. Twilight was normally very logical in situations concerning fear and uncertainty, so seeing the unicorn in this much distress worried the yellow mare. “Tell you what, I’ll go first… to test it out for you.” The yellow pegasus stepped forward and turned to her friend with a warm smile. She figured that having a more sensitive pony cross over the makeshift bridge with no problems would give Twilight some confidence. “I... umm, thanks I guess.” Twilight reluctantly allowed Fluttershy to go first. The unicorn wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she felt uneasy having to go that close to the water in this place. The encounter earlier had left an imprint on her that filled Twilight with dread as she thought about crossing the watery trench. The pegasus turned and focused intently on placing her feet within the borders of the thin path. The boards sank a little ways and bobbed up and down as Fluttershy slowly walked over them. Twilight watched her friend with a slight sense of unease as she balanced herself to keep from falling. The creaking noises of the boards did nothing but add to the ambient tension in the room as Fluttershy made it past the halfway point. “See? Not as flimsy as it looks I guess.” Fluttershy turned to her friend as she observed her progress. Suddenly, the board snapped in two beneath the pegasus’s feet. The initial jolt of the splitting pieces caused them to violently dip downward and sideways, sending Fluttershy into the water. She yelped in surprise as she was suddenly rendered weightless for a brief moment while falling. She went headlong into the water and sank under the surface for a moment as she was not prepared for swimming. Twilight jerked her head in surprise and watched frantically for her friend to resurface. “Fluttershy?! Are you ok?” The purple mare raised her voice in concern as she watched the water splash around violently. Suddenly the pegasus resurfaced and gasped for air. Twilight let out a sigh of relief as she watched Fluttershy orient herself in the water. “S-s-see? N…n-nothing to w-worry about.” The pegasus stammered as her body acclimated to the freezing water. She then turned around and swam for the nearby shoreline. Fluttershy grabbed the edge of the far island of floorboards and struggled to pull herself up. Her shivering muscles did not make the task easy as the yellow mare fell back into the water from her attempt. Twilight grew nervous as she watched the water around Fluttershy. Perhaps it was only in her head, but the unicorn could almost swear that she could see the water rippling on its own behind the pegasus. “Umm… Fluttershy? Could you hurry up and get out of the water please?” Twilight asked with mild concern as she nervously eyed the soaked pony trying to get up. She tried to sound as calm as possible, as she did not want the yellow mare to not believe her, or start panicking herself at something that could very well not exist. Fluttershy grunted as she strained her weak arms to pull herself up. Between the freezing cold water, and the energy she used to fly those children to safety, the pegasus was unable to help herself up. She sighed in frustration and swiveled her head around to look at her friend. “Twilight… I can’t get up by myself. Could you come over here and give me a hoof up?” The yellow mare asked politely while trying again in one last ditch effort to get up on her own. Twilight hid her sense of uneasiness as she surveyed the now broken pathway before her. The two pieces of the bridge were still connected to their respective shores, anchoring them in place. She wasn’t sure if the same thing that happened to her friend would happen to her. “Yeah sure… just give me a minute ok?” The unicorn said reassuringly over the watery expanse. She then started hastily, yet cautiously making her way over the bridge. Fluttershy chattered her teeth as her skin was starting to turn a paler shade of its usual color. Although she didn’t want to rush her friend, she was really starting to feel the effects of being in water this cold for so long. “C-could you hurry every chance you g-get? It’s r-r…really c-cold in here.” The icy pony strained against the tight feeling of her muscles tensing up from the cold water, which was making her chest squeeze on the air leaving her lungs. The unicorn steadily made her way over the rickety stretch of boards, being careful not to fall into the water herself. She wobbled side to side as the floor swayed under her weight, making her pause and carefully think about her next step. She finally reached the broken section of the bridge. The other side was just a quick step over the hole and a few feet away. Twilight hesitantly stood on the edge of the planks. She planted a hoof onto the other side and waited for the ground to stop wavering. Once she had two legs on the other side, the unicorn realized that she would need to quickly hop over to prevent the other board from sinking as her weight was focused on one point. Twilight jumped her lower half over the gap in one fluid motion. The board dipped into the water suddenly, causing the unicorn to lose her footing and smack her body onto the piece of floor. She wrapped her arms around the board to prevent herself from sliding off. The shock of the cold water immediately sent a wave of energy through her body. Fluttershy spun her head around upon hearing the noise of her friend falling onto the boards. She observed Twilight flinch her eyes shut instinctively as she clung to her support, unsure of whether or not she would continue falling. “You ok T-Twilight?” The freezing pegasus courteously asked to see if her friend had not been hurt during the fall. Even when she could barely speak from near hypothermic conditions, Fluttershy still felt concern for her friends. Twilight peeked one eye open to observe her surroundings. She discovered that she was in fact still on the bridge. Other than the stinging cold feeling prevalent in her limbs, she had not injured herself by scraping against the wooden plank during her fall. “Yeah… I’m good. Give me a sec and I’ll be right over.” Twilight stated reassuringly to her friend as she pondered on how she would get to her feet on the flimsy board. The unicorn grunted as she strained to use one leg as leverage to get herself up while she held on with her other hooves. She managed to get three of her legs onto the thin structure with little trouble, but just as she was about to pull her final leg out of the water, she suddenly felt something reach up and grab the still submerged limb. “Ack!” Twilight cried out in shock from the sudden sensation of touch. Just as quickly as it had grabbed her, it yanked her downwards, causing the frightened pony to slide off the plank with her lower body. She desperately wrapped her front legs around the plank again and held on for dear life as the mysterious force tugged on her lower legs. Fluttershy gasped in surprise as she watched the unicorn bob violently in the water from repeated pulling. “Twilight! What’s wrong?!” The pegasus cried frantically while watching her friend struggling to stay on the now bending board. “Something has my leg! It won’t let go!” Twilight started panicking as she kicked her free leg at whatever was holding onto her. Much to her horror, her leg failed to collide with anything as she desperately knocked against her pinned limb at the area where she felt the tight grip. The unicorn quickly realized that she would not last long this way. If she were to let go of the board now, she would not be able to swim hard enough to escape from this thing should it choose to drown her. But at the same time, she couldn’t hold on for very much longer. She had to do something fast if she was going to save herself and her friend. She groaned in a mixture of fear and desperation as she slid her hooves over the board to locomote sideways. She winced in pain as her bare skin rubbed over pieces of exposed wood. The small slivers poked and prodded at her as she haphazardly ignored lifting up and over them. Thankfully, most of the slivers broke off before they completely punctured her skin. Twilight reached over and placed a hoof firmly onto the platform of floor. She prepared to jump her other hoof from the board to quickly latch onto solid ground, when she was suddenly pulled farther down as she was moving her leg over. “Agh-” Her frightened outcry was silenced as her mouth dipped under the water line. The unicorn coughed and sputtered to eject the unwanted fluid from her throat. She clung to the floor as strongly as her lone arm would allow. She then struggled to lift herself up high enough to grip the platform with both arms. Fluttershy watched on in horror as her friend was struggling for her life. The purple pony had tears in her eyes as she pulled with all of her might to escape the grip of the invisible force. The pegasus wanted to help her friend desperately, but she would only be a hindrance to her in the water. She made one last attempt at climbing out of the water on her own, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Twilight shooting out of the water as the force let her go. The unicorn brushed up against the wooden floor as her own excessive strength lifted her up without any resistance. The bandage on her chest slid off and flew into the water, but Twilight wouldn’t have cared even if she had noticed. She lifted herself onto the floor and scooted her legs inwards to distance them from the edge. “*Huff*… *Huff* I did it!” Twilight exclaimed in both elation and exhaustion. She smiled triumphantly to her friend in the water, who shared her friend’s joy at her escape, until the two thought for a moment and stared at each other in horror. “AHH!” Fluttershy screamed in terror as she was suddenly pulled downward. Only one of her arms managed to hold fast on the ledge after the initial pull on her body. “Fluttershy!” Twilight widened her eyes in terror as the force went to attack her friend. She lunged her body forward and grabbed the pegasus’s hoof just as it was yanked from the ledge. The unicorn dug into the floor with her back legs and wriggled her body around to get more leverage. Despite these efforts, the yellow mare’s head was just barely kept above the water. Fluttershy desperately reached her other hoof up in order to grab onto the solid floor. With the unicorn pulling on her forcefully, she managed to grip onto the ledge with her other hoof. With the two ponies’ combined strength, they managed to make even more progress as they slowly gained ground on the force. The pegasus managed to grip both of her hooves onto the floor as the unicorn wrapped her arms around her shoulders to pull. The two suddenly shot backwards onto the floor as Fluttershy’s legs left the water. Twilight pulled her friend closer and hugged her tightly. Both to reassure the pegasus that she was ok, and to reassure Twilight that her friend was not going anywhere without her. The ponies lay on the ground, panting and heaving as they looked at each other with loving gratitude. They slowly shifted their attention to the water in front of them. “*Huff* what was that…?” Fluttershy asked while out of breath. Despite her exhaustion, a palpable sense of fear was clear in her voice. “I think that was what touched me earlier… *Huff*” Twilight observed the calm water before turning to her friend and smiling. “Whatever it is, it can’t get us now.” She stated confidently while offering the pegasus a bright smile. If the mysterious force was able to chase them on land, it wouldn’t have made such an effort to get them in the water only to stop suddenly. Suddenly, the two felt the floorboards underneath them move slightly as something rammed into them from below. The loud noise jolted the ponies to their feet. They looked around fearfully as another bump made the floor shake beneath them. “That thing just doesn’t quit does it?” Twilight uneasily braced herself to prevent her body from moving during the assaults on the floor. The two suddenly gasped in horror as the floor started to form small cracks. “We need to get out of this room!” Fluttershy exclaimed as her voice started to tremble from fear. Twilight gave her a firm nod before walking to the hole in the wall they observed earlier. The unicorn’s face paled as she observed what was outside of the small opening. A large trench of water filled up the entire width of the hall in front of them. The ponies could see another room in front of them that appeared far less flooded, and to their left they could see that the water stretched on a ways before giving way to the hallway floor. “Oh no… I must have forgotten about the water past the rubble.” Twilight observed grimly. She looked back to her friend with concern evident on her face. “We can’t step foot into the water… that thing will grab us before we even have a chance to climb out!” The pegasus nervously squeaked as she started breathing faster out of fear. Twilight quickly realized that she was right. There was no way either of them could make that jump. And even if they could, they would be helpless to assist the other if they failed. “We’re just going to have to wait for someone else to come by, or for Tom to return things to normal.” Twilight’s plan didn’t even comfort herself. She knew that their chances for survival lay with the structural integrity of the floor, which was quickly fading with each thundering blow it took. The two ponies huddled together and placed their arms around each other as they nervously watched the floor shake with each consecutive blow. Chapter 17: Dark and DampThe ponies listened nervously as the sounds drew closer to their safe haven. They stared anxiously at the door and waited for something to open it or break it down. The knob suddenly turned and the door opened, letting a familiar figure in blue step into the room. “Tom!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise as she watched the human enter the room and walk over to them. He seemed surprised to see an injured yellow pegasus lying on the floor behind the three ponies. “Girls… what happened? I heard screaming from across the school and sensed something in this direction… What’s wrong with Fluttershy?” Tom asked with concern in his voice as he knelt down to examine the pale pony. Twilight shrugged sadly as she looked back at the injured pegasus. She turned back to the human and prepared to explain the frightening turn of events that had led up to this point. “We were attacked by this invisible thing that tried to drown us. It would grab us whenever we got into the water, and then it tried to knock us into the water by ramming into the floor. After Rarity and Pinkie Pie came to help us, it…” The unicorn shuddered as she remembered the appearance of the bloody monster. She could still see the gaping black holes that it used for eyes as it stared at her with a disturbing grin. “It came out of the water and attacked me, but Fluttershy pushed me out of the way and took the blow. It cut her side open and drained her blood out… If we don’t get her some help, she isn’t going to last long.” Twilight frowned sadly as she looked down to her injured friend. She still couldn’t believe that the timid mare would do something so brash just to save her. Tom sighed in concern as he listened to the frantic unicorn explain their problems. He knew that he shouldn’t have left them on their own in a situation like this. Despite how bad he felt, this was not the time for self-criticism. “We can deal with that water monster later, for now I need you to back up and give me some room.” The human instructed calmly while scooting closer to the pegasus. Everyone looked at the boy with confused expressions, but obeyed his commands and backed away from their friend. Twilight was puzzled as she watched the human taking in a few deep breaths to prepare for something. “What are you going to do?” The purple mare asked quizzically while looking to her friend with concern for her health. “I’m going to try to heal her… but it takes a lot of energy so, I might pass out.” Tom turned to explain to the confused ponies. “What…? You can do that?” Pinkie asked curiously while looking between the two. “Yeah… but I haven’t done it that many times, so I might pass out for a little while. And if that happens, you’re going to have to leave me here if something dangerous comes along.” Tom looked serious and matter of fact as he explained what could happen. Before the others could question the human any further, he placed a finger up to silence them. He then breathed in a few more times before placing his hands over Fluttershy’s wound and closing his eyes. Tom breathed deeply while concentrating for a moment. Soon, blue rays of light started emitting from his hand. The beam was a slightly darker shade of blue than the light Tom used to fight the shadow creatures out in the forest. Fluttershy felt warmness surging through her body as the light flowed into her. She heard her friends gasping in amazement as she suddenly felt an odd tingling sensation where her wound was. The pegasus looked back to her injury and noticed that it was closing up slowly. Tom shrugged weakly as he struggled to maintain the energy streaming out of his hand. He ignored his rapidly draining energy and waited until the wound was closed up entirely. After giving a few extra minutes to restore the pony’s strength completely, Tom shut the light off and collapsed to the side of the pegasus. Everyone went over to the human and watched as he breathed rapidly. He gave them a thumbs up to give them the freedom to check on their friend. “How do you feel Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curiously while observing the newly restored color in the pegasus’s face. Fluttershy moved her limbs around and breathed in a few times to test her health. Much to her surprise, she didn’t feel anything to indicate that she had even been injured in the first place. “I feel good… great even.” The yellow mare smiled happily while looking over to the human as he hyperventilated on the ground. Her cheerful smile suddenly shifted to a concerned frown as she noticed how exhausted the boy seemed. “Are you ok Tom? I hope that wasn’t too hard on you.” Fluttershy looked sympathetically to the human as he recuperated on the ground. “I’m good… just give me a minute.” Tom wheezed while working his way to his knees. He paused for a moment before getting up completely. “Now then, on to business… Did any of you find anything of note?” The human asked curiously while surveying the group of ponies. “Well, we found Ms. Cheerilee and the other children. We told them to stay in the library while we searched for you guys.” Twilight informed the group on their progress. “That’s good… how about you two?” Tom asked Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “No luck I’m afraid. We have been around this entire floor, and they aren’t up here. We think the girls might be in the basement, but the door is stuck.” Rarity droned sadly at her lack of progress in finding her sister. “Alright, we should head down there next. We need to find the girls and stop whatever is causing all of this.” The human spoke with determination to inspire the ponies. Everyone nodded confidently before getting up. Rarity and Pinkie led their friends out of the room on the way to the other side of the school towards the basement. The group was sure to avoid any patch of water now that they knew that the bloody monster was lurking just beneath the surface. Once the ponies made it to the metal door, they stepped aside and let Tom inspect it. He tugged at it a few times to ensure that it was in fact stuck. As expected, the door remained firmly in place. “Yep… that is one stuck door. Let me see if I can’t get it open.” Tom rubbed his hands together to prepare himself for the task at hand. He grabbed the door firmly with both hands and pulled hard. After a few moments of tugging progressively harder, the door popped open. The ponies peered inside and looked into the darkness to get an idea of what the basement would look like. Water was rapidly running down from the ceiling and falling down the stairs like a waterfall. The water coming off of the stairs was splashing into a thin layer of water that covered the entire basement floor. Tom walked down the stairs first and tested to see if the water was too deep. “Be careful where you step down here. It’s hard to tell what is five inches deep and what is five feet.” Tom stated while carefully placing his foot around to test the ground in front of him. The ponies nodded while stepping forward through the small wall of water at the top of the stairs. They squeaked in surprise as the chilly liquid covered their bodies. After stepping out the other side and shaking themselves dry, the group noticed that they were short one member. Twilight turned around and noticed Rarity sizing up the water streaming down in front of her. She seemed to be deciding whether or not she would step forward or run away entirely. “Rarity, what’s wrong?” The purple mare asked curiously. “I can’t just walk through this! I just got my hair dry from the last time it got wet.” The white unicorn stated while gently patting her slightly moist mane. Twilight rolled her eyes and shrugged in disbelief at her friend’s behavior. She figured that she would put her obsession with beauty aside considering that they were in a survival situation. “Rarity, we don’t have time for this! Your hair will be fine once it dries, I promise.” Twilight pleaded for the unicorn to put her apprehensions behind her. Rarity gently placed a hoof through the waterfall and squeaked in shock at the cold temperature. “Maybe I can find something to block the water… you all go on ahead without me, I will join you if I am able.” The white mare said with slight disappointment while turning around to walk away. “What about Sweetie Belle?” Twilight spoke up, causing the unicorn to stop midstride. “She needs you right now Rarity. What is more important to you, your hair or your sister?” She reasoned in a serious tone. Rarity lowered her head sadly at the mention of her sister. She turned around and glanced at the wall of water with a determined expression. She wasn’t about to put the lives of innocent ponies before her own good looks, especially not her sister. “You’re right… I’m not letting something like this keep me from saving my darling Sweetie Belle.” Rarity announced with confidence. Everyone watched as the white mare closed her eyes and jumped forward. “Heeyah!” Rarity yelled as she rushed through the wall of water. She immediately regretted her decision as the freezing liquid splashed onto her and made her muscles tense up, but she kept going. Before she knew it, she was down the stairs with her friends. Twilight and the others walked up to the unicorn as she scrambled to brush her soaked hair out of her face. They smiled at her as she looked around with a surprised expression. “Good job Rarity. I knew you could do it.” Twilight said in a praising tone while putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks Twilight… now let’s get moving.” Rarity stated while turning her attention forward to the human waiting at the doorway to the next room. The darkness of the large room sitting before the ponies made them tense up in fear again. It also didn’t help that they were standing in freezing cold water. Despite their apprehensions, the group slowly walked into the large room. The constant sound of water splashing onto the submerged floor from the spouts on the ceiling mingled with the pitch black darkness that pervaded the entire room, covering it in an intense atmosphere of dread and loneliness that filled the ponies with unease. As Twilight hesitantly walked forward into the center of the room, she stuck close to her small group of friends in an instinctive attempt to feel safer. Even though the water on the floor was only high enough to barely submerge the tip of her hooves, she was still worried about the possibility that they were not alone. “I hope that thing isn’t down here…” Twilight shivered at the thought of getting farther away from dry land. She knew that if the creature decided to follow them, there would be little to no chance of escaping it with so much water around. “What did you say that thing looked like?” Tom asked curiously while looking back to the unicorn. If he was going to be fighting this monster, he at least wanted to know what it looked like. “It can hide in the water and turn invisible, but when it comes out onto land it looks horrible!” Twilight recoiled mentally from having the image of the creature in her head. “It’s true, I saw it myself darling.” Rarity cut in to save Twilight the trouble of remembering the monster. “It was a horrific pile of what looked like… blood. It made these ghastly noises and tried to kill poor Fluttershy!” She shuddered in disgust at the thought of the mass of blood like fluid. “Wow… that bad huh? Guess I got my work cut out for me.” Tom added sarcastically in an attempt to lighten the mood. In the back of his head, he felt slightly nervous from not immediately recognizing the description of the creature, but he kept a strong composure to ease the ponies’ nerves. Rarity shrugged sadly as she looked around them into the three other doorways. She couldn’t imagine how scared the three crusaders must be from being lost down here in the cold darkness. The thought of her sister needing her help made the unicorn slightly less afraid of the eerie basement. “We’re not getting any closer to finding the girls and putting a stop to this mess from here. Let’s pick a door and start searching this dreadful place.” Rarity exclaimed confidently while steeling her nerves and putting on a determined expression. The others were surprised at the white mare’s sudden bravery. Even Tom was starting to get chills from the bleak atmosphere of the basement, so to see such determination arise from the unicorn filled the others with confidence of their own. They nodded to the brave pony before walking over to the doorway to the left of the large room. The group let Tom go first, still feeling slightly apprehensive about walking further into the darkness. The door led the group into a long winding corridor. The thick veil of shadows prevented the ponies from seeing to the end of the tunnel, leaving its size up to their own predictions. They slowly walked through the darkness while keeping their ears open for any sign of the three fillies, or worse yet, any sign that the creature was just behind them getting ready to pounce. The tunnel stretched onward for what seemed like an eternity. The constant echo of the ponies’ own hooves splashing around in the water made them pause occasionally to look behind them for fear of being followed. Just when the group thought they would be wandering the eerie corridor all day, a doorway came into view on the left. Twilight looked back to her friends for a vote of confidence before cautiously stepping into the room. Much to her surprise, she felt her hooves coming into contact with dry flooring. “Wow… nice to see dry land for once.” Twilight remarked while looking around at the wooden flooring. Upon closer inspection, she discovered the reason why the floor was lacking water. A short distance from the group, several gaping holes in the ground were barely visible amidst the darkness. Streams of water were pouring into the holes, forming a steady wall of water that was falling into the barely visible bottom. “What the…? Why are there so many holes in the floorboards? Actually… now that I think about it, why are there floorboards down here?” The purple unicorn asked in befuddlement. Everywhere else in the basement had stone flooring, but this one room had wooden flooring similar to the school upstairs. Tom examined the odd flooring closer. It seemed like a different type of wood than what was used upstairs. It almost reminded him of something that would have been used in human times. “Water isn’t the only change that could have been made to the school. Large supernatural events like this can sometimes warp how a building is structured. Doorways can lead to nowhere or new rooms entirely, there can be endless mazes of seemingly random room layouts, or there can be a lot of water and new floors.” The boy explained while looking around the flooded room curiously. “So all of this water, and the wooden floor… that monster brought them here?” Pinkie asked with confusion and intrigue at the human’s statement. He turned to her and nodded in response. “In a manner of speaking it did. All of this water and the new décor is probably where it feels comfortable. Whether it brought it all here by itself or if the spell did it I don’t know. Summoning spells are confusing sometimes.” Tom rolled his eyes in frustration as he tried to think of a way to rationalize his surroundings. “Wait… summoning spells? You think someone made all of this happen? Like, someone put that monster here on purpose?” Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously at the boy’s statement. She didn’t like the thought that someone did all of this intentionally. “I’m fairly confident that even though this place is vastly different from my own time, that schools do not spontaneously flood with unnatural amounts of water and get inhabited by invisible water monsters that like to drown people. So yes, I think somebody with a sick mind did this on purpose.” Tom sighed at the thought of evil individuals being possible in a seemingly peaceful society like this. The ponies felt disgusted knowing that someone living in Equestria could take such enjoyment in the suffering of others, and that they would do something like this to a school filled with children. Suddenly, a noise from the bottom of one of the holes caught the group’s attention. It sounded like a young filly groaning sleepily, as if they just woke up. The ponies took another look into the gaping pit and discovered that they could actually see the bottom. Amid the shadowy outline of the floor, the group could see two colorful shapes lying in a puddle of water. One of the shapes was moving around, confirming the group’s suspicions that they were living creatures. Rarity leaned in closer to the pit to examine the two fillies. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized that the two shapes were in fact Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. “Sweetie Belle…? Are you okay darling?” The white mare raised her voice to be heard inside of the gaping pit. Sweetie Belle looked around for a moment before turning upwards to look at the group. “Rarity…? What’s going on?” She asked in a drowsy tone. The young unicorn seemed to be groggy and confused as she looked up to the group. She then looked over to her friend lying in the water beside her and gasped. “Applebloom!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in alarm. The frightened filly gently rolled the unconscious earth pony onto her side and examined her injuries. The ponies looking on from the top of the hole could barely see the two, so they could not determine if either of the fillies were injured when they fell into the pit. “Are you two ok?” Twilight asked with concern as she looked down at the pair. Sweetie Belle looked up to the group and appeared distraught with worry. “I think we hit our heads when we fell down here, and Applebloom’s leg looks really bad.” The white filly listed off whatever details she could think of concerning their health as she looked at her friend’s oddly positioned limb. Rarity couldn’t stand to see her sister in such a situation. She looked to the others with concern and fear. “We need to get them out of there!” The white mare stated in a panicked tone to the others before turning back to the hole. Twilight raced her mind to think of a way to rescue the trapped crusaders. “It’s too small of an opening for Fluttershy to fly down there to grab them, and I don’t think I can grab them that far down.” The purple unicorn frowned as she surveyed the height of the pit and compared it to her own magical reach. On any normal day, she would have been able to reach the fillies with little issue, but with her shot nerves and exhaustion from earlier still in strong effect, she was afraid that she might drop the fillies even if she could reach them. “I might be able to lift them up, but I would need to take it slow to make sure I don’t drop them. Besides… if Applebloom’s leg really is broken, I don’t want to make it any worse.” Rarity stated uneasily. “Well that seems like the only option we have. Just take your time and be careful.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while backing up to give the white unicorn some room. Just before Rarity had a chance to start concentrating on rescuing the two fillies, a noise erupted from the back of the room that sent chills up the ponies’ spines. A low gurgling sound started bubbling up from the pool of water draining into one of the holes closer to the back wall. Twilight aimed her horn to light up the area where the noise was coming from. Off in the corner of the room, a patch of red liquid was rising up to the surface of the water. The liquid started climbing on top of itself in order to start forming the all too familiar bloody creature that had attacked the ponies before. After spending a few moments staring in profound horror at the moving goop, the ponies found themselves staring at the hideous monster once more. “Yikes… you weren’t kidding were you?” Tom felt his stomach churning from looking at the disturbing mound of blood like fluid that had formed into the beast before him. The others were too busy dealing with their own senses of terror and disgust to pay any attention to the cynical remarks of the human. Sweetie Belle moved around while looking up at the silent group above her. She felt confused as to why they had stopped speaking. “Are you guys still there? What’s wrong?” The filly spoke loudly while adjusting her position in the water. Suddenly, the creature jerked its head forward and stared down towards the hole in front of the group. The ponies looked at the creature in shock as it looked back up to them and tilted its head to the side oddly. It then sunk into the water and changed back into liquid before flowing towards the group and disappearing. The ponies all tensed up with fear as they watched the red mass vanish into the water while coming towards them. They needed to leave immediately, but they couldn’t leave the two fillies to fend for themselves. “Get them out of there Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic to the white unicorn. Rarity shook herself out of her shock and started concentrating on the two fillies. She wrapped her magic around them and started lifting them upwards as carefully as she could manage. Tom used his senses a few times while scanning the water in front of them. He let out a frustrated groan as he failed to pinpoint the creature’s exact location. “You guys hurry up and get them out of that hole.” The human instructed seriously while taking a few steps forward. Twilight was concerned with the way he said that. It was like he planned on using himself as bait for the creature while they grabbed the two fillies and ran. “What are you planning on doing?” Twilight asked in a fretful tone while putting her hoof in front of him to stop him from moving. “That thing is way too strong to fight. We need to get them out and run!” She exclaimed frantically while eyeing the water in front of them. Tom looked back and forth to the worried ponies around him. He racked his mind in an attempt to find any other solution to the situation that ended favorably, but failed to come up with anything. He would have to try his hardest to get the creature’s attention and hope that he could keep it busy or destroy it. “I need to try! It’s the only way to buy you enough time to get them to safety!” Tom yelled back at the unicorn in frustration before moving around her outstretched arm and running out into the water. He kicked his feet around frantically in an attempt to lure the beast out. He swiveled his head around in a desperate effort to find any sign of movement. Rarity tried to keep her attention on keeping the two fillies stable in the air while maintaining a grip on them. She looked up occasionally to see what was going on in front of her. The ponies looked on nervously as they waited for any sign of movement near them. Even though they were concerned for Tom’s safety, a part of them secretly hoped that the creature would leave them alone, even if that meant going for the human instead of them. Suddenly, Tom was knocked off of his feet by a surge of water sweeping his legs out from under him. As he caught himself and looked around him to see what happened, he noticed a blob of red near his face that was slowly forming upwards into a solid form. He quickly got to his feet and prepared himself to fight the newly formed creature. “Alright ugly, have some of this!” Tom yelled angrily while reaching for his sword. He quickly whipped the blade out and swung it vertically as hard as he could at the creature. Much to his surprise, the sword passed through the beast with little resistance. Droplets of translucent red liquid were flying off the creature as the blade sent ripples through the beast’s body. It was like Tom was swinging at water. Tom held the sword in the air and looked at it for a moment in disbelief as red water streamed off of it in drops. He then looked at the un-phased creature with astonishment and slight fear. “Well that’s not fair at all…” He muttered to himself nervously before quickly holstering his sword. The creature pulled back one of its arms to swing at Tom, but the human quickly ducked under the attack and side stepped around the beast. Before the creature could react, Tom held out his hand and shot out a rapid flash of blue light at the bloody mass in front of him. As the light faded, the creature showed no signs of injury as it spun around to face the human. The ponies looked on fearfully as the creature shot out one of its arms towards the slayer. The limb changed to liquid and gushed forward as the clawed hand of the creature impacted with the human and sent him flying across the room. The boy was slammed against the far wall and pinned by the force of the monster’s arm. He yelped in pain from the impact driving the beast’s claws into his chest. He desperately grasped at the arm as it adjusted its size to fit around him and keep him trapped. Tom’s attempts at gripping the red mass surrounding him were only met with his hands passing through the surface of the arm as if it were liquid. “Tom!” Twilight exclaimed loudly as she watched the boy struggle against the creature’s grasp. She anxiously looked back and forth between the battle and Rarity to see how close she was to getting Sweetie Belle and Applebloom out of the hole. Tom stopped flailing around for a moment to think logically about his situation. He then summoned forth his claws and prepared to swipe at the creature. The blades caused the creature’s skin to smoke as they collided with it, but the skin seemed to move out of the way and flow around the claws before they could do any serious damage. “I almost have them!” Rarity exclaimed as she brought the two fillies closer to the opening of the hole. Suddenly the creature diverted its attention from Tom and jerked its head around unnaturally to face the ponies. It released Tom and reeled in its arm before turning its body around towards the group of mares. It then started gurgling fiercely while shuffling towards the terrified bunch. Rarity’s pupils shrank to tiny dots as she stared fearfully at the rapidly approaching monster. Her legs began to shake uncontrollably and she struggled to keep from dropping the two fillies. “Tom! Please do something!” The white mare yelled in a distraught panic without moving her frightened gaze off of the creature. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie held each other in an attempt to comfort themselves. They were unable to prevent their muscles from seizing up in fear as they watched their approaching doom. Twilight looked to Tom pleadingly as she felt herself tensing up in fear. She was surprised however to see the human staring at the scene in front of him horrified. He seemed frozen in place as he had a defeated expression on his pale face. “Tom!” The purple mare yelled frantically in a last ditch attempt at snapping the human out of his dazed state. Seeing no change in Tom’s behavior, Twilight returned her gaze to the monster as it rapidly gained ground on the ponies. It seemed as if it would trip over as it eagerly tried overstepping the limits of its puddle with its half formed legs to get at the ponies. The purple unicorn took a moment to steel her nerves. She dug down deep to muster up enough energy to fight off the creature. She lit up her horn and shot out the same variety of energy that had worked before. The creature seemed to have learned from its past encounter with the unicorn. It forced the fluid in the middle of its body outward to form a hole for the energy blast to fly through. Twilight’s face grew pale as she watched her attack fail. She quickly found the strength to fire another blast, but decided to aim it downwards at the creature’s nonexistent feet. The blast impacted too fast for the beast to react and splattered it into pieces as it had done before. The purple unicorn let out a sigh of relief before looking over to view Rarity’s progress. Amid the chaos, she had managed to lift the two fillies out of the hole and onto her back. “Tom! Let’s go!” Twilight cried out to the human as her friends eagerly ran out of the door. Tom blinked his eyes a few times before shaking his head rapidly to return to his senses. He quickly leapt forward and started running towards the group of escaping ponies. Twilight turned around to view the human catching up to her and managed to catch a glimpse of the pieces of red fluid slowly reforming back into one mass. She then whipped her head back around and ran out of the door to join her friends in running down the corridor. Chapter 18: Dead Man's FloatThe ponies wheezed and panted heavily as they ran through the dark corridor. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie headed the group in order to prevent Rarity from running into anything while she carried the two fillies. Twilight struggled to keep up with her friends as she tried to at least make it close enough to light the way for them. Sweetie Belle held on to Applebloom to keep her steady as her sister carried them. Rarity looked back occasionally to make sure that the two were balanced properly on her back while she ran forward. Eventually the group found their way back into the large room that led to the stairway back upstairs. They decided to get as much distance as they could from the watery floor of the basement and ran straight for the safety of the ground floor. After Twilight and Tom burst through the metal doorway to the basement, they quickly turned around and shut the door behind them before finding the nearest wall to lean against. Everyone was on the verge of hyperventilating as they recovered from running so much. The purple unicorn slid to the floor and took in as many deep breaths as she could handle without passing out. She then looked over to Rarity as she gently placed the two fillies on the floor. She couldn’t help but feel worried about Applebloom as she lay motionless on the ground. “Is… is she ok?” Twilight asked with concern while looking to the white unicorn as she inspected the filly’s wounds. “Well she definitely hit her head hard, and that leg looks pretty bad… but hopefully she will be fine with a little medical treatment.” Rarity shrugged as she observed the filly’s oddly bent leg. She then looked over to Sweetie Belle and put a loving hoof on her shoulder. “Are you ok Sweetie Belle…? Where is Scootaloo? What happened down there?” The white mare peppered her sister with questions. “Give me a second to answer those in order.” The young unicorn took in a breath in preparation to explain what had transpired in the basement. “One… my head kinda hurts, but other than that I’m alright. Two, we got separated from Scootaloo while we were running from that thing… and as for what happened… well.” She hesitated and looked down as she remembered what she had experienced. “It’s alright darling… you can tell us anything.” Rarity spoke softly to comfort her sister. Sweetie Belle sighed sadly and looked up to the group. “We were going to investigate the leaking pipes like we said earlier; but when we got down there, we heard somepony walking towards us. We hid and waited to see who it was, and found out that it was two ponies wearing greyish dark hoods… Scootaloo wanted to follow them, and we couldn’t change her mind once it was made up. We followed them into this other big room that had some other hooded ponies in it. They had candles set up everywhere, and there was this weird thing drawn all over the floor.” Sweetie Belle explained the details of what had happened after they went into the basement. “Sounds like a summoning spell to me.” Tom stated while thinking about the details of the story. Sweetie Belle shuddered as she recalled her ordeal. The group frowned as they watched the filly in such distress. She took a moment to collect herself before continuing. “They did all kinds of spooky stuff that we didn’t understand. Like chanting in some kind of weird language, and drawing other things onto the picture on the floor. After they got done, the thing on the floor lit up and filled the entire room with bright light. When we opened our eyes, we could see water pouring out of the center of the floor. Most of the hooded ponies reached into their pockets and pulled out some kind of paper with odd writing on it. They lit the paper on fire with the candles and started walking out of the room. But before some of them could get their paper out, that thing we saw earlier started pulling them under the surface of the water. It looked around when it was done and must have noticed us, so we ran. Scootaloo took a different turn than us... We tried to find her, but we ended up in that room and fell through the floor.” She looked down sadly as she thought about her friend being alone down in the basement somewhere. “It’s ok Sweetie Belle. We will find her and get rid of that thing while we’re at it.” Pinkie Pie stated cheerfully to lift the young unicorn’s spirits. The party pony’s statement managed to make the filly stop frowning and look up from the floor. She smiled briefly before returning her face to a more sullen expression. “I hope so…” Sweetie Belle sighed dejectedly before returning her gaze to the floor and continuing to sulk. Twilight got up from the floor and gave one last deep breath. She then walked over to the basement door and turned to the group. “We better get going… Rarity, you take the girls to the library with the other children. Anybody else want to head back with her?” Twilight asked as a curtesy while looking at Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. If anyone was going to stay behind, now would be the time to speak up. The two mares glanced at the basement door nervously. They both seemed to be dealing with their fear internally, and Pinkie Pie was the first to conquer hers. She turned her attention forward to the purple unicorn with a confident expression. “We aren’t going to just leave you two alone down there… right Fluttershy?” The pink pony smiled and looked to her friend for support. The pegasus nervously eyed the metal door out of the corner of her eye. She then looked away from the others apprehensively. “Right… I just… well.” Fluttershy stammered nervously avoiding eye contact. Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled warmly. “You don’t need to go if you’re scared Fluttershy. We will be fine on our own.” The purple unicorn spoke softly to the shy mare. Fluttershy immediately received flashbacks of what had happened in the classroom when she got injured. If she hadn’t intervened, then Twilight might not have survived the encounter with the crimson creature. Finally, the yellow pegasus shook her head and put on her best look of determination. She faced upwards to her friends with a newfound sense of confidence. “No… I want to help. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to any of you and I could have done something.” Fluttershy stated with resolve and walked to the door to wait for her friends to go. Twilight was impressed by her bravery. The yellow mare was normally very timid in frightening situations like these, but seeing her friends in need seems to have lit a spark in the shy pegasus. The unicorn nodded confidently before looking over to Tom and signaling him to open the door. The human nodded and pulled on the door for a few moments. The metal eventually gave way and screeched open. Everyone gathered by the door and looked downwards into the blackness with varying levels of apprehension between them. Twilight took a moment to look back to Rarity before venturing into the depths. “Stay away from water. And no matter what happens, just be careful alright?” Twilight asked to reassure herself that the white unicorn would exercise as much cautiousness as possible. Rarity nodded before turning back to her sister and caressing her hair lovingly. She wasn’t about to take any risks with the two fillies in tow. “Of course darling… same goes for all of you alright? I don’t want any of you getting hurt.” The white mare spoke apprehensively as she thought about what her friends would have to deal with. The group nodded before turning and heading into the doorway. They then descended the stairs and proceeded into the large room that split off into the rest of the basement. The group went through the door on the right side of the room and pressed on with Twilight at the lead. The purple unicorn shivered as she felt the cold, damp air hit her. She could almost swear that the atmosphere was getting darker, colder, and more foreboding the longer they were down in this place. She found herself retreating into her own thoughts to get her mind off of the bleak darkness around them. The unicorn thought back to the encounter they had with the creature while saving the two fillies. She couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten into Tom when the monster was approaching them. “Hey Tom?” Twilight spoke up suddenly, causing everyone to jump from the sudden break in silence. The human looked at her and raised an eyebrow curiously. “What’s up?” Tom asked quizzically while walking closer to the unicorn. Twilight looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What happened back there? Back in the room we found the girls in I mean… You kind of froze up for a minute there when that thing was coming after us.” Twilight asked, curious to hear what had happened to make him tense up with fear like that. “Oh…” Tom looked away from the unicorn and sighed. He took a few minutes to put into words what he was feeling at the time. “I’m not sure… I guess I panicked for a second.” Twilight seemed confused at the human’s response. She couldn’t think of any reason why he would suddenly panic in a familiar situation. “Panic…? Why did you panic? I know that thing was terrifying and all, but I thought things like that didn’t bother you?” The purple mare asked calmly. Tom had not expected such a non-hostile answer. He thought that the unicorn would be furious at him for failing to help them in their time of need, but instead she seemed more curious and concerned for why he froze up suddenly. “I have never run across a situation like that... I am not used to having to keep someone else safe while fighting something. I usually just wandered around and fought whatever evil creatures I came across; but… I threw everything I had at that thing, and it didn’t even flinch. And to see that thing coming after you… well.” Tom paused to look down sadly. Twilight and the others looked at him understandingly. They had not expected the boy to have such a reaction. He was normally so confident in the face of danger, and stood up to creatures that would leave any pony too terrified to move by choice. So to see him so concerned for their wellbeing touched them deeply. “It’s ok Tom. You don’t need to beat yourself up so much. I know you chose to help people in need, but you don’t need to feel so bad when you aren’t able to solve every problem.” Twilight said lovingly while placing a hoof on the human’s shoulder. “But I’m a slayer… I’m supposed to be the one that people count on to fight evil when everyone else is unable to…” Tom droned sadly while thinking about his own short comings. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy walked beside him and smiled caringly. “But you don’t need to be the only one people depend on. That is too much for anyone to handle, even a slayer like you.” Pinkie Pie stated sympathetically while placing a hoof on his side while they walked. “And besides, you have already done so much to help us. You protected us from those monsters out in the woods.” She added cheerfully. “And you saved our skins back in that cave.” Twilight chimed in happily while thinking back to their earlier encounter. “And if you hadn’t healed me, I probably wouldn’t even be here speaking with you guys.” Fluttershy added confidently to cheer up the human. Tom smiled as he thought about how many times he had already helped out the group of ponies. He started to feel more confident in his actions. “The point is, you don’t need to feel bad for the things you can’t do. You should reflect on the things you have done to help people previously, and what you can do to help them now. You were chosen to be the slayer, but you don’t need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.” Twilight smiled warmly at the human as she finished her motivational speech. “Thanks girls… that means a lot coming from you.” Tom stated happily while returning a lighthearted smile to the ponies. “Now let’s find Scootaloo and get rid of all this water… I swear I’m going to get sea sick if I see any more of it.” The others nodded confidently before returning their attention to the dark corridor ahead of them. They continued walking through the blackness for several minutes while keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of the young pegasus. Eventually, they came to a doorway that led into a larger room. The floor was covered in a thin layer of water that prevailed throughout the entire room, and several objects lay strewn about as they floated in the liquid. Twilight moved her light around in an attempt to scan the room thoroughly, when her eyes fell on an orange shape lying in the center of the room. “Scootaloo!” Twilight gasped in surprise as she saw the filly. The young pegasus was lying face up in the center of a large drawing on the floor with a thin layer of water beneath her. She did not respond to the unicorn’s outcry, and appeared to be sitting in a pool of her own blood. Twilight rushed forward to get to the filly, when she was suddenly stopped by Tom as he reached out a hand to prevent her from moving forward. She looked at him with confusion evident in her face as he pointed in front of them. “Watch where you’re stepping.” Tom stated while pointing to the floor ahead of them. Twilight gasped in surprise as she saw a large section of the floor in front of them had no discernable bottom. A murky pit of water seemed to isolate the filly on an island of solid land. “We need to get to her. She looks like she is hurt bad.” The unicorn stated with a worried expression. “I know… but doesn’t this seem a little weird to you?” Tom asked curiously while looking to the others. The three ponies looked at him with perplexed expressions. “What do you mean?” Fluttershy voiced the confusion of the group as she took another look around the room. “That drawing underneath her looks like the one that Sweetie Belle described, and she is on an island of water that she couldn’t have possibly gotten to by herself… all of this points to something fishy going on here.” Tom explained while pointing to the various objects of interest in front of them. “So… what does that mean?” Twilight asked with a puzzled expression, still unsure of what the human was getting at. “It means that this might be a-” Tom started his sentence, but was interrupted by the sound of water moving around them. The group turned around to see water bubbling up from under the floor. Before long, the floor had vanished from sight, leaving a trench of water in its place. “Trap…” Tom shrugged as he knelt down and stuck his arm into the water. Sure enough, the floor really had disappeared beneath the murky depths. The ponies backed closer to each other nervously. They tried to stay as far away from the deep sections of water as they could. Twilight looked around fearfully as the sounds of water splashing emanated from somewhere she could not determine. “We’re stuck in here then…?” Twilight squeaked with fear as the weight of the situation sunk in. She turned to Tom in the hopes that he might offer her some words of confidence. “Looks like it… that thing must be toying with us. We need to get over there to save Scootaloo and reverse whatever spell this is, but we can’t get over there without first crossing a rather large pit of water…” Tom sighed in frustration while walking over to the edge of inch high water. Fluttershy looked into the murky trench and back over to Scootaloo. She turned to the group with an indication that she might know a solution. “Why don’t I just fly over there? It isn’t that far away after all.” Fluttershy suggested eagerly while looking over to the unconscious filly. Tom merely shook his head in response. “If you did that, I’m pretty sure our ugly friend down there would spring up and pull you in faster than any of us could react.” The human stated while pointing down at the murky cut off of water. Fluttershy gulped nervously as she pictured herself getting dragged under the surface. Twilight was growing more anxious by the minute as she stared at the motionless filly. She seemed to be bleeding out into the water, but the purple unicorn could not see how severe her wounds were from over here. “We need to do something… Scootaloo could be dying over there while we’re sitting here watching!” Twilight exclaimed uneasily. Everyone looked down grimly as they thought about the young pegasus’s situation. Tom took a few steps closer to the edge of the trench and peered in. He had to find a way to get over to the small island without the creature noticing, but it would have been impossible. Once something jumped in the water, the monster would doubtlessly be alerted to their presence. Suddenly, the human had an idea pop into his head. He turned around and gave the group a hesitant expression. “I may have an idea…” Tom shook his head nervously as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. “What are you-” Twilight started to ask a question, but was interrupted by the human suddenly jumping straight into the murky trench. He resurfaced and took in a sharp breath of air. The ponies looked at him with shocked expressions as he bobbed up and down in the water. “Are you out of your mind?!” The purple unicorn yelled frantically at the display of bold carelessness. “Maybe… I’ll get back to you on that later. Right now, I need you to get ready to swim over there if he grabs me.” Tom spoke loudly enough to be understood as he swam towards the island. “What?!” All three of the ponies shouted in shock. “You can’t be serious!” Twilight stated while shaking her head adamantly. She couldn’t believe that the human would attempt something so stupid. “It’s ok, he won’t be able to hurt me… I think.” Tom muttered to himself as he started to rethink his actions. “Anyway, you should be able to swim across while he is distracted.” He explained while motioning behind him with his head. Twilight glanced up to the unconscious filly across the water. Not only did she have to save her, but the means to ending this nightmare was just underneath the young pegasus. Finally, the unicorn looked down to the human bobbing in the water with a hesitant expression. “But… what am I going to do once I get there?” Twilight asked nervously while sizing up the distance of the trench. “It looks like a simple summoning symbol… just use your magic to interrupt the spell’s energy, and everything should go back to normal. Just be as fast as you can, and he shouldn’t be able to get you.” Tom explained while floating still in the water. Before Twilight could question the boy’s plan any further, he suddenly cried out in surprise as he was forcibly pulled under the surface of the water. The ponies stared at the spot where Tom was submerged with unease. They looked at each other nervously before settling their eyes on the purple unicorn. Twilight gulped nervously before steeling her nerves for the task ahead. She backed up a few feet to get a running start at jumping into the water. She leaped as far as she could and managed to make it half of the way to the solid platform that the young filly sat on. The unicorn immediately tensed up from the cold water hitting her body. The water seemed like it was even chillier than the water she had been treading through since they arrived in the basement. She quickly pushed through her shaking muscles and began swimming as fast as she could for the island of safety. Pinkie and Fluttershy watched the unicorn nervously as she made her way across the murky trench. They were mentally preparing themselves to watch their friend being pulled under the water to her untimely demise. Much to the two anxious ponies’ and her own surprise, Twilight managed to reach the edge of solid floor with no trouble. She quickly pulled herself up and ran over to Scootaloo. She gently turned the unconscious filly over and examined her. Twilight gasped as she looked over the orange filly’s wounds. She was covered in numerous gashes and cuts. One of which appeared large and dried out, as if the creature had drained her blood as it had done to Fluttershy. “Oh my goodness… Scootaloo, can you hear me?” Twilight shook the pegasus gently to see if she could wake her up. Much to her dismay, the filly did not stir. Had it not been for the steady rise and fall of her chest, Twilight would have thought the orange pegasus was dead from appearances. The purple mare hesitantly tore her eyes away from the injured filly and glanced to the symbol beneath her feet. “*Sigh*… here goes nothing.” She steeled herself and lit up her horn. Twilight quickly scanned over the symbol with her magic to see if she could figure out how it worked. The complexity of the spell placed over the symbol was almost breath taking. Had it not been for the urgency of the situation, the unicorn would have studied it more thoroughly. Suddenly, the sound of something breaching the surface of the water made the unicorn dart her eyes upwards. She gasped in shock as she quickly found the source of the noise. The bloody creature was sitting in the water, staring at her with its empty black eyes. The monster held Tom in its arm, seemingly having rendered him unconscious as he dangled limply from its grasp. Twilight let a shrill squeak of fear die out in her throat as her heart plummeted to her feet. She felt herself tense up as she stared wide eyed at the bloody creature. Suddenly, almost as if it could sense her fear, the monster let out a deep gurgle while moving forward. “Oh no… oh no, no, no!” The purple mare shook her head in a panic as she watched the creature floating closer to her. It seemed to glide through the water, with only a slight heave in its torso to indicate that it was using any effort on moving. With time running out, Twilight immediately returned her attention to the symbol beneath her. She only prayed that if she destroyed the pictogram, that the monster would follow suit. Even though this was optimistic thinking at best, it was the only thing that she could do. The two ponies on the far side of the room watched the unicorn frantically run from side to side as she tried to circumvent her approaching doom. They anxiously eyed between her and the bloody monster charging straight for her. “Hurry Twilight!” Pinkie Pie shouted fearfully to the purple pony across the water. Twilight needed no reminder of her grim predicament as she started sweating nervously. “Come on… come on.” She stammered in a panic as she looked up occasionally to check on the monster’s progress. She could feel her stomach churning as she surveyed the mess before her. She could scarcely understand anything about the odd symbol, let alone how to dismantle it. The constant sound of splashing water mixed in with the monster’s groans and gurgles, driving the unicorn closer to her imminent panic attack. “Yes!” Twilight exclaimed victoriously. She finally found an area of the spell that seemed like it could be destroyed. “I hope this works…” She stated nervously while channeling her energy into the spot she found. A bright flash of light emanated from the symbol as a loud buzz filled the air. Twilight flinched her eyes closed and prepared herself for the worst possible outcome. Twilight suddenly heard the sound of water flowing. She opened her eyes and looked ahead to find the source of the noise, only to gasp in amazement. All of the water in the room was draining downwards. The flooring that had been absent for so long was slowly coming into view, as if it had been there the whole time and the water was simply on top of it. The creature let out a distressed roar as it started flowing downwards against its will. It dropped the unconscious human, who landed on the newly risen floor as the monster continued to flow downwards with the water. Finally, the creature, as well as all of the water vanished from sight as it disappeared through the ground. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie rushed over the newly formed floor and ran to Twilight and the unconscious filly. The symbol had disappeared from the floor, leaving only a puddle of Scootaloo’s blood lying in its place. “Twilight! You did it!” Fluttershy exclaimed excitedly as she wrapped her arms around the unicorn for a friendly hug. Twilight gladly accepted the gesture and returned it by putting an arm around the elated pegasus. She then looked over to the human laying on the ground a few feet away. “You okay over there Tom…?” Twilight asked loudly while observing the unconscious slayer. Receiving no response, the unicorn was starting to get worried for his wellbeing. “Could you go check on him Pinkie?” She asked while looking over to the pink mare. Pinkie nodded before turning and trotting over to the human. Pinkie reached forward to check to see if the boy was breathing, when he suddenly sputtered out some water and shot upright. He coughed for a few minutes before looking around at his now dry surroundings. “Well… seeing how I don’t see any water around here, I would wager that you did something right.” Tom stated sarcastically before getting to his feet. He walked over to the group gathered around Scootaloo and glanced down at the injured filly. “Is she alright?” He asked while observing her wounds. He had used too much energy during his time at the school to heal the filly effectively. “She’s in pretty bad shape, we need to get her and the other injured children to a hospital immediately.” Twilight shook her head sadly before picking up the young pegasus with her magic. “We better hurry up and get out of here then.” Tom replied with a serious tone while joining the ponies in walking away. The group slowed down to a halt when they noticed Pinkie Pie staring behind them with wide eyes. “What’s wrong Pinkie?” Twilight asked with a confused expression as she watched the pink pony’s color drain from her face. The unicorn’s question was suddenly answered by a low gurgling noise erupting from behind them. The ponies turned around and followed the petrified pony’s stare to where the noise was coming from. Everyone’s jaw dropped in shock as they saw something that filled them with terror and dread. The pool of blood that the young filly had left on the floor was now undulating and moving around as it slowly started forming upwards into an eerily familiar shape. Twilight’s jaw trembled in fear as she tried to process the images in front of her. She thought that their ordeal was finally over when she disrupted the spell that caused all of the water to appear, but she was apparently mistaken. “W-what… how?! We got rid of that thing!” The unicorn stated fearfully while backing up. The ponies started moving towards the doorway as the creature started forming its own features out of the blood. “It needs fluid to survive… so it must have jumped to the only source it could find.” Tom stated grimly while stepping forward. “What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked nervously as she watched the human defiantly step towards the still forming creature. “I’m hoping that it’s less stable now that it doesn’t have a copious amount of water to feed it.” Tom shrugged before forming his claws and charging forward. The creature stood on fully formed legs as the last bit of the puddle of blood disappeared into its form. It looked much less fluidic, and its body was gloppier looking as well. It took a step forward and growled at the approaching human. Tom dodged the first swipe the beast threw at him. He then swiped his claws across the creature’s mid-section. The creature let out an oddly satisfying gurgle of pain as the thick liquid turned to smoke from the impact of the blades. Tom smirked triumphantly before launching a flurry of strikes on the monster. The bloody beast recoiled in pain and tried to back up as its body was rapidly disrupted by the slayer’s weapon. Blood was flying off the monster in streams, almost as if it couldn’t sustain its body. The monster suddenly careened to the floor as its legs failed to retain their solid characteristics. Tom finally plunged his claws into the middle of the monster. It let out a sharp gurgle before sinking into the floor and turning into a smoking pile of blood. The ponies were amazed to see the creature finally meet its end. They walked up to the human as he wiped the excess blood off of his claws before sending them back into the fiery aether from whence they came. “Good job Tom! We won’t be seeing any more of that guy.” Pinkie Pie patted him on the back eagerly as she smiled warmly. “I certainly hope not… at this rate I’m going to turn into a prune if I get any more water on me.” The boy breathed a sigh of relief while admiring his handy work. The group chuckled lightheartedly before turning their attention to the injured filly Twilight was holding. “Let’s get out of here and get her and the others to a hospital.” Twilight returned a sterner look to her face as she started walking towards the door. The others nodded before following the purple pony out into the basement. Chapter 19: Change of PlansThe ponies quickly made their way through the dark corridors of the basement. The pitch blackness still pervaded the area, but the cold sense of dread had been lifted from the building along with all of the water. The group found their way into the large room and quickly walked through the door to the stairway before heading upstairs. They were almost shocked to see the school had returned to its normal state. The lights had come back on, the surrounding walls and the ceiling were completely dry, and any sign of holes or murky pits of water had all but vanished. They turned to head towards the library, but were interrupted by the sight of Rarity approaching with two other ponies. “There they are!” The white mare announced with excitement to her two companions before rushing over to her friends and smiling eagerly. “Rarity, I see that you found help.” Twilight observed while noting the two medical themed cutie marks on the strange ponies the white unicorn had brought. “Once we discovered that all the water had gone, we ran outside and called for help. Apparently someone had already noticed the school was in shambles, so paramedics were already on their way.” Rarity explained while looking to the injured pegasus filly floating gently in front of Twilight. “Oh my stars! Is she alright?!” She gasped in surprise at the state of the orange crusader. Twilight shrugged before gently handing the filly off to the unicorn E.M.T beside Rarity. “She has lost a lot of blood… you should get her out of here as quickly as possible.” Twilight explained what knowledge she had on the filly’s condition to the two medics. They nodded before turning around and rushing down the hall while inspecting her further. Rarity sighed sadly as she thought about the horrible events of the day. She couldn’t believe that such terrible things could happen to Ponyville, let alone to innocent children. “Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are already on their way to the hospital… everyone else is just being checked here and released.” Rarity stated gloomily while trailing her eyes off. “Did Applebloom wake up?” Twilight asked curiously with a concerned look on her face. Rarity lightened up a bit as she turned to respond. “She did… she was barely functional, but she woke up. They think she and Sweetie Belle have concussions, Applebloom’s being a little worse than Sweetie Belle’s.” Rarity explained in a bittersweet monotone. “*Sigh*… come on then. Let’s head back to the library and tell the others. I think that we can hold off on looking into those symbols we found in the cave and move on to investigating those strange hooded ponies Sweetie Belle talked about.” Twilight droned tiredly while shaking her head at the misfortune that had befallen them. The others nodded and joined the unicorn in walking down the hallway towards the front of the school. As they approached the library and got closer to the front door, they could see various medical ponies or royal guard members comforting children and taking a look around. Ms. Cheerilee was wrapped up in a blanket while being interviewed by a group of investigators. She noticed the group walking by the library door and gave them a friendly wave as they walked past. Twilight paused for a moment and waved back to the teacher. She managed a brief smile before turning to continue walking down the hall. The ponies quickly exited the school and took a deep breath of fresh air to cleanse their lungs of all the damp stale air they had been breathing down in the basement. “Thanks for your help in there Tom… looks like you saved the day again.” Twilight turned to Tom and smiled shyly. The human chuckled at the unicorn’s statement of gratitude. He patted her on the shoulder and smiled in return. “You kidding me? You’re the one that broke the spell. If you hadn’t done that, I might still be getting free snorkeling lessons from Mr. Ugly.” Tom said in a praising tone. The unicorn smirked in flattery as she thought about the role she played in dispatching the evil creature. She was surprised at how well she managed to face up to the bloody monster. “I was just doing my part. We all did a good job in there.” Twilight stated while looking to her friends with a warm smile. The others smiled back as they recalled their own acts of valor in the school. Rarity thought back to how she rescued Pinkie Pie and the two fillies from the clutches of the monster. Fluttershy remembered how she saved Twilight, and by extension herself from the creature. The more they thought about how close to death they had come, the more proud the ponies became that they triumphed by working together. Without any further delay, the group made their way through town to get back to the library. The sooner they informed Applejack and Rainbow Dash about what happened, the sooner they could all go check on Scootaloo and the others. The group eventually completed their journey through town and found themselves outside of Twilight’s home. The purple unicorn opened the door and ushered everyone inside. Once in the main room, the ponies were faced with four individuals talking around a table. Spike was sitting idly on the floor while talking with Rainbow Dash, and Applejack was talking with a certain dark blue alicorn. “Princess Luna, what are you doing here so soon?” Twilight exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the princess of the night. The four stopped chatting and turned to see the rest of their friends approaching. Princess Luna smiled warmly and got up to greet the purple mare and her group. “Ah, Twilight Sparkle it is good to see you!” Luna commented in a friendly manner while giving the unicorn a hoof shake. “As soon as my sister arrived back in Canterlot, she explained what had happened and asked me to travel to Ponyville to assist you. As soon as I made sure she was alright, I came as quickly as I could.” The alicorn explained. Princess Luna gave each of the ponies a warm smile before settling her eyes on the human next to them. She was surprised to finally see the person she had heard so much about. She was also surprised to finally get to see what a human actually looked like. “And you must be this Tom fellow that my sister told me about. It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Greene; I am known as Princess Luna, but you can just call me Luna if you wish.” Luna smiled eagerly while giving Tom a firm hand shake. The boy was surprised at the level of strength and enthusiasm a regal princess could put into a friendly greeting. “Thanks… you can just call me Tom though. Mr. Greene doesn’t really make much sense seeing how I’m dressed like a blueberry.” Tom added jokingly while rubbing his hand where the princess had gripped it a little too hard. Luna chuckled warmly at the remark. She felt a little better knowing that the boy was at least aware of his odd attire. “I like your sense of humor Tom… you seem friendly enough to fit into Equestria just fine.” The blue alicorn patted him on the shoulder before turning to the rest of the group. “So… how did your search at the school go? Spike informed me that you were looking for a book to decipher those symbols over there.” She asked quizzically while glancing over to a table on the far wall that held the rolled up piece of paper with the glyphs on it. Twilight sighed as she looked to her friends sadly. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but they needed to know what had happened at the school, especially Applejack. She then took in a breath to explain what happened. “We didn’t find much of anything. When we got to the school, something… bad happened.” Twilight stated gloomily. Suddenly everyone in the room grew quiet and listened to the unicorn intently. “Apparently some odd ponies in hoods broke into the school’s basement and performed some kind of spell… They flooded the school with water and summoned this… horrible monster.” Twilight shuddered nervously upon recalling the events of the school in her head. She could almost remember each individual experience she had there, from swimming in the freezing water to save Ms. Cheerilee, to almost getting killed by that creature when she first saw it with her own eyes. “It tried to drown Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy and me. And after it figured out that we wouldn’t go in the water anymore, it crawled out of the water and tried to kill us on land… It attacked me first, but Fluttershy pushed me out of the way. Tom managed to heal her, but then we discovered that it attacked the cutie mark crusaders. They are on their way to the hospital right now.” Twilight said with a troubled expression. Everyone gasped in surprise upon hearing the news. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed especially affected by the discovery. Not surprising seeing how they both had close relationships with two of the fillies involved, Applebloom being Applejack’s sister and Scootaloo being Rainbow Dash’s resident super fan respectively. “Sweet apple fritters! Are they ok?! Is Applebloom hurt bad?!” Applejack asked frantically while thinking about the many possible things that could have happened to her sister. “What about Scootaloo? Is she alright?!” Rainbow Dash’s mind raced with worry upon hearing about the injured filly. Although they weren’t related, the cyan mare had grown to have a certain fondness for the young dare devil as she practically begged to be in the presence of her hero on a weekly basis. “Scootaloo caught the worst of it… but the last time we saw them they were stable. We won’t know anymore until we check on them at the hospital.” Twilight tried her best to ease the two ponies’ fears. She completely understood their concern. If something bad happened to Spike, the unicorn might not be able to forgive herself. Princess Luna adopted a more serious expression as she became aware of the danger this new threat posed to the citizens of Equestria. “I am sorry to hear about the young crusaders being caught up in the middle of such a terrible event. We should investigate these strange hooded ponies and keep our eyes open for anything suspicious.” Luna instructed to the group around her as they listened intently. “But where do we start looking? Between the monsters in the Everfree, and the school, we only had those symbols as a lead to go on. And I’m fairly certain those glyphs only pertain to the trap in the cave that we triggered.” Twilight fumed in frustration as she realized just how much of a dead end they had hit. “Don’t worry about that right now Twilight… I should have something put together in the next day or so to help us out with this strange case. For now, you should head down to the hospital to check on the girls, and then get some well-deserved relaxation.” Princess Luna smirked knowingly as she thought about where to go next with the investigation. The purple unicorn was confused by Luna’s statement, but decided to take her word on the matter. After all, Celestia had put her sister in charge for a reason. “Ok princess… I think some relaxation would do everybody some good.” Twilight stated with a small smile. She then turned to her group of friends. Judging from the concern written on their faces, the unicorn could tell that they were eager to go see the three fillies. “Alright, we’re going down to the hospital now. Anypony that wants to come should get ready and join us.” The purple mare instructed while turning to head out the door. Everyone but Princess Luna followed the unicorn as she walked out of the library. They all eagerly headed in the direction of the local hospital to find out how the three fillies were doing. Meanwhile, deep inside the Everfree forest, Cotton Quill was steadily limping towards the old mansion that his colleagues were using as a hideout. He walked with three legs while clutching a large gash on his chest with his hoof. He could feel blood trickling out of the wound and down his clean white coat. “Ughh… This stings a lot more than it did before. I hope I didn’t get any of that filthy water in it, wouldn’t want to get an infection.” Cotton grimaced painfully while trying to ignore the harsh stabbing sensation around the gash. Eventually, the unicorn found himself standing outside of the sprawling mansion once again. He quickly made his way over the crumbling stone path and up the stairs to the main entrance. Upon entering the large foyer, he saw several of the hooded ponies that had been with him at the school. Several of them were weakly leaning against a wall as they groggily examined dried up wounds. Others hyperventilated on the ground as they tried to cope with the severe wounds they had across their bodies that were steadily forming puddles of blood on the ground. Cotton glanced over to the stairs to see an upset looking grey female pegasus frowning in disappointment at him from half way up the steps. “You’re not supposed to be back this early Cotton.” Raincloud droned to him while trying not to lose her patience. Cotton Quill groaned in annoyance as he took a moment to cope with the stinging pain he was dealing with. He then inhaled sharply before turning to the pegasus in slight frustration. “Relax Raincloud… I have someone watching the school for me. Now could you give me a hoof and help me upstairs? … Ack!” Cotton yelped loudly as the pale mare walked up to him and roughly put an arm around his chest to help him walk. “You know, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself cut up if you would have just listened to me in the first place.” Raincloud smirked as she chastised the unicorn cynically while walking with him up the stairs. Cotton sighed in annoyance before glaring at her, albeit only slightly. Despite how annoyed he was with the mare, he knew that she could easily beat him up in a fight. “I did what the book told me to do alright? Just leave me alone until we get to Raven Feather please.” Cotton whined pleadingly for the pegasus to keep her witty comments to herself. She sighed compliantly before falling silent. The two slowly made their way up the stairs and through the second floor of the mansion as they walked toward the library where their leader was. Once they walked through the library door, the two could see Raven Feather reading over a book with her brother while various other ponies loitered around the room waiting to be needed. Raincloud pushed Cotton Quill against a wall forcefully and walked over to the brown colored pegasus sitting down across from Raven Feather. “Hey dust, what’s going on up here?” Raincloud asked playfully while taking a seat next to her brother. The pegasus looked over to his sister and gave a small smirk. “Not much… just waiting for you guys to finish up.” Dust Kicker stated in a bored tone. Raven Feather heard the two talking and looked up from her book. “Ah, Raincloud… it’s good to see you’ve returned.” The black mare greeted the pegasus in a satisfied tone. She then glanced over to the unicorn that was bleeding while leaning against the far wall. “And… Cotton Quill? I didn’t think you would be back so soon. I thought we agreed that you would stay to oversee the proceedings as they unfolded.” Raven Feather stated curiously while observing the injured unicorn. Cotton Quill shrugged as he prepared to justify his reason for defying the orders he was given. He gingerly kept applying pressure to his wound while looking timidly to the confused earth pony. “I know Miss Raven Feather, but a few unexpected complications arose. But don’t worry, I left someone capable to watch the school and report back to me.” Cotton calmly stated his excuse while hoping that the green eyed pony would not find any holes in his reasoning. “Complications…?” Raven Feather stated quizzically while studying the unicorn's wound from afar. “What kind of complications?” She asked with an uneasy sense of curiosity while raising an eyebrow. “After we completed the spell, some of us didn’t manage to perform the safety charm in time. The beast drowned or eviscerated around five of the ponies you sent to perform the ritual. Most of the others were critically injured, and are now writhing in pain downstairs.” Cotton explained while motioning out of the door with his hoof. “Ah yes, I was wondering why there were several ponies bleeding to death in my foyer… Ah well, they were made aware of the risks.” Raven Feather stated nonchalantly before adopting a more serious expression. “Now then, on to the more serious matter of why you thought it would be a good idea to abandon your post.” She said in a more livid tone. Cotton gulped nervously as the earth pony stared at him menacingly. “I panicked a little bit… alright? The creature lashed out at me and gave me this horrible wound.” Cotton added dramatically while removing his hoof to show off his injury. Raven Feather rolled her eyes in annoyance as the unicorn continued. “I left someone there to report back to me when the creature was done with its work and I left. I didn’t think much of it at the time.” Cotton explained with an anxious tone. “Of course you didn’t… I mean after all, it’s not like I put you there for anything important... say, preventing anyone from discovering and or breaking the pictogram… silly me for thinking you could handle such a difficult task.” The black mare droned sarcastically while growing more agitated with the nervous unicorn. Cotton Quill started sweating as his temperature started to rise. He could feel everyone in the room staring at him with annoyance and disappointment. “But…but Raincloud left too! She didn’t even stick around to see the creature at work!” Cotton stammered nervously in an attempt to shift the blame from him to the pegasus. Raincloud furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the unicorn angrily. She started to speak up in protest when she was interrupted by Raven Feather. “Raincloud’s task was not to stay behind and oversee the creature’s progress… her task was to make sure you didn’t screw up the ritual, which she did a rather nice job of if I do say so myself.” The earth pony smirked coyly at the pegasus. Raincloud let a devious smirk creep across her face as she returned the black furred pony’s sinister compliment. “Thank you Raven Feather.” Raincloud made a faux bow before glancing over to Cotton Quill and chuckling. This made the unicorn uneasy as his argument was being shot down in flames right before his eyes. Raven Feather straightened out her face and returned her cold and calculating expression as she stared intently at Cotton Quill. “Now as far as you and your workers are concerned, I gave you the proper safety measures, you just lacked the diligence to perform them properly. I almost feel bad for those poor things downstairs. They trusted in you to teach them how to protect themselves, and you fed them incorrect information that almost cost them their lives.” The black mare stated coldly. The cynical remark only worsened the feeling of dread that was slowly filling up Cotton Quill. He wasn’t sure if the light-headed feeling he had was from his blood loss or his nerves. He expected to hear her order his execution any moment from how she was glaring at him. “M-my apologies Miss Raven Feather… I won’t let it happen again.” The unicorn gave up on any hope of coming out in the right with his actions and instead decided to return to his tried and true method of brown nosing. “For your sake, I certainly hope you don’t. I also hope that nothing bad happens to interrupt our plans at the school in your absence… Now come over here and let Grimwood take a look at that wound of yours.” Raven Feather lightened up her death stare and motioned for the injured unicorn to step forward. Cotton Quill looked over to the younger earth pony apprehensively. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt a little bit intimidated by his cold yet innocent exterior. Perhaps it was because his older sister could terrify him to his very core should she so choose. Grimwood got up from his seated position and sighed before walking over to a spot with more room and light. He waited patiently while the unicorn slowly limped towards him. “That looks pretty nasty… I guess that monster worked out pretty well, just on the wrong people.” Grimwood commented while examining the deep gash. “Yeah well… those protection charms aren’t the simplest things you know.” Cotton Quill stated to make conversation with the colt while he waited for him to finish looking over his wound. The earth pony suddenly stopped what he was doing and shot Cotton an annoyed scowl that looked very intimidating despite his childish appearance. “You just had to light paper on fire, and say a few words. How much simpler do you need it to be Cotton?” Grimwood asked in a disconcerting tone of voice. Cotton Quill couldn’t believe that he was being reprimanded by someone nearly two thirds his size and half his age. The unicorn avoided answering the question posed by the young pony, as well as avoiding eye contact as he awkwardly remained still for the colt to finish looking him over. Grimwood finally stopped poking and prodding the wound and looked up to Cotton Quill. “Alright, this looks like a quick fix. I Just need to use a little shadow power to patch you up and you’ll be good as new.” Grim explained while holding up one of his hooves. Cotton Quill watched nervously as the colt’s hoof was engulfed by translucent black shadows that pulsed and shifted around his arm. Although he knew that Raven Feather had taught her closer circle of followers how to use shadow energy for various purposes, Cotton was unsure of how said energy would feel when used to touch his skin. Cotton Quill flinched and closed his eyes as the young pony slowly brought the hoof closer. The unicorn started whining softly in preparation for whatever feeling he would experience. Grimwood rolled his eyes and sighed. “Stop being such a big baby… I haven’t even touched you yet.” Grim chided the wincing unicorn while pausing briefly. Being told to man up by a young colt made Cotton Quill feel slightly emasculated; he opened his eyes and chuckled nervously in an attempt to keep whatever small shred of dignity he had left. “Hehe… it won’t hurt though will it…? Will it Grim-Ack!” The unicorn was interrupted by Grimwood quickly shoving his hoof onto his wound. The hoof felt icy cold to the touch, making Cotton jump in surprise. He breathed in a few times to weather the chilly sensation as he watched his wound slowly close up. “Does that answer your question?” Grimwood stated impishly as he watched the wound close up entirely. He then removed his hoof from the unicorn’s chest and shook it to dissipate the energy he had gathered. Cotton Quill rubbed his chest for a moment to test out how it felt. He smiled in satisfaction before he turned to notice another hooded pony quickly entering the library. The unicorn’s pupils shrank to dots as he recognized the pony to be the scout he had left at the school. “Cotton Quill, I have some bad news for you.” The pony stated, uncaring of the audience present, while entering the room and approaching the unicorn. Raven Feather raised an eyebrow and looked to Cotton Quill curiously. “Cotton… who is this?” The black mare asked quizzically while eyeing the unicorn. Cotton Quill gulped nervously and started sweating again. He rubbed the back of his head and avoided eye contact with the green eyed pony as he spoke. “That’s uh… that’s the pony I left to watch over the school Miss Raven Feather.” Cotton explained uneasily and tried his best to think of a possible positive reason why the scout would be back so early. Raven Feather shrugged in irritation before turning to the hooded pony. There was no way in Equestria that he had a positive reason for being back so early. “Then by all means… go right ahead.” Raven Feather instructed while motioning with her hoof. The pony nodded before turning back to Cotton Quill. “The spell has been broken and the creature has been eradicated.” The stallion explained nonchalantly and to the point while having a serious expression on his face. Cotton Quill’s heart skipped a beat when he processed the words that he was hearing. His face paled as he looked over to see the black mare stoically staring forward while processing her thoughts. He could almost swear that he could see her eye twitching slightly. Meanwhile, Raincloud’s jaw hung open as she stared in a mixture of shock and disbelief upon hearing the news. She looked over to Cotton Quill and shot him an almost grimly sympathetic look, as if he had screwed up so bad that nothing she could possibly do to him would amount to whatever punishment he would receive. “Shadow Mist…” Raven Feather suddenly closed her eyes and announced loudly. A pony from across the room got up and walked over to her. The pony was an earth pony stallion that appeared to be a little bit older than Raven Feather. He had a bright shade of red for fur and medium length black hair. His cutie mark appeared to be a lantern with a candle inside that was blown out with smoke coming off of the wick. “Yes Raven Feather?” The red furred earth pony spoke before waiting for his leader to continue. Judging from the way he addressed her, it almost sounded like he knew Raven Feather personally, or at least more personally than most of the hooded workers. “I have a new task for you…” Raven Feather stated in an agitated tone while placing her hoof over her eyes. “See Cotton Quill over there?” She asked calmly while pointing over to the unicorn without looking. It was like she couldn’t even bear to see the white pony. Cotton Quill started breaking out into a cold sweat as the red stallion eyed him. “I want you to help him out with the next project of ours… He has proven incapable of operating by himself, so you will act as his overseer. Whatever plan he picks out, you make sure it works out and that he doesn’t screw anything else up.” Raven Feather shrugged in frustration as she put her hoof up to the side of her head to prevent herself from seeing the unicorn. “Yes Raven Feather, right away.” Shadow Mist nodded obediently before walking over to Cotton Quill and sitting down. Raven Feather then turned back to the scout pony and looked at him quizzically. She could at least count on him to be honest about how badly Cotton messed up. “How much energy did the creature gather before it was destroyed?” The black mare asked with a hesitant sense of curiosity. “A fair amount, but not as much as it would have had the elements of harmony and the slayer not intervened.” The stallion explained while staring straight ahead. Raven Feather felt her face tense up upon mention of Twilight Sparkle and her human guard dog. “The slayer… *Sigh* figures.” Raven Feather shrugged in frustration before turning back to Cotton Quill. “Look Cotton… as much as I want to string you up by your tail and hang you from the rafters, we need another plan put together. Just go do whatever you need to and have something in front of me within a few days. I am going to take the others and do a little research on our newfound annoyance.” She instructed to the unicorn with an agitated look on her face while getting up and motioning for the others to follow. “Right away Miss Raven Feather… I will bring you something as soon as possible.” Cotton Quill stated obediently as he watched the others leave the room. He then turned to Shadow Mist and motioned for him to follow as he went over to a book shelf to research. Chapter 20: History LessonTwilight and the others rushed through town on their way to the hospital. They couldn’t help but think of the worst case scenario as they imagined what kind of state the three fillies were in. Despite their grim thoughts, they pushed onward through the streets of Ponyville and tried to keep their hopes high. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of being left alone to their thoughts while walking through town, the group found themselves outside of Ponyville hospital. The ponies entered the building and eagerly walked into the lobby to find the reception desk. Sitting behind the desk while looking over some paperwork, was a white mare with a pink mane that the ponies knew as Nurse Redheart. She looked up to see the approaching group and gave them a courteous smile. “Hey guys, how can I help you?” Redheart gave her best friendly greeting, although it was clear that she was fairly tired from the tedious atmosphere of the job. “We’re here to check on three fillies that were brought here earlier; Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo.” Twilight immediately got to the purpose for their visit. “Oh them… they looked pretty banged up when they came in. We are just about ready to release the two with concussions. We had to put Applebloom’s leg in a cast, but it should heal up just fine.” The nurse pony explained with genuine happiness that the two fillies would be alright. “What about Scootaloo?” Rainbow Dash spoke up from beside Twilight, eager to find out what happened to the young pegasus. Nurse Redheart frowned slightly and sighed. This reaction made the ponies eyes widen in shock and concern. The white pony shook her head upon seeing the worried expressions on everyone’s’ faces. “Don’t worry, she is still alive. We have her in intensive care right now… they are giving her blood and fixing up her wounds. From the looks of it we’re going to have to keep her here overnight to watch her, but she should be alright to release tomorrow.” Redheart explained calmly to the group. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the good news. “I will arrange for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom to be brought out, and I will be sure to let you see Scootaloo tomorrow when she is better.” Redheart added while bending down to pick up some papers. “Can I stay here to see her when she gets out of surgery? She could use someone to keep her company after all that she’s been through.” Rainbow Dash suggested pleadingly. Nurse Redheart shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over for the day, and she won’t be out of intensive care for a while.” The nurse explained sympathetically to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash frowned while nodding understandingly. Twilight put a caring hoof on her shoulder before smiling to cheer her up. “It’s ok Rainbow Dash, we can come back to pick her up tomorrow. If you want, we could even get up bright and early to come see her in her room.” The purple mare suggested optimistically. This made Rainbow Dash brighten up a little bit. “Alright… but you better be up early if you’re coming with me. I plan on leaving right after I get up.” The cyan pegasus cheered up significantly while nodding her head with determination. Everyone was happy to see the cyan mare return her energetic personality. “Well swing by the library before you go… we need to ask Scootaloo a few questions about what she saw. And besides, I’m sure she would be happy to see us.” Twilight added to curtail the pegasus’s enthusiasm. She nodded in agreement before walking over to a chair to wait. The group followed her example and either sat down or wandered the lobby idly as they waited for the two fillies to be brought out. After waiting for a few minutes, the group finally noticed Nurse Redheart escorting Sweetie Belle and Applebloom into the waiting area. The two had a protective bandage wrapped around their heads to prevent them from causing any more damage, and Applebloom was wearing a thick cast on her back left leg that rendered her unable to move unless she awkwardly shuffled along. “Rarity!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in excitement before rushing over to the white unicorn and jumping into her waiting arms for a loving embrace. While the two were happily greeting each other, Applebloom tried her best to walk over to her waiting sister. Applejack smiled before deciding to meet the impaired filly half way. She knelt down and carefully wrapped her arms around the small earth pony for a hug. “How do you feel Applebloom?” Applejack asked sincerely while pulling her head back to look at the young filly. Applebloom wiggled her cast around and brought a hoof up to feel her bandaged head. “Well… this cast is kind of itchy, and my head still hurts a little, but other than that Ah’m fine.” The yellow filly stated with an upbeat attitude. Applejack was pleased to see that her sister still held her spirits high. The farm pony smiled at the cheerful filly before bending down further and beckoning her to hop onto her back. “Tell ya what sugar cube… since you can’t walk all that well right now, you can ride on my back until we get back to the farm.” Applejack suggested while patting a spot on her shoulder. Applebloom smiled at the offer before carefully walking to the side and trying to climb up. The filly struggled to hoist herself up. She kept hopping upwards with her good leg only to be met with a short fall downwards as she failed to support her weight and climb. Twilight saw the distressed filly and decided to help her out. “Here Applebloom, let me help you up.” Twilight offered while lighting up her horn and wrapping her magic around the young pony. The unicorn gently lifted her up and meticulously ensured that her casted up leg wouldn’t hit anything as she placed her on her sister’s back. “Thanks Twilight.” Applebloom smirked cheerfully at the unicorn before settling in and finding her balance. Applejack carefully stood up and walked back over to the group. “Well seeing as we’re all together, why don’t y’all come down to the farm with us and have dinner to celebrate the girls’ good health.” Applejack offered while looking around at the gathering of ponies, a dragon, and a human. “That sounds wonderful darling! You can count us in.” Rarity stated happily while looking to her sister for support. Sweetie Belle nodded cheerfully in response to the offer. “I’m in… I could use some good food and time with you guys.” Rainbow Dash added while rubbing her empty stomach. “Oooh we can’t have a celebration without calling it a party! I’ll run home and grab some treats and meet you down at the farm!” Pinkie Pie chimed in excitedly while rushing out the door and heading back home. The group couldn’t help but wonder how she got the energy to be so enthusiastic every day. “I would love to come.” Fluttershy nodded happily while smiling. Spike smiled for a moment before looking to Twilight pleadingly. She could obviously tell that he wanted to go with them. “Come on Twilight, can we go?” Spike looked at her earnestly and clasped his hands together to beg. “Please?” The dragon asked while trying his best to appear sincere. Twilight sighed sympathetically. She knew that they needed some off time, but she also knew that they needed to stay on top of the investigation. With what happened at the school still heavy on her mind, the unicorn wanted to finish her mission more than ever. “I don’t know Spike… I mean, we do need to find out more about those hooded ponies. The princess left me in charge of the investigation, and I don’t intend on letting her down.” Twilight explained while looking over to Tom for support. Much to her surprise, he chuckled before walking over to the rest of the group in favor of their decision. “Hey, no objections here… I could use some time to unwind after that ordeal, and so could you. Remember what Princess Luna said?” Tom stated in a lecturing tone. The unicorn seemed to be too focused on the case at hand and needed a break. Twilight sighed as she looked around her at the pleading faces of her friends. They all wanted her to go, and she even wanted to go herself. She finally decided to hold off the investigation, at least for today. “Alright, you guys win… I’ll go.” Twilight huffed in a defeated yet happy tone. Everyone cheered happily at the unicorn’s decision. “Then it’s settled. Let’s head down to the farm and get ready everyone.” Applejack announced to the group while making her way outside. Everyone followed the farm pony out of the hospital and stuck close to her as she made her way towards the farm. The band of ponies traveled through Ponyville as the sun rose higher into the afternoon sky. They chatted with each other happily to pass the time while walking. Eventually, the subject of the conversation turned to asking Tom more about his past and what he knew about being a slayer and humans in general. “Hey Tom, how many slayers have there been? Do you know?” Twilight asked curiously while walking behind the human. “Well… a slayer is chosen periodically throughout the ages. There’s usually a buffer period of about ten or so years between when the last slayer gave up their powers, and a new one is chosen. So with that in mind, there have been many throughout the years since the first slayer.” Tom gladly explained his knowledge on the matter. “Who was the slayer before you?” Rarity added to the subject. Tom thought for a moment about his knowledge on various slayers before responding. “Not sure… I have memories of varying intensity from different slayers. Most of it is acquired knowledge on the supernatural, but I can recall a few unique details on the lives of a couple of them. The slayer before me is a little fuzzy though.” Tom scratched his head curiously as he tried to sift through his memories. “What about the first slayer? Do you remember them?” Rainbow Dash chimed in from the back of the group. “Oh yes, that one I have the most knowledge of. I know about his origins, his powers, and most of his career as slayer.” Tom lit his face up with intrigue and nodded. The ponies grew silent and listened intently as the human prepared to share the story of the first slayer. “His name was Arthur Redwood. He was a prince that lived in an old kingdom in a time that was many years away from my own. Unlike most people who held royal power in the human world, he was a kindhearted soul that actually cared for his subjects, much like your princess does. He willingly enlisted to fight in the king’s army, and was even knighted for his many brave escapades. But where Prince Arthur was a valiant and noble person, his father the king was not.” Tom waved his hands around in an animated fashion to emphasize the points in his story. He was obviously enjoying the experience as much as the ponies enjoyed listening to him. “The king was a very greedy man. He was the type of person that would let those around him die as long as he could get away and keep his wealth, which is exactly what he did.” Tom furrowed his brow in disgust as he recalled the old king. The ponies shared his disapproval at the prospect of such a terrible person being put into power. “Why would someone do something like that?” Rainbow Dash was appalled by the sickening story. “As a ruler, you’re supposed to watch over your kingdom fairly, not sell it out!” She fumed in revolt before allowing the human to continue. “People back then believed that a person was royalty just because they were born into the royal family. I’m sure that happens still, but they took it to the point of being unable to do anything should the king or queen decide to abuse their power. Anyway, the kingdom that Arthur lived in was besieged numerous times by an army of bandits. They had amassed from all over the country to have a chance at claiming the king’s wealth. Throughout the many years that the bandits kept returning, the king grew tired of the costly need to constantly defend his people from the attacks. So one day, he decided to make a deal with the bandits.” Tom shrugged sadly as he could already tell the ponies did not like where this story was heading. Although he knew that they were aware that a slayer’s story wasn’t usually the happiest one. “The king would allow the bandits to enter his capital city and pillage as they pleased, and in return he would give them a part of his grand fortune to help him fake his death and let him escape with his closest circle of servants and guards to live in seclusion with his wealth. The bandits accepted, and so the king sent a covert order for his corrupt guards to replace the ones that would gladly stand for the crown. But when the king went to his family and lords with the plan, his son the prince did not agree with him. Arthur argued that it was a king’s duty to protect and watch over his kingdom, and that he was more worthy of the crown than his father. So the king gave his son an ultimatum… go with him and live peacefully without the duties of being royalty, or stay with the city and burn with it.” The human continued his story while trying to not drone on dully. The ponies were shocked by the events they were hearing, but continued to listen eagerly to learn what happened next. “Naturally Prince Arthur chose to stand and protect the city, and stormed out of the castle before his father could say anything further. He grabbed his armor and sword, and ran around the city warning as many people as he could. As night fell, the bandits swarmed throughout the city, burning houses and shops, and killing whoever they saw. Despite Prince Arthur’s best efforts, the king got away with his plan, and the bandits overtook the kingdom. The prince fought valiantly against the endless mass, but perished while trying to defend his kingdom.” Tom allowed the group to process the story for a moment before continuing. The tragic tale left many of the ponies hanging their heads sadly as they dealt with the sad story. Although the telling of the story made them gloomy, it did not bring them to tears like Tom’s past did. “That’s awful, how could anybody betray people like that? Let alone their family and subjects.” Fluttershy pouted with empathy as she imagined what it must have been like for the prince in his last moments. “I’m glad that Princess Celestia actually cares about everyone in her kingdom. I don’t think I could live in a place like that.” Twilight added sadly while reflecting on the good things in life that she often took for granted. “But as I said before, a slayer is born when a great tragedy has befallen the innocent, and someone has the will to stand up for what’s right.” Tom spoke up again to lighten the mood. “Prince Arthur’s willpower and desire to punish the bandits and his greedy father was so great, that he defied the laws of nature itself. He came back from the dead a few weeks after the dust had settled and the kingdom was nothing more than a gathering for traveling thugs and vagabonds. He was transformed into a harbinger of justice and retribution. He was gifted the power to make those that wronged him and his people pay… he had become the very first slayer. Although Prince Arthur’s abilities were geared more towards battling evil people rather than evil monsters, his vengeance was just as fierce as any slayer’s. He went across the country and delivered his merciless justice upon the heads of every single one of those bandits. He eventually was left with nobody else to slay, except for his father.” Tom carried on with a sense of excitement as he remembered the fierce drive of his predecessor. “He wielded his spirit weapon and cut a bloody path through the followers of the false king. He would let nobody get in his way as he marched forward into his father’s dwelling.” Twilight was suddenly struck with curiosity at a particular part of the boy’s story. “Spirit weapon? What is that?” Twilight asked quizzically while interrupting the boy briefly. Tom chuckled and summoned forth his claws. “A slayer’s spirit weapon is given to them when they are first reborn. My spirit weapon as you may have guessed is my claws. Whatever weapon is best suited to each slayer is forged out of their fiery lust for vengeance. The weapon is bound to them and represents their intense desire to enact justice upon the heads of wrongdoers.” Tom explained while articulating each of his fingers individually for the group to see his claws clearly. “That looks so cool!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed with intrigue as she leaned in closer to examine the claws. It occurred to Tom that the young unicorn hadn’t even seen the claws before, and most of the others hadn’t had a good look at them. The last time he let them examine them in detail was when he showed them off in the darkness of the Everfree forest. “I know right? I whip them out sometimes just to watch the flames appear and vanish like that.” Tom stated while rapidly making the claws vanish and reappear. He chuckled innocently as he marveled at the display of fire along with the intrigued ponies. “Anyway, before I get too distracted to finish the story. Prince Arthur’s spirit weapon was also claws… oddly enough, I can’t think of any other slayer that used claws as their spirit weapon other than me and Arthur.” Tom explained curiously. This made everyone hum with fascination. “Why do you think that is?” Twilight asked while puzzling over the subject in her own head. Tom shrugged his shoulders obliviously. “Beats me… there have been swords, axes, spears, and plenty of other unique things as spirit weapons, but no claws. Maybe Arthur’s spirit is the one that picks out those worthy enough to be slayer and he liked me best or something. Anyway, Arthur exacted his vengeance on his father, and then went on to carry out the duties that every slayer has. To destroy evil things… although not many supernatural creatures were around Arthur’s country.” The human finally wrapped up his story before looking around to see how everyone was reacting. “What a curious bunch you slayers are.” Rarity added with an inflexion in her voice to make the statement seem more like a compliment rather than an insult. “I’m certainly glad that you showed up when you did darling. We’re always happy to welcome someone new into our society.” She added while smiling back to the human. “Thanks Rarity… I was afraid I was going to be stuck in a world where I would be an outcast when I first got here, but I’m glad to see such a tolerant civilization took over after humans blew themselves up.” Tom commented appreciatively. “Hey Tom…” Rainbow Dash spoke up from the back of the group. “Yeah?” Tom returned while turning to look at the cyan Pegasus. “Why haven’t there been any pony slayers? I mean… you would think that after all these years there would have been at least one.” Rainbow asked curiously. This made everyone else intrigued as to why such a thing wouldn’t have carried over from the human world into Equestria. “I don’t think that any tragic deaths have resulted from evil creatures or people in Equestria. Either that or there hasn’t been a need for a slayer up until now. That might even explain why I’m here in the first place. Since a new slayer was unable to come into existence, whatever force that made the slayers must have had to send an old slayer forward in time to protect Equestria before anything catastrophic happened.” Tom reasoned while scratching his chin in thought. Everyone nodded in revelation as they agreed with the boy’s explanation. “Well whatever the reason, it’s probably tied to all the trouble happening lately around here. And those hooded ponies seem like our best bet for a lead.” Twilight added while trying to piece together the events of the past few days in her head. “Well let’s not worry about that right now… right now we should just focus on resting for a while.” Rarity stated to get the purple unicorn to stop thinking about the investigation. She sighed in frustration before nodding in agreement. The group looked ahead and saw the familiar sight of Sweet Apple Acres coming into view. The sprawling lush orchards of apple trees never ceased to impress the ponies as they took in their simple elegance. “We’re almost there.” Applejack looked back to the group and announced eagerly. The filly resting on her back breathed a sigh of relief as she thought about relaxing at home after her harsh ordeal at school. “Ah can’t wait to just curl up and take a nap.” Applebloom yawned tiredly as she looked back to her bulky cast. The restrictive casing made her feel very uncomfortable as she tried to maneuver her injured leg inside of it. “You sure you don’t wanna stay up a while for dinner sugar cube?” Applejack asked sweetly while smiling to the young filly. “Ah’m sure you could use a little food in yer system before you head up to bed hungry.” Applebloom sighed as she became aware of her empty stomach. With all the commotion she had almost forgotten that she didn’t have lunch at school. “Ah suppose it wouldn’t hurt to stay up a while longer.” The yellow filly shrugged in defeat as she looked back to the smiling group behind her. “Don’t worry Applebloom. You will have plenty of time to rest now that you don’t have to go to school for a few weeks while your leg heals.” Sweetie Belle commented while walking alongside her sister. “Me and Scootaloo will need to head back in a few days once they get everything sorted out down there. All things considered, you’re the lucky one out of all of us.” She added in an attempt to cheer up her friend. “Well Ah don’t feel lucky…” Applebloom sighed sadly in response to the ironic statement. She would much rather have to stay in school rather than deal with healing a broken leg. The group made their way through the farm and found themselves coming up to the Apple family house. Big Macintosh was standing outside of the house talking with a familiar pink pony that had a tote bag around her hips. “Pinkie…? How did you get here before us? I thought you were going to go pick up some treats from home?” Twilight stated curiously as the group walked up to meet the two on the porch of the house. Pinkie Pie giggled cheerfully while flashing her usual smile. “I did! It doesn’t take me that long to put together food for a party.” The pink mare explained nonchalantly while motioning to the bag she was carrying. “Ok then…” The purple unicorn added in slight confusion as she tried to work out how the pink pony could have made it all the way home and then beaten them to the farm. “It’s nice to see you guys looking healthier. The last time we were here you looked awful.” Twilight commented while observing the lack of any new scratches or bruises on any of the farm ponies. They even looked like they had gotten their energy back as there were no visible signs of fatigue in their faces. “Yep, we all slept like rocks last night thanks to you guys.” Applejack said while smiling at Tom and the purple unicorn. “Happy to be of service.” The human stated genuinely while returning a smile to the farm pony. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s head on in and get started!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly while rushing inside. “Uh… Ah guess we shouldn’t keep her waiting then.” Applejack shrugged while stepping inside and motioning for the others to follow. Everyone quickly filed into the house and found a spot to get comfortable. Chapter 21: DowntimeIn the apple family house, everyone was busy with something, even if it was just watching someone else work while relaxing. Fluttershy and Rarity were helping Applejack prepare a small dinner for everyone in the kitchen. Twilight was conversing with Tom and Rainbow Dash in the living room. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were sitting in the far corner of the room chatting amongst themselves. And Pinkie Pie had enlisted the help of Spike and Big Mac to string up streamers and other decorations. “Uhh… you know Pinkie, I think that we’re just having a small dinner together, so why do we need this many decorations?” The young dragon groaned while climbing on top of a table to anchor a set of the colorful ribbons. Pinkie Pie chuckled jovially while zipping around the room and placing decorations everywhere she stopped. “A little decorating can go a long way in making any gathering that much more fun!” The pink mare stated while leaning on a table with one of her arms to take a break. Spike shrugged in frustration while struggling to balance on the table and reach the spot needed for the streamer. “Key word being a little.” Spike muttered to himself while catching his balance to avoid falling. “I’m a bit more curious as to how you managed to fit that many decorations into one bag…” Tom looked over and inspected the vast array of colorful decorations littered around the room. “She has her ways of doing things, that’s for sure.” Rainbow Dash added while admiring the energetic pink blur moving swiftly around the room as she checked over each decoration to ensure it was properly placed. “There… that should do it.” Pinkie stated while nodding confidently at her work. “Ok boys… you can stop now, everything’s all set.” She exclaimed to her two workers around the room. Big Mac dropped what he was doing and stepped back. Spike finally placed the streamer he was wrestling with and teetered precariously on one foot from his attempts at gaining height. “Well that’s a relief…Whoa!” Spike cried out in surprise as he fell backwards onto the floor with a loud thud. Everyone looked over to the dragon as he took a moment to lie still on the ground to process his own mistake. “You know… I’m sure one of us could have gotten that for you Spike.” Tom remarked teasingly while observing Spike lift himself up. “Now why didn’t I think of that before…” The dragon shrugged sarcastically while shooting the human a bitter scowl, but he couldn’t deny that what he said was right. Twilight and Rainbow Dash chuckled briefly at the display in front of them. They gave the dragon a quick passing glance to ensure that he didn’t bump his head on the way down and tried their best to hide their smirks. Suddenly, Applejack walked out of the kitchen and looked around at the group scattered around the room. “Alright guys, dinner is ready. Come on in and grab a plate.” The orange mare announced happily. Everyone got up from their spots and walked into the kitchen. The group was met with Fluttershy and Rarity standing beside a table with a few pots filled with various foods. “What did you guys make?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while stepping forward to look at the array of cook ware spread out around the room. “We didn’t want to make anything too complicated, and we figured that Tom didn’t eat anything with hay in it, so we settled on some pasta and mashed potatoes as a side.” Rarity explained while pointing to the respective pots that contained the items. “And a few apple fritters for dessert... not to mention those cupcakes Pinkie brought.” Applejack added with a slight smirk. “Wow… this looks and smells really good.” Twilight commented while taking a moment to take in the aroma coming off of each container. “Well hopefully it tastes good too, now let’s grab a plate and head into the other room.” Applejack exclaimed while stepping forward to help hand out plates and serve the food. Once everyone had gotten a serving of each food item, they all went back into the living room and found a seat. The group immediately dug into the food. They were amazed at how much a few hours of studying, and for some a run in with a hideous monster, could make one so hungry. It may have been simple cuisine whipped up in a few minutes, but to the ponies, the meal tasted like it was a gift from the heavens. “This stuff turned out pretty good! You three make a great team of chefs.” Rainbow Dash stated while trying to prevent herself from eating too fast. “We all have experience with cooking for ourselves or our family, so I would like to think we could put something decent together.” Rarity commented while admiring her work and the happy ponies eating around her. “I should come over for dinner more often…” The cyan pegasus shrugged while reflecting on her own cooking skills. Everyone continued eating for a while, shared stories of the more unique things that had happened to them throughout their lives, and talked with each other for the better part of an hour. After an hour had passed, everyone got up and prepared to leave. “Thanks for dinner Applejack, it was nice to sit down and relax for a change.” Twilight stated while moving towards the door with everyone who wasn’t staying. “Sure thing. If you need any more help with your investigation, be sure to drop by and ask.” The farm pony replied while smiling and giving a friendly wave to her departing friends. The group stepped out of the house and started making their way through the farm towards Ponyville. Once they reached the edge of the farm, they started their way onto the road back home. The ponies all continued talking through their trip, until they reached the point where most of the group would have to split off to get home. “Thanks for coming with us to the school Fluttershy.” Twilight wanted to show her gratitude for putting the gentle pegasus through the mess back at the school, even if it was unintended. “And thanks for… you know.” The purple unicorn felt a little shame as she thought back to how Fluttershy had pushed her out of harm’s way only to take her place. “It’s ok… I know you would do the same for any of us.” The yellow pegasus smiled sympathetically to the unicorn and placed a hoof on her shoulder reassuringly. “You were just scared… we all were.” She shuddered as she remembered how she voluntarily faced up to the horrible creature. “I just hope we can figure out what’s going on before someone gets seriously hurt or…” Twilight stopped herself from thinking of the possible casualties that would inevitably come from another attack like that. She steeled herself and mentally decided that she would do everything in her power to prevent anyone else from getting hurt in any way. Fluttershy nodded in determination as she shared the unicorn’s desire. She then bid her goodbyes to the group and started down the path to her home. As the pegasus departed, Rainbow Dash turned to the group and let a tired expression fall on her face. “Guess I should be getting on home for the night.” The cyan mare stated while looking off in the direction of her house. “Just be sure to come by the library before you head down to the hospital. We would like to come with you and see her before she is released.” Twilight reminded the pegasus of her plans before she decided to take off. “Well I hope you plan on getting up early… because I don’t want to wait for too long.” Rainbow Dash added before getting a walking start and flapping her wings a few times to take off. She turned in the air and waved at the group beneath her before flying off into the distance. As the pegasus disappeared into the horizon, the group decided to continue into Ponyville. Eventually, the group whittled down as each pony reached their house. Before long, only Twilight and her two companions remained to keep her company. The three made their way through town and found themselves at the library once more. Twilight opened the door and made her way inside. She took a few moments to think of how she would spend the rest of the evening before heading up to bed. She walked over to the table with the symbol paper on it and sat down to look at it. “Are you really going to keep going over those? I thought it was pretty much pointless now.” Spike asked quizzically while standing near her to watch. “It is… but I might as well figure out how good these guys are at magic before we start poking around.” The unicorn shrugged as she affirmed her complete lack of progress in deciphering the symbols. “You know… all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Tom remarked jokingly. The purple mare looked to him with a confused expression. “Who’s Jack? Is that from something?” Twilight asked with a puzzled tone of voice. Tom shrugged upon realizing his lapse in memory. “Sorry… gonna take a while to realize that all the cultural references I know are out dated by a couple million years.” The human stated drearily. “Either way, he has a point there Twilight. Remember that Princess Luna is doing something to help us out in a few days? Well you should probably take that as a cue to rest for a while.” Spike suggested kindheartedly while removing the paper from in front of the unicorn. Twilight sighed and rested her head on her hooves. She didn’t want to admit it, but after the princess gave her the job of finding out what was going on, she felt important. Like she had a job to do, and doing anything else would be shirking that responsibility. “*Sigh* I guess…” The unicorn rubbed her temples in frustration before finally deciding to get up. She turned to look at a clock sitting on a wall and shook her head slowly. “Well… I think I’m just gonna head up to bed. We need to be up early to head down to the hospital anyway.” Twilight announced while getting up and heading to the stairs. “Yeah, I think I’ll join you.” Spike yawned tiredly as he started to make his way upstairs with the unicorn. The two turned to look at the human downstairs. “You coming, Tom?” Twilight asked curiously. “Sure, why not.” The boy replied while walking up to join them. The three retired to the bedroom and got comfortable. Even though she wanted to get right to sleep, Twilight found it hard to drift off. She tossed and turned for a while as she tried to get in the one position that would be good enough to force herself to wait until she slept. She sighed in frustration before finally giving up and looking over to see what her two friends were doing. Right below her bed, Spike had already drifted off to sleep. He was tucked away into the side of his basket and curling up beneath his blankets. Twilight couldn’t help but marvel at the adorable baby dragon as he peacefully slept. She wondered if she could find a spell to make him stay that cute and tiny forever, rather than grow up into a giant dragon. The unicorn then glanced over to the make shift bed on the floor a few feet away. Tom was lying face up with his arms under his head. He looked like he was thinking to himself while staring up at the ceiling before going to sleep. “Hey Tom…” The unicorn whispered loud enough to carry down to the human and get his attention, but quiet enough to not wake her sleeping assistant. The boy lifted his head up and looked surprised that the purple pony was still awake. “Hmm?” Tom hummed curiously in response. Twilight now had to think of a good reason for disturbing the human. Now that she thought about it, she just wanted to talk with someone to pass the time until she could fall asleep. “Sorry to bother you, it’s just…” Twilight mumbled while trying to formulate a reasonable question or statement. Tom hoisted himself up and half way out of his sheets. He then sat up and chuckled quietly to himself. “Can’t sleep?” Tom stated perceptively. Twilight wondered if he had terrific reasoning skills, or if she was just so obviously restless. “Yeah… I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind talking for a while, to get my mind off trying to sleep.” The purple mare said whilst sitting up and dangling her legs off the side of the bed. “Sure…” Tom replied while carefully getting up and fixing his bed. He then walked over and climbed up the ladder to the small loft area the unicorn was on and sat down on the edge of her bed a short ways from her. “So what’s on your mind?” Tom whispered quietly while giving her a knowing smile. Twilight was a little confused by the statement. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked quizzically while kicking her legs in the air to pass time. “If you can’t sleep, then something must be up. Usually it’s something that’s bugging you.” Tom said while trying to keep himself from growing too tired. Twilight thought about what the human said for a moment. It hadn’t occurred to her before, but she did have a few troubling thoughts swirling around her head, mostly having to do with the events of the past two days. “Well…” Twilight muttered quietly while deep in thought. “I’m just a little worried is all.” The unicorn’s statement puzzled the human. “Worried… about what?” Tom asked curiously while giving her a quizzical expression. “I keep thinking about the cause of all these new problems that keep popping out of nowhere. If it really is those hooded ponies behind all these strange events, then who knows what else they could be capable of?” Twilight spoke softly while glancing over to Spike with concern. The mere thought of the baby dragon being put into some sort of danger made her sick. “What if we can’t stop them? How many ponies would get hurt if they had their way?” The unicorn fumed with concern as she finally voiced her own thoughts on the matter. Before she could continue spiraling into a worried mess, Tom stopped the purple pony by placing his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. “Relax… We’re going to be fine.” The human said in a confident tone. Twilight was slightly relieved to hear that at least one person thought they were going to succeed. “Really…? You think so?” The unicorn asked curiously while lightening up her tense nerves. “Of course… Between you and me, I don’t think anything poses a real threat to Equestria.” Tom added reassuringly while trying to be enthusiastic to instill confidence in the unicorn. Twilight sighed sadly and lowered her head. She felt like she wouldn’t be capable of handling such an important job without cracking when things got more serious. “But you’re a warrior for justice picked out of an entire race of people for the sole purpose of battling evil… I’m just some pony with an aptitude for learning.” Twilight moped while resting her head on her hooves. Tom frowned slightly as he watched the depressed pony. “Hey… you shouldn’t think like that.” The boy’s surprised tone of voice made Twilight look up to face him. “You were hand-picked by the princess herself to handle this job. She didn’t pick you because she wanted to see if you could do it, she picked you because she knew that you were the right pony for the job.” He looked at her with a confident expression on his face. Twilight’s spirits were lifted slightly upon hearing the confidence the human had in her. She let a soft smile creep across her face before returning to the blank expression of somberness she had before. “I suppose you’re right… but what if I can’t do it?” Twilight asked with a bit of uncertainty still in her mind. Tom chuckled briefly before smiling at her. “Twilight… I ask myself that very question every day I wake up. Sometimes I’m not sure if I deserve to hold such an important power… what if I screw up? In my position, failure means letting a lot of innocent people down. But I still somehow find the drive needed to push me forward… and if a dork like me can handle something that important, I have no doubt in my mind that you can handle this.” Tom smiled warmly at her. Twilight laughed lightheartedly as she felt her usual bright demeanor returning. She felt more confident in her own abilities as she mulled over the human’s words in her head. “Thank you Tom… that really helped put things into perspective for me.” The purple mare stated serenely while giving a smile. “Not a problem… and if you ever get doubtful of yourself again, just remember this. You aren’t alone… you don’t need to shoulder everything by yourself, you have a great bunch of friends that would gladly do anything to help you out.” Tom added reassuringly while thinking about the unicorn’s odd group of friends. Twilight smiled even brighter upon taking the human’s words to heart. She knew that any of her friends would lay down their lives to help her, and she would gladly do the same in return. The unicorn then yawned tiredly. She couldn’t believe that she actually felt groggy for once. “Thanks… I think I’m gonna try to get to sleep again. It is getting late after all.” Twilight said in a sleepy tone while still projecting a warm smile to the human. Tom nodded cheerfully while getting up off of the bed. He then climbed down and walked over to his sheets before sliding under them. “Goodnight Twilight.” The human whispered across the room before turning over and snuggling into his pillow. The unicorn scooted her way to the top of her bed and worked herself under the covers. “Goodnight Tom.” Twilight whispered back before nestling her head against her own pillow. The warm feeling of her sheets combined with the softness of her pillow actually made the unicorn tired for a change instead of reminding her of how much she wanted to sleep. Twilight closed her eyes and laid still for a while before finally drifting off to sleep. The next morning, Twilight was up bright and early as she tried to get a good start to the day. She even managed to wake up before Spike did, although Tom was already up as per usual. After stirring the baby dragon from his sleep, the unicorn went downstairs and prepared for their trip to the hospital to visit Scootaloo and ask her about what she knew. The two gathered with the human downstairs and rushed around the library to find all of the things they would take. Twilight decided to take a few books for them to either read or give to Scootaloo to read so they could pass the time. She placed them in a bag and slung it over her side. After gathering all of their supplies, the three settled down and had a quick breakfast while waiting for Rainbow Dash to arrive. No sooner than the trio finished their meal, they heard knocking coming from the front door. “That’s probably her now.” Twilight observed happily while getting up to head to the door. The unicorn opened the door and was greeted by the cyan pegasus giving her a welcoming smirk. “Wow… you’re up early.” Rainbow Dash commented while stepping inside with her friend. “I would have expected to wait a few more hours at least.” She chuckled to herself while observing the active purple pony. “Hey now… we don’t get up that late. We would be getting up in like an hour anyway.” Twilight retorted in a friendly manner while looking over to Spike pleadingly for support. The dragon chuckled to himself for a moment before speaking up. “Yeah right… I would be getting up in like an hour. You on the other hand sleep like a rock for like three more.” Spike added cynically while smirking at the unicorn. “I sleep in like one time and you never let me live it down…” Twilight sighed in annoyance. Rainbow Dash and Tom shared a warm chuckle at the two bantering in front of them. “Alright… enough about who gets up first. Which by the way, I am beating all of you by like three hours.” Tom stepped in to put an end to the potential argument and to remind the two about their task at hand. “Anyway, we should probably get going.” Everyone nodded in agreement before returning their friendly smiles. They then made a quick double check of their supplies before heading out the door. As they were walking through town, the four chatted idly with each other to pass the time. The conversations informed Tom about several things in the Equestrian world, from social events like the grand galloping gala, to the Wonderbolts and how Rainbow Dash wanted to join them. After a while, Rainbow Dash turned her attention to the bag Twilight was carrying. She had been curious about it before, but hadn’t opted to speak up about it previously. “Hey Twilight… What’s in that bag you got there?” The cyan mare asked curiously while pointing to the bag around the unicorn’s hips. “Oh this…? I decided to bring a few books with us. We could be waiting there for a while before Scootaloo gets the ok to be released, so I took the liberty of bringing some entertainment. ” Twilight explained while looking back to the white bag dangling from her side. “Oh… good idea, I just hope we won’t be there long enough to go through too many books.” Rainbow Dash added while cringing at the thought of waiting for hours at a hospital. But if it was necessary to take Scootaloo home, she would have to do it. The group traveled for a few more minutes before reaching the hospital. They wasted no time and immediately went inside the main lobby of the building. After searching around the room for a moment, the four found Nurse Redheart walking back behind the desk from a door. Upon noticing the visitors, she smiled and waved them over to her desk. “Back bright and early I see.” Redheart stated in a friendly manner while observing the small group. “Yeah well, we weren’t kidding around when we said we’d be here as soon as we got up.” Twilight spoke up first to introduce the group. “Anyway, is Scootaloo able to be seen?” She asked curiously. “She’s in a room upstairs resting. We should be able to release her in a little while, but if you want to see her now I could lead you up.” Redheart suggested while pointing to a door off to the side. “That would be great, thank you.” The unicorn replied courteously. The white pony nodded before walking out from the desk and heading to a door. She turned and motioned for the group to follow her. Redheart led the four through the hospital and up to the second floor. After winding through various wings and corridors of the building, she stopped in front of a door and went inside. The room was a standard hospital room with a bed in the center and various other pieces of furniture for visitors. Sunlight streamed into the room through the windows on the far wall, and white curtains drooped down over the window sill and almost onto the floor. There were also a few cabinets and cupboards on the side to store the various effects of long term occupants. Lying on the bed and relaxing under the thick blankets was a small orange filly. She appeared to be bandaged around the waist and had numerous other small cuts that were healed up from the incident. Upon noticing Nurse Redheart approaching with visitors, Scootaloo sat up and smiled warmly. “Rainbow Dash! Twilight! You guys came all the way down here to see me?” The filly exclaimed excitedly as the group huddled around the bed. “Of course we did! You had us all worried for a while there Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly to the filly while observing the extent of her injuries. “That reminds me… how are Sweetie Belle and Applebloom doing? Did they make it out ok? I’ve been asleep for a while, and nobody has told me anything.” Scootaloo asked with concern for her two fellow crusaders evident in her face. Twilight smiled reassuringly before stepping forward to answer. “Don’t worry, they’re doing just fine. They both got mild concussions, and Applebloom broke a leg, but they are home resting now.” The unicorn spoke softly to ease the orange filly’s concerns. Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that her friends were safe. “Good… I got separated from them after everything that happened, so I was worried that they ran into that thing that was chasing us.” The orange pegasus shuddered upon thinking about what could have happened to her friends in her absence. “Speaking of which, we need to ask you a few questions about what you saw. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were mildly concussed, so I doubt that they would remember any fine details about the experience. Anything you can remember might help us.” Rainbow Dash spoke up to change the subject. Scootaloo nodded slowly before trailing her eyes off in thought. Nurse Redheart started walking back towards the door. “I can see you all are going to be here a while, so I’m going to head back downstairs. We should have the paperwork for her release done soon enough, so let me know if you need anything while you’re here.” The nurse explained while waving to the group and stepping out of the door. Everyone turned their attention to Scootaloo and waited to hear what she had to say. Chapter 22: Lights Out“Are you sure you don’t remember anything else?” Twilight asked sincerely while trying to sound less disappointed than she actually was. Scootaloo shook her head before sighing in frustration. She had tried her best to think of any details that stuck out to her, but failed to find many things noteworthy. “I’m sorry… but the only useful thing I can think of is a couple of names. There was a unicorn and a pegasus. The unicorn called the pegasus Raincloud, and the pegasus just called the unicorn Cotton. Other than that, you pretty much know what happened.” The filly hung her head sadly as she reflected on her lack of usefulness. The unicorn felt bad for putting the orange filly in a situation like this. She probably felt like she was worthless and couldn’t do anything to help. Thinking back to how the three girls were separated, Twilight figured that Scootaloo also felt powerless when it came to keeping her friends safe. “Don’t worry… I’m sure those names will prove extremely helpful to us in finding out who those hooded ponies were.” Twilight spoke in a sincere tone while giving the young pegasus a confident smile. Scootaloo slowly looked up to face the unicorn. “Really…? You think so?” Scootaloo asked in slight disbelief at the statement. Twilight nodded eagerly, causing the filly to smile softly. “I know so… before now we had nothing to even go on in terms of leads.” The unicorn added while looking to her trio of friends for support. Everyone nodded in agreement. Scootaloo smiled brightly upon hearing this. The thought of her actually managing to provide a useful piece of information after her ordeal made the filly swell with pride and happiness. Seeing the chipper attitude of the young pegasus made everyone else feel happy and relieved. “So how did you save me from that monster? I thought I was a goner when it cornered me in a room.” Scootaloo asked curiously while giving a brief shiver from remembering the intense fear she felt while running alone through the dark flooded corridors of the school basement. “We found you in the room those hooded ponies were in. You were lying unconscious right in the center of that strange symbol on the ground.” Tom explained to the young pegasus. “I do find it strange that the monster didn’t hurt you when you were unconscious… I would have thought for sure that it would have…” Twilight thought out loud, but decided to not finish her line of reasoning so as to not upset Scootaloo. “Who knows? Maybe it wanted to make a trap for us, so it kidnapped you to do so.” The human reasoned while scratching his head in thought. The mere notion made everyone uncomfortable as they thought about Scootaloo being at the mercy of that creature. “Well whatever it wanted, I’m just glad that nobody got hurt too bad.” Rainbow Dash added to get off the subject. Everyone nodded in agreement as they reflected on their luck. The group decided to drop the subject of what happened at the school and instead focused the rest of their stay on keeping the filly company to make her happy. Rainbow Dash chatted with the eager orange youngster to lift her spirits and give her a well-deserved moment with her role model. The cyan pegasus was surprised however when Scootaloo opted to hear more about Tom and his exploits. The orange filly seemed star struck as she asked question after question about the slayer and his previous accomplishments. Rainbow Dash was surprised to see herself feeling slightly jealous of the human, but decided to let it go and allow the filly to do whatever she wished. “And I’m telling you… the monster was as big as a house!” Scootaloo and the others laughed lightheartedly as Tom put on a show for the young filly. He was surprisingly good at putting a comedic spin on his stories, especially given the grim nature of his job. Just as they were starting to enjoy themselves, a quick knock at the door followed by the sound of someone entering interrupted the group’s fun. Nurse Redheart walked into the room and smiled upon seeing everyone in high spirits. “Sorry to interrupt you guys, but I thought I would let you know that we’re just about ready to release Scootaloo. We just need to give her one last checkup before we discharge her, so if you would be so kind, could you head downstairs and wait for us to bring her out?” Redheart asked courteously while still maintaining an assertive nature. “Awww….” Scootaloo huffed angrily and pouted while crossing her arms. “I was just starting to have fun too.” “Don’t worry kiddo. You can come hang out with me after we get out of here, and I’m sure Tom wouldn’t mind coming over to see us someday when he isn’t busy beating the crud out of every monster he sees.” Rainbow Dash smirked at the filly and placed a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to cheer her up. Scootaloo uncrossed her arms and changed her frown into a more blank expression. The promise of spending more time with the cyan mare was appealing to the orange pegasus to say the least. “Really?” The young pegasus asked curiously. Rainbow Dash nodded in return. This made the filly return a smile to her face. The group said goodbye to their young friend and turned to the patiently waiting nurse sitting in front of them. They then followed her out and through the hospital as they walked back to the lobby. Upon reaching the first floor and entering the waiting area at the front of the building, the group was greeted by a familiar orange farm pony toting her little sister beside her. “Applejack? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously as she walked beside the two. The orange mare smiled upon seeing her friends before sighing and turning to her sister. “Applebloom slipped on the stairs and hurt her leg again. We decided to come down and have it checked out, but not that many ponies have been through here to help us out.” Applejack droned in annoyance. Nurse Redheart went behind the front desk and immediately grabbed a pen and some paper to start writing them in. “Deeply sorry about the wait… we’re a bit under staffed at the moment due to not many cases coming in this month.” The nurse apologized sincerely for the lack of help for the two before turning to look into the door behind the desk. “Patches! You mind coming here for a minute?” She yelled into the back room. Before long, a grey stallion wearing a white shirt with a red cross on it came out and looked curiously at the nurse. “Yes Redheart?” He asked before glancing over to look at the group gathered around the front desk. “Applebloom here had a cast done for a broken leg. She fell off some stairs and might have hurt it again. Would you mind taking her over to a bed and looking her over for me?” Redheart asked gingerly while trying to look as sweet and cute as possible. Patches chuckled at the attempt to win him over by smiling sweetly. He then walked out from behind the counter and over to the filly standing on three legs to protect the casted one. “Sure, I’ll be over in bed three if you need me. Alright then… Applebloom was it? I’m going to help you walk over to a spot where you can rest and see if I can’t take a look at that leg of yours.” He bent down and smiled at the filly. Applebloom looked away shyly before finally smiling and allowing the pony to remove her from her sister to help her walk. The group watched as the two walked slowly to a wheelchair. Patches gently lifted Applebloom up and sat her in the chair while being careful not to hit her leg on anything. The two then walked off into the rest of the hospital before disappearing from sight. Nurse Redheart then picked up a few more pieces of paper and shifted them in her hooves to make them line up. “Don’t worry, I made sure someone will be looking over Scootaloo shortly. We should have her ready to leave before you know it.” Redheart stated eagerly to the group waiting in front of her desk. Everyone was relieved to hear that they would be able to leave soon. Twilight wanted to find Princess Luna again and talk with her about her plans for the investigation, as well as telling her about the two names she had gotten from Scootaloo. The unicorn decided to quickly make a note of her plan, when she turned to reach into her bag and found her side bare of any accessories. “Oh great… I think I left my bag up in Scootaloo’s room.” The unicorn sighed in frustration before turning to head into the hallway that lead to the stairs. She was suddenly interrupted by Spike walking in front of her and stopping her progress. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you.” The dragon volunteered while walking to the edge of the hallway. “Are you sure? I can get it just as easily.” Twilight said as she watched her assistant start down the hallway. The young dragon turned and smiled warmly. “It’s alright… I can get it.” Spike added with a friendly tone before turning and walking out of sight down the hallway. The unicorn was happy to see the young dragon being so eager to help out when needed. She remembered him being too young to even speak as if it were just yesterday. Deciding against going on a trip down memory lane, Twilight turned to converse with her friends until it was time for them to go. “So how did Applebloom trip anyway?” The purple pony asked her orange friend. Applejack shrugged as she was forced to address the incident further. “Ah think she got a little too eager while climbing downstairs. She was starting to get used to her cast, so she tried to find ways to walk faster with it. As you can see… it didn’t end favorably.” Applejack shook her head sadly as she went over the details of the accident in her head. “But at least she’s healthy otherwise. I don’t even want to think about how lucky we got considering nobody got hurt all that bad.” Twilight stated gratefully as she thought about the possible worst case scenario in her head. “Yeah… ugh, just the thought of somepony being cruel enough to do this to innocent children makes my blood boil.” Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth as she thought about the hooded ponies and what they did. Between attacking a school full of innocent children and almost killing her friends numerous times, the cyan pegasus felt nothing but contempt for them. “If you guys find them without me, be sure to give them a piece of my mind for me… right Tom?” Rainbow asked to the human who was leaning against the wall next to the desk. He looked up from his thoughts and nodded. “Right… I wouldn’t dream of letting them get away with t-” The boy paused suddenly and stood still for a moment while staring ahead. He then started coughing and wheezing. “Tom…? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked with increasing concern as she watched the human struggle to stop coughing. “Is he alright?” Nurse Redheart asked curiously while peeking over the desk to observe the human. “I don’t know… he has never done this before.” The unicorn stated nervously as the boy’s knees started shaking. Everyone rushed over to his side when they observed him collapse to his knees and coughing more violently. “Tom?! What’s wrong?!” Rainbow Dash asked urgently as she hovered her hooves near the human in preparation to help him in some way. “Are you okay?!” Applejack added with concern as she helplessly watched the boy cough for extended periods of time before managing to suck in a short breath. The constant heaves suddenly ceased as Tom paused in the air. A large amount of blue mist came out of his mouth causing the boy to expel any air left in his lungs. A more drawn out and harsh sounding version of the usual high pitched gasp erupted from Tom’s lungs. It almost sounded like an inhuman shriek was laced into the raspy sound as it hissed through the air. After the mist disappeared and the noise ceased, Tom took in several deep breaths and remained on his hands and knees while he rested. The ponies grew more concerned now that they knew the cause of the boy’s ailment. “What?! How can there be something evil here? I don’t see anything.” Rainbow Dash looked around nervously as she remained next to the human. “Well something must be here… Tom’s senses haven’t been wrong yet.” Twilight gulped nervously as she suddenly became much more uncomfortable. “Can someone please tell me what just happened?” Nurse Redheart asked with confusion evident on her face as she examined the boy to ensure that he was alright. Before anybody could answer the white mare’s question, a loud crackling noise erupted from around the room as several lights violently went out, causing everyone to jump. A whirring noise combined with the rest of the lights flickering a few times before going out signified the power being shut down. The room was suddenly split in two as half of the room was plunged into darkness while the other half was dimly lit by the sunlight streaming in through the small windows on the main doors. The hallways leading to the other parts of the hospital seemed to be steeped in a foreboding veil of pitch blackness in comparison to the low level of light in the lobby. “Great…the power went out.” Nurse Redheart fumed in annoyance as she failed to grasp the importance of the current situation. Meanwhile on the dimly lit side of the room, everyone was still gathered around Tom as they waited for him to catch his breath. “What did you feel Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously as she helped the slayer to his feet. He took a few moments to compose himself before answering. “I don’t know… I couldn’t identify it. All I know is that something very potent is all around us.” Tom spoke while still trying to catch his breath. “All around us… like throughout the entire hospital?” Twilight asked nervously as her mind raced to think of whatever horrific imagery she would be subjected to this time. The human took in a sharp breath of air and let his senses go off again to scope out the situation. Tom’s attempt at figuring out what was going on resulted in him coughing again as the blue mist came from his mouth in spurts. After composing himself he shook his head in defeat before turning to face the others. “Whatever it is, I can’t sense it long enough to analyze it without it overwhelming me.” The boy explained grimly. He was at a loss for solutions at the moment. The human’s lack of ideas only made the three ponies feel even more uneasy. “What in the hay are you guys talking about?” Nurse Redheart questioned the group in an attempt to find out what was going on. “That’s not important right now. We need to get everyone together first. We can’t figure out anything while the others could be in danger.” Twilight stated confidently while trying to ignore the creepy atmosphere that lurked in the many dark doorways on the other side of the room. “She’s right… Applebloom and that feller Patches are closest to us, so we should go get them first.” Applejack suggested as she thought about her sister being stuck in pitch blackness with a pony she didn’t feel comfortable with. “Nurse Redheart…?” Tom spoke over to the pony behind the desk suddenly. The white mare perked up as she heard herself being addressed. “Yeah?” Redheart asked quizzically and waited for a response. “Could you lead us over to where Patches and Applebloom went? I don’t think we can find our way around in the dark.” The boy requested while walking closer to the dark hallway where the two had disappeared to. “Sure thing, bay three is right through here…” Nurse Redheart paused in front of a dark hallway and motioned for Twilight to stay close to her to light the way. “Oh right… sorry.” The unicorn quickly walked up to the white mare and lit up her horn. The ray of light projected a short ways into the hallway before stopping just short of a wall of pitch black nothingness. Un-phased by the sinister looking hallway, Nurse Redheart walked forward and paused to wait for the others. Everyone quickly followed the earth pony through the darkened hallways of the hospital. After making a few twists and turns, the cramped corridor opened up into a larger room filled with curtains that separated the various beds that made up the medical bay. The curtains were mostly closed, with a few vacant exceptions being open. Nurse Redheart walked forward and peered into one of the bays. Discovering it to be empty, the white mare became very confused. “What…? They should be right here.” Redheart scratched her head in confusion before looking back and counting the various curtains to double check that she had the right one. “Patches… you in here?” She raised her voice to fill the entire room. However, the pony’s call was only met with cold silence. The others eyed around the room as Nurse Redheart went outside the bubble of light to search the rest of the area for the two missing ponies. Twilight hadn’t noticed it before, but the room had a strange eerie quality to it. Almost as if something was waiting to jump out and pounce on her and her friends when they least suspected it. “Hey Tom…” The unicorn whispered over to the human next to her so the rest of the group wouldn’t hear. “What’s wrong?” Tom whispered back once he got the signal that she didn’t want the others hearing them. “I don’t feel… I just feel uncomfortable being here. I feel like something is watching us.” Twilight said nervously while eyeing the darkness around them. The unicorn could almost swear that her light didn’t shine as far into the shadows as it had when they started down the hallway. The air around them was very cold as well. “Well I did sense something earlier… not sure what though. But judging from what I can manage to feel out right now, there doesn’t seem to be anything around us.” The boy explained while keeping a close eye on Rainbow Dash and Applejack as they hovered close to each other to the side of the room. “AH!” Nurse Redheart suddenly yelped in surprise from beyond the veil of light created by Twilight as a loud crash could be heard. The ponies darted their eyes to the source of the noise and watched nervously for any signs of the white mare being in danger. “Redheart? Are you alright?” Twilight asked with a slight sense of urgency as she waited for what seemed like an eternity for a response. Suddenly the pink uniformed nurse stumbled back into the light and appeared to be rubbing her shin. “I’m good, just tripped over a table… dang power outage.” The white mare cursed under her breath as she rubbed the last twinges of pain out of her leg. She then walked back over to the group and sighed in defeat. “I can’t find them anywhere… I even went out into the hall to search there.” Redheart stated her findings with a frustrated frown on her face. “Maybe they doubled back to the lobby and we missed them… Either way, let’s head back there and think about what to do next. This place is giving me the creeps anyway.” Rainbow Dash suggested apprehensively while glancing around the eerily dark and silent medical ward. The others nodded eagerly at the suggestion. They couldn’t wait to get back to a better lit area. -A few minutes earlier- Spike tried his hardest to not get lost through the seemingly unending hallways of the hospital. The dull white paint and carpeted floors seemed to blend together into a hazy maze of corridors. The only things keeping him on his path were the informal signs scattered around to tell him which wing he was in, and his own memory of how to get to Scootaloo’s room. “Let’s see… was it the first or second left?” He spoke to himself as he tried to figure out which way to go. It would be incredibly awkward if the dragon was forced to go back and ask for directions, so he pressed forward and winged it where necessary. Suddenly Spike came to a halt in front of a particular sign on the wall. It pointed down the hall and signified that rooms fifty through seventy-five were somewhere up ahead. Remembering the orange filly to be in room sixty-two, the young dragon smiled in satisfaction and continued along his path. “Fifty-two… fifty-four…” He started counting off room numbers as he made his way down the hall. The rooms were spaced evenly down the corridor with odds on the left and evens on the right. “Man… Twilight better appreciate me getting that bag for her… even if I did volunteer myself up to get it.” The dragon thought out loud to himself as he tried to break up the monotonous cycle of walking and counting room numbers. “Fifty-eight… fifty-nine… wait… what the?” Spike’s train of thought was suddenly derailed as he noticed the lights flickering around him. The bulbs seemed to strobe randomly down the hallway as they all dimmed and buzzed. Spike nearly jumped out of his scales when he heard bulbs shattering behind him with a loud pop. He turned around to see the lights going out in sequence down the hallway, causing a wall of darkness to approach him rapidly as each bulb either blew out or simply ceased glowing. The dragon backed up nervously as he watched the row of darkening lights reach and subsequently pass him, leaving him in pitch blackness. Spike couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he was suddenly deprived of light. Although the dragon was slightly afraid of the dark, being plunged into darkness in a hospital corridor made chills go down his spine. “The p-power must have gone out… nothing to get all bent out of shape for Spike.” Spike gave himself a pep talk to get his mind off the sudden eerie atmosphere. He then turned and felt his way through the hallway while keeping count of the doors in his head. “AHHH!” The silence of the dark hallway was suddenly broken by a high pitched shriek coming from a room just up ahead. The sound of the scream almost made Spike’s heart skip a beat as he tensed up upon hearing it. “That sounded like Scootaloo!” He exclaimed anxiously. Spike rushed forward while being careful to finish his count of doors until he reached what he determined to be number sixty-two. He quickly yet cautiously opened the door and peered inside. It was indeed the correct room, a shivering filly shaped lump under the blankets of a hospital bed told Spike as much. The filly was clutching the sheets over her head and shaking uncontrollably in fear. The entire bedframe was vibrating from the shaking mass on top of it. “Scootaloo?” Spike spoke softly with a sense of nervous concern. Upon hearing the dragon speak, the mass on the bed stopped moving around. Scootaloo quickly poked her head out from under the sheets and darted her eyes over to the door nervously. “Spike!” The filly shouted eagerly upon seeing the familiar form of the young dragon in the doorway. It was a bit easier to see inside the room as sunlight barely managed to stream in through the window. It was almost like something was blocking most of the light from coming in, leaving the room in an almost grey sort of dim light. “What’s wrong? I heard you scream from down the hall.” Spike spoke calmly to ease the nervous pegasus on the bed. He stepped away from the door and walked toward the middle of the room. “Wait… stop!” Scootaloo held her arm out frantically and waved it to prevent the dragon from moving any closer. Spike looked puzzled at the frightened filly, but heeded her warning. “What’s going on Scootaloo? Why are you so on edge?” The dragon asked with confusion and concern evident in his voice. “All of the lights went out suddenly, and I heard something under the bed. I could even see it moving from the sides!” Scootaloo resumed her frightened shaking as she pointed underneath her while staying squarely in the center of the bed. “Something under the bed…?” Spike repeated to himself while nervously looking to the dark void under the bed. Although he thought that the filly had just gotten scared of the dark and imagined something, the dragon couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he approached the bed. Scootaloo flinched an eye shut and looked away. She peeked out of the corner of her vision to barely keep an eye on the dragon as he cautiously pressed forward. Once Spike reached the side of the bed, he knelt down and mentally prepared himself for anything his own imagination could cook up. He gripped hold of the edge of the blankets as they hung over the opening to the bottom of the bed and clenched them tightly. After mentally steeling himself for the worst, Spike threw up the edge of the blanket and quickly jerked his head downwards to see what was under the bed. Having realized that he flinched upon making his move, Spike cringed as he slowly opened one eye to ensure that some hideous creature with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth wasn’t staring him down. The entire time he opened his eyes, he could feel his entire body tensing up in refusal to his actions. Scootaloo found it in herself to nervously peek over the side of the bed to check on the baby dragon. She was relieved, if not slightly shocked, to see Spike was still in one piece as he scanned the pitch blackness of the underside to her bed. Spike got up and wiped a droplet of sweat from his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief. He then looked up to the nervous filly and smiled. “See? Nothing… no monsters… no nothing.” He chuckled nervously to himself. The dragon probably felt just as relieved as Scootaloo did upon making the discovery. The filly frowned sadly as she started to calm herself down. “But… but I heard it.” Scootaloo muttered in disbelief as she recalled the vivid memory in her head. Spike softened up his cheerful expression to a more sympathetic one. “It’s alright… you were just scared is all. I would be amazed if you didn’t hear something under the bed if the room suddenly became dark like that.” Spike tried his best to lift her spirits. Scootaloo sighed before offering the dragon a small smile of her own. “That’s more like it… Now how about we head downstairs and- Ah!” Spike was suddenly interrupted by a loud scraping noise coming from under the bed. The dragon was abruptly knocked to the floor by an unseen force as something banged against the frame of the bed. “Spike!” Scootaloo cried out fearfully as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. A blurry shadow reached out from the black void of the bed and grabbed onto the hapless dragon’s leg. Spike was suddenly and violently jerked forward as his lower half was pulled under the bed. He yelped in surprise and desperately reached upwards to cling onto the bed frame. He managed to get a flimsy hold on the frame of the bed, but quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. Just as Spike accepted his fate as his grip began to slip, an orange hoof reached down and grabbed onto his arm. Scootaloo heaved as hard as she could as she wrestled for ground in her struggle with the unseen creature. She sweated as her muscles barely managed to keep up with the demand she was placing on them. Spike was slowly lifted upwards to the top of the bed. He feverishly grabbed for the side of the bed with his free arm and pulled. After what seemed like an eternity, the dragon was flung onto the bed as the shadow let go of his leg. Scootaloo pulled the dragon backwards onto the center of the bed and hugged him tightly against her, partly to actually hug him, and partly to keep him in her grasp. The two sat and looked at each other with wide eyes as they breathed heavily. “I hate to say I told you so...” Scootaloo impishly scalded the dragon as she let a tear roll down her cheek. In the heat of the moment, she thought that she would have watched helplessly as the dragon was pulled away by whatever that thing was. “Yeah…” Spike was at a loss for words as he thanked his lucky stars that he was still alive. He then looked over the side of the bed and eyed the way to the door. The pair heard a low rumble that sounded like some sort of terrifying beast was growling at them angrily for escaping. The two children nervously glanced over the side of the bed and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of a shadow moving back under the bed. The bed frame jolted as something moved underneath it before falling silent. “H-how do we get out of here without it grabbing us?” Scootaloo stammered nervously as their grim situation sank in. “Maybe… maybe Twilight and the others will find us.” Spike tried his best to offer a positive outcome to the frightened filly. He himself was feeling his muscles tense up with intense fear. “Yeah, and maybe that thing will climb up here and get us!” Scootaloo squeaked with fear as she anxiously watched the outline of the bed’s shadow on the ground for movement. "Don't give it any ideas!" Spike exclaimed fearfully as he stared at the bed with a terrified expression. He couldn't even bring himself to look over the side of the bed anymore. The dragon just stared at the sheets of the bed with a knot slowly developing in his stomach. He knew that something that would normally only be reserved for his worst gem induced nightmare was currently sitting a few feet underneath him, watching and waiting silently for the children to hop down or peer just a little too closely into the dark void under the bed. Chapter 23: Into the DarknessTwilight and the others quickly made their way back through the dark hallways on their way to the lobby. The hospital had been quiet before, but now that the power was out, the silent atmosphere was starting to get to the ponies. They could only hear the sounds of their own hooves clattering on the floor, along with the occasional soft breathing of someone nearby and their own heartbeat. Normally there was safety in numbers, but they didn’t feel safe at all in the eerie corridors. Once they saw a thin ray of light in the distance, the group rushed forward and eagerly burst into the lobby to get away from the darkness in the hall. After taking a brief moment to get over the tension of dealing with their own fears, the ponies looked around the lobby for any sign of Applebloom and the medic. “Ah don’t see them anywhere in here.” Applejack stated with increasing concern for her sister as she looked around the empty room. “They aren’t back here either.” Nurse Redheart shrugged sadly as she stepped out from the room behind the front desk. She was starting to get worried about the pair herself. “We need to find out what’s going on here… they didn’t just disappear into thin air did they?” Rainbow Dash asked grimly before looking over to her friends. Their grave expressions made her think about the possibility of her statement being true. “We better head upstairs and find Spike and Scootaloo before we lose track of them.” Tom reminded the group of the two children upstairs. Everyone grew more alarmed as they remembered their two friends being stuck upstairs with no lights. “You’re right… let’s hurry up there!” Twilight stated anxiously while ignoring her fears to walk off into the dark hallway. “Hold up!” Tom quickly rushed in front of the unicorn to impede her progress. “You can’t just go rushing off like that. We need to think logically about this… we already have two missing people, and the entire hospital is dark. Who knows what we could be dealing with?” He explained uneasily. The boy’s statement made Twilight gulp nervously as she thought more about heading off into the dark by herself. She cautiously backed up and walked into a better lit portion of the room. “What do you think we should do then?” The unicorn stated uneasily. As fearful as she was, she still wanted to do anything in her power to find the two children and keep them safe. “I think we should find some candles first… set up an area we know is safe before we go walking blindly into the fray.” Tom suggested while looking over to Nurse Redheart quizzically. Taking the boy’s hint, Redheart began thinking of where some candles might be stored. “I believe that we have some candles in a storage closet a short ways from here.” The white mare stated while walking to the front of the room to lead the way again. “Alright then… you, me, and Twilight will go get candles and any other supplies that might come in handy. Applejack, you and Rainbow Dash stay here just in case anybody decides to come to the lobby.” The human looked to each of the ponies as he gave them their instructions. Everyone nodded with determination as they willingly accepted the boy’s orders. Twilight stood beside Nurse Redheart and lit up her horn again to light the way while the white mare guided them. Before the three disappeared into the hallway on the right, they turned to their two friends and gave them a confident nod. “You two stick together alright? The last thing we need is for you to go missing on us.” Tom said in a half joking- half serious tone as the cyan and orange ponies waved to them. “You three worry about yourselves… we’ll be alright.” Rainbow Dash smirked to the farm pony, who offered a confident nod in return. Satisfied that the two wouldn’t do anything stupid while they were gone, the trio slowly made their way down the darkened hallway. The only noise in the lengthy corridor was the sound of hooves and feet clicking against the hard tile floor. The cold air of the hospital seemed to have been amplified eleven fold, causing the chilled floor to sting the ponies’ bare hooves. The three pressed onwards as the pink clad nurse led them through the twists and turns of the building. “I thought you said it was a short ways away. We’ve been walking for like five minutes now.” Twilight groaned in a mixture of annoyance and nervousness. The quicker she could get out of the unnaturally cold and dark rooms of the hospital, the quicker she could relax her progressively tightening muscles. “Patience is a virtue Twilight… and besides, walking is good for your heart.” Nurse Redheart retorted in a friendly manner while trying to keep track of where they were. The unicorn merely shook her head and sighed upon hearing this. “I think walking through a creepy dark hospital with who knows what lurking around the corner cancels out the benefits to my heart.” Twilight shrugged nervously while checking behind the group. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t alone in the pitch black halls. Nurse Redheart chortled warmly at the unicorn’s witticism. “Don’t worry so much Twilight. After all, there are no such things as ghosts.” Redheart added in an attempt to calm the purple pony’s fears. “I beg to differ… said the dead guy who hunts monsters for a living.” Tom stated just loud enough for Twilight to hear. She chuckled briefly at the boy’s lighthearted remark before cutting herself off after remembering their dismal surroundings. The group suddenly came across a more open room with numerous other open doorways. Set into the back wall was a door with a sign on it that read storage. Nurse Redheart quickly walked over to the door and opened it. Inside the small room were a few rows of shelves with various boxes and clear containers on them. More boxes were strewn around on the floor and up against the walls, making the dark room all the more hazardous to traverse. “Here we go… there should be some candles and maybe even a couple flashlights in here.” The white mare stated optimistically while scanning around the room to identify the various boxes. “Well… we better start looking.” Twilight shrugged as she eyed the large number of boxes crammed into the room. The three filed into the storage closet and started sifting through the contents of each box, all the while keeping an eye on the darkness outside the door for any signs of movement. Twilight was going through the bottom row of one of the shelves. She had already managed to find a box of batteries to use for any flashlights they would find. Upon finding a few candles in a plastic container, she jerked her head up to place them on a higher level and slammed her head into the metal beam of the shelf. “Owch…!” Twilight huffed in pain and rubbed the back of her head gingerly. “I need to stop hitting my head on things… at this rate I’m going to get a concussion.” She chided herself before looking around the room to check to see if her friends had noticed the embarrassing incident. As she passed over the doorway, the unicorn’s eye caught something that made her pause suddenly. “What the…?” Twilight was at a loss for words at the puzzling display before her. She could see that a thin line of darkness was obscuring the door and the wall. It was like her sphere of light had shrunk in size and now didn’t carry to the doorway, but the unicorn was sure she remembered seeing the door from where she was. Before she could elaborate on her thoughts, Twilight caught a glimpse of something else that surprised her. Out in the distance, presumably outside the now barely visible door, was a blurry shape sticking out of the shadows. It was like the silhouette of something was hanging in the air, as if a person was standing just outside the unicorn’s vision. “What’s wrong Twilight?” Tom’s voice suddenly brought the purple pony out of her daze. Twilight turned around to see the human shooting her a concerned look. By the time she turned back around, the unicorn noticed that the odd silhouette was gone. “I… I thought I saw something outside, but now it’s gone. And I’m pretty sure my light was shining out a bit farther than it is now.” Twilight explained while pointing out the change in position of the wall of darkness that used to be outside the door. Tom walked over to the door and observed the cut off of light. “You sure…? I don’t see anything weird.” The human stated while poking his head out of the door and taking a look around. “I don’t know… maybe I’m seeing things, but I definitely know that my light shined to the door from where I’m standing now.” Twilight shrugged with worry as she focused harder on her magic to project her light farther. Much to her surprise, the increased brightness of the light didn’t seem to do anything to pierce the darkness. “That can’t be good…” The purple mare muttered grimly as she looked to the human with worry on her face. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here… how many candles do we have?” Tom asked with mild urgency as he stepped away from the door and back into the light. The boy’s question was swiftly answered by Nurse Redheart dropping a box down onto a shelf in front of him enthusiastically to make a loud noise. “I got like three or so, along with a couple of flashlights. And with what Twilight found over there, it looks like we have around six candles.” Redheart explained to the pair with a satisfied tone. “Alright, not bad… now let’s get going. The faster we find the others, the faster we can find out what’s going on.” Tom exclaimed while gathering up the supplies into one box and picking it up. “Are you sure you can carry that Tom?” Twilight observed the human straining under the weight of the box and struggling to move. “I can easily lift that for you.” She suggested kindheartedly. “I’m fine with it. And besides, you need to focus on keeping your light on. I’ve got a feeling that whatever is going on, it has something to do with the dark.” Tom shrugged while trying to maintain his balance as he wobbled out the door. The unicorn nodded in agreement before walking out with the human while being careful to keep all the members of her party inside the sphere of light she was creating. Nurse Redheart took the lead once more and began guiding her two companions back through the dark. The group had started to notice a change in the atmosphere around them. It had gotten much colder and eerier since the last time they had wandered into the interior of the building. Even Nurse Redheart, a pony who was typically against believing in such things as ghosts and monsters, was beginning to feel uneasy and apprehensive about going any further into the blackness in front of them. Twilight was forced to bite her lower lip to prevent herself from making a frightened noise. She was certain that she could see things just outside the reach of the light. As if someone were watching them from around corners and inside doorways they passed in the dark. She looked to Tom nervously for any sign that he could see the vague figures she was seeing. The sight of the human eyeing around them uneasily made the unicorn unsure of whether she should feel relief or fear. “We should be close to the lobby now… shouldn’t be much longer.” Nurse Redheart announced to calm everyone’s nerves, including her own. “Well that’s good to hear. I was-” Twilight’s statement was interrupted by the sight of her horn flickering on and off for a split second. The odd occurrence started happening more frequently, as if a light bulb were going out. “Umm… Twilight, I hate to be painfully obvious, but your light seems to be going out.” Tom said with increasing nervousness as each flash of the light briefly left them in pitch blackness. “What…? How is that possible? I’m concentrating as hard as I can on it!” The unicorn was almost panic stricken as she tried to solve the problem on her end. While the purple mare was struggling to maintain the flow of magic to her horn, a sudden noise carried from across the hallway. It sounded like the quiet scuffling of feet against the floor. The noise would start in one place, stop for a few moments, and then start in a completely different direction. It was like there were numerous people around the group that were each taking single steps in sequence. “I think we need an alternative source of light… like right now!” The human stated urgently while putting the box down on the ground. He fumbled around with a flashlight and some batteries while trying to join the two together as quickly as possible. He flicked the switch on the flashlight upwards, but the only thing that happened was the loud click of the mechanism moving. “Oh come on, who stores dead batteries?!” Tom cursed the group’s bad luck before quickly ejecting the useless batteries and scrambling to get another set. Meanwhile, Twilight was at a loss for thoughts as to the cause of her light dying on her. It seemed like nothing she did had any effect on the stream of light as it struggled to stay on. “Hurry up Tom! I don’t know how much longer I can keep the light going!” Twilight’s voice was starting to crack as she darted her eyes around fearfully. The frequency of times she saw silhouettes in the darkness around them seemed to increase as she could practically see one every time she turned around. Tom flicked the switch on the flashlight once more, causing a satisfying beam of light to shoot out of the glass top just as Twilight’s horn fizzled out. He waved the beam of light around them rapidly to view the entire hallway. The cone of light cut through the dark much farther than the unicorn’s centralized bubble of light could, illuminating the entire corridor. The group looked around nervously for any signs of something else being close to them. Much to their surprise, the trio failed to see anything out of the ordinary as the human scanned the light back and forth around them. “Huh…? But I could have sworn that I heard something.” Twilight stated with a confused expression as she started to calm herself down. The three breathed a collective sigh of relief as they once again had a source of light. “You did… I heard it too.” Nurse Redheart spoke quietly as she tried to slow her racing heart. “Maybe whatever is going on is fear based… It could be making us see and hear things that aren’t really there.” Tom tried his best to offer an insightful solution with his knowledge on the paranormal. “At least I hope they aren’t really there.” The unicorn gulped nervously as she tried to channel magic back into her horn. Much to her surprise, the light on her horn came back on and projected as it normally did. “Maybe you should rest for a little while. If we’re going to search upstairs for Spike, Scootaloo, and any other people, you might need to use your light there.” Tom suggested while shaking the flashlight to recommend it as their primary light source for the moment. “I guess you’re right…” Twilight shrugged at her own apparent mess up before letting her horn dim. She couldn’t imagine how she could have lost control over her magic like that. Without delay, the group started walking forward to make their way back to the lobby. After a few short minutes of walking that felt like an eternity, the trio finally came out of the dark and into the lobby. They were immediately greeted by Applejack and Rainbow Dash smiling and waving at them from the far wall of the room. “Hey guys…. What are you doing all the way over there?” Twilight asked curiously while observing the numerous chairs and sofas in the waiting area to their side. Instead of making use of any of the comfortable seats, the two were huddled together at the far end of the room with their backs to the wall. “We wanted to stay as far away from the hallway as possible.” Rainbow Dash explained ominously while walking over to greet the trio. “But… why would you-” Before Twilight could finish her question, the cyan pegasus pointed to the ground behind them. The unicorn gasped as she noticed what her friend was directing her attention to. The group hadn’t noticed it upon rushing into the lobby, but the edge of the darkness that used to just connect the two adjacent hallways was now substantially farther out into the lobby. It seemed to defy the physics of lighting and shadows as it jutted out unnaturally into the room. “We noticed the shadows were moving towards the rest of the room a little while after you left. That, along with all of the noises we heard, made us back up to over by the entrance where it’s brightest.” Applejack explained apprehensively as she looked down both hallways for any signs of movement. After taking a few moments to observe the edge of the light and comparing it to memory, Tom quickly walked over to the front desk and sat the box down. “Let’s hurry up and get these candles set up.” The human suggested with determination as he pulled a few candles out of the box. The group watched the slayer with intrigue as he used his powers to imbue each candle with energy. He set aside each deep blue candle he created into a growing pile, and before long he had transformed the entire box. “What are you going to do with those?” Nurse Redheart asked quizzically as she observed the human setting a candle down on the corner of each wall leading to the two hallways. Seeing that Tom was busy arranging the candles in their proper places, Twilight decided to explain to the white mare. “He is setting up some blessed candles to keep evil things out of this room.” The nurse raised an eyebrow curiously at the unicorn’s explanation. She had never imagined seeing something so bizarre when she came to the hospital that morning. “Evil things… like what? I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary aside from a few noises, and we have been through most of the first floor.” Redheart stated doubtfully. She didn’t want to seem harsh, but she was the type of pony who thought that it wasn’t real if she couldn’t see it with her own eyes. “There’s something going on… I’m sure of it. The power going out suddenly, the change in atmosphere, me sensing something, it all points to something paranormal, and I would wager those hooded ponies from the school have something to do with it.” Tom stated with a serious expression as he finished placing the candles. He then turned to the group and looked at Twilight thoughtfully. “You ready for me to light them up?” The unicorn asked to be sure that everything was set up correctly. Tom nodded to her and stepped back to give her some room. The purple pony walked up to each of the six candles placed at the corner to each entrance and exit to the room. She then concentrated for a moment on each and lit the candles on fire. After the unicorn ignited the final candle, a bright pulse of blue light surged through the room. After the light faded, the space between the candles rippled and shimmered as the blue force fields took shape. Much to the surprise of the ponies, the edge of the darkness that had been creeping into the room suddenly receded back to its normal position. The light coming in from the entrance seemed to intensify as well, bathing the room in more light and shifting the cold atmosphere to a more warm and comfortable one. “Wow…” Applejack was awestruck as she observed the difference in the atmosphere of the room. She felt that the blue flame of the candles had provided a comforting distance between her and the dark and eerie openings of the hallways. “This place feels a lot less creepy now… kinda like it did before the power went out.” Rainbow Dash stated as she walked up to the edge of the candles and stared into the black abyss of one of the corridors. “Still getting an eerie vibe off of the dark places though.” “Alright… now that we have a safe area to bring people to, we need to focus on finding the others.” Tom said with a determined look on his face. He then looked over to Nurse Redheart. “Redheart, how many staff and patients are in the building?” He asked in a serious tone and waited for an answer as the white mare thought about it for a few moments. “Like I said earlier, it has been a pretty slow week for us here. Scootaloo was the only patient we had staying in a room, and the only staff on site currently is myself, Patches, and this other nurse Daisychain.” Redheart explained apprehensively as she thought about her coworkers being in danger. “And where was she the last time you saw her?” The human questioned solemnly as he walked over to the box of supplies and started fidgeting around with them. “She was upstairs actually… she was getting ready to give Scootaloo her last check up before we released her... Y-you don’t think something happened to her do you?” Redheart adopted a more concerned expression as the weight of the situation finally became clear to her. She wanted to remain blissfully oblivious of the grave situation she was in, but seeing the serious expressions on everyone’s faces and thinking more in depth about the sudden disappearance of two ponies made the white mare think more critically about her current predicament. “Don’t worry… we will find them.” Twilight said reassuringly to the upset earth pony. She looked around to her friends, who all gave a determined nod in return. “Alright everyone, here’s what we’re going to do.” Tom finally stopped messing around with the supplies and pulled out two flashlights. He then walked over to the group with a confident expression and gave Rainbow Dash and Nurse Redheart the lights. “Everyone except for Applejack is going to head upstairs to search for the others. We’re going to sweep each room we find to see if anyone has taken shelter in them.” The human instructed to the ponies before walking over to the threshold of the candles. “What am Ah going to do if you’re not taking me with you?” The farm pony asked curiously. The boy paused and turned around. “You’re going to stay here and hold down the fort so to speak...” Tom stated simply to the orange mare before turning back around. The human’s statement shocked the farm pony slightly. “All by myself…? Are you crazy?” Applejack asked rhetorically while nervously staring outside the protective barrier. Tom smiled reassuringly before turning around to face the ponies once more. The orange mare’s fears were justifiable, but he was confident that she would be safe. “Don’t worry, you will be perfectly safe inside the confines of the candles. I wouldn’t ask you to stay if I thought you would be in any danger... Besides, we need someone to stay here just in case someone wanders by.” The human explained calmly to ease the farm pony’s concerns. Applejack felt a little more confident, but still wanted to help search for her sister and the others. She shrugged before offering an accepting nod. “Now that we all have a plan, are you guys ready?” Tom asked with a more serious expression. The three ponies looked at each other with a slight sense of apprehension. After taking a moment to think about their friends being in danger, everyone steeled their nerves and adopted a more determined expression. “I’m ready whenever you guys are.” Rainbow Dash stated bravely while stepping forward to join the human next to the edge of the hallway. “If it means rescuing a couple of helpless children… I’m in.” Nurse Redheart gripped her flashlight confidently before walking forward to join the others. Only Twilight was left standing in the lobby next to Applejack. The others looked to the unicorn pleadingly as she decided what to do. Twilight was apprehensive about going out into the darkness again, but then she thought about Spike and Scootaloo being scared and alone in the dark while who knows what kind of horrible monster roamed around the halls. The image of the baby dragon and orange filly in her head gave the purple pony confidence. “Let’s go… we’re not going to get anywhere by standing around here.” Twilight said with a determined smile. Hearing the unicorn’s sudden bravery made everyone surprised and joyful to see her stepping forward to join the party. After giving their orange friend a confident wave and smile, the four stepped out of the protective barrier and made their way down the darkened hallway to find the stairs to the second floor. Chapter 24: What Lurks in the Shadows?The search party diligently made their way around the other side of the building to reach the stairway that would lead them upwards. The journey to Scootaloo’s room had taken the group what seemed like a few minutes earlier, but now that the power was out and the atmosphere around them had shifted into a cold and foreboding shroud, the journey through the dark halls and rooms was taking the ponies what seemed like an eternity. Twilight took the lead with her horn shining brightly into the dark corridor in front of the group, Nurse Redheart stayed close to the unicorn to ensure that she was going in the right direction, while Rainbow Dash stayed near Tom at the back of the group. The ponies darted their eyes around nervously as they marched on in silence. Their spines tingled and their muscles tensed as they anticipated some horrible monster lurking around every corner or hallway they passed. Finally the group found themselves standing before the door that led into the main stairs of the hospital. Despite Twilight’s best efforts to open the door silently, the hinges creaked and moaned as the door slowly opened into the tight landing of the stairs. The ponies cautiously went inside and surveyed their surroundings. The light from Twilight’s horn illuminated the entirety of the small shaft, save for the shadows cast from the light being blocked by the stairs further up. A thin metallic railing separated the group from the steep drop off of the stairwell. Taking a quick peek over the side of the cold metal bars, Twilight could determine that the stairs only descended one level into another landing for the basement. “I didn’t know this place had a basement.” Rainbow Dash observed curiously as she leaned onto the railing next to the unicorn. “Yeah… we have a lot of our heating and electrical machines down there. There’s supposed to be a backup generator that should have kicked in… but clearly that didn’t happen.” Nurse Redheart sighed as she cursed the misfortune that had befallen her recently. “That might be a good place to investigate the cause of this blackout after we find the others. Maybe we’ll find another symbol down there.” Tom speculated with slight intrigue as he imagined the possibility of progress. Twilight shuddered at the thought of heading into another dark basement. She shook her head defiantly to rid her mind of the eerie thoughts. “I hope it goes better than the last basement we went to.” The unicorn stated gloomily while eyeing the lower floor anxiously. “I hope it’s a little less flooded with ice cold water…” Tom remarked as he pictured the amount of time it took his clothes to dry from the time he spent in the school’s basement. “Enough talking about the basement for now…” Rainbow Dash stated while looking upwards to the spiraling stairs above the group. “We have enough of a hard task in front of us without worrying about how scary it will be down there.” The others nodded solemnly before starting their ascent up the stairs. After a brief climb, the group was suddenly at the second floor landing outside the doorway back into the hallways. The ponies gathered around the door and pressed their bodies against it to peer into the small window set into the door. “It’s too dark to see anything in there… It’s like my light can’t shine through the window.” Twilight observed curiously as she tried to position her head in such a way that her horn would have a better chance at shining through to the other side. “Twilight… I can see your breath.” Rainbow Dash said with a morbidly intrigued tone. The unicorn backed her head away from the window and stared in front of her face for a moment to verify the pegasus’s claim. Much to her surprise, she noticed a light mist shoot out from her mouth as she exhaled. “I can see yours too… it’s freezing up here.” Twilight exclaimed while wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing her shoulders to create warmth. The group quickly realized that the air had suddenly gotten much colder once they reached the second floor landing. “All the more reason to find the others and get out of here as fast as possible.” Tom stated with determination as he grabbed the handle of the door and pushed it open. A blast of even colder air flooded into the stairwell as the door slid open. The group could barely move forward as their muscles tensed up from the cold, but they somehow managed to step into the dark corridor and close the door behind them. “S-sweet Celestia… it’s even c-colder out here than it is in there.” Rainbow Dash stammered as she tried to manually stop her body from shivering to no avail. On top of the decrease in temperature, the entire atmosphere had changed from what the ponies had experienced downstairs. While they were exploring the first floor, the ponies felt apprehensive and nervous, like they were being watched from down the hall. But the dark and cold corridor they currently found themselves sitting in made them feel like they shouldn’t even be there. Every fiber of their bodies told the ponies to turn back and flee to the safety of the lobby. The anxious band dreaded the thought of taking any step further into the darkness, like they were convincing themselves to walk further and further into a foreboding dark tunnel out in a haunted forest. Twilight wanted so badly to turn around and leave the searching up to Tom. She felt like she wasn’t cut out for facing her fears and pressing forward, but then she thought of Spike being just as scared as she was. The images of the baby dragon drifting around in her head gave the unicorn confidence. “Let’s hurry up and get this over with.” Twilight said with false determination as she forced herself to step forward despite her feelings. The group was surprised to see the sudden bravery displayed by the purple pony. Rainbow Dash and Nurse Redheart walked forward, if only to keep up with the unicorn and her sphere of protective light. The group made their way through the hallway for a short way before reaching a set of doors with numbers on them. After quickly inspecting the numbers on one of the doors, the group determined that they had come across a stretch of patient rooms. “Alright, let’s break off into two people per side and search these rooms.” Tom instructed confidently while walking over to the left side of the hallway. “What…? But there are so many.” Rainbow Dash stated pessimistically while observing the pattern of rooms and concluding that it went on for a long distance. “We don’t need to go in and search every inch… we just need to give each room a passing sweep to make sure nobody is hiding in there. Now come over here Rainbow Dash, we’ll need a flashlight on this side to scan the rooms.” The human beckoned for the cyan pegasus to come over to his side of the hallway to join him. Rainbow Dash gripped her flashlight confidently before walking over to the boy. The four made their way down the hallway while methodically opening each room door and sweeping the inside with their flashlights. This pattern continued for what seemed like an eternity until they reached the end of that particular section of rooms. The ponies then pressed forward down another hallway in search of more rooms to search through. “About how many patient rooms are on this floor Redheart?” Rainbow Dash shrugged in annoyance as the group came across another set of rooms. “Around fifty or so…” The white mare replied while opening the first door on her side and looking inside with her flashlight. “Scootaloo is in sixty-two, so with any luck we’ll find Spike and Daisy there as well.” She stated with a hint of optimism while still trying to sound realistic. “I hope so… I can’t imagine what it must be like for them to be in this place by themselves.” Rainbow Dash stated gloomily while taking note of her own sense of nervousness about the dark. She sighed sadly before walking over to another door and looking inside. Much to her surprise, the cyan mare noticed something off in the corner of the room by the window. “Hey… I got a pony over here!” Rainbow announced with excitement while waving her friends over. Cowering in the dim light of the window was a yellow pony with stringy black hair. She wore the usual pink outfit that a nurse would wear, with a heart shaped string of daisies as a cutie mark. “Daisy!” Nurse Redheart exclaimed happily as she rushed into the room. The yellow pony looked up from the floor and gave a joyful smile upon seeing other people coming into the room. “Redheart!” Daisychain squeaked in a mixture of relief and happiness as the white nurse gave her a quick hug before helping her to her feet. “I’m so glad you’re alright! I was starting to get worried that something awful might have happened to you!” Nurse Redheart smiled warmly at her colleague while observing her emotional state. The yellow mare seemed to be shaken up by something and was visibly tensing up from her nerves being strung out so much. “I was on my way to do that checkup you asked me to do… when the lights suddenly went out. I thought nothing of it at the time, until I heard noises and saw things around me in the darkness.” Daisy shuddered as she recalled her terrifying encounter. “I ducked into the first room I could find that had a window and huddled up by the light.” She was almost on the verge of tears as if she was still convincing herself that she was safe now. “You’re going to be ok now… we’ll take you somewhere safe.” Rainbow Dash spoke softly to console the frightened nurse. She gave her a sincere smile and a look of confidence to ease her fears. Daisychain looked around at the group of people smiling at her. Although she was puzzled by the sight of the human amongst the row of ponies around her, she felt much better knowing that she was no longer alone. The group ushered the shaken up nurse along with them as they walked out of the room. After they got back out into the hallway, the ponies took a moment to look at the frightened yellow pony and think about their next course of action. “I think we should take Daisy back downstairs. She seems like she is too frightened to help us out.” Nurse Redheart suggested while observing the jilted pony looking around nervously. “But… what about that filly over in sixty-two? She could be in trouble right now! You shouldn’t delay helping her just because of me.” Daisy exclaimed in a short burst of bravery. Everyone looked at the timid pony sympathetically. They knew that she wanted to help them find the others, but they also knew that she should rest downstairs where it was safe. “Don’t worry… we can do both. You will head downstairs with Redheart and Twilight, while me and Rainbow Dash head over to room sixty-two and find Scootaloo and Spike.” Tom suggested confidently while looking to the cyan pegasus for support. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement while waving her flashlight around. Twilight was a little apprehensive about leaving the search for the two children, even if it was just for a few minutes to deliver another pony to safety. She trusted in Tom and Rainbow Dash, but wanted to be involved herself to give her own personal best effort to find the two. After looking at the yellow mare for a moment, Twilight felt empathetic for the nurse. She was clearly scared out of her wits, but also wanted to help. The unicorn saw a little bit of herself in the frightened pony. She wanted to help her friends no matter the circumstances, even if it meant facing her worst fears. “He’s right… we’ll find them, you can be certain of that. But for now, we need to get you somewhere safe… come on, let’s go.” Twilight stated while walking back towards the stairwell and beckoning for the two to join her, Daisy hesitated for a moment before deciding to walk forward to prevent herself from being enveloped in darkness. Nurse Redheart quickly followed the two, leaving Tom and Rainbow Dash alone to watch the three disappear around a corner. “I guess it’s just us now...” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously as she kept her flashlight trained in front of her. She felt much more uncomfortable now that there were considerably less people around her to make her forget about her surroundings. Tom noticed his companion staring uneasily into the dark void around them. He felt a little uncomfortable himself due to knowing little to nothing about their current situation. “Don’t sweat it… I can handle anything stupid enough to attack us.” The human stated reassuringly. The cyan pony felt a little more at ease upon hearing the slayer’s lighthearted remark, but still had shivers going up and down her spine from their eerie surroundings. “I hope so… otherwise I’m taking this light and leaving you up here.” Rainbow said jokingly. The two laughed jovially as they walked down the dark hallway, the pegasus felt happy to get her mind off of the fear gnawing at her. Twilight led her two companions through the halls on the way back to the stairwell. Having memorized the way back, the unicorn freed Nurse Redheart to comfort her friend as they marched on through the dark corridors. The unicorn was having an internal struggle with her feelings on leaving the second floor. She wanted to come back up and help find the two children herself after she dropped off the yellow nurse, but she knew that it would be pointless to venture back out into the darkness when Tom and Rainbow Dash would have no difficulties in finding the room Scootaloo and Spike would be in. “Why the long face Twilight?” Nurse Redheart’s voice snapped the purple pony out of her thoughts. The unicorn looked back to the white mare to see her with a concerned frown. “I’m fine… why do you ask?” Twilight asked the nurse curiously. “You’ve been looking upset ever since we left the others.” Redheart stated sympathetically while looking at the unicorn with a puzzled expression. Twilight sighed and looked off to the side for a moment. She then looked back to the two ponies behind her. “I just feel a little upset over having to leave finding the kids up to Tom and Rainbow Dash. It’s not that I don’t trust them... I just…” Twilight paused for a moment while thinking of the right words to say. “You want to be there to make sure.” Daisychain spoke up suddenly from beside Nurse Redheart. Twilight was surprised to hear the timid pony speak up. She had been quiet for the entire time they had been walking. “I know the feeling… it’s why I became a nurse. You want to be able to help your friends, and to give your own effort in making sure they’re safe.” The yellow mare sounded very earnest and had a sincere look on her face. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Between everything that’s happened recently, I’m just not sure if I have what it takes. As student under the princess herself, I feel like ponies should be able to rely on me to keep them safe from things they don’t understand.” The unicorn was happy to hear that someone else understood her frustration. She felt that if she couldn’t protect Equestria from some unknown magical threat, then who could? “Well that Tom fellow seems to know what he’s doing. I’m sure that he will find them in no time flat.” Redheart stated while thinking back to the level-headed nature she had seen the boy display. “I hope so…” Twilight sighed while looking down sadly as she thought about the two children being alone somewhere in this dark and cold place. “Are you sure he’s trustworthy?” Daisychain asked quizzically. The yellow mare’s question caught Twilight off guard. “What do you mean?” The purple unicorn retorted with a surprised and confused tone in her voice. “I didn’t mean anything bad by it, but from what I know about humans, they were known to be violent and hateful creatures.” The nurse elaborated in a sincere voice to make her previous question seem less hostile. The unicorn hadn’t given the boy’s motivation much thought. After he had saved her and her friends lives, she had assumed that he had good intentions. And after learning more about his past and personality, Twilight was certain that he was a good person. “Not all humans were bad… sure they sometimes did bad things, and there were a few exceptions… but Tom has proven that he is a kind and caring individual.” Twilight explained confidently to the two behind her. They were surprised that she was so adamant about defending a person she had only met recently. “Then you should relax… he and Rainbow Dash will definitely find them.” Daisy stated reassuringly while offering a friendly smile. The unicorn shrugged her negative thoughts off before returning a soft smile to the two nurses. The three pressed on through the hallway before making a sharp right turn to get to the corridor that led to the stairwell. The ponies were relieved that they were almost out of the overtly cold environment of the second floor. “Whoa!” Nurse Redheart exclaimed in surprise as her foot landed on a loose object on the floor and slipped, causing her to pause for a moment to regain her balance. Twilight and Daisy turned around to see the white mare regaining her composure as she stood on the edge of the sphere of light emanating from the unicorn’s horn. “You alright?” Twilight asked with mild concern as she observed the nurse getting back up from her lowered position from slipping. “Yeah… just tripped on a bottle or something….” Redheart stated while reaffirming her feet to ensure they were planted solidly. Twilight was relieved to see that the white nurse had not fallen on the floor and hurt herself from slipping. She started to turn her head back in front of her when she suddenly noticed something that made her face pale with confusion and fright. “What…the…?” Twilight muttered under her breath while trying to process what she was seeing. Behind Nurse Redheart was a tall blurry figure standing in the darkness. The unicorn couldn’t make out enough shapes of the silhouette to determine its appearance, but she could see the rough outline of what appeared to be a torso and an arm turned sideways as if it were arching towards her. “What are you staring at Twilight…?” Redheart asked in bewilderment as the unicorn stared behind her in shock. Twilight blinked her eyes shut a few times to ensure that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. She grew even more fearful when she moved her head around and realized that the shadowy figure wasn’t just a trick of the light and in fact had depth. Before the unicorn could react and call out to the white nurse, the figure suddenly disappeared from view while jerking forwards into the shadows towards the group. Redheart cried out in surprise as her body was violently pulled backwards, sending her to the floor as her back legs were pulled out from under her. “Redheart!” Twilight and Daisy screamed in unison as the nurse was pulled out of the bubble of light completely. The only thing to alert them to her presence was the sound of her shrieking in fright and struggling to gain a hold on something along the ground with her front legs. As the hapless nurse was yanked down the hallway by her back legs, her flashlight crashed to the ground and flickered on from the button being hit. The beam of light arched at an angle down the hallway, illuminating the terrified white mare with her legs being held together in the air as if they were being grasped. Much to the surprise of the horrified onlookers, as soon as the white pony was lit up by the flash light, they couldn’t see any signs of anything near her as her body suddenly fell to the floor. The nurse sprawled onto the floor from the force of the impact. She scooted her body backwards before pausing and looking around her frantically. “Wh…w…wha…” Redheart stammered fearfully as she darted her head around to search for her attacker. Twilight and Daisy walked forward a few steps cautiously in preparation to help the white mare. “Redheart! You need to get up and run!” Twilight exclaimed frantically to the dazed nurse as she mentally prepared herself to charge forward to pick her up. Before Nurse Redheart had a chance to react to the unicorn’s instructions, one of her legs that had been sticking out of the beam of light was suddenly pulled taught by an unseen force. “AHH!” Redheart screamed loudly as her body was violently yanked towards the edge of the light. She desperately grabbed onto the edge of the wall and held on for dear life as the force pulled on her forcefully. The white mare groaned in pain as her muscles started tearing from her attempts at clinging to the wall. Daisychain suddenly bolted out of the sphere of light provided by Twilight. She ran out into the darkness and hopped over the flashlight in an attempt to get to her coworker. Just before the yellow mare reached the edge of the wall where the nurse was holding on, Redheart cried out in fear as she was pulled off of the wall and down the other hallway into the darkness. The yellow pony skidded to a halt and reached out in vain to make an attempt on grabbing her friend. She backed up in fear as she suddenly heard the noise of feet scuffling on the ground beside her. The nervous nurse backed up into the broader part of the flashlight’s beam and turned around to look to Twilight for advice. “Daisy!” The unicorn cried out before starting to run over to her. She stopped mid stride as she noticed a rather large silhouette in the darkness between her light and the flashlight’s. Twilight and Daisy looked at each other uneasily as they tried to think of a way out of their grim predicament. “What do I do?” Daisy stated while on the verge of a panic attack as she stared pleadingly at the unicorn for help. “I think it doesn’t like the light! Just stay there and…” Twilight trailed her voice off as the flashlight started to flicker. The two ponies looked between the flickering flashlight, the multiple shapes looming in the darkness around the yellow mare, and each other as they felt their nerves tense up. “Twilight…” Daisy stated sadly while giving the unicorn a frightened expression. Before she could say anything further, the flashlight flickered off one last time and submerged the terrified nurse in darkness. The unicorn tried to step forward enough to illuminate her frightened companion, but it was too late. Twilight could only listen in horror as the sounds of the yellow mare screaming and smacking against the wall and floor pierced through the dark corridor. Before the unicorn knew it, the waning noise of the nurse screaming as she was pulled down the hallway died down, leaving Twilight alone. “Daisy?!.... Daisy…?” Twilight noticed her voice cracking from fear as she called out in vain to see if the nurse would somehow call back to her. She almost forgot about the various silhouettes looming around her in the darkness. The purple pony started backing up nervously in an attempt to get to the stairwell, but she was interrupted by the sound of something stepping forward behind her. She turned her head to see a figure standing just outside her sphere of light. It appeared to be staring at her intimidatingly as it stood in the middle of the hallway. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat when the figure in front of her disappeared and the loud noise of something stepping all around her made her back into the wall out of fear. Chapter 25: The Boogieman ComethRainbow Dash sneezed loudly, causing her human companion to jump in brief fright. The pegasus sniffled while trying to ignore the tickle surging through her nose to prevent another outburst. The cold atmosphere around the pair was starting to get to the cyan pony. “Warn a guy before you do that next time.” Tom stated nervously while trying to lower his skyrocketing heart rate. Rainbow Dash offered him an apologetic expression while rubbing her hair in embarrassment. “Sorry… I think the cold is starting to make me sick.” Rainbow said while shivering occasionally. The boy looked at the freezing pony sympathetically. “It doesn’t feel that bad to me.” Tom stated in a poorly made attempt at getting her mind off the cold. “No wonder… you’re wearing sweats for crying out loud.” Rainbow Dash huffed in annoyance while giving the human a forceful nudge on his side. Deciding against making any further comments, Tom continued down the hallway in silence while looking at the passing room numbers. Noting their progress, the human nodded in satisfaction before turning to his companion. “We’re at fifty now… shouldn’t be much longer.” Tom announced optimistically while offering the pony a hopeful smile to lift her spirits. “I wonder how they’re doing… they must be scared out of their minds.” Rainbow Dash droned sadly while thinking about the filly and dragon being left in this eerie darkness for so long by themselves. “Well so far we haven’t found any ravenous monster that wants to eat us… so they should just be afraid and not in danger.” Tom suggested to try and put a positive spin on the situation. Rainbow Dash could only wonder how he had the capacity to be lighthearted in this dismal and foreboding atmosphere. “You’re just the picture of optimism aren’t you?” Rainbow asked in a jokingly sarcastic way. The boy chuckled at the cynical pony before offering her a smirk. “I like to think of myself as a glass half full kind of guy.” Tom remarked playfully. The pegasus rolled her eyes before focusing back on the darkness around them with her flashlight. The pair walked down the string of doors in the hall while counting the numbers on them to keep track of their progress. They were starting to get used to the creepy feeling they were getting from their surroundings. It was like Rainbow Dash was starting to get the immunity to frightening situations that Tom doubtlessly had built up by that point. The pegasus eagerly glued herself to the side of the hallway to pay attention to the doors. She stared at the passing numbers and started a mental countdown of how long she thought she would be up on the second floor. Just as she passed by door sixty, Rainbow Dash was pulled from her thoughts by a noise coming from behind her. Her ears instinctively perked up and she froze in place. The noise sounded like someone taking a step and shuffling their feet along the ground. The cyan pony whipped the flashlight around and feverishly scanned the beam of light back and forth down the corridor. “What’s wrong?” Tom asked curiously with mild concern. Rainbow Dash gave the hallway one last search before sighing and turning to face the human. “Could have sworn that I just heard something behind us… but I guess not.” Rainbow said uneasily with a paranoid expression. Tom let his senses go off purposefully a few times to check their surroundings. He coughed forcefully a few times before realizing that he was still being overwhelmed by the darkness around them. “I can’t seem to feel anything around us except for this stupid blackness… but Twilight said she heard and saw things earlier before we had an incident out in the hallway, so be on your guard.” Tom instructed in a more serious tone. The pegasus was unnerved by the slayer’s statement, but nodded solemnly. Before the two could employ their meticulous awareness of their surroundings, they found themselves in front of room sixty-two. Rainbow Dash immediately put her ear to the door to listen for any signs of the two children inside. Unsatisfied with her findings, she opened the door and cautiously poked her head and flashlight through the opening. The light immediately caught two colorful shapes on a hospital bed. The pair were surrounded by darkness save for a small patch of light coming in from the window at the far end of the room. “Rainbow Dash!” The orange shape on the bed squeaked in joy upon seeing the pegasus enter the room. The cyan pony needed no further confirmation that the children were in fact on the bed and rushed into the room. “Spike! Scootaloo! I’m so glad you guys are alright!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed joyfully while rushing up to the bedside and wrapping the baby dragon and orange filly in a tight hug. They gladly accepted the hug while forgetting for a moment about their frightful predicament. “Rainbow Dash! I’m so glad you’re here… I thought we were going to die in here!” Scootaloo exclaimed while on the verge of tears. She burrowed her head into the pegasus’s cyan coat and let out a few sobs of relief. Rainbow Dash patted the filly on the back tenderly as she allowed her to vent her emotions for a few minutes. Spike shuddered as he dealt with his own mixture of emotions internally. He knew that everything would be alright now that the two were there to rescue him and his companion. “Don’t worry we’re going to get you out of here.” Tom spoke reassuringly to the two as he walked forward into the room. Scootaloo suddenly pushed herself away from the cyan pegasus and adopted a more concerned expression. “There’s something under the bed!” Scootaloo exclaimed urgently while directing her attention back to the source of her problems. The pegasus seemed confused by the filly’s statement, but given their current situation and how frightened Scootaloo seemed, Rainbow Dash gave the thought consideration. “Something under the bed…? How do you know?” The cyan pony asked with a twinge of nervousness in her voice as she looked to her feet apprehensively. Scootaloo started frantically trying to put words together to explain, when she was interrupted by Spike speaking up from beside her. “I thought the same thing when I came in here… even checked under there to be sure, but then something tried to grab me and pull me under there.” The dragon explained fearfully as he was concerned for the pegasus being so close to the bed. Before anybody could elaborate on their thoughts, a noise suddenly came from the underside of the bed. It sounded like something was scuffling against the floor and frame of the bed, making an eerie noise that sent chills up everyone’s spine. Rainbow Dash gulped nervously as she hesitantly lowered her eyes to the floor. She felt her muscles tensing up defiantly to prevent her from shifting her head downward to examine the source of the noise. “Tom… do you see anything?” Rainbow asked in a fearfully cold tone as her entire body seized up in terror. The pegasus was forced by her stiffness to keep tense eye contact with the two frightened children on the bed. The human carefully knelt down to avoid making any sudden movements. He peered under the bed and tried to scan the darkness for any signs of movement. Failing to see anything amid the black void, Tom shrugged in frustration as he realized what he would need to do. “No, I don’t… it’s pitch black under there. We’re going to need to use the flashlight.” Tom said apprehensively to the nervous pegasus. Rainbow Dash in turn cursed under her breath. She then looked over to the flashlight she had set down on the bed. “Are you serious?! I don’t want to look under there!” The cyan mare yelled quietly as she tried to remain as still as possible. “You won’t have to… I’m going to need you to jump up on the bed and throw me the flashlight.” The boy clarified in a more serious voice while steeling himself for his own task. The noise under the bed was showing no signs of ceasing, giving the pegasus no doubt in her mind that this was a dangerous situation. She looked to her two friends on the bed for support. The children simply scooted aside to give her room and gave Rainbow Dash a frightened stare. “Alright… I’ll do it quick like a band aid.” The cyan pony gave herself a pep talk as she rehearsed the action in her mind. Unfortunately for her, the drawbacks of rehearsing an action in one’s mind allows for one’s imagination to get in the way and also rehearse how every single detail can go wrong. After nervously shaking her head to rid herself of all negative thoughts, Rainbow Dash quickly leapt up and onto the bed all at once. The impact of the adult pony on the mattress created a loud thud that rocked the entire frame. Before the creature under the bed had a chance to react to the new stimulus, the pegasus quickly grabbed the flashlight and chucked it at the waiting human. Tom effortlessly caught the small object and bent down while turning it on in one swift motion. The three on the bed anxiously watched the slayer as he rapidly scanned the flashlight under the bed, but were surprised to see that Tom was taking longer to react than they anticipated. “What the…?” The human exclaimed in bewilderment. The others looked at him with confusion evident on their faces. “What do you see?” Scootaloo asked in a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. The boy merely blinked his eyes a few times to ensure that they were not failing him. “Nothing…. There’s nothing down there.” Tom stated in disbelief as he watched the beam of light from the flashlight come out of the other side of the bed. Nothing but a few dust bunnies sat on the bare floor of the opening. “What?! But we all heard it! Spike didn’t just get grabbed by nothing!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock as she tried to process the situation. Spike and Scootaloo seemed just as confused as the cyan pegasus as their jaws hung open in disbelief. Tom double checked his findings and shrugged in annoyance. He then got up and looked around the room. Taking note of the unnatural amount of darkness in the room, the boy walked over to the window and observed the amount of light coming in. “What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously as she watched the human look back and forth between the various dark areas of the room. He then suddenly turned to face the group with a frustrated expression. “Maybe something about the darkness is causing hallucinations of fear… It does seem to be reacting oddly to the light.” Tom stated while pointing out the strange position of the shadows in the room. The three on the bed tilted their heads curiously as they noticed the unnaturally thick darkness at the front of the room. Spike and Scootaloo had been too preoccupied with their frightening predicament to notice the change, but the light from the windows had been steadily decreasing its reach as the shadows crept closer to the other side of the room. “Wh… why is it so dark in here?” Spike asked in bewilderment as he observed the now eerie far side of the room. Tom walked into the center of the room uneasily as he mulled over all of the information he had to construct his theory. “We had some experience with this before… even before you and Applejack noticed the shadows in the lobby moving. We heard things moving around in the darkness around us, and Twilight’s light went out without her knowing why.” The boy explained while looking back to Rainbow Dash. “Whatever is going on… the shadows seem to be slowly snuffing out every source of light.” He clarified the obvious while contemplating any other theory he might have. “So… there are no monsters?” Scootaloo asked nervously while trying to convince herself that she would be safe. Tom turned around to face the group while standing at the other side of the room. “I don’t think so… I’m pretty sure all of this strange darkness is causing us to see and hear things. We just need to reverse whatever spell is causing this before these hallucinations get worse.” The human said confidently while giving the three a reassuring smile. Rainbow Dash was relieved to see the two children loosening up and regaining their calm demeanor. Suddenly, she remembered something that made her even more confused at the human’s explanation. “Wait… if there are no monsters, then where did Applebloom and that other pony go?” Rainbow asked with a puzzled expression. Scootaloo seemed confused to hear that her friend had returned to the hospital. “Applebloom is here? I thought she was home resting…” The filly turned to Rainbow Dash and waited for an explanation as to why her friend would be in the building. The cyan pony turned to the curious filly and sighed. “She tripped at home and hurt her leg again… she was getting it checked out, but we couldn’t find her or the pony she was with.” Rainbow Dash explained with worry in her voice as she decided to be truthful to the young pegasus. Tom furrowed his brow in frustration as he thought about the complication to his explanation. He was starting to get concerned for the safety of the filly and the pony that was with her. “That is odd… I don’t think hallucinations can make anyone disappear… but I don’t sense any-” The human paused suddenly as he noticed the three on the bed suddenly became very pale and frightened. They were staring at the boy fearfully as they stammered while trying to say something. “What’s with you guys?” Tom asked anxiously as he noted the petrified trio on the bed. Rainbow Dash managed to point her hoof behind the slayer as she tried desperately to form words. “B-behind you!” The cyan mare choked on her own voice as she fought through her fear to warn the human. Standing behind Tom was a large black shape in the dark corner of the room. It was hard to make out any features, but the figure was clearly visible as it loomed towards the human with its body arched. Before the boy could turn around, the figure shot forward in a blur and clamped a gnarled hand down on his shoulder. In one swift motion, the creature shot backwards towards the wall, sending Tom reeling backwards as his legs flew out in front of his body from being flung off balance. “AHH!” Tom yelped in surprise as he was forced to the floor in the corner of the room. The human’s head slammed into the intersection of the two walls, sending him into a daze. The ponies watched fearfully as the figure suddenly reappeared in the darkness in front of the slayer. The dark silhouette glided forward and loomed over the human menacingly. It suddenly bent down and grabbed the boy by his throat. Tom coughed and sputtered as the creature lifted him up and constricted its bony fingers tighter around his neck. “Leave him alone!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a burst of bravery as she hopped down from the bed to assist the human. The shadowy figure turned its blurry body around and seemingly gave the pegasus a stern expression with its obscured face. Before Rainbow Dash had a chance to reach the two struggling in the corner, the creature suddenly jerked sideways as it seemingly disappeared into a blur while moving through the shadows. It took Tom with it as it rushed to the other side of the room. The shadow flung the human against the wall, causing a large hole to be made in the plaster as the boy’s body crashed into it. Tom struggled against the beast while throwing a few punches at it. The shadow seemed to ignore each attack the human managed to send its way. Rainbow Dash was shocked to see the slayer in such distress. The mere sight of the boy being choked against the wall made her bubble up with a severe rage that overrode any sense of fear she felt from the terrifying monster. She leapt forward and jumped onto the creature in an attempt to distract it. The shadow seemed to pay no attention to the pony on its back as it continued to strangle its prey. Frustrated at her lack of success, the pegasus wrapped her arms around what she could loosely identify as the silhouette’s neck and pulled back as hard as she could. Scootaloo and Spike cheered on the brave pegasus as she wrestled with the beast to get it away from Tom. Much to their dismay, the shadow bucked its head backwards to hit the pony, sending her sliding on her back as she flew towards the floor. Rainbow Dash rubbed her forehead as she tried to regain her senses. She looked up in a daze to see how bad she had been knocked around, only to see the shadowy beast had turned around to face her while holding Tom in its other hand. “…!” The pegasus felt her body tense up in fear as she felt the creature staring at her with its unseen eyes. The ghostly shadow stepped forward towards the hapless pony while watching her menacingly. The two children on the bed watched in horror as Rainbow Dash was caught in a petrified trance that left her shivering in fear while staring at her attacker. Before the monster got close enough to touch the cyan pony, Tom lifted his hand in front of him weakly and steadied himself. A ray of bright light suddenly shot out into the shadow’s back, causing it to stumble forward as it recoiled from the pain of the light. Rainbow Dash managed to catch a brief glimpse of what the monster actually looked like amid the short flash of light. The beast appeared very humanoid in nature, being dressed in what seemed to be a very worn and faded looking grey hoodie that covered the top half of its face. Its skin seemed unnaturally pale as it clung tightly to its gaunt body. The creature didn’t appear to have a visible nose, having instead a smooth patch of pale skin above its equally pale mouth which sat in a dull straight line to form a blank expression. The sight of the creature made the pony yelp in fear as she backed up to desperately gain distance from the monster while it adjusted to the darkness once more. The shadow had dropped the human to the floor in its attempt at getting away. Tom lifted his hand up in preparation to attack again. Before the slayer could fire off another beam of light, the creature jerked downwards rapidly as its form disappeared into the thin veil of shadows that covered the front of the room. Tom and Rainbow Dash were left staring at each other in shock through the newly open space between them. Coming to her senses, the cyan pony decided to check up on the human’s health. He appeared to be very short of breath, with a red mark where the creature had clamped down onto his throat. “Are you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked with concern as she looked around the room feverishly to find where the beast had gone. “I’m fine… but where did it go?!” Tom replied in a slight panic as he scanned around them while arching his body in preparation to fight from any angle. The darkness in the room now filled the group with a newfound sense of dread as they had a glimpse of what lurked inside of it. “I don’t know…” Rainbow Dash stated nervously as she darted her eyes around fearfully. She had a nervous knot developing in her stomach. She didn’t feel safe, and by extension she didn’t feel like Spike and Scootaloo were safe, and that was unacceptable to the cyan pony. She steeled her nerves for venturing back out into the dark hallways of the hospital. The pegasus was fed up with waiting for something bad to happen. “Come on… we’re getting out of here!” Rainbow exclaimed urgently to the two children on the bed. They darted their eyes around the room nervously in an attempt to find where the creature would pop out next. Rainbow Dash got up from the floor and walked over to the door before turning and offering a reassuring expression to the two shivering kids. “I know you’re scared… I am too, but it’s ok. Right now we need to focus on getting out of here.” The cyan mare stated in the most comforting tone she could muster while looking to the two earnestly. Spike and Scootaloo gave each other a frightened glance before settling their eyes back on the pegasus. They slowly nodded before getting up and walking over to the edge of the bed. Spike cautiously made his way down the side of the bed and hopped onto the ground. Taking little time to reflect on his anxiety, the dragon rushed away from the dark void of the bed’s underside and joined the two on the other side of the room. The three watched as Scootaloo nervously stared at the ground beneath her. The dark opening to the small space under the bed sent the small filly’s imagination into overdrive as she pictured herself being grabbed and pulled away into the shadows. Steeling herself for the task at hand, the filly slowly climbed over the side of the bed and dangled for a moment while plotting her next move. After regaining her bravery, Scootaloo finally dropped to the floor and cushioned herself from the impact to prevent any injuries. She quickly turned around and made a dash towards the group on the other side of the room. Just before the filly could make it away from the bed, a grimly familiar dark blur shot out from the black void behind her and grabbed her back leg. The orange pegasus yelped in surprise as she felt her body being pulled off balance from the sudden jolt of the creature dragging her backwards. “Ahhhh!” Scootaloo screamed fearfully as she was pulled along the ground towards the underside of the bed. The trio on the far side of the room watched in a horrified state of shock as the filly was knocked against one of the bed posts. Despite her head spinning from the harsh impact, Scootaloo managed to wrap her arms around the post and cling to it as tight as her childish muscles could allow. Not taking a moment to spare, Tom sprang into action and jumped forward to grab the frightened filly. He grabbed onto her hoof just as she was pulled off her tiny stronghold and held on for dear life to prevent the creature from having its way. “Rainbow Dash! Get the flashlight!” The human yelled in a panic as he started to lose the battle with the monster. The pegasus looked slightly confused, but decided not to waste time with her own doubts on the boy’s logic. She dove for the flashlight on the ground and flipped it around to face towards the bed. In a blur of sheer instinct driven motion, Rainbow Dash turned the light on and shone the beam frantically under the bed at an angle to hit behind the two. Scootaloo suddenly felt the tight grip of the creature disappear as the light illuminated the area behind her. The sudden change in balance between forces caused Tom to pull the filly forward rapidly, knocking her head against his. The two grunted from the pain of the impact while taking a brief moment to rub their tender craniums. Tom quickly refrained from comforting his own injury to pull the filly out from under the bed and dragged her to her feet while rushing to the other side of the room. “Come on! We’re getting out of here!” The human exclaimed to the two shocked observers as he rushed passed them with Scootaloo in tow. Rainbow Dash and Spike managed to curtail their sense of fear and shock and rushed forward to join him as he rushed out of the door. The cyan pegasus fumbled with the flashlight as she held it in a way that kept most of the group inside its cone of effect. Chapter 26: Flashlight TagTwilight shivered fearfully as she clung to the wall behind her while staring into the darkness that filled the corridor she was in. She couldn’t imagine the exact time she had been sitting still while jumping at any noise she had heard, but she wagered that it had been several minutes since she was left alone by her companions being pulled away into the dark. What am I going to do? The unicorn thought to herself as she nervously scanned her head back and forth to catch a glimpse of the shadowy figures she had seen before. She wondered if whatever had taken the two nurses was the same reason why Applebloom and the other pony had gone missing. The more Twilight analyzed the situation, the more fearful she grew as she thought about how she was going to get back to safety. The frightened pony forced herself to get up from her seated position. She then inched her body forward as she fought against her desire to curl up into a ball and wait. Slowly but surely, the unicorn’s sphere of light moved forward as she took baby steps down the eerie hallway while searching for any sign of movement around her. Where are those things…? There were so many of them around me before… but now I can’t see anything. Twilight noted the lack of any shapes in the darkness. She could only wonder if her brief observation of the creatures’ avoidance of light was correct, and what would happen to her if it wasn’t. The unicorn contemplated fleeing to the relative safety of the first floor. She wanted nothing more than to cower in fear under a chair in the lobby while waiting anxiously for her friends to return safely, but then she resolved that the only chance to save the two nurses would be to find Tom and the others. Cursing herself for her sense of valor, Twilight gulped nervously as she removed the false hope of finding the stairs from her mind and replaced it with her new plan of delving further into the second floor. She then looked around her for any signs of a landmark she could use to determine her location. Deducing that she was near one of the stretches of rooms the group had searched earlier, the purple pony turned down a hallway and marched forward while anxiously staring at the ground to avoid making eye contact with the black void in front of her. Twilight slowly made her way through the twists and turns of the dark corridors along what she hoped would be the path to her friends. She would give anything just to have some contact with another living creature, as long as it wasn’t one of those strange monsters. The eerily silent and cold atmosphere was starting to take its toll on the unicorn. She could feel her muscles aching from the combined force of her body tensing up from fear, and shivering intensely from the chilled air. Every ambient noise sent Twilight’s senses into overdrive as she scrutinized every minute groan of the building settling around her to make sure it wasn’t the sound of something trying to kill her. “I hope the others are alright…” Twilight whispered to herself gloomily to make herself feel slightly less alone. Now that she knew what lurked in the darkness, the unicorn worried for not only the two nurses, but Applebloom and Patches as well. She wondered if the creatures had dragged them away the same way they had Redheart and Daisychain. A sudden flicker of her light made Twilight look up from her thoughts and widen her eyes in fear. Another instance of her horn flickering off briefly made the unicorn’s heart sink to her feet. She still did not understand why her light had shut off against her will the last time, so to have it happen again when she was alone filled the purple pony with dread. “Oh no… not here!” The unicorn squeaked in a panic as she tried to channel as much focus and willpower into keeping her light on as possible. Suddenly, a noise behind her made the purple mare jerk her head around fearfully. She scanned her eyes back and forth frantically while simultaneously trying to keep her horn glowing. More noises of feet shuffling and quiet breaths around her made Twilight seize up in terror. She could already picture what the creatures would do to her once they caught her and pulled her away into the darkness. The unicorn slid to the floor and covered her eyes in acceptance. She was nowhere near any alternative source of light, and she had no sway over her progressively worsening flickering horn. Twilight sobbed quietly as she started tearing up from fear. She couldn’t even bring herself to shiver anymore as all of her emotions became internalized. Peeking out through a tiny opening under her arms, the purple pony nervously eyed the area in front of her to prepare herself for when her light went out. As the glow from her horn slowly dimmed each time it flickered back on, Twilight could barely catch a glimpse of shadowy figures approaching her with each flash of darkness. Suddenly, a brighter source of light fell on the area in front of the unicorn. Twilight looked up curiously as the figures in front of her disappeared with the new solid beam of light illuminating the hallway. She then came to the realization that the light was coming from a flashlight somewhere behind her. “Twilight!!” The voice of a familiar purple dragon rang out in excitement from down the hallway. The light bounced up and down as the sounds of tiny feet running down the corridor made Twilight perk up with joy. The unicorn got up and turned around to see Spike and Scootaloo running in her direction. “Spike!” Twilight exclaimed with happy excitement as she caught the running dragon in her arms and held him in a loving embrace. The unicorn and dragon wept into each other’s shoulder as they completely shut out their surroundings to enjoy their reunion. Scootaloo couldn’t help but smile herself from watching the two hug it out. She was just as excited as Spike was to finally have found someone familiar. The filly cautiously made sure to stay within the confines of the flashlight Spike was holding as he remained clutched against Twilight. After taking a moment to collect her emotions, Twilight finally let go of Spike and sat him down. She could see that he had tears of joy running down his face as well. After sniffling once more to rid herself of her fearful feelings from before, the unicorn wiped her own tears and smiled warmly at the two children. “I’m so happy to see you two aren’t hurt!” Twilight stated with elation before slowly taking a minute to process the information being presented to her. The unicorn slowly glanced down to the flashlight the baby dragon was holding and realized that the two were alone. “Wait… isn’t that Rainbow Dash’s flashlight? Where did she and Tom go?” Twilight asked with a growing sense of dread as she watched the two children’s bright expressions shift to gloomy frowns. Scootaloo looked away and closed her eyes sadly as she remembered the events prior to meeting the unicorn. “We were trapped in Scootaloo’s room by a monster hiding under the bed when Tom and Rainbow Dash came in to rescue us.” Spike explained gloomily to save Scootaloo the trouble of expressing her sadness into words. “We ran out of there and started making our way back downstairs. Everything was going fine until…” He paused and looked down sadly as he went over the scene in his head. Twilight could only wonder what horrible things might have happened while Tom was around to protect the group. “Rainbow Dash got grabbed by one of the monsters and dropped her flashlight. Tom ran after her and barely managed to grab onto her… but the thing just dragged both of them away. I grabbed the flashlight and tried to find them… but by the time we made it around the corner they were already gone.” The dragon finished his explanation while still staring at the ground gloomily. Twilight felt her heart sink into her stomach as the story settled into her mind. If Tom couldn’t prevent himself and Rainbow Dash from getting taken away by those creatures, then what sort of miniscule chance did she have at protecting herself and her two young companions? “So you two have been wandering around this place all by yourselves?” The unicorn asked with a sympathetic frown on her face. The two offered a slow nod in response as they progressively lost all hope that they would be able to escape the hospital alive. Twilight sighed sadly as she thought about what to do next. As much as she wanted to search for her friends, she realized that she would have a very slim chance of finding them by herself. Even if the unicorn did manage to fend off the creatures for long enough to search, the missing ponies and the human could be anywhere in the hospital. Making up her mind to follow the most logical solution, Twilight tested her horn to see if the strange effects had worn off as they did last time. Satisfied to see the familiar purple glow envelop her horn with a strong sphere of light surrounding the group, the purple pony turned around and took a few steps forward. “Come on… we’re getting out of here.” Twilight announced with determination to the two children as she waited for them to follow her. The pair was shocked to see the unicorn so confident in her decision to leave the second floor without finding the others. “We can’t just leave everyone to die up here!” Scootaloo exclaimed with surprise as she shook her head defiantly. “We can’t just charge headlong into the dark to get picked off one by one either!” Twilight raised her voice slightly, more so out of frustration than anger towards the filly. Scootaloo seemed taken aback by the sudden outburst of the usually cool headed unicorn. Twilight looked away for a moment after realizing that she just snapped at a helpless child. Taking a moment to calm herself down, the unicorn spoke in a soft yet confident tone to the two in front of her. “Look… I know you want to find the others… I do too, but we won’t do them any good by getting ourselves captured. I’m going to take you two down to the lobby where it’s safe, and then I’m going to work on getting help from Princess Luna.” Twilight explained confidently to the two. Spike and Scootaloo felt slightly safer knowing that the unicorn had a plan in place. Seeing the pair nod compliantly made the unicorn feel even more confident that she could lead them to safety. After giving them a nod in return, Twilight turned her head back in front of her and started making her way back to the stairwell. The group cautiously walked through the dark corridor while being careful to remain in the confines of the sphere of light provided by Twilight. Spike kept his flashlight handy just in case something happened to make it useful once more. After a few minutes of walking, the three found themselves in the hallway that led to the stairs. The anticipation of leaving the eerie atmosphere of the second floor weighed heavy on everyone’s minds. Before long, the group saw the familiar shape of the stairway door come into view. Twilight quickly turned the handle on the door and swung it open. She then made her way inside and waited for the two children to step through before shutting the door behind them. The three instantly noticed a moderate increase in temperature, although it was still freezing cold, the air felt slightly less bone chilling. “Hard to believe how much the simple absence of light can change the atmosphere of a room.” Spike stated while peering over the railing to observe the flights of stairs below. Scootaloo and Twilight nodded in agreement as they nervously shifted their eyes around the eerie looking stairwell. The stairs leading up to the third floor seemed to ascend into darkness as the light from the unicorn’s horn failed to travel up the entirety of the steps, leaving a vast wall of darkness. The shadows cast by the railing and other flights of stairs seemed to create areas of foreboding blackness on the far wall. And to top off the frightening atmosphere of the enclosed space, the entire stairwell was dead quiet save for the low sound of breathing coming from the trio. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here… the faster we get back to the lobby, the better.” Twilight broke away from observing her bleak surroundings long enough to get the group back on track. Spike and Scootaloo nodded eagerly as they tried their hardest to keep their attention focused away from the darkness around them. Without further delay, the trio cautiously descended the stairs on their way to the first floor. After reaching the landing they quickly opened the door and briskly walked out into the hallway. Once they realized that they were out of the oppressive atmosphere of the second floor, the three breathed a collective sigh of relief as they finally managed to stop their bodies from shivering. “We managed to set up a safe area in the lobby… once we get there and send a message to the princess, you two can stay with Applejack while I search for the others.” Twilight explained with a false tone of bravery as she pictured where she could go to look for the others. Spike and Scootaloo seemed shocked upon hearing the unicorn’s plan. “What?! You can’t be serious!” Spike yelled with concern. He couldn’t believe that Twilight was even thinking of going out into the dark alone. The purple pony frowned sympathetically. She felt horrible for having to leave the dragon so soon, but she needed to do something to help her friends. “I’ll be fine Spike… I’m going to take a flashlight with me just in case my light goes out again.” Twilight spoke softly with a reassuring smile while ruffling the baby dragon’s head. Spike put up his hand and shoved away the unicorn’s hoof. Twilight frowned slightly as he started giving her a sterner look. “You won’t be fine Twilight. You can’t just tell me that nothing bad is going to happen to you… Tom and Rainbow Dash got taken away right in front of us! Who knows what those monsters are doing to them!” The dragon started breathing rapidly as he worked himself up into a slight panic. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Spike looked earnestly at the unicorn and tried to convey a sense of seriousness. “I know you want to find the others… but you can’t just go out there and put yourself in danger.” Spike placed his hand on her leg lovingly and gave her a concerned frown. Twilight was impressed to see her young assistant had become so mature in his time with her. She wasn’t sure how she could convince him that she would be safe, even if she herself didn’t know if she would be. “Spike…” The unicorn paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. She then knelt down to be at eye level with the dragon and gave him a tender smile. “I know that you don’t want me to get hurt… but I have to do something. If it were you that had gone missing, I would still go looking for you. I can’t promise you that nothing bad will happen… This is a dangerous situation after all. But I can promise you that I will try my hardest to come back to see you again, no matter what happens.” She spoke softly while trying to sound as confident as possible. Spike was at a loss for words on the matter. He wanted to speak up in protest of the bold pony, but he also knew that she had made up her mind. The dragon had a myriad of thoughts buzzing around in his head. If he had still been trapped on the second floor, he would have wanted Twilight to rescue him, but that would have been just as dangerous as if she were trying to rescue someone else. “Let’s… let’s just get to the lobby first.” Spike finally spoke up to get the group moving again. “But I want you to think about this further before you do anything too hasty… alright?” He looked up to her with a sincere expression of loving concern. The unicorn nodded silently while taking his words to heart. Without any further discussion the trio started their way forward once more, traveling through the quiet corridors of the hospital on their way to the safety of the lobby, each member deep within the confines of their own thoughts. The eerie quiet of the group’s surroundings made them more uneasy than comforted. They couldn’t help but wonder if the cold chill running down their spines was an actual warning of them being watched, or if they were just paranoid. After all, they knew next to nothing about the odd monsters besieging the hospital. For all they knew, the beasts could be silently observing them from every passing dark corner, waiting for their chance to pick off a straggler and pull them away into the shadows. Just as the group thought that they would be wandering the dark corridors forever, a small sign on the wall came into view, giving them a much needed landmark to tell them where they were. “This is great! The lobby should be just down the next hallway.” Twilight exclaimed eagerly. Her two companions shared in her enthusiasm as they were already celebrating escaping the perils of the hospital in one piece. Before the trio could continue towards safety, a new obstacle in their path filled them with anxiety. Twilight’s horn started flickering once again as it signaled that it was about to die out. The constant blinking of the light made the unicorn’s blood run cold. “Oh no… not again.” Twilight stated nervously. Scootaloo joined the purple pony in her terror, while Spike seemed less phased by the ominous flickering of their once comforting source of light. He confidently flipped on his flashlight and held it level to cover the group. “Don’t worry, I got this handled.” Spike remarked assuredly with a smirk on his face. Just as the dragon steadied the beam onto the group, Twilight’s horn puttered out with remarkable timing. The two breathed a sigh of relief at the young dragon’s quick thinking. “Nice save Spike, I thought we were goners for a second there.” Scootaloo chuckled nervously at the groups close brush with certain disaster. The dragon smiled proudly to see that he could contribute to helping the group survive. “Let’s just hurry up and get out of here… we don’t want this flashlight to burn out on us too.” Spike said while crossing his fingers hopefully. The others nodded before turning to walk down the hallway that would lead them to freedom. Just as Twilight and Scootaloo were taking their first step forward, they saw the flashlight beam jerk upwards and away from them, followed by the sound of Spike yelping in surprise. They quickly turned around to see that the dragon had been yanked backwards into the darkness, leaving the flashlight sitting on the ground. “Spike!” Twilight yelled in shock as her heart sank from hearing the dragon cry out while being dragged along the floor. The unicorn quickly jumped forward to grab the flashlight on the ground. She then quickly pointed it forward down the hallway and hoped that she wasn’t too late. Much to her relief, the beam of light illuminated the baby dragon a short distance away. Whatever creature had grabbed him immediately disappeared once the light shone on the dragon, leaving him to slide backwards a short ways from the interrupted force of the pull. “Spike, get up! You have to get over here now!” Twilight yelled fearfully. The unicorn didn’t even try to hide the panic in her voice as her entire body was shaking from terror and dread. She didn’t feel like her mind could process the situation in front of her. Spike darted his head around for a moment before rolling over to get up easier. Before he could get to his feet however, he looked beside him into the opening of the adjacent hallway. Standing right outside the beam of light a little ways into the next hallway, was a tall shadowy figure that seemed to be somehow staring at him despite its hidden face. The dragon froze up in fear upon seeing this. His body started shivering uncontrollably, and his pupils shrank to pin points as he stared at the figure, unable to move his head to look away. Twilight and Scootaloo could see that Spike was terrified by something, but couldn’t do much from where they were standing. “Spike… come on, just get up and walk over here.” Twilight spoke calmly and directly to the dragon in hopes that he would snap out of his trance. He merely kept staring to the side into the hallway obscured from the unicorn’s view by a wall. “T-T-Tw…Twilight.” Spike stammered fearfully without moving his head. Twilight could see that his body was shaking from sheer fright. “They can’t get to you in the light Spike… come on.” The unicorn spoke in a calm tone. She started walking forward slowly to avoid shaking the light. Scootaloo followed her closely as she approached the dragon. “We’re going to walk over there and get you Spike… alright?” Twilight tried her hardest to comfort the petrified dragon. She wanted to rush over and pick him up, but from this distance even the slightest movement of the flashlight could leave a part of his body exposed to the darkness for the creature to grab him. Despite Twilight’s attempts at encouragement, Spike remained still while staring down his attacker. He seemed to be frozen in place from terror. Finally, the dragon started making slow movements to push himself up. Once he was on his feet again, he turned around and prepared to run towards the others. Suddenly, as if to toy with the frightened band of ponies, something pulled on Twilight’s back leg slightly. Not enough to knock her off balance, but just enough to make her inadvertently jostle the flashlight upwards for a brief moment. The unicorn’s nerves kicked into action and she quickly pointed the light back onto the dragon, but by that time it was too late. “AHH!” Spike yelled in terror as he was pulled off of his feet and into the next hallway. “No!” Twilight yelled defiantly and rushed forward to reach the opening of the corridor. She desperately turned the corner and flashed the light down the hallway. Her heart sank when she failed to catch any glimpse of the purple dragon. The corridor was dead silent. The sound of Spike’s screams had died down and were replaced with a deafening quiet that hung around the purple pony like a rope around her neck. She darted the light around in a vain attempt at finding the dragon. Tears started welling up in her eyes as she dropped to her knees. The unicorn stared blankly down the hallway as her mind refused to process what had just happened. “No… no… no, no, no!” Twilight shook her head and let the flashlight drop to the floor, where it rolled slightly to face her and the somber filly beside her. Scootaloo wiped a tear from her own eye as she tried to think of something she could say. Eventually, she just decided to leave the unicorn alone in silence. “Spike… I’m so sorry…” The purple pony spoke under her sobs as she let the wave of sadness surge through her body. She closed her eyes and wept openly for a few minutes, leaving the orange filly to sit beside her and offer her a consoling hoof on the back. “Twilight… we need to go.” Scootaloo finally spoke up to break the somber silence that filled the air. She couldn’t imagine what the loss of the young dragon must have been like for her. After all, Twilight had known Spike for his entire life. Twilight sniffled one last time before wiping her face to rid herself of any tears left on it. She then turned to the filly and gave her a slow nod. Despite her intense feeling of sorrow, she had another child that she had to protect. Even if she had failed to protect Spike, the unicorn was not about to lose Scootaloo. “We’ll find him…” Twilight spoke in a sad sort of monotone. “We’ll find all of them all safe and sound… But for now… let’s just go.” Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for the grieving unicorn. She seemed to move and walk like she didn’t care about life anymore. The two quietly made their way through the last few hallways that would lead them back to the lobby. After a short walk, the filly and unicorn noticed that the area up ahead seemed brighter than the rest of the hallway. They quickly realized that they had reached the junction of hallways directly outside of the lobby. The duo rushed forward eagerly until they came around the corner and stood in the dim light. Sure enough, just in front of them lay the two blue candles on either side of the opening that protected the lobby from intrusion of the creatures. “Twilight!” The sound of Applejack getting up and rushing over to greet her friends filled the unicorn and filly with elation and relief. The farm pony jogged across the room and came to a stop just in front of the candles to see the two travelers. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed happily while giving the orange mare an enthusiastic hug. She thought that she would never see her again when she was upstairs, so to be right outside the warm and friendly atmosphere of the lobby brought tears of joy to the unicorn’s eyes. “Ah was starting to get worried for y’all… what have you been doing up there?” Applejack asked with friendly concern as she stepped back to get a better look at the roughed up pair. Their hair was messed up in several places and their faces looked like they had just been through hell. Twilight shifted her happy expression into a gloomy frown as she remembered how many people she had lost on her rescue mission. She had failed to save Spike, Redheart and Daisychain were now missing, and to top all of that off, she had even lost Tom and Rainbow Dash. “We have had a bad day… let’s just come in and have a seat for now. We’ll tell you about what happened later.” Scootaloo spoke up to save the unicorn the trouble of describing their hardships. Twilight gave the filly a grateful expression. She felt relieved that she didn’t need to explain everything that happened out loud. Applejack nodded silently. She could tell that something horrible must have happened for the two to be in such bad shape. She motioned for the pair to come in and join her in the lobby. Just as they were about to step through the barrier however, something caught the farm pony’s eye off to the side. “What is that thing?” Applejack asked with a hint of fear in her voice as she stared into the hallway to the right of the group. Twilight and Scootaloo turned their heads to see what their friend was talking about. What they saw made their hearts sink to their stomachs. One of the dark figures that had been plaguing them since the power had gone out was just down the dark hallway. Unlike the figures Twilight had seen up until now however, it was slowly walking towards the group. “Oh no! It’s another one of those monsters!” Scootaloo squeaked in a slight panic. Twilight was more annoyed and angry than fearful and nervous to see one of the shadowy silhouettes again. She sighed in frustration as she looked around to see the light filtering into the hallway from the far end of the lobby where the door was. “Don’t worry Scootaloo… It can’t get us with this light coming in from the sun.” Twilight put a hoof on the filly’s shoulder to comfort her. “What is that thing anyway…? Are you sure it can’t hurt us?” Applejack asked with a hint of doubt in her voice. She had a hard time believing that a monster like that could be stopped by a little bit of light. “As long as we stay in the light we’ll be fine. They try to grab you and pull you away, but they can’t stand the light.” The unicorn explained to ease the farmer’s fears. She tapped Scootaloo on the shoulder to get her attention and motioned for her to head into the lobby with her. Just before the two could walk forward, a bright flash of blue light caught them off guard. The barrier made by the candles fully appeared as if something had elicited them to activate. Suddenly, the level of light just outside the barrier seemed to dim to the point where Twilight could barely see. The unicorn instinctively whipped out her flashlight and turned it on again. A loud pop caused Twilight and her two friends to jump. The presence of a brief flash of white light indicated that the bulb had burst inside of the flashlight. “Scootaloo get inside!” The purple pony instructed urgently. She had no time to question why this was happening, so she instead sprang into action according to the situation. The two immediately jumped forward to get their bodies across the barrier as quickly as possible. Just before they could clear their legs from the darkness outside the blue force field however, both the filly and the unicorn were stopped midair as they were pulled backwards. “AAHH!” Both of the ponies cried out in unison as they desperately tried to find something to grab onto along the floor. Twilight closed her eyes and accepted her fate. She had lost. There was nothing more she could do to save either herself, or the filly next to her. Just before she was dragged out into the darkness completely, the unicorn felt something grab one of her hooves. She opened her eyes to see Applejack struggling to pull her back into the light. Taking a quick glance beside her, Twilight realized that the farm pony had also grabbed onto Scootaloo, and was pulling both of them using one arm each. Twilight and Scootaloo tried their best to kick free of their attackers, but quickly realized that both of their back legs had been grabbed by the creatures. They could only watch anxiously as Applejack fought with all of her might to save them. The orange mare dug into the floor with her back legs and gritted her teeth as she used all of her strength to just contend with the creatures. She was starting to slide forwards as the monsters gradually gained ground. “Ah can’t hold on much longer!” Applejack exclaimed to the two grimly. Twilight could see that her friend was racking her mind to find a way to save both of them. “Twilight! Light up your horn!” Scootaloo cried out urgently. The unicorn quickly tried to channel magic to the tip of her horn. Failing every attempt she made at getting her horn to start glowing again, Twilight groaned under the intense strain she was putting on herself. She couldn’t even use different spells if her horn wouldn’t light up at all. “I can’t! It must still be affected by whatever made it go out before!” Twilight replied frantically. She looked at the frightened filly beside her. Scootaloo was justifiably scared out of her mind. Seeing the orange filly in distress reminded her of her failure at saving Spike. Mentally resolving that she would not allow another pony to be taken on her watch, the purple pony raced her mind around to find a possible solution. Suddenly, Twilight had an idea. She hadn’t elaborated on this plan before. It was such a stupid idea after all, but due to the lack of other options, it was the only idea she could come up with that could save Scootaloo. The unicorn glanced behind her nervously. She was so close to the barrier the candles made that she could stick her head through the barrier just by turning. It almost felt like she was being pulled into a deep ocean with nothing but darkness below the surface. The sight of the black void waiting for her made her gulp nervously. Applejack felt an uneasy knot building in her stomach as she watched the purple mare thinking. She seemed to be contemplating something that she didn’t want to do, as if she were building up courage for something. “Take care of Scootaloo.” Twilight suddenly spoke up with apprehension evident in her voice. She turned back to face the orange mare with a nervous look in her eyes. Applejack gasped in shock as she realized what her friend was thinking of doing. “What?! Are you crazy?! Ah’m not letting you go!” The orange mare yelled frantically in defiance while tightening her hold on her purple friend. The unicorn gave her a sad look of defeat before closing her eyes tightly in preparation. “I wasn’t asking!” Twilight exclaimed with a shaky voice as she used her other arm to push herself out of Applejack’s grip. As much as the farm pony tried to hold on to the unicorn, her already strained grasp was no match for the combined pull of the monsters and her friend trying to weasel out of her grip. “No!” Applejack and Scootaloo screamed in unison as the purple pony was yanked backwards into the shadows. “AHHH!” Despite her brave decision, Twilight screamed in a panic as she was quickly pulled down the hallway and out of earshot. Applejack was mortified that she had just witnessed her friend getting pulled away from her by a monster that could very well kill her whenever it felt like it. She looked away sadly before centering herself for the task ahead of her. She couldn’t let Twilight’s sacrifice be meaningless. She had to save Scootaloo. The young pegasus felt Applejack grabbing hold of her other hoof, but she was still staring beside her in the direction that Twilight was abducted with a distraught expression. Realizing that she would be getting no help from the filly, the orange mare heaved as hard as she could to pull her into the lobby. With the decrease in weight for the farm pony to deal with, she started winning the battle against the unseen creatures. Gradually, more and more of Scootaloo’s body was being hoisted free of the blue barrier. The monsters growled in anger as they realized their prey was getting away. Scootaloo whined fearfully as she felt the creatures tightening their grip on her legs to the point of it being painful. Despite all of this, Applejack wasn’t going to let the filly be taken. Finally, Scootaloo’s legs breached the barrier. The monsters howled in pain as their hands touched the barrier. Applejack groaned and clutched the filly in her arms as she fell backwards. Once she made sure that the young pegasus was safe, she let her go. Now that the danger had passed, the pair returned their attention to what they had lost during the struggle. Applejack watched sadly as Scootaloo slowly walked up to the barrier and stared out into the black void in disbelief. The filly started shaking and her breathing became shallow and rapid. Tears started welling up in her eyes and her lip quivered uncontrollably. “TWILIGHT!” Scootaloo shook her head and cried out in a strong wave of emotion before collapsing to her knees and sobbing openly. Applejack walked alongside the filly and started tearing up as well. She could only wonder if that would be the last time she saw Twilight alive. Chapter 27: The Midnight Men“Ughh…” Rainbow Dash groaned drowsily as her senses flooded back to her. She felt like her mind had a thick haze clouding it, preventing her from making any substantial observations about her situation. Judging from the dull throbbing pain in her head, she came to the conclusion that she must have been knocked out. As the rest of her body slowly woke up along with her, the cyan pegasus felt incredibly sore and uncomfortable. Sore from the pain she was feeling from being knocked around so much, and uncomfortable from the hard floor she was currently laying on. Remembering what had happened before she lost consciousness, Rainbow Dash decided that she needed to get up. Upon opening her eyes however, the cyan pony discovered that a light was present in the room, causing her to blink rapidly to adjust to the unfamiliar shine. Ignoring her aching muscles, the groggy pegasus lifted herself up and leaned against the newly discovered wall that was behind her for support. She then shifted her eyes around to look around the room. The light she had noticed earlier was coming from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling by a thin cord. The bulb was completely bereft of any sort of covering, letting its orange tinted light flow through the room unfettered. The room itself appeared to be a hospital room, but something was eerily off about it. The usual soft carpeted floor had been replaced with an aged, dirty, almost decrepit looking wooden floor. The wallpaper looked like the same that was used in the hospital rooms she had seen before, but it looked incredibly aged and worn, having ripped and torn in several places exposing the inner part of the wall underneath. A large wooden wardrobe sat in the corner of the room with its door slightly ajar, revealing the pitch blackness that covered the inside of the closet. It was hard to tell from where she was sitting, but the cyan pony could barely make out the outline of various clothes inside of the out of place piece of furniture. “Where… where the hay am I?” Rainbow Dash wondered out loud as she rubbed the back of her head. Taking note of the sore spot on her cranium, the pegasus looked beside her where she had been previously laying. She was slightly alarmed to see a patch of dried blood where her head had once been. “Ughh… That thing must have slung us around like we were its suitcase… Wait a minute… us?” The cyan pony suddenly came to the alarming realization that she had not been alone when she was abducted. Taking another scan around the room to locate her human friend, she finally laid eyes on him sprawled out along the floor on top of a broken bed frame. Rushing as much as her sore body would allow, the pegasus got up and walked over to the human. She was extremely relieved to see that she was not alone in this strange environment. Once she got closer to the unconscious boy however, her relief quickly turned to fright. “Oh my gosh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in horror while bringing a hoof to her mouth to cover a gasp. The slayer wasn’t just lying on a broken bed frame; a rather large post from the frame was jutting through his midsection. The pegasus wondered if the creature had thrown him onto the bed, causing it to break and causing the human to be impaled on it. “Tom! Wake up!” Rainbow Dash rushed to his side and slapped him gently on the side of his face to wake him up. “Come on... please don’t be dead.” She muttered as her voice cracked from fear. Although she had not known the human for more than a few days, the cyan mare considered all life to be precious, and would have been horrified to watch anyone die, let alone a new friend. Much to her surprise, the boy slowly stirred as his head rolled side to side. He seemed just as groggy as she had been as he slowly opened his eyes and adjusted them to the light. Noticing the concerned pegasus above him, Tom was relieved to see that she had not been harmed. “Rainbow Dash… it’s good to see you’re still here. I thought that thing would have separated us once it knocked me out… Ow!” Tom yelped in pain as he tried sitting up. Rainbow Dash quickly pressed on his shoulder to prevent him from moving any further. “You’re hurt bad… we need to go get you some help!” Rainbow explained with worry on her face as she pointed to the pole sticking out of the boy. She frowned in concern as she noticed that the human’s attempt at getting up had reopened the wound, causing it to start bleeding rapidly. “Ok… that hurts a lot.” Tom grimaced while repositioning himself. “Hey… could you do me a favor and back up a little bit?” He suddenly turned to the pony beside him and motioned for her to move away. Rainbow Dash was confused at the boy’s request, but nodded in compliance and backed away. “AAGHH!” The cyan pony jumped in fright as the human yelled in pain suddenly. She could see that he had jerked himself to the side, actually managing to break off of the bed frame with the pole still stuck inside of him. “Sweet Celestia, are you crazy?!” The horrified pegasus rushed forward and held the boy steady as he started to falter. She examined the extent of the damage and was shocked to see that the sudden movement had caused the pole to rip further into the human’s chest. “Maybe… but that’s a story for another time… Gahh…” Tom grimaced painfully and gritted his teeth to cope with the undoubtedly mind numbing pain he was dealing with. “Listen… I need you to pull this thing out of me.” He instructed with a sincere expression. “What… why?! If we remove it here we might do more harm than good!” Rainbow Dash shook her head as she frantically tried to think of a way to keep the boy alive. She didn’t want to just watch him die, but she didn’t really know what to do either. “Ok… how is it that I’m the one with a pole sticking out of my chest and you’re the one panicking?” Tom tried to sound as calm as possible to ease the cyan pony’s fears. “Look… I can heal this wound up myself, but I need this pole out of me first.” He tried to stay as still as possible to prevent any undue movements of the foreign object. Rainbow Dash suddenly remembered that the boy could use his powers to heal wounds. She couldn’t help but wonder how anybody could heal such a critical injury so quickly, but she decided to assist him in any way she could. Gripping the pole gently, she looked to him one last time for clarification. “This is probably going to be really painful… are you sure about this?” Rainbow Dash asked with an uncertain tone while glancing down at the object impaling the human. “Just focus on getting it out… don’t stop just because you think you’re hurting me alright?” Tom instructed calmly while steeling himself for the painful experience ahead. Rainbow Dash nodded apprehensively before shuddering nervously at what she was about to do. The pegasus quickly started yanking on the embedded object as hard as she could to get it over fast. Much to her dismay, her initial pull had not loosened the pole as she had planned. Tom shouted in pain while trying to stand his ground to give the cyan pony resistance to pull with. After a few minutes of both individuals cringing and tearing up for decidedly different reasons, the pole was freed from the human, causing him to stumble slightly as he almost fell backwards. Rainbow Dash threw the bloody pole on the ground in mild disgust and rushed over to the boy. “Oh my gosh... I am so sorry!” The cyan mare exclaimed apologetically as she observed the slayer writhing around in pain for a few moments. He took a brief moment to look up at the concerned pony. “It’s alright… you don’t have anything to apologize for… Ow!” Tom groaned as he looked down to the hole in his body. He then started yelping in pain as the wound was enveloped in flames and ashes. The wound being healed seemed to be causing him more pain than the pole had caused as it slowly closed up behind the glow of the embers. Much to the surprise of the cyan pegasus, even the boy’s clothes seemed to regenerate once the flame died down. “Man… that smarts like you wouldn’t believe.” Tom shook his head and sighed in relief that the pain had stopped. Rainbow Dash was horrified that the human had to go through so much pain and suffering on almost a daily basis. “Now that I don’t have anything sticking out of me… where the heck are we?” Tom asked curiously while observing the surrounding room. The human’s question reignited the cyan pony’s curiosity as she too wondered where they had been taken to. “It looks like we’re in a patient room… but it looks totally different from all the other rooms we’ve been to.” Rainbow Dash observed while brushing a patch of dirt along the floor. “That monster must have brought us here… I just hope that Spike and Scootaloo made it to safety.” The pegasus drooped her head as she thought about the two children being alone in this dark hospital. “I wonder why the creature brought us somewhere with a light? It looks like this room has been transformed, but why does it have a light if these things hate lights?” Tom pondered curiously while scratching his head. He then shrugged in defeat and walked over to the door. “We won’t find out by sticking around here will we?” Rainbow Dash stated while sharing the human’s desire to move on. The two stood by the door and opened it slowly. Much to their dismay, the entire hallway outside of the door was steeped in darkness as the others had been. Unlike the other hallways however, this hallway seemed to be less dark. The two could actually make out faint outlines of the hallway and the objects in it. Although they could see where they were going, the hallway seemed to be just as eerie and foreboding as the others on the second floor. “How are we even going to move around here? We don’t have a flashlight or anything…” The cyan pegasus observed nervously while looking out into the far edge of the hallway. The increase in light had not made the atmosphere any less frightening, with every opening into a different corridor chilling Rainbow Dash to her very core. Before Tom could answer the frightened pony, a noise to their left made them jump slightly. They turned to the side to see that the wardrobe had opened slightly, with a small object rolling on the floor just in front of it. The human bent over and picked up the object. He quickly found out that it was a flashlight similar to the one that Rainbow Dash had dropped when she was grabbed. Feeling suspicious of the sudden appearance of the item, Tom opened the wardrobe while preparing himself to fight whatever might have been inside. Rainbow Dash tensed up nervously as the human swung open the door to the pitch black closet without her being prepared. Much to the surprise and relief of the pegasus, the wardrobe was empty save for a few articles of clothing. “Empty…?” Rainbow muttered to herself while observing the clothes sway from the force of the door being opened. Curiously enough, the clothes seemed to be tailored to fit a human rather than a pony. The pegasus was slightly intrigued to see other forms of clothing that humans used. “Ok… now I know they’re messing with us… but why?” Tom observed while apprehensively shifting the flashlight around in his hands. Rainbow Dash shared in his nervous curiosity, but was thankful that they at least had a source of light. The two cautiously made their way out of the door and into the hallway. The walls and floor of the corridor seemed to be just as dingy and faded as the room’s furnishings. The same wooden floor stretched through the entirety of the hallway, and the wallpaper was just as torn and decrepit looking as it was in the room. Tom scanned the light back and forth in an attempt to find any distinguishable landmarks to give them a hint at their location. Eventually the boy’s eye caught a glimpse of a small sign on the wall. Upon closer inspection, the sign turned out to be a directory of all the rooms that were on this floor. “Looks like we’re on the third floor...” The human shared his findings with his companion. The thought of being even further away from the safety of the lobby made Rainbow Dash groan nervously. She could hardly believe that such a seemingly small distance could become so large in a situation like this. “Maybe Applebloom and that guy Patches are up here?” Rainbow Dash stated with careful optimism. Tom shrugged his shoulders as he thought about the likelihood of finding the two unharmed. They had been missing for a long time now, and the boy was severely concerned that they would only find their dead bodies. Slowly moving forward, the duo decided to check every room they passed to see if anyone was brought to the same place they had been. All of the rooms they looked in had a similar appearance to the one they had woken up inside, with wooden floors, a bare light bulb in the center of the room, a bare metal bedframe against the wall, and a wooden wardrobe off in the corner. As the two were searching, they slowly made their way towards the stairwell in order to get back to the lobby to help their friends. If they couldn’t find the others, they could at least put a stop to this nightmare before anything bad happened to them. Suddenly, a muffled noise from one of the rooms caught the duo’s attention. Quickly determining the source of the noise, Tom cautiously opened the door to the room and looked inside. Much to their surprise and relief, the two could see the familiar forms of Spike and Applebloom huddled together in the center of the room. “Tom! Rainbow Dash!” Spike exclaimed in excitement as he jumped up to run to the two he had previously seen getting dragged off into the darkness. Rainbow Dash gave the dragon a friendly hug and waited for Applebloom to hobble over to join the excited dragon. “What are you doing up here Spike? Where’s Scootaloo?” The cyan pegasus asked as she wondered why the dragon had been separated from the orange filly. She hoped that Scootaloo wasn’t alone somewhere else, terrified out of her mind. “After you guys got taken away, we ran into Twilight while we were trying to find a way out. Apparently Nurse Redheart and Daisychain got pulled away a little while after they left for the first floor.” Spike shook his head sadly as he thought about the purple unicorn being left alone. “After that, we decided to head back to the lobby… we almost made it too, but one of those things grabbed me and pulled me away from the others.” He suddenly became very concerned for his two companions. Rainbow Dash put a hoof on his shoulder to ease his fears. “Don’t worry about those two… I’m sure they’re sitting in the lobby worrying about us right now.” Rainbow spoke while trying to be as cheerful as possible. The pegasus couldn’t help but wonder if what she was saying was actually true. “Those stupid things… If I get my hooves on one of them I swear I’m going to beat its sorry pale butt within an inch of its life!” Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth angrily as she resolved to make the creatures pay for all they had done. The pegasus’s remark made Tom perk up with curiosity. “Hold on… pale? You saw what they look like?” The human asked with intrigue while stepping closer to the pegasus. “Yeah… I got a good look at that thing back in Scootaloo’s room when you flashed it with your light. It was pale and it didn’t have a nose.” The cyan pony hadn’t given the creature’s appearance much thought at the time. She just thought that it was another frightening image she would have to block out of her mind later. “Pale skin… Hides in the dark…” Tom thought out loud as he tried to recall a piece of information deep inside his mind. He suddenly became very excited and gave a quick cheer of revelation. “I know what those things are now… They are called the midnight men.” He explained triumphantly. Everyone in the room merely gave him a confused look. “The midnight men…?” Spike asked curiously, not being able to form any other sort of question on the confusing topic. “Yeah, they come from a very old fairy tale that eventually got turned into a game people would play to scare themselves for fun. In the game, there was only one entity that worked off of different principles than these guys.” The human continued explaining. “You mean humans played games with things like those monsters?” Applebloom spoke up curiously. Tom chuckled before turning to the filly for clarification. “No… there wasn’t a real monster in the game…. Humans were stupid, but we weren’t quite that stupid… well most of us.” The boy shrugged upon reflecting on some of the less intelligent things his race did. “Besides… don’t you guys have anything you do to get scared for fun?” He asked the entire group. “Well… there’s nightmare night. Where we dress up in costumes and scare each other and have parties.” Rainbow Dash spoke up to list off some of the things about the holiday. Tom was slightly confused at the description to the oddly familiar celebration. “You mean like Halloween…?” The boy asked quizzically. The others only seemed to be confused by the mention of another human term. “You know what, never mind… let’s focus on the matter at hand.” He sighed in annoyance before getting back on track. “The midnight men are a form of fear based monster. They feed off of fear and try to abduct people to either drain their life energy, or keep them around longer to continually feed off of their fear. They aren’t really affected by light… regular light anyway. They still hate sunlight like any other shadow creature.” Tom explained while holding up the flashlight in his hand for emphasis. The others were shocked to hear the confusing revelation. “What…? But why do the flashlights work on them?” Spike asked in bewilderment while thinking about the subject further in his head. “Why did they give us flashlights? We didn’t have anything when we woke up. We were in a room like this one, but a flashlight fell out of the closet just as we were leaving.” The human took a moment to examine his confused companions before continuing. “To them this is nothing more than a glorified game of flashlight tag… They pretend to be fended off by light so they can give you a safety net to fall back on... which they can easily take away at any time to instill even more fear. They probably brought you guys here because you’re so young. Children can be an excellent source of mind numbing fear when put into the proper situation.” He explained somberly. The group was horrified to learn that the entire time they had been in the hospital they had not been safe. “So they brought us here to mess with our heads and use us as their personal playthings?” Applebloom asked nervously with growing anxiety. Tom nodded silently in response. Rainbow Dash was just as terrified at the discovery as the two children were, but something weighed heavy on her mind. She couldn’t help but wonder why they had not found any of the others in their search. They had been through most of the rooms, and were just a short walk away from the stairwell. “If those things are abducting us to feed off of our fear, then where are the others?” Rainbow asked curiously. Tom’s face paled a little bit as he thought about the matter further. “I think that creature only brought you and me here because I injured it in the struggle we had. Midnight men typically like to only keep children around for extended periods of time. They take adults to a different location to feed on them at their leisure.” The human explained grimly. “What…? But you said that these things drain life energy right?” Rainbow Dash stuttered nervously as she started to understand what the human was getting at. “Exactly… which is why we need to get out of here and find the others.” Tom stated while moving towards the door in a hurry. As the others got up to follow him, he slowly opened the door and stepped out. “We need to be careful. Now that we’re up here, they might try to actually hurt us if we try leaving.” He explained with concern in his voice. The others nodded while swallowing their own senses of fear before stepping out into the darkness. Even though Rainbow Dash knew that the stairwell was relatively close, she couldn’t stop herself from tensing up every time she thought she saw something in the darkness. Every corner the group turned sent shivers up and down the cyan mare’s spine. It also didn’t help that they had to go slow to accommodate Applebloom’s broken leg. Looking beside her to check on her two younger companions, the pegasus could see that they weren’t faring much better. Applebloom clung to Spike like he was the last person she would ever see in her life. Rainbow Dash felt sorry for the yellow filly. The cyan pony didn’t even want to think about how long she was up here all by herself, so to suddenly have the young dragon join her must have been such a relief. Spike didn’t seem to mind the filly slowly strangling his arm by clinging too hard. He must have tried his best to comfort her while they were in that room, but the fear and anxiety on his face was just as evident as anyone else in the group, except for Tom of course. The human walked at the front of the group while cautiously pressing forward with an anxious expression on his face. Rainbow Dash wondered if he felt scared at all, or if he did whether or not he would show it externally. Suddenly without warning, the boy shut off the flashlight and backed away from the junction of hallways the group was about to walk through. He huddled against the wall and crouched down before motioning for the group to do the same. Everyone seemed anxiously confused by the human’s actions, when they suddenly heard the sound of something walking down the other hallway. “Everybody get down and be quiet!” He whispered forcefully to the group while enthusiastically waving his arm to motion towards the wall. Despite their tense muscles and progressively racing hearts, the three managed to quickly duck behind the human while getting as low as possible. Just as everyone got in place, the sound from around the corner got much louder. A shadowy figure stepped out from the hallway and turned off into the center of the hallway where the nervous group was. The figure walked right beside the group without turning its head, as if it didn’t notice them. Suddenly, the creature paused just in front of the huddled mass of intruders. It stood still while facing down the hallway, leaving its pale and gnarled hand inches away from Rainbow Dash’s face. The figure was no longer cloaked by pitch blackness, leaving its frightening appearance to only be hidden by the hoodie it wore. Everyone held their breath as the creature looked around the hallway for a few moments. The midnight man’s gaunt fingers hovered just in front of the cyan pegasus, leaving her staring anxiously at its unnaturally long fingernails. The nails weren’t so long that they could be used as weapons, but they almost seemed to form sickly yellow talons that could dig into the skin of its victims if it so chose. Finally the creature continued walking on its path down the hallway. The group remained in silence as they watched it disappear from sight. They finally let out a collective exhale as they realized they had been holding their breaths. “How did you know it wouldn’t find us?” Rainbow Dash asked the human in between breaths in a relatively quiet voice. “The darkness from downstairs must be part of whatever spell was used to summon them here. It lets them hide better in the shadows and blocks out any source of sunlight.” Tom explained while thinking back to the moving shadows that were slowly reaching into the lobby. “The darkness up here seems to be just average darkness. They are just as blind as we are unless there’s motion to pick up on.” He stated while mentally giving himself a pat on the back that his theory worked. “Isn’t it counter intuitive to let your prey wander around without the ability to keep track of them?” Spike said while thinking about the matter further. “Keep in mind… they are pretty much just playing with us. I’m sure they think slowly hunting us in the dark is a load of fun.” Tom explained with an appalled tone of voice. “They have a strange definition of fun…” Applebloom frowned and gulped nervously as she glanced behind her to see if the creature had doubled back. Tom then looked around the corner and flipped on his flashlight. He exclaimed in excitement before rushing forward into the hallway. The confused group followed him around the wall before suddenly noticing what the human had noticed. “The stairs!” Spike had to catch himself to prevent his excitement from alerting any of the creatures possibly nearby. The others shared in his excitement as they flocked to join the human over by the familiar door that would take them out of this horrible place. Tom yanked on the door to open it before quickly realizing that it was stuck. He pulled on it with all of his might a few times before finally letting go and panting from exhaustion. He then took a closer look at the door and examined it with his senses. “Damn it…” Tom cursed under his breath before turning to the others with a defeated expression. Everyone’s excitement slowly turned to confusion and dread as they wondered why the human couldn’t open the door. “What’s wrong? Is it locked or something?” Rainbow Dash asked with a growing pit in her stomach. The boy shook his head dismally before finally looking up and sighing. “It’s not just locked… It’s being blocked by some kind of magic spell. I can’t even read it let alone try to break it.” Tom spoke with a deflated ego as he watched the group’s frightened frowns return. “So we… we’re stuck up here?” Applebloom asked while trying not to have an emotional breakdown. The human merely nodded silently. Rainbow Dash sighed sadly before looking around at their dark surroundings. “If we’re stuck up here, then we need to get somewhere safer than these dark hallways. Let’s see if we can find a room with a window to let sunlight in.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a hopeful look on her face. Tom was impressed to see the cyan pegasus thinking so rationally in a situation like this. He would never cease to be amazed at the capabilities of a race he thought to be sensitive marshmallows when he first met them. “Good thinking Rainbow Dash… let’s go.” Tom complimented her while walking forward towards another set of rooms. Rainbow Dash smiled upon hearing the slayer’s praise, she then motioned for the two children to hurry up and follow them before walking behind them to make them feel safer. Spike sighed in a depressed tone. He looked at the floor sadly as he followed the human down another hallway. Applebloom and Rainbow Dash shared in his disappointment and fear, so they understood what he was going through. “I hope Twilight and the others are alright.” The dragon spoke up with a hallow sense of hope. Rainbow Dash patted him on the shoulder gently while giving him a sympathetic frown. She then smiled optimistically to cheer the dragon up. “Don’t worry Spike… I’m sure she’s just fine.” The pegasus said in a confident tone. She silently hoped that she was right. Chapter 29: New ArrivalsTwilight and her friends stared at the group of strange ponies. They seemed to have a sort of professional air about them as they stood in line while examining the hospital. They resembled what the lavender pony would have surmised to be members of the Ponyville branch of the royal guard, but their uniforms were unlike anything the unicorn had seen. Upon closer inspection, Twilight could make out several small vials and other strange items hanging off of the ponies’ vests. The vials were made of glass, with an ornate brown casing on the top and bottom. Some of the vials held oddly colored liquids with unknown objects floating in them, while others seemed to contain lumps of random items like rock or gravel. Among the group of ponies, Twilight identified a white unicorn mare with blue eyes and short red, blue, yellow, and green colored hair tied up into a ponytail at the back. The odd coloring reminded The purple pony of her cyan pegasus friend, however the unicorn’s hair seemed to be more spotted than striped as Rainbow Dash’s was. Taking a look at the mare’s exposed cutie mark, Twilight could see that it was a star made out of shimmering red and blue glitter. Next to the unicorn stood another mare that was a lime green earth pony with short and messy black hair and a slightly darker shade of green for her eyes. She had a black circle with a green lightning bolt running through it as a cutie mark. Further down the line was a young earth pony stallion with white fur and red eyes and hair. He seemed to be a little more timid than the rest of the ponies. He Almost looked like he didn’t belong with them with how weaker he looked by comparison. He had a red cross cutie mark similar to Nurse Redheart with several smaller crosses of a lighter shade hovering around it. Standing next to the stallion was another male earth pony that had dark yellow fur with brown hair and eyes. He had a glistening heart shaped ruby as a cutie mark and he appeared to be of the same age, if not a little older than the white stallion next to him. Then there was the stallion that greeted the ponies as the group entered. He had a more muscular build than the other two stallions, resembling more of what Twilight would expect from a member of the royal guard. He had white fur with dark grey hair and blue eyes. Despite his hair color, he didn’t appear to be much older than the yellow pony next to him, but he still appeared to be the eldest out of the group. His cutie mark resembled a gray shield with two swords crossing over it. He seemed to be the leader of this small group based on the way he carried himself and spoke. As Twilight and the others observed the strange ponies, the oldest stallion looked over to the nurse that was having a hard time standing. He then looked back to Twilight with a more serious expression. “We were sent by Princess Luna to get you all out of here and stop whatever is going on here. Can you tell us a brief description of what you know?” He asked quizzically while observing Twilight and her friends. The unicorn thought for a moment on how best to put all of the information she had into one concise description. “We were checking in on our friend here when the power went out suddenly. We eventually discovered that there are monsters that can hide in the shadows and pop out anywhere. They try to pull you away so they can drain your energy… We don’t know where four of our friends are. Two of them are children and one of them is a human named Tom.” The purple mare explained to the group while still observing them. “Right, the slayer… Princess Luna already informed us about him. We’ll find them as fast as we can.” The stallion spoke with a reassuring tone before turning to his companions. “Pepper, you check out the nurse and make sure she isn’t hurt.” He instructed to the pony with the red hair, who nodded before walking over to Nurse Redheart and sitting her down so he could look at her. The stallion then turned to the two mares with a focused expression. They waited eagerly for him to give them their orders. “Glitter, you and Neon will search the basement with me so we can work our way up.” He instructed while motioning over to the barrier made by the candles. The two nodded before walking over to the other side of the room and waiting for the stallion to join them. “Glimmer, you get Miss Sparkle and her friends out of here.” The stallion finally turned to the yellow pony and instructed clearly. He nodded before walking over to the group. Twilight was shocked to hear that they wanted her to just leave without finding her friends. “What?! You want us to just leave without finding our friends?!” The unicorn huffed angrily at the proposal. “No offense to you guys, but I don’t even know you! I’m not just going to leave finding my friends to complete strangers!” She shook her head defiantly. The yellow pony looked at her sympathetically. “Well if you must know… I’m Glimmer Shine. The guy working on your friend over there is my younger brother Peppermint.” The stallion explained while pointing over to the red haired pony giving Nurse Redheart first aid. “Those two over there are Glitterball and Neon Streak.” He said while pointing to the white unicorn and the green earth pony respectively. “And this is Brimstoke.” He finished his introductions by pointing to the older stallion. The purple mare and her friends looked around at the team of ponies. They weren’t entirely sure what to think about them. Before Twilight could elaborate on her thoughts, Glimmer Shine spoke again. “We’re members of a special forces team put together by Princess Luna to combat the new threat of supernatural beings and forces in Equestria. Once she realized that you guys were stuck at the hospital, she figured something bad happened considering the events at the school, so she sent us out here to rescue you.” The yellow stallion explained with a proud and gallant tone. Twilight was impressed to see that the princess had a backup plan like this in place so soon, but she was not about to leave her friends and run away. She felt responsible for putting a stop to whatever this was, monsters or no monsters. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to leave with you. I was chosen by the princess to take care of these issues, and I’m going to see it through to the bitter end if necessary. Besides, I can’t just leave my friends here without giving my best effort to save them.” The unicorn stamped her hoof down to accent her feelings. Glimmer Shine looked back to the older stallion for advice on what to do. Brimstoke looked at him and then back to the purple mare. He shook his head and sighed before speaking up again. “Alright… you can stay, but you’re staying with us… understand?” Brimstoke asked to clarify. Twilight nodded eagerly before looking over to her friends. Applejack stepped forward with a confident expression on her face. “Ah want to stay too… Ah ain’t leaving until my sister and the others are safe.” Applejack stated with a resolute smirk on her face. Scootaloo stepped forward with a brave expression on her face as well. “I want to stay too.” The filly spoke with determination. Glimmer Shine walked up to her and gave her a sympathetic frown. “Sorry kid, this is no place for a filly like you to be. We’ll find your friends safe and sound, but for now you need to come with me and my brother while we take your other friend somewhere safer.” Glimmer explained while looking over to check on his brother’s progress. The white pony was helping Nurse Redheart to walk over to the group. “How is she doing?” Glimmer Shine asked with concern in his voice. Pepper smiled cheerfully as he spoke up. “She’s suffering from extreme exhaustion. From what they said, I wager one of those monsters drained her energy… she should be fine once we give her some rest, and maybe an I.V.” Peppermint said with a grateful smile as he observed the strong willed nurse. Glimmer Shine smiled in return. He was thankful that nothing bad happened to the nurse and that she would make a speedy recovery. He then turned to the disappointed filly and shifted his expression to a blank one. “Let’s go.” The yellow stallion instructed to her politely. Scootaloo sighed in annoyance before slowly walking behind them as they escorted Nurse Redheart out of the door. After the four left the building, Twilight took a cursory glance at the outside world. She had been cooped up in a dark, monster infested hospital for so long that the simple sight of grass and trees filled her with hopeful confidence. Taking a last savory breath of the fresh air filtering in through the open door, the unicorn walked back over to the gathering of ponies waiting for her by the candle barrier. She noticed the two mares examining the candles and the barrier they made with intrigue. The white unicorn turned to face Twilight with curiosity burning in her eyes. “Did the human make these?” Glitterball asked with intrigue brimming in her voice. Twilight nodded in response. “He made those to keep this area free from any evil creatures.” The purple mare explained what she knew about the blue candles to the eagerly listening unicorn. “They work astoundingly well for something so simple. There seems to be an atmosphere of altered darkness out there. These candles seem to be holding it back.” Glitterball explained while pointing past the blue barrier into the pitch blackness that lay just beyond. Twilight wondered why it was so dark in the hospital. It never occurred to her that something could create magical darkness until she observed the light canceling properties for herself. “Who am I going with? If we’re splitting up I would like to know where I’m going.” Twilight asked while looking to Applejack, who nodded in agreement. Brimstoke walked up to the two ponies and spoke up. “All of us are searching the basement for clues on how this mess started. From what Princess Luna told us, the event at the school started because some hooded ponies made a pictogram in the basement, so that’s as good a place as any to start.” The white stallion explained before walking back over to the others. “Wait… what if the others are being held upstairs? Something bad could happen before we get to them.” Twilight observed with concern. She didn’t think that searching one area for her friends at a time was a sound idea. The stallion smiled before putting his hoof up to his ear. Much to the surprise of Twilight and Applejack, a blue glow enveloped the tip of his hoof as he touched it to his ear. Almost as if a unicorn was using magic on him. “Sunspot, how are things looking out there?” Brimstoke spoke without directing his question to anyone in the room, as if he was talking to someone that was somewhere else. Much to the confusion of Twilight and her friend, the quiet and muffled voice of another pony started emanating from the general area of Brimstoke’s ear. Twilight couldn’t make out what was being said, but judging from what little audio she could hear, and Brimstoke nodding every once and a while, she gathered that he was talking to a mare through whatever magic was being used on his ear. “Ok good… Circle around and see if you can pin point their location, then see if you can get to them.” The stallion finished speaking before putting his hoof down again. The mysterious magical aura disappeared after he was done. He then looked to the confused ponies confidently. “Don’t worry… we have someone looking into the upper floors for us. Now follow us closely, we don’t want you getting lost.” Brimstoke instructed before motioning for the pair to follow him. He then walked over to his two teammates and nodded to them. Glitterball lit up her horn with a blue glow identical to the one Twilight saw on Brimstoke’s ear, and stepped out of the barrier with her light shining into the dark. Twilight looked over to Applejack with a confused expression. The orange mare shared in her bewilderment, but shrugged and started walking behind the stallion to follow the others. Twilight shook her head and sighed before walking back out into the shadows. Tom and Rainbow Dash tried their best to comfort the two frightened children next to them. They were anxious as well given the terrifying ordeal they were experiencing. They had just ducked into a room on the outer edge of the building after running from several midnight men that spotted them as they searched the hallways. “Do you think they saw where we went?” Applebloom spoke up nervously as she squeezed Spike to relieve her tensions. The young dragon wasn’t sure if he couldn’t breathe due to his intense fear, or the yellow filly constricting his body. “I don’t know… but the sunlight should keep them away.” Tom explained to ease the fears of his companions while looking over to the brightly lit window. It was fortunate that the group managed to find the part of the building closest to the outside when they were found. If they had chosen an interior room without a window, the artificial light created by the lone lightbulb hanging from the ceiling would not be enough to protect them. Just as Rainbow Dash and the two frightened children were starting to calm down, the door handle started turning as something from the outside tried to open it. Tom rushed forward and held the knob tightly to prevent it from opening. “Lock it!” Rainbow Dash yelled frantically as the human struggled to keep the door closed. In between jolts from the creatures bashing into the door, the boy turned and looked at the frightened pegasus. “I can’t! It doesn’t have a lock!” Tom yelled back while observing the barren door. The discovery only made the three onlookers even more anxious and terrified as the creatures bashed into the door relentlessly. Finally, after holding the door shut for as long as possible, Tom was sent flying backwards as the door crashed open. He scooted back into the light and looked out of the newly created opening. The area outside of the door was empty, but the human knew that the creatures were merely hiding in the darkness. “Everybody just stay in the light and they can’t get you.” Tom tried to sound as calm as possible to ease their fears. Everyone immediately backed up a few steps to be closer to the light. Just before the group could start to feel safe, a new threat made their eyes widen in fear. A thick veil of shadows was creeping in from the doorway. It moved slowly into the room, snuffing out the sunlight everywhere it went. Soon enough the group would be engulfed in pitch blackness. “What are we going to do?” Applebloom asked with tears in her eyes as she tried to stop herself from shaking violently. Spike looked to Tom for any sign that he knew what to do. “Tom! Can’t you use your light to stop them?” Spike asked the human nervously. Tom shook his head in defeat. “It doesn’t affect them enough to keep them away.” The human stated grimly while backing his friends into the corner to better protect them. Everyone huddled up together and shook with fear as they helplessly watched their doom approach them. “Can’t we jump out of the window so Rainbow Dash can carry us?” Applebloom asked timidly as she raced her mind to find a possible way out of this grim predicament. “I'm not sure if I would be able to carry all of you at once.” The cyan pegasus explained sadly. “And besides, that window must be hard as a rock.” She said while looking at the slowly fading light of the window. Before the group could say their prayers and give up, a loud crash made them jump in fright. They looked next to them to see a sea of broken glass tumbling to the floor as a pegasus mare crashed into the room. The pegasus had different shades of orange in her fur, making her look like a sky just before sunset. Her hair was a similar mixture of orange, with bright yellow stripes spaced out through her mane and her tail. Her eyes were a slightly darker shade of yellow than the stripes in her hair, but they still looked brilliant when compared to the relatively darker orange fur she had. Judging from appearance, she was wearing what looked like a Wonderbolts suit with its mask missing. The suit appeared to have been modified and re painted at some point, as the typical lightning bolt pattern on the suit was different enough to distinguish it from a standard Wonderbolts uniform. Several straps and pouches had also been sewn into the outfit, all of which stored numerous strange vials and other miscellaneous pieces of equipment. A pair of flight goggles was sitting in her hair with a black strap holding it to the pony’s head. Rainbow Dash almost mistook the pegasus for Spitfire, but quickly realized that this was a completely different pony. The pegasus looked at the broken glass around her and smirked playfully. She then looked over to the group staring at her from the corner. “Don’t worry… I’m here to get you guys to safety.” The pegasus said with a reassuring tone of voice while observing the four. Just before anyone could speak up, a loud noise from the doorway drew everyone’s attention away from the strange newcomer. Several of the creatures walked through the door and into the darkness that now prevailed in the room. They rushed forward and prepared to attack the closest thing they could reach, which at the time happened to be the oddly dressed pegasus in the center of the room. Tom prepared to unsheathe his sword and rescue the pegasus, when she suddenly jumped into action before him. She reached down to her side and grasped a vial that was hanging off of one of the many straps on the modified suit. She then unclipped it from its holder and held it out in front of her. “You guys look like you could use a little tan!” She remarked with a smirk on her face before pressing on an indentation in the top part of the vial. The bottom section of the vial started glowing bright blue as a low hum could be heard coming from the bottle. In an instant, the tip of the vial facing the creatures flashed blue as a beam of energy shot out from the bottle. The bolt of light flew into one of the creatures and exploded on impact. The monster shrieked in pain and recoiled from the attack. The pegasus pressed the indentation several times in rapid succession, causing even more balls of energy to fly at the creatures. Two of the creatures fell to the floor and started evaporating into black smoke. The other creatures fled the room as their bodies smoked and smoldered from the assault. After the creatures were gone, the pegasus chuckled and put the vial back in its place on her side. She then reached down to her chest to what appeared to be a small flashlight mounted on a clip. She flipped the switch on the flashlight, causing a bright beam of light to shoot out in front of her. After the room was safely illuminated, she turned and walked up to the others to talk with them. “Hi, my name’s Sunspot. I was sent by the princess to come and help you guys out.” The pegasus spoke in a cheerfully friendly tone while offering her hoof to shake the human and cyan pony’s hand and hoof respectively. After returning the pegasus’s greeting and thanking her for saving their lives. The group couldn’t help but feel confused as to what was going on. “How did you even find us? Have you been crashing through every window on this floor until you got lucky?” Tom suggested in a joking manner while observing the broken window. Sunspot chuckled nervously as she assessed the damage she had caused. “Hehe… well I guess you could say I like to make an entrance. As for how I found you…” Sunspot paused for a moment while she fumbled around with the many vials and other objects hanging on her suit in various places. “Where is that darn thing…?” She muttered to herself in frustration as she searched through her equipment. “I just had it in my hoof not two minutes- Aha!” She exclaimed in triumph before yanking up a pull cord with two vials attached to it. Unlike the previous vial, these two were clipped together on the cord for easy access. One of them held a strange blue liquid inside of it, while the other held what appeared to be some kind of sand. “These two bad boys are my locators. This one here lets me know if any paranormal entities are in an area.” Sunspot explained while holding up the one filled with liquid. “And this one lets me find heat signatures of living things.” She explained while holding up the sand filled vial. Everyone looked at the strange objects with confusion and curiosity. They must have worked for the pegasus to have found them, but the items were unlike anything any of them had seen before. “Hold on a sec… I need to tell my team that you guys are alright.” The suited pegasus excused herself while turning to look away from the group. She then put a hoof up to her ear, when suddenly a blue glow enveloped the general area of her ear. “This is Sunspot, I found all of them unharmed… Yes, I’m making my way downstairs now… Ok.” Sunspot paused every few sentences, as if she were talking to someone outside of the room. Everyone looked at her with confused expressions as she directed her attention back to them. “What was that all about?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while thinking back to the strange blue glow. Sunspot was a little surprised to have to explain her equipment. She had been so used to it that it didn’t really strike her as odd. “Oh, that’s just a magic spell our resident unicorn whipped up for us. It lets us communicate over long distances.” Sunspot explained with enthusiasm. The group was intrigued to hear more about the strange team of ponies. Before they could think of any more questions to ask the orange pegasus, she turned and started walking out of the room. “Come on. Let’s get you guys out of here.” Sunspot said while beckoning with her hoof for the others to follow. Everyone was still apprehensive about heading back out into the hallways. “You know, these things aren’t affected by regular light.” Tom explained while pointing out Sunspot’s light source hanging from her suit. She looked at it for a moment before giving the slayer a knowing grin. “Don’t worry... I’m sure we’ll be fine. These things use the shadows to move around right?” The pegasus asked to clarify. Tom nodded in response, even though he wasn’t sure where she was going with this line of reasoning. “Well then they shouldn’t be able to do anything to us if we keep them in the light. Think about it… they can’t really hide in the dark if there is no dark to hide in can they?” Sunspot explained with a confident expression. Tom couldn’t believe that the pegasus’s logic was actually sound. “Yeah… that might actually work. They can’t teleport in the light, so they can’t sneak up on us as long as we keep them lit up.” The human stated in an amazed tone. “Heh… you’re not the only one with knowledge on the supernatural anymore Tom.” Sunspot said with a smug and playful smirk. Tom was impressed to see that he was being rivaled in supernatural knowledge by a pony. He couldn’t help but wonder how extensive their knowledge could be considering the lack of occult material in this world. Without wasting any more time, the group followed the pegasus out of the room and down a hallway. Traveling around the hospital was actually void of any stress for the first time for the group. They felt safe in the presence of the suited pony, as if she knew what she was doing. The group made sure to remain close to their strange new companion, while also pointing their own source of light behind them so the creatures couldn’t reach them that way. After a few minutes of walking, the five found themselves standing outside of the stairway door once again. Sunspot walked right up to the door and pulled on it to open it before making the same discovery the others had made earlier. “You can’t open it… there’s some kind of magical seal on it.” Tom shrugged in frustration as he glared at the obstacle in his path with disdain. Sunspot didn’t seem to be phased by the discovery of the blocked door. She instead reached for another vial on her side. This one had a small rod encased inside of it that sat in the middle of the container. The rod seemed to be made of a brown metal, like copper or bronze, and it had several notches in it as well as having a green tinted liquid around it. On the top of the vial, built into the brown section of the casing, a small spike jutted out a short ways. “This should do the trick… It disrupts magical barriers and certain supernatural occurrences.” Sunspot explained while pressing the spiked tip of the vial against the door. The liquid inside the container lit up and a small shockwave of air erupted out of the tip and dispersed across the door. The frame of the door lit up bright crimson for an instant before fading. After placing the vial back in its appropriate place, Sunspot gripped the handle once more and turned it while putting a gentle force on it. The door slid open as if it had never been held shut in the first place, revealing the stairwell inside. The orange mare turned to the group and gave a cheerful smile. She then pointed with her hoof to beckon the astonished group inside. “You got anything else in your bag of tricks?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while eyeing the various vials and other tools hanging off of straps or sitting on clips in the mare’s uniform. Sunspot chuckled while giving a cursory glance to her equipment. “Well, I don’t have a cup holder on here anywhere.” The orange pegasus stated playfully before looking down to give the statement more serious thought. “Actually, that might be a good idea... I’m gonna have to bring that up at the next board meeting.” She scratched her head in thought while walking into the stairwell to lead the others to safety. Chapter 30: Getting to the Bottom of ThingsTwilight and Applejack paused and turned to watch Brimstoke put his hoof up to his ear to communicate with his other team members. Glitterball and Neon Streak both held their hooves up as well to presumably listen in on whatever conversation was going on. Despite the white unicorn’s best explanation as to the details of the spell, Twilight was still confused as to how they could speak over long distances. Brimstoke nodded a few times as he listened to the pony on the other end speak. Finally he set his hoof back down and walked up to the two with a smile that told them he had something important to tell them. “That was our other member Sunspot. She said that she found your friends safe and sound. She is heading down to the lobby to get them out of the building now.” The stallion explained cheerfully to the pair. Twilight shared a gleeful smile with her orange companion as they heard that their friends were unharmed. For the first time since they became trapped in the hospital, the two mares actually felt happy and hopeful about their situation. “That’s great!” Twilight stated with an excited tone of voice. She was beginning to wonder if she would ever see her friends again, so to hear that they were safely waiting for her upstairs was an amazing turn of events. “You know… since your friends are safe, you could head back upstairs if you want.” Neon Streak spoke up from beside Twilight. The purple unicorn took an apprehensive look into a passing doorway as she thought of leaving this creepy hospital forever. “I would rather stay and help.” Twilight said optimistically while trying to hide the nervous inflexion in her voice. The lime green mare smiled at the bravery of the lavender pony. She knew that it must have been hard for the unicorn to stay in such a terrifying environment by choice. “I figured you would… the princess said you were pretty determined to put a stop to all of this.” Neon Streak smirked while nodding in satisfaction. Twilight was flattered to hear that Luna thought so highly of her. Neon suddenly turned to look at Applejack, who was also eyeing the dark passageways around her nervously. “How about you? You said you wouldn’t leave until we found your sister. I can escort you back if you want.” Neon Streak offered the orange mare with a friendly smile. Applejack thought about it for a minute before shaking her head. “Ah ain’t leaving you guys down here all by yourselves. Ah think Ah’ll stay until we find whatever is causing this mess and we stop it.” Applejack looked to her unicorn friend with false confidence as she tried to look as determined as possible. Before the green mare could reply to the farm pony, a sudden noise from a doorway to their side made everyone whip their heads around to look. “Heads up!” Glitterball yelled to alert everyone to the danger ahead. One of the creatures leapt out of the doorway and made a beeline for the hapless purple unicorn and her friend. Twilight cried out in surprise and shielded her face with her arms as the pale monster lunged at her with its elongated nails. The unicorn was surprised to hear a loud hum followed by what sounded like magic being discharged. The creature cried out in pain and Twilight heard it thud against the ground a short ways to the side. She uncovered her face to see Neon Streak holding a vial in front of her that had a hint of smoke coming from the tip. The creature was a short distance away, writhing on the ground as it disappeared into black smoke as the darklings had. “Thanks… you’re pretty quick on the draw with that… umm…” The purple pony paused as she tried to think of a good word to describe the odd object. “It’s a magic charm… We take some ingredients and put them in these vials to contain them depending on their effects. We call these ones strobes… they fire a pulse of condensed energy that’s magically charged.” Neon explained while holding the vial filled with blue liquid for the two ponies to see. Twilight and Applejack marveled at the strange object. It seemed way too small to be able to cause that much damage to anything. “Wow…” The unicorn exclaimed in wonder. Neon Streak grinned proudly as she re-clipped the vial back on her vest. “Yep… works on most evil creatures we have come across.” Neon stated nonchalantly. Applejack thought about the green mare’s statement for a moment before speaking up to satisfy her curiosity. “What if you come across something that it doesn’t work on?” The farm pony asked quizzically. Before Neon Streak could answer, Brimstoke stepped forward and interjected into the conversation. “We carry equipment to deal with more standard threats as well.” The stallion said while pointing to various items clipped to his vest. The two could see what looked like a collapsible baton, a small taser, and a pair of hoof cuffs that had small inscriptions set into the sides of them. “How do you guys know so much about this stuff? I just recently learned that supernatural things like those creatures even exist.” Twilight asked with clear curiosity as she observed the team of ponies. The white stallion was caught off guard by the sudden question. “A few months ago, some books on occult rituals and other supernatural knowledge were brought to Princess Luna’s attention. She decided to put together a team to deal with paranormal threats to Equestria should any of the things she read about turn out to be real.” Brimstoke finally managed to get out his explanation after thinking about it for a while. “We have been studying all the occult knowledge available to us and researching for ways to combat a lot of it for the past few months.” Glitterball spoke up to add to the conversation. “Me and Neon Streak were in charge of putting together a lot of the toys we have with us now. We almost didn’t get enough time to test any of it out before we came here.” She said with a matter of fact tone in her voice. “Wait… before you came here? You mean you didn’t know if your equipment would work?” Twilight questioned with a raised eyebrow as she clarified what she had just heard. “Technically speaking, this is our first mission in the field.” Neon chuckled awkwardly as she realized how ridiculous it sounded out loud. Twilight and Applejack were shocked to hear that the seemingly professional group of paranormal exterminators were in fact rookies themselves. “Well… you guys must be doing something right Ah guess.” Applejack spoke up to break the uncomfortable silence that suddenly fell over the group. Twilight was still dumbfounded as to how spectacularly unprepared Equestria was to deal with this new threat, but she couldn’t very well blame Brimstoke and the others. They were, after all, just using what knowledge they had to deal with an issue that couldn’t exactly wait. “Yeah… nobody could have known that you would need to put your skills to the test so early.” Twilight said reassuringly to the group. Glitterball in particular seemed very disappointed that they weren’t as impressive as they once thought. She sighed before returning her casual expression to her face. “Enough regretting how much prep we had… we’re here now, and we need to put a stop to this before anyone else gets hurt.” Brimstoke spoke up before walking forward and pausing for the others to follow him. He seemed very determined to get the job done, almost to the point of being a little gruff. Glitter and Neon sighed before motioning for the two civilians to follow them. The group pressed forward through the winding hallways of the basement in search of the source of the problem. After a few minutes of searching, Twilight and Applejack were starting to get frustrated from the lack of progress. It was already stressful to be down in this dark basement with monsters everywhere, but not finding anything was actually more stressful than finding something. “Ughh… this basement must be bigger than the building! It’ll take years to search through every single room if we don’t find what we’re looking for in the main hallway.” The purple unicorn huffed in nervous annoyance while taking note of the numerous rooms they glanced inside and the numerous other hallways they passed. Brimstoke looked to the frustrated unicorn. He then looked to Glitterball and nodded with a knowing smirk. Glitterball nodded before pulling out a vial that was attached to a pull cord alongside another vial. She twisted the cap on the vial, causing the blue liquid inside to light up dimly. The unicorn pointed the vial in a circle around her. As she pointed it in front of her, the liquid started glowing brighter toward the cap. “Looks like we got something this way…” Glitter stated happily while walking forward with the vial still outstretched before her. Twilight and Applejack seemed even more confused by the sudden confidence in the white unicorn. Neon Streak looked to them with an understanding smile. “That’s a locator, it lets us pin point supernatural energy signatures… handy for telling us if an evil creature is in the area, or for finding a highly energized paranormal object… say, a pictogram for example.” Neon smirked to the two as they caught on to what they were doing. It never occurred to Twilight that the group had known where they were going the whole time. “So… it works kind of like Tom’s senses?” Applejack asked curiously. The green mare nodded, she couldn’t deny the similarities between the two. “Well… from what the princess told us, your friend’s senses are a lot more attuned for this kind of stuff. These vials pretty much just tell us what direction something is in, and how relatively strong it is.” Glitterball explained with a slight shrug of disappointment. “Well Tom isn’t here right now, so I’m glad we have something to tell us where to go.” Twilight added with a relieved smile. The others nodded before shifting their eyes forward to follow Glitterball and her locator. Eventually the group found themselves entering into a rather large room. There were numerous pipes littering the ceiling, and several machines of unknown purposes to the sides. The machines opened up a short ways into the room, leaving another large space in its place. In the middle of the room, a large symbol was drawn on the floor in chalk similar to the one Twilight and the others saw at the school. “This must be it then... looks like these are the backup generators to the hospital.” Brimstoke noted while examining the small machines on the wall near the symbol. “That might explain why the power was cut so suddenly.” Twilight said curiously while inspecting the symbol. “The same thing happened at the school… the power went out, and then all the strange changes to the building happened.” She explained her experience to the group. “A lot of summoning spells will change the environment to better suit the creature being summoned if they can’t support themselves… if I remember correctly.” Glitterball explained while taking a mental note to study more about the pertinent information before they went on a mission in the future. While the others studied the symbol on the floor, Twilight decided to explore the rest of the room. Lighting up her horn to illuminate the way, she walked past the odd symbol on the ground and studied the area ahead of it. It appeared as though whoever summoned the creatures also left behind numerous items after they left. Various scraps of paper with things ranging from illegible scribbles to odd symbols and glyphs littering them were strewn around the floor and a few shelves, spent candles lay haphazardly placed along the floor in places, and a few books were placed in a small stack on one of the shelves. The purple unicorn picked one of the books up with her magic and scanned through it curiously. She could see that some of it was written in those strange symbols she had seen earlier, but a good portion of it was written in English. Skimming through the legible sections, Twilight determined that this was some sort of instruction booklet on how to perform various magical spells and rites. “Here we go…” Twilight whispered to herself with an eager smile on her face. She was very excited to finally discover something of worth to the investigation. Just as Twilight was turning around to announce her findings to the group, a soft noise made her pause briefly. It sounded like something shuffling its feet around to walk. The only reason the unicorn picked up on the quiet sound was due to how often the creatures had made it. She turned around and shifted her head around to discover the source of the noise, only to discover the same shelves and dark, open doorway she had seen previously while searching the edge of the room. “You alright over there Twilight?” The voice of Neon Streak broke the unicorn’s train of thought. She turned around to see the green mare standing on the edge of the symbol and looking her way while the rest of the group examined the pictogram. “Yeah, I’m fine… just thought I heard a noise.” Twilight replied while eyeing the open doorway in front of her nervously. She grabbed the other two books and stacked them to carry them away from the edge of the room. “Well, just be careful and don’t wander off ok?” Neon added while observing the unicorn cautiously. Seeing the unicorn so far away from the group made the earth pony concerned for her safety. Twilight nodded while walking back over to join the group with her findings in tow. “So how are things going with the symbol?” The purple pony asked with a hint of giddy excitement in her voice as she tried to shift the subject over to her discovery. Glitterball looked up and walked over to the unicorn to dispense her knowledge. “Looks like a standard summoning pictogram, but there’s something off about it that I can’t quite figure out… Hey wait a minute, what are those?” Glitter asked curiously while observing the smirking pony placing the books she had down on the floor for everyone to see. “I found some books on magic over there on a shelf… I think whoever caused this must have left them behind.” Twilight explained while taking a cursory glance behind her off towards the other side of the room. Hearing about their friend’s discovery, Brimstoke and Applejack walked over from the far edge of the symbol to find out what was going on. Seeing the three books on the ground made Brimstoke nod his head in satisfaction. “Good work Twilight. These should help us find out more about this pictogram after we destroy it.” The stallion commended the purple mare for her findings before looking to Glitterball and Neon Streak with a serious expression. “How about it girls, can we break the spell?” He asked while looking between the two to see who would speak up. “It’s hard to say what most of the symbols inside this outer circle mean, but we should be able to destroy the pictogram just fine.” Neon Streak explained while glancing to the ring of smaller symbols along the outer edge of the pictogram. She hoped that those books might give them an insight about the strange nature of these symbols. “Alright good, how long do you think it will take Glitterball?” Brimstoke asked while glancing over to the white mare. Glitterball lit up her horn and read over the symbol a few times to estimate an answer. “Looks like it might take me around six minutes to do by myself…” Glitter stated with a satisfactory nod while dimming her horn. Brimstoke smirked and nodded in satisfaction as well. “Take your time… we have all the time in the world right n-” The stallion paused suddenly as he was interrupted by a loud noise erupting from outside the room. Everyone spun around to see numerous dark shapes moving into the room from the doorway they came through. The shapes flooded into the room and blended into the pitch black shadows that were just outside the unicorn’s source of light. Although they couldn’t see the creatures, the ponies could hear them as they growled and snarled at their prey with deep, almost demonic sounding voices. The sound of the creatures’ roars and growls made the ponies’ spines tingle as it almost overwhelmed their ears. “Everyone turn on your lights!” Brimstoke instructed to his team while reaching down to his vest and turning on his flashlight. Neon Streak and Glitterball did the same to increase the amount of light in the room. “Wait a minute! I don’t think these things are affected by normal light anymore!” Twilight stated nervously as she recalled her previous experience. “What do you mean Twilight?” Applejack asked curiously. “When Nurse Redheart and I were coming upstairs, one of those things attacked us. I tried using my light on it, but it didn’t seem to even notice it.” Twilight explained in a troubled tone. “What?! But we’ve been walking around this hospital for around an hour with only flashlights to protect us!” Applejack replied with a shocked expression. She couldn’t believe that at any time they could have just been carried off by these monsters when they thought they were safe. “Your friend Tom informed our friend Sunspot about that already. Apparently these things were just toying with you to make you more afraid. They would have eventually just ignored your flashlights entirely and fed off of your fear as they attacked.” Brimstoke explained with a serious expression. This only made the two even more frightened. “I can’t believe these things have just been toying with us!” Twilight exclaimed in frustration. Two ponies died because of the creatures, and they were just playing with them the whole time. “But why have we been using normal light to see down here if you knew?” Applejack asked nervously, she wondered why their only source of light had been the light from Glitterball and Twilight’s horns. “They aren’t hurt by normal light, but they can’t teleport inside normal light either. If we saw one, we would have taken care of it with the strobes, like the one that jumped you.” Neon Streak explained in a softer voice to prevent Brimstoke from adding anything else in his seemingly careless tone. “We have nothing to worry about now, let’s just hurry up and destroy this pictogram so we can get out of…” Brimstoke was suddenly interrupted by a loud shriek from behind him. He turned around just in time to see one of the creatures leaping at him, only to be gunned down in a blaze of light and black smoke by Neon Streak and her strobe. “Damn it!” Brimstoke exclaimed while steadying himself and pointing his light forward. Neon Streak and Glitterball pointed their lights around the group to form a protective circle. Twilight and Glitterball’s horns would provide enough light to protect the area around the symbol, but everywhere else was fair game for the creatures without the assistance of the flashlights. “We need to keep our lights between us and them so they don’t teleport behind us. Glitter, do you think you can handle destroying the pictogram while facing that way?” Neon asked the white unicorn beside her with slight panic in her voice. Glitterball nodded frantically while struggling to remain calm herself. “I can, but it will take six minutes by myself!” Glitter exclaimed nervously while lighting up her horn to begin disrupting the symbol’s magic. Between her nerves, and the fact that she also had to keep projecting her light, the amount of time it would take the white mare to break the spell on the symbol was steadily increasing. “Get Twilight to help you… in the mean time we’ll keep them from charging the front.” Brimstoke stated while pulling out his strobe and holding it steady in front of him. Neon Streak followed his example and held her strobe in front of her anxiously. Suddenly, one of the creatures rushed forward towards the group. Brimstoke immediately shot it down with two bursts of light from his strobe. Two more creatures rushed in behind the first one, causing the two ponies to open fire as they contended with the increasing number of monsters. Twilight looked around fearfully as she listened to the steady sound of the two magical charms firing off mixed in with the beasts’ cries. She could see Applejack was sitting close by, observing the two ponies in front nervously. She could also see Glitterball looking down at the symbol trying to speed up the process every chance she got. “How can I help?” The purple unicorn asked with a squeaky voice as she calmed herself down enough to help the situation. Glitterball looked up suddenly and tripped over her words as she tried to express coherent thought. “Oh! Uh... you destroyed a pictogram like this at the school right?” The white mare asked nervously while glancing at the battle taking place off to the side. Twilight nodded while thinking back to how she went about destroying the symbol at the school. “This one is probably more complex than that one, but it’s the same principle. Just interrupt the flow of energy in as many places as you can until the spell breaks apart.” Glitterball instructed before looking back down to get back to work. Twilight nodded before lighting up her horn to join the white mare in her efforts. More complex than the one at the school was putting it nicely. This spell seemed to be in a league of its own compared to the one at the school. It had numerous safety measures put in place to protect the flow of energy to different parts of the symbol, like a system of redundant failsafe’s. Not to mention most of the symbol couldn’t even be read by the two mares. It was like they were trying to disarm a bomb, and they had no idea how explosives even worked. Despite their confusion as to the purpose of the symbol, Twilight and Glitterball frantically interrupted the inner workings of the pictogram to break the spell. While the two unicorns were rushing to put a stop to the monsters, the monsters were rushing to put a grisly end to the group of ponies. The pale creatures were charging fiercely at the two armed ponies in order to get their weapons away from them. Their mouths were wide open, revealing sharp and jagged teeth jutting out from their black gums. The top portions of their faces were still concealed by their hoods, but the ponies could feel them staring daggers into them as they leapt forward into the light for a shot at ripping into them with their claw like nails. Brimstoke and Neon Streak were struggling to keep up with the increasing number of attacking creatures. Even with the knowledge that none of them could pop up behind them due to the light illuminating the darkness to their rear, the two ponies had sweat dripping off of their faces as they whipped around to shoot the incoming beasts. “Agh!” Neon Streak yelped in pain as one of the beasts managed to cut into her outstretched arm before she blasted it. The wound dripped blood freely onto the floor as the green mare ignored the pain in order to continue firing. “We can’t hold them back much longer! How long do you have left?!” Brimstoke asked while glancing behind him to look at the two frantic unicorns. “We still have around three minutes left!” Glitterball announced while still burying her head into her work. “We don’t have three minutes at this rate!” The green earth pony replied through clenched teeth as she looked at the sizable gash on her arm. She felt a little weak due to blood loss, but toughed through the pain in order to protect herself and her friends. Glitterball looked up and glanced over to the struggling ponies to the side. She then looked over at Applejack, who was still watching the action unfold with dread in her face as she hoped against all odds that the two ponies could hold out. “Applejack!” The white unicorn yelled to get the orange mare’s attention over the bursts of light and the roaring of the creatures. Applejack looked over to her and walked forward to see what she needed. “What is it?” Applejack asked while trying not to sound as afraid as she felt. Glitterball reached to her side and pulled off her strobe from its clip. She then handed the vial over to the confused farm pony. “I need you to go help them while me and Twilight break this thing. Just hold it out, point it at what you want to shoot, and press that button on the top there.” Glitterball explained while pointing to the indentation on the top of the vial. Applejack took the vial and looked at it for a moment before looking over to the battle beside her and gulping nervously. Neon Streak looked beside her to see Applejack trotting up to join her. She started shooting at the numerous creatures charging them with varied accuracy. After a few moments of panic induced learning, the orange mare’s aim improved vastly. “Ah should have taken you up on that offer when I had the chance, Neon.” Applejack stated jokingly while flinching her eyes shut to shoot at each of the terrifying looking creatures. “Don’t worry about that right now… just keep shooting and we’ll make it out of here just fine.” Neon chuckled nervously while trying to appear as confident as possible to ease the orange mare’s fears. Applejack nodded before returning her attention in front of her. Suddenly, one of the creatures leapt out from the side, catching Applejack off guard. The midnight man swiped the vial from the orange mare’s hooves, causing a painful cut in the process. The farm pony yelped from the pain as the beast prepared to take another swipe at her. “Applejack!” Neon cried out as she got in front of the farmer to protect her. The creature paid no heed as to which one of the ponies it struck as it whipped its clawed fingers back across. The creature hit Neon Streak across her chest, causing another painful gash in the already injured pony. The force of the strike sent Neon hurdling backwards, taking Applejack with her as their bodies impacted. “Girls!” Brimstoke was helpless as he watched the events transpire behind him. He was forced to continue firing at the beasts trying to get at him as two of the creatures rushed towards the two on the ground. Twilight looked up from her work to see her two friends lying on the ground just ahead. One of the creatures was preparing to deal the killing blow to the helpless pair on the floor. The purple unicorn took no time to let her fear dictate her actions and leapt forward while charging up her horn to attack the creatures. As she stood in front of her two injured friends, Twilight quickly realized that even if she did manage to complete the spell to shoot a blast at one of the creatures in time, there was another monster winding up for an attack at the same time. Applejack and Neon Streak watched helplessly as their unicorn savior closed her eyes in preparation for the doubtlessly mind numbing pain she would experience from the two creatures mauling her. Just before the closest creature made contact with the flinching unicorn however, it paused suddenly. Twilight heard the scraping sound of something piercing through flesh and muscle. She wondered if the creatures had already struck her, and the pain had just failed to reach her yet. She slowly fluttered her eyes open to see what had happened. The unicorn looked ahead to see one of the creatures had a familiar blue tinted sword sticking through its mid-section. The creature’s wound began emitting black smoke before the blade was forced upwards through its entire body, splitting it in twain from the waist up. As the creature collapsed into smoke, Twilight saw Tom standing behind it, holding his sword in place triumphantly. “Tom!” The purple pony exclaimed happily as she grinned at the human. As she looked over to the other creature, Twilight suddenly saw bright bolts of blue light striking the monster down from the side, followed by an orange pegasus in a suit trotting up to the group with her flashlight on. “You guys need a hand?” Tom asked with a smirk on his face as he put an arm out to pick up Applejack. After the farm pony was on her feet, she quickly helped Neon Streak scoot backwards and out of harm’s way. “Sunspot… I thought you were upstairs with the civvies?” Brimstoke asked curiously as he watched the two line up beside him. “I figured you guys could use some help, so I dropped the pegasus and the kids off with Glimmer and Pepper outside and came down here to rescue your sorry butts.” Sunspot boasted with a smirk on her face while holding up her two locaters for emphasis. Tom chuckled while looking over to the cocky pegasus with a smirk of his own. “Actually, I sensed a lot of those creatures moving towards a single area, so I decided to head down to investigate. She wanted to come with me, so we dropped the others off outside.” The human stated with a smile as he watched Sunspot’s ego deflate. “I… was getting to that.” The orange pegasus mumbled begrudgingly while shooting at the creatures around them. Brimstoke smiled as he watched the two interact. He could tell that they would get along just fine. “Well whoever it was that had the idea, I’m glad you came to bail us out.” The stallion said with a grateful smile before returning his attention to the creatures around them. Sunspot stayed in line with Brimstoke in order to keep a sturdy line of protection, while Tom threw caution to the wind and charged ahead to combat the creatures on the edge of the flashlight’s reach. The slayer spun around and decapitated one of the creatures as he swung his sword back around. He then impaled a creature and ripped the katana sideways to strike another creature beside it. Satisfied at his progress in cutting down the charging beast’s he chuckled in enjoyment as he smiled excitedly. “Not so tough when you can’t sneak up on me are you?” Tom yelled with a little more enthusiasm than necessary as he continued fighting the creatures. With the decrease in numbers of creatures due to the slayer’s rampage; Brimstoke and Sunspot were free to watch the boy dispatch scores of the creatures with relative ease as they charged him from all sides. “Wow… look at him go.” Brimstoke stated with amazement as he watched the slayer pummel the incoming creatures with a mixture of his sword, fists, and feet. “I guess the princess wasn’t kidding when she told us about how he saved the elements of harmony out in the Everfree.” Sunspot spoke while picking off the few stragglers that managed to come in from the sides. “Well, I suppose you don’t get to be slayer unless you can… slay things.” The stallion added while watching the spectacle in front of him like it was a sport. While the three; or rather, mostly one, dealt with the creatures, the two unicorns were racing to dismantle the spell and stop the beasts from appearing at all. Twilight and Glitterball had sweat rolling down their faces as they strained their magic to destroy the protective barriers of the spell. “Aha! I got it!” Glitterball exclaimed suddenly while focusing on a particular part of the symbol. Suddenly the entire symbol lit up and started emitting a loud hum. The glyphs on the symbol pulsed with red light as they blinked in succession. A bright flash of light filled the room as the symbol self-destructed. When the light faded, the pitch blackness of the room was replaced with the average shadows of normal darkness. A loud whirring sound filled the air as the generators kicked back on to restore power to the hospital. The lights flickered on, and the only sign left of the creatures was a few patches of disappearing black smoke on the floor. Tom turned around and twirled his sword in the air for show. He then stuck it back into its holster and looked to the group with fake disappointment in his face. “Awww… I was just getting warmed up.” The human smirked impishly. Chapter 31: The AftermathTwilight sat still for a moment and processed her thoughts together while breathing heavily. She couldn’t believe that the ordeal was finally over, and that she could finally leave the dark hallways of the hospital forever. She looked over to her fellow unicorn, who shared in her excitement and exhaustion as she communicated with her eyes while panting to catch her breath. The ponies all took a moment to relax before getting up and remembering that their friends had been injured during the fight. “How are you two holding up?” Glitterball asked while observing Neon Streak and Applejack’s wounds. Although they looked horrific on the surface, the gashes on Neon’s chest and arms weren’t very deep, and Applejacks cuts were superficial at best. “I’m good… just need a little fresh air is all… ugh.” Neon Streak cringed while trying to stand up. Although her wounds weren’t very deep, she had lost a considerable amount of blood in a relatively short time. Applejack looked at the green pony sympathetically. On top of her saving her skin, the orange mare could tell that Neon wasn’t trying to make her feel bad for getting her hurt, and that somehow made the farm pony feel even worse. “We need to get you to Pepper… these look too big for me to heal up. Yours however…” Glitter paused to walk over to Applejack. After taking a brief look at the small cuts, the unicorn lit up her horn and used her magic to heal the orange mare. “Thanks sugar cube… You have medical training?” Applejack asked curiously as she rubbed her newly healed arms to see if they felt normal. The unicorn nodded cheerfully in response. “Yep… I help Peppermint with a few minor things from time to time.” Glitter stated modestly before looking back over to her injured friend. “But I don’t think I can do anything to help these.” The white mare frowned sympathetically as she watched Neon force a smile and chuckle. “I’m fine Glitterball… don’t worry about it.” The green pony droned while slowly walking forward to join the others. The others could tell that she was having a hard time standing, let alone walking and trying to seem upbeat and cheerful. “Enough putting on a show for me Neon, you’re hurt and you need to get some help.” Applejack spoke with concern while grabbing the earth pony’s side to help her stand. “Tom, do you think you can help her? Ah don’t think she’s going to make it very far while losing that much blood.” She turned to the human pleadingly to see if he could heal her the way he healed Fluttershy at the school. “I’ll see what I can do.” The boy shrugged while assessing the damage to the green mare. He knelt down and looked at the wounds closely to focus more on healing them specifically rather than just pumping her full of healing light and wasting energy. After a few moments of breathing deeply and steeling himself, Tom put his hands out and concentrated for a moment. Soon enough, bright streams of blue light began emitting from his hands once more. The warm feeling and soothing hum of the strange light amazed Neon Streak and Applejack, who could feel the warmth coming from the light by proximity. The four spectators watched with astonishment as the once gruesome wounds on Neon Streak’s chest and arm began closing up and healing right before their eyes. Even Twilight was still impressed to see the slayer in action, despite her earlier experience with him. Once Tom stopped his light and her wounds were healed, Neon rubbed the area where her skin had once been ripped open and smiled. She stopped smiling and adopted a more humble expression once she saw the boy breathing heavily as if he were exhausted. “Thanks Tom, I’m glad that people like you are around to make our job easier.” Neon Streak said in a gracious tone while watching the boy wheeze with a concerned frown. She lightened up her expression when she saw him smile and nod in between breaths. Applejack felt bad seeing Tom struggle to breathe after fixing her mistake. Although she couldn’t have done much to prevent herself from being attacked, she still felt awful knowing that Neon Streak could have died while protecting her. “Thanks for helping me out back there Neon… Ah don’t know what would have happened if you didn’t step in.” Applejack stated sympathetically while frowning sadly. The green pony smiled and put a hoof on the farm pony’s shoulder. “Don’t sweat it Applejack… I’m just doing my job.” Neon Streak said cheerfully. Applejack felt a little better knowing that everything turned out alright in the end. Seeing the human heal the earth pony made Twilight develop a sad feeling as she remembered the two ponies that had lost their lives. She felt like she had to at least voice her curiosity on the matter to see if Tom could possibly bring them back. “Hey Tom…” Twilight walked up to the boy with a sullen expression. “Are you able to use your healing powers to revive people who have died?” She asked hesitantly. Everyone shifted their expressions to more somber and blank ones upon hearing the grim question. Tom sighed gloomily as he thought about the subject more. He didn’t like where this conversation was going, and he didn’t like how he would have to answer. “I don’t think so… I’m not sure if it’s possible… and the amount of energy needed to even attempt something like that would be enormous. It’s only ever been attempted a few times, and the slayers who tried it didn’t survive the process.” Tom explained somberly before turning to the unicorn and looking at her with apprehension. “Why do you ask?” “…” Twilight paused and looked down sadly before answering. “When I got captured by those things and found Nurse Redheart… we weren’t alone.” The others frowned gloomily as they realized where this conversation was heading. “Daisychain and Patches were with us, but the creatures got to them before I could do anything.” The unicorn explained sadly while trying to keep her fragile hold on her emotions. The news that two ponies had died was devastating to everyone in the room to some degree. Applejack had already known about the tragic news, and despite her previous knowledge, the thought of it still hit the orange mare like a ton of bricks. Neon Streak and Brimstoke seemed to be taking the news more stoically than anything. They hung their heads sadly and sighed while dealing with their emotions. Glitterball and Sunspot were almost destroyed by the revelation that they had failed to save everyone. The two ponies stood motionless as their jaws hung open in shock, and their eyes gave a brief glimpse of how mortified they were. Tom on the other hand was harder to read than any of the others. Twilight was slightly concerned for him as he stared blankly at the floor with a somber expression. The only clue of emotion on his face was his eyes. They seemed to be unfocused and almost sad. The unicorn became even more concerned as she noticed the boy’s hand trembling slightly as he fidgeted with his fingers. “I’m sorry…” Tom finally spoke up in a dull tone. The others were confused as to why the boy would feel any more remorse than they did, but Twilight knew that it must have been killing him to have been unable to do anything to help. “It wasn’t your fault Tom…” The unicorn spoke softly while putting a reassuring hoof on his side. Somehow, seeing the purple pony trying to console him after her terrifying experience didn’t seem to make the boy feel better. “Let’s just move forward for now… we will bring those responsible for this to justice… I promise.” Twilight looked around to her orange friend and the four other ponies in the room. They gave a solemn nod as they all resolved to do anything in their power to prevent something like this from happening in the future. “Alright… I guess there is nothing else for us to do here… let’s head up and meet the others. I think Spike and Applebloom are waiting for you two.” Tom stated while trying to regain his former composure. Twilight wasn’t sure if he was as recovered as he was letting on, but she also knew that staying in this hospital wouldn’t do any of them any good. The group slowly walked towards the door to file out of the now peaceful basement. Glitterball turned around and lit up her horn to pick up the small stack of books Twilight had found earlier. After rushing the books over to her side, the white unicorn trotted to catch up to the others as they solemnly walked out into the hallway. Meanwhile, deep inside the Everfree Forest, Cotton Quill was pacing nervously along the fence line of the old mansion that had practically become his second home. He was muttering to himself as he tried to think of a way to present his findings in a way that wouldn’t get him killed. “I can’t believe those stupid ponies showed up and ruined everything! It’s bad enough that they have a slayer… but now they have an entire squad of supernatural exterminators!” Cotton grew paler as he imagined all of the things Raven Feather could do to him. He shook his head to rid himself of these grim thoughts and turned his attention to the old mansion. Gulping nervously and mentally preparing himself for the worst case scenario, the white unicorn slowly forced his body to move forward towards his inevitable doom. The journey from the edge of the property to the main building was taking him so long that Cotton decided to take a moment to observe his surroundings and get his mind off of his journey. It never occurred to the unicorn that this building was such a historical, and at the same time eerie, picture of human architecture. True, most of the trees and artistic stone sculptures were dead and crumbling, but the brown grass and cracked stone pathways that led around the yard to the various benches and the rundown water fountain were a sight to behold. Just as Cotton turned around from his time admiring the dull surroundings, he came face to frame with the large entryway door of the mansion. Sighing apprehensively, the unicorn opened the door and walked inside. As he walked through the large foyer, Cotton passed by a few of the hooded ponies that had assisted him with the ritual at the hospital. Thankfully the protection charm had actually worked this time, and there were no casualties among his small troop of summoners. Before he started to climb the staircase that would take him to the upper floor, Cotton noticed a familiar colt sitting on the top step. The pale white colt was kicking his legs in the air to occupy himself, as if he were waiting for something to do. “Grimwood? What are you doing here?” Cotton asked curiously while walking up the stairs. Upon noticing the unicorn, Grimwood hopped up and looked at him expectantly. “Ah… Cotton, you’re back a little early aren’t you? Did you screw something up again?” The pale colt’s devious remark was almost lost under his blank exterior, but nonetheless, Cotton felt annoyed in the fact that he was being typecast as a screw up, and that it was slightly true. “No… err… I… that’s beside the point.” The unicorn paused briefly to recollect himself. “Why are you sitting out here? Where’s Miss Raven Feather?” Cotton Quill asked quizzically as he observed the colt. “Raven Feather is down in the basement with the others. She told me to wait up here to tell you if you came back early again… which I’m kind of glad that you did. It was getting rather boring waiting for you.” Grimwood explained with a slight inflection of joy in his voice. Cotton was confused by the colt’s explanation. “Why is she down there? She usually hangs out in the library.” The white unicorn thought out loud as he tried to think of a reason why the dark furred earth pony would change their meeting spot. Grimwood looked at him and prepared to answer his question. “She’s looking for a book down in the archives… some of the more interesting stuff got left in the basement when the owners of the house… left.” The colt’s cold exterior made the statement much more eerie to Cotton as he thought about how the mansion came to be abandoned. “Right… So, would you mind giving me directions? I’ve never been down in the basement before. What’s it even like? I heard there isn’t even electricity down there… not that there is much up here of course… hehe.” The stallion chuckled nervously at the thought of going into a section of the house that probably wasn’t even lit up due to disuse. Grimwood let an imperceptible smirk creep across his face as he discovered an opportunity to mess with the unicorn. “Well… you take the hallway on the right of the foyer just underneath the stairs. You follow that all the way to the edge of the house and take the door at the end of the hall to the right. From there, you follow the basement hallways until you get to an intersection past the old medical examination rooms where that one guy did all of his experiments. Turn right and keep going until you hit the crawl space where they buried the bodies and take the door across from there. And finally, turn right and head into the decrepit archives room. Oh yeah, and it might be too dark to see down there, so be sure to bring a light… wouldn’t want you falling in any open graves in the crawlspace now would we?” The colt explained as slowly and forebodingly as he could manage while still keeping up his dull and innocently stoic appearance. “*Gulp*… Anything else?” Cotton asked apprehensively. Seeing the unicorn shiver nervously as his pupils shrank to tiny dots made the colt chuckle slightly. “Yeah… if you hit the room where one of the owners hung themselves from the rafters, you’ve gone too far.” Grimwood added in a cheery tone, as if his advice would really help Cotton find his way. “Thanks for the tip… I guess.” Cotton said uncomfortably as he tried to shake the frightening thoughts from his head. He then turned around and descended the stairs while trying to reassert his bravery to no avail. As he got off of the steps and walked around to the side, Cotton noticed a door he never acknowledged before set into the side of the staircase. Upon opening the door, the unicorn was greeted by a hallway with numerous doors inside that stretched onwards for as far as he could see. It never occurred to Cotton just how big the mansion actually was. After closing the door behind him, Cotton immediately noticed how dark the ominous hallway before him was. The only sources of light in the hall were small candles that sat on ornate tables that were few and far in between. The flickering orange tinted light bathed the hallway in an eerie sort of atmosphere that perfectly complimented the many voids of darkness in between the candles. “Sweet Celestia… how do these ponies live in these conditions? I for one prefer a little bit more light when traversing through creepy, old, and possibly haunted mansions.” Cotton stated to himself while reaching over to the light switch beside the door. Cotton flipped the switch and watched with satisfaction as the lights hanging from the ceiling flickered on. Just as the white pony was heading away from the light switch however, all of the lights flickered and slowly fizzed out, leaving him standing in the dark hallway once more. “*Sigh* I guess a fuse must have tripped… no wonder they decided to use candles to light this place. I just wish they would have put a few more down.” Cotton shrugged while lighting up his horn. The small sphere of light was barely any better than the candles, but it would have to do. After what felt like several minutes of walking, Cotton finally came to the end of the hallway and looked around. There was a door to his left that was cracked open slightly. Upon taking a look inside this door, Cotton realized that it led into another hallway that was completely void of light. “Ok, this house is officially way too big. We have dozens of ponies at our disposal, and we don’t even use all these rooms… how did only three people live here?” The unicorn wondered while thinking of the limited knowledge of the manor’s previous owners that he had from small conversations with the others. Cotton turned from the door and looked to the right wall where Grimwood said the basement stairs would be. Sure enough, a door with a pale gray hue stood out from the others across from the door to the other hallway. The unicorn walked up to it and opened it to reveal a decrepit wooden stairway leading down into pitch blackness. “I never thought I would say that I missed that dusty old library… but there you go.” Cotton stammered nervously while trying to stop himself from shivering. Suddenly the door behind the unicorn closed gently, just loud enough to distinguish the noise from anything else in the hallway. “Whoa!” Cotton yelped and spun around in fright to face the door. He had left it slightly open when he walked away, but now it was completely closed. Deciding against opening it for research, the nervous pony knelt down and looked through the crack at the bottom of the door to see if anyone was behind it. The crack was just large enough to see a short section of the dark floor behind the door. A cool breeze blew into the unicorn’s face as he scanned his eyes around to see any motion. Satisfied that nobody was around, Cotton quickly turned around and descended the staircase. He reasoned that even if Raven Feather chewed him out all night, it would still be better than being in this creepy mansion alone. After nervously traversing the dark corridors of the basement and looking out for the terrifying landmarks that Grimwood described, Cotton Quill found himself opening the door to the archives and stepping in with the hopes that he would find someone that he knew. Much to his relief, Cotton saw Raven Feather, Dust Kicker, and Raincloud huddled around a crate and talking with each other. Upon noticing the unicorn, the others looked over to him with blank expressions on their faces. “It’s about time you got here Cotton… what, did you fall into an open grave?” The black mare asked with a slight chuckle. The way Raven Feather said that made Cotton feel uncomfortable, as if that were a common occurrence in this place. “As dark and uninviting as that hole in the wall was, no… I did not fall into any open graves.” The unicorn replied while trying to shake the memories of the dark and claustrophobic hole he had to walk through from his head. “Right… well then, let’s get right down to business. How did the plan go?” Raven Feather asked with a hint of false optimism in her voice. The black earth pony’s emerald green eyes burned into Cotton as she stared at him expectantly. Despite his knowledge of what they would be talking about, Cotton still became very nervous as he tried to formulate the right words to say to put it as gently as possible. Judging from their expressions, Raven Feather and the others were unimpressed by the awkward unicorn mumbling to himself. “Unfortunately… the spell at the hospital has been broken, and the creatures are gone.” Finding no better way to put it, Cotton rubbed the back of his neck nervously while avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group. Raven Feather growled through her teeth in frustration, Cotton looked up to see her glaring at him fiercely. “Let me guess… it was the slayer again.” The black mare huffed angrily before taking a moment to calm herself down. “A-actually no… The slayer was there, but a group of ponies sent by Princess Luna did the heavy lifting.” The unicorn stopped talking, as if he had communicated everything he needed to. Raven Feather and the others were sharing a mixture of surprise and anger upon hearing the news. “What?!” Raincloud finally decided to interject into the conversation. She got up and marched over to Cotton angrily. Just as the unicorn flinched in preparation of being strangled, the pegasus merely grabbed ahold of him by his vest collar and held him closer. “You better start explaining Cotton! It was your job to defend that symbol, and just a random group of ponies destroyed it?!” The gray-blue pegasus shook the terrified unicorn back and forth to better hold his attention. “Raincloud… enough.” Raven Feather spoke up while holding out her arm to stop the pegasus assaulting the unicorn. Raincloud gave Cotton one last glare before dropping him, causing him to fall on his back and catch himself with his arms. “Now… Cotton, what was so special about these ponies that you thought it necessary to let them destroy another symbol?” The green eyed pony asked very clearly and concisely while still maintaining a cold exterior. Cotton gulped nervously before mustering the courage to speak up. “They had a lot of magic charms designed to combat the supernatural… I think the princess must have trained them to fight against us.” The unicorn explained while anxiously watching the scowling earth pony in front of him. “You know what Cotton…” The innocent tone of voice that Raven Feather was using caught Cotton off guard. “I think you don’t want us to reach our goal… I think you want to screw up everything you touch.” The earth pony walked forward while glaring at the unicorn menacingly. Cotton backed up nervously as Raven Feather marched towards him. Suddenly, the unicorn hit the back wall and was forced to stop, allowing the livid pony to get right up in his face and pierce his soul with her fiery green eyes. “I don’t understand it Cotton… We offered you a home, offered you a place to grow and master skills and talents that you couldn’t even possibly dream of on your own, and we offered you a place beside us when we bathe this world in everlasting darkness! And you STILL find it NECESSARY…” Suddenly the explosive outburst abruptly ended, leaving Raven Feather staring at the quivering mess in front of her. The earth pony sighed and rubbed her temples before breathing deeply a few times. She then backed up and turned around to face the others. Cotton slowly opened one eye to see if the verbal assault had ended. “Forget this… I have people to get upset for me.” Raven Feather muttered just loud enough to be heard before turning to the two onlookers. “Raincloud.” She spoke directly to the gray pegasus. Raincloud directed her attention to her leader. “Yes Raven Feather?” The pegasus asked with an obedient tone. Raven Feather chuckled to herself while smirking. “Why don’t you give our friend Cotton a little… discipline?” The black earth pony grinned and winked at the pegasus to accentuate her last word. Raincloud perked up eagerly and let a smile creep across her face. “Really?” The excited pegasus asked to clarify what the earth pony meant. Raven Feather nodded before stepping out of the way to give her room. Raincloud laughed deviously while stepping towards Cotton. The unicorn expected her to walk up to him, but instead she stopped a few feet from him and stared at him with an impish smirk. “Shadow…” The pegasus spoke loudly and with steely determination, as if she were giving an order to an army. Cotton was confused by the display. “What…? But Shadow Mist isn’t here…” The unicorn spoke to himself while looking around to find who the mare was talking to. Suddenly, a strange occurrence made Cotton’s blood run cold. Raincloud’s shadow started moving slowly from beneath her. The black silhouette stretched out to the side until it was projecting to a spot beside her, where it stopped. The shadow then started forming into a more solid looking dark circle on the ground. Suddenly a large, amorphous creature started rising up out of the ground where the shadow had been. The creature was pitch black everywhere except for its eyes and mouth, which were glowing a sinister purple that flickered like a candle inside a jack-o-lantern. The ghostly shape was very broad at the top, with the creature’s arms jutting out from the edges of its body. Its head consisted of a small blob on top of its body with its glowing eyes and mouth seemingly carved into it. The shadow’s lower body tapered down to a thin end that resembled a tail. The entire thing looked like some kind of demonic manta ray sprouted arms and learned how to fly. “Wh….w-wha.” Cotton stared at the monster wide eyed as it floated menacingly before him. The creature turned and looked to its master, who was smiling devilishly at it while glancing to the frightened unicorn. The pegasus smiled and admired her minion for a moment before redirecting her attention to the unicorn. “Rough him up!” Raincloud instructed to the creature while pointing at Cotton with her arm. The creature let out a sinister cackle that pierced Cotton’s very being as it seemingly echoed softly through the room. Suddenly the creature swooped down rapidly and disappeared into the floor, leaving nothing to give a hint that something had even been there. Cotton immediately flew into a panic as he looked around him nervously. He backed away from the wall and checked every possible location where the creature could come from. Suddenly, the unicorn looked down, only to be greeted with a small black patch on the floor that resembled a shadow. The creature’s head suddenly popped out of the patch and stared at Cotton with its glowing eyes and jagged smile. “AHHH!” Cotton screamed at the top of his lungs as the creature sprang up from the ground and grabbed him by his back leg. With one swift motion, the shadow lifted him up and let him hang upside down. The unicorn dangled from the creature’s grip and struggled in a vain attempt to get free. “Raven Feather! Please call it off! I’ll do anything, I swear!” Cotton yelled in a terrified panic as he tried to avoid staring at the monster’s disturbing face. The white pony punched his hooves as hard as he could into the creature, but was only met by his arms going through the shadow as if it weren’t really there. Finally, Cotton decided to pull and wriggle his leg to try and pry it out of the creature’s grasp. Raincloud’s laughter did nothing to distract Cotton from the icy stare of the creature. The shadow held its other arm up and slowly moved it toward the unicorn’s face. The spikey claws jutting out from the specter’s hand were an inch away from piercing the frightened pony’s skin. Cotton flinched his eyes shut and prepared for the pain that would follow. Suddenly and abruptly, Cotton was sent crashing to the floor as the shadow released its grip. The force of the impact was mostly placed on the back of the unicorn’s head, causing quite a bit of pain and discomfort. Cotton looked up to see the shadow staring at him as it sat still, the only motion arising from it being the slow rise and fall of its body from floating in the air. Behind the shadow, Raven Feather and Raincloud were standing next to each other and glaring at Cotton. Raincloud motioned for the creature to return to her, causing the shadow to fly into the air and swoop back into the ground at the pegasus’ feet. The creature quickly melded into the shape of an average shadow and turned see-through once more, giving the illusion that it had never been there at all. “Thank you Miss Raven Feather… I promise I won’t fail you on the next plan.” Cotton walked forward and bowed his head respectfully to the earth pony. Raven Feather huffed in annoyance before forcefully lifting the unicorn’s head up with her hoof. “There won’t be a next plan for you to fail Cotton… you’re officially fired from making and performing any spells and rituals on our behalf.” Raven Feather explained to him in an annoyed tone. Cotton was extremely shocked to hear that he was being punished so severely. “In the meantime, Raincloud and Dust Kicker will be my acting agents in the field. Hell, I might step outside myself and help them out on their first mission... I could use some fresh air after all.” Raven Feather stated with a cheerful grin while turning to the two ponies and sharing in a joyful chuckle. “What?!... But… but… but why?! I’m not the only one who screwed up this time! Shadow Mist wasn’t even there to help me, and now he isn’t even here to take blame for it.” Cotton tried to shift the blame to his partner, although the red pony did have some responsibility over the plan due to his orders. “What are you talking about Cotton? Shadow Mist has been here the whole time.” Raven Feather stated with a hint of devilish satisfaction in her voice. Cotton looked around in confusion. The red earth pony was nowhere to be found in the small, dusty room. He wasn’t even hiding behind any of the cobweb ridden shelves. “What…? But… where is h-” Cotton was interrupted by a sudden shroud of darkness appearing in front of him. When the shadows faded from view, the familiar form of the red furred earth pony was left standing a mere inch away from Cotton. “Hi Cotton…” Shadow Mist spoke up on cue with his appearance, causing the unicorn to jump backwards in fright and surprise. “What…? But how did you…” Cotton stammered in between breaths while calming himself down. The red pony merely chuckled and turned to face Raven Feather. “Didn’t I tell you before Cotton…? We all have gifts to contribute to the group.” Raven Feather chuckled to herself while watching the frightened unicorn get up. “I thought you were speaking metaphorically…” Cotton muttered to himself while trying to preserve any shred of dignity he had left. Taking one look at Dust Kicker and Raincloud, who were quietly chuckling and laughing uncontrollably on the floor respectively, it was clear that he had failed to do so. “Now then Shadow Mist… what happened at the hospital?” Raven Feather asked the crimson earth pony and waited expectantly. “Well, I was keeping an eye on Cotton like you asked. Twilight Sparkle and a small group of her friends, including the slayer, got trapped in the building when the spell was complete. Everything was going perfectly fine… the creature’s completely drained two ponies of their life force, and there were three children there as well… so you can imagine that we managed to gather a lot of fear and sadness. But then these ponies in tactical gear busted through the door and rescued everyone. They went down to the basement and found the room where the symbol was, and while Cotton here ran away… they managed to destroy the spell and make off with a few of our books.” Shadow Mist explained while looking to Cotton Quill with disdain. Cotton could see that Raven Feather wasn’t at all impressed with him, even though she had already punished him for messing up. He looked at Shadow Mist with a mixture of shock and scorn on his face. The unicorn couldn’t believe that he could speak as if nothing was wrong when he had fled as well. “But… why did you run away? If you all wanted me to stay and fight, then why didn’t you try to keep them away?” Cotton looked to Raven feather in a last ditch attempt to get her to see his logic. She merely scowled at him further before looking back to Shadow Mist and waiting for his explanation. “They looked like they had royal guard training at some point. And they were packing some fairly advanced magical equipment. I would have ran, but seeing how I can turn invisible, I decided to watch them to find out what we were up against.” Shadow Mist explained to the others and sat down after he was done. Cotton was even more shocked to see that they seemed to except his explanation. “But… why are you only mad at me?!” The unicorn fumed in frustration. Raven Feather sighed in annoyance before looking back to him. “It’s not so much that you ran away Cotton… although I am still mad at you for that. It’s that you disobeyed me to run away, and you left your books behind. Not that they will get much from them… but it is still a considerable mistake, which is why you will be staying here and helping the others with research and other petty chores I would normally reserve for some grunt that I don’t know the name of.” The black mare stated matter-of-factly to the unicorn while walking towards the door and motioning for the others to follow. “But… I’ll still get rewarded when this is all over right?” Cotton asked timidly in order to not set off the earth pony’s temper again. Raven Feather paused at the door and turned around. “After all the complications you caused? Do you know how much fear and negative energy is needed to invoke the eternal night? Not to mention all of the other complex rituals needed… no, you probably have no idea… you haven’t spent most of your life searching for a way to do it.” The earth pony stated with an annoyed tone to the unicorn before walking out of the door with her three companions. Cotton Quill followed the group out into the dark hallway and walked in front of them to stop them. “That didn’t really answer my question Miss Raven Feather.” Cotton said while trying to sound as lighthearted as possible. The black mare sighed in frustration before looking at the unicorn with a defeated expression. “Tell you what Cotton… if you work really hard on whatever odd jobs I give you, and you don’t screw anything else up, I might reconsider feeding you to a pack of darklings after we become this world’s new gods.” Raven Feather said with a slight smile as she envisioned how satisfying it would be to have the unicorn murdered brutally. Cotton was going to say something in return, but he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a door closing down the hall followed by a hiss of air blowing past the group. Everyone else merely looked in the direction of the noise with slight curiosity, while Cotton nearly jumped out of his skin with fright. “I thought we were the only ones down here…” The unicorn stammered nervously while hiding behind the group for protection while staring down the hall at the ominous door at the end. “We are… in a manner of speaking.” Raincloud spoke up with a devious tone as she relished in watching the terrified stallion. “What was that anyway…? That happened to me earlier in the hallway leading down here.” Cotton asked curiously. The white pony finally managed to calm his nerves and limit his fear to a slight tightness of the muscles. “One of the workers was down here on an errand earlier, I think he might have accidentally broken or damaged one of the protective seals on the house. Ever since there have been a few odd occurrences, so I think something might have been woken up… Oh yeah, that reminds me. Cotton, your first job is to go in there and fix the seal.” Raven Feather instructed suddenly while turning to face the unicorn. “What?! You want me to go in there by myself?!” Cotton’s heart skipped a beat as his fears came back to him in full force. “Oh don’t worry. You’ll have that worker down here to help you. At least I think he’s still down here… I don’t remember him coming back upstairs at any rate…” The black mare tried to sound reassuring, but then she scratched her head as she tried to recall whether or not the worker actually made it out of the basement. “Just head in there and use the book near the symbol to find out how to fix the seal… and don’t worry, I’m sure whatever managed to get through the weakened seals is probably harmless.” Raven Feather stated with deceitful confidence while walking away with her group. Raincloud paused and turned around to give the unicorn a devious smirk. “Probably…” The pale mare said with a brief chuckle before turning back around and following Raven Feather and her brother around the corner. Cotton stared at the ominous hallway before him and gulped nervously while forcing himself to step forward. If he remembered correctly, and if Grimwood’s directions were to be trusted, then the room where the door just slammed shut would be the room where one of the human owners hung themselves from the rafters. “You know… I hate this job sometimes.” The unicorn muttered to himself before swallowing his fear and walking down the hall to get started on his job. Chapter 32: Team SpiritAfter taking a solemn walk through the hospital and reflecting on everything that had happened in the past few hours, Twilight and the others finally walked out into the warm atmosphere of midday Ponyville. The purple unicorn and her orange friend took a deep inhale of fresh air and savored it. Just a few minutes ago, the two ponies thought that they would never see the light of day again. Upon taking a look around, Twilight noticed a wide array of ponies in the area around the group. Some were jogging around with urgent expressions, while others were watching the band of survivors exiting the hospital. “Come on… your friends and the princess are waiting in the medical tent we set up over there.” Brimstoke spoke to the pair while pointing off into the distance. Twilight could just barely see the outline of a beige tent over in the grass away from the hospital. “Thanks… I think we should rest for a while before we find out what to do next.” The purple unicorn said while following the group towards the medical tent. The others nodded in agreement to the suggestion while anticipating taking a moment to relax. Twilight looked over to see Glitterball carrying the books she had found earlier. The lavender pony couldn’t help but wonder what useful secrets could be learned about their enemies from searching through the pages. After a short walk, the group found themselves approaching the medical tent. As they gathered around the door, they could hear the muffled noises of their friends talking inside. Deciding to head in first, Twilight pushed the small flap of canvas aside and stepped in. The inside of the tent was larger than it seemed when looking at it from the front, having several cots and tables inside. Numerous pieces of medical equipment and I.V stands were scattered around the tent and on the various tables. Off to the back of the tent, there was a small gathering of ponies sitting beside another bed that had Nurse Redheart in it. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Princess Luna, and Fluttershy were huddled next to the bed while Glimmer Shine occupied Spike, Scootaloo, and Applebloom with idle conversation. Directly beside the nurse’s bed, Peppermint was fiddling around with an I.V bag that had a line connecting to the resting pony. Upon noticing the entering group, everyone turned their heads and exclaimed cheerfully at seeing their friends return safely. Everyone except for Peppermint and Nurse Redheart, for obvious reasons, rushed over to greet the band of survivors. “Twilight!” Spike exclaimed happily while rushing over to the purple unicorn. He practically jumped into her arms to give her a warm embrace. The lavender pony gladly held the dragon tightly as they both teared up from finally being reunited. “Spike! I’m so glad you’re not hurt!” Twilight’s voice trembled from sheer emotion as she hugged the baby dragon closely. “I thought I would never see you again.” She sniffled once to rid herself of the excess emotion before looking at Spike and smiling happily. “I felt the same way! I thought I would be stuck up there forever!” Spike wiped the tears off of his face before returning the unicorn’s smile. A short ways away, Applejack was running up to her sister and kneeling down to give her a gentle hug. The young filly still had her broken leg to deal with after all. “Applebloom! Are you okay? How is your leg?” The orange mare asked in a soft tone while fighting back a wave of tears. “Well, in all of the commotion I hadn’t paid much attention to it, but it does hurt a little more than it did before… Owch!” Applebloom almost fell as she suddenly felt shooting pain coming from her leg after putting weight on it. Applejack gasped in concern as she helped the filly lay down without hurting herself further. “What’s wrong? Did you hurt your leg again?” The farm pony asked with concern and empathy as she frowned while watching the filly cringe in pain. Peppermint walked over from the occupied bed and knelt down to examine the injured filly. After Applebloom yelped from the slightest touch, the stallion reeled back and left the injury alone. He shook his head sympathetically before looking up to Applejack. “I think she might have full blown broken it back in the hospital. If I can’t set it here and recast it, then she is going to need to have it surgically corrected.” Peppermint explained with a somber frown. The orange mare gasped quietly while looking back to her sister with shock. “How much pain will setting it here cause her?” Applejack asked apprehensively while placing a reassuring hoof on the filly’s shoulder. Peppermint sighed in frustration while observing the casted leg. “Even with local anesthetics it would be… considerably uncomfortable…” The white stallion rubbed his arm anxiously as he delivered the bad news. Applebloom looked to her sister with understandable fear and concern. Before anyone else could speak up, Tom shrugged with resolve and stepped forward to look at the injured filly. He then looked over to Peppermint with a confident expression. “Do you think you can get that cast off without hurting her?” The human asked with an anxious tone, as if he were mentally preparing himself for a challenge. “Yeah… I can just cut it off, but why?” Peppermint asked curiously. He wasn’t sure where the slayer was going with this, but he was willing to do anything to help out an injured filly. Tom shook his head and stretched his shoulders while taking a deep breath. He then held his hands out in front of his face and clenched his fist a few times while getting a feel for his strength level. Finally he looked back to the confused medic and smirked. “I think I might be able to heal her using my powers… but I need to reach her leg to even try to do it.” Tom stated with a hint of doubt and apprehension, but he seemed happy enough to try to help. Everyone looked at the boy with hopeful optimism. They weren’t sure if his claim was true, but they wanted the filly to be healed above all else. “Ok… if you really think you can do this, then we need to put her on a bed. Glitter, could you help us out?” Peppermint asked while looking over to the crowd of onlookers. The rainbow haired unicorn stepped forward and nodded with determination. Everyone stood back as Glitterball lit up her horn and enveloped Applebloom with her magic. She slowly lifted the filly up and carried her over to a bed, being careful not to make any sudden movements. She then gently placed her down on her side so she wouldn’t hit her leg on anything. Once the filly was on solid ground, Peppermint reached onto his vest and grabbed a pair of medical scissors. He then carefully cut the cast on the side so he could slip it off without touching the injured leg too much. “There, that should do.” Pepper stated while discarding the cast on a nearby table and replacing the scissors on his vest. He then took a look at the injured leg and cringed. The filly’s leg had turned blackish blue just below the knee. Her leg also seemed to bend at an unnatural angle that looked like it would be painful in its own right. “Alright, I need to find where the break is first.” Tom said while preparing to examine the filly’s leg. Applebloom cringed instinctively as she watched the human hover his hands near her leg. “It won’t hurt too much… right?” Applebloom asked timidly while staring at her injured leg with a concerned frown. Tom looked at her and smiled lightheartedly. “Don’t worry… a happy side effect of my healing light is that it numbs pain completely. You won’t feel a thing, I promise.” The boy spoke in a cheerful tone. Applebloom felt a little better knowing that Tom was the one helping her. After steeling himself for a moment, Tom’s hands began glowing a soft shade of blue as he channeled his light energy to his palms to remove any pain the filly might experience. He then gently placed his hands on Applebloom’s leg and felt around while following the contour of her bones. Applebloom was surprised to see that no pain resulted from the boy moving her leg. Instead, only a slight warm tingling sensation occurred where Tom’s hands were. After a few moments of searching, he finally discovered the break he had been looking for. “Alright… I need you to hold the bones in their proper alignment while I do this. The break is right here… just press on it gently and wait for it to join back together.” Tom instructed to the medic waiting beside him while holding a finger on the spot where the break was. “Ok…” Peppermint replied while gently putting his hoof on the area to feel the broken bone. “The name’s Peppermint by the way.” He stated formally while observing the human’s next actions. Tom nodded to the medical pony before diverting his attention back to the filly. “Broken bones are harder to heal than cuts and bruises, so bear with me while I concentrate.” Tom explained before taking a few deep breathes and placing his hand in position above the injury. Everyone watched with silent intrigue as they waited for the human to concentrate. Suddenly, the familiar glow of Tom’s healing light softly emanated from his hand and shone down on the filly’s leg. Much to Peppermint’s surprise, he could feel the bones starting to move together as he softly pressed on them. Applebloom let a giggle escape from her mouth as she tried to cope with the strange tingling sensation overcoming her leg. It almost felt like she had been sitting on it for too long and it had fallen asleep. As the process carried on, the group noticed that Tom was straining his muscles as if he were coping with a great discomfort. His hand was shaking slightly and he was gritting his teeth while he tried to maintain the flow of energy to his hand. After a short wait, the leg was completely mended, letting the color return to the skin around it. Tom let out a huff of exhaustion and placed his hands on his knees to support himself while he breathed heavily. Applebloom frowned as she watched the boy recovering from his exhaustion. “Are you okay Tom?” Applebloom asked with a sympathetically sad tone. Tom looked up to her in between breathes and realized that she was concerned for him. Not wanting to worry the filly, the boy took in a large inhale before standing back up and coping with his discomfort internally. “I’m fine… just a little out of breath. How’s your leg?” The human asked, half to find out how good of a job he had done, and half to change the subject off of himself. Applebloom slowly bended her leg to see if it would hurt, she then moved it through its full range of motion a few times before smiling happily. “It feels good as new… thanks Tom!” Applebloom exclaimed happily while jumping off of the bed and landing on all of her legs to safely distribute the force. The filly admired her ability to use all four legs for a moment before walking over to her sister confidently and huddling up next to her. Peppermint marveled at the miraculous recovery of the filly in front of him. He and Glimmer Shine had been informed from Rainbow Dash and the others about what the human was capable of, but he had no idea that it would be so awe inspiring up close. “You’re pretty good as a field medic Tom.” The red haired pony complimented the human with a friendly smile. Tom looked back to the stallion and chuckled to himself while smirking. “You’re not so bad yourself… you took care of our friend there for us.” The boy stated while glancing over to Nurse Redheart. The resting nurse smiled while sitting up in the bed and watching the group in front of her. “Hehe… just doing my job I suppose.” Peppermint said modestly while rubbing the back of his neck. This statement made the more uninformed members of the group burn with curiosity. Rarity and the others had only just arrived a short while ago after hearing about the situation at the hospital, so they weren’t given many details on the origins of the strange team of ponies. “That reminds me… What is your job exactly?” Rarity stepped forward from the circle of onlookers and asked curiously. “I mean… we only learned your names when we first got here and you rushed off to help Twilight and the others.” She explained while looking over to her group of friends. Twilight seemed the most intrigued about learning more about the team. “I think I should explain who they are to all of you.” Luna spoke up and stepped forward before anyone else had a chance. She walked in front of Twilight and the others and looked back to the gathering of suited up ponies beside them. “My sister hadn’t told me about any of the strange black and purple substance that was showing up around Equestria. She wanted to keep it under control herself… I guess so as to not concern me. But when monsters attacked all of you out in the Everfree Forest, she knew that we were dealing with something much bigger than either of us could predict. We originally thought that Tom here would be enough to rid us of the new threat we were facing, but after the incident at the school came to my attention, I knew that something had to be done.” She explained with a serious expression on her face and a determined tone of voice. “You see, I had known about some of these things a few months prior to the first appearance of the dark matter. A few books on the paranormal and occult rituals came to my attention one day. And after reading through the horrific contents of the books, I knew that we would need a safeguard in place if any of it should actually prove to be real. So, I started training a small team of ponies to deal with the possibility of any supernatural threat to Equestria and its inhabitants.” The princess stated while turning to face her team of paranormal exterminators. “We are the Supernatural and Paranormal Intelligence, Reconnaissance, and Intervention Team… or Spirit for short.” Brimstoke explained with a small twinge of excitement as he stated their team name. The acronym impressed and intrigued most of the group, while some just wondered who came up with the odd name. “So who came up with that odd name?” Tom chimed in with curiosity and slight amusement before realizing that they at least looked the part of a team of supernatural enforcers while he was just dressed to go out for a morning jog. “To be fair, Glitterball actually came up with it.” Brimstoke said humbly while looking over to the rainbow haired unicorn. Glitterball blushed with modesty while looking down with an awkward smile. “We didn’t really have a name at first… so I just thought one up and the princess just accepted it.” Glitter stated while shyly looking over to the alicorn standing in front of her. Luna smiled at the embarrassed unicorn knowingly. “Well I for one like it… Go team spirit!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly while raising a hoof to the sky enthusiastically. The others grimaced from the play on words, but couldn’t help but smile at the party pony. “Right… well anyway.” Luna spoke up again to clear the air. “They were trained for three months with all of the occult knowledge we had, before I was forced to send them into the field early. I know that they might not be fully experienced, but I had no choice after the monster at the school popped up.” She explained with a slight frown of concern while observing the group. “They did fine princess… if they hadn’t come in and helped us destroy that symbol down in the basement, it would have only been a matter of time until we all got captured… or worse.” Twilight said with a slight twinge of sadness as she thought back to her ordeal in the basement. Applejack frowned sadly from seeing her friend remember her awful experience. The unicorn and farm pony were surprised to see everyone else looking at Twilight sadly, as if they knew what had happened. Suddenly Princess Luna placed a caring hoof on the lavender pony’s shoulder. “I am sorry about what happened in there Twilight… no pony should have to go through what you did.” The princess stated while sympathetically frowning at the slightly confused unicorn. “But… how do you-” Twilight started to ask a question when she was interrupted by Nurse Redheart speaking up from her bed. “I told them everything Twilight… I figured that they needed to know, and you seemed to be taking it badly… so I told them for you.” The white nurse explained sadly while looking down. “It’s fine Redheart… I just feel bad because I couldn’t do anything more to save the others…” Twilight sighed while lowering her head gloomily. “We were paralyzed Twilight… there wasn’t much you could have done. Just be thankful for what you did do.” Redheart stated with an almost cheerful smile on her face. Twilight softened up her expression for a moment as she remembered the books she had found. The unicorn glanced over to the table where Glitterball had placed the small stack of tomes and walked over to it. “You’re right Redheart… and besides, we’re going to make them answer for everything they have done, and these books should help us a lot.” Twilight said with a hopeful smirk on her face while looking at her band of allies. The unicorn had her fellow element bearers, the princess of the night, a team of ponies trained to combat the supernatural, and a slayer of evil born from a race of creatures long since extinct, all of them eager to help put a stop to the newfound threat to Equestria. “We should head back to your headquarters and study these books… whoever did this might have used these to make that spell.” Twilight explained while looking to Brimstoke and his teammates. “Uhh…” Brimstoke muttered awkwardly while nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “You see, we kind of don’t have a headquarters per say…” He finally explained while looking off to the side. “What…? But you guys are a team of hardened ghostie busters! How do you not have a secret base?!” Pinkie huffed in shock while furrowing her brow at the apparently secret base-less band of novices. While the pink mare was leering at him doubtfully, Brimstoke continued speaking to explain, or perhaps justify their lack of a base of operations. “Most of us are ex royal guard or emergency rescue team… we were trained after hours at the Canterlot guard station. Now that we’re out here, we don’t have anywhere to meet other than our living quarters.” The stallion stated while looking to his teammates for support. “For the moment we can use the library as a meeting place. Once you discharge Nurse Redheart, we should bring those books down there and study them.” Twilight suggested while taking a few steps back towards the entrance to the tent. “She should be alright to head home now, let me just remove the I.V line real quick.” Peppermint stated while walking over to the nurse’s bedside to remove the medical tubing sticking out of her arm. After she was free, Redheart climbed out of the bed and tested her strength for a moment. “I feel much better now… I think I’m going to head on home, so good luck with catching whoever did this.” The nurse waved to the group of ponies before walking out of the tent and starting on her path home. “Alright everyone… we’re heading out. Does anyone want to come help us study these tomes?” Twilight asked her band of friends, hopeful that at least some of them would come. “Ah will, but first me and Applebloom will head back home so Ah can drop her off.” Applejack stepped forward to volunteer. “Same here… I should walk Scootaloo home, but I will definitely drop by once I’m done.” Rainbow Dash suggested while looking down to the orange filly. “Aww… I want to come too! Who knows? I might get my cutie mark by helping you guys out.” Scootaloo pleaded to be included in the research efforts. The cyan pegasus shook her head slowly to convey her disapproval. “Sorry kiddo… I think you and Applebloom have had enough experience with the supernatural to last a life time.” Rainbow Dash spoke firmly with a sense of sympathy to the young pegasus. Scootaloo huffed in annoyance before sighing acceptingly. “I’ll come too…*yawn*” Fluttershy droned tiredly. She had bags under her eyes and numerous other signs of fatigue. Everyone watched the yellow mare with worried frowns as she fought to remain awake on her feet. “You alright sugar cube? You look like Ah did when that polter thingy kept us up all night.” Applejack asked in a concerned tone. Fluttershy had a brief expression of nervousness on her face as she thought about the orange mare’s words. “Oh, it’s fine… err… I’m fine. I’m just a little bit tired is all.” The shy pegasus said while returning a semi cheerful expression to her half asleep face. Despite Fluttershy’s obvious façade, everyone seemed to leave the subject alone for the moment. “I would love to come help Twilight, but I won’t be able to stay for very long tonight. I have things that I need to finish up at home.” Rarity volunteered with a sincere smile on her face. “I’ll come too!” Pinkie Pie suggested eagerly while bouncing forward to join the group. Twilight was very happy to see her friends volunteer to assist with the investigation. She had no doubt in her mind that they would be able to close the case and find those responsible in no time. “Alright then… are you coming with us Princess?” Twilight asked while looking over to the dark blue alicorn. “Sorry Twilight… I’m afraid that I can’t assist you with your research right now. Celestia is planning on making a speech in Ponyville in a few days to inform everyone about what’s going on. She is still a little shaken up from the encounter in the cave, so I need to help her get everything set up.” Luna explained with a slight frown on her face. “That’s fine… I hope Princess Celestia gets better soon. In the meantime I promise that I will get to the bottom of this.” Twilight stated with confidence and determination. Luna was happy to see the unicorn was so adamant about her assignment from Celestia. “I know my sister wouldn’t have picked just any pony to do the job… just be sure to let these guys help you out. Even if they don’t have as much training in the occult as I would like, they still know a thing or two about investigating.” The alicorn stated while looking over to her band of ponies and smiling. The members of team spirit nodded and smiled back confidently. “Will do… now let’s head out everyone. We won’t catch those hooded ponies by standing around here.” Twilight stated to her troop with an inspiring tone before walking out of the tent. Everyone who was going to the library followed the purple mare outside. Chapter 34: Troubled Sleep*Thump* A loud banging noise suddenly brought Fluttershy to her senses. The yellow pegasus looked around in a fearful daze while trying to scan her surroundings to ascertain any danger. She found herself looking at an eerily familiar room. There was warped and soaked-through wallpaper adorning the walls. Streams and droplets of water fell freely from the ceiling and dripped down onto the floor, making a quiet splashing sound as it hit water. The floor was made out of damp wood that felt cold and wet on the yellow pony’s hooves. And the floor opened up to a large body of water that had two thin sections of broken floorboards serving as a bridge to the other side of the room. “Oh no…” Fluttershy exclaimed in horror as she realized where she was. The loud bang that jolted her to her senses before happened again, shaking the pegasus to her very core as the floorboards vibrated from the force. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie will get us out of here.” The nervous voice of her purple unicorn friend made the yellow mare turn to look beside her. Twilight was standing there giving her a look of fear and concern, while also trying to appear confident to ease her fears. “What’s going on?!” Fluttershy squeaked in a panic as she sank to the back wall to get away from the water. She never imagined that she would be back in the school dealing with this situation again. The pegasus’s mind raced as she tried to retrace her steps up to this point. She was certain that she had already experienced this before, and had since moved on to try and forget it. Yet here she was, reliving the worst experience in her life thus far. “Pinkie! Get on the other side of this and pull!” The muffled voice of Rarity yelling in a panic came from a room across the hall. Fluttershy realized that the two mares must be in there pushing the shelf to rescue her and Twilight. “This can’t be real… This isn’t happening.” Fluttershy muttered as she tried to logically figure out what was going on. Either she was having the worst case of déjà vu ever, or she was actually reliving this nightmare. Twilight walked over to the frightened and confused pegasus and knelt down to be at eye level. She then put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, causing her to look up and face her. “Don’t worry… that thing can’t get us up here. The girls will have us out of here long before the floorboards break.” The unicorn spoke in a comforting tone. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she suddenly remembered what came next. “Oh no!” Fluttershy exclaimed in horror while looking out to the water fearfully. She knew that at any moment now, the bloody creature would cease its assault on the floor and make its way up to get at the ponies on land. “Don’t worry girls! We-” Pinkie exclaimed reassuringly across the hall, but her voice cut off in surprise as she stared in shock into the room Fluttershy and Twilight were in. “What’s wrong with her?” Twilight spoke loud enough for Fluttershy to hear as she puzzled at the shocked pony across the hall. Fluttershy grew pale and started sweating nervously as a thick sense of dread washed over her. She slowly got to her feet and looked down into the water at the far wall. A disturbingly familiar red mass of liquid was slowly bubbling up to the surface. “What’s wrong darling? Why did you stop pulling?” Rarity’s muffled voice became slightly clearer as she walked to the door to inspect her shocked friend. She gasped in shock as she noticed the red mass floating in the water. Twilight followed her friend’s gaze and froze in fear as she played out the rest of Fluttershy’s twisted memory. “Twilight… get back.” Fluttershy spoke in a concerned tone as she tried to protect her friend from the events that would soon unfold. The unicorn either failed to hear the pegasus or was too terrified to comply as she stared at the red liquid. Suddenly, a loud splash of water indicated something breaking the surface. A bloody arm and a half formed hand sprang out of the red mass and twitched in place as it came into existence. More of the liquid ran up the arm and filled into the hand as its fingers slowly formed. The bloody appendage sent a new feeling of horror and dread into Fluttershy. She could feel the whole room spinning around her as every molecule in her body told her to flee. “We need to run!” Fluttershy exclaimed while turning and trotting up to the door to look across the hallway. “Girls! Please hurry and get us out of here!” The pegasus begged nervously to her friends across the hall. Rarity and Pinkie snapped out of their morbid fixation on the bloody appendage and looked at the frightened pegasus. “Alright… come on Pinkie!” Rarity exclaimed before running over to the other side of the shelf. Pinkie gripped the shelf and pulled on it with all of her might, fueled by the intense desire to rescue her friends. Fluttershy smiled in satisfaction with changing the course of her memory. Now that the girls were already working on getting the shelf ready, the creature might not have time to attack. The pegasus turned around only to be greeted with another horrifying sight. The red liquid had already climbed up and out of the water, and was now undulating in a crimson puddle on the floor. The puddle started rising into the air as the creature’s body started taking its basic shape. The process seemed to finish much quicker than the yellow mare remembered, and the creature was already staring at the two ponies with its empty eye sockets. Oh no… It’s already here. Fluttershy thought to herself as she surveyed the situation in front of her. Twilight stood frozen in place as she did the last time while the creature turned its head to focus on her wound. Fluttershy glanced back at the doorway to see her friends’ progress with the shelf. They aren’t going to make it in time… I need to save Twilight so she can snap out of it and fight back. The pegasus gritted her teeth and prepared to jump in front of the unicorn to sacrifice herself like last time. Now that she had to think about her actions, she found it much harder to move her body into harm’s way. Much to Fluttershy’s fear and confusion, she discovered that it wasn’t just apprehension preventing her from acting. She couldn’t move forward, despite her best efforts. “What the…?” Fluttershy muttered in bewilderment as she tried her best to get her body to move. It was like she had been numbed and lost all feeling in her body, so trying to elicit a response from her limbs did nothing more than give the dull sensation of her muscles contracting in her legs. “Oh no… Twilight move!” The yellow mare cried out in a panic to warn her friend. The unicorn shook her head to wake herself from her daze, but she reacted far too late to be able to do anything to change the grim event taking place. The creature had already reeled back its arm and then shot it forward to use its water-like properties to stretch its arm to the ponies. Fluttershy watched in horror as the bloody missile collided with the unicorn head on. Twilight yelped in pain and shock as she was thrown off her feet while the sharp claws of the creature’s hand pierced her body. The monster carried the helpless pony across the room and slammed her into the wall as it had done to Fluttershy before. “Twilight!” Fluttershy reached out a hoof in dismay as she regained feeling in her body. She watched with horror and concern on her face as the creature started siphoning the unicorn’s blood straight out of her body. Twilight was bleeding from the new wounds created by the creature, as well as her old wound. The bandage had been ripped off and the creature was seemingly sucking the blood right out of the gash. “Guh… F-Fluttershy…” Twilight groaned in pain as she struggled against the arm pinning her to the wall. The arm holding her was solid enough to grip her and hold her in the air, yet when the purple pony swiped her hooves at it to fight, they went straight through as if it were made of water. Fluttershy turned and looked at the crimson monster. She gulped nervously as she stared at its deformed face. Despite the overwhelming sense of terror the creature gave her, she needed to rescue her friend. “Leave her alone!” Fluttershy exclaimed while leaping forward. The pegasus hoped that assaulting the monster directly would distract it enough to make it let go of Twilight. The beast jerked its head over to stare at the incoming pony, causing her to widen her eyes fearfully. It let out a garbled roar before swiping its free arm to strike the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy grunted from the impact. The creature’s claws had made a small gash in her chest as they raked against her. The force of the blow sent the yellow mare flying backwards. She smacked into the floor and slid backwards to her original position by the edge of the room. Taking a dazed look up at her friend, Fluttershy gasped in shock as she noticed the unicorn drooping her head down. Twilight’s eyes were halfway closed, and her struggles were getting less prominent by the minute. “Twilight!” Fluttershy cried while getting up and rushing to her friend. She tried desperately to grab the purple mare and pull her down from the wall, but any attempt she made only resulted in minimal movement and a painful yelp from Twilight as the creature’s claws dug further into her body. “Fluttershy… run… s-save yourself.” Twilight muttered in a sleepy tone while struggling to stay awake. Fluttershy noticed that the unicorn’s breathing was slowing down as she fought for every breath she took. Suddenly, Twilight’s painful moans and gasps for air ceased as she progressively grew weaker. The unicorn’s eyes drifted shut and her head drooped down all the way. Her kicking and flailing had ceased, and her limbs fell to the side and hung lifelessly as the creature finished its job. The monster reeled its arm back in, causing the lavender pony to fall to the floor. Twilight’s head rolled to the side like a ragdoll as her body settled from the impact. Fluttershy stared at the motionless pony in front of her with a shocked expression of disbelief. "No…” The pegasus muttered sadly as tears started streaming down her face. She placed her ear to the unicorn’s chest to listen for a heartbeat. Much to Fluttershy’s horror, she discovered that the purple pony was in fact dead. “No! Twilight, wake up!” Fluttershy yelled while picking up the unicorn in her arms and shaking her. After a few moments, the pegasus gave up as the purple mare’s body flopped around limply. Finally, she clutched her friend close and buried her head into her shoulder to cry. “This is wrong… this isn’t what happened!” The pegasus shook her head in refusal as she tried to convince herself that this wasn’t real. She couldn’t accept that her friend had just died in front of her when there was nothing she could have done. But strangely enough, there should have been something she could have done. Fluttershy vividly remembered this experience from before, and she knew that she and her friends had escaped relatively unharmed. As she heard a noise in front of her, Fluttershy darted her head to the side fearfully, expecting the monster to be aiming for her life next. Much to her confusion, she realized that the creature was missing. The pegasus barely caught a glimpse of a trickle of red tinted liquid flowing into the water off the side of the floorboards. Suddenly, the noise of a shelf hitting the water drew her attention away. Much to her surprise, Fluttershy noticed Rarity carefully trotting on the shelf to get over to the classroom. She and Pinkie Pie ran into the room and huddled around Fluttershy protectively. “We’re here darling… where is that horrible creature?” Rarity asked in confusion while looking around at the empty room. “Oh no… Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock and horror as she noticed the lifeless unicorn lying beside Fluttershy. The two ponies knelt down and let fresh tears fall from their faces as they tried to process the tragic image before them. “She can’t be… is she?” Rarity asked no one in particular as she feverishly checked for a pulse on the unicorn. “Oh dear sweet Celestia… she’s dead!” She stated with a squeaky voice as she started weeping mournfully. “We need to get out of here… that thing will come back and kill us too if we stay here. I don’t think Twilight would have wanted that.” Fluttershy stated sadly as she got up from her crouching position. She looked down at the lifeless unicorn and held back another sob before averting her eyes. Rarity and Pinkie sniffled one last time before nodding to the pegasus. “Come on girls, let’s get out of here and put a stop to this… for Twilight.” Rarity spoke with a sullen expression while rushing to the door. Pinkie and Fluttershy quickly followed the white mare and carefully walked across the floating shelf. “Whoa…” Fluttershy whined nervously as the shelf shifted underneath her weight. She had to struggle just to balance herself to avoid being dumped into the icy waters below. “Are you ok, Fluttershy?” Rarity asked with a concerned tone while turning her head to observe the pegasus swaying side to side as the shelf moved underneath her. “Yeah, I’m fine. We just need to be careful on this thing. I have a bad feeling that the monster is still watching us.” Fluttershy replied while nervously glancing to the water that surrounded the group. Suddenly, the sound of something breaking through the water startled the three ponies. Fluttershy cried out in surprised as she felt something grab onto her leg to yank her. Her body slammed into the shelf as she was pulled to the floor. “Fluttershy!” Rarity and pinkie screamed in unison as they turned around to see the pegasus struggling. A bloody red clawed hand was wrapped around the pegasus. The arm was coming from the water just beside the shelf, with the creature’s head jutting out just above the surface. Fluttershy stared at the sinisterly grinning monster as it leered back at her longingly. She could feel its icy stare piercing her very core as it pulled against her weight. Her body slid off of the shelf and into the water. The creature dove down and wrapped its arms around the pegasus’s midsection. Fluttershy yelped and reached her arm out only just in time to be grabbed by her two friends. “Fluttershy, hold on!” Pinkie cried frantically while struggling to keep her friend’s head above the water. She and Rarity strained against the powerful force of the creature in a desperate attempt at saving the pegasus. “Help me! I don’t want to die!” Fluttershy sputtered fearfully as water splashed into her mouth. She could tell that her friends were powerless to help her as she slowly sunk further into the water. Suddenly, a bloody hand slowly reached up out of the water and casually lifted higher into the air next to Fluttershy. All three ponies stared at the arm with fearful expressions as it reached up above the yellow mare and clamped down on her head. Fluttershy screamed in fear as she felt herself being yanked powerfully out of her friends’ grip and into the water. “Fluttershy!” The pegasus could barely hear the muffled sounds of her friends calling her name. She flailed her arms in a desperate attempt at getting away. Suddenly, the creature’s ghastly face shot out at her from the side as it jerked its head in front of her. The sudden flash of the monster’s terrifying appearance sent a jolt of fear and terror through Fluttershy’s body. She could feel herself tense up as everything suddenly went black. “Ack!” Fluttershy yelped in fright as she sat up in bed. She panted heavily and shivered as she slowly regained her wits. She looked around and noticed that she was still in Twilight’s bedroom, safe and sound. “Are you okay?” The soft sound of her friend’s voice made the pegasus turn her head. She was relieved and excited to see Twilight standing next to the bed. Fluttershy leapt forward and wrapped her arms around the unicorn in a joyful hug. Twilight was confused and slightly concerned by the odd behavior of the pegasus, but held her in a friendly embrace to comfort her. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Twilight asked with a worried frown as Fluttershy backed up while keeping her arms around her. The yellow mare had tears streaming down her face and she was shaking fearfully. After taking a moment to calm down, Fluttershy took in a deep breath and tried to think of how to describe her experience. “I’m fine… I just had a really bad dream.” Fluttershy explained while looking down nervously. She rubbed her eyes to ensure that she was awake and alert, and to assure herself that she was safe. Twilight frowned sympathetically as she watched the nervous pegasus trying to calm down. “Do you want to talk about it?” Twilight asked while putting a caring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy instinctively thought back to the events of the nightmare, but shook her head to remove the horrible thoughts from her mind. “No… I… *sigh* It was about what happened back at the school… I’m just glad to see you.” Fluttershy stated sadly while thinking back to her dream. Twilight frowned sympathetically at the pegasus. She had her suspicions that due to her sensitive nature the yellow mare would still be frightened by the events at the school, but the unicorn had no idea that she would be affected this badly. “I’m sorry to hear that… how about you head home and get some rest? I’m sure Tom can sort out your problem for you so you can relax.” Twilight suggested to get Fluttershy’s mind off of her dream. The pegasus looked over to the balcony and was surprised to see that it was almost dark. “Oh my… I must have slept in. I was hoping to just lay down for a little while so I could help you guys with the research.” Fluttershy huffed in disappointment. Twilight smiled at the thoughtful pony. She always put others before herself, no matter the situation. “Don’t worry about that, we finished a while ago. Brimstoke and the others are having the books analyzed to find hoof prints or magic signatures.” Twilight stated happily. “That’s good… I better get going then, Angel is probably worried sick.” Fluttershy said whilst climbing out of bed and stretching to acclimate her body to moving around again. “Thanks for letting me use your bed Twilight. As bad as that nightmare was, I’m still glad to have gotten some sleep.” Fluttershy stared at Twilight happily while still feeling thankful that she was still alive. The unicorn smiled at the cheerful pegasus. She was happy to see her high spirits returning to her. “Not a problem. Now let’s head downstairs. I’m sure the others would like to get home before long.” Twilight suggested while turning towards the door. The two walked out of the room and climbed down the stairs. As the pair reached the bottom, they noticed Applejack was standing with the others while talking idly. “Applejack, it’s good to see you made it.” Twilight greeted the farm pony, causing her and the others to turn around to face her. “Yeah, sorry for getting here so late… Ah guess the others have already packed up and left?” Applejack asked while looking around at the relatively empty room. “Yeah… sorry for the inconvenience, but we finished with the research for tonight. You can come back tomorrow afternoon when the others will hopefully have some news for us.” Twilight frowned slightly at the wasted trip her friend had to make. Applejack nodded with a content expression on her face. “Whatever it takes to end this mess… If there’s anything else Ah can do, you be sure to let me know.” The orange mare replied confidently. Twilight nodded in response before turning to the others. “Alright everyone… thanks for your help with everything so far. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without everyone working together. If anyone wants to help out still, you should come back here tomorrow afternoon so we can discuss what to do next.” Twilight stated happily to her group of friends. Everyone nodded before walking closer to the door. “Goodnight everyone, I will see you all tomorrow.” Rarity said while waving and walking out of the door. Applejack waved goodbye to the group as well and followed the unicorn out of the door. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stood next to Fluttershy and waited for her to head home. “Are you guys still coming with me?” Fluttershy asked unimposingly. The two nodded eagerly before giving her a friendly smile. “Of course we are! We wouldn’t offer to come stay the night with you and then bail on you.” Rainbow Dash stated happily while putting a loving arm around the yellow pegasus. “Yep! If anyone can cheer you up and make you feel comfortable in your home again, I think I can do it!” Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully while giving the shy mare a warm grin. Fluttershy was flattered to see her friends going out of their way to help her. “I’m ready to go whenever you want Fluttershy.” Tom stated while walking up to the three. Fluttershy smiled at the human with appreciation bubbling up inside her. “Thanks Tom, I really appreciate this.” Fluttershy expressed her gratitude with a cheerful expression on her face. The yellow pegasus got up and walked over to the door to wait for her friends. The three walked over to join her and looked back to Twilight and Spike. “Are you sure you will be able to get back here on your own Tom?” Twilight asked courteously to the human while giving him a slightly concerned expression. Tom nodded confidently to the unicorn before turning back to his three companions. “I’m not sure if I will even be back tonight… This might take a while, so I might just spend the night at Fluttershy’s. If I do come back, I’m pretty sure I can find my way… if not, I’ll ask for directions.” Tom stated confidently. Twilight and Spike waved farewell to the four as they walked out of the door and started their journey to Fluttershy’s house. The sun was just barely peeking out from below the horizon. The sky was dark enough to make out the first few patches of stars littering the areas farthest away from the glowing orb. Numerous clouds covered the space around the golden circle, creating a beautiful mosaic of colors and shapes to accent the sunset. The cool breeze from earlier had intensified, creating a chilly blast that rushed past the ponies, making them shiver slightly from the cold. Other than the sound of the wind whistling and their feet clattering against the sidewalk, there was a peaceful silence around the group. “Hey Fluttershy…” Tom spoke up, breaking the veil of silence that hung in the air. Fluttershy looked up from her blank forward stare and turned to face the boy. “Yeah?” The yellow pegasus asked curiously and waited for a response from the human. Tom looked at her while deep in thought and spoke up again. “Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened last night? The more I know about your problem, the easier it will be for me to identify and solve it.” The boy said while observing the yellow mare and waiting for an answer. Fluttershy felt a twinge of uneasiness cloud her mind as she thought about the disturbing noises and sights she had experienced in the middle of the night. “All I know is that whatever it was made this horrible moaning or howling noise. It was so terrifying that I could hardly muster up the courage to look out my window to see what it was. There was also this strange green glow in the tree line of the Everfree Forest. Now that I think about it… it was kind of small, and only appeared in a few places.” Fluttershy explained while trying her best to think of anything useful to assist the human’s investigation. “You said you saw something moving out there as well?” Tom asked while thinking back to when the yellow mare had told the story earlier. Fluttershy exclaimed in revelation as she remembered the fuzzy details of her experience. “Oh yeah… I do remember that. I didn’t get a good enough look to see what it was though… sorry.” The pegasus frowned sadly as she resolved that her story wasn’t very helpful. “Don’t worry. I’m sure that Tom can deal with whatever it is. In the meantime, we should focus on relaxing to get your mind off of it.” Rainbow Dash spoke up while giving the shy mare a reassuring expression. “Yeah, I have some great party games we can play! That should keep you distracted.” Pinkie suggested while trying to smile big enough to cheer up the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy smiled at her friends attempts at making her feel better. She was glad that they were there to spend the night with her. After a few more minutes of walking through the countryside of Ponyville’s outskirts, the group found themselves walking up to Fluttershy’s cottage home. The ponies walked over the bridge before taking a quick glance over to the far away tree line of the forest to scan for any signs of abnormalities. “I don’t see anything right now…” Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes to search for a glimmer of green light. “Depending on what it is, it might not appear until later on.” Tom explained while making his way over to the trees. The ponies reluctantly followed the human as he walked until he was standing just outside of the forest. Staring into the dark and misty woods filled the three ponies with a growing sense of fear and dread. Considering how many terrifying monsters had popped up recently, they only had their vivid imaginations to limit their fearful thoughts about what could be lurking within the pitch black forest. “What are we doing over here?” Pinkie asked nervously. As if on cue to answer the pink mare’s question, the human let loose a puff of blue mist from his mouth to investigate the area. Tom scanned his head back and forth while using his senses to scope out any possible energy signatures. He paused briefly while focusing his search on a particular area of the trees. “I’m picking up some faint ambient energy, but that might just be from the forest itself. I guess we should head inside and wait for something to happen.” Tom stated while turning to walk away. After taking one last anxious glance to the forest, the ponies decided to follow the human before he got any further away from them. The group walked over to the front of the house and stepped up to the door. Fluttershy opened the door and ushered everyone inside before walking in and closing the door tightly for assurance. Everyone walked around the living room of the cottage while finding a place to stand idly, save for Tom, who examined the interior of the house curiously. To say that Fluttershy took care of animals in her spare time was putting it mildly. Nearly every element of her house was designed with animals and nature in mind. There were small enclosures and toys scattered around for all manner of small woodland creatures to use. Perches for birds adorned the ceiling. Beds and feeding dishes for small animals were placed against the walls. Even the furniture looked like it was used for animals. “Make yourself at home guys… I’m going to go check on Angel and get you some pillows and blankets.” Fluttershy said in a friendly manner while walking up a set of stairs to the side of the room. Tom sat down on the couch while taking note of the numerous animal friendly features the house had. “She sure likes nature and animals, doesn’t she?” The boy observed casually. “Yep… I imagine she’s been like that her whole life, but she really discovered her love of nature back in flight school.” Rainbow Dash stated while thinking back to the day she and her friends got their cutie marks. “You have flight school? I would imagine that would be something you just figure out.” Tom scratched his head curiously as he thought about the prospect further. “Well… we get training to fine tune our skills, so we can be prepared to take jobs in weather management or other pegasus related areas of expertise.” The cyan pony explained while thinking of the merit of flight school herself. Just then, Fluttershy walked back into the room. She was carrying a pile of blankets and pillows, managing to traverse her house on memory alone as she struggled with the large bundle. She sat the pile down on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief. “There… I managed to find enough for everyone. If you get tired just grab a blanket and a pillow and find a comfy spot.” Fluttershy said courteously before sitting down on the couch next to the large pile. “Hey, where’s Angel?” Pinkie asked curiously while looking to the side of the room where the rabbit usually slept. “Oh… I moved him to my bedroom after I got back from the school. I thought he would help me feel safer after everything that happened.” Fluttershy explained with a slight frown. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I’m sure that everything is going to be sorted out soon enough.” Rainbow Dash stated in a reassuring tone before turning to the human. “So… how long do you think it will be before this thing shows up?” She asked curiously. “Who knows? It might be a while, so I would get settled in if I were you.” Tom shrugged in a dull tone while getting up and moving over to a chair next to the couch. “*Sigh* I guess we wait now…” Rainbow Dash spoke in a bored tone while resting her elbow on the arm rest of the couch. Everyone settled into a comfortable position and prepared to spend the night. Chapter 35: Party GamesThe atmosphere was relatively peaceful in Fluttershy’s house. Despite the ominous wind howling through the various holes and openings in the cottage, and the looming shape of the Everfree Forest in the distance, everyone was actually managing to have a pleasant time. Even Fluttershy was able to push her gnawing fear aside to enjoy the time with her friends. Rainbow Dash was sitting on the couch with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie was rocking her leg back and forth while lying on her back and propping her head up against the side of a chair, and Tom was sitting in a chair across from the others while leaning back casually. “Well, it’s official… I’m bored out of my mind.” Rainbow Dash droned tiredly. The group had been waiting for several minutes for something to happen, but the only interesting thing to arise from the night was the wind rustling through the brush on the roof. “Maybe we could play a game of some sort… any ideas Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked the resident partygoer of the group. Pinkie looked away while deep in thought and pondered for a while on the matter. She suddenly looked up and exclaimed in discovery. “Oooh, I know! We can play truth or dare.” Pinkie suggested eagerly. Everyone else seemed open to the idea, but were unsure of whether or not they could come up with anything good. “Alright, I’m game… who goes first?” Tom asked while looking around at the others. The three ponies looked amongst themselves for a moment while deciding who would volunteer. “*sigh* I guess I’ll start us off.” Rainbow Dash stated before thinking about what question to ask which person. She meditated on her thoughts for a while before looking up with a deviously eager grin. “Alright, Pinkie… truth or dare?” Rainbow asked with a sly look on her face. The pegasus’s question excited the pink mare as she giggled with anticipation. She furrowed her brow in thought for a moment. before looking back up with confidence. “Why not make things interesting? I choose dare.” Pinkie spoke with excited resolve. Rainbow Dash smirked as her plan came to fruition. “I was kind of hoping you would say that… now then, let me think.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself for a moment while elaborating on her thoughts. “Aha! I got one… I dare you to try and catch Tom.” The cyan pony’s dare surprised and confused the others in the room, most of all being the human himself. “What…? Why?” Tom asked in a confused tone while looking between the two with a puzzled expression. The cyan mare chuckled to see the expected reaction from the human. “Well, Pinkie is very… energetic, so I was wondering if you could dodge her while she tries to tag you.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing over to Pinkie knowingly. The party pony giggled before looking to the human with a sinister gleam in her eyes. “Oh boy…” Tom gulped nervously as he watched the pink pony starting to get up from her seat while maintaining eye contact. He slowly planted his feet on the ground and prepared to move while observing Pinkie anxiously. Suddenly, the pink mare sprang out of her chair and pounced towards the human with unrivaled speed. “Hyah!” Pinkie yelled fiercely while flying through the air towards the human. Much to everyone’s surprise, the boy quickly leapt into the air backwards and flipped over the chair. He landed on both feet and placed his hands on the top of the chair while he watched Pinkie slam into the now empty space. The pink mare lifted her head out of the cushion from where she had impacted and looked around with a confused expression. “What the…?” Pinkie muttered in a daze while looking around for the missing human. She finally peered over the chair and met his gaze as he smirked at her deviously. “Did you really think it would be that easy? If you want to catch a slayer, you need to earn it.” Tom taunted confidently while tensing his muscles in preparation to dodge out of the way of any assault the pink pony would launch next. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watched with anxious uncertainty as the two leered at each other pensively with the chair serving as a mediator between them. As Tom would make a swift movement to one side of the chair, Pinkie would match his movement before both would settle back in place to try and fake the other out. “Raaaghh!” Pinkie yelled a battle cry as she jumped up and over the chair to get at the human, but by the time she was stepping up on the chair to get a platform to jump from, Tom was already diving to the side and rolling to get back on his feet. As the pink pony landed and followed the human with her head, she turned and started running after him with frightful enthusiasm. “You know, we probably shouldn’t be doing this inside!” Tom stated in between breaths as he ran in circles around the two ponies on the couch to escape his pursuer. “Well just don’t break anything then, it would probably slow you down anyway!” Pinkie retorted as she tried her best to cut the human off in certain places to gain ground on him. The two zigged and zagged around the room as they continued their game of cat and mouse. Eventually the two were on opposite sides of the couch. They leered at each other past the two bystanders on the couch while catching their breath. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were looking between the two while hugging their legs tight against their bodies to prevent someone from knocking into them at high speeds. “Just give up already…*Pant*” Tom spoke up in an attempt at ending the chase. Pinkie shook her head in between pants while trying to catch her breath to speak. “If you think you can tire me out… you’ve got another thing coming mister.” The pink mare spoke with as much determination as her current state of exhaustion could allow while staring down the human with a determined expression. “I may not be able to tire you out… but I can out live you if we keep this up long enough.” Tom retorted jokingly while mustering a smirk. The pink pony chuckled weakly as her body prevented her from producing anything more than a slight laugh. “Well then, I guess I’ll just have to catch you before then huh?” Pinkie replied before bolting out to the side again. Tom huffed in annoyance before running away from the energetic pink blur. The boy jumped into the air backwards in an attempt to backflip over the incoming pink mare. Much to his surprise, he failed to locate the party pony as he was in the air. He looked around in confusion for a moment while trying to find where she went. “Wait what the…?” Tom muttered in bewilderment at the apparent disappearance of the pony. Suddenly, a blurry pink shape slammed into the human’s chest, knocking him off balance. As he slid along the floor and slowly came to a stop, he noticed a familiar pink pony grinning down at him while sitting on his stomach. “Got you!” Pinkie announced in a cheerful tone before hopping off and raising her hooves in celebration. Tom laid on the floor for a moment in confusion at his sudden loss. “But… how did you…? Where did you come from?” The boy stammered in a confused daze as he tried to figure out the logistics of what just happened. “Duh, I came from beside you… you’re not the only one who can move fast you know. I saw that you were trying to flip over me, so I just jumped to the side and hid out of your sight until you landed.” Pinkie explained in a satisfied tone. Tom was understandably upset that he just lost to a pony. “Alright then… fair enough I suppose. Let’s just go sit down and continue the game.” The human groaned tiredly as he plopped into his chair. “And please… no more dares that involve running or jumping.” He sighed while sinking into the chair further to relax. “Good job Pinkie, you get to go next since you won.” Rainbow Dash congratulated the pink pony on her achievement. Pinkie smiled in excitement before giving an eager cheer. “Yay! Now what should I do? Hmmm…” The pink mare rubbed her temples as she thought of something to do. She then looked up and smiled again. “Ok Fluttershy, now it’s your turn. Truth… or dare?” Pinkie spoke while putting devious emphasis on her words. Fluttershy was caught off guard by her sudden inclusion into the game, but was eager to participate, if not a little nervous. “Umm… well umm… I guess I’ll go with… truth?” Fluttershy stated with uncertainty as she wondered whether or not she would regret playing this game. “Hmm… Alright then, if you could trade lives with anyone in this room, who would it be?” Pinkie asked quizzically while watching the pegasus with an intrigued expression. Fluttershy thought about it for a moment as the question peaked her interest. “I guess I would have to say you, Pinkie.” Fluttershy finally looked back up and replied. The yellow pony’s answer surprised the pink mare and made her feel a little flattered. “Really? I would have figured you would pick Rainbow Dash.” Pinkie reasoned while looking over to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash sort of expected the same answer. “Well… you’re always so happy and cheerful no matter what the circumstances are. Anypony would want to be that happy.” Fluttershy explained with a loving tone of admiration. “Aww… Thanks Fluttershy.” Pinkie smiled at her friend while giving her a heartfelt expression. Fluttershy returned the gesture before looking down in thought again. “Alright… I guess it’s my turn now… Tom, truth or dare?” The pegasus asked timidly while trying to get up the courage to ask something of interest. “Truth…” The human replied with slight intrigue. Fluttershy thought for a moment before gulping nervously. “I… don’t feel comfortable asking the only thing I can think of right now.” The yellow mare said while looking down uncomfortably. “Come on… It’s truth or dare, Fluttershy. The whole point is to ask about things that people wouldn’t normally say.” Rainbow Dash spoke in an encouraging tone while trying to get the shy pony to speak. “Out of curiosity, what were you going to ask?” Tom questioned the yellow pegasus in a lighthearted tone. Fluttershy shrugged in dismay before looking up. “I was going to ask what is the most embarrassing thing you would feel comfortable admitting… but I don’t want to impose something like that on you.” Fluttershy explained in a gentle way so the human wouldn’t be offended in any way. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie smiled slightly from hearing the yellow mare’s reason for not saying her question. It was always heartwarming to see how she didn’t want to upset anyone. “Well…” Tom spoke up suddenly to interrupt anyone else speaking. The others looked over to him in curiosity while allowing him to talk. “I’m afraid of the dark… to the point where I slept with a nightlight up until I became a slayer.” The boy explained with slight embarrassment. “Really? You’re afraid of the dark?” Rainbow Dash asked with more intrigued curiosity than anything else. The boy nodded uncomfortably as he owned up to his secret. “Yep… I still feel a case of the heebie-jeebies whenever I have to go into a dark spooky place. Probably the only reason I can sleep in the dark now is because of my senses.” Tom stated while looking around to see how the others would react. “Wow… I thought I was the only nervous one back at the hospital. You looked so brave back there… that was part of the reason why I didn’t panic.” Rainbow Dash said while thinking back to how Tom had made her feel better about journeying through dark, cold, and monster infested hallways of the hospital. “Well I felt like turning around and running away while screaming like a frightened schoolgirl on the inside, but I didn’t want to make you feel any worse.” Tom elaborated in a slightly comical tone while thinking back to his previous hardships. “Alright then, my turn now… truth or dare Rainbow Dash?” Tom spoke up again to interrupt anyone lingering on the slightly depressing thought of him enduring his worst fear to assist them. He didn’t want them to feel bad on his behalf no matter the circumstances. “Umm…” The cyan pony muttered uncomfortably. The sudden change in pace made everyone feel awkward and uneasy. “Dare I guess…? I sort of owe you some payback from that last dare.” Rainbow Dash stated while preparing herself for anything the boy could think of. “Yes… yes you do. Alright then, I dare you to dye your hair pink for an entire day.” Tom announced deviously. The sudden question caught the pegasus off guard. “Wait what?! How did we go from fear of the dark to dying my hair pink?!” Rainbow Dash asked while defensively putting her hooves on her hair. “I guess I’m just that spontaneous.” Tom retorted with a devious smile on his face. He leaned forward in his chair while watching the nervous pegasus squirm as she thought of what to do in her head. “Umm… We can’t do that because we don’t have any hair dye here. I guess you will just have to pick another dare.” Rainbow Dash said with false disappointment as she smiled nervously in an attempt at getting out of the dare. “It doesn’t need to happen right now… we could head down to Rarity’s place tomorrow and I’m sure she would be happy to help you out.” Tom stated with a cool and collected smirk on his face. The cyan pony started sweating nervously as her exits to the situation closed up around her. “I suppose you don’t need to do it… you could always chicken out.” Tom stated while putting emphasis on the word chicken. The boy’s statement made Rainbow Dash cringe with irritation. “Fine… I’ll do it, but we’re not taking pictures.” The cyan mare finally huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms while glaring at the satisfied human. Tom tried his best to hold in his laughter as the pegasus stared daggers into him. “I think we should stop playing truth or dare for the night.” Rainbow Dash said in an upset tone while avoiding eye contact with Tom. Pinkie Pie groaned in disappointed protest of ending the game. “Aww, but I wanted to pick Tom one more time.” The party pony whined while giving Rainbow Dash a devious facial cue. The cyan mare smirked as she caught on to what she was getting at. Tom gulped nervously as he came to the same conclusion. “Alright Pinkie… I guess I could let you have one more turn.” Rainbow Dash said while hiding her excitement behind a blank expression. “Wait, hold on. You can’t just give her the reigns. It’s not her turn, it’s yours.” Tom said uneasily. “Tom, do you really think you want to let me have a turn right now?” Rainbow Dash asked with a raised eyebrow and a serious tone of voice. “I… well… I guess not.” Tom replied with an irritated shrug as he thought about the matter further. “Then it’s settled. Pinkie, go right ahead.” Rainbow Dash said while turning to the pink mare with a pleased smirk. “Yay! Alright Tom, truth or dare?” Pinkie bounced in her seat eagerly as she asked the question. Tom leered at the two apprehensively as he thought of what she could possibly ask him to do. Like hell am I picking dare. The boy thought to himself as he prepared to choose what he thought was the safe option. “Truth…” Tom stated with a smirk as he tried to ruin their plan. Much to the boy’s dismay, Pinkie didn’t appear to be fazed by the decision, in fact she seemed like she was hoping for him to say that. “Ok Tom, who would you rather kiss… me or Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked with a devious smirk and an unwaveringly straight delivery. The sudden question made Tom instinctively pull backwards into his chair. “W-what?!” The human asked with a mixture of nervousness and surprise while looking between the two. Rainbow Dash could hardly contain her joy at watching the boy squirm. She smiled ear to ear as she looked to him for an answer. “You heard her Tom… which of us would you rather kiss?” Rainbow asked with a sly grin. The cyan pegasus was enjoying this a little bit too much, and Tom could tell. He sweated nervously as he subconsciously thought about the question’s answer. He then shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts. “Umm… can I pass?” Tom asked with a nervous smile as he tried to weasel his way out of the situation. The two ponies shook their heads simultaneously as they shot down the boy’s last line of defense. “If you don’t answer me right now, I’m going to keep asking you every day, and tell the others about who you choose when you finally do give up.” Pinkie stated with an almost sinister smirk on her face. Tom was surprised with how devious the party pony could be when she wanted to. He suddenly looked over to Rainbow Dash with a pleading expression. “Rainbow Dash, I’ll call off your dare if you end this.” Tom practically begged for a way out of the situation. Rainbow Dash took a moment to think about the proposal. She of course wanted out of her dare, but she thought that she would let him suffer a while longer. “Well… I don’t know. I don’t want to chicken out of anything.” Rainbow Dash droned sarcastically while looking away from him and crossing her arms. Tom was practically melding into the chair as Pinkie loomed closer to him with each passing second. “Chicken out? Who told you that would be chickening out? That guy sounds like a moron… let’s just let bygones be bygones and call a truce.” The human stammered nervously while trying to avoid the piercing gaze of the pink mare staring at him. “Alright Pinkie, back off… I think he’s had enough.” Rainbow Dash announced to her friend while laughing. Tom breathed a sigh of relief as Pinkie backed away and walked over to her chair. The two ponies gave each other a quick high five before giggling to themselves. After taking a moment to settle down after their rousing game of truth or dare, the group started to notice how late it was getting, and how tired they were. Rainbow Dash yawned while taking a look out of the window to see if anything was happening outside. “We’ve been here for a few hours now, and I don’t see anything weird out there.” The cyan mare stated in a dull tone while trying to stay awake. “Well if you guys want to get some sleep, I can keep an eye on things until morning.” Tom suggested while observing the three tired ponies. Everyone felt like they would fall asleep standing up shortly, so the boy’s proposal sounded like music to their ears. “That sounds like a great idea.” Rainbow Dash said while climbing on the couch and preparing to settle in for the night. “Let me know if you guys need anything… I’m going to bed.” Fluttershy stated while walking up the staircase towards her bedroom. “Night, Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said while digging through the pile of blankets and pillows. She tossed a pair of each to Pinkie and Tom before arranging her blanket on the couch. “Nighty night… sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Pinkie stated while hopping into her position on the other side of the couch across from Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy smiled warmly as she admired her friends settling in for the night. She switched off the light in the room before walking away to get to her bedroom. As she walked through the dark rooms of her house and got further away from her friends in the living room, the shy mare started feeling uneasy as she let her imagination get the better of her in the dark. “I think I’ll feel better once I get in bed… hopefully having Angel in the room with me will make me less edgy.” Fluttershy thought out loud while trying to avoid looking into any of the dark rooms beside her. The mere blurry images of the shapes and silhouettes out of the corner of her eye made the pegasus jumpy and nervous. After a short walk, Fluttershy quickly opened her bedroom door and walked inside while closing it tightly. She tried to give herself the mentality that her room was a comfortable and safe place where she could relax, but the various pitch black areas of the small space made her uneasy as ever. She quickly walked over to her bed and sat down. She then looked over to the floor where Angel usually slept. Seeing the blurry whiteness of her pet and hearing his soft breathing made Fluttershy feel a little more at ease. The yellow mare crawled up her bed and peeled back the covers so she could slip inside them and cozy up. After settling her head onto her pillow, she rested for a while whilst staring up at the ceiling. A slight feeling of morbid curiosity elicited the shy pony to peer downwards into her room. Upon noticing some ominous looking shadowy shapes that were comprised of her furniture and various other knickknacks, Fluttershy quickly averted her eyes and rolled onto her side while pulling the covers closer to her head. A creaking sound made the pegasus sit up nervously to look around again. Deducing the sound to be the rustling of the wind against the cottage, she shrugged uneasily and settled back down. “Ugh… I’ll never get to sleep at this rate.” Fluttershy mumbled to herself while forcing her eyes shut to try and get comfortable enough to sleep. After a few minutes of remaining as still as possible, the pegasus started feeling hazy and blissful. She was finally starting to slip into a state of relaxation and warm comfort that would lead to her drifting off to sleep. Not wanting to compromise this progress, Fluttershy made sure to remain still and allow herself to lose focus of her surroundings. … …… ……… *Boom* A loud crackle of thunder made the pegasus lift her head and upper body in alarm. She opened her eyes just in time to catch the last moments of the blinding flash of lightning as it illuminated her room in a bluish white glow. The constant pitter patter of rain filled her ears as she suddenly realized that it was storming. “I didn’t think it was supposed to storm tonight…” The yellow pony pondered to herself as she tried to remember the weather forecast for the week. “Oh well…” She muttered sleepily while settling back down into her pillow. Suddenly, a different noise barely distinguished itself from the rain. It sounded like a crashing noise was coming from downstairs. The noise continued a few more times before dying down into the ambience of the rain. Fluttershy threw the covers back and sat up in bed. The odd noise had given her a new sense of unease that wouldn’t go away. She couldn’t just chalk the sound up to the rustling of the wind this time. She would have to investigate. “What was that noise…? I thought the others were asleep.” Fluttershy spoke to herself while peering out into her room. She suddenly realized that she could see out of her open door into the dark hallway outside. The realization that she had closed the door before climbing into bed made her heart sink to her stomach. Fluttershy whined fearfully while hugging her legs tight to her body. She darted her eyes around her room to see if some unknown intruder had crept inside with her while she slept. The mere thought of something lurking in the darkness next to her made her heart race. As she drew her attention back to her open door, she realized that nothing was happening. At any rate, nothing was happening right now. If she was going to figure out what was going on, she had to reach her friends. The nervous pegasus slowly inched her way towards the foot of her bed and planted her hooves on the floor. The sudden thought of something waiting for her under her bed made her walk forward a little faster to distance herself. Fluttershy walked forward while defensively staring at the open doorway on the far side of the room. Another flash of lightning illuminated the hallway outside and made her tense up in fright again. She slowly walked forward while looking around her room. She then looked down to the bed where her pet was sleeping. “Angel…?” Fluttershy muttered in confusion as she noticed that the rabbit was nowhere to be found. The frightened pony was completely alone in the pitch black darkness of her room, with only the rain to break the otherwise eerie silence of the house. After cautiously making her way to her door, Fluttershy peered out into the dark hallway and scanned it for possible threats. The hall was masked in a veil of darkness that shrouded the numerous open rooms in a disturbing blanket that could hide any monster that the nervous pony’s mind could conjure up. Not wanting to be alone any further, the pegasus walked through the dark hallway while making her way to the stairs that would lead her to the living room and her friends. “Tom… you still awake? W-what was that noise?” Fluttershy called out with a slight nervous stammer, hoping that the human would be able to hear her from this far away. The loud thunder and rain outside combined with the pitch blackness inside was starting to get to the yellow mare, making her jumpy and anxious. She felt like she was going to have a panic attack if she didn’t find her friends soon. Fluttershy contemplated remaining silent to conceal her location from any threats, but her sense of logic told her that the house was still safe and that her friends would be nearby to explain the sudden noise. “C-calm down Fluttershy… nothing is wrong. I’m sure that this storm was scheduled… I probably just forgot about it with everything that’s been happening.” Fluttershy spoke to herself to break the eerie silence and instill courage in herself. “My door probably opened in the wind… I must have not closed it as tightly as I thought. Y-yeah… I’m sure that’s it. And Angel probably just went downstairs to get a drink or something.” The pegasus said with a nervous chuckle while slowly marching forward through the darkness. She had to do something to get her mind off of the fact that she was alone in the dark, even if that meant reassuring herself. As she walked towards the opening to the stairs, a thick feeling of dread and unease filled the yellow pony’s stomach. It was like she knew that something bad was waiting for her in the dark, and as she slowly walked down the steps, her feeling was confirmed. A shocked gasp escaped Fluttershy’s lips as she observed the room’s condition. Many of her pictures and other decorations were either skewed or broken on the floor. Both chairs had been knocked over, with the one Tom was using covered in what appeared to be claw marks from an animal. And the couch’s cushions were ripped, with the white fluff inside of them being strewn across the room. The front door was open and moving with the wind as the storm raged on outside. Rain was pouring in through the open door, soaking everything in range of the droplets. Another flash of lightning lit up the room, revealing even more claw marks on the walls and floor. Fluttershy looked around feverishly for any sign of her friends. They were nowhere to be seen, with the only indicator of their presence being the blankets and pillows scattered along the sides of the couch and chairs. The pegasus leaned in close to one of the blankets on the couch. She noticed a dark stain of liquid on the fabric of the blanket. “I-is that b-blood?” Fluttershy stammered fearfully as she wondered what had happened to her friends. The fact that the dark stain was tinted red, and the fact that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were preparing to sleep on the couch when she left, made Fluttershy panic stricken for their safety. “What happened in here?!” The yellow pony shook her head in frustration and horror as she tried to think of what could have happened. If the mysterious green light and the noises she had heard were responsible, then she could have very well put her friends in grave danger. Suddenly, a low growling noise made the pegasus freeze in place. It sounded like it was coming from just outside the front door. She slowly turned her head and stared out into the yard outside. Just as a flash of lightning flooded the area with blinding light, a dark shape slowly walked into the door. Fluttershy immediately recognized the dark shape. It belonged to the creatures that had attacked her and her friends at Zecora’s hut. She remembered that Tom had called the creature a darkling when he fought them. The shadowy beast slowly walked into the house while growling and pointing its head at the terrified pony. The darklings didn’t have visible eyes or any other feature besides their gaping mouths, but from the way it was snarling at her and bearing its sharp teeth, the pegasus figured that it was angry. Fluttershy backed up and prepared to run upstairs, when another growl from behind her made her turn around swiftly. Another darkling was stalking down the stairs towards the frightened mare. Fluttershy jumped back in fright and walked backwards until her back hit the wall. She looked around as the two creatures walked towards her. There was no way that she could make a break for the door without one of them pouncing on her. “No… please…” Fluttershy begged in the vain hope that it would somehow spare her. She raised her arms defiantly in an attempt at keeping something between her and the approaching monsters. Suddenly the darkling on the left paused and reared its hind legs in preparation to jump. The beast let out a loud snarl before leaping at the helpless pegasus. “AHHHH!” Fluttershy screamed and shielded her face with her arms as the beast leapt at her. The shadowy monster collided with the yellow pony and sank its teeth into her soft flesh. Chapter 36: Something Wicked“Agh!” Fluttershy yelped in fright as she jolted up in bed. She could still feel the alarm and fear she had from the creature pouncing on her. After breathing heavily for a few moments and looking around at her surroundings, she realized that she had been having another bad dream. “Ugh… I hate nightmares.” The pegasus stated with slight relief as she placed her head in her hooves. After sitting for a few more moments and touching her face to assure that she was awake, Fluttershy looked over the side of her bed to find out if Angel was still where she had left him. Discovering the white rabbit fast asleep in his bed filled the pegasus with relief and peace of mind. Taking note of her overwhelming sense of fright and discomfort from her dream, Fluttershy decided that she would get up and head into the living room to see if Tom was still awake, and to reassure herself that her friends were safe. The pegasus got out of bed and quietly made her way to the other side of the room. Being careful not to wake her sleeping pet, she opened the door and walked out into the hallway with a lingering sense of hesitation. The house was still dark, but the absence of the thunder and lightning and the general eerie feeling from her nightmare made Fluttershy feel slightly better about traversing the dark cottage. As she approached the opening to the living room, she was relieved to see her human friend sitting in a chair beside the couch. He was leaning back on a pillow while trying to pass the time with his thoughts. Upon noticing the yellow mare entering the room, the boy turned to look at her. “What are you doing up?” Tom whispered quietly with a curious expression. Fluttershy looked over at the couch to see her two friends sleeping peacefully on opposite sides. The couch was just barely big enough for them to have enough space to sleep peacefully with their legs curled up. They were wrapped up in their blankets and were using their respective arm rests to prop up their pillows. “I had a nightmare and can’t sleep now… I was hoping to come sit in here for a while.” Fluttershy whispered back while walking over to the other chair and sitting down. Tom nodded understandingly to the jilted pony as she got settled in. “You know how I deal with nightmares?” The human asked with a sincere expression. Fluttershy was open to the suggestion. “How?” The pegasus replied curiously. Tom leaned forward and rested his arms on the armrests of the chair. “I used to have night terrors when I was younger. They would be so bad that I would wake up crying or screaming at times. When I was younger I would go sleep in my parents’ bed to comfort me, but after I got older, I needed a different way to make myself feel better.” The boy explained while thinking back to his past. “After having a nightmare and waking up, I would head right back to sleep by using this simple trick. I would think of something happy or nostalgic to get my mind off of the dream. It works almost every time.” Tom explained with a slight smirk. The human’s story made Fluttershy think of any happy memories she had that would be good enough to insight a happy feeling. She smiled as she felt her anxiety disappearing. “That’s a pretty good idea… thanks.” The pegasus spoke with a cheerful tone. Suddenly she thought about how the human must have felt about being separated from his family. This made her frown slightly at the thought. “Do you… miss your world?” Fluttershy asked in a somber tone. The sudden question made the boy’s smile fade into a blank expression. “Kind of… I miss aspects of it.” Tom replied while deep in thought. “Like your family?” Fluttershy added with a hint of sadness in her voice. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be robbed of a family like Tom had been. “I haven’t seen my family since the day I died… Being brought here hasn’t changed that. But to answer your question… yeah, I miss them. It was incredibly lonely being a slayer in the human world. I didn’t have any friends or colleagues, my family was who knows where, and as fun as beating the living daylights out of assorted monsters is… it was really lonely.” Tom looked down and sighed in a depressed tone. Fluttershy felt sympathetic for the boy. She wanted to go over and give him a hug, but felt that he needed a moment to his thoughts. “I was actually going to give up you know… the day I came here.” Tom stated with a morbid sense of clarity. The boy’s statement surprised the yellow mare. “What?” Fluttershy asked with shock and dismay on her face. “I was in a forest when I got transported here… I was there to give up and die. I had no reason to keep fighting. I had nobody I felt like I had to protect, and I figured that another slayer could take my place… so I walked into the forest with the intention of finding a lake to drown myself in.” The human chuckled sadly as he remembered what he was doing before he came to Equestria. Fluttershy was mortified that the boy was contemplating killing himself. “Kind of grim now that I think about it… But I couldn’t exactly settle down, find a condo, and watch T.V for the rest of eternity.” Tom explained once he noticed the pegasus’s shocked expression. “What made you change your mind? I mean… you seem like you don’t want to give up now.” Fluttershy stated while noting the boy’s cheerful disposition. Tom thought about it for a moment before replying. “I guess I wanted to keep Twilight and the rest of you safe. I never got to interact with the people I was helping before… I might have talked to one or two people to get information on a monster, but I didn’t feel like anyone would want to get to know me. When I first came here, I killed the darklings that attacked all of you just because I was there… but after you guys asked me about my past and gave me a place to stay, I felt a little attached to you I guess.” Tom explained with an awkward chuckle. He looked away and rubbed his eyes to get rid of a small buildup of tears. The human hadn’t thought about how he felt about being a slayer in a long time, so it was weird for him to finally get everything out in the open. Fluttershy let a few tears roll down her cheek as she listened to the boy’s story. She was happy to hear that she and her friends could have such a positive impact on someone’s life. She smiled warmly and gave the boy a sincerely caring expression. “I know this was kind of implied… but I’m happy to be your friend Tom, and I know the others feel the same way. Even if you hadn’t saved our lives multiple times we would still be your friends. Friendship can have a lot of positive impacts on a person’s life, so I think it’s important to be friendly to everyone you meet.” Fluttershy said with a sincere smile on her face. Tom was glad to hear that the pegasus and her friends cared for him unlike any other random person he met had. “Thanks Fluttershy… that means a lot. I’m glad that I was brought here so I could meet all of you and help you keep this place safe.” Tom stated with a cheerful tone. Fluttershy was happy to see the boy’s spirits were lifted again. “I think I might try and sleep in here for the rest of the night… I would feel better being in a room with more people in it anyway.” The yellow pony yawned as she contemplated going back to sleep. Tom nodded as he watched the pegasus get up to grab a spare blanket and pillow. Suddenly, the human gasped for air as his senses went off involuntarily. The harsh noise accompanied by the blue mist shooting from the boy’s mouth made Fluttershy’s heart fill with dread. As if on cue to follow the slayer’s senses going off, a disturbing moaning sound flooded into the cottage from far away. The horrible noise sounded like it was coming from the far off forest, but it was so loud that it could be heard clear through the walls. “There’s that noise that I heard before!” Fluttershy began shaking nervously as the noise made chills go up and down her spine. “Did you feel anything?” She asked with a squeaky voice to see if the boy felt anything familiar that could ease her fears. “Not anything that I recognize… but there is something coming from the direction of the forest.” Tom explained with a serious tone of voice while getting up and rushing over to the window. He peered outside and searched for anything amiss. “What the hay is going on?” Rainbow Dash said while rubbing her eyes to wake herself up. She and Pinkie Pie looked around nervously as they listened to the soul rending groaning that disturbed their slumber. The two mares quickly got up and walked over to the window where the human and yellow pegasus was looking. “That must be the green glow you mentioned earlier.” Tom stated while glancing over to Fluttershy and pointing towards the distant tree line. Sure enough, there was a faint green glow emanating from behind a few of the distant trees of the forest. The ponies watched the eerie glow in a frightened trance as they shivered with fright. The disturbing groans mixed with the mysterious glow made their minds race with images of whatever horrible creatures could be causing the strange occurrence. Suddenly, Pinkie noticed a silhouette slowly walking off to the side of the yard. It was a four legged shape that seemed to be slightly taller than a regular pony, and it had what appeared to be antlers on its head. “Hey guys, look over there… it looks like some kind of animal.” The pink mare announced while pointing at the shadowy figure. “I think that’s a deer… it looks hurt.” Fluttershy said with slight worry in her voice. “We should go see what’s wrong with it.” She suggested while walking away from the window. The others followed the yellow mare as she went out the front door and into the yard. The eerie moaning had suddenly died down, leaving the group in silence. The moon shone down on the area, leaving just enough light to be able to discern colors against the blue tinted landscape. The silent atmosphere did little to comfort the ponies as they stepped around the house to look for the animal. Upon spotting the slowly moving creature, Fluttershy slowly walked forward while carefully observing the animal. It was staggering forward with its head lowered to the ground. It appeared to be barely able to support its own weight as its legs wobbled with each step. Tom used his senses to survey the area for whatever could have caused the injuries to the creature. He furrowed his brow suspiciously as he tried to make sense of the odd sensations he was feeling. “Fluttershy I think you should back up… something isn’t right here.” The human spoke up in an anxious tone to the pegasus as she approached the animal. Fluttershy was fearful of the far off forest, but she couldn’t imagine how the injured animal could be dangerous. Animals came to her all the time to be cared for and treated for injuries. “It’s just a deer guys… I’m just going to see what’s wrong with it.” Fluttershy spoke back to the anxious onlookers behind her. The yellow mare slowly stepped forward while observing the deer. It was hard to see in the sub-par lighting, but it appeared to be an adolescent male with its antlers coming in. “Hey there little guy… are you hurt?” Fluttershy spoke in a soft tone while walking closer to the animal. The deer stopped in its tracks as it heard the yellow pony speak. Suddenly the woodland creature looked up at the shy mare, causing her to freeze in place from fright. The deer had several dried up cuts and gashes along its face and body, one of which was a large slash to its neck, as if someone had slit its throat. The animal’s eyes were glowing a pale shade of green. Fluttershy could barely see the outline of its pupils and sclera behind the eerie glow. *Raaaghh!* The deer let out a garbled roar as it charged forward. Fluttershy fell backwards in shock as the animal ran for her. She screamed in fright as the creature lunged its head and front legs at her in an attempt at mauling her. Suddenly the beast was sent flying as Tom kicked it in the chest as hard as he could. The animal rolled on the ground several times, letting out a sickening crackle as its neck twisted with each roll. It came to a rest a few feet away and lay motionless on the floor. “Are you okay?” Tom asked while offering the yellow mare a hand up. Fluttershy nodded with widened eyes as she failed to find the ability to speak. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie ran up and huddled around the frightened pegasus. After hearing another garbled moan, the group turned their attention back to the deer. Its head lolled around limply as it slowly got up. After getting to its feet, the deer’s neck creaked and popped as it twisted it back in place. The ponies were horrified to see the sickening display in front of them. “W…w-what is that?!” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully as she stared at the monster. Tom stepped in front of the group protectively and placed a hand on his sword before turning to the group of fearful ponies. “It looks like a zombie.” Tom stated in a casual tone while standing in front of the ponies in a protective stance. “Wait... a zombie?! You mean like, an actual zombie?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone while staring ahead at the undead creature. “Looks that way… Stay here, I’ll take care of this.” Tom said while unsheathing his katana. The boy flipped the sword around in his hands before bringing it down to his side and walking forward cautiously. Fluttershy and the others watched nervously as the human walked towards the horrific beast. They were concerned for his safety, but they hoped that he knew what he was doing. Still, the sight of the gruesome animal still made them shiver from fright even with the human in front of them. The deer growled at the approaching boy before staggering forward. It wobbled slightly as it tried to avoid falling over while running. Tom gripped his sword in preparation for combat as he confidently walked towards the running beast. “Hey there little guy...” The human said in a sarcastically sweet tone while watching the creature charge at him. He stepped to the side and stuck his leg out while grabbing the approaching deer by the neck. He then flipped the undead animal over his leg. The beast’s momentum made it fly head over hooves until it landed on its back with a sickening thud that sounded like someone tossed rotten meat onto the ground from a high place. Tom stepped on the deer’s stomach forcefully to hold it down. He then plunged his sword into the ground through the bottom of the animal’s skull. The creature’s limbs jerked from the sudden attack before falling lifelessly to the ground. The deer’s eyes flickered a few times before the brilliant green glow disappeared completely. After pulling his sword out of the dead animal and wiping the blood off of it, the boy turned to the group of onlookers and smirked. The ponies were impressed to see the slayer in action, but they were still a little bit shaken up from the experience. “That was easy enough.” Tom spoke up so the others could hear him. They started to cheer for him, when suddenly another loud groaning noise silenced them. Tom looked over his shoulder to see three more zombified animals stepping out from the forest. Two of them were wolves, one of which was missing most of the skin on its face, while the other was another deer that had part of its antler snapped off and a bone sticking out of its leg. The three creatures growled before walking out into the field. “Me and my big fat mouth...” Tom sighed in annoyance before turning to face the incoming attackers. He rushed forward in order to keep the fight as far away from the ponies as possible. Fluttershy and the others watched anxiously as the boy charged forward against the horrific creatures. “Go get em’ Tom!” Rainbow Dash cheered the human on as he rushed up to the three charging animals. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shared the cyan mare’s sentiment for cheering the boy on, but they were still too shocked to say any words of encouragement. Tom quickly sidestepped out of the path of the deer as it tried to tackle him. In one fell swoop, the human swung his sword downward and clean through the animal’s neck. As the newly decapitated deer slid to the ground behind him, the boy quickly turned to see one of the wolves jumping at him. “Oof!” Tom grunted in pain as the zombie landed on top of him and knocked him to the ground. He held his sword against the wolf’s throat in an attempt at keeping it away from his face. The animal barked and snarled as it snapped at the human with its jagged teeth. Much to Tom’s surprise, the wolf failed to realize that it was cutting itself on the sword as it tried to get at him. The blade dug its way further and further into the decayed flesh of the creature before stopping at the bone. Tom gave a quick jab upwards, causing the wolf’s spinal cord to snap from the force. The predator’s eyes flickered until the green glow disappeared from them, at which point the animal went limp. After shoving the lifeless corpse off of his body, the boy quickly got up and looked around for the third attacker. “Where the-” Tom’s thought was interrupted by the sound of his friends screaming in terror. He turned to see the final undead creature making a beeline for the hapless ponies. “Heel!” The human yelled before rushing after the wolf. Fluttershy and the others backed up to distance themselves from the undead animal. The ponies contemplated turning to run away, but they wouldn’t be able to outrun the monster. Just before the creature reached the three terrified mares, Tom caught up to it and kicked it to the side. The wolf rolled on the ground a few times before settling on its back. “Hyah!” The human yelled fiercely while jumping up to gain momentum. He crashed down on the animal with his katana pointed downwards, managing to plant the blade into its neck. The wolf’s body offered little resistance as the sword pierced through its spinal cord. The wolf let out an interrupted snarl as it tried to jerk upwards before the sword impaled it. As its spinal cord was severed, its glowing eyes dimmed as the other animals’ had and it fell back to the ground like a limp puppet. Taking a moment to catch his breath and extract his sword from the ground, the boy looked over to his fearful friends and sighed. “Well… at least we know what the problem is now.” Tom stated sarcastically before re-sheathing his sword and walking over to the group. “That was a close one… thanks.” Pinkie Pie said while breathing a sigh of relief. “Yeah… we were almost that thing’s chew toy.” Rainbow Dash added with a nervous chuckle. “At least we’re safe now.” Fluttershy said while calming her racing heartbeat. She was incredibly thankful that the human managed to save her and her friends before anything bad happened. Once the danger had passed, the group looked around at the grisly bodies of the animals. Watching Tom slaughter them was a little bit unsettling, but what bothered the ponies the most was the thought of what made the animals this way. “What happened to these poor things?” Fluttershy asked in disgust while looking over the decayed bodies. Tom sighed while shaking his head in pity as he observed one of the wolves. “Looks like they haven’t been dead very long… all of these wounds probably happened after they became like this, except for this slash on the throat.” The boy explained while pointing out the different injuries. All of the cuts and bites looked like another animal had made them, but the gash on their necks looked like it was made with a knife. “Do you think those hooded ponies did this?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to contain her anger towards the horrible acts committed on the animals. “Well somebody did this to them… these guys don’t look like naturally made zombies, they look like the kind of thing that comes from dabbling in necromancy.” The human stated with a grim expression. The others were mortified to think that another living being could do things like this to innocent animals. “Do you think there are more of them out there?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while watching the woods for any sign of movement. “Most likely… I’m going to go check it out, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow night for that. I don’t want to leave you all here by yourselves.” Tom replied while giving the woods a cursory glance to be safe. “That’s probably for the best… but how are we going to sleep with those things out there?” Fluttershy asked curiously. She couldn’t imagine how they would be able to sleep with the threat of an undead animal being just outside. “Well, I’ll just keep watch until morning. All you guys have to do is try to sleep through whatever noise these things make.” The human suggested in a matter of fact tone. Fluttershy was concerned about the boy staying up all night for their sake. “Until morning… but aren’t you tired at all? I don’t want you losing any sleep over me. We can easily just go somewhere else.” The yellow mare said in a sympathetic tone while frowning at the human. “It’s fine… I don’t need as much sleep as you guys do to stay energetic. And besides, you shouldn’t have to leave your home just because of something like this. I’ll handle everything, you all just head back to bed.” Tom volunteered with a chipper attitude. Fluttershy was still upset that the human would go so much out of his way for her, but she was also grateful for it. “Thanks Tom... you’re the best.” The yellow pegasus smiled warmly at the boy, who returned the gesture as he followed the group inside. -Earlier- After watching Fluttershy leave the room silently, Angel rolled over in bed to get comfortable again. The pegasus had tried her best not to wake the rabbit, but her brief outburst from waking up had stirred him enough to interrupt his sleep. Ever since she got home from yesterday, the yellow mare had been acting very strangely. She seemed more nervous and jumpy than usual, and the incident from last night hadn’t helped at all. The noises had terrified Angel just as much as they did his owner, but he decided to stay in the house to hide. Finally, after much rearranging, the rabbit managed to get in a comfortable position to sleep in. He lay still and let himself drift into a hazy sort of half-sleep, when suddenly, another noise made his head shoot up in alarm. The noises from last night had returned stronger than ever. The horrific moaning made Angel dart his head around nervously. Upon hearing the front door open and close from downstairs, the rabbit deduced that Fluttershy had gone outside with her friends to investigate. Angel was unsure of whether or not he should be concerned for the yellow pegasus. After all, she did have the strange human with her. Angel had not had the opportunity to meet the human for very long. He only caught a glimpse of him when he poked his head into the living room to investigate the commotion caused by the ponies’ game of truth or dare. Unable to sleep, the rabbit decided to get up to head over to the window to investigate what was happening outside. After a short hop up onto the windowsill, Angel peeked outside and strained his eyes to see what was going on. It was hard to see through the reflective window, but he could barely make out the sight of his owner Fluttershy slowly walking towards another animal. The yellow pegasus often allowed other animals into the house, and Angel would often accompany her while she cared for them, so the sight of her going to help a supposedly injured animal was not strange to the rabbit. Suddenly, the animal lifted its head up, revealing its grotesquely decayed and slashed up flesh in the light. The sight of the animal caused Fluttershy to fall backwards in surprise. Angel was horrified to see his owner in such danger. Just before the rabbit could contemplate rushing outside to help the yellow mare, the human leapt forward and kicked the animal off of her. He helped her to her feet before standing in front of her protectively while her friends ran to her side. The human reached onto his back and pulled out a sword. He twirled it around stylishly for a second before lowering it to his side and slowly walking out of the rabbit’s view. Angel was relieved to see the ponies were in capable hands. Suddenly, a strange sound made Angel freeze in place. The odd sound harmonized in his head until it became a high pitched soothing melody. The room spun around and blurred as the rabbit slowly lost touch with his surroundings. He felt compelled to chase after the noise, to bathe further in its relaxing melody. The rabbit turned around and hopped off the windowsill. As the surrounding room disappeared before him, he hopped forward while following the path engrained in his subconscious. After leaving the bedroom, Angel walked through the house until he found his way into the kitchen, and out of the kitchen window. Fluttershy and her friends walked into the living room before plopping down on a chair or the couch. They breathed a collective sigh of relaxation as they took a moment to rest their bodies. It had been a long night, and they wanted nothing more than to curl up to get some sleep. “Man… I kinda wish that I could sleep for like ten minutes. That would at least give me enough rest to feel less tired.” Tom vented his feelings to the air, while mentally acknowledging that he couldn’t sleep while keeping watch. “Tell you what… I’ll stay up for a while to let you sleep. I’ll just wake you up if I see anything.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a helpful smirk. “Nah… I don’t feel comfortable letting you stay up by yourself. You might accidentally fall asleep, or something else horrible might happen… but thanks for the offer.” Tom replied with slight paranoia. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure whether to be impressed by the boy’s excessive spirit, or to be concerned for his lack of self-preservation. “You sure…?” Rainbow asked courteously, to which the boy nodded in reply. “Alright fine, just don’t fall asleep on us yourself.” The cyan pegasus shrugged in defeat before crawling back into her makeshift bed on the couch. “Hey Fluttershy, do you have another spare blanket somewhere? It’s getting a little cold.” Pinkie Pie asked while rubbing her shoulder to generate warmth. “Yeah sure, I think there’s one in my bedroom. Let me take a look.” Fluttershy said in a cheerful tone while walking off towards her room. She walked up the stairs while taking care not to indulge her paranoia by looking into the darkened rooms of her house. As she opened the door to her bedroom and stepped inside, something seemed off to the shy pony. She looked around her room to see if anything was amiss, when she suddenly laid eyes on the empty bed that her pet had been occupying before she left. Fluttershy turned on the light to her room to confirm that she wasn’t seeing things. She walked forward and examined the empty bed before looking around to find the rabbit. Angel usually didn’t go anywhere else in the house during the night, and she hadn’t seen him on her way through the house. “Where’s Angel?” Fluttershy thought out loud as a sense of dread and panic slowly filled her body. As if on cue to answer her question, the moaning and howling noise from before started up again as green light faintly shined in through the window. Chapter 37: Into the WoodsRushing to the window to inspect the commotion outside, Fluttershy quickly scanned her eyes around to determine the source of the disturbance. She quickly noticed that the eerie green glow had returned in the tree line to the forest. Knowing that the glow belonged to the cold dead eyes of an undead creature sent chills up the pegasus’s spine. Suddenly, a blur of motion caught the yellow pony’s eye. She looked over to see a small white shape bouncing towards the forest slowly. She realized that the small white blur was in fact her rabbit friend Angel. “Angel! What the hay are you doing out there?!” Fluttershy squeaked in a panic as she watched the rabbit hop into the forest. He quickly disappeared into the trees, leaving the yellow pony staring at the forest in a wide eyed stupor. “I need to go after him... Tom!” Fluttershy exclaimed before rushing to her door and out into the hallway. She knew that the only hope she would have of ever seeing her friend again would be the human sitting in her living room. The yellow mare ran through her house in a rush to get to the others. She bolted out into the room and slid to a halt before using the wall to catch herself. The others stared at the exasperated pony with a mixture of confusion and concern on their faces. “Fluttershy what’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked as she watched her friend catch her breath with an alarmed expression. “Angel’s gone!” Fluttershy gasped out in between breaths. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were surprised and shocked by the announcement, while Tom was merely confused. “Who is Angel?” The human asked while waiting for the pegasus to finish catching her breath. “He’s my pet rabbit… I couldn’t find him in his bed when I got back, but I saw him outside. He was heading into the Everfree Forest!” Fluttershy stated with alarm and concern. The others gasped in shock as they realized the danger Angel could be in. “What?! Why would he go into the forest?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a panicked tone as she tried to process the situation. “I don’t know, but we need to go get him!” Fluttershy said before turning to Tom. “Please Tom, we need to go after him!” She pleaded to the human with fearful tears in her eyes. Tom knew that she wanted him to take her into the forest to search for the rabbit. “You want to go out there? Are you crazy?!” The boy said apprehensively while glancing to the window. Fluttershy looked to the human with a mixture of sadness and desperation on her face. “Please Tom! Angel means the world to me. I don’t know what I would do without him. If you won’t help me look for him, then I…” Fluttershy gulped nervously while glancing out of the window. “Then I... I’m going after him by myself!” She stated in a fearfully apprehensive tone. Tom was surprised by the way the shy pony was acting. He could tell that she really didn’t want to go out there without him, but she was willing to go anyway. He wondered just how attached the pegasus was to her pet. The boy shrugged in frustration. He couldn’t just sit by and let the innocent mare head blindly into danger alone. “Alright… I’ll go, but you’re sticking close to me alright?” Tom instructed in a serious tone. Fluttershy nodded in determination. She was excited to hear that the human would help her. “Thank you so much Tom!” The shy mare said with a happy smile while walking forward to hug the gracious slayer. Tom accepted the gesture before letting the pony go so she could prepare herself to leave. “I’m going too.” Rainbow Dash stepped forward confidently to stand by the yellow pegasus. “Me too.” Pinkie volunteered while walking over to her friends. Fluttershy was humbled to see her friends sticking with her in a time of need. “Are you two sure? There’s no telling what kind of danger is waiting for us out there. You can just head home and let me and Fluttershy handle this.” Tom asked the two brave ponies to be certain. He didn’t want them risking their lives blindly without consideration. The two nodded confidently before turning to Fluttershy. “We want to help Fluttershy. And besides, you two can’t just leave without us.” Rainbow Dash stated with determination. Pinkie nodded in agreement with a cheerful smile. “Yeah, we can’t just leave and do nothing.” The pink mare chimed in eagerly. Tom was surprised by the fact that the ponies kept surprising him with their bravery. “Alright, let’s get going. The sooner we find Angel, the better.” The boy stated while getting up and walking out of the door. The ponies quickly followed him outside before closing the door behind them. Just before leaving, Fluttershy quickly rushed to a closet in her hallway. She pulled out three flashlights and tested them before rushing to join her friends outside. The area was eerily quiet once again. The wind had died down, and the noises and glowing from the forest had ceased, leaving only the darkened woods to stand as an ominous doorway to whatever the ponies would encounter. “How are we going to find Angel? The Everfree Forest is so big… like, huge!” Pinkie huffed in frustration as she peered around a tree to view into the forest. Tom stepped forward into the trees before turning to the group. “Well, I’m going to wager that any small animal in their right mind wouldn’t step foot into a forest filled with dangerous monsters willingly. I’m thinking that something lured him out there, so I’m going to try to find the source of these zombies. My guess is that whatever is making these things has something to do with Angel walking into the forest.” Tom explained his idea to the group. Everyone agreed with the boy’s reasoning. “Here, take these.” Fluttershy said while tossing a flashlight to each of her friends. “Sorry I don’t have any more… I guess I’ll just have to go without one.” She sighed at her lack of good fortune before walking forward with the group. The light from the moon that had bathed the landscape in a comforting blue light had all but vanished under the thick canopy of trees. The pitch black forest sent shockwaves of various frightening memories through each of the ponies’ heads. Rainbow Dash remembered the day she and Twilight returned to the forest with the princess. Brief flashes of her time in the cave made the pegasus cringe before mentally forcing the thoughts from her head. While Pinkie and Fluttershy merely remembered the first time they met Tom out at Zecora’s hut. The two ponies could still hear the pounding of the front door ringing in their ears as the darklings fought to break in. On top of their memories of the forest, the dark atmosphere created new feelings of fear and nervousness in the ponies. They swept their flashlights side to side frantically as they caught brief glimpses of shadowy silhouettes in the distance, only to realize that it was a trick being played by their own imaginations. Tom walked ahead of the group to lead them. As he searched the area with his senses, he noticed a faraway spot where all of the energy coming from the zombies seemed to originate from. The human also tried to survey the area for any potential threats. “Do you feel anything around us Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while glancing around through the thicket of trees. “I can’t really tell… The energy that these things give off is so small that it blends in with the trail I’m trying to follow.” Tom replied uneasily as he listened to the many far off moans and groans that carried through the trees. Even if he couldn’t sense them, he knew that there were more undead around somewhere. As Fluttershy ducked under a low hanging branch to get around a tree, she noticed some dark shapes around the group. Upon noticing this, she tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder and pointed in the direction of the shadowy figure. “What is it?” The cyan pegasus asked curiously while fumbling her flashlight around to search for whatever was troubling her friend. Fluttershy gently grabbed her arm and guided the beam of the flashlight onto the distant shape. “Look over there…” The yellow mare said while focusing the light. Once the flashlight settled on the shape, the two realized that it was another animal staggering in place near a tree. Upon closer inspection, the animal appeared to be a fox that had its head down and numerous cuts on its body. “There’s one of those things.” Rainbow Dash whispered nervously while staring at the creature in the distance. “There are more of them over there.” Pinkie stated while pointing to the side. The group looked over to see two more animals off in the distance. As they searched around them, the four realize that they were practically surrounded by the creatures. “What do we do?” Fluttershy squeaked in a panic as she darted her eyes around nervously. She could feel her heart racing as she tensed up her muscles fearfully. Tom looked around to assess the situation before turning to the ponies with a calm expression. “Everyone just stay calm and keep quiet. Hopefully we can sneak by without them noticing.” The human whispered calmly while trying to ease the ponies’ fears. Everyone took a nervous glance at the numerous animals around them before gulping nervously and swallowing their fear. As they slowly crept forward around the trees, the ponies could hear a pin drop over the low groaning sounds around them. They were so conscious of where their feet were landing, that they somehow managed to avoid stepping on anything that would create noise. Fluttershy cringed as a twig broke under her hoof. She peered over at a nearby zombie to see if it noticed, only to watch it lift its head up and look off to the side. After breathing a silent sigh of relief, the yellow mare looked forward to the human leading the group. “Tom, are we getting close?” Fluttershy whispered just barely loud enough to be heard. Tom used his senses again to check on their progress. “We should be getting there soon… as long as nothing happens we should get there in a few m-” The boy stopped mid-sentence and froze in place while staring ahead. The ponies nearly knocked into him as they focused on the ground to walk silently. The three mares looked at the human with puzzled expressions until they looked ahead to where he was staring. Once they noticed what had made their friend freeze up, they widened their eyes in shock and terror. A large bear was slowly walking towards the group. It didn’t seem like it noticed the band of frightened ponies as it stared blankly ahead with its glowing green eyes. The sight of the ferocious animal staggering forward with such gory injuries while still maintaining a vicious look on its half-eaten face struck terror into Fluttershy and her friends. The bear’s nose was partially missing, revealing the hole in its skull that served as the nasal passage. One of its ears was dangling off of the side of its head by a small strip of flesh. There were numerous places on its bulky legs where patches of skin and flesh had been torn. And to top off the already frightening predator’s grizzly appearance, one of its front paws was missing half of its toes, leaving only two sharp claws in place. The bear stopped moving suddenly and stood up on its back legs. It twitched its head and crinkled up the small portion of its nose that remained, as if it were trying to sniff the air with its doubtlessly functionless flap of a nostril. It growled deeply, creating an unearthly sound that pierced the ponies’ very beings as it reverberated out of the dead animal’s throat. “Does it see us?” Rainbow Dash whispered anxiously as the undead predator started walking forward again. It shifted its cold, dead eyes to glare at the group of ponies before groaning and walking a little faster. “Well I don’t think it’s coming over here to tell us about the bear necessities.” Tom replied in a mixture of panic and nervousness. “Wait… what?” Rainbow Dash took a moment to stop staring at the bear to give the human a confused look. Tom realized that his joke fell on deaf ears before returning his attention to the bear that was now sprinting at them. “I’ll tell you about it later!” The boy yelled while running forward to meet the bear before it got closer to his friends. Tom unsheathed his sword and charged at the bear with the blade held straight in front of him. The creature reared up in preparation to strike the human, catching him off guard. The sword went straight into the creature’s mid-section, stopping just above the hilt and leaving Tom staring up at the now incredibly angry zombie bear leering down at him. The bear swiped its injured paw at the boy. Even with the heavily disfigured extremity, the impact of the two claws across Tom’s head sent him flying sideways. “Tom!” Fluttershy cried in shock as she watched the human collide with a tree a short distance away. Tom clutched his face with his hands and yelled in agonizing pain as he felt the huge gash in his face. Blood poured from the open wound as the human struggled to get to his feet. A bright orange light flickered to life as the flames of Tom’s healing abilities kicked in. The horrific wound took a little longer to close up than most other wounds he had suffered due to its size, leaving Tom to deal with the added pain of the burning sensation given on top of the pain from the injury. The ponies were horrified to see their friend in so much pain. They were even more horrified to see the bear charging directly for the wounded human. The undead predator was growling fiercely as it stumbled sideways while running to its prey. “Tom, look out!” All three ponies cried out in unison to warn the human of the impending attack. After the wound finished healing, Tom breathed in heavily a few times to help his body recover from the shock. He then looked up just in time to see the bear careening towards him. The boy jumped out of the way just as the bear slammed into the tree. Seeing an opportunity to attack, Tom reached for his sword to pounce on the bear. After grasping at the air for a brief moment, the boy quickly realized that his katana was still embedded in the bear. Sure enough, the hilt of his sword was sticking out of the animal’s mid-section as it stalked towards him. “Alright big guy… you want to play rough?” Tom asked while readying his arms into a fighting stance. He then brought out his claws and stared down the bear with determination and bravery. “I can play rough!” The human yelled as he charged forward after the bear. The undead creature roared as it bolted forward like a steamroller, ready to plow into the boy. The ponies watched in amazement as Tom leapt over the charging bear and spun around to land on its back. The boy grabbed the bear’s blood soaked fur and held on for dear life. The bear growled in protest while reaching its arms around its back in an attempt at grabbing the annoyance. Tom made sure to steer clear of the sharp claws that were scraping nearby as he hung in place. “Tom!” The sound of his friends calling for him frantically made the human look over to where they were standing. The ponies were backing towards each other as a group of zombified animals surrounded them slowly. “Aw hell… sorry big guy, but play time is over!” Tom yelled with determination as he stabbed his free hand into the back of the bear’s neck. The spinal cord offered little resistance from the sharp blades as they severed it with a satisfying crackle. The bear groaned in pain before falling forward. Tom leapt off the dying animal and grabbed his sword from the bear’s stomach. He then pulled it out in one swift motion while stepping to the side to allow the lifeless corpse to fall to the forest floor with a loud thud. The boy looked over to where his friends were. They were cowering in fear while hugging each other close as the animals snarled and snapped their teeth at them. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were looking around with absolute terror in their eyes as they observed their certain doom, while Fluttershy was cowering close to the floor with her face covered by her hooves. “AHHH!” Pinkie and Rainbow Dash screamed in unison as they watched the animals jump towards them. They averted their eyes and shut them tight to prepare for the horrible pain of being ripped to shreds. Fluttershy listened while crying uncontrollably as the gut wrenching sound of flesh being punctured and torn filled the air. The yellow pegasus strangely felt no pain, but her friends were silent. She feared that they had been devoured alive while she would be next. Gathering up the courage to take a look at the scene taking place around her, Fluttershy slowly lifted her arms to peek out. The shy mare gasped in shock as she looked around her. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were perfectly unharmed, but they were frozen in place with their jaws held open in a shocked expression. Tom was sitting on top of one of the animals with his claws buried in its head. Another one of the animals was lying motionless a few feet away with Tom’s katana sticking out of its neck. The rest of the zombies were all strewn around with four deep gashes in the back of their necks or under their chins. “T-th... th...” Rainbow Dash stammered in shock as she tried to put words together. “T-th… that w-was amazing! I thought we were goners for sure!” She said while laughing hysterically at their close brush with death. The cyan pegasus touched her face and touched her friends’ shoulders to ensure that they were all alive. “You almost were…” Tom spoke up with a grim tone of voice. The ponies were surprised by how gloomy the boy was. They figured that he would be happy and proud that he pulled something like that off just in time to save them. “But… you saved us, so it’s ok.” Pinkie said in an attempt at cheering the human up. Tom got up from the animal and vanished his claws back into the flames they came from. He then walked over and pulled his sword out of the animal it had been planted in. “Barely… I almost didn’t make it.” Tom stated gloomily while turning to face the group. “You all need to be safer if you’re going to be out here. If I can’t get to you in time, then I don’t want to think about what could happen.” He added in a concerned tone. The ponies felt bad for the human. It was clear that he wasn’t chiding them to be more careful, he was worried that he might not be able to save them if something bad would happen again. “We’ll be fine Tom…” Rainbow Dash said sympathetically while walking over to the human. He looked at her with confusion and doubt. “How can you be so sure?” Tom asked curiously. Rainbow Dash smiled at him confidently before putting a hoof on his side. “Because we have each other, and we have you. As long as we stick together, or even keep each other in our hearts, then we will never let anything get in the way of our friendship. And now that you’re here, you’re part of that friendship.” The pegasus replied with an inspiring speech. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy nodded confidently while walking closer to join the others. Tom was touched to hear that the ponies wanted to include him in their inner circle. They seemed to take friendship very seriously, and to have them offer him a place in their friendship was very moving to the human. “That may be true… but I’m still worried for all of you. Your world isn’t ready to mix with the evils that my world is capable of… which is exactly what seems to be happening.” Tom said uneasily while observing the ponies and taking note of how sensitive they were at the end of the day. “We might be sensitive when compared to humans, but we can be brave too.” Pinkie spoke up confidently. Tom was intrigued to hear what the party pony had to say. “There are tons of examples of ponies being brave… even Fluttershy here has a brave streak in her. She stared down a dragon and lived after all!” The pink mare praised while looking over to Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus blushed shyly as she recalled the memory in question. She didn’t think much of her experience with the dragon. It was hurting her friends, and at the end of the day it was just a big animal, so she just dealt with it. “You stared down a dragon?” Tom asked with surprise and curiosity. Fluttershy nodded with a coy smile. The human was impressed and shocked at the same time to hear that such a gentle and sensitive pony could square off with a dragon and live. “Ok… you’ll have to tell me about that one later, but first let’s go find Angel and get out of this forest.” The human suggested while walking forward and using his senses to get back on track. The ponies nodded to each other in agreement before returning to their search. After a few more minutes of walking, the group noticed that the trees were starting to thin out a little bit. The ground was starting to get less grassy and obstacle ridden as well. Before they could question the strange placement of their surroundings, the ponies noticed a light up ahead. As they drew closer to the light, they realized that there was a clearing up ahead that was allowing moonlight to shine through completely. The clearing was full of boxes, tents, tables and other pieces of equipment. And much to the ponies’ surprise, they saw a few hooded figures moving around in the camp. “Everyone get down.” Tom whispered while creeping closer to a tree on the edge of the clearing. The group followed his example by huddling behind the tree next to him. The four peered out from behind their hiding spots to observe the two hooded figures talking around a pen like structure with a door. One of them appeared to be a blue furred unicorn with tufts of white hair poking out from under his hood. While the other one appeared to be a teal earth pony with black hair. Both ponies’ cutie marks were concealed by the hoodies they were wearing. “What are they saying?” Rainbow Dash whispered to her companions curiously. “I can’t hear them.” Pinkie whispered back. Before the group could ponder further about the intentions of the hooded ponies, a small white rabbit hopped into the clearing from off to the side and walked up to the hooded figures. “Angel…” Fluttershy whispered with concern as she observed the rabbit stand idly at the ponies’ feet. He seemed like he was in some sort of trance as he bobbed his head around limply. Suddenly, one of the ponies noticed the rabbit and bent down to pick it up. “Alright, this should be enough for tonight. Go turn off the gathering charm and prep a table.” One of the ponies instructed to the other before opening the door to the pen and placing Angel inside. Through the small opening, the group could see a few other animals trapped inside the pen. The earth pony nodded before walking over to a table and grabbing a book and a scalpel. He set the book and cutting tool down on a small table near what appeared to be a medical examination table with straps on it. While the earth pony was reading through the book and adjusting various other vials and jars of other equipment, the unicorn was opening the pen and leading a small deer out by a leash. He walked the deer over to the table before using his magic to lift it up and place it on its back. The deer offered no resistance as the two ponies strapped it to the table. The animal’s eyes had a strange blankness to them. After tightening the straps so the deer couldn’t move, the ponies turned to the equipment next to them. The unicorn lifted the book off of the table and held it open in front of him, while the earth pony grabbed a scalpel off of the table and examined it. “What are they doing to that poor thing?” Fluttershy asked while looking at the scalpel with a sense of dread in her stomach. As if on cue to answer the yellow mare’s question, the earth pony swiftly drew the scalpel across the deer’s throat, slicing it open. The ponies gasped in shock and looked on with horrified expressions as the deer gargled out a cry of pain while struggling against the straps. The animal slowly stopped moving as the wound gushed out blood like a morbid waterfall. After the deer stopped twitching, the unicorn started reading from the book. While his partner recited a spell from the tome, the earth pony opened a vial of a white powdery substance. He took a hoof-full of the powder before sprinkling it over the deer. After covering the animal in a good amount of the powder, the earth pony blew the rest of the powder into the air above the animal. The powder formed into a cloud of particles floating in the air above the table. Suddenly, a flash of green appeared within the cloud of dust. Soon the green flash formed into an odd, almost fluid-like luminescent green mist. The mist slowly drifted down like a puff of smoke caught in a breeze, until it went inside the dead animal. The two ponies waited silently while observing the corpse. Suddenly, the deer jerked upwards while letting out an unearthly howl that startled Fluttershy and the others. The animal’s eyes had started glowing the same neon green that the other zombies had. The two ponies leaned away from the table as the animal kicked and screamed against the straps. The unicorn read off some more words from the book while staring at the deer with a disciplinary leer. After the pony had finished, the deer relaxed and lay still on the table while silently breathing, or at least going through the motions of breathing as it no longer needed oxygen to thrive. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and her two friends were mortified from watching the scene unfold before their very eyes. The yellow pegasus had tears in her eyes as she let the event sink in. She couldn’t believe that the two ponies had just murdered that deer without so much as a second thought. “Why would they do something like that?” Fluttershy hiccupped as her voice quivered from sadness. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie did their best to comfort the distraught pegasus while dealing with their own emotions. The two hooded ponies released the undead creature from the table and pointed off to the other side of the camp. The deer slowly staggered its way towards where its masters had pointed. After the deer was out of sight, the two walked back over to the pen. “Alright, I think we should do one more for the night. I’m beat…” The unicorn said to his partner, who nodded in agreement. The two then reached into the pen and pulled out another animal. Much to the horror and shock of the ponies, the unicorn had a familiar white rabbit in his hooves. “Oh no… Angel!” Fluttershy gasped in fright as she watched the two walk away with her pet in their clutches. Chapter 38: Playing With Dead ThingsFluttershy couldn’t believe what she was watching. She didn’t want to believe what she was watching. The two hooded ponies were carrying Angel towards the same table they had just slaughtered a deer on. She could see a brief flash of her beloved pet being killed and brought back to life as a mindless zombie in her mind. The yellow pegasus shook her head defiantly to rid herself of the horrible images. “We can’t let them hurt Angel.” Fluttershy whispered in a concerned tone while looking down to her two friends. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie shared the yellow mare’s sentiment as they watched the two carry the rabbit with dread. “I know… we need to go out there and stop them! Tom…? Tom?!” Rainbow Dash whispered loudly to the tree where the human had been hiding. The cyan pegasus was confused to see the tree empty with the slayer nowhere to be seen. “Where the hay did he go?” Rainbow Dash whispered in a frustrated tone while looking around for the human. The other two ponies shared in the cyan mare’s confusion, until a familiar voice spoke up loudly from inside the camp. “Evening gentlemen…” Tom announced to the two hooded ponies while walking forward with a confident expression. The two swiftly turned around to face the human, before jumping slightly in surprise from seeing the intruder. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?!” The unicorn yelled in a fierce tone. He was obviously trying to sound more threatening than he actually felt as he nervously watched the human staring at him. The earth pony tapped his partner on the shoulder frantically while looking at him with wide eyes. “That’s the guy the others were talking about! That’s the slayer!” The teal stallion said on the verge of a panic attack. The unicorn gulped nervously while shoving his friend slightly to calm him down. He then turned to face the human and put on his best threatening expression. “What do you want?” He asked with a slight twinge of nervousness in his voice. Tom smirked slightly as he watched the blue pony trying to sound brave. “That rabbit you got there is very important to a friend of mine… give him back.” The human instructed with a firm tone while stepping closer to the pair menacingly. While his partner was reduced to a quivering mess, the unicorn tried to be confident in the face of imminent danger. “See… I would, but we need this rabbit for a little science experiment we’re working on. So you will have to come up here and take it.” The blue pony cringed as he realized what just came out of his mouth. Tom chuckled briefly before pulling out his sword and bringing it to his side. “Alright, if you insist.” The human said with a smirk while stepping closer. The two ponies’ eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as they watched the slayer walking towards them slowly. “Wait, wait, wait! We can sort this out peacefully!” The unicorn pleaded while setting Angel down. “Go ahead and take him. The charm he’s under will wear off by morning, just go!” He said frantically while shoving the rabbit forward and backing off. Tom chuckled while stepping forward and picking up the rabbit. He then turned around to face the tree line and spoke up. “Alright girls, you can come out.” The boy said to his friends hiding behind the tree. Fluttershy and the others were hesitant to walk out, but got over their concerns and walked forward. Upon seeing the human holding her pet, the yellow pegasus rushed forward eagerly and happily accepted the rabbit from him. “Angel! I’m so glad you’re ok!” Fluttershy said while hugging the rabbit close. She then looked up to see Tom looking at her thoughtfully. “Go free the other animals and wait around. I’ll deal with these two.” The human said while motioning over to the pen where the other animals were kept. Fluttershy nodded before recruiting her two friends to help her with liberating the trapped animals. The three mares quickly rushed over to the pen and opened it before looking inside. “Oh my…” Fluttershy held her hoof up to her mouth to catch a gasp. All of the animals in the pen were standing around idly with dazed looks on their faces. All of them had glossy and unfocused eyes. There were wolves and foxes, deer and small birds alike. None of the animals seemed like they even knew they were sharing a pen with possible predators or prey. “Come on. Let’s get them out of here.” Rainbow Dash said while grabbing one of the deer and gently nudging it until it started walking forward. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed the cyan mare’s lead and grabbed an animal to escort out into the forest. While Fluttershy and the others were leading animals out of the pen, Tom turned to the hooded ponies and adopted a more serious expression. The unicorn and the earth pony could feel their spines melting into their feet when confronted with the icy glare being given by the slayer. “You two have got a lot to answer for. You’re coming with me, and we’re going to take a little walk.” Tom said suggestively while leering at the two. The two ponies backed away slowly while the human walked forward. “Uh… umm… uh...” The unicorn stammered nervously while back peddling. He suddenly turned around and looked off into the rest of the camp. “Dust Kicker!” The blue stallion yelled as loud as he could before turning back to watch the human nervously. Soon, a brown furred pony walked into view. Judging from the two wings poking out of his hoodie, the pony appeared to be a young pegasus stallion. There was a small dust devil on his side as a cute mark, and his hair was black. The stallion carried himself with a lot of confidence and seemed to have a threatening air about him. “What the hell is going on over h-” Dust Kicker spoke up in annoyance before noticing the human and the other ponies in the camp. He then snickered to himself with a smirk on his face. “You must be the slayer I’ve been hearing so much about.” The brown pegasus said with a confident smile. Tom was surprised to see such a cocky display. “I guess my reputation precedes me… and who might you be?” The human asked curiously while observing the stallion. The two hooded ponies scrambled to get away from the confrontation in front of them. They hid in one of the tents and peeked out to watch the inevitable fight. Fluttershy and her two friends watched the two anxiously as they sized each other up. “Who I am doesn’t matter… what matters is that you need to keep your nose out of our business.” The brown pony replied sternly. “Sorry, but my business is to stop people like you from harming others.” Tom said sarcastically. The pegasus chuckled to himself at the bold statement. “Is that so? Well you must really suck at your job, because from what I hear, things didn’t go so well for a few people down at the hospital.” Dust Kicker mocked in a harsh tone. Tom was slightly upset to be reminded of what happened at the hospital, but he wasn’t about to give the pegasus the satisfaction of affecting him emotionally. “I’m a bit confused as to what you guys are doing… everyone else in this world seems to be relatively nice, whereas you guys seem to be heartless cowards that use monsters to do your dirty work for you.” The human stated casually. This made the pegasus shift his expression into a leer. “We can do a lot more than you think… the monsters are just a means to an end.” The stallion explained with a sour attitude. “And what exactly is that end?” Tom asked with a firm tone. Dust Kicker merely laughed at the human, as if he really expected him to just tell him. “I’m not at liberty to say, but if you stick around long enough, you should figure it out fairly easily.” Dust Kicker chuckled while explaining with a smirk on his face. Tom and the three ponies behind him were unsettled by how sinister the hooded pony’s statement was. It almost sounded like a threat. “Well… If we can’t settle this peacefully, then I guess I’ll just have to beat it out of you like a piñata.” Tom said while gripping his sword and stepping forward, Pinkie Pie giggled quietly at the joke. She was glad to finally hear a reference from the human that she understood. Dust Kicker leered at the approaching human and stood his ground. While his two terrified workers were shaking nervously from watching the action unfold, the brown stallion was unwavering in his resolve that this human posed little to no threat to him. “If you take one more step you’re going to regret it.” The hooded pegasus announced in a threatening tone. Tom chuckled in his mind, allowing a soft smile to come out to express his feelings. How could a pony half his height think that it could harm him? The human paused for a moment for effect. He then lifted one leg and extended it forward to take a single step. The pegasus didn’t like how the boy was smirking at him in provocation. After taking a moment to contain his anger at the pretentious act, Dust Kicker smiled deviously. “Alright, you asked for it.” The stallion said sarcastically while looking down for a moment to concentrate. Fluttershy and the others were uneasy from the pegasus’s threat, but they weren’t sure if Tom was confident because he knew that he could handle the situation, or because he thought that the hooded pony posed no threat. Dust Kicker’s front hoof suddenly started glowing a mixture of dark black and bright purple. The shadowy glow enveloped his hoof like a fire made out of shadows. The pegasus lifted his hoof and stamped it back on the ground forcefully, causing the purple glow to exit his hoof and travel along the ground to a spot in front of him. The purple substance shimmered and shifted in place as it stretched out a short ways. After growing to a suitable size, the shadow-like film rose out of the ground and started taking shape in three dimensional space. The shape being formed seemed a little bit familiar to the human, and as it formed further he recognized the creature taking shape. The monster had a broad frame with four clawed legs sticking out of the large hump that served as its body, and a large mouth filled with sharp teeth dripped a disgusting form of saliva. The creature that stood in front of the slayer was a darkling. “Really…? That’s all you got, a darkling?” Tom asked while trying not to break out into laughter. “I can take care of darklings in my sleep.” He stated confidently while holding his hand out in front of him. He then fired off a blast of bright blue light, causing everyone in its path to shield their eyes from the intensity. After the light died out, Tom smirked in expectance as he saw a few faint puffs of black smoke rising into the air. The human’s smirk quickly faded as he noticed that the creature was still standing. The snarling beast only had a few trails of smoke leading off of it as it stood its ground. The beast stood in place while leering at the slayer with its glowing purple eyes. Tom just noticed that this darkling looked vastly different from the ones he fought earlier. The monster had bright purple stripes and accents all across its body that pulsed and shifted along with the creature’s normal shadowy skin. And the monster’s eyes, which were normally barely noticeable tiny dots above its mouth, were now glowing a sinister bright purple that gave them a chilling sort of emotion. An emotion that screamed of how much the monster wanted to rip any living creature to shreds. “Well that’s bothersome…” Tom muttered nervously under his breath while staring at the shadow creature that just weathered his blessed light like it was a flashlight in its eyes. Dust Kicker laughed as he observed the distraught expression on the human’s face, and the fearful expressions on the three ponies’ faces behind the boy. “I guess you should be more careful with who you act like a smart-ass to. It might be better for you and your friends in the long run.” The hooded pony smirked evilly while lighting up his hoof again with the flaming shadows from before. He raised his leg in the air and paused for a moment while concentrating. He then slammed it down with great force while grunting from exertion. The glowing shadows flowed out of the stallion’s hoof and into the ground. The black substance split off into three streams and traveled forward as the pegasus strained to project it. The streams rushed along the ground past Tom and zipped to Fluttershy and her two friends. The nervous mares moved out of the way of the moving shadows and watched them with a growing sense of alarm. The streams united under the three ponies before splitting off again and traveling to the sides and back of the nervous group. The streams of the substance focused into three spots around the ponies, creating a circle to trap them inside. The spots slowly rose up and formed into three more darklings that stared at the ponies eagerly. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie backed into each other as they tried to get away from the beasts that were waiting eagerly for their master to give them free license over their prey. “Let’s see how Equestria’s hero fares under pressure… Kill them!” Dust Kicker shouted to his minions with a devious smirk on his face. Tom turned around to watch the beasts snarl and growl as they reared up to jump the three ponies. “AHHH!!” Pinkie Pie shrieked in terror as one of the darklings lunged for her. Rainbow Dash grabbed the pink mare and moved her to the side as the monster jumped past them. Fluttershy ran backwards in an attempt at getting away, when another one of the darklings cut her off. “Girls!” Tom exclaimed in a panic as he rushed forward to assist his friends. The boy yelped in pain as the first darkling jumped forward and bit into his leg. The monster shook its head as it wrestled the human to the ground with his leg firmly placed in its mouth. “Agh! I don’t have time for this!” Tom exclaimed through clenched teeth as he coped with the pain of the monster digging into his leg. The slayer grabbed his sword off of the ground and plunged it into the darkling’s head. The blade impaled the creature, causing it to let go of Tom’s leg. The wound poured black smoke as the darkling slowly dissolved around the blade. “I guess you aren’t indestructible.” The human stated with a smirk before returning his attention to the ponies fighting for their lives. Fluttershy backed away nervously while staring at the monster in front of her with wide eyes. The beast was growling and bearing its teeth as it stared down the shy mare with its burning eyes. The yellow mare wasn’t sure what to do. On top of trying to keep herself alive, she had to worry about the entranced bunny that she was carrying with her. As the creature jumped forward in an attempt at catching the pony off guard, Fluttershy yelped in fright and jumped to the side defensively. After barely clearing the darkling’s sharp claws, the yellow mare ran in a desperate attempt at getting away. While running by her two other friends as they stared down their predators, Fluttershy caught the unwanted attention of the other two darklings, which bolted after their friend in order to chase the fleeing pegasus. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash cried after her frightened friend. Fluttershy looked behind her only to see three vicious creatures giving chase to her. While she was slightly glad to have lured the monsters away from her friends, the timid pony was also terrified that she was now being hunted by a pack of horrific beasts. The yellow pegasus could feel her heart pounding out of her chest as she ignored her aching muscles and hyperventilating to continue running. She held on to Angel tightly while trying to motivate herself to run faster. “Ooof!” Fluttershy grunted in surprise as her foot caught a tree root on the edge of the clearing. She tumbled on the ground in a painful roll before slamming into a tree with her back. The force of the impact made the frail pony’s head slam into the side of the tree as her body bent back from the momentum. “Ugh…” The yellow mare lifted her head and tried to make sense of the blurry mess that was now her vision. As she came to her senses, Fluttershy noticed the three darklings slowly approaching their vulnerable prey. “Eeek!” Fluttershy squeaked in fear and grabbed Angel while trying to slink backwards, only to be met by the solid tree blocking her path. The failure of her escape attempt crushed the shy pony’s very being. She knew that she was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Fluttershy tearfully placed Angel behind the tree and hid him amid the brush in an attempt at sparing him from her gruesome fate. She then turned her attention forward and started shaking with fear as the creatures approached. Suddenly, one of the monsters tilted sideways as something impacted it from the side. Fluttershy noticed Tom’s katana was now sticking out of the darkling’s neck, causing a fountain of black smoke to pour from the wound. The creature thrashed its head around and yelled in pain as it tried to remove the sword. The other two darklings watched the loud commotion as their friend screeched and roared in pain. They almost seemed to be expressing confusion through their large mouths as they stared at the spectacle with blank expressions. Just before the other two creatures could return their attention to Fluttershy, Tom leapt over the three monsters while grabbing his sword’s hilt. The human twisted the embedded blade as he flew over the beasts, causing the injured darkling to be decapitated from the blade slicing through its neck. As Fluttershy and the two darklings shifted their glance from the dissolving creature to the slayer, he whipped his sword around and lowered it to a battle stance. The human then charged forward and kicked the two creatures to the side so he could stand between them and the helpless pegasus. Meanwhile on the other side of the camp, Dust Kicker was watching the distant battle unfold with growing frustration. He growled under his breath before looking over to his two awestruck assistants that were glued to the action with unyielding resolve. “Stop standing around and go get the book! We need a diversion so we can pack up and leave.” The pegasus’s sudden outburst made the two hooded ponies jump slightly in fright. They looked over to their angry leader before taking a quick glance around the camp to find where they left the book. “Right away, Dust Kicker!” Both ponies said in unison while scrambling away to get the book. They practically tripped over each other as they tried their hardest to complete their mission quickly. Dust Kicker watched the pair fumble around with an expression of disappointment. As the pair of hooded ponies was racing towards the front of the camp where the book was located, Rainbow Dash turned her attention from Tom’s battle with the darklings to watch the two. She furrowed her eyebrows as she thought about what the ponies’ sudden motivation could be about. “What are those two doing?” The cyan mare thought out loud while glancing over to make sure that the human didn’t require her assistance. She then returned to observing the two ponies frantically run around the camp with an idea forming in her head. “Raaagh!” Tom yelled as he swung his sword downwards towards one of the creatures. The beast barely managed to jump out of the way, catching the blade across its side as it traveled downward. The darkling looked at its smoking wound and growled deeply at the human. Suddenly, the other darkling leapt at Tom in an attempt at knocking him down. Being wise to the monster’s tactic, the boy ducked down to avoid the leaping beast before reaching up and grabbing it by the leg. Tom swung the struggling monster sideways toward its friend. The makeshift club collided with the surprised creature, causing both darklings to tumble sideways from the impact. Seeing a perfect opportunity, Tom quickly plunged his sword through the back of one of the monster’s head. Fluttershy watched the battle with mixed feelings. She was excited, terrified, concerned, and anxious all at the same time as she observed the slayer at work. As the boy finished off the last darkling, the yellow pegasus smiled and trotted up to him to give him a cheer and to thank him for saving her life again. “You did it Tom!” Fluttershy said while brimming with joy and excitement. Tom was happy to see the fruits of his labors as he was pulled in for a joyful hug by the elated mare. It gave him a sense of accomplishment to save the innocent ponies from certain doom. “Thank you so much… Angel and I would be mincemeat without you.” The shy mare stated with a grateful smile as she released the human from her grip. “Aw shucks… I’m just doing my job, no need to thank me every time.” Tom said with a bashful smile while rubbing the back of his head. Fluttershy giggled at the display of humility before giving the slayer a friendly smile. “Well I feel the need to, so thanks again.” The yellow pony said while walking over to the tree to pick up Angel again. “My pleasure… now let’s go have a nice friendly chat with those hooded hooligans. I wonder what they must be thinking now that I beat all of their-” Tom was interrupted by the sound of loud chanting in some strange language. He looked over to see Dust Kicker reciting from the book used to revive the deer. Suddenly, the human and the yellow mare could hear loud moaning and growling. They looked behind them to see numerous dark figures with green eyes emerging from the deep recesses of the forest. The two backed up from the trees before giving each other a nervous expression of agreement and running away from the tree line. “What’s going on?” Pinkie asked in a nervous tone as she watched her friends running up to her. After catching his breath for a moment, Tom started to speak up when he was interrupted by the sound of Dust Kicker laughing sinisterly. “You guys might want to start running. I just gave every undead animal in this forest a command to hunt you down and kill you.” The hooded pegasus said with a joyful snicker while handing the book off to his two underlings. Sure enough, as the group looked around them, they could see several zombified animals stalking out of the woods. They appeared to be much more focused and vicious than before as they snarled and leered at the ponies with their lifeless green eyes. “Uh… girls, I think it’s time for us to go.” Tom stated nervously while watching the animals slowly advance on them. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shared the human’s desire to run, but there was something missing that prevented them from bolting. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked with a sense of dread as she looked around for her cyan friend only to be greeted with more zombies in the distance around her. Before the group could think of where the cyan pegasus would be, they noticed her quickly running towards them. “Come on guys what are you waiting for?!” Rainbow Dash said urgently while rushing past the group and into the woods. The three looked at each other with confused expressions for a second before noticing the disturbing moaning around them and running into the forest after their friend. Dust Kicker watched the animals run after the group and disappear into the woods. He chuckled warmly to himself before sighing happily and catching his breath. He then looked over to his two colleagues with a pleased smirk. “Alright you two, let’s pack up and take our findings back h-” The pegasus paused mid-sentence as he noticed something, or rather the lack of something, amid the two ponies. “Where’s the book?” Dust Kicker asked in an annoyed tone. The two ponies looked beside them to the table where they had placed the book. There was no sign of the tome amid the odds and ends placed on the small table. “What the…? Where’d it go?” The unicorn asked in confusion. The surprise in his voice made Dust Kicker clench his teeth angrily. “I gave it to you, what the hell did you do with it?!” The blue pony asked angrily to his earth pony friend. The teal pony looked shocked from the accusation against him. “I put it on the table like you asked! What did you do with it?!” The other stallion asked defensively while shoving the unicorn. The two ponies started yelling at each other while pushing and shoving violently. Dust Kicker watched the pair argue with progressively increasing annoyance. The pegasus growled under his breath at the display of stupidity. He could almost feel the veins popping out of his neck as he strained his muscles in anger. The brown pony finally sighed while slapping his hoof to his face in defeat. “I’m surrounded by idiots…” Dust Kicker stated while shaking his head slowly. He then turned around and walked away to leave the camp. He could send someone else to deal with the frustration of corralling those two simpletons into being productive and packing up the camp once he got back to the mansion. “Hehe… suckers.” Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself as she clutched the book to her chest while running. She almost couldn’t believe that they just left it out in the open for her to take. It was like taking candy from a bunch of babies. “What do you got there?” Tom asked in between pants as he ran a little faster to catch up with the pegasus. Rainbow Dash shifted her head to look at the boy briefly before returning her attention to the many trees the group was zipping by. “I managed to get this bad boy away from them. I thought it might come in handy.” The pegasus said while waving the book to show it off to her friends. Tom was impressed by the cyan pony’s quick wit. “Good thinking, we might be able to use that to stop these things once and for all.” The human said while ducking around a tree. “You really think so?” Fluttershy asked while trying her hardest to keep up with the others. The last thing she wanted was to be left behind. “Well they used the book to make these things, and they used it to give them commands, so I’m hoping that there is a way to kill them in there too.” The boy replied back to the concerned pegasus. The howling and groaning coming from the woods around them was terrifying to the ponies. Just knowing that there was an army of walking corpses coming after them from all around the forest made them dart their heads around fearfully. Suddenly, the sight of a pair of zombified wolves in front of them made the group slide to a halt. As the two animals rushed forward to attack the group, they instinctively ran to the side. Unfortunately for them, they each chose different paths. Fluttershy looked behind her to check to see if she was still being chased. The yellow mare was shocked to see one of the wolves chasing her, but she was even more shocked to see only Rainbow Dash following her. “Where are the others?” The nervous mare asked her cyan friend with a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash looked around before cursing under her breath at the realization that they were alone. “I don’t know, just keep running!” The cyan pony instructed in a panicked tone while looking at the zombie wolf chasing them. Fluttershy didn’t exactly need any confirmation in order to keep running for her life. The sound of the undead creature howling and growling behind her was enough to keep the yellow pegasus motivated. After making a few twists and turns to try and lose the beast chasing them, the two ponies quickly realized that their pursuer was too persistent to stop his pursuit. Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash fearfully to see if she had any ideas. The worried expression on the cyan mare’s face was very troubling to the timid pony. “What do we do? I can’t keep running for much longer.” Fluttershy said while struggling to catch her breath. It was hard to hear amid the yellow mare’s pants and strained voice, but Rainbow Dash could tell that her voice was trembling in fear. “I don’t know…” Rainbow stated while taking note of her own exhaustion. Suddenly, something ahead caught the cyan pony’s attention. There was a wide gap in the ground, as if a fissure had opened a pit in the earth. Looking at the size of the hole gave the pegasus an idea. “Fluttershy, jump!” Rainbow Dash instructed to her friend as they were coming up to the hole. The yellow mare looked ahead just in time to process the situation and take action. Both ponies leapt into the air and spread their wings. They each gave a single flap to get enough air to clear the hole. Fluttershy held onto Angel tightly to prevent him from sliding out of her grasp as she shifted her weight upwards. After landing on the other side, the two looked behind them just in time to see the undead animal plummeting into the hole after a failed attempt at jumping the gap. It hit the bottom with a sickening thud, eliciting the ponies to peer over the edge to inspect the animal. The wolf was lying at the bottom of the hole with its legs bent at odd angles. The ponies would have thought it was dead had it not been for the gradual movement of its body as it tried to get up. “Come on, we don’t want to be here when that thing climbs out.” Rainbow Dash spoke up to get her friend’s attention while walking away from the pit. Fluttershy gave a cursory glance to the fallen creature before following the cyan pony. Although they weren’t out of the woods in any sense, metaphorically or literally, the ponies felt a sense of relief from their close escape from the undead wolf. They chuckled to themselves as they came down from their adrenaline high. “That was pretty cool don’t you think? We almost did that perfectly in sync.” Rainbow Dash smirked happily at their escape from the creature. Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel joyful as well considering how satisfying it was to evade the zombie. “Yeah, I’m glad you thought of that before we hit that hole. I don’t think I would’ve been able to think of flying over it in the heat of the moment.” The yellow mare chuckled nervously as she thought of what might have happened. “Don’t be so hard on yourself Fluttershy. You did an amazing job back there.” The cyan pegasus praised her friend. Fluttershy looked down and blushed bashfully. She didn’t expect to be given such praise from doing something like that. “Now we just need to find the others so Tom can read this book and stop these things.” Rainbow Dash said while looking at the book she tightly held. “I hope they’re alright…” Fluttershy spoke in a worried tone while thinking about her friends in danger. Rainbow Dash frowned as she thought about what could have happened to the two after they were separated. “I’m sure they will be fine. Tom wouldn’t let anything happen to Pinkie after all.” The cyan pegasus said in an attempt at cheering the timid pony up. Fluttershy felt a little bit better knowing that the pink mare was with the human. Suddenly, a blood curdling scream pierced through the forest. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy paled when they recognized the owner of the high pitched scream. “Pinkie!” They announced in unison with their eyes wide with fear. Chapter 39: Mind the GapFluttershy and Rainbow Dash ran in the direction of their friend’s scream, or at least they hoped that it was the right direction. It was hard to pinpoint the noise considering that the trees of the forest seemed to meld together into a never ending maze. Despite the danger of getting further lost in the forest, the two ponies had to come to the aid of their pink friend. After all, they had no idea what could have happened to her. Pinkie could have been separated from Tom, or she could have found more of those creatures. The horrific thoughts of what could be happening to their friend sent a rush of urgency and alarm through the pair. “I think it came from over here.” Rainbow Dash announced behind her to give the yellow mare an update. Fluttershy was unsure of where the noise came from, but she hoped that between her and the cyan pony, they could find their pink friend. “What do you think happened?” Fluttershy asked with a growing sense of unease. She hoped that Rainbow Dash’s opinion would somehow calm her down and reassure her. The cyan pony turned her head around and frowned with concern. “I don’t know… but I hope they’re alright.” Rainbow said with a grim tone. Fluttershy hadn’t thought about it much, but if Pinkie was with Tom, then there must have been something bad that happened to elicit such an outburst. Before the pair could dwell on their thoughts any further, they burst out of the trees and into another clearing. On the far side of the clearing, a large pit similar to the one they had used to escape the wolf moments before was opened up into the ground. The pit seemed to be more like a trench however, as it stretched out for the length of the clearing. Hearing muffled noises from the chasm, the two mares rushed forward to the edge of the pit and looked down. Much to their surprise and shock, they could see their two friends hanging off of a root sticking out of the earthen wall of the trench. Tom was clinging to the root with one hand, while he used the other to hold on to a very frightened Pinkie Pie. “Guys, what happened?!” Rainbow Dash yelled down frantically to the pair dangling from the root. Tom looked up to see the two ponies looking down at him fearfully. “We were running from that wolf, when we suddenly came out into this clearing. We didn’t see this hole and fell in.” The human explained in a semi calm tone while struggling to keep a hold of the pink pony. “Don’t worry! We’ll get you out of there in no time.” The cyan pegasus said with a shaky voice. She tried to sound confident for her friends, but the sight of Pinkie Pie and Tom hanging precariously on the precipice of such a large pit made her blood run cold. The pit had no visible bottom, instead having a shroud of pitch blackness that descended down as far as the eye could see. Everyone swiftly realized that a fall from such a height would be fatal to a normal living creature. While Tom would certainly survive the plummet, Pinkie certainly wouldn’t. “We need to get them out somehow.” Fluttershy stated urgently while nervously watching the root bend and strain under the weight of the pair. Rainbow Dash looked around for a moment to survey the situation before coming up with a plan. “I know… back up, I’m going in.” The cyan mare said while rearing up to fly down after the two. Fluttershy was nervous about her friend going down into the pit. It looked like there was barely enough room for a pegasus to fly in the chasm, but she also knew that Rainbow Dash was the best flyer she had ever met. Just before the cyan pony jumped into the pit, a loud snarling sound came from behind the group. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned around only to be greeted with the sight of a vicious looking undead pack of animals staring them down. There were three zombified wolves growling and snarling at the two ponies as they walked forward slowly. The vicious instinct to kill was clearly evident, even in their emotionless glowing green eyes that concealed their pupils. “What’s going on up there?” Tom yelled from down in the pit. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t want to break eye contact with the undead animals leering at them. “That wolf you were running from is back… and he has friends.” Rainbow Dash yelled nervously while facing forward. Tom suddenly felt very uneasy knowing that his friends were in danger with him in such a precarious position. “You two run, I can get us out of here myself.” The human instructed in a serious tone of voice while sizing up the climb he would have to make in order to escape the pit. “We’re not leaving you here with these things. They’ll attack you once you get out!” The cyan pegasus reasoned anxiously. Even if they did run, one or more of the wolves or another zombie animal might attack them before they had a chance to react and send them hurdling backwards into the trench. “Fluttershy, stay here and watch them.” Rainbow Dash said while setting the book she was carrying down and stepping forward anxiously. Fluttershy was confused by her friend’s words. She couldn’t imagine why she would want to get closer to the vicious beasts. “What are you doing?” The yellow mare asked nervously as the cyan pony gulped nervously. Rainbow Dash turned around to give her timid friend one last look of confidence. “I’m buying them some time.” The cyan mare said before turning around and rushing forward. Fluttershy reached out to stop the pegasus, but she was already making a beeline for the undead pack of animals. “Ugh… just try not to die alright!” Tom yelled back nervously before returning his attention to the frightened pony dangling from his grip. Pinkie Pie was understandably panicked considering her current situation. “Pinkie… listen up.” The boy spoke down to the pony to get her attention. Pinkie looked up nervously and tried her best to focus on the human rather than the perilous drop beneath her. “Everything is going to be okay. I’m going to toss you up here so you can grab onto me, then I’m going to climb out of here… but I need you to stay calm for me alright?” Tom spoke softly to the fearful mare. Pinkie nodded slowly while gulping nervously at the mention of being tossed out of the boy’s grip. “On three I’m going to throw you up, and you’re going to wrap your arms around my neck. I don’t want you to worry about hurting me. You just wrap your arms around me and hold on as tight as you can alright?” Tom instructed carefully and waited for Pinkie to nod in return. The nervous pony thought about the action for a moment before nodding apprehensively and preparing herself. “One…” The boy counted up while swinging Pinkie to gain momentum. “Two…” Pinkie cringed nervously as she anticipated the sensation of being thrown upwards. Her mind was filled with images of herself falling into the dark abyss below. “Three!” Tom yelled while pulling his arm upwards as hard as he could. He released the pink pony and flung her slightly above him. Pinkie yelped in surprise before quickly wrapping her arms around the human’s shoulders and interlocking them to hold on tightly. The nervous mare closed her eyes and yelped in fright as she felt herself fall down only to be caught by Tom holding onto the root. The flimsy appendage bent from the sudden jolt to its structure. Pinkie screamed as she heard a loud snap that signified the branch breaking. Just before the pair fell, Tom summoned his claws and pressed the metal blades into the earthen wall as hard as he could. The dirt offered just enough give to allow the claws to anchor into the wall like a makeshift climbing axe. Pinkie noticed that the she was stationary instead of falling. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around nervously, only to find Tom smirking at her with a relieved expression. The boy chuckled nervously, coaxing the pink mare to laugh softly alongside him. The laughing slowly escalated and grew in strength. Soon enough the pair were sharing a hearty and slightly hysterical laugh at their death defying act. “See? I said everything would be ok didn’t I?” Tom said happily while removing one of his claws and raising his arm up to climb. Pinkie was impressed by the slayer’s strength as he used his upper body to pull himself up the cliff with her in tow. Meanwhile, as the human and the pink pony were fighting to climb out of the trench, Rainbow Dash was fighting to stay ahead of the three animals trying to maul her to death. Fluttershy watched anxiously as the cyan mare swiftly dodged the incoming attacks of the undead pack. Even though she was able to fly due to the lack of trees, the bold pegasus still had to stay close to the ground to grab the monsters’ attention away from her friends. “Come on slowpokes, I’m right here!” Rainbow Dash yelled while pulling her legs in to avoid one of the leaping wolves latching onto her. The pegasus was surprised that she felt so confident in facing the hideous animals. Unbeknownst to the cyan mare whipping around back and forth to dodge two of the zombified wolves, the third wolf had decided to locate another means of getting at the annoying pegasus. The animal walked over to a raised hill and backed up. It waited while watching the flying pony for a chance at bringing her down. As Rainbow Dash was looping around to avoid running into the trees, she noticed that only two of the animals were chasing after her. She whipped her head over in a slight panic to see if the third beast was after her friend watching from the side. Failing to see the wolf heading after Fluttershy, the cyan mare was very confused. “Where the hay did that third one go?” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself while looking around. As if on cue to answer her question, she heard a distinct third snarl that was in front of her rather than behind her. The cyan pony looked ahead of her just in time to see the third wolf jumping for her with its jaw wide open. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash yelped in pain as the wolf clamped down on her leg while she tried to pull up. The sudden weight of the animal jerked her frame downwards just enough to send her crashing down to the floor. The cyan pony bounced from the impact, sending the wolf’s teeth even further into her already bleeding leg. Fluttershy gasped in shock as she watched her friend getting pulled out of the sky. The two rolled on the ground until the wolf was on top of the injured mare. The feral creature let go of Rainbow Dash’s leg, only to go straight for her neck. The cyan pegasus quickly shoved her hooves at the beast, catching it on the shoulders and pushing it as hard as she could in a desperate attempt at keeping it from getting close enough to bite. The two other wolves stalked towards the struggling pair slowly with their green eyes focused on their prey. Fluttershy watched the two animals approach her friend with a growing sense of fear and terror. She knew that the cyan pony would be ripped to shreds if she was attacked by all three wolves. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy cried out in a panic as she expected to see the two wolves pounce on her friend. Much to her surprise, the two wolves turned their heads to face her direction. The yellow mare’s pupils shrank to pin points as the monsters started walking towards her. Rainbow Dash grunted from the stress on her muscles as she pushed with all of her might to keep the wolf off of her. She slowly turned her head to peer off to the side to look at her frightened friend. Noticing the two wolves walking in her direction, the cyan mare gasped in shock. “Fluttershy! Ack… Run!” Rainbow Dash yelled out as loudly as she could with the weight of the wolf crushing her chest. Fluttershy looked past the two animals approaching her to see her friend giving her an expression that told her to save herself. “I can’t just leave you here, you’ll die!” The yellow pony yelled back while taking a cursory glance to the woods and the air above the clearing. It would be easy enough to either run or fly away to safety without getting caught by the two wolves, but she couldn’t just leave her friend to die. Rainbow Dash could feel the icy cold and foul breath of the undead creature as it inched closer to her throat with its snapping jaw. She knew that her arms couldn’t hold out for much longer, and that she would most likely die, but she didn’t want the timid pegasus to risk her life to save her. “Just go! I’ll be fine!” The cyan mare screamed to her friend while staring at her pleadingly. She could tell that Fluttershy knew that she was lying through her teeth. Fluttershy looked back to the cliff behind her anxiously. She knew that Tom wouldn’t be able to climb up in time to save Rainbow Dash. She then looked to the two vicious animals growling at her while standing in her way. She also knew that the two monsters would doubtlessly attack her if she made any attempt at rescuing her friend. The thought of being mauled by the beasts terrified her so much that she was shaking uncontrollably. When she saved Twilight from that monster in the school, Fluttershy acted on instinct alone. Her friend was in danger, and she just had to move her to rescue her. But here, she had to deal with getting past two horrible looking zombie wolves that could rip her apart in an instant. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelled defiantly as she watched the yellow mare gathering the courage to charge forward. Fluttershy could tell that her friend didn’t want her to endanger herself for her sake, but the yellow pegasus didn’t care. Fluttershy looked down to the ground for a moment and gulped nervously. She did her best to block out the vicious growling and snarling of the monsters in front of her, and focused instead on the thought of every moment she had shared with the cyan mare, and saving her life. Setting Angel down on the ground gently, she turned her attention in front of her. The shy pony spread her wings nervously. Her entire frame was still shaking in defiance of her actions, but she had to act now or regret her failures for the rest of her life. Fluttershy jumped forward and flapped her wings hard to gain as much lift as possible. She picked up speed as she sailed past the two wolves snapping at her dangling legs. As she approached her struggling friend, she swiftly flew to the side and started diving towards the pair with fearful determination. Fluttershy closed her eyes nervously as she spun around and kicked her back legs as hard as she could. She felt the bottom of her hooves collide with the mangy and decayed fur of the wolf and heard the sickening crunch of ribs cracking as the force of the impact took effect. The wolf flew off of the injured pegasus and sailed through the air until it hit the ground and bounced a few times while rolling. The animal came to rest several feet away and lay motionless on the ground as its undead body reacted to being jolted so much. Fluttershy opened her eyes as she felt herself touching the ground. She looked around to see Rainbow Dash staring in awe at the wolf as it lay on the floor. The cyan mare then turned her head to look at her yellow friend with her jaw agape in amazement. “You… you actually did it!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed joyfully while lifting herself up a little bit to give the pegasus a cheer of congratulations. Fluttershy accepted the brief gesture before noticing the growling sound in front of them. The pair lifted their heads to see the other two wolves snarling at them a short distance away. “Well… I got one of them at least.” Fluttershy stated nervously before looking over to the unconscious wolf. Much to the yellow mare’s dismay, the animal was already getting up and leering at the two with its lifeless eyes. Rainbow Dash rolled her body to get up from the floor. She cried out in pain and staggered to the ground as she put weight on her front leg. Fluttershy gasped as she saw the extent of the injury. A well-defined row of bite marks was on both sides of the limb. The deep gashes appeared to have been ripped downward as the flesh and muscle was practically shredded from the dead weight of the wolf hanging off of the leg while in the air. “I can’t walk on this, and I think I sprained my wing.” The cyan pegasus said grimly while noting the pain in her left wing as she tried to move it. She then looked to her friend sadly as the three animals circled around them. “Fluttershy… you need to run.” Rainbow Dash instructed pleadingly to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy shook her head defiantly before looking at the surrounding wolves. “I’m not leaving you for anything… even if I have to die with you.” The yellow mare spoke sincerely with tears rolling down her face. Rainbow Dash sniffled slightly as she felt a wave of sadness wash over her. The grim finality of the situation was finally getting to the two. “I thought I was supposed to represent loyalty…” Rainbow Dash said jokingly with a bittersweet smile on her face. The cyan mare reached forward and wrapped her arms around her lifelong friend for one last loving hug. Fluttershy gladly accepted the gesture and held her friend closely. The pair closed their eyes and waited for the end. The two listened as the snarling and growling got louder as the wolves approached them. They squeezed each other tighter as they prepared for the pain that would result from being mauled to death by a pack of wolves. The pair had tears of sadness flowing freely down their face as they resolved to face their demise together. Suddenly, the unnerving sound of the three beasts growling stopped. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy opened their eyes and looked around curiously to see why the wolves had grown silent. They noticed the three zombies were frozen in place as their gaze was blank and unfocused. Their bodies started shaking and convulsing randomly as they stood in silence. Much to the surprise of the confused ponies, the animals’ eyes blinked out as the green glow vanished from view. The three wolves dropped to the ground in unison as their bodies became limp and motionless. The two ponies looked at the three animals around them with shocked expressions, half expecting them to get back up again. “Wh…what?” Fluttershy squeaked out in a mixture of confusion and slight relief. She could still feel the utter sense of terror that was enveloping her and her friend, but she was starting to feel a sense of joy welling up inside her. The two ponies looked at each other in disbelief for a moment before looking forward to see the cause of their salvation. They noticed the faint shapes of Tom and Pinkie Pie standing at the edge of the cliff. The human appeared to be holding something in his hands. Rainbow Dash suddenly realized that she left the book on the ground near the cliff when she ran forward to distract the wolves. “We’re alive!” The cyan mare cheered in elation as she shook the shocked pegasus beside her happily. The two shared a celebratory series of hugs and cheers as they each dealt with the mixture of emotions flowing through them. Pinkie Pie and Tom watched the two celebrating happily. They couldn’t show it due to their shocked nerves and exhaustion respectively, but they felt just as happy as the two ponies that they stopped the zombie animals. Tom closed the book of spells and placed it at his side while trying to catch his breath from the climb. He was thankful to have found the incantation to reverse the revival spell, and he was thankful to have had the lung power to recite the spell. “Wow… they look excited.” The boy stated while observing the two joyful ponies on the other side of the clearing. “I would be too if I thought I was going to die for sure and then someone saved me... kind of like what just happened.” Pinkie giggled happily as she watched her two friends celebrate. Tom took in a big breath before turning to the pink mare and smiling. “You know… you’re a lot heavier than you look.” The human said jokingly while still catching his breath from the climb. Pinkie Pie chuckled before smiling at the boy next to her. “And you’re a lot stronger than you look.” The pink pony replied before getting up to walk over to the others. Tom smiled at the response while gathering the strength to walk forward. “Heh, thanks I… wait a minute, what’s that supposed to mean?” The human said with a suspicious leer to the pink pony. Pinkie chuckled while ignoring the question and walking forward. As the two approached them, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash smiled eagerly at their friends. Fluttershy helped the injured pegasus to her feet and shouldered her weight to help her walk forward to meet the two. Tom and Pinkie Pie were shocked to see that the cyan mare was wounded so severely. “Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash… your leg.” Pinkie gasped while looking at the gruesome injury. Rainbow Dash winced in pain as she felt the sting of the cool night air hitting her exposed flesh and muscles. She frowned as she watched blood trickle out of the gashes on her leg. “Oww… this hurts so much.” Rainbow Dash whined while cradling her leg close to her chest. She tried to move her injured wing before feeling a wave of shooting pain course through the appendage and the entire side it was attached to. Seeing their friend in pain made Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie feel awful. They felt a deep sense of empathy as they watched the cyan pony clench her teeth to cope with the mind numbing suffering she must have been going through. “Ugh… I’m not going to turn into one of them am I?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while glancing over to the three dead animals. “Don’t worry. I don’t think these are that kind of zombie.” Tom stated with a confident tone. “It still looks like it might get infected… just not in the sense you’re thinking of.” Pinkie Pie said in a concerned tone while looking at the gruesome wound with a frown. “Here, let me fix you up.” The human suggested while kneeling down to get a better look at the injury. Rainbow Dash watched the human with an unimposing frown. She could clearly see that he was exhausted from the climb out of the hole and all the fighting he had done. “Are you sure Tom? You look awfully tired…” Rainbow said while pointing out the boy’s pale appearance. Tom felt good knowing that the cyan mare cared for his health, but he wasn’t about to let her suffer like this when he could help her. “I don’t think my exhaustion is more important than a torn up leg. Just hold still and let me do my job.” Tom instructed while holding his hands out and concentrating. The familiar blue light emanated from the human’s hands and enveloped the injured pony in its warm glow. Rainbow Dash felt a large tingling sensation as her wound started closing up. She even felt her wing tingling slightly as the healing effects traveled through her body into the other injuries she had. The violent tingling sensation on her leg was almost unbearable due to the size of the wound. The pegasus giggled as she struggled to keep her leg still with the pins and needles sensation flowing through it. After the light died down, the ponies marveled at the freshly healed limb. Rainbow Dash moved the leg around and put weight on it to test it out. The cyan mare unfolded her wing and flapped it a few times as she tested it for any pain. “Wow, thanks Tom. I feel good as new… Tom?” Rainbow Dash’s smile faded as she noticed the human staring forward blankly. The boy’s face appeared pale and clammy, and his legs were trembling slightly. Just before the ponies could ask him if he was alright, the human fell forward and caught himself with his hands just before he hit the ground. “Tom! Are you ok?!” Fluttershy asked frantically while hovering near the boy to offer him some sort of assistance. Tom breathed heavily while keeping his eyes closed and remaining as still as possible. His entire body was shaking as he struggled to hold himself upright. “What’s wrong with him?!” Rainbow Dash asked fearfully as she watched the ill human. She was worried that he became like this due to him over exerting himself by healing her injuries. Before the ponies could think of something to do, the slayer slowly lifted himself up and staggered slightly as he tried to stay balanced. “I… I’m fine…” Tom muttered with unfocused eyes as he hunched over and stared at the ground. Rainbow Dash helped to steady the human as he weakly wobbled around. “You don’t look fine.” The cyan pegasus observed sadly while watching the pale human. Although he looked slightly better, the ponies were still concerned for his wellbeing. “No… really, I’m fine. I just felt a little dizzy for a second there… sorry to worry you like that.” Tom said in an attempt at easing his friends’ fears. He stepped away from the cyan pony helping him to show that he could stand on his own. The slight wobble in the boy’s legs made the group frown in concern. “Sorry to worry us? You shouldn’t be apologizing for nearly passing out.” Rainbow Dash said sadly while offering an empathetic expression. “Let’s get you home so you can get some rest.” The cyan pegasus added. Everyone shared in her desire to leave the forest. “How are we going to get back home? We have been running for so long, I’m not even sure what direction we’re facing.” Fluttershy said with a worried expression as she looked at the woods around her nervously. Even though all the zombies were gone, the prospect of being lost in the dark forest made the ponies very concerned. Rainbow Dash looked up at the moon above them. The clearing in the trees gave her an idea on how to find their way back home. “Hold on… you guys stay here, I’m going to fly up and take a look around.” Rainbow said while backing up to get some room. The group watched as the cyan pony spread her wings and leapt into the air above them. She flew straight up before disappearing from sight shortly after. The feeling of rising up and out of the cramped and eerie forest felt refreshing to Rainbow Dash. She took a moment to enjoy the cool sensation of wind hitting her face as she flew up to gain a bird’s eye view of the surrounding area. Spinning around in midair to quickly scan the area yielded nothing more than an eyeful of nothing but trees. The cyan pegasus huffed in frustration at the apparent lack of progress in her search. Just before she gave up hope, something caught her eye. “Hmm…” Rainbow hummed with intrigue while floating forward slightly. A blurry thinning of trees was in the distance. The sight of the clearing filled the cyan mare’s heart with joy. That had to be the edge of the forest. “Yes!” Rainbow Dash pumped her arm in the air in excitement while grinning at her discovery. She looked down to the forest below and flapped her wings to start her descent. In a brief moment, the cyan pony landed next to her eagerly waiting friends. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy stood near Tom as they watched the pegasus land. Rainbow Dash was happy to see that the human appeared to be healthier than before. Only a slight paleness was left on his face as an indicator of his brief ailment. “See anything up there?” Tom asked curiously with a slightly uncomfortable tone of voice. Everyone could tell that he was eager to get back home, and they all shared his opinion. “Yeah, I think I saw the edge of the forest.” Rainbow Dash relayed her information with a satisfied smile while stepping towards the woods and pointing in the direction she had seen the clearing. “If we keep walking this way, we should be back in no time.” The cyan mare added happily while turning to her group of friends. Everyone smiled at the realization that they would soon be returning to the warmth and comfort of Fluttershy’s cottage. “Hear that Angel? We’re going home!” Fluttershy announced to the rabbit she held in her arms. She grew slightly concerned when she noticed that the rabbit was still acting strange from before. She found it odd that she had to go retrieve the animal from over by the cliff where she left him, but she figured that he would have snapped out of it by now. “Angel? Are you ok?” The yellow pony asked with a concerned frown as she observed the rabbit’s blank stare and lack of emotion. Before she could work herself into any more of a worry, Tom spoke up to ease her concerns. “He’ll be fine… those two ponies back at the camp said that the charm he’s under will wear off by morning. If it doesn’t, it should be easy enough to reverse.” Tom stated in a reassuring tone. The boy’s confidence in the matter eased Fluttershy’s concerns for her pet. “That reminds me… shouldn’t we head back there and do something about them?” Rainbow Dash suggested while fretting about the hooded ponies and their nefarious actions. Tom shook his head in a tired sort of way in response. “No… they are probably gone by now anyway. We have their book and we freed the animals, everything should be fine for now.” The human explained with a sense of relief at a job well done, however the ponies still felt a sense of uneasiness as they thought about the purpose of the horrible experiments that the ponies conducted on the animals. “Why do you think they did all of this anyway? I can’t think of any reason why hurting animals like this would be useful to anybody.” Fluttershy said while sadly glancing over to the three dead wolves. Although wolves were vicious animals when they weren’t zombified, the yellow mare still felt sorry for them and all the other innocent creatures that had died to become zombies. “I don’t know, but hopefully we can stop them before they finish whatever they’re doing.” Tom replied with a somber expression while putting a hand on the shy pony’s shoulder reassuringly. “For now, let’s just head home. Running for my life and fighting off zombie animals has definitely worn me out for the night.” Rainbow Dash stated while walking towards the woods. Everyone nodded in agreement before joining her as she made her way through the trees. The walk through the woods seemed far less ominous and creepy now that the group knew that there weren’t any undead creatures lurking behind every tree. The eerie darkness and ambiance of the forest still spooked the three ponies, but they could look past their bleak surroundings to enjoy the peaceful and serene silence of nature as they walked. The group let out a collective yawn as they tiredly shambled forward. The only thing keeping them going was the strong desire to not sleep in the forest, and to get back to a warm and safe home. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were practically leaning on each other while walking forward, acting as a pair to prevent themselves from falling. Much to the relief of the exhausted group, a break in the trees revealed a familiar looking landscape that nearly everyone recognized. They only had to walk a short ways up the road to get to Fluttershy’s cottage. The change in scenery and the mentality of leaving the forest gave the ponies the boost they needed to complete their journey home. After a few moments of walking through the outskirts of Ponyville, they finally reached the yellow mare’s home. “Well, we’re here…” Fluttershy said in a dull tone while looking at Tom apprehensively. She knew that it would be better for him if she led him back to the library. While he could probably find his way back alone, she would feel better if she were there to watch him in his weakened condition. “How about I walk you home Tom? I’m sure Pinkie and Rainbow Dash want to head home as well.” The yellow pony tried not to sound negative about taking the human home. As much as she wanted to collapse into a restful coma, she still wanted to appear happy. “You know what? I think I’ll stay the night, if it’s alright with you of course.” Tom said with a content smile on his sleepy face. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay for her, or if he didn’t want to walk across town as badly as she did. “Really?” Fluttershy asked curiously. As the yellow pony asked her question, her two friends stepped forward and smiled warmly alongside the human. “I think I’m gonna stay too.” Rainbow Dash chimed in while trying to emote through her tired exterior. “Me too!” Pinkie Pie started to sound enthusiastic as normal, but her exhaustion caught up with her and her voice tapered off into a dull drone. Despite her blank tone of voice, she flashed a quick smile to express her joy at sleeping over with her friends. Fluttershy was flattered that everyone wanted to stay over with her. Whether they wanted to make sure she felt comfortable while she slept, or they just wanted to have the pleasure of sleeping over with friends, the yellow mare was happy either way. “Of course you all can stay… let’s head inside and get settled in.” Fluttershy smiled gleefully and beckoned for the others to follow her as she opened the door and went inside. Once they were inside, everyone found the nearest place to drop off the items they were carrying; a book for Rainbow Dash, and an entranced rabbit for Fluttershy. They then instinctively wandered over and sat down on either the couch or the chairs. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash barely made time to say goodnight as they climbed under their still made sheets on the couch and practically passed out immediately. Fluttershy chuckled at the sight while taking note of her own sleepiness and sinking into the comfortable chair across from Tom. She intended on staying for a moment and saying goodnight to everyone before going back to her room, but the yellow pegasus found herself staring ahead blankly as her eyes unfocused and her body relaxed. Tom watched as the peaceful mare fought to stay awake for a brief moment before drifting off completely into a deep sleep. The boy looked at his own sheet and pillow thoughtfully as he watched the three ponies breathe slowly and silently. Everyone else had something comfortable to sleep on, but the yellow pony only had a chair. He nodded to himself before grabbing the two items in both hands and walking over to Fluttershy’s chair. He gently placed the pillow behind her head, being surprised that he could move the unconscious pony like a limp puppet freshly cut from its strings. He then spread the blanket over her and covered her up, being careful not to wake the sleeping pegasus. Tom smiled as he watched Fluttershy instinctively grasp the blanket and re-positioned herself to be more comfortable against the pillow in a sleepy daze. He figured that she would need the blanket and pillow more than he would, considering that he needed less sleep to function. The human walked back over and sat down in the chair. He fidgeted around while trying to get comfortable before settling on a position that didn’t make him feel quite so cramped in the small chair. He wasted no time in closing his eyes and resting peacefully while waiting to fall asleep along with the others. Chapter 40: The Investigative ApproachFluttershy slowly opened her eyes and let them adjust to the morning light streaming into the room. She laid still and observed her surroundings while she slowly woke up. Judging from the feeling of a chair beneath her, and the sight of her living room in front of her, the yellow pony deduced that she fell asleep and spent the whole night in her living room. Feeling something slide off her body as she sat up, Fluttershy looked down to see a warm blanket enveloping her. She also felt a soft pillow wedged between her head and the chair. Remembering that her two pony friends had fallen asleep on the couch before her, the yellow pegasus figured that Tom must have given her his blanket and pillow while she slept. Smiling at the kind act, Fluttershy removed the blanket from on top of her and got out of the chair to stretch and take in the day. She looked to her left to see that her two friends were still asleep on the couch, and she looked over to where she had placed Angel to see him curled up in a ball and sleeping peacefully. “Thank goodness you’re back to normal…” Fluttershy whispered to herself while thinking back to the rabbit’s dazed expression the night before. She was incredibly thankful that Tom had agreed to help her save him. “He fell asleep once morning rolled around.” Hearing the soft whisper of her human friend to the side made Fluttershy spin her head around to greet him. She smiled softly at the boy while he returned the gesture. “Morning…” The yellow mare greeted with serene cheerfulness. Tom nodded while getting up off of the floor where he had been sitting. “Morning… I see you slept well. No nightmares I take it?” The human asked with a playful smirk. Fluttershy thought back to the blurry dreams she had last night. A few feelings of happiness and perhaps a weird dream or two floated through her mind, but she couldn’t recall any nightmares to speak of. “Nope, slept like a rock.” Fluttershy replied happily. She was glad that her sleep wouldn’t be permanently plagued by horrible visions induced by the new terrors in her life. “Good to hear.” Tom added while taking a glance out of the window to observe the morning sun streaming down. “Thanks for giving me the blanket and pillow by the way.” Fluttershy said with a grateful and happy expression. Tom nodded as he remembered placing the blanket and pillow on the sleeping pony. “No problem… thought you might need it more than me.” The human said while returning the mare’s gesture and smiling cheerfully. Fluttershy was a little off put by the fact that she deprived the boy of his blanket, but he seemed unaffected by it, so she pushed the thoughts from her mind and turned her attention forward. “What time is it?” The yellow mare asked quizzically while glancing out of the window. The sun was already clearly visible in the sky, bathing the landscape in light. The human thought back to the last time he saw the sun’s position in the sky and shrugged. “Last time I looked it was almost ten… so I would wager it’s sometime around eleven now.” Tom said casually. Fluttershy was slightly shocked to hear that she slept in so much. She was normally up a long time before eleven. “Oh my gosh! We must have been more tired than I thought.” The yellow pony exclaimed in surprise while thinking about all of the things she had to do that day. She calmed down when she remembered that most of her weekly concerns had already been dealt with. A loud yawn made the two divert their attention to the side. They were greeted with the sight of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stretching as they woke up. Pinkie Pie got up from the couch immediately while Rainbow Dash opted to lay her head back down and rest for a moment longer. “Morning guys…” The cyan mare droned in a dull tone without lifting her head to look at the rest of the group. Pinkie giggled as she watched her sleepy friend closing her eyes and trying to drift back off to sleep. The pink mare walked back over to the couch, grabbed her own pillow, and gently but firmly slapped it onto the peaceful pegasus. Rainbow Dash jumped in surprise and looked around to find out what had hit her. She furrowed her eyebrows into a glare when she found the party pony smirking at her with pillow in hoof. “Come on Rainbow Dash… the early bird gets the worm.” Pinkie said with a cheerful giggle while grinning at her annoyed friend. “Yeah, but the well-rested bird gets the fish.” Rainbow Dash remarked sarcastically. She muttered to herself in an annoyed tone while getting off the couch and waking herself up further. Finally she returned her expression to a more content one while walking over to her other two friends. “So are you coming with us to the library Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked with a curious expression. The yellow mare nodded in response. She wanted to do anything she could to help her friends out. “Of course I’ll go. I want to help put a stop to all of this after all.” Fluttershy replied confidently. Rainbow Dash was pleased to hear that the yellow pegasus wanted to contribute. She smiled with the thought that nothing could keep them from their goal if they worked together. “I’ll come too, but first I need to head down to the corner to check on things. I’ll meet up with you guys later.” Pinkie said while walking to the door. The others waved to her as she walked out and started her way towards her home. “Alright then, let’s get going.” Rainbow Dash suggested while hovering near the door in anticipation. Fluttershy and Tom nodded before joining the cyan pegasus outside and walking off to the library. The journey through town didn’t take very long for the trio to make. The only thing that differentiated the trip for the ponies was the fact that they now had a human following them. As much as they had gotten to know Tom, seeing ponies stop to look at the human as they passed by reminded them of just how strange it was to be traveling with a member of an extinct race. “Don’t you feel weird with all of these people watching you Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked when she noticed the human ignoring the curious onlookers. The human casually looked behind him to face the concerned pegasus. “Eh… kind of I guess. I probably find looking at them to be just as strange as them looking at me. Still getting used to not being among my own people you know?” Tom replied with a slight sense of indifference. Rainbow Dash was glad to see that the boy was starting to feel comfortable around other ponies. “Well at least we seem to share a lot of human customs… that should make it easier for you to settle in.” The cyan pony pointed out with an optimistic smile. Tom raised his eyebrows as he realized just how similar the two societies were. “Yeah, it’s awfully convenient if you ask me. I mean we even speak the same language… could you imagine how things would go if we couldn’t understand each other?” The human asked with a slight chuckle. The two ponies laughed at the notion of such a thing happening. After a few more minutes of walking and general conversing, the three finally arrived at their destination. They looked inside the library to see that several lights were on. Apparently Twilight and Spike were already awake and active. “Looks like they’re already up, let’s head inside.” Rainbow Dash suggested while walking up to the door. She knocked a few times and waited eagerly for someone to come to the door and let them in. After a short wait, the group heard the sound of someone walking up to the door and pausing. The door swung open to reveal Twilight Sparkle standing inside. “Guys! It’s good to see you!” Twilight greeted the three with a welcoming smile. The purple unicorn grinned happily when she noticed how rested and chipper Fluttershy looked. “You look a lot better Fluttershy. I assume Tom got rid of whatever it was then?” Twilight asked with a sense of eager curiosity. The yellow mare could tell that she was dying to find out what happened. “Yeah, we got it sorted out. We should probably talk about it inside though… it’s kind of important.” Tom spoke up while holding out the book he acquired from last night. The purple unicorn looked at the book with a shocked expression, she wasn’t sure what happened last night, but she knew that it was important to the matters at hand. “Where did you get that…?” Twilight muttered out loud with a confused stare. “Alright, come right in.” She said while backing up and inviting the three to come in. After everyone made it inside, Twilight closed the door and walked with them into the living room while glancing at the book in deep thought. Her curiosity for what had happened last night only intensified as she wondered what secrets the tome held. Off to the side of the room, the group could see Spike talking with Rarity and Applejack casually. Upon seeing the three entering the room, they walked over with friendly smiles and greeted their friends with genuine cheerfulness. “Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Tom! It’s good to see you all.” Rarity said happily while looking between the three. “Fluttershy darling, you look much better. Did you sleep well last night?” She asked in a complimentary sort of tone. Fluttershy was flattered to hear that the white unicorn thought she looked healthy. “I slept much better thanks to Tom.” The yellow mare replied with a quick smile before turning her attention to Applejack, who was looking at her curiously. “So what was the problem? It must have been bad from what you said yesterday.” Applejack stated with burning curiosity. Everyone else turned their attention to Fluttershy with similar inquisitive expressions. Before the pegasus could elaborate on her experience, a sudden noise to their rear made the group turn their attention away. Everyone looked over to see that Tom had dropped the book on a table with slight force to get their attention. He looked at the group and sighed before preparing to explain what happened last night out in the forest. “Turns out the problem was caused by those hooded ponies again.” Tom said in a serious tone. He let his words settle in while the group gasped in surprise. The boy’s words hung in the air stiffly while everyone’s mind raced with various concerns. “We heard the same noises Fluttershy described sometime after midnight. We went outside and found a few animals that had glowing green eyes and cuts all over their bodies. Apparently the hooded ponies were killing animals out in the forest and using this book to resurrect them as mindless slaves.” Tom explained with a somber expression on his face. Everyone’s reaction ranged from disgust, to horror, to a mixture of the two as they imagined the horrific animals’ appearances. “Who would do such a terrible thing?” Twilight said in shock as she thought about the motives of the hooded group. Between the school, the hospital, trying to kill her and her friends out in the forest, and now this, the unicorn wasn’t sure of what the sadistic ponies were capable of, and that thought terrified her. “I don’t know… but I do know that we’re not just dealing with average ponies here.” Tom said with a dreadful tone and a heavily concerned expression on his face. The four people who weren’t with him out in the forest were troubled by the human’s anxiousness. “What do you mean?” Spike hesitantly voiced the group’s curiosity. He wasn’t sure if he would like the boy’s answer, but he needed to at least hear it. “We found all of this out because we had to chase Angel out into the woods. They must have used some sort of charm to gather animals to their camp… Anyway, after fighting through a few more undead animals, we found them out in a clearing in the forest. They had a camp set up and everything, so they were probably there for a while.” Tom continued explaining in a low tone as he filled the group in on the four’s experience last night. “Two ponies in hoods were taking animals from a pen and slaughtering them, only to bring them back to life as walking corpses moments later. They were about to do it to Angel, so naturally I stepped in. They were probably just underlings tasked with doing the job, because they flipped when they recognized me… yeah, apparently they know that I’m the one that’s been screwing with their plans.” The human smirked and chuckled slightly as he thought back to the look on the two ponies’ faces. “Makes sense that they would use workers to get things done. Ah would imagine that a set up like that would take a lot of labor.” Applejack commented while trying to make sense of the situation. Tom nodded before continuing. “After I backed them into a corner, they got nervous and called for their boss... a brown pegasus named Dust Kicker.” The human said with an apprehensive tone. “That’s great Tom, you know one of their names! Maybe we can have the princess see what she can find in the royal guards database on him?” Twilight suggested with an optimistic smile. Tom’s disconcerting expression made the unicorn confused and nervous. “What’s wrong…?” The purple mare asked while thinking back to the boy’s earlier statement. She wondered what he could have possibly meant when he said that they weren’t dealing with regular ponies. “This guy was one tough cookie. He didn’t even flinch when he saw me, not even when I threatened him. And to top that off, he knows how to use some kind of shadow magic. He summoned a darkling that shrugged off my holy light like it was nothing, and then he summoned a group of three of them that almost killed Fluttershy and the others… all of this with his bare hands… err, hooves.” The human corrected himself while maintaining his serious exterior. The description of the strange pony’s powers sent a collective chill down everyone’s spine. “This pegasus could summon those things from the woods? And they were stronger than the ones that attacked us?” Spike relayed the information that was given to him in a slight panic. He could practically see all of the damage that could be caused if that pony were to suddenly decide that he wanted everyone in town dead. Twilight put a hoof on the wide-eyed dragon’s shoulder to calm him down. After seeing the unicorn’s reassuring face, Spike made an effort to get his nerves under control long enough to breathe in a few deep breaths. “Don’t worry, Spike. We can beat these guys no problem.” Twilight said with a confident smile. The young drake was unsure of how the unicorn could be so calm and sure of their ability to prevail. “Really?” Spike asked timidly. The purple unicorn nodded with a sense of confidence and resolve that inspired the baby dragon into letting go of some of his fears. “Of course. Between Tom, the princesses, and Brimstoke and the others, those hooded ponies stand no chance against us.” Twilight said with an enthusiastic smile to instill confidence and bravery into the dragon and anyone else among the group that had fears or doubts. Spike looked over to see how the others were reacting. Nearly everyone was smiling as they thought about the strong desire they all had to protect their friends and family. Seeing his friends so confident pushed the last of Spike’s fears out of his head. He knew in his heart that the power of friendship and love would be able to overcome any evil. After all, Equestria had come under threat from many foes before that seemed far too powerful to defeat, and the power of the elements of harmony and their friendship had prevailed each time. Suddenly, a rapid succession of knocks at the front door interrupted everyone’s thoughts. The ponies wondered who the new arrival could have been. The only ones they were expecting were either Pinkie Pie or Brimstoke and the other members of Spirit. “I’ll get it.” Twilight spoke up while walking over to the door. Everyone walked forward slightly to see who was waiting outside. The unicorn opened the door and was surprised to be met with so many people at once. Brimstoke and his entire team of ponies were standing outside of the library. They were all looking at Twilight with a range of friendly expressions and courteous blank acknowledgements. The sight of two alicorns standing beside the group surprised the purple mare. “Princess Celestia, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously as she observed the white princess hover close to her sister. She smiled upon seeing her student once more. “Hello, Twilight. I’m giving a speech in the town square to let everyone know what’s going on. I figured I would come see how things are going with you and the others.” The alicorn explained with a cheerful expression. Twilight was glad to see Celestia was so animated in her movements and expressions. The last time the unicorn had seen her mentor, she was barely recovering from the attack in the caves. “How are you feeling princess? You look a lot less pale than you did…” Twilight pointed out with happiness and relief. Celestia chuckled as she took note of her recovery to health. “Thank you, I feel much better now. Although I still feel a little odd, but I’m sure that will pass.” Celestia stated cheerfully. The white alicorn’s usual regal, cheerful, and peaceful demeanor had returned with her health. Twilight was grateful that the attack hadn’t permanently harmed her mentor. “Good to hear. Please, come in and make yourselves at home.” The purple mare stepped aside and welcomed the large group into her home. Everyone piled into the living room and settled in. Brimstoke and the two alicorns stepped forward while the other members of Spirit stood in a line and waited to be useful. Upon noticing the large gathering of ponies, Rainbow Dash and the others got up and walked over to greet the team of ponies and the princesses. Celestia and Luna gave Spike and the element bearers a friendly greeting before settling their attention on Twilight and Tom. “I assume you know why we’re here?” Luna asked while looking back at the row of ponies waiting for a task. Twilight quickly scanned the group and found that Glitterball was levitating the books from last night in a neat pile beside her. “Find anything useful?” The purple mare asked the group with hopeful curiosity in her voice. Before any of them could answer, Brimstoke spoke up. “Well, we did manage to find out who the books belonged to.” The white stallion explained while looking around at the others. He could tell that they were watching him with baited breath to find out anything they could about the hooded ponies. “We found a rather prominent magic signature belonging to a unicorn by the name of Cotton Quill on all three books.” As Brimstoke relayed his information to the group, everyone seemed intrigued by the news, everyone except for Twilight that is. “Cotton Quill…? No way…” Twilight said with a shocked expression as she processed the name in her head. The name was familiar to the unicorn, but she never expected to hear it in such a context. Everyone seemed confused by the purple mare’s sudden surprise. “You know the guy?” Brimstoke asked curiously. The unicorn could feel everyone’s prying eyes on her as they waited to hear what she had to say. “Yes… well, kind of.” Twilight rolled her eyes as she tried to recall what she remembered about the unicorn. “He owns a book store in town… I’ve met him once or twice while browsing down there, but I would never think that he could be involved in something like this. He seemed like a nice enough guy from what I remember.” The purple pony sighed sadly as she thought of how easy it was for a person to hide their true intentions. She wondered who else could be in on the sinister group of ponies. Twilight noticed Glitterball stepping forward from the group. She slowly walked over to the table next to her and sat the books down before turning to face her. The white unicorn had a sympathetic frown on her face as she spoke up. “We also traced one of the books to a book store in town. Two of them weren’t in circulation at all, but the one about various exotic types of magic was definitely from around here. I think that this Cotton guy must be helping out the hooded ponies in some way.” Glitter shrugged and shook her head as she thought about the poor state of the ponies in Equestria. If a large group of ponies could become so corrupt, then what did that say for the rest of them? Suddenly, Glitterball drew her attention over to the other side of the table she was next to. She noticed another book similar to the ones found at the hospital. Walking over and examining the leather bound tome, she discovered that it held the same odd system of notes and symbols as the other three. “Where did you find this?” Glitter asked to nobody in particular. The white mare’s curious question drew everyone else’s gaze over to her and the book. As the others walked over to view the strange book, Tom remembered that he hadn’t explained it to them just yet. “Found that last night out in the Everfree Forest. Three of those hooded ponies were killing animals and resurrecting them as zombies with that book. And one of them had the ability to use shadow magic to summon darklings apparently at will. I caught his name too… it was Dust Kicker.” The human’s explanation surprised the hardened group of ponies. Even the two princesses gasped in shock as they imagined how horrible the vague story must have actually been. “Shadow Magic…? What is that?” Peppermint spoke up from the group to voice his curiosity. He had a hint of nervousness in his voice that told Tom and the others that the members of Spirit had never come across such a term. “It is what it sounds like… people using the power of shadows for their own devices. Some people can use it better than others, and some can only use it for one specific thing… like summoning shadow creatures out of the ground for instance.” The human explained with a dreadful tone of voice. Everyone could tell by the slayer’s nervousness that this was a serious matter. “That sounds horrible!” Rarity said with a horrified expression. “If one pony could do that… then what on earth are the others capable of?” She asked in a fearful tone. The white unicorn’s fear was making her break out into a cold sweat as she thought about what sort of danger they could be in by going up against such a group of ponies. The others shared in the unicorn’s fear and apprehension. Spike seemed like he was on the verge of a panic attack as he worried that his friends would be eaten alive by monsters that could be summoned by a single pony. Fluttershy already knew about the strange pegasus’s ability, but just thinking about it further made her nervously shiver. Even Twilight felt a knot forming in her stomach from thinking about the logical deduction that more than one of them had this terrifying ability. “Everyone calm down…” Celestia spoke up in a gentle yet firm tone to get everyone’s attention. The nervous ponies all turned to the white alicorn and grew completely silent as they waited for her to speak up again. “I know that you must be nervous about these… hooded ponies, but you need to remain calm. I have full confidence that Brimstoke and his team will be able to stop them, and that Tom will be able to help wherever needed.” Celestia said in a reassuring tone. She looked over to Brimstoke and Tom, who each nodded confidently in return. “You each have been in horrible situations that no pony should ever have to bear, and I am grateful that you all have come out of these situations unharmed.” The white alicorn said in a more somber manner. Celestia’s words made everyone think about their hardships in a different light. They had all survived insurmountable odds and come out on top, and that was something to be proud of. “Just remember… I’m asking you to help out with the investigation, not to help out with fighting these ponies. You all should be safe and sound from now on, and I intend on keeping it that way.” Celestia finished with a determined smile. Everyone felt better now that they had put everything into perspective for themselves. “Thank you princess… we won’t let you down.” Twilight said while looking between her friends. Everyone gave a confident nod to the unicorn, who smiled as she saw her band of troops feeling more inspired. “Now that we all know where things stand… we should get on to business.” Brimstoke spoke up while moving to the side so he could see everyone. “I think it goes without saying that we should check out the book store in town for Cotton Quill… any volunteers?” He asked while looking between the group. “I’ll go.” Tom raised his hand while stepping forward for the task. Luna stepped forward and interrupted the human. “Actually Tom, the mayor of Ponyville wants to see you today.” The blue alicorn said with an expression that told she was being serious. “Wow… really?” Tom asked to clarify, Luna simply nodded. Everyone was intrigued that the mayor would want to meet the human. “We told her about everything in advance so we could set up the speech in the square, and she asked to meet you and the leader of Spirit, so Brimstoke, Celestia and I will head down to town hall with you to meet her.” Luna explained while glancing over to the stallion. Tom was a little bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to help with the investigation, but he was honored to be able to meet so many influential figures in Equestria. “Alright then, I would be happy to oblige.” The human said with a pleased expression. Luna was happy to see that the boy agreed to the meeting. “Then it’s settled. Tom and I are not going to be available for any tasks until we get back, so are there any other volunteers?” Brimstoke asked again while looking to the group. “I’ll go.” Glimmer Shine stepped forward confidently. He was followed by Neon Streak, who had a cheerful smirk on her face that told she was eager to volunteer. “I’ll come too.” The green mare said happily while looking beside her to her partner. Much to the group’s surprise, Applejack stepped forward with a pleading expression on her face. “Can Ah come too? Ah want to help out with something.” The orange pony seemed sincere in her desire to assist the group. Brimstoke couldn’t fault the farm pony for wanting to help. “Alright Applejack, you and the others will go check out the book store. We also need someone to go check out the Ponyville cemetery. Earlier this morning we got reports of couple of ponies digging up a grave, and considering what happened out in the woods last night, I think someone should go take a look out there.” Brimstoke explained in a serious tone. Everyone was surprised to hear that some people were possibly steeling bodies. They wondered what else they could possibly be doing. “I’ll go, but I would like someone to come with me… any takers?” Sunspot asked while looking around at the others. “Sure, I’ll come…” Rainbow Dash volunteered eagerly. “Why don’t you come with us Fluttershy? It would give you something safe to do that doesn’t involve tons of research.” The cyan mare suggested while looking over to her friend. Fluttershy contemplated the offer for a moment. While she was a little nervous to head into a cemetery considering recent events, she was eager to help her friends out. “Alright… I’ll go with you.” The yellow pegasus said with a hesitant smile. Rainbow Dash was excited to hear that her friend would join her. “Hey, leave room for me.” Peppermint stepped forward to volunteer, when he was suddenly interrupted by Glitterball speaking up. “Not so fast Pepper, I need your help here. I’m going to try and tweak the strobes a little bit to improve their performance, so I could use you and Twilight to help me out.” The white unicorn explained while holding up her strobe for reference. “Really, you want my help?” Twilight asked in slight disbelief. She was flattered that the unicorn would ask for her assistance in something having to do with magic. Although she had learned magic under the princess, Twilight was still humbled when people thought she was an expert. “Yeah… you seemed to be able to handle yourself pretty well around advanced magic, so I figured that you could give me a hoof with this. Besides, tinkering with this kind of equipment will be a good experience for you… Rarity can help too if she wants.” Glitterball said while looking over to the purple haired unicorn. The white mare perked up when she heard the invitation to help. Although she was less experienced in magic, she was still eager to assist. “I would love to help darling.” Rarity graciously accepted the offer with a cheerful smile. Twilight nodded her head as she gladly accepted the offer as well. “Me too, I would be glad to help out.” The purple pony said with an eager expression. Glitterball was happy to see the two so willing to volunteer. “Why do you need me here though?” Peppermint asked curiously. The red haired pony seemed more confused than disappointed as to why he needed to stay at the library. Glitterball chuckled before turning to the white earth pony. “Because if we blow ourselves up, you’re the only one here that knows how to treat third degree burns.” Glitter said with a playful smile. Twilight and Rarity laughed with a slight hint of nervousness at the joke. They were unsure of whether or not the unicorn was serious. “Well… I suppose I’ll stick around. But if you’re going to be blowing things up, I’m staying way back.” Peppermint stated while chuckling happily. “Ditto…” Spike added while looking to the stallion understandingly. The dragon was fully prepared to run for his life if things started smoking. “Ok everyone, let’s get going. We have a lot to do today and tomorrow, so let’s try to get all of this out of the way as quick as possible.” Brimstoke spoke up to round off the conversation so everyone could leave for their tasks. Twilight and the others who were staying said their goodbyes to their friends as they all paired off into groups and left the library. Chapter 41: Meetings and MisdeedsIt was a little past noon in the streets of Ponyville. Tom and his three companions walked towards their destination of town square with a dull air around them. The only ones willing to make small talk seemed to be the princesses, as Brimstoke was unsure of what to talk about casually, only answering questions or subjects given to him. Despite the odd silence of the group, Tom felt occupied in his own thoughts. It wasn’t every day that he got to meet the mayor of a town. After all, the boy was used to staying away from people in towns he would go to, only talking to others to get information on any stray monster or paranormal happening nearby. So even though he had already met the equivalent of this land’s rulers, the human was flattered and somewhat excited to be meeting the mayor of Ponyville. As the four walked down the mostly empty street, Tom began thinking of how little sense having a mayor in a monarchy made. Usually kingdoms that had princesses had lords and ladies, or even dukes and duchesses as their lower forms of governors. But having a mayor made the human incredibly confused as to how their hierarchy of power worked. “So let me get this straight… you are the princess, and yet you rule over most of Equestria as if you were queen?” Tom asked Celestia with a confused expression as he tried to wrap his mind around the strange form of government these ponies had. “Yes… I suppose so.” The white alicorn replied while furrowing her eyebrows at the boy. She thought nothing of her title and how it conflicted with the general definition of Princess at all before. Luna shared in her sister’s confusion as to where the issue was with their method of rule. “And to top that off… you also have mayors for your towns? “ The boy added to the confusing issue. Celestia simply nodded in reply, she still failed to see why the human was confused on the matter. “Is there a problem with that?” Brimstoke asked while raising an eyebrow curiously. Tom realized that his observations fell on deaf ears. The human sighed in defeat as he reminded himself not to discuss the strangeness of something to the intelligent talking ponies. “No… never mind, I guess it's just a human thing.” Tom said with a dull expression. The stallion shared a confused shrug with the princesses as they collectively pondered at what the human was on about. “So what’s the mayor’s name anyway?” Tom asked curiously in an attempt at changing the subject of the conversation to something less confusing for both parties. “Mare.” Luna said casually in reply. Tom was stunned by the simple response, he was unsure of whether or not he heard the alicorn correctly. “I’m sorry, could you say that again?” The human asked while squinting his eyes in confusion. He wanted to hear the name again to process it better. “Mare… you know, Mayor Mare.” Luna said as clearly as possible to clarify. She was still unaware of the mental breakdown she had just caused in the human. Tom had to use every fiber of his being to not bust out laughing like a spastic child. He stared blankly ahead with a face as dull and unexpressive as stone while laughing and repeating the name over and over in his head. He had heard ridiculous names and concepts every day since he arrived, but Mayor Mare was too much for the boy to handle. The ponies looked at the dumbfounded human curiously, being blissfully ignorant of the chaotic outbursts that he was keeping from them. “Tom… are you ok?” Celestia asked with mild concern as she watched the corners of the human’s mouth twitch upwards every once and a while. “Pfft… yeah… I’m fine.” Tom snorted as he opened his mouth to speak. He was struggling to fight the urge to at least smile, but he had to remain silent, or forever feel awkward whenever talking to the princesses. “Ok then…” Celestia said in a confused tone. The white alicorn raised an eyebrow at the strange behavior of the human. Deciding it best to leave the subject alone, the group walked in silence for a while. While Tom got all of the internal laughter out of his system, Celestia was left to her thoughts as they walked. She drew her attention to the previous attacks made by the hooded ponies, and how they could have turned out had things gone differently. She frowned as grim thoughts of what Twilight and the others must have gone through filled her mind. She had not been told all of the details from any of the element bearers, but she knew it must have been terrifying for all of them. “Hey Tom… What was it like back in the hospital?” Celestia asked to further elaborate on the events that transpired yesterday morning. The human was caught off guard by the sudden question. He thought about it for a moment before replying. “It was pretty dark and cold for the most part… why do you ask?” Tom’s somber answer did nothing to ease Celestia’s burdened mind. She sighed sadly as she decided to level with the group. “To be honest, I was thinking about what it was like for the girls to be in those situations. I know they’re tough in their own right, but what happened at the school and hospital must have been traumatizing for them.” Celestia said while looking down sadly. Luna frowned as she listened to her sister’s concerns. She knew that it must have been hard on the white alicorn to hear that such terrible things happened to her student and her closest friends. “They were more afraid in the hospital than in the school.” Tom spoke up with a sobering tone. “I mean, back in the school it wasn’t as bad once we figured out what the monster was like. It was just one thing, and all we had to do for the most part was stay away from water to avoid it. But it was a lot tenser in the hospital for sure. I was with Rainbow Dash for most of our time there, and it was pretty scary with just the two of us there, but I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for Twilight and the others. To wander around in the dark in the middle of a cold and spooky hospital, looking over your shoulder to check behind you every two seconds to make sure that corner you just passed didn’t have any horrifying monster waiting in it, eager to grab you when you aren’t paying attention and dragging you away to certain doom... it must have been pretty harsh for them.” The human’s explanation struck a chord in the two princesses. It affected Celestia the most however. Thinking about the purple unicorn alone and scared in some dark hallway surrounded by monsters made a lump form in the alicorn’s throat. The white alicorn swallowed her dreadful feelings down and regained her composure before speaking again. “I understand that two ponies lost their lives because of those monsters correct?” Celestia asked while trying not to reveal her sadness to the others. Luna read her sister like a book. She frowned sympathetically as she listened to the white alicorn making things worse on herself. “Yeah… Twilight was apparently down there with them. She blames herself you know… I just wish I could have done something myself.” Tom looked down and stared at the sidewalk as he reflected on the grim event. Celestia put a hoof on his shoulder, causing him to look up at her. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault Tom… least of all yours. Bad things happen to good people sometimes, but we just need to live with it and move on with what we have.” The white alicorn’s words made Tom think back to his past briefly. He nodded in agreement while applying Celestia’s advice to both situations. Before the group could dwell on their thoughts any further, they suddenly found themselves standing in the center of town. The circular area was surrounded by numerous houses and other buildings, making a border that lined the oddly circular square nearly perfectly, with only a river with two bridges crossing it on the other side to complete the border. Several colorful tents, statues, and other ornate buildings and decorations were scattered around the square. Most notably of which being a large statue of an earth pony sitting atop a pool of glistening water. The only thing able to take Tom’s gaze away from the many colorful sights was the town hall itself. The oddly circular building sat in the center of the square, making it the literal epicenter of the town. The many columns that spread around the outside of the building held up a second floor balcony that stretched around in a circle. The main building was relatively thin when compared to the outer ring made by the balcony, stretching upwards and tapering off into a red roof with numerous windows laid into it. “Whoa. I must say this place is a lot more… colorful than I imagined.” Tom stated casually while observing the many vibrant sights around the square. “Was your town square not this colorful?” Luna asked while looking at the boy with a quizzical expression. The human subconsciously raised an eyebrow as he thought back to his home town. “We didn’t really have much of a town square in my town… we had a town hall, but it was dull, grey, and boring. And I’m pretty sure it only had like five people working there… counting the mayor.” Tom explained with a passively joking tone as he pictured the small building in his head. Meanwhile, both parties were left to wonder at the architecture of the other, with Tom staring in amazement at the ponies’ architecture and the ponies cringing as they pictured the dullness of the human’s architecture. “Well I can assure you, this place is a lot livelier than what you’re probably used to.” Luna said with a smirk while waving her hoof around to point out the bustling square. Sure enough, several ponies were all rushing about on their daily business, with a few pausing to look at the odd sight of the two princesses conversing with a human. “You got that right…” Tom muttered to himself as the four walked up the steps to the town hall and stepped through the door. Inside, the group found a room that had three hallways that led off into other parts of the building. A wooden desk sat in the corner of the room, with a receptionist pony sitting behind it. The mare looked up from some papers on her desk and smiled at the princesses and their companions. “Hello Princess, I assume you’re here to see Miss Mayor?” The grey furred pony asked politely with a courteous smile. The alicorn nodded in response. “Yes, we’re here to have a meeting with her… could you point us in the right direction please?” Celestia asked in a friendly tone. “She’s in her office, three doors down that hall and to the left.” The receptionist explained as she pointed down the center hallway. The group looked where she was pointing and noticed a double door a little ways down the hall. Celestia thanked the grey mare before joining the group in walking down the hall. After a short journey, they gathered in front of the door to the mayor’s office and paused in preparation. Everyone looked at Tom to see whether or not he was nervous, only to find that he seemed as confident as ever. Giving a quick nod of agreement, the two princesses opened the door and stepped inside while the other two followed behind them. The group quickly noticed the mayor was sitting behind her desk attentively. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. It’s good to see you two.” The light brown mare greeted the two with a jovial laugh. The princesses smiled as they returned the greeting. Tom analyzed the pony’s appearance as he stood beside the two alicorns. Mayor Mare seemed to have a friendly yet professional air about her. She wore a pair of yellow framed glasses and a white collar with an aqua colored tie curled up into an oddly shaped puffball. She had grey and white striped hair, with the stripe pattern alternating between her mane and her tail. “And you must be this Tom fellow I’ve heard about.” The Mayor said in a friendly tone while getting up to walk over to the human. Tom could see that her cutie mark was that of a scroll tied off with a blue ribbon. The grey haired pony walked over to the boy and shook his hand with a welcoming smile. “I must be… not too many humans in blue jump suits with the name Tom walking around Equestria.” Tom said in a jesting way. Mayor Mare smirked at the lighthearted attitude of the newcomer to her town. “Quite so… and none with such heroic prowess as yours either. I see that you have rescued your share of ponies since you’ve been here Mr. Greene, for this I offer you my sincerest gratitude.” The grey haired mare put her hoof to her chest and gave a courteous bow to the human. Tom could tell that the brown pony had a deep concern for the wellbeing of her fellow ponies. She seemed genuinely affected by the mere notion of such grim things happening under her watch. “I don’t know what I would do if any of the citizens of this town were to come to harm in any serious way.” Mayor Mare stated in a sincere tone, hearing this made Tom avert his eyes to the floor. The mere mention of The Mayor having such a deep connection with her town’s citizens made the human think back to the hospital. Knowing the tragic events that happened yesterday made the boy uncomfortable with looking the mare in the eye. Mayor Mare frowned slightly as she noticed the human avert his gaze. Perhaps she knew that he had some form of guilt inside of him for letting such a thing happen. Whether or not she knew his true feelings, the brown pony could definitely tell that something was bothering the human. “Regarding the events that happened yesterday and the day before, I understand that you were there at the school and hospital during these events?” The brown mare asked in a more serious tone. Tom looked up as the question caught him off guard. “Y-yes.” The human replied while keeping his emotions in check. The Mayor looked between him and the others thoughtfully. “Alright Tom, I want you to explain to me and the princesses here everything you know about the two events. What happened, what important information you know on these hooded ponies, and what you think we should do next.” The grey haired mare instructed in a calm yet confident tone. “If I may ask… why?” Tom asked in a confused tone while looking to Brimstoke and the two alicorns. The three were as confused as he was regarding The Mayor’s intentions. Mayor Mare smiled with a determined expression on her face. “Because if we’re going to beat these guys… we need to know what we’re up against, and you’re the one here who knows the most about the supernatural.” The brown mare explained to the human casually. Everyone nodded in realization as they agreed to her reasoning. “Are you sure we’re going the right way Glimmer?” Neon Streak asked her yellow partner uneasily while looking around at her unfamiliar surroundings. The three had been walking through town for a while, and they still had not arrived at the book store. Glimmer Shine shrugged in slight annoyance as he was asked yet again if they were on track. The green pony had been paranoid that he was getting them lost ever since they left the library. He turned his head to face the two mares behind him and tried to sound less annoyed than he felt. “Yes, I’m sure. Just because I’ve never been here before doesn’t mean that I can’t follow directions.” The yellow stallion said with a playful chuckle. Neon Streak raised her eyebrow in doubt at the bold claim, but decided to leave Glimmer alone for a while. “You’ve never been to Ponyville before?” Applejack asked curiously while taking a quick glance around to see what area of town they were actually in. Not that she doubted Glimmer Shine’s ability to navigate, but she at least wanted to know if they were walking in circles. “Nope… can’t say I have. Me and Peppermint grew up in Manehattan and stayed there until we signed up for the academy.” Glimmer Shine replied with a smile to the orange mare. He was happy to get the subject off of where they were going for a change. “How long were you two in the academy for?” Applejack added as she became more intrigued on the subject of the brothers’ training. Glimmer looked away in thought for a moment before replying. “All together we stayed for about two years… one and a half we spent with Brimstoke and the others.” The yellow stallion said while reminiscing back to his time in the academy. Although it seemed like he had just barely graduated, Glimmer was very fond of his time there. “It’s nice to hear that you and your brother went in together. Staying close with family is one of the most important things in life in my opinion.” Applejack stated with a warm smile while thinking of her own brother and sister. The mere fact that Big Mac agreed to do some extra work so she could go help her friends made her think of how close they were. The yellow stallion nodded in agreement to the orange mare’s statement. “Yeah, I’m glad we got the opportunity. Pepper wanted to heal the sick and wounded, and we both wanted to help the greater good, so we agreed to try out for the academy. He struggled a bit with some of the lessons, but I helped him through.” Glimmer Shine said with a cheerful smirk. “No offense to either of you, but you don’t look like the type to be hunting monsters like Tom… Peppermint least of all.” Applejack said with as polite a tone as possible. Although she didn’t want to sound mean, the two brothers, and even some of the other members of the team seemed unlikely for the job they had. Glimmer Shine chuckled briefly in agreement. Applejack was glad to hear that the stallion didn’t take the statement the wrong way. He sighed while thinking of his brother’s sensitive nature. He finally turned to face the orange pony and spoke up. “I guess you’re right there… Pepper does look kind of… timid, doesn’t he?” Glimmer said with an uncertain expression. He seemed to be worried that his brother wouldn’t do well when in the heat of the moment. The stallion remained silent for a short while, leaving Applejack to feel a little sympathetic for him. “Well, I guess we’re as ready for this job as any pony. Luna picked us because she felt we had the skills and teamwork necessary for this kind of stuff.” Neon Streak spoke up with an accepting sigh. Applejack and Glimmer Shine nodded confidently in agreement. They were sure that they would do a great job at stopping the hooded ponies. “Oh hey, would you look at that.” Neon Streak spoke up in surprise and stopped to look off to the side. The other two stopped and wondered why the green mare had ceased walking before they thought to look in the direction she was facing. Sure enough, there was a building that stood out from the rest to the ponies. It was a simple store that would have blended right in had it not been for one identifying feature. The store had a sign above the door that had a large book and a quill dipped into an inkwell on it along with some lettering that read book store. “I guess you did know what you were doing then kid.” Neon chuckled while giving Glimmer Shine a playful punch on the shoulder. “Thank you…” The yellow stallion replied in a relieved tone. After all the constant doubt and questioning he had to go through on the trip, Glimmer was happy to see that they had finally arrived at the right destination. “Ever been here before Applejack?” Neon Streak turned to look at the farm pony curiously as she observed the front of the store. Applejack tried to recall any time she might have seen or been to the store beforehand, but her mind drew a blank. “No… Ah don’t think so. Ah haven’t really needed to anyway… if Ah ever needed to read a book, Ah could just head down to the library.” The orange mare replied. Being friends with the town librarian did have its benefits if the farm pony ever wanted to check out a book. “Let’s head inside then… check the place out.” Glimmer Shine said with a knowing nod to the two mares as he walked up to the door and opened it for the group to walk in. A sharp bell chimed as the door opened and the three ponies walked in. Applejack looked up to see a tiny bell set up above the frame of the door, designed to be rung to let the employees know when a customer entered. The smell of paper and books in general blended in with the red, brown, and green color scheme of the store interior to create a peaceful and warm atmosphere. There were several bookshelves lined up in rows off to the right, with a sitting area with a few more books to the left. Three ponies of varying colors and genders were either sitting and reading a book, or standing and browsing the smaller shelves in the open area to the left. One of the ponies, a blue earth pony mare with black hair turned her head to the three ponies entering and flashed them a passing smile. Applejack smiled back to the friendly mare as the group walked a little ways past the sitting area and up to the front desk. Behind the desk was a red earth pony stallion with medium length black hair that was looking off to the side with a dull expression. Upon noticing the approaching group, he seemed a little surprised to see two ponies in tactical vests traveling with a farm pony. “Hey, I’m Shadow Mist… how can I help you?” The stallion asked with false courtesy and a forced smile. He studied the three in front of him curiously as they stepped up to the desk. “Uh… hi, we’re here to see the owner of the store Cotton Quill. Is he around?” Glimmer Shine decided to speak on behalf of the group. He tried to sound as professional and direct as possible. Shadow Mist looked behind him with a slight hint of unease that the three ponies failed to pick up on. “Uh… sorry… I think Cotton isn’t here right now.” The red furred pony said once he returned his attention to the group in front of him. Glimmer Shine shifted his eyes to his two companions. Applejack and Neon Streak were just as unsure of this pony as he was, but they were uncertain as to what was so off-putting about him. “Well is he going to come back sometime today? We really need to speak with him regarding a request from the princess, so it’s kind of important.” Glimmer said while trying to convey the seriousness of their visit. Shadow Mist seemed surprised to hear that Cotton was sought after by the princess. “The princess huh…? Who did you guys say you were again?” Shadow Mist asked while glancing at Applejack out of the corner of his eye. The orange mare felt oddly uncomfortable with how the red pony was looking at her. It was almost like he recognized her and wanted to make sure that he was looking at the right pony. “I’m afraid that’s on a need to know basis. Sorry, but you know how things are with the princesses and secrecy.” Neon Streak answered for Glimmer Shine while still trying to get a read on this odd pony’s actions. “Yeah… yeah.” Shadow Mist nodded while taking a quick and purposeful glance over to the three ponies in the sitting area, who, unbeknownst to Applejack and her two companions, had been carefully watching the conversation unfold. As the red pony nodded to the three in front of him while glancing behind them, the three ponies in the front of the store acknowledged the signal with a slow nod of their own and slowly put their books away and reached behind various areas on the shelves. Shadow Mist smiled and conversed with the three blissfully unaware ponies in front of him to stall them while secretly watching behind them with his peripheral vision. The three ponies in the sitting area each slowly pulled out small daggers from hidden places behind the shelves. They slowly and silently walked around the sitting area and gradually crept up on the group with their weapons at the ready. Applejack was getting officially creeped out by how the suspicious pony was looking at her. Maybe it was something about how he was obviously faking a smile, or maybe it was how he seemed to be putting on too much happiness for the situation, but the farm pony definitely knew that something was off about this Shadow Mist. The orange mare looked off to the side and pretended to be interested in a few books as an excuse to divert her gaze away from the disturbing pony’s stare. Just as she was reading off a few titles of books to herself, she caught a glimpse of something moving in the corner of her eye. Applejack turned her head just in time to see that the three seemingly harmless ponies they had passed on their way in were now rearing up to attack them with deadly weapons. The farm pony’s eyes widened in shock and backed up slightly as her body recoiled in surprise. “AH!” Applejack cried out loudly to get the others attention. She barely had time to process words into a cry for help, so she just made the loudest and most defined noise of distress that she could. Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak spun around in shock when they heard their companion yell. They saw the incoming attackers just in time to react. The three ponies yelled as they leapt for their targets. Applejack just barely managed to dodge backwards, catching a slight draft as the pony’s downward stab sailed right past her face. Glimmer Shine and his partner raised their arms in front of them and caught the incoming attackers’ arms in an attempt at wrestling their weapon from them. While her friends struggled to keep the ponies from pushing the blades into their skin, Applejack locked eyes with the unoccupied third pony. The blue mare scowled at her with a deep hatred, making the farm pony gulp nervously as she prepared to strike again. Applejack dodged to the side as the black haired pony swung at her again. Seeing no other choice but to retaliate, the orange mare reared up her back legs and kicked as hard as she could at the knife wielding pony. The force of the seasoned apple bucker’s kick went straight into the mare’s side, knocking the knife clean out of her hooves as she sailed into a nearby bookshelf. She grunted in pain as her body collided with the shelf, causing books to fly everywhere as the shelf collapsed under her weight. Now that the blue mare was out of commission, Applejack diverted her attention back to her friends. The orange mare gasped as she noticed that Neon Streak seemed to be losing her struggle with the pink pony on top of her. The purple haired mare was pressing the knife further and further downwards as the green mare strained her muscles to keep it away from her. With a steeled look in her eyes and a determined expression, Applejack reared up and kicked at the pink pony. The mare noticed the farm pony’s attack coming her way and jumped off of Neon Streak to avoid it. She smirked as she noticed the panic in the orange mare’s eyes when her attack failed. “AHH!” Applejack screamed and covered her head as the pink pony lunged for her with the knife much too fast for her to react with an escape. Just as the farm pony was preparing to feel the pain of getting brutally stabbed to death, the pink pony suddenly yelped in surprise and pain as her body felt a jolt of electricity surging through her. The frightened orange mare looked up to see the pink mare convulsing slightly with a painful grimace. She looked down to see that Neon Streak was digging the taser she carried on her vest into the pony’s leg. The pink mare swiftly dropped to the floor and dropped the knife. Applejack shared a quick look of gratitude with the green mare, who smiled in return. The two then looked over when they noticed the sounds of their friend struggling. The two mares were about to jump in to help their yellow friend, when Glimmer Shine suddenly punched his attacker square in the jaw. The punch sent the pony reeling in pain. He growled in anger before raising the knife to run the yellow stallion through. Glimmer Shine reacted to the attack and stepped to the side while reaching to his vest. He quickly pulled out his collapsible baton and extended it while swinging at the knife wielding pony. The slick black baton made a satisfying thunk as it collided with the hostile pony’s head. The knife wielder groaned in pain as he was sent to the floor before slipping out of consciousness. Now that all three attackers had been dealt with, the three ponies took a moment to catch their breaths while giving each other concerned looks. Glimmer Shine observed his two companions to ensure that they weren’t hurt, while Applejack and Neon Streak did the same for him. “*Pant*...*Wheeze*… You two ok?” The exhausted stallion asked in between breaths in a concerned tone. Applejack and Neon Streak nodded while they caught their breaths in order to speak. “Yeah…*Pant*... Ah’m fine.” Applejack stated with relief as she realized that she had come out unscathed from the tense encounter. “Where the…*Wheeze*… where the hay did that red guy run off to?” Neon Streak’s question made the two look over to where Shadow Mist had once been. The desk was empty and barren, indicating that the stallion must have ran when the fight began. “I knew he was acting strange… he must have bolted out the back when those three jumped us.” Glimmer Shine shrugged while looking back to the front entrance. Nobody could recall hearing the chime of the front door opening and ringing the bell on top, so he couldn’t have fled in that direction. “I’ll go after him. You two stay here and keep these guys under control!” Glimmer yelled while rushing behind the desk and into the back room. Before either Applejack or Neon Streak could protest their friend’s decision, the yellow stallion disappeared from sight through the back door. The two mares looked at each other with thankful expressions as they slowed their breathing back to normal. They had survived a surprise attack intended to kill them, and that was cause enough to be proud of their accomplishment. “You ok?” Neon Streak asked with a concerned tone. The orange mare nodded with a slight smile as she realized what just happened. “Yeah… how about you?” Applejack asked the green mare courteously. Neon Streak patted her chest to check if she was still alive, and to see if her heart had exploded from adrenaline. “Yeah, I’m fine… thanks for the save back there.” The green pony said with a grateful smile while pulling out three zip ties from her vest and tying up the three ponies. Applejack smiled warmly as she thought back to her bravery in the face of danger. “Ah’m just glad none of us got hurt.” The orange mare breathed a sigh of relief while leaning back on a shelf to rest. Neon Streak nodded in agreement while offering a sigh of her own while observing the three ponies bound on the floor. “Well… at least we know that the owner of the store is definitely in the hooded pony club… either that or we just got jumped by three ponies with some serious anger management issues.” Neon said with a brief chuckle. Applejack shared in her laughter and smiled. It felt good to the two mares to actually be able to relax and laugh after their tense ordeal. Meanwhile, as the two mares were enjoying their moment of rest and chatting with happy faces, a silent threat was still lurking nearby. Unbeknownst to the pair, a hidden intruder was slowly and methodically creeping through the room to avoid being detected. Shadow Mist had a lot of practice in using his powers to sneak away from or up on unsuspecting ponies, so these two proved to be no different. While Applejack rested against one of the shelves and appeared concerned about how real and serious their situation had gotten, she failed to notice the barely audible sound of one of the knives from the three ponies lifting into the air and catching on the ground as it was picked up. The blade hung in the air and flipped around, as if being held by a murderous ghost that was hell bent on ending the lives of the two ponies. Slowly but surely, the knife floated smoothly through the air until it reached just beside the unaware farm pony. Neon Streak suddenly caught sight of the floating blade. It took her a second to realize that what she was looking at wasn’t a trick of her eyes, but rather her companion in very serious danger. The knife reared up into the air in preparation to strike the orange mare. Neon’s eyes lit up in shock and alarm. “Applejack look out!” The green mare yelled in a frantic tone that made Applejack jump in surprise. Applejack whipped her head around just in time to see the floating blade swinging at her. Her initial reaction of jerking her body backwards wasn’t enough to prevent the blade from digging into her chest as it clipped her on the way down. “Agh!” The orange mare yelped in pain and clutched her newfound injury. She tenderly lifted her hoof from the wound only to find the tip of her hoof stained crimson from her own blood. She could feel a stinging sensation of pain that indicated that she had a sizable gash in her body. Suddenly, the knife made another sideways stab at the wounded pony, but Applejack was wise to the attack. She ducked to the floor, ignoring the pain of her wound hitting the ground forcefully. The knife barely cleared the top of the cow pony’s hat, missing the leather of it by just a sliver. Before the knife could strike again, Applejack heard a grunt of pain and looked up. She saw Neon Streak barging into the area where the knife was with her shoulder, sending the knife sliding across the floor as whatever held it was also knocked away. Neon Streak gave a quick glance to her friend’s wound and frowned sympathetically while hovering near her protectively. The two mares looked around the shop on high alert as they waited for another attack from their seemingly invisible assailant. “What the hay was that?!” Applejack exclaimed in an adrenaline fueled panic as she mentally coped with what just happened. She couldn’t believe that they were being attacked like this in such a seemingly safe place. “I don’t know!” Neon Streak replied while darting her eyes around anxiously. The green mare drew her eyes down to her vest and the numerous vials of charms hanging from it. Spotting a particular vial, an idea popped into her head that made her smirk deviously. “But I think I might have an idea of how we can find out.” The green mare stated while pulling her locators up to her face. She twisted the bottom of the vial filled with the sand like substance. Much to Applejack’s amazement, the sand in the vial lit up a bright red and flashed a few times before fading. After the sand’s light stopped flashing, the entire left side of the bottle of sand glowed solid red. Neon Streak pointed the vial at Applejack, causing the light on the sand to shift to the top section of the vial and grow to the point where most of the sand in the bottle was glowing. “What’s that?” Applejack asked curiously while staring at the strange spectacle. Neon Streak pointed the vial away, causing the glowing portion of the sand to shrink and move to the side, almost as if a red light were shining on the sand and moving across it like a light display. “This is one of our locators. It lets us find heat signatures of living things.” The green mare explained while waving the vial sideways slowly. Suddenly, the sand on the upper right portion of the bottle started glowing. Due to Applejack and the three captive ponies being behind her, Neon Streak knew that this signature was most likely their attacker. The black haired pony followed the signature as best she could with her locator, managing only to get the light to cover a small portion of the top of the bottle. The two anxious ponies looked in the direction where the light was pointing for any signs of movement. Suddenly the pair noticed another knife was being picked up off the floor, but instead of charging straight for them, the attacker seemed to have a different target in mind. The knife zipped straight for one of the bound ponies on the floor. Much to the shock and horror of the two mares, the knife plunged straight into the back of the blue pony’s neck, puncturing her spinal cord with ease. The mare let out a strangled cry of pain and briefly jerked her body, but she only managed to twitch slightly before losing control of her muscles and going limp. “Oh my gosh…” Applejack gasped in shock and clasped her hoof over her mouth in horror. She couldn’t believe that she just witnessed a pony dying right in front of her eyes. The orange mare could feel her legs wobble and a dreadful knot in her stomach that wouldn’t go away. “Hey!” Neon Streak yelled in defiance in an attempt at stopping the invisible assassin. Before she even had time to move, the knife pulled itself out of the dead body of the blue mare with a sickening squelch. The blade zoomed to the side and buried itself into the black pony’s throat. As the black stallion jerked awake and gurgled in pain while convulsing, the knife ripped out and caused a fountain of blood to gush out of the dying pony. Neon Streak eyed over to the last of their prisoners, a hot pink mare with purple and pink striped hair. She knew why their attacker was killing them. He was doing it so they couldn’t interrogate them for answers. Applejack noticed her green companion darting to stand between the hovering knife and the pink mare. She gasped in shock and raised her hoof in protest as the knife zoomed straight for the green pony. Neon Streak flinched her eyes shut as she saw the knife traveling at her with such speed. “Neon!” The orange mare cried out and leapt for the green mare. She tackled Neon Streak and drove her to the ground protectively. The two heard the sound of a pony huffing in exertion and the distinctive noise of hooves leaving the ground in front of them and landing behind them. They looked over just in time to see the knife heading straight for the bounded mare’s neck area. The two horrified pony’s averted their eyes and cringed as they listened to the sound of the blade sticking into and undoubtedly killing the oblivious pony. Applejack slowly forced herself to look forward to see if the knife was returning for them, only to see that the blade was still in the corpse of the pink mare. She noticed a bunch of books jostle as something ran into one of the shelves as it rushed towards the door. The two heard the sound of the bell chiming and watched as something flung the door open hastily and ran out. “Oh… m-my.” Applejack stammered in shock as she surveyed the scene around them while getting up. There were pools of blood slowly forming under the three ponies’ bodies. Some of the shelves and part of the floor and ceiling had blood spatter on them from where the black stallion had his throat sliced open. The entire scene made the orange mare sick to her stomach. The two looked towards the back of the store to see Glimmer Shine rushing out of the back door with an alarmed expression on his face. He began to speak up to ask what was wrong when suddenly he was silenced by the gruesome sight in front of him. “What happened in here?” Glimmer asked with a shocked expression while looking around at the dead bodies and general clutter of books lying on the floor from the struggle. The yellow stallion’s eyes widened when he saw that Applejack had a fresh gash in her chest that was still bleeding profusely. “Applejack, are you alright?!” Glimmer Shine asked with an alarmed tone while rushing up to the orange mare to examine her wound. Applejack winced in pain as she felt the wound sending shooting pains throughout the surrounding area. “We got attacked by some invisible thing… where’s that other pony?” Applejack asked while trying to fight through the pain as Glimmer Shine pressed a cloth he produced from a pocket on his vest against the gash to stop the bleeding. “I don’t know… I found the only other exit, but it was locked from this side. It’s like he just disappeared…” Glimmer stated in utter confusion as he reported his failure to find the red furred pony. “Disappeared…?” Neon Streak repeated the stallion’s words curiously while observing the path to the front door. There were tiny droplets of blood on the floor that seemed to follow a pattern that led towards the door. The blood droplets were too far away from the three dead ponies to warrant Neon to think that they came from them. “I think Tom was right when he said that we aren’t dealing with regular ponies.” The green mare said in a troubled tone while turning to look at her two companions. Applejack and Glimmer Shine shared concerned looks with the black haired pony as they caught on to what she was insinuating. Chapter 42: The Graveyard Shift“Here we are.” Sunspot announced to her two followers as she stood in front of the gate to Ponyville Cemetery. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took a moment to admire the vast stretch of land that held rows upon rows of gravestones and monuments of many sizes and shapes. Although they knew about the cemetery, the two ponies had not visited there before now. After all, they had no reason to. “Wow… it’s a lot bigger than I expected.” Rainbow Dash said in astonishment as she panned her head around to view the extent of the fenced in area. There was a lot of open space between the fence, and even the gravestones, giving the cemetery a vast and open feel to it. The way the sun cast shadows from the taller statues and gravestones onto the emerald green grass created an almost surreal atmosphere. The two ponies were certainly glad that they weren’t visiting at night to say the least. As they walked into the graveyard, they felt very somber and creeped out while silently walking forward. “Do you know how many graves were robbed?” Fluttershy asked while looking around to inspect the inscriptions on the graves she passed as well as searching for any open graves. “Oddly enough, only one grave was dug up.” Sunspot replied with a puzzled expression on her face. She had no idea why anyone would bother stealing just one body, or why anyone would want to steal a body in the first place. “Do you think it was the hooded ponies that did it?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while thinking about the incident further. “I don’t know… but I would like to think that any respectable pony would leave the dead alone… what has this world come to when people start attacking schools and hospitals and digging up graves?” Sunspot shook her head and sighed sadly as she thought about the atrocities that the group of ponies was performing. “Well I don’t know what the hay is wrong with them, but I sure know that we need to stop them.” Rainbow Dash said with slight anger while thinking about everything the hooded ponies had done to her and her friends. “We will, but for now we just need to find that grave.” Sunspot shrugged in irritation as she looked around for the open grave. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash shared a look of exasperation as they realized just how difficult it was to locate a single open grave in a cemetery. The three pegasus’s slowly walked down the middle of the cemetery while keeping their eyes peeled and scanning the areas to the side in search of the grave. The silence between them gave them time to dwell on the eerie atmosphere around them. Even though it was daytime, it was still mildly disturbing to be walking around a cemetery in utter silence, especially given the ponies’ overactive imaginations that had been given a boost from all of the frightening monsters they had encountered over the past few days. Suddenly, an abnormal color along the ground caught Fluttershy’s eye. She looked closer to discover that the odd color was in fact the dirt that surrounded an open pit in front of a gravestone. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she realized her discovery. “Hey guys, look over here.” The yellow mare exclaimed while trotting over to the open grave and peering into the gaping hole. The other two ponies quickly rushed over to join their companion in front of the pit. “Hmm… whoever was buried here must have been dead for a long time… I can barely read this.” Rainbow Dash stated while squinting as she tried to make out the faded etching on the crumbling gravestone. The cyan mare shrugged in frustration as she gave up on making out the words on the stone. Even without knowing the exact date of the pony’s death, it was obvious that this grave had been around for a long time. “I don’t see anything around here that could tell us anything about what happened.” Fluttershy said while observing the hole for any sign of clues. Sunspot brought a pull cord from her vest up to her face that had her locators on it. “Hey, could you two back up a little? This thing is really sensitive to anything in front of it.” Sunspot asked and waited for the two ponies to move. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash obeyed her instructions and backed up until they were behind the orange mare. Sunspot twisted the bottom of the sand filled vial until it clicked twice. The sand flashed red on and off a few times to indicate that the charm was functional. The suited pony scanned the vial around the open grave while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watched in amazement. “What’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while observing the strangely hypnotic neon red glowing sand as it shifted and pulsed inside the bottle. “It’s one of the locators I told you about when we met. It uses heat signatures and other methods to scan for living things. I set it to pick up the presence of things that have previously been here rather than directly looking for body heat. It might take a minute to pick it up, so bear with me.” Sunspot explained while holding the vial over the ground near the pit. “I get it… so you’re looking for the presence of the ponies that dug up the grave.” Fluttershy said as she figured out what the suited mare was doing. The suited mare nodded to the yellow pony, giving her a small sense of accomplishment that made her smile softly. “That’s the idea… it might not tell us who they were, but it will tell us if it was actually ponies that did this.” Sunspot stated while looking at the vial feverishly for a reading. The sand suddenly flashed red again as she hovered it in the air above the grave. The pegasus smiled before twisting the bottom of the vial once more and letting the pull cord retract. “Well, I’m picking up a relatively fresh signal here. Someone definitely dug this guy up… probably happened a few hours ago too.” She said with a slightly disheartened expression. The other two ponies shared in her disgust at the people who did this. “Man… what kind of depraved individual steals a dead body from a cemetery?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically with a disappointed expression. Fluttershy and Sunspot shared a gloomy frown with the cyan pegasus as they walked away from the grave. Fluttershy turned to look at the open grave one last time and bowed her head in respect to the pony that was buried there. She then turned back and joined her friends in leaving the cemetery. “I cannot believe that I’m stealing a dead body from a cemetery…” Cotton Quill huffed in exhaustion as he struggled to carry the burlap sack on his back. He had been walking for about ten minutes after spending the better part of the pre morning hours digging up the skeletal remains of the pony that was now weighing him down. “Lighten up Cotton… things like this are exactly what you need to build character.” Raincloud said in a jokingly sarcastic tone. She walked just ahead of the struggling unicorn as he carried the body on his back. The two were a far ways into The Everfree Forest. At this pace, they would reach the mansion in a few minutes. That is, if Cotton Quill didn’t pass out from over exertion before they made it there. Although it was relatively cold from the morning forest air, the white pony was building up a great deal of sweat and body heat. “Shouldn’t you be the one carrying this thing? I thought this was your mission anyway.” Cotton said in slight annoyance while trying his hardest not to fall flat to the floor. Raincloud chuckled warmly at the white unicorn’s suggestion. “This is my mission Cotton, but you weren’t busy so I figured that I would give you something to do. Raven Feather did say that we could use you for anything we wanted after all.” The pale blue mare said casually. Cotton was upset that he was being used for cheap labor, but he was also slightly happy to be used as a slave rather than an experiment. “Can’t you have your shadow carry this thing?” Cotton asked with a slight hint of nervousness while thinking back to Raincloud’s ghastly servant. The white pony shuddered as he remembered the creature’s soulless purple eyes staring at him like he was a plaything. Raincloud scoffed in annoyance at the proposal. “He probably could, but my shadow is weakened by direct sunlight.” The pegasus explained while glaring angrily at the orange light streaming down through the faint openings in the trees. “I don’t want to waste that much energy projecting him in daylight just to do what you could easily do with your magic.” Raincloud said in a belittling tone that made Cotton feel like a lazy waste of space. “I can’t use my magic to carry it… it’s actually harder to carry heavy things long distances with magic than it is with my strength.” Cotton explained in an attempt at getting her to lay off of him. The blue mare merely rolled her eyes. “Excuses excuses…” Raincloud droned in annoyance while contemplating how much it would tire her out to have her shadow murder Cotton and bury him out in the forest. The pegasus’s cold tone made Cotton feel uneasy as she looked straight ahead and avoided looking at him. “Not to sound annoying or anything, but are we almost there?” The white unicorn said in as gentle a way as possible. He didn’t want to irritate the pegasus any more than she already was, but he was pretty sure that his legs would snap like twigs if he had to walk much further. “*Sigh*… too late.” Raincloud muttered to herself while glaring her eyes behind her without turning her head. She was about to berate the whining pony, when suddenly the sight of the mansion coming into view in front of her stopped the pale pegasus. “Looks like you’re in luck Cotton. Home sweet home...” Raincloud said with a relieved expression. It seemed like the pegasus actually found the gloomy estate to be comforting, but how she could find the eerie mansion to be anything close to homey was beyond Cotton Quill. “Thank Celestia…” The white unicorn breathed a sigh of relief as he picked up the pace with the knowledge that he could rest soon. Raincloud furrowed her forehead in disdain at the pony’s expression. The two hastily, or rather, as hastily as Cotton could carry the bag on his back, made their way through the yard and up to the entryway to the mansion. Raincloud opened the door and went inside, smirking as she heard the sound of Cotton groaning in pain as the door smacked into his face. After rubbing the red mark on his head, the white unicorn sat the heavy bag down beside him and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Where does Raven Feather want this thing?” Cotton asked while panting from exhaustion. Raincloud casually pointed her hoof up the staircase to the left and looked at the unicorn with a blank expression. “Upstairs.” The pale mare said while trying to hide her enjoyment of seeing Cotton’s face shrink into a frustrated expression. “Screw this…” Cotton huffed in annoyance while lighting up his horn. He would deal with the stress of lifting the body with magic, as long as he didn’t need to carry it upstairs with his physical strength. Raincloud watched as the unicorn grunted from exertion while lifting the bag into the air with his magic. Cotton levitated the body up the stairs and walked up along with it. He waited for the pale blue mare to follow him upstairs so she could lead him to where they had agreed to meet the rest of the group. Cotton growled in exhaustion as he pushed his body to the limit just to carry the bag a little ways off the ground. He thought that his head was going to explode from the strain he was putting on his horn. Just as the white unicorn thought he was going to pass out from how tired he was, Raincloud went to the side of the hallway and opened a door. “Right this way.” Raincloud said while holding the door open and beckoning inside the room like a doorman. Cotton was far too relieved to even care about the snarky pegasus’s act. He quickly made his way inside and looked around. Inside the room, Cotton could see that Raven Feather, Grimwood, and Dust Kicker were standing around a table with a small group of other ponies clad in the greyish black hoodies that the cult wore on most days. Most of them opted to have their hoods down rather than walk around the mansion all day with obscured vision. “Raincloud, it’s so good to see that you’re back.” Raven Feather looked past Cotton Quill in order to greet the Pegasus. Raincloud smiled and closed the door behind her before walking around the sluggish white unicorn to get closer to the group. “I assume that you got a body with the specifics I asked for?” Raven Feather asked without any doubt in her eyes as she smiled at the blue mare walking forward. Raincloud nodded and glanced back to Cotton to point at the bag. “Yep, one complete pony skeleton as you requested Miss Raven Feather.” The pegasus said with a gleeful smile while pointing at the body as if it were her presenting it to Raven Feather herself. “Good… let me take that off your hooves Cotton.” Raven Feather suggested while raising her hoof in the air. An aura of pulsating shadows formed around the tip of her hoof. Cotton suddenly felt a powerful tug on the bag that forced it out of his grip. He would have let go courteously, but the earth pony didn’t give him a chance as she brushed aside his magic like taking something out of the hands of a child. The green eyed pony waved her arm around as she guided the bag over to the table. She opened the bag and slid out the remains of the pony and levitated them in the air while discarding the bag. Raven Feather took a moment to gently set the skeleton down on the table without breaking off any bones. Everyone gathered around to watch the black mare as she inspected the body to ensure that it met her expectations. A small smirk crept across Raven Feather’s face as she nodded in satisfaction. The skeleton was just as complete as Raincloud claimed it to be. The only flaws to be seen were a few cracks along the surface of the bones and the faded and dusty appearance that came with age. “What is this for anyway? Didn’t Dust Kicker already make zombies out in the forest?” Cotton asked curiously while glancing over to the brown pegasus. Raven Feather turned to face the unicorn and gave him a condescending expression. “That was just to see if the spell worked on a small scale… this is to see if it will work on older bodies.” Raven Feather explained before returning her attention to the skeleton in front of her. The black mare channeled energy to her hoof and recited some words from memory. Soon enough, a small wisp of green light appeared from her hoof and started circling into the air. Cotton watched eagerly as the green wisp slowly descended into the body. Even with his experience with human magic, he had never seen anything like this. The white unicorn leaned a little closer to the table and watched in expectation as the wisp disappeared into the body. Everyone watched the body with more or less blank expressions as they observed from afar. Meanwhile, Cotton inched closer to the skeleton curiously as nothing appeared to be happening. He hesitated and watched for anything to happen, before scratching his head in confusion as the body remained motionless. “Did it work…?” Cotton asked while walking right up to the table and observing the skeleton. “I can’t see anything going o-” the unicorn was suddenly interrupted by the alarming sight of the body jolting to life and raising its head up in front of him. The skeleton’s hollow eye sockets lit up and glowed a bright and eerie green that seemed to pierce the white pony’s very being. The undead pony’s jaw articulated and clattered open as an unearthly screech emanated from the monster. “AAAAHHH!” Cotton screamed in terror as the jolt of the body shooting upwards sent a shockwave of fear through his body. As if in response to the petrified pony’s scream, the skeleton screamed again as it lifted its head up further, almost like it was enraged at the unicorn. The white pony could feel his vocal cords straining from how loud he was screaming, yet he felt compelled to continue the frightened outburst as he recoiled from the table in a desperate attempt at getting away. While he pulled away from the table one of Cotton’s arms knocked into the skeleton, causing the undead creature to careen off the table and slam into the floor while the horrified pony crawled backwards to escape. The skeleton’s many bones dislocated from the impact of the fall. The entire body separated and the skull stopped glowing as it bounced along the floor with the rest of the scattered pile of bones. Cotton didn’t even care about the fact that he just destroyed the skeleton. All he cared about was getting away. After reaching a safe distance, Cotton turned his head back to see that nearly everyone in the group was laughing at him. Raincloud was leaning on Dust Kicker as she held her side with one arm while laughing uncontrollably. Dust Kicker was also laughing, but not quite as hard as his sister. Grimwood was quietly snickering with a small grin on his face. Even Raven Feather was chuckling to herself as she watched the panicked unicorn. “What’s so funny? I just broke that thing into pieces…” Cotton couldn’t believe that he was reminding the group of his screw up, but he was so dumbfounded at their lack of anger that he felt it necessary to question them. “First off Cotton… *Snort*” Raven Feather said while catching her breath from laughing so hard. “We’re laughing because you scream like a little girl…*Chortle*” The black mare got the last of her laughter out into the open before clearing her throat and returning a more serious expression to her face. “And secondly…” The green eyed pony started to speak, when she was interrupted by the sound of something sliding on the ground. Cotton turned his head forward and widened his eyes in surprise as he saw the numerous bones of the skeleton sliding on the floor towards the already reforming body. The unicorn watched in amazement as the undead pony’s legs, ribs, and other assorted bones slid to the body as it staggered up on the two legs it already had in place. The bones levitated into the air upon reaching the body, where they flew to their correct anatomical location and clicked into place. Finally, the skull lifted up and reattached itself to its headless body. The eye sockets of the skull flashed green a few times before the eerie glow returned in full. “We’re not angry with you because for once… we made a plan that is idiot proof.” Raven Feather commented with a smirk as the skeletal pony moaned loudly. The guttural noise sounded like some kind of primordial beast was wailing at its prey. Knowing that the disturbing noise was coming from a dead pony, and actually seeing said pony standing in front of him made Cotton extremely nervous. The skeletal pony took a step forward and growled at Cotton before Raven Feather stuck her hoof out and channeled shadow energy to it. The undead creature looked at her for a moment before stepping back and waiting obediently while looking at the black mare for further instructions. “Fascinating… it looks like the spell worked perfectly. It almost tried ripping you to pieces Cotton.” Raven Feather stated with a giddy smile on her face. The green eyed mare almost sounded a little too excited at the prospect of Cotton being used as a skeleton’s chew toy. “Yes… that’s fine and dandy I suppose…” The white unicorn chuckled nervously while watching the animate skeleton in front of him. “But what do you intend on doing with all of this anyway? I might not be performing spells for you anymore, but I would at least like to know what I just brought this heavy… fellow here for.” Cotton spoke in a gentle tone while addressing the skeleton, as if he would understand the unicorn and become enraged again. “Cotton’s got a point Raven Feather… you have been rather secretive lately.” Raincloud stated curiously while turning to look at her leader. “Between me digging up dead bodies in a cemetery, and Dust Kicker playing Dr. Frankenstein out in the woods, we know absolutely nothing about what the plan is.” The pale blue pegasus explained while looking over to her brother for support. Dust Kicker nodded in agreement as he too wondered what the black mare had in mind. Raven Feather giggled sinisterly as she thought of the scope of her plan. She decided that it was about time she filled in her two accomplices as to what her devious intentions were for their labor. She turned to face the group and looked at each of them thoughtfully. “Well… you know how the princesses will be in town tomorrow to make a public appearance to notify everyone in Ponyville about us?” Raven Feather chuckled as she thought about how much attention they were getting from the two alicorns. Everyone nodded in response while waiting eagerly for the green eyed mare to continue. “Wait… you don’t mean-” Raincloud started to ask curiously as she figured out the earth pony’s plan until the black mare spoke up to interrupt her. “Precisely, Raincloud. I intend to show up for the speech and show every pony there just why they should fear us. With the spell I found, we will be able to flood town square with dozens upon dozens of these beauties.” Raven Feather explained while pointing over to the lone skeleton standing idly in front of the group. “Where are you going to get the bodies?” Dust Kicker asked while thinking about the matter further. “I don’t suppose Cotton is going to be able to dig up that many for you in a day.” The pegasus and earth pony glanced over to Cotton suggestively, causing beads of sweat to roll down his face. “Relax Cotton… I have thought ahead. The spell I’m going to use will create a thick cloud that will produce that green mist that brought our friend here back to life. The mist will sink into the ground and create an army of skeletons that will attack everything in sight. And if there aren’t any bodies to work with, then it will just make copies of this guy here.” Raven Feather explained her plan in great detail. The black mare took a lot of pride in her scheme as she went over the sections of the plot with a devious grin on her face. “Wow… that’s pretty impressive.” Raincloud said in an amazed tone. “And that isn’t the bulk of my plot either. We’re going to kill the elements of harmony while we’re at it.” Raven Feather stated with a sinister tone in her voice. The others were shocked to hear that such a drastic measure was being taken. However, one pony was more shocked than anyone else to hear the black mare’s announcement. “Kill the elements… but why? I thought we agreed on letting them live until we unlocked the power of the eternal night.” Grimwood asked with dismay clear on his face. Raven Feather was sad to dash the young colt’s hopes, but she had to do what was necessary for the good of their final goal. “Sorry Grim… I know you were excited to see them suffer, but we need them out of the picture. They are the only ones powerful enough to stop the eternal night once it’s started, so I would much rather get rid of them now rather than risk them interfering later.” The black mare said while walking over and putting a loving hoof on her brother’s shoulder. Grimwood frowned in protest to his older sibling. He finally sighed and returned his usual blank expression. “Can we at least leave most of them alive? Their power only works as long as none of them are dead after all…” The pale colt argued in a passive tone, with only a slight pout to describe his emotions. Raven Feather smiled warmly and patted the younger pony on the head gingerly. “Oh all right… but I get to choose which ones we torture first when all of this is over, deal?” The black mare submitted to the childlike wiles of the younger colt. Grimwood nodded in satisfaction while sitting down and returning his indifferent attitude. Cotton wasn’t used to seeing this side of Raven Feather. Watching the green eyed earth pony smile happily and talk in such a lovey-dovey tone was almost disturbing in a way. “Anyway… Raincloud, you and Dust Kicker will be tasked with eliminating at least one of the elements of harmony, preferably Twilight Sparkle.” Raven Feather cringed in disgust as she thought of how much the princess’s student would interfere if left alive. Raincloud and Dust Kicker looked at the black mare with doubtful expressions. Both of their powers relied on total darkness to be most effective. Before they could think of the plan further, Raven Feather continued. “While the spell is active, the cloud will blot out the sun for several miles. You two will use this opportunity to head down to the library and see if she is there, while I stay at the square and make a pictogram so we can gather fear from the panicking citizens.” As the black pony explained her plan, Dust Kicker and Raincloud progressively started to enjoy their roles in it. “So I get to kill that whiny little brat myself? And it’s not even my birthday? Oh Raven Feather, you shouldn’t have.” Raincloud said while giggling deviously in anticipation. “But won’t the princesses try to stop the spell once they figure out what’s going on? They do still have that team of ponies and the slayer to help them out after all.” Cotton chimed in with a pessimistic tone. Raven Feather rolled her eyes as she listened to the doubtful unicorn voice his concerns. “I’m well aware of that Cotton, but I have another surprise in mind that should slow them down quite a bit. I just need Raincloud and Dust Kicker to… retrieve it for me.” Raven Feather said while looking over at the two siblings thoughtfully. “Both of us? Why can’t we just send Cotton to go get it?” Dust Kicker asked with a perplexed expression. Raincloud shared in her brother’s confusion as to why they had to be the ones to retrieve this mysterious surprise. “Because the surprise is unique in that it will require both of your skills to acquire it.” Raven Feather explained while walking over to a table and looking for a piece of paper and a quill. After finding the two items, she started scribbling away onto the paper. “Here, take this. Travel to this location after sunset, and get it back here before tomorrow.” Raven Feather instructed while handing the paper off to Dust Kicker. Raincloud peered over the brown pegasus’s shoulder and read the note alongside him. As the two read the words on the note, they raised their eyebrows in shock. “You want us to… but why?” Dust Kicker asked with a surprised tone. Raincloud gasped in revelation before letting a sinister grin creep across her face. “I think I get it Dust… I’ll explain on the way. Let’s just make our way down there so we have a head start.” The pale blue pony said with a devious snicker. Raven Feather was pleased to see that the pegasus had figured out the purpose for their trip. The two siblings walked out of the room with the note in hand for reference. After they had exited the room, everyone else sat in silence while thinking to themselves. Cotton Quill was left staring awkwardly at the eerie eyes of the skeleton pony, which hadn’t moved from its spot since Raven Feather halted it. *A few hours later.* Raven Feather and Grimwood were sitting in the mansion’s library idly. Cotton Quill had since parted with the two and gotten as far away as possible from the skeleton pony. Raven Feather was reading over some notes she had drawn on the desk in the middle of the room, while Grimwood was reading over some notes and books of his own off in the corner. Raven Feather looked over to the young colt thoughtfully. She found it curious that he was reading so intently into his small pile of books and notes. Usually the pale colt was content with just skimming through a few of the summoning books to look at the pictures and details of how to summon the monsters, but he seemed to be diligently studying whatever topic he was reading into. “What are you reading Grim?” The black mare asked curiously while trying to ascertain the book’s subject matter by the title. It appeared to be a book on old folklore having to do with human legends and prophecies. Grimwood looked up from his book to meet eyes with his sister. He seemed a little bit apprehensive as he thought about how to answer. “Nothing much… just looking at some old writings about the eternal night… what the humans thought it was, how they thought it could be started and stopped, that sort of stuff.” Grimwood stated with a casual tone before returning to his book. Raven Feather thought it a little odd that he was surrounded by notes that she didn’t recognize, but she figured that he was working on a section of the book that used a language that the group didn’t use in their note writing. “I’m just concerned that we might have gotten something wrong when we deciphered the prophecy…” Grimwood added with a slightly disheartened expression. Raven Feather could tell that he was worried that they might mess up the spell, or even worse. She was pleased to see that her brother shared her strong desire to succeed in the ritual. “Don’t worry about that too much Grim, I have everything under control. We will be this world’s new rulers soon enough, I promise you that.” The black mare said in a reassuring tone. Grimwood sighed while staring into his notes blankly. Before the two could return to their solemn thoughts, they were interrupted by the sound of the library door opening and an exhausted red earth pony bolting through the door. Raven Feather and Grimwood looked over to see Shadow Mist walking into the library while clutching his arm and panting heavily. “Raven Feather!” The red stallion exclaimed in a wheezy tone while breathing rapidly. The black mare stood up from her seated position and walked over to the exhausted earth pony with a concerned expression. “Shadow Mist, what happened to you?” Raven Feather asked with slight alarm while examining the red pony’s injury. It appeared as if he had cut himself on something sharp due to the presence of a small gash in his arm that was still bleeding. “I was keeping an eye on things down at Cotton’s store, when two of those ponies in vests showed up with the element of honesty. They were looking for Cotton and wanted to ask him some questions having something to do with the princess.” Shadow Mist explained his findings as quickly and clearly as he could with his exhaustion. “They know about Cotton’s involvement with us then?” Raven Feather reasoned with a disconcerted expression. “I believe so… I tried to jump them with the three workers that were there, but they got captured so I had to… take care of the problem.” Shadow Mist replied with a stern expression of resolve. He didn’t take pride in eliminating his fellow cult members, but he had to in order to prevent them from talking. “You did well Shadow Mist… how did you get this wound?” Raven Feather frowned sympathetically as she looked at how deep the cut on the pony’s arm was. “They knocked me down while I had a knife. I must have cut myself on the way down with it.” Shadow Mist cringed in pain as he removed his hoof from cradling the injury. Raven Feather returned a more serious expression to her face while backing up from the red pony. “Go get Grimwood to heal you… I’m going to go tell Cotton to stay here from now on.” Raven Feather said in an irritated tone while walking towards the door. The black mare exited the room and stormed down the hallway to go berate the white unicorn on his poor conduct in keeping himself anonymous. After Raven Feather had left the room, Grimwood put his book down and got up while Shadow Mist limped over to him. He examined the injury to determine how much energy it would take to heal it back to normal. “Raven Feather intends to kill the elements of harmony tomorrow.” The young colt said in a dull monotone while healing the wound with his shadow magic. The red furred pony lifted an eyebrow in surprise at the statement. “Did you try to talk her out of it?” Shadow Mist asked quizzically. Grimwood sighed in annoyance before looking at the earth pony with a sour expression. “I couldn’t talk her out of it without making her suspicious…” The pale colt replied in a frustrated tone. Shadow Mist groaned in annoyance while shaking his head. “For goodness sake Grimwood, just explain it to her.” The red stallion stated in a pleading tone. Grimwood shook his head in denial. “I already tried explaining it to her… she just thinks I’m paranoid. She’s read that old legend so many times that it’s engrained into her head that she’s right about it.” Grimwood huffed in defeat. Shadow Mist furrowed his brow and closed his eyes in thought. He finally sighed before looking back at the young colt. “We won’t even have a chance at correcting the ritual unless the elements of harmony are alive.” The red pony said in an annoyed tone. “I know… which is exactly why you will be supervising the action tomorrow. I want you to keep them alive until you have what we need from each of them.” Grimwood explained in a serious tone. Shadow Mist nodded while admiring his newly healed arm. “*Sigh* Grim… I’ve done everything I can to help you out here. It was hard enough keeping those idiots alive back in the woods and at the school when the others weren’t trying to kill them. The human made it so I didn’t have to intervene much, but it’s still hard trying to keep this under Raven Feather’s nose. I really think you should just tell her.” Shadow Mist said in a pleading tone. “Sorry Shadow Mist, but I can’t get her to believe me… you’re going to need to do this if we’re going to succeed.” Grimwood said in a sympathetic tone. “Now… do you think you can handle this?” He asked curiously. “It shouldn’t be too hard to collect the necessary materials… I suppose I should start with Twilight Sparkle seeing how she is the most likely to die first.” Shadow Mist said while thinking about Raven Feather’s deep hatred of the purple mare. The young colt nodded at his colleague as he explained his plan of action. “We need to perform the ritual within a few days of collecting all of the supplies from the elements… I think I know of a way to speed up the process…” Grimwood chuckled briefly while thinking about his plan in detail. Shadow Mist nodded to the young pony before turning and walking away. The red pony had much on his mind. So much to do in so little time, but he had to do it for the sake of the family he had become a part of over the years. Chapter 43: Making Preparations*POP* A loud snap erupted from the small vial in front of Twilight. The noise, on top of the bottle jumping out of her hooves made her yelp in fright and jump back instinctively. As the unicorn watched smoke rise out of the vial as it rolled back and forth on the table, she noticed Glitterball walking over to her from the other end of the table. “You alright?” Glitter asked with mild concern while watching the frightened unicorn. Twilight slowed her rapid breathing as she realized that no danger was present. She then looked over to the rainbow haired pony with slight embarrassment. “Yeah… I think I just added too much of that blue liquid.” The purple mare huffed in a downcast tone. Glitterball frowned slightly before picking up the smoking vial with her magic and inspecting it. After satisfying that there was no more of the blue liquid, she shook the bottle gently to dump the rest of the smoke out. “Sorry about that. I guess I should have told you that strobes can be a little bit volatile if they’re not prepared right.” Glitterball’s statement didn’t make Twilight feel much better about her failure. She thought she knew enough about magic and potions to at least get her by, but apparently she was mistaken. The purple mare sighed before taking the vial from the other unicorn and picking up the pouch that held the blue liquid she was using. “How did you find out how to make this stuff anyway?” Twilight asked while cautiously eyeing how much and how fast she was pouring the liquid into the vial. Glitterball shrugged her shoulders in indication that she was clueless. “We didn’t make the strobes… those were all Princess Luna’s idea. I haven’t even had a chance to tinker with them up until now.” Glitter explained while looking over to her side of the table where Rarity had been watching her work. There were many more open vials of different shapes and types strewn around, and there were a few more ingredients than Twilight had been given. The purple pony examined the intriguing items from afar with burning curiosity. “I could help you with the experimenting if… you know… you need some help?” Twilight offered with a helpful, and perhaps a little too cheery, smile. It wasn’t hard to tell that the unicorn was eager to get her hooves on some new magical ingredients to tinker with. Glitterball smiled politely at the offer, but shook her head in refusal. “Sorry Twilight, but for now I just want you to focus on the strobes. I will handle tweaking the other charms myself. As you can see, it is hard enough to put together the strobes the way the princess showed us. I don’t want to blow up the library after you’ve been nice enough to let us stay here and work.” Glitter stated while glancing over to the vial Twilight was working on. The lavender pony sighed in disappointment before returning to her work. “Ok… I guess I can live with that.” Twilight said in a deflated manner while fidgeting around with the vial in her hooves and wondering what she could have done with all of the other magical ingredients. She felt the vial nearly slipping out of her hooves in her distracted state and panicked slightly as she fumbled to keep the bottle from falling. Glitter giggled silently while turning to walk away so the purple mare wouldn’t see her snickering at her mishap. As Glitterball was returning to her side of the table, she overheard Spike and Peppermint talking over by the back wall. Rarity and Twilight noticed the two conversing as they started laughing at something that was said. “What are you two talking about?” Rarity asked quizzically. She never figured that Spike would socialize this well with a complete stranger so soon. The two stopped themselves from laughing while turning to face the three curious onlookers. “We were just telling a few stories from our past.” Peppermint spoke up casually. Spike nodded in agreement before speaking himself. “Yeah, we actually have quite a bit in common.” The young dragon added with a smirk. The others smiled at seeing the two interact. Twilight was happy to see that Spike had made a new friend. “That’s good to hear Spike. Maybe after all of this is over we can go hang out with them sometime.” Twilight suggested while looking over to Glitterball. The white unicorn nodded in approval of the idea. Spike was happy to hear that he would be able to stay friends with the group. Suddenly, a knock at the door pulled everyone’s attention away. Being closer to the front of the library, Glitterball decided to volunteer to walk over and open it. As the white unicorn opened the door and looked outside, she was greeted by the sight of Glimmer Shine, Neon Streak, and Applejack standing outside with worried expressions. Glitter’s eyes widened in shock as she noticed that the orange mare had a large and bloodied gauze pad held to her chest by medical tape. “Oh my gosh! What happened to you?!” Glitter asked with an alarmed tone while watching the three walking inside. As Twilight and the others watched the group enter, they gasped in shock as they saw their injured friend. “Oh dearie me! Are you ok Applejack?” Rarity asked with a concerned expression while holding her hoof up to her mouth in horror. Applejack winced in pain as she looked down to the bandage. The gauze pad had already been bled through as the wound underneath continued to pour out the crimson fluid. The sight of the red bandage made everyone feel sick with worry for the orange mare. Everyone in the room turned to Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak for an explanation as to why Applejack had been hurt so badly. The two shared a quick glance to each other before frowning sadly. Glimmer Shine stepped forward and decided to tell the group about what happened. “When we got to the bookstore, Cotton Quill wasn’t there. When we asked the guy at the front desk if he knew where he was, we got jumped by three ponies that were in there. Apparently the pony at the front desk has powers like that other guy out in the forest, because after we dealt with his three cronies he flat out vanished.” The yellow stallion explained with a disheartened expression. Applejack spoke up and interrupted Glimmer Shine to finish the story. “That feller… Ah think he said his name was Shadow Mist, he could turn invisible somehow. After the fight was over, one of the knives the three ponies used to attack us just floated in the air. It swung at me and got me pretty good. He would have done a lot more damage if Neon here didn’t tackle him.” The orange mare said while cringing in pain from her wound. Glitterball gently lowered the bandage enough to see how bad the gash was. The rainbow haired unicorn frowned with worry when she saw that the stab wound was still bleeding. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding by ourselves, so we came back here as fast as we could.” Neon Streak stated while cringing in sympathy at the large gash. Glitterball shook her head sadly as she came to the realization that her magic wouldn’t be able to close this size of a wound. “I don’t think I can heal this myself…” Glitter said with a somber tone. Twilight and the others felt a feeling of dread settle in their stomachs as they realized that the orange mare might bleed to death right in front of them. Spike and Rarity especially felt a sick feeling due to the sight of so much blood coming out of someone they knew. “Tom and the others might not be back for hours… what are we going to do?” Twilight fretted with concern while forcefully shoving the thought of her friend dying out of her mind. Suddenly, Peppermint walked up to the injured mare with a determined expression. Glitterball backed up and let the red haired stallion examine the farm pony. “Twilight, can you go get me a towel please?” Pepper asked with a calm demeanor. Twilight was slightly confused as to why he would need a towel, but she trusted that he knew what he was doing. “Right.” The purple mare said while trotting upstairs to fetch the requested item. Meanwhile, Applejack was left to wonder what the white pony had in mind for her. “What are you going to do with a towel?” The orange mare asked with a slightly nervous tone. Much to her dismay, she noticed Peppermint frown slightly as he turned to face her. The red haired pony reached down to his vest and pulled up another vial that had a strange design traced into the casing. The bottle also had a conical tip that came out of one end with a small hole in the top. “I can use this to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding…” Peppermint paused and looked down apprehensively. “But the thing is, and I’m going to be honest with you here, it is probably going to hurt a lot… like, really a lot.” The white stallion’s explanation made Applejack’s eyes widen in fright. The towel wasn’t to clean anything up, it was for her to bite on so she had something to help her cope with a great deal of pain. She could practically feel the anxiety attack coming on as she started breathing rapidly. The orange mare wasn’t normally scared of pain and medical treatments, but the severity of the situation and her shocked nerves from earlier were starting to get to her. “Well… thanks for being honest Ah guess.” Applejack stated while chuckling nervously. Despite the orange mare’s attempt at humor, everyone could tell that she was extremely nervous about going through with this. “Hey, take it easy… you don’t want to be hyperventilating when you’re already losing blood. How do you feel?” Pepper asked in a gentle tone with a sincerely compassionate expression on his face. “Now that you mention it… Ah feel a little bit light headed.” Applejack replied while taking note of the dizzy sensation she felt. “That’s normal all things considered… don’t worry, I can give you something to deal with the pain, and it should be over really quick.” The red haired pony said in an attempt at calming the anxious mare down. Applejack took in a few deep breaths to regulate her breathing back to normal. She then focused on mentally preparing herself for the pain she would be feeling. “Can’t you just apply pressure to it to stop the bleeding?” Rarity asked with almost as much concern as Applejack was feeling. The sight of blood made her queasy and sick on a normal day, but seeing her friend pouring out the crimson liquid was making the white unicorn’s stomach flip uneasily. “Normally I would, but she’s bleeding pretty badly and I’m not sure if we have enough bandages with us. I would rather stop the bleeding immediately rather than run the risk of her losing too much blood before we could get her to a hospital.” Peppermint explained with relative calmness that impressed Applejack and the others. Judging from his timid nature, the ponies would never peg the white pony to be able to focus so much while someone was injured like this. “Ok, I’m back.” Twilight announced while rushing down the stairs with a sense of urgency. She had a small towel levitating beside her as she trotted up to the group and handed the item off to Peppermint. The white stallion wasted no time and put on some blue rubber gloves he produced from a pouch on his vest. After unfolding the towel and inspecting it to ensure that it would suffice, Peppermint handed the cloth over to Applejack. The orange mare eyed the item apprehensively while her mind raced as to what kind of torment she was about to undertake. Before she could hesitate any longer, the farm pony winced in pain and looked down to see her wound still bleeding through the gauze pad. Not wanting to waste any more time, Applejack shrugged in defeat and placed the towel in her mouth. “Just sit tight and look at me Applejack… Pepper is going to give you a little shot of some local anesthetic before he does anything.” Glitterball explained in a gentle tone while keeping the nervous mare’s attention on her. Applejack knew she was just trying to distract her from the white pony preparing her skin for an injection from a needle. As much as the farm pony hated needles, she knew that the small stick of the syringe would not compare to the pain that would follow. She tried her best to keep her attention on her friends and Glitterball as they gave her compassionate expressions. “Do you feel this?” Peppermint asked while pinching a section of skin near the wound. Applejack felt nothing more than a slight tingly sensation to alert her to the pinch. “N-no…” Applejack stammered nervously while taking a few more breaths through the towel. The experience reminded the orange mare of waiting for a doctor to perform a painful operation. “Alright Applejack, I’m going to just remove your bandage and get my cauterizer ready. I’ll let you know before I do anything else.” The red haired pony explained to inform the nervous mare of his actions as she looked away while he worked. Pepper slowly removed the gauze bandage and placed a new one just below the wound to catch any blood that trickled out before he sealed the wound. As the white stallion unclipped the strange vial from his vest and twisted the bottom, the bottle emitted a monotonous hum while a red light flickered to life at the tip of the vial. He pressed the button on the bottom of the bottle to test it out before applying it to the orange pony’s skin. Everyone watched silently as the very top of the nozzle glowed red hot. “Ok… here we go. I’ll try to get it done as fast as possible.” Peppermint stated while lowering the pointed tip of the vial towards the wound. Applejack tensed up slightly and averted her eyes as she waited for the process to start. “Mmmph!” The orange mare groaned in pain while clenching her teeth down on the towel. Even through the anesthetic she could still feel a sharp burning sensation that made her nerves scream out for mercy. Everyone watched with empathy clear on their faces as their friend tried her hardest to remain still through the pain. Applejack thought it was a little bit odd that she had to put so much effort into helping the person causing her this much suffering, but that was how medicine worked after all. Just before the orange mare thought she could take no more, the flaming hot sensation ceased and a relieving feeling of coolness washed over the area where Peppermint was working on. She looked down to see that her wound had ceased its seemingly endless bleeding. “See? Almost good as new… almost.” Peppermint stated in a jesting manor before realizing that the gash still looked rather gruesome, even without blood pouring from it. Despite her unsightly wound, Applejack chuckled as she gave the white pony a thankful smile. “Thanks Pepper… Ah don’t know what would have happened to me if you didn’t step in.” The orange mare said with a bright expression. Peppermint was happy to see another pony returned to health and happiness. “My pleasure… now let’s get you all fixed up so this can heal on its own.” Pepper said while reaching into a pouch on his vest to fetch another bandage. Suddenly, the group heard another knock on the door. Curious as to which of her friends it might be, Twilight took it upon herself to walk over and answer the door. After opening the door, the purple unicorn was greeted by the sight of Sunspot and her two pegasus friends. What Twilight didn’t expect to see however, was the sight of Pinkie Pie standing behind them. “Girls! It’s good to see you’re back… and, Pinkie?” Twilight asked in surprise as she noticed the pink pony behind the three flyers. Pinkie Pie smiled awkwardly and rubbed her arm as she realized how late she had been to arrive at the library. “Sorry I couldn’t be here earlier… I had some things to work out back at the corner. But now I’m ready to help out.” The party pony stated while returning her cheerful smile. Twilight was always pleased to see her friends and their own uniquely warm personalities. “Come on in everyone.” The purple mare said with a courteous smile while welcoming the four inside. Once inside, everyone walked forward to join the group. The group of ponies was surprised to see Applejack getting patched up by Peppermint. “What happened to you Applejack?” Rainbow Dash asked with slight concern as she watched the orange pony getting bandaged around the chest. She might not have been around for the worst part of it, but the cyan pony could tell that something bad happened. Applejack turned her head to face the pegasus to explain her injury. “We got attacked down at that bookstore… Ah’m fine now though, so it all turned out ok.” Applejack said with a cheery disposition. The cyan mare was still uneasy as to why they would be attacked, but decided to just be happy that her friend wasn’t badly hurt. “Any news from you guys?” Neon Streak asked curiously while looking to Sunspot for answers. The suited mare sighed while thinking of her relative lack of progress. “Well, we pretty much confirmed that someone stole a body. I found a trail from the grave that led out of the cemetery and down to the edge of town where it disappeared.” Sunspot’s news only made everyone feel more upset as to the obscene nature of their opponents. “Man… those guys must be sick in the head if they think doing all of this is alright.” Spike stated with slight disdain. He couldn’t believe that the society he grew up in could produce such despicable individuals. “Don’t worry Spike, we’ll catch them soon enough.” Twilight said in a reassuring voice while looking down at the young dragon. “Once Tom and the princesses get back, we can decide what to do next.” She said with a level of confidence that told Spike that she knew that they could win. Before anyone else could say anything, a knocking sound came from the door again. “That must be them now…” Twilight muttered while walking back over to the door and opening it, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Tom, Brimstoke, and the two alicorns standing outside. The purple mare smiled as she saw the small group. “Guys! It’s good to see you made it back.” Twilight greeted while beckoning the four inside. Now that the four had entered the library, the room was a bit crowded as everyone moved around to find their own spot to stand. After relaying all of the information that they had, Celestia and Luna thought about the matter deeply while trying to figure out the answers to the many questions that were plaguing them. Why were the hooded ponies doing so many experiments with dead bodies? Why did they take a dead body from a cemetery? And possibly the most important question, what would they do next? “So… all we know at this point is that whoever these ponies are, they are doing something that has to do with dead bodies, and we know the names of three of their members.” Celestia thought out loud while looking around to see if anyone had anything to add. “Brimstoke, what do you intend to do next?” The white alicorn asked the stallion quizzically. Brimstoke thought for a moment while everyone looked to him to see what his answer would be. “I say we try to track down those three names we have to see what comes up. In the meantime we should decipher that book that Tom and the others found out in the forest.” Brimstoke finally spoke with a confident tone. Everyone agreed with the white pony’s conclusion. “Then it’s settled. You should probably leave a few people here with Twilight to decipher that book tonight and tomorrow while you take care of that.” Luna suggested while looking over at the book that was lying on the table. “Just be sure to meet up with us by tomorrow Brimstoke. We will need you and most of the team with us when we make the speech.” Luna added while looking over at the white stallion. “Alright then… Pepper and I will stay here overnight while you guys sort all of that out… as long as it’s alright with Twilight of course.” Glitterball said while looking over to the purple unicorn for confirmation. “Right, of course… you two can stay as long as you want.” Twilight stated with a courteous smile. Peppermint nodded in agreement to the rainbow haired unicorn’s proposal. “You should be present at the speech as well Tom… I think it’s about time we properly introduce you to the rest of the town.” Luna suggested while looking at the human thoughtfully. Tom wasn’t sure how to feel about being stared at by a crowd of strange talking ponies, but he nodded in agreement anyway. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie sighed in disappointment. She was already upset that she arrived late, but now she had nothing to do, nothing to help her friends, nothing to contribute to the investigation, just plain nothing to do. This caused a feeling of sorrowful regret in the pink mare. Twilight noticed that her friend was looking down at the floor with a disheartened expression. It was very unusual to see the party pony without a smile on her face. The unicorn wondered what could have been wrong with her. “You ok Pinkie?” The purple mare asked with a tone of friendly concern. Pinkie looked up from her bored reflection and shrugged as she noticed that she had appeared more sullen than she thought. “Yeah… I’m just a little sad that I didn’t get here early enough to help you guys out.” The pink mare explained in a regretful tone. She took a moment to get over her negative feelings before adopting a less depressed expression. The group felt a little bad for the pink pony. After all, she only wanted to help them out with anything she could. They all wondered what it would be like for them if they were unable to contribute. While everyone else shared sympathetic frowns with the party pony, Celestia looked down in thought as an idea came to her. “You know Pinkie… I’m sure that we could use a little help with decorating the square for tomorrow.” The white alicorn’s proposal made the somber pony perk up instantly. “R-really?” Pinkie asked with a hopeful expression. It was clear that she would jump at the opportunity to do something like that. “Yes really… We were going to have to go without any decorations because nobody wanted to do it on such short notice, but if you want to step in and get the job done… I suppose we could-” Before the princess could even finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a cheerful outburst by the pink mare. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!” Pinkie stated with barely containable joy as she bounced up and down happily. Celestia was glad to see that her suggestion had returned the pink pony to her usual cheerful self. “Alright then, I think we should get going now. We have a lot to do in a short amount of time.” Luna said while moving towards the door. Celestia nodded as she decided that it was best to leave sooner rather than later. “Ok Glitterball, you be sure to let us know anything you find in that book.” Brimstoke instructed while everyone but Glitterball and Peppermint followed their leader. The unicorn nodded confidently while turning to her red haired partner for assurance. “What time should I be down there?” Tom asked the two alicorns with a sense of curiosity. Celestia turned to the boy and thought about it for a moment before replying. “We’ll send someone to pick you up. Just be sure to be up early.” Celestia said with a friendly smile. Tom chuckled at the notion that he needed to be reminded to get up early. “Sure thing.” The boy replied while waving to the departing group. Celestia and Luna gave the ponies, dragon, and human one last parting glance before heading out of the door with Pinkie Pie, Brimstoke, and his three teammates in tow. “So… is anyone heading down to the square tomorrow to check out the speech?” Rainbow Dash asked quizzically while turning to the group. Twilight obviously had to stay to help Glitterball and Peppermint with the book, but the others hadn’t really put much thought into whether or not they wanted to attend the speech. “I don’t know Rainbow Dash… Sweetie Belle has been practically begging me to bring her down here to… help out with the investigation as she puts it.” Rarity stated with an unsure tone. “So if it’s alright with Twilight, I think I will bring her down here tomorrow when there isn’t much going on.” She said while looking to the purple mare for confirmation. “Yeah, Applebloom has been bugging me about that too… do you think Ah could bring her down here for a while too?” Applejack asked while also turning to the purple unicorn for an answer. Twilight knew that she would probably be busy with deciphering the book, but the two fillies were usually well behaved enough. “Sure… that sounds like a great idea. Matter of fact, why don’t you go ask Scootaloo if she wants to come Rainbow Dash?” The purple unicorn suggested in an accepting tone. The cyan pegasus smiled at the idea of Scootaloo getting to stay at the library while Twilight and the others worked on the investigation. The orange filly had seemed so disappointed about not being able to assist the group in even the smallest way, so naturally sitting in the library while some crucial case work went on would do wonders for the young pegasus. “That sounds like a good idea… I’ll go by her place later and ask her. I should be able to swing her by here before the speech starts.” Rainbow Dash said happily. Everyone felt a warm sense of joy in knowing that they were doing something good for the three crusaders. “Oh yeah, by the way Rainbow Dash, I think I could go to the speech with you.” Fluttershy volunteered in a cheerful tone. She was pleased to see the cyan mare’s eyes light up with excitement. “Awesome! Maybe we could pick up something from Sugar Cube Corner after we’re done. I haven’t had a cupcake in like a week.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a warm smile as she made plans to hang out with a friend for the better part of the day. Tom was surprised to hear that sweets were such a large part of the ponies’ diets, but then again, he figured that with someone like Pinkie Pie around that there would be a lot of desserts and parties thrown around everywhere. “Well I’ll see you guys either tomorrow or some other time. If you don’t want to come in and wait around for something to do, I could just let you know when we find something of worth.” Twilight said while watching her friends heading towards the door. Everyone nodded and waved to the others as they left the library to carry on their daily business. “Guess it’s just us again.” Spike said while looking over to the book on the table. “Us and a lot of research…” He shrugged his shoulders and sighed in annoyance as he remembered what they would be doing for the rest of the day. Twilight could tell that the dragon was frustrated by the amount of work he would have to do. She didn’t want him to stress himself out so much because of something like this. The unicorn felt that the dragon should take his mind off of everything that had been going on, especially after his involvement with the incident at the hospital. “Don’t worry Spike. You don’t have to help us if you don’t want to. Peppermint and Glitterball will be plenty of help while Tom is at the speech, so you can take some time off to relax.” Twilight said while placing a hoof on Spike’s head and ruffling his scaly hair. The dragon felt a calming sense of peace as he thought about taking a day off to rest, but he also felt conflicted in that he wanted to help the purple unicorn. “Are you sure?” Spike asked with a doubtful expression, to which Twilight nodded in reply. The young dragon sighed in defeat before resolving to at least help a little bit before he went off to relax. “Hey Twilight, are you coming to help or are you going to leave us with all of this?” Glitterball asked in a jesting tone. Twilight pulled her attention away from her assistant to look over at the two ponies waiting by the book. She could tell that they were eager to get the ordeal over with as fast as possible. “Uh… sure thing. Tom, would you mind helping us out? You seem to know a lot about the code these guys use to write.” Twilight asked while looking over to the human pleadingly. Tom shrugged his shoulders in indifference. He might as well offer them his expertise in the matter. “Alright, let’s crack that thing open and see what’s inside.” Tom stated while walking over to the table and rubbing his hands together in anticipation. The four quickly got to work in going over the new contents of the recently discovered book. They had a lot of work ahead of them, and they had to start somewhere. Chapter 44: Heading to the SquareIt was a little bit after sunset as Twilight and her small troop studied the fourth book. They had spent several hours on studying the contents of the tome and cross referencing it with the other books in their possession. Everyone felt a thick sense of tediousness and boredom that made it all the more harder for them to fight the growing feeling of tiredness between them. And to punctuate all of the effort given by the ponies, baby dragon, and human, the group hadn’t even deciphered much of the tome. “Ughh… why is this so hard? I would compliment them on their thorough encoding skills if I didn’t want to beat them over the head with this stupid thing!” Twilight fumed with frustration as she slapped the open book with her hoof to punish it for causing her so much distress. The lack of progress was clearly starting to eat away at the unicorn’s spirit. Spike was surprised to see the usually cool headed pony so frustrated. “Calm down Twilight… we’ve been at this for a while now. Maybe we should give it a rest for the night?” The dragon suggested in a gentle tone. Hearing Spike voice his concerns made the lavender pony shrug. She didn’t want to let her emotions get the best of her. “*Sigh*… I guess you’re right Spike.” Twilight said in a defeated tone while sinking back into her chair. “If we leave this for tomorrow, then maybe we can make better sense of this stuff with fresh eyes.” She said in a more relaxed manner. Hearing the unicorn accept his proposal made Spike smile. He stretched his arms and yawned tiredly before hopping off of his chair. “I’m heading up to bed… see you whenever you decide to join me.” The dragon stated while walking over to the stairs. “Night Spike…” Tom glanced over from his section of notes to see the dragon off before he went upstairs to turn in. Everyone else gave Spike a quick smile and a gesture to say goodnight to him as well. “You heading to bed? We can handle this for a while longer if you want to get some sleep.” Glitterball asked the purple mare curiously. Peppermint nodded in agreement while looking past the white unicorn sitting beside him. Twilight smiled at the thought of going to bed. She could already feel the welcoming embrace of her soft mattress and pillows as she envisioned herself snuggling under the covers. “You know what… I think I will. Are you guys sure you will be alright down here?” Twilight asked curiously. Although she had provided the two ponies with blankets and pillows, she was still unsure of leaving them to sleep on the floor. “Of course… believe me, this floor is a lot more comfortable than my bunk back at the academy.” Peppermint suggested in a jovial tone. Twilight chuckled at the stallion’s upbeat attitude. Even in the aftermath of hours of tedious research he seemed happy go lucky. “Alright then. Come upstairs whenever you’re ready for bed, Tom. Goodnight.” Twilight said while walking up the stairs. She gave one last glance at the three as they returned to their studies. Satisfied that they would get along just fine, the unicorn smiled before heading up the stairs. As she opened the door to her bedroom and quietly walked in, Twilight noticed that Spike was still getting settled into his own bed. The dragon smiled as he saw the unicorn entering the room and walking up to her loft. Twilight sat on her bed and looked over to her number one assistant lovingly. “So… decided to call it a night?” Spike asked rhetorically with a smirk on his face. Twilight sighed as she knew that the dragon was right after all in his decision to rest. “I guess so.” The purple mare replied with a warm smile as she watched Spike rustle under his blanket to settle in. After positioning himself for a short while, the dragon turned over on his side and looked up at the unicorn. “Hey, Twilight?” Spike asked curiously. The sudden question made the unicorn tilt her head in intrigue before replying. “Yeah?” Twilight asked in a curious tone and waited for the sleepy dragon to continue. “Are you sure you’re alright…? From the hospital I mean.” Spike said while trying to sound as gentle as possible on the touchy subject. Despite the dragon’s friendly and concerned tone, the mere mention of the hospital sent a cold chill down Twilight’s spine. The sight of the unicorn’s pale expression made Spike frown slightly. “Yeah… I guess I am Spike. I’m done blaming myself for what happened… the only thing that really bothers me about the experience now is how you got taken away from me and Scootaloo like that.” Twilight looked down sadly as she remembered the experience. Spike felt a twinge of fear from remembering the ordeal himself. Just before the dragon could speak up, he was interrupted by the unicorn continuing. “I… I thought I lost you for a while there. Seeing those things drag you away like that was the most dreadful experience I have ever had… and as much as I had to keep my emotions in check for Scootaloo’s sake… I thought you were dead.” Twilight’s lip quivered slightly as she thought back to the events at the hospital. This was the first time she had openly thought about what happened to Spike since that day. “Twilight…” Spike said in a caring voice as he watched the unicorn looking down somberly. He noticed a single tear fall down her cheek as she vented her emotions of the horrible memory. “It’s ok now Twilight… all of that is behind us. I’m still here with you, and nothing will ever change th-” The dragon was suddenly interrupted by Twilight looking over and talking a little bit louder than before. “But what if you got hurt? What if… what if those things didn’t just want to feed off of your fear… w-what if they did to you what they did to Diasychain?” Twilight’s voice shook with the last part of her sentence. The sudden thought of what might have happened if the creatures had more sinister intentions for the children sent a wave of sadness through her. The unicorn remained silent as she waited for Spike to speak up for her. She tried calming her nerves down as she fought against the urge to burst into tears. A quiet sobbing noise made Twilight look up in surprise. She noticed that Spike was softly weeping with a fearful expression on his face. Twilight suddenly realized that her painful memory was also painful to the young dragon. “I’m sorry Spike… come here.” The purple pony said in a gentle tone while hopping off of the bed and walking over to the weeping dragon, she then knelt down and wrapped her arms around Spike lovingly to hold him close. “I didn’t mean to upset you…” Twilight placed her head on top of Spike’s and let him bury his face into her chest. She let him vent his short sobs for a while before letting him go and watching him wipe the tears from his eyes. “It’s ok… I just…” Spike took a moment to compose himself before continuing. “I thought I would never see you again too… and that terrified me. I didn’t know what they would do to me, but I somehow knew that I wouldn’t ever see you again.” He explained in a sad and shaky voice. The purple mare felt horrible knowing that she evoked such negative feelings in the dragon. “It’s ok Spike… I’m here now. It’s just like you said… all of that is behind us. We just have to keep each other close and in each other’s hearts. As long as we do that, nobody will be able to separate us.” Twilight said in a confident voice. The unicorn’s speech made Spike feel a lot happier inside. He felt more confident in knowing that the power of friendship would keep them together. “Now let’s get to sleep and not think about anything scary like that… ok?” Twilight suggested with a warm smile. Spike nodded slowly while lowering himself back onto his pillow. Twilight walked back up to her bed and pulled back the covers so she could climb in. After settling in and nestling her head onto her pillow, the unicorn took a moment to stare at her ceiling and reflect on everything that happened in the day. She quietly resolved to try her hardest to protect her friends and her way of life from anyone willing to oppose it. “Twilight?” Spike spoke up while looking up in the general direction of the unicorn’s bed. Twilight trailed her eyes downward while keeping her head still. “Yeah?” The purple mare asked, curious as to what the dragon wanted. A few seconds went by as Spike thought for a moment. “I love you…” Spike said with genuine compassion in his voice. Twilight smiled as she felt a warm tingle of kindheartedness fill her body. “I love you too Spike…” The unicorn replied before closing her eyes and drifting off into an unfocused daze. The two remained silent as they each fell asleep in their warm and cozy beds. The morning light filtered in through the balcony and into the quiet room as it had so many times before. Twilight squinted her eyes tightly as she woke up from her peaceful slumber. Taking a quick peek out of one eye, the unicorn quickly discovered that her drowsiness had not left her as of yet. The room was nothing more than a blurry bright mess as she tried to focus her vision. “*Yawn*” Twilight let out a long groan as she yawned and stretched her stiff body. She had a dopey smile on her face as her drowsy state left her in a content stupor. After rubbing her eyes to remove any crust that had accumulated during the night, the purple pony climbed out of bed and turned to the rest of her room. She immediately spotted Spike a short distance away, still asleep in his bed. He had apparently shrugged his blanket off of his upper half in his sleep. Seeing the peaceful rise and fall of the sleeping dragon’s chest made the unicorn feel a sense of compassion for him. She decided that it was best to let him sleep for a while longer. After gingerly lifting the blanket back up to cover Spike’s body, Twilight walked over to the door and quietly opened it. She then stepped out into the upstairs hallway and closed the door as silently as she had opened it. I wonder if Tom is already up? She thought to herself while descending the stairs. The unicorn looked over to the main room to see that Glitterball and Peppermint were asleep. Glitterball had apparently fallen asleep at the table she was studying at, with a blanket draped over her body from either the stallion or the human placing it there. While Peppermint on the other hand had actually opted to sleep on the floor with his blanket and pillow. Twilight then noticed that Tom was still sitting at a table and working on the book and its notes. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that he had been there all night, refusing to sleep until he found some answers from the encoded tome. “Well I guess that answers my question.” Twilight said to herself while smiling and shaking her head at the sight of the seemingly tireless human. The unicorn quickly but quietly walked down the rest of the stairs and over to the human. Tom seemed to notice her a little bit later than she would have expected, having been absorbed in his work in total silence for so long. “Morning…” Tom said in a dull tone. Even though he wasn’t sleepy, Twilight could tell that he hated doing stuff like this for so long. Despite her love of reading and studying, the unicorn had to agree with the human. “Morning.” The purple pony said with a smile while taking a quick glance at the boy’s work to see what he had done. Much to her surprise, she saw that he had made some serious headway into decoding the notes from the book. “Wow, you did all of this by yourself?” Twilight asked with surprise as she analyzed the extent of the decoding. It seemed like he was making a cipher sheet so the ponies could easier decode the book when he was gone. “Not entirely…” Tom replied while glancing over to the unconscious unicorn slumped over a table on the other side of the room. “Glitterball helped out a lot with teaching me the magical portions of the notes. She and I were working on decoding this thing together until she conked out… I took over from there.” He explained with a healthy respect for the intelligence of the white mare. He had to remind himself constantly that these ponies were as smart as humans were. Twilight looked at the sleeping pony with admiration. Glitterball reminded her of herself in a lot of ways, from her love of studying, to her strong desire to solve problems to help friends. She smiled in knowing that she wasn’t the only one obsessing over the investigation. “So what time do you think you’ll be back from the speech?” The purple unicorn asked with a hint of aspiration. Tom wondered why she was so interested in when he would return. “I don’t know… I was never one for politics in the first place, so I don’t know how long the speech will be. Why do you ask?” The human asked suspiciously. Twilight chuckled nervously as she realized how obvious she had been. She wrapped her arm around her other arm and rubbed it as she awkwardly tried to rationalize a response. “Umm… well uh… I was going to see if the girls wanted to hang out somewhere later on today and uhh… I was wondering if maybe you wanted to join us?” Twilight smiled awkwardly as she made her suggestion. If it wasn’t for the overly friendly nature of this society, and the fact that they were completely different species, Tom would have thought the unicorn was hitting on him. Such a request would definitely have been a hint at affection for a human girl, but the boy knew that she just wanted to hang out with friends, and she considered him a friend. “I think that would be nice… you could use a break from the investigation after all.” Tom said with a sincere tone. The human’s response made the unicorn smile with joy. She was happy to see that he was accepting of her proposal. “Speaking of which, how are the notes coming?” Twilight asked as she returned her attention to the book on the table. Tom glanced down to his own sheets of paper that he was working on as he tallied up his progress in his head. “I haven’t worked on decoding many of the pages… I have been focusing on making a cipher so you guys can understand this thing when I leave, and it’s to the point where you could finish it if you had to… so yeah.” Tom explained while handing the unicorn a page from his notes. Much to her excitement, she could actually comprehend much of it at first glance. “This is great Tom! We can actually read this thing now… and maybe we can decipher the rest of the other books with this too!” Twilight could hardly contain her elation as she smiled from ear to ear. Tom chuckled as the unicorn praised his work. It was always a surprise to him how much he had learned since he gained his status as slayer. Before the human could speak up in reply, a short knocking sound came from the door. The pair turned their attention to the door with a burning sense of curiosity as to who would be here so early in the morning. Twilight glanced to Tom briefly before walking over to the door to let whoever it was inside. She gripped the handle and swung the door open, only to be surprised by the sight of the visitor. Standing outside, was a gray pegasus mare that Twilight knew to be Derpy Hooves. The mare’s eyes were skewed in different directions, a clear indicator as to her unique mentality. Her hair was long and yellow, and she had several bubbles as a cutie mark. “Ditzy Doo?” Twilight addressed the pegasus with her real name. Derpy Hooves was just a moniker that she adopted later on, but the unicorn felt it more formal to call her by actual name. The pegasus offered a stoic salute while looking at the unicorn through her left eye. “Derpy Hooves reporting for duty!” Derpy exclaimed with a smile while returning to a casual stance. Twilight wondered why the gray mare was here, as she normally delivered mail around Ponyville unless otherwise tasked. “What are you doing here… Derpy?” The purple mare asked quizzically while she watched the bubbly pegasus bounce her head around enthusiastically. “The princess gave me an important mission to escort Thomas Greene down to town hall. She said that he was staying here at the library… is he awake?” Ditzy lowered her voice as she realized that someone may still be asleep inside. Twilight turned to fetch the boy, when she noticed that he was walking up to see what was going on. “He is… Thomas Greene at your service milady.” The human said while observing the eccentric pony outside. She seemed to be watching him with one eye while she kept the other focused on Twilight. She also didn’t seem fazed by the fact that he looked nothing like a pony. “Pleased to meet you Thomas… I’m Derpy Hooves.” Ditzy introduced herself while giving a courteous bow. Tom was mystified by the strange pegasus, he looked over to Twilight for some clarification. “Uh… Tom this is Ditzy Doo, or rather, Derpy Hooves. She delivers mail around town… but apparently she’s here to take you down to town hall.” The unicorn explained with a slightly confused tone. She wasn’t used to seeing the pegasus take orders from the princess like this, but apparently Celestia thought she would be handy for the job. “Right… well I’m ready to go if you’re ready to lead Ms’ Hooves.” Tom stated while stepping outside with the pegasus. The gray mare seemed flattered by the kindhearted attitude of the human. “See you later Tom.” Twilight said while waving with her hoof to bid farewell to the boy. Tom returned the gesture while nodding his head. “See ya… try not to have too much fun without me.” Tom stated in a sarcastic tone. Twilight chuckled ironically as she thought of the work ahead of her. Little did the human know that she would actually have fun with reading the magical tome now that she could decipher it. The unicorn waved to the two as they walked off and chatted idly. Twilight could just barely hear the subject of their conversation as she stepped inside. “So why do they call you Derpy Hooves anyway?” Tom asked curiously while looking at the curious pegasus. The gray mare pondered the matter for a moment before responding. “I don’t know… but everyone calls me that, so I just kind of went with it.” Ditzy stated while shrugging her shoulders. Tom chuckled and shook his head as he thought about the odd nickname. “Hey… why do they call you Greene if you’re dressed in blue?” Ditzy asked innocently with genuine curiosity. Tom was about to discredit the statement as another estranged thought by the bubbly mare, until he put more thought into it. As much as he tried, he couldn’t think of a reason why his last name was so unrelated to him, he didn’t even really like the color green. “You know… I don’t really know.” Tom replied while shrugging in defeat. Twilight giggled as she listened to the two conversing as they walked away. She then closed the door and walked inside before heading over to the book on the table. She knew that it would be easier now that she had Tom’s cipher, but it would still take some work to unravel the contents of the book and its notes. Meanwhile over in the town hall, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were in a room with a couch and two windows conversing with the princess and Brimstoke before the speech took place. Luna, Sunspot, Glimmer Shine, and Neon Streak were somewhere out in the square still making preparations and ensuring that everyone was in their proper place. Rainbow Dash peered out of the window out into the square, only to be greeted with the sight of a crowd of ponies walking around as they waited for the announcement to be made. “Wow… It never ceases to amaze me how many ponies actually live in this town.” The cyan mare stated in astonishment as she watched the ponies move around on their daily business. “It seems a lot smaller when you’re just walking through back streets and between houses.” Pinkie Pie said while admiring the colorful square and its lively inhabitants. “You got that right…” Rainbow Dash added while returning her attention to the inside of the room. She noticed that Princess Celestia was looking down with a troubled expression. The alicorn seemed to be lost in her thoughts as she stared at the floor blankly. “You ok Princess?” The cyan pony asked with concern. The pegasus’s sudden question made Celestia look up abruptly as she realized that she had been dwelling in her own mind. She sighed before putting on a less distressed expression for the sake of the concerned ponies. “Yes… I’m fine Rainbow Dash. I was just thinking about everything that’s been happening recently.” The alicorn stated with a somber tone. The ponies could tell that she was incredibly worried about what the hooded ponies would do next. “I’m sure that everything will be fine. I know that Tom and the others will be able to catch them… right girls?” Rainbow Dash stated confidently while looking to her two friends for support. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie nodded immediately in response. “Absolutely.” Fluttershy said with a confident smile. The yellow pegasus had no doubt in her mind that everything would turn out for the best in the end. “You bet! I’m sure that you guys will beat their sorry butts until they feel bad for everything they’ve done!” Pinkie added in an excited tone while playfully hitting Brimstoke on the shoulder for emphasis. The stallion was unsure of how to react to the pink mare’s energetic outburst. Celestia was pleased to see that the element bearers had so much faith and hope. They knew for certain that if it came down to it, that the white alicorn would handle things herself. The princess was unsure of how that made her feel, or even if they were right to trust her in such a crisis. “I’m glad to hear that you all have so much confidence… hold on to that, it’s a good thing to have in times of need.” Celestia said in a stoic tone. The ponies smiled and nodded while taking the alicorn’s words to heart. “As far as those hooded ponies are concerned, I can only hope that we find them before they strike again…” The white alicorn stated with a worried expression. Everyone’s smiles faded to somber expressions as they merely gave a nod in return. It was hard to believe that such a serious threat to Equestria had popped up so suddenly. The sound of the door opening drew the group’s attention over to the back of the room. The sight of a gray pegasus mare being followed by a blue suited human made them perk up with joy. They were beginning to wonder if the human would ever arrive. “Derpy Hooves reporting for duty!” Derpy stated with an accomplished tone and offered a salute to the gathering of ponies. She stepped aside and let Tom walk in to be greeted by Rainbow Dash and the others. “Well done Ditzy, now I need you to do one more thing before I dismiss you.” Celestia said with a friendly tone to the bubbly mare. Derpy Hooves stood at attention and listened eagerly for her next task. “I need you to head outside and help Brimstoke and the others oversee the crowd while I make the speech. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and report it to one of them.” The alicorn instructed in a clear manner. Ditzy saluted once more while nodding in response. “Right away ma’am.” The grey mare said with an enthusiastic smile as she walked back out of the room. Celestia then turned her attention back to the human as he talked with the three cheerful ponies in front of him. “It’s good to see you Tom.” Celestia said while walking forward to greet the slayer. Tom turned around and smiled as he looked up at the regal alicorn. It was an odd experience being surrounded by creatures that only come up to his mid-section, only to meet a princess that was practically taller than him. “Likewise Princess… so I assume you will be starting soon?” Tom asked curiously. Celestia nodded in response as she glanced at the clock on the wall. “Yes… I suppose I will. But before I leave you all to go make preparations, I want you to do one thing for me Tom.” The alicorn adopted a more serious expression as she spoke. The sudden change in tone made Tom and the ponies slightly concerned as to what was bugging the princess. “Sure thing… what do you need?” The human asked with an eager attitude. Celestia smiled as she admired the boy’s seemingly endless spirit. “I didn’t ask you to come here to speak with me or anything… no, I asked you here for a more important reason. I want you to keep an eye on things with your senses while I make the speech.” The princess’s statement made the ponies slightly uneasy as her tone shifted to a very somber one. “I have a really bad feeling that whatever those hooded ponies are planning, they will attack while the speech is happening. I can’t imagine what they could do in such an open space like this with so many ponies in broad daylight, but it worries me all the same.” The alicorn sighed before continuing. “Just keep on your toes, and if you sense anything, just let me or Luna know.” She asked in a sincere tone. Tom nodded as she finished her request. “Alright… I was going to do that anyway, but since you asked I suppose I could try extra hard.” The boy stated in a jesting tone in an attempt at brightening the princess’s mood. Celestia couldn’t help but to smile from the lighthearted statement. “Thank you… now, let’s get out of this cramped room and head outside. I’m sure that everyone here could use some fresh air.” Celestia said while looking around at the ponies for confirmation. Rainbow Dash and her two friends nodded eagerly. There was only so much time they could spend in a tiny room with so much going on outside. The group quickly filtered out of the room and headed through town hall on their way out into the square. Rainbow Dash decided to take a walk around the square before the speech started. She asked Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to join her, who eagerly accepted the offer. While Tom and Brimstoke merely followed the princess as she went to converse with her sister. Chapter 45: The Speech*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* A soft knocking at the door made Twilight and the others look up from their research curiously. Glitterball and Peppermint were still relatively sleepy, so the jarring noise made them jump slightly. “That must be the girls.” Twilight proposed while getting up from her chair. Rarity and Applejack had said that they would be dropping by with the cutie mark crusaders today, and it was around the time that they would be awake, so it was logical to assume that they were the ones at the door. Wasting no more time on speculation, the unicorn walked over to the front of the room and up to the door. Gripping the handle firmly, she swung the door open and peered outside. As she had guessed, Twilight was greeted by her two friends smiling warmly with a trio of fillies behind them. “Applejack, Rarity! Come on in and get comfortable.” The purple mare welcomed her two friends inside with a friendly motion. She smiled to the passing group of fillies as they headed in a single file line behind the two mares. “Morning y’all.” Applejack greeted Peppermint and Glitterball as she gave them a friendly wave. Rarity waved to the two ponies as well, eliciting them to return the gesture while leaning on the back of their chairs to face the newcomers. “Tom is usually up by now isn’t he? I assume he already left for the speech?” Rarity asked curiously while looking around at the relatively empty room. Not even Spike was out and about, presumably still asleep upstairs. “Yeah, he left like half an hour ago. But thankfully he translated a lot of the notes in that book for us before he left.” Twilight stated with an optimistic tone while motioning over to the book on the table and the numerous sheets of paper beside it. Rarity and Applejack were impressed by the amount of progress they had made. “Good! That means that we can read it right?” The two mares were interrupted by a trio of enthusiastic fillies, headed by Scootaloo, stepping forward and speaking up with eager grins on their faces. Twilight looked down at the three young ponies and frowned slightly, although they were here to help, she wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable allowing them to read from such a grim and dark book. “Umm… well uh…” Twilight stammered awkwardly. Before the purple unicorn could formulate an excuse, Glitterball got up from her chair and walked over to the group. She took a vial off of her vest and twisted the bottom, causing it to shine as the blue liquid inside lit up in a brilliant display. “Hey girls, you want to help me make some adjustments to these? I could use some free hooves to hand me my equipment.” Glitter suggested while dangling the vial in front of the three fillies like a set of jingling keys to an infant. The crusaders looked absolutely awestruck at the brilliant light. They turned to each other and nodded eagerly, barely able to contain their excitement. “Of course we do!” Scootaloo said in a gleeful tone. “We would love to help!” Sweetie Belle added in an enthusiastically friendly manner. “Can Ah hold it?” Applebloom asked with excitement plain on her face. Glitterball chuckled warmly at seeing the three sweet fillies. She could tell that even though they were adventurous, childlike curiosity was still a large part of their personalities. The rainbow haired unicorn turned and glanced over to Peppermint. He was fiddling around with the vials on his vest with a bored expression. A devious smile crept across her face as she chuckled warmly at the thought running through her head. “Why don’t you head over there with my friend Peppermint? I’m sure he can get you started while I talk with the others for a few.” Glitterball said in a casual tone while motioning over to the white stallion. Peppermint paused and looked over to see three fillies simultaneously turn their heads to look at him. “Wait what?” Pepper asked with a confused expression. Scootaloo turned to her fellow crusaders and put on a serious expression. “Alright girls, Cutie Mark Crusaders supernatural equipment technicians!” The young pegasus announced in an enthusiastic tone to her friends. The three fillies let out a cheer as they rushed forward, eager to get started on their task. Peppermint’s eyes widened and his pupils shrank as he watched the trio bolting toward him. The three fillies practically dog piled on the hapless earth pony, sending his body to the floor with a startled cry as they started asking him a thousand questions about what everything on his vest was and how they could help out. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity watched the scene unfold in front of them while cringing sympathetically for the red haired pony. At this point, they were mildly concerned that the three fillies would break something as they bounced around energetically. Meanwhile, Glitterball was smiling at her own diversion for the curious crusaders. “Don’t worry about them. Pepper and I will keep them entertained while you guys read the book.” Glitter said while casually avoiding the distressed stallion trying to keep up with the three fillies. “Uh… thanks.” Twilight said with a slightly unsure tone. She was grateful for her distracting them from wanting to read the book, but she was also slightly unsure as to whether or not she should be concerned for Peppermint. “Alright girls, ease off him. Let’s get started on this equipment already.” Glitterball said while walking over to the group on the other side of the room. Scootaloo and the others quickly stopped pestering the white stallion and walked over to the table on the other side of the room where the unicorn was. “She certainly has a way with kids…” Rarity stated while observing the unicorn explain their equipment to the crusaders. She wasn’t kidding either. Glitterball seemed to be rather good with at least keeping their attention. “Let’s go ahead and get started. There shouldn’t be much left to do other than read the book, but the faster we’re done the better.” Twilight said while walking over to the table with the book and pulling over two chairs to add to the one already present. Rarity and Applejack nodded to each other before walking over to join their purple friend. They sat down at the table and quickly joined the unicorn in reading over the cipher that their human friend had made for them. While the two suited ponies were enjoying teaching the children about their gear, the three mares were finally reading the bizarre contents of the book that had been used to summon the undead creatures out in the woods. Suddenly, the sound of small feet descending the stairs made everyone avert their attention. The ponies turned to see a drowsy Spike slowly climbing down to join them while still trying to wake up. His face was sleepy, his eyes were droopy, and he had the unmistakable disheveled appearance that goes along with waking up after a long sleep. “*Yawn*… morning everyone.” Spike droned while taking a quick tally of the number of ponies in the room, most likely to ensure that he wasn’t hallucinating. “Morning, Darling.” Rarity greeted with a friendly smile. “Morning.” Applejack did the same with a tip of her hat. “Good morning, Spike. I assume you slept well?” Twilight insinuated while taking a glance over to the clock on the wall. Even if she did let him sleep in, he usually woke up earlier than this. The young dragon made no attempt to hide the fact that he had slept in for way longer than was necessary, he instead nodded in reply while enjoying the rested feeling he had from his power nap. “Where’s Tom? Did he already leave or something?” Spike asked, curious as to the whereabouts of the human. “Of course he left… he’s been gone for like half an hour. See what happens when you sleep in?” Twilight shrugged while trying not to painfully state the obvious. Spike sighed before walking over to the table to see what they were working on. Much to his surprise, the odd language that the notes were written in appeared to be translated on a sheet of paper beside the book. He read off a few sentences to test the accuracy of the cipher, only to find that it was in fact correct. “Wow… I can actually read this. How long have you guys been working on this?” The dragon asked in an impressed tone. “Tom made this for us before he left… apparently he was up a lot earlier than you guys.” Rarity explained while looking down at the notes. “Well that’s normal for him I suppose… I don’t know how he stays in a quiet house in the early morning hours with everyone asleep for so long. I would be bored out of my mind if that happened.” Spike stated while picturing what it must be like for the human to be up so early each morning. “We should be thankful that he did, it would probably take us all day to decode this on our own.” Applejack said while shuddering at the thought of putting that much time into such a frustrating task. “Yikes…” Spike exclaimed in an unsettled tone as he thought about the possibility himself. The last thing the young dragon wanted to do was to have a repeat of last night. “Alright, let’s get back to work. You can either join us or head over there with Glitterball and Peppermint to check out their equipment.” Twilight said while picking back up the notes she had. Spike glanced over to watch the two ponies fiddle around with vials and strange ingredients while three excited fillies watched. He felt a little guilty that he wouldn’t be able to help Twilight and the others if he indulged. “You guys sure you don’t need me?” The young dragon asked courteously with a façade as solid as glass. Twilight smiled as she could tell that he was dying to head over there and fulfill his curiosity. “Go ahead.” The purple mare said with a warm smile while motioning over to the other side of the room. Spike smiled and nodded before heading over and taking a spot beside the crusaders as they watched the rainbow haired unicorn work. After they had taken care of all distractions, Twilight and her two partners got back to work. They dug into the pile of papers and notes they had arranged before them as they decoded the grim contents of the book. Although they grew more disturbed with every page, they had to do it for the sake of catching the book’s nefarious owners. Meanwhile, over at the town square, things were just about to get started as the crowd gathered to listen to the speaker at the town hall podium. Mayor Mare was addressing the silent ponies and preparing to introduce the princess. As the mayor spoke, Sunspot, Neon Streak, Glimmer Shine, and Derpy Hooves were on opposite sides of the crowd, watching for any odd activity. Brimstoke was beside the podium, watching the crowd and listening to the gray haired pony speaking. Tom was on the other side of the town hall, leaning up against the wall with Luna and Celestia while they waited for the mayor to call for the princess. “Now then, you have all been brought here to listen to an announcement from Princess Celestia herself. So without further ado, I will hand things off to the princess.” Mayor Mare called the white alicorn over and stepped aside as she walked up. Celestia cleared her throat and observed the silent gathering of ponies in front of her before speaking. “Thank you all for coming out here on such short notice. I would like to bring to your attention a very serious and important matter.” Everyone listened intently as Celestia spoke, becoming heavily invested in the subject that she was bringing up. As the speech went on, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel inspired as they watched the white alicorn from the back of the crowd. Even though they were so far away, it was surprisingly easy to comprehend her words over the silent ponies. “I wonder how everyone will react when she tells them what’s happening.” Rainbow Dash whispered to the yellow mare, so as to not interrupt the speech. Before Fluttershy could respond, Celestia paused and sighed as she came up to the point where she had to explain the two attacks. “As some or probably most of you have heard, there have been two organized attacks on buildings in this town using dark magic. We now believe these attacks to have been perpetrated by a group of unknown ponies in hoods. There were horrific monsters summoned in the schoolhouse, and the hospital that terrorized and attacked many of the occupants. These attacks took place just a few days ago. Nobody was seriously injured in the school; however… there were two casualties at the hospital.” The princess explained in a dreadful tone. The crowd gasped as they listened to the frightful news. Some ponies looked around and made fearful whispers to their friends as they tried to comprehend the attacks. “*Sigh*…” Rainbow Dash looked down sadly upon mention of the two ponies that had died in the hospital. She could still feel a twinge of remorse over what happened. She had only met them briefly, but they seemed to be friendly and cheerful. Even if they weren’t, they didn’t deserve the fate given to them. Fluttershy could only offer a gentle hoof on her friend’s shoulder to comfort her. She had not been at the hospital with them, but she was mortified when she learned about the tragic event. Still, she could only imagine what the cyan pegasus was feeling. “I’m sorry for what happened Rainbow Dash.” The yellow mare stated in a gentle tone. Rainbow Dash frowned as she saw Fluttershy worrying over her mopey attitude. She definitely was the bearer of kindness after all. “Fluttershy… it isn’t anything you need to feel sorry for. You had nothing to do with it, and neither did I… what happened, just happened.” The cyan pony tried to sound happier, but could only manage a somber tone. She then felt herself growing angry as she thought about the hooded ponies. The only things she knew about them were based on the pegasus she met out in the woods, and putting all of the tragic events behind such a smug and heartless person made Rainbow Dash even angrier. “We’ll make them pay for their crimes soon enough…” Rainbow Dash sighed as she released her pent up emotions. Fluttershy nodded slowly in agreement before returning her attention to the speech. Meanwhile on the other end of the crowd, Sunspot and Pinkie Pie had met up and started listening to the princess together. The alicorn was always able to address her subjects with the same level of care and dignity as her own family, and this impressed the two as they thought about how hard it must have been to relay such terrible news to everyone. “Wow… she has a way with words doesn’t she?” Sunspot said with a sense of admiration. The pink mare nodded in agreement. “Yep, you don’t get to be princess unless you can make speeches.” Pinkie stated cheerfully. The earth pony’s statement made the pegasus puzzled as to what she thought a princess needed to do. “I think there’s a bit more to it… but alright.” Sunspot said while deciding not to question the party pony further. Hearing a more detailed explanation might confuse her even more. “Do you think those hooded ponies are here watching?” Pinkie asked curiously. The sudden question caught Sunspot off guard. “Well uh… they could be. I mean, if they wanted to they could just hide in the crowd and listen.” The pegasus reasoned while looking around at the vast rows of ponies. Everyone just sort of blended together into a sea of colors. “I don’t see any hoods, so they must be somewhere else.” Pinkie said while scanning the crowd for suspiciously dressed ponies. “Uh… Pinkie, I don’t think they would wear hoods all the time. Especially not while trying to blend into a crowd…” Sunspot said with a puzzled expression. The pink mare seemed to be more confused by this logic than the pegasus was by her own. “Well why do we call them the hooded ponies then? If they didn’t wear the hoods they would just be the ponies… and that’s not very creative.” Pinkie stated casually. Sunspot could feel her eye twitching slightly in complete shock. Finally, the pegasus sighed while admitting defeat. “No… I suppose it’s not.” Sunspot droned with a hint of sarcasm. Pinkie chuckled as she felt that the pegasus agreed with her. Back up at the town hall, Tom and Luna were passively listening to Celestia while keeping an eye on things from their position. Tom was leaned up against the building while Luna stood next to him and chatted idly while observing the many concerned and fearful ponies that dotted the crowd. “You guys seem to care a lot for your subjects.” Tom observed while listening to the white alicorn speak. Luna nodded as she thought about how much she actually cared for the ponies around them. Even though most of them shunned her after she made her return to the public eye, they warmed up to her after realizing she was no longer Nightmare Moon. “Indeed… I care for every pony here as if they were my blood relative, and I’m certain that my sister feels the same.” Luna said with a genuine smile and a sincere tone. “You know… you guys have a pretty good society all things considered. Most princes and princesses from human society were self-entitled brats that cared more about the dirt under their feet than the people in their kingdom.” The boy said with brutal honesty. Luna was appalled that such people existed at all, even if they were from a distant time in the past. “How awful… a ruler should be fair and just to their subjects… That’s the whole point of governing over them.” The blue alicorn said in abject horror. “Yeah, well… some people figured that out after a while. A long time after princes and princesses were phased out and new forms of government were created. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of unfair idiots that ran a lot of countries in my time, as evidenced by the human race blowing themselves up.” Tom said with surprising acceptance as he talked about the mindset of his time’s governing bodies. “But there were some people that were like you guys… at the end of the day, people will be good, evil, and all sorts of things in between. It just so happens that a lot of bad people crave power, and will do anything they can to get some.” The human’s explanation made Luna think about her own experience with bad people. Between Discord and Queen Chrysalis, she knew for fact that most villains craved power of some sort. “I’m glad that someone as nice as you was sent here from the human world. I know that you’re a slayer, so you kind of have to be a good person, but I’m not sure how an evil person would fit in here.” The alicorn stated in a friendly tone. Tom smiled from hearing such compliments. “I guess a world with so much emphasis on friendship and harmony tends to yield a lot of good people… and apparently a few bad ones.” The boy said while thinking back to the hooded ponies. Luna nodded somberly and sighed as she wondered what could have driven them to such extremes. The two were silent for a while after that, finding nothing else to say on the subject of the hooded ponies. Despite the lack of conversational relevancy for the hooded ponies, neither Tom nor Luna could stop thinking about them. Unbeknownst to anybody present at the square, there were a few spectators that didn’t belong there with the rest of the ponies. Raven Feather and her two assistants were tucked away behind a building, just within ear shot of the square. Raincloud helped put the finishing touches on a large pictogram on the ground, while the black earth pony giggled sinisterly while hovering near a large object covered in a tarp. The two looked up to see Dust Kicker walking around the side of the building and trotting up to them. He waited for Raven Feather to finish what she was doing before speaking up to deliver his findings from the square. “What’s happening out there?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “She sounds like she’s about to wrap things up in a little bit. If we’re going to do this, we need to do it soon.” Dust Kicker stated with a concerned expression. Raven Feather chuckled at the paranoid stallion before walking over to check on Raincloud’s progress. “Oh don’t you worry your pretty little head Dust Kicker, we’re just about finished up here… isn’t that right Raincloud?” Raven Feather asked as the pale blue mare quickly finished her last few scribbles. She finally looked up and smirked. “There you have it… one pictogram ripe and ready for the fear of a hundred terrified ponies.” Raincloud stated with a bit of pride while stepping back to admire her work. “Splendid!” Raven Feather said while rubbing her hooves together in anticipation. Raincloud shared in the black pony’s enthusiasm as she chuckled impishly. “Are you sure you will be alright? I mean, both Celestia and Luna are out there… along with that slayer and like three or four of those special ops ponies.” Dust Kicker said with slight concern as he went over the plan in his head. It seemed crazy to him for Raven Feather to want to be here alone to keep an eye on things. “We’ve been over this Dust… I can handle myself. Besides, I’m only staying here long enough to prepare our surprise.” Raven Feather said while looking over to the large object under the tarp. “I doubt the spell will work with him, so I will need to raise him myself. After that, I could care less about what happens as long as we gather fear… which we will doubtlessly do. And then there’s the delightful possibility that you will succeed in your mission to kill off that pest Twilight and her friends.” She stated with a gleeful smile a she thought about the scenario. “So we will be able to use our powers? I certainly hope that spell works like you said, or else it’s going to be very hard.” Dust Kicker stated while looking up at the sunlight beaming down on them. The golden orb would doubtlessly interfere with each of their abilities if left the way it was. “Yes, yes… the spell will block out sunlight. Not enough to make it completely dark as night, but enough to filter out its harmful properties for your pets… You will only have as long as it takes for Celestia to undo the spell, so try to work fast if you don’t want to strain yourself.” The black mare explained with a casual expression. “Got it.” Dust Kicker stated in reply. “Hehehe… I am so going to enjoy this. Come on Dust, let’s head over there now so we can be ready when things get dark.” Raincloud suggested while tugging on her brother’s arm eagerly. Dust Kicker didn’t really have much choice in the matter, so he gave in and followed the pale pegasus towards the library. Raven Feather watched the two walk down the empty street with a gleeful smile. She knew that they would have little resistance from the purple unicorn and her friends. As powerful as they thought friendship was, the power of darkness was so much more rewarding for the green eyed mare. After taking one last glance in the direction of the square, Raven Feather started preparations for performing the spell she had worked tirelessly on for the last few days. She had no doubt in her mind that this would truly show the white alicorn what she was capable of. Chapter 46: Dry BonesEveryone was anxious as ever as Celestia continued her speech. She had given the names of all the ponies known to be affiliated with the hooded ponies, and informed everyone about the sudden appearance of Tom. On top of this, she explained why Brimstoke and his team were here, and that they would be capable of handling the situation. The crowd of ponies felt a little more confident knowing that a plan was in place for their protection. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were still listening intently from the back of the crowd, enjoying the relatively free space they had behind the gathering of ponies. It was peaceful to sit in the sun and listen to the princess addressing them while relaxing. “I guess she’s almost done… want to grab Pinkie and head down to Sugar Cube Corner before we check on Twilight and the others?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking at her yellow friend for a response. Fluttershy smiled as she thought of unwinding with a sugary treat. She had been feeling a little stressed from listening to the speech and all of the bad memories it brought up, so she was glad to hear the offer. “Sure… I think she was over there somewhere.” The yellow mare said while pointing over to one side of the crowd. Rainbow Dash sighed as she saw how many ponies were in the crowd. “Well that’s helpful…” The cyan mare stated sarcastically while walking forward to sift through the many ponies to find her friend. Suddenly, something caught the pegasus’s attention that seemed very off to her. A sizable breeze blew through the square. It was cold and refreshing when compared to the warmth of the sun. What confused Rainbow Dash however, was the fact that the wind was a complete surprise to her. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked with mild concern as she noticed her friend pausing to look around. Rainbow Dash tried her best to remember the weather forecast for today, only to find that she had no memory of it being windy today. “Odd… it’s not supposed to be this breezy.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking off into the sky to observe the weather. Oddly enough, the cyan mare caught glimpse of something that caught her off guard. She noticed a thin line of dark clouds rolling in from the distance. “It’s not supposed to be cloudy today either…” The cyan mare stated in an uneasy tone. Fluttershy could hear the growing worry in her friend’s voice as she watched the ominous clouds. The dark blanket made the two ponies feel a sense of foreboding paranoia as it slowly approached the airspace over the square. Over at the town hall building, Celestia looked up curiously as she noticed the approaching clouds. As they noticed the alicorn pause and stare upwards, the crowd turned their heads to view the strange phenomena. “What the…? I thought it was supposed to be sunny today.” Luna stated in confusion as she watched the clouds form. Suddenly, the harsh sound of Tom gasping behind her made the blue alicorn turn around. She saw the boy lurch forward slightly as all of the air was forced out of his lungs. An eerie high pitched rasp erupted from Tom’s mouth as his senses went off unexpectedly. The sight of the blue mist made Luna’s eyes widen in slight panic. “What is it Tom? What do you f- Ah!” Luna cringed in fright as she suddenly felt whatever power was causing the slayer’s senses to go off. Although not as fine-tuned as Tom’s senses, Luna and her sister could feel powerful energies through their bodies. While Luna was still recovering from feeling such a startling sensation, Tom rushed forward and walked over to Celestia with an alarmed expression. The white alicorn was concerned to see the human so unsettled. “What’s wrong Tom?” Celestia asked with a growing sense of unease. “We need to get everyone out of here! I just felt something big coming our way… and I’m pretty sure it has something to do with that.” The human explained with a sense of urgency while pointing at the approaching clouds. As everyone fixed their attention on the dark masses in the sky, they grew rapidly more nervous and started moving backward at an accelerated rate. Everyone in the crowd grew incredibly frightened as a loud burst of wind ripped through the square. The overhead clouds cast a shadow that moved over the entire area in one fell swoop as it continued along its path. Once the sky had been sufficiently covered in the ominous clouds, they started moving around in a pattern unlike any natural weather occurrence. Before anyone could react, they were entranced by the frightful sight of the clouds receding upwards into a cyclone in the sky. The dark masses swirled around in a circle just above the square as the wind picked up. The large gusts blew the various decorations around the square into the air and sent them flying off into the distance, some of which harmlessly hit a few ponies on their path. Not even the trees appeared to be able to weather the storm as they shifted back from the force, their leaves struggling to remain in place as the looser ones were whipped through the air. Suddenly, a loud noise echoed through the square as a flash of green light appeared out of the center of the cyclone. The noise sounded like a rapid whoosh of energy was coming to life around them. The glowing light in the sky slowly formed into a wispy spiral of green energy. It looked as if someone had found a way to color the wind green as it spiraled down in a wavy trail. As the transparent mist formed into a spiral on its way down, the noise changed to something that made everyone’s spines tingle from terror. The noise sounded like a distorted bunch of high pitched screams were echoing through the air as the green arm twisted and jolted on its descent. It was like the souls of the dead had found a way to make their anguish known by blending their cries into the sound of whistling wind. The horrified ponies backed up as fast as they possibly could as the green wisp got closer to the ground. It seemed to be homing in on a singular spot beneath it as it drew closer to the earth. As the spiral of neon green contacted the ground, a soft buzzing sound resonated through the area as it disappeared into the floor. The ground around the impact site glowed green in a spreading circle, as if the light had spread itself through the earth. As suddenly as it had appeared, the light disappeared as the circle faded away along with all noises other than the soft blowing of the wind. Everyone watched the spot where the light had contacted with dead silence and absolute fright. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy found themselves standing on the edge of the crowd as they stood where they had moved to evade the light. The ponies stood in a large half circle around the empty street where the light had disappeared, watching closely, unable to look away from sheer terror. “W-w-what was that?” Fluttershy asked through chattering teeth as she looked on in a frozen panic. None of the ponies around her, least of all her cyan friend, could have possibly answered her question. Suddenly, a barely audible noise came from the spot where the light was. It sounded like something was shifting the dirt around under the cobblestone of the square. The noise grew louder and louder as the crowd noticed small cracks appearing in the stone in several places. Nobody dared get closer to the odd occurrence, and many of the ponies actual walked further backwards into the crowd in fearful anticipation. When in an instant, the loud crack of stone breaking rang out into the eerie silence, jarring the already fearful ponies. When they looked to see what the cause of the noise was, their jaws collectively dropped, and their eyes collectively widened in fright. Sticking out of a newly created hole in the ground was a skeletal hoof. The ponies started shaking in fright as they heard an unearthly groan coming from the spot where the hoof was sticking out. The boney limb planted itself on the street, as if to get leverage to lift itself out. More pieces of the street broke up as the rest of the skeletal body came out. Judging from the size and shape of the skeleton, it looked like it belonged to a pony long ago. When the crowd could see the head of the undead pony, they noticed that its eye sockets were glowing the same shade of green the light from the sky had been. While the ponies were staring in a frozen panic as the skeleton got to its feet, they heard more horrifying groans and moans erupt from under the street. Several more skeletons started breaking their way up through the ground, adding to the ambient choir of terrifying noises. Several of the ponies at the front of the crowd screamed in absolute horror as they turned to escape the undead ponies. The crowd practically ran over itself as everyone tried to back away from the animate skeletons. The undead monsters howled a noise so unsettling that it made all who heard it fear for their lives. The numerous creatures all lurched forward and started to pick up speed as they charged after the hapless ponies. Fluttershy groaned in pain as she was shoved to the ground by the many ponies around her as they ran in blind terror. She looked around her in a frightful panic, only to discover that she had lost sight of Rainbow Dash. The only thing she could hear was a mixture of screams and the unearthly cries of the skeletons, creating a nearly deafening noise that shut out any other sounds. “W-wh...” The yellow mare stammered as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She was already in a panicked state from seeing the monsters rise out of the ground in front of her, and the sights and sounds of innocent ponies being pounced on and attacked by those things only frightened her more. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and wish that this wasn’t real. “…!” Fluttershy froze as she looked in front of her to see one of the creatures was staring at her with vicious intent. The boney creature clattered around as it slowly stalked forward towards the helpless pegasus. None of the ponies around her seemed to notice or care that she was in danger, they were only focused on running away themselves. “Ah…uhh….” Fluttershy scooted backwards in a desperate attempt at getting distance between her and the approaching monster. Despite her efforts at escaping, the beast marched forward with relentless resolve. The skeleton let out a deep and gravely growl as it reared back to pounce. The yellow pony could only let out a startled shriek as the monster jumped right for her. Fluttershy instinctively closed her eyes and shielded her face with her arms to protect herself from the incoming attack. “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash let out a fierce yell as she collided with the monster attacking her friend. The sound of bones clattering as something impacted them rang out, followed by the sound of the skeleton smacking into the ground and scattering its bones along the floor. Fluttershy looked up to see the cyan mare landing from where she had kicked the pouncing monster. She turned to the shocked pegasus and flashed a smile. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!” Rainbow Dash instructed while motioning for the yellow pony to get to her feet. Fluttershy nodded and quickly complied. Just as she got upright and prepared to follow her friend, Fluttershy gasped in shock as she saw one of the skeletons ready to pounce behind Rainbow Dash. “Look out!” The yellow mare cried frantically while pointing behind the cyan pony. Rainbow Dash turned around and widened her eyes in shock as she saw the monster about to strike at her. “AAH!” The cyan pegasus yelped in fright as she watched the skeleton jump for her. By the time she could react, the creature would already be on top of her. Suddenly, a zapping noise cut into the screams of the skeleton and the frightened pony. A bright pulse of light rapidly shot into the skeleton from the side, knocking it out of the air from the impact. The creature screeched in pain as it was seemingly offended by the blast. Several more blasts subsequently hit the monster, pushing it back until it fled in the other direction to get away from the burning. The two ponies turned to see Glimmer Shine holding his strobe out in front of him. Judging from the smoking tip of the vial, the pair put together that he was the source of their rescue. The yellow stallion looked at the two mares with a friendly smirk. “Thanks for the save…” Rainbow Dash stated with a relieved sigh. Glimmer nodded in response before looking around to observe the scene around him. Most of the crowd had dispersed as they fled, leaving only the ponies trapped by the skeletons in the square. Unfortunately, there were dozens of the undead monsters. Several of them were either cornering innocents or struggling with them on the ground as they pushed to get them off. Much to the shock and horror of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, they saw several ponies getting bitten and mauled by the vicious monsters. “Oh my gosh…” Rainbow Dash stated in alarm as she surveyed the chaotic scene. “We need to help them!” She exclaimed desperately. The cyan mare felt a burning urge to do something to assist her fellow ponies. “I know. Brimstoke and the others are working on it. You two need to get to the town hall, now!” Glimmer Shine instructed to the two in an urgent tone. Rainbow Dash shook her head defiantly. “No way! We need to work together to stop these things from hurting anyone!” Rainbow Dash said while turning to the yellow mare beside her and giving her a pleading expression. “Fluttershy, you with me?” The cyan pony asked while motioning away with her head. Fluttershy seemed very hesitant about confronting any of the monsters, but she didn’t want to leave her friend to face them alone. “Y-yes…” the yellow pegasus stated while putting on the bravest face she could muster. The two flyers spread their wings and prepared to take off, when Glimmer Shine shrugged in frustration before stepping forward to stop them. “Wait! If you’re going to go, at least take these.” Glimmer said while reaching into a pouch on his vest. The yellow stallion rummaged through the pocket until he found what he was looking for. He then brought out two vials and handed them to the two ponies. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked at the items curiously. “What are these?” Fluttershy asked with a puzzled expression while turning the bottle over in her hooves. The strange container looked like the many other charms and trinkets that the team used, so it was hard to identify what purpose it held at first glance. “They’re strobes… just point at something and press the button on the top there. I’m clearly not going to change your mind about going, but please just be careful.” Glimmer Shine instructed with a concerned expression. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gave the stallion a nod of confirmation. They then turned to each other and gave a nod of agreement. Glimmer Shine watched as the two mares flew into the air above the square. After making sure that they were well enough equipped, he turned his attention back to the scene in front of him. Due to him being so close to the origin point of the skeletons, there were far more of the undead creatures around the area than ponies. “Guess it’s time to earn my paycheck…” Glimmer shrugged while steeling himself for the battle ahead. The yellow stallion stepped forward and took aim at a skeleton that was pinning a bleeding pony to the ground. He shot the beast off of the pony before charging forward to assist as many civilians as he could. Meanwhile in the sky, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were surveying the area beneath them to see where to head next. Most of the ponies were still fleeing the square and running between buildings to escape, but many were either trapped or being chased by the undead creatures as more of them were popping up everywhere. Over by town hall, the two could see that Brimstoke was watching over the entrance to the building while several frightened ponies rushed inside. A little ways to the side, Celestia and Luna looked like they were trying to stop whatever was causing the monsters to appear. Their horns were glowing and they had very stressed expressions as they tried to feel out what to do. “Looks like the princesses are trying to stop this.” Rainbow Dash said to her companion, who was hovering just beside her. Fluttershy looked over to the town hall, only to see several of the creatures heading right for the two alicorns. “Oh no… I think they need our help!” The yellow mare said while pointing at the approaching monsters. Rainbow Dash gasped as she watched the skeletons march forward, the two princesses seemed unconcerned about the approaching threat. Suddenly, Tom leapt out of nowhere and cut the offending beasts into a pile of scattered bones. The skeletons offered little more resistance than a growl as the slayer skillfully evaded their lunges, only to knock their bodies apart in retaliation. The two mares smiled as they saw that the princesses were safe. As they looked around for ponies to assist, they suddenly heard a familiar scream through the blend of noises in the square. They both gasped as they realized that their friend Pinkie Pie was the source of the noise. After a quick scan below them to find the origin of the noise, the two ponies’ eyes widened as they spotted their pink friend. The party pony was with Derpy Hooves, who was desperately trying to hold her ground against four approaching skeletons. The gray mare seemed to be mildly intimidated by the monsters, but stood above the quivering pink mare in an attempt at protecting her. “Come on, let’s go!” Rainbow Dash stated while flying downwards. Fluttershy followed the cyan mare’s lead as she darted through the air in a race to reach her friends before they were harmed. Just as the skeletons were about to pounce on the helpless pair, the two pegasus’s aimed their strobes downwards and opened fire. The skeletons screeched in pain and writhed around as the bolts of light struck them. They held their ground until the two ponies landed in front of them and continued shooting to protect their friends. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy anxiously watched as the beasts tried to ignore the blasts to get at them, only to be driven back by the pain. As the monsters ran away, they smiled to each other and turned to their now relieved friends. “You did it!” Derpy Hooves cheered while turning to the shivering pink mare on the ground. Pinkie was still shielding her face with her arms, only peeking out slightly to see that she was still intact. “We’re… alive?” Pinkie asked nervously while looking out to see the two cheerful pegasus’s that rescued her. Suddenly the pink mare returned her happy nature and let out a celebratory cheer. Rainbow Dash was relieved to see the two unharmed, but she had to unfortunately cut their celebration short. “You two head to the town hall, Tom and Brimstoke should keep you safe there.” The cyan pony instructed with a serious expression. Pinkie Pie nodded while the gray mare beside her offered a confident salute. The two quickly turned around and rushed through the square on their way to safety. “Whew…. That was a close one. Nice shooting there, Tex.” Rainbow Dash said with a smile while patting the brave pegasus beside her on the back. Fluttershy giggled as she looked down to the vial she held in her hooves. The tip was still smoking, offering a reminder of how confidently she had attacked the monsters. “Thanks… you did pretty good yourself.” Fluttershy returned the compliment to her friend. Rainbow Dash nodded before shifting her expression to a more serious one as she thought of something grim. “We shot those things up and they just ran away… we need to do something else to put them down for good.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking slightly less confident than she had originally been. Fluttershy was just as disheartened as the cyan pony at their new problem. “Hold on… what if we move those clouds out of the way?” The shy mare suggested while looking up. Rainbow Dash trailed her eyes upwards and gasped in revelation. The light from the sun would surely destroy the creatures, which must have been why the clouds were there in the first place. “Fluttershy you’re a genius!” Rainbow Dash said with excitement while patting the yellow pony on the shoulder as a compliment. “Come on! Let’s hurry and get up there!” She exclaimed eagerly. Fluttershy nodded to the cyan mare as she spread her wings again. The two swiftly leapt into the air and flew up towards the cloud line. The wind blew fiercely in the two ponies’ faces as they neared the dark clouds. The ominous way that they shifted and moved made the two incredibly nervous as they approached. Once they were just beneath the clouds, the pair got into position and prepared to grab onto them. “Here, this looks like a good spot to start.” Fluttershy stated while reaching up to touch the clouds. Suddenly, as the yellow mare made contact with the black shapes, a few bolts of green electricity sparked to life. The miniature light show flowed over the entirety of the cloud that Fluttershy was touching. It grew in intensity, before suddenly jumping to strike the pegasus. “AGH!” Fluttershy screamed in pain and surprise as the sensation of electricity flowed through her. The shock of the event threw the pegasus downward, causing her to free fall as she went unconscious from the jolt. “FLUTTERSHY!” Rainbow Dash yelled in horror as she witnessed her friend being struck out of the air from the sudden spark in the cloud. She watched in abject terror as the pegasus plummeted towards the ground. Rainbow Dash flew downwards as fast as she could to catch the falling pony. Just before they reached the ground, she managed to get a hold of her unconscious friend and pull upwards enough to break her fall. As she landed and cradled the yellow mare in her arms, she checked to see if she was severely injured. She appeared to be slightly burned where the electricity had hit her, and her body felt cold to the touch, but that might have just been from the chilly wind. Either way, the cyan mare was extremely worried for the unconscious pony. “Come on Fluttershy… wake up!” Rainbow Dash shook the pegasus gently to jolt her awake. She feverishly watched with growing concern while her attempts at stirring the yellow pony failed. Fluttershy’s head simply lolled backwards as gravity settled her motionless body. “Wake up Fluttershy… please don’t do this to me!” Rainbow Dash hugged the pegasus close to her and squeezed tightly. She was about to give up hope, when suddenly she heard a soft murmur from the yellow mare and felt her move slightly. Fluttershy groggily opened her eyes and looked around in a daze. She tried to get up, but Rainbow Dash pushed her gently to keep her in a resting position. The yellow mare was slightly confused, but relieved to see the cyan mare holding her. “R…Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy muttered in a sleepy tone. Rainbow Dash was practically crying from joy at seeing her friend unharmed. “Thank Celestia you’re alive! I thought you left me for a second there… don’t scare me like that.” Rainbow playfully chided the pegasus while smiling warmly. Fluttershy smiled in return before looking at the cyan pony with confusion. “Ughh… what happened up there? I was just touching the cloud when... I saw a bright flash of light and felt a shock go through me.” The yellow mare asked in a puzzled tone while looking up. “You got struck by some kind of green lightning… those clouds must have some kind of protection on them to prevent pegasi from touching them.” Rainbow Dash explained while looking up at the sky thoughtfully. Suddenly a large gust of wind broke through the area again as a flash of green light filled the sky. The two ponies watched fearfully while the strange green mist appeared again and rapidly descended from the area they touched. The twisted stream headed for the spot right beside the two shocked mares. They sparsely had time to react before it flowed into the ground, creating another shockwave of faded green light that tinted the ground before vanishing. “Wait… does that mean…?!” Rainbow Dash looked around in a panic as she realized what was going on. The two felt a soft rumble beneath them and looked around as they saw the street cracking up around them. Soon enough, the pair was surrounded as more skeletons rose up around them, blocking any exit route they had. Fluttershy immediately started hyperventilating and shaking in fright. She clung to the cyan mare next to her, who wasn’t faring much better as she tried to offer what little comfort she could to the scared pony. The two could only watch in terror as the undead creatures approached them from all sides. They could hear the deafening groans and moans coming from the former ponies as they eyed their prey with their hollow and glowing eye sockets. Rainbow Dash glanced down to her strobe in a panic before realizing that it was useless against this many enemies. The two mares couldn’t fight off the horde before they reached them, so they decided to just duck their heads down together and wait for their doom. Suddenly the two heard the sound of a pony yelling out a battle cry, followed by the sound of a skeleton exploding into a pile of bones. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked up to see that Sunspot was battling the creatures around them, spinning around and kicking whatever tried to get at her with relative ease. The sound of a strobe firing behind them rang out, followed by the skeletons behind them crying out in pain as they were assaulted by the burning light. Neon Streak stepped forward and assisted the suited pegasus with dispatching the crowd around the two mares. Once the area was clear, Sunspot checked the pair to see if they were injured. “Are you guys ok?” The orange mare asked with sincere concern. “Yeah… yeah we’re fine.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking to Fluttershy sympathetically. The yellow mare offered a reassuring nod to indicate that she was in good health as well. “Are you two crazy?! You shouldn’t be out here, it’s too dangerous.” Neon Streak shook her head in disappointment while chiding the two reckless ponies. Rainbow Dash shrugged and looked down sadly, the green mare was sorry to see that she had upset the two so much. “Look, it’s alright… neither of you were hurt thankfully. Just head to the town hall and stay close to Brimstoke.” Neon instructed in a softer tone while pointing off to the side. The two ponies nodded in defeat before getting up and walking away towards the center of the square. Sunspot and Neon Streak looked at each other and put on their most confident expression before returning their attention to the many creatures roaming around the square. They would have to do their best if they were going to rescue the injured ponies that were being attacked mercilessly by the strange monsters. Chapter 47: Unwelcomed Guests“Oh my…” Twilight gasped quietly as she read over another disquieting page of the book. Ever since she and her two study buddies had started reading from the tome they had come across many things that had disturbed them, but this page was particularly horrifying to the purple unicorn. The page in question contained an informative process of how to create life, more specifically, how to create a wide array of monstrous creatures from the harvested blood and flesh of other living things. Along with a gory description of how to harvest limbs and organs for use in these rituals that made Twilight’s stomach turn from merely thinking about them, there was a detailed drawing on the opposite page that illustrated a human cutting open a lamb and removing its intestines. Just seeing the stark contrast between the blood red colors and the black ink that made up the rest of the drawing was disgusting and vile. Rarity and Applejack turned away for a moment to collect themselves as they looked to see what their friend was reacting to. They were forced to contain their disgust so as to not incite the curiosity of the children that were just a short distance away. “Good heavens… how could something like this exist?” Rarity asked while trying to stop herself from eyeing over to the drawing. She was clearly appalled by the grim depiction, but she couldn’t stop trying to look at it, almost like a morbid reflex her body had to observe the horrific picture. “I don’t know… and I certainly don’t want to think about how anything in this book could be translated to real life.” Twilight groaned while flipping the page again to hide the drawing. Thankfully the next page was just a wall of text. The text was probably some other horrible description that would make the ponies faces pale, but at least they could choose not to read it rather than staring at a picture half the size of the page. “Ah can’t believe that Tom came from a species that could make stuff like this.” Applejack said while shivering slightly in disgust. Twilight and Rarity also wondered how any sentient creature could be this cruel. “Well… humans aren’t the only ones who are like this. Clearly as long as there is intelligent life, there will be evil individuals that want to hurt others to better themselves.” Twilight shrugged and shook her head sadly as she thought about the hooded ponies. The mere fact that the world she grew up in could produce such hatred and evil almost made her sick. “*Sigh* I guess you’re right… I just wish that more people would uphold the values of love and kindness… I thought that most people did, but I guess I was mistaken.” Rarity droned in a depressed tone. “Hey! Give that back!” The sound of Sweetie Belle arguing behind them made the three turn their heads to see what was causing the filly distress. Apparently she and Scootaloo were fighting over who got to hold a vial that contained a glowing blue liquid. “You had your turn. Let some other ponies have a try!” Scootaloo retorted with an annoyed tone. The hostile remark made Sweetie Belle scowl angrily before forcibly yanking the vial out of the orange filly’s hooves. The two young fillies then proceeded to have a veritable tug of war to see who would claim possession of the bottle. Meanwhile, Applebloom, Glitterball, and Peppermint were watching the scuffle take place with uncertain expressions. “Hey you two, settle down! There are enough of these for all three of you.” Glitterball intervened and took the vial away from the two with her magic. As the two fillies shrugged in defeat and crossed their arms, the white unicorn gave them both vials to keep them content. “Food for thought girls… sharing is caring.” The rainbow haired mare stated with a lighthearted tone. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gave each other a wary glance before shaking hooves and making a truce. Seeing the fillies making up brought a smile to the unicorn’s face. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others shared a giggle at watching the fillies interact. It was always interesting to see them and their energetic hijinks. Even Spike felt a warm tingle from observing the happiness floating around the room. The young dragon had decided to just hang around and watch rather than get caught in the middle of the fillies’ hectic antics, but it was hard to not admire their energy. As Spike turned his head to look out of the window near him casually, something unexpected caught his eye. The dragon rubbed his eyes to ensure that he wasn’t seeing things. After all, the sight in front of him was bizarre and slightly frightening. “Uhh… guys?” Spike spoke up to get everyone’s attention while hopping up onto the window sill to get a better look. “I think you might want to take a look at this.” The dragon’s nervous tone made everyone else confused and uneasy as they walked over to see what had spooked him. As they drew closer to the window, Twilight and the others realized what was wrong. There was an ominous bank of dark clouds rolling in from the direction of the town square. The clouds had a greenish sort of tint to them, making them seem even more unnatural and off putting. The wind seemed to be roaring outside as well, as any trees the group could see were blowing around from the force. And although it was faint, the ponies could just barely see green flashes of light coming from within the clouds. “What the…?” Twilight tried to find words to rationalize what she was seeing, but failed miserably on that front. She was just as baffled and confused as everyone else was as she watched the clouds spreading across the sky, blotting out the sun’s comforting light so much that it seemed like a rainy day. Glitterball reached down and pulled out the negative energy detector on her vest. The liquid in the vial glowed a faint blue near the top, indicating that there was an evil presence in the direction of the clouds. “Guys… I’m getting a faint reading here. I don’t think those clouds are natural.” Glitter announced to the group with a concerned tone. “I think we gathered that on our own darling.” Rarity said while trying not to sound too cynical. She couldn’t help but feel a little fearful from watching the dark clouds move closer. Although the white mare was just as afraid of storms as the next pony, these clouds seemed to hold a bit more terror to them than regular storm clouds. “Maybe we should see if Brimstoke or someone else is in range and ask them what’s going on?” Peppermint suggested while holding his hoof up to his ear to see if he could contact one of his teammates in the square using the communication spell. Before the red haired stallion could even elicit the aura to form around his ear, a loud knock at the door interrupted him. The knock was so loud and sudden that it made everyone jump from surprise. The aggressive nature of the knock made Twilight wonder who could possibly have been behind the door. “I’ll get it.” The purple mare suggested while walking towards the door. Out of curiosity, Rarity followed the unicorn to see who was there. As the two got to the door and paused in front of it, they couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy. The pair had a suspicious feeling that something bad was outside. With a quick twist of the handle, Twilight decided to get the task over with and see who it was. She creaked the door open slightly, just enough to peer outside. Once she got a look at who it was, the unicorn was a little confused. Standing outside in the dreary and windy weather, was a pale blue pegasus mare with white hair. A pitch black cloud pouring with rain adorned her side to serve as her cutie mark. She seemed to be annoyed and had an irritated scowl on her face, but once she noticed the two opening the door, she shifted her expression to a smile that seemed a little forced. “Umm… can I help you?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while opening the door the rest of the way. The pegasus seemed to struggle to find something to say, as if she were thinking of what she was doing there. “Oh, uh… yeah! I’m here to uh… check out a few books.” The strange pony said while trying to convey as much sincerity as possible. “Sorry… we’re closed for the moment on account of some important business from the princess. Maybe you could come back later?” Twilight said in a friendly tone while closing the door slightly. Normally she would let the mare in no problem, but she had an odd feeling that the pegasus had something strange about her. And besides, she was sort of telling the truth after all. Just before Twilight could close the door, the pegasus quickly put her hoof forward while trying to make up an excuse to stay there. Although she tried to seem friendly, she came off as a bit aggressive, which made Twilight feel uneasy. “Wait! Uh… can’t I just come in for a little while? I mean just look at it out here. I don’t want to get caught out in this weather.” The mare said with an awkward smile and chuckle. Twilight shrugged as she looked at the gloomy clouds. Although she did think that the pegasus was hiding something, she couldn’t rightly kick a pony out in this weather due to how strange they acted. While Twilight was debating whether or not to allow the pale mare inside, Sweetie Belle walked over beside her sister to see who was at the door. As she looked at the color of the pegasus, she had a twinge of déjà vu that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. “Please… you won’t even know I’m here… promise.” The strange pegasus added in an attempt at appealing to Twilight’s sense of morality. As the pony spoke, Sweetie Belle gasped as she remembered where she had last heard her voice. “Hey! That’s one of the ponies we saw down in the school’s basement!” The filly said while shaking her sister to get her attention. Twilight and Rarity widened their eyes at the sudden discovery. Upon noticing the alarmed filly, the pegasus seemed genuinely surprised. “Wow… you must be one of those three fillies from the school. Man, I thought that hunk of blood would have made mincemeat out of you pipsqueaks.” She chuckled in a tone that unsettled the three ponies. The pegasus obviously didn’t care about upholding her rouse any longer. Rarity backed Sweetie Belle away and stood in front of her protectively. She and Twilight shifted their expressions to more serious ones as they lit up their horns and leered at the pale mare with hostile intent. “Get away from us…” Twilight instructed while shifting her weight forward in a threatening manner. Although her nerves were on edge from confronting one of their enemies, she had a room full of friends to protect from the intruding pony. “Really? Are you sure I can’t just-” The gray mare asked in a jesting tone while stepping forward, only to be met by Twilight making her horn glow brighter. As she looked at the two unicorns staring holes into her, Raincloud backed up slightly while maintaining her casual expression. “No, you and your friends have done enough harm. You take one more step in this direction and I will personally make sure you regret it.” Twilight replied sternly. Rarity stepped forward to be in line with her friend as they both held their ground against any possible attacks. “Wow… you’ve got more spine than I originally thought.” Raincloud muttered to herself, slightly impressed by the boldness being displayed by the purple pony. “Ok then… if I can’t come in, do you mind if my friend takes a look around?” Raincloud said in a mischievous tone. She suddenly had a very cocky smile on her face. Twilight and Rarity looked around, but the pale mare was totally alone. There weren’t even any ponies in sight other than her. “What are you-” Twilight started to speak up, when she was interrupted by the mare chuckling devilishly. Raincloud steadied her body and smirked as she observed the confused bunch of ponies. “Shadow…” The pegasus announced in a firm tone to nobody in particular while looking beside her. Twilight, Rarity, and even Sweetie Belle were heavily confused by the strange mare. Suddenly, something happened that silenced the group into a state of shock and unease. The mare’s shadow suddenly started growing out to the side, as if a light were shifting around it and causing it to become longer. Once the shape grew to a sufficient length beside her, the shadow completely detached from the pegasus and formed into a circular blotch on the ground. The spot seemed darker than the transparent shadow it had once been. It perfectly resembled the tone of black that the darklings and dark matter were made of. With a ghastly howl, the black spot rippled as something rose out of it. A black head with two neon purple eyes and a jagged smile of the same glowing color came floating out of the ground. As the shape got higher, its form broadened as its specter like body came into view. The creature had what appeared to be the frilly overhanging fabric of a cloak around its body, as if it were dressed in some sort of ghostly shawl that blended in with its black color. The beast’s form tapered off into a spectral tail that bobbed up and down as it floated. And to complete its ghostly appearance, it had long, reaching arms that were capped off by boney looking black clawed hands. “…!” Twilight and her two companions were frozen in shock and fright. All they could do was to stare wide eyed at the dark specter before them as it hovered menacingly beside the smirking pegasus. The creature’s glowing purple eyes and mouth reminded Twilight of some kind of twisted jack-o-lantern that had no way of indicating where it was looking, yet it seemed to be staring directly into her very being. “Shadow… these are your new playthings. I don’t care what you do to them, as long as they suffer.” Raincloud instructed to her pet. The shadow twisted its head to look at her while keeping its body stationary. The jarring snap that resulted disturbed the three ponies deeply. “Yeah, you heard me right.” The pale mare stated with a grin before turning her attention to the three ponies in front of her. “KILL THEM!” She yelled in excitement while pointing at the three ponies. The ghostly monster snapped its head to stare at the three quivering creatures in the doorway. The three could almost swear they saw the specter’s jagged smile inch upwards slightly in a joyful smirk. The shadow let out an unearthly cackle that echoed through the ponies’ heads as it flew at them with its arms stretched out. The pitch black claws that jutted out of its hands looked like they could easily rip them to shreds. “AAAHHH!” Twilight, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle screamed in unison as the shadow flew at them. Twilight quickly slammed the door shut and locked it before leaping backwards to join her two friends. The door frame jolted as a loud thud sounded against it, followed by an odd sound that the ponies didn’t recognize. As the trio hyperventilated from their close encounter, everyone else in the room walked over to them with concern and alarm evident on their faces. They had heard a little bit of the conversation from inside, and they obviously heard the three screaming in terror, but they were ultimately clueless as to the danger that just presented itself. “What happened?! Are you guys ok?!” Spike asked with an alarmed tone while observing the fear in the three ponies’ eyes. Twilight tried to calm herself down enough to speak to the dragon, but the sound of the shadow's haunting laughter echoing through the room faintly stunned her into silence. As the specter’s laugh shifted around the room, the lights started flickering and dimming and the bookshelves and tables started vibrating on their own. The lights going out and the insane laughter of an unknown threat made all the ponies dart their heads around in a panic as they tried to pin point where the noise was coming from. “W-what in tarnation is that?!” Applejack stammered nervously while keeping Applebloom close to comfort her. The terrified filly was burying her head into the orange mare’s side for protection, although the farm pony wasn’t faring much better. “One of the hooded ponies was outside… apparently she has some kind of shadow monster under her control!” Twilight explained in a fearful voice. “S-s-she told it to k-kill us!” Sweetie Belle’s voice shook almost as much as her knees did. The white filly clung to her sister for comfort, although it did little do quell her gripping terror. “I don’t want to die.” The white filly whimpered quietly with tears welling up in her eyes. Seeing her sister this frightened made Rarity feel sad and helpless. “We’re going to be fine darling… sshh it’s ok… just keep your eyes closed and cover your ears… I’ll keep you safe.” Rarity said in a soft voice while hugging the filly close. It tore her up inside knowing that she might not be able to provide her the protection she promised. “I’m getting readings from all around us… I can’t tell where it is.” Glitterball explained nervously while observing her locator. The vial was completely aglow with blue light, offering little else than the obvious discovery that something evil was all around them. *POP* The loud bursting sound of the lightbulb overhead burning out made everyone jump in fright. They turned their attention upwards just in time to see the bulb bursting into tiny pieces with a flash of electricity. Little did the ponies know that while they were observing the exploded bulb, there was a dark blotch forming on the floor just behind Glitterball. With little more noise than a bizarre whir, the shadow rose out of the floor and set its eyes on its hapless victim. It let out an eerie howl as it rushed into the air like a manta ray swooping down on its prey. As the shadow was preparing its attack, Twilight and the others at the front of the group noticed the monster rushing their friend and gasped in fright. “Glitterball look out!” Twilight yelled in a panic to warn the unicorn to the incoming threat. Glitterball whipped her head around and widened her eyes in shock at the approaching specter. The sight of the pitch black entity with piercing eyes flying straight for her made her nerves explode with fright. The rainbow haired mare reacted in the only way she could think of at the time. She reached onto her vest and went for her strobe to defend herself against the creature. Just as she was bringing the vial up to ready it for combat, the white pony shrieked in pain as the specter swiped the bottle out of her hooves while it clawed at her body. The force of the impact sent the vial flying off to the side, and sent the wounded pony to the floor. “AGHH!” Glitterball yelled in agonizing pain as she clutched her injured arms to the spot where the claws had nicked her chest. The wounds weren’t very deep, but for some strange reason, they stung and throbbed with a shooting pain that was almost unnaturally unbearable considering the limited damage. “Nugh… guh… urrg!” Glitter yelped painfully while rocking her head back and forth to cope with her suffering. Watching the wounded unicorn moaning in distress made everyone feel a sense of horror and shock as they stood on the sidelines helplessly. While the unicorn was writhing in pain on the floor, the horrified ponies looked at the shadow only to see that its claws were glowing the same shade of purple that its facial features were. The strange glow vanished and returned to the shapeless blackness that covered the ghostly monster. “Glitter!” Peppermint exclaimed in terror and shock as he watched his wounded partner on the floor. The creature was looming over her, preparing to strike her again with its claws. The red haired stallion knew that a strike aimed at the helpless mare would either kill her or cause irreparable damage. With nerves shot to oblivion and shaky hooves, Peppermint reached down to his vest and desperately fumbled around for his strobe. He hadn’t had much practice with the weapon, but there was no time to let his lack of experience or fear get in the way. As the vial clattered against the other pieces of equipment on the stallion’s vest, the shadow jerked its head sideways and stared at the medical pony. Seeing the hollow and sinister gaze of the shadow sent a cold chill down Peppermint’s spine. He could feel his body seizing up in terror, preventing him from taking any sort of action other than a startled yelp as the specter glided towards him. “Ooof!” The red haired stallion groaned in pain as the shadow swatted him aside. Although the creature’s claws hadn’t made contact with him, the force of the strike was enough to cause considerable distress as well as sending Pepper careening into the far wall. Now that the stallion was out of the way, the shadow quickly turned its attention to the group of ponies huddled together in front of it. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity were so terrified by the monster that they could barely avert their eyes from it as it grinned at them with its unchanging jagged smile. Spike and the three fillies were cowering behind the three mares, hoping that the monster would just leave them alone somehow. As the monster approached, Applejack gulped nervously as she looked at her terrified friends. Even if Twilight and Rarity snapped out of their state of terror, there was no way they could get all of the children and themselves out of the way of an attack. Steeling herself against the frightening specter in front of her, the orange mare stepped forward bravely. Or at least, as brave as she could manage to make herself appear. The nervous band of ponies noticed their friend stepping forward to get between them and the shadow. Although they admired her sense of bravery, they were shocked to see the farm pony putting herself in harm’s way. “Applejack!” Applebloom cried frantically for her sister to reconsider her decision. “Don’t worry Applebloom… Ah’ll handle this.” Applejack glanced behind her quickly to give her sister a reassuring look before returning her attention to the monster that was floating menacingly in front of her. She hoped that she could deliver on her brave words. The shadow chuckled sinisterly as it stared at the orange pony in front of it with devious intentions. It held its gaunt arm out in front of itself before presenting its clawed hand for Applejack to see. The specter’s claws glowed a menacing purple once more as it inched closer and prepared to strike. The orange mare gulped nervously as she eyed the sharp claws with a feeling of dread building up inside of her. Meanwhile, as peppermint rubbed his head and recuperated from his body slamming into the wall, he looked up to see the shadow preparing to attack the farm pony. Taking a quick glance to his side to find that Glitterball was still out of commission, the white stallion knew that he had to be the one to act. Sitting up against the wall and looking to the nearby table, Pepper saw the remnants of Glitterball’s teaching session with the cutie mark crusaders. There were many uncapped vials, some empty, some filled partially with either liquids or solids, along with the containers for some of the ingredients. After dismissing most of the vials as completely useless, the red haired pony’s eyes settled on one particular vial. It was a bottle without a cap on it that contained a blue tinted liquid. Pepper remembered this to be a strobe that hadn’t been finished by the unicorn. Aha! He thought to himself in revelation. If the white stallion’s memory was to be trusted amid his shocked nerves and aching body, he knew that strobes were highly unstable in their early stages of brewing, with the slightest touch of the primer causing a bright flash of unconcentrated light energy. In one swift motion, Peppermint got up from the floor and dove for the table. He quickly grabbed the vial while being careful not to spill any of the liquid. Once the bottle was pointed in the general direction of the shadow, he pushed the button on the bottom section of the vial and closed his eyes. With a loud noise that sounded like flash powder igniting during a camera flash, the room was filled with a nearly blinding burst of light as the liquid in the vial was totally converted to energy. The violent burst of light elicited a screech from the shadow and made it pause from its attack to recover. The specter had smoke coming from its form, but seemed otherwise unharmed other than its reaction to the pain. Spotting Glitterball’s strobe on the ground a short distance away and seeing her opening, Applejack dove along the floor and grabbed the small vial. With a determined expression on her face, the farm pony whipped the bottle around and opened fire as she pointed it at the shadow. One of the bursts of light exploded into the monster’s shoulder, causing it to recoil from the attack. As the orange mare continued blasting at the specter, it dove backwards into the air and flew into the wall, where it disappeared into another black splotch with a disturbing moan that sounded like a threat to the attacking ponies. After taking a moment to ensure that the danger had passed, the ponies turned their attention to each other to ensure that nobody had been harmed. They were quickly reminded of the white unicorn writhing on the floor a short distance away, and adopted more concerned expressions as they drew closer. “Is she ok?” Rarity asked with a sympathetic frown as she observed the cringing pony attempting to deal with the pain. Peppermint knelt down and surveyed his teammate for injuries, but he couldn’t get very far into his inspection with the mare cradling her wounds like she was. “Glitter, it’s me. How bad are you hurt?” Pepper asked while gently taking ahold of the unicorn’s arms and lifting them. There were small gashes on both of her arms, as well as a slightly larger gash on her chest. Much to everyone’s surprise and dismay, the wounds seemed to be lightly pulsating with a purple glow similar to the shadow’s claws. “Guhh… I don’t think the cuts are too bad… ngh… but it hurts so much I can barely move.” Glitterball explained through clenched teeth. It was clear that the unicorn was in excruciating pain, but it seemed to be unwarranted given the size of her injuries. The ponies wondered if the shadow had somehow done something to the white mare to inflict this kind of pain. The faint sound of moaning slowly shifting into laughter echoed around the room. It sounded far away, but seemed to be getting slightly closer at times. The ponies suddenly realized just how dark and eerie the room was now that the lights were off. The intense atmosphere made them all nervous and uneasy among other emotions. “We need to get somewhere away from that thing before it comes back.” Applejack suggested while darting her eyes around anxiously. The stress from not knowing where the specter was almost overshadowed the fear felt from actually seeing the monster. “Wait a minute… I have an idea!” Twilight stated while rushing into the next room with eager intent. Not wanting to leave the unicorn alone, Spike and Applejack followed the lavender pony as she rushed to a storage closet in the other room. Twilight lit up her horn and fumbled around the small closet as she feverishly searched for a seemingly random item. Applejack and Spike watched the purple mare anxiously as she tossed aside many items in her search. “No… no… ugh, no!” Twilight groaned in frustration while hastening her search. She almost hit her companions behind her with the discarded items she was hastily throwing out. “Aha! Found it!” The unicorn exclaimed in triumph as she held up a small candle. The wax on the candle was a shade of deep blue that seemed to be unnaturally colored into the normally white wax. Applejack and Spike recognized the item to be one of Tom’s blessed candles. “A blessed candle?” Spike asked curiously as Twilight brought the item out of the closet and shut the door. “Yes… yes it is. Tom made this a couple days ago out of a spare candle we had lying around. He told me to use it in an emergency… and I think now is as good a time as any.” The unicorn stated while walking into the other room with her small group. Once she entered the main room with her item and presented it to the others, they all smiled as they realized what it was. “Good thinking Twilight!” Rarity applauded her friend with a cheerful tone. Twilight appreciated the praise, but she also didn’t want to take credit for something before it worked. Without wasting any more time with idle chatter, the unicorn quickly set the candle on the floor in the center of the group and focused her magic on it. As the wick of the candle lit up a brilliant shade of blue, a pulsating aura went out of the candle and formed a small bubble that covered the group and gave them a little room to move around. Although the space of the protective barrier was decent enough, it was still nowhere near the amount of protection that more candles would have provided. “I thought these were supposed to cover the whole room?” Scootaloo asked while stepping to the edge of the barrier and poking the air where the circle on the floor ended. The blue force field rippled around the spot where the filly touched before disappearing from sight once more. “That’s only if we have enough to cover each entrance… I guess we’ll have to work with this for now.” Twilight sighed at their bleak situation while looking at the light given off by the candle. Although the blue light coming off of it was a beautiful sight to behold, it didn’t actually do much more than provide enough light for someone carrying it. The purple unicorn lit up her horn again and projected enough light for everyone to be comfortable in the already eerie room. “Well as long as we’re safe, I could care less about stretching my legs…” Peppermint stated while examining Glitterball’s wounds. The cuts would be easy enough to mend, but the pain the unicorn was feeling would be another matter entirely. “Listen Glitter… I’m going to try to do something about the pain. Just sit tight and go to your happy place.” The stallion’s words did little to comfort the rainbow haired pony as she tried to remain as still as possible. “Gah… I don’t think there is a place happy enough to make me feel better right now Pepper.” Glitterball said with as much humor and wit as she could muster. Her pained smile and attempt at a lighthearted attitude only made everyone else feel bad for the white mare. They watched silently as they hoped that the red haired stallion would be able to do something, anything to make her feel better. Peppermint thought for a moment before reaching into a pouch on his vest and pulling out a hoof full of a fine white powder. The odd substance almost resembled sugar or salt, but it held the strangest odor that didn’t seem to fit it at all. It smelled like someone just picked a bunch of flowers, enough to concentrate the aroma given off by a group of them. “What’s that stuff?” Twilight asked curiously while examining the powder closer. “It’s a powder made by grinding up a rare flower known as dawn’s kiss. It has properties that cancel out certain negative energies, and it can be made into a lot of healing remedies.” Peppermint explained while balling up the powder in his hoof so he could pour it onto the wounds without spilling any. “And… I’m hoping it will get rid of whatever is causing Glitterball this much pain.” The stallion gently took the mare’s arm and poured a little bit of the powder over the length of the gash. After doing the same for her other wounds, he paused and watched to see if it was working. The ponies looked on with mystified expressions as the power glowed a soft shade of white. The granules of the powder seemed to disappear as it reacted with the wound. And along with the powder slowly disappearing, the purple glow of the wounds was getting weaker and weaker. As the last of the powder vanished, all that was left was the empty, albeit still bloody looking, cuts. “Ahh…” Glitterball let out a sigh of relief and laid her head back. Judging from her relaxed face and lack of painful moans and groans, the group gathered that her pain had been relieved. “How do you feel darling?” Rarity asked, hopeful that the powder had worked as well as it appeared. Glitterball smiled as she returned to a more cheerful attitude. “I feel good as new… minus the cuts on my arms and chest of course, but those don’t hurt that much.” Glitter explained with a relieved voice. Everyone smiled as the unicorn was restored to health. Now that their friend had been cured, they all felt like a weight had been lifted from the room. “Now that that’s over, we should get those cuts of yours patched up.” Peppermint said with a smile as he prepared to sew up the unicorn’s injuries. Before he could even get out his equipment however, a loud noise that resembled something bashing on a magical barrier sounded out. The group of ponies looked around in alarm as the blue force field around them lit up and became solid. As a disturbing howl sounded out, the ponies quickly found the source of the disturbance. The shadow had returned, and was frantically banging its fists on the barrier created by the candle. With each blow to the protective bubble, the flame of the candle jolted slightly, as if a light breeze were failing to blow it out. “GAH!” Spike and the three fillies beside him jumped back in fright. They huddled together as close to the center of the bubble as they could and tried their best to ignore the wailing of the monster outside. Even the adult ponies felt disturbed by the alarming sounds of the specter trying to break in, although they merely recoiled slightly from the initial shock of the shadow’s appearance. “I think we should call for help before you patch me up Pepper.” Glitterball suggested with a worried expression. Peppermint nodded in agreement. If the group didn’t get help, then they all might end up like Glitter did, or even worse. “Ok, ok… I’ll see if anyone can hear us over there.” The red haired stallion said while placing his hoof up to his ear. The faster he summoned aid, the faster that they could be truly safe again. Chapter 48: House ArrestIt was very tense and nerve racking for the better part of the morning down at the Ponyville town square. Although there were considerably fewer undead monsters roaming around, there were still enough to warrant concern for the ponies dotted around the square. Brimstoke and Tom were doing their best to keep the princess safe while she figured out a way to stop the spell that was making the skeletons appear. Princess Luna had since left the town hall and decided to assist Sunspot and the others with rescuing all of the injured or trapped ponies around the square. “What’s your progress, Princess?” Brimstoke asked anxiously while eyeing the three skeletons attempting to shuffle over to him. Most of the ponies from the square had fled to the rest of the town, but a great many of them had taken shelter in the town hall. And as troubling as the notion seemed, the undead creatures seemed to know this and were steadily trying to get past the white stallion and break through the door. Celestia looked up from the floor to observe the two in front of her. While Tom seemed to be having little problems in dispatching whatever came his way, the alicorn was concerned for Brimstoke and his team. “I’m trying as fast as I can. This cloud is unlike anything I have ever seen, and I can barely produce enough energy to even affect it.” The princess responded with a troubled tone. “Well I hope you can get rid of it soon… more and more of those things just keep popping up, almost faster than we can put them down.” Brimstoke stated while looking out into the square to check on his teammates. Suddenly, the three were interrupted by Neon Streak trotting up to them from the side. She appeared exhausted from her efforts at keeping the ponies in the square safe from the undead horde around them. “Neon, what’s the situation out there?” Brimstoke asked with a serious expression. He waited for the green mare to catch her breath before she responded. “*Pant*… we… *wheeze*... we have managed to get all of the civilians away from the creatures. Glimmer, Sunspot, and Princess Luna are guarding them until we can move them up here.” Neon explained while looking behind her at the square bustling with undead life. It was a sorrowful sight to see this much destruction and chaos in the once lively town center. “How many casualties we count?” Brimstoke grew more somber as he brought up the subject of lost lives. Neon Streak looked down sadly before answering. “*Sigh*… non to report so far, but a few ponies are in critical condition. Even if Pepper were here I don’t think he could help all of them… we need external help if we don’t want to lose anyone.” Neon said with a grim tone in her voice. “We have royal guard on the way. I’m sure they have made arrangements to bring in field medics as well.” Brimstoke replied while trying to brighten the situation. “Neon, I need you to head back out there to help them move those civvies to safety. Understood?” He instructed to the mare in a clear voice. “Yes sir.” Neon nodded while putting a little bit more energy into her response. The green mare turned around and quickly darted through the square while avoiding any skeletons that blocked her path. Before Brimstoke could return to his post, his ear started glowing as Glitterball’s communication spell worked its magic. He heard a slightly nervous pony on the other end that he recognized to be Peppermint. “Hello…? Can anyone hear me?” Pepper asked nervously. The way the medical pony sounded conveyed that he was in a stressful situation. Brimstoke was surprised to see that the spell worked over such a long distance. “Peppermint? This is Brimstoke speaking.” The white stallion said to alert the pony to his presence. He put a hoof up to his ear to better focus the sound and waited for the red haired stallion to respond. “Brimstoke…? Oh thank goodness. We’re in serious trouble back at the library and we need help immediately. Is Tom there?” Peppermint asked in a stressed tone of voice. “Yes Tom is here. What’s going on over there?” Brimstoke replied with growing concern. He never figured that the group back at the library would be in any danger from the attack. “One of the hooded ponies showed up… they apparently summoned some kind of shadow creature here. It managed to attack Glitterball before we could fend it off long enough to find a safe place.” The red haired stallion explained his grim situation with a palpable sense of urgency. “What?!” Brimstoke exclaimed in shock upon hearing that one of the hooded ponies had attacked in such a direct way. “Hey, what’s going on?” Tom asked curiously while walking up to the surprised stallion. Although he couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, he could hear himself being mentioned, and the shocked reaction of the white pony. “Twilight and the others are being attacked back at the library by some kind of shadow creature.” Brimstoke relayed the information to the listening human and alicorn while dropping his hoof from his ear to speak outside of the two-way link. “What?!” Tom and Celestia both were shocked and alarmed to hear that their friends were being attacked under their very noses. “Ask them where they are now, and if they’re safe.” Tom practically instructed the stallion on what to say. Although he had a small sense of authority from his days at the academy, Brimstoke figured that the human knew more about what to do in these situations. “Pepper, what are you guys doing right now? Are you safe?” The white pony repeated the human’s request while returning his hoof to his ear. “We’re using one of Tom’s blessed candles to keep it out currently… it seems to have left us alone for the moment, but we have a slight problem here.” Peppermint explained with a growing sense of apprehension in his voice. “What’s wrong?” Brimstoke asked with a growing sense of dread. The mere fact that the others were in such a situation made him nervous already, so to hear that more complications were present only made the white stallion more on edge. “The candle looks like its flickering out… we don’t know how much longer it will last.” Peppermint stated uneasily. His voice was getting more and more unsettled the longer he thought about how much trouble they were in. As Tom noticed the growing sense of unease evident on Brimstoke’s face, he couldn’t help but to worry about the group trapped at the library. He felt a sense of urgency to find out as much about the situation as possible. “What’s happening over there? Talk to me Brimstoke…” The human’s voice broke the white stallion out of his nervous thoughts and made him look forward. “They are using one of your candles to protect themselves, but they think it’s about to burn out.” Brimstoke explained in a dreadful tone. Tom was shocked to hear the news that his friends were in so much danger. “Listen to me… Tell them that they need to get another means of staying safe. If only one candle is used, then it doesn’t last nearly as long as multiple candles linked together.” Tom explained with a sense of urgency while turning to walk away. “I’m going over there to help them. Will you guys be ok here on your own?” He asked while observing the remnants of the skeleton army. “Yeah, we’ll be fine. Just go!” Brimstoke replied while motioning for the human to leave. Tom nodded before sprinting off in the direction that he remembered leading to the library. As the human ran off towards the edge of the square, the white stallion noticed a group of ponies approaching the town hall from the side. It was Neon Streak and the others escorting a group of injured ponies. Princess Luna was levitating a bloodied earth pony mare alongside her. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot were each helping two ponies walk. There was another unicorn mare limping slowly in the middle of the group. And Neon Streak was covering the small troop from the few skeletons that remained in the square as they walked. “Are these the last ponies that were out there?” Brimstoke asked while rushing forward to help the injured unicorn walk up the steps to the main building. “Yeah, everyone else either ran off or they are accounted for.” Glimmer explained before opening the door to the town hall and helping the pony beside him inside. Sunspot and Luna did the same, leaving Neon Streak outside with Princess Celestia and Brimstoke. “Where’d Tom go?” Neon asked curiously while looking around for the absent human. “He ran off to help Twilight and the others back at the library. They are being attacked by one of the hooded ponies as we speak.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. “What?! Are they ok?!” Neon asked in a more concerned tone. “Don’t worry. They found a way to keep themselves safe until Tom gets there.” Brimstoke said in order to ease the green mare’s concerns. Suddenly the moans and groans of the remaining skeletons drew their attention away. “I guess that leaves us to mop things up around here… shouldn’t be too hard with how few of these things are remaining.” Neon stated with a chuckle while looking around at the many bones strewn around. It was a veritable graveyard of scattered skulls and heaps of bones from where each undead creature had collapsed after dismemberment. “Yeah, let’s hurry up and finish these things off so we can go help Tom and the others.” Brimstoke said with a confident nod to his teammate. Suddenly, a loud rattling noise made them dart their heads around nervously. It sounded like all of the bones around the square were vibrating, and sure enough, they were. Every bone left by one of the fallen monsters was shaking violently on the ground. Much to the ponies’ astonishment, a green mist erupted from the skulls and rib cages scattered around. The mist flew out into the area around each skeleton and went inside each of the bones that formally comprised their bodies. The body parts started floating into the air and assembling back into their original composition. As the skeletons were reforming all around the square, the newly formed beasts and the creatures that were left over from before all turned their attention forward. Brimstoke and Neon Streak backed up defensively as they watched the forming horde. “I thought if we knocked their heads off it would kill them?!” Neon asked with an alarmed tone. “I guess not… maybe we should try breaking their bones?” Brimstoke suggested nervously. He then turned behind him and looked at the white alicorn still trying to break the spell. “Uh, Princess? We could really use some sunlight right about now.” Brimstoke said with an anxious tone. Celestia looked up from her work and gasped in shock as she noticed how many of the creatures there were around them. She never imagined that there were this many that had formed since the fighting had begun. “I’m trying Brimstoke… Just be careful alright?” The alicorn said in a concerned tone. Brimstoke nodded confidently. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. Neon, go inside and get the others… we need to fight these things off until the princess can get rid of them for good.” The stallion instructed to his partner. Neon Streak took one more cursory glance at the crowd of approaching skeletons before returning her attention to her leader and nodding. Meanwhile back at the library, the atmosphere was very tense and nerve racking for decidedly different reasons. Ever since the shadow had ceased its assault on the magical barrier, the frightened group of ponies had been left in utter silence. The usually warm and comfortable environment of the library had been shifted into a dark and foreboding one. Every stray noise of the wind rustling the foliage of the library or even the creak of a piece of wood settling made the group jumpy. Twilight and her small band of companions eyed at the red haired stallion anxiously as he tried to summon the aid they so desperately needed. Although they couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, they could put together that Peppermint was explaining their situation to Brimstoke. “W-what..?” The stallion stammered nervously in a frightened voice. Judging from his pale expression, the others figured that something Brimstoke said had given him a dreadful feeling. “What is it Pepper?” Glitterball asked curiously, brimming with just as much anxiety as the others were to know about what was happening. “Oh… ok, we’ll have to make due then I guess… *gulp*” Peppermint continued his conversation while giving the curious ponies around him a signal to be patient while he finished. After another brief moment, the white stallion put his hoof back down from his ear and looked around with a pale expression. “Well? What did they say…? Are they coming to help us?” Rarity asked while trying to quiet her nerves for the sake of the filly beside her. All of the adults were trying to appear as brave as possible for the four children, but everyone could tell that they were just internalizing their fear. “Yes, Tom is on his way as we speak… but we have a slight problem.” Peppermint replied while nervously staring at the diminished flame on the candle that sat in the center of their protective bubble. “What is it Pepper? Is the candle weakening or something?” Twilight speculated while watching the flickering of the blue flame. “Worse… according to Tom, this candle isn’t going to last much longer, especially if that shadow tries breaking in again. We need to get somewhere safe, and fast.” Pepper replied in an anxious tone. The confirmation that the candle was indeed going out filled everyone with a new sense of fear and dread. “What are we going to do? This candle is the only thing keeping that thing from getting us.” Applebloom stated gloomily. Although she was stating the obvious, Applejack still tried her best to reassure her sister that everything would be alright. But the best she could offer the filly was holding her close with one arm. “I think I might have a solution… but it does have a few drawbacks.” Glitterball suggested while getting up from her seated position. Everyone looked to the rainbow haired unicorn with pleading eyes in the hopes that she could deliver them to safety. “Ah think that anything would be better than waiting for that thing to get us. What’s your plan Glitter?” Applejack asked eager to learn about the unicorn’s suggestion. Glitterball was happy to see that someone placed their faith in her, but she hoped that she could deliver on her promise. “I have a warding charm in my repertoire of spells that would keep that shadow out for a while… but it might have a few undesired side effects. For one we need to get into an interior room that has a door.” Glitterball explained while looking around nervously. The only door in sight was the front door. “Will my bedroom work? I know it has a balcony… but it should count as interior right?” Twilight suggested while thinking of a room that would work. Her kitchen and the other section of the library each lacked doors, and her bathroom would be too small for everyone to fit into, so her bedroom was their only option. “Right… that should work. As long as it isn’t the front door the charm will work. But that brings us to the next problem… I’m not sure if the charm will be strong enough to keep that monster out permanently. It should hold us out until help gets here though.” Glitterball stated with doubtful optimism. Even if she did want to view the situation with as much hope as possible, she couldn’t get the negative outcomes out of her head. Even if the unicorn’s plan didn’t work out, the ponies had to do something fast. The flame on the candle was gradually sinking further into the wax. At this rate, the candle would go out on its own in a few minutes. “Well if we want to move without being open to attack then we need to move now. Glitterball, get your charm ready and let’s head upstairs.” Twilight said while lighting up her horn and grabbing the candle with her magic, everyone got ready to follow the unicorn as she carefully inched forward to keep her friends in the circle of protection. With jittery nerves and strong feelings of apprehension and anxiety, the group walked forward through the darkened room. With the thick veil of clouds covering the sky outside, the sun did little to light the room as dim rays of faint light streamed in through the window. Everyone was secretly dreading every step they took. They knew for certain that their ghostly assailant would return for them, it was only a matter of time. Scootaloo and her band of crusaders huddled near Twilight to keep as close to the protective rays of the candle flame as possible. The purple unicorn practically tripped over the three fillies every time she stepped forward. After what seemed like an eternity of walking just a few inches, the group finally reached the stairs. Twilight motioned for Glitterball and Peppermint to step up before her. It only made sense for the lavender mare to remain in the middle of the group. If she went in front, then the entire group would have to keep inside of the small space provided by one half of the circle. “Let’s hurry up guys… this candle is almost used up.” Twilight stated grimly while nervously eyeing the progressively shrinking flame. The group took this as a cue to speed up their progress as much as possible while still being cautious. The purple unicorn could almost swear she could hear the faint sound of the shadow’s maniacal laughter from within the walls. She was almost on the verge of an anxiety attack by the time the group reached her bedroom door. Much to the surprise and dismay of everyone, the two vested ponies paused in front of the door and sighed before turning to the others with troubled expressions. “We need to prepare the charm on both sides of the door for this to work… maybe you guys should head inside and wait for us?” Glitterball suggested in an uneasy voice. Although the ponies appreciated the bold gesture, they could tell that she didn’t exactly want to be left outside to fend for herself. “No way, you guys would be sitting ducks out here without this candle. We can wait a little longer while you get the spell ready… just hurry up ok?” Twilight said with a kind tone. She knew that the two would be at risk if they were to remain outside, and if they were attacked, the rest of the group would be put in danger without the protective charm completed. “Ok… thanks I guess.” Glitterball stated in a grateful tone. She hadn’t thought about the possible outcomes of her plan beforehand, so to hear that someone else was thinking logically made her feel better about their chances. Without wasting any time, Glitterball and her partner reached into their vests to grab the necessary ingredients to complete the charm. Among the items the two produced from their inventory were two pieces of paper in small strips that only seemed big enough to write vertically on. After affixing one of the pieces of paper onto the door, the rainbow haired mare grabbed a feather quill and dabbed it into what appeared to be red ink. The sight of the small piece of paper filled many of the ponies with varying feelings of doubt and curiosity. They wondered how potent a magical spell involving paper could actually be, especially when held against the frightening capabilities of the shadow monster. “How is that going to work? I don’t think a piece of paper is going to do much against that thing.” Scootaloo fretted with worry as she eyed their supposed salvation. Glitterball merely smirked at the narrow minded filly while writing odd symbols on the paper. “And I didn’t think that candles could do much against that thing either… Magic takes many strange and sometimes unlikely forms.” Glitter replied with an understanding tone of voice. As the young pegasus thought back to how the blessed candles had fended off the creatures from the hospital, she resolved that not everything is as it seems when it comes to magic, especially human magic. “Ok, this side is done. Everyone head inside so we can complete the charm.” The white unicorn instructed while opening the door and ushering everyone inside, the group was eager to finally get somewhere safe where they could relax for five seconds without fear of being attacked. As she was heading inside, Twilight paused to view the piece of paper stuck to the door. The symbols on the paper vaguely resembled some of the symbols she had seen in the books procured from the hooded ponies, but only slightly. In truth, the purple unicorn had no idea what any of the seemingly jumbled up mess of shapes even meant. “Are you sure this is going to work, Twilight?” Spike asked from beside the lavender mare. Twilight looked down to see the young dragon admiring the paper himself with a curious expression. “I’m sure that Glitter and Pepper know what they’re doing Spike. They wouldn’t have suggested this if it didn’t even work.” The unicorn replied in a reassuring tone. She could tell that her assistant was trying to rationalize the situation to make himself feel safer. It reminded her a little bit of how she coped with frightful situations. “Hurry up and get inside guys… Ah don’t think that candle is going to last much longer.” The sound of Applejack beckoning them inside made the two turn their attention to the candle flame as it shifted in the air. They nodded in agreement while stepping forward. Suddenly, an eerie noise behind the pair made them turn around. It was hard to tell the source of the noise, but it sounded like the discomforting whoosh that the shadow made when it phased out of an object. Just past the bubble of light provided by Twilight’s horn, and the thin blue line on the floor that indicated the reach of the fading candle, something appeared to be moving in the darkness. Just before Spike and Twilight could react to the black shape, it moved upwards, revealing the neon purple glow of the shadow’s face. The creature’s body seemed to be masked by the darkness in the hallway, leaving only the floating eyes and mouth of the specter to be seen. As it cackled sinisterly, it rushed forward and slammed into the barrier of the candle. Instead of being repelled by the barrier however, the specter crashed through it. The candle flame sputtered out into a puff of blue smoke, and the force field appeared and disappeared as if it had been shattered. “*Gasp*” Twilight was shocked into silence by the ghostly figure in front of her. As it came into the light, it brandished its claws out in front of itself as if to show them off. The claws glowed a deep purple that gave the unicorn flashbacks of how it had attacked Glitterball. The shadow reeled its arm back in preparation to strike while gliding forward, the sight of the monster about to attack her made Twilight recoil backwards, only to hit the frame of the door as she scuttled back. Meanwhile, as the shadow was approaching the frightened unicorn, Spike was watching the scene unfold with abject horror. A part of him wanted to flee into the room and leave the purple mare to fend for herself, but he couldn’t just abandon her. The dragon felt an urge to protect his lifelong friend welling up inside of him, one that was slowly overriding his feeling of terror. “Twilight!” Spike cried out in a fearful tone while stepping in front of the unicorn. As the shadow noticed the dragon getting between him and his original target, he shifted his icy glare downwards and adjusted his trajectory. Twilight was horrified to see her young assistant jump in front of her. She tried to reach forward to get him out of the way of danger, but by the time she reacted it was too late. The unicorn watched in shock and dreadful terror as the shadow slashed its deadly weapons across sideways. A liberal amount of blood sprayed out of the dragon like a bursting water balloon as the claws made contact with his midsection. “AGH!” Spike screamed painfully as the creature’s claws raked across his body. Time seemingly slowed down as Twilight watched the dragon she had lived with for years getting lifted sideways from the force of the strike. The dragon’s blood splashed into the wall, being followed shortly by his body, which let out a sickening thud that mixed in with Spike’s cry of pain. As Spike fell to the floor and clutched his injury, Twilight could see streams of crimson pouring out through his fingers as his wound bled out. The dragon’s initial scream of pain had died out once he hit the wall, and now he seemed to be struggling with breathing as he made rapid shallow breaths. “SPIKE!” Twilight screamed in disbelief while rushing to Spike’s side. As she slid to her knees to cradle the wounded dragon, she turned once she heard the sinister cackle of the shadow. Although she felt a burning anger for what the shadow had just done, the unicorn was still frightened of the ghostly monster. The specter reeled its arm back once more to strike at the helpless pair. Twilight flinched her eyes shut and held Spike against her body so that he would get as little of the attack as possible. Suddenly, a burst of energy followed by a flash of light exploded into the creature, causing it to recoil in pain. Twilight looked up to see Glitterball stepping in front of her while holding out her strobe to fend off the monster. “Twilight! Get up!” The sound of Applejack’s frantic yells made the unicorn turn her head to the side. She was greeted by the sight of the orange mare rushing to her side to assist her with getting Spike to safety. Although she was horrified by the dragon’s bloody wounds, the farm pony wasted no time in picking him up and pulling him inside. Twilight felt that the orange mare would have taken Spike right out of her arms if she hadn’t got up along with her, and she was slightly thankful of that. While the pair rushed the injured dragon inside, Glitterball rushed in and closed the door behind her. She raced to prepare the rest of the charm so that they could be safe. Peppermint attempted to help the unicorn with finishing the spell, but he was rejected when she pushed him away gently. “Go help him! I got this!” Glitter instructed in a panicked tone. Pepper nodded before rushing over to the injured dragon as Twilight and Applejack placed him on the floor gently. “Oh my gosh… Spike! No, no, no…” Twilight was on the verge of tears as she watched her assistant writhing in pain on the floor. The dragon didn’t even open his eyes as he clutched the doubtlessly painful gash on his stomach. “Make some room.” Pepper instructed while pushing his way through the crowd of concerned bystanders to get to the pair tending to the dragon. Twilight quickly scooted over and let the red haired stallion do his job. Peppermint gently moved Spike’s bloody hands away from his wound. The gash was very deep and gory looking. The sight of this much blood would normally make the ponies sick, but instead it only made them more worried. “Is he ok? Is he going to make it?” Twilight’s voice shook as she stared helplessly at her injured companion. Peppermint turned to give the unicorn a statement, when suddenly the dragon cried out in pain again. The group watched with horrified expressions as the lengthy gash on Spike’s midsection pulsed with a purple glow. The already painful injury seemed to be amplified tenfold by the strange glow as the dragon could barely remain still from the agony he was feeling. “I need him to stay still so I can work on him… Glitter?!” Peppermint called out while turning his head to see the unicorn’s progress on the door. She was still scribbling on the paper and treating it with various bottles of strange liquids. “I’m almost done!” Glitterball replied nervously while rushing at every opportunity. The tense atmosphere was wreaking havoc on the unicorn’s nerves, as it was everyone else’s. “Almost isn’t going to cut it…” Pepper huffed in frustration before returning his attention to the dragon in front of him. Suddenly Spike was enveloped by a purple aura that made him remain still against the floor. Everyone looked over to see Twilight with her horn lit up. “I’ll hold him… just save him please!” The purple mare stated anxiously. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and cry, but she had to remain strong if she was going to help her friend. With a solemn nod, Peppermint reached into a pouch on his vest and pulled out more of the powder he had used on Glitterball. Without hesitation he sprinkled the powder over the length of the wound in liberal amounts. Everyone watched anxiously as they waited for the powder to take effect. Before long, the same white glow from earlier enveloped the powder and started reacting with the harmful effects of the purple glow. But as the powder disappeared bit by bit, the ponies made a frightful discovery. The purple glow still remained, even though all of the powder had vanished. “What the…?” Peppermint seemed perplexed by the lack of progress being made by the powder. He sprinkled another hoof full of the substance over the wound with a growing sense of unease that was apparent on his face. “What’s wrong? Is it working?” Rarity asked anxiously. Everyone felt the same sense of fear and dread for the dragon, they were all wracked with worry that he wouldn’t survive his injuries. Peppermint trailed his eyes off to look away from the concerned group. It was hard enough for him to deal with an injured child, but he knew that everyone was looking up to him to save their friend’s life, and that made the stallion all the more nervous. “I think that he caught a larger amount of the negative energy than Glitterball did… I don’t think that I can cure his pain right now.” Pepper explained with a sad tone of voice. Everyone felt their hearts sink upon hearing that Spike would have to suffer for a longer period of time. Suddenly a loud whir followed by a flash of light coming from behind them made everyone turn their attention to the front of the room. “Yes!” Glitterball exclaimed triumphantly. The symbols on the piece of paper were glowing bright red, signifying that whatever spell was in place had been activated. “The spell worked! We should be safe now.” The unicorn explained while trotting over to join the group tending to the young dragon. She lit up her horn and wrapped her aura around Spike, prompting Twilight to release her hold on him. “I got it Twilight… you just rest for a while.” Glitter said in a friendly tone. Twilight was grateful that she no longer had to do anything other than process her emotions. She gave the rainbow haired mare a passing expression of gratitude before scooting backwards and falling to a seated position. Applejack and Rarity sat near the distraught pony to offer her a small sense of comfort. They could tell that she was destroying herself on the inside over what happened, and although they didn’t outright know what had transpired in the hallway, they felt that asking about it would only cause her more pain. “We need to stop the bleeding. We can worry about that purple stuff later.” Peppermint said while reaching onto his vest to grab his cauterizing charm. “Shouldn’t we put him under before we do that? He’s in enough pain as is.” Twilight stated while watching Spike grimace painfully in an attempt at coping with the agony he was experiencing. Even though he was probably dazed from the pain he was feeling, he would doubtlessly notice if someone tried to singe his wounds closed. “We don’t have anything stronger than local anesthetics on hand… it will have to do for now.” Glitterball explained while Peppermint pulled out the syringes necessary to numb the dragon. Before the two could inject the numbing agent, the wound lit up a bright shade of purple that seemed more intense than usual. Glitterball felt Spike push harder against her magical hold as he tried to sit up instinctively from the pain. Along with tightening his muscles in a failed attempt to move, the dragon started screaming in pain again. Judging from how much louder the dragon was crying, the group knew that he must have been feeling some kind of horrific suffering that they could only imagine. Scootaloo and her two fellow crusaders looked away sadly as they couldn’t bear to see their friend like this. Everyone else looked on with their mouths agape in horrified expressions as they silently prayed for whatever pain that Spike was feeling to subside. Suddenly, Spike ceased his cries of agony and relaxed his muscles. It appeared as if he had awakened from a night terror only to pass out again. The sight of the motionless dragon filled Twilight and her friends with dread and panic. “Oh my gosh… is he…?!” Twilight’s voice cracked from how terrified she was. She could feel fresh tears streaming from her eyes uncontrollably as she stared at her number one assistant lying on the floor with a magically glowing bloody gash on his stomach. Peppermint quickly put a hoof to the dragon’s neck to check for a pulse. Although he was calmer than everyone else due to experience, the tense situation was even getting to him, causing his hooves to tremble slightly from his shocked nerves. “He’s alive… he must have just passed out from the shock.” Pepper stated with relief evident in his voice. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that their friend was alive. Although it was horrible that he experienced so much pain that he passed out, they were extremely happy that the dragon wasn’t dead. *BANG* A sudden thump on the door to the bedroom made everyone jump in fright. They turned their heads to the door only to see it shaking slightly from the repeated impacts of something banging on it from the other side. A low and frustrated growl that perfectly fit the eerie voice that the shadow had rang out as it figured out that it couldn’t get at its prey. Although the knowledge that the shadow was just outside made them nervous, the ponies were relieved to find out that the spell on the door was working in keeping out the ghostly monster. “Phew… guess you finished the charm just in time Glitter.” Rarity said in a congratulatory tone while smiling at the unicorn and her quick thinking. Glitterball seemed flattered by the praise being sent her way by the white mare and her friends. “Just doing my job I guess… now let’s get Spike here patched up.” Glitter said while turning to Peppermint, who nodded confidently while pulling out a vial from his vest. Chapter 49: Pain and MiseryMeanwhile, as Twilight and her group were inside worrying about their injured friend, outside there was a more relaxed and impatient atmosphere. Dust Kicker was leaning against the wall of the building as his sister stood around while waiting for her shadow to return with an update. It had been a solid fifteen minutes since the confrontation with Twilight Sparkle at the front door. Since then, the pair had been standing around idly while waiting for the specter to do its dirty work, and although they could hear the stray scream of fear coming from inside, they didn’t have much to go on in terms of progress. “Are you sure we can’t just go in there ourselves?” The brown pegasus huffed in annoyance while raising his head up to face his sibling. Raincloud rolled her eyes as she tried to contain her sense of frustration at her brother’s impatience. “For the last time Dust… we need to stay out here to watch for anyone coming to rescue them. My shadow has specific instructions to let us know when we can come in to finish the rest of them off.” Raincloud explained with growing agitation. The stallion had no concern for his sister’s annoyance, he just cared whether or not he would be sitting outside and doing nothing for much longer. “I still think it would have gone faster if we rushed in there with darklings like I suggested.” Dust Kicker growled under his breath while laying his head back and closing his eyes. He never understood why his sister wanted her shadow to have all the fun. Even if they were connected, he wondered how much enjoyment she got from just letting her pet do all the work. Suddenly a ghostly moan followed by a dark blotch rapidly coming out of the library and disappearing under Raincloud alerted the two that the shadow had returned. Raincloud perked up and looked down while the shadow made seemingly unintelligible growls and howls at her. “What..? They used a spell to seal themselves in a bedroom?” The pale mare spoke while keeping her attention on the blotch. Dust Kicker was slightly concerned to see his sister talking to nothing but the ground. “You… talk to that thing?” Dust asked with a confused tone. Raincloud sighed in annoyance while shaking her head angrily. “I don’t tell it about my love life if that’s what you’re wondering Dust. I haven’t actually talked to it since I was a filly, you know that.” Raincloud explained in an irritated manner. The blue pegasus’s statement made Dust Kicker roll his eyes and shrug. “Yeah, yeah… whatever.” Dust stated while trying to sound indifferent to drop the subject. Raincloud was unimpressed by her brother’s judgmental question. “I mean hell… do you talk to your minions?” Raincloud asked in an accusing manner. The mare’s question caught the brown pegasus off guard. He briefly thought about what he would talk to his shadow creatures about, and what they might have to say in return if they could speak. The thought made him shiver and shake his head to rid himself of the images that came with it. “Even the more intelligent monsters I can summon would probably give me a headache if I could talk to them… so no.” Dust Kicker stated with a shudder while shaking the last of the disturbing thoughts from his head. Raincloud was pleased to see that she had annoyed her brother in such a way, but she had to get back to business. “Anyway… from what he’s telling me, I can gather that they all turned tail and ran upstairs to lock themselves in a room with a warding spell. But before they could get in there, shadow here managed to get a nice hit in on one of them.” Raincloud explained with a grin on her face. The news made Dust Kicker perk up with intrigue. “Really?” The stallion asked with a devious smile. The pale mare replied with a nod. “Yes really, apparently it was that dragon that hangs around with Twilight. He was nearly split in two from what my shadow tells me.” Raincloud explained cheerfully. As the pegasus relayed the information to her brother, the specter laughed heartily from its unseen position inside of her shadow. “Good, I’m sure that they are all broken up about it as we speak.” Dust Kicker said while returning to his laid back position. “I bet… but for now I’m going to have to fly up there and see if I can’t coax them out of that barrier. Or maybe see if I can’t break it down myself.” Raincloud stated while looking up to see the entrance to the balcony. It would be easy enough to fly up there and see what was going on. “Shouldn’t I come with you?” Dust Kicker asked with a slight hint of eagerness in his voice as he got up to finally see some action with his sister. “Sorry bro… someone needs to be the look out. Besides, my shadow overheard them calling for help. Apparently the slayer in on his way… haven’t you been itching for a rematch with him?” The pale mare asked in an encouraging tone. Although he was upset to be left outside on his own while his sister had all the fun, Dust couldn’t deny the desire he had to go one on one with the human. “Alright I’ll stay… but you leave some of them alive for me alright?” Dust Kicker asked sincerely to his sister, who offered a smile and a nod in return. “You bet.” Raincloud said while flapping her wings and taking off into the air. She flew up towards the balcony with eager intent. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and the three crusaders helplessly watched as Peppermint and Glitterball made every effort to save Spike’s life. Although they couldn’t cure whatever was causing the purple glow, they were trying their hardest to stop the dragon’s wound from pumping out blood. The tense atmosphere in the room was so palpable it could be cut with a knife. Everyone watched on in uneasiness as they hoped against all odds that the dragon would survive. Any member of the crowd wished they could trade places with him. “Oh Spike… I’m so sorry.” Twilight said in a depressed tone while hanging her head sadly. Seeing the pitiful state of their purple friend made Applejack and Rarity frown with sympathy for her. They couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to have been so close to the dragon when he was attacked. “He’s going to be fine Twilight.” Rarity stated in an attempt at lifting the unicorn’s spirits. Twilight looked up to face the white mare with tears in her eyes. “R-really?” Twilight asked with grief stricken doubt in her voice. Rarity looked down to see the unconscious dragon as he was operated on by the two ponies. It pained her to see her normally happy go lucky admirer in such an injured state, but she had to believe that he would pull through. She couldn’t bear to even think about any other possibility. “Yes… if any of us can bounce back from something like this, it’s him. Spike will be just fine…” Rarity had a slight twinge of sadness in her voice as she tried to cheer up everyone else. The entire experience was wreaking havoc with her emotions. Peppermint and Glitterball stepped back from the dragon and wiped the sweat from their brows. Everyone perked up with anxious anticipation as they waited for them to explain how their young friend was faring. Peppermint was the first to address the group. He had a slight feeling of dread apparent on his face, which made everyone shift their expressions back to ones of concern. “We managed to stop the bleeding, but the wound won’t close no matter what we do. I think it has something to do with whatever that purple glow is. We will keep him sedated so he can’t feel as much of the pain until we can get a more permanent solution.” Pepper explained with slight apprehension in his voice. “*Sigh* Where are you when we need you Tom?” Twilight asked sadly while looking to the floor and closing her eyes. She could hardly prevent herself from breaking down emotionally from the sad situation. “I don’t know… he isn’t anywhere out there, that’s for sure.” The voice of a disturbingly familiar pegasus made everyone turn their attention to the loft where the balcony was. They could see that the pale blue mare had flown up and landed on the platform just outside the room. The sight of the pegasus filled Twilight with anger and contempt. She placed the blame of Spike getting hurt firmly on her shoulders, so to see her just a few feet in front of her made the unicorn boil with a variety of emotions. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked while getting up and walking a little closer to the pegasus. Raincloud laughed as she saw how upset the princess’s student was at her. “I just thought I would come in and check up on your friend there… he looks like he could use so- Oof!” The pale mare was cut off as she tried to enter the room. A translucent wall of energy popped up in front of her, causing her to slam into it like a bird hitting a glass window. As the pegasus rubbed her nose where she had hit the wall abruptly, Twilight smirked slightly as she saw the protection charm also worked against anyone trying to enter the room. “Don’t talk about Spike like that… you don’t even deserve to be within sight of him after what you did.” The purple unicorn said with an icy stare as she walked up to the doorway to the balcony with confidence. Raincloud seemed unfazed by the hateful looks she was getting by everyone in the room. She smirked with a smart-alecky sort of expression that only made Twilight and the others more upset. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything to brimstone breath over there… that was all my shadow, and technically he was aiming for you.” The pegasus stated in a snarky tone. The longer she was exposed to the hateful mare, the more agitated Twilight became. “You know, if I were you, I would be getting as far away from here as possible. Tom is on the way, and I would wager a guess that you already know what he is going to do when he finds out that you’re attacking his friends.” Twilight said with a smirk on her face as she expected the pegasus to become nervous at the revelation. Much to her confusion, the pale mare didn’t even flinch from her words. “The slayer huh? Well I’m sure that me and my brother can handle him. In the meantime I would be more concerned for your friend there… I’m not even sure if he is going to last until your human guard dog gets here.” Raincloud explained with a level of unwavering focus that unsettled the ponies. “What are you-” Twilight started to inquire as to what the pegasus meant, but she was interrupted by the sound of Spike screaming in pain again. She quickly turned to see that the dragon was writhing in pain again with his wound aglow with the purple energy from before. Peppermint and Glitterball quickly administered more sedatives into his bloodstream, causing him to slowly calm down and drift back off to sleep despite his still glowing wound. The ponies were horrified to see the dragon in pain, but they were even more horrified to hear Raincloud laughing at his misfortune. Twilight scowled at the pegasus with an angry gleam in her eye. She got up as close as she could to the mare without hitting the invisible barrier and shot her an angry expression that made the pale mare stop chuckling as a slight twinge of unease filled her body. “What did you do to him?!” Twilight asked, or rather, shouted at the pegasus with such sudden ferocity that it made her flinch slightly. Even her friends were surprised to see the unicorn this angry. “My shadow has the ability to cause pain and suffering in a person to the point that it actually becomes harmful to their body. Judging by how much exposure he got, I would say that your friend there only has half an hour before his body kills itself from the shock. So while the slayer is busy fighting my brother, you are going to be forced to watch your friend slowly and painfully die.” Raincloud explained with a devious smile on her face. Twilight gasped from hearing this. “We… we’ll get him the help he needs… even if we have to go through you.” Twilight said in a hesitant tone. She tried to appear as confident and brave as she could to intimidate the pale mare. Raincloud laughed heartily upon hearing the ridiculous proposition. “Hahahhaha…*snort*…. Oh man… I haven’t had a laugh that good in while. Do you really think you can get past me? Or have you already forgotten one crucial detail.” The pegasus explained while waving her hoof to show beside her. Suddenly a black spot on the floor quickly formed and spawned the same ghostly specter that had wounded Spike. The entity cackled in the eerie and echoed voice it had as it stared forward with its unchanging jagged smile. “*gasp*” Twilight and her friends were taken aback as they watched the shadow menacingly float next to its master. The pale blue pony seemed to take great joy in the troublesome situation she had created for the group. “My shadow is waiting for you out here. If you drop this barrier for even a second, your ass is mine… or more specifically, his.” Raincloud said while pointing to her minion. She then turned and started walking to the edge of the balcony. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?!” Applejack said while stepping forward to join her friend. The orange mare had had enough of waiting at the back of the room while the purple unicorn talked with the cold hearted pegasus. Raincloud paused mid stride as she heard the sound of the farm pony coming forward to confront her. Judging from the sound of her voice, she seemed incredibly angered and eager to give a piece of her mind to the pegasus. “You think you can just attack an innocent child and then walk away like it’s no big deal? That is the most spineless thing Ah have ever heard of. ” Applejack stated with a disgusted tone of voice. While the farm pony continued her berating of the pegasus, Raincloud was secretly getting more and more angry with every passing word. “Spike did nothing to you to deserve this… none of us did. You can’t just go around hurting people whenever you just feel like it… life is a valuable thing, and Ah don’t know what you and your hooded friends think, but it’s wrong to hurt others. You are nothing more than a bully with a monster for a pet that lets you pick on whoever y- Ack!” The farm pony was cut off suddenly by Raincloud leaping forwards with her arm stretched out. Much to the group’s surprise, the pegasus’s hoof was aflame with pulsating dark energy. The pale mare punched into the invisible barrier and went clean through, grabbing the orange pony by the neck and squeezing tightly. “*sputter*…*croak*” Applejack could offer little more than strangled sounds of protest as she was held in place by the surprisingly strong pegasus. The barrier seemed to be bending around her arm, as if she had literally punched a hole through it to get at the farm pony. “Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me about who deserves what?” Raincloud said through clenched teeth as she watched the farm pony trying to push out of her grip with her arms. Twilight and the others rushed forward to assist their friend, when suddenly the pegasus pulled Applejack into the barrier and let go, causing her to slam her head into the still solid wall. As she went to the floor, the orange mare gasped for air and clutched at her neck protectively. She could still feel a tight feeling in her throat from having it squeezed so hard. “Applejack! Are you ok?!” Twilight asked frantically while kneeling down beside the recovering earth pony. Applejack reached and tried to feel around for something solid to help pull herself up, settling on Twilight’s outstretched hoof. “*Hack*…*cough*… Yeah… Ah think so.” Applejack’s voice was barely audible as she tried to speak through her still sore throat. She looked forward at the pegasus, only to see that she was still standing outside of the barrier. It was almost like the attack never happened. “You think that just because you haven’t done anything that you don’t deserve to be harmed?” Raincloud continued in a cold tone of voice. “Life isn’t as precious and valuable as you make it out to be. Just because you’re kind or honest to people doesn’t mean that you get to live life scot-free. No matter how hard you work, or how much you care about others, you will always feel pain sooner or later.” The pale mare’s words made everyone listen in shocked silence as she walked away. Just before she reached the edge of the balcony, she turned her head to look at the group out of the corner of her eye. “I hate people like you… people who go around acting like everything is all sunshine and rainbows. You should be thankful that I’m giving you more time to live. I could just break that barrier right now and watch as my shadow rips you apart, but I have other things I could be doing... like watching my brother kicking the crap out of that damn slayer.” The pegasus stated in a hateful tone before spreading her wings and flying down. The shadow sank into the floor and disappeared, but the ponies knew that it wouldn’t stray far from them. “Are you ok sis?” Applejack looked beside her to see her sister rushing up to her with a concerned expression. Applebloom jumped up and hugged the orange mare, being careful not to cause further injury. Applejack was still shaken from the sudden attack, but she still felt bad that the yellow filly had to see her in danger. “Ah’m fine Applebloom… just a little roughed up.” Applejack said while trying to sound as normal as possible despite her still throbbing neck. She shared a concerned glance with Twilight as they took one last look at the outside balcony. The two then returned their attention to the dragon lying on the floor behind them. The pale mare’s words had struck a chord in the ponies. Was Spike really going to die while they just sat idly by? The mere thought made a sickening feeling of dread settle in everyone’s stomach. Still, the possibility remained that the pegasus was telling the truth. “Is… is Spike going to be ok?” Scootaloo asked with a shaky voice as she sat down next to the unconscious dragon. Although they wanted to reassure the filly, Twilight and the others were still dealing with that question themselves. “I don’t know Scootaloo…” Twilight stated somberly while looking at Spike with worry and concern. “We just need to hope that Tom will be able to get to us. He can help him… I’m sure of it.” The unicorn explained in a sincere tone. Everyone sadly watched the gradual rise and fall of the dragon’s chest as he breathed peacefully. They wondered how long it would be before he woke up again and felt the unbearable suffering caused by his wounds. Dust Kicker was sitting his head on his hooves while resting against the wall in a fetal position. He was almost wishing for someone to come along so he could take out his bored frustration on them, even if it would be for only a brief moment. Suddenly, he could hear the flapping of wings above him. He looked up to see Raincloud flying down to the ground. The stallion started to say something, but he noticed that she appeared to be muttering to herself with an agitated expression. “What’s eating you?” Dust Kicker asked with a cautiously gentle tone. He didn’t want to piss her off any further than she already was. Raincloud turned to look at her brother and sighed in frustration. “Nothing… I’m just upset that the barrier they have will take too long to bust down. You got any creatures that are strong enough to help me out?” The pale mare asked while hiding her anger internally. “Well… I’m not sure if darklings would be able to cut it. But I think that I can cook something up… let’s head up there and check it out.” Dust Kicker replied while thinking of what kind of monster to summon from his arsenal. The two pegasi spread their wings and took off. Although Raincloud didn’t want to confront the group of ponies any further, she would take great pleasure in watching them cower in fear as she broke into their safe haven with an army of monsters. As the two landed, Raincloud stayed behind her brother to put as much distance between her and the ponies as possible. Not because she felt threatened by them, but rather because she didn’t want to let her temper get the best of her. Once the two ponies landed on the balcony, the noise they created alerted the group inside to their presence. Twilight and her friends were upset to see the pale mare return, but were surprised to see that she had company. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked with a leery expression while getting up to observe the pair. Raincloud scowled at the approaching mare while her brother merely examined the warding spell. “I decided that I’m done waiting around, so I got my brother here to come up and bust in there for me.” Raincloud explained with an irritated attitude. The ponies looked to the brown stallion and watched him sizing up the barrier. They wondered if he could actually remove the protective charm from the room as his sister had claimed. “Hey… aren’t you the pegasus that attacked our friends out in the woods?” Twilight asked as she recognized the brown pony from the description that Tom and the others had given her. Dust Kicker smirked as he received recognition for his deeds. “Nice to hear that I left such an imprint on them… Well I guess if you already know about me, then you must know that I can do this.” The stallion stated while lifting his leg into the air. The tip of his hoof was suddenly enveloped with the same energy the group had seen the pale mare use to punch through the barrier. Twilight backed up defensively as she watched the pegasus stamp his hoof on the ground. The fiery energy on his hoof traveled into the floor and spread out to three points beside him. The points enlarged into black splotches on the floor that started moving upwards. Twilight expected to see the blotches form into darklings, but she was mistaken. The creatures being formed were much larger than average darklings. They seemed to have the same appearance as darklings, but they had more defined features than the shadowy forms that the group had previously seen. The feral beasts had the appearance of some kind of wild cat, but their eyes were replaced by four red slits. As the three monsters growled at the ponies, everyone backed up anxiously. The ponies saw that the beasts had razor sharp fangs to match with the rest of their vicious appearance. Peppermint and Glitterball reached for their strobes to have them on hand if the creatures should attack. “These guys should be able to work their way through that charm of yours. I wager it should take them about… eh… less than a minute.” Dust Kicker said with a devious smile as he observed his three minions. The shadow creatures crouched low in preparation to charge at the barrier. Their claws appeared as though they could do some serious damage if they were to get through, not to mention their teeth. “Hey!” Before the pegasus could give the order for the beasts to attack, he was interrupted by the sound of Raincloud calling him over to the edge of the balcony. “Ughh… what is it?” Dust Kicker asked with an annoyed expression while turning around. He walked over to the edge of the balcony and looked around. The stallion was surprised to see that a blue suited human was swiftly making his way to the front of the library. “Looks like the slayer just showed up.” Raincloud muttered to her brother, just loud enough for him to hear. “Great… just what we needed.” Dust Kicker shrugged in frustration. He was just starting to have some fun with the trapped ponies, so the human was the last person he wanted to see right now. Twilight and the others couldn’t hear the two siblings as they conversed amongst themselves. The purple unicorn contemplated getting closer so she could hear better, but she didn’t want to go anywhere near the three snarling beasts that stood just outside the barrier. Suddenly the pale mare turned away from the balcony and walked back up to the doorway. The devious smile on her face gave the ponies a bad feeling that she had something horrible in mind. “Good news… your human friend is here. I guess that gives you a little more time before we kill all of you.” Raincloud explained with an unwavering tone of confidence. Her lack of apprehension at the slayer’s arrival made the ponies nervous for their odds of success. “Let’s go give him a warm welcome sis.” Dust Kicker stated while cracking his neck and stretching his muscles. Raincloud smirked and walked up to her brother as he spread his wings. The two hopped off the balcony and flew out of sight. The three shadow creatures offered the ponies one last intimidating growl as they sank into the ground to follow their master. As the monsters disappeared into the floor, the group was left alone once again to sit in their safe haven. “Tom is here! That means we’re saved right?” Sweetie Belle chimed with excitement at the human’s arrival. Although the others felt the same excitement the filly felt, they were also uneasy because they knew that he would have to fight the two pegasi to rescue them. “I certainly hope so Darling…” Rarity stated with careful optimism as she smiled along with the others. They knew that the human would stop at nothing to protect them, but they also knew that the two ponies outside would stop at nothing to keep them trapped. Twilight turned to Spike and returned a concerned expression to her face. She knelt down and lovingly caressed his head while being careful not to wake him. The purple mare was concerned to feel the dragon sweating while his forehead was still cold. “Hang in there Spike… help is on the way.” Twilight muttered in a hopeful tone. The unicorn prayed that Tom would be able to heal the dragon, and that he could reach them in time. Chapter 51: The Fight For The SquareRainbow Dash sighed in frustration as she paced around the room anxiously. She had been holed up in a small waiting room ever since she was told to go inside by the others. Although she had only been there for around half an hour, it felt like an eternity to the cyan mare. She wanted to do something, anything to help Brimstoke and the others with defeating the skeletons, but all she could do was sit in this room filled with her two friends and four other ponies and watch outside through one of the two windows set into the wall. “This is stupid… we should be out there doing something!” the pegasus huffed in annoyance while throwing her hooves up angrily. She looked over to Fluttershy, who was sitting on a leather couch tucked away on the far side of the room. “You heard Neon Streak… we should stay in here. It’s probably for the best anyway…” The yellow mare shuddered as she thought back to her previous encounters with the skeletons outside. Rainbow Dash felt sorry for the timid pegasus, but she also felt a strong need to take action. “Well, yeah… but…” The cyan pony tried to voice her opinion while also trying to not pressure Fluttershy into joining her. She knew that the yellow pegasus would feel horrible if she stayed behind while her friend endangered herself. “But what?” Pinkie Pie chimed in excitedly from across the room. She had been occupying herself with cheering up the other ponies in the room. “It’s safe in here… besides, I’m trying to play a game of checkers here.” The energetic mare stated while pointing to the ground in front of her. She had apparently created a makeshift checkerboard complete with pieces using whatever odds and ends she could find. The pony across from her appeared to be confused about the basic rules of the game. He kept examining his own pieces, as if he were unsure of which item was even a piece or not. Rainbow Dash sighed as her friends shot down whatever argument she had made. The pegasus sat down against the wall and threw her head back in defeat as she gave up all hope of making herself useful in the battle. Suddenly, she heard a slight commotion outside of the door to the room. Curious as to what could be happening outside, the pegasus got up and walked over to the door. Outside of the small window in the top of the door, she could see that Sunspot was discussing something with Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak. After a brief moment, Glimmer and Neon ran off in a hurry, while Sunspot shrugged and lingered in the hallway for a while. Spotting a chance to possibly do something, Rainbow Dash decided that it would be a good idea to try and talk the suited mare into letting her help. “Hey, I’m going to go talk to Sunspot about heading back out there.” The cyan mare announced while looking around at her friends. Fluttershy immediately hopped up from her seat and looked at the pegasus with a shocked expression. “What…? But why would you want to go back out?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned tone of voice. It was beyond the yellow pony as to why anyone would want to willingly put themselves in danger without good cause. Rainbow Dash sighed as she looked at her friend with an understanding expression. She knew that the yellow mare was scared to go outside, she was probably even scared in the relative safety of this boring room, and Rainbow understood that. But the cyan mare needed to be more active with determining the outcome of the fight, with or without her friends. “Look Fluttershy… you can stay in here if you want, but I’m going back out there. I want to help them, not stay in here while others endanger themselves on my behalf.” The pegasus explained in a lighthearted tone while going to open the door. She was interrupted by Fluttershy quickly walking over to her, but instead of giving her another reason to stay inside, she simply gave her a determined expression. “I’m going with you… If you’re going to charge headlong into danger, I at least want to be there to have your back.” The yellow pony explained with slight apprehension. Rainbow Dash was flattered by her friend’s bravery and concern for her. “Thanks... but neither of us are going out there unless we have someone vouching for us.” The cyan mare stated while returning her attention to the suited pegasus outside. Sunspot shrugged once more before starting to walk away, giving Rainbow Dash a new sense of urgency to carry out her plan. The two ponies waved to the pink mare on the other side of the room before opening the door and stepping outside. Pinkie Pie sighed while shaking her head in concern. She hoped that her friends would keep themselves out of harm’s way while they were gone. “Those two…” Pinkie shrugged understandingly before returning her attention to the game behind her. She looked at the board for a moment before placing a hoof on one of the pieces. Much to the surprise and dismay of the unlucky pony that was playing with her, the pink mare hopped the piece over half of his pieces, making it all the way to his side of the board. “Yay! King me!” The excited mare cheered eagerly at her triumph. Meanwhile the dejected pony across from her sighed and shook his head while begrudgingly grabbing another piece to place on top of Pinkie’s. Once out in the hallway, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy immediately rushed in the direction they last saw Sunspot moving. After a short walk, they found the suited mare trotting down a hallway with a troubled expression on her face. “Hey Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash yelled down the hallway to get her attention. Sunspot turned around and watched the two ponies approach her with a curious expression. “What’s up?” The suited mare asked with a raised eyebrow. Rainbow Dash stammered nervously as she tried to think of a valid argument for her cause. “Umm…well uh… you see…” The cyan pegasus was wracking her mind in an attempt at finding something to say that wouldn't immediately get her tossed back into the other room. “Rainbow Dash and I want to help you guys.” Fluttershy spoke up to save her friend the trouble. “Yeah… what she said… heh.” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously while observing the suited pony for any expressions that would give an insight to her response. “I don’t know girls… it’s pretty dangerous out there right now… especially now actually.” Sunspot replied with an uneasy tone. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were confused by her odd response. “Especially now…? What does that mean?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. The orange mare shrugged uncomfortably as she thought about the declining situation outside. “Neon just came in to call all of us outside again… apparently the skeletons have all reformed themselves.” Sunspot explained with a concerned frown on her face. “What?!” Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exclaimed in unison. They couldn’t believe that such a thing could have happened. “You heard me… Brimstoke wants us to keep them away while the princess works on a more permanent solution… she’s apparently close, but she needs time.” Sunspot explained while looking towards the rest of the hallway with a sense of urgency. “Look girls… I would love to stay and chat, but I need to go help the others.” The suited mare stated in an apologetic tone while turning to walk away. “Wait!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed to get her attention one last time. Sunspot turned back around with a troubled expression. “I know you need to go, but please take us with you. If there’s anything we can do… anything at all, we want to help.” The cyan mare pleaded with the biggest smile she could muster. “Pleeeeaaaase?” “*sigh*” Sunspot shook her head and shrugged in defeat. She could tell that the cyan mare was dying to do something to help. She could see a little bit of herself in the eager pegasus. “Alright… I’ll let you at least come with me. But you stay with the princesses and use these from a distance… ok?” The suited mare instructed while handing the pair two extra strobes. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy accepted the vials and offered an enthusiastic nod. “Ok then… let’s hurry up and get out there!” Sunspot stated while taking off into a sprint down the hallway. The two ponies eagerly followed the suited mare as she urgently rushed through the town hall towards the entrance. After a short run, the three burst through the double doors at the entryway and came out in the circular courtyard area that surrounded the building. They immediately noticed a frightfully large crowd of skeletons in the square in front of them. The only things keeping the skeletons from getting closer were the combined efforts of Brimstoke, Glimmer Shine, Neon Streak, and Princess Luna. The four were either using their strobes to fend off the creatures, bashing the few that got close, or using magic to keep them away. “Where’s Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around for the human. Sunspot turned to her to answer her question. “He left a few minutes ago to go help Twilight and the others back at the library… they were attacked by one of the hooded ponies.” The suited mare explained. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gasped as they learned that their friends were in danger. “Oh my gosh! Are they alright?!” The cyan pegasus asked frantically. Sunspot gave her an unsure expression, which didn’t exactly ease her concerns. “We don’t know, but they were finding a way to stay safe when we last talked with them, so they should be fine until Tom gets there.” Sunspot explained with a hopeful tone of voice. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy shared a concerned glance with each other as they hoped that their friends would be safe. Sunspot then turned her attention to the group in front of her. She was about to run up to the four to assist them, when she suddenly heard the sound of Celestia calling her name from the side. She looked over to see the alicorn beckoning her over urgently. “Sunspot, come over here and bring Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.” The princess instructed while glancing over to the two ponies behind the suited mare. Although they were confused as to why the princess would want their help, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked over along with Sunspot as requested. Once they reached the alicorn, they were half expecting her to send them back inside due to how dangerous it was. “Girls… I found a way to get rid of this cloud, but I need your help.” Celestia explained while looking at all three of the pegasus’s with purpose. “You mean… even us?” Rainbow Dash asked with uncertainty while looking at her friend with a confused expression. “Yes Rainbow Dash… I’m not exactly sure why you would come back out here, but now that you have, I need your assistance.” The princess explained with a sincere tone of voice. Rainbow Dash tried to remain professional and keep her excitement internalized, but she couldn’t prevent herself from smiling giddily. “Happy to help Princess.” The cyan mare stated before waiting eagerly for the alicorn to dispense her orders. “I have found a spell that will allow us to disrupt the clouds enough for them to vanish, but I need someone to fly up there and touch them for it to work… hence why I need you three.” Celestia explained while glancing between the three. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were understandably concerned with touching the clouds again after what happened when they tried before. “But how are we going to touch them? Me and Rainbow Dash tried that before… and I almost got electrocuted.” Fluttershy explained with a nervous shiver upon thinking back to everything she could remember about the experience. “Don’t worry about that happening again. The spell I found will prevent you from getting shocked when you touch the clouds.” Celestia stated while lighting up her horn. Suddenly the three ponies’ hooves started glowing with the same color as the alicorn’s horn. The three mares lifted up their hooves and examined them curiously. Sunspot shook one of her legs to see if the glow was firmly attached, which it was. “Just fly up there and touch the clouds until you see them stop reacting to the spell. Keep doing this in several areas and it should destroy the cloud completely.” The Princess explained while pointing upwards. The ominously shifting clouds above still filled the ponies with dread whenever they looked at them. “Aren’t you coming with us?” Fluttershy asked curiously as she noted that Celestia hadn’t cast the spell on herself. “Sorry Fluttershy, but I will be staying down here. I need to help the others with keeping those creatures at bay until you can let the light from the sun in to destroy them completely.” The alicorn explained sadly. She didn’t want to endanger the three ponies without going with them herself, but she also had to help her sister and the others with their task. There were dozens of innocent ponies in the building behind them that needed to be protected at all costs. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ll make sure they stay out of trouble.” Sunspot said in a confident tone while glancing back at the two. Celestia smiled and nodded as she watched the three taking off into the air. She felt a little better knowing that the two ponies had someone looking out for them. As Sunspot and her two companions ascended through the air, they glanced down to see the dismal state of the once glorious town square. Several tents had been knocked over or destroyed, there were several toppled over statues and other notable decorations strewn along the ground, not to mention the veritable army of skeletons roaming around. “I hope everyone is doing ok down there.” Fluttershy stated in a concerned tone while observing the many undead ponies occupying the square. “Don’t worry about them. If I know Brimstoke, he won’t let anybody get hurt on his watch.” Sunspot explained to reassure the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy smiled a little as she felt a bit more confident in their chances. Now that their concerns for their friends on the ground were mostly dealt with, the three ponies quickly flew up to the bank of clouds to complete their mission. As they got closer, a chilled wind hit their faces, causing their hair to be blown back more so than it already was from the force of gravity. Once they pushed past the threshold of grayness from low hanging wisps of cloud, the three mares finally found themselves just below the main body of clouds. The dark puffs were rolling by at a steady rate as the low rush of wind drowned out any other noises. The only light coming from the area was the soft green flashes of light coming from within the clouds. “Here we are…” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. She glanced down at her still glowing hooves and glanced back up with an apprehensive expression. She wasn’t too thrilled to be touching the clouds, but she decided to be the first one to test out the spell. The cyan pegasus cautiously hovered up to the cloud and stuck her arms out to touch it. She cringed instinctively as she neared the softly glowing haze of blackness. As she felt the familiar soft and puffy texture that came from touching any cloud, she heard the sparking of electricity and tensed up with fright. Mysteriously however, the pegasus felt no indication of pain, or even anything that indicated the presence of electricity. She opened her eyes and looked up, only to freeze in astonishment at what she saw. There were arcs of the same green electricity from earlier flowing into her hooves, but they didn’t seem to be affecting her in any meaningful way. “Cool… hey, check it out!” Rainbow Dash announced excitedly. Her two companions watched the cyan pegasus as she successfully touched the clouds without injury. Suddenly, the cloud stopped emitting electricity. A loud hum sounded out as a small pulse of light surged through the cloud around her hooves before disappearing. “I guess that means that this spot is done…” Sunspot theorized while observing her own glowing hooves. She then smiled as she realized that they were close to ending this nightmare. “Come on! Let’s get to work girls.” The suited mare announced while flying up to another spot and placing her hooves firmly on a cloud. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash followed her example and flew up to other areas and touching the clouds wherever they could. Meanwhile on the ground, Brimstoke and his two teammates were working with Celestia and Luna to keep the approaching skeletons away from the town hall. The undead horde seemed to be very intent on remaining in the square. The group figured that whatever spell was at play was localized to the square. Brimstoke yelled fiercely as he bashed one of the skeletons away with a baton he produced from his vest. The undead creature’s skull cracked open with a sickening snap as the head was separated from its shoulders. Despite this, the body of the skeleton kept walking forward without its head, doubtlessly waiting for it to reattach itself so it could continue attacking. “These things just don’t give up do they?” The stallion shrugged while rearing up and bucking the rest of the skeleton away. “No… I guess they don’t.” Glimmer Shine replied while blasting away at anything that got close. He was starting to get exhausted from holding his strobe out in front of him for so long. Thankfully he had the aid of Neon Streak to pick up the slack. “Don’t worry… Sunspot, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are working on giving us sunlight.” Celestia stated to lift the group’s spirits. “Well I hope they do it soon, at this rate we will be up to our eyes in these freaks in a few minutes.” Neon added in a troubled tone while desperately trying to keep up with the constant inflow of skeletons. “Hey… look at it this way Neon. At least it can’t get any worse.” Glimmer Shine chuckled lightheartedly to brighten the green mare’s spirits. Suddenly a loud buzz emanated from Brimstoke and his team’s vests. Neon glanced down from her defensive firing and shifted her eyes over to her locators. Just before she glanced back up and dismissed the reading, she gasped when she noticed what was wrong. “What the hay?!” The green pony exclaimed in shock as she lifted up the negative energy locator. The entire vial was pulsing off and on with blue light like an alarm. As Brimstoke and the others glanced down to their own locators, they widened their eyes in surprise. “What is that?!” Brimstoke asked in a panic as he tried to think of what could possibly elicit such a response from the locator. The skeletons around him weren’t giving off that much of a reading, even with so many of them being present. Celestia and Luna suddenly paled as they felt an immense surge of energy coming from just outside the square. They had never felt such a negative source of energy before, not even from Discord. The size and scope of the energy was a blur to them due to their vague senses, but they could definitely feel how evil and horrific the magic being used was. “Sister… do you feel that?” Luna asked while recollecting herself from the sudden detection of energy. Celestia nodded while looking off in the rough direction of the energy. “Yes… something or someone must be using powerful magic close by.” The white alicorn replied in a grim tone of voice. Brimstoke and his teammates turned to the two princesses with surprised expressions. They never figured that the surge of energy would be so massive that the pair could detect it. “You can feel it…? What is it?” Glimmer Shine asked nervously while glancing around for any signs of foul play. Celestia tried to refine the overwhelming sensation into some sort of useful bearing for the others, but she couldn’t determine anything other than a vague direction and the magnitude of the energy. Before the alicorn could even try to answer any of the stallion’s questions, a loud rumble suddenly shook the square. The small quake wasn’t large enough to make the ground tremble, but it was enough to create a palpable sense of how large the source must have been. The ponies on the ground could feel it in their feet, and the three pegasus’s in the sky could hear it as it seemingly clattered around randomly. Rainbow Dash and her two companions paused their task of disabling the magical clouds to stop and listen to the loud noise. They watched in shocked silence as the sound seemingly got closer from off in the distance. “W-w-what is that?” Fluttershy stammered nervously as she listened to each successive thud. Rainbow Dash tried to offer a sensible answer, but she couldn’t even determine the source of the frightening noise. Suddenly, Sunspot looked down to her suit as she heard the buzz of her locator. The vial was pulsing with blue light rapidly as whatever was causing it to go off got closer. The knowledge that something evil with that much negative energy was coming towards them made her understandably nervous. “Hey… I think it’s coming from over-” The suited mare tried to pinpoint the source of the noise to behind a set of buildings, when she was suddenly silenced by a bewildering and horrific sight. As the thundering noises got closer, the group of shocked ponies noticed movement coming from behind one of the buildings on the edge of the square. Suddenly, a large skeletal hand with four boney claws came up from behind the building and slammed down on top of it with a deafening crunch. Another large hand came up next to the first one, combined with a loud unearthly growl that sounded like a deeper version of the skeletons in the square. Slowly, as if to further cement the feeling of horror in the ponies’ hearts, a large dragon skull with glowing green eyes lifted itself up from behind the building. The battle with the skeletons had all but ceased as every creature in the square turned to stare at the loud racket. While all of the living ponies were staring with their mouths agape in horror at the giant creature climbing on top of the building, all of the skeletons were simply examining the strange noise coming from the other side of the area. With a flap of its seemingly useless skeletal wings, the undead beast lifted into the air briefly and brought the rest of its titanic form onto the building. The roof of the fragile structure cracked and crumbled as the large creature dug its sharp claws into it while perching up on its hind legs. The colossal beast extended its wings and lifted its head into the air. A deafening roar that shook the very ground and made the ponies flinch in fright erupted from the boney dragon. Midway through its frightening outburst, the dragon’s mouth lit up with green light as an eerily tinted spout of green fire shot out like a flamethrower into the sky. “Brimstoke…” Neon Streak’s voice was quiet and unfocused as she stared at the monster in shock. “Is that what I think that is?” She asked while blinking several times, as if she expected the large beast to go away if she closed her eyes often enough. “A seventy foot tall animate dragon skeleton that can somehow breathe fire despite not having any lungs…” Brimstoke replied in a nervous tone while keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the giant beast. “If that’s what you’re seeing… then yes Neon… that is exactly what you think it is.” The stallion stated while never breaking his stunned tone of voice. As the giant dragon looked around the square in silence, the ponies were all trying to think of a way they could combat the monster. They were also silently hoping that it wouldn’t actually be able to see them amid the hundreds of other pony shaped creatures in the square. “How are we going to fight that thing?! We can barely keep the regular sized skeletons at bay… that is a freaking undead dragon!” Glimmer Shine stated in a slight panic while keeping his voice down for fear of the dragon hearing any loud yelling. “Don’t worry Glimmer… all we have to do is wait until the girls can let the sunlight in. That thing will be destroyed along with the rest of them.” Luna said in an attempt at calming down her frightened companions, although she was slightly terrified herself. Suddenly the dragon snapped its head to look upwards. The confused ponies followed its gaze until they realized what it was looking at. The undead beast was staring at the three sky borne ponies with a frightening transfixion. “Oh no…” Celestia gasped as she watched the creature target the three pegasus’s. The dragon growled fiercely and flapped its skeletal wings. Much to the ponies’ surprise, the monster took off into the air as if its wings were fully functional. Obviously the same magic that had revived the dragon had restored its ability to fly and breathe fire. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Sunspot were having a miniature panic attack as they watched the beast rapidly approaching them. Fluttershy and her cyan friend were barely able to think as they fearfully stared at the monster. “That thing is coming right for us! What do we do?!” Rainbow Dash asked frantically while looking at her two friends. The cyan pegasus took pride in her flying abilities, so she could doubtlessly evade the monster, but the other two mares might not be so lucky. “Umm… uh.” Sunspot rapidly glanced between the two frightened ponies beside her and the approaching monster. “Uhh… I have an idea!” She exclaimed suddenly in revelation. Rainbow Dash was eager to hear what life saving plan the suited pony had in mind. “That’s great! What’s your idea?” The cyan mare asked with a hopeful expression. Sunspot gulped quietly before trying to put on her best confident expression. “I’ll distract it… you two hurry up and finish getting rid of these clouds!” The orange pegasus stated nervously. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were shocked to hear the bold and perhaps careless plan their friend had made. “Are you serious?! You’ll be eaten alive by that thing!” Rainbow Dash stated frantically. Before the cyan mare could protest however, Sunspot took off to head the skeleton off before it reached them. “No!” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy yelled in unison as they watched the pegasus flying towards the dragon bravely. They shared a concerned glance with each other as they thought of a way to help the suited pony. “Quick! We need to get these clouds out of the way before she gets herself killed!” Fluttershy instructed to the cyan mare while flying up to another cloud and grabbing hold of it with her still glowing hooves. “But… but… grr!” Rainbow Dash growled in frustration as she was conflicted with rushing off to save the pegasus and staying up at the clouds to break the spell. She finally shrugged anxiously and followed her friend’s example by flying up to a cloud and touching it so the princess’s spell could work. Meanwhile, Sunspot was rapidly charging towards the undead beast. She wasn’t exactly sure what she would do once she got up to it, but she figured, or rather hoped, that she would find that out once she reached the dragon. The dragon growled and opened its boney jaw as it watched the pegasus approach. Sunspot watched as a ball of green flame slowly formed in the beast’s mouth. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized what the monster was trying to do. “Yikes!” The suited mare exclaimed nervously as she dodged to the side to avoid the column of flame heading her way. She could feel the blast of heat hit her face as the fiery beam whizzed past her body. Once she realized that she had successfully dodged the attack, the orange pony returned a confident smirk to her face. “Heh… it’s going to take a lot more than that to put me down bonehead!” She yelled in a mocking tone to antagonize the monster. Perhaps in response to the pegasus’s remark, the dragon growled once it realized that its attack failed. The undead beast flipped around in the air once it was about to pass the approaching pony. Sunspot intended to fly right past it so she could get it as far away from her two companions as possible. The suited mare gasped once she saw that the monster’s skeletal tail was heading straight for her. “Ooof!” The orange pony grunted as the colossal tail slammed into her. She was sent hurdling through the sky for a short distance before righting herself in midair. She looked up to see the dragon charging for her with its jaw open, revealing its numerous jagged teeth. “Oh boy!” The shocked pegasus squeaked out in a panic while turning herself and bolting downwards to evade the approaching predator. She felt a slight draft on her tail and heard the loud clatter of bones as the dragon snapped its jaws closed behind her. The monster kept stretching its neck out and snapping its jaws shut in an attempt at clipping the escaping pony. While Sunspot zipped around the sky with her pursuer quickly in tow, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy anxiously kept an eye on the pegasus as she evaded the undead monster. The pair of ponies were frantically rushing from cloud to cloud, hoping that each one they paused at would be the last. Rainbow Dash was dealing with an inner conflict of emotions. She was unsure of whether she should continue what she was doing and hope that she could destroy the cloud before Sunspot was killed, or if she should go help her. Although she didn’t want to discredit the suited mare and her skills, the cyan pegasus was incredibly nervous that her evasive skills wouldn’t be enough to outmatch the deadly predator chasing her. “This is taking way too long…” Rainbow Dash muttered uneasily while glancing over to Fluttershy. The yellow mare shared in her concerns, but she was at just as much of a loss as to what they should do. “We need to trust that the princess knows what she’s doing.” Fluttershy stated while trying to ease her friend’s concerns. The timid pony couldn’t help but anxiously stare at the fleeing pegasus as the dragon tried everything in its power to cut her off or strike her. “I just hope that Sunspot can hold out until we’re finished.” Fluttershy stated in a disheartened tone while trying to suppress the feeling of dread building up inside her. The yellow mare felt like something horrible was going to happen before they could remove the thick bank of clouds, but she hoped that she was wrong. “Ugh… I can’t just sit here and watch her risk her life like this. I need to help her!” Rainbow Dash said through gritted teeth. It was killing her on the inside to just stand idly by while the suited mare could very well die in front of her very eyes. Every burst of flame, every snap of the beast’s jaws, every attack that Sunspot narrowly avoided only made the cyan mare more anxious. “I know how you feel Rainbow Dash, but we’re no good to her if we endanger ourselves.” Fluttershy stated as she tried to make her friend listen to reason. “If you go down there… you might inadvertently get her or even yourself hurt or worse. We can help her, but we need to do it from up here. The faster we end the spell, the faster she can be safe.” The yellow mare explained in a soft tone to try and console the anxious pegasus. Rainbow Dash huffed in frustration as she thought about it more logically. She then finally sighed in defeat before nodding slowly. “You’re right Fluttershy… we need to end this sooner rather than later.” The cyan pony replied somberly. Fluttershy nodded in agreement, the two ponies then rushed to continue their task of removing the clouds. Before they could come into contact with their next set of clouds, the pair heard a sharp cry of pain emanate from below them. They quickly glanced down and gasped in shock as they saw what the issue was. Sunspot was flying crookedly in the air with what seemed like a painful grimace on her face. There was a brief spray of crimson fluid coming from her side as she clutched it with her hoof. The dragon was moving its front leg back into place from what the two could only imagine to be a strike. It didn’t take much deduction to realize that the undead monster had hit the suited pegasus on or close to her wing. “Oh no… she’s hurt!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed nervously as she watched the injured mare trying desperately to fly with her wounded wing. Although she was making a valiant effort, the dragon was slowly gaining ground on her as she tried evading it. “I can’t watch this anymore… Fluttershy stay here!” The cyan pony instructed while zipping downwards fast enough to create a small rush of air. Fluttershy was shocked to see her friend flying into danger. She tried to reach out towards the flying pony, but she suddenly realized that she couldn’t move her hooves. “What the…?” The yellow mare looked up to see that her hooves were firmly attached to the cloud she was touching. In all of the commotion, she must have reached up and touched the cloud without realizing it. It never occurred to the pegasus that Celestia’s spell had cemented her hooves to whatever cloud she was touching until the spell was done. She had been too concerned with the events below her to even notice until now. All Fluttershy could do at that point was watch the scene beneath her unfold. She watched anxiously as Rainbow Dash rapidly sped up in the air while flying towards Sunspot. All the while, the dragon was chasing the injured pony closer to the ground. The suspense was making her feel so tense that she thought she was going to pass out. Sunspot noticed that she was rapidly approaching the ground as she fled from her pursuer. She could practically make out how many strands of hay were on the rooftops of the nearby buildings. The nervous pegasus glanced behind her, only to be met with the frightening image of the dauntless dragon as it chased her. Suddenly the monster’s mouth started glowing with green flame. Sunspot could hear the roar of the fire as the dragon prepared its flame breath. The suited mare glanced back at her own wing uneasily. The point where her wing met her body was bleeding badly from where the dragon had clawed it. Sunspot could barely remain airborne, let alone dodge to the side fast enough to evade the fire about to roast her alive. The nervous pegasus looked forward to the rapidly approaching ground for a way out of her situation. She might be able to duck around the side of the building, but there might be innocent ponies inside that would be harmed from the fire, not to mention that she might not even make it in time. Sunspot quickly turned to look behind her when she heard the sound of flame shooting through the air. She was greeted by the sight of a wall of fire rapidly heading her way. There was no chance that she would be able to dodge this attack, all she could do was hope that it would be over quickly. “AHHH!” The suited pegasus screamed in horror and closed her eyes. She could already feel the heat of the approaching fire as it came within inches of her body. “Look out!” Sunspot heard the sound of Rainbow Dash calling out beside her. Before she had a chance to open her eyes to look for the cyan mare, she felt something collide with her from the side. The orange mare heard a cry of pain and felt the slight burn of fire as she was violently shoved from the fire and carried downwards by whatever had crashed into her. Sunspot and her savior crashed into the roof of a nearby building and came to a painful and sudden stop. The orange mare opened her eyes to see Rainbow Dash lying beside her with her eyes closed. The cyan mare appeared to have taken a little more of the fire than Sunspot had, having part of her fur blackened slightly from the flames. “Rainbow Dash…! Are you ok?!” Sunspot asked frantically as she rapidly got up to examine her friend’s injuries. Thankfully the cyan pegasus was still breathing, but she seemed dazed from the impact with the roof. Rainbow Dash slowly lifted her head up and squinted an eye open. She cringed in pain as she tried moving her doubtlessly sore body. “Yeah… I think so… maybe a little crispy, but otherwise I’m good.” The cyan mare chuckled slightly before realizing that her sore ribs throbbed whenever she laughed. Perhaps the fall into the roof had done more damage than she originally thought. Upon hearing a loud growl, the pair looked up and widened their eyes in shock. The skeletal dragon was looming over them while hovering in place. It still had its mouth aglow with green fire as it prepared another strike. Fluttershy gasped in horror as she watched her friends getting cornered by the dragon. There was no way they would be able to dodge an attack from that close in their injured state. She wanted to look away, but she found herself unable to avert her teary eyes as she prepared to watch her friends die. Suddenly the yellow mare felt her hooves coming free. She was surprised by the sudden completion of the spell, but she was even more surprised to see a beam of sunlight hitting her face. Fluttershy squinted her eyes shut from the sudden brightness. She peeked out slowly to see the clouds around her rapidly disappearing. A loud roar sounded out across the area as the dragon cried out in pain. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash looked up to see smoke pouring off the undead monster as it writhed in the sunlight. Soon enough, the light had enveloped the creature, causing it to burst into flames and vanish into a large puff of smoke. All across the square, each and every one of the skeletons were vanishing into the returning daylight as the overhead sun beamed down with brilliant intensity. The ponies had to avert their eyes to adjust to the new light, having been submerged in relative darkness for so long. When they opened their eyes and looked around, there was no trace of the undead horde other than the destruction they had left behind. All that remained in the now well-lit square was a band of surprised ponies. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot blinked their eyes rapidly in shock. Not moments before they were about to be made into deep fried ponies, but now they were safe with only their injuries to remind them of the hardship they had just endured. “We did it!” Rainbow Dash cheered while raising her arms into the air triumphantly. She suddenly yelped in pain as she hastily moved her practically broken body. Sunspot looked to the cyan mare beside her with concern and empathy. She had risked her life to push her out of the way of the dragon’s flame, and she looked like it had clipped her bad enough to warrant a lot of pain. “Thanks for saving my tail back there… are you alright?” the suited pegasus asked with sincere worry evident in her voice. “I think I have a few sore ribs… and I kind of feel like I just got the worst sunburn ever… oww.” Rainbow Dash winced as she gently poked a spot on her fur that was singed. She then looked over to her orange companion to examine her wounds. “How about you…? How’s your wing?” The cyan mare asked while observing the bloodied appendage with a sad expression. “I think it looks worse than it is… I’m sure we can get this patched up whenever backup arrives… speaking of which.” Sunspot stated while looking off in the distance. Rainbow Dash followed her gaze until she saw what the suited pony was looking at. A large group of ponies clad in royal guard outfits were flying towards the square as quickly as they could. The troop landed and surveyed the area for any signs of ponies in need before settling their eyes on the two princesses and their group. “Princess Celestia! We got here as fast as we could once we got your message. Where are those creatures?!” One of the pegasus’s at the head of the group asked as he walked up to the white alicorn. Celestia sighed and smirked at the late arrival of the royal guard. “Sorry lieutenant… you got here a little late. We just got done dealing with those creatures.” The alicorn explained in as gentle a manner as possible. The stallion seemed embarrassed by the fact that he and his troop had missed their opportunity to assist in the fight. “Oh… sorry princess... what are your orders for us ma’am?” He asked while returning his stoic appearance and turning to his comrades. The band of guards was eager to offer any assistance they could. “We have injured ponies in the town hall, and I think some of our people got hurt during the battle. Have some of your men tend to them for us. I also need you to send some people over to the library… we think that part of this attack was to get at Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Lastly, I need you to round up some of your men and search the area for anything suspicious… understood?” Celestia clarified to see if the pegasus had heard all of her instructions. The white stallion saluted while giving a confident nod. “Yes princess, right away.” He replied before turning to his troop and relaying the princess’s orders to them. The group of stallions quickly trotted away to their various assignments. Chapter 52: ReunionTom ran inside the library as fast as his feet would carry him. After Raincloud had told him about what she had done to Spike, the human was very concerned for the wellbeing of the group of ponies upstairs. He made his way up the stairs while simultaneously trying to recover from the fight. Having been knocked around so much must have done a number on his stamina. Tom quickly rushed to the bedroom door and threw it open. Once inside, he noticed Twilight and the others turning to look at him. As they recognized the new arrival, the ponies smiled excitedly at the return of their friend. “Tom!” Twilight exclaimed while rushing forward and wrapping her arms around the boy’s waist. Tom was almost knocked down from the eager pony trying to hug him. He smiled as he watched Applejack and Rarity walking forward to join the purple unicorn in greeting him. “Sorry I’m late guys… there were a couple of real jerkwads outside, so I had to deal with them first.” Tom explained while still catching his breath. Twilight chuckled happily as she stared at the boy with a wide smile. She almost couldn’t believe that he was here, as if she were imagining things. “I’m so glad to see you… we thought… well, we thought…” the purple mare trailed her eyes off sadly as she thought back to her near death experience. She honestly thought that she was going to die, and she was still uncertain as to why she didn’t. Whatever the cause, Twilight was simply glad to be alive. “It’s ok, I’m here now. Is anyone hurt?” Tom asked while looking around at the group. Everyone frowned as they suddenly remembered the injured dragon behind them. The human was shocked when he finally noticed Spike lying on the floor. “Oh my gosh…” The boy exclaimed as he examined the extensive wound on the dragon’s chest. Although it was no longer bleeding, it still looked horrific enough to warrant a cringe from anyone looking at it. “He got attacked by that shadow thing you fought.” Twilight explained in a sad tone. Tom thought back to how the shadow had inflicted so much pain on him from just a small wound. “I assume he is being affected by that purple glow as well?” The human asked uneasily while mentally sizing up how much energy it would take to heal the dragon. Twilight and the others nodded sadly in response. “You can heal him can’t you…? Like you did with my leg?” Applebloom asked in a concerned tone while watching Spike breathing peacefully. Tom sighed quietly. He could probably heal the dragon’s wounds, but it would be a grueling task. “It’s a little more complicated than that Applebloom… but I should be able to pull it off.” Tom shrugged while walking over to Spike and kneeling down beside him. Everyone watched anxiously as the boy breathed in and out a few times to prepare himself. “Are you sure you’re feeling well enough to be doing this Tom?” Rarity asked as she observed the sickly look on Tom’s face. “I’m fine… I just need to catch my breath before I start. And besides, we don’t really have too many options if I didn’t.” The human replied while cracking his knuckles and stretching his arms in preparation for the physical toll about to be put on him. Tom steadied himself into a less taxing stance as he placed his hand in the air over the dragon’s wound. If he was going to fall over, he didn’t want to add to the already bad day Spike was having by landing on top of him. Twilight and the others waited in silence as Tom projected his healing light from his hand. The soft blue glow traveled into the unconscious dragon and started reacting with his injury. The purple glow from earlier appeared again, as if it were trying to dispel the boy’s efforts at curing Spike. Tom grunted uncomfortably as he had to put more effort into his healing beam to overcome the magical infliction. He had to physically prevent his hand from wavering too much so that the blue light would come into full contact with the dragon. Just when the ponies thought the human was going to pass out from exhaustion, the wound on Spike’s chest started closing up. The purple glow disappeared completely, leaving the grisly injury free to heal up. Once the gash was completely closed up, Tom scooted himself away and rolled over on his back as his arms gave out from underneath him. Twilight frowned as she watched the human recovering on the floor. She felt like it was unfair for him to have to be the one to hurt himself to save everyone else. The unicorn was glad that he had healed Spike, but she still felt bad for him. “Are you ok Tom?” The unicorn asked in a concerned tone while sitting next to the exhausted human. Tom nodded slowly, but his whole body was shaking from how weak he felt. Needless to say, the ponies didn’t believe that he felt as healthy as he wanted them to think. Suddenly, Spike groaned as he started moving slightly. The sight of the dragon stirring made everyone stunned into silence by their joyous surprise. Twilight rushed over to Spike’s side and watched eagerly as he sat up and slowly opened his eyes. “What happened…?” He asked in a groggy daze while looking around in confusion. Twilight suddenly pulled the dragon close and held him in a tight hug. Spike was still confused and felt like a thick fog was filling his mind, but he still gathered that the unicorn was excited to see him. “Spike! You’re alive!” The purple mare was on the verge of tears as she held her number one assistant tightly. Spike was about to ask what was wrong, when he suddenly remembered what had happened before he blacked out. The dragon suddenly understood why Twilight was so elated to see him. “I… I’m ok?” Spike asked in uncertainty while observing his miraculous recovery. He figured that he wasn’t going to wake up again from how severe his injuries were. “You are now darling… we thought we were going to lose you for a minute there.” Rarity stated with a cheerful smile. “Don’t scare us like that again ok?” Scootaloo chimed in happily along with her two fellow crusaders. Spike was happy to be able to see all of his friends in such high spirits, but the presence of a pale human recuperating on the floor next to him troubled the young dragon. He obviously must have been out for a while if Tom had the chance to get to the library and beat the two malicious ponies. “Tom! Are you ok?!” Spike asked in an alarmed tone when he noticed how much trouble the boy was having with catching his breath. “Aww come on, don’t let me rain on your parade… you should be happy to be alive, not concerned for me.” Tom stated while sitting up and trying to appear a little more recovered than he felt. The others were slightly unnerved by the boy’s desire to put their own happiness over his health. Perhaps being a slayer for so long had removed his sense of self preservation. “I for one am just glad that I can take a break before heading back to the square. Although I think I liked fighting the monsters over there more than I did the ones over here.” The human stated lightheartedly while glancing out the window. Although he was obviously trying to get the subject of conversation off of himself, the ponies did feel curious about the situation at the square. “What are things like over there? Brimstoke didn’t really fill us in all that much…” Glitterball asked while nervously observing the darkened clouds outside. “Whatever spell these guys used raised a bunch of pony skeletons from under the ground. A lot of people got hurt in the initial chaos, but nothing too serious from what I saw.” Tom explained while thinking back to the hectic battle he left behind. Everyone seemed mildly alarmed to hear that the square had been attacked. Many of their acquaintances and neighbors had been in attendance, along with the majority of Ponyville’s inhabitants. A more urgent feeling of alarm washed over Twilight and the others as they suddenly remembered that three of their friends were at the speech. “What about Fluttershy and the others?! Are they ok?!” Rarity asked in a concerned panic. She couldn’t take any more of knowing that her friends were in danger. The white mare could practically feel her nerves exploding from stress. “Relax… they are fine. Last I checked they were in town hall along with many of the other civilians that didn’t bolt when everything started… I’m sure that they are safer than you guys were before I got here.” Tom stated to ease the jittery unicorn’s concerns. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief once they learned that Fluttershy and her two companions were safe. “But how is town hall still safe? I would have figured that it would have been broken into a long time ago from how many skeletons you say were there. Brimstoke and the others are good, but they aren’t Daring Doo or anything…” Peppermint wondered out loud. Surely if a horde of monsters had attacked the square they would have broken into the town hall at every window to get at the ponies inside. “Well they didn’t seem very bright… whatever spell was used to bring them here probably gave them a basic command. They might have been trying to get at the princess for all I know… either way they all just kind of came at us from the front, so it was relatively easy to fend them off… Daring Doo or no.” Tom explained as he thought more about the issue himself. “Wait… you know about Daring Doo?” Applejack questioned with a curious expression. Tom smirked and nodded his head in response. “See? I get references.” The human chimed lightheartedly. Everyone chuckled briefly at the display. It felt good to the ponies to be able to laugh again after their ordeal. Once the laughter died down a little bit, Twilight glanced back outside at the ominous clouds overhead. She had been too occupied with her own situation to even think about what spell had caused the clouds. As she put two and two together, she realized that attacking the library was probably a part of the plan as well. While the princess and the others were distracted at the speech, the purple mare and her friends were wide open for attack. Before Twilight could elaborate on any more of her thoughts or feelings towards the malevolent plot, she noticed that the sky seemed to be clearing up. Thin rays of sunlight were bursting through the thick blanket of grayness that had blocked the sky for so long. “Hey guys, lo-” The unicorn started to alert her friends to this odd occurrence, when a sudden flash of sunlight made them all shield their eyes. The ponies had been in relative darkness for so long that the mere presence of normal lighting made their eyes burn. Once the group managed to slowly flutter open their eyes and peek out from under their arms they discovered that the sky was as clear and blue as it had been before the incident. The sight of the bright and sunny landscape outside mixed in with the endless blue sky above was a surprisingly beautiful thing that felt fresh and new to the ponies. “Look at that…” Twilight muttered to finish her previous sentence as she looked around at the quiet buildings outside. If one were to look at the scene objectively, they might not realize that horrible monsters had been roaming around freely not moments ago. “I guess the others have sorted things out over at the square.” Rarity suggested in an optimistic tone. It only made sense that the sudden return of daylight was a direct cause of the efforts of Brimstoke and the others. “Glitter, can you call down there to see if everyone is alright?” Twilight asked in a slightly concerned tone. “Uh… sure, let me see if anyone is free to listen.” Glitterball stated while putting a hoof up to her ear. The communication spell kicked in, enveloping her ear in a magical glow that matched her aura color. “Hello? Is anypony listening down there?” The rainbow haired mare spoke aloud and waited for anyone to respond. After a short wait, she heard the sound of Brimstoke picking up the line. “Glitterball? Is everything ok over there?” The stallion asked with slight concern and curiosity. “Yeah, we’re all safe now… I noticed that you guys must have done something right. I can finally see the sun in the sky… that’s good I suppose.” Glitterball replied while glancing back outside. “Yeah… we managed to take care of things. Hey listen, why don’t you guys take a minute to relax. The princess is going to be there soon to check on you, and from the sound of it she wants to talk about something important... She wants us all to be there once we're done cleaning up here.” Brimstoke explained with a perplexed tone. “What…? Umm… ok, we’ll sit tight and wait for her then. Before I let you go, is everyone ok down there?” The unicorn asked in a sincere manner. Brimstoke paused for a moment before answering, presumably to tally everyone’s health in his head. “Uh… yeah… Sunspot and Rainbow Dash got a little roughed up, but they will be fine.” Brimstoke finally spoke up in a relieved tone. “Phew… that’s good to hear. Alright, see you when you get done over there.” Glitterball stated in a happy tone while bringing her hoof down to end the call. She then turned to her friends with a relieved smile on her face. “Everyone is fine, give or take a few minor injuries.” Glitter explained cheerfully. Everyone was happy to hear that their friends had survived the attack, and in good shape to boot. “Brimstoke said that the princess is on her way over… she wants to talk with us about something important once everyone is present.” The rainbow haired unicorn shifted into a more confused and curious tone as she dispensed the information she received. The others were intrigued and confused about what Celestia would want to discuss. “Hmm… I wonder if it has something to do with the attack?” Twilight pondered out loud. Everyone shrugged their shoulders as the unicorn looked to them for thoughtful input. Her guess was as good as anything anybody else could come up with. “Well… I suppose we have some time to kill before the princess gets here. Why don’t we all head downstairs and relax for a while?” The purple mare suggested with a cheerful smile. Everyone nodded eagerly at the prospect of unwinding their bundled up nerves. The group made their way out of the bedroom and casually walked down the stairs. With the absence of the gray clouds outside, the main room was comfortably lit in warm and inviting sunlight. Despite this abundance of light, Twilight walked over to each of the lanterns around the room and lit them up to completely fill the room with light. Once the room was sufficiently lit, everyone took a look around to assess the damage caused during the fight. Surprisingly enough, very few of the items around the room were disturbed during the struggle with the shadow. Only a few stray books and a few empty vials had been knocked from their respective bookshelves and tables. “At least there isn’t much to pick up.” Twilight stated while levitating a book back into its proper place. Glitterball and Peppermint walked over to the table and gathered up their scattered equipment. They quickly placed all the vials and ingredients back into a small carrying case, which they then placed in their vests. “I guess he wasn’t too occupied with messing the place up while he was throttling me.” Glitterball chimed in sarcastically. The ponies were amazed that the unicorn could be so lighthearted about such a frightful experience. “I’m just glad that we managed to fight that thing off… I thought I was going to mess something up back there… heh.” Peppermint chuckled nervously as he thought back to the initial fight with the shadow. “You did fine Pepper… not bad for your first official run in with a substantial baddy.” Glitterball stated while giving the red haired stallion a pat on the back. “If you say so… I thought Applejack did most of the work though… at this rate we might want to recruit her into the team.” Peppermint said with a chuckle. Applejack smiled at the praise coming from the medical pony. “Aww come on, don’t be so hard on yourself sugar cube… if you didn’t blind that thing, Ah wouldn’t have been able to do anything.” The orange mare replied in a friendly manner. She was surprised to see someone so unconfident about their own acts of bravery. “Thanks…” The stallion replied while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. The group decided to wait around and get comfortable while waiting for the princess to arrive. Twilight and Spike went into the kitchen to fetch drinks while everyone else chatted idly in the other room. After delivering the various drinks to whoever asked, the two went back into the other room to fix themselves something. “What do you feel like?” Twilight asked while browsing what selection they had in the refrigerator. Spike hummed curiously as he thought about the choice further. “Well… we don’t exactly have a full stock… milk and orange juice seems to be the only options I have.” The dragon stated while eyeing between the two. “I’ll be sure to head down to the store and pick up some groceries in a few days.” Twilight replied with a smile. “Heh… I’ll take orange juice for now thanks.” Spike said while grabbing the pitcher of juice and pouring himself a glass. He offered the unicorn a glass, but she politely declined. While Spike was leaning back and enjoying his drink, Twilight watched him with a loving smile. She couldn’t believe that she almost lost him twice in the span of a few days. She also couldn’t believe that he was so well adjusted all things considered. Thoughts of every moment she had shared with the young dragon flooded into her mind. Twilight could still remember back to his birth like it was just yesterday. So many good things happened to her on that day. She discovered her extraordinary talent for magic, she received her cutie mark, and she became Princess Celestia’s student. But perhaps the most important thing that happened was her receiving custody of the baby dragon she hatched from a mere egg. “Hey… what’s on your mind?” Spike spoke up, interrupting the unicorn’s thoughts. “Uh… just reminiscing.” Twilight replied while smiling warmly. Spike was a little confused by the cheerful nature of the purple mare. “I’m the one who just had a near death experience… shouldn’t I be the one giddy with happiness?” The dragon stated lightheartedly. Although he had tried to say it as gently as possible, the unicorn frowned slightly at the mention of the incident. “Hey… lighten up. Everything turned out alright in the end.” Spike said to brighten up the purple mare’s mood. Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the dragon’s lighthearted nature. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Twilight stated in a more cheerful tone. She was still concerned, but she couldn’t get over her feeling of happiness from learning that Spike would live. Besides, she could worry more about the hooded ponies when the princess arrived. After spending the next ten minutes waiting around, the group finally heard a knock on the door. Twilight got up to answer it, and discovered Princess Celestia waiting outside with two royal guards beside her. “Princess, I’m glad to see you made it.” The unicorn greeted her mentor while stepping outside. Celestia smiled briefly before glancing over to her two companions. “You two can head back to the square to help out with the search… everything seems to be fine here.” The alicorn instructed to the two ponies. The guards nodded before turning around and walking off. Celestia then turned to greet her student. “Twilight, I’m glad to see you’re unharmed… I hope everyone else is the same?” The alicorn asked with a slightly apprehensive tone. “Spike got hurt during the attack… but Tom healed him. Other than that we’re all just a little shaken up.” Twilight replied while shuddering slightly. Celestia nodded understandingly. “*Sigh* this whole ordeal is so horrible… I hope we can rope this in before something really bad happens.” Celestia shook her head sadly as she thought about the situation. “Did you guys find anything over at the square? Was there a pictogram nearby?” The purple mare asked curiously. “Luna is searching the area with Brimstoke and the others… she should be over here later on. In the meantime, I want you to tell me everything you can about what happened here.” Celestia replied in a gentle tone. “Right… maybe we should head inside then?” Twilight suggested while motioning towards the door. Celestia nodded before following the unicorn inside. Once inside, the alicorn greeted the other ponies before settling down next to Twilight. She asked the unicorn and her friends about every detail they could think about. What the two ponies looked like, their names, what abilities they possessed, and the details of the attack. It was a slightly painful experience to think about the stressful event, but the ponies managed to retell what they knew as clearly as possible. Celestia cringed sympathetically as she learned more and more about what happened to her student. The shadow creature that the pale mare summoned, the frightful shadow magic that she and her brother used, all of these things troubled the alicorn deeply. “And this… Raincloud was it? She said that… whoever her leader is has a plan in place?” The princess asked with a dreadful sense of curiosity. “Yeah… she sounded a little too cocky for my liking.” Twilight huffed in an uneasy tone. She wasn’t even sure what the pale mare meant by what she said, and that made her feel nervous. “*Sigh*… I guess we will just have to stop them before they finish their plan.” Celestia tried to sound optimistic, but her attempt at lightening the mood was lost amid her frustrated exterior. Twilight and the others felt bad for the alicorn. They could tell that she was really stressed out over this issue. Even if it was for good reason, it couldn’t be healthy for her. Twilight started to speak up to try and cheer up her mentor, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone knocking at the door. Deciding that it would be best to get a brief moment of fresh air, Celestia got up to answer the door. As she walked over to the door and swung it open, the alicorn was met with the sight of a group of familiar ponies outside. Luna was standing outside along with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Brimstoke and the remaining members of Spirit. “Luna, you’re already done with the search?” Celestia asked curiously. She wasn’t expecting the search to be done for at least half an hour. “Yes… we found another pictogram near the square in a back alley, along with the remnants of some kind of spell.” Luna replied with a puzzled expression. Judging from her attitude, Celestia gathered that her sister hadn’t found anything incriminating on the identity of the caster. “Hmm…” Celestia hummed curiously before settling her eyes on Rainbow Dash and Sunspot. She hadn’t noticed before, but the two ponies had several bandages from where they had been injured during the fight. Sunspot’s wing and the surrounding area was patched up, while the cyan mare only had bandages around her midsection to accommodate some of her sore ribs and burns. “How do you two feel?” The princess asked in a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash smiled and chuckled to make the alicorn feel better about her health. “We’re fine princess… the medics say that I should be able to take these off later on today.” The cyan mare stated cheerfully. “And I should be clear to fly again in a few days.” Sunspot said in a slightly disheartened tone before returning to a more cheerful disposition. “That’s good to hear… I’m sorry that you got hurt like that. I thought you would be safer than us while in the air… I guess I was wrong.” Celestia looked down sadly while speaking. Not wanting the alicorn to worry about her too much, Rainbow Dash walked forward to get inside. “Let’s head inside and get down to business… I want to catch the creeps who did this as soon as possible.” The cyan mare said in a passionate tone. The others nodded while following the pegasus inside. Once inside, Rainbow Dash and her two friends were incredibly happy and relieved to see their friends unharmed. They had figured that nothing bad had happened due to them not being informed of anything, but it was much more exciting to actually see their friends safe in front of them. “Girls!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while rushing forward towards the three ponies. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack were slightly surprised to be gripped into a tight group hug. The pink mare quickly reached out and pulled Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy into her bundle of a hug. Although it was slightly constricting, the ponies were happy to accept the hug from the excited mare. Before anyone lost the ability to breath, Pinkie let go and stepped back with an ear to ear grin on her face. “It’s so good to see all of you! I thought something terrible had happened when I heard you were attacked!” The party pony stated in an anxiously excited tone. Twilight and the others were flattered to see someone so concerned for them, but they didn’t want the pink mare to worry too much. “We’re alright now Pinkie… Tom managed to fix anything those two ponies did.” Twilight said in a friendly tone while glancing over to the human. Pinkie was glad to see her friends unharmed, but she was also upset that they were in danger in the first place. “Grr… I’m so mad at those stupid hooded ponies! They are SO not invited to my next party.” The pink mare huffed angrily while crossing her arms. Although they were a little weirded out by her delivery, her friends shared her opinion. “Yeah! We need to find out who those guys are so we can knock some sense into them!” Rainbow Dash stated in an enthusiastic tone. “They need to answer for everything they have done to us and all of the other ponies they hurt.” Fluttershy voiced her opinion with a determined expression. The more people spoke up, the more everyone else was getting riled up. Every hardship the group had gone through was bubbling to the surface as they resolved to bring the malevolent ponies to justice. While the ponies were cheering in excitement, Celestia felt that she needed to let them know about her plan. “Alright girls, settle down and listen up.” The princess spoke up to get everyone’s attention. The group fell silent as they all shifted their eyes to the white alicorn with curiosity evident in their faces. “In light of recent events… I have made the decision to fully retaliate against these hooded ponies. They have openly attacked us on numerous occasions, but this latest attack was the most directed of all of them. Luna and I will investigate who these ponies are using the names we have. After we have enough information, we will launch a task force against them to bring them in.” Celestia shifted her attention to Twilight and her friends as she continued. “In the meantime… I think it would be for the best if all of you laid low.” She explained with an understanding tone. “Ok… we’re going to be there when you take these guys down right?” Rainbow Dash asked with an unsure leer. Celestia frowned and looked away briefly. “I… think that you all should just sit tight until after all of this blows over. I know you’re probably upset, but-” The alicorn tried to explain her decision, when she was suddenly interrupted by the cyan mare speaking up. “What?! Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow Dash stated in an upset tone while getting up from her seat. “There’s no way we’re just going to sit back while you guys deal with these jerks! We are just as involved in this fight as you are! Right girls?” She asked while looking over to her friends for support. Most of the others shared the cyan mare’s opinion, but they also had mixed feelings about being left out of the action. Fluttershy and Rarity thought that it might be for the best if they didn’t pursue the matter any further. Pinkie Pie wanted to help, but she was also a little scared of the capabilities of the mysterious group. Applejack and Twilight understood the pegasus’s outrage, but they also understood where the princess was coming from. “Rainbow Dash… we uh…” Twilight paused as she tried to think of how to say something without upsetting her friend. “Maybe we should listen to the princess on this one.” The unicorn mumbled while looking away and nervously glancing her eyes back at the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash was more surprised than anything. “Come on Twilight, you want to give these guys a piece of your mind just as bad as I do right?” The cyan mare asked in a disheartened tone. Twilight sighed while glancing over to Spike. She wanted to take action against the ponies, but she also had to think about her own safety as well as her friends’. “I do… but I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Think about it Rainbow Dash… if Tom weren’t here, half of us would either be hospitalized or dead by this point. We shouldn’t be careless enough to rely on his healing abilities to save us… what if he gets to us too late next time?” Twilight said in a sad tone while glancing around at the others. Everyone looked around at their loved ones and frowned as they thought of the worst case scenario. “But… but I thought… they… we…” Rainbow Dash slowly lost her enthusiasm as she looked around at the sad faces of her friends. “*sigh* Ok…” She finally lowered her head in defeat as she decided to comply with her friends’ opinions. “Until it’s time to attack the hooded ponies directly, I’m assigning each of you a protective detail of sorts. I want Brimstoke and his team to stay with each of you to keep an eye on things. You can decide who goes where yourselves.” Celestia explained while glancing over to the white stallion and his team. Twilight and the others looked to the team of ponies with uncertainty. They were unsure of which member of the team they would want to come live with them. All of the suited ponies seemed to be friendly enough, but they hadn’t really met them for more than a couple days. Brimstoke and the others walked over to the group with indifferent expressions. The white stallion stood in front and looked to the six mares with a pensive expression. “Ok… I guess we’re going to have to bunk up with each other for a while. Who do you girls want to go with you?” Brimstoke asked while glancing between the six ponies and his own teammates. Twilight figured that she should pick first, but she was unsure of who to choose. She settled her eyes on Peppermint and smiled, he seemed kind enough for her liking. “I guess Peppermint can stay with us… if that’s ok.” The unicorn stated in a friendly manner. The shy stallion nodded in response. “I’m cool with that.” Pepper added with a smirk. “I want to hang out with you some more!” Pinkie Pie said in a cheerful tone while pointing to Brimstoke. “You look like you could use some fun in your life.” She added with a giggle. The stallion seemed to be a little unsure of whether or not he would enjoy being so close to the energetic mare for so long. “Uh… ok.” Brimstoke rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as the pink pony eagerly bounced beside him. “I guess I kind of have to take Sunspot. She’s the only one who can actually sit in my house without falling out of the sky.” Rainbow Dash reasoned while glancing over to the suited pegasus and smirking. After their brief battle with the dragon, the cyan mare figured that they made a good team. “Sweet, I have no objections to that.” Sunspot stated with a chuckle. She was starting to like the adventurous pegasus. “I would love it if you would come stay with us Glitterball.” Rarity asked in a courteous tone while looking over at the rainbow haired unicorn. “Of course.” Glitterball nodded in response with a friendly smile. “Umm…” Fluttershy eyed between Neon Streak and Glimmer Shine thoughtfully. She wasn’t sure which one she should pick. “Do you want to come with me Glimmer?” The yellow mare asked in an unimposing tone. Glimmer Shine smiled and walked over to the timid pegasus. “Sure thing Fluttershy.” Glimmer stated in a friendly tone. Fluttershy smiled slightly at the lighthearted display. “Guess that leaves you stuck with me Applejack.” Neon stated with a chuckle while looking at the only pony without a pair. Applejack looked around at the others as they stayed near their respective companion. “Ah guess so. You’ve saved my life a few times now, so Ah suppose the neighborly thing to do would be to offer you a place to stay.” The farm pony said while smiling warmly. The green mare smirked and nodded in response. “Right then… now that all of you have someone watching out for you, I suggest you head home for the night. You can still help out with the investigation from the library… there are a lot of things we need researched after all.” Celestia explained in a friendly tone. Everyone sighed quietly as they thought of the prospect of researching without facing the hooded ponies themselves. It felt like they would be working for nothing. “Goodbye everyone… stay safe for me alright?” Twilight said as she watched her friends get up to leave. Everyone turned and waved to each other as they walked to the door. “Bye guys.” Pinkie Pie stated while walking outside with Brimstoke in tow. Before the two made it out of the door, the stallion turned to his teammates. “If any of you see anything suspicious, be sure to call in. Even if you can’t reach all of us from across town, you should be able to reach at least one person.” Brimstoke instructed to the others, putting special emphasis towards Glimmer Shine, who would be the farthest away. “Heh… I would like to see them try something after what happened today. I’ll bet they’re still licking their wounds under whatever rock they crawled out of.” Rainbow Dash stated in a confident tone. She could only imagine how much embarrassment the hooded ponies were feeling from their failure. The group finally said their goodbyes and funneled out the door. Twilight was left with Tom and Spike, along with their new friend Peppermint to keep her company. Chapter 53: RepercussionsThe slow monotonous ticking of an old and dusty grandfather clock filled the air. Cotton Quill was touching up one of the many magical symbols around the mansion. This particular one happened to be in a small reading room. The unicorn had many odd jobs to do around the ancient manor, but he tried his best to linger around Raven Feather and the others. It made him feel useful, and he could perhaps convince them of his usefulness. Raven Feather was leaning back into a luxurious red leather chair while putting her legs onto the desk in front of her. Compared to most other furnishings in the rooms of the mansion, the chair seemed relatively well kept, being mostly dust free and even structurally sound. The rest of the room was pretty standard fare for all the rooms that the ponies used frequently. There were candles and lanterns placed around for lighting amid the ornate tables scattered around. The red throw rug was faded and frayed at some of the edges, matching the worn carpet it sat on perfectly. There were two dusty bookshelves on each side wall, and two more behind Raven Feather and her desk, the desk itself having an old reading lamp left behind by the human occupants. There were many such devices scattered around the estate, most of which no longer functioned of course. The black mare was waiting around idly while her two colleagues finished their mission. She wondered how much time they would spend enjoying their assignment. The extra time would be worth it in the end however, with the elements of harmony out of the picture. Cotton Quill slowly peeked towards the lounging pony out of the corner of his eye. He was silently hoping that he could find some way to talk her into giving him a mission of some sort. Even if she was royally pissed at him, he felt a need to make it back into her good books. “So uh… Raincloud and Dust Kicker aren’t back yet?” The unicorn asked curiously while putting on a casual expression. Raven Feather rolled her eyes and looked away from the white pony. She hoped that he would just finish the symbol and leave, but he seemed to be stalling to be around her. This annoyed the black mare to no end. “You know uh… I could be doing things other than cleaning the dorms and redrawing symbols. I mean… surely there’s something you have for me to do.” Cotton stated in a soft tone. “You could leave me alone for a start.” Raven Feather groaned under her breath. She turned to see the longing and nervous stare of the needy stallion. She felt like punching him in the nose every time he tried to cling to her. She originally thought it would be cool having someone so fanatical about her, but that thought quickly left her head once she met the awkward unicorn. “What…?” Cotton asked curiously. He hadn’t heard the annoyed mumbling of the black mare. “*sigh* Just keep drawing Cotton… you’re a regular prodigy with the paint brush.” Raven Feather stated in a droll and sarcastic tone. Cotton huffed in defeat before returning to his work, much to the joy of the black mare. The peaceful silence of the room was only interrupted by the constant melody of the clock ticking away at the back of the room. The rhythmic clattering was almost lulling the two ponies into a sense of dreary dullness as they dealt with their own internal emotions. Cotton was dealing with his gnawing desire to be useful, while Raven Feather was trying not to fall asleep while waiting for her two followers to return. “Miss Raven Feather… with all due respect, I believe that you are ignoring me because of my previous mistakes.” Cotton Quill finally shrugged and got up the nerve to confront the green eyed mare. “And what led you to that monumental discovery?” Raven Feather asked sarcastically while squinting her eyes in disbelief at the unicorn. “I know that I messed up, and I’m sorry for that… but I can do so much more than this to help the group out. Let one of those entry level hoods deal with this and give me something meaningful to do… please?” Cotton asked in a pleading tone while giving her his best puppy dog face. Raven Feather growled in frustration as she watched the unicorn beg for a job. “You know what Cotton… fine, you win.” The black mare shrugged while putting on a casual smile. “Really?” The unicorn muttered in surprise. Even he didn’t expect to actually get through to the earth pony. “Yeah… really, I have a very important job for you.” Raven Feather stated while sifting through the desk drawers to find something. While she searched, Cotton Quill was practically giddy with excitement. Finally the black earth pony pulled out a piece of paper and a feather quill. She dipped the feather into an inkwell located on the desk and scribbled away on the paper. “I have a set of very important instructions for Shadow Mist… I need you to deliver this to him. I believe he is upstairs in the library.” Raven Feather explained while walking over to the eager unicorn and handing him the instructions. Cotton quickly skimmed over the paper before squinting in confusion and going back to read it from the top. The paper seemed to be filled with unintelligible gibberish and scribbles. He couldn’t even make heads or tails of what the text was about. “This is just gibberish…” The unicorn stated in slight confusion. Raven Feather chuckled warmly at the perplexed pony. “It’s a code… Shadow will know how to decipher it. Just hurry up and deliver that to him post haste.” Raven Feather instructed while pointing towards the door. The unicorn nodded eagerly while walking over to the door with a new sense of enthusiasm. “Right away Miss Raven Feather, I won’t disappoint you.” Cotton exclaimed while opening the door and walking out. The second the unicorn closed the door, the black mare dropped her fake smile and sighed. “Too late for that one buddy…” Raven Feather shrugged while heading back to her chair and leaning back. Perhaps she could finally get some peace and quiet without the unicorn around. Meanwhile, Cotton Quill was eagerly walking down the halls of the mansion with purpose. The room he had just come from was a short ways from the basement door, sitting in the same hallway he had traveled before. With the knowledge that his destination wasn’t very far, Cotton smirked happily while clutching the piece of paper with confidence. The otherwise dull and creepy atmosphere of the quiet Victorian hallway didn’t even faze the excited unicorn as he traveled down the hall. Cotton was surprised that he was actually getting comfortable in the spooky mansion. The poorly lit lodgings he had were enough to test his courage the first few nights he came to the mansion. Cotton was given a room all to himself, though the room was large enough to be a dorm room all on its own. He was given a room with the bed directly in line with the door. The wooden framed bed had a faded and frayed canopy on it, giving it a more fanciful feel. Next to the already odd feeling bed, there was a single night table with a single lantern on it. This lantern was Cotton’s only source of light in the room. The room stretched out for a long ways beyond his sanctuary of light, with an old vanity mirror and a large wardrobe at the far end of the room, encased in darkness. Cotton didn’t enjoy sleeping in the room, and kept the lantern on at all times during the night. Not even the light from the moon managed to seep into the room, as the only window at the back of the room was blocked by one of the dressers. The unicorn could practically see shapes moving around in the mirror at the back of the room from where he slept. Despite these eerie accommodations, Cotton grew used to his room, although he still didn’t travel past the lighted area at night. So if he could get used to that frightening room, the unicorn resolved that he could get used to anything this old house had to offer. As he came to the end of the hallway, Cotton quickly opened the door and stepped out into the main room. He walked around to the main stairway and headed up to the second floor. From there it was just a short travel through a door to another hallway and a short walk to the library. Once he entered the library, Cotton stepped inside with eager confidence. He quickly surveyed the room for Shadow Mist, but the red furred stallion wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Instead, there was a young and pale earth pony colt sitting at one of the tables positioned off to the side. “Grimwood? What are you doing up here?” Cotton asked in confusion and surprise. The colt turned around and got up from his chair when he saw the white unicorn. “I’m reading Cotton… this is a library. What are you doing here?” Grimwood asked in an accusatory way. Cotton mumbled as he thought about his own reason for a moment. “Um… oh yeah! I’m looking for Shadow Mist. Raven Feather gave me a code for him to decipher, she said it was really important.” The unicorn explained while motioning the paper towards the colt. “Riiiight…” Grimwood nodded slowly while responding. Cotton couldn’t detect the sarcasm in the monotone voice that the pale colt had. “Shadow Mist isn’t here right now… Tell you what Cotton, How about I decipher that for you?” Grimwood suggested while walking over to the white unicorn. “Well… Raven Feather said that this is for Shadow Mist.” Cotton reasoned while debating whether or not to let the colt have the paper. “I’ll be sure to give it to Shadow Mist when he gets back… he’s running an errand for me at the moment, so I will be the first person he sees.” Grimwood explained while motioning for the white stallion to hand over the paper. Cotton shrugged in defeat while placing the paper in his open hoof. Grimwood quickly read over the encoded message and raised an eyebrow curiously. He appeared to be surprised by what he was reading, although Cotton couldn’t tell what he was thinking about the message. “Wow…” Grimwood exclaimed in a surprised tone. “What is it?” Cotton asked curiously. “This entire paper is just her insulting you and cursing you out… I can see why she wanted Shadow Mist to read this. Man… how many different words for annoying and incompetent are in her vocabulary?” Grimwood stated curiously while re-reading a part of the message with intrigue. “What…? But… she said that it was an important message.” Cotton muttered in a sad and disappointed tone. “Think for a second Cotton… has my sister ever given you charge over delivering an important message?” Grimwood asked in a slightly sympathetic tone. Cotton sighed and shook his head sadly. “No… she didn’t do that even when she kind of liked me. She did kind of like me before… right?” Cotton asked with an uncertain sense of doubt. Grimwood just stared at the sulking unicorn with a blank expression to let him come up with his own conclusion. “Ugh… I just want to do something useful to make up for those two flub ups I made before, but she won’t even give me a chance.” Cotton huffed in a depressed tone while hanging his head sadly. Suddenly, an idea popped into Grimwood’s head that made him smile slightly. “Tell you what Cotton, why don’t you let me talk to her?” Grimwood suggested in a lighthearted manner. Cotton looked up in surprise at the colt’s offer. “Really…? You would do that?” The unicorn asked with an uncertain expression. Grimwood nodded with a forced smile, although Cotton figured that every smile that he made looked forced. “Sure… I will see if I can’t put in a few good words for you. Just come see us in the library later on tonight. Maybe she will have a mission ready for you by then eh.” Grimwood said in an encouraging tone while jabbing the unicorn with his elbow playfully. Cotton smiled in a sincere manner. He felt happy and optimistic that he would finally be doing something of use. Maybe Raven Feather would finally see him for what he was actually worth. Grimwood smirked at the uplifted unicorn as he turned to walk out the door. He felt a little twinge of pride inside for what he was about to do. “Thanks for the help Grimwood… I really appreciate it.” Cotton said in a sincere manner while waving to the pale colt. “Don’t mention it Cotton.” Grimwood replied as he watched the stallion close the door and leave. “Really… don’t mention it.” He chuckled to himself while returning to his books. Cotton Quill felt a new sense of satisfaction as he walked through the halls. Although Raven Feather felt annoyed by his very presence, he had faith that she would accept him back into her good graces in due time. The unicorn made his way through the upstairs hallways and came out into the main room. The stairs to the main floor were to his left, while the hallway in front of him extended until it reached another door that exited into the rest of the house. Cotton lingered on the second floor and rested on the balcony that looked down into the foyer. The various paintings and decorative vases that littered the grand room gave it a sense of prosperity, despite the dust and cobwebs that adorned most of them. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was a sight to behold. It wasn’t flashy, relying on candles instead of glistening pieces of glass or crystal to supply its light. Although it was missing several of its candles and holders, it still appeared very grand and made Cotton feel like he was in the house of a royal figure. Even the numerous hooded ponies walking to and fro resembled servants in a medieval castle. It gave the otherwise dead and dreary mansion a contrary feeling of being lived in. Although a quick glance at some of the more broken down pieces of furniture or a shattered window quickly dispelled this illusion. Suddenly, the front doors flew open and a loud racket sounded into the room. Cotton looked down to see that Dust Kicker was urgently walking into the lobby while carrying Raincloud on his back. The pale mare was crying and wailing in distress from some unseen injury, although Cotton couldn’t even tell if there was an injury to be seen. “Cotton! Where is Raven Feather?!” Dust Kicker shouted up to the confused unicorn once he noticed him lounging around. “She’s in the downstairs reading room… what happened?!” Cotton asked in an alarmed tone as he listened to the painful yelps that the pegasus was making. Although Raincloud was usually a jerk to him, Cotton felt like she was part of the only family he had. “Not now! I need to get her to Raven Feather.” Dust Kicker growled in an annoyed tone while rushing behind the stairs to get to the hallway that led to the reading room. Cotton anxiously rushed downstairs so he could follow the pair. The unicorn passed all of the confused ponies in the foyer as he walked around the side of the stairway. He opened the door to the hallway and stepped inside just in time to see the brown pegasus running down the hall far away. Cotton followed the two down the hallway until they turned off into a room. As he got closer to the room, he realized that he could hear the conversation from inside already. Apparently Dust Kicker had left the door open in his hurry. Deciding not to get in the way, Cotton simply listened from outside as the stallion brought his sister to their leader. “Good lord… what happened to her?!” Raven Feather asked in an alarmed tone as Dust Kicker set the distraught pegasus down on the floor. “We were fighting the slayer… He attacked her shadow with his claws, when she suddenly just started screaming in pain. She’s been like this since then.” Dust explained in an uneasy tone. “Can you help her?!” The stallion was practically demanding that the black mare take action. “Ok, ok! I just need to separate her from her shadow temporarily.” Raven Feather explained while setting her hoof on the pained pony. Her hoof glowed with shadow energy as she channeled her magic into Raincloud. Slowly but surely, the pale mare’s screams died down, letting her fall into a gradual sleep from the shock of the pain. Once Raincloud was at peace, Dust Kicker breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you said that it was safe for her to use her powers?” The pegasus asked in an accusatory manner. Raven Feather shrugged before turning to face the concerned stallion. “It was… she must have had a negative reaction to the slayer using his spirit weapon on the shadow. Her link wasn’t prepared for that kind of stress.” The black mare explained in a calm yet uneasy tone. Dust Kicker wasn’t in the mood for such an explanation. “Negative reaction?! She practically screamed so much her lungs are raw!” The pegasus stated while gradually getting more upset. “She never reacted this way when the shadow got hurt before… what the hell happened?” He asked in a demanding tone. “Like I said… I didn’t expect a slayer to come around. His spirit weapons must have packed more punch than I realized. I didn’t think about it too much until now.” Raven Feather tried to calm the pegasus down, but Dust Kicker was still understandably upset. “Damnit Raven… you’re the one who gave her that thing. You said you explained everything that could go wrong.” Dust Kicker leered at the earth pony angrily. “She has had that thing since birth… you of all people should know that. I just taught her how to project it into a more stable form.” Raven Feather said in a more calm tone. “Did you complete the mission?” She asked to see if the pair had eliminated the elements of harmony. “No, the slayer attacked the shadow before Raincloud had a chance to kill any of them.” Dust Kicker shrugged in annoyance. Raven Feather sighed in defeat. She was disappointed that the two hadn’t completed their mission, but the fact that Raincloud was hurt at least made her understand the pegasus’s reason for retreating. “That’s fine Dust… you did the right thing in getting out of there.” Raven Feather stated in an attempt at ending any confrontation that was forming between her and the upset pegasus. “Raven Feather… I’ve been thinking, and I think it would be a good idea to remove the shadow from her.” Dust Kicker said while looking down at the unconscious mare sadly. “Dust… if I take away the spell I used to awaken her potential, she will just go back to how she was before. No control over it, and no way to tell it what to do. Do you really want her to go back to being the girl with the bad luck shadow?” Raven Feather reasoned in a sympathetic tone. The stallion shrugged as he thought about how his life was before he met the black mare. “Besides, I think that is a decision you need to make with her… when she is conscious.” Raven Feather added while glancing at the sleeping mare. “Ugh… she doesn’t see the risk of using shadow magic. I at least try to use my powers in moderation… she just throws her weight around without a care.” Dust Kicker explained in a concerned tone. Raven Feather wasn’t used to seeing the normally harsh and stoic pegasus speak in such a soft manner. “Don’t worry, she knows what she’s doing. I taught her the ramifications of using her shadow and her other abilities, she is just adept at using them is all.” Raven Feather said in a reassuring tone. “I think we should take a break and lay low for a while… we need to rest and rethink how to proceed with the plan. Next time I will be sure to iron out the details with more care.” The black mare explained while giving the stallion some space to be with his sister. “Good… we could use a break. I’ll carry her to our room so we can get some sleep.” Dust Kicker stated in an exhausted tone while walking over to the pale mare and gently picking her up. “You two have earned a rest… enjoy the rest of the night. I’m going to head upstairs to talk with Grimwood.” Raven Feather said while walking to the door and heading outside. She gave a passing glance to the unicorn listening outside before walking down the hall. Cotton Quill glanced inside and watched Dust Kicker as he carried his sister out. The pegasus gave the white stallion a passing glare before returning his attention down the hall. As the two disappeared from sight, Cotton was left by himself to ponder what had happened during the plan. Meanwhile, Grimwood was sitting at his table upstairs. He was reading over one of the summoning books that the group used to choose monsters. The descriptions and instructions on how to summon the creatures intrigued him enough to warrant reading them in his free time. Suddenly he heard the sound of someone walking down the hall towards the library. The door swung open and closed again with nobody seemingly coming inside. Grimwood stared at the air in front of the door and smirked. “Did you get what I asked for?” Grimwood asked while looking forward. Suddenly a puff of dark energy pulsed in midair. The pulse faded as quickly as it arrived, leaving Shadow Mist standing in its place. The red stallion was carrying a bag around his hips, which he promptly reached into to pull out the contents. “It wasn’t easy to get to them… they used a protection spell to keep themselves safe, so I only got to two of them.” Shadow Mist explained while pulling out two vials. The vials were filled with a red liquid that jostled around as their containers shifted. “Which ones?” Grimwood asked curiously while taking hold of one of the vials and staring at it thoughtfully. “I managed to get Twilight and Applejack… the charm you put on this needle is fantastic, they didn’t feel a thing.” Shadow Mist snickered while holding out the syringe he used to extract the blood. “Splendid… now we just need blood from the other four. That shouldn’t be too hard.” The pale colt stated in a casual tone. “But those samples won’t be viable for long… we will need to perform the ritual within a week. Raven Feather probably isn’t planning on making a move for a while, what do we do?” Shadow Mist reasoned with a concerned expression. Grimwood merely chuckled at the worrying pony. “Don’t worry about that Shadow… I have a little something in mind.” Grimwood stated with a slight grin while handing the vial of blood over to the red stallion. Suddenly the two heard the sound of someone walking towards the room. Shadow Mist quickly placed the vial into his bag and nodded to Grimwood. With a quick flash of shadow energy, the stallion disappeared from sight once more. After a brief wait, Raven Feather walked into the room. The black mare appeared to have a troubled expression, but she smiled once she noticed her younger brother. “Hello Grim…” Raven Feather greeted the pale colt in a dull tone before walking over to a table and sitting down. Grimwood was slightly confused by his sister’s depressed mood. “Hey sis… what’s eating you?” Grimwood asked with a curious inflection in his voice. “*Sigh* Raincloud and Dust Kicker failed to kill any of the elements… Raincloud got hurt in the process. Ugh, that damn slayer!” The black mare huffed in annoyance. If it were up to her, she would see to it that the meddling human would be tortured for the remainder of his unnatural life. “Raincloud got hurt…? Is she ok?” Grimwood had a slightly concerned tone, but he barely wavered from his usual blank voice. “She’s fine… her shadow got struck by the slayer’s spirit weapons. I should have seen that coming beforehand… ugh this whole mess is making my hair turn a slightly whiter shade of gray.” Raven Feather stated while rubbing her face in exhaustion. “Maybe nobody will notice… I mean, it still looks gray to me.” Grimwood stated in a joking way. If she didn’t know him better, Raven Feather would have thought that he was being serious. Despite his dull delivery, the joke was enough to elicit a chuckle from the black mare. “You always know how to cheer me up don’t you? *sigh*… I suppose I should just relax for a while. I mean… we are holding off for a few days on our next plan, so there should be some time to rest.” Raven Feather shrugged in defeat as she resolved to stop worrying about everything. “Hey… have you seen Shadow Mist around? He is normally back at the mansion around this time.” Raven Feather asked curiously while noting the odd absence of the red stallion. Grimwood paused for a moment before answering. “Nope… haven’t seen him. Maybe he went straight to bed?” The pale colt suggested in a sincere tone. Raven Feather yawned at the mere mention of going to bed. “*yawn*… I don’t blame him. I’m going to hit the hay for the night… you coming with me Grim?” The black mare asked courteously while heading to the door. “Nah… I’m going to stay up a bit longer.” Grimwood replied. “Ok then… just don’t stay up too late alright?” Raven Feather stated with a smirk while exiting the room. Grimwood chuckled ironically at the statement. Before the colt could return to what he was doing, the door creaked open again, revealing Cotton Quill as he stepped into the room. The unicorn had an anxious expression on his face, giving a clear indication as to what he was there for. “So… what did she say?” Cotton asked in a hopeful tone while walking up to the pale pony. Grimwood had to hide a smile, which was easy considering how little he expressed his emotions outwardly. “Sorry Cotton… she said that she wouldn’t let you near a spell book if you were the last person on earth who could read.” Grimwood explained in a sympathetic tone. Cotton Quill immediately deflated his ego and frowned sadly. “Oh…” The unicorn muttered in defeat. He felt just as useless as everyone made him out to be. “Look Cotton… I’m going to level with you here.” Grimwood spoke up, causing Cotton to lift his head curiously. “What?” The unicorn asked with an uncertain expression. “I don’t know why my sister hates you… but you seem to be a fairly decent spell caster, so I will give you a chance.” The pale colt explained in a sympathetic tone. He then walked over to the table he was at and pulled open one of the drawers. Grimwood pulled out a picture, and a few small bags filled with unknown ingredients. “Here, take these.” The colt said while handing the items over to the unicorn. Cotton looked at the picture curiously. It was a group photo of Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. “A picture of the elements…?” Cotton muttered in a perplexed tone. He had no idea what the young earth pony had in mind. Grimwood then went back over to the table and picked up a book. He brought the book over and opened it to a page, which he then showed to the unicorn. “Whoa!” Cotton exclaimed in shock as he looked at the creature depicted in the book. It never ceased to amaze him just how many horrific monsters were contained in the various books around the library. “Take these ingredients and perform this spell as directed… the monster summoned will hunt down and kill whoever is in the photo you use. Once Raven Feather finds out that you killed the elements of harmony, she will gladly give you your job back.” Grimwood explained while handing the book over to the confused pony. “Really…?” Cotton was surprised that the pale colt would do so much to help him. He wondered how someone so nice and someone like Raven Feather could come from the same bloodline. “Yeah… just find a spot near one of their houses and the spell will take care of the rest. Maybe you should try Sweet Apple Acres? There are a lot of places to hide there, and you shouldn’t need to get too close to them while staying on the property.” Grimwood stated with a smirk. “You… you would do something like this for me…? Thank you Grim, you’re the best.” Cotton said in a cheerful tone while walking towards the door. He would have to study the spell for a few hours before he could cast it. Grimwood smirked as he watched the unicorn walk over to the door. He knew that everything was working out just as he planned, and that made him happy. “Are you sure you won’t tell Raven Feather about this?” Cotton turned and asked in an unsure tone. Grimwood smiled and shook his head. “Oh no Cotton… I want you to take full credit for this.” The colt explained in a sincere tone. Cotton smiled and nodded before walking out of the door and closing it. After a few moments of silence had passed, Shadow Mist appeared again and walked up to the pale colt. He seemed to have a concerned expression on his face as he glanced to the door where the unicorn had just departed. “Are you sure you should be sending a creature to kill the other element bearers?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. “It was the only way to get him to go. Besides, I think I found something else regarding the need for the elements’ blood.” Grimwood said while walking over to one of the desks and pulling out a section of his notes along with a large book. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist seemed to have an unimpressed expression on his face as the colt feverishly flipped through the pages to get to the part he was going to show off. “I thought you had this all figured out Grim…” The stallion said with a flustered tone while holding a hoof up to his face. “I did!” Grimwood whined in a frustrated tone before spotting the impatient expression on his colleague’s face. Even though he didn't emote very often, it was easy to tell that the colt was getting more upset than usual. “Look Grim… I only agreed to help you because I believed you had something real here. You have more experience with this stuff than most of the hoods combined. But if you’re going to tell me that you still haven’t deciphered the entire prophecy, then… *Sigh* I don’t know what to think anymore.” Shadow Mist said in a calmer tone. “I know what I’m doing Shadow Mist. This prophecy is one of the hardest things to decipher in the history of Equestria, so I’m bound to make a few mistakes. Even my sister hasn’t deciphered all of it. Do you really want us to go through so much trouble only to have nothing happen at the end?” Grimwood asked curiously, having returned to a more composed tone as he regained his stoic exterior. “Ugh… no, I guess not. Just… just show me what you have.” Shadow Mist shrugged in defeat while walking behind the colt to look at what he was reading. Finally Grimwood stopped on a page and hummed in revelation. The page was filled with a bizarre picture that took up the entirety of it. In the picture, there were six colored spheres floating in the air. Each of them were dripping what appeared to be blood onto a crude depiction of a sun, staining it red slightly. Next to the page with the picture, there was a lengthy page of strange symbols and glyphs that seemed to form a language of sorts. “I’m fairly certain that this section here that talks about the extraction of the blood needed was mistranslated slightly. I think it actually says that we can extract the blood whether the elements are dead or not, as long as we do it within a few hours.” Grimwood explained while pointing to various sections of the text. Shadow Mist had been through the text several times with the pale colt. Although he understood a good chunk of it, much of it was still a mystery to him, even if Grimwood said he could read it. “Are you sure about this? Because if we collect their blood after they’re dead, and we actually needed them alive, we’re kind of screwed.” Shadow Mist stated in a serious tone. “I would stake my life on it. I rechecked it at least ten times once I found my mistake.” Grimwood explained with a confident tone. “Now, there is the matter of collecting the blood we need. If one of the elements dies tonight, we will need to get there within a few hours. Now, hiding from the creature and getting to them in secret shouldn’t be a problem, but I wanted to ask if you would be comfortable going out to monitor the situation.” Grimwood said in a curious tone, as if he expected the stallion to say yes. “*Sigh*… so much for sleeping I guess. What about Cotton? Won’t he tell Raven Feather about this when he gets back?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. “Oh, don’t worry about Cotton… I have a plan in place to deal with him and speed up the ritual at the same time.” Grimwood explained with a brief chuckle. The red stallion shrugged and shook his head before turning invisible again and walking away. He was going to have a long night ahead of him. Chapter 54: Rest, Relaxation, and SleepoversAs the sun gradually disappeared from the sky, the last tints of red vanished from the horizon only to be replaced by a dimly lit blue that barely offered any light onto the landscape of Equestria. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot were casually walking the bereft streets of Ponyville’s outskirts. They had since left the larger group behind as they all split off to go to their respective homes. The cool night air and the occasional chirping of a stray cricket created a soothing atmosphere that suited the exhausted ponies well. After everything that had happened that day, both of the pegasus’s were ready to unwind in the comfort of a safe house. “Man… those stars are a sight for sore eyes. For a while there, I thought I would never see the sky again.” Rainbow Dash stated while staring at the night sky in amazement. “Heh… you and me both.” Sunspot chuckled briefly while looking back at her bandaged up side. The suited mare thought she was going to be eaten alive by that undead dragon, so to be able to take in the breath taking views of nature was a pleasant surprise. “I wonder what happened to everyone that ran away. They were scared out of their wits… I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were still running.” The cyan mare pondered out loud while observing the empty streets. Although they were on the outskirts of town, and everyone may very well be sleeping in their homes, she couldn’t help but to wonder if they were made aware that the situation was taken care of. “I’m sure that Celestia made sure to send a patrol around town to check on everyone. She usually puts the safety of the general populous pretty high up on her list.” Sunspot stated in a reassuring tone. She was certain that the princess would do something to keep her subjects informed on dangerous matters such as these. “Yeah… I just wish she would put our safety a tad bit lower on the list.” Rainbow Dash huffed in annoyance while thinking about how she would just have to sit and wait until the hooded ponies have been dealt with. Sunspot frowned sympathetically for the upset mare. She could tell that Rainbow Dash wasn’t upset at her for the fact that she had to watch her. The cyan pony was more upset at the fact that she would be missing out on getting the retribution she so desperately wanted. “She means well… You six are really important to her. Besides, she is kind of freaking out about this whole thing anyway. I’m surprised she hasn’t put Ponyville on lockdown and told everyone to stay indoors.” The suited pegasus explained in a lighthearted tone to cheer up the upset mare. Rather than being cheered up, Rainbow Dash was more confused than anything. “Freaking out…? How do you know that? She seems to be handling this pretty well all things considered.” Rainbow Dash said with a confused expression. The white alicorn always appeared so stoic and brave in times of crisis. “Princess Luna told me about it. Apparently they had a miniature argument, and it was about us no less… Celestia was a little upset that Luna didn’t tell her about the books she found instead of making a secret task force for fighting evil.” Sunspot explained in an uneasy tone. She was so used to seeing the two princesses getting along. Even if it was a small argument based off of Celestia’s concerns, it still troubled the suited mare that it happened. “Really? How did Princess Luna react to that?” Rainbow Dash asked with an intrigued expression. “She said that she didn’t want to worry her about it. Back then it was just a few books full of occult knowledge, she had no way of knowing any of it was even real. The mere fact that she brought us together was strictly supposed to be a precautionary action.” Sunspot added in an understanding tone. “Wow… I never imagined that this was affecting them that much.” Rainbow Dash shrugged in surprise at the alicorn’s actions. She now had a more understanding outlook on why the princess put her and her friends on protective watch. Sunspot added no further comments on her story. She decided that it would be best for the cyan mare to process her feelings about the situation for a moment, so she dropped the conversation unless she was asked more about it. The two walked along in silence for a while after that. In the midst of their discussion, they hadn’t noticed that they were now in the countryside outside of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash’s house wouldn’t be much further of a walk. Sure enough, the pair spotted the cloud home coming into view in the distance. It wasn’t hard to make out due to how much it stood out against the relatively clear sky. The sight of her home getting closer filled the cyan pony with relief. “So that’s your house huh?” Sunspot asked while taking in the view of whatever features she could make out of the house. “Yep… yet ever so humble.” Rainbow Dash replied with a warm smirk. “Wow… that sure brings back memories. I haven’t been to Cloudsdale since my Wonderbolt days.” The suited mare stated while glancing down to her outfit and smiling nostalgically, she clearly harbored many good memories from her brief stint on the team. “Heh… I got you beat there. I haven’t been back there since I moved out here years ago, aside from a few temporary visits.” Rainbow added while chuckling briefly. Sunspot shared in the brief laughter while observing the décor dotted around the cloud home. Nearly every piece of decoration in the outside area one could loosely call a lawn was based off of Cloudsdale architecture, right down to the Greek style columns. Once the pair of ponies reached the edge of the cloud structure, they were eager to get up there and rest. Sunspot instinctively tried to spread her wings to take off when she quickly realized that she was bandaged up under her suit. “Aww hay… how is this going to work out?” The orange mare huffed in frustration while looking down to her injured appendage. Rainbow Dash frowned sympathetically as she watched the suited pony fretting over her injury. She looked up to the base of the cloud home and tried to estimate how high up it was in terms of flying. “Uhh… shoot.” The cyan pegasus cursed under her breath as she found no easy solution. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. “Here, let me help you out.” Rainbow Dash suggested while spreading her wings and lifting into the air slightly. She hovered above Sunspot and wrapped her arms around her waist. The suited mare was surprised by the sudden invasion of her personal bubble, and more surprised that the blue pegasus would attempt such a seemingly excessive task. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you really going to pick me up?!” Sunspot half chuckled and half panicked as the cyan mare started to lift her a little ways off the ground. Rainbow Dash set her back down as she questioned her plan. “Hey, do you have a better idea?” The cyan mare questioned while eyeing at the suited pony sarcastically. Sunspot quickly tried to think of an alternative route, but sighed in defeat when her mind drew a blank. “Alright… but two things before we get airborne; don’t hurt yourself… and don’t drop me. Emphasis on the second one hot shot.” The orange pony instructed in as clear a manner as she could. Rainbow Dash chuckled confidently at the concerned pegasus. “You got it boss.” Rainbow Dash stated jokingly before pulling up to take off. Sunspot was surprised at how easily the cyan mare lifted her up and carried her along midflight. Rainbow Dash decided to take things slow and cautious while flying up to her house. Although she was confident in her ability, she didn’t want to risk dropping the suited mare or causing pain to her already injured wing. Sunspot cringed nervously as she looked down. Being a pegasus, the orange pony wasn’t afraid of heights, but given her impaired wing, she was starting to sweat nervously at the prospect of falling. Despite the vast number of fear inducing thoughts flying through Sunspot’s head, the two finally reached a section of cloud connected to Rainbow Dash’s main house. The cyan mare sat her friend down and landed next to her. “See? That wasn’t so bad huh?” Rainbow Dash said with a lighthearted smirk. The orange mare smiled in return as she couldn’t deny her friend’s good job. “Yeah… I guess not. You’re a pretty good flyer.” Sunspot stated in a congratulatory tone. Rainbow Dash smiled in flattery from the comment. “Thanks… I guess practice makes perfect.” Rainbow chuckled lightheartedly while walking up to her front door. She opened it up and ushered the suited pegasus inside. Once inside the structure, one could forget that they were in the clouds high above Ponyville’s outskirts. The interior of the main building looked much more homey and average than the stark white exterior, while still matching with the theme. Shades ranging from light blue down to dark purple adorned most of the walls and ceilings, some of the floors had a tile theme comprised of light blue and a darker shade of blue, and there were more stone columns inside, though these ones were either dark grey or black. “Nice place you got going here Dash.” Sunspot commented while observing the interior of the house. “Heh… thanks. Go ahead and get comfortable. I’m going to see if I have an air mattress or something.” Rainbow Dash said while walking off towards her storage room. Meanwhile, Sunspot was left to her own devices in the spacious home. The suited mare quickly found a couch and promptly sat on it to rest her weary body. Over on the other side of Ponyville, Applejack, her sister, and her travel companion had already made it back home. The three were walking on the main pathway that led through Sweet Apple Acres. The sight of the apple trees swaying in the soft night breeze off to the side complimented with the moonlight shining down to create the perfect peaceful atmosphere. “So this is the famous Sweet Apple Acres huh?” Neon Streak said while admiring her surroundings. “I’ve heard that these are the most beautiful apple orchards in all of Equestria… I can see where they’re coming from.” She stated in an astounded tone. “Hehe… thanks Neon. If you come around during harvest time, maybe we could treat you to something.” Applejack offered in a friendly way. Neon Streak was intrigued by the farmer’s proposition. “Hmm… sounds like a plan. I’ll have to see about coming back here after all of this is over.” The green mare said with a charmed expression on her face. Applejack was surprised that the tough as nails pony had a soft spot for hometown comforts. “You aren’t sticking around Ponyville?” Applebloom asked curiously from beside the two. The yellow filly figured that the members of Spirit would remain close by after things were wrapped up with the hooded ponies. “Nah… me and the guys will probably just head back to Canterlot until we get another assignment.” Neon replied as she thought about where her team would head after they were done in Ponyville. “Awww… Ah was just starting to get to know you. Me and the girls were even thinking about joining your team!” Applebloom said with an enthusiastic smile. Neon Streak chuckled at the cute little filly. She remembered back when she was that young. “Well… we will be sure to come visit you guys often. How does that sound?” The green mare offered to comfort the disappointed filly. Applebloom’s face brightened up at the proposal. “Great!” Applebloom chimed in excitement. The yellow filly couldn’t wait to learn more about the team of monster hunters. Applejack smiled as she watched her eager sister fantasize about the team of ponies. It was always good to see the young filly being so passionate about something. Not to mention the friendly way that Neon Streak was addressing her. If someone seemingly as rough around the edges as Brimstoke or Neon Streak could be kind, then maybe there was hope for pony kind after all. Soon enough, the trio made their way up to the farm house. The sight of the humble structure immediately filled Applejack and her sister with a sense of comfort and happiness. Neon Streak could understand how living on a farm could be peaceful and rewarding in many ways. “Huh… looks like Big Mac is up.” Applejack stated while observing the light coming through one of the windows beside the door. “He’s probably worried sick about us…” Applebloom said in a disheartened tone. The orange mare frowned slightly as she thought of how much her brother must have been worrying about her. “Let’s head inside then… we better not keep him waiting.” Applejack said while opening the door and ushering everyone inside. Neon Streak and Applebloom quickly went inside while the cow pony closed the door behind them. Once inside, the trio was greeted by the sight of a red stallion sitting on the couch with a concerned expression. As he noticed his family return, Big Mac got up and smiled slightly, although his two sisters knew that his tiny grin was much more intense on the inside. “Applejack! Applebloom!” Big Mac exclaimed while walking up to the two and hugging them. Once the stallion released his sisters from his tight grip, he shifted his expression to a more worried one. “What happened over there? Ah thought that you were just heading down to the library… it’s practically midnight." Big Mac stated while looking out the window at the darkness outside. Applejack frowned as she tried to come up with a valid reason for her delay. It wasn’t exactly easy to tell your older brother that you almost died trying to save your younger sister and her friends. “Sorry about that. There was an… incident… that kind of demanded our attention.” Applejack explained with a hesitant expression. Big Mac paused and frowned as he listened to the distressed mare. He might not have known what happened, but he could tell that the orange mare did not want to bring it up. “Ok… Ah’m just glad that you two are safe.” Big Mac spoke in a calm and sympathetic tone. Now that his attention was freed up, the stallion looked over at the green mare curiously. Upon seeing that her brother had noticed the strange newcomer, Applejack felt it necessary to introduce her. She was going to be staying with them after all. “Oh! Uh… Big Mac, this is our friend Neon Streak. She is one of the ponies that have been helping us out with everything that has been going on. The princess wants someone keeping an eye on us, so she will be staying with us for a while.” The orange mare explained while motioning to the green mare. “Nice to meet you Big Mac.” Neon Streak greeted in a friendly tone while reaching forward to shake the stallion’s hoof. Big Mac accepted the gesture and smiled in return. “Likewise.” Big Mac stated with a warm smile. After introducing their new guest to her brother Applejack intended to head off to bed, but she suddenly felt a pang of hunger that was too severe to warrant ignoring. A sudden rumble beside her told the orange mare that her sister felt the same. “Man… Ah’m starving.” Applebloom stated while holding her empty gut. “Me too… Ah guess in all the commotion we didn’t get anything to eat.” Applejack added while glancing to Neon Streak for confirmation. The green mare nodded in agreement while taking note of her own feeling of hunger. “Ah’ll go fix you guys something to eat.” Big Mac suggested with a helpful attitude while walking towards the kitchen. The others smiled at the prospect of being fed without spending any effort themselves. Neon Streak walked over to the couch and plopped down on it with a groan of tired relief. She remained motionless while staring up at the ceiling with half of her body hanging off the couch. The sight of the green mare lazing around came as a surprise to Applejack. She had to constantly remind herself that even though these were professionals trained by Princess Luna herself, they were still regular ponies underneath their tactical gear. “Ah guess you all had just as rough a day as we did over at the square.” Applejack stated in a sympathetic tone while sitting down on the couch. Neon Streak chuckled slightly at the statement. “Heh… I guess you could say that. Me and the others spent half our time running through crowds of seriously agitated skeletons to rescue ponies, and the other half fending off said crowds of seriously agitated skeletons while the princess found a solution. I feel like my arms are going to fall off from how much I had to use my strobe.” The green mare explained in a lighthearted way while taking a moment to breathe easy. “Wow… that is pretty rough. Me and the girls were in a tense situation too, but at least we didn’t have to run around all day. Ah like exercise as much as the next girl, but Ah think that running for long periods of time doesn’t suit me.” Applejack said in a jesting manner to lighten the mood. Everyone else laughed warmly at the orange mare’s statement. Suddenly, Big Mac came back into the room carrying three plates with sandwiches on them. Neon Streak immediately sat up and righted herself to be sitting upright on the couch as the stallion sat the plates down on the table in front of the three ponies. “Sorry it isn’t anything fancy… Ah’m not what you would call a gourmet chef.” Big Mac said while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Applebloom and the others smirked at the sight of any kind of food, so they could have cared less. “It’s fine Big Mac… Ah don’t think my stomach would care what Ah put into it at this point, so these look delicious in my eyes.” The yellow filly stated to make her brother feel better. The red stallion smiled at the kind words of his little sister. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s eat!” Neon Streak said happily while picking up her plate and cradling it in her lap. Applejack and her sister followed suit and got comfortable while they ate. “Awwww come on Rarity… it will be fun!” Pinkie Pie beamed while pleading with the white unicorn to partake in her party game. While they were walking home, Rarity suggested that Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders have a sleepover at her house. With the mere mention of the word sleepover, Pinkie Pie burst with excitement. She eagerly suggested that she should be a part of the gathering, and even offered for some of the others to come along. Although she was hesitant to allow the energetic mare to come stay with her, Rarity couldn’t turn down her friend. Now the Carousel Boutique was filled with a veritable guest list of ponies. Scootaloo had agreed to come, although Applebloom and her sister politely declined. Fluttershy agreed to come along, so by extension Glimmer Shine had to tag along with the yellow pegasus. And of course, Glitterball and Brimstoke were required to attend the event due to their obligation to remain close to their charges. “I don’t know Pinkie… I had intended to just relax for the rest of the night after what happened at the library.” Rarity stated in an uncertain tone while eyeing around at the eager fillies clutching pillows in their hooves. It wasn’t easy to see how a pillow fight had come about from Rarity’s idea of a peaceful get together, but the party pony worked in mysterious ways. Rarity had gotten out a large number of sleeping bags for everybody, including herself, and now they were all camping out together in a heap of bags just in front of her bed. Rarity had wanted to sleep in her bed with Sweetie Belle, but the filly suggested that they join their friends on the floor to get a better sleepover experience. The unicorn protested of course, but then Sweetie Belle suggested that they use pillows with their sleeping bags. Rarity figured that she would be comfortable enough with the added pillows, so she accepted. Once she had gotten everything together however, Pinkie’s fun loving mind kicked into gear. With the sleepover atmosphere completed with the addition of pillows, she was giddy with excitement. To be able to have a large scale pillow fight with her friends had always been a dream of hers. Even if Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were absent, Pinkie was certain that she and the others would have enough fun for all of their friends that weren’t there. “I’m sorry that you girls had such a scary experience at the library, but you need to unwind. Laughter is the best medicine, fun is the best doctor, and pillow fights are fun! See my point?” The energetic mare asked while looking around at the others for confirmation. Although they were confused by Pinkie’s deduction process, they agreed that they could all use some fun. “But… do we really need to partake in something as barbaric as a pillow fight? I’m sure that there are other less violent and messy ways to have fun.” Rarity reasoned in an attempt to talk her way out of the approaching chaos. “Aww come on Rarity… pleeeaaase?” Sweetie Belle whined in as cute a tone as she could muster. She even batted her eyelashes, knowing full well that her childlike charm would turn the unicorn into putty in her hooves. “Ugh… you know I hate it when you give me the puppy dog eyes Sweetie Belle. It’s not fair!” Rarity attempted to remain steadfast in her decision, but she couldn’t prevent the adorable filly from eating away at her willpower with each passing second. Sweetie Belle remained silent while putting all the effort she had into trying to win her sister over with cuteness. “Well… I guess it wouldn’t hurt that much. I’ll do it for a l-” Rarity’s sentence was cut off by a pillow being smacked across her face. Although the soft weapon didn’t hurt, it was jarring enough to knock her a little ways off balance. The unicorn puffed out a burst of air to get her hair out of her eyes. She then glared at the group in front of her to determine the culprit of the surprise attack. One quick glance at the eager pink mare holding a pillow in a striking stance told Rarity everything she needed to know. “Good to hear! Now let’s get started!” Pinkie stated with an excited giggle. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined the pink mare in swinging their pillows around haphazardly. The sudden battle incited the other reluctant ponies to join in, for fear of getting caught off guard. Pinkie Pie gently slapped her pillow into Fluttershy. Despite the slow approach of the fluffy object, the yellow mare used her arms to shield her face from the blow. After the pink pony was finished with her strike, Fluttershy struck back with a determined smirk. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were both trying to team up on Glimmer Shine. Judging from his expression, the yellow stallion wasn’t exactly prepared to battle against two fillies, even if it was with pillows. The pair of crusaders took advantage of the apprehensive pony’s inaction and pounced on him, sending him to the floor with a barrage of pillow smacks. “I’m not too sure if I want to join in… I think I will wait on the sidelines.” Brimstoke stated while eyeing his pillow with uncertainty. Before the stallion could leave the circle of battling ponies, he was struck across the face with a pillow by Glitterball. “Come on Brimstoke, live a little!” The rainbow haired mare exclaimed with a chuckle as she watched Brimstoke spitting out a stray feather that had been knocked loose from the pillow. The stallion sighed in defeat before gripping his pillow tightly and swinging back at the smirking unicorn. He was surprised by just how fun the seemingly pointless activity was. The fierce and fluffy battle raged on for a full ten minutes without break. One by one, the ponies each bowed out of the fight and sat or laid down on the sidelines to watch the others. Pinkie Pie was unsurprisingly one of the last ones participating in a small duel, but her opponent was seemingly the most unlikely of the group to have lasted so long. Rarity was ducking and weaving around each strike the pink mare threw at her. Everyone else was resting on the floor with their respective sleeping bag while they watched the two mares fight in a circle. Finally Pinkie could take no more as her fatigued body screamed at her to lie down and rest. With a final smack from Rarity’s pillow sending her on her way, the pink mare fell to the floor and landed on her sleeping bag with a soft thud. With her opponent resting on the floor in defeat, the white unicorn lifted her hooves into the air triumphantly before falling to a seated position herself. “I won! Yes!” Rarity exclaimed happily in between breaths. Pinkie chuckled as she watched the excited unicorn try to celebrate her victory while resting. “Good job Rarity…*pant*… I knew you had it in you.” The party pony congratulated her opponent while slightly lifting her head off the floor. She barely had enough drive to get up and move her sleeping bag to a spot better suited for actually sleeping. “Thanks…*pant* Hehe.” Rarity stated with a dumb smile plastered on her face. She couldn’t believe that she enjoyed the game so much, but she didn’t really care. All that mattered was that she was having fun, and the unicorn really needed some after what happened earlier. She hoped that Applejack and Twilight could find a method of cheering themselves up so they could feel good again, especially Twilight. “Well… I’m all tuckered out. I guess we should probably get to sleep.” Pinkie suggested while stretching her body and yawning, most of the group shared her opinion, most of it anyway. “Aww come on! I’m not even tired.” Scootaloo protested in a frustrated tone while looking to her friend for support. “Yeah… isn’t there something else we could do?” Sweetie Belle pleaded innocently while looking around at the group. Most of the others were so tired that they could barely hold themselves up. “Sorry girls, but we’re all exhausted from earlier.” Glimmer Shine said in a sympathetic tone while moving his sleeping bag into place. The sight of all the ponies preparing for bed filled the fillies with a sense of disappointment. “Ugh… fine.” Scootaloo pouted while crossing her arms in defeat. Her fellow crusader shrugged while unzipping her bag and wriggling her lower half into it. Pinkie Pie frowned understandingly as she watched the pair prepare their bags for sleep. She hated to end their fun so abruptly, especially since she was the one who started it in the first place. The pink mare felt the need to help out the bored crusaders build up inside of her. She could sleep later; right now there were ponies in need of some fun. “Alright girls… tell you what. I will stay up a little longer and tell you a bedtime story.” The pink mare stated with a warm smile. The two fillies immediately perked up from the exciting news. “Really…? Awesome! What’s it about?” Scootaloo asked eagerly while sitting up in her sleeping bag. Pinkie thought about it for a moment and hummed curiously. She hadn’t really put much thought into what the story would be when she offered, but she was confident in her creative and spontaneous nature. “I don’t know… what are you two in the mood for? A fairy tale…? An adventure?” Pinkie started naming off story genres to see what would sound appealing to the two crusaders. “Oooo… how about a ghost story?” Scootaloo suggested with a devious grin. Sweetie Belle seemed a little nervous at the mention of a ghost story. “Uh… maybe we should go for something a bit… tamer.” The white filly suggested nervously. “Come on Sweetie Belle… it’s Pinkie. How bad could anything she thinks of be?” Scootaloo stated to convince her friend to let the pink mare tell an actually interesting story. Sweetie Belle shrugged as she watched the pleading expression on her friend’s face. She didn’t want her to miss out just because she was nervous or frightened. Finally the white filly decided to swallow her fear and listen to the story. “Ok fine… ghost story it is then.” Sweetie Bell stated while gulping quietly and steeling her nerves for whatever nightmare fuel was to come. Pinkie Pie smiled at the opportunity to bust out a ghost story from her vast reservoir of tall tales. The pink mare cleared her throat as she watched the two fillies get comfortable to listen intently. “Ok… so, once upon a time…” Pinkie said in an ominous tone to set the mood. While everyone else settled in to bed, the two fillies waited eagerly for the pink mare to delve into an exciting tale of horror. Chapter 55: Not a Creature was StirringMeanwhile over at the library, Twilight and the others were getting settled in for the night. Tom and Peppermint decided to sleep downstairs to give the jilted unicorn and dragon some much needed rest and relaxation. The entire day had been stressful on everybody, but Twilight and Spike seemed to have caught the worst of the ordeal. Spike was uncomfortably watching as the purple mare remained awake on the edge of her bed. She seemed to be thinking about something deeply, and whatever it was seemed to be troublesome to her. The young dragon wondered if she was thinking about what happened to him. The experience must have been very traumatic for her after all. As the unicorn quietly sighed while staring at the floor with an empty expression, Spike quickly realized that she wasn’t going to reach out to him to talk about her problems. He decided that he needed to be the one to help her cope with whatever mental demons she was battling. “Twilight… are you ok?” The dragon spoke up in a concerned tone while looking up to the sulking pony. Twilight eyed over to him briefly before quickly averting her gaze. She seemed to be having trouble even looking him in the face. “I’m fine Spike.” The purple mare replied in a dismal tone. Spike obviously didn’t believe her words, but he wasn’t even sure if she cared whether or not he did. “No… you’re not fine.” Fed up with his friend dodging her own emotions, Spike got up from his bed and walked over to her. The dragon walked up the stairs to the loft, hopped up to the bed and sat down next to the purple unicorn. Twilight shrugged sadly as she watched her assistant trying to comfort her. “Ok… so I’m a little upset. I just have a lot of things to mull over right now.” Twilight stated in a slightly less sad tone while trying to be understanding. She knew that she had been fussing over a lot of things recently. One might even call her depressed if they just watched her expressions, but she didn’t mean to look so down in the dumps. “You know… you can talk to me about things that are bothering you. Discussing things can make you feel better sometimes.” Spike stated with an uplifting attitude. Twilight smiled slightly from seeing the cheerful dragon’s outlook. “I guess I’m just upset that the princess told us to stand by and watch while she handles things… I want to help put these guys behind bars… probably even more than anyone else does.” The unicorn shrugged as she thought back to everything she had experienced because of the hooded ponies. “I mean… I have been on the receiving end of most of the bad things that have happened in the past few days… The school, the hospital, almost losing you and…” Twilight paused abruptly as she reached the next event in sequence. She figured that it would be best if Spike didn’t know that she almost died while he was unconscious. “And…?” Spike asked curiously. Twilight groaned mentally as she dreaded the dragon’s inquisitive nature. “Nothing… my point is that I feel too much involvement with these attacks to just sit around and do nothing.” The unicorn stated to change the subject. Thankfully Spike didn’t seem to have any desire to pry further at the matter. “*Sigh*… I just wish we had some way of helping the princess catch these guys. But I don’t think poking around town to look for the ponies we know about would be a good idea… not after what happened to Applejack and the others yesterday.” Twilight shuddered at the thought of her friend getting ambushed by ponies with the intent of harming or killing her. “I’m glad that Neon and Glimmer were there to help her out… I don’t even want to think about what could have happened otherwise. I can’t believe that these guys would go to such extremes… and that they could be anywhere.” Spike said uneasily with a sense of paranoid dread slowly filling him. The hooded ponies could be anywhere around town, just waiting for a chance to strike, and that thought terrified the young dragon. Twilight shared in his concerns, but she had to find some way to lighten up the situation. No matter how scared or frustrated she was on the inside, she would always try her best to shield the dragon from anything frightening or dangerous. “Don’t worry Spike… I’m sure that they won’t be trying anything too radical for a while. Besides, Peppermint and Tom will keep us safe, and the others will be fine with Brimstoke and his team looking out for them.” The unicorn said while placing a reassuring hoof on Spike’s head and ruffling his scaly hair. The dragon felt a little calmer knowing that the purple mare was confident in their safety. “Well… I hope that they wait as long as possible before trying anything else. I want them to be caught before they summon any more monsters. Ugh… I hate just knowing that monsters even exist.” Spike stated in an anxious tone. “You and me both Spike… you and me both.” Twilight added in agreement while pulling the dragon closer to her for a side hug. Spike leaned his head on the unicorn’s side and let her wrap her arm around him. The two sat still on the bed while enjoying the feeling of their own body warmth mingling. The pair didn’t often take any time to offer affection to each other, but with recent events weighing heavy on their minds, they felt a strong need to hold one another as close as possible. Twilight was thinking heavily about how close she had come to losing Spike in the previous days. At the hospital she could just keep telling herself that he was fine, but she witnessed his close brush with death at the library first hand. She could see him pouring blood out onto the floor, she could see the color drain from his face from oncoming weakness, and she hated every minute of it. Meanwhile, Spike was thinking about how everything that had happened recently was affecting him and his friends. He was worried that someone he knew was going to get seriously hurt by the hooded ponies. Although he understood their desire to personally bring justice to the malicious ponies, he was also very concerned for their wellbeing. No matter how different their worries might have been, the pair knew that they had each other to count on, and they would fight to keep their bond intact. “*Yawn*… I think I’m ready for bed.” Spike stated drowsily while scooting away from the purple mare and hopping off of the bed. Twilight took a moment to gauge her own level of energy before concluding that she was sleepy as well. “Yeah, me too.” Twilight said while scooting backwards on her bed to reach the front. Once she got past her covers, the unicorn quickly lifted them up and slid her body underneath them. Taking a moment to enjoy the silky coolness of a fresh and soft bed sheet, Twilight smiled happily. “Feels good to be able to climb into bed again… for a while there I thought I wasn’t going to make it, so all the little things really stand out to me.” Spike said with a slight chuckle. Twilight was unsure if she should be concerned with how well the dragon was processing his near death experience. Most people would have been shaken up for at least a few days afterwards, but Spike seemed to be bouncing right back. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.” The purple pony stated with a slightly surprised tone. Considering her own brush with death, she did notice that she appreciated her surroundings a little more. Thankfully Spike didn’t seem to notice the odd way she said that, as if she were speaking from experience. “Well... goodnight Twilight.” Spike said in a friendly manner while climbing into his basket and finding a comfortable position to sleep in. Twilight smiled as she listened to the noises of blankets rustling around. “Night Spike…” The unicorn stated while finally laying down the rest of the way. She pulled her covers closer and nestled her head against her pillow to get comfortable. After staring at the ceiling in thought for a brief moment, Twilight closed her eyes and waited to drift off to sleep. Meanwhile, on the other side of town in the Apple family house, Applejack and her friends were winding down for the night. They had just recently finished their meal, and although it wasn’t exactly a grand dinner, it was enough to keep them satisfied for the night. Everyone was chatting happily, enjoying each others company while they shared stories about their lives and had a fun time. Although she wanted to remain awake for the conversation, Applebloom could barely keep her eyes open. Applejack noticed the drowsy filly as she started to slowly tilt her body sideways onto her. Applebloom would regain her senses midway through her fall and re-adjust her position. Despite her best efforts at staying awake, the filly finally drifted onto her sister’s lap and conked out. “Applebloom… are you asleep sugar cube?” Applejack gently shook the sleeping filly to stir her without an unnecessary jolt to the system. Applebloom groaned as she woke up and groggily lifted herself up. “Sorry… Ah’m just a little tired is all.” The filly stated while rubbing her eyes and shaking herself to further wake up. “Maybe we should be heading to bed… it is late after all.” Big Mac suggested while looking around at the others for their input. Neon Streak and Applejack nodded in agreement as they felt their own varying levels of drowsiness kick in. “Hey Neon… why don’t you go sleep in Granny’s room for now? She won’t be back for a while anyway, and there is no point in you sleeping on the couch with a perfectly good bed available.” Applejack suggested with a helpful smile. “Really…? Thanks.” Neon Streak replied with a grateful tone. She wasn’t going to complain about whatever lodgings she would get, but it would be nice to sleep in an actual bed rather than a couch. “Sure thing, just head straight past Applebloom’s room and it’s on the right. The bathroom is the first door on the left, and if you want a midnight snack, go ahead and help yourself to whatever is in the fridge.” The orange mare added while heading towards the stairs to her room with her sister in tow. She figured it would be a good idea if she made sure that Applebloom at least got into her bed before passing out again. “Night girls…” Big Mac stated with a yawn while heading upstairs himself. It was an odd occurrence seeing the red stallion act so tired. He usually went to bed long before he was so tired as to express it outwardly. “Goodnight everyone.” Neon Streak said as she observed the apple family going upstairs to their respective rooms. The green mare was heart warmed by how close and well knit together their bonds with each other were. She also felt good knowing that she was playing a part in keeping them safe and comfortable in their own home. Even if nothing bad happened during her stay, having her around would doubtlessly put to rest some of their concerns about the hooded ponies. And if something did happen, she would fight for all she was worth to protect the three ponies. Realizing that she would need to know where Applebloom’s bedroom was so she could find her own room, Neon quickly snapped out of her admiration and walked up the stairs after the family. She saw Applebloom lazily opening her door and heading inside while her two siblings walked further down the hall to their own rooms. As she walked down the hall, the green mare looked around at the various pictures adorning the wall. The cheerful memories contained in the snapshots, combined with the quaint decorations and already homey atmosphere made this the perfect place to live and get comfortable in. Compared to her room at the academy, this was a large improvement to comfort and warmth. Stopping at the next door up and gripping the handle, Neon Streak was unsure of what to expect. Her own grandmother was a bit tame as far as elderly folk went, but there was no telling how eccentric Applejack’s grandmother would be, or what her taste in room décor would be. As she opened the door and stepped inside, the green mare was pleasantly surprised. The room didn’t look much different from any other room she would expect to be in the farm house. A warm colored carpet, a stylish wallpaper, and a warm and inviting looking bed with a fluffy cover over it. “Hmm… not bad... I wouldn’t mind living in a place like this myself.” She stated to herself as she stepped inside and shut off the light she had used to examine the room. Despite her knowledge that dark places were generally bad, the green mare felt oddly comfortable strolling up to the bed in pitch blackness. It was like she had become a temporary part of the apple family, and she felt just as welcomed and cared for as any other person they invited into their home. Neon sat down on the bed to test its firmness. The mattress creaked as the green pony settled her weight onto it. The bed had a few worn spots in the padding from age, but it was still soft and comfortable. “Man… what a day.” Neon shrugged to herself as she reached down onto her vest. She undid the clips holding it in place and slid the entire thing off by slipping her arms out of it. Once the black vest hit the bed, the many vials attached to it sounded out a soft click as they bumped into each other. The green mare grabbed the vest and carefully placed it on the floor next to the bed. “Feels good to get that thing off for a while.” She stated while rubbing a spot on her back previously concealed by the vest. Although it wasn’t very heavy due to the nature of their gear, the scratchy material the sleek item was made of did tend to itch occasionally. With her gear off, the green mare could fully enjoy the cool feeling of her body hitting the sheets as she laid down and pulled the covers closer to her. “Hopefully I won’t be too sore in the morning… as long as I get some sleep I should be able to mitigate any aches and pains from earlier.” Neon muttered to herself as she got comfortable. She had been fighting for much of the day, so she would doubtlessly have a few stiff muscles in the morning. But none of that really mattered to her. All that mattered was getting a good night’s sleep. Meanwhile, as most ponies were trying to enjoy a quiet and peaceful environment to sleep in, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot were suffering through the ear-shatteringly loud sound of an air mattress motor as it inflated. Although it wasn’t as deafening as it felt like, it was still ear grating for the orange mare to sit at the bottom of the mattress to test its firmness while it filled. Sunspot would poke the slowly inflating mattress to see if it would hold her weight comfortably. Once it reached a suitable level, she quickly, and with great relief, shut off the howling motor. “Thank Celestia for that… you would think that pumping air wouldn’t make so… much… noise.” Rainbow Dash shrugged as she dealt with the now foreign silence in the room. The sound of her own voice was strangely loud now that everything else had quieted down. “Yeah… well you would think a lot of things wouldn’t be the way they are.” The suited mare replied with a chuckle as she slowly climbed onto the bed. Something about the bare feel of an air mattress was strangely appealing, so the orange pegasus took the opportunity to lay down on it while it didn’t have any sheets. Rainbow Dash giggled as she watched the lounging mare from her own bed. She almost looked like she was going to fall asleep just as she was, no pillows or sheets or anything. Although it would have been nice not to make her house guest’s bed, the cyan pony figured that she would be kinder than lazy. “Hey, you want me to get you some sheets, or are you good like that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a jesting manner while hopping off of her bed to go find some sheets. Sunspot shrugged as she was forced to move from her comfortable position. “Yes please… besides, I think it’s time for me to check my bandages, so I should probably get up anyway.” The orange pony said while slowly sitting up and climbing off the bouncy mattress. “The bathroom is right there… you need some help?” Rainbow Dash asked courteously while pointing off to an open door. Her bedroom was rather big, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that she would have a bathroom inside for convenience. “Nah… I got things handled thanks.” Sunspot replied while walking off to the bathroom. She quickly found the medicine cabinet and rummaged through it until she found some peroxide. She then reached into a pocket on her suit and pulled out some bandages. Rainbow Dash watched curiously as Sunspot undid the zipper to her modified suit. Although it was clearly different from a Wonderbolts’ uniform, the suit and all of the gear hanging off of it still intrigued the cyan mare. “So, you were really a Wonderbolt? Like… the main team and everything?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while examining the suit’s color scheme and comparing it in her head to what a normal outfit looked like. “Yep… the whole nine yards.” Sunspot replied while turning to look at the eager mare. She could tell that Rainbow Dash had a thing for the Wonderbolts, although it didn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out. “So you knew Spitfire and the others? What were they like to work with…? I mean… I have met them a few times, but you were part of their inner circle!” The cyan pegasus grew more excited as she thought more about the fact that she had an official Wonderbolt staying at her house. Sunspot trailed her eyes off in thought as she recalled her previous teammates. Although she had left the team, she didn’t hate them by any means. “Well… If you have met Spitfire, you must know that she can be a little… rough around the edges so to speak.” The orange mare stated while gesturing with her hoof. Rainbow Dash chuckled as she thought about how strict and bossy the lead Wonderbolt was to her during her brief time at the academy. “Yeah… she wasn’t exactly easy going.” Rainbow Dash replied in agreement to the statement while nodding and smiling. “Eh… she just has a thing for doing things right. Once you get past the tough as nails bit… she just wants to improve her own skills and the skills of those that she teaches so they can help people. We didn’t really butt heads too often.” Sunspot added to her explanation with a smirk. As tough as Spitfire was on her, she respected her desire to assist others in her own way. “Wow… you two didn’t argue much? I would have figured she would be all over you… you don’t exactly embody the poster child for rules.” Rainbow Dash commented in a flattering sort of way. She considered herself to be a free spirit, and it was easy to see that the suited mare also fit into that category. “Heh… I guess that is a bit strange.” Sunspot chuckled while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. “I tried to keep in line wherever possible so Spitfire didn’t have to get on my case. We both just wanted to help people out… I know the Wonderbolts are pretty much glorified stunt flyers, but they do get a lot of action when things go south.” She explained with a smile as she thought back to her days on the team. “Soarin was a real sweetheart to work with. When I first met him, I thought he had a thing for me… but as it turns out he is just a little quirky. Fleetfoot was practically my best friend ever… I swear she almost made me stay on the team.” Sunspot was gushing slightly over her nostalgia, but Rainbow Dash didn’t mind. “Why didn’t you? From the sound of it, nothing was bad enough to leave over.” The cyan pegasus asked with a confused expression. She had been dreaming of joining the Wonderbolts since she was a filly, so she had no idea why anyone would want to leave the team. “I didn’t leave because of them… I just felt like I could do more good to ponies elsewhere, so I left. They were really respectful of my wishes… threw me a little going away party, gave me the best of luck… I mean hay, they even let me keep my suit.” Sunspot stated with a cheerful laugh while pointing out her suit. “I could only imagine how they would react if they knew that you were fighting monsters now.” Rainbow Dash smiled at the notion of the orange mare having a get together with her former teammates and telling them what she made of herself. “Hahahah... I don’t know, but I will be sure to rub it in their faces when I see them again.” Sunspot shared a warm laugh with the cyan pegasus over her suggestion. As the orange mare continued removing her suit, she stopped laughing abruptly when a sharp pain shot through her side and wing. Apparently she had carelessly allowed the suit to brush against her wing as she was slowly lifting it free. “Owwwchie!” Sunspot exclaimed in pain as she looked down to her now free appendage. The wing still appeared to be attached, so things were at least looking up for the wounded pegasus. “I will give you this… this suit, for all it’s worth, it does not leave much wiggle room for your wings when taking it off. Although I suppose I probably should have followed their advice and kept it off after they bandaged me.” Sunspot winced slightly while finally removing the suit completely from her body. She let the discarded suit fall to the floor and lie mostly flat, save for all the vials and other pieces of gear clipped to it. “Hey, I don’t blame you. If I had one of those suits I would probably never take it off.” Rainbow Dash stated to make the careless mare feel better about her reckless action. “Still, that looks pretty painful… are you sure you’re alright?” She asked with a concerned and sympathetic frown as she watched the orange mare gently unwrap her injury. Once the wing was fully unwrapped, the cyan mare could see the full extent of her injury. Before now, Rainbow Dash hadn’t seen much of the wound due to Sunspot being whisked away by the medical ponies. But now that her suit was off, she could see the full extent of the orange pony’s wounds. The wing had three claw marks that started on the wing’s base and went down her side. The wound had mostly dried up, but the red stained bandages were enough of a sign to tell how much it was bleeding beforehand. “That flying pile of bones clipped me pretty bad… but like I said earlier, it looks worse than it is.” Sunspot explained while applying peroxide to a cloth and dabbing it on the wing. She had to clench her teeth to prevent a painful outburst from the stinging sensation. “Really…? Because it looks pretty bad.” Rainbow Dash said with a sorrowful expression. Being a pegasus, she could imagine how such an injury would feel in relation to her own body. “Don’t sweat it… that bonehead would have done a lot worse to me if you hadn’t stepped in when you did… How bad are your burns now?” The orange mare asked curiously while examining Rainbow Dash’s fur. Although there weren’t many obvious indicators of the burns left on her body, they could still be causing her considerable pain. Rainbow Dash poked a section of her body that was burned earlier. The slight stinging sensation she got told her that the burn was still there, but it was mostly healed up. All in all, the pair had went head to head with an undead dragon and got away mostly intact. “Well… it still stings a little bit when I touch it… and I’m probably going to smell like sulfur for a week… but other than that I’m doing alright.” Rainbow Dash announced her findings with a cheerful smirk. “That was some grade-a flying you did to save my tail Rainbow Dash. I could definitely see you as a Wonderbolt.” Sunspot stated with a confident smile. Rainbow Dash was elated to hear that an ex Wonderbolt thought she was good enough to be on the team. “Really?” The cyan mare asked to be certain of her opinion. Sunspot nodded confidently, causing Rainbow Dash to giggle in excitement and flattery. “Hehehe… thanks.” Rainbow Dash stated while trying to contain the stupid grin on her face. Sunspot didn’t seem to mind the gushing pegasus as she tried in vain to keep her emotions in check. As Sunspot continued to clean and bandage her wound, Rainbow Dash left to finally grab her guest some sheets and pillows. She found a bottom sheet and carefully placed it over the air mattress, struggling briefly with the frustrating elastic straps on the sheet. She then placed down some pillows and laid out another sheet and comforter on the bed. While she was putting the finishing touches on her guest’s bed, the cyan mare glanced up and noticed something that made her pause to examine it further. It never occurred to her that she had never seen Sunspot out of her uniform before, so she never had the opportunity to see her cutie mark before. The mark wasn’t anything out of the ordinary as far as cutie marks went. It was a fiery comet leaving a long tail behind it. The color of the mark matched the mare’s own fur and hair color, having different shades of orange and yellow throughout. “So that’s what your cutie mark is… I was wondering what it looked like for a while.” Rainbow Dash stated in a complimentary tone. Sunspot paused and turned to the cyan mare before looking down at her cutie mark and smiling in flattery. “Oh, uh… thanks. My parents think it represents my personality… they said that trying to get me under control was like trying to chain yourself to a comet.” The orange mare stated bashfully. Rainbow Dash chuckled at the statement as she thought about her own cutie mark and what it represented. “Heh… I guess we both have cutie marks that suit our sense of adventure. You know, we would make a good team if we tried to take down those hooded ponies together.” Rainbow Dash stated cheerfully before becoming slightly disheartened as she thought about the situation more. She sighed in disappointment as she decided to let bygones be bygones. “Ok… but if we’re a team, I am so totally team captain… you can be my sidekick.” Sunspot stated jokingly while smirking at the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash leered at the orange mare playfully in response. “Hey! If anyone is the sidekick here it’s you… Next time a skeleton dragon tries to make you its crispy snack, you try and pull that team captain thing on it… I’m sure it will get so scared it will just leave you alone.” Rainbow Dash replied sarcastically with a smirk. “Owch… low blow.” Sunspot chuckled at the feisty response from the cyan pony. Before she could think of anything further to add, the orange mare had already finished her bandages. “There we go… almost good as new.” Sunspot stated happily while getting up and discarding her trash in a nearby bin. The freshly bandaged pegasus then walked out of the bathroom and observed her bed with a welcoming smile. “Thanks for making the bed for me… If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to turn in for the night.” Sunspot said while climbing onto the wobbly mattress and sliding under the covers. “Sure thing, I was thinking of going to sleep myself… long day of skeleton fighting and all.” Rainbow Dash replied while walking across the room to turn off the lights. Once the room was sufficiently darkened, the cyan pony walked back to her bed, nearly tripping on the air mattress in the process. “Well… goodnight Rainbow Dash.” Sunspot said while watching the cyan mare climb into bed. Rainbow Dash turned to face the orange mare in the dark and smiled. “Goodnight.” The cyan mare replied while climbing underneath her own covers and getting comfortable. Sunspot turned over and nestled her head into her pillows while stretching her legs. It didn’t take long for both pegasus’s to drift off to sleep in the peaceful quiet of the darkened room. Thoughts of what they would be doing in the morning fluttering through their heads as they slowly lost focus of their surroundings. All across Ponyville, everyone was either sleeping or preparing to sleep. The streets were quiet and peaceful amid the comforting glow of the moon and stars in the sky. The only noise was the quiet whistling of wind and the distant sound of crickets chirping in the night. Every pony was settled in their homes for the night; every pony, except for one. Cotton Quill was walking down the empty cobbled streets of Ponyville, wearing the grey hoodie that most other members of his group used to conceal their identity. The unicorn was carrying a book and several pouches of unknown contents beside him with his magic, along with some candles of various sizes and colors. He was walking quickly, using the shadows of the night as cover for himself. He knew that he must have been a wanted pony around town, especially after the bold stunt that Raven Feather pulled earlier in the morning. Despite the possible dangers, Cotton had a mission that needed to be completed. Once I kill the elements of harmony, Raven Feather will have to give me my old job back. He thought to himself with a sinister grin on his face. He was incredibly thankful that Grimwood believed in him enough to give him such a grand opportunity. As the fenced in area of Sweet Apple Acres came into view, Cotton was relieved that his plan was that much closer to coming to fruition. He walked up to the fence and scanned the area for somewhere suitable for his needs. “Grim said I need to be close to one of their homes… I hope I can stay outside the fence and still be close enough.” The unicorn stated to himself curiously. He wondered why the pale colt had instructed him to get close to one of the elements homes, but he must have known more about the spell than Cotton did. The spell was fairly complex magic after all. Cotton ran along the fence into the open area outside the farmland. The apple family had such a large piece of land under their control that even they didn’t use all of it. The cutie mark crusaders own clubhouse was a fair distance away from the main section of the farm. “Here… this should do.” Cotton stated as he came to a section that was hidden by the sprawling apple trees that sat on the other side of the fence. Surely nobody would be able to find the pictogram he drew there. Without delay, Cotton got to work laying out the necessary items for the spell. He drew up the pictogram and added the section that gathered fear for the group to use. He figured that any fear the monster gathered would only be a bonus to what he was going to accomplish. After a solid five minutes of drawing and hard work, the pictogram was done. Cotton poured the powdery contents of each of the pouches he had out around the symbol. As he finished the circle of powder, the unicorn placed the photo of Twilight and her friends down on it. He then went around the symbol and placed candles at various points, lighting them as he went. He had never performed a spell with such complex rituals to it. Most spells Raven Feather gave to him were relatively simple for convenience. Still, he followed the necessary steps that the instructions called for with diligence. Once he was done pouring out the pouches and making other preparations, the white stallion walked to the center of the pictogram and picked up the book. He read the bookmarked section and his notes intently as he familiarized himself with the final steps of the spell. “I always hated the ones that use incantations… all of these old languages are so primitive and bizarre that I can barely recite them properly.” He muttered to himself while scanning over the spell’s incantation. It was in a language that he barely understood, but all of the words and phonetic pronunciations were in front of him, so he would have little difficulties with performing the spell. Cotton cleared his throat and sat down as he read over the incantation in his mind. After mouthing a few of the more obscure sounding words, he felt comfortable enough to try out the full spell out loud. “O rex magni nubium, oro te ut de caelo descendere in terram, et consumere perdere illud apud ira tuum.” The unicorn spoke in a clear and confident manner, putting emphasis on the pronunciation of each word. As he continued, the wind picked up slightly before growing in magnitude. The flame on each of the candles swayed in the violent breeze, seemingly on the verge of being snuffed out. Cotton’s hair blew back all at once, being forcibly pushed by the sheer power of the wind. The white pony could hardly even hear himself over the sound of the squall, it was frightening him a little bit, but he had to remain calm while performing the spell. The pages of the book he was holding were blowing around violently, causing the unicorn to hold onto them tightly to keep his place in the book. It was a wonder that the powder on the ground didn’t blow away, but perhaps that was part of the spell. “Tenebrescere caelum apud tuum forma, obstrepant autem vulgus apud tuum vox, et occidere omnes quisnam impugnare vos.” As he finished the incantation, Cotton was free to look around at his noisy and windy surroundings. A quick glance upwards revealed the possible source of the sudden tempest. A circle of pitch black storm clouds was looming overhead. The ominous display combined with the ferocious wind instilled a sense of horror and spine chilling fear in the unicorn. He wondered what sort of power he had just called on. A sudden flash of blinding light filled the sky as the deafening crackle of lightning smothered all other sounds. Cotton let out a shriek of terror as he shielded his face with his arms. The unicorn thought that the lightning must have struck the ground somewhere close by, and judging from the deafening noise and blinding light, he figured that he was correct. As Cotton slowly unshielded his face, he noticed that the candles around him had been extinguished. He also noticed the surprising presence of a fiery orange light. After turning his attention forward to investigate, the unicorn realized that the circle of powder was on fire. Seemingly right where the lightning had struck, the powder outside the chalk outline of the pictogram was ablaze. The crackling fire was swiftly spreading around the circle from both sides. Cotton followed the fire as it circled behind him to reach the rest of the powder. Once the fire reached the photograph in the middle of the line of powder, the photo burst into a spectacular display of flames. As the photo slowly burned up and the faces of the purple unicorn and her friends disappeared into charred blackness, Cotton couldn’t help but ponder at the frighteningly curious spell. Suddenly, Cotton heard a noise from far above. It almost blended into the roaring wind, but the unicorn could swear that he heard a low groan coming from the blackened sky. The otherworldly noises made chills go up and down the unicorn’s spine. “I guess that must be the monster… I better get out of here before things get messy.” He stated to himself while urgently gathering the equipment he would take with him. As he stuffed all of his notes into the book and shut it tight, the unicorn walked towards the edge of the pictogram to leave. *Thunk* “Ow!” Cotton recoiled in pain as his head hit something solid. As he rubbed the tender spot on his cranium, the white pony stared ahead in confusion and dismay. “What the…?” He muttered with a perplexed expression as he wondered what had impeded his exit. Cotton got back up and walked forward again, only this time more slowly. The unicorn reached out a hoof, only to be met by a solid wall. As he looked down, he realized that the section of the pictogram directly below where he was contacting the air was glowing bright white. “What the hay?!” As he realized his predicament, Cotton frantically pushed and shoved on the invisible force keeping him prisoner. With no progress being made on the force field, the unicorn proceeded to pound and smack on the invisible wall. “Grr! Let… me… ou- OW!” Cotton recoiled in pain once more as he injured his wrist from banging so hard on a solid object. As he rubbed the stinging sensation out of his sore wrist, the unicorn realized that he wasn’t going anywhere. Not being one to give up, Cotton lit up his horn to try and find a solution with magic. After failing to interact with the barrier in any meaningful way, the unicorn tried to think of a spell he could use to escape. Cotton concentrated for a moment and fired a blast of energy out of his horn. The ray of light zipped into the invisible barrier, and bounced straight off. The beam of energy made a loud and alarming noise as it bounced around the white pony rapidly. The white stallion jumped around to dodge the wayward bolt of energy as it zipped around his invisible cage before finally fizzling out. “Well, that didn’t work… time for a simpler approach.” Cotton stated in determination while preparing himself for a teleportation spell. The unicorn pictured himself outside of the pictogram and concentrated. Soon enough, he blinked out of existence before rapidly blinking back into existence, by slamming into the barrier wall. “Ow! Crap!” Cotton cursed loudly as his entire muzzle throbbed from his sudden impact. He was sent backwards, only to be caught by the harsh ground. As he clutched his aching nose, the unicorn looked around him and slowly came to a frightening conclusion. He was completely and utterly trapped. He couldn’t escape, he couldn’t call for help, and the only person that even knew he was out here was probably asleep. Cotton was screwed, plain and simple. “Oh no… oh no… ohhhh… No.” Cotton’s eyes widened as he looked around him at the progressively worsening weather. The crackle of lightning from before had since returned in a more frequent form in the sky, the wind was loud and frightful as ever, and there was an unseen monster somewhere around the area. The more he thought about his situation, the more his heart started to pound. “Ok… this time I screwed up.” Cotton spoke to himself, trying to find a way to accept his own failure. He was just going to have to wait around and hope that the spell would end when the monster finished its job. He only hoped that his invisible prison would keep him safe from the creature he summoned. Chapter 56: Storm FrontThe sudden booming sound of distant thunder awoke Neon Streak from her slumber. As the green mare sat up in bed, she could see light fading from the window, indicating some far off crackle of lightning. A constant clamoring sound of rainfall was showering down onto the roof and window, creating a sea of noise. The rain sounded a little too severe to warrant a comfortable ambient noise, it was more like a torrential downpour was happening outside. Still, the presence of thunder and lightning along with a sudden rainstorm confused and puzzled the earth pony. “What the hay…? It was clear when I went to sleep.” Neon Streak stated in a groggy tone while glancing at the window. She could barely see the droplets of water covering the glass amid the darkness of the room. Another flash of lightning appeared in the window, serving as a precursor to the booming thunder that soon approached. The storm seemed to be developed well enough to warrant a lot of work from pegasi, so Neon wondered why it was here. The curious mare got up from her bed and walked over to the window to look outside. As more flashes of lightning illuminated the landscape, she could see that trees and other objects were blowing around with a ferocious amount of wind. Now that she was closer to the window, the green pony could even hear the whistling wind as it pushed on the frame of the house. “Hmm… something doesn’t seem right about this.” Neon Streak muttered in a suspicious tone while eyeing over to the bed where her vest sat. She wondered if her evil detector would give an insight to the origin of the storm. Suddenly, and without warning, a deafening wave of thunder sounded out as a bolt of lightning appeared closer to the house. Judging from how instant the flash of light and the sound of thunder was, the green mare gathered that it was extremely close by. The entire house practically shook from the intensity of the wave of thunder. Neon Streak felt her heart jump in her chest as the rest of her body tensed up from severe shock. Even after the bolt died down, she could still feel a discomforting and tense sensation in her body. Before she could formulate any other thoughts on the matter, and before she could even recover from the jolt of the thunder, the green mare heard a barely audible shriek of fright coming from the next room over. “Applebloom?” She stated in a mildly concerned tone. Although she was certain that the young filly had been frightened by the thunder, Neon decided that she would go and check on her. Besides, she could use some comfort herself from the sudden jolt to her system. The green mare left her room and exited into the hall. As she took a quick look around the darkened house, she deduced that Applejack and her brother were most likely still trying to sleep. Deciding to not keep the terrified filly waiting any longer, Neon walked down the hall to the next room beside hers and opened the door quietly. She was greeted with the sight of a yellow filly sitting up in her bed while nervously looking around with wide eyes. She looked like she had just been awakened from a horrible nightmare, or at least jolted from her sleep by the loud display of thunder and lightning. “Are you ok, Applebloom?” Neon Streak asked while slowly walking further into the room. Once she realized who was speaking, Applebloom calmed down slightly. “Neon… sorry, did Ah wake you up?” The filly asked with a sad tone. “No, you didn’t. This storm probably woke both of us up.” The green mare explained while walking up to the bed. Applebloom was relieved that she didn’t disturb anyone from their sleep. “Why is it raining this hard? Ah don’t think that we’re supposed to even get storms this severe…” The filly stated with a nervous tone while glancing out the window. “I don’t know… I just woke up to the sound of thunder… and then that loud one happened and scared both of us.” Neon Streak explained with a slight chuckle. The yellow filly seemed to be surprised by the fact that she wasn’t the only one scared. “You got scared by it too?” Applebloom asked timidly, still unsure if her frightened outburst was necessary considering the circumstances. The young filly made it a point to try and get braver after everything that had happened recently. “Oh yeah… I didn’t really scream, but I’m pretty sure that’s only because I jumped out of my skin before I could.” Neon said in a reassuring way. She could tell that the filly was a little ashamed by the fact that she was frightened so easily. “Ah woke up to it… so it was really startling to me. Ah never liked thunder in the first place, even when it was scheduled to happen.” Applebloom stated uneasily while looking out the window at the raging tempest outside. Neon Streak shared in the filly’s unease. She wasn’t too big of a fan of storms either, and this storm seemed to be supernaturally created, making it even worse in her books. “I’m going to go back to my room to get my gear. You just sit tight and try to get back to sleep.” The green mare said in a reassuring tone while moving back towards the door. “Wait…!” Applebloom squeaked nervously as she watched the green pony leave. She didn’t want to be left alone in her dark room while a strange storm was raging outside. Neon Streak paused and turned around. The filly tried to think of a reason to make her stay, but her mind drew a blank. “Uh… umm… could you stay here with me… for a little while at least?” Applebloom asked while trying to appear calmer than she felt. She didn’t want to outright say that she was frightened, but she also didn’t want to be left alone. Neon Streak smiled understandingly and walked back up to the filly’s bed. She knew that she must have felt terrified about being in a dark place with such a violent storm being just outside, but she also knew that she had to investigate the cause of the strange storm herself. “Don’t worry… I will be right back. I can find out everything I need to know from in here, after that I can stay for a while until you go back to sleep.” The green mare suggested in a friendly tone. The filly smiled in relief that she wouldn’t have to be alone. “Ok.” Applebloom replied in acceptance of the green pony’s idea. Neon Streak smiled and nodded in response while walking away. Before she made it out of the room however, an odd noise made the green mare stop in her tracks. A bizarre and unnerving howling sound was making itself known from outside of the window on the far side of the room. It almost sounded like the wind, but it could be heard alongside the wind, distinguishing the two from each other. As the sound got slightly louder, Applebloom froze in place and stared at the window with eyes wide with fear. The nervous filly eyed between the window and Neon Streak, trying to communicate her fear through her expression. “W-what is that?” Applebloom stammered quietly, for fear that whatever was making the noise might hear her. Neon Streak cautiously walked forward while motioning for the filly to remain still. As she got close enough to the bed to whisper, the green mare tried to remain as calm as possible in the face of the unknown. “I don’t know… stay where you are.” Neon whispered in a serious tone while slowly walking forward. Applebloom watched the green pony anxiously as she approached the window and looked outside. Neon cautiously peered out of the window while keeping most of her body concealed. If there was a monster outside, she didn’t want it to see her. As a few flashes of lightning illuminated the blackness outside, the green mare didn’t see anything but the wind-blown trees and the torrential downpour of rain. The longer she listened to the eerie noise, the less sure she was that it was anything more than the wind. Perhaps Neon’s imagination had gotten the best of her. It wasn’t too far a stretch of the imagination to fathom that an odd sounding gust of wind could unnerve a strung out filly and an overly suspicious monster hunter. “Do you see anything?” Applebloom asked nervously while watching the green mare. She couldn’t bear the nerve racking silence that was covering the room, especially not with the pounding rain and eerie noise mixing in with the wind and thunder. “No… I don’t… maybe it was the wind?” Neon looked back to the nervous filly and tried to ease her nerves. Applebloom looked back at her with a nervously doubtful and uncertain expression, which the green mare understood perfectly as even she didn’t believe the wishful statement. Before the pair could think about the strange noise any further, they were interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door opening slowly. They turned their heads to see Applejack walking into the room with a curious expression on her face. “Applejack…? What are you doing up?” Neon Streak asked while stepping away from the window. “Ah woke up when Ah heard a lot of thunder… then Ah heard a lot of weird noises coming from outside.” Applejack explained with an uneasy tone of voice. Neon Streak and Applebloom shared a concerned glance with each other at the farm pony’s explanation. There was no way that more than two people would hear the same bizarre noise outside by coincidence. “Weird noises?” Neon asked while glancing back at the window. “Did they sound like this?” She pointed to the window and remained quiet for a moment so the orange mare could hear the odd and disturbing sound. Applejack listened for a moment before concluding that the odd howling coming from outside was the same as the noise she had heard. “Yeah… what is that?” The orange mare asked with a troubled expression. The sound was too eerie and too far distinguished from the wind to be a part of it. And to top off the rising tensions in the room, the noise seemed to be getting louder. Before long, the noise sounded like a raspy growl. Like the wind itself was actually wailing angrily at the ponies. The increased frequency and intensity of the frightful noises almost gave the impression that something was getting closer to the house. As the three ponies anxiously watched the window while the rain pounded into it, they suddenly noticed a dark shape flying around outside of the window. Before anyone could even react, the sound of glass shattering rang out as something crashed through the window. Lightning violently flashed outside, bathing the frightening creature in light, and giving the terrified ponies a snapshot of its appearance. It looked like a floating mass of black swirling clouds had formed into a terrifying monster. The beast didn’t have legs, instead having just a floating torso that tapered off at the end with its head and arms poking out at the top and sides. Its limbs and head were uncovered, but it appeared to have tattered black clothing on that somewhat looked like it was made from the same smoke that was pouring from its body. The monster had a black void that served as a mouth, with several rows of sharp teeth. The teeth appeared to be narrow, like jagged thorns that overlapped the monster’s mouth. The creature had milky white eyes and dirty yellow skin, giving it a more sinister and monstrous appearance. It also had two long and reaching arms, topped with gnarled hands with long and sharp claws. “AHHHH!” Applebloom screamed in terror at the sight of the monster floating in place. As the filly cried out in terror, the monster opened its mouth and let out a deep roar that filled the room and shook the three ponies to their core. Applebloom leapt off of her bed and recoiled backwards as fast as she could to get away from the horrid creature. The monster hovered further into the room while staring at the three ponies menacingly. Neon Streak rushed forward and grabbed the yellow filly to hasten her escape. With the terrified filly in her arms, the green mare turned around and ran as fast as she could towards the door. Meanwhile, Applejack was frantically waiting for the two to get out of the room with her. Once the two were past the door, the orange mare slammed it shut and held onto the handle tightly. A loud bang sounded out as the monster slammed into the door to try and force it open. Applejack and Neon Streak held the door closed while the specter tried to get out of the room. The ponies could hear the horrific sound of the monster growling while clawing at the door violently to escape. “What the hay is going on?!” The group heard Big Mac as he frantically ran up to them, curious as to what was happening. One look at the situation in front of him told the stallion that something alarming was taking place. Neon Streak tried to calm herself down long enough to think rationally. Her mind was racing with what actions she had to take to combat the monster in the other room. Her thoughts suddenly turned to her vest full of gear in the other room. “Hold the door!” The green mare announced while getting up and running down the hall to the other room. Big Mac was unsure of what was going on, but he immediately rushed next to his sister to hold the door closed against the constant assaults against it. Neon Streak quickly ran to her room and threw open the door. She spotted her vest in the same position that it was in when she left it. Not wanting to waste any time, the green pony rushed over and grabbed her vest to put it on. She hadn’t moved so fast since her drills back at the academy, even with her relatively new gear. Neon buckled the clips on her vest while simultaneously running back out of the room. Needless to say, the evil detector was abuzz with blue light and magical hums. Neon Streak paid no attention to this as she reached for her strobe and readied it. By the time she reached the three standing around the door, the green mare was ready for a battle. Applejack and her brother were nervously holding their weight against the door while listening to the wailing monster inside. Meanwhile, Applebloom was backed away as far as she could get from the door while fearfully hoping for the monster to go away. “What is that thing?!” Applejack asked frantically while observing the suited mare. All sense of authority in the situation had since left the farm pony, and although she wasn’t sure if the green mare knew anything more than she did, she had to at least try to learn more about their crisis to rationalize it. “I don’t know! And I don’t think I want to go ask it!” Neon replied anxiously while keeping her weapon drawn in the event that the two ponies couldn’t hold the door. Suddenly the group heard windows shattering downstairs, along with the loud roaring of wind and the buzzing of electricity. As they averted their attention downstairs, the ponies saw two more of the black shapes moving towards them, only these were slightly different. The two monsters currently chasing them had sparks flying off of them, as well as a seemingly fluid aura of electrical arcs around their bodies. The light cast by the brilliantly terrifying display only made the already horrific features of the creatures all the more frightening. “AHHH!” Applebloom and her two siblings screamed at the top of their lungs as they watched the two specters fly towards them with their teeth and claws at the ready. They were already picturing how much it would hurt to touch the electrified creatures. Neon Streak bravely stepped in front of the family and opened fire with her strobe. Although her aim was a little lackluster due to her shot nerves, the green pony managed to land several hits on the advancing monsters. The creatures screamed out as each bolt hit them, but it sounded more like angry outbursts rather than cries of pain as they were slowly but surely repelled by the attacks. The monsters gnashed their teeth and swiped at the air with their claws as they tried in vain to move forward through the barrage of light blasts. “It isn’t hurting them?!” Applebloom asked in a shocked panic as she observed the difficulty the green mare was having in driving off the monsters. Neon Streak looked behind her at the nervous family while also firing her strobe as fast as possible. She could see that they were counting on her to defend them, but that they were also as scared and anxious as she was, they were just expressing it more on the outside. The green mare had to keep her fear internalized, if the family knew she was panicking like them, they might be overcome by fear and make irrational decisions. “We need help! Is there a room without windows anywhere in the house?!” Neon asked frantically. She knew that this was above her skillset to deal with. She needed the assistance of either her team or her human friend, but in order to call for help, she needed to get the three farm ponies and herself to safety. “Umm… uh…” Applejack’s mind raced as she tried to think of a room without windows. It was astonishing how one could forget their own home’s layout in a stressful situation. “What about the bathroom?!” Applebloom chimed in from the back of the group eagerly. Although the room was relatively small, it did have a prominent lack of windows, and it even had a lock on the door. “That’s a great idea Applebloom!” Applejack stated in an excited manner while congratulating her sister for her quick thinking. Applebloom was happy to be able to help in such a dangerous situation. Now that the group had decided on their escape plan, they immediately looked over to where the bathroom actually was and froze with dreadful expressions on their faces. The door to their salvation was right next to the staircase, where two angry monsters were trying to get at them from. “What are we going to do? Those things will rip us to pieces if we get too close.” Big Mac shared his thoughts with the rest of the group, although the grim reminder to them was unnecessary to understand the severity of their crisis. Neon Streak frantically tried thinking of a possible solution to their problem. If she failed to think of something, they would be essentially screwed. Her arms would get tired eventually, the door to Applebloom’s bedroom might break eventually, and more of the monsters might decide to break into the house eventually. “Ok… I have a plan, but you guys are going to have to listen to me and do exactly as I say. Everyone with me?” The green mare asked while looking around at the three ponies. She would need all of them to cooperate if they were going to survive. Applejack looked between her two siblings for a moment to see how they were faring. Big Mac seemed to be holding up well, but the orange mare could tell he was just as terrified as she was. One look at the yellow filly was enough to tell that she was scared out of her wits. Applejack hated seeing her sister in situations like these. “We’ll help in any way we can Neon… what do you have in mind?” Applejack asked in a serious tone while somehow mustering up some confidence. Neon Streak was pleased to hear that the orange mare would help her. “We’re going to make a break for the bathroom. When we do, this guy in here is probably going to be right on our tails, so we need to be quick.” The green pony explained as calm and clearly as she could manage. “How are we going to get over there? Those two aren’t moving very far.” Applejack asked with an anxious expression while looking over to the two monsters at the end of the hall. Even with Neon firing her strobe as fast as she could, the two creatures were just barely kept at bay. “That’s where you come in.” Neon Streak replied while carefully moving closer to the orange mare. “Reach into the pocket on my front left. There should be another strobe in there.” She instructed while keeping her attention on the two monsters. Catching on to what the green mare had in mind, Applejack nodded and carefully reached into her vest while also keeping her back to the door. It took a brief moment to move her arm without moving the rest of her body, but the orange mare finally managed to reach the pocket in question. After undoing the button on the pocket’s clasp, she reached inside and felt around until her hoof came across a small vial shaped object. “Got it.” Applejack announced while pulling the vial out and checking it to ensure that it was a strobe. Sure enough, the vial was filled with a blue liquid, and it had a small button on one of the caps. “Ok good… now try firing at those two. I want to make sure we can push them back before we charge headlong at them.” Neon Streak explained while looking ahead. Applejack would have commended the green pony for her rational thinking in the face of danger, but she decided to instead obey her instructions. Taking aim at the pair of monsters, the farm pony rapidly pressed the trigger on the vial. Several bursts of energy flew out of the tip of the bottle, joining with the blasts fired by the green mare as they traveled towards the two monsters. With the force of two strobes being fired at them constantly, the two creatures were pushed back at a faster rate than before, once the beasts were at such a distance that they started going down the stairs to find cover from the constant onslaught, the ponies smiled triumphantly at their small victory. “Alright! Now we’re in business.” Neon Streak cheered while turning around to face the frightened filly. “Applebloom, you still with us? Are you going to be able to run with us?” She asked in a softer tone while addressing the nervous young pony. Neon wanted to make sure that everyone was capable of running to the bathroom before they started. She wanted to ensure that nothing could go wrong with her plan. Applebloom looked at the green mare with a fearful expression. She nodded slowly as she mustered up the willpower needed to get moving again. The last thing she wanted was to be left behind while the others escaped. “Yes… Ah can do it.” Applebloom said with a slight tremble in her voice while putting on a confident expression. Neon Streak smiled as she watched the filly trying to be brave. “Ok good, now let’s get ready. On the count of three, we’re going to run for the bathroom. Big Mac, I need you to open the door and get inside. Once we’re all in, I need you to close it and lock it.” The green mare explained her plan to her companions. “Ok.” The red stallion replied while nodding confidently. “Alright… Applejack, you and I will be firing these strobes off as fast as we can. We need to be quick, and we need to be careful.” Neon explained while giving the orange mare a sincere expression. Everyone’s survival depended on them working together, so she wanted to be sure that everyone was on the same page. “Ah’m ready when you are.” Applejack replied confidently. She gulped nervously while looking ahead at the barely visible electrical flashes coming from just down the stairs. “Alright… everyone get ready. One…” Neon started counting up, alerting everyone to her plan. The three farm ponies readied themselves for the task at hand. They could feel their tense nerves jittering as fear and stress fought against their concentration. “Two…” The green mare steeled herself as she drew nearer to her plan being executed. She hoped that everyone would make it through the night alive. Applejack and her two siblings shared one last concerned glance with each other before settling their eyes forward. They knew full well that they were about to charge straight into danger. All they could do was perform their part of the plan as efficiently as possible in the hopes that everyone else would be safe. “Three!” As Neon Streak yelled the final number, everyone rushed forward. The two mares in front blasted their strobes rapidly in the hopes that the two creatures ahead of them would be kept at bay. Perhaps in response to the ponies’ charge, the two creatures flew up the stairs again in an attempt at getting at their prey. The monsters howled angrily as they fought against the blasts of energy to make any progress forward they could. About halfway through their sprint, the ponies heard the loud and distinct sound of the bedroom door behind them bursting open. They didn’t dare turn their heads around, but judging from the third growling noise behind them, they knew that the third creature was chasing after them. With tense nerves and gritted teeth, the ponies reached the bathroom door. Big Mac threw open the door and ushered Applebloom inside. Once the two were safely inside, Applejack and Neon Streak moved sideways to get inside. Applejack made it inside and turned around to cover her friend as she rushed forward. Before the green mare could make it through the door however, she suddenly yelled in pain as her hair stood on end. “Neon!” Everyone yelled in a fearful panic as they watched the mare convulse violently. As Applejack rushed forward to assist her, she noticed that one of the electrified creatures was touching her on the leg. “Let her go!” The orange mare yelled angrily while blasting her strobe at the monster. The creature growled and let go as it was driven backwards. Neon Streak immediately collapsed to the floor and remained motionless. Big Mac rushed forward and grabbed the unconscious mare. He quickly pulled her inside while Applejack closed the door and locked it. Once they were safe from the beasts outside, the ponies fully turned their attention to their injured comrade. “Neon!” Applejack called her name frantically while gently shaking her. The green mare offered no response as she remained limp and motionless. “Oh no… please don’t be dead.” The farm pony muttered in a frantic panic while checking the suited pony for a pulse. Thankfully, the unconscious mare seemed to be breathing. “Oh thank Celestia… she’s just knocked out.” The orange mare breathed a sigh of relief. Although her friend was still in danger, she was at least still alive at the moment. As she heard the sounds of the creatures trying to break in, another grim thought occurred to the farm pony. “What are we going to do now? Neon is the only one who can call for help.” Applejack stated uneasily. Her two siblings shared an uneasy glance with her before settling their eyes on the unresponsive mare on the floor. With the strange beasts outside clawing at the door trying to get in, and with their only line to the outside world laying on the floor out cold, they were trapped like rats in a cage. Chapter 57: Rude AwakeningsMost of the group over at the carousel boutique was fast asleep after their hard day of work, most of them, but not all of them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were wide awake while listening to the story being told by Pinkie Pie. The tall tale was actually more frightening than either of the fillies could have predicted, at least they felt that it was frightening. Scootaloo was gripping her sleeping bag tightly while cowering in fear. She took a quick glance over to her friend, only to see that the white filly wasn’t faring much better. As Sweetie Belle looked over to the orange filly, Scootaloo tried to appear as if she wasn’t fazed by the scary story, although she had no idea if she was doing a good job or not. “And they were never… seen… again!” Pinkie Pie spoke in an ominous tone while using a flashlight to cast a spooky shadow over her face. However effective it might have been, the two fillies weren’t even sure where the pink mare acquired the flashlight. “So… did you like it?” The pink mare asked while returning her cheery disposition. It was astonishing how fast she could switch attitudes on the fly. “Um… yeah.” Scootaloo stated while gulping nervously and putting on a forced smile. “Y-yeah.” Sweetie Belle replied timidly. Her teeth were practically chattering as she tried to smile while holding her sleeping bag close to her body. “Great! Now let’s get some sleep.” Pinkie stated while laying down and relaxing. Before the two fillies could even protest, the pink mare was snoring peacefully. “Oh come on… who goes to sleep that fast?” Scootaloo shrugged nervously while observing her dark surroundings. She was now regretting her decision to insist on a scary story. “Well… I guess we should get to sleep.” Sweetie Belle stated nervously while settling into her sleeping bag. “Yeah… I guess so.” Scootaloo replied while crawling into her own sleeping bag. “Goodnight Sweetie Belle.” She said as she hesitantly accepted going to sleep. “Goodnight Scootaloo.” The white filly replied while finding a comfortable position. Despite both fillies having said their goodnights, neither of them actually managed to get to sleep. Thoughts of the frightening tale they had just listened to combined with the dark atmosphere around them to create a very anxious pair of crusaders. Scootaloo and her friend sat motionless in the darkness of the room. Neither one of them wanted to look around the room for fear that they might see something amid the shadows around them. Despite their best efforts, all the pair could do was close their eyes and hope they could get to sleep. Just as the pair was about to drift off into an uneasy sleep, an unexpected noise made them sit up in their sleeping bags out of surprise. Seemingly out of nowhere, the wind picked up outside, and what sounded like rain started coming down onto the building. Before long, the rain had increased in intensity, causing the two fillies to grow concerned as they listened to the downpour. Usually storms that traveled through town were more controlled and stable than this, and they were typically scheduled days in advance. “Do you hear that?” Sweetie Belle asked to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. “Yeah… what the hay is going on?” Scootaloo replied curiously. After a few minutes, the sound of thunder was added to the storm. It sounded like a severe storm system was moving through the area, but the fillies knew that such a thing should have been impossible without the work of several pegasi. The two crusaders didn’t have to wonder much longer as to the origin of the strange storm as a sudden loud buzz sounded out from across the room. As the pair of fillies looked over to the source of the noise, they realized that it was coming from the three vests left behind by Brimstoke and the others. A lone vial on each of the vests was glowing a bright shade of blue, as well as emanating a magical hum. The sound of the three alarms going off woke up much of the group of sleeping ponies. As they realized what was going on, Brimstoke and his two teammates quickly became awake and alert as they rushed to get out of their sleeping bags. “What’s happening?” Rarity asked in a startled tone as she became aware of the raging tempest outside. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that the strange storm and the violent reactions from the detectors were probably linked. Glitterball managed to get to her vest first. She fumbled around with the blue vial for a moment before unclipping it from its pull cord. After examining the readout further, the unicorn determined that something was moving closer to the group. “It looks like something is moving towards us… maybe it’s this storm?” Glitter stated in an attempt at explaining what was happening. “That just begs the question of why is this storm giving off a reading?” Brimstoke asked while looking out of the window. “Why is this storm even here? It was supposed to be clear for the next few days.” Fluttershy said while uneasily listening to the raging thunder and rain. “The last time we had a storm system move in that wasn’t supposed to be there, we had an army of skeletons pop out of the ground. Something is up… we should probably call the others.” Glimmer Shine suggested while setting his vest back down on the table. “Alright… I’ll call up the others.” Brimstoke stated while putting a hoof up to his ear. He decided to check in on each of his teammates individually to make things easier. Not much was crossing Sunspot’s mind as she slept peacefully. She was just getting to the point where she was in a deep sleep. After the hard day’s work the pegasus had, she was certain that she would sleep like an immovable rock, and it looked like she was right. “Sunspot, you awake?” The sound of Brimstoke’s voice jolted the orange mare awake. "GAH!" Sunspot yelped while lifting a few feet in the air before falling back down to her mattress and nearly bouncing off of it. After her brief outburst of surprise, the orange mare realized what was happening and breathed a frustrated sigh. “What the hay was that about?” Rainbow Dash muttered groggily as she found herself being woken up by Sunspot’s outcry. “Ugh… Brimstoke is calling me… something must be up.” Sunspot replied while still trying to calm her racing heart. She lazily put a hoof up to her ear and tried to prevent herself from chastising the stallion for waking her up so suddenly. “Sunspot here… what’s going on?” Sunspot asked curiously while trying to wake herself up further. “There’s some kind of storm system moving through here. It’s lighting our detectors up like a fireworks display.” Brimstoke explained with a serious tone of voice. Almost on cue to match up with what the stallion was saying, Sunspot heard the far off sound of thunder ringing out. Before long, the sound of a soft drizzle could be heard. “Yeah… I think we’re about to get hit with it too… is there anything off about it?” The pegasus asked with an uncertain expression. She wanted to know ahead of time if some kind of horrible monster was heading her way. “We don’t know… Just check on Neon Streak and get back to me… and stay sharp.” Brimstoke instructed before getting off the line. “What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked while getting out of bed. The noises of thunder and rain approaching were making her uneasy and tense. “There’s some kind of storm system moving our way that is giving off paranormal readings. Brimstoke wants me to check on Neon Streak before getting back to him… hold on a sec.” Sunspot said while concentrating on Neon Streak. Once she felt the connection go through, she took in a breath to speak. “Neon, you there?” The orange pegasus spoke up to wake the most likely sleeping green mare. She hated to be the one to disturb her friend from her slumber, but it was necessary. As she received no response, Sunspot became slightly concerned. “Neon… come in.” Sunspot raised her voice slightly to make sure that she could be heard. After receiving nothing but silence once again, the pegasus was starting to get very alarmed for the safety of her friend. "Neon?" Sunspot asked one last time in a loud voice. When she was once again met by silence, she felt her heart beating slightly faster as several terrifying thoughts about the green pony flooded her mind. “Neon, answer me!” The distress in the orange mare’s voice was clearly apparent. Rainbow Dash could easily tell that something was wrong. “What’s wrong?” the cyan pegasus asked with a concerned expression. She was hoping that nothing bad had happened to the green mare, especially considering she was with Applejack and her family. “Neon isn’t answering me… something must have happened.” Sunspot replied in an uneasy tone. “Maybe we’re out of range… we are pretty far away.” Rainbow Dash reasoned in an uncertain tone. She was eager to accept any other explanation other than her friends being in danger. “No, I can tell that the connection is there. She just isn’t responding… which means she is either busy, unconscious, or…” The orange mare froze mid-sentence as she came to the next logical conclusion. She shook her head to rid herself of such grim thoughts. Deciding not to dwell on her friend being in danger, Sunspot concentrated on Brimstoke again to update him on the green mare’s status. “Brimstoke… I can’t get ahold of Neon. I think she might be in trouble.” Sunspot explained in a concerned tone. It took a moment for the stallion to respond. “That isn’t good… we’re hearing noises outside, it sounds like there might be some kind of creature in the storm.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. The prospect of a monster being present when one of her friends was unresponsive troubled the orange mare. “I should go check on her…” Sunspot stated while getting up. She wasn’t about to stand around while a friend might be in danger. “No, it’s too dangerous to be blindly charging into things. You should stay put and keep yourselves safe.” Brimstoke replied in a stern tone. Sunspot shrugged in annoyance as she was practically ordered to ignore her teammate. “But Brimstoke, she could be in danger! We need to go help her now!” The orange mare protested with a tense attitude. “I know, but right now we need to be smart about things. I’m going to call Peppermint… maybe Tom can-” Before Brimstoke could finish his sentence, Sunspot heard the sound of glass shattering bleed through the call. After this outburst, the pegasus could hear the sounds of high pitched screaming before the stallion disconnected the call abruptly. “Brimstoke?! What happened?!” Sunspot asked frantically, hoping that she would get some kind of a response. After receiving only dead silence on the other side of the line, the pegasus was starting to get very concerned for her teammates. Sunspot threw the rest of her covers off and got up. She then quickly stormed off to the bathroom with a very urgent expression. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what the orange mare was thinking, but it couldn’t have been good considering the circumstances. “What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned tone. Sunspot merely ignored her while grabbing her suit and putting it on. “Sunspot!” The cyan mare yelled to get the attention of the stubborn pegasus. Sunspot shrugged before turning to face the concerned pony. “Something happened to Brimstoke and the others. I’m going to go help them… Ack!” The orange mare yelped in pain as she tried putting her injured wing through the sleeve of the suit. Rainbow Dash frowned as she watched the determined pegasus injuring herself to go assist her friends. It reminded her of what she would most likely do, but she still had to think logically. “Sunspot… you can barely touch your wing without hurting yourself, let alone fly with it. There is no way I’m letting you go out there.” The cyan pony explained in an understanding tone of voice. Sunspot didn’t appear to be accepting her speech however as she continued putting on her suit. “No offense Rainbow Dash, but I wasn’t asking for your permission. You’re the element of loyalty. You of all ponies should understand how I feel.” The orange pegasus stated in an attempt at getting Rainbow Dash to understand her desire to help her friends. “I do understand how you feel… I mean hay, my friends are out there too. I want to help them as bad as you do, but we aren’t any good to them dead.” The cyan mare explained in a sympathetic tone. Sunspot shrugged as she tried to see things from the other perspective. “What do you suggest we do then?” Sunspot asked with a defeated expression. “I say we call Peppermint and tell Tom what is going on… maybe he can help us out.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a confident tone. Sunspot nodded as she agreed with the cyan pony’s line of reasoning. “Ok… let me see if Pepper will pick up the line.” Sunspot stated hopefully while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating on the red haired stallion. Over at the library, Peppermint was lying awake on the floor while listening to the sounds of rain and thunder outside. He wondered why there was a storm this severe taking place, or how it hadn’t even woken up the human on the other side of the room. Tom might not have slept for very long, but when he did sleep, he must have slept like a rock. Not even the loudest burst of thunder seemed to elicit even the smallest response from the slayer as he remained motionless under his blankets and pillows. “Pepper, are you there?” The sound of Sunspot’s voice suddenly rang through Peppermint’s ears. After jumping slightly from the sudden noise, the white stallion put his hoof up to his ear to communicate with the pegasus. “Yeah, I’m here… what’s wrong?” Pepper asked curiously. Given the circumstances that they were told to call each other, and the slightly tense tone of voice the orange mare had, he figured that something was amiss. “What’s wrong…? Don’t you hear the storm?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone. Peppermint returned his attention to the downpour outside. He hadn’t paid the odd storm that much attention before, even if he did find it a little suspicious. “Yeah… what about it?” Pepper replied with confusion evident in his voice. Judging from her reaction, he could tell that the pegasus was amazed at the fact that he was so calm and oblivious. “Dude! Some kind of monster is using this storm as a cover! Isn’t your detector buzzing?” Sunspot asked in astonishment. Peppermint looked behind him at his vest placed on the table in confusion. He hadn’t heard a single hum from the evil detector all night. Judging from how serious the pegasus sounded, the white pony decided to inspect the vial up close. Pepper got out of his makeshift bed and walked up to the table to pick up his vest. Sure enough, the detector vial was just barely glowing blue. “I’m getting a reading, but just barely. It isn’t even making any noise.” Peppermint stated his findings in a confused tone. He was still unsure of what was even happening to make the orange mare so upset. “What?! Ok... never mind, that doesn’t matter right now. Wake Tom up now. Brimstoke and the others are being attacked, and I can’t even get ahold of Neon Streak.” Sunspot instructed urgently. Peppermint was alarmed by the sudden news that his teammates were in danger. “Wait what?! What are they being attacked by?!” Pepper asked in a panicked tone of voice. “I don’t know, something just broke through a window and then they dropped the call. Just wake Tom up and tell him to head over to check on Neon.” The orange pegasus explained urgently. “What about Brimstoke and the others?” Peppermint asked to clarify why the pegasus didn’t want Tom to go help the white stallion and his group. It made more sense to him to help more people as fast as possible. “I’m going to go help them myself, just hurry up!” The orange mare replied while raising her voice slightly. The sound of the pegasus yelling in his ear made Pepper’s head hurt enough to warrant him paying attention. “Ok, ok!” Pepper stated while turning around to wake up the sleeping human. Before he could even get another word out, another sudden noise made the white pony divert his attention back to the table. The vial on his vest that was glowing a soft blue before was now lighting up like a blazing fire. The vial was also emitting a loud buzz that was so intense that it practically made the vest vibrate on the table. As Pepper went to investigate his detector, a loud and raspy gasp of air filled the room. The white stallion looked over to see Tom arching upwards as a spout of blue mist erupted from his mouth. The human sat up and breathed rapidly with an urgent and surprised expression on his face. “We’ve got company!” The boy stated in an alarmed tone while getting up. While Tom was looking around with a serious expression and using his senses more, Peppermint was merely confused. “What are you talking about? Did you feel something?” The red haired pony asked with a growing sense of concern. Before Tom could reply, a loud crash followed by a pair of blood curdling screams came from upstairs. The pair froze in their tracks as they realized that the outburst belonged to Twilight and Spike. “I felt more than just something, I felt some things!” The human stated while rushing to the stairs. Peppermint grabbed his vest and put it on while trotting to join the boy as he ran to assist the unicorn and dragon. “I’ll call you back Sunspot!” The white stallion said while holding a hoof up to his ear. He didn’t exactly want to leave the pegasus hanging, but he had more pressing matters to deal with. As the two ran up the stairs, they couldn’t remove the alarming thoughts racing through their heads. Every fiber of their bodies told them to move faster, as fast as they possibly could to get to their friends that much quicker. Tom got to the door first and threw it open. Once they stepped inside, the pair saw a hair-raising scene in front of them. Broken glass littered the floor in front of the windows as the wind and rain blew the curtains around violently. Two monstrous figures shrouded in black were floating menacingly in the room. And there was a terrified unicorn and a young dragon cowering against the back wall, trying to get as far away from their attackers as possible. “Tom! Help!” Twilight yelled in fright as she stared at the two in the doorway. It was hard to even hear the purple mare over the sounds of wind and the creatures’ growls, but it was easy to tell how utterly terrified she was. Tom immediately reached for his sword and charged forward bravely. As he reached one of the creatures, it swung its claws around and struck him across the face. Along with receiving a nasty and painful gash, the boy was sent flying into the wall from the sheer force of the strike. While the human was reeling from his botched attack plan, Peppermint instinctively reached for his strobe. Taking aim at the two monsters, the stallion fired off several volleys of blasts. The balls of light flew into the specters and exploded into their forms. The creatures let out an agitated howl while spinning around to face the red haired pony. Despite the bone chilling site of the two monsters staring at him with milky white eyes, Peppermint continued his series of attacks. While the two creatures slowly gained ground on the nervous stallion, Twilight and Spike were watching the scene unfold anxiously. They were still adjusting to suddenly being woken up by two monsters crashing into the room, so they were unsure of anything they could do to help. Meanwhile, Tom was still recovering from his injuries. While the gashes on his face were still healing up, he took a moment to use his senses again to examine the two creatures. Suddenly, the human noticed something about the two monsters that he hadn’t before. Peppermint was sweating nervously as he watched the two advancing beasts. He was firing off his strobe as fast as his hooves could press the button, but the creatures were relentlessly charging forward to get at him. The white stallion could see the evil intent in their cold dead eyes. He could see how ravenously they were going to rip him apart once they caught up to him. He wouldn’t be surprised if they fought each other over who got to kill him. Suddenly, one of the creatures paused in the air and reeled its arms back. With a swift push, a tremendous gust of wind surged into the room from outside. The gale was so intense that it created visible ripples in the air as it crashed towards the red haired pony. Peppermint felt himself getting lifted off his feet as he was shoved backwards from the blast of air. He felt the glass vial that was serving as his weapon getting suddenly and violently ripped from his hooves. The clatter of the strobe as it bounced along the ground mixed into the loud thump of the stallion slamming into the nearby wall. “Ooof!” Pepper grunted painfully as the back of his head met the wall behind him. While still in a hazy mixture of pain and drowsiness, he looked forward to see the two monsters leering at him as they presented their claws menacingly. “Uh… ah… AHH!” The red haired pony screamed in terror as he listened to the two creatures roar as they charged at him. He could see his entire life flashing before his eyes in a single instant. Suddenly, the creatures let out an ear piercing screech of pain. Peppermint opened his eyes and looked up to see them recoiling to the side as they were driven back by something. He then noticed Tom stepping forward with his hand held out in front of him. The creatures seemed to be held at bay by some invisible force, and the human seemed to be the one pulling the strings. As Tom slowly pointed his hand over to the side, the two monsters moved to the side along with him, as if they were compelled against their will by the slayer. Tom seemed to be shaking slightly, as if he were being put under a great strain. “How are you doing that?” Peppermint asked in an astonished tone. As he sent the two beasts against the far wall, Tom seemed to be under too much stress to answer the stallion at the moment. The human gripped his sword with his free hand and flipped it around. With a fierce yell, he charged forward and plunged the luminescent blade through one of the beast’s midsections. As he yanked the sword upwards, the creature screeched in pain and disappeared into a mist of black smoke. Not wasting any time, the slayer shoved the katana through the other monster’s head. The beast didn’t even offer a noise in protest as it was suddenly rendered silent. Once both monsters had disappeared into smoke, Tom let his arms fall to his side to rest. “That was amazing… how did you do that Tom?” Twilight asked in a cheerful manner as she admired her two saviors. “They’re demons…” The boy explained in between breaths. The brief answer perplexed the others, even Peppermint with his knowledge on the paranormal. “What?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “They’re demons… lesser demons, but still demons nonetheless. Slayers can influence demons with their power… make them bend to their will.” Tom clarified while re-holstering his sword and walking over to the group. “It’s a good thing too… those things shrugged off my strobe like it was nothing. How do we beat these guys?” Peppermint thought out loud while frowning with concern. “Ok… listen up.” Tom spoke up with a serious expression. Everyone listened intently as they expected the slayer to dispense some important knowledge to them. “I need you to go down to the kitchen and grab some salt.” The human instructed in a very sincere manner. The ponies hesitated for a moment while they processed what they had just been told. “Salt…? Why do we need salt?” Peppermint asked with a perplexed expression. Tom seemed surprised that the stallion of all people didn’t understand him. “Good lord… just how much information do you guys have on the paranormal?” Tom asked in slight disappointment. Seeing nothing to indicate that the ponies were joking around, the boy sighed to himself before trying to find an explanation. “Salt repels a wide variety of evil creatures… demons included. You guys are going to hole up in the bathroom while I go out and find where these guys are coming from before they hurt anyone else.” Tom explained in a serious tone of voice. “Wait a minute… Sunspot said that Brimstoke and the others were being attacked! We need to help them!” Peppermint stated with a newfound sense of urgency. In all of the commotion, he had almost forgotten that his friends were in danger. “Ah… hell.” Tom muttered to himself uncomfortably. He had a strange feeling that it was going to be a long night. Chapter 58: Demonic Dilemma-A few minutes earlier- “Alright… I’ll call up the others.” Brimstoke stated while putting a hoof up to his ear. Everyone else waited patiently while the stallion contacted his teammates scattered around town. While he was focusing on getting in touch with the others, everyone else in the room was focusing on the storm raging outside. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were huddling near Fluttershy and Rarity while listening to the harsh pounding of the rain and wind against the windows. They felt tense and nervous during normal storms, but this one was mysterious and frightening to them due to its sinister origins. Every flash of lightning and every increase in the speed of the rain would make them fill up with dread. “Rarity… when is it going to stop?” Sweetie Belle asked timidly. She wasn’t sure if her sister knew the answer, but she had to make some attempt to feel secure. Rarity looked down to the petrified white filly and frowned. She hated seeing her sister so afraid, even if she herself was feeling the same amount of fear. As she looked up to view the steady fall of rain droplets on her bedroom windows, the unicorn was unsure of how to comfort her younger sibling. “I don’t know Sweetie Belle, but I’m sure everything is going to be fine.” Rarity stated in what she hoped would be a soothing tone. “Don’t worry guys… it’s just a little rain and thunder. I’m sure that this storm will be over soon.” Pinkie Pie chimed in with a reassuring tone while walking over to a window. If the pink mare was scared, she was hiding it well. Perhaps she was frightened, but she decided to put on a smile to cheer up her friends. “We don’t know… just check on Neon Streak and get back to me… and stay sharp.” Brimstoke added before dropping his hoof from his ear and turning to face the group. “Sunspot is going to check on the others for us… right now we should just sit tight and see what happens with this storm.” The stallion explained in an uneasy tone while glancing out of the window. “I would rather have nothing happen at all…” Scootaloo said in a jesting manner. Despite her attempt at an upbeat attitude, the orange filly couldn’t prevent herself from feeling nervous and uneasy. “Hey, here’s hoping.” Glitterball stated while offering the young pegasus a supportive hoof on the shoulder. Scootaloo appreciated the unicorn’s attempt at making her feel better, even if it didn’t entirely work. Suddenly, an odd howling noise made itself known as it rose above the constant pounding of the rain. It sounded like a nasty wind was whistling through an old building, but it didn’t seem to be coming from around the ponies as such a noise should have. The disturbing noise made a cold shiver run down everyone’s spine. Even Pinkie Pie was disquieted enough to warrant her moving away from the windows to feel safer. As the ponies stared outside while the noise continued, they wondered what could have been making it. “W-what is that?” Sweetie Belle asked nervously while looking around in an attempt at determining the noise’s origin. “It sounds like the wind…” Glimmer Shine stated with slight uncertainty. Perhaps it was too much wishful thinking on his part, but it did sound a little bit like the wind after all. “I hope it’s the wind… but that sounds a little odd to be just wind.” Fluttershy observed fearfully. She could feel her blood run cold with each change in pitch the noise made as it howled in the darkness. It was eerie in the pitch black bedroom before the noise started. With the lightning constantly flooding the room with white light, casting dark shadows across the room and revealing the scary silhouettes made by the various objects inside, and the constant pounding of the rain against the roof and windows, the ponies were trapped in an extremely frightening environment. Now, with the addition of the shrill noise coming from outside, the group could barely prevent their teeth from chattering in fright. Everyone tried their best to huddle close to Rarity and Glitterball. Being the only capable unicorns in the room, they were the group’s only reliable source of light. “Brimstoke… I can’t get ahold of Neon. I think she might be in trouble.” Brimstoke suddenly heard Sunspot’s voice as she updated him on her progress. The news that the green mare wasn’t responding came as a dreadful surprise to the stallion. Not wanting the more sensitive members of the group to hear him, Brimstoke walked off to the side and lowered his voice as he responded to the pegasus. “That isn’t good… we’re hearing noises outside, it sounds like there might be some kind of creature in the storm.” Brimstoke explained in an uneasy tone. Sunspot groaned anxiously as she became more aware of the bad situation everyone was in. “I should go check on her…” The orange mare stated with determination in her voice. Brimstoke didn’t like how brash and careless the pegasus was being. “No, it’s too dangerous to be blindly charging into things. You should stay put and keep yourselves safe.” The stallion replied in a stern tone. He didn’t want the injured mare to be doing anything dangerous, not to mention the fact that she was supposed to be keeping Rainbow Dash safe. Brimstoke heard Sunspot audibly shrug in annoyance. He could tell that she was eager to assist Neon Streak, and he couldn’t blame her for that, but she needed to think rationally about what she was going to do or she might get hurt. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was on the other side of the room with her sister. The two unicorns were huddling together while trying to keep their spirits up. Although she still felt nervous from the storm outside, the white filly was starting to feel more comfortable with her sister. Suddenly, while Rarity was chatting with Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle noticed movement coming from one of the windows. It was a barely noticeable shadow against the already pitch black night. Perhaps it was a silhouette of a building outside, but then again, buildings didn’t move. Curious as to whether or not she was seeing things, Sweetie Belle separated from her sister and inched closer to the window to get a better look. She flinched slightly when a loud burst of thunder sounded out, but she slowly continued her path to the wall. Once she got to the window, she sat down and observed the rain droplets falling against the glass portal. It was a raging tempest outside, but inside of the boutique, Sweetie Belle was perfectly dry and safe. Perhaps it was her mind trying to help her cope with fear, but the filly found it soothing to watch the rain fall against the window. Still cautious about what she had seen earlier, she looked around once more and squinted her eyes to make out anything bizarre outside. With no further signs of the odd shadow, Sweetie Belle decided to linger a bit longer before heading back over to the crowd of ponies. “But Brimstoke… she could be in danger! We need to go help her now!” Sunspot argued in a tense tone of voice. Brimstoke shrugged uncomfortably as he tried to make the orange mare see reason. He was so focused on his conversation that he failed to notice that his detector was glowing brighter while pointing directly behind him. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine noticed that the quiet buzz of their detectors had returned. They looked down to the vials and became alarmed when they interpreted the reading. “I know, but right now we need to be smart about things. I’m going to call Peppermint… maybe Tom can-” Brimstoke tried to suggest a better plan of action for the pegasus, when he was suddenly interrupted by Glitterball speaking up in an urgent tone. “Uh, guys! We’ve got a prob-” Before the unicorn could finish her sentence, the deafening sound of glass shattering and wind flooding into the room silenced her. “AHHHHH!!!” Sweetie Belle screamed and covered her face to shield herself from the broken glass flying at her. She caught a brief glimpse of the creature that had just broken through the window, one that was enough to make her hair stand on end. The terrifying sight of the white eyed monster shocked her into a fearful retreat as she scooted backwards to escape. Everyone turned their heads in shocked horror as they witnessed the black shrouded beast flying into the room with a fierce growl. The sight of the young unicorn in such close proximity to the horrific monster sent a wave of alarm through everyone’s body, most of all Rarity. “Sweetie Belle!” The white mare yelled in a panic while rushing forward. She might have been terrified of the monster in front of her, but she wasn’t about to let it hurt her little sister. “Rarity!” Pinkie and Fluttershy cried out in unison as they watched their friend running forward to protect her sister. They wanted to help her, but they were cemented in place from their mind numbing fear of the monster before them. As the white unicorn reached her sister and grabbed her, she noticed that the monster was rearing its arm back to attack. Not wanting Sweetie Belle to take any of the impact, Rarity turned sideways to shield the filly from the sharp claws of the beast. Brimstoke and Glitterball, being the only ones that were holding their vests at the time flipped them around and grabbed their strobes with almost perfect execution. While Glimmer Shine raced to pick up his vest from the nearby table, his two teammates opened fire on the monstrous intruder. The bolts of energy collided with the monster, but didn’t seem to deter it to any great effect. As it pushed against the incoming blasts, the creature swiped at the two unicorns with its clawed hand. The strike barely clipped Rarity across the face, but it was just enough to cause some considerable damage. “AGH!” the white mare cried out in pain as she felt the stabbing sensation course through her cheek. The force of the strike, combined with the pain she was feeling, was enough to send the unicorn to the ground as she fell backwards and clutched her injury with her free hoof. Much to her horror, the unicorn could feel three sizable gashes in her cheek. As she pulled her hoof off of her face, Rarity saw that it was stained with blood. She could even feel the warm liquid drip down her wound and onto the rest of her face. The others were horrified that their friend had been injured. They were even more horrified when they saw that the monster was preparing to stab its claws into the two ponies on the ground. Rarity gasped in shock as she saw the vicious beast holding its claws above its head in a threatening manner. She held the frightened filly next to her close and buried her head into her hair to hide both of their eyes from the grisly act about to take place. Rarity suddenly felt a hoof grab her by her back. She then felt someone forcefully sliding her and her sister along the floor. As the unicorn came to a stop by hitting her bedframe, she looked up to see who had rescued her. Glimmer Shine had apparently stopped going after his vest, and instead focused his efforts on getting the two ponies to safety. “Glimmer, lookout!” Rarity yelled fearfully while pointing behind the yellow stallion. Glimmer tried his best to run forward, but he was unable to escape the creature as it slashed its claws across his vest-less back. Although he had expected to be caught in the crossfire when he shoved Rarity and Sweetie Belle out of the way, nothing could have prepared the yellow stallion for the stinging pain that would occur when the beast raked its bladelike claws across his back. “Gah!” Glimmer Shine cringed and gritted his teeth to prevent a painful outburst. With blood running down his back, he rushed forward to escape any possible follow up attack from the monster. As he reached the two unicorns still staring wide eyed on the floor, Glimmer turned around to protect them from any other advances by the creature. Much to his dismay, he saw that the creature had no intentions of leaving out of the window from whence it came. Suddenly, the monster was enveloped in a blue aura. As it realized that it was being moved against its will, the creature howled fiercely while clawing at the force field keeping it at bay. Everyone turned their heads to see Glitterball with her horn lit up and a strained expression on her face. “Guys! Set up a physical barrier on the door! I’ll hold this guy off!” Glitter yelled frantically while using all of her might to push the monster back outside through the window. Glimmer Shine and Brimstoke sprang into action as they ran to the door. The fierce shrieks of the monster as it fought against Glitterball made the two stallions fill up with a sense of urgency. Glimmer Shine quickly scribbled the necessary runes on a piece of paper while it was affixed on the door. After the first piece was done, the two quickly opened the door to prepare the piece on the other side. Brimstoke watched down the hallway with his strobe at the ready while Glimmer Shine prepared the charm. After a few moments of frantically scribbling the proper symbols on the paper, the yellow pony firmly placed it against the door and signaled for his partner to get back inside. As Glimmer shut the door, a bright flash of light emanated from the piece of paper. Once the light died down, the stallion could see the symbols on the paper were glowing bright red. On the other side of the room, Glitterball let go of the monster once she knew it was safe. The creature roared angrily as it flew back into the window, only to be pushed back by the newly created barrier. Once it realized that it was being kept out, the creature pounded on the force field with all of its body weight. The exhausted unicorn sat down and breathed heavily as she recovered from her ordeal. As she rested, she suddenly remembered that she wasn’t the only one in bad shape. After taking a brief look over to Glimmer Shine, she realized that he was being looked over by Brimstoke. Glitterball then turned her attention over to the injured white mare on the other side of the room. Rarity was trying to comfort Sweetie Belle, while also coddling her wounds. The white filly was distraught that her sister was injured while trying to protect her. “Rarity… are you ok?!” The young unicorn asked frantically while trying to get a good look at the injury. Rarity tried her best to hide the extent of the wound from her sister. “I’m fine Sweetie Belle, it’s just a little cut.” The white mare hid the stinging pain from reaching her face. She had to keep a bright appearance to prevent Sweetie Belle from seeing how bad she was actually hurt. The two noticed Glitterball walking up to them slowly. The concern on her face was evident, even through her exhaustion. “Are you two alright?” Glitter asked while examining the ghastly set of slashes on the white mare’s face. Rarity looked back to her sister with a troubled expression. She knew that Glitter wanted to look at her wound, and she also knew that it definitely needed looking at, but she didn’t want her sister to see it. “Umm yeah… Sweetie Belle, why don’t you go talk to Scootaloo?” The unicorn suggested in a reassuring tone. Sweetie Belle was leery about leaving her sister, but she nodded and walked away, deciding to listen to her orders. Now that the two were alone, Glitterball immediately turned her attention to examining Rarity’s injury. “Are you ok…? Really?” Glitter asked while gently pulling the white mare’s hoof away. Rarity cringed in pain as she felt her wound being exposed to the air. Glitterball gasped quietly as she saw the three gashes. “It stings a little, but other than that I’m fine. I would be a lot worse if Glimmer Shine didn’t push us out of the way… is he alright?” Rarity asked with a concerned expression while glancing over to the injured stallion. Brimstoke was already applying bandages to the cuts on his back. “I haven’t checked, but it looks like he’s fine. He’s a tough one… he’ll bounce back.” Glitterball replied with a reassuring smile. “Now, let’s get you patched up.” She stated while reaching for a set of bandages and a small bottle of disinfectant. Rarity cringed in anticipation as she stared at the medical equipment. “Hold still… I’ll be as gentle as possible.” The rainbow haired mare spoke in an understanding tone. Rarity nodded slowly while she watched Glitterball prepare her bandages. As she felt a cotton ball wetted with disinfectant touch her skin, Rarity yelped and jerked her head away slightly. Glitterball hesitated while her patient got comfortable enough to move back into position. While she was sitting still, the white unicorn had time to pay attention to the broken window. Oddly enough, there wasn’t any more rain getting in through the opening, most likely due to the physical barrier. Rarity couldn’t help but wonder when that monster was going to return to make another attempt at breaking in. “Do you think that force field is going to keep that thing out?” Rarity asked with mild concern at the prospect of her safety. Glitterball sighed and looked behind her at the two fillies on the other side of the room. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were conversing with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The two mares were obviously still shaken from the attack, so they would probably be better off left in the dark about their fragile situation. “It depends… if there’s only one of them, it will hold for about an hour or so. If there’s more…” Glitterball trailed her eyes off uneasily as she thought about the grim possibility. Rarity needed no more explanation to see how much trouble they were in. “Uh, hello?” Suddenly, Glitterball heard Peppermint’s voice coming through in her head. As she looked around, she realized that her two teammates were hearing him too. The red haired stallion must have been contacting all three of them to see who would pick up. “Peppermint…?” Seeing how he was the only one with free hooves, Glimmer Shine decided to speak on behalf of the group. “Glimmer? Oh thank goodness!” Pepper stated in a relieved tone. The last he had heard of his brother and the others he was with they were under attack and unresponsive, so to hear someone pick up his call was uplifting to say the least. “Sunspot called us and said you guys were in trouble. Were you attacked?” Peppermint asked with a concerned sense of curiosity. “Yeah, something came through a window. Looked like a-” Glimmer Shine started to describe the creature, when he was interrupted by his brother speaking up. “A flying thing in black with white eyes, sharp claws, and a mouth full of nasty looking teeth?” Peppermint described the monster with perfect detail. His brother’s sudden knowledge of the monster surprised the yellow stallion. “Yeah… how did you know that?” Glimmer asked while looking around at his two teammates. Glitterball and Brimstoke were just as surprised as he was. “Tom told me after we had a run in with two of them. They’re demons… err, lesser demons.” Peppermint paused before correcting himself, as if he were being told something by someone else present. “Two of them? Are you guys alright?” Glimmer Shine asked in a surprised tone. He hated the thought of his brother or his two charges getting hurt. “Yeah, we’re fine. Twilight and Spike got a little shaken up, but Tom took care of things. What about you guys?” Pepper replied with a more concerned tone. “We’re… hanging in there. Rarity and I got cut up a little bit, and we’re not sure how much longer we can keep those things out… especially now that we know there are more of them out there.” The yellow stallion stated quietly so everyone else couldn’t hear. Peppermint could tell that his brother was troubled by his situation. “Listen, Tom says that you guys should grab some salt… apparently demons are repelled by it. He says you need to pour a line of salt at every door and window to whatever room you’re in… if you’re in a position to do so, you can secure the entire building by doing that.” Pepper explained in as clear a manner as he could manage. Although he was confused by the evil warding properties of common table salt, Glimmer Shine and his group was out of options. “What about Tom? What is he doing?” Glimmer asked curiously. He wondered what the slayer’s next plan of action was. Pepper paused for a moment before replying, perhaps to ask Tom himself about his brother’s question. “He says he is going to go check on Neon and the others. I tried getting ahold of her myself, and she is still not answering.” The red haired stallion explained uneasily. “Yeah… that’s probably for the best. You guys stay safe while he’s gone.” Glimmer replied in a caring manner. “Same goes for you guys… just be careful and grab some salt.” Peppermint said before ending the call. Once he felt the connection between him and his brother cease, Glimmer Shine put his hoof down and turned to his companions with a pressing matter on his mind. “Ok guys… I have some good news and bad news. The good news is we have a way to keep those things out until Tom can sort things out…” Glimmer Shine paused as he thought more about how bad the bad side of his plan actually was. “And the bad news?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned expression. She could tell that something was wrong by the looks on the three ponies’ faces. “Apparently we need salt to keep those things away… Rarity, do you have any salt on hoof?” Glitterball asked with guarded optimism. “Yeah actually, it’s… in a pantry downstairs.” Rarity’s cheerful and uplifting attitude at the revelation that the group was saved was all but removed as she remembered where she kept her salt. Brimstoke and his two teammates could barely hold off one of those creatures in a closed off room, and there could be many more of them in the dark recesses of the building. “Maybe I’m wrong… maybe the barrier will hold up until these things go away.” Glitterball suggested uneasily. The prospect of journeying out of their small dark sanctuary into the small dark hallways and rooms of the boutique wasn’t exactly inviting. “We can’t take that risk… we’re going to need to go out there and get that salt, sooner or later.” Brimstoke reminded the group of their grim situation. His teammates sighed in hesitation as they each mulled over the decision. “Well, then it’s settled… two of us should go while one of us stays here to keep an eye on things. I’ll go… it looks like my magic is more effective on these things than our strobes.” Glitterball volunteered apprehensively. Despite her obvious reluctance to participate in the supply run, she tried to put on a smile for the others. “I’ll go with you.” Glimmer Shine stepped forward while gently putting his vest on over his bandages. Even if his strobe was relatively useless, he would feel better with some sort of weapon. “Glimmer… are you sure? You already got hurt by that thing, and that was just one of them.” Glitterball fretted with concern over her teammate. She didn’t want to go alone, but she felt like she was endangering whoever would go with her. Glimmer Shine smirked confidently at the concerned unicorn. He wasn’t about to let a little paper cut get in the way of helping his friends. “I’m sure… I’m not going to just let you go alone, and Brimstoke needs to stay here to protect the others.” Glimmer explained in a determined tone of voice. Before the rainbow haired pony could even argue, the stallion turned and looked at Rarity thoughtfully. “Rarity, can you give us directions to that pantry? The more precise the better.” Glimmer asked with a slight sense of nervousness. Rarity shrugged as she dealt with her own thoughts and feelings on the matter. “I think that it would be easier if I just went with you to show you the way.” The white mare explained in an apprehensive tone. Everyone was shocked to hear that the unicorn was willing to put herself in so much danger. “What?! You can’t go out there! It’s bad enough that they have to… and they were trained for this!” Sweetie Belle argued frantically for Rarity to stay in the room. Although she was the most vocal about her opinion, one look around told the unicorn that her friends shared the white filly’s view. “Rarity… she has a point. This is going to be dangerous. You should just stay here and let us handle it.” Glitterball explained in a sympathetic manner. “No… I want to help you guys. It will get done faster if I show you the way.” Rarity stated to offer an excuse to head off with the two brave ponies. Everyone in the room could tell that she was scared out of her wits, but she was hiding it for the sake of making them feel better. Glitterball shared a concerned look with Glimmer Shine. The unicorn tried to find out what her colleague’s stance was through facial cues, but the stallion seemed to be unable to convey his opinion through silent expression. “Umm… uh… *sigh*” Glitter finally lowered her head in defeat before adopting an accepting expression. “Rarity… if you want to come with us, I’m not going to stop you… but you need to listen to everything we say, and be careful in general.” Glitterball explained while watching the white mare for a reaction. Rarity nodded understandingly. With their minds made up and their task laid out before them, the three ponies walked across the room and huddled near the door. They took one last look at the group of concerned onlookers that were standing behind them. “Be careful everyone…” Fluttershy said with worry written across her face. “Yeah, stay safe.” Pinkie Pie added with a slight frown while taking a good long look at her unicorn friend. Rarity didn’t like the way her friends and sister were looking at her, it was like they were staring at her like it was the last time they would see her alive. “Don’t worry girls… I’m sure we will be just fine.” The white mare stated in an attempt at lightening the mood. Her friends offered a cursory smile to her as she smiled in return. Once she turned around to join her two companions in opening the door, the group returned a collective expression of concern to their faces. Rarity watched apprehensively as Glitterball opened the door. The barrier formed by the piece of paper on the door seemed to still be in place despite the gaping opening into the dark hallway. The three ponies shared a quick glance with each other before stepping out of the door and closing it behind them. Nobody dared turn on a light for fear that one of the creatures would see it. Instead, the group slowly walked forward while hanging close to the floor. Using a stealthy crawl, the three ponies made their way through the pitch blackness of the house. As they walked through the hallway, they came across a set of two windows. As they felt and heard rain coming in from one of the windows, they quickly realized that it was broken. Rarity glanced down at the broken glass with a fearful sense of dread slowly filling her. “One of those things must have gotten inside.” The white unicorn whispered uneasily while looking between her two companions. “Let’s hurry up and get to the pantry.” Glimmer Shine replied with a confident whisper. Thankfully his quiet tone of voice allowed the stallion to further hide his own sense of fear. It was important that the group have someone that at least sounded brave. Being careful to step around the broken glass, the trio moved past the window as fast as their stealth-walk would allow them. The intense feeling of cold rain being blown into their faces by the raging wind was unpleasant to say the least. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine constantly shifted their eyes around them in search of movement. They also took the occasional glance down to their detectors to see if the blue liquid was glowing in a particular direction. The pair had set the detectors to a setting that prevented it from buzzing, so they had to actually keep an eye on it to make use of its reading. Suddenly, as the trio turned a corner, they came across a stairway leading down. Through a doorway at the bottom of the stairs, the group could see the kitchen floor. Rarity paused and smiled triumphantly as she laid eyes on the simple flooring. It didn’t take much deduction to realize that their journey had come to an end. “Yes! That’s the kitchen there. The salt should be just in a cupboard somewhere.” Rarity whispered in excitement while pointing to the far off kitchen. It was astounding how much a room that she walked through almost every day could fill the white mare with joy. “Let’s get down there then!” Glitterball added while sharing in Rarity’s excitement. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was a bit more careful in his celebration. As the two mares stepped forward, the stallion noticed the glowing portion of the liquid in his detector shift in front of them suddenly. Combined with this phenomenon, the trio heard a noise that stunned them into a silent cold sweat. With the creak of wood and the rustling of a door as it was pushed open without care, the group saw one of the demons flying into view downstairs. With a collective feeling of panic, the three ponies ducked into the room nearest to them as quickly and quietly as they could. Rather than close the door and alert the monster to their presence, Glitterball decided to leave it open and instead motioned for her two companions to hide. Rarity ducked under a table with the rainbow haired mare, while Glimmer Shine ducked behind a piece of furniture. As Rarity heard the ghostly moan of the creature getting closer, she realized that it was coming up the stairs. She could feel her heart racing as she stared out into the darkness of the hallway for any signs of movement. The unicorn had to cover her mouth to stifle a nervous squeak as she saw the outline of the creature pass into view. The monster hovered in place while moving its head around rapidly, as if it were looking for something. The only thing that the ponies could even see of the demon was its milky white eyes as they scanned the surrounding area. Rarity thought she was going to explode into a panic attack, she was certain that the creature was going to find them and kill them. The only thing preventing her from making any noise was the comforting feeling of Glitterball putting a hoof on her shoulder. Thankfully, the creature finally left the doorway and continued down the hallway. After giving it a few moments to see if it would return, the three ponies slowly exited their hiding spots. Glimmer Shine walked up to the door and peered out while keeping his body concealed. After a sweeping pass of both directions, he motioned for his two teammates to join him. “How did that thing not find us?” Rarity asked curiously while still calming her nerves. Although she was thankful that she was still alive, it seemed like the monsters usually knew where they were at all times. “We have charms on our vests that are supposed to conceal our presence from being detected. You were probably so close to me that it worked for you too.” Glitterball explained while jostling another vial on her vest. It was hard to tell in the dark, but this vial was filled with what appeared to be flakes of some unknown substance. “I’m certainly glad that most of your equipment actually works… especially given what little knowledge you guys had.” Rarity replied in an astonished tone. “Yeah, me too… It’s a pleasant surprise actually. We’re just kind of taking what we had and running with it here.” Glitterball stated with a chuckle. Rarity felt extremely uneasy after hearing that her survival was based off of a pleasant surprise. “Don’t celebrate just yet. These charms won’t help us if those things hear or see us.” Glimmer Shine said in a quiet whisper. “Thanks for bursting our bubble Glimmer.” Glitterball chided the stallion with an uneasy shrug. Without any further delay, the three made the slow and painfully quiet trek to the kitchen. The ponies tiptoed through the hallway and down the stairs, being extra careful not to make a sound. Every stray creak of the wood beneath their hooves made the trio pause and look around while gritting their teeth. Much to their relief, the group finally made it downstairs and into the kitchen. After taking a brief moment to get her bearings in the dark, Rarity rushed over to a cupboard and placed a hoof on one of the handles. The white mare slowly opened the cabinet and searched around. Due to the lack of light, the unicorn had to grab something that resembled a salt container and hold it up to her face to read what it actually was. Although this process was inefficient and stressful, the unicorn didn’t dare turn on even the smallest of lights. Glimmer Shine watched the entryways into the room while Glitterball assisted Rarity with finding a container of salt. Every wayward scuffle an object made against the wooden cabinet or its contents made the ponies cringe with suspense. Finally, Rarity came across a familiarly sized and shaped cylindrical container. With careful optimism she held it up to her face and quickly looked around to find any identifying pictures or words. “Yes!” Rarity exclaimed in quiet celebration. Her two companions looked to her with joy on their faces as she held up the salt triumphantly. “Finally… let’s get back to the others. This suspense is getting on my nerves.” Glimmer Shine stated while breathing a comfortable sigh of relief. Glitterball nodded with a smile while closing the cabinet. As she looked behind the stallion into the rest of the kitchen, she was shocked by the sight of two pale eyes floating just in front of them. “*Gasp*” The unicorn let out an alarmed gasp as she realized what she was staring at. Rarity’s face paled and her eyes widened as she also noticed what her friend was looking at. Before anyone could react, the creature let out a fierce and deep growl. Glimmer Shine and his two companions backed away, even though there wasn’t much room for them to back up before hitting a wall. As Glimmer Shine reached for his strobe, the creature swiped sideways at him. The stallion cried out in pain as he was sent to the floor with a slash on his chest. The creature then moved behind the injured pony, standing, or rather floating, between him and the two mares. Glitterball watched as the yellow stallion crawled in an attempt at getting away from the creature. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to use her magic on the demon before it could attack again. Taking a quick glance over to Rarity, the unicorn found a surprising solution that she hoped would work. Rarity was surprised as she felt Glitterball rip the salt container from her hooves. She watched in confusion and shock as the rainbow haired mare opened up the container and shook it towards the beast. A spout of salt came out of the container and flew into the air until it struck the creature. The demon let out a shriek of pain before disappearing into a cloud of black smoke. Although it looked like it was merely disrupted rather than destroyed, the two ponies were thankful that the monster was gone. With nothing left to block it from completing its path, the salt flew downwards until it hit Glimmer Shine in the face. The stallion sputtered to get the excess powder out of his mouth while also wiping it out of his closed eyes. “Could you warn a guy before you throw salt at him? You’re lucky none landed on my chest.” The yellow pony stated with slight agitation while looking down to his chest. Although the wound wasn’t deep, it would have been doubtlessly excruciating if even a single grain of salt landed in it. “You’re welcome.” Glitterball said with a smirk while helping her teammate to his feet. Glimmer Shine brushed the remaining salt out of his hair and off of his shoulders before smiling back at the mare that just saved his life. “Nice thinking using the salt offensively… I guess I owe you one.” Glimmer stated with a chuckle. Glitterball chuckled herself at the prospect of having the stallion in her debt. “You’re darn right you do… now let’s get back to the others. We can discuss how you will repay your debt later.” Glitter said lightheartedly. Everyone nodded before letting Rarity lead the way back. With their newfound weapon in hand, the three felt much safer while traversing the dark hallways. Now that they didn’t have to focus so much on being stealthy, they could actually walk back to the bedroom rather than crawl. Soon enough the trio found their way back to the sanctuary of Rarity’s bedroom. As they opened the door and stepped inside, they were greeted by the cheerful faces of their friends. “Guys! You made it!” Fluttershy cheered happily as she saw her friends return relatively unharmed. Although Glimmer Shine had a small cut along his chest, he seemed to be in one piece still. “Of course we did! I said we would be fine didn’t I? Applejack may be the element of honesty, but my word is my word.” Rarity stated lightheartedly while sharing a group hug with her two friends and her little sister. “All right, let’s hurry up and get some salt around these windows. I’m tired of these things already…” Glitterball spoke up while walking over to the first window in the room and pouring a line of salt on its windowsill. The ponies hoped that the flimsy barrier wasn’t as flimsy as it appeared and would actually keep them safe. Chapter 59: DownpourMeanwhile, back at the library, Twilight and Spike were watching curiously as Tom and Peppermint prepared the bathroom door with salt. It was a stretch of the imagination to think that mere table salt could fend off such fierce creatures, but then again, just a few days ago the thought of such creatures existing sounded crazy to the unicorn and dragon. “And… you’re sure this will keep them out?” Spike asked nervously while eyeing the thin line of salt with a doubtful expression. “As long as nobody breaks the line of salt, they won’t be able to come inside.” Tom explained reassuringly. Spike still had his concerns about the seemingly flimsy protection system, but he had faith that the human knew what he was doing. As the boy finished laying the line of salt in front of the door, he stepped out and handed the container over to the stallion. “Alright, I’m going to go see what’s causing all of this… but first I’ll drop by Sweet Apple Acres to check on everyone. You should tell Sunspot and Rainbow Dash to grab some salt and head to an interior room.” Tom stated as a reminder. Peppermint suddenly remembered that he had abruptly left the pegasus hanging when they got attacked. “Right, I’ll be sure to let them know.” The red haired pony replied with a friendly smile. “Bye guys… I’ll be back as soon as all of this is dealt with.” Tom said with a quick wave before turning around to leave. “Hey Tom?” Twilight spoke up to get the boy’s attention. The human paused and turned around to see what the purple mare wanted. “Yeah?” Tom asked curiously. “Be careful out there…” Twilight stated with friendly concern evident in her expression. Spike nodded in agreement with her statement. “Yeah, don’t get yourself hurt out there.” The dragon added with a smile while admiring the human. He was still amazed that anyone would be willing to go out in a storm with monsters flying around to help people, but he still wanted the slayer to exercise caution. Tom smirked and gave a lighthearted chuckle while observing the pair. It was still a foreign concept for him to have someone care about him like this, but he welcomed the affection. “I’ll be fine… I would be more worried about those monsters if I were you. Nobody flies into my friends’ house and threatens them on my watch.” The slayer stated confidently while putting on his best intimidating expression. Twilight and Spike smiled at the seeming lack of fear that their human friend displayed in the face of danger. As the human walked away and shut the door, the three were left with only the soft sound of rain and thunder in the distance to break up the silence of the room. They wondered how long they would have to spend in the small bathroom, and what they would do to keep themselves occupied during their time. “So uh... anyone want to play twenty questions?” Peppermint asked awkwardly. Twilight shrugged while reflecting on just how low a point in her life it would be to play twenty questions in a cramped room with a stallion she barely even knew. Meanwhile, Tom was faced with an entirely different annoyance. As he walked down the stairs and got up to the front door, he suddenly realized what conditions he would be walking in all across town. One swift pull of the door was met by a wall of rainwater being blown into his face by the wind. Taking a moment to adjust to the jarring change in environments, the human realized just how much he was going to hate the next several minutes of his life. “Lovely…” Tom muttered sarcastically while stepping outside and closing the door. The cold rain and wind combined with the flashing of lightning and the booming of thunder would be enough to deter anyone from traveling outside, anyone without friends in danger that is. So without delay, the boy ran off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. The sooner he arrived, the sooner he could get out of the rain. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash were uneasily waiting in the bedroom while watching the clock tick away on the wall. The slow and mind numbing metronome was driving the orange mare up a wall. She shifted her weight around and fidgeted anxiously as she waited for Peppermint to call her back. “Maybe I should go help them…” Sunspot muttered while trying to deal with a tough decision in her head. Rainbow Dash shrugged as she watched the suited pegasus beating herself up with anxiety. “It’s only been a few minutes… I’m sure that Tom and Peppermint can handle things… I hope.” The cyan mare muttered to herself uncomfortably. As much as she wanted to instill confidence in Sunspot, she couldn’t shake her own feelings of anxiousness and her desire to help her friends. Still, even with her nagging feeling of being needed, Rainbow Dash was hesitant to leave the safety of her home. Perhaps it was a slowly building sense of fear she was receiving from fighting the dragon and surviving the incident at the hospital, or perhaps it was just paranoia, but the pegasus felt like she almost didn’t want to go rushing out to save her friends like she normally would. However, her bravery was slowly winning over her cowardice. The only thing keeping her at the house now was her anxious companion. Oblivious to the internal struggle that the cyan pony was having, Sunspot was still concerned with her friends’ safety. She wanted nothing more than to go outside and fly to her teammates’ rescue, but she was held back by the progressively waning need to listen to her orders. “Ugh… why isn’t he calling back?” The suited mare shrugged in frustration while eagerly paying attention for any signs of a voice in her head. Suddenly, Sunspot’s ears perked up and her spirits lifted as she heard the sound of Peppermint’s voice sounding out. “You still there Sunspot?” Pepper asked unassumingly. The stallion probably had no idea of how worried he had made her, but she was about to let him know. “Pepper!” The suited mare yelled with elation. Rainbow Dash nearly jumped out of her skin from how sudden and loud the excited pony’s outburst had been, so she could only wonder how Peppermint reacted to having such a noise directly in his head. “Gah!” The white stallion yelped in surprise from the sudden noise. The sound of something falling over and an equally surprised set of yelps from Twilight and Spike bled through the call, Sunspot suddenly felt bad from letting her emotions get the better of her. “Uh… Pepper? You ok?” The orange mare asked with a slight twinge of embarrassment in her voice. “Ow… yeah, I’m good. Just don’t do that again… yeesh.” Peppermint replied in a strained tone. Sunspot chuckled nervously as she listened to the effects of her sudden outburst. “Hehe… sorry.” The pegasus stated with an awkward smile. Although the stallion couldn’t see her expression, he could tell that she at least knew that she did something wrong. “Right… I guess I shouldn’t have kept you waiting like that. We were a little busy trying to get in contact with the others to tell them what to do.” Peppermint explained in a more sympathetic tone. “You called the others? How are they doing?” Sunspot asked curiously. She assumed that he must have been successful in his attempts at calling the others due to how long he took to reply. “They are fine. Apparently the strobes aren’t effective… but salt works to repel these things, so all of us are pouring some in front of all the doors and windows to stay safe while Tom investigates this storm.” Peppermint explained with a slight amount of confusion still in his voice from describing table salt like it was a weapon. The orange mare was more relieved that her teammates were safe than she was curious about the odd defensive choice that they had found. “What about Neon? Did you get in touch with her?” Sunspot asked uneasily. The pegasus grew slightly concerned as she thought about her green friend. She didn’t expect a positive answer from the stallion, after all she knew that something bad must have happened to Neon for her to be unresponsive this long. “No… I’m afraid not. Tom is going to check on her right now though, so for now we should just sit tight.” Peppermint stated with unease apparent in his voice. “Really? Because I was thinking that we should be out there helping Tom deal with this.” Sunspot reasoned with eagerness dripping from her voice. Peppermint was a little off put by the pegasus’s willingness to endanger herself. “Sunspot… the princess told us to watch the girls. Judging from how specific these attacks are, I would say that these things are after them. You and Rainbow Dash need to stick together… just grab some salt and seal yourself in a room… please… for me?” Pepper asked in a concerned tone. Sunspot felt for the red haired pony, she would probably tell him to do the same thing if their roles were reversed. “Don’t worry about us Pepper… I will personally make sure that Rainbow Dash is safe.” Sunspot stated sincerely. Peppermint felt better now that he knew that the orange pegasus would keep herself and her companion safe. “Ok, you two be careful… bye.” Pepper stated before cutting off the call. After finishing with her conversation, Sunspot shifted her expression to a brief smirk as she planned out her next moves. She respected Peppermint’s concerns for her, but she also had her own desires and concerns for the others. “Good news, Brimstoke and the others are safe. Apparently salt repels whatever these things are.” The suited mare said while getting up and walking over to the door. Rainbow Dash was relieved to hear that her friends were safe, and even more relieved that they had the upper hand against the monsters this time. “That’s great! Let’s go get some salt and hunker down.” The cyan mare suggested while getting off of her bed and trotting over to the other side of the room, Sunspot frowned slightly as she watched the eager pegasus walk over to her. “Yeah…” The orange mare stated in an imperceptibly sad tone while trailing her eyes off and opening the door. Rainbow Dash cautiously followed her as she made her way out of the bedroom. Although the two hadn’t even come across any danger, they were leery that the monsters that had come after their friends would find them eventually. With this in mind, the two ponies slowly walked through the darkened house while keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Sunspot kept her strobe at the ready as she scanned every corner they passed. As lightning flashed through the nearby windows, the entire room lit up with a thunderous crackle. The two ponies jumped with fright and scanned their heads back and forth frantically as they tried to secure their surroundings. Discovering no threats anywhere in their immediate vicinity, the pair breathed a sigh of relief and continued on their way. As she ran into a counter, Sunspot realized that they had reached the kitchen area. Taking one last look around her at the pitch black doorways at the edges of the room, the suited mare quickly ran over to the various cabinets dotted around the kitchen. “Where do you keep your salt?” Sunspot asked curiously while glancing back to her cyan companion. Rainbow Dash thought about all the possible places she could have kept salt. After straining her mind to think of the exact location, she shrugged before joining the suited pony in her search through the cabinets. “Not sure… I think it’s in one of these… Aha!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly while holding up a salt container like a trophy. “Good job.” Sunspot said in a congratulatory tone while staring at the unlikely weapon curiously. “Man… who would have thought that salt would be useful as a monster deterrent.” She chuckled slightly as she thought of the irony of a terrifying beast being afraid of a simple table condiment. “Yeah, I would have thought that pepper would be more effective… at least then you could make them sneeze.” Rainbow Dash stated lightheartedly, eliciting a smile from her suited companion. “Hey… you can throw salt in their eyes. That would hurt a lot I bet…” Sunspot added while glancing at the salt suggestively. “Wow… you guys are violent thinkers aren’t you?” The cyan mare stated with a nervous chuckle. Sunspot laughed as she realized how brutal her line of thought was. “Heh… yeah, I guess so.” The orange pony added before taking the salt from her companion. The pair quickly made their way back through the house while clutching their new weapon close to them. Once they made it back to the bedroom, the suited mare quickly got to work placing lines of salt at every window and door. Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as her orange friend secured the bedroom against all attacks. “There we go… this should keep you safe.” Sunspot stated while setting the salt container down on a nearby nightstand. Rainbow Dash was confused by her statement, her confusion slowly turned to suspicion as she watched her suited companion walk over to the door. “You mean keep us safe… right?” Rainbow Dash asked with a leery expression as she watched the orange pony pause at the door. Sunspot sighed sadly while looking back at the uneasy pegasus. She didn’t want to just leave her like this, but she had to do something to help her friends. “Rainbow Dash… I need to go help Tom.” Sunspot explained with an understanding frown on her face as she watched the already upset expression on her friend’s face shift into a shocked and concerned one. “What?! You can’t be serious… you told Pepper you would stay with me!” Rainbow Dash stated in an outrage. She couldn’t believe that the suited mare would even suggest going outside by herself, let alone going to fight by herself. “I told Pepper I would make sure you were safe… and I am. You’re going to stay right here… where you will be perfectly safe.” Sunspot replied while reaching for the door and stepping towards it. “Hey wait a minute!” The cyan mare stated frantically while rushing over to block the suited pony’s progress. As Rainbow Dash grabbed the door handle from her and closed it, Sunspot shrugged in frustration. “You aren’t going anywhere without me!” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. Sunspot wasn’t sure what to say to the riled up pegasus, or if she could even say anything to justify her reckless decision. “Rainbow Dash, it’s too dangerous out there. I’m supposed to keep you safe… Brimstoke will kill me if he finds out I took you with me.” She explained in an attempt at getting through to the stubborn mare. Judging from her expression, Sunspot figured that Rainbow Dash wasn’t budging. “You’re not taking me with you… I’m going with you, there’s a difference.” The cyan mare stated lightheartedly. Sunspot shrugged and rolled her eyes at the determined pegasus. “Look Sunspot… I know how you feel… and I feel the same way. If you’re going to go, then I’m coming with you. Besides… you can barely fly. You need me with you… to watch your back at least.” Rainbow Dash said with a hopeful and pleading smile. Sunspot glanced between her injured wing and the pleading expression the cyan mare was giving her. She knew that if she didn’t take her along now, that she would most likely follow her after she left. The suited mare would rather keep her in sight at all times rather than run the risk of her getting hurt while chasing after her. “Alright… fine, I’ll take you with me. But you are going to stay close to me… got it?” The orange mare instructed with a serious tone. Rainbow Dash wanted to appear serious, but couldn’t hold in a triumphant smile. She was very excited that she finally got the suited pony to cave in and let her accompany her. “Yes! Yes! Haha!” The cyan pegasus cheered happily. Sunspot could tell that she was eager to assist her friends. The suited pony smiled as she observed her cheerful partner. “Ok hotshot, let’s go kick some monster butt.” The orange mare stated confidently. Rainbow Dash smiled as she grabbed the salt and tossed it to her suited companion. Sunspot grabbed the container and shoved it into a holster on her suit. The two ponies confidently made their way through the house towards the front door. The storm raging outside was intimidating from the dryness and safety of the inside of the cloud home, but the two ponies were very apprehensive about heading out into the elements. After slowly putting a hoof on the front door handle, Rainbow Dash opened up the door and flinched her eyes shut as the cold rain blew into her face. Once the initial cold shock of water had passed, the pair slowly walked out into the harsh night. It was hard to walk forward due to the wind and rain constantly blowing around. The pair of ponies huddled together as they walked across the clouds to get over to an edge to take off from. The sky around them practically lit up every other second as lightning constantly flashed and thunder constantly boomed. Once they reached a point close to the edge, the two looked into the air around them to see what they would be flying into. Most of the clouds above them were thick and black, while the air below them was only obscured by heavy rainfall. Rainbow Dash’s house might have been a cloud itself, but it wasn’t exactly high enough to be at level with the rest of them. “We should probably stay low to avoid high winds and low visibility… maybe walking would be better all things considered. How’s your wing?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while glancing over to the suited mare shivering beside her. Sunspot slowly and painfully unfolded her wings, all the while cringing as she dealt with the soreness from her injury. She wasn’t sure if she could fly comfortably, but she was going to fly come hell or high water, whichever was most likely in the raging tempest around her. She certainly didn’t want Rainbow Dash carrying her to the ground. “I’ll manage... let’s just get on the ground so we can get moving. The sooner we reach Sweet Apple Acres, the better.” The orange pony stated while giving her wing a few test flaps. It stung to even move the feathery appendage, but Sunspot didn’t want her companion knowing that. “Ok… just take it slow and easy. I don’t want to have to carry you the whole way if you break a leg...” Rainbow Dash shivered violently while trying to cope with the rain hitting her. The cyan mare was used to being out in rainstorms, but she didn’t prefer it, especially considering this was a lot more severe than a simple spring shower. Without further delay, Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and spread her wings. The cyan pegasus maintained flight relatively easily considering the high winds, but she decided to stop and observe her companion to see if she was alright. Sunspot gulped nervously before taking a few steps back. She wondered how ironic it would be for her to die by falling out of the air considering her race and her previous occupation as a Wonderbolt. Shoving these thoughts from her head, she closed her eyes and cringed in fright as she jumped forward. With a frantic flap of her wounded wing, the suited pegasus slowly managed to support her weight in the air. It was a painful and rough flight, but it was working at any rate. After catching up with her partner, the orange mare nodded to her confidently before descending to the ground. The two pegasus’s walked across town as fast as they could considering the circumstances. The wind was blowing in their faces, the lightning around them looked like it could strike near them at any moment, and they were also terrified of what could be lying in wait in the clouds above. Neither of the two mares had seen the monsters that had attacked their friends, but just knowing that they were out there made them incredibly nervous. Every time the wind changed pitch or a quiet clap of thunder sounded in the distance the pair looked around them frantically, hoping that it was just their imagination. Sunspot anxiously glanced down to her locator every few minutes. As expected the small vial was glowing a soft blue, indicating that nothing was around her except for the storm. Despite this empty comfort, she expected some kind of flesh eating beast to fly out of the darkness and take her head off in one fell swoop. Rainbow Dash wasn’t faring much better from her suited companion. Not only was she frightened by her surroundings, but she also felt confined and tense because of her partner. She knew that the orange mare couldn’t flee from anything chasing her by flying, and she also knew that she couldn’t just leave her to fend for herself. No, the cyan pony had to protect her partner from anything that came their way, and that thought filled her with anxious fear. “Getting anything on your locator?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. Even though she had to yell over the rain and wind, the apprehension in her voice was obvious. “No, nothing yet.” Sunspot replied while taking another cursory glance at her locator. The cyan mare wasn’t exactly comforted by the news that they were alone. Deciding to take a look around to see where they were, Rainbow Dash smiled as she noticed familiar buildings passing by around them. If they continued at this rate, they would be at the farm in no time flat. The news that their journey was that much closer to ending was a pleasant discovery. It almost made the wet and cold feeling worth it. “We’re almost there!” The cyan mare announced happily. “That’s great! The sooner we can get out of this weather the better!” Sunspot replied with a wide smile. She couldn’t wait to get a roof over her head. The pair’s happiness wouldn’t last long however. Suddenly, a loud and echoing howl made its presence known above the roaring wind. The disturbing noise made the two mares freeze in mid stride. They whipped their heads around while trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. “W-what the hay is that?” Rainbow Dash asked in shock while darting her eyes around nervously. The noise sounded like it was all around them. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Before Sunspot could offer any insight into their situation, a vibration on her suit followed by a loud buzz drew her attention downwards. Her locator was glowing bright blue on one section, indicating that something was above her. “Heads up… looks like there’s something above us!” The orange mare announced while grabbing her strobe and tossing the salt container to her cyan companion, Rainbow Dash caught the flying cylinder and readied it and herself for battle. The pair scanned their eyes above them into the mass of black clouds. As the lightning illuminated their surroundings, they suddenly noticed a few shapes standing out from the swirling clouds. Two black figures were flying above them, seemingly floating in place while observing their prey. “There, I see them!” Rainbow Dash stated while pointing to the two black shapes. It was hard to make out in the rain, but Sunspot caught sight of the two menacing figures as well. “What are those things…? Do you think those are what have been attacking everyone?” The cyan mare asked while keeping a leery eye on the two possible threats. “I hope so… otherwise we have more than one kind of monster roaming around out here.” Sunspot replied wittily. Despite her attempt at lightening the mood, the orange pegasus had a suspicious feeling about their two guests. “That’s odd… why the hay are they just floating there? Shouldn’t they be…?” Sunspot started to reason why the pair of monsters was just staring at them, when suddenly she directed her attention downward when she heard another buzz from her locator. Midway down from checking the vial, the mare’s eyes caught the alarming sight of something flying towards her at rapid speeds. “Attacking us!” Sunspot yelled in a panic as she noticed the creature flying towards her. By the time she noticed the white eyed demon charging her, it was too late to take any meaningful action towards evading. Rainbow Dash turned her head to see a flying blur slam into her suited companion. Sunspot let out a cry of surprise as she was tackled by the monster and sent hurdling with it. The beast took the orange mare into the air and kept going, all the while holding onto the terrified mare as she struggled against it. Suddenly, the creature flung the pegasus downward and let her fall. “*Gasp* Sunspot!” The cyan mare’s eyes widened as she watched her friend falling to the ground. Although the two weren’t so high up that the fall would be fatal, the orange mare’s impact with the ground let out a cringe worthy thud. Sunspot had the wind knocked out of her from the force of the impact. She sat up to find where the creature had gone, only to find that it was getting ready to slam into her with its sharp looking claws. The demon let out a deep and haunting moan as it plunged its blades downward. The suited mare tried to move out of the way, but she was too fazed by her recent collision to do anything more than hold her arms out defiantly. “AHHH!” The orange pony screamed and closed her eyes as she watched the monster getting closer. About the time she would have expected to be skewered, Sunspot suddenly heard the creature cry out in pain, followed by the sensation of some sort of powder flying onto her. The surprised pegasus looked up to see no sign of the creature previously above her, instead spotting Rainbow Dash directly above her holding the salt container triumphantly. “You ok?” The cyan mare asked with concern while observing her dazed partner. Sunspot smirked as she realized how close she had brushed with death. Her excited smirk quickly turned to a horrified expression as she noticed what was heading towards the cyan pegasus. “Rainbow Dash, lookout!” Sunspot yelled frantically while pointing behind her friend with wide eyes. Rainbow Dash turned around and gasped in shock as she noticed what had alarmed her companion. The two demons they had spotted earlier had moved from their far off position. They had moved so much that they were just in front of the cyan mare, preparing to strike the hapless pony. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise while flapping her wings as hard as she could to evade the strike. She could feel a slight draft over her head as the creature’s claws just barely missed her hair. Not wanting to waste an opportunity for a strike, the cyan pony flicked the salt container towards one of the beasts as it flew past her. Much to her surprise, barely any salt came out of the container, and the salt that did come out quickly blended with the rain and fell to the earth. “What the…?” The confused mare stated while shaking the container more forcibly. Apparently the rain had gotten into the cylinder, making the salt wet, and making it harder to send it flying out in a noticeable clump. “Uh oh…” Rainbow Dash’s ego immediately deflated as she realized that her only means of taking the offense was just rendered useless. She slowly drifted her eyes down to the two agitated creatures below her and felt her heart sink. “I don’t suppose you guys are just misunderstood and you really just want to be loved…?” She asked with a nervous chuckle as she watched the two milky eyed monsters stare at her. One of the beasts growled at the brash pony. They weren’t about to let a cyan flying horse escape them. Rainbow Dash slowly felt her sense of bravery fading as she stared back at the two disturbing demons. “Yeah… I didn’t think so either.” The cyan mare shrugged in defeat, not that she really expected her ploy to work. Suddenly the two creatures shot upwards towards the pegasus. Rainbow Dash immediately started flying upwards to escape her pursuers. She was surprised at just how quickly the two monsters could move. She could barely keep up with them herself without speeding up further than she typically flew. As she felt the pair right on her tail, the cyan mare started zipping around to dodge her two attackers. For every dip and hairpin turn the speedy pegasus made, the creatures were right behind her, making almost perfect maneuvers to keep right on her. Whenever they got close enough to warrant a strike, she would use that as motivation to fly just a little faster. Taking a quick glance behind her, Rainbow Dash was surprised as she only saw one of the beasts behind her. Looking around in a slight panic, the cyan pony couldn’t find the missing monster anywhere she looked. “What the hay? Where’d the other one go?” Rainbow asked herself in utter confusion. The demon had been right behind her just a moment ago. Noticing movement above and in front of her, Rainbow Dash looked up to see something flying out of a nearby cloud bank. Sure enough, the white eyed beast was rushing straight for her. “Oh no you don’t!” The cyan mare gritted her teeth and shot straight upwards. She tensed her body up as she anticipated the creature behind her making some kind of contact with her. Unexpectedly, the pegasus only felt a slight brush on her tail as the monster rushed forward, and slammed into its partner in midair. As she looked down at the two dazed beasts, she felt a twinge of accomplishment well up inside of her. The cyan pony let a smirk creep across her face, she had just outsmarted two demons, and it felt surprisingly good. “Haha! You guys should practice some more before you chase after a pegasus!” Rainbow Dash mocked the two creatures confidently. Suddenly the cyan mare noticed something that made her stop laughing. One of the creatures had an odd discoloring on its chest. The patch almost looked like a burn in the shape of powder spray. The strange mark on the creature perplexed the pegasus, until she thought of something to explain it, something that made a cold chill run down her spine. “But if that’s the guy I hit with salt… then where is…?!” With a newfound sense of panic, Rainbow Dash looked around her frantically. She suddenly heard a growling sound coming from behind her. Swiftly turning around, the cyan mare immediately saw the missing monster right in front of her face. The creature let out a low roar as it reeled its arm back for a strike. “AHHHHH!” Rainbow Dash screamed fearfully as she watched the beast wind up for a strike. At this distance, there was no way she could avoid it. The cyan pegasus shut her eyes and shielded her face, half to protect herself from harm, and half to prevent herself from watching as she was cut to ribbons. “Rainbow Dash!” Sunspot’s voice rang out from somewhere off to the side. Rainbow Dash hesitantly opened her eyes, only to see something in a blue and yellow suit plowing into the monster about to attack her. As the creature went flying from her strike, the suited mare struggled to right herself in the air. She seemed to have been fighting against her painful injury to just try and assist her friend, but she didn’t seem to be able to get back down safely. Finally, after a few moments of desperately trying to push her wing to its limits just to maintain flight, Sunspot plummeted out of the air. She let out a sharp cry as she fell, only to be caught a few seconds later by Rainbow Dash. The cyan mare gently carried her injured companion to the ground and sat her down. “Holy cow… you just saved my tail.” Sunspot stated with her heart pounding in her chest. She could still barely believe that she made it that far with how bad her wing felt. “I could say the same thing to you. How did you even get up to us with your wing like that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while looking to the orange mare’s injured appendage. “It wasn’t exactly easy… you better be thankful you were flying so low. If you were any higher, I wouldn’t have reached you in time… if I could even get that high to begin with.” Sunspot said with a more saddened expression. As much as she tried to play off her injury, it was clear now that it did impede her from flying anything other than short distances at low speeds. “Hey, don’t look so glum about it. You saved me didn’t you?” Rainbow Dash asked with a reassuring smile. Sunspot couldn’t help but to smirk as she thought about it more positively. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Now let’s get out of here… maybe we can out run those things on foot.” The orange mare suggested in a more urgent tone. As the two ponies looked up to find the creatures that were chasing them, they discovered the trio floating in the clouds a fair distance above them. The beasts seemed to be watching them menacingly, waiting for them to make a move. “No way… they’re too fast. I could barely keep up with them in the air.” Rainbow Dash replied with an uneasy tone. The orange pegasus shrugged anxiously while trying to think of what to do. “Don’t worry, we can find a way out of this.” Sunspot said in a reassuring tone. “But how are we going to lose these guys? The salt is all liquidy, we are too far away for anyone to help, we can’t outrun them, and we can’t out fly them.” Rainbow Dash reasoned nervously. Sunspot immediately thought about using her strobe, but as she reached for it, she suddenly remembered that Peppermint explained that they were useless against these creatures. “Dang it… Pepper said the strobes don’t work on these things. Ugh… what if we-” Sunspot tried to think of something to do, but before she could finish her thought, she heard a loud howl coming from above her. The two ponies looked up to see one of the monsters above them, but it didn’t seem to be charging after them. As the pair was watching the beast, it reeled its arms back slowly. The confusing display seemed pointless to the two mares, but their misguided judgment would soon be disproven. As the creature pushed its arms forward, a strong gust of wing suddenly appeared. The gust slammed into the two ponies, catching them off guard. The pair let out a painful groan as the sheer strength of the gust sent them to their knees. It almost felt like they had been caught in a tornado that was focused only on them. Any attempts they made to flap their wings or move to the side to escape were fruitless. Their entire bodies were pinned from the violent tempest. Suddenly, the direction of the gust changed drastically. Now, instead of coming from above them and pushing them to the ground, the gust seemed to be arcing upwards under them. Before they could even process the new change in direction, the force of the gust increased rapidly and took them with it as it flew into the air. “AH!” The two mares let out a startled cry as they were sent skyward against their will. The intense wave of air seemed to push them in any direction the beasts controlling it wanted. They were starting to feel sick from being jolted around so much. Before either of the two could think of a way to escape, the gust of wind sent them downwards again. They picked up speed as gravity aided the wind in pulling them down to a sudden stop. With a bone crushing thud, the two were slammed into the ground. The force of their bodies hitting the earth combined with the force of the gust of wind hitting them, creating a very painful wave of pressure that knocked all of the air out of their lungs. “Urk!” Rainbow Dash groaned as she tried to move her aching body. She looked over to check on her companion, only to realize that the suited mare was lying motionless beside her. The sight of her chest rising and falling told the concerned pegasus that her friend was still alive, but the fact that she had been knocked out by the blow was troubling. As the cyan mare tried to move her arm over to her friend, she cringed slightly in pain. The height they had just fallen from wasn’t so great that they had broken any bones, but it certainly felt like they did. “Ughh… Sunspot… wake up.” Rainbow Dash slowly managed to position her arm to where she could shake her unconscious friend. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t elicit any sort of response from the orange pony. As she moved her head to look back at the sky, she became very fearful as she noticed three black figures looming just above her. The three creatures were slowly descending while staring at their prey with their unblinking white eyes. Fearing for her life, the cyan mare struggled to escape the imminent danger approaching her. As she tried to move her body, she quickly realized that she was numb with pain and soreness. Managing to roll over and get to her knees, Rainbow Dash looked up to see how close the monsters had gotten. “Oh no…” Rainbow muttered while out of breath. The black figures were hovering just above her, as if they were enjoying watching her struggle for her life. Taking a quick glance over to her unconscious partner, the cyan mare noticed that she was slowly stirring. Despite the pleasant site of the suited pegasus moving around, Rainbow Dash knew that it was probably for the best that she remain unconscious, unconscious and unaware of what was about to happen. The creatures growled and reeled back their arms while spreading their claws. The cyan mare closed her eyes and lowered her head. She felt her body shiver, not only from the wind and rain, but also from the gripping sense of fear she had. A swarm of thoughts flew through Rainbow Dash’s head. She thought back to her friends and what they meant to her. She could practically see the devastation on their faces as they learned that she had perished out in the cold rain. “Sorry girls… I guess I should have been more careful.” Rainbow Dash stated sadly while preparing for the end. Just before she expected to be sliced to ribbons, the cyan pegasus suddenly heard a strange sound. It resembled the familiar swish of a sword splitting through solid materials. Following the metallic sound, an ear splitting shriek of pain made by the monstrous figures rang out. Rainbow Dash looked up curiously to see what was going on. The sight in front of her stunned her into silence. One of the demons was missing, and in its place stood a puff of black smoke that appeared to be split in two. As the black smoke dissipated, the cyan mare looked over to see the remaining two creatures writhing in pain as they sank to the ground. The monsters seemed to be recoiling in agony from some unseen force. They were struggling to move, but they were unable to budge from the ground. Taking a quick look around to determine what was going on, Rainbow Dash was elated to see a familiar figure in blue standing nearby. “Tom!” Rainbow exclaimed happily at the sight of her human friend. She didn’t care if she was a damsel in distress. She was actually excited to be rescued. Rather than answering the cheerful pegasus, the human seemed to be focusing on something else. He had his arm stretched out in front of him with his hand clutched as if he were grasping something. The boy was straining against something, and whatever that something was seemed to be wearing him out. With his free hand, the human flipped his sword around and slowly walked over to the two demons. The creatures tried to back away, but they were rooted in place by his influence. With one fluid swipe, Tom dispatched both monsters into a satisfying cloud of smoke. As the remains of his enemies dispersed into the rain and wind, the human walked over to the two mares with a concerned expression. He still seemed to be catching his breath, but he was more worried about the two ponies than his own fatigue. “You ok?” Tom asked while glancing over to Sunspot. The suited mare seemed to be getting up, but she was taking a long time. “Hey Sunspot, you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while gently putting a hoof on her shoulder. “Ugh… yeah… I think so.” The orange pegasus stated while rubbing the back of her head tenderly. After slowly getting up and turning around, she was surprised to see the slayer standing in front of her. “Tom… when did you get here?” Sunspot asked in a confused tone. The cyan mare next to her was slightly concerned for her health after such a blow to the head. “Just in time from the look of things… You’re lucky I sensed a group of them over here acting weird and came to investigate. What are you two doing out here?” Tom asked while shifting to a more upset tone. Rainbow Dash looked down sadly, with Sunspot following suit once she regained her senses. “Sorry Tom… we wanted to help.” The suited mare spoke up on behalf of the pair. Rainbow Dash could tell that she was trying to shoulder the responsibility. Tom frowned slightly as he stared at the two pouting ponies. He could understand why they would want to help their friends, he just wished that they would be more careful in the process. “Well… you’re out here now, we might as well keep going.” Tom stated in a compromising tone while walking over to the side of the road in preparation to leave. The two mares were dumbfounded that the human was just letting them come along without reprimanding them. “Really…? You’re just going to let us go?” Rainbow Dash asked with a surprised expression while walking up to the blue suited slayer. “I was kind of expecting more… I don’t know… more telling us how stupid we were for coming out here? That’s probably what the others would have done.” She added in a confused tone. “We can sit here and argue over how stupid your decision was all day, or we can go save the others… I vote for the latter.” Tom replied while walking off towards the farm. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot shared a stunned expression before trotting to catch up with the human. As much as they were surprised by their friend’s almost casual line of thinking, they knew he was right. Sweet Apple Acres was a decent distance away on foot, and they had to get there as soon as possible to help their friends. Chapter 60: EpicenterRainbow Dash and her two traveling companions walked across the rain soaked streets of Ponyville tirelessly on their mission to rescue their friends. Although their pace was slow from the shivering cold they were putting their bodies through, they had to complete their journey at all costs. Besides, after the close call the two mares just had with the monsters of the storm, they felt that it would be best to stay low. The trio walked along what they could loosely identify as the side of a path, taking a few moments to enjoy the reprieve from the rain they would receive by passing under a stray tree. Rainbow Dash slightly regretted leaving the streets of Ponyville, with its buildings and awnings to hide under. Now all she could look forward to was more stinging rain and wind plowing into her already drenched fur. Taking a begrudging glance beside her to her suited companion, she shrugged as she wondered how better off Sunspot was in her Wonderbolt outfit. “Are we almost there? I think I’m pruning up from being out in the rain for so long…” Rainbow Dash whined ahead to the human leading them. “You tell me… I barely know my way around this place when it isn’t covered in a torrential downpour.” Tom stated jokingly while glancing back to his soaked companions. The two mares were outraged by the fact that the person leading them had no idea where they were going. “What?! You mean we could be walking in the completely wrong direction?!” Rainbow Dash asked in an understandably upset tone. Tom could tell that his comment wasn’t exactly achieving the desired effect. “Take it easy, I was kidding… we should be there in a few minutes.” Tom shrugged while looking straight forward. He was afraid that if he turned around to look at the pair they might kill him, or at least try to at any rate. “Funny…” Rainbow Dash spoke sarcastically while staring daggers into the back of Tom’s head. She was a little confused to hear Sunspot chuckling next to her. “Hey, lighten up Rainbow Dash. At least you don’t have to wear a suit while doing this… I swear this thing is so wet that it’s squeaking.” Sunspot said in a jovial tone while shivering slightly. Every time she moved she felt the cold and wet material of the suit come into contact with her already soaked body. It was a wonder how she kept such high spirits. “Really? I would have thought that wearing that thing would keep you warm for at least a few seconds longer.” Rainbow Dash pondered out loud. The cyan mare never really thought about how the rain would affect her friend’s suit. “Heh… yeah, maybe like one. I guess I can call up the old team and tell them that these things aren’t water proofed worth squat.” Sunspot replied while pulling a section of her suit out to test how soaked it was. The piece of fabric felt squishy to the touch and didn’t even snap back into place immediately, instead only sagging slightly before finally going back to its original position. Rainbow Dash was going to say something else to her orange companion, when she suddenly ran into Tom and came to an abrupt stop. She noticed that the human was staring ahead with a surprised expression. “What the hay…? Tom, what’s wrong?” The cyan mare asked while following his gaze forward. It didn’t take long for her and her suited friend to notice what had spooked the slayer. A huge rolling wall of what appeared to be clouds and rain was spinning around the area ahead. The sound of the rain hitting the ground masked the roaring wind of the distant phenomenon, but the two ponies could clearly hear it now that they were aware of its presence. The entire thing resembled a giant tornado that was remaining in place. The two ponies were speechless as they stared at the horrific whether phenomenon. No tornado they had ever witnessed or created was nearly as big or as frightening looking as this beast. It didn’t even look like it could have been created by ponies. Strangely though, it didn’t seem to be doing much damage to the surrounding area. Whatever pull it had must have been incredibly localized for them to not even feel anything from this distance. “W…w-what in the name of Celestia is that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked stupor as she watched the large twister closely. It didn’t seem to be sucking up much debris, further confirming that it wasn’t an average tornado. Tom used his senses a few times to scope out the area ahead. He felt a large amount of energy inside the area concealed by the storm, and an even larger amount of those creatures waiting inside. “I think this is where the storm came from… I’m sensing a lot of activity over there, and correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that thing directly over Sweet Apple Acres?” Tom asked while observing the surrounding area. As Rainbow Dash looked around, she realized that the boy was right. The tornado was so large that she hadn’t noticed that it was covering the entire farm behind a wall of wind and rain. The thought of Applejack and her family being inside of that horrific thing made the cyan mare panic with fear. “Oh my gosh, you’re right! We need to go help them!” Rainbow Dash stated in an alarmed tone. She hoped against all hope that nothing bad had already happened to her orange friend or her family. Rainbow Dash couldn’t imagine her life without the farm pony in it. Applejack was practically family to her and the others. “Hold up… I’m sensing a lot more of those things in there. Even if we could get through that tornado, we would be outnumbered. We should stay low and keep quiet unless we want to be up to our eyes in demons.” Tom said in a cautious tone. “So you’re telling me that the best plan you can come up with is to sneak in there and hope they don’t see us?” Rainbow Dash asked in a leery tone while eyeing the human with a doubtful expression. “Well… yeah, I guess. Do you have any better ideas?” Tom asked curiously while glancing between the two mares. “I have a charm that can hide us from supernatural creatures.” Sunspot suggested in a helpful tone. “Really? That sounds great Sunspot! Why didn’t we use that before?” Rainbow Dash asked in a surprised tone while looking to the suited mare. “Umm… it has a really small range, so it would only work for me and maybe one other person… we would have to be shoulder to shoulder the whole time, and even then it might not completely cover you.” Sunspot deflated slightly as she remembered the limitations to her equipment. “You guys really need to get better stuff… I know you didn’t have much to go on, but this is getting ridiculous. Maybe Tom can show you some tricks of the trade with his monster know-how.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a wry smirk while glancing to the human. “Before we do that we should probably get moving... through the giant tornado.” Tom said with a nervous chuckle while returning his attention forward. Everyone gulped nervously as they thought about how to approach walking through a tornado that was twice the size they were used to. “I’m not sure if I want to try flying into that… even if I could fly straight, I’m not sure if I could stop it.” Rainbow Dash said uneasily. She was confident that she could unravel any tornado that came her way, but that was only when it was a natural occurrence she was dealing with. The rolling wall of wind and rain in front of her now was far from natural. “Don’t worry, I’ll go in first to see if it’s safe.” Tom suggested while stepping forward confidently. The two mares eyed the human with uncertain expressions as he prepared to waltz inside. “But… what if you don’t come back out?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. Not only because she was concerned for the human’s health, but also because she didn’t want to be left without his protection this close to imminent danger. “Well… then you know that it isn’t safe.” Tom replied jokingly. The boy’s answer only made the cyan pony feel even more uncomfortable. “Relax guys, I’m practically immortal remember? If I’m not back out in a few minutes, try to find another way to handle this thing… maybe call Twilight and the others so she can tell the princess.” Tom said reassuringly. The two mares looked at each other for a moment before nodding slowly. With that in mind, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot watched intently as the human walked up to the wall of wind. Tom inched closer to the wall apprehensively. He couldn’t feel anything at the moment, but he knew that whatever force the vortex held was probably inside of it. The boy cautiously held out his hand and inched it closer to the spinning mass. As he felt the tips of his fingers breech the vortex, he had to push forward slightly to prevent his arm from being blown back. Once inside the wall, he felt a constant force pushing against him, trying to carry him sideways with the rest of the wind. Not wanting to waste any more time, Tom stepped forward and shielded his eyes with his other hand. The two ponies watched as their friend disappeared from sight. Several agonizing moments went by without any sign of the slayer’s return. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Rainbow Dash felt more and more anxious with each passing second as she feverishly watched the swirling mass. “Tom…?” Rainbow spoke up over the sound of the roaring wind, hoping to get some sort of response. “Are you ok?” She asked nervously. The cyan mare wasn’t even sure if the boy could hear her, but she couldn’t bear standing still and doing nothing. Just before her nerves were going to explode, Rainbow Dash was relieved to see Tom bursting out of the spinning wall. Judging from first glance, it appeared as if he wasn’t missing anything vital, so perhaps there was hope for the two ponies. “How was it?” Sunspot asked curiously as the human walked back up to them. Tom shrugged while shaking his head and glancing back to the wall with an exhausted expression. “Whew... It’s definitely an experience, that’s for sure. I think you two should be fine crossing through it, just steady yourself and close your eyes… there is a lot of debris in there.” Tom explained while brushing himself off. “Way ahead of you man.” Sunspot stated while tapping her flight goggles on the side. She was thankful that she didn’t have any water blown into her eyes on the trip through town, and now she was thankful that she didn’t have to worry about going blind from having debris blown into her face. “I guess I’ll just hang onto you guys and keep walking forward.” Rainbow Dash shrugged as she realized that she had no other means to protect her eyes other than closing them tightly. She would be blind as a bat while walking through the twister, but she hoped that her two friends were trustworthy enough to not lead her off a cliff. “All right then… let’s get in there.” Tom said eagerly while walking towards the tornado. He appeared to hold more confidence in traveling through the wall than the ponies had, but then again, he had already went through it once. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot shared a nervous glance before walking over to join the human near the wall. The rushing of wind was almost deafening, so the trio had to communicate through gestures. Tom huddled close and kept a hand on the suited mare’s back to keep track of her in the blinding tempest, while Rainbow Dash stood shoulder to shoulder with Sunspot and placed one of her arms around her. The trio wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t lose someone to the swirling wind before they made it through. With a solemn nod, the group stepped forward into the tornado. Rainbow Dash shut her eyes as she shoved her nose into the wall of wind. The force pushing back on her almost felt like a wall of fast moving water, being powerful enough to provide palpable resistance as she walked forward with the rest of her group. The constant force of the wind blowing against them almost knocked the three down. If it weren’t for the fact that she was with her two companions, the cyan mare might have been blown around like a living tumbleweed. On top of the force of the wind, the sound of the wind was overwhelming. It wasn’t quite loud enough to hurt the ponies’ ears, but it was enough to create an all-encompassing atmosphere that drowned out any other noise. If the cyan pegasus were to speak, she wasn’t even sure if she could hear herself in her own head. The only thing Rainbow Dash could do was keep her eyes shut, and keep her friends close as they slowly walked forward. Meanwhile, Sunspot at least had the luxury of a visual experience. Although she couldn’t see much, she could see the flurry of wind blowing past her face. This sensory overload was enough to keep her mildly astonished and entertained as she walked through the tempest. Suddenly, all at once, the group stepped out onto the other side. As quickly as the deafening noise had arrived, it vanished. The three found themselves standing outside of the fence bordering the farmland that Applejack and her family called home. “Whoa… that was kind of cool. I guess I can honestly say I have walked through a giant tornado now…” Rainbow Dash commented in an astonished tone while glancing back at the swirling wall behind her. Although the cyan mare dealt with tornadoes in her duties as a pegasus, she usually just made them by flying. She never walked through them before, and certainly not one so big. “Yeah… that’s a new one for me too. Let’s hurry up and find the others so we can stop those demons.” Tom said to remind the group of their task. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement as she thought back to her earth pony friend. “Right, let’s go save Applejack and the others… I hope they are alright. They have been in here for a really long time.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. The more she thought about her friend’s situation, the more worried she got. “I’m sure they’re fine… but we should hurry every chance we get.” Sunspot added reassuringly. She only hoped that what she was saying was actually true. Without any further delay, the three set out on their way through Sweet Apple Acres. As they passed through the gate, they weren’t greeted with the usual beauty of the luscious farmland. Instead they were greeted with darkness and rain drenched soil. The group had to put in a sizable effort just to not sink into the mud. The usually breath taking orchards of apple trees on either side of them were now in shambles. Most of the apples had been blown off, and the trees themselves were on the verge of being ripped apart by the wind. It pained Rainbow Dash to see her friend’s livelihood in such poor shape. “Oh no… Applejack is going to be devastated when she sees how much damage this storm has done.” Rainbow commented sadly while looking around at the various pieces of wooden tools and other such items blown around by the wind. She almost didn’t want to see how the house and barn looked. “It’s bad enough that they’re trying to kill us… can’t they leave our property alone?” Sunspot asked in a more agitated tone. The more the two mares thought about everything the hooded ponies had done, the more upset they became. “I swear… when I get my hooves on one of those hooded creeps, I’ll make them sorry they were ever born!” Rainbow Dash said angrily while envisioning how satisfying it would be to take her rage out on one of the hooded ponies. Suddenly, Tom paused and used his senses a few times. He seemed to be more confused than concerned by whatever reading he was getting. The two ponies could only stand in place and let him finish whatever he was doing. “What’s wrong Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked anxiously while looking around them. Although she couldn’t see any more of the demons, the pegasus knew that there were probably hundreds of them waiting in the clouds. “It’s faint… but I’m sensing some ambient energy that would indicate some kind of spell… and it feels similar to the ones we have been coming across all over town.” Tom explained while double checking his findings. “You mean there’s a pictogram here?” Sunspot asked curiously. She wondered if they could destroy the pictogram to be rid of the storm and all of the monsters that came with it. “Yeah… and I’m not sure, but I think I can sense a lone pony in the middle of it.” Tom replied in an uncertain tone. The news that one of the hooded ponies could still be here was shocking and slightly intimidating to the two mares. Every hooded pony that their friends had run into had been a super-powered psychopath. “Really? You mean… one of them might still be here?” Rainbow Dash asked with slight apprehension evident in her voice. She could already imagine what frightful capabilities whatever pony it was might have held. “Looks like you will get your chance after all Rainbow Dash… let’s head over there.” Tom suggested while walking forward. The two mares were forced to follow him as he moved off to the side of the farm and up to the fence. Tom quickly jumped over the fence and signaled for the two ponies to join him. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot looked at each other nervously before shrugging and hopping over the wooden structure to join the human. They would rather stay close to him and fight a magically powered pony than be alone in the storm again. After a few moments of walking along the fence, the group started to see something up ahead amid the flashes of lightning. It appeared to be a line on the ground that formed an intricate circle, and in the middle of the circle was a crouched down figure. “There it is… and there is that pony you felt.” Sunspot stated the obvious in a slightly nervous tone. She was still dreading her first encounter with one of the monstrous individuals that were responsible for all of this. “Maybe we should just leave him alone… what if he has powers like the others?” Rainbow Dash reasoned, deciding to no longer hide her apprehensions. “Don’t worry… I can’t feel any shadow energy on him… I don’t think he can even use any shadow magic.” Tom stated before walking over confidently. The two mares weren’t sure if what the human said was true, but they were a little more confident as they walked up to join him. The trio lined up and confidently walked closer to the mysterious pony. As they got closer, they noticed that it was a male unicorn wearing a gray hoodie. He appeared to have a red vest on underneath his hood, but it was hard to tell in the rain. He appeared to be sulking, or at any rate he appeared to be waiting around with a saddened expression. He was sitting in the center of the symbol with his head hung low. Judging from how much his hair and clothes were soaked through, one could gather that he had been out here for a while. “Hey, you there!” Tom spoke up in an intimidating tone while walking up to the edge of the symbol. The unicorn jumped nervously as he realized that he wasn’t alone. Even through the darkness and rain, the group could tell that his eyes were wide in fear. “Ah!” The unicorn stammered nervously before falling silent. He scooted backwards defensively as he stared at his three visitors. “What are you doing here?” Tom asked while keeping up his intimidating tone of voice. The more frightened the pony was of him, the more progress he could make, or at least that was what he hoped. “Uh… umm… I’m just uh… out for a walk…?” The hooded pony muttered in a timid voice. He didn’t even sound like he believed his own answer. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and groaned painfully. She almost felt bad that someone could think up such a pathetic lie. The cyan mare walked up a little closer and glared at the nervous unicorn. “Buddy… you’re a horrible liar.” Rainbow Dash stated with an agitated expression. “Uh… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just walking around town, when this storm came out of nowhere… I tried to get away, but then that tornado came down and blocked me in!” The unicorn tried to explain in as sincere a manner as possible, which didn’t get him very far. The trio merely looked at him in disbelief. “Dude… you are literally… holding, the book that you used to make this spell.” Rainbow Dash stated while pointing to the leather bound book in the unicorn’s grasp. Although the pages were completely ruined from the rain, the arcane symbols on the cover of the tome clearly painted a picture as to its contents. As he noticed that he was in fact holding damning evidence in front of him, the hooded pony nervously hid the book behind his back and smiled awkwardly with a nervous chuckle. “Book? What book?” The unicorn said with an awkward smile while breaking out into a cold sweat. “Look man, cut it out… we know that you did this.” Tom said while pointing up at the blackened clouds. He walked forward to get closer to the unicorn, when he was suddenly stopped by an invisible barrier. “Ow… what the…?” The boy muttered in confusion while feeling around the force field. Taking a quick look downwards at the glowing symbols beneath him, he quickly realized the purpose of the barrier. “So that’s why you’re still here… Looks like somebody didn’t read the fine print on the spell they were using.” Tom said while giving the barrier a few taps with a closed fist. The unicorn seemed confused by his statement. “What do you mean?” The hooded pony asked curiously. “The spell you used summons a protective barrier to keep the summoner safe from the demons. A rather convenient spell… unless you intend on leaving anytime soon.” Tom said with an amused chuckle. “Sunspot, can you get this thing open with that charm you used back at the hospital?” The human asked curiously while turning to the suited mare. Surely the charm she used to dispel the magical barrier that was holding them on the third floor could undo whatever force field was trapping the unicorn. “Sure thing… just give me a minute.” Sunspot replied while searching through her vials. As the hooded pony realized that the trio was about to break into his accidental sanctuary, he started becoming even more nervous. “Stop! You can’t come in here… I won’t let you!” He yelled in a desperate attempt at stopping their assault on his prison. The unicorn’s threats only elicited a brief chuckle from the group. “Hah… like you could do anything to hurt us. You can’t even perform a spell right if you got trapped in there!” Rainbow Dash mocked the nervous pony with a smirk. Her comment made him even more nervous and even more desperate. “Uh… what’s stopping me from just teleporting away from you once you let me out? Yeah… bet you didn’t think of that did you?!” The unicorn replied with false confidence. In response to his bold statement, the human partially unsheathed his blade and glared at him. “If I so much as see that horn of yours light up… I’ll cut it off. And trust me on this one… I can move faster than you can think.” Tom stated in a threatening tone. The boy’s harsh words made the unicorn squeal fearfully at the mere thought. “Please don’t hurt me!” The stallion stated while cowering with his face hid in his arms. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Cotton Quill would it?” Sunspot asked while preparing her charm for use. The unicorn stopped cowering and looked up in response. “How did you know that?” He asked in a confused tone, confirming the orange mare’s suspicions. “Well… we know that a unicorn named Cotton Quill does most of the legwork for all of the monster summoning’s we have encountered… and you seem to match his description.” The suited pegasus replied while pushing the tip of the vial she was holding against the barrier. A shockwave went through the force field before disappearing in a small flash of light. As the barrier vanished, the trio took a few steps towards the nervous unicorn. “Gah!” Cotton yelped in fright while backpedalling away from the approaching group. As he got up to run, he was suddenly stopped by the human speaking up. “Hold up there hood boy… we just want to talk. Besides, if you run I will give you a reason to keep running.” Tom said in an earnest and surprisingly mellow tone. Cotton paused and turned around for fear that he was being honest. “Look… we can worry about what to do with you later. Right now we have friends that need our help, so you’re coming with us.” The human added in a compromising manner. Rainbow Dash was surprised by the notion of taking one of their enemies with them. “What?! We’re taking him with us?!” The cyan mare asked with a shocked expression. “We need him for information, and we can’t really do anything with him at the moment. We have no choice but to keep him with us as a hostage… I mean, what do you think we should do with him?” Tom asked while turning to face the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash was unsure of how to answer. She didn’t like the prospect of one of their enemies being with them in such a crisis, but she also knew that they needed to get information out of him later. “Well umm… we could… I… *sigh* Alright fine, you win.” Rainbow Dash stated in a defeated tone as she came up with no other answers. “Good… let’s get moving. Applejack and the others need us sooner rather than later.” Tom suggested while walking forward and grabbing ahold of the back of Cotton’s hoodie. The unicorn struggled briefly before going along with the human’s lead. After taking a moment to examine the peculiar symbol on the ground and all of the materials with it, the group headed off on their way to help their friends. With the storm raging overhead, and the ever present fear of the monsters somewhere around them, they were eager to get indoors. Quickly hopping over the fence and ducking under some apple trees, the group took a brief moment to enjoy the decrease of rain hitting them. With a shared nod, the trio decided to linger for a few more minutes to catch their breaths. Rainbow Dash sat down and leaned up against the trunk of a sturdier looking tree. She put her arms behind her head and kicked back to relax for a few moments. She hadn’t realized just how sore and tired she was from all the stress she had recently been through, so it was nice to rest. “Man… I think I never want to see water again.” Rainbow Dash said in a matter of fact tone. If she never saw another rain cloud again, it would be too soon. “Heh… now you know how we felt after getting out of the school. We were wading through ice cold knee high water for like half an hour… not to mention the bloody freak chasing us.” Tom stated lightheartedly. “Well no offense, but I would have much rather went on without knowing what it feels like to be a pair of socks in a washing machine... minus the walking pile of blood” Rainbow Dash replied with a chuckle. “Where did you guys find that ugly customer anyway? Did you pick him out yourself or did your boss just give you an assignment.” The human asked while glancing over to the hooded unicorn nearby. Cotton looked over at the slayer nervously as he brought up the events at the school. Doubtlessly he would be upset over every hardship that had occurred by his hoof. “I-I was just doing what I was T-told… everything was prepared for me beforehand, except for the location.” Cotton explained apprehensively. “Wait… you picked the location? So you were the one that decided to attack the school?!” Rainbow Dash asked angrily. She became more upset as she thought further about the unicorn’s role in the calamities that happened recently. Cotton avoided eye contact with the agitated pegasus as she glared at him. He hoped that she would eventually leave him alone if he was silent. “Some friends of mine got hurt during the attack you caused… three fillies. They don’t even have their cutie marks yet… you don’t feel even a little bit remorseful for that?!” The cyan mare asked while sitting up and intensifying her glare. “I… umm.” Cotton fiddled his hooves together as he searched for an answer to her question. He hadn’t really put much thought into how the plans he carried out affected other ponies. In his duties, pain and suffering were seen as good things to be inflicted on others. “You were the one that picked the hospital too weren’t you…?” Rainbow Dash grew cold and quiet as she thought about the matter further. “I get it… you wanted to take advantage of the ponies hurt at the school. Strike them while they were already hurt and scared… gather more fear up for your hooded pals right? Two ponies died in there… because of what you did… do you even care?!” She yelled at the unresponsive unicorn, making him jump slightly. “Leave him alone Rainbow Dash… we can give him the third degree later.” Tom suggested in an attempt at calming down the upset pegasus. Rainbow Dash leaned back while glaring at the unicorn for a few more moments. She then sighed and looked away. “How could someone be so heartless?” The cyan mare muttered sadly before falling silent. The group sat in silence for a while after that, listening to the rain while they dealt with their inner feelings. As they listened to their surroundings, they started to notice something changing about the storm around them. The wind and rain seemed to be dying down slightly. “What the hay…?” Sunspot asked in confusion while glancing out from under the trees. Barely any rain was falling anymore, and the frequency of thunder and lightning seemed to be mildly decreased. Rainbow Dash perked her ears up and listened for any suspicious changes, when she suddenly heard something hitting the tree next to her. Two more soft crackles sounded out, as if something hard were smacking to the ground. “What the- OW!” The cyan mare cried out in pain as a small round object smacked into the side of her arm. As she rubbed the impact area and looked down, she noticed a decently sized chunk of ice on the ground beside her. As the group looked around, they saw several more chunks of ice falling to the earth with steadily increasing frequency. Before long, the sounds they were making resembled heavy rainfall, creating a thunderous uproar as each chunk smacked into either the ground or one of the ponies. “Hail?!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock. With the way Equestria’s weather was managed, hail was a rare occurrence, and when it did occur, measures were taken to make it as small as possible for safety. However, the chunks of ice currently falling to the ground were anything but safe. Every time a ball slammed into them, the ponies felt a twinge of pain that stung for a long time after the initial impact. Before long, the impacts were so large that it was actually endangering the group physically. If the hailstones got any larger and they hit them in the head, it might cause a skull fracture. “The storm must be getting worse… let’s get out of here!” Tom suggested while covering his head and rushing out into the storm. He didn’t even need to escort the hooded unicorn as everyone was rushing to keep up with him to get to shelter. Although they were relatively close to the farmhouse, the short walk was agonizing in the blistering hailstorm. Every step they took was met with several balls of ice slamming into their frail bodies. “AGH!” Rainbow Dash yelled in pain as a hailstone crashed into her knee. The force of the impact made the joint lock up and pressed it in the wrong direction of motion. The cyan mare fell forwards into the mud before catching herself with her other front leg. Sunspot rushed to her side and picked her up to keep the wounded pegasus moving. They couldn’t risk her being left behind in the storm or she could be severely hurt. With the orange mare helping to carry her weight, Rainbow Dash sucked up the pain and continued onwards. Finally the group reached the porch of the Apple Family home. The roof of the enclosing was battered from the hailstones hitting it, but it remained solid despite the constant assault. The four immediately collapsed to a seated position to recover from their injuries. As the four were resting and tending to the wounded cyan mare, everything suddenly went quiet. The hail stopped, and only the sound of the rustling wind was left to accompany them. Chapter 61: The Calm BeforeAs the torrent of hail continued to pound on the wooden overhang of the porch, the group of four was still recovering from their brief time out in the storm. All of the bruises and sore spots on them were still aching, even after resting for a few minutes. Tom was keeping a close eye on the hooded unicorn that was recuperating on the floor. Although he was confident that he wouldn’t be able to escape, he still wanted to keep tabs on him. Meanwhile Sunspot was staying by Rainbow Dash as she rested her injured knee. The cyan mare was cradling her front leg while rubbing the pain out of it. Every time she would put a little weight on it, it would send shooting pains through her body. “Tch!” Rainbow Dash cringed while trying yet again to walk on the injured appendage. Realizing that she wasn’t getting anywhere, the cyan mare frowned sadly. “Man… this hurts a lot. I hope I didn’t break a bone or something.” The pegasus fretted with concern while gently pressing around her knee to search for abnormalities. “Here, let me see.” Tom suggested while getting up and moving closer. As the human sat down beside her, Rainbow Dash was a little apprehensive to let him near her injury. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but she felt overly protective of her knee. “Umm… I think I’ll be ok… I can just walk it off.” Rainbow Dash stated with a forced smile and chuckle. She could obviously see that the boy wasn’t buying her act. “Relax… you won’t feel a thing, I promise.” Tom said earnestly. Rainbow Dash thought back to how he had healed Applebloom’s leg back at the hospital. If an actually broken bone could be mended without any pain, then perhaps she would be fine with him healing her injury. “Ok… but please be gentle, I bruise easily… heh.” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously while mentally preparing for whatever pain would come from the human examining her leg. The cyan mare cringed in expectance as Tom slowly placed his hand on her knee and left it there for a moment. Before long, a soft blue glow enveloped his hand and the surrounding area. All sensation of pain was removed as the boy pressed harder onto the leg. The only thing that Rainbow Dash could feel was an incredibly warm sensation washing over the area where she was in contact with the slayer. It wasn’t so warm as to cause discomfort, but it seemed to be just the perfect amount to elicit a blissful feeling in the pegasus. Perhaps sooner than she would have liked, Rainbow Dash felt Tom let go of her knee and immediately felt an equally soothing cool sensation as her knee came into contact with the cool air. As she moved her leg around, she quickly realized that all of the pain had vanished. Anything that had been ailing her knee seemed to be gone. “Wow… that is so cool. It never ceases to amaze me how awesome your powers are Tom… Thanks.” Rainbow Dash stated with an astonished smile. Tom seemed to be pleased that the cyan mare was back in good health. “No problem. Just try to keep yourself from getting too banged up in the future. I know there wasn’t much you could have done back there, but it always pays to be cautious.” The human stated as a reminder for the bold pegasus to watch her back for future reference. “Will do.” Rainbow Dash replied with a cheerful nod. “Ok guys, let’s head inside. The others probably need our help… I’m picking up a few readings inside, probably more of those things.” Sunspot said while holding out her locator. The liquid inside the vial was glowing intensely towards the top as the pegasus pointed it towards the house. The thought of more of those creatures being in her friend’s house made Rainbow Dash feel anxious and concerned. She hoped that the orange mare and those with her would be alright. Despite all of the hope that she could manage, she knew that she needed to assist her friend to increase her chances of survival. “Yeah, let’s go.” Rainbow Dash said with determination welling up inside of her. She was prepared to do whatever it would take to rescue her friends. The three brave soldiers, and one reluctant unicorn, lined up in front of the door and prepared to undertake their rescue mission. Tom opened the door and took a quick look inside to scan for any threats. Satisfied with his search, the human signaled for his group to move inside. Sunspot quickly walked into the house after the slayer. Cotton Quill tried to linger outside for a while longer, until he was given a shove on the back by Rainbow Dash. Looking behind him to see the cyan mare glaring at him, the unicorn shrugged uncomfortably before walking inside. Once everyone was in the house, Rainbow Dash closed the door as quietly as she could. She then took a quick peek around to see what shape the once lively home was in. The living room seemed to be relatively intact. From what she could tell in the dark, everything was in its intended place. “So far so good…” Rainbow muttered quietly while looking to the two at the front of the group. Tom and Sunspot were scanning the area ahead with their respective means of doing so. Judging by how both of them were converging towards the upstairs portion of the house, the cyan pegasus gathered that something must have been up there. “Any sign of Neon and the others?” Rainbow Dash whispered curiously while trying to interpret the reading on Sunspot’s vial from a distance. Despite how much she had seen the detector in action, the cyan mare had no idea what any of its glowing lights meant. “I’m picking up a few heat signatures upstairs… along with a few of those monsters.” Sunspot replied uneasily while holding up both of her locating vials. “Same here… from the looks of it everyone seems to be still alive.” Tom added with a relieved tone of voice. Rainbow Dash was also relieved to hear that everyone was at least alive. “That’s great! Let’s get up there and help them!” Rainbow Dash stated excitedly. Even though there wasn’t much she could probably do to the demons, she was eager for the human to go destroy the monsters and rescue her friends. Thankfully he seemed to be willing to carry out her whims, at least in this case. Without any further delay, Tom slowly made his way towards the nearby stairs. He motioned for the others to be quiet. Everyone gladly obliged as they could already hear the muffled sounds that the creatures were making from above. Somehow, the group managed to not make any noise at all as they slinked up the stairs. Keeping themselves low to the ground to conceal themselves, they slowly climbed up each step while mentally preparing themselves for what they would find at the top. Tom reached the end of the stairs first and peered over them to see into the dark hallway. He was immediately greeted with the sight of three creatures hovering around a door. The door was badly clawed up and seemed to be scorched slightly from some kind of burn. Taking a quick look at the creatures revealed the reason for the mysterious burn. Two of the beasts had an aura of electricity flowing around them. One touch from them must have been enough to power a small village for weeks. “Yikes…” Rainbow Dash exclaimed quietly as she noticed the electrified monsters. She already hated the demons when they were normal, so to find ones that had control over lightning was an unpleasant surprise. As the others looked at the door, they quickly noticed something else amid the claw marks and wood splinters. There was a small piece of paper affixed to the door. The paper had symbols on it that were glowing red. Everyone but Cotton quickly recognized this to be one of the physical barriers that Sunspot’s team used. “Good thinking Neon.” Sunspot said with a warm smile. She was glad that her green friend was a quick thinker in the face of danger. “How are we going to get to them? Those things don’t look like they’re moving…” Rainbow Dash observed uneasily. The three demons seemed to be unmoving in their fixation on the ponies trapped behind the door. “Well then I guess I’m going to have to move them.” Tom stated casually. Before anyone could even process what he meant by that, the boy got up and rushed forward. “Tom wait!” Rainbow Dash tried to get the human to return to the safety of the stairs. She was certain that it was an unwise idea to take on so many of the creatures in such close quarters. Despite her warning the boy charged forward dauntlessly. By the time the three beasts had turned their heads to look at the incoming threat, Tom had already materialized his claws. With a swift cross swipe, the two electrified demons found their forms getting sliced through with relative ease. The lightning surrounding them arced into the slayer as he struck them, but he seemed to pay no more heed to the discharge than a slight yelp of pain. The third creature tried to back up, but it was a pointless effort considering the speed of the human. Tom leapt into the air and brought his claws down into the monster’s head. As the boy paused and rested, the remains of the three creatures faded into smoke which quickly dissipated into the air. “Wow… I guess that’ll show me for thinking that you can’t handle something.” Rainbow Dash said with cheerful amazement. Even though she wasn’t the one performing the deed, it was oddly satisfying to watch the vicious monsters getting destroyed. “Well… it is a lot easier when there aren’t that many of them. I’m just glad Sunspot didn’t have to bail me out there… that would have been kind of awkward.” Tom replied lightheartedly. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot laughed warmly at the boy’s comment. Now that the monsters had been dealt with, the group was free to turn their attention to finding their friends. Sunspot looked at the spell on the door for a moment so she could sync up to it. The only way they were getting in there is if they could either break or get around the ward, luckily getting around it was easy due to her common usage of it. Taking out a quill and dabbing it into an ink well filled with red ink, the orange pegasus quickly scribbled a symbol onto the paper. The symbol vanished into the paper, sending a shockwave out through the door. Sunspot then grabbed the handle and pulled. The door popped open with relative ease. As soon as they peered inside, they were greeted with the sight of Applejack and her two siblings huddling around an injured pony on the ground. Neon Streak had what appeared to be a large gash on her side which she was pressing a few bandages against to stop the bleeding. “Rainbow Dash…? Tom? Sunspot?” Applejack asked in a stunned tone. She seemed surprised to see the trio as they entered the doorway. Once she realized that she wasn’t seeing things and they were really standing in front of her, the orange mare became excited along with the others. “It’s about time you guys got here!” Neon Streak stated happily as she watched the small group flood into the already crowded bathroom. “Neon!” Sunspot exclaimed as she happily rushed to the green mare’s side and picked her up into a hug. The hold was a little too rough on the earth pony for her liking, so she gently pushed the excited pegasus away. “Why didn’t you answer us? You had me and the others worried sick!” Sunspot chided her green friend for causing so much stress. Neon Streak sighed while looking down to her injury. “I got knocked out by one of those things outside… After I came to I tried calling again, but I couldn’t reach anyone. I didn’t know what else to do… so I set up a protective barrier on the door. One of them clipped me before I could get back in.” Neon explained in a disheartened tone. Sunspot put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, causing the green mare to look up. The suited mare had a cheerful smile on her face. “I’m just glad that you’re ok.” Sunspot stated happily. “Hmm… that storm outside must be jamming the signal if you couldn’t reach us.” Tom reasoned while thinking back to the giant tornado circling the area. “Can you call anyone Sunspot?” He asked to be certain that they were cut off from the outside world. Sunspot placed a hoof up to her ear and concentrated. She couldn’t even feel a connection going through, but she felt that she had to try. “Hello…? Can anyone hear me?” Sunspot asked while hoping for an answer. Nothing but dead silence greeted the orange mare. “*Sigh* Looks like we’re on our own…” Sunspot shrugged sadly. The last thing she wanted was to be cut off from the rest of her team. As much as her training had prepared her for times like this, it was an entirely different experience to actually experience the worst case scenario. “We can handle this by ourselves. Between the three of us, I think you, me, and Tom can take care of these things… Ow!” Neon Streak yelped in pain as she felt another twinge of pain going through her chest. Everyone looked to the green mare with concerned expressions as she dealt with her wound. “Here, let me take care of that for you.” Tom suggested while walking up to the earth pony. Neon Streak held her free arm out in protest of the human trying to heal her. “Don’t worry about that right now. I don’t want you using up all of your strength on me before all of these things are gone. I will be fine until you guys take care of everything… I guess I’ll just stay here.” The green pony suggested with a slightly disheartened tone. “Just… don’t die before we get back up here, ok?” Sunspot instructed while observing the cringing mare with a sympathetic frown. “I’ll try my best.” Neon replied with a reassuring chuckle before cringing in pain again. “Hey… who is that guy?” Applebloom spoke up from the side of the room. She had been staring at the hooded unicorn ever since she noticed him. She only just now tried to ask who he was. Tom and the two pegasus’s directed their attention to their prisoner. Cotton Quill had been trying to remain as silent and unnoticed as possible, but now everyone was looking right at him. The looks of suspicion and curiosity he was receiving made him feel nervous and uneasy. “This is Cotton Quill. We found him outside in the middle of a pictogram.” Tom explained while forcibly patting the unicorn on the back. Cotton grunted slightly from the unfriendly gesture. Upon mention of the unicorn’s name, Applejack and Neon Streak shifted their expressions to leers. They looked at each other before returning their attention back to the hooded pony, as if confirming with each other their own thoughts. “Cotton Quill…? As in… we almost died trying to find his sorry hooded butt… that Cotton Quill?” Neon Streak asked while getting up from the floor. Cotton Quill suddenly became that much more nervous as he looked at the two mares staring at him. “Yep… that’s the one.” Tom stated with a smirk while ignoring the pleading facial cues he was getting from the unicorn. “Umm… uh…” Cotton broke out into a cold sweat as he watched Neon Streak walk over to him with a scowl on her face. He tried to back up, only to be met with the wall blocking his path. “Can I h-help you?” The unicorn asked nervously, hoping that the agitated mare would go away if he was polite. “Yeah… actually you can. When you see your red furred buddy again… could you give him this for me?” Neon asked while holding up her bare hoof. Cotton was a little confused by the gesture. “Give him wh- OW!” The unicorn was interrupted by Neon Streak punching him right in the nose. The strike wasn’t anything major, but it definitely stung. As Cotton was rubbing his muzzle tenderly, the green mare smiled in satisfaction. “That feels so much better now.” Neon chuckled while returning to her previous spot on the floor. Applejack also seemed to be pleased that some sort of justice had been dealt for their previous hardship. “I’m glad someone feels good about this…” Cotton muttered to himself while trying to assess if his nose was broken anywhere. “Ok… now that we’re all together we need to start thinking about how to stop these things.” Sunspot stated to get things back on track. She looked to Tom with the hopes that he would have a plan of action for her and her friends. “Tom, do you have any ideas?” Sunspot asked with a hopeful expression. The human paused to think for a moment before answering. “Cotton, what exactly did you summon?” Tom asked while turning to the still recovering unicorn. Cotton Quill looked up in mild confusion at the sudden question. “What?” Cotton asked in an uncertain tone. He was unsure of what the slayer meant, or even if he should answer truthfully. “That spell out there seemed way too complex to just spit out a few lesser demons and some rain. What did you summon?” Tom restated his question in a more direct way with a serious expression on his face. “Umm…” Cotton thought back to the original parameters of his spell. He wasn’t sure if he should divulge the fact that he was trying to assassinate the elements of harmony. Seeing the impatient faces of the group surrounding him, he knew that he needed to find something to tell them. “I’m not sure if I should tell you… you’ll just hit me again.” The unicorn stated nervously, his comment seemed to anger the majority of the ponies. “Look… I promise that I won’t hit you… just tell us the truth.” Tom spoke up before anyone could voice their opinions. The others were surprised that he could appear so sincere to one of their enemies. Cotton mulled over the question in his head for a while before finally sighing in defeat. “I used a spell to summon a storm demon… I gave it a picture of the elements of harmony in the hopes that it would target them.” Cotton explained nervously while avoiding eye contact with anyone. The ponies were amazed at how brutally honest the unicorn was being, but they were even more upset than anything. “You did-” Rainbow Dash began to speak up angrily, when she was suddenly interrupted by a loud outburst from the human beside her. “YOU DID WHAT?!” Tom yelled in shock and anger, making Cotton Quill, and everyone else in the room jump slightly. The boy looked like he was about to strangle the unicorn. “You said you wouldn’t hit me!” Cotton stated frantically while backing further into the corner. Tom paused for a moment while still dealing with his anger. He breathed in and out a few times to regulate himself before turning to the cyan mare beside him. “I said that I wouldn’t hit you… I said nothing about her hitting you. Rainbow Dash, if you would be so kind as to punch him in his stupid face for me.” Tom asked through gritted teeth while still dealing with his own emotions. Rainbow Dash looked at the nervous unicorn and smirked deviously. “With pleasure.” Rainbow Dash stated while getting up and winding up for a punch. Everyone in the room either cringed and looked away or cheered the cyan mare on as she gave the unicorn a punch to the face that made a satisfying thud sound out throughout the room. Cotton Quill was knocked onto the floor from the strike. His head was spinning and his nose was throbbing. He decided that it would be best if he didn’t talk anymore about possibly harmful topics to his captors. “Sunspot, do you have any zip ties or handcuffs?” Tom asked in a slightly urgent tone. “Uh… yeah.” Sunspot replied in slight confusion while reaching for a zip tie. She handed it to the human, who quickly grabbed the still recovering unicorn by the front leg and lifted him up slightly. Cotton tried resisting, but in his dazed state he couldn’t do much but wriggle in the slayer’s grasp. “What are you doing?” Cotton asked in a concerned tone while the human wrapped the zip tie around both of his front legs. He then closed the tie and pulled it tight so the unicorn would be restrained. “I can’t have you walking around while I’m away.” The boy explained while placing the bound pony against the wall in a seated position. The others in the room were starting to get concerned for how he was acting. “Ok… now Ah’m curious. What are you doing Tom?” Applejack asked while observing the urgency in the human’s face. “I’m going downstairs to get some salt, and then I’m going to seal you guys in here while I take care of this thing.” Tom explained while walking out of the door. While the orange mare was confused about why he needed salt, she was more concerned about his sudden desire to take the creatures on alone. “Hold on a second!” Applejack stated while walking out to catch up with him. “You can’t be serious can you? You aren’t doing this alone.” She explained adamantly. “But-” Tom started to speak up when he was interrupted by Rainbow Dash interjecting into the conversation. “But nothing… I don’t care if it’s dangerous. We’re all in this together. If you fail then we’re going to have to do the same thing without you anyway.” Rainbow Dash said with a determined expression. Tom tried to appear as confident in his decision as possible, but it was hard to get past the two mares staring him down with eager expressions. It was like they had a death wish, but they didn’t seem to care as long as they were helping to fight. “Fine… but you’re going to stay inside, and you’re staying together. I think I can keep two of you safe just as long as we keep our numbers low.” The human instructed with a serious tone of voice. While he was giving his speech, he noticed Sunspot walking out to join the other two ponies in front of him. “Neon and Big Mac will stay with Applebloom and Cotton while we’re gone. What are we doing?” The suited mare asked while closing the door. She walked up to the group with an eager expression. “*Sigh*… these ponies are going to be the death of me.” Tom muttered to himself while rubbing his temples. It was hard enough doing his job by himself, but now he had to worry about the safety of three talking ponies. Not only were they sentient cute animals, but they were ladies to boot. He couldn’t exactly allow anything bad to happen to them, it would go against every moral he was ever taught. “We need to grab some salt and seal off all the doors and windows. If we’re going to fight this thing, we need to be as prepared as possible.” The boy explained uneasily. Rainbow Dash and the others could easily tell that he was dreading the coming battle. “Wait, hold on… salt? Why do we need salt?” Applejack asked in a confused tone while looking to her friends for an explanation. “Basically salt repels these things… I wasn’t sure about it myself until we tried it out. I just hope it works on that storm demon… whatever the hay it is.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone. “What is this thing anyway? We have been stuck in a bathroom for a while, so Ah have no idea what’s going on.” Applejack asked curiously. If she was going to risk her life, she at least wanted to know what she was up against. “Well… it’s hard to say. Most demons, even among the same type, differ between individuals. All I know is that whatever this thing is, it’s bad.” Tom replied. The ponies weren’t exactly surprised by his reasoning. “I think we figured that out on our own Tom… can you at least give us a little insight on what you’re expecting?” Rainbow Dash asked to clarify what the human knew about the subject. “Umm… how to put this…?” The human thought out loud while trying to find a way to put his hypothesis into simple terms. “You see all of those flying monsters we have been fighting all night? Well… those things are pretty much this thing’s babies.” He explained uneasily. The thought of something even more powerful than the creatures they were already facing made the ponies’ minds race. They could practically imagine what horrifying monster was about to be created, and thinking back to what Cotton Quill said, they realized that it would be trying to hunt them specifically. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s hurry up and prepare!” Sunspot stated urgently in an attempt to get things moving. The human nodded before heading down the stairs. With the suited pegasus hot on his heels, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were momentarily left upstairs by themselves. “I’m not sure if I can handle all of this…” Rainbow Dash stated nervously. She could tell that her orange friend shared her feelings on the matter just from a glance. “We don’t really have a choice Rainbow Dash.” Applejack replied in an understanding tone. She herself was dealing with an overwhelming sense of fear that made it difficult to move forward. “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine.” Rainbow Dash said in an attempt at instilling courage in both her and her friend. Applejack smirked at the brave exterior that her friend was putting on. She only wished that she could make herself look that confident. “Deal.” Applejack agreed with a firm hoof shake. She felt a little better knowing that she didn’t have to go into battle alone. She had one of her best friends along for the ride. Without any further delay, the two ponies walked downstairs to join their friends up ahead. They rushed through the living room and into the kitchen where the human and the suited mare were searching around for any container of salt they could find. “Here, let me get it.” Applejack suggested while walking over to the correct cabinet. She knew the contents of her kitchen like the back of her own hoof due to how often she assisted with cooking for the family. The orange pony rifled through the cabinet before pulling out two containers of salt. Tom grabbed one of the containers from her, leaving Applejack holding the other. “Go around the house and lay down a line of salt at every door and window. If you find one of those things, scream loud enough for us to hear you and throw some salt at it.” The human explained to the farm pony. Applejack nodded while turning to her cyan friend. “Ok… Rainbow Dash and Ah will take upstairs.” Applejack stated while walking towards the living room. Rainbow Dash swiftly followed the orange mare into the other room and up the stairs. With the constant threat of one of the monstrous intruders breaking in should they falter, the two teams rushed around the house leaving lines of salt wherever they went. The booming thunder outside made everyone on edge as they approached the windows and doors that led out into the darkness. Rainbow Dash stood by with a small hoof full of salt at the ready while Applejack finished laying down lines in front of the upstairs windows. In the event of one of those things flying in, the cyan mare would be the first to react. “So how are the others doing?” Applejack asked with slight concern in her voice. She hadn’t heard anything about her other friends, and judging from how deadly these monsters could be, she wasn’t sure if she would like what she heard. “Everyone is fine. They all have themselves blocked in with salt, so they are probably still waiting for us to stop this thing.” Rainbow Dash explained to ease the farm pony’s concerns. Applejack was relieved that her friends were safe. “That’s good to hear… Who would have thought that those scary critters would be afraid of salt?” Applejack stated with a slight chuckle. The thought of a vicious monster being fended off with something as simple as table salt was somehow amusing. “Tell me about it. If every monster the hooded ponies summoned was as easy to fend off as these guys, we would be in the clear.” Rainbow Dash replied lightheartedly. With this room completed, the two headed back out into the hall and looked around to see which rooms they were missing. The only one they had left to fortify was the only one they had been putting off. As they approached Applebloom’s bedroom, they felt a small feeling of dread welling up inside of them. “So they came right through the window?” Rainbow Dash turned to her partner and asked curiously. “Yeah… it’s a good thing Neon was with us. Ah don’t think we would be as well off as we are if she didn’t react as fast as she did.” Applejack said with a thankful expression. She didn’t even want to think about what could have happened if Applebloom was alone in her room when the monster broke in. “Well… let’s get this over with.” Rainbow Dash suggested while clutching her salt defensively. The chances of another demon flying in from the open window was equal to anywhere else in the house, but for some reason the open window into the raging storm outside seemed more dangerous to the two mares. Applejack nodded slowly while reaching for the handle. With a brief moment of hesitation, the orange pony opened up the door and looked inside with her salt container at the ready. With the silent precision of a pair of ninjas, the two mares walked inside and scanned the area for threats. The only sign of movement was the curtains at the far end of the room flapping in the wind. The lightning flashed constantly, illuminating the entire room and casting deep shadows on the walls and floor. The rain outside hadn’t returned since the hailstorm, leaving only a thunderous uproar outside. Taking note of the broken glass at her feet, Applejack carefully approached the window. The soft crackle of the glass as the farm pony gingerly walked over it was barely audible over the sound of the wind, but the two mares felt that it would be more than enough to alert any vicious beast outside to their presence. Applejack quickly put down a line of salt below the window, hoping that the wind wouldn’t reach it. Rainbow Dash tensed her body in preparation while staring out the window, all the while expecting some sort of monstrosity to come flying in. Just before Applejack finished the line of salt, a loud rustling sound came from outside. It sounded like something was scraping against the walls of the house just below them. Suddenly a deep roar filled the room as a dark shape flew into view. “AH!” Applejack yelped fearfully. Caught by surprise from the sudden alarming sight in front of her, the orange mare fell backwards in a subconscious attempt at gaining distance from the creature. Rainbow Dash quickly reacted and threw her salt at the creature. Perhaps wise to their methods of attack, the monster rapidly ducked down below the window, letting the salt fly past him. Once the way was clear, the demon shot upwards again and started coming through the window. The two mares backed up as fast as they could. In the process of escaping, Applejack rubbed her leg across some glass, slicing it open slightly. Ignoring the mildly painful experience, the orange pony focused all of her attention on backpedaling from the monster. “Go, go, go!” Rainbow Dash yelled frantically while heading for the door. The farm pony needed no further confirmation as she joined her friend in running away from the beast. With the creature howling at their heels, the two mares reached the door and slammed it shut behind them. “Hold it shut!” Applejack exclaimed while laying a line of salt down in front of the door. Rainbow Dash held onto the handle and put her weight into keeping the door shut. The door rattled and shook as the demon clawed and pounded into it. The cyan mare could barely keep it steady as the monster tried opening it from the other side. She strained every muscle in her body to try and get a good foothold to prop herself against. “I can’t hold it much longer!” The pegasus cried out urgently. Applejack took this as incentive to move that much faster. Finally, the orange mare managed to complete the line in front of the door. Almost the exact moment that she did, the pounding stopped and the demon screeched in pain while releasing the door. The two ponies backed up and fell backwards to a seated position. Now that they were safe, they could breathe easy. “*Pant*… *Pant*… Man… I think I’m going to start carrying salt on me at all times.” Rainbow Dash chuckled through her exhaustive breathing. She could still feel her heart beating rapidly, but she was surprisingly calm now that the danger had passed. “Maybe you should ask Sunspot to hook you up with one of their vests… I’m sure you could carry all the salt and other monster deterrents you want with that thing.” Applejack replied with a smirk. The cyan mare chuckled for a moment before considering how cool it would be to have her own tactical vest. “You know… that’s not a bad idea Applejack.” Rainbow Dash stated in a half joking and half serious tone. Applejack laughed at the thought of her friend dressed in monster hunting gear. Her laughter faded suddenly as she felt a stinging pain that drew her attention down to her back right leg. “Ow…” The orange pony cringed as she noticed the cut on her leg. It wasn’t particularly large or deep, but it was bleeding a small amount of crimson liquid that barely managed to form streams down her leg. “You’re hurt…? Did you cut yourself on the glass?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while observing the farm pony’s injury. “Ah think so… Ah was a little focused on running for my life after all.” Applejack replied while coddling her injured leg. Rainbow Dash watched with a sympathetic frown as her friend tried to get up while protecting her injured leg. “Let’s head downstairs and ask Sunspot to patch you up… if you’re lucky Tom might even heal it for you.” Rainbow Dash suggested while gently helping the orange mare get up. “Ah don’t want Tom to waste energy on a little cut. He needs all the strength he can get to fight whatever this thing is. Besides… it’s not that bad.” Applejack stated while ignoring the twinges of pain she was receiving every time she moved her leg. “Well, let’s head downstairs anyway. You should keep your weight off of it until we can get you some first aid. Here, let me help you.” Rainbow Dash said while offering the orange mare her shoulder to help her walk. “Thanks sugar cube.” Applejack said with a warm smile while slowly shuffling forward with the cyan mare’s help. The pair moved relatively slow, but they continued towards the stairs at a steady pace on their way to reunite with their friends. Chapter 62: The StormMeanwhile, Tom and Sunspot were going around and putting the finishing touches on their makeshift barricades. Every door and window had a neatly placed line of salt in front of them. The pair even had a little salt left over to use offensively on the beasts. If anything tried to get inside of the house, it would meet a lot of resistance trying. “That looks like the last of them.” Sunspot stated while sprinkling the last few grains of salt in front of a window. The pegasus looked around and admired the work they had done. It was nice to see that they had such a large area secured from monsters. “Let’s just hope that everything is going smooth for Applejack and Rainbow Dash upstairs.” Tom replied with a carefully optimistic tone. He wasn’t one to believe in jinxes, but it couldn’t hurt to not say anything stupid to make lady luck upset. “I’ll go check on them.” Sunspot suggested while walking towards the living room. Before she could even get through the door, she noticed Rainbow Dash and Applejack walking into the room. The farm pony was leaning on the cyan pegasus while favoring one of her back legs. The other leg had a decent sized cut on it that looked more painful than it was harmful. “Are you two alright?” Tom asked while looking over the orange mare’s injured leg with a concerned expression. “We ran into some trouble up there, but we managed to secure the area.” Rainbow Dash explained while walking her injured companion over to a chair. “How much trouble did you run into exactly?” Sunspot asked while reaching for a set of bandages to assist the wounded mare. “Just one of them… Ah got this running away from it. Cut myself on some broken glass.” Applejack explained while lifting her leg up to make it easier on the suited pegasus. Sunspot seemed surprised by how little resistance they got while securing the house. “One of them…? Why only one of them? We didn’t even find one down here, but there should be dozens of them around from what I detected earlier.” Sunspot said with a confused expression. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were just as curious now that the orange mare brought up the subject, though they couldn’t readily think of an answer themselves. “I don’t know, I didn’t really think of it that way… any ideas Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking to the slayer, hoping that his senses could offer him an insight into what their enemies were doing. “The one you saw was probably a straggler… They are after the elements of harmony after all, and there were two of you in a close proximity to each other. Most of the others seem to be gathering somewhere up in the sky.” The human explained while looking out of the window. His answer didn’t make the ponies any less confused, if anything it perplexed them further. “What are they doing up there?” Sunspot asked curiously while focusing on wrapping up Applejack’s leg. She quickly glanced between the human and her work as she waited for an answer to make sense of the monsters’ mysterious actions. “They’re trying to summon their boss… the demon that Cotton originally called for. Bringing forth a demon in physical form is too hard for just a simple spell to do… the one Cotton used probably summoned his followers so they could finish the job.” Tom said with a slightly nervous tone. The ponies were already nervous themselves, so to see the human a little pale in the face while discussing a monster was disconcerting to say the least. “What demon? What’s he going to be like?” Rainbow Dash asked apprehensively. Anything that commands the respect of those flying creatures must have been a terrifying thing to behold. Before Tom could answer, a rush of blue mist erupted from his mouth. At the same time, Sunspot’s locator crackled and buzzed as it flashed with blue light. Along with these troubling alarms, the occasional flashing of lightning outside seemed to have increased. The entire room was lighting up with light from outside. The almost strobe like display strangely wasn’t accompanied with thunder for each flash. Thunder was present, but it wasn’t in sequence with the flash of lightning. It was an almost disturbing roar that seemed to happen of its own volition, like a snarling beast trying to loose itself from its prison in the sky. The ponies quickly rushed to the nearest window to investigate the frightening event. They scanned their eyes around outside for a brief moment trying to locate the source of the light, when they suddenly froze in place when they discovered what they were looking for. Up in the sky, there was a large storm cloud. The cloud itself wasn’t what was terrifying, it was more or less what was being displayed on, or perhaps inside of it. Each time the lightning would flash, the source of the light was blatantly apparent to anyone looking outside. Everywhere else in the sky was dark, except for the appearance of a face being projected on the cloud by the lightning. The face wasn’t detailed, only consisting of a gaping mouth with a large grin and two round holes above it that served as eyes. The ponies couldn’t see the arcs of the lightning. Instead the face seemed to be behind the cloud, as if the light that made it up was coming from inside of it. The sight of the unnerving face in the sky combined with the erratic thunder to instill a gripping sense of fear in the ponies. They felt their blood running cold from fright, yet they couldn’t stop looking at the terrifying sight. It was like staring at a bad accident. “Well that isn’t good.” Tom muttered sarcastically. He tried to hide the twinge of nervousness in his voice, but it was easily apparent that he was dreading coming to blows with a full-fledged demon. “Uh… Tom, could you answer Rainbow Dash’s question? I want to know a little bit more about the thing that’s about to come and kill us.” Sunspot stated while gulping nervously. Everyone felt the same way as the suited mare, although they weren’t sure if they really wanted to know more about the monster that was hunting them. “It’s a little hard to say… all we really know for sure is that he’s a storm demon. Demons are so different from each other, and there are so many that the only way you could identify them would be to know their name.” Tom explained while turning to face the small group of nervous ponies. “Well I’m pretty sure that knowing its name won’t do us much good while it’s slaughtering us.” Rainbow Dash said in a nervous tone while trying to ignore the eerie flashes of light filling the room. “Actually it would… Demons fight fiercely to keep their names unknown. Once a demon’s name is given, a trained exorcist or a slayer can use that as a weapon against them. They are kind of like children trying to find a loop hole out of a punishment. If you command a demon to leave, it is a lot more powerful if you direct that command to the specific demon.” Tom explained to offer a little more insight to how battling demons worked. “That’s great! Just use your influence over it to get it to tell you its name. Then you can send it packing to wherever it came from!” Sunspot suggested eagerly. She was relieved to hear that they had a weapon against whatever this thing was. The brief excitement in the room was almost instantly killed as the ponies noticed that the human wasn’t as elated as they were. “Actually… I’m not sure if that will even work.” Tom said while trailing his eyes off apprehensively. The ponies were surprised to hear the distinct lack of confidence in their friend. The boy was usually so determined and sure of himself, but now he seemed to be just as nervous as they were. “Why wouldn’t that work? It sounds pretty simple to me… just get its name and we can beat it.” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. She knew that her faith in such a simple approach was probably misplaced, and that the human was about to explain to her why. “All of this works in theory… but in theory, most demons don’t actually take physical forms. You can command a demon around if you have the right authority because they don’t belong in this world. Demons constantly possess other living creatures to get a foot hold in this realm, which is why you can compel them to leave. But if a demon manifests in its physical body, then things get a bit… complicated.” Tom explained while scratching the back of his neck anxiously. “I’m sure that you can handle it. You have beaten every monster we have come across to a pulp with relative ease, so you can handle this guy.” Rainbow Dash tried to instill confidence in the human. The way he wasn’t reacting to her optimism made her slowly feel a sense of dread overcoming her. “You can handle this… right?” Rainbow Dash added with a nervous tone. The boy looked around at the three fearful ponies in front of him. He felt horrible knowing that he wasn’t being the steady rock of confidence that they needed right now. Despite his lack of knowledge on how to deal with the current situation, he had to try, for their sake. “I will try my best…” Tom stated while regaining a bit of his confidence. The ponies were glad to hear that he was back to normal. “Ok… now what do we do next?” Sunspot asked, eager to do whatever it would take to assist the situation. “We need to be prepared… once all of the lesser demons are done with their ritual they will be coming for us in force. And if we manage to contend with all of them, the storm demon will be manifesting soon after.” Tom explained with a serious tone of voice. The three mares nodded confidently. They were ready to fight to protect themselves and their friends against anything. Deciding that they should stick together, the group came to the conclusion that upstairs would be the best place to stage their defense. Tom watched the stairway, while Sunspot remained between the bathroom where the others were staying and the end of the hall. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sitting in the middle of the two, waiting for when they would be needed. As she was listening to the whistling wind outside of the window at the end of the hall, Sunspot suddenly heard the sound of Neon Streak’s voice in her head. Apparently their communication wasn’t hindered by the storm outside due to them both being on the same side of it. “Sunspot, you guys ok out there?” The green mare asked curiously. Sunspot shrugged as she realized that she had been too caught up with what was happening to even check on her friends. “Yeah… we’re still waiting for things to heat up. We decided to wait for them to come to us rather than the alternative of rushing out blindly and getting ourselves killed.” Sunspot replied while taking a cursory glance to the line of salt by her window for assurance. “Good thinking, just be sure to watch your backs… I do not want to be the one to go out there to check if you’re still alive if it gets quiet.” Neon Streak stated jestingly, although the orange mare could tell that she was being semiserious. “You got it. Just be sure to wait a few minutes if I don’t answer you. It’s kind of hard to talk if you have a lesser demon on top of you trying to eat your face off.” Sunspot replied with a chuckle. She could hear a slight giggle on the other side of the line. It was always nice to cheer up an injured pony stuck inside of a bathroom contending with a prisoner of war, even though it happened so rarely. “Oh yeah… before I let you go, Applebloom wants to see Applejack for a minute. Could you tell her to drop by when she gets a chance?” Neon Streak asked in an overtly sweet tone. Sunspot could tell that the yellow filly was probably begging her to get a chance to see her sister. It must have been terrifying for her to know that her older sibling was in danger while she just sat in a cramped room doing nothing. “Sure thing, we’re right outside anyway.” Sunspot replied understandingly. She then dropped the call and turned to head down the hall. Once she got over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the two ponies turned to look at her curiously. “What’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to ascertain the purpose of the orange pegasus’s visit through her expression. Thankfully she didn’t seem to have an urgent or terrified expression on her face, so it must not have been something negative. “Applebloom wants to see you for a minute.” Sunspot said while looking to the farm pony. Applejack understood why her sister would want to see her. She couldn’t really blame the yellow filly. She was nervous and anxious with the knowledge that she had of the situation, so it must have been horrible to be in the dark about things with your sister in the thick of it. “Thanks Sunspot, Ah’ll go talk to her.” Applejack replied with a soft smile. Sunspot nodded before turning back around to head to the end of the hall again. Applejack then sighed as she prepared to put on a more stable front for her sister. She wasn’t exactly falling apart at the seams, but if she was to convince the filly that she was alright, she needed to appear emotionally flawless. “Poor thing… she must be worried sick in there.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while looking beside her to the bathroom door. “Wouldn’t you be if you were in her position?” Applejack asked curiously. The cyan mare thought for a moment before answering. “To be fair… I’m kind of worried out here myself. I would personally rather not know about the demon coming to kill you and me before moving on to the rest of our friends.” Rainbow Dash shrugged fretfully. “Ah’ll tell you the same thing Ah would tell Applebloom… just sit tight and everything will work out ok in the end.” Applejack replied while placing a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. The cyan mare couldn’t help but to smile at her friend’s confidence. “I really hope so…” Rainbow Dash stated with guarded optimism. Applejack nodded before getting up and walking over to the bathroom door. After gripping the handle and softly swinging the door open, Applejack was greeted with the sight of an eager filly waiting for her near the door. Applebloom smiled as she watched her sister enter the room. She walked over to the orange mare and hugged her as she knelt down. “You holding up ok in here? Cotton isn’t being mean to you or anything is he?” Applejack asked with a passing glare to the bound unicorn leaning against the wall. Cotton Quill averted his eyes and looked away from the pair nervously. “No… he isn’t really talking much.” Applebloom said while glancing over to the odd hooded pony. “That’s good… how about you guys? Everything ok in here?” Applejack asked curiously while glancing up to Big Mac and Neon Streak. The green mare seemed to be holding up alright despite her injury. The sight of the chipper earth pony made her feel better about her chances for a recovery. “We’re doing good… all things considered.” Neon Streak said with a slight smile while glancing to the red stallion to gather his opinion. “Eeyup.” Big Mac said in a sincere tone. He seemed to be relatively well composed given the situation outside and the cramped space he was in. “We’re fine… Ah just wanted to check on you to see if you were alright.” Applebloom said while looking over the orange mare for any signs of distress or injury. She frowned with concern upon noticing one of her sister’s back legs wrapped up in bandages. “What happened to your leg?” Applebloom asked with a concerned tone. The orange mare frowned slightly as she remembered her previous injury. “Ah cut myself on some glass earlier. Its fine anyway… it wasn’t even all that big.” Applejack stated in a sincere manner. Applebloom felt a little bit better about her sister’s injury. After all, the orange pony hated lying, especially to her younger sister. “Ok…” Applebloom shrugged with mild concern. Even if it was a small injury, the fact that it happened at all troubled the filly. “Hey, cheer up.” Applejack said while gently lifting her sister’s head up to face her. “Everything will be fine… Ah have Tom and Sunspot to take care of me. They wouldn’t let anything bad happen to your big sis.” The orange mare stated in a reassuring tone. Applebloom thought back to all of the times that the human had helped her family in the past. She felt a little more confident knowing that he was watching out for her sister. “Alright… just be careful out there ok?” Applebloom said in an understanding tone. She accepted that her sister had a job to do, and that she would probably do it with or without her consent. Applejack nodded with a confident smile. “You know me, Ah will be as careful as p-” Applejack was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a window shattering followed by a surprised yell. Judging from the sound of the scream, the orange mare gathered that it was Sunspot. “Stay here!” Applejack stated urgently while walking out of the door. Being careful not to disturb the line of salt protecting the room full of ponies, the orange mare rushed out and shut the door. She then turned to see what was causing all of the commotion. The window at the end of the hall had been broken violently, so violently that a few shards of glass were thrown far into the hall. Sunspot was backed up from the window with a shocked expression. Thankfully she seemed to have avoided all of the flying shards. Nothing was at the window, but the wind was blowing violently outside and letting the rain into the hallway. “What’s going on?!” Applejack asked frantically while rushing up to the jilted pegasus to ensure that she was alright. The ponies could hear several growls and rustling noises coming from outside and moving rapidly around the house. Along with this frightening display, there were numerous blurred silhouettes of black figures zipping past the window, as if they were circling the area. “They’re trying to get in.” Tom announced over the rushing wind. Thankfully the salt barriers around the house seemed to be still intact despite the raging tempest. Sunspot and Applejack backed away from the window and joined the rest of their group in scanning the area for any signs of intrusion. The four huddled close to each other and darted their heads around to determine which noise was one of the creatures flying around outside, and which noise was one of them coming inside. The sound of glass breaking rang out across the house as several windows from downstairs and the surrounding rooms were shattered forcefully; along with this sudden uproar, several of the doors leading outside started shaking violently as the monsters slammed into them. Rainbow Dash and Applejack could hardly hear themselves think over the deafening racket, yet they could somehow still listen to their hearts pounding away at the inner linings of their chests. The two mares darted their eyes around anxiously, tensing themselves up with every passing second while searching for any signs of the white eyed beasts. “Can they get in?” Rainbow Dash asked in a slight panic while looking around. In her mind, the creatures could get in any time they wished to come after her and her orange companion. “The salt lines seem to be holding up ok, but they will only last us so long. One gust of wind is all it takes to break the line.” Tom stated while using his senses to get a feel for what was going on around the house. His answer didn’t exactly fill the ponies with confidence. Instead it filled them with an even stronger sense of fear and panic. Suddenly, a low growl made its presence known above all of the noises of the storm outside. The group looked down the stairs to see one of the creatures coming in from the kitchen area. One of the protective salt barriers must have been broken by the wind or rain, and the demon was using the opportunity to rush inside. Rainbow Dash and Applejack instinctively backed up while Tom and Sunspot prepared for battle. The human walked in front of the suited pegasus to meet the floating creature before it had a chance to reach her. The beast snarled and gnashed its thorn like teeth at the slayer. It twitched its claws eagerly in expectation of ripping the boy and the ponies he was protecting to bloody shreds. In response to this threatening gesture, Tom made a threatening gesture of his own. Gripping the hilt of his sword firmly, the human flipped it out of its holster and readied it for battle. Deciding to take the first move, Tom lunged forward and struck the blade downwards at the approaching demon. The creature caught the approaching blade in its long and gnarled claws with relative ease. As it skillfully shifted the blade to the side to get it out of the way, the monster stared at the human with its dull white eyes. The power struggle seemed like it could go either way, with the creature growling fiercely, and Tom grunting in exertion, both trying to win leverage over the other in their deadly game of tug of war. Realizing that this was getting him nowhere, Tom jumped backwards and yanked the blade out of the beast’s claws. The demon made an aggressive swipe at him while lunging forward, forcing the boy to move backwards even further. Before he was backed into the group of anxiously on looking ponies, Tom ducked to the side and stabbed his blade forward quickly, catching the monster off guard, and catching its barely resistant form on his katana. The beast howled in pain while trying to grab at the sword impaling it. Deciding to take this chance to finish the creature, Tom whipped the sword upwards, cutting the demon in twain. Taking a quick glance downstairs, the human was met with the sight of two more demons taking the place of the one he had just dispatched. Tom chided himself mentally for having expected the fighting to end right then and there. As the two creatures roared fiercely and charged forward, the boy prepared his sword to meet them in battle. Meanwhile at the other end of the hallway, Sunspot and her two charges were watching the human battle the two monsters anxiously. They had witnessed him taking on greater odds before, but they were still concerned for the outcome of the fight. “Come on Tom! You can do it!” Rainbow Dash cheered the slayer on eagerly. She wanted him to beat the ever livid daylights out of the white eyed beasts for all the trouble they had caused. While the three were anxiously watching their friend fight for them, a loud crash suddenly erupted from behind them. They turned and peered around the corner into the other branch of the hall. The lantern on one of the tables midway down the hallway had been shattered on the floor, swallowing the entire hall in pitch blackness. The only source of light was the occasional bolt of lightning from outside. The bluish white light flooding into the hall revealed the source of the broken lamp. At the end of the hall, one of the windows was broken. This came as no surprise to the ponies seeing how all of the windows in the house had been broken moments before. What did surprise them; or rather, startle them severely, was the sight of a black figure with white eyes floating up and down in front of the window. “How did he get in?!” Applejack asked frantically while eyeing the disturbing beast. “The wind must have blown away the salt in front of that window…” Sunspot explained with a growing pit in her stomach. As she watched the white eyes of the creature move in the darkness, and watched the constant flashing of lightning remind her of its progress down the hall, the suited mare knew that she had to fight the thing in front of her. The demon growled as it approached its two targets. It was prepared to kill anything that got in the way of completing its appointed mission. As if to prove this deadly devotion, it brandished its claws and snarled viciously. Sunspot rushed forward to distance herself from Applejack and Rainbow Dash. She then took her salt container and flicked it in the direction of the monster, sending an arc of white powder flying towards the beast. The demon wailed in pain and disappeared from view briefly, using its temporary invisibility to recoil from the assault on its form. Sunspot took great pleasure and satisfaction from fending off the creatures. One more of the beasts flew in through the unsecured window. It quickly rushed down the hall screaming a high pitched battle cry that almost made the ponies cover their ears. With another flick of her makeshift weapon, Sunspot dispatched the charging beast with relative ease. “That’s right! Back up you freaks!” Sunspot exclaimed with a burning sense of enthusiasm and ferocity. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were surprised to see the suited mare put so much energy into fighting. She almost looked like she enjoyed it, although they couldn’t blame her. Yet another black figure came barreling down the darkened hallway. Sunspot was prepared to dispatch this creature as she had the others. She felt proud in herself that she was actually assisting Tom with holding their ground against the demons. With a triumphant smirk, the pegasus flicked her salt container at the creature. Much to her surprise and dismay, no more of the lifesaving white powder came out of the small cylinder. Sunspot shook the container nervously, hearing and feeling nothing that indicated that more salt remained. She was now holding a very salty paper weight. “Uh oh…” Sunspot muttered in a fearful tone. All bravery immediately vanished from the cocky mare as she laid eyes on the charging beast in front of her. She looked behind her, remembering that Applejack held the other salt container. Before the suited pegasus could retreat to acquire the other salt container, the monster was already upon her. With a growl and a swift swipe of its claws, the demon sent Sunspot to the floor as she barely managed to evade its attack. Spotting an opportunity, the creature reeled its arm back and prepared to stab its claws into the mare, pinning her to the floor as it would doubtlessly impale her. Spotting the danger above her, Sunspot gasped and moved her arms out in front of her reflexively. She just barely managed to grab the monster’s gaunt hand and wrist before its claws made contact with her chest. The monster pushed down with incredible strength, but the pegasus managed to push it back, if only just barely. “Hrrk… Gah!” Sunspot groaned from exertion as she struggled against the creature. The demon seemed to be toying with her, refusing to use its other hand so it could prolong the experience. Despite the monster holding back, the suited mare gradually watched the sharp claws get closer and closer to her body. Applejack and Rainbow Dash widened their eyes in shock as they watched the pegasus fight for her life. They took a quick glance over to Tom before realizing that he had his hands full with fighting off a group of the creatures. If someone was going to save the orange mare, it would have to be them. Applejack clutched her salt container with grit and determination. She was prepared to charge forward and rescue the trapped pegasus, if only preparations were so simply executed. Before she could even react, a large gust of wind blew in through the nearby window, sending the salt container flying from her hooves and nearly knocking her and the cyan mare next to her over. “Dangit… no!” Applejack cursed her misfortune as she watched the small cylinder fly across the hallway. By the time she could retrieve it, Sunspot might already be dead. The farm pony shared a nervous glance with Rainbow Dash before coming up with an idea that she would probably regret later. “Rainbow Dash… go get the salt.” Applejack instructed with a serious tone of voice while looking towards the struggle taking place down the hall. Rainbow Dash was confused by her friend’s statement. She looked over to the salt and wondered what the farm pony was thinking. When she looked back, the cyan mare noticed that her friend wasn’t beside her anymore. Instead she was running down the hallway towards Sunspot. Rainbow Dash was shocked to see the orange pony rushing towards danger, but she must have had a plan, or at least she hoped that she did. Regardless of how well thought out the farm pony’s plan was, she needed help. The pegasus quickly turned and rushed after the salt cylinder at the end of the hallway. Meanwhile, Sunspot was still fighting for her life on the ground. She was trying to avoid looking right at the monster’s unblinking white eyes, but it was staring right at her. It was bad enough that it was trying to kill her, but it could have at least had some common courtesies considering how ugly it was. Deciding that the struggle had gone on for much too long, the demon slowly placed its other hand on the elbow of the arm it was pushing into the suited mare. Sunspot immediately felt all of her efforts becoming useless as the monster put even the slightest amount of force on her. She closed her eyes and cringed as she saw the beast reel back for the final blow. *Thwack* Sunspot suddenly felt the creature pull back violently. She looked up with a confused expression, only to see Applejack recovering from a kick. All of the years of apple bucking had made the orange mare’s back legs into practically deadly weapons, more than enough to send the demon flying with a swift blow to the face. “Come on Sunspot!” Applejack exclaimed frantically while offering a hoof up to the fallen pegasus. Sunspot looked forward to the monster, only to realize that it was extremely enraged at the two ponies. The white eyed figured screeched and roared its disapproval while bearing its teeth viciously. Sunspot grabbed Applejack’s hoof and used her help to move backwards as she was getting up. The earth pony pulled the recovering pegasus along the floor as she was getting to her feet. The pair wanted to cover as much distance as possible to escape the creature. After getting Sunspot to her feet, Applejack looked forward to check on the progress of the monster. She gasped in fright as she saw that the beast had caught up with them, and that it was holding its claws up in preparation to strike. Sunspot looked forward and saw this as well. There wasn’t any time to dodge the attack, so all the two mares could do was turn sideways and hide their faces. The pair suddenly heard movement behind them. They looked up and saw Rainbow Dash rushing beside them with a small cylinder at the ready. The cyan mare flicked the container at the monster, sending a sizable amount of salt flying at the demon. The monster screeched in pain while backing up. The salt caused his body to involuntarily disperse, forcing him to disappear into smoke. Applejack and Sunspot were never happier to see a pile of smoke in front of them. “Nice job Rainbow Dash…” Sunspot stated in a stunned tone while still processing the fact that she was still alive. The cyan pegasus smirked at the praise she was getting. “Thanks for the compliments, but that was all Applejack. She told me to go grab the salt while she charged after you.” Rainbow Dash said while lightheartedly patting the earth pony on the back. “Well… then I guess I should thank both of you. You guys really saved my tail.” Sunspot replied with a warm smile. Applejack was flattered to hear so much praise coming her way, even if it was from someone she just saved. “Come on now Sunspot… you would have done the same for us. At least Ah hope you would, Ah would like to think we’re friends at this point.” Applejack stated while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. Sunspot nodded eagerly at the statement. “Of course we are… now let’s get out of here before more of those things show up.” Sunspot suggested while looking back at the darkened hallway. Rainbow Dash and Applejack agreed wholly with her decision to retreat. Just before they could turn the corner to get back to the other hallway where Tom was, a blurry black figured rushed in through the window in front of them. In all of the commotion, the line of salt on the window must have been broken. The three mares gasped in shock and backed up instinctively. Hearing growling behind them, they turned around to see another monster coming up behind them. Rainbow Dash started to fling some salt at the one in front of them, when it suddenly lunged forward and knocked the container from her hooves. The demon’s claws grazed the cyan mare’s arm as it was knocking the small cylinder away, causing a very painful set of slashes that made the pegasus cry out while recoiling backwards. Applejack and Sunspot caught their injured companion as she fell to the floor while clutching her still stinging injury. There was nothing more they could do aside from watching the monster in front of them preparing to strike them down all at once. Before the white eyed monster could strike, a familiar set of four flaming claws pierced through its midsection. As the claws elongated and formed fully, the flames died out, revealing the unmistakable four blades that belonged to Tom’s spirit weapon. The creature barely had time to screech in pain before the human ripped the claws sideways, sending the beast flying into the nearby wall and vanishing into smoke. “Get down!” Tom instructed while pointing his open palm at the ponies. Knowing what this meant and what he planned to do, the three mares ducked to the floor and closed their eyes to shield them from the inevitably blinding light. A flash sounded out and the ponies felt something rush past them. It was almost like a small yet powerful breeze was blowing past their heads. The creature behind them screamed out in agony as it was enveloped by the blue light sailing towards it. When the light died down and the ponies looked behind them, there was nothing left of the monster other than a puff of smoke escaping into the air. They turned to their savior and smiled in elation at his daring rescue. “Good job Tom!” Rainbow Dash cheered happily while helping her two friends up from the floor. Giving a passing glance to the bleeding cut on her arm, she determined that it was shallow enough to warrant later attention. Besides, she was too happy to let a little scrape dampen her mood. “Don’t thank me just yet. We’re not out of the woods.” Tom stated uneasily while looking around. Sure enough, several more of the creatures were pouring into the house from both ends. “Follow me!” The human instructed frantically while motioning for the ponies to follow him back away from the window. They were about to be cornered, and the last thing they needed was an open window right next to them while they held off the approaching horde. The three mares quickly heeded his instructions and rushed back with him around the corner. There were already several of the creatures flying up the stairs, but they had to gain as much ground as possible. Tom held his hand out and projected a steady beam of his positively charged light. The creatures were repelled, but they seemed to be resisting the intense beam and pushing forward slightly. The ponies huddled together behind the slayer, hoping that he could hold off their impending doom. Rainbow Dash suddenly felt something grab her back leg. She tried to look behind her, but she didn’t even get a chance as she was violently yanked along the floor backwards. “AHH!” The cyan mare yelled fearfully as she was dragged towards the other end of the hallway. One of the monsters had apparently come through the window at the end of the hall and snuck up on the group while their focus was shifted forward. “Rainbow Dash!” Applejack and Sunspot cried out in unison as they watched their friend getting pulled away. The demon was heading back towards the window with the intent of dragging his newfound prey out of it. “Let her go!” Tom commanded while forcefully sending all of his influence into the one beast dragging the cyan mare away with his free hand. The creature screeched in pain as it was compelled to let the pegasus go free. It tried to clench its hand tighter around her leg, but it felt its muscles moving against its own will. As she felt the grip loosen on her leg, Rainbow Dash kicked out of the monster’s grip and ran forward back to her friends. “Are you ok?” Applejack asked with a concerned expression while observing the jilted pegasus. The cyan mare took a moment to steady her shaking body before offering a weak smile to her friend. “I’m good…” Rainbow Dash muttered while nodding sporadically. However good she said she was, it was clear she was shaken up from the experience. The ponies quickly turned their attention back to the demon still writhing in Tom’s invisible grip. The white eyed monster was screaming in protest while it gradually flew against the back wall. The human seemed to be struggling with keeping up a beam of light and simultaneously fending off a demon using his influence, but he remained steadfast in his defense. Suddenly, a veritable wall of the creatures came around the corner and blocked the monster already against the wall. Tom felt his connection with the single demon vanish. He also felt a wave of panic wash over his body as he contemplated how to combat the horde. “Get close to me!” Tom instructed while opening his other palm and holding it steady while pointing it past the ponies. Sunspot and her two companions didn’t even give themselves time to think about the proposal. They merely blindly followed the human’s instructions and huddled close to him. Tom shot out another beam of light to combat the approaching wall of monsters. His legs were shaking and he was already weak and dizzy, but he had to continue. Rainbow Dash observed the pale expression on his face and became very nervous. The last time she saw him with that sickly expression was when he collapsed out in the woods after healing her injuries from the undead wolves. “Tom, are you ok?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned tone of voice while looking around her at the two walls of light keeping the demons at bay. If the human were to let up for even an instant, the group would surely be overrun. “I’ve had better days if that’s what you’re asking.” Tom replied while raising his voice over the sound of screaming demons and the sound of the light bouncing off of their bodies. “No, I mean are you ok to keep doing this? Because I don’t know what else to do, and if you stop doing that… I’m pretty sure we’re going to die.” Rainbow Dash stated nervously while slowly coming to grips with how bleak their situation was. “I’m thinking ok! I’m thinking!” The boy replied with a slightly harsh tone. The cyan mare could tell that he wasn’t snapping at her, he was just venting from how utterly defeated he felt. He was feeling incredibly ill from the effects of using his powers too much, and he was in a life or death situation that was gradually tipping more towards death with each passing second. All the ponies could do was to watch the approaching wall of light. Their safe area rapidly grew smaller and smaller as the monsters pushed through the slayer’s defenses. The three mares huddled close and closed their eyes while holding onto each other to wait for the end. Suddenly, Tom’s light started pushing through to the ends of the hall. All of the creatures seemingly started retreating and flying out of the windows. Weakened to the point of extreme exhaustion, the human collapsed to his knees while shutting off his beams of light. He didn’t even do it willingly, he was simply that exhausted. The group was confused to see the remaining creatures fleeing and disappearing from sight suddenly. They had no idea why they would just let them go after cornering them dead to rights. “What the hay…? Where are they going?” Applejack asked in a confused tone. Although she wasn’t one to complain about good fortunes, she was utterly perplexed as to why she wasn’t currently getting ripped apart. Sunspot cautiously walked down the hall and looked around the corner. Sure enough, all of the monsters were gone. Taking a look out of the window, she couldn’t find any of them outside either. What next caught her eye, and what disturbed her further, was that she couldn’t see or hear any rain or thunder. The only sign of the storm was the clouds over head and the wall of wind that was closing them in off in the distance. “Uh… guys, I think something is up. It stopped raining and thundering… completely. I can’t even see out there from how little light there is.” Sunspot said while walking back over to the group. It was eerily quiet throughout the house and outside. The group couldn’t even hear crickets chirping in the cold night air. “Why did they leave? They had us on a silver platter.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. She never would have thought that not dying could disturb and unsettle her so much. Suddenly, Tom’s senses and Sunspot’s detector went off violently. Tom was almost rendered breathless with how severe the sensation was going through his body, and the suited mare’s vial was buzzing and flashing louder than she had ever seen. She couldn’t even interpret the reading it was giving, it was just going haywire. “What’s going on?! My detector is going crazy!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock while holding up the vial. She could barely hold it steady with how much it was vibrating. A cold chill suddenly ran down the ponies’ spines. They immediately felt uncomfortable and uneasy, but couldn’t determine why. All manner of conflicting and confusion emotions and sensations rushed throughout the ponies’ minds and bodies. They had no idea why they felt this way, but they couldn’t even put their lack of fingers on what they were feeling. The collective realization of what sensation they were getting ran through everyone’s mind. They felt totally and utterly wrong. Like they were standing somewhere they shouldn’t have been standing. Like a group of children uneasily hovering in front of the basement door, waiting to walk into the cold depths. A quiet, barely audible noise started making its presence known above the deafening silence. The ponies could scarcely make it out, but it sounded like a pack of wolves or wild dogs howling and barking. They weren’t even sure if they were just imagining things, or if what they were hearing was actually real. “Guys… do you hear that?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. She wasn’t sure if she wanted confirmation that the noise she was hearing was in fact real. One look at the pale faces of her three companions told everything she needed to know. The eerie noises sent chills up and down the group’s collective spine. They shifted around uneasily, totally uncomfortable and unsure of their safety in the once warm hallways of the apple family home. Applejack huddled close to the wall while nervously staring at the hallway in front of her. Just around that corner was pitch blackness. She didn’t even have to see the darkness to fear it. Her imagination was already kicking into overdrive, telling her about all the possible monsters that could be lurking just out of sight. A loud, almost deafening scraping noise suddenly came from directly beside the farm pony’s head. All Applejack could do was look beside her and watch in abject shock and horror as three small arcs of electricity went down the wall beside her, leaving a claw shaped scorch mark in the wall. The scorch marks appeared to have some kind of depth to them, as if something had actually clawed the wall and just left a burn mark over it. Before anyone could react to the frightening occurrence, another loud scrape sounded out. The group darted their eyes upward as they caught a glimpse of blue light. Three more arcs of electricity formed and rapidly went across the ceiling in vertical lines. It was like an invisible creature was clawing the walls right in front of them, leaving only three arcs of lightning as its visible calling card. *Pop* “Ack!” The three nervous ponies yelped in unison as the lamp on the nearby table shattered into pieces. The rest of the hallway was submerged in complete darkness, leaving nothing to offer the ponies a glimpse at the area around them, or what danger could be lurking in the shadows. Chapter 63: King of the SkyThe pitch blackness around the small group was making them incredibly uneasy. With everything they had just witnessed, they were still stressed out, so to be submerged into darkness with several terrifying events happening right in front of them wasn’t exactly good on their already tense bodies. Rainbow Dash felt herself jump out of her skin as she collided with something in the dark. She then realized that it was just a section of the wall beside her. Her jumpiness was justifiable, but she still felt bad for being so nervous. Before anyone could speak up in light of their lightless situation, the group heard a soft click followed by a cone of light filling the area around them. Everyone turned to see Sunspot letting go of a small flashlight mounted on the front of her suit. The others were relieved to finally be able to see what was going on around them. “That’s better… if only slightly.” Sunspot stated while observing the cut off of darkness a short distance away. Most of the hallway was still pitch black, and the presence of light actually somehow managed to make things even scarier. The ponies could see gaping voids of shadow to their front and back, and knowing that these led to other open areas played with a sense of primal fear in them. They felt like young fillies wandering out into the pitch black hallways of their homes to go to the bathroom after having a bad nightmare. “What is going on?” Applejack asked nervously while putting a hoof up to the wall to examine the three scorch marks still present on it. The three marks were still slightly warm from whatever had caused them, and they smelled odd to boot. The orange mare sniffed for a few moments to try and determine the source of the odor. “What is that smell?” Applejack muttered to herself while in thought. She didn’t expect anyone to hear her, but apparently she had spoken loud enough for everyone to look over to see what she was doing. “That would probably be sulfur…” Tom spoke while working his way back up to his feet. The ponies looked at the weakened human with confused expressions. “Sulfur…? What is sulfur doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while looking at the odd markings. Before Tom could reply, another scraping noise sounded out. It was like someone was carving directly into the walls and floor. The grating noise, combined with the three flashes of electricity off in the darkness told the ponies that another mark had been created just ahead of them. Sunspot pointed her flashlight to the left slightly, illuminating the claw marks on the wall just in front of the stairs. “The demon must be manifesting. It’s channeling its energy through the area, which must be causing these things to happen.” Tom explained while rubbing his hand across the newly formed scorch marks. Some black charred particles flaked off of his fingers as he rubbed them together. “The demon is coming…? Like… right now?!” Sunspot asked in a nervous panic. It didn’t take much to realize the urgency of what was actually going on. “It looks that way. That is probably why all of the others left… they most likely got called back by their master so he could have us all to himself.” Tom theorized with a slightly nervous tone. The fact that the hardened monster slayer was getting scared was more than enough to terrify the three mares. “Well what do we do? How do we stop it?” Rainbow Dash asked while hoping that there was a way to circumvent a demon coming to kill them. Tom shrugged and looked at the cyan mare with a defeated expression, making her heart sink. “I don’t think we can… the spell Cotton used was very self-contained. Once it was finished, it didn’t have very much of a connection with how things proceeded from there. The only way to make the storm stop and to get rid of these guys… is to beat the big boss behind all of it.” Tom explained with dread evident in his voice. Another scraping noise sounded out, drawing the group’s attention down the stairs. Another set of claw marks formed along the steps leading down. A few feet away from these marks, another set appeared with a bright arc of electricity that sparked into the air above slightly. As the ponies watched with growing senses of fear and dread, the claw marks continued appearing on what seemed to be a path to the front door. A nearby table was knocked over suddenly, spilling the vase on top of it to the floor with a loud crash and making the group jump in fright. Once the scratches got to the door, they stopped momentarily. The group almost expected things to stop right then and there, although they knew that this was just misplaced optimism. Much to their dismay, a loud bang sounded out as the door flew open and slammed into the wall. As the door frame slowly drifted from its momentum, more of the scratches appeared on the deck outside and continued down into the soaked and muddy path. The wind picked up suddenly and lightning started flashing in the sky violently. The thunderous display seemed ominously out of place considering the complete lack of rain. It was almost like a terrifying omen of bad things to come. As the ponies hesitantly gathered around the door to look outside, their attention suddenly drifted to a spot in the mud out in the distance. Some of the mud on the surface seemed to be moving out of the way, as if something were standing on top of it. “What the-” Applejack started to ask a question, but she never got the chance to finish it. A blinding flash of light rang out in front of the group, forcing them to shield their eyes. A deafening boom of thunder followed the flash, louder and more intense than anything they had ever heard in their lives. The thunder was so strong that the ponies could feel it. Their bodies shook from the initial jolt, and many of them were knocked off balance from the sudden fright. The group of four all concluded that lightning just struck in front of them. It was a terrifying experience, and one that they never wanted to experience again in their lifetimes. Looking up and opening their eyes after the earth shaking shockwave, the four noticed that the bright light was still present. The source of the light made the ponies drop their jaws and widen their eyes in shock and horror. There was a single bolt of lightning that seemed to be lingering in the spot that it struck. The lightning seemed to be flowing into the spot in the mud that the ponies noticed earlier. Whatever it was doing there, it seemed to be causing some kind of bizarre reaction with the ground. A bright blob of light formed at the bottom of the bolt and slowly grew larger, covering an area on the ground in blinding light. What was even more concerning and terrifying, was that there seemed to be something taking shape in the aura of light. A black silhouette of a humanoid creature slowly took form in the area obscured by the lightning. It seemed to twitch and convulse, as if it were just now coming into existence and was trying to learn how to move. As the creature formed, a terrifying noise could be heard over the buzzing of the electricity. It reminded the group of the lesser demons’ growl, but this seemed to be even more unnatural and unnerving. The low, almost bestial groans and growls shifted in pitch and tone, creating an unearthly choir of disturbing noises. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sunspot were unable to look away from the horrific images in front of them. They stared at the forming creature with trembling bodies and pounding hearts. They wanted to turn around and run away, to let the slayer deal with the terrible beast about to come and kill them, but they were cemented in place by fear. As the black form of the creature filled out, an outline of a face formed on what the ponies could loosely identify as its head. It reminded the group of the face they had seen on the clouds earlier, just a gaping mouth and two eyes made out of burning light. The creature fell to its knees and the lightning ceased, leaving only smoke coming off of the ground and the body of the monster to indicate that it was there at all. Now that they could actually see what the creature looked like, the ponies noticed that it had grey skin. The entire body of the foreign animal seemed gaunt and thin. It had long, reaching arms with boney fingers on gnarled hands. It seemed to have only three pointed toes on each claw like foot. And it had pointed ears on its bald head. “I-is that him?” Rainbow Dash stammered nervously while breaking her trance like stare with the creature. Now that she wasn’t morbidly fascinated with the beast, she was outright terrified of it. “Yeah… that’s him.” Tom stated grimly while eyeing the crouching monster. “Girls… that is a demon given flesh and blood.” He explained with dread and apprehension clear in his voice. The ponies looked back to the grey creature with fearful anxiety as they waited for it to move. The group noticed a sort of light coming from underneath its bowed head. Something was flickering where its face should have been, and as the creature slowly looked up, the ponies were stunned into silence. The monster didn’t have a face. Or to be more accurate, it had a face, but it didn’t have what one would call physical features on its head. Other than its ears, its head was barren of anything that seemed to be a part of its body. Instead of the sharp teeth or glowing red eyes the ponies expected the monster to have, it had sparking arcs of electricity in the shapes of eyes and a mouth. The lightning on its face perfectly formed a blank yet somehow sinister expression. Despite the constant flowing and occasional shifting of the electricity, it seemed to hold the shape of a mouth rather well. The eyes had electricity on the outer edges, but the center of them seemed to be pits of white light formed by the lightning. The sight was mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time. It was unlike anything the ponies had ever seen before. They would be amazed by the wondrous occurrence if they weren’t petrified by the monster that it belonged to. As the creature slowly got up, the ponies stepped back slightly in preparation to flee if it should jump at them. Once upright, the beast looked around for a moment before settling its eyes on the small group in the doorway. It then started walking forward slowly, at an almost casual pace. Wherever the creature stepped, arcs of electricity were left behind as the ground charred beneath him. Random sparks and miniature bolts of lightning flowed off of its body at odd intervals, but it seemed to pay no mind to this occurrence. Tom and the others started backing up nervously as the monster made its way towards the house without so much as a noise. It kept staring forward with its unblinking luminescent eyes and its closed mouth that only seemed to move when the arc of lightning that formed it moved up and down slightly. “What is your name?” Tom demanded in his best intimidating tone. He didn’t expect the demon to answer without using his influence, but the creature seemed to start moving its mouth to speak. “My name doesn’t concern you.” It spoke with a faint, almost distant sort of whisper. It sounded as if the wind had formed a voice and started speaking. As it spoke, the creature’s mouth opened and moved as a normal mouth would have, but the inside of its mouth was filled with blackness. The void in its head seemed to have depth, but it had no teeth or a tongue. The only thing even keeping up the illusion that it was in fact an operable mouth was the arc of lightning splitting and moving like a pair of electric lips. Tom put his hand out and channeled all of the energy he had left into controlling the demon with his will power. The creature stumbled mid stride and walked backwards for a moment as it felt the force of the slayer’s influence striking its body. “I said… what is your name?” Tom asked in a more commanding tone. The ponies were surprised that the human could try to intimidate such a terrifying creature. The demon smiled, raising the edges of the line that served as its mouth into a curve and creating a devious smirk. It then walked forward, completely overpowering Tom as he tried to keep it back. The human groaned as he struggled to even have the smallest effect on the creature. “You hold no power over me slayer… now move aside so I can perform my duties.” The creature stated in a cold and emotionless tone while its voice deepened slightly. Despite the lack of expression in his voice, the group felt threatened by his statement. “What duties?” Tom asked with hesitant curiosity while backing up slowly. “The one who summoned me here made a request. Once I complete this task, I will be free to roam the earth as I wish. The task I was given is to kill the individuals known as the elements of harmony.” The demon said without batting an eyelash, even if it didn’t have one to bat. Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately felt a nervous pit in their stomachs from hearing the creature address how it was going to systematically hunt them down and kill them. The two mares looked to the slayer for reassurance that he could protect them. Although the boy did have an uneasy expression, he did seem to be thinking of something to do. He suddenly turned to face the ponies with a serious look on his face. “Sunspot… I need you to take them upstairs and protect them.” Tom instructed while glancing back outside to check on the monster’s progress towards the house. “What…?! You seriously can’t be thinking about fighting that thing by yourself can you?” Sunpot asked in a disapproving tone. She wanted to be there to help with the fight, not hiding upstairs and waiting for that thing to get the drop on her. “We humans aren’t exactly the best thinkers… slayer or no slayer.” Tom replied lightheartedly. He didn’t even have to look at the orange pegasus to know that she didn’t like his response. “But I-” Sunspot started to speak up, when she was interrupted by the human speaking up again in a more serious tone. “Look Sunspot, I don’t want them to be anywhere near this thing when we start fighting. I don’t know what it can do, and I don’t want to take that risk. Either you take them upstairs and I will fight him, or I will take them upstairs and leave you down here to fight him yourself.” Tom explained in a non-threatening yet still stern tone. The suited mare was left speechless by the human’s conviction in this situation. “Ok… I’ll keep them safe.” Sunspot finally agreed while turning to the two on looking ponies. “Follow me guys.” She said while heading up the stairs and motioning for the pair to follow her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced between themselves and the human as he stepped forward to face the terrifying creature. They didn’t want to leave him by himself, but they also didn’t want to be anywhere near the demon. “Be careful Tom.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while turning to follow Sunspot. The three mares glanced back at the human with worried expressions of fear plastered on their faces. Despite their concern, they continued moving to safety as they were told. With the two mares hesitantly walking upstairs to follow their suited companion, Tom was left with no one else to keep him company other than the bright eyed beast slowly walking towards him. As the demon stepped up onto the porch, the human could see the smoke forming beneath his feet from where the wood was being charred beneath him. “I’m afraid I can’t let you come in here until you deal with your face. I hate to be the one to tell you this man, but that is a real fire hazard you got going on there.” Tom stated with as much bravado as he could muster with his exhausted body. The demon smirked at the human standing in the doorway to block his path. “Fire hazard… I’ll show you a fire hazard!” He said while adopting a more threatening tone and reeling his arm back. Tom didn’t need much context to know where this was heading. As sparks formed in the creature’s hand, the boy ducked to the side quickly. With a terrifying roar, the demon shot its arm forward and pointed its outstretched hand towards the doorway. A bolt of lightning shot out from his palm, followed by an authentically loud shockwave of thunder. Tom shielded his eyes as the bolt flew into the doorway and whizzed past him and onto the stairs. By the time the bolt died down and he looked back up, he noticed a few dying flames and a large spot on the stairs broken up and charred from the impact. “Hey… dude, that is not cool. Are you going to clean that up or what?” The human stated with a cocky smirk while getting up. His smile almost instantly vanished when he noticed the demon standing in front of him with a piercing blank stare. “Oh, I’m sure that will buff right out. I think it will be harder to get bloodstains out of the carpet however.” The creature said while lunging forward and grabbing the slayer by the throat. Tom hated how he was being out matched and out witted by the same monster. The demon threw Tom up and onto the stairs with a great deal of force. The human hit his head on one of the steps, causing a great deal of pain. As he looked down to see the monster already walking up to him, he realized that he was in a great deal of trouble. With blinding speed, the monster plunged its hand downward into Tom’s leg. The human found it odd that the physical incarnation of a demon didn’t have claws on its hands, when he suddenly realized why this was. The monster applied so much force to his strike that his boney fingers pierced the boy’s skin almost effortlessly. Tom cried out in pain as he felt the beast drag him down the steps and toss him into the air by his impaled leg. As the human sailed out of the still open front door, he tried to tuck and roll on his way to the ground, but the best he could do was to roll sideways to not hit his face as he bounced down the stairs to the porch. The demon looked outside to see the boy in a crumpled heap on the ground. Figuring that the slayer wouldn’t be a problem for at least a few minutes while he recovered, the creature diverted his attention up the stairs to his escaping prey. Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were following Sunspot through the hallways in an attempt at finding shelter. They turned the corner and ducked into a nearby room and closed the door. Applejack recognized the room to be her own bedroom. As Sunspot fiddled with her equipment in an attempt at finding something, the farm pony and her cyan friend were left to deal with the weight of their current situation, which was more hopelessly bleak the more they thought about it. “Oh man! I don’t want to go out from a bald headed freak with a lightshow for a face killing me!” Rainbow Dash said while on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “We’re going to be fine Rainbow Dash… Tom is going to take care of that thing while we sit up here and relax.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone while ushering the nervous pegasus over to her bed and sitting her down. She was just as frightened as her friend was if not more, but she tried her best to internalize it. Perhaps helping the cyan mare to deal with her fear would help her feel calmer. “Right… relax. Sorry if I don’t feel up to playing cards right now Applejack.” Rainbow Dash said while laying back on the bed and letting out an uneasy sigh. While the two ponies tried to ignore the situation downstairs, Sunspot was trying to prevent it from coming upstairs. The suited mare quickly scribbled red ink onto a piece of paper in an attempt at making a physical barrier. Despite her shaky hooves and tense nerves, the orange pegasus somehow managed to get the first piece of paper done. After affixing the first half of the charm onto the door, she quickly got to work on the second half while nervously glancing outside occasionally. “Come on, come on…” Sunspot muttered to herself anxiously. Every passing second she expected the lightning faced monster to burst in and strike her down in one fell swoop. The tension that Sunspot was feeling was palpably clear over at the bed where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sitting. The two mares watched their companion with progressively worsening anxiety as they waited for her to finish. “Come on… come on… Yes!” Sunspot exclaimed triumphantly while holding up the finished piece of paper. It was astounding that she could draw a steady line with her jittery nerves, let alone a completed symbol, but she somehow managed to best all of the odds to complete the charm. Without any further delay, Sunspot went to step outside to affix the completed charm onto the other side of the door. Before she could even open the door further however, she was interrupted by a frightening image popping up in front of her. “Ah!” Sunspot yelped in fright as she saw the sparking electrical face of the demon jut out from around the corner. As the grey creature violently shoved the door open and stepped forward, Sunspot backpedaled as fast as she could. No matter how fast she was, she was unable to dodge the swipe from the demon’s sharp talon-like fingers. “AGH!” Sunspot yelled in pain as the creature’s claws raked across her chest. The force of the strike sent her tumbling sideways. “Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash and Applejack cried out in horror as they watched the suited mare slam into the wall. She tried to get up briefly, but she wasn’t able to get off of the floor. With the only obstacle out of its way, the demon looked forward at the two wide eyed mares. Taking a few slow steps forward, it seemed to be enjoying the sense of terror it was creating in its hapless prey. The pair of ponies darted their eyes around frantically in an attempt at trying to find a way out. Spotting the nearby window, Applejack rushed to it and pushed it open. She then turned to her cyan friend with a pleading expression. “Rainbow Dash, get out of here!” Applejack instructed in a frantic tone while pointing outside. She obviously wanted the pegasus to fly out of the open window to save herself. Rainbow Dash looked between Applejack and the open window before shaking her head in refusal. “I’m not leaving you here!” Rainbow Dash stated adamantly. The orange mare couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “There’s no sense in both of us dying here. You need to run!” Applejack said in a sincere tone. She was practically begging her friend to leave her. Before the two could continue their argument, they turned to see how close the demon had gotten and gasped once they spotted him. The grey creature had managed to silently approach the orange mare. He had gotten so close that he was practically staring down at her. His sparkling mouth shifted to a devilish grin as he prepared to slash the farm pony. Applejack had no time to dodge the attack. All she could do was yelp in surprise as she watched the creature swipe at her. Just before the impact, the orange mare felt something shove into her from the side and saw a cyan blur in front of her. As she went to the ground, Applejack heard Rainbow Dash scream in pain. She quickly realized that the pegasus had jumped into her to push her to the floor, and caught the monster’s vicious attack across her back. “Rainbow Dash, no!” Applejack yelled frantically as she looked at the wounded pony beside her on the floor. Rainbow Dash had three decently sized gashes on her back that were pouring out blood down her side. The cyan mare writhed in pain, and seemed to be incapable of getting back up on her own. Looking up to see the creature staring down at them with its piercing gaze, the two mares saw that it was preparing to claw at them again. Applejack helped her injured friend scoot backwards, although there wasn’t much room to escape before hitting the solid wooden wall. The pair huddled close together and shut their eyes as they watched the blur of motion that went along with the monster’s attack. The thought of one of them dying in the other’s arms disturbed and terrified the two ponies. They wondered which one of them would go first, or if they would both catch the same attack, and how long it would take them to die. Applejack heard a piercing sound near her. She felt her heart drop as she imagined her cyan friend getting impaled next to her. Rainbow Dash wasn’t making any noise, so she wondered if she had been killed instantly or was simply unable to speak. The farm pony hesitantly peeked open one of her eyes to look. Surprisingly she saw Rainbow Dash doing the same thing. After inspecting their bodies, they each realized that neither of them had been struck. Looking up in slight confusion, the pair was shocked to see the creature holding its claws mere inches away from them. The thing that had made it pause was clearly evident as the pair looked up. They noticed a blue tinted sword sticking through the creature’s mid-section, causing the demon to cease its attack. They then spotted their human friend behind the monster, struggling to get it away from them. “Tom!” The two ponies exclaimed in unison. They were relieved to see that the slayer was coming to their rescue, or at least trying to. Tom grunted as he yanked his sword back out of the demon. The monster seemed unfazed by the attack. If anything it seemed to be further enraged by the interruption to its slaughter. With an agitated growl, the monster spun around and roared at the human. As it opened its mouth to roar, the electricity that made up its mouth arced downwards and upwards to form into two rows of needle like teeth. While these may not have been functional as actual teeth, they were rather effective at putting the fear of death into the young slayer. Before Tom could react, the demon slammed its closed fist into him and sent him flying backwards. After sliding out of the door to the bedroom, the human looked up to see the furious monster stomping towards him. The boy held out his hand and tried once again to use his influence on the demonic creature. He strained with all of his might, eliciting a bigger response than last time. The demon stopped walking forward and seemed to be pushed back slightly. It struggled to move forward to get at the human, barely managing to take steady steps towards him. “What is your name?!” Tom demanded, hoping that asking for the creature’s name would put more stress on it. The monster paused and stared at the slayer for a moment before smiling. It then raised its arms out to the side. Suddenly, the wind picked up outside and the sky was ablaze with lightning. The rain from before came crashing down once again with brutal force. “My name is cyclone, for I am the roaring wind… My name is maelstrom, for I am the rushing waters… My name is tempest… for I, am the coming storm.” The demon spoke over the wind and the thunder with relative ease. It was as if his voice were carried through the uproar like it was part of it. The wind suddenly picked up inside of the room. The strong gusts felt like a whirlwind was flying through the house, picking up small objects with ease and even slightly levitating larger objects with its force. The ponies grabbed onto the nearest solid object and attempted to hold on while their bodies lifted into the air. Applejack and Rainbow Dash strained to keep their hold on the windowsill. They could feel their grips loosening as the wind blew stronger and stronger. The pair let out muffled cries of fear as they imagined themselves getting thrown around the room like dust bunnies in a vacuum. As the grey creature dropped its arms back to its side, all of the wind in the room traveled downwards, carrying everything with it. Rainbow Dash and Applejack hit their upper bodies into the wall as they were unexpectedly slammed downwards from their position at the window. The two mares also smacked their faces into the windowsill as they fell. The blow caused more pain than anything else, making their faces sting from the impact. The orange mare put a hoof up to her lip and discovered that she had busted it open slightly. Disturbed by the monster’s display of power, Tom decided that he would have to defeat it as fast as possible to avoid any casualties among his friends. Pouring whatever energy he had left into his invisible struggle with the beast, he tried to bend it to his will. “I command you to leave this plane of existence and return to where you came from!” Tom commanded in a stern voice. The human’s entire arm was shaking violently, but he had to keep it up to beat the demon. The creature shifted its expression into an angry snarl. It then reeled its arm back and shoved it forward, sending a compressed blast of air at the human. The wall of wind hitting him was so dense and fast moving, that it actually felt solid. Tom’s head was knocked back into the wall, sending him into a dazed stupor. “You do not make demands of me Thomas Greene.” The demon stated in a threatening tone. The ponies watched in shock as Tom drifted in and out of consciousness while sliding to the floor. They knew that without the human to distract it, the creature would be coming for them. “Oh yeah? How about me?!” Sunspot yelled boldly while rushing up behind the creature. She took a collapsible baton from her suit’s equipment and smacked the monster as hard as she could behind the knee of one of its legs. She figured that if she was going to die, she might as well put her all into fighting the thing trying to kill her without fear getting in the way. Much to the amazement of the suited mare and the two stunned ponies watching, the monster’s leg buckled and it went down on bended knee. Before it could react to the attacking pegasus, Sunspot grabbed its head and pulled it back while reaching for the salt container she had handy. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were amazed at the suited mare’s bravery. She almost seemed to have no concern for her own wellbeing as she assaulted the frightful creature. They quickly realized that she was so gung ho because she was quite literally fighting for her life and the lives of everyone else targeted by the demon. With this fiery passion to fight for her friends fueling her actions, Sunspot quickly poured salt onto the creature’s face. The demon howled in pain as its skin started smoking from the white powder touching it. As it opened its seemingly nonphysical mouth to scream, the salt went inside and burned the grey monster further. “Go Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash cheered in elation. It was the first time in the past few hours that she actually felt hopeful of their chances. They were fighting back, and they were actually winning. This made the cyan mare excited, along with her orange friend. Sunspot enjoyed the awesome feeling she was getting from torturing the demon into submission. She wasn’t sure what she would do when she ran out of salt, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she was dominating the grey monster. The monster howled and flailed its arms around in agony as it tried to get away from the constant downpour of pain and misery. It could have overpowered the suited pegasus three ways from Sunday, but the excruciating pain it was going through clouded its mind and made it hard to escape the situation by using its powers. Suddenly, the creature stopped flailing one of its arms around and clenched its fist a few times. Ripping free from the suited mare’s grip, the demon managed to twist its body and thrust its clawed fingers towards her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash gasped in shock as all sense of excitement left them instantly. Sunspot felt the creature’s four razor sharp fingers stab into her with a sickening squelch. The orange pegasus croaked out a surprised gasp before falling silent. The shock of the experience forced her to drop the small cylinder in her hoof as she stared forward with wide eyes. “Sunspot!” The two ponies watching on in horror cried out in unison while reaching out to the suited mare. They noticed a large amount of blood pooling over the creature’s hand where it was sticking into her side. Sunspot slowly looked down at her impaled body and trembled slightly. She then looked back up to the angry face of the demon staring at her with contempt evident in his expression. Without so much as a second thought, the monster picked the pegasus up by her injury and threw her across the room. Sunspot slammed into the wall behind Applejack and Rainbow Dash and flopped to the floor with a sizable thud. The two mares rushed to the pegasus’s side and steadied her while staring at her injury with a strong feeling of dread and fear gripping them tightly. The suited mare had four evenly spaced puncture wounds on the left side of her stomach region, along with the superficial slashes across her chest from earlier. Although it was hard to tell due to the pooling blood over the wounds, the ponies knew that they were deep. “Sunspot! Can you hear me?!” Rainbow Dash asked while gently shaking the bleeding mare. Sunspot was barely remaining conscious. The cyan pegasus was unsure of whether she was drowsy from hitting her head, or from losing so much blood. Hearing the sounds of the creature’s feet pounding on the floor as it stepped forward, the two mares diverted their attention away from their wounded companion, and over to their approaching assailant. The demon brushed the salt off of its face and shook its head forcefully to rid itself of the white powder. It then looked forward with an angry scowl. “I’m done playing games with you insignificant ants. Don’t bother saying goodbye to your friends, because they will be meeting you soon.” The monster stated threateningly while holding its clawed hands upward in preparation to strike. The demon’s faint voice only made the statement more unnerving for the ponies. They could see their lives flashing before their eyes. “Hey sparky…” Suddenly the group heard a familiar voice come from behind the grey monster. The beast turned around to see what was behind him, when something miraculous happened. The ponies watched in surprise and shock as an orange blur sliced across the monster’s neck. The demon’s cry of pain was cut short as its head flew off of its body. As the lifeless corpse of the still twitching monster collapsed to the floor and started turning to smoke, the ponies looked ahead to see an exhausted human standing above the fallen monster with his claws still glowing from having freshly come into existence. “When you get back to hell… tell them Tom sent you.” Tom stated with a slight smirk at his satisfying victory. Chapter 64: RecoveryThe room was almost silent as Rainbow Dash and Applejack blinked rapidly from shock. The only noises around them were the sound of the demon’s remains slowly changing to smoke, the sound of Tom breathing heavily from exhaustion, and their own frantically beating hearts. They couldn’t believe that they were still alive. They felt a mixture of joy and elation welling up inside of them, but they were still too stunned to react. “Is it… dead?” Rainbow Dash asked in a dull tone. She was still processing the situation around her, so it was no surprise that the pegasus was at a loss for words. “Yeah… I think so.” Tom replied in between breaths. As the boy tiredly rested his arms at his side and made his claws disappear, the last wisps of smoke vanished from view. The ponies felt incredibly happy that they were finally safe, but their joy was cut short as they shifted their attention to their wounded comrade. Sunspot was still lying on the floor bleeding to death while the two mares cradled her gently. The only movement the suited pony was making was the erratic and shallow breaths she was taking, otherwise she was unresponsive. “Sunspot, can you hear me? Please wake up…” Rainbow Dash pleaded while staring down sadly at the injured mare’s face. Sunspot had a dazed, almost peaceful look on her face, yet the pain she was feeling still elicited a slight grimace. “Tom… can you please heal her? She doesn’t look like she has much longer.” Applejack asked hesitantly while observing the exhausted human. She knew that it wasn’t a question of conserving energy for Tom. The boy would try to heal her no matter how exhausted he was. But the farm pony could tell that he barely had enough strength to stand, let alone heal a near fatal set of injuries without passing out. “Sure… just give me a minute.” Tom stated in a sort of tired daze. The two ponies shared a concerned look with each other as they watched the slayer stagger forward slowly. Tom sat down next to the bleeding mare and paused for a moment to catch his breath. His entire body was trembling as he moved, and to top all of that off he felt incredibly weak, well past the point of feeling ill. The human reached forward and placed his hand just above the pool of blood on Sunspot’s stomach. After concentrating for a moment, his healing light appeared and flowed into the injured pony. Applejack and Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as Tom struggled and groaned uncomfortably while trying to keep the strenuous action up. Slowly but surely, the slashes on the suited mare’s chest started disappearing from sight. Despite this uplifting sight, the large amount of blood covering her side made it difficult to tell if the more important wounds were closing up. Tom strained himself to keep up the stream of blue light, to the point of needing to steady his hand with his other arm. As much as he wanted to just collapse, he needed to be sure that the pegasus was completely healed. As the blood started running down Sunspot’s side, the relieving sight of undamaged orange fur came into view. Tom groaned heavily while letting his arms fall to his side. While the human recovered, the two mares beside him watched in amazement as the suited pony started to stir. Sunspot fluttered her eyes open and moaned tiredly. Her entire body felt distant and oddly cold, as if she had passed out with a window open in the middle of winter. On top of the strange feeling prevalent throughout her body, she could tell that she was laying in some kind of liquid. As she opened her eyes further, she was greeted with the excited and smiling faces of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “W…wh…wha?” Sunspot muttered while regaining her senses and sitting up slightly. “Sunspot! You’re awake!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed happily while giving the newly revived pegasus an excited hug. Sunspot seemed confused as to why the two ponies were giving her so much attention. “Guys…? What happ- oh… right.” Sunspot said in sudden remembrance of what had just happened. Taking a look down to where her wounds had previously been, the pegasus was amazed by how much blood was on and around her. “Wow… That is a lot of my blood. I don’t feel a thing though… Heh… even my wing feels better. You must be a miracle worker Tom… uh… Tom?” Sunspot asked while looking beside her to find the human that saved her life. She was surprised to see the boy in such bad shape. Tom seemed to be staring off into space while breathing heavily. His face was pale, and he had a general ill appearance about him. The ponies weren’t sure if he was going to throw up or fall over and pass out. Either way they felt bad for him. “Are you ok?” Sunspot asked with a concerned frown. Finding no response in the sickly human, she turned to the two mares for answers. “He must have used a lot of energy while healing you… are you sure you’re ok Tom?” Applejack asked with friendly concern while crouching down and observing the exhausted human. “I’m good… just… just let me catch my breath.” Tom muttered in between breaths. The farm pony gently put a hoof up to his forehead to feel his temperature. She recoiled in shock when she felt how icy cold he was. “Sweet Celestia Tom… you’re freezing cold.” Applejack stated in surprise while eyeing the pale human with a concerned frown. Tom tried to relax his face into a less sickly expression and tried to appear as if he were perfectly fine. “I’m fine Applejack… I can rest after I heal Rainbow Dash’s injuries and-” Tom suggested while motioning towards the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash shook her head in refusal to his statement. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You aren’t doing anything else to put any more stress on yourself.” Rainbow Dash said in a caring manner. She could still feel blood running down her back from the stinging gashes she received just moments ago, but she wasn’t about to let a sick friend harm himself further just to aid her. “Rainbow Dash, your back is practically torn to shreds. You need me to-” Tom stated while trying to get up to get closer to the injured mare. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both gently pushed on the human’s shoulders to keep him in a resting position on the floor. “Tom… you’ve already done more than enough for us. You saved our lives already… I will live with letting these cuts heal on their own… at least until you get your strength back. If you really want to help me, wait until you’re feeling better before you do anything dangerous… ok?” Rainbow Dash asked with a sincerely compassionate tone. The boy could tell that she was resolute in her decision to prevent him from healing her. “Alright… fine.” Tom shrugged before returning to his attempts at catching his breath. The ponies smiled now that they knew their human friend was focusing on recovering from his own health problems. “Hey guys… take a look at this.” The group heard Sunspot beckoning them from off to the side. Applejack and Rainbow Dash turned to see the suited mare leaning against the windowsill while looking outside. As they walked up beside the orange pegasus to see what had caught her attention, they were stunned to see a remarkable sight that they hadn’t seen in what seemed like forever. The sky outside had cleared of any sort of cloud, grey, black, or otherwise. Every trace of the storm, save for the soaked ground and the wind damage, had been erased. In its place was a beautiful starry night sky with an even more breath taking moon shining down on the now peaceful farm. Even the massive wall of wind surrounding the area had vanished, opening up the view from the house all the way to the end of the fenced in area at the front of the house. It resembled just another night in Ponyville after a large rainstorm. The crickets had even started chirping again, creating a one of a kind ambience that the ponies couldn’t help but to marvel at. “Man… that is a sight for sore eyes.” Rainbow Dash stated happily while staring at the clear night sky. Sunspot smirked at how familiar the cyan mare’s statement was. “Seems like we aren’t having a good track record with the weather.” The suited pegasus stated with a chuckle. “Yeah… After I get home, I think I’m going to take a rain check on checking the rain.” Rainbow Dash replied lightheartedly. “Well before we do that, we should probably get ourselves cleaned up. I don’t think the sight of us covered in blood will make the others feel as happy as we are.” Sunspot suggested while pulling at her own suit to examine the bloodstains still prevalent around her former wounds. Although she was no longer bleeding, she was covered in enough of the stuff to turn even the strongest stomachs. Rainbow Dash cringed slightly while glancing behind her. She couldn’t see it, but she knew that she was probably still bleeding from her undoubtedly gruesome injuries. Looking forward and sighing sadly, the cyan pony nodded in agreement. The group all decided to rest while they mended their wounds and cleaned themselves up. Sunspot used the last few bandages she was carrying to wrap around Rainbow Dash’s back. The three slashes stung whenever something touched them, but the cyan mare managed to grit her teeth and bear through the process of bandaging them. Once she was finished patching up her fellow pegasus, Sunspot used the last piece of gauze to wipe up some of the excess blood on her stomach region. Still, no matter how much she scrubbed, the stains wouldn’t lift from her suit. “Ugh, horse feathers… that guy messed up my suit. Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of this fabric?!” Sunspot fumed while observing the poor shape her outfit was in. The sight of her former Wonderbolts’ uniform in such a state almost brought a tear to her eye. “I’m amazed this is the first time it got messed up… especially since you’re putting it through more paces than the Wonderbolts’ ever imagined possible.” Rainbow Dash said understandingly. Just looking at the ruined outfit almost made her cry as well. “Who says this is the first time? The blood I can handle… even if it is a pain. I used to get into accidents every other week back on the team with all of the crazy stuff I tried pulling. It’s the holes I’m more upset about… *Sigh*” Sunspot frowned as she ran her hoof over the slashes on the chest area of her suit. “Hey… maybe you could ask Rarity to take care of that for you.” Applejack suggested in a helpful manner. “Really? You think she could do that?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone. “Yeah… she is amazing with a sewing machine. Just clean it up for her and she can do the rest.” Rainbow Dash replied with a smirk. “Well then I guess I’ll ask her some time. For the moment I guess I’ll have to make due.” Sunspot said with a smile. The fact that she was still alive to worry about her suit getting messed up was a pleasant surprise to the orange pegasus. “I think we should probably get going… we need to drop our new friend off somewhere safe until we can get to know him better, and I think we could all use some sleep after everything that has happened.” Tom stated while getting up from the floor. The unicorn held captive in the other room proved to be an interesting subject of thought for the group of ponies. They wondered what he knew, and what they could get him to talk about. As Tom slowly shuffled along on his way towards the door, the others noticed that he could barely support himself. His legs were wobbling, and his face was still pale. The human looked like he could fall over at any given moment. Applejack and Sunspot ran up beside the sickly slayer and leaned against him as they walked, helping to steady him as he slowly moved forward. Even with this added support, Tom still reached out to the nearby wall and slid along it while pressing his arm against it. He could have easily fit in at a hospital sick bay. Despite the human’s slow pace, the ponies were gladly willing to slow their pace down to help him walk. He had just saved their lives after all, and it was a generally nice thing to do for a friend. After walking down the seemingly endless hallway, the group finally made their way back to the bathroom door. Tom leaned against the far wall and waved the two ponies off, freeing Applejack up to go and open the door. Once the door opened, everyone inside turned to look at their visitors with elated expressions, everyone except for the bound unicorn still sitting against the wall that is. Cotton Quill remained silent and looked on with a troubled expression as Applebloom and Big Mac rushed forward to greet their sister. Even Neon Streak took the time to get up and walk over to the cheerful group. “Guys! You’re ok!” Applebloom cheered excitedly while examining the group. Although Rainbow Dash was bandaged up and Sunspot looked like hell froze over, the filly was glad that nobody had been killed during the attack. “Of course we are sugar cube. Ah told you that we would be fine, now didn’t Ah?” Applejack stated happily while embracing the filly in a warm hug. Once she was done greeting her younger sister, the farm pony looked up and quickly hugged the red stallion eagerly waiting. “We thought you were in trouble… there was a lot of ruckus out there. Are those things gone?” Big Mac asked curiously. He knew that if the four were still alive, then they must have done something right. “Yeah… Tom and Sunspot took care of things. It even stopped storming outside.” Rainbow Dash explained while motioning behind her. “Does that mean we can come out? Ah need to stretch my legs or something… it is cramped in here.” Applebloom chimed in, eager to leave the confined bathroom. Applejack chuckled at the thought that all her sister had to worry about was a tight space. “Yes Applebloom. You can all come out now, just be careful walking around the windows… lot of broken glass out there.” Applejack explained while backing up to let everyone out. Applebloom immediately darted out into the hallway excitedly, while Big Mac stayed behind to help Neon Streak walk. Once everyone was out of the claustrophobia inducing space, they looked around their once proud home and frowned slightly. Most of the windows were broken around the house, letting in the cold night air from outside. The carpet in several places was soaked clean through due to so much rain flying in. There were tables and pictures knocked down everywhere, and there were even claw marks on the walls and ceilings. Seeing the state the hallways were in, the farm ponies shuddered to think about what their rooms looked like. “Oh my gosh…” Applebloom stated in shock while looking around. She expected the house to be in bad shape, but actually seeing all the damage was horrifying to the distraught filly. “Don’t worry about all of this… we can clean this up tomorrow.” Applejack tried to sound reassuring, but everyone could tell that the orange mare was dreading the amount of work that would have to be done as well. While looking around to survey the damage done to her house, Applebloom noticed the pale human off to the side. She was shocked to see how ill he looked. The filly had never seen the boy this way, he was always so animated and cheerful, but now he looked so sick that he was barely aware of his surroundings. “Are you ok Tom?” Applebloom asked with a concerned expression while walking up to the pale human. Now that attention had been brought to him, the others looked over to Tom and gasped from how bad of a shape he was in. “Sweet Celestia Tom! What happened to you guys out here?” Neon Streak asked while glancing back over to the cyan mare next to her. She hadn’t paid much attention to Rainbow Dash’s wounds before, but seeing how Tom was too sick to heal her, something bad must have happened. Tom tried to stand upright without looking like he was about to throw up. The task was a little hard due to his trembling body, but he somehow managed to put on a cheerful persona. “You think we look bad? You should see the other guy…” Tom stated lightheartedly. The ponies were slightly amused by his comment, but their concerned frowns didn’t waver. “We just ran into some trouble while getting rid of these guys… I got cut on my back and Sunspot got hurt pretty badly, but Tom took care of her. He just needs to rest and he will be feeling good as new… right Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked with a slight twinge of concern in her voice. The human claimed that he would be fine, but the pegasus wasn’t entirely sure if she should believe him. He claimed the same thing out in the Everfree Forest when he almost passed out from exhaustion. “Yeah… and then I can take care of you two.” Tom replied while pointing to Neon Streak and Rainbow Dash. “Well for now Ah think we should all get some rest… you guys should probably take that Cotton feller wherever you need to so you can get home and get some sleep.” Applejack suggested while pointing towards the bathroom where the unicorn was still sitting. Everyone nodded eagerly at the prospect of getting sleep. With that said, Sunspot walked into the bathroom and crouched down in front of Cotton Quill. “Come on buddy… it’s time to go.” Sunspot said while pulling out a small collapsible knife from her suit. A little rougher than the unicorn would have liked, the suited mare grabbed his bound hooves and cut the zip tie holding him in place. After rubbing the red marks left behind by the tight bindings, Cotton got up and looked at his captors sadly. He couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. He had put so much work in for Raven Feather in the past, but now he had been captured by the very people he was striving to overthrow. “W-what are you going to do with me?” Cotton Quill asked nervously while looking around at the scornful expressions he was receiving. “Well… if it were up to me, you would be tied to a tree in the Everfree Forest and left for the timberwolves… but luckily for you I’m not the one calling the shots.” Sunspot stated in an agitated tone while shoving the unicorn forward. Cotton reluctantly walked out of the bathroom and followed the suited mare as she escorted him towards the stairs. Rainbow Dash and Tom quickly followed the pegasus as she walked their prisoner forward. “I think I’m going to go see Peppermint to get this looked at… will you guys be ok here by yourselves for a few hours?” Neon Streak asked while glancing down to her injury. “Of course we will Neon. You just focus on getting better.” Applejack stated with a thankful smile while observing the green mare that contributed to saving her and her family. With a nod of agreement, Neon slowly walked over to the group as they waited by the top of the stairs. “Thanks for coming out here to save us, guys… Ah don’t know what would have happened without you here, and Ah don’t think Ah want to know.” Applejack said while offering her rescuers a thankful smile. “Just doing my job Applejack… although technically you weren’t supposed to be the one I was protecting.” Sunspot stated lightheartedly while glancing over to the cyan pegasus beside her. “Ditto.” Tom added with a slight smirk. The apple family waved goodbye to their battered friends, who returned the gesture before walking downstairs with the hooded unicorn in tow. Sunspot kept a close eye on Cotton Quill while helping Tom walk, while Rainbow Dash assisted the green earth pony with walking. The group slowly made their way through the soaked and trashed living room before reaching the door and stepping outside. The fresh after rain smell that hit the ponies was oddly relaxing to them considering their previous experience with weather. It was like the storm had passed them, and the smell along with the calm night atmosphere made the group feel at peace. Walking on the cold and wet muddy ground was the only part of the experience that wasn’t calming or even enjoyable. The ponies could feel their hooves sinking into the ground a little ways before coming back up covered in freezing cold brown sludge. The disgusting feeling might have passed after the first few steps, but it was still unpleasant. As they approached the gate to the farm’s fence, the group noticed an unexpected sight waiting for them on the other side. Several familiar ponies had gathered around outside the farm, waiting around and conversing amongst themselves. Among the crowd outside were Brimstoke and his group, including Rarity, her friends, and even Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Twilight, Spike, and Peppermint were also present. And surprisingly enough, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were even among the ponies. Noticing the five walking closer to her out of the corner of her eye, Pinkie Pie turned and gasped in excitement at the sight of her friends’ safe return. “Guys!” The pink mare exclaimed eagerly while rushing forward to greet the group. Everyone else turned their heads just in time to see Pinkie plowing into Rainbow Dash and nearly knocking her down. Neon Streak barely had enough time to get out of the way as the cyan pegasus was tackled into a hug by the party pony. While Rainbow Dash was struggling to breathe, she looked up to see the rest of her friends rushing over to greet her. Thankfully they were leaps and bounds more gentle with their group hug as they walked up to join their pink friend. “We were so worried about you! Where’s Applejack? Is she ok?!” Pinkie Pie asked frantically while thinking of every horrible outcome that could have befallen her orange friend. “Pinkie, relax… Applejack and the others are fine. They are just resting back at the house.” Rainbow Dash explained to ease the pink pony’s fears. Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief as she learned that all of her friends were safe and sound. “What are all of you doing out here?” Sunspot asked curiously while observing the large group. Princess Luna stepped forward to explain. “Twilight sent a letter out to us to explain what was going on. By the time we got out here it wasn’t raining anymore, so we gathered everyone up and went to go check on you. When we got out here there was an impassable wall of wind blocking our path.” The blue alicorn explained while glancing around where the massive tornado had been. “Interesting… we were able to get through just fine. The tornado must have intensified once the demon manifested.” Tom hypothesized about the strange properties of the cyclone. “Demon? What demon? I thought you were only dealing with lesser demons… and who is this guy?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing over to the hooded unicorn beside the group. “This is Cotton Quill… we found him inside of a pictogram on the property. Apparently he summoned a storm demon with the intent of killing the elements of harmony.” Tom explained while looking over to the white unicorn with a leery expression. Cotton Quill looked down nervously as he felt the prying eyes of so many ponies staring at him, including Princess Celestia herself. Twilight and her friends were shocked to hear that they were targeted for assassination by demonic monster. They had been attacked by terrifying creatures before, but to learn that someone specifically wanted them dead was unnerving to the four mares. Rainbow Dash was still upset at the fact, even though she already knew beforehand. “You mean those… those things that came after us before were sent to kill us?” Rarity asked in a horrified manner. She didn’t really expect the monsters to have a nice chat with her, but they usually weren’t specifically sent after her either. “Yeah… that’s the gist of it. You guys are just lucky that I found a way to kill that thing before it got to you… it was a lot worse than the lesser demons let me tell you.” Tom stated while thinking back to the brutal fight with the demon. He hadn’t been pushed that far in a single fight since the incident in the cave with the dark matter. Even without the specifics of the creature, Twilight and the others shuddered at the thought of such a terrifying beast. From the state that their friends were in, it must have been a horrible experience. “What was he still doing here? Shouldn’t he have run away once he finished the spell that summoned those things?” Glitterball asked curiously. Cotton Quill shrugged and looked down in disappointment at the mention of his failure. “Well… he probably would have, but it looks like somebody didn’t do a lot of research on the spell they were using. He got stuck inside of a force field… most likely designed to protect the spell caster from whatever they were summoning.” Tom explained while glancing over to the hooded unicorn. Cotton trailed his eyes off as he thought more about the obvious mistake he made. “Regardless of whatever happened to keep him here, he has a lot to answer for.” Celestia spoke in a more serious tone while eyeing Cotton. The alicorn’s gaze filled the nervous unicorn with a sense of dread and anxiety that he didn’t think possible. Somehow the princess was managing to intimidate him more than Raven Feather ever could. After she was done observing the petrified pony in front of her, Celestia turned around and softened her expression as she looked at the four that had performed the most work in getting rid of the creatures. Rainbow Dash, Sunspot, Neon Streak, and Tom looked battered and beaten, but they somehow were able to appear cheerful now that their hardships were over. “You all did incredibly well tonight… you should head home and get some rest after Peppermint checks your injuries.” Celestia suggested with a warm smile. “Will do princess… will do.” Rainbow Dash stated in an exhausted tone. Her lack of sleep was starting to catch up with her now that there wasn’t anything trying to kill her. “What about our hooded friend here? What are we going to do with him?” Sunspot asked curiously while looking over to their prisoner. Celestia looked over to the hooded unicorn for a moment before thinking about what she should do with him. “Luna, take Brimstoke and deliver Mr. Cotton Quill here down to the royal guard station in town. We can hold him there overnight until we can question him further about his involvement with recent events. I will join you once I investigate the pictogram he used to summon those creatures.” Celestia instructed to her sister. The blue alicorn nodded before glancing over to her new prisoner. “Yes sister.” Luna replied before motioning for Brimstoke to follow her. The stallion took Cotton Quill by the arm and escorted him behind the alicorn as she walked away. “Peppermint, you take care of Neon Streak and Rainbow Dash. As for the rest of you, you’re free to head home. Feel free to drop by the station tomorrow… I think you would like to be present when we question our new friend.” Celestia said while looking around at the group of ponies. As Peppermint got to work examining the two injured mares, everyone else prepared to leave with their respective groups. Although Brimstoke and Peppermint would not be present to protect their assigned ponies, luckily most of the group was staying together over at Rarity’s, so Glitterball and Glimmer Shine could pick up the slack. As far as Twilight and Spike were concerned, they had Tom to help them feel safe. “You guys go on ahead… I think I will stay with Rainbow Dash until she is ready to head home.” Sunspot stated as she watched the group walk ahead. Everyone turned and waved at the others before departing on their way home. Eventually, Twilight and her two companions split off from Rarity’s group and said their goodbyes and goodnights. The trio was eager to get back home so they could finally get some sleep after the long day and night they just had. As they walked, Twilight and Spike kept a concerned eye on Tom and observed him closely. He seemed to be winded after every couple steps he would take, slowing down and breathing heavily to catch his breath. This disconcerting behavior combined with the boy’s overall ill appearance made the two very concerned for him. He seemed happy enough back at the farm, but this wouldn’t be the first time that the human hid his true feelings from others. “Tom… are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. “I’m fine… I just had a lot taken out of me today and tonight. A good night’s sleep will fix me up.” Tom replied with a tired voice. It wasn’t hard to see that the human desperately wanted to get some sleep. Despite this explanation, the unicorn was still concerned for him. “You must have used up a lot of energy… you didn’t even heal Rainbow Dash and Neon Streak. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing… but you usually don’t get this tired.” Twilight reasoned while thinking back to her experience in the cave. Tom was all but completely wiped out in terms of strength after his fight to protect them from the dark matter, but back then he acted much differently than he was acting now. Tom thought about why he was getting so exhausted himself. Usually his body would have bounced back more than it has already, sleep or no sleep. He wondered what could have been causing his predicament in the first place. Perhaps he was somehow unsure of himself after his battle with such a strong enemy, the mere thought of being mentally unsound for his duties made the slayer shiver slightly. “It’s just been a long day Twilight. Anyone would be tired after going through half of what Tom did.” Spike chimed in to offer his thoughts. Tom breathed a silent sigh of relief to see the young dragon helping him end the conversation. “*Sigh*… I suppose. I just don’t want you to over work yourself Tom.” Twilight stated in a sincere manner. The human was flattered to hear that the unicorn cared for him so much. “I’ll be alright Twilight. If anyone should be messed up it should be you guys anyway… how are you two doing? I didn’t really get a chance to ask how you were holding up after two of those things came flying into your room.” Tom replied curiously. Not only did he want to shift the conversation off of himself, but he was genuinely concerned for how all of this was affecting the seemingly sensitive pair. “Well… I guess we’re alright. I mean… between getting the living daylights scared out of me in my sleep and spending the next hour locked in a small room playing twenty questions with Peppermint, I would say I’m still mentally stable.” Twilight replied with a shrug. “Hey… at least you didn’t agree to try playing I spy with him. Do you know how short that game was?” Spike asked lightheartedly while thinking back to his time in the cramped bathroom. “I was there Spike… I think you got three turns out before you ran out of things to spy.” Twilight rolled her eyes at the mere thought of the horrifically boring experience. “Yeesh… and I thought I had the roughest time tonight. You guys definitely sound like you could use a few hours of sleep to forget that traumatic experience.” Tom said with a slight chuckle. The two laughed warmly at the human’s comment. “Just remind me to go pick up some cards or something the next time we have to stay in a room to survive.” Twilight added jestingly. Before they even knew it, the three arrived at the library. Twilight quickly walked up to the door and opened it while her two friends walked inside. After wiping their muddy feet and breathing a sigh of relief, the trio decided to immediately head upstairs for the night. Tom struggled to bend down to grab his blanket and pillow off the floor. Spotting her distressed friend struggling to perform the simplest task, Twilight lit up her horn and levitated the items up to carry them for him. “Here, let me get these for you.” The purple mare stated with a helpful tone and a slight smile. “Thanks.” Tom groaned while slowly getting back up. As the unicorn and dragon walked upstairs, the boy used the wall to steady himself as he slowly walked up to join them. Twilight waited for the human to finish his slow climb before opening the door to her bedroom and stepping inside. As she sat the pillows on the floor and laid out the blanket with her magic, the unicorn glanced over to the broken glass on the floor and sighed. Although her room did have a large opening in it for the balcony, the sight of broken windows was still upsetting. “Why can’t there ever be a monster that takes other people’s feelings and worldly possessions into consideration before wrecking everything?” Twilight shrugged while averting her eyes from the damage to her room. “If one exists… I have never met it.” Tom stated while slowly working his way to the floor so he could lay down in his makeshift bed. Twilight and Spike followed his example by climbing into their own beds and getting comfortable. Although their sheets were almost freezing cold due to the night air, it was still relaxing when combined with their levels of exhaustion. They could be sleeping on a bed of nails and they would probably still manage to fall asleep. “Night guys…” Tom muttered tiredly while closing his eyes and relaxing. “Night.” Spike yawned before turning over in his bed and pulling the blankets closer to his head. “Goodnight.” Twilight added with a smile while taking one last look at her two friends. She then laid back and got herself comfortable against the pillow beneath her. Although it had been a long night, the three would definitely sleep like rocks. Chapter 65: DiscoveryAs the sky turned a soft shade of blue just before the sun came up, all of Ponyville was enjoying their last few hours of slumber before starting their day. After the storm from last night abruptly interrupted them, it was a good feeling to be able to sleep in peace and quiet again. Meanwhile, in the depths of the Everfree Forest, the denizens of the ancient mansion were also mostly asleep. Aside from a stray worker or two, Raven Feather and her colleagues always tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour to give them enough rest for their arduous work. Dust Kicker was laying passed out in his bed. He had spent the majority of the night tending to his unconscious sister, but even he had to sleep sometime. The two pegasi stayed in a room on the second floor of the mansion just to the left of the main stairway. It was a room with two beds in it, so Raven Feather allotted the siblings to use it to stay close to each other. Being the more adventurous types, the brown pegasus and his pale counterpart decided to actually sleep on the beds that were already in the room. Most of the ponies in the mansion either slept in sleeping bags placed on top of the old mattresses or were privileged enough to exchange the mattress for a new one, but Dust Kicker and his sister didn’t much care for how old the beds were. They were fairly luxurious, even with the odd smell and occasional raggedness that accompanied them. “Dust Kicker wake up!” The sound of a loud and alarming voice rang out directly next to Dust Kicker’s head. The shock of being jolted from his sleep so suddenly was enough to make him fall out of bed. When he pushed the blanket off of himself and looked up, the stallion was surprised to see his sister standing above him. “Raincloud…? You’re awake?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. The last time he had seen the pale pegasus, she was still unconscious from when the human attacked her shadow, but now she seemed perfectly fine. “Well duh…” Raincloud stated sarcastically while rolling her eyes. She then returned a more alarmed expression to her face. “What’s wrong?” Dust Kicker asked, unsure as to what would make his sister so distressed. The pale mare mumbled something in a concerned tone while looking around urgently. She seemed to be trying to find a way to explain something, but her words couldn’t come out straight. “Cotton is gone!” Raincloud finally managed to blurt out in a concerned tone. She then waited for a response, as if expecting her brother to understand immediately. “Wait what?” Dust Kicker asked with confusion and slight alarm evident on his face. He could barely understand his sister with how unfocused she was, but he could tell that something was amiss. “Ugh… just follow me!” Raincloud said while throwing her hooves up in frustration. Before Dust Kicker could even formulate a response, the pale mare turned around and rushed out of the already open door. “Raincloud wait up!” Dust Kicker called out to get his sister to slow down. By the time he finished his outburst she was already out of the door and rushing down the hallway. The stallion sighed before getting up and trotting out of the door to follow the pegasus. Just barely catching a glimpse of where she was going around corners, Dust Kicker followed Raincloud through the winding hallways of the mansion. As he passed the various hooded ponies lingering in the hallways, he noticed that they had a more anxious appearance to them than usual. They seemed like they were upset by something they knew. Recognizing the path he was following, Dust Kicker gathered that his sister was leading him to their usual meeting spot in the library. Spotting the pale mare going through the library door, his suspicions were confirmed. Inside of the room were several hooded ponies either sitting at attention or standing off to the side talking amongst themselves. Shadow Mist was leaning against a wall off to the side with a troubled expression. Grimwood was sitting beside his older sister with a troubled expression. And finally, Raven Feather was sitting in the middle of the room with a troubled expression. Everyone seemed to be deeply troubled as if something horrible had happened. Raincloud walked forward and sat down next to a few ponies in front of Raven Feather. The green eyed earth pony was holding one hoof up to her face and looking down in frustration. If anyone was going to be able to answer the stallion’s questions, it would probably be his leader. “Raven Feather, what’s going on?” Dust Kicker asked with a confused expression while walking into the room. Raven Feather shrugged before sliding her hoof off of her face and looking up. She looked like she had just been told her parents died. Although Dust Kicker was fairly certain that the black mare had no positive feelings for her parents. “Cotton Quill wasn’t in his room when we got up this morning… I had a group search the mansion, and he isn’t here. On top of that… our scouts are telling us that a storm appeared over Ponyville last night… one with lesser demons spawning out of it. I had them investigate further, and apparently someone used one of our pictograms to summon the storm over at Sweet Apple Acres.” Raven Feather explained in a dismal tone. “And… you think Cotton did that?” Dust Kicker asked in a shocked tone. He couldn’t believe that the unicorn would even attempt something so bold and careless. “Good heavens I hope not. As much as I berate him, I would like to think there is some semblance of a brain in that empty head of his.” Raven Feather shook her head in disappointment and frustration. She couldn’t believe that something so catastrophic would happen to her to impede her progress. “He’s the only one that could have done it… none of the hoods are missing and I don’t even think they know how to create a complete symbol on their own.” Raincloud reasoned while glancing around her at the various anonymous ponies in hoods. “*Sigh*… Well at any rate, we can’t know for sure until the scout I sent gets back to me with his location.” Raven Feather stated in annoyance. She then got up and looked around the room to the ponies scattered around. “Did anyone see Cotton Quill last night? Anyone talk with him? Did he act strangely…?” The black mare asked loudly while scanning her eyes around for volunteers. Nobody raised their hooves or spoke up. “Well…” Grimwood muttered nervously from beside the green eyed pony. Raven Feather turned to look at her younger sibling and softened up her expression. “Go ahead Grimwood… if you know something you can tell me.” Raven Feather said in a gentle and encouraging tone. The young pony fiddled his hooves together nervously before speaking up. “Cotton came into the library last night looking for you… he said something about trying to impress you. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but right before he left he grabbed a book off of a book shelf. I looked over to see which one he took, and it was one of the summoning tomes… one of the more complicated ones even. I thought he might be on orders from you, so I didn’t say anything… I didn’t think he would do something like this. Please don’t be mad at me...” Grimwood explained while trailing his eyes downward. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Grim…” Raven Feather said while putting a loving hoof on the young earth pony’s shoulder. She then looked away and shifted her expression to a more agitated one. “As for Cotton… I think we need to have a nice long chat with him whenever he gets his sorry tail back here.” The black mare added while contemplating what ways she could punish the unicorn when he finally returned to the mansion. Suddenly, the group heard the library door open. They turned their heads to see a hooded yellow stallion walking into the room with an urgent air about him. The pony wasted no time in walking up to Raven Feather and speaking up. “Miss Raven Feather, we’ve found Cotton Quill.” He stated before waiting for a response from the black mare. By now everyone had turned their heads to watch the conversation take place with anxious expressions. “Go ahead and tell us already. Where is that featherbrained idiot?” Raven Feather demanded eagerly. She couldn’t wait to get her hooves on the white unicorn. Instead of sharing her enthusiasm, the hooded stallion had a more apprehensive expression. “He’s being held in the royal guard station in town by the princess and her team for questioning. Apparently, they caught him last night at Sweet Apple Acres and took him there.” As the scout spoke, whatever good feeling was left in the room completely vanished. Raven Feather stood silently in shock while everyone else in the room quietly chattered to themselves. “Cotton was captured?” A group muttered to themselves just barely loud enough to hear. “What if he squeals on us?!” Another hooded pony stated in a panic to two of his colleagues. While everyone else in the room was having a meltdown, Raven Feather placed a hoof back onto her face and looked down in thought. She couldn’t understand where she had gone wrong. Cotton Quill seemed like such a good addition to her little scheme. He was eager to join, eager to work tireless hours for her, and eager to not screw up, at first anyway. “If he’s down there we need to go get him before he talks!” Raincloud stated while getting up and turning around. “Come on Dust!” She announced to her brother while rushing towards the door. Dust Kicker didn’t have much time to decide, but he nodded and went to follow his sister on her mission. “Wait…” Raven Feather instructed to the two pegasi while still looking down. Raincloud stopped in her tracks and turned around to see what the black mare wanted. “Raven Feather… we need to act on this now! If Cotton tells them anything we’re screwed.” Raincloud reasoned in an urgent tone while hoping that the black mare would allow her to leave. Raven Feather glanced up from the floor and sighed before looking over to the eager pegasus. “I know Raincloud, but think about the situation for a second before you go charging into battle will you? The sun is almost up… so your powers will be limited; the princess and her team of ponies, not to mention the entire Ponyville branch of the royal guard will be there, and you want to go blazing in there with just the two of you and no backup plan? The greatest minds in history did not turn to hysterics when under great stress. Instead, they sat down and came up with a plan… which is exactly what we need to do.” Raven Feather explained in a more calm and composed voice. “But… Raven Feather!” Raincloud protested in a persistent tone. “Don’t argue with me right now Raincloud… if I were a lesser pony I would be taking out my frustration on you. Just give me time to come up with something… then you two can go blow up the town to find him for all I care.” Raven Feather replied in an agitated tone. “*Sigh*… Yes, Raven Feather.” Raincloud muttered in defeat before walking out of the door slowly. She needed to take some time to process all of her emotions before going out on the mission anyway. Dust Kicker shrugged and followed his sister out of the library, leaving everyone else to tend to themselves. “I should have just stayed in bed today…” The brown stallion groaned in annoyance while exiting the room. As the sun climbed progressively higher into the late morning sky, even the most exhausted inhabitants of Ponyville were waking up. Over at the library, Twilight Sparkle even managed to wake up before her two friends. Perhaps she was too eager to sleep in for that long, or perhaps she was anxious. After all, they had made a monumental step towards wrapping up the investigation. They now had one of their enemies in custody, waiting to divulge the secrets that he knew. Twilight knew that it would probably be difficult to get any answers out of their prisoner, but the prospect alone filled her with excitement. Quietly getting out of bed and walking down the steps from her loft, Twilight tried her hardest not to disturb her human friend and the young dragon still peacefully asleep. As much stress as both of them were under last night and the day before, the two definitely needed a lot of rest. The purple mare decided to spend this time sweeping up the broken glass in the bedroom and cleaning up the salt from the bathroom floor. Although she was sure Spike would have done all of this for her, she wanted to lessen the number of chores he had to do. Ugh… now I have to find someone to replace these windows. Greaaat… Twilight thought to herself while rolling her eyes. She was thankful that nobody got hurt last night, but the problem still remained. Being careful not to step on any of the glass, the unicorn used her magic to sweep the numerous pieces into a dustpan. She then quietly went out of the room and swept up the line of salt in the bathroom. After dumping the trash into a nearby trashcan, the unicorn decided to rest for a moment in the kitchen. Hearing the sound of footsteps in the other room, Twilight glanced through the doorway and spotted Spike climbing down the stairs. The dragon seemed to be still waking up, yawning and rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Morning Spike.” Twilight greeted the dragon warmly while walking into the room. “Morning…” Spike replied sleepily while glancing over to the seemingly energetic pony. Knowing how his friend acted after just getting up, he wondered why she wasn’t as sleepy as he was. “How long have you been up?” Spike asked curiously while glancing outside to check the time. “A while… not as long as Tom usually is mind you. How is he anyway? Is he awake?” Twilight asked while looking upstairs. “Last I checked he was still out cold. He must have been really tired last night… I hope he’s ok.” Spike stated with a concerned tone of voice. It wasn’t like the human to sleep in for so long. “I’m sure he just needs a little more rest than usual… he did look exhausted after whatever happened at the farm.” Twilight said with a troubled expression. She didn’t like how often the boy put himself in danger like that. No matter how many times he claimed to be ok, it was obvious that his numerous hardships had been taking a toll on his body. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Spike nodded in agreement. He wanted to feel better and stop worrying about the human, but he still felt just as concerned as before. “I just hope he doesn’t sleep for too much longer. We need to head down to the guard station before they get done interrogating Cotton Quill.” Twilight stated with excitement evident in her voice and expression. “You seem a bit chipper this morning.” Spike observed while noting the giddy smile on the purple mare’s face. “I guess… I’m just glad that we’re finally going to get somewhere with this case. We might even be able to find where the rest of these guys are and put a stop to them then and there.” Twilight replied with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. “Well if we’re going to do that, we should probably get going then shouldn’t we?” The two heard Tom’s voice coming from beside them. They looked over to see the human waiting by the stairs. He seemed to have a lot more color in his face than last night, and he definitely looked healthier. “You’re looking a lot better Tom. Do you feel better?” Twilight asked, hopeful that the human’s weakness was gone. “In comparison to last night, I feel like a million bucks… err… whatever you use as currency.” Tom said to clarify. Twilight and Spike chuckled slightly at the human’s lack of knowledge on their society. “It’s bits for future reference.” Spike said in a helpful tone. “Duly noted…” Tom replied with a nod while committing the knowledge to memory for future use. “Well… I’m glad you’re feeling better. I hate how you keep getting hurt to deal with our problems.” Twilight shrugged sadly while thinking about how often the human saved her and her friends at the cost of his own misfortune. “Don’t sweat it… it’s kind of part of the job description. You don’t get to go very far as a slayer without getting knocked around a lot. And besides… no offense, but I don’t think you guys could handle most of this stuff by yourselves.” Tom said lightheartedly to cheer up the troubled unicorn. “Heh… I guess you’re right about that. Even Brimstoke and the others seem a little undertrained for the situations they encounter.” Twilight replied sincerely. She appreciated the fact that the princess had trained a team to deal with all of the new monsters in Equestria, but she didn’t think they were nearly as prepared as the human was. The somber thought of their own lack of preparedness made the unicorn’s smile vanish as she adopted a more pensive expression. “Speaking of which… shouldn’t we get going? We don’t want to miss anything.” Tom said as a reminder of what they were supposed to be doing. “Yeah we probably should.” Twilight replied while thinking of the time it would take them to walk downtown to the station. With this in mind, the two walked over to the door and stepped outside. They then turned around to face the young dragon still waiting inside. “Bye Spike… we’ll be back later.” Twilight said while taking one last look at her young assistant before departing. “Alright… I’ll try not to burn the place down while you’re gone.” Spike stated lightheartedly while waving to the pair. After waving back and closing the door, Twilight and her human companion set out on their way. Looking around at the water-logged streets of Ponyville was a strange sight for both the slayer and the unicorn. Most storms Twilight had seen weren’t nearly as severe or long lasting as the one from last night. Numerous puddles and streams of water were sitting on all of the sidewalks, and the unpaved ground was so wet that it couldn’t retain any more water, making walking through a dry area nearly impossible. Several awnings and buildings were still dripping onto the ground below, offering an occasional cold drip on the head or back to anyone passing underneath. There were also several bits and pieces of small debris littered around the streets and rooftops from the blowing wind. All of the ponies the two saw while walking around town seemed generally upset as to their current surroundings, and nobody could blame them. The entire atmosphere in town was already tense and eerie with the looming threat of another attack from the hooded ponies, but now they had to deal with the odd contrast of a rain-soaked town underneath a clear and sunny sky. Twilight looked down and sighed sadly at the state of her hometown. It wasn’t just the water or the debris that was bothering her, but the atmosphere in general. On even the worst day in Ponyville, the generally peaceful and carefree attitude of the townspeople remained strong and steady, but now everyone was scared, uneasy, and uncertain of what the future would hold. Tom looked over to the upset unicorn sympathetically. She seemed to be struggling just to remain optimistic about the situation. Over the past few days, everything she had known to be safe and every foundation she had laid for her life was uprooted and turned on its head. “You doing alright over there?” The human spoke up in a friendly tone, causing the purple mare to look up. Twilight shrugged as she tried to find a way to put her feelings into words. “Yeah… I’m just having trouble dealing with everything that’s been happening recently… I know you got here at a bad time for us, but we’re usually a lot more lively and energetic and… happier.” Twilight stated with a disheartened expression. “You guys seemed to be getting along just fine… before yesterday anyway.” Tom said while looking around at the many gloomy faces around him. “Yeah, well the knowledge of monsters and hooded ponies trying to throw everything into chaos only just became available publicly yesterday. Before the princess made her speech, most ponies were happily ignorant about the dangers we’ve been facing. Twilight replied in a dismal tone. It seemed like the more she thought about the reality of what was happening, the more sad and hopeless the unicorn was becoming. “Hey… we’ll get through this just fine. I might not have been a slayer for very long, but I have memories of slayers who have faced evils far greater than the ones we’re facing and coming out on top. I’m sure you’ll have the opportunity to show me what things were like before all of this happened in no time.” Tom stated in a reassuring tone while offering a confident smile to the purple pony. The unicorn felt better knowing that the slayer was so confident in their success. “You know what… you’re right. We can beat these guys… we just need to stick together and keep our heads held high.” Twilight said with a progressively brightening expression. “Besides… we have one of their guys. I’m sure that we can find out where the rest of them are from him, and then it should be easy to wipe these hooded jerks off the face of the planet.” Tom said with a confident smirk. “I hope it will be that simple… we don’t know how much it will take to crack this guy. He could be their toughest member for all we know.” Twilight said with an uncertain expression. Tom laughed from just hearing the unicorn’s statement. “If that guy is their toughest member, then beating them will be easier than I thought.” The boy chuckled while thinking back to the hooded pony he met last night. It was almost pathetic how much of a spineless coward he was. Before long, the two came to a stop as Twilight recognized the guard station ahead of them. It wasn’t too hard picking it out against the other buildings around town. Being a sort of hub for the royal guards in Ponyville, it had a different kind of architecture to it that resembled something you would find in Canterlot. Not to mention the various flags and banners scattered around bearing the royal emblem on them. “Have you ever been down here before?” Tom asked curiously while observing the building and the various ponies coming and going in royal guard attire. “A couple times, yeah… My brother is captain of the royal guard, so I visited him occasionally when he would come to town on duty.” Twilight replied while reminiscing about the time she spent with her older brother in the past. “You have a brother…? And he is captain of the royal guard?” Tom asked in a surprised tone. He never figured the purple unicorn’s family to be so connected to the princess. Twilight was Celestia’s student, and apparently, her brother was captain of the royal guard. Twilight felt a little proud to have elicited such a surprised reaction from the human about her brother. “Yep, his name is Shining Armor. I’m sure he would love to meet you sometime when he is in town.” Twilight stated with a cheerful smile. “I’m looking forward to it,” Tom replied in a sincere manner before redirecting his attention forward. “Well… let’s head in and find our hooded friend.” He said with an eager smirk. Twilight nodded before walking over to the front door of the building. Once inside, the two found themselves in a sort of waiting area. There was a window built into the far wall to serve as a front desk with an earth pony mare behind it waiting to assist any visitors. There were also two doorways on either side that led off into the rest of the station’s interior. Various pictures and other decorative items adorned the walls above the chairs and tables that made up the waiting area. Other than the mare behind the front desk, the room was fairly empty aside from glimpses of other ponies rushing to and from their destinations. Twilight and her human companion walked over to the front desk and waited for the earth pony to notice them. Once she did, the mare put on a friendly smile and moved a little closer to the desk to address her new visitors. “Can I help you?” She asked in a polite, though clearly dulled tone. It must have been hard sitting behind a desk twenty-four-seven while exciting things happened around you. “Uh… we’re here to see Brimstoke and his team. They just brought in a pony for interrogation last night… Are they here?” Twilight asked while glancing behind the mare into the other rooms. The receptionist pointed over to the doorway on the right side of the room in response. “Brimstoke and the princess are still waiting for that guy to talk. Just go to the end of the hall and head through that door, they should be right there.” She explained to the pair while still pointing. Twilight glanced over to the doorway before returning her attention to the earth pony. “Thank you.” The purple mare said while walking over to the doorway. Tom followed her as she rounded the corner and started her way down the hall. After reaching the end of the hall and going through the door, the two came out into an open area with numerous ponies scattered around. Several work areas were off to one side, while other offices were at the far end of the room. Along with the various guards walking around in full uniform, there were several familiar ponies waiting in the center of the room. Princess Celestia and her sister were conversing with Brimstoke and his team, although Neon Streak seemed to be missing. There was also another pony among the group that Twilight didn’t recognize. He was a white stallion that was wearing the same attire that a royal guardsman would wear, although the tuft at the top of his roman styled helmet was a different color than the usual guard outfit. A little off to the side of the vested ponies, Twilight’s friends were all gathered around while talking with each other. Applejack was the only one missing from the group, which explained why Neon Streak wasn’t present. As they noticed the purple mare and the human approaching them, everyone turned to look at them. “Twilight! It’s good to see you made it.” Celestia greeted her student with a warm smile as she walked over to join the group. “Well, we couldn’t resist coming over to hear what Cotton had to say. Have you gotten anything out of him?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing over to the glass window everyone was staring at before. Apparently, the window led through to an interrogation room that held the white unicorn. Cotton was sitting at a table with a gloomy expression on his downcast face. He didn’t have his hoodie on from last night, instead wearing only the vest that he had underneath it. “He hasn’t talked to us since he got here… he barely acknowledges our questions at all.” The white stallion spoke up while glancing over to the captive unicorn. Realizing that the purple mare hadn’t been introduced to him, he suddenly understood the curious look she was giving him. “Oh, I’m sorry… where are my manners? I’m Fireside, I’m the Sargent in charge of this station.” Fireside stated while offering the unicorn a firm hoof shake. “Pleased to meet you, sir.” Twilight replied with a courteous smile. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I’m going to go try to talk to him again.” The stallion said while looking over at the two-way mirror that served as a window into the interrogation room. “I’ll come too… maybe we could play good cop bad cop with him… I’ll be good cop and you be bad cop?” Glimmer Shine offered while walking alongside the white stallion. “Are you trying to say that I don’t look like a good cop?” Fireside asked jestingly. Twilight and the others chuckled as they watched the pair walk into a hallway beside the window that led to the inside of the room. “So how long have you guys been down here? I know we must have slept in a lot… but I didn’t expect all of you to be down here before me.” Twilight said in a surprised tone while looking around at the group of ponies. Suddenly, Sunspot stepped forward from the group to answer the unicorn. Twilight was surprised to see that she wasn’t wearing her signature suit. “Well… me and Rainbow Dash got here a little late. I had to drop off my uniform at a dry cleaner. I can’t exactly get it patched up with blood stains on it…” The orange pegasus explained with a shrug. “When we did get here, only Brimstoke and his group were here. The princesses came a little while after that. All in all… I would say we have been here a few hours.” She stated while thinking about how long she had actually been at the station. “Wow Sunspot… you look so different without your suit on.” Twilight said while noting the pegasus’s appearance and cutie mark. She seemed a little bit disheartened by the unicorn’s comment. “Yeah… I feel weird without it.” Sunspot stated with an awkward expression. “Really? I would imagine those things would get irritating to wear after a while. I guess you were born to be a Wonderbolt… or at least to wear their uniform.” Twilight added with a friendly smirk. “Heh… thanks.” Sunspot said in a bashful tone while looking away with a slight smile. Princess Celestia stepped forward from the group to speak directly with her student. She seemed to have a slightly anxious air about her as if she needed to be somewhere else. “I’m going to head outside for a while to talk with Luna. You should make yourself comfortable if you want to stay here Twilight. I’m not sure if Cotton Quill will be divulging his knowledge to us anytime soon.” Celestia said while glancing behind her to the window. Glimmer Shine and Fireside were already hard at work interrogating the nervous unicorn. “Alright… see you later Princess.” Twilight said while offering the two alicorns a wave as they walked away. After the two departed, everyone else was left to wait in the room while watching the interrogation take place. Chapter 66: InterrogationDespite the hustle and bustle around the guard station, it was surprisingly dull as the group of ponies watched the interrogation of Cotton Quill taking place. They could only see them, but judging from mouth movements and facial expressions, everyone could tell that the captive unicorn was nervous about the questions he was being asked by the two stallions. Twilight and her four friends watched through the small window anxiously while waiting for something important to happen. As Brimstoke and the others talked about more serious matters further away, the five mares simply chatted with each other to pass the time. “So… where’s Applejack?” Twilight asked curiously. “I would have figured that she would be down here.” She stated while glancing around the station to look at the various guard ponies walking around. “I guess she must be at home resting. I wouldn’t blame her after what happened last night.” Rainbow Dash offered her thoughts on the matter. The only reason she wasn’t at home resting herself was because she wanted to be there in person when the hooded unicorn cracked. “What happened over there anyway? Tom hasn’t given me too many details.” Twilight added while eyeing the cyan pegasus’s bandaged back. She could only wonder what fierce battle took place to give her such an injury. “Well… It was pretty tense. After we almost got overrun by those flying monsters, they all vanished and this other thing appeared in a flash of lightning. It was horrible… it had glowing white eyes and lightning for a mouth… it sounds weird out loud, but trust me it was one of the scariest things I have ever seen.” Rainbow Dash explained everything she could think of about the incident last night. Everyone listened with nervous expressions as they pictured the creature in their heads. “It even talked… sweet Celestia, I don’t think I will ever forget that thing’s creepy voice. It was like the wind came to life and started threatening to kill us.” Rainbow Dash explained with a shudder. She was getting cold chills from just thinking about the monster. “That sounds like it was terrifying.” Fluttershy spoke up nervously. She didn’t even see the creature, but based on how the lesser demons appeared, she could estimate what it looked like well enough to scare herself. “You don’t know the half of it… the thing almost killed us for crying out loud. Sunspot would have died if Tom didn’t get to her in time… that’s why he didn’t have enough strength to heal the rest of us. He offered to heal me at least, but I told him to rest up.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing back at her bandages. “You should go ask him to heal you now darling. Those cuts must still be painful from what you described.” Rarity suggested in a concerned tone. “Yeah… I guess I should.” Rainbow Dash sighed while glancing over to the human as he chatted with Brimstoke and the others. As she was walking over to address the boy, she turned to look at Cotton Quill through the window and shrugged angrily. “I just hope that we can get him talking sooner rather than later. He might have been the one to send that thing after us, but I’m sure he wasn’t the one behind the order.” The cyan mare said in a confident tone. Meanwhile, outside of the station, Celestia and Luna were walking alongside each other pensively. They needed some time to think and to discuss things without the tense atmosphere of the station weighing them down. Ever since she learned that their enemies were plotting to kill the elements of harmony, Celestia had been on edge. It was bad enough that they were summoning monsters and wreaking havoc across Equestria, but to specifically target Twilight and the others was taking things across a very severe line. “I see Tom has recovered since last night.” Luna spoke up to break the silence in the air. “Yes… it’s good to see that he is feeling better.” Celestia replied in a sincere tone. Now that the subject was brought up, she couldn’t help but think of what could have happened had the human not been there to help the ponies at the farm. “I’m glad that he was there to protect them… Last night was just another fine example of how little we actually know what these hooded ponies are capable of.” Celestia shrugged in a disheartened tone. Luna frowned as she listened to her sister’s concern over the topic. “Don’t worry so much sister… we have faced impossible odds before and came out victorious.” Luna said in an attempt at brightening her sister’s spirits. Celestia shrugged at her younger sibling before trailing her eyes off sadly. “I wish I could share in your optimism Luna, but this is a much bigger threat than we have ever faced. The potential for these ponies to take things even further is too great to ignore… we need to do something about this. Perhaps I should contact Cadence and Shining Armor to get their support.” Celestia suggested in a defeated manner. She wasn’t sure of what else she could do other than pool all of her available resources together. “We don’t need to go to war here sister… all we are dealing with is an overzealous group of ponies that have access to ancient magic. Once we get the necessary information out of our prisoner, I will take a team of guards down to their base myself and take care of them if need be.” Luna stated confidently. Celestia could tell that she was trying to prove something to her by being so insistent on handling the situation herself. “Luna… you don’t need to handle this by yourself. Even if we don’t need Cadence’s help, I’m here for you. You shouldn’t feel obligated to take care of this because of what you did as Nightmare Moon.” Celestia said with sisterly concern evident in her voice and face. Luna trailed her eyes off sadly at the mention of her previous mistakes. Although it wasn’t entirely her fault, she still felt responsible for the events that led to her banishment to the moon. Ever since her return and purification, she has felt attached to Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. She felt a strong need to protect them and the rest of her subjects at any cost. “I want to do this sister… I want to prove to myself and everyone else that I am capable of protecting our kingdom. If things get out of hoof you can intervene, but for right now I want to handle this.” Luna explained in a softer tone. Despite her quiet voice, she still had an earnest sense of confidence about her. The white alicorn felt bad for her sister. She must have been feeling awful knowing that everyone looked up to the princess of the sun instead of her. She needed to handle this situation more than anyone else realized. “Ok…” Celestia said while putting a loving hoof on the blue alicorn’s shoulder. Luna looked up in surprise from her sister’s sudden acceptance. “Really?” Luna asked curiously, half expecting her sister to change her mind. “Yes… you can handle this operation yourself. As long as you promise to be careful and stay safe, you can be in charge of the investigation and whatever actions we take against these hooded ponies. Just be sure to come to me if you need any help.” Celestia replied while pulling her sister in for a side hug. “Ok… I Promise to be as careful as possible.” Luna said with a warm smile. She knew that although they were rulers in charge of very important matters that impacted an entire kingdom, they were still family. “Good… you better get back to the station then. Our only lead right now is for Mr. Cotton Quill to spill his guts so to say.” Celestia stated while glancing behind them. “What about you? Aren’t you coming with me?” Luna asked curiously, to which her sister smiled and shook her head. “No… I’m heading into town to see if I can gather materials for more magical equipment. If we’re going to wage a full-scale assault on these hooded ponies, we will need a lot more gear than we currently have. I will be back later to see if you have made any progress.” Celestia explained. It was always interesting to see how far ahead the alicorn planned in times of crisis. “Alright, I will see you later then.” Luna said while waving to her sister. After they said their goodbyes, the two alicorns separated and went off towards their respective destinations. Meanwhile back at the station, everyone was still curiously watching as Glimmer Shine and Fireside tried every trick they knew to get the unicorn to talk. After spending a good fifteen minutes trying to get Cotton Quill to open up, the two stallions shrugged and walked out of the room. Twilight and the others looked to them with hopeful optimism, but judging from their expressions, they could tell that the two had little luck in their endeavor. “Did you get anything?” Twilight asked in spite of the obvious. She thought that maybe if she wished hard enough that she could change the outcome of their response. “Nothing… it’s like talking to a brick wall in there.” Fireside stated with a defeated shake of the head. “Great… we’re back to square one then.” Brimstoke shrugged in annoyance at the lack of headway they were making. “Maybe the princess could talk to him when she gets back?” Fluttershy suggested from the back of the group. “Good idea Fluttershy! I’m sure that he would crack like an egg if the princess had a chat with him.” Rainbow Dash said eagerly. She got a kick out of the idea of the princess trying to force answers out of the timid unicorn. As if in response to the current subject matter, the door at the far end of the room opened and Princess Luna stepped inside. She walked up to the group and glanced at the two stallions that were interrogating the captive unicorn when she left. “Any luck with our friend in there?” Luna asked curiously. “Unfortunately no… we were thinking that maybe you could try talking to him?” Twilight suggested, hopeful that the princess of the night could get some results. Luna shook her head sadly in response to the proposal. “Sorry, but I don’t think that I would be able to persuade him to talk. Celestia and I tried questioning him ourselves when we brought him here last night… he wouldn’t give us anything important.” Luna explained in a disheartened tone. Whatever the unicorn knew, he was afraid enough to keep it a secret under any circumstances. “*Sigh*… well, what do we do now? If we can’t get him to tell us where they are, then we are no better off than when we started this investigation.” Twilight huffed in annoyance. The captive unicorn was the only hope they had at striking back at the hooded ponies before they made another move. “Well… I can use a spell to get the information out of him, but it might not be good for his health... and it might not even work. I wanted to try to get him to talk willingly, but I guess it will be necessary to use more serious measures.” Luna stated while walking towards the hallway leading into the interrogation room. “Wait a minute!” Twilight spoke up while walking in front of the alicorn. Although he was one of their enemies, she sort of felt bad for Cotton Quill. He obviously didn’t start out with evil intentions. He seemed genuinely nice when the purple mare saw him last, even if she did only meet him for a brief moment or two. “Princess, please let me talk to him before you try that spell. Maybe I can get through to him and get him to open up.” Twilight suggested while glancing over to their pathetic prisoner. Luna couldn’t help but admire her desire to assist a fellow pony in need, even if he was in league with several evil individuals. “Go ahead Twilight… but if you can’t get him to talk, then I will have to get answers out of him one way or another.” Luna said while motioning towards the interrogation room. The purple mare smiled as she was given the chance to talk with the captive unicorn. “Thank you, princess. I won’t let you down.” Twilight stated confidently before turning around and walking down the hallway leading to the room Cotton Quill was in. “Here, let me go with you. I think it would be better if there was more than one of us.” Glimmer Shine suggested while trotting alongside the purple mare. Twilight nodded in agreement before grabbing ahold of the handle and stepping inside of the room. As she walked into the room, Twilight noticed Cotton Quill turning to look at her. The unicorn had a shackle attaching him to the table by his leg, as well as a small cap on his horn with magical runes on it to suppress his magic. “What are you doing here?” Cotton asked curiously while observing the purple mare. He had expected them to come question him some more, but he didn’t expect Twilight Sparkle to be among the ones interrogating him. “I’m here to talk…” Twilight said in a soft tone. “I’m not really in the talking mood.” Cotton replied while looking away from the two ponies with a gloomy expression. “Well, you should be. If you don’t tell me what you know, then Princess Luna is going to forcibly probe your mind for the information… and I imagine that won’t be pleasant for you.” Twilight explained in an attempt at compromising with the silent stallion. Cotton gulped nervously as he thought about what it would feel like to have his mind probed for information. “Look Cotton… I’m trying to help you out here. Everyone else is ready to throw you in jail and forget about you, but I know that you’re a good pony at heart… at least I would like to think that.” Twilight stated in a sincere tone. Cotton looked up at the mention of him being good at heart. “I’m not so sure of that… I’ve done a lot of grisly stuff in the past.” Cotton said in a dejected tone. Twilight decided to let him speak some more rather than speak for him. “I mean… I was the one who performed the rituals at the school and the hospital… surely you must hate me for that?” Cotton said in a matter of fact sort of way. The purple mare was almost starting to think that he wanted to go to jail sooner. Despite the fact that she knew the captive pony intended a negative reaction, Twilight couldn’t help but to frown at the mention of the two previous incidents. “What about the incident that happened yesterday at the square?” Twilight asked while still trying to forcibly suppress her negative emotions towards the white stallion. She didn’t want to let him get the better of her so he could weasel out of answering questions. She had to stay on the offensive if she was going to make a dent in his armor. Cotton shrugged and thought for a moment while looking down at the table. It seemed like he was trying to decide whether or not to answer the question rather than actually thinking of the answer. Just when the two ponies thought that he would ignore their question, he looked up and spoke. “No… I wasn’t a part of that. I got kicked off of active duty after leaving my books at the hospital.” Cotton explained in a disappointed tone. The fact that he was removed from future plans made by the hooded ponies intrigued the purple mare. “You mean they fired you for just leaving some books behind? Truth be told, we didn’t actually get that much information out of those books… I don’t see why they were that important.” Twilight said in a sincere manner. The white unicorn shrugged sadly at her comments, much to her confusion. “What’s wrong, Cotton…?” Twilight asked in a genuinely curious manner. Although her friendly way of addressing another pony was genuine, she was hoping that she could lower his defenses by trying a friendly approach to things. “Actually… I got removed from duty for more than just the books. At the school, I was supposed to keep watch to ensure that the pictogram remained untouched. I would have done it of course, but that bloody brute of a monster attacked me and gave me a really nasty wound on my chest. After I went back to base, the scout I left at the school came in and told us that you guys defeated the creature and destroyed the pictogram… when I was within strangling distance of our leader.” Cotton explained with a dismal expression on his already gloomy face. “And how did she take that?” Twilight asked hesitantly while sharing a sympathetic glance with Glimmer Shine. Judging from the other ponies under her rule, their leader must have been brutal and downright evil. “You know that she’s a mare?” Cotton asked curiously. As far as he knew, his leader was unknown to the group. “Yeah… that pale blue pegasus friend of yours, I think her name was Raincloud? Anyway, she told us that your leader was at least female. I’m not sure if she did it on purpose or not.” Twilight explained while shrugging slightly. The white unicorn shuddered at the mere mention of the pale mare. “*Ahem* Well anyway… when she found out about the incident at the school, all she did was yell at me a little bit. After she learned about my second mistake however, she got a bit angrier with me. She actually told Raincloud to use her shadow to… discipline me, as she put it.” Cotton explained uneasily. It wasn’t hard to see that he wasn’t the favorite among the group of hooded ponies. Twilight actually felt kind of bad for the captive unicorn. He had been abused by his so-called colleagues and forced to perform horrible acts of violence against other ponies. She wasn’t sure if he actually enjoyed performing these acts, but she was at least sure he was unhappy currently. The question bouncing around her head right now was what motivations he had for working for the hooded ponies. “Cotton… why did you do all of this in the first place? Surely they must have offered you something to join them. What was it?” Twilight asked curiously. Cotton looked away and remained silent. He seemed to be ignoring the question rather than thinking about it. Twilight shrugged in annoyance as her prisoner clammed up on her suddenly. She was so confident that he was about to open up to her, but now he was being just as stubborn as when he first arrived at the station. “Cotton… please tell me.” Twilight pleaded in a softer tone while leveling with the silent pony. Cotton refused to even make any further eye contact with her as he stared at the table in front of him. “Twilight, I don’t think he’s going to talk anymore. You gave it a good try, but this is what he did to us when we tried asking him anything.” Glimmer Shine spoke up in an attempt at saving the unicorn from having to waste as much time as he did. Ignoring the stallion’s attempts at making her give up, Twilight turned back to the white unicorn and shrugged in annoyance. “Cotton, listen to me. You don’t need to keep protecting them… what they’re doing is evil and wrong. They are trying to hurt thousands of innocent ponies. If they don’t succeed in Ponyville, they will just move on to another town. I know you’re not like them… if you were like them, they would treat you like one of their own.” The purple mare stated in a more sincere tone. Cotton moved his eyes slightly to look up at the unicorn. “You said it yourself… they don’t even let you do the job they signed you up for anymore, and over what? A few small mistakes? That pegasus mare Raincloud told us that she doesn’t trust anyone but family, or those that have earned her respect enough for her to call family. If they considered you a part of their family, they would have forgiven you for the mistakes you made… but they didn’t, and I know why they didn’t.” Twilight paused for a moment as the white stallion fully looked up to her. She could tell that she had his unyielding attention at least. “Why?” Cotton asked curiously. It was painful for him to wait so long for the purple mare to finish her line of thought considering how close to home it hit. “Because they know who you really are Cotton… you aren’t like them. They enjoy harming others for their own personal gain… they enjoy causing chaos and destruction… but you don’t. You might have convinced yourself that you do, but I can tell just by looking at you that you’re a really nice guy at heart. It’s ok that you joined them because they promised to reward you… anyone would want to be a part of a powerful organization. But they are still trying to hurt people… and you don’t have to help them anymore. Just tell me what you know Cotton… you can help us put a stop to them. I mean think about it… do you really think that they care enough for you to try and rescue you?” Twilight asked in a confiding tone. Based on his expression, she could tell that the captive pony was at least thinking about her proposal. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for a response, Cotton sighed and sank back into his chair while looking downwards with a blank expression. He wouldn’t look up to face the unicorn, or even acknowledge that she was there. “*Sigh*…” Twilight looked away and lowered her head in defeat. She had tried her best shot, but her best shot apparently wasn’t enough. “Let’s go Glimmer Shine… he isn’t going to tell us anymore.” She stated while walking over to the yellow stallion in a depressed manner. Glimmer Shine felt bad for the purple mare. She had tried so hard to connect with the white unicorn, only to fail. With heads hung low in defeat, the two ponies turned to walk out of the door. Their only hope would be the princess and her mind probing spell. If the spell didn’t work, then they would be no closer to achieving victory than when they first learned of the hooded ponies. “The eternal night...” Cotton Quill spoke up, causing the two ponies to stop in their tracks. Twilight slowly turned around as she was still getting over the shock of hearing the captive unicorn speak up. “Wh… what?” Twilight asked curiously. Not only did she barely understand what he said, but she didn’t have the slightest clue as to what he meant. “My leader… an earth pony named Raven Feather… she said that she was trying to invoke the eternal night.” Cotton explained while looking up to face the purple unicorn. Twilight had to hide her excitement to properly face the white stallion with an understanding expression. “Can you tell us more?” The purple mare asked with careful optimism. Cotton looked around for a moment before sighing. He then nodded slowly in agreement, eliciting a small smirk from Twilight and Glimmer Shine. True to his word, Cotton told the two ponies about everything he knew. He explained to them how many members they roughly had, the names and powers of all of Raven Feather’s inner circle, and even how to get to their secret base out in the Everfree Forest. Twilight and Glimmer Shine listened carefully while taking note of everything they heard. It was astonishing how much they were finally learning about their enemies. It was actually exciting in a way. “So… this Raven Feather, she had you setting up pictograms across town to gather fear and other sources of negative energy to channel towards the eternal night?” Twilight asked to clarify what she had just heard. “Yes… she would give me a monster to summon, asked me to pick a location, and I would draw a pictogram to summon the monster. The pictogram acted as a kind of magical multi-tool. It would contain the necessary glyphs to summon the monster, protect and conceal the symbol itself, and gather up any energy the creature created. It would then send the energy back to a magical reservoir to be used later when Raven Feather finally decided to try and realize her final plan.” Cotton explained. “What is her final plan anyway? What is the eternal night and why is it so important to her?” Twilight asked curiously. Although the name sounded ominous and straightforward enough, she had no idea what the eternal night actually was. “I don’t know everything about it, but Raven Feather said that once she invokes the eternal night, she will rule Equestria and reward anyone who worked with her to accomplish her goal. All I know is that it’s a really old ritual and that Raven Feather claims that it will make shadow magic users incredibly powerful… along with throwing Equestria into a sea of chaos that only she and other shadow magic users will be able to control.” Cotton explained uneasily. Now that he was out of her good books, he could only dread the thought of Raven Feather actually completing her plan. “And then she would be able to rule without opposition…” Twilight said to finish the unicorn’s train of thought. The mere notion filled the purple mare with unease. “But wouldn’t everyone rebel? Surely she can’t think that she can just make everyone follow her obediently.” Glimmer Shine asked curiously. He could only assume that she planned on killing the princesses and the elements of harmony, but the ponies of Equestria would doubtlessly rise up against her eventually. “It probably wouldn’t matter at that point… she and the others would be so powerful that they could force obedience on anyone who didn’t comply with their rule.” Twilight said uneasily. The mere scope of the devious plan disturbed her greatly. “Exactly… she planned on killing all of you beforehand anyway. According to her, the only thing that can stop the eternal night once it’s started is the elements of harmony.” Cotton explained casually, perhaps a bit more casually than the purple mare felt comfortable with. “But why would she want to do something like that? I know power is a great corruptor, but ponies don’t just wake up one day and plot to rule the world… it’s just not in our nature.” Glimmer Shine said in a confused tone. With the gentle rule of Princess Celestia and the overall sense of peace and harmony throughout Equestria, even the most unhappy ponies didn’t turn to evil intentions. “Raven Feather doesn’t talk in great detail about her past. I’ve heard that she learned about her natural ability to use shadow magic at a young age… and she wasn’t exactly well liked. All I know for sure is that she took her brother and ran one day, and they didn’t stop running until they found somewhere to stay.” Cotton explained what little he knew about his leader. “That sounds awful…” Twilight said in a shocked tone. If it were under any other circumstances, she would feel bad for the black mare. She still kind of did, although she still hated her for everything she had done. “Yeah… that’s what I thought. Maybe if she hadn’t gained her abilities she would have turned out differently.” Cotton said in a slightly sympathetic tone. “Anyway… that’s all I know. If you’re going to throw me in jail, please do it sooner rather than later. I have been sitting here so long that my legs are falling asleep.” He stated in a half-joking, half-serious manner. “We’ll see what we can do… thank you for talking. You were more help to us than you know.” Twilight said in a grateful tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the shackled pony’s foreleg. As Twilight got up to leave and turned to face her yellow companion, a loud buzz erupted from his vest. The sight of a vial glowing bright blue and vibrating made the unicorn’s nerves kick into overdrive. A familiar noise softly echoed through the room. It was barely loud enough to hear, but it sounded like distorted laughter. “That laugh…!” Twilight’s eyes widened in shock as she realized where she had heard the noise before, she felt her blood run cold as she looked around for the source of the noise. Suddenly, a dark circle appeared on the left wall. The circle grew in size until it was bigger than a pony. Just as suddenly as the circle appeared, a dark shape with glowing purple eyes and a jagged glowing smile flew through it and into the room. “AHH!” Twilight and Cotton Quill screamed in unison. It was hard to tell which high pitched scream belonged to which pony. Glimmer Shine ducked and leaped to the side as he noticed the creature rushing forward with its claws brandished. Before anyone could react further, the shadow glided across the table and slashed sideways where Cotton Quill was sitting. When the shadow moved, Twilight, Glimmer Shine, and everyone else watching through the two-way mirror saw a stream of blood spray out from the white unicorn’s throat. Cotton tried to cry out in pain, but his yell was stifled by the bloody gash across his neck. Twilight watched in horror as the captive pony clutched his still bleeding injury. Even with the flow of blood stopped by his hooves, Cotton’s blood was already covering the wall and table in front of him. Even the purple unicorn managed to catch a little bit of the crimson spray. The shadow floated off to the side and watched with a devilish grin as Cotton Quill clung to what was left of his life. After a short and desperate attempt at putting enough pressure on his wound to stop the blood flow, the white unicorn fell sideways out of his chair. The only thing stopping him from going very far was the shackle on his leg, though his body weight was enough to send him to the floor effectively. Twilight and the others watched in abject horror as Cotton Quill gasped out his last few breaths. He convulsed on the ground for a few moments before his struggles became progressively weaker. Soon enough, his pupils dilated and all sense of life left the bleeding unicorn. With its initial target dead on the floor and its claws still covered in his blood, the shadow turned its head to look at the two ponies remaining in the room. Spotting the purple mare and recognizing that its master wanted her dead, the shadow laughed maniacally while brandishing its claws again. Twilight was frozen in fear as she stared at the ghostly monster. The shadow wailed loudly as it flew towards the hapless pony. She tried to move out of the way, but she could barely get her body to move an inch from where she was standing. “Twilight get down!” Glimmer Shine yelled while jumping into the petrified unicorn. Just as the pair went to the floor, they felt a rush of air and saw the shadow flying past them and into the nearby wall. Taking a quick look around, the two couldn’t find any other trace of the shadow. “Are you ok?” Glimmer Shine asked while examining the unicorn. She had a few spots on her that were stained with blood, although the stallion was confident that it wasn’t hers. Twilight was still in shock from what just happened. All she could do to communicate her reply was erratically nod her head while dealing with her jittery nerves. Taking a look down to his locator, Glimmer Shine could see that the glowing portion of the blue liquid inside was moving. He then realized that he could track the shadow back to its master somewhere nearby. Getting up from the shocked mare, he ran to the door and opened it to give chase to the shadow. As he ran into the main room, he could see the shock and horror on everyone’s faces. Pinkie Pie was covering her mouth with her hoof as she stared through the window at the bloody scene before her. Rarity and Fluttershy were quickly rushing out of the room with a sickly look on their already shocked faces, presumably to find a restroom. Glitterball, Rainbow Dash, and Sunspot were speechless with shocked expressions and mouths agape. Even Princess Luna and Tom were mortified by what they just witnessed. “What happened in there?!” Tom asked frantically while observing the urgent expression on Glimmer Shine’s face. “I don’t know! It just came out of nowhere!” The yellow stallion stated while running towards the far door. Everyone was confused by where he was going. “What are you doing Glimmer Shine?!” Brimstoke shouted across the room at the running pony. “I’m chasing it, what does it look like I’m doing?!” Glimmer Shine yelled back without turning his head or even missing a stride. Brimstoke and Tom each checked their own methods of detecting supernatural presences. They quickly realized that the shadow was still detectable, and it was leaving an easily followed trail. Taking a quick glance to each other, the two bolted after the yellow stallion to help him on his chase. Glitterball and Sunspot started to rush after the group when Brimstoke turned his head to yell back to them. “Stay here and take care of them!” The white stallion instructed before turning his attention forward. Glitterball and Sunspot stopped and looked at each other. They then looked behind them at the many horrified ponies around them. They needed to be there for them after what they just saw. Noticing Twilight still on the floor in the interrogation room with a shocked expression, the two decided to go in there and escort her away from the gruesome sight in front of her. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was running through the station to get to the front door. Taking a quick glance beside him, he noticed that the slayer and the white stallion had caught up to him. They didn’t seem to be interested in stopping him. Instead, they seemed more intent on joining him. With his two companions in tow, the yellow pony ran into the lobby of the station and bolted out of the front door. Taking a look at his locator vial, he noticed that the reading was just in front of him. As he scanned the area ahead, he noticed a pale bluish gray pegasus mare standing a short ways away from the station. “There she is!” Glimmer Shine announced to his two partners. With their target in sight, the trio ran forward to catch up with the gray mare. As they were approaching her, they noticed the shadow fly up from the ground in front of her. The specter then flew into the ground at her feet and melded with her shadow. She looked like she had a devious smile on her face until she noticed the trio giving chase to her. “Hold it!” Tom yelled ahead to the startled mare. Despite this instruction, Raincloud turned around and started running. Thanks to all of their physical training, Glimmer Shine and Brimstoke were easily able to gain ground on the pegasus. Tom, of course, had his enhanced stamina due to being a slayer, not to mention his athleticism from when he was alive. As the three slowly caught up to the pegasus, she eventually halted in front of a section of brush and turned around to face her pursuers. She panted heavily to catch her breath from running so much. The group was glad to have caught her, although they were suspicious as to why she chose to run instead of flying away. “Man… *pant* you guys are persistent aren’t you?” Raincloud stated with a slight chuckle. “Do you really think you can just barge into a royal guard station and murder a pony and then just get away scot-free?” Brimstoke said while eyeing the pale mare defensively. He was surprised to see her laughing at his statement. “Heh heh… nope, not really… which is exactly why I have a backup plan.” Raincloud replied in a cocky manner. She then looked behind her into the brush. “Hey, Dust! Now is as good a time as any to do your thing!” She announced loudly in an impatient tone. Suddenly, another pegasus walked out from behind the bushes, a brown stallion that the group recognized to be Dust Kicker. “One backup plan coming right up!” Dust Kicker exclaimed with a confident smile while raising his hoof into the air. The tip of his hoof suddenly became engulfed in pulsating shadow energy as it had so many times before. Brimstoke and his two companions ran forward in an attempt at closing the gap between them and the two ponies before the brown stallion finished his action. They skidded to a halt as he slammed his hoof into the ground and yelled fiercely. The shadow energy that went into the ground from his hoof stretched out into a long horizontal line that went out a great distance to either side. The black line started rising out of the ground and forming a black wall between the two groups. Tom’s senses went off, as well as Brimstoke and Glimmer Shine’s locators. As a loud screeching noise filled the air, the wall of darkness started moving. Small tendrils of the shadowy barrier started wriggling around and moving of their own volition as the wall climbed higher and started arching forward. The dark mass started adopting more smoke like properties as it moved forward. It didn’t take long to realize that the brown pegasus had just summoned a very powerful mass of dark matter like the one Tom and the others found back in the cave. “I am getting the worst case of déjà vu right now…” Tom muttered nervously while slowly stepping backwards. The shadow cast by the large mass of energy slowly reached forward as it blocked their view of the sun. Suddenly, the mass of darkness rushed forward and swept outwards like an ocean of shadows. “Run!” Glimmer Shine yelled to his two companions while turning around and running. They needed no confirmation as they both bolted to join their fleeing comrade. The trio ran as fast as they could as the wall of dark matter followed them. It seemed to be ignoring the sunlight completely. It wasn’t even smoking as it charged forward and stretched out to the side to encompass all of their escape routes. The three finally made it to the station and opened the door to rush inside. After closing the door behind them, the human noticed the window beside the door and cringed nervously. “This room isn’t safe! Let’s go!” Tom exclaimed while running for the door on the right. “What’s going on?” The receptionist pony behind the front desk asked in a concerned tone. She suddenly noticed the large wall of darkness hurdling towards the building through the window. “AHH!” She yelped in fright while falling backwards. “Get to an interior room!” Tom shouted to her while still running. Brimstoke and Glimmer Shine watched the startled mare as she ran through an open doorway in the room she was. Deciding that she was safe, they followed the human as he ran for the room the others were in. As the trio burst back into the room, everyone turned to look at them with concerned expressions. They looked like they had just run from a war zone, and considering the circumstances surrounding their departure, the group wasn’t sure if they wanted to know why they had returned so suddenly. “What’s going on?” Luna asked while observing the out of breath trio. Tom was the first to catch his breath and speak up. “We have problems… big problems.” The human explained uneasily. Suddenly a loud whoosh sounded out from the front of the building. The group heard the sound of what they presumed to be rushing wind, before an eerily familiar screeching noise started bleeding through to the room they were in. Along with this, the lights in the room flickered violently before shutting off. All of the sunlight streaming through the windows was cut off as something black wrapped itself around the building. “Wait a minute… I know that sound.” Rainbow Dash said nervously while glancing over to Twilight. The two mares felt a pit developing in their stomach as they remembered where they were when they last heard that noise. They immediately knew that they were in big trouble. Chapter 67: EntrapmentRaincloud and her brother watched in amazement as the mass of dark matter swallowed the guard station right before their eyes. The shadowy blob reached upwards to cover the top of the building while the rest of it flowed out around each of the sides. Before long, the entire building was covered in the undulating mass. The screeching noise that accompanied the dark matter still remained, though it appeared to quiet down slightly now that the mass wasn’t moving around too much. If they hadn’t seen it beforehand, the two ponies wouldn’t have been able to tell that there was a building underneath the cloud of darkness. “Wow… that stuff works fast.” Raincloud noted with an impressed chuckle. She turned to her brother to see how he was reacting to the marvelous sight. “It’s supposed to. Raven Feather wanted us to have a quick escape plan, so there you go.” Dust Kicker stated in a dull sort of tone. He didn’t seem at all impressed by the sight in front of him. “You’re no fun… you know that?” Raincloud said with an annoyed shrug and an eye roll. “If your idea of fun is to barge into a royal guard station and kill one of their prisoners, I think I will pass… weren’t we supposed to bring Cotton back alive anyway?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. He seemed more concerned about them getting into trouble than he actually cared for the white unicorn’s wellbeing. “Nah… Raven Feather said that he was a liability at this point. She thought it would be easier for my shadow to just slip in and kill him so we could escape without confronting anyone.” Raincloud explained. “But… if we didn’t want to confront anyone, then why didn’t we just fly away?” Dust Kicker asked with a confused expression. The pale mare merely rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat at her brother’s thought process. “Dust… you really aren’t creative are you?” Raincloud asked in a semi-serious manner. “You know what… just don’t answer that.” She added once she saw that her brother was still trying to figure out what she meant. “Raven Feather gave us that dark matter spell as a backup plan, but she wouldn’t have brought me on the team if I didn’t take some extra initiative every once in a while. I say we draw up a pictogram and summon some shadow creatures to wreak some havoc in there before we go.” Raincloud explained with a devious twinkle in her eye. The brown stallion was a little leery of his sister’s bright idea. “I don’t know Raincloud… I’m a little spent from using that much energy at once. It would take me a while to summon a lot of creatures… what if we get caught?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. He didn’t want to give Raven Feather any more problems than she already had by letting himself get caught. “Who’s going to catch us? We have Twilight Sparkle and her friends, not to mention the majority of the royal guard presence in Ponyville trapped inside of that building. Besides… we don’t need to stay for that long, or use that much energy.” Raincloud stated in a reassuring tone. “What did you have in mind?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. Although he was open to the idea of causing more suffering for the ponies stuck inside the station, he had no idea what his sister could have been planning. “Just follow my lead.” Raincloud said while walking up to the bushes and reaching into them. After digging around for a brief moment, she came back out with a bag in her hooves. Dust Kicker followed his sister behind the bushes to a more secluded area. They were in the middle of downtown Ponyville after all, so hidden areas were hard to come by. The small area they found behind some bushes would have to do. The pale pegasus produced some items from the bag and got to work. Before long she was drawing up the lines and glyphs necessary to form a pictogram. “Do you remember how to make one of those?” Dust Kicker asked while intently watching his sister going to work. “Of course I do… I don’t know why Cotton needed a pile of books to make these. They’re easy as pie… an arcane pie that summons monsters, but pie nonetheless.” Raincloud replied with a smirk. It was astounding how simple she made drawing the various symbols around the pictogram appear. Before long, the gray mare had finished with the outline of the pictogram. All she needed to do now was to add the glyphs around the symbol to give it instructions on how to function. After adding the glyphs that would gather the negative energy and send it to the reservoir, Raincloud started delving into her own knowledge of how to make spells to craft her own unique symbol. “There… it’s finished.” Raincloud said while stepping back to admire her own work. The symbol itself was impressive looking enough to pass for a symbol made with several ponies under close instruction. In fact, the gray mare’s symbol most likely looked more complex and impressive than anything Cotton Quill or any of the workers back at the mansion could create. “So let me get this straight… you want me to put my hoof on the center, and… what?” Dust Kicker asked while going over the bizarre instructions his sister gave him before. “I just need you to channel energy and think of what monster to summon as you would normally.” Raincloud explained while pointing to the ring in the center of the symbol. “How will this help us again?” Dust Kicker asked with a confused expression. Raincloud merely rolled her eyes at her brother’s lack of comprehension. “Clumps of dark matter this large summon darklings and other shadow creatures naturally… like when Twilight Sparkle and the princess went into the cave. All we’re doing is telling the dark matter to summon our monsters instead of just darklings, which is where you come in. Oh… and try to put some variety into it, Dust. I don’t want just stronger darklings in there.” Raincloud stated to clarify. The brown stallion smirked at the thought of being given the freedom to choose what monsters would be used. “I guess I will have to get creative then.” Dust Kicker said with a devilish smile while delving into his repertoire of shadow creatures. Raincloud smirked as she watched her brother place his hoof in the center of the circle and channel energy into it. Meanwhile, on the inside of the station, the ponies scattered around the room were all darting their heads around nervously while trying to figure out what was going on. Several unicorn guards lit up their horns and spread around the room to give it some more light. “What’s going on? Why did it get dark all of a sudden?” Fireside asked while glancing around at the many guard ponies looking to him for answers. As much as he wanted to inform them about what to do, he had no idea what was happening himself. “We found Raincloud and Dust Kicker outside. They summoned a large mass of dark matter, which is what is currently wrapping itself around the building and shrouding us in pitch blackness.” Tom explained in an urgent tone. The shocking news made everyone panic slightly, especially those that knew what dark matter actually was. “Dark matter? You mean like the stuff we found back at the cave?” Twilight asked nervously. Flashbacks of her time in the cave started racing through her mind, making her all the more fearful of her current situation. “Exactly like the stuff we found in the cave… only worse.” Tom replied uneasily. The amount of dread in the human’s face only made Twilight and the others more afraid of what lay just outside. All of the ponies that flocked to the room when the lights went out started chatting nervously amongst themselves. Although they tried to be quiet, the fear in their voices was easy to hear. Even the guards in the room were starting to feel uneasy. All of the training in the world couldn’t have prepared them for a situation like this. They were trained to deal with threats to Equestria, but not supernatural threats. “Ok, nobody needs to panic. We just need to stay calm and everything will be fine.” Fireside announced in an attempt at calming the room down. “Buddy… if you knew as much as I did about the paranormal, you would be cowering in the corner over there. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but it is broad daylight out there, and there is currently something that is only supposed to exist in dark places circling around the building.” Tom said nervously. The unusual break in the human’s armor of confidence was unsettling to the others. It was like he was more frightened than they were, which was definitely not something they expected. “Why isn’t it coming through the windows? The stuff in the cave tried everything to get at us.” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while glancing out of one of the pitch black windows. Although the vibrating roar of the cloud of darkness whipping by and the unnatural screeching sound that came with it made the cyan mare nervous, she was unsure of whether or not the dark matter would smash through the window to get at her. “Maybe this dark matter isn’t trying to kill us… The cloud in the cave was natural, so it was just trying to absorb our energy… but this mass seems to be just keeping us trapped in here, for the moment at any rate.” Tom hypothesized while taking note of the odd behavior exhibited by the dark matter. “Even so… we need to get out of here as soon as possible. I’m not sure if I know of a way we could escape though.” Luna said while thinking hard about a way out of their current predicament. The lack of options coming to her mind frustrated the alicorn to no end. “Well, right now we should probably gather everyone up and head to a secure interior room.” Tom suggested while looking around the room. As he scanned the various ponies in the room, he was surprised to notice something, or rather, the lack of something. “Wait a minute… where are Fluttershy and Rarity?” Tom asked in a concerned tone. “I think they were going to be sick from watching what happened in there… they probably went to find the nearest bathroom.” Sunspot said while taking a disgusted glance through the still bloody window of the interrogation room. “Ok… we need to go get them and anyone else in the building. We need to secure a room before something bad-” Tom started to speak up when he was suddenly interrupted by a faint noise drifting through the room. The distant sound of windows breaking and ponies screaming could be heard, along with a very unnatural sounding set of screeches and roars. The terrifying noises made everyone in the room on edge with concern for themselves and the others in the building. “Happens…” Tom finished his sentence with a shrug. “What was that?” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone while trying to listen closer to the noises. Only a few far off screams remained, but even they were enough to raise the tension in the room. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” Tom stated while walking over to one of the doors at the side of the room. “What are you doing?” Fireside asked while stepping forward from the group. “Keep this room safe… I’m going to go see what’s going on.” Tom replied while steeling himself for the task ahead of him. However nervous he might have been about their current situation, he clearly didn’t want to stand around while the two missing mares and everyone else in the building could be in danger. “Shouldn’t we go with you? We could cover more ground in groups.” Fireside suggested while glancing over to the various guard ponies in the room ready to take action. “I don’t want to send you guys out there without knowing what we’re up against first. I’m going to go find Fluttershy and Rarity, and then I’ll meet you back here.” Tom explained while returning his attention forward. Before anyone could speak up, he had already opened the door and went out into the rest of the station. -A few minutes earlier- Fluttershy and Rarity rushed through the station to find a bathroom. It was astounding how fast they could move with such sick feelings in their stomachs, but they somehow managed to slink around every concerned and confused pony they came across. Finally, the pair found a set of restrooms across from each other. After quickly opening the door to the little mare’s room, the two bolted inside and each went to where they needed to go. Rarity immediately rushed over to a stall and threw up in disgust. While the white unicorn was heaving and panting while waiting for the sick feeling in her stomach to pass, Fluttershy rushed over to a sink and turned the cold water on full blast. The pegasus felt ill all across her body. She felt like she might throw up, but she was to the point of trying to prevent it rather than rushing to the nearest toilet. With shaky hooves, she splashed water into her face and tried everything in her power to calm her anxiety and sickness. She couldn’t believe what she had just bore witness to. The yellow pony had seen horrible things before. A monster made out of blood, a zombified bear that was missing part of its face, and even a skeletal dragon. But nothing she had seen before could have prepared her for watching a pony getting his throat slashed right in front of her. The terrified look of shock and pain on his face, the crimson liquid gushing out of his neck and painting the window in front of her, the horrific sight of his limp body falling over and dangling from his still shackled leg, all of these things were still firmly planted in the pegasus’s head. Although she hadn’t gotten any blood on her like Twilight did, she might as well have for how ill she felt. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Rarity had finished emptying the contents of her stomach and was slowly standing up. She wanted to ensure that she didn’t look down, as the sight of her own vomit would have probably driven her still sensitive stomach off the deep end. With closed eyes, the unicorn fumbled around for a moment while reaching for the handle. Once the sound of her mess getting flushed away subsided, she finally managed to get up the courage to open her eyes. “Ughh…” Rarity groaned uncomfortably while staggering out of the stall. She quickly rested her upper body on the sink and turned on the faucet to wash any trace of the disgusting substance off her face. After splashing a little extra water in her face to make herself feel better, the white mare lifted a paper towel over from a dispenser on the wall to the side and dried herself. Taking a glance off to the side, Rarity couldn’t help but notice her yellow friend in the same position she was in. Despite the fact that she hadn’t vomited herself, Fluttershy somehow looked even worse than the unicorn. She had a generally pale appearance to her, and her entire body was trembling slightly. “Fluttershy… are you okay darling?” Rarity asked with friendly concern in her still sickly voice. She walked over to the quivering pegasus and put a loving hoof on her shoulder as she tried to make the sick feeling in her body pass. “Y-yeah… I think so.” Fluttershy said in a weak voice while still looking down. Not only was she still shocked by what she saw, but she also was trying to suppress the ill feeling in her stomach the same way the unicorn was. “You don’t look ok… I don’t blame you one bit considering that ghastly scene we just ran from.” Rarity stated with a shudder as she tried to not think back to the horrific scene. “Who would do something like that? He was one of them… and they just… just… murdered him.” Fluttershy could barely get the words out of her mouth with how mortified she was. The yellow mare wasn’t blind to the fact that the hooded ponies always had deadly intentions, but seeing it happen right in front her was an entirely new and horrific experience for her. “I know… but I don’t think I need to remind you of who we’re dealing with here. Raincloud… the owner of that… thing, she threatened to kill Sweetie Belle and the others unless Twilight, Applejack, and I made a decision of which one of us was going to die. She has no regard for the lives of others… I think she actually enjoys harming others.” Rarity explained with a disgusted tone. She couldn’t believe that a pony could be so cruel. “Ugh… I feel so wrong… I wonder if this is how Twilight felt back at the hospital.” Fluttershy wondered out loud. “Oh my goodness, Twilight! The poor thing was actually in the room with that thing when it happened. Oh… she must be a mess if we’re so pale in the face from just watching from outside!” Rarity stated with concern for her purple friend. She wondered if she was curled up into a ball off in the corner while descending into a pit of shock and misery. “Maybe we should go check on her. We should probably be getting back soon anyway… As much as I don’t want to go anywhere near that room again, the others are probably worried about us.” Fluttershy suggested while getting up and stepping away from the sink. She still felt a little wobbly, but she was marginally better from before. “Right… just try not to look at the interrogation room window Fluttershy. The last thing we need right now is another glimpse in there.” Rarity replied while trying not to think about the grisly scene waiting for them. Fluttershy nodded in agreement with the idea of never seeing anything that horrible again. With their stomachs having settled and the color having returned to their faces, the two mares stepped toward the bathroom door to go out and rejoin their friends. Just before they could reach for the handle however, the lights started flickering violently. As the two ponies watched in abject fright, the lights completely fizzled out, leaving them in pitch blackness. Fluttershy squealed nervously before darting her eyes around the room. She wondered what could have possibly cut the power like this. They had just run away from a bloody massacre created by Raincloud’s shadow, which meant that the hooded ponies were nearby. The pegasus had hoped that they would simply stop at killing Cotton Quill, rather than causing any more trouble. “Don’t worry darling, I’m here.” Rarity spoke up in a comforting tone while lighting up her horn. Now that they had light, it was a little less spooky in the bathroom. Although now that they only had a small source of light, the shadows and darkness around the room along with the eerie reflections cast by the wall of mirrors beside them made the two mares all the more nervous. “What happened?” Fluttershy asked while nervously looking around the room. She half expected some sort of monster to leap out of the mirror and scratch her eyes out or some other horrific thing. Entertaining the thought alone was enough to make her avoid looking into any of the mirrors. “I don’t know… Obviously the lights went out, but I can’t imagine why.” Rarity replied in an uneasy tone. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know why the lights had gone out. The unicorn suddenly wished that she was in the other room with her friends. Although the station was full of trained royal guards, she still felt unsafe in the lonesome bathroom. Suddenly, a low noise started making its presence known in the eerily quiet bathroom. It sounded like a high pitched screech that resembled a swarm of bats flying around the station and letting out their combined squeaks into a tumultuous uproar. As the noise got louder and louder, the two ponies started to hear another noise that resembled wind rushing around the building. The low roar was barely audible over the unnerving screeching sound, but it was still just as terrifying. “W-w-what is t-that?” Fluttershy asked through chattering teeth. She could feel every muscle in her body tensing up as her nerves went into overdrive. “I don’t know… and I’m not entirely sure if I want to find out.” Rarity replied with growing concern and terror. She suddenly thought back to her previous desire of being with her friends and quickly realized that it would be best if she was in the other room. “Let’s get out of here… we will probably be safer with the others.” Rarity suggested nervously. Fluttershy nodded slowly at the proposal of relocating to the relative safety of the other room. Just as Rarity was placing her hoof on the door handle, the sound of glass breaking rang out from somewhere nearby. Immediately following this loud crash was the sound of ponies screaming at the top of their lungs. Along with the sounds of ponies screaming, a myriad of unearthly and terrifying growls, roars, and screeches filled the air. The two mares froze in their tracks while listening to the terrifying noises outside. They could hear ponies running away and screaming even more. They could also hear several scuffling and thumping sounds that resembled some kind of foreign creature walking around. Feeling her anxiety and curiosity welling up inside of her, Rarity slowly opened the door up to get a peek at what was going on. Through the slit in the door, she could see several ponies running through the dark hallway outside, along with a few unicorns running by with their lights. One of the unicorn guards passing by paused and turned around to usher everyone else past him. He and everyone else passing through his bubble of light seemed to have a terrified look on their face. “Come on! Everyone move this way!” The guard instructed while motioning for the other ponies to move in the direction behind him. As a couple more ponies ran by the guard, he started using his horn to conjure blasts of energy which he pointed down the hallway. Rarity and Fluttershy couldn’t see what he was firing at, but whatever it was seemed to be the source of all the growls and roars they were hearing. Suddenly a black tendril shot out from the side and quickly wrapped around the guard’s front leg. Before he could even look down at his trapped appendage, the tendril pulled taught and sent the stallion to the floor. “No! No, no, noooo!” He yelled fearfully as the tendril dragged him backwards. He tried to pull away from it, but he didn’t seem to be able to make any progress. Before the two mares in the bathroom could even contemplate how to help the trapped unicorn, he was pulled out of sight and his screams died down. Rarity quickly and quietly closed the door. She looked over to her pegasus friend and shared a silent expression of shock and horror with her. The two listened anxiously as the sounds of ponies screaming grew more and more distant, while the sounds of growling and screeching came closer and closer. “We have to get out of here!” Fluttershy whispered in a panicked tone. “I know!” Rarity whispered back before turning her attention to the door. She quickly shushed the nervous pegasus before cutting off her light and slowly opening the door again, this time to just a crack. It was hard to see in pitch blackness, but the white mare didn’t dare to use her light. All she could do was wait silently and pray that whatever creature was lurking in the shadows couldn’t hear the sound of her heart beating rapidly. Suddenly, one of the sets of growling and footsteps came dangerously close. Before long, Rarity could make out the shape of something walking in front of the door. It was difficult to tell where the creature’s form started and ended, but she could just barely see its features. It appeared to be some kind of bird like creature. It had a long pointed beak and winged arms. It didn’t seem to have feathers like a normal bird, instead having only a large flap of skin attached to its twig-like arms to serve as wings. It had a thin body, with short legs that came to an end at talon clad feet with three toes. The creature appeared to be able to walk upright but instead chose to walk on all fours using its winged arms and similarly talon clad hands to locomote forward. Rarity had to forcibly stifle a fearful gasp by clasping her hoof over her mouth as the creature darted its head toward her and four glowing red slits opened on its head. The slits seemed to be the only thing on its head that looked like they served as eyes, so that was most likely what they were. The beast paused for a moment and looked around as if searching for its next victim. It didn’t seem to notice the unicorn or her friend, despite being mere inches away from their hiding spot. It opened its beak and let out a short and shrill cry that resembled what the two ponies imagined a supernatural bird of prey would sound like. After a few more ear piercing outbursts, the monster turned its head to look in the direction of the room that the two mares were in again. It tilted its head curiously, seemingly paying more attention this time. Rarity closed the door as quickly as she could without making noise and put her back against it. The two mares could practically hear their hearts pounding against the inner walls of their chests. With how loud the thumping seemed in their ears, they were certain that the beast outside could hear it. For the next tensest set of seconds in their lives, the pair listened for any signs that the creature knew where they were. Thankfully, they heard the soft pitter patter of the creature’s small feet as it walked away from the door. Once it had gotten far enough away that they couldn’t hear it anymore, the two let out a quiet sigh of relief. “What was that thing? It looked like a shadow creature... but it wasn’t anything like normal darklings.” Fluttershy stated while thinking back to the stronger variant of the shadow creatures she saw a couple of nights ago. If there were different variants of darklings, then perhaps there were different types of shadow creatures altogether. “It kind of looked like those things that brown pegasus summoned over at the library… Does that mean that they are still here?” Rarity hypothesized while thinking about why the two ponies would stay. “I’ll bet they have a pictogram outside feeding off of our fear right now… and I’m sorry to say, but it is working.” Fluttershy said nervously while taking note of her own feeling of terror. “Well, whatever is going on… we need to get out of here somehow.” Rarity replied anxiously while turning to face the door. Just before she was considering opening it again, she heard another low growl directly outside as another unknown creature passed by the door. The two mares looked at each other nervously. They had both come to the same startling revelation at the same time. They were stuck in a pitch black guard station filled with monsters, and they had no way of exiting the small room they were in without running the risk of getting ripped to shreds by the beasts waiting just outside. Chapter 68: Running ScaredAfter the growls and shrieks of the mysterious creatures outside had died out, Rarity and Fluttershy were left in utter silence. The two didn’t speak much out of fear, and when they did speak they only raised their voices to a low whisper, forcing them to huddle close together just to communicate with each other. It was a good thing that they were right next to each other anyway. Without the reassuring sound of breathing and the warm feeling of their bodies touching, the two mares might have gone crazy from how stressful the situation was. It was pitch black in the already eerie bathroom. Although the dark and cold atmosphere was wreaking havoc on their imaginations and nerves, the two ponies were deathly afraid to do anything to give away their position. Even the smallest light might have shattered their already fragile bubble of false security. Finally, after waiting in darkness for the longest time, Rarity lit up her horn to cast a dim light into the room. It was small enough to be discreet, but bright enough for the pair to see each other and a little bit of the room around them. “Are you sure you should have a light on?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous whisper. “I can’t stand sitting in the dark any longer… my nerves are tense enough as is. I don’t need any irrational fears adding onto the rational ones I already have.” Rarity replied in a disheartened tone. At this rate, she was wondering if she would ever leave this room alive. “Ok… I can’t blame you there. I just hope that they don’t find us.” Fluttershy fretted with nervous optimism. She was glad that the room wasn’t pitch black anymore, but she also feared that the light would attract unwanted attention. “I’m afraid that it’s only a matter of time before we’re found out… we need to get out of here somehow.” Rarity said anxiously. The thought of leaving their sanctuary terrified the yellow pegasus. “Maybe we should wait here? I’m sure that the others will find us soon…” Fluttershy said with a slight twinge of doubt filling her mind. She hoped that they would be found by their friends before they were found by whatever monsters had broken into the station, but she knew that this was wishful thinking. “M-maybe you’re right…” Rarity replied nervously while reconsidering the idea of going outside. She wanted to be brave enough to just waltz out of the bathroom and sneak through the station, but the white mare lacked the ability to sneak around deadly creatures while remaining calm enough to make rational decisions. Seeing her friend giving up on their only plan of escape made Fluttershy sigh sadly. It wasn’t so much that the unicorn had chickened out. She herself was scared out of her wits after all. It was the fact that neither of them was capable of coming up with a valid exit strategy that didn’t involve them endangering their lives. The more she thought about their lack of a plan, the more the timid pegasus thought about the probability of them dying in this dark bathroom. As she pictured her friends only being able to find her dead body strewn across the floor, Fluttershy began to tear up. “*Sob*… *hic*…” Despite her best efforts to suppress her feelings of sadness, the yellow mare couldn’t stop herself from crying slightly. Rarity glanced over to her weeping friend. She was trying her hardest to stay quiet, but it was almost impossible to stifle her sobbing. Even her breathing was shaking from how distraught she had become. The white unicorn felt bad knowing that her friend was in so much distress. “What’s wrong?” Rarity asked sympathetically. The yellow mare wiped her eyes and tried her best to stop her trembling voice. “What if… *sniff* W-what if we don’t make it out of here?” Fluttershy asked in a distressed tone of voice. The white mare was unsure of how to comfort the sobbing pony. She felt just as hopeless as the pegasus did, she was only handling it slightly better. Still, she had to think of some way to reassure the yellow mare. She wouldn’t feel like a good friend if she didn’t. “Hey… don’t think about things like that.” Rarity said in a soft tone while wrapping a foreleg around the distraught pony and pulling her closer. Fluttershy wept for a while longer before ceasing her outbursts to a few sniffles as she allowed the unicorn to hug her gingerly. “We’re going to be fine. You have me to look out for you, and I’m not going anywhere without you.” Rarity stated with a confident smile. Fluttershy looked up at her friend while getting the last few sobs out of her system. She felt much better knowing that the unicorn was going to be with her during this time of crisis. If she were alone, she would probably break down and cry in the fetal position off in a corner, but she felt a lot more confident with a friend nearby. “T-thanks Rarity… I don’t know what I would do without you here.” Fluttershy said while managing a slight smile. Seeing the yellow mare’s spirits lifting made the white mare happier by extension. “Of course darling... I’m just glad that both of us came here together. I shudder to think of what would have happened if only one of us ran down here and got stuck by themselves.” Rarity added in a relieved tone. Although she would rather the yellow mare be safe and sound with the others, she was glad that she wasn’t alone. “Now all we need to do is wait until the oth-” Rarity started to speak up when she was interrupted by a sizable pounding on the door they were up against. Along with this jarring thud, a few animalistic growls rang out from right outside. The two ponies froze up in fear and became dead silent. Rarity shut off her light and braced herself against the door with her pegasus companion. Although the creature outside seemed to be only curiously slamming against the door rather than fighting to get in, it was still strong enough to warrant the ponies holding the door closed. Soon enough, the growling shifted to sniffing. Whatever was on the other side of the door seemed to be looking for signs of life inside of the closed off room, even if it could probably just barge right in with enough effort. Rarity could feel the cold sensation of the monster’s breath through the seam in the door. She cringed fearfully as she expected the creature to discover their presence through smell alone. The two were clenching their teeth so hard that they were afraid of them breaking. Rarity glanced around nervously, while Fluttershy kept her eyes closed. She couldn’t handle pitch blackness on top of a monster being right outside, so she kept her eyes closed and waited in the relatively more comfortable darkness of her own eyelids. Finally, the creature let out a dissatisfied growl and moved away from the door. The pair could hear loud thuds as whatever monster was just behind the door walked away slowly. Judging from the sound of its footsteps, the two estimated that the beast was large. Letting out a sigh of relief, the ponies leaned back against the door in a more comfortable position. Rarity lit her horn up again while being careful to not make it too bright. Now that the danger had passed, the relatively safe atmosphere they had grown accustomed to returned to the bathroom. Rarity then turned to her yellow partner with a more anxious expression. She knew that they were getting extremely lucky with not being found out and that their luck was most likely going to run out at the worst possible moment. “We need to get out of here… we can’t just stay here and let them come to us. If they get in, we’re goners I’m afraid.” Rarity stated nervously. She hated to be so blunt, especially to the timid pegasus, but it was the truth after all. The bathroom they were in had no windows and no other way out other than the door. Fluttershy gulped nervously. She agreed with the white mare, but the mere thought of going outside sent a series of cold chills up and down her spine. Finally, she nodded slowly in agreement with her friend’s plan of action. “Ok… I’m with you.” Fluttershy said apprehensively. She didn’t like the idea very much, but she didn’t like the fact that she was essentially in a dead end either. If she didn’t leave soon, this dead end would stop being figurative and start being very literal. “Just stay behind me, and keep close and quiet. We don’t want to attract any of them if possible… and we certainly don’t want to attract fifty of them if we’re just running from one.” Rarity said in a calm tone. She wanted to get all of the planning out of the way when she was thinking straight and not terrified out of her mind. “What are we going to do? Are we just going to head back to the others?” Fluttershy asked curiously. She wanted to be sure of what was going to happen when that door opened. “That’s the plan… but if we can’t do that, we’re just going to try to stay hidden from whatever those things are until someone finds us.” Rarity replied. “Ok…” Fluttershy said while mentally and physically preparing herself for what was to come. She took in a few deep breaths while getting up and walking behind the unicorn as she huddled near the door handle. However, the more the yellow mare watched her friend getting ready to open the door, the more anxious she became. The mere thought of wandering around pitch black corridors with terrifying monsters lurking around every corner made her whine softly. “Wait a minute!” Fluttershy stated frantically to halt the unicorn’s progress in opening the door. “What?” Rarity asked curiously while turning to see what had spooked her companion. “What if they can see in the dark…? They are shadow creatures after all… maybe we should just use the light.” Fluttershy suggested anxiously. She hated the idea of the monsters being able to see her when she couldn’t see them. “Good thinking…” Rarity said while thinking further about the issue. The strange bird creature most likely didn’t find them earlier because the white mare only opened the door to a small crack, and even then she recoiled so most of her body was concealed. “Ok, we can use my light. They probably would be able to see us anyway. I’ll just turn it off when we hide… they might be able to see us in the dark, but they can probably still tell if a light is coming from any hiding spot we pick.” Rarity resolved while lighting up her horn. Satisfied that she would be able to see where she was going, Fluttershy patiently waited while the white mare gathered the courage to open the door. Slowly but surely, Rarity pulled down the handle and opened the door. As she expected, the hallway was pitch black and quiet. All of the ponies in the area seemed to have relocated to another location. At least the two mares hoped they made it to another location. The pair quietly exited the bathroom and slowly closed the door behind them. Now that there was no turning back, they moved forward anxiously and hoped that they could avoid any of the creatures roaming around. Darting their eyes around to scan their surroundings, the two inched along the hallway while keeping low to the floor and using the walls as cover. Every open door or intersection they passed made them pause fearfully to look around. They felt so exposed and defenseless, half expecting a monster to be waiting around every corner they came across. “Are we going the right way?” Fluttershy whispered anxiously. They hadn’t made many turns in their rush to the bathroom, but it was almost impossible to find their way around the already foreign building in relative darkness. “Yeah… I think so.” Rarity replied with slight hesitation. She hoped that she hadn’t been leading them astray all of this time, but she was fairly confident in her recollection of the path they took to get to this part of the station. Although they were essentially walking through empty hallways and open areas, they felt as tense and nervous as they did back in the bathroom. The eerie silence around them was what was affecting them the most. The two mares didn’t even hear the distant sound of ponies or the grunts and growls of the creatures they had expected since their journey began. “Where is everyone?” Fluttershy thought out loud while glancing around. They weren’t finding any signs that there had been any struggles in the hallways. As morbid as the thought was, she at least expected to find a few bloodstains, or even a dead body or two. The only indication they could see that ponies had even been through the area was a few chairs spun around and a few papers and cups knocked over on desks and tables. “I think that most of them must have gotten away… they did have a little bit of forewarning after all.” Rarity replied. The unicorn did feel scared and relatively alone with the lack of activity around her, but she was glad that most of the ponies in the building had apparently run to safety. “Good… I hope that the others are alright.” Fluttershy fretted nervously. “I’m sure they’re a lot safer than we are with Tom, the princess, and Brimstoke’s team. Not to mention all the guards that were in the room when we left.” Rarity added in a reassuring tone. With the reaffirmed confidence that their friends were safe, the two ponies continued on their path. They had to reach safety, for their sakes, and the sakes of their friends and family. The thought of being in a safe place drove them onwards, thankfully they didn’t have much farther to go. “We should be there soon… I think the room is just down this hallway.” Rarity announced happily. Fluttershy smiled eagerly at their miraculous progress. At this rate, they wouldn’t have to see any of the horrific creatures waiting in the dark. With spirits raised higher than they had been since the power went out, the two mares hurried as fast as they could while remaining silent. They couldn’t wait to burst through the door and into the room to be greeted by the happy faces of their friends. *Grrrrrrrrrr* Suddenly, a low and guttural growl erupted from the hallway in front of the pair. They slowed down and paused for a moment, unsure of what they had just heard. The noise was so low-pitched and quiet that it was questionable whether it was real or a figment of their imaginations. “D-d-did you hear t-that?” Fluttershy stammered fearfully while scanning the blackness ahead with wide eyes. “I was hoping that I imagined it… but if you heard it too…” Rarity said with a feeling of dread slowly filling her stomach. She started feeling the sickness from before returning due to the stress her body was going through. *Grrrrrrrrrr* The noise came again, only this time it sounded much closer. Along with the growling sound, the ponies could hear the sound of something dragging along the ground. As the terrifying noises drew nearer and nearer, the two could almost swear that they could see something moving low to the ground just past the edge of their bubble of light. Rarity and Fluttershy both cowered with their heads low to the ground. They were trembling slightly as the noise drew closer and closer. They could practically see themselves getting eaten alive by whatever horrific abomination was heading their way. Before the anxious mares could contemplate turning around and running, they suddenly saw a long black shape jutting into the light. As the odd creature moved forward, its entire body came into view. Whatever it was seemed to have a serpent-esc body, but its head was far from belonging to any serpent they had ever seen. Its head and mouth were elongated, tapering off to a slightly thinner snout. Its mouth was full of needle-thin teeth that jutted out around its closed jaw and overlapped in places. The entire thing resembled an alligator without legs, although it wasn’t missing appendages completely. At the front of what the ponies could loosely call the monster’s torso, two arms with clawed hands jutted out to the sides. One resembled a normal alligator leg, while the other was slightly larger and more deformed looking. The only way the creature was able to move was seemingly to use its mismatched arms to pull itself along. It also had the same sheen on its dark skin that other shadow creatures had, although its skin didn’t look like it was shifting around in place. Once it got all the way into the light, six red slits opened up along the creature’s head in two rows. Now that it could see the two animals in front of it, it opened its mouth and growled again. The low noise made the hair on the back of the pair’s necks stand up. Upon opening its mouth, the ponies could see that it had even more needle sized teeth all across the top and bottom of its mouth, even going past the slimy tongue that flickered back and forth at the back of its mouth. The beast seemed to be horribly disfigured as far as nature was concerned. The only purpose for its bizarre body and features seemed to be scaring the living daylights out of whatever came its way. “Gah!” Rarity yelped in fright while recoiling from the vicious looking monster in front of her. Every fiber in her body was telling her to run away screaming, but part of her thought that fleeing would enrage the monster to the point of it defying logic and outrunning her despite its handicapped appearance. “What is that?!” Fluttershy asked in a panic while stepping back to join her friend. The more the two mares stepped back, the more the creature slithered forward. “I don’t know! Maybe… maybe we could slip past it?” Rarity suggested nervously while observing the creature. As horrifying as it looked, it didn’t appear to be able to move fast. However slow it might have been, if it clamped onto one of them on their way past with its hundreds of teeth, there wouldn’t be any chance at breaking free. “I’m not sure if I want to…” Fluttershy stated while anxiously staring at the monster’s six red eyes. She somehow knew that if it was going to bite one of them, it was probably going to be her. “I’m not sure if we have a choice darling… the main room is just down the hall past that… thing.” Rarity replied in mild disgust while pointing past the slithering creature. Before the pair could even contemplate rushing past the beast on the floor, another distinctive growl sounded out from up ahead. Slowly, as if to instill as deep of a sense of terror as possible, several more red eyes of varying shapes and sizes opened up in the darkness ahead. The ponies couldn’t see what shapes the eyes belonged to, but judging from the horrifying choir of feral noises, there were a lot of them. “What the…?! Where did they come from?!” Fluttershy asked while frantically looking around at the wall of eyes staring at her. “Let’s not stick around to ask them… come on!” Rarity said while turning to run down the hallway to their right. Just as she was turning to face the hallway, she skidded to a halt when she saw another hair-raising sight down that way. The bird creature they had seen before was standing in the hallway. It was staring forward with its unblinking red slits while walking at a menacingly slow pace towards the two mares. Seeing that two of their escape routes were blocked off, the pair had no other choice but to pick the hallway on the left. “Run!” Rarity yelled to her yellow companion before rushing down the empty hallway. Fluttershy quickly followed her, making great efforts to outrun the crowd of monsters behind her. The pair could hear a few screeches and roars behind them, indicating that they were being followed by at least a few of the creatures. All hope of finding another way around to their friends had faded, now they were purely focused on escaping with their lives intact. After winding through some twists and turns in the hallway, the sounds of their pursuers started to die down. A quick glance behind her told Rarity that they had at least gained some breathing room in the chase. Spotting a closed door to their right, the unicorn skidded to a halt and turned to her pegasus friend. “Let’s hide in here.” Rarity suggested urgently. The yellow mare nodded in agreement, although the unicorn had already started opening the door without waiting for her opinion. Thankfully the handle turned and the door swung open. After quickly ducking inside, the two ponies closed the door behind them and breathed a sigh of relief. Now that they were relatively safe, they could actually examine their surroundings. The room they had abruptly chosen appeared to be a staff break room. There was a shelved area that held a microwave, a coffee machine, cups, cabinets, and anything else that a pony would need on a lunch break. There were also a few chairs and a couch through a small doorway that led into a slightly larger open area. The style of the room they had found themselves in made no difference to the two ponies. The primary issue to them was whether or not they were safe. With a silent expression of confirmation, the two mares resolved to search the room further before letting their guard down. Rarity locked the door behind her and started looking around behind every dark corner she could find. After a quick search of the small lunch area, the pair started making their way over to the doorway that led into the rest of the room. Nothing suspicious caught their eye as they walked into the rest area. Although it was dark, the room seemed like it could still be comfortable, even with the grim situation just outside. “I think we’re safe…” Fluttershy said in a relieved tone. “Yeah… assuming the door holds.” Rarity added with a nervous smile. Suddenly, the pair noticed a blur of movement come up from behind the couch. “Eek!” The two ponies yelped in fright and jumped back. They were surprised to hear the mysterious figure doing the same. When they took a look at their surprise visitor in the light, they quickly realized that it was another pony. The pony was an aqua blue earth pony mare with dark blue hair. Her cutie mark was a pinwheel comprised of different shades of blue. She seemed to be just as startled by the pair’s sudden outburst as they were by her sudden appearance. “You’re a pony?!” Rarity exclaimed while still recovering from the jolt to her system. “I know!” The blue mare replied while also dealing with the shock of the situation. Once the three had taken a moment to catch their breath and calm their racing hearts, they could address each other properly. “Sweet Celestia… I thought you guys were one of those things.” The mare stated in a relieved tone. Rarity and Fluttershy didn’t know how long she had been stuck in here, but she was certainly glad to see other ponies, and they couldn’t exactly blame her. They themselves were happy to see another living creature that wasn’t hideously deformed and trying to eat them. “Us too… I mean, you did kind of jump out at us.” Fluttershy said with a slight chuckle. She could still feel a slight twinge of lightheadedness from her sudden fight or flight response. “Heheh… sorry about that.” The blue pony said with an embarrassed expression while rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. “I was just too scared to move. I heard the door open and thought for sure that I was a goner, so I hid behind the couch.” She explained nervously. She still seemed to be shaken up from everything that was going on. “It’s ok… we were running from some of those things when we came in here, but I don’t think they know where we are… let’s just forget about scaring each other silly and start over. I’m Rarity, and this is my friend Fluttershy.” Rarity said in an attempt at breaking the ice with their newfound companion. Fluttershy smiled and nodded at the blue mare as her name was called. “Nice to meet you… I’m Cool Breeze.” The aqua pony greeted while offering the two mares a hoof shake. Now that they had been properly introduced, the ponies could return to the business at hand, which in this case was trying to survive the mind-numbing horrors that were waiting just outside their aptly named break room. “So… how long have you been in here Cool Breeze?” Rarity asked curiously while looking around at the room. It must have been terrifying for the earth pony to be without light of any kind in this situation. “Ever since the power went out I guess. I was in here before on my lunch break… I uh, I work here part time. Anyway, after the lights went out, I tried to leave to find out what was going on, but I ran into some of those… monsters I suppose would be the best way to describe them.” Cool Breeze explained with a nervous chuckle. “So you’ve been all by yourself in this place without a light?” Fluttershy asked with a sympathetic expression. She was appalled that anyone would have to go through such a terrible experience. “Yeah… I guess so. I left the door unlocked in case anyone else wanted to hide in here… I kind of figured that if one of those things was going to get in, it wouldn’t care if the door was locked or not.” The aqua mare stated in a sad tone while thinking about how hopeless her situation was. “Well… we thought the same thing essentially. We were in a bathroom for a while, but we decided to try and get somewhere safe rather than staying in a dead end room.” Rarity explained. “I assume that didn’t go as planned considering you ducked inside of a random dead end room.” Cool Breeze inferred. Judging from the frowns on their faces, she figured that she was right about the two mares’ escape plan failing. “You could say that… we were really close to getting into the main room with everyone else, but we ran into a lot of those things at the last minute.” Rarity stated in a disheartened tone. “I’m not even sure if we can get back there anymore Rarity… I think those things will be at every entrance trying to get in themselves.” Fluttershy said with a defeated sigh. “Well if you’re trying to get somewhere safe, I think you should try the equipment room next.” The blue mare suggested in a confident manner. “What…?” Rarity asked in a confused tone. She knew little to nothing about the station, so it was no surprise that she had no idea what her new companion was talking about. “The equipment room… you know, where they keep the equipment. Everything from swords to spare armor is kept in there, and I will wager that that’s where most of the guards and staff would head to in a situation like this. Other than wherever the princess is, it’s probably the safest room in this entire building.” Cool Breeze explained with a hopeful tone. Just thinking about the possibility of safety filled the three ponies’ hearts with joy. “That sounds like a great idea. We should get going right away!” Fluttershy suggested eagerly. Cool Breeze seemed a little unnerved by the yellow mare’s statement. “W-we? What do you mean we?” The aqua pony asked nervously. “We can’t get there by ourselves… you’re the only one who knows where it is. Besides, we can’t stay here for very long… those things will find us eventually.” Rarity explained. Once she figured out what the two ponies meant, the blue mare became very anxious and fearful about the prospect of leaving her sanctuary. “I… I-I can’t go. I’m staying right here.” She said while cowering behind the couch. “What? You can’t be serious! If you stay here and they get in, there will be nowhere to go!” Rarity stated in an attempt at reasoning with the fearful pony. Cool Breeze seemed to be startled by her proposal, but she also seemed unwilling to go outside still. “But… I don’t want to go. I know that it’s safer in here than it is out there… what if we run into one of those things?” She said nervously. Fluttershy walked over to the other side of the couch and leveled with the frightened mare. “Look… I know you’re scared right now. I’m scared too… I’m probably more scared right now than both of you combined, but we can’t just sit here and wait for those things to find us. I would rather try to make a run towards safety rather than waiting and hoping the storm passes over me without incident. Besides, we’ll be with you every step of the way.” Fluttershy stated in a reassuring tone. The yellow mare and her unicorn friend waited anxiously while the aqua pony thought about the issue further. Finally, she shrugged in defeat before nodding slowly. “Alright, I’ll go.” Cool Breeze said with a slight hint of nervousness still in her voice. “Great! I’m sure we’ll be safely waiting for the others to deal with this mess before we know it!” Fluttershy added eagerly. With their newfound friend in tow, the two mares walked back over to the lunch area and gathered by the door. After a quick check to see if any noises could be heard outside, the unicorn unlocked the door and slowly gripped the handle. “You guys ready?” Rarity asked in a more anxious tone. Now that they were actually about to go out into the dark hallways, the two mares’ confidence and bravery both plummeted at the same time. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze nodded slowly with nervous expressions. With their vote of empty confidence, the unicorn opened the door and poked her head outside to check the surrounding area. Satisfied with her search, Rarity walked out and silently motioned for her two friends to follow her. Once everyone was out of the room, she quietly closed the door and turned to the aqua pony. Rarity knew that she would probably not like the idea of being the group leader, but the white mare and her friend knew absolutely nothing about where to go next. “Which way is it?” Rarity whispered quietly while looking around at their choices of travel. There were the obvious choices of the two directions leading down the hallway, but there were also a few open areas and rooms they could cut through if needed. “Follow me… but please stay close.” Cool Breeze pleaded anxiously while stepping off to one side. She then slowly walked through one of the openings into another room. Fluttershy and Rarity stayed right beside her as she snaked through the room and came out into another hallway. The trio followed this hallway while diligently paying attention to their surroundings for odd noises or sights. After following the aqua pony through the station for a good while, the two mares were beginning to wonder if their leader had gotten them lost. The station was fairly large, but it shouldn’t have taken this long to get from one side to the other, even with deadly creatures around every corner. “Are we almost there?” Fluttershy asked while glancing around uneasily. She knew that it was only a matter of time before they ran into another creature of some sort. “Yeah… the equipment room should be at the end of this hall.” Cool Breeze replied. The news that they were close to safety made the two ponies smile cheerfully. Before they could celebrate their near victory, the ponies started to hear a noise up ahead. It sounded like a quiet scuttling noise coming from somewhere above the trio. The closer the noise got, the more concerned the ponies became. “W-what is that?” Cool Breeze asked while darting her eyes around nervously. There wasn’t any indication of movement around them, but that didn’t stop the ponies’ imaginations from taking over and picturing what was making the noise. “I don’t know… keep your eyes open.” Rarity replied. Considering their current situation, nothing good could be making that sound. The three turned around and backed up while looking behind them. It was hard to tell where the noise was coming from now, but they still couldn’t see anything around them. Suddenly, a blur of movement caught Rarity’s eye. As she slowly looked up, the unicorn was greeted with a sight that stunned her into silence. On the ceiling above them, there was a black shape wriggling around. It had a circular body, with four black tendrils coming off of it, anchoring it to the ceiling and giving it a somewhat symmetrical and spider-like appearance. There were small white dots scattered along its body, giving it a little bit of color to contrast against its otherwise black body. “Ack!” Rarity yelped in surprise and jumped back away from the strange creature. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze looked up to see what had startled the unicorn, only to widen their eyes in shock at what they found. “What is that?!” The aqua pony asked in a panic while backing up and staring at the creature hanging above her. Just watching it wriggling its tentacles around gave her a primal feeling of disgust and fear that anyone would associate with a spider or other insect. Suddenly two of the creature’s tentacles unhooked from the ceiling, causing its entire body to hang down and exposing its previously unseen underside. As opposed to its relatively featureless top half, the creature had a gaping hole in its center that most likely served as a mouth. Inside of the mouth was a circular row of sharp teeth that seemed to pulsate up and down excitedly. Outside of its mouth, there were four protruding appendages topped with a sharp end that resembled some horrific combination of a spider’s legs and fangs. The sight of the hideous creature, along with its sudden and erratic movement made the ponies freeze in terror. Every muscle in their bodies tensed up in fright and their pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. The only thing keeping them from screaming out in terror was the initial shock of the creature hanging down. Just as suddenly as it hung down, the other two tendrils unhooked from the ceiling and the entire creature dropped down onto the floor with a plop. The ponies backed up in a desperate attempt at gaining distance from the terrifying monster. Before anyone could react further, the creature somehow jumped forward and latched one of its tentacles onto Cool Breeze’s front leg. “AHH!” The aqua mare screamed while pulling back as hard as she could. The only thing her pulling accomplished was bringing the rest of the creature closer to her. “Breeze!” Rarity and Fluttershy yelled frantically as they watched the aqua pony struggling to get her leg free of the beast’s tendrils. As she tried to push the monster off of her, it reared upwards and tried to pull the pony’s leg into its gaping mouth. The four appendages on its underside clawed at her leg, scratching her slightly with the sharp points on the ends. Fluttershy and Rarity immediately rushed to her side and grabbed her leg. There wasn’t very much they could do without grabbing the creature and pulling them apart, and there was no way either of them was touching that thing. Finally, Rarity wrapped her magic around the creature and picked it up. She pulled with all of her might in the other direction while Fluttershy pulled on Cool Breeze in an attempt at freeing her. After a lengthy struggle, the creature finally let go of the trapped pony. With the beast wriggling around in her magical aura, Rarity squealed in disgust and fright. Even holding onto it with her magic was making her skin crawl. Finally, the unicorn heaved loudly and tossed it as hard as she could down the hallway. The group heard a loud thud that signified the monster coming to a halt against solid ground. “Let’s get out of here!” Rarity exclaimed to her two companions. “Come on! We can go around through one of the rooms up here!” Cool Breeze stated while turning to run down the hallway to their left. Suddenly the aqua pony skidded to a halt and gasped in shock. Down the very hallway that held their escape, there were several red eyes staring back at them from the distant darkness. With a loud roar, a black shape lunged out into the light and went straight for the ponies. Judging from its furry appearance and large tooth filled mouth, the two ponies guessed the beast to be a darkling. Although it was nice to see a monster they recognized, it was still terrifying as it bolted straight for them with its mouth wide open. Suddenly, a bolt of energy flew at the shadow creature and sent it hurtling backwards. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze looked to Rarity as the source of the blast, but she herself was confused as to where the bolt came from. “This way!” The trio heard a voice come from behind them. They turned to see a unicorn clad in royal guard armor waving them in his direction. Thankful that they had been saved, the mares smiled and immediately ran to follow the guard pony down the hall where they came from. “Where are we going?” Cool Breeze asked while running alongside the brown unicorn. Before the guard could answer, an uproar of growls and roars broke out from the side and up ahead. The ponies looked to their side to see an army of black shapes running at them from every hallway they passed. “We have a safe area set up in the basement! We need to get down there before these things box us in!” The guard stated while keeping his attention forward. Cool Breeze knew that there was a stairway that led to the basement right down this hallway, but she passed it earlier due to her original plan. Suddenly, a loud and rumbling growl rang out from the side. The group turned to see the source of the noise, only to be greeted with one of the largest black shapes they had seen thus far. A hulking bipedal monster with long arms and a single red eye in the center of its torso was standing in the adjacent hall with something in its hand. Before the group could process what the monster was doing, it hurled its arm forward and released its held object. With a blur of movement, what appeared to be a chair flew at the group of fleeing ponies. The four quickly realized that the flying projectile was sailing straight towards them. “AH!” Rarity screamed and tried to move out of the way as she realized the chair was heading straight for her. Despite her efforts at evading the object, the chair flew into her and smacked into her head. The unicorn was knocked off of her feet and rolled until she hit the wall. The others stopped in their tracks and turned around to face their fallen comrade. The white mare seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the strike, as she wasn’t moving by the time everyone turned around. “Rarity!” Fluttershy yelled frantically while staring at her injured friend. She could see a horde of red eyes in the hallway behind her, rapidly approaching the unconscious pony on the floor. Without wasting any time, the unicorn guard lit up his horn and wrapped his magic around the white mare. He then quickly picked her up and placed her on his back. “Come on, let’s go!” He instructed to the two ponies while running forward. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze quickly followed the brown unicorn while he carried their friend on his back. The group ran down the hallway as fast as they could to reach the stairs that would lead them to safety. Chapter 69: Safety in Numbers-A few minutes earlier- As the ponies watched their human friend leave the room, their minds were racing with questions and fears that they were unsure of how to deal with. What was going on? Why did the hooded ponies kill one of their agents? And the one that was directly at the front of the group’s cloudy minds, what was lurking inside of the station just outside their safe haven? “What do we do now?” Glitterball asked in an uncertain tone while glancing around at her teammates and the various guards scattered around the room. In response to her question, Fireside turned around to face the majority of the group. “You heard the man… let’s get this room secured.” Fireside stated confidently while looking around to tally how many guards he had to work with. His confidence all but disappeared once he realized just how many unicorns he had under his command. Counting the princess, Twilight, and Glitterball, there were only a handful of magic users in the entire room. “*Sigh*… Alright, listen up. We need to get those windows covered right away. I want at least one unicorn to get on those windows and put a magic barrier up. As for the rest of you, go and watch the doors.” Fireside instructed to his band of eagerly listening soldiers. All of the guards offered a quick nod and a salute before rushing off to accomplish their given task. The others watched as the guards scrambled around the room to find their posts. The brown unicorns all rushed up to a vacant window and lit up their horns to place a force field on them. All of the earth ponies rushed over to a door and stood in front of it to watch over it diligently. By the time all of the ponies had settled, there was one unicorn on every window, and two guards watching each of the three doors out of the room. Now that all of the entrances to the room were being protected, the ponies felt a little safer and more comfortable. Many of them relaxed their tense nerves and started walking around a bit more, although nobody went anywhere near the doors or windows still. “Ok, now that we have a temporary safe area we need to think about what we’re going to do.” Fireside stated while turning to face the rest of the group. “What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “I think he means that we need to find a way past the dark matter trapping us here.” Luna spoke up while taking a look out of one of the far off windows at the pitch blackness outside. “Yeah… that is a good question. What are we going to do? Tom barely managed to get us out of that cave, and the stuff that attacked us there was scared off by the sun.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone while glancing over to her two remaining friends. Although their situation was similar to what happened in the cave, the pegasus felt even more concerned now that more people were involved. “I’m sure we can find a spell to fend it off ourselves… but if we can’t do anything from in here, there is still no need to worry.” Luna said confidently. Everyone looked at her with mild confusion as they wondered how she could have such an unwavering spirit in a situation like this. “And why is that? I don’t want to be the negative one in the group, but we’re being held against our will in a building by some ponies with the full intention of killing us. That is a pretty good reason to worry in my books.” Glitterball spoke up to voice the group’s concerns. “My sister said that she was going out to gather supplies. She will be back for us later, and when she sees what is happening, she will get us out of here. And that will only be necessary if we can’t escape by ourselves.” Luna explained with an optimistic smile, hearing that the white alicorn would be returning filled the group with confidence and put their minds at ease. “That’s great! We might get out of here in time for lunch!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly. As the pink mare reveled at the thought of freedom, everyone else in the room smiled at the thought themselves, everyone except for one person that is. While everyone else was chatting with each other happily, Twilight was sitting off to the side with a downcast look on her face. She was still coping with what had happened just a few minutes ago in the interrogation room. Despite her best efforts at wiping it off, she still had numerous droplets of Cotton Quill’s blood splattered across her fur coat and hair. Although the blood had cooled by now, the unicorn could still feel the warm sensation of it splashing onto her as it gushed out of the dying pony’s neck. She had been covered in blood before on numerous occasions, but that blood had been her own up until now. Now she had someone else’s blood covering her, which was an entirely different and more horrific experience, especially considering that she had witnessed the white stallion’s death. It wasn’t just the blood on her that was bothering the purple mare, it was the mere fact that everything happened so quickly. It was almost a cursory thought for the hooded ponies to murder one of their own, like he didn’t even matter to them as a living creature. Twilight had gotten to know Cotton Quill in their brief conversation far more than his colleagues had gotten to know him in his entire involvement with them. After all that had happened, the thing that was bothering her the most was the fact that Cotton had opened up to her. He trusted her, not only to be able to keep him safe but to be able to receive his secrets and to be able to listen to him when he felt that no one else could. There was a reason that the unicorn had divulged his knowledge to the purple mare instead of everyone else. He felt like she had connected with him, and that she truly believed that he was good natured at heart, a connection that he had never felt before, and one that should have been a stepping stone towards a better life rather than the end of his life altogether. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked over to the gloomy unicorn off to the side and immediately shifted their happy smiles into concerned expressions. They had all but forgotten what she had just been through. They were trying to forget the entire experience themselves, but it never occurred to them that their purple friend was too heavily scarred by the experience to forget about it. “Are you ok Twilight?” Pinkie asked in a soft tone while sitting down in front of the unicorn to get at eye level. The purple mare looked up at the concerned ponies around her before shifting her eyes away uncomfortably. “Yeah…” Twilight replied in a dull, almost emotionless tone. It was obvious that she didn’t put any sort of actual meaning into her response. “Are you sure?” Pinkie asked again with a suspicious inflection in her voice. Twilight looked up again to see her friends with understanding expressions of sympathy on their faces. It was killing her to have to come up with a valid response, but she didn’t want to leave her friends in the dark. They were only doing for her what she would do for them if their roles were flipped after all. “*Sigh*… No… I guess not.” Twilight muttered in a gloomy tone. The pink mare placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder while offering a sympathetic expression. “It’s ok to feel the way you do considering what just happened… We’re here for you if you need us.” Pinkie stated in a reassuring manner. Twilight looked up again and glanced between the two mares. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement with the pink pony’s statement while smiling warmly. Seeing her two friends offering so much compassion to her forced the unicorn to smile briefly before shifting back to a more neutral expression. “Thanks, guys… it means a lot to know that you’ve got my back… but I think I just need some time to process my emotions right now.” Twilight said with a genuine smile on her face. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash nodded understandingly before letting the unicorn return to her thoughts. They went back to chatting amongst themselves while keeping an eye on their friend whenever they could. Before the ponies could settle down in their relative safety, they suddenly heard a commotion coming from outside the door off to the side of the room. The two guards backed up and listened closely for any signs of what was coming their way. Just as everyone was getting tensed up, they started to hear the sounds of ponies running and yelling fearfully. “Let us in!” A muffled voice followed by a swift series of knocks all but eliminated the group’s doubts about what was outside. Without further delay, the two guards opened the doors and a small crowd of frantic civilians rushed into the room. A few more ponies rushed in along with them, with a couple of individuals lagging behind and desperately trying to catch up. As one last guard pony walked in while breathing heavily, he paused and turned to the two ponies watching the door. “I’m the last one…*Pant* close it.” He instructed while slowly walking inside. The two guards looked back out into the dark hallway to confirm his statement before closing the door again. Now that everyone was inside, Twilight and the others looked around to see how many ponies had joined their group. The majority of them were civilians, with only a couple of guards sprinkled in with them. All of them looked pale and terrified as if they had just run away from hell itself. “Lieutenant, what’s going on out there?” Fireside asked while walking up to the higher ranked guard that came in last. The stallion took a moment to catch his breath before looking up to the curious group looking at him for answers. “Sir… the entire station has been overrun. We barely got away before they started flooding in.” The guard explained in a frantic tone while still trying to calm himself down. “Overrun…? By what?” Fireside asked with a confused expression. Before the lieutenant could answer, another noise coming from the door at the far side of the room caught everyone’s attention. A loud banging rang out as something started pounding on the door that led to the station’s entrance. It sounded far more violent than anything a pony would be capable of. Following the thundering blows to the door, a number of disturbing growls and animalistic bleats made themselves known from the other side. “What in the name of…?” Fireside stated in shock while still processing what was going on. It didn’t take long to figure out that whatever had overrun the station was trying to break in. “Block that door!” The stallion instructed to the two guards standing by the door. They nodded quickly before turning to put their weight against the door. With a deafening crash, the door flew open and flung the two full grown stallions backwards with ease. All at once, the feral noises grew louder as everyone got a good and terrifying look at what had just barged its way inside. A veritable army of black shapes and red blurs was standing at the door and slowly walking inside. As the ponies glanced around at the horrific creatures, they started to identify several different types of red-eyed monsters as they tried to get in. The two guard ponies scrambled to get up and flee, but just before one of them could, a black shape leapt out from the crowd of monsters and landed on top of his body. The terrified stallion looked up to see a medium sized creature on top of him that resembled a monkey. It had a chimp shaped body, but the similarities to an actual chimp abruptly ended there. The creature had a mouth full of sharpened teeth complete with two longer fangs on the top and bottom rows. It had patches of thick blackened fur across its body, with shifting shadowy skin underneath. Its hands didn’t seem to serve any other function than to cut things, consisting of only a small sickle-shaped edge that was dangerously sharp. And to top off its horrific appearance, it also had the same glowing red eye slits that all of the other monsters had, but in greater number. The glowing lights were scattered all over its body at odd intervals and angles. “AHH!” The pinned guard screamed in terror as the creature on top of him prepared to strike him with its blade like extremities. The beast let out a screech that drowned out the stallion’s outcry as it raised its arm above its head. While everyone else recoiled in shock and terror, Brimstoke and his teammates leapt into action and reached for their weapons. Glitterball and Sunspot readied their strobes first and stepped forward while firing at the creatures trying to get in. As the bolts of light slammed into the monster on top of the guard, it screeched again and flew backwards with black smoke pouring off of its body. Spotting a chance to escape, the stallion quickly got up and rushed to the side to get away from the beasts. Meanwhile, the members of Spirit were charging forward in a desperate counter attack to push back the horde of shadow creatures. Brimstoke and the others frantically blasted at each of the advancing monsters until they fell back in line with the receding crowd. Soon enough, the horde was backing up so far that they went straight out of the room. “Glitter, seal the door!” Brimstoke instructed while rushing up to the door to better fend off the approaching creatures. “On it!” Glitterball replied while ducking to the side and reaching into her vest to prepare a physical barrier. While the remaining four ponies kept firing out of the door, the unicorn frantically scribbled on a slip of paper and placed it on the outside of the door. After a few more tense moments of preparing the second piece of paper, the charm was finally complete. “I got it, get back!” Glitterball stated while slapping the last piece of paper on the inside of the door. Brimstoke and the others backed up and continued firing while Glitterball closed the door. After it was closed, a wave of energy pulsed around the door and the writing on the piece of paper glowed red. A solid thump rang out as the creatures on the other side tried ramming into the door. Despite the jarring sound of their constant assault, the door remained steadfast as the charm protected it against the monsters banging into it. The group of ponies breathed a collective sigh of relief as they stepped away from the door and walked back over to the other side of the room. “Good work everyone.” Luna said while offering a relieved expression to the team of ponies. She was glad that nobody got hurt during the brief break in. The alicorn was just about to rush forward to assist in the counter attack herself before Brimstoke and his team leapt into the fray. “Good enough I suppose… We just put a Band-Aid on a more serious problem. That barrier isn’t going to last forever, and we can’t strengthen it without putting charms on the rest of the doors. We need to find a way out of here before any more of those things try breaking in.” Brimstoke explained uneasily while glancing behind him at the still rattling door. “No need to worry about that. My sister will be here soon enough. And if she can’t do anything, I have a solution in mind as well.” Luna said in a reassuring tone while looking around at some of the more nervous ponies in the room. “What is your idea… out of curiosity?” Twilight spoke up from beside the group. Everyone turned to look at the purple mare as she stood up and walked over to them. She might have still been emotionally affected by her traumatic experience, but she seemed well adjusted enough to function. “After what happened in the cave with all of you, I tried coming up with a few spells to better prepare us for anything the hooded ponies might throw at us. I didn’t have anything else to work off of back then, so I started with thinking of a dark matter repellent.” Luna explained with a confident smile. Hearing that the alicorn had a possible way to save them made everyone in the room brighten up a little bit. “You found a spell that will work on dark matter?” Glitterball chimed in curiously at the prospect of such a spell existing. “Well, not exactly... I had to get a bit creative.” Luna said while trying to think of a way to explain her idea in further detail. “I took an existing spell that can be used to combat negative energies and I amplified its power tenfold. It should work, but… it has a few drawbacks.” She trailed her eyes off apprehensively. The manner in which the alicorn said that made everyone uneasy again. “Drawbacks…? Like what?” Twilight asked nervously. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what kinks her only escape plan had. “It takes a long time to amplify the spell’s existing power… so it will need a lot of charging. And it needs to be cast from out in the open… where the dark matter is.” Luna explained in a disheartened manner. The more she thought about it, the more she doubted her plan and her ability to lead her companions to safety. “Well, it’s better than what we have at the moment… which is nothing.” Fireside spoke up in a reassuring tone. The amount of confidence in his voice and expression told that he absolutely believed in the princess. The blue alicorn was surprised to see someone still had confidence in her. “Alright… if we’re going to do this, there are some things we need to take into consideration.” Luna said in a more serious manner while looking around at the ponies in the room. “We’re going to need a safe place to put everyone who will not be involved in our little escape attempt… It will be dangerous anyway, and on the off chance we fail I don’t want all of us to go down with the ship so to speak.” She explained uneasily. The mere thought of them failing and the grim consequences implied therein gave the princess a knot in her stomach. “We might want to better prepare ourselves as well. If the dark matter here is at all similar to the stuff we found in the cave, it will be spawning more of those shadow creatures.” Twilight interjected her thoughts on the matter. She was terrified when a few darklings came for her in the caves, so she couldn’t imagine what having the creatures she just saw moments ago coming after her would be like. “Aha!” Fireside exclaimed in sudden revelation. “We can go to the equipment room! It has weapons we can use, and it’s easily securable.” He stated eagerly. “Well, that’s one thing out of the way… now we just need to find a way to hold off the dark matter while we prepare the spell.” Luna shrugged uneasily as she thought about the monumental obstacle that the dark matter posed in and of itself. “We could have Tom hold it off like he did in the cave…” Rainbow Dash suggested while thinking back to her experience in the cave. “I’m not sure if that would be a good idea… I don’t want him to put too much strain on himself. He was exhausted after fighting the dark matter in the cave, and this stuff is even stronger.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. She knew that the human would doubtlessly volunteer for the task. She wasn’t sure if humans were usually so reckless, or if it was due to him being a slayer, but the boy was terribly inconsiderate of his own wellbeing. “I’m afraid that we might not have a choice in the matter… but I will try to think of another solution.” Luna said in a reassuring tone while offering a supportive hoof on the shoulder to the concerned unicorn. She didn’t like putting her friends into such harmful positions either, but desperate times did call for desperate measures after all. “In the meantime, we need to head down to this equipment room to prepare ourselves. I suggest that we take a group down there beforehand so that we know it is safe, and then we can come back for the others.” The princess stated while looking around at the various ponies in the room with her. “Well if that’s the plan, then we need to keep some of us here to protect the room while the others are gone.” Brimstoke suggested while glancing to the civilians in the room. They would doubtlessly panic if the situation went bad, so they would have to be watched over by someone capable. “Sargent…” Luna spoke up in a serious tone. Fireside looked over to the princess and waited for her to address him again. “I need you to send one of your men with us while we make our way to the equipment room. We will leave two of Brimstoke’s team members here with you to help you defend the area.” Luna instructed. Fireside looked around to see which one of his men would be qualified to lead the princess and the others around the station. “Lieutenant, I need you to lead the princess down to the equipment room. Can you do that?” Fireside asked the high ranked guard that had entered the room with the civilian ponies before the creatures attacked. “Umm… y-yes sir!” The lieutenant hesitated for a moment before offering a salute and as confident of an answer as he could give. “Ok good…” Luna said in a pleased tone before turning her attention to Brimstoke and his team. “Brimstoke… I need you and Sunspot to stay here with Sargent Fireside to keep things safe.” She instructed while glancing over to the orange pegasus. “Aww… but why me?” Sunspot whined in annoyance. She then remembered who she was talking to and stiffened up. “Sorry… I mean, shouldn’t I be with you guys? You need all of the help you can get.” She suggested with a pleading expression. The princess smirked at the anxious pegasus. She could tell that she wanted to make sure that her friends were safe and to make sure that everyone made it out of this situation alive. “I know… but I also want one of our best people staying behind and watching the others.” Luna said in a complimentary manner. The pegasus couldn’t help but smile at the alicorn’s statement. “Really…? Umm… thanks.” Sunspot said with a bashful chuckle. She then shrugged as she realized that she would still have to stay behind and watch a room while her friends went out into the fray. “The rest of you should get ready to come with us. We will be heading out soon.” Luna said while glancing between the three ponies that would be coming with her. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, and Peppermint all prepared themselves physically and mentally for what they would be facing. “Umm… Princess?” Twilight spoke up hesitantly while walking up to the alicorn. “What is it Twilight?” Luna asked in a friendly manner while looking down at the timid unicorn. “Do you think that I could come with you…? You could use another unicorn with you… and I think it would be better if there were more of us.” Twilight asked coyly. She seemed to be hiding another motive for wanting to go on the dangerous trip. “We can manage with what we have Twilight… why would you want to endanger yourself like that?” Luna asked in a concerned tone. The unicorn shrugged as she was forced to come up with another reason to join the alicorn’s band of troops. “*Sigh*… I’m just worried about Rarity and Fluttershy. I was thinking that maybe we could find them on our way to the equipment room, so I wanted to help search.” Twilight explained with worry evident on her face. “Hmm… they have been missing for quite a while I suppose. I’m sure that Tom has already found them, but I will let you come along if you want.” Luna said with a small smirk. The purple mare smiled upon hearing that she could help in the search for her two friends. “Thank you, Princess.” Twilight said cheerfully. “Hey… you can’t just leave us here can you?” Rainbow Dash chimed in from the side. The two looked over to see the cyan pegasus standing next to Pinkie Pie and offering an eager expression. “If you’re going to look for Rarity and Fluttershy, we want to help.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking to her pink companion for confirmation. Pinkie grinned widely and offered an enthusiastic nod at the proposal. “Yeah, we need to help. I’m not about to leave my friends to wander around a monster-infested building. They must be scared silly… they need someone to cheer them up when we find them.” Pinkie suggested happily. Luna couldn’t help but admire the strength of the bond that Twilight and her friends shared. “Alright… but you have to promise me that you’ll be careful and stay close to us.” Luna said in a serious tone while offering a smirk. “Right.” Rainbow Dash replied with a nod. “Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie added while offering a playful salute. Somehow, the pink mare’s goofy expression removed all seriousness from the gesture. “Alright… head over to Glitterball and the others and grab some strobes. You will need them to protect yourselves.” Luna explained while pointing over to the vested ponies. With a collective nod, Twilight and her two friends walked over to the rainbow-haired unicorn and her two partners. They were still getting ready themselves, with each pony going over their own equipment over and over with somewhat varying degrees of nervousness plastered on each of their faces. The three ponies seemed to be too busy to notice the three eager mares standing in front of them patiently, or perhaps they were too preoccupied with their thoughts. Either way, they didn’t look like they were going to snap out of their daze anytime soon. “Ahem…” Twilight spoke up to get the attention of the three ponies. Glitterball and the others finally looked up and noticed the purple mare and her two friends. “Oh! Sorry… I guess we were a little spaced out there. What are you guys doing here?” Glitterball asked curiously. “The princess said that we can go along with you to the equipment room.” Twilight explained while glancing back at her two eager companions. The three vested ponies seemed surprised by her statement. “Uh… don’t you think that that would be too dangerous?” Glitterball asked while nudging Glimmer Shine for support. She wanted to do anything she could to make the three mares change their mind, even if it meant influencing her partners to back her up. “Yeah… I mean, you saw those things, didn’t you? There are probably a lot more out there.” Glimmer Shine stated in a semi-confident tone. It wasn’t hard to tell what the two ponies were trying to do. “I appreciate that you care for us enough to try and talk us out of this, but we’re going. The princess said that you should give us some of your spare strobes… just in case.” Twilight said while glancing between the three vested ponies. “Uh, let’s see here…” Glitterball muttered while rummaging around through one of her pockets. After coming up empty hooved, the unicorn turned around and forcibly started rifling through one of Glimmer Shine’s pockets. “Hey, what gives?!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in surprise. Glitterball finally grabbed the only strobe that the stallion had and pulled it out. She then turned to face Peppermint. “Here…” Peppermint stated with his spare strobe at the ready. Apparently, he was smart enough to grab it and pull it out before the unicorn invaded his personal bubble. “Aww… shoot. Looks like we only have two spares to go around.” Glitterball shrugged while glancing over to the other members of her team. They only had their main strobes on hand, and they needed them for themselves. “I guess we will have to make do with these.” Twilight stated while taking the two vials from the vested unicorn. “Here guys… I think you should take them.” She said while offering the strobes to her two friends. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were hesitant about accepting the weapons from the purple mare. “I don’t know Twilight… maybe you and Pinkie should take them? I’m sure that I’ll be fine.” Rainbow Dash suggested while holding out her arm for Twilight to take the strobe back. “Don’t worry guys. I have a way that all of you can protect yourselves effectively.” Glitterball explained with a cheerful smile. The others were confused by the unicorn’s statement. They had no idea what she could have thought of. “What did you have in mind?” Twilight asked curiously. In response, Glitterball reached into a pocket on her vest and brought out a slip of paper, and a feather quill and ink. Glitterball scribbled on the piece of paper for a moment before handing it to Twilight. After reading over the symbols on the paper a few times, the purple mare was surprised to see that she could recognize them. “These are…” Twilight muttered in thought while still trying to decipher the symbols in her head. “The instructive symbols for a spell.” Glitterball spoke up to complete the unicorn’s sentence. “I have been trying to find a way to use magic more proactively to fight, and I ran across something recently. I found a spell that projects positive energy into a ball and fires it at high speeds. It should work similarly to a strobe, but you can use it anytime.” She explained while pointing at the paper. Twilight lit up her horn and started reading over the spell to familiarize herself with it. “So… I can use this-” Twilight stated as she caught on to what the white mare’s plan was. “While Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie can use the strobes. That way everybody gets a weapon to use.” Glitterball explained with a smirk. “Alright, that sounds like a plan to me.” Twilight said while smiling widely as she finished reading over the spell and going over how to cast it in her head. With all of their equipment ready, the group had nothing more to do than to gather by the door and prepare themselves mentally for what they were about to face. “Is everyone ready?” The lieutenant asked with mild apprehension as he put a hoof on the door handle and looked back at the group behind him. Glitterball and her two teammates were mostly confident, although it was easy to see that they were slightly nervous, especially Peppermint. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie were all ready to go with their respective weapons at the ready. At the front of the group, Luna stood with a confident expression. “We’re as ready as we will ever be.” Luna stated while glancing back at the others behind her. Everyone gave a solemn nod as they readied themselves to exit the safety of the room. “Ok… everyone stay close and keep your eyes open. The equipment room isn’t that far, but who knows what we might run into out there.” The guard pony said nervously while turning his attention back to the door. With one swift pull, the door swung open, revealing the pitch blackness outside. Twilight, Glitterball, and Luna lit up their horns while Glimmer Shine and Peppermint turned on their flashlights in preparation. The ponies turned and gave a quick wave to their friends that would be staying behind. They then walked forward into the darkened hallways of the station. Although they couldn’t see any sign of the vicious beasts, they knew that they wouldn’t be alone for very long. Chapter 70: Risky Maneuvers“Ughh…” Rarity groaned softly as she drifted awake once again. Her eyelids felt heavy as if she had stayed up for a whole week. Due to her strong feeling of drowsiness, she could barely open her eyes more than a sliver. Her vision when she did manage to open her eyes was dim and unfocused. Her entire mind was a foggy haze, to the point where she couldn’t even remember where she was or what had happened. “Down here!” A voice rang out from nearby. Rarity could scarcely make out how far away it actually was, let alone what was said or by whom. Every noise around her was just as blurry as the sights she was taking in. She could faintly make out the steady clatter of numerous hooves falling against the floor rapidly. This, combined with the soft feeling of motion coming through her dulled nerves gave the unicorn the sense that she was moving somewhere, despite her inability to walk or even move of her own volition. She tried to lift her head and move her limbs, but she could hardly even elicit a twitch from them. Her entire body felt numb and uncomfortable. And although she was slowly coming to her senses, she could tell that she wouldn’t be getting up for a while. A loud clang rang out behind her, or at least she thought so. It was hard to tell what noises came from where, but Rarity gathered that a door had closed somewhere behind her. She felt the faint sense of movement stop suddenly. She then felt pressure on her back in two places as she was lowered onto what she presumed to be the floor. “Is she ok?!” Another blurry voice rang out from beside her, though this one sounded softer and slightly familiar. Thinking back to where she was beforehand brought only a hazy mess of memories to the unicorn. Rarity remembered running down a hallway with her friends when she was suddenly struck by something. Anything after the impact to her head was a blank. “Ughh…” Rarity groaned again. She was tired of being stuck in a drowsy haze like this. With every ounce of strength left in her, she focused on opening her eyes completely. After fighting the urge to close her eyes and pass out again, Rarity finally managed to make some progress. She still couldn’t fully open her eyes, but the image in front of her was focusing. All of the blurred lines from before were forming an understandable image, and that was enough for the unicorn. She could see four yellow legs in front of her, and two more brown ones off to the side. She figured that the yellow legs belonged to her friend Fluttershy, and the brown ones must have been the guard they were with. “I can’t say for certain right now. Just keep an eye on her for the moment… Hey, keep that door closed!” The male voice from before spoke again in a louder tone as if speaking across the room. The pair of brown legs walked out of view, leaving only Fluttershy in her field of vision. Suddenly, Rarity felt an overwhelming sense of tiredness come over her. She fought just to keep her eyes from closing any further. All of the progress she had made was fading away as her vision faded back into a blurred mess. Before all of the colors and lights melded together, Rarity could make out Fluttershy stepping closer to her. “Rarity…? Can you hear me? Everything’s going to be ok… please be ok.” Fluttershy presumably said in what seemed to be a concerned tone. It was hard to make out what the pegasus was saying as everything faded away. Rarity could practically hear the sound of her friend’s voice getting farther and farther away as her vision faded to black. Rarity became aware of her surroundings once more as she opened her eyes slowly. Her body was still numb, and noticeably colder than before, but she felt less tired than the last time she woke up. Taking a moment to focus her vision, she was greeted with nothing more than a gray cement floor. Feeling the rest of her body waking up along with her, the unicorn tried lifting her head again. This time she was able to get her muscles to contract, although she could still barely move. With some effort however, Rarity slowly moved her front legs beside her head and pushed with all of her might. As she gradually lifted her head up and opened her eyes further, she noticed the sight of her friend Fluttershy sitting in front of her while looking off to the side. She appeared to have a worried expression on her face. Although she was looking away, she was facing towards the unicorn, having apparently decided to watch over her while she was unconscious. “Hrrrk…” Rarity grunted softly as she felt herself over exerting her already numb muscles. Hearing the sound of her friend stirring, the pegasus looked back over and gasped in surprise. “Rarity!” Fluttershy cried out in cheerful excitement. She rushed forward and waited patiently while the unicorn rolled onto her side and sat up slowly. Once her spine could support her, Rarity fell forward into a hunched position and rested her head in her hooves. “Ughh… wh…what happened?” Rarity muttered in a tired stupor. She could barely create an understandable sentence, but she was too exhausted to care. “You got knocked out while we were running. We had to carry you with us.” Fluttershy explained with a worried tone while putting a gentle hoof on her friend’s back and staring at her with a concerned expression. “Where are we…? What about those creatures?” Rarity asked as she remembered what had happened before she was knocked unconscious. As she looked around, she noticed that she was in a fairly large room that appeared to be in the basement. The floor was cold and gray, the walls were cold and brown, and the entire area was generally cold and eerie as any basement usually was. The only lights in the room were a few candles placed around to light up the darkness. There were several dark areas and corners of the room that would doubtlessly offer a safe haven for any shadow creature. Rarity grew nervous as she looked at the darkness around her, but she trusted that her friends had found a safe place to rest in. Cool Breeze stood a ways away along with two other earth ponies, one being a pink mare with white hair, and the other being a tan stallion with brown hair. Both ponies were shivering in fear with a terrified expression on their faces. Cool Breeze herself seemed to be nervous as well, though she wasn’t shivering. Rarity wasn’t sure if the blue mare was braver than she thought, or the other two ponies were just more easily frightened by comparison. “We’re down in the basement. Apparently, that guard that saved us is part of a small group of survivors… they have a safe room set up here.” Fluttershy explained while taking another look at her surroundings. “Relatively safe…” A unicorn guard chimed in while walking over to the two. He walked up to Rarity and started examining her head for injuries. “How safe are we actually?” Rarity asked curiously. Even in her dazed state, she wanted to be as aware of her situation as possible. “We’ve barricaded the doors as best we could, but we can’t stay here forever. Let’s just worry about one thing at a time right now… like your health. How do you feel?” The guard asked while gently brushing back the unicorn’s hair to look for bruises or cuts. “Umm… I feel a little bit drowsy, and I’m pretty sure my head hurts.” Rarity replied while taking note of the slight throbbing feeling she had on one side of her head. “That’s normal… you did get hit pretty hard after all.” The guard explained in a reassuring tone while reaching for a small flashlight. He turned the light on and shined it in the white mare’s eyes one by one. Rarity did her best to keep her eyes open while her pupils shrank from exposure to the brightness. “Is she alright?” Fluttershy asked in a worried tone while watching the guard examining her friend anxiously. “I’m not going to lie… I think you have a concussion. You should try your best to keep still and rest.” The stallion stated in an uneasy tone. He then turned to Fluttershy with a more serious expression. “Keep an eye on her and make sure that she doesn’t fall asleep again.” The guard instructed in a clear yet calm manner. The yellow mare was shocked to hear that her friend was in such poor shape that she had to be monitored, but she was ready to help her in any way possible. “Ok.” Fluttershy said with a firm nod. The white mare couldn’t help but smile as the pegasus turned to her with a loving expression and scooted closer. “Thank you, Fluttershy.” Rarity said in a grateful tone. “Don’t worry about it. You just focus on resting up ok?” Fluttershy replied with a friendly smile. Rarity nodded in return while being careful to go slowly so she didn’t jostle her head too much. Before the guard could walk away, another stallion walked up to the group with a nervous expression. The pony was an earth pony guard in full gear, but he appeared to be much more anxious and uneasy than any guard the two mares had seen before. “Umm, s-sir… I uh… permission to speak sir?” He stammered nervously while trying his best to appear professional in front of the unicorn. “Go ahead.” The brown stallion replied with an understanding smile. “Well… umm, we can’t hear anything out there anymore sir. We think the creatures are gone.” The earth pony explained while glancing back to the door, over by the barricade stood another earth pony guard that was watching the others curiously. “They will be back eventually. We need to pack up and leave as soon as we can. The only place that can be reliably secured is the equipment room, so everyone else will probably be heading there.” The unicorn guard stated while deep in thought. He then looked up to face the other guard once again. “Get back to the door and keep watch. I’ll go make sure everyone is ready to move.” The unicorn instructed while glancing over to the door. The white stallion nodded before giving an eager, if slightly awkward, salute. “Yes, sir!” He said in an enthusiastic tone. He then trotted off to get back to his spot alongside the other guard by the door. The brown unicorn shrugged and shook his head slowly at the thought of leaving the safety of his current location. He then glanced over to Fluttershy and Rarity with a slight expression of concern. “I know it’s a little soon… but do you two think you’re up for moving on?” He asked while keeping a close eye on the white mare and observing her for any signs of her concussion kicking in. “Where are we going? The equipment room is upstairs, and there is probably an army of those things out there.” Rarity stated uneasily while glancing over to the door. She wasn’t conscious when she was brought to the room, but she figured that it wasn’t a good idea to be going back where they came from. “There is another staircase leading up that’s a lot closer to the equipment room. All we need to do is loop around the basement and make our way over to those stairs.” The brown unicorn explained in a reassuring manner. The two mares could tell that he was trying to make his plan sound more fool proof than it actually was. “But… what if we run into more of those monsters on that staircase?” Fluttershy asked nervously. Thoughts of the small group getting boxed in from both sides by hordes of vicious creatures flooded her mind and made her whine in fright. “Glad to hear that you’re thinking about the worst possible scenario. It’s a good thing to take into consideration when making a daring plan.” The guard praised with a lighthearted smirk before returning to a more serious expression. “As far as running into more of those things… sorry to say this, but I’m not a miracle worker. I’m only taking what I think is the best possible chance for our survival, but there are always risks in situations like these. All I can honestly say to you is that I will try my best to keep you safe.” He added in a sincere tone. “I appreciate your bravery, but I just want to make it clear that I don’t want to unnecessarily endanger myself or my friends Lieutenant.” Rarity said with a concerned expression. “Understood.” The stallion replied with a nod. He then turned around and walked off towards the other ponies gathered in the room. Now that the two mares were alone, they took a moment to rest. This was the first time in a while that they had been in a position to relax, even if it was only slightly. Fluttershy had been worrying about Rarity ever since they arrived in the basement, and before that, the two were concerned with running away from monsters. “*Sigh*” Rarity rubbed her temples while trying to shrug off the drowsy feeling she had. She felt like lying down and passing out, but she had to remain awake for fear of her well-being. “How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked while observing the tired unicorn. She could tell that she was having a hard time coping with her tense nerves and exhausted body, not to mention her possible concussion. “I’ve had better days.” Rarity replied with a brief smile. “I’m sure you’ve had worse too.” Fluttershy replied in a lighthearted tone. She wanted so badly to cheer up their situation, not only for her friend but for herself as well. Rarity laughed briefly before trailing off with a disheartened shrug. For a brief moment however, she had a genuine smile on her face. “I’m stuck in a basement surrounded on all sides by monsters, and I might have a concussion. Not to be the glass half empty type, but I can’t think of many experiences worse than this one.” Rarity stated with a sad expression. Probably the only thing keeping her from breaking down and crying is the thought of what effect it might have on her concussion. “Well… I… *Sigh*” Fluttershy muttered while trying to find a silver lining to their situation. “I suppose you’re right… but it could be worse.” She said while forcing a cheerful tone. Rarity looked up curiously at the yellow mare’s statement. “How so?” Rarity asked in a sincere manner. She didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings, but she honestly didn’t expect a good answer. “We still have each other. Imagine what would have happened if only one of us got sick and went to the bathroom. I would probably still be in there shivering in the corner if it was me.” Fluttershy stated lightheartedly. “Hmm… I never thought of it that way. I guess you’re right… I am glad that we’re together.” Rarity said with a warm smile gradually falling across her face. She leaned over and rested her head against the yellow mare’s shoulder, to which Fluttershy responded by placing her foreleg around the unicorn for a partial hug. The two ponies sat still for a moment while enjoying each other’s company. They might have been stranded in a monster-infested basement, but they were okay. Somehow, they knew that they would be alright if they stayed together. Overhearing some of the others talking, Fluttershy looked up. She noticed that the two earth ponies were talking amongst themselves off in the corner with the guards, while Cool Breeze was walking over to her and her friend. “Hey… how are you two doing?” Cool Breeze asked curiously while focusing on Rarity. She hadn’t checked up on the unicorn since she had woken up, but she was still concerned for her. “We’re doing alright. What’s going on over there?” Fluttershy said while looking over at the small crowd of ponies talking in the corner. “They are talking about moving out of this room and heading through the basement to get to the equipment room.” Cool Breeze replied with a hint of apprehension in her voice. It wasn’t hard to tell that she wasn’t a big fan of the idea of moving from the safe room. “How far away is the staircase that guard was talking about? Is it really that close to the equipment room?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “Yeah… it’s like right next to it. It is a fair distance away from where we are, though.” Cool Breeze explained while looking down nervously. She hated the thought of traveling through the basement. “I’m sure we’ll be fine…” Rarity said with a reassuring smile. “I hope…” She then turned away and muttered nervously to herself. She knew where the blue mare was coming from. She didn’t like the thought of moving either, but she had no other options. Cool Breeze frowned slightly at the unicorn’s confidence. She didn’t want to say it out loud for fear of jinxing herself, but she felt like something bad was going to happen if they stepped hoof out of the safety of their current location. Before the three mares could ponder about their situation any further, they noticed the brown unicorn and the other two guards walking over to them along with the other ponies in the room. “Are all of you ready?” The brown stallion asked while glancing between the three. After taking a brief look at each other to confirm their thoughts, the mares nodded hesitantly. “Good, let’s get moving then.” The guard stated confidently before walking over to the other door with his group. He seemed a lot more ready for the hardships ahead than what should have been possible. Rarity groaned as she got up slowly. Fluttershy waited nearby to offer her help, but the unicorn managed to get to her feet without any assistance. The three casually made their way over to the back door of the room and joined the others. “Ok everyone, listen up. We’re going to stay quiet once we get out there, and no matter what happens we stick together.” The lieutenant announced to the whole of the group. He then turned to the two earth pony guards with a serious expression. “I need you two to hang back and keep an eye on our rear and sides. Make sure everyone stays together and that nobody gets separated.” The unicorn instructed. The two stallions nodded anxiously at their given roles. “Y-yes sir!” The more timid guard replied with a quick salute. “At ease soldier… you don’t need to call me sir right now. Those things out there don’t care about what rank we are. We’re just ponies right now, and we will act as equals until we get out of here.” The brown pony said in an inspiring tone. The white stallion nodded once again in response. “Yes, sir… I mean, uh… yes.” He stated with a friendly smile. Now that their plan was in place, the ponies quickly got into formation for their journey. One of the two guards walked to the back of the group, while the other remained in the middle. Rarity and Fluttershy stood between the other three civilian ponies and waited for their leader to open the door. The brown unicorn grabbed the handle and turned to the group before slowly nodding and turning it. The hallway outside was as dark and foreboding as the ponies expected. Although nothing could be heard, that didn’t comfort them in the slightest. After taking a brief look down both sides of the corridor, the brown unicorn lit up his horn and cast his light out as far as it would go. “Everyone stay close.” He whispered while taking one last look at the group for confirmation. Everyone swallowed their fear before nodding slowly and following the guard out of their former safe haven. Everyone darted their eyes around anxiously while they walked out into the hallway. Every open doorway they passed was a possible threat, so everyone was on edge as they checked their surroundings. Once their rear was relatively secured, the ponies turned their attention forward while letting the guard at the back deal with the area behind them. Every time they came across an intersection or an open door, some of the people at the front would check the area, while everyone else kept a nervous eye on it as they passed. Fluttershy made sure to keep a close eye on Rarity as she walked beside her. Although the unicorn seemed to be doing well, she was still concerned for her. She had a certain dazed appearance to her that made the pegasus worry that much more. “Are you ok, Rarity?” Fluttershy whispered in a concerned tone while observing the white mare. She was practically zoning out and nearly falling asleep while walking. Upon hearing her friend speaking up, the unicorn jerked her head up slightly in an attempt at waking herself up. “Wha…? Oh, umm… yeah. I think so.” Rarity stated with a reassuring smile. The yellow mare wasn’t exactly comforted by her answer. “Just stay awake for me ok?” Fluttershy said as a reminder to the unicorn to remain alert. “Ok…” Rarity replied with a brief nod. Although she didn’t want to admit it out loud, she did feel extremely drowsy at times. Despite this, she was making great efforts to remain awake for her own sake. The group paused as the brown stallion stopped at a corner and peeked around. After ensuring that nothing was waiting to surprise them, he motioned for everyone to move again. The ponies quickly followed him down the next hallway while being careful to stay as quiet as possible. “How far away are we?” The pink mare asked nervously while darting her eyes around. She seemed like she was on the verge of a panic attack. “Don’t worry, it’s just up ahead.” The brown unicorn replied while turning his head to face the group. Sure enough, an intersection of hallways came into view with a door in the center of the far wall. The door was gray in color, with a small window set into its frame. These distinctive features would have filled the ponies with hope on their own, but what excited them the most was a small sign next to the door that read “stairs.” “Finally.” Cool Breeze exclaimed in a relieved tone. Everyone quickly rushed up to the door and waited eagerly for the brown stallion to open it up. The lieutenant quickly grabbed the handle and tugged on it. Having expected it to open, he was surprised to discover that the door wouldn’t budge an inch. Frustrated at the sudden obstacle in his path, the stallion tugged on the handle even more. “Grr…” He snarled in annoyance while continuing his efforts. Every rattle of the door as the guard tried in vain to open it made the ponies’ hearts sink lower and lower. “What in the hay is…” The brown unicorn muttered angrily while glancing through the small window in the door. He was surprised to see a small bar blocking the door. Judging from how little the handle turned, he figured that the door was locked as well. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked anxiously. She and the other ponies were deeply concerned as to why their journey was interrupted so close to its end. “Someone must have locked it to keep those things out… I should be able to unlock it from this side, just give me a minute.” The lieutenant replied in a reassuring tone. He quickly focused his magic and searched behind the door for the necessary objects to move. Meanwhile, while everyone else was focused on the brown pony and his efforts in unlocking the door, one of the other guards was shifting his eyes around to scan the area. The last thing he wanted was for one of those monsters to sneak up on his group at such a crucial moment. Suddenly, a soft growl echoed down the hallway. The guard darted his eyes towards the center hallway nervously. He froze up in fear as he noticed several pairs of red eyes moving towards him. “Umm… s-sir?” The guard stuttered nervously while backing up slowly. “I thought I said that you didn’t have to call me sir?” The unicorn said while keeping his attention focused on the door. “It’s k-kind of important sir!” The guard stated more urgently. Everyone turned around as they noticed a louder growling sound approaching them. The red eyes were moving much faster, and whatever creatures they belonged to were snarling and roaring fiercely as they charged after their prey. “AHHH!” Almost all of the ponies screamed at the top of their lungs at the terrifying sight before them. They covered their faces with their forelegs as the monsters entered the light and rushed towards them. *Thump* A loud thump rang out, eliciting everyone to uncover their eyes and look around. They were surprised to see that they were all still alive, and even more surprised to see a force field between them and the numerous creatures ahead. The group looked behind them to see the brown unicorn facing the monsters with his horn glowing fiercely. He seemed to be straining heavily as beads of sweat were already falling down his face. “You saved us…?” Cool Breeze asked in a shocked state. “Not for long… I can’t hold them out forever, and I can’t unlock the door while I’m doing this.” The lieutenant stated through gritted teeth. The ponies looked back to the force field anxiously. Even more of the creatures were gathered outside at each of the three hallways. Although the force field was muffling the noises they were making, it was still disturbing to see their many red eyes staring unwaveringly forward. “What are we going to do?” The pink mare asked nervously. She sank into a seated position and leaned up against the wall in defeat. Everyone stared ahead sullenly as they faced their doom. They were trapped, plain and simple. Anything short of a miracle wasn’t going to be enough to save them. However, instead of sulking, the brown stallion was instead looking for a solution. He shifted his eyes over to Fluttershy and Rarity, and suddenly had an idea. “Rarity…” He spoke up while still putting as much effort on his shield as possible. The white mare looked over to the stallion curiously. “What is it?” Rarity asked, uncertain of what the guard could have needed. “I know now isn’t the best time for you to be using magic… but do you think you can handle unlocking the door?” The lieutenant asked while nudging towards the door. Rarity glanced over to the door with a concerned expression. Using magic was the worst possible thing a unicorn could do with a concussion short of lying down and taking a nap. However, if she didn’t try to unlock the door, she and her friends would doubtlessly be ripped to shreds by the beasts trying to break in. “I can try…” Rarity stated with a determined nod. “But… what about your head? Isn’t that going to be bad for your concussion?” Fluttershy asked with a worried expression. The last thing she wanted was for her friend to drop dead on the spot due to her over exerting herself. “We don’t have a choice right now Fluttershy. Either I die trying to save us, or we all die when those things break in.” Rarity replied apprehensively. She didn’t like the idea any better than the yellow pegasus, but she quite literally had no other choices to take. “B-but…” Fluttershy started to speak up in protest when she started looking around. Almost everyone else in the group was terrified out of their wits. Even the pegasus herself felt like a quivering mess from staring at the horrific monsters outside. “*Sigh*… just… just take it easy alright?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned tone. Rarity nodded slowly in response. Without any further delay, Rarity stepped up to the door and lit up her horn. She immediately felt an odd dizzy sensation in her head, but she ignored it and instead focused on finding the bar that was keeping the door closed. Fluttershy and the others watched anxiously as the white unicorn strained to perform the simplest of magical tasks. She seemed sluggish, and whatever she was doing seemed painful, but she powered through whatever distress she was in and continued. Suddenly, the bar behind the door lit up the same color as Rarity’s horn. Slowly but surely, it lifted up and out of the way of the door before coming to a stop beside it. “Good job Rarity!” Cool Breeze cheered excitedly. Everyone else cheered the white mare on as she completed a large milestone in their escape. Rarity smiled at her success, but underneath her happy exterior, she was starting to feel ill. Her head was spinning, and she felt drowsier than ever. Despite all of this, she still had one thing to do. “I’m almost done… I just need to unlock the door.” Rarity stated while fighting to remain alert. Despite her best efforts, her unfocused stare and drowsy tone of voice wasn’t going unnoticed. “Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned tone. Rarity started to speak up when she was suddenly interrupted by the brown stallion speaking up. “I can’t hold them off much longer!” The guard stated urgently. The ponies looked back, only to see several small cracks forming in the force field. Rarity quickly focused her attention on the lock on the door. Although it was difficult to find the small handle, it didn’t take very long with the adrenaline coursing through her body. The ponies watched anxiously as even more cracks formed in their protective barrier. The monsters outside bashed into the shield relentlessly. They were all gnashing their teeth and growling eagerly as they prepared to assault their prey. “They’re breaking in!” The tan stallion yelled fearfully as pieces of the force field started breaking off. The more bipedal monsters started reaching their arms through the holes in the barrier in an attempt at grabbing the ponies. Everyone backed up nervously to try and distance themselves from the terrifying beasts. “I got it!” Rarity exclaimed while pulling the handle down and opening the door. “Everyone inside!” The lieutenant instructed urgently. Everyone quickly went inside of the stairway and waited for the others. Once the last guard made his way inside, the brown unicorn slammed the door shut and locked it. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment, the group breathed a collective sigh of relief. “Good work Rarity… you just saved our lives.” The lieutenant said with a cheerful smile while glancing over to the unicorn. He was surprised to see that she was drooping her head slightly with a dazed look in her eye. “Are you ok?” The brown stallion asked in a concerned tone. Upon noticing the group shifting their attention to her, the white mare tried her best to appear as healthy as possible. “Yeah… I think so. Just a little tired…” Rarity said drowsily while forcing a smile. The others felt bad that she had to worsen her condition just to help them out of a sticky situation. “Well just hang in there a little while longer. The equipment room is just a little further.” The guard said in a reassuring manner. The thought of resting in a safe location made everyone’s spirits lift slightly. “Ok…” Rarity replied with a slow nod. Despite her attempts at appearing cheerful, the unicorn was starting to worry the group. “Let’s get moving… the faster we get there, the faster we can rest.” The brown unicorn stated while walking up the stairs. Everyone nodded in agreement before following him up to the main floor. Once outside of the stairwell, the group scanned the hallway outside for movement. Satisfied that no creatures were lurking around, the ponies walked out into the hall and made their way forward. Their journey didn’t take long however as the brown stallion paused in front of a single door. “Finally… we’re here.” He said in a relieved tone while grabbing the handle and pulling on it. As if to further complicate matters, the ponies discovered that the door was locked yet again. “Dang it… someone must already be in there.” The stallion muttered in frustration. He then knocked on the door loudly to alert anyone inside to their presence. After a brief wait, the group heard the sound of the door unlocking, followed by it swinging open with an earth pony guard standing in the doorway. “Lieutenant…? It’s good to see that you’re still alive.” The guard stated with slight surprise upon seeing the brown unicorn. “I have survivors with me… can we come in?” The lieutenant asked while glancing back to his small group. “Of course, come on in.” The guard replied before stepping back to let everyone in. The ponies started funneling into the room while the guards ushered everyone in. Fluttershy was elated to see that she and her friend were finally safe. She smiled to Rarity, who offered a weak smile in return. The pegasus frowned slightly as she saw the poor shape the white mare was in. She offered her some help with walking as she made her way through the door. Suddenly, the yellow mare heard a cry of alarm behind her. She turned around to see a long black tendril wrapped around Cool Breeze. The tendril had already pulled the aqua pony to the floor and was trying to drag her off into the darkness. “Breeze!” Fluttershy yelled in a panic at the sight of her temporary companion being pulled away. While everyone else merely turned to offer a concerned glance out of the door of the equipment room, the pegasus left her friend to walk inside while she bolted towards the blue mare. Fluttershy slid to the floor and grabbed Cool Breeze’s outstretched hoof. She pulled with all of her might against whatever creature the tendril belonged to, but she wasn’t making much progress. “Help me!” Cool Breeze cried out fearfully as she yanked her leg in an attempt at freeing herself from the grasp of the tendril. In response to the added efforts of the yellow mare, another tendril shot out from the darkness and wrapped around the aqua pony’s other leg. Fluttershy was pulled along with the trapped mare as she desperately tried to halt their movement. She could faintly see the outline of whatever creature was attacking her companion, and what she saw unsettled her deeply. All she could make out was a blob in the darkness with multiple red slits on it, but it had a lot more tentacles than the ones it was currently using. The pegasus yelped in fright as she felt a cold tendril slap onto her foreleg and wrap around it. She tried to move away, but the creature’s grip was more than she could fight against from her weakened position on the floor. Her initial jolt of bravery had all but vanished as she realized that she was trapped. Now that they were close enough to it, the two ponies could see that the monster that was holding them had a maw full of sharp teeth. It let out a feral bleat as it prepared to fling its prey into its eagerly waiting mouth. Just before the beast devoured her and her friend whole, Fluttershy heard a bolt of energy ring out. She saw a small ball of light sail past her and slam right into the shadowy monster with a bright explosion. The creature let out a howl of pain while loosening its grip on the two mares. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze looked up to see the brown stallion racing towards them while rapidly firing at the creature. The monster let go of the two ponies as it tried to retreat from the painful onslaught it was facing. “Come on!” The unicorn exclaimed urgently while rushing Fluttershy to her feet. The instant both mares had regained their footing, they bolted towards the equipment room as fast as they could. Once the three had gotten back to the equipment room and gotten through the door, the stallion turned around and slammed it shut. After taking a moment to replace all of the locks on the hefty door, the unicorn slid to the floor and breathed heavily. “Thanks for saving me back there, Fluttershy.” Cool Breeze said with a grateful smile while glancing over to the yellow pegasus. She thought that she was going to die for certain. “Hey… don’t mention it. I told you everything would be ok when you came with us… besides, you should be thanking him.” Fluttershy stated while looking over to the exhausted unicorn guard. The stallion smiled in return in between breaths. “Well… I did tell you that I would do my best to keep you safe.” He said lightheartedly. Now that they were safe, the two mares took a look around at their surroundings. The equipment room seemed to be relatively small at first glance. However, there was a doorway leading to another part of it where everyone else had apparently gone during the commotion. There were numerous small lanterns placed around on shelves and tables, giving the room a fair amount of light even without the presence of a unicorn. Along the walls and dotted along a few tables were racks and boxes full of weapons, armor, and other pieces of gear that a member of the royal guard would need. Most importantly, the room felt safe. Ever since the lights had gone out and the monsters arrived, Fluttershy had felt terrified and nervous. But now, she felt relatively comfortable for the first time in a long time. “I almost can’t believe we made it… I thought we were going to die back there.” Fluttershy stated with a chuckle of joyful disbelief. She might not have shown it outwardly at the time, but she was scared out of her wits when she saw Cool Breeze getting dragged off. She almost didn’t find the courage necessary to rush after her. “We’re safe now. You two should just kick back and relax until everything-” The brown unicorn spoke up until he was suddenly interrupted by a commotion in the next room. Several surprised and alarmed ponies could be heard through the open doorway. “What’s going on?” Cool Breeze asked nervously. “Let’s go check it out.” The stallion suggested while getting up. The two mares got up from the floor and followed the guard while he trotted into the other room. Once the trio walked through the door, they were greeted by a group of ponies gathered in a circle. They were muttering in shocked and concerned tones while staring at the floor with wide eyes. Fluttershy and her two companions pushed through the crowd to see what was happening and gasped in surprise at what they saw. There was a lone guard pony crouched low to the ground tending to a familiar white unicorn. Fluttershy felt her heart race with panic as she realized that the unconscious mare on the floor was her friend Rarity. The unicorn had a dazed expression frozen on her face. She wasn’t moving an inch. The yellow pegasus wasn’t even sure if she could see her friend breathing. “What happened to her?!” Fluttershy asked frantically while rushing forward to be at her friend’s side. The guard tending to her looked up to the brown unicorn as he gave him an expression that demanded information. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She just collapsed a little while after you guys brought her in here.” The white stallion explained with a confused expression. “She has a concussion. We need to stabilize her now… get an oxygen mask and start bagging her.” The lieutenant instructed urgently. The guard pony nodded before rushing off to the nearby shelves to start searching for the medical equipment. The two guards that were with the group beforehand joined the other stallion in searching for the items needed to save the unicorn. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and the brown unicorn sat by her and watched over her. “Rarity… please wake up.” Fluttershy pleaded with tears welling up in her eyes. She grasped the white mare’s limp hoof and silently prayed for her survival. “Everyone give us some room!” The brown unicorn stated while looking up at the crowd of concerned ponies. Everyone backed away and watched the guards in the room race to save the concussed mare. Chapter 72: Preparing for BattleThe ponies listened carefully as Princess Luna explained her plan. Although the main audience was Tom and a small circle of guards gathered around the alicorn, the others around the room listened in curiously while she talked. Meanwhile, off to the side of the room, Twilight and her friends watched as Peppermint examined Rarity to ensure that she was healthy again. The stallion shined a small flashlight in her eyes and took note of her pupils’ response to the light. “How do you feel?” Pepper asked curiously while continuing his examination. “I feel perfectly normal now. I don’t even have a headache anymore.” Rarity replied with a smile of gratitude while glancing over to the human on the other side of the room. She had witnessed his healing powers before, but she never experienced them firsthand. The unicorn would have been dead without his assistance, and for that, she was incredibly thankful. “Well… it looks like everything checks out. You have no indications of having a concussion or anything else anymore.” Pepper stated in an impressed tone. “Thank Celestia for that.” Fluttershy said with a relieved shrug. Rarity frowned as she thought about how much she must have worried the yellow mare. “Sorry to scare you like that darling… I was supposed to be the one taking care of you, not the other way around.” The unicorn looked down sadly as she thought back to her speech in the bathroom. She looked up again as she felt the pegasus laying a soft hoof on her shoulder. “I’m just glad that you’re ok.” Fluttershy said with a warm smile. Rarity couldn’t help but smile in return to the yellow mare. “Now that we’re back together, we should start thinking about how we’re going to get out of here.” Twilight suggested while turning her attention to the blue alicorn giving her troops the plan they would be using. “Yeah… and how we’re going to beat the living daylights out of those hooded jerks for doing this to us.” Rainbow Dash added eagerly. Although the others might have had less violent ideas in their mind of how they would bring the hooded ponies to justice, they agreed with the cyan mare. The group got up and walked closer to the circle of guards so they could better hear the speech. They hoped that they would be able to assist in some way, even if it was only a small part. “So… what you’re saying is that we’re going to head up to the roof and… do what exactly?” One of the stallions asked with a confused expression. “We are going to use a spell to dissipate the dark matter surrounding the building. I will cast the spell with the assistance of some of you, while Tom is going to keep the dark matter from swarming us.” Luna explained again to clarify herself. “But won’t those monsters out there try to stop us? If that… dark matter, or whatever the hay it is, is the thing that’s making these creatures, won’t it try to protect itself?” Another guard asked in a doubtful tone. “Precisely what I thought… which is why some of you will be accompanying us to fend off whatever creatures make it through Tom’s barrier.” Luna said while glancing around at the small group of guards. “Uh, Princess Luna… I hate to complicate well thought out plans, but how exactly am I going to hold off the dark matter long enough for you to cast your spell? From what you said, it is going to take a long time to cast, but I barely managed to deal with the dark matter that attacked us in the cave… and that was a lot weaker than the stuff outside right now.” Tom spoke up in a concerned tone. As confident the ponies were in him and his abilities, he did have certain limits to what he could do. Luna merely smirked and glanced over to the unicorn lieutenant sitting at the front of the circle. She seemed to have everything planned out in detail. It was rather impressive watching the alicorn strategize, even if her sister was usually the one in the spotlight. “Lieutenant… could you come here for a moment?” Luna asked while motioning for the stallion to walk over to the table behind her. “Yes, ma’am.” The unicorn agreed, albeit with a hint of confusion in his voice. He wasted no time with questions and simply got up to walk over to the table with the princess. Luna lit up her horn and picked up a quill she had set up on the table. She dipped it into a small inkwell and started scribbling on a piece of paper laid out across the table. Once she was finished, she sat the quill down and levitated the piece of paper over to the brown unicorn. The stallion used his own magic to grab the paper and lowered it to reading level. “This is a…” The guard started to speak up when he was interrupted by the alicorn finishing his thought. “It’s a spell that will allow you to transfer energy. Could you please cast it on Tom for a moment?” Luna asked while turning to face the human. Tom stepped forward and waited for the unicorn to prepare whatever spell the princess had in mind. The stallion quickly read over the spell one more time before setting the piece of paper back down on the table and facing the human. “Alright… I’ll see what I can do.” The unicorn shrugged while lighting up his horn and focusing. Soon enough, a colorful aura surrounded Tom, making him feel slightly tingly. As the boy felt energy surging through him, he held his palm upwards and projected a beam of light to test the spell. Surprisingly enough, he was able to put a lot of strength behind the beam with little to no strain on his body. “Wow… I’m putting a lot of energy behind this, and I hardly notice it.” Tom said with an amazed chuckle. “We can use this spell to enhance your abilities enough to fend off the dark matter.” Luna explained cheerfully. She was pleased to see her efforts coming together to help the group. “Sounds like a plan.” Tom said with a sly smirk. “Precisely… now then, let’s get everything prepared.” Luna stated while glancing over to the others. Everyone else nodded before waiting for the princess to assign their roles to them. Soon enough, there were ponies rushing around the room to gather their equipment up and perform their given tasks. The princess was teaching Glitterball and the other unicorns in the room the spell that she would be using, the earth pony guards were gathering up candles for use up on the roof, and Glimmer Shine and Peppermint were helping with gathering up swords and armor pieces for the guards to use. “Hold up a sec… let me see those.” Tom asked while walking up to the brothers. “What do you want these for? You already have a sword don’t you?” Peppermint asked curiously while glancing to the holster on the human’s back. Despite his confusion as to the boy’s intentions, he handed him one of the swords he was carrying. “It’s not for me. I think I might have an idea that could help out a lot.” Tom replied while gently grasping the blade and concentrating. Soon enough, a soft blue glow emanated from his hand similarly to the beam of light he used so often. The ponies watched curiously as the human ran his hand across the length of the blade. Eventually, the blade started to turn a luminescent shade of blue. The glow on the blade brightened until it matched the tint that the slayer’s own katana held. “Whoa…” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in an impressed tone. “There, I imbued it with positive energy. It should cut through shadow creatures a lot more effectively now.” Tom explained while returning the sword to the two ponies. They examined it curiously and waved it around to see if it still performed normally. “You can just do that?” Peppermint asked with an amazed expression. “Yeah… how do you think I made my sword the way it is?” Tom replied with a sly smirk. “Oh… that makes sense I suppose.” Pepper said in an awkward tone as he realized the obvious connection. “This is great! We can use these to give ourselves a big advantage.” Glimmer Shine stated in excitement. “Exactly what I was thinking… Now hand me the others. We might as well power up all of the swords we’re going to be using.” Tom said while motioning over to the other swords the two were carrying. The pair nodded before handing the boy the rest of the swords so he could start the process of preparing all of them. After a few minutes of prep, all of the guards had their full gear on, complete with their brand new blessed weaponry courtesy of their resident slayer of evil. The stallions all marveled at the brilliantly glowing blades as they all stood in a line in front of the princess. It was high time that they took action and fought to reclaim their stronghold. “Alright everyone, listen up. The princess is going to run us through our battle plan one more time.” The unicorn lieutenant explained to his band of troops before turning his attention to the alicorn. Everyone in the room, civilians and all, listened intently as the princess of the night addressed them. “Thank you, Lieutenant… Now, as you all know this will be a dangerous undertaking. Normally, I would wait for outside assistance before trying anything so brash, but we are in a survival situation right now. We need to do whatever it takes to get out of here alive… and that is just what we’re going to do.” Luna said while looking around at the ponies scattered around the room. “We will be heading up to the roof in order to destroy the dark matter circling the building. Once we’re up there, Tom will use his powers to keep us safe while we cast the spell. I know that we don’t have many unicorns at our disposal, but those of you who are here will be vitally important. Some of you will be tasked with assisting Tom with the energy transfer spell I taught you, while the rest will be assisting me with gathering energy for use in the spell to destroy the dark matter.” Luna explained while glancing around at the small number of unicorn guards in the room. Counting the lieutenant and Glitterball, there would barely be enough to perform all of the necessary parts of the plan. “The rest of you will be with us on protection detail. When we go up there, it will be like a beehive… and we’re pretty much kicking it. Those monsters that are overrunning the station will more than likely try to swarm us. We will be using strobes and swords to make sure that they don’t get very far.” Glimmer Shine spoke up while holding up his strobe for reference. The two guards that received Pinkie and Rainbow Dash’s extra strobes examined the odd vials curiously. They wondered how such a small device could pack such a powerful punch. “That’s pretty much the long and short of it. We need all of the help we can get, but we also need someone to stay here with the civvies in case something goes wrong. Anyone who doesn’t want to go with us needs to speak up now.” The unicorn lieutenant stated while glancing around. Most of the guards remained steadfast and silent; most of them, but not all of them. “Umm… I think I will stay with the civvies.” The lieutenant that led Twilight and the others to the equipment room spoke up nervously. Everyone was surprised to see such a high ranking officer acting so squeamishly in the face of danger. Rather than being surprised, the brown stallion nodded understandingly. “Ok, you can stay here and keep an eye on things. Everyone else get ready. We will be leaving shortly.” The unicorn instructed to his troop. All of the guards saluted in unison before dispersing. Everyone began chatting idly amongst themselves as they waited for the operation to begin. Meanwhile, Twilight and her four friends were waiting at the back of the room and watching the guards anxiously. It was hard to see all of them interacting and saying their goodbyes to friends and coworkers. They knew that this mission might be a one-way trip, and the four mares knew it too. “I can’t believe this…” Twilight shrugged uneasily while observing the commotion going on around the room. “I know… it’s so unfair. They haven’t even been trained for anything like this. We’ve barely managed to survive all of the monsters we came across, and we’ve had help and a lot of luck.” Rainbow Dash stated in agreement with the purple unicorn. “Well… they have the same help we had… just not much of it.” Rarity added in a sad tone while glancing around at the small number of guards that they had at their disposal. In total, counting all of the unicorns and the lieutenant, there were only around seven guards that were going on the mission, and only three of those were unicorns. “Maybe we can fix that.” Twilight spoke with determination in her voice. Her friends looked at her with varying degrees of acceptance and hesitation as they figured out what she intended to do. “Twilight… Maybe you should reconsider before doing anything too hasty.” Rarity said in a concerned manner. “Sorry Rarity, but I need to do something to help. They’re fighting for all of our lives out there…” Twilight replied while shifting her attention forward. “The least I can do is to help them.” Before any of her friends could protest, the purple mare walked off towards the group of ponies at the front of the room. She walked up to Princess Luna and waited for her to take notice. “Is something on your mind Twilight?” Luna asked curiously. She could tell that something was bothering the unicorn. “Princess, I want to come with you up to the roof.” Twilight volunteered confidently. “What?! Are you crazy?!” Glitterball spoke up in a surprised tone. “Glitter…” Twilight tried to protest, but the white unicorn was far too upset to listen to her. “The princess told us to protect you guys. We’re not just going to take you straight into a dangerous situation!” Glitter said while shaking her head. “It’s ok Glitter… she can come.” Luna spoke up to calm the rainbow haired mare, much to her and Twilight’s surprise. “What…?” Glitter asked in a surprised tone. She was more shocked than upset that the princess would allow the purple mare to go. “We’re shorthanded right now. I don’t like the idea of putting her in danger any more than you do, but she is going to be in danger no matter where she is until we deal with the dark matter.” Luna explained. She then turned to Twilight with a softer expression. “Twilight… if you want to come with us you can, but I want you to at least think about it first. We will be in a lot of danger up there… nobody is forcing you to be a part of this.” The alicorn explained in a sincere tone. Twilight shook her head slowly in response. Nothing was going to prevent her from helping her friends. “You said it yourself, we don’t have that many unicorns here. I’ve made up my mind… I’m going.” Twilight stated in a determined tone of voice. “I’m going too.” The group was surprised to hear Rarity chime in as she walked over to them. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were behind the white unicorn with similarly determined expressions on their faces. “Rarity… are you sure?” Twilight asked with a concerned expression on her face. She was perfectly fine with putting herself in danger, but she didn’t like the idea of her friends coming along for the ride. “Of course I am Twilight. I want to help in any way I can.” Rarity replied with a smile. “Yeah! And we’re coming too!” Rainbow Dash volunteered eagerly while glancing back to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. “Sorry girls… but only Twilight and Rarity get to come with us.” Luna explained with a sympathetic expression. “What…? But why?” Rainbow Dash asked in a surprised tone. “The only reason they are going is because we need more unicorns to help out. I don’t want to endanger you three as well without good cause.” Luna said with a concerned expression. “*Sigh*… alright. I guess we’ll stay here then.” Rainbow Dash droned in a sad manner. She seemed to be deeply disappointed that she couldn’t come along to help her friends. “You two be sure to watch yourselves out there.” Fluttershy said with a tone of loving concern while smiling at the two brave unicorns. “Yeah… If I’m not going to be there to keep an eye on you, you need to be extra careful.” Rainbow Dash added with a lighthearted chuckle. “Don’t worry girls. I promise that I won’t let anything bad happen to her.” Twilight stated confidently while glancing over to the white unicorn beside her. “And I won’t let anything happen to her.” Rarity replied with a smile. “Aww… come here you two!” Pinkie said before eagerly pulling the two unicorns in for a quick goodbye hug. She didn’t even wait for their response or willing acceptance as she grabbed both of them in a flash and squeezed them tightly. Not wanting to be left out of the loving embrace, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash joined in while being careful not to put any more pressure on the two unicorns. Knowing their pink friend, she was probably already cutting off their air supply by herself. “You better come back to us in one piece. I am not going to be happy with you if you don’t!” Pinkie reminded while releasing the pair from her grip. From the way she said that it almost sounded like a friendly threat. As if she was going to smother them to death with a hug if they didn’t listen to her. “We’ll be careful Pinkie. We promise.” Twilight said with a cheerful laugh. “Besides… they will have us to watch out for them.” Glitterball stated from beside the group. She glanced behind her to see her two teammates nodding in agreement. Now that Twilight and Rarity were going on the mission with the others, Glitterball taught them the basics of how to use the spell that Princess Luna taught her. And just to be safe, she also taught them the spell used to transfer energy to Tom. Once they learned everything they would need to know, the two mares had a few minutes to themselves before everyone was going to head out. The guards were still discussing the plan amongst themselves, and Tom was preparing a few blessed candles with the princess off in the corner. Suddenly, the two unicorns noticed a certain aqua earth pony approaching them slowly. Twilight had no idea who the strange pony was, but Rarity smiled as she recognized the mare to be Cool Breeze. “Hello, Breeze.” Rarity greeted the blue mare cheerfully. “Hey… I heard that you two were heading out with the others.” Cool Breeze said in a slightly concerned tone. “You heard right.” Rarity replied. The blue mare seemed to be saddened by her decision. She frowned slightly before sighing and speaking up again. “Well if you are going out there again, I just wanted to see you off before you go.” Cool Breeze explained. “If this is the last time we see each other, for… whatever reason.” She hesitated slightly as she thought of the grim implications of her statement. “I just wanted to thank you for saving me again. If it wasn’t for you and Fluttershy, I would probably still be in that break room… or worse.” Cool Breeze said with a small smile. Rarity smiled warmly at the blue mare. In their brief time together, she felt like she had grown slightly attached to her. The unicorn wondered if it really would be the last time they would see each other. She wasn’t sure if she knew her enough to warrant a friendship, but she still felt slightly sad with the thought of bidding goodbye to the aqua pony. “Anytime darling… I’m glad that we managed to bring you here safely. And don’t worry. I’m sure that we’ll meet up sometime in the future. In fact… why don’t you stop by the Carousel Boutique sometime? I’ll even give you a free makeover.” Rarity offered in a friendly manner. The blue mare smiled in response to the proposal. “I would love to.” Cool Breeze replied with a friendly nod. Suddenly, the three mares were interrupted by the sight of the princess walking up to them. She had a certain expression on her face that made it easy to tell what she was about to say. It was time to go, perhaps too soon for the two unicorns’ liking. “We’re all ready to leave… are you two prepared?” Luna asked while glancing to the blue mare chatting with the two. She hated to interrupt a discussion with a new friend. Rarity glanced over to Cool Breeze with a sympathetic expression. The aqua pony smiled and nodded understandingly before turning and walking away. The white mare then looked over to her purple friend. Twilight got up from her seated position and nodded eagerly. “Yes… we’re ready.” Rarity stated while turning to the princess with a determined expression. Without any further delay, the princess nodded to the two mares before motioning for them to follow her. The three walked into the other room to find everyone gathered up in two rows by the door. All of the guard ponies watched the alicorn as she walked by them and up to the door. “Ok, let’s set some ground rules before we step outside. Everyone will be sticking together while we walk to the roof. Just because the stairway is just down the hall doesn’t mean it won’t be dangerous. Strobe users will be on the outside of the group watching our sides and our back.” Luna explained while glancing between Glitterball, her teammates, and the two guards armed with the small vials. “If you see anything moving, shoot it. The strobes can’t hurt ponies, so it is better to be safe than sorry.” Glimmer Shine instructed to the two white stallions. They were still unsure of the usefulness of the small vials, but they nodded in agreement regardless. As the princess opened the door and stepped outside, everyone followed her and arranged into their proper positions. Twilight and Rarity were in the center of the group along with the guards armed with swords. Princess Luna was at the front of the group with Tom and the lieutenant. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, and Peppermint were scattered around the outside of the group and watched to the sides and rear along with the other strobe users. Even though there weren’t that many of them in retrospect, the ponies felt safe within their group. As long as everyone kept their cool and worked together, they could go up against an army of shadow creatures and prevail. “How do you work this thing again?” One of the guards at the back of the group whispered to his companion while examining his strobe curiously. Rarity looked back and recognized the guard to be one of the two she met after the lieutenant brought her and Fluttershy to the safe room down in the basement. “Just push the button there.” The other guard whispered back while pointing to the small button on one end of the vial. “Oh… that makes sense.” The first guard replied with a brief chuckle. He then examined the vial even closer, perhaps a little too close for the comfort of those around him. “Be careful with that thing, will you? You’re going to put out an eye if you keep messing with it.” One of the other guards whispered in annoyance while glancing back to the curious stallion. “Sorry… geez.” The white pony replied and looked down sadly like a child after being reprimanded by an adult. The others rolled their eyes and shrugged at the conversation going on behind them. With nothing more to ask, the guard and everyone else remained silent for the rest of the journey down the hallway. Soon enough, the group was standing outside of the stairway that would lead them upwards to the roof. The lieutenant quickly opened the door and ushered everyone inside. Tom and Luna took the lead and went up the stairs a short ways to make room for everyone. Once everyone was inside, Glimmer Shine covered the lieutenant as they both backed into the room while keeping their eyes forward. “Ok, we’re almost there.” The brown stallion stated while closing the door behind him. “Let’s keep moving.” Luna instructed while glancing upwards. The landing to the roof was already visible. Due to the station only having a few floors, the roof was only a brief climb up a flight of stairs. With a brief nod, everyone followed the alicorn and the human upwards. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and Glitterball stayed behind the group and watched the stairs further down for any signs of movement. As the group got closer to the roof, the constant sound of roaring wind and the screeching of the dark matter that had been ever-present throughout the building intensified. The ponies could hardly hear themselves think as they gathered at the door. Twilight and Rarity stood in the middle of the group and watched as the princess hesitated at the door. The white mare was far too busy keeping her attention forward to notice the purple unicorn shivering in fright. Twilight could practically see the stream of repressed memories from her time in the cave flash before her eyes. She cowered nervously and had to consciously prevent herself from stepping backwards in an instinctive attempt at avoiding danger. The unicorn was ripped from her thoughts when she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder, nearly causing her to jump out of her fur coat. She looked beside her to see Rarity offering her a reassuring smile. The knowledge that she was among friends comforted the purple mare, even if only slightly. “Ok everyone, this is it. Once we get out there, we will be in a constant battle. Always assume that there are enemies nearby, and keep on your guard.” Luna spoke up while looking back to her troop. “Just keep to your assigned roles and stay within Tom’s barrier at all times. Before we get started, everyone will place down and light one of the candles we have provided you. It will be darker than the darkest night you have ever experienced out there, and all of the unicorns here will be too preoccupied to waste energy on providing light.” The unicorn lieutenant stated while holding up one of the blue candles for reference. Twilight and Rarity looked around and noticed that most of the guards had blessed candles in their holsters along with their swords. “Are you ready Tom?” Luna asked while looking to the human to ensure that he was prepared. Tom used his senses and looked to the door to scope out the situation ahead. He shivered instinctively once he felt the raw negative energy that was covering the area. On any normal day, he wouldn’t touch a batch of dark matter this powerful with a ten-foot pole, but this wasn’t just a normal day. None of his days had been normal since becoming a slayer, and especially not since he came to Equestria. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” Tom replied with a semi-confident expression. The princess understood the boy’s nervousness. He was now responsible for her life and the lives of everyone present. She didn’t want to show it outwardly, but she was nervous too. “Please hurry back sister…” Luna whispered to herself before turning to the band of guards behind her. “You there, cast the energy spell on Tom and stick close to him. The rest of you stay close to me and either help me with the spell or help them with defending us from whatever comes our way.” The alicorn instructed while glancing to the unicorns in the group. The guard that she pointed out nodded and lit up his horn to cast the spell on the human. Once Tom was enveloped in a magical aura and gave a nod to signal that he was ready, the princess slowly put her hoof on the door handle and prepared to open it. “One…” Luna announced loudly to prepare her small army. Twilight and the others prepared themselves physically and mentally for whatever they would find beyond the door. They lowered themselves to the ground so they could rush out when the door was open. “Two…” The princess counted up and glanced over to the human. Tom held out his hand and prepared to cast his light to fend off the dark matter. “Three!” Luna announced loudly while turning the handle and opening the door in one fluid motion. Chapter 73: The Last Stand on the RoofWith a single shove, the door flew open and the ponies rushed outside. Even though it was completely pitch black on the roof, the group could still see the faint outlines of the dark matter swirling around just above them. Tom immediately pointed his hands skyward and projected his light at full force. The beams traveled upwards and met the dark matter head on before exploding outwards and falling back down to the ground, creating a decently sized bubble of protection that encompassed most of the walking space on the roof. Twilight and Rarity watched as every guard scattered around and sat their candles down. After a brief moment of everyone lighting them in sequence, the entire area was filled with blue tinted light that contrasted against the darkness just outside to create a sort of comforting aura. “Ok, let’s get started. Does everyone know the spell?” Luna asked while glancing around at the various unicorns waiting eagerly at her side. “Yes but… Princess, this spell is so massive that it will take ages to gather up the energy needed.” Twilight stated anxiously while thinking back to the spell she had been taught. Now that she was outside with the dark matter roaring and screeching as it fought to get at her, the unicorn was much more nervous about the chances of their plan succeeding. “I know, that’s why there are so many of us working on it. I want you two to focus on helping with the spell for the moment, but if we come under attack you may need to defend yourselves.” Luna explained to the two mares with a concerned expression. Twilight and Rarity gulped nervously as they thought about fighting against the shadow creatures they had seen thus far. Before the pair could ask any more questions, the alicorn closed her eyes and concentrated while lighting up her horn. She tried her best to focus while all of the commotion was going on outside. One by one, all of the unicorn guards gathered around the princess and focused their energy on the same spell she was casting. Glitterball joined in, the lieutenant joined in, soon enough all of the unicorns in the area save for Twilight, Rarity, and the guard assisting Tom were contributing to the spell. “Alright, everyone… keep on your guard. It might be calm right now, but it won’t stay that way forever.” The lieutenant instructed to everyone present. All of the guards nodded before spreading out and settling in. All the while being prepared to jump into action should the need arise. “Hey… if you see something about to eat my face off, do you think you could shoot it for me?” Glitterball asked in a half-joking, half-serious manner while briefly glancing to Glimmer Shine. “Eh… I’m sure I would get around to it eventually.” Glimmer Shine replied with a slight smirk. “Real funny… smart flank.” Glitterball rolled her eyes before closing them and returning her full attention to the spell. She knew that the yellow stallion was joking, but she still felt like hitting him regardless. Meanwhile, Twilight and Rarity were just starting to gather energy for the princess’s spell. They closed their eyes and focused on the alicorn with their magic. They could feel all of the other unicorns present as they funneled their own energy towards the princess. It almost felt empowering to be connected to so many unicorns, kind of like they were doing something grand and important, not that their current task wasn’t important. “I’m not sure if I feel comfortable with closing my eyes and focusing on a spell out here. I feel like something is going to sneak up behind me any minute now.” Twilight stated uneasily while glancing around her. Every time she closed her eyes she could feel her body screaming at her to check her surroundings. “Just relax and try to focus on the spell. The others will protect us, I’m sure of it.” Rarity replied in a reassuring tone. She hoped that the others would at least keep an eye on them, rather than leaving them to the mercy of whatever creatures lurked in the darkness around them. “*Sigh* I hope so.” Twilight muttered while closing her eyes again and trying to block out the eerie screeching that was constantly going on around her. While the princess, the human, and the unicorns were doing their assigned tasks, the rest of the ponies were glancing around uneasily and searching for any signs of danger. Glimmer Shine stood near the edge of the barrier with one of the guards while making sure that nothing would get in from the side he was on. “So uh… do you guys do this normally?” The guard asked nervously while glancing over to the yellow stallion. Glimmer Shine looked to him and immediately realized that he was a lot more nervous than he was letting on. Making small talk was an obvious attempt at distancing himself from the situation around him. “To be honest… we’re almost as new to this as you are. The only difference is that we had a little bit of training beforehand.” Glimmer replied in a reassuring tone. “Oh… well, that’s… comforting.” The guard replied uneasily. He was seriously starting to doubt their chances for success. “Relax, everything will be fine. Just keep your eyes peeled and yell if you see anything.” Glimmer Shine stated confidently, to which the guard gave a hesitant nod in response. “Uh oh… heads up, guys! I’m sensing a lot of movement around us!” Tom announced urgently. The ponies looked over to see the human with a familiar puff of blue mist escaping from his mouth. “Great… hey, keep on your-” Glimmer Shine started to speak to the guard next to him when he suddenly heard a frightened yell arise from the white stallion. Glimmer looked over just in time to see the guard getting dragged along the ground by a tentacle latched around his back leg. “Sweet Celestia!” Glimmer exclaimed in surprise while rushing forward and grabbing the guard before he was pulled out of the barrier. The tentacle that was pulling on him was smoking, most likely as a result of the blessed candles all around the area and Tom’s light, but it paid no heed to whatever distress it was feeling as it pulled harder. Glimmer Shine struggled with all of his strength, but he was only able to slow down the monster’s progress as it pulled the white stallion closer and closer to the edge. “AHH!” The guard yelled in pain as the edge of his hoof breached the barrier. He could feel a cold and numb sensation forcefully overtaking his foot as the dark matter latched onto it and drained his energy. “Help!” Glimmer Shine yelled to anyone behind him who might be able to assist him. While two guards rushed forward and grabbed onto their teammate to help with pulling, Peppermint rushed up to the group of struggling ponies and readied his strobe. The red haired stallion opened fire towards the darkness outside of the barrier, hoping to be able to hit the creature pinning the guard. The bolts of energy from the strobe pushed the dark matter out of the way slightly as they traveled out into the air, but they didn’t appear to hit anything solid as they kept flying. “I can’t hit it!” Pepper yelled nervously as he frantically tried his best to help. “We’re losing him!” Glimmer Shine stated while digging his back legs into the ground to halt his movement. Even with three stallions pulling on the trapped guard, the monster, or perhaps monsters that were pulling on him were winning. “AGH!” The distressed pony screamed in pain as both of his legs sank into the darkness outside. The cold feeling of the monstrous cloud latching onto him and stealing his energy was almost unbearable. Finally, Peppermint angled his shots to hit the stallion’s legs outside of the barrier. The group heard a nearby shriek and suddenly felt the guard being let go by whatever force was pulling him. Glimmer Shine and the others backpedaled as fast as they could and dragged the injured pony along the ground to distance him from the edge of the barrier. Both of his legs from the hip downwards were pale in color. They didn’t even look like they belonged to a living pony. The disturbing sight of the stallion’s legs combined with his cries of distress unsettled all of the ponies in the barrier. Twilight and Rarity were speechless as they watched the guards tending to their teammate with horrified expressions. “What’s wrong with him?!” One of the guards asked while setting the injured stallion down gently. Despite nothing touching his legs anymore, the guard seemed to be in excruciating pain. “I don’t know, let me take a look at h-” Peppermint prepared to examine the injured stallion when a loud growl from behind him made him freeze up. Everyone looked back in the direction they just pulled the guard from, only to see three dark shapes just outside of the barrier. While Glimmer Shine and Peppermint raced to pull out their strobes, three darklings jumped through the barrier and walked towards the ponies. All of the able-bodied guards readied their swords in preparation for battle. They stood in front of the group tending to the injured stallion to keep something between them and the imminent threat. Just before they were about to charge into battle, they noticed black smoke coming off of the three beasts. The darklings snarled in pain while looking around in confusion. They settled their red eyes on the many candles scattered around the floor and growled. Not wanting to be in the burning light any longer, the three creatures turned tail and ran outside of the barrier. Before disappearing into the darkness, one of them turned its head around and growled viciously at the ponies. “What the hay was that all about?” One of the guards asked curiously. “They must not be strong enough to stand near the candles for very long. Don’t let your guard down just yet. I’m sure stronger variants of them will be here shortly.” Tom instructed uneasily. “Well for the moment we have more important things to worry about… I can’t think of any way to help him.” Peppermint stated while examining the injured guard’s hind legs. “The dark matter must have gotten to him… he’ll recover, but it will take a while. Until then, I doubt he will be able to move very much.” Tom explained while quickly glancing to the stallion’s pale and motionless limbs. The injured guard looked around at the others with a nervous expression. He wasn’t sure how he was going to survive without being able to move his legs. “Don’t worry… we’ll keep you safe. For now, take this and hold on to it.” Glimmer Shine said while handing the injured pony his strobe. “But… what about you?” The stallion asked curiously. He didn’t want to take away the yellow pony’s only means of defense. “I’ll take your sword and use it. This way you can still fight without moving… trust me, I went to the academy just like you did.” Glimmer Shine explained while gently removing the guard’s sword from his holster. “Alright… just be careful out there.” The injured stallion shrugged while examining the small vial in his hooves. After moving the disabled guard closer to the princess and the other unicorns, the rest of the guards returned to their previous locations. Now that one of their own had fallen victim to the monsters outside of the barrier, they had a newfound sense of alarm and cautiousness as they darted their eyes around vigilantly. “So, how are your sword fighting skills holding up?” Peppermint asked his brother with mild concern. “Hey… I was top of our class you know.” Glimmer Shine replied while gripping the sword tightly in his mouth. “Yeah, yeah… just making sure you haven’t gotten rusty.” Peppermint said with a smirk. “I guess we’re going to find out.” Glimmer Shine stated while whipping the sword around with a sly expression. While the unicorns continued to gather energy for the princess’s spell, everyone else waited for something to happen. The unnerving sounds that the dark matter was making created a constant ambience of tension. It was like the ponies were in the center of a raging tornado with a swarm of angry bats along for the ride. The screeching wasn’t so bad. After all, there were periods of time where the horrendous screeching would cease for several minutes at a time. But no matter where they were, the sound of the roaring wind was constant. It blared in their ears until they could hardly even think to themselves quietly. Despite the tense atmosphere, the ponies had to wait. They had to wait and sit around while wondering what kind of creature would jump out at them next. The anticipation of fighting was almost enough to make them wish for something to happen to break up the monotony. “Hey…” The unicorn that was helping Tom spoke up to get his attention. The human looked over to him curiously. “Yeah?” Tom asked. “I’m starting to feel light headed… this spell is taking a lot out of me.” The unicorn replied uneasily. He didn’t want to outright say that he had to take a break, but given the importance of the spell he was casting, he thought that he should let the human know that he was tired. “I’m not surprised… the energy I’m using has to come from somewhere I suppose. Ask one of the others to switch with you. Just be sure to wait until they start casting before you stop. I don’t want all of this power to come crashing down on me… and I don’t think you do either.” Tom stated while glancing upwards suggestively, the sight of the dark matter fighting against the barrier to get in made the guard see his point very clearly. “Can someone switch with me? I’m not sure if I can keep this spell up much longer.” The brown stallion asked while glancing over to the small ring of unicorns by the princess. “Sure… I’ll switch with you.” One of the other unicorns spoke up while breaking off of the spell he was using. The guard got up and walked over to the human. He then lit up his horn and started casting the spell that he had been taught. Once the other unicorn felt another magical aura form around the human, he let his horn fizzle out and breathed a sigh of relief. “Take a short break to get your strength back, then head over there and help the others.” Tom suggested while glancing over to the alicorn and her small group. “Thanks.” The unicorn replied before getting up and walking away. As he was walking away, the brown stallion heard a strange noise over the constant background of wind. It was so quiet that it was almost impossible to tell what it was. “What the…?” The unicorn muttered with a confused expression while inching closer to the source of the noise near the edge of the barrier. He strained his ears to be able to pick up the strange sound without venturing close enough to the edge for a monster to jump out and grab him. The noise gradually got louder, until the guard could just barely make out what it sounded like. The odd noise resembled the rapid fluttering of small wings followed by the high pitched squeal of some kind of creature. “What’s that noise?” One of the other guards asked curiously. The unicorn turned his head uneasily as he received validation that the noise was actually real rather than his imagination. Suddenly, a high-pitched screech filled the air as a small black shape darted out from the wall of darkness. The ponies whipped their heads around in an attempt at getting a good look at the creature, but it zipped through the air too fast to be able to see anything other than a blur. The small shape raced around the air for a short moment before darting back outside of the barrier. That wasn’t the last the ponies would see of the strange blur however as another of the black shapes darted out from the other side of the barrier. Before anyone could even react, the shape flew at the unicorn near the edge of the barrier and latched onto his neck. The stallion immediately screamed in pain and raced to grab the small creature to pull it off of him. A small spurt of blood shot out from the guard’s neck as the creature seemingly bit into him. The unicorn fell backwards onto his back from the shock of the experience. “GET IT OFF!” The guard yelled in agony while pulling at the relentless monster. Glimmer Shine raced over to the distressed stallion and struggled to think of how to help him without outright grabbing onto the creature. Glancing down to his glowing sword, an idea popped into his head. Glimmer Shine rushed over to the struggling guard and pressed the flat edge of his sword against the small creature. White smoke immediately started rising off of the creature’s form, eliciting a high pitched squeak of pain. Before the yellow pony could apply more pressure to his blade, the black shape flew off of the unicorn as a wide spray of blood shot out from his neck. The small creature flew at Glimmer Shine in the blink of an eye, sending a wave of alarm through his body. “AH!” Glimmer Shine yelled in surprise and dropped his sword. He held his hooves out to protect himself and felt a strong kickback as the monster flew right into him. The yellow pony barely managed to grab the creature before it zoomed straight for his neck. Now that he was holding onto the monster, Glimmer Shine and everyone else got a good look at it. The beast appeared to be a small winged creature with a round body and four bat wings sprouting from it at odd angles. The tiny monster had two equally tiny red dots above its mouth that served as eyes. The mouth itself was so disturbing that it drew attention away from the rest of the beast. The creature had a gaping circular hole for a mouth. Inside of this hole were multiple rows of razor sharp teeth that wrapped around the entire circumference of the mouth. Glimmer Shine now understood why the unicorn was in so much distress when the creature latched on to him. Judging from its size, one might have estimated that it would be easy to manipulate the creature once held. This couldn’t have been farther from the truth, however. Glimmer Shine felt as if he was holding on to a tornado. No matter how hard he pushed or shoved, he could hardly maintain a grip on the tiny monster. “Help!” Glimmer yelled as the creature sent him falling backwards. The beast screeched and twitched its mouth eagerly as it drew closer and closer to reaching the stallion’s neck. Suddenly, a bright flash of light enveloped the pinned pony. When Glimmer Shine opened his eyes again, he noticed that the creature had been reduced to an escaping puff of black smoke. He looked up to see Tom placing his other hand back up to return to fending off the cloud of dark matter. “Thanks for the-” Glimmer Shine started to speak up when he was interrupted by a clamoring uproar of high-pitched squeaks and screeches. It sounded like a nail being dragged down a chalkboard, only magnified a hundred times over. The ponies looked to the source of the noise, only to see a swarm of the same creatures popping out from the darkness. The monsters flew overhead in a circle while screeching angrily. Suddenly, they swooped down all at once and rushed towards the group around the princess. “Oh no!” Twilight exclaimed with wide eyes as she watched the swarm getting closer. She quickly realized that someone had to act fast before they were engulfed by a flying horde of teeth. “AHHH!” Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs and covered her face in terror. She could already picture the damage that the angry swarm would cause to her and her friends. Just as she was preparing for the end, she heard a magical whir, followed by the sound of dozens of tiny objects slamming into glass. “Wh… what?” Rarity looked up in confusion, only to see that there was a bright purple force field surrounding her and the other unicorns. She looked over to see Twilight concentrating while pointing her horn upwards. “You did it Twilight!” Rarity cheered happily while raising her hooves into the air in excitement. Her joy quickly turned to horror again as she realized what was about to happen. “Oh no… what about the others?!” The white mare exclaimed in shock while turning her attention back to the swarm of monsters outside. Sure enough, the creatures broke off of the purple bubble and flew around rapidly to swarm around any other target they could find. Peppermint and whoever else had a strobe desperately fired into the black mass approaching them. But no matter how fast they fired, the swarm was far too fast and large to destroy. “AHH!” The ponies all yelled in unison as they felt the large numbers of creatures slamming into them. Twilight and the other unicorns inside of the bubble averted their eyes in horror as they expected their friends to be ripped to pieces. Suddenly, the screaming died down. Everyone thought the worst had happened until they actually looked up. Every single one of the tiny carnivores was floating in a blue aura, seemingly against their will. Recognizing the color of the aura, Twilight glanced over to Glitterball. As she had expected, the rainbow-haired unicorn was focusing intensely on keeping some kind of spell active with her horn. The spell she was using seemed to be more than she could handle as beads of sweat rolled down her face while her horn sparked and flashed from over exertion. “Shoot them! Shoot them now!” Glitterball instructed to everyone who could listen. It wasn’t hard to discern the alarm and urgency in her voice as she tried to keep the numerous amounts of creatures under her control. Seemingly the only reason she was able to pull it off was due to the monsters already being in tight clusters. Peppermint and the others wasted no time in heeding their teammate’s instructions. They rapidly fired their strobes at every black mass they saw. All the while keeping a close eye on Glitterball to determine how much time they had. Twilight and Rarity watched anxiously as they tried to gauge the stallions’ progress with destroying the creatures against Glitterball’s exhaustion. The unicorn clenched her eyes shut as she strained every muscle in her body to try and cope with the difficult task she was facing. Twilight had cast many spells for longer than she should have, so she knew just how the unicorn was feeling. Her horn was sparking and sputtering so much that everyone watching thought that her head might explode from the pressure. Even Glimmer Shine and the other guards were helping out with destroying the flying creatures. They swiped at them with their swords, easily ripping through their shadowy forms with their luminescent blue blades. Despite how much progress was being made, everyone was still tense as they raced to eliminate all of the monsters. Finally, Peppermint shot a bolt of energy into the last small cluster of the creatures. The bat-like monsters erupted into a puff of smoke with nothing more than an interrupted shriek to indicate their departure into oblivion. “Got it!” The white stallion exclaimed to alert Glitterball that she could stop. Glitterball’s horn immediately fizzed out in a brief flash of light. She groaned in exhaustion while her legs gave out from underneath her. Twilight and Rarity raced to her side as she fell to the floor. After settling on the ground for a moment, the white mare drifted out of consciousness. “Oh my goodness… she knocked herself out.” Rarity gasped in concern as she examined the unconscious mare. “I’m not surprised. She must have used a lot of energy keeping those things still.” Twilight stated while thinking back to the energetic creatures. She shuddered as she thought about how the unicorn even went about trying what she did. “Is everyone ok?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking around at the other guards. The creatures did manage to swarm several of the ponies before Glitterball incapacitated them. All of the guards briefly examined themselves for cuts before turning to their comrades and doing the same. Suddenly, everyone turned their attention to a brown unicorn stallion lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. He had been the first victim of the savage creatures before they even swarmed the area. Thankfully, he seemed to still be alive as he clutched his still bleeding neck. Peppermint and the others rushed over to him urgently. The guards waited close by to lend their assistance should the need arise while the red-haired stallion examined the unicorn’s injury. The brown stallion’s hooves were stained red as he desperately tried to stem the frightful amount of blood loss he was experiencing. “Hey buddy, can you hear me? Two blinks for yes.” Peppermint asked in a calm tone of voice while looking at the wounded guard. He knew that due to the severity of his injury that talking was out of the question. The unicorn was still clutching his throat and breathing rapidly and shallowly, but he did as instructed and blinked twice in rapid succession. “Ok good… listen up. We’re going to take care of you, ok? Just hang in there and keep pressure on this.” Peppermint instructed while slipping a gauze pad under the unicorn’s hoof and onto his wound. He then looked up and faced the others with a more serious expression. “We need to get him out of here. He’s going to die if we don’t keep on top of this.” Pepper explained in a concerned tone. “Hey Tom, do you think you could heal him?” Glimmer Shine asked while glancing over to the human. If he could quickly blast one of the creatures off of him, then he shouldn’t have had any problems with healing the injured unicorn. “Sorry, I don’t think I could manage that. I’m barely fending this thing off with two hands, and that’s with the added help I’m getting. And since were down one… make that two unicorns, we need to conserve the energy we’re using if we’re going to outlast this thing.” Tom explained while glancing over to Glitterball. If she didn’t wake up and regain her strength, the group would only have four unicorns to work with counting Twilight and Rarity. And the unicorns they did have needed to be spread between helping the princess and giving energy to the human for keeping the dark matter at bay. “Ughh…” Glimmer Shine groaned in frustration as he tried to think of a solution to their problem. He then turned to three of the other guards and sighed. “You three take him down to the equipment room and stabilize him.” Glimmer instructed while pointing to the three white stallions. They nodded before walking over to Peppermint and waiting for him to give them the go ahead. “Ok, easy with him. Try to keep pressure on that for us ok buddy?” Peppermint said while tapping the unicorn on the leg gently. The wounded guard couldn’t nod due to the placement of his injury, but he seemed to be holding onto the gauze pad as tightly as he could. While being as careful and slow as possible, Peppermint and the three guards lifted the unicorn up off the ground. They gently placed him over one of their backs and balanced him. “Be careful when you’re taking him down there. You might run into some resistance.” Glimmer Shine explained to the trio. They nodded in agreement. “Should we try to come back up here?” One of the guards asked. “No… it might be too dangerous to make two trips. We’ll manage without you.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. “Ok… good luck everyone.” The guard said while taking one last glance around at the others. He then rushed to the door to the stairway and opened the door while his companion followed him and steadied the unicorn on his back while the third guard focused on keeping them safe. Now that the three guards were gone, Glimmer Shine looked around at his remaining group and frowned. There was only one other able-bodied guard with him and his brother. The only other one even attacking was the disabled stallion with a strobe sitting near the princess and her small group. “Are you guys going to be ok by yourselves?” The lieutenant asked in a concerned tone while looking at the brothers and the single guard helping them. “How much longer will that spell take Princess?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking over to Luna anxiously. The alicorn grunted under her breath as she looked up from her spell. “It still has a long ways to go. We’re trying as hard as we can.” Luna explained with a concerned frown while looking around at the group’s diminished numbers. She never imagined that so many things would go wrong with her plan. “*Sigh*… I think we can manage. Just as long as there isn’t an army of them coming at us we should be fine.” Glimmer Shine stated while gripping his new strobe tightly. One of the guards that left had given him their strobe to use. The yellow pony looked around to his brother and the lone guard standing next to him for confirmation. The two nodded hesitantly while gripping their own weapons with slight uncertainty. “Hello…? Can anyone hear me out there?” Glimmer Shine and Peppermint suddenly heard Brimstoke’s voice in their ears. “We’re here Brimstoke. What’s going on?” Glimmer Shine spoke up while holding his hoof up to his ear. “Where are you guys?” Sunspot interjected herself into the call. She seemed very eager to learn about what was happening with the others. “We’re on the roof trying to get rid of the dark matter.” Glimmer Shine replied. “Oh… in that case, we have some good news and some bad news for you.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. The two stallions didn’t like the concerned tone that their leader had. “What’s the good news?” Peppermint asked with careful optimism. “Neon Streak is outside. Apparently, she and Applejack saw what was going on from a distance and came running. And that’s not all… Princess Celestia is out there too. Neon says that she is working on a solution from her end.” Sunspot explained eagerly. The news immediately made the two stallions’ faces brighten up. Twilight and Rarity noticed the two ponies smiling from ear to ear. They wondered what could have possibly made them so chipper in a situation like this. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked curiously. “Brimstoke and Sunspot just contacted us. Apparently, Neon Streak is outside with Princess Celestia. She is trying to get us out as we speak!” Peppermint explained cheerfully while dropping his hoof for a moment. “Thank heavens!” Rarity stated with cheerful relief. She and Twilight celebrated happily that the white alicorn was coming to rescue them. “I knew that the princess would come to save us!” Twilight said excitedly. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling ear to ear. She could almost feel her mouth stretching widely, but she didn’t care. Luna simply smiled while still concentrating on the spell. She knew that her sister wouldn’t stand idly by without trying to save her and the others. “Umm… what was the bad news Brimstoke?” Glimmer Shine asked nervously while remembering what the white stallion had said before. “We can’t find any monsters down here.” Brimstoke stated in a concerned tone. “What…?” Glimmer Shine asked with a confused expression. “How is that a bad thing?” Peppermint asked with equal confusion. He immediately regretted his question as he knew that he was about to be given an answer. “We can’t find any readings coming from this floor. They’re all gone! We think that they’re heading up to the roof.” Sunspot explained apprehensively. “But, that means…” Glimmer Shine paused with a shocked expression on his face. “Yeah… we think there is an army of monsters coming your way.” Brimstoke stated uneasily. Before Glimmer Shine could reply, a loud growl came from the darkness outside of the barrier. More growls and screeches joined the first one until there was an uproar of feral noises surrounding the entire area. The joy that the ponies felt was immediately replaced by terror. They darted their eyes around nervously as they spotted several dark shapes moving around just outside their bubble of protection. “Uh… Brimstoke, we’re going to have to get back to you.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily before letting his hoof drop to the floor. He grabbed his strobe and backed closer to the others. “Tom, I don’t suppose you can give us an idea of what’s out there can you?” Peppermint asked uneasily while glancing over to the human. Tom used his senses a few times, when he suddenly shivered forcefully and shook his head in disgust and shock. “I don’t think you want to know.” Tom replied with a hesitant tone. His response didn’t bring the amount of reassurance that the red haired stallion was looking for. If anything, it only made the pit in the ponies’ stomachs grow even deeper. Glimmer Shine, Peppermint, and the lone guard that was helping them backed into a circle and looked around anxiously. They weren’t sure which direction they would be attacked from, but they were certain that they would be attacked. Suddenly, the group noticed a pack of darklings jumping out into the light. The four beasts looked around at the various candles scattered around on the ground. They then roared loudly in anger at the annoying blue objects. “I think they don’t care about the candles anymore.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. As if in response to the stallion’s statement, one of the darklings used its front paw to kick one of the candles over towards the ponies. The candle bounced along the ground a few times before being snuffed out as it settled flame side down. “Ok, scratch that… they definitely don’t care about the candles anymore.” Glimmer Shine added with an expression of dismay plastered on his face. “Heads up!” Peppermint yelled as the darklings started running towards them. As the three monsters rushed forward with their teeth bared, the three ponies prepared for battle. Glimmer Shine and Peppermint opened fire with their strobes. The darklings dodged to the side as the incoming bolts of energy whizzed by their forms. One of the darklings caught a blast right in its mouth. The bolt of light exploded, knocking the beast off balance as its form had a sizable hole punched into it. The two ponies took advantage of the stumbling monster and focused their fire on it. While their comrade exploded into black smoke behind them, the remaining three darklings continued running towards the ponies. Just before they were about to collide with the two stallions, the guard beside them stepped forward and swung his sword sideways. One of the beasts caught the glowing blade in its mouth while the other two prepared to jump the occupied stallion. Before the creatures could even think about leaping on the guard, Glimmer Shine and Peppermint gunned them down in a flash of lights and smoke. They turned to assist the guard with his darkling, when he suddenly ripped the sword out of the monster’s mouth, killing it in the process. “Nicely done.” Glimmer Shine said with a smirk. The guard nodded in satisfaction at his good performance. “Look out!” Twilight yelled while pointing behind the three. Glimmer Shine and the others looked behind them to see two of the monkey creatures leaping towards them with their bladed hands reeled back for a strike. “Ack!” The ponies yelped in surprise while jumping backwards to get out of the way. The two monsters landed and shrieked as they missed their prey. They then jumped forward again to engage the escaping stallions. One of the creatures went after Glimmer Shine and Peppermint. It ducked and weaved around every strobe blast they sent its way as it slowly gained ground on them. Meanwhile, the other creature went after the lone guard. The white stallion backpedaled slowly while sizing the frightful monster up. He watched nervously as the beast snarled and stared at him with its multiple glowing eyes. It swiped its sickle-shaped claws in the air a few times while stepping forward menacingly. “Ragh!” The guard yelled fiercely while swiping his sword sideways at the monster. The blade collided with the creature’s claws, forcing the stallion to pull back and dodge the impending counterattack. The creature screeched with each strike it made. The guard barely managed to maneuver his sword in time to block each blow. The vicious attacks from the beast drove the white stallion backwards as he desperately tried to keep up. Suddenly, the sword went flying out of the guard’s mouth. The blade slid along the ground sideways until it fell out of the barrier. The stallion suddenly realized that he was right next to the edge of the safe area. Looking over to Glimmer Shine and Peppermint for aid, the guard quickly realized that they were busy with their own monster. The creature was still dodging every blast the pair shot at it. “Ack!” The guard yelped in surprise as the monster leapt onto him. He slid backwards and just barely halted inside of the bubble of protection. The top of his helmet was jutting out of the barrier. He could feel the coldness of the dark matter radiating through the metallic headpiece. “AH!” The guard yelled in fright as the beast on top of him reeled its arm back for a strike. He saw his entire life flashing before his eyes. Before the stallion met his end, a burst of light crashed into the shadowy beast. The guard saw bolts of energy burning through the monster, leaving holes in its body that poured out black smoke. Once the creature faded into a cloud of smoke on top of him, the guard looked up to find his savior. Much to his surprise, he still saw Peppermint and Glimmer Shine struggling with their monster. Suddenly, another set of energy blasts slammed into the other beast from the side. Everyone looked over to see the disabled stallion pointing his strobe forward, but they also saw another surprising sight. “Glitter?” Glimmer Shine asked in a surprised tone as he looked over to the unicorn. Not only was she awake and alert, but she was also pointing her strobe forward confidently. “What did I miss?” Glitterball asked with a small smirk while blowing the smoke off of the tip of her strobe. “Not much… we’re up to our eyes in these freaks, though.” Glimmer Shine replied while offering his sword to the guard in place of the one he lost. “Well I would love to help, but I need to get back to work.” Glitterball replied while lighting up her horn and concentrating. Despite her exhaustion, she immediately returned to gathering energy for the princess’s spell. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and his brother returned their attention to the many creatures around them. More and more different monsters were walking through the barrier in an attempt at getting to the ponies. The three stallions did their best to keep on top of all of the creatures coming for them while also trying to dodge any attacks coming their way. The constant firing of the brothers’ strobes filled the air as they dispatched every darkling, every crawling alligator monster, and every screeching primate creature they found. It seemed like what Brimstoke said was true and every monster in the entire building was coming after them in force. Suddenly, a small flying object landed at Glimmer Shine’s feet and embedded itself into the floor. The object resembled a thorn that would come from a plant, but it was the biggest thorn that the stallion had ever seen. “What the…?” Glimmer Shine muttered in confusion. Suddenly, another thorn whizzed by his head. After several more sharp flying spikes sailed past the ponies, they looked forward to find the cause of the assault. A small creature slowly stepped out of the darkness. It resembled a fox, but not any fox that one would find roaming around in the woods. This fox seemed to have been plucked straight from some filly’s worst nightmare. The fox had pitch black fur, just like every other shadow creature the group had fought. It also had a mouth full of gnarled razor sharp teeth and two glowing red slits above its mouth, also like every other shadow creature the group had fought. What set the small monster apart from the rest of the beasts the ponies had come across were its thorns. There were small spikes jutting out of the creature’s body nearly everywhere. To match with its appearance, its tail came to an end at a larger spike that resembled the ones that Glimmer Shine and the others had been dodging. “Sweet Celestia… how many different shadow creatures are there Tom?!” Glimmer Shine asked while dodging another spike launched from the beast’s tail. “I don’t know. How many different animals are there?” Tom replied. The ponies couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not, and they weren’t sure which would be worse. “Hay with this…” Glimmer Shine muttered angrily. He was tired of these monsters. If he ever saw another shadow creature in his life it would be too soon. Deciding that enough was enough, he readied his strobe and pointed it at the disturbing animal. Just as the yellow stallion fired a blast at the creature, it flicked its tail at him and shot out another spike. The blast of light exploded into the monster, killing it instantly. Meanwhile, the thorn whizzed through the air towards the yellow pony. Glimmer Shine prepared to dodge the attack when it suspiciously veered off to the side and completely missed him. Glimmer Shine turned his head just in time to watch the thorn fly at the unicorn guard assisting Tom. Before anyone could react, the spike flew right into the brown stallion’s chest and embedded itself into it. The guard’s armor cracked from the force of the piercing thorn, seemingly impaling him deeply. “Gah!” The unicorn groaned in pain while clutching the already bleeding injury. He stumbled backwards for a moment before collapsing to the floor and going limp. As his horn dimmed, the spell he was casting died out as well. “Agh!” Tom yelled in pain while falling to his knees. The barrier of light that was keeping the ponies safe suddenly dipped downwards a considerable amount as the human struggled to keep up with the immense strength of the cloud by himself. “Tom!” The others yelled fearfully as they realized what was happening. Twilight looked around at the progressively shrinking barrier that separated the darkness outside from their zone of safety. At this rate, they would all be submerged in pitch blackness with a life sucking cloud of evil at their backs within a few short moments. “Hold on, Tom! I’m coming!” Twilight exclaimed while rushing forward. She ran across the roof to where the human was and raced to use the spell to transfer her energy to him. As Twilight made the connection with the boy, she immediately felt the strain he was going through. She now understood why he couldn’t fend off the dark matter by himself. He wasn’t even able to match up with its level of power without her assistance. Tom pushed hard against the encroaching cloud, sending it back to its original position. Now that the group had some breathing room, the human slowly got back to a standing position and breathed a sigh of relief. “Nice save…” Tom stated in an impressed tone while glancing beside him to the unicorn. Twilight chuckled slightly as she let a small smile fall across her face. “Thanks.” Twilight replied with a slight smirk. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and Peppermint were examining the unicorn guard that got attacked by the fox creature. Peppermint checked the motionless stallion for any signs of life while everyone else watched anxiously. “Is he…” Twilight asked uneasily while staring at the large spike embedded into the unicorn’s chest. “I’m afraid so.” Peppermint replied while shaking his head sadly. He couldn’t find a pulse on the unconscious stallion, and he wasn’t breathing. It wasn’t hard to believe that he was dead considering the scope of his injury. “*Sigh*… We need to be more careful. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.” Twilight lowered her head sadly at the prospect of her companions dying. Her group hadn’t been that large to begin with, but now it felt like she was practically alone on the roof. Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a loud roar that was so low in pitch that it shook their bodies slightly as it reverberated around the roof. The loud noise was followed by what sounded like the footsteps of something large. The group didn’t need to wonder as to the source of the frightening noises for long however, as a large black shape slowly approached the barrier and stepped through. The hulking beast that was revealed seemed more humanoid in shape than animalistic. It had two large arms that seemed to be slightly disproportionate to the rest of its body. It also had one large glowing red eye in the center of its chest. “AHH!” Rarity screamed in terror as she recognized the beast. “That’s the brute that attacked me out in the hallway!” She exclaimed in a nervous panic as memories of what happened before her concussion came flooding back to her. “I’ll handle this guy!” Glimmer Shine stated with a determined expression while readying his strobe. He fired off a bolt of light that sailed right into the hulking monster and exploded into its shadowy skin. When the bright light faded however, the only sign that the monster had taken damage was a small puff of white smoke trailing off its otherwise undamaged body. “Uh oh…” Glimmer Shine felt his blood run cold as he looked down at his strobe. The weight that it once carried all but vanished, leaving him holding the small paperweight that it felt like all along. *Grroaar!* The beast let out a deafening roar while settling its singular eye on the ponies in front of it. The group felt their hearts collectively skip a beat as the noise shook their very beings. “Shoot it!” The lieutenant yelled while uneasily watching the battle about to take place. “I tried that already!” Glimmer Shine yelled back in response. “Well shoot it some more!” The unicorn instructed urgently. While the large creature took a single menacing step forward, Peppermint and Glimmer Shine both readied their strobes. Without so much as a countdown for preparation, the brothers unloaded into the towering beast with their weapons. Blast after blast slammed into the monster and exploded into a shower of brilliant sparks. white smoke poured off of the creature’s body in streams, but it seemed to have only been enraged by the constant assault. Meanwhile, while the two brothers were attacking the beast from the front, the lone guard rushed behind the monster for a sneak attack. He reeled his sword back and swung at the beast’s legs with all of his might. The luminescent blade cut through the monster with relative ease, eliciting a deafening cry of pain from the creature. The monster immediately turned around and pounded its massive fist into the ground where the pony was. The guard barely managed to move out of the way before the thundering strike landed on him. When the creature moved its fist, there was a large indentation in the floor with numerous cracks forming along the sides. The white stallion used this as an opportunity and swung his sword across the monster’s side. The beast whipped its arm around, smacking the fleeing pony and sending him rolling from the impact. It didn’t even seem like the monster put that much effort into the strike, but it was enough to send the guard flying along the ground. While the dazed guard skidded to a halt on the other side of the roof, Twilight and Tom were nervously stepping back to distance themselves from the hulking monster. Finally, Tom lowered one of his hands from fending off the dark matter. With the added energy the purple mare was giving him, it should have been no problem to dispatch a simple shadow creature. “Hey blinky, feast your eye on this!” Tom yelled fiercely while shooting a beam of energy at the creature. The blue stream of light collided with the monster and enveloped it. The ponies smiled as they anticipated victory. As the light died down and the smoke cleared however, their hopes were suddenly dashed as they noticed that the creature was still standing. There was some black smoke trailing off of its body, indicating that the attack at least somewhat hurt the beast. However, it was otherwise unfazed by the human’s attack. “Oh no! What do we do?!” Twilight asked while frantically trying to think of a solution. Meanwhile, the angry beast was now staring at them with its singular eye. “For the moment… We get out of here!” Tom yelled while sidestepping to distance himself from the monster. Twilight followed the human as he awkwardly tried to move while simultaneously trying to fend off the cloud of dark matter. Rarity, Glitterball, and the lieutenant were watching anxiously as the others fought the monster. Nothing they were doing was even making a dent in the hulking beast. It was only a matter of time before the creature actually managed to land a fatal hit on one of them. “Princess, how much longer until the spell is finished?” The brown stallion asked uneasily. Although he was providing energy for the spell, he couldn’t actually tell how much progress was being made on it. Luna glanced up at the battle taking place just a short distance away. She frowned uneasily as she realized that the others were steadily losing the fight. “It’s almost done… we just need a few more minutes.” Luna explained with an anxious tone of voice. She didn’t like the way things were turning out just as much as the others didn’t. “They don’t have a few more minutes…” The lieutenant stated while looking forward with a determined expression. Suddenly, he broke off from the spell and rushed forward into battle. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was desperately trying to avoid the attacks coming from the giant monster. He had to put all of his effort into each dodge he made just to prevent himself from contacting the beast’s fist as it whizzed by his head. Suddenly, he fell to the floor as he jumped over one of the monster’s strikes and caught his legs on the hulking fist as it sailed underneath him. After rolling on the ground briefly and recovering, Glimmer Shine looked up to see the monster preparing to pound him into pony dust. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was punched clean through the roof and onto the next floor. “AH!” Glimmer Shine yelled in terror while averting his eyes and cringing tightly. Suddenly, he heard a magical buzz and heard the creature grunting angrily. The yellow stallion looked up to see that the monster was being held by a magical aura. Glimmer Shine and the others looked over to see the lieutenant struggling to keep the monster frozen in place. He seemed to be having a difficult time of even holding on to the hulking beast. The monster strained its muscles to fight against the unicorn’s influence. It managed to move in tiny increments as it slowly won the upper hand. Suddenly, it managed to break free of the aura keeping it in place. The beast threw a heavy punch at the unicorn, knocking him clean off of his feet and through the air. “AHHHHHHHH.” The brown stallion screamed as he was sent flying outside of the barrier. With how fast he was going, it wasn’t too hard to believe that he fell off of the roof entirely. “NO!” Rarity and the others yelled in shock as they watched the lieutenant fly out of view. It was horrifying for everyone, but the white unicorn was affected the most. The stallion was the one who had rescued her and Fluttershy while wandering out in the hallways. If it wasn’t for him, she might not even be alive right now. The loss of their comrade couldn’t be mourned however as the monster turned its attention to the others. It stalked closer to Twilight and Tom while completely ignoring any attempts made by Glimmer Shine and Peppermint to distract it. “Princess, we have to help them!” Rarity stated frantically while darting her head between the alicorn and her friends. “I know… stand back.” Luna instructed as she got up from her seated position. She faced towards the beast with a determined expression before focusing on casting the spell she had been preparing for this whole time. Although it wasn’t quite as charged up as she would have liked, it was close enough for her. Suddenly, a bright wave of energy erupted from the alicorn’s horn. The blinding light radiated out of her horn in all directions, soaring outwards in a sort of dome of effect. The light immediately collided with the hulking creature, blowing it into smoke before continuing on its path. The ponies all covered their eyes and waited as they felt their hair getting blown back from the force. The light collided with the dark matter outside of the barrier and kept going. It seemingly pushed back the wall of darkness that had trapped the ponies inside of the station with relative ease. The group watched eagerly as their plan for freedom was about to bear fruit. “We did it!” Twilight cheered in excitement while grabbing the nearest person, in this case Tom, and pulling him in for a hug. The human was glad that he could finally rest from fighting the dark matter, but it was hard to breathe a sigh of relief with the purple unicorn squeezing him so tightly. “Finally! We can get out of this dreadful place!” Rarity stated with a joyful smile as she watched the wave of energy continuing on its path. Suddenly, the blinding light died down. The ponies expected to be greeted with the clear blue skies of Ponyville, but what actually greeted them made their jaws drop in shock and horror. The pitch black cloud of dark matter was still intact. It didn’t even have any holes punched into it. The only thing that the light did was push the cloud outwards until it vanished. “W…w…wh…” Twilight was at a loss for words as she blinked rapidly. She thought that maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but no matter how many times she blinked, the darkness remained. “How is this possible…? We put so much energy into that spell…” Luna stated in a shocked tone. She couldn’t even fathom how powerful the dark matter must have been to weather such a strong magical spell. The dark matter rapidly closed in around the ponies until it returned to its original position. Tom quickly placed his hands upwards and projected his light again. He struggled to keep the cloud at bay as it continued getting closer and closer. “Cast the spell on me Twilight!” Tom instructed frantically. The cloud felt like it was ignoring his attempts at fending it off, only being barely kept at bay by the blue light. “I am! It isn’t working!” Twilight replied with fear evident in her voice. Tom looked down to his body, only to see that the unicorn was already giving him energy. Despite this, the dark matter continued to press against him more than he could press back. “Did it get stronger?! How is that even possible?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone. Suddenly, Twilight felt something wrapping itself around her leg. She looked down just in time to see a shadowy tendril constricting her front leg and pulling taught. She felt herself getting pulled off balance violently. “AHH!” Twilight screamed as the tendril pulled her off of her feet and dragged her backwards. Without her spell to assist him, the human yelped in pain as the excessive force of the dark matter drove him to his knees. “Twilight!” Tom yelled as he helplessly watched the unicorn getting dragged towards the progressively shrinking wall of darkness. He couldn’t do anything to help her without dropping his hands and allowing the cloud to instantly smother the whole area. “TWILIGHT NO!” Rarity screamed as she saw her friend getting pulled closer to the wall of darkness. The purple unicorn desperately tried to grab onto the floor to prevent her inevitable demise. Suddenly, a bolt of energy flew into the tendril holding her in place. Twilight looked up to see Glitterball racing towards her. Despite her leg now being free, the purple mare was too close to the rapidly approaching edge of safety to be able to do anything. “AH!” Twilight screamed and covered her face with her forelegs as she felt her body crossing the barrier. She immediately heard the sound of roaring wind and the high pitched screeching enveloping her, snuffing out any other noise. “Hold on, Twilight!” Right before her head was enveloped, Twilight heard Glitterball yelling in a panic. She saw the rainbow haired unicorn racing to her and jumping into the darkness after her. Everyone else watched the two unicorns disappear behind the still approaching wall of darkness. Their hearts sunk as they realized that they were most likely dead and that they were about to join them in oblivion. “Girls!” Glimmer Shine yelled in a fearful panic as the still approaching wall of darkness made him back up. Everyone huddled together fearfully as they watched their approaching doom. Chapter 74: Picking up the PiecesWhere am I…? Twilight thought to herself as she tried to determine what direction she was facing. Between the pitch blackness around her, and the roaring wind in her ears, she was experiencing a sort of sensory deprivation that she couldn’t escape from. The unicorn’s entire body was freezing cold. It wasn’t like she was actually cold. It was more like she couldn’t feel anything. The only thing that even told her what was going on around her was a few scattered feelings of pressure on her numb body that she loosely translated as things touching her. Suddenly, Twilight felt something grab onto her shoulder. She looked over and barely noticed a pony shaped outline next to her. Judging from what she remembered before the dark matter swallowed her, she figured that the person next to her was Glitterball. “Glitter…?” Twilight spoke out loud, though the sound was immediately lost in the white noise surrounding her. As she spoke, the purple mare made a frightening discovery. I can’t breathe…! She became panicked as she clutched her throat. It felt like there was a thick cloud over her mouth that was preventing her from taking in any air. Any effort to take in oxygen was even further hampered by the numbness prevailing in her entire body, making it nearly impossible to fight to breathe. Glitterball pulled on the purple mare’s shoulder, lifting her off the ground slightly. Twilight figured that she was trying to get them out of the cloud of darkness. Deciding that escaping was her only way of surviving, the unicorn tried her best to get to her feet. Twilight quickly realized that she was far too weak to get up. Her entire body already felt numb, but now she felt like she was progressively getting weaker. Oh no, the dark matter must be draining my energy. We have to get out of here! She thought to herself with a sense of urgency taking over her. She turned to her side toward her only companion to see if she could somehow find a way to help her. Twilight suddenly felt Glitterball letting go of her. She noticed the outline of her friend dropping to the floor. The same feeling of numbness that had already taken her over must have been affecting the white mare as well. Twilight could feel a nagging tired sensation overwhelming her. She felt a strong urge to close her eyes and rest, but she knew that this would prove to be her end. Despite the knowledge that she had to fight to stay awake, she couldn’t shake the drowsy feeling she had. Is this it…? Is this how I die? She asked herself in thought. Twilight couldn’t believe that she was going to die like this. She still had so much to do. She couldn’t just die without making sure that the hooded ponies were stopped. It’s so dark… it’s so cold… I’m scared. Twilight’s mind raced at a million miles an hour, perhaps as a defense mechanism to keep herself awake. Regardless of why she was thinking so frantically, she couldn’t help but think about how dire her situation was. I… don’t want to… die... The purple mare could feel her body shutting down. Her mind was slowly filling with a haze similar to the one that was enveloping her form. She couldn’t see, but she could feel her eyes closing against her will. Twilight fought to keep them open, but her eyelids kept drifting downwards. Suddenly, Twilight saw a bright light out of the corner of her eye. The sudden stimulation gave her the energy to open her eyes fully. She watched curiously as the light rapidly washed over her, growing in intensity to the point where she had to shut her eyes to protect them from the light. Thankfully, she no longer felt tired. In fact, the numb feeling in her body was slowly disappearing and being replaced with warmth. When the unicorn opened her eyes, she saw the light dying down. Much to her surprise, she could also see the sky above her in all of its clear blue glory. She slowly moved her head around until she could see the entire roof. Twilight noticed Princess Luna and the others huddled into a pile where she had last seen them. They seemed equally surprised to be alive, so they were most likely not the reason why the dark matter was defeated. As she heard the fluttering of wings, Twilight looked to the side to see a familiar white alicorn flying up to the roof. The sight of the princess landing on the roof and walking up to her was almost too good to be true. “P… princess?” Twilight spoke weakly. Despite her senses returning to her, her body still felt numb and weak. The alicorn smiled as she saw that her student was still alive. She seemed to be relieved that she made it just in time to save the group of ponies. “Conserve your energy, my student. Everything is going to be ok… for now, just lie down and rest.” Celestia explained in a comforting tone of voice. Twilight slowly let a smile creep across her face. She wanted to get up and cheer, or perhaps hug her mentor, but she still felt much too weak. Now that she was safe, she could finally give in to her exhaustion. The unicorn laid her head back and closed her eyes to rest. “Sister!” Celestia turned around as she heard her sister calling for her. She was greeted with the sight of the blue alicorn rushing over to her along with the remaining members of her group. Celestia gladly embraced her younger sibling as she crashed into her. The young princess seemed to be relieved now that she wasn’t struggling to keep herself and the others alive. But more than anything, she seemed to be joyful now that her sister was with her. “I’m so glad to see you. I thought that we were going to die.” Luna stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes. “I’m glad that I made it in time… what happened here?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone as she thought back to how she found the station when she returned. “That pegasus with the shadow and her brother showed up when we were interrogating Cotton Quill. They killed him and summoned that cloud that almost killed us.” Glimmer Shine explained the situation as briefly as he could. “Good heavens…” Celestia muttered with a shocked expression on her face. She never expected the hooded ponies to go to such violent means, especially against one of their own members. “How many people were hurt in the attack?” She asked hesitantly. She didn’t like discussing casualties, and she didn’t like how often she was doing it in recent days either. “We’re not certain. We haven’t been able to search the building due to shadow creatures infesting it.” Luna explained with a saddened expression. She wondered what the body count would be once the entire station was swept. “Shadow creatures…?” Celestia asked in a surprised tone. “Yeah… apparently whatever spell these guys used to summon the dark matter tampered with it somehow. Almost every shadow creature me and several other slayers have seen flooded in through the windows. I’m fairly certain that most of them are still down there… especially in the basement.” Tom explained while gathering the energy needed to hobble over to the princess. Celestia sighed in a disheartened manner. She couldn’t believe how much of an upper hand the hooded ponies had gotten on her and Equestria in general. Still, she couldn’t dwell on the losses received due to the attacks. Not yet, not while there was still a job to do. “Glimmer Shine, call down to Brimstoke and Sunspot. Tell them to gather up a team of guards to go on a search party. I’m going to meet up with them so we can sweep the whole building for survivors and any remaining monsters.” Celestia spoke up with an expression of steely resolve. “Right away, princess.” Glimmer Shine replied with a brief nod. The alicorn smiled before turning her attention to the others. “Alright everyone, head downstairs and find a safe place. I think you have all earned a rest… I’ll take care of tying up loose ends.” Celestia said in a reassuring tone. Everyone smiled and breathed a sigh of relief now that they could relax. While everyone was preparing to relocate to a more comfortable position, Rarity walked over to the two unicorns lying on the floor. Both Glitterball and Twilight were still knocked out from their encounter with the dark matter. Seeing her friend in such a poor state made the white mare frown sadly. “Oh, Twilight…” Rarity muttered to herself in a disheartened tone. She couldn’t believe how close to death the purple mare had come, or how close to death she had come herself for that matter. “Hey, why don’t we take them down to the equipment room?” Peppermint suggested while walking beside the white unicorn. Rarity turned her head to see the red haired stallion looking at her with a small smile. “Of course darling… they need all the rest they can get.” Rarity replied with a nod. She turned her attention to her purple friend and lit up her horn. While Peppermint picked Glitterball up and placed her on his back, the unicorn placed Twilight onto her back gently. The pair joined the others and made their way to the stairway door. They couldn’t wait to get downstairs to see their friends, and more importantly, to get some rest. Meanwhile, out in the Everfree forest, two pegasi were walking along a path uneasily. They walked in silence while avoiding eye contact with each other. There seemed to be an air of frustration about them from some sort of conflict. Dust Kicker glanced to his sister. The pale mare was completely ignoring him with an agitated expression on her face. Finally, the stallion shrugged as he became fed up with the silence between him and his sibling. “Will you stop giving me the silent treatment already?” Dust asked in an annoyed tone. Raincloud briefly glanced at him before turning her nose up and scoffing the pegasus. “Oh come on, Rain… it wasn’t that bad.” He groaned uneasily, eliciting the gray mare to turn to him. “I could have taken them.” Raincloud stated in annoyance. “There were royal guards and civilians pouring in from every angle. One pictogram isn’t worth waging war with Ponyville.” Dust Kicker explained in an irritated manner. He knew he was right by forcing his sister to leave. If it were up to her, they would probably already be in jail, or worse. “It’s the principle of it, Dust. What’s the point of fear mongering if you can’t slaughter a few innocents in broad daylight?” Raincloud replied. “I doubt that Raven Feather would be happy if she found out that we slaughtered much of anything in broad daylight… let alone a few innocents.” Dust Kicker stated while air quoting the gray mare’s words. He had the sneaking suspicion that his sister wouldn’t have stopped anywhere near what most people would call a few. Raincloud rolled her eyes and shrugged in response. “Yeah, yeah… I know. Why do you think I left?” She asked with a slight smirk. The stallion was surprised to hear that she left of her own accord. “You left…? I recall having to practically pull you away from that pictogram.” Dust Kicker said while raising an eyebrow at the pale mare. Raincloud laughed heartily at the brown pony’s line of reasoning. “Oh please, Dust… like you could make me go anywhere I didn’t want to. What are you going to do? Sick your darklings on me? Don’t make me laugh…” Raincloud said with a warm chuckle. Dust Kicker shook his head and shrugged at the blue pegasus. As much as she annoyed him, he knew she was right. Her shadow would turn any mindless creature he could conjure up into mincemeat, and she didn’t even need extensive knowledge of shadow magic to use it. Not wanting to elicit any more frustrating conversations with his sister, the brown stallion walked on in silence. He was hoping that they would get to the mansion without anyone else speaking up, and thankfully he was right. The sprawling property was just starting to come into view through a clearing in the trees. The pair walked up to the iron fence surrounding the property and ducked through a large hole. They quickly made their way past all of the crumbling statues and dead trees to get out of the garden and up to the main house. Raincloud grabbed ahold of one of the large knockers on the door with her mouth and pulled on it until the door creaked open. She stood in front of her brother and motioned towards the inside while smirking. “After you.” Raincloud said while bowing her head to the stallion. “What happened to ladies first?” Dust Kicker asked curiously while stepping inside. “Age before beauty, dear brother.” Raincloud remarked playfully, eliciting a scornful glare from the older pegasus. The pale mare shoved her way past a hooded underling that was walking down the main staircase. The nervous pony backed up as far as he could to let the pair pass. If the ponies around the mansion had learned anything during their brief stay, it was to stay out of the way of Raven Feather and her inner circle, especially the more aggressive Raincloud. Without any further delay, the two made their way through the upstairs hallways until they found themselves in the main library. As expected, they found Raven Feather sitting at the back of the room as she usually did during this time of day. Along with the black earth pony, Grimwood and Shadow Mist were present, sitting at Raven Feather’s side and leaning up against a bookshelf off to the side of the room respectively. Once she noticed the pair entering the room, Raven Feather smiled and stood up to walk over to them. She seemed to have been incredibly confident in the siblings’ ability to complete the mission that they were given. “Raincloud, Dust Kicker, it’s good to see that you made it back. I was starting to worry about you for a minute there.” Raven Feather said while greeting the two with a brief hoof shake. “You know me Raven Feather, I’m all about reliability. Dust here wanted to stay for a while to watch, but I talked him out of it.” Raincloud stated with a smirk while glancing over to her brother. Dust Kicker rolled his eyes and shrugged at the pale mare. “I assume that Cotton Quill is dead?” Raven Feather asked curiously. It was obvious that the white unicorn was no longer a problem, but she felt it necessary to check. “Yes… my shadow snuck in and did the job, and then we used the dark matter as a cover to escape. We even drew up a pictogram to gather some extra energy.” Raincloud explained in a prideful manner. She put extra emphasis on the fact that she had taken the initiative to draw a symbol for gathering energy. Raven Feather smiled joyfully at the news. Not only was Cotton Quill dead, but there was a lot more energy to work with now to make up for his past mistakes. All in all, the day was wrapping up rather nicely for the black mare. “That’s great! Very well done you two… there’s just one more thing I need to ask.” Raven Feather added in a cursory manner. “Anything Raven Feather. I made sure to take care of every detail personally.” Raincloud said in a boastful tone while placing a hoof on her chest. She was clearly enjoying her success a lot more than her brother. “What did Cotton tell them before he died? Did he break under pressure or did he hold up?” Raven Feather asked curiously. The pale mare’s ego immediately deflated as she realized one crucial detail she hadn’t attended to. “Uh… well umm… you see…” Raincloud muttered while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. She looked away as she tried to think of a better way to put the news that she was about to dispense. “We don’t know if Cotton said anything… we didn’t manage to overhear anything before we killed him.” Dust Kicker spoke up in place of his sister. The gray mare glared at him for putting it so bluntly. “Dust! What the hell man? You’re supposed to have my back here.” Raincloud whispered angrily to him while giving him a not so gentle shove with her elbow. “So what you’re telling me is that we have no idea if the princess knows where we are or not…?” Raven Feather asked with a slight hint of agitation in her voice. “Umm… well… *Sigh* No Raven Feather, we don’t.” Raincloud lowered her head in defeat as she found no other way to recap the scenario. “Ugh… it’s just one thing after another this week. Was I cruel to puppies in a previous life? Well… more so than I have been in this life.” Raven Feather said while shifting her eyes to the side pensively. “Sorry, Raven Feather… there wasn’t much we could do. I wanted to take him out as fast as I could, so I didn’t think to listen in on him.” Raincloud said with a noticeable hint of humility in her voice. She didn’t like disappointing the black mare. After all, aside from her brother, Raven Feather was pretty much the only family she had. The hooded workers around the room were surprised to hear the pale mare owning up to her mistake. Usually, she didn’t show any hint of remorse for any action she took, no matter how small. The ponies had to glance in her general direction every once in a while for fear that she might see them looking at her with judging eyes. “Don’t worry, Raincloud. I’m not upset at you… I don’t care if he is dead, I can still direct my anger at Cotton Quill.” Raven Feather said while raising her voice slightly. She took a moment to check her temper before continuing. “Anyway… the fact still remains that you completed your mission without a hitch.” She added in a reassuring tone. “But we still have a major problem on our hooves.” Dust Kicker stated to remind the group of their situation. “I know…” Raven Feather shrugged while looking down in thought. Now that their base of operations was possibly compromised, the group needed to take preemptive action to make sure that they weren’t caught off guard. “Gather everyone up and tell them to gather their things and all of the vital research. We’re packing up and moving out.” Raven Feather instructed in a disheartened yet serious tone. Everyone widened their eyes in shock at what their leader just said. “What?! Are you serious?!” Raincloud asked in disbelief. “I’m very serious Raincloud… The royal guard could beat down our door by tomorrow. We need to make sure that we aren’t here when that happens.” Raven Feather replied. “But… what do we do? It’s not like we can just start over and gather more energy. And all of the equipment and spells we need to maintain the supply we have would take months to make somewhere else… and-” Raincloud spoke up in a concerned tone until she was interrupted by Raven Feather. “And if we don’t maintain our supply within a few days then we will be starting from scratch. I know, Raincloud… I’m well aware of how all of this works.” The black mare droned in an agitated manner. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes to reflect on her frustrating situation. “We’re going to have to improvise somehow… I’ll think of something. Just get everything ready to move.” Raven Feather added in a disheartened tone. All of the stress was starting to get to her as she hung her head sadly. “Sorry, Raven Feather… We’ll get right on it.” Raincloud said while shrugging in defeat. The green eyed pony was having a bad enough day without her arguing to make things worse. The pale pegasus turned to her brother before glancing around at the numerous ponies listening and watching from around the room. “You heard the lady, everyone get off your tails and get moving! We need to get a lot of research packed up by tomorrow!” Raincloud instructed in a commanding tone. All of the hooded ponies around the room jumped in their seats before scrambling to do as they were told. They all rushed out of the room and went to start the process of compiling all of the important supplies around the mansion. Raincloud and Dust Kicker quickly joined the crowd of ponies leaving the room. They knew that they would have to organize the many ponies lest they run around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Raven Feather started to walk towards the door. She had much to do in a short amount of time, so the sooner she started working the better. Grimwood glanced to Shadow Mist as the black mare walked away. He knew that he should at least make another attempt at letting his sister see things his way. “Hey, Raven Feather…” The pale colt spoke up while trotting alongside the older mare. Raven Feather turned to her brother and sighed before putting on a small smile. She didn’t want to ignore her brother, but she had a lot on her mind. “What is it Grim?” Raven Feather asked while trying to muster enough energy to sound interested in what the young pony had to say. “I think I found something you should see about the eternal night. I was looking over some of the older texts and cross referencing them with-” Grimwood explained while holding up one of the books he had been using for reference. Raven Feather suddenly put her hoof up to interrupt the pale colt. “Grim… I’ve told you to stop reading the older works. You know that they are completely falsified by my research.” Raven Feather stated while making every effort to not sound harsh. “But Raven Feather, I-” Grimwood tried to speak up when he was interrupted yet again by his sister. The black mare raised her voice slightly, eliciting the young pony to fall silent. “Grimwood, please don’t do this now. I’ve tried to be nice about humoring your theories, but I have too much to deal with right now. Just let me worry about the eternal night right now, ok?” Raven Feather asked while continuing to walk forward dismissively. “But… but-” Grimwood tried to get the black mare’s attention, but she ignored him and walked out of the room. “But it’s important… *Sigh*” Now that his effort was shot down yet again, the pale colt turned his attention to the one person that followed his beliefs. Shadow Mist walked up to the young pony with a sympathetic expression. Even though the colt seemed to be unaffected by being brushed off by his sister, he still felt bad for him. “See what I mean? She just won’t listen to me.” Grimwood explained while shaking his head slowly in disappointment. “Well to be fair, you are trying to get her to believe in something that flies in the face of years of hard studying… I mean come on, do you even remember how often she was in here reading books when we first found this place?” Shadow Mist stated lightheartedly. “Yeah… and people think I’m not very sociable. She barely came out to eat some days.” The pale colt said while thinking back to how much research his sister put into finding out about the eternal night. He wondered how she could be so wrong about it after so much hard work. “So… you want to share with the class and tell me the rest of your plan? Because right now it looks like you just sent everyone into a blind frenzy.” Shadow Mist asked curiously. He wasn’t sure of the merit of the colt’s plan. From the outside looking in, it seemed like he was working against his sister rather than for her. “That’s why I set up Cotton in the first place,” Grimwood stated with a slight hint of pride in his usual dull tone. “Now that Raven Feather is being forced to pack up and move, her best option will be to perform the ritual early. Once that happens, we can step in and show her that we’re the ones who really know how to start the eternal night.” He fiddled his hooves together eagerly, all the while only managing a small smirk on his otherwise blank face. “You mean that you wanted Cotton to tell them how to find us?” Shadow Mist asked in a surprised tone. He was more intrigued and confused by the startling plan than shocked. “More or less… I suppose there is the chance that he didn’t say anything. If he did, the princess will most likely bring the elements with her when she comes for us as a safety precaution. Then you can collect the rest of the samples we need from each of them. If Cotton didn’t squeal, however, we will just need to collect the samples by going to them. Either way, Raven Feather should push for us to perform the ritual within the next few days.” Grimwood explained his plan in depth to the eagerly listening stallion. Shadow Mist was impressed by how much thought he had put into this. “Wow… That is actually really well thought out. The mansion will be empty by the time they get around to raiding us, so I will just have to sneak up on them and collect the rest of their blood while they search the place.” Shadow Mist said in an intrigued tone. “Precisely… now then, you should probably get going. Raven Feather will be expecting you to help with packing everything up. And you will also need to prepare our own research for travel by tomorrow as well.” Grimwood said while motioning over to the door. Shadow Mist nodded while getting up and walking out of the library. The pale colt smirked slightly as he watched the stallion leave. Soon enough, his sister would praise him for saving the plan that she was too stubborn to realize that she was driving into the ground. Twilight opened her eyes slowly. She felt incredibly tired. So much so that she could barely lift her head or move her body. Deciding that getting up so quickly was a bad idea, the unicorn first focused on opening her eyes all of the way. Blurry images and sounds started coming into focus. Before long, the colorful shapes and muffled voices around her she recognized to be ponies. She quickly noticed the sight of her friends sitting a short distance away chatting amongst themselves. Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and even Applejack were huddled together with concerned expressions on their faces. They seemed to have been watching the purple mare for a while as she slept. Hearing the slight groaning coming from the unicorn, Pinkie Pie turned her attention back to her unconscious friend and gasped in surprise. “Look girls, she’s waking up!” Pinkie exclaimed in excitement. The others turned their heads forward to see Twilight trying to push herself off of the floor. Twilight slowly managed to get herself to a seated position while her friends gathered around her with cheerful smiles. She quickly realized that she was wearing a fuzzy gray blanket. She also realized that she was incredibly cold still from her previous encounter with the dark matter. Before, she had been too numbed out to notice, but now it felt like she had taken a bath in ice water. “W-w-where a-am I?” Twilight asked through chattering teeth while holding the blanket close to her body. “You’re in the equipment room darling. They moved all of the injured ponies in here so they could take care of them better.” Rarity explained while placing a reassuring hoof on the freezing mare’s shoulder. Twilight’s body was so cold that she could feel it through the blanket. It wasn’t much of a surprise that she would be cold once she woke up. Her skin had been turning a bluish shade of purple ever since they had moved her. “Oh…” Twilight muttered in between fits of shivering. She didn’t feel like talking, but she wanted to respond to her friends in even the smallest way. “From what Ah hear, you best be countin’ your lucky stars Twilight. You almost didn’t make it offa’ that roof.” Applejack said in a concerned tone. She was glad that none of her friends had gotten hurt in her absence. “According to Tom, the only reason you did survive was because Glitterball rushed in after you. Apparently, the dark matter had to spread its effort between draining the energy out of the two of you.” Rarity explained in a troubled tone. Twilight suddenly became alarmed at the mention of the white unicorn that had saved her. From what she remembered, she had taken most of the dark matter’s draining capabilities due to her standing up and trying to pull the purple mare out. “W-where’s Glitter? Is she ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking around the room fearfully. “Relax Twilight. She’s in the other room. She’s still knocked out, but according to Peppermint she will be fine.” Rainbow Dash said in a comforting tone while reaching forward and gently pushing the sickly unicorn back to a seated position. “I want to s-see her.” Twilight stated while trying to get up, only to be met by Applejack and Rainbow Dash holding her down. “Now hold on a second sugarcube. You need to stay here and rest until the others get back and give you the ok to leave.” Applejack said in a lovingly firm tone. Twilight glanced at the farm pony and tried to put on her best pleading expression. Judging from the serious look that Applejack was giving her, the unicorn realized that she would probably tie her down to rest if the need arose. “*Sigh* Fine… wait, what do you mean when the others get back?” Twilight asked curiously. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are taking Tom and the others on a sweep through the building. They’re making sure that no more of those horrible monsters are here.” Fluttershy explained nervously. The mere thought of the terrifying beasts she encountered sent a cold chill up her spine that made her shiver with equal intensity to the purple unicorn. “And how long have they been gone?” Twilight asked while glancing up at the clock on the wall to find out what time it was. “Around an hour or so… they said they only had to clear out the basement the last time they checked in.” Rainbow Dash replied. “So… I guess that means we wait?” Twilight droned in an annoyed tone. She wanted to at least get up and move around, but she couldn’t until Peppermint cleared her as healthy. “Yep… but don’t worry, I know some great games we can play to pass the time! We could play I spy, or charades, or twenty questions, or twenty-one questions!” Pinkie Pie listed off all of the games she had in mind in a frantic and energetic tone, all the while getting progressively more excited. “I don’t know Pinkie… I’m not sure if I-” Twilight started to protest until she noticed the pink mare pouting sadly. “Come on… pleeaaase?” Pinkie asked with as wide of a pleading smile as she could manage. Twilight felt slightly bad for the pink mare. She must have felt horrible knowing that her friends were subjected to so many terrifying situations. And now she was trying to help in the only way she knew how, by having fun. “Well… alright, I suppose a few games couldn’t h-” The purple mare started to agree until she was interrupted again by another energetic outburst from the party pony. “Yaaaaay! We’re going to have so much fun! What game do you want to play first? Who wants to go first? Come on, anyone?” Pinkie asked while glancing around at her small group of friends. Everyone smiled awkwardly and glanced between themselves to see who would volunteer first. Five games of I spy, two games of charades, three games of twenty questions, and one game of twenty-one questions later, the ponies finally heard the sound of the door opening. They looked over to see Princess Celestia walking in with Glimmer Shine, Tom, and Peppermint. “Twilight! It’s good to see you’re awake.” Celestia said with a cheerful smile while walking up to the purple unicorn. “Thanks, princess. I feel much better now.” Twilight stated while taking note of her diminished feeling of coldness and her energy returning to her. “You look much better as well. You were almost as blue as Rainbow Dash when we first brought you down here.” Celestia said with a lighthearted tone. “How did the search through the station go? Are the monsters gone?” Twilight asked curiously. “Yep, we took care of all of the stragglers.” Tom explained with a slight smirk. The ponies were excited to hear that their ordeal was finally over. “That’s great! Now we can get back to… oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash frowned sadly as she remembered what the group had been doing before the attack. “I forgot that they killed that Cotton guy before all of this started.” The cyan pegasus droned in a defeated tone. With their prisoner dead, they were essentially back at square one with the investigation. Everyone shared in Rainbow Dash’s sadness. All of the sacrifices that had been made up to this point were for naught if they didn’t catch the ones responsible. “That reminds me… Cotton told us where their hideout is before he died. I think I still remember how to get there.” Glimmer Shine spoke up in an excited tone. “You can tell us how to find their base?” Celestia asked curiously, to which the yellow stallion nodded in response. “Yeah… I think he said that it was out in the Everfree Forest.” Glimmer Shine explained with an intrigued expression. “This is wonderful news. I will tell Luna so we can prepare a team to go down there and end this once and for all.” Celestia said in a relieved tone. She turned around and started to walk towards the door. “Princess…” Twilight spoke up to get the alicorn’s attention. Celestia turned around and looked at her student curiously. “What is it Twilight?” Celestia asked with genuine intrigue in her voice. “Do you know what the eternal night is?” Twilight asked curiously. Her question caught the princess off guard. “The eternal night… what do you mean?” Celestia said with a confused expression. “Cotton said that his leader was trying to invoke the eternal night, and that they were trying to kill us because the elements of harmony were the only things that could stop it. He referred to it like it was a specific thing… like, not just making the night last forever like what Nightmare Moon tried to do.” Twilight explained while trying to think about what Cotton Quill could have meant. “I’ve never heard of anything specifically known as the eternal night… but from the sound of it, it isn’t anything good.” Celestia stated while pondering on the matter further. Suddenly, Tom’s face paled as he dawned on something. The ponies looked at him curiously as they wondered what he had thought of. “Tom…? Are you ok? Do you know something about the eternal night?” Twilight asked hesitantly. It took a lot to make the human even flinch from fright or dread, so she didn’t like the fact that he looked like he had just seen a ghost. “The eternal night…? As in, the… eternal night?” Tom asked in a shocked tone. “Umm… yeah, I guess. We don’t know anything about it, so we aren’t sure what he was referring to.” Twilight replied with an uneasy expression. The human’s reaction was starting to scare her slightly. “What is the eternal night?” The unicorn asked in a pleading tone. She couldn’t take any more of the suspense in the air. “The eternal night is a very old legend… even for my standards. It was around long before the first slayer even came into existence. The legend says if someone were to find a way to invoke the eternal night that the sun would be blotted out of the sky and every evil creature that exists would be free to walk the earth. The only way to stop it once it starts would be to harness the raw elements of good in the world.” Tom explained the legend as closely as he could remember. The more he spoke, the more terrified the ponies became. The thoughts running through their heads made them huddle together and shiver with fright. “T-that sounds awful.” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully. The mere thought of such a terrifying event happening was enough to make her weak in the knees. “Every evil creature that exists… you mean, even the ones from your time?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. If the few monsters that the hooded ponies had summoned to Equestria filled her with terror, she didn’t want to know what a world full of monsters would be like. “Yes… that’s what the legend says. But in the end, it’s only supposed to be a legend. Nothing is supposed to be able to tip the balance of the world like that, for good or evil. Everything is supposed to exist in relatively equal balance… that’s why slayers were made in the first place.” Tom explained uneasily. He didn’t want to believe that something like the eternal night could exist. “Well, if these hooded ponies are trying to invoke the eternal night, we need to stop them, even if it is only a legend,” Celestia stated with a determined expression. “A threat to the world that large can’t be taken lightly… I need to go discuss this with my sister.” She said before turning and walking to the door. “But… what about us? The legend says that only the raw elements of good in the world can stop the eternal night. That must be referring to the elements of harmony. We need to go with you when you head to their base. It might be the only way we can prevent them from finishing their work!” Twilight reasoned anxiously. “I am aware of the risks Twilight… I will consider letting you go along, but for now, I just need to think things through with Luna.” Celestia explained while turning her head to face the group. Without another word, the alicorn walked to the door and exited the room. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her friends. They had no idea that the hooded ponies had something so catastrophic in store for Equestria. All they could do now was sit and reflect on their grim thoughts. Chapter 75: Planning AheadMeanwhile, on the other side of the station, things were much more frantic than the relaxed atmosphere of the equipment room. Various guards and other ponies rushed around the room on their assigned tasks. Some were tending to some of the injured ponies that hadn’t been transferred to the other room, some were investigating the still bloodstained interrogation room to gather any information they could, and some were simply taking a moment to be thankful for their miraculous survival. Sunspot and her small team were resting after finishing up their final sweep of the basement. Brimstoke had paired off with Neon Streak, Glimmer Shine, and Princess Luna, leaving the suited pegasus to join a small team of guards headed by Sargent Fireside. Even though she had done most of the work with her strobe, Sunspot didn’t seem to be nearly as exhausted as the guards around her were. She even seemed to be a little bored from the break in action she was having. While the orange mare was leaning up against a wall casually, Fireside and his men were winding down from the encounters they had in the basement and all throughout the building. They had never come up against a threat that was so overwhelming and foreign to them. Most of the guards were visibly shaken up from just seeing the terrifying beasts. “That was some outstanding work you and your team did out there Sunspot.” Fireside stated while giving the suited pony a brief congratulatory pat on the shoulder. Sunspot smirked at the praise and looks of amazement she was receiving from the guards around her. She knew that they were impressed by her entire team, but that didn’t stop her from basking in the spotlight for a moment by herself. “Just doing my job Sargent.” Sunspot replied with a smile. “Well, you must be really good at your job then. You barely even flinched at those things when we were clearing out the basement.” Fireside said in an impressed tone. Sunspot chuckled to herself at the mention of her bravery. Truth be told, she was only brave because she knew that there was a finite number of the monsters to deal with. All she had to do was blow the living daylights out of anything that moved with her strobe, and eventually, she would run out of things to shoot. “Yeah, well… you know how it is. The princess only picks the best of the best, and she asked me personally to join. I thought about turning her down… after all, there are only so many things I can do at once. But in the end, I decided to join her… I mean come on, it was the princess after all.” Sunspot boasted with a smirk while looking around at the impressed faces on the nearby guards. “It is nice to hear that I have the best of the best working for me.” A familiar voice spoke up, causing the group to dart their head to the side. Sunspot jumped slightly when she saw Princess Luna walking up to her with Brimstoke and Neon Streak in tow. “Princess Luna! Umm… I was uh…” Sunspot sweated nervously as she tried to think of a way to answer for her behavior. Luna chuckled and smiled at the pegasus as she tripped over herself trying to save face. “Don’t worry, Sunspot. Even alicorns have a sense of humor.” The princess said in a lighthearted tone. Sunspot chuckled and gave an awkward smile as she lowered herself to the floor. “Now then… we have managed to clear out the rest of the basement. The entire station should be completely monster free now.” Luna explained while turning to Fireside and his men. The guards were relieved to hear that their ordeal was over. “That’s great news!” Fireside exclaimed cheerfully. “Yeah, now all we have to do is lick our wounds and make a plan for dealing with these guys.” Brimstoke stated with a small smile. “I’m all for dealing with those hooded jerks. I’d like to give them a piece of my mind in person.” Sunspot said with eager enthusiasm. She looked like she was preparing to take on all of the hooded ponies by herself. All of the guards in the room nodded and voiced their agreement. They were far past finding a peaceful solution. They had been attacked in their own base, with their friends and coworkers injured or possibly dead. Each and every stallion was willing to wage a war with those responsible for this tragedy. “Don’t worry. I’m certain that my sister and I can find a way to effectively confront the hooded ponies. We will bring them to justice… one way, or another.” Luna said in a sincere tone while glancing around at the ponies around her. They were all willing to fight to protect their fellow Equestrians, and she respected each of them for their valor. Everyone quieted down and nodded in satisfaction. Now that they had finished securing the building, they were free to move around as they pleased. Most of the guards paired off and walked out of the room while chatting with each other. Some of the white stallions seemed a little more urgent in exiting the room, perhaps rushing off to assist some of the civilians around the building. As the last set of guards left the room, the group noticed a familiar white alicorn stepping into the room. Princess Celestia smiled as she noticed that everyone had returned safely from the basement. “Hello everyone.” Celestia greeted with a passing smile. Luna smiled in return and walked up to her sister with a thoughtful expression. “Sister, I think we need to talk. We need to discuss what we’re-” The blue alicorn spoke up until she was interrupted by her sister. “What we’re going to do about the hooded ponies. I was thinking the exact same thing… why don’t we take a walk and discuss this in private?” Celestia suggested while glancing around at the others. Luna glanced around as well before nodding in response. “That sounds like a good idea.” Luna said with a slight smirk. The two sisters gave a passing farewell to Brimstoke and the others before walking out of the room. The three ponies were suddenly left by themselves. There were only a few scattered guards and civilians left in the room, and they seemed to be occupied with their own affairs. Sunspot kicked her leg in the air passively while glancing between her two companions. “So uhh… I guess I’ll go check on the girls.” The orange pegasus suggested awkwardly. She desperately wanted to get away from idly standing around, and she also wanted to see if Glitterball had woken up, so she figured that heading to the equipment room was the best option. “Sounds good… Me and Neon will check up on the rest of the civvies. I’m sure they are still pretty shaken up.” Brimstoke said with a somber expression as he thought about the trauma that most of the innocent ponies around the station must have gone through. “Alright, I’ll be sure to give Glitter your regards.” Sunspot said while rushing out of the room. She barely even waved to her two teammates before exiting out of the door. Neon Streak and Brimstoke could tell that the orange mare was certainly eager to talk with Twilight and the others. Meanwhile, in the equipment room, Twilight and her friends were gathered around Glitterball waiting for her to wake up. The rainbow-haired unicorn was wrapped up in a blanket like Twilight was before she woke up, but unlike the purple mare, Glitterball had a lot more color to her appearance. She seemed to have warmed up a lot since her time up on the roof, much to the relief of those around her. Twilight sat next to the unconscious mare as the others chatted around her. She watched her almost peaceful breathing with a sad expression. Glitter had risked her life by jumping into the dark matter after her. She probably took more of the impact because of it. The purple mare would make sure to make it up to the unicorn for saving her life. She would have to make it up to a lot of people for saving her life after everything blew over. Maybe she could ask Pinkie Pie to throw a big party for everyone once the hooded ponies had been caught. The sound of the far door opening made the group turn their heads to investigate. Everyone noticed Sunspot walking through the door and closing it behind her. The pegasus smiled as she looked over at the group of ponies huddled around Glitterball. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” Sunspot asked in a cheerful manner while walking over to the group. Rainbow Dash walked forward to greet the orange mare, while everyone else remained where they were. “Hey Sunspot!” Rainbow said with a wide smile. “We’ve just been sitting here waiting for you guys. What have you been up to?” She asked in an intrigued tone. Sunspot chuckled and looked back towards the door as she remembered what she had been doing. “We just got done sweeping the basement all the way. We are officially monster free.” Sunspot stated with a pleased expression. Everyone smiled at the news that the building was finally safe. “Yay! We did it!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly. Twilight and the others shared in their pink friend’s joy, although at decidedly lower levels. “That’s great news Sunspot!” Twilight said with a relieved smile. She was glad to hear that everything had been successfully dealt with at the station. Now the group could solely focus on resting and recuperating from their experience. “Yeah… the princesses went out to talk about things, so we were left on our own pretty much. I decided to come down here to check on you guys.” Sunspot said while glancing around at the group. Despite her words, she seemed to be fixated on the unconscious unicorn wrapped up in a blanket beside Twilight. It wasn’t hard to tell that the orange mare was worried about her teammate. She was also beating herself up over the fact that she wasn’t there to help the group in their time of need. Before anyone could think of something to say to cheer up the sullen pegasus, the group heard a soft groan coming from behind them. Twilight felt the blanket beside her moving slightly. She looked over and saw Glitterball stirring from her sleep. “Look, everyone, she’s waking up!” The purple mare announced in an excited tone. Everyone quickly gathered around the rainbow haired unicorn and watched as she slowly picked herself up from the floor. Glitter sat up and opened her eyes slowly. “Wh…wha…?” Glitterball muttered in a daze as she looked around with a confused expression. The others waited for a moment as the white mare refocused her vision and started looking between them. “Where am I?” Glitterball asked in a sleepy tone while glancing down at the blanket covering her. “It’s about time you woke up! We were starting to worry about you for a minute there, Glitter.” Sunspot stated with a cheerful smirk while walking up to the white mare. “What happened…? Last thing I remember, I was on the roof trying to get Twilight out of that dark matter stuff.” Glitterball said while piecing together her memories. “You were. The dark matter made both of you pass out. Luckily for you, the princess showed up at the last minute and totally dominated that cloud thing.” Sunspot explained with an excited tone. Even if she hadn’t been there to see it, the pegasus was still amazed that the princess made such short work of the menacing bubble of darkness that had kept the building isolated from the outside world. “We… passed out?” Glitterball asked with a slightly saddened expression. She had hoped to rescue the purple mare when she braved the dark matter. It was supposed to be a quick trip in and out, but apparently, she had failed the unicorn. Spotting the frown on Glitter’s face, Twilight couldn’t help but frown sympathetically. She must have been kicking herself that her stunt didn’t work. The only reason they were still alive was because Celestia intervened. “You saved my life up there Glitter. The only reason either of us survived was because the dark matter couldn’t focus too much on both of us… thank you so much.” Twilight said while putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder and smiling. “I’m glad that things worked out… I didn’t really have a plan when I jumped in after you.” Glitterball admitted with a nervous chuckle while looking down. Despite her obvious disappointment in her actions, she flashed a brief smile from hearing that she had in fact accomplished her mission. Seeing the rainbow haired mare lightening up and smiling made Twilight smile warmly in return. Twilight didn’t care that the unicorn didn’t know what she was doing. She still risked her life to rescue her, and that was enough for the purple mare. “So… now that we’re all together and conscious, why don’t we all get something to eat? I’m sure I could round up something for everybody down at the break room.” Sunspot suggested eagerly. Upon the mention of food, everyone immediately felt their stomachs growling. Even if they could only get a few snacks from the break room, all of the ponies didn’t care as long as they had something to eat after all of their hard work. “Yes! Finally, someone addresses the food problem. Hiding from monsters is hard work. I’m starving!” Pinkie Pie spoke the mind of everyone else present. Twilight and the others nodded eagerly and voiced their agreement. “I’ll go with you. Let’s hurry up and get down there! If I have to wait any longer there isn’t going to be anything to bring back for the rest of you.” Rainbow Dash stated while stepping forward to accompany the orange pegasus. The others weren’t entirely sure if she was joking or not. “There better be something for us when you two get back, or else you will have to face the dire consequences.” Glitterball said with a playful glare directed at the two pegasi. She didn’t know if Rainbow Dash was joking, but she had worked with Sunspot long enough to know that she had a habit of hogging any food for the team that Brimstoke brought to the station back when they were training. “What’s that? I can’t hear you over all of that delicious food calling my name. Maybe you should get up and stop me if you want something yourself.” Sunspot replied with a playful smirk while walking out of the room with Rainbow Dash in tow. Glitterball tried to get up when she quickly realized that she still felt weak from her ordeal. Everyone laughed as the unicorn gave a frustrated shrug before pouting angrily and settling back to her seated position. Glitterball crossed her forelegs and looked at the floor while hoping against all odds that her teammate would bring her something to eat. While the ponies were all waiting for their two friends to bring them some food, some more serious business was going on outside. Princess Celestia was informing her younger sibling about everything that they had learned from Cotton Quill, from telling her where the hooded ponies were supposedly located, to discussing what Tom had told her about the nefarious group’s intentions. “So this… eternal night was it? That is what these ponies are after?” Luna asked to confirm the information she had just been given. Celestia nodded in response. “Yes. According to Twilight, that is what Cotton Quill said before he died.” Celestia explained. The blue alicorn shrugged and looked down with a troubled expression. “If that is the case… and if what Tom says is really true, then we had better pray that the eternal night really is just a legend.” Luna stated in a somber tone. The mere thought of the calamity that would be caused by such an event sent chills down the blue alicorn’s spine. When Luna’s mind was corrupted and she became Nightmare Moon, her intentions were noble, at least from her point of view. All she wanted to do was to make the ponies of Equestria appreciate her beautiful night, even if she did go about it in all the wrong ways. But this legend wasn’t anything like what Nightmare Moon ever dreamed of creating. The eternal night only existed to bring about suffering and death, and whoever would wish that evil upon the world was pure evil themselves. Celestia noticed her sister looking down in thought. Luna was utterly appalled by the sheer magnitude of the threat that they were facing. Of course, Celestia shared in her horror and fear. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the hooded ponies were successful, she couldn’t. The thought of her kingdom and all of her subjects perishing under such evils tore her up on the inside, but she had to stay strong, if not for her own sake, then for the sake of everyone that looked up to her. “Are you sure you still want to handle this on your own?” Celestia asked while glancing down to her sister. The blue alicorn looked up in surprise at the question. “What do you mean?” Luna asked curiously. “We need to strike them at their base if we are to succeed… I have no doubt that it will be incredibly dangerous. I could help you if you wish.” Celestia suggested in a caring tone. The blue alicorn merely shook her head in response. “No, sister… I will do this on my own.” Luna said with a determined expression. “If the intel Cotton Quill provided us with is to be believed, then I do not think that they are prepared to perform whatever ritual they have been working towards. Besides… if anything happens…” She looked away for a moment and frowned slightly. “It is probably for the best if we don’t go together… so there is still someone left to fight should the worst happen.” Luna explained hesitantly. Celestia was surprised at how mature her sister had gotten. While the thought of losing her sibling was horrible, it was tactically sound to not charge the hooded ponies head on with everything they had. If anything bad did happen, at least Celestia would still be left to deal with the aftermath. Luna suddenly felt her sister wrapping a foreleg around her. She looked up and saw the white alicorn smiling at her slightly. “I’m certain that you can handle yourself… just be safe and get back to me alive… ok?” Celestia said with loving concern evident in her voice. Luna smiled slightly and nodded in response. “Ok… I promise that I will do my best to make you proud.” Luna replied with a determined expression. Celestia chuckled warmly and deepened her smile. “You have already made me proud, Luna.” Celestia said with a sincere tone. Luna couldn’t help but smile at her sister’s words. After staying for a moment to enjoy their warm embrace, the two princesses separated. “I’m going to go gather up the guards and send the call out to get some reinforcements from Canterlot. We’re going to need to plan out our attack before we head out tonight.” Celestia explained. “We will also need to retrieve the elements of harmony for Twilight and the others to use… just in case.” Luna suggested while turning her thoughts to the elements of harmony themselves. The wielders of the elements couldn’t do anything if they didn’t have anything to wield. “Speaking of which… you should probably go ask the girls if they want to be a part of this. I want them to come only if they want to… this is a big mission after all.” Celestia said with a slight shrug. The blue alicorn nodded in response. “Very well, I will go talk to them.” Luna said while turning to walk away. Celestia nodded to her sister before walking off towards her own tasks. Back in the equipment room, everyone was enjoying their downtime by eating and chatting. Thankfully, Sunspot and Rainbow Dash had brought back enough food for everyone. Although it wasn’t exactly a five-star meal, it was satisfying and filling enough to please everyone. Twilight and Rarity sat near Glitterball in the middle of the room and chatted amongst themselves. Although Glitterball was steadily recovering, she had opted to not move from her blanket. Perhaps because she just enjoyed having an excuse for being able to relax under a warm blanket. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were at the back of the room leaning up against a wall and sitting down respectively. The orange mare tried to talk to her pink friend, but she seemed to be far too absorbed in her meal to pay much attention. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sat near Sunspot on the opposite side of the room. Fluttershy merely listened quietly as she ate while the other two mares talked about their own experiences in dealing with the monsters of the station. Suddenly, the group heard the door open at the front of the room. They looked up and saw Brimstoke, Neon Streak, and Tom entering the room. The three seemed happy to see the ponies enjoying themselves. “Hey guys, how is everyone doing?” Neon Streak asked while directing her gaze to Glitterball. She was glad to see that the unicorn was recovering from her injuries. “We’re doing fine now, Neon. How are things going out there?” Glitterball asked curiously. She had been sleeping ever since she passed out on the roof, so she had no idea what was happening outside of the equipment room. “Well, the building is clear. We’ve just been waiting for the princesses to get done discussing what to do next… and for you to wake up of course.” Neon replied while motioning towards the unicorn. “I’m awake now… so I guess that just leaves us to wait around some more.” Glitter said in a bored tone. “At least we have some food. I find waiting a lot easier when I can stuff my face full of junk food.” Sunspot chimed in with a chuckle. “I hope you brought enough for us.” Brimstoke said in a suspicious tone while glancing around at the rest of the group. There clearly was only enough food for the others. Sunspot chuckled nervously and glanced down. “Heh heh… sorry Brimstoke, I guess I didn’t think about getting something for you guys. You want the rest of my hay fries?” Sunspot asked with an awkward smile while holding up a container with barely anything left in it. The white stallion sighed and rolled his eyes. “I think I’ll pass…” Brimstoke replied in a dull tone. “Don’t worry Brimstoke, I’m sure that you can find something to eat after we’re done here.” The group suddenly heard the voice of Princess Luna speaking up. They turned to see the blue alicorn walking into the room by herself. “Princess Luna. What are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously while walking up to the princess. Everyone else dropped what they were doing and looked over to the alicorn to see what she had to say. “I’m here to check in on you all before we start planning. My sister and I have decided to stage an attack on the hooded ponies tonight, so we will need to gather up everyone that wants to go.” Luna explained while glancing around at the group gathered before her. Sunspot rushed to put her containers of food down and got to her feet. She walked forward and looked at the princess with an eager expression. “We’re attacking them tonight?! Count me in!” Sunspot exclaimed cheerfully while pumping her foreleg in the air in excitement. “Count me in too! There’s no way I’m missing out on this!” Rainbow Dash added with equal excitement and determination. “That is actually why I’m here, Rainbow Dash. I came here to see if all of you want to come along.” Luna said while looking between Twilight and her five fellow element bearers. “You mean… all of us?” Fluttershy asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice. “Precisely… I know that most of you want to be there when we strike the hooded ponies, but I wanted to make sure that all of you shared the same opinion. This is a dangerous mission after all.” Luna explained in a serious tone. Twilight and the others glanced at each other to see what everyone was thinking. Of course, Rainbow Dash was excited as usual at the prospect of going on such an adventure, but most of the other ponies wore blank expressions as they thought about if they wanted to go. “I assume that Princess Celestia told you about the eternal night… and how the only way to stop it is to use the elements of harmony. You probably wouldn’t ask us to go otherwise.” Twilight observed while looking around at her friends. Luna nodded in response. “You are correct, Twilight. We don’t think that you will need to use the elements… but we want to be safe. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, and you won’t need to go unless all of you agree.” Luna explained while looking around at the six ponies. She didn’t want to make anyone feel bad, but she knew that such a question would put pressure on those that were unsure of whether or not they wanted to go. Twilight glanced away and thought for a moment. This was it; her hopes had finally come true. They were finally going to take on the hooded ponies and bring them to justice. Everything that had happened in the past week had been boiling down to this day. The purple mare shifted her face to a determined expression. She wanted to finish the job that Princess Celestia had given her, and she would follow it to the bitter end if need be. “I’m going,” Twilight stated confidently. “I want to protect Equestria… these ponies have done enough harm.” She said with a determined tone of voice. Everyone was inspired by the purple unicorn. Once she voiced her opinion, they felt more confident in their decision to stand by her. “Ah’m going too. There is no way that Ah will let these hooded ponies hurt my friends.” Applejack said with a determined expression. “Yeah! We’re going to make these guys pay for what they’ve done!” Rainbow Dash said eagerly. “I’m coming too! Nobody is threatening Equestria on my watch!” Pinkie Pie chimed in confidently. “I’m going as well.” Rarity spoke up. Soon enough, everyone was huddled together cheering and voicing their willingness to come along. Everyone was bound and determined to work together and bring the hooded ponies to justice; everyone, except for one. “Umm…” Fluttershy muttered uncomfortably from the back of the group. Everyone quieted down once they noticed that the yellow mare hadn’t voiced her opinion. “Are you coming, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked, expecting the timid pegasus to immediately agree. Instead, Fluttershy merely lowered herself slightly with a nervous expression. “Umm… well, I want to help but I’m scared…” Fluttershy mumbled in a low whisper, barely loud enough to be heard. “What…?” Twilight asked curiously while stepping closer to hear the shy mare better. Fluttershy looked away timidly as her friends all looked to her. “I said I want to help but I’m scared…” Fluttershy muttered again even quieter than before. Her words only blended together into a silent garble. “You’re gonna have to speak up sugarcube.” Applejack said in a soft tone. Finally, the yellow mare shrugged in defeat and faced the group. “I’m scared to go!” Fluttershy said out loud. Before anyone could speak up, the yellow mare spoke again. “I know how much you guys want to go fight the hooded ponies… but… I just can’t. I barely managed to get through today without freezing up in fear… and that was just a few monsters. I would just be a hindrance to all of you. I’m sorry…” Fluttershy stated in a sad tone while looking down and closing her eyes. Everyone frowned while looking at the timid pegasus sympathetically. She was beating herself up so much for possibly letting her friends down, but she still felt like she couldn’t go. Whether or not she felt like she would be useless, or if she would be too scared to help out, she was certain that she would only make matters worse if she went. “Fluttershy… you would never be a hindrance to us.” Twilight said in a reassuring manner while walking up to Fluttershy and placing a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “In fact, we can’t do this without you.” She explained with a friendly smile. Fluttershy looked up in surprise as her friend tried to give her a pep talk. “Really?” Fluttershy asked with a sense of uncertainty. Twilight nodded with confidence. “Of course… the elements of harmony rely on our bonds of friendship to work. We need to be together to be at our strongest.” Twilight explained cheerfully while glancing around at the others, who all nodded in agreement. “Ah know that you’re scared Fluttershy, we all are. All Ah can say is that we’ll stick together and keep an eye out for you to keep you safe.” Applejack stated in a sincere tone. “Plus, you’ll have all of us to watch your back.” Sunspot said while looking to her teammates for support. Everyone nodded confidently while smiling at the timid pegasus. Fluttershy looked away in thought for a moment. She still felt nervous about going, but all of her friends looking at her with reassuring smiles made her feel a growing sense of confidence. She couldn’t let her friends down in such an important time of need. “I… I… *Sigh* I’ll go.” Fluttershy said in a defeated tone with a slight smile. “Alright, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly. The others joined in celebrating the yellow mare’s brave decision. Now that all of Twilight’s friends had agreed to go on the mission, she turned to the princess with an even more intense feeling of confidence and determination. “I think the decision is unanimous. We’re all going, princess.” Twilight said happily. The blue alicorn smiled in response. “That’s wonderful, Twilight. I think you should all head home and rest for a while. We will prepare things over here for the attack. You should come back here a little while before sunset.” Luna suggested. The purple mare and the others looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They knew that they would have to talk with their friends and families before going on this mission. “That sounds like a good idea… I’m sure Spike is probably worried about me and Tom.” Twilight said while glancing over to the human. “Oh my! I’m certain that poor Sweetie Belle must be worried sick for me as well! I was supposed to be home hours ago.” Rarity said in a surprised tone while thinking about what time it was and how long she had been at the station. “We have been here a while… we should probably get going. I could definitely use a nap before going to kick some hooded kiester.” Rainbow Dash said while stretching and yawning. With that said, Twilight and the others got up and started walking to the door. They quickly said goodbye to Glitterball and the others before heading outside. Once they were gone, Luna turned to Tom, Brimstoke, and everyone else present. “Let’s get started then…” Luna said while moving over to one of the tables in the room. She lit up her horn and used her magic to clear it off before levitating a rolled up piece of paper onto it and spreading it out. Chapter 76: A Moment of RestAfter leaving the station and walking back through town, the ponies all went their separate ways. The sun was already well on its way towards the horizon, and the group needed to discuss a lot with their friends and relatives before they set out on their mission. As soon as she left the others, Twilight began thinking of what she was going to say to Spike. Not only did she almost die for the third time in just a few days, but now she needed to tell him that she was purposefully going on a dangerous mission. The unicorn could practically hear the young dragon berating her already. Still, she couldn’t exactly blame him. He was just concerned for her after all. “Poor Spike…” Twilight said to herself in a sad tone. “I’ll have to find a way to make it up to him after all of this is done.” She smiled a little with the resolve that her life would be returning to normal very soon. Before she could think any further about what she would do for her number one assistant, the library came into view. Twilight smiled with a relieved expression. She could finally take a few minutes to relax peacefully without the looming task of researching hanging over her. She walked up to the door and quickly opened it before stepping inside. Taking a quick look around, she noticed that Spike was nowhere to be seen. “Spike…? I’m home.” Twilight announced while looking around for the young dragon. Soon after speaking up, she heard tiny footsteps and noticed Spike walking in from the other room. “Twilight! Where have you been?” Spike asked in a surprised tone while walking up to the unicorn. Twilight looked down and shrugged as she tried to think of an answer to that question that wouldn’t upset the young dragon. “Sorry… there was an incident down at the station that forced me to stay.” Twilight explained in an uneasy tone. “An incident? What kind of… incident?” Spike asked with a suspicious tone. It wasn’t hard to tell that the unicorn was trying to avoid talking about something. “*Sigh*… Those ponies that attacked us yesterday broke into the station. They summoned a giant cloud of darkness that smothered the building and trapped us inside.” Twilight admitted hesitantly. Spike gasped in shock upon hearing the news. “Oh my gosh… You were attacked?! That’s horrible!” Spike exclaimed in a concerned tone. Twilight immediately felt bad that she was making the young dragon feel bad. “Don’t worry, everything is fine now. Not that many ponies got hurt during the attack, and we’re all fine. But that does bring up another thing I need to tell you…” Twilight explained while looking down uneasily. Spike felt a small knot developing in his stomach as he waited for the purple mare to continue speaking. “What? What is it?” Spike asked impatiently while hoping that her news wasn’t of the dire variety. Twilight inhaled and shrugged while trying to find a gentle way to put her next topic. “I’m going on a mission with the others tonight… we found out where the hooded ponies’ base is, so we’re heading there to confront them.” Twilight explained and watched the dragon for a reaction. As expected, Spike widened his eyes in shock. “You mean that you’re going to chase after the people that tried to kill you… on purpose?!” Spike said in while shaking his head in disbelief. “Spike… I need to do this. The princess told me to get to the bottom of this thing, and I’m going to finish what I started.” Twilight said with a determined tone of voice. Spike was still just as confused and shocked as to why the unicorn would want to go anywhere near the hooded ponies. “The princess told you to find out what was going on, and you did. Why don’t you just let Tom and the others handle this?” Spike suggested in a pleading tone. Twilight shrugged at the dragon’s proposal. He obviously didn’t know that the elements of harmony were needed, and even if he did he would probably still beg her to stay. “Sorry Spike, I can’t do that. The others need me right now. I’m going whether or not you want me to.” Twilight said in a firm yet sympathetic tone. The dragon frowned and looked to the floor sadly. “Oh…” Spike muttered with a disheartened tone of voice. It looked like he was trying to fight the urge to break down and cry. Twilight walked up to the young dragon and put a hoof on his shoulder. Once he looked up at her, she smiled warmly. “Hey, don’t worry about me. I’ll have the others watching out for me. Everything will be perfectly fine. For right now, why don’t we relax? We have a while before I need to go back to the station after all.” Twilight suggested in a loving tone. Spike smiled slightly at the proposal. “Ok, I guess if I can’t change your mind... let’s go.” Spike shrugged in defeat before resolving to enjoy what little time he had with the unicorn. Twilight nodded before settling in with the young dragon. She would try to make the most of the time she had with him before she was forced to leave later that evening. Meanwhile over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was sitting in the living room with her two siblings. She had a feeling that they might oppose her decision to go on such a dangerous mission, but she was here to spend time with them, not to justify her choice to them. “So, what happened over at the station?” Big Mac asked curiously while glancing over to Applebloom. The filly shared in her brother’s curiosity at what forced Neon Streak and Applejack to leave so suddenly to head for the station. “Is Neon ok? What about Twilight and the others? Weren’t they supposed to be there too?” Applebloom asked with a concerned tone. “Don’t worry Applebloom, everyone is fine. A few other ponies got hurt, but we’re fine.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone to comfort the nervous filly. She hated the fact that so many innocent lives were lost at the station, but she was thankful that her friends made it out relatively unscathed. “Was it those hooded ponies everyone keeps talking about?” Big Mac asked to clarify. Judging from the troubled expression his sister was giving him, his suspicions were pretty much confirmed. “Yes… it was. That’s actually why Ah asked you guys to come back here with me. We found out where their base is, and we’re heading down there tonight.” Applejack decided to come clean and get everything out into the open. “That’s great!” Applebloom cheered excitedly. Her bright smile shifted to an uneasy expression as she put further thought into her sister’s statement. “Wait… what do you mean we? You aren’t going with them are you?” Applebloom asked in a concerned tone. Applejack looked away from the filly with a troubled expression, further cementing her suspicions. “Ah am actually…” Applejack admitted sadly. The yellow filly gasped in shock upon hearing that her sister was even considering such a dangerous task. “What?! You can’t be serious!” Applebloom exclaimed in a frantic tone while glancing over to her brother. “Big Mac, you have to tell her to stay! You’re older than her, so she has to listen to you… right?” She asked with a pleading expression. “Applebloom Ah-” Applejack started to speak up on her behalf when she was interrupted by her brother. “Nope.” Big Mac stated in an almost stoic tone. Both Applejack and her younger sister were shocked that the stallion wasn’t protesting her decision. “Nope…? What do you mean nope?!” Applebloom asked in utter disbelief. Her voice was almost cracking from how distraught she was. “Even if Ah told her to stay, she would go. Ah can’t tell your sister what to do… you should know by now that once she decides to do something, she is going to do it. Besides… Ah’m fine with her going.” Big Mac explained confidently, much to Applebloom’s dismay and confusion. “What?! But… but she… and you… Ah… huh?” The filly exclaimed in a confused state of disbelief. She muttered incoherent noises of denial before quieting down and looking between her siblings in utter bewilderment. “Ok… Ah’m with Applebloom on this one Big Mac. Ah thought you would be more against me going than she would be.” Applejack said with equal confusion while looking at her brother. “You said it yourself. You wanted to see this through to the end and help the others. Ah’m still worried about you… but as long as you promise to be careful, Ah don’t see a reason to fuss over this.” Big Mac said with a small smirk. The orange mare couldn’t help but to smile at the stallion’s words. “Thanks Big Mac… Ah promise that Ah will be as careful as possible.” Applejack stated in an earnest tone of voice. She then glanced over to her sister, who was still sporting a sad expression. “Cheer up Applebloom, Ah will be fine. How about we go get something to eat? We have all day before Ah need to go.” Applejack suggested with a hopeful smile. Applebloom shrugged and looked down for a moment to deal with her emotions. “*Sigh*… fine.” The filly muttered in defeat. Applejack and Big Mac smiled as their sister lightened up her expression slightly. Over at Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie was helping out Mr. and Mrs. Cake in the kitchen as she normally did. Nothing was out of the ordinary with the pink mare. She was just as cheerful and bubbly as she always was while preparing the ingredients for the next batch of sweets; which made it all the more jarring to the Cakes when she started talking about the dangerous mission she was going on later that evening. “So… you’re going out with your friends to go chase down some ponies in hoods?” Mr. Cake asked in a confused tone as he tried to piece together the bits of information that Pinkie was giving him. “No, no, no, not ponies in hoods, the hooded ponies! There’s a big difference!” Pinkie explained in an almost casual manner while rolling out some dough. The couple was only further confused as they looked at each other to see if they could figure out what she was talking about. “Wait a minute, are you talking about those hooligans that attacked the square the other day?” Mrs. Cake asked with a concerned expression. “Aren’t they the same ponies that attacked the school? And the hospital? And tried to hurt you and the others?” Mr. Cake added with further concern for the pink mare’s decision. Pinkie seemed to be un-phased by the apparent danger in her mission. “Well yeah, but I’ll be fine. The others need me to be there, so I’m going to be there.” Pinkie stated with a sincere smile. “Pinkie dearie, I really think you should reconsider this before you go and do anything too hasty. What if you get hurt?” Mrs. Cake said while trying to level with the pink mare. Pinkie could tell that the couple were worried for her, and she understood why. But at the same time, she understood that her friends needed her. “There’s no way I’m abandoning my friends because I might get hurt. If we don’t stop these guys, a lot more ponies are going to get hurt.” Pinkie said in a determined tone. She paused what she was doing and looked at the two with a serious expression. Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at each other before settling their eyes on the pink mare. She seemed to be dead set on going on this mission, and they knew that they couldn’t change her mind now that it was made up. “Pinkie… if this is what you want to do, then go ahead and do it. Just… be careful ok?” Mr. Cake said with sincere compassion and concern in his face. “Be sure to get back here safe for us alright?” Mrs. Cake added in an equally concerned tone. Pinkie smiled and giggled in response. “Okie dokie lokie.” The pink mare said with a cheerful nod. “Now let’s get back to work. I need to make up for all of the time I’ve been taking off lately!” She added enthusiastically while returning to her previous task. The Cakes looked at each other with confused expressions. Even with how long they had known the pink mare, she still surprised them sometimes with how she acted so strange and spontaneous. Meanwhile, over at The Carousel Boutique, Rarity was preparing herself for the coming mission. She wanted to be sure that she had everything she would need now that she was voluntarily walking into a dangerous situation. She was caught off guard every time that danger had struck before, but no more. Sweetie Belle walked up to the white mare and watched curiously as she used her magic to dig through several dresser drawers. The unicorn had briefly explained what she was doing later that night, but the filly had no idea what she was doing now. “Rarity… what are you doing?” Sweetie Belle asked curiously, eliciting the white mare to glance over to her while still rummaging through every drawer she could get her magical mitts on. “I’m packing Sweetie Belle.” Rarity replied while levitating a tote bag onto her bed and opening it. “Packing? What are you packing? I thought you were going on a mission with the others to stop the hooded ponies?” Sweetie Belle asked in a confused tone. “I am, but I need to be prepared before I go. Let’s see here…” Rarity muttered to herself as she prepared a mental check list of everything she would need. “We’re going out into the Everfree Forest, so I need to pack the bare essentials for such a horrid wilderness. I’ll need to take some boots for the mud, a comb in case my hair gets messed up, a scarf to match the boots in case it gets cold, and a hat to match the scarf.” The unicorn said while grabbing each item from around the room and shoving it into her bag. By the time she was finished, the bag was practically bulging from how much stuff it contained. Sweetie Belle glanced at some of the items that her sister was taking. She couldn’t help but to wonder if she was over packing pointless items that had nothing to do with the mission itself and more to do with her appearance. “Uh… Rarity, don’t you think you’re missing something?” Sweetie Belle spoke up in a concerned tone. The white mare gasped in revelation as she remembered something. “Of course! How could I forget the most important thing?!” Rarity exclaimed in a shocked tone. Sweetie Belle grinned proudly at her accomplishment of helping her sister. “It’s going to be more humid than a swimming pool on a boat out in the ocean during a rainstorm out there! I need to bring my hairspray. Thank you for reminding me darling.” Rarity said happily while levitating a small bottle of hairspray into the bag and cramming it in alongside the other items. The filly shrugged in annoyance. “I was thinking more along the lines of something more important than hairspray.” Sweetie Belle explained suggestively. “What could be more important than hairspray?” Rarity asked with genuine confusion. “What about medicine or water? Maybe having a compass wouldn’t hurt either.” Sweetie Belle suggested with a helpful expression. “Well I would take those, but my bag is full already.” Rarity said while pointing to the bag on the bed. Sure enough, it was full to bursting with all of the items she was already taking. “I want to pack light Sweetie Belle. It is the wilderness after all, and I don’t want to be carrying a lot of things… I’m sure that one of the others will bring anything I can’t carry anyway.” Rarity said in a confident tone. “Whatever you say…” Sweetie Belle shrugged in defeat while shaking her head slowly. All over Ponyville, the elements of harmony were preparing for their mission. Some of them were trying to think of what they should bring along to the mission, while others were simply enjoying their time before they had to leave. However, there was one mare that was unsure of her actions. Fluttershy was sitting in her living room while looking around at the various animals scurrying around. She had so much on her mind that she had scarcely moved since she got home. She was going on the mission tonight, that much she was certain of, but she was scared out of her mind about what would happen once she did. For the past week, she had borne witness to the atrocities committed by the hooded ponies, sometimes a little closer than she would have liked. She knew what they were capable of, and what they wanted. They had made it clearly known that they wanted her and her friends dead. The mere thought made her terrified and mortified all at the same time. “Oh… what am I going to do?” Fluttershy asked herself nervously. “What if something happens to Twilight and the others… and I’m the only one that can help them… and I freeze up!” She could see a hundred scenarios flying through her head about her letting her friends get hurt. She had stood up to the monster at the school to save Twilight, but that was sudden and uncontrolled. What if she hesitated when things got more serious and someone got hurt because of her? “I can’t just stay home… they need me to go. But I just know that I’m going to panic at the worst possible moment.” The pegasus shuddered fearfully at the thoughts she was having. She knew that she was timid, and she knew that if she saw something remotely scary that she would freeze up. “Come on Fluttershy… you can be brave. Your friends need you to be brave, so you need to be brave.” She stated in an attempt at gaining confidence. Suddenly, a series of knocks came at her front door. “Eeek!” Fluttershy jumped in fright at the sudden noise. She looked around for a moment before realizing that someone was at her door. “*Sigh*… I’m hopeless.” She muttered in a disheartened tone while getting up and walking over to the door. “I wonder who could be looking for me at this hour?” Fluttershy thought out loud. Her friends were probably still spending their time off at home, and there wasn’t anyone else she was expecting. After grabbing the door and opening it, she was surprised to see a cyan pegasus standing outside. “Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked curiously. Rainbow Dash smirked as she responded. “Well, I was going to take a powernap before we headed back to the station, but I figured that I should check to see how you were doing.” Rainbow Dash said while stepping inside and walking over to the couch with the confused pegasus in tow. “You came to check on me? Why would you do that?” Fluttershy asked with a puzzled expression. “You seemed pretty nervous back at the station about coming. I wanted to give you some company so you didn’t scare yourself into not coming along.” Rainbow Dash replied in a friendly manner. “I’ll come along… I wouldn’t go back on a promise I made you guys, it’s just…” Fluttershy looked away with a saddened expression as she tried to put to words what she felt. Rainbow Dash could tell that something was bothering her friend. “Just…?” Rainbow asked curiously while pleading with her eyes for the pegasus to elaborate on her words. Fluttershy shrugged and glanced to the cyan mare hesitantly while slowly mustering the courage to answer. “I’m scared that I’ll get scared…” Fluttershy explained in what she thought was a straightforward manner. Needless to say, the cyan mare was just as confused as ever. “You’re scared that you’ll get scared? That sounds ridiculous Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash stated in a puzzled tone. “I mean… what if a monster shows up and I get so scared that I can’t help you guys, or one of you gets hurt trying to save me?” Fluttershy said in a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder before looking at her with a sincere smile. “Fluttershy… you are one of the bravest ponies I know.” Rainbow stated in a confident tone. Fluttershy was nearly stunned into silence by her words. “What? That isn’t true at all… if anything, I’m probably the most cowardly pony you know.” Fluttershy said in a self-pitying sort of way. “As a wise pony once said, bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is the ability to move forward despite the fact that you are afraid… I think. The details are a little fuzzy… I haven’t read that book in a long time… and I’m pretty sure I fell asleep half way through it.” Rainbow Dash explained with an awkward chuckle. “Anyway… the point is you don’t need to be courageous like us to be brave Fluttershy. You are the most timid pony I know, and I love you just the way you are, but you have stood up to a lot of hardcore scary stuff recently. How about back at the school? You saved Twilight’s life if I remember correctly.” The cyan mare said in an impressed tone. Fluttershy swelled with pride a little bit from remembering her brief act of valor, but then she remembered how terrified she actually was at the time. “Back at the school, I moved on impulse alone to save Twilight. If I had time to think, I wouldn’t have been able to move I would have been so scared of that monster.” Fluttershy stated while looking down sadly. “What about when we were out in the Everfree Forest looking for Angel? You jumped over two zombified wolves and saved me from a third one. You had plenty of time to think there.” Rainbow Dash said while thinking back to her near death experience out in the forest. “Yeah… I guess I did.” Fluttershy said with a small smile. “But… I was only trying to save you. If you weren’t in danger, I probably would have either ran away or curled up into a ball and cried.” She shrugged sadly as she further cemented her lack of confidence. Rainbow Dash groaned uneasily. The yellow mare was trying to belittle herself at this point. “And what about earlier today? Rarity says that you didn’t freeze up when you guys were running through the station with all of those monsters around.” The cyan pegasus said in a last ditch effort to cheer up her timid friend. She stared at Fluttershy with a hopeful expression and waited for a response. Fluttershy thought back to her time at the station. While it was true that she was scared out of her mind, she still found the strength to move forward. She even managed to save Cool Breeze, a pony she barely knew at the time. Still, despite the warm feeling of pride she felt, Fluttershy couldn’t shake her apprehension of the future. She could still envision herself freezing up in terror and her friends getting hurt because of it. No matter how many times she was brave before, she didn’t trust herself. In her own eyes, she was unreliable. “Rainbow Dash… I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, I really do… but I just know that I’m only going to put you all in danger. What if I come across one of the hooded ponies and get so scared that I freeze up? I mean… I know I’ve gotten by in scary situations before, but-” Fluttershy’s self-pitying speech was interrupted by Rainbow Dash speaking up. “But nothing Fluttershy! I think you just answered your own question. You have been ok in scary situations before… look, I get where you’re coming from, and it’s ok to be scared. It doesn’t even matter if you freeze up like a statue anyway.” The cyan mare stated in a confident tone. “What…? It doesn’t?” Fluttershy asked in a confused tone. Rainbow Dash smirked and nodded in response. “Nope, it doesn’t matter one bit. I’m going to be there with you, and so are all of the others. Between me and Tom alone, I think we have enough pent up aggression towards those hooded jerks to last the whole night. If one of them gets anywhere near you, I will personally send them flying into next week. And then I’ll come back next week and give them a punch in the face for good measure.” The bold pegasus said while punching into the air to accentuate her words. “Wow Rainbow Dash… you would do that for me?” Fluttershy asked with a heartfelt smile on her face. The fact that the cyan mare would go to such lengths just to make her feel comfortable with her own fear made her feel tingly and warm. “Of course! When I get done with those guys, there won’t be enough of them left to put in prison. I’ll just fly up to the first one I see and KAPOW!” Rainbow Dash shadowboxed in the air excitedly before ending on a solid uppercut. Fluttershy smiled warmly and felt comfortable for the first time since she learned that she was going on this mission. She had been so worried about what she was going to do that she forgot the most important detail. She was going to be surrounded with her best friends in the entire world. They would do anything to keep her safe, and she would do anything in return to keep them safe. The power of the bond she shared with Rainbow Dash and the others was enough to make her realize that she didn’t need to be courageous to conquer her fear. She just needed to be with her friends. Rainbow Dash was surprised slightly when the yellow mare reached forward and hugged her. Fluttershy was resting her head on the cyan pony’s neck while remaining otherwise still. Rainbow Dash looked down at her friend in confusion for a moment before wrapping her own arms around the timid pegasus. “Thank you so much Rainbow Dash. You’ve helped me put things into perspective. I’m not worried about going anymore.” Fluttershy lifted herself up and smiled brightly at her cyan friend. Rainbow Dash was even more confused now than she had been before. “You’re not…? I did…?” Rainbow asked in surprise while recapping everything she had just heard. She meant every word she said to the shy pony, but truth be told, she didn’t expect it to work. “Don’t get me wrong… I’m still scared about what’s going to happen, but I know that everything will be ok. As long as we’re all together, nothing will keep us apart.” Fluttershy said cheerfully. Rainbow Dash smiled at the sudden turnaround in her friend’s outlook. “Glad I could be of service… *Yawn*.” The cyan mare suddenly remembered what she was going to do before she came to see the yellow mare. “I guess I really did need that powernap. Do you mind if I crash here until it’s time to go?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hopeful tone while looking out the window to see how much time was left before sundown. Judging from the sun’s position in the sky, she could still get in a decent nap before it was time to leave. “Not at all.” Fluttershy replied with a smile while getting up from the couch so the cyan pegasus could lay down. “Is there anything I can get you? Maybe some pillows or a blanket?” She asked in a courteous manner while thinking ahead to see where such items would be in her house. “Nah… I’m good. You just be sure to let me know when it’s time to leave. I can’t beat up any ponies, hooded or otherwise, if you leave me here.” Rainbow Dash replied with a slight smirk. Fluttershy smiled at the cyan pony’s statement. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you here… who else am I going to cower behind?” Fluttershy said with a playful smirk. Rainbow Dash laughed cheerfully at the yellow mare’s statement, eliciting her to laugh as well. As the sun moved ever closer to the horizon and the sky turned a bright shade of orange, most ponies in Ponyville were winding down for the night. They were closing up their stores, making last minute trips through town, or enjoying a short moment before heading off to bed. But while most ponies were preparing to end their day, a select few were preparing to begin something a lot more important. Twilight Sparkle and her five friends had all made their last minute preparations for their mission. They had all said their goodbyes to their friends and family and were currently walking through town towards the station. One by one, the girls all joined the purple mare and added to her group until all of them were together. Now that they were united, the elements of harmony were finally prepared to undertake their daunting assignment. Twilight looked around at her small troop of ponies. Everyone was sporting eager or determined expressions. Even Fluttershy seemed to be resolute as she walked in line beside her friends. The lavender pony smiled as she looked forward to the road ahead. Nothing could stop her and her friends now, not even a cult of magically powered ponies hell-bent on world domination. Soon enough, the royal guard station came into view. It was quiet outside, with not a single pony to be seen. Twilight figured that everyone must have been inside preparing for the raid. “Come on, we don’t want to keep them waiting.” Twilight said to the others, who all nodded in response. Without further delay, the group walked up to the front door and went inside. Once the group entered the main lobby, they saw a familiar pony sitting behind the front desk. Apparently the receptionist they had seen earlier in the day had survived the attack. She seemed to be slightly shaken up, but otherwise unharmed. Twilight was glad to see that the mare was unharmed. So many people had died during the attack. The body count was still being determined, but at least five guards and three innocent ponies were confirmed to have died during the attack. “Oh, you’re back.” The receptionist pony stated cheerfully once she noticed the six entering the building. She sounded like she was expecting them. “Yeah, we’re here to see the princess and the others.” Twilight explained while walking up to the front desk. “They told me to keep an eye out for when you guys got here. They’re waiting for you in the equipment room.” The mare behind the counter said while pointing off to the side. “Thanks… I’m glad to see that you made it out ok.” Twilight said with a friendly smile. The receptionist smiled and nodded cheerfully. “You too… Be sure to find the guys who did this and give them some payback for all of us ok?” She said while waving to the group as they walked away. Twilight turned her head and nodded before walking through another doorway. Now that there weren’t monsters everywhere, the walk to the equipment room was much faster and much less stress inducing. The group was almost surprised at how quickly they got there, as if the station were somehow bigger while in the dark. Once they opened the door and stepped inside, they saw Brimstoke and his entire team scattered around the room along with Tom and Princess Luna. Glitterball was leaning on a table while tinkering with some of the team’s equipment, Neon Streak was fitting a spare vest onto Sunspot so she could hold more equipment than just a strobe, Peppermint was going through a medical kit to tally his supplies, and Glimmer Shine was talking with Brimstoke off in the corner. Once they noticed the six mares walking into the room, everyone looked over and smiled. They were excited to see the group had finally made it. “Check it out! The cavalry has arrived!” Sunspot exclaimed eagerly while walking up to greet the six. She gave Rainbow Dash a double high-five before glancing around to the others and smiling. “You know it! I’m ready to kick some hooded tail!” Rainbow Dash replied with an excited chuckle. “It’s nice to see you guys finally made it. We were beginning to wonder if you had second thoughts.” Tom said while walking over to the group. “We wouldn’t dream of missing this. Right girls?” Twilight asked while glancing between her friends. Everyone offered an eager nod and an excited cheer in response. “Now that you’re all here, we can start getting everyone ready to go.” Princess Luna spoke, eliciting everyone to turn to look at her. The alicorn was standing over by a shelf, with a small bag on the shelf next to her with the royal insignia on it. Somehow, the bag exuded an aura of warmth and familiarity as the six mares looked at it. “Is that them?” Twilight asked curiously while walking over to the blue alicorn and looking at the bag with a stoic expression. Luna simply smiled while reaching over and opening the top to the bag. Once they saw what was inside, the purple mare and her five friends were stunned into silence. Inside the bag, there were five golden necklaces and one tiara. The accessories themselves were fairly impressive looking in their own right, but it was what they held that made them so breathtaking. Six brilliant jewels adorned each necklace and the tiara, one to represent each element of harmony. The jewels were shaped to resemble the element wielders’ cutie marks, and each of them felt a sense of completion as they stared at their respective element, almost like they had been reunited with a part of them that was kept separate. “The elements of harmony…” Twilight said in an amazed tone. No matter how many times she had worn or even used the elements, they always took her breath away. “I’m hoping that you won’t need to use these, but I will keep them close by just in case.” Luna stated while closing the bag again and placing it on her back. “I will go tell Sargent Fireside to gather up his men. You should all get acquainted with your equipment and prepare to leave. We will come get you when it’s time to go.” The blue alicorn said before walking to the door and exiting the room. “Ok girls, come here for a moment.” Glitterball asked while beckoning Twilight and the others over to her table. They all looked at each other briefly before walking over to the vested unicorn and gathering around her. On the table beside Glitterball there were numerous vials, some opened, and some closed, along with several pouches filled with strange ingredients. It looked like she had been experimenting with at least a few pieces of their arsenal since the group last saw her. “What is it Glitter?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing down at the various items on the table. The white unicorn turned around and placed a vial into her hooves in response. As Glitterball went around giving five more vials to the others, Twilight examined her vial to see what it was. Judging from first appearance, it wasn’t a strobe, and that was pretty much all the purple mare could deduce. It was filled with a liquid like the strobes were, but the liquid was yellow rather than blue. “Umm… Glitter? What is this?” Rainbow Dash voiced the curiosity of the group while staring at the vial she was holding. “That’s something me and Tom whipped up. It fires a blast of energy that should temporarily cancel out most of the shadow magic that these guys use.” Glitterball explained while pointing to the six vials. “That’s great!” Twilight exclaimed happily. Now that they had a weapon against the hooded ponies, she felt much more confident about their chances. “Hey… I don’t see one on your vest. Where’s yours?” Pinkie Pie asked curiously. Glitterball shrugged and looked disappointed for a moment. “There were only enough ingredients to make six vials. We want you guys to have them… we’ll make due with our other gear.” Glitter explained with a small smile to make the six mares feel better about taking the vials. “Oh… Glitter, we couldn’t possibly take these. I’m sure that you guys could make better use of them.” Twilight said while offering her vial back to the rainbow haired unicorn. “Don’t worry about us. We can handle ourselves… Besides, we have these to help us out.” Brimstoke said while holding up a pair of hoof cuffs with strange looking symbols inscribed into them. “What are those?” Twilight asked curiously. “They’re magic suppressing. If we put these on a unicorn, they won’t be able to use any magic. We even have a few pairs that work on shadow magic.” Brimstoke explained while tossing the cuffs to the purple mare. Twilight caught them and examined them closely. “These don’t look like they could suppress magic.” Twilight muttered while inspecting them for anything suspicious. Other than the markings, they looked like regular hoof cuffs. The notion that mere runes could completely disable a unicorn’s magic baffled her. “Well unless you want to try them on, you’re going to have to take our word for it.” Glimmer Shine said with a small chuckle. Twilight put the cuffs down on the table and looked away awkwardly. She had been contemplating putting the cuffs on before the yellow stallion spoke up. Suddenly the group heard the door opening. Everyone looked over to see Princess Luna and Princess Celestia walking into the room. “Ok everyone… If you’re all ready, we should head out.” Luna stated while looking around at everyone in the room. “Yes!” Sunspot cheered in excitement while eagerly rushing to the front of the room. Soon enough, all of the others joined the orange pegasus and walked over to the two alicorns and stood at attention. “We already have a team of guards waiting to meet you at the edge of the Everfree Forest along with Sargent Fireside. Just follow my sister and she will take you there.” Celestia explained while looking to her younger sibling with a proud expression. “You aren’t coming with us princess?” Twilight asked with a slight twinge of sad disappointment in her voice. Celestia frowned slightly and sighed upon seeing the ponies shift their excited grins to sad frowns. “I’m sorry Twilight. I will be staying here for the duration of your mission. If anything bad happens, one of the guards can come back and tell me about it so I can send the appropriate help... myself included if need be.” Celestia said with a hint of sadness in her voice. It was easy to tell that the princess wanted to go, but the logical option was to have her stay behind to serve as backup should the need arise. “Don’t worry Twilight. I’m sure that Princess Luna can take care of us just fine.” Rarity spoke up to ease her friend’s concerns. Luna smiled slightly from hearing the white unicorn vouching for her. “Thank you Rarity. I will not let you down… you can count on me.” The blue alicorn said in a determined tone. Everyone looked to the princess of the night with confidence and trust. “Ok everyone… let’s move! It’s high time we show those hooded ponies what it means when you try to mess with Equestria.” Luna stated while raising her voice so everyone could hear. Everyone stood at attention and quickly followed as the alicorn walked out of the room. Celestia watched the group of ponies exiting the room. They all had confident smiles on at the moment, but she wondered how they would hold up under pressure. Spotting Twilight glancing back at her, she shifted her worried expression to a smile and waved at the purple mare as she joined her friends in marching towards glory. Chapter 77: The Lair of the BeastTwilight followed her large group of friends through town as the princess led them to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Being a part of an organized group that was so big was exciting, and they hadn’t even met up with the team of guards coming with them. Everyone was feeling a wide array of emotions as they walked through the empty streets of Ponyville. There was excitement, eagerness, fear, anxiety, and nervousness in every member of the group. The only ones that seemed to be hiding their emotions were Tom and Princess Luna. Twilight was unsure of how they felt, and that made her slightly concerned. “So, where are these guys anyway? Are they really just hiding out in the Everfree Forest?” Applejack asked curiously. “According to Cotton Quill, they use some kind of old mansion out in the forest as a base. I think he said that the mansion was from human times, but that seems like it would be impossible.” Twilight explained in a puzzled tone. She wasn’t sure how such a thing could exist, but she had no reason to believe that Cotton Quill would make something like that up. “It does sound strange, but we have seen a lot of strange things in recent days.” Luna said from the front of the group. “Are you sure Cotton wasn’t lying? I mean come on… a human mansion just so happened to be out in the Everfree Forest, complete with all of the books on human magic that these guys would need to learn everything about taking over the world? That sounds ridiculous.” Rainbow Dash said in a tone of disbelief. As much as she wanted to confront the hooded ponies, she had a hard time believing such a farfetched story. “I don’t think so… he seemed sincere, and I’m not sure if he could make up such a creative story on the spot. Besides… he was killed for what he told us, so I have to believe that it was true.” Twilight explained with a troubled expression. “Don’t worry. We’ll make these guys pay.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring tone while glancing back at the purple mare. “Hey look, there they are!” Pinkie announced while pointing ahead. The group looked forward and saw at least a dozen royal guards gathered around at the edge of the forest. They were all varied races, with a few unicorns and pegasus’s scattered throughout. At the front of the troop, Sargent Fireside was waiting for the princess and her group to reach him. As the two groups merged, all of the guards bowed while Princess Luna walked up to them. She glanced to the small army around her and smiled with a determined expression. “Greetings Sargent… I assume everyone is briefed and ready to go?” Luna asked in an expectant tone. “Yes princess, we’re all set.” Fireside replied while looking between his men confidently. “Good… just to be sure everyone is on the same page, I am going to discuss our plan of action.” Luna explained while turning to face Brimstoke and the others. “Brimstoke and his team are going to lead the charge into the mansion. Our objective is to neutralize any threats we find in there, with non-lethal force if at all possible. You have all been equipped with items that will prove useful in detaining these individuals… if you come across a pony that is able to use supernatural powers or shadow magic, you are to stand down and wait for backup.” She instructed while glancing between the ponies around her to see if they comprehended her. “Umm princess?” Twilight asked hesitantly to get the alicorn’s attention. Luna turned to the purple mare and smiled slightly. “Yes Twilight?” The alicorn asked in a friendly manner. “What are we going to do? I’m all for helping out… but we aren’t trained to handle this kind of stuff.” Twilight said in a nervous tone. She normally took charge in handling assignments due to her leadership and organization, but the sheer amount of danger in this mission was understandably scaring her. “Don’t worry Twilight, we won’t be sending you in to fight these guys. You can come inside once we clear the main room, and you can volunteer to help as much as you are comfortable with from there.” Luna explained with a reassuring expression. Twilight let a relieved smile fall across her face. She was glad to hear that she could choose what to do once she got to the mansion. “Ok… if there aren’t any more questions, I think it’s time we get moving.” Luna said while turning to Sargent Fireside. “You heard the princess, let’s go!” Fireside instructed loudly. All of the guards nodded before turning and heading into the forest. Fireside rushed to get ahead of them so he could make sure they were going in the right direction. Princess Luna turned to Twilight and the others and nodded before walking into the trees. Everyone quickly followed the alicorn into the forest. They were excited to be finally striking back at the hooded ponies. Suddenly, a knocking at the door woke Raven Feather from her already troubled sleep. She almost thought that she was dreaming, but then she realized that this annoyance was really happening. The knocking was frantic and loud, probably somebody who didn’t know just how much the black mare wanted to kill them for making such a disturbance. “Ugh… what is it?” She groaned in a half asleep tone. The mattress creaked underneath her as she sat up in bed. The master bedroom was comfortable, but it didn’t exactly look any better than the rest of the house. The canopy to her bed had so many moth holes in it that it could hardly stay together. “Miss Raven Feather! I’m sorry to wake you, but there’s something you need to know!” A muffled voice on the other side of the door spoke in an urgent tone. Raven Feather didn’t recognize the pony, so it was probably a random worker. “This better be important…” The black mare muttered in a livid tone just loud enough to be heard. The door opened, and a nervous looking mare in a hood hesitantly stepped into the doorway. She could hardly make eye contact with her leader, and she appeared to be frightened. Something must have spooked her if she would willingly disturb Raven Feather this late in the night. “Miss Raven Feather, the detection charms out in the forest have been tripped! It looks like there are multiple unidentified ponies heading our way!” The hooded mare explained frantically. Raven Feather’s heart skipped a beat and her eyes widened in shock at the apparent news. “W-what?!” Raven Feather stammered in disbelief. She got off of her bed and stared at the worker in front of her with a sense of urgency. “They were at the outer markers the last time I checked. They will be here in fifteen minutes!” The hooded mare stated in an alarmed tone. Her adrenaline was obviously pumping because she could hardly stand still. Raven Feather’s mind raced a mile a minute. She knew that the mare wasn’t pulling an extremely sick practical joke, as much as she wanted to believe that. She must have underestimated how fast the princess would react. Right now, she couldn’t afford to idly stand around and think. “Wake the others, right now! I want them in the library five minutes ago!” Raven Feather yelled in a commanding voice that made the hooded mare cringe slightly. She stood at attention and saluted nervously. “Y-yes miss Raven Feather!” The mare stammered fearfully before turning to run away. She was moving so fast that she bumped her head into the doorframe as she rushed to carry out her orders. Raven Feather rushed out of the door and ran down the hallway as fast as she could. As she ran for the library, she tried to think of a way out of the mess she was in. All of the books and items she would need, not to mention all of the ponies needed to help her, needed to get out of the mansion. However, the mansion was about to be raided by a team of Equestria’s finest defenders. More than anything, Raven Feather needed time, time that she didn’t have. Once she reached the library, the black mare spent the next few tensest minutes of her life waiting for her colleagues to arrive. One by one; Dust Kicker, Raincloud, Shadow Mist, and Grimwood ran into the library with confused and shocked expressions shared between them. “What the hell is going on Raven Feather?!” Raincloud asked in a frantic tone. Half of the hoods in the mansion were panicking and running around like there literally was no tomorrow, so naturally the grey pegasus was a little concerned. “The princess sent a team after us sooner than I expected. We have around… twelve minutes before we are up to our eyes in royal guard, that team of featherbrained idiots, the slayer, hell… probably the princess herself, and who knows what else?” Raven Feather explained in an understandably troubled tone. “What?!” Grimwood said in a shocked tone before anyone else could speak up. The group was surprised to see the normally monotonous colt reacting with such emotion, but they perfectly understood his outburst. “Raven Feather, we still have a load of research that we need to pack up. Even if we only take the stuff needed for the ritual, there is no way that we could gather it up and get out of here before they get here.” Dust Kicker stated with a pale expression. “I know…” Raven Feather muttered quietly while rubbing her temples and looking down in thought. While the black mare was frantically searching for an answer, everyone else in the room was losing their minds. “We’re going to die!” One of the hoods in the room yelled fearfully. “Don’t be ridiculous… we’re going to spend the rest of our lives in prison, and then we’re going to die!” Another worker yelled back at the first, who was having a panic attack much like most of the others in the room. The tumultuous uproar in the room was making Raven Feather grit her teeth in frustration. Raincloud and the others were trying to calm everyone down, but the hooded ponies throughout the library and out in the hall wouldn’t shut up. Their entire operation was coming down on top of their heads, and they knew it. Suddenly, Raven Feather raised her hoof in the air and channeled shadow energy to it. She stomped her hoof down and sent a shockwave of air through the room. All of the ponies in the room had their hair blown back. On top of blowing back hair, all of the candles in the room were blown out by the wave, with some of them falling to the floor with a loud clatter. “EVERYBODY QUIET!” Raven Feather screamed at the top of her lungs. The thundering sound of the black mare’s outburst made everyone freeze in their tracks. Raven Feather looked around at the stunned ponies around her before blowing her disheveled hair out of her face and recomposing herself. Now that it was silent and she could hear herself think, Raven Feather thought of something to do. She breathed in a full breath, partly to catch her breath after her outburst, and partly as a sign of relief at her sudden idea. “We need someone to stay behind and gather up what we need for the ritual while the rest of us escape through the hidden passage in the basement.” The black mare said in a calm tone. The rest of the ponies in the room weren’t as calm as she was at the plan she made. “What?! How in the hay is that going to work? That would be a suicide mission!” Raincloud stated with an alarmed tone of voice. “Not if whoever stays behind has a diversion to work with.” Raven Feather replied with a sterner expression. Now that she thought about her plan, she was starting to get worried herself. “And what diversion did you have in mind?” Dust Kicker asked in a concerned tone as he watched the uneasy expression on his leader’s face. “We’ll erase the protective charms around the house… let them deal with our guests.” Raven Feather suggested uneasily. “What?! But… but they will kill whoever is left in the house when they wake up!” Raincloud said in a shocked tone. She couldn’t believe that Raven Feather would even suggest such a dangerous plan. Whoever stayed behind probably wouldn’t live to get out with the research they were retrieving. “Look, Raincloud we don’t have time to argue this. I will stay behind and-” Raven Feather started to volunteer, when someone spoke up and interrupted her. “I’ll go…” Shadow Mist said in a slightly nervous tone. Everyone turned their heads to look at the red stallion as he stepped forward. “Shadow Mist… I-” Raven Feather tried to protest the stallion’s decision, until he put up a hoof to stop her. “Look, I can use my powers to hide from the princess and her team while I gather the research. I can slip in and out before I run into any trouble with… you know who.” Shadow Mist explained confidently, though everyone could detect a hint of fear in his voice. Everyone was shocked to hear their comrade volunteer himself up to go on such a dangerous mission. They had come to know him as family, and they were devastated that they might not see him return to them safely. “Shadow Mist, don’t be stupid! There’s no way you’re walking away from this!” Raincloud protested with a visibly upset expression. “We don’t have time to sit around here arguing over who gets to go. You guys need to move it, now!” Shadow Mist instructed while rushing to the door. He had a daunting task ahead of him, and he would have to get it done fast. “Shadow Mist…” Grimwood spoke up suddenly, causing the red stallion to pause and turn around. “Are you sure you’re going to be ok?” He asked in a concerned tone. Shadow Mist smiled slightly as he caught the colt’s hidden meaning. He knew that Grimwood was genuinely concerned for him, but he also had research of his own that needed to be smuggled out of the building, not to mention the rest of the materials he needed from the elements of harmony. “Don’t worry… I can handle this.” Shadow Mist stated confidently before turning and running out the door. Raven Feather glanced around at the others in the room. The red stallion was right about one thing, they didn’t have time to be sitting around doing nothing. “Let’s get moving everyone! Tell every hood you pass to come with us down to the basement… leave the rest to be sorted out when they get here.” Raven Feather instructed while rushing towards the door. All of the hooded workers in the room rushed to follow the black mare and her group out of the library. They knew that their survival was optional, and they did not want to be left behind. Twilight and her friends followed the princess and her team of guards through the Everfree forest. The constant sound of hooves crushing grass and breaking twigs did wonders to drown out the eerie ambient noises of the forest, but it didn’t do anything to help with the equally eerie atmosphere. The purple unicorn and her five fellow element bearers had been through the forest so much in the past week that it was starting to get scarily familiar to them. “Are you sure we’re going the right way Twilight? We’re going really far out into the forest…” Fluttershy asked in a nervous whisper while eyeing her surroundings. She hated going out into the Everfree forest on a good day, and now she was treading unknown waters by going farther in than she had ever been before. “Don’t worry… It looks like we’re following Cotton’s directions perfectly. Wherever we’re going, we should be there soon.” Twilight replied in a reassuring tone while glancing back at the nervous pegasus. “I just hope we can find our way back. It’s really easy to get lost out here… and there are probably still some monsters out here somewhere.” Fluttershy stated with growing fear and unease. “Lighten up Fluttershy. We’ll make sure that you get home in one piece.” Rainbow Dash said confidently. “Yeah, don’t you worry about nothing sugar cube. Ah brought a compass, so we should have no problems getting back.” Applejack said with a bright smile of reassurance. “I just wish I could have brought all of my things with me… I don’t know what I’m going to do without that hairspray.” Rarity groaned while patting her mane. She could already feel the humid air wreaking havoc on her hair. “At least some of us brought something useful.” Applejack groaned in annoyance while glancing at the white unicorn. “Settle down girls. We’ll be there soon, and we need to stay focused.” Glimmer Shine spoke back to the six mares while walking alongside his teammates. With the looming promise that they would soon arrive at the hooded ponies’ base, the group quieted down and focused on the path ahead. This wasn’t the time or the place to be squabbling on petty differences. Suddenly, the group heard the guards further ahead muttering amongst themselves excitedly. They seemed to be talking about something important due to how many of them were speaking, but the others couldn’t tell what was being said. “What’s going on up there?” Fluttershy asked in an anxious tone. “I don’t know, I can’t tell what they’re saying. All I hear is a bunch of gibberish.” Pinkie said while straining her ears to discern what everyone was talking about. Before the ponies could wonder what was going on any further, one of the guards from up ahead rushed back to the rest of the group. He had an excited expression on his face, and he seemed eager to tell everyone what was going on. “Hey guys! We’re here! We found it!” The guard exclaimed while pointing behind him. Everyone immediately shifted their attention from their thoughts once they heard the news. “What? We’re here…?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing up ahead. She could barely see a few guards through the trees, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary beyond them. “Follow me, it’s just up ahead!” The guard suggested while motioning for everyone to follow him. The ponies glanced at each other with varying degrees of nervousness and excitement as the stallion turned around and went back through the trees. Twilight and the others eagerly rushed through the trees to reach the others. Soon enough, they started to notice fewer trees up ahead. Once there were few enough trees, they started to see something in the distance. There were several guards standing around while staring ahead with awestruck expressions. Once the ponies caught a good glimpse at what the others were staring at, their jaws dropped in amazement. Up ahead, there was a clearing in the trees. In the clearing, there was a large mansion tucked away inside of a sprawling fenced in area. The old house was unlike anything the ponies had ever seen. There was clearly a lot of damage done by age, but the former beauty of the architecture was apparent even underneath the decrepit exterior. There were vines climbing up the walls in a few places, seemingly the only trace of living plant life to be found. All of the trees in the front yard were dead. Their branches were so stiff that they barely swayed in the wind. The dead trees seemed to set the standard for the rest of the property. The iron fence was so rusty that it looked like it could be pushed over in a few places. There was a stone path that led from the front gate through what appeared to be the remains of a large garden and up to the front door, but even the path itself was cracked and falling apart. The house itself looked old, but it seemed to be in remarkably good shape considering how old it apparently was. Most of the windows were damaged in some way, with some being cracked slightly, and some missing their shutters completely. The wood looked to be in good condition, although it was broken in a few places. The ponies stared at the estate for the longest time without saying anything. They had to tear themselves away from staring at the house to be able to notice that there were lights on inside. This was definitely where the hooded ponies were, unless there were two ancient mansions out in the forest. “How… how is this here?” Twilight asked in a dumbfounded tone. She had so many questions about how what she was seeing could be possible. “It looks like it’s from the Victorian era… but it looks like it hasn’t aged past my day and age.” Tom said in amazement while observing the remarkable condition of the house. “We’ll have time to figure out how this place has survived the ages later, right now we need to focus on our mission.” Princess Luna said to remind the group of their goal. “Right… we need to set up a perimeter around this place.” Brimstoke said while turning to Sunspot thoughtfully. “Sunspot, take a team of pegasus’s and fly above the house. I want you to make sure nobody leaves out the back or the sides before we can get in there. Try to keep yourselves unseen.” The white stallion instructed. Sunspot nodded before turning to the small cluster of pegasus guards around her. “Alright guys, follow me and keep quiet. They won’t know what hit them!” The orange mare exclaimed in excitement before spreading her wings and taking off into the air. Four other pegasus’s quickly followed the vested pony and fell into formation beside her as she climbed higher in the sky. “Ok everyone, let’s move. We need to get in there and clear the place out before they figure out we’re here.” Sargent Fireside spoke up while rallying his men. Everyone nodded before following the stallion up to the front gate and heading inside. As the group walked through the outskirts of the front yard, they glanced around at their surroundings as they walked. There were a few trees that had symbols painted on them in white. Tom paused in front of one of them and examined it curiously. “Do you recognize it?” Twilight asked curiously while walking up to the human and examining the symbol herself. It looked similar to the previous symbols that the hooded ponies had used, but it wasn’t a traditional looking pictogram. “I think it’s some kind of masking charm. That might explain why nobody has been able to find this place before, and why I haven’t been able to sense all of the energy these guys must be using.” The boy explained in an intrigued tone. “Do you think that this place is still here because of magic?” Applejack asked while pondering on the issue of how the mansion could even still exist. “I would imagine… if this place really is from human times, it must be millions of years old. Or… however long it took for ponies to evolve… I’m not even sure if I want to wrap my head around that one.” Tom shook his head in confusion while trying not to put too much thought into the subject of how ponies came to be. “Maybe it isn’t from human times? Maybe whoever built it just has weird taste in architecture.” Rainbow Dash suggested while scratching her head. “No… this place is definitely from human times. I can tell that much at least…” Twilight said with a twinge of confidence in her voice. “How can you be sure of that Twilight?” Applejack asked while tilting her head curiously. The purple mare simply pointed ahead with her hoof. The group turned their heads and looked to where she was pointing, only to notice a bunch of decorations for what used to be a garden. There were a few stone benches scattered around what appeared to be the dead remnants of hedges and flower bushes. In the center of one of the smaller areas, there was a statue of a human woman with wings that appeared to be crying with her head hung low. “It might not make much sense… but this place is somehow from human times, which means that this is probably where all of those books on human magic came from.” Twilight explained to her group of curious listeners. Without further delay, the group continued moving forward through the yard. They snaked through dead gardens and branching stone pathways as they continued to move closer to the main house’s front door. Before they knew it, the ponies had arrived at the front steps. Brimstoke and the princess paused and turned around to face the group. “Ok girls, you need to stay out here while we clear out the main room. We will come get you when it’s safe. Glitter, you and Peppermint stay here and keep an eye on them.” Brimstoke instructed to the two while waiting for all of the guards and the rest of his team to climb up the steps. “Be careful in there.” Glitterball said in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” Tom said while reaching around his back and patting the holster to his sword with a confident expression. “I’m sure that we can handle these guys.” Luna chimed in with a reassuring tone. “Good luck princess.” Twilight said with a small smile. She knew that everything would be fine, but she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. “Alright, everyone form up on me and get ready to bust down that door.” Brimstoke said while trotting up the steps and walking to the side of the large door. All of the guards and everyone else that was going inside quickly followed the stallion and waited for his go ahead. “You in position Sunspot?” Brimstoke asked while placing a hoof to his ear. Everyone in front of the house looked up to see the orange mare and her team of pegasus’s hovering above the roof. “Ready when you are chief.” Sunspot replied while waving to the crowd on the ground confidently. “Ok… on my mark, three… two… one… go!” Brimstoke announced while quickly pulling the large door open. Tom and the princess led the charge while being followed by several guards. Once everyone was inside, Brimstoke stepped inside along with Neon Streak and Glimmer Shine. The strike team acted swiftly and mercilessly. They caught every single hooded pony in the foyer off guard. Several ponies tried to run, until they were chased down and tackled by a few guards. Tom rushed up the stairs and ran after a hooded unicorn that tried to escape into the hallway. Before he could get the door open, the human slammed into him and shoved him to the floor. Twilight and the others listened to the shouts and yells from outside. They could only wonder as to what was going on inside the room. Judging from the amount of terrified screams and yells coming from the hooded ponies, they estimated that the guards were winning. “Ok Guys, you can come in now. Sunspot, stay outside and keep an eye on things until further notice.” Brimstoke said over the communication spell. “Alright everyone, we can go inside now. They secured the entryway.” Glitterball announced to the six mares. Twilight and her friends cheered in excitement as they finally prepared to go after their enemies. The unicorn and her teammate led the six mares through the door and into the mansion. As the group looked around to view their surroundings, they saw numerous hooded ponies getting apprehended by either guards or Brimstoke and his two teammates. Everyone was putting the hoods into hoof cuffs while laying them on their stomachs. The unicorns had special hoof cuffs put onto them to suppress their magic. “Wow… you guys work fast.” Rainbow Dash said in an impressed tone. “That’s what happens when you organize a team of a dozen royal guards and a team of highly trained monster hunters together.” Glimmer Shine said with a slight smirk. “Alright, get these guys piled up over by that wall, and get some guys watching all of the doors. This room is now our base of operations. We should split into teams and sweep each of the floors.” Brimstoke instructed to the guards scattered around the room. Everyone nodded before going to complete their assigned task. Chapter 78: The Best Laid Plans...While the guards were rushing around the room to secure the area, Twilight and the others were taking a look around. The interior of the mansion looked much better than the exterior, at least the room they were currently in did. Still, it was easy to tell that they were in an old mansion. The lights scattered around the room and on the ceiling provided a comfortable amount of light. However, there were unlit candles scattered around the area, giving the impression that the hooded ponies didn’t rely on the electricity staying on for their primary source of light. There was a red carpet covering the wooden floor that stretched through the room, even traveling up the stairs to the second floor balcony. The carpet had a few worn spots in it, but it did a marvelous job of drawing attention away from the aged and filthy wood that it covered. All around the room, there were large picture frames of various landscapes, some of which had broken glass. A few of the paintings were of humans dressed in strange attire that looked nothing like what Tom was wearing. The clothing worn by the faded figures almost resembled something a wealthier pony might wear today. All of the people in the paintings had blank, almost emotionless expressions as they stared ahead. The ponies felt like their eyes were somehow watching them. The room itself wasn’t too large, the high ceiling and open space just made it seem that way. The only things really taking up any space in the room were the staircase leading upstairs set into the right wall, and a few larger tables and some chairs placed in the middle of the room. “Wow… this place is so cool.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in amazement while looking around at the luxurious décor. Even with the age, she felt like she was standing in the home of some royal dignitary. “Ah have to admit… this here is one mighty fine looking house… although it could use a little sprucing up.” Applejack said while examining the thick layer of dust covering one of the darker wooden tables against the wall. There were a few clean spots on a few tables where items had been placed recently, but it was easy to spot which surfaces hadn’t been touched since the hooded ponies arrived. “I’m amazed that you would think that Applejack… usually you don’t mind dirty things.” Rarity said in a surprised tone. “Ah might not mind a little dirt or mud, but even Ah have standards Rarity.” The orange mare replied with a small smirk. “Well I don’t think that the hooded ponies have been focusing too much on renovating the place. It looks like this place stopped aging after only a few centuries worth of wear and tear.” Tom said while leaning against the railing for the staircase. “Alright guys… now that we’ve all settled in, let’s start splitting off into teams and head through the rest of the mansion.” Brimstoke spoke up while looking down at the group from the upstairs balcony. There were around seven doors counting the front door. There were two doors across from each other in the upstairs hallway that went sideways across the room. There was one door set into the staircase wall at the back of the room. There was another door in the center of the back wall. There were two more doors to the left, one closer to the back wall and one closer to the front of the house. The final door was on the upstairs balcony set into the back wall and oriented to the left of the room. Sargent Fireside had at least one pony watching each of the doors, so the amount of guards left to spread out across the mansion was greatly diminished. They would need some help if they were going to spread out while keeping their numbers up. “Ok girls… we’re a little short on people right now, so we could use some volunteers. Anybody that wants to help with the search should step forward so we can form some teams.” Brimstoke said while glancing to Twilight and her five friends. “Oh yeah! Count me in!” Rainbow Dash said while stepping forward eagerly. She was clearly excited to participate as much as she could in this mission. “Ah guess Ah might as well.” Applejack volunteered while stepping forward with a confident expression. “Ooo, pick me! Pick me!” Pinkie Pie bounced over to join her two friends in the lineup. “Well… I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” Rarity said hesitantly while slowly walking forward. “How about you guys? Are you coming?” Rainbow Dash asked while glancing over to Fluttershy and Twilight. “Oh, no… Sorry, but I don’t think I should go with you. I’m feeling uneasy just sitting in this room.” Fluttershy said nervously while politely declining the offer. “Aww…” Rainbow Dash quietly groaned in disappointment. She had hoped that the yellow pegasus would overcome her fears and participate more in the raid. “I think I’ll stay too… you know… to keep Fluttershy company.” Twilight said while hiding the nervousness in her voice. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be exploring the mansion either, especially if that meant possibly running into Raincloud and her brother again. Rainbow Dash and the others frowned slightly as their two friends decided to stay behind. However, they decided to respect their decisions and not pressure them into going. After all, this was the tensest mission that they had ever been a part of. “Alright everyone, listen up.” Brimstoke spoke up to get everyone’s attention. “We’re going to split up and search for their leader and her followers. I want you all to clear any rooms you come across, and tie down anyone wearing a hood that you find.” He explained before turning to his teammates. “Glitterball will be taking Rarity, Applejack, and Sargent Fireside upstairs. Glimmer Shine will take Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie with him through the downstairs area. Me and Neon Streak will take Tom and the princess downstairs as well. Feel free to search wherever you want, just be sure to stick together and meet back here if anything goes wrong.” The white stallion explained while glancing around the room. “Ok people, you heard the man, let’s move!” Sargent Fireside said to rally his troops. “I want five of you to head upstairs with me, and the rest of you to head downstairs with Glimmer Shine. I think that the princess and Tom can handle themselves, so nobody needs to go with them.” He instructed while pointing at each of the groups that he wanted his guards to follow. Before long, all of the teams had been gathered up and were ready to go. “We’ll take this door here... looks like it leads to a hallway.” Brimstoke said while opening the door at the back of the stairs. “I think we’ll head this way first.” Glimmer Shine said while gathering in front of the center door with his small team. There were only two guards accompanying him, but Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie made up for that number. Meanwhile; Glitterball, Rarity, and Applejack were climbing upstairs along with the guards. They all looked around to see which way they would go. There were two doors at each end of the balcony that looked like they went into hallways of their own. “We’ll take the right side… you guys go ahead and take the left.” Glitterball suggested to the Sargent and his team of guards. “Are you sure you can handle yourself?” Fireside asked curiously while looking to the three mares with a concerned expression. “We’ll take one of your men with us… we should be fine with just four of us.” Glitterball replied while looking to Applejack and Rarity for confirmation. The two mares nodded in agreement. “Alright… we’ll be down that hallway if you need us.” The Sargent replied while motioning for one of his men to head over to the others. A unicorn stallion stepped out of the line of guards and trotted over to Glitterball and her two companions. Without any further delay, all of the teams opened their respective doors and went through. Glitterball took the lead and rushed to the door at the end of the hallway to make sure her team didn’t have a slow start. Applejack, Rarity, and the brown stallion all followed the rainbow haired unicorn through the door and into what appeared to be a long hallway. There were lights hanging from the ceiling every few feet. These lights seemed to be connected to the switch near the door; however, none of them were on. The only things giving off light in the hallway were candles that were placed on small night tables against the walls at odd intervals. The yellowish light they provided covered a large area, however there were dark spots in between. The hallway filled with ominous looking patches of light and equally ominous looking patches of darkness wasn’t exactly cozy looking. The ponies were apprehensive about pressing onward, but they had no choice. “Let’s start clearing these rooms… here, you’ll need these.” Glitterball explained while handing Applejack and Rarity a few pairs of hoof cuffs. “What on earth do you want me to use these for?” Rarity asked while eyeing the cuffs as she levitated them in front of her. “Ah think she wants us to use these on any hooded ponies we find.” Applejack suggested with an unimpressed shrug. She figured that the unicorn could figure that out on her own, but apparently she was wrong. “Glad to hear we’re on the same page. The ones with writing on them are for any unicorns we find. Feel free to do whatever you want to get them to put these on… I think that necessary force is a little lenient with these guys.” Glitterball said with a devious smile. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Applejack smirked while putting the cuffs in her bag for easy access. Rarity did the same before organizing the items in her bag for a moment. Even though there was only one other thing in there other than the cuffs, it took her a while to get her inventory sorted to perfection. After the white unicorn finished her organization, much to the relief of her teammates, Glitterball stepped up to the first door on her left and prepared to open it. The vested mare threw open the door and peered inside with her horn at the ready. The room was a small bedroom. It was barren and empty, save for a few sleeping bags placed in rows on the floor and two dressers against the back wall. “This might take a while…” Glitterball shrugged while looking down the hallway to see the large number of doors they had to go through. “Why don’t we split up and two of us take a side to search, and when one of us finds something we just holler for the others.” Applejack suggested. “You’re a genius Applejack! Maybe Neon was right, we really should hire you.” Glitterball said with an impressed smile. “Heh... do you really think so?” Applejack said with a bashful chuckle. “Alright, you two take that side, and we’ll take this side. Let us know before you go charging into a room full of people.” Glitterball said while motioning for the guard to join her on the left side of the hallway. Rarity and Applejack walked to the right side and lined themselves up with their teammates in a searching pattern. With a nod of confirmation from Glitterball, Applejack opened her first door quietly and peered inside. Rarity used her horn to light up the dark room and scanned inside of it. The room looked like another makeshift dorm room with sleeping bags covering the floor, but there was nobody inside. Taking a glance over to the other two on the other side of the hall, the pair noticed that their teammates were having a similar lack of luck. Un-phased by their initial failure to find anyone, the four continued down the hallway. After two more doors turned up no signs of life, Applejack paused in front of the next door. She heard what sounded like panicked voices coming from inside. After taking a moment to confirm what she was hearing with Rarity, the orange mare turned to her teammates. “Hey guys, we got ponies in here!” Applejack whispered anxiously while waving the two over to the door in question. Glitterball put her ear to the door and nodded in agreement. “Ok Applejack, this is your find, so you take the lead.” Glitter suggested while backing up a little bit. “Really?” Applejack asked with a bit of nervousness boiling up inside of her. Now that she was getting ready to make her first assault on a room, she was starting to have second thoughts. “Don’t worry, we’ll be right behind you. Just open the door and try to take down the first pony you see… safely of course.” The guard said in a reassuring tone. The farm pony gulped down her fears before steeling herself for the task at hand and nodding. “Ok guys… on three…” Applejack said while anxiously shaking each of her limbs and loosening up her muscles. Everyone gathered around the orange mare and waited as she started her count. “One… two… three!” Applejack swiftly kicked the door open and rushed inside with her teammates. There were three hooded ponies in the room; one earth pony stallion directly in front of the group, one more earth pony mare off to the side of the room, and a unicorn mare near the other mare. “Oh crap!” The earth pony in front of the group exclaimed fearfully while backing up to distance himself from the others. He looked to his side and found a vase on the table behind him, only to pick it up to defend himself. Applejack quickly rushed for the hooded pony as he scrambled for the vase. She ducked to the side as he threw it at her, causing a loud shatter behind her. Before the frantic stallion could react any further, the farm pony turned around and reeled her back legs in before delivering a swift kick and bucking the hapless pony into the wall. While Applejack was busy neutralizing one of the ponies, Glitterball and her two teammates were rushing to deal with the other two. The earth pony mare screamed fearfully and hid behind the unicorn mare. In an attempt at defending herself and her colleague, the hooded unicorn lit up her horn and stood her ground. Glitterball, the guard, and Rarity lit up their horns as well before coming to a halt. The two groups had a standoff while staring at each other to see who would move first. “Just give up and stand down, and we won’t hurt you.” Glitterball said in an attempt at calming the pair of hoods down. The earth pony mare shivered nervously while hiding behind her unicorn friend. The unicorn was nervous herself, but she tried to appear more threatening and confident than she actually was. “T-there’s no way we’re letting y-you take us! Take one step closer and I swear I will kill you!” The unicorn yelled in an attempt at making herself sound like she wasn’t about to faint. Glitterball glanced to Rarity and the guard behind her. She wasn’t sure if the unicorn knew any spells that could hurt them, but they had to assume that her threats weren’t empty. “There’s only one of you that can fight back against us, and there are three of us. If you hurt one of us, I can assure you that we will make you pay for it. Just calm down and let us detain you, and I promise that nobody will get hu-” Glitterball said with a calm tone of voice while taking a step forward, until she was interrupted by a laser being shot into the floor in front of her. “Stay back! I’m warning you!” The unicorn yelled while charging up her horn for another shot. She was putting so much energy into her horn that it looked like she could barely focus it. Little did the panicked unicorn know, Applejack had already finished putting hoof cuffs on her prisoner. She left him lying face down on the floor with his arms pinned behind his back while she started creeping along the side of the room. She managed to reach a table and hid behind it while inching closer to the other side of the room. Glitterball glanced over and noticed the orange mare eyeing up the hooded unicorn with a pair of magic suppressing hoof cuffs at the ready. Applejack nodded once she noticed that the white mare had noticed her, Glitterball gave a subtle nod in return before settling her eyes on the two hooded ponies in front of her. “This is your last warning. I’m giving you one more chance to settle this peacefully before we-” Glitterball tried once again to get through to the unicorn, but she wasn’t in a negotiating kind of mood. “Before you what?! I have you covered, and if any of you move I’ll-” The hooded pony yelled back at the group until she was interrupted by the sound of someone running towards her. She looked to the side just in time to see Applejack darting after her. The orange mare ducked and slid along the floor as a magical beam whizzed over her head. Before the unicorn could shoot off another bolt, the farm pony popped up and shoved her against the wall. The hooded mare groaned in pain as she caught herself before slamming her stomach into the table against the wall. She tried to turn around, but before she could, Applejack grabbed her arms and forcibly pulled them around her back. By the time the hooded unicorn pulled away from the orange mare, it was too late. Her arms were already in the hoof cuffs, causing her to fall flat on her face as she lost her balance. “Ow!” She yelped in pain as she bounced slightly from the impact. “Why you little… I’ll show you!” She said in a threatening manner while trying to light up her horn. Glitterball and her three companions watched as the pinned mare heaved and groaned while trying to get her horn to light up. Sweat rolled down her face from the strain she was putting on herself. “What the hell? What did you do to me?!” She asked in an angrily frightened tone. “Those cuffs prevent you from using magic. Don’t bother trying to break out, you’ll just hurt yourself.” Glitterball explained while sharing a victorious smirk with Applejack. “Nicely done Applejack! I almost can’t believe you pulled that off!” Rarity said while giving her friend a congratulatory pat on the back. “Thanks Rarity. Ah just did what Ah could at the moment.” The orange mare said while rubbing the back of her neck and smiling awkwardly. The group’s celebration was suddenly interrupted by a frightened squeak coming from behind them. Everyone turned around to see the earth pony mare that was hiding behind the unicorn on the floor. She was cowering against the wall while covering her face with her arms. Her entire body was shaking from fear. “Please don’t hurt me!” She yelped fearfully and tried to back up further into the wall as the group approached her. Glitterball glanced over to her teammates, who offered a nod of agreement to her in response. With a friendly smile, the unicorn slowly walked up to the cowering mare and knelt down in front of her. “We’re not going to hurt you.” The white mare said in a soft voice. The hooded pony stopped cowering for a moment and peeked out from between her arms. “R-really?” She asked nervously. “The only reason why we had to get rough with your friends was because they wouldn’t cooperate. All we need you to do is to put these on. You can even sit where you are now if you want.” Glitterball explained while holding up a pair of cuffs. The earth pony looked at the cuffs for a moment while thinking. She took in a deep breath before nodding and holding out her arms. Glitterball smiled before gently putting on the cuffs. The hooded mare sighed before readjusting herself to get comfortable. “You all just sit tight. We’ll be back for you after we’re done finding the rest of your colleagues.” Glitterball explained before walking back over to her teammates. “Alright guys, let’s get moving. We still have a lot of rooms to clear.” She explained while walking to the door with eager confidence. Applejack and Rarity took one last glance at their prisoners before following their teammates out of the room. Meanwhile in the downstairs hallway behind the stairs, Brimstoke and his three companions were slowly making their way through the area and clearing any rooms they came across. They had already found two rooms that had ponies in them, although one of them just had one straggler that was hiding under a bed. “I’m not sensing any shadow energy around here… well, aside from residual signatures. I don’t think that any of our super powered friends are down here.” Tom said while using his senses to scout the area ahead. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Neon Streak said with a slight hint of concern in her voice. If the shadow magic users weren’t here, then that meant that they were somewhere else. Possibly somewhere that could be dangerous for one of their friends. “Maybe they have charms or wards in place that hide their energy. If there were runes placed on the trees outside, then it would make sense for there to be runes inside as well.” Luna suggested while glancing around at the eerie hallway. “Now that would definitely be a bad thing… the last thing we need is for Raincloud and her pet shadow to be able to sneak up on us.” Tom said with an uncomfortable shudder. He was still getting over his first fight with the living shadow, so he didn’t want to fight it again anytime soon. Eventually, the group made it to the end of the hallway. There were only two more doors to check. The door to the left led into another dark hallway without any candles to light it up, while the door to the right opened up into a staircase leading down into what looked like a basement. “Which way do we go?” Neon Streak asked curiously. “I think maybe we should split up. Me and Neon could take the basement while you guys continue down that hall.” Brimstoke suggested while glancing to the princess and the human. “Are you sure you two will be ok on your own?” Tom asked in a concerned tone while sizing up the ominous looking staircase. “Don’t worry… we’ll be careful.” Neon Streak said with a reassuring expression. “If we run into any trouble, we’ll back up and call for help.” Brimstoke added confidently. Tom glanced to Luna to see what she thought of the matter. Judging from her expression, the alicorn was fine with the pair heading off on their own. “I’m sure that they can handle themselves Tom. We can come check on them later if you want.” The princess said with a confident expression. Tom was hesitant to split up like this, but he knew that he couldn’t exactly stand there and hold their non-existent hands all the time. “Alright… but if you find Raincloud or her brother, don’t go after them by yourselves.” The human said with friendly concern. Brimstoke and Neon Streak nodded in agreement. The two groups said their goodbyes before going on their respective paths. Tom and Luna went down the other hallway, while Brimstoke and Neon Streak slowly descended the stairs to the basement. There weren’t any candles placed anywhere in the basement, so the pair had to switch on the flashlights mounted on their vests. The two beams of light didn’t offer much in the way of comfort, but it did let them see where they were going. Not that seeing where they were going was a good thing. The basement looked entirely different from the rest of the house. There was no warm colored carpet on the floor. There were no intriguing decorations on the walls. The only things that greeted the ponies were barren stone floors and a cold and eerie atmosphere. “Well, it’s official… basements are creepy no matter who builds them, ponies or humans.” Neon Streak said with an uncomfortable chuckle. “Stay close… the last thing we need right now is to get lost down here.” Brimstoke said while walking forward confidently. It amazed the green mare just how unflappable the white stallion could be sometimes. It was almost impossible to search and clear the basement room by room. It seemed like there was a new hallway or series of rooms branching off every few doorways they passed. There weren’t even that many doors down here. Most rooms had just barren entryways that opened up into more darkness. Brimstoke and Neon Streak decided to just stick with the hallway they were currently in. They swept whatever open rooms they came across for any signs of movement, but the basement was just as dead and devoid of life as it appeared. “Do you think they even use this place? I haven’t seen any lanterns, or candles, or even beds for that matter since we got down here.” Neon Streak asked while eyeing the rooms she passed. The only things she was seeing were shelves full of miscellaneous objects and a few boxes. “I think that they use this place for some of the experiments they did.” Brimstoke said while pausing in front of one of the open rooms. “What makes you say that?” Neon asked curiously. Brimstoke merely stepped aside and let the green mare take a look inside the room. Once she saw what the stallion was referring to, she was stunned into silence. There were a few medical tables in the room that were covered in dry blood. There was also a smaller table next to it with a few books and some grisly looking sharp objects on it. The medical tables had a thick leather strap in the middle of them. It seemed like they could have fit someone Tom’s size or larger, giving the impression that the human owners of the mansion had brought them here rather than the hooded ponies. “Yikes… what did the humans do here?” Neon asked with a disturbed tone of voice. “I don’t think we want to know… but it looks like the hooded ponies picked up where they left off.” Brimstoke said uneasily. Suddenly, a noise rang out from somewhere down the hallway. The two ponies froze up and perked their ears up. Once they realized that the noise wasn’t stopping, they silently nodded to each other before slowly walking down the hallway. As they drew closer to the noise, they noticed that it sounded like a single stallion was muttering to himself while causing some sort of ruckus. He sounded frustrated as he scrambled around using various objects. Soon enough, he started speaking louder in a language that the pair didn’t understand. Taking this as a sign to pick up their pace, Brimstoke and Neon Streak drew their strobes and rushed up to the door where the noise was coming from. They peered inside and saw the same red stallion that had attacked Neon and the others at the bookstore standing in the center of a small symbol on the ground. He was facing away from the two, but they could tell that he was holding something in his hoof. Brimstoke slowly nodded to his teammate as a signal to back him up. He quietly stepped forward and pointed his strobe at the red stallion. He knew that the weapon wouldn’t harm a pony, but he was hoping that it looked intimidating enough to make the red pony think that it would. “Hey Shadow Mist, remember me?” Neon Streak spoke up in an intimidating tone while lining up with Brimstoke. Shadow Mist stopped what he was doing and slowly turned around. The pair noticed that he had a small burning piece of paper in his hooves. “Yeah… I remember you. You’re that pony that I almost killed back in Cotton’s bookstore… you know, you should probably thank your orange friend for moving you out of the way.” Shadow Mist said with a devious smirk. “Put the paper down, and put your hooves behind your head.” Brimstoke instructed in a firm tone. Shadow Mist glanced down at the symbol beneath him. It was a small circle with an odd shape in the center of it made with red paint. It was smaller than the pictograms the hooded ponies usually used. It was around the same size as the symbols painted on the trees outside. “You know… I’m not sure if you really want me to do that.” Shadow Mist replied with a slight chuckle. “I said drop it!” Brimstoke yelled in a commanding voice while pointing his strobe at the red stallion. ”Alright… if you insist.” Shadow Mist said with a small smirk. He dropped the burning piece of paper and quickly closed his eyes. Before Brimstoke and Neon Streak could react, the paper contacted the symbol on the floor and a burst of bright light filled the room. The two ponies covered their eyes as the blinding light engulfed them. A loud buzz filled the air and grew in intensity, until everything went silent and the light died down. When the pair looked up, the red stallion was gone. “Where’d he go?!” Brimstoke asked in a shocked tone. “Keep your guard up, he’s probably still in here!” Neon Streak said while darting her eyes around. She knew all too well that the red stallion could turn invisible any time he wanted. Suddenly, a loud rumble filled the air as the entire house shook violently. Neon Streak almost dropped her strobe from how much the ground was shaking. “What the hay is going on?!” Neon asked nervously while steadying herself. The white stallion leaned against the green mare in an attempt at keeping both of them on their feet. “I don’t know, just hold on!” Brimstoke yelled back to carry his voice over the loud rumbling. Just as quickly as the shaking started, it stopped. Before the two could process what was happening, one of the vials on their vests hummed and buzzed loudly. They looked down just in time to see their evil detectors glowing brightly and vibrating violently, right before they both shattered with a loud pop. Neon Streak flinched as the fluid that was once inside the vials sprayed everywhere. “That can’t be good…” Neon stated with an uncomfortable knot developing in her stomach as she held up the broken remnants of the vial on her pull cord. “Definitely not… I’m calling the others.” Brimstoke said before putting a hoof to his ear. -A few minutes ago- Tom and Luna quietly walked down the hallway while clearing out each of the rooms. There weren’t any candles in this hallway, much less any other signs of life. Every room they looked in was completely devoid of pony activity. Much of the old furniture in each of the rooms had scarcely been disturbed. The human followed the alicorn as she lit the way with her horn. After a while, they wondered if it was a sound idea to continue down this path rather than turning around to assist Brimstoke and Neon Streak. “Looks like nobody has been through here in a while… I guess they don’t use every room in this place.” Tom stated while glancing around with an intrigued expression. “Not surprising... this place is rather large. It looked almost as big as the palace back in Canterlot from the outside.” Luna said with an amazed tone while looking around at the strange architecture and décor. “Did all humans live in houses this big? Surely a mansion this size must have been able to fit an entire community.” She asked curiously. “No… not really. Only rich people with money to spare could afford a place like this, and most of them only lived with their family and their servants.” Tom explained while thinking back to the size of his old home. “You must tell me about this wonderful architectural style… what did you call it? Victorian era?” Luna asked curiously as she tried to remember the boy’s description of the mansion. “Well, you see-” Before Tom could explain further, a loud rumble shook the whole building around them. Luna steadied herself on all fours while the human grabbed a nearby door handle to balance himself. Just as quickly as the rumbling started, it stopped. The pair glanced at each other with wide eyes as they waited to see if the shaking would return. “What on earth was that?!” Luna asked in an alarmed tone. Before Tom could answer, a sudden gasp escaped his mouth as his senses went off. The blue puff of mist and the eerie rasp that came with it lasted much longer than any other time he had experienced before. Luna watched with a concerned expression as the boy was driven to his knees by the elongated sensation overwhelming him. She had never heard his senses last for such a long time. It was almost like he had no control over the event whatsoever. The alicorn was about to ask the human what he was feeling, but she suddenly realized that she could feel it too. Her ability to sense energies was far less developed than her sister’s but if it was potent enough, she could feel it. And right now, the princess of the night could feel something incredibly evil and incredibly powerful that she couldn’t identify. It was almost like the entire house felt wrong to her now. “What is that?” Luna asked in a shocked tone as the human gasped for air. After taking a moment to get to his feet, Tom turned to the alicorn with a pale expression on his face. “I can’t tell what it is… but it feels familiar.” Tom said while pondering the sensation he felt. The human wasn’t sure if he wanted to use his senses again to try and analyze the overwhelming energy, but he had to. Taking in a deep breath to prepare himself, he exhaled another puff of blue mist before falling into another fit of uncontrollable coughing. “Don’t over exert yourself Tom.” Luna said with a concerned expression while waiting for the human to recover again. “Whatever it is… it’s extremely powerful. I think we should head back to the others.” Tom suggested while looking down the hallway behind him. “I agree. Let’s regroup with the others and find out what happened.” Luna said with a brief nod before following the human back down the hallway. As soon as they reached the door that would lead them back into the other hallway, Tom quickly grabbed the door handle and turned it. Much to his surprise, the handle didn’t move at all. After trying it a few more times, the boy realized that he wasn’t just imagining things. “What the heck…? This wasn’t locked when we got here.” Tom exclaimed in frustration. “I don’t remember seeing a lock on this door… Are you sure it’s locked?” Luna asked with a growing sense of unease. “I can’t move it… it’s like something is holding it closed. Hey… did the air just get cold all of a sudden?” Tom asked while rubbing his shoulders to create warmth. Luna was surprised by the odd drop in temperature herself, but she nodded in agreement. “Let’s try finding another way around. We need to get to the others.” The alicorn said in an urgent tone. Tom nodded in agreement before quickly following the princess down the hallway. Chapter 79: Point of No Return-A few minutes ago- While everyone else was searching through the large mansion for the hooded ponies, Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting around idly in the foyer. They sat in two of the more cleanly looking chairs and watched while Peppermint ran a check of his medical supplies on the other side of the room. Fluttershy shrugged and sank back into her chair. She felt very disappointed in herself for not taking Rainbow Dash’s advice. If she wasn’t going to help her friends, why was she even there? Assuming something went horribly wrong and the hooded ponies completed their ritual, they would have to use the elements of harmony, but that was about the only use she had. Still, the bag containing the elements had less grandeur than it did before, especially with it sitting on a dusty table waiting for use. As she glanced over to her unicorn friend, the yellow mare began to wonder about why she chose to stay as well. She claimed to have stayed to keep her company, but Fluttershy doubted that was her true intent. Normally, Twilight would have been incredibly eager to explore the mansion. This was after all the first time a pony had ever set foot into a human building, and she should have been first up to bat to try and analyze as much of it as she could. But instead of being eager and excited to learn more about humans or stop the hooded ponies, the purple mare almost seemed like she was scared. “Hey Twilight…?” Fluttershy asked curiously while leaning forward in her chair. “Yes Fluttershy?” Twilight replied while turning to face the pegasus. Fluttershy looked down nervously as she tried to muster the courage to ask her friend about why she lied to stay with her. She hated any sort of conflict, even if it was something that other people wouldn’t even call conflict. “Sorry to intrude like this… but… umm…” Fluttershy muttered timidly. She grew quieter and quieter as she continued. Twilight knew that her friend took a while to ask questions that were uncomfortable for her, so she waited for her to speak up. “Why did you stay with me? I mean… why did you really stay?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly. The unicorn was taken off guard by the sudden question. “What do you mean Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in return with a confused expression. “I know you said that you wanted to keep me company… and it’s not that I don’t believe you… it’s just, you seemed to be avoiding leaving this room.” Fluttershy explained while hoping that her words wouldn’t offend. “I was that obvious huh?” Twilight shrugged sadly as she thought about why she really stayed behind. Truth be told, she wasn’t even sure why she stayed herself. The thought of exploring the mansion further while the hooded ponies were around triggered some kind of feeling of anxiety that she wanted to avoid. She had almost died numerous times because of the hooded ponies, and she wanted to avoid any situation that might be dangerous to her. After all, she had promised Spike that she would take better care of herself. Still, the fact that such an anxiety was getting in the way of her duties made her feel terrible. “I guess I stayed for the same reason as you Fluttershy…” Twilight sighed as she decided to come clean with her feelings. The yellow pegasus was surprised to hear such a thing from her usually brave friend. “You did?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone. “Yeah… I guess I didn’t want to admit it out loud, but I am scared. I don’t want to search for the hooded ponies… because I’m afraid of what might happen.” Twilight said with a hint of shame in her voice. She looked up in surprise when she felt the yellow mare putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “It’s ok Twilight… I understand perfectly.” Fluttershy said with a warm smile. “You do?” Twilight asked in a surprised tone. “Yes… I’m scared too, and I really did want to help with the search, but I just couldn’t go with the others. I just kept thinking about everything that had happened to us before, and about what might happen to us now.” Fluttershy explained in a sympathetic manner. “That’s how it was for me too… *Sigh*… maybe we can still help out. How about this, when the others get back, let’s both volunteer together.” Twilight suggested while gathering up some courage. “As long as I’m with either you or one of the others, I think I might be able to do that.” Fluttershy said with a small smile. When she was with friends, she felt much braver than she would have if she was alone. Suddenly, the two mares felt their chairs vibrating. Before long, the small vibrations grew until the entire room was shaking. All of the guards in the room looked around anxiously while trying to steady themselves. “What’s going on?!” Fluttershy asked while sinking low into her chair and holding on for dear life. “I don’t know, just hang on!” Twilight replied while trying to weather the shaking. All of the furniture in the room was shifting along the floor as the ground vibrated underneath it. “AH!” Fluttershy screamed in fright as a vase on the table beside her fell to the floor with a loud crash. She shut her eyes and reeled herself as far into the chair as she could go without melding with it. Just before the ponies thought that they were going to get whiplash from the violent shaking, everything grew still and the loud rumbling ceased. One more vase fell off of a table against the wall as the force from everything stopping sent it on its way to the floor. Twilight slowly opened her eyes and peered around the room. Much to her relief, everything and everypony was still relatively intact. Most of the guards, along with Peppermint, were looking around and wondering what just happened. Twilight glanced over to the chair beside her to see Fluttershy shivering with fright. The pegasus was still covering her head as if she expected the roof to cave in on top of her. “Fluttershy, are you ok?” Twilight asked with a concerned tone while gently putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder to reassure her that everything was alright. Fluttershy slowly uncovered her head and looked at the unicorn with tears rolling down her face. She took in a few shallow breaths while darting her eyes around before shakily nodding her head. “What the hay just happened?” Peppermint wondered out loud. Everyone else in the room shared in his nervous curiosity at the cause for the sudden disturbance. Just as the red haired stallion put a hoof up to his ear to check in on the others, he heard a loud buzz coming from his vest. Twilight and Fluttershy watched as Peppermint pulled his detector up to his face and gasped in shock. The vial was glowing a brighter shade of blue than any of them had ever seen before. Along with this glow, the entire vial was practically shaking from how much it was buzzing. *POP* “Ack!” Both Fluttershy and Peppermint jumped in fright as the vial shattered into a million pieces. The liquid that was inside the vial flew in all directions before settling to the floor with a wet splash. “How did that happen? What’s going on?” Twilight asked while staring at the remnants of the broken detector with fear in her eyes. “I don’t know… something must have overloaded the detector… I didn’t even think that could happen.” Peppermint explained nervously. “I’m calling the others… we need to figure out what’s ha-” Before the white stallion could even get his hoof up to his ear, he suddenly heard Brimstoke’s voice in his head. “Everyone listen up! I want everyone to head back to the entryway. Something happened down in the basement with us and we need to regroup.” Brimstoke instructed with a tone of urgency. “Uh… guys, we have a problem out here.” Sunspot suddenly chimed in with a troubled tone in her voice. “What is it Sunspot?” Brimstoke asked uneasily. “It looks like we have a storm rolling in… it just came out of nowhere.” The orange pegasus replied. As if on cue to match up with her statement, everyone in the foyer heard a distant crackle of thunder. “Does it look dangerous?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “It doesn’t look as bad as the one that demon caused last night, but it definitely looks unpleasant to be out in.” Sunspot explained with a slight hint of unease in her voice. “Go ahead and bring everyone inside Sunspot. We should be up there shortly… does everyone else hear me? Everyone check in.” Brimstoke asked to see if the others could hear him. “This is Glitterball… we’re making our way back now.” Glitterball spoke up. “Glimmer Shine here, I hear you loud and clear.” Glimmershine announced. “This is Peppermint… everything is fine over here, we’ll wait for you guys to return.” Peppermint spoke up to announce his presence. “Alright guys, everyone try to make your way back as fast as you can.” Brimstoke said before falling silent. Peppermint looked up to see the two curious mares looking at him for answers. They were waiting for him to get done talking with his teammates. After all, they could only hear quiet murmurs coming from his ear, so they couldn’t understand what was going on. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked anxiously as she watched the stallion dropping his hoof from his ear. “Brimstoke wants everyone to meet back here. Apparently something happened down in the basement, and now there is a storm rolling in.” Peppermint explained. The mere mention of the word storm sent the two mares’ nerves into overdrive. “A storm? Did they summon more of those demons?” Twilight asked nervously while thinking back to her brief experience with the flying monsters. “No… Sunspot says that it’s much tamer than the one from last night, but it is bad enough that she doesn’t want to be out in it. She should be coming in with the others any minute now.” Peppermint explained while glancing to the front door. Sure enough, the group heard the door jostle as someone tried opening it from the outside. Much to the confusion of Twilight and the others, the door didn’t open. They listened as whoever was trying to open it, most likely Sunspot, got frustrated and tried pulling on it with all their might. “Peppermint… I know you must think this is really funny, but could you please unlock the door?” Sunspot spoke up in an understandably irritated tone. “Umm… Sunspot, I didn’t lock the door… nobody did.” Peppermint said while briefly putting his hoof to his ear and walking over to examine the door. “What?! That’s ridiculous! This thing is stuck like someone super glued it!” Sunspot said while giving the door several more tugs. Everyone could hear the pegasus grunting from exertion as she tried to get the door open. Peppermint reached forward and tried to open the door from the inside. Much to his surprise, the attempt yielded the same results. Upon closer inspection, the stallion noticed that the small lock on the door was unchanged from when the group came inside. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously from behind the stallion. Peppermint turned around to see the two mares walking up to him with uneasy expressions. “The door won’t open from either end… it’s like something is holding it closed.” Peppermint explained with a concerned tone. “Can’t you just use whatever you used to break into the hospital when we were stuck in there?” Twilight suggested while thinking back to how the team liberated her and her friends from the hospital. “Good idea.” Peppermint said before turning to the door and putting his hoof to his ear again. “Back up for a second Sunspot, I’m going to try the cutter.” He explained while pulling a vial from a pocket on his vest. “Ok… just hurry it up. I don’t want to stay out here when the sky opens up.” Sunspot said with an annoyed tone. Without further delay, Peppermint readied the vial in his hooves. Taking a quick look at the door, he quickly realized that it was too tall for him to reach up to the top. For the cutter to work, he needed to run it down the entire seam of the door. “Twilight, could you help me out for a second?” The stallion asked while turning to the unicorn. “Umm… sure, what do you need?” Twilight asked while stepping forward. She was glad to be able to help without actually leaving the foyer. “I need you to lift this vial to the top of the door and run it down the seam. Just press it against the door and hold down the button on the cap.” Peppermint explained while holding out the vial in his hoof and pointing to the small button on the top. There was a small point on one end of the vial, presumably the end that would be pressed into the door. “Ok, that sounds simple enough.” Twilight said while lighting up her horn and concentrating on the vial. Peppermint let go of the bottle as he felt the unicorn nudging it upwards. Everyone stood back and watched as the purple mare lifted the vial to the top of the door and pressed it into the middle of the seam. She pressed down the button on the cap of the vial, causing sparks to fly off the tip of the small point. Twilight started to drag the vial down the seam of the door, but something was amiss. No matter how hard the unicorn pushed on the vial, it wouldn’t budge. “Is there a problem?” Peppermint asked curiously. “Hrk! Gah… I can’t move this thing. I think it’s stuck or something.” Twilight groaned as she tried to force the vial to move. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get the bottle to budge an inch. “Hey, what’s the hold up in there?” Sunspot asked impatiently. “I think whatever is keeping the door closed is messing with the cutter… we can’t get it to work.” Peppermint replied with an uneasy tone. “Well try the spell breaker! Something has to work!” Sunspot replied with distress in her voice. The group could hear the sound of heavy rainfall coming from outside. “*Sigh*… Thanks for the help Twilight, but you can go ahead and give that back. I’m going to try something different… hopefully it works, or Sunspot is going to kill me when she finally does get in here.” Peppermint shrugged while holding his hoof out for the unicorn to return the vial. Twilight levitated the bottle back down and gave it to the stallion before shrugging in defeat. The two mares watched as the red haired pony fished another vial off of his vest. This one had a similar tip on one end of it, but it was filled with a different colored liquid than the one he just used. With a hopeful expression, Peppermint pressed the vial against the door and pushed the button on the top. A small shockwave of air scattered across the door. Just before the ponies could celebrate their small victory however, the shockwave paused and vanished into a small burst of light. Peppermint and the others frowned as their plan unraveled before their very eyes. “That can’t be good…” Peppermint muttered uncomfortably. Suddenly the group heard a door opening behind them. They turned around to see Glimmer Shine and his group entering the foyer. The ponies all had concerned looks on their faces as they walked over to the front door. “What’s going on?” Glimmer Shine asked his brother curiously. “I don’t know… all of a sudden the house just started shaking. Now the front door won’t open and there is a storm outside.” Peppermint explained with a troubled tone. “A storm outside? Are Sunspot and the others still out there?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned expression. Ever since the events that happened last night, the cyan mare was leery on the subject of storms. “Unfortunately yes… I tried using the cutter and the spell breaker, but nothing is working.” Peppermint shrugged while shaking his head. Glimmer Shine walked up to the door and examined it curiously. He gave it a brief tug to affirm it was locked for himself. Before the stallion could think of something else to try, another door opened behind the group. Everyone looked over to see Brimstoke and Neon Streak walking up to them alone. The absence of Tom and Princess Luna surprised the ponies. “Where are Tom and the princess?” Twilight asked with a wary expression. “They split off to investigate another hallway while we searched the basement. We tried to go find them, but the door was locked by the time we got back up there.” Neon Streak explained. The troubling news only made the knot in the ponies’ stomachs tighten. “Uh, guys! What’s the hold up in there?!” Sunspot spoke up from outside. The group could hear rain pouring down against the house. Judging from the sound and the amount of rain hitting the windows, the ponies figured that it was raining really hard. “They haven’t made it inside yet?” Brimstoke asked with a surprised expression. “The door is locked… Pepper tried everything we have on it, and it won’t budge.” Glimmer Shine explained. “That isn’t good…*Sigh*” Brimstoke lowered his head in defeat. The stallion thought for a moment before putting his hoof up to his ear to communicate with the pegasus stuck outside. “Sunspot… this is Brimstoke. We can’t get the door open. Something must be keeping it closed.” Brimstoke explained in a troubled tone. “What…? So you guys are stuck in there?” Sunspot asked in a concerned tone. Now she was more concerned with the safety of her friends than getting wet. “Pretty much…” Brimstoke replied with a shrug. “Do you need me to go back to town and get some back up?” Sunspot suggested. “No… I want you to just sit tight and try to stay dry. The storm might make it too dangerous to leave anyway if it appeared magically. We’ll find a way to unstick this door from our end.” Brimstoke explained with determination in his voice. “Ok… you guys be careful in there. I don’t want to have to bust in there and save you guys single hoofedly.” Sunspot stated in a concerned tone. “Will do.” Brimstoke replied before putting his hoof down and glancing around at the others. There was something missing from their small group however. “Where are Glitterball and the others?” The white stallion asked with mild concern while looking around for the unicorn and her group. “They haven’t gotten back yet.” Peppermint explained. “I hope they’re ok.” Fluttershy said in a troubled tone. The thought of her friends being in danger made her feel uneasy. As if on cue to ease the yellow mare’s concerns, a door upstairs opened up. The group looked up the stairs and saw Glitterball, Rarity, Applejack, and one of the unicorn guards walking into the room. They glanced around for a moment before heading downstairs to join the rest of the group. “Sorry we’re late. We had to tie up a few loose ends along the way.” Glitterball explained in an apologetic tone. “It’s good to see you guys are ok… we were starting to worry about you.” Brimstoke stated with a slight smirk. “Well now that we’re all together, will someone please explain what in the hay just happened? It felt like we were having an earthquake.” Applejack said while thinking back to the violent shaking that happened mere minutes ago. “Yeah… I would like to know why my detector just popped like a firecracker.” Glitterball stated in a troubled tone while holding up the remnants of her detector vial. “We had a run in with our old buddy Shadow Mist down in the basement. He did something to a symbol on the floor that caused a bright flash of light… next thing you know, the house starts shaking.” Neon Streak explained. “What?! You saw Shadow Mist?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone. “Please tell me you managed to catch that invisible dirt bag.” Applejack said with false hope written on her face. “Unfortunately not… he scurried off once the light blinded us like the invisible rodent he is.” Neon Streak explained with a disdainful expression. If she had her way, the red stallion would be lying face down with his hooves cuffed behind his back and a broken nose. “Dangit… we really need to find him and the others before they either get away or get the drop on us.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. “We can’t do much of anything without Tom or the princess here to tell us what’s going on. Something tells me that symbol that Shadow Mist activated down in the basement didn’t just make the house shake a little.” Twilight said in a troubled tone. If her previous experiences had taught her anything, it was that the hooded ponies were a force to be reckoned with. Now that the group thought about it more, they became very nervous about what the house shaking actually meant. The exits to the house had been locked, and they were separated from the human and the alicorn. Who knows what other nasty surprise the hooded ponies just unleashed? “Hey… where is Sargent Fireside? Rainbow Dash asked curiously upon noticing the absence of the stallion and his team of guards. “He hasn’t gotten back from upstairs yet?” Glitterball asked in a surprised tone while looking around. Sure enough, there was no sign of the Sargent or his team of guards. “Ok… this is bad.” Glimmer Shine said uneasily while pacing back and forth. The group was supposed to be in control of the situation, but things were rapidly spiraling into chaos. Even the rest of the guards were getting a little uneasy. Twilight and her friends weren’t faring much better than the yellow stallion and his teammates. Most of the element bearers had varying expressions of concern or outright fear on their faces. They were starting to regret their decision to volunteer for this mission. “Alright everyone, let’s calm down for a minute and figure out our next move.” Brimstoke spoke up to ease the group’s fears. “Let’s start with the most pressing issues and move on from there. We have some missing people, and we have no idea what might be happening. We need to send someone to go find Sargent Fireside’s team, as well as Tom and the princess. We also need to figure out what that symbol down in the basement meant.” The stallion explained. “Hey Glitter, didn’t we find a small symbol upstairs?” Rarity asked curiously while thinking back to her time upstairs. “Yeah… I think it was in the library.” Glitterball replied. “There is a library in this place?” Twilight asked with a hint of excitement in her voice. If there was one thing she could do, it was read. If there was a library in the mansion, perhaps she could find out what was going on by reading through any books or notes the hooded ponies might have been using. “Oh definitely, there were probably hundreds of books in there.” Rarity explained to the purple mare, who was getting more eager by the minute at the prospect of a library full of human books. “Maybe we should check through some of the books in there to see if they-” Brimstoke started to speak up, when he was interrupted by an outburst from Twilight. “I’ll go!” The purple mare exclaimed eagerly while staring at the white stallion with pleading eyes. Suddenly, she became aware of the odd looks she was receiving from everyone around her. “Umm… I mean… can I go check out the library please?” Twilight asked in a calmer tone while smiling awkwardly. “Alright… if you insist, but I want someone to go with you… we shouldn’t be alone at any time in this place.” Brimstoke said in agreement. “I’ll go with her.” Rainbow Dash volunteered eagerly. “Umm…” Brimstoke muttered uncomfortably. He didn’t necessarily feel comfortable sending anyone other than one of his teammates with the unicorn. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle anything that comes our way. Besides, we’re just going to be staying in one room that’s just a little ways from you guys.” Rainbow Dash stated confidently. “I’ll go with them to drop them off. We can set up some blessed candles by the door. Someone needs to look for Sargent Fireside anyway.” Glitterball volunteered to make the white stallion feel more comfortable about sending the two mares up to the library. “Alright… but I want you to take someone with you when you look for Sargent Fireside.” Brimstoke shrugged uneasily. “I already have a team set up… assuming you guys still want to stick with me?” Glitterball asked while glancing over to the three that had gone with her before. “Ah would be happy to help.” Applejack stated while stepping forward. “I would love to help as well.” Rarity volunteered alongside the orange mare. “If it means finding the others, I’m in.” The unicorn guard stepped forward with a slight nod. “Ok then… now I just need some people to help us find Tom and the princess.” Brimstoke said while looking around at the others. “Oo! I’ll go!” Pinkie Pie volunteered eagerly while bouncing over and standing by Brimstoke and Neon Streak. “Umm… I…” Fluttershy muttered uncomfortably while trying to find the courage to volunteer. She wanted to help find the human and the alicorn for everything they had done for her, but she was still nervous. “Go on Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said while giving the timid mare a helpful shove in the right direction. Fluttershy started sweating nervously as she watched the three waiting for her to finish her thought. “I’ll go…” The yellow pegasus swallowed the lump in her throat and managed to appear slightly confident. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I promise I’ll keep you safe.” Neon Streak said while putting a reassuring hoof on the nervous mare’s shoulder. Fluttershy felt better knowing that she would have friends looking out for her. She stood by Pinkie Pie defensively and anxiously waited for the group to move. “I’ll come with you guys.” Glimmer Shine volunteered eagerly, until he was halted by Brimstoke stopping him as he passed by. “Sorry Glimmer, I want you to stay here and keep an eye on things.” The white stallion instructed with a sympathetic tone. “What?! But you guys need me out there!” Glimmer Shine protested with a shocked expression. “We need you to stay here. If something goes wrong, or if anyone needs help, you will be free to put together a team and go after them.” Brimstoke explained. The yellow stallion shrugged before offering a begrudging nod. “Alright… but you guys better get back here in one piece.” Glimmer said with a concerned tone. “We always do Glimmer, don’t you worry about us.” Neon Streak said with a confident smile. Glimmer Shine lightened up a bit once he saw how determined the green mare was. “Ok everyone… we meet back here in half an hour. Glitterball and her team will go check on Twilight and Rainbow Dash before coming back. They have a lot of work to do, so they can stay up there.” Brimstoke explained to the groups that were lined up around him. “Let’s get moving!” The white stallion instructed before leading his group to the door at the back of the stairs. Everyone else nodded before scrambling to join their team members in going to their assigned positions. Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed Glitterball and the others upstairs and to the right, while Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed Brimstoke and Neon Streak into the downstairs hallway. Chapter 80: Around Every CornerWhile everyone was eagerly marching forward to complete their assigned tasks inside the mansion, it was an entirely different story outside of the mansion. Sunspot was standing under the relatively dry overhang of the front steps with her small team of pegasi. The area in front of the front door was large, with four stone columns holding up a stone covering that was arched at the sides. Despite the large overhang, rain still managed to hit the ponies due to the wind blowing it sideways. It was pouring water so hard that the group could hardly hear themselves think over the constant clamor of rain hitting the sides of the house and the stone steps. The air had been chilly before it started raining, but now that they were wet, Sunspot and the others shivered uncontrollably from the cold. All in all, it was fairly miserable to be the orange pegasus right now. “Man I m-miss my s-suit.” Sunspot stated through chattering teeth as she held her arms close to her body. “At l-least it kept m-me a little w-w-warm.” She said while trying to generate as much heat as possible. As stylish as her black vest full of equipment was, it didn’t do much in terms of generating warmth. “You know… we could huddle together to conserve body heat.” One of the guards suggested with a sly smirk. The orange mare furrowed her brow and glared at the stallion with a dirty look in her eye. “Not if you were the last pony on earth, Casanova.” Sunspot said before turning her nose up at the stallion and ignoring him. Deciding to avoid looking at the other ponies around her, she took a moment to look at her surroundings. It was hard to see much of anything in the torrential downpour just outside, but the orange mare could make out a few details. There was a stump with an old red colored axe stuck into it over by the side of the house to her right. There were a few of the stone statues in the dead garden visible from this distance. In the pouring rain, the statue of the winged human woman looked as if she was crying. There appeared to be a small shed off to the side of the garden. It was made from brick and wood, so it wasn’t faring much better than the other areas of the house. A single cracked window in the side of the small structure offered a glimpse into the pitch black void inside. A subtle chill ran down Sunspot’s back as she looked at the window. She wasn’t sure if it was from the cold, or if she thought someone might be watching her from inside the eerie porthole. “So uh… when do you think we’ll get to head inside?” One of the guards asked Sunspot in a nervous tone. He seemed to be out of his element so to speak, so he wanted to know how things were standing from an expert on situations like this. “I don’t know… I just hope those guys get done in there before I catch my death from cold.” Sunspot shrugged before glancing down at her fur. She was already turning a slightly bluer shade of orange from being exposed to water and freezing temperatures for so long. Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed Glitterball and the others through the upstairs hallway on their way to the library. The ponies glanced around uneasily at the flickering light of the candles placed all around them. Even though this hallway had been cleared out the first time Glitter’s group went upstairs, it felt like there could be anything lurking in the dark patches in front and behind them. Suddenly, Glitterball paused in front of a single door. The door looked slightly different from the other doors in the mansion, with an ornate pattern set into it. Twilight felt a sense of excitement building up inside of her. She was about to enter a room full of literature from a period in time she only dreamed about researching so closely. “Here we are.” Glitterball announced while double checking to make sure she had the right area. “Keep in mind Twilight, we’re here on business.” Rainbow Dash said once she noticed the eager expression on her friend’s face. Twilight took a moment to shake the distractions from her mind and adopted an awkward smile. “Umm… right.” The unicorn stated with a slight chuckle. Her friends glanced at her with doubtful expressions. They knew that she couldn’t resist the allure of reading for long. Only Glitterball seemed to put any merit in the purple mare’s abilities. Without further delay, Glitterball opened the door and ushered the group inside. As they walked into the expansive room, Twilight and Rainbow Dash dropped their jaws in amazement. Even Rarity and Applejack, who had seen the room before, were amazed. The room was filled with entire bookshelves full of books. The shelves covered the walls down the entire length of the room, with a few spaces in between for desks or tables. The room was longer than it was wide, with high ceilings to make it feel larger than it already was. The red carpet that prevailed in the foyer and out in the hallways was absent from this room. There were a few ornate rugs spaced out across the room to cover up the worn and dust ridden floors. Although there were lights installed in the ceiling, the room was lit by candles placed along the ground or in stands. There were a few lamps along the tables to the sides that were lit up, but they only provided enough light to read by. “Wow…” Twilight exclaimed in awe while looking around at the numerous bookshelves with a gleam in her eyes. There was a wide selection of books crammed into the shelves. From thick tomes full of doubtlessly horrific black magic, to smaller books of poetry or other literary works. “Are you sure you guys will be ok in here?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone as she watched Glitterball setting up blessed candles at the door. She wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable letting her friends stay by themselves in a place like this. “Don’t worry… I think the biggest obstacle we’re going to face is getting Twilight to keep herself focused.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing over to the purple unicorn. Twilight was already looking through one of the bookshelves and browsing the titles of the books. “Have fun with that.” Applejack said with a small smirk. A soft blue pulse of light surged through the room. The group looked over to see that Glitterball had already placed and lit the two candles at the door. She turned around and smiled at the others as they admired the blue glow of the candles. “Ok guys, if you’re ready we should probably get going.” Glitter suggested while motioning towards the door. Rarity and Applejack took one last look at their friends before walking over to the vested unicorn. Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked over to the group as they started to leave. “We’ll be back to check on you in half an hour. If we don’t get here in that time, stay here until someone comes for you.” Glitterball explained with a tone of friendly concern. “We will be careful.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while waving to her friends. “Stay safe guys.” Rainbow Dash added while glancing at the four. “Same goes for you.” Applejack replied. With a brief nod, Glitterball opened the door and led her group back out into the hallway. If they were going to find Sargent Fireside and his team, they needed to hurry up and start looking so they could be back within the half hour time limit. As the door slid closed, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were left in the quiet solitude of the library. Although the candles at the door assured them that the area was safe, the room still held an eerie quality to it. The ponies felt ever so slightly on edge as they looked around the expansive room. “Well… I guess we should get started.” Rainbow Dash said while looking around the room. “Now, where do we start?” She muttered while trying to find a meaningful title among the shelves of books. “I doubt it would be on one of these shelves… at least I hope not.” Twilight said while raising her eyebrows at the number of books in the room. It would take weeks to go through every single one, and as much as the thought entertained her, she didn’t have time to waste. As she looked around the room, she suddenly laid eyes on the few desks scattered around. Most of the desks were barren of anything other than a reading lamp and a stray book, but some appeared to be better used than others. There were a few desks that had papers and notes placed on top of them, and their drawers were free of dust. Twilight wandered over to a desk to the right of the room. She quickly sifted through the notes on the desk before opening one of the drawers. A slew of other papers on various subjects waited inside. Judging from the topics on the notes, they seemed to have been written by the hooded ponies. “Looks like these are notes about some of their operations… maybe there is something that could help us here?” The unicorn asked with a hint of optimism. “Well there’s only one way to find out. Let’s get to reading.” Rainbow Dash shrugged and stretched her arms before settling down beside the purple mare. Twilight levitated a few papers over to the pegasus and prepared to begin researching. Meanwhile downstairs, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were walking along with Brimstoke and Neon Streak. The four were making their way down the hallway towards the area where Tom and Princess Luna split off from the group. Although the two members of Spirit had a certain air of confidence about them, and Pinkie Pie was far too cheerful to mind her eerie surroundings, it was different for Fluttershy. The yellow mare lagged behind her three companions nervously as they walked through the dimly lit hallway. For all she knew, there could have been anything behind all of the doors they were passing. And knowing her luck, any monster the hooded ponies sent at the group would probably go straight for the timid pegasus. The thoughts floating through her head only further cemented the feeling of dread in Fluttershy’s stomach as she darted her eyes around anxiously. “Alright, here we are.” Brimstoke announced as the group came to the end of the hallway and glanced to the door on the left. “This is where Tom and the princess went when they left us.” He explained while turning to the others. “The door is locked huh?” Pinkie asked to clarify while stepping up to the door and rubbing her hooves together in preparation. “It was the last time we were here… how about now?” Neon asked curiously as she watched the pink mare grip the door handle. Pinkie grunted from exertion as she wrestled with the door in an attempt at forcing it open. “Nope… still locked.” Pinkie stated while wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. “A for effort, Pinkie.” Neon Streak said with an amused smirk. Pinkie Pie huffed in annoyance before stepping away from the door. “But if the only door that leads to that hallway is locked, how are we going to look for them?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “We’re going to head down to the basement to see if we can find a way around to that part of the house.” Brimstoke explained while walking up to the basement door and opening it. The moment she processed what the stallion was saying, Fluttershy froze up nervously. The sound of the door creaking as it opened made for an almost poetic welcoming to the eerie shift in atmosphere that accompanied the basement stairs. Fluttershy’s pupils shrank as she stared down into the black abyss at the bottom of the steps. It seemed like any and all light was being swallowed up by a gaping maw that led into another world. “Uh… uhh…” Fluttershy whined in fright while backing up slowly. No matter how many of her friends were with her, she could probably never bring herself to willingly descend into such a terrifying place. She could practically hear the unearthly moaning of whatever creature doubtlessly called such a place home as it waited for her to step down into the darkness so it could pounce. Pinkie Pie noticed her friend recoiling nervously. The pegasus backpedaled until she was halted by her back hitting the wall. Even then, she stared wide eyed at the opening into the basement. The pink mare frowned with concern while walking up to the timid pony. “Are you ok Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked while sitting down next to the yellow mare. Fluttershy broke her transfixed gaze for a moment to glance at the concerned ponies around her. “You don’t need to go down there if you don’t want to. We could go back and drop you off if you w-” Brimstoke started to offer a reprieve from the tense atmosphere, until he was interrupted by Fluttershy speaking up. “N-no… I can’t just leave. Tom and Princess Luna need our help right now, so I have to go… it’s just…” Fluttershy gulped nervously as her gaze shifted back to the basement door. She felt like she had to help in the efforts to find the human and the alicorn after everything they had done for her, but at the same time she wanted to curl up into a ball as far away from the basement as possible. “Hey… don’t worry about it. I’ll stick right next to you and keep you safe.” Neon Streak stated with a confident smile. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked while glancing over to the green mare. “I promise… and I always keep my promises.” Neon replied while placing a hoof over her heart, as if to swear herself to her word. Fluttershy smiled slightly from seeing the others acting so kind towards her. She couldn’t let them down by letting her fears get the better of her. As much as she wanted to run away and hide, she had to stay with her friends. “Ok… I’ll go with you.” Fluttershy said while managing a small smile. Pinkie and the others smirked joyfully at the timid mare’s acceptance to join them. “Alright, let’s get moving.” Brimstoke said while turning and descending the stairs. Pinkie Pie and Neon Streak hung back and escorted Fluttershy down the steps. Even if she did agree to go, her body still shivered in refusal to her actions as she descended into the darkness. Brimstoke and Neon Streak turned on their flashlights and shined them down the corridor to get their bearings. Even though they had been here once before, they still felt lost and overwhelmed by the seemingly endless corridors. Pinkie Pie tried her best to comfort Fluttershy as they slowly traversed the dark hallways. The timid pegasus would constantly dart her head around nervously to look into every doorway or dark passage that they passed. She felt her heart racing every time she spotted a strange shape in the darkness, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop looking at the shadows. Taking a left turn, the group tried to make their way towards the section of the house that Tom and Luna went to. They wondered how large the house actually was. Surely the basement was only as large as the mansion was, or perhaps it ran underground for miles in an endless maze. Either way, Fluttershy and her pink friend were terrified that they would get lost. “Wow, this place is so big!” Pinkie Pie stated in an enchanted tone. “I wonder what they did down here with all of this space?” She asked innocently while glancing to the rooms beside her. As she caught glimpses of the contents of each room, her wonder suddenly turned to silent horror. Several of the rooms looked like something out of a horror movie. There were tables stained with dried blood in some rooms with sharp looking tools and books placed on nearby trays. When there weren’t gruesome displays like this, there were storerooms full of strange items in jars and clear boxes. Whatever the hooded ponies were doing down here, it wasn’t anything good. Fluttershy nearly gagged and vomited on the spot as she saw a large white sheet draping off of a table at the back of a room with a body shaped object underneath it. The sheet itself was stained in deep red almost from top to bottom. The body underneath seemed to be too large to be a pony, perhaps it was one of the animals that had been taken from the forest. There were flies buzzing around the area, doubtlessly attracted to the rancid smell that was flooding the ponies’ nostrils. It was like someone just forgot that it was down here. “I don’t feel very good…” Fluttershy stated while averting her eyes from the room and taking in a few deep breaths. Her stomach was churning and her face was pale. “Try not to look at it.” Neon Streak suggested with a concerned frown as she watched the yellow mare trying to keep herself from vomiting. “Let’s keep moving.” Brimstoke said while moving down the hallway. The others seemed eager to move away from the gruesome scene. “Yeah… the sooner we get out of here, the better.” Neon stated in agreement while moving to join the stallion. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie reluctantly took one last look at the horrid object on the table before shuddering and walking away to join their two companions. After their last experience with looking into a room, the ponies decided to keep their eyes mostly down the hallway. Brimstoke and Neon Streak quickly swept each room they passed for any signs of the hooded ponies, but even they tried to avoid looking at any contents of the rooms. Fluttershy whined uncomfortably as she looked behind her into the darkness. Without the light from the two flashlights ahead, the pegasus was actually standing in almost pitch blackness. Looking behind her only made the feeling of fear gripping her body worse as she pictured what could be following her quietly, waiting for an opportunity to get her alone and drag her away from her friends. Pinkie Pie gently placed a hoof on the nervous mare’s shoulder. She wanted to try her best to comfort her, but she couldn’t do much more than offer the assurance that she wasn’t alone. Fluttershy glanced over to the pink pony and smiled slightly. Pinkie smiled and giggled happily in an attempt at making some of her happiness rub off on the pegasus. “Cheer up Fluttershy. I’m sure we’ll be out of here in no time.” Pinkie stated cheerfully. “I hope so…” Fluttershy replied nervously while trying her best to keep her eyes on the lit up portions of the hallway. As she followed Neon Streak’s flashlight beam into a room, Fluttershy suddenly noticed a bit of movement. Just as the light was leaving the room, the yellow mare noticed what looked like a silhouette rapidly moving across the room. The strange figure seemingly disappeared into the wall, as there were no other exits to the room. “…!” Fluttershy gasped and started breathing rapidly. She already convinced herself that she was being watched, but now she actually felt like there was someone else nearby. The pegasus could feel her heart racing, but she couldn’t find the courage to look behind her to validate her concerns. Pinkie Pie noticed that her friend was more afraid than usual. She looked like she had just seen a ghost, and considering their surroundings, the idea wasn’t that implausible. The timid pony was practically shaking so much that her teeth were chattering from the movement in her head alone. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone. “I t-think I s-saw something m-move.” Fluttershy replied in a terrified manner. “What…?” Pinkie Pie said in a shocked tone. Judging from the fear in her eyes, the pegasus was definitely being serious. “Hold up.” Brimstoke spoke up, interrupting the yellow mare from her explanation. The group fell silent as they heard voices up ahead. Fluttershy decided to keep her experience to herself, at least until the possible danger had passed. The ponies crept forward as quietly as they could while moving further down the hallway. As they drew closer, they started to make out the voices more clearly. It sounded like two stallions were talking amongst themselves in a room up ahead. Brimstoke and the others slid along the wall and slowly walked up to the doorway where the noise was coming from. Sure enough, there were two ponies in hoods inside the room. One of the ponies was a blue unicorn with white hair, while the other was a teal earth pony with black hair. They seemed to be frantically searching around the room looking through various boxes and books. “Where the hell did the tranquilizers go?” The unicorn asked while rummaging through a box on a shelf. “I don’t know… they were right here earlier.” The earth pony replied in a bewildered tone. “Did they fall off the table when the house shook or something?” The unicorn said while looking around in mild frustration for the items. “I don’t know, probably… why is it so important? We need to hurry up and get out of here before they find us.” The teal stallion stated urgently. “I’m sorry… I guess I would just like to know that a bunch of needles full of stuff that could knock out a dragon aren’t just lying around on the ground somewhere for me to step on!” The blue pony replied in an irritated tone while shoving the teal pony. “Hey, it isn’t my fault they were put on the table like that! We didn’t even use them for crying out loud!” The earth pony replied while shoving the unicorn back. Fluttershy and her group watched the two bickering ponies quietly. They didn’t seem like they would pose much of a threat, but it was clear that they needed to be taken care of. Brimstoke glanced to Neon Streak to come up with a plan of action. “Think we can take these guys?” Brimstoke whispered quietly. “You kidding me? These guys look like they couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag.” Neon Streak replied with a chuckle. “Alright… follow my lead.” Brimstoke stated while stretching his limbs in anticipation. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie stayed back while Neon Streak followed the stallion into the room. Slowly but surely, the pair walked closer and closer to the two unaware hoods. They tried their best to sneak as close as they could before the two turned around and discovered them. Surprisingly, the two ponies seemed to be more concerned with rifling through boxes and books than with turning around to be aware of their surroundings. Suddenly, the unicorn turned around. Before he could notice the intruders in the room, a pair of hoof cuffs was suddenly placed on his wrists. “What the hell?!” The blue pony exclaimed as he was yanked closer by Brimstoke so he could finish putting the cuffs on. As soon as he heard his companion in distress, the teal pony turned around and spotted Neon Streak right behind him. “Ack!” He yelped in fright while turning to run. The earth pony barely managed to get a few feet before he was tackled by the green mare. “Not so fast buddy. You aren’t going anywhere.” Neon stated while struggling to put the hooded pony in cuffs. “Gah! Let me go!” The unicorn exclaimed while struggling against his bonds. Frustrated at his lack of success, he strained as he attempted to use magic. “What the…? Why isn’t my horn working?!” The blue stallion yelled in a panic. “Relax… those cuffs prevent you from using magic. We’ll take them off once we get you guys back to Ponyville.” Brimstoke explained. “Aww man… I told you we should have left!” The teal pony stated fearfully to his partner. The blue pony didn’t seem to be impressed with his only friend in this situation. “I would rather take my chances in here than piss off Raven Feather by leaving without doing what she said and gathering up the research!” The unicorn replied with an annoyed expression. “So, Raven Feather told you to gather up the research eh?” Neon Streak asked with a small smirk. The two ponies instantly became very nervous as they realized that they were divulging information. “We aren’t telling you anything. You can beat it out of us as much as you want, we won’t break.” The unicorn stated with a false sense of bravery. “Hey… I remember you. You were those two cowardly ponies helping out that meanie Dust Kicker out in the Everfree Forest.” Pinkie stated curiously as she recalled the last time she had seen the pair. Fluttershy looked closer to the two and came to the same conclusion as her pink friend. These were the underlings that were helping Dust Kicker with his experiments on the animals of the forest. “You have got to be kidding me… I thought we were done with you when your human friend messed up our experiments!” The unicorn groaned in annoyance as he recognized the two mares. “He isn’t here with you is he?” The teal pony asked nervously. “Yeah actually… he is… and so is Princess Luna, so you better cooperate with us when we ask you a question.” Neon Streak said while leering at the two captives in a threatening manner. Whatever bravery the unicorn was trying to put on, wasn’t being matched by his fearful partner. “Where are Raven Feather and the others?” Brimstoke asked while glancing between the two. “You can’t be serious can you? Do you really think that we would answer that question just like t-” The blue unicorn started to speak in a snarky tone, until he was interrupted by his teal friend speaking up out of fear. “They left the mansion before you got here. They told us to stay behind and gather up some important research before we left.” The earth pony explained, much to the dismay of his partner. “What?! But that’s not possible! We just saw Shadow Mist down here not ten minutes ago!” Neon Streak said in a shocked tone. “He stayed behind for some reason… we don’t know why.” The teal pony explained. “What the hell man?! You can’t just tell them things like that! Raven Feather will kill us if she finds out!” The unicorn said angrily while glaring at his partner. “Actually… she would probably get Raincloud to kill us for her.” The earth pony shrugged uncomfortably. Brimstoke glanced to his companions with a thoughtful expression. The fact that Raven Feather and her colleagues had left the mansion was troubling, but what was more troubling was the reason why Shadow Mist had stayed behind. “You think Shadow Mist stayed behind as a scapegoat to trap us here while the others ran?” Brimstoke asked while looking at Neon Streak to get her input to the subject. “If I were a betting mare… I would put all of my bits on that idea. I’m just a little concerned with what else he might have done. If the past few days have taught me anything, it’s that these guys don’t just stop at trapping people in a mansion and running away.” Neon Streak said uneasily while thinking back to the symbol that Shadow Mist activated. “Well… we won’t know what we’re dealing with until we find Tom and the princess. Let’s get moving.” Brimstoke stated while starting to move towards the door. Before the group could move on, Pinkie Pie paused suddenly as a strange feeling washed over her body and settled in her knee. Before long, her knee was feeling stiff and uncomfortable. The pink mare was barely able to stand on the leg from how much it was shaking. “Uh oh… my knee is pinchy! That means something scary is about to happen!” Pinkie exclaimed while darting her head around anxiously. “Wait… what?” Brimstoke asked with a confused expression. “It’s my Pinkie sense. Different things happen to let me know that something is about to happen, and pinchy knee means that something scary is about to happen! Right, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked while turning to her pegasus friend to help her explain. Fluttershy nodded in response. Almost everyone in Ponyville was well acquainted with the party pony’s strange ability to seemingly predict the future. “No offense Pinkie… but that sounds ridiculous.” Neon Streak said while shaking her head doubtfully. “Oh no, trust us on this one. Pinkie’s Pinkie senses have never been wrong before. Even Twilight believes in them.” Fluttershy said with a confident tone. “So that means, something scary is about to happen?” Brimstoke said with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, but I don’t know what it is until it happens!” Pinkie stated while looking around the room defensively. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard…” The blue unicorn groaned in utter disbelief. “Do you really think that just because you get a case of restless leg syndrome that something scary is going to-” Before the hooded pony could finish his statement, a large breeze blew through the room. All of the candles in the room were snuffed out at once. As the ponies directed their attention to the candles, they caught a brief glimpse of something darting into the hallway outside. The sight of the odd silhouette vanishing around the corner made Fluttershy and the teal earth pony jump in fright. “Ack! What was that?!” The unicorn asked frantically. “I saw something like that just before we came in here.” Fluttershy stated nervously while cowering behind Pinkie Pie. “It’s the ghosts!” The teal pony exclaimed in a terrified manner while slinking to the floor. “Don’t be ridiculous… you know good and well that they aren’t real.” The unicorn stated while glaring at his companion uncomfortably. Even though he was trying to make the teal pony see reason, he seemed to be unnerved by his statement all the same. “What is he talking about? What ghosts?” Brimstoke asked with a serious expression. “There’s a myth circulating among the hoods that the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of the humans that lived here. There were three owners of the house, two brothers and a sister that all died on the property. Raven Feather must have found the rumors amusing, because she likes to tease us by saying that the ghosts are real and that the only thing keeping them at bay is the protective charms around the house.” The captive unicorn explained with a slight hint of apprehension in his voice. “Protective charms…? You mean like a symbol?” Neon Streak asked while glancing at her friends suspiciously. They had come to the same conclusion that she had. “It’s not supposed to be real… it’s just a story to keep most of us in our rooms after dark so we don’t bother Raven Feather and the others.” The unicorn said uncomfortably while glancing over to his companion. The earth pony still had a genuinely terrified look in his eyes. “Well… I suppose those candles just blew themselves out… and that thing we saw was just a big rat.” Neon Streak pondered sarcastically. “Or it could have been Shadow Mist… I wouldn’t doubt that he is still sneaking around here.” Brimstoke suggested. “Well whatever it is… I don’t want to be down here anymore. C-can we go?” Fluttershy asked nervously while darting her eyes around to search for any signs of danger in the darkness around her. Brimstoke and Neon Streak looked at the timid mare sympathetically. Even they were starting to be creeped out by the basement atmosphere, so she must have been terrified. “Yeah… let’s go. I’m sure we can find a stairway up soon enough.” Neon Streak said while giving the yellow mare a reassuring pat on the back. Fluttershy smiled a little bit at the thought of leaving the eerie basement. Without further delay, the group started moving back out into the hallway. “H-hey! You can’t just leave us down here! What if the ghosts show up?!” The teal earth pony called after the group fearfully. “Well if they do, be sure to say hi for us.” Neon Streak said while turning her head to look at the captive pair. Her remark didn’t exactly comfort the earth pony, and even the unicorn was against the idea of being left alone, but probably for different reasons. Brimstoke glanced back at the pair and shrugged as he realized that leaving them in the dark with their hooves bound together and the unicorn’s magic suppressed would be cruel. He quickly fished a blessed candle out of his vest and lit it before tossing it on the ground near the two ponies. “Don’t worry guys, we’ll be back for you… eventually.” Brimstoke added with a slight chuckle. “You sure you want to use up a blessed candle on these guys?” Neon Streak asked curiously. “Well, if these ghosts are real, then that should keep them safe. If they aren’t real, then it should give them some light. Come on, let’s go.” Brimstoke said while continuing down the hall. Without another word, the four ponies walked back out into the dark hallway. The interaction with other living creatures was a nice reprieve from the silent atmosphere, but they had a job to do, a job that required them to delve deeper into the basement. Chapter 81: House of HorrorsGlitterball and her diligent search party wasted no time in going through room after room of the hallway that Sargent Fireside’s team went through. There was no sign of the guards out in the hallway, so the group had to go through each room individually to see if they were still searching. Each room they checked was empty, and each empty room they found lowered their spirits and made them feel uneasy. Surely they should have at least found one of the ponies by now. The guards hadn’t been searching for long, so they couldn’t have gotten very far. “Where the hay are they?” Applejack shrugged in frustration as she looked in the second to last door in the hallway. The room was another small makeshift dorm area with sleeping bags strewn along the floor, but it was devoid of life just like all the other rooms. “Maybe they’re still searching further up ahead.” Rarity suggested in a hopeful tone. “I doubt they would have kept searching after the house started shaking. They would have come back to the main room… especially since they don’t have one of us to relay messages.” Glitterball stated uneasily. “Well unless they rushed through here recklessly without checking rooms, they couldn’t have gotten much further.” Applejack said while coming to the last unlocked door in the hallway. She turned to her three companions, who offered a silent nod of confirmation, before opening the door. As expected, the door led into another hallway. Unlike the hallway the ponies were currently in, there were absolutely no sources of light. Any candles that might have been placed on tables were unlit, and there were no windows, so the occasional flash of lightning from outside was out of the question. “Yikes…” Applejack muttered uncomfortably as she stared into the pitch black void. Glitterball moved to the front of the pack and lit up her horn to shine into the darkness. “Don’t worry, I got this.” The unicorn said with a slight smirk while stepping forward into the hallway. Everyone took one last look at the comforting flicker of the relatively well lit hallway they came from before following the mare through the door. While Glitterball took the lead, Rarity lit up her own horn and decided to proactively search a few of the rooms they passed. Opening a door on the left, she walked into what seemed to be a guest bedroom. There were two identical beds in the room, each with decoratively carved bedposts and green sheets with moth holes in them. All of the furniture in the room had a thin layer of dust on it. The entire room looked like it hadn’t been used in years. “No sign of them in here.” The white mare shrugged before closing the door. “It doesn’t look like anypony has been through here for a long time…” Applejack stated while observing the surrounding area. There weren’t even any candles or other recently placed items on the nearby tables. “Well they had to have come through here, and we have about fifteen minutes to find them before we have to head back.” Glitterball said uneasily. With the growing concern for the wellbeing of Sargent Fireside and his team building stronger by the minute, the group continued pressing forward with their search. Room after room turned up as another eerie insight as to what an abandoned mansion looks like on the inside. Another bedroom, a bathroom or two, and a storage closet, all yielding no signs of the team of guards. “Glitter… Ah don’t like this. We should have found them by now.” Applejack said in a troubled tone. The unicorn looked at the orange mare and frowned uncomfortably. The chances that something bad happened were rapidly increasing. “If we don’t find them in this hallway, we’ll turn back and get some help.” Glitterball explained with a troubled sigh. “I just hope they’re alright.” Rarity stated in a concerned tone. “I think they can take care of themselves.” The unicorn guard spoke up from behind the three mares. He seemed to be confident in his fellow guards’ ability to stand up against anything that was thrown at them. “Ah certainly hope so… considering we don’t even know what’s going on anymore, we can’t afford for anyone to get hurt.” Applejack shrugged and shook her head uneasily. As the group continued down the dark hallway, something caught Glitterball’s eye further down the hall. What appeared to be a dark patch on the floor was slowly coming into view beyond the veil of light. As the ponies drew closer to the odd patch, they realized that it was some sort of liquid on the floor in front of a door. Everyone immediately paused and slowed down to an anxious crawl as they looked at the liquid on the floor. The ponies glanced at each other nervously, apprehensive to press forward. Glitterball and Applejack found the nerve to take a few steps forward. Their hearts sank to their feet as the dark stain on the floor showed a red tint when the light fell on it more. Sure enough, the red tint grew in brightness until it was solid red. The ponies gasped as they stared down at the red liquid in front of them. There was no doubt about it anymore. There was blood on the floor. “Oh my…” Rarity covered her mouth to hold back another gasp as she examined the grim sight before her. The blood was still wet, seemingly having been made some time in the last half hour. Instead of lying in a puddle on the ground, the blood was spattered along the ground in streams that pointed to the door. Applejack and Glitterball glanced at each other nervously before observing their two companions. The guard’s face was pale. He had probably never seen blood outside of the body in such a large quantity before. Rarity was far too mortified to even move. She seemed to be frozen in place as she stared at the crimson stains in front of her. If anyone was going to move forward to investigate the source of the blood, it would have to be the orange mare and the rainbow haired unicorn. Figuring that she held some sort of responsibility, Glitterball slowly inched forward towards the door. Being careful not to step in the blood, the unicorn shakily placed her hoof on the doorknob. The metal felt cold in her grasp. Taking a nervous glance beside her, she saw Applejack standing beside her with an equally uneasy expression on her face. Offering a slow nod of reassurance, the orange mare waited for the unicorn to head inside. Glitterball gulped down her apprehensions and forced herself to turn the knob. She cringed as she slowly opened the door and let it glide the rest of the way by itself. “*Gasp*…!” Glitterball felt a startled outcry die out in her throat as she took a frightened step back. Everyone felt their eyes widen and their blood run cold as they saw what was inside of the room. The trail of blood spatters grew into a solid trail that led a short ways into the room before settling into a puddle, a puddle that was rapidly spreading out from a pony on the ground. As their eyes darted around the room, the group saw several more bodies strewn around the area. As much as they didn’t want to believe it, these ponies were definitely the missing guards that they were searching for. All of them were still clad in their armor, but there were numerous gashes and cuts strewn across their bodies. Some of the guards were slumped against walls, while others were strewn across the floor. One body was even lying on top of a broken glass table. “Ah!” Rarity yelped in fright while scrambling backwards. She slid to the floor once her body hit the wall behind her. “Oh my gosh!” Applejack exclaimed in shock while holding back the urge to vomit. The ponies felt sick to their stomachs as they stared at the sight before them. Taking it upon herself to investigate further, Glitterball stepped into the room slowly. The unicorn felt her legs wobbling in refusal of walking forward. She looked around at the bodies of the guards to find out what could have happened to them. “What… what happened?!” Rarity exclaimed in shock while reluctantly stepping into the room with her friends. She felt safer in the disgusting atmosphere of the room than out in the dark hallway by herself. Applejack stood over one of the bodies and started to check for signs of life before stopping herself. As much as she wanted to entertain the idea that some of the guards survived, there was no way that any of them were alive. Some of them had deep gashes in their necks, as if they were stabbed and cut repeatedly by some sharp object. “It looks like they were attacked by something.” Applejack stated uneasily. Glitterball glanced over to the side of the room and lowered her head sadly. She recognized Sargent Fireside’s body slumped up against the wall with several stab wounds in his chest. His eyes were glazed over, much like the other bodies in the room. Shifting her glance away from the death scattered around the room, the vested mare noticed a trail of blood leading away from one of the bodies. The blood trail went along the floor until it traveled up to a table. One look at the table revealed the source of all of this carnage. On top of the table, there was a large pair of scissors drenched in blood. “I think they were… killed… by this.” Glitterball said uncomfortably while pointing to the scissors. She felt herself pause whenever she had to verbally acknowledge the situation around her. “Do you think that one of the hooded ponies did this?” Applejack asked while eyeing the gruesome weapon and cringing slightly at the thoughts drifting through her head. “I doubt that any of the regular hoods could have overpowered an entire group of guards like this.” The unicorn guard stated while shaking his head doubtfully. “Maybe it was Raincloud? Something terrible like this seems right up her alley.” Rarity suggested while contorting her face into an appalled expression. The mere thought of the pale blue pegasus slaughtering the team of guards made her sick. “No… Ah don’t think it was her. If Raincloud killed them, she would have used her shadow to do it.” Applejack stated while shaking her head uneasily. Not knowing what happened was almost as bad as knowing what happened. “And I’m pretty sure that Raven Feather and her followers would have used shadow magic instead of scissors.” Glitterball added while briefly picking up the scissors with her magic. She paled as she further examined the bloody blades, eventually deciding to put the disgusting item back on the table. “Well… who did this?” Rarity asked uncomfortably. “I don’t know… but we should definitely head back and tell the others.” Glitterball suggested while moving to the other side of the room closer to the door. The others nodded somberly while taking one last look at their fallen comrades. They only hoped that they could prevent anyone else from falling to the same fate. As she was turning to leave, Rarity’s ears perked up as she heard the harsh sound of metal briefly scraping against metal. She darted her head in the direction of the noise, only to find that the only metal item in view was the pair of scissors. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she almost thought that the blades were spread apart slightly further than they were before. “What the…?” Rarity muttered in a confused tone while eyeing the scissors with a suspicious leer. The air in the room felt cold and icy, cementing the uncomfortable feeling that the ponies were already feeling. “What’s wrong Rarity?” Glitterball asked from the other side of the room. Rarity turned to see her friends waiting for her over by the door. The white mare thought for a moment before shrugging. “Oh it’s nothing… I just thought I heard something is all.” Rarity explained with a brief chuckle at the ridiculous thoughts she was having just a few moments ago. Meanwhile, the three ponies over by the door noticed something terrifying behind the unicorn. The bloody pair of scissors slowly yet deliberately lifted into the air by themselves and spun around to face Rarity. The blades slowly spread apart and closed together once, causing a bone chilling snip to fill the air before falling into dead silence. Rarity froze up as she heard the noise and saw her friend’s reactions. Even before they started to warn her, she already had an idea that something bad was about to happen. “Rarity look out!” Applejack shouted while rushing forward. “*Gasp*!” Rarity spun around and widened her eyes as she saw the scissors pointing at her in the air. The bloody weapon was floating up and down gently, but it almost had a sinister sort of appearance to it, as if it had a mind of its own. Before she could react, the scissors shot forward and sailed straight for her neck. “AHH!” The white mare screamed and flinched her eyes shut. She suddenly felt Applejack tackling her to the side to get her away from the attacking cutting implement. “AGH!” Applejack yelled in pain as the scissors clipped across her back as she went to the floor with her friend in her arms. The scissors darted through the air until they paused just above the ground. The ponies turned their attention to the weapon still floating in the air. The scissors quickly pointed towards the two ponies standing by the door. Glitterball and the unicorn guard immediately prepared themselves to jump out of the way. The scissors darted forward once again, sailing straight for the vested mare. Glitterball barely managed to duck to the side before the blades impaled themselves into the wall where her body was standing just moments ago. “Let’s get out of here!” Applejack suggested while getting Rarity up from the floor. The orange mare yelped in pain as the wound on her back sent twinges of suffering through her body. Rarity helped the farm pony walk as fast as she could towards the door. The ponies’ hearts sank as the scissors pulled themselves out of the wall and floated in the air again. It was like some unseen force wanted them dead, and it didn’t seem like Shadow Mist was the cause of the assault. The scissors were moving much too fast and fluidly for a pony to be holding them. “Look out!” The unicorn guard yelled as the scissors spun around again to face Applejack and Rarity. The brown stallion quickly lit up his horn and wrapped his magic around the flying weapon in an attempt at restraining it. The others quickly rushed to the door while the stallion struggled to keep the scissors from moving. They could tell that he was having a hard time of it due to the scissors trying to break free. As soon as the others made it out of the door, the guard slowly followed them while keeping his magical grip on the scissors. “Come on!” Glitterball said while frantically motioning for the stallion to hurry. She was going to slam the door closed and leave the scissors to rot in the room where they were found. Suddenly, the scissors stopped jostling around in the air, as if they stopped struggling. The ponies gasped in shock as the bloody blades shot forward, completely ignoring the unicorn’s magic holding it in place. The blades flew forward at a blinding speed, until they slammed straight into the guard’s chest. The gilded armor piece on his chest cracked from the force of the impact, and the guard sputtered in pain as the scissors pierced his body slightly. Glitterball and the others watched in horror as the guard was sent to the floor and landed on his back. He yelled in pain as the blades dug themselves in further. “Oh my gosh!” Glitterball exclaimed while rushing forward to help the stallion. She was forced to recoil when the scissors suddenly pulled themselves out of his body. The ponies watched with wide eyes as the scissors drove themselves back down into the unarmored portion of the stallion’s stomach. “GAH!” The guard’s outcry of pain was shortened by blood spurting from his mouth. He desperately grasped at the scissors in an attempt at preventing them from doing any more damage. The ponies heard the faint sound of female laughter echoing through the room and sending a chill down their spines. The scissors effortlessly lifted themselves out of the stallion again before crashing back down in a stabbing motion. The guard cried out in pain as the blades pierced his body again. The scissors rapidly pulled themselves out and drove themselves back down. It was like someone was sitting on top of the guard holding the scissors and stabbing him with them violently. The force of the stabs sent sprays of blood outwards like a macabre geyser. The wet and gut wrenching sound of blades piercing flesh filled the air as the scissors continued their onslaught. “AGHH!” The guard screamed in pain as the brutal assault continued. Glitterball and the others backed away fearfully as the stallion’s cries diminished. Before long, the brown unicorn rolled his head to the side and ceased all struggles. Despite the death of the stallion, the scissors kept stabbing into his body violently. With one last stab of finality, the scissors paused in the dead pony’s body. There was blood everywhere now, with streams of the crimson liquid freely flowing out of the many gashes in the stallion’s corpse. The three mare’s felt their blood running cold as the scissors slowly lifted into the air and pointed towards them menacingly. “AHH!” Rarity and Applejack screamed in terror while holding each other tightly. Glitterball frantically lit up her horn and wrapped her magic around the door. The unicorn slammed the door shut just as the blades shook in the air. The ponies flinched as they heard the loud sound of the door closing, followed by the solid thud of the scissors slamming into the wooden barrier. “L-let’s get to the others!” Glitterball stammered fearfully. She wanted to get the two mares along with herself to the safety of her teammates. Brimstoke and the others would be able to act without the hindrance of fear getting in the way. The ponies bolted as fast as they could down the hallway. They ran like they were being chased by pure evil itself, which likely wasn’t far off from the danger possibly lurking behind them. Whatever Shadow Mist had unleashed in the basement, it was capable of killing, and it thoroughly enjoyed bloodshed. The faint laughter echoed in the mares’ heads. It sounded like whoever was laughing was genuinely enjoying the suffering that they were causing. The group wondered if it was in their mind, but it was far too real to have been imagined. Finally, the three ponies reached the end of the hallway. Glitterball feverishly reached for the door and turned the handle. Before she could open the door however, the trio heard the laughter from before returning louder than ever. It sounded like it was fading in and out all around them before traveling in front of them. The sound of loud footsteps came from behind the door. The flashlight on Glitterball’s vest switched on by itself and started flickering violently. Judging from the pause between footsteps, the ponies surmised that something with only two feet was walking around, almost like their human friend Tom. Glitterball suddenly felt the door handle jostling as something from the other side tried opening it. The unicorn held the door in place while glancing back to her two companions. “Someone is behind the door…” Glitterball muttered in quiet terror. “Do you think it’s Tom?” Rarity asked with false optimism. “No… Glimmer Shine and the others would have called me if they found him… and I doubt he would have made his way around the long way to that locked door at the end of the hall.” Glitterball explained uneasily. The eerie laughter came again from behind the door, only it sounded much more defined. Before, it had been echoed and distorted, but now it sounded like someone was giggling sinisterly from the other side of the door. The sound of the laughter made the ponies freeze up with fear. Rarity and Applejack started shivering uncontrollably as they listened to the ghostly noise. Suddenly, Glitter felt the door handle shaking violently. The force on the other side of the door was jostling the door with immense strength. The door handle was banging against the rest of the door due to how much it was being knocked around. “Glitter… Ah think we should find another way back to the entrance.” Applejack suggested in a nervous tone. She couldn’t even bring herself to emote from how frightened she was. Glitterball quickly turned the lock on the door and backed away slowly. As if in response to the ponies trying to get away, a loud bang filled the air as the door jolted slightly. The sound made the group jump in fright. Taking this as a hint to leave, the ponies started running as fast as they could down the hallway. They had to keep moving to evade their new unseen foe. They hoped that they could find another way through the mansion to reach their friends. Meanwhile, outside of the house, Sunspot was still waiting patiently for her teammates to finish the mission while trying to stay warm. She at least hoped that they would find a way to open the door so she could head into the warm and dry mansion, but her patience was wearing thin. The rain hadn’t relented one bit since it started, although it hadn’t intensified either. If it wasn’t for the large overhang above the ponies, they would have been much wetter and much more miserable than they already were. Sunspot shrugged and glanced around at the team of pegasi that she was supposed to be leading. They all seemed to be just as irritated as she was. Most of the stallions were looking down at the floor while trying to stay warm, while others stared off into the torrential downpour that surrounded them. “Ugh… this is not how I planned on spending the night.” One of the guards groaned uneasily. “Well maybe if they would hurry up in there, we could head inside.” Another stallion muttered in annoyance while glancing over to Sunspot. It didn’t take much to see that he wasn’t exactly keen on the orange mare’s team taking the lead while he just sat out in the cold. “Hey… if you have any ideas on getting inside, be my guest.” Sunspot stated while returning the glare that the pegasus was giving her. “Have you considered breaking a window?” The guard replied in a condescending tone while pointing to the many windows on the side of the mansion. Sunspot hummed with intrigue as she thought further about the idea. “Well… that might work, but unless you want to volunteer for us to use you as a battering ram, I think we need to find something to break them.” The orange mare said while shifting her eyes around the area to find something to use. Although she had broken into windows more than a couple of times using her own body, the windows here looked a bit too thick to even attempt something like that without the added protection of her suit. “Aha!” Sunspot exclaimed in revelation while turning her attention to the stump at the side of the house. “We can use the… what the…?” She furrowed her brow in confusion as she laid eyes on the stump. There wasn’t anything sticking out of it, even though she had remembered seeing an axe in place earlier. “What is it?” One of the guards asked curiously while noting the mare’s confusion. “I could have sworn that I saw an axe in that stump earlier…” Sunspot muttered while scratching her head in thought. She could barely make out the outline of the notch that the axe would have made in the stump through the rain, but she couldn’t see it clearly enough to confirm her suspicions. Deciding that her mind must have been playing tricks on her, the pegasus shrugged before turning her attention to the old shed on the edge of the garden. If there was something on the property that could be used to break a window, then it would surely be in there. After taking a few steps forward, Sunspot paused as she came to the edge of the overhang. She looked up at the pouring rain as it flew past and exploded into the ground. Her body shivered just from the thought of heading out into the rain. “Ugh… I’m never getting dry am I?” Sunspot asked herself while shaking her head sadly. Steeling her nerves and taking a breath, the orange pegasus walked forward into the rain. “Gah!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock as she froze in place from the cold rain hitting her directly. She waited for a moment until her body adjusted slightly to the drastic change in temperature. She then slowly shambled forward while trying to keep her muscles from locking up. The guards watched the freezing mare as she walked over to the garden shed. They were thankful that she was the one to take the initiative and walk out into the cold rain, rather than one of them having to go. Sunspot paused in front of the wooden structure. The cracked window still offered nothing more than blackness. She shrugged anxiously before rubbing her hooves together and grabbing the door handle. Much to her relief, the door opened immediately. As she stepped inside, the pegasus switched on her flashlight and shook the excess water from her body. She was thankful to be somewhere relatively dry, even if the roof was leaking slightly. There wasn’t much in the old shed. Two racks lay on either side of the building to be used for storing tools, though both of them were empty. The only thing that looked like it could serve the orange mare’s purpose was a broken hoe lying on the ground. “I guess this will do.” Sunspot stated while picking up the wooden handle of the tool. The iron tip had broken off and was lying on the ground beside the handle, but it could only be thrown at the window, so the pegasus decided that the wooden pole would be better. Heading out of the shed and trotting through the rain, Sunspot tried to get back to the dry front steps as fast as possible. She panted heavily as she stopped in front of the group of guards watching her. They were impressed to see that she had found a tool to be used to break into the house. “Not bad kid… now let’s hurry up and get in there.” The guard that suggested the idea of window breaking stated with a smirk. Sunspot paused and held out the pole in front of his face. The stallion seemed confused, until he realized what she was implying. “You can’t be serious…” He muttered in annoyance. “Hey… it was your idea in the first place. Besides, I think I’ve gotten wet enough for tonight.” Sunspot said with a smirk while handing the pole over to the guard. The stallion reluctantly accepted the tool before turning and walking over to the edge of the steps. Everyone watched as the pegasus sighed before walking out into the rain. He spread his wings and hovered in the air a short ways to get easier access to the first window he saw. The stallion cracked his neck and prepared to swing at the window as hard as he could. “Rrrah!” The guard yelled as he swung the pole into the window. A loud crack sounded out as the glass gave way. Much to the surprise of the stallion, the window didn’t completely shatter. A large circular impact zone with many cracks spiraling out from it was clearly visible, but the window held fast. The pegasus prepared to take another swing at the window. Although it hadn’t shattered, the glass felt like it would give way from another strike. Just before he could swing again however, a peculiar sight made the stallion pause. “Huh?” He muttered in confusion while backing away from the window. The cracks in the window suddenly started mending themselves. The large crushed area slowly reformed until a pristine pane of glass was left. It was like nothing had even happened. Frustrated at this strange event, the stallion yelled and smacked the pole into the glass again. Another series of cracks formed around the impact zone, but they immediately started to disappear as well. The group watched anxiously as the pegasus rapidly threw blow after blow at the window in an attempt at breaking it before it could mend. “*Pant*… *Wheeze*…” The guard dropped the pole and descended to the ground. He slowly walked back up the steps with a defeated expression. “What the hay was all that about?” Sunspot asked in a bewildered tone. She could see what happened from where she was, but she wasn’t sure if she believed her eyes. “I don’t know… but that window isn’t going anywhere. It keeps fixing itself… what the heck is going on?” The guard asked with a shocked expression. The revelation that they couldn’t force entry into the mansion made Sunspot extremely nervous. Now, she had to face the fact that her friends were on their own. She couldn’t help them even if she wanted to. “I don’t know… I just hope everyone is alright in there.” The orange mare stated uneasily while shifting her gaze to the front door. She wondered what was happening within the walls of the mansion, and whether or not the others were safe. Chapter 82: Out of the ShadowsMeanwhile in the basement, Brimstoke and the others were still trying to find a way back upstairs. The basement was so large and convoluted that the ponies were unsure of whether or not they were even going in a new direction rather than running around in circles. It didn’t help that the walls and floors of the dark corridors didn’t have any kind of unique feature to them. The best bet they had of finding a landmark was to find a room that had a certain layout, and even that was hard. All of the rooms down in the basement were either store rooms full of bizarre items and boxes, empty rooms full of nothing but dust and cobwebs, or rooms with examination tables and other forms of disturbing operating and experimenting equipment. “Didn’t we already come through here?” Neon Streak asked in a droning tone. She was getting tired of walking around in a dark and creepy basement. At least when they were upstairs, they could get lost in a mansion filled with interesting human décor, but down in the musty old corridors, it was nothing but stone, wood, and darkness. “I don’t know… everything down here looks the same to me.” Pinkie Pie shrugged while looking around at the surrounding area. “I just hope we don’t get lost in this place.” Neon stated in a half joking, half serious way while glancing at Brimstoke suggestively. She wasn’t entirely sure if she trusted the stallion’s sense of direction enough to be following him for hours. Although Brimstoke was mildly annoyed by the statement, he wasn’t the only one affected by it. Fluttershy whined quietly and lowered her head in fear. The mere thought about being lost in the basement scared her on its own, but she also had other things on her mind. The pegasus couldn’t quite shake what the hooded ponies had said out of her mind. The story about the ghosts of the mansion’s previous owners haunting the endless halls and rooms of the house gave the timid mare a feeling of dread that wouldn’t go away. The teal pony had been scared out of his wits at the subject, and even the unicorn seemed nervous under his attempts at waving the story off as just silly superstition. Not only did the hooded ponies’ genuine fear cement Fluttershy’s concerns, but she still couldn’t get over the eerie things that happened. The candles being blown out suddenly and the strange figure she saw out of the corner of her eye made her terrified at the prospect of going further into the basement. “A-are you sure you k-know where we’re going?” Fluttershy asked nervously. The others frowned sympathetically at the yellow mare’s question. She was trying so hard to make herself feel comfortable, but she was obviously failing. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I can get us out of here if the need arises.” Brimstoke said with a confident smile. Fluttershy wasn’t comforted by the stallion’s response as much as she thought she would be. She still felt incredibly anxious and paranoid about her surroundings. “So… do you guys r-really think this place is… *Gulp*… Haunted?” Fluttershy asked while swallowing a nervous lump in her throat. She wasn’t sure if she actually wanted their opinion on the matter, but she had to keep talking if she was going to feel any better. Neon Streak and Brimstoke glanced at each other for a moment before turning to the timid mare. They looked like they were trying to gather each other’s opinion before sharing a consensus on the topic. Finally, the green mare decided to answer. “Well… something is definitely going on. I’m not sure if I buy the whole ghost story thing though.” Neon stated while pondering the matter further in her head. “Cheer up Fluttershy, if any ghosties come along, I know just how to deal with them.” Pinkie Pie stated confidently while offering a reassuring hoof on the timid mare’s shoulder. Fluttershy felt a little better knowing her friend was with her, even if she knew that the pink mare’s method of laughing in the face of anything scary probably wouldn’t work on real ghosts. “Thanks Pinkie…” Fluttershy said while managing a small smile. Pinkie seemed pleased to have made a change in the yellow pony’s mood, even if it was ever so slight. Suddenly, the group came to the end of the hallway. There were two open doors that looked like they led into other rooms. Perhaps the ponies could find another way through by snaking through the rooms until they found a hallway. “This way.” Brimstoke suggested while turning to the right. The others nodded while following the stallion through the door. Fluttershy suddenly heard something behind her. She darted her head back towards the hallway. Now that both Brimstoke and Neon Streak were facing the other way, the hallway was pitch black. The timid mare’s imagination kicked into overdrive as she saw shapes moving in the dark. Noticing the absence of the yellow pegasus, Neon Streak turned around and walked back out into the hallway. She noticed Fluttershy staring into the shadows fearfully. She seemed to be searching for something in the darkness. “What’s wrong?” Neon asked in a concerned tone. Fluttershy glanced beside her to see the green mare looking at her with a worried expression. “I-I thought I h-heard something down there.” Fluttershy explained while hesitantly pointing her hoof down the hallway. Neon Streak pointed her flashlight where the timid mare was pointing and searched the hallway. “I don’t see anything…” Neon muttered suspiciously. “Hey girls, hurry up.” Brimstoke said while looking behind him and noticing that only Pinkie was following him. Neon Streak and Fluttershy turned to rejoin their companions, but just as they were walking up to the doorway, the door suddenly and violently slammed shut, causing the pair to yelp in surprise. “What the hay?!” Neon Streak exclaimed in surprise as she rushed up to the door and tried opening it. “Are you two ok?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone while trying to open the door from his end. “Yeah, we’re just a little spooked. Can you get the door open?” Neon Streak asked while glancing to Fluttershy and trying her best to reassure her. The pair heard the stallion grunting from exertion as the door jolted several times. Finally, Brimstoke shrugged uncomfortably and wiped the sweat from his brow in defeat. “It won’t budge… I can try the cutter, but if this door is anything like the others, it won’t open.” Brimstoke explained in a frustrated tone. “*Sigh*… Go ahead and try it.” Neon Streak said while shaking her head in defeat. Brimstoke nodded silently while reaching into a pocket on his vest and pulling out the vial in question. Fluttershy waited while trying to contain her growing fear as the stallion tried to get the door open. Any feeling of safety she had built up from being in a group was completely dissolved. She now felt helpless and endangered as she darted her eyes around her. “Are they going to be alright?” Pinkie Pie asked in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry Pinkie, I’ll keep Fluttershy safe.” Neon Streak stated confidently while glancing at the yellow mare. Fluttershy was practically shaking so much that her teeth were chattering. She couldn’t stand the tension of situation. “Ugh… the cutter’s a no go.” Brimstoke shrugged uneasily while giving the door one last tug to be certain. “We should keep moving… we’ll try to find another way around to you. If we can’t, then we’ll turn around and head back to the others.” Neon Streak suggested while looking to Fluttershy for her opinion. Naturally, the pegasus didn’t like the thought of being down in the basement any longer. “Alright, just be careful… radio us if you get into any trouble, ok?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone. “Ok… same goes for you guys.” Neon replied before walking away from the door. Before Fluttershy walked off to join her, she paused in front of the door. “Pinkie…” The timid mare spoke up in a tone she hoped would be loud enough to be heard. It was hard to articulate her voice with how frightened she was. “Yeah?” Pinkie Pie replied while waiting for the pegasus to continue. “S-stay safe for me… ok?” Fluttershy said with friendly concern evident in her voice. Pinkie Pie smiled slightly from hearing the yellow mare taking the time to wish her well. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will be ok.” Pinkie stated in her usual bubbly and energetic manner. “But… you stay safe too.” The pink mare added in a more somber and down to earth tone. Fluttershy nodded silently before walking away to join Neon Streak. The two mares walked back through the hallway to find another door that led in the direction of their lost friends. They hoped that they could find a way to them quickly. Being separated from them like this made the pair fear for their safety, not to mention how much it made Fluttershy nervous. Before, the pegasus at least had three other people with her, one of whom was a close friend of hers. But now, she felt more alone and helpless than ever. Despite Neon Streak’s constant pauses and speeches of reassurance, nothing could quell Fluttershy’s fears now. Finally finding a room that didn’t just end, Neon Streak and her timid companion walked inside and immediately started making their way to the other doorway at the far end of the room. The room itself was another grim example of the frightening uses that the basement had. There were several shackles and chains secured to the left wall, most of which were caked in rust or blood. Scattered throughout the room were any amenities that would be needed for whatever twisted torture experiments went on down here. An entire countertop was full of cutting implements, dirty rags, trays, and surgical tubing. There was a sink that had bloodstains all over it, not to mention cabinets full of Celestia knows what all around the room. And to top it all off, there were several collapsible operating tables on the right side of the room, two of which were set up. “Geez… how many of these rooms are there in this place?” Neon Streak asked rhetorically with a disgusted expression as she examined the macabre quarters. The hooded ponies couldn’t have possible made this room. The sink, the surgical tubing, the gruesome tools, all of them were as old as the rest of the house. The human owners, whoever they were, were responsible for all of it. “What do you think they did here?” The green mare asked with a morbidly curious tone while examining one of the shackles on the wall. Hearing no response from her pegasus friend, Neon Streak turned around, only to find Fluttershy staring at the bloody sink and counter full of sharp cutting implements with a pale expression. “Sorry Fluttershy… I forgot that I wasn’t with Brimstoke and the others for a second there.” Neon Streak said in an apologetic manner while putting a hoof on the timid mare’s shoulder and gently leading her away from the macabre sights around them. She felt horrible for not being more sensitive to the yellow pony’s fears. “I-I’m ok… I think.” Fluttershy gulped uncomfortably as she gave one more passing glance to the room around her. She felt horrified every time she thought about the original purpose of these rooms, but she couldn’t stop thinking about them. “Let’s get out of here. The sooner we find the others and leave this place, the better.” Neon Streak suggested while walking to the door. Fluttershy nodded weakly in silent agreement while following the green mare as she ushered her out of the room. A few more rooms later, the pair managed to find themselves in another hallway. Neon Streak smirked as she looked down the hallway. With any luck, they could meet back up with Brimstoke and Pinkie Pie if they traveled down it. “This should take us right to them. Let’s get going.” The green mare said while turning to her companion. Fluttershy smiled a little as she envisioned being reunited with her pink friend. She quickly followed the vested pony down the hallway while trying to keep her frightening thoughts from returning. Suddenly, Fluttershy’s ears perked up as she heard a noise behind her. Given the amount of times she had heard a noise or seen something moving out of the corner of her eye, the pegasus was wary as to the cause of these events. Surely she wouldn’t hear a random noise behind her this often. No, something was definitely following her. Taking a swift glance behind her immediately filled the timid mare with regret. Neon Streak was the only one with a flashlight, so the hallway behind them was always filled with pitch blackness. Even if there was something watching her from the shadows, Fluttershy wouldn’t be able to see it unless it was an inch away from her face. Noticing that her companion wasn’t following her anymore, Neon paused and turned around to see Fluttershy staring into the darkness with a paranoid expression of fear. “What’s wrong?” The green mare asked in a concerned tone. “I keep hearing things behind me… I really think that something is following us Neon.” Fluttershy stated in a fearful tone. Neon Streak turned around and pointed her flashlight down the hallway in question. There were a few boxes and tables along the wall that someone could hide behind, but otherwise there were no signs that they were being followed. “I don’t see anything Fluttershy.” Neon said while turning to the pegasus with a sympathetic expression. “Let’s just keep moving… if anything we should just keep our wits about u- OW!” The green mare suddenly cried out in pain while clutching the back of her neck. Fluttershy immediately looked to her companion fearfully. “What’s wrong?!” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. Neon Streak rubbed the back of her neck gingerly before bringing her hoof in front of her face to inspect it. “Something just poked me! It felt like a…” Neon hesitated as she spun around to examine the area behind her. There were no signs of her attacker, but there was something on the ground at her feet. What appeared to be a used up syringe was rolling on the ground, as if someone dropped it quickly and ran. “Needle…” Neon finished her sentence with a hollow feeling of dread slowly filling her up. She picked up the syringe casing and examined it. Although there was no name on the syringe to indicate its contents, the needle was covered, as if it had been spent. Whatever had been inside, was now inside of her. “Are you ok?!” Fluttershy asked nervously as she watched the green mare staring at the syringe with a pale expression. Neon Streak turned to the fearful pegasus as if to answer her, when she suddenly stumbled slightly. “I don’t… feel good.” Neon stated in a slurred voice. She sounded and looked like she was about to pass out. Fluttershy tried to steady the wobbly pony, but her condition continued deteriorating as she starting stumbling more and more. Finally, Neon Streak fell over and settled on the ground like a limp puppet. Her eyes closed and her head smacked the ground from the force of the impact. She was still breathing, but for all intents and purposes, she had been rendered unconscious. “Oh no… Neon, wake up!” Fluttershy pleaded as she gently shook the sleeping mare. She darted her head around nervously as she looked for the one responsible for hurting her friend. Now she was alone in an eerie dark hallway, with a friend lying sprawled out on the floor with no easy way of moving her. “Who did this?!” The pegasus asked fearfully while sliding to a seated position and scooting to the wall. She quickly rushed her hooves to her unconscious friend’s vest and unclipped the flashlight from her chest. The yellow pony waved the light around frantically while searching for any signs of movement around her. “S-stay back! Please j-just leave us alone!” Fluttershy tried to sound as loud and brave as she could, but her voice only came out as a quiet squeak of fear. The yellow mare felt her heart pounding in her chest. She had to get out of there, but she couldn’t just leave Neon Streak by herself. No, she had to stay and protect her as best she could. The sound of something brushing up against something else made her dart her head to the side. She could hear herself starting to sob slightly from fear amidst her rapid and shallow breathing. She felt like she might pass out herself if she didn’t get a handle on her panic. “OW!” Fluttershy felt a stabbing pain in the side of her neck. She looked over just in time to see a syringe falling to the floor beside her, similar to the one that Neon found just before she passed out. There was nobody else around her, just the small syringe that was now rolling on the floor. As she clutched the site of her injury, the pegasus started to feel sick. She wasn’t sure if it was due to the contents of the syringe or not, but she felt ill at the thought of what was now coursing through her body. Her hooves started shaking as she brought them back down to her face. She could already feel a slight uncomfortable twinge of whatever was affecting her body. “N-no… please!” The yellow mare pleaded to whoever might have been listening. She started to feel her limbs growing numb and her head growing fuzzy. She tried her best to keep herself awake and alert, but she was growing sleepier by the passing second. “Don’t… d-don’t…” Fluttershy tried to protest to whoever was doing this to her. She didn’t know what would happen once she was rendered unconscious as well, but it couldn’t be anything good. The yellow mare felt herself slumping to the side. She caught herself with her arm before she hit the ground, but the clumsy and sluggish movement of her arms made her drop the flashlight she was carrying. “Don’t… h-hurt u…us” Fluttershy muttered as she felt her eyelids growing heavy. She fought as hard as she could to retain the fleeting feeling in her body, but she was fighting a losing battle. Finally, the strength gave out in her arms and she slid to the floor. She could barely see the area in front of her, not only from the lack of light, but also from her steadily blurring vision. As she fought to keep her eyelids from closing completely, she heard the muffled sound of footsteps in front of her. She saw a brief glimpse of two feet clad in leather shoes stepping in front of her and pausing. Fluttershy barely managed to feel something picking her arms up and pulling. She saw the blurry scene in front of her moving as she was pulled along the floor. Finally, her eyes fluttered closed and didn’t open again. She felt her mind slipping into a calm void as all sounds and feelings faded away. Meanwhile upstairs on the main floor, Tom and Princess Luna were trying their best to navigate the seemingly endless hallways of the mansion to get back to their friends. They had been searching through rooms ever since they discovered the locked door keeping them from returning to the others, but they hadn’t found much of anything. Every room they went to was steadily showing less and less signs of recent life. They stopped coming across dorm rooms full of sleeping bags a while ago, and now there weren’t even any candles placed around the rooms to light the way. Only cobweb ridden and dusty lights on the ceiling, or maybe a lamp placed on a desk remained as a possible source of light. Still, all of the electrical devices weren’t working, and they looked so old and primitive that it was a wonder they worked at all at some point in time. “I’m starting to worry about the others…” Luna stated uneasily as she thought more about the situation. “Whatever locked that door did it on purpose… it meant to separate us from the others.” She reasoned to the human beside her with a concerned tone. “I still can’t get a definitive read on what this thing is… but it feels familiar somehow.” Tom shrugged while giving his senses another try. It was right on the tip of his tongue. He had felt this somewhere before, but he wasn’t sure where. “Whatever it may be, we need to get back to the others somehow.” Luna added with a determined expression. She wasn’t about to allow her subjects to be harmed while she was around to stop it. Eventually, the hallway opened up into a larger intersection that resembled a room of its own more than anything else. There was a couch against the back wall with a few stray books on it covered in dust. There was a window to the right that revealed flashes of lightning and rain pounding against the glass. There were also two doors that led off into other sections of the house. One door off to the left that was open led into another hallway, while the other door at the far end of the room opened into a set of stairs leading down. “Looks like we have a choice… either we try the other hallway, or we head into the basement.” Tom stated while weighing the decision in his mind. Either direction seemed like a poor choice in any other circumstance, but they were out of options. “Brimstoke and Neon Streak were in the basement the last time we saw them… maybe we can find them or find a way back to them if we head down there?” Luna suggested in a hopeful tone. “Well… I guess that’s the best lead we have.” Tom shrugged his shoulders before walking across the room to the basement door. Before the pair could reach the stairs however, a slight chill ran down their spines. The room suddenly felt sinister somehow, like something was watching them. The feeling of unease washing over them was so intense that they paused and looked around them. Suddenly, Tom gasped as blue mist came from his mouth. Along with this, an intense feeling of danger came from directly behind him. “What is it?” Luna asked in a troubled tone while looking around. As if to answer her question, the pair heard the faint sound of laughter coming from down the hallway. As they turned around, the two saw something that made them freeze in place from shock and surprise. Down the darkened hallway they just came from, there was a humanoid figure approaching them. The figure was taller than Tom, and it held a menacing air about it. As a bolt of lightning flashed outside, the pair got a good look at the ghostly figure. Amid the brief flash of blue light, the two could see a human woman in a white dress walking forward slowly. She had long and flowing black hair that covered half of her face. Through the opening in her hair, a sinister smile could be seen, along with a hazel eye that stared at the two with an evil gleam. She kept her arms to her side, but in one hand, she was brandishing a pair of bloody scissors. “What in the…?” Luna muttered in utter bewilderment at the strange sight in front of her. Although she was puzzled as to how such a thing could exist, she was also incredibly nervous. The faint sound of echoed laughter grew louder and closer. Soon enough, it sounded clear enough to have been coming directly from the strange woman in white. The sound of scissors snipping together rang out as the ghostly woman squeezed the bloody blades in her hand. “Tom… what is that?!” The blue alicorn asked in a more alarmed tone while preparing herself to fight the strange figure. “It… it’s a ghost… but that can’t be right. I’m feeling so much power… but ghosts shouldn’t be able to get that powerful.” Tom explained with a pale expression. “What do we do?” Luna asked in a concerned tone while glancing to the human. She was completely out of her element. The princess had never even entertained the possibility that ghosts might be real before, let alone ponder on how to fight one. “Stay back. I’ll handle this…” Tom stated while stepping forward with a serious expression on his face. Luna wasn’t sure if she liked the idea of the human fighting by himself, but she did as he instructed and watched as he walked towards the ghostly figure. Tom readied his hands and summoned his claws in a puff of fire. He paused and waited for the woman in white to come to him. Luna watched as the ghost walked towards the human at a painfully slow rate. Suddenly, her entire form flickered for a moment before vanishing from sight. Luna’s eyes widened as she looked around for the strange woman. She couldn’t even sense where she was. The alicorn was completely blind to the approaching threat, and that made her uneasy. “Where did she go?!” Luna asked while looking around frantically for the specter. Meanwhile, Tom seemed to still be focusing ahead. The human didn’t seem to be phased by the fact that the ghost was now invisible. In fact, he seemed to be looking ahead as if he could still see her. Suddenly, Tom gasped and exclaimed in surprise. The human jerked himself back as fast as he could, much to the confusion of the blue alicorn. Then, out of nowhere, the woman in white reappeared directly in front of the boy and swung her scissors at his face. The tip of the blades barely scraped across his cheek, causing a small trickle of blood to drip down. “Gah…” Tom winced in pain as he wiped the excess blood from his face. Meanwhile, the ghostly woman was smiling deviously at her successful strike. “What the… but how did you…?” Luna asked in bewilderment at the human’s miraculous evasion of the swift attack. She had no idea that the ghost was about to strike. If that had been her, she would have gotten away with a lot more than a bloody cut on her face. “Oh… of course… you can feel where she is can’t you?” The alicorn said in revelation as she remembered the boy’s powers. He could sense evil creatures, so perhaps his sensory abilities gave him more of an edge in combat than the princess realized. “Yes… but it didn’t help much. She’s so fast… she shouldn’t be this fast and unpredictable.” Tom stated while scowling in disbelief at the sinister specter in front of him. The ghostly woman giggled at the human’s frustration. Suddenly, Tom’s healing powers kicked in and the wound on his cheek quickly closed up behind a flash of embers. The scissor woman seemed surprised by this event for a moment, but her surprise quickly and disturbingly turned into a devious smile. “Ehe… ehehehe…. Hehehehehe.” The ghost’s eerie giggles suddenly turned into full blown laughter that even Pinkie Pie would be jealous of. Even with this outburst, she still kept a cold and chilling tone in her constant cackle. She sounded like she was enjoying something an awful lot more than the two observers were comfortable with. “What’s so funny?” Tom asked in as much of a witty tone as he could muster under his unease. The human backed closer to the nervous alicorn behind him and prepared himself for anything the ghost might throw at him. “Hehe… you’re not like the others are you?” The woman asked in a clear voice. There was only a hint of distortion to even make her sound like a supernatural creature. Otherwise, she sounded and looked like a completely solid living being, minus the pale face and cold dead eyes. “W-what?” Tom stammered briefly with mild fright. The blood-craving look in her eye was starting to make him feel extremely uncomfortable. “I figured that you were different when you first came here… we don’t get many humans around here nowadays… not many humans at all.” The ghostly figure sounded almost disappointed as she continued. “These… ponies as you call them? They are fun to play with, and we have been wanting to play with them for a long time… but they don’t last very long.” She stated while fiddling with her scissors idly. Luna and Tom suddenly noticed that the blood on the scissors from before was fresh. The grim realization hit the pair like a ton of bricks. “What… what do you mean?” Luna demanded in a disturbed tone. The only other ponies in the mansion so far were a few hooded workers, and her own team of guards and subjects. She hoped that the ghostly woman wasn’t referring to anyone under her order, not that she wanted anyone to suffer such a cruel fate. “I mean… it’s not like humans lasted much longer than them… but they are especially fragile.” The ghost continued while snipping her scissors playfully and staring at Tom with a sinister glint in her eye. “But you…” *SNIP* “You are different… aren’t you?” *SNIP* “You’re one of those slayers that I have been reading so much about. Ohh… I have been dying to meet one of you ehehehe.” The woman in white giggled joyfully in a maddened tone while slowly closing and opening the blades of the scissors. The aged metal grated against itself and created a spine tingling shrill outburst every time it moved. “Tom… I don’t like this…” Luna whispered uneasily to the human while trying to think of a way to help him destroy this evil creature. The boy glanced back to her with an equally disturbed expression, but he looked just as clueless as to what they should do. “Well… you wanted a slayer? You got one now… just what is it you want with me?” Tom asked in a threatening tone while readying his claws in front of him. If the ghost knew as much about slayers as she claimed, she would doubtlessly know that the slayers’ spirit weapons could wreak havoc on any evil creature, even ghosts. “Heh…” The woman paused and looked down for a moment. “What do I want…?” She said quietly. Suddenly the ghost started shaking slightly. Her smile grew even wider until it seemed unnatural for a human, even a dead human to have. Tom and Luna tensed themselves up in preparation to combat any danger the spirit might pose to them. “I WANT YOU TO BLEED!” The ghostly woman suddenly shot her head up and screamed at the top of her lungs. She lunged forward with a crazed look in her eye before quickly disappearing into a blur of motion. Tom and the alicorn behind him barely had time to react before the ghost reappeared directly in front of the boy. “Oh crap!” Tom exclaimed in genuine surprise. Luna was surprised to hear even the smallest amount of profanity from the usually cool headed human, but she was just as frightened as he was. The ghostly woman ducked to the side and yelled fiercely as she drove her scissors downward. The blades moved in a blur towards the boy’s knee before plunging into the side of the fleshier part of it. “AAGH!” Tom screamed in pain and agony as his mind was racked with suffering. “Tom!” Luna cried in shock while lighting up her horn and racing forward. She didn’t care if the boy asked her to stay out of the fight. She couldn’t stand by and watch this horrific act any longer. Before the alicorn could reach the two humans, the woman raised her other arm with an open palm and shoved it towards the princess. Luna suddenly felt a violent wave of energy slamming into her. She yelped in pain as her body was sent flying backwards before crashing into a table against the far wall. As she crashed to the floor through the now broken table, Luna felt numerous bursts of pain going through her that persisted until she landed. Working against her sore muscles, she looked up to see what was happening between the two. Tom gritted his teeth and tried his best to ignore the scissors still stabbing into his knee. He shot his arm forward in an attempt at stabbing the specter with his blades, only to watch her dart to the side with blinding speed to dodge the attack. Frustrated, the boy spun his body around and brought his arms back towards the ghost to launch a flurry of swipes. In one swift motion, the ghostly woman ducked under the swipes, pulled the scissors out of the slayer’s knee, and spun around to his front. Tom looked up just in time to see the ghost looming over him with her arm stretched out in preparation to strike. He tried his best to dodge the incoming attack, but he was powerless to stop the scissors coming down and stabbing clean through the side of his neck. “NO!” Luna cried out while reaching her hoof towards the boy. Tom’s painful outcry was strangled by the vast amount of blood spurting out of his wound and into his throat. He reached up and grabbed the scissors to pull them out, only to stumble backwards and collapse to a seated position on the floor as the ghostly woman wrenched the blades out herself. Amid the echoing laughter of the woman in white as she clutched the red-stained scissors, Tom clutched his neck instinctively while gasping and gurgling as he tried to breathe despite the fluid in his throat. Suddenly, a few flashes of orange light escaped the sparse breaks in the torrent of blood spraying out from the human’s throat. Despite the grim appearance of the scene, Tom’s healing powers were somehow kicking in to seal up the gaping hole in his neck. After a few moments of writhing in pain from the combined forces of his wound and the burning sensation of his wound healing, Tom stopped choking and gasped for air. As he removed his hand from his neck and wiped away the excess blood, the shocked alicorn observing from the other side of the room was even more shocked to see that the boy’s wound was completely gone. “Oh thank goodness.” Luna breathed a sigh of relief. She thought she was going to watch the human die for a minute there. Although he was still in bad shape, at least he would live. “Hahhahahaha!” The ghost cackled once again as Tom shakily made his way to his feet. “What the hell is so funny?!” The boy yelled angrily while still staring at his now bloodstained hand. “So it’s true… you can’t die! Not like the rest of us anyway…” The woman stated with a joyous grin on her face. “I’ve been waiting for all of my existence to be able to play with someone like you… and now I have my chance!” She said while raising the scissors up in a threatening manner. “That’s enough! Leave him alone!” Luna yelled angrily while getting up from the floor and lighting up her horn. She stepped towards the ghost with a scornful expression on her face. “Luna, don’t… she’s too powerful.” Tom said while still trying to catch his breath. “Get out of here… now!” He instructed in a serious tone. “I’m not leaving you with her!” Luna stated before charging forward with determination in her eyes. She started charging up a spell that she was certain would do some damage to the ethereal menace. The ghostly woman sighed in a bored tone while raising her arm again. Suddenly, Luna went flying through the air again, only this time she sailed clean through the door to the basement and went rolling down the stairs. “Ack!” Luna yelped in pain as she settled midway down the steps. After getting up and shaking her head to rid the pain from her body, she charged forward again. Before she could reach the top step, the door slammed shut and hit her in the face. Luna tried to open the door, but it was locked just like the one they had encountered before. She pounded on the door frantically in an attempt at getting back in the room to reach the human. She had to help him defeat the brutal spirit, or at least help him get away from her. “Tom!” The alicorn’s muffled cries could be heard from behind the door. Tom cursed under his breath as he directed his attention back to his attacker. The woman in white slowly brought the scissors up to her head. She opened her mouth and slowly dragged the blades across her tongue, all the while making disturbing eye contact with the human. She finished dragging the bloody object across her tongue and savored the crimson fluid in her mouth. “It’s been so long since I’ve tasted fresh blood… this should be fun.” She stated with a sinister gleam in her eye as her mouth shifted into a disturbing grin. Chapter 83: Grave DangerAs the chilling sound of laughter, the scraping of scissors against flesh, the spurting of blood, and the screams of the brown stallion still echoed in their minds, Glitterball and her two companions swiftly ran through the mansion in an attempt at getting away. The three mares were panting heavily due to them running full steam down each hallway and through each room, but they didn’t dare to slow down. Whatever had attacked them in that room was supernatural, and it was downright evil. From the sound of the laughter, the trio figured that it was a female whatever it was, and that it enjoyed hurting others. Finally, Glitterball slowed down to a halt and leaned up against the wall. Her burning lungs and her tired legs could carry her no further, and judging from the state of her two companions, the unicorn figured that they weren’t doing much better. “*Pant*… *Wheeze*… do you… do you think we lost it?” Rarity asked in a fearful tone while catching her breath. Glitterball glanced to the doorway they just came from a little ways down the hall. They hadn’t heard footsteps or laughter since they started running, so she had no idea if their invisible assailant had followed them or not. “I don’t know…*Pant*” Glitter replied in an exhausted tone. The white mare could immediately tell that her answer was less than satisfying to her two friends, but it was all she could give. “What was that thing?! It just… it just killed that poor feller and tried to kill us!” Applejack shuddered coldly as she thought back to the gruesome scene she just ran from. On top of brutally murdering the guard they were with, the invisible force used those scissors to completely slaughter Sargent Fireside and his men. “I don’t know! I just… I just don’t know!” Glitterball replied in a panicked tone. She was way out of her league, and it was starting to show. Applejack and Rarity were concerned that the unicorn might have a panic attack if she kept this up. The orange mare wanted to calm her friend down, but she was scared and uncertain herself. Suddenly, Rarity turned her attention to her orange friend as she cringed in pain. The unicorn gasped as she saw the full extent of her injury. There was a shallow gash across the earth pony’s back from where the scissors glided across it. The wound didn’t look deep, but it was bleeding profusely and staining Applejack’s clean orange fur red. Rarity felt horrible as she looked at her friend coping with the pain of her injury. Applejack had received the horrible wound while saving her life when the scissors tried to kill her. If it wasn’t for the orange mare, Rarity might have fallen to the same fate as their guard companion. “Applejack, are you ok darling?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone while putting a loving hoof on her shoulder and examining her wound further. Applejack tried to hide the pain she was feeling from the two unicorns. She could already tell that Rarity was beating herself up as she frowned at the bloody gash. “Ah’m fine Rarity… it’s nothing but a little scrape.” Applejack said with a forced smile. Rarity was unimpressed by her friend’s attempt at comforting her. “Nonsense! You’re hurt… and it’s all my fault.” Rarity stated while looking down sadly. “I’m so sorry darling… if only I would have reacted faster… then you wouldn’t have gotten this ghastly cut.” She said in a gloomy tone while avoiding eye contact with the orange mare. Applejack softened her expression into a sympathetic frown as she looked at the white mare. “Ah would rather have to deal with this cut than deal with you getting killed while Ah sat back and watched.” Applejack stated in a sincere tone while smiling slightly at the unicorn. “As much as you get on my nerves sometimes… Ah would never forgive myself if Ah let something happen to you.” She added, eliciting Rarity to look over at her with a touched expression. “Applejack… I don’t know what to say. You…” Rarity smiled warmly while gently hugging the farm pony. “You’re one of the best friends a girl like me could ask for.” She said in a sincere tone. Applejack couldn’t help but to smile at the white mare. Even Glitterball was touched by the heartwarming exchange between the two friends. However, there were more important matters to tend to. “Here… let me take a look at your injury Applejack. I might be able to help.” Glitter suggested while maneuvering around the orange mare to get a better look at her wound. Applejack held still while the unicorn examined her back. “How bad is it?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “It looks worse than it is… I think I might be able to patch this up right here.” Glitterball explained while lighting up her horn. She reached into her vest and pulled out some disposable washcloths. After gently wiping the excess blood away, she focused her magic on sealing the gashes. Rarity watched in amazement as the cut on the farm pony’s back started closing up. Before long, Applejack’s back looked no worse than it had before the attack. The only thing remaining to even indicate that there was a gruesome wound was a few dark stains on her fur from all of the blood. “There, how does that feel?” Glitterball asked while patting the orange mare’s newly healed back. Applejack was impressed to see that she couldn’t feel any more stinging pain. “Ah feel good as new… you make one mighty fine medic, Glitter.” Applejack stated happily. “Well… I can’t do much more than close up small scrapes and bruises, but it does come in handy now and again. Now then, we should get back to the matter at hoof.” Glitterball said while looking forward into the hallway. There was a decent amount of distance between them and the next door, but simply continuing down the hallway wasn’t necessarily the best option. “I think we’re looping back around to the side of the house we came from… I hope.” Rarity said with an uncertain tone while thinking back to the path the group took during their escape. In her haste to keep up with her friends, the unicorn didn’t pay much attention to where she was going. “Ah just hope that whatever that thing was is gone by the time we get back there.” Applejack stated uneasily. “That’s it… I’m calling the others. Hopefully they are doing better than we are doing.” Glitterball said while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating on Brimstoke. Once she felt the connection coming through, she took in a breath to speak. “Brimstoke, this is Glitter… are you there?” Glitterball asked with a slight twinge of nervousness in her voice. She couldn’t shake the thought that her friends were attacked by the same thing from her head. “Glitter…? This is Brimstoke. Is everything ok?” The voice of the stallion rang out in her ears, eliciting a smile from the unicorn. Glitterball breathed a sigh of relief before continuing. “We ran into some trouble up here… we found Sargent Fireside and his team.” Glitter explained while looking at her two companions with a dreadful expression. “That’s great! Where are they?” Brimstoke asked eagerly. Glitterball paused as she tried to find the strength in herself to describe what happened. The stallion must have noticed her pause, because she felt him growing uneasy as she silently thought. “Are they alright?” Brimstoke asked hesitantly. “No…” Glitterball finally managed to speak up. “No… they… they aren’t. We found them all together in a room… they’re dead.” She said in a shaky voice. The unicorn had to sit down to ease the sick feeling in her body as she thought about what just happened further. “What happened to them…?” Brimstoke asked in a somber tone. “We didn’t know at first… all we found in there with them was a pair of bloody scissors on a table. We thought that maybe one of the hooded ponies did it… but then the scissors lifted into the air and tried to kill us.” Glitterball explained while looking down at the floor. “Oh my gosh… are you guys ok?!” Brimstoke asked in an alarmed tone. “Yes… we made it out ok… the guard we were with wasn’t so lucky though.” Glitterball said in a gloomy manner. “Was it Shadow Mist? I swear to Celestia if I get my hooves on that spineless coward I-” Brimstoke started to get angry at the thought of the red stallion killing an entire team of guards and trying to kill his friends, until he was interrupted by the unicorn speaking up again. “It wasn’t Shadow Mist… I don’t know what it is… but it wasn’t Shadow Mist.” Glitterball stated uneasily. “How can you be sure?” Brimstoke asked in an understandably sympathetic tone. “The scissors moved too fast and too fluidly for them to be held by a pony… invisible or otherwise. And… we heard someone laughing. A girl from the sound of it… but it was like it was coming from everywhere around us. When we ran, we tried to head back to the foyer, but we heard footsteps outside of the door… it sounded like somebody with two feet walking around.” Glitterball explained in a nervous tone. “Like… like a human?” Brimstoke asked uneasily as he caught on to something that the unicorn was hinting at without even knowing it. “Yes… like a human, but it wasn’t Tom. He is still missing… how is that possible?” Glitterball asked in a bewildered tone. The only human in all of Equestria was Tom, but it couldn’t have been him. “Glitter… listen up. I think I might know what we’re dealing with.” Brimstoke said with a hesitant pause. “You do? Well please share with the class Brimstoke. I’m at my wit’s end here.” Glitterball said with a nervous chuckle. “Some hoods that we caught down here talked about a myth circulating among their group. According to them, the three humans that owned the house still haunt it… as ghosts.” Brimstoke explained, much to the surprise and confusion of the unicorn. “Ghosts? Really…?” Glitter asked with an uncertain tone. “Yeah… I know how it sounds. We didn’t believe them either… but some weird stuff has been happening down here. We saw something moving out of the corner of our eyes, and all of the candles in the room we were in blew out. Also, we got separated from Fluttershy and Neon when a door slammed in our faces and locked by itself.” Brimstoke continued uneasily. “What?! You got separated from them?! Are they ok?!” Glitterball asked in an alarmed tone. “I’m not sure… we told them to call us if they ran into trouble, but we haven’t heard from them since. We’re trying to find them now.” Brimstoke stated in a hopeful tone. The news that two more of her friends were unaccounted for made the unicorn spiral into a nervous panic. She felt herself breaking out into a cold sweat as her body started shivering from unease. She felt a pit developing in her stomach as well, making her sick to her stomach. “Ohhh… what are we going to do?” Glitterball whined fearfully while leaning back against the wall. She didn’t necessarily want the stallion to hear her, but she kept her hoof to her ear, so he doubtlessly did. “Calm down Glitter… everything’s going to be fine. We just need to take things slow and think about how to handle this.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring tone in an attempt at calming the nervous unicorn. “How do we handle this Brimstoke? We’re missing the princess and Tom, Fluttershy and Neon Streak are missing, and now you’re telling me that the bloody massacre we just ran from was caused by one of three homicidal ghosts!” Glitterball said while on the verge of hyperventilating. She suddenly felt a gentle hoof land on her shoulder. The unicorn looked up to see Applejack and Rarity offering her silent expressions of reassurance. Although this wasn’t enough to fully calm her down, she did feel better enough to recompose herself. “For the moment… the only thing I want you to worry about is getting back to the others. Go pick up Twilight and Rainbow Dash, and then hunker down in the foyer with the others.” Brimstoke instructed in a gentle tone. “Ok…” Glitter said after taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Once she managed to compose herself, she got up from the floor and turned to her two companions. “Apparently Fluttershy and Neon Streak got separated from the others… we don’t know where they are.” Glitterball explained uneasily. Applejack and Rarity gasped in shock at the news that their friends were possibly in danger. “Oh my gosh… Ah hope they’re ok.” Applejack stated in a concerned tone. “Brimstoke says that they will call if they get in trouble… so hopefully they are still doing alright. In the meantime, we need to get back to the others.” Glitterball said while turning her attention back down the hallway. Applejack and Rarity shared a concerned glance with each other before following their companion down the hallway. Once they reached the end and opened the door, they came out into a hallway leading in the direction of the foyer. Although it wasn’t the hallway they came from, it was most likely on the other side of the locked door that they saw at the end. They were definitely on the outside edge of the house. There were windows to their right that gave a glimpse outside at the raging storm. Flashes of lightning periodically lit up the entire hallway, providing a snapshot of a door at the far end. “That door down there should lead us back.” Glitterball said in a hopeful tone while pointing at the far off door. “Let’s get going then… Ah don’t like this place.” Applejack stated uneasily while looking around. She was still hoping that whatever attacked her and her friends earlier wasn’t just waiting for them to return up ahead. Slowly and cautiously, the three mares started their way down the hall. The constant sound of rain hitting the windows beside them made them on edge. They could hardly see anything out of the dark water soaked glass, but just knowing that the entire outside world was just behind that wall was unnerving to them, not that knowing that a gigantic eerie mansion was to their left and all around them was any less unnerving. “My goodness… it’s really coming down out there isn’t it?” Rarity said while jumping slightly at a flash of lightning. The others glanced outside, only to see more rain pounding against the windows as thunder boomed in the distance. “Ah just hope poor Sunspot is doing alright out there. She must be soaking wet and cold by now.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while thinking about the pegasus and her team being outside in the storm. “Yeah… we should check on her. Do you think you could see if you can reach her Glitter?” Rarity asked curiously. She wanted to see if the orange pegasus was at least still safe. “Alright… we can tell her what’s been going on anyway.” Glitterball said while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating. “Sunspot, you holding up ok?” Glitter asked while glancing towards the outside. She waited for a moment for the pegasus to respond. One moment quickly turned to two, and the white mare’s confusion quickly turned to unease as her teammate didn’t answer. “Sunspot…?” Glitter asked again in a louder tone. Applejack and Rarity could hear a twinge of nervousness in her voice as she tried to get in contact with the pegasus. “What’s wrong?” Applejack asked uneasily. “She’s not picking up…” Glitterball replied nervously before returning her attention to the unresponsive pegasus. “Sunspot… answer me if you’re there… this isn’t funny.” She said in a pleading tone. By now, all three mares were growing fearful for Sunspot’s safety as they stared at each other with uneasy expressions. “Why isn’t she answering?” Rarity asked nervously while looking at the unicorn with a fearful expression of uncertainty. “I don’t know, but she needs to pick up right now or I’m going to freak out.” Glitterball said uneasily. Her hold on her emotions was tenuous at best after everything that happened, so to learn that another friend had gone missing would send her over the edge. “Sunspot! Answer m-” Glitterball started to yell for the pegasus, when an ear-shattering noise pierced the air. “AHH!” Rarity screamed in fright as the sound of glass breaking filled the hallway. The ponies saw one of the windows down the hall shattering and spraying glass everywhere as something flew through it. When the three mares took a better look, they saw that a pony shaped object was sent through the window and onto the floor. “Oh my gosh!” Glitterball exclaimed fearfully while hesitantly walking forward to get a better look at the situation. She suddenly gasped and her face went pale as she caught a better look at the pony on the ground amid a flash of lightning. “SUNSPOT!” The unicorn yelled in shock while rushing forward. Rarity and Applejack quickly followed the alarmed mare as she ran down the hallway. There was broken glass strewn along the floor everywhere. The gaping hole where the window once was let rain fall into the hallway as the wind blew it inside. The violent flashes of lightning that lit up the sky now freely illuminated the hallway through the hole, shining light down on an orange pegasus in a vest sprawled out along the floor. As they reached their friend, the trio gasped in horror as they examined the scene before them. The pony on the floor was definitely Sunspot. She was lying in a sea of broken glass with blood pouring from several cuts of various sizes. There was a sizable gash in her vest that revealed a shallow wound that looked like it came from some kind of weapon. Her legs were bent at odd angles, with her neck in a strained position from settling after her body sailed through the window. “Oh no… no, no, no!” Glitterball rushed up to her friend, haphazardly ignoring the broken glass as she knelt beside the pegasus. She shakily grabbed the motionless pony and rolled her over. There were shards of broken glass sticking out of her side from where she was lying, and her eyes were closed. Glitterball quickly put an ear to her friend’s chest. Thankfully, she could hear the soft pitter patter of the mare’s heart. However gruesome and shocking her injuries appeared, she was at least alive, if only just barely. “What happened to her?!” Applejack asked while frantically looking around to piece together what could have happened in her head. The ponies looked outside of the now broken window to see if they could find the one who attacked their friend. Only rain and darkness welcomed the three mares as they looked outside. Every so often, they would catch a glimpse of the empty side of the house with dead trees sitting outside of the iron fence a short distance away as lightning lit up the area in white light. Suddenly, while the group was staring outside, a strange event made them look downwards. The hundreds of pieces of glass littering the floor were now lifting into the air and flying back at the window where they would reattach. It was like watching the window getting broken in reverse. Soon enough, every shard of glass that wasn’t sticking into Sunspot was back in its original place. Every crack made by the imperfect pieces rejoining together suddenly closed back up, and even the pieces missing from being impaled in the unconscious mare were restored. Soon enough, the window looked like it did before the incident, much to the confusion of the three ponies. “Wh… w-what… what just happened?” Rarity asked in a bewildered tone. “I don’t know… the window just… fixed itself.” Glitterball stated, as if she was confirming what she just saw with the rest of the group. “Forget about the window… we need to get Sunspot back to Peppermint. She needs medical attention real bad.” Applejack said while returning her attention to the pegasus on the floor. “Sunspot… can you hear me?” Glitterball asked while gently tapping the orange pony on her shoulder. She was afraid that she might have a neck injury, so moving her was going to be tricky. The unicorn felt her heart sink as the pegasus remained motionless and unresponsive to her stimulus. “What did this to her? Where did she get that awful wound on her stomach?” Rarity asked while pointing out the large gash on Sunspot’s chest. The smaller cuts and the possible broken bones were easy to figure out. Sunspot did just fly through a solid glass window at high speeds after all. The larger wound however, that looked far too serious to have been caused accidentally. “I don’t know, but it looks pretty bad. Help me hold her up for a minute… I’m going to try to put a bandage on it to stop the bleeding.” Glitterball said while looking at the wound and frowning. Applejack and Rarity nodded before walking forward and kneeling beside the pegasus. “Careful… we don’t want to move her too much. She might have broken something.” Applejack suggested uneasily while picking the unconscious mare up by her shoulders. “Watch the glass…” Rarity said while narrowly avoiding cutting herself on a piece that was still jutting out of the orange pony. “I’ll need to remove those too… we don’t want to cut ourselves or push them in further when we move her.” Glitterball shrugged while pulling out a roll of gauze from her best. With the aid of the two mares, the unicorn started wrapping the bandage around Sunspot’s body. “Ugh… horsefeathers. I’m out of bandages, and I don’t think this is tight enough to stop the bleeding.” Glitterball frowned as she glanced down at the thin bandage. The clean white material was already getting stained red as the crimson fluid bled through it with ease. “Let’s just get her back to the others… Applejack, help us lift her… Applejack?” Rarity asked while looking around for her friend with a confused expression. She finally found the farm pony standing behind her staring down the hallway where they just came from. “What’s wrong darling?” Rarity asked uneasily while looking at the fearful expression frozen on the orange mare’s face. Applejack only managed to slowly point her hoof in front of her as a response. Rarity and Glitterball followed where she was pointing, until they froze suddenly in fear. Further down the hallway, there was a shadowy figure walking in the darkness. The figure was tall, and it was humanoid in shape. As a flash of lightning flooded the hall with white light, the ponies got a good look at the figure. It was a human, but it wasn’t the human they were expecting to see. The human was a pale man in a brown dress shirt with a white undershirt and white sleeves. He had black pants on with black shoes and a red bow tie. The man himself had dark hair and brown eyes, with a blank and cold expression on his face as he walked forward slowly. He had a ghostly appearance to him, being slightly transparent. The ponies wondered if they were seeing things, but the heavy footsteps that occurred every time he took a step forward told them that he was real. “Is that a… a ghost?!” Rarity asked in a shocked tone. The white mare didn’t really believe in ghosts, even in light of everything that she was exposed to in recent days, but there was no other logical explanation. The human was pale, transparent, and it was there. The only way that a human could be standing in front of the ponies would be for it to travel through time like Tom did, or for it to be a spirit, which was the more likely of the two. “S-stay back! I’m warning you!” Glitterball said in a threatening tone while standing in front of her two companions and pulling out her strobe. The human kept staring forward at the ponies while silently walking towards them. “Ah don’t think he’s listening to you Glitter.” Applejack said uneasily while keeping her attention fixed squarely on the ghostly human. “Stay behind me… he won’t be able to hurt us with me here.” Glitterball said with false courage. She held her strobe tightly in her hooves, as if to assure herself of its power. Suddenly, the group noticed that the human was holding his right hand behind his back. They only just realized this, as he slowly moved it into view and revealed what he was holding. The ponies froze in place as they saw the man carrying a blood stained axe beside him idly, as if he didn’t even care about it. Just as suddenly as the human revealed the axe, he slowly brought it up and held it in both hands while still walking forward menacingly. The cold and blank expression on his face suddenly became incredibly sinister to them. “…!” Rarity and Applejack were frozen in fear as they stared at the bloody weapon. They glanced down to Sunspot’s injury. It occurred to them that the large wound on her chest was the same size as the blade of the axe. Deciding that she had had enough of the ghostly figure, Glitterball pressed the button on her strobe and fired a blast of energy at the ghost. Before the bolt could hit him, he vanished from sight, causing the blast to sail down the hallway until it collided with the door at the far end. Once the bolt had passed, the human reappeared, though he appeared much closer than he was before. “Ack!” Glitterball yelped in surprise while backing up defensively. She turned to her two companions fearfully. “Get Sunspot! We need to get out of here!” Glitter instructed frantically before turning around and opening fire. The ghost disappeared from view again, but the unicorn hoped that she could keep it at bay by continuously firing. Rarity and Applejack wasted no time before they started lifting the unconscious mare up. Even though they were in a hurry, they were still worried about doing more damage to the pegasus. They couldn’t tell if she had any broken bones from first appearances, but if she had a neck injury, they could kill her by moving her the wrong way. Once Rarity lifted Sunspot onto Applejack’s back, the two were ready to leave. They glanced over to see Glitterball still firing her strobe rapidly down the seemingly empty hallway, but they knew that she was fighting an unseen enemy that was drawing ever closer. “Let’s go Glitter!” Applejack announced frantically. Glitterball turned to see that the pair had picked the unconscious pony up and were ready to run. Suddenly, Applejack and Rarity saw the ghostly human appearing just in front of the unicorn. He looked down at her menacingly while gripping his axe tightly. “*Gasp* Glitter look out!” Rarity cried out while pointing behind the white mare. Glitterball turned around just in time to see the human bringing the axe up in preparation to swing at her. “AH!” Glitter screamed as she ducked to the floor desperately. She felt the axe breezing past her head as the human drove it sideways into the wall with a deafening crunch. While the unicorn covered her face with her hooves and shook fearfully, the human pulled the axe out of the wall and brought it up to swing down onto the helpless pony’s head. Glitterball could barely move. Having an axe swung so close to her body made her lock up with fear. She tried her best to get up, but she couldn’t budge an inch. The unicorn suddenly felt Applejack biting down on the tip of her tail. The orange mare pulled as hard as she could, dragging the motionless pony along the floor just as the ghost slammed the axe down in front of her head. “Get up Glitter!” Applejack yelled as she nudged the unicorn with her head. Glitterball scrambled as her legs moved without the rest of her. She awkwardly ran backwards for a moment before correcting herself and bolting down the hallway. Rarity and Applejack followed her and ran as fast as they physically could. They turned to see the human running after them before disappearing from view. Taking this as a cue to run faster, the three mares quickly made a break for the door. Glitterball quickly grabbed the door handle and threw open the door. As expected, it led into the hallway they first came through to get to this section of the house. The foyer was just down the end of the next hall. Once the door was open, Applejack and Rarity rushed in while being closely followed by Glitterball. The rainbow haired unicorn glanced into the doorway as she was about to close the door, only to see an axe flying through the air towards her at rapid speeds. “AH!” Glitter yelped in fright while slamming the door shut. She managed to close it just in time before the axe slammed into it with a crunch. The blade pierced the wood and stuck out the other side slightly, making the ponies’ hearts jump. “Let’s get out of here!” Glitterball exclaimed frantically while running past the two mares. Applejack and Rarity quickly followed the fleeing unicorn on their way back to safety. The sooner they reached their friends, the better. “Ughh…” Fluttershy groaned as she found herself waking up from a hazy slumber. She opened her eyes half way, only to discover that her vision was a blurry mess, along with her mind. Her head felt fuzzy, and she could barely remember what just happened. As she tried to move her arm up to her head, she found that the limb was unable to move. The pegasus was unsure of how to react to this, she wasn’t even sure if she was entirely awake. While her vision gradually focused, she began feeling more clear sensations around her. The first thing she felt clear as day was how cold it was. Her body felt like it was being held up against something freezing cold. With a shake of her head to clear her mind, Fluttershy finally came to her senses. She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to their surroundings, when she suddenly realized that she was being suspended in the air by something. “What the…?” She exclaimed in confusion while trying again to move her legs. Feeling something tightly restraining her arms, she finally looked over to see what the problem was and gasped as she noticed what was keeping her from moving her limbs. Her arms and legs were tied with leather straps that held them in place. The straps were connected to what appeared to be one of the surgical tables that she had seen in the basement. It was at this moment that Fluttershy realized the severity of her situation. She was tied to a table that was standing at an angle in an unfamiliar part of the basement. “Oh no…” The yellow mare squeaked fearfully as she tried to struggle against her bonds. Her arms and legs were spread apart, leaving her body hanging off of the table by them. The concentrated weight made the straps dig into her skin, causing a stinging pain to surge through her limbs. Fluttershy whined sadly as she failed to budge an inch from her bindings. She darted her eyes around fearfully in an attempt at finding where she was. Although she was staring at the ceiling at an angle by default, she could move her unrestrained neck slightly to view the rest of the room. She was in a room in the basement alright; the dull grey floors and wood walls told the pegasus as much. The only source of light in the room was a lantern placed on a nearby table. There were a few metal trays with various gruesome surgical implements on them nearby. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she looked at the sharp tools and imagined what torture they could bring about. Suddenly, her eyes drifted to the area in front of her, and she gasped in surprise at what she saw. “*Gasp* Neon!” She called out as she saw the green mare. Neon Streak was tied to a table similar to hers. She was leaning at an angle, with her arms and legs bound by leather straps. Her tactical vest was removed, and a quick search revealed that it was sitting on one of the trays next to her table, seemingly missing no equipment. “Ugh…” Suddenly, the green mare started to stir. Fluttershy’s face brightened up as she saw that her friend was ok. Most importantly, she wasn’t alone anymore. She could rely on the green mare to find a way out of this situation. “Neon, are you ok?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. Neon Streak looked up with a dazed expression. It looked like she was trying to figure out what was going on, just like the pegasus was a few moments ago. “Wha…? F… Fluttershy?” Neon Streak asked in a sleepy tone. “Thank goodness you’re awake…” Fluttershy said with a relieved smile. She hated the idea of being stuck in this situation by herself. Neon Streak looked around for a moment while slowly coming to her senses. As she regained her bearings, she suddenly became very alarmed as she realized what was happening. “What’s going on?! Why are we tied up?!” The green mare asked while frantically trying to escape from the leather straps. “I don’t know… I just woke up a little while before you.” Fluttershy explained nervously. The courage boost she received from her companion waking up was quickly removed as she looked around the room with a progressively worsening sense of fear. She could feel her body shivering and her heart racing. Neon Streak heard the pegasus whining uneasily. She could see the timid pony darting her already wide eyes around as she tried to recoil further into the table to no avail. She felt bad for the nervous pegasus, and she also felt responsible for her safety. “Hey… don’t worry. I’m sure Brimstoke and Pinkie Pie will find us in no time.” Neon suggested in a reassuring tone. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked timidly. She could hardly form coherent words around her hyperventilating and shaking muscles. “Yeah… we’re going to be fine.” Neon Streak replied with a sincere smile. Fluttershy could tell that she was just trying to comfort her, but it was working. At any rate, she needed it to work. A sudden noise drew the two ponies’ attention to the side of the room. They heard footsteps coming from a dark doorway, but they weren’t pony footsteps. The light of the lantern didn’t project any further than the door, so the two were unsure of whether they should have been able to see the owner of the footsteps yet, but they were almost certain that they sounded close enough to already be in the room. Without warning, a strange figure flickered into view as it stepped between the two trapped ponies. The figure was a human man with brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. His entire form was slightly transparent, giving him an eerie quality that made a chill run up the pair’s spines. He was wearing a grey vest with a black shirt with long sleeves underneath, along with brown pants and boots. The human was also wearing a pair of thin framed circular glasses. “Eeep!” Fluttershy yelped in surprise while instinctively jumping backwards, even though she couldn’t move her body much. She tried her hardest to distance herself from the terrifying specter, but she did little more than move her neck and body a little ways to the side. Even Neon Streak was a little startled by the sudden appearance of the human, but she was stunned into silence rather than scared silly. She glanced between Fluttershy and the ghostly apparition with an uncertain expression. She seemed like she didn’t know what to do, but for the moment she signaled for the pegasus to be quiet. The human seemed to pay no mind to the timid mare’s outburst. He glanced to her briefly, eyeing her with his cold and calculating blue eyes before shrugging and looking ahead once more. He walked over to one of the metal trays full of cutting implements and deposited what appeared to be a bone saw. The harsh clang the saw made as it fell onto the metal tray and collided with the other tools made Fluttershy cringe uneasily. “N-neon…” Fluttershy whispered fearfully. Neon Streak glanced to the ghostly human for a moment as he started fiddling with all of the tools on the tray. “What is it?” The green mare replied quietly with what she hoped would be a reassuring expression. “W-what is he going to d-do to us?” Fluttershy stammered nervously while staring at the human picking up cutting implements and examining them. Every tool that he picked up forced the pegasus to imagine what he could do to her with it. “I don’t know… just stay calm and we-” Neon Streak started to comfort the timid mare, until she was interrupted by brief laughter coming from the human. The two ponies looked over to see the man’s shoulders shaking slightly from him laughing so much. Although he was laughing quietly, it still sounded cold and menacing, as if he were laughing at them. “You two know that I can hear you right? So… what’s the point of whispering?” The man spoke up while turning around and leaning against the metal tray. He had a deeper voice, but still managed to sound softly outspoken. He had an almost intellectual air about him judging from the inflexions in his voice and his general appearance. Neon Streak and Fluttershy froze up slightly from hearing the human talking to them. His voice sounded real enough. There was a barely audible distortion to it that one wouldn’t even be able to catch if they weren’t looking for it, but otherwise he sounded like a living creature. If it weren’t for his appearance, one would never be able to tell he was a ghost. “And uh… what were you about to tell her?” He asked while glancing over to the green mare. “Just stay calm and we’ll be fine?” The human asked with a mocking smirk and a brief chuckle. The two ponies were unsure of whether or not they wanted to talk to the ghostly figure or not. “What makes you think that you will be fine? Or… better yet… what makes you think you will be fine if you stay calm? Like I’m some kind of unstable bloodthirsty killing machine that will cut your head off if you look at me funny? Pff… don’t make me laugh.” The human said in a jesting tone while holding up a scalpel and flipping it in his hand. Somehow, the presence of a cutting implement and the cold and calculating stare he was giving the two ponies removed any lightheartedness from his statement. “Ah… that would be funny.” He added before turning back around and fiddling with the tools again. “People may describe me as a bloodthirsty killing machine… but I like to think of myself as a sound minded and able bodied gentleman… what? No laughter? Aren’t you ponies supposed to be all about jokes and good times? Or so I’ve been told… that Raven Feather and her band of merry men aren’t exactly the picture of happy go lucky, but they talk an awful lot about how they hate your society… and quite frankly, I can see where they’re coming from.” The man said while returning his gaze to the two ponies. He moved in slightly closer to see if either of them would speak up. Neon Streak glared at the human uneasily, while Fluttershy whined uncomfortably and turned her head while flinching. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Because I certainly don’t have it yet.” The human said in a matter of fact tone while glancing between the two. The two mares were unnerved by his statement, but they still decided to remain silent. “Still nothing? You two were so eager to talk before you knew I was here… was it something I said?” He put on a fake frown before returning to a neutral expression and shrugging his shoulders. “Ah well… I guess we can cut the chit-chat and get right down to business then.” The man said in an almost sinister tone while walking up to Fluttershy. He still had the scalpel in his hand, which he held out and brought closer to the timid mare’s face. “Ah!” Fluttershy yelped in fright and tried to move her head away, until the human reached up and steadied her with his other hand. His touch felt cold and icy, like he had been in a freezer for most of his life. The pegasus squealed in protest as the ghostly figure brought the scalpel closer to her face. “Hey! Don’t touch her!” Neon Streak yelled forcefully at the human, making him pause and shift his eyes to the side. Fluttershy breathed heavily as she stared at the scalpel mere inches away from her skin. Suddenly, the man took the scalpel away as he turned around to face the green mare. “Oh I get it… so it’s ok to give me the silent treatment until I’m about to cut up your friend… is that how we’re going to operate?” The man asked with a slight chuckle while stepping closer to Neon Streak. The earth pony gritted her teeth and glared at the ghostly figure as he walked up to her. “You keep your dirty mitts off of her… you hear me?” Neon said in a threatening tone. Fluttershy couldn’t believe that the green mare was acting so brash in the face of danger, and she was doing it to protect her. “Well, well… looks like you got a bit of a spark in you. I like that in a girl… even if we are different species and I am slightly… not living.” The human said with a small smirk before returning a serious expression to his face. He walked around to the side of Neon’s table and leaned against it. He then pointed to Fluttershy with his scalpel, making her gulp nervously. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t carve up your friend. Go on… I’m a homicidal mad man who wants to make you into bloody confetti for my next birthday bash… reason with me.” He said in a serious tone while putting the scalpel down and leaning in closer to the green mare. Neon Streak moved her head to the side to distance herself from the human. She contemplated spitting in his face, but that would probably just go through him and make him angry. Still, she had no idea what she could say to make him leave Fluttershy alone. “Come on… we’re waiting.” The man said while glancing over to Fluttershy and eyeing her menacingly. “I… I…” Neon Streak stammered as her expression shifted to a concerned one. If she didn’t think of something to say, this ghost was going to make her watch as he tortured and killed the innocent pegasus. She glanced over to Fluttershy, who was offering a frightened expression back to her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t put on a reassuring face for her anymore. “Well… I guess you’ve got nothing for me then… oh well.” The human shrugged before picking up the scalpel again and walking back over to Fluttershy. “I must say… I rather wanted to start with her anyway.” He added with a sinister chuckle. Fluttershy’s heart started pounding as she stared wide eyed at her approaching doom. “Hey! If you want to cut someone, cut me you ethereal featherbrain!” Neon Streak yelled fiercely once more, causing the human to pause and think for a moment. Finally, he hummed curiously while turning around and walking back over to the green mare. “I’ll tell you what… I’m in a playful mood tonight… so I think that I’ll play a game with you.” He said with a small smirk. Neon Streak was uneasy about what he meant, but at least he was leaving Fluttershy alone. “What kind of game?” The green mare asked hesitantly. “I’m going to cut something up here… that’s a given fact. But if you’re so intent on me letting your friend live, I have a proposition for you.” The human explained. “See… normally I just cut for enjoyment or to study the body of a living organism… but I very rarely torture my subject for very long unless I’m playing with them. I’m going to give you a choice… as I have with a few of my subjects… I’m going to cut you, and I’m going to keep cutting you. Each time I cut you, it will be more painful. I’m going to cut you a total of one hundred times… and if you can survive one hundred cuts, I’ll let you and your friend, go.” He finished his explanation and watched the earth pony for a response. “What’s the catch?” Neon asked uneasily. “Catch? There is no catch… just a few rules to start us off.” The human stated with a slight chuckle. “First off… and this is more of a rule for me… I will only use my scalpel throughout the course of the game. It allows me to make more precision incisions… get it? Precision incisions… eh, forget it. The second rule, is that at any time, if you do not want me to give you the next cut, she has to take it.” He explained while pointing to Fluttershy. The pegasus squeaked in fright at the implications of his statement. “What?!” Neon Streak asked in a shocked tone. “I thought you said you would leave her alone if I did this!” She stated angrily. “Hold your proverbial horses my little pony… I’m getting to that.” The man said while putting his hand on Neon’s shoulder. The icy cold and disgusting feeling that the green mare was getting made her scowl unhappily at the human. “At any point, you can pass the buck to her so to speak. At that point, I will give her the cut I was about to give you, and I will continue cutting her until she tells me to stop, at which point I will return to you. I will keep passing between you until you have both sustained a combined total of one hundred cuts. If you refuse to receive a cut, I will cut her… but if you take all one hundred cuts… I will not touch her and I will let both of you go.” He explained while motioning out of the door with his hand. Neon Streak glanced over to Fluttershy to get her opinion. The pegasus was looking at her with a fearful expression. She seemed hesitant to agree to let the green mare get hurt, but she didn’t want to be hurt either. “And what happens if we don’t play this game?” Neon Streak asked uneasily. “Well… then I will just do what I was going to do before. Cut both of you and study your insides until I’ve had my fill. The process will take a lot less time, and there is a high chance that both of you will die… but it will be comparatively less painful and there is also the chance that I will get bored with you and let you go anyway… but then again, maybe not. The question is, which option will you pick?” The human asked while staring at Neon Streak and waiting expectantly. “Don’t do it Neon… it’s not worth getting tortured like that.” Fluttershy said with a pleading tone while shaking her head. There wasn’t really a favorable option here, but the less painful route seemed ideal for both of them if they were going to die anyway. Neon Streak looked over to the nervous pegasus and frowned slightly. She thought back to the promise she had made her earlier. Perhaps if she had been more aware of her surroundings when they were captured, the timid pony wouldn’t be in this mess. “I’ll do it… but you better keep your word if I win.” The green mare said while trying to be as threatening as possible. “Oh I will… cross my heart and hope to- Well… maybe that expression isn’t the best choice in this case.” The human chuckled to himself before stepping in front of Neon Streak and leaning in close. Neon tensed her muscles up and started sweating as the ghost brought the scalpel up to her face. She could feel her breathing intensify and her heart beating faster as he slowly and methodically brought it closer to her cheek. “Tch!” The green mare cringed in pain as the human slid the blade of the scalpel down her cheek, leaving a small cut that barely trickled blood onto her face. “That’s one…” The human said, as if to let the fact sink in that the mare had chosen a horrible option for herself. Although the cut was painful, it was relatively tame compared to what she was expecting. Neon figured that it would get much more painful later on, but she at least had a while before that happened. The man looked around her body as he tried to figure out where to cut next. “Let’s see… eenie… meenie … miney… here!” He yelled as he swiftly and abruptly stabbed the scalpel down and into the pony’s arm. “AGGH!” Neon screamed in agony as she felt a mind numbing surge of pain hitting her. The human twisted the scalpel slightly before pulling it out, sending a spurt of blood out of her arm. Even though the cut was small due to the size of the scalpel, it was fairly deep, and incredibly painful. “Neon!” Fluttershy yelled in shock as she watched the earth pony rocking her head around to deal with the pain. Before, she had been against the idea of the green mare getting hurt on her behalf, but now she was downright horrified by what was happening in front of her. “HELP! SOMEPONY HELP US!” The pegasus turned her head and screamed out of the doorway. She hoped that her friends, or even one of the hooded ponies could hear her. She didn’t care who heard her as long as they came and rescued her and Neon from the psychopathic spirit. “Don’t bother screaming for help… we’re far away from anyone who would be able to hear you.” The ghostly human said while pausing and turning to the pegasus with a cold glare. Fluttershy felt herself freezing fearfully as the man stared at her behind his glasses. Her lip was quivering and her eyes were watering, but she couldn’t find it in her to make another outcry. She was too frightened. With the pegasus silenced for the time being, the human returned his attention to Neon Streak. The green mare’s painful whines and cries had died down, and were now mere groans of agony. She looked up to the man and his scalpel, and closed her eyes while looking away. She couldn’t bear to watch as he picked where to cut next. The green mare felt the human placing the scalpel against her left thigh. Before she could react or even brace herself, he pressed into her flesh and dragged the scalpel down. Although it wasn’t very deep, he pulled the scalpel down the length of her leg clear down to her knee, sending a wave of pain through her that made another painful yelp escape her lips. Neon breathed heavily as her shocked body tried to calm itself down. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down. As expected, there was a lengthy cut on her thigh that was bleeding profusely. She looked up to the ghost and scowled as best she could through her pain racked body and frightened exterior. “Well… that’s three. I guess we’ve got a while to go… but don’t worry, I’m sure that we won’t be getting any interruptions.” The man said in a coldly serious tone while wiping the blood off of his scalpel. He then gripped the cutting implement tightly and prepared to continue his gruesome work on the green pony. Chapter 84: The Long Way Back“*Yawn*” Rainbow Dash yawned tiredly while stretching her arms. She was lying down across one of the rugs in the library with a book laid out across her body. As much as she tried helping out her unicorn friend with her research, there was only so long she could occupy herself in a silent room with reading over random notes and letters from the hooded ponies. Taking a look over to where Twilight was, the pegasus found her in the same position she left her in, reading a stack of papers and notes over by one of the desks in the room. “Any luck over there?” The cyan mare asked in a hopeful tone. She didn’t imagine that assaulting the hooded ponies’ base would be quite so boring when she thought about it before. Twilight glanced up at the lounging pony and sighed. Even though Rainbow Dash had come to love reading as a pastime, she wasn’t acclimated to studying for hours on end like the unicorn was. If anyone was going to get any work done, it would have to be her. Even though she accepted this, she still wished her cyan friend would help out a little bit. “Nothing so far… but I have learned a lot about this place while looking through these notes.” Twilight said in an intrigued tone while reading over some of the more interesting sections she found among the faded scribbles and lengthy scrawls. “Like for instance… Tom was right about this place. Apparently the owners of the mansion were into practicing occult rituals. They put charms and spells on this place before they died to make it last through the years.” The purple pony explained with a fascinated expression while delving deeper into the notes laid out before her. “So this place really could be from human times?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while glancing around her at the décor of the room. “Not only is it from human times, but it’s from ancient human times… it was probably around for thousands of years even before humans went extinct. I see a few accounts here of different people moving in and using it as a base of operations for cults, which probably explains the vast amounts of books on magic.” Twilight replied. “Wow… that is pretty cool. So right now, I am standing in a building that was around when humans ruled the earth.” Rainbow Dash said in an amazed tone while taking in her surroundings. “Actually… right now it looks like you’re lying down in a building that was around when humans ruled the earth.” Twilight said with a wry smile while glancing over to the lazy pegasus. “Hey… if you can think of a better way of occupying my time, I’m all ears.” Rainbow Dash huffed while putting her book aside and getting up to walk around. “I would say helping me with finding a way out of this place, but clearly that’s not an option.” Twilight shook her head with an apathetic smirk before returning to the papers in front of her. Meanwhile, the cyan pegasus decided to occupy herself with taking another look around the room. Finding herself wandering over to the back of the room, Rainbow Dash took another look at the strange symbol painted on the wall in red paint. The pair had found the symbol shortly after starting their research, but they weren’t sure what to make of it. It resembled the symbol that Brimstoke and Neon Streak described, consisting of a circle with a line drawn through it at an angle, along with three odd glyphs drawn in the two sections created by the line. Although it looked similar to the style of symbols used in the pictograms that they had seen before, the two ponies hadn’t found anything describing the symbol in their search for information. “Find anything about this thing yet?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hopeful expression while glancing back at the unicorn. Twilight briefly turned around to see the pegasus standing in front of the odd symbol. She shrugged while taking a cursory glance at the notes in front of her and shuffling through the pages of a book she found. “No… not yet.” Twilight sighed while reading over everything in front of her once more. Suddenly, her eyes ran across a piece of text that stood out to her. “Actually, hold on a second.” Twilight stated with an intrigued tone of voice while flipping the book in front of her to the pages referred to in the note. Rainbow Dash walked back over to the desk the unicorn was at and peered over her shoulder as she shuffled through the pages of the book with refueled vigor. Suddenly, Twilight paused as she came across a page that had a picture on it. The picture was a depiction of the same symbol that was sitting on the wall behind them. There was text on the bottom of the page, and seemingly the next few pages that referred to the same symbol. “Yes! Now we’re in business!” Rainbow Dash cheered in excitement while giving the unicorn an eager pat on the back. Twilight smiled at her fortune before burying herself into the text and reading. She scanned her eyes back and forth across the pages while learning more about the strange symbol. “According to this… that symbol is part of a set of three seals scattered around the mansion.” The purple mare explained as she continued reading. “I guess the one Neon and Brimstoke found in the basement is one of them?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Possibly… it definitely sounds like it.” Twilight said before returning her attention to the book. “It says here that the symbols are used to… what the…? Control and suppress powerful entities?” She raised an eyebrow curiously as she read over the confusing statement. “What the hay is that supposed to mean?” Rainbow Dash thought out loud while leaning closer to be able to read the explanation for herself. “I have no idea… I guess it means that those symbols were used to keep something at bay… and when Shadow Mist broke the one in the basement, he let out whatever that something is.” Twilight pondered while glancing over to the symbol on the wall at the back of the room. There was a break in the red paint that made up the outer circle, so perhaps the red stallion did something to this symbol as well. “Do you think if we can find a way to reverse whatever Shadow Mist did, that we can unlock the doors and get out of here?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hopeful tone. “Hmm… let’s see.” Twilight leaned closer and rapidly scanned her eyes across the pages. She skimmed over the majority of the page, until her eye caught something interesting that made her pause. “Looks like there are two ways to reverse the broken seals... Option one would be to fix the symbols.” Twilight stated while reading further ahead. “That sounds easy enough… what, do we just get some paint and redraw the symbol?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. Twilight’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she read over the rest of the explanation. “I wish it were that simple… according to this, since all three seals were broken we would need to completely reset the spells on them… which would apparently take several hours… and that would be if we had all of the required spells and materials.” Twilight explained with a dismayed tone of voice. “Yikes…” Rainbow Dash cringed at the mere thought of undergoing such a tedious and complex process. “What’s option two?” She asked hesitantly. “Option two… is using my magic to overload the magic in the seal. According to this, the hooded ponies thought that a unicorn could disrupt the seals as a last resort to defend themselves against the entities.” Twilight explained. “I still don’t like the sound of these entities… whatever they are, this last resort sounds like our only choice.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. “Well, the details are a little fuzzy… they weren’t sure themselves about what would happen. I guess they never intended for all three seals to be broken.” Twilight shrugged before putting the book down and getting up. She glanced over to the symbol on the back wall before stretching her limbs and walking over to it. She studied the symbol for a moment before lighting up her horn and leaning closer. As she felt her magic interacting with the magic in the seal, she was surprised to see that she could understand it for the most part. It was certainly easier to wrap her head around than the pictograms the hooded ponies used for summoning monsters. “Do you think you can do it?” Rainbow Dash asked while nervously watching the unicorn from a ways back. She was sure that the symbol was like a bomb that could explode at any moment with the purple mare messing with it like that. “I think so… stand back.” Twilight suggested in a cautionary tone while returning her attention to the symbol. While the unicorn charged up her horn to overload the seal, Rainbow Dash cringed and closed her eyes tightly in preparation for the worst. With a slight buzz, the symbol flashed red once before returning to normal. Twilight let her horn die down as she backed away from the symbol. She turned to her cyan friend, only to find her shielding her face with her arms. Of course, Twilight had expected a much more violent reaction from the symbol herself, so she understood the defensive reaction the pegasus had. “Did it work?” Rainbow Dash asked while hesitantly opening her eyes. She was surprised to see Twilight standing in front of her in one piece. “Apparently… I guess we won’t see much of an effect until we overload all three seals.” Twilight pondered while glancing back at the symbol. “Phew…” Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief while wiping a bead of sweat off of her face. “For a minute there I thought we were going to blow up. I don’t think Glitterball and the others would be happy to find a smoking crater where the library used to be when they got back.” She added with a brief chuckle. “Hey… shouldn’t they already have been back by now?” Twilight asked while thinking about how much time had passed since they arrived at the library. Rainbow Dash grew suspicious herself as she thought more about the strange absence of their friends. “Yeah… they should have been back here a while ago actually. Brimstoke said we should all meet back in the main room in half an hour, and I’m pretty sure we’ve been here for at least half an hour already.” The pegasus said with a slight twinge of uneasiness slowly filling her. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her cyan companion. She highly doubted that the unicorn and her team would be late in picking them up without a good reason, or a bad reason in this case. She feared that something might have happened to her friends that prevented them from coming to the library. Taking heed of the feeling in her gut, the purple mare walked over to the door to the library. Rainbow Dash followed her friend as she walked between the two candles and hovered near the door. Twilight paused for a moment and glanced back to see if her friend was close by. Spotting the pegasus just behind her, she built up the courage to grab the door handle and open the door. Blue ripples appeared in the air as the unicorn reached through the barrier and pushed the door open. Strangely, the hallway was pitch black, but Twilight perfectly remembered it being lit up by candles before. “Do you think we should head back?” Rainbow Dash asked while peering out into the darkness uneasily. She suddenly felt unsafe, despite the two candles burning brightly on either side of her. She wanted nothing more than to head back to the foyer where there was safety in numbers. “I would say we should wait for Glitter and the others… but I’m afraid that they might not show up.” Twilight stated in a concerned tone. “Still… I would rather wait for them in the entrance with the others. Besides… I would like to know what’s going on rather than staying here and worrying all night.” Rainbow Dash suggested while swallowing her fear and stepping forward. Thankfully, Twilight lit up her horn and hesitantly followed her outside. The library doors swung closed with a loud thud of finality. Now the two mares were in a dark hallway by themselves without the protection of the blessed candles to keep them safe from whatever unseen terrors awaited them. Twilight glanced forward towards the door to the foyer. She could barely see the end of the hallway just outside of her light’s reach. Even though it would only be a short walk, it felt like it would take an eternity. Taking a brief glance behind her, the unicorn was greeted with nothing but pitch blackness in the other direction as the hallway continued on beyond the light. “L-let’s get moving…” Rainbow Dash suggested with a nervous chuckle while staring uneasily into the darkness. Twilight nodded in agreement before tearing herself away from the frightening void and heading back towards the foyer. The two mares silently walked down the corridor while darting their eyes around nervously. The only sound they could hear was their own hooves clattering against the wooden floors beneath the carpet. Every object they passed cast a myriad of startling shapes on the walls as the shadows moved along with the unicorn’s light. Thankfully, the door wasn’t far away, and they would be in the safety of the foyer before long. Twilight quickly trotted up to the door and grabbed the handle eagerly. She couldn’t stand being in this dark and eerie hallway any longer, she needed to be in a safe place among friends. The purple pony quickly turned the handle, but something was amiss. Her train of thought was abruptly derailed as the handle refused to turn in her hoof. “What…?” Twilight muttered in an alarmed stupor. The unicorn shifted from gently turning the handle to forcibly pulling on it, but to no avail. “Oh come on! You have got to be kidding me!” Twilight exclaimed nervously while pulling on the door with all of her might. “What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily. Even though she could already surmise the problem from watching the struggling unicorn, she wasn’t ready to acknowledge the fact that the only door to salvation was locked. “The door is stuck… just like the others.” Twilight’s face paled as she suddenly came to the grim realization that they were now separated from the others. Nobody could get to them, and they couldn’t get back to the foyer until the group figured out how to reverse the broken seals, but she was the only one who knew how to do that. “What?! Are you sure?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone while grabbing the handle and pulling on it herself to make sure that the unicorn was right. Sure enough, the door remained steadfast against every attempt the cyan mare made on it. “This isn’t good… this is not good at all.” Twilight suddenly became very nervous as she turned around to look at the only other path they had to take, which was the pitch black hallway they just came from. She could feel her breathing speed up slightly as she started to panic. “Ok… let’s not panic.” Rainbow Dash suggested, even though her tone of voice suggested that she was just as alarmed as the unicorn. “We just need to find another way around… yeah, that’s it! There has to be another way to the foyer from this… hallway.” The pegasus’s voice trailed off nervously as she turned around and stared down the very hallway she was mentioning. “M-maybe we should head back to the library? We can just wait for everyone to come find us.” Twilight almost couldn’t believe that she was hearing herself say such a thing. Normally she would be the first one to suggest pressing forward until another solution presented itself, but she dreaded the very thought of pressing forward when it involved going further into a dark and creepy mansion full of Celestia knows what kind of horrors. “No… we can’t do that. We’re the only ones who know a possible way out of this mess. If the others don’t figure out that we need to break those symbols, then we might be stuck here forever!” Rainbow Dash stated adamantly. She didn’t seem to be any more eager to venture forth into the darkness, but she couldn’t just cower in a corner and wait for someone else to get the job done, not when her friends could be in danger. “You’re right… I don’t know why I even bothered suggesting that… but…” Twilight gulped nervously while glancing between her friend and the rest of the hallway. It wasn’t so much the dark hallway that was scaring her so much, it was the thought of what lay beyond that was getting to the unicorn. “I know… but don’t worry. We can do this together.” Rainbow Dash said while putting a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We just need to take this one step at a- OW!” Suddenly, the cyan mare yelped in pain while clutching the back of her neck. Twilight turned to the pegasus with an alarmed expression as she wondered why she had made such an outburst. “What’s wrong?!” Twilight asked fearfully. She was afraid that something horrible had leapt out of the darkness and assaulted her friend without her even knowing it. “It feels like something sharp just poked me!” Rainbow Dash groaned uncomfortably while rubbing a spot on the back of her neck. “Let me see…” Twilight said while moving to the side and examining the cyan mare’s neck. Rainbow Dash stopped rubbing her neck and pointed with her hoof in the general area before letting the unicorn inspect her freely. “What did it feel like?” Twilight asked while moving the mare’s fur back and forth to look for any marks on her skin. “It felt kind of like a needle, but then it just vanished really quickly.” Rainbow Dash explained in a troubled tone as she waited for the unicorn to complete her analysis. “That’s odd… I don’t see anything. Do you feel ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. If the pegasus was jabbed with a needle, that just begged the question of why and how. “I feel kind of woozy… but I think that’s just from my nerves.” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. Twilight looked around for any signs of movement around them. She couldn’t see anything but shadows, but her friend didn’t just get attacked by nothing. She resolved to keep a close eye on the pegasus while waiting for a few minutes to see if she was alright. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist silently crept down the hallway and opened a door to duck inside. He glanced behind him to see if he was being followed by the two mares, only to see nothing but darkness. Breathing a sigh of relief, he uncloaked and walked further into the room. “Damnit… the charm must be wearing off of the needle if she felt that.” He muttered uneasily while staring down at the needle in his hooves. Thankfully, he had managed to extract the necessary amount of blood from the pegasus before he was forced to pull out the needle and flee. “Doesn’t matter… I need to get the last sample before I leave. I don’t care if Grim said we could use blood extracted after they died. I’m not taking any chances with this.” The stallion stated while reaching into a bag on the table and pulling out an empty vial. He jammed the syringe into the vial and dispensed the red fluid into it before closing the lid and wiping off the needle. He then placed the vial back into the bag and secured it before picking the bag up and slinging it around his back. Suddenly, a noise from behind him made the red pony spin around defensively. He glanced around, only to see nobody outside of the door. Still, the air felt oddly cold and the whole room suddenly had an eerie feeling to it. “Grr… not now.” Shadow Mist growled in frustration while darting his eyes around. He had managed to avoid the three spirits of the mansion thus far, but he knew his luck was going to run out eventually. “Don’t get jumpy now Shadow… you’re almost done. The odds of running into them are very slim as long as I keep moving and I stay low.” He muttered to himself before moving to walk out of the door. *SNIP* The sound of metal grating against metal rang out from behind him, making the stallion pause and turn around. The sight before him made Shadow Mist gasp in surprise. Hovering in the air mere inches away from his face, there was a pair of bloody scissors with their blades pointed directly at him. Realizing what was about to happen, Shadow Mist ducked to the side as fast as he could as the scissors darted forward. No matter how fast he moved, he couldn’t prevent the scissors from flying into the left side of his face. “AGGHH!” He screamed in agony as one of the blades of the scissors stabbed into his left eye. A surge of mind numbing pain rocked his body as flashes of red filled his now broken vision. The stallion clutched the scissors before pulling them out of his skull in one swift yank. He cried out in pain again as blood gushed from his now destroyed eye. “Gah!” While he clutched his eye with one hoof, Shadow Mist stumbled backwards until he tripped over something and fell on his side. He looked up just in time to see two ghostly figures above him. One was a lady in white that was smiling wickedly as she held a blood soaked pair of scissors in one hand. The other specter was a man with a blank expression and black hair that stared down at him menacingly. Shadow Mist looked down to see what he tripped over, only to gasp in shock as he noticed that it was an axe on the floor. The ghostly man held out his open palm as the axe vibrated slightly. Suddenly, the axe shot up into the air and flew right into the human’s open hand. The red stallion scooted towards the door as quickly as he could as the human approached him with the axe clutched in his hands. He stopped clutching his eye for a moment and held out his hoof while channeling shadow energy to it. Before he could do anything meaningful to repel the two spirits, the man with the axe swung his bloody weapon down and hit the stallion’s arm that was on the floor just above the hoof. “AGGH!” Shadow Mist screamed again as he felt his bone cracking from the blunt force of the axe. As he tried to pull away, blood gushed out of his arm in rivers as what little flesh was holding the arm together ripped. When the stallion brought his arm up in front of him, all he saw was a bloody stump with his hoof missing. His head was spinning, his body was screaming at him in pain. The red pony thought that his heart was going to explode from pounding so hard. If he didn’t pass out on the spot, he would be dead from blood loss shortly. As the woman in white laughed at the pony’s misfortune, the man brought his axe up again to strike the stallion down. Shadow Mist used every ounce of strength left in his body to shoot his remaining hoof out and send as much shadow energy as he could through it. The woman in white wailed in pain, while the man silently dealt with his punishment as the pony blasted them with shadow energy. The two humans were sent flying into the back wall, where they vanished from sight. “*Pant*… Gah… *Gasp*” Shadow Mist tried his hardest to get enough air to supply his body, but his breathing was impaired by how exhausted he was, and by how much pain he was experiencing. As he slowly used his remaining front leg to push himself up, he glanced down to the floor to see part of his hoof lying in a puddle of blood. Channeling shadow energy to his arm and his eye, the stallion tried his best to stop the bleeding. Without the experience in using shadow magic to heal, all he could hope to do was to keep himself from bleeding out until he could finish his mission and reach his colleagues for aid. Suddenly, he heard two sets of hoofsteps rapidly approaching from down the hallway. With how loud he screamed, Twilight Sparkle and her friend doubtlessly heard the stallion and were now most likely coming to investigate. “Crap…” Shadow Mist muttered while stumbling slightly. There was no way in his present state of injury that he could fight the two mares, or even run away from them. Finally, the stallion did the only thing he could think to do. He channeled his powers and vanished from sight, all the while trying to keep himself from leaving a trail of blood, and trying to refrain from passing out from shock. -A few moments earlier– Twilight and Rainbow Dash glanced around nervously while trying to find the source of the cyan mare’s sudden injury. Although it was entirely possible that some random pain befell the pegasus, it was highly unlikely in these circumstances. “Does it still hurt?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking at the cyan pony. “No… it only hurt for like a second. I would still like to know what that was.” Rainbow Dash shrugged uneasily while feeling the back of her neck. “Let’s just keep moving… maybe we can get Peppermint to check you out when we get ba-” Twilight was suddenly interrupted by a loud scream coming from down the hall. Judging from how loud the scream was, it sounded relatively close, and it sounded like whoever it was, was in excruciating pain. “What the hay?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in an alarmed tone. “Who is that?!” Twilight asked nervously while looking down the hallway. The scream sounded like a stallion, but it didn’t sound like anyone she knew. Before the pegasus could respond, another scream filled the air. This time, it sounded like the stallion was in even more pain than before. He was screaming so loud that the two mares were certain that he could be heard across the house. “Forget about who it is! We need to go help them!” Rainbow Dash stated anxiously while getting to her feet. Even if it was one of the hooded ponies, she couldn’t idly stand by while another living creature endured that much pain and suffering. Twilight followed the cyan pegasus as she bolted down the hallway in search of the source of the screams. Before long, the two came across an open door on their left. When they turned and walked into the room, they were so shocked and horrified by what awaited them that they paused in mid stride and gasped. There was blood everywhere. Streams and spatters of the red fluid were all along the walls and the floor. The fact that there was so much blood in the room wasn’t even the most alarming thing to the pair. The thing that horrified them the most was the presence of a severed hoof on the floor with a broken bone sticking out of it and blood pouring out of it in spurts. “Sweet Celestia!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock while backpedaling as fast as she could. As she hit the wall, she felt her legs wobbling so much that they gave out, forcing her into a seated position. Meanwhile, Twilight was left in the doorway staring at the gruesome scene before her. She felt sick to her stomach. So much so in fact that she heaved and coughed as her gag reflex was activated. The copper like smell in the air was so thick that the ponies could taste it, which only added to their sickness. As Twilight shakily stumbled out of the doorway and fell to her knees, Rainbow Dash reluctantly glanced back into the room. There was no sign of the pony that was attacked other than the severed limb on the floor and all of the blood, but there was a hint left behind about their attacker. There was a bloodstained axe lying on the floor at the back of the room. The blood on the axe was as fresh as the blood all around the room, leading the pegasus to surmise that it was the weapon used to create this travesty. “*Cough* *Cough* *Sputter*” Twilight tried her best to contain the sick feeling in her stomach, but she couldn’t do anything but heave and cough and try to catch her breath in between outbursts. “Is… is that what I think it is?” The unicorn asked while keeping her eyes closed and remaining on the floor. Judging from how ill she sounded, Rainbow Dash figured that she didn’t want to take another peak inside of the room to investigate. “Yeah… I think it *Gag*… I think it is.” The pegasus covered her mouth to prevent herself from vomiting as she took another glance at the red stub on the floor. At least now she understood why the strange stallion was screaming bloody murder, it was because he was literally being murdered in a bloody fashion. “Ugh… who did this?” Twilight groaned while slowly making her way back to her feet. She still felt dizzy and her face was still pale, but she found it in her to suppress the sick feeling in her stomach to take another glance into the room. Still, she tried her hardest to avoid looking down at the floor for fear of losing her lunch. “I don’t know… and I don’t think I want to know.” Rainbow Dash said while looking around for the injured pony. There wasn’t a trail of blood leading anywhere out of the room, and the room itself was devoid of life. “Where is the pony that got attacked? I don’t see anyone… and surely they couldn’t have gotten very far without…” Twilight hesitated and shuddered nervously as she instinctively looked to the floor at the severed hoof. “Maybe it was Shadow Mist… he did have red fur didn’t he?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to remember the description that Applejack and the others gave of the red stallion. “You think he’s still in here?” Twilight asked while glancing around the room suspiciously. She couldn’t imagine why the stallion would even try to hide himself in his state. “Well if he is… I hope he has enough sense to leave.” Rainbow Dash shrugged while trying not to look around too much. “Let’s… let’s just get out of here.” The pegasus suggested while waiting for her friend to leave the room with her. “But… shouldn’t we try to help him?” Twilight asked while hesitantly looking around the room for the injured pony. Even if he was one of their enemies, she didn’t feel like leaving him with such severe injuries would be the right thing to do. “If he’s still here, he obviously doesn’t want us to find him. If he isn’t still here… there isn’t much we can do for him anyway. We have more important things to worry about… like what did this to him for instance.” Rainbow Dash said uneasily while staring at the bloody axe at the back of the room with a glint of fear in her eyes. Twilight shrugged before nodding and walking out of the room. As much as she wanted to help the stallion, she couldn’t do anything for him if he was hiding from her. Leaving the gruesome scene behind them, the two mares continued down the hallway. They kept their wits about them to look for any signs of being followed, either by Shadow Mist, or the one who attacked him. Still, the only sounds they heard were their own hoofsteps and their own nervous breathing. As the pair walked on in silence, Twilight started reflecting on her thoughts. Her mind drifted to everything that had happened since they arrived. The group had been in control of the situation before, so much so that the unicorn actually felt confident about their chances of success. But now, so much had happened to complicate matters that the purple mare wasn’t so sure about their odds anymore. The entire house had shaken due to some unseen force, the front door had locked itself, trapping a good portion of their forces outside, and they had lost contact with Princess Luna and Tom, arguably the most powerful members they had. Now that Glitterball, Applejack, and Rarity had apparently gone missing, Twilight was worried that something bad happened. Perhaps they weren’t missing and they were only waiting in the foyer trying to get the door unlocked from their end, but somehow Twilight had a terrible feeling that something bad happened to her friends. Rainbow Dash noticed that the unicorn had a concerned expression on her face. Although their surroundings were disconcerting enough to warrant concern in any pony, she seemed to be troubled by something else entirely. “What’s eating you?” The pegasus asked in a concerned tone. Twilight glanced over to her friend, only to shrug and look away for a moment. “Do you think the others are ok?” Twilight asked in an uneasy tone. The cyan mare was caught off guard by the sudden grim question. “What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked to clarify. She wasn’t sure if she liked where the unicorn was heading with this train of thought. “I just… I’m worried about them.” Twilight admitted while staring at the floor uncomfortably. “First we get locked in here after the whole house shakes… then Tom and the princess go missing… now we’re separated from the others. Not to mention what we just walked away from…” She cringed and shuddered uncomfortably as she thought back to the bloody room. If something like that could happen to one of the hooded ponies, then what did that say for her and her friends? “Twilight… I’m sure the others are fine.” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. Despite her attempt at sounding optimistic, she couldn’t suppress the uneasiness in her voice. The pegasus looked to the side and frowned with concern before gathering up her strength to put on a more hopeful outlook. “I mean come on… there are just two of us in here, and we’re doing fine. Glitter and the others have each other to keep themselves safe… not to mention a highly trained member of the royal guard looking after them. I’m sure that they just got locked out… nothing to worry about.” Rainbow Dash added with her usual confident smirk. Twilight smiled briefly before returning a concerned expression to her face. No matter how much the pegasus tried cheering her up, she couldn’t get rid of her suspicions. “I don’t know Rainbow Dash… I just feel like something bad is going to happen.” Twilight stated while shaking her head uneasily. Suddenly, Twilight heard a loud crack coming from beneath her. She felt the floorboards shifting under her weight. Before she could even react, the floor broke apart with a loud snap, sending her falling through it. “AHHH!” Twilight screamed fearfully as her whole body crashed downwards. Just as abruptly as her fall started, it ended as she slammed into the ground along with all of the debris and wooden splinters from the broken floor. The impact made her entire body throb with pain, but somehow, there was another more severe pain coursing through her body that originated in her leg. “Oh my gosh! Twilight, are you ok?!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully from the floor above. Somehow, she managed to just barely avoid falling through the floor with the unicorn. She stared down into the dark hole, trying to desperately make out any signs that her friend was alright. Twilight’s light had gone out when she fell, most likely from the shock of the fall and the harsh impact of her body hitting the ground. “Ow… Uh… gah…” Twilight whined softly as she slowly came to her senses. “I’m… I’m ok… I think.” She stammered in a stunned tone while managing to light up her horn again. The light revealed the purple mare lying on her stomach amidst a myriad of dust and pieces of wooden flooring varying in size. Taking a brief look around, Rainbow Dash realized that the unicorn had fallen straight into a downstairs hallway. There was a patch of light far off down the hall, seemingly coming from a candle placed on a table. The area visible from the gaping hole in the floor was pitch black before due to the candle nearby being extinguished by the dust and debris falling down with Twilight. “Oh thank goodness… I thought you were a goner for a second there.” Rainbow Dash said in a relieved tone. Although the unicorn was in a state of shock from her sudden fall, she was at least seemingly in one piece. Suddenly, as Twilight tried turning herself over, the cyan mare noticed something that made a shocked gasp escape her mouth. “AGGH!” Twilight screamed in pain again as she tried moving her leg. Just putting a little bit of effort into moving the limb sent shooting pains all throughout her body. As she slowly maneuvered herself up to see what was wrong, her eyes widened as she noticed that a large sliver of wood was sticking into her thigh. Although blood was already pouring out of the injury, the piece of wood was easy to see. It looked like a part of the floorboards that had come crashing down along with her. The purple mare most likely fell on it with all of her weight, making it easy to see how it could have been forced in so deep. “Hold on Twilight, I’m coming down!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a panicked tone while spreading her wings. She hopped into the hole and glided down, being careful not to land on her injured friend. “Owww!” Twilight leaned her head back and wailed painfully as the suffering she was going through prevented her from moving any further. She could feel tears falling onto her cheeks from how much pain she was in. “Oh man… oh my gosh… oh my gosh.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself in a panic as she knelt down and examined her friend’s leg. There was blood pouring down the side of her leg, but it didn’t look severe enough to be an immediate concern. The main problem was the piece of wood sticking out of the injury site. “What should I do?!” The pegasus asked nobody in particular as she frantically tried to think of a way to help her friend. Twilight knew that the situation was bad, and that she had to do something if she was going to walk, or rather, limp away from it in one piece. “Hold my leg steady… OW!” Twilight yelped in pain as she moved her upper body into a position where she could see her leg better. “What…?! Are… are you sure?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while glancing at the unicorn with a concerned expression. Merely moving the rest of her body caused mind numbing pain for her, so the pegasus couldn’t imagine what pressing down on the leg would do. “I need to… I need to pull it out.” Twilight cringed painfully as she prepared herself for what was about to happen. “Are you crazy?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed uneasily while recoiling slightly in shock. She couldn’t believe that the unicorn was going to do something so brash and idiotic. “Just help me! We don’t have another choice here.” Twilight replied while clenching her teeth as another surge of pain flooded her mind. Rainbow Dash cringed while turning away for a moment to take a breather. Twilight was right. The only option they had was to find a way back to the foyer, and they couldn’t do that if the unicorn couldn’t walk. “Ok… I’ll help you.” The cyan mare said with a concerned frown while walking back over to her and kneeling down beside her. She hesitantly placed her hooves on the unicorn’s leg. She barely pressed down, not wanting to hurt her friend. Even with the miniscule amount of pressure Rainbow Dash was putting on her, Twilight whined slightly in pain. “Sorry…” Rainbow Dash said in an apologetic tone. Twilight could tell that it was tearing her up to be doing this to her. “It’s ok… you can press harder.” Twilight said while steeling her nerves and putting on a brave face. Rainbow Dash nodded slowly before pressing slightly harder. The pegasus was barely putting on any more pressure, like her hooves refused to obey her commands. She knew that she had to press harder, but every fiber in her body was telling her to stop. Finally, Rainbow Dash figured that gently pressing harder and harder would cause more pain in the long run for the unicorn, and she pressed down firmly. “Gah!” Twilight yelped slightly before gritting her teeth and focusing. She breathed in and out a few times while preparing herself for the task ahead. Rainbow Dash watched as the piece of wood was wrapped in a softly glowing purple aura. She cringed empathetically as she heard the purple mare whining softly while preparing to pull the piece out. “Twilight… are you sure you want to do t-” The cyan mare started to speak up, until she was interrupted by the unicorn screaming out in pain as she yanked on the piece of wood. “AAAGHH!” Twilight rocked her head back and gritted her teeth as she focused on pulling at the piece of wood. Even though it was moving, it was moving slowly, and every time she touched it another wave of misery surged through her leg. Rainbow Dash tried her best to hold the unicorn’s leg steady as she yanked the piece of wood out. She turned her head away and cringed while her friend worked on removing the foreign object. Twilight took a break every now and then to catch her breath and let the pain die down before returning to her efforts. Finally, the piece of wood was freed from the purple mare’s leg. Twilight flung the large splinter off to the side before laying her head back and panting heavily. “Guh… *Gasp*… *Pant*” The unicorn rested while dealing with the remaining stinging twinges of pain in her leg. She looked up to see that her leg was now bleeding profusely. “Oh no… that isn’t good.” Twilight muttered uneasily while watching the crimson fluid leaving her. “Sweet Celestia, Twilight! You’re going to bleed to death if we don’t fix that up!” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while staring at her friend’s injury with wide eyes. “Oh horsefeathers… I did not think this through as much as I should have. Gah…” Twilight whined while trying to cope with the pain and press on her leg to prevent herself from bleeding out. She was mentally kicking herself for making such a hasty decision. Although to be fair, she could only kick herself mentally due to her leg being so messed up. “We need to stop the bleeding… it’s the only way you’re going anywhere.” Rainbow Dash reasoned as she racked her mind trying to think of how to help the unicorn. “I don’t think… *Pant*… I don’t think there is anything we can use around here.” Twilight said while peering around the area as much as she could from the floor. Meanwhile, the cyan mare was looking at the many doorways around them with an idea brewing in her head. “Wait here… and try to keep pressure on it.” Rainbow Dash suggested in a sympathetic tone. She knew that touching the wound would probably send the unicorn reeling with pain, let alone putting pressure on it. “Ok… don’t go too far by yourself.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. Life or death situation or not, they were still in a possibly dangerous location, and she wanted the cyan mare to be careful. Without wasting any more time, Rainbow Dash went up to the first door on her left and tried the handle. The door popped open with little resistance and slid open with a small creak. The pegasus looked inside and strained her eyes to see among the shadows. The room was almost pitch black, but she could still see the outlines of objects. Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t anything she could use to aid the wounded unicorn inside. There were only a few tables and chairs inside. Shrugging in frustration, Rainbow Dash closed the door and rushed across the hall to the next door. She opened it up, only to find another useless room. Taking a glance over to her friend bleeding on the floor in the middle of the hallway, the pegasus was filled with a sense of urgency as she went to the next door. “Come on… there has to be something I can use.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself while grabbing the door handle and twisting it. “Aha!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed eagerly as she peered into the next room. It was what appeared to be a small bedroom. There were a few dressers and wardrobes along the walls, and there was a mirror at the back of the room, but the pegasus paid no attention to these things. What interested the cyan mare the most was the bed, more specifically the sheets on the bed. Ignoring the darkness in the room, Rainbow Dash walked in and trotted up to the bed. The sheets were ragged and had many holes in them, but they would work just fine. Gripping the edge of the sheets in her mouth, and gagging slightly at the layer of dust still on them, the pegasus ripped a sizable ribbon of fabric off and brought it with her out of the room. Rainbow Dash rushed back over and knelt down next to Twilight. She sat the long strip of sheet down beside her and smiled slightly. “Well… it might not be the cleanest thing in the world, but it should stop the bleeding. Come on… let’s get you patched up.” Rainbow Dash suggested while picking up the makeshift bandage in her hooves. She started to apply it, until she was stopped by the unicorn getting up slowly. “Here… let me do it. It will probably be easier with my magic.” Twilight suggested while focusing her magic and taking the bandage out of Rainbow Dash’s grasp. “Are you sure you can handle that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. Surely the purple mare must have been feeling weak from all of the blood she was losing. “Don’t worry. I can take care of it. You’ve already done so much to help me.” Twilight said with a grateful expression. Rainbow Dash smiled in return before stepping back and letting the unicorn work. Twilight shakily lifted her leg up and gritted her teeth to deal with the pain. She then started wrapping the bandage around the injury on her thigh and made it as tight as possible while still leaving room for blood flow. After tying off the ends of the bandage, the unicorn took a moment to admire her work. Although the sheets were already getting stained red as the crimson fluid soaked through, it looked like it would prevent her from losing too much blood until she got back to the foyer where Peppermint could give her proper medical attention. “Not bad for an egghead.” Rainbow Dash stated with an impressed smile. More than anything, she was just glad that her friend wasn’t going to die of blood loss while she watched. “Hey… you can learn about a lot of things from books… you should try reading educational things every now and then and not just tales of adventure.” Twilight replied with a slight smirk. “Yeah… I think I might lay off of the tales of adventure for a while. I think I’m getting my fix of adventure right now.” Rainbow Dash said with an amused chuckle. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in pain as she tried to roll over so she could get up. Every time she moved her injured leg, it sent pains up and down the limb, making it almost impossible for her to move very much. Rainbow Dash watched her friend struggling to get up with a sympathetic frown. She knew that the unicorn couldn’t get very far like this, or at least she couldn’t on her own. “Here… let me help you.” Rainbow Dash suggested while letting the purple mare lean up against her. Once she got Twilight to her feet, the pegasus gently put one of her front legs around her to help her walk. “Thanks Rainbow Dash… I don’t know what I would do without you.” Twilight said in a grateful tone while smiling at her friend. “Don’t mention it… now let’s get back to the others. Maybe we can find a way back now that we’re downstairs?” Rainbow Dash asked with a genuine tone of hopeful optimism. It was the first time since they left the library that the two mares felt happy and hopeful about their chances. Slowly but surely, the pair made their way back through the hallway in the direction of the foyer. They hoped that there would be a way back to the entrance from this hallway. They had never been this way before, so they were pretty much running, or rather, limping blind. Twilight winced uncomfortably as her leg jostled around occasionally. Even with Rainbow Dash helping her to take the weight off of it, the limb would still move with the unicorn. The throbbing pain she was receiving was substantially less than before, but it still hurt a considerable amount. “How you holding up?” Rainbow Dash asked while glancing at the purple mare. “I’m doing good all things considered… I’m feeling a little woozy, but other than that I’m fine.” Twilight replied while taking note of her own physical condition. “Hang tight. We’ll be back in no time.” Rainbow Dash said confidently before returning her attention back down the hallway. Suddenly, the pair came to the end of the hallway. From what they remembered, the foyer should have been further up ahead. This door must have led to another room or hallway. As she reached up and turned the handle, Rainbow Dash pushed the door open and helped her friend inside. As expected, the door opened up into a room instead of the foyer. The ponies were in what looked like a living room of sorts. There was a couch in the middle of the room that faced to the left. The couch was positioned in front of a large fireplace and mantle with a painting of a landscape above it. The fire was out, but there was an iron fire poker left to the side. A couple of chairs and potted plants were to the right, though the plants were long dead. There was another door across the room at the back. The ponies smiled as they realized that this door must have led to another hallway. They were getting closer and closer to getting back to their friends in the foyer. “This place must lead closer to the entrance.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly while helping her friend walk through the room. “Hey… can we rest here a minute? I’m feeling a little light headed.” Twilight said in a sickly tone. Rainbow Dash was concerned to see that the unicorn’s face was a little pale, and she had a generally ill appearance to her. “Yeah… whatever makes you feel better.” Rainbow Dash said in a sincere tone. The pegasus walked the injured mare over to the couch and gently sat her down. Once she managed to find a comfortable position on the couch, Twilight leaned back and rested for a moment. Taking a seat in the spot next to the unicorn, Rainbow Dash briefly got comfortable before turning her attention to her friend. Twilight was breathing at a normal rate, but she was breathing so loudly that she could be heard. It was like she was trying to get as much air into her system as possible. Perhaps this was a good thing. She did look like she was about to pass out after all. “You feeling ok?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… I just need to catch my breath for a minute.” Twilight said while managing a reassuring smile. Rainbow Dash was happy to see the unicorn in such high spirits. Satisfied that her friend would be alright on her own for a moment, Rainbow Dash got back up and walked around the room slowly. She looked around and examined the features of the room with intrigue. Although the fireplace wasn’t lit, there were a few candles placed around that provided sufficient, if not a little eerie, lighting. Rainbow Dash stood in front of the fireplace and shrugged in disappointment. She wished that it would have somehow been lit. It must have been quite the experience to sit in front of the warmth of a fire in such a luxurious atmosphere. “Man… those humans sure knew how to live it up. I want a huge fireplace like this in my house… I’ll even settle for not having the painting.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight sigh. “Heh… I see what you mean. Even with all of the dust and cobwebs, this place still looks better than my old dorm room back at school.” Twilight said with a brief chuckle of amusement while looking around at the fancy décor. *SNIP* Suddenly, a harsh snip filled the air. The noise was so unexpected and jarring that the ponies weren’t even sure if they actually heard it. “What was that?” Twilight asked uneasily while trying her best to look around the room without moving her leg. Rainbow Dash darted her eyes around nervously while trying to find the source of the noise. It sounded like a pair of scissors being used, but why a pair of scissors, or even someone to use them, would be near enough to be heard was beyond the pegasus. Suddenly, a small blur of motion made the cyan mare look straight ahead. Rainbow Dash was stunned into silent surprise as she saw a pair of scissors floating by themselves behind the couch that Twilight was sitting on. It didn’t take long for her to realize the urgency of the situation. “Twilight, look out!” Rainbow Dash shouted frantically while pointing behind the unicorn. Twilight ignored the pain in her leg to turn around fully to see what had startled the pegasus, only to gasp in shock as she saw a pair of scissors pointing at her from in the air. “AH!” Twilight yelped in fright as she recoiled backwards and off the couch. Just as she crashed to the floor and onto her back, the pair of scissors darted forward and sailed over her head, just barely missing a few strands of her hair. “Oof!” Twilight landed on the floor with a sizable thud. The impact made her leg throb with pain, but she had more pressing matters to worry about. Now that the scissors had missed their first lunge, they were hovering directly above the injured mare. As the bloody blades slowly yet deliberately pointed downwards towards her, Twilight could swear that she heard sinister laughter echoing through the air softly. Making an attempt to save herself, the unicorn used her front legs to scoot herself backwards. Much to her dismay, whenever she moved, the scissors moved with her, all the while closing and opening their blades slowly. “No!” Twilight cried out in protest while shielding her body as best she could with one arm and shielding her face with the other as the scissors shot downwards towards her. The blades were moving fast enough to impale themselves straight through her if they made contact. Just before she expected to feel a stabbing pain in her body, Twilight felt something grabbing her and pulling her to the side. As she heard the sound of the scissors hitting the floor, she looked up to see Rainbow Dash holding her by the shoulders. “Rainbow Dash… you saved me.” Twilight said in an amazed tone. “Don’t thank me yet!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed uneasily while staring at the scissors trying to free themselves from the floor. The blades took little time to yank themselves back into the air and slowly point back towards the two mares. “Is it Shadow Mist…?!” Twilight asked in an alarmed tone while glancing to her bag. Perhaps if she hurried she could reach the vial that suppressed shadow magic and hit the red pony to make the fight easier. “There’s no way that thing is Shadow Mist… Those scissors are straight up flying.” Rainbow Dash stated while staring at the floating blades with a fearful glint in her eyes. They seemed to glide through the air effortlessly, almost like they had a will of their own and some bizarre method of locomotion. “But if it isn’t Shadow Mist, then what is it?!” Twilight grew more alarmed as she stared at the bloody instrument floating in the air. Now she was dealing with the unknown, and the unicorn hated that. “I don’t know! Maybe it’s a… HEADS UP!” Rainbow Dash yelled suddenly while pushing the unicorn to the floor. Twilight grunted slightly as she watched the pegasus leaping up in the air. Before she could question what had caused the sudden reaction in her friend, she saw a blur of motion as the scissors whizzed between her and the cyan mare. The two mares looked behind them to see the scissors come to a sudden halt just before slamming into the wall. The blades spun around in the air while opening and closing rapidly, causing a series of shrill snips to ring out. Along with this menacing display, the echoed laughter of a female filled the air clearer than ever before. Taking a quick glance to her injured friend, Rainbow Dash realized that she wouldn’t be able to defend herself in her condition. Returning her attention to the scissors, she gasped in shock as she saw the blades inching closer as they pointed at Twilight. “Hey! Why don’t you pick on someone as fast as you?!” Rainbow Dash yelled in a brash tone while stepping forward and to the side. Thankfully her plan worked, and the scissors pointed away from Twilight to face her. “Rainbow Dash! What are you doing?!” Twilight asked in a shocked tone while watching the cyan pony stare down the scissors like she was having a duel. The pegasus turned her head slightly to face her friend while keeping the scissors in view. “I would rather it come after me than you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in an adamant tone. Twilight knew that once the cyan mare made up her mind, there was no changing it. She was going to risk her own safety to protect her. As Rainbow Dash returned her attention to the scissors, she was startled to see that they had disappeared from view. Taking a quick look around, she realized the malevolent blades were nowhere to be seen. “What the hay?! But there’s no way it could have moved without me seeing!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a panic while desperately looking around for the scissors. Suddenly, Twilight saw what had happened to the floating blades. She gasped in surprise and alarm as she saw the scissors slowly materializing in front of the pegasus where they had probably been the whole time. “Rainbow Dash, look out!” Twilight yelled frantically while pointing in front of the pegasus. Rainbow Dash spun her head around and widened her eyes in shock as she saw the blades directly in front of her. “Yikes!” The cyan mare exclaimed in a panic while darting her body to the side as fast as she could. Despite her best effort, she couldn’t match the speed of the scissors. The phantom blades sailed through the air, clipping into the side of her face as they whizzed by and leaving a lengthy gash in her cheek that stung like crazy. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash yelped in pain while clutching her new injury. The side of her face was burning so much that even pressing on it gently made it sting more. As she brought her bloodstained hoof back down, she groaned uneasily and turned around to face her attacker. The blades were now floating motionless in front of the fireplace in an open position. The cyan pony’s blood dripped off of the right blade every so often. The two mares heard the laughter again, but this time it sounded clearer and less distorted. Suddenly, the ponies saw something that stunned them into silence. Right before their eyes, a humanoid figure started materializing into existence. Before long, the figure could be identified as a human woman wearing a white dress. She had pale translucent skin, a sinister smile, and she was holding the floating scissors in her right hand. “W…w-what the…?” Rainbow Dash muttered in utter bewilderment. “It’s a… human?” Twilight added with equal confusion to her cyan friend. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “But… does that mean that she’s a… g-ghost?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a fearful panic as she caught on to the only reasonable explanation to there being another human in front of her. “A ghost… I see. It makes sense now… the notes talked about the seals suppressing powerful entities… they must have been talking about literal entities.” Twilight said in a shocked tone. Even if she could make sense of it, she still couldn’t believe it. She was stunned to hear herself making such a conclusion. “But… but I thought ghosts weren’t real?! I mean… I believe in monsters now… I kind of have to, but I thought that ghosts were still fake!” Rainbow Dash stated in utter disbelief. “Tom mentioned clearing out haunted houses in the past… I believed him at the time, but I guess it never clicked in my head that that meant ghosts existed.” Twilight added while thinking back to the talks she had with the boy about his past achievements as a slayer. “Heheheheh.” The ghostly woman giggled under her nonexistent breath as she opened and closed the scissors slowly. She took a step forward while staring directly at Twilight with her cold, dead, evil eyes. “Hey! You leave my friend alone! You want to tussle with someone? I’m right here!” Rainbow Dash said while boldly stepping in front of the unicorn. “Rainbow Dash…” Twilight said in a pleading tone. She knew that the pegasus would get hurt if she fought the spirit. Either she would be badly injured, or worse. “Leave her to me Twilight. You’re in no condition to fight.” Rainbow Dash said while giving her friend a confident expression in an attempt at reassuring her. “You want to protect her do you?” The ghostly woman said with a sinister smile creeping across her face. “We’ll see about that.” She stated in an almost threatening manner. Suddenly, the specter screamed fiercely while rushing forward with her scissors at the ready. Rainbow Dash stood her ground and prepared to attack the incoming threat. As she charged forward with her head lowered in an attempt at head-butting the ghost, she was surprised as she reached the woman and sailed right through her. “What the?!” The cyan mare exclaimed in a panic as she looked behind her. The spirit was now charging straight for the injured unicorn on the floor. “AH!” Twilight screamed and covered her face as the ghost prepared to swing the blades down on her. Just as she saw the woman bringing her arm down, the unicorn gasped in shock as she saw her friend jumping in front of her. “AGGH!” Rainbow Dash yelled in pain as the scissors were driven into her shoulder deeply. Blood sprayed out of the injury as the force of the impact made the crimson fluid fly everywhere before crashing down onto the floor. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried out in shock as she saw her friend getting stabbed in the shoulder. She tried to reach her, but the best she could do was to slowly scoot along the ground. Rainbow Dash cringed in pain as she tried to think of what to do next. She reached up and tried to grab the scissors, but before she could, the woman in white grabbed her by the neck and picked her up with relative ease. She squealed in pain as her throat was constricted, but all that came out was a strangled cry. Just before the pegasus thought she was going to pass out, she felt the spirit flinging her through the air. “Ahh!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully as she sailed across the room. She spread her wings and tried to stop herself in the air, but by the time she flapped them once it was too late. Her body smacked into the stone mantle of the fireplace. Thankfully her back took most of the impact, but that didn’t stop her head from making solid and painful contact with the stone as it flew back. Twilight watched with a horrified expression as her friend grunted in pain as she hit the floor. Judging from the sight of the pegasus writhing in pain, she was at least alive, which was the best thing to come out of this ordeal so far. Taking a glance back to the ghostly woman, the unicorn noticed the scissors still clutched in her right hand. There was also a trail of blood leading across the room to where Rainbow Dash was now. Apparently the ghost ripped the blades out of the cyan pony’s shoulder before she threw her. Twilight wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “Oh no…” Twilight whined fearfully while scooting backwards from the ghostly woman. Now that she was separated from her friend, it would be easy to pick her off. Strangely however, the human paid no attention to the unicorn as she backed into the couch helplessly. Instead, the specter turned her body around to face the pegasus on the other side of the room. Rainbow Dash groaned in pain as she lifted her head off of the floor. She clutched her bleeding shoulder, only to suddenly realize that the scissors were missing from her wound. Feeling alarmed for the safety of her friend, she looked over and gasped as she saw the ghostly woman in front of the unicorn. However, she didn’t seem to care about Twilight at this point. “Hehehe…” The woman chuckled madly as she stepped towards the pegasus with the scissors clutched in her hand. Before Rainbow Dash could even prepare herself, the ghostly figure disappeared from sight, only to reappear directly in front of her. “…!” Rainbow Dash was shocked into silence as a startled outcry failed to make it past her throat. She scooted to the side in an attempt at getting to her feet, but before she could get up, she saw the woman lunge for her with her free hand. “Ack!” The cyan mare groaned painfully as the woman grabbed her by the neck again. This time however, she pressed harder and harder, to the point where she was preventing the pony from breathing. Rainbow Dash sputtered and croaked as she desperately gasped for air to no avail. She tried to grab the woman’s arm to free herself, but her hooves merely passed through her body, leaving her with only a cold feeling and a sense of helplessness. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried fearfully from across the room. She could see that her friend was struggling to survive. Before long, she would be unconscious from lack of oxygen. Deciding that she had to help somehow, the unicorn lurched forward before wincing in pain and looking down at her leg. No matter how hard she tried to suck up the pain, her injury would prevent her body from moving as quickly as she needed it to. Cursing her bad fortune under her breath, she looked up and did the only other thing she could do. Twilight lit up her horn and scowled fiercely at the woman. There was no way she was going to sit by and watch while someone ended her friend’s life. Enough was enough, and it was time she fought back to save the pegasus. “Leave her alone!” The purple mare yelled angrily while firing a blast of magical energy at the spirit, being careful to aim it high enough so it wouldn’t hit Rainbow Dash if she missed. The bolt of purple light flew across the room before reaching the woman, and sailing straight through her and into the stone mantle of the fireplace. “Wh… what?” Twilight felt her heart sinking to her feet as she watched the magical bolt explode on the mantle. Of course, it was at this time that she remembered what she was fighting. Her friend was being attacked by a ghost, and ghosts could walk through walls, so why would a magical bolt of energy pose any threat to such a creature? The unicorn stared in front of her with her jaw quivering and her eyes wide with horror. There was nothing she could do to help her friend. She was going to watch Rainbow Dash getting murdered by a spirit. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was still fighting to stay conscious. She could feel her throat burning as the human’s grip tightened. Her head was spinning, and her vision was getting fuzzy. She could feel a numb sensation prevailing in her limbs. Overall, she was losing this battle. Taking a look beside her, the cyan mare saw the fireplace poker right next to the mantle. It had been knocked over when she flew into the fireplace, and was now sitting on the ground beside her. Using whatever strength she had left, the pegasus reached for the poker. She had no reason to believe that using a different weapon would work seeing how the woman could seemingly pass through solid matter at will, but she had to try and survive. Rainbow Dash fumbled around as she felt for the metal object on the floor. She could feel her body shutting down as she faded in and out of consciousness. Just before she lost all sensation in her body, she felt her hoof settling on the cold metal of the poker. Wasting no time, she grabbed the handle and swung her arm upwards, hoping that she would somehow do something to make the woman let go of her neck. “AGGGHHH!” The ghostly human screamed out in agony as the fireplace poker sailed through her. As the metal pole contacted her, her body violently burst into flaming smoke as her form was disrupted. The woman let go of the pony and flew backwards in retreat. Her entire body was flickering in and out of sight as the fiery trail left by the metal pole continued doing damage. Rainbow Dash took in the largest gasp of air she ever had in her life. She could barely move her body, but at that point all she cared about was catching her breath. After taking a moment to recover, she looked up to see the ghostly woman still flickering in and out of existence. Finally, the human and her scissors vanished from sight, leaving the pegasus staring at her unicorn friend, who had an equally shocked expression on her face. “Ughh…” Rainbow Dash groaned as she rolled over onto her stomach and pushed herself up. She barely made it off of the floor before she was forced to pause and take in another series of deep breaths. “Rainbow Dash! Are you ok?!” Twilight asked in an alarmed while getting up and slowly limping over to her friend. Every step she took made her pause to deal with the pain of her leg, but she didn’t care as long as she reached the cyan mare. “I’m ok…*Cough**Cough*… just… just give me a minute.” Rainbow Dash replied in a weak voice. She was still dealing with the strain that the ghost put on her windpipe. Twilight stood by and watched the pegasus working herself up to her feet with a concerned expression. Once she was standing upright, Rainbow Dash glanced down to the fireplace poker on the floor curiously. “Ok… I’m sure I should be curious about why she is afraid of a piece of metal, but right now I don’t care.” Rainbow Dash stated while picking up the metallic pole and holding it at the ready. She wanted to be prepared if the ghostly woman returned. “Do you think she’s gone?” Twilight asked nervously while darting her eyes around. “I don’t know… but let’s not stick around to find out.” Rainbow Dash said while reaching her other arm around the unicorn to help her walk. “Agh!” She suddenly yelped in pain as she tried moving her injured arm. The wound on her shoulder was still bleeding, serving as a painful reminder of her previous scuffle. “Are you sure you’re ok? I can walk on my own if you’re hurt.” Twilight suggested in a concerned tone while frowning sympathetically at the wounded pegasus. Rainbow Dash cringed for a moment before shaking her head and sucking up the pain to put her arm around the purple mare. “I’m fine… you aren’t going anywhere by yourself on that leg. Let’s just get out of here before she comes back.” The cyan pony suggested while slowly walking forward. Twilight hesitantly accepted her help. If anything, she could help her walk as well. Suddenly, a loud crash beside them made the two mares jump in fright. They looked over to see pieces of a red pot scattered on the ground. The pair didn’t need to wonder for very long as to the source of this confusing event as they looked to their side and saw a vase floating in the air above a table at the back of the room. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise while quickly letting go of her friend. She fought against the pain in her shoulder and swung the fireplace poker defensively as the vase sailed at her at lightning fast speeds. Thankfully, she felt a satisfying crack as the vase shattered against the metal pole rather than against her and her friend. “What the hay is going on?” Twilight asked in a frantic tone while looking around the room. A lamp from a nearby table lifted into the air and flung itself at the two ponies as the vase had done. The lamp smacked into the wall right behind the unicorn, making her yelp in fright as she ducked to the floor. “I think she’s throwing things at us!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed uneasily while readying her weapon to defend herself against any more flying objects. Twilight suddenly thought back to when Applejack and her family were being tormented by the poltergeist. She vividly remembered all of the objects in the room levitating into the air before hurling themselves at anyone nearby. If a poltergeist could do something like that, then perhaps a ghost could do the same thing. “Look out!” Twilight yelled as another vase hurled itself at the pegasus. Rainbow Dash barely managed to hit the flying object out of the air before it crashed into her. The pair darted their eyes around nervously while looking for any more signs of movement. Strangely, the room was still and silent save for the ponies’ own racing hearts. “D-did she leave?” Twilight asked nervously while scanning the room and warily eyeing any loose decoration. As if to answer the unicorn’s question, the same sinister laughter from before echoed through the room before localizing directly in front of the ponies. The two mares looked ahead and saw the ghostly woman appearing with a brief flicker. She had her scissors at the ready, and she looked like she wasn’t happy to see the two that just fought her off with relative ease. Rainbow Dash glanced between Twilight and the human with a concerned expression. There was no way that the unicorn could dodge the ghost’s attacks in her condition. If she was going to effectively protect her, she needed to keep the fight as far away from her as possible. “Wait here… I’ll take care of this.” Rainbow Dash stated with false courage while walking forward to meet the ghost. Twilight couldn’t believe that her friend was being so reckless. “Rainbow Dash, wait!” The purple mare called out while reaching for the pegasus. She winced in pain as she tried stepping forward, only to fall to the floor as her limbs gave out from underneath her. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was walking towards the woman in white with a fierce scowl on her face. She was done being on the defensive and waiting for the ghost to attack. It was about time she showed the spirit how ponies handled themselves in a fight. “Ok you see-through jerk! Let’s see how you like it when you’re the one getting beat up!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while reeling the metal bar in her hooves back for a strike. The ghostly woman merely giggled and held out her open palm. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash felt the poker getting ripped from her hooves. She yelped in pain as the pole was sent flying out of her grip violently. The fireplace poker sailed through the air until it landed behind the couch with a loud clang. Before the pegasus could even react to her sudden lack of a weapon, the woman in white swiped the scissors across her chest. “OW!” Rainbow Dash cried out while clutching her new injury. She tried to walk backwards to get away from the ghost, but she stumbled and tripped as the woman pushed her off balance. The cyan mare landed on her back with a painful thud. She looked up and gasped in horror as she saw the ghostly figure standing over her with the scissors held high above her head, ready to plunge them down into her. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled fearfully while getting to her feet and lighting up her horn. She didn’t care if she couldn’t directly fight the ghost. She had to at least distract it long enough for her friend to escape. Building up as much courage as possible, the unicorn charged forward as fast as her injured leg would allow. “Twilight don’t!” Rainbow Dash yelled in protest as she watched her friend charging forward. She was afraid of what the ghost might do to the unicorn if she provoked her. The ghostly woman merely looked over to the charging pony with a scornful expression. She then raised her free hand and flicked it towards the couch. “AH!” Twilight yelped fearfully as she was sent flying from her feet. The momentum she had from running was multiplied twofold as the ghost sent her whizzing through the air at high speeds. She crashed into the couch, managing to tip it over as her body collided with it. Twilight groaned in pain as her body rolled over several times before coming to a halt. She tried to get up again, only to realize that the pain coming from her leg had gotten worse. The force of the impact must have opened up any clot the wound had formed, because now it was bleeding again. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock as she watched her friend getting tossed like a limp puppet. “Why you little… I’m going t- AGH!” The pegasus screamed in pain as the woman stabbed the scissors into her stomach, sending a spray of blood everywhere. “Agh… GAH!” Rainbow Dash screamed again as the ghost forcibly pulled the scissors out and stabbed them down into her side. She could feel her insides burning as each stab plunged the metal blades into her flesh, doubtlessly piercing several vital parts of her body. Holding her arm out in an attempt at stopping the merciless assault, the pegasus was horrified to see that the woman was ignoring her arm and just continued stabbing her with varying intensity each stab. She even managed to catch the cyan mare’s arm with the scissors a few times as she continued her attack. The purple mare looked up to see the ghost attacking her friend. She was horrified to hear Rainbow Dash screaming at the top of her lungs as blood gushed out of her body like a macabre geyser. “Rainbow Dash, no!” Twilight screamed as her heart jumped in her chest. Her stomach did flips as her body violently reacted to the horrific sight she was seeing. “Guh… *Cough*… *Sputter*” Rainbow Dash coughed, making a disgusting wet sound as red fluid gushed from her mouth. She tried rolling over to get away from the relentless onslaught, but the ghostly woman just pushed her down and kept her in place. Twilight felt herself shaking uncontrollably as tears welled up in her eyes. She was watching one of her best friends getting brutally slaughtered right in front of her, and there was nothing she could do. No, there had to be something. She couldn’t just give up on Rainbow Dash like that. Glancing behind her, the unicorn noticed the fire poker lying on the ground a few feet away. She gasped in revelation as she realized what she could do. Acting as fast as she could, Twilight lit up her horn and wrapped her magic around the metallic object. She looked back to the pair struggling on the ground and lined up her shot, just before flinging the pole at the ghost as hard as she could. The fire poker sailed through the air like a javelin until it struck the specter. The woman screamed in pain as the metal pole impaled her form and caused her body to be disrupted in a puff of fiery smoke. The ghostly human writhed in pain for a few moments before completely disappearing from view in a violent burst of fire. The scissors clattered to the floor loudly, serving as a final outburst before the room was plunged into silence. Twilight looked to her injured friend on the floor, only to see her writhing in pain as she struggled to breathe. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed while frantically trying to get to her feet. Her injury slowed her pace to a stubborn crawl, but she limped as fast as she could to get to the pegasus. As she reached the cyan mare, Twilight widened her eyes in shock. Rainbow Dash had numerous deep and shallow stab wounds on her body. Some were on her arms and side, but most of them were on her chest and on her stomach. Around two deep wounds were on her chest, while three were on her stomach. All of the gashes were bleeding profusely. “Rainbow Dash! Can you hear me?!” Twilight asked while gently putting her hooves on the pegasus’s side where she didn’t have an injury. “*Cough*… *Sputter*…” Rainbow Dash was coughing violently as she rolled onto her side. There was a small trickle of blood coming from her mouth. Her breathing was fast and erratic and her movements were sluggish, but she seemed to be toughing through a lot of the pain she was going through. “Is… she gone?” Rainbow Dash asked while working her way to her knees. “I think so… do you think you can walk?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash tried to stand on her own weight, but her legs were shaking so much that she looked like she was going to fall over any minute. “Ughh…” The cyan mare groaned as she fell to the side. She would have hit the floor if it hadn’t been for Twilight catching her. “Don’t worry… I’ve got you.” Twilight said while hiding the painful cringe she was making from the pegasus. The added weight of carrying herself and the pegasus was making her leg explode with pain. “Come on… let’s get you out of here.” Twilight suggested while slowly moving forward. Rainbow Dash tried her best to shuffle forward with her friend. The pegasus relied on the unicorn to guide them as she stared at the floor with a dazed expression of pain plastered on her face. Twilight lit up her horn and picked up the fire place poker. It was the only weapon she knew to be effective against the ghosts at the moment. She didn’t know why, but she wasn’t the questioning type, at least not right now. Right now, she had one thing on her mind, and that was to get her friend some help. “Come on Rainbow Dash… we can do this. Just keep moving.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while holding the pegasus steady. Every few moments, Rainbow Dash would pause and either stumble or clutch her stomach, and every time the pegasus faltered and shifted more of her weight onto her friend, Twilight struggled to keep herself upright. Her injured leg was about to give out, and her other limbs were getting weaker from the blood loss she was experiencing. “Twilight… just leave me. That… *cough* t-that ghost might be back soon… I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.” Rainbow Dash said in a pleading tone. Twilight frowned as she realized her friend was getting weaker by the moment. “I’m not leaving without you… now just keep moving. We’re almost to the door.” Twilight said while looking up and opening the door with her magic. Thankfully, the door wasn’t locked, and it opened with ease. The unicorn smiled hopefully as she saw another hallway. If her memory of the foyer was correct, this hallway should have led to one of the doors downstairs. As she shambled through the door and closed it behind her, Twilight groaned from exertion as Rainbow Dash fell to her knees. She tried her best to lift her back up, but there was no way she could do it with her muscles. Deciding to make things easier for the pegasus, Twilight focused her magic on her and tried to lift her into the air with her horn. After a few moments of grunting from exertion and getting the cyan mare to lift a few inches off the ground, the unicorn realized that she was too weak to lift an adult pony with her magic. “Come on Rainbow Dash… don’t do this to me. I can’t lift you by myself… I need your help if I’m going to get you out of here.” Twilight pleaded with her friend, who was currently on the floor with her eyes closed trying to catch her breath and cope with the doubtlessly mind numbing pain she was going through. “I can’t…” Rainbow Dash said under her breath. “W-what?” Twilight asked with a pale expression. “I can’t go on any further… I’m sorry.” Rainbow Dash droned tiredly. It sounded like she was fading out of consciousness. Twilight saw the pegasus starting to fall the rest of the way to the floor. She realized that if she passed out at this point that she might not wake back up. “Hey, stay awake!” Twilight said while shaking the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash fluttered her eyes open and strained to keep herself alert. She was still breathing heavily and making soft and painful moans, so she was seemingly awake for the moment. “Rainbow Dash… we’re so close. The others are just down this hallway, I know they are. You can’t give up like this… just try for me… please.” Twilight pleaded in a sad tone. She knew that she couldn’t pick the pegasus up by herself, so if she gave up, she might very well die. “Ok… I’ll try.” Rainbow Dash said before taking as deep a breath as she could. She groaned from exhaustion and pain as she tried working herself to her knees. Twilight grabbed her by the arm and gently helped her up. After some work, the pair was on their feet again. Slowly but surely, Twilight managed to lead the injured pegasus down the hallway. She could visibly see the color draining from her face as she stared at the floor in a haze. There was a sizable trail of blood being left behind the cyan mare. The unicorn frowned with concern as she felt her own strength waning away as well. Although she wasn’t nearly as bad off as Rainbow Dash, the wound on her leg was still bleeding. If she didn’t hurry, then both of them might not survive the night. Finally, Twilight could see a door to the left further down the hallway. She smiled brightly as she realized that the foyer was so close within reach. “We’re almost there Rainbow Dash. Just hang in th- oof!” Twilight suddenly groaned as the pegasus became dead weight in her grasp. Rainbow Dash fell to the floor and sprawled out like a lifeless puppet, but her eyes were still open. She was still awake, but all of the strength had left her body. Twilight groaned as she heaved while trying to lift the now motionless pegasus. The increased strain on her body was making her breath faster, but it was also making her lose energy faster. “*Huff*… *Pant*… Rainbow Dash… get up.” Twilight said while out of breath. She fell to her knees and rested for a moment before looking to the side and nudging her friend. “I… I don’t think I’m gonna make it.” Rainbow Dash said before coughing a few times and laying her head back down. “You have to… I can’t do this without you.” Twilight groaned while trying again to lift the cyan mare. She didn’t care about her own exhaustion. She had to try and save her friend. “Just get back to the others… save yourself.” Rainbow Dash said in a drowsy haze. Twilight could see her eyelids drifting closed. “No… no! Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed while frantically trying to pick her friend up. “I’m not going to let you die here! I… I can’t just… just do that.” The unicorn panted heavily as her limbs burned and her body ached. She suddenly felt very light headed, so much so that she stumbled for a moment before falling on her side. Twilight groaned as she tried to get back up. Her body felt oddly heavy, and her head was in a haze that made putting effort into much of anything a challenge. She looked ahead and noticed that Rainbow Dash’s eyes were closed. This filled the unicorn with a sense of urgency. “Rainbow Dash… wake up.” The unicorn pleaded as loudly as she could, which didn’t amount to much more than an exhausted wheeze. She reached over and shook the pegasus, but she didn’t stir. Twilight would have shaken her harder, but her limbs were getting weaker by the minute. Suddenly, she turned and looked ahead at the door a short distance away. If that was the door to the foyer, then maybe someone would hear her if she called for help. “Help! Ughh…” Twilight called out while making every attempt at raising her voice. Her friend’s life and possibly her own depended on it, but she still had trouble making her yells loud enough to carry very far. “Someone… help us!” She yelled once more as loud as she could. Twilight wasn’t sure if anyone even heard her. She was about to call out again, but she suddenly felt very sleepy. Glancing back down to her friend, she tried to look for signs that she was still breathing. Twilight strained her eyes to try and make sense of the image before her as her vision blurred. She didn’t even care if she was passing out anymore. She just had to know that her friend was still alive. Twilight didn’t see the gradual rise and fall of the cyan mare’s chest, but she wasn’t sure if this was just her vision failing her or if Rainbow Dash really wasn’t breathing. She fought hard to stay awake long enough to confirm her suspicions, but the fog in her mind was spreading farther and faster than she could keep up with. Finally, her vision blacked out and she closed her eyes. The last thought that drifted through the unicorn’s mind before she blacked out, was wondering if she and her friend were going to die before they woke back up. Chapter 85: Endless Torture“GAH!” Fluttershy cringed as Neon Streak cried out in pain. Another harsh cut from the scalpel made the green mare scream in agony, and the timid pegasus recoil in horror. Fluttershy wept silently as she watched the ghostly human torturing her friend. The sight of the many bloody cuts and stab wounds littering Neon’s body made the yellow mare distraught with terror and sadness. “*Pant*…*Huff*… Guh…” Neon Streak’s chest heaved as she fought against the burning pain from her numerous wounds to breathe. She could feel blood trickling out of her body nearly everywhere. There were cuts and stabs all across her body ranging from slight incisions to gruesome gashes. “I must say… you are doing better than I expected.” The ghostly man said in an impressed tone while placing his free hand beside the mare’s head and leaning on it. He twiddled the scalpel around in his hand while looking at the bloody pony and chuckling. “*Pant*… Drop dead you creep.” Neon said while shakily lifting her head up to glare at the specter before her. “Heh… I’m afraid you’re a bit late with that one dearie.” The human stated with a slight smirk. “Now… where were we? I believe we were somewhere around fifty, but I can’t be sure… heheheh.” He added in a humorous tone, though the two ponies found it far from laughable. “Wow… I guess I misjudged you. From how you dress, I would have figured you would be smart enough to count to at least one hundred. I guess I was wro- AHH!” Neon yelped in pain as her sly remark was cut short by the human dragging the scalpel down the side of her stomach. “Ah, now I remember… we were at fifty-five.” The man said while staring at the green pony with a cold expression. Neon Streak tugged at the leather straps binding her to the table. No matter how hard she tried, they held her limbs firmly in place. Still, she continued trying to wear them down. Despite her strong will to escape, there was an obstacle in her path. The pain racking her body was clouding her mind, and making the already hard task of moving her weak body even harder. “Which would make this one fifty-six.” The human said while bringing the scalpel up and then shoving it down into Neon’s thigh. While the green mare screamed in pain, the ghostly man pulled the blade down and out of her leg with a bloody spurt. As Neon Streak cried out in pain and suffering, Fluttershy whined and turned her head away from the scene in front of her. She did just about the only thing she could do. She cried and sobbed while trying her best to distance herself from the blood curdling screams and the chilling and gut wrenching sounds of flesh being sliced open. The pegasus withdrew into her own mind as she tried to deal with her emotions. Her body was shaking, and her heart was pounding. She felt like she was going to pass out. “J-just… *Sob*… Just l-leave her alone.” Fluttershy said in between her sobs. Her voice was trembling so much, and she was so distraught that she could barely get out the words. The human paused for a moment and turned around to face the timid pony. Fluttershy froze up in fear as she felt the man’s cold dead eyes staring at her from behind his glasses. He walked over to her slowly with his scalpel in hand. Fluttershy turned her head away and trembled fearfully as the spirit came closer. Suddenly, she felt his icy cold hand grabbing her by the muzzle and forcibly turning her head to look at him. “You know… I hate it when people cry, and you are no different. If you don’t stop crying… I’m going to give you a damn good reason for it.” The human said while holding the scalpel up to her face and gently pressing it against her skin, not enough to draw blood, but enough to cause a slight amount of pain. Fluttershy squeaked in fear and tried her hardest to stop her body from trembling. If the human wasn’t holding her head still, she would have probably cut herself on the scalpel from shaking so much. “Hey! I thought we had an agreement!” Neon Streak yelled from the other side of the room, causing the man to turn his head to look over at her. “And just what agreement was that?” The man asked curiously. “You said you would leave her alone until I gave up… well I’m still here, so if you want to cut something, get your ethereal butt over here and give me your best shot!” Neon said with as much confidence as she could muster. Despite her strong front, Fluttershy could tell that the green mare was in a lot of pain. Her breathing was fast and shallow, her head was lying back on the table from how exhausted she was, and a steady pool of blood was building on the floor from all of the cuts on her body. “N-Neon… I…” Fluttershy muttered in a sad tone. She couldn’t believe how much suffering the green mare was going through for her. She wanted nothing more than to be able to rush over to her, untie her bonds, and coddle her while she recovered, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. “Well… if you’re so eager for us to continue, then I suppose I shall oblige you.” The human said while walking back over to the green mare’s table and examining her. There were so many wounds on her body that he was starting to run out of untouched skin. “My, my… are you certain that you still want to take these cuts? You’re more than half way there… you could just sit back and rest while crybaby over there takes the other h-” The man’s offer was suddenly interrupted by Neon shouting again. “No!” Neon yelled fiercely while raising her head up. “Keep cutting me…” The green mare said while wincing in pain and laying her head back. The human smiled before turning his attention to the vast amount of blood that she was losing. “Well if we are going to continue, I’m going to need to give you a little something to make sure you don’t bleed out.” The ghost stated while reaching onto one of the trays beside him and grabbing a small needle and a vial of some sort of liquid. The label had worn away over the years, but the odd coloring of the liquid gave the two ponies watching an uneasy pit in their stomachs as they watched the man filling the needle. “What?! What the hay are you… leave me alone! It’s bad enough that you’re cutting me, I don’t want your slimy ghost hands touching me!” Neon protested while struggling against the human’s grip as he walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder. He lined up the needle with her arm for a moment before turning to her and smirking. “You might feel a little bit of a poke.” The man said in a mockingly courteous tone before jamming the needle into the green mare’s arm. “Ow!” Neon yelped as her skin was roughly pierced by the sharp point of the needle. After making extra certain to insert the needle as carelessly as possible, the man injected the fluid into the pony and yanked out the needle. The human chuckled slightly while placing the needle down on a table next to the green mare. “Oh come now… I’ve been cutting you for a while now, surely that didn’t hurt very much by comparison.” The spirit stated while giving the pony a rough pat on her shoulder where one of her cuts was. Neon cringed in pain before glaring at the ghostly human. Ignoring the green mare’s icy stare, the man turned his attention to the odd vest full of equipment that was lying on the table next to her. “Hmm… what are all of these gadgets you have here?” The man asked curiously while reaching forward and picking up a vial from the vest. Neon quickly realized that he was holding her strobe. “Why don’t you press that button there and find out?” Neon said with a hopeful smirk. The human shrugged before putting the vial back down. “I think I’ll pass… now then… fifty-seven.” The man said while slicing across Neon’s chest, causing yet another painful stinging sensation that added to the fifty-six other cuts she had. “Gah!” The green mare yelped in pain while clenching her teeth and rocking her head back against the table. Fluttershy watched helplessly as the human continued torturing the earth pony. Every time Neon screamed as the man drove the scalpel into her body, the timid pegasus felt herself slipping further into a bottomless pit of despair. She tried closing her eyes to prevent herself from watching, but nothing she did could block out the agonizing sounds of pain filling the room. Time ticked by for what seemed like an eternity. Somehow, Neon Streak managed to keep taking the punishment she was given. Fluttershy started to notice the green mare growing drowsier. At this point, she must have lost so much blood that anything the human injected her with wasn’t working. The pegasus was starting to worry that she was going to die. Suddenly, Neon drooped her head down and closed her eyes. Due to the ghostly man standing in front of the earth pony, Fluttershy couldn’t tell if she was still breathing. The yellow mare’s heart started racing even faster than it was before. “N-Neon?” Fluttershy spoke up in a concerned tone. The human tapped the green pony on the side of her face in an attempt at waking her up. “Come on… don’t quit on me. Wake up.” The man said in an irritated tone while shaking her head. “Is she dead?!” Fluttershy asked with wide eyes while trying to see if the green mare was still breathing. Due to all of her bleeding wounds, she appeared dead for all intents and purposes. The man glanced back at the pegasus and sighed. He then put his hand on her neck to feel for a pulse while also listening for the sounds of her breathing. “Nope… she’s still kicking.” The human said while turning around to face the timid mare. He shrugged his shoulders lightheartedly before turning back to the unconscious pony and bringing his scalpel back up. “I guess I’ll just move on without her.” The man said with a brief chuckle while pressing the blade against her skin. “No!” Fluttershy cried out adamantly. She caught herself and froze up as the human paused from her outburst. “What?” He asked while turning around to face her with a serious expression on his face. Fluttershy could feel her spine melting into her feet, but she couldn’t let him hurt her friend any further. “Please… leave her alone.” Fluttershy squeaked nervously. Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, but the human seemed to get the general meaning she was trying to convey, and he didn’t seem to like it. “Really? You want me to leave her alone?” The man asked in a cold tone. “Why should I do that? I haven’t gotten done cutting her yet.” He stated in a matter of fact tone. “P-please… she’s had enough. If you want to cut someone… just… *Gulp*… just give the rest of the cuts to me.” Fluttershy said with false bravery. Her mind was already denying the words she just spoke as she realized what she was asking for. Despite her anxiety, she couldn’t sit idly by any longer while Neon got hurt on her behalf. “Well… I did say that I would only switch to you if she couldn’t take any more pain.” The man said while glancing back at the unconscious pony hanging from the table and bleeding out onto the floor. “But… I suppose I could bend the rules if you want me to. She isn’t exactly in any condition to refuse right now.” He said with a brief chuckle before returning his attention to the yellow mare. Fluttershy’s pupils shrank to the size of pin pricks as the ghostly human approached her with his scalpel in hand. She tried recoiling her body backwards, but the solid table behind her stopped her from doing anything more than wriggling around fearfully. As the scalpel drew closer and closer to her face, Fluttershy froze up fearfully and closed her eyes. She whined nervously as she felt the cold metal object pressing against her cheek. The human took his time and gently pressed the scalpel harder and harder. Eventually, Fluttershy felt a slight twinge of pain as the blade drew a small amount of blood. “H-hey!” The sound of Neon Streak speaking up made the human pause suddenly. Both the man and Fluttershy looked over to see the green mare lifting her head up slowly. She had a dazed look on her face, but she still managed to somehow convey anger towards the ghostly human. “I said… don’t touch her…” Neon said in an exhausted tone. It looked like she was struggling to just stay awake. “Neon, please don’t do this. It’s ok… you can let me get through the rest of this for you.” Fluttershy pleaded with a desperate expression. She didn’t want herself to get hurt, but she wasn’t about to let the earth pony get hurt any more if she had a chance to stop it. “N-no! I said I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you! It’s bad enough I let us get dragged into this mess… the least I can do is to keep you safe.” Neon Streak said in a sincere tone while frowning sadly at the yellow mare. Fluttershy felt herself tearing up from listening to the earth pony. “Neon…” The pegasus said before falling into a somber silence. Her lip was quivering, her eyes were watering, and there was a tingly feeling in the back of her throat as she held back a fit of sobs. “Well, I would hate to break up this touching exchange, but a deal is a deal. I have to keep playing with her until she gives up.” The human said while walking back over to Neon’s table and looking at her menacingly. The man wasted no time in bringing the scalpel up to the green mare’s ear and slicing across it, creating a large cut that made Neon cry out in pain. “AGHHHH!” The green mare screamed loudly. She kept screaming until her lungs were out of air, and then she screamed some more. All of the cuts before had been painful, but slicing her ear open was a whole new level of pain. Neon felt the entire side of her head exploding into painful waves of agony that made her rock her head back and forth just to cope until it stopped hurting. “Wow… that one really hurt then I take it?” The human asked with a slight smirk. “Don’t worry… that was seventy-eight. You should be done in no time.” He added with a sinister chuckle while bringing the scalpel back down and continuing his sadistic game. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie and Brimstoke were still searching the dark corridors of the basement for their friends. Not only did they have to find Tom and Princess Luna, but now they had to recover their missing companions as well. The thought of Fluttershy wandering the lonely hallways without her made Pinkie Pie worried for her. The timid pegasus must have been scared out of her mind. Pinkie wished that she could be there for her to help lift her spirits, but she couldn’t. The pink mare felt like she was letting her friend down. “Are you sure they’re going to be alright?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone while glancing to the white stallion uneasily. Brimstoke looked back to the mare following him and saw a troubled expression on her face. “Don’t worry. Neon knows how to handle herself. She’ll take good care of Fluttershy… I’m sure of it.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring manner. Pinkie smiled, returning her cheerful persona slightly. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the troubling thoughts she had from her head. “Are you really sure?” Pinkie asked in an uncertain tone. “Yes, I’m really sure.” Brimstoke replied with a confident nod. “Are you really, really sure?” Pinkie asked again with while staring at the stallion with a suspicious leer. “Yeah…” Brimstoke replied while raising an eyebrow at the pink mare. “Good, because if you’re really, really sure then I’m sure everything will be fine. It’s just that there are so many things that could happen to them!” Pinkie said while thinking about all of the frightening calamities that could befall her friends. “So many things?” The white stallion asked with a confused expression. The way she said that, he would have thought the pink mare expected the pair to be running a gauntlet of hazards. “Yeah! Like… what if they fall in a hole? Or get lost and starve… *Gasp* or what if they fall in a hole, THEN get lost and starve?!” Pinkie said in a shocked tone. “Somehow I doubt that will happen Pinkie…” Brimstoke sighed while shaking his head. While the pink pony muttered to herself while trying to figure out more hopelessly perilous and implausible situations that her friends could be in, a different sort of inner voice held the stallion’s attention. “Brimstoke, are you there?” The voice of Glitterball suddenly rang out in Brimstoke’s ears. The unicorn sounded anxious and urgent, so she immediately garnered his full attention. “Glitter…? I’m here, what’s wrong?” Brimstoke asked while pausing and putting his hoof up to his ear. Pinkie Pie saw the stallion communicating with his teammate and decided to stop rambling to herself to allow him some silence. This didn’t stop her from trying to lean closer to overhear the conversation however. “I don’t even know where to start…” Glitterball said in a troubled tone before pausing, as she was looking at something that silenced her. “Take a deep breath and start from the beginning… what happened?” Brimstoke said in a calm and clear manner. He could hear the unicorn breathing in and out a few times to center herself before speaking up again. “We were making our way back to the entrance like you said, when we decided to check up on Sunspot. She didn’t respond to us, and we quickly found out why when she crashed in through a window in front of us.” Glitterball explained uneasily. “What?! What happened to her?!” Brimstoke asked in a shocked tone. He had no idea what could have caused the pegasus to fly through a window at the side of the house, especially considering she was supposed to be at the front entrance. “We think she got attacked by another ghost… she had a large gash in her chest and a few broken bones, so we figured that someone threw her through the window. While we were trying to patch her up, we saw a human show up behind us… with an axe.” Glitterball explained with a slight shudder from thinking back to the harrowing experience. “You mean you actually saw one of them?” Brimstoke asked with a stunned tone. To think that someone actually saw one of the ghosts was a chilling turn of events. “Not only did we see it, but the guy almost took my head off with his axe. We barely managed to grab Sunspot and hightail it out of there in one piece.” Glitter stated in a troubled manner. “So you made it back to the foyer? Is everyone ok?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… we’re doing alright. Sunspot is in pretty bad shape though… Pepper looked her over, and she has some broken ribs, not to mention that wound she got from our axe wielding friend.” Glitter explained. “Did she tell you what happened?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “No, she hasn’t woken up since we’ve found her. Pepper is worried about her, and you know how that makes the rest of us feel.” Glitter said uneasily. “Yeah… I can imagine.” Brimstoke shrugged while sitting down and resting his head in his hoof. “Brimstoke… that isn’t all.” Glitterball spoke up in a noticeably sadder tone. “What’s wrong Glitter?” Brimstoke asked in a troubled tone. He had never heard the unicorn sounding so distraught. Whatever she had to tell him next was giving him an empty pit in his stomach. “We tried to go get Twilight and Rainbow Dash once we got back, but the door was locked and we couldn’t get it open.” Glitterball explained uneasily. “So… they’re missing now as well?” Brimstoke deduced in an anxious tone. “No… we found them outside of the foyer on the first floor. They must have found a way back to us by themselves. We heard Twilight calling for help, and when we got out there both of them were unconscious… and injured.” Glitter said in a somber tone. It almost sounded like she was crying. “Glitter… how bad is injured?” Brimstoke asked hesitantly. He looked at the pink mare beside him and frowned as he saw a concerned expression on her face. It didn’t take much deduction to realize he was talking about something bad happening to her friends. “Twilight wasn’t too bad… she must have had something impale itself through her leg, so she lost a lot of blood, but she managed to bandage it enough to slow the bleeding so she could make it to us.” Glitterball paused as she prepared to address the condition of the cyan mare. “What about Rainbow Dash?” Brimstoke asked while bracing himself for the worst. Not only did he have to deal with the news no matter how tragic it was, but he had to relay it to the pink mare afterwards. No matter how much training he had over the years, the stallion wasn’t sure if he could take breaking Pinkie’s heart like that. While the unicorn gathered herself, Brimstoke silently prayed that the pegasus was alright. “She… she’s in bad shape Brimstoke.” Glitterball said while sniffling slightly. “She has stab wounds all over her… it looks like she got attacked by the scissor ghost that killed Sargent Fireside and his team. Peppermint tried his best to patch her up, but he isn’t sure if she’s going to make it.” She said in a distraught tone. Brimstoke could hear the unicorn weeping quietly. “Glitter… I need you to stay strong for me. The others are probably feeling even worse than you right now, so you need to keep a brave face up for them.” Brimstoke explained in a sympathetic tone. “*Sniff*…*Hic*… ok. I think I can do that.” Glitterball said while composing herself enough to speak clearly. “Just sit tight… we’re going to find Neon and Fluttershy, and then we’re coming back.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring tone, hoping to instill some confidence in the upset mare. “Ok… and Brimstoke?” Glitter said before pausing briefly. “Yeah?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “Please find them in one piece… I don’t think I can handle any more bad news tonight.” Glitterball said in a concerned tone. “I’ll do my best.” Brimstoke said in a sincere manner. The stallion dropped his hoof to the floor and shrugged before turning to Pinkie Pie. “What happened? Are Twilight and Rainbow Dash ok?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone. From what little she overheard from the unicorn chatting in Brimstoke’s ear, and his reactions, she figured that something bad must have happened to her two friends. Brimstoke opened his mouth to reply before falling silent. He looked down and shrugged sadly as he tried to find the best way to tell the pink mare that one of her best friends might die. Meanwhile, the feeling of dread slowly building in Pinkie’s gut was getting worse with each passing second as the stallion quietly avoided eye contact with her. “Pinkie… Twilight and Rainbow Dash got hurt while trying to get back to the entrance.” Brimstoke explained hesitantly. The pink mare gasped and widened her eyes in shock as she thought of her friends being injured. “What?! Are they ok?!” Pinkie asked, nay, demanded in a concerned tone. “Twilight is fine… she lost some blood from a leg injury, but right now she is just unconscious. Rainbow Dash however…” Brimstoke paused hesitantly and shifted his eyes downward. He couldn’t take the sad and pleading eyes that the pink pony was staring at him with. Pinkie waited anxiously while the stallion composed himself. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as an uneasy feeling gripped her. “Pinkie… I’m not going to lie to you. She’s hurt bad. Glitter and the others think she was attacked by a ghost using a pair of scissors.” Brimstoke explained while putting a hoof on the mare’s shoulder and giving her a soft expression of sympathy. “But… she’s going to be ok, right? Peppermint can fix her up good as new… can’t he?” Pinkie asked while desperately holding on to the last shred of hope she had. She could understand the severity of the situation. She just didn’t want to accept it. Brimstoke could tell that the party pony was on the verge of tears. Her voice, which usually was filled with cheer and energy, was now a softer tone that conveyed sadness and fear. “Pepper is trying the best he can… but at this point, he isn’t sure if she is going to live.” Brimstoke explained sadly. “Wh…w-what?” Pinkie said in a stunned tone. Her lip started quivering and her eyes started watering. She sniffled a few times as she tried in vain to hold back her emotions. Suddenly, her normally puffy mane and tail drooped and straightened like a deflated balloon. The normally cheerful pink pony now looked gloomy and depressed. It was like someone flipped a switch and made her the opposite of what she normally was. “Pinkie, I…” Brimstoke tried to say something to console the distraught mare, until he was interrupted suddenly by Pinkie reaching forward and wrapping her arms around his body. The stallion allowed the pink mare to cry into his shoulder freely for a few moments. Pinkie’s body shook as she sobbed loudly. After a few moments of crying and squeezing Brimstoke tightly, Pinkie slowly released the stallion and walked back a few steps before falling to a seated position. She sniffled a few times and let out a couple of silent sobs as she wiped her eyes. “*Sniff*… *Hic*” Pinkie sniffled loudly as she tried to clear her nose. Brimstoke reached into his vest and pulled out a small tissue before handing it over to the pink mare. Pinkie smiled slightly before blowing her nose loudly and wiping her face with the clean side of the tissue. “T-thank you.” Pinkie said while discarding the tissue on the floor and wiping her eyes once more. “Anytime.” Brimstoke said with a small nod. Now that the pink mare was emotionally stable, at least for the moment, the stallion turned his attention to what they should do next. They were done searching for Tom and the princess, at least for the moment. Right now they had to find Neon Streak and Fluttershy, and they had to do it fast. Brimstoke looked down to his vest and quickly settled his eyes on the two locator vials he had. He hadn’t gotten any readings when he checked for heat signatures before, but perhaps they had gotten in range of the two mares by now. “Come on… let’s go find Fluttershy and Neon. We can head back to the others once we find them… I’m sure you and Fluttershy will want to see Rainbow Dash.” Brimstoke explained with a somber frown. “But, how are we going to find them?” Pinkie asked with an uncertain expression. The basement was so large that they were still discovering new paths. The two mares could literally be anywhere. “By using this…” Brimstoke explained while holding up one of two vials on a pull cord. He twisted the cap, causing the sand held within to glow red for a moment before a small section of it held a steady glow. “What’s that?” Pinkie asked curiously while examining the odd vial. It occurred to the stallion that the pink mare had never seen him or one of his teammates using the locator. “This is one of our locators. It can detect heat signatures through walls. Hopefully we can narrow our search and find them faster by using this.” Brimstoke said while pointing the vial around in a circle. The red glow moved around as more of the sand started lighting up. The red glow covered the tip of the vial as the stallion pointed it in two directions. One direction was most likely the two hooded ponies they captured earlier, while the other was more than likely the two missing mares. “Come on… I’m getting a reading in this direction.” Brimstoke said while walking through the nearest door on his right. Pinkie followed the stallion as he walked forward with the vial pointed ahead of him. She hoped that she would find her friends unharmed, and that they would get back in time to see Rainbow Dash before the worst happened. Fluttershy watched in quiet horror as the human continued cutting into Neon Streak with his scalpel. The man had slowed his pace drastically as time went on. Now, he hadn’t even cut the green mare in several minutes. Instead, he was off to the side examining his tools on a table. Despite the lack of attention she was getting from the specter, Neon looked like hell frozen over. Most of her older wounds had stopped bleeding over time, but a few of her cuts still dripped slowly onto the floor or onto herself. The green mare’s head drooped forward lazily as she remained relatively motionless save for her breathing. She had a dazed look on her face as she faded in and out of consciousness. Fluttershy wondered how she had lasted this long with so much blood loss, even with the help of the mystery liquid that the human injected her with. Fluttershy watched Neon Streak gazing at the floor in an exhausted stupor. Every so often, she would glance up and slowly look over to see what the ghostly human was doing. Once she saw that the coast was clear, the green mare tugged on her front left hoof and wriggled against the strap holding her in place. Ever since she started playing the human’s twisted game she had been working on freeing her left arm. While the strap was still holding fast, she was making a lot of progress on it. Perhaps if she had more time she could free herself completely. Fluttershy frowned sadly as she watched the exhausted pony fighting for her freedom. She looked like she could barely move her body, and what few movements she could make were shaky at best. The pegasus glanced over to the human nervously. She was afraid that if he caught the earth pony trying to escape that he would punish her, and that her already frail body would give out from the extra punishment. “What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly while looking over to the ghost. It was a valid question after all. The man had been muttering to himself while examining the tools on his table for a while now. The human paused and glanced over to the timid mare, eliciting a nervous gulp from her as he turned to face her while holding up a saw. He sat the scalpel he held in his other hand down on the table and walked over to the bound pegasus. “I was just contemplating what I’m going to do after I let you go.” The man said in an almost indifferent tone. Still, the sinister look in his eyes as he examined the saw in his hands was more than enough to unnerve the yellow pony. “And... w-what are you going to do?” Fluttershy asked nervously while avoiding eye contact with the spirit. Due to his body being transparent, the pegasus was able to look through him to check on her friend. She noticed Neon Streak struggling to get her hoof further and further out of the leather strap. From the look of her progress, and how hard she was struggling, she would probably be free in a few minutes. “I don’t really know actually… I promised my brother and my sister that I would stay down here to let them have their fun, and there aren’t that many of you ponies down in the basement. Perhaps I could go and catch your friends after I’m done with you.” The man said with an amused chuckle. Fluttershy shuddered at the thought of Pinkie Pie being exposed to such a horrid creature. She would probably have nightmares for the rest of her life from seeing the ghostly human herself. “But… then again, I have acquired a certain fondness for you two.” The man stated in an ominous tone while eyeing the timid mare with a devilish smirk. “You are the first of your kind that I have laid my hands on… and the first living creatures to grace my table in a long time.” He said while placing his hand on Fluttershy’s cheek and pushing on her slightly before dragging his hand away. The pegasus shuddered as she felt a chill going down her back from the sudden exposure to such a cold and unnatural touch. “That might be true… but you said you would let us go… you promised.” Fluttershy said with a trembling voice. She didn’t like the way that the human was looking at her. It reminded her of the way a predator would look at its trapped prey right before ripping it to pieces. As she glanced over to Neon Streak, Fluttershy noticed that she was working faster to get her arm free. The green mare had an uneasy expression on her face. Even with all of the blood loss she experienced, the earth pony still knew a bad situation when she saw one. “Did I now? Well… I suppose I did. Hmm... what am I to do? On the one hand, I have my reputation as a fine and upstanding gentleman to uphold… but on the other hand.” The man paused and looked down at the saw in his hand. He then looked back up at the nervous pegasus and smirked. Fluttershy widened her eyes fearfully and started hyperventilating as the man approached her again. She felt like she was going to faint as she looked into his haunting gaze bearing down on her. “B-but… what about your word? You said you would let us go!” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully as her voice gave out on her. She wriggled her body around to avoid the man as he tried touching her bare fur with his hand again. He seemed to have a bloodthirsty look in his eyes that told of just how much effort he had been putting into staving off his own desire to indulge in cutting the ponies to pieces for the sake of his word. Suddenly, Fluttershy caught a glimpse of Neon Streak through the man’s transparent body. She watched the green mare clenching her teeth as she pulled on her arm with all of her might. Finally, Neon managed to slip her hoof out of the strap holding her. She barely managed to keep herself from smacking into the table as she pulled down. After catching her breath for a short moment, she looked down and saw her vest on the table. The green mare reached down and picked up her strobe before carefully flipping it around in her hoof and pointing it forward. Meanwhile, Fluttershy saw the human shifting his eyes to the side suspiciously. He smirked for a moment before returning his gaze to the frightened pegasus in front of him. “Ah yes… I suppose I should finish our little game shouldn’t I? Now… what cut were we on?” The man asked while scratching his head in thought. Fluttershy glanced over to Neon Streak fearfully. He was doubtlessly going to turn around any second and see that she had freed herself. Despite her fears, the pegasus had a glint of hope return to her eyes as she saw the green mare pointing her strobe at the ghostly human with a proud smirk on her face. “Got you now you ectoplasmic son of a-“ *SWISH* Neon’s sentence was cut short as the sound of flesh being cut filled the air. Fluttershy gasped in shock and stared forward in silent horror as she watched the green mare dropping the vial from her hooves. The strobe fell to the ground and bounced along the floor with a tiny clatter, serving as a grim punctuation to the rest of the scene. Neon slowly trailed her eyes to the side and noticed a floating scalpel hovering in the air next to her. The blade of the scalpel had fresh blood on it which dripped to the floor. As a sharp burning sensation arose from her throat, she looked down just in time to see blood gushing in front of her from an open wound. “NEON!” Fluttershy screamed in terror as she tried in vain to reach out to the green mare. There was a bloody gash across the earth pony’s throat that was spurting out blood like a geyser. Neon Streak gurgled in pain while bringing her free hoof up to clutch her injury. “There we are… I believe that makes one-hundred.” The human said while stepping to the side and turning to face the green mare. The man’s words didn’t reach Fluttershy. The pegasus was lost by the sight in front of her. She stared ahead with her mouth agape in shock as she watched Neon writhing in pain. The earth pony was trying her best to stifle the blood flowing out of her slashed neck, but no matter how hard she tried, she only had one hoof to work with. Even if she had the use of both her arms, she still wouldn’t be able to undo the damage done to her. “Neon! Hang in there!” Fluttershy yelled fearfully. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say, but she couldn’t let go of the faint hope that her input mattered. Perhaps if she tried hard enough, she could somehow inspire the green mare to press hard enough to keep herself from bleeding out. Neon looked over to the yellow pegasus staring at her with watery eyes. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but the only thing that came out were gargles and incoherent sounds. She looked at the timid mare with a sorrowful expression. It was almost like she was trying to apologize through her eyes for letting something like this happen. Fluttershy watched as the green mare’s eyes lost focus. Neon Streak stared into the distance as her head drooped forward and her eyelids closed half way. The gurgles and assorted noises of pain that she was making faded until they fell silent. Slowly, the earth pony’s arm fell off of her neck and slid downwards until it was hanging at her side limply. Fluttershy felt her eyes flooding with tears as she looked into her companion’s eyes. The twinkle of light that gave her stare a sense of life faded until nothing was left but a cold and blank gaze. Fluttershy felt her whole world crumbling away as she stared at the mare’s limp body hanging from the remaining straps. Her arm swayed back and forth from momentum for a few moments before growing still like the rest of the shell formally known as Neon Streak. “N-Neon…?” Fluttershy spoke in a high pitched and broken tone. She felt her voice dying inside of her as the green mare yielded no response. Suddenly, the grim realization and finality of the situation before her crashed down on her like a tidal wave. The pegasus’s vision was clouded by tears as she felt a mournful sob building in her throat. Finally, the yellow pony let loose a loud wail of despair and sadness as she broke down into a fit of crying. She closed her eyes and lowered her head as she let the violent wave of emotion surge through her body. Her lungs were burning from how strained her muscles were from each involuntary sob and heave. She inhaled slowly as her whole body shook from crying so much, only to fall into another fit of sobs. “Stop crying…” The human said in an annoyed tone. Fluttershy barely heard him over the sound of her own wails and cries. “Stop, crying.” The man said in a louder and more demanding tone. Fluttershy looked up to him and tried to stop herself from crying as instructed, but she couldn’t silence her outburst as quickly as he may have wanted. Suddenly, the man raised his hand and held it open. The scalpel that was floating in the air by Neon Streak flew across the room and into the spirit’s hand. “I said stop crying!” The man yelled while bringing the scalpel up and pressing it roughly against Fluttershy’s neck. “Stop crying or I will split you open just like your friend over there!” He said in a threatening tone while pressing slightly harder. Fluttershy froze up as she desperately tried to keep herself from making a sound. Despite the urgency of the situation, her breathing was still shaky and noisy from crying so much. She closed her eyes and tensed up as she expected the man to slit her throat for making noise. “P-please don’t… *Hic* h-hurt me.” Fluttershy pleaded with more tears running down her cheeks. She was afraid that the movement of her neck from her shaky breathing was going to press against the scalpel enough to cut her. The human watched as the pegasus silently wept and prayed for her life. He sighed in a disappointed tone before lowering the scalpel to his side. Fluttershy peeked her eyes open slowly and saw the man turning around and taking a step away from her. “Is this really the race of beings that evolved after humans died out? So much research… so much stock put into survival of the fittest and natural selection… and this is what it all amounts to.” The human said while shaking his head slowly. He sighed again before turning around and walking back up to the frightened mare. “You know what? I think I will let you go…” The man said with a sincere tone of voice, catching the pegasus off guard. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked in a tone of disbelief. The uneasy feeling in her gut worsened as she saw the man smirk sinisterly. “Yeah… I’ll let you go. I’ll let you go join your friend in the afterlife.” The human said in a cold tone while raising the blade back up to her throat. Fluttershy’s eyes widened fearfully as her heart skipped a beat from what she just heard. “W-what?” Fluttershy asked in a shocked tone. “You ponies are weak… you don’t deserve to live. Once I’m done with you… I’m going to hunt down each of your little friends and I’m going to cut them into teeny tiny pieces. After that, my siblings and I are going to free ourselves from this prison and purge the earth of every single one of you. If Mother Nature wants the earth to be inherited by an abomination like you, then perhaps it would be better if the earth were scorched and left to turn to ashes in the stream of time.” The human explained in a cold tone while tightening his grip on the scalpel. A frightened squeak died in Fluttershy’s throat as she felt the blade putting pressure on her neck. Suddenly, a magical zap followed by a flash of light filled the room. The human and the pegasus looked over just in time to watch a small ball of energy sail through the air and collide with the ghostly man. “AGH!” The spirit yelled in pain while dropping the scalpel. His form flickered and smoked for a moment before vanishing from sight. Fluttershy was left speechless as she stared at the now empty space in front of her. Her shocked expression quickly turned to joy as she looked to the side and saw a familiar pair of ponies trotting into the room. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie cried out joyfully while rushing over to the yellow mare. Fluttershy felt a cheerful smile building on her face as the pink blur jumped up and wrapped her arms around her head. “Pinkie!” Fluttershy exclaimed happily. She looked over and saw Brimstoke aiming his strobe forward. The small vial still had a small waft of smoke coming off of it from its use in dispatching the spirit. As the stallion and the pink mare simultaneously looked over to the earth pony tied to the opposite table, all joy and cheerfulness was immediately destroyed. Brimstoke walked over to the green mare with his mouth open in shock. He paused in front of her for a moment while staring at the bloody gash across her neck with a mortified expression. “N-Neon?” Brimstoke stammered in a distraught tone while reaching up and taking her pulse. As he confirmed what he expected from appearances, the stallion recoiled in shock and fell to a seated position. Pinkie Pie stared at the green mare with a horrified expression. She covered her mouth to catch a gasp as she looked at the lifeless pony in shock. “I’m so sorry Brimstoke… I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy said while looking down and letting fresh tears fall down her face. Brimstoke turned to see the pegasus weeping while Pinkie Pie offered her a shoulder to cry on. He frowned sympathetically as he realized what she must have gone through. “It wasn’t your fault Fluttershy.” Brimstoke said in as best of a reassuring tone as he could manage. Due to the grief he was experiencing himself, his voice sounded hollow and empty. Fluttershy looked up and sniffled again to end her bout of crying to watch the stallion walking up to her slowly. Brimstoke reached onto his vest and grabbed another vial before unclipping it from the vest and holding it up to the leather strap on the yellow mare’s leg. Fluttershy watched as the vial emitted a burning sound and a bit of smoke and light came from the tip while Brimstoke ran it across the strap on her leg. Suddenly, the pegasus felt the strap opening and her leg being freed. Pinkie Pie held her friend steady while the stallion cut the rest of her bonds. Once the yellow mare was free, the pink pony helped her off of the table and onto the floor until she was standing on her own four legs. “Thank you so much for saving me. If you didn’t show up when you did… then he would have…” Fluttershy paused mid-sentence as she looked ahead to Neon Streak still hanging lifelessly from the leather straps on her table. The yellow mare glanced down to the bloody scalpel on the floor and shuddered in a mixture of fear and sadness. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy watched sadly as Brimstoke walked over to his fallen teammate. The stallion somberly and silently used his cutter to slice the straps holding the green mare in place one by one. As the final strap was cut, Neon’s body slid to the floor until it was caught by the white stallion. Brimstoke gently laid the green mare on her back and cradled her head in his lap. Neon’s lifeless eyes stared up at the three ponies as they looked over her with sad expressions and tears welling up in their eyes. “He… he said he would let us go… He said if she could outlast him that he would let us go… why did he do this?” Fluttershy felt tears falling from her eyes and onto the floor as she looked at the many wounds covering Neon’s body. She had watched the human mercilessly inflict each and every one on the green mare as she cried out in pain. Despite the horrible torture she went through, she still tried to keep her promise to the very end. Fluttershy had barely paid any attention to her words before, but now the earth pony’s claim of not letting anything bad happen to her was the only thing she could think of. Fluttershy looked up as she felt Pinkie placing her arm around her. She saw the pink mare offering her a sympathetic expression while fighting back tears of her own. Pinkie hugged the pegasus close as she buried her head into her shoulder and started weeping again. Brimstoke looked at the two grieving mares sadly. He looked back down to Neon Streak and smiled with a bittersweet expression. In the end, the green mare was one of the best ponies he could have asked to serve under his command. She fought to the bitter end to make sure no harm came to an innocent pony, and that was one of the noblest ways to die he could think of. “Rest easy Neon… we’re going to make sure you didn’t die in vain.” The stallion said while reaching forward and closing the earth pony’s eyes the rest of the way. He gently sat her down on the floor and got up. He turned to the two mares watching him and adopted a more confident expression. “Let’s go girls… we should get out of this place. We can give her a proper burial after we find a way out of this mansion.” Brimstoke said in a somber tone. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie nodded slowly while getting up. The three walked to the edge of the room slowly. They hung their heads low as they dealt with their emotions in their own way. Fluttershy paused and turned around to look at the green mare lying on the ground. Neon had an almost peaceful expression on her face. Without the bloody cuts all over her body, she almost looked like she was just sleeping. “I’m sorry Neon… you tried so hard to protect me. If only I had tried to protect you…” The pegasus whispered to herself while closing her eyes and looking down somberly. She gave the departed earth pony a moment of silence before turning and joining her friends down the hallway. Chapter 87: Descent into HellThe hallway was eerily silent as the group marched forward in a line. The only sound filling the air was the constant clamor of hooves hitting the wooden floors. The red carpet under their feet was so worn and faded that it barely offered any padding. It really felt like they were walking on hardwood floors, and each creak from a loose floorboard reminded them of this fact. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine walked in front of the group. Glimmer had his flashlight on to illuminate the way forward, while Glitter had her horn lit up to provide more light for those behind her. Sunspot was right behind her two teammates, with Peppermint helping her to walk. Although the pegasus was in better shape than before, her ribs were so sore that she could barely move without sending crippling waves of pain throughout her body. Still, she seemed to be toughing through the pain better than everyone had expected. Twilight and her three friends followed close behind the team of monster hunters. Twilight had her horn lit up as well to provide light for herself and for those behind her. The four mares looked around nervously as they passed by each door and intersection. Although they were confident that the others had searched the area beforehand, the ponies were still fearful of what might be watching them from the shadows. Behind the four mares, the two guards were walking in tandem to carry the unconscious human. Twilight glanced behind her to look at the slayer occasionally and frowned sadly. If the foes they now faced could overpower the human and Princess Luna, then what hope did she and her friends have of matching them? Still, the purple unicorn clutched the fire place poker in her magical grip tightly. She only hoped that if the time came for her to use it, the iron pole would be enough to fend off the murderous spirits. “Are you sure the basement is this way?” Glitterball asked nervously while darting her eyes around the dimly lit corridor. There were candles placed on tables at the sides of the hall, but these seemed to have been blown out some time ago, bathing the entire area in an eerie veil of shadows. “Brimstoke said that the stairs were at the end of the hallway. It shouldn’t be much farther.” Glimmer Shine replied in a reassuring tone. “I hope so… this place is starting to get on my nerves.” Glitterball replied with a nervous chuckle while trying to ease her own fears. Meanwhile, while everyone else was worrying about their immediate surroundings, Rainbow Dash had something else to worry about. As she walked along silently, she kept thinking about Fluttershy and how she was missing somewhere down in the basement with only Neon Streak to keep her company. The cyan mare was the one that convinced her to go. Not only that, but she also convinced her to help out with the investigation rather than staying in the foyer where it was safe. “I hope Fluttershy is ok down there… she must be scared out of her mind.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while frowning sadly. If anything happened to the yellow pegasus, she would never forgive herself. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity looked over to their friend sympathetically. She was so worried about Fluttershy that she was beating herself up over it. The three mares were worried about the timid pegasus as well, but they knew that there was no sense in blaming anyone for what happened. “Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash. I’m sure that Fluttershy is just fine.” Twilight said in a comforting tone while huddling closer to the cyan mare and putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight is right sugar cube. She’s with Neon Streak right now, and if anyone can keep her safe, Neon can.” Applejack said in a confident tone. She had no doubt in her mind that the brave earth pony could take care of Fluttershy with no problems. “I hope you’re right… I just can’t stand not knowing where she is or what’s happened to her.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. Despite her best efforts at agreeing with her friends, she couldn’t shake the dreadful feeling building in her gut. “We’re all worried about her, Rainbow. We just have to get down there and trust that she will be safe until we reach her.” Rarity said while sharing a sympathetic frown with the pegasus. Before long, the group suddenly came to a halt as they reached the end of the hallway. Glimmer Shine and Glitterball paused in front of a door on the right side of the hall and stood in front of it anxiously. Everyone gathered around and waited with apprehensive expressions as the pair prepared to open the door and step inside. With a loud creek that pierced the air like a knife, the door slid open, revealing an aged set of stairs leading down into a pitch black void. A cold and stale breeze hit the group as the air from the basement drifted upwards. Somehow, the darkness waiting for the ponies ahead of them looked much more intimidating than the darkness in the hallway they were in. “So… how many creepy basements have we been through lately?” Rainbow Dash asked with a nervous chuckle. “That depends… are you counting the one at the school? Because you weren’t there with us for that one.” Twilight asked with as much wit as she could muster while staring fearfully at the gaping void at the bottom of the rickety looking steps. “Well, looks like you’re going to have to add one more to the list. Let’s get moving… the faster we find the others and overload those seals, the faster we get out of this place.” Glimmer Shine stated while stepping forward and hesitantly taking the lead down the stairs. The ancient wood creaked under the stallion’s weight as he slowly descended into the darkness. Once he was at the bottom step, he turned around to wait for his friends to join him. Glitterball briefly glanced to Twilight and the others before descending the stairs after the stallion. Peppermint and Sunspot carefully walked down after the unicorn as Glimmer Shine walked into the basement itself. Twilight looked to her three friends, who were offering nervous glances back to her. She sighed anxiously before slowly walking down the steps. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash followed the purple mare as she hesitantly continued downwards towards the cold and musty basement. Once everyone reached the bottom of the stairs, they looked around to see where they were. To their rear was a wall that had several small cracks in it. To their right was a doorway that led into pitch blackness. And to their front was one of the darkest and eeriest looking corridors they had ever seen. “Why can’t there ever be a creepy hallway that has lights?” Glimmer Shine shrugged uncomfortably while staring ahead into the pitch black void. His flashlight did little more than reveal a few more doorways down the hall before it ended in darkness a little further away. “Because it wouldn’t be creepy then would it?” Glitterball asked with a nervous tone while trying to muster the energy to chuckle slightly. “Let’s duck into this room here and set up base. I want to have somewhere safe I can run to if something decides to chase me.” Glimmer Shine stated while walking through the doorway on the right. Everyone hesitantly followed the yellow stallion as he walked into the middle of the room and looked around. The room was surprisingly empty considering the cluttered mess of boxes and shelves out in the hallway. Other than a few pipes and a stray shelf on the right wall, the room was barren of anything other than dust on its cold stone floor. There was another doorway across the room that surprisingly actually had a door. Very few of the rooms they saw down the hallway had doors, so it was nice to see something solid blocking the way into the unknown for once. After walking across the room and hesitantly opening the door, Glimmer Shine was relieved to see that it was just a small and empty pantry. He turned to the group as they settled into the room and turned his attention to the two guards carrying Tom. “Set him down and get settled in. We’re making this our temporary safe haven.” Glimmer Shine explained to the pair of stallions, who nodded before gently setting the human down on the ground. Glitterball reached into the bag of blessed candles that the group brought with them. She tossed two of them over to Glimmer Shine before walking over to the doorway. As the two ponies placed and lit the candles, Twilight and the others couldn’t help but to worry about how safe they would actually be. “Are you sure it’s going to be safe here?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “It’s going to be as safe as we can possibly make it… take that for what you will.” Glitterball stated uneasily. Her answer didn’t exactly comfort the others, but there wasn’t anything else she could say about their situation. Glimmer Shine shrugged as he looked around at the group. Twilight and her three friends were equal parts anxious and nervous, and with good reason. Sunspot was injured to the point of being unable to move very fast on her own due to the pain she was feeling. Tom, arguably the most seasoned member of the team, was lying unconscious on the floor. The two guards that came with the group looked like they were way in over their heads. And Glitterball and Peppermint were just as nervous as everyone else. Even the yellow stallion was uneasy about what was going to happen next. “Glitter, I need you to come with me so we can look for the others. Everyone else stay here.” Glimmer Shine instructed while walking over to the door. “You can’t seriously be thinking about going out there by yourselves can you?” Rainbow Dash asked in a tone of disbelief. “You heard Tom up in the foyer. Not even Princess Luna could fight those ghosts.” Twilight stated in a concerned tone. “Girls… I would love to take an army with me, but we don’t have many options here. We need to find the others and regroup before we go after those symbols.” Glimmer Shine said in an attempt at sympathizing with the nervous mares. “I’m with them on this one Glimmer… I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to be splitting up down here.” Peppermint suggested uneasily. The yellow stallion could see the concern in his brother’s face clear as day. Taking a look over to Glitterball, Glimmer Shine noticed that she was uncertain about what to do herself. “Well if anyone else has any ideas, I’m all e-” Glimmer Shine started to speak up, until the floorboards creaked just outside of the room. The yellow stallion immediately spun around while drawing his strobe. Glitterball, Peppermint, and even Sunspot readied their weapons and faced the doorway to battle whatever threat was present. As the light from the ponies’ flashlights fell on the doorway, the group saw a familiar trio of ponies that made them gasp in shock. Brimstoke, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were standing outside of the door with equally shocked expressions on their faces. “Guys!” Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully while rushing forward into the room. Fluttershy followed the pink mare as she ran towards their friends. Twilight and the others gladly accepted a warm hug from the pink pony as she pulled all of them in. “Oh my gosh, Rainbow Dash! We thought you were going to die!” Pinkie stated with tears of joy streaming down her face while directing her attention to the apparently healthy cyan mare. “We all thought I was going to die. Thankfully Tom showed up just in time and healed me.” Rainbow Dash said in a happy tone. “You don’t know how happy I am to see you Brimstoke. Where have you been?” Glimmer Shine asked as he watched the white stallion entering the room with a relieved expression. “We’ve been trying to get back to you guys for a while now. What are you doing down here?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “Twilight found a way to get rid of the ghosts and get us out of here.” Glimmer Shine said with a hopeful tone. “You said Tom was here. Couldn’t he take care of them?” Brimstoke asked while looking around for the human. He was shocked to see the boy unconscious on the floor near Peppermint. “Oh my gosh… what happened to him?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “He tried healing Rainbow Dash, Sunspot, and me with no breaks. I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen.” Twilight explained with a saddened shrug. “I’m glad he healed you… I just wish it didn’t make him sick like that.” Fluttershy added in a sad tone. “Hey, where’s Neon Streak? We were getting worried about you two once we heard you got separated.” Sunspot asked curiously while wondering about the absence of the green mare. Upon mention of the earth pony, Brimstoke, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie fell silent. The three ponies had forlorn and downcast expressions as they looked to the floor sadly. “Neon is dead.” Brimstoke spoke in a hollow tone. His words barely reached the group due to how quiet he was, but everyone was stunned into silence as they heard the stallion’s statement. “W-what?” Sunspot stammered in utter disbelief. The grim realization still hadn’t sunk in for the majority of the group. They thought that maybe they misheard the stallion, or perhaps he was playing some kind of morbid joke. However, the longer Brimstoke and the two distraught mares remained silent, the more the group had to consider the unthinkable possibility that what they were saying was true. “But… but… how? Ah…” Applejack grasped for words as tears began welling up in her eyes. Everyone else began tearing up as well as they realized fully what was happening. “One of the ghosts tortured and killed her. We got to her too late to do anything. I’m sorry…” Brimstoke said while silently directing his gaze at Fluttershy. He wasn’t sure how he could even begin to explain the horrifying ordeal she went through. Still, even without mentioning the rest of the details, the timid pegasus began weeping loudly along with many other members of the group. Sunspot remained speechless and motionless as tears rolled down her face. She seemed to be mentally rejecting the fact that one of her best friends was dead. Finally, she sobbed once before lowering her head and quietly crying into her arms. Glitterball wept openly while nuzzling her face into Glimmer Shine’s shoulder. The yellow stallion was also crying, but he remained composed and silent while the distraught unicorn cried into his shoulder. Peppermint looked unsure of what he should be feeling. His lips quivered as he looked down and tried to process the wave of sadness and despair washing over him. A few outbursts of sobs and shaky breaths escaped the red haired pony as he stared at the floor. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others were each sobbing and bawling their eyes out while using each other as a meager form of comfort. They had finally lost a comrade in the battle against the hooded ponies. All of the guards and innocent lives lost in the past week had pushed and motivated them to give their all in the efforts to put a stop to Raven Feather’s group, but now they had lost one of their own. The group had made friends with the green mare and her team through their short time together. They were all striving to protect Equestria, and that fact made them relate to the vested ponies even more after they welcomed them into their homes. Applejack thought back to the events of last night as she wept while Pinkie Pie held onto her and sobbed uncontrollably. If it wasn’t for Neon Streak being with Applebloom when the terrifying monster flew in through the window, then her little sister, and possibly even her and her brother, would have been dead. She felt like she had just lost an estranged member of her family. After several minutes of openly crying and letting their emotions out, the group finally fell into a gloomy and uncomfortable silence as everyone ceased their outbursts. Only the occasional sniffle and shaky breath interrupted the otherwise calm atmosphere in the room. “W-what do we do now?” Glitterball asked while wiping her eyes with her arm. Despite having apparently calmed down, the unicorn was still breathing rapidly as she processed the loss of her teammate and close friend. “We do the only thing we can do… we get out of here and make those responsible for this pay dearly.” Brimstoke stated in a somber tone, causing everyone to look up. The stallion glanced over to Glimmer Shine with a more serious expression on his face. “Glimmer… you said that you guys found a way to stop these things, right?” Brimstoke asked in a hopeful tone. Glimmer Shine glanced over to Twilight suggestively to get her to further elaborate on her plan. “I found some texts in the library that talk about the ghosts. Apparently the hooded ponies had a backup plan in place in case of an emergency. A unicorn can use their magic on the protective seals used to suppress the ghosts to overload them and permanently disrupt the ghosts.” Twilight explained while glancing between the two stallions. “I’m guessing that you’re talking about that symbol we saw Shadow Mist tampering with?” Brimstoke asked curiously. He sighed sadly as he remembered the other person that was with him when he found the red pony messing with the symbol. “Yes, I’m fairly certain. Counting the one upstairs in the library, there are three seals in total. I already took care of the one in the library, and the other two are supposed to be down here in the basement.” Twilight said in a confident tone. “Well… I still remember where the symbol we found is, so that just leaves one that we don’t know the location of.” Brimstoke shrugged uneasily. “Did the notes tell you where these seals were exactly?” He asked with careful optimism in his voice. “Sorry, but they only vaguely described the location. All I know is that they are in the basement somewhere.” Twilight explained sadly. “*Sigh*… I guess that’s enough for us to work with. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, come with me. We’re going to go take care of the symbol Shadow Mist was working on. We can look for the other one later.” Brimstoke instructed to the two while walking over to the door. “Wait a minute! You can’t just go out there by yourselves! We don’t even know if the strobes work on those guys. Every time I tried shooting the guy that was chasing me, he just dodged the blasts like they were nothing.” Sunspot said while trying to get up. The pegasus groaned in pain while doing her best to ignore her aching ribs so she could walk. “Relax Sunspot. We found out the strobes do work on the ghosts. If you can manage to hit them, one blast is enough to make them vanish for at least a few minutes.” Brimstoke explained while eyeing the injured pegasus with a concerned expression. “Maybe you should take this with you. Apparently iron works like a ghost repellent… it burns them to the touch.” Twilight suggested while levitating the fire place poker over to the trio. Brimstoke gently pushed the iron rod away. “You guys hold on to that just in case. We’ll be fine with our three strobes.” Brimstoke explained in a confident tone while glancing to his two teammates. Glimmer Shine and Glitterball were slightly anxious to be going out into the basement, but they were glad that they had their leader back to direct them. “I’m coming with you… *Wince*… you need all the help you can get.” Sunspot held her ribs for a moment before walking forward to join the group. “You aren’t going anywhere in your condition Sunspot. Maybe you should stay back with Pepper to watch the others?” Glitterball suggested while glancing to Brimstoke for his opinion. The white stallion eyed the pegasus as she tried to appear healthy despite the pain she was going through. “Glitter is right… I want you and Pepper to stay behind to keep everyone in check. We shouldn’t take too long to find those symbols.” Brimstoke stated in a confident tone. “We should also keep an eye out for Princess Luna… apparently she got separated from Tom when they fought one of the ghosts. She should be down here somewhere.” Glimmer Shine explained while looking to Brimstoke. “Right… Ok everyone, we’re heading out now. Stay here, and stay safe until we get back.” Brimstoke stated to the group before walking out of the protective barrier at the door. Glitterball lit up her horn before following the stallion, and Glimmer Shine followed behind the unicorn. Twilight and the others watched the blue force field ripple before vanishing from sight as the trio exited the room. Once Glitterball’s light moved out of range, the doorway was pitch black once again, leaving the group with the hollow and uncertain fear of what could be lurking in the darkness. The only thing preventing some evil spirit from just waltzing in and murdering everyone in sight was a force field they couldn’t even see made from two candles the size of a small apple. Meanwhile, Brimstoke and his small troop were walking through the seemingly endless corridors of the basement. The three ponies remained silent as they reflected on their own somber thoughts while the white stallion did his best to follow the route he had followed earlier to reach the first symbol. Despite the eerie atmosphere prevalent throughout the area, the ponies were barely focusing on their fears. They couldn’t stop thinking about their fallen friend, no matter how hard they tried. Just a few hours ago they had been talking with the green mare as if nothing was wrong, but now they would never have that opportunity again. “How did it happen?” Glitterball asked in a somber tone. Everyone immediately knew what she was talking about. Brimstoke looked down for a moment and silently thought about the matter. He had a lump in his throat that wouldn’t go away. His entire body was refusing his actions to the point of feeling ill. Still, his team deserved answers. Neon was their friend as well after all. “Apparently Fluttershy and Neon got abducted by a different ghost than the ones you guys have been dealing with. He carried them into a room and strapped them to tables so he could... torture them.” Brimstoke explained sadly. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine listened in a shocked state of silence as the white stallion continued. “Fluttershy didn’t tell us much after that… I don’t blame her considering what happened. Apparently the ghost tried to hurt her, and Neon wouldn’t let him, so he decided to torture her in place of Fluttershy. He said that if she could take it that he would let them go, but… I guess he changed his mind.” Brimstoke said in a somber tone. Glitterball gasped quietly as she stared at the stallion with a shocked expression. “So Fluttershy had to watch all of that?” Glimmer Shine asked in an appalled tone. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be forced to watch a friend die in their place, let alone someone as fragile and kind as Fluttershy. “I think she blames herself for it. Pinkie and I tried to comfort her, but she just shut down and started crying whenever we tried talking to her about it.” Brimstoke said with a sad tone. It pained him to see a gentle mare in so much distress. “Poor thing… I can’t imagine what that must have done to her.” Glitterball said in a disquieted tone. She contemplated going back to offer her support to the yellow mare, but she quickly discarded this thought as she directed her attention forward down the hallway. Somewhere in the basement hallways, there were two very important objects that held the key to freedom for the trapped ponies. If there was anything she could do to help her friends escape alive, Glitterball would do it. Thankfully she wouldn’t have to do it alone. “Are we almost there?” Glitterball asked in a determined tone. It was easy to tell that the unicorn was ready to be done with this nightmare. “Yeah… we found it right through here if memory serves.” Brimstoke announced while looking ahead at the doorway coming up on the left. The endless hallways and rooms of the basement looked so similar that navigating was almost impossible, but the stallion was fairly confident that the room up ahead contained one of the symbols they were seeking. As they reached the doorway and stepped into the room, everyone looked around feverishly in the hopes that they would find the symbol somewhere in the room. Much to the trio’s relief, the red glyph was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room right where Brimstoke remembered it to be. “This looks like it…” Brimstoke stated while walking forward and glancing between the symbol on the floor and the open doorway on the other side of the room. His royal guard training made him antsy around open areas, and that was without the looming threat of a psychotic ghost around every corner. “So… how do we do this?” Glimmer Shine asked while glancing between his two teammates curiously. “Uh… give me a second.” Glitterball said while intertwining her magical influence with the symbol on the floor. “Twilight said that it shouldn’t be too hard to overload these things.” She said in a semi hopeful tone while examining the symbol closely Brimstoke and Glimmer Shine stood watch as the unicorn worked her proverbial magic. After a few moments of concentration, Glitter closed her eyes and put more energy into the symbol. A soft buzz filled the air as the symbol glowed red. Before long, the buzz grew louder and louder, to the point of making the three ponies concerned that something bad was happening. Before anyone could speak up, a loud whoosh sounded out as a blast of air shot outwards through the room from the center of the symbol. The three were nearly blown back a step as they were caught off guard by the sudden outburst. When they looked back down at the symbol, the red glow was gone and the room was silent. “Did it work?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “I think… I don’t remember Twilight describing the reaction as being this violent though.” Glitterball explained in a confused tone while patting her hair to get it back into its normal place. “Maybe it’s different because this is the second one?” Glimmer Shine suggested in an attempt at explaining the odd occurrence. “Well if that’s what the second one did, I would hate to see what the third one does… although, I guess we kind of have to.” Glitterball stated with an uneasy chuckle. As the group drew their attention ahead at the open doorway across the room, they quickly realized a very significant obstacle was in their way. They were now faced with the task of finding a rather small symbol in an entire basement full of similar looking rooms and corridors. The brief boost in spirit that came from overloading the second symbol vanished almost instantaneously as the ponies stared out into the pitch black hallway. “Where do we go now?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking to Brimstoke with a hopeful expression. The white stallion wasn’t sure how to reply to his teammate’s question. He had been down in the basement for at least an hour and a half and he hadn’t found any sign of the other symbol. “I think I can take us through an area where we haven’t been… we just have to hope that we can find the symbol eventually.” Brimstoke said with an uneasy shrug. “I just hope we find it soon. I want out of this place before anything else bad happens.” Glitterball said with a saddened tone while lowering her head slightly. The somber thought of everyone they had lost so far made the group fall into an uncomfortable silence that lasted a few moments. “Let’s get going… we should cover as much ground as we can as soon as possible.” Glimmer Shine suggested while walking forward to get the group moving. The yellow pony paused in front of the dark doorway at the far end of the room and waited for his two companions to join him. Brimstoke and Glitterball shared a gloomy sigh before walking over to join their friend. Back in the makeshift safe haven, Twilight and the others were sitting around in silence while reflecting on their thoughts. Most of the group was still occupied with grieving over the loss of Neon Streak, although they were doing it in different ways. Pinkie Pie was sitting near Fluttershy. While the yellow mare hung her head low to the floor and sniffled quietly, Pinkie was offering her what little comfort she could. Although they expected the timid pegasus to be more greatly affected by Neon’s death due to her sensitivity, Twilight and the others were concerned about her. She seemed to be taking the tragic news with a lot more despair and sorrow than everyone expected. It was almost like she was more involved than everyone else first thought. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was pacing with a frustrated expression over by Twilight. Even though the purple unicorn was more silent about her troubles, she was pondering over the same issue as her pegasus friend. Both ponies were upset that they were just standing around idly while their friends could be in danger. “Ugh… I can’t believe we’re just sitting here doing nothing!” Rainbow Dash groaned in an irritated fashion while glancing towards the doorway with the false hope that Brimstoke and the others would return with the news that they were now free to escape the mansion. The silent darkness outside only further cemented her frustrations. “I know how you feel darling, but we need to listen to Brimstoke’s orders and stay here… it will keep us safe.” Rarity said in an attempt at leveling with her cyan friend. Rainbow Dash seemed to be unwilling to look at things in a different light. “Hay with being safe! We’re only safe for as long as those candles hold out… until we find those symbols and defeat those ghosts, nobody is really safe in this place.” Rainbow stated with an annoyed shrug. “Well we can’t just go wandering around out there. Who knows what might happen?” Applejack said in a concerned tone. As much as she was against the idea of sitting around and doing nothing while others could be in harm’s way, she didn’t really know what else to do. “I know what might happen. One of those ghosts almost killed me and Twilight. For Celestia’s sake… Neon is dead. I don’t want that happening to anyone else!” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. The mere mention of everything that had happened recently made everyone look down sadly. Suddenly, Fluttershy started crying uncontrollably. She tried to keep herself as quiet as possible, but she couldn’t prevent herself from falling into a loud fit of sobbing. Everyone but Pinkie was confused about why the yellow mare was reacting so emotionally at the mention of Neon’s name alone. Granted they felt sad about it themselves, but they had gotten over their initial sobs and cries. “Fluttershy… what’s wrong?” Twilight asked in a soft tone while getting up and walking over to the yellow pegasus with a concerned expression. Fluttershy was too absorbed in her own sadness to even lift her head up to look at her friends as they gathered around her. Pinkie Pie gently placed a hoof on the crying mare’s shoulder for reassurance. She looked over to the others and swallowed uneasily as she realized that she would have to explain why the pegasus was so distraught. “She was with Neon when she died… we found them both tied to tables when we fended off the ghost. Neon was covered in blood… the ghost was about to hurt Fluttershy when we stopped him.” Pinkie explained in a somber tone. Everyone gasped in shock as they glanced down at the crying mare. They suddenly understood what she was going through, and why she was so emotional at the moment. “Good heavens.” Rarity muttered quietly while bringing her hoof up to her mouth. “Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry Fluttershy. I had no idea…” Rainbow Dash walked up to the crying pegasus and knelt down to her level while putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy barely even reacted to the cyan mare’s touch. Instead, she continued crying and sobbing uncontrollably while staring at the floor. “How could something like that happen? I know these ghosts are powerful, but one of them shouldn’t have been able to tie down two ponies against their will.” Twilight said in a troubled tone of confusion while looking to Pinkie in the hopes that she could shed more light onto the pegasus’s situation. She certainly didn’t want to ask Fluttershy to remember any more of her horrific experience. “I don’t know… she hasn’t told us much about what happened. She barely even talked to us at all after we found her.” Pinkie Pie said while looking back at the yellow mare with a concerned frown. Seeing her friend in so much pain and suffering made the pink pony feel horrible. “She… s-she didn’t want me to get hurt.” Fluttershy spoke up in a quiet tone in between sniffles. Everyone looked over as the pegasus wiped her eyes and looked up for the first time since her fit of sobbing began. “Neon wouldn’t let him touch me… she made him cut her instead of me. He said he would let us go after he was done… but then he… he…” Fluttershy began tearing up again as she tried to finish her sentence. Pinkie Pie gently held her as she began sobbing again. Twilight and the others were speechless as they looked at the distraught mare with sympathetic expressions. Twilight glanced away for a moment while deep in thought. She couldn’t believe that something so horrifying could happen to Fluttershy. The yellow mare had been so traumatized by the events at the school that she was stricken by terrible nightmares. The unicorn shuddered to think of how watching Neon getting tortured and killed in her place would affect the timid pony. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. Everything is going to be ok…” Twilight said in a confident tone while walking over to the other side of the room. She faced the doorway and stared out into the blackness with a sense of determination building up inside of her. She was done sitting by and doing nothing while others tried to solve a problem that affected her and her friends as well. “What are you doing Twilight?” Rarity asked with a slight twinge of unease in her voice. She had seen that look in the purple mare’s eyes before, and it usually didn’t mean she was about to make the safest of decisions for herself. “I can’t stand here anymore and wait for the others to find those symbols. The longer we are in here, the more danger we will be in… and it will take a lot less time if we have more ponies searching for the symbols.” Twilight explained while turning to her friends with a renewed sense of vigor. “You can’t seriously be thinking about going out there by yourself can you?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “She won’t have to…” Rainbow Dash said while stepping forward confidently to join the purple mare. “I’m coming with you Twilight. Somepony needs to watch your back for you.” She said with a wry smirk. “And somepony needs to watch your back too.” Applejack said while stepping forward to volunteer. Twilight and Rainbow Dash smiled warmly as the orange mare joined them eagerly. “Hold on just a minute! Nobody is going anywhere until Brimstoke and the others get back!” Sunspot protested from her position on the floor over by Peppermint. “Sunspot, the princess told me to-” Twilight started to speak up before she was interrupted by the injured pegasus speaking again. “I don’t care what the princess told you. The princess told me to keep you guys safe, and I can’t do that if you go wandering off in a dark and scary basement with ponycidal ghosts everywhere!” Sunspot stated in an adamant tone. “Sunspot, I don’t think you’re in a position to argue with us.” Twilight said while turning to her friends confidently. “Yeah… no offense, but what are you going to do? Limp after us?” Rainbow Dash asked while pointing out the orange pegasus’s condition. “I might.” Sunspot glared at the cyan mare and her two companions while trying to get up. Despite her best efforts to keep a serious face, she couldn’t help but to cringe in pain as she lifted herself off the floor. “Oh for pony’s sake… back me up Pepper! You have un-shattered ribs!” Sunspot said while nudging the red haired stallion towards the three mares. “Umm… I have to agree with Sunspot here girls. I really don’t think that going out there is a good idea without protection.” Peppermint said while timidly trying to talk the trio out of leaving. “I have this with me. It should be enough to protect us.” Twilight said while levitating the fire poker over to her side for show. “And if you’re so concerned about us going alone, why don’t you send the guards with us?” She asked while glancing over to the two stallions waiting in the corner. Upon hearing the group mentioning them, the two unicorns turned their attention forward and waited for whatever orders they might receive. Peppermint glanced back to Sunspot and shrugged his shoulders with uncertainty. Sunspot glanced between Twilight and the guards on the other side of the room. The purple mare seemed like her mind was made up. She would most likely go whether or not she had her blessing. “Ugh… I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.” Sunspot muttered to herself quietly before turning to the three mares and offering them a begrudging expression. “Fine… take the guards with you. And here, take this too.” She said while unclipping her strobe from her vest and tossing it to the group. Rainbow Dash caught the small vial and held it in her hooves with a smirk. “Hold on, I think I have one spare on me.” Peppermint said while fishing around the various pouches and pockets of his vest. He finally pulled out another strobe and tossed it over to Applejack. “Thanks guys.” Twilight said with a warm smile. “Don’t thank me yet… if you die out there, Brimstoke is going to kill me, and then I am going to find you in the afterlife and kick your sorry purple keister.” Sunspot said in a sincere manner. “We’ll be careful.” Twilight replied with a smirk before turning to walk out of the doorway with her group. “Wait!” Fluttershy called out, causing the purple unicorn to pause and turn around. Twilight noticed the yellow mare trotting up to her with a resolute expression. “Fluttershy, what is it?” Twilight asked curiously. She thought that perhaps the pegasus wanted to see her friends off before they left on their mission. “I’m coming with you.” Fluttershy said in an anxious tone. Everyone was surprised to hear that the timid pony was volunteering to go on such a dangerous journey. “What…?” Twilight asked in a bewildered tone. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt while I can do something about it… I don’t think I could live with myself if one of you…” Fluttershy paused and looked down sadly at the mere thought of something horrible happening to one of her close friends. The pegasus looked up suddenly when she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder. She noticed her three friends smiling at her warmly while offering her reassuring expressions. “We’ll be fine sugar cube. You don’t need to come with us if you don’t want to.” Applejack said in a gentle tone. “I want to… I really do.” Fluttershy said while managing to smile for the first time since she had been in the basement. “We’re coming too!” Pinkie Pie announced while stepping forward eagerly with Rarity in tow. Although the white unicorn wasn’t as energetic as her pink friend, she did agree with her opinion. “We want to make sure all of you stay safe as well.” Rarity said with a warm smirk while glancing around at her friends. “Thanks guys.” Twilight said in a grateful tone. She couldn’t believe that all of her friends were volunteering to help her. “Don’t get lost out there. I want you back here in the next half hour, got it?” Sunspot said in a firm yet caring manner. “We won’t be late.” Rainbow Dash replied with a confident nod, to which her friends nodded in agreement. Without further delay, Twilight and her troop walked out of the doorway and into the dark corridor. The pitch blackness just outside of the bubble of light being projected by the unicorns made the group uneasy, but their determination was unfettered by their eerie surroundings. They had to find a way out of the mansion, not only for themselves and their loved ones, but for their sworn duties. It was clear at this point that Raven Feather and the other members of her group had escaped before the mansion was raided, leaving only Shadow Mist and a few uncoordinated underlings behind to spring a trap for the intruders. Twilight had to get out to complete her mission from the princess. She had to bring the hooded ponies to justice, and to put a stop to them once and for all. The purple mare wasn’t alone in her mission however. Every single pony following her was prepared to fight to see the evil’s wrought by Raven Feather’s group put to an end. But before they could focus on the hooded ponies, they had to focus on finding the remaining symbol and escaping with their lives. “Do you recognize where we’re going Pinkie?” Twilight asked while glancing back at the pink mare. She hoped that Pinkie would be able to guide them around the basement to areas she hadn’t been before to make their search easier, and she still felt that Fluttershy was too sensitive at the moment to be remembering her time in the basement. Pinkie Pie took a quick look around to mentally recap where she was in relation to the rest of the areas she visited. She and Brimstoke wandered around for a decent amount of time looking for Fluttershy and Neon Streak, so she had been to a lot of places in the basement. “There should be a branch in the hallway I haven’t been to further down here.” Pinkie stated while pointing ahead into the blackness. “Good… hopefully we can find that last symbol and get back before our time limit is up.” Twilight said with careful optimism brimming in her voice. “I don’t know Twilight… this place is really big. I’m not even sure how much of it we’ve seen.” Fluttershy chimed in with an uncertain and uneasy tone. “Don’t worry. Between us and the others, I’m sure we’ll find it soon.” Twilight said while thinking to Glitterball and her two companions. No matter how big the basement was, their odds of finding the symbol were greatly increased due to them being in two groups. “We should also keep an eye out for Princess Luna.” Rainbow Dash said as a reminder to the group to look for the missing alicorn. “I hope she’s ok…” Fluttershy said in a concerned tone. The thought of Luna being lost in such a dreadful place made everyone uncomfortable and sad. “Ah’m sure she can take care of herself Fluttershy.” Applejack said in a reassuring manner while glancing to the yellow mare sympathetically. Despite her attempt at comforting the pegasus, the farm pony couldn’t help but worry for the alicorn as well. Before long, the group came to a substantial fork in the hallway. To their right and left, another hallway opened up while the current hallway stretched on for as far as the group could see. Twilight and the others looked around to ascertain which direction they should go before finally looking to their pink friend for her insight. “Which way do we go Pinkie?” Twilight asked curiously. “We went down the left path with the others, and they went down the right path when they first came down here… so I say we go straight.” Pinkie suggested while looking down the hall for any signs of familiarity, not that any of the hallways looked familiar to her. It was hard to tell any one section of the basement apart from another, so the pink mare had to go off of memory on how many intersections and rooms she passed in each location, which was harder than she originally thought. “Then straight it is.” Twilight shrugged before returning a determined expression to her face and marching onwards. She hoped that she wasn’t just leading her group on a wild goose chase, because if they spent too much time down in the basement, something would most likely end up chasing them. Now that they were treading new ground, the group became more observant of their surroundings. Everyone searched the rooms they passed while Twilight, Rarity, and the two guards offered their lights to assist with the hunt for the elusive symbol. However, the only things they were finding thus far were more disturbing reminders of where they were. Tables, trays full of various aged cutting implements, and shelves lined with medical equipment and other strange items were in almost every room the ponies looked in. Every once in a while they would find a room filled with only shelves or boxes, but the majority of the rooms held at least one examination table in it. The empty tables lined with faded and dusty white cloth were a chilling sight to behold in such dismal and grim conditions, but they were only the least interesting and disturbing things to be found. Occasionally the group would find a room that had tables without their coverings. Most of them had a single leather strap in the middle and four other straps to presumably hold someone against their will. There were also several faded stains on the tables that looked like discolored blood or perhaps other disgusting fluids. Judging from all of the white sheets placed over the majority of the tables and chairs, it looked like someone had come in and placed them there to cover up and forget about the disturbing objects underneath. Despite the age of whatever objects and tools that were covered in blood, a sickeningly faint and musty smell of copper mixed into the already stale and rotten smelling air of the basement. The ponies could feel their stomachs churning from simply being exposed to this revolting atmosphere. “Ugh… that smell is horrible. What did they do down here?” Rainbow Dash asked in a muffled tone while making an attempt at holding her arm over her nose and mouth to prevent more of the foul air from reaching her. “I don’t know, but from what I read in those notes, I don’t think it was good. The hooded ponies apparently don’t even go too far into the basement themselves, so most of this stuff is how it was when the humans owned the place.” Twilight explained while taking a wary look around at the various rooms she passed. “Did the hooded ponies know anything else about them?” Applejack asked with a morbid sense of curiosity. “Not much… just that they were heavily into the occult and black magic. Apparently they were fascinated by death and the afterlife, which probably explains why their spirits and this house are still here.” Twilight said with an uneasy tone in her voice. Knowing that the items around her belonged to a bunch of murderous psychopaths with knowledge of the occult sent chills down her spine as she looked at the bloodstained medical tables in a new light. Nobody else dared to ask any more questions about their chilling surroundings. The ponies marched forward in an uncomfortable silence as they scanned the rooms for any signs of usefulness. Even the safe feeling that came from being in a decent sized group had vanished as everyone darted their eyes around nervously. Finally, the group came to the end of the hallway. At the pace they were going, they thought they would be walking for miles in the underground corridors. The sign that they were gradually running out of places to search filled the ponies with hope and anxious uncertainty at the same time. Wasting no time with standing around, Twilight took the only path available to her and led her group to the right. “How long has it been?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. The thought of how far they had wandered from the safe haven they had built made her nervous. She wanted to make sure that they could get back in time to meet the deadline imposed by Sunspot, almost as if she were expecting something horrible to pop out of the darkness if they didn’t make it back in time. “I think it’s been about ten minutes… we should have time to search down here.” Twilight replied while thinking about roughly how long they had been walking. Although it already felt like an eternity, it was probably much shorter than their half hour time limit. “Good… I thought we were already running late. I guess time doesn’t fly when you’re scared out of your wits.” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous chuckle. “Don’t worry, we should be fine. Just be sure to keep your eyes peeled.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while subconsciously gripping the iron fire poker tighter in her magical hold. She was prepared to swing the iron pole at anything that moved to protect herself and her friends. “Ow!” Pinkie yelped painfully from the back of the group. Everyone halted and turned around to see the pink mare rubbing the back of her neck. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked with a concerned tone while observing the area around her pink friend for any sign of what could have caused her outburst. “It feels like someone just poked me with a needle.” Pinkie said with an annoyed tone while looking around for her attacker. Although everyone was disconcerted by the pink mare’s statement, a certain yellow mare felt her heart skipping a beat as memories rushed back to her. “Oh no… he’s here!” Fluttershy stated in a terrified tone while darting her eyes around in a panic. Twilight and the others grew concerned for their pegasus friend as she started shivering from fright. “What do you mean Fluttershy? Who’s here?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “That’s how that ghost abducted me and Neon! We both felt a needle in the back of our necks, and then we blacked out!” Fluttershy explained in a fearful tone. The yellow pony’s statement gave everyone an empty feeling in their guts, particularly Pinkie Pie. “Do you feel ok Pinkie?” Rarity asked nervously while eyeing the pink mare for any signs of wooziness. “Uh… my nose itches… *Gasp* and my foot is asleep! What does that mean?!” Pinkie Pie asked with growing concern while looking at herself and picturing what horrible effects the injection was having on her body. “Umm… I think that’s normal Pinkie.” Twilight said while observing the panicking mare curiously. Suddenly, a loud noise behind the group made Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy yelp in surprise. Everyone turned around to see a wooden box clattering to the floor as something knocked it over. “AH! It’s the ghost! Please don’t take me Mr. Ghostie!” Pinkie pleaded while hiding behind Rainbow Dash for protection. The cyan mare realized that her friend must have been incredibly scared if she skipped her usual method of laughing at anything scary to make it go away and went straight to groveling. Meanwhile, Twilight was leering at the box on the floor suspiciously. Although she had no doubt in her mind that Fluttershy was telling the truth about her experience, she wasn’t sure if one of the ghosts was the cause of this disturbance. “I don’t think Mr. Ghostie is going to be taking anyone anywhere…” Twilight paused while reaching into her bag with her magic. She quickly pulled out the vial given to her by Brimstoke and the others back at the guard station and stepped to the front of the group with a determined expression. Twilight pointed the vial down the hallway and pressed the button on the bottom. Much to her surprise, a loud and abrupt bang sounded out as a fiery ball shot out of the small vial. The unicorn jumped slightly while holding the smoking vial steady. The small bottle held much more kick than she expected, especially considering the only point of comparison she had was the strobes and their minimal recoil. Meanwhile, everyone else was watching the orange fireball as it blazed down the corridor at lightning fast speeds. The ball suddenly hit something in midair with a loud thwack before burning out and vanishing from sight. “Ack!” The group heard a stallion grunting in pain before the sound of a body hitting the floor sounded out. Everyone stared ahead with their jaws agape in amazement as a shadowy ripple appeared on the floor. The shadows faded into view before vanishing from sight, leaving a familiar red stallion lying on the ground on his side. “Especially considering he isn’t a ghost at all.” Twilight finished her previous thought while staring ahead with a triumphant smirk. “Shadow Mist?!” Everyone acquainted with the red stallion stated in unison with surprised tones. Shadow Mist groaned in pain while looking up at the group of ponies. He was surprised to hear them mentioning him by name. “What the hell? You can see me?!” Shadow Mist stated in shock while looking down at himself. Much to his dismay, his body was in fact visible for all to see. Twilight blew the smoke off of the tip of the vial before twirling it around in the air for show. “A little surprise our friends whipped up for us. They let us negate the use of shadow magic in anyone affected.” The purple unicorn explained with a slight smirk of pride. The others glanced back to their bags with an amazed expression. They had totally forgotten about the six vials that Brimstoke and his team had given them. To think that they had such powerful weapons on them the whole time made them feel the same thing their purple friend was feeling. “That’s just freaking great… like this day couldn’t get any worse.” Shadow Mist groaned in annoyance while looking to his side where the fireball impacted him. There was a small amount of smoke rising off of a circular scorch mark on his fur. “That’s what you get for causing this mess. Now then… *ahem* Get him boys!” Rainbow Dash said with a playful smirk while looking to the two guards. She had always wanted to say something like that in a situation like this. The two unicorn guards looked ahead at the red stallion and smirked slightly in agreement. They started walking towards Shadow Mist, until they were suddenly interrupted by Applejack barging past them with an even more determined expression on her face. “Oh no… if anyone is getting first licks on this creep, it’s going to be me.” Applejack stated in a resolute tone while marching forward on her own. She felt like she owed the red stallion some payback for what he did back at the book store, and she also felt like she would be doing honors to Neon Streak since she couldn’t get her hooves on the red stallion like she desperately wanted. “You try to kill me and Neon, you let loose a bunch of ghosts that trapped us here and killed innocent ponies, and now you’re attacking my friends?! You’ve got nerve in you boy, Ah’ll give you that.” Applejack said in a livid tone while walking up to the red stallion. Shadow Mist gulped nervously and tried to scoot backwards away from the upset farm pony. “Umm… uh…” Shadow Mist muttered to himself nervously. He started sweating as he watched his doom approaching him with a Stetson hat on. “When Ah’m through with you, you’re gonna wish those ghosts would have killed you t- Sweet apple fritters!” Applejack yelped in shock and recoiled as she saw the state the red stallion was in. Twilight and the others gasped in horror as they noticed what their orange friend had noticed. Shadow Mist’s entire left eye was caked in blood. Although the eye itself was clenched shut, it was easily apparent that it had been damaged irreparably. Not only was one of his eyes bloodied and damaged, but part of one of his front legs was missing. Everything above the wrist on his left arm was completely gone, and in its place was a bloody stump. Strangely, even though the wound was gushing blood, it looked like it had only recently started bleeding. Shadow Mist’s injured eye started seeping blood down his face as well; almost like the injuries had been closed up temporarily but were now open and free to bleed. “Wh… w-what happened to you?!” Applejack asked in a mortified tone while backing up in disgust. Everyone else was reacting to the horrible sight in their own way. Rarity had fainted, only to be caught by one of the unicorn guards. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy looked like they were going to be sick and scream at the same time. Rainbow Dash and Twilight also felt like they were going to be sick, although they managed to quell these feelings while only letting out a few dry heaves. “I think I know what happened…” Twilight said while eyeing the gruesome injuries uneasily. “Rainbow Dash and I heard a scream when we tried coming back to the foyer from the library. We found a room full of blood and a red severed hoof on the floor, along with a bloody axe.” She explained while trying not to vomit from remembering the details. “A bloody axe?” Applejack asked with a chill running up her spine. “He must have been attacked by the same ghost that came after us.” She said while glancing down to the white mare still recovering from her fainting spell. “Actually, I got jumped by two of them… the woman was there too. She was the one who stabbed my eye.” Shadow Mist chimed in with a painful grimace as his wounds started bleeding and throbbing again. “How are you still alive? You should have bled to death from the look of those wounds.” Twilight asked with a cringe as she envisioned the woman in white plunging her bloody scissors into her own eye. “I’ve been keeping my wounds from bleeding with my shadow magic, but now I’m screwed… so thanks for that.” Shadow Mist said with a snarky tone. “As much as I want to say serves you right, I don’t think even you deserve to die like that. Is there anything you can do to help him Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while turning to the purple mare. As much anger as she felt towards the red stallion, she knew that it would be better for him to spend the rest of his life in jail for his crimes rather than to bleed out in a few minutes. “I’ll see what I can do…” Twilight shrugged while stepping towards the red stallion. As she approached Shadow Mist, she noticed a few items lying on the ground next to him. One of the items was a bag, and the other was an odd looking syringe full of blood. “What the…? What the hay is this?” Twilight asked in a confused and slightly disturbed tone while picking up the syringe with her magic. “*Gasp* you drained my blood?! You… you… I don’t even know what to call you!” Pinkie fumed in outrage as she stared at the red fluid inside of the syringe while holding the back of her neck. “Hey… is that what you did to me earlier?! What the hay is wrong with you?!” Rainbow Dash said in a mortified and angry tone while glaring at the red stallion. Shadow Mist watched as Twilight and her outraged friends stepped closer to him with upset expressions. He wasn’t sure which pony he was scared of more. Suddenly, Shadow Mist could feel the familiar presence of shadow energy inside of his body. To test if this was true, he discretely tried to channel the energy to his hoof. Feeling the familiar buildup of shadow magic on his hoof made him smirk imperceptibly as he started coming up with a plan of escape. “Yep… I collected your blood. Not just you two actually… I have all of your blood. The only reason you two felt the needle is because the charm on it wore off.” Shadow Mist explained with a slight chuckle. Twilight and the others were dumbfounded by the stallion’s bold words. “What?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in utter confusion and shock. She wasn’t sure if she was more confused that the stallion just gave away such information, or upset that he had collected all of her friends’ blood for some nefarious purpose. “You… you collected our blood too?!” Twilight asked in a shocked tone. She suddenly felt very ill knowing that the red stallion had gotten close enough to her and her friends to stab a needle into everyone’s necks. What if he had more lethal intentions than just collecting blood? He could have just waltzed up to any one of the six mares and killed them with some kind of poison without them even knowing. “Yeah, that’s the gist of it. I would have gotten away with it too, but you know how charms are… they always wear off a lot sooner than you’d like them too.” Shadow Mist said with a devilish smirk while maneuvering his weight off of his good arm. Twilight glanced down suspiciously at the stallion’s front arm, only to see a faint glow of purple enveloping it. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized why the red pony was suddenly being so cocky. “Everyone get down!” The purple mare yelled urgently while backing up and diving to the floor. As Shadow Mist raised his arm and pointed it forward at the group, the same flaming shadows that all of the other hooded ponies had used fully engulfed his hoof. The ponies acted as quick as they could in their confused and shocked state. Once they processed Twilight’s words and what the red stallion was doing, they dove for the ground and covered their heads with their arms. Shadow Mist quickly grabbed the falling syringe with his shadow magic as Twilight let go of it. He then levitated it down to the floor to get it out of the way of what he was about to do. *BANG* A loud burst of air rang out in the ponies’ ears as a surge of dark purple energy whizzed above their heads. They felt their hair being blown back violently from the force of the apparent explosion. They buried their heads in their arms and tried to dig themselves in to prevent themselves from being blown away. If they had been standing upright, they would have been blown off of their feet just from the impact of the energy, let alone what else the purple wave would have done to them. When the burst of air whizzing over her head died down, Twilight flinched one eye open to look in front of her. Among the dust and debris settling to the floor, she could see the remainder of a cloud of darkness as it vanished from view. Shadow Mist, the bag on the floor, and the syringe were all missing from sight, but the purple mare wasn’t about to give up. “He’s getting away!” Twilight exclaimed while quickly getting to her feet and readied the vial of shadow magic repellent in her magic. She pointed it down the hallway and rapidly pushed the button on the base. Twilight flinched as another loud bang sounded out while fireball after fireball flew down the hallway at odd angles. She could barely shoot straight from the recoil of the weapon, but some of the blasts sailed down the hallway in a straight enough line to hit the fleeing stallion. As she kept firing, the vial started smoking and vibrating in the unicorn’s hooves. It felt like it would break apart at any minute. In fact, small cracks started forming on the glass casing as the volatile liquid inside kept spitting out violent burst after violent burst. Much to everyone’s surprise, the fireballs failed to hit anything as they raced down the hallway before vanishing from sight. Twilight stopped firing the startling weapon and took a few steps forward in a desperate attempt at finding the stallion. “Dangit… he’s gone. We had him!” Twilight fumed angrily while glaring at the vial in front of her. If the charm hadn’t worn off so quickly, or if the vial had functioned correctly, then they would still have their prisoner. “I can’t believe this! And it’s all because of this stupid piece of junk!” Twilight groaned while tossing the vial down the hallway in frustration. The already fractured glass shattered on impact with the floor, causing the liquid inside to splash onto the ground. “Calm down Twilight… Ah know how you feel.” Applejack tried to comfort her upset friend while also staring down the hallway with a frustrated expression herself. “Who cares if the charm is broken?! Let’s go after him!” Rainbow Dash suggested in a determined tone while stepping forward. The pegasus was getting more riled up by the minute as she hoped that her friends would agree with her. “A broken charm is going to be the least of your worries in a few minutes.” The group heard Shadow Mist’s voice calling out from down the hallway, even though they still couldn’t see him. “Stop rubbing it in you coward!” Rainbow Dash yelled down the dark corridor while picking up a small piece of wood off the ground and throwing it down the hallway in the hopes of hitting the stallion. The wood clattered to the floor after sailing out of view into the darkness, creating a hollow feeling of defeat in the cyan mare. “I would stop making noise and start running if I were you. We made a lot of commotion just now, and the walls have ears. I wouldn’t want to be here if he shows up... too bad you can’t turn invisible.” Shadow Mist said with a warm chuckle. The stallion’s laughter grew fainter until it died off, signifying that he was walking away. “Grr…” Rainbow Dash growled angrily while gritting her teeth with rage. She couldn’t believe that she had allowed a crippled prisoner with one eye to escape so easily. “What the hay was he talking about?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while pondering over the stallion’s words. “I don’t know… I don’t see any ears on the wall, so maybe he was just crazy.” Pinkie stated while examining the walls around her suspiciously. Normally the others would at least give a confused look at the eccentric mare’s behavior, but they were far too annoyed to care right now. “Whatever. I don’t think he was doing anything other than trying to freak us out. I’ll bet he’s going to be the one scared stiff when I get my hooves on him.” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone while punching at the air and pretending that it was the red stallion. It was incredibly easy to do so considering he could turn invisible. Meanwhile, while everyone else was calming down for various reasons, Fluttershy was still thinking about Shadow Mist’s words. Perhaps she was still tense and afraid from when he attacked the group, but the pegasus was nervous as she thought about the stallion’s ominous statement. “I wouldn’t want to be here if he shows up… is he talking about that human?” Fluttershy muttered to herself uneasily while turning and walking to the back of the group. She already knew that Shadow Mist was likely referring to one of the ghosts, but she saw Brimstoke eliminating the only ghost she knew to be in the basement. At least, she hoped that the man with the glasses was gone for good. While her friends were unwinding from their brief encounter and talking amongst themselves, Fluttershy sat at the back of the group and tried her best to calm down herself. Ever since she had agreed to come with her friends on their search she had been worried that she would run into another ghost, but Shadow Mist’s words had only served to increase this fear tenfold. More than anything, Fluttershy just wanted to leave the mansion. Suddenly, the faint sound of footsteps started approaching from down the hallway. Fluttershy perked her ears up and stared down the hallway with fearful eyes. She was sitting on the edge of the light being provided by the four unicorns, so she couldn’t see anything in front of her. Fluttershy backed up nervously as she noticed a blurry shape taking form in front of her. The footsteps stopped as the shape started becoming clearer. The yellow pegasus felt her heart stop momentarily as she recognized the figure standing before her. “Girls…” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully while desperately trying to get the attention of her friends. Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard the utter terror of the yellow mare behind them. “What’s wrong Flutter-” Twilight started to ask her friend what was bothering her, until she turned around and froze mid-sentence at what she saw standing down the hallway. Everyone else gasped in shock and stared ahead with fearful expressions as they too noticed what had spooked the yellow mare. A transparent human man with brown hair, blue eyes, and circular framed glasses was standing in the hallway with his arms held behind his back. He had a relatively blank expression on his face, although it still held a certain sinister quality to it. “Hello dearie…” The ghostly man said while looking directly at Fluttershy with his icy stare. “Did you miss me?” He said while letting a devilish smirk creep across his face. “No!” Fluttershy yelped fearfully, more so out of denial than in response to the human’s question. She backpedaled until she ran into Applejack and tried to keep going. Her entire body was shaking and she looked like she was going to break down crying any minute. The others had never seen the yellow mare so terrified before in their years of knowing her. “Leave her alone.” Applejack said while stepping in front of the pegasus defensively. “Yeah, if you want her you’re going to have to get through us.” Rainbow Dash said while joining the orange mare in standing in front of Fluttershy. Twilight and the others followed suit in standing their ground against the ghostly human. “Oh my… I didn’t think that there would be this many of you.” The man stated in a surprised tone. “I guess I’ll just have to take you all with me then.” He added in an almost disturbingly serious tone. “Girls, are you with me?” Twilight asked while readying her fire place poker for battle. She looked beside her to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash readying their strobes while everyone else simply prepared for battle with what they had. “I wouldn’t dream of missing this.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing behind her at the nervous pegasus. She wanted to make sure that this spirit payed for what it did to Fluttershy and Neon Streak. “Fire!” Applejack yelled fiercely while pointing her strobe at the apparition and rapidly pushing the button. Rainbow Dash followed her example by opening fire on the ghost as fast as she could. Before the flurry of energy bolts could hit the human, he flickered and vanished from sight with a devilish smile on his face. Knowing that their enemy was still nearby, everyone backed together and formed a protective circle around each other. Fluttershy looked around nervously while her friends prepared to battle the spirit. Even Pinkie Pie was trying to help fend off the ghost, despite her lack of a weapon or even magic to aid her. The yellow mare got up from the floor and darted her eyes around anxiously. Even if she couldn’t fight, she wanted to help her friends as much as possible. Suddenly, Fluttershy noticed a blur of motion behind one of the guards. She gasped in surprise when she saw the ghostly human appearing out of thin air. “Look out!” Fluttershy exclaimed while pointing behind the brown stallion. The guard spun around just in time to see the man reaching for him quickly. “Ack!” The guard yelped in surprise as the human grabbed him by the throat with surprising strength. Before anyone could react, the ghostly man picked up the full grown stallion by his neck and tossed him behind him like he was a small child. The others watched as the guard flew down the hallway before colliding with the ground and rolling from the impact. Taking matters into her own hooves, Twilight glared at the spirit while clutching the iron pole in her magical grip. The unicorn let out a fierce cry while sending the fire poker sailing through the air towards the human. Just before the iron pole collided with him, the human swiftly ducked to the side. Twilight quickly spun the fire poker around to counter the spirit’s evasion of her first strike, only to watch in dismay as the human dodged her strike again. “Take this!” Rainbow Dash yelled while pointing her strobe at the ghost and firing a few precise shots. The ghostly human vanished from sight again, leaving the bolts of energy to slam into the guard further down the hallway as he tried to get up. Although the bolts of light harmlessly exploded into a shower of sparkles on contact with the stallion, he still flinched and tried to cover his face from the bolts. “Sorry…” Rainbow Dash said while cringing sympathetically at the annoyed guard. However, the two couldn’t dwell on their mishap for very long as they returned their attention to searching for the human. Suddenly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash heard a noise behind them. They turned around only to see the ghostly human standing in front of them with a pensive expression on his pale face. He seemed like he wasn’t even breaking a sweat, not that he could if he wanted to. “Get him!” Applejack said while aiming her strobe forward and firing. “I’m trying!” Rainbow Dash replied while firing her own strobe at the spirit. Despite the amount of shots being fired at the human, he was somehow able to dodge every one. The man moved side to side and ducked out of the way of each bolt of light the two mares sent his way. It was like he was a blur of motion that could be everywhere at once. “Your friend caught me off guard with those toys you’re holding right now. I must say, they pack quite the punch… it’s too bad for you that I’m not going to be so easy to hit now that I know about your tricks.” The human said with a slight chuckle. Before the ponies could think of some other tactic to use, the human reached out his arms towards them. Applejack and Rainbow Dash suddenly felt their bodies being lifted into the air against their will, seemingly by the spirit’s influence. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a nervous tone while trying to steady herself in the air. It felt very strange for her to be flying without the use of her wings. “Put us down!” Applejack said in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. “Heh… why would I want to do that? You’re much easier to fight if you’re floating in the air.” The human said with a devilish snicker. “Uh, guys! We could use some help here!” Rainbow Dash pleaded while turning her head to face her friends. Twilight and the others were watching the two floating mares with shocked expressions. “Hang on girls, we’re coming!” Pinkie announced while racing forward to try and help her friends. The pink mare jumped up and grabbed Rainbow Dash by her legs in an attempt at getting her back on the floor, but the pegasus wouldn’t budge an inch. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you to mind your own business?” The man said in an annoyed tone while watching the pink pony trying to rescue her friends. Before any more of the group could try to help their two incapacitated friends, the human opened his palm and pushed it towards Pinkie Pie, sending a wave of invisible energy hurdling towards her. “Agh!” Pinkie yelped in pain as she was ripped from Rainbow Dash and sent flying backwards. She groaned in pain as she hit the floor and bent at an odd angle while she continued rolling. The pink mare nearly hit the others as she bounced along the ground before skidding to a halt. “Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash cried fearfully as she turned her head to watch the pink mare. Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy raced to their injured friend to check on her. “Pinkie, are you ok?!” Twilight asked in a frantic tone while gently placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. Noticing no response from the pink mare, the unicorn gently rolled her over, only to discover that she had been knocked unconscious from hitting her head against the floor. “Horsefeathers… she’s out cold.” Twilight muttered in an uneasy tone before shifting her attention back to her two friends being suspended in the air. “Put us down!” Applejack yelled while struggling against the human’s invisible grip. The ghostly man simply chuckled to himself while watching the two ponies trying to break free. He was so focused on toying with the two mares that he wasn’t paying attention to the ponies behind the floating pair. “Twilight, we need to do something before that scoundrel hurts Applejack and Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “I know! But we can’t do anything if we can’t hit him!” Twilight replied nervously while watching the two struggling mares uneasily. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were trying to maneuver their arms into a good firing position, but their limbs were being held in place by the spirit. And without the strobes to help the group out, they were running out of options to combat the ghost. “If only you could hit him with that fire poker, but he’s too fast… and we can’t risk missing or he might hurt the others.” Rarity whispered to the purple mare in a distraught tone. Meanwhile, Twilight was thinking of a way to effectively battle the spirit. “I think I might have a plan.” Twilight said while waving the two guards over to her. Once the two stallions joined her, the purple mare huddled her four companions close to discuss her plan of action. “I need you guys to distract him for a minute. I’m going to teleport behind him and use the fire poker on him.” Twilight explained while glancing back at the human anxiously. The longer the malevolent spirit had her friends in his clutches, the more fearful she became. “How do we distract him?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “You can sit this one out Fluttershy… I need unicorns for this plan to work.” Twilight said while looking between Rarity and the two guards. “I need you guys to fire some energy blasts at him. They probably won’t do anything to him, so I need you to not actually hit him… just make it convincing enough to make him think you’re trying to attack him. Oh… and also, don’t shoot at him too quickly. If he starts dodging like he did before, I won’t be able to lay a hoof on him.” She explained her plan and looked over her small band of troops with a hopeful expression of confidence. “I think we can manage that.” Rarity said while turning to the two guards for confirmation. The two stallions nodded in agreement before putting on more serious expressions. “Ok guys… let’s move.” Twilight said before lighting up her horn and channeling her energy into a teleportation spell. Rarity and the others watched as the purple mare disappeared into a flash of light before appearing a ways behind the ghostly man to avoid making noise. Twilight nodded to her friends before clutching the fire pole and waiting for them to act. Deciding to be the first one to attack, Rarity stepped forward and charged up her horn. She might not have been as magically gifted as the purple unicorn, but when her friends were in danger, she would put her all into any magical spell she knew. “Hey! Leave my friends alone you ghastly ghoul!” Rarity yelled fiercely while firing a bolt of energy towards the human. Trying to miss something while also trying to make it close enough to be convincing was a hard task, but thankfully the bolt flew right past the human’s side. The man was slightly surprised to be attacked by the white mare. He looked ahead to see her and the two guards shooting at him with their horns. As he dodged side to side casually, he smirked and laughed at the apparent incompetency of the trio. “Hahahaha… is this really the best you can do? It’s almost like you aren’t even trying.” The ghost stated in an amused tone. Meanwhile, Twilight was slowly creeping up on the human with her weapon at the ready. She was a little nervous to be approaching a ghost as energy blasts flew past her a lot closer than she would have liked, but she had to stay calm and keep moving. Applejack and Rainbow Dash noticed the purple mare approaching the human. Twilight silently brought her hoof up to her lips to signal the pair to be quiet. The two mares didn’t nod for fear of the human catching on, but they did as they were instructed and acted like the unicorn wasn’t there. Rarity and the two guards fired in sporadic bursts in an attempt at holding the human’s attention. Their fire rate had decreased considerably now that they also had to worry about hitting Twilight with a stray beam. They were nervously watching the ghost for any signs that he was on to their rouse, and unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be as convinced as he once was. “Wait a minute… you aren’t trying, are you?” The man asked suspiciously while glancing to his side. Before he could turn around, Twilight jumped forward and swung the fire place poker down at his body. “Hyah!” Twilight yelled fiercely while putting all of her strength into the initial blow. Unfortunately for her, the human dodged to the side before turning around and glaring at her with his icy stare. “Thought you could trick me did you?” The human asked with a snarky tone of voice. Twilight snorted in irritation and narrowed her eyes to match the ghost’s glare before letting out another yell and swinging the iron pole sideways. The others watched as Twilight tried her best to match the human’s speed. No matter how fast she swung or twirled the fire place poker, the spirit seemed to be just one step ahead of her attacks. Still, she continued on with the vigor and ferocity that came with a pony fighting for her own life and the lives of her friends. Suddenly, the human pushed his hand forward and sent the unicorn flying off of her feet backwards. “Ah!” Twilight yelped in fright as she hurdled backwards a short distance before landing on her back. She ignored the throbbing pain in her back and looked ahead to see the human chuckling at her while standing between the two floating mares. “Heh… you really do live up to your reputation Twilight Sparkle. I’ve heard a lot of talk about you and your friends in these past few years, and you are held in high regard throughout the land for your bravery and valor. But down here, you and your pathetic friends are just toys for my amusement.” The human said while raising his arms and holding them out to the side. Suddenly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash started shaking slightly in the air. “Whoa! What’s going on?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a nervous tone while trying to keep herself still in the air. Before anyone could react, the man clapped his hands together and the two floating ponies were sent flying into each other. Applejack and Rainbow Dash offered a brief grunt of pain as their heads smacked together with a cringe worthy thud. Twilight and the others gasped in shock as they watched their friends plummet to the floor like sacks of potatoes. The two mares settled on the ground and remained motionless save for the constant rise and fall of their chests to indicate that they were still alive. “Applejack! Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled in horror as she stared at her two unconscious friends. She was going to glare at the human for hurting the two ponies like that, but she suddenly felt her body lifting into the air slowly. “Whoa… hey! No! Put me down!” Twilight cried fearfully while scrambling to get back to the floor. She managed to turn over in the air and reach the floor with her legs, but she was quickly lifted higher to the point where she couldn’t touch the floor if she tried. “Twilight!” Rarity and Fluttershy yelled in unison while watching the purple mare getting lifted into the air by the sinister human. Before anyone could do anything to try and help the floating unicorn, the human flicked his outstretched arm behind him, sending the unicorn sailing forward at rapid speeds. She didn’t even have time to think of a spell she could use to break her fall amid her panic. Twilight flew directly over the human and past her friends, screaming the whole way until she hit the floor and started rolling. The unicorn groaned in pain with each impact to the floor sending shooting pains around her body. Meanwhile, the human was watching the ponies with a pensive expression on his face. He looked down to the fire place poker at his feet and picked it up with his ghostly influence, being especially careful to not let it make contact with his body. “An iron fire place poker eh? I guess you ponies aren’t hopeless after all.” The human muttered with an amused chuckle. The ponies either didn’t hear him or didn’t care as they were focused on the wounded unicorn. Fluttershy, Rarity, and the two guards rushed over to the injured mare and gasped in shock as they saw the battered state she was in. Her hair was disheveled and her fur was covered in scuff marks, she had a few black and blue areas that would likely form into bruises in the future, and she had a general expression of suffering and exhaustion on her face. “Twilight darling! Are you ok?!” Rarity asked in a concerned tone as she watched Twilight trying to move around. “Ugh… gah…” The purple mare groaned painfully as she tried to sluggishly get up. Every movement she made only brought her more agony as her sore limbs refused to support her weight. Finally she decided to stay on her side to recover for a moment before trying to get up again. While the two mares were worrying about their injured friend, the two guards turned around and glared at the ghostly human. They had witnessed the ghost wiping out the six mares one by one, but they were done standing by and waiting for the others to take action. Now that Twilight was out of action, they were the leading authority on battle tactics. Lighting up their horns, the two stallions charged forward bravely. The human took one look at the approaching guards and sighed in disappointment. Making a swatting motion with his hands, the ghost used his influence to pick up the two stallions and slam them into the walls face first in one swift motion. Twilight and the others looked over to the unconscious guards and gasped in horror. Their numbers were dropping like flies, and their bubble of light was decreasing with each unicorn they lost, decreasing their morale even further. “We have to do something…” Twilight groaned while working her way to a seated position and surveying the situation. She looked at the unconscious bodies of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, only to notice two small vials at their feet. “*Gasp* the strobes!” Twilight exclaimed while pointing forward at the two vials. If they could get the strobes back, then maybe they could stand a chance. “I’m on it!” Rarity said while lighting up her horn with a determined expression. She enveloped the two vials in her magical grip and lifted them into the air. But before the white mare could bring the vials closer to her, she felt them stop dead in their tracks as something powerful tugged in the opposite direction as her. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously while staring ahead at the two motionless vials. “I can’t move them… something is… hrk… pulling on them.” Rarity said while straining to make the vials move over to her. “Not so fast dearie. I think it’s time for you to stop playing with your toys for tonight.” The human said while holding out his hand. Much to the horror of the on looking ponies, the man clenched his fist shut, causing the two glass vials to shatter into an explosion of glass pieces and liquid. “But… but…” Twilight stammered in a fearful daze while looking at her two friends. They were even more scared than she was, and were looking to her for what they should do next. Unfortunately, the purple mare couldn’t be the rock of confidence and leadership that they needed right now. “I suppose you’ll want this next, right?” The human asked while pointing at the fire place poker levitating in the air. The three mares grew uneasy as a devilish smirk appeared on his face. “Maybe you should take it if you want it so bad!” The man exclaimed while doing a pitching motion with his arm. The fire place poker shot forward and spun vertically as it sailed across the hallway in the blink of an eye. The iron pole was moving so fast that the ponies barely had time to react before it smacked into Rarity’s head. A small trickle of blood sprayed out as the iron pole made contact with the unicorn. Rarity’s head bent backwards and her legs gave out as the blow instantly knocked her out. Twilight and Fluttershy watched their friend collapse to the floor next to them at the same time as the fire place poker, creating a combined thud and clang that rendered them mortified. “Rarity!” Twilight and Fluttershy yelled while staring at the unconscious pony in shock. Rarity had a small amount of blood trickling out of a cut on her head, but the major concern was that she was now out cold just like the others, possibly even with a concussion. “Twilight… what do we do?” Fluttershy asked while on the verge of tears while clinging to her only remaining friend and the only remaining source of light in the hallway. Everywhere else around them was dark, cementing the fact that they were alone and creating a gripping sense of fear that crippled them. “I don’t know... I’m thinking!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic while trying to come up with a plan. “Don’t leave me! I don’t want to be alone with him.” Fluttershy said while wrapping her arms around the unicorn and clinging to her. Twilight could feel the pegasus shaking fearfully as she shut down and entered into a state of childish terror. “Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head dear...” The human said in a sinister tone while holding out his arm. He made a grabbing motion and moved his hand to the side as if he were moving something, but the purple mare couldn’t tell what he was trying to do, at least until she felt a small prick in the back of her neck. “Ow!” Fluttershy yelped in pain while clutching the back of her own neck. The two mares locked eyes with each other and looked down to the floor as they heard two distinct clinks. Their eyes widened as they saw two spent needles rolling away from them. “You aren’t going to be alone. After all, I have enough tables for all of you.” The human finished his grim sentence with a cold chuckle. “N-no!” Twilight shook her head while scooting backwards. Fluttershy joined the purple mare in trying to distance herself from the human as he started walking forward. “Twilight, I feel drowsy.” Fluttershy said in a fearful tone while fighting the urge to sleep. “Me too…” Twilight said in an empty tone of agreement. She was too scared to try and think of a reassuring sentiment to cheer herself and the pegasus up. She could feel her body shivering as it finally sank in that she had lost. “Don’t try to fight it… you won’t get very far.” The man said while slowing his pace to watch the two mares wriggling on the ground. Twilight and Fluttershy slowly crawled backwards in a vain attempt at escaping the ghost. They could feel their eyes drooping shut as their bodies grew weaker and the world around them grew more distant. “Nugh… guh…” Fluttershy groaned as she used her front legs to scoot herself backwards. She looked to the side to see Twilight struggling to stay awake. As she reached out to try and tell the unicorn to fight harder, she fell backwards and flopped her arms like a limp puppet. “Fluttershy…” Twilight said in a drowsy tone while trying to reach out to her friend. As she stopped to try to make an effort at rescuing the pegasus, she realized that her body was completely shutting down, almost like her movement was the only thing keeping her going. Twilight lowered herself to the floor and rolled her head to the side. She could see that Fluttershy was already unconscious. As she used the last of her energy to roll her head back upwards, she managed to catch a glimpse of the human smiling down at her with his wicked grin before her eyes shut against her will and blackness filled her mind. Chapter 88: Running out of TimeTwilight groaned drowsily while stirring from what seemed like a long sleep. She wasn’t sure if her senses were messed up, but she felt like she was being suspended off the ground by something. As she tried to move her legs, she felt something holding her in place. “Ugh… what the…?” She muttered in a confused tone while lifting her head up. As gravity kicked in and made her head slump forward, she quickly realized that she was hanging in the air. Ignoring her exhausted state, the unicorn opened her eyes and looked down at her body in a panic. Twilight saw that she was tied to an angled table by four leather straps. Each of her limbs were spread apart and restrained by the tight straps that dug painfully into her skin. Strangely enough, her front legs were also linked together by a pair of steel hoof cuffs. “Twilight?” The sound of Applejack’s voice in front of her made the purple mare look up in surprise. She noticed the farm pony tied to a similar table across from her. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed eagerly. “I’m so glad to see you… where are we?” She asked uneasily while examining the room she was in. As she looked around the room, she noticed her other friends around her. Pinkie Pie was on a table next to hers, although she was still unconscious. Rainbow Dash was on a table across from the pink mare and next to Applejack, and she was also unconscious. Fluttershy was on a table to the far left of the room, and Rarity was on the far right of the room next to a doorway. Rarity was the only one in the room that wasn’t tied to a table. In fact, she seemed to have limited use of her limbs. The white mare’s legs were chained together, and the short chain coming off her front legs led to a small pipe on the wall. She also had the same hoof cuffs on her front legs that Twilight had, and she was also unconscious. Other than Applejack and Twilight, everyone else in the room was still knocked out cold. The room itself had only one entrance, which was the open doorway beside Rarity. The majority of the space in the room was taken up by the five tables that Twilight and her friends were tied to, but there were three small trays on wheels. Two of the trays held oil lanterns that were providing light across the room, while the third tray held a selection of cutting implements. “Ah don’t know… Ah came to a few minutes ago and we were already here. Ah’m so glad you’re awake.” Applejack stated in a sincere tone. “What happened? Last thing I remember we were fighting… *Gasp* that ghost! He must have taken us here while we were unconscious!” Twilight stated in an alarmed tone. She grunted from exertion as she pulled against the leather straps holding her in place. After a few moments of getting nowhere with this approach, the unicorn panted heavily and leaned her head back to rest. “If that creep took us, he’s probably going to come back… which means we need to get out of here. Can’t you use your magic to get loose?” Applejack asked in a hopeful tone. “Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Twilight mentally face palmed as she remembered that she was in fact a unicorn. Escaping with magic would be a breeze. She could free herself and her friends and escape before the spirit returned. Twilight looked down at the straps holding her legs in place and concentrated on them. Having expected to have no trouble using her magic, the purple mare was surprised that she couldn’t channel energy to her horn. Putting more effort into it and grunting from exertion, she became more alarmed as she realized that her magic wasn’t working. “What the hay? I can’t use my magic.” Twilight said in a troubled tone while looking up at her horn. As her eyes trailed upwards, she suddenly drew her attention to the hoof cuffs connected to her front legs. Her heart sank as she noticed several strange symbols etched into the metal of the cuffs. “What’s wrong?!” Applejack asked nervously while watching the unicorn growing pale. “Oh no… he must have gotten the magic nullifying cuffs off of the guards. I can’t use my magic while these are on me.” Twilight explained in a dreadful tone. The weight of the situation was finally sinking in. She was trapped, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Suddenly, the pair heard a soft groan coming from beside them. The two mares looked over and noticed that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were starting to wake up. After a few moments, Rarity and Fluttershy started to stir as well. “Ugh… five more minutes mommy.” Pinkie groaned in a sleepy tone while lifting her head up slightly. After a few seconds of looking around in a confused daze, the pink mare became alarmed as she realized that she wasn’t where she first thought she was. “What the…?! Where am I?! How did I get here?!” Pinkie asked frantically while looking around with wide eyes. She tugged at the straps holding her in place in a vain attempt at escaping her table. “Pinkie, calm down… we’re here with you.” Twilight spoke in a soft tone in an attempt at bringing the jilted pony to her senses. The pink mare looked to her side and gasped in excitement as she saw the unicorn next to her. “Twilight! I’m so glad to see you!” Pinkie exclaimed happily before looking around and noticing the others. As she realized that all of her friends were trapped just like her, her initial excitement vanished and was replaced by fear. “Gah… would you keep it down over there? My head is killing me…” Rainbow Dash muttered while cringing painfully and trying to bring her hoof up to her head. Once she noticed that her limbs were restrained, the cyan mare suddenly became very alarmed. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while shaking herself awake and looking down at her tied legs. “What in Celestia’s name is going on here?! I demand to be released this instant!” Rarity stated in a distraught tone while rattling the chain attached to her legs as she tried to get up. Due to the short length of the chain connected to the pipe, the white mare couldn’t get to her feet and instead had to awkwardly lay on her side. “Can somepony please tell me what the hay is going on?” Rainbow Dash asked in a pleading tone while looking to her friends for answers. Twilight and Applejack were about to try and calm their frantic friends down until they were interrupted by another frightened voice speaking up. “Oh no… not this! Anything but this, please!” Fluttershy whined fearfully while looking at her own restraints. The others watched as the yellow pegasus started hyperventilating from fright. She looked like she was either going to break down into tears or pass out from oxygen deprivation at any moment. “Everyone calm down!” Twilight yelled in order to gain everyone’s attention. “I know this looks bad, but we’ve gotten out of worse scrapes before. All we need to do is keep our heads and we can find a way out of this.” She explained in what she hoped would be a reassuring manner. The purple mare herself was feeling nervous and scared, so she was unsure if the others believed her. “Yeah… Twilight is right guys. We can get out of here no problem.” Rainbow Dash stated in her usual confident manner while struggling against her bonds. “Just… hrk! Just give me… hrk! A minute to get out of these… gah! Stupid straps!” She groaned in exhausted annoyance as she put all of her strength into trying to free herself. No matter how hard the pegasus pulled on her straps, they showed no signs of loosening their grip on her. “This can’t be happening… this is just like last time.” Fluttershy muttered in a distraught tone. The yellow mare closed her eyes and looked away as tears began forming from all of the horrific memories that she had of this situation. “Fluttershy, listen to me.” Twilight said in a sincere tone while looking over to the pegasus. Fluttershy reluctantly opened her eyes and looked over to see the unicorn offering her a serious expression. “This is not going to end up like last time, you hear me? We’re all going to get out of here in one piece.” Twilight stated in a calm and sincere manner. The sheer determination in her voice was enough to make all of her friends quiet down and look at her with amazed expressions. Fluttershy looked around at her friends on each of the other tables. She still felt fearful and anxious, but somehow she believed the unicorn’s words. She and her friends had encountered many situations where she thought all was lost, but the power of the bond that she shared with the five mares kept them together through all of the hardships they had faced. “Twilight… I… I…” Fluttershy stammered in an emotional tone. She had so many thoughts and emotions swirling around inside of her that she felt unsure of what to do. Still, she wanted to believe her friend and her promise of safety. “In one piece eh? Well… I’m not so sure of that.” The group heard a disturbingly familiar voice chiming in from the doorway. Everyone turned and widened their eyes in fright as they saw the same ghostly human that captured them walking in through the doorway. His form flickered into view as he walked into the room, as if his existence was merely a twisted spectacle for the ponies to witness. “You...” Rainbow Dash said in a disdainful tone while leering at the man. “You let us go right now, or you’ll be sorry!” She said in a fierce manner while trying her best to be brave in the face of danger. “Ha… don’t make me laugh. No seriously, don’t… I get violent when I get excited.” The human said in a calm manner while shifting his eyes to look at the cyan pegasus. The spirit’s icy cold stare was enough to unnerve even Rainbow Dash. All of the ponies in the room were scared. Everyone remained speechless as they dreadfully anticipated what the human was going to do to them. Everyone, except for one yellow pegasus whining in terror at the back of the room. As the human drew his gaze towards Fluttershy, she began tensing up and breathing rapidly again. Everyone watched nervously as the ghost slowly walked up to the fearful pegasus and stared at her for a moment. Twilight and the others were terrified that he would do something to hurt their timid friend. “So… here we are again. It’s Fluttershy, isn’t it? What a bizarre name… I’ll never understand how you ponies came to be so childish and weak.” The man said while reaching his hand up and placing it on the yellow mare’s cheek. Fluttershy tried to move her head out of the way of the human’s cold and disturbing touch, but her head could only move so much while her body was restrained. “Please… don’t hurt us.” Fluttershy muttered while avoiding eye contact with the man and looking to the floor fearfully. “You know… it may be impolite to stare, but I really think you should look a man in the eye when you ask him not to hurt you.” The human said with a slight smirk. His smile and lighthearted nature quickly shifted to an annoyed expression as the pegasus still stared at the floor while shaking from fright. “I said look at me, and I meant it… now show me those pretty little eyes of yours.” The ghostly man said in a harsh tone while grabbing the pegasus under the chin and roughly moving her head up to look at him. Fluttershy yelped slightly, if not from pain than from sheer terror as she was forced to look at the human’s cold and calculating expression. “Leave her alone you brute!” Rarity yelled in a threatening tone from across the room. The white mare tried to light up her horn to use a spell, but she grunted from exertion as she realized that her magic wasn’t working. “Don’t bother trying anything with that horn of yours. I got those anti magic cuffs courtesy of your two friends, so I assume that they literally work like a charm.” The human said while letting Fluttershy go and turning around to face the rest of the group. “What did you do with the guards?” Twilight asked in a demanding tone while glaring at the human. The two stallions that came with her and her friends were nowhere to be found in the room. The purple mare feared the worst might have happened to them at the hands of this sinister spirit. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about them anymore. I already took care of them before you woke up. I barely had time to clean up the mess before I heard some commotion in here.” The man said with a slight chuckle. The six ponies stared at the human in shock as they processed his words. “You monster…” Applejack muttered in a quiet tone of disbelief at the cruel actions of the man. “Now then… why don’t we just pick up where we left off?” The man said while holding his hand behind him with his palm open. A small scalpel from the tray near Twilight vibrated slightly before shooting across the room and into the ghost’s waiting hand. “I have to admit, I was a little peeved when your friends so rudely interrupted us last time. I was so looking forward to finding you again and continuing our little game, so imagine my surprise when I just stumble upon you and your friends.” The human said while bringing his scalpel up to Fluttershy’s chest. The pegasus froze up in fright and flinched her eyes shut. She whined softly as she prepared to feel her body being sliced into. “Hey! Leave her alone!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely, causing the human to pause. The ghostly man dropped the scalpel to his side and slowly turned his head to face the cyan pegasus. “What was that?” The human asked in a cynical and slightly threatening tone. He didn’t expect that the pony would offer much bravery after he walked up to her while brandishing the scalpel menacingly, but she barely flinched at his approach. “I said don’t touch her… you keep your filthy mitts off of her.” Rainbow Dash said while managing the courage to glare at the specter while hiding her fear under her anger. Suddenly, something triggered inside of Fluttershy’s head. Memories that she had tried her best to forget came flooding back to her. All of the other sounds in the room faded and time slowed down as she pictured Neon Streak on the table in front of her. She could still hear the determination in her voice as she threatened the ghost to protect her. “Really? Because last time I checked I can put my filthy mitts wherever I want.” The human replied while matching the pegasus’s glare in intensity. His icy cold and haunting eyes made the cyan mare uneasy, but she couldn’t let him harm her friend. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size? If you want to cut somebody, cut me.” Rainbow Dash stated in a brave tone. Twilight and the others couldn’t believe that the pegasus was suggesting such a thing, but they couldn’t imagine the possible ramifications of her statement for their yellow friend. Fluttershy felt her heart skip a beat as she heard the cyan mare’s words. They held a chilling place in her mind as she heard a similar statement from another pony strapped to a similar table. Flashes of the green mare getting cut up and screaming in pain filled the pegasus’s head. Fluttershy felt tears streaming down her face as the flashes of Neon Streak getting tortured shifted to images of Rainbow Dash getting cut up. She could see the cyan mare suffering everything that the green mare did, and in one horrific flash that made her already fragile mind scream out in defiance, she saw Rainbow Dash getting her throat sliced open before slowly dying in front of her. “NO!” Fluttershy yelled loudly in refusal to the situation before her. Everyone looked over in shock at the normally timid mare’s outburst. They saw that the pegasus had tears freely flowing down her cheeks as she took in shallow breaths. “Please… cut me.” Fluttershy finally managed to speak again in a distraught tone while averting her eyes to the floor and sobbing quietly. “Fluttershy, what are you doing? I’m not just going to let him hurt you like that!” Rainbow Dash said in a confused tone while looking at the crying pony in a stunned state of disbelief. “I don’t want him to hurt you… I can’t lose you too…” Fluttershy said in a heartbroken tone while breaking down into a fit of crying. The grim realization of the yellow mare’s meaning hit the others like a ton of bricks. The sight of the crying pony made the others look down sadly. Hearing her letting out so much pent up sadness and despair was enough to make them teary eyed as well, and they didn’t even go through the torture she was forced to. “Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a sympathetic tone. She couldn’t believe that her friend was being forced to relive such a tragic moment in her life. “Look… I would hate to interrupt this touching moment, but I have more important things I could be doing than just standing here.” The human said while fidgeting with the scalpel suggestively. He wasted no time in going over to Fluttershy and bringing the cutting tool up to her skin again. “Hey! I’m not done with you!” Rainbow Dash said while trying her best to arch her body sideways to better look at the spirit. “Rainbow Dash, please don’t.” Fluttershy pleaded as she nervously watched the human glaring at the cyan mare out of the corner of his eye. “No Fluttershy, I can’t just let him have his way with you. I don’t want to lose you either!” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. “Neither do I…” Pinkie Pie said with anxious resolve while committing to joining her friends. “If you want to get to her, you’ll need to go through us.” Twilight said confidently while looking to her friends for support. Applejack and Rarity nodded in agreement while joining the others. Fluttershy stared at her five friends with a stunned expression. She couldn’t believe that they were risking their lives for her with such determination in their eyes. She had seen that level of determination before in Neon’s eyes, but there was something else present among the five mares. They all were expressing the love and compassion they held for her by making sure that she wasn’t harmed. “Girls… I… I don’t know what to say.” Fluttershy stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes. She silently allowed them to fall down her face as she looked around at the five ponies. Twilight and the others smiled warmly at the yellow mare in return. Suddenly, the human held up his free arm and opened his palm. He held his fingers together before swiping his arm sideways in a smacking motion. A collective thwack filled the air as Twilight and the others felt an invisible force slapping them on the side of their face so hard it made them turn their heads. “Ow!” Pinkie and Rarity yelped in surprise while trying to clutch to clutch the throbbing area on their cheek instinctively. While the white unicorn barely managed to bring her hoof to her face, the pink mare was totally restrained by the leather straps on her table. “What the hay was that for?!” Rainbow Dash asked in an angry tone while looking around at her friends. Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were still recovering from the shock of the sudden smack to their face, while Applejack joined the cyan pegasus in glaring at the spirit for striking them. “I’m done playing games with you ponies. I tried toying around with you before, and that didn’t end so favorably for me. I’m cutting whoever the hell I want to cut, and there is nothing any of you can say to stop me. Now shut up and let me work before I cut your tongues out.” The human stated in an annoyed manner before turning his attention back to Fluttershy. Before anyone could even say anything else, the man brought the scalpel up to the yellow mare’s side and roughly dragged it down, causing a bloody incision to be made that sent a burning sensation flooding through her body. “Agghhh!” Fluttershy screamed in pain while rocking her head back against the table. The human ignored the screaming pony and brought the scalpel clear down to her hip before pulling it back and admiring the bloody gash he just created. “Fluttershy!” Twilight and the others yelled in unison. They watched the pegasus writhing in pain with shocked and alarmed expressions. “No… please sto- AHH!” Fluttershy’s plead for mercy was cut short as the man sliced across her stomach sideways. Although the cuts weren’t too deep, they sent waves of agony coursing through her body that made her heart pound in her chest and her breathing speed up. “Leave her alone!” Applejack yelled in refusal to the scene before her. The orange mare and several of the others tried struggling against their bonds again in a desperate attempt to free themselves to save their friend from the violent spirit. The human ignored the cries of the ponies behind him and watched the yellow mare crying and whimpering as her new injuries burned and stung. He brought his hand up and grabbed the timid pony under the chin again. Fluttershy struggled to move her head out of his grasp, but he pushed harder to bring her up to eye level with him. “Now that we’re done playing games… I can show you what I can really do.” The man said before roughly letting the terrified pegasus go and walking over to the tray of cutting implements next to Twilight. Everyone stared at the ghostly human fearfully as he put his bloody scalpel down and picked up a corkscrew. “You might as well get settled in girls… everyone will have their turn in due time.” The man said before shifting his blank expression into a devilish smirk. The ponies cowered in fearful uncertainty as the human started laughing like the mad man he already resembled. Meanwhile, back in the safe room, Sunspot and Peppermint were waiting anxiously for the group of ponies to return. Peppermint was waiting next to the human still lying unconscious on the floor, but Sunspot was surprisingly mobile. Despite her injuries and soreness, the pegasus was slowly and anxiously pacing around the room while looking at the doorway every few minutes to see if the group would return. “Come on guys… it’s been a lot longer than thirty minutes.” Sunspot said in a nervous tone while staring out of the door with rapidly fading hope. “They’re only ten minutes late… maybe they are on their way?” Peppermint reasoned nervously. Although he was trying to be optimistic about the others, even he was getting worried about their safety. “I really hope you’re right Pepper…” Sunspot replied in a worried manner. Despite the not so comforting words of the white stallion, she continued slowly pacing around the room while looking out at the door with growing anxiety. After a few more minutes of waiting, still nothing happened. Nobody came through the door, no lights in the distance gave the pair a glimmer of hope, only darkness and silence pervaded the room. Peppermint watched his teammate with growing concern. She might not have been worried about her injuries, but he certainly was. At this rate, she looked like she was about to pace up the walls and along the ceiling, and that would probably be even worse on her sore ribs than just walking around. “Maybe you should sit down, Sunspot? You wearing a hole in the floor isn’t going to bring them back any faster, so you should probably rest.” The red haired pony suggested in a caring manner. “I can’t just rest, Pepper… not while they are out there.” Sunspot said in a frustrated tone. “Ugh… why did I let them go? I knew something like this was going to happen! I should have just put my hoof down and made them stay.” She said while finally shifting to a seated position and holding her head in her hooves in worry. “If you think they’re in danger… we should probably call Brimstoke and tell him.” Peppermint suggested in a concerned tone. He was just as hopeful that the group was fine as the orange pegasus, but even he was getting worried about their safety. Sunspot glanced over to the white stallion as if to say something, when she suddenly paused and thought about the issue further. Normally she would be against telling her leader about a possible screw up of hers, but there were other lives at stake here. The orange mare swallowed nervously before sighing and forming a determined expression on her face. “You’re right… I’ll do it. Maybe Brimstoke and the others can look for them.” Sunspot said while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating on the white stallion and his group. Peppermint watched as the pegasus’s ear was enveloped in a magical aura. She swallowed her last remaining twinges of pride before nervously gathering the courage to openly address the lapse in judgement she made. “Brimstoke, are you there?” Sunspot asked before waiting for a response anxiously. Peppermint put a hoof up to his ear as well and concentrated on the others to listen in on the conversation. “Yeah Sunspot, I’m here. What’s the problem?” Brimstoke’s voice piped into the pairs’ heads. He sounded dull and almost bored, most likely due to the lack of progress on his end. “We have a possible situation here… Twilight and the others went out to search for the last symbol, and they haven’t come back.” Sunspot explained and prepared herself for the inevitable fallout. “What?!” Glimmer Shine’s voice rang out in their heads before the white stallion had a chance to speak. Apparently he had been listening into the conversation as well. “Glimmer, calm down for a minute so we can-” Brimstoke tried to reason with the yellow stallion, but he was quickly interrupted by him again. “Why did you let them leave the safe room?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone. “I… I…” Sunspot tried to think of a reason to explain herself, but she shook her head in frustration and decided to skip the excuses to get to the matter at hand. “Look, Twilight was going to go whether I let her or not. I told her to take the guards with her, and she brought two strobes and the iron fire poker with her as well… I thought they would be fine, but I told them to check back in half an hour to be safe.” She explained in a serious manner. “And how long ago was that?” Brimstoke asked in a relatively calm manner, although he was clearly upset as well. “That was forty minutes ago… we haven’t seen them yet, and I’m starting to get worried.” Sunspot explained in a concerned tone. “Ok… just calm down and stay there. We’re on our way back to you now.” Brimstoke instructed in a serious tone. “And don’t go running after them Sunspot. The last thing we need is two sets of lost ponies to look for.” Glimmer Shine stated in a frustrated tone. Sunspot shrugged before letting her hoof drop to her side. She could tell that the yellow stallion wasn’t really as upset at her as he seemed, but it still stung regardless considering she was the one that allowed them to go. “I can’t believe I let this happen.” The pegasus sighed in a gloomy tone before sinking to the floor and lying down on her back. Peppermint watched the forlorn mare with a sympathetic expression. He knew how she must have felt. If it wasn’t for her sore ribs, she would have already been out the door to look for the others. Still, if Twilight and the others were in danger, then they might not have time to wait for Brimstoke and the others to return before searching for them. Sunspot looked up to see the red haired stallion getting up from the floor and walking over to the doorway with a determined expression. She had never seen him with such confident resolve before in their time knowing each other. “Pepper, what are you doing?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone while sitting up slowly and ignoring the pain in her chest. The white stallion paused and shrugged for a moment before turning to face the pegasus. “I’m going to look for them.” Peppermint stated in a matter of fact way. “What?! You can’t be serious!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock while struggling to get up from the floor. “Just stay there Sunspot… someone needs to stay to look after Tom. Besides, you’re in no condition to be looking for them in this place.” Peppermint said while frowning slightly at the injured mare’s efforts at stopping him. “Brimstoke and the others are coming back right now. There is no need for you to go out there and risk your life!” Sunspot pleaded in a desperate manner while trying to reason with the brave stallion. “Twilight and the others might need help right now! If I can find them before something bad happens to them, then you can chew me out all you want.” Peppermint said in a determined tone. He stepped over to the door and glanced out into the darkness with a twinge of nervousness before flicking on his flashlight and patting his strobe to make sure it was there. “Pepper, I…” Sunspot started to speak, until the white stallion turned to face her one more time with a slight smile on his face. “Don’t follow me Sunspot… I’ll just stop you and bring you back here by force.” Peppermint said before turning and running out of the doorway. “Pepper, don’t!” Sunspot called after the stallion while lurching forward in an attempt at chasing after him. She quickly yelped in pain and clutched her ribs before sighing and looking out at the now empty doorway. “Please be safe…” She muttered before turning her attention to the unconscious human lying on the floor. She hoped that he would somehow wake up in time to keep anyone else from getting hurt. “AGH!” Fluttershy screamed painfully as a butcher’s knife was driven down the side of her leg. Her body oozed blood out of four injuries, with the latest laceration only being another agonizing mark on her form. The human smirked and wiped the blood off of the blade with a dirty white cloth. He admired his handiwork while the yellow mare whimpered and cried as twinges of pain filled her mind. “I must say… I really missed the sight of someone on my table. I’m certainly glad my siblings talked me into going along with their plan to bind our spirits here. I don’t know what I would do without the joy of cutting into a live specimen.” The man said with a slight chuckle. “How can you enjoy the suffering of others so much?! You… you freak!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in an appalled tone while sniffling slightly. Watching and hearing the sensitive pegasus getting tortured was driving the others to tears, with the cyan mare included. “Well… I could give you a long and depressing tale about how my father pushed me through medical school despite years of mental trauma at the hands of my mother, not to mention the practical war that went on in our household between my siblings and my parents about their use of the dark arts… but somehow I think that would just bore you to death.” The human said in a dull yet surprisingly lighthearted tone. “Oww… gah!” Fluttershy whimpered and gritted her teeth as the many wounds on her body stung all at once. Her eyes were red from crying so much and her face was wet for the same reason. While Twilight and the others looked to their friend’s suffering with sympathy and concern, the human looked at it with disappointment. “You know, I expected a lot more out of you after getting done with your green friend. She lasted fifty cuts before even shedding a tear. It’s a shame she got too antsy for her own good… I would have liked to play with her for longer.” The spirit said while shaking his head in discontent. “Don’t talk about Neon like that! She was a better person than you could ever hope to become.” Fluttershy said with a surprising amount of disdain towards the human. She leered at him as best she could given her sensitive nature and the pain she was going through. The man looked down at the yellow mare glaring at him and sighed in annoyance. “Shut up…” He said in a droning tone while slapping the pegasus across the face hard. Fluttershy yelped painfully before shifting her confidence to fear and crying while facing away from the human with her eyes closed. “How dare you!” Rarity yelled angrily while watching the pegasus crying with an appalled expression. She couldn’t believe that she just witnessed her friend getting struck in such a violent manner after merely speaking her mind. “Do you really think you can just hurt whoever you want with no consideration for them whatsoever?!” Rarity added while glaring at the human fiercely. The man paused what he was doing and turned to face the unicorn on the far side of the room. Twilight and the others watched anxiously as the ghost started walking across the room towards the white mare. Rarity felt terrified that she had gotten the spirit’s attention, but she kept her fierce glare up as she glanced behind the human at the pegasus still crying on the other side of the room. “What? You want me to start with you early?” The man asked while pointing the knife in his hand at the chained up unicorn. Rarity gulped nervously before looking over to Fluttershy and the others and gaining courage. “If it means you will leave Fluttershy alone, then yes. Do your worst you ruffian.” The white mare said in a resolute tone while glaring at the ghost fiercely. The man looked down at the knife in his hands and flipped it around slowly. He looked away pensively for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and letting out a sigh. “Alright, if you insist…” The human said before reaching forward and swiftly, yet very roughly, grabbing the unicorn by the head and pushing her head back. He held the knife up to her neck and pressed it against her skin. “NO!” Twilight and the others yelled in unison while watching the man with wide eyes. Most of the group flinched their eyes shut and turned away as they expected to hear the sound of the white mare getting her throat slit. Rarity yelped in surprise and fear as the man stared at her fiercely. She fell back to the floor as she tried to push the knife away. She could only place her hooves against the handle, half because she couldn’t touch the human, and half because she was afraid that she might cut herself if she moved the blade. “You still want me to do my worst?! I’ve had a lot of people on my tables before, and I have done a lot worse things than just cutting people!” The human yelled in the unicorn’s face. The white mare closed her eyes and tried her best to hold absolutely still while every muscle in her body tensed up. “No, please! I have a little sister at home, please don’t kill me!” Rarity begged in an attempt at getting the man to show mercy on her. She felt tears streaming down her face as her neck tingled from having a knife pressed so close to it. The human paused for a moment before suddenly and abruptly taking the knife away from the unicorn’s neck. He slammed it into the wall a mere inch away from her face, causing a loud thump that made Rarity squeal in fright. The white mare cowered and covered her face with her hooves for a moment before peeking out with one eye to see the knife blade embedded into the wall next to her. “There’s always someone at home waiting for you isn’t there?” The man said while taking a few steps away and chuckling playfully. “Hey, how old is your sister anyway? I just love the kiddies… after I’m done with you and I break out of this place with my siblings, maybe I’ll pay her a little visit and show her how much fun I had with her big sis.” The human added in a jovial tone while walking away from the unicorn. “Rarity, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking over at the quivering mess on the floor that was her friend. Rarity glanced up at her friends and sniffled before offering a shaky nod and wiping the tears out of her eyes. Twilight growled in frustration under her breath. She couldn’t stand watching her friends getting physically and emotionally attacked like this. As she struggled in vain to break out of her bonds or channel her magic, she quickly confirmed the information that she already had, which was that she couldn’t do anything. “So, now that the peanut gallery is taken care of…” The human said while walking over to Fluttershy and smirking. He held his left hand behind him with his palm open. Suddenly, the knife impaled into the wall by Rarity ripped itself out and zipped across the room into the spirit’s hand, causing the white mare to flinch in shock and look beside her with a stunned expression. “Let’s get back to business shall we?” The man said while walking up to the pegasus and holding the knife up to her chest. Fluttershy closed her eyes and seized up in terror as the tip of the knife just barely touched her. While the yellow mare was whining and whimpering fearfully, the ghost was looking around at the others while thinking for a moment. “Actually…” He said while taking the knife away and turning around. “I think I’ll start on you for the moment.” The human said while pointing the knife at Twilight and walking up to her. Before the stunned unicorn could process a reaction of fear, the man brought the knife down to her leg and pressed it into her skin. “GAHH!” Twilight screamed out in pain as the man slowly pressed the blade further in. Blood squirted out of the wound as the unicorn tried to move out of the way of the knife to no avail. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully while watching the purple mare suffering. The human pulled the knife out in one swift motion, causing Twilight’s outcry to die out into a series of pained squeaks. Everyone watched in horror as the human started doing to the unicorn what he was doing to the pegasus before. Several minutes went by at an agonizingly slow crawl as Peppermint walked along the hallway in search of the missing group. He was using his locator to try and find them through their heat signatures, but the glowing red vial of sand could only get him so close if he couldn’t find the right hallway to go down or the right room to duck into. “Come on… where are you guys?” Pepper muttered to himself while following the largest heat signature he could find. He was walking down a straight hallway at the moment, but the sand was glowing mostly on the right side of the vial, indicating that he would have to turn at some point. “Pepper, what in the hay do you think you’re doing?!” The sound of his brother’s voice in his head made the white stallion jump in fright. After catching his breath for a moment, he put his hoof up to his ear to answer his sibling. “I guess this means you just made it back?” Peppermint asked with a nervous chuckle and cringing while waiting for his brother to respond. “Yeah, we just made it back… and Sunspot has informed us that you went off by yourself to go and find the others.” Brimstoke interjected himself into the call, perhaps to save the stallion the trouble of listening to his enraged brother. “Sorry guys… I had to do something other than just stand around while the others were in trouble.” Peppermint explained in an earnest tone. “You could have at least waited for us!” Glimmer Shine stated loudly. “Pepper, I want you to hightail it back here right now!” He added with frustration clearly evident in his voice. “Glimmer, you know that I can’t do that. Twilight and the others might need help right now, and I have a head start on finding them. I’ll be safe from the ghosts as long as I stay quiet and keep the charm on me.” Peppermint explained with a determined tone of voice. “But… you… gah!” Glimmer Shine muttered in an upset stupor. He sounded like he was about to have an aneurysm. “Look Peppermint… if you think you can find them, do it. We’ll be making our way to you with our locators. If you find them, call us and wait for further orders.” Brimstoke instructed while leveling with the red haired stallion. “Roger that.” Peppermint said with a satisfied nod. “And Pepper…” Glimmer Shine spoke up in a calmer and more concerned tone. “Yeah?” Peppermint replied with a slight smile. The yellow stallion sighed before collecting himself and continuing. “Just be careful ok?” Glimmer Shine stated with an understanding, yet also worried, tone of voice. “You’re talking to the same guy who triple checks his work when pulling out a splinter... don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Peppermint said with a sincere tone of reassurance. Hearing no other responses from his teammates, the white stallion dropped his hoof to the floor and continued down the hallway. As he reached the end of the hallway he was in and turned right, Peppermint noticed that the signal was getting stronger. The entire front portion of the sand inside the vial was glowing red. Although he still had some distance to cover, he was getting closer. Smiling in satisfaction, the white stallion marched forward down the new corridor. After a few solid minutes of walking, the glowing red portion of the sand in the vial was growing. Judging from the amount of red sand in the bottle, Pepper estimated that whatever the reading belonged to was just up ahead. A shrill cry made the stallion’s ears perked up. It sounded like whoever it belonged to was nearby, and in a great deal of pain. Taking this as a sign to hasten his pace, the white pony trotted forward while being careful to remain quiet. As he got closer and closer to the sound, Peppermint noticed a light coming from a doorway up ahead. He quickly switched off his flashlight and crept closer. Now that he was close enough to hear the sounds coming from the room clearly, he gasped in shock as he recognized several voices coming from inside. “Just leave her alone… please.” The sound of Applejack’s voice carried out into the hallway. The orange mare sounded like she was mortified by something. Another painful cry escaped the room, this time Peppermint recognized the scream to belong to Fluttershy. Whatever was happening inside, it couldn’t be good. “Guys! I found them!” Pepper exclaimed urgently while putting a hoof to his ear and focusing on his teammates. “You did?! Where are you?!” Glimmer Shine asked frantically with a slightly relieved tone of voice. “I just took the hallway straight to its end and turned right. It looks like they are in a room just ahead of me.” Peppermint explained with an anxious inflexion in his voice. “Are they ok?” Sunspot chimed in with a concerned tone. “It sounds like they are being tortured by someone… probably that ghost that took Fluttershy and Neon.” Peppermint said uneasily. Bringing up Neon’s killer gave him an unsettling feeling in his stomach as he realized the terrible implications that Twilight and the others were being held captive by a vengeful spirit capable of murder. “Pepper, listen to me very carefully. I want you to stay back and wait for us.” Brimstoke instructed in a serious tone. “What? No way! They might be dead by the time you get here.” Peppermint stated in refusal to the stallion’s orders. “Peppermint, don’t you set hoof in that room. You might be one of the dumbest and bravest ponies I know, but you are still my brother, and I know when you are about to get yourself into some deep trouble!” Glimmer Shine said in an urgent tone while trying to convince his brother to stay put. “Glimmer Shine is right Pepper. Look… Tom just woke up and healed me. He’s in rough shape still, but even he is more likely to beat that ghost alone than you.” Sunspot said in a pleading tone. “Pepper, please listen to the others. You’re going to get yourself hurt if you go in there. Just wait for us, please. We’ll be there in a few minutes… just please wait.” Glitterball practically begged the white stallion to refrain from doing anything rash. Peppermint paused for a moment while thinking about his teammates’ concerns. They were only trying to protect him like they always have, but there were more important things to worry about than his own safety at the moment. “Sorry guys, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to them and I could have stopped it.” Pepper stated with a resolute tone while dropping his hoof to the floor and moving forward. “Pepper!” Glimmer Shine yelled in an urgent tone in a last attempt at stopping the white stallion. Once his brother gave up on trying to reason with him, Peppermint crept down the hallway while hugging the wall. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others were still at the mercy of the sadistic ghost. The human had shifted his attention to the others for long enough to give them a few cuts, but he was mostly focused on Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus wasn’t covered from head to hoof in wounds, but she was in bad shape from the look of the many bloody cuts and stab wounds she had. “Ugh… guh…” Fluttershy groaned in pain as the man made another cut down her front leg. Her body was starting to feel numb from all of the blood she had lost, but the knife still stung as it harshly sliced into her skin. “Hang in there Fluttershy.” Twilight said with a concerned frown while watching the pegasus. She tried her best to offer a reassuring expression as the yellow mare weakly turned her head to look at her. “We’ll get you out of this… Ah promise.” Applejack said in as much of a sincere tone as she could manage. The others weren’t even sure if the orange mare believed her own words. The human paused what he was doing and chuckled before briefly glancing at the ponies behind him. To think that they still had faith in their survival was laughable at best. There was absolutely no hope for them escaping this room alive. “I wouldn’t make promises that you can’t keep… what kind of friend would you be if you got her hopes up that she was going to live and then I killed her?” The man said with a lighthearted smirk that came off as much more sinister as he probably intended. “You hurt her and you’ll have to answer to me.” Rainbow Dash said in a threatening tone while leering at the human. “Heh… you are a funny one aren’t you?” The man said before returning his attention to the yellow mare. Rainbow Dash and the others turned away as the ghost made another cut across the pegasus’s chest. Fluttershy couldn’t even bring herself to scream anymore and instead resorted to a painful whimper and a series of sobs. Suddenly, the ponies caught a blur of movement over by the doorway. Rainbow Dash and Twilight were the first ones to see it, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked to the door as their friends’ eyes widened in surprise. Everyone had to stifle a joyous outcry as they noticed the familiar face of Peppermint poking his head through the door. The stallion looked at the ghostly human at the front of the room before looking around at the captive mares and slowly walking into the room. “I’m gonna help you.” Pepper silently mouthed to the four ponies while creeping through the doorway and into the room. Twilight and the others nervously glanced to the human with his back to them before nodding eagerly at the red haired pony. Rarity turned her head as she noticed someone moving beside her. She had to bring her hoof over her mouth to catch a surprised gasp as she saw the white stallion sneaking into the room. Peppermint silently hushed the unicorn with a nervous expression while glancing to the spirit at the far end of the room. Rarity nodded frantically before controlling her emotions and silently watching the stallion’s next move. Everyone watched as the red haired pony made every effort to be as silent as a ghost. A commendable effort considering he was trying to sneak up on an actual ghost. Taking things one step at a time, Pepper crept closer and closer to the center of the room while eyeing down at his vest where his strobe was kept. Fluttershy suddenly caught a glimpse of the white stallion as he slowly walked through the room. The human seemed to be genuinely unaware of his presence, and he was using this to his advantage. Even though the man cut her again across her side, she had new faith that she would be rescued. All eyes in the room save for the human’s were glued to Peppermint as he inched along. The charm on his vest was apparently working perfectly, because the spirit still hadn’t caught onto his presence. Deciding not to test his luck, Peppermint paused and slowly reached for the clip that he held his strobe on. Twilight and the others sweated nervously as they watched the stallion reaching for the clip and fumbling with the clasp on it. Finally, the clip opened up and Peppermint slid the small vial off of it. A quiet metallic clatter sounded out as the pony brought the vial up into a shooting position. He looked up nervously to see if the human heard him before preparing to fire. Just as suddenly as she heard the disastrous clatter of the stallion’s strobe, Fluttershy saw the human shifting his eyes to the side suspiciously. She looked down to Pepper and pleaded him with her eyes to fire and blast the spirit into oblivion. A loud buzz filled the air as Peppermint fired a blast of energy at the spirit. Twilight and the others watched in stunned silence as the bolt of light flew through the air, and completely missed the ghostly man as he dodged to the side. Fluttershy flinched from surprise as she felt the ball of light softly hit her and burst into sparkles. Peppermint gasped in surprise as the human spun around and glared at him. He raised the strobe again and fired off a volley of rounds at the spirit. The man swiftly dodged each shot fired by the stallion, all the while keeping an irritated expression on his face. Finally, the man swung his hand to the side. Peppermint felt a powerful force slapping the strobe out of his hooves. The vial flew across the room until it landed and rolled to a rest somewhere by Rarity’s feet. Although it was close by, the unicorn could barely move from her position chained to the pipe to reach the vial. Before anyone could react, the human darted forward and grabbed Peppermint by the neck. While the red haired pony choked and grunted while feverishly trying to pull the human’s ethereal hand away, the man lifted the full grown pony into the air and held him at arm’s length. “Did you really think that I would be interrupted a second time?!” The man yelled fiercely while clutching the knife tightly in his hand, and the pony’s neck even tighter in the other. “Hrk… gah…” Peppermint fought for every breath he took as the human’s grip tightened around him. Twilight and the others were shocked to see their savior being held in such a dangerous predicament. “Let him go!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely at the human while pulling on her legs again. “Don’t hurt him!” Pinkie yelled in a terrified manner while watching the scene unfold in front of her with wide eyes. “Hurt him? I’m not gonna hurt him… I’m sure he won’t feel a thing after I choke the life out of his body!” The human stated while putting a lot more effort into squeezing the white pony’s neck. Peppermint croaked in pain as his face started to turn blue. He was kicking his legs and squirming around while trying to fight the spirit, but his struggles were getting weaker by the second. “No! Please leave him alone!” Fluttershy pleaded in a distraught tone. The human temporarily loosened his grip and turned his head to face the bloody pegasus. “And what would you suggest I do with him?” The man asked curiously. “Please… just put him down.” Fluttershy said with tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn’t handle any more stress on her already shattered mind. The human glanced around at the six concerned mares around him. He then glanced to the white stallion gasping for air in his grip. Taking a brief look down at the knife still in his hand, the man smirked and chuckled slightly. “Alright, I’ll put him down.” The ghost said with a sinisterly calm inflexion in his voice. Twilight and the others briefly entertained a small amount of hope that the man had a heart after all, and that they had somehow pleaded to his sense of pity. This assumption was quickly shattered as the unthinkable happened. The man drew his arm back and violently snapped it forward, plunging the knife into Peppermint’s stomach region. A startled cry of pain escaped the stallion’s mouth as he cringed and clutched his new injury. Before anyone could react further, the human pulled the knife out and jammed it back in slightly lower. “AGH!” Peppermint screamed as loud as he could with the man still holding onto his neck. The six ponies stared on in horror as blood sprayed and gushed out of the wounds in the red haired pony. “Peppermint!” Twilight yelled in terror and dismay as she watched the human continuing his bloody onslaught. The man would plunge the knife into the stallion’s chest or stomach, pull it out, and then repeat. Each strike he made only gathered more speed and blood on the floor as the wet sounds of a knife stabbing into flesh filled the air. Peppermint blinked rapidly as he groaned from pain at each strike. A trickle of blood erupted from his mouth as a forced cough made its way to the surface. The white stallion seemed to be in a daze of agony and suffering that numbed him out faster than anyone could have expected. “Stop it!” Everyone in the room cried out at once. Finally, the human ceased his attacks. Blood poured onto the floor, either from the knife or from Peppermint’s shredded body. His entire chest and stomach was a bloody mess of stab wounds and dangling bits of flesh. “I said I would put him down… I didn’t say he would be alright when I did it.” The human said with an amused chuckle. The man glanced at the wounded pony in his grasp. Peppermint’s head was slumped forward and he had a drowsy look in his eyes. A few painful moans escaped his mouth, giving some sort of indication that he was still alive. The human grunted from exertion as he tossed the limp stallion across the room. Peppermint sailed through the air and hit a wall before plopping to the floor in between Rarity and Rainbow Dash. The red haired pony offered little more than a brief whimper of pain as a sign that he even felt the impact. Twilight and the others were speechless as they stared at the stallion with a puddle of blood forming underneath him. Their jaws were quivering and their bodies were shaking as their hearts exploded in their chests. “Pepper! Can you hear me?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a pleading tone while staring at the stallion’s relatively motionless body. “No… no… no!” Fluttershy shook her head and wailed mournfully as another pony got brutally attacked right in front of her. She cried loudly as new tears began forming in her eyes and a series of sobs crowded her throat. “I said stop crying!” The human roared angrily while quickly walking over to the yellow mare. Whatever the reason, the man was visibly upset and angered far more than the ponies had seen him before. “If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to slit every one of your friends’ throats and tape your eyelids open so you have to watch!” The man yelled while pointing with his knife around the room. He got up in the pegasus’s face and watched her as she continued crying. Fluttershy couldn’t control her emotions any longer. The shock of watching Peppermint getting stabbed in front of her, and the human threatening her friends’ lives and screaming at her was too much for her to handle. Even though she realized that she had to stop crying, she couldn’t prevent herself from sobbing and whining further. “Or how about I kill you huh? You’re getting to be a little more trouble than you’re worth, so how about I just jam this knife in your neck and be done with it?” The ghost asked in a serious tone. He grabbed the yellow mare’s chin and raised her head up to eye level while looking straight at her. Somehow, the sight of the bawling pegasus was only making him more upset, and Fluttershy certainly wasn’t calming down with his threatening demands. Suddenly, Rarity looked over to Peppermint as he groaned softly. She was surprised to see the stallion slowly pulling himself along the floor. He was barely making any progress, but he was trying his hardest. The white unicorn glanced to her feet and gasped in revelation as she saw the strobe lying just a few inches away. Rarity’s chains jingled as she struggled to maneuver herself closer to the vial. Her entire front half was fixed in place due to her front legs’ proximity to the pipe she was chained to. Frustrated at her lack of progress, the white mare dropped to the floor and scooted her lower legs closer to the vial. After stretching the limits of the chain and her muscles’ reach, the unicorn finally got into a viable position to reach the vial with her leg. Taking a quick glance over to Fluttershy and realizing the urgency of the situation, Rarity took a deep breath before gently kicking the vial in Peppermint’s direction. The strobe rolled along the ground before miraculously coming to a stop next to the white stallion. Peppermint slowly looked over to the vial next to him. He reached forward with his bloodstained hooves and grabbed the strobe as best he could with his shaking arms. Rolling onto his side, the stallion slowly pointed the weapon at the spirit and panted heavily while fighting against his injuries to function. Another magical burst filled the air as a bolt of light sailed across the room. The human spun around just in time to watch the ball of energy crashing into his body and exploding on contact. The man let out a scream of agony as his form violently flickered and smoked. Finally, the ghost vanished from sight as his voice distorted and faded. The room was deathly silent as the last of the human’s screams echoed and died out. The ponies were left to process what just happened and collect their jumbled emotions into something that they could understand. Finally, their attention turned to the stallion bleeding on the floor as he let out a wet cough. “Pepper... oh my gosh! Peppermint!” Twilight exclaimed in a distraught tone as she stared at the wounded pony on the floor. Peppermint let the bloodstained strobe roll off to the side and groaned painfully as he started dragging himself forward. The six mares watched with concerned expressions as the red haired pony slowly pulled himself along, leaving a trail of blood behind him. “What is it, darling?” Rarity asked in a sorrowful tone as the stallion got close to her. Peppermint fished around in his vest for a moment before pulling out a small key. “H-here… take… take t-this.” Pepper said weakly while trying to reach up to the white unicorn’s hoof cuffs. After failing to keep his arm steady enough to fit the key into the keyhole, the red haired pony let his arm fall to his side as Rarity gently took the key from him. Rarity quickly unlocked the cuffs binding her hooves together and let them clatter to the floor. She channeled energy to her horn and marveled as it lit up a brilliant purple before turning her attention to the task at hand. The chain holding the unicorn in place lit up in a purple aura before shattering into pieces. Rarity wasted no time before levitating the key over to Twilight and unlocking her cuffs. Once her own magic had been restored, the purple mare smiled in relief before freeing herself from her straps. As her friend slid off of the table and rushed over to free the others, Rarity turned her attention to Peppermint. “Don’t worry Pepper, we’re going to fix you up.” The white mare stated in a sincere tone while flashing a smile at the injured pony. Peppermint smiled weakly in return before letting his head fall back limply. Rarity gently lifted the stallion up with her magic and leaned him against the far wall. After setting him down, she began rifling through his vest to find any bandages or medical supplies he might have. “Sweet Celestia… are you ok Pepper?” Applejack asked as she trotted up to the bloody pony on the floor. Rarity looked up to see the rest of her friends walking up to join her. Although Fluttershy needed help walking due to her own blood loss, even she had a concerned expression on her face as she gathered around the red haired pony. “I’m not doing too good… *Cough*” Peppermint coughed as blood dripped down the side of his mouth. The entire front of his vest was covered in the crimson fluid, making it hard for the white unicorn to find any bandages, or anything else for that matter. “Just hang in there Pepper. We’re going to take care of you.” Twilight explained in a sincere tone. She looked over to see how Rarity’s progress was going, only to see the white mare pulling a bundle of bandages out of a pouch on the stallion’s vest. “You lift him, and I’ll wrap the bandages around.” Rarity said while looking to Twilight for assistance. “Right.” Twilight replied with a nod before lighting up her horn and wrapping her magic around the injured pony. Despite the unicorn’s efforts to be gentle, Peppermint groaned painfully as his body was lifted off the ground slightly. He cringed in pain as Rarity tightly wrapped the bandages around his chest and stomach. “I know this hurts darling, but just stay with us and it’ll be over soon.” Rarity said in what she hoped would be a comforting tone. “Heh… Glimmer is going to be so mad at me. He t-told me not to come h-here.” Peppermint stated with a small chuckle before falling into a fit of violent coughing. Rarity used one of the spare cloths to wipe the blood off of the stallion’s mouth after he was done. “Pepper… you saved our lives. I don’t know what to say… how can I thank you enough knowing that you got hurt to save us?” Fluttershy asked in a sad tone. The yellow pegasus had tears in her eyes as she stared at the wounded pony. Twilight and the others felt tears building up as the somber situation got to them as well. “That’s what I became a medic for… to help people. *Cough* I don’t care if I get caught up in the cross fire if I help someone in the end.” Peppermint explained with a slight smile on his face. He almost had a peaceful sort of air about him as he looked around at the six mares. “Hey… could you guys tell the others I said I’m sorry?” Peppermint asked in a sincere tone while struggling to stay awake. “We’ll tell them… but it won’t come to that. You can hold out until the others get here. Maybe Glitterball can patch you up with her magic?” Twilight suggested in a sad tone while trying to hide her building tears. She tried to think of something she could do to help the stallion, but any healing spells she knew weren’t nearly powerful enough to fix wounds like his. “I don’t think so…” Peppermint said in a quiet tone. Twilight and the others gasped as the stallion slowly closed his eyes. The white stallion let out a final sigh as his body heaved and his head drooped to the side. Everyone stood still in shock as they processed the image before them. The quiet sobs that the ponies were holding back were now building as they stared at the stallion with the hope that he would wake up again. “Pepper…?” Twilight asked in a sorrowful tone while reaching forward and checking the stallion’s pulse. As she drew her arm back and started shaking, the unicorn looked down and let out a mournful cry. Everyone else looked away and started crying as well as the purple mare’s reaction confirmed what they didn’t want to accept. “Guh… *Sob*… why?! Why did this have to happen?!” Rainbow Dash walked away from the group and stomped her hoof on the ground before sitting down and looking to the floor. She tried to prevent herself from breaking down into a fit of despair, but no matter how much she didn’t want her friends to see her like this, the cyan mare couldn’t stop crying. Applejack removed her hat and held it against her chest while weeping silently. Even with her tough cow pony exterior, the orange mare was crying from the sight in front of her. She couldn’t stop thinking that she or one of her friends would have taken the red haired pony’s place if he hadn’t shown up. She deeply wished that this didn’t have to happen, but she also felt a strong feeling of gratitude towards the stallion. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was holding onto Rarity tightly for comfort. The white mare could feel her pink friend trembling as she wept loudly into her shoulder, not that she was doing much better. Tears flowed out of the unicorn’s eyes as she sobbed and stared at Peppermint’s body. She had never experienced such grief and sadness before. Hearing about Neon’s death had made the two ponies sad, but watching Peppermint expiring in front of them shattered their worlds. Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting next to each other while staring at the bloody corpse in front of them. Their bodies were shaking as they sobbed openly while trying to process the empty feeling coursing through them. For both mares this was the second death they had witnessed up close. For Twilight, her first had been Daisychain back at the hospital, and for Fluttershy, it was Neon Streak a mere few hours ago. Both of them had twice witnessed someone drawing their last breath, and both of them felt hollow and broken on the inside. After a few minutes had gone by, the loud wails of lament shared by the group had died down, replaced by the occasional sniffle and quiet sob. Everyone had stopped crying enough to get up and walk away if they wanted, but nobody wanted to move. The ponies just remained in a circle around their fallen comrade and either silently let the last few tears out of their system or quietly wept to themselves. “*Sniff*… *Snivel*… *Hic*” Twilight wiped her eyes on her arm and looked down at it. Her fur was soaked from how much she had been crying and rubbing her eyes, but there was also a single cut along her front leg. Seeing the gash made her wince painfully among other things, but it also made her think about what she was up against. If anyone else got caught by the ghosts, they would be tortured and killed in an instant and there was nothing that could be done if they were alone. She had to get her and her friends out of the mansion if it was the last thing she did. “W-what do we… *Hic*… what do we d-do now?” Pinkie asked in a trembling tone of hopelessness. Her normally cheery attitude had died with Peppermint, and only sadness and despair remained. “We need to get out of here and find the others…” Twilight said while stifling her last few sobs to be heard clearly. Her voice was still trembling as well, but she sounded like she had committed to her plan. The purple mare slowly got up and walked over to the door. She then paused before the dark opening and turned to her friends. “But… but w-we can’t just leave him here.” Rainbow Dash said in a sad tone while looking over to Peppermint. She closed her eyes and averted her gaze before she broke down crying again. “I know… I know we can’t, but there is nothing we can do right now.” Twilight explained while putting a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We need to get out of here first. After we get rid of the ghosts, we can come back and get him and Neon out of here.” She said while trying her hardest to hold back the sadness still gnawing at her. Rainbow Dash looked down sadly for a moment. She then glanced around to her friends. Although they were still gloomy and wet with tears, their faces expressed how much they wanted to leave. Taking another look to the bloody stallion against the wall, the cyan mare realized how much they really needed to live. If they didn’t escape with their lives, then Peppermint will have died in vain, and she wasn’t about to let that happen. “You’re right… let’s get out of here. We need to find the others and tell…” Rainbow Dash paused as the sight of flashlights bouncing up and down in the doorway and the sound of multiple footsteps coming from down the corridor drew her attention away. Everyone got up and looked to the door as the footsteps got closer. Before long, the familiar forms of their friends burst in through the doorway. Sunspot, Tom, Glitterball, and Brimstoke were present, but Glimmer Shine led the charge into the room as he saw the group of mares. “Girls! We’re here. Where is…” Glimmer Shine’s voice trailed off as he looked around and noticed blood covering the six mares. There was also a trail of blood leading to behind the six ponies. Twilight and the others contemplated blocking, the stallion’s view of the horrible truth that was leaning up against the wall behind them, but the yellow pony quickly walked around them before they could get a chance. Glimmer Shine stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what had made the sad mares so distraught. A startled gasp escaped his mouth as he stared at his brother’s broken and bloody body. Sunspot and the others entered the room and walked forward until they too saw what had frozen their yellow friend. “Oh my gosh…” Glitterball exclaimed in shock while recoiling backwards a few steps. Brimstoke and Sunspot were just as shocked by the sight before them, but they were more concerned with the state of their teammate in front of them. “Glimmer… I-” Sunspot tried to put her arm around the stallion to lead him away from the terrible sight before him, but Glimmer Shine just shoved her arm away before slowly walking forward towards his brother. Everyone watched as Glimmer Shine walked forward with a shocked expression still frozen on his face. His legs were trembling and tears were already welling up in his eyes as he walked over to his brother and sat down. He didn’t even care about the pool of blood beneath him, he just reached forward and grabbed the limp stallion by the shoulders. “Pepper…?” Glimmer Shine spoke in a broken tone. He gently shook the red haired pony in disbelief before lowering his head and choking up. Twilight and the others watched sadly as the yellow stallion pulled Peppermint close and rested his head on his shoulder. “Pepper! Wake up… please!” Glimmer Shine pleaded in between sobs. Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned and walked out into the corridor with Brimstoke and the others. Sunspot stayed behind, either in shock from learning about her friend’s death, or to comfort the grieving stallion. As they walked out of the room, Twilight and Rainbow Dash moaned sadly in an attempt at keeping their emotions in check. They couldn’t handle watching Glimmer Shine mourning over the loss of his sibling. As the two mares looked around, they saw Pinkie Pie, Brimstoke, Glitterball, and Tom. Most of the group had tears running down their face. Glitterball was openly weeping while sitting up against the wall. Brimstoke and Tom weren’t crying, but they had distraught expressions on their face that told of how much they were hurting on the inside. Brimstoke switched between looking at Glitterball and peering inside the room to see the group of ponies trying to offer comfort to Glimmer Shine. It pained him to know that he had lost two of his teammates so suddenly. The white stallion had to physically prevent himself from breaking down like his teammates. “What happened?” Brimstoke asked in a somber tone while looking to Twilight and her two friends. Taking a quick look to the two mares beside her, the unicorn figured that it would be best if she explained. “We were attacked by a ghost while we were searching for the symbol. He somehow dodged everything we threw at him. After he knocked us all out, he took us here and started torturing us.” Twilight explained before taking in a deep breath to gather her emotions. “Peppermint snuck in and tried to shoot the ghost with his strobe. He must of heard him somehow… he dodged the blast and knocked the strobe away. After that…” She paused and looked down sadly. She tried to gather the strength to explain the rest of it, until she heard Tom walking away. Everyone looked over to see the human walking through another of the doorways with an upset expression. He groaned in frustration before making it out of earshot. Even though the area was pitch black outside of the light provided by the group, the human didn’t seem to care that he was walking into darkness. “What’s wrong with him?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone of confusion while looking to the others for their opinion on the matter. Everyone seemed clueless as to the odd behavior of the human, everyone except for Twilight that is. The purple mare had seen that expression on the boy’s face before. It was back at the hospital after he learned that Daisychain and Patches had died. Even so, he seemed to be much more upset this time as he stormed away from the prying eyes of the confused ponies. “I’ll go check on him.” Twilight said while lighting up her horn and walking into the other room after the human. As she entered the room and looked around, Twilight noticed that this room had several shelves and boxes lying around. Hearing a loud clatter in front of her, the unicorn looked ahead to see the human kicking a small box over in frustration. “Damnit!” Tom exclaimed in a distraught tone. He seemed to be venting whatever anger and sadness he felt at the time, but he was doing it a lot more violently than the purple mare had seen before. The human put his hands on his head and walked around while making frustrated and even somewhat sorrowful groans. “Tom…?” Twilight called the boy’s name in a concerned tone. She had never seen him acting so emotionally before. He seemed to be shaking from frustration and despair, almost like he didn’t know how to process the feelings inside of him. Tom turned to see that the unicorn had followed him and growled in frustration before turning away. He seemed to have a strong dislike for her seeing him act like this, but he was too unstable to care at the moment. “Damnit… it’s all my fault!” The human stated in a dreadful and agitated tone while walking over to the far wall of the room to distance himself from the purple pony. “What’s your fault Tom?” Twilight asked in a softer tone while hesitantly stepping forward. She knew that the human probably wouldn’t lash out at her, but she was unsure of what he would do at this point. “Everything… all of this! Luna is missing… Neon died… and now Pepper is dead too, and it’s all my fault!” Tom said while kicking the wall as hard as he could. The loud thud that resulted gave the impression that the strike would have hurt the boy’s foot, but he didn’t seem to care. “Tom… none of that is your fault, why would you think it is?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while walking closer to the human and sitting down next to him. While the boy breathed heavily while sitting on a box, the unicorn put a hoof on his shoulder to try and offer him some comfort. “I should have tried harder to beat that damn ghost… if I didn’t get captured and tortured, I could have saved them and stopped a lot of the other deaths that have happened tonight. Gah!” Tom clenched his fist and shifted around uneasily. Twilight could feel the human tightening his muscles and shaking from either rage or sadness. “You don’t know if you could have done anything… you couldn’t possibly know that. Besides, you tried your best. That’s all anyone could possibly ask of you.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while smiling at the human. She was confused to hear the slayer crying silently while trying to avoid looking at her. “That’s the problem… I did try my best. I fought that ghost with everything I had, and it still beat me. I’m supposed to be strong enough to fight evil so others don’t get hurt, but I couldn’t even beat a stupid ghost!” Tom stated in a distraught tone. Before Twilight could try to comfort him any further, he got up and walked away from her again. “Tom, I…” The purple mare paused as she noticed the human crying louder. Tom leaned up against the wall with his hands. He banged his fist against the wall a few times before lowering his head and weeping silently. “Damnit… why was I chosen?! Why couldn’t my friend have become the slayer?! He would know how to keep you safe right now.” Tom yelled in a distraught tone before turning around and sliding to a seated position. The human hid his head in his hands while trying to prevent the unicorn from seeing him cry. Twilight stared at the weeping boy on the floor with a sad expression of sympathy. She couldn’t imagine how he had shouldered the weight of such important duties at such a young age for so long, but it was all crashing down on him now. “Tom… you need to calm down.” Twilight said in a soft tone while walking over to the human and sitting down next to him. “Why…?” Tom asked while averting his eyes from the unicorn. He was surprised to feel the purple mare gently pulling his arm away to reveal his face. She had a sympathetic expression that told of how much she cared for him on her face. “You said that a slayer needs to stay strong emotionally, or it could negatively affect their health. If willpower is what is keeping you alive, I don’t think this is doing any good for you.” Twilight explained in a compassionate tone. “I don’t want to lose you just because you think everything is your fault… because it’s not. I’ve already told you that you can’t take responsibility for everything. Slayer or not, that is no way to live a healthy life.” She said while putting her hoof on his shoulder gently. “But… what am I going to do? What are we… going to do?” Tom asked in a sad tone. He was still concerned about what he was going to do to help the ponies escape the mansion. If he couldn’t fight the ghosts at full strength, what hope did he have of fighting them in his weakened state? “Right now, you’re going to come with me so we can get back to the others. To be honest… I don’t know what we’re going to do next. Now that we’re all together, we should probably look for Luna and then find that symbol. But I do know this… whatever we’re going to do, we’re going to do it together. We all care about you Tom… Don’t just assume that all of the weight has to go on your shoulders alone.” Twilight said in a sincere tone while smiling at the human. Tom looked down and sniffled for a moment while thinking about the unicorn’s words. He seemingly took a minute to process his thoughts and emotions before looking away briefly. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve and got the last of his sniffles out of his system before standing up. He looked down at the purple mare and managed to flash a weak smile. “Ok… I think I’m better now. Let’s get going… I’m sure that Glimmer Shine is having a worse time than me right now, so we should be there to help him if he needs it.” Tom stated while turning his attention back to the others. “Right.” Twilight replied with a nod of agreement. She got up and walked alongside the human towards the exit to the room. As they stepped out into the hallway, the pair noticed Brimstoke comforting Glitterball. The white unicorn was sitting on the floor with a mournful expression on her face. Taking a quick glance into the room, the two saw that everyone else was standing in front of Peppermint and trying to offer their support to Glimmer Shine. “We’re trying to think of our next move…” Brimstoke explained to the pair while looking at the group in the room. “Maybe we should look for Princess Luna?” Twilight suggested in a concerned tone. She was more worried about the alicorn than ever now that she knew from experience how strong the ghost in the basement was. “That’s what we were thinking… but we can’t do anything until Glimmer Shine is ready to leave.” Brimstoke said with a gloomy sigh while looking to the yellow stallion with a sympathetic expression. “Maybe I should talk to him?” Glitterball suggested while wiping the tears from her eyes. “No, I’ll do it. I think I can get him to move on… at least until we get out of this mansion.” Brimstoke said while getting up and walking into the room. Twilight and the others followed the stallion as he walked up to the others and stood in front of the grieving pony. “Glimmer… we need to get out of here.” Brimstoke said in a sympathetic manner while glancing to the lifeless pony to his right. “I know…” Glimmer Shine said in a sad tone while staring at his brother’s body. “I’m just not sure if I can leave him.” He said while trying to hold himself together. “We’ll be back for him… we can get him out of here once we get rid of those ghosts.” Brimstoke said in an understanding tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the yellow stallion’s shoulder. “Ok… I think I’m ready to go.” Glimmer Shine said while holding his attention on the bloody pony on the floor. Despite his words, it was easy to tell that he didn’t want to leave. “Come on everyone, let’s get going. We need to find the princess and get out of here.” Brimstoke said while ushering everyone out of the room. Twilight and the others glanced at Glimmer Shine with sad expressions as they walked away. Everyone looked to Peppermint one last time before lowering their heads sadly as they exited the room. Glimmer Shine stared at Peppermint mournfully while the others waited for him. He finally managed to tear his gaze away from his brother and walk away. He slowly walked to the others and joined them as they headed down the hallway. Chapter 89: Searching for a Way OutAn uneasy silence hung in the air as the group marched forward through the darkened corridors. Nobody was able to overcome their feelings of dread and sadness for long enough to start up a conversation. The group merely followed Brimstoke aimlessly as they dwelled on what just happened, and what they were doing. Their goal was clear enough, they had to find Princess Luna and escape, but their odds of succeeding were as shady and unclear as the darkness around them. Following the path that led further into the basement and into the unknown, everyone darted their eyes around anxiously. If not to find a sign of the princess or the elusive red symbol, then to scan for any sign that they were being watched by one of the three spirits. Twilight glanced around at her friends to see how they were holding up. As expected, Glimmer Shine was sullenly walking off to the side. Fluttershy was looking down sadly while trembling slightly, as if she were trying to compose herself. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were walking alongside the yellow mare, trying to offer her comfort in some way. Despite their best efforts at appearing strong, even they were dealing with an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Thankfully however, any wounds they had received from the ghost were healed by either Tom or Glitterball, so the baggage they were carrying was purely emotional. Twilight shrugged sadly before returning her attention forward. She couldn’t believe that things had come to this point. Numerous guards and two of their close friends had died since they came to the mansion. If the purple unicorn and her friends couldn’t find the final symbol to suppress the ghosts, then they might perish as well. “How are you holding up?” Tom asked while glancing back to the purple mare with a concerned expression. Twilight had to take a minute to gather herself to even pretend to smile in response. She had just survived a ghost trying to torture her and her friends, not to mention witnessing Peppermint getting brutally stabbed and slowly dying. “Umm… about as well as can be expected. Heh…” Twilight tried her best to brighten her own spirit. “How about you?” She asked curiously while thinking back to the way the human was acting before. “I’m doing better, but I’ll be really happy once we find the princess and get out of here.” Tom stated while looking around uneasily. Twilight nodded in silent agreement while scanning her head around the area. Meanwhile at the front of the group, Brimstoke and the others were trying to find out where to go next. The white stallion was holding up his locator and scanning it back and forth. The thin line of red light that covered the sand at the side of the vial was barely an indicator of which path to take. “Got anything?” Sunspot asked curiously while leaning closer to look at the stallion’s locator. “I’m picking up something in this direction, but it’s too far away to pinpoint.” Brimstoke explained with an annoyed shrug. Every time he waved the vial to the side, the red light would shift to the other side too fast to determine where the signal was coming from. “Do you think we should turn here?” Glitterball asked while glancing down a fork in the hallway coming up on the right. Sunspot and Brimstoke tried their best to interpret the readings from both of their locators. “Your guess is as good as mine Glitter… I can’t make heads or tails of this. Maybe we can get closer if we head down there?” Sunspot pondered while shining her flashlight down the hallway. There were more open doorways leading into rooms, just like all of the other hallways they had seen. “Let’s see if there is another fork further down. We should make sure we get as close as possible before wandering off.” Brimstoke suggested while turning to look down the corridor in front of the group. “Whatever gets us out of here quicker is fine by me.” Glimmer Shine said in a dull tone while walking down the hallway ahead of the group. The yellow stallion seemed to be uninterested in the outside world. So much so that he didn’t seem to care about walking down a dark hallway on his own with ghosts on the loose. The others shared a concerned glance with each other before walking to catch up with their friend. Twilight and the others watched anxiously as the team of ponies checked their locators feverishly, waiting for the red light to become solid enough to warrant them changing direction. They silently worried that the life signature that they were following wouldn’t even lead them to the princess. A few of the ponies briefly entertained the fear that they would somehow find the ghosts at the end of the trail, but such an idea was just silly paranoia as the locator was designed to find living things. The soft noises of the house creaking around them were enough to make the more sensitive members of the group dart their heads around fearfully, while the others merely looked around uneasily. Everyone felt like they were walking towards some sort of unseen danger that was just waiting to jump out at them from a darkened room. Finally, as the group looked up they noticed another fork in the hallway coming up. Everyone gathered around and peered down the hallway as Brimstoke and the others scrutinized their locators. The red light on the sand was more definable in the direction they were pointing, but whatever the source was still had some distance to the left. “I think we should walk this way now. Whoever this is is probably in a room further down there.” Brimstoke suggested while pointing the vial between the two directions. “I don’t know… maybe it’s down this way. Maybe there’s a room that leads into another room or something.” Sunspot said while walking a little further down the straight path. “This place is pretty confusing… what do you think guys?” Brimstoke asked while looking to Glitterball and Glimmer Shine for their opinions. “I think you’re right… we should probably go right. It looks like we might overshoot it if we go any further straight.” Glitterball said in an uncertain tone. She glanced between her teammates’ vials and compared them to her own reading. “I don’t know guys… I don’t want to make the wrong choice and spend another ten minutes walking in circles.” Sunspot said uneasily while looking to the others. She frowned uncomfortably while thinking about the possibility of Twilight and the others getting hurt if they ran into trouble. “I think we should go right.” Tom spoke up from the back of the group with an uneasy tone that the others failed to pick up on. “Well… maybe Sunspot is right? We could find another way around further ahead if it doesn’t work out.” Rarity suggested in an attempt at getting a compromise. “Thank you Rarity.” Sunspot said with a pleased smirk while glancing between her teammates. “No guys, I don’t think you understand… I really think we should go r- *Gasp*” Tom was interrupted mid-sentence as a puff of blue mist escaped his mouth, filling the air with a harsh and chilling sound. Shortly after the human’s outburst, a collective buzz filled the air as Brimstoke and his teammates’ other locators lit up. The liquid in the vials was glowing in the direction of the straight hallway while buzzing and vibrating against their vests. Everyone quickly went on full alert as they directed their attention down the corridor in front of them. Sunspot backed up a few steps as another set of echoing footsteps started coming down the hall. Fluttershy cowered nervously behind her friends as they all stared into the darkness at the edge of the flashlights’ reach. Twilight and Glitterball lit up their horns in preparation to defend themselves as the others reached for their strobes. “What is it?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while holding onto Applejack for support. The orange mare could feel the pink pony shaking her entire body as she vibrated from fright. “Feels like one of the ghosts, but I haven’t felt this one before.” Tom said while making his way to the front of the group and using his senses a few more times. “So it’s not the scissor lady… that’s good, right?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hopeful tone. “What if it’s that man again?” Fluttershy asked with a growing feeling of fear building in her core. She could feel her legs wobbling as she thought about the ghostly human capturing her and her friends again. “It’s probably not him… it took him a while to come find us again after we found you the first time.” Brimstoke said in an attempt at easing the yellow mare’s fears. “But that means that it’s the guy that chased us… the one with the axe.” Glitterball said in an uneasy tone. Applejack, Rarity, and Sunspot suddenly became a lot more nervous as they thought back to their experience with the axe wielding spirit. “Do you think we can take him?” Sunspot asked while glancing to the others and sizing up how much firepower they had. “I don’t know if fighting him would be a good idea… he dodged every shot Glitter fired at him when we saw him.” Rarity said uneasily. “And I’m not sure if Tom is up for fighting another one of them directly.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking to the human to see how he was doing. He looked better than before, but he still looked a little tired. “I can still fight him… but I’m not sure if I can win if he is as strong as that woman.” Tom said in an attempt at lifting the others’ spirits. “Is he as strong as that woman?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while listening to the footsteps getting closer. “Yes… definitely yes.” Tom replied in an uneasy tone. The human’s confidence in how powerful the ghost was only made the others even more nervous. Meanwhile, the footsteps were getting louder and louder. The ponies watched the darkness ahead of them for any signs of movement. They could practically see what they imagined to be the dark outline of the ghostly human getting closer to them. They didn’t have to imagine for long however as a dark silhouette actually appeared and slowly approached the light. “We better decide a plan of action fast! We’re out of time guys!” Glitterball said uneasily. “What do we do Brimstoke… run or fight?” Sunspot asked while looking to her leader for advice. Brimstoke looked around the group uneasily. Everyone was nervous or afraid, but most of the ponies seemed to be willing to fight if it came to it. “Run… let’s get out of here!” Brimstoke said while quickly backing towards the hallway on the right and motioning for the others to follow. Twilight and the others ran ahead as Sunspot and Glimmer Shine stayed behind them. The two ponies glanced behind them while running to see if the human was following them. The lack of an axe wielding maniac running behind them at least told the group that the ghost wasn’t rushing to chase them. “Should we duck into a room and hide? Maybe those charms of yours can hide us from the ghost.” Twilight suggested while looking to Brimstoke at the front of the group. “No, that wouldn’t work. The suppression charms only have enough range to protect the wearer and maybe one person that’s really close. There aren’t enough of us to keep all of you hidden… even if we huddle up.” Brimstoke replied while watching his locator to try and determine where they were running to. “Well maybe we won’t have to. It looks like he isn’t following us.” Glitterball said in a hopeful tone. “No, it looks like he isn’t running after us. He’s probably still back there if I know him… that creep chased me and the others all around the outside of the house.” Sunspot said in an uneasy tone. “We need to hurry up and find the princess. How close are we to that signature, Brimstoke?” Glimmer Shine asked urgently while trying to glance at the white stallion’s vial as he ran. Suddenly, the light on the sand in the vial made a sharp shift to the left side. “Everyone turn this way!” Brimstoke yelled while ducking into a room on the left. Everyone skidded to a halt and nearly slid past the room before following the stallion inside. Once everyone made it in, Tom closed the door that was miraculously present. Rainbow Dash walked up to the door and looked for a lock. She would feel a lot better if she had some kind of barrier between her and the spirit. Finding a small lock on the door handle the pegasus started to reach for it, before she was stopped by the human. “Don’t bother… he’s a ghost, remember? He can walk through walls.” Tom explained in an uneasy tone. “Oh that’s just not fair.” Rainbow Dash shrugged in frustration before catching her breath and walking over to the others. Everyone was gathered in the middle of the room while taking a look at their surroundings. The room the ponies found themselves in was another medium sized one full of assorted boxes and a couple of shelves off to the left side. There were pipes running along the ceiling, along with a few cracks that ran all the way down to the right wall. There were two open doorways at the far end of the room on the front wall and the right wall. Both doors led into more darkness that concealed the rooms beyond. “Well… that pretty much confirms that all of the ghosts can come down here. Hopefully we don’t run into that scissor lady down here as well.” Twilight said while silently questioning her belief in bad luck and jinxes. “We might have lost him for now, but he will probably find us soon. Where do we go from here?” Sunspot asked curiously while looking to Brimstoke for advice. The white stallion brought up the vial full of sand and pointed it forward. The red light in the vial was focused on the sand at the front of the bottle, indicating that whatever they were looking for was at least straight ahead of them. “Looks like we go forward… hopefully it isn’t too much further.” Brimstoke said in a hopeful tone. The group crept forward and hesitated at the doorway to the next room. They looked inside and scanned their lights around to get a better look. The room was a larger one full of shelves and medical tables. There was another doorway at the far end of the room which most likely led to whatever the ponies were trying to find. Everyone hoped that they would find a familiar blue alicorn at the end of this wild goose chase. Brimstoke led the others into the open room while holding his locator in front of him. The red light was getting bigger and bigger. By the time the ponies made it half way through the room, the light was filling half of the vial. “I think we’re close… really close.” Brimstoke said while glancing into the open doorway ahead of him. There seemed to be an opening out into another hallway. However, there was another doorway on the far wall that actually had a door, which was closed. “Yeah… but close to what?” Sunspot asked with a twinge of unease in her voice. Everyone walked out into the hallway and scanned their heads left and right to get a better look at their surroundings. Finding no sign of any spirits in the lengthy corridor, the ponies turned their attention to the door ahead of them. “Well, whatever it is, it’s in there.” Glitterball said while looking at her own locator. The sand in the vial was almost fully aglow with red light, indicating that the source of the reading was directly ahead. “Do you think it’s the princess?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “What if it’s one of the hooded ponies?” Pinkie asked nervously while staring at the door with a hesitant expression. “I don’t think the hooded ponies are even here anymore… they left that creep Shadow Mist and a few workers here and ran away with their tails between their legs.” Rainbow Dash said with a clear twinge of disdain in her voice. “Still, we should be careful. Maybe it’s another group of hoods that holed up before everything happened.” Rarity cautioned the group nervously while distancing herself from the door. The last thing she wanted to find was another group of potentially dangerous ponies on edge. …Ugh… Suddenly, a muffled voice came from the room on the other side of the door. The voice was barely loud enough to hear, but it sounded like the owner was in pain. Twilight immediately recognized the voice to be one she had heard many times before. “That’s not one of the hooded ponies!” Twilight exclaimed before rushing forward and grabbing the handle of the door. The door swung open with a brief and loud creak, allowing the unicorn to rush inside before anyone could even realize what she was doing. The purple mare entered the room and frantically looked around with her light illuminating everything in the area. The room was wider than it was long, with the far side of the room extending beyond the reach of the unicorn’s light. At the edge of her sphere of light, Twilight saw a dark silhouette on the floor that seemed familiar to her. She started to rush forward to see who was in the room with her, but she only made it a few steps before she stopped suddenly from shock. Just as the unicorn had suspected, the figure on the floor was in fact Princess Luna, but the state she was in was horrific to say the least. The alicorn was covered from head to hoof in bloody cuts and bruises. Her body was chained to the wall by a rusty looking shackle around her waist, and there was a pair of hoof cuffs around her front legs that had strange symbols inscribed into them. “Princess!” Twilight gasped in shock at the sight of the injured alicorn. She rushed forward and knelt down in front of the princess while she remained on the floor with her eyes closed. Miraculously, Luna groaned as she opened her eyes and started to stir. “Ugh… Twi..light?” Luna spoke in a weak tone while trying to raise her head to look up at the unicorn. Her neck shook as her muscles failed to carry her weight. “Don’t strain yourself… it’s ok princess, you’re safe now.” Twilight said in a comforting tone while assessing the blue mare’s injuries with a concerned expression. “Sweet Celestia…” The sound of Sunspot’s voice, followed by the shocked gasps of her friends alerted Twilight to their presence. She turned around to see the group staring at her and the injured alicorn next to her with their jaws agape in horror. “What happened to her?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone while rushing over to assist the purple mare. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot raced to help their leader to free the princess from her chains while everyone else gathered around and watched fearfully while staring at Luna’s poor state of health. “I don’t know… from the look of it she must have been captured by that ghost just like we were.” Twilight said in a worried tone while looking to the magic suppressing hoof cuffs on the princess’s front legs. Judging from the wounds on her body and the obvious fact that she was held against her will, the symbols on the cuffs must have been powerful enough to suppress even Luna’s magic. “Yes… that is right… guh.” Luna muttered while breathing heavily. She looked like she was fighting just to catch her breath. “Don’t worry Princess, we’ll have you out of here in no time.” Brimstoke said while stepping closer and fishing his cutter out from his vest. Glitterball and Sunspot held the chain still as the white stallion started cutting it free from the wall. Once the sound of the chain breaking free rang out, the blue alicorn started trying to get up. Although she was faltering and cringing in pain, she was slowly making progress on getting to her feet. “You should rest Princess. It looks like you’ve lost a lot of blood.” Twilight suggested with a worried expression. “I’ll be alright…*pant* Can… can you please get these bonds off of me?” Luna asked in a sincere tone while looking over to Brimstoke and his team. Due to her jittery muscles and general weakness, she only managed to slightly turn her head towards the others. “Of course ma’am… Glitter, can you get that shackle off of her? I don’t feel comfortable using the cutter that close to her skin.” Brimstoke asked while bending down and fishing a key off of his vest to open the cuffs. “I’ll try my best.” Glitterball replied with a slight twinge of nervousness in her voice as she lit up her horn and focused her magic on the shackle around Luna’s body. She didn’t want to hurt the alicorn any more than she already was, but she was faced with the task of opening a locked shackle around her waist. “Hold still Princess, I’ll see if I can get this shackle off of you.” Glitter said in a gentle tone while offering the princess a reassuring expression. Luna smiled softly and nodded in response. Despite her attempts at appearing cheerful, the alicorn’s pale appearance and jittery movements made everyone worry for her. Everyone watched as Glitterball strained her magic to unhook the shackle by force. Luna felt the shackle moving slightly as the unicorn pulled on it with all of her might. After a few moments of grunting and heaving, the hefty shackle popped open and clattered to the floor, freeing the blue alicorn. Luna slipped her front legs out of the hoof cuffs as Brimstoke finished unlocking them. She groaned painfully as she stood on trembling legs. Her body was covered in painful looking cuts, which had obviously robbed her of much needed energy through blood loss. “Thank you everyone… I am so glad that you found me before that dreadful spirit returned.” Luna said in a grateful tone while managing a genuine smile despite her tired exterior. “What happened to you Princess? Those wounds look awful.” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “After I got separated from Tom, I tried to find another way to get upstairs. It didn’t take long for this terrible man to find me. He must have knocked me out, because the next thing I remember was waking up here with these shackles on me. He tortured me for what seemed like an eternity until he left me here. I thought I was going to die in here.” Luna explained with an uneasy tone of voice. “Here… let me heal you.” Tom suggested while stepping forward and holding his hand out to the alicorn’s body. The princess pulled away from the human before he could start the process of healing her injuries. “No Tom… I appreciate your concern, but you need all of the energy you can get. You look so weak… I assume that ghost did the same thing to you as this one did to me?” Luna asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… but she could only stuff me into a locked room. I guess there weren’t any chains lying around for her to use. This family is messed up… all three of them.” Tom said with an uneasy shrug. “Three? There are three of them?” Luna asked with a surprised expression. “Yes. The ones that attacked both of you, and one that carries around an axe that attacked me and the others outside.” Sunspot explained uneasily as she recalled her experience with the third spirit. “And what of the guards that were outside with you?” Luna asked in a hesitant tone. Judging from the look on the orange pegasus’s face, she could already gather the answer without a word being said. “They… didn’t make it.” Sunspot explained while looking down somberly. “I’m just glad that you made it out of there with your life Sunspot. If only we had a way to give those spirits the retribution they deserve.” Luna said in a frustrated manner while trying to think of how she would lead the others to victory. Now that they had freed her, she wanted to take responsibility for everything again, but she had no idea what to do. “Don’t worry about that, Princess. We found a way to beat the ghosts using the symbols that Shadow Mist used to summon them.” Twilight stated in a reassuring tone while offering the alicorn a confident expression. Luna seemed surprised by the prospect that the group had discovered a method of disposing of the spirits. “Really?” Luna asked in an amazed tone. She would have to slap herself later for doubting Twilight Sparkle and her group of friends and their ability to persevere through hardships. “Yes! All we have to do is use magic to overload the three seals, and we’ve already finished two of them!” Twilight said with excitement brimming in her voice as the thought of escaping the mansion with her life and her friends intact became closer to reality than it had ever been since the ghosts showed up. “That is wonderful! I knew I could count on you all to find a way out of this terrible mess.” Luna said with newly found enthusiasm. If it weren’t for her many bloody cuts, she would look like nothing was wrong with her for once. “Now that everyone is here, we can start looking for that last symbol. It should be down here in the basement somewhere.” Glimmer Shine explained in a relieved tone. Now that they had found the princess, anything else that came their way would be a cake walk. However, the stallion’s words weren’t uplifting to the blue alicorn. In fact, Luna found them to be rather confusing. “Everyone is here? What about Neon Streak and Peppermint? Where are they?” Luna asked in a curious tone while double checking the room to see if she just hadn’t seen the two among the crowd of ponies. The mere mention of the two names made everyone’s newly gained happiness and excitement vanish, only to be replaced by uneasy silence and somber expressions. Twilight and the others looked to Glimmer Shine to see how he was reacting. The princess obviously didn’t know about anything that had happened since she was captured, but that wouldn’t make hearing about his brother and having to hear a conversation he wanted to forget any easier for the yellow pony. Luna slowly realized what the group was insinuating with their eyes. They looked like they wanted to speak up and explain it to her, but everyone was too pained and uneasy to talk about it. She frowned in disbelief while looking to someone, anyone, to speak up and tell her that it wasn’t as bad as she was thinking. “They’re dead…” Finally, the silence was broken by two somber words. However, they came from a person that the group least expected them to. Glimmer Shine was somehow looking up at the princess with a somber and pained expression. Before, the stallion would look down to the floor at the mere mention of his brother, but now here he was offering the alicorn a blunt and matter of fact statement. “Oh my… I… I…” Luna gasped in shock and covered her mouth as she recoiled slightly from hearing the news. She looked around with panicked eyes to see the others turning away sadly or offering her sad expressions. A solid few seconds passed by as she processed the initial shock of hearing that two of her trusted team members were dead. The princess gasped in shock again as she settled her eyes on Glimmer Shine and realized why everyone was so shocked to see him in such a composed state. Despite his courage, the alicorn could see the yellow stallion fighting back the urge to cry. Losing Neon Streak would have been bad enough, but Glimmer had lost his brother along with a close friend. “I’m so sorry Glimmer Shine. I’m so sorry…” Luna said the only thing she could think of while moving closer to the stallion and placing a hoof on his shoulder. Glimmer Shine could no longer bring himself to face the alicorn, or anyone else for that matter, as he stared at the floor and tried to refrain from crying in front of a princess. “This is all my fault… if I had just listened to my sister when she offered to help, none of this would have happened.” Luna said in a forlorn manner while hanging her head low with a saddened expression. She was surprised to suddenly feel Glimmer Shine gently removing her hoof from his shoulder. As she looked up expecting to see him with a depressed expression, she instead saw that he had a surprisingly relaxed expression. “None of this is anyone’s fault princess… least of all yours.” Glimmer Shine said in a reassuring tone. “We’ll have plenty of time to mourn our losses after we get out of here. I don’t want Shadow Mist and the others to get away with this, and there won’t be many people left to hunt them down if we die in here. Don’t you agree?” He asked while managing a small smile. Luna was completely flabbergasted as she looked at the stallion in front of her. He should have been bereft with grief, but he was somehow putting on a brave face for long enough to console her. It should have been the other way around. The blue alicorn had let her emotions get the better of her in the moment, but she never expected Glimmer Shine to be the one to offer her reassurance. Still, it was easy to see that the yellow pony was still hurting underneath his hollow smile. “Right… you’re absolutely right.” Luna said in a more composed tone. The others were happy to see that the blue alicorn was keeping a relatively cool head. As much as they wanted to sit down and cry over the ones they had lost, they had a more important matter to attend to, escaping the mansion with their lives. “Now, you said that all we need to do to defeat these ghosts is to overload the final seal?” Luna asked curiously while turning to Twilight for an answer. The purple unicorn shrugged as she realized that they were now at another dead end. “Yeah… but we have to find it first. We’ve been through most of the basement by now, and we haven’t found any sign of it.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone while looking around at the others. Everyone else had equally drained expressions on their faces as they slowly gave up hope of finding a way out of the mansion. “Well, I don’t know. We haven’t been looking in all of the rooms… maybe we missed it?” Pinkie Pie suggested in an innocent tone, blissfully unaware of the full implications of her statement. Everyone groaned in dread as they thought of the prospect of searching the basement high and low for a single patch of red paint. “Relax everyone. I think I might have an easier way to find that symbol.” Luna said in a confident manner. “What…? Really?” Twilight asked in a curious tone. The purple mare’s guarded sense of doubt was felt by most everyone in the room. However, they were a little more confident that the princess knew what she was doing. “Yes… I know a locator spell that can detect magical energy signatures. If we are fortunate, I will be able to use it to ascertain the location of the last seal.” Luna explained in a hopeful tone while looking around at the others. Everyone felt their spirits’ lifting slightly from even the proposal of a plan that was sound in design. “That’s great, Princess!” Twilight said in a cheerful manner. She was more hopeful and confident than she had been in a long time. “Here, just give me… ugh… just give me a moment.” Luna cringed painfully as she tried to light up her horn. Just moving around seemed like it was causing her pain, so using her magic was a far stretch given the weakened state she was in. Suddenly, her front legs buckled and she nearly fell to the floor. “Princess!” Twilight exclaimed in a worried tone while racing forward to catch the alicorn as she fell to her knees. Brimstoke rushed forward along with the purple mare to assist the princess. Luna barely managed to keep her back legs steady as she rested on the floor. “Ugh… s-sorry… I… I felt a little lightheaded all of a sudden.” Luna said while working her way back to her feet with the assistance of the two ponies holding onto her. Despite the fact that she was now standing, the alicorn was taking shallow and rapid breaths. “Oh my gosh… you’re shaking so much.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while observing the sickly alicorn. “*Gasp*… and you’re freezing.” She widened her eyes in shock as she reached up to feel the princess’s forehead. Her skin was pale, clammy, and icy cold. “Don’t worry about me… I’ll be fine after we find that symbol and get out of here.” Luna said while trying to put on a strong front for the group. The fact that she had to pause to catch her breath every few words made it so nobody believed the alicorn’s statement. “I’m not sure if you should be using magic right now Princess. I really think you should take a minute to rest.” Twilight suggested in a ginger tone while pleading with her eyes to get the alicorn to conserve her energy. “Maybe you should let Tom heal you Princess? You can barely stand… surely he can spare enough energy to make you feel better.” Rarity suggested while looking to the human for confirmation. Although the boy was still weak from earlier, he looked like a million bits compared to the sickly alicorn. “Yeah, it would be no problem. I can manage healing you at least a little bit.” Tom said in agreement with the others. Everyone looked to the blue mare with concern in the hopes that she would listen to reason. “No… no, I’m fine. I just need to catch my breath.” Luna said while forcing all of her feelings of pain and weakness inside and putting on a smile. “I can do this. Once we get out of here, you can worry about me all you want. But for right now, I’m going to find that symbol.” She said in a sincere manner. Twilight looked around at the others to see their opinions on the matter. Everyone seemed uncertain about what they should do. Twilight herself still felt like the princess should rest, but she couldn’t very well make the decision for her, as much as she wanted to just hold her down and sick Tom on her. “Ok… just take it slow and easy for us.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. Luna nodded silently while flashing a brief smile. Everyone watched anxiously as the princess lowered her head and concentrated. Luna groaned from exertion as she strained to get her horn lit up. Slowly but surely, a brilliant blue glow enveloped the alicorn’s horn as magic started flowing through her. Although her legs were shaky, and she was straining herself heavily, Luna was seemingly succeeding with her spell. A magical buzz filled the air as the glow on the blue mare’s horn grew slightly brighter for a moment. “I think I found it… Ugh… t-this way.” Luna said while letting her horn die down and slowly walking towards the door. Everyone followed the princess at a slow crawl as she led them out of the room. After slowly making their way through the other rooms and back out into the hallway, the group turned left and started trekking into new territory. But now, instead of walking forward without much of a purpose, the group actually knew where they were going. Still, the newfound feeling of confidence that came from having someone to guide them through the dark corridors did little to distract them from the unseen dangers around them. Twilight and the others nervously glanced between Princess Luna and Brimstoke’s team members to see if their locators were glowing. Any one of the three murderous spirits could be following them without them knowing, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. “How are you holding up?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while watching Luna cringe painfully as she moved. “I’m feeling better than before… I should be alright.” Luna said while offering the concerned unicorn a brief smile. “Try not to push yourself too hard. Do you know how close we are?” Applejack asked curiously. She hoped that they didn’t have far to go. Not only for the sake of getting out of the mansion earlier, but also to let the blue alicorn rest. “It’s hard to say where it is exactly. I think there should be a way to get to it up ahead.” Luna said while concentrating for a moment. She groaned silently and shook her head to steel herself against the pain she was feeling. “Any sign that we’re being followed, Tom?” Brimstoke asked curiously while taking a suspicious glance behind the group. Although his locator wasn’t glowing prominently enough to warrant concern, he trusted the human’s senses more. “Hold on a second, let me check.” Tom said while taking in a deep breath. The human closed his eyes for a moment as he let out a controlled puff of blue mist from his mouth. After a few cycles of taking a breath and using his senses, he opened his eyes again and groaned slightly from exertion. “I can barely feel anything outside of a certain distance around us. Either I’m weaker than I thought, or there is some kind of suppression charm keeping my senses at bay. From what I can feel though, the area around us is clear.” Tom explained while shrugging his shoulders in disappointment. “Well… thanks for trying at least. That sort of puts my mind at ease.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while offering the human an uncertain expression. She appreciated the effort the boy was putting into helping in his weakened state, but she wasn’t sure if his diminished senses would be of much use. “Let’s just focus on getting to that symbol for now. We can worry about those ghosts if and when they show up.” Rainbow Dash suggested while hiding an uneasy frown from the group. She was nervous about running into the spirits again, and she wasn’t the only one in the group. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were practically huddling together and darting their eyes around like they were being hunted by a pack of wild animals. Getting their minds off of the ghosts for a while would probably serve the ponies well. After a few minutes of walking, the group noticed a peculiar break in scenery from the usual open doorways and rooms. Coming up on their left, there was a wide hole in the wall that seemed like it opened up into some kind of larger space. The odd nature and sudden appearance of the hole elicited the group to stop and examine it. Twilight bent down and shined her light through the hole. Much to her surprise, the light revealed a larger opening that was big enough to be an entire room in its own right. The floor was completely earthen, with exposed pieces of wood and brick covering the only visible wall and the low hanging ceiling. The floor was rough and uneven, with divots and holes spaced throughout. Save for a mass of darkness outside of the unicorn’s bubble of light, there wasn’t anything visible when looking into the strange space. “What the hay…? It looks like a crawlspace or something along those lines.” Twilight stated while looking to the group with a curious expression. Although the hole to enter the space was only large enough to barely squeeze through, and the space looked big enough to barely walk, it resembled an unfinished portion of a house that people weren’t supposed to venture into. “Looks pretty big too… I can’t see where it ends.” Glitterball stated while kneeling down next to the purple mare and shining her flashlight into the darkness. Even with the added reach of the flashlight, the two ponies could only just see parts of the left wall, while the end of the space remained a mystery shrouded in darkness. “Blech! it smells awful in there.” Rarity said while covering her nose. One whiff of the musty air coming from the opening made her face crinkle up in disgust. While everyone was crowding around the strange opening to get a peek inside of the dark space, Luna was moving her horn around while trying to pinpoint where to go next. The signal she was following led her directly forward and directly into the hole in the wall. “Oh dear… it looks like we may have to go in there. The spell I’m using says this is the only way to get to the symbol.” Luna said in an uneasy tone while looking at the group with an understanding frown of aversion. “What? You mean we actually have to go through there? Don’t be ridiculous! It looks like we can barely walk in there without dragging our heads on the ceiling!” Rainbow Dash argued while recoiling from the dark opening. “I don’t even want to think about how Tom is going to fit in there.” She said while offering the human a sympathetic expression. “Well actually, it looks like it opens up a little further in.” Twilight said while taking a closer look at the room behind the opening. It looked like the cross beams and pipes receded upwards a little ways into the space until they were at the height that the ceiling was out in the halls. “Still… it looks dreadful in there. Walking through this dusty and cobweb ridden hovel was bad enough, but there isn’t even a floor in there!” Rarity said while holding one of her front legs up protectively. She stared at the dirt and mud flooring in the space with a disgusted expression. “I think getting your hooves dirty is going to be the least of your problems if we don’t find that symbol Rarity… Are you sure that this is the only way, Princess?” Tom asked curiously while looking to the alicorn for an answer. The blue mare double checked her spell before replying. “Yes… I’m almost certain that this hole at least leads to the section of the basement where the symbol is.” Luna said in a confident tone. “Well alright then, let’s get moving. We’re not getting anywhere by just standing out here staring at a hole in the wall.” Tom said while stepping up to the opening and crouching low to the floor. Everyone watched with uncertain expressions as the human uncomfortably maneuvered his body into the opening. After crawling on his hands and knees to get through the small opening, he got to his feet and stood up in an awkward hunched over fashion. “Are you guys coming or am I going to have to do this alone?” Tom asked curiously while watching the ponies staring back at him with dumbfounded expressions. Finally, Twilight shook herself out of her awkward stupor and looked to the others in preparation. “Alright… here goes nothing.” The purple mare sighed in anticipation before shrugging her shoulders and stepping up to the opening. Twilight knelt down and crawled through the small hole in the wall, being careful not to scrape her body against the stone bricks on the edge of the opening, or the splintery sides of the wooden wall. After a few moments of grunting uncomfortably and inching forward, Twilight found herself standing, or rather crouching, next to the human. She stood up and nearly bumped her head on the ceiling until she craned her neck at an awkward angle to accommodate. “Come on in guys. It’s a little cramped, but everyone should be able to fit.” Twilight said while motioning for the others to join her. Deciding to step up to the plate, Rainbow Dash popped her legs and her neck and stretched in preparation. The cyan mare stepped forward and knelt down in front of the opening in the wall. While Twilight and Tom maneuvered to the side to make room, the pegasus crawled forward and made her way into the cramped opening. “Gah… this is not what I imagined I would be doing when I volunteered for this.” Rainbow Dash groaned as she struggled to crawl forward. With a little help from Twilight pulling on her, the cyan mare finally managed to make it all the way through. “Wow… there is not much room in here at all.” Rainbow Dash observed in amazement as she failed to stand up all of the way. She was forced to crane her head at an odd angle like the purple unicorn had just to be able to stand. As the three moved back to make room for the others, everyone started lining up to make their way through the small opening. Before long, Sunspot, Glimmer Shine, and Glitterball had made their way through. After Fluttershy finished crawling her way into the waiting arms of her friends, Rarity looked around nervously and realized that her option to stay behind and watch was swiftly disappearing. She looked at the grimy space beyond the hole and saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash offering to help the next person through while the others stood off to the side. “Umm… maybe you should go through next Pinkie?” Rarity suggested with an awkward smile. While everyone else saw through her rouse, the pink mare seemed more than eager to oblige her. “Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie said in a cheerful tone before bending down and starting her journey into the center of the walls. Once the pink mare had made her way through, Rarity looked to her remaining options. Only Brimstoke, the princess, and Applejack remained on her side of the wall. The hallway seemed much more dark and eerie now that there was only Brimstoke’s flashlight to light it up. Princess Luna was opting to not waste her energy on using her magic to produce a light, so the group outside had to deal with the darkness. “After you, Applejack.” Rarity said while making a brief bow and backing away from the hole. She would have backed up to the other side of the hall if she hadn’t been stopped by the orange mare grabbing her by the shoulder and roughly pulling her back over to the hole in the wall. “You might as well go next Rarity. You’ll have to do it eventually anyway, so why not get it out of the way?” Applejack suggested in a surprisingly understanding tone. “Well I would… but…” Rarity stalled as she stared at the small opening with a twinge of fear in her voice. “What if something happens out here? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you because I went first. I absolutely insist that-” The white unicorn started a commendable effort at weaseling her way out of the situation, until she was interrupted by a cyan hoof reaching out and grabbing her leg. “Oh for crying out loud, just get in here!” Rainbow Dash said in an irritated tone while pulling the white mare just enough to bump her head into the wall gently. “Alright, alright! I’m going… if you wanted me to hurry you could have just said something.” Rarity said in an annoyed tone while sighing in defeat and kneeling down. While the unicorn was preparing herself mentally for the task ahead of her, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were glaring at her silently. Finally, after a few moments of Rarity slowly crawling forward and cringing in disgust, and Applejack shoving the white mare forward at a quicker pace, the opening was clear once more. While the white unicorn was having a slight breakdown off to the side from being in such an appalling location, Applejack was starting her crawl into the opening. “There… now was that so bad?” Applejack said with a slight smirk while putting her arm around Rarity’s shoulder. The white unicorn was practically trying to cling to the ceiling from how much she was shifting between her legs. “So… much… filth… *Shudder*” Rarity said while darting her eyes around and flinching in disgust at her surroundings. Not only were her hooves getting completely covered in dirt and mud, but there were grime covered cobwebs and other such disgusting objects hanging down from the ceiling. It would take her an entire week’s worth of washing and scrubbing to get her mane alone clean. “Are you ok Rarity? Your eye is sort of… twitching.” Fluttershy observed in a concerned tone while watching the white unicorn. Rarity remained unresponsive as she stared into the distance and shivered, presumably trapped in her own thoughts. “Ah think she’ll be alright… maybe.” Applejack said with a slight chuckle. Meanwhile, back outside of the wall, Brimstoke and the princess were still waiting for their turn. After taking a brief look around to ensure that the area was clear, the stallion decided that it would be best for the alicorn to go first. “Ok Princess, you go on ahead.” Brimstoke suggested while motioning towards the opening. “Are you sure?” Luna asked in an uncertain tone. She wasn’t exactly comfortable with leaving the stallion on his own. “I’ll be right behind you. Go on ahead.” Brimstoke said in a confident tone. Luna sighed before nodding silently in response. She knew that the stallion would probably force her to go first if she protested, and the faster she made it through, the faster he could follow. As Brimstoke offered her some assistance with kneeling down, the alicorn slowly crawled forward into the opening. Although her body was still sore enough to warrant a painful cringe or groan with every move she made, Luna was making decent progress. Still, she seemed to be having a hard time with getting her body to move forward. “Here, Princess… let me help you.” Twilight suggested while grabbing one of the alicorn’s arms. Rainbow Dash followed her example and grabbed the princess’s other arm to help. After a few moments of pulling on the blue mare, the two ponies finally managed to get her through. “Ugh… thank you… both of you.” Luna said with a grateful expression while looking to the two mares with a smile. “Don’t mention it.” Rainbow Dash said with a pleased expression. Hearing the sound of someone crawling behind them, the three turned around to see Brimstoke crawling through to join them. “Now then… now that we’re all here, why don’t we see about getting out of this hole?” Brimstoke suggested while taking note of the cold mud under his hooves. Although the others had a higher tolerance for their surroundings than Rarity did, they were still disgusted and unnerved by the fact that they were walking through a crawlspace in the wall. “What is this hole anyway? Why is it even here?” Twilight asked curiously while looking around the area. The space they were in seemed like it was opened up on purpose, but that purpose wasn’t easily determined. “Who knows… all I know is that this is the only way forward. Perhaps all of the other doors leading forward were blocked off or something, but this is the only way to get to the symbol.” Luna said in a puzzled tone. “Hey guys!” Suddenly, the group heard Pinkie Pie calling them from somewhere up ahead. Everyone turned around and shined their lights on the area ahead of them to see the pink mare. The group quickly noticed that the pink pony was actually standing up. Pinkie had apparently walked ahead to find the bigger area that the others had noticed before. “It’s a lot easier to stand over here. Why don’t you all come this way?” Pinkie asked while kneeling down to actually see the group. Twilight and the others looked at each other with confused expressions for a moment before taking note of the cramped feeling in their necks. They quickly came to the consensus that they were tired of hunching over and bumping their heads against the ceiling. The ponies quickly made their way forward until they reached the cut off where the ceiling ascended to a proper level. Once they stepped out of the cramped overhang of pipes and wooden planks, they stretched their necks and let out a sigh of relief. “That’s much better.” Tom said while stretching his legs. The ponies just had to crane their heads a little bit to fit in the tight space, but he practically had to walk in a crouched position to avoid crawling on his hands and knees. “Hey… I think I can see another opening up ahead.” Twilight said while squinting her eyes to see outside of the reach of the lit up area. There seemed to be another wall up ahead with another hole in it similar to the one the group just came through. “That must be where we need to go. Come on guys.” Sunspot motioned for the others to follow her as she started walking forward. The group slowly marched forward across the earthen floor. All the while, they were looking around at the bizarre pits and raised areas of the ground around them and wondering what the purpose for this area was. “Oof!” Rarity groaned in surprise as she stumbled to the floor. One of the raised bumps in the ground caught her leg too quickly for her to react. “Are you ok Rarity?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone as she watched the unicorn sprawled out on the ground after her spectacular trip. “Yes… I just fell and landed in… in…” Rarity glanced down to see what was in front of her, only to widen her eyes in shock. “Eek!” She yelped in shock while scrambling backwards. “What’s wrong?!” Applejack asked while looking to see if the unicorn was hurt. Rarity simply pointed to a spot on the ground with her hoof while stammering fearfully in incoherent gibberish. Everyone looked to where the white mare was pointing, only to widen their eyes and gasp in shock. Poking out of the dirt at an odd angle, there was a yellowish white object in the distinctive shape of a bone. Judging from the shape and the size, it looked like either an arm or a leg bone of a creature larger than a pony. It was hard to tell exactly, but the bone probably belonged to a human. “*Gasp*” Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth while taking a step back. She stared at the small object with a terrified look in her eyes as she shuddered nervously. “Oh my gosh… is that what I think it is?” Rainbow Dash asked in an uneasy tone as she stared at the white object on the ground. “Looks like it’s been here for ages.” Twilight said while taking note of the aged appearance of the bone. “I think we know what this room was used for now.” Tom stated in an uneasy tone. The human’s statement made the others look around the area with horrified expressions. All of the pits and raised areas in the ground now made a disturbing chill go down their spines. The ponies looked to their feet with a knot developing in their stomachs as they wondered just what it was that they were standing on. “I think it would be best if we leave this place.” Luna said in a disturbed tone while coming to her senses for long enough to think rationally. Once the initial shock wore off, everyone silently nodded in agreement with the alicorn. With a newfound sense of urgency, the group made their way towards the opening at the far end of the room. Wherever the opening was going to take them, it had to be better than the vile place they currently found themselves in. As Twilight reached the end of the room, she sized up the hole in the wall to see where it led. Thankfully this hole was larger than the previous one, allowing the unicorn to poke her head out to see where she was. Scanning her eyes around the area outside, the purple mare discovered that the hole led out into yet another hallway. Normally the discovery of another dark and tedious hallway would have made the unicorn cringe in frustration, but the looming goal of getting closer to the symbol and freedom was enough to make her excited. “Looks like we can get out through here.” Twilight stated in a pleased tone. “And we don’t even need to crawl anywhere. That sounds like grounds to celebrate to me… let’s get out of here.” Rainbow Dash suggested eagerly while stepping through the small opening and walking out into the hallway. Twilight and the others quickly followed the cyan pegasus until they were all standing in the corridor. While the others were focused on wiping their hooves to rid them of the buildup of dirt and grime, Twilight was intently focused on the task at hand. She glanced over to the blue alicorn to see her trying to concentrate on her spell. “Which way do we go now, Princess?” Twilight asked in a sympathetic tone as she watched the blue mare cringing painfully. “It should be this way… it feels like we’re getting close.” Luna said while pointing down the left fork in the hallway. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.” Twilight said while offering the princess a reassuring hoof on the shoulder. She knew that the alicorn must have been in a great deal of pain from her wounds, and using her magic wasn’t helping any. Luna smiled softly before pausing for a moment to catch her breath. Without any further delay, the ponies started walking down the hallway. They hoped that their journey would soon come to an end, and that they could finally leave the mansion and go home. The hooded ponies could wait for at least a day for all they cared. They just wanted to go home and see their families and get even a rough night’s sleep. As they continued down the hallway, the ponies noticed that there were a lot more doors in this section of the basement than any they had seen before. Nearly every room had a door to accompany it rather than a gaping entryway where a door once was. Everyone would have felt disheartened with the notion of searching through so many rooms for the symbol without being able to just peer inside with a glance. Thankfully they had Princess Luna to guide them to their destination, as long as her spell was working that is. Although the ponies trusted the alicorn implicitly, the hours spent roaming around the basement looking for the symbols had grinded down their willpower and spirit like a waterfall to a cliff face. They silently looked at the weakened princess with sympathetic expressions, all the while having a thought at the back of their minds ask if the alicorn’s spell was just leading them to yet another dead end. “Princess… are you sure we’re going the right way?” Twilight asked in a hesitant tone. The sudden question caught the blue mare off guard. “Why do you ask?” Luna replied curiously. Even though the princess wasn’t offended in the slightest, the purple mare became very anxious and apologetic. “Well… it’s just… we’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m just worried about what would happen if this turned out to be another dead end. I didn’t mean to imply… umm… that…” Twilight stammered in an awkward tone. The alicorn smiled softly at the unicorn’s attempts at voicing her concerns in a gentle way. “It’s ok to be worried about our situation, Twilight. We are in a dangerous place after all. But I can assure you, the spell I’m using is accurate. I can also assure you that my condition hasn’t hampered my ability to use the spell correctly.” Luna said in an understanding tone. Twilight was surprised that the alicorn took her question so well. “Right… of course.” Twilight said with a slight nod. The others looked to the princess with a newfound sense of humility and confidence. They were amazed that she could still appear so regal and confident despite the situation and her injuries. Suddenly, the group came to the end of the hallway. There was a single door at the far wall that was left slightly ajar. Seeing several more closed doors to either side of the hall, the ponies wondered where they would be going next and turned to the blue alicorn for guidance. “Which way do we go now?” Glitterball asked curiously while looking around at the various doors. Luna groaned slightly as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell. Her head lowered and her legs nearly buckled as she lost the strength in her body. While the others stood by, ready to catch the princess if the need arose, the blue mare managed to stay on her feet. “The symbol is in that room… I’m certain of it.” Luna stated while looking ahead to the door at the end of the hallway. “Really? That’s great!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed cheerfully. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get in there and give those ghosts what’s coming to them!” Sunspot suggested eagerly. “Easy does it guys… we still need to be careful and stick together.” Brimstoke said in a cautious tone. “Brimstoke is right… we still don’t know if those ghosts are nearby.” Twilight added while looking around nervously. The prospect that the murderous spirits were somewhere in the area was enough to immediately kill the excitement in the air. “Still… Sunspot is right. We should get this done and over with as quick as we can.” Luna suggested in an exhausted tone while leaning against the wall for support. The others frowned sadly as they watched the alicorn trying to catch her breath from using her magic too much. Sunspot and the others looked to Brimstoke for their next move. Everyone was nervous and anxious, and they clearly needed someone to lead them onwards with a sound plan of action. If the princess was out of commission, then the white stallion would have to think of a way to press on while keeping everyone as safe as possible. “*Sigh*… alright, let’s get moving. Glitter, keep an eye on your locator and let us know if there are any changes. Everyone else, let’s go give those ghosts a piece of our minds.” Brimstoke said in a confident tone while stepping forward towards the room at the end of the hallway. Everyone paused for a moment before getting the courage to follow the stallion. As they neared the door, the ponies could feel the anticipation building between them. Behind that door was the key to their freedom. They would either break that seal and escape the mansion, or die trying at the hands of the three spirits. A mixed variety of emotions flowed through each of the ponies as they stood in front of the door and waited for Brimstoke to open it the rest of the way. They felt excited, terrified, hesitant, and unsure all at the same time. Their stomachs were practically doing flips as their bodies reacted to the amount of stress they were feeling. Brimstoke glanced between his teammates, the sickly alicorn leaning against Twilight for support, the six nervous civilians, and the lone human watching him as he waited at the door. He placed a single hoof on the edge of the door and took in a deep breath to prepare himself. After doing a brief countdown, he swung the door open and stepped inside. Twilight and the others hesitantly walked into the room behind the team of ponies as they looked around. Brimstoke and his team darted their eyes around while scanning the room with their strobes at the ready. After seeing no signs of the ghosts in the part of the room they could see, and getting no indicators of imminent danger on their locators, the group relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief before turning their attention to the real reason they were there. The room itself was large. Perhaps one of the larger single rooms the ponies had seen in the basement. There were wooden beams and rafters all along the ceiling, with some of them broken or splintering from age. There were a few shelves full of seemingly normal looking boxes and other small items pressed up against the wall. Still, the only thing that the ponies cared about finding was seemingly nowhere to be found. “Hey… look over there!” Pinkie suggested while pointing to a spot on the floor at the edge of the light. Everyone turned their attention to where the pink mare was pointing, only to see a faint tint of red just outside of the reach of their lights. Glitterball stepped forward and illuminated more of the room with her horn. As she got closer and the light revealed more of the object, the group’s eyes collectively widened in shock and awe. Sitting on the floor in front of them, was a symbol similar in every detail to the other two they had found. “We did it… we finally found it!” Twilight exclaimed in an excited tone. “We can finally get out of here!” Glitterball cheered with equal excitement. Everyone shared a celebratory cheer while expressing their excitement by jumping up and down or hugging each other. For the first time in a long time, the group felt genuinely happy and cheerful. “Hold on… what’s that next to the symbol?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while shining his flashlight over the symbol. There was a dark stain on the floor just outside of the light’s reach. As the curious ponies got closer and examined the strange stain under better lighting, they noticed it was a red liquid. The grim realization that they were looking at blood hit everyone at once. They silently watched in abject horror as Glimmer Shine pointed his flashlight upwards. The more the light moved up, the more blood was revealed as a veritable trail of the crimson fluid led across the room. Finally, the ponies settled their eyes on a large puddle of blood leading behind a series of shelves and boxes that appeared to create a makeshift barricade. There was broken glass and blood scattered all around the shelves and boxes. The shelves were slanted at odd angles and all of the items on them were knocked over or missing, indicating that they were moved quickly. Sticking out from behind one of the shelves, was a dark blue leg that looked like it belonged to a mare. Glimmer Shine motioned to Sunspot and Brimstoke for them to follow him. The two ponies nodded silently while joining the yellow stallion in slowly approaching the rest of the room. Tom decided to follow the three as they carefully inched closer with their strobes at the ready. Brimstoke walked ahead of the others and slowly made his way around the line of shelves and boxes. As he caught a glimpse of what was on the other side of the makeshift barrier, he was more than a little unsettled. There were three ponies in hoodies lying on the floor motionless. There was a yellow pegasus stallion with orange hair, a black earth pony mare with red hair, and a dark blue unicorn mare with black hair. They each had pools of blood around them, and they were covered in broken glass and bloody wounds. Some of the gruesome injuries looked like axe wounds, while others resembled something a smaller weapon like a knife or a pair of scissors would leave behind. “Yikes…” Sunspot said in a disquieted tone while staring at the bloody bodies in front of her. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones trying to stop the ghosts… check it out.” Tom said while pointing off to the side. There were three small pieces of piping scattered on the ground a short distance from the bodies that were dark grey in color. “Iron pipes.” Glimmer Shine said as he caught on to what the three ponies must have been trying to accomplish. “They had a unicorn with them… they were probably trying to overload the symbol just like us.” Sunspot suggested in a curious tone. “Hey… maybe they succeeded?” She asked in a hopeful tone while glancing back at the symbol on the floor. “Not likely… if they succeeded in overloading the seal, the ghosts would be gone by now.” Twilight said while shaking her head sadly. Even if they were members of the hooded ponies, she still felt bad for them. The purple mare felt a sickening feeling in her stomach as she glanced at the pale and motionless leg sticking out from behind the shelf. She and her friends couldn’t bear to take a look behind the shelves and boxes. “However far they got in their efforts, the seal is indeed intact.” Luna said while using her magic to inspect the red symbol on the floor. “How about it, Glitter… can you overload it?” Brimstoke asked curiously while glancing to the white unicorn. “Hold on a sec… let me see.” Glitterball said while lighting up her horn and inspecting the symbol. Everyone watched anxiously as the unicorn examined the symbol with a puzzled expression on her face. “Looks like this one will be harder to crack.” Glitter shrugged with a frustrated expression. “That doesn’t make sense… the one I overloaded in the library was really easy to break. It didn’t even do much other than light up a little bit.” Twilight said in a confused tone. “That’s odd… the one we broke earlier made a burst of air.” Glitterball said with equal confusion. “I think whatever spell these symbols are feeding is reliant on them. Whenever one of the seals is broken, all of the energy has to push on the remaining ones in order for the spell to function. Right now, that symbol is the only link left, so all of the energy is held inside of it… like a pressurized vessel ready to burst.” Tom explained as he examined the symbol further. “And we’re about to burst it on purpose… that sounds… fun… and dangerous… really dangerous.” Sunspot said in a nervous tone. “We’ll be safe when the symbol breaks… right?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. Tom could only offer the ponies an uncertain and troubled expression. “Arcane energy can be tricky and hard to predict… there are spells and runes with specific intentions in mind, but it’s harder to predict what will happen when it fails or something unexpected happens. Let’s just keep on our toes… oh, and start running if you see fire.” The human said with a disheartened shrug. “Maybe we should just leave it alone?” Rarity suggested in a nervous tone. “We can’t do that Rarity… the alternative would probably be fighting the ghosts and beating them. Without breaking this symbol, they would still keep all of the exits closed.” Twilight said in an understanding tone. She knew that there was no way that they could defeat the ghosts directly. “We’ll be fine Rarity.” Rainbow Dash said in a reassuring tone. “Before we can worry about what happens when we pop that seal, we have to get there without the ghosts doing to us what they did to them.” Brimstoke said while glancing towards the three dead ponies on the other side of the room. “I’ll start working on the symbol. It’s going to take a while, so I might as well get started.” Glitterball said while shrugging and lighting up her horn and walking over to the symbol. “I might have a few ideas on how we can prepare for the ghosts. We should dig in and get as much of an advantage as we can.” Tom suggested in a hopeful tone. “Good thinking. We’ll keep an eye out for any sign of them.” Brimstoke said while shaking his locator by its pull cord and glancing to his teammates. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot nodded while pulling out their own locators. Twilight and the others watched as Brimstoke’s team prepared themselves for the arrival of the spirits. Glitterball worked on overloading the symbol, Brimstoke and the others focused on scanning the area for the ghosts, and Tom was focusing on making the area safer for them. They were about to destroy the only thing keeping the spirits in this mansion, and somehow the ponies didn't think that their three hosts would like that very much. Chapter 90: Fighting to SurviveThe atmosphere in the room was tense as Twilight and the others watched Glitterball and Tom get to work. The unicorn was putting all of her effort into overloading the seal, while the human had something else to keep him busy. “There… that should do it.” Tom said while handing the feather quill he received from Sunspot back to its rightful owner. The human stepped back and admired the symbol he had just painted on the wall. The strange glyph was one of four that he had drawn across all of the walls. “So… what exactly are these supposed to do?” Sunspot asked in a confused tone while looking around at the symbols. “They’re spiritual wards. They are the best thing we can make without proper prep work. On a good day, they can repel most weak ghosts and spirits.” Tom explained in a helpful tone. “And what will they do to our super ghosts?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Well… at best they might weaken them. At worst, it might tickle them a little bit.” Tom shrugged in a disheartened tone as he realized just how futile his efforts were. “Ah guess that’s an improvement on how we’ve been faring against them so far.” Applejack said with a slightly more hopeful tone. “It would help an awful lot if we could get done before they got here. Maybe if we step in and help Glitter with the symbol?” Twilight asked with an anxious tone. It was killing her to just be standing off to the side while everyone else worked. “Sorry Twilight, but this is too dangerous for you guys. I’m not so hot on the idea of this thing blowing up when I’m done… for obvious reasons.” Glitterball said while looking down and chuckling nervously. “But I would rather not have you standing right on top of it if it does.” She said in a concerned tone. “Glitter, that’s a horrible way to look at it. I don’t want to think that you’re willing to blow yourself up for us.” Twilight said in an appalled tone. “Well… if it came down to it, I am. We may look different and have a lot more toys, but we’re basically royal guard. The princess told us to protect you, and I won’t let anything get in the way of that.” Glitter said in a confident tone. Twilight and the others somberly glanced around at the unicorn and her teammates. They would each lay their lives down to save them like it was their appointed duty. Even though they were confident that their fledgling friendship had something to do with it, it was a bizarre and humbling thought to picture them as soldiers. “Still, it would be a lot better if one of us helped you. I don’t really care if there’s a risk for blowing up. We’re all in danger here anyway.” Twilight said in an adamant tone. “Allow me to assist Glitterball with the symbol.” Luna suggested while stepping forward. “Umm… Princess, are you sure you’re up to doing something like that?” Twilight asked with a concerned expression while watching the sickly alicorn. “I’ll be fine Twilight. Even in my current state, I would be more resistant to anything that might happen when this symbol breaks than any of you. Besides, I want you all to focus on protecting yourselves.” Luna said in a serious tone while looking around at the purple mare and her five friends. It wasn’t hard to tell that the alicorn was concerned for their safety. “Not that we can do much against those things. We already got our tails kicked by just one of them on multiple occasions. Imagine having all three of them in the same room.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight shudder. “Which is exactly why you need to arm yourselves.” Tom said while walking over to the ponies with something held in his arms. “Think fast.” He said while passing one of the objects to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash caught the item and looked at it, only to realize that it was one of the iron pipes that the hooded ponies had with them on the other side of the room. “Iron huh?” Rainbow Dash said with a small smirk building on her face. “I like where this is going… I’ve been wanting to smack that woman with the scissors for a while for what she did to us… and that goes double for the creep with the glasses.” She said while swinging the pipe a few times. “And that’s only if you can hit them. In case you forgot, that creep with the glasses dodged everything we threw at him… then he picked us up and knocked our heads together.” Applejack said in a disheartened tone. “Ugh… don’t remind me. I can still feel a bruise from where we bumped skulls.” Rainbow Dash winced while rubbing her forehead gingerly. “Still, it’s better than nothing. Thanks Tom.” Twilight said while levitating the remaining two poles out of the human’s hands. She handed the two iron weapons to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “Uh, Twilight… maybe you should keep one of these for yourself.” Applejack suggested nervously while glancing over to the pink mare trying to examine the iron pipe. “No offense sugar cube, but Ah don’t see you as much of a fighter.” She said in a friendly tone while putting a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Yeah… maybe you’re right. Here you go Twilight.” Pinkie said while offering the small pipe back to the unicorn. “It’s ok Pinkie, you keep it. I have my magic to help me, so I want you to have something to help keep you safe. I just wish we had enough for everyone.” Twilight said while glancing to Fluttershy sympathetically. “Aww… thanks Twilight.” Pinkie said in a cheerful tone. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll keep you safe.” Rainbow Dash said in a sincere tone while offering the timid mare a hoof on the shoulder. “Thanks guys.” Fluttershy said with a grateful smile. Suddenly, a loud buzz filled the air, followed by a harsh gasp. Everyone turned to see Tom’s senses going off, as well as Brimstoke and the others holding their now glowing locators with alarmed expressions. “Looks like we’ve got company. Everyone get ready.” Brimstoke said in a serious tone while readying his strobe. Everyone suddenly became very alarmed as they looked around frantically for any sign of the ghosts. The constant buzzing from the glowing vials that Brimstoke and his team were carrying made everyone’s nerves go into overdrive. Twilight and the others backed together and readied themselves for anything that could come their way. “I’ve got multiple readings here!” Sunspot announced while pointing her locator around frantically. No matter where she pointed the vial, the liquid inside was completely glowing. “How many of them are there?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone. “Where are they coming from?” Twilight asked nervously while darting their eyes around. “I don’t know! I can’t tell where they are exactly… it feels like they’re all around us.” Tom said in a frustrated tone while frantically using his senses and darting his eyes around. “Feels like they’re all around you eh? Well… that would be quite amusing now wouldn’t it?” Suddenly, the group heard an eerily familiar voice coming from the left side of the room. They looked over to see a ghostly man with glasses and a scalpel in hand walking into view. “Wouldn’t you agree, sister?” The man asked while looking behind the group. The ponies swiftly turned around as they heard female laughter coming from behind them. They noticed a woman in a white dress wielding a pair of bloody scissors walking out of the wall. “Heheh… quite so brother… quite so.” The woman chuckled in a sinister manner while closing and opening the pair of scissors slowly. “You don’t scare us. We’re going to beat you.” Twilight said in as much of a threatening tone as she could muster. The purple mare lit up her horn and backed into a tight circle around Luna and Glitterball with her friends while they prepared their own means of defending themselves. Tom, Brimstoke, and the others stood in front of the group of mares to keep something between the ghosts and them. “Ah yes, I suppose we are in a bit of a bind, what with you tampering with that symbol and all.” The man said while pointing at the symbol that Luna and Glitterball were trying to work on in between glaring at the two spirits. “The spell we used to bind our spirits here is fragile. We were going to undo it carefully so we could keep our power and leave this place, but some other people came here and activated the seals before we woke up.” The woman with the scissors explained in a disappointed manner. “We’ve been waiting a very long time to get out and have some fun. Our dear brother here would be laughing it up with us if he could still talk.” The man with the glasses said while looking off to the side. Everyone turned to see the ghost with the axe walking up to them with a stoic and eerily blank expression on his face. “Even if he can’t express it himself, I think he would agree with us when we say that we will not let you spoil our fun prematurely.” The ghostly woman said with a more vicious tone and a bloodthirsty glint in her eyes. Before anyone could think of something to do, Tom stepped forward and raised his arms into a fighting position. Flames briefly crackled to life around his fingertips as he summoned his claws into existence. Once his weapons were fully formed, the human glared at the three spirits around him with an unyielding resolve. “If you want to get to them, you’re going to have to go through me.” Tom said in a serious tone. “Tom, don’t...” Twilight pleaded for the human to rethink his actions. If he kept risking his own life by stepping into the fray alone, then only the worst could come of it. “Heh… you were right about him sister. He does have a bit of a spark in him doesn’t he?” The man with the scalpel said in an amused tone while glancing to his sibling. “You really think you can beat all three of us alone? Have you already forgotten the fun times we had together?” The woman asked while smirking at the bold slayer. She brandished her bloody scissors and snipped the blades together a few times to let the chilling sound unnerve the others. “I hate to agree with a spineless ghost, but she’s right Tom.” Sunspot said in an uneasy tone while stepping forward slightly. “You need our help if you’re going to beat them Tom. None of us have beaten even one of them by ourselves, but we can win if we work together.” Luna said while looking around at the group preparing themselves for battle. Although she had to continue her work on the symbol, she would gladly jump in to help if the need arose. “Everyone stay back. Enough people have gotten hurt by these monsters tonight, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let any more of you down.” Tom said while glancing behind him with a stern expression. “But… but Tom, you could die if you fight them!” Twilight yelled in a concerned tone. She couldn’t believe that the human was stubborn enough to refuse their help. “I don’t really care about that right now. I’m a slayer… I think it’s about time I do my job.” Tom said in a serious tone while directing his attention to the ghost directly in front of him, which just so happened to be the man with the scalpel. The ghostly man chuckled to himself for a moment while looking to the floor. He pushed his glasses back onto his face before looking up and smiling sinisterly. The ponies watched nervously while he flipped the scalpel in his hands a few times. “Alright… if you insist on fighting us, then it’s a fight you will receive.” The man said in a surprisingly calm tone before lowering his arms to his sides and waiting for the slayer to make his move. “Then shut up and fight me!” Tom yelled fiercely while charging forward towards the ghostly human. As he jabbed forward with his claws, the man effortlessly dodged to the side, leading the boy to launch another attack at him. With the spirit ducking under his next swipe, Tom tried to speed up enough to land a hit on him. The ghostly man struck back with his scalpel, making a swift and precise stab towards Tom’s chest. Luckily, the boy managed to maneuver his body out of the way of the strike, putting him in a good position for a counter. As he swiped his claws at the ghost’s head, he was surprised to see the spirit using his small scalpel to clash with his blades to deflect them. “Hyah!” The woman in white squealed in excitement and anger as she leapt forward and stabbed at the slayer with her scissors. Tom quickly used his other clawed hand to catch the scissors in mid strike. The boy suddenly found himself standing between two ghosts with sharp objects that were hell bent on killing him. The two spirits smirked at each other for a moment before yelling fiercely and lashing out at the boy. Twilight and the others watched with anxious expressions as Tom used a mixture of his claws and evasive dodges to escape the two ghosts’ attacks. The clashing of metal against metal rang out as the human tried his best to stay on top of the situation. Despite his best efforts, Tom was reeling to keep up with the two spirits and their swift speed. “Gah!” Tom yelped suddenly as the man with the scalpel caught his hand with a downward slice. Before the two ghosts could capitalize on the break in the human’s defenses, he leapt backwards to distance himself from them and recover. Still, the two spirits followed him dauntlessly and managed to back him all the way to the wall at the left side of the room. “Tom!” Twilight and the others cried fearfully as they watched the human frantically parrying and clashing the two blades striking at him. He seemed like he was struggling to keep up with the pair as the exhaustion and nervousness was clear in his face. “That’s it! I’m done watching from the sidelines!” Sunspot said while stepping forward from the group and readying her strobe. Before anyone could try to stop or assist her, the pegasus opened fire to assist the human. The ghostly man and woman swiftly turned around and saw the incoming barrage of energy blasts. They quickly dodged out of the way of them, but they also had Tom to deal with. As more bolts of light flew at the spirits, they were forced to dodge while also fighting the human and his claws. “Agh!” The woman cried out in pain as Tom’s claws clipped her side. The blades passed right through her and left the area where they impacted a mass of burning smoke. The human couldn’t help but smirk at giving the sadistic spirit a taste of her own medicine. “Alright Tom!” Sunspot cheered in excitement while smiling at her contribution to the fight. She prepared to open fire again, until something big appeared out of the corner of her eye. “Sunspot, lookout!” Glimmer Shine yelled while readying his strobe to shoot behind the pegasus. Sunspot turned to see the ghost with the axe standing right in front of her with his weapon held overhead. By the time Glimmer Shine or anyone else could assist her, she could already have her head rolling on the floor. “Ah!” Sunspot yelped in surprise while diving backwards. The man swung the axe downwards, burying it into the floor mere inches away from the orange mare’s leg. The ghostly man stared at the pegasus silently as splinters from the floor flew in the air. It was like he was engaging her with his eyes due to his apparent inability to speak. Considering the amount of strength the spirit put behind his strike, and the amount of the axe blade stuck into the floor, the ponies would have figured that it would take him at least a few moments to extract the weapon, but they were mistaken. With an unnatural amount of speed, the ghost plucked the blade out of the floor and prepared to strike at Sunspot again. Sunspot looked up and immediately saw that she was right next to Twilight and the others. If she backed up any more, she would be bringing them into the fight whether they wanted it or not. The last thing the pegasus wanted was to put one of them in the swinging path for the psychopathic ghost to kill them as collateral. “Hrg!” Sunspot groaned as she rolled out of the way of the axe flying down at her. After gaining some distance from the ghost, she rolled onto her back and pointed her strobe at him. Glimmer Shine and Brimstoke readied their strobes along with the pegasus. They were prepared to gun the spirit down in a blaze of light. “Fire!” Brimstoke instructed while pressing the button on his vial as fast as he could. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine needed no guidance to join the stallion in firing at the spirit. As the three lines of energy blasts converged and prepared to hit the mute specter, he was forced to react evasively. Leaving his axe embedded in the floor, he vanished into a puff of swirling mist. The many bolts of energy flew in the air, hitting either themselves or the walls and exploding harmlessly into sparks of light. “Dangit! Where’d he go?!” Sunspot growled in frustration while looking around for the spirit. “I don’t know, but I think you made him mad.” Rainbow Dash said while stepping out of the group and helping the vested pegasus to her feet. “Shouldn’t you be staying back with the Princess and Glitter?” Sunspot asked while giving the cyan mare a suggestive expression and motioning towards the others. “Not a chance. We’re all in this now whether you like it or not. Now keep your eyes open and shoot anything that moves.” Rainbow Dash said while looking around and holding her iron pipe defensively. “Why do I always have to watch the stubborn ones?” Sunspot shrugged before backing up against the cyan pegasus and scanning the room with her. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Tom was still facing off against the two spirits. The woman in white was cringing and gritting her teeth while clutching her side. Her form was still unstable from the strike that the slayer landed on her. “Are you alright sister?” The man with the glasses asked, though he seemed more curious than concerned. “Heh… stings doesn’t it? You ghosts think you’re untouchable as long as iron isn’t around. Well I’ve got news for you. The spirit weapons of a slayer are able to cut down a lot worse than you ectoplasmic wastes of space.” Tom said with a wry smirk. Even though he was clearly exhausted, he was taking his small victory for all it was worth. “We know all about you slayers. We stumbled across you in our research on immortality. We figured that all of you had died out with the rest of humanity… but I guess that you are more stubborn than I first thought.” The man explained before turning to his sibling. “Do you want me to take care of him?” He asked curiously while readying his scalpel. “No… I like it when they fight back.” The woman said before returning a smile to her face. “Alright, you want to go for round two? I can promise you this time that when I hit you I won’t just clip you.” Tom said while readying his hands in front of him to counter any incoming attacks. “Hehehe.” The woman laughed sinisterly while letting her armed hand fall to her side and raising her free hand in front of her. She clenched her fist while leveling it with the human. Suddenly, Tom felt something gripping around his neck tightly. As the woman raised her arm upwards, Tom felt himself getting lifted into the air by his neck. He gagged and choked while clutching at the invisible hands wrapping around his neck. “Hrk… gah…” Tom croaked while desperately trying to ignore the pain in his throat. “Right… levitation… I forgot you could do that for a second there.” He said in a strangled voice while trying to break free from her grasp. “Allow me to remind you what else I can do.” The woman said with a sinister grin. She flicked her arm to the side, sending the boy flying through the air with a startled yelp. Just as quickly as he was sent on his way, Tom slammed into the far wall face first, causing him to fall to the floor with a wave of pain coursing through him. As he looked up in a painful daze, he noticed that the woman was nowhere to be seen. Feeling his senses going off as a puff of mist escaped his mouth, Tom looked behind him to see the spirit staring down at him with vicious intent. “AGH!” Tom yelled in pain as the woman sliced across his stomach with the pair of scissors. The cut she made was deep, causing a surge of mind numbing pain to overtake the slayer. “Heheheheh!” The woman laughed maniacally while taking the scissors and stabbing them into the boy once more. She seemed to relish listening to Tom’s screams of agony and the blood spurting from his wounds. “Leave him alone!” Applejack yelled fiercely while charging forward with her iron pipe at the ready. She swung the weapon as hard as she could at the woman, only to have the pipe stopped by the ghost slamming the pair of scissors into it. The orange mare stared at the blades of the scissors nervously as they precariously pressed against the iron pipe, just barely stopped by the force of the two clashing together. One false move from her or one smart move from the spirit, and the blades of the scissors would plunge straight into her face, chest, or even her neck. “Oof!” Applejack groaned as the ghost used her invisible influence to shove her backwards. She landed on her back with a painful thud, the iron pipe still clutched in her mouth. She quickly looked up with fearful eyes as she saw the woman charging for her with her scissors at the ready. “AHH!” The orange mare screamed and held her hooves out to try and catch the scissors before they did any real damage. She realized that due to her attacker being a ghost, she couldn’t just grab her arm to push back against her. Her only hope would be to catch the scissors by its small handle, a task which would be difficult to accomplish without the added challenge that leverage would be against her if she did manage to grab the small target. Suddenly, a muffled thud sounded out as if something struck glass. Applejack looked up to see a purple tinted force field shielding her from the murderous spirit. The woman in white seemed mildly confused as to why she wasn’t currently ripping the earth pony to shreds, and the orange mare was equally confused. “Hey, you remember me?” Rainbow Dash yelled while rushing forward and jumping into the air. She used her wings to glide to the side of the spirit and swung at her with her iron pipe. “I never forget something I kill… or in this case mortally wound.” The woman said while swatting her arm sideways. Rainbow Dash was knocked out of the air with a painful grunt. She landed on her back and slid a few inches before coming to a stop. Applejack watched in horror as the ghostly woman stood over the pegasus with her bloody weapon held high. Suddenly, a magical zap sounded out as a flash of light appeared behind the ghost. The orange mare looked over to see Twilight standing there with a serious expression on her face. “How about me? Do you remember me at all?” Twilight asked with a smug expression. The woman looked behind her to see the smirking pony. She was slightly enraged to be mocked by such a feeble creature. Rainbow Dash glanced down to the iron pipe next to her. She looked up and saw Twilight looking at her and motioning to the pipe with her eyes. The cyan mare smirked as she realized her friend had a plan in place. “Think fast!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while flinging the pipe at the ghostly woman as hard as she could. The spirit dodged to the side to let the pipe barely whiz by her. She smirked sinisterly at the pony’s apparently failed attempt at retaliation, until she saw a purple glow out of the corner of her eye. The woman turned to see the pipe floating in midair with a purple aura around it. She widened her eyes slightly in fear as she realized her mistake. Twilight quickly spun the pipe around, smacking the ghost across her head and forcing it through her intangible form. “AGHH!” The woman screamed in pain while disappearing into a puff of fiery mist. “Nice job girls. You saved my hide.” Applejack said in a grateful tone while accepting the purple mare’s help in getting to her feet. “Anytime.” Rainbow Dash said with a victorious chuckle. “Are you ok Tom?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking over to the human. The three ponies frowned sympathetically as they saw the human trying to cope with the pain he was going through. The wounds on his stomach and chest were still bleeding profusely as he slowly made his way to his feet. “Gah…” Tom winced in pain as flames sparked to life across each of his wounds. The fire worked slowly due to his exhaustion, but eventually his injuries vanished into the fiery aether. “I’m ok… but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep fighting.” The human said while lowering his hands to his sides. Just having his spirit weapons out was making his hands shake. “Don’t worry, we can help you.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. “I don’t know if you’ve forgotten about me or not, but perhaps you should think for a moment before making such bold claims.” The ponies suddenly heard a familiar voice taunting them from the side. They looked over to see the ghostly man with the glasses staring at them menacingly. They felt a cold shudder as they thought back to the last time they fought the man. Even with their superior numbers, he beat them senseless. “Hey you big meanie! Stop hurting my friends!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while charging forward from seemingly out of nowhere. She leapt at the man with the scalpel and swung her iron pipe sideways, nearly catching him off guard. The man swung his small blade to counter the pink mare’s attack, but she kept swinging at him. He was slightly surprised by how much energy she was putting into her speed and stamina. He was almost having a hard time keeping up with her as the clashing of iron against steel rang out. “Why you little… Hold still!” The ghost yelled in an irritated tone while frantically swinging at the energetic pony. Pinkie jumped over or ducked around every strike the spirit sent her way with relative ease and a smile on her face. It was almost like she was playing a game of tag, but her opponent was playing for keeps. “You’re going to have to move faster than that if you want to catch me!” Pinkie exclaimed while sticking her tongue out at the annoyed man. “I don’t need to move fast if you can’t move at all.” The human said with a sinister smirk while stopping his attacks. The pink mare was more than a little confused at his statement. “What are you talking about? I can move just fine.” Pinkie said with a slight chuckle. She prepared to strike the idle spirit with her iron weapon, until he held his arm out in front of his body and clenched his fist. Pinkie suddenly felt an invisible force constricting her body. She was forcefully lifted up into the air, causing her to drop her weapon in surprise. She could offer little more than a startled yelp for resistance as she squirmed in the air. “Hey! That’s cheating!” Pinkie said in a dismayed tone. “I don’t really care…” The ghostly man said with a sinister chuckle while eyeing the trapped pony sinisterly. “Pinkie!” Twilight and the others yelled fearfully as they saw their friend in danger. Rainbow Dash and Applejack gripped their iron pipes tightly and Twilight and Tom prepared their own weapons to charge forward and assist the pink mare. “Tut, tut… no interrupting.” The man said in an irritated tone while shoving his open palm towards the group. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in surprise as her body was flung backwards forcefully. Her three friends were thrown through the air along with her until they all slammed into the far wall. “Gah… I can’t move.” Rainbow Dash groaned while trying to lift herself up. An invisible force was pushing her down and keeping her on the floor. “Me neither…” Applejack said in a strained voice while struggling against the force pushing her down. The orange mare barely managed to make any progress before her muscles gave out. “No… we have to save Pinkie…!” Twilight groaned in exhaustion while turning her attention forward. The ghostly man still held the pink mare in front of him with his invisible grasp. “Now then… I think it’s about time that someone gives you the beating you deserve. All of you have harmed me and my sister, and been a general thorn in our sides for too long. I’m going to kill all of you slowly and painfully, but first I’m going to kill this pink headache.” The man said in a more angry tone while glaring at Pinkie. Before anyone could react, the spirit used his power to forcefully fling the pink mare over his head and onto the floor. “Agh!” Pinkie yelped in pain as she slammed into the floor with her back. Her body throbbed in pain and her head felt like she had just been struck from behind, which by all intents and purposes she was. She clutched the back of her head and looked up hesitantly to see the man standing over her with his scalpel in hand. The sight of the bloodthirsty look in the spirit’s eyes made a fearful silence fall over the pink mare. “You want to find out how fast I can disembowel a pony with just a scalpel and my bare hands?” The man asked with a maddened smirk building on his face. Pinkie felt herself shivering in a terrified state as she stared at the bloody scalpel with wide eyes. “P-please… don’t.” Pinkie said in a quiet stammer while shaking her head in protest. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as her mind screamed at her to try and escape. Even if her body wasn’t frozen in fear, she doubted that the man would let her escape so easily. Twilight and the others gasped as they saw the human raise his arm in preparation to strike. They averted their eyes and shielded their faces to prevent themselves from seeing their friend getting stabbed to death. The last thing they saw before they looked away fearfully was the ghost bringing his arm down towards the helpless mare. “No!” A frightened voice suddenly rang out from behind the spirit, causing him to pause in surprise. Everyone looked over to see Fluttershy standing behind the man with the iron pipe Pinkie dropped clutched in her mouth. “You again? I thought you were cowering off in the corner somewhere?” The ghostly man asked in a surprised tone while eyeing the pegasus curiously. The yellow mare was obviously terrified. Her body was shaking violently, her breathing was rapid and erratic, and the iron pipe in her mouth was practically vibrating against her chattering teeth. And yet here she was, confronting a terrifying opponent about to slaughter one of her friends. “I’m n-not going to let y-you hurt her.” Fluttershy said in a nervous tone. “I won’t let you h-hurt anyone e-else.” She added in what she hoped would be a threatening tone while clutching her iron pipe like it was her only life line. Despite her best intentions, she still looked pale and terrified. “Oh… and you’re going to stop me? Hah… don’t make me laugh. You know what happens when I get excited.” The man said with a suggestive smirk. “Fluttershy, don’t do this! You’ll just get hurt if you fight him!” Pinkie said in a fearful tone while pleading with the pegasus to get her to leave. “You should really listen to your friend dearie. I wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face of yours… yet anyway.” The man said with a sinister chuckle. Fluttershy felt her heart pounding in her chest as she stood her ground against the murderous spirit. She had already watched the man before her steal away two lives right in front of her, and she wasn’t about to let another of her friends die. Still, she felt like she was facing off against her worst nightmare come to life. “Don’t ever… call me dearie again.” Fluttershy said in a surprisingly fierce tone as she felt a great deal of anger building up inside of her. The sheer desire to give the ghost his just deserts was giving her enough of a courage boost to act. “Hyah!” Fluttershy yelled slightly as she charged forward with her weapon at the ready. Her timid demeanor lessened the amount of anger she showed, but it was still a surprising display to her friends and the spirit. The yellow mare swung her head to the side to strike the man with the pipe. She flinched her eyes shut as she saw the man moving the scalpel towards her. The metal blade collided with the iron pipe, causing a harsh sound to ring out and a surprising amount of force to push back against the pegasus. The shock of the sound and the impact made Fluttershy flinch again, but she opened her eyes and steeled herself enough to launch another strike. Everyone watched in anxious surprise as the pegasus launched a flurry of attacks against the spirit. Her form was erratic and hesitant due to the feeling of fear inside of her, but she managed to rapidly swing the pipe around to try and land a hit on the ghost. Every strike the pony sent his way, the man would block with relative ease with his scalpel. Suddenly, the man swiped towards Fluttershy’s face. The yellow mare tensed up and moved her head to the side as fast as she could, but she couldn’t move fast enough to get away unscathed. She whined in a shocked state of pain as she felt the blade of the scalpel scraping across her cheek. The jolt of the attack made the surprised pony back up a step. Fluttershy stammered in shock as she brought a hoof up to her new injury. The wound stung as she put a light amount of pressure on it. She stared at her hoof with wide eyes as blood trickled off of it. She then looked up at the spirit with a newfound sense of fear. The iron pipe that she clung to so fiercely before loosely hung in her mouth as she felt her body locking up in fear again. “Aww… I told you I didn’t want to mess up your face. You look so afraid… why don’t I put you out of your misery?” The man suggested with a faked tone of sympathy that came off as cold and eerie. Fluttershy tried to run away, but her legs were frozen in place along with the rest of her body as she stared at the man with a quivering jaw. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie yelled in dismay at the scene in front of her. She had to act fast if she was going to save her friend. The pink mare quickly got to her feet and looked around frantically. Her eyes settled on the only weapon in reach, the iron pipe still sitting in Fluttershy’s mouth. The only thing between her and her friend was the ghostly man. Suddenly, an idea popped into the pink pony’s head. One that she hoped was crazy enough to work. Fluttershy watched as Pinkie suddenly stepped forward and reached her arm through the ghostly human. The man looked down with a confused expression as his body shifted to smoke around the pink mare’s arm. Before the spirit could react, Pinkie grabbed the iron pipe and pulled it out of her friend’s mouth. “AGH!” The man cried out in pain as the pink mare pulled the iron pipe through his body. Pinkie held the weapon inside of his form, causing it to erupt into a fiery mass of smoke. Despite the man’s best efforts to remain solid, he eventually disappeared as his sister did in a puff of smoke. The two ponies were left staring at each other with shocked expressions. They were both equally surprised to be alive, and even more surprised that they had at least temporarily vanquished a very powerful enemy that had plagued them all night. “You… you saved me?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone. “No… we saved each other.” Pinkie said with a triumphant giggle. Fluttershy couldn’t help but join her friend in laughing cheerfully at their victory. “Nice job you two!” Rainbow Dash said while rushing over to the pair and congratulating them. The two looked over to see the others walking up to join them in their celebration. “We thought you were going to die for a minute there.” Twilight said in a relieved tone. “We’re not out of the woods yet… we still need that symbol to be broken.” Tom said while turning his attention to the other side of the room. Everyone nodded in agreement before collecting their weapons and walking over to join the others. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Sunspot and her teammates were still looking for the third spirit. Ever since they forced him to flee, they had been scanning their eyes around the area frantically in search of him. His axe was still embedded into the floor a short distance away, so they were also keeping an eye on that just in case he decided to stay invisible when he attacked them. “Glitter, how long do we have on that symbol?” Brimstoke asked in an anxious tone while looking back at the unicorn and the alicorn standing next to the symbol on the floor. “Ugh… I don’t know. This thing is really fighting us. It might be another ten minutes for all I know.” Glitterball replied in an understandably nervous tone. “I’m not sure if we have ten minutes. Those other two will be back eventually.” Twilight said while trotting up to the group with her small band of friends. “Are you guys ok?” Sunspot asked in a concerned tone as she saw the disheveled state that most of the ponies were in. Twilight and the others looked like they had bruises forming in various places, and Fluttershy had a small cut across her cheek. “We fought the other two ghosts. We’re ok all things considered.” Twilight explained while glancing to Fluttershy with a concerned expression. The yellow mare nodded in agreement with a small smile on her face. “Sorry we weren’t with you… I knew we should have intervened.” Sunspot said in a regretful tone while looking down sadly. “You had to watch the Princess and Glitter. We need to work together if we’re going to survive.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. Suddenly, the purple mare noticed the axe in the floor vibrating slightly. The bloody weapon swiftly lifted itself into the air and remained still before pointing towards Sunspot. “*Gasp* Sunspot look out!” Twilight exclaimed while pointing behind the pegasus. Sunspot spun her head around and widened her eyes as she saw the axe pointing towards her. Before she could even process her next move, the floating weapon sailed forward and raised up to strike her at high speeds. “AH!” Sunspot yelped fearfully while trying to move to the side. She could already see that she would be too late to avoid the attack. Suddenly the orange pegasus felt something tackling her to the side. After an uncomfortable landing on the ground, she looked over and saw the axe blade piercing into the floor. She then looked beside her to see Glimmer Shine lying next to her. The pair knew that they didn’t have time for thanks or even to take a breather. With little more than a shared look of frantic agreement, the two reached for their strobes and turned their bodies to face the impending threat. They could see the ghostly man appearing out of thin air and walking up to reclaim his weapon embedded into the floor. “Fire!” Glimmer Shine shouted fiercely, though his partner needed no confirmation. The two ponies fired their strobes in a blinding flurry of light and magical bursts. The man briefly looked at the oncoming barrage of blasts before blinking out of sight with little more than a puff of smoke to signify his former presence. “Where’d he go?!” Sunspot asked while quickly getting to her feet and scanning the area with her strobe. “Heads up!” Brimstoke yelled while pointing his strobe behind the orange pegasus. Sunspot whipped her head around and saw that the spirit was standing behind her with his axe held high above his head. The man was staring down at her with a silent expression of contempt. The orange mare quickly leapt forward to not only get out of the way of the spirit, but to give Brimstoke a clear shot. As the white stallion fired several blasts at the ghostly man, he disappeared before the bolts of light could hit him. One quick look around the room, and the group found the silent spirit appearing behind Twilight and Rainbow Dash. The two mares spun around and gasped as they saw the man raising his axe to strike them. The cyan mare forcefully shoved her iron pipe against the wooden handle of the axe. She managed to hold her own against the spirit’s strength until he pulled back into a defensive stance. “Hyah!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she struck at the ghost with her weapon. The man used his axe to block her attack. The cyan pony ignored her antsy nerves and continued her assault against the spirit. Every attack the pegasus sent his way, the ghost blocked or dodged. When the man finally struck back, Rainbow Dash managed to dodge as well. “Twilight, catch!” Pinkie exclaimed while tossing her iron pipe to the unicorn. Twilight quickly used her magic to grab the flying object, and just as quickly she joined her pegasus friend in attacking the murderous spirit. Somehow, the spirit was able to block and dodge the combined attacks from the two ponies. He seemed to be having some difficulty with keeping up with them. Spotting an opening in the fight, Sunspot fired her strobe at the ghost. The man looked ahead at the incoming blast with a concerned expression. Before the burst of light hit, he vanished again, only this time he left behind his weapon. The axe clattered to the floor near Twilight and Rainbow Dash. “How much longer on that symbol?” Brimstoke asked in an anxious tone. “We’re almost done.” Luna reported in an equally anxious tone. The group was starting to get too tense for their liking. Suddenly, the axe on the floor started shaking violently. It vibrated against the ground for a few moments as if it had a mind of its own. No sooner did the ponies notice it than they watched it fling into the air and sail across the room. “*Gasp* Brimstoke lookout!” Glitterball yelled fearfully as she watched the axe sailing straight towards the white stallion. Everyone in the room followed the axe with their eyes as it flew through the air. Brimstoke saw the incoming threat. He barely had any time to react, but he made a move to the side. However good his reflexes were, they weren’t enough to evade the speeding weapon. The axe crashed into his body at high speeds, burying itself into his upper chest and knocking him from his feet. “Agh!” Brimstoke screamed in pain as he flew across the room. He skidded across the floor a short distance before slamming into the far wall and remaining motionless. “Brimstoke!” Everyone yelled in utter shock as they watched the stallion getting struck with an axe. There was a trail of blood leading over to the other side of the room, and streams of the crimson fluid were already flowing out around the axe embedded in Brimstoke’s chest. To the horror of the helpless onlookers, the axe pulled itself out of the injured stallion, creating a sickening squelch and a gush of blood. The bloodied weapon flew across the room, where it landed in the outstretched palm of the newly appeared ghost. The man was silent and blank faced as ever, but the ponies could swear that they noticed his mouth curving upwards into a sadistic smirk at the corners. “You… you…” Sunspot muttered in an angry stupor. “You bastard!” She yelled fiercely while charging straight for the ghostly human. Much to everyone’s surprise, she didn’t even waver when the man raised his axe up to strike her. “Sunspot, move!” Twilight pleaded desperately as the pegasus seemingly charged straight towards her doom. Sunspot paid no attention to the warnings of her friends and continued on her path. The man with the axe smirked as the orange mare got close enough to him for him to act. He swung his weapon downwards with blinding speed, however, he wasn’t fast enough. Sunspot dodged to the side and arched her body around his. She suddenly shoved her hoof directly into his body, and she was holding a familiar vial full of liquid. “Dodge this you bucking freak!” Sunspot yelled fiercely at the murderous spirit. The man had a surprised look in his eyes as he looked down to see what the orange pony was doing, but he was too late. The pegasus pressed the button on her strobe, causing a small explosion of light and colorful sparks to erupt as the spirit’s body flickered violently. After a short time of trying to remain solid, the ghostly man finally disappeared from sight. Now that all three ghosts had been temporarily dealt with, the group could turn their attention to the most important matter at hand. Everyone turned their heads and stared at the white stallion bleeding on the floor at the edge of the room. Their eyes widened as the weight of the situation became clear. “Brimstoke!” Glitterball exclaimed while racing forward. She didn’t care about working on the symbol anymore. All she cared about was trying to help her friend. Twilight and the others raced forward to join the rainbow haired unicorn as she examined the stallion. Brimstoke was seemingly unconscious, but he was breathing, at least for the moment. There was a deep and gruesome gash in the upper part of his chest. The size and scope of the injury made it reach up to his neck and shoulder area. The ponies were worried that the axe might have severed a vital artery in his neck from appearances alone. “Brimstoke, can you hear me?!” Glitterball asked in a nervous tone while kneeling down in front of the stallion. She seemed to be using her medical training to assess what to do next, but her hooves were shaking and she seemed to be frantic and unfocused. “Is he ok?!” Glimmer Shine asked while observing the amount of blood on the floor in a panic. “Oh no… I think his carotid artery got hit by the axe.” Glitter said in an alarmed tone of despair. “You can help him can’t you? Right, Glitter?” Sunspot asked in a fearful tone. “I… I can’t do anything that would stop the bleeding in time. Even if I could, his brain isn’t getting the oxygen it needs from the blood. I don’t think he’s going to make it.” Glitterball explained with tears welling up in her eyes as she took the stallion’s pulse. She could barely even feel anything to indicate that the white pony was alive. Sunspot could do little more than to put her hooves on her head and let out an assortment of frustrated noises. She was desperate to do something to help the stallion, but she was powerless to do so. She turned to the human in the group as she ran out of options. “Tom, there has to be something you can do! Can’t you heal him or something?!” Sunspot asked in a desperate tone while looking to the human for an answer. Tom seemed to be hesitant to even attempt to heal the stallion. Between his remaining strength and the severity of the wound, he wasn’t sure if he could do anything. “I don’t think I can do anything for him… I’m sorry, but I can’t revive a person after they…” Tom paused sadly while looking down at the stallion. He was clearly on his way out of this world, but the orange pegasus wasn’t willing to accept it yet. “Please, you have to do something! You have to save him! What good are your powers if you can’t use them to help people?!” Sunspot asked in a visibly upset tone. The others were shocked to see the pegasus lashing out in such a way. Even if they knew she wasn’t trying to attack the human, it seemed that way at first glance. Tom looked around at the group of concerned ponies for a moment before settling his eyes on Brimstoke. He grunted in frustration while trying to think of something he could do. Every fiber in his being was telling him to save the stallion, but he wasn’t sure if he could. Finally the boy gave up on debating himself and the orange pegasus and rushed to Brimstoke’s side. Twilight and the others watched with varying expressions of concern and sadness as Tom held his hand over the stallion’s injury and projected his healing light. Much to their surprise, Brimstoke’s wound started closing up. After it closed up a decent amount, the human carefully removed the axe and continued his struggle. “Is it working?” Glitterball asked in a nervous tone. She was clearly shutting down mentally, and she needed someone to tell her that things would be ok. “His wound is healing, but his heart is stopped. I’m not sure if I can get it started again.” Tom explained with a sad tone of voice. Despite his somber news, he was still putting everything he had into reviving the stallion. Twilight watched with concern as the human’s arm started shaking. He had a pale expression, and he was grunting from exertion. Despite his obvious weakness, he was desperately trying to save the pony before him. Tom was gritting his teeth and toughing through whatever fatigue he was feeling, but it was clear to see that he was hurting himself. “Tom, stop it.” Twilight said in a pleading tone. “I can do this Twilight.” Tom replied in a frustrated tone without diverting his attention away. “Tom… you’re only going to hurt yourself at this point.” Twilight explained in a more concerned tone while stepping forward and putting a hoof on the boy’s shoulder. “I’m not going to let anyone else die tonight!” Tom replied in a more upset manner. He tried to push the unicorn away with his free hand, but he wasn’t even strong enough to budge her hoof an inch. Sunspot and the others looked on in shock as they realized what state the human was in. “Tom…” Sunspot said in a somber tone while looking down sadly. On the one hand, she desperately wanted the human to save Brimstoke, but on the other hand she didn’t want him to get hurt while trying. “Tom, that’s enough… you can stop now!” Twilight said in a more stern tone while nudging the human and trying to pull him away. “Damnit Twilight, I can save him!” Tom said while turning to the unicorn and trying to raise his voice. He cringed from fatigue and fell forward slightly, but he still kept his healing light going. Despite the frightful amount of effort the boy was putting into saving the stallion, Brimstoke remained motionless. “You can’t Tom!” Twilight yelled while forcefully pulling the human away. Tom cried out in refusal, but he could do nothing to stop the unicorn from pulling him to the side. The boy fell over as the beam of light projecting from his hand died out. He struggled in the purple mare’s grasp as he tried to get back to the stallion. “I have to save him… I have to!” Tom argued in a weak tone. He had tears building in his eyes as he struggled against the unicorn. Twilight could feel his body shaking as he fought against her. Despite the fact that she had to hold him against his will, she was deeply concerned with the small amount of effort she had to put in restraining him. “You can’t save everyone Tom.” Twilight said in a sad tone while looking around at the others. Glitterball silently walked next to the pair and felt for Brimstoke’s pulse. Shaking her head sadly, the white unicorn turned to inform the group on what they already knew. “He’s gone.” Glitter said in a distraught tone. She sobbed as she felt an overwhelming wave of sadness coursing through her. Everyone else looked down sadly and started weeping over their fallen friend. Meanwhile, Twilight was still holding onto Tom and cradling him against her body while trying to keep him from hurting himself. She cried openly as she listened to the human pleading for her to release him. Everyone had to distance themselves from the tragic scene in order to prevent themselves from breaking down into a fit of crying. “This isn’t right… this isn’t fair.” Sunspot muttered in an upset tone while sitting away from the group. She could feel her entire body tensing up from how many emotions she was feeling. She felt horribly sad, not only that a close friend had just died, but that another friend was having an emotional breakdown from trying to save him. She also felt incredibly angry towards the spirits that caused all of this. Taking a look around at the others, the pegasus deduced that they all felt the same. Although, most of the ponies were stuck in a phase of grief filled wailing and crying rather than dealing with overwhelming anger. “I don’t… *Hic*… I don’t know if I can take this anymore.” Fluttershy said in a shaky voice. The weight of the situation was clearly starting to get to the fragile mare. Her entire body was shaking and she couldn’t stop crying. Feeling some sort of responsibility for cheering her friends up in even the most tragic situations, Pinkie walked over and sat down next to the yellow mare. She put her arm around the weeping pegasus and pulled her in for a side hug. Despite her best intentions, she couldn’t manage to appear cheery herself due to her own grief and sadness. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. We’re going to get out of here.” Pinkie said in what she hoped would be a confident tone. “How can y-you even say that anymore? *Sniff*… Those ghosts are going to kill us… I just know it. We’re never getting out of here.” Fluttershy said before breaking down into another fit of crying. She hid her face in her hooves and wept openly while her friends offered her concerned expressions. All of the fear and sadness she had been feeling seemed to have finally broken her. The once kind and cheery pegasus was now a quivering and disheveled shadow of her former self. Twilight and the others wondered if they would ever see her smile again. “No, Fluttershy… we are getting out of here.” Luna spoke up in a somber tone, causing everyone to look up in surprise. “Princess…?” Fluttershy muttered in a confused manner as she looked up at the alicorn. She seemed to be going through the same amount of grief and sadness as the others were, as evident by the tearstains on her face. “A lot of terrible things have happened tonight. I fully take the blame for all of them happening… it’s my fault you’re all here, and it’s my fault that so many innocents have died tonight. I know that saying sorry will not be enough to atone for my failures tonight…” Luna said in a sad tone while looking down and hiding her eyes from the group. ”But I can make you one promise that I fully intend to keep. I’m going to get you all out of here if it’s the last thing I do.” She said in an adamant manner while finally looking up to face the group. The alicorn’s speech was enough to create a stunned silence among the group. “Princess… you don’t need to blame yourself for what’s happening to us. If anyone deserves the blame for this, it’s Raven Feather. I think we can all agree on that.” Twilight said while looking around at the others for confirmation. Everyone nodded silently in stern agreement as they thought about the mysterious leader of the hooded ponies. Nobody had even seen her before, but they all harbored a hatred for her that they had never felt before in their lives. “And if you want to make us a promise, promise us that you’re going to be there with us when we take that creep down. I don’t want to hear anything from you about if it’s the last thing you do… too many people have died tonight.” Rainbow Dash added with a somber expression. “I… I…” Luna muttered in a stunned tone while looking around at the group. Everyone still had somber expressions, but they were somehow more confident that they would escape now, and they were determined to make sure that everyone got out alive. “Very well, I promise.” Luna said while finally managing a slight smile. Suddenly, the group heard someone clapping slowly on the other side of the room. The sound was faded and echoed, but it was slowly getting clearer and closer to them. When they looked around the area, they couldn’t find any sign of the intruder, until they noticed a familiar man with glasses coming into view. “Very good… very, very good, I must say that I didn’t expect you all to make it this far. Well… not that all of you did.” The man said with a slight chuckle while motioning behind the group towards Brimstoke. The ponies immediately felt a mixed feeling of fear and anger towards the spirit as they stared him down. “Just go away and leave us alone. We beat you before, we can do it again.” Sunspot said while keeping her strobe at the ready. “So you did… and here you are making heartfelt promises to each other that you’ll all get out of here in one piece. I hate to break it to you, but you’re all going to die in here.” The man said in an eerily calm and cold tone. Just as the group was weighing their options to fight the ghostly human, they saw another figure appearing out of thin air. The woman in white was strolling forward with her scissors in hand. She walked forward until she stepped in line with her brother, where she stopped and grinned at the group of ponies. “Can I have those three? They were mean to me…” The woman asked her sibling while pointing to Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. The three mares gulped nervously as they remembered their parts in interrupting the spirit’s battle with Tom. “You can have whoever you like. Just be sure to save some for me and our brother… whenever he gets back.” The man said while looking around for the third spirit, who was probably still recovering from his own defeat. “I’m afraid you two aren’t going to have any more fun tonight, or ever again for that matter.” Luna said with a small smirk building on her face. Everyone including the two ghosts looked over to the alicorn to see that she was still working on the symbol as she had been the entire time. Only now, the symbol beneath the blue mare was glowing red and humming magically. “NO!” Both of the spirits yelled fiercely while rushing forward towards the alicorn. By the time they reached her, it was too late. As Luna finished undoing the spell, the symbol flashed brightly as a loud gust of wind erupted from the center of it. Twilight and the others hugged the floor fearfully as they felt a strong wind blowing around them. Their hair, their clothes, and even loose items around the room were blowing around as a cyclone of wind circled around the symbol. It was almost like they were caught in a tornado. “AHHHHHHH.” The two ghosts screamed as their bodies shifted into smoke. The smoke was pulled towards the symbol until it started swirling down towards the center of it, where it disappeared. Once all of the smoke was gone, one final thunderous burst of air surged out through the room, leaving everything silent. Everyone slowly uncovered their heads and looked around with stunned expressions. They were half expecting the ghosts to reappear and murder them, but the room remained still and quiet. The only sign that the spirits were ever even present was the glowing red symbol on the floor. “Are… are they gone?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “It looks like it.” Glimmer Shine stated while looking around the room. “What about that third one? The guy with the axe… I didn’t see him getting sucked in with the others.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “I doubt he had the energy to become visible so soon after Sunspot blasted him. Don’t worry though. He got sucked up just like the other two.” Tom explained in a confident tone. “So we can leave? We can finally get out of here?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a stunned tone. “Yes Rainbow Dash, I believe we can.” Luna replied with a pleased smirk. Suddenly, the entire area started shaking as a loud rumble rang out through the room. The group steadied themselves and looked around fearfully until the shaking stopped. When they looked around to find the source of the strange occurrence, they noticed that the symbol was flashing white and emitting a strange buzzing sound. “W-what’s happening?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” Glitterball said in an uneasy tone. She walked closer to the symbol to examine it, but when it buzzed more and flashed brighter, she backed away nervously. “Keep away from the symbol.” Glimmer Shine suggested while distancing himself and the others from the glowing symbol. A thick white mist started rising out of the symbol. It didn’t spread out around the room in a way that a gaseous substance should. Instead, it slowly undulated into the air in certain parts, resembling a snake made out of white smoke. Tom used his senses a few times in order to find out what was going on. Once he realized what was happening, he widened his eyes in shock. “Oh no… we need to get out of here!” Tom explained urgently. “What’s wrong Tom? What’s happening?” Luna asked nervously while looking to the human for answers. “The symbol didn’t erase the ghosts and all of their energy immediately. It just converted their energy into its purest form. Apparently the ghosts are still awake in there somewhere, and they have control of the energy until the symbol purges it all.” Tom explained while eyeing the white smoke nervously. The sinister substance seemed to be getting more deliberate with its movements, almost as if it was alive. “What does that mean?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily. “It means that we need to get out of here before they figure out what’s going on!” Tom stated urgently while moving towards the exit of the room. Before the ponies could start moving to join the human, a loud bang sounded out as a burst of air surged out from the symbol. The gust of wind was so strong that it knocked everyone a short distance away, either slamming them into a wall or against the floor. “Everyone run!” Twilight yelled while getting to her feet and rushing to assist Pinkie Pie, who was still on the floor. Once everyone made it to their feet, they rushed towards the door. The group bolted through the hall as fast as they could to exit the room. Just before the purple mare could leave the room however, she heard something that made her heart sink. “Ack!” Luna yelped suddenly as she felt something wrapping around her leg and pulling her backwards. Twilight paused in the doorway and turned around as she heard the alicorn cry out. As she peered back into the room, she gasped fearfully as she noticed the blue mare on the floor over by the symbol. The wispy stream of white smoke had somehow formed into a hand shape that was latched onto the princess and holding her down on the floor. Just in front of Luna, the white smoke was rising into the air and spreading out into the room, all the while it was making a horrific wailing sound. “Princess!” Twilight yelled fearfully while reaching her hoof towards the trapped alicorn. Luna looked up to see the purple mare at the doorway. She looked like she was contemplating rushing in to help her. One look at the rapidly approaching wall of energy told the alicorn that a living creature caught inside of the mass wouldn’t remain living for long. She could already feel the tendril around her leg burning her as the ghosts lashed out angrily through the medium of energy. “Princess, teleport over here! Use your magic!” Twilight pleaded desperately. The alicorn tried focusing her magic and managed to light up her horn, but after a few moments of attempting a teleport spell, she groaned heavily while her horn dimmed. She barely had any energy left from everything that had happened to her. “I… I’m not sure I can.” Luna said in a grim tone as she realized just how bad the situation was now. “T-try again! You can do this Princess… you have to!” Twilight stated while trying to keep her voice from trembling. “Run Twilight!” Luna yelled while struggling to keep the tendril from pulling her in. She lit up her horn again and tried using her magic to interact with the smoke, only to realize that she was too weak to do anything of great importance. Even if she had her strength, the smoke seemed to be fighting against her magic. “I’m not leaving you here… you’ll die!” Twilight yelled back while looking at the smoke as it spread across the room. It was making its way around the alicorn and trying to reach her. She could feel a great deal of raw hatred and anger emanating from the smoke, which made sense considering that the three spirits were somehow inside of it. Luna pulled on her leg with all of her might, but she couldn’t free herself from the energy. She could feel herself getting pulled along the floor towards the mass of energy. The entire room was filled with the distorted moans and wails of the spirits within the smoke, creating an even more disturbing atmosphere than what was already present. “What the hay is going on h…” Sunspot asked while rushing back to see why the two weren’t running with the others. “Oh no…” She exclaimed in a horrified tone as she saw the scene before her. “We have to help her!” Twilight stated while lighting up her horn. Sunspot nodded frantically while drawing her strobe. The pair of ponies desperately used every tool in their arsenal as they tried to push back the smoke trying to envelop the alicorn. As the blasts from Sunspot’s strobe failed to affect the white smoke, and Twilight’s magic failed to work, they both realized that they were powerless to help from where they were. “Don’t worry Princess, I’ll save you!” Twilight exclaimed while stepping forward into the room. She was stopped as another tendril of energy slammed to the floor in front of her, causing a loud crash followed by a deep wail to ring out. “Just go! I don’t want you to die with me!” Luna instructed in an adamant tone. She offered the pair a sad expression as she gradually realized her grim situation. Twilight stared at the scene in front of her with a horrified expression. She desperately wanted to help the alicorn escape, but she didn’t know what to do. She was absolutely helpless, and she knew it. Still, she remained in the doorway, desperately hoping that she could find a way to save the princess. “But… but…!” Twilight stammered fearfully while racking her mind to try and find a solution. The wall of energy was getting closer to the princess, and it was also getting closer to the doorway at the same time. “Sunspot, get her out of here! That is a direct order!” Luna demanded while looking to the pegasus to save the stubborn unicorn. Sunspot groaned in frustration as she realized that there was nothing she could do but to follow her orders. “Twilight, we need to go!” Sunspot said while grabbing the unicorn’s arm and pulling her away. Twilight pulled against the orange mare in an attempt at getting free. Once she realized that the purple mare wouldn’t cooperate, Sunspot grabbed her by the waist and pulled even harder. “No! Let me… grr… let me go!” Twilight yelled as the pegasus pulled her away from the room. She reached towards the trapped alicorn as she was carried away against her will. “Princess Luna!” Twilight yelled mournfully as the wall of energy appeared in the doorway. The animate smoke poured out into the hallway with an angry wail as it tried to chase the escaping ponies. The entire house shook again, causing the two mares to drop to the floor. As she got to her feet, Sunspot noticed that Twilight was still staring ahead with a distraught expression. The unicorn was seemingly in her own world as she sluggishly allowed the pegasus to help her to her feet. “There’s nothing we can do for her now! We need to go Twilight!” Sunspot pleaded while shaking the unicorn. Finally, the purple mare shook herself out of her daze and turned tail to follow the orange pony. As the terrifying sounds of the living energy followed them down the hallway, the two ponies raced to catch up to their friends. Finally they found the others waiting for them just in front of the hole in the wall that led into the crawlspace. “Thank goodness you two made it!” Rarity exclaimed in a relieved tone as she saw her two friends running towards her. “Where is Princess Luna?” Applejack asked in an uneasy tone as she noticed that the two were alone. Twilight and Sunspot looked down sadly, until a distorted roar from down the hallway pulled them from their sad thoughts. “There’s no time to explain. That thing was right behind us when we left!” Twilight stated in an urgent tone. “Then we don’t have much time… everyone into the wall, now!” Glimmer Shine instructed in a stern tone while ushering the others towards the hole in the wall. Everyone looked to the small opening with dread filling their minds. They knew that the first part of the crawlspace was actually rather spacious, but that the second part was barely large enough to fit them. Despite their nerves, the ponies decided that now wasn’t the time for letting their fears get the best of them. While Glimmer Shine and the others watched the hallway for any signs of their supernatural stalker, the group quickly made their way into the hole in the wall. After Twilight ducked into the opening, Glimmer Shine and Tom followed her inside. The group immediately knew what they had to do. They had to run, and they had to run fast. Small streams of the animate smoke were starting to appear in different places on the walls and ceiling. While these streams might not have been connected to the main mass, they would probably pose a similar threat to the ponies if they got too close. “This way!” Glitterball exclaimed while running ahead of the group to light the way. The unicorn looked back to make sure that the others were following her, only to nearly fall into one of the pits in the strange room. Twilight and the others had to constantly avoid tripping or falling over raised portions of earth as they ran. They would probably be disturbed that they were running over forgotten bodies of the dead, but they had bigger problems to contend with. Finally the group made it to the smaller portion of the room. With no time to pause, the ponies started making their way under the low hanging ceiling and funneling towards the opening that would take them to freedom. Everyone was nervous about their friends lagging too far behind, but they had to keep moving or they would eventually get jammed up as everyone paused to make it through the small opening. Pinkie Pie and Glitterball reached the hole in the wall first. After the pink mare urgently crouched to the floor and crawled through, she helped the unicorn to make her way through the small opening. “Come on guys!” Pinkie exclaimed while helping the next person through. She looked ahead, only to notice that the rest of her friends were just now reaching the opening. The occasional rumbling of the house and the eerie howls coming from behind them made the ponies well aware of the fact that they were running from something. After Sunspot hurriedly made her way through the opening, Twilight insisted that Tom be the next one through. The purple mare helped to push the weakened human through the hole in the wall from her end. She looked around her and noticed that there were only four people left including her. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Glimmer Shine were all staring at her with fearful expressions as they waited for her to make her way through. “Come on Fluttershy, you’re next.” Twilight said while gently ushering the yellow mare forward. Fluttershy seemed open to the concept of being next, but she was also worried that her friends would be in danger. “What about you?” Fluttershy asked nervously as the unicorn pushed her through the opening. “We’re right behind you, just follow the others.” Rainbow Dash stated in a reassuring tone. Fluttershy looked to the side to see Sunspot ushering her down the right side of the hallway. The others were probably somewhere up ahead, trying to make as much progress while also staying far enough behind to help if they were needed. “Ok… hurry and get back to us safe.” Fluttershy said in a worried tone before trotting off to join the others. “Alright, you next Twilight.” Rainbow Dash suggested while motioning towards the opening. “No, you go first.” Twilight replied in a firm tone. “What? You can’t be serious.” Rainbow Dash said in a tone of disbelief. A sudden rumble around them drew the ponies’ attention to their rear. Glimmer Shine’s flashlight illuminated the rest of the crawlspace from where he was. The three could see a massive wall of smoke moving in through the other opening and spreading out through the room. “There’s no time for arguing! You go next!” Twilight demanded while shoving the cyan mare towards the opening. Rainbow Dash quickly realized that the unicorn would forcefully cram her into the hole if she didn’t cooperate. “Grr… you better not die. If you die, I’m going to kill you.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while crawling through the hole as fast as she could. “Duly noted, now go with the others.” Twilight said with a brief nod of comprehension to the cyan mare. Finally, the unicorn was left with only one other person in the crawlspace with her. “You go next.” Twilight suggested while motioning for Glimmer Shine to move through the hole. “Not a chance, Twilight.” Glimmer Shine said while gently pushing her towards the opening. “Glimmer… I can’t lose anyone else tonight.” Twilight said in a sad tone while thinking back to Princess Luna. Glimmer Shine offered her a sympathetic expression before thinking back to his brother. “Neither can I.” The yellow stallion stated before forcing the unicorn to move through the opening. Twilight rolled from Glimmer pushing her through to the other side. She groaned before quickly getting up and rushing to assist her companion. “Come on!” Twilight hurried the stallion along as he made his way through the hole. Glimmer Shine quickly pulled his way out into the hallway. He made it almost completely out, until he felt something icy cold wrapping around his back leg. “AH!” Glimmer yelled fearfully as he was pulled back into the hole. Just before he disappeared from view, he felt something else grabbing onto his outstretched hoof. The yellow pony looked up to see Twilight struggling to pull him out. He then looked back to see a tendril of wispy energy reaching out from the now massive wall of white smoke. The wall was slowly making its way past the smaller portion of the crawlspace on its path to get at the escaping ponies. At this rate, it would be upon them in moments. “I can’t pull you out! It’s too strong!” Twilight exclaimed in a dreadful tone as she realized that she was losing the battle. “Let me go!” Glimmer Shine instructed in a desperate tone. “What?!” Twilight replied with a shocked expression, partially because she was so shocked, and partially because she could barely hear the stallion over the wailing of the mass of energy. “Let me go… you’ll only get pulled in with me!” Glimmer stated in a louder tone while trying to wrestle out of the unicorn’s grip. “I’m not going to let you die!” Twilight said in an adamant tone while pulling harder on the stallion. Despite her resolve, she was rapidly losing ground as the tendril pulled both her and the yellow pony further towards their doom. Just before all hope was lost, Twilight noticed a second pair of hooves grabbing onto Glimmer Shine’s free arm. She looked beside her to see a familiar cyan pegasus struggling to help her in her battle against the cloud of smoke. “Rainbow Dash…? I thought you left.” Twilight said in a surprised tone. “Duh… element of loyalty.” Rainbow Dash stated in a sarcastic tone before flashing her friend a smirk. The purple mare smiled in return before returning her attention to the task of saving the yellow stallion. With the combined efforts of two ponies, the pair finally managed to pull Glimmer Shine free of the wispy tendril. The two mares barely let the stallion come to his senses before they yanked him out of the crawlspace and threw him out into the hallway. “Move or die people, those are your choices!” Rainbow Dash stated while rushing down the hallway with her two friends in tow. After running a short distance down the corridor, the three met back up with the rest of the group. The others had apparently slowed down and waited for them to catch up. “What are you guys waiting for?! Move it!” Glimmer Shine yelled while bolting past the group. As another rumble and a faint wail filled the air, the ponies were filled with a sense of urgency that forced them to run after the yellow stallion. After a short run, the group came to a fork in the hallway and paused. They knew that they came from the left fork in the hallway, but another thought was making them hesitate nervously. In all of the commotion, most of the ponies had forgotten exactly where they came from. Twilight and the others didn’t even know where they were to begin with on account of their capture at the hands of the man with the glasses. “Which way do we go from here?!” Twilight asked in a frantic tone. They had to run, and she knew that they wouldn’t have time to backtrack from a mistake once they started running. “Follow me! I remember how to get back to the stairs!” Tom exclaimed while rushing ahead of the group. The others briefly looked at each other with uncertain expressions. They quickly ran to catch up with the human for fear that they would lose track of him in the commotion. The entire house was shaking violently from the amount of energy flowing through the area. Lights were flickering wildly from the rooms to either side of the group as lamps and lightbulbs seemingly came to life without power. It was like the mass of evil that was following them was merging with the house and feeling its way around. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise while jumping over a pile of boxes that toppled over in front of her. Everyone behind her was forced to either do the same or kick the boxes to the side and risk losing speed. “It feels like this whole place is coming down!” Fluttershy stated fearfully. “If it makes you feel better, that’s just because the ghosts are using their influence to try to stop us. Everything should be fine once the energy dissipates.” Tom explained from the front of the group. “And just how long is that going to take?” Twilight asked in an uneasy tone while taking note of the hallway shaking around her. “I don’t know… but something tells me that the mass of energy will catch up to us before it does. Just keep running!” Tom replied in a more serious tone. “You don’t need to tell me twice!” Rainbow Dash stated in a nervously joking manner. As another intersection came up, the human at the front of the group skidded to a halt and immediately darted down the new hallway. Everyone made a hard left to keep up with their companion before he got out of sight. “This isn’t good… the energy is catching up with us.” Glitterball said while looking at her locator vial. The glowing portion of the blue liquid in the vial was steadily growing as she pointed it to the side. “I thought we were running away from it?” Applejack asked nervously. “We were, but now we’re facing a different direction. Since it can move through walls, it will be right on top of us before long.” Tom stated in an alarmed tone as he realized what the white unicorn had already realized. “Ok, I just want to point out that the whole moving through walls thing is totally unfair!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a frustrated tone. “Keep going! We need to get out of here before that thing catches up!” Glimmer Shine stated to keep the group moving as fast as possible. Their lungs were burning and their muscles were sore, but they had to keep moving or they would never see the light of day again. “It’s a straight shot to the stairs from here! We’re almost out!” Tom stated to give the group an update on their progress. Everyone was relieved to hear that they were almost out, but they were also alarmed by the fact that they were racing against time. The fact that the white mist could come through the left wall at any time gave the ponies ample motivation to run faster. “Oof!” Fluttershy groaned painfully as she tripped over another fallen box. She fell to the floor and hit her face and upper body against the ground. “Come on Fluttershy, keep going. We’re not going to leave you here.” Applejack stated while pushing the yellow mare to her feet. “Thank you.” Fluttershy said while flashing a brief smile at the cow pony. Another crash from more items falling around them made the two mares snap out of their brief distraction. They returned their attention to running as fast as they could while also avoiding the numerous pieces of debris on the floor. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the group came to the end of the hallway. To their left was the makeshift safe area they had set up when they first arrived in the basement, and to their right were the stairs leading up to the first floor. The ponies could see faint light from the upstairs hallway bleeding through the seam at the bottom of the door. The small glimmer of light was probably nothing more than a nearby candle, but it filled the group with enough hope to make it as significant as a lighthouse on a stormy night. “Come on!” Tom exclaimed while ushering the group up the stairs. Once a few of the ponies made it up, he started up after them while everyone else followed him. Just as Twilight was making her way onto the staircase, she felt something wrapping around her back leg. The sensation given by the thing grabbing her indicated that it wasn’t very solid, but somehow it was icy cold enough to elicit a painful reaction with her skin as it constricted around her leg. “AH!” Twilight yelped in surprise as she was yanked backwards by the thing around her leg. Despite her attempts at catching herself, she banged her chin on one of the steps on her way down. The impact sent her into a painful daze, but she still found the strength to reach forward and grab one of the stairs to hold her ground. As she looked behind her to see what was attacking her, she was confronted by a long and slender tendril of white smoke sticking out of the floor. The sight of the tendril alone would have been disconcerting enough to the unicorn, but she could see an even bigger threat seeping through the far wall. The rest of the mass of energy was slowly making its presence known as it slowly moved out of the wall and moved towards the pinned mare. “Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed fearfully as she noticed the purple unicorn being pulled towards the white mass. Before she could even think about the matter further, the pink pony darted down the stairs and grabbed one of Twilight’s arms to pull her out of the tendril’s grasp. Spotting their friend in danger, Rainbow Dash and Applejack pushed around the terrified onlookers and rushed down the stairs to assist in her rescue. The two mares grabbed the unicorn by the arms and pulled with all of their might. Even with the combined efforts of three adult ponies, they were having a hard time with yanking the purple pony free. “Agh!” Twilight yelped painfully as she felt a burning sensation in her back legs. She looked behind her to see that the cloud of white smoke was close to enveloping her. Using the unicorn’s cries of pain as motivation, Pinkie and her two cohorts pulled one last time with everything they had. They all fell backwards as the purple mare was ripped away from the tendril holding her. All four ponies scrambled to get to their feet and flee from the rapidly approaching cloud. “Run!” Twilight yelled in a panic as she bolted up the stairs. The cloud of energy was catching up to them, and they knew it. Everyone ran out of the stairwell and out into the first floor hallway. The familiar sight of the candle lit tables and warm colored carpet was comforting to the ponies, or at least it would have been if they weren’t running for their lives. “*Gasp* There it is!” Pinkie stated in an excited tone while looking ahead of the group. They had finally reached the end of the hallway. The door to the foyer, and hopefully freedom, was swiftly getting closer to them. Their journey was close to an end, for better or worse. “I just hope that the front doors open.” Glitterball said with a worried expression. “If they don’t, I’m heading through the nearest window!” Sunspot said with an eager chuckle. The excitement of reaching the entrance was clearly getting to the orange pegasus. “That doesn’t sound like the best way to leave in my opinion.” Twilight shrugged uneasily at the prospect of being forced to jump out of a window. “Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it tonight.” Sunspot replied to the cynical unicorn with a surprising amount of wit and cheerfulness. “Yeah, but weren’t you unconscious the last time it happened? And didn’t you have a ghost to send you on your way?” Glitterball interjected in an uncertain tone, eliciting a shrug from the once cheerful pegasus. “Don’t burst my bubble, Glitter!” Sunspot said in an irritated tone. Before anyone else could entertain the thought of jumping out of a window, the group reached the door. Glimmer Shine threw it open and darted out into the foyer along with his frantic group. Even though he knew it wouldn’t do any good, he closed the door behind the group. “Sir, where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you to get back for ages.” The voice of a confused guard drew everyone’s attention to the side. They saw several of the guards making their way down to see their miraculous return. Before anyone could say anything further, another loud wail and an even louder rumble shook the house. “No time to explain! Everyone out!” Glimmer Shine yelled to everyone in the room before rushing to the front doors. While the confused and concerned guards rushed to gather the prisoners and other important items and follow the group, Glimmer grabbed the front doors and silently prayed while pushing on them. Much to the amazement and relief of everyone present, the double doors creaked open. As the doors slid the rest of the way open, the awestruck ponies looked at the outside world with wide eyes and excited expressions. It was pitch black outside, with the light from the foyer illuminating the stone porch and a little of the yard beyond. Although it had stopped storming, there was a thick cover of clouds over the night sky. The entire area was also soaking wet from the torrential downpour, but the ponies didn’t care. “I never thought I would be so happy to see a pair of doors opening.” Rainbow Dash said while enjoying the cool fresh air hitting her face. Most of the others were on the verge of breaking down into tears of joy from looking around outside. A distorted howl drew Twilight’s attention behind her. She gasped as she saw the cloud of white mist pouring into the room from behind the stairs. The mass of energy seemed to be moving much faster, as if the spirits inside were making a last ditch effort at catching the fleeing ponies. “Everyone run!” Twilight exclaimed loudly while bolting outside. Once everyone noticed what had spooked the unicorn, they ran out to follow her. They didn’t even stop at the stone porch, opting instead to flee across the yard. The ponies’ hooves sunk into the deep mud, but none of them cared about that at a time like this. Rarity held a passing thought of disgust in her mind before it was pushed aside by the terror she felt. Everyone was running for their lives as the angry mass of energy reached the front of the house and howled at them. “It isn’t following us.” Pinkie stated as she looked behind her and noticed the cloud of white mist pausing at the threshold of the house. “I would feel safer if we were over the property line to be sure!” Tom said while continuing over the crumbling stone path that lay off to the side. Everyone shared his desire to be as far away as possible, so they kept running. Finally, after everything they had endured inside of the mansion, Twilight and her friends ran outside of the ancient iron fence that they had crossed so many hours ago. They stopped running and fought to catch their breaths as they realized just how tired they were. Noticing that the ground around them was strangely dry, a few of the ponies fell to the ground and rested from their ordeal. “*Pant*… we… we made it.” Twilight said with a smile building on her face as the realization finally sunk in. The ponies were free. They had survived the trap intended to kill them, and they had even defeated the ghosts. Everyone turned and looked to the mansion to watch the white smoke as it howled angrily in the distance. It looked like it was trying to ram against whatever invisible prison was keeping it in the house, but it wasn’t making any progress. Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted from the inside of the mansion. Once the light died down, the white smoke was completely gone, with only a droning wail to mark its departure. “Is it gone? Are they… gone?” Fluttershy asked in an uncertain tone while thinking back to the ghosts. “I think so. With how much effort they put into chasing us, they must have sped up the process of eliminating the rest of their energy.” Tom said in a confident tone. Everyone smiled as they realized that they had won. Meanwhile, towards the back of the group, Glimmer Shine noticed one of the guards trotting up to him. The stallion naturally had many questions to ask, as most of the other guards did. However, the yellow pony was uncertain if he wanted to answer the questions he had. “Glimmer Shine… what in Celestia’s name happened down in the basement? Where are the others? Where is Princess Luna?” The guard asked in an uneasy tone. As the subject of the princess and the others was brought up, everyone’s smile shifted into an expression of sadness. “They’re gone… all of them.” Glimmer Shine explained in a somber tone while looking down sadly. “My word… I… I’m sorry sir.” The guard said in a sympathetic tone. “Shouldn’t we send a team in there to look for survivors and…” One of the guards started to speak, until he hesitated with a somber expression at his next thought. “Retrieve the bodies…” Glimmer Shine said while looking up with a blank expression. Despite his calm exterior, the group could tell that he was dying on the inside. “I think that can wait until later. I want to be sure that the ghosts are gone before sending anyone else in there. Besides… I think we could all use some rest.” Glimmer said while looking around at the others. Everyone offered him sympathetic expressions of sadness as they remembered those that were lost in the mansion. “Of course sir.” The guard said before saluting and waiting at attention. Glimmer Shine merely started walking away slowly. Deciding that there was nothing more they could do, everyone else started to follow the yellow stallion towards the forest. They were sore, tired, and sorrowful, but they still walked slowly while processing their thoughts. Everyone hoped that they could get to sleep once they got home, and they all silently wished that this would all turn out to be a horrible nightmare that they would wake up from. Chapter 91: RegretElsewhere, deeper into the Everfree Forest, there was a different atmosphere prevailing for a different group of ponies. While Twilight and her friends were feeling despair and sadness, the remaining hooded ponies were experiencing a helpless feeling of uncertainty as they licked their wounds. Raven Feather walked through her makeshift camp of refugees with an irritated expression on her face. Her followers, the only soldiers she had left in her silent rebellion were all standing around the area with forlorn and exhausted expressions on their faces. The only supplies the group managed to get out of the mansion were laying around on tarps or in small boxes as the group rested. “*Sigh*… how did it come to this?” Raven Feather muttered to herself in a depressed tone. Everything she had planned was now crashing down around her, and the only remnants she was clutching onto weren’t guaranteed to succeed. Suddenly, the black mare noticed one of her underlings rushing up to her. The hooded stallion seemed to have an urgent air about him as he trotted up to her and caught his breath. “Miss Raven Feather! We found Shadow Mist.” The messenger reported with a frantic tone of voice. “You did… then he’s alive?!” Raven Feather asked in a shocked tone. As much as she trusted the red stallion to complete his mission, she thought that he would have perished along with the others stuck in the mansion. “He is, but he is badly injured. We found him stumbling around outside of the secret tunnels. They should be bringing him in right now.” The hood explained while looking over to the rest of the camp. Sure enough, there were two ponies assisting a red stallion with walking into the camp in the distance. “Go tell Raincloud and the others… quickly.” Raven Feather instructed in a concerned tone while looking over to the newly arrived stallion. Although she couldn’t see what condition he was in, she could tell that he was limping even with the help of two ponies carrying him. “Right away ma’am.” The hooded pony said with a brief salute before rushing off to complete his appointed task. Satisfied that the others would be notified in due time, Raven Feather rushed towards the red stallion with an urgent expression. As she got close enough to see Shadow Mist better, the black mare gasped in utter shock and horror at what she saw. To say that Shadow Mist was injured would be the understatement of the century. The stallion was almost completely missing one of his front legs, with only a bloody stump remaining in its place. His left eye was flinched closed, with dry blood caked over it. His face was pale, and he looked like he was barely holding onto consciousness. “Good lord… what happened to you Shadow Mist?!” Raven Feather asked while rushing up to the injured stallion and helping to steady him. Before the injured pony could answer, the sound of frantic hoofsteps drew Raven Feather’s attention behind her. She noticed Raincloud, Dust Kicker, and Grimwood trotting up to see the red stallion, only to drop their jaws in shock as they saw the state he was in. “Oh shit!” Raincloud exclaimed in a shocked tone while observing the bloodied pony. She seemed to be taken aback from seeing one of her colleagues injured in such a horrific manner. “What happened to him?!” Grimwood asked in an alarmed tone. The shock apparent in his normally blank expression told much of just how mortified he was. “I don’t know. They found him like this outside of the mansion.” Raven Feather explained in a concerned tone. “Is my face ok?” Shadow Mist asked while managing a slight chuckle. “You look like hell Shadow Mist… what happened back there?” Raincloud asked in a concerned tone. “I ran into some trouble with getting out, but I got everything we need.” Shadow Mist explained while motioning to the bag he had around his shoulder. Raven Feather gently took the satchel and skimmed through its contents. “I knew I should have stayed. *Sigh*… you did a good job for all the hell you caught because of it.” Raven Feather said in a sympathetic tone. “Grimwood, can you see if you can heal his injuries?” She asked curiously while turning to the pale colt. “I don’t know if I can heal anything this severe… but I can try.” Grimwood said while shaking his head sadly. “Good… I’ll go see if I can figure out what we’re going to do next.” Raven Feather said in a frustrated tone. After making sure that Shadow Mist was in good hands, the black mare walked off with the satchel in her possession. Raincloud and Dust Kicker helped to move Shadow Mist over to a less crowded area of the camp. They dragged a tarp over and sat the injured stallion down before looking to Grimwood with concerned expressions. “Let us know if you need any help Grim.” Raincloud said in a sympathetic tone. “Ok… thanks.” Grimwood said with a nod of dismissal while watching the two ponies walking off. Finally he was left alone with the red stallion. “You don’t need to worry… I got everything we need before I got out.” Shadow Mist said while reaching down to his side. He used his powers to produce a smaller hidden satchel from a puff of shadows before handing it to the colt. “You didn’t need to get yourself nearly killed to get these.” Grimwood said while looking at the contents of the satchel. There were four vials filled with red liquid sitting inside, presumably the blood from the remaining elements of harmony. “Well it wasn’t exactly my intention to lose a leg and an eye.” Shadow Mist said with a slight chuckle. He stopped smiling once he noticed the pale colt was being more somber than usual. “I never intended for this to happen… I hope you know that.” Grimwood said in a sad tone while examining the stallion’s wounds. “Of course Grim… I’ve known you and Raven Feather since she ran away from home with you in her arms.” Shadow Mist said in a reassuring tone. “She doesn’t like to talk about our past that much around me. What did she run away from home for?” Grimwood asked curiously while gently examining the stallion’s eye. “She never told you? Ow!” Shadow Mist yelped as the colt touched his eye in a tender area. “No… all she said was that everyone shunned her for her powers, and that we were better off on our own.” Grimwood replied while channeling shadow magic to his hoof. The red stallion looked at the fiery ball of shadows on the colt’s hoof and thought back to the day when he first met him and his sister. “Raven Feather discovered her aptitude for shadow magic at an early age. She had no idea what it was at the time, and she had little control over it. Your parents didn’t understand it either… and most people fear what they don’t understand. For several years, Raven Feather was shunned or bullied by everyone around her. She did her best to suppress her abilities, but eventually they got too strong for her own good. One day she accidentally hurt someone, and just like that she was labeled a threat to society… heh… kind of ironic if you look at her now. Anyway, your parents had just recently had you, so they were probably very nervous about having a bomb of magical energy waiting to go off in their house. They contacted the princess to take Raven Feather away and study her, and she was oddly ok with that. But on the day they came to pick her up, she saw you using shadow magic yourself.” Shadow Mist explained in a somber tone. “So that’s why she ran away…” Grimwood said in an understanding tone. “That’s what I figured. She couldn’t stand the idea of you having her life… being treated like a freak just because you were different from the others. So she took you and ran… she ran and she didn’t stop running. The entire town was trying to catch up to her to take her back… they probably would have caught her too if it wasn’t for me.” Shadow Mist said with a smirk while thinking back to how he helped the black mare. “She told me about that part. You grabbed us and hid us from the others with your powers. What did they used to call you… the ghost of Canterlot?” Grimwood asked curiously. “Yeah... but that was back when I just used my powers to steal and mess with people.” Shadow Mist chuckled warmly at his memories before wincing in pain as Grimwood placed his hoof against his missing limb. “*Sigh*… I’m not sure if I can restore your eye or your leg. All I can do at this point is to seal up your wounds.” Grimwood explained in a somber tone. “Well… I guess I wasn’t expecting anything else to be fair.” Shadow Mist said with a disheartened tone while resting his head against the tree behind him. Suddenly, the pair heard the sound of someone approaching them. Grimwood quickly grabbed the small satchel and used his own shadow magic to hide it. Just after he got done, he looked up to see his sister walking over with a somber expression. “How is he?” Raven Feather asked in a concerned tone while eyeing the wounded pony with a sympathetic frown. “I’m sorry… but I can’t do anything more than making sure that he doesn’t bleed out.” Grimwood explained with a disheartened expression. “It’s not your fault Grim… if anything this is my fault.” Raven Feather said while looking to the floor sadly. She might not have cared for many of the people in her group, but those who shared her gifts were considered to be as close as family to the black mare. “Hey, it’s not your fault either Raven Feather.” Shadow Mist said in a reassuring tone. The black mare smiled slightly as she saw how chipper the stallion was. Her smile shifted to a scornful expression as her thoughts shifted elsewhere. “You’re right… it’s not my fault. If anyone is to blame for all of this, it’s Celestia and her sister.” Raven Feather stated with an angry expression while putting a hoof on Shadow Mist’s shoulder. “I can promise you one thing Shadow Mist… I’m going to make her pay for everything she has done to us.” She said in a confident tone while smiling devilishly. Shadow Mist and Grimwood nodded to the black mare as she resolved to bring about her retribution on the princess. They were confident in one thing. They would be shaping the world as they saw fit, even if they had to help Raven Feather along the way. -An hour later- Outside of the royal guard station, Rainbow Dash and the others were enjoying a moment’s peace as they waited for Twilight and the others to emerge. As they looked up at the clear night sky, they couldn’t help but to think back to everyone they lost at the mansion. “Do you think she’s going to be ok?” Pinkie asked in an uneasy tone. Everyone immediately knew that she was referring to the princess. “Ah don’t know Pinkie… Twilight is telling her that her sister died. That has to be a horrible thing to go through, even for Princess Celestia.” Applejack explained in a somber tone. Everyone frowned sadly as they thought about what the princess must have been feeling right now. As much as they wanted to be inside with the purple unicorn to comfort the princess, they weren’t sure if they could handle being in the same room with her. Even if they had no part in her death, they were all there when Luna was left behind. They all felt some kind of responsibility. What if? That single thought permeated the ponies’ minds and flooded their thoughts. What if they had done this? What if they had said that? If things had gone differently, maybe they could have saved everybody. “It isn’t fair… why is any of this even happening? Things were still simple a week ago… the worst thing I had to deal with was mind numbing boredom.” Rainbow Dash said with a saddened shrug. “Now there are ponies out there trying to throw Equestria into chaos… and as much as I hate saying it, I think they have done a good job of it.” She sighed heavily while sitting down and resting her head against the building behind her. “We’ll find Raven Feather, and all of her followers. Things might seem bad right now, but… we’ll pick up the pieces eventually.” Rarity said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. Despite her good intentions, even the white unicorn was unsure of whether or not her words were true. Everyone looked down and shrugged sadly. They had never felt so utterly hopeless in their lives. The situation at hand was manageable, even if it was a sorrowful time for everyone. But the thing that was uncertain to the ponies was the future. Suddenly, the sound of the front doors opening drew everyone’s attention away. They looked over to see Twilight, Tom, and Glimmer Shine walking outside with a group of guards following behind them. While Twilight walked over to join her friends, Tom and Glimmer Shine continued walking away with the guards joining them. “Where are they going?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “Glimmer Shine is taking a team back to the mansion to search for survivors… Tom volunteered to help him.” Twilight explained while watching the group leave. “That was nice of him.” Rainbow Dash said with a small, empty smirk. “Well, you know him… he wants to make sure that the mansion is safe before anyone else goes in there. Plus… I don’t think Glimmer Shine wants to recover the bodies alone.” Twilight said while looking down sadly. “How is the princess?” Pinkie Pie asked in a hesitant tone. The subject of the princess being brought up made the purple mare frown in a sorrowful manner. “*Sigh*… she held up a lot better than I would have. I suppose she didn’t want to break down in front of me… still, she was on the verge of tears by the time I left.” Twilight explained sadly. “Should we stay with her for a little bit? I mean… is she going to be ok?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “She wants to be alone for tonight at least. She said to tell you that she’s sorry for putting us through all of that.” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone. “I can’t believe she blames herself for all of this… that can’t be healthy for her… especially not right now.” Rarity said in a concerned manner. All of the grief the princess must have been going through was more than any pony should have to bear at one time. “She said she was fine… as fine as she can be at any rate. She just needs some sleep… we all do.” Twilight suggested while taking note of her exhaustion. Even with all of the sadness she was feeling, all of the energy she had used during the raid at the mansion was starting to catch up to her. “So what… we’re just supposed to go home and try to sleep after everything that happened?” Rainbow Dash asked in an uneasy tone. “Yeah, I guess we are. We have a lot to do in the near future. We still need to hunt down Raven Feather and however many of her followers she has left… and then there are the funerals to consider.” Twilight said with a disheartened shrug. “F-funerals?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone. She seemed taken aback by the prospect of accepting that some of her friends had died, even though it was obvious. Twilight merely nodded silently in response with a somber expression on her face. “The princess wants to know if you guys will come to Canterlot in the next few days to attend. I think she will wait until Cadence and Shining Armor can get there to hold Luna’s funeral, but the others will be held as soon as they can get everything ready.” Twilight explained sadly. “Of course we will come… we owe Neon and the others that much at least.” Fluttershy said after a brief moment of contemplation. The others nodded in agreement to the yellow pony’s statement. “I’ll see you all tomorrow… I just need to rest for tonight.” Twilight said while walking away slowly. She hung her head sadly as she tried to avoid thinking about all of her troubling memories. “Goodnight Twilight… Try to get some sleep.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while waving at the unicorn. Twilight waved back at her friends before walking towards the rest of town where her home waited for her. After a while, only the sound of her own hooves clattering against the street could be heard. Twilight looked around and saw that she was alone, which was perhaps for the best. She needed time to process her thoughts. So many things were flooding her mind, from sad memories, to horrible revelations, to frustrating thoughts about the hooded ponies and the future. Taking a look up to the night sky, the unicorn noticed the moon hanging low on the horizon. The night would be ending in a few hours, but that wasn’t what was making her sad. Twilight still couldn’t believe what had happened back at the mansion. Luna was gone, and she couldn’t do anything about it. She had watched Luna’s journey as she adjusted to life in Equestria after her banishment. She got to know the blue alicorn as a friend, but now she would never see her alive again. She would be lucky to see her again at all depending on what that cloud of energy did to her body. “Luna… I’m so sorry.” Twilight muttered sadly with tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffled quietly while letting a few tears drop to the street below. Right now she didn’t feel like Celestia’s student. The one that her mentor would trust with important missions, the one that ponies could count on in times of crisis. Right now she just felt like a helpless unicorn that was faced with an insurmountable challenge, one that would determine the fate of Equestria as a whole, and yet one she felt like she couldn’t handle completing. After a few minutes of self-reflection and silent walking, Twilight found herself standing in front of the library once more. The building that served as her home was an almost surreal sight to the purple mare. Several times before now she had wondered if she would ever get to see it again, if she would ever get to walk through that door again, and if she would ever see Spike again. “Oh… Spike…” Twilight said in a sorrowful tone. She didn’t know what she could say to the young dragon, or if she could even say anything in her state. Still, she couldn’t just say nothing. As much as she wanted to just ignore her problems and curl up in bed to cry herself to sleep, she had to at least explain to her assistant what had happened. Taking a deep and shaky breath, the unicorn reached up and grabbed the door handle. Whatever was going to happen, she just wanted to get it over and done with so tonight could end. Still, she could feel the emotions building inside of her as she imagined the young dragon’s reactions to what she would have to tell him. Not only that Princess Luna and several others had died, but that she failed to save them and stop the hooded ponies. The only way she could even convince Spike to let her go with a sound mind was to promise him that she would be in complete control of the situation at all times. Clearly, she had failed miserably at her promise. As she opened the door and took a brief look around, she discovered that there were no lights on anywhere in the library. Of course there weren’t, she thought. It was late in the morning hours after all. Spike was probably asleep upstairs. She hoped that he didn’t spend too long staying up and worrying about her. It must have been horrible for him to go to bed without knowing if she was safe or not. Twilight slowly walked up the stairs toward her bedroom. She stood outside of the door and listened for a moment. There were no sounds coming from inside, and there was no light on inside either. Deciding that it would be best for her to not wake up the young dragon, she opened the door as silently as she could. The room inside was dark and peaceful. As she expected, Spike was sleeping in his bed a few feet away. His blanket was only half way draped over his body, and he had a somewhat troubled expression, as if he had tossed and turned in his sleep. The unicorn briefly wondered if he was troubled because of her absence. The harsh click of the door closing behind her made Twilight cringe uneasily. Hearing a soft rustling in front of her, the unicorn realized that she had disturbed the dragon from his slumber. Spike sat up in bed and looked around in a confused daze for a moment before noticing the purple mare standing in the dark. “Twi…light?” Spike muttered sleepily while rubbing his eyes. Once he realized that he wasn’t just imagining things, he pushed his blanket aside and sat up further. “I’m sorry Spike… did I wake you?” Twilight asked in a friendly tone. She knew full well that she had woken the dragon up, but she needed some sort of emotional buffer to keep herself in check. If she didn’t focus on faking a friendly and cheerful exterior, then she would doubtlessly break down crying. “It’s ok… I’m just glad you’re back. How did the mission go?” Spike asked curiously as he remembered why the unicorn was gone for so long. He paused suddenly as he noticed that Twilight seemed to be hiding her true emotions. “It was… it was…” Twilight muttered while trying to think of something to say. Despite her attempts at sounding happy, a twinge of sadness managed to show through in her voice. “Twilight? Are you ok?” Spike asked in a concerned tone while getting out of bed. “Oh, I’m fine… I-I just…” Twilight stammered while racking her mind to find out how to explain everything that had happened in a gentle way. The more she thought about telling the young dragon about the tragic events at the mansion, and the more she thought about the tragic events themselves, the more her façade started breaking down. “Twilight… are you crying?” Spike asked while noting the soft sound of the unicorn’s voice trembling. She was trying desperately to hold down her building sobs, but she could barely keep herself from thinking about everything that had happened. Finally, Twilight could take it no more. She slid to a seated position against the door and started weeping openly. The sudden shift in the unicorn’s behavior caught Spike off guard. He had no idea why she would suddenly break down like this, but he knew that he had to comfort her. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Spike said in a concerned tone while walking up to the crying pony. He sat down next to her and placed a hand on her knee. Twilight continued crying for a moment before composing herself enough to face the dragon. She still had tears streaming down her face, but somehow seeing her young assistant trying to comfort her made her feel slightly better. “Everything… everything’s gone wrong Spike.” Twilight said while stifling a sob. “What…? Twilight… What happened? I can’t really help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.” Spike explained in a helpful tone. As the purple mare looked to him, he flashed a warm smile. Twilight looked at the young dragon smiling back at her with a sad expression. She knew that he was just itching to help her, to find out what was amiss so he could at least try to make it better. She had always been there for him on his sad days, so he was always eager to repay the favor. Still, she couldn’t bear to say what came next for fear of erasing that smile of his. “Spike… I need to tell you something… something awful.” Twilight said while wiping the tears out of her eyes. Spike stopped smiling and shifted his expression to a more somber one as he realized just how serious the purple mare was being. “Does this have to do with the mission? The hooded ponies… did you find them?” Spike asked in a hesitant tone. “Yes… we found them. But… they left a trap for us.” Twilight explained sadly. “We got trapped inside of their base… and… and…” She muttered while trying to find the best way to explain such terrible events to her young assistant. “It’s ok… you can tell me.” Spike said in a reassuring tone while offering the unicorn a soft expression. “Something bad happened… I’m just not sure if I can tell you.” Twilight explained while shaking her head sadly and hiding her eyes from the dragon. “Twilight… I know you, and I know that whatever happened, we can get through it. We always get through it… now, tell me what happened.” Spike asked in a sympathetic tone. “Spike… I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Princess Luna is… she’s dead.” Twilight said with fresh tears falling from her eyes. “W-what…?” Spike backed up with a shocked expression on his face. He hoped that he had somehow misheard the unicorn. “She’s gone… her and Neon Streak… and Peppermint… and Brimstoke. They’re all gone.” Twilight explained in a shaky voice. She had to use every ounce of strength left in her not to break down crying again. Now she had to be at least a little strong for the young dragon. “But… but… h-how did…” Spike muttered with a shocked tone of disbelief. He looked at the purple mare for any signs that she was telling a lie or some messed up practical joke, but she was dead serious. A single tear started falling down his face as he started to comprehend the situation. “How did this happen?” Spike asked in a more distraught tone. Twilight could hear his breathing starting to become more erratic as silent sobs started building in his throat. “I’m so sorry Spike… I’m so sorry.” Twilight said in a despaired tone while reaching forward and wrapping her arms around the young dragon. She held him close as he started weeping openly into her shoulder. She started crying as well as she imagined just how much pain she had caused Spike by telling him about the others. After spending the next few minutes crying and hugging each other tightly, the pair’s embrace was cut short as Spike pulled away. “Did you… *Sniff*… did you catch the hooded ponies?” Spike asked while wiping his face on his arm. “No… they got away. There wasn’t anything I could even do to help.” Twilight said while looking down sadly. She was surprised to feel the dragon walking up to her and hugging her again. The unicorn looked up to see how he was faring. She expected to see him with a distraught expression, but he didn’t. While it was true that he was still sad, he had a small smile on his face. “You’re… you’re not upset that we didn’t catch them?” Twilight asked in a surprised tone. “Upset? Why would I be upset? I’m just glad that you’re ok… What happened to the others was awful, but I don’t know what I would do without you.” Spike said in a surprisingly cheerful tone. “I was so worried that you wouldn’t come back… I stayed up waiting for you for so long. I knew that the mission would take a while, but I just couldn’t sleep without knowing you were safe.” He said in a more concerned tone while looking down sadly. “Oh Spike… I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the hooded ponies do, I’ll always come back home to you.” Twilight said while lovingly putting a hoof on the dragon’s head and ruffling his hair. “Promise?” Spike asked while managing a small smile. “I promise.” Twilight said while mirroring the dragon’s happiness. Suddenly, a stray yawn returned the unicorn’s attention to her exhaustion. “Are you sleepy?” Spike asked curiously. “Definitely… it’s been a long night. Why don’t we get some sleep? We have a lot of things to do in the next few days.” Twilight said in a more drowsy tone while walking up towards her bed. Spike smiled before walking back over to his own bed. As the pair settled in for the rest of the night, their thoughts again shifted to those who had died earlier. Neither one of them could believe that so many people had died, much less that Princess Luna was among the casualties. Despite spending the next few minutes tossing and turning in a sorrowful unrest, the two finally managed to get to sleep. Even if they only got a few more hours of sleep, it would be needed for the long days ahead of them. Meanwhile, all over Ponyville the elements of harmony were settling in for a night of sadness and unrest. Many of them were lying in bed, clutching a pillow close or hiding themselves under a mass of blankets, trying to forget about what they had experienced. Some were just staring up at their ceilings and crying themselves to sleep. They had nearly lost their lives tonight, but they had lost something else in their place. They lost many friends and colleagues, they lost the confidence that they had won the war against the hooded ponies, but most importantly, they lost the hope that things would ever return to normal. Even with all of the things lost in the mansion, some were far more costly than others. For most of the group, they had lost friends and colleagues to the ghosts, but for Princess Celestia, she had lost her younger sister. As the white alicorn sat in a quiet room of the guard station, she looked to the floor and slowly gave in to her grief. The revelation that her sister was dead still hadn’t sunk in fully while Twilight and the others were with her, but now that she was alone with time to think, she started to accept that it might be true. As she stared out of the window at the moon, the sadness she had been hiding was starting to surface. “Luna…” Celestia muttered quietly as tears started building in her eyes. She hadn’t had to face her own mortality or the mortality of her sibling in what seemed like forever. She never thought that by letting her sister go on her own, she would be sending her to her death. The quiet sound of the door opening behind her drew Celestia’s attention away from her lamenting. She turned around to see the door cracked open with a familiar white unicorn peeking inside. Glitterball seemed to be hesitant about entering the room, but she also seemed to be concerned judging from her expression. “Umm… Princess? Are you okay?” Glitter asked while opening the door further and stepping inside. She took a look around at the dark room and noticed that the only light was coming in through the window and bathing the princess in pale moonlight. Celestia sighed in a dejected manner while lowering her head. She managed a small smile as she looked at the unicorn trying to check on her. Everyone in the station must have been worried about her given that she shut herself into a dark room for several minutes. Still, to see Glitterball trying to comfort her given her own trauma from the mansion made the alicorn feel warm inside. “I’ll be fine Glitterball… thanks for asking.” Celestia said while walking away from the window. She looked down at the unicorn and frowned slightly as she thought about what she must have been through. She had lost three friends in the span of a few hours, and yet she seemed to be well adjusted, on the outside at least. “How are you and Sunspot doing?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone. Glitterball looked away for a moment as she thought back to her time at the mansion. “We’re doing ok… all things considered. I think Sunspot is trying to avoid thinking about it too much… and quite frankly I don’t blame her. I don’t even want to think about how Glimmer Shine is doing.” Glitter replied in a sad tone. “I still think that he shouldn’t have gone back to the mansion with the others.” Celestia said with a worried shrug. “Well… I think he wants to get some kind of closure. I just hope he has the sense not to be with them when they find Pepper.” Glitterball said in a sad tone. Celestia frowned as she thought about the stallion and his departed sibling. She became even sadder as she thought about her own situation with her sister. “I should be there with him. If he has the strength to retrieve his brother’s body, then I should be there to bring Luna back home. But… I just can’t bear the thought of seeing her dead body.” Celestia said while hanging her head and closing her eyes sadly. “Don’t beat yourself up, Princess.” Glitterball said in a comforting tone. “It’s ok to be a mess of emotions from time to time… especially at a time like this. You’ve ruled over Equestria fairly and compassionately for centuries. The least that we can do to repay your kindness is to help you through this difficult period.” She added while putting a reassuring hoof on the alicorn’s leg. Celestia looked up to see the unicorn offering her a warm smile. She couldn’t help but to smile herself as she realized that she was right. She had always tried to appear strong in front of her subjects, but right now she needed time to process her emotions. “Thank you, Glitterball. I really appreciate your kind words.” Celestia said in a happier tone. Glitterball was pleased to see that she had a positive impact on the princess. “If you need anything at all, just let me know.” Glitterball said while walking towards the door. “Thank you, but I think I’m going to stay here for a while and think. There is so much that needs to be done… contacting Neon and Brimstoke’s families, preparing for the funerals… and then there is the matter of finding Raven Feather and her remaining cohorts.” Celestia said with an exhausted shrug. “Ok… I’ll take the others and come see you in Canterlot tomorrow. Maybe we can help with at least something.” Glitterball said while nodding in a sympathetic manner and walking out of the room. Celestia shrugged as she was left on her own again. As she looked back to the moon in the sky, she frowned sadly. She would have to raise the sun soon, which now meant that she would have to lower the moon herself. A task she hadn’t done in what seemed like forever. Chapter 92: RequiemSeveral days passed as the ponies moved on with their lives. Despite the reprieve in activity from the hooded ponies, the group was preoccupied with making preparations for the upcoming funerals. Twilight and the others traveled to Canterlot to attend Neon Streak’s funeral first. The sky was grey and gloomy as the ponies stood in the cemetery. The cloudy day and cold breeze served as a grim accent to the proceedings. Everyone watched with somber expressions as a team of guards lowered the casket into an open grave. Neon’s family, an older couple, wept openly near the front of the group. Twilight, her friends, Princess Celestia, and the remaining members of Spirit looked down sadly as they held back their own tears. An hour came and went as everyone grieved openly for the green mare. Eventually, only Twilight and her group were left in the graveyard while everyone else departed. Glitterball, Sunspot, and Glimmer Shine walked up to the newly filled grave and bowed their heads respectfully. While the three ponies were mourning their loss, Twilight took a look around at her own group of friends. Pinkie Pie was bawling her eyes out while leaning on Rainbow Dash for support. The cyan pegasus was trying to hide her own tears, but her emotions finally got the best of her. Applejack and Rarity were looking at the grieving team of ponies with sad expressions. Fluttershy, who was perhaps taking it the worst of all, was staring off into the distance with a sorrowful expression. “*Sigh*” Twilight shook her head and frowned sadly. She had never seen her friends so sad in her time with them, and she perfectly understood why. Still, she felt like she needed to at least make an attempt at lifting their spirits. “How are you holding up Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curiously while walking over to the yellow mare and sitting down. Fluttershy took a moment to snap out of her sorrowful daze. She looked over to the unicorn next to her and sighed in a dejected manner. “Not too good I’m afraid.” Fluttershy said while looking down sadly. “I don’t think any of us are really…” Twilight said in an understanding tone. “Hey… where’s Tom?” Fluttershy asked in a curious tone while looking around for the human. She hadn’t noticed him during the funeral either, and she was starting to get worried. Twilight looked around with a surprised expression for her human friend. She suddenly noticed the blue suited slayer leaning up against a tree in the distance. He seemed to be looking off in the distance with a gloomy expression just like everyone else was. “There he is.” Twilight said while pointing to the human. Fluttershy looked over at the tree where the boy was standing with a surprised expression. “Is he ok?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “I’m not sure… he kind of had a meltdown back at the mansion. I think he blames himself for everything that happened.” Twilight explained sadly. “That’s awful… I never thought that he would put all of that strain on himself.” Fluttershy said in a concerned tone while looking at the human with soft eyes. “Still, he did volunteer to help recover the bodies. Maybe that’s just his way of coping with something he thinks is his fault.” Twilight said in a sad tone while thinking about Tom’s outburst from the mansion. “I think I’m going to go check on him.” She stated while getting up and walking away. Fluttershy watched the purple mare as she walked across the cemetery to reach the human. As Twilight walked up to the tree that Tom was leaning on, she noticed that he was staring off into the distance. He seemed to be contemplating something, and whatever it was seemed to be troubling to him. “Tom… are you ok? You’ve been back here since the funeral started.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “Well… I never liked funerals, not that anyone does. Besides… I don’t exactly have anything black to wear.” Tom said while flashing an empty smile. “You didn’t answer my question.” The unicorn said with a troubled expression. Tom merely sighed and looked back to the group of ponies over by Neon’s grave. The human spent a few moments in silent contemplation as he watched Glimmer Shine and the others. Twilight was staring to get worried about him. She would have spoken again, until he turned to face her once more. “Do Equestrians believe in the afterlife?” Tom asked in a somberly curious manner. “W-what?” Twilight stammered slightly in surprise. The odd and sudden question caught her off guard to say the least. “You’re a scientific mind, so I doubt that you do… but surely you ponies must have a form of heaven. I heard Neon’s parents praying for her to rest peacefully back at the funeral… what do you pray to?” Tom asked in a somber tone. “I… umm.” Twilight looked away for a moment and tried to think. The only religion in Equestria that she could even think of was focused around Princess Celestia and her sister. A silly notion as far as the purple mare was concerned. She thanked Celestia for every good thing that happened in her life, but she knew it was just an expression. Perhaps some ponies viewed the alicorn as a goddess, but she wasn’t exactly sure about that. After all, gods don’t die, or grieve the loss of siblings. “I don’t know… I guess we just hope that there is some kind of force of good out there in the universe that will answer our prayers. But I’m not so sure that’s true… even less so in the last few days.” Twilight said with a dejected sigh. “The sad thing is… I’m not even sure myself anymore. I have memories of a large number of slayers, even down to the first one. I know our powers… I know our weaknesses… I know our purpose… but I don’t know who or what made us. I originally thought there was some kind of powers that be, and that they were trying to balance the evil in the world by adding a little good… but now I just don’t know.” Tom stated with a sad tone. He slid to a seated position against the tree and looked down in a somber state of contemplation. Twilight looked at the human as he stared at the ground sadly. She couldn’t help but to think about the first time she met him. She was alone and scared, about to be ripped apart by monsters she didn’t yet understand, and she pleaded for someone to save her. And somehow, the universe answered her by sending a boy in a blue suit that would puzzle and confuse her to no end. Something sent her new friend forward in time, and whatever that something was, it sent him to rescue her. Perhaps that wasn’t its primary goal, but it did it anyway. The unicorn was a mare of science, and coincidences were plentiful and explained a lot of quandaries like this, but somehow she doubted that was the case. “I might not be able to answer that for you, but I can say this with utmost confidence.” Twilight said while putting a reassuring hoof on the boy’s shoulder. “Slayers were created for a reason… to help save the world from evil. You were sent forward in time to help save Equestria from evils that we couldn’t understand. You could have been sent forward to any moment in our time, but you were sent just far enough to save me out in the Everfree Forest.” She said with a warm smile. The human looked up and smiled slightly as he recalled his first night in Equestria. “I guess I was.” Tom said with a happier tone. “I don’t know if I’m important enough to have a slayer from the past teleported forward in time to protect, but I’m definitely glad it happened. Whatever powers that be there are out there, I think they are good natured.” Twilight said in a sincere tone. “Heh… maybe you’re right.” Tom said while managing a genuine smile. Twilight smiled in return as she succeeded in raising the human’s spirits. Suddenly the pair noticed footsteps coming from behind them. They looked over to see Glimmer Shine and his two teammates approaching them. The three ponies still had somber expressions, but they looked like they were past their initial stage of grieving. “Hey, where are you guys going?” Twilight asked curiously, causing the trio to pause suddenly. “We’re going to head back to our hotel… After that, I don’t know where we’re going.” Glimmer Shine said with a depressed sigh. “What do you mean? Aren’t you staying in Canterlot?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “Well… we’re staying until all of the funerals are over. After that we’re probably going our separate ways again. Glitter and I might go back to the royal guards, and Sunspot might go back to the Wonderbolts if they will take her.” Glimmer Shine explained sadly. “What?! You can’t be serious!” The voice of Rainbow Dash cut in to the conversation. Everyone looked over to see the cyan mare and the others walking closer to them. “You guys can’t just pack up and go home. You’re a team of monster hunters! Equestria needs you!” Rainbow Dash said in a shocked tone. “Equestria needs the hooded ponies to go away. Most if not all of the monsters that have popped up in the past few weeks have been because of them. The princess is taking over the hunt for the rest of Raven Feather’s bunch, so there isn’t much need for us. Besides… there isn’t much of a team left between the three of us.” Glimmer Shine explained sadly. Everyone was left in a shocked state of silence as they watched the three ponies hanging their heads in a depressed manner. Twilight and the others had been through so much with the team of ponies in the past few weeks. They had saved each other’s lives countless times, learned to call each other friends, and experienced loss together throughout their short career as monster hunters. They couldn’t believe that they were even considering disbanding after everything that had happened. “Hey Tom…” Sunspot spoke up while contemplating something sadly. “Back at the mansion… when I told you to save Brimstoke… I uh… I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, and I really didn’t mean to make you hurt yourself like that. I just wanted to say sorry.” She said while looking to the human with a remorseful expression. Tom thought to himself for a moment before replying. “Don’t worry about it. You were pretty high strung back there… I think we all were.” Tom explained somberly. After a short moment of silence, Glimmer Shine and his two companions somberly walked away. Before they got too far away however, the yellow stallion paused and thought about something. He then turned around and trotted back up to the group. “Oh, and Tom… thanks again for recovering Pepper’s body for me. You have no idea how much you helped me back there.” Glimmer Shine said in a grateful tone. Back at the mansion when the group was recovering bodies and searching for survivors, he couldn’t bear to see his brother in such a bloody state again. The human was more than happy to retrieve the body for him. “Don’t mention it… I just wish we could have gotten Luna and Brimstoke’s bodies as well. Have they given an update on when they will clear that debris to get to them?” Tom asked curiously. When they went back to the crawl space to get to the area of the basement where the third symbol was, they found that it had caved in from the house shaking so much. “Um… not that I know of. I’ll ask the princess whenever we go see her.” Glimmer Shine said while thinking about the matter further. “And hey… don’t be strangers ok? You guys had better come visit us sometime.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight smirk. “We’ll be sure to drop by every now and then. We are still friends after all… right girls?” Glimmer asked while turning to his two companions. The two mares nodded eagerly in agreement. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Sunspot said with a confident smirk. “Of course.” Glitterball said with a friendly smile. “Well… I guess this is goodbye for now. We’ll see you in a few days.” Glimmer Shine said while waving at the group of mares. Twilight and the others waved at the trio while saying their goodbyes as well. Once farewells had been said and everything else was out of the way, the three ponies walked away again. Now that they were left alone, the six mares had nothing but their thoughts and the gloomy atmosphere around them to keep them company. Of course they still had their human friend with them, but he didn’t seem like he was in the mood for chatting, not that any of them were either. “*Sigh*… so what do we do now?” Pinkie asked in a dull tone. “I think I’m going to go check on the princess. She’s been through a lot recently, and she still has a lot to do.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “Mind if we come with you?” Fluttershy asked in a curious tone. Everyone else nodded in agreement to the yellow mare. All of them were concerned for the princess’s wellbeing. “Sure… that sounds like a good idea. I’m sure she’ll want to talk with all of us before we head back to Ponyville anyway.” Twilight suggested while looking around at her group of friends. With a brief nod of agreement, everyone followed the purple mare as she walked out of the cemetery. On any normal day, Canterlot was a shining example of the best Equestria and its people had to offer. There were cheerful ponies everywhere you looked, there were bustling shops and businesses, and there were hundreds of unicorns using their magic to improve everyday life. But this day was far from any normal day. Aside from the fact that the hooded ponies were still at large, the announcement that Princess Luna was killed was just made public. The princess of the night wasn’t exactly the most popular ruler between her and her sister. She was met with mixed responses after her return and purification, ranging from fear, to uncertainty, to outright indifference. But after a while, she had come to be loved for her friendly nature and kind demeanor. So to hear an emotionally drained Princess Celestia explain that her sister was killed during an operation meant to capture the hooded ponies came as a shock to the citizens of Equestria. Everywhere Twilight and the others looked, they saw gloomy faces and heads hanging low as the inhabitants of Canterlot walked around in droves. It was like the hope and happiness had been sucked out of the entire town. “Man… this place is a real mope-fest.” Rainbow Dash said while taking note of her somber surroundings. “Can you blame them? They just heard that Princess Luna is gone… we didn’t exactly take it too well either.” Applejack said with a disheartened shrug. “I’m not entirely sure I’m still taking it too well.” Rarity said while looking down sadly. “You and me both… the only way today could get any worse is if it started r-” Rainbow Dash’s sentence was interrupted as she felt a drop of water hitting her in the face. She looked up, only to see and hear a light and cold drizzle starting to come down. “Oh for crying out loud.” Rainbow Dash said while shaking her head in annoyance. Meanwhile, while everyone else was expressing their silent irritation at the rainfall, Twilight was looking down with a somber expression while dwelling on her thoughts. She still couldn’t get Luna out of her head. Her panicked expression as she tried to escape from the grip of the amorphous cloud of energy, her desperate pleas for the purple mare to save herself, the entire scene played out in her head over and over again. Noticing the unicorn looking down with an expression of hopeless sadness on her face, Rarity suddenly remembered what her friend had gone through. She hadn’t talked openly about her experience, but the white mare knew that Twilight was with the princess when she had to be left behind. “Twilight darling, are you okay?” Rarity asked in a sympathetic tone. Everyone else quickly noticed the gloomy unicorn and remembered why she would be so sad about hearing the princess mentioned. They immediately felt horrible for bringing up the blue alicorn again, which was probably like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound that wasn’t yet healed. “I can’t stop thinking about what happened back at the mansion. Maybe… maybe I could have done something to help her?” Twilight said to nobody in particular while keeping her attention fixed on the ground. “Twilight…” Rainbow Dash said before falling silent. She wasn’t used to seeing the purple mare so upset. Normally Twilight was the one to find a silver lining to a situation to cheer everyone else up, not the other way around. Perhaps noticing her friends’ concerned expressions, Twilight sighed in a dejected manner before looking up. As much as she wanted to dwell on the past, she had more important things to be worrying about. And right now, there were other people that needed to grieve more than she did. “I’m… I’m ok.” Twilight said while softening her expression and glancing behind her. “I shouldn’t be thinking like that anyway. Besides… Princess Celestia needs us to be strong for her right now.” She said in a confident tone. The others were pleased to see the unicorn lifting her spirits slightly. “That’s what Ah like to hear. Now let’s hurry up and get out of this rain before we catch cold.” Applejack suggested while shivering slightly from the water drizzling onto her. Everyone nodded in agreement before picking up their pace slightly. After a few minutes of running through the rain, the group could finally see the palace in the distance. Everyone rushed to close the distance between them and the dry and warm shelter that would come from being inside. Twilight led her small troop up the stairs and through the large front doors into the entryway of Celestia’s castle. “Brrr! It is freezing out there!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while shaking the excess water from her body, much to the annoyance of those around her. Still, the others were inclined to agree with the cyan mare given their own shivering bodies. “Let’s hurry up and find the princess before we get hypothermia.” Twilight suggested while rubbing her shoulders and looking around while thinking where the princess might be. Spotting a guard off to the side of the room, the unicorn decided to ask him for directions. “Umm… excuse me sir. Could you tell us where the princess is?” Twilight asked while walking up to the stoic stallion. “We would like to give her some company and help her cope with her loss.” She said while motioning to her group of friends. The guard smiled slightly as he saw the group of mares and their human friend. It was always nice to see the princess’s student displaying concern for her mentor. After thinking for a moment about where he saw the alicorn last, the stallion pointed towards the staircase at the far end of the room. “Last I checked, she was in her study.” The guard explained in a friendly tone. Twilight smiled as she recognized the location from memory. “Thank you… Come on guys, let’s go.” Twilight said while turning to her troop and motioning for them to follow her. The purple mare led her friends up the stairs and to the left where they found a spacious corridor waiting for them. She seemed to navigate the many rooms and hallways of the palace with ease. Which considering her time spent as the princess’s student, came naturally at this point. Meanwhile, the others in the group couldn’t help but to marvel at the beauty of the castle as they walked along. The many decorative tapestries and stained glass windows adorning the walls were certainly a sight to behold. The experience was fresh and new to Tom, but even the five mares were taken aback by the beautiful sights, and they had visited the castle before. Suddenly, Twilight paused in front of a door on the right side of the hallway. Taking this as a sign that they had arrived, the others looked to their leader apprehensively and waited for her to make her move. The purple mare went up to the door and pensively knocked a few times before waiting for a response. “What is it?” The muffled sound of Celestia’s voice sounded out from behind the door. She still had the friendly tone in her voice that she always had when addressing her subjects, but there was also a twinge of sadness and frustration in her voice. “Princess? It’s me, Twilight. We figured that you could use some company, so we came to see you.” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone while raising her voice slightly to carry through the door. She listened patiently for the princess to reply before barging in with a group of people. “*Sigh*… come in.” Celestia said after a moment of silence. She seemed to have a friendly tone of voice, so she was at least open to the presence of her new visitors. Twilight briefly glanced to her group of friends before opening the door and stepping inside. As she entered the room, she noticed Celestia sitting on a cushion in front of a table. The alicorn was facing away from the group and reading over a few scrolls she had opened in front of her. “Princess, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a gentle tone while walking over to the alicorn to see what she was doing. She seemed to have a sad expression as she read over the scrolls on the table. As the unicorn got close enough to see a few of the scrolls, she realized that they were letters written to Celestia from various ponies including herself. “I’m fine. I’ve just… been thinking about the past a lot recently.” Celestia said while turning away from the letters and managing a slightly happy expression. “I can only imagine what you must be going through right now. If you need anything… anything at all, we’re here for you.” Twilight said while glancing back to her friends for support. Everyone nodded with sincere expressions of sympathy while looking to the alicorn. Celestia smiled slightly as she looked around at the group gathered before her. They were all concerned for her wellbeing. Even Tom, who had only been in Equestria for a week or so, was sympathetic to her loss. “Thank you all. I greatly appreciate your concerns for me. I’m very proud of how you all have grown and matured into kindhearted and strong individuals over these past few years. And I’m sure that if Luna were here right now, she would be proud of you too.” Celestia said in a sincere tone. Everyone felt a twinge of bittersweet happiness from hearing the princess praising them. “Thank you Princess… that means a lot to hear you say that.” Twilight said in a grateful tone while holding back any sadness she felt from thinking about Luna. Still, she looked down with a troubled expression as her thoughts drifted elsewhere. Noticing her student with such an uneasy expression on her face, Celestia wondered what she could be thinking of. Naturally thoughts of Luna and her untimely demise would cause such a reaction, but somehow the alicorn felt that something else was bothering the purple mare. “What’s wrong Twilight?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone. Twilight shrugged uncomfortably before looking up with a hesitant expression. “Do you think Raven Feather and her group are still out there? I know they escaped the mansion… but I can’t stop thinking about what they’re doing now. Maybe they gave up and disbanded.” Twilight suggested in an uncertain manner while shaking her head pensively. “Somehow I don’t think those creeps could give up so easily. They’re out there somewhere… probably struggling to think of what evil scheme they’re going to pull next.” Rainbow Dash said in a disgusted tone from the back of the group. “Whatever they are doing, they need to pay for their crimes. Shining Armor is going to do everything he and the royal guard can to find them when he arrives in the next few days. I only hope it doesn’t take long for them to be found. I dread the thought of them still being at large when we hold Luna’s funeral… I think she deserves to be put to rest with her goal being accomplished.” Celestia said in a somber tone while looking down. “If you need any help finding them, I might be of some use. I might be able to sense their shadow magic if I’m close enough to them.” Tom suggested in a hopeful tone. It was easy to see that the boy was desperate to help in some way. “That’s alright Tom… you have done much more for me and Equestria than we can possibly repay you for. You deserve to have a rest… as do the rest of you.” Celestia said while looking to Twilight and her friends with a concerned expression. Although most of the group was against the idea of just sitting back and letting others deal with the hooded ponies, they were spent mentally and emotionally. They glanced around uneasily while trying to find a good reason to argue that they needed to participate. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t force themselves to want anything further to do with Raven Feather and her band of criminals. “I think I need some time to myself for now. I’m going to go for a walk… why don’t all of you rest here while you wait for the rain to stop?” Celestia suggested while taking note of the faint sound of rainfall against the castle walls. “Ok…” Twilight said in a disheartened tone while sighing and slinking to a seated position. She felt utterly useless with how little she could do. And worst of all, she didn’t care at this point. Everyone shared a dejected shrug as they watched Celestia walking out of the room. They all felt just as sad and depressing as the city outside looked. All they could do right now was to reflect on everything that had happened and wait for the rain to stop. Meanwhile, Celestia was reflecting on something else as she walked through the corridors of the castle alone. She was thinking about all of the time she had spent with her sister since she returned from her banishment. All of the times she could have talked to her, all of the time she could have spent being the big sister she deserved, all of it was gone. “Oh, my dear sister… I only wish I had been there with you.” Celestia muttered while looking around sadly. Everywhere she looked she could see reminders of the time she had shared with her sibling. Stained glass windows bearing stylized images of both her and the blue alicorn were littered around the castle. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop seeing younger versions of Luna and herself running around and playing in the halls like she used to. As she continued recalling memories of her time spent with her sister, the alicorn started tearing up slightly. Not wanting to appear too distressed to anyone passing by, she wiped her eyes and internalized the sadness she was feeling. Eventually, Celestia found herself in the entry hall. She glanced around the room and saw a few guards scattered around. Once they noticed her walking into the room, they stood straight and adopted more serious expressions, a behavior that the princess had gotten used to over the years. Seeing their stern and expressionless faces only reminded her of how much she missed her sister’s smile. “Lieutenant…” Celestia spoke while walking down the stairs and up to one of the guards. “Yes Princess?” The guard asked in an obedient tone. “Has the team at the mansion hideout made any more progress with the excavation?” Celestia asked with a hopeful tone. “No… I’m afraid not ma’am.” The stallion replied. Celestia shrugged sadly upon hearing that her efforts had hit a dead end again. “For what it’s worth ma’am, I’m sorry for your loss.” The guard said in a sympathetic tone. Celestia smiled slightly from hearing that even members of her royal guard cared about her. “Thank you lieutenant… I think I’m going to take a walk around town.” Celestia said in a slightly more upbeat tone. “Should I call for a carriage to take you?” The guard asked curiously, to which the alicorn merely shook her head. “No, that’s fine. I’ll be just fine on my own.” Celestia said in an unimposing tone. The stallion nodded in an understanding manner before stepping back to let the princess go on her way. The sound of the front doors opening and closing rang out through the room. Celestia and the couple of guards in the room turned their heads to see a mare in a cloak walking into the castle. The mare’s cutie mark couldn’t be seen under her cloak, which appeared to be slightly frayed at the edges, but her fur was black in color, and she had tufts of dark gray hair poking out from her cloak. “I’m sorry ma’am, but you can’t be in here right now. The castle is closed to the public to give the princess and company time to mourn.” The guard next to Celestia said while walking closer to the strange mare. “Oh… I’m sorry. I just wanted to pay my respects to the princess and offer her my condolences.” The mare said in a sympathetic tone. Before the guards could further persuade the pony to leave, Celestia stepped forward slightly with a soft expression. “Thank you. I appreciate your concern.” Celestia said in a friendly tone while putting a hoof in front of the guard to stop him from getting any closer. “What’s your name Miss?” The other guard in the room asked curiously while watching the mare from afar. “I’m sorry… I feel like her royal highness wouldn’t want to be bothered by a lonely little mare like myself… especially since her sister died in my home.” The mare said while flashing a sinister smile. The statement sent a grim wave of shock throughout the room that stunned the princess and her two guards into silence. “W-what?” The guard near Celestia stammered slightly in shock. “But if you must know, you can call me Raven Feather.” The mare said while pulling down her cloak and revealing her emerald green eyes and conceited smirk. “You… what are you doing here?!” Celestia asked in an angered tone. “Like I said before… I want to offer you my condolences, not only for your sister, but for every other one of your filthy companions that I kill today.” Raven Feather said in a more irritated tone while glaring at the white alicorn. She didn’t seem to be afraid in the slightest, even considering she was standing right in the middle of Canterlot, with the princess right in front of her. Suddenly, the guard next to Celestia stepped in front of her defensively. He unsheathed the sword from his side and stood with a fiery gleam in his eye. “Princess, you need to get out of here. I’ll handle her.” The guard exclaimed before charging forward towards the black mare. “No, wait!” Celestia yelled frantically as she watched the guard heading straight for the lone intruder. She knew that he was in way over his head. Before the alicorn or the other guard in the room could react, Raven Feather held one of her arms off to the side. As the charging stallion yelled fiercely and prepared to strike her, she channeled shadow energy through her arm, causing it to be enveloped by a fiery aura that shortened to a point. *Shink* Raven Feather swiped her arm sideways across the guard’s neck area. The stallion was sent tumbling sideways with a strangled cry of pain as blood spurted out everywhere. When his body settled off to the side and slightly behind the black mare, the guard was lying motionless in a steadily growing pool of his own blood. “*Gasp*” Celestia widened her eyes in shock at the brutal act in front of her. The black mare just killed one of her own guards without a second thought. Her attack sliced through his armor like it wasn’t even there. Even his sword was broken in two from the stallion attempting to block the attack. “Princess, we need to get you out of here!” The other guard exclaimed urgently while rushing up to the alicorn. She was still in a state of disbelief from watching the green eyed mare in front of her. Raven Feather chuckled as she watched the stallion trying to pull Celestia away. Even if he had gotten her to budge, she wasn’t going to let her dream be spoiled by a single guard. The black mare raised her arm and pointed at the guard. The tip of her hoof lit up with purple energy as she channeled her shadow magic to it. “What the- ACK!” The guard let out a startled croak as a similar purple glow appeared around his neck. He clutched at his throat as he was suddenly lifted into the air. Before the white alicorn could even react, Raven Feather flicked her arm to the side and flung the stallion across the room. “Put him down Raven Feather.” Celestia said in a stern tone while lighting up her horn. She looked over to the guard to try and help him, until she heard him choking as the force squeezing on his neck intensified. “Ah, ah, ah… don’t even think about using any magic on him. If I see so much as a flicker of another color on him I’ll break his neck. Then again… I might just do that anyway.” Raven Feather said with a wry tone and a threatening gleam in her eye. The guard writhed painfully in the air while holding his neck. He gasped for air to no avail as the black mare held him in her invisible grasp. Despite all of the training he had, he was obviously terrified for his life, and rightly so. Celestia gritted her teeth uneasily as she glanced between the guard and the pony in front of her. She had no doubt that she would kill him in an instant, and there was no way she could stop her in time. It pained her to feel so helpless when one of her subjects was in danger. “Look… I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you don’t have to do this. We can get you help.” Celestia said in a calmer tone in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution to the situation. “I don’t want your help. Your help will have me and my colleagues locked away forever. Even without all of our recent activities, our powers would be too much for your sensitive view of life to handle. You have brainwashed all of Equestria into believing there is nothing eviler in the world than a stray timberwolf or a diamond dog, but I know different. There is an inherently darker side to the world that you refuse to believe in. Well… you can’t stay in the light now… not when I blot out your sun and bathe the world in shadow.” Raven Feather explained in a threatening tone. “Just put him down Raven Feather. Put him down and we can talk it out, just you and me.” Celestia said while dimming her horn and backing away slightly. She was relieved to see the black mare lightning up her expression. Her relief quickly turned to unease and concern as Raven Feather smirked sinisterly. “You should be careful with your words…” Raven Feather said while turning to the trapped guard. She twisted her hoof rapidly, causing his neck to perform the same motion. A sickening snap sounded throughout the room. Celestia looked over with a pale expression as she saw the guard floating in the air limply. His neck was positioned at an odd and unnatural angle, and his head was drooping to the side lifelessly. Once she took a moment to appreciate her grim deed, Raven Feather let the stallion’s body drop to the floor. “You said put him down… you didn’t say keep him alive.” Raven Feather said with a wry smile. The sight of the gloating mare infuriated the white alicorn to no end. “You… you are a sick and twisted individual. You deserve every bit of punishment that is owed to you… and I think it’s time that your debt is paid.” Celestia said in an appalled tone. She could feel a deep and seething anger building inside of her as she glared at the black pony with fiery intent. Before the alicorn could lash out at the earth pony, the front doors opened again. This time, two ponies walked in that Celestia recognized to be Dust Kicker and his sister Raincloud. They were wearing gray hoodies that were still wet from the earlier rain. “It’s about time you two caught up.” Raven Feather said in a sarcastic tone. “Sorry about the delay… we had to deal with a few guards outside. Turns out you can’t stroll up to the palace wearing hoods right now without attracting some attention.” Raincloud said with a slight chuckle. She then turned her attention ahead to the alicorn on the other side of the room. “So… I guess you’ve already introduced yourself. You need any help taking her down?” Raincloud asked curiously with a small smirk. She almost seemed eager for a chance to fight the princess. “No... I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. She’s mine and mine alone. Besides… you two have jobs to do.” Raven Feather explained while glancing between the two. “Namely?” Raincloud asked curiously. “Raincloud, I need you to make sure no more guards get in here and interrupt us. Dust Kicker, I need you to cause a distraction to divert their attention away from here.” Raven Feather explained. “I think a small army of darklings sauntering around Canterlot and terrorizing the locals would do the trick.” Dust Kicker said with a small smirk building on his face. “You think you can handle something like that?” Raincloud asked while glancing behind her and thinking about the conditions outside. Although the rain had stopped and there was still cloud cover outside, it was still day. Projecting a small army of darklings with enough resistance to daylight to survive long enough to cause a decent distraction would take a lot of energy. “Aww, sis… I’m hurt that you think so little of me.” Dust Kicker said in a cynical manner. “Well whatever you’re going to do, you had better get to it. Once you’re done, help the others to move the equipment up here. By the time you get back I should have things handled he-” Raven Feather was suddenly interrupted by a magical blast flying into the ground at her feet. She looked forward to see a smoking scorch mark on the floor, and a very angry alicorn with her horn blazing fiercely glaring at her from a few feet away. “That’s enough. I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else. If you won’t listen to reason, then I will have to fight you.” Celestia said while stepping forward in a threatening manner. “Wow, looks like you pissed her off. I think I’m gonna go outside and work on that distraction before things get messy in here.” Dust Kicker said while heading towards the door. Celestia stepped forward while charging up an attack with her horn to stop the pegasus from leaving. “You aren’t going anywhere if I have anything to say abo-” The white alicorn was suddenly interrupted as she heard Raven Feather yelling fiercely. The black mare swung her arm sideways again. Only instead of using the energy on her arm as a weapon, she created a series of small fireballs that erupted from the floor in front of Celestia. Celestia jumped back in shock as the purple flames exploded upwards in front of her. The fireballs appeared in a line going right to left in the same direction the black mare pointed her arm. The alicorn could feel the intense cold from the menacing flames reaching her face and causing a small amount of pain. “In case you forgot, you’re fighting one person here. I would stop worrying about what my colleagues are doing and start worrying about me.” Raven Feather said in a cocky tone. Somehow she appeared to have the skill to back up her bold words. “Very well… but I must warn you, I will not hold back.” Celestia said while steeling herself for battle. Raven Feather smirked as she prepared herself as well. Raincloud stood at the back of the room and watched as the two sized each other up. Her shadow was already watching the room for intruders, so she was free to stand back and watch as the battle took place. Celestia shouted as she lowered her head and pointed her horn directly at the black mare. After a few seconds of charging her attack, she sent a beam of energy shooting out of her horn and directly towards the pony across the room. The brilliant beam of light emitted a shrill magical buzz as it sailed towards the earth pony. Just before it hit, Raven Feather held her arm out and channeled her own magic to it. A wave of solid black energy shot out of her hoof and crashed into the beam. The collision of the two forces sent a small shockwave of sound and light outwards as they clashed. Celestia’s beam made the shadowy energy curve inwards into a semicircle that acted like a shield. Celestia groaned from exertion as she put more energy into her attack. As she put more energy into attacking, Raven Feather put more energy behind her counter. The pulsating black wave started moving forward and shrinking towards a single point as it slowly overtook the beam of light crashing into it. Before long, the ray of shadowy energy was starting to move forward and away from the black mare. Suddenly, Celestia’s beam pushed through the ray of shadows and sailed across the room. For a short moment she thought she had destroyed her opponent, however a dark puff of purple smoke appearing off to the side dispelled her brief celebration. Raven Feather appeared out of the puff of smoke and quickly shot a ball of shadowy flame out of her hoof towards the princess. Celestia raced to project a shield around herself to defend against the incoming attack. Just as she completed her shield, the fireball crashed into her with frightening power. An explosion that seemed far too large considering the original size of the projectile erupted around the alicorn. She yelped painfully as her shield was shattered and she was knocked to the floor from the force of the strike. Once the smoke cleared, Celestia noticed that she had a few singe marks on her body. Her head was also throbbing from having such a strain put on her magic so suddenly. Once she composed herself and got to her feet, she glared at the black mare in front of her with a newfound sense of anger. “I underestimated your power… a mistake I won’t make again.” Celestia said while preparing herself for any more attacks the earth pony could send her way. “We’ll see about that.” Raven Feather said with a wry smirk on her face. “Hya!” Raven Feather yelled fiercely while stomping her hoof down on the ground. A pulse of shadow energy enveloped her hoof as a transparent black shadow started spreading out from it. The shadow rapidly covered the ground between the black mare and the alicorn, all the while making a quiet and unsettling noise. Before Celestia could think further about the strange shadow, a solid black form shot up out of it and headed straight for her. She ducked to the side just in time to see a large spike made out of shadow energy piercing into the air. If she hadn’t moved in time, she would have been skewered on the sharp blob. As the first spike lowered back into the ground, another spike shot up from underneath the princess, forcing her to jump to evade it. Instead of lowering into the ground like the first one, the spike’s form shifted and shot out at the alicorn in an attempt at engulfing her. Celestia frantically lit up her horn and teleported herself away from the mass of shadows. Appearing by the far wall near the door, Celestia looked over to see Raven Feather turning to face her. She suddenly noticed the blob where she just was sinking into the floor and becoming translucent again. The shadow raced across the room at lightning fast speeds to cut her off. As it moved, it thinned out to a spindly ray that resembled a tentacle. Before she could react, the shadow reached the alicorn and went underneath her. Celestia suddenly felt something grabbing onto her legs. She looked down to see four tendrils reaching up and holding her legs tightly while the rest of the shadow spread out around her. Once the shadow spread into a circle around the imprisoned princess, it started rising out of the floor and climbing above her. Realizing that she was about to be engulfed by the rising shadow, Celestia tried struggling against the tendrils with all of her might. Finding no results from trying to forcefully pull her legs out of the tendrils’ grip, the alicorn lit up her horn and tried using her magic on them. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t get them to budge with her magic either. “Hahaha!” Raven Feather cackled maniacally as she watched the princess getting swallowed up by her mass of shadows. After a short wait, the circle of darkness closing around her finally closed into an alicorn sized ball. Moments of silence went by, and the black mare thought she had attained victory, until she noticed streams of light burning holes through the dark blob. With a fierce yell and a blinding explosion of sunlight burning the shadowy mass into oblivion, Celestia was free. The two stood silently while glaring at each other. They panted heavily as they tried to catch their breath from so much exertion. It seemed like they were both surprised by the other’s strength and abilities. “It seems like I have underestimated your power as well.” Raven Feather said in an impressed tone. “No matter… I have only just begun to show you mine.” She stated while flashing an impish smirk. Celestia growled uneasily under her breath. She didn’t want to show it openly, but breaking out of that shadowy prison had taken a lot out of her. If the black mare truly was only toying with her, then she had a long battle ahead of her. Meanwhile, back in the study, Twilight and the others were still waiting around for the rain to stop. Everyone had blank and somber expressions, even though they tried to have brighter thoughts. The prospect that they had just come from one of their friends’ funeral was enough to ensure that even Pinkie Pie was unable to joke around like she normally did. “*Sigh*… so what do we do once the rain stops? Anyone want to get something to eat before we head back to Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash suggested in a dull tone. It was clear that the group wanted to do something to cheer themselves up, but they were too drained to make much of an effort. “I don’t know… I think I might just head home and stay there for a while.” Fluttershy said in a droning tone while looking down sadly. “Yeah… me too.” Pinkie Pie added in agreement. “How about you guys? Come on… it’s my treat.” Rainbow Dash pleaded while looking to Tom and Twilight with a hopeful expression. “Sorry Rainbow Dash… I don’t think I’m in the mood to eat right now.” Twilight said while shrugging sympathetically. Tom merely nodded in agreement with the unicorn. Rainbow Dash huffed in defeat while leaning back against the wall. She had a feeling that her friends wouldn’t agree to join her. After all, she herself felt as dreary and somber as they did, so she understood where they were coming from. “I wish I just had something to get my mind off of last week.” The cyan mare said in a sad tone. “Ah think we could all use something to get our minds off of last week. Ah wouldn’t mind forgetting about it entirely… aside from meeting Tom of course.” Applejack said while glancing to the human and flashing a smile. “Yes, it seems like Tom arriving in Equestria was the only good thing to come out of this whole mess.” Rarity stated in agreement to the orange mare. “Thanks guys… I’m glad I came here too.” Tom said in a friendly tone. “Now that we don’t need to worry about those hooded jerks everywhere we go, we can finally show you a good time. How about we throw Tom a proper welcome to Equestria party after all of this, eh Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash suggested while looking to the pink mare with a warm smirk. Pinkie perked up slightly at the prospect of throwing a party. “Hey, that sounds like a good idea. Ooo, I know just what to do!” Pinkie stated eagerly while bouncing slightly in her seat. “Well how about that… Ah think that’s the first time any of us have smiled all day.” Applejack said with an amused chuckle. “Maybe we should try harder to put the past behind us. I think we should wait until all of the funerals are over so we can get all of our grief out, but a party sounds like a nice way to lift our spirits after all of this.” Twilight said in a cheerful tone. The others let out a collective cheer of agreement as they finally returned some semblance of happiness to the room. As the ponies were celebrating their plans for the future, Tom suddenly felt a slight chill going down his spine. Just as he expected, a puff of blue mist rushed out of his mouth as he exhaled forcefully. The shrill outburst from the human put a grim feeling of horror into everyone in the room as they stared at him with wide eyes. “No… not here, not today of all days!” Twilight said in an upset tone while getting to her feet and looking around nervously. “What did you feel Tom? Was it the hooded ponies?!” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily while looking to the human for answers. Before Tom could speak about what he sensed, a faint screaming erupted from outside the window at the far side of the room. Everyone felt a chill going down their spines as more screams and a series of low roars and growls filled the air. Gathering the courage needed to investigate the noises, Rainbow Dash rushed over to the window and looked outside. She gasped as she noticed a frightening scene unfolding out in the city. Numerous ponies were running for their lives with terrified expressions. There were familiar shadowy creatures chasing after the townspeople and snarling at them with their teeth. A few of the monsters were fighting royal guard members that were trying to contain the chaos to no avail. “Sweet Celestia…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a shocked tone while staring at the disarray outside. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously while looking to the cyan mare for answers. She was far too terrified to look outside herself. “Darklings are running around and terrorizing everyone in sight. There must be dozens of them!” Rainbow Dash said in a mortified tone while turning to her shocked friends with a pale expression. “*Gasp*” Twilight covered her mouth with her hoof as she stared at the pegasus in disbelief. She could hardly keep herself from tensing up from how much shock and fear she was feeling. “That isn’t the only problem we have. I’m feeling some powerful shadow magic signatures coming from the castle. Something tells me that the hooded ponies are done toying around.” Tom explained in an uneasy tone. “We have to do something!” Rainbow Dash suggested anxiously while moving towards the door. She was ready to run up to the hooded ponies and punch their heads off from how much anger she was feeling. “We need to find the princess and warn her!” Twilight said with a fearful glint in her eyes. If the hooded ponies were attacking Canterlot, then Celestia must have been their end goal. The others nodded in agreement and prepared to follow their unicorn leader out the door and into the fray as they usually did, until they were stopped by Tom stepping in their way. “You guys need to get out of here.” Tom instructed in a stern tone. “What?! You can’t be serious! There are shadow creatures roaming the streets! We need to do something!” Twilight said in a shocked tone. She couldn’t believe she was arguing with the human at a time like this. “Look, it’s too dangerous here for you guys right now. The hooded ponies want you dead so the elements of harmony will stop working. If you stay here, you will be putting Equestria as a whole at risk. I need you to go find Glimmer Shine and the others and call for help. Meanwhile, I will go find Celestia and help her deal with Raven Feather and the others.” Tom explained in a serious tone. “But… but…” Twilight stammered in refusal at the boy’s proposal. Every fiber of her being was telling her to stand and fight, not to run away and wait for backup to arrive. “No buts, Twilight! I’m not losing any of you like I lost Neon and the others. I don’t care if you think their deaths weren’t my fault. If you die fighting the hooded ponies, it WILL be my fault!” Tom yelled in a serious tone, silencing the six mares instantly. Twilight and the others stared at the human with mixtures of sympathy and shock in their faces. They couldn’t believe that he was still holding on to so much guilt. However, they also knew he was right in some regard. Everyone looked down uneasily as they thought about what to do. “Ok… we’ll go, but you better not get hurt while I’m gone.” Twilight said in a serious tone. “I’ll try my best… now get going.” Tom stated before turning around and running out of the room. Twilight nodded before turning to her small troop with a determined expression. “You heard him… let’s go get help!” The purple mare instructed before running out of the room and turning down the hall. Everyone nodded in agreement before following the unicorn down the hallway. “Gah!” Celestia yelped in pain as a bolt of shadow energy whizzed by her leg. She felt an intense cold sensation where the energy struck her. The bolt was so cold that it actually burned her skin on contact. Once she looked down to examine her wound, she saw that her fur had been completely singed off in a small area, most likely from the force of the blast instead of the cold. “What’s the matter Princess? Getting a little winded are we?” Raven Feather chuckled in a sadistic manner while watching the alicorn cope with her injury. “You can’t seriously expect to succeed here. Even if you beat me, there are hundreds of guards in the city that are waiting to take you in dead or alive.” Celestia said in an attempt at reasoning with the black mare. “Oh, well since you put it like that… I guess I’ll just pack my bags and go back where I came from.” Raven Feather said in a cynical tone. “Do you really think that I haven’t prepared for this day? The sad thing is… preparing to defeat you and your guards wasn’t even the hard part. The only thing that has kept me from wiping you and your pathetic subjects off the face of the map is finding a way to realize the legend of the eternal night.” Raven Feather stated in a spiteful tone. “Even if you did find a way to summon this eternal night, what will you do then? The world would be flooded with all manner of paranormal creatures, and the sun would be gone, so the safety of daylight wouldn’t be able to protect you or anyone else from them!” Celestia stated in a frustrated tone. “I have spent many hours studying the occult and all of its gifts. When I kill you and blot out the sun, I will be powerful enough to bend any creature to my will, paranormal or not. After I rule Equestria, I might just bring the sun back every once in a while… who knows. All I know is that right now, you are in my way!” Raven Feather yelled while shooting another blast of shadow energy at the alicorn. Celestia grit her teeth and used any energy she could muster to project another shield around herself. This time she didn’t hold back as she stood strong against the incoming projectile. The fireball slammed into her barrier and exploded, causing it to crack and nearly shatter. “Guh… *Huff*… *Pant*” Celestia groaned from exhaustion as she drooped her head weakly. She didn’t know how much longer she could carry on like this. Still, she had to fight the sadistic mare with everything she had. Shaking her head to wake up her tired body, the alicorn lit up her horn again and prepared to strike. With a fierce yell, Celestia charged toward the black mare while channeling her magic to the tip of her horn. If she couldn’t outlast her in a magical duel, then she would have to end things once and for all. As much as she didn’t want to use lethal force, her kingdom and all of her subjects’ lives depended on her winning. Raven Feather stood perfectly still with an almost bored expression while the princess charged at her. Even the pegasus mare watching from the back of the room was starting to get nervous as her leader refused to move. Just before the alicorn crashed horn first into her, Raven Feather channeled a large amount of shadow magic to her hoof. With a spiteful glare and a lifetime of pent up aggression fueling her anger, the black mare punched the princess with everything she had. Celestia felt the energy from Raven Feather’s hoof crashing into her own aura of energy. After a brief struggle between the two powers, the barrier of magic from the alicorn’s horn was shattered with a loud burst of air that sounded like a small explosion. The impact of Raven Feather’s punch landed on the side of Celestia’s jaw. The alicorn was shocked and stunned as she felt a wave of numbing pain hitting her and her body flying backwards at high speeds. “Agh!” Celestia yelled in pain as she hit the stairs on the far side of the room with her back and her head. She felt the stairs cracking underneath her slightly as she was pummeled straight into them. After her body settled from the impact, she found herself unable to move from shock and pain. Finally, after a few moments of recuperation, Celestia shakily lifted her head up to see her attacker. Raven Feather was standing a few feet away with a pleased smile on her face. She looked like she was enjoying this experience far more than the alicorn writhing in pain on the floor. “Ugh… Tch!” Celestia winced in pain while bringing her hoof up to her face. She felt a sticky warm sensation against her face that elicited a feeling of shock in her as she brought her hoof back down. The entire tip of her shoe was stained red with her own blood. “Stings doesn’t it?” Raven Feather asked with a quieter and more calm tone. Celestia looked up to see the black mare walking towards her slowly with an arrogant smile that led her to believe that her opponent had been expecting this outcome the whole time. As she got closer, the alicorn suddenly noticed a small silver object in the black mare’s right hoof. Before she could even try to get up or figure out what was happening, Celestia heard a soft click and felt something cold and metallic being put around her front legs. While Raven Feather relished in the princess’s defeat, Celestia looked down at her hooves while trying to pull them away, only to be met with stiff resistance. She gasped in shock as she noticed that there was a pair of hoof cuffs on her with runic symbols etched into the sides. In a slight panic, the alicorn instinctively tried using her magic, but she suddenly found that her horn wouldn’t light up. She couldn’t even feel the sensation of magic flowing within her anymore. The grim realization that she was trapped hit her like a ton of bricks. “A colleague of mine found those on one of your guards back at our hideout. He thought they might come in handy… and I have to say, he was definitely right.” Raven Feather said with a sinister chuckle as she moved closer to the princess. Celestia tried to move away from the black mare, but her sore and exhausted body and awkward positioning made it nearly impossible to move backwards up the stairs. All she could do was sit and watch nervously as her captor approached her. “Ngh… grr…” Celestia struggled in vain to break out of her chains. She glared at the black mare until she picked her up by the neck roughly. “Look at you… the mighty princess of the sun. From where I’m standing you don’t look mighty at all… you look just as weak as I always imagined you.” Raven Feather said before dropping the alicorn and letting her head hit the stairs. Celestia grunted painfully before raising her head back up to look at the black mare. “Why don’t you just kill me now?” Celestia asked with an irritated glare. “Impatient are we?” Raven Feather asked with a smirk. “Don’t worry… I plan on wringing your neck eventually. But first you get to watch me turn your kingdom on its head.” She said with a more sinister tone. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” A voice from behind the group drew their attention up the stairs. Waiting at the top landing on the right, there was a familiar human in blue attire standing and watching the ponies on the floor below with a serious expression on his face. “Tom…” Celestia muttered in a concerned tone. The last thing she wanted was to see someone get hurt to try and rescue her. “Well if it isn’t Equestria’s finest hero. Have you come to save the princess and thwart my evil plans?” Raven Feather asked in a cynical tone. “If that’s how you want to put it, then yes… I am going to thwart the hell out of your evil plan.” Tom said in a threatening tone while walking down the stairs slowly. “I would choose my next move very carefully if I were you.” Raincloud said while trotting up to stand beside Raven Feather. She stood at the ready to call her shadow into battle, until the black mare next to her put her arm out to stop her. “It’s ok Raincloud. If I can’t beat the princess and her human pet… then I don’t deserve to be the one to destroy Equestria.” Raven Feather said in a confident tone. “Alright… if you insist, I’ll stay with the princess.” Raincloud said in a compliant tone. “Tom… don’t do this. She’s too strong.” Celestia pleaded with the human to get him to stop. “You know I have to try.” Tom said while offering a sympathetic expression of doubt to the alicorn. She wasn’t even sure if he thought he could win. “Ah yes… far be it from a slayer to back down and let an evil tyrant overthrow a peaceful kingdom. Tell you what Tommy boy… if you can beat me, I will let the princess go free.” Raven Feather said with a slight chuckle. “There is only one person in this universe that can call me Tommy… and this is long past her time.” Tom said while making his way down the stairs and glaring at the black mare. Raven Feather backed up to give the human room to descend the steps to the main floor. “Stop this! Tom, I won’t let you fight her! I order you to retreat!” Celestia said in a frantic tone of desperation. The human paused beside the trapped alicorn and frowned slightly as she stared at him with fearful eyes. “Sorry Princess… I’m not under your leadership, so I have to respectfully disobey that order.” Tom said in a serious tone before returning his attention to the green eyed earth pony in front of him. He walked forward a short distance until he was away from the helpless alicorn and only a few feet away from the black mare. “Are you ready to fight me Mr. Greene?” Raven Feather asked with an impish smirk. Tom quickly grabbed his sword and unsheathed it with a shrill and metallic noise. He flipped the luminescent blade around in his hand before bringing it to his side in a battle stance. “It doesn’t matter if I’m ready… all that matters is that I stop you.” Tom said in a livid tone. All of the wrongdoings he had been forced to witness in the past week had been caused by the mare in front of him. He wasn’t about to let her go unpunished. The tension in the room steadily increased as the two stood still and silently watched the other for signs of movement. Each of them was waiting for the other to move first so they could counter, but nobody seemed to be eager to make the first move. Finally, Tom decided to take matters into his own hands and charged forward with a fierce yell. Raven Feather smirked and channeled shadow energy to her hoof in preparation. As the human held his sword up in preparation to strike, the black mare held her arm up to block his strike. With a metallic clash, Tom’s sword crashed down on the mare’s arm. The positive energy of his sword and the negative energy of her shadow magic repelled each other, resulting in Raven Feather’s arm being protected by a sort of shield that allowed her to push back his blade as if she had one of her own. Tom swiped sideways in an attempt at catching her off guard, but she quickly moved her arm to parry his attack. The human swiftly threw a series of attacks at the black mare, forcing her to defend against all of them. “Ow!” Tom yelped in pain as Raven Feather cut across his leg with the energy she had gathered. The green eyed pony chuckled at her small victory. Seeing this opportunity, the boy dodged to the side and swung at her as fast as he could. As she tried to dodge the attack, she caught his blade across the cheek, drawing a small amount of blood and causing a twinge of pain. After stepping away from each other, both combatants used their own methods to heal their wounds. Tom used his powers to heal his leg, while Raven Feather used her shadow magic to close up the cut on her cheek. “You fight like a girl.” Tom remarked in a cynical tone. “You fight like a fossil. I must say, I am not impressed by the capabilities of the human race by watching you.” Raven Feather replied in a mocking tone. “Oh yeah? Well at least I have thumbs.” Tom said with a wry smirk. He quickly regained his composure before charging forward. Raven Feather stood her ground against the charging human. She channeled more energy to her hoof, causing the shadowy aura to grow in intensity. “Hyah!” Raven Feather yelled while slicing sideways at the human’s sword. Much to his surprise, Tom watched as the mare’s makeshift blade sliced clean through his katana. A large portion of the luminescent blade flew off, leaving roughly a quarter of the sword remaining. Not giving her opponent time to process his shock, Raven Feather used the energy on her arm to punch the human and send him flying backwards. Tom was separated from what was left of his once proud weapon and landed on his back a short distance away. He pushed himself up with his hands and groaned painfully from his abrupt flight. “You know… I always wondered what would happen if shadow energy came into contact with a blessed blade. I guess I can’t say I was expecting anything more.” Raven Feather stated with a slight chuckle while kicking aside the handle portion of the sword. “Grr…” Tom growled in frustration as he stared at the two halves of his former weapon. She had broken the blade with relative ease. He thought he was evenly matched with the mare, but apparently she had been holding back. After getting to his feet, the human lowered his arms to his sides and summoned his spirit weapons. The claws appeared out of a puff of fire and rang out a shrill tone as the boy raised his hands into a fighting stance. “I’ve had enough of you!” Tom yelled while charging forward at the black pony. He pulled back his arm and threw a powerful slash at her, but she disappeared into a puff of purple mist before his attack could even scratch her. “What’s the matter? Getting a little scared?” Raven Feather asked in a cynical tone while appearing behind the human. She shot a shadowy flame out of her hoof, forcing the boy to dive to the floor to avoid it. Before Raven Feather could point her beam of shadow energy downwards, Tom turned himself over and held out his hand. He frantically shot out a beam of bright light that met the shadowy flames and pushed them back slightly. The black mare and the human both pushed harder to beat the other, but it was clear who was winning. Suddenly, Raven Feather pushed against the human’s light with more force than he could handle. Just before the flames engulfed him completely, Tom rolled out of the way, but not before catching a painful burn on his right shoulder. “Agh!” The boy yelled as he clutched his new injury. The fabric on his shirt had been completely burned away, leaving nothing more than a charred circle of his own skin. Celestia and Raincloud watched from afar as the frustrated slayer got to his feet. He seemed to be getting more desperate as the fight went on. The alicorn had never seen the human in such a disheveled state before. “Tom…” Celestia muttered in a mortified tone as she watched the human healing his wounds. The restorative flames took longer than usual to heal his shoulder, but after a few moments the damage to both his skin and his shirt were erased. “Out of all of the slayers throughout history, they sent you to save Equestria? Heheheh.” Raven Feather chuckled to herself with a mocking smirk on her face, much to the infuriation of the human across from her. “Just shut up will you?!” Tom yelled in a frustrated tone. “Aww… what’s the matter? Am I hurting your feelings? I know that emotions are important to you slayers, so the last thing I want to do is upset you.” Raven Feather said with a cynical expression. “Rragh!” Tom yelled fiercely while charging straight for the black mare. Raven Feather channeled energy to her arm again and used it like a blade to counter the boy’s strikes. The shadowy aura smoked on contact with the claws on his hands, but she was apparently putting enough energy behind it to keep it stable. After a few tense moments of Tom frantically swiping at the earth pony and having her counter his strikes with ease, Raven Feather swiftly slashed across the boy’s legs again, only this time she directed the energy in her strike to knock him over instead of cutting him. “Gah!” Tom yelped in surprise as he was sent to the floor. As he looked up to counter any strikes the black mare was preparing to send his way, he realized that she was stepping away from him. “Try not to break anything when you hit the ground.” Raven Feather said with a wry smirk. The human was confused by what she meant, until she stamped her hoof on the ground. A transparent shadow raced out of her hoof and flew under Tom in a split second. The shadow solidified under the boy until it was a pitch black blob similar to all of the other attacks based on shadow magic she had used. “What the…?!” Before Tom could even try to get up, two spindly tendrils shot out of the blob underneath him and wrapped around his arms. He suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness as he fell into the floor and disappeared into the shadowy blotch. The world around him was pitch black, but he was falling at an increased velocity towards some unseen destination. The frightening experience reminded him of when he had fought Raincloud’s shadow for the first time, which in turn made him very nervous about where he was falling to. “AHH!” Tom screamed fearfully as a relatively blinding light enveloped him. He looked around, only to realize that he was falling out of the ceiling of the room. Which considering that he was in a castle, was shockingly higher off the ground than he first imagined. Celestia averted her eyes as the human fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. She slowly looked over, and was relieved to see him still alive. Her relief turned to horror as she realized the agony he must have been going through. “See… I tried to warn you. You really should have tucked and rolled instead of going for more of a falling stone approach.” Raven Feather chuckled while walking up to the human on the floor. Tom tried to get up to face the black mare, but he had broken several bones in his body that were vital for basic movements. “Don’t mind me, just pick yourself up and dust yourself off. See, I found a nifty little book on slayers in my basement… Well, not my basement per say, but you get the idea. It had a laundry list of observations on slayers written by several people over the years. It even had a few personal accounts written by a few slayers. I was particularly intrigued by how you heal yourself.” Raven Feather said while roughly pressing down on the boy’s arm as he tried to get up. Tom yelped in pain before going back to the floor. Once the black mare stopped touching him, he tried to get up again so he could strangle her with his bare hands. “You have to spend all of that energy, and for what? Just to cause yourself more agony? Tell me… what’s the point in that?” Raven Feather asked curiously while backing up to give the boy room. After getting to his knees, Tom held himself upright and started healing his injuries. He yelped painfully as his arms, several areas on his chest, his legs, and even his shoulder started glowing orange as his healing abilities worked from within his body. It looked like a fire was raging inside of him, which in all fairness, was probably accurate to what was actually happening. Once his bones were fully healed, Tom let out a final yell of pain and fell forward onto his hands. While he was catching his breath, he looked up and glared at the black mare with a seething hatred that only suffering could bring about. “I… don’t care what the point is. All I care about right now… is taking you down.” Tom muttered in between breaths while getting to his feet. He was exhausted and his legs were wobbling like jelly, but he still managed to strike an impressive, if unsteady, fighting pose. “Still intent on being the hero are we? Why don’t you just accept what all of us already know. Even the princess over there can see how worthless you are right now.” Raven Feather said while glancing over to the white alicorn. “What the hell are you on about now?” Tom asked in an annoyed tone. He didn’t really believe her, but part of him wanted to know what she was talking about. “Don’t listen to her Tom! She’s just trying to get in your head!” Celestia yelled in an attempt at stopping the black mare’s mind games. She yelped in pain as Raincloud smacked her across the face. “Be quiet! You’re spoiling the show…” The pale pegasus said before returning her attention to the fight. “She’s wrong you know. I don’t need to get in your head, I’m already inside. You know you can’t beat me, and it is tearing you up on the inside isn’t it?” Raven Feather asked in a cynical tone. “Shut up!” Tom yelled while stepping forward and making a slash at her with his claws. The black mare summoned her makeshift blade again and clashed with the human before shoving him off balance and watching him stumble with an exhausted expression of anger. “I think I’ll wait to kill the elements of harmony. First I want to make them watch as I gut their friends and family in front of them.” Raven Feather mocked in a sinister tone. “Stop it!” Tom yelled again in a desperate tone. His face was pale and his heart was pounding, but he still slowly charged forward and struck at her with a flurry of attacks. The green eyed pony smirked while blocking each of the strikes coming at her with ease. “If you want me to stop, then just stop me Tom! Your entire purpose is to make sure I don’t win, but I’ve already won! I am going to kill every person you have met in this world, and there is nothing you can do about it!” Raven Feather yelled fiercely while clashing with the human again. She looked at him staring daggers into her, but behind his anger she could see desperation and fear. Taking a look down at his claws, she noticed tiny cracks forming in the metal blades. “I will die before I let you hurt anyone else!” Tom yelled back in an exhausted tone. He breathed heavily to catch his breath, but between the stress he was feeling and the strain of the battle, he couldn’t recover as quickly as he wanted to. “You really think you can make that statement? Look at you! I’m barely even trying to counter your pitiful attacks at this point. You remind me of a child flailing at their parents during a tantrum. I could probably walk over there and slit the princess’s throat without you being able to do a thing!” Raven Feather yelled while staring the human in the eye with a fierce glare. “Stop it Raven Feather! This is sadistic!” Celestia yelled while watching the two struggling. “Tom, please listen to me! Just get out of here… run!” She pleaded to the human to save himself. “I can’t just leave you! I’m a slayer… I have to defend the innocent wherever possible!” Tom yelled back in an exhausted tone. “You’re a slayer? Hah! Don’t make me laugh! I read all manner of tall tales about the slayers in that book. They were the monster hiding in the closet of all the evil creatures of the earth. Demons and monsters all across the world would pale when hearing their names. You couldn’t even save your friends from a couple of ghosts for crying out loud! You aren’t a slayer… you’re a joke!” Raven Feather stated in a cold tone while glaring at the human like he was a piece of trash. Suddenly, the small cracks on Tom’s blades grew in size. The cracks had a sort of orangish glow to them that only grew stronger as they splintered across the claws. The sound of something brittle crumbling accompanied the cracks as they covered the whole of the weapons. Tom and Raven Feather glanced down at the cracks with decidedly different expressions on their faces. Raven Feather smirked as she looked back up at the boy fighting her. She let out a mighty yell as she pushed her arm sideways with as much strength as she could. A loud shattering noise sounded out as Tom’s claws exploded into a flurry of metallic shards. The human was sent backwards a few steps from the force of the black mare pushing him. He fell on his back and stared ahead with a horrified expression as the bits of his spirit weapons fell to the floor. Tom looked down at his shaking hands and saw that the portion that held the claws to his fingers still remained. A flash of fire washed over his fingers as the only remaining parts of his weapons disappeared off his hands. He looked ahead and saw that the hundreds of metallic pieces on the ground were melting into small drops of molten metal that quickly vanished from sight. “*Gasp*” Celestia’s eyes widened and Raincloud’s jaw dropped as they stared at the scene in front of them. Raven Feather stood victoriously across from the human and watched as he processed what had just happened. Tom desperately tried to reform his claws. He could make a brief flash of fire appear on his fingers, but no matter how hard he struggled he couldn’t get his weapons to reappear. Perhaps they had been permanently broken as they seemed to have been from physical appearances. “What’s the matter Tom? You were so eager to fight me before.” Raven Feather asked as she watched the human getting to his feet and stepping backwards fearfully. “S-stay away from me.” Tom stammered nervously while backing away from the green eyed mare. Raven Feather pointed her hoof forward and shot out a burst of shadow energy at the human. The bolt whizzed straight at the boy and pierced clean through his leg, sending a spray of blood out and causing him to yell in pain. Tom fell to his knee and clutched his newfound injury. He tried to heal it, but he could only elicit a slight glow of orange that flickered out just as quickly as it appeared. “What is a slayer without his spirit weapons and his powers? Nothing more than a boy trying to fill shoes that are far too large for him.” Raven Feather said with a devilish smirk while firing another blast at the human. The beam went clean through his shoulder, effectively disabling his left arm. “AGH!” Tom yelled painfully while clutching his arm. He could do little more than remain still while at the black mare’s mercy. “I’ll tell your friends that you died screaming like the pitiful child you are.” Raven Feather said in a grimly sinister tone while pointing her hoof at the boy’s chest. She channeled as much shadow energy as she could before firing a large blast of energy at the human. “Tom!” Celestia yelled in a distraught tone as she watched the human getting blown into the air. Tom screamed in agony as his body flew across the room and smacked into the right wall. After settling into place from his brief flight, the human remained still and lifeless. “Tom?! Tom, are you ok?!” Celestia pleaded desperately while watching the human for any sign of movement. She couldn’t even see any sign that he was breathing. For all intents and purposes, he looked dead. “Hahhaha… looks like Equestria’s hero wasn’t much of a problem after all.” Raven Feather said with an impish smirk. “Holy hell Raven Feather, that was awesome! You wiped the floor with him!” Raincloud said in an impressed tone while watching the black mare walk up to the human. Raven Feather slapped him across the face a few times to ensure that he wasn’t just playing possum. Satisfied that her job was done, she smirked and walked back over to the stairs. “I told you I could handle myself.” Raven Feather said with a joyful chuckle. “I can’t believe you did that... He didn’t deserve that!” Celestia said in a distraught tone while glaring at the black mare. Raven Feather glared back at the alicorn with an expression of contempt on her face. She reached forward and stepped on the burn on the princess’s leg, eliciting a cry of pain from her as she put pressure on it. “Lighten up will you? You should be worrying about yourself right now, not about him.” Raven Feather said in a cold tone. Suddenly, the sound of the door opening drew everyone’s attention to the front of the room. They saw Dust Kicker walking inside with a group of ponies in hoods behind him. The other ponies were all carrying books and bags that were more than likely full of occult supplies. After a small group of assorted workers came through the door, Shadow Mist limped through while being helped along by Grimwood and another worker. The red stallion looked like he was in pain, but otherwise he looked alright considering he was missing a limb and an eye. “Holy crap… what did I miss?” Dust Kicker asked while looking around the room. Between the alicorn in chains and the human slumped against the far wall, it looked like there had been a full scale war in the room since he left. “Nothing much… just Raven Feather kicking ass and taking names.” Raincloud explained with a pleased smirk while looking to her brother. “Ah, Dust Kicker… I assume everything is moving along smoothly then?” Raven Feather asked while walking up to the brown stallion. “There are darklings all over the castle and the town. Any guards in the city will have their hooves full for a long time trying to sort that mess out.” Dust Kicker reported with a confident tone. “Very good… in that case, we can start making preparations for the ritual.” Raven Feather said with a pleased smile before turning to the hooded workers around the entrance. “Start moving the equipment into the throne room. That place should be big enough to let us work.” She instructed while pointing up the stairs. The hooded ponies nodded before making their way across the room. “I’ll go with them to take care of any guards we run into.” Dust Kicker stated while walking to follow the workers up the stairs. “What are we going to do about her?” Raincloud asked while looking to the princess. “You can take her with us… just try not to be too rough. I wouldn’t want the princess to get hurt on my watch after all.” Raven Feather said with a sinister smirk. “Oh trust me. I’ll be as gentle as possible with her.” Raincloud said with a fake tone of sincerity. The pale mare picked up the alicorn, much to her protest, and held her arm roughly while moving her forward up the stairs. Raven Feather turned and walked over to her brother and Shadow Mist. She frowned slightly as she looked at the stallion’s injuries and the young colt tending to him. Grimwood didn’t show it outwardly very often, but he felt concern for those closest to him. “How are you doing Shadow Mist?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “I’ve had better days… I think my wound is starting to hurt less though.” Shadow Mist said in a reassuring tone. Despite his words it was obvious to see that he was in a great deal of pain still. “We can look for a spell to help you out somehow after all of this is done. Just sit tight and try to ignore the pain.” Raven Feather said in a sympathetic tone. “Take care of him for me Grim… ok?” She asked while turning to her sibling. “I’ll do my best.” Grimwood said in a sincere tone while glancing to the red stallion. Raven Feather turned to look at the group at the top of the stairs. Raincloud had paused to wait for Shadow Mist to make it across the room. She held Celestia at arm’s length while watching the black mare escort her brother and the red stallion up the stairs. The black mare walked over to the broken katana on the ground. She paused for a moment before picking up the smaller half that had the handle on it with her shadow magic. After levitating it up to her side, she smiled with a pleased expression. “I think I’ll take this as a souvenir.” Raven Feather said with a slight chuckle. She then walked towards the stairs to join her colleagues in heading to the throne room. Celestia took one last glance over to the lifeless human downstairs with a saddened expression. She only hoped that Raven Feather and her group could be stopped before any more suffering was inflicted on the innocent. Chapter 93: City Under SiegeTwilight and her small troop rushed through the winding corridors of the castle. The normally quiet and relatively empty halls were hard enough to navigate on a good day, but now that there was panic in the streets outside, monsters roaming freely, and guards running to and fro in an uncoordinated rush, it was much harder to get around. “Are you sure we should just leave while the castle is under attack?” Rainbow Dash asked in an uneasy tone while looking ahead to the purple unicorn leading the group. “We need to go get the others first. We’ll have a better chance with higher numbers.” Twilight replied while looking around to make sure she was running in the right direction. “Ah don’t disagree with you Twilight, but Rainbow Dash has a point. The princess might be in danger. Those jerks have made it clear that they aren’t here for small talk.” Applejack said with a concerned tone. Twilight paused for a moment and looked back at her friends anxiously. She had her doubts about why she wasn’t charging headfirst into battle to assist the princess as well. Still, she had to think logically and do her best to help the human, and right now that meant following his suggestions. “Tom knows what he’s doing. Between him and the princess, they should be able to hold their own until we get back.” Twilight said in what she hoped would be a confident tone. “We still have to worry about getting to the others… they are a fair ways away from us… and there are darklings everywhere… and…” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off nervously as she thought more about what she was getting herself into. Her pupils shrank and she nearly locked up as she pictured encountering more of the vicious creatures. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll be fine.” Twilight said in a reassuring manner. A sudden growling noise from around the corner up ahead made the ponies freeze instantly. The hair on the back of their necks stood on end as they recognized the owner of the feral noise. Twilight silently motioned for everyone to follow her as she crouched down and hugged the wall. Seeing that she would have to make the first move, the purple mare gulped nervously and inched forward to poke her head around the corner. As she had feared, she was greeted with the sight of two darklings slowly walking around the hallway and sniffing their surroundings. Once she saw the two beasts turning in her direction, she frantically ducked back around the corner and covered her mouth to keep herself silent. “How many of them?” Rainbow Dash asked silently. She didn’t need to ask what was around the corner to know that only one creature could make that noise. At least she hoped that only one creature was capable of producing such a frightful sound. “There’s two… I don’t think they know we’re here.” Twilight said nervously while eyeing back towards the corner. “How long will that last? Those things can probably smell our fear.” Rainbow Dash stated in an anxious tone while looking around at her friends. Between the six of them, their combined heartbeats were probably loud enough to be heard by the two monsters. “How did they get in here?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously. “They must have been summoned in here… there’s no way that so many of them could just pop up in the city without outside help.” Rainbow Dash reasoned in an uneasy tone. “Girls… I think we’re avoiding the elephant in the room here. We need to… *gulp*… get past them.” Twilight stated in a fearful manner while glancing behind her nervously. Every stray noise the two creatures made only increased her paranoia and fear that they knew where the group was. “W-what?” Fluttershy asked in a jittery tone. She almost thought she misheard the unicorn, and that she just said that they would have to confront the pair of terrifying monsters, but as she looked around at the shocked expressions of her friends, she realized that she heard her perfectly. “Why don’t we just go find another way out of the castle? We don’t need to go this way… do we?” Rarity asked in an uncertain tone. She looked to the purple mare with a nervous expression as she realized that she wasn’t kidding around. “There are probably more of them out by the front entrance. It will be safer if we go out the back… and to do that we need to deal with these two.” Twilight explained in what she hoped would be a confident tone. Her confidence faded as she mentioned the two deadly creatures that she was trying to ignore. “Yeah, I feel really safe here with the two shadow creatures that are pretty much walking mouths full of sharp teeth.” Rainbow Dash said in a cynical tone while glaring at the purple mare slightly. “Look… I don’t want to do this anymore than you do, but sooner or later we’re going to run into some of them. I would rather deal with a pair that I can see than one that will sneak up on us.” Twilight reasoned in an understanding manner in an attempt at getting the cooperation of her friends. “Ok… so how do we even do this? I left my battle axe at home, and I don’t suppose the princess taught you any spells to combat evil spawns of the netherworld.” Rainbow Dash asked in an anxious tone. “I don’t know… I guess Rarity and I can hold them with our magic and use some kind of spell to destroy them.” Twilight suggested nervously while looking to the white unicorn for support. “You want me to touch that thing? I’ll do anything to help darling, but that is asking a bit much.” Rarity protested in a squeamish tone. “Using your magic is hardly touching it Rarity… Just have my back if things go sour.” Twilight said with a defeated shrug. “Uh… girls?” Pinkie asked in a nervous tone, eliciting a confused response from the others. “What is it Pinkie?” Twilight asked curiously while turning to face the pink mare. “Why did they stop growling?” Pinkie asked with a slightly unnerved expression. The sudden question made everyone turn their attention to the odd silence in the air. They couldn’t hear the creatures growling, breathing, or making any other sort of noise. Twilight moved closer to the corner as silently as she could. After a moment of hesitation, she poked her head out to look for the two creatures. As soon as she looked around the corner, she was met with two gaping mouths full of teeth staring back at her from only a few inches away. “AH!” Twilight screamed fearfully as the creatures roared in unison. Before she could turn to backpedal, one of the beasts leapt forward and tackled her to the ground. The only thing she could do was shove her hooves on the darkling’s chest to keep it from getting within biting range. “Twilight!” Everyone yelled in unison as they saw their friend getting attacked by the vicious creature. Their concern shifted to fear as they noticed the second monster turning to face them. Throwing caution to the wind for the sake of her friend, Applejack rushed forward and turned around. She kicked her back legs out as hard as she could and knocked the darkling off of the pinned unicorn. Once she grabbed the still stunned mare, she simultaneously dragged her away from the monsters and helped her get to her feet. “What do we do?! We have nothing to use!” Rainbow Dash stated in a panic while backing away from the approaching monsters. Before anyone could think of a reply, the darklings jumped forward towards the ponies. “AHH!” Everyone screamed fearfully while scrambling to get away from the airborne creatures. Just before the pair of monsters landed and mauled the helpless group, Rarity lit up her horn and frantically wrapped her magic around one. Twilight quickly followed her example and wrapped her magic around the other one. The two mares barely managed to levitate the darklings and back them away slightly. The two creatures snarled and barked like wild dogs as they struggled to break free of their floating prisons. The white unicorn seemed to be having trouble with keeping her darkling contained with her magic. She had sweat rolling down her forehead and her horn was sparking. Twilight wasn’t faring much better. Even with her years of experience in magic, the shadow creature was proving to be difficult to handle. It was like some unseen force was making the two beasts far stronger than they should have been. Twilight paled as she suddenly realized that these darklings must have been channeling the shadow energy in their bodies to counteract the magical auras they were in. “Twilight, do something! I can’t hold it much longer!” Rarity pleaded in a desperate tone. Twilight’s mind raced as she looked back and forth between Rarity and the two creatures. She had to think of some way to destroy them, but she was running out of time. If the darklings got free again, they might not get a second chance at capturing them. “Uh… uh…” Twilight muttered while trying to think of a spell to use. Finally she settled on the only thing she could really do offensively. She fought through the strain she was feeling and charged up a magical blast of energy which she promptly fired at the first creature. Much to everyone’s joy, the bolt of purple light flew into the darkling and blew a small hole in it. The beast let out a shrill yelp of pain before fading into black smoke. Twilight wasted no time and charged up another blast. After a few moments, she shot at the remaining monster and reduced it to smoke as well. Rarity breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the weight being removed from her magic. She smiled cheerfully as she realized that she and her friends had just survived a run in with a pair of vicious shadow creatures. Not only did they survive, but they destroyed the beasts themselves with no outside assistance. “Way to go guys! I thought we were goners for a second there.” Rainbow Dash cheered in a relieved tone. “I’m glad none of us got hurt… Now let’s get moving before more of them show up.” Twilight suggested while motioning forward with her head. Everyone nodded in agreement before following the purple mare down the corridor. The six ponies continued making their way through the castle. All the while they could hear shouts from guards and the distant roars and growls of more darklings. They only hoped that they could steer clear from any more monsters, and that they could get back with help in time to save as many people as possible. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of sneaking around hallways and fearfully listening for any sign that a bloodthirsty monster was nearby, the group reached one of the side entrances to the castle. Twilight hesitantly opened the door and peered outside. Judging from the lush hedges and flowers that covered everything she could see, the unicorn gathered that she had found a way out into the garden. “Ok… looks like we’re in the garden. We should have a straight shot to the hotel where Glimmer Shine and the others are staying, but we will be out in the open.” Twilight said in a cautious tone. “What happens if we run into more darklings?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while looking around and listening to the muffled screams and roars coming from the distance. “Just stay low and stick together. Hopefully we won’t need to run into any more of them.” Twilight replied in an uneasy attempt at reassuring her friends. It was hard to appear confident when she was just as terrified as the five mares around her. With a hesitant nod, the group followed their unicorn leader out into the garden. Normally such an opportunity would be awe inspiring for all of the ponies, most of all Fluttershy, but any animals that used to inhabit the garden either scattered when the darklings first showed up or they were in hiding. Twilight and the others kept low to the ground and used cover wherever possible to keep as hidden as they could while they moved across the garden. Every few steps they would pause and dart their heads around. Having six people trying to sneak around had its disadvantages, but they at least had multiple pairs of eyes scanning their surroundings for threats. After clinging to a hedge at the far side of the garden, Twilight slowly poked her head out to see where they were. She smiled slightly as she saw that they were at the edge of the castle grounds. All they had to do was hop over a small wall to get to the city. As she noticed the chaos and peril that waited in the streets beyond however, the unicorn’s smile faded into a shocked and afraid expression. There were darklings dotted around the various streets and buildings as far as the eye could see. Thankfully it seemed that most of the citizens of Canterlot had locked themselves inside the nearest building they could find. However, a few trails and splashes of blood along the ground in places was enough to make an uneasy knot form in the unicorn’s stomach. “How does it look out there?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously, drawing the purple mare’s attention to her friends crouched low to the ground beside her. They seemed eager and anxious to know what was waiting for them beyond the hedge they were clinging to for safety. “They’ve overrun the city from the looks of it.” Twilight reported while lowering herself back down and looking to her five companions uneasily. “What about the guards? Shouldn’t they be taking care of this?” Rarity asked in a nervous tone. “I don’t think they can handle this many darklings… They need someone to tell them what’s going on so they can focus their efforts.” Twilight stated in a frustrated manner. “Isn’t that usually what the princess does?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically. Twilight groaned in a distraught tone before putting a hoof on her face. She couldn’t believe that she was thrust into the middle of such a terrible situation. “The hooded ponies definitely knew what they were doing. The guards wouldn’t have a chance to even interfere with their plans if there weren’t enough of them organized. If only my brother were here… he would know what to do.” Twilight sighed in an upset tone. “That’s why we need to go get Glimmer Shine and the others. They can go and get help while we do what we can here.” Applejack suggested in a reassuring manner. “Right… right.” Twilight nodded while cringing and removing the heavy strain of trying to figure out what to do from her head. She had a plan of action that would make a lot of progress towards beating the hooded ponies, overstressing her mind trying to think of a perfect plan that would take care of everything at once would just hinder her. “We can do this… just take it one step at a time.” Rarity reminded the group to keep cool heads and not let their fear get the best of them. “And our first step is getting to the others… Come on, let’s go.” Twilight instructed while hopping over the hedge. Everyone nodded before cautiously following the purple mare. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Celestia was still at the mercy of her captors. Raven Feather and her band of followers marched through her once secure home and made their way towards the throne room, all the while making the alicorn follow them against her will. Raincloud walked next to the princess and shoved her along every time she paused to try and look around. The hoof cuffs binding her front legs together made it nearly impossible to walk, but the pale pegasus was giving her no other alternatives. All Celestia could do was silently follow her captors while hoping that nobody else would get hurt. Finally, the group arrived in the throne room and headed inside. There were already hooded workers arranging their supplies and preparing the room for whatever twisted purpose Raven Feather had in mind. Celestia gasped in quiet horror as she noticed Dust Kicker overseeing a few darklings that were dragging bloodied corpses of guards out of the room. “Ah… here we are. This will do nicely for the ritual.” Raven Feather said in an impressed tone while looking around. “Should I start working on the symbols?” Raincloud asked curiously while shoving Celestia against a wall and leaving her to take a seated position. “Yes, but get a crew to help you. I want to be finished here before the guards outside stop running around aimlessly and actually start banding together.” Raven Feather said in a serious tone. Raincloud nodded before walking over to a group of hoods to acquire their assistance. While the pale pegasus started work on drawing the symbols needed for the ritual, Raven Feather walked around the throne room and imagined her future as ruler of Equestria. “I wonder what I’ll do with all of the free time I’ll have once I have everyone in Equestria under my hoof.” The black mare pondered out loud while wandering to and fro. “You can fantasize all you want, but you won’t succeed.” Celestia said with a harsh glare at the green eyed pony. “Oh… is that so?” Raven Feather asked with an amused chuckle while walking up to the trapped alicorn. “Even if you somehow found a way to trigger this so called eternal night, you will be stopped.” Celestia said in a confident tone. “And who is going to stop me? Your dear sister and your pet slayer are dead, princess amore and her lover boy are miles away, and there is no way in hell that student of yours and her friends are going to stop us.” Raven Feather said in a mocking tone. “Don’t underestimate the elements of harmony. They have been the downfall of many people like you.” Celestia said in an irritated tone. “Oh trust me… I have no intentions of underestimating the power of the elements… the element wielders however are of no concern to me, especially when I take their precious toys and hide them as far away as I can.” Raven Feather said with a sinister smirk. “What…? You can’t possibly expect to steal the elements. They have enough protective spells placed on them to keep even myself and my sister out if we tried to break in.” Celestia said in a shocked tone. The black mare merely chuckled at the notion that a few magical spells could keep her out. “That’s where you’re mistaken Celestia. I created a spell to get past your defenses a long time ago. I already have some workers going to retrieve the elements as we speak.” Raven Feather said in a pleased tone. While the black mare chuckled with a smirk on her face, two hooded ponies entered the room in a hurry. They had urgent expressions on their faces as they walked across the room to make it to their leader. “Miss Raven Feather!” The two ponies exclaimed in unison. “What is it? Did you hide the elements like I asked?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “No… when we opened the secret panel where the elements are kept, they were gone!” One of the hoods explained in an uneasy tone. “What?! How is that possible?! Did Twilight Sparkle and her friends take them?” Raven Feather asked in an angered tone. “We don’t think so… our scouts saw them leaving the castle, and they didn’t have the elements with them.” The pair explained in a nervous tone while cowering before the black mare. They expected her to lash out at them, but instead she internalized her anger and walked over to the chained alicorn with a livid expression. “Where did you take the elements?!” Raven Feather demanded while grabbing the princess by her chest and pulling her close. “What are you talking about?” Celestia asked in a confused tone. “The elements aren’t in their resting place, and your student doesn’t have them. Did you know we were coming? What did you do?!” Raven Feather asked in an upset tone. “The elements are gone? How is that possible…? There are only a select number of people that can even open that alcove.” Celestia stated in a bewildered tone. “You… didn’t take them?” Raven Feather asked in a confused tone. Judging from the equal confusion on the alicorn’s face, she was telling the truth. “Grr…” Raven Feather growled angrily while letting the princess go. She walked over to the pale pegasus in the middle of the room that was working on drawing a large symbol on the floor. “Raincloud… I need you and Dust Kicker to go in the next room and keep watch for Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The elements of harmony are unaccounted for.” Raven Feather instructed in an uneasy tone. “What… but what about the ritual?” Raincloud asked curiously. Even though there were a lot of hooded workers assigned to working on the symbol and spells needed for the ritual, a more experienced magic user was needed to put the pieces together. “I will make preparations myself. I can’t have them interfering with us now that we don’t have their trump card in check. I want them dead… and I want them dead as soon as they step through that door.” Raven Feather explained while pointing out of the room. “Alright, we can handle it.” Raincloud nodded before turning to her brother across the room. “Come on Dust, we have a new job to do.” She explained while motioning for the brown stallion to follow her. Dust Kicker dropped what he was doing and followed his sibling as she walked out of the room. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist and Grimwood were watching Raven Feather as she rushed to finish preparations. She seemed to have a new sense of urgency about her as she scribbled the large symbol on the floor. They shared a concerned glance with each other as they realized that things just got harder for them as well. With the elements of harmony missing, their plan could very well shrivel up along with Raven Feather’s. Twilight and the others carefully made their way through the streets of Canterlot on their way to get help. They had to stick to back alleys and other detours just to avoid the many darklings that were prowling the streets. Despite how careful they were, they still had several tense moments where one of the beasts looked their way or got too close for comfort. The thought of one of the monsters spotting them and alerting the rest to their presence was enough to terrify the six mares. If they didn’t keep under the radar, they would have been ripped to pieces. As Twilight poked her head around the corner of the building she was leaning against, she finally saw her goal across the next street. The hotel that Glimmer Shine and the others were staying in was just a short walk across the street away. “We’re here!” Twilight exclaimed in an eager yet quiet tone to her friends. Although the others were excited, they were still nervous about their surroundings. “Are there any darklings around?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. Twilight looked back around the corner and scanned her eyes around. As her eyes shifted to the distance, the purple mare noticed two of the creatures further down the street. Although they were far away from the hotel, their mere presence was enough to send a chill down the unicorn’s spine. “There’s two of them, but it looks like they are a ways away.” Twilight stated uneasily. “Ugh… what if they see us?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “Do they even have eyes? All I see on them is that big mouth of theirs.” Rainbow Dash stated curiously. “Well, I don’t think that stopped them from chasing us before. Even if they see by tasting the air, that doesn’t help us in the slightest.” Twilight shrugged in a disheartened tone. “Looks like we’re just going to have to sneak by and hope they don’t notice us. Come on, let’s go.” She said while motioning for the others to follow her. The ponies carefully started walking towards the hotel. They kept as low to the ground as they could while running silently towards their destination. All the while they were darting their eyes to the two creatures in the distance, fearful that they would start bolting towards them at any moment. Much to everyone’s surprise, they made it across the street without being noticed by the two beasts. Twilight quickly threw open the door and ushered her friends inside. Everyone flooded into the lobby of the hotel and closed the door behind them. The room was completely silent other than the muffled sounds coming from outside. There was no one behind the front desk, and nobody up the stairway to the left or in the door to the right. It was like everyone had run away when the darklings started to attack. “Where is everyone?” Fluttershy asked uneasily. “They probably ran or hid when they saw what was going on. I just hope Glimmer Shine and the others are still here.” Twilight stated with a hint of concern in her voice. “Only one way to find out… let’s head upstairs and look for them.” Applejack said while glancing to the stairs. If she remembered correct, the trio was staying on the second floor. Everyone nodded in agreement before heading towards the stairs. They only hoped that they would find the team in the hotel somewhere. If they didn’t, they would be forced to look for them around town with all of the darklings still running rampant. Suddenly, the group heard a deep growl coming from the stairs. They froze up fearfully and started to back away slowly as they realized what the sound belonged to. “What is one of them doing in here?!” Rainbow Dash whispered in a panic. “They must have broken in somehow.” Twilight explained nervously. Before they could think of something to do, the ponies saw a dark shape appearing at the top of the stairs. Before long, the angry growls of the beast got louder as it started walking down towards the six mares. “Twilight… what do we do?” Fluttershy asked in a timid voice while backing away from the frightening creature. “Everyone follow me… we’re going to go in that door, and close it behind us. Just move slowly, and keep facing towards it.” Twilight explained in a calm tone. Suddenly, another distinct growl rose up from the side of the ponies. Everyone looked to the side to see two more of the creatures stalking out of the open door they were looking to for an escape route. With their plan and their odds of survival sinking fast, everyone became much more fearful of their situation. “Which one do we face?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a franticly sarcastic tone. “We can’t hold all three of them with our magic Twilight. I know you’re good, but just holding one of them was unbearable.” Rarity stated in a nervous tone while turning to her purple companion. Twilight could feel herself sweating as she glanced between her friends and the approaching monsters. She looked outside to the only escape route they had left. If they ran out with the other monsters chasing them, every darkling in the city would be on top of them in no time. “We can’t go back out there… if we make too much noise these three will be the least of our problems.” Twilight said uneasily. “Well right now they look like our biggest problem from where I’m standing!” Rainbow Dash stated anxiously. Twilight lit up her horn and stood fast against the three creatures. If she could charge up a powerful enough attack to destroy the first two beasts in time, the third one would be on top of her before she could react. No matter how she sliced it, one of the monsters would be free to attack her or her friends while she and Rarity dealt with the second one. “Ah think we can hold off the third one while you deal with those two.” Applejack said while looking to Rainbow Dash for support. The cyan mare seemed eager to defend her friends, but she was still nervous about fighting the shadow creatures. “No… I can’t let you do that. You two might get hurt before we can help.” Twilight said uneasily. “We’re running out of time Twilight! We need to do something!” Rainbow Dash said in an urgent tone. The ponies were already backed up as far as they could go, and the creatures were getting closer. Finally, the darkling that came from upstairs let out a fierce snarl as it leapt forward. Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed to get in between the leaping monster and their friends. The cyan mare jumped up and used her wings to give her a boost as she knocked into the darkling from the side. As soon as they saw that the fight was starting, the other two darklings rushed forward. They charged straight for the two ponies struggling with their friend. Applejack cringed as she saw the two monsters charging at her. She had her hooves full with making sure the third monster didn’t lash out at Rainbow Dash while she held it down. “Girls!” Twilight exclaimed fearfully while stepping forward. She concentrated on one of the beasts, enveloping it in a magical aura and holding it back. Rarity stepped forward and trapped the other monster. The two unicorns strained to keep the struggling beasts captive. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash screamed as the darkling on the floor used its front leg to swipe across her face. The beast’s claws raked across her face, leaving a deep wound that burned like crazy and spurted out blood. Despite the pegasus’s best efforts at keeping the creature on the ground, it kicked her off with a frightening display of strength. “Rainbow Dash!” Applejack exclaimed fearfully as she saw the cyan pony reeling from her short flight backwards. Now that the creature was free, it sized up the orange mare and stared at her like a fox would stare at a defenseless chicken. Meanwhile, Twilight and Rarity were still struggling with their respective darklings. Twilight glanced over to her two friends fighting the third beast and widened her eyes as she realized they were losing. She quickly charged up her horn and fired a blast at the monster she was holding. Before the blast could hit its mark, the darkling violently jerked itself downward. The sudden strain on the purple mare’s magic made her cry out in pain as the monster was freed from her grasp. Once the beast was free, it went straight for the two unicorns that were causing it so much grief. “AHH!” Twilight and Rarity screamed as they saw the darkling jumping for them. They tried to back up, but it was far too late to be able to do anything. *ZAP* Suddenly, a bolt of light crashed into the darkling jumping for the helpless ponies. The creature roared in agony before vanishing in a puff of black smoke. Another series of magical bursts sounded out as the two remaining darklings were gunned down like the first one. Everyone looked up in a confused state as they examined themselves to check if they were still alive. Rainbow Dash still had her bleeding cuts on her face, and Applejack was a little roughed up by the creature she was fighting, but otherwise the ponies were completely unharmed. “W-what the…?” Twilight muttered in shock while looking around for the source of her rescue. She then noticed Sunspot, Glimmer Shine, and Glitterball standing on the stairs while holding their still smoking strobes out in front of them. “Why do you always have a monster trying to maul you to death every time we see you?” Sunspot asked with a slight smirk while lowering her strobe. “Boy am I glad to see you guys.” Rainbow Dash said in a relieved tone while getting up from the floor. She winced in pain as she clutched her face tenderly. The sight of blood dripping from the cyan mare’s hoof made the others frown with concern. “Are you guys ok?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone while examining the rest of the group for injuries. “We would be a lot worse off if you didn’t show up when you did.” Twilight said with a grateful tone before turning to her injured friend. “Are you ok Rainbow Dash? Those cuts look really bad.” She said in a sympathetic manner while walking up to the pegasus. Rainbow Dash moved her hoof away while the unicorn gently examined her injury in the light. “For what it’s worth, they feel really bad too.” Rainbow Dash said while cringing painfully. “Here, let me see if I can help.” Glitterball said while trotting up to the pegasus and examining her wounds closely. They looked jagged and deeper than they actually were, but she should have had no problems with healing them with her magic. “So what are you girls doing here? I assume it has something to do with the fact that the city is crawling with darklings now.” Glimmer Shine said in a droll tone. “Yes… that’s right.” Twilight said while looking down in a disheartened manner. “The hooded ponies are attacking the castle as we speak. There are even more darklings out in the city… they are probably using them as a distraction.” She explained uneasily. “What?! They’re attacking the castle right now?! Well let’s get over there!” Sunspot said in a frantic tone. “Tom and the princess are handling things right now, but they need help. We need you guys to find a way to signal for reinforcements.” Twilight explained in a desperate tone. “You guys were royal guard at one point… isn’t there some kind of emergency protocol or something for these situations?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. She winced slightly as Glitterball cleaned her wound. “There are some telegraphs and other methods for calling guard stations in other towns, but help would have already arrived if they were used.” Glimmer Shine explained in a confused tone. “The hooded ponies seem to know what they’re doing… maybe they sent darklings or something else to stop guards from calling for help.” Twilight suggested in a disheartened tone. “Well… there is a signal fire in one of the towers on the edge of town.” Glitter said while recalling from memory her training on emergency procedures. “Will that get enough guards here to do anything meaningful?” Twilight asked curiously. “Yeah… all of the nearby towns will see it and call for help using their equipment. We will have enough pony power here to fight an army of darklings in an hour or so.” Glimmer Shine said in a confident tone. “That’s great! You guys can go light the signal fire while we head back to the castle and help the princess.” Twilight stated eagerly. Glimmer Shine and the others frowned slightly as they saw how eager the six mares were to go fight the hooded ponies. “Twilight… I really think you should stay here and wait until things blow over. We can put a protective charm on our room upstairs and you guys can wait until we get back.” Glimmer Shine said in a concerned tone. Twilight frowned slightly as her plans were shot down again by the yellow stallion and his team. She couldn’t really blame them. After all, it was part of their job to worry about her and her friends. Still, she couldn’t just let them argue with her over something like this when they were short enough on time as is. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head about what she could do to avoid a lengthy argument with the three ponies. “Alright… fine. You guys win.” Twilight said while sounding as disappointed as she could. “We do…?” Glimmer Shine asked in a confused tone. He expected more resistance from the purple mare and her friends over staying out of danger. “Yeah… we can’t keep risking our lives like this. We aren’t prepared for fighting like this, so we should just let you guys take care of things.” Twilight said with a disheartened shrug. “What?! Are you out of your mind Twilight?! We can’t just do nothing while they-” Rainbow Dash protested angrily, until she received a forceful nudge on the side from Rarity. Once she took a moment to think, she realized what her friends were doing. “Rainbow Dash… I would normally agree with you, but I have a family to go home to. Sweetie Belle would be heartbroken if she heard that her sister got killed doing something stupid like fighting the hooded ponies by herself.” Rarity said in her best heartfelt tone while secretly giving the pegasus a suggestive look with her eyes. “Grr… fine, you guys win. I’ll stay… but I don’t have to like it.” Rainbow Dash said while folding her arms in an upset manner. “I’m glad to hear that. We should be back with help soon, so you won’t have to wait long. Come on, let’s get you somewhere safe.” Glimmer Shine said while motioning for the group to follow him. Everyone nodded before following the stallion upstairs. After a short walk to the room that the three ponies were sharing, Twilight and the others stepped inside and watched as the trio prepared a protective charm to place on the door. Once the charm was in place, Glimmer Shine and his two teammates stood outside and prepared to leave. “We’ll be back before you know it. Try to stay out of trouble while we’re gone.” Glimmer Shine said in a sincere tone. “We’ll do our best.” Twilight said while flashing a brief smile. Everyone waved to the three ponies as they closed the door and walked away. After waiting a few minutes to ensure the trio was gone, the purple mare turned to her small band of friends with a determined expression. “Alright… now we can go help Tom and the princess.” Twilight said in an eager tone. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Rainbow Dash said in an excited tone. Before the group gathered around the door to leave, something out of the corner of her eye caught Pinkie’s attention. She walked over to one of the three beds in the room and noticed a small leather carrying case with three vials placed in holsters. The vials held blue liquid inside and had a pointed tip on one end of its case, which made it easily identifiable as a strobe. “Hey guys, check this out.” Pinkie said eagerly. Everyone looked over to see the pink mare holding up one of the vials to examine it. “Nice find Pinkie… these must be their spare strobes.” Twilight said in an impressed tone. “Those might come in handy.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a slight smirk. “Are you sure they would want us to take these?” Fluttershy asked in an uneasy tone. “Well… if they knew we were sneaking out to go fight those guys, they would probably want us to be well equipped wouldn’t they?” Rainbow Dash said in a witty tone. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’re only borrowing them. We need all the help we can get, and these should make it easier to get back to the castle.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. She levitated the other two vials out of the satchel and gave them to Applejack and Fluttershy. “Too bad there are only three of them… I wouldn’t mind shooting some holes in those darklings.” Rainbow Dash said in a disappointed tone. “You can take mine if you want.” Pinkie offered while holding her vial out to the pegasus. The cyan mare gently pushed the vial away with a heartfelt expression. “That’s ok Pinkie, I can manage on my own. I want you guys to be as safe as possible.” Rainbow Dash said in a friendly tone. “Yeah, we need to divide our equipment as evenly as possible. Rarity and I have our magic, and Rainbow has her flying skills, so you three should take the strobes.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “Thanks girls, Ah appreciate it. Now, let’s go kick some tail shall we?” Applejack suggested with a smirk. Everyone nodded before heading towards the door. The six mares quickly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. After making their way through the building and keeping an eye out for Glimmer Shine and the others, they headed back out into the streets of Canterlot. They had one clear goal in mind as they started their way towards the castle, and that was to put a stop to the hooded ponies once and for all. Chapter 94: Fighting BackGlimmer Shine and his two companions diligently scanned their eyes around as they walked down the street. The trio kept their strobes at the ready in preparation to blast anything that wasn’t a pony to smithereens. Aside from the stray howl of a pack of darklings in the distance, the streets were mostly clear. In fact, it was a little bit too clear and devoid of life. “I don’t like this… it’s way too peaceful out here.” Sunspot said in an uneasy tone while slowly looking around in a paranoid state. “It shouldn’t be much further. Let’s just keep moving and stay low for as long as we can.” Glimmer Shine said in a reassuring tone. Despite his attempts at lightening the tension felt by his companions, the yellow stallion was just as paranoid about what could be lurking in the shadows around every corner. “Do you really think they are going to do it?” Glitterball asked nervously. “What, take over Canterlot? I think that ship has sailed already.” Sunspot said in a nervously droll tone while taking note of the distant sounds of screams and snarls around her. “*Sigh* No… I mean the eternal night. Do you really think it exists?” Glitterball said to clarify. “Well if it does exist, I can only hope those nut jobs don’t get the chance to start it.” Sunspot replied uneasily. “Then we better hurry up and light that signal fire. The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can go help the princess and Tom.” Glimmer Shine said in a determined tone. The reminder of their grim situation only made the two mares more anxious to get to the tower and finish their task as soon as possible. Taking a quick glance down to the locator vial secured to her vest, Glitterball saw that the liquid inside was completely aglow with faint blue light. The reading offered little more than the knowledge that there were evil creatures all around her, but the unicorn and her teammates were already well aware of that fact. Suddenly, the group noticed a tower coming into view in the distance. It was hard to tell from the ground, but there seemed to be an open area near the top where a signal fire could be positioned. Regardless, the sight of the tower greatly raised the spirits of the three ponies. “Looks like we made it.” Glimmer Shine said in a relieved tone. “And it looks like we aren’t the only ones.” Sunspot stated uneasily while pointing at the building at the base of the tower. There were numerous black shapes swarming near the entrance to the small building, and they didn’t look like they were leaving any time soon. “Think we can take them?” Glitterball asked curiously while keeping her strobe ready. “I don’t think we have a choice.” Glimmer Shine said in a more alarmed tone while looking behind the group. The two mares beside him were confused about why he was so distracted and alert. “What’s wrong?” Sunspot asked in a puzzled tone while turning around to see what was holding the stallion’s attention. As soon as she turned around, she widened her eyes in shock at what she saw. Darklings were walking out onto the street from around the many buildings and side alleys dotted around. The beasts were snarling and growling viciously while keeping their attention squarely fixed on the three ponies. They were all bearing their teeth and dribbling from their large maws, creating a disconcerting sight to behold. “Oh crud…” Sunspot muttered in shock. “I guess we found out where the rest of them went.” Glimmer Shine said in an uneasy tone while sizing up the many creatures approaching in the distance. “W-what do we do?” Glitterball asked nervously while backing up in fright. “Run for the building down there! There are way less to deal with!” Glimmer Shine yelled before running down the street. Sunspot and Glitterball quickly followed the yellow stallion. A loud collection of roars and barks sounded out behind them, confirming their fear that the pack of monsters was chasing after them. As they drew closer to the building at the end of the street, the darklings at the front of the building turned their heads to look at the ponies and the horde of monsters behind them. Sunspot fired her strobe at the left side of the group before they started running forward, catching two of them in the head and destroying them. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine followed suit and opened fire on the crowd of darklings. Due to the relatively lower numbers of the group in front of the building, the three ponies were able to easily destroy them all in a few moments of continuous fire. Taking a glance behind him to check on the progress of the horde, Glimmer Shine was surprised to see that even more darklings had joined the chase. From appearances, it seemed like every darkling in the city had been attracted by the noise of the army of creatures running after the ponies. Finally, the trio reached the building and rushed up to the door. As they looked behind them to see a wall of shadow creatures barreling towards them, they were overcome by an intense feeling of panic and fear. “Get inside! There is no way we can fight that many of them!” Glitterball said while rushing to the door and grabbing the handle. Much to the unicorn’s relief, the handle turned easily and the door popped open. Once her two teammates rushed inside, the white mare ran in after them and closed it behind her. “That door won’t hold them for long.” Glimmer Shine said nervously. “Crap… What are we going to do?! The protective charm doesn’t work on doors leading outside!” Sunspot stated in a panic. “Ugh… stupid spells and their limitations! Remind me to work on that charm if we make it out of this alive!” Glitterball said in an annoyed tone. “Let’s focus on making it out alive first. Follow me!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed while rushing forward into the building. The two mares wasted no time in following the stallion. The building they were in looked like a guard post of sorts. There were banners with the royal emblem emblazoned on them along with depictions of the three races of ponies scattered along the walls. There was a desk at the back of the room with a door to the right of it. Spotting no other exits aside from a hallway that led further into the building, the trio ran straight for the door and rushed inside. Taking a look around, the three ponies spotted a small gathering of guards in the back of the room. There were two pegasus’s, a unicorn, and an earth pony. Each of them had tense and uneasy expressions on their faces, which was understandable considering the number of monsters outside. “Oh… it’s you monster hunters.” The unicorn guard said with a relieved tone of voice. “We thought you were one of those things breaking in.” One of the pegasus’s added. “Glitter, set up a protective charm before those things actually do break in.” Glimmer Shine instructed while glancing to the door uneasily. “Already on it.” Glitterball stated while scribbling away at a piece of paper. “What are we going to do? Aren’t you guys supposed to be the experts on this kind of thing?” The earth pony guard asked curiously while observing the three. “Even if we wrote the book on the supernatural, taking on an army of those things with just the three of us is kind of impossible. Weren’t you guys supposed to light the signal fire?” Sunspot asked in an annoyed tone. “We tried that. By the time we got up there, there were already two of those things in the tower somehow. We barely made it back here in one piece.” The unicorn stallion replied uneasily. “They were in the tower?” Sunspot asked in a confused tone. “They must be following orders to guard it.” Glimmer Shine suggested in a frustrated manner while shrugging. “Ok… so what do we do?” Sunspot asked curiously. “Well… we have three strobes between us, and an army of those things outside waiting for us.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. Suddenly a flash of light surged around the room. The group turned their head to see Glitterball messing with a piece of paper with red symbols drawn on it. “At least we have some breathing room to think out a plan.” Glitter said with a relieved tone. “Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it quick. The more time we spend out here, the longer Raven Feather and her gang have to do what they came here to do.” Glimmer Shine shrugged uneasily. Sunspot and Glitterball sighed in frustration while sitting down and thinking about a possible escape plan. The princess was counting on them, and perhaps all of Equestria depended on their success. Still, the only resources they had were their own strobes, and three of Equestria’s finest. Which considering how little Equestria was prepared to handle the world of the occult, didn’t account for much. Meanwhile, Twilight and her band of friends were making more headway towards their goal. Due to their combined use of strobes, magic, and teamwork, they were able to get through the many creatures prowling the streets of Canterlot. But even with all of the equipment they had, they felt scared and defenseless every time they had to confront one of the monsters. Thankfully they hadn’t come across them in large numbers yet. Twilight took the lead and walked up to the edge of a building to get a look around. Applejack and Pinkie Pie stayed behind her while everyone else watched anxiously from the back. The purple mare slowly peaked around the corner and looked up and down the next street. Spotting only a single darkling off to the left, she motioned for her friends to follow her as she snuck across the street to the next building. “I think the castle is just through here.” Twilight said while walking into an alleyway around the side of the building. Everyone followed while keeping an eye out for any signs that they had been spotted by the creatures around them. As she reached the end of the alley and poked her head out, Twilight was pleased to see the castle just ahead. The sight of a pack of darklings roaming around the front of the castle grounds made the unicorn’s happiness vanish almost instantly. “Are we there yet?” Pinkie asked in a hopeful tone. Twilight shrugged uneasily while ducking back into the alleyway and turning to face her friends. “We are… but there are a lot of them between us and the entrance.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. “How about the side entrance?” Rainbow Dash asked with careful optimism. The unicorn walked back up to the corner and slowly poked her head out again. Taking a look over to the side where the garden was, Twilight saw even more darklings. The vicious beasts were surprisingly calm and focused as they sat still and scanned their heads around. It was almost like they were actively guarding the castle to make sure nobody else got inside. “Horsefeathers…” Twilight muttered to herself while reeling back around the corner and turning to her friends again. “No good… it looks like they are keeping the entrances locked down tight.” She explained in a frustrated tone. “I didn’t think those things were smart enough to strategize.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. “It’s probably Dust Kicker… if he can summon those things, maybe he can give them orders too.” Twilight hypothesized with a deflated sigh. She would probably be curious about the connection the creatures had to each other and their master, but she was too busy handling the stressful situation before her. “So what’s our plan? Do you think we can take them?” Applejack asked with a concerned twinge in her voice while eyeing between her friends and the area ahead. The last thing she wanted was for someone to get hurt because they couldn’t handle the situation. “No… if we make too much noise, more of them will just come running.” Twilight said in a frustrated tone while sliding to a seated position and leaning her head against the wall. As she closed her eyes and took a moment to think about a possible plan of action, an idea suddenly popped into her head. “Hold on a second… running…?” Twilight muttered to herself while getting up and heading to the corner with newfound energy. She looked ahead at the front entrance of the castle and took note of how many darklings were in the immediate area. “I know that look. What do you have in mind?” Rainbow Dash asked in a curious tone while walking up to the unicorn and cautiously looking around. “Maybe we can make a run for the front entrance. We would still need to fight some of them, but it would be a lot less distance to go.” Twilight suggested while turning to her small band of troops. “What about making noise? Didn’t you say that there were too many to fight quietly?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous tone while clinging to her strobe. “If we can make it inside, we can just close the doors on them. There could be a hundred of them trying to break in, and they probably wouldn’t be able to bash their way through.” Twilight said in an eager tone. “That sounds like a good plan darling… but there is still the matter of getting past all of those horrid beasts.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. The unicorn’s statement made everyone look to the numerous darklings in their field of view with nervous expressions. “We’ll need to stick together. If all six of us work together to keep them away, we should be able to make it inside.” Twilight explained in a reassuring tone while turning to face her friends. “I’m ready when you guys are.” Rainbow Dash said while stretching her legs eagerly. “Ok Rainbow, you do whatever you can, but be careful. Rarity and I will use our magic to take some of them out and keep them from getting too close. Fluttershy… you, Pinkie, and Applejack can use your strobes to keep our sides clear. Can you handle that?” Twilight asked in a sympathetic tone while looking to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy gulped nervously as she realized that she would play a big part in keeping herself and her friends alive. She felt her knees wobbling as she thought about being rushed by a pack of darklings. She thought she was going to drop her strobe from how much she was shaking, until she felt a hoof being gently placed on her side. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. We’ll have your back.” Applejack said in a sincere tone while glancing to Pinkie. “Right, it’ll be easy as pie.” The pink mare added with a confident nod and a lighthearted giggle. “O-ok… I think I can do this.” Fluttershy said while swallowing her fear and putting on a brave expression. The others were pleased to see the timid pegasus with such confidence, even if it might have been fake. With a silent nod, Twilight and her friends exited the alley and started crossing the street. Once they made it a short distance, they looked around and saw numerous darklings in the distance to either side. The knowledge that they were surrounded by dangerous creatures made the six mares sweat nervously. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Twilight lit up her horn and charged up a magical blast. She shot at one of the darklings ahead, aiming square for its mid-section. Before the creature could even turn to face the approaching ponies, the bolt of light pierced its form and exploded it into black smoke as it careened to the ground. Now that their presence was known, all of the darklings in the immediate area growled and turned to face the group of ponies. Taking this as a sign to jump into action, the others readied their weapons and started firing at the horde in front of them. While the two unicorns picked off stragglers with their magic, Pinkie Pie and Applejack rapidly fired their strobes at as many of the beasts as they could. Fluttershy joined her friends in firing, but her nerves prevented her from having as much speed and precision as them. “Heads up!” Rainbow Dash yelled while leaping forward and kicking at a darkling that was pouncing for Twilight. The creature yelped in surprise and annoyance while sailing backwards and hitting the ground. Before it could get back up to retaliate, a purple bolt of energy slammed into the darkling and destroyed it. “Good work, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight said in passing thanks before returning her attention to the battle. The cyan pegasus barely had time to smirk confidently before she had to return her focus around her as well. As the group ran forward and raced to clear the area ahead, the darkling numbers were steadily decreasing around the front of the castle. However, with all of the noise being made, the ponies were attracting unwanted attention from the sides. “Uh oh… we got incoming!” Applejack exclaimed while turning to the side. A sizable amount of the shadowy creatures were coming in from either side in packs of one or two at a time. While Twilight and Rarity continued finishing off the monsters at the front, the orange mare and her two companions were forced to direct their attention to their sides and rear. “Keep shooting, girls! We’re almost there!” Twilight stated in an urgent tone while dispatching the last of the darklings in the front and turning around to help her friends. “I’m shooting as fast as I can!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed in a concerned tone. Sure enough, the sound of strobes being fired and flashes of light filled the air from all sides. The constant magical discharges were almost enough to drown out the sound of the hungry beasts closing in on all sides, but not quite. “There’s too many of them!” Rainbow Dash said while rushing to kick back a few of the beasts that were too close for comfort. Her friends were trying their best to take care of the darklings she was kicking away while also trying to deal with the rest that were further back. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the group reached the door. Twilight used her magic to grab the door frantically, but when she tried to open it, she was met with sturdy resistance that made her heart sink. “Uh, Twilight… could you do us all a favor and get that door open!” Applejack stated frantically. “I can’t! It’s stuck!” Twilight reported in an urgent tone. Her words were like a punch in the gut to everyone who heard them. “What?!” Everyone exclaimed in fearful shock. “How is it stuck?! Did they lock the door or something?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a frantic tone. “No, I don’t think so. I think there is a magical seal on it that the guards use to keep it closed in times of crisis. The hooded ponies must have activated it.” Twilight explained nervously. “Well that’s just perfect! Can you get it open?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hopeful tone. “Uh… uh… I don’t know!” Twilight said in a distressed tone. The pressure of the situation was starting to make the purple mare panic. “Twilight… Ah hate to be the bearer of bad news and all, but we are going to die if you don’t get that door open!” Applejack said in an urgent tone while directing her attention to the darklings ahead. Although the three mares wielding strobes were able to keep most of them at bay, their numbers were increasing as more darklings arrived from other areas. “Ok… umm… uh… I might be able to get it open. How much time do I have?” Twilight asked in a hesitant tone. “Do you want me to answer that, or do you want someone else to answer?” Applejack asked in an uncertain tone. The purple mare gulped nervously as she caught on to the earth pony’s meaning. The last thing she probably wanted to hear right now was the truth. “Just get that door open Twilight... we’ll buy you as much time as we can.” Rainbow Dash said in a confident tone while turning to the others. “Right.” Pinkie Pie and Applejack stated in unison while stepping away from the others and forming a small perimeter a short distance away. Fluttershy hesitantly followed the two mares and walked over to the right side to follow their example. While the timid pegasus watched the right side, Pinkie watched the front, and Applejack watched the left side. Rainbow Dash walked over to her three companions and hovered near them, ready to do whatever she could to help keep the beasts away. “Please hurry Twilight…” Rarity said in an uneasy tone before rushing away to join the others. Twilight took a brief moment to look at her friends as they worked together to defend the area. She nodded silently with a more determined expression before lighting up her horn and starting her work on the door. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity were all fighting to keep the monsters charging them at bay. Rarity and Rainbow Dash rushed from side to side, helping whoever needed it most at the time while the others used their strobes to protect their small perimeter. Applejack sweated nervously as she whipped her strobe around at lightning fast speed to dispatch darkling after darkling. It seemed like every time she blasted one of the creatures to smoke as it got within pouncing distance of her, another one would just take its place and get even closer. Even with the combined efforts of her and her friends, the orange mare was slowly losing ground. “They just keep coming!” Applejack yelled in a frantic tone. “Watch your left!” Rarity exclaimed in a panicked tone while firing an energy blast at a darkling that was lunging at the farm pony. The sight of the creature erupting into smoke and blowing into her face with the force of a small gust surprised the orange mare. “Sweet molasses, thanks Rarity.” Applejack said in a shocked tone. “Don’t thank me yet, just keep shooting cowgirl! Shoot like your life depends on it!” Rarity stated in a serious tone. “Thanks for the reminder!” Applejack replied nervously while trying to increase her speed in any way possible. Her nerves were such a bundled mess that she was amazed that she could still feel her hooves, let alone push a button in rapid succession and aim at each incoming threat. “Uh… uh… ah…!” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully while pushing through her nerves to keep firing at the terrifying beasts assaulting her. Thankfully there weren’t as many darklings coming from her side, so she was able to help Pinkie Pie with her area from time to time, but she was still about to have a panic attack from how many of the beasts were coming her way. “Twilight, we could use some words of encouragement over here! Preferably something along the lines of I’m almost done!” Rainbow Dash stated anxiously while kicking a pair of darklings to the side. “I’m almost done!” Twilight reported in a nervous tone. She was so wrapped up in unlocking the door that she probably didn’t even realize the comical appeal of her statement. “AHH!” Fluttershy let out a sudden cry of terror. Everyone turned their heads to see the pegasus on the ground with a darkling on top of her. The sight of a few more darklings coming towards the pinned mare made everyone’s heart sink. Their hearts sunk even further when they saw a spray of blood pour out of the darkling’s mouth as it bit into her wing, eliciting a scream of pain from the yellow pony. “Fluttershy!” Everyone yelled in a fearful panic with their eyes wide with terror. Rarity quickly rushed forward and charged up her horn. With every fiber of her being screaming at her to take action, she fired a magical bolt at the beast on top of the pegasus. The darkling yelped while flying backwards off the yellow mare. As the first darkling shifted into smoke, the other darklings turned their sights to the wounded pony like a pack of sharks. Fluttershy crawled backwards while crying fearfully and staring ahead. Her wing sent stabbing pains throughout her side, making her already shocked nerves even more stressed. She tried to reach for her strobe, but the vial had been knocked away when she was tackled to the ground. “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while jumping in front of the injured mare and facing the two darklings. With a swift jump into the air, the pegasus kicked the first creature square in the jaw and sent it flying. Before the other beast could react, she landed and used her front legs to push herself back into a rear kick. With both darklings on the right side sent careening backwards, Pinkie Pie and Applejack stepped back and combined their efforts into defending their friend. While the two mares continued firing at the approaching packs, Rarity rushed forward and grabbed Fluttershy. The unicorn dragged the pegasus back away from any further danger while simultaneously examining her wing. The mere sight of the injury made her cringe from sympathy and disgust. There was a set of well-defined bite marks across the middle of Fluttershy’s wing. The feathers around the injury were stained red as blood poured out of the newly created holes. Rarity realized that the darkling’s teeth punctured clean through the thin layer of flesh that comprised the yellow mare’s wing, leaving an injury that looked equal parts gruesome and agonizing. “Aghh!” Fluttershy yelled while rocking her head back and clutching the side where the injured wing was. She had tears streaming down her face and a pained expression firmly cemented in place from the suffering she was enduring. “Oh my word…” Rarity gasped in shock while briefly averting her eyes. Her aversion to the bloody injury slowly vanished as she realized that her friend desperately needed someone by her side. “Is she ok?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a panicked tone while rushing over to the two. “I don’t know… I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even know anything about wings, but that doesn’t look good.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “Here, let me see.” Rainbow Dash said in a sympathetic tone while kneeling down and offering the injured mare a frown of concern. Considering she had more experience with the physiology of wings given her own race, the pegasus figured that she would have a better idea of what Fluttershy was going through. She gently leaned over and looked at the yellow mare’s wing without touching it. Once she saw the full extent of the injury, the cyan mare recoiled in shock and gasped. “Oh… oh my gosh.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a shocked expression of horror. She cringed with empathy as she imagined what an injury like that would feel like on her own wing. “Guh… nng… how bad is it?” Fluttershy asked in between painful yelps and squeaks. The yellow mare had a terrified expression on her face, which was justifiable given the severity of her injury. In the best case scenario, she might never fly again, and in the worst case scenario she might bleed to death. “You’re going to be fine Fluttershy. We’ll get you fixed up soon enough.” Rainbow Dash said in a reassuring tone. She hoped she could offer her friend at least some comfort. “I hate to break it to you guys, but none of us are going to be fine in a minute!” Pinkie Pie stated in an urgent tone. Everyone looked ahead to see that the darklings were gaining a lot more ground now that there were less people to deal with them. “Got it!” Twilight exclaimed triumphantly before pulling one of the doors open with her magic. “Girls, get inside!” She yelled urgently while rapidly motioning for the five mares to get inside. Applejack and Pinkie Pie covered the others as they hurried towards the door. Rainbow Dash and Rarity helped Fluttershy to walk faster as she coped with her injury. After a tense few moments of trying to beat the approaching horde and escape into the safety of the castle, Pinkie and Applejack backed into the doorway and Twilight rushed in and closed the doors tightly. A loud bang sounded out as the darklings rammed into the door. Although the sound was startling when combined with the muffled sounds of their barks and roars, the beasts outside showed no signs of being able to get in. The six mares silently hoped that these darklings didn’t suddenly realize that as shadow creatures they could probably walk through walls, but thankfully the beasts seemed blissfully ignorant of this fact. Twilight and the others breathed a sigh of relief while stepping away from the door. They felt safe for the first time in the last few minutes, even though their safety was relative given the fact that the hooded ponies could be anywhere. “That was close…” Twilight said in an amazed tone. “Yeah, a little too close for my liking.” Rainbow Dash said with a brief chuckle. “Girls…” Pinkie Pie said in a stunned tone. Everyone turned to see the pink mare staring ahead with a pale look on her face. As they followed her gaze to see the room ahead, they were stunned into silence at what they saw. There was a pool of blood spreading out from the lifeless body of a royal guard on the floor. The stallion had his armor broken and his throat sliced clean through. There were also scorch marks and cracks everywhere, seemingly the aftermath of some intense battle. Further ahead, there was another dead stallion with his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. The sight of the two guards made the six mares’ stomachs churn, but perhaps the most alarming sight before them was the sight of a human slumped against the far wall with a pool of blood under him. “Tom!” Twilight and the others exclaimed fearfully while rushing forward. Even Fluttershy pushed through the pain from her injury to rush across the room to get to her human friend. As they got closer to the motionless human, the ponies noticed that he had three gaping and bloody holes in him. One was in his shoulder, one was in his leg, and the other was in his chest. Twilight rushed up to him and grabbed his hand to feel for a pulse, only to find nothing. He felt cold to the touch and had a pale lifeless look to him. “Tom! Wake up!” Twilight pleaded while shaking the boy gently. The unicorn’s efforts offered no response from the human, but they also made the watching ponies’ hearts sink. “Is he breathing?!” Rarity asked in a fearful panic. “I don’t think so… did he even need to breathe?!” Twilight asked in a panicked tone. She hoped that somehow slayer physiology would allow the human to recover, but she wasn’t even sure if she believed her hope. “Why aren’t his wounds healing? I didn’t think anything could hurt him this bad.” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone. The ponies could only stare with panic filled eyes as their purple friend tried to resuscitate the human. “Tom... Tom!” Twilight yelled in a fearful tone. “Don’t do this to me! You wake up right now and heal so we can go fight Raven Feather!” She said while slapping Tom’s face hard enough to wake him without causing too much pain if he actually stirred. Much to her horror, the human’s body settled in place like a limp puppet in her grasp. “Tom…? Please wake up…” Twilight choked slightly as tears welled up in her eyes. She finally let go of the human and sat back to process the wave of emotions filling her. “Twilight… Ah don’t think he’s waking up from this.” Applejack said in a somber tone while wiping her own tears away. Everyone lowered their heads mournfully while either holding back their tears or letting go and crying sadly. They hadn’t known the human for little more than a week, but they still felt like they lost a dear friend. Several minutes went by as everyone let out their emotions. The thought that they had to find the princess and save her from the hooded ponies was prominent in their minds, but they had to vent for a few moments before they could collect themselves. “We… *hic* we can’t let them get away with this.” Pinkie said while wiping her face and taking a few breaths. “Yeah… I’m going to personally kick their tails for doing this to him.” Rainbow Dash said in an upset tone while sniffling slightly. “If we’re going to find the princess and stop these guys, we need to get going.” Twilight said in a somber tone. She wiped a few tears from her face before getting up and turning away from the human. “Where do we even start? Those creeps could be anywhere.” Rainbow Dash asked with a frustrated groan as she envisioned how many places they could be hiding. “They couldn’t have gotten far. If they were going to just kill the princess and run, they would have bolted already. They must be trying to set up the ritual for the eternal night.” Twilight said while thinking about what the hooded ponies could be doing. “That sounds bad… we better go find them before they even get a chance to see if this thing works.” Applejack suggested in an urgent tone. Everyone nodded in agreement before getting up to leave. “Gah… oww.” Fluttershy cried painfully while clutching her wing. The yellow mare’s outbursts made the others turn to her with concerned expressions of empathy. “Oh Fluttershy…” Twilight muttered in a sad tone while gently placing her hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder. She had been so caught up with Tom and going after the hooded ponies that she almost forgot about the suffering her friend was going through. “I-I’m ok… I think.” Fluttershy said while looking down to her wing with a glint of fear in her eyes. Despite her attempt at a confident façade, she was shaking like a leaf. “Twilight, isn’t there something you can do for her? Some kind of healing spell or something?” Rainbow Dash asked in a desperate tone. Twilight looked to her immense knowledge of magic to see if she had something in her repertoire that could help the suffering mare. “I know healing spells, but most of them require multiple unicorns and a lot of time.” Twilight said in a disheartened tone. “I can’t repair a wound this severe, but I might be able to stop the bleeding and ease some of her pain.” She added in a more optimistic manner. “I think she’ll take whatever she can get at this point Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said while listening to the yellow pegasus whining in agony with a somber expression. Twilight took in a deep breath before walking up to the injured pony. The others cleared some space and watched the unicorn intently as she knelt down and prepared to use her magic on Fluttershy’s injury. “Fluttershy… I need to see your wing. I know it hurts, but it should feel better when I’m done.” Twilight explained in a sympathetic tone. “O-ok… I think I can do that.” Fluttershy said while moving slightly to get into a comfortable position. She cringed hesitantly before slowly unfolding her wing. She yelped as shooting pains forced her to stop for a moment, but she was able to push through the pain and finish stretching the tender appendage. The mere sight of the distressed pegasus was enough to fill the others with a sad feeling of sympathy. As the yellow mare’s wing was unfolded completely, the scope of her injury was made even more apparent. The fragile tissue with holes punched into it almost reminded the group of paper that had been perforated, only there was a lot more blood in this case. Twilight lit up her horn and concentrated for a moment. Once she recalled the instructions to the spells needed, she gently pressed her horn against Fluttershy’s wing. The yellow mare felt an odd tingle among the stabbing pains coming from her injury. Soon enough, the blood spurting from the grisly wound ceased. After a few more moments, Twilight let her horn dim and backed away to see the fruits of her labor. “How does it feel?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone. The yellow mare cringed painfully as she folded her wing back up, but it seemed like she was in less pain than she was before the spell. “It still hurts… but it feels better than it did.” Fluttershy said while managing a more cheerful tone, if only slightly. “Glad to hear. That should hold you over until after we find the princess and stop Raven Feather.” Twilight stated with a genuine smile. “Thanks.” Fluttershy said in a grateful tone. Twilight and the others glanced over to Tom somberly. They resolved that they wouldn’t allow anyone else to be hurt by Raven Feather and her followers. Too many people had died because of them, and they had to be stopped. “Come on… let’s go.” Twilight said in a determined tone while walking away. Everyone quickly followed the unicorn with serious expressions as she walked up the stairs and headed further into the castle. They were all prepared to go to war with the cult of malicious ponies. The stern silence in the air only served to further cement the feeling of determination in the six mares. They marched forward like a troop of soldiers getting ready for a critical mission. For good or for bad, they were going to finish things once and for all. Although they didn’t expect to find the hooded ponies setting up shop in some small space, the group checked all of the rooms they passed to be safe. Between the two remaining strobes they had, and their combined prowess and combat experience, they hoped they could get the jump on Raven Feather and her followers. “I don’t see them… or any guards for that matter.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone while peering into a room and shaking her head. “I’d like to think that they all retreated.” Twilight said anxiously. “What do you actually think?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously. “I’m not sure I want to think of that.” Twilight replied in a dreadful tone. “Well, the fact still stands that we are running blind here.” Rarity said with a disheartened shrug. The sheer scope of the palace would be impressive on any normal day, but today they were looking for a needle in a haystack. “Hmm…” Twilight muttered to herself in thought. “They might be in the throne room.” She suggested in a hopeful tone. “Educated guess, or…?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Elementary my dear Rainbow. If I was a revenge bent mare of questionable mental stability and morals that wanted to evoke an ancient catastrophe and spite the princess at the same time, I would probably choose the throne room as my go to location.” Twilight explained with a surprisingly unwavering delivery. “Boy am I glad you aren’t an evil genius.” Rainbow Dash said with an impressed tone. “I prefer the term intrepid intellectual thank you very much.” Twilight replied with a wry smirk. After several minutes of redundant searches through rooms and walking through corridors, the group noticed a door at the far end of the hall. Twilight smiled cheerfully as she recognized the area around her. The room on the other side of the door ahead of her led into the throne room, and hopefully to the princess. “Keep on your guard guys. The throne room is just up ahead.” Twilight stated while turning to her friends with a more serious expression. “Umm… Twilight?” Fluttershy asked apprehensively. The yellow mare had a nervous expression. Apparently being so close to a possible confrontation with the hooded ponies was making the pegasus uneasy, and she wasn’t the only one. “What is it Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. “Do we have a plan to fight these guys? We don’t exactly have that much to work with here… we have even less than before since I dropped my strobe outside.” Fluttershy explained while looking down with a regretful frown. Twilight looked around at her friends and frowned with concern. They were incredibly unprepared to deal with a threat as big as Raven Feather and her bunch of psychopaths. If the hooded ponies had beaten Tom and possibly even the princess, then what hope did they have of succeeding? Still, she had to do something to stop them, but if she was going to do that, she needed a plan to prevent any of her friends from getting hurt. “I think I know a spell that can render people unconscious, but it takes a few moments to cast and I need to be up close to do it. Let’s just focus on staying alive for the moment.” Twilight said with a concerned expression. “Even with just two strobes, we should be able to handle Dust Kicker and Raincloud’s minions. All that’s left after that would be to deal with their shadow magic.” Rarity stated while gulping uneasily. “Just don’t be afraid to run away if you need to. I don’t want any of you getting hurt today, understand?” Twilight asked in a serious tone. Almost everyone nodded with confidence. “Ow…” Fluttershy muttered while looking down to her wing nervously. Even with the bleeding stopped and the pain reduced, it still presented her with limited mobility due to how much it still hurt. “Here Fluttershy, why don’t you take this?” Applejack asked while handing over her strobe to the yellow mare. “What? But… don’t you need this?” Fluttershy asked in a hesitant tone while eyeing the small vial. “Ah can manage without it. Besides, you should probably hang back and keep from hurting your wing any more.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while putting the strobe in the pegasus’s hoof. Fluttershy couldn’t help but to feel bad for having her friends handicap themselves to help her. “Thank you... Just be careful for me, ok?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. If I have anything to say about it, we won’t even need to fight them for very long.” Rainbow Dash said with a confident chuckle. The group couldn’t help but to feel more confident as they looked around at their friends. Each was determined to protect everyone else at any cost, as well as to save Equestria from Raven Feather’s twisted plot. “Alright girls… let’s go save the princess.” Twilight said in a determined tone. Everyone nodded as the purple mare walked up to the door and grabbed the handle. Chapter 95: Holding FastTwilight and the others swiftly opened the door and stepped inside. They made it a few steps into the room before freezing nervously and staring ahead with wide eyes. The room itself was more of an in between room than anything else. It was slightly wider than it was long, and aside from a large red throw rug, there were only a few pedestals adorned with vases along the walls to fill the floor space. The room in front of them wasn’t why the six mares were frozen in place however. Standing at the far side of the room in front of the next door, there was a pair of familiar looking pegasi in gray hoodies. The unmistakable pale blue mare and brown stallion were most definitely Raincloud and Dust Kicker. They appeared to have been guarding the door behind them, which most likely led to the throne room. “Ah, it’s about time you showed up.” Raincloud raised her voice to carry across the room while walking forward slightly. It seemed like the pair were expecting the six mares to show up. “Where is Princess Celestia?!” Twilight swallowed her fear and demanded for the two siblings to explain what they had done with the alicorn. “She’s in the throne room with Raven Feather. Don’t get your horn all bent out of shape, she is fine… relatively speaking.” Dust Kicker replied in a cynical tone. “Which one of you did that to Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked while glaring at the two ponies from across the room. Just thinking about her human friend getting struck down by the hooded ponies filled her with rage. “Hey, in our defense, that was all Raven Feather. I offered to step in, but she wanted to take him for herself.” Raincloud said with a wry smirk. “Grr…” Rainbow Dash growled angrily under her breath. It took Twilight putting a hoof on her shoulder and offering her a serious expression to get her to return to a more cool headed stance. “I’m going to say this once and only once… get out of our way, or we will be forced to fight you.” Twilight stated in a stern tone. Everyone else stepped forward to be in line with the purple unicorn with serious expressions on their faces. “Is… is that an ultimatum or something?” Raincloud asked while holding back a snicker. Finally she gave up on keeping a serious expression and busted out laughing. “We have you outnumbered. Just step aside and this can all be over quickly.” Twilight said in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. “Hehheh… outnumbered? Have you already forgotten who we are?” Raincloud asked while glancing to her brother suggestively. Dust Kicker smirked before channeling shadow energy to his hoof and stamping it on the floor. Three lines of pulsating shadows flowed into the floor and travelled in front of the brown stallion. Before long, three darklings rose out of the floor and stood in front of their master protectively. On cue to match her brother summoning his minions, Raincloud directed her thoughts to her shadow and ordered it to make itself known. With an echoic howl, the specter flew out of the pegasus’s actual shadow and hovered menacingly in front of her. Twilight and the others flinched uneasily as they stared at the four creatures. Raincloud’s shadow was powerful enough to keep up with Tom in combat, and Dust Kicker was capable of summoning even more darklings or possibly other horrific shadow creatures. How could they stand a chance against such monstrosities? “Of course… they couldn’t just fight us on their own could they? That wouldn’t be cowardly enough.” Rainbow Dash stated in a scornful tone. Raincloud glared at the cyan pegasus with an annoyed expression as she overheard her comment. “How do you want to handle this Rain?” Dust Kicker asked curiously while turning to his sibling. “Do whatever you want to the others, but Twilight and that featherhead are mine.” Raincloud stated while motioning towards Rainbow Dash with a sinister gleam in her eyes. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Twilight and her friends were still staring down the two ponies and their monstrous allies with wary expressions. The purple mare glanced to the others uneasily as she started to think about what battle strategy they had. Fluttershy was injured, with her wing damaged beyond the hope of functioning. Even if she weren’t wounded, her skills were decidedly lacking and her timid disposition held her back from fighting. Still, with her strobe she could probably assist with taking out any shadow creatures Dust Kicker might summon. Pinkie Pie held the only other strobe in the group’s possession. She had more than proven her worth with the tiny vial as far as Twilight was concerned, but even with her manic energy, she was just one mare. Still, was she ready to fight a pair of fierce adversaries that were more than capable of killing her? The six mares had two strobes to use, and a possibly limitless amount of shadow creatures that needed to be kept at bay, a fact that was more than troubling to the purple unicorn. One look at the brown stallion standing across the room was enough to tell that he was ready to send his minions to fight once things got started. Any one of the fierce creatures at his disposal could end Twilight and all of her friends without a second thought. Would two strobes be enough? If only Fluttershy hadn’t been injured, then they would at least have three strobes to work with. Rarity was a fellow unicorn. Even without a vast knowledge of spells, she could hold her own against a few creatures and possibly even assist some of the others if they got into trouble. Even if it was a life or death situation, would she be strong enough to fight? Applejack and Rainbow Dash had little more than their natural born attributes and skills to assist them. The orange mare had fought off a few darklings before with her powerful kicks and strong will, and the cyan pegasus was one of the best flyers in Ponyville. Both mares were ready and willing to do anything it would take to protect their friends, but were they enough? “Twilight, what’s our play?” Rainbow Dash asked in a serious tone while staring ahead with a focused expression. She was watching the two ponies on the other side of the room with unwavering intensity, waiting for them or one of their minions to make a move. Twilight felt a cold chill firmly cementing itself into her core as she looked at her friends. They were about to fight two of the most powerful adversaries Equestria had ever seen by themselves. There was nobody to help them or bail them out at the last minute. Princess Luna was gone, Tom was gone, and both Princess Celestia and the remaining members of team spirit were indisposed. Were they ready? The same words floated around her head as she stared forward with a blank expression of morbidity. What if someone died? Twilight felt a dreadful knot developing in her stomach as she calculated the possibility of failure. Before, she had only been looking forward to their future victory. They were going to fight the hooded ponies, stop Raven Feather, and save the day. But now the grim realization was setting in that they were going to fight the hooded ponies, they had to try to stop Raven Feather, and if they didn’t, all of Equestria was doomed. She felt her knees shaking as she stared at her friends with her confidence rapidly vanishing. She had single handedly led them to this point, and they had followed her without doubt, as if they knew she had a plan. But the harsh reality was finally getting to the purple mare, she didn’t have a plan. If someone got hurt, which was a likelihood that was getting more likely by the minute, then it would be her fault for bringing them here. “Twilight!” The sound of a yell brought the unicorn to her senses again. She looked ahead to see her friends staring at her with concerned expressions. “W-what?” Twilight stammered in a confused stupor while shaking her head and redirecting her attention forward. “Don’t lock up on us now. We’ve got your back, but we need someone to tell us our strategy… and you are the smartest one in this room.” Rainbow Dash said with a playful smirk. “Yeah! I want to know which one of them to beat up first!” Pinkie Pie chimed in with an eager expression while tossing her strobe in the air and catching it in an almost impatient fashion. They aren’t afraid? Twilight thought to herself in confusion while looking around at her friends. While it was true that they were nervous and perhaps even frightened by the impending battle, the five mares almost seemed to be happy as they waited for her to guide them into the fray. They seem… confident. Are they confident in each other, or me? The purple mare looked down for a moment to think. Perhaps she was over thinking matters and making them bleaker than they actually were. If she came up with a plan, then maybe they would stand a chance. Filled with more confidence, Twilight adopted a serious expression and cleared her head again for planning, only this time she focused on being objective in her evaluations of her friends’ strengths and weaknesses. Two strobes were enough to handle the darklings, she was sure of it. She had seen only a handful of strobes used to combat entire hordes of fiercer shadow creatures before. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy could handle the darklings by themselves, and they still had Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity to pick up the slack if needed. Dust Kicker himself would be troublesome to deal with if he stopped relying on his shadow creatures. He knew how to manipulate shadow magic, which was a fierce power that was not to be reckoned with. Assuming he didn’t know as much as Raincloud, he could most likely be managed if the five mares worked together. Twilight could cast the spell to knock him out once she had dealt with Raincloud, and she was certain that she would have to deal with Raincloud. The pale pegasus had a fiercesome vendetta against her, whether or not it was warranted was a question for another day. Raincloud and her shadow were going to be the bulk of the fight without a doubt. Perhaps Twilight could deal with the shadow while its master waited on the sidelines, or maybe she could survive a few seconds against both of them at once. Either way, she didn’t want any of her friends to fight the pale mare and the ghostly specter. She had already watched Spike nearly die from the shadow and his abilities, she wasn’t about to let another friend suffer through that. “Ok girls, listen up. I want all of you to keep Dust Kicker and whatever he throws your way occupied. I’ll see if I can take care of Raincloud and her shadow.” Twilight instructed in a confident tone. “Are you seriously trying to convince me to let you handle her on your own? From what you said about the last time you met her, she almost killed you.” Rainbow Dash stated in an uneasy tone. “Yeah, she did… which is why I know that I don’t want you guys fighting her!” Twilight said in an adamant tone. The cyan mare was obviously not giving in to her demands, but they had other problems to deal with. “I’m done waiting. Shadow, kill Twilight Sparkle!” Raincloud instructed while pointing at the purple mare. Twilight and the others looked ahead with surprised expressions as the battle started without them. The shadow let out a sinister chuckle before flying forward. It sailed through the air at breakneck speeds and charged for the purple unicorn with its claws at the ready. The sight of the ghostly specter charging straight at her was more than enough to give Twilight a jolt to the system. “Ah!” Twilight yelped in surprise before lighting up her horn. Before the shadow could reach her, she teleported off to the side and turned to face her attacker. The shadow growled in frustration before veering off to chase after the unicorn. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she felt the shadow whipping past her to get at her friend. The purple mare seemed to be leading the creature away from the others to keep them safe. Although she was dodging every attack sent her way for the moment, everyone was fearful that the unicorn’s luck would run out quickly. “It’s not her you should be worrying about!” Raincloud exclaimed angrily, her voice much closer than Rainbow Dash anticipated. The cyan mare looked ahead to see the pale pegasus flying towards her with her front hoof aflame with shadow energy. “Yikes!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while spreading her wings and leaping out of the way. She barely cleared the pale mare’s trajectory as she sliced her arm downwards like a sword. The pulsating blackness on Raincloud’s hoof sent a cold chill down Rainbow’s side as it barely missed its target. “Grr… Get back here!” Raincloud yelled in an irritated tone while jumping off the floor to get a head start at chasing after the fleeing pegasus. Rainbow Dash flew into the air and darted around the room to get away from the pale pony. “Girls!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed nervously as she watched her two friends fleeing for their lives. Twilight was doing her best to dodge the shadow by running from it, while Rainbow Dash was just trying to out maneuver Raincloud. Pinkie and Fluttershy readied their strobes and pointed at the shadow chasing Twilight. There wasn’t much they could do to assist Rainbow Dash, but at least they could do something to help the purple unicorn. “I guess that’s my cue… go get em’ boys!” Dust Kicker stated while pointing toward the four mares. The darklings briefly looked at their master before snarling and rushing forward towards their prey. “Oh no… looks like we’ve got company girls!” Applejack said in an urgent tone while glancing behind her at her friends. Rarity charged up her horn and stood by Applejack in preparation to keep the creatures away from Pinkie and Fluttershy. Meanwhile, the pink earth pony and timid pegasus were standing behind their two friends and aiming their strobes at the approaching creatures. “Fire!” Pinkie yelled in a determined tone while pressing the button on her strobe. The tip of the vial exploded into a burst of colorful light as a bolt of energy flew out. Fluttershy quickly followed suit and opened fire on the three darklings. The creatures ducked to the side in an attempt at dodging the incoming bolts of energy, but they were no match for the two mares’ quick firing and steady aim. As the three darklings exploded into clouds of black smoke while the bolts of light flew through them, Pinkie and Fluttershy cheered in triumph. “Good job girls!” Applejack cheered with an excited smile while watching the two mares celebrating their victory. Meanwhile, while the four ponies were cheering eagerly and smiling like they had just won the lottery, Dust Kicker was getting more annoyed by the minute. He glared at the group for a moment with an irritated expression before shrugging and raising his leg into the air again. An aura of shadows enveloped his hoof, creating a disquieting noise that just barely carried to the stallion’s ears through all of the commotion in the room. With a devilish smirk, Dust Kicker stamped his hoof down again and projected the shadow out into the floor. The four mares suddenly noticed the thin wisps of shadowy energy flowing across the floor and stopped their premature celebration. The shadow split off into three lines and gathered in three spots a short distance away from the brown stallion. Before long, the three blobs on the ground started rising into the air and taking shape again. “Oh… I kind of forgot he could do that for a minute there.” Pinkie said with a nervous chuckle while glancing to her friends uneasily. As the shadow creatures took shape, the four mares prepared themselves for battle once more. However, something about these creatures was different. The blobs were forming into darklings; that much was apparent from the shape they were taking, but something was off about them. There were bright purple stripes all across their bodies that glowed and shimmered separately from the rest of their skin. Along with the strange markings on their body, the darklings had piercing eyes that were aglow with the same bright shade of purple. “Oh no…” Fluttershy paled as she recognized the creatures currently stalking towards her and her friends. The yellow mare’s terrified expression was more than a little unsettling to the others. They wondered if she knew something they didn’t. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “I’ve seen those darklings before. He used some of them to attack us out in the woods, and they were able to survive Tom using his light on them.” Fluttershy explained in a fearful tone while shivering slightly. “I remember that… oh wait, that’s bad isn’t it?” Pinkie Pie asked in an uneasy tone as she thought back to the difficulty the human had with dispatching the enhanced darklings. “But if they were able to do that… then our strobes might as well be useless.” Applejack said nervously as she slowly realized how much danger they were in. “Only one way to find out.” Pinkie stated with a determined tone while readying her strobe. She fired a shot at the darkling in the middle of the pack. The bolt of light sailed across the room in a flash. As it crashed into the darkling, the shot exploded into a shower of colored sparks. The beast flinched from having something explode in its face, but aside from a small area of its skin smoking, the blast didn’t have any other effect. Although, saying it had no other effect wasn’t entirely accurate. The small explosion was enough to anger the darkling to no end, which it expressed by growling deeply at the four mares. “Ok… this is bad!” Pinkie exclaimed in a panic as she realized that the only weapon she and her friends had was effectively useless. While the four ponies were backing away slightly to distance themselves, the three darklings were steadily growing tired of waiting for their prey. The three beasts let out a series of growls before barking like mad dogs and bounding forward after the mares. Unsure of what to do, Applejack and Rarity stood in front of their two friends in an attempt at keeping them safe. Their bravery practically melted once the three creatures got closer. “AH!” Applejack exclaimed fearfully while jumping out of the way of one of the attacking creatures. Rarity and the others were forced to run as two of the darklings chased after them, while the other one focused its efforts on the orange mare. The darkling growled and snarled as it crept forward at an agonizingly slow pace. Applejack backed up defensively in an attempt at getting distance from the beast. She suddenly found that a wall was blocking her path backwards, forcing her to stand her ground. “Now hold on a minute little fella. Ah know Ah must look mighty tasty, but we can find a way to work this out without anyone getting hurt.” Applejack suggested with an awkwardly nervous smile. The darkling remained unmoved by her attempt at diplomacy, instead opting to rear up for a leap at the defenseless pony. As the creature jumped forward teeth blazing, Applejack felt her heart skyrocket. She leapt to the side as fast as she could, hoping that she would be fast enough to evade her pursuer. The darkling snapped at the fleeing mare’s tail as it continued forward. The beast kept its attention to the side with an annoyed expression as it watched its prey dodge its attack. Unfortunately for the shadowy monster, it was still in midair as it diverted its attention away. A loud thud followed by a crash sounded out as the impact of the darkling slamming into the wall knocked a decorative vase from its pillar. The vase fell on the beast’s already bruised head and shattered, causing it to yelp in pain before settling to the floor. “Ah guess that extra strength was compensating for something.” Applejack said with a slight smirk as she watched the dazed monster with an amused expression of triumph. Her small victory would be short lived however as the darkling shook its head forcefully and started to get up. “Come on buddy, Ah’m right here.” Applejack taunted the creature with a slightly more confident tone. If she could dodge it once, she could hopefully dodge it more times. And if she could keep at least one of the creatures busy, she could help her friends to manage their numbers. “AH!” Fluttershy screamed from the back of the room, drawing the orange mare’s attention away. “*Gasp* Fluttershy!” Applejack yelled in terror as she saw what had caused the yellow pegasus’s outburst. Pinkie and Rarity were dealing with one of the darklings, but the other one was lying on top of Fluttershy, pinning her to the floor. Fluttershy was pushing the terrifying creature away from her as hard as she could, but her arms were shaking from the strain being put on them. “Hold on Fluttershy! Ah’m co- Oof!” Applejack started to rush to her friend’s aid, but she was suddenly tackled from the side by the darkling she had previously incapacitated. The blow knocked her off her feet and sent her rolling, but luckily the beast didn’t land on top of her. As she got to her feet and looked ahead, she noticed that the darkling was standing between her and the others. “Oh no…” Applejack muttered in horror as she looked over to the struggle taking place on the other side of the room. As the darkling near her reared up and prepared to charge, she realized that she would be forced to flee from it instead of helping her friends. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was steadily losing her battle with the darkling on top of her. Her arm muscles were burning intensely, and the snapping jaws of the shadow creature were getting closer to her body. “Guh… h-help!” Fluttershy whined fearfully while straining to keep herself alive. Her eyes were tearing up, and her wing injury’s constant throbbing wasn’t helping the situation. “Fluttershy!” Rarity and Pinkie exclaimed in unison. They looked at each other briefly before turning their attention to the third darkling eyeing them up nearby. If they tried to help the pegasus without dealing with the creature, then it could very well maul them all. “Uh… uh…” Rarity stammered in a panic as she thought of something to do. “Go help her! I’ll deal with this one!” She instructed to the pink mare nearby. “Got it!” Pinkie stated before urgently rushing over to Fluttershy to help get the darkling off of her. Finally Rarity was left alone with her foe, which in this case, was a bloodthirsty beast with a body strong enough to withstand blasts from strobes. She could feel her legs wobbling from staring into the darkling’s sinister glowing eyes. *Grrrrrr* The darkling let out a deep growl that only served to intimidate the white unicorn even more. It stalked forward a few steps before sinking low to the ground in preparation to charge at the hapless pony. Rarity’s mind raced a mile a minute as she watched the creature for signs that it was going to attack. Finally, the darkling let out a loud bark and dashed forward. Rarity squealed fearfully while lighting up her horn and frantically racing to use her magic to save herself. Despite her clumsy attempts, she managed to wrap her magic around the charging beast and picked it up. Meanwhile, Pinkie and Fluttershy were fighting their own darkling. The two mares were pushing and pulling at the creature, but it was fighting back stronger than they could manage. The darkling was still on top of the yellow pegasus, snapping its jaws and fighting to get close enough to bite into her flesh. “Hrrg… gah!” Pinkie groaned while trying to pull the monster off of her friend. Although she had to get over the initial fear of getting so close to a darkling, she managed to use all of her strength in her efforts. But despite all this, she still couldn’t get it to budge. “I can’t hold it much longer! Get it off… please!” Fluttershy pleaded desperately while turning her head sideways to distance herself from the wide jaws of the beast. “I can’t! Hrk...! It won’t… guh… move!” Pinkie stated in a frantic tone. Suddenly the darkling turned its head and snapped at the pink mare, causing her to jump back with a frightened yelp. “Ack!” Fluttershy groaned from the added weight on top of her. Her arms were just about to give out from fighting for so long. Seeing that her friend was about to get mauled, Pinkie raced to her feet and desperately tried to think of something to do. Reaching down for her strobe, she rushed in front of the two. She didn’t care if the strobe wouldn’t work, she had to do something other than sitting idly by and watching her friend die. “Get off her!” Pinkie yelled while jamming the strobe as close to the darkling’s mouth as she could. She aimed for the inside of its mouth and pushed the button on the vial as fast as she could. A flurry of blasts flew into the darkling’s mouth, exploding into a shower of sparks and light. The creature shook from the force of the impacts as black smoke started pouring out of it. Much to the surprise of the two mares, the darkling suddenly collapsed into a cloud of smoke with its final cries being drowned out by the bursting energy bolts. Fluttershy flinched her eyes shut as the cloud of smoke evaporated around her. She crawled backwards a few inches before pausing to breathe. She was practically hyperventilating from the shock and stress she was feeling. Despite her pounding heart and drained strength, she was glad to be alive. “You… you did it.” Fluttershy said in between breaths with a surprised expression. “Yeah, I guess I did.” Pinkie replied with equal surprise while looking at her strobe. Before the two could even contemplate celebrating their small victory, the distressed sounds of their friend drew their attention away. They looked over to see Rarity struggling to hold the other darkling up with her magic. “Hrk… gah…” Rarity groaned nervously while struggling to focus her magic on the squirming monster. The darkling was thrashing around so much that it was threatening to break free of her magical aura. “Hold on Rarity! We found a way to beat them!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly while rushing to the unicorn’s side. She took aim with her strobe and prepared to fire, until something stopped her. As if it were aware of her tactic, the darkling clamped its mouth shut and effectively blocked any shot the pink mare had at its insides. “Um… Pinkie darling… I don’t mean to sound needy, but if you have a way to beat them, could you please take care of this one?!” Rarity asked in an urgent tone while flinching her eyes shut and trying to focus. “I can’t get a shot if its mouth is closed!” Pinkie stated in a troubled tone. The two mares watched uneasily as the unicorn struggled to keep the creature contained. Realizing that she was coming to her limits, Rarity tried to think of something to do. Finally she decided to use the rest of her energy to charge up a magical blast. If she was going to lose control of the beast, she at least wanted to give her best shot at destroying it. Clenching her teeth to cope with the strain, the white mare channeled some energy to the tip of her horn. After a brief moment of charging her spell, she shot it at the side of the beast with a hopeful expression. The bolt of magic flew into the darkling’s side, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from the creature and causing a small amount of smoke to trail off of it. If the darkling was unruly and frantic before, it was even more so now that it was wounded. The creature thrashed and kicked its body around in every direction, all the while making as much angry noise as it could with its mouth closed. “Gah!” Rarity yelped painfully while dropping to her knees. Just before her magic gave out on her, she tossed the monster as far as she could towards the wall. The darkling crashed into the wall and bounced off slightly before hitting the floor. After a few briefly dazed moments, the creature got back to its feet and turned to face the three ponies. It growled deeply while bearing its teeth, all the while being careful to keep its mouth shut. Before Rarity and the others could contemplate fleeing or fighting, something flew through the air and knocked into the darkling. Everyone looked over to see two darklings in a crumpled heap on the floor. As they looked around with confused expressions, they discovered their orange friend recovering from a rear kick. “Woah… nice shot Applejack.” Pinkie said with an amused chuckle. “Thanks.” Applejack replied while trotting up to her friends. The four mares stood together and faced the two darklings as they slowly recovered from their impact. They were confident that they could handle the two creatures with their newfound experience. Meanwhile, while Applejack and her three companions were dealing with the darklings, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had their own set of problems. The cyan pegasus seemed to be keeping ahead of Raincloud with her superior speed and flight skills, but the purple unicorn didn’t have the advantage of wings to evade her ghostly pursuer. “Yikes!” Twilight exclaimed while ducking from a swipe of the shadow’s claws. The familiar cold sensation of a shadow creature’s skin getting close to hers was enough to motivate the unicorn to keep on her toes so to speak. After dodging a few more swipes by the skin of her teeth, she jumped back to get a little distance from her attacker. The shadow growled in an annoyed tone while glaring at the unicorn. Suddenly, its claws started glowing a bright shade of purple. A sinister laugh echoed through the air as the specter grinned slightly. Before Twilight could even react, the shadow flew into the floor and disappeared into a dark blotch. Twilight gasped nervously and looked around in a panic to find the missing specter. She turned around several times, looked beneath her, looked to the sides, but the ghostly shadow was nowhere to be found. “Huh?” Twilight muttered in surprised confusion as she heard the sound of the shadow phasing through something. Hearing soft laughter above her, she looked up and gasped in shock as she saw a glowing purple face staring at her menacingly. “AH!” Twilight screamed as she saw the shadow swiping at her with its claws. Right before the specter could make contact with her, she channeled her magic through herself and focused on another location. With a magical buzz, the unicorn teleported away a few feet and breathed heavily in shock. After taking a moment to appreciate her close call, she collected herself and turned to her foe with a determined expression. “You’re not touching me with those claws.” Twilight stated in a vexed tone while glaring at the shadow. The ghostly specter glared back at her with equal intensity as it fumed over its failed sneak attack. Deciding to take the offensive for the first time in her duel with the shadow, Twilight charged up her horn and fired a laser shot at the creature. As expected, the shadow dodged the attack with relative ease, retracting the center of its shadowy body outwards to form a circle for the bolt to pass through. Once it restored its form, the specter laughed at the purple mare’s failed attack, until it noticed more bolts of energy coming its way. Twilight concentrated as hard as she could, putting as much power behind her blasts as possible while also leaving room to fire at a constant rate. It seemed as though her barrage of magic was sending the shadow reeling, forcing it to evade every attack instead of trying to attack her. Grr… this isn’t working. Even if I hit him with one of these, it probably won’t do much other than distract him for a moment. If only I could find something to hurt this stupid shadow. Twilight thought to herself with a frustrated and anxious expression. Dodging the shadow’s attacks and keeping it busy with a few magical blasts weren’t going to win the fight for her. Wait a minute… stupid shadow? The unicorn paused for a moment as she thought of something promising. Of course… sunlight! That might actually work! But how could I do that effectively? She pondered while trying to think of an appropriate spell to accomplish her desired effect. It was hard to think while also concentrating on her assault on the shadow, but at least she had time on her side with the specter showing no signs of finding a way out of her concentrated fire. “Heads up!” The sound of Rainbow Dash yelling urgently pulled Twilight’s attention away. Before she could question what was going on, the unicorn looked to the side and noticed a cyan blur flying straight for her. “Ack!” Twilight yelped slightly while backing out of the way. Just as she jumped back, the purple mare heard a gust of wind tear past her as the cyan pegasus flew by. Rainbow Dash turned upwards and flew at a right angle to the wall to avoid hitting it, which she followed up by flying back out towards the rest of the room. “Get back here!” Raincloud exclaimed angrily while flying directly past Twilight in her pursuit of the cyan pegasus. Twilight brushed her hair out of her eyes and steadied herself from the sudden bursts of air pushing her to the side. She looked up to see the two pegasus’s flying rapidly across the room. Rainbow Dash was pulling every stop in her arsenal to keep away from the grey mare, but Raincloud was hot on her tail a short distance away. With a passing thought of concern for her friend, Twilight quickly shifted her attention back to her own adversary. She widened her eyes in stunned shock as she saw no signs of the shadow in front of her. No signs that is, except for a fading dark blotch on the wall. “Oh no…” Twilight squeaked nervously as she darted her eyes around her. She didn’t like not knowing where the shadow was. And without fully understanding the breadth of its abilities, she didn’t know where it could pop out next. Meanwhile, up in the air, Rainbow Dash was still fleeing from the grey pegasus. Every attempt she made at getting around to get an attack in herself was met by Raincloud intercepting her and getting a good slice or two in with her shadow energy. “I thought you were supposed to be the brave one, so why are you running scared?!” Raincloud asked in a mocking tone as she tried to outflank the cyan flyer. “I’m not running scared! I just prefer to not be sliced into a million pieces!” Rainbow Dash yelled back while making a sharp turn in an attempt at losing her pursuer. Just as she thought she might have succeeded, she glanced to the side and saw the grey mare right next to her about to strike. “Ah!” The cyan mare yelled in surprise while darting to a lower altitude. She felt the cold energy of Raincloud’s shadowy blade slicing off a few of the hairs in her mane. “You might want to try harder to run away then you coward!” Raincloud exclaimed angrily while darting after the fleeing pony again. What is with this girl? No matter how fast I go, she just keeps catching up to me! I might not be the fastest in Equestria, but there is no way she is keeping up with me this easily! Rainbow Dash thought to herself with an annoyed grimace. Suddenly a thought popped into her mind that almost made her crash into the wall from not paying attention. She couldn’t keep up with me this easily. Unless… As she looked back to see the grey mare behind her, Rainbow Dash noticed something that made her angry and frightened at the same time. There was a blur of glowing shadow energy coming from Raincloud’s arm. This was to be expected as she was using it as a sort of makeshift blade to try and kill the cyan mare. What Rainbow Dash didn’t expect to see however, was a blur of the same glowing energy coming from her wings. “That… little… jerk!” Rainbow Dash huffed angrily at the realization she made. Before she could try to think around her opponent’s strategy, she noticed that she was getting closer, a lot closer in fact. Raincloud was getting so close so fast that she was actually going faster than the cyan mare could handle. “Oof!” Rainbow Dash grunted in pain as Raincloud crashed into her. Thankfully she had temporarily stopped using her shadowy blade, but she seemed to be intent on sending the cyan mare to the ground with her own bare hooves. With a painful crash, some equally painful bounces, and the grey mare being on top of her the whole time, Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt on the floor. Her entire body was throbbing with pain from her impact with the floor, but she couldn’t let her suffering get in the way of her survival. As she quickly tried to get up, she was met by Raincloud forcefully shoving her hooves back down onto her shoulders, effectively pinning her to the ground. “Heh… not so fast after all.” Raincloud smirked in a cocky fashion while enjoying her brief victory. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw that the grey mare’s wings were still unfolded, and they were glowing with shadow energy flowing through them. “You used shadow magic to fly better you cheater!” Rainbow Dash growled angrily at the pegasus’s use of magic to win the fight. “I guess you’re not as hot as you think anymore. Fastest flyer in Ponyville? Give me a break.” Raincloud snickered in a belittling manner, as if she thought that the cyan mare beneath her wasn’t worth the dirt under her hooves. “AHH!” A cry of pain suddenly drew the pair’s attention off to the side. They noticed Twilight still fighting with the shadow, but something was clearly wrong. “*Gasp* Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully as she saw her friend in distress. The unicorn was clutching a spot on her shoulder that was obviously injured. The shadow was recovering from a strike with its claws held off to the side with a small bit of blood on them. However, the thing that was most troubling was the fact that the specter’s claws were glowing purple. “AGH!” Twilight screamed in pain as she uncovered her injury. The shadow must have only clipped her arm, because the unicorn’s wound was only just bleeding. However, the wound was softly pulsing purple, indicating that whatever agonizing effect the claws had, was now affecting the purple mare. “Well this seems to be wrapping up nicely. Everything is better with a little touch of shadow magic.” Raincloud said with an amused chuckle. “That… hrk! That isn’t fair!” Rainbow Dash stated while struggling to push the grey mare off of her. She kicked and shoved, but Raincloud was standing on her back legs and her shoulders, keeping her limbs in check fairly well. “What’s wrong Rainbow Dash? Can’t get over the fact that there are ponies better than you?” Raincloud asked in a cynical tone while getting close to the cyan mare’s face. “No, I just thought you would have enough spine to not have to use magic to beat me.” Rainbow Dash replied with an irritated glare. “Why you little!” Raincloud growled angrily at the cyan mare’s boldness. She raised her hoof and channeled shadow energy to it once more, creating a short blade that she was prepared to use to destroy the pegasus beneath her. Rainbow Dash cringed and flinched her eyes shut as she resigned to face her doom. Suddenly, a bright flash of light filled the room, followed by a high pitched wail. Rainbow Dash and Raincloud looked over to see the shadow writhing in pain as a beam of light was shot at it by Twilight. Apparently the purple mare managed to fight through whatever pain she was in long enough to cast a spell. “Ow!” Raincloud yelped painfully while clutching her head. Seemingly on cue with the grey mare’s sudden outburst, the beam of light hitting the shadow intensified as Twilight put more energy behind her spell. Seeing an opportunity to escape her dire predicament, Rainbow Dash threw a punch at the grey pegasus’s face as hard as she could. Her hoof made contact with Raincloud’s jaw, creating a satisfying thud and sending the mare reeling. While Rainbow Dash swiftly got to her feet, Raincloud was still recovering from being punched and having a surge of pain course through her from her shadow being violently burned. As her minion finally gave up its attempts at struggling and flew back into the floor underneath her, the grey mare shook her head in a frustrated manner. “Grr… you two are really starting to piss me off!” Raincloud fumed angrily while stamping her hoof on the floor. “Not so tough without your shadow to help you out are you?” Twilight asked with a triumphant smirk while walking over to her cyan friend. She cringed painfully as her shoulder started throbbing again. “Are you ok?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while glancing to the unicorn’s injury. The small wound was still faintly glowing a bright shade of purple, indicating that the shadow’s attack was still having an effect on her. “Yeah, I think so. He must have only clipped me a little bit. I should be fine for the moment.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. Although her shoulder stung a little more than normal for a wound so small, it hurt far less than the agonizing pain Spike and Glitterball went through when they were struck by the shadow. “Good… are you up for putting her in her place?” Rainbow Dash asked with a confident smirk, to which the purple mare nodded. “I’ve been ready ever since I met her.” Twilight said while thinking back to everything the grey mare did when she arrived at the library. Between threatening her friends, badly hurting Spike, and almost killing her, she was ready to show the spiteful pegasus the meaning of the word retribution. While the two mares stood together and glared at their opponent, Raincloud clenched her teeth and growled angrily. Both parties were ready to beat hell out of each other, and now that the odds were slightly more even, perhaps it would be a fair fight. Meanwhile, in the castle throne room, Raven Feather and her followers were still making preparations for the ritual that would make them rulers of Equestria. The black mare and several hooded workers were working tirelessly on drawing a large symbol on the floor. The symbol itself was comprised of a large circle and several smaller circles inside of it that were offset at various points. There was a veritable book’s worth of different magical glyphs and letters written on the outside and inside of all the circles, with some writing even being inscribed on the circles themselves. Celestia watched her captors working with a disdainful expression. Although she was grateful that Raincloud was no longer present to torment her, she was afraid of what the pale mare and her brother could do to Twilight and the others. “Grr…” The alicorn growled under her breath in frustration as she looked down to the metal cuffs keeping her imprisoned. She tried budging them with her strength, but only elicited a few rattles from the infuriating object. As she tried to channel magic to her horn again, it was met with the same numb feeling that she had received before. “You can stop trying to break out. You aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Raven Feather said while continuing her work on the symbol. She smirked while looking at the alicorn out of the corner of her eye. “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t take a liking to your arrangements.” Celestia said in a sarcastic tone while glaring at the black mare. “I’m terribly sorry that your experience has been lacking your majesty. I will have to work on my skills as a competent hostess after I rule the world. I don’t want any visiting dignitaries to think less of me while they grovel at my feet.” Raven Feather replied with an amused chuckle. Celestia sighed in a defeated manner while sitting back down. She was beginning to wonder if anyone could put a stop to the tyrannical earth pony. At any rate, there was nothing she could do to stop her plot in her current state. While the alicorn moped and sulked off to the side, Raven Feather seemed to be having the time of her life. She was swiftly bounding around the symbol, making quick adjustments and drawing glyphs while laughing like a giddy child. She had been waiting for this day to come for years, and it was easy to tell that she was enjoying herself. “Let’s see... put this here, and that there… Ah! There we are.” Raven Feather stated in a pleased tone while stepping back from the symbol. “Is it finished?” Grimwood asked curiously from the side of the room. “The symbol is done. Now all we need to do is finish preparations for the spell itself.” Raven Feather explained before turning to one of the hooded workers off to the side. “How is the pool of energy holding up?” She asked curiously. The hooded pony looked down to a glowing pictogram on the floor near a pile of books. “Everything looks good on this end. The fear we gathered up is stable at the moment.” The worker informed in an obedient tone. “Splendid! Now we just need to wait for Raincloud and Dust Kicker to finish mopping up Twilight Sparkle and her band of weaklings.” Raven Feather said while rubbing her hooves together excitedly. “They’ve been fighting out there for a while… shouldn’t they have been done by now?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. The red stallion’s question made the black mare ponder as to why it was taking so long for the two siblings to fight the element wielders. Surely with their combined skills it would have been an easy task to get rid of them. “Hmm… this isn’t like them to be so sloppy. You there, could you go check to see what is going on out there?” Raven Feather asked while pointing to one of the unoccupied workers. The teal mare looked surprised to have been singled out, but she was quick to nod and get up to perform her given task. Everyone watched as the earth pony walked across the room and over to the doors at the far end. She paused in front of them for a moment, hesitating with a nervous expression before slowly reaching for the handle and cracking the door open. With just a small fraction of an opening in the door, a muffled racket of yells and crashes could be heard from the other room. The teal mare looked through the crack in the door and moved her head around to get as much of a look as she could without anyone in the other room seeing her. “Well? Are they done yet? How many of them are left?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “Actually… it looks like they’re losing.” The hooded pony replied in a surprised tone. “Who?” Raven Feather asked while furrowing her brow in a confused manner. The teal mare looked again to make sure of what she was seeing. She gulped nervously before closing the door and turning and facing the others. “Raincloud and Dust Kicker from the looks of it.” The earth pony explained in an anxious tone. Raven Feather stammered with a stunned expression on her face. She was completely flabbergasted that she was even hearing such a statement. She contemplated whether or not the mare was lying to her, but she probably wasn’t suicidal enough to consider such a prank. “Move aside, let me see this.” Raven Feather stated while trotting over to the door and nudging the teal mare aside. She peered through the crack in the door and watched intently. Not only were all of the element bearers alive and well, but they were in fact holding their own against Raincloud and her brother. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity were all keeping ahead of two empowered darklings while Dust Kicker watched. Raincloud’s shadow was nowhere to be found, and the grey mare herself was fighting Twilight and Rainbow Dash. What’s more, she appeared to be evenly matched with the pair. Raven Feather couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “This can’t be happening. Surely six ordinary ponies shouldn’t be this big of a problem.” Raven Feather muttered uneasily while walking away from the door. “That’s where you’re mistaken Raven Feather. They aren’t just six ordinary ponies.” Celestia said with a pleased smirk. Raven Feather offered a passing glare to the smug alicorn as she thought further about the matter. She had to speed up the ritual so it could be done before the royal guard received reinforcements, but she couldn’t do it without Raincloud and Dust Kicker present. They had worked too hard to achieve her goal for her to just cut them out of their well-deserved victory. Suddenly, Raven Feather’s eyes wandered over to the side of the room as a thought popped into her head. She looked over to the broken Katana blade she had taken from the human after she beat him. The luminescent stub of a blade was calling to her, almost insisting that she indulge in the devious idea that was floating around in her mind. “Grim… I want you to keep an eye on the workers and make sure they are doing things to my specifications.” Raven Feather spoke up to her brother while walking across the room and picking up the broken sword by its handle. “Where are you going?” Grimwood asked curiously while watching the black mare stroll towards the door with her prize in hoof. “I’m going to go give Raincloud and Dust Kicker a helping hoof with disposing of the elements.” Raven Feather replied with a sinister smirk plastered on her face. As she reached the door and stood before it, she took one last look around the room, putting extra focus on the imprisoned alicorn and her horrified expression. “If you want something done right, you might as well do it yourself.” The black mare said while chuckling to herself. She turned back to the door and channeled her shadow magic through her body. Suddenly, a black puff of purple tinted smoke erupted from beneath Raven Feather and swiftly enveloped her. When the smoke cleared, she and her weapon were completely invisible. Celestia gasped quietly as the doors to the other room opened a small way and closed. She looked down to her bonds and struggled to break free again. She had to do something to help Twilight and the others before it was too late, but she was powerless to escape from the runes etched into her cuffs. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist and Grimwood were left alone to themselves as the workers in the room went about doing their assigned tasks. Celestia wasn’t paying much attention to them, and Raven Feather was indeed gone from the room. “Hey Grim… do you think you should make your move now?” Shadow Mist whispered while nudging towards the symbol. The pale colt glanced down to the floor beside him where he was keeping his satchel of supplies hidden behind shadow magic. He smirked for a moment before turning to the red stallion with a confident expression. “Don’t worry, we’ll get our shot. I’ll let her go on with the ritual first. When she fails, the energy will still be useable for our adjustments.” Grimwood explained in a patient tone. “Besides, I don’t want to ruin her fun right now by making adjustments to the symbol behind her back.” He added while glancing towards the door. Shadow Mist smirked as he thought about the black mare and what she would do to the element bearers. “Agh!” Raincloud yelped in pain as a magical blast whizzed past her leg, just barely singeing her skin. She ducked her head, nearly catching another one in the face. Rainbow Dash watched with gleeful anticipation as Twilight fired at the grey mare repeatedly. She was ready to jump in and take action if the pegasus stopped dodging and started attacking again. “Keep it up Twilight! You’ve got her right where you want her!” Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly, much to the frustration of the grey mare dodging fire. “Stop doing that!” Raincloud yelled angrily while hopping over another bolt. “What’s the matter Raincloud? Don’t like it when someone uses magic on you?” Twilight asked with a wry smirk. “Grrr…” Raincloud growled under her breath while shooting the two mares an icy glare. Finally deciding that enough was enough, she channeled shadow energy to her hoof and shoved it forward. A ball of fiery energy shot out and sailed towards the purple unicorn. Twilight yelped in surprise while ducking to the side. She managed to completely dodge the attack, but she was forced to stop firing on the grey mare with her horn. “Heh…” Raincloud smirked triumphantly, until she took a look to the side to discover that Rainbow Dash was missing from her original position beside the purple mare. “Wait, what the…?” She muttered in a confused tone. Before she could look for the missing pegasus, she heard something swooping down from above her. “Hyah!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while spinning around to deliver a kick to the grey mare. Her back leg collided with Raincloud’s side, knocking her off balance and sending her tumbling to the floor with a painful yelp. “Nice one Rainbow!” Twilight cheered in excitement. Rainbow Dash smiled triumphantly while pumping her arm in the air. While the two mares were celebrating, Raincloud was still recovering from the blow to her side. She rolled to a stop a few feet away with a throbbing pain in her side. As she looked up to see her opponents reveling in their small victory, she couldn’t help but to get even more infuriated. “Gah… Dust Kicker, help me out here would you?!” Raincloud yelled across the room to her brother, who was still watching his darklings fighting the other three mares. She hated how often he just sat back and watched his minions toying with people without even using his full strength. Dust Kicker looked over to see the grey mare on the floor. He briefly contemplated laughing at her for her slip up, but quickly realized that she was legitimately in trouble. “Got it.” Dust Kicker stated while starting to make his way to help his sibling. Before he could even get a few steps away, he was interrupted by someone stepping in front of him. “You aren’t going anywhere.” Applejack said in a firm tone while standing her ground against the stallion. The orange mare had apparently noticed the stallion going to help the grey mare and slipped away from the two darklings while the others took care of them. “I’m going to suggest that you get out of my way.” Dust Kicker said while glaring at the orange mare. “And Ah’m going to suggest that you stay away from my friends.” Applejack replied while matching his glare in intensity. Dust Kicker glanced over to his two remaining darklings. The two beasts were occupied with trying to get at Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. If the stallion was going to deal with the orange mare in front of him, he would have to do it himself. With a disquieting crackle, the tip of Dust Kicker’s hoof was enveloped with pulsating shadows. He glared at Applejack with sinister intent, causing the orange mare to sweat nervously. “What’s the matter hotshot… you need magic to handle little old me?” Applejack asked in a cynical tone while putting on the best wry smirk she could, given her fear of the stallion and what he was capable of. Thankfully, her façade seemed to hide her terror rather well, and even seemed to be working. Dust Kicker growled under his breath before relaxing his face. He wasn’t about to let some farm hand insult him. The energy around his hoof vanished, but he still had the same evil intention in his eyes. He cracked his neck to the sides and stretched for a moment before glaring at the orange mare. “I’m going to enjoy this.” Dust Kicker said with a smirk. Applejack was a little nervous to be fighting one on one with such a dangerous foe, but she was confident that she would give him a run for his money. While the two ponies faced off, Raincloud was stuck without the backup she requested. She growled angrily while getting to her feet. As she winced involuntarily from the pain in her side, her frustration only grew towards Twilight and her cyan friend. “Wow... I think she’s about to pop a blood vessel or something.” Rainbow Dash said with an amused chuckle as she watched the frustrated mare. “Um… Rainbow Dash, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to taunt the highly dangerous magic user.” Twilight said in a cautionary tone. “Don’t worry Twilight, she isn’t even confident in herself anymore. She’s asking big bro over there to bail her out.” Rainbow Dash replied with a confident smirk. “Grrr…” Raincloud growled furiously while glaring at the cyan pegasus. She was practically seeing red from how angry she was. As she thought more about how much she wanted to throttle the cocky mare, she realized that she was going to be alone in her efforts, and she was perfectly ok with that. Channeling shadow energy to her wings, she readied herself for a swift attack to catch her opponent off guard. Rainbow Dash glanced over to the grey mare as she noticed a hint of a purple glow. By the time she looked over to her, Raincloud had vanished into a blur of shadows that was heading straight for her. In an instant, she felt something slam into her, knocking her to the floor and holding her down. “Guh!” Rainbow Dash grunted painfully as the air was knocked from her lungs. She looked up to see the grey mare sitting on top of her with a livid expression on her face. “I don’t need any help to kill you! I just need my bare hooves and natural talent!” Raincloud yelled in the cyan mare’s face. She reeled her arm back and channeled shadow energy to her hoof. The shadowy aura elongated until it shrunk to a point, creating a makeshift blade. Rainbow Dash felt every nerve in her body explode into shock. She could feel the numbing coldness of the shadowy blade mere inches away from her skin. She wondered if she would live for long enough to feel the cold, or if she would die instantly from the strike. Before Raincloud had a chance to complete her attack, she was enveloped by a purple magical aura. The confused mare looked around for the source of the aura, but before she could find anything, she felt herself being sent flying into the air against her will. “AH!” Raincloud yelped as she flew across the room. She tried to spread her wings to break her flight, but the force used to fling her away was too great. The grey mare slammed into a wall on the other side of the room and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Rainbow Dash looked over to see Twilight with her horn still lit up. She couldn’t help but smile at her near death experience, which the unicorn reciprocated. “Nice save Twilight.” Rainbow said in a grateful tone while getting to her feet. “Anytime… just try not to antagonize the bad guy next time?” Twilight asked with a slight chuckle while walking up to the cyan mare. “Raincloud!” Dust Kicker yelled in an alarmed tone. The stallion broke away from his confrontation with Applejack to rush to his sister’s side. The grey mare was moaning in pain as she slowly writhed on the ground and attempted to get up. “See that, Raincloud? I don’t need any special powers to help me when I have friends to pick up the slack.” Rainbow Dash said with a pleased smirk while taking a few steps toward the two siblings. *SHINK* A wet gush suddenly filled the air, followed by a startled cry that died out as quickly as it started. Rainbow Dash felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as a knot slowly developed in her stomach. She immediately recognized the source of the pained outcry. As she turned around slowly, she was faced with a sight that made her face pale instantly. Twilight was standing still with a shocked expression on her face. There was blood dripping to the floor steadily, blood that was coming from a wound on the unicorn’s chest. As the purple mare shakily looked down and put a hoof beside the wound, she and everyone else in the room got a grim idea of how severe it was. Before anyone could react further, a purple tinted mist formed at the edge of Twilight’s wound and traveled out into the air, leaving a short luminescent blade sticking out of her chest. The mist traveled further than the hilt of the broken sword, revealing a black hoof holding onto it and a familiar mare standing in front of the purple unicorn. Judging from the descriptions they had gotten on the hooded ponies from Cotton Quill, this was Raven Feather. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash screamed in utter shock as she watched her friend’s legs wobbling from weakness. Twilight’s eyes were wide and she was whining softly from the pain, almost like she didn’t have the energy to yell. Everyone else in the room paused what they were doing as they heard the cyan mare’s outcry. Once they looked over to see the black mare sticking a sword into their friend, they widened their eyes in shock and froze up with dread. “Agh!” Pinkie yelped as one of the darklings bit into her leg. She shook the beast off before grabbing her strobe in a fit of frustration and adrenaline and shoving it into the darkling’s mouth. Once she fired and dispatched the creature into a pile of smoke, she aimed at the other creature about to maim Fluttershy as she was distracted. Firing a bolt of energy at the beast’s mouth, she successfully dealt with the two creatures that had been troubling her and her friends since they started fighting. Instead of celebrating her victory however, the pink mare was staring ahead at the scene before her with a horrified expression. Raven Feather grinned sadistically while gripping the hilt of the blade tightly. She leaned in close to the stunned unicorn’s ear and whispered to her. “Why don’t you go keep Princess Luna company?” Raven Feather asked with a smirk. Without even moving away from the purple mare, the earth pony shoved on the hilt of the blade, burying the short katana the rest of the way into her chest. A spray of blood gushed out as Twilight lurched forward involuntarily. Her cry of pain was strangled as a trickle of blood fell from her mouth. The burning sensation in her chest was almost enough to send her to her knees, but somehow she remained standing, albeit on shaky legs. “NO!” Rainbow Dash yelled while racing forward to help her friend. Once she got close enough to warrant Raven Feather’s attention, the black mare stuck her hoof out and used her shadow magic to push the pegasus away and onto her back. Now that she was free of distraction, Raven Feather turned to Twilight and smirked victoriously. She placed her free hoof on the unicorn’s chest while still gripping the blade with her other hoof. With a mighty shove, the black mare pushed Twilight backwards while pulling the sword out of her chest. Due to the jagged nature of the blade and its small size, it was relatively easy to separate the two, leaving the purple mare to stumble backwards in a stunned state of pain. Twilight fell backwards and landed on her back, but any other sensations were overshadowed by the stabbing pain in her chest. She could feel her heart racing and her limbs shaking, but most of all, she felt herself steadily getting weaker. “TWILIGHT!” All five mares yelled in unison as they bolted forward towards the purple mare. They didn’t even care about their three enemies watching from the sidelines anymore. All they cared about now was reaching their friend. Raven Feather watched with a pleased smirk as the five mares raced in a clumsy panic to pick the unicorn up to her feet and half walk, half drag her away. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood on either side of the purple mare and helped her walk, while the others followed the three with fearful expressions. “Shouldn’t we be stopping them?” Dust Kicker asked while walking over to the black mare. Raven Feather looked over to see the brown stallion and his still disoriented sister coming up to her and watching the fleeing ponies. Raven Feather chuckled warmly as she looked over to the blood trail that the purple unicorn was leaving. There were steady droplets and pools of blood leading behind the six mares as they carried their friend to the door at the other end of the room. She looked down to the blood on her own hooves and let a small smile creep across her face. “No… let them go tend to their friend. I wouldn’t want to interrupt their last moments with her. We can go check to see how far they made it with her after she dies.” Raven Feather said in a confident tone. “So we’re waiting here then? Good… I think Raincloud could use a break.” Dust Kicker said with a wry smirk while turning to his sister. The grey mare was holding her head and wincing in pain from her undoubtedly sore body. “You know what Dust? Bite me…” Raincloud stated in an irritated tone before flinching in pain. Raven Feather smiled warmly as her two cohorts sat down on the floor and settled in. She was confident that her plan was going as smoothly as it could have been, especially now that the elements of harmony would be out of play. Twilight whined softly as her chest stung even more. She hung her head in a hazy disoriented state as she tried to keep moving. Her legs were moving along at a sluggish pace, but the only reason she was staying upright was due to the added support from the two mares beside her. “Twilight! Are you ok?!” A muffled voice rang out from beside her. She was certain it was one of her friends, but they sounded so far away. “Ugh…” Twilight groaned painfully as her head drooped lower. She was staring at the floor now, though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to spend the energy to right herself. There was blood steadily dropping to the floor beneath her. She could see the crimson fluid leaving her body, but she couldn’t see the droplets hitting the floor as her friends pushed onwards despite her weakness. Despite her inability to see it, she was sure that she was leaving a sizable trail of blood behind her. “Is she going to be alright?” Another concerned voice rang out from slightly behind her. She determined the owner of the voice to be Fluttershy. Her ears weren’t ringing as much, and the haze she seemed to be in was clearing. Despite her clearer state of mind, her body still felt numb and weak aside from the excruciating pain in her chest. “She’s going to be fine Fluttershy! We just need to get her out of here and find some help!” Rainbow Dash stated in a frantic tone. Her voice was full of genuine fear and dread, two emotions Twilight rarely saw the cyan mare express. Suddenly, her legs gave out from under her, causing Twilight to stumble and fall slightly. She would have face planted onto the floor had the two mares beside her not caught her and pushed her back up to her feet. Although they were practically lifting her up as her legs did the motions of walking, the group was somehow still making progress. Applejack looked down and noticed that her hooves were now covered in blood. She hadn’t even paid much notice to it when she picked the unicorn up, but now the sight of the crimson staining on her hooves made her shudder with dread. “Twilight, can you hear me?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone while leveling her head with the dazed unicorn. Twilight shifted her eyes over to the orange mare and groaned in pain. The pale look on her friend’s face made a cold chill run down Applejack’s spine. “We’re going to get you out of here Twilight. Just hang in there for us ok?” Pinkie Pie asked in what she hoped would be a reassuring tone. Normally she would have been comforting the unicorn and the rest of her friends, but she felt far too afraid and horrified to even put on a smile. As they rushed through the corridors of the castle towards the entrance, it became clearer and clearer to the five mares just how badly injured Twilight was. The unicorn could barely lift her head up or make coordinated movements. Her legs looked like they could give out at any moment. And to add to the poor situation, the purple mare was whining and groaning in pain, painting a terrible picture of how much she was suffering. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the six mares reached the entryway. The sight of the double doors at the far end of the room filled them with enough relief to keep them going. “We’re here! We’re almost out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in excitement while turning to the dazed unicorn beside her. Twilight seemed far too distracted to even hear her. “What about the darklings outside?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous tone. If they couldn’t fight their way through the horde of beasts with healthy numbers and three strobes, then they stood no chance with limited equipment and their best unicorn severely injured. “I will fly her over those things myself if I have to. You guys can stay here and find another way around while I get her to help.” Rainbow Dash explained in a determined tone. The thought of being left alone in the castle with the hooded ponies didn’t even cross the group’s minds. The only objective in their minds was to get Twilight medical attention. As they journeyed down the two sets of stairs, Applejack and Rainbow Dash could feel Twilight’s strength slowly giving out. The purple mare was slowly putting more and more weight on them. Soon enough they would just be carrying her dead weight around, a thought which had far more grim implications than the two mares wanted to think about. Finally, Twilight could take no more. Even though they were down the stairs and halfway to the door, she could go no further. Her legs were completely exhausted, and she felt physically ill from her severe wounds. “S-stop…” Twilight instructed in an exasperated tone as her legs gave out from under her. She groaned in a mixture of tiredness and pain as she let her entire body fall to the floor. Despite Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s attempts at keeping her upright, they couldn’t stop the unicorn from falling to the floor on her side. “Twilight, get up!” Rainbow Dash pleaded while nudging the purple mare. Twilight shook her head while maneuvering herself onto her back. “I can’t.” Twilight explained in a weak tone. “We’re so close! We can get you some help once we make it outside! Maybe the others already signaled for help and the royal guard is already here.” Rainbow Dash suggested in a desperate tone. “No… Rainbow Dash, I-” Twilight started to speak up, until she was interrupted by a fit of intense coughing. With a final wet cough, another trickle of blood shot out of her mouth and fell to the floor. “I can’t go further.” Twilight explained in a sickly tone while pleading with the cyan mare with her eyes. Everyone frowned sadly as they realized that she felt too ill to even move anymore. “Ok… ok… We can… we can get you some help from here! I can go get someone and be back here before you know it!” Rainbow Dash said while starting towards the door. “No!” Twilight cried while trying to get up and reach for the cyan pegasus. She winced in pain while clutching the wound on her chest and going back to the floor. Rainbow Dash walked back over to the circle of mares around the wounded unicorn with a confused expression. “But Twilight, I have to do something to get you help!” Rainbow Dash explained in a distraught tone. “Please don’t leave me… I want you to stay here.” Twilight said in a pleading tone while clenching her eyes shut to deal with the pain she was feeling. Rainbow Dash stared at the purple mare with a fearful expression of sorrow and concern. She wanted to just scoop her up in her arms and carry her to the nearest hospital. She would fly her all the way to Ponyville in a matter of a few minutes if she had to. “Rainbow… If we can’t take her there ourselves, there isn’t much we can do for her other than stay with her. If someone was coming, they would already be on their way. You flying out there to tell them they need to get here faster wouldn’t change anything.” Rarity explained in a saddened tone. “Ok… we can stay here.” Rainbow Dash said while looking down to the injured unicorn with a concerned expression. “But if we’re staying here, then we need to do everything we can to keep her alive.” She said while rushing over to the purple mare’s side. Applejack and the others backed up a little bit to give the cyan pegasus room. Rainbow Dash knelt down beside Twilight and examined her wound further. The mere sight of the bloody gash made her sick with concern and fear. Although she knew next to nothing about first aid, she knew that losing that much blood was probably a bad thing. “Twilight, you need to keep pressure on the wound. Can you do that for us?” Rainbow Dash asked in a pleading tone. Twilight glanced down to the wound on her chest. She slowly moved her arm up and placed it over the length of the gash. As she pressed down on it with all the strength she could muster, she cringed painfully and let a small groan escape her lips. “It hurts so much…” Twilight said in a distraught tone while rocking her head back. There were tears streaming down her face, but it was hard to tell if they were caused by the pain, or her shocked emotions. “I know it hurts Twilight, but you have to stay strong for us. Just keep pressing on that and focus on staying awake.” Rainbow Dash said in a sympathetic tone. “Girls… I think… I think I’m going to die.” Twilight said in a frightened tone while taking note of her current state of health. “You’re not going to die. I don’t think she hit anything too vital… I hope.” Rainbow Dash muttered uneasily. “All we need to do is control the bleeding and you’ll be fine.” She added in a reassuring tone, though the others couldn’t tell if she was trying to reassure the purple mare or herself. “Rarity, is there anything you can do with your magic to help her?” Applejack asked in a hopeful tone. “I’m afraid not. I can’t do anything to even begin to heal a wound this big.” Rarity explained in a sad tone. Rainbow Dash glanced over to her friends with a worried expression. She had never seen such somber expressions on their faces, and earlier in the day they had been to a funeral. She hoped that they could somehow keep Twilight alive long enough for help to arrive. When she looked back at the purple mare, Rainbow Dash gasped in shock as she saw her with her eyes closed and a drowsy expression on her face. “Hey, wake up!” Rainbow Dash said while gently shaking the purple mare. Twilight jolted awake and looked around in a surprised stupor. “Wha…? W-what… happened?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “I need you to stay awake, Twilight. Just keep looking at me and focus on keeping your eyes open.” Rainbow Dash explained while putting a reassuring hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. “Ok… ok…” Twilight replied while nodding slightly. Everyone looked to the unicorn with saddened expressions as she lay on the floor trying to stay alive. Her breathing was heavy and erratic, and she didn’t move aside from gentle fidgets to deal with the pain she was feeling. The hoof she was using to keep pressure on her wound was already stained red from her own blood, and she was shaking weakly any time she tried moving a muscle. “There has to be something we can do to help her. Maybe there are some medical supplies somewhere in the castle.” Pinkie Pie suggested in a troubled tone. “There aren’t any on this side of the castle… and besides, I don’t want any of you running into the hooded ponies.” Twilight explained in a concerned tone. It nearly broke the five mares’ hearts to hear the unicorn expressing concern for them in her current state. “Did they follow us?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous tone while glancing up the stairs behind her. “If they did, they will sorely regret it.” Rainbow Dash said in an angry tone. She was ready to tear Raven Feather’s head off for doing this to her friend. “No… no more fighting.” Twilight said while flinching painfully. “What?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “Look at us Rainbow… we shouldn’t have been fighting them in the first place. We barely got out of there with our lives… and I’m not quite sure if I did just yet.” Twilight explained sadly while looking over to her friends. Pinkie Pie winced in pain while looking down to her leg. She was bleeding slightly from where the darkling bit her, but it wasn’t nearly as severe as Twilight’s injury or Fluttershy’s wing. Everyone looked back to the purple mare with sad expressions as they realized what she meant. “But… we were winning! We had those jerks on the ropes until Raven Feather came in and pulled that stupid invisibility stunt!” Rainbow Dash protested in an upset tone. She couldn’t believe she was hearing Twilight Sparkle having regrets over fighting against bad guys. “Please… just don’t fight them anymore.” Twilight pleaded in a desperate tone. Before she could say anything else, she coughed violently. No more blood came out, but the wet sound suggested that her insides were still in poor shape. “Ok… we won’t fight them.” Rainbow Dash said with a sincere nod. She didn’t care about fighting to justify something, not when the unicorn was wounded so severely. Everyone watched somberly as Twilight breathed in and out. It seemed like she was having trouble breathing from how much air she was sucking in with each inhale. The others wondered if perhaps she had a punctured lung, but it was hard to confirm without medical equipment or training. “Hey… could you do something for me?” Twilight asked in a weak tone. “Sure… anything.” Rainbow Dash said in an eager tone while leaning closer to the exhausted mare. “Can you tell Spike I’m sorry… and that I love him?” Twilight asked in a somber tone. The others were shocked to hear such a request. From how serious she sounded, the unicorn must have thought she was dying. “You can tell him yourself. We’re getting you out of here.” Rainbow Dash said in a reassuring tone. “Ok… but in case I don’t, I just wanted to say that you guys are the best friends I have ever had. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for all of you… I love you so much.” Twilight said while tearing up slightly. Everyone else teared up as well from hearing the unicorn talk like she was about to die. “Stop talking like this Twi… you’re started to make me all sappy.” Rainbow Dash said while sniffling slightly and wiping her eyes. Twilight smiled slightly while looking around at the others. Suddenly she drooped her head to the side and closed her eyes. Her arm slid off her wound slightly, and her breathing stopped. The sudden change in her condition made everyone gasp in shock. “Is she… is she dead?!” Rarity asked in a distraught tone. “Hey, wake up!” Rainbow Dash yelled while shaking the unicorn. When she showed no response, the cyan mare slapped her in the face. Suddenly Twilight gasped and shot upwards in an adrenaline fueled rush. She breathed rapidly for a few moments before Rainbow Dash gently pushed her back to a resting position. “Don’t do that to us again Twilight. You almost gave me a heart attack!” Rainbow Dash said in a relieved tone. “Sorry… I’m just so drowsy.” Twilight said while trying to keep from slipping away again. “Keep pressure on your wound. You need to keep that blood loss in check.” Rainbow Dash said while gently grabbing the unicorn’s arm and placing her hoof back on her injury. She decided to help put pressure on it to compensate for the purple mare’s weakness. Everyone watched sadly as Twilight clung to life. She remained still, breathing heavily and staring up with a glazed look in her eye that told of a great deal of pain. Somehow, even through all of her pain and suffering, the unicorn still managed to have a concerned expression on her face. She seemed to be contemplating something deeply. Perhaps she was thinking of her own mortality, or how her death might affect the ones she loved. “Girls… I really don’t think I’m going to make it.” Twilight said in a weak tone. “Twilight…” Fluttershy muttered sadly while staring at the sickly mare with teary eyes. She could barely stand seeing her friend like this, and the others weren’t faring much better. “You listen to me Twilight Sparkle. You can get those thoughts out of your head and stop talking like you’re going to die. I believe in you… you can get through this.” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. Her voice trembled a little bit, deceiving her sense of confidence in the unicorn’s chances of survival. “I don’t think I can Rainbow Dash… I feel so cold… so tired.” Twilight replied in a somber tone. Suddenly the cyan pegasus started sniffling and tearing up while looking down. “Dangit Twilight… *Sniff* You can’t die here… we… we need you!” Rainbow Dash said in a distraught manner while looking up to face the unicorn. She was barely holding herself together as tears streamed down her face freely and her lips quivered. “Rainbow…” Twilight muttered in a sad tone. “If it wasn’t for you, none of us would be as good friends as we are now! We wouldn’t have had all those adventures… none of those cherished memories would have even happened!” Rainbow Dash said while squeezing the purple mare’s hoof tighter in her own. “You never gave up on any of us. Even when I was dead to rights back at the mansion, you didn’t give up on me. So now, I’m not going to give up on you. You can beat this! We’re all here with you… so don’t you dare die on us!” She said with as much devotion as she could before trailing off into a series of sniffles and sobs. “Rainbow Dash… I’m… I’m… so-” Twilight muttered in a dazed tone. Suddenly the unicorn cut off mid-sentence. Her eyes fluttered for a moment before drooping shut. Rainbow Dash felt her arm going limp in her grasp as her head settled to the floor and rolled to the side. “T…T-Twilight?” Rainbow Dash whimpered softly in a stunned tone. She gently shook the purple mare, only to receive no response. “Talk to me Twilight… say something!” She yelled in a distraught tone while trying everything she could to wake the unicorn up. The four mares watching from the side felt their hearts sink as they watched the unicorn for any signs of motion. Her chest was still, with no indication that she was breathing. The only movements arising from the purple mare were either from Rainbow Dash trying to shake her awake, or from her blood flowing into the steadily growing puddle beneath her. “Twilight…? Twilight?!” Rainbow Dash could barely create legible words amid her shock. She raised a shaky hoof and placed it against the unicorn’s neck. She waited patiently, desperately hoping to feel a pulse. One second, two seconds, ten seconds, all passing by without anything pushing back against her hoof. “N…n-no…” Rainbow Dash muttered in denial while checking again for a pulse. With a distraught feeling of frustration building inside of her, she groaned while putting her ear over the purple mare’s chest to listen directly for her heart. Everyone else was stuck with a silent sob caught in the back of their throats as they watched with teary eyes. “No… no… no, no, no!” Rainbow Dash finally broke down into a fit of crying as she buried her head into Twilight’s chest. She felt the wave of emotion she had been burying inside of her coming to the surface as it finally sank in. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy immediately burst out crying while covering their faces. Rarity and Applejack managed to hold back for a few seconds, but even they began sobbing and had to turn away to prevent themselves from looking at their fallen friend. The five mares wailed and cried like they never had before. Each had felt hardship and tragedy in the past few days, but nothing as heart rending as losing one of their own. They felt like a part of them had just died, and they were inconsolable in their grief. None of them had ever even thought of the possibility of one of them dying to be real when they eagerly stepped forward to fight the hooded ponies. They understood the risks, and they acknowledged the possibility of death, but somehow it never felt like it could actually happen. And now that it had, everything was crashing down on top of them. Memories of the times they shared with the purple unicorn came flooding to the surface as they all wept over her body. She had always been their brave leader, able to find the courage needed to best any evil plot that threatened her home, but now she had lost. She had been struck down in an agonizing display of blood and tears, before she even had a chance to lead them to victory. Not only was she one of Equestria’s greatest protectors, but she had been one of its greatest denizens as well. Throughout her lessons in friendship, she had always strived to be a caring and kind individual, ready and eager to help her friends with any problem they might have. She had touched the hearts of so many in such a short time. Ponyville, and possible the whole of Equestria might have been different if she never came along. After several minutes of openly sobbing and crying, the five mares quieted down slightly. They hadn’t gotten better, far from it in fact. The pain they felt had only gotten worse as they gradually accepted that this was really happening and not just some dream. Truth be told, their cries only died down because their systems couldn’t handle crying any more. Now only broken sobs and sharp hiccups or sniffles filled the air as they all stared at the unicorn on the ground with mournful expressions. Rainbow Dash listened to the steady sobs of her friends as she stared at Twilight’s unmoving face. She was lost amid her own thoughts, blocking out everything else that was going on. She wondered how the unicorn’s family would take the news of her death, or how Princess Celestia would react when she learned that her faithful student had perished. Finally she shuddered as she realized that Spike had to be informed at some point. The young dragon would probably be destroyed by the news. After all, he had lived with the purple mare for all of his life. Twilight might as well have been a big sister to him. Suddenly, the cyan mare’s mind turned to Raven Feather and the hooded ponies. She glanced behind her and stared at the door to the rest of the castle at the top of the stairs. The more she thought about the sadistic smirk on Raven Feather’s face, the more her blood began to boil. She looked back down to Twilight and clenched her teeth angrily. The black mare hadn’t just taken her friend from her, but she reveled in plunging that sword into her chest. She was actually pleased to see the shocked expression of pain on the unicorn’s face as she performed the bloody deed, and that made Rainbow Dash more furious than she had ever been in her life. Now, all the sadness she felt was replaced with anger. “Grr…” The cyan mare growled under her breath while getting up and turning around. She clenched her teeth so hard that her jaw hurt. Her entire head felt like it was vibrating from the sheer force of her rage, but at least she had something to direct it towards. Suddenly the cyan pegasus yelled fiercely while charging forward. She galloped towards the stairs at top speed with a death glare fixed on her face. She probably would have jumped up the stairs in one bound, if she hadn’t been stopped in her tracks by Applejack gripping her tail. “Rainbow Dash, stop!” Applejack stated through clenched teeth as she fought to keep the pegasus from storming off towards danger. “Let me go!” Rainbow Dash yelled angrily while pulling against the orange pony. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop herself from being pulled backwards slightly. “What the devil are you doing Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “I’m going to beat Raven Feather within an inch of her life!” Rainbow Dash replied with pure rage evident in her voice. “You can’t do that! If you go back there, it would be suicide!” Pinkie Pie said in a shocked tone while gasping at the cyan mare’s reckless abandon. “I don’t care!” Rainbow Dash yelled while yanking her tail out of Applejack’s grip. The orange mare had to race forward to catch her again, this time putting an even stronger grip on her tail. “Stop hollering like a mad mare and think about this for a minute Rainbow! Twilight wouldn’t have wanted you to throw your life away!” Applejack stated in a concerned tone. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped running, causing the orange mare to fall back from pulling so hard. “Wouldn’t have wanted?!” Rainbow Dash yelled angrily while turning to face the orange mare. “Don’t talk to me about what she wanted Applejack! She didn’t want to die!” She said in a raised voice while glaring at the earth pony. Applejack flinched nervously and prepared to receive a verbal beating from the pegasus. She was surprised to hear the cyan pony sobbing again. Applejack looked up to see Rainbow Dash sitting on the floor and crying into her hooves. She wasn’t expecting to see such an abrupt change in emotion from the pegasus. It certainly caught her off guard to say the least. “What’s wrong Rainbow?” Applejack asked in a sympathetic tone. She had known the cyan mare for long enough to tell that something was bothering her, other than the obvious fact that her friend just died in front of her. “I was right there!” Rainbow Dash stated in a distraught tone. “What?” Applejack asked in a confused tone. “I was just a few feet away from her! I should have done something… it… it should have been me that got stabbed!” Rainbow Dash sobbed openly while hiding her face from the others. Everyone gasped in concern as they heard the shocking statement. “Rainbow… Ah know this hurts… it hurts all of us just as bad as you. There wasn’t anything you could have done to stop it. By the time any of us heard, it was already too late.” Applejack said in a sympathetic tone while scooting closer to the cyan mare and putting a hoof on her shoulder. “I know… I just… I just…” Rainbow Dash sniffled loudly while looking up at the others. “I would do anything to get her back.” She said in a mournful tone while looking over to the purple unicorn. “We all would sugar cube… we all would.” Applejack said while putting her arm around the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash lowered her head sadly and sobbed quietly while the orange mare comforted her. Pinkie Pie sniffled sadly while turning to Rarity and Fluttershy. The pink pony sobbed loudly before grabbing the two and pulling them in for a hug to comfort herself. The two mares couldn’t help but to tear up alongside the others as they slowly coped with their loss. After a while, the five ponies could finally turn their attention to what they needed to do next. They were no match for Raven Feather and her group, not without Twilight there to band them together at least. Besides, they had promised the purple mare to not fight them anymore, so the only option they had was to go find help. “Come on girls… lets go. We can make them pay for this when we have numbers on our side.” Applejack said in a determined tone. Everyone nodded somberly while strengthening their resolve to see justice brought to the hooded ponies. Everyone got up and slowly walked to the front of the room. Once at the entrance, they opened the doors and peeked outside to search for darklings. Seeing only the empty grounds of the castle before them, they knew that they could make it through the town once they got a head start. Taking one last look back at Twilight’s lifeless body, the five mares looked down sadly before walking outside and closing the door. They were determined to make sure that nobody else lost their life to the cult of ponies and their sadistic leader. Chapter 96: ComplicationsAs work continued on preparing for the ritual, the throne room was buzzing with ponies walking to and fro to complete their assigned tasks. Various workers read from books, arranged candles, touched up on magical symbols in and around the main circle on the floor, and other such complex looking duties. Grimwood stood at the sidelines overseeing the progress on the ritual while still tending to Shadow Mist. He smirked slightly as his and his sister’s dream was coming to fruition before his very eyes. Soon enough, the world would be their oyster to do with what they wanted. “Put that candle a little to the left.” Grimwood instructed to an earth pony mare arranging candles by the main symbol. The mare looked at the colt for a moment before observing her work. She nodded in revelation while nudging an askew candle back into line with the others. Meanwhile, Celestia was watching the pale colt overseeing the numerous ponies in the room. She wondered how someone so young could be wrapped up with ponies of Raven Feather’s twisted ilk. Even if the black mare was his older sister, surely he had some form of morals that told him what she was doing was wrong. “You know… you don’t have to do this.” The alicorn said in a sympathetic tone while looking at the colt and leveling with him. “And?” Grimwood asked in a curious tone, as if the princess hadn’t finished her line of reasoning. The odd response confused the alicorn slightly. “I mean, surely you must have doubts about what your sister intends on doing.” Celestia said in a softer tone as she tried to appeal to the colt’s morals. “Well… I suppose her approach is a little bit misguided.” Grimwood said while thinking about his sister’s plan in higher detail. Celestia smiled a little bit, completely unaware of what the colt actually meant. “You can still make things right… just remove my cuffs, and I will make sure that you and your sister get the help you need.” Celestia said in a sincere tone. Although she was dead set on making sure that the hooded ponies received ample punishment for everything they had done, she also felt slightly responsible for allowing them to go so far off the reservation. After she sent them to prison, the princess would make every effort to at least try to help them deal with their psychotic ideals. Grimwood simply looked to the alicorn with a blank expression as she eyed him pleadingly. “But I already have all the help I need to make things right… right after my sister and I start the eternal night.” Grimwood said while smiling slightly. Celestia was horrified to see such sinister desires in the young colt. Suddenly the sound of the door opening on the far side of the room drew everyone’s attention away. The ponies were greeted with the sight of Dust Kicker and Raincloud walking into the room, being closely followed by Raven Feather. “So how did it go?” Shadow Mist asked curiously while looking to the trio with an intrigued expression. “Let’s just say that we don’t need to worry about the elements of harmony anymore.” Raincloud said while hiding a devious smirk. “What?! What did you do?!” Celestia demanded in a shocked tone. The alicorn practically fell over from trying to get up to her feet. “I did what I should have done a long time ago. I took care of the problem.” Raven Feather said while tossing the sword she was carrying over to the surprised princess. The broken blade was almost completely stained red with blood down to the hilt. “Twilight Sparkle is dead. The elements of harmony won’t be a problem anymore.” Raven Feather announced with a pleased expression while looking around to her followers. Most of the room had indifferent or hesitant expressions, but some were genuinely happy with the news. “W-what?” Celestia stammered in a stunned tone. She fell back to a seated position as she stared at the blood soaked sword in front of her with wide eyes. Taking a look back up to the black mare, she saw no signs that she was lying. “I went to check myself after the other element bearers ran away with their tails between their legs. She was practically swimming in a pool of her own blood by the time I got there, and she had been dead for a few minutes at least.” Raven Feather explained with a sadistic smirk while reveling in the distraught expression on the princess’s face. “You… you monster.” Celestia muttered in a shocked tone while looking down. She felt a single tear fall down her face as the grim news sank in. “I’m no monster Celestia. You did this to her yourself by creating ignorance and fear among your subjects. After I start the eternal night and gain control of the dark world instead of hiding from it, I will be twice the ruler you ever were!” Raven Feather said in a spiteful tone while glaring at the alicorn. “Twilight was innocent… she didn’t deserve to die! All she was doing was protecting her home and her friends… and you… you killed her.” Celestia shook her head sadly while fighting to hold back her emotions from the twisted mare. The last thing she wanted to do was to give her the satisfaction of seeing her break down. “I’ll kill many more before we cut out the weakest links of Equestria. All of the ponies too ignorant to see that this is the best way to keep us safe from any who would oppose us need to be taught, or they will die fighting for their own beliefs… beliefs that you forced on them.” Raven Feather explained in a scornful tone. “This is insanity Raven Feather! How do you expect to keep anyone safe once the eternal night begins?! The world will be flooded with evil creatures, and the sunlight that keeps so many of them at bay will be gone forever!” Celestia yelled in a frustrated manner. The black mare merely chuckled in response. “I don’t know why I expected you to appreciate my vision. You see dear princess, the eternal night doesn’t just pop a load of evil creatures into existence. It allows those who summoned it, those with power over shadow magic, the ability to take control of the forces of darkness, and to shape the world how they see fit. I want nothing more than to protect Equestria… but I’m protecting it from you and your weakness. The ease of our takeover should only prove my point to you Celestia… you are not able to protect your subjects from forces you refuse to accept the existence of.” Raven Feather explained before turning away from the imprisoned alicorn. “Start getting the energy ready for transfer. We’re going to go through with the ritual.” The black mare stated with a pleased smirk. Upon hearing Raven Feather’s orders, the various hooded workers in the room scurried about in a rush to get everything ready. Several ponies picked up books and coordinated with their colleagues to complete their assigned tasks. Raincloud sat in the middle of a small group of workers in front of a pictogram that was just on the outside of the primary symbol. She did most of the footwork in overseeing the energy transfer from their reservoir of everything they had gathered in the past. Dust Kicker merely stood near Grimwood and Shadow Mist behind the crowd of hooded ponies watching the events unfold. Celestia was forced to watch uneasily as the group prepared to start the ritual that would doubtlessly be Equestria’s undoing. She hoped against all hope that something would happen to stop the madness being wrought by the black mare and her cult. Meanwhile, Raven Feather herself stood at the front edge of the symbol with a proud smirk on her face. She had been preparing for this moment for as long as she could remember, and it was finally going to happen. She had a whole room full of ponies under her command, and they were all prepared to do their part to bring her dream to life. The various symbols around the room were all drawn and surrounded by lit candles, the books needed and the spells contained within were being held by a designated group of readers off to the side across from Raincloud, and all of the energy needed was within reach. If the eternal night was going to be started in Equestria, then this would be the most likely opportunity for it. “Raincloud, start the energy transfer.” Raven Feather instructed while looking over to the grey pegasus. Raincloud nodded with a pleased expression before looking down to the symbol before her and starting her work. As the grey mare and the few ponies around her started interacting with the symbol, it started shimmering with a bright blue glow. Raincloud channeled shadow energy to her hoof and placed it in the middle of the symbol, which caused it to erupt into a solid purple glow. The light from the glyphs incased inside the symbol seemingly lifted into the air a short ways, creating a three dimensional image of them that was mesmerizing to behold. With a nod of confirmation from the hooded pegasus, Raven Feather looked over to the other side of the symbol. There were around five ponies, two of them reading a grouping of books and notes off the floor, and three of them holding books open to certain pages in their hooves. “Start reciting the secondary incantations.” The black mare instructed to the group of ponies, who all nodded in response before burying their heads into their books. Once they found their places, they all started reciting passages in a bizarre language that not even Celestia recognized. They continued reading the passages, seemingly starting over in loops once they reached the end, creating an unsettling harmony of hushed voices. Suddenly, the outer circle of the main symbol and all of the glyphs contained inside started glowing purple. Another light erupted from the center of the smaller symbol near Raincloud, which started flowing upwards and downwards into the outer circle. Raven Feather smirked as she saw her plan coming to fruition. She then turned around and started walking over to the imprisoned alicorn watching from the sidelines. Celestia thought she was walking over to gloat, but then the black mare produced a small knife and a vial from one of the pockets on her hoodie. “What are you doing?” Celestia asked nervously while eyeing the small blade. She wondered if she was going to die before she even got to see her kingdom fall. “I’m going to need a little more from you than your presence.” Raven Feather said while roughly grabbing the princess’s arm and holding the vial under it. She used the knife and made a small incision in her arm, taking great pleasure in slowing down the process as much as possible. “Tch!” Celestia cringed painfully as the black mare sliced her arm open. Raven Feather held the vial under the incision and let the alicorn’s blood flow into it and fill it up. After she was done, she simply let the princess’s arm go and walked away, almost as if she didn’t care whether or not she bled to death. “Essence of the princess of the sun… the missing ingredient that was lost to humankind. See, even in magical terms, there never existed pure essence of the sun, not until you were born that is. That probably explains why the humans never started the eternal night. They were sorely lacking in the materials they needed.” Raven Feather explained with a chuckle while eyeing the vial full of liquid with a wide grin. “Then how do you know the humans even figured out the right way to perform the ritual?” Celestia asked in a cynical tone. The black mare merely offered a passing glare to her while walking back over to the symbol. “Simply put your highness, they didn’t. I had to sift through studies on magic from the human world and our own, not to mention the dozens of tomes on the eternal night, just to find a workable version of the ritual. Years of my life spent buried in the past… and now, I can finally look forward to the future.” Raven Feather stated with a proud tone while standing at the front of the symbol again. In the time it took the black mare to extract and collect Celestia’s blood, the other two circles within the symbol had started glowing with the same purple light. Now the only portion of the symbol that remained unlit was the smallest circle in the center of the symbol. “Dust Kicker, please come over here and stand on the opposite side of the symbol.” Raven Feather asked while looking back at the brown stallion. Dust Kicker nodded before trotting over and standing across the symbol from the black mare. “Once I pour this into the center circle, the three of us will need to channel as much shadow magic as we can through the symbol.” Raven Feather explained while looking to Raincloud and Dust Kicker. “Got it.” Raincloud said while nodding understandingly. “Alright.” Dust Kicker said while readying himself. With her two colleagues prepared to do their part, Raven Feather directed her attention ahead of her to the symbol. The black mare took a step forward through the glowing outline of the outer circle and planted her hoof down. As expected, nothing worthwhile happened and she was permitted to continue towards the center. As she stood just before the center circle, Raven Feather held the vial of blood in her outstretched arm and tilted it sideways. The crimson fluid poured out and landed in the circle, collecting in a small pool within the confines of the glowing edges. Once all of the blood had been poured, the mass of fluid suddenly erupted into a puff of smoke and light. The symbol emitted a low hum at fixed intervals, seemingly giving an audible clue as to how much energy was contained within. Raven Feather stepped back outside of the symbol and stood at the edge. With a nod of confirmation between them, the three ponies held out a single hoof and channeled shadow energy to the tip. In perfect synchronization, they all placed their hooves down on the outer edge of the symbol and channeled their energy through it. Three streams of a darker shadowy color started creeping across the symbol and into the center. After reaching the inner circle, the three streams traveled into it and seemingly filled it up with energy. Suddenly the glyphs inside the inner circle turned pitch black, offering a sort of visual cue as to the progress being made. Raven Feather smirked as she saw how close she was to finishing the ritual. “Stand back everyone. This could be a little hectic.” Raven Feather instructed while walking over to a symbol on one of the outer circles of the pictogram. Raincloud and Dust Kicker backed up and watched eagerly as the black mare stood before the symbol in preparation for the final step. An anxious hush befell the room as everyone stood by and watched with varying degrees of fear or excitement while Raven Feather looked down at the symbol. The only sound that could be heard was the strange hum coming from the symbol itself. Finally, Raven Feather raised her hoof into the air and placed it down on a particular grouping of glyphs. The entire symbol suddenly lit up a bright shade of purple as the magical hum grew in pitch. Just as suddenly as the black mare stepped on the symbol, a wave of air rushed outwards in a circle, blowing out all of the candles and blowing back everyone’s hair with a loud whoosh. Once everyone opened their eyes and looked around, they noticed the symbol wasn’t glowing anymore. The magical hum had vanished with the rush of air, leaving the room in silence once more. Strangely enough, nothing else seemed to be happening. Everyone looked around curiously for any signs of change around them. They were all confused, having expected more of a display out of the ritual that was meant to bathe the land in everlasting darkness. “Did it work?” One of the hooded workers asked in a confused tone while looking around at the others curiously. Taking a look outside, the group saw the sun still beaming down through the clouds spaced out around the sky as if nothing happened. “Raven Feather… wasn’t that the last step?” Raincloud asked in a confused tone. “Yes, it was…” Raven Feather replied while looking around the symbol to see if anything meaningful was happening. None of the glyphs were glowing, nor were any other part of the large symbol. If it weren’t for the presence of the snuffed out candles, the room would have looked the same as it did before she started. “I imagined the eternal night would be a bit… darker than this.” Dust Kicker said while taking note of the sunlight streaming in through the window. “I don’t understand… we did everything perfectly. All of the necessary spellwork and ingredients were present… we did the ritual right… so what the hell is going on?!” Raven Feather said in an agitated tone while stamping her hoof down on the ground. “Perhaps your plan wasn’t as well thought out as you first thought.” Celestia said with a wry smirk. She hid a sigh of relief behind her smug expression. She was just as pleased that nothing happened as the black mare was frustrated. Ignoring the alicorn and her sarcastic musings, Raven Feather trotted over to the side and snatched a book full of notes from one of the workers near the symbol. She read the checklist of steps and materials needed for each step to see if some mistake was made. As much as she wanted to blame the organizational skills of the appointed scribe, the pony had diligently marked off each step as instructed, and she knew each step by heart anyway. “What went wrong?! We couldn’t have made a mistake… unless… unless…” Raven Feather muttered in an agitated sense of shock. “Unless what, Raven Feather?” Raincloud asked in a concerned tone while walking over to the black mare with a sympathetic expression. Raven Feather slid to a seated position and stared at the floor with a stunned expression. She seemed to be having a mental crisis from the distraught appearance she had. “Unless the ritual itself was never going to work in the first place.” Raven Feather stated in a dull tone as she slowly gained the willpower to speak outwardly. “What?! But that can’t be possible! You did so much research… all of the stuff you ran past me was flawless!” Raincloud said in a shocked tone. “I know… I know… but I just can’t fathom what else could be wrong.” Raven Feather stated in a frustrated manner while rubbing her temples pensively. Meanwhile, Grimwood and Shadow Mist were watching from the sidelines. The pale colt looked to the stallion and gave a brief nod before getting up and walking over to his sister. Grim paused behind the black mare and watched her trying to contain her frustration with a sympathetic expression. For both of their sakes, he hoped that his method would actually work. “Raven Feather, I think I might know what went wrong.” Grimwood said while putting a reassuring hoof on the black mare’s side. Raven Feather turned her head and shrugged before bottling up her agitated nerves to address her sibling without biting his head off. “What is it Grimwood?” Raven Feather asked in a dull tone. It was easy to tell that she wasn’t impressed with whatever solution the colt might suggest. “See, I think you got it mostly right, but you didn’t account for some of the older texts. I have a bag full of some supplies that will-” Grimwood said while turning to look over to Shadow Mist and his supplies. He was suddenly interrupted by Raven Feather groaning softly and shaking her head. “Grim… please don’t start with your theories again. Now is not the right time for this.” Raven Feather said in an agitated tone. She didn’t want to hurt the colt’s feelings, but she was far too emotionally unstable at the moment to be dealing with his nonsense. “What…? But… but I have a fix that will work. I spent a lot of time and effort trying to check my work and gather supplies.” Grimwood explained in a confused tone. He thought that seeing her own plan fail would make the black mare more open to his ideas, but clearly he was mistaken. “Grimwood… I really don’t want to get into it with you right now. I already looked over all of the old texts, and most of them are full of myths and inane gibberish. Just leave me alone and let me process what to do next.” Raven Feather said in a more frustrated tone. “Hey, Raven Feather… maybe you should go easy on him. I’m sure he just wants to help.” Raincloud suggested in a concerned tone. She had never seen the black mare act so restrained with her anger. Still, it looked like she was boiling over on the inside. The pegasus wondered if she was having a mental breakdown from so many failures happening at once. Grimwood frowned slightly as his sibling tossed his efforts in his face again. He normally didn’t let his emotions get the better of him, but seeing such stubbornness in his sister was starting to make him frustrated as well. “Raven Feather, why won’t you just listen to me? I’ve worked on this plan with you ever since we came to the mansion! I helped you fact check most of your work… I did a fair amount of your work! Why can’t you just accept that you messed something up for once?!” Grimwood raised his voice into an upset tone while facing the black mare. “Because I can’t mess this up!” Raven Feather finally turned around and snapped at the colt, catching him off guard. Grimwood took a step back, but she simply stood up and followed him. “I’ve done all of this so we can live in peace with the world instead of hiding from it! I took you with me once they started to treat you like trash… just like they did with me!” Raven Feather yelled angrily while trying to reason with the colt. She wasn’t yelling as loudly as she usually did with someone that upset her, but somehow she seemed to be putting more frustration and emotion behind it despite the fact. “R-Raven Feather... I-” Grimwood stammered slightly while backing up to distance himself from the black mare. He had never seen his sister so upset with him before. “I don’t want to hear it Grim! I worked so hard to make this plan work, but it didn’t ok?! I tried everything that was available to me! The only reason I even rejected your theories was because I had already gone over them! I failed, so there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about that! I’m not even sure if the eternal night exists anymore! This stupid symbol might as well be a piece of useless junk!” Raven Feather yelled while venting her emotions. Everything that had been building inside of her was suddenly let out, and unfortunately for Grimwood, he had been the one that triggered her inevitable meltdown. Grimwood backtracked with a shocked expression on his face. He was on the verge of tears from hearing his sister snap at him. He understood her anger perfectly, but somehow he felt crushed from hearing her discredit him so harshly. “Raven Feather… I… I’m-” Grimwood muttered in a distraught tone while stepping backwards. Suddenly, he found himself smack dab in the center of the symbol on the floor. He inadvertently planted his back leg down inside the center circle, when a sudden burst of light and sound rang out. “AHHHH!” Grimwood screamed out in pain as he was caught in the center of the newly created light. Just as suddenly as the light appeared, several streams of a black smoke-like substance started flowing out of the symbol and traveling into the colt’s body. “*Gasp* Grimwood!” Raven Feather exclaimed in shock while staring at her brother with wide eyes. He was being suspended in the air slightly as the black substance continued flowing into him. There was seemingly nothing the colt could do to free himself from the grasp of whatever was happening. A droning screeching sound accompanied the colt’s screams of pain, seemingly coming from whatever the dark substance flowing into him was. Even with Raven Feather’s knowledge of shadow magic, she knew that whatever was happening to her brother was bad, and she had to do something to save him. Taking a frantic look around, the black mare discovered that the symbol responsible for storing the energy for the ritual was glowing. Whatever was happening must have been drawing power from the symbols themselves. “Break the energy symbol!” Raven Feather yelled frantically to Raincloud, who was still staring in shock at what was happening to Grimwood. The grey pegasus looked to the black mare, and then to the symbol beneath her feet with a panicked expression. “Won’t that dump all of the energy into the air?!” Dust Kicker asked in a concerned tone from the other side of the symbol. Surely having so much energy explode out of a symbol at once wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone standing nearby, let alone the possible consequences after the fact. “Who cares?!” Raincloud yelled while channeling shadow energy to her hoof and raising it. She was more concerned with Grimwood’s safety than whatever might happen from releasing the energy. As the grey mare stomped her hoof down onto the small symbol and channeled her energy into it, a brief flash of light appeared and nearly blinded anyone watching. Along with the light, a loud and powerful wave of energy erupted out in a circle, blowing everyone’s hair back violently and traveling out of the room. As the faint shockwaves hit the edges of the room and escaped into the rest of the castle, what few windows and glass decorations there were shattered and flung shards against the walls. When all of the commotion died down and everyone could open their eyes again, everything was quiet. The symbol was unlit and silent, with Grimwood having dropped to the floor limply after the strange black substance stopped suspending him in the air. “Grim!” Raven Feather exclaimed in a distraught tone while rushing forward. She knelt down beside the motionless colt and picked him up in her arms gently. “Grim, can you hear me? Are you alright?!” Raven Feather asked in a panic while examining her sibling for any signs of life. He felt oddly cold to the touch, and he resembled a corpse for all intents and purposes. The longer the colt remained limp and motionless, the further the black mare’s heart sunk. “Is he breathing?!” Raincloud asked in a concerned tone while walking over to the black mare and watching anxiously for any signs that Grimwood was alive. Raven Feather placed a hoof to Grimwood’s neck to feel for a pulse. Through her frantic and shaky hooves, she couldn’t manage to feel anything, no matter how much she felt around. She nearly felt her heart skip a beat as she desperately hoped that her mind was playing tricks on her. Suddenly and very abruptly, Grimwood shot upwards and gasped for air. He looked around with an expression of shock while trying to calm down and catch his breath. “Grim! You’re alive!” Raven Feather exclaimed with joyous relief while hugging her brother close to her. “What… what happened?” Grimwood asked in a drowsy and confused tone. He looked around slowly with a paler appearance than usual and a tired disposition. “I don’t know Grim, but it doesn’t matter right now. We’re going to take you home so you can rest.” Raven Feather explained while gently setting the colt down and letting him lay on the floor. “Raincloud, start packing up the supplies and gather up all the workers. We’re heading out as soon as possible.” The black mare instructed in a serious tone. Raincloud nodded before turning and walking away to start gathering up all of the vital materials they brought with them. Meanwhile, Celestia was watching Grimwood with an uneasy expression. Ever since the colt inadvertently started the reaction with the symbol, she had felt an odd aura around him, like some kind of puzzling feeling nagging at the back of her mind. Grimwood was laying on the ground and staring up at the ceiling while breathing softly. He had a dazed look about him, as if he weren’t really paying attention to anything and was simply staring into nothingness. Suddenly, Celestia saw a brief flicker of movement on the colt’s side. It looked like a twinge of blackness just appeared and disappeared out of his body, almost like it was emitted by him. The uneasy feeling building in the alicorn’s mind only grew worse with the bizarre and troubling sight. She wasn’t sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her or if she actually wanted them to be or not. “Raven Feather… I feel weird.” Grimwood said in a genuinely frightened tone while shivering violently. Raven Feather turned to see a sickly expression on her brother’s face. She frowned with concern while walking over to him and feeling his forehead to see if he was running a fever. Much to her surprise, she actually felt an icy chill travel into her hoof from simply touching the colt. “Good lord… you’re freezing cold, Grim. Do you feel sick or… different?” Raven Feather asked in a concerned tone while thinking back to what the symbol did to her sibling. She wondered what was actually happening during the sudden and frightening reaction. Grimwood simply remained silent while staring ahead with a sickly expression. He shivered violently while being cradled in his sister’s arms, much to the concern of everyone watching. Even the hooded workers that didn’t personally know the colt were starting to feel bad for him. “Let me see him. Maybe I can do something to help.” Shadow Mist suggested while struggling to get up. The stallion seemed to have lost a fair amount of strength due to his injuries. “Don’t strain yourself Shadow. I appreciate the offer, but I can take care of him. First we need to get out of here before any more guards arrive.” Raven Feather said while glancing behind her to check on the progress of Raincloud and her band of workers. The grey pegasus and several workers were packing up all of the books and materials used in the ritual, but they were taking a bit longer than Raven Feather would have liked. The black mare gently sat her brother down and stood up. Just seeing the pale colt shivering on the floor with a blank expression on his face made her feel terrible inside, after all she was the one who did this to him. “Raven Feather… unlock these cuffs and I will help you… I’ll help him.” Celestia spoke in a concerned tone, eliciting the black mare to turn and look at her. “Why would I want your help?” Raven Feather asked in an irritated tone. She half expected to see no emotion on the alicorn’s face, but she seemed genuinely concerned and empathetic as she looked over at the colt sitting on the floor. “Look… we can sort out differences between us later. If you free me, we can work together to make sure your brother gets all the help he needs. You know a great deal about darker magic, and I know a great deal of light magic, so if we hurry we might be able to do something.” Celestia suggested while making every attempt to level with the black mare. Raven Feather instinctively scoffed in disgust at the princess’s words before looking down and actually considering them. She looked back to Grimwood with a concerned expression before shrugging in frustration and shaking her head. “I don’t need your help Celestia. I can take care of my brother myself… I’m the one who did this to him anyway.” Raven Feather stated in an adamant tone. She wasn’t declining due to her grudge with the alicorn, far from it in fact. She knew that any form of magic the princess knew about was likely less potent than the things she knew herself. And right now, Grimwood needed someone capable and strong. “How are we doing Raincloud? We need to get out of here as soon as possible. Grim isn’t looking too good.” Raven Feather asked while walking over to the grey mare to see how much she had left to pack. “I’m moving as fast as I can.” Raincloud replied in an uneasy tone while glancing over to Grimwood with a concerned expression. She had the help of several workers, but there were still a lot of supplies that needed to be packed up, and not everyone seemed to be as motivated as the black mare and her colleagues were. “Where are we even going after this?” One of the workers asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… and what are we going to do after we get there? I signed up for taking over the world, not botching a takeover of Canterlot and becoming an enemy of the state.” Another worker stated in an irritated tone. “Just shut up and work will you? We’ll have a plan set up after we get out of here.” Raincloud said in an annoyed tone while shooting a glare towards the unruly ponies. “I thought this was the plan.” A third worker said in a troubled tone. Even with the looming threats coming from Raincloud, most of the hoods in the room were whispering amongst themselves uneasily. Raven Feather could practically feel the distrust and scorn coming her way from the more unsavory members of her following. “Will all of you just be quiet!” Raven Feather yelled in a threatening tone, causing the room to fall silent. “The arrangement I made with all of you was to take over Equestria together. Just because this plan failed doesn’t mean that anything has changed. I will rip the crown from Celestia’s head if I have to, even if the eternal night isn’t real. Whether or not you believe me… you can take this as a fact. If I hear one more person objecting to me getting my brother out of here, I will personally ensure that you get to be Raincloud’s shadow’s new plaything!” The black mare yelled angrily. Everyone in the room, whether they had been quietly whispering or vocalizing their opinions, went deathly quiet. All of the ponies that were stirring up trouble hid their faces and returned to what they were doing. They quickly realized that this organization was not the place to be staging a coup. “You’re wrong…” Grimwood said in a stoic tone. The odd and sudden response from the colt made Raven Feather pause with confusion. “What?” Raven Feather asked in a puzzled tone while looking over to her brother. The colt had stopped shivering, and was simply staring at her with a blank expression. “I said you’re wrong.” Grimwood repeated himself casually while continuing his blank stare. Such emotionless expressions were the norm for the colt, but somehow Raven Feather felt a little uneasy from the particular stare she was getting from her brother. “What was I wrong about?” Raven Feather asked with guarded curiosity while looking around at the others. Raincloud, Dust Kicker, and even Shadow Mist seemed to be just as confused by the colt’s odd behavior as she was. “The eternal night is real… just not in the way you imagined.” Grimwood stated while getting up slowly. He started walking towards the black mare at a casual pace, all the while staring ahead with a passive, almost calm expression. “Grim… you should be resting. We can talk about the eternal night after you get better… and I can go over your theories again with you.” Raven Feather said in a concerned tone. She felt horrible for causing so much pain in the colt. The way he stood up to her and vented his emotions only made the fact that she caused him to get hurt that much more terrible. “I don’t want to go over theories with you. I just want to stay here.” Grimwood said in a calm tone while continuing to walk closer to the black mare. “What…? What do you mean stay here?” Raven Feather asked in a confused tone while taking a step back. She was slightly disturbed by the sudden shift in her brother’s behavior. “I feel weak… I need to rest for a while like you said. But I need to stay here to do it. You all can just go on ahead of me… I’ll catch up eventually.” Grimwood said while continuing to walk forward. Just as Raven Feather thought he was going to passively chase her to the other side of the room, the colt paused at the center of the unlit symbol on the floor and sat down. He waited in the center of the symbol while humming to himself quietly and bobbing his head, as if he actually expected everyone to get up and leave him to his own devices. “Is he ok…?” Raincloud whispered uneasily while sharing a concerned expression with Raven Feather. The black mare glanced between the grey pegasus and her brother, who was still humming quietly to himself while looking ahead pensively. “I don’t know… maybe that reaction with the symbol did something to him?” Raven Feather whispered back in a concerned tone. Grimwood seemed to pay little attention to the others in the room, and his bizarre behavior was seriously creeping out many of the hooded workers, not to mention Raven Feather and the others. “Grim… are you feeling ok? Maybe I should take a look at you with my shadow magic and see if something is wrong.” Raven Feather suggested in a soft tone while slowly walking up to her brother and putting a hoof on his shoulder. The colt still felt icy cold, and not just the type of cold that came from sickness or any other natural occurrence. He felt colder than any living thing should have. “Hmm…. Such an interesting concept isn’t it? Harnessing the power of shadows to do one’s bidding. It’s actually rather humorous to think that such a power can just be tapped into without much effort.” Grimwood said while briefly glancing to the black mare. “That does it… I’m getting you out of here right now. Raincloud and the others can pack up by themselves. I need to get you somewhere to help you.” Raven Feather said while getting up and putting her arms around her brother’s shoulder. She tried lifting him up, but he refused to budge. “Leave me alone.” Grimwood said in a passive tone while the black mare struggled to lift him up. “Grim, you’re not well… you need to… hrk! You need to come with me!” Raven Feather said in a frustrated tone while putting her arms around the colt’s waist and trying to pick him up. Grimwood was fighting to stay in place with great force. It felt like she was trying to pick up a boulder. All the while the colt remained still and passive, albeit with a slight curve to his mouth that suggested annoyance. “Damn Raven Feather… how heavy can he be?” Dust Kicker asked in a concerned tone while watching the black mare struggling. “He isn’t letting me pick him up. Could you come over here and help me?” Raven Feather asked in a frustrated tone. She didn’t even care about gathering her supplies anymore. She was ready to cut her losses as long as she got her brother to a safe location where she could see what was wrong with him. Dust Kicker quickly walked over to the two siblings and gently grabbed Grimwood around the waist. He tried to pick him up, but strangely the colt was able to resist even his efforts. “Stop that.” Grimwood said in a more irritated tone. “hrrg! He’s not… guh… he’s not moving!” Dust Kicker said in a surprised tone while pulling with all his strength. Finally his grip faltered and he fell backwards from trying so hard to move the colt. “Grimwood, you listen to me right now. You are coming with me whether you like it or not so I can figure out what is wrong with you. I…” Raven Feather paused suddenly as she put her hoof on her brother’s chest. She pressed harder and felt around with a stunned and confused expression before looking at her brother in shock. “Grim… your heart isn’t beating.” Raven Feather said in a stunned tone, to which the colt simply smirked. “Well what can I say? Heartbeats aren’t really necessary for me anymore.” Grimwood said with a wry smirk. Suddenly, the colt blinked and his eyes turned pitch black. “You… you’re not Grimwood!” Raven Feather stated while recoiling in shock. “How would you know?” The colt asked while standing up suddenly. In one swift motion, the tip of Grimwood’s hoof was covered in a pitch black pulsating mass as he shoved his arm forward towards the black mare. Grimwood’s hoof stabbed into Raven Feather’s chest, piercing it like a blade. A gush of blood poured out of her chest as the black mare let out a stifled cry of shock and pain. “You barely paid attention to me anyway.” Grimwood said in a cold tone while returning a blank expression to his face. “Raven Feather!” Dust Kicker exclaimed in shock as he watched the black mare stumble backwards. Raven Feather put her hoof up to her chest and looked down with her mouth agape in shock as her own blood poured onto her hoof. Dust Kicker growled with anger and got up again. He channeled shadow energy to his hoof and charged after the colt, fully intent on ripping whatever evil presence had taken him over out of him and beating it senseless with his bare hooves. Grimwood, or rather, whatever was currently using his body, used his still pitch black hoof and slashed sideways at the brown stallion, catching him across the neck. Dust Kicker was sent tumbling sideways from the force of the strike as blood gushed from his throat. He barely had time to let out a grunt of pain before he started clutching his throat choking on his own blood. “Dust!” Raincloud screamed in shock as she watched her brother spurting blood from his neck while writhing on the floor. She ran across the room and knelt down beside him to pick him up and cradle him in her arms. Dust Kicker was unable to talk or even acknowledge his sister other than looking up at her while clutching his injury and coughing. It was easy to see that the stallion was growing weaker by the second as he clung to life. “Dust, don’t you even think about dying you big knucklehead!” Raincloud said in a panicked tone while trying to coax her brother into putting more pressure on his wound. Dust Kicker struggled for a few moments more before gradually growing still and closing his eyes. “Dust…?! Dust Kicker!” Raincloud yelled in a distraught tone while shaking the brown stallion to no avail. Raven Feather watched the grey pegasus holding her brother’s lifeless body while still reeling from her own wound. Raincloud had tears streaming down her face, something that the black mare had never seen before. “I’m sorry… Raincloud.” Raven Feather said in a weak tone. Her legs wobbled slightly before giving out and sending her to the floor. Raincloud turned her head to see the black mare on the floor clutching her injury with a pale expression. “Raven Feather!” Raincloud yelled mournfully while watching the black mare gasping for air. She was gradually losing the strength to even hold her head up or clutch her wound. Raven Feather glanced over to the pale colt still sitting in the center of the symbol. He had a passive expression on his face, though there was a small smirk of accomplishment as he watched his handiwork. “I’m so so..rry…” Raven Feather muttered weakly while lowering her head to the floor. The pain in her chest and the coldness around her were the only feelings she had. Finally her eyes drifted shut and she limply settled on the ground. Raincloud wailed mournfully as she watched the black mare die. She looked down to the stallion still held in her arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Still, the sadness she was feeling was overshadowed by another emotion that she was directing towards the one responsible, pure and unyielding rage. “You…” The grey mare said in a stern tone while glaring at the pale colt. “I don’t know who, or what you are… but you are going to pay for this. I am going to rip you out of Grimwood myself… and when I do, you are dead.” She said in a quiet and scornful tone. “I welcome the challenge.” Grimwood said with a slight smirk while watching the pegasus. An echoed and distorted noise rang out as Raincloud’s shadow rose up behind her. The pegasus glared at the colt before looking around at the others. Everyone, including Shadow Mist and Princess Celestia were watching in stunned and shocked silence as far away from the pair as possible. Raincloud contemplated fighting the colt and delivering on her promise right here and now, but somehow she knew that she wouldn’t win. “I’ll be back for you… mark my words.” Raincloud said with a final passing glare at the black eyed pony. The grey mare set her brother’s body down gently before getting up and walking away. As Raincloud walked over to the door and exited the room with her shadowy minion, the room was left in an eerie silence. Everyone stared at the pale colt with terrified expressions. They all wondered if he was going to slaughter them all or eat them alive. Either way, the black eyes he had didn’t make him any less creepy as he looked around the room with a passive expression. “Well…? What are all of you waiting for? I did say leave earlier didn’t I?” Grimwood asked in a curious tone while looking to the hooded workers. Almost all at once, all of the workers got up and ran towards the door while whining nervously or outright screaming in terror. After a few short moments, the only ones left in the room were Shadow Mist, Celestia, and the pale colt. “Ah… peace and quiet.” Grimwood breathed a relaxed sigh while getting up and walked forward passively. He looked over to see Shadow Mist and Celestia staring at him with shocked expressions. “Mother of mercy Grim… you just… you just killed them.” Shadow Mist stammered in a shocked tone while looking back to Raven Feather and Dust Kicker. “I did…?” Grimwood said in a confused and almost shocked tone. He blinked a few times while looking back at his sister’s body. His black eyes turned normal again as he stared ahead with a stunned expression. Just as suddenly as his confusion arrived, he cringed while clenching his eyes shut and holding his head. After shaking his head for a moment, the colt opened his eyes to reveal nothing but blackness again. “Yes… I guess I did. Sorry… I must be a little out of it. There are so many memories floating around up here… old memories… well, not old for me I suppose.” The colt explained in a confused tone before collecting himself and returning his blank tone of voice. “Look… Grimwood, I don’t know what happened to you, but I can help you.” Shadow Mist said in a concerned tone. “Don’t call me that… I’m not Grimwood… well, mostly anyway. I just woke up inside his head a few moments ago, so he is still rooting around in here… still, as of now I am different enough to warrant my own name.” The colt said in a clarifying tone. “Ok… what do you want me to call you?” Shadow Mist asked in an uncertain tone. He was still trying to figure out how he could help to return his friend to normal. “Hmm… I don’t know. I’ve had a few names before, but nothing that felt really me-ish… it feels so unusual to pick a name for oneself.” The colt said while putting his hoof under his chin and pondering to himself. “What happened to him?” Shadow Mist whispered in a concerned tone to Celestia. The alicorn realized that the red stallion must have been truly terrified to confide in her. “You know more about shadow magic than I do… isn’t there anything that explains what happened?” Celestia asked curiously. “No… nothing like this has ever happened before to our knowledge. None of the texts even refer to something like this.” Shadow Mist said in a troubled tone. “Whatever he is… he isn’t natural. I feel his aura so intensely… it feels like… like…” Celestia muttered as she tried to find a word for what she was feeling. Whatever was currently residing in the colt felt utterly wrong and evil to her. “Shade...” The colt said in a pleased tone. “What?” Shadow Mist asked in a confused tone. The colt smiled slightly as he stared back at the two nervous onlookers with his black eyes. “You can call me Shade.” He said with a genuine smile that the red stallion had never seen the colt produce. The fact that it wasn’t really Grimwood producing the expression only made it more disturbing to behold. Meanwhile, back at the entry hall, a pair of ponies in hoods were walking around and observing their surroundings. One was a yellow earth pony stallion with grey hair, and the other was a green pegasus mare with white hair. The pair were casually standing near the stairs and waiting around for someone to come by. “Ugh… I hate how Raven Feather put us on scout duty… I bet we’re totally missing the ritual.” The mare said with an annoyed sigh. “That would probably explain that wave of energy that came through here.” The stallion replied while looking over to the large windows at the front of the room. The burst of energy ripped through the room, nearly shattering every glass object in sight and leaving a large series of cracks in the windows as it traveled out into Equestria. “What are we even doing here? Keeping an eye on these stiffs?” The pegasus asked while looking over to the purple unicorn in the middle of the room and the human leaned up against the wall off to the side. “Raven Feather said to keep an eye out for any guards coming this way.” The stallion said while trying to get the green mare to be quiet. “Yeah, well I have a few choice words for Raven Feather if she thinks I want to be doing this all day while she and her ring of freaks do all that hocus pocus stuff.” The pegasus muttered in an irritated tone. “Geez… don’t let anyone hear you talk like that. I’ll bet any one of them could turn you into mincemeat by just looking at you.” The stallion said in a concerned manner. “Oh come on, I could at least take the kid on in a fight.” The green mare stated in an unimpressed tone while giving the stallion a shifty look. “Grimwood? No way… have you seen him back at the mansion? He just sits in a corner and reads quietly or watches people. I wouldn’t be surprised if he grew up to be a serial killer. Not to mention the fact that he knows how to do that weird shadow magic shit Raven Feather does… he could probably kill you and still be as emotive as a rock.” The yellow pony said in an uneasy tone. “Remind me why we said yes to this? I wanted to just tell Raven Feather to shove it when she recruited us.” The pegasus asked curiously with an aggravated expression. “Well… she did say she would rule the world and then lit a fire with her bare hooves just in front of us… unholy displays of power like that tend to be attention grabbers.” The stallion replied. “Whatever… let’s just forget about that and get back to this skull grating boredom.” The green mare said while folding her arms and leaning back against a pillar with a dull expression. The stallion simply sighed before returning to his own thoughts as silence returned to the room. Suddenly, the doors at the top of the stairs burst open and a loud uproar rushed into the room while a crowd of hooded ponies ran down the steps. The ponies had terrified expressions as they all made a break for the front door. “What the…? What the hay is going on?” The green pegasus asked in a confused tone while looking to anyone to stop and explain what was happening. “It’s Grimwood! He just snapped and killed Raven Feather and Dust Kicker!” One of the hoods said in an alarmed tone while passing by. “Wait… what?!” The yellow stallion asked in a shocked tone. “It’s true! The ritual went wrong and something got inside of him! He’s psychotic!” Another pony said while running past. “Holy crap… Raven Feather is dead?” The green pegasus said in a stunned tone while looking to her yellow companion with a shocked expression. “Should we… should we go help the others or something?” The yellow stallion asked in a stunned tone. “Screw that noise, let’s cut our losses and get out of here!” The pegasus replied while getting up and grabbing the stallion by the arm. She pulled him along to coax him into running with her. Once the stallion agreed to follow his friend, the pair joined the crowd running out of the castle. “What are we going to do now?” The stallion asked in a concerned tone. “We can worry about that later! Help me get this hoodie off. We don’t want to go down with the ship when the guards show up!” The pegasus replied while trying to take off her shirt. After everyone made it through the doors and out into the streets, the doors closed and the room was silent once more. Several minutes passed by in utter silence. The sound of the panicked crowd slowly died down in the distance as they fled. The room was still and calm, with little to disturb the atmosphere of the castle other than the broken decorations and the two bodies on the floor. Suddenly, an orange light flickered to life as small embers formed in the wounds on Tom’s body. The flames weren’t doing much to heal the gaping wounds in the boy’s body, but they were still burning brilliantly enough to show signs of life. “*Gasp*” Tom sprang up slightly as air rushed into his lungs. He quickly found himself unable to move further than a few inches before settling back to his resting position. As he opened his eyes and looked around, he saw the sorry state he was in. There was a sizable pool of blood under him, and his clothes were soaked and stained red around the three holes in his body, which were still causing him a considerable amount of pain. “Oogh… gah…” Tom groaned painfully and cringed while trying to get up and move. His body was sore and stiff, and he was so weak that even if his muscles could cooperate he probably couldn’t get far. “Where…? What the heck happened?” The human muttered while mulling over the scattered haze of memories he had from before he was knocked out. As the stinging pain from his injuries reminded him of just how badly he was beaten by Raven Feather, he remembered what was happening and what needed to be done. Taking a quick look around the room, Tom noticed a pool of blood over in the middle of the room. It was hard to see with the pillars in front of him blocking his view, but he could just barely see a purple leg sitting in the pool of blood. “What the…?” Tom muttered in an uneasy tone. Fighting through the pain to scoot himself to the side with his good arm, he strained to get a better look at the body ahead of him. When he finally got a clear view, he widened his eyes in shock at what he saw. “T-Twilight…?” Tom asked in a stunned tone. Hearing no response from the unicorn and spotting the bloody wound on her chest, the boy became incredibly terrified for her safety. “Hold on Twilight… I’m coming.” With a painful cringe, the human used his uninjured arm to drag himself forward at a slow crawl. With a little added help from his legs, he managed to move closer to the lifeless mare. Due to the wounds on his body and his weakness, Tom had to pause every few moments to catch his breath and sit through the pain. He wanted to just get up and walk, but he wasn’t sure if he could handle getting upright. Finally, after a painful struggle that lasted a solid few minutes, the boy reached his goal. As he rested next to the purple mare, he saw no signs that she was breathing. Taking his hand and feeling for a pulse yielded no results, leading the human to confirm what he feared when he saw how bad the unicorn looked at a distance. “Damnit Twilight… why couldn’t you just stay away?” Tom muttered in a somber tone. He flinched in pain as his own wounds started mending themselves in a flash of embers. Suddenly, a thought popped into his head. He knew that he shouldn’t even entertain the idea, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t stand to see the innocent mare like this. “I need all the energy I can get for this…” Tom winced uncomfortably as he suppressed his healing powers. His wounds ceased glowing and continued bleeding anew, sending stabbing pains all throughout his battered body. “I know this won’t work… but that hasn’t stopped me before.” Tom said while placing his hand over Twilight’s wound. Against his better judgement, he started projecting his healing light from his hand. He could already feel his remaining energy vanishing, leaving a burning feeling of exhaustion that took every ounce of his will to overcome. After a few moments, the wound on Twilight’s chest started closing up. Just after it closed completely, Tom groaned heavily and ceased his efforts while laying down and trying his best to recover. Taking a break from his attempts at healing the unicorn, he groggily reached his hand up and felt for a pulse again. “Damnit… that’s not enough.” He muttered weakly while letting his arm fall to the floor again. The purple mare was still stone dead, and just healing her physical body wouldn’t change that. The boy knew this, and yet he still rejected the idea of giving up. “Come on… I can do this. I need to do this… it’s all a matter of willpower.” Tom said through gritted teeth. “So what if nobody has ever done this before? There’s always a first for everything.” He stated as a sort of self-pep talk. With shaky limbs and a pale face, the human readied his hand over the unicorn’s body and tried again at projecting his light. The blue glow flowed into her and enveloped her in its aura. Tom strained hard just to maintain the stream of light, and even harder just to keep his hand steady. He practically had to prop his other arm up just so he could use it to steady his shaking. Regardless of how weak he felt, he couldn’t stop. He had to press onward, and he would use every last bit of his willpower and strength to ensure that he didn’t pass out before he could succeed. A solid minute went by with no change as Twilight remained limp and motionless. The only progress being made was Tom’s strength rapidly fading and his exhaustion growing. He felt physically ill from how much energy he was using in his already withered state of health. After a few more moments, the thick haze that his mind was already in grew until the human started relaxing. “Gah!” Tom jerked himself awake after drifting into unconsciousness for a moment. He could hardly keep his eyes open from how tired he felt. If it had been any other circumstance, he would have given up and let himself pass out by now, but he had to keep going, he had to save the unicorn. “Come on Twilight… *Pant* Come on...” Tom said in an exhausted tone while breathing heavily to catch his breath. He continued projecting his light, much to his body’s refusal, as he fought against the urge to pass out. At this point, he was using much needed energy to ensure he didn’t just pass out. Using his powers like this would be catastrophic to his health, even with a healthy state of mind. “You can’t be dead… you and the others are the only ones who can fix this mess. This world needs you… it needs you a hell of a lot more than it needs me.” Tom stated while steeling himself and concentrating. With a frustrated groan, the human pushed himself even harder to put more strength behind his efforts. The light grew in intensity for a few moments before returning to normal. After a few more moments passed, the light started waning in brightness and intensity. “Come on… wake up… please… please just… wake up.” Tom muttered in a tired stupor. Against his will, his head started drifting to the floor. His muscles finally gave out as his arm fell beside him. He closed his eyes and remained as still and motionless as the unicorn next to him. Moments passed by as neither of the two moved an inch. The room was silent once more as time went on without the pair. It was almost like nothing had changed since the hooded ponies left them to rot where they lay. . … ……… “*Gasp*” Twilight suddenly shot upwards and took in a large breath of air. She breathed heavily as she processed the wave of adrenaline coursing through her. It felt like she had just been woken up from a shallow slumber, only to feel tenseness in her body and a jolt to her system. As she slowly came to her senses, she put a hoof to her chest and felt around for her wound, only to find nothing. She could feel her heart racing just from simply touching the area, which made sense given how she felt. After a few moments of touching her chest and her face, the confused unicorn looked down and saw the pool of blood she was lying in, a pool of her own blood. Now that her mind was relatively clear after her initial jolt to the system, she wondered what had happened up to now. “What happened?” Twilight said to herself in a confused tone, still recovering from her rush of adrenaline. “I was… dead? I remember getting stabbed… but why am I alive?” She muttered with a puzzled tone while looking around. Suddenly, she noticed the unconscious human lying next to her. “*Gasp* Tom!” She exclaimed in surprise. The unicorn turned herself over and rushed to check on the boy. As she felt around for a pulse, she recoiled slightly in shock from how cold and pale he was. Taking a look at the wounds still present on his body, Twilight wondered just how difficult it must have been for him to move across the room to get to her, let alone revive her with his powers. “How did you even heal me? You said that no slayer had done it before… and that any who tried died from the attempt. Oh Tom… why did you have to do that?” Twilight muttered in a sad tone. She picked up the human by the shoulders and gently shook him, hopeful that he was still alive. “Come on Tom... wake up please!” Twilight pleaded in a concerned tone. The human was ice cold and had no visible signs of life, but he appeared this way when she and her friends found him before, so she hoped that he could recover. “Where did the others go? How long was I even out?” Twilight pondered while looking around the area for anyone else. She quietly hoped that her friends decided to leave instead of going back to face the hooded ponies alone. Suddenly, the quiet sound of a flame burning to life drew the unicorn’s attention downward. She noticed orange embers forming around Tom’s body. The embers didn’t burn her as she held onto the boy, but they smoldered and glowed just as they would if the human was healing a wound. Twilight smiled a little as she watched the embers spark to life. She hoped that this was a sign that the human was healing himself and that he would wake up any minute now. However, the longer she watched the odd phenomenon, the more concerned she grew. “What’s happening?” She wondered out loud with a confused tone while looking around as the embers started forming all around the human’s body. It was like he was emitting an aura of tiny orange sparks that crackled briefly before disappearing into the air. Suddenly, Twilight noticed that the embers were completely enveloping Tom’s legs. When the orange particles lifted into the air and vanished, they revealed that the boy’s body was vanishing along with them. “No… no! Tom wake up!” Twilight pleaded as she realized what was happening. She shook the human once more in the hopes to revive him somehow, but he didn’t move at all as his body slowly vanished among the dissipating embers. “Don’t do this to me! Don’t leave!” Twilight yelled with tears streaming down her face as she held onto the human desperately. Soon enough, the embers were spreading and causing his entire body to vanish in her arms. With a final crackle of sparks flying into the air, Tom’s body completely vanished, leaving the purple mare speechless as she stared at her own hooves. Twilight remained still in a stunned state of despair as she watched the last few embers flicker out into the air. Tears freely fell to the floor as a wave of emotion built inside of her. Finally she could resist no more and a series of sobs erupted from her while she fell forward and let her head hang low to the floor. “No…” Twilight mumbled in between sobs. She pounded her hoof against the floor in a fit of frustrated despair. “It’s not fair… it’s not fair!” The unicorn yelled mournfully while sobbing into the floor. “I was supposed to show you what it was like to live peacefully again… to not have to worry about fighting or anything else… *Hic* If only I didn’t get stabbed… why… *Sob* … why didn’t you just leave me? You barely knew me… we only met a week ago, but you always went out of your way to protect me and everyone else.” Twilight spoke to thin air while trying to process her sadness. “You didn’t deserve this… I just wish I could make things better… I wish you never became a slayer!” She stated before falling into another fit of sobs and crying. The finality of having her friend vanish right before her eyes was more than the unicorn could take. Minutes went by as the purple mare cried her heart out. The weight of everything that was happening came crashing down on her as she sobbed into the floor. She had recently died, she was covered in her own blood, she just lost a friend, and all of Equestria was falling to pieces from the recent attacks, this was perhaps the lowest moment in her life. Twilight couldn’t even bring herself to entertain the thought that anything would be ok ever again. All she could do was cry until her eyes stung and wait while her emotions poured out. Finally, the distraught mare managed to pick herself up off the ground. She remained still for a few moments while steadying her breathing and letting her last few tears roll down her face. She felt empty inside, like she was still lying dead on the floor. She almost wished she was still dead; then maybe Tom would still be here. The human would certainly be more able to help the others than she would be. “No… I can’t think like this.” Twilight muttered to herself while shaking the gloomy thoughts from her head. “I have to keep going… I can’t let what you did be for nothing. I have to stop all of this.” She said in a determined tone while getting to her feet. Her legs wobbled slightly, either from her weakened state or her shocked emotions, but she managed to stand up tall and turn her thoughts to progress. “First… I need to find the others. I can’t do this alone… I just hope they’re alright.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking towards the front entrance. There was no way she could take Raven Feather and her colleagues on by herself, so turning around and heading further into the castle wasn’t an option. With uncertainty and fear gnawing at her mind, the purple mare walked over to the entrance and paused before the doors. She hesitantly opened the door to provide a small crack for scouting ahead. Finding no darklings or other such unpleasantries anywhere outside, Twilight breathed a brief sigh of relief before opening the door and stepping outside. As much as she hoped to see an army of guards waiting to storm the palace and rescue the princess, Twilight saw no such thing. She was left with only herself and the distant growls and roars of the many darklings that were doubtlessly still plaguing the city. She wished that the clouds would break at least a little bit to let in some sunlight to destroy the beasts, but the grey haze above was solid and unmoving as it had been earlier. “We can’t let them go through with the eternal night… if a few darklings can cause so much trouble with just some clouds overhead, I don’t want to think about what could happen if the sun were to vanish.” The unicorn stated with a nervous shudder. The mere thought of so many monsters running rampant across Equestria made her cringe fearfully. Filled with some reassurance in her goal, Twilight walked away from the palace grounds and out into the barren streets of Canterlot. It was eerily quiet all around, with the only noises being the far off sounds of darklings and Twilight’s own hooves clopping against the pavement. She looked around nervously, wondering if she was being tailed by one of the beasts, or if she would turn a corner and run into a pack of them. She almost missed battling with Raincloud’s shadow. At least the ghostly specter was only one creature, and she knew its relative location at all times. “Hello…? Is anyone around?” Twilight spoke up slightly in a hopeful tone while looking around at the buildings beside her. All of the shops and businesses and even the residences were all locked up tight. A few stores had broken windows and furniture strewn around, as if a few darklings ripped through the place while chasing after some unfortunate pony. Just as she expected, nobody replied to her. The empty silence combined with the eerie noises in the distance served to further cement the knot developing in her stomach. “*Sigh* This place is like a ghost town… I hope everyone is doing ok wherever they are.” The purple mare fretted while thinking about the sheer amount of danger that the citizens of Canterlot must have faced during the initial attack. Everyone was off the streets now, most likely tucked away in their homes, but how many ponies didn’t make it to safety? Turning her thoughts to her own predicament, Twilight wondered where her friends went. Assuming they weren’t fighting the hooded ponies by themselves, and the unicorn really hoped that they wouldn’t do something like that, the five mares most likely went to go find Glimmer Shine and the others. Perhaps they went back to the hotel to see if the team had returned from their escapade. Whatever the case, the hotel was at least somewhere solid to start her search. As she thought ahead to the long journey it would take to get across town to the hotel, Twilight decided that it would be best if she kept a low profile. She was barely able to contend with a crowd of darklings when she had the help of her friends and three strobes with her, but now she only had herself and her own magic. Confident she might have been in her ability to dispatch one or two of the creatures should the need arise, any noise might have attracted more of them, and that was the last thing the unicorn wanted. Taking a quick scan ahead to see what options she had, Twilight laid eyes on the entrance to an alleyway just up ahead. She smirked cheerfully as she started making her way over to the dark path. In any other circumstance she would probably avoid such a shady looking location, but with monsters prowling through the city, shadows were her best and only friend right now. After making sure she wasn’t being followed, Twilight ducked into the alleyway and walked onward. There was barely any light in the cramped passageway, but she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself by lighting up her horn. A loud crash suddenly sounded out as a trashcan was knocked over up ahead. The jarring noise made Twilight jump out of her skin. As she landed and darted her eyes around in an alert panic, she saw the trashcan rolling on its side from an intersection just ahead. Even though it was relatively dark, Twilight could see a large shadow being projected onto the wall in front of her by the brighter light coming from outside of the alley. The intersection probably led out onto the streets, so any number of things could have wandered into the alley with her. The shadow was furry looking, and it was large enough to belong to one of the darklings. As the shadow got closer to the edge of the intersection, the purple mare felt her muscles tensing up in fright. Just before Twilight thought her heart would explode in her chest, a soft meow filled the air. Much to her confusion and relief, a stray cat wandered out into the alley in front of her. The shadow it was casting was still present, although it was easier to see that it belonged to the feline instead of some shadowy beast. “Phew… you scared the living daylights out of me little guy.” Twilight said in a relieved tone. She smiled slightly while kneeling down to further examine the cat. It was a nice distraction from the tenseness around her to be able to see something as cute as a wayward feline. She almost felt like she wasn’t alone anymore, even though it was silly to think that the cat would offer her any meaningful assistance. Suddenly, the cat looked ahead into the other alley and paused. It arched its back and let out a loud hiss before starting to back up. “What is it?” Twilight asked with a confused expression. As if to answer her question, a loud and familiar deep growl made the unicorn freeze in place. The cat wailed in a terrified manner while turning tail and running down the alleyway from whence it came. Just as the cat’s shadow disappeared from sight, another shadow appeared on the other side of the intersection. Twilight backed away slightly as she watched the shadow drawing nearer. Judging from the sounds coming from just around the corner, and the shape of the shadow approaching her, there definitely wasn’t another cat waiting to pop out at her. “Darklings…” Twilight muttered in a slight panic. She could tell that there was more than one of the beasts from just listening to the disturbing growls. From the sound of it, there were more than a couple of the frightening creatures. Deciding that it would be better to run than fight, the purple mare turned around and started running back where she came from. She hardly got to break into a sprint before she skidded to a halt and stared ahead of her with eyes wide with terror. There were two shadows on the ground just outside of the alleyway. Just as the unicorn made the connection with what the shadows were, two darklings walked into view and turned down the alley to see the defenseless pony. “Oh no.” Twilight squeaked fearfully while backpedaling away from the two beasts blocking her path. She turned around to face the other darklings behind her, only to see that there were three of them coming around the corner and stalking towards her. Her options for escape were dwindling quickly. The purple mare’s mind raced as she tried to think of a way to survive for the next few minutes at least. Even if she did manage to get past the vicious pack, then she would probably make them angry enough to chase after her. Spotting the empty alleyway that the cat came through just behind the three beasts, the unicorn knew that she would have to act fast to save herself. Hearing a loud snarl behind her and the sound of the darklings leaping into the air, Twilight lit up her horn and pictured herself behind the creatures in front of her. With a magical buzz, the unicorn blinked out of existence for a moment and reappeared at the intersection just behind the creatures. The darklings looked confused for a moment, until they doubtlessly heard the purple mare behind them and turned around with less than pleased looks on what one could loosely call their faces. Feeling her adrenaline kick in, Twilight turned tail and started to run. Thankfully this alley wasn’t a dead end as there was an opening back out onto the streets just ahead. Seeing the relatively bright opening to freedom lifted the unicorn’s spirits ever so slightly. Hearing a strange noise beneath her, Twilight looked down with a confused expression. She widened her eyes in surprise as she saw two dark blotches racing out from underneath her and travelling ahead of her at rapid speeds. The unicorn skidded to a halt and watched the two blotches as they stopped at the entrance to the alley and started forming upwards into darklings. “What?! Since when can you do that by yourself?!” Twilight exclaimed in a panicked sense of shock. The only time she had seen a shadow creature exhibit the ability to sink into the ground and move around like that was when it was a creature much stronger than a darkling. As if to respond to the stunned mare, the two darklings let out a collective snarl before barking at her wildly. Taking a closer look at their behavior, Twilight realized that these darklings were somehow acting odd. They seemed far more wild and ravenous than the darklings she usually ran across. Sure, any darkling would happily rip her face off and use it as a chew toy, but these ones looked like they would rip each other to pieces just to get the opportunity. The two beasts walked forward, only to snap at each other angrily when one would get closer to the terrified pony than the other. Unfortunately for Twilight, they still seemed to only have one objective in mind, and that was her. Recoiling slightly in terror, the purple mare took a few steps backwards before hearing more growls behind her. She turned and saw the rest of the pack approaching slowly from down the alleyway. The three beasts were snapping at her with their enormous jaws, and they were barking and snarling at her so fiercely that their small bodies could hardly stay still. Taking a frantic look around at her predicament, Twilight felt herself breaking out into a nervous sweat. There were too many of the creatures to fight off in close quarters, and she couldn’t teleport behind them again without them chasing after her. “Stay back… leave me alone!” Twilight said in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. Even if her voice wasn’t trembling from fear, she doubted that the darklings would have cared. Suddenly, the two darklings behind her charged forward. The beasts barked wildly while bounding towards the purple mare at high speeds. By the time Twilight turned around, the pair was already a few inches away and leaping into the air. “AHH!” Twilight screamed fearfully. In her adrenaline fueled panic, she noticed a fire escape behind the two creatures leading upwards. Deciding that anywhere was better than where she was currently standing, she lit up her horn and concentrated on teleporting herself away. The darklings landed where the unicorn was and looked around with irritated expressions. They turned around and looked up, only to see the purple mare blinking into existence up on the fire escape. As they realized their attack failed, the pack of darklings growled angrily and barked while jumping up towards the elusive mare. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to reach up to the platform she was on, and they were unable to climb the ladder leading up to her. Before Twilight could celebrate her victory and leave, she widened her eyes in shock as she watched one of the darklings sink into the ground. The others quickly followed their comrade’s example and flattened out into translucent black spots on the ground. The black spots all scattered before rushing up the walls of the two buildings on either side of the alley and quickly making their way up towards the unicorn. “That’s not fair! Can’t I get a break for once?!” Twilight stated with a frustrated sense of panic filling her. She quickly turned tail and made her way up the fire escape as fast as she could. Her hooves clattered against the metal staircase, almost matching her racing heartbeat as she fled her shadowy pursuers. Hearing a strange noise beside her, Twilight turned her head to see one of the shadowy blotches appearing on the wall next to her. She widened her eyes in shock and let out a startled yelp while dodging backwards. Just as she cleared the blotch, a darkling leapt out of it with its teeth bared. The beast snarled while sailing past the unicorn and over the rails of the fire escape. While the darkling fell to the ground below, Twilight had to catch herself from falling over the rails in her hasty retreat. Spotting another of the blotches on the other building, Twilight realized the darkling must have been trying to jump to her. She steeled her shocked nerves and charged up her horn for a preemptive attack. As the darkling leapt out of the wall with a vicious growl, the purple mare fired a magical blast at it and shot it out of the air. As the darkling erupted into smoke, Twilight returned her attention forward and rushed up the stairway. With a loud clatter, the entire fire escape shook as one of the other darklings leapt onto it. The purple mare looked down to see the beast on the landing below her. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in surprise as she saw the creature heading upwards. She quickly started making her way up the stairs in a panicked rush to escape the predators giving chase. The purple mare could hear the darkling haphazardly making its way up after her in a clumsy rush that made a terrible racket against the metallic stairs. Along with the fear inducing sound of the beast getting closer, she could also hear its constant barking and snarling just beneath her. She hoped that she would be fast enough to climb the staircase before the creature caught up with her. Taking a look up to see the roof of the building rapidly approaching, Twilight quickly realized that she wouldn’t have many places to run to after she made it up there. Deciding to make an attempt at outsmarting the beasts pursuing her, she looked down and tried to find a spot to teleport to. As the sight of the darkling chasing her on the landing below spooked her into acting quickly, she lit up her horn and teleported beneath it. The unicorn popped back into existence and looked around swiftly. She found herself on the second landing a few feet off of the ground. Taking a look up, she noticed the darkling further up looking around in utter confusion, and the other darklings still racing along the side of the building as shadows trying to find her. “Phew…” Twilight breathed a silent sigh of relief while trying to quietly make her way down the fire escape. If she could make it back to the ground without the creatures noticing, then maybe she could escape through the alleyway and lose them. As she looked behind her while rounding the landing, Twilight gasped as she saw another shadowy blotch on the wall directly in front of her. By the time she turned to get out of the way, the hapless pony saw the darkling within leaping out of the wall towards her with its claws outstretched and its teeth bared. “AHH!” Twilight screamed fearfully as she dove to the side of the landing. As hard as she tried to get out of the creature’s path, the limited amount of space she had to deal with and the amount of time she had to react in were both too small. The darkling smashed into her side on its way past, sending the unicorn back against the rails before plummeting off the fire escape. Although the beast didn’t clip her with its claws or its teeth, it did something far worse in its brief flight. Twilight felt herself being pushed back as the creature’s body flew into her. By the time the darkling bounced off of her and did its damage, the unicorn was already halfway over the rails. Twilight yelped in a fearful panic while trying her best to grab the railing on her way over, but her momentum was too great for her to stop herself now. She felt her hooves losing their grip as she fell off the fire escape backwards. The entire experience would be over in a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity to the purple mare. Twilight watched the world spin upside down as her body flipped from her momentum. She would have tried to light up her horn to teleport away, but around that time she smacked into the rail on the landing below, catching it with her jaw. The impact wasn’t nearly as severe as it could have been, although she did put a lot of strain on her neck as her head bent back from the weight of her body continuing to fall. Due to her body only hitting the metal rail with a small area, Twilight flipped again before settling on her back. She barely had time to process the stinging pain in her chin and neck before she finished her brief flight and landed on the harsh ground below. With a heavy thud, Twilight slammed into the ground with her upper back taking most of the impact. Her head smacked against the ground as her body settled into a crumpled heap. The air was knocked out of her lungs as everything around her became an unfocused blur. Even though she had only been a short distance off the ground at the time of her fall, it felt like she just smacked into the pavement from much further up. As she slowly opened her eyes, the purple mare could feel her head ringing and her body screaming out in agony. The back of her head, her entire frame, and even her chin were all throbbing painfully with varying degrees of severity. She let out a painful groan while bringing her hoof up to coddle her aching skull and rolling to her side. The world in front of her was a hazy mess of spinning colors and far off noises. While she slowly writhed on the ground dealing with her pain, Twilight quickly realized that she wasn’t recovering from her daze. In fact, she was gradually feeling more and more drowsy as time went by. “Guh… hrk…” The unicorn moaned as she tried to lift herself off the ground. The one arm she used to try and push herself up quickly faltered and turned to jelly like the rest of her limbs. She felt so weak and she was hurting so much that she wondered if she would ever get back up. Suddenly, Twilight heard a muffled growl in front of her. She would have thought the disturbing noise to be part of her ringing ears, until she looked up and saw blurry shapes in front of her. As the image before her focused ever so slightly, she saw the four remaining darklings all gathered in a row, slowly stalking forward towards her. “N…no! Get… g-get away!” Twilight slurred in an alarmed tone while trying to distance herself from the beasts. She tried pushing herself away with her hooves, but she could barely do anything other than roll onto her back. Feeling her body shutting down and slipping into unconsciousness, Twilight realized she had to do something fast. If she passed out with the four creatures nearby, she wouldn’t wake up to regret it later. Taking a look to the area above her, she tried lighting up her horn to teleport away. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to concentrate her magic through her painful daze. While her vision degraded into a blurry mess again, Twilight thought for sure she was going to die again. She hated herself for letting her second chance go to waste in such an abrupt manner. She couldn’t even make a difference with her new life, getting mauled by a pack of darklings instead of dying at the hooves of Raven Feather and her colleagues while trying to stop them. As she let her head roll over limply to face her doom before drifting into unconsciousness, Twilight felt a bizarre sense of déjà vu building inside of her. She was helpless, her head was hurting from a recent blow, and she was about to be mauled by a group of the monsters that started this whole mess. If she were only out in a freezing cold forest at night, her final twisted trip down memory lane would be complete. Unfortunately for her, there was no slayer appearing out of a flash of light to help her now. Suddenly, a bolt of light sailed into one of the darklings and exploded, causing Twilight’s already unfocused eyes to sting slightly. She heard a series of magical zaps as more bolts flew into the other darklings. While the four creatures turned tail and tried to run before collapsing into smoke, the purple mare felt herself going numb again. Her vision faded, and the sounds around her melded into a single haze. Before she lost her vision completely, Twilight saw a tint of blue and what looked like hooves walking in front of her before blurring into an unrecognizable mess. Whatever pony the hooves belonged to lowered its head to inspect her, but the purple mare couldn’t make out a face. “Twilight? Can you hear me?” A muffled voice spoke to her in a concerned tone, but Twilight was too far gone to tell who it was. Strangely though, the voice sounded oddly familiar even through the muffled and fading sound of it. Before she could gather her foggy thoughts to ponder on her rescuer any further, Twilight felt herself drifting off into a hazy sleep. Her eyes closed and her mind went blank as her body finally slipped into unconsciousness. Chapter 97: Together AgainBack in the castle throne room, Princess Celestia and her unlikely companion were both sitting together against a wall while warily watching the pale colt in the center of the room. Grimwood, or rather Shade as the strange entity that possessed the colt called itself, was pensively looking over the large symbol on the floor left over from the botched ritual. The pale colt would occasionally pause to shake his head and scratch out one of the glyphs on the symbol. He seemed to be content with leaving the room in dead silence as he continued his work, but that wasn’t what was concerning to the two captive ponies on the other side of the room. Ever since Shade took over Grimwood’s body and killed Raven Feather and Dust Kicker, his personality had been shifting violently, and he seemed to have something wrong with him on top of that. Every once in a while he would cringe and shake slightly, only to have a small pulse of darkness exit his form before dissipating. He also seemed to have lost much of the color that was present before the ritual. His fur looked like a washed out form of greyish white now instead of the pale white that used to belong to the colt. “Let’s see here… this should go here, and this shouldn’t be there.” The colt muttered to himself while making more changes to the symbol. “What are you doing?” Shadow Mist asked with an uneasy sense of curiosity. The colt paused what he was doing and looked behind him with an annoyed expression. “Don’t interrupt me… I’m trying to think.” Shade said while glaring at the red stallion. His tone of voice had even changed from eerily passive and cheery to cold and stoic, almost like his personality was slowly separating from Grimwood’s and distinguishing itself. Celestia and Shadow Mist shared concerned glances with each other while observing the colt. Neither of them knew what he was capable of, and neither wanted to incur his wrath. But at the same time, they knew that something had to be done to stop him. “Listen to me… Shadow Mist was it? You need to get these cuffs off of me.” Celestia whispered in a concerned tone while eyeing between the red stallion and the pale colt. “Why should I trust you?” Shadow Mist whispered back in a wary tone. “Because, whatever punishment you might receive from me will be much better than what he might do to you. Even if you spend the rest of your life in a jail cell that is still better than losing it isn’t it?” Celestia reasoned while leveling with the stallion. “Maybe you’re right.” Shadow Mist said with a hollow sigh. He looked down to the bag of supplies near his feet and contemplated reaching for the key to the alicorn’s bonds. “So… you are the princess of the sun?” Shade asked in a stoic tone while turning around and facing the pair. Shadow Mist and Celestia froze up as they met the colt’s icy gaze. His eyes were no longer pitch black, but his pupils were a darker shade of their usual color. “I must say, I expected more from the physical embodiment of something so powerful. Yet here you are, confined by mere scratchings into some metal restraints.” Shade said while walking closer to the alicorn. He then shifted his eyes over to the red stallion next to her. “And you… you can use shadow magic, am I correct?” The colt asked in a curious tone. “Y-yes…” Shadow Mist replied in a hesitant manner. “Hmm… perhaps you can be useful to me after all.” Shade stated while scratching his chin pensively. “Why would I help you? You just hijacked my friend’s body and killed his sister. Besides… I can’t do much of anything in my current state” Shadow Mist said while offering the colt a slight glare. Shade looked down to the stallion’s missing limb and his destroyed eye curiously. “I never said your cooperation was a requirement.” The colt said while placing his hoof on the stallion’s forehead. “And as for your impairments…” He paused while concentrating for a moment. Suddenly, a black aura appeared around his hoof and flowed into the red pony. Celestia watched in horror as Shadow Mist grunted in pain. He closed his good eye and struggled against the colt’s grasp, albeit very weakly. Much to the alicorn’s surprise, she saw a pulsating purple aura forming on the stallion’s stump. The aura elongated and solidified until it resembled a hoof. Before long, the stallion had a pulsing purple mass of light where his leg used to be. As he opened his eyes, a purple glow emanated from both of them. Although it was impossible to see his pupils, it seemed like he could use both eyes as he looked around curiously. The stallion looked down to his new appendage and moved it around to get a feel for it. “I think that the immense power I hold can take care of a few missing limbs and eyes. Not to mention a headstrong personality.” Shade stated with a sinister smirk while backing away from the red stallion. Shadow Mist stood up and looked down to his glowing leg before smiling. “Shadow Mist?” Celestia asked in a disturbed tone. The stallion simply turned his head and scoffed at her. “Stow it princess… I have no use for your help anymore.” Shadow Mist said before walking over to the pale colt’s side. “What did you do to him?!” Celestia asked the colt in an angered tone. “All I did was heal his injuries and give him a new point of view… one that let him know how utterly weak this world is in comparison to the power of shadow.” Shade replied with a smirk before returning a blank expression to his face. He then turned to his new colleague with a pensive expression. “I need you to make some changes to the symbol. I’m going to rest and get used to this new body.” The colt said while looking down to his body with a curious expression. Shadow Mist nodded before walking over to the symbol. Celestia was shocked to see such a vulgar display of power. The colt just influenced the stallion’s mind to suit his needs. If he could do that with little effort, then what else was he capable of? The mere thought made the alicorn shudder nervously. She only hoped that the remaining forces Equestria had were enough to stop the sinister colt and the frightful power held within him. Twilight groaned softly as she suddenly came to her senses. Her body was sore and her mind was hazy, but she was slowly waking up from her brief stint of unconsciousness. The ground beneath her felt cold, but there was something warm draped over her body. As she slowly opened her eyes and blinked rapidly to adjust to the light, she noticed that she was inside of a building, an abandoned house from the look of things. She was lying on a couch with a blanket strewn over her. Taking a look around the room she was in, she discovered a pony sitting over by a fire place facing away from her. The pony had a cloak on that concealed most of their body. However, a bit of their legs were visible, revealing dark blue fur. “Are you the one who saved me?” Twilight asked curiously while getting up to a seated position. She cringed softly as her sore body protested her movements. The cloaked pony turned their head to look at the purple mare, though their face was still covered in shadow. It was hard to see from the low level of light in the room, but judging from the shape of the hair poking out from the cloak, Twilight guessed that the pony was a mare. “Thank you… I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t-” Twilight paused suddenly as the strange mare turned around fully and pulled down their hood. The unicorn was stunned into shock from what she was seeing. “P… P… P-Princess Luna…?!” Twilight exclaimed in shock as she stared at the blue mare in front of her. There was no mistaking what she was seeing, but she rubbed her eyes and shook her head to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. The blue alicorn smiled and chuckled softly as she watched the purple mare’s jaw hanging open. She seemed as though she didn’t have a scratch on her, which was surprising considering that she had been declared dead for the past few days. “It is good to see you too Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said in a cheerful tone. “But… but… how…? You… but… you were…” Twilight stammered in a confused stupor. “Dead? I suppose things were looking a bit grim the last time you saw me.” Luna said with an understanding expression. “How did you get away? I tried so hard to free you from that mass of energy, but it wouldn’t let go of you…” Twilight frowned sadly as she thought back to her encounter back at the mansion. At the time, she was tearing herself up from leaving the alicorn to her fate. She felt like she was letting her die by failing to save her. “I almost didn’t get away… I just barely managed to find the energy to teleport away before that cloud could overcome me. But it’s ok now…” Luna put a reassuring hoof on the sulking unicorn’s shoulder, causing her to look up at her. “Where have you been these past few days?” Twilight asked curiously. The blue alicorn frowned slightly as the matter of her absence was brought up. “After I got away from the mass of energy, I passed out in the room I teleported to and didn’t wake up until everything blew over. I made it out of the mansion and wandered through the forest until I reached Ponyville. I was barely functional by the time I made it into town… I actually collapsed and fell unconscious before I could do anything else.” Luna explained sadly. “By the time I woke up, I was inside of a house in a bed. It turns out that a kind couple of ponies saw me collapse in the street and took me in. They were going to notify the royal guard that they found me, but I asked them not to.” “You asked them not to? Why did you do that?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “I knew that everyone thought I was dead… I didn’t want to make any of you go through that, but my situation did have certain advantages. Not only did all of you think I was dead, but Raven Feather and her colleagues most likely did as well. I could have done much to bring them in if they didn’t think I was a threat anymore.” Luna explained with a regretful frown. “After I told the couple to keep my survival a secret, they offered to nurse me back to health. I was barely able to stand on my own, so I wasn’t in a position to refuse. I recovered to my full strength only last night. I thanked the couple for their kindness and left for Canterlot in the morning, but by the time I arrived, Raven Feather and her followers had already sieged the city.” She sighed in a defeated tone while looking down sadly. “It’s ok Princess… we can still win if we work together. Now that you’re here, it should be much easier to free Princess Celestia and take back the city.” Twilight said in a determined tone. The alicorn looked up and smiled once she saw the purple mare’s spirits so high. “You are right Twilight. With the power of the elements of harmony, we can undo whatever Raven Feather has done.” Luna explained cheerfully. “Wait… the elements of harmony? Oh no… they were kept in the castle. Knowing Raven Feather, she probably already found a way to get past the defensive spells over them so she could hide them.” Twilight frowned as her hopes for victory deflated. However, the blue alicorn didn’t seem fazed by the unicorn’s fears. “Don’t worry about that Twilight, the elements are safe.” Luna said in a confident tone. “They are?” Twilight asked in a confused manner. “When I arrived, the town was already full of those terrible creatures. I went to the castle to find my sister, but unfortunately she was already captured by Raven Feather and her followers. I couldn’t do anything to help her by myself, but I was able to do one thing before I left. I took the elements of harmony from their resting place and brought them with me.” Luna explained with a cheerful smirk. Twilight smiled excitedly as she listened to the alicorn’s clever thinking. “That’s great! Where did you put the elements?” Twilight asked curiously. “I ran into the other element bearers as they fled the castle. I left the elements with them while I went to observe Raven Feather’s progress.” Luna said in a confident tone. Suddenly, Twilight frowned as she remembered her friends. “The others… they must be heartbroken. I feel so horrible that they had to watch me when I…” Twilight paused hesitantly while looking down sadly. “How are you alive Twilight? The others were fairly certain you were dead when I found them.” Luna asked curiously as she thought back to the distraught mares and how they described their experience. It was hard to tell what exactly happened through their avoidance of the topic and broken sobs, but it didn’t sound good for the purple mare at any rate. “I was dead, Princess… I bled out right in front of them. The only reason I’m here right now is because Tom sacrificed himself to revive me. I must have traumatized them… I said some pretty crushing stuff toward the end after it sunk in that I was dying. I hope they’re doing ok…” Twilight said in a concerned and forlorn tone. “Maybe we should head back to them. I’m certain that they would be ecstatic to see you.” Luna suggested in a sympathetic tone. “Where are they anyway? Somewhere safe I hope…” Twilight muttered uneasily. The mere thought of her friends being stuck in a city full of darklings made her concerned for their wellbeing. “Don’t worry, they are safe. I left them in a building not too far away from here while I went to investigate Raven Feather’s progress. They have Glimmer Shine and the others with them, so they are fine.” Luna explained in a reassuring manner. “Glimmer Shine and the others? Did they finish their mission already?” Twilight asked curiously. “Apparently so… they ran into some trouble with some darklings, but they eventually managed to light the signal fire and escape.” Luna stated in a thankful tone. “Well that’s a relief... I think it’s time we regrouped with the others, Princess.” Twilight said in an eager tone. The alicorn nodded in response while getting up and walking over to the purple mare. After helping her to her feet, Luna motioned for the unicorn to follow her and walked towards the door to the building. Now that she had Princess Luna with her, Twilight felt an incredible sense of hope and courage flowing through her. She felt like they could actually beat the hooded ponies and save Celestia if they worked together. The constant threat of darklings didn’t even seem all that threatening as she walked through the streets with her new companion. Judging from her surroundings, Twilight inferred that the alicorn had ducked into the nearest abandoned building she could find to let her rest. She could actually see the alleyway where she encountered the darklings and fell off the fire escape as she looked behind her. The unicorn shuddered nervously as she thought about what would have happened if the alicorn hadn’t noticed her on her way to the castle. She made a mental note to start carrying around strobes and any other weapon she could find to deal with the horrible beasts in the future, because somehow she knew that her luck was rotten enough to get chased by darklings by herself for a third time. After a few twists and turns followed by a few minutes of walking through the streets of Canterlot, Luna stopped suddenly and directed her attention to a building on the right. The building seemed to be another abandoned home, though this one had two stories to it. “We have arrived.” Luna announced while looking down to her purple companion. “This is where you left the others?” Twilight asked curiously, to which the alicorn nodded. The purple mare looked ahead with an almost hesitant expression. She wasn’t sure what she could say to her friends after they watched her die. She was certain they would be eager to see her, but she wasn’t sure if she could make up for the soul crushing things she said to them. She basically told them to give up and stop fighting the hooded ponies, and yet now here she was, coming back from the dead and telling them to do exactly the opposite. “You seem troubled by something… are you ok Twilight?” Luna asked in a concerned tone as she picked up on the unicorn’s sadness. “What? Oh… I guess… I guess I’m just afraid of how I affected them when I told them to stop fighting. I just didn’t want them to get hurt trying to avenge me… but maybe it broke their spirits or something?” Twilight pondered in a solemn tone while looking down slightly. She looked back up as she felt the princess putting a hoof on her shoulder. “They were understandably distraught over seeing you die Twilight… but they did not have their spirits broken. If anything, they seem to be more eager to put a stop to all of this now than ever before.” Luna explained in a reassuring tone. “Really…?” Twilight asked in a surprised tone. She looked toward the house while thinking about her friends and how they were faring when she saw them last. Despite everything that had happened, the five mares hadn’t given up hope or their will to keep fighting. In fact, they were more determined to fight on so they could find justice for those responsible for all of their hardships. The purple mare couldn’t help but to smile warmly as thought of the others and their incredible resolve. “Come on… let’s go. I think they’ve been waiting long enough.” Twilight said in an eager tone while looking to the alicorn with a smirk. Luna couldn’t help but to smile as the unicorn’s spirits were lifted immensely. Without further delay, the pair walked up the steps to the front door. Luna grabbed ahold of the handle with her magic and opened the door. Twilight followed the alicorn into a small entryway that opened up into the rest of the house. There was a storage closet to their left, and just ahead of them was a living room with a few doorways that led elsewhere into the home. There was a couch against the wall that looked like it would sit two ponies comfortably, and there was a decorative rug across the floor. “Princess? Is that you?” A voice and the sound of hoofsteps approaching came from one of the other rooms. Twilight and Luna looked over to see Glitterball and Sunspot walking in from a doorway. “Oh good, you’re back. We were starting to get worried about y-” Glitterball paused mid-sentence as she noticed the purple mare next to the alicorn. Both the white unicorn and the pegasus next to her were stunned into shock as they stared ahead with wide eyes. The pair stammered as they looked at each other and the princess to make sure that they weren’t seeing things. “Hey guys… heh…” Twilight chuckled awkwardly while offering the two ponies a slight wave. “What’s wrong with you two? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Applejack asked curiously while walking in from the other room with Glimmer Shine. As the two stopped looking at the shocked ponies and drifted their attention ahead, they both froze up with stunned expressions as they noticed the unicorn standing next to Princess Luna. “Twilight…? Is that you?” Applejack asked in a tone of disbelief. She shook her head to wake herself up and blinked several times to ensure she wasn’t hallucinating. “Yes… it’s me.” Twilight said with a slight smile building on her face. “Girls! Get in here!” Applejack suddenly yelled behind her loud enough to carry her voice through the house. The clamor of several ponies rushing through the house sounded out as the others came running. “What is it?! Did the hooded ponies find us?!” Pinkie Pie asked in a slight panic while rushing through the doorway. The pink mare gasped loudly and dropped her jaw in shock as she settled her eyes on the purple unicorn. While the others slowly caught up with the pink pony, they wondered why she looked like she was going to jump out of her skin with excitement. “Twilight!” Pinkie yelled eagerly while leaping forward and snatching the purple unicorn up in a tight hug. Twilight was nearly sent to the floor until the pink mare grabbed her by the waist and held her close to her. “Oh my gosh… Twilight?!” Fluttershy exclaimed in a shocked tone while walking over to the group gathering around the unicorn. Twilight watched as all of her friends flocked to her side. Strangely, there were only four of the mares present, with Rainbow Dash being the only one missing. “How are you alive?! We… we watched you die!” Rarity asked in a state of excited shock. Much like everyone else in the room, she thought that seeing her friend alive and well again was too good to be true. “Well, Tom must have woken up after you guys left and somehow revived me. I came to and found him unconscious next to me.” Twilight explained her miraculous revival to her friends as best she could. Everyone was relieved to hear that the human was alive as well. “Tom is still alive? Thank goodness… I suppose he is sturdier than we thought.” Rarity said with a relaxed sigh. Twilight suddenly frowned as the white mare brought up the subject of what happened to her human friend. Everyone grew uneasy as they watched the purple pony lower her head sadly. “Actually… Tom is gone. He… he didn’t make it.” Twilight explained in a somber tone. “Hey, cheer up. Maybe you just thought he was dead again. We all thought he was dead when we left the castle… we even thought you were dead! That guy is full of surprises.” Pinkie said with a slight chuckle while thinking back to all of the amazing feats the boy had pulled off in his short time in Equestria. Strangely though, the unicorn wasn’t being affected by the pink mare’s attempts at cheering her up. “No Pinkie, he’s gone… for real this time. He… he disappeared right in front of me. His body just evaporated into embers… I guess that’s how slayers die.” Twilight added while holding back a few stray tears. Everyone fell silent as a wave of surprise and sadness washed over them. The knowledge that the human was dead was enough to bring tears to their eyes. Although they had thought he was dead before, they now had a hollow and empty feeling in their guts that wouldn’t go away. “I’m so sorry Twilight… I can’t believe he risked his own life to save you.” Pinkie said in a somber tone. “That’s what he does Pinkie… ever since he got here he always put others before himself. It got to the point where I wasn’t sure if he cared about himself anymore.” Twilight said with a slight sniffle while rubbing her eyes and collecting herself. “I’m not sure if I should tell you this… but Tom said that before he came to Equestria, he was going to just give up and kill himself.” Fluttershy said in a hesitant tone, much to the surprise of everyone else. “What? That’s awful… why would he do that?” Twilight asked in an uneasy tone while shaking her head. “He told me that after he died and became a slayer that he didn’t have anyone to be friends with or even talk to. He didn’t really specify if people avoided him or if he avoided people… either way, he would just roam around and deal with any monsters plaguing a town, and then he would move on. It must have gotten to him after a while… he must have been so lonely.” Fluttershy explained in a sad tone. Twilight felt horrible knowing the reason why the human was so reckless in his efforts to protect her and the others. She now knew why he always blindly charged into danger. It was because he was protecting the only friends he had had since he was a normal human. Given his age and the harshness of becoming a slayer, he must have been an emotional wreck on the inside. The purple mare looked down sadly and fought against a fresh set of tears and sobs building inside of her. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t realized that her new friend needed help sooner. If only she could have helped him deal with his reckless behavior, then maybe he would still be alive. “I just hope that we can make his sacrifices mean something. But to do that we need to beat Raven Feather.” Twilight said in a determined tone. She wiped her eyes and stiffened up to prevent herself from breaking down again. Right now was not the time for lamenting the past. Right now, she and the others had a job to do. “We’re all with you whenever you’re ready to fight Twilight.” Applejack said while turning to her friends to confer their opinions. Everyone else nodded eagerly at the prospect of beating up the hooded ponies. “Wait… you all want to fight? I thought you would want to stay out of trouble after I… well… you know.” Twilight said in a hesitant tone. “Of course we all want to fight, Twilight! The only reason we didn’t clobber those hooded jerks sooner was because you didn’t want us to. Ah mean hay, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t shut up about how much she wanted to turn around and strangle Raven Feather for what she did to you.” Applejack said in a cheerful tone. Twilight paused suddenly as the absence of her cyan friend was brought to mind. She looked around, only to find that the pegasus was nowhere to be found. “Where is Rainbow Dash? I don’t see her… is she ok?” Twilight asked uneasily. Everyone grew uneasy as the cyan mare was brought up. “She’s upstairs… she wanted to be left alone for a while after we got here.” Rarity explained in a somber tone. “Really? I didn’t think she would be that emotionally unstable after a few minutes… or however long I was out for.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking around at the others. “We were all pretty messed up before you got here… Rainbow just wanted some time alone Ah guess.” Applejack explained somberly. “Yeah… I tried to go cheer her up a little, but she just asked me to go away.” Pinkie said with a concerned sigh. “Where is she? I think I should go see her.” Twilight said in a troubled tone while getting up. “The stairs are through that door at the back of the hallway. Rainbow Dash is holed up in the first room on the right.” Applejack explained while pointing to one of the doorways. “Thanks… I’ll go talk to her. I’m sure she will be happy to see me.” Twilight said while walking over to the door and heading through the house. After making her way through a lengthy hallway, Twilight discovered the stairs opening up to her left. As she climbed the steps, she drew her attention to the door just down the new hallway. The door was closed like many of the other doors she had passed by, but knowing that her friend was most likely sulking behind this one made it somehow different. Twilight walked over to the door and paused in front of it. Taking a quick listen yielded no sounds coming from the other side. At least the cyan mare wasn’t bawling her eyes out anymore. Twilight was unsure if this was a good sign or not. Deciding to waste no more time with her thoughts, the unicorn raised her hoof to the door and gently knocked on it. A slight rustling noise came from inside, though the sound didn’t get closer to the door. Whatever Rainbow Dash was doing in there, she didn’t seem interested in greeting any visitors. Twilight grabbed ahold of the handle and tried to open the door, but she quickly discovered that the pegasus had locked it. Before she could knock again, a muffled voice rang out from within the room. “Go away… I said I want to be alone didn’t I?” Rainbow Dash asked in a clearly gloomy tone. It nearly broke the purple mare’s heart to hear her friend in such distress. “Rainbow Dash…?” Twilight spoke up in a concerned tone. Nothing but silence greeted her for a solid few moments. Suddenly, the sound of hurried feet approaching the door rang out, followed by the sound of the door being unlocked. The door opened to reveal the cyan mare peering out with a shocked expression. Once she laid eyes on the purple unicorn, Rainbow Dash let go of the door and took a step back in surprise. “T…Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked in a stunned tone, to which Twilight nodded. The cyan pegasus rubbed her eyes and shook her head to make sure she was awake, she then continued staring at the unicorn and eyeing her up and down as if she weren’t really there. “Rainbow… I’m so-” Twilight began to speak up in a somber tone, until she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash rushing forward and wrapping her arms around her. The pegasus held her friend close while hiding her face by burying it into her shoulder. Twilight heard the cyan mare weeping softly into her fur for a moment. Rainbow Dash pulled back and let the unicorn go. She sniffled and wiped a few tears from her eyes before smiling warmly at the purple mare. “Don’t you ever do that to us again… you hear me egghead?” Rainbow Dash said with a playful smirk. She still had a few tears welling up in her eyes and an overwhelming expression of joy on her face. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Twilight said while fighting back her own tears. “How are you…? I mean… you were dead.” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “Tom revived me… he didn’t survive the process though.” Twilight said while lowering her head sadly. The cyan mare widened her eyes in shock as she heard that her human friend had survived his encounter with Raven Feather, only to die by bringing the unicorn back to life. “Grr… I’m tired of losing friends to these creeps. We need to head back to the castle and make them pay.” Rainbow Dash said in an upset tone. “I agree… let’s head downstairs and talk strategy with the others.” Twilight said with a determined expression. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement at the prospect of taking the offensive once more. The two mares started back down the hallway and went downstairs. They walked through the house again until they stepped out in the living room where their friends were waiting. The others seemed to occasionally stare at the purple unicorn, as if they expected her to disappear at some point. Still, Twilight didn’t mind. She was half expecting all of this to be some demented dream her mind cooked up as it was dying. “Yay! We’re all together again!” Pinkie Pie cheered while roping all of her friends in for a group hug. Given the circumstances, everyone was eager to participate in the sudden embrace. “And now that we are all together, I was thinking that we should come up with a plan of attack.” Twilight suggested in a determined tone. “There’s the Twilight we know and love.” Applejack said with a pleased smile. The purple mare couldn’t help but to smile warmly as her friends looked at her with cheerful expressions. “Well if we’re going to go after them, we may want to hurry it up. Who knows how far along they are with their ritual after that shockwave.” Glimmer Shine said in a concerned tone. “Wait… shockwave? What shockwave?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “A little while before I found you, a shockwave of energy passed through town. It looked like it came from the direction of the castle.” Luna explained in a troubled tone. “Yeah, I’ll bet that thing is halfway to Ponyville by now. It didn’t look like it was stopping anytime soon.” Rainbow Dash said with a surprised expression. “That must have happened before Tom revived me. If something they did made a shockwave that powerful…” Twilight paused with concern as she thought about the matter further. “We need to stop them before things get any more out of hand.” She said with a frustrated sigh. “You guys lit the signal fire, so how long would it be before reinforcements get here?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while turning to Glimmer Shine and his two teammates. “It’s hard to say... maybe an hour, maybe more.” Sunspot said with a troubled frown. “We might not have any outside help, but all of the guards left in the city will be gathering over by the guard station.” Glimmer Shine suggested optimistically. “Good… we’ll need all the help we can get. I vote we head over to the station and rally up the guards. We can think of a plan after that.” Twilight said in a confident tone. “Sounds good to me… any objections?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking around at the others. Everyone shook their heads in response. “Very well then, let’s get moving. I will go grab the elements of harmony and meet all of you outside.” Luna stated while getting up from her seated position. Everyone nodded before eagerly walking to the front door and stepping outside. After waiting for a few moments for the blue alicorn to join them, the group embarked on their way towards the guard station. Given the fact that the city was still crawling with darklings, the ponies were still nervous about traveling on the open streets. However, the presence of Princess Luna and the members of Spirit made everyone a little more comfortable and confident in their safety. The walk across town was beginning to wear on the group in more ways than one. Their nerves were strained from the tense atmosphere and the daunting odds they had to overcome, their feet were sore from walking, fighting, and running for most of the day, and their spirits weren’t doing very good either. Even with the uplifting boost from having a plan and having Twilight back, everyone felt tense all around from the upcoming battle with the hooded ponies. Still, despite all their fears and doubts, they were confident that they could persevere by working together. Twilight walked a short way behind Princess Luna, Glimmer Shine, and his teammates. The unicorn had walked around Canterlot many times before, and her brother was captain of the royal guard, so she knew her way over to the guard station by heart. However, she gladly accepted the yellow stallion and his companions taking the lead to better protect the group from the front. Taking a look behind her, Twilight saw her friends bringing up the rear. Rainbow Dash was walking a little to the side directly behind the purple mare, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were walking at the back of the group, and Fluttershy was nervously walking in the middle of the group with Applejack beside her. Everyone was scanning around them for signs of movement. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates were feverishly looking at their locators. If they saw so much as a streak of light pointing around them, their strobes were well within reach. “Are you sure we’re safe out here?” Fluttershy asked timidly while darting her eyes around. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll handle any darklings that come our way.” Sunspot said in a reassuring tone from the front of the group. The yellow mare seemed to be slightly comforted by the statement, but it was clear she was still nervous about her surroundings. “How’s your wing Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while glancing back to the pegasus. The yellow mare looked down to her wing and moved it slightly to see how it felt. “It still hurts a little bit… I don’t think I can use it though.” Fluttershy reported with a slight frown. “I’m just glad that it isn’t bleeding anymore. We can worry about functionality after all of this is over darling.” Rarity said in a reassuring tone. “I hope I can still fly after this...” Fluttershy fretted with a concerned expression. Although she didn’t enjoy flying as much as some other pegasi, it was still a large part of her life. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I’m sure it’s nothing a little medical attention can’t handle. You’ll be airborne again in no time.” Rainbow Dash said with a confident smirk. Fluttershy smiled slightly as she thought about her situation more positively. A low buzzing followed by a magical hum made everyone look around anxiously. When they discovered the source of the noise to be glowing vials on the three Spirit members’ vests, they all felt a collective lump forming in the pit of their stomachs. “Heads up guys, looks like we have something up ahead.” Glitterball said in a concerned tone while pointing her locator straight ahead. Although the liquid was only glowing on a small portion of the vial, the sight of the reading made everyone as jumpy as if it were totally lit up. Taking a look ahead and hearing a slight noise, the group was alert and on edge as they scanned their eyes around for the source of the noise. They quickly noticed a trash can jostling around in an alleyway down the street. Before they could process any thoughts about what could be causing the can to rattle, a darkling jumped out into the street with an agitated growl. Fluttershy let out a muffled yelp of fright, Twilight and the others readied themselves for battle, and Glimmer Shine and his teammates reached for their strobes. However, the darkling was the only one among them that wasn’t preparing for battle. The shadowy creature was still facing the alleyway and barking like a mad dog. The slightly distorted noise made a slight chill run up the ponies’ spines from hearing it, even if it wasn’t directed at them. Before long, another darkling jumped out of the alley and landed on the first one. The two growled viciously while rolling around on the ground. Each seemed to be biting or clawing at the other, almost like they were fighting. “What are they doing…?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone while watching the spectacle. “It looks like they’re… fighting…?” Glitterball said in an equally confused tone while tilting her head at the odd sight. The unicorn and her teammates lowered their strobes as they continued watching the two beasts fight while trying to think of what would cause such a thing. “I’ve never seen them fight before… they were always focused on finding us.” Fluttershy said in a slightly nervous tone while thinking back to all the other times she had seen darklings. Even in the sleep deprived dreams she had of the monsters, they were exceptionally well coordinated with each other and always worked together towards their goal, which just so happened to be ripping her and her friends to shreds. “They were acting a little weird the last time I saw them. Before Princess Luna found me, I ran into a pack of them in an alleyway… they seemed almost… more feral. They also had better control over their abilities as shadow creatures from the look of it.” Twilight pondered in a curious tone while trying to think of a good explanation for the beasts’ behavior. “Maybe these ones aren’t under Dust Kicker’s control?” Glitterball suggested in a curious tone. “What makes you say that? They were following his orders the last time we ran into them.” Rainbow Dash said with an uncomfortable scoff as she thought about the brown pegasus. “Well… think about it. All of the darklings we have seen thus far have been summoned by either Dust Kicker, the hooded ponies, or some kind of spell or other creature they also summoned. And no matter where we have seen them, they all seemed to work together and focus on whatever objective they had at the time. If they are acting more feral now, then maybe something happened to break their connection with their master… who knows, maybe it was that shockwave of energy earlier?” Glitter reasoned while shaking her head in a confused tone. As helpful as her theory might have been, she didn’t know all of the answers. Suddenly, the two darklings stopped fighting each other and froze in place briefly. The beasts started sniffing the air around them in an almost paranoid fashion until they settled in the direction of the ponies. Much to everyone’s dismay, the darklings growled viciously as they caught wind of their unexpected observers. “Feral or not, it looks like they still want to rip us apart.” Glimmer Shine said in a more serious tone while readying his strobe. The stallion’s teammates followed suit and quickly pointed their strobes at the two monsters. Before the darklings could charge forward and chase after the group, Glitterball fired off two quick shots with her strobe. The bolts of light sailed down the street and slammed into the two creatures in rapid succession, leaving them to explode into puffs of black smoke. “Wow… nice shot Glitter.” Sunspot said in a congratulatory tone. “You’re really getting the hang of these things aren’t you?” Glimmer Shine asked in an impressed tone while offering the unicorn a playful chuckle. “Heh… I guess so.” Glitterball replied with a bashful smirk. Princess Luna offered a congratulatory smile to the unicorn for her swift dispatch of the two darklings. however she also had other things on her mind. The alicorn walked ahead of the group with an anxious expression and looked back to them. “We should keep moving. The longer we take to stop the hooded ponies, the more lives could be in danger.” Luna said while thinking about her sister. She shuddered to imagine what Raven Feather and her group was doing with her right now. Everyone nodded in agreement while returning serious expressions to their faces. Without further delay, the group continued forward while watching for any further threats coming their way. After many tense minutes of walking through town and avoiding the distant sounds of darklings, the group could see the guard station coming into view. The sight of the colorful flags flapping in the distance filled the ponies with a sense of hope, even given their last experience involving a guard station and shadow creatures. Everyone rushed to close the gap between them and the safety of the station. Given their track record, they were half expecting a pack of darklings to come and chase them, but no such thing happened. The group huddled around the front door and smiled triumphantly. “Let’s head inside and see how many guards are here.” Twilight suggested in an eager tone. “I just hope they will leave some for us when we reach the castle.” Rainbow Dash said with an amused chuckle. She was more than eager to level the playing field by adding some more numbers to their ranks. Princess Luna opened the door with her magic and ushered everyone inside. The lobby of the station was devoid of any life. Any staff members were most likely hiding from the darklings outside along with the rest of Canterlot. However, the group was certain that at least a few guards would be waiting to offer their assistance with taking back the city. “I will go look for any guards waiting in the back. You all should wait here and rest before we head to the castle.” Luna said while walking towards a doorway to the right of the lobby. After the alicorn disappeared from sight, the others were left to occupy themselves. Pinkie Pie and Glitterball sat down on a row of chairs lined up against the left wall. The pink mare seemed mildly bored with having to wait in a dull room, however the unicorn seemed to be genuinely resting. Rainbow Dash leaned up against a wall and sighed while looking down wearily. Everyone else simply stood or walked around the room slowly while looking around. The slow and steady rhythm of the clock ticking away behind the front desk only served to further cement the feeling of anxious impatience in the air. “Man… I can’t wait to put these guys behind bars. How long has it been since we could go a whole day without thinking about what’s going to try to kill us next?” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. “We’re almost there… all we need to do now is stop Raven Feather once and for all.” Twilight added with a pleased smile as she thought about how close they were to victory. The thought of victory made everyone feel better about their situation. Knowing that they were close to finishing their battle made it seem like all of the hardships they were going through were worth it. As long as nobody else got hurt, they were confident that everything would be fine, and they were also confident that they wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt. After a short wait, the group noticed Princess Luna walking through the doorway at the right of the room. Much to everyone’s excitement, there was a group of eight guards following behind the blue alicorn. “Hello everyone, I have returned. There were only a few guards left in the building. Everyone else is scattered around town still from the look of it.” Luna said with a mild shrug of disappointment at the small amount of help they would receive. Despite their small numbers, the guards stood at the ready with determined expressions waiting for their chance to assist the alicorn and her group. “This is good, Princess… we can use all the help we can get.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while getting up and walking over to the blue pony. Everyone else got up as they anticipated leaving to go rescue Princess Celestia. “Are we ready to go or what? I’m itching to give Raven Feather the payback she deserves.” Rainbow Dash said in an eager tone. Perhaps a little left over anger from watching Twilight getting stabbed by the black mare was still present, but the cyan pegasus seemed to be handling her emotions and converting them to useful energy. “In due time Rainbow Dash. But before we go stage an assault against Raven Feather and her colleagues, we should make sure that we are as prepared as possible.” Princess Luna suggested in a more patient tone. “What did you have in mind, Princess?” Glitterball asked curiously from the back of the group. “Given a few minutes, I think I may be able to tweak your strobes a little bit to make them more effective against shadow creatures and shadow magic.” Luna suggested in a hopeful tone. “How are you going to do that?” Glitterball asked while offering up her strobe to the alicorn. Luna levitated the vial out of the unicorn’s hooves and over to her. “I might be able to boost their power against shadows if I use a smaller version of the spell we used to beat the dark matter when we were trapped in the Ponyville guard station. I can’t be sure how well this will work… if it will even work at all, but as Twilight said, we can use all the help we can get.” Luna said while using her horn to interact with the small vial and casting the spell on it. Everyone watched the alicorn work with intrigued expressions. She seemed to handle reworking spells on the fly very well to suit her needs, which was a useful skill considering the circumstances. Meanwhile, while everyone was watching the alicorn working with the strobes, Pinkie Pie was watching something else. A flash of movement outside of the window caught her attention, and when she got up and walked over to investigate, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Uh… guys?” Pinkie asked in a nervous tone. “What is it Pinkie?” Rarity asked in a curious tone while offering the pink mare a stray glance out of the corner of her eye. “I think you should take a look at this… like, right now.” Pinkie replied in a stunned tone of voice. The genuine nervousness in the pink mare’s voice made everyone pause what they were doing to turn around. “What’s wrong P-” Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she looked out of the window where her friend was staring. As everyone caught on to what the unicorn had already noticed, they were stunned into a shocked state of silence. Outside of the station, there were dozens of black shapes moving past the window heading away from the building. Upon closer inspection, each of the shapes was in fact a darkling that was simply walking forward in a mechanical and silent march. The sheer number of the beasts shocked the ponies deeply. It looked like every darkling in the city was walking past the building on their path towards whatever destination they had in mind. “What the hay…?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone as she looked out at the crowds of darklings moving together. She would have thought that a group of the beasts that large would be after her and her friends, but the creatures seemed happily ignorant of the ponies inside the station. “Where are they all going?” Twilight pondered while trying to think of what had gotten into the strange beasts. She was thankful that they weren’t attacking, but their sudden change in behavior made her more concerned than happy. “I think they might be going to the castle… that is the only logical explanation I can find, and they are going in the right direction.” Luna said in a troubled tone. “Why are they doing that? I thought they weren’t under anyone’s control anymore.” Glitterball shrugged in a puzzled tone. “I don’t know… if Dust Kicker were ordering them around, then they wouldn’t have gone feral before.” Twilight added with equal confusion. It seemed like any explanation that involved the hooded ponies didn’t make sense. The darklings were scattered around the city on purpose to serve as a distraction. Why would Raven Feather and her colleagues order them to come to the castle now? The more the ponies thought about it, the more troubled they became. “We should hurry… I have a bad feeling about this.” Luna said in a concerned tone. The alicorn offered an uneasy glance to the darklings outside before returning to her work. The others watched anxiously while the princess raced to finish with the strobes so they could stop whatever was going on before it was too late. Chapter 98: ConfrontationThe air was still and quiet in the castle throne room. The tense silence persisted not because nothing was happening, but because there was a pervasive lack of verbal communication in the room. The only sounds to be heard were the occasional erratic breaths coming from the colt sitting off in the corner, and the soft scribbling of Shadow Mist making changes to the symbol left on the ground. And sitting in the midst of the two, was Princess Celestia. The alicorn watched her two captors with a wary eye, silently trying to ascertain just how deep in trouble she was. Shadow Mist seemed to be an entirely different pony now. He dauntlessly went around the symbol and made additions to it as if he had trained his whole life to. The stallion didn’t even need to communicate with Grimwood, or rather Shade, to know what he wanted. Doubtlessly the pale colt had implanted the stallion with all the knowledge he needed when he tampered with his mind. The colt himself was an entirely different pony as well, although Celestia wasn’t sure if he was a pony anymore. Ever since he took Shadow Mist under his control and ordered him to change the symbol, he had been silently sitting against one of the other walls. Shade was staring down at the floor, as he had been for the past several minutes while his body shook slightly. It looked like he was struggling to adjust to his new body, and he would groan softly every few moments. What concerned Celestia the most however, was how his physical appearance was changing. On top of the tremors increasing in frequency, the colt’s skin was actually darkening slightly, yet it still somehow appeared pale. It almost looked like an eerie shade of darkness was slowly overcoming the deathly pale color that belonged to Grimwood’s natural body. Along with the strange change in fur color, the same black substance Celestia noticed earlier was being emitted all around his body. The black tendrils of energy had grown in frequency and size, almost resembling something one would expect to see when dealing with a powerful black magic spell. Celestia offered an uneasy glance over to the pale colt. She could feel a cold presence growing stronger within him that made her skin crawl. She had never felt something so powerful or impure in her entire life. Just being in his presence made her uneasy, but there was nothing she could do to escape her current situation. Suddenly, Shadow Mist ceased his work on the symbol. He sat down the materials he was using and turned to face his new master with little more than a slight smile on his face to show any emotion. Despite the strenuous work he had been doing, it seemed as though he was pleased with whatever new goals he had after being taken over by the possessed colt. “I’m finished with the symbol, it’s ready to channel the energy like you wanted.” Shadow Mist announced in a pleased tone. The colt off in the corner looked up for a moment before getting up and turning around. “Very good… you make a fine assistant in a pinch.” Shade said in a distorted voice. With the new change in his voice, it sounded like Grimwood was speaking, but it also sounded like another voice was present behind the colt’s. Shadow Mist stepped aside and allowed the colt to examine his work. Shade walked up to the edge of the symbol and looked it over with steely diligence. He smiled slightly as he touched the outer edge of the circle lightly with his hoof. A few wispy tendrils of the black energy emanated from his hoof and dissipated in the air, however there seemed to be a few tendrils coming up from the symbol and flowing into his body as well. “Are you sure this will work? Raven Feather and the others dumped all of the energy stored in the symbols when they were trying to help you… er… Grimwood.” Shadow Mist asked in a curious tone. Even if he was under the colt’s control, he didn’t seem to be a mindless puppet that was an extension of his master in every way. “Don’t worry about that. The energy I’m going to use isn’t the same that was used before.” Shade explained with a wry smirk. The sinister look in his eyes wasn’t exactly comforting to the alicorn watching nearby. “What do you plan on doing with that symbol?” Celestia asked in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. The colt paused suddenly and slowly glanced over to the bound alicorn with a cold and blank expression. He then started walking over towards the princess, piercing her with his lifeless eyes as he went. Celestia backed against the wall defensively as the colt got up to her and stared at her a few inches from her face. She could feel a cold aura around him sucking out all of the warmth in the air, but the slight cold feeling emanating from the colt wasn’t the reason a shiver went down her spine. “What does anyone plan on doing with an arcane symbol?” Shade asked before falling silent, as if he wanted the alicorn to answer him. Celestia fought the urge to shrivel up and cower so she could stand her ground against the colt’s unnerving stare. “Well…? No thoughts from the mighty Celestia?” Shade asked in an almost disappointed tone. “Hmm… I suppose I wouldn’t expect much more from people like you.” He added while keeping up the blank expression and judging stare that he had since he started talking to the alicorn. “Enough games… tell me what you want.” Celestia asked in a stern tone while glaring at the colt. “I just want one thing, Princess… to get stronger.” Shade said while raising his hoof up and inching it towards the alicorn. Celestia backed her head away until she hit the wall behind her. “And why do you want to get stronger?” Celestia asked hesitantly while maneuvering her head to the side to avoid the colt’s touch. “Life is a funny thing isn’t it? Thousands of complicated biological processes all working together just to let you exist… and what does it all amount to?” The colt asked while placing his hoof on the side of the alicorn’s face. “Tch!” Celestia cringed painfully as she felt a wave of cold instantly hitting the area where the colt was touching her. The sensation was somehow spreading across her face and down into her body, progressively increasing how cold she felt, especially around her cheek. As she looked down to see the colt’s hoof on her cheek, she noticed a soft aura of dark purple was covering it. The aura was barely visible, and more of the darker wisps of energy were coming out of his hoof. Shade sat still and watched as the princess squirmed to try and get away from him. As the cold feeling got worse, it was getting more and more distressful to her. Celestia didn’t feel a lot of the pain that would normally come from extremely cold temperatures, she felt something much different. It felt like her body was growing weaker and weaker, as if she was dying, and her nerves were screaming at her to try and make it stop. She could feel the area around her cheek and the surrounding areas growing number than everything else, as if the colt was sucking the life right out of her. Celestia groaned in distress as the strange feeling intensified to the point that it was causing her actual pain. Still, the pain she felt was numbed and yet somehow overwhelming. It felt like her whole body had fallen asleep, and now it was waking up and causing an unbearable pins and needles sensation. Just before the alicorn felt like she was going to pass out, the colt released his hold on her and let her fall to her side in a shivering mess. While Celestia was recovering on the floor from the brief attack, the colt seemed to be enjoying himself from watching her. “You asked why I wanted to get stronger? Well… I suppose the simple answer would be to kill you and every other living thing on this planet.” Shade said in a calm, almost nonchalant tone. Celestia managed to glance up at the colt with an uneasy expression as the feeling returned to her face. She still felt weak to the point where she wasn’t sure if she could get up, but at least the cold sensation was gone as the colt walked away from her. Shade walked ahead a few paces, seemingly thinking to himself and paying no particular attention to anyone or anything. When the colt stopped, he looked over to Shadow Mist and then to the symbol on the floor, letting a slight smile come over his face. “You… I want you to head outside and watch the door for me. I’m going to absorb the rest of the energy from this symbol and… get more comfortable in this body.” Shade explained while looking down at the shell he was currently inhabiting. “Watch the door…? But, I’m not sure if I can keep that many intruders away from you by myself, even with this new power you’ve given me.” Shadow Mist explained in an uneasy tone. He was never much of a direct fighter, always choosing to sneak up on his enemies or catch them off guard with a sudden attack. “Hmmm… that could be bothersome if anyone comes for us.” Shade said while looking down and thinking. The colt looked around the room, deep within his own thoughts as he tried to come up with a way to ensure his privacy while he completed his plan. Suddenly, the colt laid eyes on the two corpses left in the room. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker’s bodies were lying motionless in their own pools of blood where the colt left them. He hadn’t paid much attention to them after he killed them, but now he figured that he might as well use all the resources at his disposal. “Not to worry, Shadow Mist… A little necromancy should get you the help you need.” Shade said while lifting his hoof into the air and stamping it on the floor. As he made the connection with the ground, a shadowy black substance flowed out of his hoof and into the ground, where it sunk into the floor and became translucent like a shadow. Everyone watched as the shadowy energy traveled across the room and split off into two separate beams that each traveled to one of the two bodies. Once they reached their destination, the shadows on the floor flowed upwards and into the bodies. Celestia watched in horror, and Shadow Mist watched in passive intrigue as Raven Feather and Dust Kicker shook slightly while the shadowy substance traveled into them. After a few moments of the convulsions getting worse, the two ponies suddenly stopped moving. The room was deathly silent as all eyes watched the two bodies for signs of anything strange. Celestia almost thought the colt’s attempts had failed in whatever purpose they had, until her eyes widened as she saw something disturbingly shocking. Raven Feather moved her arm and positioned it to lift herself up off the ground. Dust Kicker followed suit shortly after the black mare. The two ponies slowly got up off the ground. Their eyes were still closed, and their movements were clumsy and lethargic, but they were able to get to their feet. Suddenly, the wounds on Dust Kicker’s neck and Raven Feather’s chest glowed bright purple. The light appeared similar to Shadow Mist’s leg and eyes, and it seemed to pulse softly like a magical aura. In almost perfect unison, the two ponies opened their eyes to reveal a similar purple glow. “Good heavens…” Celestia muttered in a quiet state of shock as she watched the two ponies look around curiously. They settled their eyes on the colt in front of them before remaining still at attention. “You can reanimate dead bodies?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. He seemed far more comfortable with the chilling act than the alicorn was. “It takes a little effort and some creative application of energy, but yes. You would be surprised at how simple things are with enough power.” Shade explained in a pleased tone. Celestia stared at the two undead ponies with a mortified expression. Raven Feather had terrorized Equestria with horrific monsters, ended dozens of innocent lives, and even robbed her faithful student Twilight from her, but somehow the alicorn felt that the black mare didn’t deserve this. “Are they… are they aware?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone. “Their minds left them as soon as their life did. I am merely borrowing their bodies until I finish my work.” Shade explained with a slight chuckle before turning to the two ponies standing at attention. “You two follow Shadow Mist and help him keep others out of this room. You are to prevent anyone from reaching me at any cost.” He instructed in a stern tone. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker nodded slowly before turning to Shadow Mist and waiting for him to move. “Well… I suppose that takes care of that. I will go outside and keep you safe.” Shadow Mist said in a sincere tone while looking to the pale colt. “And take the princess with you… I want to be alone for this.” Shade said while glancing over to the alicorn. Celestia watched as Shadow Mist walked over to her and picked her up roughly. Her legs were wobbling and her body still felt weak from her previous encounter with the colt, but the stallion forced her to stand and move forward. As the red stallion and his two silent companions escorted the princess towards the door at the far side of the room, she looked back to see the possessed colt stepping into the center of the symbol. He chuckled to himself in an amused tone before looking down as more of the black substance flowed out of the symbol and into his body. The process resembled what had happened before when Grimwood stepped on the symbol, though Shade seemed to be welcoming the experience more than the colt did. With a rough shove bringing her attention back to her captors, Celestia begrudgingly walked through the door into the other room. The three ponies followed her closely, fully intent on making sure that she didn’t escape or that anyone else came to rescue her and disturb their master. Meanwhile, Twilight and her small army were walking back through the streets of Canterlot on their way to the castle. Princess Luna and the team of guards were taking up the front while everyone else followed behind them. Although the crowds of darklings had passed them back at the guard station, they were still nervous about what the creatures might do if they did bump into them. The daunting task ahead of them was present on everyone’s mind as they walked forward with pensive expressions. Some were more nervous than others, but everyone could feel the dread and fear that accompanied their mission. They were the last and only line of defense Equestria had left. If they failed today, then all of the citizens of Equestria and beyond would suffer in eternal darkness. They had to succeed, not only for each other’s sake and those who cared for them back in Ponyville, but for the world as a whole. Rainbow Dash noticed a few nervous expressions among her circle of friends. She was a little anxious herself about facing such powerful foes, but the others seemed to be taking it worse than she thought at first. “So Twilight, do you have a plan to fight these guys once we get back there?” Rainbow asked curiously, hoping to have the purple mare instill some confidence in the others. Twilight looked back to see everyone looking to her for what she had to say. The thought of fighting the hooded ponies again was one she was trying to avoid, but she had to plan ahead if she was going to succeed. “Well… we did fairly well against Raincloud and Dust Kicker until Raven Feather showed up and… ahem… snuck up on me.” Twilight said with an uneasy tone before shaking the thoughts of her death from her head. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about Shadow Mist in his current state… so that just leaves whatever workers they have with them, Raven Feather, and her younger brother as unknowns.” She explained while trying to think of a way to approach taking on the black mare and her gang all at once. “If Raven Feather was able to best both Tom and my sister in battle, then she must be a formidable opponent with daunting skills. We should focus on disabling her and her shadow magic as soon as possible… perhaps I can make a pair of shadow magic concealing cuffs when we arrive at the castle.” Luna pondered out loud in a curious tone. “I really hope these upgraded strobes will work… one of us is going to have to put those cuffs on her, and I don’t think she is going to like it very much.” Sunspot said in a concerned tone. She wasn’t too sure if she wanted to rely on the small vial working against shadow magic, especially when it was being used by Raven Feather. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. Just keep an eye on my back and I’ll keep mine on all of yours.” Rainbow Dash stated with a confident smirk. Everyone seemed a little more comfortable with facing the hooded ponies now. As long as they were together, they would try their hardest to protect each other and stop Raven Feather. Suddenly, Princess Luna and the guards stopped at the front of the group. The concerned and surprised expressions shared between them made the others uneasy about what could have made them pause so abruptly. “Everyone stay low.” Luna instructed while ducking low and moving to the corner of one of the buildings off to the side to better conceal herself. Once everyone noticed what had spooked the alicorn, they all gasped in shock. The group had arrived at their destination. The castle laid just down the street from where they were. However, there was a sizable obstacle blocking their path. Standing in front of the castle grounds in droves were dozens if not hundreds of darklings. It was hard to see anything but blackness and teeth in front of the main door and out in the area around the castle. It was like every darkling in the entire city had gathered at the castle. Twilight and the others raced to find cover and hide themselves from view. They all crouched low and stood behind Princess Luna and the guards while staring nervously at the armada of monsters. They had never seen this many of the beasts in one place before. “Look at them all… there must be easily a hundred of them… probably more.” Rainbow Dash stated in a stunned tone. “W-what are they doing here…?” Fluttershy asked while nervously staring at the scene in front of her. She could feel her knees shaking from the flashbacks she was having to earlier. Her wing stung slightly from just thinking about fighting so many darklings again. Twilight looked around at the hordes of beasts gathered ahead. All of the darklings seemed to be sitting or standing in place, staring at the castle as if they were expecting something to happen. None of them were biting or snarling or fighting each other in the slightest. It was almost like they were taking orders again and they had been told to stay in place. “They aren’t moving very much… are they waiting for something?” Twilight pondered in a confused tone. “Perhaps they were drawn here by something.” Luna suggested curiously while observing the shadowy creatures. She expected to have been seen by at least one of the beasts, but all of them were just staring ahead stoically. “If they were drawn here by something, then that can’t be a good sign.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking around at her friends. “So how do we handle this? Just because they aren’t doing anything now, that doesn’t mean they will just let us stroll past them.” Glitterball said in a troubled tone while trying to fathom how they would get past the creatures. There were more of them around at the sides going as far as the castle stretched, so entering the castle without dealing with them wasn’t an option. “Well, as good as we are with these strobes, and even if the upgrade works… I don’t think we can fight that many of them.” Glimmer Shine said in a more concerned tone while going through the logistics in his head. Every option he came up with didn’t end well in the long run. “Hmm…” Sunspot muttered curiously while taking a look up to the still cloudy sky. “Maybe we won’t have to fight them. You thinking what I’m thinking Rainbow Dash?” She asked while smirking at the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash looked at the orange pegasus for a moment before glancing up to the sky. A wry smile formed on her face as she slowly came to the same realization that her fellow pegasus came to. She wondered why she hadn’t thought of such a simple solution before. The clouds seemed to have thinned out since it was raining, so it would be incredibly easy to move them now. “I think I know what you mean.” Rainbow said with a wide grin and a confident nod. “What are you two planning?” Twilight asked curiously while looking up to where the two mares were looking. “Oh… ohhh…. You’re going to move the clouds out of the way to let the sun destroy them aren’t you?” She said in an impressed tone as she caught on to the plan. “Yep, we’re gonna give those guys the first and last sunburn they will ever have. Come on Rainbow Dash, let’s get going.” Sunspot said while motioning for the cyan mare to follow her. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and leapt into the air after the orange pegasus as she flew upwards towards the area above the darklings. After taking a few moments to fly over to the castle and size up how big of an area they would need to clear, the two mares nodded to each other before readying themselves to begin. With a brief countdown, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot bolted through the air, kicking and flying through each cloud they saw. The sunlight above immediately poured through the new openings in the clouds, bathing the ground below in a brilliant cone of light. As soon as the rays of light touched the darklings, they all started yelping painfully as they started smoking. The beasts barely had time to react before they were reduced to smoke completely. The other darklings didn’t seem to be reacting much to the sky opening up around them and their friends burning to death, but even if they had, the two ponies in the air wouldn’t have given them much time to flee. Sunspot and her cyan companion were zipping around and clearing the entire area of clouds, effectively wiping out all of the darklings below. Twilight and the others watched silently as the shadowy creatures were wiped out. The disquieting cries of the darklings as they erupted into smoke clashed with the beautiful sight of sunlight returning to view, creating mixed feelings in the group. However they felt, they were all glad that they were progressing towards victory. After a few minutes of work by the two pegasus’s, the entire area around the castle had been cleared of darklings. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot flew back over to their friends and landed with excited smirks on their faces. “Nice job guys!” Twilight said in a congratulatory tone. “Yeah, you really showed them!” Pinkie added with a cheerful smile. “Heh… we did get results, that’s for sure.” Rainbow Dash said while looking behind her with a smirk. The path to the castle had been opened up, and any darklings that remained were far away and unmoving as ever. “Well done you two. I’m glad that we were able to deal with those horrid beasts without anyone getting hurt.” Luna stated while looking to the two mares with a relieved expression. “Looks like we’ve got a clear path… I doubt any of them will be able to chase us now.” Sunspot said while looking over to the front door of the castle. There was now a protective bubble of sunlight standing between them and any darklings that might have decided to chase them. “Let’s not waste any more time. Princess Celestia needs our help. We need to get in there as soon as we can.” Twilight suggested in an anxious tone while looking to the castle. She couldn’t stand thinking about her mentor being held captive by such despicable people. Everyone nodded in agreement at the prospect of moving forward. The group quickly fell in line and followed Princess Luna and the guards toward the castle. Sunspot and her two teammates kept their strobes at the ready and kept their eyes fixed on the darklings sitting off to the side. Although the ponies were confident that the sunlight would keep the beasts at bay, they still felt paranoid about them being in such close proximity. As expected, they managed to get up the steps and over to the front doors without issue. The guards quickly opened the doors and scanned the inside for threats. After they were satisfied that the way was clear, they ushered everyone inside while watching their backs just to be safe. Once everyone made it in, the guards closed the doors behind them and joined the others as they took a look around. Twilight and the others were gathered around a certain spot on the floor that was very familiar to each of them. There was a pool of blood still left on the floor, though most of it was starting to dry. However old or fresh the blood was, it still left an uneasy feeling in the ponies’ stomachs from looking at it. “So this is where…” Princess Luna hesitated uncomfortably as she watched the six mares stare at the bloody puddle with equally uneasy expressions. Twilight nodded silently while trying her best not to think back to the awful experience. “Let’s keep moving. We have a job to do… and I don’t want to think about this too much. I don’t… I don’t want to think about him… too much.” Twilight explained in a saddened tone while glancing to the small trail of blood leading over to the larger puddle of her blood. Everyone went quiet as they pictured their human friend using all of the energy he had left in an attempt at reviving the dead unicorn on the floor where they left her. Twilight looked up suddenly as she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder. She noticed Princess Luna offering her a compassionate expression of sympathy, and all of her friends were behind her offering her similar looks of reassurance. “We’ll make them pay for this, Twilight… you have my word.” Luna said in a sincere tone. “Thank you Princess. Now then… we should probably get moving.” Twilight said while clearing her throat and recomposing herself. Now that her emotions were relatively settled, the unicorn could focus her attention on the matter at hand. With a unanimous nod of agreement, everyone started walking forward towards the stairs at the back of the room. After making it upstairs and into one of the castle’s hallways, the group followed Twilight and her friends as they led the way back to the hooded ponies. “So where are these guys anyway?” Sunspot asked curiously while looking around at the passing decorations of the hallway. “We ran into Raincloud and Dust Kicker just outside of the throne room. I’m pretty sure that is where they have set up the ritual, and with any luck that will be where we will find Princess Celestia.” Twilight explained as she thought back to how close she and her friends had gotten before. “I just hope they don’t pull anything like they did last time.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone. Everyone gulped quietly at the mere thought of another one of them dying at the hooves of Raven Feather or her cohorts. “So… Raven Feather just turned invisible and snuck up on you?” Glitterball asked in a hesitant tone, hoping to tread lightly around the subject of how the unicorn died. “Yeah… she must have used Tom’s sword to stab me. I didn’t really know what was happening at the time.” Twilight explained with an uneasy shrug. “How did she turn invisible anyway? I thought Shadow Mist was the one that could do that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “Maybe you can do just about anything if you know how to use shadow magic enough. Some unicorns are better at certain spells than others, so it wouldn’t be too farfetched to assume that Raincloud and the others have certain abilities that they can do easily, while Raven Feather and anyone else with mastery over shadow magic can just do those things anyway.” Twilight explained while thinking about the matter further. “She would have to be incredibly powerful to defeat both Tom and Princess Celestia.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “Hopefully we can slap these cuffs on her before things get out of hand.” Glimmer Shine said while glancing back to his shadow magic suppressing cuffs. Sunspot and Glitterball looked to their own pairs with anxious expressions. “Are you sure these will work Princess?” Glitterball asked in an uncertain tone while thinking back to how the alicorn hastily inscribed the runes into the hoof cuffs as they walked. “Well… I suppose we never got the chance to test them out in the field. However, I am confident they will work. After all, the charms you gave Twilight and the others to suppress shadow magic worked back at the mansion… if only briefly.” Luna said in a hesitant tone. “I’m sure it will be fine. Let’s just focus on getting close enough to put these on before we worry about them working or not.” Sunspot suggested in a reassuring tone. The others shared uneasy glances with each other as they wondered whether or not any of the gear they had would even be effective against shadow magic. After a few more minutes of walking, the group neared the end of their journey. The ponies could feel a palpable sense of unease and tension in the air as they got closer and closer to the throne room. They would be fighting the hooded ponies again, and however large their group might have become, they were still horribly under equipped to handle things. Even if they managed to subdue Raincloud and Dust Kicker by the skin of their teeth like last time, what would they do to fight Raven Feather? They didn’t even know how powerful Raven Feather truly was, but she was strong enough to best a slayer and the princess of the sun in rapid succession. Despite any doubts they might have had, the ponies still moved forward. They were willing to fight to protect their home and the ones they loved, even if it meant making the ultimate sacrifice. The thought of death terrified most of the group, but they couldn’t be anywhere other than side by side with their friends as they fought the hooded ponies. Finally, the group stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway they were in. The door was immediately familiar to Twilight and her friends. They were just outside the room they had fought Raincloud and her brother in. Knowing the two ponies, they were probably still standing guard with their minions ready to rip any intruders to shreds. “Are you guys ready?” Twilight asked in a serious tone while looking back to her friends. Everyone looked around for a moment to see how the others were faring, and to process their own feelings. “I’m ready whenever you are.” Rainbow Dash said with a confident smirk. “We’ll do our best, Twilight.” Rarity said while turning to the others for their opinions. Pinkie Pie and Applejack nodded immediately in agreement, and even Fluttershy managed to swallow her fear and put on a determined expression. “We’ve got your backs.” Glimmer Shine said while holding onto his strobe confidently. Sunspot and Glitterball stood by the yellow stallion and smirked while keeping their own weapons close. “Ready and willing… let’s go take back our city.” One of the guards said with a determined tone of voice. The other guards stood at attention and waited for the group to move forward. Twilight looked at the small troop amassed before her. She felt proud knowing that she was fighting alongside some of the best Equestria had to offer. The purple mare looked over to the alicorn standing beside her and pushed all of the hesitation in her body away. “Are you ready Princess?” Twilight asked in a curious tone while putting her hoof on the door handle. “Yes… I am ready.” Luna replied with a confident nod. She slowly placed her own hoof on the door handle along with the purple mare. With a small smile and a look of determination, Twilight counted down from three and opened the door with the alicorn. Everyone quickly rushed into the room and surveyed the area ahead for threats. The group immediately noticed the presence of ponies over at the other end of the room. However, instead of seeing Raincloud and Dust Kicker, or even any of their minions, they saw an entirely different set of ponies. Princess Celestia was sitting against a wall off to the side, and from the look of it she had Dust Kicker, Raven Feather, and Shadow Mist with her. Even from where they were standing, Twilight and the others could see that something was off with the trio. There were purple glowing portions on all three of the ponies, with their eyes completely obscured by the sinister glow. “Princess!” Twilight exclaimed eagerly as she saw her mentor in one piece. The purple mare took a few steps forward and smiled widely as a wave of relief fell over her. Celestia lifted her head up and looked across the room to see the newly arrived gathering of ponies. She gasped in surprise as she noticed the purple unicorn and the blue alicorn among their numbers. “T…Twilight? Luna? You’re alive?!” Celestia asked in a stunned tone. She never thought she would see her faithful student or her sister again, so to see them standing in front of her overwhelmed the alicorn with happiness. The cheerful reunion between the three was interrupted suddenly as Shadow Mist stepped in front of Celestia. The red stallion glared at the princess for a moment before turning his attention to the group on the other side of the room. “I’m only going to say this once. Leave now, or we will kill all of you.” Shadow Mist said in a threatening tone. As if to further cement the stallion’s threat, Raven Feather and Dust Kicker slowly walked over to be in line with him. Twilight and the others watched the three ponies with varying degrees of unease. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker were acting more sluggishly than usual. Although nobody had seen the black mare for extended periods of time, they were confident that the unnatural way she carried herself and looked around wasn’t normal for her. “What is up with their eyes?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “That looks so cool! Hey, do you guys think you could use your magic to make my eyes glow like that?” Pinkie Pie asked with an excited tone. “Although… I don’t think purple would be a good color on me.” She added while pondering about the matter further. “Something’s wrong here… why is Raven Feather out here instead of working on their ritual? And where is Raincloud?” Rarity asked in a troubled tone. “Everyone listen to me! Their ritual failed and something got inside Raven Feather’s brother. He killed Raven Feather and Dust Kicker, and did something to influence Shadow Mist’s mind. You need to forget about me and go stop Grimwood before he gets any more pow- Gah!” Celestia yelped in pain as Shadow Mist punched her in the face. The sudden strike against the alicorn made the others gasp in shock. “Quiet… you don’t get to speak unless spoken to.” Shadow Mist said before returning his attention to the ponies ahead. The princess’s warning took a minute to settle in, but once everyone processed what she said, they looked at the three ponies with fearful expressions. “W…what?!” Glitterball exclaimed in a shocked tone as she tried to make sense of the brief statement made by the alicorn. “Wait… Raven Feather and Dust Kicker are dead? But how…” Twilight started to ask the obvious question, until something clicked in her head that made a chill go down her spine. “Shadow magic… whatever got into Grimwood must have… *Gulp* reanimated their bodies with shadow magic.” She stated in a mortified tone. “Good heavens…” Rarity said while looking to the two ponies with a horrified expression. Was she really looking at two walking corpses? “I didn’t think things could get any worse… how are we going to beat something not even Raven Feather could handle?” Sunspot asked uneasily. Everyone shared concerned glances with each other as they thought about what to do next. “The only thing I am worried about right now is getting my sister away from them.” Luna said in an irritated tone. The others looked over to see the blue alicorn staring ahead with a determined expression. Before anyone could react, Luna dashed forward and lit up her horn. “*Gasp* Princess!” Twilight yelled after the alicorn in a concerned tone, but she didn’t seem to care as she continued on her path. “Luna, stop!” Celestia pleaded in an attempt at getting her sibling to turn around. Unfortunately for her the blue mare wasn’t keen on stopping unless she reached her and rescued her. Shadow Mist smirked slightly as he watched the alicorn charging towards him. He stepped ahead of his two minions and lifted his shadowy leg into the air. Luna yelled fiercely as she discharged several bolts of magic towards the three ponies. The red stallion pushed his hoof forward and held it in place. As he concentrated for a moment, the tip of his hoof glowed brighter than the rest of his leg. Suddenly, the bolts of energy sailing towards the three ponies stopped in midair as they hit something. The bolts exploded into particles of light, and a soft glow of purple appeared in the air as if a force field were in place. “Grr…” Luna glared at the red stallion as her attacks failed. She started casting another spell, until something stopped her dead in her tracks. “Hyah!” Shadow Mist yelled fiercely as he stamped his hoof back down on the floor. In one swift motion, a dark shadowy substance flowed out of the stallion’s hoof and into the floor. “Ack!” Luna yelped in surprise as a ray of dark energy shot up in front of her. The force of the shadowy column shooting up blew her hair back and nearly took her head off as it flowed up into the ceiling. As the alicorn moved backwards to prevent herself from flying into the beam head first, she fell onto her side. Shadow Mist smirked with a sinister gleam in his eye as he channeled more energy to his hoof and into the floor. “Princess, you need to get out of there!” Glimmer Shine yelled frantically from the back of the room. Everyone was watching the alicorn on the floor fearfully, unsure of what they could do to help her. Before Luna could move again, another beam of shadowy energy shot up beside her and clipped her shoulder. The alicorn yelped in pain while frantically moving to get to her feet. As she got up and started to run back towards the others, another beam shot up where she just was. Racing to concentrate on another spell, Luna could already feel the ground beneath her growing cold as shadow energy formed under it. Clenching her eyes shut as she felt a painful surge of freezing cold energy on her legs, she teleported off to the side just as another column of shadows shot up where she just was. “Agh!” Luna yelped in pain as her legs gave out from beneath her. The brief exposure to the shadowy energy was enough to sap some energy from her and cause a mind numbing surge of pain in her hooves. “Luna!” Celestia yelled fearfully as she watched her sister trying to get back up. The blue mare’s legs were barely holding her weight, no matter how much she struggled or forced herself through the pain. Shadow Mist chuckled to himself warmly as he watched the princess of the night fumbling around in her attempts to flee from him. The stallion channeled more energy to his hoof and prepared to skewer her on a thinner spike of shadow energy. Suddenly, what sounded like a magical zap filled the air and died out suddenly. “What th- Ow!” Shadow Mist cried in surprise and stumbled backwards as a bolt of light hit his face and exploded into a cascade of sparkles. Luna looked behind her to see where the bolt came from, only to discover a bit of smoke coming off of the tip of a strobe held by Glimmer Shine. “Sunspot, go grab Princess Luna! Everyone else give her some cover!” Glimmer yelled while pointing his strobe ahead with a serious expression. “On it!” Sunspot replied in a determined tone while spreading her wings and leaping into the air. While the orange pegasus picked up speed, the red stallion on the other side of the room was seething angrily from the sudden attack on him. As he looked up to see the rest of the ponies jumping into action, he growled under his breath. “Stop her!” Shadow Mist commanded while looking to his two companions and pointing to the orange mare. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather directed their attention to the pegasus picking up speed in the air and immediately knew what had to be done. Raven Feather channeled shadow magic to her hoof and pointed towards the orange mare. After a brief moment, a beam of fiery shadows shot out of her hoof and carried all the way across the room. Sunspot exclaimed in surprise as she rolled in the air to dodge the beam, which continued on its path and scorched a black mark into the wall above the others. Before the black mare could start another attack, another bolt of light was shot at her feet from across the room. The three ponies looked up to see the three members of spirit opening fire on them with their strobes. “Agh!” Shadow Mist yelped in pain as a bolt sailed into his shadowy leg and exploded. The glowing limb pulsated a few times as its form was disrupted slightly, causing the red stallion to falter. Shadow Mist growled angrily while pushing through the pain and looking up again. He channeled shadow magic through his good leg and sent it into the ground. A dark shadow stretched out on the floor and traveled away from the stallion and towards the spot underneath Sunspot. With a disquieting roar, a series of shadowy balls of energy shot out of the shadow at high speeds and traveled straight up. “Woah!” Sunspot darted sideways as she noticed the energy blasts sailing towards her. The dark orbs shot up past her, barely missing her as she dodged them. The shadow beneath her seemed to follow her as she flew, going wherever she went and firing at her. Over at the front of the room, Twilight and the others watched their friend flying for her life with tense expressions of concern. Suddenly, Glitterball looked over to the three ponies on the other side of the room and noticed something. Shadow Mist seemed to be concentrating and channeling energy through the floor still, and he was watching the pegasus as if he were trying to control the shadow on the floor. Glitterball quickly aimed her strobe at the red stallion and opened fire. She pressed the button on the small vial as fast as she could, sending a barrage of light blasts towards Shadow Mist. Once he saw the wave of projectiles coming his way, Shadow Mist flinched his eyes shut and covered his face. As the red stallion was getting assaulted by miniature explosions, the shadow beneath Sunspot stopped firing out balls of shadow energy and disappeared completely. Seeing an opening for her, the orange pegasus swooped down and quickly closed the distance between her and Princess Luna. “Come on, Princess. We need to get out of here.” Sunspot said while kneeling down and helping the alicorn to her feet. “No, I’m not leaving without Celestia.” Luna said while holding back a painful groan. She looked back to the bound alicorn and gasped as she noticed something else. “Look out!” Luna yelled urgently while using all her strength to push the pegasus away. Sunspot yelped in surprise as the alicorn sent her to the floor before diving to the side herself. Just as the two mares hit the floor, a beam of shadow energy sailed past them, nearly singeing their sides. Sunspot and Luna turned over to see Raven Feather and Dust Kicker with their hooves raised in front of them. The tips of their hooves were engulfed in shadow energy, and they had devilish smirks on their faces. Luna raced to light up her horn to protect herself and the orange pegasus beside her, but she quickly realized that she was too weak and too late to do anything meaningful. Raven Feather shot out another burst of fiery shadows from her hoof. The dark flames sailed through the air and headed straight for the two helpless ponies on the floor. Sunspot and Luna covered their faces and tensed up as they prepared for the worst. They heard the sound of the blast impacting something and exploding, but strangely they felt no pain or any other indication that they were the ones hit. Taking a hesitant look up to see what happened, the two mares were surprised to see a bluish magical barrier being projected around them, shielding them from the shadowy blast and any other attack the two ponies might throw at them. As they looked back to see who was responsible for their rescue, they saw Glitterball with her horn lit up struggling to keep her magic steady in the face of adversity. “I promise we will get Princess Celestia out of here, but for now we need to go!” Sunspot said in an urgent tone while helping the alicorn to her feet again. Luna glanced back at her sister, who was offering her a concerned expression in return, most likely intended for the blue mare to flee instead of rescuing her. “Very well… let’s get to safety.” Luna said in a begrudging tone while turning to the pegasus and giving in. She didn’t just have her own safety to look out for anymore, she had the orange mare and the rest of the ponies in her care to worry about. If she died while rushing blindly to free her sister, then the others might very well follow her to the grave eventually. Using Glitterball’s shield as cover while the three hooded ponies fumed and fired shadowy projectiles at them, the two mares made their way back to the others as quickly as they possibly could. Once they made it back, they were greeted with the concerned faces of their friends as they checked for injuries. “Princess, what were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed out there!” Twilight said in a worried tone while helping the blue alicorn to a resting position. “Guh… I don’t care what happens to me as long as my sister is safe.” Luna said while cringing in an attempt at fighting through the pain. Most of the numbness her legs felt from being in contact with shadow energy was gone, leaving her to feel a burning cold sensation that caused a fair amount of pain in her legs. “Heads up!” Sunspot yelled urgently as she noticed another shadowy fireball sailing towards the group. Glitterball and one of the unicorn guards raced to project a protective barrier around everyone, barely making it in time to shield them from the blast. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot fired back at the three ponies on the other side of the room with their strobes, forcing them to dodge their strikes as they aimed at the glowing portions of their bodies affected by shadow magic. Twilight looked between her side and the three ponies across the room. Whatever had happened in the past few hours, it had changed things drastically. If what Celestia said was true, something even more powerful than Raven Feather had gotten into her younger brother and used his body to kill her and Dust Kicker, as well as making them and Shadow Mist into its slaves. Even if the unicorns of the group used their magic to shoot more damaging projectiles at the trio, they could most likely use their old powers to evade the attacks. The purple mare didn’t even want to think about what they could do now that they had massive amounts of dark power surging through their bodies. “We’ll get Princess Celestia back… we just need a plan to do it. Otherwise we will just be making needless risks and getting nowhere.” Twilight explained in a more level headed tone. Luna shrugged as she looked at the veritable fire fight going on between the hooded ponies and her own group. The strobes they had were barely doing anything to the ponies even if they hit, only causing Shadow Mist to yelp in pain if a blast hit one of the parts of his body restored by shadow magic. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather barely reacted to anything with more than anger, frustration, or sadistic enjoyment. Otherwise the two ponies were as emotionless as zombies, which given their apparent death and resurrection, probably wasn’t such a bad description. “Maybe you are right… but what can we do? Who knows how powerful they are now. We could barely contend with them before, but now they are even stronger.” Luna said in a forlorn tone. Twilight was surprised to see the blue alicorn so defeated. The weight of everything happening along with her sister being captured by the enemy must have been getting to her. As she thought more about what to do, not many options came to the purple mare. As Luna just demonstrated, trying to reach the princess directly would only be met with possible injury or death from the three empowered ponies guarding her. “Hmm…” Twilight pondered as hard as she could ponder given the situation. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. The idea was feasible, but was it practical? Either way, the unicorn cringed with dread as she realized what her plan would entail. “I have an idea. Glimmer Shine, are the keys to the magic suppressing cuffs universal?” Twilight asked while turning to the yellow stallion with a hopeful expression. Glimmer Shine stopped firing briefly as he thought about the matter. “Yes… I believe they are. What th- hey! What are you doing?!” Glimmer asked in surprise as the purple mare walked up to him and reached into one of the pouches on his vest to look for something. When she didn’t find what she was looking for, the unicorn switched to another pouch and tried again, much to the stallion’s discomfort. “Hold on… got them!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while pulling her prize out and holding it up triumphantly. She was holding a small key that looked like the ones used for the hoof cuffs. “You know, I could have gotten that for you.” Glimmer Shine muttered in an annoyed tone, still getting over the sudden invasion of his personal bubble. “No time to waste. Listen, I need you guys to put everything you have into firing at them. Use your strobes, use magic, use whatever you have.” Twilight said while looking around to everyone, ensuring that they were included as well. “But what can we do? If we step hoof out of here they will blow us to kingdom come!” Pinkie Pie said in a concerned tone. The grim reminder of their situation wasn’t needed for the ponies to realize how much trouble they were in. Glitterball and the unicorn guard were trying their hardest to keep the magical barrier intact, although it was clear just how much of a strain they were under with all of the attacks Shadow Mist and the others were shooting at them. Nearly every few seconds another shadowy projectile or beam exploded into the magical shield, causing more strain on everyone inside in more ways than one. “I don’t need you to go out there, I just need a distraction.” Twilight said while looking over to the bound alicorn sitting behind the three ponies. As they caught on to what the unicorn was planning, the others frowned with concern. “You better not try anything stupid Twilight. We already lost you once… we don’t want to lose you again.” Applejack said in a worried tone. The purple mare couldn’t help but to smile as she saw her friends looking at her with loving concern. “I’ll be fine. Hopefully I can get Princess Celestia’s cuffs off and get back here before they notice.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. “You heard her, guys… let’s give them all we’ve got.” Glitterball said while stepping forward and offering her strobe to Applejack. The orange mare hesitantly accepted the small vial and nodded while turning her attention forward. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine returned fire with their strobes, actually managing to catch a few of the shadowy projectiles in midair before they reached the barrier. Applejack aimed her strobe and opened fire as well, shooting for the weak points in the three ponies’ defense. Glitterball, the unicorn guards, and Rarity used whatever magic they knew to fire magical bolts at the trio or to throw various objects around the room at them. Everyone else merely cheered their friends on and allowed the purple unicorn to slip behind them and out of sight. Twilight looked back to her friends with a serious expression. They were all giving their best to fight the hooded ponies, even if it was just for show. She had no doubt in her mind that even though they didn’t have weapons, Rainbow Dash and the others would be up there fighting the trio with their bare hooves if they could. The purple mare looked to Shadow Mist and the others nervously as she prepared to execute her plan. Regardless of whether or not it was because of the influence Grimwood had over them, the trio looked like they would gladly rip her and her friends to shreds given the opportunity. She gulped fearfully as she realized just how close she would be to the three ponies when she teleported behind them to free Celestia. Finally, her attention shifted to the alicorn behind the three ponies. Celestia was watching the fight from the floor with a worried expression on her face. She was clearly weak judging from the way she was laying, doubtlessly from when she fought the hooded ponies and got captured. However, the metallic cuffs around her front legs were the only thing keeping her from escaping. Lighting up her horn and concentrating on the area behind the three ponies across the room, Twilight steeled herself and teleported. As she blinked out of existence and blinked right back near the princess, she quickly raced to her side and started unlocking her cuffs. “Twilight?” Celestia said in a hushed tone of surprise as she looked to the purple mare. “Come on Princess, we’re getting out of here.” Twilight replied while fitting the key into the small lock on the cuffs and sliding them off. The unicorn started helping the alicorn to her feet, until she heard the red stallion behind her exclaim in surprise. “Hey! What the hell are you doing?!” Shadow Mist asked in a stunned tone as he saw what the unicorn was doing. The stallion quickly raced to raise his hoof to the two mares and channeled shadow energy to it. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in fright while recoiling from the sight of the roaring aura of shadows around the stallion’s hoof. She tried to think of a spell to use to defend herself, but by the time she thought of something, Shadow Mist shot a ball of dark flames out of his hoof. Twilight covered her head with her arms and fell backwards in a vain attempt at dodging the strike. Before she could see her life flashing before her eyes, she heard a magical flash and felt herself moving slightly. “Huh…?” Twilight muttered in a confused tone while uncovering her face and looking around. She discovered that she was still lying on the floor, but now she was across the room behind her friends. The unicorn looked up to see Princess Celestia standing above her with her horn still lit up from a spell. “Celestia!” Luna exclaimed in excitement while rushing up to her sister and briefly hugging her. After sharing a tender embrace with her sibling, the white alicorn adopted a more serious expression to her face. “Everyone follow me. We need to retreat and regroup.” Celestia explained while motioning towards the door. The others briefly glanced over to the trio of ponies across the room before silently agreeing that they could all use a moment to recover. “Why you little… Stop right there!” Shadow Mist yelled angrily while firing off a bolt of shadow energy towards the group. The shadowy projectile crashed into the barrier that was still being made by Glitterball and the guards. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker tried a few more attacks of varying strength, only to achieve nothing as the ponies headed to the door and escaped. The last shadow ball thrown by Shadow Mist slammed into the door as it closed behind the ponies, leaving a large scorch mark and a small crack in the door. The red stallion ran across the room to give chase to the fleeing group. He turned around to see if his two companions were following him, only to discover that they were standing in place. “What are you doing?! We need to go after them!” Shadow Mist yelled in a frustrated tone. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker silently stared at the red stallion with indifferent expressions, their glowing eyes fixed on him like they were expecting him to carry on with his day. “Right… you want to stay close to Shade… *Sigh*” Shadow Mist shrugged and looked back to the door while deep in thought. Finally he shook his head and walked back over to the pair. “I guess we can just wait for them to come back… however long that might take.” Shadow Mist droned in an annoyed tone as he sat down and prepared to wait. He had to keep watch over his master in the trophy room, and he would need to stay at his post to do so. Still, he wished that he had someone to keep up a conversation with, and his two undead comrades were silent as the grave. “Ugh…” Tom groaned slightly as he became aware of his surroundings again. The world before him was black, and a myriad of sounds filled the air. As the sounds around him focused more, he realized that there were birds chirping softly nearby. There was also a gentle and cool breeze blowing around him. The strange sensations he was getting confused the human, but he could scarcely piece together his foggy memories to figure out what was going on. He was dead, or at least he thought so. Tom was no stranger to the concept of death, but he was certain that he was going to stay dead this time. Or was he still alive? The hazy feeling in his head and his numb body made it hard to infer whether or not he was actually still living. Was this the afterlife? Once the feeling returned to his body, the boy found that the strange blackness he was stuck in was only because his eyes were closed. Peaking open one eye revealed only a blinding light that forced him to shield his eyes and revisit the calm blackness he had awoken in. After taking a few moments to adjust to the light, the human looked around to see where he was. “Woah…” Tom exclaimed in absolute astonishment as he took in his surroundings. He was sitting on a wooden bench in the middle of what seemed to be a public park. There was a stone path cutting through the grass in front of him, and there were trees all around that rustled with the breeze. “What the heck…? What is this place?” The boy asked in a confused tone. Strangely though, he had the feeling that he had been here before. “Look familiar?” A male voice from beside him rang out suddenly, catching the human off guard. “I suppose it is a beautiful sight.” The voice spoke again. As Tom recognized the voice from distant memory, he froze suddenly with shock. Slowly turning his head to view his strange companion, he saw the last thing he expected to see. There was another human, and not only that, but a human that the slayer knew. The human was a teenage boy around Tom’s age and height. He had medium length black hair that was parted in the middle to keep it out of his eyes, which were brown in color. He was wearing a pair of denim jeans and an orange shirt with short sleeves. “H-Henry?” Tom asked in a stunned tone. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head before looking back at the boy in front of him. There was no doubt about it. This was his friend since childhood. The same one that was with him on the fateful night he died and became a slayer. “Heh… not quite.” The boy said with a slight chuckle while leaning back on the bench. “I’m not Henry. I’m simply… borrowing his image for now. I thought it might be better for you to talk to a familiar face.” He added in a kind tone. “Where am I? And… if you’re not Henry, then who are you?” Tom asked in a slightly uneasy tone. “You don’t recognize this place? I thought it would be perfect for our little chat.” The boy said while looking around at the luscious scenery. As Tom took another look around, he felt fond memories flooding back to him. “Oh yeah… this is the park in my home town. We used to go here all the time after school. Well… me and Henry did anyway.” Tom clarified while turning back to the strange person using his friend’s face. “Ah yes, I suppose you must be curious as to who I am.” The boy stated while noting the confused look on the slayer’s face. Tom waited for him to introduce himself, but he simply sat still and stared ahead with an amused expression for several seconds. “Well…? Who are you?” Tom asked in a bewildered tone. “That is the question isn’t it? Well… I suppose you could say I am an interested party. For the moment however, you can call me Clarence if you want.” The boy said with a slight smirk. Tom nearly cringed so hard that it was audible as he thought about his strange companion’s choice in name. “Really... Clarence? That’s a bit cliché don’t you think? Are you an angel or something?” Tom asked curiously. “Aww… where would the fun in that be if I told you what I am? The grand powers behind all of the universe’s inner workings tend to feel a little less grand if you can put a name and a face to them.” Clarence said in a lighthearted manner. “Fair enough.” Tom nodded in understanding as he thought about the boy’s logic. “Ok… Clarence, what am I doing here?” He asked while looking around at the park and wondering why he was even conscious right now. “You’re here because you failed. You were under too much fatigue, and you didn’t have the will to continue, so you died.” Clarence explained in a more stoic tone. “Oh no… Twilight. Is she...” Tom hesitated as he remembered what he was doing before he died. “She is alive… for the moment. You did a pretty good job with that one Tom. No other slayer has managed something like that.” Clarence said in an impressed tone. “Really? I did it?” Tom asked while raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Well… I might have given you a bit of help towards the end there, but it was mostly you. Not a bad way for a slayer to go out.” Clarence said with a slight chuckle. “What’s going to happen to them now?” Tom asked in a more somber tone. Clarence adopted a more serious expression while leaning forward and resting his clasped hands on his lap. “They are facing terrible powers that their world has never seen before. And as for their future… well, I don’t know what the outcome will be, but their fate looks grim.” Clarence said while looking ahead somberly. “What?! What do you mean grim?!” Tom asked in an agitated tone. “You should help them! They don’t deserve this punishment. Their world is pure and good… at least when compared to mine.” He added while looking down hesitantly. “I can’t do anything to help them. I’ve already interfered more than I should have. You see, I’m not supposed to interact with the mortal world in any way.” Clarence explained with a hint of sadness in his voice. “What about the slayers? I’m assuming that since you brought me here that you’re the one that created them. I would say bringing dead people back to life and giving them otherworldly powers is as much interference as you can get.” Tom stated while controlling his anger and glaring at the strange boy. “You are correct… I did indeed raise you and all of the other slayers.” Clarence said in an understanding tone. He looked over to see Tom looking away from him with a frustrated expression, as if he were dealing with the stress of knowing that there was nothing he could do to help his friends. “Let me tell you something Tom.” Clarence said in a friendly tone, eliciting the slayer to turn and look at him. “I’m not by any means the most powerful being in the universe. In fact, I did not even create the universe. My… well, my boss shall I say, created the world and everything in it. The humans thrived and grew with every other beast of the earth, and strived to learn and create and live.” He continued while thinking about how best to put his explanation. Tom listened intently as his companion went on. “However… as was inevitable, a great many evils thrived along with the rest of the world and spread all across it. Dark magic… monsters… beings from other worlds and dimensions entirely, all seeking to kill and destroy and corrupt. My colleagues and I detested the state the world was in. However, every time I would go to my boss, he would send me away with the same explanation. Boss, I would say… the world is corrupt and evil creatures threaten to destroy all you have created. And he would say, do not interfere, because everything is as it should be.” Clarence explained in a pensive tone. “That sounds a bit stupid in my opinion… wait, your boss isn’t listening is he?” Tom asked in a nervous tone while looking around. Clarence chuckled warmly at the human’s statement. “Don’t worry, he has a good sense of objectivity and humor.” Clarence explained before continuing. “Anyway… the years went by, and man learned to make tools and keep himself sheltered from the harsh world around him. But as humankind advanced and spread across the globe, so too did the forces of evil. Once again I went to my boss, and I pleaded for him to intervene, or even to let us intervene for him.” He said with a sincere sense of emotion in his voice. “Let me guess… that went about as well as the first time?” Tom asked curiously. “Heh, you’re quick on the uptake aren’t you?” Clarence asked with a smirk. “More years went by, and more evils were wrought upon the world of man. The innocent and the unclean alike would be slaughtered by the many evil creatures of the world, and even by the hand of their fellow man. One last time I went to my boss, and I begged him. Please… they are undeserving of this torment. I pray you, let us intervene and save them. And my boss… in all his wisdom, turned to me and said… If you want someone to intervene for them, let them intervene on their own behalf.” He said in a more quiet tone. “The slayers…” Tom said as he caught on to the boy’s meaning, to which he nodded. “And around that time, down on the earth, a young Arthur Redwood was dying to protect the kingdom he loved. I felt for his plight… so I raised him and molded him to fight back against the forces of evil. I even gave him my own personal weapons to fight with.” Clarence said while gently taking ahold of Tom’s hand. Tom watched in amazement as the familiar sight of flames sprouted from his fingertips and formed into his spirit weapon. “My claws…?” Tom asked in a confused tone. Clarence let go of his hand, causing the weapons to vanish against the boy’s will. “Why else do you think that only you and Arthur received claws as your spirit weapons? I gave them to Arthur because he was my first soldier… the first person to fight against all of the evils of the world. And I gave them to you, because you were the first person to be sent to fight all of the evils of a new world.” Clarence explained with a more stoic expression. “So you were the one who sent me to Equestria that night. Out in the woods… the bright light.” Tom said in an intrigued tone. “I must say, none of us expected a new form of life to take the place of humanity, and we certainly didn’t expect it to be ponies of all things. Still, their world was full of love and harmony and they lived in peace, so we let them be. Until that is… some evil from the past lingered through the years and resurfaced in the new world of Equestria. They needed someone to protect them… we needed someone to protect them as we had needed someone to protect humanity.” Clarence said while looking to the boy next to him suggestively. “But… why me? I… I’m not special. I’m certainly not the strongest slayer to exist. I was going to give up and die for crying out loud… why did you pick me?” Tom asked in a confused tone. “Because you were perfect for the role. You distanced yourself from humanity, and you felt like you didn’t have anyone to talk to or be friends with. But at the same time, you still felt the need to protect that most slayers felt, which was why I chose you to become a slayer in the first place. Sending you to Equestria was the best choice… and the only choice we had.” Clarence looked down hesitantly as he continued. “Why pick me though? Why didn’t you choose Henry in the first place? He could have done a much better job.” Tom said with a slight shrug. “Well, you did a fairly decent job yourself. Considering your age, you did better than many other people thrust into the life of a slayer.” Clarence explained in a reassuring tone. “I didn’t exactly do well enough though…” Tom frowned and looked down sadly as he thought about his failure to stop Raven Feather. “Maybe you should go back? Beat the hooded ponies, save the day… be the slayer I made you to be.” Clarence suggested in an optimistic tone. Tom shrugged as he thought about his fight with Raven Feather. He probably wouldn’t be able to do anything to help if he went back. “I don’t think I should go back. I lost… I couldn’t beat Raven Feather if I wanted to. They need someone dependable that can protect them… someone else. Maybe I should just stay here…” Tom sighed in a depressed tone while leaning back on the bench. “Hmm…” Clarence said in a surprised tone while pausing slightly. “Maybe you’re right.” He added with a pensive expression while leaning back as well. He watched the boy as he stared up at the sky and thought to himself. Tom seemed to have had the fight taken out of him, and he was perfectly content with giving up and staying dead. Minutes of silence went by as the two sat on the bench together. Tom looked down at the floor and frowned sadly, while Clarence simply watched him with a curious expression. Neither of them broke the peaceful atmosphere of the park as the wind blew and the birds chirped, a seemingly still picture of a happier time for the slayer. Perhaps he could finally move on and rest after everything he had been through. Chapter 99: The Battle for Equestria (Part 1)Twilight and her band of friends rushed out into the hallway and panted heavily from the surge of adrenaline they just had. Somehow they had managed to free Princess Celestia from the clutches of their enemies. Everyone looked to the white alicorn with cheerful expressions as they settled down. “I don’t think they’re following us.” Glimmer Shine reported while glancing back to the door behind the group. “That’s a relief… I need a minute to catch my breath.” Twilight said with a slight chuckle. She still felt a little jolt of fear from having yet another near death experience. Meanwhile, Celestia was focusing on something other than the miraculous rescue that was just pulled off. She stared at Twilight and Luna with a stunned expression, almost like she was trying to ascertain whether or not they were actually real. “Twilight… Luna… you’re… you’re alive.” Celestia said in a bewildered tone. The purple unicorn and the blue alicorn looked back at her and smiled softly. “Yes sister… we are. Back at the mansion, I didn’t actually die… I merely hid after narrowly escaping with my life. I’m so sorry for making you worry like that.” Luna said in a somber tone while walking closer to her sister and frowning sadly. Celestia gladly placed an arm around the blue alicorn and let her rest her head on her shoulder. “It’s ok Luna… I am not upset with you. I’m just glad that you’re ok.” Celestia said in a sincere tone before looking up to Twilight with a stunned expression. “But Twilight… how are you here? I saw the blood on that sword… Raven Feather was certain she had killed you.” She said while shuddering slightly at the traumatic memory of hearing about her student’s untimely demise. “She did kill me, Princess. Tom must have woken up after the others left and tried to revive me… he saved me at the cost of his own life.” Twilight explained in a somber tone while looking down at the floor sadly. Celestia was shocked to hear that the human was indeed gone. She had already been eternally grateful for everything that he had done to protect her student and her friends, but now he had sacrificed himself to ensure Twilight’s survival. “Tom… no…” Celestia muttered sadly while shaking her head. “I’m sorry that any of this happened Twilight. I should have done more to stop Raven Feather before things got out of hand.” She added while facing away from the others. “It’s not your fault Princess. At any rate, we can focus on mourning and feeling sorry for ourselves later. Right now we need to put a stop to this once and for all.” Twilight stated in a determined tone. “Well if we’re going to do that, we need to know what’s going on. Princess, you said that something happened during the ritual and Raven Feather’s brother got possessed by something?” Glimmer Shine asked to clarify the short and frantic message the alicorn had given the group in the other room. “Yes… I watched it all happen unfortunately. The ritual went wrong, and nothing happened… until Grimwood stepped in the center of the symbol by accident. Some kind of dark substance flowed into him, and he acted strangely afterwards. When Raven Feather tried to help him, he lashed out at her and killed her. He killed Dust Kicker as well once he tried to intervene. After that, he used his power to control Shadow Mist and raise Raven Feather and Dust Kicker’s bodies into mindless slaves. I’ve never seen such potent displays of power before in my life… and I don’t think that is even half of what he is capable of.” Celestia explained in a troubled tone. “What about Raincloud? Did she die too?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hint of concern in her voice. As much as she despised the grey pegasus for everything she had done, she didn’t think that she deserved to die. “No… she fled after watching her brother die. Perhaps that was for the best… if she had stayed she might have fallen to the same fate.” Celestia shuddered uneasily while trying to suppress the memories of watching the two dead bodies reanimate. She could still feel the piercing purple glow of their eyes on her even now. Suddenly, Celestia groaned softly from exhaustion and wobbled slightly to the side. After steadying herself, the alicorn shook her head to seemingly get rid of whatever weakness she was feeling. The sight of the princess in such distress worried the others immensely. “Princess, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while taking note of the alicorn’s pale appearance. The unicorn hadn’t paid much notice to it before, but she had looked like she was straining to recover after teleporting both herself and her student out of danger ever since the group left the room. “I’m fine… I’m just feeling a little weak. Whatever entity took over Grimwood must share the energy draining properties of dark matter. He only touched my face and it felt like he was sucking my life-force away.” Celestia explained while trying her best to shake off the lingering feeling of weakness she had. Everyone looked to the alicorn with concerned expressions as they thought about how much of a terrible experience she had been through. “So this… thing, just up and manages to kill Raven Feather and Dust Kicker, mind control Shadow Mist, and turn their entire operation on its head in a matter of minutes? What are we dealing with here?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone. “I don’t know… and apparently neither did they. Before he came under the entity’s control, Shadow Mist said that he hadn’t seen or read about anything like it before. Judging from how powerful it was, I would wager that it wasn’t anything they had expected. And unfortunately for us… it’s getting stronger.” Celestia explained with a troubled expression. “Stronger? What do you mean it’s getting stronger?” Glitterball asked nervously. Everyone else in the group had pale and fearful expressions from listening to the princess describe the strange entity. They had never seen it before, or even seen Grimwood to get a vague picture of its appearance, but they were utterly terrified of it. “When Shadow Mist and the others took me in the other room, I saw Grimwood… or Shade as he calls himself now… I saw him going to the center of the symbol again and absorbing more of that strange black substance.” Celestia explained uneasily. “So he’s trying to get stronger. Hmm… whatever this thing is can’t be good. Even if the ritual didn’t go as Raven Feather intended, it was originally meant to summon the eternal night, so maybe it summoned something else that is equally dark and powerful?” Twilight thought out loud in a troubled tone. She and everyone else present was more than a little unsettled from the change to their situation. They almost wished that the hooded ponies were still their main threat to deal with instead of this strange and terrifying new entity. “I don’t care how strong this thing is. We’re going to show it whose boss!” Rainbow Dash stated in an eager tone. “Although… having a plan might be nice… since I have no idea what to do short of punching it in the face.” She added in a slightly deflated tone as she thought more about the matter. “Yeah, I don’t think that would work.” A familiar voice from off to the side made everyone dart their heads in alarm. They saw a grey pegasus mare strolling up to them casually, one they had become acquainted with as Raincloud and learned to call their enemy. “Back up Raincloud, or we’ll singe your face off.” Sunspot said in a threatening tone while moving in front of the group and pointing her strobe at the approaching mare along with her teammates. The pegasus merely chuckled at the sight of the small vials. “Oh please, don’t hurt me with your shiny party poppers. I don’t want to die from laughter.” Raincloud said with a smirk, eliciting the three ponies to share a concerned glance with each other while thinking of whatever equipment they had to combat the grey mare. Everyone else stood behind the team of ponies and stared at the pegasus with varying degrees of fear, unease, and contempt. “We don’t need hollow bluffs to fight you Raincloud.” Luna said with an intimidating tone while lighting up her horn and stepping in front of Sunspot and the others. Princess Celestia joined her sister and lit up her horn while standing in front of the group protectively. “You won’t be able to fight all of us by yourself.” Celestia said with an icy glare pointed squarely at the shady pegasus. “Hold up before you waste time with turning me into a smoking puddle. I didn’t come here to fight you… as much as the thought entertains me.” Raincloud said while holding back a scornful glare. The others looked at each other with confused expressions as they processed the mare’s words. “What do you want if you didn’t come here to fight?” Twilight asked in a curious tone while stepping forward slightly. The two alicorns stood by the purple mare protectively, wary of the pegasus’s sudden desire for diplomacy. “That thing in there took over a colleague of mine and killed almost everyone I have associated with for my whole life… needless to say, I am a tad bit pissed off at it.” Raincloud said while pointing behind the group towards the door at the end of the hall. “What are you proposing, Raincloud?” Celestia asked while letting her horn die out. Luna looked to her sister with an uncertain expression as she used her hoof to gently push her back. With an uncomfortable sigh, the blue alicorn dimmed her horn as well while her sister stepped forward. “*Sigh*… I can’t believe I am about to say this, but… I need… your help.” Raincloud said with a strained voice while cringing painfully. “What?!” Twilight and her friends asked with shocked tones and surprised expressions. “Look… I’ve been having my shadow keep tabs on that thing in there. What does he call himself… Shade? Whatever… he is too strong for me to take on alone, and he is definitely too strong for your sorry asses to take on. I thought that maybe together we could get that thing out of Grimwood and send it back to whatever slimy pit it crawled out of.” Raincloud said while leveling with the group. Everyone was still getting over the shock of hearing the grey mare trying to forge a working team with them, but she seemed genuine enough. “And what’s to stop us from taking you into custody after all of this is over?” Sunspot asked while looking down to her shadow magic suppressing cuffs. Raincloud looked down and made an expression none of the ponies had ever seen on her. Most of the times they met the grey mare she was smiling sadistically as her shadow tormented them, or she was genuinely enjoying almost killing them with her bare hooves. But now she was frowning sadly, and looking to the floor with a downcast expression. “My brother is dead… Raven Feather is dead… there is nothing left for me here. I don’t care what happens to me… whether I go to jail for the rest of my life or die here at the hooves of that freak.” Raincloud said in a somber tone. Everyone was surprised to see such a genuine emotion from the pegasus, and they actually felt sorry for her despite everything she had done. “We will see what happens to you after all is said and done… but for the time being, it would be in both of our interests to form an alliance… however fragile it might be.” Celestia said in a calm tone while stepping forward and offering to shake the grey mare’s hoof. Twilight and the others weren’t surprised to see such a friendly gesture from the princess, but it was still strange to see her offering to shake hooves with the enemy. The pegasus looked up to the alicorn’s outstretched hoof and instinctively scoffed. She seemingly took a moment to contemplate things before scrunching her face in disgust and pushing the princess’s hoof away. “Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, Princess.” Raincloud said in a disdainful tone while walking around the group towards the door. Everyone backed up slightly and watched as the grey mare muttered to herself in an upset tone while avoiding looking at them. Celestia silently watched the pegasus with a wary expression, trying to ignore the fact that she just took her friendly show of peace and shoved it in her face. Still, she didn’t expect much more from the grey mare. Their alliance was one of necessity, and not one of choice. Had the circumstances been different, she was confident that Raincloud would slit her throat, at least if Raven Feather let her. “Alright… we’re going to need something big if we’re going to beat this thing. I don’t suppose any of you have a plan?” Raincloud asked in a dull tone, not really expecting much of a battle plan from the group of ponies. “Well, we could use the elements of harmony. If this thing is part shadow creature, and the elements were supposed to work on the eternal night, then we might have a chance with them.” Twilight suggested in an optimistic tone. Everyone seemed open to the idea of using the elements. After all, they were their strongest weapon against the forces of evil, even if they had never used them against something quite this evil. “As much as the thought of that makes me want to hurl, you might be right.” Raincloud agreed with the unicorn in a begrudging tone. Not only did she detest that she was working with Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but she was actually going to plan on the forces of friendship to vanquish an ancient and evil shadow creature that was more powerful than anything she had ever seen. Luna glanced back to the bag she kept with her thoughtfully. The elements of harmony were a powerful tool that had bested impossible odds before, but it had never been tried on anything so evil or powerful before. Her sister was stronger than her in terms of magical prowess, and she had been beaten by Raven Feather, who was in turn beaten by their current enemy. Still, the elements were the best bet they had at the moment. “I have the elements with me. I will keep them safe until we can use them.” Luna explained in a confident tone. “Hopefully we won’t need them to get by Shadow Mist and the others. Not that I’m even sure they would work against them… they are just ponies using shadow magic… I think.” Twilight pondered uneasily while thinking about whether or not Dust Kicker and Raven Feather were even ponies anymore. At any rate, there was no guarantee that the elements would disable the power inside of them. “Don’t worry about that, I’m sure we can beat them. I’ll take them down myself if I have to.” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. She was met suddenly with Raincloud glaring at her. “Are you stupid or something? The elements need their wielders alive to work… all of them. You six need to stay out of this fight. Assuming you don’t get slaughtered in the first few seconds that we fight that thing in Grimwood, we at least need the shot.” Raincloud said in a condescending tone, much to the cyan mare’s annoyance. “Grr…” Rainbow Dash glared back at the grey pegasus as she contemplated punching her in her smug face. Before she could act on her violent thoughts, she was stopped by Princess Celestia placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Settle down Rainbow Dash. I agree with Raincloud on this… I think you and the girls should stay back while we defeat Shadow Mist and the others.” Celestia said in a serious tone. “W-what?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone. Most of the others shared in the cyan mare’s surprise. “I know what you’re thinking Rainbow Dash, and I appreciate your willingness to fight this thing with us… but you are too important to take such a large risk. I want you and the others to stay with my sister while she projects a force field around herself. This way we can keep both you and the elements safe, as well as having a safe haven from any of their attacks.” Celestia explained while looking to her sister to confer her opinion. The blue alicorn nodded in agreement with her sibling. As much as she wanted to fight with the others, she knew that someone had to protect their weaker members. “Ugh… fine. I just want to make it clear that I do not like this.” Rainbow Dash said while folding her arms with an upset expression on her face. “If it makes you feel better Rainbow Dash, I can give you my strobe so you can use it while I use my magic.” Glitterball suggested in a friendly tone while offering the vial up to the pegasus. Rainbow Dash smiled softly from the gesture before sighing restlessly. “Thanks Glitter.” Rainbow said while accepting the strobe from the unicorn and examining it in her hooves. “Ok, if you’re all done hugging it out, I would like to kill this thing before it finishes what it’s doing and destroys the whole of Equestria.” Raincloud shrugged in an impatient tone. Everyone glanced to the grey pegasus as she waited over by the door. Her eagerness to go out into the fray wasn’t exactly unanimous among the ponies. However confident some of the stronger members of the group might have been, they all felt at least a little unease in the pit of their stomachs as they thought of the coming battle. With their roles set and all the planning they could do carried out, the group had nothing more to do than offer concerned glances to their friends and march forward. Twilight and the others stayed close to Princess Luna as she walked at the back of the group. Even if some of them could use their magic or other means to help the others from afar, they still felt like they could do more. At the same time, the feelings of dread shared among them only got stronger as they approached the door. Everyone stopped in front of Raincloud and watched as she turned to face the door. She glanced back to the others for a moment before sighing, as if she were thinking of something annoying. Judging from her expression, it most likely had something to do with them. “I can use my shadow magic to do some damage to them… you guys should be able to stay back and shoot whatever you have at them from where you are.” Raincloud suggested with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice as she leveled with the group. They could tell that she was fine with them dying in battle, but their survival was in her best interest, at least for the moment. “I will fight with you. I should be able to handle myself against them.” Celestia volunteered in a confident manner. Her bravery in the face of danger was most likely lost on her gray ally, but she nodded anyway. “What should we do, Princess?” One of the guards at the back of the group asked curiously. Celestia and the others turned to look at the small team of guards that had accompanied them from the station back in town. The white alicorn realized that most of them wouldn’t be able to help without getting close up to their foes, and that would put them at great risk, which was something the princess wanted to avoid if at all possible. “Stay back with the others. Those of you who can use magic can support us from the safety of the barrier. The rest of you can keep watch and keep everyone safe on the off chance that one of them gets through the force field.” Celestia instructed in a serious tone. The guards saluted and nodded in compliance with their new orders. Now that everyone was more or less ready to face the upcoming challenges, the grey pegasus at the front of the group placed her hoof on the door handle and paused. She nodded to the group, who offered silent nods in return, before turning the handle and pushing the door open. Everyone quickly funneled into the room and looked ahead to find their enemies. As expected, they found the three ponies over at the far end of the room like they had never moved. As soon as everyone was inside, Luna lit up her horn and projected a magical barrier around the area that stretched out a few feet to give the group some room. The three ponies across the room looked over and noticed the intruders as they prepared themselves for battle. The red stallion chuckled slightly as he noticed a certain grey pegasus standing among them like she was fighting alongside them. “Well look who decided to come back.” Shadow Mist said in an intrigued tone. Raincloud growled under her breath as she saw what Shade did to her former friends first hand. The sight of her brother looking back at her with glowing eyes and a glowing slit on his neck instilled her with both sorrow and anger. “Look Shadow Mist, I don’t know what that thing did to you, but you’ve got to be in there somewhere. I don’t want to kill you… but I will if it means putting a stop to this.” Raincloud spoke up across the room while stepping out of the barrier with a serious expression. “I didn’t peg you for the heroic type Raincloud. I would say I was impressed if you didn’t decide to side with such weaklings. Even with your shadow magic you are weaker than us.” Shadow Mist said in a confident tone while letting some dark energy pulsate out of his hoof for show. The others watched as Raincloud glanced down to the stallion’s small display of power with a concerned expression. Perhaps she could get a better feel than they could for how powerful his shadow magic was, or maybe she was dreading having to fight her colleagues, but either way she seemed hesitant to jump into battle. Celestia stepped out of the barrier and got in line with the grey pegasus. Along with this show of courage, Twilight and the others readied their own methods of attacking. All of the unicorns lit up their horns and stared ahead with serious expressions, and everyone who had access to a strobe readied it in line with the three ponies in the distance. Raincloud looked over to see the others giving her reassuring expressions. Whether or not she enjoyed fighting with the princess and everyone else on her side, she appreciated that she wouldn’t need to do this alone. “I don’t like how cocky you’ve gotten… Oh well. If you won’t help me get your head on straight again, I guess I’ll just have to knock some sense into you.” Raincloud said while readying herself for battle. A disquieting sound filled the air as the grey mare’s shadow floated up and out of the floor. Twilight and the others looked at the floating specter with wary expressions. They had never seen the shadow any other time than when it was trying to rip them to shreds, so it was a strange turn of events to see it on their side for once. “I’d like to see you try.” Shadow Mist said with a sinister grin before looking to his two companions. “Kill them!” He instructed while pointing at the group ahead with his good leg. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather smirked slightly as they settled their eyes on the group of ponies. The undead pair channeled shadow energy to both their front hooves and started rushing forward. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist stayed behind and prepared to fight from a distance. “Shadow, kill them!” Raincloud commanded to her pet while directing it towards the two ponies with her thoughts. As much as she hated sending her familiar to kill her brother and her mentor, she knew that they were no longer themselves and they had to be put down. The specter’s laughter echoed through the room, sending a slight chill through the group of ponies behind it as it readied its claws. Suddenly, the shadow flew forward with a threatening wail and shot after the two ponies to reach them before they reached its master. “Fire!” Glimmer Shine yelled to everyone while pointing his strobe at the two approaching threats. Everyone discharged either their strobes or their horns, sending a wave of projectiles towards the two. Being careful not to hit Raincloud’s shadow, they fired everything they had at the two ponies and their red colleague. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker ducked and dodged around every bolt of light or magical beam that came their way. Once they reached the shadow sailing towards them with claws at the ready, they both shot their hooves out in front of them and discharged the dark energy they had been focusing. Raincloud’s shadow let out an agitated growl as it was sent flying backwards by a shockwave of purple energy. Once it regained its balance in the air, it looked ahead to see the two ponies firing shadowy fireballs toward it and the others behind it. The only thing the specter could do was dodge the attacks and attempt to get closer. Twilight and the others watched with concern as the fireballs whizzed past Celestia and Raincloud, nearly catching the pair off guard and smacking right into them. While the two ponies narrowly avoided the dark projectiles, the group behind them could only hope that the shield being projected by Princess Luna would hold up. The barrage of fireballs exploded into the shield with a thunderous clamor. The ponies inside cringed and flinched their eyes shut as they felt and heard the shield shaking from each successive hit. A few cracks formed in the magical barrier as Luna strained to keep it solid. “Hyah!” Raincloud yelled suddenly as she charged forward towards the two ponies. She channeled shadow magic to her hoof and swiped it sideways, sending an arc of purple energy towards them. Dust Kicker dove to the ground while Raven Feather jumped to the side, allowing the arc to sail past them and slam into the floor behind them. A small explosion rang out as the band of energy finished its brief flight, leaving a sizable scorch mark in a near perfect outline of itself as a visible calling card. Spotting an opportunity to go from defense to offense, Celestia lit up her horn and fired a series of magical beams at the pair. While the two ponies scrambled to evade or deflect the incoming attacks, Luna had time to recuperate and repair any damage done to her shield. Raincloud and her shadow rushed forward and went for Raven Feather and Dust Kicker respectively, taking them by surprise from the side. While Raincloud and Raven Feather channeled shadow energy to their hooves and had a makeshift sword fight, Dust Kicker tried his best to keep ahead of the shadow as it swiped at him with its claws. The two pairs danced around each other, all the while trying to make a move that would put them at an advantage. Celestia and the others still offered fire support, even if they had to be more careful with their shots. Somehow however, Raven Feather and Dust Kicker seemed to be able to keep up with both their attackers and the incoming shots, using quick speed and agile maneuvers to either block or evade each strike or projectile. “Grr!” Raincloud growled through her teeth as she clashed energies with her former mentor. Raven Feather scowled at the pegasus while pushing back on her with all of her might. The grey mare could feel her arm straining from the unyielding strength of the undead pony. Suddenly, a loud thud sounded out through the room and the ground shook violently. Before anyone could react, a shockwave traveled through the floor and swept underneath the ponies. Celestia managed to keep her footing with little more than a stumble, but Raincloud wasn’t so lucky. “Ah!” Raincloud yelped in surprise as she was sent tumbling to the floor. She rolled over on her back and grunted in pain from the impact. As she rubbed her shoulder and looked over to see what caused the sudden shockwave, she saw Shadow Mist on the other side of the room recovering from stomping his hoof on the ground, doubtlessly having used his shadow magic. “Raincloud, lookout!” Celestia exclaimed urgently while pointing behind the grey mare. Raincloud looked up just in time to see Raven Feather, with her arm still enveloped in shadow energy, about to drive the shadowy spike down into her. Raincloud yelped again while rolling to the side to dodge the strike. She only just cleared the impact zone before Raven Feather planted her makeshift blade into the floor, causing it to crack slightly. The grey pegasus scrambled to distance herself from her opponent and to get to her feet, managing to shoot an agitated glare at the black mare as she regained her composure. “I should probably be thankful that you aren’t in there anymore Raven Feather. You would have already beaten me by now if you were.” Raincloud said with an angry tone while leering at the undead pony. Raven Feather merely kept the same expression of contempt that she had on her face since she was reborn. She let the energy on her arm dissipate, choosing instead to go for a different approach with her shadow magic. Before she could execute whatever plan she had however, she heard a distorted growl behind her. The black mare spun around to see a glowing purple face staring back at her. Raincloud’s shadow had broken away from Dust Kicker and went to deal with the pony that had just assaulted its master. The specter raised its claws and swiped sideways, catching the undead mare on the side of her face. Raven Feather let out a quiet grunt of pain. The black mare turned to stare down the specter with her own equally intense glowing eyes and growled angrily. She ducked under the next swipe the shadow sent after her, which was almost too fast for her to handle. As the shadow used both claws and all of his speed to keep the undead pony on the defensive, Raven Feather could barely do anything other than dodge to stay ahead of her attacker. As Dust Kicker started to move to assist his ally, he was suddenly enveloped by a magical aura and lifted into the air. The stallion looked over to see Celestia with a light smirk on her face and her horn glowing at full force. The pony in her grip struggled to escape, but she restrained his limbs to hamper his usage of shadow magic as much as possible. Meanwhile, Raincloud was focusing on something else while her ghostly minion and her alicorn ally dealt with the two undead ponies. To give her shadow some time to dispatch Raven Feather, and perhaps to give her a distraction so she didn’t have to watch, the grey pegasus trotted across the room towards Shadow Mist. The red stallion noticed his former friend approaching him and adopted a more serious expression on his face. As if to cement the fact that she was here to fight and not to chat, Raincloud channeled shadow energy to her hoof in preparation to battle with Shadow Mist. “Hyah!” Raincloud yelled while pointing her hoof forward and sending a spout of shadowy flames towards the red stallion. Shadow Mist dodged to the side and channeled his own shadow magic to his hoof. As the stallion held his hoof out towards the grey mare, she suddenly felt something gripping her throat tightly. Shadow Mist maneuvered his hoof upwards a little bit, causing the pegasus to let out a stifled cry as she was lifted into the air by her neck. Before she could feel the effects of suffocation, Raincloud was suddenly flung to the side by the stallion. She let out a frightened yelp before slamming into the wall and falling to the floor on her back. “Gah… *Pant*” Raincloud groaned painfully as she forced herself up off the floor on one hoof. She gradually lifted her other front leg and used it to steady herself as she looked to see where her opponent was. She gasped quietly as she saw Shadow Mist strolling towards her with a devilish grin on his face. As the grey mare tried to raise her hoof and channel shadow energy to it, the red stallion hurried his pace slightly to catch up to her and swat her arm away. Before Raincloud could retaliate or flee, Shadow Mist planted his newly restored leg onto her neck and pushed her to the floor. Raincloud croaked in pain while feverishly clawing at the shadowy limb on top of her to no avail. Her weakened state and the stallion’s enhanced power made it nearly impossible for her to fight back. “Heh… I never expected this would be so easy.” Shadow Mist said in a cocky tone while raising his other leg in the air. Raincloud’s eyes widened as the stallion channeled shadow energy to his leg and focused it to a point to create a shadowy blade. He held it above the pegasus, seemingly enjoying the slow experience of watching her squirm. Desperate to escape the red stallion and her impending demise, Raincloud looked up to see what her unconventional allies were doing. As she looked over to the group across the room behind Luna’s barrier, she saw concerned expressions on all of the ponies’ faces. “Oh no, Raincloud’s in trouble!” Twilight exclaimed in a fearful tone. As much as she disliked the grey pegasus, she didn’t want to see her die. “Don’t worry… I’ve got that little rat in my sights.” Sunspot stated while squinting her eyes to aim her strobe across the room. As soon as she got the stallion in her line of fire, she pressed the button on her strobe as fast as she could. Before the bolts of light could get very far, a spout of shadowy flames suddenly shot out from the side and intercepted all of them. The stunned ponies looked over to find the cause of the interruption, only to discover Raven Feather holding one of her hooves up with shadow energy pulsing from the tip. The black mare was still fighting Raincloud’s shadow, but she was now able to keep so far ahead of the specter that she was able to divert her attention to making sure that the others didn’t intervene to save their grey ally. Realizing that nobody else could help her, Raincloud turned to her shadow with a desperate expression. The ghostly creature was too distracted with dodging any attacks that Raven Feather sent its way and trying to get in strikes of his own that it didn’t even notice the dire straits that its master was in. “Guh… s-shadow… help me.” Raincloud pleaded as she turned away from the red stallion on top of her and his piercing gaze. Shadow Mist was enjoying every moment of pressuring the grey mare by inching his blade closer to her. From this distance, she could already feel a slight tingling sensation from foreign shadow energy being close to her. Raincloud’s shadow suddenly stopped what it was doing and darted its head over to the grey pegasus. It let out a surprised sound before shifting to a more furious growl as it prepared to fly over and gut the red stallion for injuring its master. Suddenly, a flash of purple appeared and the shadow let out a wail of pain as a concentrated beam of energy was shot at it by Raven Feather. Everyone watched with shocked expressions as the shadow was sent flying into the far wall by the purple beam. The specter wailed and howled for a moment before fading into the wall weakly. As if to further cement the shadow’s defeat, a translucent black spot darted along the floor and returned itself to Raincloud’s actual shadow. “Damnit!” Raincloud cursed while softly hitting her head against the floor. She could feel that her minion was too exhausted from the attack to reappear, even in such a desperate situation. And due to her own exhaustion, she couldn’t forcibly project it to save herself. Now she was totally powerless to stop the red stallion on her own. Celestia growled under her breath as she looked over to see a smirk on Raven Feather’s face. It seemed that even after her death she enjoyed the suffering of others. Finally, the white alicorn decided that she would have to be the one to save the grey pegasus. Before Raven Feather could notice her, she looked over to the red stallion and charged up a concussive bolt of energy to knock him off of the pegasus, all the while being careful to keep Dust Kicker contained in her magical aura as well. However, the slight nagging feeling of weakness she had left over from when Shade attacked her only served to further complicate things. Hearing the brown pegasus beside her heaving from exertion and feeling a strain on her magic, Celestia looked over to see Dust Kicker channeling shadow energy around his body. Before she could react further, the stallion exploded the buildup of energy outwards, completely overpowering and shattering the alicorn’s magical grip on him. “Gah!” Celestia winced as the immense strain on her horn became too much to handle. She raced to try and contain or at least pacify the stallion again, but Dust Kicker had other plans in mind. The brown pegasus shot his hoof out towards the princess, shooting out a ball of shadow energy at high speeds that Celestia barely had time to even process, let alone dodge. The alicorn yelped in pain as she was sent from her feet and roughly landed on the floor. Before she could get back up again, she felt her limbs being pinned to the floor. Celestia looked down uneasily to see her legs being held in place by a dark purple glow. She looked up to see Dust Kicker holding his hoof out and focusing an aura of shadow energy around it, seemingly controlling the dark bonds that held her in place. As she tried to move her neck to the side to help Raincloud, the princess grunted in pain as her head was roughly pushed to the floor and pinned in the same manner as her limbs. “Heh… looks like your new friends aren’t as much of an insurance policy as you hoped.” Shadow Mist said while turning to look at the grey mare pinned under his hoof. Raincloud’s bravery was slowly fading away as the stallion brought his makeshift blade closer and closer to her face. She tried inching her neck to move away, but there was only so far that her muscles could stretch. She contemplated trying to use shadow magic, but she quickly realized that she would probably be dead the instant the stallion saw her hooves glowing. The ponies were worried about Celestia’s wellbeing from having the brown pegasus overpower her, but right now there was another matter that they were more concerned about. With Celestia and the ghostly specter disabled, and Raven Feather waiting to block any projectiles sent by the others, there was nothing they could do to help Raincloud from where they were. “What do we do?! She’s going to die if we just sit here!” Sunspot stated in an urgent tone. “Maybe we can lift Shadow Mist off of her from here with our magic?” Twilight suggested in a nervously hopeful tone. “No… I don’t think that would work. If we even tried that, I’m sure Shadow Mist could break out as easy as Dust Kicker just did… and I’m pretty sure Princess Celestia is stronger than us.” Glitterball said while watching the scene in front of her uneasily. “Well we have to do something! We can’t just sit here and watch her d… wait a minute.” Twilight said in a confused tone as she looked around at her friends, only to discover that someone was missing. “Where is Rainbow Dash?” She asked in a confused tone. Everyone looked around to see if the cyan mare was behind someone, only to realize that she was nowhere to be found in the area shielded by Princess Luna. “*Gasp* Look! There she is!” Pinkie said in an excited tone while pointing ahead into the room. The others were uncertain about how they felt about the pegasus being outside of the safe area, but sure enough there she was. The cyan mare was in flight near the ceiling, darting her way as fast as she could towards the two ponies struggling at the far end of the room. Raincloud watched with a dreadful expression as Shadow Mist raised his leg up and prepared to impale her with his shadowy blade. The stallion snickered softly before yelling and driving his leg down onto the pegasus with a great amount of force. The grey mare flinched her eyes shut and tensed her body up as one final denial to her imminent demise. *Thwack* Shadow Mist grunted in pain as something slammed into his side at high speed. Raincloud looked up just in time to see the red stallion getting kicked off of her forcibly by non-other than Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus admired the sight of the stallion rolling on the floor from her strike before quickly landing and offering Raincloud her hoof to help her up. “Come on! Get up before he shakes it off and kills both of us!” Rainbow Dash stated urgently. Meanwhile, the grey mare was still in a state of shock from her sudden rescue. “W-what?” Raincloud stammered in a stunned tone as she looked at the cyan pegasus in utter confusion. She couldn’t believe that she was being saved by someone that should have hated her guts. “*Sigh* Hurry up!” Rainbow Dash groaned in disbelief while grabbing the grey mare by the arm and pulling her up. Raincloud followed the cyan pegasus in a shocked state as she ran while dragging her confused companion along behind her. After the initial shock wore off, Raincloud and her unlikely savior spread their wings and took off into the air to distance themselves from the red stallion, who was still recovering from his sudden assault. Shadow Mist grunted in painful annoyance while pushing himself up from the floor. He turned to see the two mares flying back to safety and growled under his breath. Channeling shadow energy to his hooves, the red stallion yelled fiercely while stamping both of his legs on the ground. Rainbow Dash and Raincloud looked down to see a dark shadow on the ground chasing after them. As the shadow beneath them started to glow, they both widened their eyes as they gathered what came next. “Yikes!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while darting to the side. Just as both mares cleared the area, a spike of shadow energy shot up from the floor and went clear to the ceiling, nearly blowing their hair back from the force it held. As the two ponies dodged the first spike, the shadow on the ground split off into two and followed them. Another set of spikes jutted up to the side of the mares, causing them to flinch in surprise while flying even further to the side. Everyone watched nervously as the two pegasus’s darted around in the air, closely followed by the shadowy blob on the ground and a myriad of spikes ready to impale them if they slipped up even once. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash saw a blur of motion in front of her. She instinctively stopped mid-air, only to have one of the spikes shoot up directly in front of her. The jarring sight was enough to make her yelp in surprise. Raincloud offered a stray glance to the cyan mare before she was forced to keep flying due to her own pursuer. Realizing that the red stallion was still trying to kill her, Rainbow Dash started to fly around the pillar of darkness to get to the safe area. However, something shot up beneath her before she could scarcely make it around the spike. “AGH!” Rainbow Dash cried out in pain as one of the spikes clipped her side. The solid column of energy was strong and fast enough to pierce her skin, sending a spray of blood out and causing the cyan mare to fall slightly from shock. “*Gasp* Rainbow Dash!” Twilight and the others yelled fearfully as they watched their friend being wounded. Rainbow Dash clutched her side as she fell away from the shadowy spike. As she started plummeting to the ground, she flapped her wings a few times to steady herself, but the pain she was in made it nearly impossible to fly correctly. Much to the relief of everyone watching, the cyan pegasus somehow managed to guide her falling to make it through the barrier Luna was maintaining. Rainbow Dash grunted in pain as she landed on the floor harder than she would have liked. The terrified ponies watching raced over to their friend as soon as she landed. “Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked in a fearful tone while watching the cyan mare writhing on the ground while clutching her side. There was blood pouring out of a straight gash in her side that went clear up and down the length of her ribs. Thankfully the gash didn’t look deep enough to have actually hit her ribcage or anything vital, however it did look incredibly painful. “Gah! … Ack… owwie!” Rainbow Dash groaned in pain as she tried to lift her head up to address her friends. Glitterball gently made the cyan mare stay in a resting position while she examined her wound further. “Rainbow Dash… I know this hurts, but I really need to see your wound.” Glitterball said in a hesitant tone while gently moving Rainbow Dash’s arm away from her side. Everyone watched with sympathetic expressions of worry as the unicorn examined the bloody gash further. The mere sight of such a grizzly looking injury on their friend made the others pale and more than a little bit sick. “*Sigh* I was afraid of this… I don’t think I can do anything to heal this. It might not be deep enough to hit anything other than skin, but it is too deep and too large for my magic to completely close up.” Glitterball said in a troubled tone. “Maybe you should try my magic.” The group heard Raincloud announce from behind them. Everyone turned to see the grey pegasus and Princess Celestia walking back into the barrier. Surprisingly enough, it seemed as though Raincloud had been helping the alicorn to escape from Raven Feather and Dust Kicker. The two undead ponies leered at the group from outside of the barrier as they tried channeling shadow energy through the floor to get to them. Thankfully however, it seemed as though Luna’s barrier was keeping even the translucent shadows on the ground at bay. “What the… why are you helping us all of a sudden? I thought you hated us?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. The unicorn would have thought that maybe Raincloud was offering to help Rainbow Dash because she just saved her life, but the grey mare also assisted Princess Celestia, who was hated intensely by most members of the hooded ponies. The grey pegasus sighed for a moment while looking down at the floor. It looked like she was trying to justify her own reasoning for herself. Finally she returned a stern expression to her face, which was surprisingly more familiar to the ponies than they would have liked. “None of you are good to me dead… least of all you six and the princess. We need the elements if we’re going to beat this thing… and as much as it pains me to admit, she is one of our best fighters besides myself.” Raincloud said while glancing to the princess with a disgusted expression. “Why should we trust you around Rainbow Dash? You might just make things worse for her.” Applejack said in a wary tone while glancing to the cyan mare with a concerned expression. “Like I said… we need the elements to beat that thing in Grimwood. I don’t think she will be able to do much of anything with her side looking like that.” Raincloud said in a cold tone, much to the dismay of the others. “Or you know, you could just leave her like that… some friends you would be in that case.” She added with a muffled scoff while looking at the floor in an irritable manner. Twilight and the others were hesitant to let the grey mare near their friend. Even if she were telling the truth, they weren’t sure if they wanted to put their faith in the power of shadow magic. Who knows what kind of side effects something as evil as that would have? “It’s fine everyone… let her help Rainbow Dash.” Celestia said in a confident tone. “Princess… are you sure about this?” Glimmer Shine asked in an uncertain tone while glancing to the grey mare warily. A sudden yelp of pain drew everyone’s attention back to Rainbow Dash, who was still clutching her injury and writhing on the ground trying to cope with her suffering. “I’m sure that Rainbow Dash is in a lot of pain right now, and I am also sure that Raincloud is telling the truth… at least about needing us to help her defeat shade.” Celestia explained while looking to the grey mare with a slightly thankful expression. Not only had the grey mare offered to heal Rainbow Dash, but she also went back and rescued her from Dust Kicker’s clutches. Best case scenario, perhaps she was having a change of heart. But at any rate, she was clearly doing things that she didn’t like for the betterment of their mission. “Ok fine. Anything is better than letting her suffer like this I suppose.” Glimmer Shine said while backing away from the cyan mare. Everyone watched warily as Raincloud walked up to the injured pegasus and knelt down. She hesitated for a moment and sighed in disappointment before putting on a serious expression and channeling shadow energy to her hoof. Rainbow Dash watched the pulsating aura of darkness around Raincloud’s hoof with a concerned expression. She silently hoped that after risking her own life to save the grey mare that she wouldn’t try to kill her so soon. After a moment of the cyan mare tensing up and Raincloud inching her hoof closer, she finally made contact and held her hoof in place. Rainbow Dash jumped slightly as a cold sensation enveloped her side. She could feel the pain from her wound slowly subsiding, but it definitely wasn’t as pleasant an experience as Tom’s healing light and its warmth. “There… now try not to be so reckless next time?” Raincloud asked in a condescending tone while roughly punching the cyan mare’s newly healed side. “You know, you could at least say thank you considering I just saved your life.” Rainbow Dash replied in an annoyed tone. She couldn’t believe that the grey mare could be so hostile even after being rescued from a certain death situation. Raincloud groaned under her breath and averted her eyes for a moment. She grumbled to herself with an upset scowl on her face, seemingly contemplating something. She finally looked back up at the cyan mare with an unimpressed expression. “Yeah, whatever… thanks I guess.” Raincloud said in an insincere tone while turning away from the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash and the others glanced between each other and the grey pegasus with stunned expressions of disbelief. After getting Rainbow Dash to her feet, everyone turned their attention back to the matter at hand. They were stuck in a magical force field while their enemies watched them and eagerly tried to get in. They had barely done any damage to the three empowered ponies since they arrived and sprung Princess Celestia from their grasp. If they were going to succeed and find a way to stop Shade, they had to neutralize Shadow Mist and his two cohorts. “Ok, listen up everyone. I think I might know how we can stop these guys.” Raincloud said with a hushed whisper while motioning for everyone to huddle closer to her. The others glanced back at the prying eyes of the three ponies outside before simultaneously agreeing that they should hide their strategies from them. “What did you have in mind?” Twilight asked curiously while stepping into the circle being formed by everyone huddling around the grey mare. “Whatever Shade did to them, they are bursting with shadow energy now. I could practically feel it every time I got close to one of them. Even if we managed to land an attack on them, they could probably shake it off and heal with no problem.” Raincloud explained in a troubled tone. “But how are we going to beat them if they can just tank whatever we throw at them and heal?” Sunspot asked in an uneasy tone. Everyone else shared in the orange pegasus’s concerns, and most of them weren’t handling the situation with as much bravery. “Well unless they are like that human friend of yours and they need energy to keep going, I don’t think we can beat them like Raven Feather beat him… and that’s even if we could keep up with them long enough to wear them out.” Raincloud stated in a casual tone. The others pointed wary leers at the grey mare for bringing up Tom’s defeat in such a negative way. “What is your plan Raincloud? Time is of the essence until we defeat the entity in the other room.” Celestia said as a reminder of the urgent situation the group was in. The grey mare sighed before nodding in agreement. “Ok, look… I think I can use my own shadow magic to draw whatever energy Shade used on them out of them. It won’t be easy, and I would need time enough to do it up close to them, but it’s the best chance we have at the moment.” Raincloud explained in an uneasy tone. She was clearly dreading having to get close to the three ponies again. “I suppose you would need our help to restrain whoever you choose to drain first and to keep the others occupied?” Celestia asked while thinking about the grey mare’s plan in more detail. It was obvious that Shadow Mist and his two colleagues wouldn’t just stand by and idly watch while one of them was being detained and drained of their energy. “Yeah, I think there is no other way around it. I hope you’re up to the challenge.” Raincloud shrugged in an uneasy tone while thinking back to the alicorn’s weak behavior. Perhaps she was still recovering from when Shade drained her energy. “You just worry about siphoning their energy… I’ll worry about keeping the others busy.” Celestia replied in a serious tone. As the group decided on their plan, they all had a certain air of determination about them. However, the odd silence in the air started to unsettle the ponies as they noticed it. Shadow Mist and the others should have been fighting to break in, but there was no noise coming from behind the group to even indicate they were under attack. Before anyone could ask about why their enemies weren’t making any noise, a soft knocking sound came from behind the group. It sounded like someone tapping on glass, so the ponies gathered that someone was knocking on Luna’s barrier to get their attention. Everyone turned around in unison, only to be greeted with the sight of Shadow Mist and his two undead underlings standing casually just outside of the barrier. The unexpected sight caught the ponies off guard, causing a wave of dread and unease to wash over them as they thought about what the trio was up to. “What are you doing Shadow Mist?” Raincloud asked in a demanding tone while stepping in front of the group. “I have decided to offer you an olive branch so to say.” Shadow Mist said in a calm tone while glancing to his two companions. Although the two undead ponies weren’t capable of looking unintimidating, they sat by the red stallion silently. “What…? Are you serious? That thing must have scrambled your brain worse than I thought if you expect me to side with you Shadow.” Raincloud scoffed in an unimpressed tone while leering at the stallion. Twilight and the others were surprised to hear the grey mare berating her former friends, but perhaps she was serious about not wanting to join them. “Oh come on Raincloud… I thought you wanted to bathe the world in darkness? Why don’t you just help us take care of these weaklings so we don’t have to kill you along with them?” Shadow Mist asked in a sincere tone while smirking at the grey pegasus. “Hey! Who are you calling weaklings?!” Rainbow Dash chimed in with an upset glare firmly directed towards the red stallion. Ignoring the sudden outburst of her cyan colleague, Raincloud shook her head in disappointment at Shadow Mist’s offer. “No… I never wanted to destroy the world… none of us did. This was never Raven Feather’s dream… she wanted to make the world better, not destroy it entirely.” Raincloud stated in a sincere manner. “Uh… that’s a bit of a stretch if you ask me.” Sunspot said in a hesitant tone, eliciting a glare from the grey pegasus. “Hey, do you want me to fight with you or not?” Raincloud asked with a semi-serious expression before directing her attention back to the red stallion. “Tsk, tsk, tsk… I was so hoping you would come around to our way of thinking. Oh well… I guess we’ll have to kill you then.” Shadow Mist said while adopting a more sinister expression. The sudden statement made the group behind the magical barrier uneasy, even if they weren’t sure if the trio were capable of reaching them. Just to be safe, Celestia motioned to Glitterball and the other unicorns of the group as she lit up her horn. Everyone lit up their horns once they caught on and joined the alicorn as she started channeling her magic into Luna’s barrier. The force field glowed and shimmered brightly as it was charged with an incredible amount of power. “And just how are you going to manage that?” Raincloud asked in a confident tone while stepping closer to the translucent barrier between her and the three ponies. “You’ve already demonstrated that you can’t get in here… and that was before we boosted the power of the barrier. I don’t think even I could bust through this thing now. Shadow magic is powerful, but it has limits… and you’ve reached yours a lot sooner than I thought.” She said with a wry smirk. Although the others weren’t sure if their grey companion should be gloating in the face of their enemy, they were fairly confident that the barrier would hold with how many unicorns were pouring energy into it. Shadow Mist chuckled to himself while glancing to his two undead colleagues. He slowly stepped closer to the force field until he was right next to it, staring face to face with Raincloud and the group behind her. “Oh Raincloud… I only wish you could understand. We are only just beginning to tap into our full scope of power.” Shadow Mist said in a serious tone. Suddenly, the red stallion started channeling shadow energy to his right leg. The normally bright purple aura of darkness that occurred when using shadow magic appeared briefly at the tip of Shadow Mist’s hoof, but it quickly underwent a sinister change. The purple color of the pulsating energy blackened and solidified until the stallion’s hoof wasn’t even visible underneath it. Shadow Mist grunted from exertion while still managing a devilish smirk on his face. Twilight and the others grew more uneasy and concerned by the second as they watched the stallion channeling more and more power to his hoof. Even Raincloud started backing up with a stunned expression as she stared at the glowing ball of darkness around Shadow Mist’s hoof. Given her own knowledge of shadow magic, seeing the grey mare with such a nervous expression made the others nearly panic. It seemed like she was terrified, which was an emotion that the others weren’t even sure the pegasus could feel. Before anyone could try anything to interrupt the red stallion from channeling energy, he lifted his hoof into the air and punched into the barrier. With a mighty yell, Shadow Mist dumped all of the energy he had gathered into the magical force field. Luna, Celestia, Glitterball, and even Twilight and Rarity all groaned from exertion as they felt an immense strain being put on the barrier. All of the unicorns put everything they had into fortifying the barrier, but the red stallion had other plans. The energy from around Shadow Mist’s hoof started to spread out across the force field, blocking out everything from view. The stark black energy clashed with the colorful barrier in every sense imaginable, nearly enveloping it completely and covering the ponies in a shell of darkness. “Guh… g-guys, I don’t think we can hold this back any longer!” Twilight announced in a nervous tone while pushing her magic to its limits. If she was as exhausted as the other unicorns were, then the group was in serious trouble. Everyone backed up further and readied themselves physically and mentally as cracks started forming in the barrier and scattering out. Pieces of the translucent force field started breaking off and vanishing, letting small tendrils of the fluidic darkness to flow through and pour onto the floor. The ponies were uncertain what to think. Would Shadow Mist kill them right here and now with the mass of energy, or would he just use it to break away their barrier and kill them himself? Either way, they were all about to be thrust into battle once again, whether they wanted it or not. “Stay behind us!” Celestia shouted while stepping in front of the others. Raincloud, Luna, Glimmer Shine, Sunspot, Glitterball, and the guards all stepped forward to be in line so they could better protect the six mares. Rainbow Dash and the others anxiously watched as Twilight and Rarity fought to keep the barrier intact. Even with several unicorns and two powerful alicorns charging the shield with their magic, the dark energy was still breaking through with ease. Suddenly, the barrier completely shattered and the dark energy fell to the floor. Everyone that was projecting the shield either yelped painfully or groaned from exertion as their magic was overwhelmed. Shaking off whatever exhaustion they felt, Twilight and the others turned their attention ahead to see what their enemies were doing. Instead of charging ahead with reckless abandon, Shadow Mist and his two colleagues were still standing in place a few feet away, however there was now an undulating mass of dark energy separating the two groups instead of a magical barrier. Shadow Mist channeled more shadow energy to his hoof and yelled fiercely while exerting his influence. Suddenly, the mass of darkness on the floor started raising off the ground and taking shape. The entire blob of energy was forming into several smaller shapes that immediately solidified and morphed into the forms of darklings. There were around ten of the vicious beasts, all of them seemingly enhanced beyond the scope of normal darklings due to the presence of purple highlights on their bodies. “Kill them!” Shadow Mist commanded while pointing to the group of ponies. The red stallion and his two undead teammates channeled shadow energy through their bodies to prepare to fight the others along with the darklings. As the trio prepared for battle and the horde of darklings leapt forward, the ponies raced to prepare themselves for the incoming threats. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates readied their strobes and opened fire on the incoming beasts, but the blasts of light barely did anything other than annoy the creatures. “Shadow, defend!” Raincloud commanded while channeling shadow magic to her hooves and charging forward. On cue with her instructions, her shadow elongated and solidified before her minion floated out of it. The specter remained behind while its master ran into battle, seemingly to protect the six mares behind it from the incoming horde. Twilight and the others were surprised to see an old enemy fighting alongside them for once, but they welcomed the aid nonetheless. “Rrrah!” Shadow Mist yelled while flinging a shadowy fireball at the group. The projectile sailed over the darklings as they clashed with Raincloud and continued towards the others. The sight of a fireball and several monsters made of dark energy hurdling towards her and those around her made Celestia nervous. The white alicorn quickly projected a shield around herself as the fireball got close, erupting it into a small explosion as it crashed into her. Once the projectile had been harmlessly blocked, the princess turned her attention to the darklings that were ignoring Raincloud to go after her and the others. Celestia and Luna lit up their horns and fired two beams of energy at a pair of the creatures. The two bolts exploded into the darklings’ forms, causing the two monsters to screech in pain while they collapsed into smoke. Raincloud channeled the shadow energy on her hoof into the shape of a blade and slashed sideways across a pair of two darklings. Although the two beasts evaded the strike, the grey mare seemed capable enough to dodge any strikes they might have made. Meanwhile, the others were left to deal with the remaining six darklings. Three of the beasts rushed towards Twilight and the others. The six mares scarcely had time to even contemplate screaming fearfully before Raincloud’s shadow leapt into action. The ghostly specter slashed its claws through one of the darklings, effectively reducing it to a cloud of smoke. It then knocked the other two away before digging its claws into them as they tried to jump back towards it. Sunspot and her two teammates concentrated fire on another set of two darklings to prevent them from getting any closer. Although their constant blasts of light did wonders to repel the beasts, they did next to nothing in terms of causing harm to them. “Dangit! The strobes aren’t working on these guys… even with the upgrade!” Sunspot stated in a frustrated tone while trying her best to keep the two creatures occupied. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie stepped forward and reached into the orange pegasus’s vest, much to her confusion and annoyance. Before Sunspot could even ask what she was doing, the pink mare pulled out one of the spare strobes that they had used during their encounter with Raincloud and her brother and took aim with it. Pinkie quickly fired a shot straight at one of the darklings as it opened its mouth. As she expected, the beast yelped painfully before its body faded into smoke. “Aim for their mouths! They’re weak on the inside!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly while mentally patting herself on the back for remembering how she dispatched the empowered darklings before. “Sounds like a plan to me… heads up Applejack!” Glimmer Shine said while tossing the remaining spare strobe over to the orange mare. Applejack caught the vial in the air and smirked as she joined her pink friend in the fight. As the five ponies collectively opened fire on the remaining darkling, it scarcely had time to close its mouth before it exploded into a shower of sparks and smoke. Satisfied that they could handle any number of the darklings, they scanned their eyes around to look for the remaining beasts. Taking a look over to see Raincloud dispatching the two darklings that she had been fighting with, the ponies found a disturbing lack of the creatures in their immediate area. “Where’s the last one?” Sunspot asked in a concerned tone while looking around. The trio of ponies a few feet away was busy fighting with Celestia and Luna, trading projectiles and dodging each other’s attacks. With Shadow Mist and his two colleagues occupied, the orange pegasus was free to look around in a panic to find the missing darkling. “Didn’t we get all of them?” Pinkie Pie asked curiously while taking a mental count of how many of the beasts were put down versus how many there were to begin with. “No… there were ten of them, and we just got the ninth one.” Glitterball stated while confirming her headcount with the others. “Which brings me back to my previous question… where is the last one?!” Sunspot asked in a more urgent tone. Everyone suddenly started darting their eyes around them to try to find the missing creature. They wondered how a vicious monster that can hardly go five steps without making some sort of frightening noise could sneak away without anyone noticing. “Wait a minute… guys, darklings are shadow creatures… they can turn into shadows!” Twilight said in an urgent tone while recalling her previous experience with the creatures. If the darklings still had the use of the powers she saw them using in the alleyway, then the last one could be anywhere. Everyone swiftly looked behind them and counted the number of shadows on the ground. The group converged their eyes on a single solid black spot on the ground just as it started rising out of the floor. Before anyone could even ready a strobe or charge their magic, the darkling formed its body and barked viciously while leaping forward into the group. “AHH!” Fluttershy screamed fearfully as she watched the darkling heading straight for her with its mouth agape and its teeth bared. Before the creature could pounce on her however, she felt someone pushing her out of the way. “Oof!” Applejack grunted painfully as she was sent to the floor by the darkling landing on top of her. She intended to push Fluttershy out of the way and move with her, but the darkling was already on top of her before she could clear its path. “*Gasp* Applejack!” Fluttershy yelled in shock as she looked up from the floor where she landed to see the orange mare struggling with the vicious beast on top of her. The darkling had its paws on Applejack’s shoulders as it tried to get past her arms to bite her. The sharp claws on the creature’s paws suddenly dug into the mare’s skin as it applied more pressure onto them. “Agh!” Applejack yelped as she felt herself getting punctured by the darkling’s razor sharp claws. Blood ran down her shoulders as stabbing pains shot through her body. She tried her best to push the beast away from her with her arms, but she was quickly losing her battle with the snapping jaws of the shadow creature. “Get it off her!” Sunspot exclaimed urgently while racing to pull the creature off of the farm pony. Rainbow Dash and Glimmer Shine swiftly joined the pegasus in wrenching the beast off of Applejack. The darkling fought with all of its strength to stay on top of the pinned pony, but the combined strength of Sunspot and her two companions was enough to rip it off, perhaps more painfully than Applejack would have liked. Once the darkling was off the orange mare, everyone scrambled to get clear of it before it could get back up. Applejack scooted backwards with the help of Rainbow Dash and managed to point her strobe at the beast despite the pain she was feeling. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine also pointed their strobes at the darkling in anticipation of it leaping at them. The darkling kept its mouth closed while looking around at the ponies. It growled deeply while sizing up who it would strike at next. What the creature didn’t expect to see however, was an agitated shadow creature floating towards it with its claws at the ready. Before anyone could even think about shooting at the darkling, Raincloud’s shadow stabbed its claws down into the beast’s head, killing it instantly. The specter fanned the black smoke out of the air while looking around at the surprised ponies. It chuckled with the same echoic voice that would send chills up the ponies’ spines before, however this time it seemed more lighthearted somehow. Now that all of the darklings were dealt with, the group could put their full focus on Shadow Mist and his two companions. As Twilight and the others looked over to see how their friends were doing, they saw Raincloud, Celestia, and Luna fighting with the trio of ponies a little further away than they were before. The six combatants seemed to be far more focused on themselves and their own battle than the rest of the ponies behind them, seemingly ignoring the group entirely. Raincloud was busy clashing with Raven Feather, using her shadow magic like a sword again. The grey mare seemed to be keeping up with the undead pony, but Raven Feather also looked like she was simply waiting for an opportunity to strike. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna were firing every offensive spell they knew at Dust Kicker and Shadow Mist, all the while deflecting or dodging every attack and projectile the pair sent their way. Luna already had a small cut on her front leg, doubtlessly from where a blast of shadow energy clipped her on its way past. Celestia was faring a little better than her younger sibling, but she looked like she was fighting her exhaustion to just stay in the battle. Deciding to even the odds a little bit, Twilight and her friends leapt into action. Twilight charged up her horn and fired a beam of energy at Dust Kicker, catching the stallion off guard and forcing him to back away from the blue alicorn to dodge the new attack. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and everyone else who had a strobe took aim and opened fire on the three ponies, forcing all of them to switch to a more defensive stance. The strobes themselves weren’t hurting the trio that much, but they were distracting enough to open them up to a more severe attack from either the two alicorns or Raincloud. “Keep it up guys! We’ve got them on the ropes!” Twilight stated while firing off a few more bolts of energy towards Dust Kicker and Shadow Mist. “Twilight! You and the others need to stay out of this!” Celestia instructed while turning to face the group with a concerned expression. The purple mare was shocked to hear that her mentor actually wanted her to stop helping her. “What?! But why? We have a better chance of winning if we work together!” Twilight said in an eager tone. She was ready and willing to put an end to the fight as soon as possible, and all of her friends agreed. “Yeah, we’re only trying to help!” Rainbow Dash said in defense of the group. Although she couldn’t do much from where she was without a strobe or a horn, she would gladly fly up to the three ponies and give them a swift kick if needed. “We don’t need your help right now. If you continue drawing attention to yourselves, you are only putting yourself in more danger!” Luna explained in a concerned tone. Sure enough, Shadow Mist and his two colleagues were certainly aware of the group’s presence now, and they were definitely aware that there were no more darklings to attack them while they focused on more important targets. While Celestia and Luna tried to use concentrated beams of magic to keep their two opponents behind defensive shields, and Raincloud tried her best to keep Raven Feather occupied, it was clear that the three ponies were growing more and more agitated with the continuous fire from Twilight and the others. Shadow Mist growled in frustration as he continued channeling a protective barrier of shadow energy in front of him to keep Celestia from burning him to a crisp. Finally, he decided that he could be spending his time doing more important things than dodging attacks. With a loud yell from the red stallion, a pulse of shadow energy suddenly erupted outwards from his body. Along with pushing Celestia’s beam of magic back, the dark shockwave concealed Shadow Mist from sight. As the barrier shrank back down to size and disappeared, Celestia gasped as she watched her beam of energy travel straight through thin air. Shadow Mist was completely missing from where he once was. Hearing a sudden noise behind them, Twilight and the others turned around to see the red stallion appearing out of a puff of black smoke. The unexpected sight sent a wave of panic through the ponies as they recoiled fearfully. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates rushed towards Shadow Mist along with the guards. The group was fully intent on tackling the stallion to the floor to subdue him, but he had other plans in mind. “Hyah!” Shadow Mist yelled while quickly channeling energy to his hoof and stomping it down. A concussive shockwave of air flew out in a circle around him, knocking everyone who was nearby backwards at least a few feet. Twilight and her friends had to steady themselves from where they were standing as the shockwave blew past them. “Gah!” Sunspot grunted painfully as she rolled along the ground. Her teammates didn’t seem to be faring much better as they strained to recover and stand up. Twilight lit up her horn and stepped in front of her friends defensively. She started to fire a bolt of energy at the stallion, until he fired a blast of shadow energy straight at her. The purple mare yelped and ducked to the floor and her friends dove to the side as the mass of darkness sailed right through where they were all just standing. Taking a look back up to see where the red stallion was, Twilight found that he was rushing straight for her with an aura of shadow energy around his hoof and a rather agitated expression on his face. She quickly realized that he was going to try and kill her directly. “AH!” Twilight yelped in fright while rolling to the side as Shadow Mist plunged his leg into the ground next to her. The concentrated shadow energy on his hoof acted like a spear that cracked the floor as it pierced it. The purple mare scooted backwards in an attempt at getting away. She suddenly felt someone grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her back at a faster pace. Twilight looked up to see Fluttershy and Rarity dragging her along with them as they distanced themselves from the red stallion. While the purple unicorn was retreating from further endangerment, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were going on the offensive. The two mares rushed forward and shot steely glares at the stallion as they prepared to fight. Shadow Mist swiped his front leg sideways across the two ponies as they approached them. The pair could feel the cold air around the makeshift blade as they narrowly avoided getting sliced open by ducking to the side. While Rainbow Dash jumped to the side of the stallion, Applejack readied her strobe and fired off a few bolts into him. The balls of light exploded on contact with Shadow Mist’s body, offering little more than an annoyance and a distraction to keep him from lashing out at the orange mare. While the stallion covered his face with his natural leg, Applejack aimed a shot at the shadowy limb still planted on the ground. “Ack!” Shadow Mist exclaimed while recoiling in pain as the blast from the strobe reacted with his glowing leg. Although it didn’t cause much structural damage to the leg, it did fill the orange mare with satisfaction as she managed to land an effective strike on her foe. “Hyah!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while whipping around in the air to deliver a powerful kick to the red stallion. Shadow Mist grunted in pain as the cyan mare’s leg collided with his side. Frustrated at the lack of progress he was making, Shadow Mist channeled energy through his body to enhance himself further. As his body emanated a slight aura of darkness, he whipped around and slashed his arm towards the floating pegasus at lightning fast speeds. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash screamed out in pain as the stallion’s shadowy blade slashed across her chest. The force of the impact was enough to knock her out of the air and onto her back. She immediately grit her teeth and clutched her injury as blood started dripping out. “*Gasp* Rainbow Dash!” Applejack exclaimed in horror as she watched her friend getting swatted out of the air. She looked back to the red stallion, only to see that his body was still covered in a faint aura. He turned his head to look at her and smirked. Every time he moved it left a blur of motion as his enhanced speed remained. Before Shadow Mist could charge forward and strike the farm pony, he heard an angry yell coming from beside him and felt something crash into his body from the side. Applejack watched with a stunned expression as Sunspot tackled the stallion with reckless abandon. The orange pegasus was using her weight to keep Shadow Mist pinned while she held the arm he had his shadowy blade on down to the floor. Sunspot could feel the stallion’s body vibrating from his enhanced speed. She was afraid he was going to throw her off of him if he got to move enough to pick up speed. Thinking fast, she used her free arm to reach onto her vest and grabbed the shadow magic suppressing hoof cuffs. Without even hesitating, she threw the cuffs onto his glowing leg before placing the other end on his natural leg. As both parts of the cuffs snapped closed, the aura around Shadow Mist’s body disappeared and he slowed down to normal speed. His leg that was restored by Shade dimmed considerably without vanishing completely, and his glowing eyes dimmed as well. “What the hell?!” Shadow Mist exclaimed in anger as he tried to break free from the cuffs. As he tried to channel shadow magic through his body to escape, he quickly realized that he couldn’t elicit even the smallest amount of energy to form. “*Pant*… heh… *Pant*… serves you right you jerk.” Sunspot smirked triumphantly as she succeeded in capturing one of the most powerful enemies in Equestrian history. Now that the stallion was subdued at least temporarily, she got off of him and directed her attention to the injured pegasus off to the side. Twilight and the others were already gathered around the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash was cringing painfully as she clutched her injury with one hoof. She looked like she was trying to get up, and surprisingly enough, she was actually making a fair amount of progress. “Are you ok Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone while she watched the pegasus trying to get to her feet with only three legs. Although the orange mare was injured herself, the cuts on her shoulder from the darkling’s claws weren’t nearly as severe or painful looking as what the cyan pony was dealing with. “Maybe you should stay on the ground and rest… that looks really bad.” Fluttershy said with a worried frown while examining the slash on her friend’s chest. The amount of blood coming out was relatively small, but it was enough to make the timid mare a little sickly. “No… tch! I’m fine… I don’t think it’s very deep... it just hurts a little.” Rainbow Dash said while toughing through the twinges of pain coming from her chest. She removed her hoof from her injury and stood up straight, revealing that the wound was in fact only superficial, at least in comparison to how it could have been. “Still, we should at least clean that up.” Sunspot said while checking the pockets on her vest for bandages. Noticing that she was out of medical supplies, she suddenly turned her attention to her two teammates, who were still trying to get up from being knocked on their backs from Shadow Mist’s attack. “Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, are you guys ok over there?” Sunspot asked while watching her two friends trying to get up. Glitterball was using Glimmer Shine for support to get herself off the floor while he was recovering from the slight blow to his head. “Yeah… I think we’re alright… relatively speaking.” Glimmer Shine stated while looking over to the guards scattered around. Nobody was really hurt from getting thrown around by the shockwave, but everyone felt like they just fell out of a window. Before Sunspot could ask one of her teammates to assist Rainbow Dash, a fierce yell drew her attention away. Everyone looked over to see Celestia, Luna, and Raincloud still in the midst of their own battles. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather showed no signs of slowing down or slipping up as they fought to gain the advantage over the two alicorns and the grey mare. Raincloud was using her shadow to help her fight with her former mentor. Raven Feather had shadow energy channeled to the very tips of both her front hooves, using them to skillfully counter every strike made by the pegasus or her minion. Every move Raven Feather or Raincloud would make with their arms would leave a slight blur of shadow energy that trailed behind their makeshift weapons, leaving a slight snapshot of where they had been before the energy would fade as they made another strike. Finally, in a fit of frustration and anger, Raincloud managed to land a hit on the black mare with her other leg. With a swift punch to the jaw sending her on her way, Raven Feather stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. Spotting an opportunity, Raincloud leapt forward and pounced on her former mentor. “Shadow, hold her down!” Raincloud commanded her minion frantically while pushing down on Raven Feather’s shoulders. The ghostly specter flew in front of the two struggling mares and grabbed Raven Feather’s front legs to restrain them. While Raven Feather grunted angrily and kicked at the pegasus with her back legs, Raincloud was now free to use her trump card. Trying to ignore the resistance coming from her prisoner, the grey mare placed her hoof in the air above Raven Feather and concentrated. As she felt around with her shadow magic to try and get a hold of the energy inside her former friend, she suddenly felt an overwhelming energy within her invisible grasp. Ignoring the initial sense of shock she felt, Raincloud put all of her effort into siphoning out all of the energy from the black mare. Dust Kicker, Celestia, Luna, and everyone else in the room watched as Raincloud’s hoof glowed with a shadowy aura. As the pegasus drew her hoof back slightly, Raven Feather screamed out in pain while a stream of purple energy flowed out of her chest. Dust Kicker growled under his breath while channeling shadow energy to his hoof. Mindless or not, he wasn’t about to let someone destroy one of his allies. Before the stallion could rush over to help his colleague, he was suddenly enveloped in a magical aura and lifted off the ground. Dust Kicker looked over to see Celestia and Luna with their horns lit up and concentrated expressions on their faces. The brown pegasus growled angrily while channeling shadow energy through his body in an attempt at breaking out of the alicorns’ magical grip. “I’m not sure how much longer I can hold him sister.” Luna said through clenched teeth as she struggled to keep the stallion contained. “Just hold out a little longer Luna… Raincloud needs time to finish draining the energy out of Raven Feather.” Celestia said in an equally strained tone. Even with her younger sibling’s help, the white alicorn could feel Dust Kicker’s dark energies breaking through her magic. Meanwhile, Raincloud was struggling to draw energy out rather than keeping it contained. The grey mare was still siphoning out all of the shadow energy inside of Raven Feather. She could feel the heat in the air in front of her vanishing as the stream of energy flowed into the air. She practically had to move her head to the side to prevent herself from going numb. Despite how strong the energy inside the black pony might have been, it disappeared into nothingness after traveling into the air a short distance. With one final scream, Raven Feather stopped struggling as the stream of darkness stopped coming out of her. Her eyes and the stab wound on her chest stopped glowing, and she limply settled on the ground like a lifeless corpse. The sight of her mentor lying dead underneath her left a somber feeling in the grey pegasus, but she couldn’t linger. Spotting the two alicorns struggling to keep her brother contained, Raincloud jumped up and trotted over to them. “Hold him steady!” Raincloud said in an urgent tone while standing to the side. She held out her hoof and used her shadow magic again to interact with the energy inside the stallion. Dust Kicker struggled to keep the grey mare from yanking his energy out, but there wasn’t much he could do to stop her. Celestia and Luna watched as a stream of purple energy came out of Dust Kicker’s neck area, seemingly from the wound that killed him. The stallion screamed painfully from the experience and kicked in an attempt at breaking loose from his magical prison. Raincloud looked away from the stallion as she siphoned the energy from him, partially to shield herself from the potent shadow energy coming out of him, and partially so she wouldn’t have to watch. Even if it wasn’t really her older brother that she was killing, it still looked and sounded like him. Finally, the stallion’s screams ceased and the energy stopped flowing out of him. Celestia and Luna gently laid Dust Kicker’s body down and let it settle on the floor. Raincloud looked at the lifeless pony on the ground with a somber expression. “I’m sorry Dust…” Raincloud muttered sadly while shaking her head. Celestia and Luna watched with sympathetic expressions as the grey mare dealt with her grief. After a moment of silence for her fallen sibling, Raincloud turned to look at the group of ponies at the back of the room. The grey mare and the two alicorns walked over to the others, all the while looking at the red stallion bound on the floor behind them. There was still one thing to take care of before they could confront Shade. “It’s over Shadow Mist.” Raincloud said in a stern tone while standing over the red stallion, who had a calm expression on his face as he looked up at his captors gathered around him. “Yes… I suppose it is.” Shadow Mist said in an almost bored tone. He didn’t even bother to struggle against his bonds anymore. “Do you think you can undo whatever that thing did to him?” Celestia asked in a hesitant tone while looking to Raincloud. “I’m not sure... I can remove the energy inside of him, but that might not fix his mind. It might even kill him…” Raincloud said while shifting her eyes downward. “Should we just keep him locked up and find a way to change him back to normal later?” Rainbow Dash suggested in an attempt at finding a solution to the problem at hand. Before anyone could answer, the red stallion started chuckling to himself. “Heh… don’t bother. I don’t want to go back to normal.” Shadow Mist stated with a resolute expression. “What…? You can’t be serious… you’re not in your right mind right now Shadow.” Raincloud said in a serious tone. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not… who’s to say what a person’s right mind is? Either way… I know one thing.” Shadow Mist said while smirking slightly. “Even if you beat us… you’re all going to die. You can’t stop what Grimwood has become… what is inside him. No matter what you do… you’re all going to die screaming, and the world is going to be eclipsed in total darkness.” He said while chuckling sinisterly. The somber thought of their failure and deaths at the hands of the strange entity in the next room was enough to send a chill down the ponies’ spines. “You’re wrong… we’re going to win. I won’t let anything destroy the world and hurt my friends.” Rainbow Dash said in a confident tone. “Neither will I.” Rarity added while stepping closer to her cyan friend. “Nobody is hurting my friends on my watch… even if they aren’t natural.” Applejack stated in a determined tone. “None of us are going to let that thing in there win… mark my words.” Raincloud said while joining in with Twilight and her friends. Even if she didn’t like her current company, she would fight with them until the bitter end if it meant getting vengeance on the thing that robbed the few friends in her life from her. “Heh… I wonder if you will eat your words.” Shadow Mist said while looking down to his bound legs. “Maybe I’m not in my right mind… but something tells me I wouldn’t enjoy watching you die anymore.” He added while flashing a hollow smile. The others hadn’t noticed it before, but it looked like the glow around the stallion’s eyes was slowly fading. Perhaps the shadow magic suppressing cuffs were actually working to revert him back to normal. “Shadow…? Are you in there?” Raincloud asked in a surprised tone. The stallion chuckled slightly before growing silent and adopting a calm expression. “Goodbye Raincloud.” Shadow Mist said in a somber tone. Suddenly, the stallion’s shadowy leg started shifting slightly until the tip of it formed a pointed edge. Before anyone could react, Shadow Mist jerked his leg up to his neck and stabbed himself with the still solid energy of his limb. “No!” Raincloud yelled while stepping forward to try and stop the stallion. By the time she reached him, it was already too late. Twilight and the others averted their eyes as Shadow Mist dragged the shadowy blade across his neck. The stallion let out a muffled groan of pain as blood spurted out of his new injury. After writhing on the ground for a few moments, he stopped moving and closed his eyes. After a few more moments, Shadow Mist’s artificial leg disappeared as the energy inside of him dispersed, leaving him with the sealed up stump that he had before Shade restored his leg. Chapter 99: The Battle for Equestria (Part 2)Everyone looked back to the red stallion with mortified expressions and hollow feelings in their guts. They felt a knot developing in their stomachs from having witnessed such a terrible thing, and some of them even felt ill. Most of all however, the ponies felt bad for their unlikely ally. Raincloud stared at the lifeless body of her former colleague with a shocked expression of sadness. She seemed to be processing her emotions as she remained still and silent. Although she didn’t break down crying, a single set of tears traveled down her face as she stared ahead with her mouth agape. “Raincloud… are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. The grey pegasus turned to see the unicorn and her friends offering her sympathetic expressions. She felt terrible knowing that she must have looked like some kind of emotional wreck despite her best attempts to keep herself composed. “Yeah… I’m… *Sniff*… I’m fine.” Raincloud said while wiping her eyes and turning away from the others. She was surprised to feel a gentle hoof being placed on her shoulder. She looked back to see Pinkie Pie patting her on the back sympathetically. “It’s ok, you can let it out and cry… nobody will think less of you.” Pinkie said in a reassuring tone. The pink mare was surprised to see the pegasus shove her hoof away and take a few steps back. “Don’t push your luck. We’re not friends… we’re just fighting a common enemy.” Raincloud said while returning her prickly exterior in full. The others couldn’t believe that the grey mare was still rejecting them. They didn’t exactly like her either, but at least they were trying to comfort her after such a severe loss. “Hmph… meanie.” Pinkie muttered while offering the pegasus a wary stare while she walked away. “Speaking of common enemy… shouldn’t we hurry up and go stop the big scary monster before it takes over the world?” Glimmer Shine suggested from the back of the group. The others looked over to see the stallion bandaging up Rainbow Dash’s injury while Glitterball took care of Applejack’s wounds. “Yeah, I agree. We shouldn’t just be standing here, we should be- ow!” Rainbow Dash yelped as the yellow stallion finished wrapping the bandages around her wound. Although it wasn’t very severe, the cut on her chest did have stinging pains whenever something touched it. “Well… I guess you’re right. We do need to stop that thing. I would recommend you six getting the elements of harmony ready before we bust in there and piss it off.” Raincloud suggested while glancing over to the door that led into the throne room. “Let me go get the elements.” Luna said while looking to the small bag she placed at the back of the room earlier. Twilight and the others looked over to the small satchel with anxious expressions. Knowing that the bag held something so important made them well up with a mixture of emotions as they thought about using the elements again. “I just hope the elements will work… that thing in there must be really powerful.” Fluttershy said in a nervous tone while eyeing the throne room door uneasily. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. It doesn’t matter how strong that thing in there is. The forces of light will always win against the forces of darkness in the end.” Twilight stated confidently while offering the others a reassuring smile. Everyone felt more confident as they looked around and saw their friends close by. “Wrong…” A hushed and distorted voice suddenly filled the room. The unexpected sound made the hair on everyone’s necks stand on end. “D-did anyone else hear that?” Fluttershy asked while cowering low to the floor and darting her eyes around. The fearful expressions on her friends’ faces told the yellow mare that the strange voice wasn’t just in her imagination. *Bzzt* A sudden and violent vibration coming from their vests made Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and Sunspot look down. Their locator vials were practically shaking against their bodies from how much they were vibrating. The liquid inside the vials were also flashing from dim to bright, which was a phenomenon that none of the three had seen before. “Aw crud, not again!” Glimmer Shine said in a nervously annoyed tone while unclipping the vial from his vest and tossing it on the ground. Before Sunspot and Glitterball could question their friend’s odd behavior, all three of their vials shattered with a loud pop that startled them into jumping. “Yikes!” Sunspot exclaimed while recovering from the jolt to her system. She pulled up the broken remains of her locator on its pull cord and stared at it with an uneasy expression. The last time the vials had failed like this was back at the mansion due to the combined power of the three spirits. “Sister… do you feel that?” Luna asked in a shocked tone while looking towards the throne room door with a horrified expression. The most potent and vile energy she had ever felt in her life was seeping into the room like some kind of invisible gas, and the source of the energy was strong enough to make the blue alicorn physically ill. “Yes sister… I feel that.” Celestia said while adopting a more serious expression as she stared at the throne room door. “I’ve felt that energy once before… just a few minutes before you found me.” She explained while thinking back to her previous experience with the energy she was feeling. It was much stronger, and much more pronounced, but there was no doubt about it. The energy she was feeling right now was coming from Shade. Suddenly, a low noise started making its presence known above the eerie silence in the room. The ponies could only loosely discern the noise to be a mixture of wind blowing and disembodied high pitched whispering. “You are wrong…” The voice from before spoke up again, though this time it sounded like it was coming from the direction of the throne room. Everyone looked ahead with a mixture of frightened and nervous expressions as a sort of black mist started coming out from under the door across the room. The smoke thickened as more of it came out until it resembled the smoke that most shadow creatures emitted when they died. The disquieting sound of wind roaring and low whispering intensified as more of the dark substance filled the area around the door. Soon enough, the ponies couldn’t even see the throne room door anymore. Twilight felt her friends huddling close together. The five mares had varying degrees of fear and unease written on their faces. Even Applejack and Rainbow Dash were trembling slightly as they stared ahead with pale expressions of horror. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates stood near the six mares defensively. Although they weren’t sure if their strobes would even do anything, they held onto them as if they were their last line of defense against whatever terrifying force was making its presence known. Although everyone in the room could feel a pervasive sense of unease in the air, the two alicorns and the grey pegasus could actually feel the power of the unseen force behind the smoke. Celestia and Luna almost had their senses overwhelmed by what they were feeling, and Raincloud had never felt something this strong in her long time knowing Raven Feather and practicing shadow magic. Through the mass of smoke and mist in front of the throne room, the ponies could barely see something moving. It was almost impossible to tell what it was due to the thick darkness around it, but whatever it was seemed to be moving closer. Suddenly, and without much warning, a pair of stark glowing red eyes opened up through the smoke. The eyes weren’t a solid shade of red, although that would have been plenty disturbing on its own. Instead, there were two black pupils in the midst of the crimson glow. “AHH!!” Pinkie Pie screamed fearfully as the two eyes appeared. Perhaps it was the sudden appearance of whatever creature the eyes belonged to, or perhaps it was the overwhelming sense of fear in the air, but the ponies suddenly felt every ounce of courage in their bodies vanish. The thick veil of dark smoke started to fade, revealing more of the shape that the group saw glimpses of before. Along with the silhouette of a body coming into view, the ponies could see light pulses of solid black energy being emanated from whatever terrible monster was standing before them. As more of the smoke cleared, the group could finally make out the full shape of their foe. The thing standing before them wasn’t Grimwood, or at least it wasn’t anymore. The creature looked like a pony, but it was much larger than the colt originally was, standing at around a full grown stallion’s height. The color of its fur was mostly black, although there was a faint tone of pale grey mixed in that distinguished it from the dark smoke around it. On top of being unnaturally dark and slightly transparent, the creature’s fur almost looked like it was moving, though closer inspection revealed this to be more shadow energy erratically crawling along its body. Its hair was of similar length to Grimwood’s short hair, but it looked like it had faint shadows moving around it. “Even the brightest light casts a shadow, Twilight Sparkle…” The creature spoke while directing its disturbing gaze toward the purple unicorn and her friends. Twilight felt her legs shaking beneath her as she tried to stand up tall in the face of her enemy. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t calm her racing heart or her panicked breathing. It was almost like the creature was emanating an aura of fear. “What… what is that?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a terrified tone. “I think that thing is Shade…” Celestia said in a stunned tone while trying to wrap her head around the overwhelming thought of how the monstrosity before her came to be. “That’s Shade?! I thought he was using Grimwood’s body… isn’t he just a colt?!” Glimmer Shine asked while staring at the shadowy creature with a shocked expression. “He must have somehow changed Grimwood’s body as he became stronger… I can’t think of any other explanation.” Celestia replied while trying her best to not sound as nervous as she felt. “S-so much power… how? How did he get that much energy?” Raincloud stammered in a distressed tone. The others looked over to see the pegasus staring ahead with her mouth agape and her legs quivering. Her whole body was shaking from how much she was shivering. Seeing the normally hard headed mare in such a terrified state only further cemented the fear that the group was feeling. “Raincloud, we need you with us if we’re going to win.” Celestia said in a serious tone while looking to the grey mare with a stern expression. While trying to snap herself out of her own fearful stupor, Raincloud’s thoughts drifted to Dust Kicker and all of her other friends that had died because of the creature in front of her. She quickly regained her usual expression of anger as she directed all of her hatred towards Shade. “Right… I’m all for wiping this thing off of the face of the planet.” Raincloud said in a determined tone while staring ahead with a fierce gleam in her eyes. Now that the grey pegasus had cast off all of her fears and doubts about fighting, Celestia turned to look at Twilight and her friends. She quickly glanced to the bag at the back of the room that contained the elements of harmony, only to realize that they were in fact the only way to defeat the monstrous pony. “Twilight, take the others and go get the elements of harmony.” Celestia instructed in an urgent tone. The unicorn seemed willing to obey the princess’s orders, but she was also concerned for what her mentor was planning to do in the meantime. “What about you?” Twilight asked while looking to the white alicorn with a worried expression. “We will keep Shade occupied for as long as we can. We need the power of the elements if we’re going to destroy this thing once and for all… now go!” Celestia said in a more serious tone. Twilight nodded in compliance before turning to her friends with a determined expression. “Come on girls! We’ve got a job to do!” Twilight stated while motioning for the others to follow her. The five mares nodded before following the purple unicorn as she rushed off to gather the elements. Twilight and the others hurried as fast as they could to reach the edge of the room. As they gathered around the small bag on the ground and glanced behind them, they saw their friends squaring off against the shadowy stallion. Celestia and Luna had their horns lit up, Raincloud was completely geared up to head into battle, and Glimmer Shine and his two teammates were aiming their strobes ahead while standing behind the two alicorns. Strangely enough though, the only one not getting ready to fight was Shade himself. The stallion seemed to be standing still and dwelling in his own thoughts as he looked around at the various ponies in the room. He chuckled slightly as he glanced over to the six mares at the back of the room. “Do you really think that your little trinkets will stop me?” Shade asked in a quizzical manner. The almost threatening tone of confidence in his voice made the others more than a little unnerved. “They’ve stopped many powerful beings in your position.” Celestia stated while watching the shadowy pony like a hawk, ready to stand between him and the six mares behind her at any cost. “In my position? Heh… what do you know about my position? You don’t know anything about me… nobody knows about me. Even Raven Feather didn’t know about me, and she was almost a decent example of your species amounting to something… almost.” Shade said with a slight smirk. While the cocky statement didn’t hold much meaning to most of the group, it did strike a chord in a certain grey pegasus. “You little bastard!” Raincloud yelled while rushing forward and channeling shadow energy to her hooves. “Raincloud!” Celestia called after the grey mare. She could only watch as Raincloud ran towards the stallion with an angered expression. Shade stood still and watched casually as the grey mare charged for him with the full intent to kill in her eyes. Without the stallion even moving, a thin shadow shot out from inside of his own shadow and whipped out along the ground before shooting up and out of the floor. The black tendril moved in a blur and slammed into Raincloud. She yelped in pain and got knocked off her feet, only to have the tendril wrap around her waist tightly and suspend her in the air. “GAH! Put me… ack! Put me down you asshole!” Raincloud yelled while clutching the tendril around her waist and trying to pull it off of her. The tendril would squeeze tighter every few moments, sending rough throbs of pain through her body that complimented perfectly with the bone chilling coldness she was feeling from being in contact with such potent shadow energy. “My… how quickly the bravado disappears once things don’t go according to plan.” Shade said while eyeing the imprisoned mare with a sinister gleam in his glowing eyes. “Up yours!” Raincloud yelled while trying to think of a way out of her current situation. Her own shadow magic didn’t seem to have any effect on the tendril around her, and she was getting squeezed so hard that it was getting hard to breathe. “Let go of her, Shade!” Celestia demanded in a stern tone while stepping closer to the stallion. The white alicorn and her sister kept their distance and didn’t try to use their magic on the grey mare for fear of her wellbeing. “And what are you going to do if I don’t? Give me a sunburn or something? I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet or not, but not all things born of shadow need to flee from the sun.” Shade said with a slight chuckle. “Guh… s-shadow… help me!” Raincloud pleaded desperately while calling for her minion to rescue her. On cue with her command, the grey mare’s shadow elongated and solidified until her ghostly pet came flying out of it with an agitated howl. The shadow flew up to its master and used its claws to swipe at the dark tendril holding her in place. Much to the shadow’s frustration and Raincloud’s horror, its claws went straight through the tendril without causing any meaningful damage to it. The specter growled as it watched its master in such distress. Finally, it looked over to the stallion holding the pegasus hostage with murderous intent. With an echoed screech, the shadow flew straight at Shade with its claws blazing with purple light. Shade raised his front leg into the air and pointed it at the approaching specter. Suddenly, a stream of solid black energy shot out of the stallion’s hoof, catching the shadow mid-flight and enveloping its body as it continued on its path. Raincloud and the others watched with shocked expressions as the shadow got blasted into the wall by the continuous beam. The specter screamed out in pain, as if the beam were actually doing meaningful damage to it. Before the grey mare could even think to give her minion an order to retreat, the shadowy beam completely engulfed the ghostly creature and disappeared, leaving nothing behind but thin air. “Shadow?! Shadow!” Raincloud yelled in a shocked tone while looking around. “I can’t feel him anymore… what did you do to him?!” She demanded while looking to the stallion with new anger burning in her eyes. “Did you really think it would be a good idea to attack me with a shadow creature? Maybe you aren’t as skilled as I remembered you to be Raincloud.” Shade said with an almost disappointed expression. “Those aren’t your memories to begin with! Get out of Grimwood’s body!” Raincloud yelled while struggling against the tendril wrapped around her. No matter how hard she tried to push or pull it off, or to slink out of its grip somehow, she remained trapped. “No… I think I’ll be keeping this body. It has grown on me in my short time here.” Shade said while smirking slightly at the grey mare’s anger. “Put her down!” Twilight demanded in a threatening tone. The surprised group looked over to see the purple unicorn and her friends walking forward with determined expressions shared between them. The six mares’ newfound bravery wasn’t the only weapon in their arsenal however. Twilight and the others were each wearing one of the legendary elements of harmony. The golden pieces of jewelry each bore a small gem in their center which was modeled after the cutie mark of its wearer. Applejack had an apple, Rarity had a diamond, Pinkie Pie had a balloon, Fluttershy had a butterfly, Rainbow Dash had a lightning bolt, and Twilight had a sort of star. The five necklaces worn by her friends served to compliment the importance of their unity, while the tiara bearing Twilight’s element served to distinguish her and the element of magic to be their fearless leader. “Whoa… the elements of harmony. I never thought I would get to see them this close.” Glitterball said in an amazed tone while staring at the six mares wielding their respective elements with a glint of wonder in her eyes. Seeing the elements themselves was one thing, but seeing them in use was an entirely different experience. “Ah yes… I was wondering when you would be using those.” Shade said in a dull tone. The distinctive lack of fear or concern in his voice was heard many times by previous enemies the six mares had encountered. “Put Raincloud down and face us. If you want to take over Equestria, you will have to get through us.” Twilight said in a bold tone while looking around at her friends. The five mares all had determined expressions on their faces. They were ready to end this fight once and for all. “Girls… be careful.” Celestia muttered in a concerned tone. She only hoped that the power of the elements would be enough to overtake the frightful amount of energy she knew the stallion possessed. “Alright, fine… if you want me to put her down I will.” Shade said with a sinister smirk building on his face. Before anyone could react, the shadowy tendril holding onto Raincloud whipped around and tossed her towards the group at high speeds. Raincloud screamed and tried to right herself in the air, but her speed was too great for her to do anything. The pegasus grunted in pain as she hit the floor and bounced along it roughly before coming to a stop by hitting the wall behind Glimmer Shine and his team. “Raincloud! Are you ok?!” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking over to the motionless grey mare. The guards walked up to the pegasus and examined her for a moment before determining that she was unconscious. Twilight and the others glared at the shadowy stallion as he chuckled at the grey mare’s misery. He truly was one of the most sadistic foes they had faced, and perhaps the most powerful one that the elements had ever faced, but they were confident that the power of their bonds could triumph and win the day. “So now what are you going to do? Kill me with the power of friendship? Heh… don’t make me laugh.” Shade said in a confident tone with a serious expression on his face. He stared at the six mares with his unblinking red eyes, sending a slight wave of unease into them as they readied themselves. “The power of friendship isn’t something to take lightly. No matter what happens here, we will always stick together. If my lessons on friendship have taught me anything, it’s that friendship is worth fighting for!” Twilight stated in an adamant tone before turning to her friends. “Ready girls?” She asked with a determined smile on her face. “Ready!” Everyone exclaimed in unison while steadying themselves. With her friends behind her, Twilight looked forward and lit up her horn. Celestia and Luna moved to the side along with the others as a magical buzz sounded out. A faint magical aura surrounded Twilight and the others. Soon enough, each of their elements started glowing with a similar aura. Everyone else in the room watched in amazement as each of the elements started emitting an outline of light in the shape of their respective jewels. Along with the lights, a magical hum was emitted by each of the elements. Rainbow Dash and the others closed their eyes as their necklaces started moving without them, pulling their bodies along with them as they got closer to Twilight. More solidified rays of light in the shapes of the gems started flying out of the elements and traveling into the air before zipping by and disappearing behind Shade. Celestia and the others could feel the sheer energy in the air, along with a strange feeling of warmth. It was almost like the elements were emitting pure positivity and love. Despite this awe inspiring display of power, Shade was still standing idly while watching the scene ahead unfold with a slight smirk. Suddenly, Twilight and the others opened their eyes only to reveal a shining white glow. Their bodies all lifted into the air and gathered together. As they stopped moving and floated in the air, a shockwave of magical energy erupted out around them and a beam of rainbow colored light shot out from above them. The beam traveled up into the air a short ways before arcing downwards and leveling out to shoot directly into Shade. Before the beam of energy could hit him however, Shade let out a furious roar as he released an aura of energy around him. The same black smoke that arrived when he entered the room appeared and enveloped the stallion before spreading out in a circle. The aura of darkness solidified until the smoke seemed to only serve as a visual flourish. It was like the stallion was standing in the middle of pure darkness despite the fact that the rest of the room was bright and there was a multicolored stream of light careening toward him. The brilliant beam of energy from the elements collided with the aura of darkness and clashed with it, seemingly held back by its power as if it were a shield. The eerie sound of wind roaring and low whispers filled the air again, seemingly fighting with the peaceful humming and buzzing of the power of the elements to fill the room. Twilight and the others could feel the power of the elements struggling to push forward. Despite this slight setback, they focused on their love for each other and their bonds with everyone they had ever met to give the elements strength. The beam of light pushed against the darkness with fierce determination. However, as Shade put more effort into the struggle, the darkness started pushing the light back. Before long, a part of the dark aura could be seen jutting out from the main mass to push the rainbow of light back. It was like Shade was using a beam of his own energy to contend with the elements of harmony, a sight which had never been seen before. “Uh guys… I don’t think it’s working.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while raising her voice over the sound of the magical hum around her. “Stay strong… we can beat him!” Twilight replied in a determined tone while trying her best to concentrate. The six mares had never had to put this much effort into channeling energy into the elements before. Usually the elements simply annihilated any negative power they came across, but it seemed as though they were actually struggling to handle the stallion’s power. “I see you have much to learn about the power of darkness Twilight Sparkle.” Shade said in an echoed voice that filled the room. Suddenly, the beam of darkness pushing back on the elements actually started gaining ground. The rainbow of light started moving backwards at an alarming rate. As if they realized they were losing, the elements themselves completely straightened out the beam of light so it was being emitted from the front of the six mares. On top of this slight change, the beam intensified to push back against the overwhelming darkness. But as the light pushed back harder, the darkness grew in strength and continued pushing back. “This can’t be happening… the elements of harmony aren’t working?!” Sunspot stated in a shocked tone. Everyone else that was gathered around to watch the struggle seemed to be shocked as well. “Sister… there must be something we can do! We wielded the elements ourselves once… surely our power would be compatible to help them!” Luna said in a desperate tone while turning to her sister with a pleading expression. Celestia looked at Twilight and the others and quickly realized that their power alone wouldn’t be enough. As shocking as it was for her to fathom, Shade seemed to be holding back. “You’re right… Follow my lead Luna. The fate of Equestria and the world as a whole hinges on what we do right here and now.” Celestia said in an uneasy tone while lighting up her horn. The others watched as the white alicorn teleported herself onto the other side of the six mares and stood in line with them a few feet away. Luna quickly trotted over to be roughly in the same spot on her side of the battle before looking ahead and lighting up her horn. The two princesses charged up their magic and fired two beams into the stream of light formed by the elements of harmony; one bright yellow beam to represent Celestia and her sun, and one dark blue beam to represent Luna and her moon. The two beams flowed into the rainbow of light and mingled with it until they started swirling around it in a perfect spiral. With the addition in energy, the beam grew slightly and pushed the darkness back more and more. “We’re doing it!” Pinkie Pie cheered in excitement as she watched the rainbow of lights push its way closer to the shadowy stallion. “Keep it up everyone!” Twilight said in an eager tone while pouring everything she had into the struggle with Shade. All six mares, along with the two alicorns to either side strained as hard as they could to best their foe. With the weight of every living thing on the planet weighing heavily on their shoulders, they had to beat the shadowy stallion, and no other outcome was an option for them. “You fight so hard for your friendship… yet you still do not understand. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly your light shines.” Shade stated in a confident tone. His booming voice practically rang in the ears of everyone in the room. Suddenly, the beam of darkness started pushing back again, only this time it pushed much harder. In a mere moment, the darkness pushed the rainbow of light halfway backwards. It was pushing so hard on the light that it started overtaking it and flowing around it slightly. “W-what?! No!” Rarity exclaimed in a fearful tone as she felt the overbearing power pressing down on her. “This can’t be happening… he can’t be this strong!” Twilight yelled in denial. Her once confident tone of voice shifted slightly as fear crept its way into her mind. “I can’t hold it much longer!” Luna said through gritted teeth as she poured all of her energy into her magical beam. The white alicorn on the other side of the elements wasn’t doing much better. Both of the princesses looked like they were moments away from passing out. “Many things change, but this never will. Before there was light… there was darkness. From darkness everything was born, and to darkness all of you will return!” Shade yelled fiercely, his distorted voice carrying over every other sound in the room. As the stream of darkness continued pushing back the power of the elements, Celestia and Luna groaned from exertion before collapsing to their knees as their horns puttered out. Due to the added strain from the beam of shadows, Twilight and the others yelped painfully as they felt more and more of the power being used against them. “Girls, get out of there!” Glimmer Shine yelled in a fearful tone as he watched the six mares battling to keep the darkness away. Realizing that they had lost, Twilight and her friends switched their efforts to self-preservation. The mares all grasped at their elements in an attempt at taking them off, but to no avail. The necklaces and the tiara weren’t coming off, like they were stuck in place. Before they could try any other method of escape, the beam of darkness surged forward and completely overtook the ponies. As they were enveloped in the shadowy beam, they were kept in the air still by the aura of darkness that now covered them. “AAGHHH!!” Twilight and her friends screamed out in unison as a wave of numbing coldness and pain overtook their bodies. “GIRLS!!” Celestia yelled in a fearful panic as she watched her faithful student and her friends suffering. Well, she couldn’t exactly see them due to the ball of darkness that covered them, but the alicorn and everyone else in the room could definitely hear the six mares screaming at the top of their lungs. Finally, the beam of darkness disappeared, but not before sending Twilight and the others flying backwards into the air. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all slammed into the ground at the back of the room, while Twilight fell to the floor only a few feet from where she was. The purple mare’s tiara fell off, and a few of the others lost their necklaces as well as they slipped off and clattered along the floor. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, Sunspot, and the guards ran across the room to go inspect the five mares that landed near the entrance. All of them had light amounts of black smoke trailing off of their bodies like they had just been set on fire. Their fur was scorched in a few places, though they felt icy cold to the touch. Thankfully though, they were still breathing. “Applejack, are you ok?!” Glimmer Shine asked while inspecting the orange mare for injuries. Applejack seemed to be conscious, but she kept her eyes closed and groaned softly as she tried to move her sore body. “Rarity, Pinkie, how bad are you hurt?!” Glitterball asked in a frantic tone while hovering near the two mares to see if they needed help. Rarity and Pinkie Pie landed next to each other, almost hitting their bodies together as they fell. “Someone say something!” Sunspot said while feverishly looking around to see if anyone was in good enough shape to communicate. Even Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were struggling to move, barely being able to turn their heads over or get their limbs to move. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna were focused on the purple mare at the front of the room. “Twilight, can you hear me?!” Celestia asked while gently shaking the unicorn lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. “P-prin…cess?” Twilight groaned softly while managing to slowly open her eyes. She winced and moaned as she tried to get up, only to have her body refuse her actions. Celestia and Luna looked behind them to the group at the back of the room. The other five mares were slowly managing to stir and get up off the floor, with the added help of Glimmer Shine and his two teammates. “Just rest Twilight… you’re lucky to be alive.” Celestia said in a concerned tone. “Luck had nothing to do with it. They are alive because I didn’t want to kill them… at least not yet.” Shade said with a slight chuckle, bringing the group’s attention back to him. The aura of darkness had faded, leaving the stallion standing right where he was with a devious smirk on his face. “Stay away. You’ve done enough harm.” Celestia said in a threatening tone while standing in front of Twilight and her sister protectively. Although Raincloud was still unconscious off to the side, everyone else in the room that was able marched over to stand behind the princesses as they stood up against the stallion. The five mares at the back of the room stood, sat, or remained on the ground and watched as everyone gathered before their enemy. “We… w-we have to help them.” Rainbow Dash said in a strained tone while fighting through the pains in her body to manage a determined expression. She looked over to see Fluttershy leaning up against her for support as she rested and panted heavily. “Ah don’t think we can help them Rainbow… Ah don’t know if anyone can help us now.” Applejack said in an exhausted tone. Despite the lack of energy she had, it was easy to tell that the orange mare was frightened and uncertain about what to do. “Do you see now? It is pointless to stand against me.” Shade said while observing the meager troop of ponies standing before him. “We can still try.” Sunspot said in a determined tone while readying her strobe. “Everyone… you need to flee. Take Twilight and the others and get out of here. I will buy you as much time as I can.” Celestia said in a resolute tone while stepping forward nervously. The white alicorn felt her body trembling slightly from fear, which was a feeling that she never thought she would experience. Suddenly, she felt a hoof being placed on her side and looked over to see her sister next to her. “We’re not leaving you, sister.” Luna said in a confident tone. “Yeah, if we’re going down… then let’s go down swinging!” Sunspot stated eagerly. Her two teammates and the guards behind her agreed wholly with the orange pegasus. No matter where they ran to, it wouldn’t matter. They had just used their most powerful weapon on the shadowy stallion and failed. But if they were going to die, they would die facing their enemy straight on rather than cowering in a corner. “Such a bold statement… very well then, if you wish to fight me head on, then let’s fight shall we?” Shade asked in an intrigued tone. Sunspot, her team, the two alicorns, and all of the guards looked to each other and the six mares recovering behind them. Everyone nodded with somber expressions on their faces before turning their attention forward and readying their weapons. “Hyah!” Sunspot yelled fiercely while spreading her wings and taking off into the air. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and the guards all followed after her in charging for their enemy. Celestia and Luna used whatever energy they had left and fired off a series of magical bursts towards the shadowy stallion. The few unicorn guards used their horns while the others used their swords as they ran towards Shade bravely. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and Sunspot all fired their strobes relentlessly towards the stallion. Shade chuckled slightly as he saw all of the attacks coming his way. He allowed the blasts from the strobes and the unicorns to harmlessly impact his body. Whatever miniscule surface damage was done from the attacks was healed almost instantly as his shadowy body reformed. Finally, he decided to go on the offensive. Two shadowy tendrils shot out along the ground and whipped around. The ponies kept a wary eye on the shadows as they remained translucent and stayed in the floor as natural shadows would have. With little warning, one of the tendrils shot out of the ground and went straight for Sunspot. The orange pegasus darted to the side mid-air, just narrowly dodging the tendril as it whipped past her. She quickly fired a few blasts from her strobe towards the stallion in the hopes of distracting him, but Shade was hardly fazed by the attempt. The other tendril shot up from the floor and coordinated with the other tendril to go after the orange pegasus. While Sunspot ducked under one of the tendrils in the air, the other one reached up and wrapped around her leg. “Hey, what th- AHH!” Sunspot yelped fearfully as she was yanked backwards by her leg. The thin tendril was surprisingly strong, being more than strong enough to counter her momentum and wing power in order to slam her into the ground. While the orange pegasus bounced off the ground and groaned painfully while recovering, the others continued past her on their way towards Shade. Glimmer Shine fired his strobe at the two tendrils, managing to land a hit on both of them and effectively reducing their size as large pieces of them broke off and turned into smoke. Before the yellow pony could get too close, Shade raised his front leg and shoved it towards him. Glimmer Shine widened his eyes in surprise as a shockwave of darkness erupted in front of him. There was little the stallion could do except for bracing for the impact. “Gaaahhh!” Glimmer Shine screamed as he was flung backwards into the air. He traveled several feet until he finally bounced along the ground and settled in a crumpled heap. Ignoring the failure of their colleagues, the small troop of guards readied their swords and ran towards Shade. Among their numbers, Glitterball stayed at the back of the charging group along with the unicorn guards and prepared her magic to attack the shadowy stallion. As the first guard reached the stallion, he yelled fiercely while swinging his sword at him. Before he could even make contact however, Shade punched his hoof into his stomach while channeling shadow energy to it. The guard let out a stifled cry of pain as he faltered while blood poured from his stomach. Much to the horror of everyone watching, a sharp mass of shadow energy pierced clean through the white stallion, effectively impaling him. Shade effortlessly tossed the dying guard to the side and looked ahead to the others. The remaining four sword wielders looked to their fallen friend and glared at their enemy with newfound rage. Glitterball and the three unicorn guards shifted their expressions to more serious ones as they opened fire on the stallion with their magic. As the four earth pony guards got closer, and the bolts of magic sailed towards him, Shade smirked slightly while redirecting his influence. The shadowy tendrils that Glimmer Shine cut down earlier grew back their missing portions. Along with the two tendrils regenerating, several new tendrils shot out from the stallion’s shadow and whipped up out of the ground. One of the tendrils slashed sideways across one of the earth pony guards, catching him across the neck. The guard’s armor cracked and a trickle of blood came out as his neck was cut into slightly. The force of the strike sent the stallion tumbling sideways. The sudden and brutal strike on their ally was enough to make another two guards briefly look to the dying stallion with mortified expressions. However, their brief distraction proved to be a critical error. A pair of the wispy tendrils shot towards them. Instead of impaling them as they had expected and prepared for, the shadows wrapped themselves around the top of their necks. Before they could even react, they were picked up off of the ground and dangled by their throats. Everyone who was able watched with mortified expressions as the two stallions struggled to get free. Just when the group thought that the pair would suffocate, the tendrils holding them jerked to the side quickly and a sickening crack sounded out. Shade quickly tossed the two lifeless guards aside and let their bodies settle in a crumpled heap on the ground. “AGHH!!” The remaining earth pony guard screamed out in pain as two of the other tendrils pierced into his side, going straight through his body and cutting into anything that got into their way. Blood spurted out of the entry and exit wounds, nearly covering the guard and the ground beneath him in the crimson fluid. A third tendril pierced through his chest as he was picked up off the ground. After a brief yelp and a jerk, the stallion went limp in the tendrils’ grasp. Shade quickly used the tendrils to toss the guard’s body aside as he had done with the others. Before any of the projectiles flying through the air could hit him, Shade used the multiple tendrils to swat them out of the air. If the blast was strong enough to destroy a tendril in the collision, it would just regrow a few moments later. Glitterball and her three companions ceased firing and looked at each other as they tried to think of another strategy. Before she could think of anything meaningful, the white mare saw the tendrils heading straight for her and the guards next to her. “Look out!” Glitterball exclaimed while ducking under one of the tendrils as it swiped at her. The guards tried to dodge out of the way, but they weren’t as lucky as she was. Almost in perfect sync, all of the guards got hit with multiple tendrils as they slashed across their bodies. The strikes cut into their bodies around their chest and sides, knocking them down in the process. Before Glitterball could even try to help, the three stallions got impaled by a single tendril coming down into the center of their bodies like a spear. “GAH!” Glitterball screamed in agony as her back leg erupted into pain. She looked back to see one of the tendrils sticking through her limb, with blood pouring out around it. The unicorn tried to light up her horn to shoot the tendril or teleport away, but before she could focus on a spell, she felt herself getting yanked off her feet and suspended in the air by her wounded leg. “Glitterball!!” Sunspot and the others yelled fearfully as they watched the unicorn getting lifted upwards by the shadowy tendril. There were tears streaming off her face and hitting the floor from the unsurmountable amount of pain coursing through her leg, but she still somehow found the strength to try and struggle out of the tendril’s grasp. However, no matter what she did, she couldn’t escape. The tendril was impaled clean through her upper leg, and it wasn’t letting go anytime soon. Glitterball looked up to see all of the other tendrils pausing in the air and pointing at her menacingly. Taking a brief look to the lifeless bodies of the guards, she immediately knew what was going to happen next. “No, no, no! Please!” Glitterball whimpered while shaking her head. When she charged forward to face her death head on, she didn’t expect it to come this soon, and certainly not this brutally. The collection of shadowy tendrils reeled back and shot out toward the dangling unicorn. Glitterball and many of the others in the room averted their eyes and yelped in denial. Just when the white mare thought she was going to die, she heard a strobe being discharged and felt the tendril holding her by the leg release her suddenly. Opening her eyes and looking to the side in surprise, Glitterball saw Sunspot in midflight and the remains of the tendril holding her turning to smoke. The orange pegasus crashed into the unicorn and continued flying to make it out of the path of the piercing spikes about to collide with them. “Agh!” Sunspot yelped as one of the tendrils shot through her lower stomach. Thankfully due to her movement, she was able to roll and prevent the tendril from impaling her too deeply. Unfortunately for her and the white mare clutched in her arms, she wasn’t able to keep flying with the stabbing pain in her side. The two ponies crashed into the floor and bounced once before hitting the wall and stopping. After a brief moment of recovery, Glitterball looked at her friend and smiled softly. She trailed her eyes down and paled as she saw her side pouring blood everywhere. “Sunspot… you’re hurt.” Glitterball said in a stunned tone of concern. The orange pegasus cringed while getting up, seemingly ignoring her injury to the best of her ability. “It’s not as bad as what was going to happen to you. Come on… we need to move.” Sunspot said while trying to walk forward. She immediately faltered and clutched her side with a pained expression, only to have Glitterball rush to her side to help steady her. “And just where do you two think you are going?” Shade asked with a sinister tone of voice. The two mares looked back to see the stallion staring right at them with his glowing red eyes. All of the tendrils were receding back into his own shadow, but he still had a threatening air about him. He could most likely find another way to kill the ponies if he wanted. “Leave them alone.” Celestia said while rushing over to stand in front of the two mares. Shade and the two ponies were surprised to see Luna and Glimmer Shine trotting up behind the white alicorn in a defensive stance. “We won’t let you hurt anyone else.” Luna said in a threatening tone while glaring at the shadowy stallion. “Princess…” Sunspot muttered in a humbled tone. She signed up for the blue alicorn’s team to help her protect Equestria, but now the princess of the night was protecting her. “You two need to rest. Let us handle this.” Glimmer Shine said in a confident tone. Meanwhile, Shade was busy looking around at the ponies scattered around the room. The elements of harmony were still at the back of the room, recuperating from their injuries and watching with concerned expressions. Twilight Sparkle was still on the floor where she landed, doubtlessly trying to recover herself. And now everyone else was standing up strong in the face of certain death. “Enough of this… I grow bored with all of you. Step aside now and I might consider letting you live a while longer.” Shade said in a serious tone. He took a step forward, only to have a magical laser shot at his feet. “We’re not letting you leave this room. You’ve caused enough havoc from just being in here. You will not harm the rest of Equestria, or anyone else for that matter.” Celestia said while standing her ground with her horn lit up and an icy glare thrown in the stallion’s general direction. “I will not be told what to do by someone as weak as you Celestia!” Shade yelled while stamping his hoof down on the ground. Just as it made contact with the floor, a dark shadow raced out of the stallion’s hoof and traveled towards the group of ponies. Celestia and the others widened their eyes in surprise as the floor started breaking up as shockwaves of energy shot out from where the shadow was. Each eruption out of the floor got progressively bigger, until it reached the ponies as the white alicorn placed a shield around them. Celestia felt her shield shattering and her body traveling upwards and backwards. She along with everyone behind her was being flung through the air violently. Everyone screamed as they careened all the way to the back of the room, where they all slammed into the wall full stop. A bone crunching thud accompanied each of them as they simultaneously stopped screaming and grunted in pain before falling to the floor. Sunspot, Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, Luna, and Celestia were all lying in a heap on the floor. They tried moving, but anything remotely close to using effort only reminded them of how much pain they were in. Eventually however, the five managed to move themselves to where they could look up. “Guys! Are you ok?!” A distressed voice called out from the side. The group looked over to see Rainbow Dash slowly hobbling over to them with her friends in tow. The five mares were still weak and battered from their own ordeal, but they had to check on their friends. “I think I just broke every bone in my body… guh… I think… I think I broke bones I didn’t know I had.” Sunspot muttered in a strained tone while trying to move her sore limbs to clutch her previous injury. She was most likely incorrect, but she most likely did have a few broken bones, if not a concussion. “Oh, you poor things… just lay there and rest.” Rarity said with a concerned frown while looking at the heap of ponies. Even the two alicorns were having trouble moving their battered bodies. “I offered you a chance at staying alive longer, and yet still you chose to stand against me.” Shade spoke up from across the room. The group looked over to see the stallion slowly walking towards them from all the way at the front of the room. Despite the distance he had to travel and the pace he was going at, the ponies froze up with terrified expressions as they watched him getting closer. “Surely you must have known that you wouldn’t win… so why did you choose to fight? Well… I suppose it doesn’t matter now. You’re all going to die at my hands… or rather, hooves.” Shade said with a slight chuckle while continuing on his way across the room. “Everyone… l-leave while you can. Just… just go.” Celestia pleaded while managing to turn her head to look at the ponies next to her. “We’re not leaving… no matter what.” Rainbow Dash said with a slightly hesitant tone as she turned to look at the stallion across the room. “Well girls… it looks like it’s the end for us.” Applejack said in a somber tone while looking around at her friends. Everyone was scared out of their minds, but they hadn’t thought that they were going to die for certain until the orange mare made things painfully clear to them. “*Sniff* I love you guys… come here!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while pulling in all her friends for one last group hug. The four mares accepted the gesture and clung to each other while letting fresh tears well up in their eyes. Everyone turned to look at Shade as he made it roughly halfway to them. They never would have thought that they would die when they got up this morning to come to a friend’s funeral. They wondered what would happen to their friends and family after they died and the shadowy stallion was free to roam across Equestria unfettered. No matter what happened, they hoped that they would be together again in whatever waited for them after death. “Stop right there!” The group heard a voice call out in a determined tone from across the room. After looking around for a moment, they saw the source of the voice in the middle of the room. “Twilight…?” Celestia muttered in a surprised tone. Shade stopped in his tracks and looked beside him. Sure enough, there she was. Twilight was on her knees with her eyes closed and her head resting on the floor. After a moment of rest, she pushed herself up with her front legs and stood up to face the stallion. She was shaking almost constantly, and her legs looked like they were just barely supporting her weight, but through all of the pain and exhaustion on her face, there was steely determination. “Are you seriously going to be the one to try and stop me?” Shade asked while rolling his eyes and sighing. “N-no… I can’t stop you. I’m not sure if anyone can.” Twilight said while shaking her head and pausing to catch her breath. “Then why, pray tell, have you so rudely interrupted me when I was in the middle of something?” Shade asked in an unimpressed tone while staring at the unicorn with an expectant expression. “I just need to a-ask you one… t-thing. Please… please don’t kill my friends.” Twilight pleaded in a sincere tone. “Twilight, get away from him!” Rainbow Dash yelled from across the room. “Please Twilight… I can’t watch you die again!” Fluttershy pleaded with a fearful expression. “So… let me get this straight. You want me… to just not kill your friends?” Shade asked in a tone of disbelief. He was half certain that he misheard the unicorn, or that she hit her head a little too hard when he overpowered her and the other elements. “Yes… please. I love them so much… I couldn’t bear watching them die. You are the most powerful being in Equestria… most likely even the world. Please… just don’t kill them. You can do whatever you want to me.” Twilight said in a desperate tone. “Heh… hah… ahaha… ehhahahaha!” Shade suddenly burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Everyone watched the stallion with dreadful expressions as he laughed in the purple mare’s face. Twilight felt her heart deflating as her one request was shot down. Not that she expected the stallion to honor her desire, but it was the last and only thing she could do. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle… dear, sweet, innocent… Twilight Sparkle.” Shade said in a softer, more unnerving tone while walking towards the unicorn. Twilight gulped nervously and tried to walk backward, but her body wouldn’t allow her to move as fast as she wanted. Even though the stallion was walking at a slow pace, he caught up to the purple mare almost effortlessly. “W-what?” Twilight stammered, more so out of fear than exhaustion. “I’m not just going to kill your friends…” Shade stated in a lighthearted tone while placing a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. Twilight jumped slightly as she felt her body coming into contact with the icy cold hoof of the shadowy stallion. “W-w-what are you g-going to do?” Twilight could feel herself trembling like a frightened filly. Her friends watched with fearful expressions as the stallion smiled while slowly shifting his hoof across her body. “I’m going to make your friends watch me kill you… and then I’m going to kill your friends.” Shade said with a devilish smirk while shifting his hoof to grab the unicorn by the neck. Although he was being rough with her, he didn’t seem to be strangling her. Instead, Twilight suddenly felt a numbing coldness start around her neck as the stallion’s hoof glowed with a faint aura. “Gh… guh… alggh…” Twilight groaned while grasping at the stallion’s arm with her hooves. She could feel herself getting weaker while the cold feeling worsened and spread down her neck and into her chest and back. It didn’t just feel cold, it felt like her body was completely going numb, and the pins and needles sensation that came along with it was almost unbearable. “Twilight!!” The others yelled while watching the scene unfold before them with horrified expressions of panic. “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash demanded while rushing forward as fast as her injuries would allow. Realizing that they couldn’t stop the cyan mare, the others leapt into action along with her. Celestia and Luna lit up their horns and aimed at the stallion, and Glimmer Shine managed to aim his strobe while on the floor. Shade offered a quick glance to the side, only to see the cyan pegasus charging toward him and the rest of the ponies either gearing up to fight or watching with frightened expressions. Rather than stopping what he was doing and devoting more attention to his new attackers, the stallion simply smirked and continued draining the energy out of the purple unicorn. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-stride as she felt something tug on her leg violently. She yelped in surprise while she was pulled to the ground. As she looked down with an agitated expression of confusion, the cyan mare widened her eyes in surprise as she saw what was holding onto her. It looked like a pitch black hoof was reaching out of her shadow and grabbing her by the leg. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash fumed in a frustrated tone while tugging against her captor. “Let me… hrrk… let me go!” She raised her voice angrily as she pulled her leg as hard as she could, only to have the shadowy hoof pull harder to keep her on the floor. Just as suddenly as the pegasus was restrained, Celestia and Luna, as well as Rarity and Glitterball felt something shooting up and latching onto their horns. What appeared to be an undulating mass of shadow energy was completely covering their horns, suppressing the four’s ability to channel magic through them. While the two unicorns squealed in fright and disgust while frantically groping their horns in an attempt at ridding themselves of the black substance, Glimmer Shine had his strobe knocked away as yet another shadowy mass reached out of his own shadow and pinned his arm down. “Gah!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in surprise as he was pulled to the floor and restrained. Sunspot and the others tried to pull him up, but the shadowy appendage was too strong for them to overpower. “Sister, I can’t use my magic! This stuff must be canceling out any energy flowing through it.” Luna stated in a mild panic while racing to free her horn by any means so she could rescue the distressed unicorn across the room. “Twilight!” Celestia yelled in a fearful tone while watching the purple mare struggling to get the stallion’s hoof off of her. “You leave her alone! She doesn’t deserve this… take me instead!” She pleaded desperately with her body trembling and her heart racing. She couldn’t bear the thought of watching her faithful student die. She almost died herself when she merely heard about Raven Feather stabbing her to death. “You will wait your turn!” Shade yelled in an agitated tone while glaring at the group across the room. Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to rush forward to help free Rainbow Dash and make an attempt at saving Twilight, when they too were suddenly pulled to the floor by a dark arm reaching up from their shadows. Twilight fought with every ounce of her being to just take in shallow breaths. Her entire chest was going numb and her muscles were failing her. Her legs faltered and she fell, only to be caught by the stallion applying pressure to his hoof and actually holding her by the neck. The added difficulty of being choked even slightly only made it even more strenuous to breath, let alone fight back. Before she passed out from being suffocated, Shade pushed her onto her back and released pressure from her neck. However, the painful feeling of cold and weakness was still present, and it was spreading further throughout her body. “*Gasp*… *Wheeze* G…guh.” Twilight choked out a mess of frantic breaths and distressed noises. Her lungs were pumping air through her body as fast as she could manage, but it was like the air wasn’t reaching her. No matter how much she breathed, it felt like her body was suffocating and screaming for air, or for energy of any kind. “Twilight! Hang in there! I’m… hrrgh… I’m coming!” Rainbow Dash said in a desperate tone while pulling on her leg as hard as she could. Despite her reassuring statement, it was clear that the cyan mare was panicking, and that she was going nowhere fast. From the look of her situation, her leg would probably be dislocated before she freed herself. With Shade holding her just off the ground, Twilight tilted her head back to look at her friends. They were all watching her with fearful expressions and pale faces. They were all desperately trying to think or do something that would help her, but she was beyond their reach. She could feel her body shutting down more and more by the minute. She didn’t even feel cold anymore, with only numbness and weakness remaining. “E… e-everyone… *Wheeze*… I’m… so..rry.” Twilight muttered in a despairing tone. She could barely see her friends anymore through her blurry vision, but she knew that they would be devastated from watching her die. With a nagging tiredness coaxing her into closing her eyes, Twilight laid her head back and let go of the stallion’s arm with her hooves. Her mind drifted to her friends and all of the happy faces that she would be leaving behind. Spike, her brother, her best friends, she would never see any of them again, and they would most likely die along with her. There was no feeling of peaceful bliss that came with her last death. There was no faint glimmer of hope that her friends would go on without her to victory. She had lost, and she was paying the ultimate price for being conquered by her enemies. “Twilight, no!” Rainbow Dash and the others screamed in denial as they watched their friend lying motionless in the stallion’s grasp. They couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not, but seeing her like this immediately flooded their minds with terrible memories of when they watched her bleed out in front of them. The five mares and several of the others teared up and started weeping uncontrollably while still desperately trying to break free from their bonds. “Hahahah… Do you finally see? The power of darkness holds no equal. There is no light that can extinguish me!” Shade stated in a bold tone while staring down at the unicorn at his feet. As the group of ponies lamented their imminent demise and gave up on anything being able to save them, they were silenced suddenly as a bright light appeared near Shade and Twilight. The light appeared seemingly out of thin air, growing in intensity until it forced everyone in the room to cover their eyes. Shade screamed in painful surprise while stepping back and covering his face with one arm. His form smoked slightly from the burning sensation that the light was giving him. Although it wouldn’t damage him greatly, it was painful enough to warrant him to step back and retreat several feet. Twilight suddenly felt oddly tingly as she stirred her body slightly. She could strangely feel all of her body now, and she felt an intense warmness that was seemingly returning the feeling to her. On top of the feeling returning to her body, she felt less and less of the weakness that plagued her before. As she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted with a bright light that made her shield her face. Oddly enough though, she felt like she had seen that same light somewhere before. “Ugh…” Twilight groaned softly as she lifted her head up off the ground. As she peaked open one of her eyes to see if the light was still there, she discovered that it had vanished. Through her still blurry vision, the unicorn could make out the shape of someone standing in front of her. Although it was improving, her eyesight was only a mess of colors and shapes at the moment. “…!” Rainbow Dash and the others suddenly grew silent as they stared ahead of them. Twilight wondered what had spooked her friends into ceasing their bout of crying almost instantly. Rubbing her eyes slightly and blinking rapidly to restore her vision, Twilight looked ahead of her and squinted to get a better look. As soon as her eyes could make out a clear picture, a surprised gasp escaped her mouth and she shot up slightly. “T…T…T-Tom!” Twilight exclaimed in an utterly bewildered tone. She couldn’t believe her eyes, but there he was standing in front of her, a young human boy in his teenage years with light red hair and a blue track uniform on. Unless the boy had an uncanny twin brother with similar taste in clothing that inexplicably appeared in front of her, the purple mare was certain that it was Tom. Tom turned to look behind him and smiled softly as he saw the room full of ponies with stunned expressions. He looked down to see the unicorn on the floor and held out his hand to offer her some help up. “It’s nice to see you too Twilight… need a hand?” Tom asked curiously while waiting for the purple mare to move. After a few moments of stammering and non-stop staring at the human, Twilight reached out her hoof and grabbed his hand, only to have him pull her up with her still speechless. “But… you… and… but… but… how?!” Twilight asked in a dumbfounded tone while staring at the human with a shocked expression. “There’s no time for questions right now. We’ve got a job to do.” Tom said while looking behind him at the shadowy stallion still recovering from the burning light. “Go grab the elements of harmony and get ready to use them.” He instructed in a calm manner and waited for the unicorn to snap out of her stupor. Twilight glanced behind her at the element of magic lying on the floor where it landed. The sight of the tiara on its side with a slight char mark on it only further cemented her previous failure in the unicorn’s mind. “The elements won’t work on him… we already tried using them and he almost killed us.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. “Giving up so soon Twilight?” Tom asked in a surprised tone. “Look, just trust me on this one… go prepare the elements and use them as soon as you can.” He said in a more serious tone while leveling with the purple mare. “Ok… Ok.” Twilight nodded while turning around and taking a few steps forward while lifting the fallen tiara up with her magic and bringing it next to her. She paused abruptly and turned around with a worried expression, only to see the human turning to face the shadowy stallion. “But… what about you?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. She took a glance back to her friends, only to see them looking back with equally concerned expressions for the human. “Don’t worry. I should be able to handle him… at least for a few minutes.” Tom said in a confident tone while smirking back at the purple mare. Twilight lingered a moment longer before shrugging in defeat and turning to run to her friends. She trotted across the room to the group of ponies waiting for her eagerly. Apparently whatever bonds Shade put on the two alicorns and the others disappeared when the blinding light filled the room. “Twilight… Ah’m so glad you’re ok.” Applejack said in a sincere tone while offering the unicorn a brief hug along with the others. “I’m glad you guys are ok too… now come on, we need to get ready to use the elements again. Tom has a plan.” Twilight explained confidently while looking back at the human. The others nodded before rushing off to pick up the few necklaces that fell off of them when they landed. “Grrr…” Shade growled angrily while looking down to his still smoking skin. After a few more moments to allow the smoldering to stop, he looked up and glared at the human standing in the middle of the room. Tom gasped suddenly as a violent puff of blue mist escaped his mouth. He staggered slightly before steadying himself and standing tall against the shadowy stallion. “I don’t know what you are… but I don’t really care. You will not harm this world any more than you already have.” Tom said with a resolute tone of voice while staring his enemy down. “You dare to interrupt me, slayer?! I will wipe you off the face of the planet along with the rest of your kind and your race!” Shade bellowed in a voice that carried through the room. While the ponies on the far side of the room were deeply unnerved and frightened by the angered stallion, their human friend was still level headed and standing still. “I’ll bet you say that to every slayer you meet… not that you have met any. I think I would definitely remember you if a previous slayer saw that face.” Tom said with a slight smirk. “If you are so eager to die, then I will be happy to oblige you.” Shade said in a cold tone while letting shadow energy pulsate from his body. Tom placed his arms at his sides and left them there. After a moment, a metallic scraping sound filled the air as fire flowed from his outstretched fingers. Before long, the boy had summoned his claws, good as new and ready to dispatch any enemy before him. The sight of the spirit weapons glinting in the light made a silent feeling of awe work its way over the group of ponies. “You wouldn’t be the first person to try that today.” Tom said while shaking his head with a confident smirk. Without much warning, the boy let out a fierce yell while charging forward towards the stallion. Shade yelled as well while running forward to meet the human, channeling shadow energy to his front left hoof as he ran. Before the pair collided, Shade threw his hoof out in front of him and started shooting a beam of darkness toward the human. Tom quickly threw his own hand out and projected a stream of blue light in front of him. The two clashed as they held their arms out while right in each other’s face. Somehow, the two beams of energy seemed to be pushing each other back, with progress only being made on either side as they moved in with their feet to where they were standing only a few inches away from each other. Twilight and the others watched anxiously as Tom fought to keep up with the stallion. The human could tell that his opponent was holding back. Despite the fact that Shade wasn’t using his full scope of power, he was swiftly pouring more energy into his attack. Although he probably couldn’t keep up such a steady increase in power for long, Tom was keeping his beam of light strong enough to push the beam of darkness back to the point where both beams were forming into a large spherical shape as each tried to spread out around the other. The ponies on the other side of the room watched in awe as the human and the stallion clashed. They had never seen such a violent pair of powers meeting in their lives. The intense sound being given off by the two beams was practically making the room shake. After a few moments of shouting while standing completely still and glaring at their respective opponent, Tom and Shade suddenly noticed that the ball of energy between them was growing more unstable by the minute. With the two different streams of light and darkness gradually melding together, a loud bang suddenly sounded out as a small explosion blew the human and the stallion several feet away. Shade and Tom both recovered after skidding their feet on the ground to gradually slow their momentum. Once they were both back on their feet, they rushed at each other again and started trading physical blows. Meanwhile, the ponies on the other side of the room were watching nervously while the six mares in their midst huddled together and tried to hurry in every way possible to help their human friend win the fight. “Come on guys… we can do this.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while looking around at her small troop. Not all of her friends shared her enthusiasm on the subject of using the elements again. “We’re trying Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said in a troubled tone while looking around at the pale expressions of exhaustion on her friends’ faces. She felt like passing out and slipping into a restful coma herself with how much she had been thrown around recently. “I’m not sure if I can do this again… I don’t feel very good.” Fluttershy said in a weak tone while trying to ignore her sore body. “Don’t worry Fluttershy… we only need to let the elements do the work for us. We’re here because we want to protect Equestria… to protect our friends.” Twilight said while thinking about Spike. The thought of the young dragon waiting for her to go back to Ponyville filled her with a burning desire to stop anything from bringing harm to him, and right now that anything was standing across the room from her fighting yet another friend. The others looked at each other while thinking about those that they cared about, and the ones who cared about them. They smiled softly as they all unanimously decided that in order to protect their friends and family, they would have to be strong for at least a while longer. “Gah!” Tom yelped in pain from across the room, drawing everyone’s attention away. The group turned to see the human reeling back from the stallion with a gash on his arm. Shade also had a wound across his chest from the human’s blades, causing him to growl in frustration and pain. As the boy stopped a few feet from the stallion, he looked down to his still bleeding arm and concentrated for a moment. Right on cue, a flash of orange erupted from his wound as it was slowly enveloped by embers and disappeared. Taking a look up to see Shade still standing ahead, the boy noticed that he was healing his own injury as well, if not with much greater ease. Shade glared at the human as his wounded skin shifted and healed while a small amount of shadow energy pulsed out of him. He was starting to get more and more frustrated and angry at the fact that he actually had to try to fight the slayer. “This is pointless! Surely you must know that even you can’t kill me.” Shade stated in a bold tone while meeting the human’s icy glare in intensity. “Nothing on this planet is immortal in every sense. You can die… and you’re going to right here and now.” Tom said with a confident expression on his face. The stallion felt an overwhelming feeling of anger washing over him as the human refused to be scared away by his threats. “You need to learn a lesson in respect!” Shade yelled while shooting his hoof out in front of him angrily. A localized shockwave of energy shot out of his hoof and traveled toward the boy at lightning speeds. Tom didn’t have time to dodge before he was knocked backwards into the air with a painful smack to his chest. Shade watched as the human flew backwards and into the wall. He let out a grunt of pain before settling onto the floor and trying to recover. The stallion laughed while channeling an aura of dark energy around himself. He reveled in the sheer negative power that was coursing through his body. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you bottomed out. You lasted a great deal longer than these weaklings ever could, but no more!” Shade yelled while stamping his hoof on the ground angrily. “Hey!” A voice shouting at the stallion from across the room made him turn to the side. He looked ahead to see Twilight and her friends standing in front of the others, wearing their elements with determined expressions on their faces once more. “These weaklings would like to have a word with you.” Twilight said in a confident tone while looking around at her friends. The five mares were equally determined and standing strong beside her. They continued staring ahead with steely expressions even as the shadowy stallion started laughing uncontrollably. “Hahah… you can’t be serious. This is the most fun I have had in recent memory… I honestly didn’t think any of you would be stupid enough to stand against me again!” Shade said while shifting his voice to a more amused tone. “The one who underestimates his enemy is a fool no matter how strong he his.” Twilight stated in a resolute tone. She looked to her friends, who offered confident nods in return, before directing her attention forward and steeling herself. Twilight lit up her horn and used her magic to call on the power of the elements. The jewels her and her friends wore glowed with a faint aura as a magical hum filled the air once more. The six mares stood their ground as their elements started emitting rays of light and drawing their bodies into formation. Strangely enough, instead of being lifted into the air, they were pulled into a line with each other, with Twilight being slightly in front. Soon enough, their eyes glowed white and they were enveloped in an aura of light. Celestia and the others backed up as a beam of rainbow colored light suddenly shot out of the area in front of the six mares. The beam traveled straight ahead instead of arcing in the air, meeting the stallion head on. Tired of playing games with the ponies, Shade projected a ray of shadow energy and clashed again with the beam of light from the elements. Instead of waiting to fight back with his full strength, he quickly gained ground as his beam pushed back violently on the ray of light. Twilight and the others groaned softly as they felt a familiar strain on their bodies. Things weren’t exactly going as they had planned. Even though nothing changed from last time, they somehow hoped that the elements would work this time and eradicate the stallion. “Dangit… it’s not working!” Twilight said in a frustrated tone. She and her friends could barely put their full energy into the beam, but it wouldn’t matter either way. “Sorry to put an end to your little ploy, but this time you won’t be getting back up.” Shade stated with a bold chuckle. The ponies started feeling a pervasive sense of panic as the beam pushing back on them had a new sense of grim finality. “*Whistle* Hey ugly, are you forgetting someone?” Tom whistled from off to the side, drawing everyone’s attention to him. They saw the boy standing casually near the beam of light, seemingly watching the struggle unfold. “Ok… I am really starting to get pissed off by you. I don’t care how you popped out of nowhere in a ball of light. You won’t be able to stop me… even if you work with them.” Shade said with an agitated scowl. “That is where you are wrong.” Tom stated in a confident tone while stretching his arm out. The human projected a ray of light out of his palm and directed it towards the end of the rainbow of light formed by the elements. Much to everyone’s surprise, the blue tinted light collided with the light from the elements and actually melded with it. The two beams met with each other and seemed to work together as if they were made for each other. Suddenly, a louder variant of the magical hum being emitted by the elements filled the air. The ponies watched with astonished expressions as the rainbow of light and the human’s positive energy flowed together until they reached a certain point, where they completely fused together. Much to everyone’s surprise, a beam of pure white light shot out from the point where the two lights ended, pushing back the beam of darkness as violently as it had been pushing back the elements. “What…?!” Twilight exclaimed in a shocked tone. “What the hay is happening?!” Rainbow Dash asked with equal confusion and disbelief. “My word… I don’t believe it.” Celestia said while staring ahead in a bewildered manner. She had never seen anything like this in her long life. The ray of pure white light continued pushing back on the beam of darkness, to the point where it was actually causing the shadowy stallion a considerable amount of discomfort. As he poured more and more energy into his beam, Shade quickly realized that he was having a hard time keeping up with the power of the newly formed light. “What the… How is this possible?! The elements of harmony are far too weak to hold this much power… and your power isn’t nearly enough to make this much of a difference! What trickery are you pulling slayer?!” Shade demanded in an angered tone while glaring at the human while fighting against the light with everything he had. “No tricks… just balance.” Tom said in a confident tone, much to the confusion of everyone else in the room, most of all the shadowy stallion. “Balance?! What on earth are you on about?!” Shade asked in a dumbfounded tone while raising his voice again. “You shouldn’t be allowed to exist. There are supposed to be relatively equal amounts of good and evil in the world. Nothing is meant to be able to tip the balance too far to one side or the other. That is why the slayers were created… that is why I am here. The elements of harmony are meant to bring balance to the world, but you are far too pure of a shadow creature to have their powers work on you… without outside help that is.” Tom explained in a resolute tone while staring at the stallion with a disdainful expression. “This isn’t happening… you can’t just do this! I am darkness incarnate! You cannot destroy the power of evil!” Shade yelled in refusal while pouring all of his energy into the beam of darkness in front of him. The ponies could feel the intensity of the evil amassed in the stallion as he pushed his beam to the point where it started slowly repelling the light again. Despite this apparent setback, Tom remained steadfast and confident. “We might not be able to rid the world of evil, but that isn’t why we fight. There will always be justice in this world to counter the darkness. As long as anyone challenges that balance, I will never stop fighting to protect the innocent!” Tom yelled fiercely while intensifying his own ray of light. As the blue light flowed into the power from the elements of harmony and increased the power of the white beam, Twilight and the others poured everything they had into the elements in order to assist the human. The combined power of the elements of harmony and the slayer’s positive energy pushed back hard on Shade and his power, sending the beam of darkness back a considerable amount. As the light got closer and closer to his body, the stallion quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to withstand its power. Before he could try to escape however, his power finally gave out and the light engulfed him. “Noooo!” Shade screamed painfully as his entire form burned in the light. In a few moments, he disappeared from view as the light intensified and blazed past him. Twilight, her fellow elements, and their human friend felt their power surging ahead unfettered and let a triumphant smile creep across their faces. Finally, the light died down as the elements of harmony ceased emitting their power. Tom let his light die down as well as the white light vanished from view. Instead of seeing a mass of black smoke dispersing into the air as they expected, the group saw a rather sobering sight. A small pony skeleton fell out of the air and settled on the ground. Judging from the size of the skeleton, the ponies wagered it to be around the size of a young colt. As the last few wisps of smoke trailed off the bones, everyone realized what this meant and lowered their heads somberly. “So… that must be…” Twilight muttered uncomfortably as she looked ahead at the skeleton on the floor. “All that’s left of Grimwood…” Celestia finished her student’s sentence in a hesitant tone. Everyone felt an oddly hollow feeling along with the warm happiness of their victory. Many lives had been lost in their long battle with the hooded ponies, and the colt’s skeleton on the floor and the dead bodies of the guards strewn around the room only served as a grim punctuation to this fact. “We should get Raincloud out of here before she wakes up. I don’t think she needs to see that.” Rainbow Dash suggested while turning her attention to the grey mare lying on the floor a few feet away. The pegasus was still where she was when she was rendered unconscious by Shade. “I will take care of Raincloud. You all should go and get some rest.” Celestia said while turning to the group with a concerned expression. Many of the ponies were battered and bruised, and they all felt exhausted beyond belief. “Here princess, you will probably need these.” Glimmer Shine said while tossing a pair of hoof cuffs over to the alicorn. Celestia grabbed the small object out of the air with her magic and examined them. Sure enough, there were inscriptions on the cuffs that distinguished them as shadow magic suppressers. The princess nodded understandingly while bringing the cuffs to her side. As much as they had come to know the grey mare in their brief time fighting together, she wasn’t their ally, and she would need to be restrained for when she woke up. Before the group turned to leave, Tom looked over to the small skeleton across the room with a curious expression. He used his senses once and raised an eyebrow before shaking his head and sighing. “Princess… you may want to take special precautions when burying Grimwood’s bones. He must have been exposed to a potent evil presence if he turned into that… his remains might still be negatively charged. It shouldn’t be much of a problem though… I can help make sure they are properly dealt with.” Tom suggested in a helpful tone. The white alicorn smiled softly as she looked at the human with an expression of disbelief. “Thank you Tom… it is good to have you back. I never had the chance to properly thank you for saving Twilight’s life… but just know that my gratitude is far less than you deserve.” Celestia said in a sincere tone while looking to the purple mare and her friends. Twilight and the others smiled as the human turned to look at them and smiled in return. They were more than bursting with excitement and happiness that the boy and the purple mare were alive again. If their bodies weren’t likely to slip into comas from the use of energy, they would most likely by celebrating much more than simply smiling at them. “Think nothing of it Princess. Twilight and the others have helped me far more than I have helped them.” Tom said in a grateful tone while walking over to the six mares. Twilight and the others immediately felt an overwhelming sense of warmth and happiness welling up inside them. “Aww… *Sniff*… Come here you guys!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while reaching forward and wrapping everyone up in a group hug. Although the others lightly protested to the pink mare being so energetic and rough with them, they enjoyed the embrace just as much. Celestia and Luna, along with Glimmer Shine and his teammates smiled warmly as they watched the six mares and their human friend. Despite everything that happened in the past few hours, not to mention the past week and a half, they were still as cheerful and caring as ever. Chapter 100: The Journey's EndAs the day went by, Princess Celestia and her sister were very busy with sorting out everything that had happened. The royal guard finally arrived and helped with the relief efforts for all of the citizens of Canterlot that were affected during the attack. Due to the darklings being destroyed now that there wasn’t anything keeping them intact, all the ponies had to worry about was repairing any damage done and resting. After dealing with the bodies of Raven Feather and her followers, Celestia and Luna escorted Raincloud down to the guard station themselves. Once she woke up to find herself in cuffs and her shadow magic suppressed, the grey mare lowered her head sadly and reluctantly agreed to going along peacefully. Although it would take days, perhaps weeks or months even, to repair all of the damage done during the attack, the ponies had finally won. They had claimed victory over the hooded ponies, even though it was in a way that nobody expected. The threat of darker magic and terrible creatures lurking out in the world was still present in the back of everyone’s mind, but now that there was no one harnessing these dark forces in an attempt at harming innocents, the ponies felt at ease. Twilight and her friends sat in the study of the palace and rested. They were sore, their heads hurt, and they barely had the energy to stand, but somehow they managed to be cheerful and content with spending time with each other. While everyone rested and chatted happily about their triumphant victory, Twilight stared at her human friend with a curious expression. Tom had died, that much she was certain of. She watched him fade away into embers before her very eyes. The only reason she had come back from death was because he used all of his energy to resurrect her, but there was nobody to revive him so he could help them beat Shade. Yet there he was, leaning against the wall and talking like everything was normal. Twilight shook her head and smiled softly as she realized that nothing was normal anymore, and she kind of liked it. “You know… I almost can’t believe we’re still alive.” Fluttershy stated in a surprised tone. This was only the most recent time in the past several days that she thought she was going to die. Perhaps the yellow mare needed to reconsider how she spent her waking hours if her life was taking such dangerous turns. “Believe it Fluttershy… we finally did it. We won!” Rainbow Dash cheered eagerly. “Ah have to say… you all did a mighty fine job out there guys… especially you Tom.” Applejack said while offering a congratulatory nod to her friends. “I only wish I was there the whole time to get beat up alongside you. How are your cuts? Are you sure you don’t want me to heal them?” Tom suggested while looking to the cuts on the orange mare’s shoulders. Applejack looked down to see the bandaged up wounds from when the darkling landed on top of her. Although her entire body felt sore, the medical wrappings definitely drew attention to that particular injury and made it look a lot worse than it actually was. “Boy… if you offer to heal me one more time, you’re the one that’s going to need healing.” Applejack retorted with a lighthearted smirk. Everyone chuckled warmly at the exchange, despite the orange mare being semi-serious. A soft knocking at the door drew everyone out of their idle chatter and elicited them to turn to look at the door. The castle had been very busy with many guards rushing to and fro to deal with the many problems that needed tending to, but everyone had generally left the six mares to their own devices. “Who could that be?” Twilight wondered out loud while getting up to go answer the door. As she walked over to the front of the room and opened the door, she was greeted by a white unicorn stallion with blue hair. He was wearing a regal uniform that looked professional enough to belong to the royal guard. Twilight immediately recognized the stallion to be her brother, Shining Armor. “Twily!” Shining Armor exclaimed happily, referring to the purple mare by the nickname he had given her since she was a filly. “Shining Armor!” Twilight exclaimed with equal happiness while rushing forward and hugging her big brother. “I was so worried about you! I overheard some of the guards saying you died… I’m really glad Princess Celestia set me aside and explained everything to me.” Shining Armor said in a relieved tone. Twilight frowned slightly as she thought about what the news of her death must have done to the stallion at first. “I’m fine now Shining… why don’t you come inside and stay a while?” Twilight suggested while adopting a more uplifting tone and backing up to reveal the five mares behind her. “Hello girls, it’s nice to see you.” Shining Armor greeted the others while entering the room as Twilight closed the door and followed him. “It’s nice to see you too, Mr. Shining Armor.” Fluttershy said while bowing her head slightly. As many times as she was introduced to the stallion, it was hard getting over the fact that he was captain of the royal guard. “Fluttershy, come on now… you don’t need to call me that every time we meet.” Shining Armor said with a slight chuckle. “Right… sorry.” Fluttershy replied with an uncomfortable smile. While all of Twilight’s friends came forward and greeted the stallion, he had his attention shifted elsewhere. The human to the side of the room was friendly looking enough, though he opted to remain where he was instead of walking up to greet him. “And you must be this Tom I keep hearing about. You know, the guards will not stop talking about you in particular. From what I hear from the princess, you all saved the day together, but I guess the novelty of being the only human in Equestria hasn’t quite worn off yet.” Shining Armor said in a lighthearted tone while reaching forward to shake the human’s hand. Tom smiled and gladly accepted the gesture while examining the stallion curiously. “It’s nice to meet you. I always wondered who Twilight’s brother would be once I heard her talking about you. You two must be really close… I guess older brothers just can’t help but to get attached to their younger siblings.” Tom said in a cheerful tone, though he paused for a moment to think about his own family before returning his cheerful disposition. “I wouldn’t know what I would do without Twilight.” Shining Armor said in a sincere tone while smiling at the purple mare. “Tom… I know you’ve probably heard this a lot today, but I cannot thank you enough for saving her. I only wish I was here before it happened… I should have been able to protect her.” He added in a slightly somber tone before returning a grateful expression to his face. “Hey… you shouldn’t worry about not being able to be everywhere and save everyone… that’s my job.” Tom said with a reassuring tone and a slight smirk. The white stallion laughed warmly at the boy’s statement. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Cadence would probably go stir crazy if I traveled any more than I usually do.” Shining Armor said with a cheerful smile. “Shining Armor, where is Cadence anyway? Is she here with you?” Twilight asked curiously. She hadn’t seen her former babysitter in a long time. Then again, she hadn’t had much spare time to book a trip to the crystal empire just to see her either. “Sorry Twilight, but Cadence isn’t here. When I left for Canterlot, it was because we got the alert that you guys lit the signal fire. She really wanted to come and help, but I somehow convinced her to stay.” Shining Armor explained in a sympathetic tone as he watched the unicorn frown slightly. “Ok… I guess it would have been pretty dangerous if she came along. Just be sure to tell her that I said hi, ok?” Twilight asked with a smile returning to her face. “Heh… yeah, alright… I think I can manage that.” Shining Armor replied with a slight chuckle. Twilight knew that her brother was putty in her hooves, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “Ooh! Can you tell her I said hi too? I was going to send you guys a postcard, but I couldn’t find one good enough. So then I tried to get a carrier pigeon to give you a letter, but those birds are waaay too hard to train. And then I thought up this thing with balloons-” Pinkie Pie explained in an energetic tone while popping up beside the two unicorns and getting a bit closer than Shining Armor would have liked. The stallion inched away slowly while the pink mare continued talking at a mile a minute with no signs of slowing down. Everyone laughed as they watched the pair interacting. It felt good for them to finally be able to enjoy a moment without any looming threats present in their minds. After several minutes of talking, more than a few of which being spent trying to get Pinkie Pie to settle down, Shining Armor bade goodbye to the group as they left and walked back through the castle. It had been a long day after all, and the only thing the six mares wanted right now was to be safe and comfortable in their own homes. If they hurried, they could catch a train back to Ponyville and be there before sunset. As they walked down the steps toward the front entrance, the group noticed Glimmer Shine and Sunspot standing idly by the doors. The pair looked even worse than they did when they were fighting Shade, but that was only due to the copious amounts of bandages wrapped around their bodies. They both had head wrappings, Sunspot had her side all bandaged up, and Glimmer Shine had a few smaller bandages scattered around his body. “Hey guys… are you on your way out?” Sunspot asked curiously as she watched the group approaching. “Yeah… we’re going to go on ahead and catch a train back to Ponyville. I was hoping to talk to Princess Celestia before I went… is she here?” Twilight asked while thinking to any other place the alicorn could have been. “No, you just missed her. She left to go process Raincloud with Princess Luna. We’ll be sure to let her know you said goodbye.” Glimmer Shine explained. The ponies were surprised to hear that the two alicorns were taking care of Raincloud themselves. Then again, she had contributed a lot to the group’s victory, so it wasn’t too farfetched to think that the princess would want to handle the grey mare personally. “Thanks… how is Glitterball doing? I hope she isn’t in too rough a shape.” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while noting the absence of the rainbow haired unicorn. Usually she stuck by her teammates like glue, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Nah, she’s fine. Tom swung by and healed her leg for her, so right now she is just resting in the infirmary. The worst she has to worry about is a sore body… which isn’t too bad considering we’re up and about.” Sunspot explained in a cheerful tone. Twilight glanced to Tom and offered him a playful leer. She was thankful that he healed Glitterball after she suffered such a gruesome leg injury, but she really wished that after dying, her human friend would be a little more careful with his energy consumption. “So what are you guys going to do now? Are you still thinking about splitting up?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously, with a hint of hesitation in her voice. It pained the group to know that the team of monster hunters was even thinking of breaking up after everything that happened. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine looked at each other pensively for a moment. They smirked slightly and nodded to confirm their thoughts before turning back to the group with cheerful expressions. “I think we might stick together a while longer.” Glimmer Shine stated in a pleased tone, much to the surprise and joy of the others. “Really? That’s great!” Rainbow Dash said in an excited tone. “Yeah… we figured that Equestria might need a team of monster hunters sometime in the future. At any rate, someone needs to take care of the patches of dark matter scattered around the country from Raven Feather’s previous experiments.” Glimmer Shine said while thinking about roughly how much work would need to be done before all of the hooded ponies’ effects on the land were removed. “Oh just go ahead and say it Glimmer… you would be lost without me and Glitter to help you out.” Sunspot said with a wry smirk, eliciting a chuckle out of the yellow stallion and the others. “Something like that I suppose.” Glimmer Shine said with a cheerful smile. “Well, we’re going to head out now. You guys be sure to stop by Ponyville sometime. Don’t be strangers.” Twilight said with a friendly tone while smiling at the two ponies. “We’ll drop in sooner or later. I’ll tell Glitterball you guys said bye. See you around.” Sunspot said while waving to the group as they opened the doors and walked outside. Twilight and the others waved back at the pair before heading out onto the streets of Canterlot. After a few minutes of walking through town, the group waited at the train station for the next ride to Ponyville. Once their train arrived, the six mares and their human companion hopped on and settled in for the next few hours. A few hours went by, and the group was feeling their exhaustion catching up to them. Rainbow Dash had actually managed to fall asleep while everyone else talked, although she did wake up shortly afterwards. Finally, the train slowed to a stop as it arrived in the Ponyville station. “Aww, come on guys! We just beat the hooded ponies! We should be celebrating!” Pinkie Pie carried on her conversation with the others as she hopped off the train and onto the platform. The pink mare whined softly while offering the best puppy dog expression she could muster while her friends stepped out with her. “I’m sorry Pinkie, but it’s too late to throw a party tonight. Besides, we’re all tired. I am going to do good just to stay up long enough to not ruin my sleep pattern.” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone, much to her friend’s dismay. “You know what would keep you awake? A good ol’ Pinkie Pie party!” Pinkie suggested eagerly. The others had to give her props for how persistent she was. “Yeah, I’m with Twilight on this one Pinkie. How about we throw a party tomorrow, or some other time?” Rainbow Dash suggested in an attempt at reaching a compromise. The pink mare shrugged audibly and folded her arms while pouting in an upset manner. “You guys are no fun…” Pinkie muttered in a disappointed tone. The others couldn’t help but to snicker quietly at the pink mare and her antics. “Welp, I think I’m gonna go home and hit the hay. I don’t have a sleep pattern to ruin.” Rainbow Dash said in a lighthearted tone while glancing to Twilight. “Ah think it’s time Ah headed home too. Goodnight ya’ll.” Applejack said while starting to walk away. The orange mare waved to her friends before picking up her pace slightly and heading towards Sweet Apple Acres. “I guess we should all be getting home. It’s been a long day for sure.” Twilight said while holding back a yawn. “Night guys… I’ll see you tomorrow.” She added while smiling warmly at the others. After everything that had happened earlier, she was overjoyed to be heading home. “Take care, guys.” Fluttershy said while waving to Twilight and Tom as they departed. Soon enough, the others departed as well and went their separate ways. As Twilight and Tom walked through the quiet streets of Ponyville, they remained silent and kept to themselves for the most part. The air was pleasantly cool, with a bit of a stronger chill coming over the town as night approached. The sun was low in the sky, but it was still fully visible. It was astonishing to think that everything that happened only took up a few hours of the day. It felt like an eternity several times when the group was fighting Shade. Twilight spent a good few moments taking in the sights and sounds around her. After her untimely death and miraculous revival, the simple charms of everyday occurrences were something that filled her with a content feeling. “Feels good being back home. I almost can’t believe I’m here… even after that stunt you pulled.” Twilight said in a playful tone while nudging into the human. “Hey, I got the job done didn’t I?” Tom replied with a slight chuckle. The purple mare frowned slightly as she thought more about how the human threw all self-preservation out the window just for an attempt at saving her. He didn’t even know that it would work. In fact, he had reasonable knowledge to tell him that it wouldn’t work. “Don’t ever do anything that reckless again ok? I thought you were gone…” Twilight said in a saddened tone. “Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?” Tom asked in a lighthearted tone to lift the unicorn’s spirits. Twilight smiled softly before looking ahead again and returning to her thoughts. “Hey… how did you know that the elements of harmony and your powers would react like that?” Twilight asked curiously. The human hesitated for a moment before smiling knowingly. “I don’t suppose you would believe me if I told you that it was a lucky guess?” Tom asked in a lighthearted tone. “And I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me how you came back, are you?” Twilight added in a hopeful tone while pausing and turning to face the human again. He hadn’t talked at length about anything that had happened after he died, and the purple mare was itching to know how he was revived. Tom paused for a moment and looked down in thought. He hadn’t paid much attention to the events that happened after his death. His memories of the experience were a bit blurry to boot, but he could still remember the peaceful park and the mysterious stranger bearing his friend’s face. Although he hadn’t wanted to trouble the unicorn with such a bewildering explanation, her questions made him think back to the experience all the same. -Earlier and Elsewhere- As the warm glow of the sun and the birds chirping lulled him into a sense of relaxation, Tom rested his head back on the bench behind him and sighed. Taking a look over to Clarence, and briefly having to remind himself that he wasn’t actually on a park bench with his old friend, the boy saw that his strange host was still sitting quietly with a calm expression. Still, despite the soothing atmosphere of the park around him, Tom couldn’t stop worrying about his friends back in Equestria. If Raven Feather had defeated him and Celestia with such ease, then what chance would Twilight and the others stand? Then there was the troubling implication that the eternal night was real, and the black mare had actually found a way to invoke it. Even if the ponies survived their battle with the hooded cult, what sort of horrible evils would they have to live with after the fact? “So… what are you going to do to help Equestria now?” Tom asked curiously while turning to his companion and leaning back, expecting him to dispense some kind of grand battle plan to save the ponies from Raven Feather and her group. “I don’t know… nothing probably.” Clarence said in a casual tone while leaning back as well and resting his hands behind his head. “What?! What do you mean nothing?!” Tom asked in a shocked tone while getting up and looking at the human on the bench with an angry glare. “You died before you could succeed, so now it is up to the ponies to save Equestria.” Clarence said with a serious expression. “That isn’t fair! They can’t win and you know it!” Tom stated in an outrage. He couldn’t believe that the seemingly compassionate and sympathetic being he just learned about would be so casual about leaving an entire race of innocent and sentient creatures to die. “You resurrected Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps the elements of harmony can win the battle?” Clarence suggested in an optimistic tone. “That might not work… they need someone there who can fight! Send someone to help them!” Tom said in an adamant tone while glaring at the strange boy. “Like who? There aren’t any other human slayers able to be sent to Equestria.” Clarence said in a more serious tone as he realized that his blue suited friend wasn’t on board with his explanation. Tom groaned in a frustrated tone and walked away a few paces before turning back with an even more desperate expression. “What about new slayers? Maybe you could find someone from Equestria worthy enough to be a slayer… hell, try Brimstoke and the others! One of them would be more than willing to come back and save them!” Tom suggested while trying to contain his anger. Despite his attempts at appearing civil, it was clear that he wasn’t going to just sit down and let the strange human do nothing. “Even if one of them was worthy, it normally takes at least a week to create a new slayer. If I were desperate enough, the time could be shortened, but only to a few days at most. The Equestrians need someone now, or they won’t have use for anyone coming to save them.” Clarence explained in an adamant tone while getting up. He met Tom’s burning glare with a stoic, if not a little bit agitated expression of his own. “Send me then.” Tom said in a resolute tone. “No, you aren’t strong enough. Right now, the last thing they need is someone who can’t fight.” Clarence explained with a stern expression. He could see the human in front of him getting more frustrated and upset, but he knew what had to be done. “I can fight. You let me worry about what I do when I get down there, just send me back!” Tom pleaded with a desperate expression. “You said it yourself Tom… you lost. Raven Feather defeated you without even trying. If you went back now, it would only serve to confirm that you have lost the strength to bear the responsibility of a slayer.” Clarence said in a matter of fact tone. Tom turned around and shook his head angrily before turning back and releasing all of his pent up anger. The boy threw a hard punch at his former friend’s face, sending Clarence to the floor with a sizable thud. As the strange human looked up from the ground while holding his jaw, he saw Tom with a steely expression. “You listen to me right now Clarence. I don’t care who or what you are… I don’t care that I lost, and I don’t give a damn about whether or not you think I’m still worthy of being a slayer. I chose to come back… you wouldn’t just pop people back into existence without their consent would you? I might not remember it, but I chose to be a slayer because I wanted to help people. So what if I had self-doubts? So what if I have those same doubts now even? I don’t care if I die again down there… but I will not sit idly by and allow them to come to any more harm. They deserve better than us humans did… and if they need someone to fight for them, then I will stand by them no matter what. You can either send me back down there, or you can smite me or whatever the hell it is you mystical beings do… I don’t really want to be here anymore either way.” Tom said in a confident tone while preparing himself for whatever retribution he would get for his actions. No matter what happened to him, he couldn’t just sit by while Twilight and the others needed help. Clarence looked up at the boy silently for a moment. Instead of being angry however, a small smile crept across his face. Tom was surprised to hear him starting to laugh. As he got up from the floor, Clarence dusted himself off and smiled again as he faced the confused human. “You wanted to know why I chose you instead of Henry… right Tom?” Clarence asked curiously. “Wait… what?” Tom asked in a bewildered tone while watching the strange human approach him slowly. As if to further confuse him, Clarence placed a hand on his shoulder heartily. “Both you and Henry had a burning desire to right the wrongs that Johnathan Pike imposed on you and the other children. Both you and Henry would have made great slayers… but I chose you. I did it, not because I saw something in you that wasn’t there… but because I knew only you would punch your maker in the face to protect those you learned to call your friends.” Clarence explained in a more stoic tone. “So… you’re not mad at me for decking you?” Tom asked with a confused expression still plastered on his face. “Heh… don’t worry about that. You have more important things you could be doing right now. Besides… I can always get you back later.” Clarence said in a lighthearted tone. “I’m going to send you back to Equestria… this will be your last chance Tom. If you die again, I can’t help you or Equestria.” He added in a more serious tone. “Uh… ok.” Tom stated while adopting a more serious tone. “Thanks for letting me do this… is there anything I should know before I go? Maybe some hints for future reference?” He asked curiously, hoping to get some otherworldly advice out of his strange host. “Sorry, but you know that I can’t do that.” Clarence said while shaking his head slowly. “Wouldn’t want to interfere right?” Tom asked with a slight chuckle, to which the strange human smirked in response. “Now you’re catching on.” Clarence said with a friendly nod. “Oh yeah… before I forget, I might not be able to give you any hints per say, but… here’s a friendly word of advice. You might find some nasty stuff down there when you get there… Why don’t you try using your ray of light with the elements of harmony?” Clarence asked in a suggestive tone. “Thanks for the tip…” Tom said in a sincere tone as he prepared to be sent back to Equestria. “Hey, you weren’t being serious when you said you would get me back for that punch, right?” He asked in a hesitant tone. Clarence smirked and chuckled softly without answering. Before Tom could ask him again, he placed his hand on his forehead. The world around him, including Clarence, was engulfed in a bright light. Soon the sounds of the gentle breeze and the birds chirping faded. “Hello? Tom…?” Twilight asked in a curious tone while looking at the human as he was deep in thought. Tom looked up to see the purple mare still awaiting an answer to her previous question. “Oh… sorry, I guess I must have zoned out for a minute there.” Tom said while scratching the back of his head. As he noticed the patient expression on the unicorn’s face, he quickly realized that she wasn’t about to just drop her question and walk away. “I guess the powers that be are good after all.” Tom said with a slight smirk while avoiding having to give an actual explanation. Somehow however, Twilight felt that the boy’s statement was satisfying enough to please her. After a few moments of smiling and taking notice of the silence around them, the pair quickly noticed how late it was getting. “Let’s head home. I think we have both earned a good night’s sleep.” Twilight said in a confident tone, to which Tom nodded. The two started walking again with the comforting thought of being back at the library driving them forward. Several minutes of walking through the streets went by. The more the pair made their way into the denser areas of Ponyville, the more ponies they saw, most likely heading home themselves or doing some last minute errand before settling in for the night. Even though news hadn’t been made public yet about Raven Feather’s defeat, most of the ponies looked somewhat peaceful and happy in comparison to the last few days. Perhaps the relaxing atmosphere was getting to them and easing any fears they had, or perhaps the pervasive atmosphere of fear and uncertainty that prevailed around town was gone somehow. Either way, Twilight was happy to feel like it was a relatively normal day, or at least a normal end to a day. Finally, the golden oak library came into view. As many times in recent days that similar thoughts crossed her mind, Twilight was still glad to be home. Now, instead of having terrible news of some tragedy that happened to report to Spike, the purple mare could actually tell him that something good had happened. Not only had something good happened, but something tremendous and wonderful to boot. They had finally won against the hooded ponies and the evils they brought with them. “Hey, Tom…” Twilight spoke up in a slightly somber tone as she paused before the entrance to the library. “Yeah?” Tom asked curiously, picking up on the unicorn’s slight hesitation. “Could you not tell Spike about what happened to me? I will tell him soon enough, but tonight I just want to tell him some good news for once.” Twilight said with an exhausted shrug as she thought about having to tell the young dragon that not only had she yet again failed her promise to him, but she had actually done it in such a spectacular way that she died as a result. “Alright… I think that would be for the best anyway. You should focus on resting tonight, not explaining to him about how you died and came back to life.” Tom said in an understanding tone. “You know… it sounds so weird to actually hear that out loud.” Twilight replied with a slight giggle. “I’ll bet. With how many times you’ve cheated death figuratively and literally this past week, and with how many monsters you’ve taken on, you could be an honorary slayer.” Tom said with a slight smirk. Twilight laughed warmly at the boy’s statement before briefly entertaining the thought of what she would be like as a slayer. “Let’s head inside. I’m sure Spike can’t wait to hear about what happened today… the good parts at least.” Twilight said while smiling softly. As her human friend nodded in agreement, she opened the door and stepped inside. After making their way straight upstairs and finding the young dragon sitting with his legs hanging off the edge of the loft, Twilight rushed straight to him and picked him up into a tight hug. Spike seemed confused and a little concerned by the strange behavior of the unicorn, so she started explaining everything to him, minus a few details of course. As the purple mare told him about everything that happened, Spike went through a range of emotions. He was concerned that the hooded ponies had attacked Canterlot on such a grand scale, he was terrified as he pictured an enemy so powerful that even the elements of harmony were bested by it, and most of all, he was overjoyed as he learned that it was all over and everyone was ok in the end. However, no matter how excited he was, he felt something else that was overriding his happiness. After listening to the young dragon yawning, and letting out a few yawns themselves, Twilight and Tom decided to prepare for bed. While her number one assistant and her new human friend prepared to head off to sleep upstairs, Twilight decided to walk down to the main room to take care of something. The purple mare grabbed a piece of blank parchment and a feather quill and sat at a table with a content expression. After thinking for a few moments, she started writing and quietly sounding out the words as she scribbled away. “Dear Princess Celestia… I have learned a great many things since the last time I wrote you, most of these things having occurred in the past week. I learned that there are scary things in this world of ours… things that I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams. But I also learned that, despite all of the hardships in the world, I am still just as happy to live in it as I was before. Even though sometimes bad things may happen, and sometimes those bad things happen to good people without much of a good reason, I strongly feel that the friends you make can help to soften the blows you receive. No matter how harsh the world may or may not be, it is always important to remember that friendship is worth the trouble it takes, because one day… you might need your friends a lot more than you ever thought possible. And if I have taken anything away from my experiences these past few days, it is this one simple fact that can seem hard to remember at times. There will always be good in the world to balance out any evil that might be hiding in the shadows.” Twilight muttered with a slight smile on her face while scribbling away with her quill. The soft sound of tiny feet scampering down the stairs made the unicorn turn to look behind her. She noticed Spike standing midway down the steps looking at her with a cheerful, if not a bit curious expression. “Are you coming up to bed Twilight? We’re waiting on you.” Spike asked while glancing upstairs impatiently. “I’ll be right up Spike… I’m just writing a letter to the princess.” Twilight replied while looking back to her letter. “Do you want me to send that now?” Spike asked curiously with a helpful tone of voice, eliciting a smile from the purple mare. “No Spike… you can send it tomorrow after we get some sleep. Thanks though…” Twilight said while looking to the dragon with a proud expression. She was glad that she could finally see him smile again without some looming threat to dim his energy, not that it did in the first place. Despite everything that happened, her number one assistant had always looked to her with a bright smile. “Alright… I’m heading upstairs now. If I want even a chance at waking up before Tom does, I need to get to bed like right away. Try not to stay down here too much longer.” Spike said in a determined tone, as if it were actually a competition now to see who woke up first. “Doesn’t need much sleep to function… we’ll see who gets the last laugh, Mr. hotshot slayer of evil.” He muttered in a confident tone while heading back upstairs. Twilight giggled slightly as she watched the dragon heading upstairs. She heard the bedroom door open and close with a soft click. As she yawned yet again and stretched her limbs, she realized just how tired she was as well. Taking a look out of the window at the progressively darkening sky, the purple mare returned her attention to her letter to add the finishing touch. “Your faithful student… Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight wrote down with a pleased smile before setting the quill aside and rolling up the scroll for later. She got up and walked over to the window to take one last look at the sunset before heading off to bed. The sun and the moon were both visible on opposite ends of the sky, with a near perfect divide between them to separate starry night sky from beautiful sunset and dark blue sky. The unicorn smiled at the metaphorical implications of the sight before turning around and walking up the stairs. She was more than ready to get some sleep so she could start a new day with a fresh mind and body, and she was also confident that tomorrow would be another beautiful day in Ponyville. Chapter 1: An Unexpected JourneyIt was just another ordinary day in Equestria. The sun came and went on its daily path through the sky as the denizens of Ponyville went about their business. Just as the yellowish-orange glow of the nearly set sun cast its rays onto the Golden Oak Library, Twilight Sparkle sat in the main room looking curiously at the letter that her number one assistant Spike was holding. Twilight hummed with intrigue as the young dragon fiddled with the scroll from the princess. She wondered what Celestia could have possibly wanted this late in the day. “Go ahead and open it, Spike.” She beckoned and moved in closer, looking eagerly to the dragon. Spike nodded and flipped his fingers over the seal on the letter. He jumped in surprise as a small box fell out of the scroll and onto the table in front of him. “Yikes! I hope nothing breakable was in there,” The dragon sighed at his own clumsy mistake. He picked up the box and shook it gently to determine the contents. “Doesn’t feel like anything is moving around… must be secured pretty well,” He said, deflating a bit with relief. Twilight wrinkled her expression in annoyance before she picked up the box herself and contemplated opening it. As she inched her hoof forward to remove the lid of the small container, Spike unrolled the scroll and started reading it, leading her to put the box down and listen intently. “Dearest Twilight Sparkle, I am sorry to trouble you this late in the evening, but there is a matter of great importance that I need you to tend to,” Spike perked up with curiosity as he got further into the letter. ”Enclosed within this letter is a box containing an… interesting item of importance,” He paused and chuckled nervously as he looked at the package on the table. “Can I see the letter, Spike? I want to read this for myself,” Twilight beckoned with her hoof and waited for the dragon to hand her the letter. “Oh… alright, here you go.” Spike reached forward and waited patiently for the unicorn to lift the letter out of his hand with her magic. Twilight concentrated on the scroll for a moment and lit up her horn. A bright purple glow enveloped the scroll around Spike’s hand and he let go as he felt the paper nudge out of his grip. Twilight levitated the paper in front of her eyes and adjusted the scroll to reading level. She then quickly traced over the beginning part of the letter to find where Spike had stopped, and inhaled sharply. “I need you to deliver this box to Zecora and tell her to examine the contents to see what she can find. I also need you to gather up the other element bearers and take them, along with Spike, with you on your journey. Once you arrive at Zecora’s house and she finds anything of note, write me back as soon as you are able. I would like to talk with you all about a pressing matter.” The unicorn furrowed her brow as she finished reading the curious scroll. She had just about as many questions now as she had when she started reading. “Why does the princess want Zecora to examine whatever is in here? It looks too small to have anything that important inside,” Spike mused while fiddling with the strange box curiously. He wondered what could be so important in the small container, and why the princess felt the need to have Zecora examine it. Whatever it was, it must have been serious enough to warrant immediate attention considering how late it was. Twilight trailed her eyes off and thought about the matter herself. “I don’t know, Spike, but it must be pretty important if she wants you to come along to write letters back and forth. Although… I wonder why she wants all of us to go?” She pondered curiously, focusing her attention on the letter and searching it for new text. “Be sure not to open the box before Zecora has a chance to look at it, Twilight.” She read off a small section at the bottom of the letter. Spike stopped abruptly upon hearing this. He was just about to take a peek inside the box before he heard the statement. Twilight sighed and rolled the letter back up. She then gently placed the scroll on the table and looked at the young dragon with a tired expression. “Ugh… I did not need this today,” She droned. Traveling clear across town and out to the Everfree wasn’t exactly in her plans for the day. Struggling to maintain a positive mindset, she tried to perk up and focus on her curiosity as to the contents of the strange package. “We better get going I guess. Could you go and get my bag for me, Spike?” “Sure thing…” Spike groaned, half politely, half begrudgingly. The last thing the young dragon wanted to do was to go out into the Everfree Forest after dark with a mysterious package from the princess. Despite his apprehensions, Spike hopped up from his seat and went to fetch Twilight’s bag from the other room. So, without delay, Twilight went around Ponyville asking her five friends to join her. By the time she had gathered all of her fellow element bearers, the sun was well past the horizon and the night was creeping in. In spite of the late hour, the six mares stood before the entrance to the forest and boldly walked in, ever closer to finding out just what was in that box. “So, what do you think the princess wants Zecora to look at?” Applejack spoke ahead quizzically to Twilight and Spike, who were at the head of the group. “I don’t know, Applejack, but whatever it is it sounded urgent,” Twilight replied back while still trying to figure out the meaning of their late night journey. The unicorn’s horn lit up a bright purple as she used her magic to lift the scroll up out of her bag and in front of her eyes. “I need you to deliver this box to Zecora and tell her to examine the contents to see what she can find.” She spoke loud enough so the entire group could hear her paraphrasing the letter. She had hoped that rereading the scroll would offer her new insights to her quest, but sadly she was still just as clueless as her friends were. Rainbow Dash hovered alongside the group, still hanging onto her initial curiosity about their little quest. “Hmm… I wonder if she wants us to go on a secret mission for her?” She ventured with intrigue brimming in her voice. Her expression quickly fell as her thoughts drifted elsewhere. “I really hope so… nothing exciting has happened for the last three days… and that was just a runaway storm cloud that we had to get under control,” “I’m certain the princess will explain why we are out here when we get to Zecora’s,” Rarity stated confidently. The remark made Rainbow Dash sigh with boredom as she anxiously thought about why they were out here in this cold, bleak forest. Twilight eyed the letter for a while before levitating it back into the bag she had strung around her hips. She then looked at her surroundings to see if they were still on track. Satisfied at the sight of familiar trees and plants, she knew that they were not far off from their destination. “We’re almost there, everyone,” She reported, giving the group an update on their progress. The ponies were relieved to know that their journey was almost over. Even if they were on a marked path in the forest, the eerie noises and dark thicket of plants to either side of them made them feel scared and uneasy every time they came here. Spike leisurely laid his head back so he could lay flat on the unicorn’s body to get some rest before they reached their destination. “Good, I’m getting tired… I’m not used to staying up this late,” He moaned softly and held his hand up to his mouth to catch a yawn. Twilight grunted slightly as she remembered the extra weight on her body. She looked back at the dragon lazing around on top of her with an annoyed expression. “You’re not the one walking for both of us, Spike,” Spike looked up as he heard the agitation in the unicorn’s voice. His eyes met hers, and he immediately sat up. “Oh yeah… Sorry.” He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. He had actually forgotten that he had been riding on his friend’s back for the whole trip. After leering at her freeloading assistant for a moment longer, Twilight turned her attention forward again. As she looked ahead, she stopped abruptly and nearly caused a pile up of ponies behind her. The others looked to their purple leader with mildly confused and annoyed expressions, only to see her staring off into space with a pleased smile on her face. “Hey, what gives, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently. Twilight turned to the others for a moment before stepping aside and pointing a hoof forward. “We’re here everyone… we made it,” She exclaimed excitedly as they came to the clearing where Zecora’s hut lay. The grass in the clearing was much shorter and more up-kept than everywhere else in the forest. Zecora’s hut sat in the center of the clearing. The hut resembled a tree more than anything else, having been made from one that was hollowed out. The five mares marveled at the sight of the wooden hut. The tree home was the only sign of civilization as far as the eye could see, providing one was willing to loosen their definition of civilization, anyway. Still, the hut looked like a safe bastion from the harsh wilderness around them, and that was all that mattered. “I hope she’s still awake,” Fluttershy piped up from the back of the group. It was rather quiet and dark as the moon shone down on the forest floor through the openings in the trees, so there was a very good chance that the zebra was asleep. “I think she is… there are lights on in the window,” Twilight observed, hopeful that her findings were correct. The ponies looked over to see the warm and inviting looking candlelight flickering softly in the windows of the hut. The group walked over to the house and gathered around the entrance. Twilight knocked gently on the door with her front hoof and waited. Soon, the group could hear the muffled noise of Zecora walking to the door. The door creaked open to reveal the friendly zebra standing amid the orange glow of nearby candles. Zecora looked around the group gathered on her doorstep with a puzzled expression before settling her eyes on the purple unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle and friends, at this late hour, what news do you send?” She asked quizzically. Twilight was the first to speak on behalf of the small group. “Princess Celestia sent me a letter requesting that we come see you immediately,” She explained in a friendly tone. Twilight brought the scroll back out and showed it to Zecora, which made her perk up with intrigue. “In that case, come in and sit in the light. You need some shelter from this dark and chilly night,” The zebra motioned with her hoof for the group to come in and sit down. Everyone smiled at the invitation into the warm and cozy hut. They were quick to oblige, and once inside they closed the door and found a comfortable spot to rest while they got down to the business at hand. Wanting to get home at a decent hour, Twilight got out the package and sat it and the letter down on one of Zecora’s tables. “There’s a package that came with the letter. The princess only wanted you to open it,” She explained curiously, eyeing the teasing box and anticipating whatever was inside. “Come on then, child, give me the letter… Let’s see what made the princess think old Zecora would know better,” Zecora asked with a piqued sense of curiosity. Twilight handed off the letter to the zebra, who quickly read the scroll before shifting her attention to the box. After examining the box and making note of its size and shape, Zecora carefully lifted the lid off of it. The contents of the box were hard to make out, as the lit candles that illuminated the entire room did not cast far into the container. From what Zecora could make out, it looked like a glass jar secured to the bottom of the box that had something black and slimy inside of it. “Let’s get a better look at this… thing?” Zecora muttered in a confused tone. She was at such a loss of words that she broke her natural pattern of speaking in rhyme. As she grasped the glass jar and lifted it out of the box and onto the table, the group could just barely make out the sight of the item contained within. The object inside was as puzzling to the zebra as it was to everyone else. A small, black, and amorphous blob sat at the bottom of the jar. It appeared to be organic, but at the same time it failed to look like anything that would come from any plant or animal. It appeared as if its skin, if you could loosely call it that, was covered in a bright sheen that seemed to shift around the stationary blob of its own volition. Twilight squinted while trying to make out the details of the strange object. The bottle was obscured by their shadows, so it was still hard to see it. “Everyone step back a little… We could see it better in the light,” She suggested. Everyone, save for Zecora, took a few steps back, letting the dim light from the candles hit the bottle. *Thump* The object in the jar suddenly shot upwards and smacked against the side of the glass, making Zecora flinch and jump back instinctively. Everyone else was a little more alarmed by the unexpected sight, getting a quick rush of fear that made them recoil in surprise. *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* The black blob kept violently jumping around in the container trying to escape. The ponies looked at the odd creature nervously as it made the jar shake slightly with each impact. Zecora cautiously inched forward and tilted her head as she examined the energetic blob. “Interesting little… thing; I’m curious to see what mysteries it will bring,” She said, regaining the mental acuity needed to start rhyming again. “W… w-what is it?” Fluttershy asked timidly after being startled by the creature’s initial thud into its glass prison. She eyed it fearfully, trying to mentally determine if it could escape from the glass jar to get at her. “I don’t know… but I don’t think it likes the light,” Pinkie said with childlike wonderment in her voice while trying to crane her head at an angle to get a better look at the thing. She poked the jar gently, causing the creature inside to stop hopping around momentarily. The blob wriggled around as if in response to the pink pony disturbing it. Her other friends, mostly Rarity, eyed the blob with mortified expressions expecting it to have been angered by the pink mare toying with it. Zecora looked inside the box, only to find another letter from the princess. Fueled by eager curiosity, the zebra quickly picked up the note and fumbled it around so she could understand and read the contents easily. “Dear Zecora, this black substance has been found in some remote locations out in the countryside. It is repulsed by light and feels extremely cold to the touch. Please exercise caution when examining it, and if it gets out of your control, it can be destroyed by sunlight or anything that can mimic it… Please contact me as soon as you can learn more about it.” The zebra trailed off as she finished the letter. “Hmm… interesting, I may need more supplies to safely examine this thing,” She mumbled while deep in thought. Finally, she looked up and turned to face the purple unicorn. “Twilight…” “Hmm?” Twilight’s head shot up from hearing her name being called. “Could you go out and gather some light emitting plants for me? Out in the woods behind my house is where they should be,” Zecora explained her request to Twilight while still eyeing the energetic blob as it resumed jumping around in its glass home. Twilight glanced toward the windows at the front of the hut uncomfortably as she thought about heading back out into the forest. “Alright…” she said, clearing her throat. “I think I can do that,” She turned to the zebra and nodded, not wanting to leave her waiting. “Does anyone want to come with me? We could get it done faster if there were more of us looking,” She reasoned, turning to the group pleadingly. Her words held some truth to them, but she also felt that she would be less nervous about the dark forest around her if she had someone to talk to. “I’ll help,” Applejack spoke up from the small crowd and stepped forward confidently. “Me too... I’ll come!” Rainbow Dash volunteered excitedly, moving next to the farm pony in front of the group. Twilight was glad to see that she would have two of her best friends accompanying her on her trip. Spotting an opportunity to help out, Spike jumped up from his seat eagerly and walked over to the lineup by the door. “I’ll come too,” He said confidently. Twilight looked down to the eager little dragon sadly. She didn't feel comfortable with taking him to explore an area of the forest she was unfamiliar with. Not wanting to hurt the young drake’s feelings, she tried to think of an excuse to force him to stay. “Sorry Spike, Zecora might need you to send a message to the princess. You will have to stay here for now,” She explained, feeling sorry that she had to leave her number one assistant behind. She patted him on the head and ruffled the green scales that served as his hair. “Oh…” Spike frowned sadly as the unicorn shot him down. Still, even though he understood that the unicorn didn’t want him to go because she was worried about him, he didn’t want to make a big fuss about it. “Ok.” He droned gloomily while walking back to his original position. The three ponies watched the dragon sitting down in the corner frowning sadly. They looked at him with sympathetic expressions before shifting their attention back to their newly appointed mission. Twilight smiled confidently as she looked to her two companions. She turned her head to see the rest of her friends looking her way with varying expressions. “Ok then... Everyone else stay here and help Zecora, we’ll be back soon,” She stated, optimistically waving to the group. The others waved back at the trio as they opened the door and headed outside. The chirps of crickets and the cold night air were an unwelcome change from the warm atmosphere of the hut. The only thing they had to look forward to, both literally and figuratively, was the seemingly endless trees all around that receded into darkness. Applejack and her companions took a moment to silently look around as they pondered their task. The thought of venturing further out into the forest was already daunting and more than a little concerning to the orange mare, and she wasn’t the only one feeling hesitant. “Zecora said we’re lookin’ for light emittin’ plants, right?” She asked, just to be sure they weren’t about to step into the forest without anybody knowing what they were looking for. “Yeah… she said they would be along the path out to the back of the hut,” Twilight replied while looking past the hut to the tree line out back. A short way from the house lay a small clearing in the trees giving way to a roughly laid-out dirt path. The ponies squeezed through the low hanging branches and poked their heads through the opening. The thick covering of trees made it hard for the light to hit the path, which in turn made it difficult to tell the path apart from the rest of the ground. Twilight went in front of the group and used her horn to light the way, paying close attention to the path while also avoiding the vegetation poking up from the forest floor or hanging down from the trees above. After a few minutes of walking along the path, the group started to feel like they would never find the special plants amid the thick vegetation. The faded dirt path barely avoided running into any trees as it winded through the forest. Vines and branches invaded the airspace above the path, occasionally hanging low enough to warrant the ponies ducking underneath them or brushing them aside. Rainbow Dash sighed while feverishly looking through the trees for a hint of light. “At this rate, we aren’t going to find anything out here,” “Are you sure these plants are even out here, Twilight? We’ve been lookin’ for a while now,” Applejack droned pessimistically, brushing some vines out of her face. Twilight sighed in frustration, looking back to her anxious friends. Although she had never heard of the plants herself, she had no reason to doubt the zebra’s instructions. “Zecora said they were out here… so I’m sure we should run into them any m-” She was interrupted by a glow of dark orange light coming from just ahead. The light dimmed after a few seconds, returning the area to darkness, only to light up again a few seconds later. “That must be them! Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly as she rushed ahead of the group to investigate the light. After walking quickly to catch up with the eager pegasus, the two mares were in sheer awe at the sight that lay before them. A brown plant sat in small bunches beside the path. The top of the plant split off into several branches that resembled the top of a tree that had its leaves removed. Each branch softly glowed a ray of orange light that carried a short distance, enveloping the ponies in their combined brilliance before fading back into darkness. “These are definitely light emitting plants,” Twilight noted while still taking in the beauty of the surroundings as they were bathed in the orange light. Applejack took a moment to look up from the mesmerizing light show and noticed the eerie trees around her. She looked to her two friends, only to see them still silently gawking at the sight of the plant. “As pretty as they are, let’s hurry up and pick ‘em so we can get back. I’m sure the others will worry if we take too long,” She suggested. Twilight snapped out of her transfixed stare and used her magic to pull the plants out of the ground and place them in her bag, where they continued to glow. Once all the plants had been collected, the area was only lit up by the shining light from the purple mare’s horn. “Alright, let’s move on… I think I see more of them up ahead,” She said while walking toward another patch of orange glow further along the path. After spending five or ten minutes picking every glowing plant they could find, the trio was starting to get slightly unnerved from venturing this far into the forest. They had made some turns on the path, and it was getting a lot darker as gray clouds rolled in front of the moon, concealing whatever already dim lighting it was providing through the canopy of trees. To add to the poor situation, the ponies had not run into any light emitting plants for some time to help them see through the thick darkness surrounding them. The wind howled ominously, sending a cold chill down the three mares' spines. Every stray shadow made by the passing trees made the ponies feel even more uneasy. Every fiber of their beings told them that they shouldn't be in this eerie situation. “Twilight, are you sure you can lead us back?” Rainbow Dash asked, eyeing their surroundings with veiled nervousness. “Don’t worry… I can retrace our steps using the path,” Twilight chimed optimistically, lighting up her horn a little brighter. She looked down at the path, which was barely even distinguishable from the ground, and gulped nervously. “If you can even see the path for cryin’ out loud…” Applejack’s eyes narrowed with concern as she also had difficulty in telling the path apart from the rest of the forest floor. The group stopped in their tracks when they heard something rustling in the bushes behind them. The ponies spun around and froze up, listening as intently as they could. They darted their eyes from side to side as they tried to determine if the noise was just part of the natural ambiance of the forest or if it was an actual threat. Just before they deemed the noise to be part of their paranoid delusions of fear so they could turn around and keep going, the rustling happened again. “W-what was that?” Applejack stammered while trying to keep herself calm. Normally the thought of an animal in some bushes wouldn't concern the orange mare, but given their current surroundings, and her already tense nerves, she was scared stiff. Even though she liked to count herself the bravest of the group, even Rainbow Dash’s knees were shaking as the thing in the bushes starting growling. The sound was unlike anything the ponies had heard before in the forest. Even though the Everfree was full of unknown plants and animals, the sound currently coming from the bushes sounded far too menacing for anything natural to be causing it. “I don’t know, Applejack… it’s probably just a Timberwolf,” Twilight explained through chattering teeth in an attempt to rationalize the situation and calm her fears. The other two looked at the unicorn with doubtful expressions before shifting their attention back to the imminent threat. It was low at first, but the growling was rapidly getting louder as the bushes rattled even further. The sound of something stepping on a twig and making it snap under its weight made the ponies jump back in fear. The bushes gave one last rattle as the sound of multiple objects exiting them put the trembling group on high alert. With the circle of light from Twilight’s horn serving as their only source of illumination, the ponies all kept their eyes fixed ahead of them, darting around and trying to find any shapes moving amid the darkness. In the distance, the group could faintly see something large moving in the black void outside of the light’s reach. The ponies started backing up while keeping their wide eyes focused in front of them. Much to their horror, they started to distinguish more than one shape moving independently of each other. However, the shapes all seemed to be moving in unison to get closer and closer to the terrified trio. “Twilight… w-what is that?” Applejack stuttered in mounting horror. Twilight looked over to the farmer and saw that she was tensing up in fear. The group could hear the sound of claws scraping on the ground in front of them. Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they could see three shadowy figures inching closer to their sanctuary of light. The creatures sounded almost unnatural as they made noises that sounded like a mixture of growling and moaning. “I don’t know, Apple-” The unicorn was cut off by the creatures entering the light and finally revealing their true forms. One by one, the creatures stepped a leg into the bubble of light being cast by the unicorn. As the rest of the creatures' bodies came into view, the ponies made a fearful discovery about the predators. Nothingness... Black nothingness was all that could be seen of the creatures. They were merely black masses in the shape of large animals. Their skin seemed to shift around, casting dark shades of black and purple as it moved. Amid the mass of undulating blackness, the ponies could identify shapes that resembled legs, bushy hair, clawed feet, and a mouth that served host to a myriad of sharp and pointed teeth. “What the…?” Twilight was taken aback by shock as she laid eyes on the creatures. They somehow looked similar to the black blob-in-a-jar back at Zecora’s, only a little different. The beasts appeared to be less solid than the blob in the bottle. The light from the unicorn’s horn nearly passed right through them, giving them the appearance of shadows that simply got off the ground and started walking. The beasts looked around for a moment at their surroundings before fixating on Twilight. They seemed almost fascinated at the sight of the brightness coming from the small animal’s head. Twilight squeaked nervously as she noticed the three creatures turn to look at her. *Groooaaarr!!!* The three beasts let out an agitated cry that made the ponies’ ear drums nearly explode. The trio covered their ears with their hooves to block out the terrifying and deafening sound. The creatures snarled viciously, causing the group to back up even further. The three ponies felt something solid hit their backsides as they ran into a tree in their hasty attempt to put distance between themselves and the frightening monsters in front of them. The beasts looked to Twilight once more and started growling fiercely again. Rainbow Dash grew more uneasy at the sight of the monsters focusing on her friend. “I think they don’t like the… light,” The cyan mare paled in nervous revelation. The three ponies looked at each other, and to Twilight’s glowing horn, as they came to the same conclusion. If the blob back at the zebra’s hut bounced around violently when exposed to light, then how would these monsters react? They all unanimously decided that they did not want to stick around and find out. “EVERYPONY RUN!” Applejack exclaimed loudly to her friends, though they needed no confirmation as they all turned tail and ran as fast as possible in the other direction. The ponies could hear the sound of the three creatures breaking into a sprint behind them. The fierce growling and snarling noises swiftly getting closer to them incited enough strength in the three mares to make them run faster. The group took a swift turn once they hit a large tree, hoping that perhaps it would shake the three predators behind them. However, one small glance behind her told Twilight that they were still being followed by the beasts. “Keep running!” The unicorn exclaimed in between breaths to her two friends. The pegasus and farm pony needed no instruction to continue as they fled from the creatures giving chase. After running through a few minutes of twists and turns, Twilight looked to her sides to check on her friends, only to widen her eyes as she saw nothing but empty forest around her. Panicked at the sudden realization that she was alone, she darted her head around feverishly in search of the two mares. “Applejack?! Rainbow Dash?! Where are you guys?!” The unicorn yelled loudly, hopeful that her cries could reach her friends somewhere nearby. Twilight looked behind her to check how close the beasts had gotten. *Crack* When she looked back ahead, the unicorn careened into a low tree branch while running at full sprint. The impact made her neck twist at an odd angle, bending her head back far more than was comfortable for her body. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment and she stumbled to the side dizzily. “Ughh…” The dazed mare shook her head to snap herself out of her stupor before regaining speed. “Gotta… find… help,” She muttered to herself in between breaths. “Where... are the… others?” The purple unicorn panted while looking around her. “I could have sworn the path was this way,” She fretted nervously as she thought back to how many turns she had made since exiting the path. Frustrated at her ill-fated attempts at remembering which way she was facing after all the commotion, Twilight picked up her pace slightly once she heard the beasts growling and snarling behind her. From the sound of it, all three of the creatures had decided to chase after her. While this made her even more terrified, Twilight also felt slightly thankful that her friends were not in any danger. What in Celestia’s name are those things? She wondered to herself while jumping over a fallen tree. Doesn’t matter now, just have to find the others. Twilight looked back to the fallen tree she had just leaped over moments before. Much to her horror, the beasts seemed to ignore the obstacle on the ground. The creatures passed through the object right before Twilight’s eyes, almost as if they were ghosts. The unicorn began to shiver uncontrollably as panic took over. In an attempt to calm herself down, Twilight started to think logically about where she was. She racked her mind, trying to simultaneously retrace her steps and run for her life. However, Twilight could not concentrate due to her burning lungs. She was running on fumes at this point as fatigue and muscle pains rocked her body. “Gah… I can’t keep running much… longer,” Twilight panted, glancing behind her quickly. Although she could scarcely even identify a face on the beasts, let alone the expressions they had, the creatures were showing no signs of slowing down. “Dangit… It looks like those things could go on for miles.” She cursed under her labored breath, turning back around. As she looked forward, she trailed her eyes down just in time to catch the sight of a log careening into her legs. “AH!” Twilight yelped as she sailed through the air. Her brief flight ended with a painful impact into the ground that sent her rolling on the muddy forest floor and caused more trauma to her already sore frame. After a few tumbles, she finally came to a rough stop like a skipping stone. The pony groaned as she struggled to lift her head up. She started to become even more fearful when she realized how difficult it was for her tired and sore body to move. “Oh no… no, no, no!” Twilight quickly realized that even with all of the adrenaline pumping through her body that she could barely turn herself over to face her doom, much less get back up and run away from it. Hearing a growl behind her, Twilight looked up and paled as she saw that the creatures had caught up with her. The sight of the monsters closing in on her made Twilight’s pupils shrink in size. She squeaked out a mess of high-pitched gibberish as her voice got caught in her throat. The beasts were baring their teeth and snarling viciously, causing saliva to drip out of their predominant jaws and onto the ground. They looked like they could rip her apart in an instant, without even giving her a moment to defend herself. Twilight pushed her exhausted body and crawled backwards away from the monstrous creatures. “I… I…” She stammered fearfully, looking around to find something, anything that would save her. Finally, she did the only thing she could think of doing. “Somepony... ANYPONY! HELP ME!” She screamed as loudly as her burned-out lungs would allow. Suddenly, as if on cue to answer her pleas, a bright flash of light erupted from in front of the unicorn. The intense light stabbed her eyes, forcing her to use a foreleg to shield them as it engulfed everything around her. Somehow, the light felt warm and soothing as it flowed past her. Twilight could hear the beasts crying out in pain as they recoiled from the light, rushing behind the trees into the safe blackness. When the light faded, she opened her eyes and looked ahead, only to let her jaw drop from what she saw. A strange, bipedal creature was sitting in front of her, with its hand placed on its bended knee. Twilight noticed that it was wearing a blue jumpsuit, not unlike something one would wear for exercising. And while it was hard to tell in the dark, she could also make out the light blonde hair on its head. The creature had a holster on its back that was holding what appeared to be a sword with an intricate design on its hilt. Twilight recognized the creature to be a human, a species she had read about that had walked the earth and gone extinct many years before pony-kind ever ruled the planet. “Wh… w-w-” Twilight was bewildered at the sight before her as she watched the human turn and look around. He looked confused as he scanned his surroundings for clues as to how he got where he was. He scratched his head before speaking in a dumbfounded tone. “Where the heck am I?” Chapter 16: Blood in the Water“Ughhh… this is taking so long. We have been all over this school and haven’t found a trace of anyone!” Rarity huffed in frustration as she scanned her eyes from left to right to search any open room they came to. “Not the girls, not Twilight and Fluttershy, not Tom, not even any of the other children!” Pinkie Pie placed a hoof on the stressed unicorn’s shoulder. She smiled at her in a cheerful manner and tried to get Rarity to do the same. “Aww, cheer up Rarity. I mean come on… they have to be in here somewhere, so that must mean that we’re running out of places to not find them!” The pink pony exclaimed in a chipper tone of voice as she tried to lift her friend’s morale. Rarity wanted to be upset at the party pony’s upbeat attitude. After all of this tedious searching, even she should have been a little bit frustrated. But the unicorn couldn’t find it in her to resist Pinkie’s uplifting smile. She sighed in defeat before offering a small smile of her own. “I appreciate the enthusiasm dear, but if we don’t find them soon I think I’m going to break down and cry.” Rarity spoke softly so as to not hurt Pinkie’s feelings. As much as she wanted to cheer up, she was still concerned for the safety of her sister and her troop of friends. Pinkie Pie gave her a sympathetic look. She decided that it would be best to not attempt to bring up the subject any further to remind the worried unicorn of the danger her sister could be in. So the two walked down the hallway in silence as Rarity trailed her eyes off sadly. After a few minutes of walking, the pair came to a stop at the back of the school. They had already been to where the hallway on the left had led, and there had been no sign of the crusaders anywhere they had searched previously. Rarity was prepared to hang her head and sulk at their lack of progress, when she suddenly noticed a door beside them. The door appeared different from the usual wooden doors prevalent throughout the school. It was metallic and had rust all over it with water trickling down from the top of its frame. “Where does this door lead?” Rarity asked quizzically while gripping the handle to open it. She tugged on it with all of her might, but failed to make it budge. “It must lead down into the basement… maybe the girls are down there? They did mention checking out the leaking pipes.” Pinkie stated optimistically while waiting for the unicorn to open the door. “*Sigh* well this door is either stuck or locked… would you mind helping me out darling?” Rarity asked courteously. She moved over to make room for the pink pony as she looked to her pleadingly. “Okie dokey lokie.” Pinkie smiled at the opportunity to help out and gripped the handle beside the unicorn. The two counted down from three and heaved with every ounce of strength they could muster. Despite their combined efforts, the pair couldn’t get the door open. After a few attempts at forcing the door open, the two let go and slid to the floor in exhaustion. Rarity wiped the sweat from her face and panted while leaning on the wall next to her friend. “*Pant*… *Huff*… I don’t think that door is opening anytime soon.” The unicorn wheezed in between breaths. Pinkie Pie looked to her and took a few moments to breathe herself before talking. “Maybe…*Huff*… maybe Tom could get it open?” The pink mare suggested while catching her breath. Rarity nodded to communicate her agreement without talking. She then got up and offered to help her friend up. Once the two had gotten to their feet, they looked back down the hall and contemplated which way to go in order to meet back up with the others. The ponies walked to their right to go to the other side of the school and make their way back. After a few minutes of walking, the two started snaking their way through various rooms in order to avoid the growing number of water pits. Having just nearly drowned, Pinkie did not want to go anywhere near the smallest puddle, and Rarity shared her opinion. Suddenly, the two could hear someone yelling frantically from somewhere up ahead. The sound was muffled and distorted as it carried through the rooms, but the ponies could distinguish the noise as being slightly familiar. “*Gasp* that sounds like Twilight and Fluttershy!” Rarity was shocked to hear her friends in distress. She tried to determine the direction of the noise as quickly as possible. “Come on! They sound like they need help!” Pinkie exclaimed seriously as she tried to curb her sense of worry to think logically. The two rushed through the corridors until they came to a room that had two doors on each side. Through the other door, the pair could see across the hall into a classroom with two fearful looking ponies stuck on a patch of floor. “Girls!” Rarity exclaimed to her friends to alert them to her presence. The trapped mares turned to look at the two across the hall. “Rarity! Pinkie! Help us!” Twilight yelled frantically as she tried to steady herself to stay upright as their patch of floor shook violently. Something from beneath the floor was ramming itself against the bottom of the boards. “We’re coming girls! Hold on!” Pinkie exclaimed with determination before stepping forward. Suddenly Twilight stuck a hoof out to stop her from charging forward. “Wait, don’t go in the water! There’s something down there!” The unicorn cried frantically while pointing to the trench that separated the two groups. The pink pony backed up as she noticed the expanse of water before her. Although the distance between them seemed like a couple of steps, with the invisible force lurking in the water, waiting for something to fall in to drag to the bottom, the small distance seemed much larger. “We know… it tried to drown me earlier.” Pinkie stated grimly while looking to the splashes of water coming from the sides of the floor. The force of the impacts was forcing water out of the sides. Judging from the repeated assaults on the floor, Pinkie figured that whatever was down there did not want to wait for them to slip up and fall in the water by accident again. Rarity frantically racked her mind to find a way to help her friends. With her current state of exhaustion from wrestling Pinkie out of the water, she couldn’t lift the two over the water with her magic. She turned to them and tried to put on a determined expression to reassure them that she was in control of the situation. “Don’t worry! We’ll find something to bridge over the water so you can cross safely!” The white mare shouted with a false sense of confidence, but on the inside she was panicking just as much as the two trapped ponies. She motioned for Pinkie to follow her as she went around the room to find something large enough to bridge the gap. Twilight and Fluttershy waited anxiously as the two left the doorway. They felt just as helpless and alone as they were before, even knowing that their friends were just in the other room. Rarity and Pinkie quickly darted their eyes around the room to find something that was suitable for pushing across the water. After a few seconds of thinking, the unicorn finally glanced to a shelf that seemed like it would do the job. “Pinkie, get on the other side of this and pull!” Rarity instructed enthusiastically while running to the front of the shelf to push. Pinkie Pie nodded and quickly jumped on the other end and started pulling. The two managed to slide the shelf across the floor rapidly. After a few moments, Pinkie was facing the doorway and decided to turn to update her friends on their progress. “Don’t worry girls! We…” The pink pony was cut off suddenly as her face paled and her jaw hung open in shock. Twilight and Fluttershy were just as puzzled at the speechless pony as Rarity was. They had no idea what could have made her freeze up in such a desperate situation. “What’s wrong darling? Why did you stop pulling?” The white unicorn asked in confusion to the pink pony. She didn’t turn to respond and merely kept staring at her two friends. Rarity quickly walked over to the pink pony and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Come on Pinkie, we need to get this thing mo- Oh my!” Rarity gasped in surprise as she looked to where Pinkie was staring. Twilight and Fluttershy looked confused at the two dumbfounded ponies. They were staring past them with pale faces and wide eyes. “What is it…? What’s wr-” Twilight was interrupted by a gurgling noise that sent chills up her spine. Finally the purple pony and yellow pegasus turned around to discover what had silenced their friends in shock. The color drained from their faces as they laid eyes on what the problem was. At the far end of the room near the wall, a red mass was floating at the top of the water. The mass looked like a bloody mess had been spilled into the water, only it was moving. Chunks of gelatinous pulp seemed to be undulating around the red liquid as it floated in place next to the floor. The sight of the meaty blob immediately made the ponies’ stomachs churn uncomfortably. Twilight suddenly realized that the constant banging on the floorboards had ceased. She came to the grim conclusion that the red mass before her was the cause of their problems. The bloody puddle remained motionless save for its constant wriggling. The chunks on top of it seemed to be undulating and melding back into the puddle before resurfacing in a disturbing display. Twilight and Fluttershy contemplated moving closer to investigate the red mass, but they both came to the conclusion that they were better off at a distance. Still, they felt like they had to get a closer look. The pair cautiously walked over to the side of the room that the puddle was on while keeping far away from the water. The two mares leaned slightly closer to get a better look at the disturbing puddle. At this distance, they could smell a foul odor coming off of the gurgling mass that made them crinkle up their faces in disgust. They felt oddly compelled to get closer to the mass by a sense of morbid curiosity. “What is it?” Fluttershy asked nervously while glancing beside her to her more knowledgeable friend. “I don’t know… but it smells horrible.” Twilight stated while covering her mouth with her arm. The air coming off of the puddle was almost thick enough to taste, and the unicorn didn’t want to experience that for herself. “Be careful you two!” Rarity yelled over to the two mares, causing them to look over to the other side of the room to face her. Twilight started to say something, but then realized that she didn’t have anything to say to comfort the white mare. What they were doing was stupid and dangerous, and she knew it. Despite the danger, she at least had to examine the strange puddle. Suddenly, the sound of something breaching the water rang out and an arm shot out of the center of the puddle. Twilight and Fluttershy screamed in terror and recoiled as fast as they could from the horrific sight. The arm seemed to be made out of a slightly more solid looking variety of the red goo. The arm twitched and wriggled around in place, as if it was exploring the world for the first time. The ponies watched with wide eyes and gaping mouths as the bloody appendage shook violently. Every erratic movement it made sent a cold chill down their spines. Their fear only got worse when streams of the crimson liquid started flowing up the arm. The red fluid seemed to flow into the arm and fill it out. Sections of it that were thin and barely formed before were now becoming more solid. Eventually, a hand and five fingers started forming at the top of the arm. The digits articulated and twitched as more of the red puddle flowed over them and up to their tips. Soon enough, sharp claws had formed at the tip of each finger. The claws seemed to be made out of a darker red than the rest of the blood red arm, and they appeared more solid and less fluid like. Before the ponies could think of anything to do, the arm stretched upwards and slapped onto the floor. The loud thump that resulted made the four mares jump in fright. Twilight and Fluttershy backed up a little more from their initial jump. They had recoiled in fear when the hand reached up, but now they had run out of room to run as they hit the edge of the classroom. The sharp claws of the crimson hand dug into the wood and scrapped it as it tried to find a solid hold. The shrill sound of the claws scratching into the floor made the group cringe uncomfortably. The rest of the puddle started flowing upwards and climbing over the arm, moving out of the water and up the side of the ledge onto the floor. The bloody appendage disappeared into the crimson mass as it settled into a deep red puddle on the floor. “W…w..wha….” Twilight stuttered in fear and bewilderment as she tried to form coherent words. She looked over to see Fluttershy trembling in horror as she stared at the moving puddle with widened eyes. The puddle wriggled around while making a strange noise that sounded like a mixture of bubbling and gurgling. It was as if some kind of creature was trapped in the puddle and was trying to escape. Suddenly, the red liquid started climbing upwards into the air. The strange goo rose into the air and formed into a solid blob. The gurgling sound got louder and more pronounced as the red liquid climbed on top of itself to fill in the disturbing mass. Soon enough, two sections of the mass started branching off of the blob and reached out to the sides. The two sections formed into appendage-like shapes as more of the liquid flowed over them and filled them out. The ponies all made a grim discovery about the terrifying mass. It was starting to resemble a humanoid creature. Soon enough, the bloody mass started forming more identifiable features, like a head and hands. All of the features on the creature seemed to be made entirely out of blood, even the claws on its hand and the stringy hair on its head seemed to be made out of a dark shade of red. Strangely enough, the creature didn’t smell like blood, although it still smelled horrific. It almost smelled like a stagnated pool of water that had been sitting out in some misty and murky swamp for years on end. The humanoid figure shifted around in place as it adopted more fluidic movements. The lower half of the creature had not formed legs, although there was what appeared to be the start of two legs underneath its torso. Instead, the rest of the creature was merely a solid blob with a red puddle underneath of it. The ponies stood frozen in fear while staring into the gaunt skull like face of the crimson beast. The empty black holes it used for eyes seemed transfixed on the frightened animals standing on the other side of the room as they trembled at the sight of it. Rarity managed to snap herself out of the horrified trance she had been in while watching the creature form. She shook Pinkie forcefully before running to the other side of the shelf. “Come on Pinkie! We need to get them out of there now!” The unicorn yelled back to her friend to grab her attention. Pinkie grasped for the shelf in a daze as she turned her head to focus on her task. The two slid the shelf sideways across the room to make it fit through the door. While the two ponies across the hall sprang into action, Twilight and Fluttershy were left staring at the creature before them. The beast twitched its head as it suddenly laid eyes on Twilight’s chest wound. It seemed fascinated by the almost healed up opening in the unicorn. It let out a loud growl that sounded garbled and disgusting as the bloody mass vibrated to create the unnatural sound. The beast put one of its legs forward and lurched downward as it tried to walk upright using bipedal movement. While the creature fumbled forward in an attempt to walk, the puddle underneath it started to locomote forward, allowing the creature to move in an awkwardly horrific fashion. As the creature reached forward for the unicorn, Fluttershy looked up and noticed that Twilight was frozen in fear while staring at the approaching monster. She seemed unable to think clearly as the creature paused and shifted its puddle around. Suddenly, the creature’s arm shot out from its body. The arm seemed to return to a more fluid like state as it sprayed forward toward the hapless pony like a geyser of water. “Twilight look out!” Fluttershy exclaimed in surprise. All fear she had of the creature dissolved as she jumped into the unicorn to push her aside. Twilight was pushed to the floor and slid to the wall as she snapped out of her fear induced trance. She watched in horror as the clawed appendage slammed into the pegasus and kept going, pinning the yellow mare to the wall sideways as it landed on her midsection. “Ack!” Fluttershy’s cry of pain and surprise was cut short as she slammed into the wall. She felt the monster’s claws digging in further from the impact. “Fluttershy!” The unicorn cried out frantically as she watched blood start to drip from the pegasus as the claws undoubtedly dug into her side. Fluttershy screamed in pain as she felt the cold liquid of the creature interacting with her open wound. Twilight could faintly see through the arm as it was in a more liquid like state. She could just barely make out an open wound on Fluttershy’s side through the liquid skin of the creature. The creature sat still as its arm stretched thinly across the room, it then shook the liquid of its arm as it started putting some sort of effort into it. Suddenly, the unicorn noticed another red fluid flowing out of Fluttershy’s wound. She quickly realized that the monster was actually somehow draining the blood out of her. Fluttershy started groaning in a sort of painful horror as she felt the blood from her body being siphoned out into the crimson liquid holding her in place. She grew progressively weaker as the creature drained her lifeblood out of her. Twilight got to her feet and stood between them with determination. She wasn’t about to let some kind of living puddle hurt her friend. Not while she had anything to say about the matter. “You leave her alone!” The purple mare yelled angrily while rearing up to kick the arm away from her friend. Twilight heaved and shot her back legs out at the stretchy appendage, but was surprised when they passed right through it. She could feel the cold wet sensation of her legs slowing down and hitting something that felt like water, and then passing out the other side and speeding up as they hit air. “What the…?” Twilight exclaimed in utter confusion. The creature almost seemed to smirk at the unicorn with its deformed mouth as it continued to feed on the pegasus. The unicorn looked horrified at her friend as her head started dipping down from weakness. The lavender pony scowled in anger at the creature. She decided to ignore her own exhaustion and lit up her horn to use a spell on the beast. “Take this you... thing you!” Twilight growled angrily as she shot out a blast of concentrated energy from her horn. The ball flew across the room and collided with the monster. It exploded into the liquid mass of the beast and sprayed the red liquid everywhere, scattering the beast around the room. Fluttershy slid down the wall as the stretchy arm fell to the ground and turned into red fluid. She limply sprawled out across the floor and weakly lifted her head to view the situation. The creature had been reduced to piles of red liquid scattered around the room, ranging from medium sized puddles on the floor, to small droplets of red splattered on the wall that started to drip down. Twilight immediately rushed to the injured pegasus and assessed her wound. A large gash had been opened up into her side, yet the deep wound strangely did not bleed and appeared very dry. Fluttershy had lost a lot of color as her blood had been sucked out of her body. “Come on Fluttershy, I’m going to get you up ok?” Twilight spoke softly to the yellow mare, who offered a weak nod in return as the unicorn started to pick up the sickly pony. After the two had gotten up, they slowly walked over to the doorway and looked across the hallway and into the next room. “Hurry up girls! Fluttershy is hurt badly… we need to get out of here!” Twilight yelled fearfully at the two as they were working on the shelf. They had gotten the shelf lined up with the door, and were quickly pushing it over. Rarity looked over from her spot at the side of the shelf. She gasped when she saw the shape her friend was in. Fluttershy weakly smiled at the two to assure them that she was ok, but the pegasus quickly dipped her head and started to faint from weakness. She would have fallen had Twilight not been supporting her. “We’re almost there Twilight, just hang in there!” the white mare stated as calmly as she could, given the circumstances. Twilight glanced around at the pieces of red liquid around the room. They had all started moving from where they were to head into the water. The droplets and pools of crimson seemed to disappear once they hit the water, as if they could dive underneath the surface. The unicorn was going to make an observation on this occurrence, when the shelf was suddenly pushed forward into the water. Rarity and Pinkie Pie quickly pushed the shelf across the water to reach the other side, they then held onto it firmly to prevent it from moving. “Come on! We’ll steady it while you cross!” Pinkie shouted across the hall to the two ponies trapped in the other room. Twilight looked to Fluttershy and lifted her head up. She then gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up and get her attention. “Fluttershy, I need you to try and climb onto this shelf ok…? Can you do that for me?” Twilight spoke softly and calmly to the pale pegasus. Fluttershy weakly lifted her head and tried to look at her friend with determination. “Y..yeah… I think so.” Fluttershy whispered faintly as she struggled to walk forward. The yellow mare flopped onto the shelf and started crawling across. Rarity and Pinkie waited patiently for her to get within reach for them to help. Slowly but surely, Fluttershy managed to shimmy across the shelf as it bobbed in the water. Pinkie reached forward and helped the pegasus the rest of the way across. She then carried her to the side and laid her down gently. While Pinkie stayed by the injured pegasus’s side, Rarity turned her attention back to Twilight. “Come on darling, your turn to cross!” Rarity eagerly beckoned with her hoof to the unicorn to get her to cross. Twilight nodded and carefully stepped onto the rickety shelf. She placed her entire weight on the shelf and took a few moments to balance herself. She then cautiously walked forward across the makeshift platform. After a few minutes of steady walking, Twilight reached out to Rarity to support herself as she jumped over to the other side. The white mare reached out to grab her friend’s hoof, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of something breaching the surface of the water. Twilight cried out in surprise as a crimson red arm shot out from between the rungs of the shelf and grabbed onto her. The appendage quickly pulled the unicorn flat onto the shelf and tried to tip her over. “AHH!” Twilight screamed in fright as she felt herself being yanked sideways. She desperately tried to grab onto the shelf to steady herself and somehow prevent the monster from dragging her into the water. “Twilight!” Rarity yelled frantically as she watched the unicorn struggle against the ghastly blood red arm gripping onto her side. Just as the creature pulled the unicorn sideways off the shelf, Rarity reached out and grabbed her arm firmly. “Pinkie! Help me pull her up!” The white unicorn cried frantically to her friend as she struggled to keep Twilight above the water line. The creature latched onto her legs and sank back down under the water to conceal its appearance. Pinkie Pie quickly ran over to the doorway and grabbed onto Twilight’s other arm. The two pulled hard on the unicorn and wrestled her out of the creature’s grasp. Once firmly on land, the three looked down to the water in a panic. The trio could just barely see a dark shape moving upwards under the surface. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!” Twilight cried frantically before getting to her feet and running over to Fluttershy. Pinkie ran over and helped the unicorn carry their friend. The group then quickly ran out of the room and rapidly made headway down the hall. Once the group felt that they had gotten far enough away from any sizable source of water, they ducked into the nearest room and closed the door. They then took Fluttershy and set her down gently to investigate her wounds more thoroughly. Twilight was filled with dread upon looking at the weak state her friend was in. She was the more sensitive member of the group, and yet she had gotten into harm’s way to prevent her friend from getting hurt. “Are you ok Fluttershy?” The unicorn asked sadly while observing the sickly pegasus moving around weakly. Rarity looked over her wounds closely. As the white mare was inspecting her state of health, Fluttershy looked up to Twilight slowly and smiled weakly. “I think I have seen better days… hehe” Fluttershy laughed before trailing her voice off weakly. The pegasus’s chipper attitude made Twilight feel even worse. “Why did you do that Fluttershy? That thing was after me, not you!” the purple mare stated gingerly with worry. Fluttershy smiled again as she trembled while moving. “I didn’t want you to get hurt… I saw you standing there frozen in fear, and I saw that thing try to attack you, and I just… moved.” The pegasus spoke softly while trying to look less sick than she actually was. Rarity looked up from the pegasus’s side and shook her head sadly. “She has lost a lot of blood… if we don’t get her some serious medical attention soon, she is going to die.” The white mare trailed her eyes off sadly while delivering the grim news. Pinkie and Twilight placed a hoof up to their mouths to catch a gasp. Everyone looked sadly to the pegasus and tried their best to comfort her, when suddenly they heard the noise of something approaching from outside the room. Chapter 28: Code BlueTwilight opened her eyes slowly, only to be greeted with pitch blackness above her. She felt exhausted and dreary, like she had been sleeping all day and only recently got up. She tried to move her limbs, but failed to even feel them, let alone move them. Frustrated at her inability to move, the groggy unicorn sat still and silent while trying to wake herself up more. Hearing quiet noises around her, and remembering what situation she was in, the purple pony tried once again to move her body. Twilight groaned softly as she tried with all of her might to elicit a response from her numb body, but failed once again. Finally she tried moving her head around to get a better look at her surroundings. It was difficult to say the least. Trying to move her neck felt like trying to move a limb that had fallen asleep to the point of complete sensory deprivation, but the unicorn slowly managed to move her head to the point where gravity kicked in and rolled her the rest of the way on her side. She sat still for a moment while letting her eyes adjust. Eventually, Twilight managed to see the fuzzy outlines of faint colors and shapes in the darkness. She couldn’t surmise where she was, but she could see what was in the room in front of her. The room had grey walls and floors, which from the tiny bit of sensory data the unicorn could gather from her lower body, she knew to be cold. A few miscellaneous boxes and a table sat on the far wall, which Twilight gathered was a decent ways away, giving the impression that the room she was in was rather large in size. Shifting her eyes around, the purple pony could see several brighter shades of color laying in the darkness. After squinting to focus her vision, Twilight was shocked to see that the shapes belonged to ponies. She could faintly make out Daisychain a short ways away from her, Nurse Redheart off to the side, and the missing stallion Patches over by the left wall. A mixture of relief and concern welled up in the unicorn as she tried once again in vain to get up and move. She was starting to realize that it wasn’t just sleep paralysis keeping her from moving her body. It was something outside of the purple pony’s control. Before Twilight could think any further about the strange paralysis, she heard Daisychain moan softly as she started to move her head. She seemed to be in the same condition that the unicorn was. The yellow nurse slowly rolled her head over and looked around before finally noticing Twilight. “T…Twi…light?” Daisychain struggled to even get out a barely audible whisper across to the unicorn. Twilight was relieved to see that the nurse had been unharmed. “Da..isy?” Twilight was surprised to find out that she was having problems speaking as well. It was almost like she was having a nightmare, and her voice couldn’t even leave her throat. The two stared at each other for a while, expressing their terror through their eyes due to the muscles in their faces being frozen in a blank expression. “Wh….w..w” Daisy struggled to raise her voice loud enough to be heard. Twilight surmised that she was asking what was going on, but she wouldn’t have been able to answer her even if the yellow mare had finished her question. Suddenly, a loud noise pierced through the eerie silence of the room. The two ponies tried to lift their heads to look towards the noise, but failed to do anything more than shift their eyes to the limit of their vision. The noise sounded like a door being opened and closed forcefully somewhere off in the distance. The quiet shuffling of feet started growing louder as something approached the room they were in. Twilight tried her best to communicate through her eyes to the pony lying in front of her, but couldn’t do much more than share a frightened stare with the nurse. Finally, the source of the walking made itself known to the two mares. One of the dark figures was standing at Daisy’s feet and watching her menacingly. Twilight had a better view of the creature than Daisy had. The only thing the nurse could see of the figure was a fuzzy outline as she strained her eyes to their limit to see beside her. The creature suddenly bent forward and reached out to grab the hapless pony. Twilight could only watch in horror as the shadow roughly flipped the limp mare’s head around to see it as it held her upper body off of the floor by her shirt. Daisy squeaked in pain as her neck hung backwards at an odd, uncomfortable angle after settling from her head rolling sideways. She stared up at the creature with pupils the size of tiny dots. The terrified mare started gasping for air as her paralyzed chest muscles struggled to pump her lungs fast enough to supply her frightened body. “Ah…eh….pu…” Daisy mumbled fearfully as she tried to communicate to the creature for it to leave her alone. The shadow ignored the barely audible protests of the nurse as it pulled her closer to its face. Twilight could only stare helplessly as a strange yet horrifying scene unfolded before her. Strange wispy lines began coming off of Daisychain and flowed upward into the general area of the creature’s mouth. The pale, dimly luminescent lines reminded Twilight of dust flowing in front of a flashlight. Daisy squeaked in pain and agony, which due to her paralysis sounded like the mumbled groaning of a pony making noises in their sleep due to a bad dream. The yellow nurse twitched and jerked whatever bits of her body that she could feel as she writhed from the sheer distress of the sensation washing over her. Suddenly, the croaks and groans of the yellow mare grew less prominent. It sounded like the nurse was slowly drifting out of consciousness. Twilight could barely see Daisy’s eyes droop up to stare at the ceiling rather than the creature. Her pupils slowly rolled upwards as her eyelids drifted shut. The strange wisps ceased and the mare was silent. The creature let go of the pony, causing her limp body to thud against the floor. Daisy’s head rolled sideways and settled, leaving her facing Twilight. “…!” Twilight could only express her horror internally as she stared at the nurse’s motionless body. Not much had changed from her previous state, she was paralyzed after all. But what filled the unicorn with dread and terror was the fact that she couldn’t see the subtle rise and fall of the yellow mare’s chest to indicate that she was breathing. The creature walked off to the side and picked up Nurse Redheart. The white nurse seemed to still be unconscious as her eyes remained closed. Suddenly, the sleeping pony woke up in a panic as she noticed her body was being lifted up. She darted her eyes around fearfully before finally spotting the menacing shadow holding her up. The same wispy lines from before started flowing from Redheart straight into the figure’s face. Twilight’s mind raced a mile a minute as she processed everything that was happening. She knew that she was going to die here, she knew it in her heart. All that she could think about was her young assistant. She wondered if the creatures would come after them next and do to them what they were currently doing to Nurse Redheart. She wondered if Tom and Rainbow Dash had broken free from the mysterious creatures and had already found the two children. She wondered how Spike would react if he found her cold and dead on the floor. “N…n…no!” Twilight managed to form an average sounding word through her numb throat. The unicorn refused to let the young dragon down like that. She had promised him that she would take better care of herself, and that meant surviving this day. Searching deep within herself, Twilight found the strength to channel a minute amount of energy to her horn. She struggled to get the feeling back to her horn so she could do something, anything to save herself and possibly the other ponies in the room. Although she couldn’t manage to channel enough energy to project light from her horn as she had done so many times before. The unicorn did manage to think of a different spell to use that required less start up energy. Twilight fought the lack of feeling in her muscles to lift her head up slightly. She pointed her horn the best she could to aim at the creature, and she shot out a bolt of energy that was as strong as she could muster. The beam flew in what seemed like slow motion towards the creature. It made impact dead in the center of the figure. The monster shrieked in pain and dropped the nurse to the floor. It writhed around in pain for a while before rushing backwards to get away. After a few short moments, Twilight could no longer hear the creature. The purple unicorn was surprised to feel that she had regained sensation in her body completely. She immediately got up and lit her horn up to get a better look at the room. Spotting Nurse Redheart a short ways away, the purple pony sprang into action and rushed to her side. The white mare groaned weakly and moved her head and legs around. Twilight could tell that she was hurt somehow by the creature. The unicorn knelt down and lifted the nurse’s head up gently to hold her at a stable level. “Nurse Redheart! Are you okay?!” Twilight asked frantically while examining the white mare for any physical injuries. Redheart groggily opened her eyes and looked at the unicorn with an exhausted expression. She then winced in pain and shook her head weakly. “I’m fine for the moment… just really weak… ughh… Where’s Daisy?” The white mare asked sleepily as she remembered that her friend had been with the unicorn. Twilight looked over to the motionless yellow mare with a concerned frown. “I’ll go check on her and Patches… you stay here and don’t move ok?” Twilight said while gently placing the white nurse down. Redheart nodded slowly before resting her head on the hard floor beneath her. Twilight rushed over to Daisychain with a growing pit in her stomach. She put her arms around the mare’s back and lifted her upper body up gently. Daisy’s head rolled over limply before the unicorn put an arm under her neck to support her. Twilight had hoped that her previous observation of the yellow nurse’s lack of breathing was just due to the lack of light. But much to her horror, she discovered that the yellow pony was in fact not breathing. She quickly put her head to Daisy’s chest to listen for her heart. “….No…” The unicorn spoke anxiously as she failed to hear any noise to indicate that the nurse’s heart was beating. She feverishly grabbed the mare’s limp arm and felt for a pulse. Failing to feel anything on her arm, Twilight instinctively felt the nurse’s neck as a last ditch effort. “No...! No, no, no! Daisy, wake up please!” Twilight pleaded while shaking the motionless pony to jolt her awake. The sight of Daisy’s limp body settling in place after it had stopped shaking made her heart drop to the floor. She could feel a horrific sense of despair washing over her body. Tears began forming in her eyes as her mind refused to accept what was in front of her. Daisychain had been chatting happily with the unicorn just half an hour ago, but now she was dead, and it was Twilight’s fault. If she had only realized the situation earlier, and fought to save the yellow mare, she might still be alive. Setting the mare’s body down gently, Twilight got up and walked over to the corner to examine Patches. She found him in the same condition that Daisy was in. Putting a hoof on his arm to check his pulse, the unicorn confirmed that he had also been killed by the creatures. “I’m so sorry…” Twilight spoke sadly to herself. Although she knew in her heart that she was not truly at fault for their deaths, she couldn’t help but feel responsible in some way. Perhaps as a twisted defense mechanism to prevent her from dealing with death that happened without a just cause. The unicorn walked back over to the only surviving member of staff at the hospital with her head hung gloomily. She didn’t know how she would tell the white mare that her friends were dead. Despite her intense desire to crawl under a rock and forget the events of the day, Twilight walked up to the resting nurse and sat down next to her. “Twilight… you’re back.” Redheart stated happily while breathing heavily, as if to catch her breath. Noticing the unicorn’s sad expression, the white mare felt a pang of dread fill her stomach. “Are Daisy and Patches… alright?” She asked with a dull voice, even though she could already guess the answer. Twilight shook her head sadly while letting a few tears stream down her face. “They… they didn’t make it.” Twilight sniffled sadly while looking away from the white mare. Redheart closed her eyes and leaned her head back onto the floor. Twilight could hear the nurse weeping quietly. She turned her head to see Redheart crying her eyes out silently while lying on the floor. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t save them… it’s all my fault.” The unicorn droned in a depressed tone of voice while looking away to cry herself. She suddenly heard the nurse struggling with something. Twilight turned to see Redheart groaning as she ignored her exhausted body to get up to face the unicorn. “Don’t beat yourself up Twilight… you saved me after all.” The white mare shifted her sad voice to a more thankful one while putting a hoof on the purple pony’s shoulder. “If you hadn’t stopped that thing, it would have killed me for sure. I could feel it sucking out my energy, but I couldn’t even move enough to scream.” She shuddered as she recalled the cold feeling of the creature draining her life force straight out of her. “Are you alright? We should probably get back to the lobby, but if you’re hurt…” Twilight asked while looking at the exhausted mare with concern. Redheart got to her feet and wobbled a little as she stood up. As the nurse faltered while trying to walk, the unicorn caught her and helped to support her weight. “I’m so weak… I can barely move.” Redheart groaned as she struggled to stay upright, even with the help of the purple pony. “Don’t worry… I’ve got you. Just try not to over exert yourself ok?” Twilight said while shuffling forward with the nurse in tow. Once they made it to the empty doorway of the large room, the two gave one last somber look to their fallen companions. They then looked at each other and slowly nodded with the resolve that they wouldn’t allow anyone else to be harmed. As the pair slowly walked through the dark hallways, Twilight was at a loss as to where they were going. The surroundings didn’t even look like they were still in the hospital at all. With bleak looking grey walls and hard, cold floors as far as the eye could see. “Where are we? Do you recognize anything?” Twilight asked the white mare beside her. Redheart lifted her head up from its resting position to look at their surroundings. After taking a moment to think, she turned to the unicorn to state her findings. “Looks like we’re in the basement… The stairs should be easy enough to find if you stick to this hallway.” Redheart explained before drooping her head back down to conserve energy. Twilight was concerned that the nurse was in worse shape than she was letting on, but nodded and looked forward to search for the stairs. After an eternity of slowly shuffling through the dark corridors in fearful apprehension, a large door with a placard beside it that read stairs came into view. The unicorn could barely contain her excitement as she poked her companion to alert her to their good fortune. Redheart looked up to see what the unicorn was pointing at, when her face suddenly lit up with joy and relief. “Thank Celestia…” The nurse huffed gleefully before yanking herself away from the surprised unicorn. Twilight looked at her with concern as she unsteadily stood by herself. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help you walk Redheart? You look like you’re about to pass out.” Twilight eyed the nurse with a frown of doubt and worry plastered on her face. “Oh come on Twilight… I’m perfectly fine.” Redheart grinned widely to convince her friend that she was well enough to walk on her own. Twilight raised an eyebrow doubtfully as she watched the nurse teeter around like a newborn fawn trying to walk for the first time. She then decided to keep a careful eye on the white mare to make sure she didn’t fall over. The two walked as quickly as they could over to the stairs and opened the door. Twilight was relieved to walk out into the basement landing and stare up to the railing that was on the first floor. She felt like she could take on an entire army of those creatures as long as it meant she could get out of the dark and into the light. The unicorn walked up the stairs a short way before remembering her handicapped companion. She then turned around to see Redheart struggling to walk up the stairs to keep up. “You alright to climb the stairs alone?” Twilight asked as she observed the nurse breathing heavily while climbing a single step. The white pony looked up and smiled as she panted heavily. “Don’t worry about me… I’ll be fine once we get somewhere we can rest.” Redheart spoke with a slightly cheerful tone. Twilight was happy to see that the nurse was so chipper. Without any further delay, the unicorn walked up the steps to survey the area. She looked behind her to see if the nurse was climbing the stairs without issue, only to see her companion following close behind, or at least as close as she could, given her state of health. “AHH!” As the unicorn turned her head to continue walking forward, she heard the nurse cry out in surprise. Twilight whipped her head back around to see that Redheart was clinging to the railing of the stairs as her back legs were being pulled by one of the creatures. “Oh no you don’t!” The purple mare exclaimed as she leapt forward bravely to save her friend. She grabbed onto the frightened nurse and pulled back hard to counter the force put onto her by the creature. As she looked ahead to spot the creature, Twilight was surprised to see that she could actually spot the creature. The light from her horn fell on the hooded monster completely. It didn’t seem to care about the light at all as it stared back at the unicorn with a scornful expression on its pale face. “What?! Why isn’t it running away from the light?!” Twilight exclaimed in a mixture of panic and confusion. Nurse Redheart looked up to her fearfully. She could feel herself being wrenched out of the unicorn’s grasp more and more every passing second. “Do that thing you did to get it off me before!” The white mare yelled frantically as she felt herself being slowly pulled closer to the frightful beast. Twilight wasted no time on questioning why the light wasn’t working. She charged up her horn and shot another blast at the creature. The bolt of energy collided with the monster and exploded into an array of purple sparks The figure immediately let go of the nurse and recoiled back into the shadows. The two ponies stared at the blackness ahead of them and waited for it to return. Satisfied that the creature was gone, Twilight pulled Nurse Redheart to her feet and yanked her up the stairs. “Come on… we’re getting out of here, now!” The purple mare stated with a stern tone of voice as she didn’t even give the nurse a chance to protest the help she was getting. Redheart didn’t seem to mind the extra help as she rushed up the stairs with the unicorn pulling her along. The two rushed up to the first floor landing and made it out of the door. Knowing that the creatures were no longer affected by light gave the ponies a new sense of fear and urgency as they walked through the halls. Twilight looked behind her every so often to ensure that they were not being followed by one of the shadowy figures. As they got closer to the lobby, the unicorn’s mind raced as she thought about every possible thing that could prevent them from reaching the safe confines of the front room. Every corner they passed gave the purple pony a miniature heart attack as her nerves kicked into gear to prepare her body to run away from any possible hazards. Finally, the familiar bastion of the main hallway that led into the lobby came into view. It was hard to tell due to the lack of light filtering in from the entrance, but the faint blue force field served as a un-miss able landmark that shined like a beacon to the two ponies. Without wasting any time by standing idly outside of the protective barrier, Twilight and Redheart burst through the non-solid wall and into the brightly lit lobby. They immediately noticed Applejack and Scootaloo sitting together off in the corner. Once the pair noticed the two ponies entering the room, they got up from the floor and displayed cheerful smiles on their faces. “Twilight!” Both the orange mare and the young filly screamed gleefully in unison as they rushed over to greet the pair. Twilight gently let Nurse Redheart shift onto her own four legs and prepared herself to catch the two charging ponies in a hug. The two practically crashed into the purple unicorn and held her tightly, as if they were afraid that she might disappear again if they let go. After finally being released from the almost suffocating grip of the two excited ponies, Twilight smiled cheerfully at her two friends. She almost couldn’t believe that she was standing in front of them, considering that she had been forcefully dragged off into the darkness earlier. “I’m so happy to see you guys! I thought I would never make it back here again!” The unicorn wiped a joyful tear from her eye as she beamed at the two in front of her. They seemed to share in her overwhelming happiness as they also had tears of joy welling up in their eyes. “We thought we would never see you again Twilight! Don’t ever scare us like that again!” Applejack playfully chided the unicorn while putting a hoof on her shoulder to assure that she was really there. “What happened to you anyway? Where did they take you?” Scootaloo asked with nervous curiosity brimming in her face. If the unicorn hadn’t sacrificed herself the way she did, then the filly might have been dragged away along with her. Twilight frowned slightly as she instinctively thought about where she had been taken due to the question. She wondered how she could tell them about Daisychain and Patches, if she could even tell them. “They brought me down to the basement. That’s where I found Nurse Redheart and…” Twilight paused briefly as she struggled to think of what to say. Applejack could already tell that the unicorn knew something that she didn’t want to tell out loud. “Did you find Spike? What about Tom and Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. Twilight was slightly relieved to have the conversation derailed. She shook her head somberly as she thought about what the others must be going through. “Sorry, but we didn’t see them down there. Maybe they got taken upstairs or something…” Twilight explained with a sympathetic frown. Scootaloo started to ask another question, when Nurse Redheart suddenly waved her over. “Scootaloo… could you be a dearie and help me up? I don’t feel very good right now.” The white mare asked with a polite smile while glancing to Twilight knowingly. The unicorn was relieved to not have to inform the filly about the horrible things that happened downstairs. “Ok… I’m coming!” Scootaloo chimed, ever eager to help out a pony in need. She then ran over to the other side of the room to assist the fallen nurse. Twilight had to admire the innocent nature of the orange pegasus. She might have been the most likely to cause trouble out of all the crusaders, but she had a heart of gold once you got to know her. Once the filly had left, Twilight glanced back over to Applejack to see her displaying a concerned frown. The unicorn sighed as she realized that the farm pony must have read her like a book. The orange mare placed a loving hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder to console her. “Twilight… what happened?” Applejack asked in a soft voice, both to comfort the gloomy unicorn, and to prevent the filly across the room from hearing. Twilight looked away sadly to avoid eye contact with the concerned farm pony. “We… we found Diasychain and Patches down there as well.” The unicorn spoke with a dull, somber sort of tone. “The creatures must have paralyzed us somehow, because none of us could move very much. I was forced to watch one of those things…” Twilight noticed that she was involuntarily tearing up as she recalled the traumatic experience. Applejack gave her a moment to gather herself before continuing. “They killed Daisy and Patches…” The unicorn finally managed to say with a trembling voice. Applejack gasped and put a hoof up to her mouth in shock. She knew that the creatures were dangerous, but she could never have imagined something so terrible happening to anyone. “They almost killed Redheart too… but I managed to fend them off with my magic…” Twilight sniffled quietly and looked down. “I just wish that I could have at least saved Daisy… Patches was gone before I even woke up, but Daisy was right there!” The purple pony’s voice started giving out as she became even more upset. The sniffling unicorn suddenly felt her friend put a hoof on her shoulder again. She looked over to see that the orange pony had tears in her eyes as well. Twilight had forgotten that Applebloom was also lost in the hospital. She knew that the yellow filly meant as much to Applejack as Spike meant to her, if not more. “Twilight… that sounds horrible! Ah’m so sorry you had to sit through something like that…” Applejack wiped the tears from her eyes before continuing. “Listen… what happened to Daisy was not your fault.” The orange mare stated sympathetically. For the unicorn, hearing the farm pony trying to comfort her was void of the weight it normally would carry. “But I…” Twilight stammered with a guilty frown on her face. Applejack gave her a sympathetic frown before stopping her mid-sentence. “Ah don’t care what you did or didn’t do sugar cube. You were scared… you were even paralyzed fer crying out loud. You had no way of knowing what was going on. The fact that you saved yourself and Redheart is enough to be thankful for.” Applejack said with a brief smile on her face. “We would be devastated if you got hurt… Think of how poor Spike would feel if you wound up dead.” The orange mare’s speech suddenly reminded Twilight of what she was doing before. “We need to find the others… but we need to go get help first.” The unicorn stated while getting up to walk over to the front doors. Just as she grabbed the handle to try to open it, she was stopped by Applejack holding her back gently. “Don’t waste your strength. We tried that a little while after you got pulled away. The dern thing won’t budge.” Applejack said gloomily. Twilight figured that something would prevent them from leaving, but actually hearing that they were trapped made her heart sink. “So… we’re stuck in here?” Twilight asked with anxious fear and dread on her face. Applejack nodded sadly before sighing. “We’re never getting out of this stupid hospital are we?” The unicorn asked rhetorically as she slid to the floor and buried her head into her arms. Suddenly, an unexpected noise made the sullen purple pony lift her head up curiously. The sound of muffled speech and walking softly bled through from outside the front door. It sounded like there were several different voices just outside the door. Twilight got up from her seated position and joined Applejack in curiously listening to the noise. It was hard to see out of the window beside the door due to only sunlight being able to get in, but there were definitely ponies moving around and talking out there. Before they could think of what to do with this new discovery, another odd occurrence made them back away from the door. A beam of blue light projected from the seam of the door and slowly traveled down the length of the wooden frame. A soft buzzing noise was also coming from the source of the light, as if someone were using a blowtorch on the door. Once the light reached the bottom of the door, the ponies were surprised to see the door fly open forcefully. On top of the door flying open, several ponies flooded into the newly open lobby. Five ponies in total walked up to the group of wide eyed observers. All of the strange ponies were wearing almost identical uniforms consisting of black and blue tactical vests with various straps and pockets that held what Twilight could sparsely identify as magical supplies, among other things. A white stallion with grey hair stepped in front of the others and looked around at the three ponies and single filly. He then settled his eyes on Twilight and spoke up with a deep voice. “Twilight Sparkle I presume?” The stallion asked curiously. He tried to sound friendly to counter his tough looking exterior. Twilight was still trying to process the fact that she was now talking to someone that had just waltzed in from the outside. “Y-yeah… Who are you?” The unicorn asked timidly as she examined the strange group. The stallion looked around to his companions before settling his eyes back on the four confused ponies and smiling. “We’re here to help.” He stated in an earnest and sincere tone. Chapter 33: Getting to Know the TeamThe afternoon sun barely managed to shine through the blanket of clouds down onto the streets of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and her troop of companions walked dauntlessly through the empty street on their way back to the library. The wind had picked up since they had started their journey, creating a pleasant cooling sensation as it whipped past them. The cool temperature of the steady breeze complimented perfectly with the warm atmosphere of mid-summer Equestria to create a pleasing atmosphere. If one were to ignore the events that had taken place at the hospital, they might say that this was a nice day overall. As the group walked along, they chatted with each other and their newfound allies. There was a lot to learn about these new ponies, and if Twilight and the others would be working with them, they wanted to get to know them better as individuals. “So how long have you guys known each other anyway?” The purple unicorn asked Brimstoke and his teammates with an intrigued expression. “Well…” Brimstoke paused for a moment to think of how to reply. “Neon and I worked together in the civil branch of the royal guard for a couple of years. Glimmer Shine joined us as a rookie and worked with us for about a year and a half, which is how we met Peppermint, who was in training to become a field medic. Glitterball and I were old buddies back in the academy, but she went away to study advanced magic…” He explained while pointing to each of his teammates. “And I bet you were lost without me in the exams.” Glitter chimed in with a friendly smirk. “Before he met me, he could barely recite the oath without forgetting the words, let alone study for a test effectively.” She chided the stallion playfully, much to his dismay. “Anyway… we didn’t see each other too much after she left... up until the princess gathered us up to train for this job. As for Sunspot, she’s relatively new to us. We don’t really know her from the academy or anything, but we saw each other a few times before she left to join the Wonderbolts.” Brimstoke stated casually. The stallion’s explanation shocked the ponies slightly. The one who was most surprised however was Rainbow Dash. “You were in The Wonderbolts?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a mixture of shock and intrigue as she looked back to the suited pony. Sunspot chuckled proudly and nodded. “Yep… That’s where I got this suit.” Sunspot said while drawing attention to her full body suit. The similarities between it and a Wonderbolts’ uniform were uncanny. “I thought that looked like a Wonderbolts suit… but I wasn’t sure, what with the missing mask and different pattern.” Rainbow Dash observed the suit curiously to compare it to her idols’ uniforms. “Yeah, well… I had it customized to better fit my likings once I learned that I was going to join a team of monster hunters.” Sunspot explained with a slight sense of joy as she pointed out the various pieces of equipment hanging from her suit “That is so cool!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with excitement while admiring the uniform further. She imagined what it would be like to have her own custom suit like that, and what it would look like. Suddenly, a slight tapping on her leg interrupted the cyan mare’s fantasy and made her look down. She then noticed Scootaloo was poking her leg to get her attention. “This is where I turn off to get home… I’ll see you guys later.” Scootaloo stated while walking away from the group. Rainbow Dash was a little bit confused to see the filly leaving without her. “You sure you want to leave on your own?” The cyan mare asked the young pegasus courteously. Scootaloo turned around to face the group with a slightly disappointed expression. “I’ll be fine on my own, and besides… you should stay to help the others.” Scootaloo said with a slightly gloomy tone in her voice as she abandoned all hope of staying to help. The others were a little upset to see the filly leave on such a sad note. After waving farewell to the orange filly, the troop continued on their way. As she walked behind Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash was starting to get worried for the yellow mare. She had been wobbling to the side slightly from time to time as her head drooped from exhaustion. She practically fell over a few times as she nearly fell asleep while walking. “Are you ok Fluttershy? You’ve been acting like this ever since you arrived at the tent.” The cyan pony’s question made the group pause briefly to check on the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy kept walking for a brief moment until she collided with Pinkie Pie and jolted awake. “Wh...wha? I’m fine, alright? I’m just a little bit tired.” Fluttershy mumbled in a sleepy daze while keeping her eyes halfway open. Seeing the yellow mare so disheveled and drowsy made everyone worried for her. She was normally so upbeat and content with life, but now she was barely aware of her surroundings and looked as if she hadn’t slept all night. “It’s alright if you want me to take you back home Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash offered in a friendly manner. “No!” Fluttershy yelped in a fearful tone. The sudden question made the shy pegasus jerk backwards in surprise and become fully awake for a moment. She then realized her abnormal outburst and nervously tried to regain her usual composure. “I... err… I mean… I don’t want to leave you guys without helping you first.” Fluttershy said in an awkward attempt to put the conversation back on track. “Fluttershy… is there something you aren’t telling us? You seem awfully adamant about not going home, and you look like you haven’t slept in a year.” Twilight reasoned in a caring tone while walking up to the anxious pegasus. “I… I…” Fluttershy stammered nervously while looking around at her concerned friends. She knew that she couldn’t just hide such an important matter from them, but she didn’t want them to worry for her at the same time. “Come on Fluttershy, we’re your friends… you can tell us anything.” Rainbow Dash stated lovingly. Keeping something from her best friends while they were giving her heartfelt speeches was too much for the timid pegasus to handle. “*Sigh*… I’m scared to go home…” Fluttershy finally looked down and caved in. Everyone was surprised and confused to hear about the yellow mare’s issue. “What…? But why are you scared to-” Rarity started to ask, but was interrupted by Fluttershy continuing. “I was just about to go to bed last night… Me and Angel were cozying up in our beds, and everything was going just like an average night.” The timid mare explained with slight unease. “After I had just nodded off, I was woken up by the most terrifying noises I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like some kind of ghostly howling and moaning, and it sounded like it was coming from the Everfree Forest. It was horrible! I tried to ignore it as best I could, but it got so loud and unnerving that I had to check to see what it was. I went to my window and looked outside… normally, I would have some trouble making out the tree line from so far away after dark, but there was this odd green glow coming from behind the trees. I thought I saw things moving around, so I decided to lock my door and hide under my sheets.” Everyone was shocked and uneasy from hearing the yellow mare’s tale. Fluttershy was shivering with fright from merely remembering the experience. “I was too scared to sleep at all last night, even after the noise stopped. At the first sign of daylight, I ran out the door and left… I haven’t been back since.” Fluttershy seemed to be more afraid than sleepy as she finished her story. Rainbow Dash sat down next to the shivering pony and put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy looked beside her to see the cyan pony was giving her a look of confidence. “Don’t worry about it Fluttershy… I’m sure that Tom could help you out.” The blue pegasus volunteered the help of the slayer to the shy mare. Fluttershy was surprised to hear such a proposal. She turned to Tom and gave him an unimposing look. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked to confirm with the human. Although she didn’t want to ask something so large of the slayer, the desperation was clear on her face. Tom nodded reassuringly with a confident smile. “I would be happy to help you out Fluttershy.” The boy stated sincerely. Fluttershy smiled weakly from hearing this and turned back to Rainbow Dash. “And if it makes you feel any better, I could come along with you and stay the night.” The cyan pony offered with a friendly smile. “I can come too! It’ll be like a sleepover!” Pinkie spoke up from the crowd while bouncing eagerly. Fluttershy looked around at her friends with a warm and happy expression. “But… won’t Twilight need us to help her with the research?” Fluttershy asked timidly. Twilight smiled and shook her head. “We have plenty of eyes to help us out while you’re gone. And besides, you can stay at the library and help out until sunset.” The purple unicorn suggested reassuringly. Seeing her friends offer to help her so much made the yellow pegasus feel fuzzy from joy. “Thanks guys… A pony couldn’t ask for better friends.” Fluttershy said with a big smile that deceived her current state of exhaustion. Everyone was happy to see their friend’s cheerful spirits return. After stopping to lift the shy mare’s spirits, the group continued on their path towards the library. After a few more minutes of walking, the familiar shape of the tree-like building came into view. Twilight walked up to the door and opened it up while ushering her large group of friends inside. Once Inside, Everyone got comfortable and attended to their business at hand. Glitterball sat the books she was carrying down on a table, Brimstoke and the other members of Spirit familiarized themselves with the books and layout of the library, while Twilight’s friends waited for a chance to be useful. Fluttershy sat down on a chair and rested her head in her hooves tiredly. Her eyes slowly drifted shut and her head drooped onto the table. After a few moments, the pegasus started snoring softly as she fell asleep. Twilight walked over and gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up. The yellow mare jerked upwards and looked around as she came to her senses again. “Fluttershy… why don’t you head upstairs and take a nap in my bed?” The unicorn suggested in a friendly manner. Fluttershy was excited to hear the word bed in any context relating to herself. “Really?” Fluttershy asked with as much emotion as she could convey to sound courteous, which wasn’t very much. The pegasus was still drowsy, but she didn’t want to impose on her friend. Twilight smiled and nodded to the tired pony and pointed upstairs. “Go on… we’ll wake you up when it’s time for you to head home with the others.” Twilight said in a friendly tone. The purple pony’s offer made the yellow mare smile warmly. “Thank you…” Fluttershy said in a sleepy tone while getting up from her chair. She then slowly walked upstairs and tried to prevent herself from falling asleep on the way up. After hearing her bedroom door open and close, Twilight smiled before returning to business at hand. The unicorn walked over to the nearby table and picked up one of the books stacked neatly on the edge. Unable to decipher the title of the book from the outside, she flipped open the pages and skimmed through them while searching for something to catch her eye. The sight of a bookmarked page made the purple pony stop in her tracks and stop breathing momentarily as her heart jumped in surprise. On the page that was highlighted by a colored in portion of the corner, was a terrifyingly familiar creature that made Twilight’s blood run cold. A blood red humanoid mass of liquid was artistically drawn reaching out of a swampy looking body of water. It was staring forward with its empty eye sockets while its mouth was open in a silent growl as it stretched its fluid arm towards the viewer. Twilight easily identified this creature to be the same one that plagued the school yesterday. “Hey guys… come take a look at this.” Twilight announced to the others after remembering to breathe. The unicorn held the book open and moved it closer so everyone could see it as they gathered around her. Everyone had mixed reactions of fear upon seeing the illustration, from minor gasps of fright, to outright recoiling in horror. “Oh my…” Rarity exclaimed under her breath as she held her hoof up to her mouth to catch a gasp. She immediately recognized the bloody creature staring back at her from the book. Pinkie Pie wasn’t faring any better than the white unicorn. Pinkie’s pupils shrank as memories of being held under water against her will came flooding back to her. She could still practically hear Rarity’s yells as she desperately tried to save her from being drowned in the icy depths. “Whoa! What in the name of Celestia is that?!” Rainbow Dash asked in shock as she studied the drawing closely out of morbid curiosity. “That’s the thing that attacked us at the school…” Twilight spoke with a dull tone as she tried her hardest not to remember her experiences. “You mean that’s the thing that hurt Fluttershy and the crusaders and almost drowned Pinkie?” The cyan pegasus asked in disbelief as she forced herself to look away from the disturbing image. Pinkie Pie started shivering as she had even more fear triggered by mention of the event. Rainbow Dash noticed her friend’s face pale and felt awful for being so blunt about such a traumatic event. “Sorry Pinkie. I didn’t mean to dig up any painful memories.” Rainbow Dash stated in an apologetic tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the pink mare’s shoulder. Pinkie stopped shivering and took a moment to shake the frightful images from her head. “It’s alright… I guess almost drowning shook me up a bit more than I thought. I’m fine though.” The party pony said while slowly returning her casual feeling of happiness. The fact that even Pinkie was being affected by everything that was going on served as a grim reminder to the ponies of the severity of the threat they were facing. As the other members of Spirit were examining the creature’s drawing with the rest of the group, Glitterball was studying the page on the right and analyzing its contents. The white unicorn turned to the others and spoke up to redirect their focus. “This must be a summoning book then… It has instructions on how to find ingredients for a spell to bring this creature forth.” Glitter explained her findings with slight intrigue. Twilight’s curiosity was peaked again as an idea popped into her head. The purple pony flipped through the pages once more and looked for another bookmarked page. Finding what she was looking for, she stopped and looked at the new illustration. “Aha!” Twilight exclaimed triumphantly. The illustration depicted a dark hallway of a rundown building. Standing on the blurry edge of the shaded darkness, was a tall shadowy figure wearing a hood with barely noticeable pale skin. “The midnight men.” Tom stated as he recognized the shadowy silhouette. Rainbow Dash and Spike were filled with a sense of dread and unease just from looking at the drawing. “This is what they used to bring those monsters to the school and hospital. Maybe we can find out what goals they have by studying what spells they are using from these books.” Twilight deduced out loud with slight enthusiasm. “Only one way to find out… everyone, break off into groups and grab a book. We can get more done if we work in numbers.” Brimstoke announced to the group while picking up one of the other books and heading over to the corner of the table. Neon Streak followed the stallion and sat down next to him to see the open book in front of him. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before getting up and joining the two by sitting beside them on the other side of the table. Tom grabbed the last book and walked over to a spot on the floor before kneeling down and sitting cross legged with the book on the floor in front of him. Peppermint and Glimmer Shine walked over and sat down beside the human and began studying the book on the floor. Pinkie Pie decided to join the open spot in the circle and trotted over to sit down next to the three. Twilight was left with the remainder of the group by default as her study aids. Spike stood on a chair and rested his palms on the table while he leaned forward to see the book. Glitterball sat at the end of the table and read over the book with her horn while trying to understand the spells contained within. Rarity was huddled next to Twilight while peering over at the other various pieces of blank paper on the table that they would doubtlessly need for notes. Without further delay, the group got to work studying the books for clues. The group spent the better part of the evening researching the three books. Various bits and pieces of knowledge of varying importance were discovered in the three tomes. Judging from the contents of the other two books, one was a detailed instruction booklet on pentagrams and other magical symbols, and the other one was a book on making different kinds of magic compatible with each other. Each of the books had certain pages that appeared to be tacked on to serve as notes. The paper on these pages was a different color, and was haphazardly glued or grafted into the book on the pertinent page. The notes were mostly written using some sort of strange code or language that was undecipherable to everyone in the room. Over the course of the hours of research, each group had decided to move to a different room to better organize their notes and efforts. Tom had taken his three companions into the kitchen to have more space for papers used to try and decipher the pages using his knowledge on occult symbols and ciphers. Brimstoke brought his group to the small half room of bookshelves that sat in between the main room and the kitchen, while Twilight and her troop had remained in the main room. “Any luck figuring out those notes Glitterball?” Twilight unburied her head from the book she had been reading and looked over to the unicorn analyzing notes copied from all three books at the far end of the table. She looked over to the curious purple pony and frowned slightly. “Not as much as I would like… I can tell that these notes pertain to a section of the pictograms that isn’t covered in the books, but I can’t understand enough of them to make out what they are.” The rainbow haired unicorn sighed in frustration as she racked her mind to crack the code. “That’s better than nothing right?” Twilight added in an optimistic tone. Glitterball flashed a smile and nodded. “Right… I’m sure we can figure this out.” Glitter stated happily before returning to her work. “So Glitter… how long have you known Brimstoke? I know you two know each other from the academy, but he didn’t mention how long for.” Twilight asked curiously while looking up from the book. “Hmm… I guess it’s been… four years since I met him.” Glitterball scratched her chin in thought while trying to recall the first time she met the stallion. “We had bumped into each other a few times before, but we started getting to know each other first year of the academy. We were pretty close around the time I decided to leave for magic classes… I felt like I didn’t want to head down the same path Brim was going, so I left to study magic to become a unicorn guard.” She explained to the curious listeners. “Brimstoke must focus on his job a lot… he seems a little rough around the edges at times.” Twilight stated while thinking back to the unwavering attitude of the stallion. It seemed like he had to force himself to be nice to people at times. “Eh… don’t mind him. He’s really a big softy once you get past the brick wall of an appearance he has. He wants people to think he’s tougher than he is… but sometimes he can try a little too hard.” Glitter chuckled while thinking of how awkward the stallion was back at the academy. He had come a long way since she first met him. “Wait a minute, I think I found something.” Rarity announced while looking up from the pile of notes she had on the table. Everyone gathered around the unicorn and waited for her to elaborate with baited breath. “I think this section of notes here corresponds to a gathering spell of some kind… If I’m reading it correctly that is.” Rarity stated while tilting her head and squinting to try and make sense of the mixture of languages and symbols. “Hold on… these look kind of familiar.” Twilight said while pointing to a few of the symbols on one page. She looked over to the far table and lit up her horn to grab something. The purple unicorn lifted a roll of paper over to the table and set it down beside the section of notes. After a few moments of reading through the roll of paper, she smirked triumphantly as her thoughts were confirmed. “Aha! Some of these symbols match the symbols we found in the cave!” Twilight announced with an excited tone before looking at some of the writing below the symbols on the notes. “If we can find out which symbols are referenced here, then maybe we can reverse engineer some of the other ones too.” She stated optimistically. Spike and Rarity cheered with excitement at the lavender pony’s discovery, while Glitterball frowned slightly as she looked at the section of notes. “Yeah… but first we would need to decipher this strange language. Most of the notes are written in it, and the sections that aren’t don’t mention any of the important stuff.” Glitter huffed in annoyance. The new obstacle in her path made Twilight groan in frustration. “I guess we should go see if Tom and the others have figured it out yet.” Twilight suggested while getting up from her chair. She grabbed the notes and the list of symbols with her magic and walked towards the other room. Everyone got up and followed the unicorn as she entered into the room Brimstoke’s group was in. The four noticed the other group had decided to occupy a small table on the far corner of the room. Rainbow Dash was leaning up against the wall with a book in her lap, Sunspot was lying on her stomach on the floor with her head resting on her hooves while studying another book, while Brimstoke and Neon Streak were sitting at the table researching several sheets of paper with notes on them. Everyone looked up from their books and watched the group walking through the room. “You find something?” Brimstoke asked curiously to the passing troop. Twilight paused for a moment and turned to answer the stallion. “We might have… we’re going to show it to Tom to find out if he can make sense of it.” The purple mare replied. “How about you guys? Find anything interesting?” She asked quizzically while hoping that they would have found something that could help. “Well, we found a few notes depicting the pictograms used at the school and Hospital.” Sunspot replied, optimistic that the discovery would be useful. “Actually… we might be able to use that. Do you have a copy we can take?” Twilight reasoned while thinking of how the pictograms would assist them. “Yeah sure…” The orange pegasus said while getting up from her spot. She then flipped through the pages of her book and took out two pieces of paper clipped to the pages. “Here you go.” Sunspot stated while handing the papers over to the purple unicorn. Twilight looked over them for a moment before adding them to her pile of papers. “Thanks, hopefully we can figure some of this out.” Twilight added optimistically before turning to walk into the other room. The four walked into the kitchen and were greeted by Tom and the others standing around the kitchen counter staring down at several notes and their own book. They looked up to see the approaching group and watched them curiously. “You look like you’ve made some progress…” Tom stated while observing Twilight’s giddy expression. The purple pony walked up to the boy and sat her papers down on the countertop in front of him. She then smiled at him with hopeful excitement. “We think the symbols on these notes correspond to some of the symbols we found in the cave and on the pictograms. We were hoping you could translate some of the writing for us… any luck in that area?” Twilight asked with slight hopefulness in her voice. “Actually yeah… the writing in the notes is a mixture of an ancient language and a code cipher. Here, let me see what you have.” Tom said while scanning over the notes, symbols, and diagrams the unicorn brought him. He picked up the paper with the symbols and the notes to study them closer. “Hmm… interesting.” The boy muttered out loud while checking between the pages and the symbols to decipher their meaning. Everyone watched the human with eager anticipation as he mumbled to himself to better find his way through the jumbled mess of the writing. “From what I can make out… these symbols from the cave are mostly part of a suppression charm to hide negative energy… most likely to cover the presence of that mass of dark matter we fought.” Tom explained while pointing to the majority of the symbols from the cave. “However… this little cluster here appears in both of the pictograms, so they have a different meaning. They look like a smaller version of this section here.” He added while pointing to one of the sections of the pictogram divided by lines. “What does that mean?” Glitterball asked while trying to keep up with the human’s train of thought. Tom looked away for a moment and closed his eyes while deep in thought. He then looked back over the writings. “If I’m reading this right… it says that these symbols are used in a collection spell… designed to gather up negative energy, but more specifically fear.” The human finally looked up and finished his explanation. Everyone was confused by the sudden discovery. “Fear…? Why would they want to gather up fear?” Pinkie asked with an appalled expression. She couldn’t believe that someone would want to induce so much fear in a living creature. “From what I remember of the books the princess made us study, fear and other forms of energy derived from emotion can be used in a plethora of spells and rituals. It’s actually kind of ingenious in a twisted sort of way. They summon a monster, and feed off of the fear that it creates… all in one convenient pictogram.” Glitterball explained with a disgusted expression. Everyone else shared her opinion on the horrible method being used by the hooded ponies. “The question is… what are they gathering energy for? They obviously have a plan figured out… we just need to discover what it is and stop them before they have a chance to complete it.” Tom stated with a determined tone of voice. Everyone nodded with serious expressions as they resolved to put an end to this nightmare. “Hey… you guys find anything in here? We hit a dead end with our book.” Brimstoke interjected while walking into the room with his group. Twilight decided to inform them on their progress. “We found out that the mystery ponies are gathering fear to power some sort of spell or ritual… can we use the spell to trace where they are Tom?” The unicorn asked curiously. Tom looked down and read over the notes a few more times. He then shrugged in frustration and looked back up with a defeated frown. “I can’t tell where the pictograms send the energy once it’s gathered… it’s too vaguely described in the notes.” Tom sighed in annoyance. Before Twilight could react to the disheartening discovery, Brimstoke spoke up again. “Maybe we can help out with that… we can take these books down to the guard station in town and have them dusted for hoof prints or analyzed to see if there are any unique magic signatures from a specific unicorn. We can also see if these books have been in circulation at some point… it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s worth a try.” The stallion suggested with a hopeful attitude. Twilight smiled at the progress being made on the investigation. “Ok then… you guys go and see what you can find on your end. I think it’s time we all headed home and got some rest.” Twilight said while looking around at her friends, who all nodded in agreement. “Alright, we’ll get these checked out and update you when we find the culprits. Goodnight Miss Sparkle.” Brimstoke bade farewell before motioning for his teammates to follow him. Twilight was shocked to hear the way the stallion worded that. “Hold on a second… update us when you find the culprits? We’re going to help you find them!” Twilight stated enthusiastically. Brimstoke was surprised to see such a spark in the unicorn. “I… I thought you would have wanted us to take this case off of your hooves. It is dangerous after all.” The stallion stated with a slight sense of nervousness from confronting the shocked pony. “No… we are seeing this through to the end.” Twilight spoke in a determined tone while looking around to her friends. “These ponies have attacked me and my friends multiple times. They cost two innocent ponies their lives… they attacked a school full of children for crying out loud! Princess Celestia asked me to take care of this… I’m sure she wouldn’t want me endangering myself, but I feel like I need to personally ensure that these ponies are brought to justice.” She spoke in an inspiring tone while looking to the group of awe struck ponies in front of her. “You guys are going to either help us with the investigation, or get out of our way… because we are in this to the bitter end, right guys?” Twilight asked while looking around at her troop of friends. Everyone nodded confidently at the unicorn’s words. “Now, how about you meet us in the library tomorrow afternoon and report your findings so we can make a plan?” Twilight half asked- half instructed to the stallion and his troop. They were impressed by the spirit held by the purple pony. “Yes Ma’am.” Brimstoke said while offering a salute. All the other members of Spirit saluted as well before turning and walking out of the door. “Phew… that felt good.” Twilight remarked while noting how much she enjoyed standing up for her beliefs. “Way to go Twilight… you really sounded sure of yourself there.” Spike praised the unicorn while giving her a proud smile. “Thanks Spike… I just really want to protect those I care for most.” The lavender pony replied with a modest smile of appreciation. She then looked out of the kitchen window and noted the sun setting in the sky. “Huh… it’s getting late. I guess I should go wake Fluttershy up so you guys can get going.” Twilight stated while heading back into the main room to walk upstairs. She hoped that the pegasus was well rested after all of the hours that had passed. Chapter 50: Slayer Vs. Shadow“Oh good, the library… guess my sense of direction is keener than I thought.” Tom breathed a sigh of relief as he laid eyes on the library. He had run off in such a hurry that he had not questioned how much he actually knew about getting around town. And it would have taken too much time to turn around and run back, so he was pretty much on his own. After catching his breath from the brisk jog he had just taken across town, the human used his senses to get a feel for what he was up against. As he felt his way around the area in his head, he noticed several energy signatures. Some were traces of some kind of creature as it went all over the building, others were current traces of creatures from somewhere up ahead, and there was even an energy signature that seemed to belong to some kind of protection spell. “Good thinking guys.” Tom was pleased to see that the group had found a way to keep themselves safe in his absence. Now all he had to do was deal with whatever monstrosity the hooded ponies had summoned. And just in time to be on cue with his thoughts, the boy noticed two pegasi descending from the air above him. He immediately recognized one of the ponies to be the stallion he saw out in the woods, but he had no idea who the pale mare next to him was. “Well if it isn’t my favorite blue suited wonder.” The blue mare stated with a mocking smile. It was almost like she thought that they were old enemies that had met again on the battlefield. “And… you are? I know who he is, but I don’t think we’ve met.” Tom stated in mild confusion. The mare chuckled as she placed a hoof on her chest to introduce herself. “The name’s Raincloud, that handsome fellow there is my brother Dust Kicker. We were in the neighborhood and figured we would stop by and pay a visit to the local library.” Raincloud said in an impishly playful manner. “Wow… you two make a hell of a pair. He looks like a serial killer and you look like a sociopath.” Tom said while ignoring the death stare he was being given by the brown pegasus. “Heh… I can see why Twilight and all of her buddies like you so much. I’m sure they will be very disappointed when they hear that you got your ass handed to you by us.” Raincloud shifted her weight forward into a more threatening stance as she spoke. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. Where are they?” The human asked in a more serious tone. He wasn’t in the mood to be messing around with the two ponies while his friends could be in danger. Raincloud smirked at the mention of the group of ponies upstairs. She knew that he would be dying to find out what had become of them, and she was counting on it. The pale mare enjoyed having a small amount of power over the human. “Last I checked they were a little busy trying to keep that dragon from bleeding out all over the floor.” The pegasus stated with a gleeful inflection in her voice. “Crap... Spike…” Tom muttered to himself in shock. Although he wouldn’t put it past the two ponies to lie to him, he had a feeling that what she was saying was true. “What did you do to him?” The boy asked with his anger levels gradually increasing. The pale mare seemed to take a certain amount of enjoyment from seeing the human react like this. “To be fair… I was aiming at that bitch Twilight.” Raincloud said while looking over to her brother and chuckling, she had no idea just how much her statement angered the slayer. In the split second it took for the mare to look over to her brother, Tom charged forward in a fit of rage and grabbed for his sword. He might not have had the intent to kill the pegasus, but he was certainly going to cause her some serious damage. “RAAGH!” The boy unsheathed his katana and swung downward at an area that he was certain wouldn’t be fatal. Much to his surprise, his blade stopped dead in its tracks as it caught on something. Tom wondered if he struck a bone for a moment, until he noticed what was actually impeding his sword. A pair of black, gaunt, and clawed hands was firmly holding the edge of the sword in place. As Tom trailed his eyes forward to follow the hands and see their owner, he was slightly taken aback by the shocking sight of a glowing purple face staring at him with a jagged smile. “What the hell?!” Tom stammered in surprise while trying to free his blade from the grip of the shadow. Although the monster’s hands were smoking from being in contact with the blessed blade, it seemed to pay no attention to this fact as it stared at the human with unnerving focus. “Meet my pet shadow… he doesn’t take kindly to people hurting me.” Raincloud explained with a devious grin. Although she wouldn’t admit it, she actually had to take a moment to recover from the shock of seeing the human attack her so suddenly. She was thankful that her minion was paying attention to her surroundings even when she wasn’t. As Tom failed to budge the sword an inch against the shadow’s grasp, he started to regret his hasty decision of charging into battle without a plan. The disturbing laughter of the shadow creature only further cemented this feeling of dread into the human. Suddenly the shadow picked the sword up with great force, causing Tom to lose his connection with the ground as he was lifted up along with his blade. Before the slayer could let go of the katana, the specter threw the sword away with frightfully immense strength. “AHH!” Tom yelled in fright as he was sent flying through the air. He crashed to the ground a short distance from where he had been thrown and rolled a few times from the force of the impact. After coming to a complete stop from his short tumble, the boy quickly reached around to find his sword so he could retaliate. Feeling the hilt of the blade in his grasp, Tom grabbed it and flipped it over in his hand while getting up to face the creature that just attacked him. As he looked over towards the two ponies where he had just been moments ago, the boy was perplexed to see that the shadow was nowhere to be found. “*Gasp*” A sudden feeling of breathlessness surged through Tom as his senses went off defensively. He immediately felt the presence of something behind him which he surmised to be the ghostly shadow. As the specter screamed in rage, the human knew that he was about to attack. Within a split second, Tom managed to roll out of the way of an incoming swipe from the monster’s claws. The shadow growled in frustration at his near miss and leered at the slayer with his icy stare. Tom readied his sword and watched the monster closely for any signs of further attack. “Come on big guy… You scared?” Tom wondered whether or not it was a sound idea to taunt the creature trying to kill him, but it just came natural in these situations. Perhaps in reaction to the boy’s comment, the shadow floated forward and charged straight for him while howling fiercely. Tom smirked as he saw the reckless behavior of the shadow creature. He quickly held out his free hand and opened his palm in preparation to destroy the careless monster. As the area in front of him lit up with blinding white light, the human expected nothing more than the smoking remains of the monster to be left behind. As the light died down, the area in front of the slayer was in fact clear, but not in the way he intended. A black splotch on the ground was swiftly moving towards him. Apparently the creature had swiftly reacted to the attack by seeking shelter in the ground. Before he had time to react, the splotch raced under his feet with blinding speed. The shadow poked its head out and grinned up at the human with a mocking laugh. It then quickly reached its hands up and grabbed ahold of the boy’s feet. “WHOA!” Tom was shocked as he suddenly felt the ground give out underneath him as the shadow pulled on his feet. His body sank down into the shadowy blotch in one swift motion. He couldn’t even grab hold of the ground on his way down for leverage. All he could do was hold onto his sword for dear life as the shadow took him on its twisted ride. As his head sank beneath ground level, Tom noticed that the area around him was obscured in complete blackness. He couldn’t even see his hands above his head as he was forcibly dragged through the pitch black tunnel. The only thing that even told him he was moving was the terrifying feeling of falling endlessly. “AHHHHH!!!” Tom did the only thing he could do at that point. He screamed like he was on some kind of hellish roller coaster, although the comparison wasn’t too farfetched. The human couldn’t even tell which way was up anymore. On top of the force of the shadow pulling him further into the tunnel, it seemed like gravity was shifting around him. One moment he was falling downward, but now it seemed like he was being pulled along horizontally. Much to the human’s joy, a light crashed through the blinding darkness as he finally came back out into the real world. His former suspicions of changing gravity were all but confirmed as he fell out of the air and sailed downward towards the ground. Judging from what blurred imagery the boy could put together before hitting the earth, he gathered that the shadow had just popped him out of the side of the library, precariously near the top from the looks of it. The air was knocked out of his lungs forcefully as he slammed face first into the ground. A fall from that height would probably instantly kill any normal living creature, but Tom was forced to experience the painful stop at the end of his brief flight. “Irk… ulg… tch.” Tom slowly lifted himself off the ground with his arms. He could barely move his legs, and his arms were shaking so much that it was hard to put weight on them. Judging from the crippling pain in his chest that occurred when he tried to breathe or move, the boy guessed that his ribs were broken. “Hahhahahah!” Raincloud laughed heartily as she watched the aftermath of the slayer’s punishing fight. It had already been hilarious to see him fly out of the air like that, but it was even more satisfyingly humorous to see him trying to move his broken body. The pale mare leaned on her brother for support as she ran out of breath from laughing so much. She expected to see him laughing along with her, but the joyful smirk he had on his face was close enough for her. Tom couldn’t really convey his sense of anger through his painful grimace, but he was absolutely livid at the pair of ponies. As he struggled to get to his feet, he glared at the two, and at the shadow that was hovering nearby. “W…what’s so funny?” Tom wheezed heavily as if he couldn’t breathe. The crushing pain in his chest was preventing him from using his full lung power. “Sorry… I can’t hear you. Maybe you should try un-collapsing your lungs first.” Raincloud remarked while wiping a joyous tear from her eye. “That’s not a bad idea actually…*cough*” Tom muttered to himself, although he probably couldn’t produce anything much louder if he tried. When he got injured, the human normally suppressed his healing ability until he could prepare himself more for the pain. The more severe the injury, the longer it would take to heal, and the more pronounced and intense the burning sensation would be. Still, he couldn't exactly fight in his current condition, so it was a necessary evil. “Hrrk… gah.” Tom tried his best to ignore the pain as his injuries started to mend themselves. Although there were a few small cuts and bruises scattered around his body, the most intense pain was coming from his legs and chest. The sensation of bones fusing back together as new matter was created was an odd feeling to say the least. It was like a raging fire was burning inside of him, and any nerves that had been damaged were suddenly screaming to life as they were restored. The two ponies were impressed to see the human healing himself. He had been favoring one leg over the other and stood at an odd angle because of it, but he gradually shifted back into a normal posture as his bones fixed themselves. After the burning stopped and his bones were healed, Tom stretched his muscles and popped his joints. With his newfound feeling of restoration, the human was ready and eager to retaliate against the two hoodlums and their pet shadow. “You two done messing around or what? It’s going to take a lot more than a little fall to put me down.” Tom stated in his best threatening tone. Judging from the expressions on the two ponies’ faces, the slayer could tell that they weren’t exactly shaking in fright at his miraculous recovery. Raincloud looked over to her brother and dropped her smile. She wanted to stay and watch the fight, but there were other things that called for her attention. Namely what the group of ponies trapped in the library were doing. “I’m going to go check on them.” The pale mare said while motioning up with her head. “You going to be alright down here?” She asked curiously. Dust Kicker was impressed to hear a slight inflection of worry in his sister’s voice. He knew that she felt normal emotions behind her psychotic front, but it was always nice to see her expressing concern for something other than herself. “Yeah… I think I can entertain our guest here until you get back. Just leave your shadow down here to help out.” The brown stallion replied while glancing over to the human. He had been waiting for a second chance at fighting the slayer ever since he escaped with the others out in the forest. “You got it… Try not to have too much fun without me alright?” Raincloud added before taking off into the air. After the pale mare disappeared from sight, Dust Kicker returned his attention to the human in front of him. “I guess it’s just us now.” Tom observed while preparing himself for battle. Between the brown pegasus in front of him and the shadow monster beside him, the boy felt good about his odds. That is, until the stallion started chuckling to himself. “Hehheh… no.” Dust Kicker stated with a cocky smile. Suddenly three more dark splotches formed behind him. Three dark blobs rose out of the splotches and quickly formed into monstrous shapes. The creatures resembled some kind of wild cat with four red eyes, which was a bit of an unsettling upgrade from the usual darklings that the pegasus favored. “I brought friends…” The stallion said in a more serious tone. Tom observed the new monsters with a wary eye. He had never seen a shadow creature take a shape like that before. He wondered just how intricate the brown pony’s ability to create shadow creatures was. “Oh joy…” The human muttered sarcastically while reaching for his sword. He would have his work cut out for him today. “What are they doing?” Applebloom asked anxiously as she watched the group gathering around the window. Rarity, Applejack, and Glitterball had all flocked to the window beside the balcony to see if they could catch a glimpse of what was happening outside. “Ah don’t know Applebloom… they’re just standing around.” Applejack replied while looking back at her sister and the other two fillies. The only thing she could see out of the window was Tom Staying in place while presumably confronting the two ponies. “I hope he’s going to be ok…” Sweetie Belle said in a concerned tone. She was horrified that the human was fighting such dangerous opponents. “Hey, this is Tom we’re talking about right? I would be more worried about those two hooded jerks.” Scootaloo chimed in to lift her friend’s spirits. She had no doubt in her mind that the slayer could handle the two ponies. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.” Sweetie Belle said while smiling slightly. She had to remind herself of how the human had saved her and her friends countless times. “Of course I’m right. I bet we’re going to be out of here in no time.” The orange filly stated with a confident smirk. She tried to rub off some of her optimism onto her friends to help get them through this tense situation. Meanwhile, in the back of the room, Twilight and Peppermint were still tending to Spike. Peppermint was just keeping an eye on the dragon’s vital signs, but Twilight was staying by his side for another reason. She couldn’t believe that she let something like that happen to him. The sight of that shadow coming for her made her panic instantly. The unicorn barely even remembered that the young dragon was beside her. She wondered if she could have done something to save Spike if she had thought more clearly. “You ok?” The sound of Peppermint’s voice brought Twilight out of her thoughts. She didn’t realize it until just now, but she had been staring blankly at the floor as she withdrew into her mind. “Umm…” The unicorn tried to find something to say in return to the red haired pony. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t think of an answer that would ease his concerns. She had consciously made the choice that she would switch places with Spike if she was given the opportunity, even if that meant dying. “No… not really.” Twilight finally managed to say something with a forced smile and half chuckle. The only way she could bring herself to even speak at length was to pretend she was cheerful. She shook her head sadly while trying to hide her quivering lips and watery eyes from the stallion. Peppermint wasn’t sure how to respond after that. He could tell that the purple mare was heartbroken by the way she appeared. He wanted so desperately to say something to make her feel better, but he was unsure of anything he could say to ease her pains. “You know…” The white stallion spoke up while still thinking of something meaningful to talk about. Twilight looked over at him quizzically as she waited for him to speak again. “I know what you’re feeling… kind of anyway.” Peppermint tried to sound as sympathetic as possible to comfort the unicorn. “Back before Glimmer and I joined the academy, our mother got sick… really sick. We went to every hospital we could find... but nobody knew what was wrong with her. We weren’t sure if she would make it through the night, every other night. We finally found one doctor that knew what was wrong… some kind of problem with her immune system. Anyway… she finally got better, but for a while there I was feeling something similar to what you’re feeling now.” He explained in a gentle tone. The stallion’s story made Twilight reflect on her situation. “But… you weren’t involved with your mother’s decline in health… I just stood there while Spike got attacked.” Twilight said in a depressed tone. The unicorn didn’t want to undermine the white pony’s story, but she couldn’t do anything to shake the feeling of despair she had. “Well I did say kind of… and it wasn’t your fault to begin with.” Peppermint stated to stop the purple mare from blaming herself. “You can’t blame yourself for what happened… sometimes bad things happen to good people. You just need to tough through it, do what you can, and hope for the best. That’s why I started studying medicine… I wanted to be able to help people in need like my mother.” The stallion’s story combined with his optimistic attitude made Twilight feel a little bit better. If she took anything away from the tale, she knew that she had to have faith that everything would turn out for the best in the end. “Thanks…” The unicorn whispered softly. She smiled briefly while thinking about things in a more positive light. Peppermint was slightly caught off guard by the sudden change in her outlook. He expected the purple mare to be stuck in a depressed state for a long time. “Sure thing…” Pepper replied in a friendly tone. He was happy to see that he had some kind of positive effect on her. Suddenly the noise of wings flapping briefly and the sound of something stepping onto the balcony made everyone look over. Much to their dismay, the ponies were greeted by the sight of Raincloud walking up to the doorway. The pale mare’s return filled Twilight and the others with disgust and contempt. They all wished that she would just leave them alone, as if hurting Spike and trying to kill them wasn’t enough for her. She had to see them suffer to fully enjoy the situation. “What are you doing back here?” Twilight asked in an irritated tone while getting up. She hated the fact that she had to look at the pegasus any further, much less speak to her to see what purpose she had for returning. The unicorn walked over and sat down in front of the balcony while giving the pony outside a scornful leer. She made sure to stay just far enough back to be out of arms reach of the pegasus if she became enraged again. “Hmpf…” Raincloud matched the icy glare that Twilight was giving her with paralleled intensity. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab her only to snap her neck, but she also wanted to see her break emotionally. The pegasus smiled as she resolved to keep her hatred in check for the time being. “I just came up here to have a bird’s eye view of the action.” Raincloud explained in a smart-alecky way that only got on the purple mare’s nerves. Despite their reasons for wanting to smack her across the face every time she spoke, the ponies were confused by her words. “What are you talking about now?” Twilight huffed in annoyance. She was clearly getting tired of playing the sadistic mare’s games. “AAAGH!” Suddenly a loud cry of pain erupted from outside, causing everyone to tense up in alarm as they recognized the owner of the yell. “Tom?!” Twilight exclaimed in an uneasy tone while walking over to look out the window with her friends. As the alarmed ponies went to the window, Raincloud walked to the side of the balcony and peered over. Sure enough, the human was down on the ground with the brown stallion and four monsters as the group had last seen him. But something had clearly happened since they laid eyes off of the situation. It was hard to tell from this high up, but Tom appeared to be clutching his arm from some kind of injury. It didn’t take much research to find the cause of the boy’s injury. The three shadow creatures that Dust Kicker had summoned to bust down the protective charm were all circling around the human in a threatening manner. The low growls and snarls the beasts were making barely managed to carry up to the bedroom, but the few sounds the ponies could make out frightened them as if they were right next to them. Suddenly one of the creatures charged forward with blinding speed after the slayer. Tom managed to dodge the approaching beast, but failed to notice that a second monster was rushing for him. The boy yelled in pain again as the monster dug its claws into his leg as it passed him. While Twilight and the others watched the fight unfold with mouths agape in horror, they suddenly noticed that someone was chuckling with every injury the human would sustain. The outraged group looked back over to the balcony to see that the pale pegasus was smiling as she watched the fierce battle. “What’s so funny? How can you get that much enjoyment from watching another person fighting for their life?!” Twilight was appalled by the coldhearted pony. She still couldn’t believe that the pegasus could actually be so demented as to enjoy the suffering of others. Raincloud stifled the last of her outbursts before turning to face the group. She had a smile on her face that seemed too genuine to be faked. The happiness she was seemingly drawing from the fight made the ponies sick. “Heheh… sorry, I just find it so pathetic is all.” Raincloud stated in a disturbingly cold tone. Everyone was shocked to hear such a thing, even if they were unsure of exactly what she meant. Despite their slight confusion, the ponies were sure that the answer would still be disheartening. “W-what?” Twilight asked with a sense of morbid curiosity. She silently regretted prodding the pegasus for more information on the already grim statement. “I just don’t see the point of a slayer… someone given the power to right all the wrongs in life… what a joke. All the slayers in the world can’t fix every bad thing that happens, and bad things will always happen... no matter what anyone does.” Raincloud explained in a serious tone, as if she were giving the group a lecture about the facts of life. The longer she went on, the more the ponies were disturbed and mortified. Twilight thought about her words for a moment. Even though she strongly disagreed with the pegasus, she had a point. Why was only one person sent to fix the world? Why bother sending a slayer to balance the world if there would just be more evil to fight? Putting these bleak thoughts behind her, Twilight shrugged as she looked at the grim pony. She almost had a little bit of pity for her. Not caring about others the way she did must have been awfully lonely. “But does it matter?” The unicorn spoke up in a passionate tone. “Does it matter that there will always be evil? There will always be good to balance out the evil in life… I think that’s why slayers exist. I've learned a lot about the world in my studies on friendship, and I don't think that it is intrinsically evil.” She tried to persuade the pale mare to see things her way. Much to Twilight’s surprise, the pegasus scoffed in a snobbish sort of way. “Wow… Celestia really has you over a loop for all of that friendship malarkey doesn’t she? I don’t have friends… I don’t want them or need them. Everyone I have met in my life other than my brother and my colleagues have treated me like garbage. There’s no point to fight for the good people of the world… there are no good people in this world, only people with shared interests. The best bet you have is family… or people who have similar enough goals and that earn your respect enough to be called family... other than that it’s on a dog eat dog basis.” Raincloud’s harsh words cut into the ponies deeply. From how serious and genuine she sounded, the group actually started questioning their own beliefs for a brief moment. The sound of Tom screaming again made everyone snap out of their bleak thoughts. They looked down to see what was wrong, and gasped in shock when they saw the problem. Raincloud’s ghostly shadow was floating in front of Tom with its arm curved back in the aftermath of a strike. The claws on its hand were glowing a shade of bright purple, which faded after a moment back into the stark black tone that covered the shadow. “*Gasp* Oh no… Tom!” Rarity placed a hoof up to her mouth in horror as she stared at the grizzly injury across the human’s chest. Even from this distance the group could see the bloody gash, perhaps because it was pulsating with purple light. “AHHGH!” Tom cried out in pain as the effects from the shadow’s power kicked in. He clutched the wound and staggered backwards in an attempt at gaining distance on his attacker. As he let go of the wound to examine it, his healing abilities kicked in. The flames and embers seemed to be having trouble restoring the damaged tissue on the human’s chest. Despite the increased time it took, the wound eventually closed up completely, leaving no trace. “See that? Your friend can barely fight off my shadow… let alone what we have in store for all of you.” The pegasus stated with a sinister chuckle. The ponies felt uneasy about the way she said that. It was almost like she was looking forward to some kind of grand show. “And just what do you have in store?” Glitterball asked in a serious tone while walking up the stairs. The unicorn was done waiting around and doing nothing while Twilight confronted the pale mare. After all, she was representing her team and the princess, so she felt like she had to at least try to get some answers out of the pegasus while she was in a talking position. Raincloud sneered at the rainbow haired pony as she tried to take such a direct approach to getting such an important piece of information. She couldn’t believe that the princess of the night would recruit such amateurs into her secret army of monster hunters. “Like I would tell you… Oh no, our leader wants that to be a… pleasant surprise.” The pegasus air quoted with her hooves, as if she were repeating something she had been told. The vague response only added to the uneasy sense of curiosity that prevailed in the room. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her friends as they all imagined what horrific plan the hooded group had in store. “And who is your leader exactly?” Rarity inquired with a raised eyebrow. She hoped that she could get the pale mare to slip up on something, no matter how small. “You’ll meet her when she wants you to… if she wants you to that is.” Raincloud smirked at the thought of her leader facing off against the meager band of ponies. The knowledge that their leader was a female didn’t feel as satisfying as the ponies thought it would. The fact wasn’t going to be very useful to their cause, perhaps that was why the pegasus decided to tell them. Deciding that she had had her fill of staring at the perplexed group of ponies, Raincloud walked back over to the side of the balcony and continued to watch the fight taking place below. Concerned for how their friend was faring, Twilight and the others decided to look out of the window to spy on the battle as well. The ponies watched anxiously as the human fought off the three shadow creatures around him. The shadow seemed to be watching on the sidelines as the boy used his katana to keep the cat like monsters at bay. Every time one of the creatures would advance on him, he would strike it with his sword to repel the attack. The frustrated monster would growl at him before retreating a few steps back into line with its comrades. This pattern of attacking and defending continued, all the while each combatant was trying to maneuver around the other in such a way that they would gain the advantage. Suddenly one of the beasts sank its form into the ground. Its entire body flattened out as it returned to a black spot on the ground. The shadowy blob moved around the human with lightning fast speed until it was almost behind him and to the side. After getting into position, the blob rose upwards and reformed into the feral beast that it once was. The ponies widened their eyes in shock and let out a collective gasp as they anticipated the worst for the human. While Tom was turning around to find the freshly vanished creature, it lunged at him with a ferocious growl. Spotting the incoming threat, Tom stepped to the left to keep his eye on the other two creatures while this one missed its attack. Much to his surprise, another one of the creatures had disappeared. Little did he know that the monster had done the same thing that its partner had done, choosing to sink into the ground to gain enough speed to evade the human’s sight. “Tom lookout!” Twilight cried out fearfully, though she knew that the slayer wouldn’t be able to hear her. It was terrifying to be able to see everything from a high up view. The nervous unicorn could watch the creature as it moved behind the boy to ambush him. Just as Tom noticed a loud roar behind him, he turned around just in time to catch a faint glimpse of shadowy claws as they sailed straight for his face. Twilight and the others closed their eyes in fright. They couldn’t bear to watch their friend getting mauled in such a gruesome way. As they listened to the roars of the three monsters as they all jumped the human, they only hoped that he could recover fast enough to defeat them. Suddenly they heard a loud shriek, but they were surprised to hear that it wasn’t the human. The group slowly squinted their eyes open to see what had happened. As they focused on the scene below, they were suddenly filled with a sense of joyous surprise. The group could see Tom as he was recovering from the backlash of a strike with his sword. One of the creatures had a sizable gash in its neck, apparently severe enough to be fatal as it collapsed into smoke. The human quickly jumped backwards to gain distance from the other two beasts so he could appreciate his achievement. “Yes!” Twilight cheered in elation as she watched the fight. She could tell by the way he handled himself that the human had recovered his lost confidence from his previous beating. “Ah knew he would pull through!” Applejack stated with an excited smile as she shared in her friends’ celebration. Meanwhile, as the excited bunch of ponies were cheering for the human, Raincloud shook her head and shrugged in disappointment. She could tell that they didn’t know anything about fighting as they celebrated every stray hit in their favor. Ughh… am I really supposed to believe that these are the elements of harmony? The pegasus thought to herself while observing the happy faces of the group. She almost felt a twinge of jealousy for how much joy they felt over the simplest things. Still… I suppose that guy does know a little bit about what he’s doing… a little. Raincloud returned her attention to the battle below. The longer she watched the slayer fight with the shadow creatures, the more agitated she became. “Eh… screw this noise.” The pegasus muttered to herself while shifting focus over to her shadow. As its master started communicating her desires to it, the specter turned its head upwards to face her. “I’m tired of waiting around… kill him or keep him busy.” The pale mare whispered before turning around towards the ponies. The shadow snickered while setting its eyes on the human with a murderous sense of glee. The pegasus approached the doorway with an annoyed expression. The ponies inside stopped cheering once they noticed the pale blue pony watching them with a scowl on her face. “Alright, I’ve had enough waiting… time to actually do what I came here to do.” Raincloud said while sizing up the barrier in front of her. Everyone became nervous once they heard that the pegasus was going to try to break in. They didn’t want to admit it out loud for fear of frightening the others, but most of the group figured out that the pair wasn’t here just to chat with them and fight Tom. Twilight started sweating nervously as the pale mare engulfed her hoof with shadow energy. She looked back to Spike as he lay unconscious on the ground a few feet away. If Raincloud broke in with the intent of harming them, then they would be in a bad position to protect the young dragon and the other children. The purple pony noticed Glitterball stepping beside her and up to the force field. She had a nervous expression on her face just like everyone else, but she tried to appear confident as she addressed the pale pegasus. “Uh… umm… A-are you sure you want to fight us? We outnumber you five to one.” The rainbow haired unicorn stammered slightly while looking behind her at the rest of the group. Applejack and Rarity looked at her with uncertainty. The two would risk themselves to protect their friends and siblings without a second thought, but they were incredibly nervous about facing the magically powered pegasus. “R-right… you wouldn’t stand a chance against all of us.” Applejack added while putting on the bravest face she could and stepping forward. Rarity gulped nervously before walking forward to join her friends. “Certainly… y-you should just leave now while you have the chance.” The white mare stated while trying to contain her hyper nerves. Judging by how she was a little weak in the knees, everyone gathered that she wasn’t doing such a good job. “Oh brother…” Raincloud sighed as she observed the band of ponies trying to appear threatening. She almost felt bad about how she would utterly destroy them, keyword being almost in this scenario. “You guys look like you couldn’t hurt a fly… if you tried. I on the other hand have been trained in the use of magical spells and rituals that you couldn’t even imagine in your worst fever dream.” The pegasus stated while lifting her shadowy hoof up for demonstration. With a brief moment of concentration, Raincloud made the pulsating mass of darkness on her hoof shoot into the air like some sort of growing fire. The ponies stared at the pitch black flames as they made a disquieting roar, almost as if a feral beast was caged within. Once she saw that the group had been silenced by her display of power, Raincloud shrank the dark flames back into the thin veil that pulsed around her hoof. “I hope that you have all said your goodbyes… because playtime is OVER!” The pegasus yelled angrily while quickly reeling back her arm and punching the barrier. Instead of her arm flying through the force field like last time, the shadowy ball of energy around her hoof collided with the barrier and sent a shockwave through the walls of the room. Suddenly, the piece of paper that was attached to the bedroom door burst into flames. Once the paper was gone the force field appeared one last time before shattering with a loud crash that almost hurt the ponies’ ears. “AHHH!” The three fillies shrieked in fright from the sudden jolt. They all scampered backwards to get distance between themselves and the incoming threat. “Girls!” Peppermint rushed forward to assist the four mares in trying to repel the attacking pegasus. As the two members of Spirit reached onto their vests to grab some sort of defensive weapon, Twilight and Rarity lit up their horns in a slight panic while trying to think of a spell to use. The only thing Applejack could do was steel herself to counter any attacks heading her way. “Take this!” Before any of the five ponies could react, Raincloud threw her hoof forward and sent out a shockwave of energy. The invisible wave slammed into the group with unbelievable force. Their fragile bodies offered little resistance as they were sent flying from their feet and sailed across the room. “Ack!” “Oof! “Ow!” “Urk!” “Gah!” All of the ponies yelped in pain as they crashed into the back wall. The force of the impact sent them into a painful daze, causing their vision to blur and their muscles to turn to jelly. Scootaloo and her two fellow crusaders watched their family and friends getting hurled into the wall by a mere flick of the pale mare’s arm. They were horrified that she had so easily disarmed and disoriented their former saviors. “Rarity!” Sweetie Belle cried in terror while rushing to her sister’s side. “Applejack!” Applebloom followed suit by rushing over to the orange mare trying to get off of the floor. The dazed farmer tried to push through her pain to get up, but failed to get much farther than her knees. Raincloud seemed annoyed by the frightened fillies. She suddenly had a great idea of how to torture the ponies before killing them. The pegasus raised her hoof in the air and concentrated her energy onto the three fillies. The confused trio felt a strange tingling sensation around their entire bodies. When they looked down to investigate, they noticed that an aura of pulsating blackness was enveloped around them. “Wha-...! HEY!” Scootaloo yelped as she felt herself being lifted off the ground. “Hey! Put me do-…AIEE!” Sweetie Belle screamed briefly as she was violently yanked upwards and backwards. "AHH!" Applebloom shrieked as she was lifted into the air along with her fellow crusaders. The horrified fillies tried waving their arms and legs to find balance as they had the constant sensation of weightlessness. Twilight and the others looked up in shock as they realized what was going on. “Wait! Leave them alone!” Twilight demanded in a panic while staring wide eyed at the three helpless fillies floating in front of the malicious mare. “Hahahaha!” Raincloud chuckled sinisterly while jostling the three pulsating orbs that contained the panicked crusaders. “Like I would just leave them alone after going through so much trouble to pick them up… do you even know how this works?” The pegasus asked in a mocking tone. The ponies were too busy with their exploding nerves to even care about her snarky attitude. “You put them down right this instant you… you… jerk!” Rarity couldn’t even bring herself to find a more cultured insult through her alarm. She stepped forward in a nervous panic while still maintaining enough distance to not incur the wrath of the sinister pony. “Let them go! If you harm one hair on their heads Ah’ll-” Applejack walked forward boldly, but recoiled in horror as Applebloom yelped in pain. “Ack!” The filly felt a sharp pain course through her side as that particular part of the aura keeping her airborne glowed purple. “You’ll what? If you don’t want me to crush them into dust or rip them apart, I suggest you sit back and don’t do anything you won’t regret later.” Raincloud said in a threatening manner while looking at the yellow filly. Applebloom and her two friends had tears in their eyes as they failed to hide their fear. As she watched her sister fearfully, Applejack was getting flashbacks to when she was attacked by the poltergeist at their house. She could practically hear the sounds of rattling furniture as her sister was floated around against her will. “Alright… just don’t hurt them.” The orange mare stated in a slightly calmer voice while backing up. Rarity seemed to be shocked that the normally bold pony was backing off, but she decided that it was for the best and followed her example. “Good… now that I have your attention, I suppose I should get down to business. As much as I want to beat all of your heads in, I think my brother would appreciate it if I played it safe. Here’s what we’re going to do. I need you three to make a decision amongst yourselves of which one of you wants to die in exchange for the safe return of these three.” Raincloud explained while eyeing towards Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. The ponies were shocked to hear the sudden request from the mare. “What?!” The three stated in alarm while looking at each other. They hoped that they misheard the psychotic pegasus and she didn’t just ask one of them to sacrifice themselves. “What?! Are you crazy?!” Glitterball stepped in front of the three to prevent them from making any rash decisions. “Heh… maybe, but that’s beside the point. To make a long story short, my leader doesn’t want you six element wielders to get in the way of our plans… so at least one of you needs to die before I take my brother and my shadow and hit the road.” The pegasus stated in a nonchalant and cold manner. Twilight and her two friends were shivering in panic from the mere mention of such a thing. They all looked at each other with concerned expressions, each hoping that none of the others would step forward before they could talk things out. “But… b-but…” Twilight stammered fearfully as she eyed the three terrified fillies. They didn’t seem any more in favor for the idea, but they were also scared and unsure of what to do themselves. “But… T-Tom will be up here any minute!” The purple unicorn reasoned in a shaky panic. She wasn’t even sure if she believed her own words, but she needed some other option to exist, any other option other than either her or one of her best friends dying. Raincloud chuckled at the idea of the human coming to their rescue. The way she was laughing combined with the entire situation was stressing the three ponies’ nerves so much that they thought they were going to pass out. “Ha! Tom isn’t getting within a foot of this library! Not while my brother and my shadow are out there anyway.” The pegasus’s harsh words completely shattered the last hope that the ponies had. “Now hurry up and decide… you won’t like me when I’m impatient… and neither will they.” She ordered while making the three fillies yelp in pain as she pricked their sides with her energy. With the looming threat of harm coming to the innocent fillies, Twilight and her two friends turned to each other to discuss how they would go about this grim undertaking. The mere fact that they had to openly talk about which of them was going to die made them sick. “Girls… we can’t let her hurt them.” Applejack said in an uneasy and trembling voice. “I know… but…” Twilight replied while looking to the floor and gulping. “We shouldn’t have to do this… it feels wrong just talking about it.” The unicorn could barely stop her hooves from trembling. She desperately hoped that her friends wouldn’t volunteer, but at the same time she didn’t want to die. The conundrum in her head was practically shoving all other thoughts aside so that it would be the only thing present. “I know darling… b-but…*gulp*… we need to c-choose.” Rarity trailed her eyes off sadly as she tried to think rationally amid her conflicting emotions. “Hey… you aren’t choosing anything!” Glitterball chimed in anxiously. She wasn’t about to just sit by and allow anyone to die. “Shut it… they have a difficult decision to make, the least you could do is give them some space.” Raincloud instructed in a mocking way while jostling around the three captive children. Glitterball growled in frustration before sitting back down in protest. “I… I think that…” Twilight stated in a barely audible tone while trying to think. Unfortunately her two friends didn’t hear her as they each tried to resolve the problem. “Ah’ll go…” Applejack suggested. “No! I’ll go… your family needs you Applejack.” Rarity replied in a sincere tone. “Girls…” Twilight tried to chime in, but her nervousness made her voice die out before it left her throat. “Rarity… Ah appreciate the gesture… but Sweetie Belle would be lost without you.” Applejack added with tears building up in her eyes. She was almost ready to break down and cry while hugging her two friends close to her to keep them from leaving. “I’ll go!” Twilight finally shouted loud enough to be heard. The two mares grew silent and turned their attention to the nervous unicorn beside them. “Twilight…” Rarity protested in a sad tone until she was interrupted by the purple unicorn continuing. “No… it’s ok. If anyone else is going to die because of these ponies… I want it to be me.” Twilight stated with her eyes closed. The others were unsure of what to say, but they desperately wanted to talk her out of her decision. The purple mare finally sighed and got up to walk forward. “Twilight no!” Rarity and Applejack cried out in unison while reaching out to their friend as she somberly walked forward. The unicorn couldn’t bear to turn around and face her friends. There was so much she wanted to say to them, but she had to get this over with for the sake of the crusaders. On her way over to the pegasus, she glanced to the unconscious dragon off to the side. He was still resting peacefully despite all of the commotion around him. She imagined how heartbroken he would be if he woke up and she was gone. “Sorry Spike…” The unicorn stated quietly before returning her glance forward. She looked up at the three trapped fillies as she passed under them. They all had frightened expressions of protest as they watched her somberly march forward. “Twilight! Don’t do this!” Scootaloo shouted in denial while desperately trying to wriggle free of the shadowy bubble she was incased in. “Stop it! Please don’t hurt her!” Sweetie Belle pleaded in a last ditch effort at saving the purple mare. Even with her child like optimism, she had a hard time believing that she could reach through to the sadistic pegasus. “S-sorry girls… I… I have to…” Twilight could hardly keep her eyes from watering and her voice from trembling as she looked down. She couldn’t handle looking at the three fillies, she was already certain that she was scarring them for life with her death. The unicorn came to a stop in front of the pale mare, who had a smirk on her face the entire time as she enjoyed the scene before her. She chuckled as she looked the fearful purple pony in the face. She never figured that she would be the one to come forward, but she was kind of glad. “Heh… I guess you’re braver than I thought.” Raincloud commented cynically. Twilight waited nervously while the pale mare thought about how she would go about her task. Finally she reeled back her arm in preparation to strike. The pegasus focused the energy from her hoof into a point. The shadowy substance on her hoof elongated and thinned out until it was in the shape of a blade. “Any last words?” Raincloud asked while sizing up the strike in her head. The pale mare would aim directly for the unicorn’s throat, killing her quick enough while still leaving some room for suffering. Twilight gulped nervously as she stared at the pulsating weapon that would be her undoing. She felt a cold and hollow feeling in her stomach as every fiber of her being told her to either retaliate or flee. The unicorn slowly took one last glance back at her horrified friends before sighing sadly and looking down. “I’m ready… but you better keep your word.” Twilight instructed in what she thought would have been an intimidating voice, but all sense of authority had been obscured by her fear and dread. Raincloud chuckled at the harsh glare she was receiving from the unicorn. “Oh don’t worry… I am many things, but I take pride in my reputation as an honest pegasus.” The pale mare stated in a joking way. Twilight only hoped that she was at least going to honor their agreement. She would hate to die like this for nothing. The pegasus reeled her arm back and prepared to slash clean across Twilight’s neck. The unicorn instinctively tightened up the muscles in her neck in an attempt at getting away, but she tried her best to hold still. Rarity, Applejack, and everyone else in the room were all horrified by the scene about to take place before them. Rarity closed her eyes and looked away sadly, she couldn’t bear to watch her friend getting executed. Applejack and the others kept their gaze firmly placed on the two ponies, perhaps out of sheer shock and terror. Not even the three fillies could look away from the grim scene. “So long Twilight… hehe.” Raincloud snickered sinisterly while shifting her weight to put more power behind her swing. Twilight shut her eyes and clenched her teeth as she saw the pegasus swinging at her. The entire room seemed to slow down as the group watched the pegasus lash out at their friend. *Swish* The sound of something being cut rang out into the room. Everyone panicked with fright as they all averted their eyes. Twilight remained frozen in place as she tried to process what just happened. Her neck felt oddly tingly, but the sensation felt more like it was in her mind rather than actually being painful. The confused unicorn opened her eyes to see what was going on, only to jump slightly in fright. The pegasus was holding her shadowy blade right next to her throat, but she was frozen in place as if she had stopped mid swing. “Wh…wha?” Twilight muttered in confusion as she looked at the pegasus. Raincloud had her mouth agape in what appeared to be shock. Suddenly the shadowy energy from around her hoof vanished. The three fillies all crashed to the floor with a mildly painful thud as the auras around them disappeared. “AAAAGHHH!” Raincloud screamed out in agony and clutched her chest. The pale mare immediately sank to the floor and curled up in a ball while writhing in pain from a seemingly invisible injury. As they heard the pegasus yelling in pain, the rest of the ponies quickly opened their eyes and rushed over. They immediately trotted over to the purple unicorn and hugged her tightly. “Twilight!” Applejack and Rarity cheered with joy at their friend’s miraculous escape from certain doom. The cheerful moment was short lived however as the ear piercing sound of the pegasus screaming on the floor interrupted them. “What the hay is wrong with her?” Applejack asked curiously. Although she didn’t want to say she was concerned for the sadistic mare, it was disquieting to see anyone in that much pain. “I don’t know… she just froze suddenly and started screaming.” Twilight practically had to shout just to make her words audible. Suddenly the group noticed another grating noise making itself known amid the screaming of the pegasus. It sounded like a tormented soul was wailing outside, creating a high pitched noise that somehow sounded eerie and distressed at the same time. The ponies recognized that the wail sounded like the shadow creature that Raincloud controlled. Everyone rushed to the balcony and looked outside to the area below and searched for the source of the noise. It didn’t take long to find the ghostly specter floating just in front of Tom a short ways away from where they had seen him last. The human had his claws out. And judging from the way he was positioned and the way the shadow was screeching in pain, the group surmised that Tom had just slashed the creature with his spirit weapons. They looked back to the pegasus writhing in agony a short distance away and wondered if there was somehow a connection between the two. Meanwhile on the ground, Tom was admiring the deep gashes he had just made in the shadow. Although the unearthly screech the creature was producing almost made his ears bleed, he still found it satisfying to put the monster in its place. “You’re not the only one with claws that sting buddy…” The boy smirked at his victory while watching the specter writhe in pain. Suddenly the human heard a horrific screaming that was coming from the library. Dust Kicker gasped in shock as he recognized the sound. He had left his sister to her own devices before, so he had never expected her to get into so much trouble, especially not from such weak enemies as Twilight Sparkle and friends. “Raincloud!” The stallion exclaimed in alarm while spreading his wings and flying upwards. He quickly flew up to the balcony and rushed straight past the surprised ponies in his path. He didn’t care about the mission anymore. All he cared about was coming to his sibling’s aid. Twilight and the others watched as the brown pony ran to his sister’s side and knelt down beside her. Glitterball and Peppermint contemplated intervening for a moment to prevent him from taking her away, but a quick glare that sent chills down their spines from how intense it was dissuaded them from getting anywhere close to the two ponies. “Rain! What’s wrong?!” Dust Kicker asked while frantically trying to restrain the writhing mare so he could examine her injuries. “GAHHHH!!” Raincloud seemed to be trying to respond, but the pain she was feeling was so intense that she couldn’t do anything other than roll around in agony. “Screw this… hang on sis, I’m getting you out of here.” Dust Kicker stated confidently while scooping the pale mare up in his arms. He quickly rushed out onto the balcony and jumped into the air to fly away. As the two ponies rapidly disappeared from sight, the only monster left on the premises disappeared into the ground to follow after its injured master despite its own injury. Twilight and her friends were left in a state of confusion and relief as they watched the two vanish from sight. They wondered what had caused the pegasus to become so inconsolably injured, they wondered where they were going, but most of all, they were just glad that the purple unicorn was alive still. Chapter 71: Searching the DarknessTwilight and the others darted their eyes around nervously as they followed the guard through the darkened hallways of the station. Even with their large group, and the alicorn protecting them, everyone felt anxious and fearful about what lurked in the shadows. Glitterball glanced down to her locator vial apprehensively. As she expected, it was aglow with blue light. Ever since the dark matter had latched onto the building, the locators were reacting strongly, and the presence of monsters around them wasn’t helping. Due to the constant readings, the vial served as nothing more than a glowing reminder of their grim situation. “Are we almost there?” Glimmer Shine asked uneasily while looking ahead to the guard that was leading them. The nervous stallion glanced back to the restless group and shrugged uncomfortably as he thought about how to answer the question. “Almost… we should get there relatively soon.” The guard replied before turning his attention forward again. “Assuming we don’t run into more of those things.” Rainbow Dash stated nervously while darting her eyes around. She was staying near the back with her pink friend while pointing her strobe at whatever minute noise or hint of motion she noticed. “Why did you have to say that…? Now you’ve jinxed us!” Pinkie chided her cyan friend while tensing up in preparation for the horrific monsters she was now expecting to come their way. “I don’t think those things know about jinxes Pinkie… at least I hope not.” Rainbow Dash replied with a hint of doubt. “They don’t need to know about them… that’s how jinxes work!” Pinkie added while getting progressively more worked up. “Settle down guys… we don’t want to make any undue noise. Jinx or no jinx, we will be up to our eyes in those things if we keep shouting.” Twilight said in an attempt at calming her two friends. Pinkie shrugged before nodding in agreement and falling silent. Now that the quiet atmosphere had returned, the group was left to their own thoughts once more. Most of the ponies worried that they would see one of the fierce monsters just behind them or just around a corner, but Twilight was worried about something else. Even though they had taken a relatively straight path through the station, they hadn’t seen any sign of Fluttershy or Rarity, or anybody for that matter. The rooms and halls around them were dead quiet, and aptly devoid of life. If any ponies had been through here, it hadn’t been in a long time. “What is wrong Twilight?” Luna spoke up while glancing back at the troubled unicorn. Twilight looked up and immediately realized that she hadn’t been hiding her worries as well as she thought she was. “Oh, umm… *sigh* I guess I’m just worried about Fluttershy and Rarity. We haven’t seen any sign of them… or anyone else.” Twilight explained in a concerned tone. “I am certain that they are fine. We will find them… you just need to believe that we will.” Luna replied with a reassuring smile. “Right.” Twilight stated while nodding in agreement. She knew in her heart that her friends were still alive and that they were just waiting to be rescued by someone. The unicorn only hoped that she could reach them before it was too late. As they continued on their path, the ponies became tenser by the passing second. Every minute that passed felt like an eternity as they hurried along every chance they got. It didn’t help that the one leading them was just as nervous as they were. The guard darted his eyes around fearfully while walking. He seemed to be dreading every inch of progress that he made as if he were expecting to be snatched up at a moment’s notice by one of the monsters that he thought he had escaped from forever. The stallion wasn’t the only nervous one in the group, however. Peppermint was just as unnerved by the darkness surrounding the ponies. He was almost as nervous as Twilight and her friends, despite his training in combating the supernatural. Apparently, all the training in the world can’t prepare someone for actually facing the things that lurk in the dark. Spotting something up ahead that caught her eye, Twilight slowed down for a moment and looked around. She suddenly realized that they had come across the bathrooms. Two doors sat across from each other with the typical pink and blue pictures beside them denoting which room belonged to which gender. “Hey guys, hold up a minute.” Twilight spoke up, eliciting the group to come to a slow halt. “Please don’t tell me you need to go at a time like this.” The guard at the head of the group groaned nervously. “No, it’s not that. Our friends were on their way to the bathroom before everything happened. Maybe they are still in there?” Twilight replied in an optimistic manner. “Either way, it’s worth a look to see if anyone is in there. I’ll search the men’s room, you guys take a look in there.” Glimmer Shine suggested while pointing to the female restroom. “Alright.” Twilight nodded in agreement. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie stepped forward to join their friend as she approached the door. “We’ll keep watch out here. Be sure to yell if you find anything unpleasant.” Glitterball stated while taking one last glance at the two parties before they opened their respective doors. “Same goes for you… I would rather not come back out here to find all of you missing if you can help it.” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous chuckle while hoping that her words wouldn’t come true. “We’ll try…” Glitterball replied with a lighthearted smile. With caution in mind, Glimmer Shine opened his door and slowly walked inside. Taking this as a hint to move faster, Twilight nodded to her two companions before opening the door and slowly stepping inside. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stepped in ahead of their unicorn friend with their strobes at the ready. The door shut behind them, making them jump slightly in surprise. Once they calmed down, they glanced to their lavender leader and waited for her to make a move. “Fluttershy, Rarity, are you guys in here?” Twilight spoke up softly while walking forward. All of the stalls were open slightly, but the doors were still concealing anything that was inside. “Anyone in here…? We’re not going to hurt you.” Twilight spoke again while approaching one of the stalls. Rainbow Dash and her pink partner pointed their strobes ahead as the unicorn prepared to open the door. With a swift motion, the door swung open. Despite their tense nerves, the two ponies managed to point their weapons inside with rapid synchronization. Nothing was inside but a toilet, some toilet paper, and the stark shadows that lay in wait just outside of the light being cast by the unicorn. With the first stall turning up empty, the trio turned their attention to the next stall. Twilight hovered her hoof near the door hesitantly. Taking a quick glance at her team for confidence, she saw that they nodded as a sign that they were ready. Despite how ready her friends might have been, the unicorn herself wasn’t sure if she was ready to open the door. Swallowing her fear, Twilight quickly pushed the door open. Just as before, the stall was empty and devoid of any movement. The ponies breathed a quick sigh of relief as their search turned up fruitless yet again. They would rather find nothing than find a horrific monster waiting to pounce on them and eat their faces off. Not wanting to waste time, the three mares spread out and stood in front of the three remaining stalls. Looking at each other for confidence, they all held out their hooves and prepared to open their respective doors. Rainbow Dash mouthed a brief countdown for her two friends so they could move in unison. On three, the ponies opened the doors and looked inside with their weapons at the ready. Thankfully, all three of the stalls were just as empty as the first two. Although it was comforting in a way to not see anything in the stalls, it was also equally disheartening. “I guess they must have moved when the monsters came.” Twilight shrugged at the lack of progress on finding her friends. Now she had no idea where they could have been, and that thought made her look down sadly. “Don’t worry, we’ll see them again.” Rainbow Dash said reassuringly while offering a comforting hoof on the purple mare’s shoulder. “Yeah, they are probably looking for us right now. I’ll bet they are just as worried about us as we are about them.” Pinkie added with a confident smile. Seeing her friends with such certain expressions made Twilight’s spirits lift. “Hopefully Tom can find them and lead them back to the others. I’m sure that they found a safe place to hide until then.” Twilight said with a comforted tone. Now that most of her concerns were gone, she could realistically think about how the two mares would try to flee from danger. Knowing Fluttershy, she would have most likely raced to the safest possible location reachable in her position. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps in the dark.” Rainbow Dash suggested nervously. Twilight and Pinkie nodded in agreement before turning to join their cyan friend in exiting the bathroom. Once they opened the door and stepped out, they found everyone waiting just outside and looking at them. Even Glimmer Shine was present, having finished his search of the other restroom. The disappointed expression on the stallion’s face told that his search was fruitless as well. “Any luck?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously. “Unfortunately no… They must have gone somewhere else after everything turned bad.” Twilight announced their bleak findings to the group. “Probably… they are smart after all. Maybe Tom found them and they’re already back in the safe room with the others.” Glitterball suggested lightheartedly. “Here’s hoping… They have things better than us if they are.” Rainbow Dash said while shrugging and walking to the back of the group. “Maybe we should keep moving… It isn’t safe out here after all.” The lieutenant suggested nervously while peering behind the group. He seemed to be even more anxious than Twilight and her two friends were. Perhaps he wasn’t as accustomed to paranormal events and frightful creatures as they were. The thought of such a tolerance having already been formed made the purple mare shrug in disappointment. “Yeah… I guess it isn’t.” Twilight stated while glancing around at the others to take in their opinion. Nobody objected to the idea of moving forward. After all, it wasn’t safe anywhere in the dark hallways of the station, so the less time they spent wandering around the better. With this thought in mind, the group continued on their way forward. The guard kept them going in the right direction, while everyone else kept their eyes open for anything that might try to ambush them in the dark. Once the group came to an intersection, they made a right turn and continued down another hallway. Without any knowledge of the building they were in, all of the halls blended into a gray blur for Twilight and the others. The only thing keeping their hopes high was the trust they had in the lieutenant to lead them to safety. Twilight and her two friends clung to each other protectively as they brought up the rear. Out of all the fear-inducing positions they could have been in, they decided that the back of the group was the safest. Unless something came from behind them, they wouldn’t be caught off guard. Despite this knowledge, the three mares were still incredibly nervous. Twilight herself was probably the most frightened. Pinkie Pie had her unending happiness and childlike energy to ward off her fears, and Rainbow Dash was braver than most other ponies, but all Twilight had going for her was her wits, and they weren’t doing much in terms of alleviating her fears. Every corner or open door the group passed made the unicorn dart her head sideways to watch them pass by. She would stare at the openings until they were behind her, at which point she would shift her gaze forward to another possible threat that needed surveillance. Noticing her friend acting extremely nervously, Pinkie Pie felt the need to speak up and brighten the mood. Although she was scared herself, she still had to make an effort to lessen her friends’ fears if at all possible. “How are you doing Twilight? You look nervous.” Pinkie pointed out with mild concern. The pink mare hoped that small talk would serve to comfort herself and her two friends. And if it didn’t, she had no idea what would. Twilight glanced beside her to see her two friends staring back. She had been too focused on her surroundings to pay attention to the fact that she wasn’t alone. Had she kept her eyes on her friends, she might have prevented herself from getting so scared. “Oh… umm…” Twilight muttered while trying to think of a valid response. She didn’t exactly want to say that she was about to pass out from shocked nerves, but it was the truth after all. “That’s because she is nervous Pinkie… we all are.” Rainbow Dash spoke up in place of the unicorn. She could recognize the absolute fright in her eyes, mostly because she had seen it before and experienced it herself. “It’s ok Pinkie… we’ll be fine.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. She could tell that the pink pony was just trying to lighten the mood. “Yeah… I know.” Pinkie shrugged in a disheartened manner. Her brief attempt at cheering up her friends was just about as successful as she expected. Suddenly, a faint noise drifted over from an adjacent hallway. Twilight stopped mid stride and perked her ears up. The only thing she could see down the hall was pitch blackness, but she was certain that she heard something. Noticing the purple unicorn pausing, the rest of the group slowly came to a halt. They looked around to see what might have spooked her, only to find nothing out of the ordinary. “What’s wrong?” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone while gripping her strobe tightly and walking over to the halted mare. “I heard something… it came from down there.” Twilight explained while pointing down the dark hallway. Glitterball reached down to the flashlight on her vest and flipped it on. The beam projected farther than her magical light did, revealing more of the hallway. Even with the added light, not much could be seen to reveal the source of the threat. She stepped forward slightly while keeping her strobe trained on the darkness ahead. If anything moved, she was prepared to annihilate it in a flurry of light. “I don’t see anything.” Glitterball reported uneasily while glancing back at the three mares behind her. Twilight and her two friends watched anxiously as they tried to find out what had made the noise. “I’m not getting anything on the locator.” Peppermint said while holding up his glowing vial. Glitter shrugged as she remembered how her own locator had reacted ever since the lights went out. “The locators aren’t doing anything for us right now with so much activity around us. Remind me to tweak them when we get out of here.” Glitterball said in a mildly sarcastic tone. “Guys… can we get going? I don’t want to stick around here any longer than I have to.” The guard suggested nervously from the front of the group. Twilight and the others glanced over to the white stallion and froze in shock at what they saw. Numerous black shapes were waiting in the darkness behind the lieutenant and Princess Luna. The shapes were so blurry that only their silhouettes could be seen, but the shapes themselves weren’t so terrifying on their own. Glowing red slits in varying patterns ran up and down each shape, giving whatever creature they belonged to another layer of mystery and eeriness. “What’s wrong?” The white stallion asked uneasily while looking around at the shocked expressions of the ponies in front of him. “Don’t… make any… sudden… movements.” Glimmer Shine explained in a calm tone while slowly raising his strobe in front of him. Before either the princess or the guard could process what was going on, a soft growl rose up from behind them. The two slowly turned around to see what was going on. Once she saw the creatures standing in the darkness in front of her, Luna gasped quietly but made sure not to move suddenly. The white stallion beside her, however, did not react quite so calmly. “AHH!” The lieutenant yelped in fright and backed up. In response, the creatures howled fiercely and started to rush forward. “Ok, time for plan B!” Glitterball yelled while opening fire on the pack of monsters. With the combined efforts of Glitterball and her small troop, the blasts from the strobes managed to cut down the majority of all of the attacking monsters. Luna lit up her horn and focused her energy. With a concentrated blast, she eradicated the remaining few creatures. As the last few remaining puffs of black smoke disappeared into the air, the ponies breathed a brief sigh of relief. “Let’s hurry up and get to the equipment room.” Glimmer Shine suggested eagerly while scanning the area ahead for any stragglers. “I agree… the less time spent out here, the better.” Glitterball replied while cautiously walking forward. Everyone else nodded in agreement as they slowly regained their senses and allowed their racing hearts to slow. “That was some nice shooting you did back there.” Twilight said while glancing over to Rainbow Dash. She was amazed at just how accurate the cyan mare had been while firing at the approaching monsters. “Thanks… I guess I’m getting used to this thing.” Rainbow Dash replied cheerfully while twirling her strobe around by the small chain on the side of its cap. “If you ask nicely, we might let you keep one when all of this is over.” Glimmer Shine stated playfully while glancing back at the two mares. “It would sure come in handy for dealing with jerks.” Rainbow Dash said with a chuckle. “These don’t work on ponies… you know that right?” Glitterball asked curiously. “Yeah… but they don’t know that.” Rainbow Dash replied with a devilish grin. Just as the group was turning to leave, Twilight heard a low growl beside her. The incredibly short distance of the growl made her nerves tense up. It sounded like it was right next to her face. She quickly darted her head sideways to see what it was, only to see a familiar dark shape with two glowing red slits for eyes standing not two inches from her. The monster in front of her was a darkling. Twilight noticed that the creature was already about to pounce her. There was no way that she could channel her magic to her horn fast enough to defend herself. With a loud snarl, the beast leapt forward at the unicorn. “AHH!” Twilight yelled in fright and shut her eyes tightly. She heard the sounds of footsteps rapidly approaching, followed by the sound of flesh being pierced, and the shrill yelp of the creature in front of her. Once she opened her eyes to see what had happened, she was surprised to see the darkling on the floor with a glowing blue sword sticking through its mid-section. Holding onto the sword, was a familiar blue suited human. “Tom!” Twilight said with a cheerful smile. Her heart was still racing from her near death experience, so she was overjoyed to see the slayer rescue her. “You know… we have got to stop meeting like this. You were almost this thing’s chew toy.” Tom stated lightheartedly. “I’m trying to stay out of trouble… I swear.” Twilight replied with a nervous chuckle. “Did you find Rarity and Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked eagerly while putting a reassuring hoof on her recently endangered friend. “Unfortunately no… I think they might be in the equipment room, though. That seems to be the only other place with people in it.” Tom said with a troubled tone. The news that their friends were still missing made the ponies’ hearts sink. “Let’s hope they are… If they didn’t make it in there, then they are probably-” The lieutenant started to speak when he noticed the three mares frowning sadly. “Umm… I mean… *sigh* I’m sure they’re fine.” The white stallion said in what he hoped would be a comforting tone. Twilight and the others didn’t change their sullen expressions as they thought about what could have happened to their friends. “Well, we aren’t going to find them by staying here. Let’s get moving… they are probably waiting for us right now.” Glitterball suggested in an uplifting tone. “Yeah… let’s go.” Twilight said in agreement. “Umm… now that your human friend is here, do you think that he could… you know.” The guard asked in a nervous tone. In response, Tom smirked and walked to the front of the group. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay in front.” Tom said in an understanding manner. The white stallion breathed a sigh of relief now that he didn’t need to be the first to run into any danger. Now that the slayer was with them, the ponies felt much more at ease while walking down the dark corridors of the station. The passing shadows and the occasional far-off howl of some unseen monster still made them nervous and uneasy, but they knew that their human friend would keep them safe at any cost. Taking a few moments to use his senses to get an idea of what was around him, Tom looked around stoically as he scanned the area for monsters or other surprises. He seemed to be a lot more confident in what he was doing and where he was going than the white guard pony behind him. “Feel anything?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while walking faster to catch up to the human. Tom turned to face the yellow stallion and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a little hard to pinpoint individual creatures with how many there are in this place… not to mention the dark matter outside. All I can feel at the moment is large clusters of them throughout the building, and if I concentrate I might be able to tell if they are near us.” Tom explained with a mildly frustrated tone. “Heh… you’re doing a lot better than we are in that department. All we have are these… and they are doing next to nothing right now.” Glitterball stated in a lighthearted manner while holding up her locator for reference. “Well… if you throw it at one of them it might distract them. Shadow creatures are probably dumb enough to be swayed by pretty lights.” Tom replied jestingly. The ponies laughed warmly at his comment. It felt good for the group to be able to smile and laugh in such a bleak situation. Suddenly, Tom paused and tilted his head curiously. He used his senses a few more times before crouching and moving to the wall. While the ponies watched with confused expressions, the human quickly walked to the nearby corner and peered his head around it. “What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while observing the human. “Sshh!” Tom turned around and hushed the group of ponies while motioning for them to be quiet. Before anyone could ask any further questions, a series of growls and shrieks rang out from nearby. The ponies immediately froze up and fell silent. They looked at each other nervously before settling their eyes on the human crouching by the wall. Tom jerked his head towards the corner, eliciting the group to cautiously move closer. Luna, Glimmer Shine, Peppermint, and Glitterball slowly crept behind Tom and looked around the corner. Feeling curious, and seeing her two friends’ curious expressions, Twilight decided to take a look on all of their behalves. The unicorn slowly moved around the quiet group looking around the corner and peered around them. She widened her eyes in shock and immediately ducked behind the safety of the corner when she saw what was just down the hallway. Dozens upon dozens of shadowy black figures in all shapes and sizes were crammed into the small hallway. There were glowing red eyes everywhere, all of them moving around and blinking in a disturbing display. It was like a light show at a Nightmare Night party, only the sound effects here were far more spine-tingling than any shabby party Twilight and the others had been to. Every low growl or high pitched screech that the creatures made blended into an all-encompassing ambience that filled the air. Twilight could identify and make out every feral noise she had heard from the monsters she had seen in the station, and several that were strange and terrifyingly new to her. “My word…” Luna exclaimed quietly. She was almost at a loss for words at the situation before her. She had never seen so many evil creatures gathered in one place. “There must be dozens of them…” Twilight stated in a shocked tone while backing away from the wall defensively. From what she saw, the monsters hadn’t noticed them, but that could change at any moment. “Let me guess… the equipment room is that way.” Tom asked while glancing over to the white stallion. He nodded slowly while gulping at the horrific sight just around the corner. “Yes… it’s actually just down that hallway.” The lieutenant explained in a hopeless tone. Tom growled in annoyance at the obstacle in his path. “What are we going to do? I’m not sure if we can take that many of them… even with five strobes.” Peppermint observed anxiously while glancing around at his teammates and Twilight’s small band of friends. “Maybe we can find a way around… surely this isn’t the only way to get to the equipment room.” Twilight reasoned nervously. She hated the idea of being out in the dark hallways any longer, but she could also feel her spine melting to the floor from the unnerving choir of noises coming from just around the corner. Meanwhile, while the ponies were quietly trying to find a way to circumvent the large obstacle in their path, Tom was shrugging and slowly getting to his feet. He casually walked into the middle of the hallway and turned to face the horde of monsters. Pinkie Pie noticed the human standing in harm’s way and froze up in fear. She gasped in shock and felt her blood run cold as she watched the boy doing the worst possible thing that could be done at the moment. “Tom, what are you doing?!” Pinkie asked in a frantic whisper. Everyone else turned their attention to the stoic human and gasped in shock. Tom merely turned his head and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m getting tired of walking around here and doing nothing. I’m going to clear us a path.” Tom stated casually before turning his attention forward. While Twilight and the others desperately tried to wave the human back over to the relative safety of their hallway, he slowly started walking towards the crowd of monsters. “What are we going to do?! There’s no way he can take that many of them on! And once they’re done with him, they will be coming for us!” The guard pony said in a fearful panic, though everyone else was too preoccupied with watching the bold human to notice. Tom approached the monsters with an unwavering blank expression. He seemed to be bored with his current situation, and almost appeared as if he were thinking about something to do later on in the day. One of the beasts paused and turned its head down the hallway. It started growling violently as it noticed the human. With a drastic change in tone, all of the monsters started howling angrily at their approaching prey. Before the horde of monsters could react, Tom raised his arm out in front of him and opened his palm. With a blinding flash of light, the human projected a beam of positive energy towards the monsters. The ponies shielded their eyes and watched in amazement as the beam obscured the crowd of creatures from view. The monster’s terrifying cries and howls immediately turned to cries and howls of a different variety. They all screamed in pain as the slayer’s beam of light cut through them and pushed them back. Tom kept walking forward while putting more effort into projecting his light. With one final push, he yelled fiercely as the light raced down the hallway. Once the light died down, there was nothing left in the quiet hallway other than a few wisps of black smoke. Tom dusted his hands off and smiled in satisfaction. He then turned around and looked to the awestruck ponies watching him. “Are you guys going to get over here? It’s kind of dark here… and you know how I feel about the dark.” Tom exclaimed while glancing over to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. The two mares were too busy processing the amazing feat they had just witnessed to laugh at the boy’s quip. “That was incredible! How did you do that?” The lieutenant asked while walking out along with the rest of the group. “Well… I don’t really think shadow creatures mix well with light… especially positively charged light.” Tom stated lightheartedly. “Ok… let’s ignore the fact that you just erased an entire hallway full of monsters with your bare hand for a minute. We should probably get going now… we need to get on top of this situation before more ponies get hurt.” Glitterball said with an amazed smile on her face. Even though she was trying to get things back on track, she still felt just as impressed as the others did at the human’s amazing feat. “Alright... lead the way. I doubt there are any more of them in the general vicinity of that direction.” Tom said while pointing down the hallway. The white stallion nodded before walking ahead of the group to lead them to safety. After a short walk, the group finally made it to the end of the hallway. The guard smiled and breathed a sigh of relief as he turned to face a door with a small sign beside it. The ponies’ faces lit up once they read what it said. In bright letters, the words ‘equipment room’ were plastered across the sign. “Finally… we’re here.” The guard pony stated happily. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s head inside already!” Rainbow Dash suggested eagerly. With a quick nod, the white stallion swiftly proceeded to knock on the door. After a brief wait, the group could hear movement from the other side. The door finally creaked open slowly to reveal another guard pony peeking out cautiously. Once he saw the group waiting outside, he shifted his curious expression to a surprised one. “Lieutenant…? I’m surprised to see that anyone else made it.” The guard said in a pleased tone. “We have a sort of safe area set up in the main room, but we figured that this would be a better place to set up.” The lieutenant said with a smile. He then turned to his eager group and decided that he had better not keep them waiting any longer. “Can we come in?” The lieutenant asked curiously, although his request was cursory at best. “Of course, right this way.” The guard replied while backing up to let the ponies in. With a collective sigh of relief, the group quickly made their way inside the fortified room. Once inside, Twilight and the others looked around to see a small gathering of other guards and civilian ponies amid the various supplies scattered around. One pony in particular that Twilight and her two friends immediately noticed, was a familiar yellow pegasus with pink hair standing off in the corner. “Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while rushing forward. Fluttershy looked up just in time to see her three friends rushing towards her, and just in time to watch them crash into her to pull her into a group hug. “Girls!” Fluttershy said happily. Although she was being hugged a little too tightly for comfort, she didn’t care at all. All that mattered at that moment in time was embracing three ponies that she never thought she would see again. “We were so worried about you!” Rainbow Dash stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes. She could hardly contain her excitement as she smiled from ear to ear. “Yeah! When we went to the bathrooms and didn’t find you, we thought something awful must have happened!” Pinkie added cheerfully. The yellow mare couldn’t help but smile at the lengths her friends went to just find her. “Well… me and Rarity stayed there for a while before moving. We met some people along the way and eventually ended up here.” Fluttershy explained while thinking back to her journey from the bathroom to where she was currently. “Where is Rarity anyway?” Twilight asked curiously. Her heart sunk as she watched Fluttershy frown from the mention of the white unicorn. “Fluttershy… what’s wrong?” She asked with a more concerned expression. The pegasus shrugged sadly in response. “She got attacked on the way here. One of those things threw a chair at her and hit her in the head… she got a concussion from it. We thought she was going to be fine, but then she just… she just…” Fluttershy explained sadly. She allowed fresh tears to fall to the floor as she stifled a quiet sob. “Take us to her Fluttershy. Maybe Tom can heal her.” Twilight suggested in a serious tone of voice. The yellow mare looked up in surprise at the mention of the human. “Tom is here?” Fluttershy asked while looking over to the rest of the group. Her face brightened up slightly when she noticed the boy standing in the front of the room. “Yeah, we found him on our way here. I’ll go get him, you guys go see Rarity.” Rainbow Dash suggested while walking towards the other side of the room quickly. Twilight and Pinkie Pie quickly followed Fluttershy through a doorway and into another section of the equipment room. Once inside, the trio could see several other ponies scattered around the room, but they were more focused on what was in the center of the room. Lying on the floor in the middle of the room, Rarity was being tended to by a single guard pony. The white stallion was operating a small oxygen mask that was clasped over the unicorn’s mouth. The guard constantly squeezed the bag over the mask in rhythm to give air to the unconscious pony. “Oh my gosh…” Twilight exclaimed in shock while putting a hoof up to her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The sight of her friend in such poor shape made the purple mare feel horrible. “She’s been like this for the last few minutes… we can’t get any kind of response out of her.” Fluttershy explained sadly. The three turned to see Rainbow Dash rushing into the room with Tom following suit. The cyan mare gasped in shock once she saw the unconscious unicorn lying on the floor a short distance away. “Rarity… no…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a distraught tone while staring at the motionless mare. The sight of another pony having to make constant efforts just to keep her friend alive nearly drove the pegasus to tears. “Can you… can you help her?” Twilight asked hesitantly while glancing over to Tom. She dreaded the thought of him being unable to revive the unicorn. “I’ll see what I can do.” Tom replied in a reassuring tone. He then walked over to the unconscious mare and knelt down. The guard pony looked at the human curiously as he concentrated silently. He decided to leave the boy to his own devices and continued pumping oxygen into the white pony’s lungs. Meanwhile, Tom was focusing on saving her life rather than maintaining it. After a brief moment of concentration, a blue light projected from Tom’s hand and flowed into Rarity’s body. The ponies watched anxiously as the boy focused all of his energy on healing the unicorn. Tom groaned uncomfortably as the stress on his body piled up. His arm felt like it was going to fall off, and the rest of his body felt like it would follow suit. Everyone held their breath as they watched Rarity for signs of life. They felt like they might need that oxygen mask for themselves in a few moments with how much stress they could feel. When suddenly, all at once, the white mare shot up and gasped for air. The guard pony took the oxygen mask off of her and let her sit up. Rarity breathed rapidly while looking around in a shocked and confused state. She looked like somebody had just jammed a syringe full of adrenaline into her chest. “Where am I?” Rarity asked in between breaths. Rather than receiving an answer to her question, the white mare was suddenly smothered by her friends piling onto her in excitement. Although they were eager to see the unicorn, the four tried their best to temper their excitement for fear of harming their friend. “Rarity! I’m so glad to see that you’re awake!” Fluttershy said cheerfully while backing up and offering the white mare some room to breathe. Rarity took a moment to regain her senses before looking to her friends with a shocked expression. “I was… knocked out? The last thing I remember was walking into the equipment room, and then… everything gets a bit fuzzy after that.” Rarity said while mentally trying to ascertain what happened to her. “You blacked out for a while there… we thought you weren’t going to wake back up.” Fluttershy explained. The unicorn glanced over to the human kneeling in front of her and smiled. “I suppose that means you must have healed me? Thank you, Tom… I don’t know how I can possibly repay you.” Rarity said with a warm smile of gratitude. “Seeing you alive and well is payment enough for me.” Tom replied while getting up and taking a moment to rest. The human’s response only made the unicorn smile even more. “Now that we’re all together, what are we going to do? Those things have the station overrun.” A brown unicorn stallion asked while walking up to the group. Fluttershy and Rarity immediately recognized the guard, but Twilight and the others could only identify him through his rank of lieutenant. Before anyone could speak up, Luna walked into the room with a pensive expression. She seemed to have a certain level of confidence about her, so the ponies figured that she had something in mind. “I was just about to get to that, lieutenant. I believe I have something in mind that will help us.” Luna explained with a smirk. Chapter 86: Critical Condition“Ugh…” Twilight groaned in a tired daze as she suddenly came to her senses. She slowly opened her eyes, only to be greeted by a blurry haze of colors and lights. Her whole body felt cold and numb, but her leg felt sore. Remembering what had happened to her before she passed out, the unicorn quickly realized why her leg was hurting. Trying to think any further ahead was challenging for her however. Anything more recent than a few minutes ago seemed to be just as blurry as her vision. The foggy mess of lights that made up her vision started to clear as the rest of her body started waking up. She could hear what sounded like ponies talking around her. Once her vision cleared completely, she realized that she was lying on the floor staring up at a familiar chandelier. I’m in the foyer? Twilight thought to herself in a daze. The importance of this realization wouldn’t come to her until a few moments later. Once she put two and two together, she shot up in excitement to view her surroundings. Or at least she made a good attempt. “Hrk… gah…” Twilight groaned as she pushed herself up using her arms. Her muscles ached and her head was spinning. She had to remain still for a moment to prevent the dizzy feeling in her head from causing any trouble. “Hey…! She’s waking up!” Twilight heard a stallion she didn’t recognize exclaim eagerly. She looked ahead to see a few guards looking at her while one backed up and waved at others to get their attention. From where she was positioned, she figured that she was downstairs in the foyer lying on one of the couches in the middle of the room. Taking a quick look down at her leg, she noticed that the shabby makeshift bandage that once adorned her injury was now replaced by a clean white cloth. As she turned her body sideways and planted her hooves on the ground while slouching forward, Twilight noticed several ponies walking downstairs and into the room to see her. Among the ponies present were Peppermint, Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, Applejack, and Rarity. “Twilight!” Rarity and Applejack exclaimed in unison before rushing over to the purple mare with excited expressions. Twilight smiled as the pair gently grabbed ahold of her and held her in a warm hug. “Girls! I’m so glad you’re ok.” Twilight stated as her friends released her and stepped back to give Peppermint room to step forward. “How are you feeling?” Peppermint asked while shining a small flashlight in the unicorn’s eyes to examine her pupils. Twilight flinched slightly from the unexpected examination before trying her best to keep her eyes open in cooperation. “My head is a little fuzzy, and my leg still hurts… but I feel a lot better than I did before.” Twilight stated with a grateful smile. “That’s good. You were pretty banged up when we found you out in the hallway.” Peppermint explained with a relieved expression. The stallion’s words suddenly made Twilight remember the rest of what had happened before she passed out. She widened her eyes in shock as she thought about the cyan mare she was with. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked in an alarmed tone while looking to her friends anxiously. Everyone frowned sadly as the pegasus was brought up. The group’s somber reactions only made the purple mare even more fearful. “She’s alive… but she’s in bad shape.” Peppermint said with a sympathetic frown while trying to calm the uneasy unicorn. “I want to see her. Where is she?” Twilight asked again while trying to get up. She winced in pain and sat back down as she tried putting weight on her bad leg. “We have her at the back of the room with Sunspot. I think for now you should just rest and focus on keeping weight off your leg.” Peppermint suggested with a hesitant tone. Twilight could tell that he was trying to indirectly keep her from seeing the pegasus. “I don’t care about my leg! Rainbow Dash got hurt while trying to protect me. I want to see her!” Twilight said while toughing through the pain and shuffling over to the side of the couch. She had to hold on to the piece of furniture for support, but she was determined to see her friend. “Twilight, Ah really think you should-“ Applejack started to speak up to keep the unicorn from moving any further, but she was interrupted by the purple mare gasping in shock once she got around the side of the couch. “Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed while staring ahead with wide eyes. Sure enough, the cyan mare was at the back of the room as the others had claimed, but she looked like she just came from a war zone. Rainbow Dash was lying on a pad on the floor motionless. She was covered from head to hoof in bandages of varying sizes, most of which were stained red. There was a tube leading into her arm that led to an I.V bag placed on a makeshift stand. To top everything off, there was a small box shaped monitor next to the pegasus connected to her via another tube. The monitor had a pulsing line on it that seemed to be keeping track of the cyan mare’s heartrate. A monotonous beep sounded out every few seconds, confirming the unicorn’s suspicions that the odd device was indeed a heart monitor. Twilight felt her legs wobbling as she stared at her friend lying on the floor with so much medical equipment around her. The group didn’t have the luxury of bringing much equipment with them, but the unicorn could tell that they were using everything they had on the pegasus. Applejack and Rarity caught the unicorn as she stumbled backwards. Her face was pale and her legs were trembling as they helped her to a seated position. They perfectly understood what she was going through. After all, they had known the pegasus for a longer period of time than the purple mare had. “Is she… is she ok?” Twilight asked while looking to Peppermint with pleading eyes. The stallion looked down for a moment and frowned sympathetically as he tried to think of a gentle way to put his next statement. “We’re doing our best to keep her alive, but she is losing a lot of blood. We bandaged up everything we could on the surface, but… I think she’s bleeding internally.” Pepper explained sadly. Applejack and Rarity started tearing up as they were faced with the harsh truth of their friend’s condition again. It was painful enough for them to watch the red haired stallion trying to save the pegasus before, but now they had to watch Twilight’s heart getting ripped out along with theirs. “But… but…” Twilight stammered in an exasperated stupor. “She’s going to be ok right? You can help her… right?” She said in a hopeful tone. Everyone frowned sadly as they realized that the unicorn was in denial. “Twilight darling… I think what Pepper is trying to say is… is…” Rarity tried to level with the purple mare, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. Tears formed in her eyes as she tried her hardest to complete her sentence. “I don’t think she is going to survive… I’m sorry.” Peppermint said while looking down sadly. He had to hold back a few tears himself as he started getting choked up from delivering the tragic news. Twilight glanced over to Rainbow Dash and stared at her with a pale expression. All of the sadness she had been holding back exploded as tears welled up in her eyes. The unicorn sniffled and whined uncontrollably as sobs began forming in the back of her throat. Finally, she turned to her friends and buried her face into the nearest shoulder available to her, which just so happened to be Rarity’s. The white mare burst into tears as well as Twilight cried into her fur. Applejack joined her two friends in letting out their emotions as she gave up on holding back a fit of crying. Glitterball turned and walked away while silently crying to herself. Peppermint looked down sadly as he tried to hold himself together. Glimmer Shine and any of the guards watching the distraught mares lowered their heads somberly as Twilight and the others wept openly. Even the few captive ponies in hoods felt an uneasy feeling of somberness as they watched or listened to the group. After a few minutes of crying uncontrollably, Twilight walked over to the cyan mare and sat down next to her. She looked down at the unconscious pegasus’s face while sniffling and quietly sobbing as she worked the last of her emotions out. Rainbow Dash looked so peaceful as she laid there breathing slowly. If she wasn’t covered from head to hoof in bandages, one might not think that she was possibly dying. Applejack and Rarity walked over and sat next to the grieving unicorn. They stared down at their friend, each one dealing with their emotions in their own way. The three mares all thought about everything they had done with the cyan pony, and everything she had done for them. If it hadn’t been for Rainbow Dash, none of them would have gotten their cutie marks as early as they did, and they might not even be living the lives they do now. “How did it happen… if you don’t mind me asking?” Applejack asked while turning to the purple mare with a sympathetic frown. She knew that it must have been a painful experience to recall. “She got stabbed repeatedly with scissors…” Twilight spoke in a cold and hollow tone while staring down at the pegasus sadly. “Scissors? Were they floating by themselves?” Rarity asked uneasily. “No… they were being held by a ghostly woman in a white dress… a human.” Twilight explained while turning to the white unicorn. “You mean you saw the lady with the scissors?” Applejack asked in a surprised tone. “We got attacked by her earlier… we didn’t see her, but we heard her laughing… and her footsteps.” She explained with a nervous shudder while recalling the woman’s chilling laughter. “How could someone enjoy the suffering of others so much that they laugh while murdering someone with a pair of scissors?” Twilight asked in a disgusted tone. She felt sick just thinking about the wicked smile the woman had on her face as she was stabbing Rainbow Dash. The entire bloody scene played out in her head over and over again. She could still hear the cyan mare yelling in pain as the ghostly human brought the scissors down again and again. “If this past week has taught me anything… it’s that there is evil in this world. I suppose there can’t be true good without true evil.” Rarity said with a downcast expression. As she turned to look away from Rainbow Dash, Twilight found herself glancing behind her at the orange pegasus laying a short distance away. Sunspot looked to be far less injured than the cyan mare, but she still looked like she was in bad shape. There was a particularly large bandage on her mid-section that was stained red nearly all the way through. Her left arm was also in a makeshift splint to keep it stationary. “What happened to Sunspot?” Twilight asked curiously while turning back to her friends. “We don’t know for sure… she crashed through a window when we were on our way back here. We think she was attacked by another ghost with an axe.” Applejack explained while glancing back at the orange pegasus and frowning sadly. Almost every one of her friends had either gone missing or gotten injured in some way. The farm pony wanted to cling to her remaining companions as strongly as she could, and she vowed to try her hardest to find her missing friends. “I’m regretting joining this mission.” Twilight said gloomily. “If I hadn’t come, there wouldn’t be a reason for any of you guys to come… and then maybe Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have-” The unicorn’s downward spiral of sadness was suddenly interrupted by Applejack putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight, you need to stop blaming yourself. We all agreed to come so we could help put a stop to the hooded ponies. You aren’t the one responsible for Rainbow Dash getting hurt. If you want to blame someone, blame that Raven Feather and her gang of hooded jerks.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone. Twilight looked down for a moment in thought. She had so much going on in her head that it was hard to calm herself down, but the orange mare was right about one thing. Raven Feather and her cult were the ones behind every bad thing that had happened in the past week. “You’re right Applejack… if anyone deserves to be punished in this situation, it’s definitely Raven Feather.” Twilight said in a serious tone. She couldn’t imagine what kind of pony would head such a sinister organization, but from what she heard from Cotton Quill about the black mare, and from everything she had seen recently, she knew that she was the most evil foe she and her friends had ever faced. Suddenly, the three mares heard a noise coming from in front of them. They looked down and noticed that Rainbow Dash was moving around slightly. The sight of the pegasus stirring filled the ponies with a sense of joy and surprise. “Peppermint! She’s waking up!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while waving the white stallion over. Everyone quickly gathered around as the cyan mare shifted in her sleep. Finally, Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened and she looked around in a daze. “Ugh… wh… where am I?” Rainbow Dash asked while attempting to get up. The moment she moved her body upwards a little bit, she yelped in pain and laid back down while clutching her chest. “Stay still Rainbow Dash. You don’t want to hurt yourself any more than you already are.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while watching the pegasus writhe in pain. It looked like she was struggling to breathe on top of dealing with the pain she was in. Peppermint knelt down beside the wounded mare and gave her a checkup. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was looking down at her bandaged body with a concerned frown. As she was looking over her numerous injuries, she felt a hoof being gently placed on her shoulder. The pegasus looked to the side to see three of her friends offering her reassuring expressions. “Don’t worry Rainbow Dash… we’re here for you.” Twilight said in a soft tone. The purple mare and her two companions had tears welling up in their eyes as they looked down at their injured friend. The severity of the situation suddenly dawned on the pegasus as she made the connection with how bad she felt and what was going on. “How bad is it?” Rainbow Dash asked while glancing up at Peppermint. “Because if it’s as bad as it feels… I don’t like my chances.” She stated while managing a slight chuckle. Her brief expression of lightheartedness was immediately met with a fit of coughing overtaking her. Twilight and the others frowned at their friend’s statement. It almost sounded like she had accepted what they were about to tell her. “You’ve sustained numerous stab wounds… a lot of them were deep. You also have some internal bleeding. I wasn’t able to identify the source.” Peppermint explained sadly. “But, that doesn’t mean you’ll die. You can still pull through… right Pepper?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone, as if she were trying to keep the pegasus’s spirits high. Even Rainbow Dash was a little concerned with how much the unicorn was in denial. “Well… I suppose there is a chance she will survive.” Peppermint said in a hesitant tone. Everyone could tell that he was just trying to make the purple mare feel better. “See? A chance is better than nothing. We’ll just stay here until the others get back, then we can go find Tom and he can heal you.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. “Twilight… Ah don’t think that-” Applejack spoke up in a concerned tone, before she was interrupted by the purple unicorn speaking up again. “Applejack, don’t talk like that. You’re going to scare her…” Twilight said with a sad look in her eyes while trying to keep up a happy and hopeful appearance. The group wasn’t sure if the unicorn believed what she was saying, but they knew that she was at least trying to deflect the issue at hand. “Twilight, darling I really think that you should consider the possibility that Rainbow Dash is-” Rarity attempted to level with her friend, until the purple mare interrupted her as well. “Going to be fine… she is going to be just fine.” Twilight said in a shaky voice. She was trying her best to hold herself together but her efforts were falling short. The unicorn felt tears rolling down her face. Finally, she just lowered her head and took a moment to weep. Suddenly, Twilight felt a hoof being placed on her leg. She looked back to see Rainbow Dash offering her a reassuring expression. “Twilight… it’s ok. I know that I’m dying… I can feel it.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight cough. Her voice was weak and quiet, but she sounded relatively calm given the situation. “But… but…” Twilight stammered as the sadness she had been holding back came out in full force. “It’s not fair... It’s just not fair.” She wept openly while holding the cyan mare’s hoof. “I’m just glad we managed to get away from that ghost lady.” Rainbow Dash said while flashing a small smile. “I didn’t think you could get us back here with how bad your leg was, but I guess you proved me wrong… heh.” The pegasus chuckled briefly before another dry cough interrupted her. The group frowned sympathetically as they watched the sickly mare wince in pain from her fit of coughing. “Rainbow Dash… I… I…” Twilight tried to say something profound and heartwarming to the cyan mare. She wanted to tell her how good of a friend she was, and that she was grateful for all of the time she had spent with her, but whenever she tried to talk about the happy moments of the past, she started tearing up again. To her, it felt like she was giving the pegasus a eulogy before she was even dead. “Hey… don’t cry. You’re going to make me get all sappy if you start crying like that.” Rainbow Dash stated with a lighthearted tone while holding back tears of her own. Finally, Twilight could take no more. The unicorn reached down and gently wrapped her arms around the pegasus’s upper body. Rainbow Dash wrapped her own arms around the purple mare as she cried into her shoulder. Rarity and Applejack joined their friends and both started crying as they joined together in one last group hug. Before long, almost everyone in the room was crying as they watched the four friends. From the toughest guard, to Peppermint and his team, even Rainbow Dash herself couldn’t suppress her emotions anymore. After a few minutes of hugging their friend and letting their emotions out, Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack backed up and wiped the remaining tears from their eyes. They sniffled quietly as they tried to think of something to say to the pegasus. “You guys are the best friends I could have asked for.” Rainbow Dash said in a sincere tone. “I just wish Fluttershy and Pinkie were here so I could tell them how much they mean to me before I go.” She said with a sad expression. “Stop talking like you’re going to die. We still don’t know for sure… you could still pull through. You’re one of the strongest ponies I know Rainbow Dash. If anyone can survive something like this… it’s you.” Twilight said while managing the bravest face she could at the moment and giving the pegasus a sincere expression while holding her hoof. “Just… please promise me something.” Rainbow Dash asked in a softer tone. It sounded like she was losing her voice from how sick she sounded. “Of course… anything you want.” Twilight said while looking to the two mares behind her for support. Applejack and Rarity nodded while getting closer so they could listen to the pegasus. “Promise me… that if I don’t make it, you’ll tell Fluttershy and Pinkie that I love them… just like I love you guys.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight sniffle as another tear rolled down her cheek. Twilight felt the cyan mare’s words smack into her heart like a sledgehammer to the chest. Despite the wave of emotion surging through her, she had to respond to her friend’s request. “You can tell them yourself… you’re going to make it.” Twilight said in an almost pleading tone. “I need you to promise me Twilight…” Rainbow Dash said with a sympathetic frown. She knew that the unicorn must have been dying inside as she came to terms with the situation. Twilight softened her expression up and frowned sadly as her friend pleaded with her. She looked away and closed her eyes for a moment to recompose herself. She then turned back to the pegasus and nodded while sniffling slightly. “Ok… I promise I’ll tell them, but you have to promise me something in return.” Twilight asked with a sad look in her eyes. “I can do that… to the best of my ability anyway.” Rainbow Dash replied while glancing down to her injuries. She was surprised when the unicorn suddenly knelt down beside her and looked at her with a pleading expression. “Please… don’t you dare die on us. I don’t think I can handle writing the princess about losing a friend… that’s not a lesson on friendship I want to learn.” Twilight said in a distraught tone. “You’re the element of loyalty… you can’t leave us like this… not like this.” She added while shaking her head sadly and fighting back another fit of sobs. “Twilight… I…” Rainbow Dash started to say something to comfort the grieving unicorn, until she paused and stared ahead with a dazed look in her eyes. The heart monitor next to the pegasus started beeping erratically as the wavy line on the screen started deviating from its normal path. Twilight and the others watched fearfully as Rainbow Dash gasped for air quietly. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell back onto the mat she was laying on. The erratic beeping stopped, only to be replaced by a solid tone that filled the air and made the observing ponies’ hearts sink. “What’s happening?!” Twilight asked frantically while looking over at the heart monitor. There was now a solid line scrolling onto the screen, replacing the waves that signified that the pegasus’s heart was beating. Peppermint and Glitterball rushed forward and gently moved Twilight out of the way. Peppermint reached down and pressed against the cyan mare’s neck. While the stallion was checking for a pulse, Glitterball was examining her for other signs of life. “I’ve got no air flow… she isn’t breathing.” Glitter announced uneasily. “She’s got no pulse either… we’re losing her. Get me the defibrillator.” Pepper instructed in an urgent tone. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried frantically while staring at her motionless friend with wide eyes. Applejack and Rarity helped the unicorn to back away as Peppermint and Glitterball flew into action. Glitterball quickly levitated a bag over to her side and opened it. She pulled a small machine with two paddles connected to it via springy cords out and set it down. Peppermint pulled the two paddles off the devices while his unicorn assistant pressed a button and turned a dial on the machine. “Charging.” Glitterball announced while looking to Peppermint for what to do next. An electrical buzz filled the air as the machine charged up and a green light popped up on the machine. The white stallion rubbed the two paddles together for a moment before placing them on Rainbow Dash’s chest and side. “Clear!” Peppermint exclaimed to tell everyone to get clear of the pegasus. Once nothing was touching the cyan mare, Glitterball pressed a button on the machine, causing a discharge of electricity to flow through the paddles and into Rainbow Dash. The pegasus’s body jerked slightly from the shock before settling back into place. Glitterball reached forward and grabbed one of Rainbow Dash’s arms to check for a pulse while looking over to the heart monitor. The steady tone and flat line on the screen confirmed the lack of blood flow that the unicorn was feeling. “No pulse… charging again.” Glitterball announced while racing back to the machine and pressing the button again. Another buzz filled the air as Peppermint rubbed the paddles together in preparation to shock the pegasus again. Twilight and her two friends watched fearfully as the two vested ponies attempted to save the cyan mare’s life. Their hearts were pounding in their chests and their faces were pale. The hollow and empty feeling in their stomachs was so intense that the trio felt like throwing up. “Come on Rainbow Dash… you can beat this.” Twilight muttered to herself sadly with tears welling up in her eyes. “Clear!” Peppermint announced again as Glitterball pressed the button on the machine once more. After the shock died out, the pegasus remained motionless as the loud tone of the heart monitor dug into the ponies’ souls and clawed at them from the inside out. “Still no pulse…” Glitterball said in a troubled tone. “Try again!” Applejack pleaded to the pair. Peppermint nodded to his unicorn assistant, signaling her to charge the paddles again. “Try turning it up ten percent.” Peppermint instructed as Glitterball was fiddling with the machine. The mare nodded before turning a dial on the machine up slightly. Another buzz filled the air as the stallion prepared to shock the pegasus again. “Clear!” Peppermint announced before delivering another shock to the cyan pony. Rainbow Dash’s body jerked slightly more from the increased voltage, but she still settled back into place and remained motionless. Glitterball feverishly checked for a pulse while watching the heart monitor screen. She silently prayed that she would hear the miraculous beep that would indicate life, or that she would somehow feel a pulse from the pegasus, but nothing came of her wishful thinking. “No pulse… Pepper, what do we do?” Glitter asked in a shaky voice while glancing to Twilight and the others briefly. She couldn’t even bring herself to make eye contact with the three mares. “*Sigh*…” Peppermint looked down sadly as he contemplated what he could do to save the pegasus. Nothing in all of his years of training could help her now, there was nothing he could do if he couldn’t even get her heart started again. “What time is it?” Peppermint asked while looking out into the crowd of guards watching the situation unfold. Twilight gasped in shock as she realized that the stallion was about to declare Rainbow Dash dead. “No!” The purple mare yelled while rushing forward and standing in front of the stallion with tears in her eyes. “Try again… please… please try again.” She begged with every bit of sincerity one pony could convey to another. Peppermint looked at the unicorn’s watery eyes and saw a wide range of emotions. Twilight was radiating fear, sadness, hopelessness, and desperateness, all in the same gaze. She looked like her heart might explode if he declined her request. “Glitter… turn it up another twenty percent.” Peppermint said while turning to his assistant with a serious expression. “But that could be dangerous to her heart!” Glitterball stated fearfully. “It won’t matter if she’s dead Glitter!” Peppermint replied in an urgent tone. The unicorn had never seen the stallion this serious before. For that matter, his brother was even surprised by his sudden spark of urgency. “…” Glitterball paused for a split second before racing to the machine and cranking the dial up again. Another shrill buzz filled the air that lasted marginally longer than the others before it. “Charging.” Glitterball announced in a confident tone. Peppermint nodded before putting the paddles on the cyan mare’s chest once more. Twilight and her two friends watched while holding onto each other tightly. Their entire world was about to be changed for better or worse within the next few seconds. They watched the white stallion with hopeful expressions as they prayed that their friend would live. “Clear!” Peppermint exclaimed as a final shock was administered to the pegasus. The room fell silent as everyone waited with their mouths agape in anticipation for the sound of the heart monitor to change. Seconds went by that felt like years as the shrill tone continued. *Beep* Just as all hope was about to be lost, Twilight and the others perked their ears up as a beep sounded out from the machine. *Beep* *Beep* The shrill tone had ended, and a series of beeps had replaced it as a spike in the line on the screen showed up. Glitterball reached forward and grabbed the cyan mare’s arm as everyone watched the wavy lines pass by the screen with shocked expressions of joy. “I’ve got a pulse!” Glitter announced cheerfully while turning to the others in excitement. Peppermint rushed to the pegasus’s side and listened for the sounds of air flow that would indicate breathing. “She’s breathing!” Pepper announced eagerly. “Yes!” Twilight cheered while bouncing up and down excitedly. She grabbed onto Rarity and jumped for joy with her in tow. Although the white mare was hesitant to join the purple unicorn, she was equally excited that her friend was alive, so she accepted the opportunity to vent her energy. Everyone watching cheered in excitement at the miraculous news that the pegasus would survive a while longer. Almost everything had gone wrong on their mission so far, so it was nice to celebrate a victory, even if it was a relatively small one. “She isn’t out of the woods just yet. She seems to be stable for the moment, but if that happens again, I don’t think we will be able to bring her back. We need to think of another plan of action.” Peppermint explained while looking over the cyan mare to assess her condition. “What are we going to do?” Twilight asked in a fretful tone while watching Rainbow Dash uneasily. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing!” Applejack said with a frustrated expression. The orange mare was tired of waiting around while one of her friends was dying. Surely there had to be something they could do to help the pegasus. Suddenly, the sound of a door opening could be heard from upstairs, followed by the surprised gasps of a few guards. Some frantic chattering could be heard as several of the guards upstairs flocked to one location. “What the hay is going on up there?” Glimmer Shine asked while backing up to see what was going on up on the upstairs hallway. Twilight and her two able bodied friends followed the yellow stallion and his teammates as they trotted upstairs. Once they reached the top step and looked to the left, they gasped in shock at what they saw. “Oh my gosh… Tom!” Twilight cried in a shocked tone. Sure enough, the human was in the middle of the hallway, but he was in far worse shape than the unicorn would have ever imagined. Tom was on his hands and knees in front of the open door that sat in the back wall towards the left end of the hall. There were several guards around him trying to help him up, but even with the many ponies crowding the human it was easy to see his injuries. There were a number of horrific gashes strewn across his body from head to toe. His arms and his face were covered in bloody cuts and stab wounds. His clothes were ripped in several places that revealed even more gruesome looking injuries underneath. Some of the cuts weren’t bleeding as badly as others. They almost looked like they were semi closed up, as if he had started to heal them only to stop suddenly. “What happened to him?!” Twilight asked frantically while rushing up to the human and looking to the nearest guard. “We don’t know! He just stumbled through the door and fell on the ground.” One of the guards explained. The stallion’s words made the unicorn and her friends only that much more concerned. Twilight knelt down and watched Tom breathing heavily with his head lowered to the floor. The sight of the boy in such distress made her frown with concern. She hadn’t seen him this bad before, and the last time he even came close was when he got back from rescuing Applejack’s family from the storm demons. “Tom? Can you hear me?” Twilight asked in a soft tone while gently putting a hoof on the human’s shoulder. She flashed a brief smile as the boy slowly looked up to see her, only to frown once more as she saw that his face was pale and he had a dazed look about him. “*Pant*… *Wheeze*… Twi…Twilight?” Tom asked in an exhausted tone. He looked like he was going to either drop dead on the floor or slip into a coma, whichever was more likely. Twilight turned to the crowd watching behind her. She saw Rarity, Applejack, and the others looking at her with horrified expressions of concern. Rarity had her hoof over her mouth as she stared at the human uneasily. She could barely stand looking at her friend in this condition. “What happened to him?” Rarity asked with a growing sense of concern as she watched the human’s condition deteriorating right in front of her. “That’s not important right now, we need to get him downstairs so he can rest… someone help me lift him up.” Twilight said while getting to the side of the human and pushing him upwards. Applejack and Glimmer Shine rushed forward to help the unicorn with carrying the boy. Tom managed to get to his feet with the help of the three ponies, but he could barely support his own weight. Twilight and the others slowly shuffled forward with the boy in tow. They carefully made their way down the stairs, taking it one step at a time as the human nearly fell several times. After what seemed like several minutes, the group finally made it downstairs and ferried the human over to a chair. Tom sat down and sank back into the chair like a ragdoll. He breathed heavily while trying to sustain the enormous demand put onto him by his injuries. “Tom, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while watching the human. “Ugh… I think I’ve had better days, but I should live.” Tom replied while trying his best to appear cheerful while drooping over the armrest of a chair with bleeding wounds covering his body. Needless to say, his attempts failed miserably. “Who did this to you? Was it Raincloud and the others?” Applejack asked while frowning with concern. It pained her to see anyone injured this much, let alone a friend of hers. “No… I got attacked by a ghost.” Tom explained with a painful cringe while trying to heal one of the more painful looking cuts on his arm. The orange flash of light that came with his healing flames flickered as the human put as much effort into the process as he could. Despite all of the energy he was putting into it, Tom’s wound was barely closing at all. Finally, the boy groaned before setting his arm down and giving up. “A ghost?” Everyone asked in unison while looking at each other uneasily. Applejack and her two companions were well acquainted with what the ghosts inhabiting the mansion were capable of, so they understood what the boy was talking about. “Yeah… a human woman with scissors. She locked me in a room and did all of this to me, about a hundred times.” Tom explained while pointing out the scope of his injuries for emphasis. “Oh my gosh… she did this to you for that long?” Twilight asked in an appalled tone. “Well, I lost count after a while, but yeah… she would leave for several minutes at a time and then come back for me. She has a real thing for cutting people… and apparently meeting a slayer who can’t die from multiple stab wounds has been her dream for quite a while. I just got away from her a little while ago… I’m amazed I made it back here without passing out.” Tom said in between coughs and wheezes. The ponies were shocked to hear that the human was tortured so brutally. “Where is Princess Luna?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone. Everyone gasped quietly as they suddenly remembered that the blue alicorn was with the boy when they last saw her. “I don’t know… she got separated from me when we first encountered the ghost lady. We tried fighting her, but she was too strong for both of us. I think the princess got thrown into the basement… she’s probably still down there.” Tom said in a troubled tone. “Wait… so the ghost managed to overpower both of you?” Rarity asked nervously. She thought the scissor woman was terrifying before, but if she tossed Princess Luna aside like she was a frightened filly, then the white mare was scared of her on a whole new level. “Yeah, she moved so fast that I couldn’t even lay a hand on her. Luna tried to help, but she wasn’t able to do much more… even if she did get a spell completed in time, I doubt it would have done anything. Not many things can touch ghosts, let alone hurt them.” Tom explained while shaking his head uneasily. Twilight suddenly thought back to the struggle she and Rainbow Dash had with the spirit. Perhaps the only reason they survived was because of the metallic fire poker fending the woman off. “That’s odd. When Rainbow Dash and I fought the ghost, she was hurt by a fire poker we found lying around.” Twilight stated in a perplexed tone. “It was probably made of iron. Iron burns ghosts to the touch… it’s probably the best way to fight ghosts if you aren’t a slayer.” Tom explained in as much detail as possible while still keeping things simple. While the ponies were thinking about the possibility of using iron against the ghosts, the human was thinking about something else. “Where is Rainbow Dash anyway? You said you two got attacked? Is she ok?” Tom asked while glancing down at Twilight’s bandaged leg. The thought of the two mares being in danger made the boy uneasy. Twilight and the others fell silent as the cyan mare was brought up. The purple unicorn glanced to the back of room where the pegasus was still lying on the ground. She frowned sadly as she thought about what to do. She thought that the human arriving would solve all of her problems. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot could be healed, they could find the others, and they could get out of the mansion in one piece. But now that she knew how bad the human was injured, Twilight didn’t know what to do. “Tom… Rainbow Dash got hurt… really badly.” Twilight explained in a sorrowful tone. “I know this is asking a lot of you… more than I have the right to in fact, but could you please heal her? She will die if we don’t do something.” She said while suppressing the urge to cry. “What?!” Tom said in a shocked tone while sitting up in the chair. “Where is she?” He asked while trying to get up. Suddenly, the human cringed in pain and fell back into his seat as his legs gave out from under him. The sight of the boy trying so hard to get up only to fail made the ponies feel even worse about asking him to exert himself further. “Are you sure you can handle this?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “Ah don’t think he has much of a choice Rarity… Rainbow Dash is dying. She might not have enough time to wait for Tom to rest.” Applejack said in an uneasy tone. She wasn’t any more for worsening the human’s health, but he was the only chance the cyan pegasus had. “But… maybe she can hold out a little while longer, just until Tom gets his strength back?” Twilight suggested in a troubled tone. She was suddenly interrupted by the human getting up out of the chair and standing on his own two legs. He was shaking so much that he looked like he could fall over at any minute, but he had a determined expression on his face. “My health is the least important problem we have right now. If I can do anything to help her, I’m going to do it, no matter how much stress it puts on me.” Tom explained in a serious manner. The group stood back and watched nervously as the human slowly hobbled around the side of his chair. After taking a moment to observe the cyan pegasus’s injuries with a shocked expression, he continued making his way over to the back of the room. Once he made it to the injured mare, Tom knelt, or rather, fell beside her. Twilight and the others gathered around and watched nervously as the human prepared himself to heal the pegasus. As he tried steadying his hand, he realized that it was shaking so badly that he could barely hold still. “Are you sure about this Tom?” Applejack asked nervously while observing the poor state of health the boy was in. “If I use up a lot of energy, I’ll most likely survive… she isn’t going to survive if I don’t do this.” Tom explained before taking in several deep breaths. “What injuries does she have?” Tom asked curiously while turning to Peppermint for an answer. “She’s bleeding internally… why do you ask?” Pepper replied. “It’s easier if I have a rough idea of what I’m healing.” Tom said before returning his focus on the pegasus in front of him. Before anyone else could voice their concerns, a soft blue light projected from the human’s hand as he placed it above Rainbow Dash’s chest. Tom groaned from discomfort as he used his other hand to keep his arm steady. Twilight and the others watched silently as the boy put his all into the task before him. They hoped that he would be able to heal most of the cyan mare’s fatal injuries before he was forced to stop due to exhaustion. Despite violently shaking and breaking out into a cold sweat however, the human showed no signs of willingly stopping. “Please work…” Twilight silently whispered in a sorrowful tone as she watched her friend breathing steadily on the floor. Due to the internal nature of her injuries, any observer would be unable to tell if the human was actually healing her or not. “Guh…” Tom groaned weakly as he fell to the side. He barely caught himself with his hands before he hit the floor. While the boy was breathing heavily on the floor, everyone turned their attention to Rainbow Dash with carefully hopeful expressions. Peppermint walked up to the pegasus and checked her vital signs. While the stallion was giving the cyan mare a checkup, Glitterball examined her heart monitor for any signs of changes. “Her blood pressure is back to normal.” Glitterball announced in a pleased tone. “What does that mean?” Applejack asked in an anxious tone. “It means that there isn’t anywhere where she is losing a lot of blood… at least it seems that way.” Peppermint explained before looking down to Rainbow Dash’s bandages. The stallion glanced over to his unicorn assistant for a moment before eagerly rushing over and removing the bandage around the pegasus’s chest. Glitterball assisted the red haired pony as he started cutting the gauze wrappings around the injured mare. Everyone looked on with anxious expressions as the pair worked to get the bandages off. When they finally removed the last gauze strip, they gasped in surprise at what they saw. There was still blood caked onto Rainbow Dash’s fur, but the gashes that once adorned her chest were gone. As they removed more of the bandages around her body, they realized that none of the injuries on her surface were present anymore. “Is she going to make it?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone while smiling at the progress made on the cyan mare’s recovery. “Well, there isn’t a reliable way for me to look at her insides to see if the bleeding has stopped… at least not here anyway. But judging from her increased heartrate and blood pressure, I would say that any bleeding she had has stopped.” Peppermint explained with a pleased expression. “She’s… she’s ok now?” Twilight asked with a wide grin building on her face. Peppermint nodded in response, causing tears of joy to form in the unicorn’s eyes. Applejack and Rarity smiled warmly as they started tearing up as well. Finally, the three ponies looked to each other before giving in to their emotions and pulling each other into a group hug. While the group was celebrating Rainbow Dash’s recovery, Tom was still struggling to get up on his own. The human got to his knees before shuffling over to Sunspot and panting heavily. Twilight and the others glanced over to the boy and shifted their bright smiles into concerned expressions as they watched him building up his energy again. “How bad is Sunspot hurt?” Tom asked while turning to face the group. His face was pale, and his eyes were dazed and unfocused. He looked like he would fall over if a slight breeze hit him. “Well… her injuries are far less severe than Rainbow Dash’s were.” Peppermint explained while watching the human uneasily. “She’s still in bad shape though, isn’t she?” Tom asked to clarify. “Tom… you’ve done more than enough to help us. You don’t need to heal her right now… I’m sure Pepper can take care of her, right Pepper?” Twilight asked the white stallion with a suggestive tone. Peppermint could tell that she was trying to dissuade the boy from using up any more energy. “Yes… I think.” Peppermint replied in an unsure tone. The lack of confidence in his voice made the unicorn frown uneasily. “But she’ll be fine Tom. You don’t need to-” Twilight started to speak again, until she was interrupted by a soft hum filling the air. She looked over to see that Tom was already projecting his healing light onto the orange pegasus. “Tom! What are you doing?! You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing this.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “She has broken ribs Tom… Remember how exhausted you were when you healed Applebloom’s leg? You weren’t even tired beforehand back then.” Applejack explained while walking over to the human with a concerned expression. “Just let me do this… I can’t allow anyone to go on being injured in good conscience.” Tom explained in-between wheezes and pants. Applejack paused and frowned uneasily. She was afraid that the human didn’t care about his own wellbeing anymore. Before anyone could react further, Tom dropped his arms to the side and started hyperventilating. He scooted back from the injured pegasus and laid down on the floor. “Tom, are you alr-OW!” Twilight yelped as she forgot about her injured leg while trying to walk over to the human. Applejack caught the unicorn as she faltered to a seated position and cradled her injured leg. Ignoring the pain she was feeling, the purple mare got back up and hobbled over to the human where she sat down. While Twilight was checking on Tom, Glitterball and Peppermint walked over to check on Sunspot. Glitterball started unwrapping the bandages around her stomach, while Peppermint gently pressed on her ribs to see if they were still broken. “Her cuts are gone.” Glitter announced in an amazed tone while looking down at the spot where a huge gash once sat on the pegasus’s stomach. “Her ribs are fixed too, but I can still feel a little fracture on one of them. She will probably be sore as hay when she wakes up, but she’s fine otherwise.” Peppermint stated in equal amazement before turning to face the human on the floor. He walked over and knelt down across from Twilight to examine the boy. Peppermint placed a hoof on the human’s forehead and gasped quietly as he felt the clammy and cold skin. The stallion gently took the boy’s pulse, only to shake his head and shrug uneasily. “You’re in pretty rough shape Tom. You need to rest or passing out is going to be the least of your worries.” Pepper explained in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry about me… I heal quickly.” Tom stated while forcing a smile. Twilight frowned with concern as she placed a hoof on the human’s arm. “You can’t keep doing this Tom. I’m grateful that you saved Rainbow Dash, but you can’t just risk your own health to heal a non-life threatening injury like that.” Twilight said in a softer tone while fretting over the boy’s reckless behavior. Suddenly, she cringed in pain as she tried moving her leg to a more comfortable position. “Are you ok?” Tom asked in a concerned tone. The unicorn was flattered that even while hyperventilating on the floor and semi-conscious, the human was still concerned for her. “I’m fine, Tom. I just fell and got something stabbed into my leg. It’s nothing too severe… I just won’t be able to walk very fast for a while.” Twilight explained with a small smile while glancing down at the human. Tom looked over to the unicorn’s bandaged leg and stared at it for a moment, as if contemplating something internally. When she noticed the boy starting to get up, she realized what he was trying to do. “No… Tom, don’t even think about it. You need to rest.” Twilight instructed while gently pressing down on the human’s shoulders to get him to lie back down. “But Twilight… you said it yourself, you can barely walk on that thing.” Tom argued in a concerned tone. Twilight sighed and shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t even comprehend how someone could be so very ignorant of their own wellbeing. The human would probably kill himself trying to heal a paper cut if she had one. “Tom… I can’t possibly sit by and let you do that to yourself. Even if my leg was falling off, I wouldn’t want you to heal it in the state you’re in.” Twilight said in a friendly tone of concern while trying to level with the boy. “It’s ok… I’ll be fine. Besides, you’re more important to this group than me right now, and having a limp isn’t going to help you out in the long run in this place.” Tom reasoned while trying to get up again, only to be met by the unicorn pushing him down again. Due to his lack of strength, Twilight barely even had to press on him to halt his attempts at getting up. “I said no, Tom, and I meant it. I don’t want you to get up from that floor, do you hear me?” The purple mare instructed in a lovingly firm tone, as if she were ordering a child to go to their room. The annoyed groan that arose from the boy wasn’t far off from what she would have expected an upset child to produce either. “Fine… I’ll stay here.” Tom shrugged while laying his head back onto the floor and breathing deeply. Twilight smiled as her efforts were successful. Meanwhile, the human looked over to see the unicorn’s bandaged leg in plain sight. As the purple mare looked back to face her friends, the boy smirked slightly as an idea popped into his head. “But technically speaking, you can’t be mad at me if I do this while I’m down here.” Tom explained while reaching forward quickly and grabbing the unicorn’s leg with his hand. Twilight gasped in surprise while turning around, but it was too late to act. She expected the human grabbing her so suddenly to cause pain to her sensitive leg, but he started projecting his healing light beforehand, so his touch only felt warm and pleasant to the purple mare. “Tom!” Twilight protested while trying to push the human’s arm away. The way she moved so suddenly, combined with the fact that the boy was holding one of her legs, caused her to lose balance, and forced her to catch herself instead of fighting against the human. A soft hum filled the air as Tom put all of his energy into healing the unicorn as fast as possible before she could stop him. By the time Twilight regained her balance and grabbed his arm, the job had been mostly done. Due to all of the stress compiled on his body, and his level of exhaustion, the human drifted unconscious before the purple pony could even get out a word. “Tom…? Tom?!” Twilight called the boy’s name while shaking him to get a response. No matter how much she shook him, he remained motionless. Thankfully, he seemed to still be alive. “Ugh… why do you have to be so hard headed?” Twilight muttered while glancing down at her leg. She gently pushed the limb down on the floor and put her full weight on it. After cringing briefly as a dull twinge of pain shot through her leg, she managed to use the leg to its fullest extent, even managing to get off the floor with it. “Dangit Tom…” Applejack cursed under her breath while frowning at the unconscious human. She shrugged in defeat before turning to the purple unicorn getting up from the floor. “How’s your leg, Twilight?” The orange mare asked curiously. If the human had gone through so much trouble to heal her, she at least hoped that it worked. “It still hurts a little, but I can walk on it now. I just wish he would have left well enough alone.” Twilight sighed sadly while glancing down at the human. Suddenly, the group heard two distinct groans coming from either side of them. They looked over to see both Rainbow Dash and Sunspot stirring slightly. The sight of their friends waking up made the ponies gasp in joyous surprise. “They’re waking up!” Rarity announced in an excited tone. Everyone quickly rushed over and gathered around the two pegasus’s while waiting for them to wake up fully. Twilight and her two friends went to see Rainbow Dash, while Peppermint and his two companions went to see Sunspot. As Rainbow Dash started moving her head around more, she groaned while squinting one eye open. Becoming fully aware of her surroundings, the cyan mare opened both of her eyes and looked around with a confused expression. “I’m… alive?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically while looking down at her mysteriously injury free body. She was surprised to suddenly feel perfectly normal and pain free. While the pegasus was wondering about her miraculous recovery, she was suddenly pulled into a hug by the purple unicorn sitting next to her. “Rainbow Dash! Thank Celestia you’re ok!” Twilight said while squeezing the cyan mare tightly and burying her head into her shoulder. “Uh… Twilight… can’t breathe.” Rainbow Dash gasped for air as the unicorn got slightly overzealous with her embrace. Twilight released the pegasus and pulled back to look at her. She smiled and let out a joyful chuckle as she stared at her friend with an elated expression on her face. Rainbow Dash could see that the unicorn was crying, although she surmised that these were tears of happiness rather than sadness. “We thought we were going to lose you!” Rarity said while walking up to the pair on the floor to see the cyan mare. “Don’t ever scare us like that again, you hear me?” Applejack said while playfully chiding the pegasus. Rainbow Dash smiled as she looked at her friends gathered in front of her. She thought she wouldn’t be able to wake up to their bright smiles again, so to be alive and well so suddenly was an amazing feeling for her. “I’ll do my best not to get stabbed by a crazy ghost lady in the future… how did you guys save me? I thought for sure I was a goner.” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Tom found his way back and healed you. How are you feeling?” Twilight asked while glancing down at the pegasus’s bloodstained fur. Although her injuries were closed up on the outside, she was hoping that her internal bleeding had been healed as well. Even if Peppermint gave her a clean bill of health, they had no way of knowing for sure if she was in fact healed all the way. “I feel good all things considered… wait, Tom healed me? So he’s here?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking around. It didn’t take her long to find the human passed out on the ground a few feet away. The sight of the unconscious boy made the pegasus gasp in shock. “Oh my gosh! Is he ok?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while getting up from the floor in a panic. “Did… did he pass out after healing me?” She asked uneasily. The thought of the human putting so much strain on himself because of her made the cyan mare feel horrible. “No… not really. He healed Sunspot after he got done with you, and then he tried to heal my leg. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen.” Twilight explained with a saddened shrug. “Hold on… he healed Sunspot too? What happened while I was out?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “We don’t know the specifics. We got attacked by the same ghost that went after you, and when we were on our way back, Sunspot crashed in through a window with what we assume to be an axe wound in her stomach.” Applejack explained what little information the group had on the orange pegasus’s injuries. “An axe wound? Yikes… what tipped you off to that lovely little detail?” Rainbow Dash asked while cringing at the thought of what the orange mare’s ordeal must have felt like. “They probably saw the nasty customer that did it to me.” Sunspot spoke up from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to see the pegasus sitting up while Peppermint and Glitterball checked her for injuries. “Let me guess… a pale guy in a brown shirt hefting around an axe like he owns the place? Which… in all likeliness he probably does.” Sunspot said with a brief chuckle. The moment she laughed, she cringed in pain while holding her hoof to her chest. “I’ll say… if Applejack didn’t pull me out of the way, tall pale and manic would have taken my head off.” Glitterball said while taking a closer look at the pegasus’s ribs. “I’m sorry I led that creep your way. I was trying to get away from him when he threw me through that window.” Sunspot said with a saddened sigh. “Don’t be sorry, be thankful. If we weren’t there, that guy would have finished you off.” Applejack said in a matter of fact tone. “Gah!” Sunspot yelped in pain while clutching her ribs. “He didn’t exactly let me off easily.” She said while gritting her teeth to bear through the pain. “Looks like you’ve still got some fractures. I guess Tom couldn’t handle mending your bones all the way.” Glitterball said with a concerned frown. “I’m doing a lot better than I was… I just wish Tom didn’t have to knock himself out trying to help me.” Sunspot replied while glancing over to the human on the floor and shaking her head sadly. “What about the guards that were outside with you? What happened to them?” Glimmer Shine asked uneasily. Sunspot looked down sadly as the subject was brought up. “That ghost guy came out of nowhere… he dodged every shot I fired at him, and the guards had nothing to defend themselves with. We all scattered, but he must have turned invisible and followed us. It all happened so fast… I’m the only one that got away, and only just barely.” Sunspot explained in a somber tone. The shocking news hung in the air as the ponies stared ahead in shock at what they just heard. “Sweet Celestia… these ghosts have killed dozens of royal guards, not to mention taken on Tom and Princess Luna.” Applejack said in a dismal tone. She couldn’t believe how bad the situation had gotten in such a short time. “What are we going to do? We’re going to be stuck in here forever… those ghastly ghouls won’t let us leave, and we have no way to fight them. Oh woe is me!” Rarity whined in a distraught tone, although her dramatic outburst did have merit to it. Even the remaining guards were starting to lose hope that they would live to see the sun again. “Actually, I might have something even better.” Twilight spoke up to get everyone’s attention. “What did you have in mind Twilight?” Glimmer Shine asked with sincere curiosity. “When we were back in the library, we found some notes talking about the ghosts. Apparently Raven Feather and the others used three protective symbols to keep the three spirits suppressed. If we can find the symbols, we can use our magic to overload them. That should disrupt the ghosts enough to effectively destroy them.” Twilight explained in a confident tone. “That’s great Twilight! Do you know where the symbols are?” Glimmer Shine asked in a hopeful tone. “One of them was in the library with us, I already took care of that one. I’m assuming the one that Shadow Mist was working on downstairs was another, so that should be easy to find.” Twilight explained with a pleased smirk. “What about the third one?” Glitterball asked curiously. “That one is in the basement too, but the notes didn’t say where exactly.” Twilight sighed in disappointment as she thought about the logistics of her plan. “Well, we need to head down there anyway. Brimstoke and Pinkie haven’t called back yet, and Neon and Fluttershy are still missing as far as we know.” Glimmer Shine stated in a serious tone. “Wait… Fluttershy and Neon are missing?!” Twilight asked in a shocked tone. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot were equally shocked by the news that their friends were missing. “Apparently they got separated by another locked door. Brimstoke says they would call if they got into trouble, but we haven’t heard from them since then. Brimstoke and Pinkie are probably still looking for them.” Glimmer Shine explained in a sympathetic tone as he realized that not everyone knew about the situation happening downstairs. “We have to go find them!” Rainbow Dash said in an urgent tone while walking over to the door behind the stairs. “Maybe we should call Brimstoke to see if he’s found them?” Peppermint suggested while looking to his brother for advice. “We can call them when we get down there.” Glimmer Shine said while walking over and grabbing one of the bags the group had brought with them. “Get down there? What do you mean?” Glitterball asked with a confused expression. “We need to find the others, and we need to find those symbols. The best way I figure we do that is to take the initiative and head down there.” Glimmer Shine explained while grabbing another bag and handing it to a nearby guard. “Here, take these and set two of them up in front of each door and window in this room. They should keep you safe when you light them.” He said while watching the guard examining the bag and its contents. The bag was full of enough blessed candles to secure the room. The guard nodded stoically while holding the bag to his side. “Well… I’m all for getting some payback on those ghosts.” Sunspot said while slowly getting up. The pegasus cringed painfully every time she moved while holding her side with one arm. Her condition made the others worried for her. “I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea for you to come with us Sunspot.” Glimmer Shine said uneasily while watching the orange mare coping with her pain. “Yeah… I really think you should get some rest.” Peppermint added with a nervous expression of concern. “I’m coming with you and that’s final. If you want me to stay so bad, try and make me. But be warned, I will bite.” Sunspot said with a wry smirk. The others weren’t sure if she was kidding or not. Glimmer Shine glanced to Glitterball and Peppermint. Neither of them seemed willing to hold down the pegasus against her will, or even to get near her to make an attempt at doing so. “Fine… you can come.” Glimmer Shine shrugged in defeat. He then turned to face Twilight and her friends. “And I suppose you guys want to come with us?” He asked as a courtesy. Twilight looked around at her friends. Everyone nodded in agreement without another thought. “The only way we’re getting out of here is if we work together. We’re with you.” Twilight stated with a confident expression. “Alright, let’s get moving. We might want to bring Tom with us too… if he wakes up, he might be able to help us.” Glimmer Shine suggested while glancing back at the human. “You don’t plan on dragging him all through the basement with us do you?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry… we’ll make a safe area when we get down there. We can leave him there and have someone stay behind with him.” Glimmer Shine said before turning to two unicorn guards with a serious expression. “You two, come with us and help us carry him. Try to be gentle… he’s been through a lot recently.” Glimmer said with a somber sigh while glancing back at the bloodied human. The two guards nodded before walking over to the human and lighting up their horns. The pair of stallions slowly lifted the boy up and put him on their backs. The two walked together to share the weight as they waited for Glimmer Shine’s next move. Everyone except for the rest of the guards followed Glimmer Shine as he walked through the door at the back of the room. Twilight and her friends followed closely, while Glitterball and Peppermint helped Sunspot to walk. Before she left through the door, Twilight turned around and glanced over to the side of the room. She noticed the fire place poker that she used to save Rainbow Dash from the ghostly woman lying against the wall. Apparently the others brought the metal pole in with her when they brought her in from the hallway. “This might come in handy.” The unicorn muttered to herself while lighting up her horn and grabbing the iron pole. She brought it over to her and carried it with her as she turned and trotted to catch up with her friends. The group walked into the hallway and made their way towards the basement. They were tired of sitting back and waiting for something bad to happen to their friends. The ponies were ready to take matters into their own hooves.
Chapter 2: Things That go BumpTwilight was still at a loss for words as she watched the human. It looked like it was a boy in his mid-teen years, but where did he come from? What was he doing here? And why did he speak in a language that she could understand? All of these questions and many more flooded the unicorn’s mind in an instant. Finally, she could take no more. She had to speak to the creature and ask what was going on. “Uh… hello?” Twilight spoke hesitantly to the human, who in return spun around to face her. He seemed excited at first to hear someone else's voice out in this forest. “Oh, thank goodness I’m not alone out here… Who are y- Whoa!” He jumped slightly, having not expected to see a pastel colored unicorn when he turned around. “Did you just talk...? Can you understand me?” He stated with a shocked expression, eyeing her curiously. Twilight nodded weakly before suddenly remembering where she was, and what she was doing. The thought of those creatures returning made her heart pound in her chest all over again. “We need to get out of here!” She squeaked frantically with intense fear. The unicorn struggled to get up before realizing she could still barely move. “Hold on… easy there, you look tired.” He spoke gently, sounding genuinely concerned for her. “Why don’t you tell me your name before you hurt yourself trying to get up?” The fact that he had gotten past the fact that she was a talking unicorn so fast and instead shifted to being concerned for her confused the purple mare. Twilight still felt nervous and wanted more than anything to get up and go find her friends before those things returned. “Twilight… ughh,” She could barely get the words out while working herself onto her knees. She hyperventilated in a panic as she thought she heard a noise nearby. “We need to get out of here before they come back!” Twilight tried as hard as she could to convey the urgency of the situation. “Slow down… before what comes back?” The human looked at her quizzically and spoke in a mixture of confusion and slight concern. Before Twilight could get out an answer, she was silenced by another odd occurrence. The human gasped for a moment as a surge of blue mist came from his mouth. It was as if he was standing out in the middle of winter and his breath could be seen. Along with this blue mist came a high pitched hiss. It did not sound like it was the human, as Twilight could hear his own gasp along with the noise, as if he had the wind knocked out of him along with some other strange sound. Twilight was struck with curiosity again, however the human looked more urgent now. He eyed around the dark woods that surrounded them and appeared to scan them for any signs of movement. It was almost like he knew there was something out there. “What did you say was coming back again?” the human sounded more serious now as he waited for a reply. Before Twilight could say anything further she was silenced by the sound of growling all around them. She looked around in a panic, trying to locate the source of the growling. Her heart almost skipped a beat when she saw black shapes moving towards them from all around, trapping them in a circle. “Ok, look… you said your name was Twilight, right?” The human spoke very calmly and directly to her, backing closer with his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Y-yeah,” Twilight stammered nervously while trying not to have a mental breakdown. “Ok… Twilight I need you to listen carefully,” The human sounded much more urgent as he tried to make himself as clear as possible. The unicorn could barely hear him over the sounds of the growling beasts and her own heart pounding in her chest, but she listened as intently as she could. “I need you to stay calm, and stay right where you are, and I promise you... nothing bad will happen to you,” The boy looked back at her with a serious expression on his face. Twilight wondered how anyone could sound that calm in a situation like this, much less comfort a unicorn reduced to a shivering mess on the floor, but she nodded weakly while mentally preparing for the worst. “Do you know how many of these things there are?” He asked while eyeing the shadowy creatures approaching them in unison. Twilight thought for a moment before replying. “Three of them chased me and my friends, but I lost them while running… I guess they decided to chase me instead,” The unicorn explained in a disheartened tone. She tried not to think of what might have happened to her two friends out in the forest, or even if the creatures managed to get back to the house where the rest of her friends were. “Well Twilight… I have some bad news for you. There are more than three of them here… it’s more like five or six of them,” He stated calmly with a slight inflection of worry in his voice. Twilight was almost in tears from fright at the situation, so logically, knowing that there were more of those things out there than she originally thought did not help to calm her nerves. She whined in fear as she darted her head around to look at the approaching monsters. “Like I said… remain calm and nothing bad will happen to you,” The boy spoke softly in an attempt to calm her down. Something about the human was reassuring to Twilight. Perhaps it was the way he was looking at her or something about his tone of voice, but Twilight believed this person was sincere and wanted to help her. “AHHH!” Twilight cried out in fear as one of the beasts jumped toward the human. He quickly grabbed his sword and unsheathed it, causing the steel to ring out a shrill tone. The sword looked like a rather simple katana with one very unique feature. The blade was tinted a light shade of blue that seemed to glow softly. It looked oddly peaceful and pleasing to the eye despite its violent purpose. The human quickly swung the sword vertically at the beast, aiming for the center. The sword cut through the beast as if it weren’t really there. The two halves of the creature flew past the human and would have hit Twilight had they not erupted into a cloud of black smoke that forced her to shield her eyes as it enveloped her. The force of the thick smoke flying past her blew the unicorn’s hair back as it evaporated a short distance from her. When Twilight looked up there was no trace of the creature around her, a few thin wisps of smoke disappearing into the air. The human held his sword horizontally in one hand, preparing for another attack. Two of the beasts came from behind the hapless unicorn and raced towards her with their claws at the ready. Twilight flinched instinctively and shielded her face with her forelegs. The human jumped in front of her and planted his sword into one of the beast’s heads. The creature screamed in agony as smoke poured from its wound. While the creature writhed as it slowly turned to smoke, the other monster raced past the human in an attempt to get at the defenseless unicorn behind him. “Oh no you don’t!” The human quickly grabbed one of the beast’s legs and pulled hard. With its forward momentum, the beast flipped sideways onto its back and whipped its head around to bite the offending hand of the human with its razor sharp teeth. With his other hand still on the hilt of his sword, the boy pulled it out of the beast, which completely erupted into smoke upon exit of the blade. The sword flew in the air and flipped around to face the other creature. The human quickly grabbed the sword out of the air and stabbed it into the monster before firmly shoving the blade the rest of the way into the ground with both hands. The creature let out a cry before rapidly turning to smoke as the others had. The three remaining beasts snarled at the human before retreating back into the shadows of the forest. After waiting for a moment and surveying the surroundings. The human let out a sigh of relief before looking over to the strange unicorn still huddled into a ball on the ground. She was shivering in fright and quietly whining to herself with tears in her eyes. “You’re still alive… you can open your eyes now,” The human said to Twilight, extracting his blade from the earth. Still in disbelief at what she was hearing, Twilight slowly removed her forelegs from her face. Looking in front of her at the last bits of smoke escaping the area a few inches ahead, Twilight stared at the human with a mixture of shock and relief plastered on her face. “Y... you saved me?” She stated in disbelief. Still unsure as to whether this was real or if she was in a pain induced coma from being ripped to shreds by the beasts, Twilight touched her face to make sure she could feel. “Yeah… you kinda left me no choice. What was I supposed to do, leave you here to die?” The human tilted his head curiously at the unicorn. He then re sheathed his sword and brushed himself off before extending his hand to help Twilight up. “Come on, let’s get out of here before they come back with their big brother or something,” The human smiled lightly at her waiting for her to stop staring at him like he wasn’t real. “Oh! Of course, sorry...” Twilight said with embarrassment while wiping her still wet eyes. She finally found it in herself to stop gawking at her savior for a moment and reached her hoof out to grab his hand. The human felt her grip his hand without any fingers to do so and was slightly shocked as he pulled her to her feet. “Whoa... how did you do that?” He asked curiously. “Do what?” Twilight replied unsure of what he meant. “How did you grab my hand...? I expected to have to grab you myself. I mean… you don’t have fingers after all,” Twilight thought for a moment before looking at his hand and then her hoof. “Oh…! Sorry, I forgot that you just popped out of nowhere for a second there. I’m so used to our culture and physiology that it’s hard to explain to someone new… but I’ll try to give you the short version. I’m a pony… more specifically a unicorn, but anyway,” Twilight caught herself, trying not to get off track and overload the human with too much information at one time. “We ponies can grab things with our hooves almost like we have fingers. It works because of magic that is shared between all of us,” Twilight inhaled preparing herself to explain the use of magic to the human when he interrupted her. “Oh ok, so it’s magic… I get it now,” He nodded his head confidently. “Wait… you know about magic?” Twilight looked at him bewildered. She was confused by the human’s sudden understanding of the concept of magic, seeing as humans didn’t use magic except for a few individual practitioners, and even then it was a different type of magic than what ponies and unicorns used. “Yeah… see, in my line of work I run into unexplainable things from time to time. Magic seems to clear up a lot of gray areas for me,” The human looked completely serious as if he were recalling the basic requirements for his profession. “Your line of work...? I’m sorry, but… who are you exactly?” Twilight said, feeling slightly embarrassed by the fact that she had not asked the person that saved her life his own name. Before he could answer her question, his breath turned blue and Twilight heard the high pitched gasp of air again. “My name isn’t important right now. There are more of those things and who knows what else still around here. Just know that where I’m from… they call me the slayer,” He explained with a small grin, as if he had just told the unicorn that he was the king of a country. The odd title didn’t mean anything other than its gruesome implications to Twilight, but as long as those things were around, perhaps having a slayer nearby would be useful. Twilight nervously eyed her surroundings. How could he be sure that more of those creatures were out in the woods? Nothing like those beasts had ever been found in the Everfree Forest before. Still, the thought of more of those creatures sent chills up her spine. “What were those things...? How do you know there are more?” Twilight asked nervously, managing to calm her voice back to a more sensible tone. The boy looked at her in between carefully scanning around them for movement. He seemed to be pressed for time, as he was focusing more on keeping them safe rather than answering the purple pony’s questions. “I will answer all of your questions to the best of my ability, as well as ask a few for myself…” He stated with a sense of curiosity as to his current whereabouts. “But first we should get to somewhere a bit safer. Besides, didn’t you say there were others out here with you?” The human’s statement created a new sense of dread and worry inside Twilight as she suddenly remembered her two friends. “Oh my gosh!” The color drained from Twilight’s face as she thought about her friends being just as lost as she had been. What worried the purple unicorn even further was the fact that they had no one to protect them from the fierce beasts that almost claimed her life. Before she could think about a means of searching for her friends, Twilight’s train of thought was derailed by the sound of bushes rustling in front of them. Twilight tensed up as she hid behind her strange new companion. The human cautiously kept his hand in reach of his sword as he stared at the bushes ahead of them. Twilight tried to steel herself for whatever horrors awaited in the forest, but before she could, she was interrupted by something orange jumping out from the bushes. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed happily while rushing toward her earth pony friend, who gladly embraced her in a hug. “Twilight! I’m so glad you’re ok!” Applejack exclaimed, joyfully holding the unicorn tight. She was starting to think that she would never see her friend again, so to be finally reunited with her nearly brought the orange mare to tears. After holding her friend close for a few moments, Applejack looked up and noticed the human watching the scene unfold. The unexpected sight made her flinch in surprise. She immediately became very uneasy, considering that the last creature she had never seen before tried to kill her and her friends. “Twilight… what is that?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone while inspecting the odd creature. It seemed friendly enough, although the orange mare wondered why it had a sword on its back of all things, and why it was dressed so oddly. Before she could answer, Twilight was interrupted by another form jumping out of the bushes and onto her body, sending her into the ground. As she looked up to see what had pounced on her, the unicorn realized that it was her friend Rainbow Dash. “Twilight!” The cyan pony shouted with elation at the apparent safety of her friend. She was also crying tears of joy, considering the circumstances of how they were separated. Twilight struggled for a moment before speaking. She wasn’t used to having a full grown pony sit on her body like the pegasus currently was. “Rainbow Dash!” The purple mare cheered in excitement, she then took a moment to inhale sharply. “Ughh… Rainbow, you’re kind of crushing my lungs here,” Twilight heaved from the sudden weight on top of her. Rainbow Dash quickly jumped off of her friend and looked slightly embarrassed. In her rush to greet the unicorn, she had forgotten that she could be harming her. “Oh… sorry,” The cyan pegasus apologized while helping her friend to her feet. “We were just so worried! We heard you scream and thought those things must have gotten to you,” She explained with concern and relief prominent in her voice as she stepped back toward the bushes to give Twilight room to breathe. “That reminds me,” Applejack piped up. “I’m glad you’re not hurt, but how did those things not rip you to pieces?” She stated, curious at her friend’s miraculous survival. Although the prospect of her friend dying was horrifying, Rainbow Dash also wondered how she had managed to fend off the creatures. “Oh… this person appeared out of nowhere and-” Twilight turned to face the human, but was interrupted by the sound of something jumping out of the bushes behind Rainbow Dash. “Heads up!” The human shouted before quickly unsheathing his sword. In one fluid motion he flipped his body around and threw the sword toward the group. The blade flew in the air, and whizzed past the ponies heads. The three mares flinched and tensed up instinctively as the sword missed them by mere inches. They heard the sound of the blade smacking into the tree, along with a startling cry of pain from some kind of living creature. The ponies slowly turned their heads and looked over to where the sword had landed. Dangling from the tree by the blade was yet another one of the strange beasts which had already started emitting smoke from its wound. “AHH!” All three ponies screamed and jumped back in unison. Rainbow Dash jumped the farthest out of fear, having been inches away from the beast before its sudden impalement on the tree. “W-w-what in the hay is that thing?” Applejack stammered nervously while standing in front of her two friends instinctively to distance them from the frightening creature. The human walked between the ponies and up to the pinned creature. After grabbing the hilt of the blade, he paused and turned to the frightened mares huddled together. “This… is a darkling,” He explained while gripping the sword with both hands. With relative ease, the human twisted the blade out of the tree, being careful to keep the creature impaled on the tip. The creature offered no more than a shrill cry mixed in with a low growl as resistance while the human planted it on the ground. “Darklings are shadow creatures that form in dark places with a lot of negative energy… which this place looks like it has no shortage of,” The human surveyed the surrounding forest which appeared as bleak and foreboding as ever. He then settled his eyes on the intently listening ponies. He wasn’t sure if they were listening out of curiosity or silenced from sheer fright; judging from their expressions, he wagered it was a mixture of both. “They come in many different shapes, sizes, and varieties. They hunt in packs, they can move very quickly should they be a more intelligent variant that actually decides to use their powers, and they detest light of any kind,” The human pushed the sword sideways into the creature before pulling out the blade, causing an eruption of smoke around him. He then wiped the blade on his leg before twirling it around and placing it back in its sheath. “Now then… we need to get out of here. Do you know the way out of this forest?” The human asked while getting a better look at the three ponies. While they seemed strange to him, he decided to wait until they were safe before asking any questions himself. Twilight’s cheerful attitude from being reunited with her friends all but left her face as she remembered their grim situation. She still had no idea where they were, or even what direction they were facing. “Unfortunately, I lost the path we came here on when we started running… I’m afraid we’re lost,” The purple mare looked down with a disheartened expression on her face. The two ponies beside her looked at each other happily for a moment. They then turned to the unicorn and smiled warmly. Twilight was a little bit confused as to why they were so cheerful, but decided to let them explain. “Actually Twilight… we found the path after we lost those monsters. It’s just a little ways back where we came from,” Rainbow Dash explained happily while motioning toward the tree line she had emerged from. Twilight could barely contain her joy from hearing the good news. She was already starting to contemplate whether they would starve, freeze to death, or get mauled by more of those creatures if they stayed out here too long, so to hear that they would be going home in no time filled her with a radiant sense of happiness. “That’s great!” The unicorn exclaimed while looking over to the human. “Come with us. We can lead you out of here and back to our other friends!” The relief of finally escaping this forest of nightmares was obvious on Twilight’s face as she followed her friends into the bush while motioning for the human to follow. Well I might as well follow them for now… I don’t exactly want to be stuck out in a forest in a place I’m unfamiliar with. Besides, they don’t look like they can fend for themselves.The boy thought to himself. He looked ahead to the three ponies cautiously walking towards the apparent path. The human ran a short way to catch up to them so he could be close in the event another one of those beasts popped out of the darkness. After finding the path, the group marched forward, occasionally taking a moment to jump at the noises of the forest around them, wondering if they were natural or otherwise. Although it was dark and the possibility of more creatures finding them was high, the three ponies felt slightly safer with the strange boy travelling with them, keeping his eyes open and ready to pounce on anything that might gobble up his three companions in a single bite. Finally, Twilight could make out the familiar shape of Zecora’s hut just beyond the treeline. A wide and somewhat goofy smile crept across the unicorn’s face. She never thought that seeing such a simple thing would be able to fill her with such joy. “We’re back! Thank Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed with relief prominent in her voice. “I hope everyone is ok,” Rainbow Dash voiced her concerns to the rest of the group. The sudden thought that those creatures might have gone after their friends made everyone gulp nervously. After pushing these grim thoughts from their minds, the ponies decided to head into the small hut sooner rather than later. “What are we waitin’ for? Let’s hurry up and get back inside!” Applejack exclaimed, excited to be going into a safe place, even if it was still inside the forest. The group rushed into the clearing and made a beeline for the front of the house. Twilight reached the door first and knocked eagerly. Everyone listened as muffled voices and other noises could be heard inside. Soon, they heard the sound of someone walking to the door. The door opened and the bright smiling face of Pinkie Pie could be seen. “Girls! Thank goodness you’re ok!” The pink pony practically bounced with joy from seeing her friends’ safe return. “We were so worried! We were starting to think something happened to you,” Pinkie stepped back revealing the happy faces of the rest of the group. The three ponies stepped in and greeted their friends. As the human stepped into the house, everyone eyed him curiously. “What is that thing?” Spike piped up from the back of the room where he had been leaning against the wall. Pinkie Pie examined the human closely, possibly too closely as she rapidly went from top to bottom examining every bit of the strange human that caught her eye. “Yeah, it doesn’t look like anypony I know… it doesn’t even look like a pony,” Pinkie stated curiously. The human gently pushed the energetic pink puffball away from him as she tried to examine his sword and holster. “Let me explain, everyone,” Twilight announced to the group. “But first…what’s your name...? You said you would tell us once we were somewhere safe, and here we are,” She said, perking up a bit. “Oh, of course… My name is Thomas Greene, but my friends call me Tom,” The boy stated while looking around at the group. “Oooo… Can I call you Tom?” Pinkie asked lightheartedly and smiled, still trying to examine the boy’s clothes and weapon. “Uhh... sure, but could you back up a little bit first...? You’re making me kind of uncomfortable,” Tom said, trying to keep track of the pink pony darting around him. “Oh, sorry… hehe,” Pinkie smiled awkwardly and stepped back into the line of ponies. Twilight sighed before returning her attention to the group. “Anyway, we were out in the forest collecting the plants that Zecora wanted, when suddenly these strange monsters appeared. They chased us and we eventually got separated. I tripped and fell, and thought I was a goner,” She shuddered from the mere thought of the creatures, while everyone else shuddered at the thought of the purple pony possibly getting mauled to death by monsters while they sat and talked idly. “When suddenly, a bright flash of light made me shut my eyes… and when I looked up, Mr. Greene was standing there. He fought off the monsters like they were nothing to him. After that, Applejack and Rainbow Dash found us and lead us back to the path… that about covers it,” Twilight sat down and rested. She had not realized just how tired all that running and life endangerment had made her. “We were all getting worried for your health, I was about to go out and look for you myself. But I am glad that all of you are safe and managed to find your way back to this place,” Zecora spoke up from her spot near the glass jar that held the black blob. Apparently she had covered it with a red cloth to shield it from the light since the three mares left. “Oh yeah! That reminds me,” Twilight exclaimed suddenly. Her horn lit up and she lifted the plants that started their journey out of the bag that still hung from her side. Amazingly the plants had not been crushed with all that had happened to her. “Here are your plants Zecora,” Twilight gently placed them on the table next to the glass jar. Before Zecora could reply, Tom gasped again as blue mist came from his mouth. “There’s that blue mist again… What does that mean Thomas?” Twilight asked, genuinely curious as to the purpose of the odd occurrence. “Well, you know how I said that they call me the slayer?” The boy explained. Twilight nodded in remembrance at his previous conversation. “I slay evil things, and that mist you saw is a kind of warning that lets me know when some sort of evil creature is nearby,” Tom stated apprehensively. Twilight looked at him nervously as she figured out what he was insinuating. “Wait… so does that mean-” Almost on cue to answer the purple unicorn’s question, a series of noises erupted from behind the house. It sounded like a horrible racket of howling and clawed feet scraping on the ground as numerous animals ran towards the hut. Soon, there were scratching noises and low growls surrounding the house. The frightened ponies huddled together at the back of the hut as the noises grew louder. It sounded as if a pack of hungry wolves was surrounding the small hut. “T-t-that sounds like a lot of them,” Rainbow Dash stuttered, trying to remain as calm as possible. “What are those ghastly things?” Rarity squeaked in fear as she listened to the horrific noises. “Those must be the things that chased us through the forest,” Twilight felt a chill run up her spine as she listened to the familiar sounds around them. The group was nearly frightened out of their wits. The ponies looked around, following the sounds of the creatures outside, when suddenly it grew quiet.
Chapter 3: The Assault on Zecora's HutThe return of the silent atmosphere in Zecora’s hut did nothing to comfort the group of ponies huddled in a corner. The light bubbling of Zecora’s cauldron in the background and the sound of wind whipping through the trees outside failed to make the frightened bunch forget about the creatures that waited just beyond their wooden sanctuary. Spike, who had been cowering in a ball behind the group, peeked over the shivering mass of ponies and searched the front of the house for any signs of the creatures. He noticed Tom carefully looking out of the window with his back to the wall, scanning the surrounding area outside the house. “A-are they gone?” The young dragon asked, making no attempt to hide the fear in his voice. The human carefully leaned closer to the window and searched for a moment before turning to the group. “I can’t see anything… it’s way too dark out there,” He spoke lightly, but made sure that they all heard. Satisfied that his visual search would yield no more results, Tom leaned closer to the door to listen for any sign of the beasts outside. *Thump* Tom jerked back from the door as the creatures outside started to ram into it. The noises of growling and low howling returned as well. The human stood between the door and his group of companions with his hand on his sword and his body arched sideways in preparation to fight. *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* Each blow to the door shook the very walls of the hut, causing candles to jump slightly on their tables and books to vibrate on the surrounding shelves. The cowering band of ponies, baby dragon, and zebra could barely keep themselves composed as each subsequent blow on the door rattled their very beings. Fluttershy let out a shrill whimper and looked down and away from the danger while shielding her face with her forelegs. Rarity attempted to comfort Spike, who had clung to her after the creatures started their barrage on the door, but the best she could do was put her foreleg around him while she stared fearfully at the door. The rest of the group occupied themselves with either mentally coping with the situation while blankly staring in a mixture of fear and despair in the general direction of the door, or staring fearfully at Tom and hoping with every fiber of their being that he could protect them from the beasts outside. “D-do you think they can get in?” Pinkie stuttered nervously, looking at Tom with tears in her eyes. “Don’t worry, darklings aren’t known for being the most persistent monster,” The boy glanced back at the group while trying to console them and ease their fears. “B-but… what if they walk through the walls? I saw them pass through a log while they were chasing me, like it wasn’t even there,” Twilight stated fearfully. She was expecting the creatures to be able to come from anywhere, even from behind her. “Don’t worry… they’re either too stupid to realize that they can do that, or they are just trying the less direct approach to rile us up. Judging from how they’re acting though, I think they are just stupid,” Tom replied with a calm, almost cocky expression. “I’m sure that once they figure out that the door won’t immediately break, they will go aw-” He was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering and the ponies all screaming in unison. The slayer whipped his head around just in time to be greeted by a black mass in the shape of a mouth full of teeth heading in the rather specific direction of his face. Apparently, one of the beasts had gotten frustrated with the lack of headway on bursting through the door, and decided to take the more direct route of jumping through one of the nearby windows. “Ok, nevermind!” Tom exclaimed in surprise while quickly sidestepping out of the way. The creature landed beside him and skidded to a halt with its claws dragging on the floor. Having missed its initial attack on the human, the darkling suddenly turned its attention forward to the group of ponies cowering in the background. The beast growled fiercely at the sight of its prey. Twilight and the others gasped in fright as they saw the monster staring at them with its mouth agape, as if it were showing them its teeth so they could admire them while it was ripping them apart. Before the monster could react, Tom whipped his sword out of the holster on his back and forcefully swung it down into what he could loosely identify as the creature’s neck in one swift motion. The monster’s shadowy form offered little resistance as the luminescent blade cut through it, separating head from body. As the darkling collapsed into a satisfying cloud of black smoke, Tom turned his attention back to the source of the danger. While the door gradually kept jolting more and more as the hinges and lock weakened under the pressure of constant abuse, more of the shadowy beasts had gotten the same idea their friend had gotten. The sharp sound of glass shattering cut through the air once more as another beast flung itself through the other window. Two more of the feral creatures flooded in through use of the new passageways to get at their prey. With a soul rending howl, the creatures ran straight towards the human with their mouths dripping eagerly with saliva. If they failed to attack the boy, then they could just get behind him to get at the ponies while the others distracted their protector. Tom quickly dispatched the first charging beast by running his blade clean through the middle of its body. The beast gave a whimper as the sword was lifted up and out of its form, causing it to fade into smoke as it collapsed to the floor. The two other darklings jumped Tom in unison. While he was preparing to dispatch the one that rushed at his legs, the other one jumped into the air towards him. Caught off guard by the sudden charge, Tom quickly held the blade sideways in between him and the monster as it careened into him. Despite his attempts at bracing against the flying creature, the boy was knocked backwards and landed on the ground with a harsh thud. The ponies all gasped in surprise as their protector was suddenly plowed to the floor. They watched helplessly as Tom wrestled with the beast on top of him while also kicking at the other creature which was trying to rip at his lower half. Fortunately, the beast that jumped him had caught his sword in its mouth and was held back by it. Tom grunted while wrestling to keep the beast from getting too close to his face. He could feel the cold saliva the creature was producing drip onto him as it snapped and growled at him, trying to get past the obstruction in its mouth. The darkling seemed to be burned from contact with the blessed weapon, but it ignored any semblance of pain it might have felt as its mouth smoked while it growled and snapped. Tom heaved heavily as he found the strength in him to kick away the second beast hard enough to knock it on its side. He then quickly lifted the monster on top of him up slightly and kicked it into the air above him. Acting on instinct alone, the boy managed to stick his sword up vertically and aimed for the creatures head. The beast snapped at him while falling, managing to catch the sword in its mouth as it fell on top of it. The blade made a sickening crunch as it pierced through the monster’s skull. Tom grunted in pain as the beast’s head came to a stop just above the hilt of his sword, causing the creature’s elongated teeth to sink into his hand. After shielding his eyes while the heavy creature’s weight was lifted off him by its conversion to smoke, Tom quickly jumped up and faced the other creature. The darkling backed up, growling fiercely at the slayer, when suddenly it turned its head to look at the door. The hinges, after minutes of holding fast through the onslaught they were facing, popped off the door and landed a short distance away with a loud clatter. The rest of the door subsequently flew onto the floor once the next bash from the creatures hit it. A line of five or so darklings slowly walked through the opening to join the one already inside. Beyond the line of creatures flooding into the small house, there was a seemingly endless wall of the beasts lining up in front of the doorway, pushing and clawing past each other to get a chance at entering. The creature Tom had briefly fended off turned its head and joined its friends in stalking closer to the human, who in turn started backing closer to the conglomerate of petrified ponies behind him. “W…we…” Spike tripped over himself trying to get the words past the knot in his stomach. “Are we going to die?” He looked over to Twilight in tears waiting for an answer from the unicorn that had been his sisterly figure ever since his birth. Twilight glanced at her number one assistant before looking around at her other friends. They were all trying their best to remove themselves from the situation, to imagine that this was just an awful nightmare they would wake up from at any moment. “I don’t know, Spike.” The purple unicorn sullenly looked down at the young dragon before returning her gaze to the bleak scene in front of her. Tom kept backing closer to the group while looking around at the sea of horrific beasts descending upon them. Judging from the expression on his face, Twilight could tell the human was frantically thinking of anything he could do to circumvent their imminent demise. Damn it…. There are way too many of them to fight off. Tom’s mind raced to find a possible solution. “Well then… I guess I have no other choices,” He thought out loud to himself with a stern tone of voice. Tom stopped just in front of the group of ponies and stood his ground against the shadowy legion approaching them. With a steely look of determination, he raised his right hand in the air and held it out in front of him. He opened his palm and steadied his feet before focusing all of his attention ahead. “Take this you glorified shadow puppets!” He shouted fiercely at the approaching attackers. Suddenly, a beam of blue light shot out from his hand. It shined fiercely in front of him, enveloping the entire front of the small hut in its wake. The group looked on, awestruck as the creatures were all but obscured from their vision by the blinding light. The Beasts let out a deafening cry, and those immediately next to the human were almost instantly blown into smoke before disappearing into the light. Tom walked forward while concentrating heavily, causing whatever creatures remaining in the house to retreat as their entire form burned in the light. Once at the doorway Tom shouted again as he focused his energy into the beam of light, causing it to grow in intensity. The light surged out of the hole and into the clearing outside, completely eradicating any of the beasts that lingered near the house. The light faded from sight as Tom stood on the fallen door, breathing heavily with his arm still outstretched in front of him. He then backed up a few steps before falling backwards and catching himself with his hands. The human sat there on the floor while breathing deeply as if he just ran a marathon. Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends stood in the back of the room where they had gathered and stared at each other for a moment. They took a moment to process what had just happened before finally looking back to the human resting on the ground. “We’re… ok?” Fluttershy was the first to break the silence that hung over the group. She blinked a few times to make sure that she wasn’t just imagining things. “We’re better than ok, Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash spoke up while looking around at her friends in disbelief. “We’re alive!” The cyan pegasus exclaimed joyfully, jumping triumphantly in the air. Everyone else started cheering and bouncing happily with the vigor that only a near death experience could bring. After taking a few moments to celebrate and hug each other to make sure they were in fact alive, the group quickly made their way over to Tom and gathered around him. “You did it Thomas!” Twilight exclaimed happily, moving in front of the tired out human to offer him help getting up. She almost couldn’t believe that the human had managed to pull off such an impossible victory. The unicorn felt like hugging him until his face turned blue, but she instead decided to offer him a helping hoof to get up. “Yeah… I guess I did,” The boy wheezed heavily while reaching forward to accept Twilight’s outstretched hoof for support. Twilight gasped in shock as she looked at his hand. Numerous puncture marks and a few lacerations were bleeding profusely from where one of the creature’s teeth had come down onto him with full weight. “Your hand is bleeding...” She observed while carefully helping him up. “It looks pretty bad…we should take you to a hospital,” She suggested with concern brimming in her voice. The group looked at the injury with worry and sympathy evident in their faces. They felt horrible knowing that the boy had gotten injured while saving them. Tom looked down at his hand before inhaling sharply as he ran his fingers over it. The ponies cringed in shock as they wondered why he was being so reckless with his wound. “Owch… this feels bad… but don’t worry,” Tom winced in pain as he held up his hand and bent his fingers to check if he could still move them. Suddenly, the injuries glowed orange as what appeared to be crackling flames appeared around them. Tom grimaced in pain as the wounds started closing up from the inside out, as if the process actually burned as much as it appeared to have. Soon, the glow stopped and the human’s hand looked good as new. He clenched his fist to assure himself and the others that the pain was gone. “One of the perks of being the slayer… Better than any band aid I know of,” He spoke up while looking around at the group staring in curiosity and wonder at the feat they had just witnessed. Twilight wanted to ask the human so many questions. Where did he come from? Just what is a slayer exactly? What other strange abilities did he have? But before she could act on her curiosity, Zecora spoke up from beside Tom. “Interesting… you seem to hold such great power. How fortunate that you were here during our darkest hour,” She spoke softly, still trying to calm her nerves after the ordeal they all just went through. “What kind of creature would want to harm us all...? We should inform the princess of our incredible close call,” The zebra suggested while pondering why they would be attacked by these strange beasts. “I agree completely, Zecora. Spike, take a letter… we need to let the princess know about everything that’s happened tonight.” Twilight spoke up while looking over to the young dragon standing off to the side. After settling down and taking a moment to catch their breath, the group started to calm themselves down from the nerve racking experience they just had. Everyone took a seat and got comfortable as Twilight reached into her bag and pulled out a feather quill and a piece of paper to give to Spike. The young dragon waited eagerly while the unicorn thought for a moment on what to write to the princess. “Dear Princess Celestia, there is a frightful matter that I need to discuss with you. Upon reaching Zecora’s home and showing her the package you sent, she asked us to search the woods behind her house for materials needed to research the odd substance.” Twilight took a moment to inhale as Spike quickly wrote down her words. “While searching for these materials, myself, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were attacked by three monsters that I have never seen or read about before. I got separated from the others and most likely would have died had it not been for the sudden appearance of a human from an odd flash of light. He saved my life and fought off the creatures, even when more of them showed up at Zecora’s house. I am unsure of what any of this means, but I was hoping you could shed some more light on the reason you sent us out here. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle… There... that should do it,” The purple unicorn finished as she watched Spike roll up the scroll and light the bottom part of it on fire to send it to the princess. Tom looked curiously at the phenomenon and scratched his head. It was unlike anything he had ever heard of or seen before. “You use a baby dragon to send messages back and forth to your princess?” He looked at Twilight with a confused expression. “Yeah, it’s convenient… I thought magic explained a lot of gray areas for you?” Twilight looked back at the apparent expert on the supernatural with a perplexed look on her face. “Some things are just too weird to understand, even with the excuse of magic…” The boy sighed in annoyance. “So how long does this usually take?” He leaned back against a wall and placed his hands behind his head. Twilight thought about the process for a moment before explaining. She had never really taken much thought as to how long the process of writing the princess took. “Well… it takes a few minutes for the scroll to reach the princess, seeing how she is all the way in Canterlot… and then it takes a few minutes for her to reply and send it back,” She stated in a helpful tone. The unicorn wasn’t sure if her explanation had answered the boy’s question, or just confused him further. “That reminds me… In all of the commotion I forgot to ask, where am I and who are all of you?” Tom spoke up while inspecting the group around him. “Oh... of course, I must have forgotten as well considering the circumstances,” Twilight replied, turning to the group and preparing to introduce them, everyone perked up from hearing that they were about to be introduced to a new person. “You already met Applejack and Rainbow Dash… Over there is Pinkie Pie and Rarity,” The unicorn pointed to each of them respectively as they nodded in return. “Hi there!” Pinkie grinned and waved at Tom. The human felt slightly uncomfortable while looking at the hyper pony smiling ear to ear at him. In his experience, most things that happy were either mentally disturbed, trying to kill him, or both. “Pleased to meet you, darling,” Rarity added while smiling openly and nodding her head in their direction. She gave a courteous bow to the human which gave him an insight to her personality. Twilight continued naming off her friends to Tom as he watched them introduce themselves. The boy seemed genuinely interested in each of them, rather than just sitting by idly and waiting for the long winded introductions to cease. “Over there is Fluttershy and Zecora,” The purple mare gestured to the two sitting in the back of the room. Fluttershy smiled timidly at the boy and spoke softly. Tom could tell she was a bit more fragile than the others from how she was still shivering in fright. “T-thank you for helping us out Mr. Greene,” The yellow pegasus stuttered slightly while still trying to calm herself down. Zecora turned from the table where she had been reading and nodded at Tom before speaking. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance… even if your arrival doesn’t quite make sense,” She stated curiously. The human felt a little confused as he tried to process the zebra’s need to rhyme. “And this is Spike… he lives with me and helps me out from day to day,” Twilight smiled and looked over to the last person she had to introduce. The young dragon smiled openly at Tom while waving at him. “I’m glad you showed up when you did. I don’t think we could have lasted long without your help,” Spike stated, chuckling nervously as he thought about what would have happened if Tom had not dealt with the monsters. Tom took a moment to inspect the group of strange animals smiling at him before smiling back at them in a friendly manner. Seeing the human’s accepting expression made the ponies happy that he wasn’t too weirded out by them. Twilight looked back at him, thinking of how best to explain his current location. It was a lot of information to put in such a concise and timely manner. “You are in a land called Equestria. In it, ponies live in peace with most of the other species that inhabit the land. As you may have noticed, there are three kinds of ponies that live in Equestria,” The purple unicorn explained while motioning toward the members of each race of pony. “There are unicorns like myself and Rarity, we can use magic. There’s pegasi like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, they can fly as you may have gathered on your own. And then there are earth ponies like Applejack and Pinkie Pie, they are typically stronger and heartier than other ponies. There’s also alicorns, like Princess Celestia, but they are pretty rare.” Tom nodded understandingly as the unicorn finished her explanation. She was surprised to see that the human seemed to be catching onto Equestrian customs faster than she expected. Tom thought about his situation for a moment before turning back to the group, who had already started chatting with each other. He wondered how much time he would be spending in this strange new world, and why he was sent here in the first place. The boy finally shrugged his head and gave up on figuring out his surroundings for a moment before joining the others in conversation. After a few minutes of waiting and talking, Spike exhaled sharply as a flaming scroll popped out of his mouth. He reached out his arm with the scroll and waited for Twilight to take it. After levitating it out of the young dragon’s hand and opening it, Twilight read the letter aloud. “Dearest Twilight Sparkle, I am terribly sorry to hear about your life threatening experience. Had I known that there would have been any danger on your journey, I would have taken the trip myself. In regards to the sudden appearance of a human, I am thankful for it happening, but I cannot offer any insight as to why. In light of the appearance of the mysterious black substance and aggressive new monsters in the Everfree Forest, I believe it is time that we start investigating the causes of these phenomena. I will arrange for either Luna or myself to come to Ponyville tomorrow in order to talk with you further on the issue and to meet this human. Stay safe, Princess Celestia.” The purple mare read over the letter a bit more, dwelling on her thoughts for a moment before rolling up the scroll and putting it away. “I guess we should just go home and wait until tomorrow to investigate this any further,” Twilight sighed before turning to look at the gaping hole where Zecora’s door had once been. “But what are we going to do about Zecora? It’s too dangerous for her to stay out here alone.” Tom’s face brightened up with confidence as he formulated an idea in his head. “I think I may have a solution to that problem... Do you have any spare candles Zecora?” He asked, turning to face the alchemist. Zecora thought for a moment before replying. With her mind still being the foggy mess that it was, the zebra wondered if she could remember where the simplest items in her house were. “I think I might have some in the back, but how will candles protect me from a monster attack?” She motioned toward Tom with her hoof, looking at him doubtfully. “Just trust me… After all, what do you have to lose?” He added, looking over to the door, which was still lying on the ground. Zecora sighed at the sight of the broken door before turning to search for the candles. After finding a few unlit candles, the zebra placed them on the table in front of Tom and waited to see what he could do to solve her problem. Tom grabbed two of the candles and walked over to the door. “I may not be able to fix your door, but I should be able to make it safe for you to stay here,” He explained before concentrating for a moment. Everyone looked on in curious wonder as Tom’s hands started to glow with a similar blue light to the one he used on the beasts just minutes before. The light enveloped the candles with a dim glow as they started turning blue themselves. The light died down, and Tom was left holding two deep blue candles. “These are blessed candles… I can make them by imbuing any regular candle with positive energy. A single one can be used to ward evil away from its glow, and two or more can be used to make a barrier that can keep a room or other enclosing safe from any minor evil creature,” He explained, placing the candles just behind the fallen door in a line between the front and back of the house. “Just light these up and they should keep your house safe for the night. I also recommend not stepping outside until daybreak,” Twilight looked at the candles for a moment curiously. “Here, let me light them for you,” She suggested, concentrating for a moment. She figured that it would be easier if she just used her magic to light the candles for the zebra. She also wanted to see the effects of the candles herself. Soon, Twilight’s horn lit up a bright purple. As she performed the spell, the wicks of the candles started glowing as well. After a moment of concentration, one of the candles lit ablaze. To everyone’s amazement, the flame on the candle was a bright shade of blue that threw off a mesmerizing glow of colored light. After both candles were lit, a puff of blue smoke lifted into the air above them suddenly. After the smoke dissipated, a thin blue aura flashed between the candles and encased the area in front of the door. The forcefield-esc aura flashed for a few times and then faded from view, leaving only the candles aglow with blue flame sitting on the floor. The ponies looked on in awe at the spectacle before moving closer to investigate. Twilight was the first to act on her curiosity as she stuck one hoof past the area between the candles. Once she breached the line the candles had made, the blue aura partially appeared again around her outstretched hoof. She waved her hoof around the aura, causing thin waves to ripple around it. She then pulled her hoof back in, causing the strange aura to disappear completely once more. Twilight inspected her hoof briefly before eyeing the candles themselves. They were unlike anything the unicorn had ever seen or read about before in her life. “Odd, it doesn’t feel solid… kinda like it isn’t even there. Are you sure this is going to be strong enough to protect this place, Thomas?” She asked, more curious than doubtful while turning to face the human. Most magical forcefields Twilight knew about were solid to anything that the caster didn’t let through beforehand. “It only becomes solid when something evil tries to pass through it,” Tom replied while stepping past the barrier to demonstrate the rippling effect. “As long as Zecora stays behind these candles, she should be safe until she gets her door fixed. These things last for a long time on their own, unless something powerful extinguishes them they should last for a few days,” He explained, taking a moment to soak in the bright glow of the aura as he glided his hand through it. It was a rare occasion that he slowed down to appreciate the beauty of some of his abilities. Spike looked at the blue flame of the candles for a moment, mesmerized by their gentle glow. “Will it work on Timberwolves?” He asked quizzically, poking the aura once with his claw. Tom looked at the dragon with a slightly confused expression. “What’s a timberwolf? I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Rainbow Dash looked up from one of the candles she had been inspecting and gasped in surprise. “You mean to tell me that you hunt monsters for a living and you have never heard of timberwolves?” She asked in a state of disbelief. The boy shrugged and shook his head in response. “I guess they just weren’t around in my world,” Tom reasoned. The cyan pegasus nodded in revelation. She then exhaled while thinking of the best way to describe the beast in simple terms. “Timberwolves are nasty monsters made of wood… they look like wolves and act like them, hence the name,” Rainbow shook her head to rid herself of the frightful thoughts about the creature in her head. Tom furrowed his brow in thought while calling upon his knowledge of the supernatural. “Sounds like an inanimate object being possessed by living energy and morphing to fit its surroundings,” He explained to no one in particular and turned to Spike. “So in answer to your question Spike, yes it should work on timberwolves,” The young dragon looked confused at the explanation given, but nodded in satisfaction of his question’s resolution. Twilight yawned and looked outside at the night sky. She couldn’t believe that so much had happened to make her stay out this late. “Now that that’s settled, I think we should be getting home now,” She stated tiredly, picturing her warm, safe, and cozy bed at the library. Realizing how late it was getting, everyone nodded in agreement. “Where am I going to go? I don’t exactly have anywhere to crash for the night,” Tom sighed, thinking about his situation further. Spike perked up as an idea popped into his head. “Hey, maybe you could stay with us! Don’t you think that could work out, Twilight?” He turned and looked to the unicorn pleadingly. Twilight thought for a moment about the matter. The human had nowhere to go and didn’t know anything about Equestria, much less Ponyville and the surrounding area. She could find no objections to Tom staying with them in the library, and the fact that he had just saved her life twice made her feel that the least she could do was to offer him a place to stay. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, Spike,” She smiled at the young dragon’s suggestion before turning to the human. “You are more than welcome to come stay with us for as long as you like Thomas,” Tom smiled warmly at the proposition. He wasn’t used to getting this much gratitude for his actions. “Thanks, and please… call me Tom,” He explained with a friendly smirk.
Chapter 4: The Slayer's PastAfter saying their goodbyes to Zecora, the group started to make their way back into the Everfree forest on the path toward Ponyville. They walked silently, thinking about what could be lurking around them in the woods. The wind was still blowing around them, making the tree branches move as if they were alive. The normal sounds of wildlife in the forest, which would have creeped most of the group out on any average night, now made all of them nervous, save for Tom, who walked just behind Twilight at the head of the group. Twilight eyed their surroundings nervously as they followed the path. She tried to think of a way she could get her mind off of the cold chill creeping its way up her spine. Suddenly, she thought of something that could occupy her and her friends while they made their way through the forest. “Hey Tom,” She spoke up suddenly, turning her head to look past Spike at the group following her. “Hmm?” Tom’s head perked up from the sudden break in silence. “Since we’re going to be walking for a while, I thought that maybe you could tell us more about who you are.” Twilight suggested while motioning with her hoof. “What a slayer is, where you came from, and if you know about it, how you got here,” Tom looked around at the others, who were all looking his way. He wasn’t surprised that they were curious about him, but he was hesitant to explain his past to them all the same. “Yeah, I think we could all stand to learn a bit more about the person that saved our lives,” Applejack stated happily from the back of the group. Everyone nodded in agreement before looking back to Tom and waiting for him to answer. Tom thought for a moment about the request and scratched his head. He was unsure of whether or not the ponies would be comfortable hearing his origins, given how sensitive they seemed, but he figured that they deserved to know if they asked. “Well if you really wanna know, then I suppose I will tell you what I can,” He said, deciding to give in to peer pressure. The group continued along the path through the woods as they looked intently to Tom while he thought about what to say and how to say it. The boy finally looked up and sighed. “Guess I should start from the basics before I get into my life story. A slayer is a person chosen to fight the evils of the world. They are given the power necessary to fight the forces of darkness, and the knowledge of evil creatures accumulated by previous slayers. People are chosen to be tested as a potential slayer if they have been wronged by a great evil and possess the willpower and heart to fight for what is right. I was chosen when I was fifteen, a little while after I died.” He explained nonchalantly. The ponies gasped in shock at the news they were hearing. They stood around in silence for a brief moment, processing the information they had just been given. Finally, Rarity looked up from her thoughts and spoke up on behalf of the curious group. “Wait, you died...? How is that possible? You look alive now.” She stated, giving the boy a confused look. Tom looked back at the majority of the group before continuing. “Technically I’m not. It’s kind of weird how that works… anyway I’ll get to that later. Before I became like this, I was born and raised in a town called Oak County. I lived with my two parents and my little sister in a small house for the duration of my life. I had a decent amount of friends at my school, I was excelling in several subjects, and I was even head of the school’s track team. Everything was going perfectly fine for me until…” The boy’s eyes trailed off as he thought about the rest of his story. He sighed sadly and took a moment to recollect himself. The group looked at him sympathetically. Fluttershy looked up to him with a concerned glint in her eyes. Whatever happened to him must have been horrible if he died in the end. She stared at him sadly as he attempted to go over the details of his past in his head. “You don’t need to tell us if it’s too painful for you,” She spoke to him gently, offering him a sympathetic expression. Tom sighed and looked back at her. He was surprised to see that someone was actually concerned for his story. Most people just ignored him or gave him passing thanks as he performed his duties. “It’s ok… I need to remember this just as much as you need to know it,” He took a breath and looked forward before continuing. “There was a man by the name of Jonathan Pike that lived in my town. He was a notorious serial killer that only targeted teens and small children,” Tom’s fist clenched as anger filled his voice with each passing second. “That sorry son of a…” He took a moment to look around at the group watching him and calmed himself down before saying something that would upset present company. “He killed three kids at my school over the course of 4 months. Nobody could catch him because he was so meticulous that he didn’t leave any evidence behind. After he killed his third victim, a curfew was put into place to keep children off the streets after dark,” The boy suddenly flashed a brief smirk and chuckled in a sad sort of way. “Me, my sister, and this one friend of mine, Henry, were really close. Everyone in town practically knew us like family from how often we would cause trouble. Anyway, on this one night in particular we had decided to hang out after midnight at an old abandoned house that was supposedly haunted… kind of ironic considering my current position if you think about it.” Tom kept a nonchalant disposition throughout most of the story. The ponies were confused at the display. It was like he was simply telling them about an old camping trip he had gone on. All the while he seemed to be gloomy and sullen at the same time. The group was concerned that he was emotionally unstable due to his odd behavior. Regardless of how he felt on the inside, he continued without missing a beat. “The trip was fun and all. We got to scare my sister a little, had some laughs, the usual stuff a group of friends would do. After a while, my friend got the sense to check his watch to see the time. Sure enough, we were about a half hour past the time we were supposed to be home. We rushed out of the house and took a shortcut through the park. Little did we know at the time that there was a certain masked man hiding out in the bushes by the path. He jumped out and attacked us… gave Henry a nasty blow to the head that sent him to the floor immediately. I told my sister to run home and get help while I wrestled with the guy to keep him away from my friend. Last thing I remember, I turned to make sure my sister had left, when suddenly the guy jams a needle in my neck. I blacked out, and that’s when he must have grabbed me and my friend.” He became more monotonous and gloomy as he progressed through the story. The ponies were understandably anxious and uneasy as they listened to the grim tale. “When I woke up, I was strapped to a chair in a dimly lit room with gray cement walls. I looked around for a bit and found my friend strapped to a similar chair off in the corner of the room. I tried calling out to him, when I realized that both of us had gags in our mouths. We stared at each other for a while before the guy in the mask came into the room. He was holding a scalpel in his hand, and to top it off he was staring right at me. He walks over to me and starts toying with me by slowly bringing the blade of the scalpel as close as possible to my face. I shut my eyes and prepared for the worst possible pain in my entire life.” The boy explained apprehensively. Everyone gulped nervously as they mentally envisioned themselves in the same position the human had been in. The thought of a sharp object being shoved in their face by a crazed psychopath sent a myriad of tingles through their faces as they tensed up instinctively. “Before I felt him press hard enough to cut me, he suddenly dropped the scalpel and I heard a loud thud that sounded like someone hitting the floor. I looked up to see that my friend had apparently broken free and smacked him with the nearest object he could find. He quickly untied me and helped me up and towards the door. Then, all of a sudden, the man got up and charged us with another blade. My friend grabbed his arm and struggled to fight him off. He yelled for me to get out of there and run for help after I escaped.” Tom looked down sadly as he went over the scene in his head for the first time in a while. “I wanted to help him so bad… but something told me to listen to him and just run. I bolted out of the door and rushed to find a way out of whatever place he had taken us to. After running through a few corridors, I put together that we were in some kind of basement or something… nothing good ever happens in basements I guess. Unfortunately for me, I tripped and fell into a large pit in the floor. I landed in something wet, and when I smelled what it was I started panicking. I had fallen into a pit too deep to climb out of that was filled with flammable fuel.” Tom started growing uneasy himself as he got closer to the climactic end of his story. The ponies felt a sense of dread and sadness as they came to the conclusion of how the human died. “I heard footsteps approaching from down the hall. At first I thought it was my friend, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t when I saw a tall masked figure standing at the top of the pit. I can only imagine what he did to my friend, but whatever it was I just hope it was over a lot quicker than what he was about to do to me. He stared at me for a while in a creepy sort of way that only a psychopath like him could have, and then he took off his mask. I recognized him to be a guy from my friend’s neighborhood downtown from mine. He seemed like a nice enough guy… When he wasn’t busy kidnapping kids he helped out at community events and kept to himself mostly, but that didn’t really matter to me at the moment. He pulled out a match from his pocket and lit it. He could obviously see that I was covered in fuel, and so was the surrounding area. I felt that it was pointless to scream or beg for my life, so I just watched silently as he tossed the match at my feet.” The human finished, a grim tone in his voice as he relived the moment in his head. The ponies could only keep walking in silence as they looked at Tom sadly. The human looked down at the ground and sulked as he reflected on his death. He spoke nothing more for a few moments, leaving the group to process the wave of sadness washing over them. Finally, he looked up and smiled sadly. “Death wasn’t so bad actually… in my situation it was actually the most pleasant part of the whole ordeal.” He added with a forced smile. The bleak attempt at lightening the mood did nothing to quell the uneasy feeling everyone had in their stomachs. Applejack and Rainbow Dash wiped freshly formed tears from their eyes while the rest of the group just let them fall down their face in a light stream. Twilight sniffled softly and wiped her eyes before turning to look at Tom. “I’m so sorry I asked you to remember that, Tom… I had no idea,” She said, her voice trembling slightly from the feeling of sadness she felt. “It’s ok, Twilight. And besides, I came out on top in the end anyway,” Tom smirked to himself before turning to her and smiling. Everyone looked to him flabbergasted at his sudden upbeat attitude. They decided it would be better to let him explain rather than ask any more questions. Tom looked around at the curious group and chuckled before continuing. “As I said before, I was tested to become a slayer a little while after I died. I hated Pike, I hated what he did to me, to the other kids, and I hated every fiber of his evil being. And because of this, I was chosen as a potential slayer. I was suddenly conscious of my surroundings once more when I woke up to a puff of fire surrounding me and then parting away from my eyes. I was standing outside of some alleyway in town, wearing the same clothes I died in.” He took a moment to grab his blue jumpsuit and stretch it out to feel its material. Rarity looked closer to it and inspected it in its entirety. “I was wondering why you were wearing such odd clothes. They don’t seem fitting for a monster slayer.” Tom looked at her and back to his outfit, tilting his head a bit before nodding in agreement and continuing. “My parents gave these to me when I started exercising for the track team. I guess I just kept them because I died in them… and besides, they serve as a keepsake of my family. Anyway, I could feel that something was different. Somehow I felt more alive than ever. I looked down at my arms and saw that they were badly burned. This didn’t last long, however, as the same flames you saw earlier washed over my body and restored it to health. My breath turned blue and I suddenly became aware of my heightened senses. Along with all of this, I was suddenly aware of what I was and what my purpose was. I had been brought back to deliver justice upon the head of one Jonathan Pike.” He spoke fiercely, enthusiasm brimming in his voice. “I had one thing on my mind, and that was vengeance. Call it whatever you may… justice, revenge, karma, I didn’t care. I only wanted Pike to be given what was coming to him, and I wanted to be the person to do it. And to help me accomplish this, I was given the weapon I needed to do it.” Tom explained. “You mean your sword?” Rainbow Dash asked while pointing to the sheath on his back. The katana seemed like a fitting weapon for delivering justice to evil-doers. Tom chuckled briefly before turning to the curious pegasus. He then held out his hand and spread his fingers apart. The ponies watched him silently, curious as to why he was showing them the back of his hand. “Nope. I picked my sword up sometime later. These bad boys are what I’m talking about.” The boy stated before pausing, as if to concentrate. Suddenly, sparks appeared from Tom’s fingers just below the knuckle. A flame washed over each of his fingers, as had happened when his injuries were healed; only, instead of healing an injury, something was being formed over his fingers as the flames passed over them. Metal blades were slowly coming into view as the flames passed his fingertips and extended into the air. After a short distance the flames stopped, leaving fully formed metallic claws attached to Tom’s hand by the knuckles. Tom waved the newly formed blades around and showed them to the whole group. Everyone looked on in curious wonder and amazement at the odd weapon. “Wow! That is so cool!” Rainbow Dash stated excitedly, admiring the human’s claws. The others were silent, but judging from their awestruck expressions, they were equally impressed by the sudden appearance of the weapon. Tom chuckled for a moment, articulating each of his fingers and further showing off the blades to the ponies. He seemed to be taking a fair amount of enjoyment in showing off his abilities to someone else. “These are my claws. I have two sets of them, one for each hand. They take a fair amount of energy and concentration to summon up without good cause, so I’m going to put them away for now,” The boy concentrated for a moment before the claws started vanishing into glowing embers and flickering flame. Soon, his hand was empty once more. He clenched his fist a few times to show that the blades were in fact gone before resting his arm at his side again. “With my newfound ability to heal, and my heightened strength and agility, I knew Pike stood no chance against me… it was just a matter of finding him. But before I could hunt Pike down, I needed to know a couple of things. I grabbed the nearest newspaper I could find and read the date. Judging from that I figured out, I had been dead for roughly two weeks. I also read a story about my death in an older issue. Apparently, the authorities had ruled my death as an unsolved kidnapping case. Me and my friend’s bodies were never recovered, so all they had to go on was my sister’s retelling of what happened.” Tom snarled quietly through his teeth at the thought of Pike escaping authorities even after what had happened. “After that, I ran to my house. Thankfully, my family moved away shortly after my death, so Pike didn’t even have a chance to get to my sister. Kind of bittersweet now that I think about it, although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to reconnect with them due to my newfound duties. Finally, I started to track down Pike. With my new evil sense at its peak, I could smell the sin on him from a mile away.” He shook his head in disgust as he thought back to the evil man. “You can sense evil in a person? Like if they have done something wrong in the past?” Twilight’s curiosity was piqued again as she decided to interject to find out more about how the human’s senses worked. Tom looked ahead to her and noticed her curious expression. He thought for a moment on how best to explain. “At the time, I had full use of the powers of a slayer. See, before a slayer finishes the test that brought them back, in my case, killing Pike… they are stuck in a kind of altered state. Their powers are at a higher level, they’re stronger and faster, that sort of thing. Now that my test is over, my powers have dulled slightly as they returned to normal… well, normal for me anyway. Different slayers have different levels of control over their abilities, or different abilities entirely.” The human explained to the ponies as if he were merely describing a simple math problem. He seemed to be more confident in the group’s ability to comprehend his explanation than they were. Twilight was more puzzled by this answer than she had been before she heard it. Still, she decided to quell her curious mind and let Tom get on with his story before they reached Fluttershy’s cottage and she had to leave. “I quickly tracked Pike down to his hideout, the same one he led me to on the night I died... I guess he didn’t catch enough attention to warrant moving out of that dump. I stepped inside and found him hard at work on pasting together a few newspaper clippings. He looked very surprised when he noticed someone had entered his seemingly abandoned hideaway, he looked even more surprised when he saw my face and recognized me… I will spare you the details, but my vengeance was carried out swiftly and with great prejudice as I laid my judgment upon him.” Tom stated with a slight smirk of pride. The ponies cringed as they thought of what must have happened. Although the boy had saved them from the actual depiction of the event, their imaginations ran wild as they pictured the scene in their heads. The human sighed heavily from remembering the whole ordeal. He then turned to look at the majority of the group for emphasis. “So there I was, gifted with immense power and given a choice. I could either use my powers as they were intended and stay on earth as an official slayer, or I could fade back into the afterlife now that my unfinished business was finally finished. You see, it takes a lot of energy to use the powers a slayer has. I can heal most wounds I sustain and use all of my other powers freely, so long as I have the will to continue. Not many people choose to become slayers after their initial test, even fewer stay longer than a few years due to the immense strain on the body and soul. At first, I decided to stick around to help those in need, but I’m just not sure if being a slayer is right for me. After all, I haven’t accomplished much, and I’ve been doing this for a few months.” He stated nonchalantly. Rainbow Dash gasped in disbelief from hearing this. She would have figured that the human had been hunting monsters for years judging from how good he was in combat, so to hear that he had only been a slayer for a few months came as a great surprise. “A few months?! But you handled those monsters like it was your birthright!” She exclaimed in shock as she thought back to how he had fought that army of creatures. Tom was slightly flattered by the cyan pegasus’s statement. He smirked for a moment while rubbing the back of his neck bashfully. “As I said before, I was given the knowledge needed to fight the forces of evil. This includes combat expertise, and my background in martial arts sped the process up a bit as well,” He explained with a lighthearted smile. Twilight tore her head away from the group as she looked forward onto the path. She then recognized where they were and how close they were to their destination. “We’re almost out of the forest everyone,” she announced cheerfully. Applejack offered a sigh of relief at the news. “Thank Celestia. I think I’ve had enough of the Everfree Forest to last a lifetime,” She remarked happily as she thought about leaving the forest and never returning. The others nodded in agreement while imagining themselves back in their comfortable homes. The thick vegetation of the forest gradually opened up before the group. Soon, the group exited the forest and stepped onto the more clean looking path that awaited them. Everyone looked up as the moon shone brightly in the sky. A line of clouds seemed to hover in place at the edge of the forest, leaving the sky past them open and clear. Tom stared a little longer than everyone else and marveled at the spectacle. He seemed confused and amazed by it, all at the same time. “Is that normal?” He asked while looking back and forth at the vastly different skylines. Twilight looked up herself to see what he was talking about. While oddly pretty, the occurrence was nothing out of the ordinary to her. She then looked back over to Tom, who was still looking skyward. “We’re out of the forest now. The weather out in the rest of Equestria is monitored and controlled by pegasi,” She said, hoping that her explanation would be enough for the human. Tom looked befuddled at the Purple unicorn as he tried to rationalize her explanation. When he thought of a weather forecast, he never imagined that it would be possible for it to be accurate and controllable. “Doesn’t that seem a bit excessive? I mean, the weather seems to do just fine on its own,” He stated in confusion. Being more seasoned in the topic, Rainbow Dash stepped forward and spoke up. She hoped that her insight on the situation would help more than any scientific babble that Twilight could come up with to confuse the human. “We like to keep the weather nice and predictable… wouldn’t want any stray storms forming anywhere. But, we usually leave the airspace above the Everfree alone. It seems to take care of itself anyway,” She shook her head as she tried to rationalize how such a complicated system like weather could operate by itself. Tom started to question the process further, but decided against it, as the explanation would probably just leave him more confused than when he started. With nothing else to say on the matter of clouds, the group continued on their merry way. After a few more minutes of walking, the ponies could make out Fluttershy’s cottage against the dark landscape. The property sat on a lush plot of grass complete with a stream running under a stone bridge leading to the yard. The house itself was comprised mostly of wood and grass, with various holes and perches built into the roof to accommodate the many animals Fluttershy cared for. The sight of the small cottage impressed Tom. He took a moment to take in the surroundings as the group walked up to the house. “Wow, this place is pretty nice… So, which one of you lives here?” He asked while still admiring the décor around him. Fluttershy smiled warmly at the compliment. To her, the house was nothing special, serving as a modest space for her to live and care for the surrounding wildlife. “This is my home, I’m glad you like it,” She added while walking up to the door and turning to the group. “If you want, you could come over and stay for dinner sometime,” She motioned with her hoof and smiled at Tom. “Sure, I don’t see why not,” Tom nodded in agreement to the proposal while returning the smile. Fluttershy was pleased to hear that the human readily accepted the offer. She then became aware of her fatigued body and drooping eyelids. “I think I’m going to go ahead and turn in for the night. Besides, you guys probably need to get home as well.” The pegasus yawned and sluggishly lowered her head, fighting to not fall asleep on the spot. The others all yawned as they became aware of how tired they were. Spike slumped forward onto Twilight’s head as he fought to stay awake. Rarity shifted her weight back and forth uneasily, trying to find the least tired of her legs. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Applejack spoke up, trying to keep from sounding too groggy. “The others are probably already in bed, so I should probably run on home. Bye everyone, and it was nice meetin’ you Tom.” She said, waving at the group as she started making her way back towards her home. “We should probably start heading back to Ponyville, don’t you think Twilight?” Pinkie Pie could barely keep her eyes open, but still somehow managed to sound upbeat and chipper. Twilight nodded in agreement to her pink friend. It was getting late, and they needed to be up at a reasonable hour to meet the princess in the morning. So the remaining group waved goodbye to Fluttershy one last time before walking toward Ponyville.
Chapter 5: Home Sweet HomeThe group eventually found themselves walking through the empty streets of Ponyville. Tom was impressed by the architecture of the buildings. After finding out the dominant species of the land was colorful talking ponies, he hadn’t expected much in terms of the technology they were capable of. After a short while, Rainbow Dash left the group to head in the direction of her house. And after reaching a crossroad, the group bade farewell as Rarity and Pinkie Pie headed off in the general direction of their homes. Tom was left with only Twilight and Spike to lead him through the strange town. “So, where do you guys live? I hope it won’t be too much of a problem to accommodate me,” Tom spoke up to break the monotonous silence. Twilight turned around to face the human walking closely behind her. She had not thought about where she would put him once they reached the library, but she was confident they could work something out. “We live in the town library… I happen to be the librarian and use the upstairs space as a living area. And don’t worry… I’m sure we can find some place for you to stay,” She said in a reassuring tone. Spike yawned as he laid back and put his hands behind him to cradle his head. “I hope you don’t mind, but I think I’m going straight up to bed. It’s been a long day after all,” He explained tiredly. “You would be a lot more tired if you spent a good ten minutes running for your life in a dark forest Spike,” Twilight sighed, remembering the ordeal she went through earlier. Spike winced at the thought of what Twilight must have gone through. Those monsters seemed scary enough to him from the relative safety of Zecora’s lit up house, so the notion of Twilight running through an unknown section of the Everfree while being chased by them sent shivers up his spine. “Sorry, I must have forgotten... I’m just glad that Tom showed up when he did,” The dragon looked back to the human as he relaxed on Twilight’s back. Twilight looked back to Tom as well and made a curious expression. “That reminds me, how did you get here Tom?” She asked with a burning sense of intrigue. The boy looked at the two as they awaited an explanation eagerly. “I take it humans aren’t very common around here?” He asked. Twilight was a bit caught off guard by the boy’s reply. She let her expression droop and avoided looking at him briefly as she tried to think of a way to explain what she knew in a gentle manner. “Umm… I’m not sure how to tell you this, Tom, but humans have been extinct for a really long time. I’m sorry.” “Huh…” Tom blinked, far more casually than either of the pair expected. “Sounds about right. I was wondering why a bunch of talking horses were the dominant species. I was betting on an alternate dimension… but time travel works I guess.” He shrugged. Spike shared an uncertain look with Twilight. Neither of them expected the boy to take the news of his species’ destruction so casually. “Ok…” Twilight cleared her throat uncomfortably before turning to the human with renewed curiosity. “So, you time traveled?” “I’m not sure. I just remember walking through some woods and hearing a cry for help. Next thing I know I was enveloped by a blue light and transported here,” He explained, scratching his head in confusion. Twilight looked at Tom confused as she thought about his answer. “That is a little odd… Maybe the princess can help us find out why you’re here? But first we should focus on where those monsters came from,” The unicorn rubbed her muzzle with her hoof as she tried to think of an explanation. Tom scratched his own chin as he thought about the matter. “Darklings aren’t usually that aggressive and persistent. Having a group of them that large chase after you would be very unlikely under normal circumstances,” He explained in an attempt at shedding some light on the creature’s odd behavior. Twilight chuckled sadly and shook her head. On top of her almost getting killed, she was now an exceptionally unlucky case. Still, the thought of random chance being stacked against her didn’t make much sense to the purple mare. “Well something made them attack us. The chances of a creature like that randomly showing up in the Everfree and choosing me to be the one it hunts down seem slim to me,” She stated cynically, reflecting on her supposed bad luck. The slayer thought about it further, but could not come to any sound conclusions. “I don’t know what else to tell you. I have never come across any instance where this has happened before,” He shook his head in defeat and gave up trying to think about it any further for the moment. Twilight thought for a moment on how to reply, but was interrupted by the sight of the library coming into view. “Ah... good, we’re almost there,” The unicorn moaned tiredly, trying to keep herself moving forward. She could hardly ignore her aching muscles as she thought about lying down and sleeping. The immense strain on her body from running so much was weighing heavy on her mind. Meanwhile, Tom was taken aback by the sight of the library in the distance. He found himself surprised once again at the architectural capabilities of these talking ponies. The library looked like a giant tree with a few features on it to suggest it was a building, such as the simple wooden door, the windows, and the balcony on the upper portion of the tree. “Wow, so you live there? I must say that is one impressive library... Certainly looks a lot better than the one we had in my town,” Tom groaned in disgust from remembering the old run down building his town called a library. Twilight was flattered by the compliment, but was also curious as to what the human world was like. “Speaking of which, what were the buildings like in human times? Not much information exists on the human race and their culture,” She asked curiously. Tom could tell that Twilight was a sort of book worm. The way she carried herself and her genuine interest and curiosity for his culture, plus the fact that she was a librarian, led him to believe that she loved learning. Being a history buff himself, he could only wonder what it was like for her to hear about ancient civilizations from a member of said civilization. He thought for a moment about how to describe human architecture to her in the best way possible. “Well, thousands of years before my time, Humans used primitive means of building structures out of anything from wood and stone, to mud and grass. Around my time of living though, humans made homes and buildings out of various materials including refined wood, bricks, and metal alloys like steel.” He explained, thinking of the many ways humans fended off the elements. Tom thought for a moment before turning to Twilight with a curious expression of his own. “That reminds me, just how did the humans die out?” The boy asked with an intrigued tone. “No one is sure about the details. Theories range from climate change to some kind of plague or even war. Some scholars think it was a mixture of all three.” She stated as gently as she could, considering the circumstances. The unicorn couldn’t imagine how knowing that every other member of their race was dead would affect someone. “Well, that figures. Whatever happened, I’m sure we had a hand in it. Humans as a race didn’t exactly make the best choices at times.” Tom chuckled lightheartedly. The two were confused as to how the boy could be so high spirited about the destruction of his race. Deciding against asking any questions on the matter, the three marched on through the night in silence. Finally, after all that had happened that night. Twilight and Spike finally managed to reach home, with a new friend to boot. The purple unicorn opened the door to the library and motioned for Tom to step in. Once inside, Twilight levitated Spike down to the floor and breathed a comfortable sigh of relief. Tom took a moment to look around at the large room they were in. Shelves filled with books took up most of the wall space, while a decorative rug covered the floor. To his right there was a staircase leading up to the second floor, and to his left a doorway led into another room, which was too dark to make out many other details besides more book shelves on the back wall. Twilight looked around the room and thought about where Tom could sleep. She didn’t want to just leave him on the floor with nothing comfortable to sleep on, but she didn’t exactly have a guest room for occasions like this. “Spike, would you please go find a spare blanket and a few pillows?” She asked gingerly to her assistant while expressing her gratitude via a pleading smile. As tired as Spike was, he couldn’t refuse a request like that. The young dragon yawned and thought for a moment as to where such items would be. His mind was foggy, but he was confident that he could find anything around the library in his sleep, which might have been necessary if it took much longer. “Sure, I’ll see what I can find.” He said with a helpful smirk. He then walked off into the other room to search the library. Twilight then turned to Tom and attempted to look more awake than she actually was. ”I guess you can sleep upstairs with us for now. Come with me, Spike should be up soon with some blankets for you,” She stated in a peaceful daze that only sleep deprivation could bring about. The purple unicorn started up the stairs and motioned for Tom to follow her. The boy walked up the stairs with her until they reached the landing on the next floor. Twilight then opened the door in front of them which led to her bedroom. Tom could see two beds in the room. One larger one that was made of wood with colorful sheets and fluffy pillows which he assumed belonged to Twilight. And a smaller bed which looked more like a basket that sat on the floor a short ways from Twilights bed, Tom assumed this was where Spike slept. “Ughh…” Twilight moaned as she sat down on her bed sideways. She laid back width wise on the bed leaving her legs dangling off the side. She then closed her eyes and attempted to relax for a few moments. Tom smiled at the sight of a pastel purple unicorn sprawled out on a bed with half of her body drooping off of it sideways. He certainly did not think that he would see anything remotely close to this when he got up that morning. “After all that you went through it must feel good to relax huh Twilight? Umm... Twilight?” The boy waited for a response before hearing a low snoring sound. As he looked back over to Twilight, he could see that she had already conked out. “Wow… out like a light,” Tom spoke more softly so as to not wake her, although he was confident the noise of the apocalypse happening outside wouldn’t be able to stir the sleeping unicorn. After standing around for a few minutes, Tom could hear the sound of Spike struggling to climb up the stairs. He walked into the room carrying a blanket and two pillows that were stacked higher than his head. Tom wondered how he managed to walk over to the stairs and climb them without being able to see. The dragon walked up to Tom and placed the items at his feet. He looked over to Twilight sleeping on the bed. Spike could see that a puddle of drool was already forming as Twilight’s mouth hung open at an odd angle while her head was planted sideways into the covers. “She must have been really tired. I hope we can get enough sleep to not be exhausted tomorrow,” Spike droned on tiredly before yawning and walking over to his bed. ”Well good night Tom, if you need anything feel free to wake me up. I think Twilight needs all the sleep she can get.” The two nodded to each other in agreement while Spike climbed in bed and got situated under his covers. He rolled around a few times trying to find a comfortable position. Tom looked down to the blanket and pillows at his feet. He picked them up and placed the pillows in a line so one would support his body while the other would support his head. Finally he unfolded the blanket and laid down while pulling it over him. The boy laid there staring at the ceiling for a while, thinking about his current situation. He decided that he could have ended up in worse places all things considered, and closed his eyes to fall asleep. The next morning, light from the sun started to shine into the library. Streams of the bright glow hit Twilight’s face causing her to tighten her eyelids. She opened one eye part way and sat for a moment, letting her body wake up a bit more. She could feel coolness on her cheek as she lifted her head up a short distance. As she looked down to determine the cause of the sensation, she noticed a stream of drool connecting her face to the sheets. After wiping her face with her hoof and moving her jaw a few times to get the stiff feeling out of it, she sat up and yawned while stretching. Hearing movement a short distance away from her, Twilight turned to see Spike moving around in his bed as he started to wake up as well. “Ughhh… morning already? It seems like just a few minutes ago that I finally got to sleep,” The dragon groaned and rubbed his eyes while trying to shake the tiredness from his body. Twilight sympathized with the young dragon as she too would have climbed back in bed if she was given the chance, but she needed to get up and start a new day. “I know… ughh... But we need to get up and about. The princess should be on her way over already,” The purple unicorn groaned as she climbed out of bed and onto her four legs. While she was still sore from yesterday, she at least felt a little bit better. “Now then, we just need to wake up…Tom?” Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she noticed the human was nowhere to be seen. She would have thought she dreamed him and the events of last night up had it not been for her aching muscles and the blanket folded up and placed in the corner of the room. Spike hopped out of bed and blinked his eyes rapidly to better acquaint them to the light. “I guess he woke up before us... maybe he’s downstairs,” He reasoned, observing the neatly folded pile of pillows and blanket in the corner. Twilight nodded in agreement before walking to the door and heading down the stairs. Spike followed closely behind her. Twilight stopped midway down the stairs as she noticed Tom sitting in the far corner. He was leaning his head against the wall reading a book, which Twilight could judge from the title to be a book on old fairy tales and ghost stories. After they continued walking down the stairs, the boy looked up from his book to see the pair descending the steps. “Oh... you’re up,” He closed the book and got up from the floor. He quickly placed the book into an empty slot on the shelf he apparently got it from, he then walked towards them and smiled openly. “I made breakfast in the other room if you guys want something to eat,” He motioned with his hand toward the other room. Twilight looked at him surprised. “Breakfast...? How long have you been up?” she asked curiously. Tom chuckled under his breath at the question. “Oh... I don’t know… about three hours,” He stated nonchalantly. The two looked at him slightly shocked. “Three hours?! But it’s just now morning!” Spike exclaimed looking out the window at the sunrise. Tom smiled and tapped his foot on the ground to occupy himself. “Yeah well, I don’t need as much sleep to be fully rested as most people. And I decided I didn’t want to sleep in for the sake of sleeping, so I busied myself with reading a few books,” He stated, gesturing towards the bookshelf beside him with his head. Twilight looked puzzled as she wondered how many new things she could possibly find out about the boy, when she suddenly felt her stomach pleading for sustenance. “You said you made breakfast right?” She asked eagerly while sniffing the air to take in the odors of cooked food. “Yep… figured you guys would be getting up soon, so I thought you might like some food,” Tom replied, walking toward the dining room. Spike rubbed his own stomach as he felt it rumble as well. “Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s go eat!” The dragon exclaimed eagerly The trio made their way into the dining room. A single table sat in the middle of the room with a few chairs strewn around it. On the table sat two plates with lids on them, presumably to keep the contents fresh. “I didn’t really know what all you ponies eat, so I guessed from whatever ingredients I found lying around that a couple of cheese omelets would do,” The human said, leaning on a counter for support. The two eagerly sat down and removed the lids to their dishes. Their mouths practically watered at the sight of the fluffy yellow omelets with red sauce drizzled on top. “What all did you put in them?” Twilight asked curiously while grabbing two forks. She handed one to Spike before further examining the dishes to determine their contents. “Cheese and olives mostly… I made the sauce on top from some tomatoes and red peppers I found,” Tom explained, looking at the two as they enjoyed their meal. “Wow…these are pretty good. How did you know how to make the sauce?” Spike asked in between bites. “Eh... I had an interest in cooking, so I asked my mom to teach me some tricks of the trade. I’m no pro, but I can make a few things,” Tom smirked proudly, admiring his own skills. Upon finishing their meals, the pair hopped up from where they were sitting and put away the plates and utensils. Spike then set about performing his morning routine of chores while Twilight sat and chatted with Tom. “So Tom, what things have you done as slayer so far? You said you have only been slayer for around a few months right?” The purple unicorn tried her hardest not to swamp her new house guest with too many questions, but she was surprised to see Tom had no problem answering most of her queries to the best of his ability. Tom placed his arm over the back of his chair and leaned back. He then trailed his eyes off as he thought about the high points of his career. “Well, other than dealing with the occasional roaming monster or two. I usually just wandered from town to town. I would pass through, stay for a few days to see what was going on, and clear up any problems I encountered... As for the more unique stuff, I have cleared a few haunted houses, dealt with a rather large sea monster, and even went to blows with a cult or two that got a little too touchy feely with the more nasty black magic. You would be surprised how much can happen in the life of a monster slayer in just a few months,” He explained in a friendly manner. The purple unicorn listened intently to Tom’s stories of his past for around half an hour. Even Spike spared an ear when given the opportunity while dusting a few bookshelves. The idle chatter was a good way to keep the two occupied as they waited for the princess to arrive. Sooner than she would have liked, Twilight heard a knock on the door forcing her to pull herself away from listening to Tom. The unicorn asked the boy to stay put while she got the door, to which he nodded and placed his head on his hands for support. The purple pony got up and walked over to the door with a brisk pace. Upon opening the door Twilight was greeted with the face of her mentor princess Celestia, who smiled warmly upon seeing her student. Twilight smiled in return before opening the door wider. “Princess Celestia! It’s good to see you, please come right in,” The purple unicorn stepped aside and beckoned for her mentor to step inside. The regal white horse nodded before stepping inside. “It’s good to see you as well Twilight. I hope you managed to get some rest after what happened last night,” Celestia looked to her student with slight concern in her voice. The unicorn could tell that the alicorn had beaten herself up over allowing her student to be placed in harm’s way. Twilight swallowed uneasily as she thought back to the events of the previous night. “Yeah, I was fairly exhausted from being chased so much. I’m just glad Tom was there to save me,” She stated with relief evident in her voice. The princess looked intrigued at the mention of the mysterious new arrival into Equestria. From what stories she had heard, humans weren’t the friendliest bunch. But if he had saved Twilight and her friends, then the alicorn had no problems with him. “Ah yes the human, his name’s Tom is it? I think I would like to meet him,” Celestia stated with a sense of curiosity. Twilight looked over to the doorway to the other room. “He’s in the dining room with Spike, right this way,” The purple unicorn walked ahead as the princess followed her into the other room. Upon entering, Twilight could see Spike and Tom chatting with each other. Once they noticed them, both looked over to where Twilight and the princess were standing. Spike smiled upon seeing the alicorn enter the room, while Tom merely studied her appearance. The alicorn appeared much taller when compared to Twilight and the others. She actually managed to come up to eye level with the human. She had golden shoes on each of her hooves, a crown atop her head, and a necklace adorning her neck. Even her hair had a mystical appearance to it. The princess’ mane was made up of varying stripes of blue, green, and pink which all seemed to move with a sense of fluidity that was unnatural to regular hair. “Hi princess… it’s nice to see you,” Spike jumped up from his chair and walked over to greet her. Celestia looked down to the young dragon and smiled in return. “Good morning, Spike. It’s nice to see you as well.” The princess then looked over to Tom, who had stood up from his seat and walked over to join the group. “So, you must be the one who saved my student and her friends... I must say, I am incredibly thankful for your bravery, Tom.” The princess extended her hoof and waited for the human to grasp it for a formal handshake. Tom looked at her and smiled while accepting the gesture. “Wasn’t a problem your highness, I am always happy to help out a lady in distress.” The human said in a friendly manner. Celestia smiled and chuckled warmly as Tom made a lighthearted bow to her. She then walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. Once comfortable, she motioned for everyone to come over and join her. “Now then, I think it’s time we discussed a few things. Namely how you got here, and what those monsters were doing in the forest.” The alicorn asked the boy with a more serious tone. Tom nodded and started telling his experience to her. After explaining everything he knew about how he arrived in Equestria, and his knowledge on the mysterious creatures, Tom waited for the princess to think of what to do next. Celestia furrowed her brow in thought while she took in what the slayer had told her. “You said these creatures don’t usually act this aggressive?” The alicorn asked to be sure she had heard the human’s explanation correctly. Tom nodded in response. “Darklings normally only attack whatever wanders into their territory, and even then it’s usually only in groups of two or three. I have never seen a case where a pack that large would chase after someone over that great a distance. They would have to be influenced by something or someone else.” He explained, troubling over the matter himself. The alicorn closed her eyes and sighed. The mere notion of some sinister plot to murder the purple unicorn and her friends unsettled her deeply. “In that case, I think it would be best if we went back to the area where Twilight was attacked and investigated,” The princess stated grimly to the group. “What?!” Twilight jumped in place and became pale at the suggestion. She thought that she would have issues going on the marked path to see Zecora after what happened last night, so the notion of going back to the area where she found those beasts terrified the purple mare. Celestia gently placed a hoof on her student’s shoulder to calm her down. “It’s ok Twilight, I will go with you to protect you… and besides, Mr. Greene here has proven himself more than capable of dealing with anything the Everfree has to offer,” she spoke softly, giving the frightened pony a reassuring smile. The panic stricken unicorn looked over to Tom smiling back at her. She felt a little calmer knowing that her mentor and a seasoned slayer of evil would be there to keep her safe. “Ok… I’ll go. You need someone to lead you to the area after all,” She sighed in acceptance and looked down nervously. Spike looked to Twilight with determination in his eyes. “I’ll go too if it makes you feel any better Twilight,” He offered confidently. The purple unicorn shook her head and looked down with concern to the young dragon. “No Spike, I want you to stay here. I don’t want you to be put in any danger at all.” She explained sympathetically. Twilight could see the concern on the young dragon’s face. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to protect his best friend, but at the same time she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something bad happened to him. The young dragon winced as Twilight ruffled his head with her hoof. She then lowered herself to be at eye level with him. “Besides, I would be lost without my number one assistant around to help me out,” She spoke in a praising tone to lift the dragon’s spirits. “Ok…” Spike looked at her with an expression of defeat on his face. “Just be careful and be sure to come back in one piece alright?” Although he had given up the issue, he still wanted her to be as cautious as possible. Twilight smiled at seeing the young dragon perk up a bit. “Alright, I will be back before you know it… I promise.” She stated confidently.
Chapter 6: The Return to the ForestAfter bidding farewell to Spike, the trio walked out of the library and set out on their way. For Tom, walking through Ponyville during the day seemed like a vastly different experience from traveling at night. Ponies of all sizes, colors, and races wandered through the busy streets on their daily routines. The human felt a little uneasy from being stared at by so many people, though no one seemed to look at him harshly. They seemed more curious than judging as they gave him a quick glance before carrying on with their business. Celestia noticed the human uncomfortably maneuver his body around any approaching onlooker. He seemed very anxious and predicted the movements of anyone that walked by him so he could avoid contact with them. “Not used to seeing ponies yet?” The alicorn looked to the boy and smirked playfully. She figured that he would get used to his surroundings soon enough. Tom looked to the princess with slight anxiety apparent on his face. “It’s not that… although I must admit I didn’t expect talking ponies to be the dominant species after humanity was wiped out,” The boy chuckled at the prospect of his surroundings, still trying to wrap his head around the world he was in. “It’s just that I’m not used to so many people in one place. I lived in a small town for all of my life, and after I became slayer I didn’t go to many large cities or interact with many people.” He explained his behavior in as clear a manner as possible. Twilight looked over to him and chuckled lightheartedly. “It’s usually a lot less crowded around town, but we’re walking through a popular route in the morning. Lots of ponies walk through here to get to and from work, drop their children off at school, and to get to other sections of the town,” The purple unicorn smiled as she saw Tom loosen up and get more comfortable. She then thought about their mission for a moment. “I think we should take Rainbow Dash with us… she and Applejack got separated from me while we were being chased. They might be able to help us find something. And I’m sure that Applejack is busy at the farm this early, so Rainbow Dash seems like the only option we have.” The princess thought about it for a moment before turning back to her student. Whatever made the nervous pony more comfortable with their task was fine by her. And besides, the cyan pegasus would be in no danger. “That seems like a good idea. Let’s swing by and see if she wants to help us.” She stated with a compliant smile. The purple unicorn was excited and relieved that Celestia agreed with her. On top of Rainbow Dash being able to help them with their investigation, Twilight would feel a lot safer with her pegasus friend around. So without delay, the group set off toward Rainbow Dash’s house, which conveniently lay on their current path. After a few minutes of walking, the trio found themselves on the outskirts of Ponyville where the cyan pegasus made her home. Tom looked curiously at the structure. It seemed to be made out of clouds and floated in the air. Various streams of colorful rainbows flooded off the sides of the building as if they were rivers. As the group walked to the edge of the mass of clouds, Tom looked up and studied the colors and textures of the clouds that made up the apparent ground in front of the house. Twilight could see the expression of utter confusion on the human’s face. Though he had studied their architecture curiously before, he seemed to be in a state of disbelief at what he was witnessing. “I take it humans never used clouds to build houses with?” Twilight smirked as the boy shook his head in silent bewilderment, still studying the underside of the house and how it actually cast a shadow on the ground. After taking a moment to close his gaping mouth, Tom finally turned to the two and looked at them curiously. “So how do we get up there? I mean, clearly such a structure would be designed for people with wings in mind, but I seem to be sorely lacking in that department,” The boy stated, looking back up to the odd puffy white structure. Twilight lit up her horn and looked over to Tom in response. “We’re going to teleport up there… after I cast a cloud walking spell on you and myself of course,” She replied confidently, already recalling the details of the spell. Celestia put her hoof on the unicorn‘s shoulder and gently pushed down. “Don’t bother with that, Twilight. I will just fly up there and see if Rainbow Dash wants to come myself,” She suggested kindly, trying not to interrupt the purple pony teaching her human friend. The unicorn backed up and dimmed her horn. Celestia then spread her wings and flew up and out of sight as she disappeared inside the mass of clouds. While waiting for the princess to return, Tom sat on the ground and looked to Twilight as she shifted her weight between legs and looked around. “So uh… how exactly do you make anything out of clouds? They aren’t exactly solid… at least they weren’t when humans were roaming around,” He asked curiously, mulling over the concept of clouds evolving over millions of years. Twilight looked to the human knowingly. It was new to her to have to teach someone the ways of Equestria. Despite her lack of training in dispensing knowledge, the unicorn enjoyed the opportunity to enlighten some curious visitor to her world. “Pegasi can touch clouds with their hooves. They use this skill to manipulate the weather and build things out of clouds. Rainbow Dash built her house to resemble where she used to live… a city entirely made out of clouds by the name of Cloudsdale,” She explained slowly, looking off in the distance towards the direction of the far off city. “Cloudsdale huh...? Just who comes up with the names for these places?” Tom looked to the purple unicorn hoping she would also realize the absurdity in the name. Twilight looked at the human with confusion evident on her face. She had never thought of anything odd about the city or its name. “Why…? What’s wrong with Cloudsdale?” She asked in bewilderment. The boy looked back at her and twitched in disbelief. “Umm… uhh… nothing, it’s just that… ugh never mind. I forgot that I was talking to the unicorn named Twilight for a minute there,” He sighed in defeat as he gave up on using his own logic to make witty comments. Twilight chuckled to herself. “I suppose Twilight does sound a bit odd,” She said lightheartedly, considering how ridiculous the name sounded. Tom was excited to see that she was at least aware of the odd nature of the names her culture used. “It’s ok though, my friends just call me that for short. My full name is Twilight Sparkle,” The unicorn added with a naive smile. The human sighed in frustration, pinching his nasal root and rubbing it. He then regained his composure and looked back to the unicorn, who had a straight face on the whole time. “That is a lovely name… let’s move off of the subject for a while though.” He stated with undetectable sarcasm, ushering the conversation to its end. The two sat in silence after that. Tom tried to avoid conversation as best he could for fear of discovering something else to make him question the logic of the new society he found himself in, while Twilight remained silent yet confused as to why the human was suddenly unwilling to talk. After a few minutes of waiting, the two looked up to see princess Celestia flying down to them with Rainbow Dash in tow. “Rainbow Dash! You decided to come after all,” Twilight smiled happily at the sight of her friend. The cyan pegasus chuckled as she hovered in the air a few feet off the ground. “Like I’m going to turn down an offer to come and help the princess on a mission!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a smirk. She then noticed Tom standing behind Twilight and smiled at the slayer in blue. “Hey Tom, nice to see you again,” The pegasus greeted. The human smiled back and gave a friendly wave. “Wow… that’s a pretty big wingspan you got there.” Tom studied the feathered appendages further, having not seen them outstretched before. Rainbow Dash looked to her wings and tried to keep from blushing. As proud as she was of her flying skills, it was always nice to hear compliments from someone, especially someone she had barely met before. “Thanks… I’m glad someone appreciates a good set of flappers when they see them,” She stated bashfully. The cyan mare then landed and walked over to the group. The ponies talked for a brief moment before deciding to set off for the Everfree Forest once more. After a few minutes of walking, the group found themselves standing at the entrance to the forest. While it looked less threatening in the sunlight, Tom couldn’t help but worry as to the short amount of time it took them to get there. “Why do you guys live so close to such a dangerous place? I mean, Fluttershy practically lives on the edge of the forest,” He observed worriedly. Rainbow Dash looked into the dark forest and couldn’t help but think about what sort of creatures lurked within. “Well it didn’t used to be all that dangerous… granted it wasn’t the picture of safety before,” The cyan pony shrugged as she remembered the various times someone had gotten in trouble for wandering into the forest. “Most of the creatures that lived in the forest before kept to themselves unless you wandered off of a path, but I’m not too sure about these new monsters that showed up last night,” Twilight walked up to the edge of the forest and turned to the group. She lowered her head with concern as she tried to comprehend how such evil things could exist, even in a dark place like the Everfree. “Which is why we’re out here searching for clues about the origins of these monsters,” Celestia spoke up with a serious expression on her face. The ponies could tell that she was very adamant about getting to the bottom of the problem they were facing. Twilight sighed and started walking into the forest on the path before them. Not much had changed in the forest overnight. Muffled noises of wildlife and branches rustling in the wind dominated the ambient noise around the group. And although they could see a little better, the ponies weren’t sure if that was good or bad. A thick fog seemed to linger in the distance on every side of them, leaving them a medium sized viewing window to the trees around them. Everything else seemed to fade into the white mist, leaving the ponies with only their imaginations to process what the hazy shapes in the distance were. Twilight walked alongside her mentor while Tom and Rainbow Dash hung back a ways to chat amongst themselves. The purple unicorn suddenly turned to the princess and spoke up. “I think we should check up on Zecora. We need to swing by her place to get where we’re going anyway,” She stated with mild concern as she wondered if the zebra was safe. Celestia nodded to her student in agreement. “If you say so, Twilight. We should be getting close to her house any minute now,” The princess observed, struggling to recall their position from her limited knowledge on the area. Even though she was extremely familiar with most places in Equestria, Celestia did not travel through the Everfree Forest often enough to take note of where everything was. As if on cue to match up with the alicorn’s statement, the clearing of Zecora’s hut opened up into view through the fog. In the distance Twilight could see that Zecora’s door was still missing, but it appeared as though she had moved it from the floor. After walking up to the hut, the group could see that the two candles Tom had set up the night before were still burning brightly. And in the back of the house, Zecora was sitting at a table with small metal instruments, meticulously poking at the black substance Twilight had delivered the night before. Upon noticing the visitors, the zebra placed the small tools onto a rag next to the petri dish that held the substance. She then got up and walked over to the front of the house and gave a warm smile at the group huddled around her door. “Ah Twilight Sparkle and friends, it is wonderful to see you again,” Zecora said with a friendly smile. She then stepped between the candles causing the blue aura to ripple around her form. “What a strange looking ward, it doesn’t look like anything I have seen before” Celestia stated, examining the barrier. It was an odd sight to see that such a simple item could prove to be so powerful. Twilight was surprised that her mentor was clueless about the type of magic employed by the candles, but then reflected on her own knowledge of magic and how the strange barrier did not seem to fit anywhere into the realm of magic she was used to. “Glad to see the candles are still lit, I don’t know what you would have done if Tom hadn’t come up with this quick fix,” She stated, taking note of her unintentional rhyme and who she was speaking to. “These candles really do work like a charm. They did a good job of keeping away anything that would have caused me harm,” Zecora laughed heartily and looked back at the candles on the floor. The alchemist marveled at the brilliant blue flame of the candles as they danced in the breeze. The purple unicorn was surprised at how well two candles placed in a row could keep the creatures of the forest at bay. She quickly regained her train of thought and looked to the zebra standing in the doorway. “We’re investigating the area where we found the creatures last night. I figured that since your house was on the way, we could check up on you. Have you found out anything new about the black stuff Zecora?” She asked quizzically. The zebra looked slightly disheartened as she peered over her shoulder toward the back of her house. “Unfortunately even though I tried my best, I couldn’t seem to discover much of anything about that black mess. I just know that it is very cold to the touch, and it starts to numb your skin if you feel it too much.” She explained, taking a mental note to be more careful of random substances and her own hooves in the future. Tom perked up with interest at hearing the description of the odd substance. Last night during all the commotion, he neglected to think much of the substance in a jar that was lying around on a table. “Can I take a look at it? I might have an idea as to what this stuff is,” He chimed in eagerly. Twilight looked at the human with intrigue, she was very curious to see what the odd substance in the jar from last night was. Zecora then nodded and stepped aside, motioning for Tom to follow her. The group walked over to the table where Zecora was keeping the substance. Twilight had not noticed before, but Zecora had kept this area of the hut as dark as she could to prevent the black mass from having any violent reactions to light. Tom observed the dark blob that was undulating in its glass home. It seemed just as energetic as it was last night, although it wasn’t trying to jump around. The human then reached his finger forward and touched the black mass. To everyone’s surprise, the blob started to smoke at the slayers touch. The mass shrunk in size around the human’s finger until nothing more remained of the black substance. Tom seemed to pay no heed to this seemingly unfruitful endeavor and nodded to himself in satisfaction. “Just like I thought… what you have here is a small sample of dark matter,” He spoke up suddenly to enlighten the ponies to his findings. The group behind the boy looked as confused as ever while he gave them a matter of fact explanation on the odd substance. Rainbow Dash tilted her head and looked at Tom with a confounded expression on her face. “Umm… For those of us without extensive knowledge of the supernatural, what is that?” The pegasus asked in confusion as she failed to wrap her mind around the name of the substance. The human looked to the group and sighed, realizing his own expertise on the odd subject matter. He gathered his thoughts and prepared to explain the substance in simpler terms. “Dark matter is formed in areas that have had a large amount of negative energy. This can happen over time, or it can happen suddenly for a wide range of reasons. A lot of people could have died in those areas, or someone could even form dark matter through more magical means,” Tom looked back to the petri dish and observed the last escaping puffs of smoke leave the area. “However it happens, what you get is this black substance that appears to be moving even when stationary. Because of its appearance and its tendency to form in dark areas with little to no light, dark matter has been given the nickname of living shadows. It reacts violently to light, and direct sunlight or positive energy can destroy it, which is why it disappeared when I touched it.” He explained, motioning towards the empty petri dish. Twilight grew more intrigued by the minute as she listened to the explanation of the black mass. But she was confused about a few things. “If positive energy destroys it, then how did this small sample get in here? I’m no expert on alchemy or anything else Zecora practices, but I’m pretty sure she has a couple of wards in place to deter anything evil that might wander in from the forest,” Twilight looked to Zecora for confirmation of her suspicions. The zebra nodded as she too wondered about the failure of her own magic to protect her home. Tom looked around at the interior of the hut, it was clear that Zecora practiced what humans would have called voodoo or alchemy. Many objects lay on shelves that resembled ingredients for magical charms, hexes, or alchemical potions. “Dark matter can come in different variations depending on how much of a negative punch it packs. This particular sample seems to have been strong enough to negate any wards you might have had in place. Thankfully the sample also seems to have been small enough to not form into anything larger or more dangerous.” The human stated, optimistically pointing out the fortunate occurrence. Princess Celestia looked concerned at the news that the substance posed any danger in large quantities. She never imagined the odd substance could pose a threat when she first laid eyes on it. “Wait, so this dark matter is dangerous?” She asked nervously. Tom looked somber as he thought about the possible abilities of the shadowy substance. “In large enough masses and with enough negative energy behind it, dark matter can do a lot of nasty things. Like drain energy from living things in contact with it, hence the cold feeling you get from touching it. It can also form into any number of intelligent shadow monsters, like darklings for instance,” He explained grimly. “So that’s how those monsters are forming… but there were many large clusters of this substance scattered around Canterlot and several other cities…” The princess sounded more concerned at the realization of the threat to her kingdom and its subjects. Tom nodded with a more serious expression. He felt bad that the ponies had such a problem on their non-existent hands, but he wasn’t sure about what he could do to help them at the moment. “Given the lack of other unique circumstances, that seems like the most logical conclusion as to the sudden appearance of monsters you have never seen before.” He stated somberly. Celestia grew slightly pale as she thought further about the possible worst case scenario. She had never come across any problem this severe that posed such a real and immediate threat to her kingdom. Twilight noticed her mentor was struggling in her mind over what to do next. “Don’t worry, Princess...” The purple unicorn placed a reassuring hoof on the alicorn’s shoulder. “I’m sure we can fix this. We just need to find a reasonable place to start,” She reasoned hopefully to lift her mentor’s spirits. The princess looked to her worried student. She suddenly remembered that she would have to be strong for those around her. Celestia briefly took a moment to restore her confident appearance. She then sighed and turned to Tom. “I think we should start by finding out where the monsters are forming in the forest. Maybe we can find more information about the cause of the problem there.” She nodded in determination as the human returned a nod of agreement. The group waved farewell to Zecora as they prepared to set off again. Twilight led the others out of the hut and around the back where the trail led off into the forest. The purple unicorn hesitated for a moment, staring apprehensively at the thick woods that lay before them. Even though it was still morning, not much light seemed to penetrate the canopy of branches and leaves that stretched above. Despite the dim atmosphere, the white fog still loomed in the distance. But due to the lack of light, the eerie white mist seemed to have changed into an ominous grey cloud. “Uhh…” Twilight whined uncomfortably. She tried her best to calm herself down, but memories from the encounter last night flooded through her mind causing her to stiffen up in fear. Rainbow Dash walked up to her shaking friend and placed a hoof on her shoulder. Although the dark woods ahead of them made chills go up her own spine, the cyan pegasus tried her best to comfort her friend. “It’s ok Twilight. You’ve got nothing to worry about with me, Tom and the Princess here…” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously, staring into the gray void along with the unicorn. Twilight smiled weakly at the pegasus huddled next to her. Despite the reassuring look she was giving, the unicorn could tell that Rainbow Dash was just as scared as she was. The purple pony gulped audibly and slowly inched her way onto the path before her. Celestia and Tom hovered close to the two shivering ponies in order to make them feel a little more comfortable. As the group walked along the path, Twilight looked around meticulously at her surroundings. She wanted to be sure that she did her part and lead them to the right place in order to shorten their time spent in the forest. The troop followed their lavender leader through the twists and turns of the forest path. Before long, the group had wandered off of any recognizable path. Regardless of their gloomy surroundings, the three had confidence in their purple leader to find their way through the dense vegetation. However as she searched through the trees around them, the unicorn found no familiar landmarks anywhere near the group. She paused for a moment and studied the area further. Frustrated and annoyed at her lack of success, Twilight mumbled to herself as she grew more worried at the thought that she had gotten the group lost. “I don’t recognize where we are anymore. This must be around the area where I was running through. Rainbow Dash, do you recognize the area?” The unicorn anxiously turned to her pegasus friend in the hopes that she might have an idea of where they were. “I’m not sure… we were pretty focused on running ourselves when we separated from you Twilight,” Rainbow Dash shrugged while eyeing the surrounding tree to search for any familiar sights. Twilight grew even more anxious as she nervously looked around her. Suddenly Tom walked up to her and looked back to the group confidently. “Don’t worry. I have been paying attention to where we have been going once we left the path. As far as where we need to go, I think I might be able to save us from needlessly scouring the woods for hours.” He stated with a confident tone. Twilight looked at the human, curious as to what he had in mind. The boy walked in front of her and looked around meticulously. He then exhaled as blue mist came from his mouth like before. He seemed to be more in control of the phenomenon as he did not gasp or flinch while summoning the blue mist. Celestia looked intrigued at the occurrence. Although Twilight had mentioned the way that Tom sensed evil creatures, it was still a surprise to see the event in front of her. Rainbow Dash watched Tom curiously as he walked around while letting the mist out every few steps. She was unsure of what he was doing, but any time he had used his senses before, bad things happened. “What are you sensing? Is it more of those things?” She asked nervously at the thought of more of those creatures being nearby. Tom looked back to the confused group for a moment before returning to his search. It was normal of them to be in the dark about what he was doing, but he still wasn’t used to explaining every action he took. “I can use my sensing abilities to pick up on negative energy. Hopefully I can get a trace of the darklings that were here last night and follow their energy to where they came from.” He continued walking around the area and looking around seemingly at random. He suddenly perked up at looked back to the others. “Aha...! Found something,” He announced excitedly. The boy stood still for a moment and looked off to the side, letting his senses go off a few more times. “Feels like… darklings for sure… definitely the ones from last night. Let’s see here,” The human motioned with his arms as if to trace some animal only he could see. “Lots of movement in a straight line over here… must be from where you were chased last night. That seems to go on for a while in that direction before spreading out… must be where they caught you and fought with me.” The boy muttered to himself. He then followed a seemingly random path with his hand while looking down to the ground. The group looked slightly confused as they watched the human wander around them, looking in various directions. They could only stand out of Tom’s way and trust that he knew what he was doing. The boy concentrated for a moment, tracing the beasts back to where they found the ponies, and where they came from before that. “Ok, I think I know where they came from. I can sense a trail from the ones that I presume chased Twilight that leads back to where they were before they came across you guys.” He stated confident in his ability to follow the trail. Twilight smiled excitedly at the news, she was glad that someone finally knew where they were going. The group anxiously followed Tom as he led them off to the side from where they were going originally. After a few minutes of wandering through the thick woods, the ponies were beginning to wonder if the human was just leading them on a wild goose chase. Rainbow Dash sputtered disgustedly as she walked into a spider web anchored to a nearby branch. She feverishly wiped the web from her face and shook her head to rid the tingly sensation from her skin. “Tom, are we almost there? We have been walking for a while now and we haven’t found any… thing,” The pegasus was cut off suddenly as the group burst through a clearing in the trees. The area in front of them was almost clear of any obstruction for several feet. Thick trees sat on either side of the group at the far edge of the clearing, and in front of the group in the middle of the clearing sat a rather large cave. The group was awestruck at the sight of the cavernous opening that made up the mouth of the cave. The opening sat on a stretch of rock so large that it seemed almost impossible to miss even through the thick vegetation of the forest. Tom looked back at the group as they stared at the large landmark with their mouths agape. He didn’t know anything about the forest they were in, so he had no way of knowing how strange the sight of the cave was. “Well I’m no expert detective, but I think we might find something interesting in there.” He stated jestingly.
Chapter 7: Into the CavernThe sound of water dripping could be heard even where the group of ponies were standing as it echoed off of the cave walls. And despite the sunlight shining into the clearing through the hole left by the lack of trees, the mouth of the cave seemed pitch black save for a few stalagmites and stalactites jutting from the rock at the opening to the cavern, as if the large opening was a mouth full of sharp gnarled teeth. Twilight and her friends couldn’t believe that such a structure could have been hidden so well in the forest without anyone from Ponyville discovering it. However awe inspiring the sight was, the purple unicorn had to force herself to stop gawking in wonder and amazement. Rainbow Dash looked up to the sunlight streaming down into her face and squinted, shielding herself with a hoof. “Wow, sure is bright here… I guess they must be coming out at night. How big do you think that cave is?" She asked, curiously observing the cavernous opening. Twilight stared at the cave apprehensively. She was getting a bad feeling just from looking at the pitch black opening. Suddenly, the unicorn dawned on the fact that she would have to go inside of the cave. The realization made her break out into a cold sweat. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up and every muscle in her body becoming tenser. As she noticed her friend growing more pale and nervous, Rainbow Dash thought about what could have spooked the unicorn, and suddenly realized herself what they would be doing. “So w-what will we be looking for in there anyway?” She stammered slightly, gulping nervously. “We will be checking for any signs of foul play. Darklings and dark matter appearing this suddenly seems to suggest that something else could be going on,” The human explained somberly. The cyan pegasus seemed confused by the statement, but thought about it for a moment. She didn’t like where the human’s train of thought was going, but she felt compelled to ask him anyway. “Something else… Like what? You don’t think somepony caused all this do you?” She asked apprehensively. Tom sighed at the thought of someone intentionally bringing about all these problems for such a seemingly peaceful race. “It’s definitely a possibility that someone could have done this on purpose, but we won’t know for sure by staying out here.” He stated with resolve as he readied himself to charge headfirst into the foreboding cave. As Tom walked toward the cavern, Twilight and Rainbow Dash gave each other a nervous look before turning and hesitantly following the human. Celestia let the boy lead the way into the dark cave as she stayed close to her two nervous charges. Twilight stayed close to Tom and lit up her horn so the group could see in front of them. Celestia decided to light her horn as well to provide a larger comfort zone of light for Rainbow Dash, who stayed between her and the two in front of them. Regardless of the amount of light in the cave, a thick layer of shadows seemed to permeate the area around them. It was entirely pitch black outside of the radius of light provided by the two magic users, leaving only the echoed noises of water dripping and the ponies own minds to determine the size of the cavern. The only comfort the group had was the entrance of the cave being illuminated very brightly by the sun outside, but even this uplifting ray of light was quickly growing smaller as the group ventured further into the depths of the blackness. Twilight tripped over one of the larger rocks that jutted out of the cave floor, causing the group to pause briefly as she regained her balance. The unicorn took this time to look around and try and make out any shapes around them that could indicate any walls or other such features of the cave. Small streams of water seemed to flow past them and toward what Twilight hoped was the direction of the entrance, while drops of water seemed to fall into view from the darkness above, presumably coming off of the stalactites that were scattered on the ceiling somewhere above the group. A wall sat to her right side, with many cracks and uneven crevices permeating the damp grey rock. And to the unicorn’s surprise, she could make out a dim light coming from an area on the wall. “What is this?” Twilight uttered barely loud enough for the others to make out as she leaned in closer. As her eyes adjusted to the shapes, she could make out small symbols inscribed into the rock. The symbols seemed to glow a dull shade of white that would easily have been missed had she not been right next to the area. Tom noticed the unicorn inspecting the wall and crouched down next to her to see what she was looking at. “Whoa… Nice find there Twilight. What are they though?” The human ran his fingers over the symbols while trying to analyze them. “Don’t seem to resemble any arcane glyphs I’m familiar with. Doesn’t even look like they belong to any ancient language I’ve seen before.” He scratched his head curiously as he compared the strange symbols to his memory of the arcane arts. Twilight squinted while trying to get a better look at the strange glyphs. They seemed slightly familiar to her, but in a strange sort of way. It was like they were an altered version of something she had encountered before. “They look like symbolic writings of a magical spell,” She looked at the group hoping they would understand her findings, but Tom seemed confused at the explanation given. Rainbow Dash looked at the human with an understanding expression on her face. “Don’t feel bad Tom, this time you’re not the only one who’s clueless,” She gave him a pat on the back and shared in his confusion. Celestia looked knowingly at the two as they tried to mull over the possible meaning in their own way. “I’m not surprised, Rainbow Dash. Not much on the subject of magic is taught to anyone other than unicorns,” The alicorn reassured the pegasus that it was normal for her to be clueless about the topic. Twilight sighed and tried to think of a way to simplify her knowledge on the subject for the two. She hoped that the human’s background as a slayer would help him to understand. “Unicorns sometimes use symbols to help them learn how to use magic or perform spells that are new to them. We can use our magic to sort of read over the symbols to get a feel for how the spell is performed… It’s kind of hard to explain to anyone that isn’t a unicorn, so I’m sorry if that seems a little vague.” She explained as clearly as she could to the two. Both of them nodded, but Twilight could only guess as to whether or not either of them comprehended her explanation. The unicorn then returned to studying the symbols. She lit up her horn and moved across the glyphs to try and decipher their meaning in her head. But even with the knowledge of what they were, Twilight let out a grunt of frustration as she struggled to comprehend the odd glyphs. “Ughh… I can’t seem to translate these into anything sensible. It’s almost like they are either not finished, or written partly in some other language... and the small section I can read doesn’t look like any spell I know of. Maybe you know what this goes to, Princess?” Twilight stepped aside and pointed to the section of symbols she was referring to. The princess stepped over to the wall and lit up her own horn before gliding across the wall and concentrating. After going over the entirety of the symbols, Celestia then ran over the section Twilight had identified a few times to see if she could figure out their meaning. “No, I’m afraid I can’t understand these either. This section here reads like a spell for gathering energy, but I can’t decipher enough of it to make any sense of what its purpose is.” The alicorn frowned as she shook her head in defeat. The group decided to move on and keep exploring, whilst keeping an eye open for any other symbols that could be littering the walls of the cave. The darkness of the cave seemed unending as the group walked in a straight line for several minutes. The ponies searched feverishly through the pitch blackness looking for any sign of something to further their cause, while the princess hovered close by to act as their protection should anything hostile emerge from the shadows. Tom walked in front of the group, staying just behind the veil of light Twilight was creating. He stared off into space occasionally, presumably to pay attention to his senses to see if anything lurked in the cave along with them. The sound of wind rushing through the cave via cracks in the walls mingled with the constant noise of dripping water, causing a feeling of dread and fear to swell up in Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they nervously pressed on. The unicorn felt incredibly uneasy in the stark silence. Even in the presence of friends she felt as if her heart would explode any minute from the feeling of sheer terror that was welling up inside her. Twilight looked back to Rainbow Dash hoping to gain confidence from her friend, but judging from her pale appearance, the cyan pegasus was not doing any better in coping with her fear. “How you holding up back there?” The purple unicorn couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say, but felt that some light hearted conversation could do both her and the pegasus some good. Rainbow Dash jumped slightly at the sudden break in silence before calming down and looking to her friend. She mustered a nervous smile and sighed. “I think I’m starting to get sensory deprivation from being in here so long. You can only stare at pitch blackness in a giant cave for so long without going crazy,” She stated in an attempt at lightening the mood. Tom perked up from hearing the conversation behind him and turned around to face the pair of ponies. “You know, we’ve only been in here for like fifteen minutes,” He remarked playfully. The cyan pegasus shook her head in annoyance and rolled her eyes at the human’s statement. “It feels like we’ve been here for an eternity. I almost want something to jump out and try to kill us. It would be better than whatever my hocked up imagination can think of.” She spoke her mind while secretly wishing that her statement would not come true. Twilight hummed curiously at the statement. She couldn’t help but notice the distinct lack of horrific monsters trying to rip her to pieces. Despite how fortunate this might have made her feel, the unicorn knew that something was off about the peacefully dark and silent cavern. “That reminds me, we haven’t seen any sign of darklings since we got here. Shouldn’t this place be crawling with them if this is where they are coming from?” She asked while puzzling over the issue in her head. Tom started to say something but was caught up in thought. He looked around curiously and scratched his head. “Actually that is quite strange now that I think about it. I haven’t sensed any dark matter in here at all, and the only sign of darklings I can think of was the trail leading in here,” The boy stated in confusion as he searched the area around the group with his senses. “Well, maybe your senses just aren’t picking them up? I’m sure there are probably hundreds of them waiting for us in the darkness,” Rainbow Dash looked around nervously as she let her imagination run wild. Tom turned to the group and chuckled confidently. “Don’t worry, not many things get by my senses. After all I am a profession- Whoa!” The human was cut off mid-sentence as he walked backwards into a rock. He tumbled over the rock and landed on his head before the rest of his body settled to the floor. The others quickly rushed over to the human concerned for his wellbeing. Tom blinked rapidly and stayed on the floor, trying to process what had just happened. He lifted his head up and looked at the knee-high piece of rock that he fell over, cursing under his breath. “As I was about to say… professional in training, there is still some room for error.” He said with mild humility as he tried to hold on to whatever shreds of his dignity that remained. After making sure that their friend was ok, the ponies chuckled under their breath as the boy had his ego deflated by an inanimate object. Tom then picked himself up and dusted himself off before taking a look around the rock. Lined up in a row were several other rocks around the one that he tripped over. Upon closer inspection these rocks bore similar glowing symbols to the ones found before. Twilight then stepped forward, allowing her light to fall on a bigger area around the rocks. “There are more of those symbols here.” She observed, scanning the row of stones and taking note of how many symbols were on each. Tom inspected the symbols to see what they looked like before shaking his head. “Can’t understand these either. I don’t suppose you have a way to write these down for future research?” The human asked the unicorn hopefully. Twilight thought for a moment before turning to answer the question. “Well, I didn’t bring a quill and paper. But due to the nature of these symbols, I should be able to use my magic to store them until we can write them down,” She explained with an optimistic smile on her face as she planned out her success in her head. Tom looked at her, confused as ever. “And just how do you plan on doing that?” He asked before immediately regretting his request for more information that he would probably not understand. Twilight inspected the symbols closer to confirm her suspicions before answering. “Even though I can’t understand these glyphs, they do appear to be some sort of spell. I can use my magic to read over them and hopefully I should be able to recreate them later on paper,” She clarified slowly. Tom was surprised at the simplicity of the unicorn’s explanation. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s copy these symbols so we can get out of here. If I stay in here any longer, I swear I’m going to forget what sunlight even looks like.” Rainbow Dash chimed in, eagerly anticipating leaving the darkness of the cave. Twilight nodded before lighting up her horn and concentrating on the symbols, she passed over each of them before moving on to the next rocks. While the unicorn memorized the symbols, Tom decided to investigate the immediate area. Walking forward a few steps He noticed something just outside of the ring of light created by Twilight as she ran from rock to rock. The human could just barely make out what appeared to be chalk markings on the cave floor. They formed what appeared to be part of a circle, but Tom couldn’t see them well enough to make anything else out. He stepped forward into the darkness and stood in what he assumed to be the middle of the large circle. He bent down to examine the markings closer, but shrugged at his inability to make any of them out in the blackness. “Hey Celestia, could you come over here? I think I found something on the ground, but I can’t see two feet in front of me,” The boy asked with intrigue as he inspected what few lines he could make out. The princess looked over to where Tom’s voice was coming from and walked over to him. Once she got within range of the circle and cast her light upon it, she could see several intricate markings on the floor. Various symbols similar to the ones on the rocks were spread throughout the design of a circle with numerous decorative lines. “These look a bit more complicated…” Celestia inspected the odd design on the floor while stepping into the middle where Tom was sitting. Upon setting a single hoof in the center of the circle, the entire design lit up in a violent display of light. The circle of light on the floor made a loud humming noise before emitting a blinding flash of light that made everyone cover their eyes. When the light dimmed and everyone looked over to the area of the circle, they discovered that the odd symbol had disappeared, leaving Tom and Celestia standing where the center had once been. Suddenly, a low rustling noise enveloped the group from all around. It sounded like something was gently scraping along the rocks of the cave floor, walls, and ceiling. The ponies looked around, nervously backing closer to each other. Rainbow Dash tried to pinpoint the source of the sound, but could not determine whether the noise was coming from above or around her. “Is that bad?” She asked in a slight panic while huddling closer to her friends in anticipation. Tom suddenly gasped as his evil sense went off, causing a surge of blue mist to rush out of his mouth unexpectedly. He searched around frantically trying to determine the cause of the reflex. “This doesn’t make sense. I can feel something all around us, but it feels too big to have snuck up on us this suddenly,” He stated in a perplexed sense of dread. Twilight looked to the ground beneath them and tried to find an explanation for the sudden disturbance. “Maybe that flash of light had something to do with it?” She suggested in an attempt to rationalize the situation and ease her growing anxiety. Tom started to reply, but was silenced by the noise suddenly growing much louder. Now that it was closer, the noise sounded more like a high pitched shrieking sound, almost as if a swarm of angry bats was descending on them. The group’s eyes darted around as they started to see something move in the darkness outside of the sphere of light. It appeared to move rapidly all around them as the odd shapes blurred together while whipping around. Upon looking up, the group noticed the same shapes moving above them and through the air just outside of the barrier of light. The sight, combined with the noise made even the princess and Tom nervous. Twilight and Rainbow Dash stuck close to each other and darted their heads around fearfully while trying to determine what the mysterious forms surrounding them were. “I… I t-thought darklings couldn’t fly,” The unicorn stammered nervously, trying not to picture what a darkling with wings would look like. Tom took on a more serious expression as he used his senses to try and identify the danger around them. He suddenly gasped in surprise as he realized why the shapes felt oddly familiar. “This is not darklings… This is much worse.” He said grimly as he paled slightly. Twilight and the others were about to question the slayer’s statement, when suddenly the shapes moved closer to the light. A large mass of black shadows crashed through the threshold of light. The mass seemed to be one large cloud of darkness as it swirled around the group. The shadows appeared almost foreign in comparison to the darklings and sample of dark matter back at Zecora’s house, which had softer shades of purple and black which seemed to shift around their skin in constant motion. The cloud of darkness currently swirling violently around them was void of any sort of color, it appeared as if the blackness of the cave had come alive and decided to suffocate the intruding ponies. Celestia seemed flabbergasted at the immense negative energy she was feeling. “What is that thing...? It looks like living shadows,” She observed as she tried to make sense of the strange smoke like mass around her. Tom took on a more stern tone of voice and turned to the others. “Precisely, that is a rather large mass of dark matter,” The explanation caused the ponies to turn to the slayer with shocked expressions on their faces. Twilight seemed the most shocked as she grew more frightful as to their situation. “What?! But the stuff the princess described looked nothing like this! It was nowhere near this active either!” The unicorn squeaked nervously as panic started to set in. “This mass of it seems to be charged with a frightening amount of negative energy. We need to get out of here now!” The slayer announced loudly as the cloud of darkness closed in on the group, shrinking their sanctuary of light down to a small bubble. Celestia steeled herself and adopted a determined expression. She wasn’t about to let a cloud of living shadows harm the two ponies next to her, not when she was the princess of the sun after all. “This stuff hates sunlight right? I should be able to get us through.” The princess lit up her horn and prepared to blast a ray of sunlight at the swirling mass, when suddenly a section of the mass broke off from the main cloud and rushed forward after her. The alicorn yelled in pain as the black substance hurled into her body with enough force to send her to the floor. The black shroud latched onto the helpless horse and seemingly started hurting the princess as she cried out in pain and fear. “Princess Celestia!” Twilight and Rainbow Dash screamed in unison at the sudden attack. They were forced to watch helplessly as the alicorn struggled on the ground in a vain attempt at removing the cloud that was suffocating her form. Tom quickly sprang into action and got closer to the princess. He then quickly pointed his open palm at the black substance wrestling with her. A bright flash of blue light hit the shadowy mass on top of the princess, causing it to erupt into smoke. The two ponies quickly rushed to the princess and stood over her, waiting for any sign that she might need their help. The princess groaned in pain and weakly got up. “Ughh… T-thank you, Tom. I would have been a goner if you didn’t…” Celestia winced as she dropped to her knees weakly. “Princess! Are you ok?!” Twilight frantically rushed to her mentor and helped her stand up. She could feel the princess shift her weight onto her as she failed to support her own body. Celestia breathed heavily a few times before looking to her student and smiling weakly. “I’m fine, Twilight… I just feel weak… ngh… I think that thing must have drained my energy.” The alicorn lit up her horn and tried to muster enough strength to use a spell. She then groaned from exhaustion and practically fell onto Twilight as her horn puttered out. The purple unicorn struggled to keep the heavy alicorn upright. She looked at her mentor with a concerned expression. “You’re in no condition to be using magic right now, Princess,” She stated with worry evident in her voice. Twilight and Rainbow Dash then looked at each other and to the swirling black cloud around them as they realized what that meant for them. “That thing is going to kill us if we don’t do something!” The cyan pegasus could hardly contain the panic in her voice as she watched the cloud move in closer to the group. Just before the dark mass got any closer to the cowering ponies, Tom jumped in front of them and stretched his arms into the air around him. Using both hands, the boy conjured two streams of the blue light which bounced off of the cloud as it tried to resist the assault. The light was bending off of the cloud, almost forming a bubble between it and the group as it pushed against the light. Tom grunted as he concentrated on keeping the dark cloud at bay, he then looked to the surprised ponies and drew in a breath to yell over the noise of the cloud pushing against the barrier. “I can’t keep this up forever! Help her up and let’s get moving!” He exclaimed urgently. The two ponies snapped back to reality as they both nodded to each other and got on either side of the injured alicorn. They both supported her weight and helped her walk faster as Tom carefully moved forward, keeping concentration on his powers. The walk to get into the cave did not take very long, but with the constant grinding noise the dark mass was making as it pushed on all sides of the blue force field, the slow walk towards the entrance seemed to take an eternity. On top of the nerve racking tension in the air, the group could not see past the dark mass attacking them, which made the heart pounding venture all the more tense as they wondered whether they were walking towards the exit, or further into the cave. The ponies struggled to carry the princess’s practically dead weight, but somehow they managed to stay right behind Tom as he shuffled forward while fighting the unrelenting shadows. Twilight could see Tom sweating as he struggled to keep the strenuous use of power up. “How are you holding up, Tom?” The purple unicorn looked to the boy concerned. She was afraid that he would pass out from exhaustion, leaving them alone to fend off the shadowy mass and sealing their fate. Tom shook his head quickly as a sign that he didn’t want to waste energy on talking. He winced and groaned as he pushed against the barrier forcefully to acclimate to the cloud’s attempts at applying more force. Twilight nervously looked at the mass of negative energy slamming its weight against the shield. It seemed to be unfazed by the same energy that had instantly defeated the monsters that attacked them the night before, only being kept at bay from prolonged exposure to the light as it tried to pass through. She then looked to Celestia, who was drifting in and out of consciousness causing the two ponies to pause briefly and apply more force to keeping her upright and moving. The unicorn was deeply concerned for the princess, she had never seen her this weak and helpless before. “Don’t worry, Princess. We’re getting out of here soon. You’re going to be fine.” She spoke softly and reassuringly into her mentor’s ear. The alicorn weakly shifted her head to look at the two ponies beside her before going back to staring blankly at the ground. The princess tried to put more energy into standing on her own, but faltered once more before being caught by Rainbow Dash. “Take it easy, Princess. We’ve got you.” The pegasus said in a reassuring tone. Suddenly, the cloud seemed to react slightly different. A shrill noise filled the air followed by the sound of several solid objects thudding on the floor just outside of the group’s bubble of protection. A familiar growling noise made the ponies spines tingle with terror. “Oh no, not these things again!” Rainbow Dash darted her head around as she noticed new shapes approaching the light from behind the cloud of shadows. The familiar form of darklings started walking through the barrier of light, pausing briefly and struggling against the slayer’s attempt at protection. “Ugh… They’re breaking through!” Tom wheezed in between breaths. “Twilight, I can’t fight these things and keep the shadow at bay at the same time. Is there anything you can do with your magic to fight them?” He asked while giving the pony a look of desperation. Twilight’s pupils shrank and her eyes widened as she was now required to act. She wasn’t sure if she could handle the stress of being responsible for saving the group. The unicorn looked over to Celestia and Rainbow Dash for reassurance. The alicorn was in a daze as she occasionally moved her head around slowly to observe her surroundings. While the cyan pegasus was darting her eyes around nervously, Twilight could tell that she was scared out of her wits. Having decided that she had to at least try to do something to save her friends, the unicorn raced her mind in an attempt to find a spell to use. “Umm… Uh… I got it! I can knock them back out of the barrier. Hopefully they won’t be able to get through twice,” She spoke up with anxious excitement as she came up with a sound plan. Tom was slightly concerned at leaving it up to an innocent bystander to fight off a dangerous bunch of shadow creatures, but he realized that they were out of options. “Alright, do your best to keep them away from us... Just be careful!” He stated in an attempt to reaffirm the need to be as cautious as possible. Twilight looked over to her pegasus friend sympathetically. Rainbow Dash would have to support Celestia’s entire weight while she focused on keeping the creatures from getting in. “Just go! I can take care of the princess.” The cyan pegasus nodded to her friend confidently as she prepared to carry more weight. Twilight slowly let the princess shift over to Rainbow Dash, she then walked into the middle of the bubble of light and darted her eyes around to see which direction the creatures would come from. One of the beasts slowly stepped through the barrier, Twilight could see that these monsters were as pitch black as the dark mass that spawned them. The beast smoked briefly as it struggled to pass through the barrier. Once on the other side, it quickly lunged for the princess and Rainbow Dash. The pegasus flinched briefly as she prepared for her demise, when suddenly the beast was sent hurtling out into the darkness by a concentrated blast of light. Rainbow Dash looked over to see her friend with her horn lit up in anticipation. “Nice shooting, Twi! Keep it up!” The cyan pony cheered her friend on as she readily confronted the attacking beasts. The purple unicorn smiled confidently as she blasted away another one of the beasts that had gotten through as it tried to lunge for Tom. After a few minutes, multiple creatures started to come through at once. Twilight struggled to keep up with the monsters as she frantically whipped her head and body around to face the attackers. Although her tense nerves assisted her as she spun around to fend off the beasts, there was only so much she could do considering she had a full wide open area to contend with. Suddenly one of the creatures lunged for Twilight, catching her off guard. The unicorn screamed in surprise as she just barely missed the opportunity to blast the creature before it reached her. The beast tackled the frail unicorn, sending her flying to the edge of the barrier where her body skidded to a halt against the rough stone floor. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash screamed and reached out a hoof as she was forced to watch helplessly as her friend struggled against the monster pinning her to the floor. Twilight could feel the coldness of the dark cloud trying to leech her energy as her body just barely stopped within the confines of the barrier. The dark smoke lunged back and forth against the thin film of light as it tried to make contact with the purple pony. The unicorn cried out frantically as she tried to keep the beast’s mouth from clamping down on her throat. She whimpered in fear as her muscles were slowly failing her and allowing the monster to get closer to her neck. “No!” Rainbow Dash cried out defiantly at the scene before her. She wanted nothing more than to run over and help her friend, but realized that she couldn’t leave the princess unattended for fear that she might collapse and be left behind the barrier of light. Twilight shut her eyes as she let fresh tears stream down her face. She could practically feel the beast’s teeth grazing against her throat as it drew closer to her body. She mentally accepted her demise and hoped that whatever pain would come would be brief. Tom looked over to his side at the struggle taking place. He then grimaced as he focused more energy into one hand. He then quickly dropped one of his arms and pointed a quick blast of light at the monster. The beast flew off of Twilight from the force of the blast, making her wince in pain as the creature’s claws raked across her forelegs. She quickly got up and ran to the center, trying to compose herself. “Thank you, Tom.” The unicorn panted heavily and smiled at the human before looking down to check the severity of her wounds. Blood ran down her legs from the jagged cuts, but they did not look deep enough to cause much concern at the moment. Finally, the cloud started to move away from the front of the barrier. Through the gaps of the waning mass of blackness, the ponies could see daylight as they approached the mouth of the cave. “We’re almost out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly as she watched more pieces of the cloud flee from the front of the barrier and join into the rest of the mass. Tom focused more energy to the back of the group as the cloud focused more force into one direction. The cloud began to emit large quantities of smoke as the group backed out into the sunlight. Although it seemed harmful, the sunlight seemed to only weaken the black mass as it pushed defiantly on the barrier to make one last ditch effort at getting at the escaping intruders. Twilight quickly ran to Rainbow Dash and helped her move the princess out of the cave and into the grassy clearing where they gently sat her down. They then turned to look at Tom, who was still battling the mass. The further into the daylight it pushed, the more weak it seemed to get as it ignored its own survival to get at Tom. The slayer planted his feet on the ground firmly and pushed back with great determination. He let out a yell as he put all of his energy into the stream of light in front of him. The light finally went through the cloud as its strength gave out from the combined forces of Tom and the sun. The cloud was rapidly reduced to smoke as the light surged several feet into the cavern, leaving a more natural shade of darkness in its wake. Tom practically hyperventilated as his entire body shook from exhaustion. Finally the boy’s legs gave out and he fell to his knees and went face first into the floor.
Chapter 8: Finding HelpTom placed his hands on the ground beside his head to push himself up. He struggled for a moment before managing to barely lift his face off the floor. His chest heaved in and out rapidly as he made a vain attempt at catching his breath while beads of sweat fell freely from his face. Twilight looked at the pitiful sight with concern as she sadly thought about the strain he must have gone through. She looked back to the princess lying on the ground a few feet away. After confirming that the white alicorn would still be alive if she left for a few minutes, the lavender pony slowly walked over to the human. “Tom, are you okay?” She looked at him sadly as he refused to leave his current position to respond to her. Twilight could barely see Tom’s eyes shift over to her position. The response filled the unicorn with a slight sense of hope. The boy kept breathing rapidly, giving the concerned pony beside him a look that pleaded for her to give him a break before talking. He finally turned his head weakly, and slowly to face the unicorn. He flashed her the biggest smile he could muster, which at the time was just barely noticeable, and opened his mouth to speak. “I’m good... Just give me a few minutes.” The human rolled his head back to face the ground and planted his head forward onto the hard grassy floor. He continued to breathe rapidly and showed no further signs of wanting to talk. The boy’s response did little to make Twilight any less worried, but she decided to leave him to rest. The purple mare walked over to her friend before sitting down on the ground herself to relax. In a moment of carelessness, Twilight rubbed her open wounds against her leg. The unicorn winced and let out a shrill cry of pain. After mentally coping with the pain, she looked at her front legs and shuddered in despair at the sight of the bleeding lacerations. Taking care not to cause any undue pain, the unicorn gingerly wiped the excess blood off of her legs. “Those look pretty bad… are you sure you’re alright?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned frown. She watched sadly as the unicorn grimaced from trying to place her legs on the ground without letting anything touch the sensitive areas. Twilight winced as she rubbed the area around the wounds. Although she wasn't used to getting injured this bad, it wasn't actually as bad as it looked. Despite this, she could tell that her friend was extremely concerned for her. “It stings a little, but I think I’ll be fine. I’m just glad that this was the worst thing that happened,” The unicorn chuckled in disbelief as she thought about the close call. She looked over to the pegasus, who was shooting her a sad sympathetic look. "Still... you had me worried back there. I thought I was going to watch you die," Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. “I thought that I was a goner there too. If I hadn’t stopped when I did, or if Tom hadn’t intervened, I don’t think I want to know what would have happened,” The thought of how close she came to dying made Twilight shudder nervously. She still felt the icy cold numbness of the dark mass trying to latch onto her and suck her life out of her through the barrier. The unicorn shivered fearfully at the remembrance of the sensation, she could now understand why the princess felt so weak after having only been exposed to the shadow for only a few uninterrupted seconds Twilight’s train of thought was interrupted suddenly by the sound of Tom groaning loudly as he tried to get up. He managed to get on his feet and paused briefly while his legs wobbled uneasily. He placed his hands on his knees for support and lurched forward to make himself comfortable with his stance. He then inhaled sharply as he started walking slowly over to where the ponies were sitting. The boy was still breathing heavily as he looked to the princess resting behind the two ponies. She looked almost peaceful as she breathed calmly and deeply with her eyes closed. “How is she doing?… We didn’t really have time to look at her back there.” Tom looked to the two ponies to ensure that they themselves were unharmed. He quickly glanced to Twilight’s wounds to see if they needed immediate attention. Satisfied that the injuries were not an immediate concern, the exhausted boy then shifted his eyes to look to whomever would answer his question. Twilight was about to answer when she was suddenly surprised by the princess stirring. The sickly alicorn raised her head up without much difficulty and opened her eyes to look at the others. She appeared to be far less pale than she was a few minutes ago. The ponies were surprised yet thankful at the princess’s sudden improvement. “I’m fine, Tom… Just a little weak is all. That was a close call in there… If you weren’t there with us, I don’t think we would be alive right now. Thank you very much for your help,” Celestia smiled weakly at her strange blue suited savior. Tom finally regained his lighthearted attitude, but was distracted by how exhausted he was. “Sweet lord… I don’t think I have ever used that much energy at one time. I feel like I’m going to pass out… Hopefully we can find out a little more about who did this from those symbols… you still have them right, Twilight?” He asked curiously, hoping that they didn’t just go through that ordeal for nothing. The unicorn lit up her horn and searched through her magical reservoir just to be sure that the symbols were still where she had left them. “Yeah, I got them. But wait… How can you be sure that somepony did this on purpose?” She asked quizzically, still wanting to believe that this was not the intentional work of a sentient creature. Tom closed his eyes and sighed, confident in his hypothesis. “In all my months of experience as slayer, and with all the inherited knowledge I have on the supernatural, I have never seen dark matter that powerful or aggressive. That stuff actually tried to ignore the sunlight to get at us. No shadow creature acting of its own free will would do that.” He explained uneasily. The ponies did not know much of anything about the supernatural, but the genuine nature of the boy and the surprise and amazement in his voice made them comprehend that this was an astounding event. Rainbow Dash looked curiously at the darkness of the cave. The thoughts of what laid within sent chills down her back. The pegasus eyed the shadows carefully, satisfying the part of her mind that told her that the thing might still be in there. “Good thing you managed to overpower it. Hey, why didn’t you try to do that earlier?” The cyan pony wondered at the relative ease that Tom employed to dispatch the darklings from the night before. She had no doubt in her mind that it should have been a snap for the slayer to have dealt with the shadowy conglomerate while they were in the cave. Twilight was also curious as to why the human chose not to try and destroy the shadow creatures earlier, but she also remembered how stressful the event seemed on Tom’s body. Tom closed his eyes and grunted a sigh of annoyance as he thought of an answer to the question. His reasoning seemed obvious to him, but he had to remember that they were not accustomed to him or his methods. “I didn’t know if it would work… I’m pretty sure the only reason it did work was because the sunlight already weakened it. And I didn’t want to try and destroy it in the cave. If I failed, I wouldn’t have had the strength to fend it off long enough to get us out after using that much energy.” He stated in a concerned tone. The ponies shuddered at the thought that they would have been left to fend for themselves in that dark cave had Tom not kept a cool head. “We should probably get going. The princess needs to rest somewhere, and I need to get these wounds fixed.” Twilight sighed at the sight of her own injured legs. She didn’t know how she would keep Spike from destroying himself with guilt once he found out that she had gotten hurt with him absent. “Yeah and besides, I think we could all use a little rest after that ordeal.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly at the thought of relaxing at home. Between the experience in the cave and the events from last night, the pegasus just wanted to take a few minutes to unwind in an environment she knew was safe. Tom nodded enthusiastically at the thought of leaving the forest. He then thought for a moment on which way to go to get back to the path. Luckily for the group, he had been paying attention to where they had been going. He then walked to the edge of the clearing and waited for the others to catch up. Rainbow Dash heaved and groaned as she helped Celestia get up. She then decided to help the princess walk on her own to let Twilight avoid using her injured legs for anything other than moving. The group quickly followed Tom into the woods and started the journey back home. After finding the path and walking for a few minutes, the group found themselves back at Zecora’s hut. The ponies looked at each other and nodded silently, they decided that they would rush straight home instead of stopping by the zebra’s hut. Not wanting her to worry about their wellbeing, Twilight hobbled in front of the door and waved to the Zebra inside. Zecora noticed the group walking away and nodded while waving back. The unicorn then winced in pain as she picked up her pace to catch up with her friends. As soon as the group made it out of the forest, the princess moved away from the cyan pegasus assisting her and turned to face the others. She looked at the three in front of her with a sad expression. She had to leave to return to the castle and deal with a few things. Most important of these things was to find a bed to collapse into and sleep while she got her energy back. “I’m going to head back to Canterlot,” The princess sighed as she tried to look less exhausted for the sake of the worried ponies. Twilight looked to her mentor uneasily. She wasn’t sure if she should even try to make the long journey by herself. “Are you sure you’re okay enough to travel alone?” She shifted her expression into a frown as she watched the princess wobble trying to steady herself. Celestia smiled weakly at her concerned student to cheer her up a bit. She wasn’t sure if she appeared as healthy as she wanted, but she had to ease the unicorn’s fears somehow. “I’ll be fine, Twilight. I just need to rest for a while once I get back. You all should investigate this further and see what you can find out about the purpose behind these strange events. I will send my sister to help you out should you need it. She should be here in a few days.” She stated happily while ignoring her intense desire to return to a tired stupor instead of a cheerful smile. Twilight was still doubtful about the princess’s health, but was confident that she would ask for help if she really needed it. She waved goodbye to the alicorn along with the other members of the group as the princess walked away. The unicorn then shifted her attention to her pegasus friend. “Hey Rainbow Dash… I know you probably want to head on home, but could I ask you something first?” She asked pleadingly. The cyan pegasus smiled at her friend. She felt exhausted herself from the ordeal in the cave, but she could spare a few more minutes to hear what the purple unicorn wanted. “Sure, what’s on your mind?” Rainbow Dash spoke softly while looking at Twilight with a quizzical expression. The unicorn sighed as she thought about the odd events that took place the night before and just recently. She had never come across such a challenge before, and she was certain that a lot of work needed to be done before she could get any answers. “We’re probably going to need some help studying these symbols and checking to see what purpose they serve. And after we find that out, there will probably be a lot of other questions that need answering. I was just wondering if you would drop by the library tomorrow to help us do some research.” Twilight invited with an imploring tone of voice. Rainbow Dash hummed curiously and placed a hoof under her chin as she thought about the request. She then nodded and smiled warmly. “I’d be happy to help. I’ll drop by a little while after morning, does that sound good?” She clarified happily while planning out what time she should get to sleep once she got home. “That sounds perfect,” The purple unicorn smiled back to her friend as she accepted the offer. “Hopefully I can convince the others to come by and help as well.” She stated optimistically. Rainbow Dash waved to her friends before spreading her wings and taking off to fly home. Tom and Twilight watched the pegasus rapidly disappear from view before turning and walking toward Ponyville. After a few minutes of walking, Twilight decided to stop by Fluttershy’s house to see if she would be interested in assisting them with their investigation. She then turned to walk toward the shy pony’s cottage. Thankfully, the yellow mare’s cottage wasn’t too far out of their way. After walking for a short while from the edge of the forest, the pair could already see the house in the distance. Once the two reached Fluttershy’s home, Twilight walked up to the door and knocked gently. After a brief wait, the yellow pegasus opened the door and smiled at the sight of her friend. Her bright smile then shifted to an expression of horror and worry as she noticed Twilight’s wounds. “Oh my goodness, Twilight are you okay?! These look horrible!” Fluttershy's face immediately paled from the shock of seeing her friend injured so severely. The sight of the bloody gashes on the unicorn's legs made her heart sink. Twilight winced in remembrance of the wounds. Although they had stopped bleeding, they still stung occasionally as she moved. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m going to drop by Rarity’s to see if she can patch me up,” The unicorn carefully lifted her leg up so both herself and Fluttershy could see it better. The size and severity of the gashes made the shy mare squeamish, but she didn’t want to make her friend feel any worse than she obviously already did. The yellow pegasus put a hoof to her mouth to catch her gasp as she surveyed the two at her doorstep. Between Twilight’s injuries and the look of exhaustion on Tom’s face, they looked like they had just been through a war. “What happened to you two? Are you sure you’re ok?” Fluttershy asked with shrill concern evident in her voice. Twilight felt bad for letting her friend worry over her injuries. She spoke calmly in an attempt to quell the gentle pony’s fears. “It’s a long story, nobody got hurt too bad thankfully. Anyway, we’re here to ask for your help with something… Something unrelated to how we look… well sort of,” The unicorn rolled her eyes at the thought of what they had just been through. Fluttershy looked at her friend with intrigue. She was always willing to lend a helping hoof to anyone that needed it. “Of course I’ll help. What do you need?” She smiled and waited to hear about the purple unicorn’s request. Twilight was glad to hear that her friend would help their cause. She smiled briefly before thinking about how to phrase her explanation. “We’ve been investigating the spot in the forest where we got attacked last night. We found some things that are going to need a lot of research done on them, and we were wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming to the library tomorrow to help us out,” She asked with a hopeful expression. The yellow pegasus nodded and tried to avoid looking at Twilight’s wounds squeamishly. “I need to do some things around here, but I’ll be there as soon as I finish up.” Fluttershy stated eagerly. Satisfied at the answer given, Twilight closed her eyes and smiled brightly. She then said her goodbyes and walked away with Tom in tow. The unicorn walked back to Ponyville while leading her human friend around. She decided to visit her other friends to see if they would want to help. Seeing how Sugar Cube Corner was closest to them, the pair decided to enlist Pinkie Pie next. Once they arrived, Tom couldn't help but to marvel at the building's decor. The sweet shop was about as subtle as Pinkie Pie was mild and laid back. Despite its flashy exterior, or perhaps because of it, the shop seemed like the perfect place for the party pony to work. Twilight walked up to the door and opened it. As the shrill ringing of the bell above the door rang out, the unicorn politely waited for the human to walk inside before joining him and closing the door behind her. “You guys don’t know the meaning of the word subtle do you?” The boy added, thinking about the design of the building and looking around the interior. Twilight chuckled at the thought before walking up to the counter and waiting for someone to come in so she could ask for Pinkie. It was odd seeing nobody at the counter. Usually either Pinkie or one of the Cakes' were always manning the front of the store during business hours. “Hi!” Pinkie stated enthusiastically. Tom jumped back in fright and surprise as the energetic pink pony suddenly popped up from below the counter. As the human clutched his chest and breathed deeply to recover from the scare he was given, he looked over to Twilight to see that she was only slightly startled by the unexpected jolt. Tom looked at the pink pony with disbelief before letting out a sigh of relief. “Good lord, Pinkie, how do you do that?” He walked up to the counter and eyed the cheerful pony. He then took a glance at the height of the counter and made an analysis in his head as to how the pony could jump out like that on accident. “Do what? All I was doing was looking at something,” Pinkie Pie giggled and smiled at the human. The pony seemed oblivious to her own almost creepily cheerful nature. She looked curiously at Tom before returning to her casual smile. “Never mind… it’s nothing,” The boy shrugged and gave up on trying to rationalize a logical explanation for how the party pony could seemingly defy nature with how she was able to move so suddenly. Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over to Pinkie Pie, who met her gaze and waited for her to speak. “Anyway, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming to the library tomorrow Pinkie. We need as much help as we can get with investigating this case for the princess,” The unicorn explained pleadingly. Pinkie trailed her eyes off as she thought about the matter. “Weeeell, I guess I’m free tomorrow... Sure! I’ll be there bright and early,” She bounced happily in the air and giggled innocently. She then looked to Tom and smiled sweetly. “Hey, Tom, you want to try a cupcake?” Tom was caught off guard by the sudden question. He looked down at the glass sample area of the counter at the delicious looking treats kept inside. He then looked back up and smiled contently. “Sorry, I don’t have any money to pay for one. Maybe another time,” He declined in a friendly manner. “Oh… don’t be silly! The first one is on the house!” Pinkie smiled at him and giggled at his kindhearted tone of voice. She then turned around and walked into the other room. She came back with a tray that had three cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles all over them. “Here, one for each of us. You look like you could use one too Twilight,” She added, noting the exhausted appearance of the two in front of her. “Oh, umm… thanks, Pinkie,” The unicorn smiled at the gesture, she then reached forward and grabbed one of the cupcakes off the tray. Pinkie gasped upon noticing Twilight’s cut up foreleg. “Oh my gosh...! Are you ok, Twilight? Where did you get hurt like that?” She asked in a concerned tone of voice. The chipper pony suddenly became more concerned as her smile was replaced with a shocked expression of worry. Twilight looked sad as she reeled her injured limb back. She didn’t want to make her friends worry about her, even if their worry was justified. “Oh… right, I guess you weren’t there with us. We went out into the woods to investigate where those creatures came from. We found some more of them in a cave, one of them jumped on me and left these when Tom got it off of me,” The purple mare explained. Pinkie gasped quietly upon hearing the news. She put a hoof to her mouth and looked sympathetically at the unicorn. Twilight let out a fake chuckle in an attempt to cheer her up. “It’s ok, I’m going to have Rarity stitch me up, so there’s no reason to fret over these,” The unicorn smiled and hoped her friend would do the same. Pinkie then slowly returned to her cheerful self. She picked up her own cupcake and ate it feverishly. Upon seeing this, Twilight took a bite out of her cupcake. Tom picked up his confection and looked at it for a moment. He hesitantly took a bite and savored the sweet taste. “Hmm… these are actually pretty good,” He quickly finished the treat and wiped the crumbs from his hand off on his pant leg. Pinkie grinned upon hearing the satisfaction in the human’s voice. “I’m glad you like them. Come back here some time, I might be able to give you a couple more freebies every now and again. I mean you are a friend now,” She went over to Tom and placed a hoof around his shoulder and held him close. Tom pushed her away gently as she started to hug him a bit too tightly against her. “Well you never know. I’m sure a guy like me can earn some money in a town like this, so hopefully you won’t have to give me any more freebies.” He smirked at her warmly. She returned the gesture and walked back behind the counter. Twilight said goodbye to the pink pony and walked out of the store. Tom gave her a quick wave and followed the unicorn out the door. Twilight breathed in and out as she took a moment to take in the fresh air. She then started heading towards the Carousel Boutique where Rarity worked and lived. Upon reaching the building, Tom couldn’t help but face-palm mentally as he thought about the lack luster nature of the names in this world. He was going to a building aptly named Carousel Boutique, in a town called Ponyville, and he was being led around by a pastel coloured purple talking pony named Twilight Sparkle. He decided he would have to temper his sense of judgement if he were to live here without going daffy. Twilight opened the door to the boutique and held it open for Tom to step through. She then went in after him and took a look around the inside. Rarity sat at one of the chairs in the back of the building. She was working tirelessly on fixing the hair of a young filly. Twilight recognized the white filly to be Rarity’s little sister Sweetie Belle. Rarity frantically tried to smooth out her sister’s ruffled mane with a comb. Judging from her appearance, it looked like Sweetie Belle just went through a tornado. The white mare stopped what she was doing and looked up to the two visitors. She smiled and put the comb down for a moment. “Twilight, Tom, how nice to see you two!” Rarity greeted before looking to her sister, who was curiously looking at the human and studying his appearance. “Sweetie Belle, I would like you to meet Mr. Thomas Greene,” She pointed to Tom and cheerfully introduced him to her sister. “Wow, so this is the person that beat up all of those scary monsters you told me about?” Sweetie Belle looked to her sister and then back to Tom. She smiled and seemed very eager to meet the human. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Greene… you must be very brave to have fought all those monsters out in the Everfree Forest,” She stated with an intrigued tone of voice. The filly seemed genuinely impressed by the feats accomplished by the human. Tom chuckled humbly. He wasn’t used to getting this much admiration, even from a child. All things considered, it was an experience he could learn to enjoy. “Please, call me Tom. We’re all friends here after all, right Sweetie Belle?” He said lightheartedly. The young unicorn smiled brightly and nodded with confidence at the human’s statement. “What happened to your hair, Sweetie Belle? It looks like a mess.” Twilight looked at Sweetie Belle’s messed up hair and gasped with mild shock. Sweetie Belle sighed in annoyance and felt her soaking wet hair. “I got sprayed by a leaking pipe at school. They must be having some trouble with the plumbing, because there is an awful lot of water leaking in the basement,” She pouted sadly as she thought about her own misfortune. “I guess I must just be unlucky. I mean what are the odds of me finding the one bad pipe in the entire upper floor?” The filly threw her hooves up in frustration and huffed in annoyance. Rarity stroked her sister’s hair before shaking the water from her hoof. She then turned to Twilight with a curious expression. “Enough of that dreadful business for now… Anyway, why are you two here?” She asked quizzically and glanced between the two. “Well I need to ask you something.” Twilight got right to the point of their visit as Rarity listened intently. “We need help with researching things for the princess. It has to do with our trip to Zecora’s last night. I was hoping you could come to the library tomorrow to help speed up the process,” Rarity sighed to herself and looked annoyed as she thought about doing any kind of research. “Well darling, I’m not much of a bookworm… But I guess if it would help you I’ll come,” She stated contently at the prospect of assisting the unicorn. Twilight shifted around joyfully at her friend’s acceptance. Unfortunately, she got a little too enthusiastic as she brushed one of her injured legs up against the wall. “Ow!... oooh.” The unicorn jumped in pain and gingerly rubbed the area. She could see that the wounds were starting to show signs of getting infected. Rarity cringed as she saw her friend in pain. She quickly walked over and examined the injuries closer. Twilight bit her lower lip to prevent herself from crying out in pain as the white mare inspected her wound. Even with Rarity being as gentle as possible, the cuts sent twinges of pain coursing through the unicorn’s body with each touch. “There’s one more thing too, Rarity. Oww… As you can see, I seem to have received a rather nasty bunch of cuts on my legs,” She droned sarcastically as she tried to downplay her wounds. Rarity looked at her friend with prominent concern. “Cuts, Twilight? These look more like gashes to me! How on earth did you get these ghastly injuries?” She asked while bringing the unicorn over to a chair. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise as she saw a passing glance of Twilight’s injury. “I would rather not talk about that right now,” The purple pony winced while looking over to Sweetie Belle, who was looking at her with concern as well. “Do you think you can give me some stitches... and maybe some disinfectant as well? … Oww!” She cringed while the white mare inspected the wounds closely. Rarity sighed in frustration and thought for a moment. She had experience with patching up Sweetie Belle from her escapades with the cutie mark crusaders, but the unicorn was unsure of whether or not she could fix injuries this size. “I don’t know, Twilight… these look a lot larger than anything I’m used to handling, but I’ll see what I can do.” Rarity offered in a friendly manner before walking off to search for medical supplies.
Chapter 9: A Well Deserved RestTwilight sat patiently in her chair while Rarity went upstairs to search for the supplies she would need. It was clear that it would take several minutes for the unicorn to rummage through her house to find the necessary items. The purple unicorn kicked her feet and looked around to pass the time. She looked over to Tom and Sweetie Belle chatting beside her and smiled. The filly seemed genuinely interested in learning about Tom and humans in general. But she seemed mostly interested in Tom’s duties as slayer as she pelted him with a flurry of questions with a level of enthusiasm that only a curious child could offer. Twilight was amazed at Tom’s lighthearted attitude. He seemed like a different person every time the situation grew dire, but outside of serious combat he seemed genuinely cheerful and accepting of those around him. The human answered all of the filly’s questions with charm and character. He even played to her sense of adventure by telling her some stories of his time as slayer. Twilight could not tell if he was exaggerating details in his story or not. When most people say the fish they caught was ‘that big’ they are usually putting on a show, but the unicorn had no doubt in her mind that the human could be telling the truth when he said that ‘the monster was as big as a house’. Sweetie Belle laughed at something Tom said. She then looked at his hand curiously and thought for a moment. “Hey, Tom…” She asked innocently. Tom smiled and rested his arm on the arm of her chair. “Yeah?” He asked and gave her a genuine look of interest. “Do you think you can show me the light you used to scare away those monsters? My sister says that it was amazing to see,” The filly pointed to his hand with her hoof and asked with intrigue. She grinned with anticipation and waited for a response. Tom sighed and looked to Twilight. He didn't want to disappoint the excited filly, but he was still exhausted from his time in the cave. “Well, I don’t know. I’m still pretty tuckered out from when I beat up some monsters earlier,” He explained with a smirk. Twilight chuckled as Tom looked knowingly to her. He then shrugged when Sweetie Belle started pouting sadly. “Awww… Come on. Please, would you do it for little old me?” She tried to look as cute as possible while coaxing the human to agree to her request. Tom chuckled at the attempt to convince him. He thought for a moment about his own energy level before looking to the filly in defeat. “Fine, I guess if you really want to see it,” He said compliantly. Sweetie Belle bounced eagerly in her seat as Tom got up and lowered his outstretched arm to her level. The human then breathed a few times to steel himself. “It’s not going to be as bright as when your sister saw me using it, but it should suffice. Just don’t feel too disappointed when I have to stop. This is really taxing work and all,” Tom explained to the eager filly, who nodded in acceptance to his statement. He concentrated for a moment while focusing energy to his palm. Sweetie Belle looked on in wonder and amazement as blue light started emitting from Tom’s hand. The light softly hummed a pleasing tone as it shot upwards a short distance away from his hand. Twilight found herself transfixed on the light along with the excited filly. Sweetie Belle hovered her hoof near the edge of the light. She hesitated and looked to Tom for confirmation that it was safe to touch. He nodded and motioned with his hand for her to stick her hoof into the glow. “Whoa…. It feels so warm and tingly!” She exclaimed, giggling at the odd sensation. It felt like her hoof was placed inside a load of clothes that had just come out of a dryer. She frowned in slight disappointment as the light flickered out, leaving her hoof to cool off in the air of the relatively cold boutique. Tom breathed in a few deep breaths. He simultaneously gave the filly a pat on the head to cheer her up. “Don’t look so sad. I plan on being around for a while, so I’m sure this isn’t the last chance you will have to see it,” He explained in an optimistic tone. Content with the human’s answer, Sweetie Belle nodded and removed her sad expression. The three then shifted their attention to Rarity as she came down the stairs while levitating the items she found in front of her. She placed a spool of thread and a needle on the tray beside Twilight’s chair. She also placed down a cotton swab and a bottle of green liquid labeled disinfectant. After organizing her supplies, Rarity pulled up a chair and sat down, kicking up a leg rest for Twilight to use. She levitated the cotton swab and disinfectant bottle with her magic. She then unscrewed the cap and poured a few drops onto the white puffball. Twilight cringed instinctively as she watched the cotton swab hover near her wounds. She then stared at the thread and needle beside her, causing her pupils to shrink to singular dots. Rarity looked at her sympathetically and sighed. “I’ll try to be as gentle as I can darling. It shouldn’t hurt too much,” She tried to sound as reassuring as possible. The purple unicorn gulped nervously as she braced herself for the stinging pain that comes with sterilizing a wound. Twilight had to bite her lower lip and concentrate to not whine in pain as the white pony dabbed the cotton swab over her legs. She then put the cotton swab down and picked up the needle. The purple mare started sweating nervously as she watched Rarity clean the needle with warm water and disinfectant. She did not like shots or anything else involving needles, so naturally thinking about how long the suture process would take, frightened her a lot. “Gahh!” Twilight yelped in pain as the needle pierced her skin. She tried to avoid moving while Rarity steadily sutured her wound. The white mare tried to think of a way to keep her friend occupied and to get her mind off of the pain. “So, Twilight, where did you get these anyway? If I’m going through the trouble of patching you up, I would at least like to know what happened,” Rarity glanced up at her and asked curiously while being careful not to mess up. Twilight shrugged in defeat as she thought about explaining her ordeal. The white unicorn had a point though. If she was going to patch up such a large wound, she deserved to know why she was going through the trouble. “Well, if you must know…tch! ... We were investigating the Everfree Forest trying to find out more about the monsters that attacked us,” Twilight spoke in between jolts of pain. She thought back to the events of the morning and paled as she thought of the dark cave. “We found out where the creatures were coming from... it turned out to be an undiscovered cave out in the forest,” She explained casually. Rarity hummed with curiosity at hearing about the interesting find. She listened intently and allowed her friend to continue. “We found a few strange glyphs that resembled the writings of a spell, and…” Twilight’s eyes trailed off as her voice cut off from fear. “This thing suddenly attacked us and tried to kill us… It was so horrible, it... it was like a big swirling cloud made of shadows,” She said in an uneasy tone. Rarity gasped at hearing her friend describe the ghastly monster to her. Even Sweetie Belle shuddered nervously at the description of the creature. Twilight remembered how Tom risked his life to help her and her friends. She felt bad for him as she thought back to how stressful the experience must have been on his body. She fought back a buildup of tears as she put the thoughts past her and continued. “The princess got knocked down by a part of the cloud. It must have drained her energy, because she suddenly became so weak that we had to help her walk. We thought we were going to die without the princess able to help us. Then, Tom leaped into action. He used that light of his to push the cloud back so we could escape. That’s when I got these,” Twilight nodded toward her legs due to her being unable to move them for reference. “More of those monsters from last night appeared. They were going to break through the barrier, and Tom was occupied so… he asked me if I could do something. I figured that I could blast them back with my magic, but it seemed like a bit more than I could handle,” Twilight shivered as she remembered the creature pouncing on her. She shuddered in disgust as she could still feel the beast’s cold drool hitting her face as it tried to maim her. Rarity stopped stitching up the wound to put a hoof to her mouth in shock. She quivered sadly as she thought of her friend being brutally attacked by one of the monsters she saw in Zecora’s hut. “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry that you had to go through that! I’m terribly sorry that I brought it up… just try to forget about that okay,” She looked down sadly as she mentally chastised herself for letting her curiosity getting the better of her. Twilight frowned as she looked at the sad unicorn. She smiled in an attempt at brightening up her mood. Rarity noticed her friend smiling cheerfully at her and soon joined her. “It’s ok, Twilight. You handled those darklings like a champ,” Tom spoke up in a reassuring tone of voice. Twilight was shocked to hear the slayer compliment her on her performance. She looked at him with disbelief that he really thought she did well. “Really...? But I let that thing pounce on me and almost got the rest of us killed by making you have to help me,” She eyed him sadly while recounting her poor experience. Tom’s smile never wavered as he gave her a straight face. “Most people would have frozen up and let those things eat them. But you did exactly what I asked for and more. You were doing a great job of keeping those things at bay. Just because one caught you off guard doesn’t mean you should beat yourself up about it,” The human said in a praising tone. Twilight smiled coyly at the remark. Hearing the slayer commend her for her supposed bravery made her swell with pride on the inside. “Thank you, Tom, you really know how to cheer someone up,” She closed her eyes and smiled at the human before leaning back and preparing to endure the rest of the painful experience ahead of her. After sitting impatiently through two legs worth of stitching, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as Rarity put down the needle. The unicorn admired her work for a moment before looking up to Twilight and smiling. “There you go darling. These should heal up just fine now.” She gently tapped the side of Twilight’s leg in a manner that she was sure wouldn’t hurt. She then put the leg rest back and got up from her chair. Twilight moved her legs a few times to test out how they felt. They were still tender from the stitching process, but she was no worse for wear. “Thank you so much, Rarity. I really didn’t feel like going through the trouble of going to a hospital for this,” The unicorn smiled to her friend and got up from her chair with a new pip in her step. She then walked to the door and waited for Tom to follow her. Sweetie Belle pouted sadly as Tom got up to leave. "Aww... do you really have to leave?" She asked with a dismayed tone. Tom looked sympathetically at the young filly. He could tell that she had really enjoyed her brief time with him, but he never expected to have such a grand impact on her. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll meet up again sometime,” He patted her on the head and ruffled her already messed up hair. This made the young unicorn smile cheerfully as she watched the human depart. Twilight walked out of the door along with Tom as she looked at her legs with intrigue. She stamped on the ground a few times to test if the stitches would hurt. Satisfied at her newly patched up legs, she then looked to Tom thoughtfully. “We should head over to sweet apple acres to see Applejack next, and then we can go home and relax,” The unicorn shared a sigh of anticipation with the human as they thought about resting. Twilight wondered how Tom could remain so chipper when he was still clearly exhausted from the earlier struggle. The two walked across Ponyville until they reached the plot of land where the Apple family farm sat. The breathtakingly lush fields of apple trees left the two in awe. No matter how many times she visited her friend, Twilight would never get over the sight and smell of fresh apples growing plentifully. Twilight led Tom around the farm as she searched for Applejack amid the fields. Failing to find her orange friend at work anywhere nearby, Twilight figured that she would be in or around the farmhouse or barn. Sure enough, the two could see the farmer talking with her brother, a red stallion that Twilight knew as Big Macintosh. The pair seemed to be discussing something passionately as they sat near the front of the house. The unicorn trotted up to the two and smiled as they turned to look at her. Twilight was shocked to see that Applejack and her brother looked even more tired than she and Tom felt. The two could barely keep their eyes open as bags had formed under their eyes. Twilight put a hoof up to her mouth and gasped as she noticed many bruises and scratches littering both of their bodies, and a rather decent sized laceration was plastered on Applejack’s left shoulder. “Howdy, Twilight, hi Tom,” The orange mare tried to perk up at the sight of her friends. She yawned heavily and shifted her weight around uneasily. Twilight stared at the two for a moment in shock before getting up the nerve to ask about their appearance. “Oh my goodness… you two look awful! What’s wrong?” The unicorn examined her friend closer as she walked over to her. The farmer sighed deeply and stared blankly toward the inside of the house. “Well ya see… after I got home last night, I found out that everyone was still awake. Not because they were worried about me, but because they couldn’t sleep,” Applejack explained with a disheartened expression on her face. Twilight looked on in a mixture of confusion and worry as her friend droned on tiredly. She wondered about what could have possibly kept the apple family from getting a good night’s rest. “Couldn’t sleep...? What kept you up?” The unicorn asked quizzically while looking between the two. Almost as if on cue to answer her question, the group heard a loud crash coming from inside the house that resembled the distinct sound of glass shattering. The farm pony stared toward the noise and growled under her breath in frustration. She then looked back to Twilight and shifted into a sad and desperate expression. “Somethin’ keeps throwin’ things around the house. Picture frames, plates, flower pots, even tools around the barn keep movin’ through the air like a unicorn was pickin’ ‘em up. And when things aren’t flyin’ over your head, it’s still impossible to sleep ‘cus of the noise the dern thing makes.” Applejack huffed angrily as she explained the hardships that had befallen her recently. Twilight and Tom looked on sympathetically as she vented her frustrations. “What thing, Applejack? I thought it was just objects moving around?” The unicorn tilted her head quizzically and asked her friend to elaborate. Applejack shrugged as she tried to calm herself down. “The thing that’s causin’ all this fuss... We know it must be some sort of critter, because it seems to target us specifically. If it’s not throwin’ somethin’ at you, it’s makin’ some kinda bangin’ noise against the floor… Or worse,” Her eyes trailed off as she cringed from the large cut on her shoulder. “Oh my goodness… how did all of those marks get on you? They almost look like cat scratches…” Twilight pointed out with concern as she observed the two in front of her. They seemed to be covered from head to hoof in the small scrapes and scratches. Applejack groaned in frustration as she thought about the plague on her family. “Well, when we noticed that it started throwin’ things at Apple Bloom, we tried to get it to leave her alone. Me and Big Mac here stood in front of her and caught anythin’ that flew at her. I think we might’a made it mad with how we hollered at it to stop. Now it scratches and smacks around whoever it seems to fancy at the moment. Even poor Apple Bloom is all beaten up.” She looked down sadly at bringing up her failure to protect her little sister. Big Mac put a hoof on her shoulder for support. “See that mark on her shoulder there?” The stallion looked to the two and spoke up to allow his sister a moment to recuperate. Twilight gasped upon studying the wound closer. She had been too occupied with the rest of her injuries to notice it. Big Mac sighed sadly before continuing. “A hoe almost flew right into Apple Bloom’s face. AJ pushed her out of the way and caught the thing in her shoulder. It dug in pretty deep, not surprisin’ seeing how fast it was going,'' He shook his head sadly as he thought back to the incident. Twilight gasped upon hearing the tragic retelling of the family’s problems. She was nearly reduced to tears as she thought of the hardships her friend had faced all night. Tom sat beside her and put his hand up to his chin in thought. He then looked up confidently and stared at the two. “Tell you what, guys. I think I have a rough idea of what you’re dealing with. And being the slayer of evil I purport to be, I would be happy to take a look to see if I can fix your problem,” He offered with a confident grin on his face. Applejack looked up and smiled genuinely at the human. Big Mac also perked up and joined his sister in smiling. The orange mare walked up to Tom and placed a hoof on his side gently. She looked at him desperately and chuckled. “Tom, if you somehow managed to make this thing stop… I think that I would be the happiest pony in Equestria. I might even hug you on the spot if you would do that much to help us,” She stated happily. Tom looked confidently at the farmer. He nodded and smirked warmly at the two. Twilight looked at the boy with intrigue. She wondered if he was able to deliver on what he claimed. But judging from past experience, the unicorn was confident he at least knew what he was doing. “I’m going to need you to show me around the place and introduce me to your family members. Anyone who has been affected by this thing, I want to meet them,” He instructed slowly and sternly to the two. Applejack smiled and motioned with her hoof for the two to follow her and her brother. “Right this way.” She stated, walking into the house.
Chapter 10: Residential MalevolenceTwilight followed from the back of the group as Tom stayed close to the two farm ponies as they showed him into the house. Upon taking a look around the living room, the purple mare was appalled at the dismal appearance of the place. Several notable decorations she had remembered such as pictures or vases were missing from where they originally sat. Some of the more sharp objects had been secured with tape in an attempt to prevent them from flying around. Amid the chaotic ruins of the formerly warm and inviting room, a few glass shards littered the floor from where the noise they heard just moments ago most likely originated. Applejack seemed distraught at the appearance of her once proud home. She sighed and looked to Tom and Twilight. “The only other person here right now is Apple Bloom… Thankfully, Granny is out of town this week on one of her errands. I shudder to think about what could happen to her if she were here,” The orange pony looked down sadly. Twilight walked up to her and put a hoof on her good shoulder. “Don’t worry, Applejack, I’m sure that Tom will be able to help you,” She looked to her friend lovingly with an optimistically bright smile. Applejack smiled weakly, still being unable to let go of her frustrations enough to offer a complete smile. “I just don’t know, Twilight. Anythin’ we try seems to just make it madder,” Applejack sighed in despair as she looked to Tom. “Apple Bloom is right upstairs in her room… follow me. Big Mac, you stay down here with Twilight. The less people gathered in one place, the better,” She instructed gloomily. “Eeyup…” Big Mac sighed sadly. The orange pony beckoned the human to follow her as she walked up the stairs. She stared ahead blankly as her thought process was reduced to a tired jumble of mush. Tom looked around the house as he followed Applejack, half to admire the homey atmosphere and half to survey the area for any possible clues that could serve his purpose. The cow pony suddenly stopped at a door and put her head up to it to listen. She knocked a few times on the door and raised her voice to be heard through the wooden frame. “Apple Bloom… you okay in there sugarcube?” She asked with an inflection of sisterly care in her voice. The two could hear muffled sounds of something moving around inside before they suddenly heard the young filly reply. “I’m fine, sis. You want somethin’?” Apple bloom asked curiously. Tom could hear the soft southern accent even through the door. “We found someone who might be able to help us out. Can we come in and introduce you?” She put her ear to the door and listened intently. The filly was silent for a moment before speaking again with a hopeful tone in her voice. “Come on in,” She said with a friendly tone. Applejack opened the door and stepped into the room while looking around. All of the small objects in the room had been taken down and put somewhere safe. The room looked barren and empty, save for a few pieces of furniture and the bed, which had Apple Bloom lying on it wearing what appeared to be two pillows strapped to her body. The odd suit seemed to be very restrictive of motion as it sandwiched the young filly tightly. The suit didn’t obscure the many scratches and bruises covering Apple Bloom’s body, however. Applejack found it difficult to look at her sister in this beaten up state. The farm pony stood by the bed and looked at her sister lovingly, talking to her eye to eye. “Apple Bloom, this is the human I told you about… the one that saved my life last night along with everyone else’s. He is here to try and help us, but he said that he needed to meet everyone first,” Applejack explained, trying to sound as cheerful as her exhaustion would allow. Apple Bloom looked at the human with a doubtful yet curious expression. She loosened up a little bit as Tom bent down to her level and smiled at her. “Hi there, Apple Bloom… my name is Thomas, but you can call me Tom if you want,” He said in a friendly tone. The filly looked at him for a moment and thought about his name. She then slowly returned his smile before looking at him in a lighthearted manner. “Tom huh? That sounds like an odd name,” Apple Bloom stated in a half joking half serious kind of way without seeming harsh. The human chuckled warmly. He had not expected to be criticized on his name in a place like this. “Well, where I come from, Apple Bloom would be an odd name. Tom is actually pretty standard fare as far as names go for humans,” Tom spoke softly in a friendly manner. He looked puzzled as the filly frowned at him. “I’m glad that my name isn’t odd around here. I have enough problems at school without being made fun of for my name,” She looked down sadly as she sulked internally. Tom and Applejack looked at her sympathetically. The human looked to the filly in a puzzled sort of way. He couldn’t imagine why a young girl would be made fun of in this seemingly peaceful society. “What problems could you possibly have at school? You seem pretty enough for a little pony, and everyone I have met in this place so far has been mostly nice to me,” He observed while thinking back to everyone he had interacted with. Apple Bloom sighed and took off the pillow suit she was wearing. Tom expected her to show him the rest of her cuts and bruises, but instead she turned sideways and pointed to her blank flank. “I don’t have a cutie mark yet. That alone is reason enough for me to be made fun of at school… and now I look like even more of a mess,” She huffed in dismay as she noted her numerous scratches and bruises. Tom scratched his head curiously. Of all the strange terms he had heard thus far, cutie mark had to be the strangest sounding one. “What is a cutie mark? Twilight failed to explain that one to me,” He looked to Applejack in the hopes that she could fill him in. The farm pony looked at him with surprise and turned so he could see her cutie mark better. “Oh right! Humans must not have cutie marks then I s’pose... A cutie mark is somethin’ a pony gets when they find out what skill they are good at,'' She pointed to her own cutie mark. “Eventually, what you end up with is a symbol on yer flank that is unique to every pony. It gives you a clue as to what that pony is good at, and sometimes can give you a hint as to what they are like.” The orange mare explained the concept as best as she could. “Oh, so that’s a cutie mark. I was beginning to wonder why everyone had strange pictures on their side. I assume that yours represents how you work on an apple farm?” He pondered out loud. Applejack smiled and nodded as the human caught on. “Yep, I love working with apples. But it can represent a lot more than that, like how I enjoy working in general. I think that with hard work and determination, anything is possible,” She explained cheerfully. Tom nodded as he thought about how important determination was for him considering his powers. Apple Bloom sighed in frustration. Tom looked back to her puzzled. He had no idea why the filly would have been tormented for such a trivial reason. “So why do people make fun of you for not having one yet? From the sound of it, you will get yours soon enough,” He asked quizzically. She looked up to him and pondered about it for a moment. “I don’t know why they do it, but there are a couple of mean filly’s in my school that already have their cutie marks. They like to tease us and call us blank flanks, and now they are probably going to laugh at me even more now that I look so beaten up and tired,” Apple Bloom shuddered as she thought about the harsh comments she would undoubtedly hear at school tomorrow. Tom thought for a moment before smirking at the filly. “Well you might not have a cutie mark, but I can think of something you have that all those mean ponies don’t,” He stated confidently. Apple Bloom looked at him with doubt and curiosity. “What’s that?” She looked at herself as she thought about what unique qualities she could have that her classmates did not share. The human smiled warmly, giving her a confident expression. “The next time someone makes fun of you for not having a cutie mark or anything else, tell them that you are friends with a human. And not just a regular human, a human that beats up monsters and other mean things for a hobby.” He eyed her deviously. She chuckled and smiled devilishly as she pictured the scenario in her head. Tom took a final look at the filly before getting up and shrugging. “Alright then, Apple Bloom, let’s see about dealing with your problem here. Can you tell me your own experience with this… thing?” He asked quizzically while looking around the room. Apple Bloom put a hoof up to her chin and trailed her eyes off in thought. “Weeell, I guess it started a little while after Applejack left with Twilight and the others to go see Zecora. I was about to get in bed and go to sleep, when suddenly I heard Big Mac hollering from downstairs. I was kind of scared, because I could hear things breaking against the wall. I went down to check out what was happening, and I found Big Mac trying to dodge things that were flying at him.” The filly motioned with her hooves in an animated fashion as she told her story. Tom listened intently while Applejack frowned upon hearing about what happened after she left. “Me and Big Mac tried our best to sleep after about an hour of dealing with things flying against the wall. I was in my room trying to shut out the noise with my pillow, when suddenly everything got really quiet. I could have sworn that I heard something walking up the stairs and outside my room. I thought it was my brother coming to check in on me, but the door never opened and the sound stopped. I sat there fer a while staring at the door, when all of a sudden I felt something smack me across the face.” The filly grew more fearful as she described what happened to her. She was on the verge of breaking down into tears as she thought back to her terrifying experience. Applejack sat on the bed with her and looked at her sadly. She wrapped her hoof around her while pulling her close. The filly cried into her sister’s side for a minute before wiping her tears and continuing. “I... I was so scared. I hid under the blankets and tried to convince myself that I imagined it, but then it started scratching me. I yelled for Big Mac and didn’t stop until he came running in. The thing didn’t even stop smacking me around when Big Mac picked me up and took me downstairs. He yelled at it to stop and leave me alone. After that, it was off and on between it picking up things and throwing them at us or the wall, making scratching and banging noises on the floors and ceilings, and scratching and hitting me and Big Mac until Applejack came home.” The filly explained in a sad tone. Apple Bloom sobbed in fear and buried her head into her sister’s coat. Applejack held her closely, rubbing her head gently. She looked up to Tom sadly and sighed. “Once I got home, the only thing that changed was that it started attackin’ me too. We hardly got a wink of sleep last night. This mornin’ we tried to keep Apple Bloom close to us and out of the house, but it followed us to the barn. That’s where I got this cut on my shoulder here,” She looked to the laceration and frowned. She then turned to Tom and looked to him pleadingly. “Is there anythin’ you can do to help us Tom? I’m at my wit’s end here.” Tom looked to the two sisters embracing on the bed. He felt sorry for all the trouble they had been through. He took in a deep breath and smiled to try and cheer the farm pony up. “I think I know just what is going on here. Lucky for you guys I should be able to take care of this with no prob-” The boy was cut off mid-sentence by a high pitched scream coming from downstairs. Applejack jumped to her feet and joined Tom in staring at the door with a concerned expression. “That sounded like Twilight! Come on, Tom, let’s get down there!” The farm pony exclaimed in a panic. She motioned for Apple Bloom to stay put and ran to the door with Tom. Applejack ran in front of the human as she scrambled down the stairs. No amount of exhaustion or fatigue was going to stop the orange mare from helping out a friend in trouble. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and gasped as she took in the scene before her. Big Mac was on the ground with glass broken near his head. He groaned in pain as he writhed on the floor. Twilight was pinned in a corner with a terrified expression. Zipping around the room were several household objects that were of various sizes. The objects seemed to swirl around in a cloud as they hovered menacingly through the air. Every so often, an object would break free of the circle of projectiles and hurl itself near Twilight. The unicorn was bleeding badly from a wound on her chest that still had glass sticking out of it. “Twilight!” The farm pony stuck out a hoof as she shouted to her friend in terror. The unicorn uncovered her face and looked at her friend. She suddenly grew pale and her eyes widened in shock. “Applejack, look out!” She exclaimed frantically while pointing behind the farm pony. Applejack darted her head around to look in the direction she was pointing. She gasped as she saw a knife from the kitchen had apparently been picked up and added to the cloud of objects. The knife pointed at her menacingly as it hovered in the air just outside of the swirling mass. “AHH!” The orange pony cried out in surprise as the knife flew at her face in a blur. She closed her eyes and prepared for the pain to come to her, but was surprised when she felt nothing happening. Applejack squinted one eye open partially to see if she had been killed instantly and was now in the afterlife. To the pony’s excitement, she saw that she was still in her living room. She then gasped and backed up in surprise as she saw the knife being held an inch away from her face. She turned to see Tom holding onto the knife tightly as he looked at her with a serious expression. “Quick! Grab your brother and pull him over to the door. Twilight, Make a break for it! I will deal with this.” He stated urgently. Applejack and Twilight nodded as they rushed to do as they were instructed. Applejack swiftly ran to her brother and shook him to see if he could walk. He got to his feet and started staggering, relying on his sister to guide him in the right direction. Twilight got low to the floor and rushed behind the two as they made a beeline for the door. Tom looked to the swirling cloud of objects as it threw a few plates at the group of escaping ponies. One of the plates hit Twilight in the back, sending her to the floor as she cried out in pain and surprise. The human used his senses a few times to see if his suspicions were true. Before he could get a solid reading however, he widened his eyes in shock as he saw several more knifes break off from the cloud at the same time. They pointed to Twilight while she struggled to get up and shook in the air as they prepared to plunge into the helpless unicorn. “Alright, that’s enough out of you!” Tom exclaimed angrily. He then lifted his arm to point straight at the center of the mass of flying objects and fired off a quick flash of light. The light completely filled the room, blinding the ponies for a brief moment before it disappeared. After the light faded, the objects suddenly crashed to the floor as they stopped floating, causing a deafening wave of sound to ring out. The ponies looked around in shock before settling their eyes on Tom, who was panting quietly as he tried to regain his breath. “You did it Tom! You made it stop! Thank goodness fer that.” Applejack let out a sigh of relief before wiping the sweat from her brow. She looked at Tom puzzled as he shook his head. “Don’t get too excited just yet. I only stopped it temporarily… it will be back once it gets its strength back up and it decides the time is right. But don’t worry, I should be able to stop it for good once it comes back and I can sense what it is for sure,” Tom explained in a reassuring tone. “Aww horsefeathers.” Applejack cursed under her breath at her misfortune. She was glad that Tom had intervened before anypony got hurt, but she also felt a sense of defeat, almost like she was expecting the human to fail at ridding her house of the affliction. “Do you know what it is at least, Tom?” She asked while trying not to sound too harsh and cold. She did not want her gratitude to be lost amid her tired and frustrated exterior. “Yeah, it’s a poltergeist,” The boy gave them a matter of fact explanation as he observed the broken objects littering the floor. The ponies looked at each other in confusion. “What in the hay is a polter... whatever you just said?” Applejack asked and eagerly awaited a simplified explanation. Tom stopped himself from going off on a more complicated tangent. He then sighed at his own thought process before turning to the ponies. “Poltergeist is a word from a language that was spoken half way across the world from my country. It translates to noisy ghost, and means just that.” He stated. The ponies gasped upon hearing the explanation. “A… a ghost? But nobody has died on the property from what I know,” Applejack stammered in surprise as she tried to think of why a ghost would be in her house. Tom shrugged before shaking his head at her to halt her terrifying thought process. He didn’t want her to get too fearful of something before she even knew what it was. “Wait, wait… hold on before you jump to any conclusions. A poltergeist doesn’t necessarily have to be the ghost of a dead person. It can also appear if a large amount of spiritual energy in an area suddenly comes to life… which is probably what we’re dealing with, because once I shot a blast of positive energy at it, it stopped.” The human tried to alleviate the farmer’s growing fears with his explanation. She shook her head in frustration and growled under her breath. “I don’t care what it is anymore. I just want to be able to sit in our house for a few minutes without somethin’ flyin’ at me!” She huffed in an upset manner. Twilight looked at her friend sympathetically as she steadied her brother against a wall. Big Mac seemed dazed, but he looked like he would recover. The purple unicorn cringed as she looked down at her own wound. She grabbed the piece of glass stuck in her and pulled it out. The unicorn cried out in pain as she pulled the large fragment out of her body. Applejack looked at her with sympathy and concern. She put a hoof on her shoulder for support as Twilight threw the glass shard on the floor with frustration. “I think at this rate I’m going to start looking like Swiss cheese if I keep getting cut up,” She looked at her wound sadly and held back a painful tear from leaving her eye. Meanwhile, Tom pondered as to how Swiss cheese could exist still if Switzerland no longer did. His thoughts were interrupted by Twilight shooting him a serious look. “Tom, you said that thing will be coming back right? So, when do you think it will return?” She asked fiercely. The unicorn seemed hell bent on helping her friend to be rid of this horrible thing plaguing her. Tom admired her spirit before adopting a more serious look himself. “It depends... It could be back in a few minutes, or it could be back in a few hours. I doubt it’s still regaining its energy by now with how strong it seemed, but it’s probably biding its time while waiting for an opportunity,” He shrugged upon delivering the news. As he expected, Applejack did not seem happy to hear that the thing might be around for a while. “Oh for cryin out loud! I swear if I could touch it, I would give it the worst beating of its life! … Its non-life… Daww you know what I mean.” She fumed with frustration. Suddenly a high pitched shriek erupted from upstairs. The sound of the scream drove Applejack’s blood cold as she paled with dread. “Apple Bloom!” She exclaimed fearfully as she recognized the terrified shriek to be her little sister.
Chapter 11: Sinister IntentThe group hastily made their way to come to the aid of the young filly. Applejack led the charge in a panicked sprint up the stairs. The orange mare was focused on one thing only as she fought through the pins and needles sensation taking over her body, she had to get to her sister. The cowpony was closely followed by Tom as he struggled to keep up with the fearful pony. Twilight was left to bring up the rear and steady Big Mac as he tried to dauntlessly climb up the stairs after his sister. Applejack skidded to a halt to prevent herself from overshooting her little sister’s room entirely. The orange pony threw open the door and charged in with determination. The farm pony widened her eyes and gasped in shock as she had not been prepared for what she would see inside. All of the furniture in the room was being lifted through the air and spun in place or shook violently as they hovered menacingly. The curtains to the window were even dancing around as if they were caught in a windstorm. And in the midst of all of this chaos, a terrified yellow filly was being lifted into the air against her will. Applebloom looked at her sister with a sort of fear that the farm pony had never seen before. Her eyes were red as tears streamed off of her face from being shaken around so much. “A…a..a.Applejack! Help me!” The terrified filly cried out in desperation and fear while reaching out a tiny hoof to her sister. She could hardly speak from how much she was being jostled around. The farm pony looked at the scene with a pale sense of dread slowly filling her body. “Hold on Applebloom, Ah’m comin’!” Applejack exclaimed urgently. She furrowed her face into the most impressive look of determination she could muster over her fear and prepared to charge forward to rescue her sister. The cowpony heaved as she felt her body being pulled back a little ways. She turned to see Tom looking at her with a serious expression. The farm pony looked at him with confusion and disdain, she was about to snap at him angrily before he spoke up to stop her from talking. “Hold on! I know you want to help her, but you’re not going to be any use to her if you get picked up and flung out of the window.” Tom stated while pointing to the far wall. Applejack looked on nervously as she watched several objects jerk around in the air. The windows themselves were opening and closing rapidly as the entity exercised its power on them. If she charged in there without a plan, there was no way of knowing if the entity would throw either her or her sister out of the window to a painful and possibly deadly fall. Applejack grunted in frustration. She looked back to the human with a mixture of urgency, doubt, and slight anger plastered on her face. “Well, you better think of something fast! I’m goin’ in there myself if you won’t help her!” The orange mare glared at him with anger and determination. All of the fear had left her body by that point as she stared at her sister being jerked around in the air. The sound of the filly yelping in surprise as she was violently shifted in different directions made the farm pony boil with the need to come to her aid. Tom sighed and looked back to the scene. He stepped forward a ways and studied the pattern of objects moving around the room. The frightful amount of power the poltergeist was capable of made the human nervous for the filly’s health. “Ok, ok! Just let me find the best way to do this without getting yourself killed first alright?!” Tom looked back to the unimpressed pony behind him and reasoned for her to think rationally before getting herself killed in front of her sister. Tom quickly allowed his senses to go off a few times. He scanned his head from left to right across the room as the blue mist repeatedly came from his mouth. Satisfied with his findings, he backed up and turned to the anxious pony in the doorway. “Alright listen up, I’m going to need you to run in there and grab her when I say. I’m going to see if I can distract it enough to prevent it from picking you up, but you will need to be fast. After I flash it with my light, you run in and grab Applebloom from out of the air… I don’t care how much it pulls on her, you get her out of this room understand?” The human looked her in the eyes seriously and calmly informed her of his plan. The orange pony looked to her frightened sister briefly. Her face softened up when she saw the filly was closing her eyes tightly while trying to find a happy place in her mind. She then looked back to Tom with newfound spirit and shot him a look of determination. “Ah’m ready whenever you are.” Applejack nodded confidently while answering him with a serious tone of voice. The human nodded back before getting up and breathing deeply. He looked back at her as she watched him diligently to await his command. He stuck out his hand and pointed up one of his fingers. “One…” Tom counted up to alert her to his plan. Applejack reeled back as she prepared to charge in. Tom stuck up another finger and looked forward to the flying objects around them. “Two…” The human slowly stepped to the side to provide her more room to maneuver. He raised his other hand and pointed it to the epicenter of the room. Applejack tensed her muscles and sweated nervously as she looked ahead to plan out her route. Twilight and Big Mac watched anxiously from the hallway as they prepared themselves for whatever would happen once the two kicked into gear. “Three!” Tom yelled loudly signaling Applejack to close her eyes tightly for a moment. The room turned bright white with a hint of blue for a second as the human blasted his light at the mass of floating objects. After she heard the noise of the flash of light die down, Applejack opened her eyes up and darted forward into the room. The objects had not stopped floating, but all spinning and jerky movement had ceased as the blast interrupted the entity’s normal flow of energy. Suddenly, a few of the objects around her started shaking as Applejack quickly made a beeline for her sister. She dodged to the side as she saw a dresser being flung at her from the left wall. Confident at her successful evasion of the object, she heaved loudly as she jumped up onto the floating bed to use it as a platform to leap for her sister. The filly floated high up in the air near the ceiling, forcing the farm pony to reach up to her on her way down from a jump. Applejack ran to the end of the bed and jumped as high as she could. She reached for the small filly and wrapped her arms around her before turning her body in midair to protect her from any harm. The two slammed against the wall and floor as they descended. Applejack grunted in pain from taking most of the impact. She shook her head to rid herself of the dazed feeling before getting up and running for the door with her sister placed firmly against her chest. The room shook violently as the entity realized that its prey was escaping. Applebloom screamed as a lamp post slammed into her sister, causing the orange mare to fall to the floor and release her. Twilight quickly ran forward and grabbed Applebloom as she slid along the floor towards the door. She then looked to Applejack as she lay on the ground. The orange pony held her ribs as she writhed in pain from the impact. She squinted one eye open and looked up to see around her. She suddenly felt something pulling on her back legs. The invisible force yanked hard on the hapless pony, pulling her backwards slightly. Applejack looked in a panic to her feet as she felt them being picked up into the air. She suddenly felt something grabbing onto the upper section of her body to lift her up easier. “AH!” Applejack yelped in surprise as she felt herself getting lifted into the air. With as much strength as she could muster, the orange mare flung herself downwards and clung to the floor in an attempt at escaping the invisible threat. To the horror of the group of ponies watching on from the doorway, the far window jerked open as something pulled Applejack’s back legs toward it. The cowpony dug into the floor desperately with her front hooves as she felt herself being yanked toward the open window. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for the worst as she felt the invisible force envelope her entire body to fling it out the window in one swift motion. Suddenly, Tom grabbed hold of her arm. He grunted as he threw the farm pony behind him and out the door. Applejack slid along the ground and turned her body to watch the human as he looked to the objects floating in the air. “Time for a bit of spring cleaning up in here!” Unfazed by the cheesy one liner he just made, Tom let his arms fall to his sides casually. Suddenly, fire sprang from his fingertips as he summoned his claws. The blades made the sound of metal scraping against metal as the flames quickly sputtered out once the claws had formed fully. Tom yelled as he ran forward and jumped into the air. He landed on the bed and continued along his war path. He then jumped off of the bed and reeled his arm back to strike something in the air. The ponies looked on with puzzled expressions at the human. He seemed to be fighting something they couldn’t see. They watched as Tom suddenly thrust his arm forward to stab the air with his claws, and paused in the air as his arm collided with something solid. Everyone’s jaw dropped as Tom swung from hitting the seemingly invisible object. He hung in the air for a moment dangling from his claws when suddenly the object started to take shape. It looked like a mass of colorful wisps was slowly forming in a cloud around where Tom had struck. The human suddenly plummeted to the floor along with the strange mass. Tom grunted as he forced his other claw into the mass right next to where his other hand had struck. He lifted the thing into the air in front of him and ripped his hands to the side. The odd mass tore into two pieces, which quickly disappeared after being sent on their way. Everything in the room suddenly stopped hovering around in the air and grew still. The ponies flinched as the furniture made a loud crash as it fell to the floor all at once. They then looked up to see Tom brushing his claws off on his leg before making them disappear in a puff of fire. He stood and stared at the group of awe-struck onlookers. He then chuckled and smirked in his usual lighthearted manner. “And that is how you perform extreme housekeeping with Thomas Greene.” Tom stated lightheartedly while giving the group a confident smile. The ponies blinked their eyes in disbelief. They then looked at each other and suddenly became very elated. They cheered happily for the slayer and gathered around him while expressing their gratitude. The orange mare looked up to the human and smiled warmly. “Thank you so much, Tom! Ah’m so happy, Ah could just hug you to death right now!” Applejack exclaimed joyfully while wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing tightly. He grunted from the tight grip of the farm pony, he could feel the air escape his lungs as he was nearly snapped in two by the cheerful mare. “That’s nice and all Applejack, but… could you not?” Tom managed to croak out timidly in an attempt to get the pony to temper her strength. The orange mare loosened up her grip and chuckled nervously. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly as she watched the human gasping for air. “Hehe… sorry about that sugarcube.” Applejack stated in slight embarrassment. Elsewhere, while the apple family was rejoicing at their well-earned peace being restored, a hooded figure ran through the trees of the Everfree forest nervously. The figure appeared to be a male unicorn with white fur, brown eyes, and a book and feather as a cutie mark. He ran through the thicket of vegetation and panted heavily. Soon, he found himself standing in a clearing before a large structure. The building looked to be an old mansion that seemed like it was plucked straight out of time. Various windows on multiple floors of the building had broken shutters that dangled by sheer imagination. The stone pillars at the front door matched the rest of the wooden structure and crumbled with age. The old wrought iron fence around the property creaked as the pony placed a hoof up to glide along it. “*Huff* I hope Ms. Raven Feather isn’t upset with me when I tell her about this…” The stallion spoke to himself with apprehension evident in his voice. He looked to the seemingly abandoned structure and sighed nervously while walking towards it. He turned to glance at the few trees that were scattered around the yard of the property. All the leaves had long since gone from the wooden husks as their branches swayed ominously in the wind. He paused for a moment to admire the symbol written on the nearest tree. The white glyph seemed haphazardly placed on the bark of the tree with paint, being smeared in numerous places. Despite the shoddy design of the symbol, it looked complete enough to serve whatever purpose it held. “Guess those things have a bit of artistic freedom with how exact they need to be.” The unicorn chuckled before moving on towards the house. He walked through the spacious yard and up the crumbling steps. He then walked up to the large front door and opened it. The hooded pony gritted his teeth while the frame made an unearthly squeal as it slowly opened, revealing the gloomy interior of the mansion. The door came out into a large and aged foyer area. There was a set of almost decrepit looking stairs placed along the right wall directly in front of the front door. The guard rail on the side of the stairs was broken in various places. The wood that made up the steps was faded and cracked. The various pictures adorning the wall next to the stairs were either tilted or shattered in places, revealing faded black and white pictures of various humans underneath the glass. The only thing that made the stairs even remotely appealing to the eye was the red carpet that covered the first floor and traveled up the steps to the upper floor, and even that was faded and torn with age. Despite its dusty and gloomy appearance, the decor of the mansion created an almost warm and fanciful atmosphere. At least it would have in its prime. Now the atmosphere prevailing the room was an eerie sense of silence and gloom. Scattered around the first floor of the room, various other ponies in similar gray hoods were tending to their own business. They either chatted quietly amongst themselves while performing some sort of task or walked through the room and exited through one of the numerous doors to the rest of the manor. The unicorn quickly closed the door and traveled up the stairs. He grew more nervous as he listened to his echoing footsteps ring out across the house. He started to break out into a cold sweat while he drew closer to his destination. After traveling through the twists and turns of the manor, the unicorn suddenly turned into a doorway, only to come out into a rather large library. Dust and cobwebs seemed to cover the entirety of the shelves in the room. On each of the shelves was a myriad of books and tomes on various subjects. There were numerous decorative rugs on the floor, although most of them had many holes in them. The rugs along with the green wallpaper would have given the room a warm comfortable feeling, had they not been faded and decayed along with the rest of the house. The only light in the room was coming from a set of flickering candles placed in intervals along the floor, and a few stands with larger candles held inside of them which remained unlit save for one. Waiting in the glow of the flames, was a small gathering of ponies of various races wearing the same gray hooded shirts that the unicorn was. Upon hearing him enter the room, one of the ponies looked up to greet the unicorn. “Ah yes, Cotton Quill… please do come in and sit down.” The pony was a female earth pony with a slight inflection of grandeur and class in her voice. The hood cast a stark shadow over her face, only revealing a few tufts of dark gray hair, a glimpse of black fur, and her bright emerald green eyes looking at Cotton Quill with an expression of tolerance. She beckoned with her hoof for the unicorn to join her circle and talk. “Y-yes Ms. Raven Feather, right away ma’am.” Cotton stuttered nervously while gulping. He felt intimidated by the odd welcoming expression he was being given, she almost sounded like she was expecting him. He slowly made his way over to the group and sat down next to a rather stern looking brown furred teenage pegasus stallion. The unicorn smiled nervously at the pegasus, who offered a harsh glare in return, forcing Cotton to avert his eyes quickly. Raven Feather cleared her throat loudly, causing everyone to turn to her and listen intently. She looked straight through the unicorn, sending a cold shiver down his spine. “Now then Cotton Quill… what news do you have for me?” Raven Feather asked quizzically while tilting her head. Cotton Quill stammered nervously as he tried to put his words together to form a sensible sentence. “Umm… well uh…” Cotton fiddled his hooves together nervously. The other members of the circle sighed in annoyance as they watched the unicorn awkwardly address their leader. “Twilight Sparkle entered the cave out in the forest as you said she would… she brought the element of loyalty and the princess with her.” The unicorn explained hesitantly. Raven Feather hummed with curiosity at the mention of the princess. She stared at him and waited, eager to hear more. The timid pony swallowed uncomfortably and spoke again. “The spell worked exactly as you planned. The dark matter swarmed them and incapacitated the princess without any trouble.” Cotton explained with a slight tone of fear in his voice. He was caught off guard by the hooded earth pony chuckling warmly. “Hehehe… So the princess and her student are dead then. Tell me Cotton, how long did they last?” Raven Feather perked her head up excitedly to hear what the unicorn had to say. Cotton Quill started sweating as he looked away from her piercing gaze. “Well, that’s why I’m here actually your ladyship. You see, they… survived.” Cotton clenched his eyes shut in preparation for her to snap at him. She gasped in surprise and stammered in shock. Suddenly, one of the members of the group looked around in surprise. It was a female pegasus that sat next to the male beside Cotton Quill. She had blue eyes, white hair, pale and grayish blue fur, and a pitch black storm cloud with rain pouring from it as a cutie mark. She looked at the unicorn with confusion and dismay. “What...? but... but how? There’s no way those two could have lived without the aid of the princess. Those darklings and the mass of dark matter should have ripped them to pieces!” She became very upset and animated as she waved her head around and growled in frustration. Cotton Quill waited for her to be silent for a moment to interject the rest of his tale. “Well, they had someone else with them… a human.” Everyone became silent and looked to the unicorn intently as he explained. “Not just any human mind you… he appeared to fit the description of a… umm… well.” He looked down nervously and stuttered. The female pegasus grew more agitated by the second as she listened to the unicorn babbling incoherently from fear at what the others might do to him. “Out with it then Cotton! What did the bucking thing look like?!” She yelled angrily at the unicorn, causing him to jump in fright. “W-well he looked like a s-slayer!” Cotton rapidly spit out the last words and flinched instinctively at the enraged pegasus. She shook violently as she tensed her muscles and clenched her teeth. Just as Cotton Quill thought she was going to strangle the nearest living thing, most likely being him, Raven Feather put her hoof out and signaled for the pegasus to sit down and be silent. “Calm yourself Raincloud… there are more important things to do than to kill the messenger of bad tidings.” The green eyed mare nonchalantly glanced over to Cotton Quill while speaking. This made him gulp nervously. The earth pony then let her gaze linger and stared at Cotton intently. It was like she was trying to make sure he would tell the truth by shattering his psyche with a soul-crushing glare. “Now Cotton, are you certain that it was a slayer? There haven’t been any slayers since the humans died out.” Raven Feather asked calmly and made herself very clear. The unicorn nodded slowly while glancing over to see Raincloud shooting him death glares. The black mare then placed her hoof up to her face and rubbed her temples. “*Sigh* this could complicate things quite a bit… Okay then, new plan… we move ahead of schedule and prepare for the next phase.” Raven Feather announced in a troubled tone, everyone looked up in surprise at the news. The male pegasus beside Cotton looked at the earth pony in shock. “The next phase? But Raven Feather, we don’t even have a plan for the next phase. We don’t have any safety measures planned out, we don’t have a location picked, and hell… we don’t even have a creature picked out for crying out loud.” He looked annoyed at the rest of the group before focusing back on the earth pony in front of him. Raven Feather returned a devious smile to her face and chuckled warmly. She seemed unfazed by the negative implications of her plan. “You’re right Dust Kicker. I had not anticipated taking such a large step forward. But we have our friend Cotton Quill over here to figure all of that stuff out.” Raven Feather got up and walked over to the nervous unicorn. She got really close to his face and gave him a playful look as she tapped his head with her hoof in rhythm with her words. “I’m sure he can use that big… smart… brain of his to figure out all of that for us… Except for picking the monster, that’s really fun, so I think I will do that myself. Grimwood?” The black mare turned and spoke softly to the younger earth pony that sat beside her spot. The pale white colt appeared to be no older than eight years of age and had short, black hair, but suspiciously seemed to be missing a cutie mark. The young pony looked over to Raven Feather quizzically. “Yes, sister...?” Grimwood spoke in a blank sort of tone, with only a slight inflection of childlike innocence in his voice to express that he showed any sort of interest. Raven Feather smiled at her younger brother. Although he was slightly smaller than her due to his age, she knew for a fact that he was as skilled as she was in the dark arts. “Would you be a dear and bring me a book on summoning. Go ahead and surprise me as to which one.” Raven Feather chuckled lightly at the thought. The young colt merely looked toward a bookshelf and started walking over to it. “Alright, if you insist...” Grimwood spoke innocently while still maintaining his cold tone of voice. The colt stopped at a row of books on the shelf, he then covered his eyes with one hoof while he used the other to switch back and forth between the tomes. He stopped his hoof and touched one of the books by the spine. He then uncovered his eyes and pulled the book out to bring to his sister. Raven Feather smiled cheerfully at the young pony as he placed the book in front of her and went back to his seat. She picked up the book and flipped through the pages to look at the various illustrations of the creatures contained within. “Let’s see here… too small… too slimy… too big.” Raven Feather sighed in annoyance with every page she found that did not catch her eye. “No... no... no… Oooo, what have we here?” She hummed with intrigue and buried her face into the page, reading further about the creature she stopped on. She put the book down and started giggling to herself. Soon, her giggling turned into full blown laughter as she pictured the potential havoc the creature might cause. The mare then picked the book up and held it open on the page she chose. She carried it over and shoved it into Cotton Quill’s face. He grabbed the book and scooted it away from his nose to read the page she selected. After skimming over the basics of the spell, he took a glance over to the illustration of the creature and gagged in disgust and fright. “Yikes… You want me to summon this… thing?” Cotton looked back up to the earth pony, who nodded eagerly while smiling at him. “Okay then… But where should I summon it? What time? Who will you send with me?” The unicorn suddenly fired a list of questions at the hooded pony. She shrugged and grabbed Cotton Quill with her arm to pull him in close. He dropped the book in surprise, causing it to land on the floor. He then watched nervously as Raven Feather waved her hoof around in front of him to inspire him. “Don’t focus so much on asking yourself, where do I put this? Cotton Quill… instead, you should be asking yourself, where can I put this to insight as much fear and chaos as possible? I’m sure you can figure out a suitable location yourself, and once you do we can start putting together the setup.” Raven Feather released the unicorn and walked toward the door while chuckling. She motioned for the others to follow her. Soon everyone got up and started to follow the earth pony as she left the room. Raven Feather paused at the door and looked back to Cotton Quill, who was sitting on the floor by the book. She shot him a coy look and smiled. “Make sure you pick a good spot for our little friend there to call home. I want him to cause as much panic and terror as he can.” The black mare laughed heartily and exited the room with the others, leaving Cotton Quill staring blankly at the door by himself. The unicorn got up from the floor and dusted himself off. He then looked down to the book lying on the floor. It had fallen onto the ground open on the page Raven Feather had selected. Cotton shuddered as he looked at the page on the left, which held a very detailed artistic illustration that took up the whole page. He could feel chills going up his spine as he looked at the depiction of the monster. “I certainly hope I don’t have to stick around long enough to see this thing in person.” Cotton stated uneasily. He then picked up the book and walked out of the door.
Chapter 12: Winding DownOver at Sweet Apple Acres, the group of ponies was sitting downstairs in the living room chatting cheerfully with each other. Now that peace and quiet had been restored in the quaint home, the members of the apple family seemed much more like their usual selves as the tiredness they had felt before was replaced with joy. The orange mare beamed cheerfully at Tom and Twilight. She could hardly contain her feeling of happiness as she smiled from ear to ear. “That was some mighty fine work you did up there Tom. Ah would like to personally thank you on behalf of the apple family for getting rid of that pesky polter… thing.” Applejack sighed as she failed to recall the pronunciation of the strange word. “And for saving my sister…” The cow pony smiled as she looked over to the young filly beside her, who happily returned the gesture. Tom smirked as he swelled with pride over his work. He tried to remain humble however, as he could not take full credit for the job well done. “Come on Applejack. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if you hadn’t grabbed your sister and gotten her out of there. You should be thanking yourself and not me. I was just doing what comes natural.” The human’s comments made Applejack blush as she smiled coyly. She giggled to herself for a moment as she thought about how brave she had been in the face of danger. “Aww shucks Tom. Ah was just doing whatever Ah had to do to save Applebloom. Ah don’t know how Ah would live with myself if Ah let something happen to her on my watch.” Applejack hugged her sister close and nuzzled her head with her nose. She then looked up and turned to Twilight in surprise. “So now that all of that business is taken care of… what did you come here for, Twilight?” Applejack tilted her head in curiosity at the unicorn. Twilight was surprised that she had forgotten about the matter herself in all the commotion. “Oh! Right… of course. I came here to ask you if you wouldn’t mind dropping by the library tomorrow to help us do some research on what happened last night.” Twilight shrugged at hearing herself repeat the same sentence so many times in one day. “Hmm… You know what Twilight? Ah would be happy to help you out after what you guys did for us. But first Ah think we could use a loooong nap.” Applejack yawned tiredly before looking around at her family. They seemed to share the same sentiment as they nodded in agreement. The purple mare smiled and nodded in agreement herself. “You guys have certainly earned a day off, so I think we will be going. See you tomorrow Applejack.” Twilight bade farewell to the family and got up to head to the door. She turned and waved to her friends before heading out. Tom got up and waved as well before following the unicorn outside. During the time they had been at the farm, the sun had traveled a far ways from the middle of the sky. In a few hours it would start getting dark. Twilight looked up to the sky and gasped in surprise. “Wow, we must have been out and about for a while. It was around noon when we started wasn’t it?” Twilight turned and asked her human companion quizzically. “I guess time flies when you’re in a dark cave surrounded by ferocious monsters.” Tom looked at the sun’s position in the sky and shrugged. “I guess so…” Twilight added drearily. The two then started making their way home. Now that she had gotten all of her friends to agree to help her, she was free to think more about how they would go about the situation. She lit up her horn and closed her eyes to concentrate. Reading over the symbols stored in her memory, her face crinkled up in frustration as she failed to make any new progress on deciphering the odd glyphs. “Ughh… I keep going over these symbols in my head, but I can’t seem to get anywhere with them.” Twilight fumed in annoyance. Tom could see the unicorn pout angrily as she cursed her own inability to understand simple magical glyphs. “Don’t focus on those too much right now. I’m sure we can find a book or something that might be able to help us. Heck, I might be able to read those things if you teach me the basic symbols used in writing spells.” Tom suggested optimistically. “Really? You think you could do that?” Twilight looked at him with eager curiosity. He nodded slowly in return. “Think about it for a second… It seems like those symbols are a mixture of things you are familiar with, and things I am familiar with. So if you teach me how to read the regular symbols used to write spells down, I might be able to determine what arcane style they belong to, and what their purpose is.” Tom smirked eagerly at the unicorn. Twilight smiled a bit as her face became less tense. After spending a few minutes walking back through Ponyville, the two found themselves back at the library. After opening the door and heading inside, the purple mare let out a sigh of relief. “Feels good to be home...” Twilight stated in a relaxed tone. Suddenly the sound of small feet scampering down the stairs made the unicorn look up to the landing. Sure enough, Spike was eagerly descending the stairs in a rush to see the pair. “You guys were gone a long time. I was starting to get worried.” The young dragon chided with loving concern as he walked up to Twilight. He then gasped in shock as he noticed the various injuries littering her body. The wounds on her legs looked much better in comparison with how they were before Rarity cleaned them up. However, the large gash on the unicorn’s chest worried Spike the most. “Oh my gosh! Twilight are you alright? You look like you just came from a war zone!” Spike stared at the bloody laceration wide eyed as it trickled onto her fur, staining it crimson. Twilight looked down at the cut on her chest and gasped in shock. She had been too preoccupied with removing the glass shard from the wound to fully understand how big it actually was. “Oh my goodness! I didn’t think that it was this bad when it happened…” The purple mare looked to the worried dragon with a frown and sighed. “I’m sorry Spike. I didn’t want to make you worry about me so much, and now I’ve gone and gotten myself hurt.” Spike watched the unicorn as she looked down sadly. He couldn’t help but feel bad that she was feeling guilty over herself getting injured. He placed his hand on her leg tenderly, causing her to look up from the floor to face him. “It’s alright Twilight, I just don’t want to see you get hurt… especially after what happened last night.” Spike smiled at her in an attempt to lift her spirits. She lightened her face up and smiled back to the dragon. “Don’t worry Spike, I promise I will take better care of myself in the future… Ack!” Twilight suddenly jolted in pain as she put a hoof to her chest, forgetting that she had a large wound there. Spike frowned with concern and studied the wound. “Come on, let’s head upstairs and get that cleaned up.” Spike suggested while tugging on her arm to make her follow him. Tom decided to stay downstairs as the young dragon led the unicorn up the stairs by her hoof. Twilight followed the dragon into the bathroom and sat on the floor as he rummaged through a cabinet to find some peroxide and bandages. She heard him exclaim in triumph as he discovered the items he was looking for. He pulled out some gauze bandages and a bottle of peroxide. Twilight looked at the bottle apprehensively as she thought back to the earlier pain she had experienced. She quelled her fears as she realized that it would not hurt as much due to the size of the wound. Spike started the process of cleaning and dressing the wound on the unicorn’s chest. “So how did you get this cut? It looks pretty jagged.” Spike tilted his head in curiosity as he waited for an answer. “A glass vase was thrown at me at high speeds.” Twilight explained apprehensively. She decided to come clean and answer truthfully. The dragon gasped silently and paused what he was doing. “A glass vase? Who threw it at you? I don’t see why someone would want to hurt you.” Spike asked with a concerned tone. The purple pony sighed before turning to the dragon. “We were at Sweet Apple Acres, and we found out that something had been levitating objects around the house and attacking Applejack and the others. I got caught up in the middle of one of the more violent fits the thing threw.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. The dragon didn’t seem any less worried by the unicorn’s answer. “And what about those big gashes on your legs? Those don’t look like a glass vase made them.” Spike observed the stitched up wounds and cringed sympathetically. Twilight looked away from the dragon and closed her eyes. She did not want to remember the experience for herself, much less tell Spike that she had almost been killed while getting the injuries. The dragon looked at her sympathetically in understanding. “It’s ok. You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to.” Spike stated kindly. The unicorn nodded slowly to the baby dragon as he continued working on her chest. After spending a few more minutes on the wound, Spike patted the bandaged cut gently as he looked at Twilight with pride. “Alright, it’s done now… looks good as new if you ask me.” Spike remarked cheerfully while admiring his work. “Thanks Spike.” Twilight smiled at the innocent little dragon and stood up to look at herself in the mirror. She looked like she had survived some sort of disaster as her body was now covered in first aid supplies. After shrugging at her appearance, the unicorn went back out of the bathroom and went downstairs. She walked into the living room and sat at a table next to Tom. The human looked up suddenly as he noticed the unicorn next to him. “Well you look a lot better.” Tom remarked in a friendly manner upon taking in her appearance. Twilight gave him a passing smile before looking to the table. She levitated a quill and paper over from a nearby shelf and placed them at an angle in front of her. “I better write those symbols down before I forget them. Might as well see what we can find out from looking at them with fresh heads.” Twilight sighed before closing her eyes and concentrating on the symbols in her head. She started writing down the symbols from memory and imbued them with the magical energy that comprised the magical part of the glyphs. She then sat down the quill next to her and admired her work. “I didn’t manage to get too many of the symbols before we had to… relocate.” Twilight nudged Tom and glanced back to Spike as he walked around the living room. “But I should have gotten enough of them to make sense of what they are when we finally do figure them out.” Tom was impressed at how well the unicorn was able to recreate the symbols. Even if she had a perfect image of them in her head, she would still have to manually draw them to get them out on paper. Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she started to read over the symbols again. The human gave them a few once overs himself to be extra sure that he didn’t miss anything. After a few minutes of feverishly reading over the symbols, Twilight began to rub her eyes from them getting strained. The human looked at her nervously as she groaned in frustration. “I don’t think we’re going to get anything else without hitting some books. Why don’t we put this off until Tomorrow?” Tom looked at her and calmly hinted at her own growing state of agitation. Twilight could feel a slight headache coming on from focusing so hard on something so frustrating for so long. “ughhh… I guess.” The unicorn pouted in frustration and turned her head away from the glyphs. She then started to think about other things to occupy herself with until it was time to head on to bed. “Say, Tom…” Twilight suddenly turned to the human quizzically. “Hmm?” Tom looked back to her while leaning back on his chair. “What do you think you’re going to do in the long term around here? I’m not sure if we would be able to send you back to your time, but would you go back if you could?” The unicorn asked with intrigue in her voice. The human hummed with curiosity as he furrowed his brow and thought about the matter. “Well, there wasn’t exactly much to go back to… I don’t age, so if I went back I would have to live through the end of the human world should I decide to keep my powers that long.” Tom stated while imagining what the experience would be like. Twilight looked curiously at the human as another question popped into her head. “And just how long do you plan on being slayer? I mean… I know you have barely started but…” Twilight trailed off as she waited for a response. “It’s not quite as simple as choosing how long you stay sometimes. A slayer can only exist and use their powers if they have the will and drive to keep using energy. If a slayer gives in to overwhelming exhaustion, and they no longer have the spirit to continue and fight through the pain, they will fade out of existence and essentially die again.” The human’s explanation struck a nerve in Twilight. She suddenly thought back to how Tom had fought off the swirling mass of shadows in the cave, the notion that he could have died while trying to save her made her look down sadly. Tom noticed the unicorn as she sulked silently. He could tell that something was troubling her, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “Hey, what’s wrong? Why the long face and puppy dog eyes?” Tom asked with genuine concern. Twilight glanced at the worried human briefly before looking back down at the table. “I can’t help but think to back in the cave… I could have gotten us killed back there.” The purple mare sighed in a depressed sort of manner. “What if more of those things had gotten in while I was being attacked and they went after you, or the princess and Rainbow Dash? You were already under so much stress, what if your shield broke down while you tried to help me?” The more she thought about the negative things that could have happened because of her, the sadder the unicorn grew. Tom looked at her blankly as she started sniffling and tearing up. He let her cry silently to herself for a moment before trying to comfort her. “It’s ok Twilight. You don’t need to worry about that. All of that stuff is in the past… there is no use in beating yourself up over something that could have happened.” Tom stated in a sincere tone. Twilight stopped sniffling for a moment and looked at the human as he gave her an earnest and caring look. “If being too weak to protect your friends is what you’re getting at, just forget about that. I saw the way you acted back in the cave. Like I said earlier, you did extremely well for someone who isn’t accustomed to tense situations like that.” He reached forward and gently wiped a stray tear from her eye. She hiccupped as her sadness ran its course through her. “T-thanks Tom... That means a lot coming from you.” Twilight wiped her eyes and brightened up her expression a bit. “I just don’t want anybody to get hurt because of me.” She spoke softly with a worried tone of voice. “Well you don’t need to worry about me ok? While I might get exhausted from using my powers, I wouldn’t run into any major problems unless I repeatedly used some of my more taxing abilities. And even then as long as I had the will to continue, which I do mind you, I would probably just end up passing out… And any injuries I sustain will heal up pretty fast, so aside from the pain I’m pretty much indestructible.” Tom stated happily. He smiled at her cheerfully before trailing his eyes off in thought. “And as an answer to your previous question, I think I will stay around here for the long term.” He said with a slight smile. Twilight perked up a bit from hearing this. “R..really?” The unicorn asked in a surprised tone. “Yep, you all seem like decent people to hang around with. And judging from the events that unfolded during the past few days, I would say you could use a friendly neighborhood slayer of evil around here.” Tom smirked at her in a friendly manner. The unicorn nodded in agreement and chuckled. Her chipper attitude finally returned to her fully. She then yawned and stretched her arms. “I think it’s about time to head up to bed. We can worry about this tomorrow when the girls are over to help us out.” Twilight suggested tiredly while looking over to the symbols and sighing in annoyance. She then looked around the room in search of her number one assistant. “I guess Spike must have gone up ahead of us… Oh yeah! We will need to get you something more comfortable to sleep on at some point if you intend on staying here.” Twilight stated eagerly while starting up the stairs. The human was slightly taken aback at the proposal. “Really?” Tom looked to her with a surprised expression as they ascended the stairs. He never expected to have someone offer to give him a bed to sleep on. She turned to him and smiled warmly. “Yeah, you are more than welcome to stay here permanently with us. I think that Spike would agree with me.” Twilight said happily. The two chuckled to each other and went into the bedroom to settle in for the night.
Chapter 13: Hitting the BooksOnce again, the sun rose over the quiet town of Ponyville. The golden rays streamed vibrantly over the horizon as the giant orb poked its head over the landscape. Twilight Sparkle stirred from her sleep once more as she noticed the light coming in from the windows and balcony. She yawned and pushed the covers away from her body. She stretched and let out a groan of pleasure at the tender feeling in her muscles. She felt much more relaxed and rested in comparison to the previous night’s sleep. Twilight looked down to the small bed on the floor below. She shrugged as she noticed it was empty. She also noticed a neatly folded pile of pillows and a blanket in the corner. “Why am I always the one that sleeps in?” Twilight sighed and shook her head. The unicorn then hopped out of her bed and quickly tidied the ruffled sheets up. She made her way to the door of her bedroom and exited into the rest of the library. She walked downstairs and unsurprisingly noticed Tom sitting at a table and talking to Spike. What the unicorn did not expect to see was a pink mare bouncing happily in her chair as she laughed heartily at something that was said. “Pinkie… What are you doing here so early?” Twilight tilted her head and looked curiously at the pink pony. The three turned to look at the unicorn as she descended the stairs. Pinkie Pie giggled to herself and looked to the purple mare cheerfully. Despite how early it was, she seemed to be as energetic as ever. “Well I wanted to get here as early as I could, so I dropped by as soon as I woke up. Sure enough, Tom and Spike here were already up and let me in.” Pinkie explained innocently. The unicorn looked at her pink friend in bewilderment. “I Umm… I guess that’s good. That’s one less pony we need to wait for.” Twilight reasoned while walking over to the group and sitting in a chair beside Spike. The dragon had already gotten out a few books on magic to study with. They lay in a pile next to the paper Twilight had written the symbols on last night. The unicorn softly sighed and quickly looked over the small pile of books while glancing at their titles. “Ughh… This is going to take forever. I hope that something important is in these symbols for all the trouble we are going to go through.” Twilight huffed in annoyance and rested her head on both hooves. Reading through the immense heap of books wasn’t going to be a problem, for her at least. What bothered the purple mare was how long it was going to take. Time she spent reading pointless books was time she could be spending making more progress in the investigation. “Well we better get started.” Spike stated with optimism. “I picked out a few books on spell writing, but I wasn’t really sure what other topics would be useful.” The young dragon added while picking up one of the books placed on the table and opening it. Twilight levitated two of the other books over to Pinkie Pie and Tom. She then picked up her own book and looked to the group to signal for them to get started. The unicorn furrowed her eyes in mental strain as she went through book after book in search of anything useful to deciphering the symbols. The elongated time spent on reading made Twilight slip into her usual daze of concentration as she flipped from page to page with ease. The others seemed worse off at the tedious task than the egg headed unicorn. Pinkie Pie let out a dull sigh as she tried her hardest to be productive for her friends. The party pony bounced her leg back and forth as she read through the hefty book in front of her in an attempt to keep herself from getting bored. Spike and Tom seemed a little more content with doing this much research. Spike spent much of his young life helping Twilight with her studies on magic, making him proficient at doing large amounts of reading. Tom was lost as he read through most of the book. He had much experience and knowledge of magic under his belt due to his inherited memories from past slayers, but he lacked any sort of knowhow on pony magic. Still, he was intrigued enough to keep reading without getting bored. The group pressed on for an hour and a half as they finished reading through the books that Spike had picked out. Twilight shut her eyes to rest them for a moment as she closed her book and placed it down. She looked over to her friends and sighed as she realized that they all had nothing in their hands as they stared back at her with dull, blank expressions. They now had to think about what to do next. “Well great… we’re out of easy things to read. Now what are we going to look at?” Twilight fumed in annoyance as she ran over the logical topics to look over next in her head. Tom placed both of his hands on the piece of paper and rested against the table as he looked over the symbols. Despite how many times he had gone over them by this point, they were still indecipherable to him. Still, they seemed at least somewhat familiar to him. “We should be looking at nontraditional books on magic. Think about it for a minute… someone put those symbols in that cave, and I am the only living human in Equestria, so that leaves us with a pony as the culprit. This means that said pony would have to have access to human knowledge on arcane arts.” The boy looked to the group as he explained his methodology to them. Spike scratched his chin in thought as he mulled over the slayer’s reasoning. If a pony was the culprit, they had to have gotten access to human magic somehow. “I think a few books survived on human knowledge, but from what I know only a few scattered pieces of information on their culture exist.” The dragon motioned with his claw as he thought about the topic of human history that was preserved past their destruction. Twilight looked around them at the many shelves littered with books. She lightened her expression as she thought about a sensible direction to put their efforts into. “If there are any books containing knowledge of human magic, I’m sure at least one of them would have ended up here at some point. Spike, could you look through the records and see if we have anything on ancient magic?” Twilight turned to the dragon and asked politely. He hopped up from his position on the floor and walked into the doorway to the next room. He then turned to the unicorn and smiled. “You got it boss.” Spike gave her a playful salute and marched confidently on his way toward his goal. Twilight chuckled lightly at the innocent dragon before turning her attention to the door. A series of gentle knocks suddenly broke through the relative silence of the library. Curious to see if any of her friends had arrived, the unicorn trotted over to the door and opened it up. Sitting outside the door were her two friends Rarity and Fluttershy. They brightened up their faces and smiled warmly at the unicorn. Twilight returned a smile to the two ponies as she lifted up her hoof jovially to welcome them. “Girls! It’s great to see you made it!” Twilight exclaimed happily to the two as she stepped out to see them. Rarity brushed her hair out of her face as she cleared her throat to greet the unicorn. “I’m terribly sorry to be so late darling. I had to make Sweetie Belle presentable for school, you understand. On my way here I ran into Fluttershy. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one to get here at this time.” The white mare looked over to the cheerful pegasus standing beside her and smiled. “I would have been here earlier, but Angel made a mess in the kitchen this morning as I fed him. It took me a bit longer to clean up than I thought it would.” Fluttershy chuckled nervously as she remembered her own reason for arriving later than she had planned. Now that she was here, she tried to appear as eager to help out as she could. “That’s fine, you two are actually here around when I would have expected you. The only other person here is Pinkie Pie, and you can imagine how she got here so early.” Twilight looked back to the doorway knowingly as she thought about the party pony. She then motioned with her hoof for the two to follow her inside. The ponies walked into the library and spread out through the room. Rarity and Fluttershy gave a friendly wave and greeting to Tom and Pinkie as they sat against a wall conversing with each other. Rarity then stole a glance at the various stray books and notes littered around the table holding the symbols, she raised an eyebrow and exclaimed in surprise at the amount of work the group had already done. “Wow… you guys must have been at this for a while. Did you come up with any results?” Rarity asked with intrigue as she walked over to the table to read over their work. The purple mare sighed before looking back to her to respond. “We just ran into a dead end before you got here. I sent Spike to look through the library for any books that could be useful.” Twilight stated in a disheartened manner. “And I have some good news and some bad news for you.” Spike spoke up as he walked back into the room with a dull expression and nothing in his hands. He shrugged in disappointment before walking over to the others. “I found out that we had two books on human superstitions and ancient languages that seemed like they would be helpful.” The dragon explained with a slightly hopeful tone as he looked to the others with optimism. Twilight perked up from the news, she was certain there would be something in those books to help them. “That’s great Spike! ...” The unicorn suddenly looked more doubtful as she thought about what the dragon had just said. “But what’s the bad news?” She asked uneasily. Spike sighed and trailed his eyes off in annoyance. “We donated those books to Ms. Cheerilee a few months ago. The school needed them for a course on ancient civilizations.” The dragon explained in a dull tone. Twilight furrowed her brow in frustration. She then sighed before looking at the others with a determined expression. “Well then I guess we will have to go get them… besides, I’m sure we can find some other books along with them in the school’s library.” The unicorn stated optimistically before turning to the three ponies and human watching her. “Tom… I need you, Rarity, and Fluttershy to come with me to the school so we can find those books and look around the library for any more information.” Twilight instructed to the band of ponies eagerly awaiting purpose. “Oooh… can I come too Twilight? Pleaaaase?” Pinkie Pie jumped up suddenly and stared at the unicorn pleadingly. She seemed eager to assist the group with their task as she whined to be able to come along with an innocent pout. “Alright Pinkie, I guess you can come with us.” Twilight smiled and sighed to the pink pony as she begged to go. “Yay!” The pink mare exclaimed happily as she threw her arms in the air with excitement. Twilight couldn’t help but admire the cheerful nature of her friend. The unicorn then turned to Spike and looked at him with purpose. “Spike, I need you to stay here and wait for the others to arrive. Once they get here, I need you to help them with finding whatever you can here.” Twilight instructed confidently. The dragon nodded eagerly as he thought to himself about where to start with the research he would be doing. The purple mare smiled as she saw her plan coming together, she then looked over to the four who would be traveling with her. “You guys ready to go?” Twilight asked quizzically. Fluttershy and Rarity nodded slowly, while the human got up and walked over to the unicorn. “I’m ready whenever you are.” Tom stated confidently. Twilight nodded to her troop and turned to walk out of the door. The group waved to Spike and started on their trip to the school. The ponies walked contently through the streets of Ponyville as they took in the views of the town around them. Several commuters gave them a passing nod before lingering their eyes a bit longer to study the human traveling along with them. Tom did not feel as uncomfortable as he did when he first traveled through the streets. He could see that the ponies were not looking at him with disgust or disdain, but were instead simply curious about the sight of an odd creature walking next to Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Fluttershy looked back to the human as he surveyed the ponies around them while they studied him intensely. She figured that he would feel alienated by the townspeople as they sometimes shot him judging looks while passing by. “Don’t worry Tom. I’m sure ponies around here will get used to you eventually.” Fluttershy spoke softly to him to get his mind off of his surroundings. The boy looked at the shy yet friendly pegasus and smiled. “Its fine, they are just curious. So what if some of them think badly of me from first appearances. I don’t care so long as they keep their judgments to themselves.” Tom stated confidently. Fluttershy smiled upon hearing that the human wasn’t letting himself get affected by the opinions of others. If she had been an outcast amongst people she had not known, the pegasus would have certainly become scared and depressed from not being understood. “Good to hear that… I’m glad that you feel comfortable here.” Fluttershy smiled warmly at the human while expressing her care for him. “Most of you seem friendly around here, but you seem the most kind and welcoming Fluttershy.” The human smiled as he made the observation. Fluttershy giggled at the compliment. Even given her important position as element bearer, she still found it flattering for people to tell her that she was nice. “I think it’s very important to show others kindness. Even if I wasn’t the element of kindness, I would still want to treat others as I would want them to treat me.” The yellow pegasus beamed with confidence as she explained her feelings. Tom tilted his head curiously at the yellow mare’s statement. She alluded to herself being the element of kindness, but this concept was only confusing to the human. “What do you mean by element of kindness? Is that something important?” Tom asked with confusion evident in his face. Before Fluttershy could answer, Twilight exclaimed in revelation at the fact that she had not explained the elements of harmony to the human. “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you about the elements of harmony. I guess it didn’t really come up before, sorry about that.” Twilight chuckled nervously at her own lapse in explaining her world to the newcomer. “Basically there are six elements that keep peace and harmony alive throughout the land; loyalty, honesty, generosity, laughter, kindness, and magic. The elements of harmony are upheld and regulated by six ponies that hold each quality within them. Fluttershy is the element of kindness, I am the element of magic, Applejack is honesty, Rainbow Dash is loyalty, Rarity is generosity…” She started naming off the list of element bearers. Tom looked at her smugly and interrupted. It didn’t take much deduction to realize where the pattern was in this situation. “And let me guess, Pinkie Pie is laughter.” Tom stated confidently. The party pony gasped in surprise and looked back at the boy with a shocked expression. “How did you know that?” Pinkie asked in a playfully confused manner. Tom shrugged his shoulders at the pink mare staring at him curiously as if he were some kind of psychic. “Must have been a lucky guess…” The human stated sarcastically. Twilight and her other two friends giggled at watching the pair conversing. The group continued through town for a few minutes before finally coming up to the property line of the school. The building seemed like a modest education facility for young colts and fillies to spend their years at. Tom studied the surroundings curiously as they marched up to the school. Upon entering the doorway, the group bumped into a purple pony with pink and white striped hair and a cluster of white flowers for a cutie mark. The pony stopped as she noticed the group while they entered. Twilight immediately recognized the pony in front of them. She gave her a friendly smile and walked up to her. “Ms. Cheerilee, it’s nice to see you.” Twilight greeted warmly. The teacher returned a smile to the unicorn and her group of friends. “Good to see you as well Twilight Sparkle, what brings you here?” Cheerilee asked quizzically before turning to look at Tom. She lit up with intrigue as she studied the human. “Is that a human? Oh my goodness, what an interesting looking species.” She stated with curiosity as she examined his appearance. Twilight observed the curious pony as she reached out a hoof to shake Tom’s hand. “That is part of why we’re here… we’re doing some investigating for the princess on some puzzling things that have been going on recently, including the sudden appearance of our friend here.” The purple mare explained while motioning toward Tom with her hoof. Tom smirked in flattery at the curious pony. He was not used to being thought of as an interesting new experience for people to meet. “Pleased to meet you Ms. Cheerilee, my name is Thomas Greene.” The human stated in a friendly manner while gripping her hoof for a hearty handshake. Ms. Cheerilee smiled gleefully at the human. “The pleasure is all mine Mr. Greene. I have always dreamed of meeting a human ever since I read about them when I was in school.” The teacher said in a cheerful manner. She then relaxed her grinning face before clearing her throat and turning to the rest of the group. “Ahem, enough of my curiosity... You all clearly have something important to attend to, so I will leave you to it.” Cheerilee nodded to the group before turning to leave. Rarity spoke up suddenly to stop the pony before she could start walking. “Oh Ms. Cheerilee, could you be a dear and tell me where I could find Sweetie Belle? I would like to check up on her while I’m here.” The white mare asked in a friendly manner. Ms. Cheerilee thought for a moment about the whereabouts of the young filly. “I believe that she is with Applebloom and Scootaloo over at the library. It’s recess, so I can’t help but wonder as to why they would be there.” The purple mare furrowed her brow in thought about what the three mischievous fillies could be up to. Rarity smiled in satisfaction at the convenient news. “Oh lovely, we were just heading to the library anyway. Thank you for your help.” The white unicorn gave a friendly nod to the teacher as she walked away. With that, the group then made their way through the halls of the school to find the library. After a few minutes of searching, the ponies found a set of double doors with a decorative sign above them that read library. Twilight let out a satisfied breath of air before opening the doors to step inside. The group walked into the room and took a look around. The library seemed smaller than Twilight’s home, but this was mostly due to all of the books being held in one room. Several shelves of books sat in rows before the ponies, as well as lining the walls of the room. At the back of the room, the group could see three young fillies talking with each other near a desk. As they got closer, the ponies could hear the trio discussing something intently. “I say we head down to the basement to find the main problem.” The orange pegasus filly that everyone except for Tom knew as Scootaloo stated confidently to her two friends. “Ah think that we should just stay up here to look at the pipes. There’s no need to go down to that musty old place just to find out what’s leaking and what’s not.” Applebloom sighed heavily as she voiced her opinion. The three fillies stopped their discussion and looked at the group as they walked up to them. Scootaloo looked at Tom with intrigue before turning to face her two friends. “Is that him? He doesn’t look like he could beat up a monster…” The orange filly whispered to her friends as she studied the human and his feeble appearance with a wary eye. “That’s him alright. He is more awesome once you see him in action.” Applebloom whispered back to her doubtful friend. “He saved me and got rid of that thing I told you about.” She boasted confidently to her friends about the way the slayer had handled her family’s problem. “What are you girls doing in here? Shouldn’t you be with the other kids playing outside?” Twilight asked the three fillies to interrupt their whispering. The three got up from their seats and lined up in front of the group with eager expressions. “We’re going to try and find out why so many pipes are leaking.” Sweetie Belle explained their purpose cheerfully. “Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders plumbing experts! ...” Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly before pausing to realize how that sounded out loud. “Okay, maybe we need to work on the name a bit… but we need to try nonetheless!” The ponies giggled as they watched the three excitedly plan their venture. It was always nice to see the enthusiastic fillies try to find their cutie marks through the most unconventional means. Despite their misguided approach, it was hard for one not to admire their spirit. “Well just be careful and don’t get into any trouble darlings.” Rarity chimed in to keep the three fillies in line. They looked back to her confidently before saluting and trying to appear as serious and genuine as possible. “Of course, we will be as careful as careful can be.” Scootaloo stated eagerly before trotting away with her troop following her. Twilight sighed as she watched the three exiting the library with excitement. The unicorn almost envied how the trio could go off on a whimsical adventure rather than spending the next century trying to find the literary equivalent of a needle in a haystack. She then looked around to the surrounding bookshelves before turning to her friends. “We better start looking guys. The faster we find those books, the faster we can be done with this.” Twilight instructed with a serious expression as she nodded to the three ponies and single human watching her. The group immediately got to work by heading to various shelves in search of any sections or clues that might help them find the relevant books. While the group of ponies got to work with their research, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were getting to work with their search for their cutie marks. The three fillies walked down the hallways of the school while talking with each other. “Recess is almost over, we need to hurry up and choose what we want to do.” Scootaloo shrugged in annoyance as she tried to come to a compromise with the other crusaders. Sweetie Belle looked on in indifference as she watched her two friends bicker about where to go. Applebloom huffed in frustration as she thought about both sides of the argument. “Ah suppose we can go to the basement… we are pretty close after all.” The yellow filly smiled in a friendly manner as she tried to put her hard headedness behind her. Scootaloo nodded confidently as they agreed on her plan. “Great, let’s get to it then!” The young pegasus exclaimed in excitement before leading her two friends to the door that led downstairs. The trio opened up the door and stepped onto the dimly lit landing to the basement stairs. The three stared down the stairs and into a pitch black doorway that led into a larger and more open space. Sweetie Belle gulped nervously as she tried to fight off the feeling of dread she was getting from looking into the eerie blackness. The orange filly chuckled light heartedly at her friend before giving her a sly expression. “What’s wrong Sweetie Belle? Are you afraid of the dark?” Scootaloo asked while walking closer to the stairs confidently. Sweetie Belle tried to put her fears behind her and put on a brave face. “I don’t know… I just feel a little uncomfortable.” The white filly said timidly. Her voice was a little shaky from her nerves being on edge. Scootaloo smiled and put a hoof onto her friend’s shoulder. “It’s alright. Me and Applebloom will keep you safe, right Apple… bloom?” The orange filly was slightly surprised to see Applebloom quietly shivering to the side of the group. She offered a frightened glance to the two as she stared into the darkness nervously. Scootaloo sighed in slight disappointment. She then looked back to Sweetie Belle and put on a reassuring expression. “Well at any rate, I will keep both of you safe.” Scootaloo spoke softly while walking down the first few steps. Once she was halfway down the stairs, she took a better look through the dark doorway and looked back to the two onlookers as they watched her cautiously. “See? Nothing down here to worry about... Now come on you two, we won’t get our cutie marks by staying up here and doing nothing.” The orange filly stated confidently before turning around and descending the rest of the stairs bravely. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom watched nervously as their friend walked through the blackness into the next room. They looked at each other with a frightened expression before swallowing nervously and pushing forward to join the young pegasus down the stairs. After picking up their pace to huddle close to their friend, the fillies looked around the room they were in. It was a large room with three other doorways in the middle of each wall. Various boxes and other objects littered the walls and the middle of the floor, giving the otherwise open room a sense of fullness. A few pipes of varied levels of size and thickness went along the ceiling and down the walls a short way. “Now where should we go first…? I think this place is pretty big.” Scootaloo observed while looking around at the three doors leading around the basement. “Maybe we should head to some high traffic areas for the pipes. I think I heard that a few areas were leaking really badly.” Sweetie Belle added while thinking back to what she heard about the problems with the pipes. The orange filly picked a direction and led her troop toward the door, when suddenly the sound of approaching footsteps made the crusaders perk up and listen. The noise sounded like it was rapidly approaching from the doorway across the room to their rear. “Ah thought that the maintenance ponies went off on break for the day.” Applebloom stated nervously. “They did… come on, let’s hide somewhere!” Scootaloo exclaimed to her two friends urgently. The three fillies scrambled through the room to find hiding spots. After they all found places to keep themselves hidden, the fillies waited and listened intently as the noise entered their room. Two ponies walked in through the far doorway. One was a male unicorn, while the other was a relatively young pegasus mare. The two wore grey hooded jackets that concealed their faces. The unicorn had his jacket unzipped, revealing a rather fancy looking vest underneath. Scootaloo had decided to hide in the crawlspace between two boxes along with Sweetie Belle. She could see that Applebloom was hiding across the room behind another box. The orange filly placed a hoof to her lips to hush her unicorn friend as she poked her head out to spy on the two. Applebloom eyed to the orange pegasus nervously from across the room as she remained hidden from the two strange ponies. Scootaloo signaled for her to stay in place while she strained her ears to hear what the ponies were saying. “Ughhh… where did you tell the others to go Cotton? This place is freaking huge!” The pegasus exclaimed in annoyance and frustration as she looked to the unicorn. “Patience Raincloud, the spot should be right through here. I had to enter a different way when I was looking for a suitable place earlier, but I think I should be able to lead us to it.” The unicorn spoke calmly to the pegasus to try and sooth her concerns. He then walked across the room nearby the box Applebloom was behind and went through the door. “*Sigh* you think or you know?” The pegasus huffed in frustration as she followed the unicorn into the other room. Once the strange ponies had moved on, the three fillies got out of their hiding spots. They gathered together while hesitantly looking into the doorway of the room the two had gone into. “What were those two doing down here? Applebloom whispered uneasily. She had never seen or heard of those ponies around the school before, so she had no idea why they would be in the school’s basement. The thought of whatever malicious activity the pair had in mind made the filly shiver nervously. “I don’t know…” Scootaloo stated curiously. She then slowly smirked before turning to her two friends with an adventurous gleam in her eye. “But maybe we should find out.” She exclaimed eagerly. Before her friends could stop her, the orange filly slowly and cautiously walked into the other room. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked to each other with concern evident in their faces. They then concluded that they would have to bail out their friend if she got into any danger. The two fillies slowly walked into the other room to go after the brave pegasus.
Chapter 14: Waterlogged“Owch!” Twilight Sparkle yelled in pain as a book fell on top of her from above. She had been reaching for a high up book and didn’t want to be bothered with using her magic. As she rubbed her head to feel the newly forming bruise, she immediately regretted her lazy decision. “You alright over there darling?” Rarity looked up from the book she was reading and spoke up from across the room. She looked with mild concern to the unicorn that was sprawled out across the floor from where she had fallen back. Twilight stopped caressing her tender head for a moment to return a reassuring expression to her friend. “Yeah… oww… I’m good.” The purple mare exclaimed while getting up and brushing herself off. She then picked up the book from the floor and walked back over to her table. Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she skimmed through the book to ascertain its contents. She and the others had been through a veritable pile of books in their search for information, all of which had turned out to be useless. “This is taking longer than I expected… have any of you guys found anything useful?” Twilight looked up to her friends scattered around the room. She hoped that they were having better luck than she was. “Nope! Nothing over here!” Pinkie Pie announced enthusiastically as she poked her head out from behind a row of shelves. “Nothing but a few indexes on spells here.” Tom looked up from the book he was reading and gave a short glance over in the direction of the others. “Sorry Twilight, nothing of note over here.” Rarity huffed in frustration as she reported on her lack of discovery. “Nothing here as well I’m afraid.” Fluttershy droned softly as she continued reading over the few books she had opened on the table next to her. Upon hearing the demoralization of her band of fellow researchers, Twilight sighed heavily before glaring down at the book in front of her. She then planted her head down onto the table in frustration, letting out a loud thud as her hair flopped around from the impact. She closed her eyes and huffed in defeat. She felt like staying in this position and falling asleep, but decided against it and instead gave herself a break. Lack of progress was starting to get to her. She needed a moment to relax and recompose herself. Suddenly, Twilight was disturbed by a strange whirring sound. She opened her eyes to look around and noticed that the lights were flickering. Everyone in the room dropped what they were doing and watched in confusion as the lights steadily started blinking on and off. The lights gave a dragged out fizz as they flashed off one final time, encasing the room in darkness. The ponies looked around uneasily as they tried to find their way around in the blackness. “W-w-what was that?” Fluttershy squeaked nervously as she darted her eyes through the dark room. “I think the power must have gone out.” Twilight reasoned in order to calm the nervous pegasus’s fears. “Tom, can you open up that window over there?” The unicorn asked as she observed faint rays of light streaming in through the closed blinds on the wall. Tom felt his way around in the dark as he cautiously approached the windows. He then gripped ahold of the pole dangling from the side of the window and spun it to open up the blinds. Sunlight immediately streamed in, making the room at least navigable amid the shadows. “What the…?” Tom recoiled in surprise as he felt water running onto his hand from the pole. He looked to the window and stared in bewilderment as he saw water streaming from the frame of the window down onto the pole and window sill. Twilight and the others shared in his surprise and confusion as they looked over to the window. They then noticed water running down the walls in small lines at various spots at the top of each wall. “Water…? I didn’t think that there were any pipes around here.” Twilight observed in confusion as she put her hoof onto a wet spot on the wall to feel and see if it was in fact real. “Pipes wouldn’t explain water coming in from above the window would they?” The human retorted quizzically as he looked around to the steadily dampening walls. Suddenly his senses went off, causing a puff of blue mist to eject itself from his mouth. He looked around while trying to process the feeling he was getting. “Odd, I’m sensing a lot of ambient energy throughout the school.” Tom explained while not really expecting a thoughtful reply. “What does that mean Tom?” Fluttershy asked nervously while inching closer to the group to feel safer. “Well, it might explain all the water. If enough energy is used with the right purpose, anything can happen to change a location. From simple things like making water run down the walls, or more complex things like changing the layout and size of rooms within a building.” Tom explained slowly while facing the group. The human’s explanation made the ponies even more nervous than they were before. “We should go see what’s going on.” Twilight suggested while heading toward the door. The others followed her cautiously as she opened up the double doors and stepped into the hallway. The school looked entirely different from when they had gotten there. Not just because of the newfound lack of artificial light, but also due to a wholly different atmosphere. The air seemed much cooler and damp; almost as if they were out on a lake, which didn’t seem like too far a stretch for comparisons as the walls and floor of the school were completely darkened from excessive dampening. Streams of water fell down steadily across the walls and ceiling as far as the eye could see, and puddles of water seemed to sit on the floor, or more precisely, in the floor. The puddles seemed to be placed inside holes in the floor, setting them flush against the sides of the floorboards as if the floor in those areas had been transformed into an indeterminably deep puddle. The ponies gasped in shock as they surveyed their surroundings. They looked horrified at the strange and sudden transformation of the once humble school. Tom surveyed the area curiously as he made note of what transformations had been made. “Wh…wha…w-what in the name of Celestia happened here?” Twilight stuttered in bewilderment and shock as she moved out of the way from a dripping stream of water coming down from the ceiling. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Stuff like this usually doesn’t happen by itself. There is normally some kind of monster that goes along with it.” Tom remarked warily as he eyed the rather large puddle of water that blocked off the entirety of one fork in the hallway. “Oh my goodness, what about the kids?!” Rarity exclaimed in surprise as she thought about Ms. Cheerilee and her class of children. Her face paled even further when she thought about Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders. Twilight and the others widened their eyes as they too thought about the other ponies that must have been in the school. “You’re right… We need to find them and get them out of here. Who knows what kind of danger they’re in?” The purple mare suggested in a serious tone of voice. “But how do we find them? This place is so big.” Rarity said in a concerned tone while glancing around at her surroundings. Even on a normal day, there were a lot of places to look in the building. And if what Tom suggested was true, the school could have gotten bigger when it changed into the misty wetland that it is now. “Maybe we should split up? We could cover more ground that way.” Twilight suggested. Their efforts would be better used if they could search multiple places at once. Tom frowned in concern as he thought about the idea. He didn’t know anything about the situation before him; so he didn’t want to let the ponies out of his sight for a minute, let alone letting them wander around a supernaturally flooded school by themselves. “I... I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” The human stated hesitantly as he had to consciously adjust his expression from one of nervous concern to a more stoic look. “What? Why…? We would be able to accomplish more if we spread out.” Twilight pleaded for the human to see the merit in her reasoning. “I’m… just not comfortable with leaving you alone.” Tom trailed his eyes off to avoid looking any of the ponies in the face. The others smiled a bit from hearing the concern the slayer had for them. Twilight nudged him and smiled confidently when he turned to face her. “Hey… We’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry about us. We wouldn’t let anything happen to each other, right girls?” The purple mare looked behind her for support from the others. They smiled and nodded. “Yeah, we stick together! Nobody is going to hurt my friends on my watch!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed eagerly while putting an arm around Rarity and Fluttershy. Tom sighed uncomfortably as he mulled over the issue in his head. He finally shrugged and looked to the group of ponies in defeat. “Alright, alright… if you guys are so adamant about it, I guess we could split up… It’s not that I don’t agree with you about the benefits, I just… *Sigh* Just be careful out there girls. We don’t know what we could be dealing with, and I don’t want to see anybody get hurt. Am I understood?” Tom spoke up near the end to make himself clear. The ponies all nodded with serious yet confident faces on. Twilight then went into planning mode and took ahold of the situation. “Alright… Rarity, you take Pinkie Pie and go look for Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders.” Twilight instructed to the two ponies. Rarity nodded while Pinkie gave a stoic salute. “Fluttershy, you come with me to find Cheerilee and the other kids.” Twilight asked while looking at the yellow mare with a serious expression. The pegasus fought through her nerves and became more confident as she thought about how frightened the others could be. She gave the unicorn a silent nod and stood by her side to wait. Tom interrupted the unicorn before she could suggest something for him to do. He had his own method of finding out what was going on in situations like this, so he wanted to take his own direction. “And I will try to get to the bottom of this.” The human stated in a serious tone. Twilight nodded to him before turning to face her troop of ponies. “Okay girls... just remember, we are the elements of harmony. Others should look to us for confidence in times of need. So let’s get out there and help some ponies… Just be careful and stick together, we don’t know what we’re dealing with here.” Twilight spoke seriously to her friends and tried her best to prepare them for their assigned duties. The group gave each other one last nod of confidence before going their separate ways. Tom took a running start and jumped over the patch of water that was blocking one of the hallways, Rarity and Pinkie went down the left hallway from the fork and started to look for the crusaders, While Twilight and Fluttershy made their way down the hallway to their rear as they set about to find the other children and any other ponies who needed help. The soaked floorboards squeaked underneath Twilight’s hooves as she made her way through the water damaged halls. Even in places where there were not any spontaneous spouts of water coming from the walls, the wallpaper shriveled and wrinkled as it was soaked through completely. The two ponies walked slowly and cautiously as they nervously pressed forward. They scanned each classroom they passed carefully for any signs of life. Many of the rooms seemed flooded as the chairs and desks slanted into the puddles that had opened up in the floor. Some of the rooms were completely submerged, leaving only the chalk board and supplies hung on the walls above the floor of water. “It’s so cold in here… It wasn’t exactly toasty before, but now…” Fluttershy spoke up from behind Twilight to calm her nerves and have some sort of conversation. Twilight could tell that the eerie atmosphere was making the shy pegasus very uncomfortable. “I know… I wonder what could be causing this.” The unicorn replied back to her friend softly. The two walked for a while in silence before coming to the end of the hallway, forcing them to make a choice. They turned to the left and looked up in surprise as they noticed the sight of the entrance to the school. “Hey look… the door! At least now we have a way out.” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while stepping forward. Fluttershy gasped in surprise and grabbed the unicorn to pull her back. The force of the sudden pull made Twilight fall on her back and grunt in pain. “Ugh… hey, what gives?” Twilight looked to the pegasus for an explanation. Fluttershy only pointed with her hoof in front of them in response. “Look!” The yellow mare exclaimed in shock as she pointed ahead. Twilight followed her outstretched arm to see what the problem was. She suddenly widened her eyes and dropped her jaw in shock. Sitting in front of the two ponies was a rather large stretch of water that went from where they were standing all the way to the door. “Wow… Thanks Fluttershy.” Twilight looked to her friend and offered her gratitude. The two then got up and walked over to the edge of the body of water. Twilight laid down at the edge of the water and stuck her hoof in to test its depth. The water was practically freezing cold, making the unicorn jump slightly from the shock to her system. She quickly discovered that her entire arm fit into the murky trench, and she still could not feel the bottom. She couldn’t even feel the side of the floorboards. It was like there was a space just underneath them that had an infinite stretch of water filling it. “This doesn’t make any sense. I can’t reach the bottom… how is this water not falling into the basement?” The unicorn turned to her friend and asked with bewilderment evident on her face. “I don’t know… I just hope we can find another way out of here. Who knows what could be down there?” Fluttershy stated nervously while looking down into the cloudy depths. For some strange reason, perhaps due to Fluttershy’s comment, Twilight suddenly felt uneasy with her arm dangling into the water. It was like she was expecting something to swim up and grab her, pulling her down to a watery grave. Twilight nervously pulled her arm out of the water and got up. She shook the excess water from her arm and looked back to her friend. “If we really had to, I suppose we could climb out through a window.” Twilight stated lightheartedly while trying to shake the jittery feeling she had from reaching into the water. Fluttershy giggled briefly at the thought, when suddenly the two heard a scream emanating from a room down the hall. The two quickly raced down the hall and searched feverishly for the source of the noise. They skidded to a halt next to one open doorway as they noticed several colorful shapes inside. Inside of the classroom, several desks and chairs floated precariously on the surface of a large body of water that stretched clear to the back of the room. Bobbing up and down on top of the overturned chairs, several young fillies and colts eyed around them in a fearful state. At the back of the room clinging to the teacher’s desk was Ms. Cheerilee. The purple mare noticed the two ponies at the doorway and looked to them with pleading eyes. “Twilight, Help us! I can’t swim and I know some of these kids can’t either!” She yelled in a panic to the two as she balanced her weight across the desk as it shifted around in the water. Twilight could see the fillies and colts as they gripped the tops of their chairs tightly. The small chairs barely kept them above the surface of the water as they floated at odd angles. “H..help!” A young pink filly that Twilight recognized as Diamond Tiara cried out fearfully as she clung to her chair. The sight of the urgent situation sent Twilight and Fluttershy into an adrenaline filled rush. They ran to the edge of the water and darted their heads around rapidly. “I’ll lift a few of them over here, you pick some of them up!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic to her pegasus friend. Fluttershy put aside her lack of elegant flying skills and spread her wings. She jumped into the air and did her best to stay airborne in the small space. She slowly hovered out to one of the colts and picked him up to take him back to safety. While the pegasus rushed to fly the children to safety, Twilight tried her best to concentrate in the tense situation. She lit her horn up and carefully lifted up Diamond Tiara, she then slowly brought her to the small section of solid ground in the room. After the filly slid to the wall to rest her tense body, Twilight then turned to lift another kid up. The two continued rescuing the children while keeping a close eye on Ms. Cheerilee. After Fluttershy carried the last filly to safety, she turned around and prepared to go after Cheerilee. Suddenly, the desk the frightened teacher was sitting on dipped to the side, dumping the purple mare into the cold water. Twilight and Fluttershy watched in horror as Ms. Cheerilee desperately tried to keep herself afloat. She dunked her head under the water briefly before popping back up and gasping for air. The unicorn quickly realized that she was too exhausted to lift the pony out of the water with her magic. She turned to Fluttershy and frantically made a decision. “Keep the kids safe!” Twilight exclaimed before suddenly taking in a breath and running forward. She jumped into the cold water and splashed down next to one of the desks. By the time she resurfaced, Ms. Cheerilee had gone under the water again, only this time she did not come back up. The unicorn swam frantically to the spot where the teacher had gone under, she then held her breath and dove under the surface. She was relieved to see that the frightened teacher had not lost consciousness as she held her breath under the surface. She reached her hoof out to Twilight as she sank into the seemingly bottomless pit. Twilight tightly grabbed ahold of Cheerilee and pulled her close. She then kicked hard to carry them both to the surface. The two gasped for air as they burst through the threshold of water. Fluttershy had ushered the children out into the hallway and came back into the room to watch for the two. She cheered happily as she watched her friend treading water to carry the teacher to safety. Twilight huffed in exhaustion as she approached the side of the floor. She lifted Cheerilee up to Fluttershy and pushed her along her way as the pegasus pulled on her from up top. The unicorn let out a sigh of relief as she saw Fluttershy pull the soaked pony to the wall with her. Twilight sat still in the water for a moment to catch her breath. She floated peacefully in the water and bobbed up and down, when suddenly she felt something solid brush up against her leg. The unicorn looked behind her, thinking that one of the chairs had drifted over to her, but suddenly widened her eyes when she saw that none of the chairs were anywhere near her. “AH!” Twilight cried out in fear and frantically scrambled to get up onto the ledge. Fluttershy saw the unicorn in a panicked distress and quickly ran over to help her out of the water. Twilight clung to Fluttershy protectively and brought her closer to the wall, she then turned to the water and inspected the surface. The lavender pony looked anxiously to the water as it returned to a still state from her hasty exit. Much to her surprise, the water moved no further as she darted her eyes back and forth in expectation. Fluttershy looked to her terrified friend with a concerned expression. “Twilight… What’s wrong?” The pegasus asked in a worried tone as she looked to where the nervous unicorn was staring. Twilight slowly calmed herself down as she began to think about the situation logically again. She reasoned that her imagination must have played a trick on her. “I… I… It’s nothing, I just…” The purple mare slowed down her frantic breathing as she watched the calm water ripple gently. “I could have sworn that I felt something touch me.” Pinkie Pie and Rarity found themselves wandering through a rather large room. The ponies had a difficult time in telling the original purpose of the room as half of the floor was opened up into a watery pit. The pair could only wonder if the room even belonged to the original school or if it just appeared with all of the water. As maddening as that thought was, there were no other logical explanations. They walked through the room and observed their surroundings curiously. “Ugh… this damp air is absolutely horrible for my hair.” Rarity whined in frustration as she ran a hoof through her hair. The two were walking along the edge of the water leisurely as they admired their surroundings, however bleak they may have been. After all, it wasn’t every day they got to see the odd sight of a schoolhouse soaked through with supernaturally appearing water. “Hehe, I think it feels kinda nice… kinda like we’re on a misty shoreline.” Pinkie Pie giggled innocently as she tried to turn the white unicorn’s view around. “Well I’m sorry darling, but I don’t think that would be any more pleasant.” Rarity shrugged as she watched the chipper earth pony walk beside her. As she kept her eyes on her friend, Rarity slipped on a wet patch of floorboards and tumbled sideways into the water. “Whoa!” The unicorn cried out in surprise as she felt her legs slip out from under her. She then flinched and shut her eyes as she went headlong into the chilly liquid. She bobbed her head up and sputtered as she blew water off of her mouth. Pinkie Pie chuckled lightly at watching the white mare’s hair floating around beside her. As much as she wanted to be upset at the party pony, Rarity failed to ignore the humor in the situation as she let out a light chuckle herself. She tried to get up on the ledge when suddenly she felt something resisting her leg pulling up. She tugged at the trapped limb for a few moments before concluding that she was stuck. “Pinkie, could you be a dear and help me up? I think my leg is caught on… a plant?” Rarity tilted her head curiously as she felt the organic texture of the object wrapped around her back leg. Pinkie Pie stopped laughing and nodded as she went to assist her friend. She tugged on her a few times as hard as she could before realizing she was getting nowhere. “Hold on a sec. Let me jump in and see if I can’t get a better angle to work at.” Pinkie said to the unicorn as she prepared to jump in. Rarity shut her eyes as the pink pony hopped into the water, causing it to splash in her face. Pinkie Pie quickly popped up and swam over to the trapped unicorn. She held her breath and dove under the surface to determine the source of her distress. She was surprised to see a long strand of what appeared to be kelp and moss was wrapped around the unicorn’s leg. Further down in the water, Pinkie could see several more plants reaching up in an attempt to get to the surface. Wasting no time on pondering the strange sight, she grabbed the unicorn’s leg and yanked it at an angle. The kelp stretched taut as the pink pony wrestled against its pull. Suddenly the plant snapped in two, freeing the white mare. Pinkie pushed Rarity out of the water and watched as she shook herself dry. The white mare turned to the floating pink pony and smiled. “Thanks for the help.” Rarity stated cheerfully. Pinkie smiled in return as she admired her good deed. “No problem… now could you help me up? It’s freezing in here.” The pink mare asked while reaching her hoof up to the unicorn. Rarity stooped down to pull the pink pony out of the water, when suddenly Pinkie gasped in surprise as she was pulled forcefully underwater. Rarity widened her eyes in shock and gasped herself as she watched the pink pony shoot back to the surface and gasp for air. “Pinky! What happened?!” Rarity asked frantically as her friend looked around in fear. “*cough* *sputter* I don’t know! I think something just gra-” Pinkie stated in a panic when she was suddenly cut off by being pulled back under. Rarity stared at the spot where the pink pony had been violently yanked under. Her eyes shrank to tiny dots and her jaw quivered in fear and horror as she desperately waited for her friend to resurface. “Pinkie Pie!” She yelled in horror while watching the rippling water.
Chapter 15: HydrophobiaRarity’s mind raced with fear and worry as she stared into the water where her friend had just disappeared beneath the murky surface. Judging from what little the pink mare had gotten out before she went under, Rarity deduced that something had pulled her under. But she had no idea what could have done it. “Pinkie! Are you okay?!” The unicorn yelled frantically as she watched the rippling water. Not that she was expecting a response, but the jarring silence in the room only made her panic more. She looked to the far doorway and contemplated running for help, but by the time she returned with someone else, Pinkie Pie would be long dead. Rarity had a revelation in her head that filled her with both determination and terror. She would have to save the pink pony by herself. “Come on Rarity… Pinkie needs you to be strong right now.” Rarity steeled herself to calm her frantic nerves. She didn’t manage to quell the fear inside her, but the unicorn stood up and stared into the water with resolve anyway. Rarity concentrated and lit up her horn. She started sweating nervously as she searched the water with her magic, desperate to come across the form of her friend below the surface. She then gave a sigh of relief as she wrapped her magic around a pony shaped object. Rarity was relieved to feel the pony showing signs of life underwater. She squirmed around desperately, trying to escape the thing pulling on her. But the unicorn’s relief quickly turned back to panic as she realized that she could barely move the pink pony an inch upward. She strained heavily as she tugged on Pinkie. Whatever was fighting her for the life of her friend wanted her badly enough to put up a good battle. Rarity started panicking as she felt Pinkie going limp in her grasp. Her panic set in further as she saw air bubbles flood to the surface. “I am not about to let my friend die in my grasp!” Rarity heaved angrily as she pulled with all of her might. Slowly but surely, the pink pony started traveling upward as the unicorn gained the upper hand over the strange force. The force suddenly let go of the pink pony, causing her to shoot to the surface. Rarity quickly lifted the unconscious pink mare onto solid ground. She dragged her away from the water a short ways before feeling confident that they were far enough away for the mysterious creature to leave them alone. Rarity’s face grew pale as Pinkie rolled her body on the ground like a lifeless puppet. She put her ear to Pinkie’s chest to see if her heart was still beating. She was relieved to hear the weak pitter-patter of the pink mare’s heart. “Come on Pinkie… You’re going to be ok… Please be okay.” Rarity spoke softly to the unconscious pony while thinking back to her knowledge on first aid. She then started compressing her chest forcefully to perform CPR. After a few cycles of compressing her chest and giving her mouth to mouth, the white unicorn was starting to get more and more fearful for her friend’s life. Pump, pump, breathe, and repeat. No matter how many times she compressed the party pony’s chest, or breathed into her mouth, nothing was happening. Pinkie still remained unmoving and lifeless. Rarity could feel a wave of sadness rushing over her, as if her body had already come to the conclusion that her mind refused to. Just before the unicorn was going to give up, the pink pony sputtered forcefully as water came out of her mouth. Rarity rolled her onto her side and watched as Pinkie coughed and sputtered while ejecting the water from her system. After spending a few minutes coughing repeatedly, the pink pony laid on the ground silently while breathing deeply in and out. She then looked around in a lethargic and confused manner. “*Cough*… What happened?” Pinkie spoke weakly as she looked around her. Rarity quickly pulled the pink pony close to her and embraced her in a tight hug. Pinkie looked at her in confusion for a moment before wrapping her arms around the white unicorn slowly. “Thank Celestia you’re alive! I was afraid that I was going to watch you die for a minute there.” The white mare cried joyfully into the pink pony’s soaked fur. Pinkie Pie pushed her away for a moment and looked at her with surprise as she remembered what had happened. “What happened?! Where did that thing go?! Where are we?! I…” Pinkie asked frantically. She would have continued asking questions had Rarity not gently put a hoof to her lips to silence her. “Sshh… That thing can’t hurt us now. We’re far away from the water.” The white mare softly droned to comfort the pink pony. The two nervously looked forward into the watery pit. The surface was deceptively calm, as if the intense struggle had all been in the ponies’ heads. Rarity slowly helped Pinkie Pie to her feet. She shouldered the pink mare’s weight as her legs trembled weakly. The two then hesitantly walked close enough to the water to watch it without getting too close. The white unicorn was slowly filled with dread as she thought about their close brush with death. She thought about what would have happened if their positions had been switched around. The only reason she had saved the pink pony was because she was a unicorn. “Thank you for getting me up so quickly Pinkie… If you hadn’t jumped in, and I was the one that got grabbed, I don’t think we would be talking right now.” Rarity looked to her friend with sorrow and gratitude. “It’s ok… I wouldn’t trade places with you if I had the choice.” Pinkie brought herself to smile a little, returning her cheerful disposition slightly. Rarity smiled warmly to the pink pony before looking back at the water somberly. “What was that thing anyway? Did you see it?” The unicorn asked curiously. Pinkie looked back to her with sad confusion. “I don’t know… It just grabbed my leg suddenly and tried to pull me down. I managed to get away from it at first, but then it grabbed harder and forced me under. I didn’t see anything when I looked down at my leg either.” The pink mare shuddered nervously as she thought back to the cold feeling of drowning. “It’s ok now darling, you’re safe…*Gasp* What about Twilight and the others? What if there are more of those things and they don’t figure it out until it’s too late?!” Rarity exclaimed fearfully as she thought about her other friends. “What about Sweetie Belle and the others? We can’t go back for Twilight and Fluttershy and search for them at the same time.” Pinkie Pie reasoned in a worried tone. The pink mare shared her friend’s concern, but she was also concerned about the three fillies missing somewhere in the school. “Ughh… You’re right. I will look for the girls… you go back and warn the others.” Rarity groaned in frustration as she came up with the only solution that made sense to her. “What?! That’s crazy! You could get hurt, or worse!” Pinkie gasped in surprise as the unicorn adopted a more serious expression. “I’ll be fine… we just need to stay away from the water.” Rarity stated with false confidence as she tried to convince the pink pony to see her things her way. “No… I’m not leaving you. We’re just going to have to trust that Twilight and Fluttershy will be fine. The girls need us right now. Who knows what kind of danger they could be in?” Pinkie retorted adamantly as she refused to leave her friend alone. “I suppose you’re right… let’s hurry up and find the girls. The faster we get them to safety, the faster we can regroup with the others.” Rarity sighed in defeat as she thought about how her little sister must have been faring. The two nodded to each other in determination before walking to the door, all the while being sure to avoid walking too close to the pit of water. As they walked through the damp hallways, they found a new sense of dread as they observed how many puddles and large pools of water were scattered around the school. They knew that the thing that had almost drowned Pinkie Pie would almost certainly be waiting for them to fall into the water again. Twilight and Fluttershy joined Ms. Cheerilee out in the hallway. The teacher and children were still shaken up from their ordeal. They looked around the bleak corridor fearfully as they tried to wrap their minds around why the school suddenly became so different. “Thank you so much Twilight, I am eternally grateful for your help.” Cheerilee smiled in gratitude as she looked around to the children gathered around her. “It was my pleasure Ms. Cheerilee. I’m just glad everyone is safe and sound.” Twilight smiled in flattery as she rubbed the back of her head shyly. “What’s going on anyway? Why is there so much water everywhere? I didn’t think the pipes were this bad…” The teacher pondered as she looked around the soaked school. Twilight gave her a puzzled look as she tried to think of a logical conclusion herself. She had never come across something like this before. And now that she knew the extent of the damage, the matter only confused her further. “We don’t know… but Tom should be getting to the bottom of this mess as we speak. Now, are there any other children or ponies in the school?” the unicorn asked quizzically as she turned her attention to the dire situation around them. “Most of the other children were outside for recess, and I think all the staff was on a collective break. The only ponies that are unaccounted for as far as I know are Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo.” Cheerilee listed off the three fillies names and shifted her face to a more concerned frown. “I hope nothing bad has happened to them… as much as they make me want to pull my hair out some days, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to any of the children in my class.” She stated sadly. The sight of the teacher worrying so much about her students made the two frown sympathetically. Fluttershy gave her a reassuring smile and put a hoof on her shoulder. Cheerilee lightened up her gloomy expression slightly as she looked up to the yellow mare. “I can promise you that we will find them, but for now we need to get you guys somewhere safe.” The pegasus spoke softly while looking around to the frightened colts and fillies. Cheerilee and Twilight nodded before starting to walk down the hallway. They decided that the library would be a safe enough place for them to stay until all of this was over. Once they arrived, the group of kids flooded into the library along with their teacher and got relatively comfortable. Twilight smiled at the group before settling her eyes on Ms. Cheerilee. “You guys will be safe here. Just stay put until we sort this thing out okay?” The purple pony spoke reassuringly to cheer up the sad looking teacher. Cheerilee flashed a brief smile to the pair. Fluttershy and Twilight briefly waved goodbye to the children and their teacher. They then turned around and walked out of the library. The two took a moment to look at each other apprehensively. Despite how confident they tried to sound to the others and to each other, the ponies had no idea how they would go about finding the three fillies. “Now what do we do?” Twilight asked her friend, hopeful that she would come up with somewhere to go. “I don’t know… I guess we could try to meet up with the others.” Fluttershy stated dully while looking over to where Rarity and Pinkie Pie had walked off. Twilight sighed and gave a slow nod before walking off with the pegasus in tow. They walked through a few corridors of classrooms before turning off and coming across a large pile of rubble blocking their path. Through a few holes in the rubble, the two could see a trench of water leading over to another stretch of floor. “Ughh… guess we can’t go any further this way.” Twilight shrugged in annoyance while looking closer at the rubble. “Well, we looked in most of the other areas… do you think you can lift this out of the way?” Fluttershy asked while inspecting the size of the debris. “No, I think this is too big for me to move. *Sigh*” Twilight huffed as she observed the large pieces of the barricade. Even if she weren’t so tired from using her magic so much in such a tense situation, she wouldn’t be able to move the large barrier. Fluttershy looked closer to one of the holes in the rubble. She perked up with intrigue as she noticed something that caught her eye. “You might not need to… look over here.” The pegasus beckoned Twilight over to her and pointed through the hole. Sure enough, there was a hole in the wall just beyond the rubble. It was just large enough to squeeze a pony through it, and it appeared to lead into a room. “That looks like it goes to a classroom… But it’s before the next room past the rubble, which means…” Twilight observed while looking over to the door on their left. It led into another classroom that they had previously overlooked. The two nodded to each other confidently before walking into the classroom. The room was no different than any of the other classrooms they had come across. The floor was mostly comprised of pits of water. However, a small gangway of floorboards connected the side of the room the ponies were on with the small island that sat at the other side of the room along with the hole in the wall. Twilight stepped closer to the thin path across the water. She put a hoof onto the planks and pressed them down to test how sturdy they were. The boards creaked under her weight as they sank a little ways into the water, getting the unicorn’s hoof wet as pools of the cool liquid ran over the board in streams. “Looks like the only way across without getting wet is over this path… I hope it can hold us up, I don’t feel like taking another swim today.” Twilight stated uneasily while looking down into the water. She couldn’t quite shake what happened earlier out of her head. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself that nothing happened, the memory of something brushing against her sent chills up the unicorn’s spine. “Can’t you teleport over there?” Fluttershy asked quizzically, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts. “I used a lot of energy lifting so many things in such a short amount of time. I don’t think I could muster a complex spell like that.” The unicorn sighed in frustration as she checked her remaining strength. Fluttershy looked at her friend sympathetically as she stared nervously into the water. Twilight was normally very logical in situations concerning fear and uncertainty, so seeing the unicorn in this much distress worried the yellow mare. “Tell you what, I’ll go first… to test it out for you.” The yellow pegasus stepped forward and turned to her friend with a warm smile. She figured that having a more sensitive pony cross over the makeshift bridge with no problems would give Twilight some confidence. “I... umm, thanks I guess.” Twilight reluctantly allowed Fluttershy to go first. The unicorn wouldn’t admit it out loud, but she felt uneasy having to go that close to the water in this place. The encounter earlier had left an imprint on her that filled Twilight with dread as she thought about crossing the watery trench. The pegasus turned and focused intently on placing her feet within the borders of the thin path. The boards sank a little ways and bobbed up and down as Fluttershy slowly walked over them. Twilight watched her friend with a slight sense of unease as she balanced herself to keep from falling. The creaking noises of the boards did nothing but add to the ambient tension in the room as Fluttershy made it past the halfway point. “See? Not as flimsy as it looks I guess.” Fluttershy turned to her friend as she observed her progress. Suddenly, the board snapped in two beneath the pegasus’s feet. The initial jolt of the splitting pieces caused them to violently dip downward and sideways, sending Fluttershy into the water. She yelped in surprise as she was suddenly rendered weightless for a brief moment while falling. She went headlong into the water and sank under the surface for a moment as she was not prepared for swimming. Twilight jerked her head in surprise and watched frantically for her friend to resurface. “Fluttershy?! Are you ok?” The purple mare raised her voice in concern as she watched the water splash around violently. Suddenly the pegasus resurfaced and gasped for air. Twilight let out a sigh of relief as she watched Fluttershy orient herself in the water. “S-s-see? N…n-nothing to w-worry about.” The pegasus stammered as her body acclimated to the freezing water. She then turned around and swam for the nearby shoreline. Fluttershy grabbed the edge of the far island of floorboards and struggled to pull herself up. Her shivering muscles did not make the task easy as the yellow mare fell back into the water from her attempt. Twilight grew nervous as she watched the water around Fluttershy. Perhaps it was only in her head, but the unicorn could almost swear that she could see the water rippling on its own behind the pegasus. “Umm… Fluttershy? Could you hurry up and get out of the water please?” Twilight asked with mild concern as she nervously eyed the soaked pony trying to get up. She tried to sound as calm as possible, as she did not want the yellow mare to not believe her, or start panicking herself at something that could very well not exist. Fluttershy grunted as she strained her weak arms to pull herself up. Between the freezing cold water, and the energy she used to fly those children to safety, the pegasus was unable to help herself up. She sighed in frustration and swiveled her head around to look at her friend. “Twilight… I can’t get up by myself. Could you come over here and give me a hoof up?” The yellow mare asked politely while trying again in one last ditch effort to get up on her own. Twilight hid her sense of uneasiness as she surveyed the now broken pathway before her. The two pieces of the bridge were still connected to their respective shores, anchoring them in place. She wasn’t sure if the same thing that happened to her friend would happen to her. “Yeah sure… just give me a minute ok?” The unicorn said reassuringly over the watery expanse. She then started hastily, yet cautiously making her way over the bridge. Fluttershy chattered her teeth as her skin was starting to turn a paler shade of its usual color. Although she didn’t want to rush her friend, she was really starting to feel the effects of being in water this cold for so long. “C-could you hurry every chance you g-get? It’s r-r…really c-cold in here.” The icy pony strained against the tight feeling of her muscles tensing up from the cold water, which was making her chest squeeze on the air leaving her lungs. The unicorn steadily made her way over the rickety stretch of boards, being careful not to fall into the water herself. She wobbled side to side as the floor swayed under her weight, making her pause and carefully think about her next step. She finally reached the broken section of the bridge. The other side was just a quick step over the hole and a few feet away. Twilight hesitantly stood on the edge of the planks. She planted a hoof onto the other side and waited for the ground to stop wavering. Once she had two legs on the other side, the unicorn realized that she would need to quickly hop over to prevent the other board from sinking as her weight was focused on one point. Twilight jumped her lower half over the gap in one fluid motion. The board dipped into the water suddenly, causing the unicorn to lose her footing and smack her body onto the piece of floor. She wrapped her arms around the board to prevent herself from sliding off. The shock of the cold water immediately sent a wave of energy through her body. Fluttershy spun her head around upon hearing the noise of her friend falling onto the boards. She observed Twilight flinch her eyes shut instinctively as she clung to her support, unsure of whether or not she would continue falling. “You ok T-Twilight?” The freezing pegasus courteously asked to see if her friend had not been hurt during the fall. Even when she could barely speak from near hypothermic conditions, Fluttershy still felt concern for her friends. Twilight peeked one eye open to observe her surroundings. She discovered that she was in fact still on the bridge. Other than the stinging cold feeling prevalent in her limbs, she had not injured herself by scraping against the wooden plank during her fall. “Yeah… I’m good. Give me a sec and I’ll be right over.” Twilight stated reassuringly to her friend as she pondered on how she would get to her feet on the flimsy board. The unicorn grunted as she strained to use one leg as leverage to get herself up while she held on with her other hooves. She managed to get three of her legs onto the thin structure with little trouble, but just as she was about to pull her final leg out of the water, she suddenly felt something reach up and grab the still submerged limb. “Ack!” Twilight cried out in shock from the sudden sensation of touch. Just as quickly as it had grabbed her, it yanked her downwards, causing the frightened pony to slide off the plank with her lower body. She desperately wrapped her front legs around the plank again and held on for dear life as the mysterious force tugged on her lower legs. Fluttershy gasped in surprise as she watched the unicorn bob violently in the water from repeated pulling. “Twilight! What’s wrong?!” The pegasus cried frantically while watching her friend struggling to stay on the now bending board. “Something has my leg! It won’t let go!” Twilight started panicking as she kicked her free leg at whatever was holding onto her. Much to her horror, her leg failed to collide with anything as she desperately knocked against her pinned limb at the area where she felt the tight grip. The unicorn quickly realized that she would not last long this way. If she were to let go of the board now, she would not be able to swim hard enough to escape from this thing should it choose to drown her. But at the same time, she couldn’t hold on for very much longer. She had to do something fast if she was going to save herself and her friend. She groaned in a mixture of fear and desperation as she slid her hooves over the board to locomote sideways. She winced in pain as her bare skin rubbed over pieces of exposed wood. The small slivers poked and prodded at her as she haphazardly ignored lifting up and over them. Thankfully, most of the slivers broke off before they completely punctured her skin. Twilight reached over and placed a hoof firmly onto the platform of floor. She prepared to jump her other hoof from the board to quickly latch onto solid ground, when she was suddenly pulled farther down as she was moving her leg over. “Agh-” Her frightened outcry was silenced as her mouth dipped under the water line. The unicorn coughed and sputtered to eject the unwanted fluid from her throat. She clung to the floor as strongly as her lone arm would allow. She then struggled to lift herself up high enough to grip the platform with both arms. Fluttershy watched on in horror as her friend was struggling for her life. The purple pony had tears in her eyes as she pulled with all of her might to escape the grip of the invisible force. The pegasus wanted to help her friend desperately, but she would only be a hindrance to her in the water. She made one last attempt at climbing out of the water on her own, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Twilight shooting out of the water as the force let her go. The unicorn brushed up against the wooden floor as her own excessive strength lifted her up without any resistance. The bandage on her chest slid off and flew into the water, but Twilight wouldn’t have cared even if she had noticed. She lifted herself onto the floor and scooted her legs inwards to distance them from the edge. “*Huff*… *Huff* I did it!” Twilight exclaimed in both elation and exhaustion. She smiled triumphantly to her friend in the water, who shared her friend’s joy at her escape, until the two thought for a moment and stared at each other in horror. “AHH!” Fluttershy screamed in terror as she was suddenly pulled downward. Only one of her arms managed to hold fast on the ledge after the initial pull on her body. “Fluttershy!” Twilight widened her eyes in terror as the force went to attack her friend. She lunged her body forward and grabbed the pegasus’s hoof just as it was yanked from the ledge. The unicorn dug into the floor with her back legs and wriggled her body around to get more leverage. Despite these efforts, the yellow mare’s head was just barely kept above the water. Fluttershy desperately reached her other hoof up in order to grab onto the solid floor. With the unicorn pulling on her forcefully, she managed to grip onto the ledge with her other hoof. With the two ponies’ combined strength, they managed to make even more progress as they slowly gained ground on the force. The pegasus managed to grip both of her hooves onto the floor as the unicorn wrapped her arms around her shoulders to pull. The two suddenly shot backwards onto the floor as Fluttershy’s legs left the water. Twilight pulled her friend closer and hugged her tightly. Both to reassure the pegasus that she was ok, and to reassure Twilight that her friend was not going anywhere without her. The ponies lay on the ground, panting and heaving as they looked at each other with loving gratitude. They slowly shifted their attention to the water in front of them. “*Huff* what was that…?” Fluttershy asked while out of breath. Despite her exhaustion, a palpable sense of fear was clear in her voice. “I think that was what touched me earlier… *Huff*” Twilight observed the calm water before turning to her friend and smiling. “Whatever it is, it can’t get us now.” She stated confidently while offering the pegasus a bright smile. If the mysterious force was able to chase them on land, it wouldn’t have made such an effort to get them in the water only to stop suddenly. Suddenly, the two felt the floorboards underneath them move slightly as something rammed into them from below. The loud noise jolted the ponies to their feet. They looked around fearfully as another bump made the floor shake beneath them. “That thing just doesn’t quit does it?” Twilight uneasily braced herself to prevent her body from moving during the assaults on the floor. The two suddenly gasped in horror as the floor started to form small cracks. “We need to get out of this room!” Fluttershy exclaimed as her voice started to tremble from fear. Twilight gave her a firm nod before walking to the hole in the wall they observed earlier. The unicorn’s face paled as she observed what was outside of the small opening. A large trench of water filled up the entire width of the hall in front of them. The ponies could see another room in front of them that appeared far less flooded, and to their left they could see that the water stretched on a ways before giving way to the hallway floor. “Oh no… I must have forgotten about the water past the rubble.” Twilight observed grimly. She looked back to her friend with concern evident on her face. “We can’t step foot into the water… that thing will grab us before we even have a chance to climb out!” The pegasus nervously squeaked as she started breathing faster out of fear. Twilight quickly realized that she was right. There was no way either of them could make that jump. And even if they could, they would be helpless to assist the other if they failed. “We’re just going to have to wait for someone else to come by, or for Tom to return things to normal.” Twilight’s plan didn’t even comfort herself. She knew that their chances for survival lay with the structural integrity of the floor, which was quickly fading with each thundering blow it took. The two ponies huddled together and placed their arms around each other as they nervously watched the floor shake with each consecutive blow.
Chapter 17: Dark and DampThe ponies listened nervously as the sounds drew closer to their safe haven. They stared anxiously at the door and waited for something to open it or break it down. The knob suddenly turned and the door opened, letting a familiar figure in blue step into the room. “Tom!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise as she watched the human enter the room and walk over to them. He seemed surprised to see an injured yellow pegasus lying on the floor behind the three ponies. “Girls… what happened? I heard screaming from across the school and sensed something in this direction… What’s wrong with Fluttershy?” Tom asked with concern in his voice as he knelt down to examine the pale pony. Twilight shrugged sadly as she looked back at the injured pegasus. She turned back to the human and prepared to explain the frightening turn of events that had led up to this point. “We were attacked by this invisible thing that tried to drown us. It would grab us whenever we got into the water, and then it tried to knock us into the water by ramming into the floor. After Rarity and Pinkie Pie came to help us, it…” The unicorn shuddered as she remembered the appearance of the bloody monster. She could still see the gaping black holes that it used for eyes as it stared at her with a disturbing grin. “It came out of the water and attacked me, but Fluttershy pushed me out of the way and took the blow. It cut her side open and drained her blood out… If we don’t get her some help, she isn’t going to last long.” Twilight frowned sadly as she looked down to her injured friend. She still couldn’t believe that the timid mare would do something so brash just to save her. Tom sighed in concern as he listened to the frantic unicorn explain their problems. He knew that he shouldn’t have left them on their own in a situation like this. Despite how bad he felt, this was not the time for self-criticism. “We can deal with that water monster later, for now I need you to back up and give me some room.” The human instructed calmly while scooting closer to the pegasus. Everyone looked at the boy with confused expressions, but obeyed his commands and backed away from their friend. Twilight was puzzled as she watched the human taking in a few deep breaths to prepare for something. “What are you going to do?” The purple mare asked quizzically while looking to her friend with concern for her health. “I’m going to try to heal her… but it takes a lot of energy so, I might pass out.” Tom turned to explain to the confused ponies. “What…? You can do that?” Pinkie asked curiously while looking between the two. “Yeah… but I haven’t done it that many times, so I might pass out for a little while. And if that happens, you’re going to have to leave me here if something dangerous comes along.” Tom looked serious and matter of fact as he explained what could happen. Before the others could question the human any further, he placed a finger up to silence them. He then breathed in a few more times before placing his hands over Fluttershy’s wound and closing his eyes. Tom breathed deeply while concentrating for a moment. Soon, blue rays of light started emitting from his hand. The beam was a slightly darker shade of blue than the light Tom used to fight the shadow creatures out in the forest. Fluttershy felt warmness surging through her body as the light flowed into her. She heard her friends gasping in amazement as she suddenly felt an odd tingling sensation where her wound was. The pegasus looked back to her injury and noticed that it was closing up slowly. Tom shrugged weakly as he struggled to maintain the energy streaming out of his hand. He ignored his rapidly draining energy and waited until the wound was closed up entirely. After giving a few extra minutes to restore the pony’s strength completely, Tom shut the light off and collapsed to the side of the pegasus. Everyone went over to the human and watched as he breathed rapidly. He gave them a thumbs up to give them the freedom to check on their friend. “How do you feel Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curiously while observing the newly restored color in the pegasus’s face. Fluttershy moved her limbs around and breathed in a few times to test her health. Much to her surprise, she didn’t feel anything to indicate that she had even been injured in the first place. “I feel good… great even.” The yellow mare smiled happily while looking over to the human as he hyperventilated on the ground. Her cheerful smile suddenly shifted to a concerned frown as she noticed how exhausted the boy seemed. “Are you ok Tom? I hope that wasn’t too hard on you.” Fluttershy looked sympathetically to the human as he recuperated on the ground. “I’m good… just give me a minute.” Tom wheezed while working his way to his knees. He paused for a moment before getting up completely. “Now then, on to business… Did any of you find anything of note?” The human asked curiously while surveying the group of ponies. “Well, we found Ms. Cheerilee and the other children. We told them to stay in the library while we searched for you guys.” Twilight informed the group on their progress. “That’s good… how about you two?” Tom asked Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “No luck I’m afraid. We have been around this entire floor, and they aren’t up here. We think the girls might be in the basement, but the door is stuck.” Rarity droned sadly at her lack of progress in finding her sister. “Alright, we should head down there next. We need to find the girls and stop whatever is causing all of this.” The human spoke with determination to inspire the ponies. Everyone nodded confidently before getting up. Rarity and Pinkie led their friends out of the room on the way to the other side of the school towards the basement. The group was sure to avoid any patch of water now that they knew that the bloody monster was lurking just beneath the surface. Once the ponies made it to the metal door, they stepped aside and let Tom inspect it. He tugged at it a few times to ensure that it was in fact stuck. As expected, the door remained firmly in place. “Yep… that is one stuck door. Let me see if I can’t get it open.” Tom rubbed his hands together to prepare himself for the task at hand. He grabbed the door firmly with both hands and pulled hard. After a few moments of tugging progressively harder, the door popped open. The ponies peered inside and looked into the darkness to get an idea of what the basement would look like. Water was rapidly running down from the ceiling and falling down the stairs like a waterfall. The water coming off of the stairs was splashing into a thin layer of water that covered the entire basement floor. Tom walked down the stairs first and tested to see if the water was too deep. “Be careful where you step down here. It’s hard to tell what is five inches deep and what is five feet.” Tom stated while carefully placing his foot around to test the ground in front of him. The ponies nodded while stepping forward through the small wall of water at the top of the stairs. They squeaked in surprise as the chilly liquid covered their bodies. After stepping out the other side and shaking themselves dry, the group noticed that they were short one member. Twilight turned around and noticed Rarity sizing up the water streaming down in front of her. She seemed to be deciding whether or not she would step forward or run away entirely. “Rarity, what’s wrong?” The purple mare asked curiously. “I can’t just walk through this! I just got my hair dry from the last time it got wet.” The white unicorn stated while gently patting her slightly moist mane. Twilight rolled her eyes and shrugged in disbelief at her friend’s behavior. She figured that she would put her obsession with beauty aside considering that they were in a survival situation. “Rarity, we don’t have time for this! Your hair will be fine once it dries, I promise.” Twilight pleaded for the unicorn to put her apprehensions behind her. Rarity gently placed a hoof through the waterfall and squeaked in shock at the cold temperature. “Maybe I can find something to block the water… you all go on ahead without me, I will join you if I am able.” The white mare said with slight disappointment while turning around to walk away. “What about Sweetie Belle?” Twilight spoke up, causing the unicorn to stop midstride. “She needs you right now Rarity. What is more important to you, your hair or your sister?” She reasoned in a serious tone. Rarity lowered her head sadly at the mention of her sister. She turned around and glanced at the wall of water with a determined expression. She wasn’t about to put the lives of innocent ponies before her own good looks, especially not her sister. “You’re right… I’m not letting something like this keep me from saving my darling Sweetie Belle.” Rarity announced with confidence. Everyone watched as the white mare closed her eyes and jumped forward. “Heeyah!” Rarity yelled as she rushed through the wall of water. She immediately regretted her decision as the freezing liquid splashed onto her and made her muscles tense up, but she kept going. Before she knew it, she was down the stairs with her friends. Twilight and the others walked up to the unicorn as she scrambled to brush her soaked hair out of her face. They smiled at her as she looked around with a surprised expression. “Good job Rarity. I knew you could do it.” Twilight said in a praising tone while putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Thanks Twilight… now let’s get moving.” Rarity stated while turning her attention forward to the human waiting at the doorway to the next room. The darkness of the large room sitting before the ponies made them tense up in fear again. It also didn’t help that they were standing in freezing cold water. Despite their apprehensions, the group slowly walked into the large room. The constant sound of water splashing onto the submerged floor from the spouts on the ceiling mingled with the pitch black darkness that pervaded the entire room, covering it in an intense atmosphere of dread and loneliness that filled the ponies with unease. As Twilight hesitantly walked forward into the center of the room, she stuck close to her small group of friends in an instinctive attempt to feel safer. Even though the water on the floor was only high enough to barely submerge the tip of her hooves, she was still worried about the possibility that they were not alone. “I hope that thing isn’t down here…” Twilight shivered at the thought of getting farther away from dry land. She knew that if the creature decided to follow them, there would be little to no chance of escaping it with so much water around. “What did you say that thing looked like?” Tom asked curiously while looking back to the unicorn. If he was going to be fighting this monster, he at least wanted to know what it looked like. “It can hide in the water and turn invisible, but when it comes out onto land it looks horrible!” Twilight recoiled mentally from having the image of the creature in her head. “It’s true, I saw it myself darling.” Rarity cut in to save Twilight the trouble of remembering the monster. “It was a horrific pile of what looked like… blood. It made these ghastly noises and tried to kill poor Fluttershy!” She shuddered in disgust at the thought of the mass of blood like fluid. “Wow… that bad huh? Guess I got my work cut out for me.” Tom added sarcastically in an attempt to lighten the mood. In the back of his head, he felt slightly nervous from not immediately recognizing the description of the creature, but he kept a strong composure to ease the ponies’ nerves. Rarity shrugged sadly as she looked around them into the three other doorways. She couldn’t imagine how scared the three crusaders must be from being lost down here in the cold darkness. The thought of her sister needing her help made the unicorn slightly less afraid of the eerie basement. “We’re not getting any closer to finding the girls and putting a stop to this mess from here. Let’s pick a door and start searching this dreadful place.” Rarity exclaimed confidently while steeling her nerves and putting on a determined expression. The others were surprised at the white mare’s sudden bravery. Even Tom was starting to get chills from the bleak atmosphere of the basement, so to see such determination arise from the unicorn filled the others with confidence of their own. They nodded to the brave pony before walking over to the doorway to the left of the large room. The group let Tom go first, still feeling slightly apprehensive about walking further into the darkness. The door led the group into a long winding corridor. The thick veil of shadows prevented the ponies from seeing to the end of the tunnel, leaving its size up to their own predictions. They slowly walked through the darkness while keeping their ears open for any sign of the three fillies, or worse yet, any sign that the creature was just behind them getting ready to pounce. The tunnel stretched onward for what seemed like an eternity. The constant echo of the ponies’ own hooves splashing around in the water made them pause occasionally to look behind them for fear of being followed. Just when the group thought they would be wandering the eerie corridor all day, a doorway came into view on the left. Twilight looked back to her friends for a vote of confidence before cautiously stepping into the room. Much to her surprise, she felt her hooves coming into contact with dry flooring. “Wow… nice to see dry land for once.” Twilight remarked while looking around at the wooden flooring. Upon closer inspection, she discovered the reason why the floor was lacking water. A short distance from the group, several gaping holes in the ground were barely visible amidst the darkness. Streams of water were pouring into the holes, forming a steady wall of water that was falling into the barely visible bottom. “What the…? Why are there so many holes in the floorboards? Actually… now that I think about it, why are there floorboards down here?” The purple unicorn asked in befuddlement. Everywhere else in the basement had stone flooring, but this one room had wooden flooring similar to the school upstairs. Tom examined the odd flooring closer. It seemed like a different type of wood than what was used upstairs. It almost reminded him of something that would have been used in human times. “Water isn’t the only change that could have been made to the school. Large supernatural events like this can sometimes warp how a building is structured. Doorways can lead to nowhere or new rooms entirely, there can be endless mazes of seemingly random room layouts, or there can be a lot of water and new floors.” The boy explained while looking around the flooded room curiously. “So all of this water, and the wooden floor… that monster brought them here?” Pinkie asked with confusion and intrigue at the human’s statement. He turned to her and nodded in response. “In a manner of speaking it did. All of this water and the new décor is probably where it feels comfortable. Whether it brought it all here by itself or if the spell did it I don’t know. Summoning spells are confusing sometimes.” Tom rolled his eyes in frustration as he tried to think of a way to rationalize his surroundings. “Wait… summoning spells? You think someone made all of this happen? Like, someone put that monster here on purpose?” Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously at the boy’s statement. She didn’t like the thought that someone did all of this intentionally. “I’m fairly confident that even though this place is vastly different from my own time, that schools do not spontaneously flood with unnatural amounts of water and get inhabited by invisible water monsters that like to drown people. So yes, I think somebody with a sick mind did this on purpose.” Tom sighed at the thought of evil individuals being possible in a seemingly peaceful society like this. The ponies felt disgusted knowing that someone living in Equestria could take such enjoyment in the suffering of others, and that they would do something like this to a school filled with children. Suddenly, a noise from the bottom of one of the holes caught the group’s attention. It sounded like a young filly groaning sleepily, as if they just woke up. The ponies took another look into the gaping pit and discovered that they could actually see the bottom. Amid the shadowy outline of the floor, the group could see two colorful shapes lying in a puddle of water. One of the shapes was moving around, confirming the group’s suspicions that they were living creatures. Rarity leaned in closer to the pit to examine the two fillies. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized that the two shapes were in fact Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. “Sweetie Belle…? Are you okay darling?” The white mare raised her voice to be heard inside of the gaping pit. Sweetie Belle looked around for a moment before turning upwards to look at the group. “Rarity…? What’s going on?” She asked in a drowsy tone. The young unicorn seemed to be groggy and confused as she looked up to the group. She then looked over to her friend lying in the water beside her and gasped. “Applebloom!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in alarm. The frightened filly gently rolled the unconscious earth pony onto her side and examined her injuries. The ponies looking on from the top of the hole could barely see the two, so they could not determine if either of the fillies were injured when they fell into the pit. “Are you two ok?” Twilight asked with concern as she looked down at the pair. Sweetie Belle looked up to the group and appeared distraught with worry. “I think we hit our heads when we fell down here, and Applebloom’s leg looks really bad.” The white filly listed off whatever details she could think of concerning their health as she looked at her friend’s oddly positioned limb. Rarity couldn’t stand to see her sister in such a situation. She looked to the others with concern and fear. “We need to get them out of there!” The white mare stated in a panicked tone to the others before turning back to the hole. Twilight raced her mind to think of a way to rescue the trapped crusaders. “It’s too small of an opening for Fluttershy to fly down there to grab them, and I don’t think I can grab them that far down.” The purple unicorn frowned as she surveyed the height of the pit and compared it to her own magical reach. On any normal day, she would have been able to reach the fillies with little issue, but with her shot nerves and exhaustion from earlier still in strong effect, she was afraid that she might drop the fillies even if she could reach them. “I might be able to lift them up, but I would need to take it slow to make sure I don’t drop them. Besides… if Applebloom’s leg really is broken, I don’t want to make it any worse.” Rarity stated uneasily. “Well that seems like the only option we have. Just take your time and be careful.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while backing up to give the white unicorn some room. Just before Rarity had a chance to start concentrating on rescuing the two fillies, a noise erupted from the back of the room that sent chills up the ponies’ spines. A low gurgling sound started bubbling up from the pool of water draining into one of the holes closer to the back wall. Twilight aimed her horn to light up the area where the noise was coming from. Off in the corner of the room, a patch of red liquid was rising up to the surface of the water. The liquid started climbing on top of itself in order to start forming the all too familiar bloody creature that had attacked the ponies before. After spending a few moments staring in profound horror at the moving goop, the ponies found themselves staring at the hideous monster once more. “Yikes… you weren’t kidding were you?” Tom felt his stomach churning from looking at the disturbing mound of blood like fluid that had formed into the beast before him. The others were too busy dealing with their own senses of terror and disgust to pay any attention to the cynical remarks of the human. Sweetie Belle moved around while looking up at the silent group above her. She felt confused as to why they had stopped speaking. “Are you guys still there? What’s wrong?” The filly spoke loudly while adjusting her position in the water. Suddenly, the creature jerked its head forward and stared down towards the hole in front of the group. The ponies looked at the creature in shock as it looked back up to them and tilted its head to the side oddly. It then sunk into the water and changed back into liquid before flowing towards the group and disappearing. The ponies all tensed up with fear as they watched the red mass vanish into the water while coming towards them. They needed to leave immediately, but they couldn’t leave the two fillies to fend for themselves. “Get them out of there Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic to the white unicorn. Rarity shook herself out of her shock and started concentrating on the two fillies. She wrapped her magic around them and started lifting them upwards as carefully as she could manage. Tom used his senses a few times while scanning the water in front of them. He let out a frustrated groan as he failed to pinpoint the creature’s exact location. “You guys hurry up and get them out of that hole.” The human instructed seriously while taking a few steps forward. Twilight was concerned with the way he said that. It was like he planned on using himself as bait for the creature while they grabbed the two fillies and ran. “What are you planning on doing?” Twilight asked in a fretful tone while putting her hoof in front of him to stop him from moving. “That thing is way too strong to fight. We need to get them out and run!” She exclaimed frantically while eyeing the water in front of them. Tom looked back and forth to the worried ponies around him. He racked his mind in an attempt to find any other solution to the situation that ended favorably, but failed to come up with anything. He would have to try his hardest to get the creature’s attention and hope that he could keep it busy or destroy it. “I need to try! It’s the only way to buy you enough time to get them to safety!” Tom yelled back at the unicorn in frustration before moving around her outstretched arm and running out into the water. He kicked his feet around frantically in an attempt to lure the beast out. He swiveled his head around in a desperate effort to find any sign of movement. Rarity tried to keep her attention on keeping the two fillies stable in the air while maintaining a grip on them. She looked up occasionally to see what was going on in front of her. The ponies looked on nervously as they waited for any sign of movement near them. Even though they were concerned for Tom’s safety, a part of them secretly hoped that the creature would leave them alone, even if that meant going for the human instead of them. Suddenly, Tom was knocked off of his feet by a surge of water sweeping his legs out from under him. As he caught himself and looked around him to see what happened, he noticed a blob of red near his face that was slowly forming upwards into a solid form. He quickly got to his feet and prepared himself to fight the newly formed creature. “Alright ugly, have some of this!” Tom yelled angrily while reaching for his sword. He quickly whipped the blade out and swung it vertically as hard as he could at the creature. Much to his surprise, the sword passed through the beast with little resistance. Droplets of translucent red liquid were flying off the creature as the blade sent ripples through the beast’s body. It was like Tom was swinging at water. Tom held the sword in the air and looked at it for a moment in disbelief as red water streamed off of it in drops. He then looked at the un-phased creature with astonishment and slight fear. “Well that’s not fair at all…” He muttered to himself nervously before quickly holstering his sword. The creature pulled back one of its arms to swing at Tom, but the human quickly ducked under the attack and side stepped around the beast. Before the creature could react, Tom held out his hand and shot out a rapid flash of blue light at the bloody mass in front of him. As the light faded, the creature showed no signs of injury as it spun around to face the human. The ponies looked on fearfully as the creature shot out one of its arms towards the slayer. The limb changed to liquid and gushed forward as the clawed hand of the creature impacted with the human and sent him flying across the room. The boy was slammed against the far wall and pinned by the force of the monster’s arm. He yelped in pain from the impact driving the beast’s claws into his chest. He desperately grasped at the arm as it adjusted its size to fit around him and keep him trapped. Tom’s attempts at gripping the red mass surrounding him were only met with his hands passing through the surface of the arm as if it were liquid. “Tom!” Twilight exclaimed loudly as she watched the boy struggle against the creature’s grasp. She anxiously looked back and forth between the battle and Rarity to see how close she was to getting Sweetie Belle and Applebloom out of the hole. Tom stopped flailing around for a moment to think logically about his situation. He then summoned forth his claws and prepared to swipe at the creature. The blades caused the creature’s skin to smoke as they collided with it, but the skin seemed to move out of the way and flow around the claws before they could do any serious damage. “I almost have them!” Rarity exclaimed as she brought the two fillies closer to the opening of the hole. Suddenly the creature diverted its attention from Tom and jerked its head around unnaturally to face the ponies. It released Tom and reeled in its arm before turning its body around towards the group of mares. It then started gurgling fiercely while shuffling towards the terrified bunch. Rarity’s pupils shrank to tiny dots as she stared fearfully at the rapidly approaching monster. Her legs began to shake uncontrollably and she struggled to keep from dropping the two fillies. “Tom! Please do something!” The white mare yelled in a distraught panic without moving her frightened gaze off of the creature. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie held each other in an attempt to comfort themselves. They were unable to prevent their muscles from seizing up in fear as they watched their approaching doom. Twilight looked to Tom pleadingly as she felt herself tensing up in fear. She was surprised however to see the human staring at the scene in front of him horrified. He seemed frozen in place as he had a defeated expression on his pale face. “Tom!” The purple mare yelled frantically in a last ditch attempt at snapping the human out of his dazed state. Seeing no change in Tom’s behavior, Twilight returned her gaze to the monster as it rapidly gained ground on the ponies. It seemed as if it would trip over as it eagerly tried overstepping the limits of its puddle with its half formed legs to get at the ponies. The purple unicorn took a moment to steel her nerves. She dug down deep to muster up enough energy to fight off the creature. She lit up her horn and shot out the same variety of energy that had worked before. The creature seemed to have learned from its past encounter with the unicorn. It forced the fluid in the middle of its body outward to form a hole for the energy blast to fly through. Twilight’s face grew pale as she watched her attack fail. She quickly found the strength to fire another blast, but decided to aim it downwards at the creature’s nonexistent feet. The blast impacted too fast for the beast to react and splattered it into pieces as it had done before. The purple unicorn let out a sigh of relief before looking over to view Rarity’s progress. Amid the chaos, she had managed to lift the two fillies out of the hole and onto her back. “Tom! Let’s go!” Twilight cried out to the human as her friends eagerly ran out of the door. Tom blinked his eyes a few times before shaking his head rapidly to return to his senses. He quickly leapt forward and started running towards the group of escaping ponies. Twilight turned around to view the human catching up to her and managed to catch a glimpse of the pieces of red fluid slowly reforming back into one mass. She then whipped her head back around and ran out of the door to join her friends in running down the corridor.
Chapter 18: Dead Man's FloatThe ponies wheezed and panted heavily as they ran through the dark corridor. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie headed the group in order to prevent Rarity from running into anything while she carried the two fillies. Twilight struggled to keep up with her friends as she tried to at least make it close enough to light the way for them. Sweetie Belle held on to Applebloom to keep her steady as her sister carried them. Rarity looked back occasionally to make sure that the two were balanced properly on her back while she ran forward. Eventually the group found their way back into the large room that led to the stairway back upstairs. They decided to get as much distance as they could from the watery floor of the basement and ran straight for the safety of the ground floor. After Twilight and Tom burst through the metal doorway to the basement, they quickly turned around and shut the door behind them before finding the nearest wall to lean against. Everyone was on the verge of hyperventilating as they recovered from running so much. The purple unicorn slid to the floor and took in as many deep breaths as she could handle without passing out. She then looked over to Rarity as she gently placed the two fillies on the floor. She couldn’t help but feel worried about Applebloom as she lay motionless on the ground. “Is… is she ok?” Twilight asked with concern while looking to the white unicorn as she inspected the filly’s wounds. “Well she definitely hit her head hard, and that leg looks pretty bad… but hopefully she will be fine with a little medical treatment.” Rarity shrugged as she observed the filly’s oddly bent leg. She then looked over to Sweetie Belle and put a loving hoof on her shoulder. “Are you ok Sweetie Belle…? Where is Scootaloo? What happened down there?” The white mare peppered her sister with questions. “Give me a second to answer those in order.” The young unicorn took in a breath in preparation to explain what had transpired in the basement. “One… my head kinda hurts, but other than that I’m alright. Two, we got separated from Scootaloo while we were running from that thing… and as for what happened… well.” She hesitated and looked down as she remembered what she had experienced. “It’s alright darling… you can tell us anything.” Rarity spoke softly to comfort her sister. Sweetie Belle sighed sadly and looked up to the group. “We were going to investigate the leaking pipes like we said earlier; but when we got down there, we heard somepony walking towards us. We hid and waited to see who it was, and found out that it was two ponies wearing greyish dark hoods… Scootaloo wanted to follow them, and we couldn’t change her mind once it was made up. We followed them into this other big room that had some other hooded ponies in it. They had candles set up everywhere, and there was this weird thing drawn all over the floor.” Sweetie Belle explained the details of what had happened after they went into the basement. “Sounds like a summoning spell to me.” Tom stated while thinking about the details of the story. Sweetie Belle shuddered as she recalled her ordeal. The group frowned as they watched the filly in such distress. She took a moment to collect herself before continuing. “They did all kinds of spooky stuff that we didn’t understand. Like chanting in some kind of weird language, and drawing other things onto the picture on the floor. After they got done, the thing on the floor lit up and filled the entire room with bright light. When we opened our eyes, we could see water pouring out of the center of the floor. Most of the hooded ponies reached into their pockets and pulled out some kind of paper with odd writing on it. They lit the paper on fire with the candles and started walking out of the room. But before some of them could get their paper out, that thing we saw earlier started pulling them under the surface of the water. It looked around when it was done and must have noticed us, so we ran. Scootaloo took a different turn than us... We tried to find her, but we ended up in that room and fell through the floor.” She looked down sadly as she thought about her friend being alone down in the basement somewhere. “It’s ok Sweetie Belle. We will find her and get rid of that thing while we’re at it.” Pinkie Pie stated cheerfully to lift the young unicorn’s spirits. The party pony’s statement managed to make the filly stop frowning and look up from the floor. She smiled briefly before returning her face to a more sullen expression. “I hope so…” Sweetie Belle sighed dejectedly before returning her gaze to the floor and continuing to sulk. Twilight got up from the floor and gave one last deep breath. She then walked over to the basement door and turned to the group. “We better get going… Rarity, you take the girls to the library with the other children. Anybody else want to head back with her?” Twilight asked as a curtesy while looking at Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. If anyone was going to stay behind, now would be the time to speak up. The two mares glanced at the basement door nervously. They both seemed to be dealing with their fear internally, and Pinkie Pie was the first to conquer hers. She turned her attention forward to the purple unicorn with a confident expression. “We aren’t going to just leave you two alone down there… right Fluttershy?” The pink pony smiled and looked to her friend for support. The pegasus nervously eyed the metal door out of the corner of her eye. She then looked away from the others apprehensively. “Right… I just… well.” Fluttershy stammered nervously avoiding eye contact. Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled warmly. “You don’t need to go if you’re scared Fluttershy. We will be fine on our own.” The purple unicorn spoke softly to the shy mare. Fluttershy immediately received flashbacks of what had happened in the classroom when she got injured. If she hadn’t intervened, then Twilight might not have survived the encounter with the crimson creature. Finally, the yellow pegasus shook her head and put on her best look of determination. She faced upwards to her friends with a newfound sense of confidence. “No… I want to help. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to any of you and I could have done something.” Fluttershy stated with resolve and walked to the door to wait for her friends to go. Twilight was impressed by her bravery. The yellow mare was normally very timid in frightening situations like these, but seeing her friends in need seems to have lit a spark in the shy pegasus. The unicorn nodded confidently before looking over to Tom and signaling him to open the door. The human nodded and pulled on the door for a few moments. The metal eventually gave way and screeched open. Everyone gathered by the door and looked downwards into the blackness with varying levels of apprehension between them. Twilight took a moment to look back to Rarity before venturing into the depths. “Stay away from water. And no matter what happens, just be careful alright?” Twilight asked to reassure herself that the white unicorn would exercise as much cautiousness as possible. Rarity nodded before turning back to her sister and caressing her hair lovingly. She wasn’t about to take any risks with the two fillies in tow. “Of course darling… same goes for all of you alright? I don’t want any of you getting hurt.” The white mare spoke apprehensively as she thought about what her friends would have to deal with. The group nodded before turning and heading into the doorway. They then descended the stairs and proceeded into the large room that split off into the rest of the basement. The group went through the door on the right side of the room and pressed on with Twilight at the lead. The purple unicorn shivered as she felt the cold, damp air hit her. She could almost swear that the atmosphere was getting darker, colder, and more foreboding the longer they were down in this place. She found herself retreating into her own thoughts to get her mind off of the bleak darkness around them. The unicorn thought back to the encounter they had with the creature while saving the two fillies. She couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten into Tom when the monster was approaching them. “Hey Tom?” Twilight spoke up suddenly, causing everyone to jump from the sudden break in silence. The human looked at her and raised an eyebrow curiously. “What’s up?” Tom asked quizzically while walking closer to the unicorn. Twilight looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What happened back there? Back in the room we found the girls in I mean… You kind of froze up for a minute there when that thing was coming after us.” Twilight asked, curious to hear what had happened to make him tense up with fear like that. “Oh…” Tom looked away from the unicorn and sighed. He took a few minutes to put into words what he was feeling at the time. “I’m not sure… I guess I panicked for a second.” Twilight seemed confused at the human’s response. She couldn’t think of any reason why he would suddenly panic in a familiar situation. “Panic…? Why did you panic? I know that thing was terrifying and all, but I thought things like that didn’t bother you?” The purple mare asked calmly. Tom had not expected such a non-hostile answer. He thought that the unicorn would be furious at him for failing to help them in their time of need, but instead she seemed more curious and concerned for why he froze up suddenly. “I have never run across a situation like that... I am not used to having to keep someone else safe while fighting something. I usually just wandered around and fought whatever evil creatures I came across; but… I threw everything I had at that thing, and it didn’t even flinch. And to see that thing coming after you… well.” Tom paused to look down sadly. Twilight and the others looked at him understandingly. They had not expected the boy to have such a reaction. He was normally so confident in the face of danger, and stood up to creatures that would leave any pony too terrified to move by choice. So to see him so concerned for their wellbeing touched them deeply. “It’s ok Tom. You don’t need to beat yourself up so much. I know you chose to help people in need, but you don’t need to feel so bad when you aren’t able to solve every problem.” Twilight said lovingly while placing a hoof on the human’s shoulder. “But I’m a slayer… I’m supposed to be the one that people count on to fight evil when everyone else is unable to…” Tom droned sadly while thinking about his own short comings. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy walked beside him and smiled caringly. “But you don’t need to be the only one people depend on. That is too much for anyone to handle, even a slayer like you.” Pinkie Pie stated sympathetically while placing a hoof on his side while they walked. “And besides, you have already done so much to help us. You protected us from those monsters out in the woods.” She added cheerfully. “And you saved our skins back in that cave.” Twilight chimed in happily while thinking back to their earlier encounter. “And if you hadn’t healed me, I probably wouldn’t even be here speaking with you guys.” Fluttershy added confidently to cheer up the human. Tom smiled as he thought about how many times he had already helped out the group of ponies. He started to feel more confident in his actions. “The point is, you don’t need to feel bad for the things you can’t do. You should reflect on the things you have done to help people previously, and what you can do to help them now. You were chosen to be the slayer, but you don’t need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.” Twilight smiled warmly at the human as she finished her motivational speech. “Thanks girls… that means a lot coming from you.” Tom stated happily while returning a lighthearted smile to the ponies. “Now let’s find Scootaloo and get rid of all this water… I swear I’m going to get sea sick if I see any more of it.” The others nodded confidently before returning their attention to the dark corridor ahead of them. They continued walking through the blackness for several minutes while keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of the young pegasus. Eventually, they came to a doorway that led into a larger room. The floor was covered in a thin layer of water that prevailed throughout the entire room, and several objects lay strewn about as they floated in the liquid. Twilight moved her light around in an attempt to scan the room thoroughly, when her eyes fell on an orange shape lying in the center of the room. “Scootaloo!” Twilight gasped in surprise as she saw the filly. The young pegasus was lying face up in the center of a large drawing on the floor with a thin layer of water beneath her. She did not respond to the unicorn’s outcry, and appeared to be sitting in a pool of her own blood. Twilight rushed forward to get to the filly, when she was suddenly stopped by Tom as he reached out a hand to prevent her from moving forward. She looked at him with confusion evident in her face as he pointed in front of them. “Watch where you’re stepping.” Tom stated while pointing to the floor ahead of them. Twilight gasped in surprise as she saw a large section of the floor in front of them had no discernable bottom. A murky pit of water seemed to isolate the filly on an island of solid land. “We need to get to her. She looks like she is hurt bad.” The unicorn stated with a worried expression. “I know… but doesn’t this seem a little weird to you?” Tom asked curiously while looking to the others. The three ponies looked at him with perplexed expressions. “What do you mean?” Fluttershy voiced the confusion of the group as she took another look around the room. “That drawing underneath her looks like the one that Sweetie Belle described, and she is on an island of water that she couldn’t have possibly gotten to by herself… all of this points to something fishy going on here.” Tom explained while pointing to the various objects of interest in front of them. “So… what does that mean?” Twilight asked with a puzzled expression, still unsure of what the human was getting at. “It means that this might be a-” Tom started his sentence, but was interrupted by the sound of water moving around them. The group turned around to see water bubbling up from under the floor. Before long, the floor had vanished from sight, leaving a trench of water in its place. “Trap…” Tom shrugged as he knelt down and stuck his arm into the water. Sure enough, the floor really had disappeared beneath the murky depths. The ponies backed closer to each other nervously. They tried to stay as far away from the deep sections of water as they could. Twilight looked around fearfully as the sounds of water splashing emanated from somewhere she could not determine. “We’re stuck in here then…?” Twilight squeaked with fear as the weight of the situation sunk in. She turned to Tom in the hopes that he might offer her some words of confidence. “Looks like it… that thing must be toying with us. We need to get over there to save Scootaloo and reverse whatever spell this is, but we can’t get over there without first crossing a rather large pit of water…” Tom sighed in frustration while walking over to the edge of inch high water. Fluttershy looked into the murky trench and back over to Scootaloo. She turned to the group with an indication that she might know a solution. “Why don’t I just fly over there? It isn’t that far away after all.” Fluttershy suggested eagerly while looking over to the unconscious filly. Tom merely shook his head in response. “If you did that, I’m pretty sure our ugly friend down there would spring up and pull you in faster than any of us could react.” The human stated while pointing down at the murky cut off of water. Fluttershy gulped nervously as she pictured herself getting dragged under the surface. Twilight was growing more anxious by the minute as she stared at the motionless filly. She seemed to be bleeding out into the water, but the purple unicorn could not see how severe her wounds were from over here. “We need to do something… Scootaloo could be dying over there while we’re sitting here watching!” Twilight exclaimed uneasily. Everyone looked down grimly as they thought about the young pegasus’s situation. Tom took a few steps closer to the edge of the trench and peered in. He had to find a way to get over to the small island without the creature noticing, but it would have been impossible. Once something jumped in the water, the monster would doubtlessly be alerted to their presence. Suddenly, the human had an idea pop into his head. He turned around and gave the group a hesitant expression. “I may have an idea…” Tom shook his head nervously as he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. “What are you-” Twilight started to ask a question, but was interrupted by the human suddenly jumping straight into the murky trench. He resurfaced and took in a sharp breath of air. The ponies looked at him with shocked expressions as he bobbed up and down in the water. “Are you out of your mind?!” The purple unicorn yelled frantically at the display of bold carelessness. “Maybe… I’ll get back to you on that later. Right now, I need you to get ready to swim over there if he grabs me.” Tom spoke loudly enough to be understood as he swam towards the island. “What?!” All three of the ponies shouted in shock. “You can’t be serious!” Twilight stated while shaking her head adamantly. She couldn’t believe that the human would attempt something so stupid. “It’s ok, he won’t be able to hurt me… I think.” Tom muttered to himself as he started to rethink his actions. “Anyway, you should be able to swim across while he is distracted.” He explained while motioning behind him with his head. Twilight glanced up to the unconscious filly across the water. Not only did she have to save her, but the means to ending this nightmare was just underneath the young pegasus. Finally, the unicorn looked down to the human bobbing in the water with a hesitant expression. “But… what am I going to do once I get there?” Twilight asked nervously while sizing up the distance of the trench. “It looks like a simple summoning symbol… just use your magic to interrupt the spell’s energy, and everything should go back to normal. Just be as fast as you can, and he shouldn’t be able to get you.” Tom explained while floating still in the water. Before Twilight could question the boy’s plan any further, he suddenly cried out in surprise as he was forcibly pulled under the surface of the water. The ponies stared at the spot where Tom was submerged with unease. They looked at each other nervously before settling their eyes on the purple unicorn. Twilight gulped nervously before steeling her nerves for the task ahead. She backed up a few feet to get a running start at jumping into the water. She leaped as far as she could and managed to make it half of the way to the solid platform that the young filly sat on. The unicorn immediately tensed up from the cold water hitting her body. The water seemed like it was even chillier than the water she had been treading through since they arrived in the basement. She quickly pushed through her shaking muscles and began swimming as fast as she could for the island of safety. Pinkie and Fluttershy watched the unicorn nervously as she made her way across the murky trench. They were mentally preparing themselves to watch their friend being pulled under the water to her untimely demise. Much to the two anxious ponies’ and her own surprise, Twilight managed to reach the edge of solid floor with no trouble. She quickly pulled herself up and ran over to Scootaloo. She gently turned the unconscious filly over and examined her. Twilight gasped as she looked over the orange filly’s wounds. She was covered in numerous gashes and cuts. One of which appeared large and dried out, as if the creature had drained her blood as it had done to Fluttershy. “Oh my goodness… Scootaloo, can you hear me?” Twilight shook the pegasus gently to see if she could wake her up. Much to her dismay, the filly did not stir. Had it not been for the steady rise and fall of her chest, Twilight would have thought the orange pegasus was dead from appearances. The purple mare hesitantly tore her eyes away from the injured filly and glanced to the symbol beneath her feet. “*Sigh*… here goes nothing.” She steeled herself and lit up her horn. Twilight quickly scanned over the symbol with her magic to see if she could figure out how it worked. The complexity of the spell placed over the symbol was almost breath taking. Had it not been for the urgency of the situation, the unicorn would have studied it more thoroughly. Suddenly, the sound of something breaching the surface of the water made the unicorn dart her eyes upwards. She gasped in shock as she quickly found the source of the noise. The bloody creature was sitting in the water, staring at her with its empty black eyes. The monster held Tom in its arm, seemingly having rendered him unconscious as he dangled limply from its grasp. Twilight let a shrill squeak of fear die out in her throat as her heart plummeted to her feet. She felt herself tense up as she stared wide eyed at the bloody creature. Suddenly, almost as if it could sense her fear, the monster let out a deep gurgle while moving forward. “Oh no… oh no, no, no!” The purple mare shook her head in a panic as she watched the creature floating closer to her. It seemed to glide through the water, with only a slight heave in its torso to indicate that it was using any effort on moving. With time running out, Twilight immediately returned her attention to the symbol beneath her. She only prayed that if she destroyed the pictogram, that the monster would follow suit. Even though this was optimistic thinking at best, it was the only thing that she could do. The two ponies on the far side of the room watched the unicorn frantically run from side to side as she tried to circumvent her approaching doom. They anxiously eyed between her and the bloody monster charging straight for her. “Hurry Twilight!” Pinkie Pie shouted fearfully to the purple pony across the water. Twilight needed no reminder of her grim predicament as she started sweating nervously. “Come on… come on.” She stammered in a panic as she looked up occasionally to check on the monster’s progress. She could feel her stomach churning as she surveyed the mess before her. She could scarcely understand anything about the odd symbol, let alone how to dismantle it. The constant sound of splashing water mixed in with the monster’s groans and gurgles, driving the unicorn closer to her imminent panic attack. “Yes!” Twilight exclaimed victoriously. She finally found an area of the spell that seemed like it could be destroyed. “I hope this works…” She stated nervously while channeling her energy into the spot she found. A bright flash of light emanated from the symbol as a loud buzz filled the air. Twilight flinched her eyes closed and prepared herself for the worst possible outcome. Twilight suddenly heard the sound of water flowing. She opened her eyes and looked ahead to find the source of the noise, only to gasp in amazement. All of the water in the room was draining downwards. The flooring that had been absent for so long was slowly coming into view, as if it had been there the whole time and the water was simply on top of it. The creature let out a distressed roar as it started flowing downwards against its will. It dropped the unconscious human, who landed on the newly risen floor as the monster continued to flow downwards with the water. Finally, the creature, as well as all of the water vanished from sight as it disappeared through the ground. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie rushed over the newly formed floor and ran to Twilight and the unconscious filly. The symbol had disappeared from the floor, leaving only a puddle of Scootaloo’s blood lying in its place. “Twilight! You did it!” Fluttershy exclaimed excitedly as she wrapped her arms around the unicorn for a friendly hug. Twilight gladly accepted the gesture and returned it by putting an arm around the elated pegasus. She then looked over to the human laying on the ground a few feet away. “You okay over there Tom…?” Twilight asked loudly while observing the unconscious slayer. Receiving no response, the unicorn was starting to get worried for his wellbeing. “Could you go check on him Pinkie?” She asked while looking over to the pink mare. Pinkie nodded before turning and trotting over to the human. Pinkie reached forward to check to see if the boy was breathing, when he suddenly sputtered out some water and shot upright. He coughed for a few minutes before looking around at his now dry surroundings. “Well… seeing how I don’t see any water around here, I would wager that you did something right.” Tom stated sarcastically before getting to his feet. He walked over to the group gathered around Scootaloo and glanced down at the injured filly. “Is she alright?” He asked while observing her wounds. He had used too much energy during his time at the school to heal the filly effectively. “She’s in pretty bad shape, we need to get her and the other injured children to a hospital immediately.” Twilight shook her head sadly before picking up the young pegasus with her magic. “We better hurry up and get out of here then.” Tom replied with a serious tone while joining the ponies in walking away. The group slowed down to a halt when they noticed Pinkie Pie staring behind them with wide eyes. “What’s wrong Pinkie?” Twilight asked with a confused expression as she watched the pink pony’s color drain from her face. The unicorn’s question was suddenly answered by a low gurgling noise erupting from behind them. The ponies turned around and followed the petrified pony’s stare to where the noise was coming from. Everyone’s jaw dropped in shock as they saw something that filled them with terror and dread. The pool of blood that the young filly had left on the floor was now undulating and moving around as it slowly started forming upwards into an eerily familiar shape. Twilight’s jaw trembled in fear as she tried to process the images in front of her. She thought that their ordeal was finally over when she disrupted the spell that caused all of the water to appear, but she was apparently mistaken. “W-what… how?! We got rid of that thing!” The unicorn stated fearfully while backing up. The ponies started moving towards the doorway as the creature started forming its own features out of the blood. “It needs fluid to survive… so it must have jumped to the only source it could find.” Tom stated grimly while stepping forward. “What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked nervously as she watched the human defiantly step towards the still forming creature. “I’m hoping that it’s less stable now that it doesn’t have a copious amount of water to feed it.” Tom shrugged before forming his claws and charging forward. The creature stood on fully formed legs as the last bit of the puddle of blood disappeared into its form. It looked much less fluidic, and its body was gloppier looking as well. It took a step forward and growled at the approaching human. Tom dodged the first swipe the beast threw at him. He then swiped his claws across the creature’s mid-section. The creature let out an oddly satisfying gurgle of pain as the thick liquid turned to smoke from the impact of the blades. Tom smirked triumphantly before launching a flurry of strikes on the monster. The bloody beast recoiled in pain and tried to back up as its body was rapidly disrupted by the slayer’s weapon. Blood was flying off the monster in streams, almost as if it couldn’t sustain its body. The monster suddenly careened to the floor as its legs failed to retain their solid characteristics. Tom finally plunged his claws into the middle of the monster. It let out a sharp gurgle before sinking into the floor and turning into a smoking pile of blood. The ponies were amazed to see the creature finally meet its end. They walked up to the human as he wiped the excess blood off of his claws before sending them back into the fiery aether from whence they came. “Good job Tom! We won’t be seeing any more of that guy.” Pinkie Pie patted him on the back eagerly as she smiled warmly. “I certainly hope not… at this rate I’m going to turn into a prune if I get any more water on me.” The boy breathed a sigh of relief while admiring his handy work. The group chuckled lightheartedly before turning their attention to the injured filly Twilight was holding. “Let’s get out of here and get her and the others to a hospital.” Twilight returned a sterner look to her face as she started walking towards the door. The others nodded before following the purple pony out into the basement.
Chapter 19: Change of PlansThe ponies quickly made their way through the dark corridors of the basement. The pitch blackness still pervaded the area, but the cold sense of dread had been lifted from the building along with all of the water. The group found their way into the large room and quickly walked through the door to the stairway before heading upstairs. They were almost shocked to see the school had returned to its normal state. The lights had come back on, the surrounding walls and the ceiling were completely dry, and any sign of holes or murky pits of water had all but vanished. They turned to head towards the library, but were interrupted by the sight of Rarity approaching with two other ponies. “There they are!” The white mare announced with excitement to her two companions before rushing over to her friends and smiling eagerly. “Rarity, I see that you found help.” Twilight observed while noting the two medical themed cutie marks on the strange ponies the white unicorn had brought. “Once we discovered that all the water had gone, we ran outside and called for help. Apparently someone had already noticed the school was in shambles, so paramedics were already on their way.” Rarity explained while looking to the injured pegasus filly floating gently in front of Twilight. “Oh my stars! Is she alright?!” She gasped in surprise at the state of the orange crusader. Twilight shrugged before gently handing the filly off to the unicorn E.M.T beside Rarity. “She has lost a lot of blood… you should get her out of here as quickly as possible.” Twilight explained what knowledge she had on the filly’s condition to the two medics. They nodded before turning around and rushing down the hall while inspecting her further. Rarity sighed sadly as she thought about the horrible events of the day. She couldn’t believe that such terrible things could happen to Ponyville, let alone to innocent children. “Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are already on their way to the hospital… everyone else is just being checked here and released.” Rarity stated gloomily while trailing her eyes off. “Did Applebloom wake up?” Twilight asked curiously with a concerned look on her face. Rarity lightened up a bit as she turned to respond. “She did… she was barely functional, but she woke up. They think she and Sweetie Belle have concussions, Applebloom’s being a little worse than Sweetie Belle’s.” Rarity explained in a bittersweet monotone. “*Sigh*… come on then. Let’s head back to the library and tell the others. I think that we can hold off on looking into those symbols we found in the cave and move on to investigating those strange hooded ponies Sweetie Belle talked about.” Twilight droned tiredly while shaking her head at the misfortune that had befallen them. The others nodded and joined the unicorn in walking down the hallway towards the front of the school. As they approached the library and got closer to the front door, they could see various medical ponies or royal guard members comforting children and taking a look around. Ms. Cheerilee was wrapped up in a blanket while being interviewed by a group of investigators. She noticed the group walking by the library door and gave them a friendly wave as they walked past. Twilight paused for a moment and waved back to the teacher. She managed a brief smile before turning to continue walking down the hall. The ponies quickly exited the school and took a deep breath of fresh air to cleanse their lungs of all the damp stale air they had been breathing down in the basement. “Thanks for your help in there Tom… looks like you saved the day again.” Twilight turned to Tom and smiled shyly. The human chuckled at the unicorn’s statement of gratitude. He patted her on the shoulder and smiled in return. “You kidding me? You’re the one that broke the spell. If you hadn’t done that, I might still be getting free snorkeling lessons from Mr. Ugly.” Tom said in a praising tone. The unicorn smirked in flattery as she thought about the role she played in dispatching the evil creature. She was surprised at how well she managed to face up to the bloody monster. “I was just doing my part. We all did a good job in there.” Twilight stated while looking to her friends with a warm smile. The others smiled back as they recalled their own acts of valor in the school. Rarity thought back to how she rescued Pinkie Pie and the two fillies from the clutches of the monster. Fluttershy remembered how she saved Twilight, and by extension herself from the creature. The more they thought about how close to death they had come, the more proud the ponies became that they triumphed by working together. Without any further delay, the group made their way through town to get back to the library. The sooner they informed Applejack and Rainbow Dash about what happened, the sooner they could all go check on Scootaloo and the others. The group eventually completed their journey through town and found themselves outside of Twilight’s home. The purple unicorn opened the door and ushered everyone inside. Once in the main room, the ponies were faced with four individuals talking around a table. Spike was sitting idly on the floor while talking with Rainbow Dash, and Applejack was talking with a certain dark blue alicorn. “Princess Luna, what are you doing here so soon?” Twilight exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the princess of the night. The four stopped chatting and turned to see the rest of their friends approaching. Princess Luna smiled warmly and got up to greet the purple mare and her group. “Ah, Twilight Sparkle it is good to see you!” Luna commented in a friendly manner while giving the unicorn a hoof shake. “As soon as my sister arrived back in Canterlot, she explained what had happened and asked me to travel to Ponyville to assist you. As soon as I made sure she was alright, I came as quickly as I could.” The alicorn explained. Princess Luna gave each of the ponies a warm smile before settling her eyes on the human next to them. She was surprised to finally see the person she had heard so much about. She was also surprised to finally get to see what a human actually looked like. “And you must be this Tom fellow that my sister told me about. It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Greene; I am known as Princess Luna, but you can just call me Luna if you wish.” Luna smiled eagerly while giving Tom a firm hand shake. The boy was surprised at the level of strength and enthusiasm a regal princess could put into a friendly greeting. “Thanks… you can just call me Tom though. Mr. Greene doesn’t really make much sense seeing how I’m dressed like a blueberry.” Tom added jokingly while rubbing his hand where the princess had gripped it a little too hard. Luna chuckled warmly at the remark. She felt a little better knowing that the boy was at least aware of his odd attire. “I like your sense of humor Tom… you seem friendly enough to fit into Equestria just fine.” The blue alicorn patted him on the shoulder before turning to the rest of the group. “So… how did your search at the school go? Spike informed me that you were looking for a book to decipher those symbols over there.” She asked quizzically while glancing over to a table on the far wall that held the rolled up piece of paper with the glyphs on it. Twilight sighed as she looked to her friends sadly. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but they needed to know what had happened at the school, especially Applejack. She then took in a breath to explain what happened. “We didn’t find much of anything. When we got to the school, something… bad happened.” Twilight stated gloomily. Suddenly everyone in the room grew quiet and listened to the unicorn intently. “Apparently some odd ponies in hoods broke into the school’s basement and performed some kind of spell… They flooded the school with water and summoned this… horrible monster.” Twilight shuddered nervously upon recalling the events of the school in her head. She could almost remember each individual experience she had there, from swimming in the freezing water to save Ms. Cheerilee, to almost getting killed by that creature when she first saw it with her own eyes. “It tried to drown Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy and me. And after it figured out that we wouldn’t go in the water anymore, it crawled out of the water and tried to kill us on land… It attacked me first, but Fluttershy pushed me out of the way. Tom managed to heal her, but then we discovered that it attacked the cutie mark crusaders. They are on their way to the hospital right now.” Twilight said with a troubled expression. Everyone gasped in surprise upon hearing the news. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed especially affected by the discovery. Not surprising seeing how they both had close relationships with two of the fillies involved, Applebloom being Applejack’s sister and Scootaloo being Rainbow Dash’s resident super fan respectively. “Sweet apple fritters! Are they ok?! Is Applebloom hurt bad?!” Applejack asked frantically while thinking about the many possible things that could have happened to her sister. “What about Scootaloo? Is she alright?!” Rainbow Dash’s mind raced with worry upon hearing about the injured filly. Although they weren’t related, the cyan mare had grown to have a certain fondness for the young dare devil as she practically begged to be in the presence of her hero on a weekly basis. “Scootaloo caught the worst of it… but the last time we saw them they were stable. We won’t know anymore until we check on them at the hospital.” Twilight tried her best to ease the two ponies’ fears. She completely understood their concern. If something bad happened to Spike, the unicorn might not be able to forgive herself. Princess Luna adopted a more serious expression as she became aware of the danger this new threat posed to the citizens of Equestria. “I am sorry to hear about the young crusaders being caught up in the middle of such a terrible event. We should investigate these strange hooded ponies and keep our eyes open for anything suspicious.” Luna instructed to the group around her as they listened intently. “But where do we start looking? Between the monsters in the Everfree, and the school, we only had those symbols as a lead to go on. And I’m fairly certain those glyphs only pertain to the trap in the cave that we triggered.” Twilight fumed in frustration as she realized just how much of a dead end they had hit. “Don’t worry about that right now Twilight… I should have something put together in the next day or so to help us out with this strange case. For now, you should head down to the hospital to check on the girls, and then get some well-deserved relaxation.” Princess Luna smirked knowingly as she thought about where to go next with the investigation. The purple unicorn was confused by Luna’s statement, but decided to take her word on the matter. After all, Celestia had put her sister in charge for a reason. “Ok princess… I think some relaxation would do everybody some good.” Twilight stated with a small smile. She then turned to her group of friends. Judging from the concern written on their faces, the unicorn could tell that they were eager to go see the three fillies. “Alright, we’re going down to the hospital now. Anypony that wants to come should get ready and join us.” The purple mare instructed while turning to head out the door. Everyone but Princess Luna followed the unicorn as she walked out of the library. They all eagerly headed in the direction of the local hospital to find out how the three fillies were doing. Meanwhile, deep inside the Everfree forest, Cotton Quill was steadily limping towards the old mansion that his colleagues were using as a hideout. He walked with three legs while clutching a large gash on his chest with his hoof. He could feel blood trickling out of the wound and down his clean white coat. “Ughh… This stings a lot more than it did before. I hope I didn’t get any of that filthy water in it, wouldn’t want to get an infection.” Cotton grimaced painfully while trying to ignore the harsh stabbing sensation around the gash. Eventually, the unicorn found himself standing outside of the sprawling mansion once again. He quickly made his way over the crumbling stone path and up the stairs to the main entrance. Upon entering the large foyer, he saw several of the hooded ponies that had been with him at the school. Several of them were weakly leaning against a wall as they groggily examined dried up wounds. Others hyperventilated on the ground as they tried to cope with the severe wounds they had across their bodies that were steadily forming puddles of blood on the ground. Cotton glanced over to the stairs to see an upset looking grey female pegasus frowning in disappointment at him from half way up the steps. “You’re not supposed to be back this early Cotton.” Raincloud droned to him while trying not to lose her patience. Cotton Quill groaned in annoyance as he took a moment to cope with the stinging pain he was dealing with. He then inhaled sharply before turning to the pegasus in slight frustration. “Relax Raincloud… I have someone watching the school for me. Now could you give me a hoof and help me upstairs? … Ack!” Cotton yelped loudly as the pale mare walked up to him and roughly put an arm around his chest to help him walk. “You know, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself cut up if you would have just listened to me in the first place.” Raincloud smirked as she chastised the unicorn cynically while walking with him up the stairs. Cotton sighed in annoyance before glaring at her, albeit only slightly. Despite how annoyed he was with the mare, he knew that she could easily beat him up in a fight. “I did what the book told me to do alright? Just leave me alone until we get to Raven Feather please.” Cotton whined pleadingly for the pegasus to keep her witty comments to herself. She sighed compliantly before falling silent. The two slowly made their way up the stairs and through the second floor of the mansion as they walked toward the library where their leader was. Once they walked through the library door, the two could see Raven Feather reading over a book with her brother while various other ponies loitered around the room waiting to be needed. Raincloud pushed Cotton Quill against a wall forcefully and walked over to the brown colored pegasus sitting down across from Raven Feather. “Hey dust, what’s going on up here?” Raincloud asked playfully while taking a seat next to her brother. The pegasus looked over to his sister and gave a small smirk. “Not much… just waiting for you guys to finish up.” Dust Kicker stated in a bored tone. Raven Feather heard the two talking and looked up from her book. “Ah, Raincloud… it’s good to see you’ve returned.” The black mare greeted the pegasus in a satisfied tone. She then glanced over to the unicorn that was bleeding while leaning against the far wall. “And… Cotton Quill? I didn’t think you would be back so soon. I thought we agreed that you would stay to oversee the proceedings as they unfolded.” Raven Feather stated curiously while observing the injured unicorn. Cotton Quill shrugged as he prepared to justify his reason for defying the orders he was given. He gingerly kept applying pressure to his wound while looking timidly to the confused earth pony. “I know Miss Raven Feather, but a few unexpected complications arose. But don’t worry, I left someone capable to watch the school and report back to me.” Cotton calmly stated his excuse while hoping that the green eyed pony would not find any holes in his reasoning. “Complications…?” Raven Feather stated quizzically while studying the unicorn's wound from afar. “What kind of complications?” She asked with an uneasy sense of curiosity while raising an eyebrow. “After we completed the spell, some of us didn’t manage to perform the safety charm in time. The beast drowned or eviscerated around five of the ponies you sent to perform the ritual. Most of the others were critically injured, and are now writhing in pain downstairs.” Cotton explained while motioning out of the door with his hoof. “Ah yes, I was wondering why there were several ponies bleeding to death in my foyer… Ah well, they were made aware of the risks.” Raven Feather stated nonchalantly before adopting a more serious expression. “Now then, on to the more serious matter of why you thought it would be a good idea to abandon your post.” She said in a more livid tone. Cotton gulped nervously as the earth pony stared at him menacingly. “I panicked a little bit… alright? The creature lashed out at me and gave me this horrible wound.” Cotton added dramatically while removing his hoof to show off his injury. Raven Feather rolled her eyes in annoyance as the unicorn continued. “I left someone there to report back to me when the creature was done with its work and I left. I didn’t think much of it at the time.” Cotton explained with an anxious tone. “Of course you didn’t… I mean after all, it’s not like I put you there for anything important... say, preventing anyone from discovering and or breaking the pictogram… silly me for thinking you could handle such a difficult task.” The black mare droned sarcastically while growing more agitated with the nervous unicorn. Cotton Quill started sweating as his temperature started to rise. He could feel everyone in the room staring at him with annoyance and disappointment. “But…but Raincloud left too! She didn’t even stick around to see the creature at work!” Cotton stammered nervously in an attempt to shift the blame from him to the pegasus. Raincloud furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the unicorn angrily. She started to speak up in protest when she was interrupted by Raven Feather. “Raincloud’s task was not to stay behind and oversee the creature’s progress… her task was to make sure you didn’t screw up the ritual, which she did a rather nice job of if I do say so myself.” The earth pony smirked coyly at the pegasus. Raincloud let a devious smirk creep across her face as she returned the black furred pony’s sinister compliment. “Thank you Raven Feather.” Raincloud made a faux bow before glancing over to Cotton Quill and chuckling. This made the unicorn uneasy as his argument was being shot down in flames right before his eyes. Raven Feather straightened out her face and returned her cold and calculating expression as she stared intently at Cotton Quill. “Now as far as you and your workers are concerned, I gave you the proper safety measures, you just lacked the diligence to perform them properly. I almost feel bad for those poor things downstairs. They trusted in you to teach them how to protect themselves, and you fed them incorrect information that almost cost them their lives.” The black mare stated coldly. The cynical remark only worsened the feeling of dread that was slowly filling up Cotton Quill. He wasn’t sure if the light-headed feeling he had was from his blood loss or his nerves. He expected to hear her order his execution any moment from how she was glaring at him. “M-my apologies Miss Raven Feather… I won’t let it happen again.” The unicorn gave up on any hope of coming out in the right with his actions and instead decided to return to his tried and true method of brown nosing. “For your sake, I certainly hope you don’t. I also hope that nothing bad happens to interrupt our plans at the school in your absence… Now come over here and let Grimwood take a look at that wound of yours.” Raven Feather lightened up her death stare and motioned for the injured unicorn to step forward. Cotton Quill looked over to the younger earth pony apprehensively. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt a little bit intimidated by his cold yet innocent exterior. Perhaps it was because his older sister could terrify him to his very core should she so choose. Grimwood got up from his seated position and sighed before walking over to a spot with more room and light. He waited patiently while the unicorn slowly limped towards him. “That looks pretty nasty… I guess that monster worked out pretty well, just on the wrong people.” Grimwood commented while examining the deep gash. “Yeah well… those protection charms aren’t the simplest things you know.” Cotton Quill stated to make conversation with the colt while he waited for him to finish looking over his wound. The earth pony suddenly stopped what he was doing and shot Cotton an annoyed scowl that looked very intimidating despite his childish appearance. “You just had to light paper on fire, and say a few words. How much simpler do you need it to be Cotton?” Grimwood asked in a disconcerting tone of voice. Cotton Quill couldn’t believe that he was being reprimanded by someone nearly two thirds his size and half his age. The unicorn avoided answering the question posed by the young pony, as well as avoiding eye contact as he awkwardly remained still for the colt to finish looking him over. Grimwood finally stopped poking and prodding the wound and looked up to Cotton Quill. “Alright, this looks like a quick fix. I Just need to use a little shadow power to patch you up and you’ll be good as new.” Grim explained while holding up one of his hooves. Cotton Quill watched nervously as the colt’s hoof was engulfed by translucent black shadows that pulsed and shifted around his arm. Although he knew that Raven Feather had taught her closer circle of followers how to use shadow energy for various purposes, Cotton was unsure of how said energy would feel when used to touch his skin. Cotton Quill flinched and closed his eyes as the young pony slowly brought the hoof closer. The unicorn started whining softly in preparation for whatever feeling he would experience. Grimwood rolled his eyes and sighed. “Stop being such a big baby… I haven’t even touched you yet.” Grim chided the wincing unicorn while pausing briefly. Being told to man up by a young colt made Cotton Quill feel slightly emasculated; he opened his eyes and chuckled nervously in an attempt to keep whatever small shred of dignity he had left. “Hehe… it won’t hurt though will it…? Will it Grim-Ack!” The unicorn was interrupted by Grimwood quickly shoving his hoof onto his wound. The hoof felt icy cold to the touch, making Cotton jump in surprise. He breathed in a few times to weather the chilly sensation as he watched his wound slowly close up. “Does that answer your question?” Grimwood stated impishly as he watched the wound close up entirely. He then removed his hoof from the unicorn’s chest and shook it to dissipate the energy he had gathered. Cotton Quill rubbed his chest for a moment to test out how it felt. He smiled in satisfaction before he turned to notice another hooded pony quickly entering the library. The unicorn’s pupils shrank to dots as he recognized the pony to be the scout he had left at the school. “Cotton Quill, I have some bad news for you.” The pony stated, uncaring of the audience present, while entering the room and approaching the unicorn. Raven Feather raised an eyebrow and looked to Cotton Quill curiously. “Cotton… who is this?” The black mare asked quizzically while eyeing the unicorn. Cotton Quill gulped nervously and started sweating again. He rubbed the back of his head and avoided eye contact with the green eyed pony as he spoke. “That’s uh… that’s the pony I left to watch over the school Miss Raven Feather.” Cotton explained uneasily and tried his best to think of a possible positive reason why the scout would be back so early. Raven Feather shrugged in irritation before turning to the hooded pony. There was no way in Equestria that he had a positive reason for being back so early. “Then by all means… go right ahead.” Raven Feather instructed while motioning with her hoof. The pony nodded before turning back to Cotton Quill. “The spell has been broken and the creature has been eradicated.” The stallion explained nonchalantly and to the point while having a serious expression on his face. Cotton Quill’s heart skipped a beat when he processed the words that he was hearing. His face paled as he looked over to see the black mare stoically staring forward while processing her thoughts. He could almost swear that he could see her eye twitching slightly. Meanwhile, Raincloud’s jaw hung open as she stared in a mixture of shock and disbelief upon hearing the news. She looked over to Cotton Quill and shot him an almost grimly sympathetic look, as if he had screwed up so bad that nothing she could possibly do to him would amount to whatever punishment he would receive. “Shadow Mist…” Raven Feather suddenly closed her eyes and announced loudly. A pony from across the room got up and walked over to her. The pony was an earth pony stallion that appeared to be a little bit older than Raven Feather. He had a bright shade of red for fur and medium length black hair. His cutie mark appeared to be a lantern with a candle inside that was blown out with smoke coming off of the wick. “Yes Raven Feather?” The red furred earth pony spoke before waiting for his leader to continue. Judging from the way he addressed her, it almost sounded like he knew Raven Feather personally, or at least more personally than most of the hooded workers. “I have a new task for you…” Raven Feather stated in an agitated tone while placing her hoof over her eyes. “See Cotton Quill over there?” She asked calmly while pointing over to the unicorn without looking. It was like she couldn’t even bear to see the white pony. Cotton Quill started breaking out into a cold sweat as the red stallion eyed him. “I want you to help him out with the next project of ours… He has proven incapable of operating by himself, so you will act as his overseer. Whatever plan he picks out, you make sure it works out and that he doesn’t screw anything else up.” Raven Feather shrugged in frustration as she put her hoof up to the side of her head to prevent herself from seeing the unicorn. “Yes Raven Feather, right away.” Shadow Mist nodded obediently before walking over to Cotton Quill and sitting down. Raven Feather then turned back to the scout pony and looked at him quizzically. She could at least count on him to be honest about how badly Cotton messed up. “How much energy did the creature gather before it was destroyed?” The black mare asked with a hesitant sense of curiosity. “A fair amount, but not as much as it would have had the elements of harmony and the slayer not intervened.” The stallion explained while staring straight ahead. Raven Feather felt her face tense up upon mention of Twilight Sparkle and her human guard dog. “The slayer… *Sigh* figures.” Raven Feather shrugged in frustration before turning back to Cotton Quill. “Look Cotton… as much as I want to string you up by your tail and hang you from the rafters, we need another plan put together. Just go do whatever you need to and have something in front of me within a few days. I am going to take the others and do a little research on our newfound annoyance.” She instructed to the unicorn with an agitated look on her face while getting up and motioning for the others to follow. “Right away Miss Raven Feather… I will bring you something as soon as possible.” Cotton Quill stated obediently as he watched the others leave the room. He then turned to Shadow Mist and motioned for him to follow as he went over to a book shelf to research.
Chapter 20: History LessonTwilight and the others rushed through town on their way to the hospital. They couldn’t help but think of the worst case scenario as they imagined what kind of state the three fillies were in. Despite their grim thoughts, they pushed onward through the streets of Ponyville and tried to keep their hopes high. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of being left alone to their thoughts while walking through town, the group found themselves outside of Ponyville hospital. The ponies entered the building and eagerly walked into the lobby to find the reception desk. Sitting behind the desk while looking over some paperwork, was a white mare with a pink mane that the ponies knew as Nurse Redheart. She looked up to see the approaching group and gave them a courteous smile. “Hey guys, how can I help you?” Redheart gave her best friendly greeting, although it was clear that she was fairly tired from the tedious atmosphere of the job. “We’re here to check on three fillies that were brought here earlier; Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo.” Twilight immediately got to the purpose for their visit. “Oh them… they looked pretty banged up when they came in. We are just about ready to release the two with concussions. We had to put Applebloom’s leg in a cast, but it should heal up just fine.” The nurse pony explained with genuine happiness that the two fillies would be alright. “What about Scootaloo?” Rainbow Dash spoke up from beside Twilight, eager to find out what happened to the young pegasus. Nurse Redheart frowned slightly and sighed. This reaction made the ponies eyes widen in shock and concern. The white pony shook her head upon seeing the worried expressions on everyone’s’ faces. “Don’t worry, she is still alive. We have her in intensive care right now… they are giving her blood and fixing up her wounds. From the looks of it we’re going to have to keep her here overnight to watch her, but she should be alright to release tomorrow.” Redheart explained calmly to the group. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the good news. “I will arrange for Sweetie Belle and Applebloom to be brought out, and I will be sure to let you see Scootaloo tomorrow when she is better.” Redheart added while bending down to pick up some papers. “Can I stay here to see her when she gets out of surgery? She could use someone to keep her company after all that she’s been through.” Rainbow Dash suggested pleadingly. Nurse Redheart shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over for the day, and she won’t be out of intensive care for a while.” The nurse explained sympathetically to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash frowned while nodding understandingly. Twilight put a caring hoof on her shoulder before smiling to cheer her up. “It’s ok Rainbow Dash, we can come back to pick her up tomorrow. If you want, we could even get up bright and early to come see her in her room.” The purple mare suggested optimistically. This made Rainbow Dash brighten up a little bit. “Alright… but you better be up early if you’re coming with me. I plan on leaving right after I get up.” The cyan pegasus cheered up significantly while nodding her head with determination. Everyone was happy to see the cyan mare return her energetic personality. “Well swing by the library before you go… we need to ask Scootaloo a few questions about what she saw. And besides, I’m sure she would be happy to see us.” Twilight added to curtail the pegasus’s enthusiasm. She nodded in agreement before walking over to a chair to wait. The group followed her example and either sat down or wandered the lobby idly as they waited for the two fillies to be brought out. After waiting for a few minutes, the group finally noticed Nurse Redheart escorting Sweetie Belle and Applebloom into the waiting area. The two had a protective bandage wrapped around their heads to prevent them from causing any more damage, and Applebloom was wearing a thick cast on her back left leg that rendered her unable to move unless she awkwardly shuffled along. “Rarity!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in excitement before rushing over to the white unicorn and jumping into her waiting arms for a loving embrace. While the two were happily greeting each other, Applebloom tried her best to walk over to her waiting sister. Applejack smiled before deciding to meet the impaired filly half way. She knelt down and carefully wrapped her arms around the small earth pony for a hug. “How do you feel Applebloom?” Applejack asked sincerely while pulling her head back to look at the young filly. Applebloom wiggled her cast around and brought a hoof up to feel her bandaged head. “Well… this cast is kind of itchy, and my head still hurts a little, but other than that Ah’m fine.” The yellow filly stated with an upbeat attitude. Applejack was pleased to see that her sister still held her spirits high. The farm pony smiled at the cheerful filly before bending down further and beckoning her to hop onto her back. “Tell ya what sugar cube… since you can’t walk all that well right now, you can ride on my back until we get back to the farm.” Applejack suggested while patting a spot on her shoulder. Applebloom smiled at the offer before carefully walking to the side and trying to climb up. The filly struggled to hoist herself up. She kept hopping upwards with her good leg only to be met with a short fall downwards as she failed to support her weight and climb. Twilight saw the distressed filly and decided to help her out. “Here Applebloom, let me help you up.” Twilight offered while lighting up her horn and wrapping her magic around the young pony. The unicorn gently lifted her up and meticulously ensured that her casted up leg wouldn’t hit anything as she placed her on her sister’s back. “Thanks Twilight.” Applebloom smirked cheerfully at the unicorn before settling in and finding her balance. Applejack carefully stood up and walked back over to the group. “Well seeing as we’re all together, why don’t y’all come down to the farm with us and have dinner to celebrate the girls’ good health.” Applejack offered while looking around at the gathering of ponies, a dragon, and a human. “That sounds wonderful darling! You can count us in.” Rarity stated happily while looking to her sister for support. Sweetie Belle nodded cheerfully in response to the offer. “I’m in… I could use some good food and time with you guys.” Rainbow Dash added while rubbing her empty stomach. “Oooh we can’t have a celebration without calling it a party! I’ll run home and grab some treats and meet you down at the farm!” Pinkie Pie chimed in excitedly while rushing out the door and heading back home. The group couldn’t help but wonder how she got the energy to be so enthusiastic every day. “I would love to come.” Fluttershy nodded happily while smiling. Spike smiled for a moment before looking to Twilight pleadingly. She could obviously tell that he wanted to go with them. “Come on Twilight, can we go?” Spike looked at her earnestly and clasped his hands together to beg. “Please?” The dragon asked while trying his best to appear sincere. Twilight sighed sympathetically. She knew that they needed some off time, but she also knew that they needed to stay on top of the investigation. With what happened at the school still heavy on her mind, the unicorn wanted to finish her mission more than ever. “I don’t know Spike… I mean, we do need to find out more about those hooded ponies. The princess left me in charge of the investigation, and I don’t intend on letting her down.” Twilight explained while looking over to Tom for support. Much to her surprise, he chuckled before walking over to the rest of the group in favor of their decision. “Hey, no objections here… I could use some time to unwind after that ordeal, and so could you. Remember what Princess Luna said?” Tom stated in a lecturing tone. The unicorn seemed to be too focused on the case at hand and needed a break. Twilight sighed as she looked around her at the pleading faces of her friends. They all wanted her to go, and she even wanted to go herself. She finally decided to hold off the investigation, at least for today. “Alright, you guys win… I’ll go.” Twilight huffed in a defeated yet happy tone. Everyone cheered happily at the unicorn’s decision. “Then it’s settled. Let’s head down to the farm and get ready everyone.” Applejack announced to the group while making her way outside. Everyone followed the farm pony out of the hospital and stuck close to her as she made her way towards the farm. The band of ponies traveled through Ponyville as the sun rose higher into the afternoon sky. They chatted with each other happily to pass the time while walking. Eventually, the subject of the conversation turned to asking Tom more about his past and what he knew about being a slayer and humans in general. “Hey Tom, how many slayers have there been? Do you know?” Twilight asked curiously while walking behind the human. “Well… a slayer is chosen periodically throughout the ages. There’s usually a buffer period of about ten or so years between when the last slayer gave up their powers, and a new one is chosen. So with that in mind, there have been many throughout the years since the first slayer.” Tom gladly explained his knowledge on the matter. “Who was the slayer before you?” Rarity added to the subject. Tom thought for a moment about his knowledge on various slayers before responding. “Not sure… I have memories of varying intensity from different slayers. Most of it is acquired knowledge on the supernatural, but I can recall a few unique details on the lives of a couple of them. The slayer before me is a little fuzzy though.” Tom scratched his head curiously as he tried to sift through his memories. “What about the first slayer? Do you remember them?” Rainbow Dash chimed in from the back of the group. “Oh yes, that one I have the most knowledge of. I know about his origins, his powers, and most of his career as slayer.” Tom lit his face up with intrigue and nodded. The ponies grew silent and listened intently as the human prepared to share the story of the first slayer. “His name was Arthur Redwood. He was a prince that lived in an old kingdom in a time that was many years away from my own. Unlike most people who held royal power in the human world, he was a kindhearted soul that actually cared for his subjects, much like your princess does. He willingly enlisted to fight in the king’s army, and was even knighted for his many brave escapades. But where Prince Arthur was a valiant and noble person, his father the king was not.” Tom waved his hands around in an animated fashion to emphasize the points in his story. He was obviously enjoying the experience as much as the ponies enjoyed listening to him. “The king was a very greedy man. He was the type of person that would let those around him die as long as he could get away and keep his wealth, which is exactly what he did.” Tom furrowed his brow in disgust as he recalled the old king. The ponies shared his disapproval at the prospect of such a terrible person being put into power. “Why would someone do something like that?” Rainbow Dash was appalled by the sickening story. “As a ruler, you’re supposed to watch over your kingdom fairly, not sell it out!” She fumed in revolt before allowing the human to continue. “People back then believed that a person was royalty just because they were born into the royal family. I’m sure that happens still, but they took it to the point of being unable to do anything should the king or queen decide to abuse their power. Anyway, the kingdom that Arthur lived in was besieged numerous times by an army of bandits. They had amassed from all over the country to have a chance at claiming the king’s wealth. Throughout the many years that the bandits kept returning, the king grew tired of the costly need to constantly defend his people from the attacks. So one day, he decided to make a deal with the bandits.” Tom shrugged sadly as he could already tell the ponies did not like where this story was heading. Although he knew that they were aware that a slayer’s story wasn’t usually the happiest one. “The king would allow the bandits to enter his capital city and pillage as they pleased, and in return he would give them a part of his grand fortune to help him fake his death and let him escape with his closest circle of servants and guards to live in seclusion with his wealth. The bandits accepted, and so the king sent a covert order for his corrupt guards to replace the ones that would gladly stand for the crown. But when the king went to his family and lords with the plan, his son the prince did not agree with him. Arthur argued that it was a king’s duty to protect and watch over his kingdom, and that he was more worthy of the crown than his father. So the king gave his son an ultimatum… go with him and live peacefully without the duties of being royalty, or stay with the city and burn with it.” The human continued his story while trying to not drone on dully. The ponies were shocked by the events they were hearing, but continued to listen eagerly to learn what happened next. “Naturally Prince Arthur chose to stand and protect the city, and stormed out of the castle before his father could say anything further. He grabbed his armor and sword, and ran around the city warning as many people as he could. As night fell, the bandits swarmed throughout the city, burning houses and shops, and killing whoever they saw. Despite Prince Arthur’s best efforts, the king got away with his plan, and the bandits overtook the kingdom. The prince fought valiantly against the endless mass, but perished while trying to defend his kingdom.” Tom allowed the group to process the story for a moment before continuing. The tragic tale left many of the ponies hanging their heads sadly as they dealt with the sad story. Although the telling of the story made them gloomy, it did not bring them to tears like Tom’s past did. “That’s awful, how could anybody betray people like that? Let alone their family and subjects.” Fluttershy pouted with empathy as she imagined what it must have been like for the prince in his last moments. “I’m glad that Princess Celestia actually cares about everyone in her kingdom. I don’t think I could live in a place like that.” Twilight added sadly while reflecting on the good things in life that she often took for granted. “But as I said before, a slayer is born when a great tragedy has befallen the innocent, and someone has the will to stand up for what’s right.” Tom spoke up again to lighten the mood. “Prince Arthur’s willpower and desire to punish the bandits and his greedy father was so great, that he defied the laws of nature itself. He came back from the dead a few weeks after the dust had settled and the kingdom was nothing more than a gathering for traveling thugs and vagabonds. He was transformed into a harbinger of justice and retribution. He was gifted the power to make those that wronged him and his people pay… he had become the very first slayer. Although Prince Arthur’s abilities were geared more towards battling evil people rather than evil monsters, his vengeance was just as fierce as any slayer’s. He went across the country and delivered his merciless justice upon the heads of every single one of those bandits. He eventually was left with nobody else to slay, except for his father.” Tom carried on with a sense of excitement as he remembered the fierce drive of his predecessor. “He wielded his spirit weapon and cut a bloody path through the followers of the false king. He would let nobody get in his way as he marched forward into his father’s dwelling.” Twilight was suddenly struck with curiosity at a particular part of the boy’s story. “Spirit weapon? What is that?” Twilight asked quizzically while interrupting the boy briefly. Tom chuckled and summoned forth his claws. “A slayer’s spirit weapon is given to them when they are first reborn. My spirit weapon as you may have guessed is my claws. Whatever weapon is best suited to each slayer is forged out of their fiery lust for vengeance. The weapon is bound to them and represents their intense desire to enact justice upon the heads of wrongdoers.” Tom explained while articulating each of his fingers individually for the group to see his claws clearly. “That looks so cool!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed with intrigue as she leaned in closer to examine the claws. It occurred to Tom that the young unicorn hadn’t even seen the claws before, and most of the others hadn’t had a good look at them. The last time he let them examine them in detail was when he showed them off in the darkness of the Everfree forest. “I know right? I whip them out sometimes just to watch the flames appear and vanish like that.” Tom stated while rapidly making the claws vanish and reappear. He chuckled innocently as he marveled at the display of fire along with the intrigued ponies. “Anyway, before I get too distracted to finish the story. Prince Arthur’s spirit weapon was also claws… oddly enough, I can’t think of any other slayer that used claws as their spirit weapon other than me and Arthur.” Tom explained curiously. This made everyone hum with fascination. “Why do you think that is?” Twilight asked while puzzling over the subject in her own head. Tom shrugged his shoulders obliviously. “Beats me… there have been swords, axes, spears, and plenty of other unique things as spirit weapons, but no claws. Maybe Arthur’s spirit is the one that picks out those worthy enough to be slayer and he liked me best or something. Anyway, Arthur exacted his vengeance on his father, and then went on to carry out the duties that every slayer has. To destroy evil things… although not many supernatural creatures were around Arthur’s country.” The human finally wrapped up his story before looking around to see how everyone was reacting. “What a curious bunch you slayers are.” Rarity added with an inflexion in her voice to make the statement seem more like a compliment rather than an insult. “I’m certainly glad that you showed up when you did darling. We’re always happy to welcome someone new into our society.” She added while smiling back to the human. “Thanks Rarity… I was afraid I was going to be stuck in a world where I would be an outcast when I first got here, but I’m glad to see such a tolerant civilization took over after humans blew themselves up.” Tom commented appreciatively. “Hey Tom…” Rainbow Dash spoke up from the back of the group. “Yeah?” Tom returned while turning to look at the cyan Pegasus. “Why haven’t there been any pony slayers? I mean… you would think that after all these years there would have been at least one.” Rainbow asked curiously. This made everyone else intrigued as to why such a thing wouldn’t have carried over from the human world into Equestria. “I don’t think that any tragic deaths have resulted from evil creatures or people in Equestria. Either that or there hasn’t been a need for a slayer up until now. That might even explain why I’m here in the first place. Since a new slayer was unable to come into existence, whatever force that made the slayers must have had to send an old slayer forward in time to protect Equestria before anything catastrophic happened.” Tom reasoned while scratching his chin in thought. Everyone nodded in revelation as they agreed with the boy’s explanation. “Well whatever the reason, it’s probably tied to all the trouble happening lately around here. And those hooded ponies seem like our best bet for a lead.” Twilight added while trying to piece together the events of the past few days in her head. “Well let’s not worry about that right now… right now we should just focus on resting for a while.” Rarity stated to get the purple unicorn to stop thinking about the investigation. She sighed in frustration before nodding in agreement. The group looked ahead and saw the familiar sight of Sweet Apple Acres coming into view. The sprawling lush orchards of apple trees never ceased to impress the ponies as they took in their simple elegance. “We’re almost there.” Applejack looked back to the group and announced eagerly. The filly resting on her back breathed a sigh of relief as she thought about relaxing at home after her harsh ordeal at school. “Ah can’t wait to just curl up and take a nap.” Applebloom yawned tiredly as she looked back to her bulky cast. The restrictive casing made her feel very uncomfortable as she tried to maneuver her injured leg inside of it. “You sure you don’t wanna stay up a while for dinner sugar cube?” Applejack asked sweetly while smiling to the young filly. “Ah’m sure you could use a little food in yer system before you head up to bed hungry.” Applebloom sighed as she became aware of her empty stomach. With all the commotion she had almost forgotten that she didn’t have lunch at school. “Ah suppose it wouldn’t hurt to stay up a while longer.” The yellow filly shrugged in defeat as she looked back to the smiling group behind her. “Don’t worry Applebloom. You will have plenty of time to rest now that you don’t have to go to school for a few weeks while your leg heals.” Sweetie Belle commented while walking alongside her sister. “Me and Scootaloo will need to head back in a few days once they get everything sorted out down there. All things considered, you’re the lucky one out of all of us.” She added in an attempt to cheer up her friend. “Well Ah don’t feel lucky…” Applebloom sighed sadly in response to the ironic statement. She would much rather have to stay in school rather than deal with healing a broken leg. The group made their way through the farm and found themselves coming up to the Apple family house. Big Macintosh was standing outside of the house talking with a familiar pink pony that had a tote bag around her hips. “Pinkie…? How did you get here before us? I thought you were going to go pick up some treats from home?” Twilight stated curiously as the group walked up to meet the two on the porch of the house. Pinkie Pie giggled cheerfully while flashing her usual smile. “I did! It doesn’t take me that long to put together food for a party.” The pink mare explained nonchalantly while motioning to the bag she was carrying. “Ok then…” The purple unicorn added in slight confusion as she tried to work out how the pink pony could have made it all the way home and then beaten them to the farm. “It’s nice to see you guys looking healthier. The last time we were here you looked awful.” Twilight commented while observing the lack of any new scratches or bruises on any of the farm ponies. They even looked like they had gotten their energy back as there were no visible signs of fatigue in their faces. “Yep, we all slept like rocks last night thanks to you guys.” Applejack said while smiling at Tom and the purple unicorn. “Happy to be of service.” The human stated genuinely while returning a smile to the farm pony. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s head on in and get started!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly while rushing inside. “Uh… Ah guess we shouldn’t keep her waiting then.” Applejack shrugged while stepping inside and motioning for the others to follow. Everyone quickly filed into the house and found a spot to get comfortable.
Chapter 21: DowntimeIn the apple family house, everyone was busy with something, even if it was just watching someone else work while relaxing. Fluttershy and Rarity were helping Applejack prepare a small dinner for everyone in the kitchen. Twilight was conversing with Tom and Rainbow Dash in the living room. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were sitting in the far corner of the room chatting amongst themselves. And Pinkie Pie had enlisted the help of Spike and Big Mac to string up streamers and other decorations. “Uhh… you know Pinkie, I think that we’re just having a small dinner together, so why do we need this many decorations?” The young dragon groaned while climbing on top of a table to anchor a set of the colorful ribbons. Pinkie Pie chuckled jovially while zipping around the room and placing decorations everywhere she stopped. “A little decorating can go a long way in making any gathering that much more fun!” The pink mare stated while leaning on a table with one of her arms to take a break. Spike shrugged in frustration while struggling to balance on the table and reach the spot needed for the streamer. “Key word being a little.” Spike muttered to himself while catching his balance to avoid falling. “I’m a bit more curious as to how you managed to fit that many decorations into one bag…” Tom looked over and inspected the vast array of colorful decorations littered around the room. “She has her ways of doing things, that’s for sure.” Rainbow Dash added while admiring the energetic pink blur moving swiftly around the room as she checked over each decoration to ensure it was properly placed. “There… that should do it.” Pinkie stated while nodding confidently at her work. “Ok boys… you can stop now, everything’s all set.” She exclaimed to her two workers around the room. Big Mac dropped what he was doing and stepped back. Spike finally placed the streamer he was wrestling with and teetered precariously on one foot from his attempts at gaining height. “Well that’s a relief…Whoa!” Spike cried out in surprise as he fell backwards onto the floor with a loud thud. Everyone looked over to the dragon as he took a moment to lie still on the ground to process his own mistake. “You know… I’m sure one of us could have gotten that for you Spike.” Tom remarked teasingly while observing Spike lift himself up. “Now why didn’t I think of that before…” The dragon shrugged sarcastically while shooting the human a bitter scowl, but he couldn’t deny that what he said was right. Twilight and Rainbow Dash chuckled briefly at the display in front of them. They gave the dragon a quick passing glance to ensure that he didn’t bump his head on the way down and tried their best to hide their smirks. Suddenly, Applejack walked out of the kitchen and looked around at the group scattered around the room. “Alright guys, dinner is ready. Come on in and grab a plate.” The orange mare announced happily. Everyone got up from their spots and walked into the kitchen. The group was met with Fluttershy and Rarity standing beside a table with a few pots filled with various foods. “What did you guys make?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while stepping forward to look at the array of cook ware spread out around the room. “We didn’t want to make anything too complicated, and we figured that Tom didn’t eat anything with hay in it, so we settled on some pasta and mashed potatoes as a side.” Rarity explained while pointing to the respective pots that contained the items. “And a few apple fritters for dessert... not to mention those cupcakes Pinkie brought.” Applejack added with a slight smirk. “Wow… this looks and smells really good.” Twilight commented while taking a moment to take in the aroma coming off of each container. “Well hopefully it tastes good too, now let’s grab a plate and head into the other room.” Applejack exclaimed while stepping forward to help hand out plates and serve the food. Once everyone had gotten a serving of each food item, they all went back into the living room and found a seat. The group immediately dug into the food. They were amazed at how much a few hours of studying, and for some a run in with a hideous monster, could make one so hungry. It may have been simple cuisine whipped up in a few minutes, but to the ponies, the meal tasted like it was a gift from the heavens. “This stuff turned out pretty good! You three make a great team of chefs.” Rainbow Dash stated while trying to prevent herself from eating too fast. “We all have experience with cooking for ourselves or our family, so I would like to think we could put something decent together.” Rarity commented while admiring her work and the happy ponies eating around her. “I should come over for dinner more often…” The cyan pegasus shrugged while reflecting on her own cooking skills. Everyone continued eating for a while, shared stories of the more unique things that had happened to them throughout their lives, and talked with each other for the better part of an hour. After an hour had passed, everyone got up and prepared to leave. “Thanks for dinner Applejack, it was nice to sit down and relax for a change.” Twilight stated while moving towards the door with everyone who wasn’t staying. “Sure thing. If you need any more help with your investigation, be sure to drop by and ask.” The farm pony replied while smiling and giving a friendly wave to her departing friends. The group stepped out of the house and started making their way through the farm towards Ponyville. Once they reached the edge of the farm, they started their way onto the road back home. The ponies all continued talking through their trip, until they reached the point where most of the group would have to split off to get home. “Thanks for coming with us to the school Fluttershy.” Twilight wanted to show her gratitude for putting the gentle pegasus through the mess back at the school, even if it was unintended. “And thanks for… you know.” The purple unicorn felt a little shame as she thought back to how Fluttershy had pushed her out of harm’s way only to take her place. “It’s ok… I know you would do the same for any of us.” The yellow pegasus smiled sympathetically to the unicorn and placed a hoof on her shoulder reassuringly. “You were just scared… we all were.” She shuddered as she remembered how she voluntarily faced up to the horrible creature. “I just hope we can figure out what’s going on before someone gets seriously hurt or…” Twilight stopped herself from thinking of the possible casualties that would inevitably come from another attack like that. She steeled herself and mentally decided that she would do everything in her power to prevent anyone else from getting hurt in any way. Fluttershy nodded in determination as she shared the unicorn’s desire. She then bid her goodbyes to the group and started down the path to her home. As the pegasus departed, Rainbow Dash turned to the group and let a tired expression fall on her face. “Guess I should be getting on home for the night.” The cyan mare stated while looking off in the direction of her house. “Just be sure to come by the library before you head down to the hospital. We would like to come with you and see her before she is released.” Twilight reminded the pegasus of her plans before she decided to take off. “Well I hope you plan on getting up early… because I don’t want to wait for too long.” Rainbow Dash added before getting a walking start and flapping her wings a few times to take off. She turned in the air and waved at the group beneath her before flying off into the distance. As the pegasus disappeared into the horizon, the group decided to continue into Ponyville. Eventually, the group whittled down as each pony reached their house. Before long, only Twilight and her two companions remained to keep her company. The three made their way through town and found themselves at the library once more. Twilight opened the door and made her way inside. She took a few moments to think of how she would spend the rest of the evening before heading up to bed. She walked over to the table with the symbol paper on it and sat down to look at it. “Are you really going to keep going over those? I thought it was pretty much pointless now.” Spike asked quizzically while standing near her to watch. “It is… but I might as well figure out how good these guys are at magic before we start poking around.” The unicorn shrugged as she affirmed her complete lack of progress in deciphering the symbols. “You know… all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Tom remarked jokingly. The purple mare looked to him with a confused expression. “Who’s Jack? Is that from something?” Twilight asked with a puzzled tone of voice. Tom shrugged upon realizing his lapse in memory. “Sorry… gonna take a while to realize that all the cultural references I know are out dated by a couple million years.” The human stated drearily. “Either way, he has a point there Twilight. Remember that Princess Luna is doing something to help us out in a few days? Well you should probably take that as a cue to rest for a while.” Spike suggested kindheartedly while removing the paper from in front of the unicorn. Twilight sighed and rested her head on her hooves. She didn’t want to admit it, but after the princess gave her the job of finding out what was going on, she felt important. Like she had a job to do, and doing anything else would be shirking that responsibility. “*Sigh* I guess…” The unicorn rubbed her temples in frustration before finally deciding to get up. She turned to look at a clock sitting on a wall and shook her head slowly. “Well… I think I’m just gonna head up to bed. We need to be up early to head down to the hospital anyway.” Twilight announced while getting up and heading to the stairs. “Yeah, I think I’ll join you.” Spike yawned tiredly as he started to make his way upstairs with the unicorn. The two turned to look at the human downstairs. “You coming, Tom?” Twilight asked curiously. “Sure, why not.” The boy replied while walking up to join them. The three retired to the bedroom and got comfortable. Even though she wanted to get right to sleep, Twilight found it hard to drift off. She tossed and turned for a while as she tried to get in the one position that would be good enough to force herself to wait until she slept. She sighed in frustration before finally giving up and looking over to see what her two friends were doing. Right below her bed, Spike had already drifted off to sleep. He was tucked away into the side of his basket and curling up beneath his blankets. Twilight couldn’t help but marvel at the adorable baby dragon as he peacefully slept. She wondered if she could find a spell to make him stay that cute and tiny forever, rather than grow up into a giant dragon. The unicorn then glanced over to the make shift bed on the floor a few feet away. Tom was lying face up with his arms under his head. He looked like he was thinking to himself while staring up at the ceiling before going to sleep. “Hey Tom…” The unicorn whispered loud enough to carry down to the human and get his attention, but quiet enough to not wake her sleeping assistant. The boy lifted his head up and looked surprised that the purple pony was still awake. “Hmm?” Tom hummed curiously in response. Twilight now had to think of a good reason for disturbing the human. Now that she thought about it, she just wanted to talk with someone to pass the time until she could fall asleep. “Sorry to bother you, it’s just…” Twilight mumbled while trying to formulate a reasonable question or statement. Tom hoisted himself up and half way out of his sheets. He then sat up and chuckled quietly to himself. “Can’t sleep?” Tom stated perceptively. Twilight wondered if he had terrific reasoning skills, or if she was just so obviously restless. “Yeah… I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind talking for a while, to get my mind off trying to sleep.” The purple mare said whilst sitting up and dangling her legs off the side of the bed. “Sure…” Tom replied while carefully getting up and fixing his bed. He then walked over and climbed up the ladder to the small loft area the unicorn was on and sat down on the edge of her bed a short ways from her. “So what’s on your mind?” Tom whispered quietly while giving her a knowing smile. Twilight was a little confused by the statement. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked quizzically while kicking her legs in the air to pass time. “If you can’t sleep, then something must be up. Usually it’s something that’s bugging you.” Tom said while trying to keep himself from growing too tired. Twilight thought about what the human said for a moment. It hadn’t occurred to her before, but she did have a few troubling thoughts swirling around her head, mostly having to do with the events of the past two days. “Well…” Twilight muttered quietly while deep in thought. “I’m just a little worried is all.” The unicorn’s statement puzzled the human. “Worried… about what?” Tom asked curiously while giving her a quizzical expression. “I keep thinking about the cause of all these new problems that keep popping out of nowhere. If it really is those hooded ponies behind all these strange events, then who knows what else they could be capable of?” Twilight spoke softly while glancing over to Spike with concern. The mere thought of the baby dragon being put into some sort of danger made her sick. “What if we can’t stop them? How many ponies would get hurt if they had their way?” The unicorn fumed with concern as she finally voiced her own thoughts on the matter. Before she could continue spiraling into a worried mess, Tom stopped the purple pony by placing his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. “Relax… We’re going to be fine.” The human said in a confident tone. Twilight was slightly relieved to hear that at least one person thought they were going to succeed. “Really…? You think so?” The unicorn asked curiously while lightening up her tense nerves. “Of course… Between you and me, I don’t think anything poses a real threat to Equestria.” Tom added reassuringly while trying to be enthusiastic to instill confidence in the unicorn. Twilight sighed sadly and lowered her head. She felt like she wouldn’t be capable of handling such an important job without cracking when things got more serious. “But you’re a warrior for justice picked out of an entire race of people for the sole purpose of battling evil… I’m just some pony with an aptitude for learning.” Twilight moped while resting her head on her hooves. Tom frowned slightly as he watched the depressed pony. “Hey… you shouldn’t think like that.” The boy’s surprised tone of voice made Twilight look up to face him. “You were hand-picked by the princess herself to handle this job. She didn’t pick you because she wanted to see if you could do it, she picked you because she knew that you were the right pony for the job.” He looked at her with a confident expression on his face. Twilight’s spirits were lifted slightly upon hearing the confidence the human had in her. She let a soft smile creep across her face before returning to the blank expression of somberness she had before. “I suppose you’re right… but what if I can’t do it?” Twilight asked with a bit of uncertainty still in her mind. Tom chuckled briefly before smiling at her. “Twilight… I ask myself that very question every day I wake up. Sometimes I’m not sure if I deserve to hold such an important power… what if I screw up? In my position, failure means letting a lot of innocent people down. But I still somehow find the drive needed to push me forward… and if a dork like me can handle something that important, I have no doubt in my mind that you can handle this.” Tom smiled warmly at her. Twilight laughed lightheartedly as she felt her usual bright demeanor returning. She felt more confident in her own abilities as she mulled over the human’s words in her head. “Thank you Tom… that really helped put things into perspective for me.” The purple mare stated serenely while giving a smile. “Not a problem… and if you ever get doubtful of yourself again, just remember this. You aren’t alone… you don’t need to shoulder everything by yourself, you have a great bunch of friends that would gladly do anything to help you out.” Tom added reassuringly while thinking about the unicorn’s odd group of friends. Twilight smiled even brighter upon taking the human’s words to heart. She knew that any of her friends would lay down their lives to help her, and she would gladly do the same in return. The unicorn then yawned tiredly. She couldn’t believe that she actually felt groggy for once. “Thanks… I think I’m gonna try to get to sleep again. It is getting late after all.” Twilight said in a sleepy tone while still projecting a warm smile to the human. Tom nodded cheerfully while getting up off of the bed. He then climbed down and walked over to his sheets before sliding under them. “Goodnight Twilight.” The human whispered across the room before turning over and snuggling into his pillow. The unicorn scooted her way to the top of her bed and worked herself under the covers. “Goodnight Tom.” Twilight whispered back before nestling her head against her own pillow. The warm feeling of her sheets combined with the softness of her pillow actually made the unicorn tired for a change instead of reminding her of how much she wanted to sleep. Twilight closed her eyes and laid still for a while before finally drifting off to sleep. The next morning, Twilight was up bright and early as she tried to get a good start to the day. She even managed to wake up before Spike did, although Tom was already up as per usual. After stirring the baby dragon from his sleep, the unicorn went downstairs and prepared for their trip to the hospital to visit Scootaloo and ask her about what she knew. The two gathered with the human downstairs and rushed around the library to find all of the things they would take. Twilight decided to take a few books for them to either read or give to Scootaloo to read so they could pass the time. She placed them in a bag and slung it over her side. After gathering all of their supplies, the three settled down and had a quick breakfast while waiting for Rainbow Dash to arrive. No sooner than the trio finished their meal, they heard knocking coming from the front door. “That’s probably her now.” Twilight observed happily while getting up to head to the door. The unicorn opened the door and was greeted by the cyan pegasus giving her a welcoming smirk. “Wow… you’re up early.” Rainbow Dash commented while stepping inside with her friend. “I would have expected to wait a few more hours at least.” She chuckled to herself while observing the active purple pony. “Hey now… we don’t get up that late. We would be getting up in like an hour anyway.” Twilight retorted in a friendly manner while looking over to Spike pleadingly for support. The dragon chuckled to himself for a moment before speaking up. “Yeah right… I would be getting up in like an hour. You on the other hand sleep like a rock for like three more.” Spike added cynically while smirking at the unicorn. “I sleep in like one time and you never let me live it down…” Twilight sighed in annoyance. Rainbow Dash and Tom shared a warm chuckle at the two bantering in front of them. “Alright… enough about who gets up first. Which by the way, I am beating all of you by like three hours.” Tom stepped in to put an end to the potential argument and to remind the two about their task at hand. “Anyway, we should probably get going.” Everyone nodded in agreement before returning their friendly smiles. They then made a quick double check of their supplies before heading out the door. As they were walking through town, the four chatted idly with each other to pass the time. The conversations informed Tom about several things in the Equestrian world, from social events like the grand galloping gala, to the Wonderbolts and how Rainbow Dash wanted to join them. After a while, Rainbow Dash turned her attention to the bag Twilight was carrying. She had been curious about it before, but hadn’t opted to speak up about it previously. “Hey Twilight… What’s in that bag you got there?” The cyan mare asked curiously while pointing to the bag around the unicorn’s hips. “Oh this…? I decided to bring a few books with us. We could be waiting there for a while before Scootaloo gets the ok to be released, so I took the liberty of bringing some entertainment. ” Twilight explained while looking back to the white bag dangling from her side. “Oh… good idea, I just hope we won’t be there long enough to go through too many books.” Rainbow Dash added while cringing at the thought of waiting for hours at a hospital. But if it was necessary to take Scootaloo home, she would have to do it. The group traveled for a few more minutes before reaching the hospital. They wasted no time and immediately went inside the main lobby of the building. After searching around the room for a moment, the four found Nurse Redheart walking back behind the desk from a door. Upon noticing the visitors, she smiled and waved them over to her desk. “Back bright and early I see.” Redheart stated in a friendly manner while observing the small group. “Yeah well, we weren’t kidding around when we said we’d be here as soon as we got up.” Twilight spoke up first to introduce the group. “Anyway, is Scootaloo able to be seen?” She asked curiously. “She’s in a room upstairs resting. We should be able to release her in a little while, but if you want to see her now I could lead you up.” Redheart suggested while pointing to a door off to the side. “That would be great, thank you.” The unicorn replied courteously. The white pony nodded before walking out from the desk and heading to a door. She turned and motioned for the group to follow her. Redheart led the four through the hospital and up to the second floor. After winding through various wings and corridors of the building, she stopped in front of a door and went inside. The room was a standard hospital room with a bed in the center and various other pieces of furniture for visitors. Sunlight streamed into the room through the windows on the far wall, and white curtains drooped down over the window sill and almost onto the floor. There were also a few cabinets and cupboards on the side to store the various effects of long term occupants. Lying on the bed and relaxing under the thick blankets was a small orange filly. She appeared to be bandaged around the waist and had numerous other small cuts that were healed up from the incident. Upon noticing Nurse Redheart approaching with visitors, Scootaloo sat up and smiled warmly. “Rainbow Dash! Twilight! You guys came all the way down here to see me?” The filly exclaimed excitedly as the group huddled around the bed. “Of course we did! You had us all worried for a while there Scootaloo.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly to the filly while observing the extent of her injuries. “That reminds me… how are Sweetie Belle and Applebloom doing? Did they make it out ok? I’ve been asleep for a while, and nobody has told me anything.” Scootaloo asked with concern for her two fellow crusaders evident in her face. Twilight smiled reassuringly before stepping forward to answer. “Don’t worry, they’re doing just fine. They both got mild concussions, and Applebloom broke a leg, but they are home resting now.” The unicorn spoke softly to ease the orange filly’s concerns. Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that her friends were safe. “Good… I got separated from them after everything that happened, so I was worried that they ran into that thing that was chasing us.” The orange pegasus shuddered upon thinking about what could have happened to her friends in her absence. “Speaking of which, we need to ask you a few questions about what you saw. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were mildly concussed, so I doubt that they would remember any fine details about the experience. Anything you can remember might help us.” Rainbow Dash spoke up to change the subject. Scootaloo nodded slowly before trailing her eyes off in thought. Nurse Redheart started walking back towards the door. “I can see you all are going to be here a while, so I’m going to head back downstairs. We should have the paperwork for her release done soon enough, so let me know if you need anything while you’re here.” The nurse explained while waving to the group and stepping out of the door. Everyone turned their attention to Scootaloo and waited to hear what she had to say.
Chapter 22: Lights Out“Are you sure you don’t remember anything else?” Twilight asked sincerely while trying to sound less disappointed than she actually was. Scootaloo shook her head before sighing in frustration. She had tried her best to think of any details that stuck out to her, but failed to find many things noteworthy. “I’m sorry… but the only useful thing I can think of is a couple of names. There was a unicorn and a pegasus. The unicorn called the pegasus Raincloud, and the pegasus just called the unicorn Cotton. Other than that, you pretty much know what happened.” The filly hung her head sadly as she reflected on her lack of usefulness. The unicorn felt bad for putting the orange filly in a situation like this. She probably felt like she was worthless and couldn’t do anything to help. Thinking back to how the three girls were separated, Twilight figured that Scootaloo also felt powerless when it came to keeping her friends safe. “Don’t worry… I’m sure those names will prove extremely helpful to us in finding out who those hooded ponies were.” Twilight spoke in a sincere tone while giving the young pegasus a confident smile. Scootaloo slowly looked up to face the unicorn. “Really…? You think so?” Scootaloo asked in slight disbelief at the statement. Twilight nodded eagerly, causing the filly to smile softly. “I know so… before now we had nothing to even go on in terms of leads.” The unicorn added while looking to her trio of friends for support. Everyone nodded in agreement. Scootaloo smiled brightly upon hearing this. The thought of her actually managing to provide a useful piece of information after her ordeal made the filly swell with pride and happiness. Seeing the chipper attitude of the young pegasus made everyone else feel happy and relieved. “So how did you save me from that monster? I thought I was a goner when it cornered me in a room.” Scootaloo asked curiously while giving a brief shiver from remembering the intense fear she felt while running alone through the dark flooded corridors of the school basement. “We found you in the room those hooded ponies were in. You were lying unconscious right in the center of that strange symbol on the ground.” Tom explained to the young pegasus. “I do find it strange that the monster didn’t hurt you when you were unconscious… I would have thought for sure that it would have…” Twilight thought out loud, but decided to not finish her line of reasoning so as to not upset Scootaloo. “Who knows? Maybe it wanted to make a trap for us, so it kidnapped you to do so.” The human reasoned while scratching his head in thought. The mere notion made everyone uncomfortable as they thought about Scootaloo being at the mercy of that creature. “Well whatever it wanted, I’m just glad that nobody got hurt too bad.” Rainbow Dash added to get off the subject. Everyone nodded in agreement as they reflected on their luck. The group decided to drop the subject of what happened at the school and instead focused the rest of their stay on keeping the filly company to make her happy. Rainbow Dash chatted with the eager orange youngster to lift her spirits and give her a well-deserved moment with her role model. The cyan pegasus was surprised however when Scootaloo opted to hear more about Tom and his exploits. The orange filly seemed star struck as she asked question after question about the slayer and his previous accomplishments. Rainbow Dash was surprised to see herself feeling slightly jealous of the human, but decided to let it go and allow the filly to do whatever she wished. “And I’m telling you… the monster was as big as a house!” Scootaloo and the others laughed lightheartedly as Tom put on a show for the young filly. He was surprisingly good at putting a comedic spin on his stories, especially given the grim nature of his job. Just as they were starting to enjoy themselves, a quick knock at the door followed by the sound of someone entering interrupted the group’s fun. Nurse Redheart walked into the room and smiled upon seeing everyone in high spirits. “Sorry to interrupt you guys, but I thought I would let you know that we’re just about ready to release Scootaloo. We just need to give her one last checkup before we discharge her, so if you would be so kind, could you head downstairs and wait for us to bring her out?” Redheart asked courteously while still maintaining an assertive nature. “Awww….” Scootaloo huffed angrily and pouted while crossing her arms. “I was just starting to have fun too.” “Don’t worry kiddo. You can come hang out with me after we get out of here, and I’m sure Tom wouldn’t mind coming over to see us someday when he isn’t busy beating the crud out of every monster he sees.” Rainbow Dash smirked at the filly and placed a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to cheer her up. Scootaloo uncrossed her arms and changed her frown into a more blank expression. The promise of spending more time with the cyan mare was appealing to the orange pegasus to say the least. “Really?” The young pegasus asked curiously. Rainbow Dash nodded in return. This made the filly return a smile to her face. The group said goodbye to their young friend and turned to the patiently waiting nurse sitting in front of them. They then followed her out and through the hospital as they walked back to the lobby. Upon reaching the first floor and entering the waiting area at the front of the building, the group was greeted by a familiar orange farm pony toting her little sister beside her. “Applejack? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously as she walked beside the two. The orange mare smiled upon seeing her friends before sighing and turning to her sister. “Applebloom slipped on the stairs and hurt her leg again. We decided to come down and have it checked out, but not that many ponies have been through here to help us out.” Applejack droned in annoyance. Nurse Redheart went behind the front desk and immediately grabbed a pen and some paper to start writing them in. “Deeply sorry about the wait… we’re a bit under staffed at the moment due to not many cases coming in this month.” The nurse apologized sincerely for the lack of help for the two before turning to look into the door behind the desk. “Patches! You mind coming here for a minute?” She yelled into the back room. Before long, a grey stallion wearing a white shirt with a red cross on it came out and looked curiously at the nurse. “Yes Redheart?” He asked before glancing over to look at the group gathered around the front desk. “Applebloom here had a cast done for a broken leg. She fell off some stairs and might have hurt it again. Would you mind taking her over to a bed and looking her over for me?” Redheart asked gingerly while trying to look as sweet and cute as possible. Patches chuckled at the attempt to win him over by smiling sweetly. He then walked out from behind the counter and over to the filly standing on three legs to protect the casted one. “Sure, I’ll be over in bed three if you need me. Alright then… Applebloom was it? I’m going to help you walk over to a spot where you can rest and see if I can’t take a look at that leg of yours.” He bent down and smiled at the filly. Applebloom looked away shyly before finally smiling and allowing the pony to remove her from her sister to help her walk. The group watched as the two walked slowly to a wheelchair. Patches gently lifted Applebloom up and sat her in the chair while being careful not to hit her leg on anything. The two then walked off into the rest of the hospital before disappearing from sight. Nurse Redheart then picked up a few more pieces of paper and shifted them in her hooves to make them line up. “Don’t worry, I made sure someone will be looking over Scootaloo shortly. We should have her ready to leave before you know it.” Redheart stated eagerly to the group waiting in front of her desk. Everyone was relieved to hear that they would be able to leave soon. Twilight wanted to find Princess Luna again and talk with her about her plans for the investigation, as well as telling her about the two names she had gotten from Scootaloo. The unicorn decided to quickly make a note of her plan, when she turned to reach into her bag and found her side bare of any accessories. “Oh great… I think I left my bag up in Scootaloo’s room.” The unicorn sighed in frustration before turning to head into the hallway that lead to the stairs. She was suddenly interrupted by Spike walking in front of her and stopping her progress. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it for you.” The dragon volunteered while walking to the edge of the hallway. “Are you sure? I can get it just as easily.” Twilight said as she watched her assistant start down the hallway. The young dragon turned and smiled warmly. “It’s alright… I can get it.” Spike added with a friendly tone before turning and walking out of sight down the hallway. The unicorn was happy to see the young dragon being so eager to help out when needed. She remembered him being too young to even speak as if it were just yesterday. Deciding against going on a trip down memory lane, Twilight turned to converse with her friends until it was time for them to go. “So how did Applebloom trip anyway?” The purple pony asked her orange friend. Applejack shrugged as she was forced to address the incident further. “Ah think she got a little too eager while climbing downstairs. She was starting to get used to her cast, so she tried to find ways to walk faster with it. As you can see… it didn’t end favorably.” Applejack shook her head sadly as she went over the details of the accident in her head. “But at least she’s healthy otherwise. I don’t even want to think about how lucky we got considering nobody got hurt all that bad.” Twilight stated gratefully as she thought about the possible worst case scenario in her head. “Yeah… ugh, just the thought of somepony being cruel enough to do this to innocent children makes my blood boil.” Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth as she thought about the hooded ponies and what they did. Between attacking a school full of innocent children and almost killing her friends numerous times, the cyan pegasus felt nothing but contempt for them. “If you guys find them without me, be sure to give them a piece of my mind for me… right Tom?” Rainbow asked to the human who was leaning against the wall next to the desk. He looked up from his thoughts and nodded. “Right… I wouldn’t dream of letting them get away with t-” The boy paused suddenly and stood still for a moment while staring ahead. He then started coughing and wheezing. “Tom…? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked with increasing concern as she watched the human struggle to stop coughing. “Is he alright?” Nurse Redheart asked curiously while peeking over the desk to observe the human. “I don’t know… he has never done this before.” The unicorn stated nervously as the boy’s knees started shaking. Everyone rushed over to his side when they observed him collapse to his knees and coughing more violently. “Tom?! What’s wrong?!” Rainbow Dash asked urgently as she hovered her hooves near the human in preparation to help him in some way. “Are you okay?!” Applejack added with concern as she helplessly watched the boy cough for extended periods of time before managing to suck in a short breath. The constant heaves suddenly ceased as Tom paused in the air. A large amount of blue mist came out of his mouth causing the boy to expel any air left in his lungs. A more drawn out and harsh sounding version of the usual high pitched gasp erupted from Tom’s lungs. It almost sounded like an inhuman shriek was laced into the raspy sound as it hissed through the air. After the mist disappeared and the noise ceased, Tom took in several deep breaths and remained on his hands and knees while he rested. The ponies grew more concerned now that they knew the cause of the boy’s ailment. “What?! How can there be something evil here? I don’t see anything.” Rainbow Dash looked around nervously as she remained next to the human. “Well something must be here… Tom’s senses haven’t been wrong yet.” Twilight gulped nervously as she suddenly became much more uncomfortable. “Can someone please tell me what just happened?” Nurse Redheart asked with confusion evident on her face as she examined the boy to ensure that he was alright. Before anybody could answer the white mare’s question, a loud crackling noise erupted from around the room as several lights violently went out, causing everyone to jump. A whirring noise combined with the rest of the lights flickering a few times before going out signified the power being shut down. The room was suddenly split in two as half of the room was plunged into darkness while the other half was dimly lit by the sunlight streaming in through the small windows on the main doors. The hallways leading to the other parts of the hospital seemed to be steeped in a foreboding veil of pitch blackness in comparison to the low level of light in the lobby. “Great…the power went out.” Nurse Redheart fumed in annoyance as she failed to grasp the importance of the current situation. Meanwhile on the dimly lit side of the room, everyone was still gathered around Tom as they waited for him to catch his breath. “What did you feel Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously as she helped the slayer to his feet. He took a few moments to compose himself before answering. “I don’t know… I couldn’t identify it. All I know is that something very potent is all around us.” Tom spoke while still trying to catch his breath. “All around us… like throughout the entire hospital?” Twilight asked nervously as her mind raced to think of whatever horrific imagery she would be subjected to this time. The human took in a sharp breath of air and let his senses go off again to scope out the situation. Tom’s attempt at figuring out what was going on resulted in him coughing again as the blue mist came from his mouth in spurts. After composing himself he shook his head in defeat before turning to face the others. “Whatever it is, I can’t sense it long enough to analyze it without it overwhelming me.” The boy explained grimly. He was at a loss for solutions at the moment. The human’s lack of ideas only made the three ponies feel even more uneasy. “What in the hay are you guys talking about?” Nurse Redheart questioned the group in an attempt to find out what was going on. “That’s not important right now. We need to get everyone together first. We can’t figure out anything while the others could be in danger.” Twilight stated confidently while trying to ignore the creepy atmosphere that lurked in the many dark doorways on the other side of the room. “She’s right… Applebloom and that feller Patches are closest to us, so we should go get them first.” Applejack suggested as she thought about her sister being stuck in pitch blackness with a pony she didn’t feel comfortable with. “Nurse Redheart…?” Tom spoke over to the pony behind the desk suddenly. The white mare perked up as she heard herself being addressed. “Yeah?” Redheart asked quizzically and waited for a response. “Could you lead us over to where Patches and Applebloom went? I don’t think we can find our way around in the dark.” The boy requested while walking closer to the dark hallway where the two had disappeared to. “Sure thing, bay three is right through here…” Nurse Redheart paused in front of a dark hallway and motioned for Twilight to stay close to her to light the way. “Oh right… sorry.” The unicorn quickly walked up to the white mare and lit up her horn. The ray of light projected a short ways into the hallway before stopping just short of a wall of pitch black nothingness. Un-phased by the sinister looking hallway, Nurse Redheart walked forward and paused to wait for the others. Everyone quickly followed the earth pony through the darkened hallways of the hospital. After making a few twists and turns, the cramped corridor opened up into a larger room filled with curtains that separated the various beds that made up the medical bay. The curtains were mostly closed, with a few vacant exceptions being open. Nurse Redheart walked forward and peered into one of the bays. Discovering it to be empty, the white mare became very confused. “What…? They should be right here.” Redheart scratched her head in confusion before looking back and counting the various curtains to double check that she had the right one. “Patches… you in here?” She raised her voice to fill the entire room. However, the pony’s call was only met with cold silence. The others eyed around the room as Nurse Redheart went outside the bubble of light to search the rest of the area for the two missing ponies. Twilight hadn’t noticed it before, but the room had a strange eerie quality to it. Almost as if something was waiting to jump out and pounce on her and her friends when they least suspected it. “Hey Tom…” The unicorn whispered over to the human next to her so the rest of the group wouldn’t hear. “What’s wrong?” Tom whispered back once he got the signal that she didn’t want the others hearing them. “I don’t feel… I just feel uncomfortable being here. I feel like something is watching us.” Twilight said nervously while eyeing the darkness around them. The unicorn could almost swear that her light didn’t shine as far into the shadows as it had when they started down the hallway. The air around them was very cold as well. “Well I did sense something earlier… not sure what though. But judging from what I can manage to feel out right now, there doesn’t seem to be anything around us.” The boy explained while keeping a close eye on Rainbow Dash and Applejack as they hovered close to each other to the side of the room. “AH!” Nurse Redheart suddenly yelped in surprise from beyond the veil of light created by Twilight as a loud crash could be heard. The ponies darted their eyes to the source of the noise and watched nervously for any signs of the white mare being in danger. “Redheart? Are you alright?” Twilight asked with a slight sense of urgency as she waited for what seemed like an eternity for a response. Suddenly the pink uniformed nurse stumbled back into the light and appeared to be rubbing her shin. “I’m good, just tripped over a table… dang power outage.” The white mare cursed under her breath as she rubbed the last twinges of pain out of her leg. She then walked back over to the group and sighed in defeat. “I can’t find them anywhere… I even went out into the hall to search there.” Redheart stated her findings with a frustrated frown on her face. “Maybe they doubled back to the lobby and we missed them… Either way, let’s head back there and think about what to do next. This place is giving me the creeps anyway.” Rainbow Dash suggested apprehensively while glancing around the eerily dark and silent medical ward. The others nodded eagerly at the suggestion. They couldn’t wait to get back to a better lit area. -A few minutes earlier- Spike tried his hardest to not get lost through the seemingly unending hallways of the hospital. The dull white paint and carpeted floors seemed to blend together into a hazy maze of corridors. The only things keeping him on his path were the informal signs scattered around to tell him which wing he was in, and his own memory of how to get to Scootaloo’s room. “Let’s see… was it the first or second left?” He spoke to himself as he tried to figure out which way to go. It would be incredibly awkward if the dragon was forced to go back and ask for directions, so he pressed forward and winged it where necessary. Suddenly Spike came to a halt in front of a particular sign on the wall. It pointed down the hall and signified that rooms fifty through seventy-five were somewhere up ahead. Remembering the orange filly to be in room sixty-two, the young dragon smiled in satisfaction and continued along his path. “Fifty-two… fifty-four…” He started counting off room numbers as he made his way down the hall. The rooms were spaced evenly down the corridor with odds on the left and evens on the right. “Man… Twilight better appreciate me getting that bag for her… even if I did volunteer myself up to get it.” The dragon thought out loud to himself as he tried to break up the monotonous cycle of walking and counting room numbers. “Fifty-eight… fifty-nine… wait… what the?” Spike’s train of thought was suddenly derailed as he noticed the lights flickering around him. The bulbs seemed to strobe randomly down the hallway as they all dimmed and buzzed. Spike nearly jumped out of his scales when he heard bulbs shattering behind him with a loud pop. He turned around to see the lights going out in sequence down the hallway, causing a wall of darkness to approach him rapidly as each bulb either blew out or simply ceased glowing. The dragon backed up nervously as he watched the row of darkening lights reach and subsequently pass him, leaving him in pitch blackness. Spike couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he was suddenly deprived of light. Although the dragon was slightly afraid of the dark, being plunged into darkness in a hospital corridor made chills go down his spine. “The p-power must have gone out… nothing to get all bent out of shape for Spike.” Spike gave himself a pep talk to get his mind off the sudden eerie atmosphere. He then turned and felt his way through the hallway while keeping count of the doors in his head. “AHHH!” The silence of the dark hallway was suddenly broken by a high pitched shriek coming from a room just up ahead. The sound of the scream almost made Spike’s heart skip a beat as he tensed up upon hearing it. “That sounded like Scootaloo!” He exclaimed anxiously. Spike rushed forward while being careful to finish his count of doors until he reached what he determined to be number sixty-two. He quickly yet cautiously opened the door and peered inside. It was indeed the correct room, a shivering filly shaped lump under the blankets of a hospital bed told Spike as much. The filly was clutching the sheets over her head and shaking uncontrollably in fear. The entire bedframe was vibrating from the shaking mass on top of it. “Scootaloo?” Spike spoke softly with a sense of nervous concern. Upon hearing the dragon speak, the mass on the bed stopped moving around. Scootaloo quickly poked her head out from under the sheets and darted her eyes over to the door nervously. “Spike!” The filly shouted eagerly upon seeing the familiar form of the young dragon in the doorway. It was a bit easier to see inside the room as sunlight barely managed to stream in through the window. It was almost like something was blocking most of the light from coming in, leaving the room in an almost grey sort of dim light. “What’s wrong? I heard you scream from down the hall.” Spike spoke calmly to ease the nervous pegasus on the bed. He stepped away from the door and walked toward the middle of the room. “Wait… stop!” Scootaloo held her arm out frantically and waved it to prevent the dragon from moving any closer. Spike looked puzzled at the frightened filly, but heeded her warning. “What’s going on Scootaloo? Why are you so on edge?” The dragon asked with confusion and concern evident in his voice. “All of the lights went out suddenly, and I heard something under the bed. I could even see it moving from the sides!” Scootaloo resumed her frightened shaking as she pointed underneath her while staying squarely in the center of the bed. “Something under the bed…?” Spike repeated to himself while nervously looking to the dark void under the bed. Although he thought that the filly had just gotten scared of the dark and imagined something, the dragon couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he approached the bed. Scootaloo flinched an eye shut and looked away. She peeked out of the corner of her vision to barely keep an eye on the dragon as he cautiously pressed forward. Once Spike reached the side of the bed, he knelt down and mentally prepared himself for anything his own imagination could cook up. He gripped hold of the edge of the blankets as they hung over the opening to the bottom of the bed and clenched them tightly. After mentally steeling himself for the worst, Spike threw up the edge of the blanket and quickly jerked his head downwards to see what was under the bed. Having realized that he flinched upon making his move, Spike cringed as he slowly opened one eye to ensure that some hideous creature with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth wasn’t staring him down. The entire time he opened his eyes, he could feel his entire body tensing up in refusal to his actions. Scootaloo found it in herself to nervously peek over the side of the bed to check on the baby dragon. She was relieved, if not slightly shocked, to see Spike was still in one piece as he scanned the pitch blackness of the underside to her bed. Spike got up and wiped a droplet of sweat from his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief. He then looked up to the nervous filly and smiled. “See? Nothing… no monsters… no nothing.” He chuckled nervously to himself. The dragon probably felt just as relieved as Scootaloo did upon making the discovery. The filly frowned sadly as she started to calm herself down. “But… but I heard it.” Scootaloo muttered in disbelief as she recalled the vivid memory in her head. Spike softened up his cheerful expression to a more sympathetic one. “It’s alright… you were just scared is all. I would be amazed if you didn’t hear something under the bed if the room suddenly became dark like that.” Spike tried his best to lift her spirits. Scootaloo sighed before offering the dragon a small smile of her own. “That’s more like it… Now how about we head downstairs and- Ah!” Spike was suddenly interrupted by a loud scraping noise coming from under the bed. The dragon was abruptly knocked to the floor by an unseen force as something banged against the frame of the bed. “Spike!” Scootaloo cried out fearfully as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. A blurry shadow reached out from the black void of the bed and grabbed onto the hapless dragon’s leg. Spike was suddenly and violently jerked forward as his lower half was pulled under the bed. He yelped in surprise and desperately reached upwards to cling onto the bed frame. He managed to get a flimsy hold on the frame of the bed, but quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. Just as Spike accepted his fate as his grip began to slip, an orange hoof reached down and grabbed onto his arm. Scootaloo heaved as hard as she could as she wrestled for ground in her struggle with the unseen creature. She sweated as her muscles barely managed to keep up with the demand she was placing on them. Spike was slowly lifted upwards to the top of the bed. He feverishly grabbed for the side of the bed with his free arm and pulled. After what seemed like an eternity, the dragon was flung onto the bed as the shadow let go of his leg. Scootaloo pulled the dragon backwards onto the center of the bed and hugged him tightly against her, partly to actually hug him, and partly to keep him in her grasp. The two sat and looked at each other with wide eyes as they breathed heavily. “I hate to say I told you so...” Scootaloo impishly scalded the dragon as she let a tear roll down her cheek. In the heat of the moment, she thought that she would have watched helplessly as the dragon was pulled away by whatever that thing was. “Yeah…” Spike was at a loss for words as he thanked his lucky stars that he was still alive. He then looked over the side of the bed and eyed the way to the door. The pair heard a low rumble that sounded like some sort of terrifying beast was growling at them angrily for escaping. The two children nervously glanced over the side of the bed and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of a shadow moving back under the bed. The bed frame jolted as something moved underneath it before falling silent. “H-how do we get out of here without it grabbing us?” Scootaloo stammered nervously as their grim situation sank in. “Maybe… maybe Twilight and the others will find us.” Spike tried his best to offer a positive outcome to the frightened filly. He himself was feeling his muscles tense up with intense fear. “Yeah, and maybe that thing will climb up here and get us!” Scootaloo squeaked with fear as she anxiously watched the outline of the bed’s shadow on the ground for movement. "Don't give it any ideas!" Spike exclaimed fearfully as he stared at the bed with a terrified expression. He couldn't even bring himself to look over the side of the bed anymore. The dragon just stared at the sheets of the bed with a knot slowly developing in his stomach. He knew that something that would normally only be reserved for his worst gem induced nightmare was currently sitting a few feet underneath him, watching and waiting silently for the children to hop down or peer just a little too closely into the dark void under the bed.
Chapter 23: Into the DarknessTwilight and the others quickly made their way back through the dark hallways on their way to the lobby. The hospital had been quiet before, but now that the power was out, the silent atmosphere was starting to get to the ponies. They could only hear the sounds of their own hooves clattering on the floor, along with the occasional soft breathing of someone nearby and their own heartbeat. Normally there was safety in numbers, but they didn’t feel safe at all in the eerie corridors. Once they saw a thin ray of light in the distance, the group rushed forward and eagerly burst into the lobby to get away from the darkness in the hall. After taking a brief moment to get over the tension of dealing with their own fears, the ponies looked around the lobby for any sign of Applebloom and the medic. “Ah don’t see them anywhere in here.” Applejack stated with increasing concern for her sister as she looked around the empty room. “They aren’t back here either.” Nurse Redheart shrugged sadly as she stepped out from the room behind the front desk. She was starting to get worried about the pair herself. “We need to find out what’s going on here… they didn’t just disappear into thin air did they?” Rainbow Dash asked grimly before looking over to her friends. Their grave expressions made her think about the possibility of her statement being true. “We better head upstairs and find Spike and Scootaloo before we lose track of them.” Tom reminded the group of the two children upstairs. Everyone grew more alarmed as they remembered their two friends being stuck upstairs with no lights. “You’re right… let’s hurry up there!” Twilight stated anxiously while ignoring her fears to walk off into the dark hallway. “Hold up!” Tom quickly rushed in front of the unicorn to impede her progress. “You can’t just go rushing off like that. We need to think logically about this… we already have two missing people, and the entire hospital is dark. Who knows what we could be dealing with?” He explained uneasily. The boy’s statement made Twilight gulp nervously as she thought more about heading off into the dark by herself. She cautiously backed up and walked into a better lit portion of the room. “What do you think we should do then?” The unicorn stated uneasily. As fearful as she was, she still wanted to do anything in her power to find the two children and keep them safe. “I think we should find some candles first… set up an area we know is safe before we go walking blindly into the fray.” Tom suggested while looking over to Nurse Redheart quizzically. Taking the boy’s hint, Redheart began thinking of where some candles might be stored. “I believe that we have some candles in a storage closet a short ways from here.” The white mare stated while walking to the front of the room to lead the way again. “Alright then… you, me, and Twilight will go get candles and any other supplies that might come in handy. Applejack, you and Rainbow Dash stay here just in case anybody decides to come to the lobby.” The human looked to each of the ponies as he gave them their instructions. Everyone nodded with determination as they willingly accepted the boy’s orders. Twilight stood beside Nurse Redheart and lit up her horn again to light the way while the white mare guided them. Before the three disappeared into the hallway on the right, they turned to their two friends and gave them a confident nod. “You two stick together alright? The last thing we need is for you to go missing on us.” Tom said in a half joking- half serious tone as the cyan and orange ponies waved to them. “You three worry about yourselves… we’ll be alright.” Rainbow Dash smirked to the farm pony, who offered a confident nod in return. Satisfied that the two wouldn’t do anything stupid while they were gone, the trio slowly made their way down the darkened hallway. The only noise in the lengthy corridor was the sound of hooves and feet clicking against the hard tile floor. The cold air of the hospital seemed to have been amplified eleven fold, causing the chilled floor to sting the ponies’ bare hooves. The three pressed onwards as the pink clad nurse led them through the twists and turns of the building. “I thought you said it was a short ways away. We’ve been walking for like five minutes now.” Twilight groaned in a mixture of annoyance and nervousness. The quicker she could get out of the unnaturally cold and dark rooms of the hospital, the quicker she could relax her progressively tightening muscles. “Patience is a virtue Twilight… and besides, walking is good for your heart.” Nurse Redheart retorted in a friendly manner while trying to keep track of where they were. The unicorn merely shook her head and sighed upon hearing this. “I think walking through a creepy dark hospital with who knows what lurking around the corner cancels out the benefits to my heart.” Twilight shrugged nervously while checking behind the group. She couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t alone in the pitch black halls. Nurse Redheart chortled warmly at the unicorn’s witticism. “Don’t worry so much Twilight. After all, there are no such things as ghosts.” Redheart added in an attempt to calm the purple pony’s fears. “I beg to differ… said the dead guy who hunts monsters for a living.” Tom stated just loud enough for Twilight to hear. She chuckled briefly at the boy’s lighthearted remark before cutting herself off after remembering their dismal surroundings. The group suddenly came across a more open room with numerous other open doorways. Set into the back wall was a door with a sign on it that read storage. Nurse Redheart quickly walked over to the door and opened it. Inside the small room were a few rows of shelves with various boxes and clear containers on them. More boxes were strewn around on the floor and up against the walls, making the dark room all the more hazardous to traverse. “Here we go… there should be some candles and maybe even a couple flashlights in here.” The white mare stated optimistically while scanning around the room to identify the various boxes. “Well… we better start looking.” Twilight shrugged as she eyed the large number of boxes crammed into the room. The three filed into the storage closet and started sifting through the contents of each box, all the while keeping an eye on the darkness outside the door for any signs of movement. Twilight was going through the bottom row of one of the shelves. She had already managed to find a box of batteries to use for any flashlights they would find. Upon finding a few candles in a plastic container, she jerked her head up to place them on a higher level and slammed her head into the metal beam of the shelf. “Owch…!” Twilight huffed in pain and rubbed the back of her head gingerly. “I need to stop hitting my head on things… at this rate I’m going to get a concussion.” She chided herself before looking around the room to check to see if her friends had noticed the embarrassing incident. As she passed over the doorway, the unicorn’s eye caught something that made her pause suddenly. “What the…?” Twilight was at a loss for words at the puzzling display before her. She could see that a thin line of darkness was obscuring the door and the wall. It was like her sphere of light had shrunk in size and now didn’t carry to the doorway, but the unicorn was sure she remembered seeing the door from where she was. Before she could elaborate on her thoughts, Twilight caught a glimpse of something else that surprised her. Out in the distance, presumably outside the now barely visible door, was a blurry shape sticking out of the shadows. It was like the silhouette of something was hanging in the air, as if a person was standing just outside the unicorn’s vision. “What’s wrong Twilight?” Tom’s voice suddenly brought the purple pony out of her daze. Twilight turned around to see the human shooting her a concerned look. By the time she turned back around, the unicorn noticed that the odd silhouette was gone. “I… I thought I saw something outside, but now it’s gone. And I’m pretty sure my light was shining out a bit farther than it is now.” Twilight explained while pointing out the change in position of the wall of darkness that used to be outside the door. Tom walked over to the door and observed the cut off of light. “You sure…? I don’t see anything weird.” The human stated while poking his head out of the door and taking a look around. “I don’t know… maybe I’m seeing things, but I definitely know that my light shined to the door from where I’m standing now.” Twilight shrugged with worry as she focused harder on her magic to project her light farther. Much to her surprise, the increased brightness of the light didn’t seem to do anything to pierce the darkness. “That can’t be good…” The purple mare muttered grimly as she looked to the human with worry on her face. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here… how many candles do we have?” Tom asked with mild urgency as he stepped away from the door and back into the light. The boy’s question was swiftly answered by Nurse Redheart dropping a box down onto a shelf in front of him enthusiastically to make a loud noise. “I got like three or so, along with a couple of flashlights. And with what Twilight found over there, it looks like we have around six candles.” Redheart explained to the pair with a satisfied tone. “Alright, not bad… now let’s get going. The faster we find the others, the faster we can find out what’s going on.” Tom exclaimed while gathering up the supplies into one box and picking it up. “Are you sure you can carry that Tom?” Twilight observed the human straining under the weight of the box and struggling to move. “I can easily lift that for you.” She suggested kindheartedly. “I’m fine with it. And besides, you need to focus on keeping your light on. I’ve got a feeling that whatever is going on, it has something to do with the dark.” Tom shrugged while trying to maintain his balance as he wobbled out the door. The unicorn nodded in agreement before walking out with the human while being careful to keep all the members of her party inside the sphere of light she was creating. Nurse Redheart took the lead once more and began guiding her two companions back through the dark. The group had started to notice a change in the atmosphere around them. It had gotten much colder and eerier since the last time they had wandered into the interior of the building. Even Nurse Redheart, a pony who was typically against believing in such things as ghosts and monsters, was beginning to feel uneasy and apprehensive about going any further into the blackness in front of them. Twilight was forced to bite her lower lip to prevent herself from making a frightened noise. She was certain that she could see things just outside the reach of the light. As if someone were watching them from around corners and inside doorways they passed in the dark. She looked to Tom nervously for any sign that he could see the vague figures she was seeing. The sight of the human eyeing around them uneasily made the unicorn unsure of whether she should feel relief or fear. “We should be close to the lobby now… shouldn’t be much longer.” Nurse Redheart announced to calm everyone’s nerves, including her own. “Well that’s good to hear. I was-” Twilight’s statement was interrupted by the sight of her horn flickering on and off for a split second. The odd occurrence started happening more frequently, as if a light bulb were going out. “Umm… Twilight, I hate to be painfully obvious, but your light seems to be going out.” Tom said with increasing nervousness as each flash of the light briefly left them in pitch blackness. “What…? How is that possible? I’m concentrating as hard as I can on it!” The unicorn was almost panic stricken as she tried to solve the problem on her end. While the purple mare was struggling to maintain the flow of magic to her horn, a sudden noise carried from across the hallway. It sounded like the quiet scuffling of feet against the floor. The noise would start in one place, stop for a few moments, and then start in a completely different direction. It was like there were numerous people around the group that were each taking single steps in sequence. “I think we need an alternative source of light… like right now!” The human stated urgently while putting the box down on the ground. He fumbled around with a flashlight and some batteries while trying to join the two together as quickly as possible. He flicked the switch on the flashlight upwards, but the only thing that happened was the loud click of the mechanism moving. “Oh come on, who stores dead batteries?!” Tom cursed the group’s bad luck before quickly ejecting the useless batteries and scrambling to get another set. Meanwhile, Twilight was at a loss for thoughts as to the cause of her light dying on her. It seemed like nothing she did had any effect on the stream of light as it struggled to stay on. “Hurry up Tom! I don’t know how much longer I can keep the light going!” Twilight’s voice was starting to crack as she darted her eyes around fearfully. The frequency of times she saw silhouettes in the darkness around them seemed to increase as she could practically see one every time she turned around. Tom flicked the switch on the flashlight once more, causing a satisfying beam of light to shoot out of the glass top just as Twilight’s horn fizzled out. He waved the beam of light around them rapidly to view the entire hallway. The cone of light cut through the dark much farther than the unicorn’s centralized bubble of light could, illuminating the entire corridor. The group looked around nervously for any signs of something else being close to them. Much to their surprise, the trio failed to see anything out of the ordinary as the human scanned the light back and forth around them. “Huh…? But I could have sworn that I heard something.” Twilight stated with a confused expression as she started to calm herself down. The three breathed a collective sigh of relief as they once again had a source of light. “You did… I heard it too.” Nurse Redheart spoke quietly as she tried to slow her racing heart. “Maybe whatever is going on is fear based… It could be making us see and hear things that aren’t really there.” Tom tried his best to offer an insightful solution with his knowledge on the paranormal. “At least I hope they aren’t really there.” The unicorn gulped nervously as she tried to channel magic back into her horn. Much to her surprise, the light on her horn came back on and projected as it normally did. “Maybe you should rest for a little while. If we’re going to search upstairs for Spike, Scootaloo, and any other people, you might need to use your light there.” Tom suggested while shaking the flashlight to recommend it as their primary light source for the moment. “I guess you’re right…” Twilight shrugged at her own apparent mess up before letting her horn dim. She couldn’t imagine how she could have lost control over her magic like that. Without delay, the group started walking forward to make their way back to the lobby. After a few short minutes of walking that felt like an eternity, the trio finally came out of the dark and into the lobby. They were immediately greeted by Applejack and Rainbow Dash smiling and waving at them from the far wall of the room. “Hey guys…. What are you doing all the way over there?” Twilight asked curiously while observing the numerous chairs and sofas in the waiting area to their side. Instead of making use of any of the comfortable seats, the two were huddled together at the far end of the room with their backs to the wall. “We wanted to stay as far away from the hallway as possible.” Rainbow Dash explained ominously while walking over to greet the trio. “But… why would you-” Before Twilight could finish her question, the cyan pegasus pointed to the ground behind them. The unicorn gasped as she noticed what her friend was directing her attention to. The group hadn’t noticed it upon rushing into the lobby, but the edge of the darkness that used to just connect the two adjacent hallways was now substantially farther out into the lobby. It seemed to defy the physics of lighting and shadows as it jutted out unnaturally into the room. “We noticed the shadows were moving towards the rest of the room a little while after you left. That, along with all of the noises we heard, made us back up to over by the entrance where it’s brightest.” Applejack explained apprehensively as she looked down both hallways for any signs of movement. After taking a few moments to observe the edge of the light and comparing it to memory, Tom quickly walked over to the front desk and sat the box down. “Let’s hurry up and get these candles set up.” The human suggested with determination as he pulled a few candles out of the box. The group watched the slayer with intrigue as he used his powers to imbue each candle with energy. He set aside each deep blue candle he created into a growing pile, and before long he had transformed the entire box. “What are you going to do with those?” Nurse Redheart asked quizzically as she observed the human setting a candle down on the corner of each wall leading to the two hallways. Seeing that Tom was busy arranging the candles in their proper places, Twilight decided to explain to the white mare. “He is setting up some blessed candles to keep evil things out of this room.” The nurse raised an eyebrow curiously at the unicorn’s explanation. She had never imagined seeing something so bizarre when she came to the hospital that morning. “Evil things… like what? I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary aside from a few noises, and we have been through most of the first floor.” Redheart stated doubtfully. She didn’t want to seem harsh, but she was the type of pony who thought that it wasn’t real if she couldn’t see it with her own eyes. “There’s something going on… I’m sure of it. The power going out suddenly, the change in atmosphere, me sensing something, it all points to something paranormal, and I would wager those hooded ponies from the school have something to do with it.” Tom stated with a serious expression as he finished placing the candles. He then turned to the group and looked at Twilight thoughtfully. “You ready for me to light them up?” The unicorn asked to be sure that everything was set up correctly. Tom nodded to her and stepped back to give her some room. The purple pony walked up to each of the six candles placed at the corner to each entrance and exit to the room. She then concentrated for a moment on each and lit the candles on fire. After the unicorn ignited the final candle, a bright pulse of blue light surged through the room. After the light faded, the space between the candles rippled and shimmered as the blue force fields took shape. Much to the surprise of the ponies, the edge of the darkness that had been creeping into the room suddenly receded back to its normal position. The light coming in from the entrance seemed to intensify as well, bathing the room in more light and shifting the cold atmosphere to a more warm and comfortable one. “Wow…” Applejack was awestruck as she observed the difference in the atmosphere of the room. She felt that the blue flame of the candles had provided a comforting distance between her and the dark and eerie openings of the hallways. “This place feels a lot less creepy now… kinda like it did before the power went out.” Rainbow Dash stated as she walked up to the edge of the candles and stared into the black abyss of one of the corridors. “Still getting an eerie vibe off of the dark places though.” “Alright… now that we have a safe area to bring people to, we need to focus on finding the others.” Tom said with a determined look on his face. He then looked over to Nurse Redheart. “Redheart, how many staff and patients are in the building?” He asked in a serious tone and waited for an answer as the white mare thought about it for a few moments. “Like I said earlier, it has been a pretty slow week for us here. Scootaloo was the only patient we had staying in a room, and the only staff on site currently is myself, Patches, and this other nurse Daisychain.” Redheart explained apprehensively as she thought about her coworkers being in danger. “And where was she the last time you saw her?” The human questioned solemnly as he walked over to the box of supplies and started fidgeting around with them. “She was upstairs actually… she was getting ready to give Scootaloo her last check up before we released her... Y-you don’t think something happened to her do you?” Redheart adopted a more concerned expression as the weight of the situation finally became clear to her. She wanted to remain blissfully oblivious of the grave situation she was in, but seeing the serious expressions on everyone’s faces and thinking more in depth about the sudden disappearance of two ponies made the white mare think more critically about her current predicament. “Don’t worry… we will find them.” Twilight said reassuringly to the upset earth pony. She looked around to her friends, who all gave a determined nod in return. “Alright everyone, here’s what we’re going to do.” Tom finally stopped messing around with the supplies and pulled out two flashlights. He then walked over to the group with a confident expression and gave Rainbow Dash and Nurse Redheart the lights. “Everyone except for Applejack is going to head upstairs to search for the others. We’re going to sweep each room we find to see if anyone has taken shelter in them.” The human instructed to the ponies before walking over to the threshold of the candles. “What am Ah going to do if you’re not taking me with you?” The farm pony asked curiously. The boy paused and turned around. “You’re going to stay here and hold down the fort so to speak...” Tom stated simply to the orange mare before turning back around. The human’s statement shocked the farm pony slightly. “All by myself…? Are you crazy?” Applejack asked rhetorically while nervously staring outside the protective barrier. Tom smiled reassuringly before turning around to face the ponies once more. The orange mare’s fears were justifiable, but he was confident that she would be safe. “Don’t worry, you will be perfectly safe inside the confines of the candles. I wouldn’t ask you to stay if I thought you would be in any danger... Besides, we need someone to stay here just in case someone wanders by.” The human explained calmly to ease the farm pony’s concerns. Applejack felt a little more confident, but still wanted to help search for her sister and the others. She shrugged before offering an accepting nod. “Now that we all have a plan, are you guys ready?” Tom asked with a more serious expression. The three ponies looked at each other with a slight sense of apprehension. After taking a moment to think about their friends being in danger, everyone steeled their nerves and adopted a more determined expression. “I’m ready whenever you guys are.” Rainbow Dash stated bravely while stepping forward to join the human next to the edge of the hallway. “If it means rescuing a couple of helpless children… I’m in.” Nurse Redheart gripped her flashlight confidently before walking forward to join the others. Only Twilight was left standing in the lobby next to Applejack. The others looked to the unicorn pleadingly as she decided what to do. Twilight was apprehensive about going out into the darkness again, but then she thought about Spike and Scootaloo being scared and alone in the dark while who knows what kind of horrible monster roamed around the halls. The image of the baby dragon and orange filly in her head gave the purple pony confidence. “Let’s go… we’re not going to get anywhere by standing around here.” Twilight said with a determined smile. Hearing the unicorn’s sudden bravery made everyone surprised and joyful to see her stepping forward to join the party. After giving their orange friend a confident wave and smile, the four stepped out of the protective barrier and made their way down the darkened hallway to find the stairs to the second floor.
Chapter 24: What Lurks in the Shadows?The search party diligently made their way around the other side of the building to reach the stairway that would lead them upwards. The journey to Scootaloo’s room had taken the group what seemed like a few minutes earlier, but now that the power was out and the atmosphere around them had shifted into a cold and foreboding shroud, the journey through the dark halls and rooms was taking the ponies what seemed like an eternity. Twilight took the lead with her horn shining brightly into the dark corridor in front of the group, Nurse Redheart stayed close to the unicorn to ensure that she was going in the right direction, while Rainbow Dash stayed near Tom at the back of the group. The ponies darted their eyes around nervously as they marched on in silence. Their spines tingled and their muscles tensed as they anticipated some horrible monster lurking around every corner or hallway they passed. Finally the group found themselves standing before the door that led into the main stairs of the hospital. Despite Twilight’s best efforts to open the door silently, the hinges creaked and moaned as the door slowly opened into the tight landing of the stairs. The ponies cautiously went inside and surveyed their surroundings. The light from Twilight’s horn illuminated the entirety of the small shaft, save for the shadows cast from the light being blocked by the stairs further up. A thin metallic railing separated the group from the steep drop off of the stairwell. Taking a quick peek over the side of the cold metal bars, Twilight could determine that the stairs only descended one level into another landing for the basement. “I didn’t know this place had a basement.” Rainbow Dash observed curiously as she leaned onto the railing next to the unicorn. “Yeah… we have a lot of our heating and electrical machines down there. There’s supposed to be a backup generator that should have kicked in… but clearly that didn’t happen.” Nurse Redheart sighed as she cursed the misfortune that had befallen her recently. “That might be a good place to investigate the cause of this blackout after we find the others. Maybe we’ll find another symbol down there.” Tom speculated with slight intrigue as he imagined the possibility of progress. Twilight shuddered at the thought of heading into another dark basement. She shook her head defiantly to rid her mind of the eerie thoughts. “I hope it goes better than the last basement we went to.” The unicorn stated gloomily while eyeing the lower floor anxiously. “I hope it’s a little less flooded with ice cold water…” Tom remarked as he pictured the amount of time it took his clothes to dry from the time he spent in the school’s basement. “Enough talking about the basement for now…” Rainbow Dash stated while looking upwards to the spiraling stairs above the group. “We have enough of a hard task in front of us without worrying about how scary it will be down there.” The others nodded solemnly before starting their ascent up the stairs. After a brief climb, the group was suddenly at the second floor landing outside the doorway back into the hallways. The ponies gathered around the door and pressed their bodies against it to peer into the small window set into the door. “It’s too dark to see anything in there… It’s like my light can’t shine through the window.” Twilight observed curiously as she tried to position her head in such a way that her horn would have a better chance at shining through to the other side. “Twilight… I can see your breath.” Rainbow Dash said with a morbidly intrigued tone. The unicorn backed her head away from the window and stared in front of her face for a moment to verify the pegasus’s claim. Much to her surprise, she noticed a light mist shoot out from her mouth as she exhaled. “I can see yours too… it’s freezing up here.” Twilight exclaimed while wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing her shoulders to create warmth. The group quickly realized that the air had suddenly gotten much colder once they reached the second floor landing. “All the more reason to find the others and get out of here as fast as possible.” Tom stated with determination as he grabbed the handle of the door and pushed it open. A blast of even colder air flooded into the stairwell as the door slid open. The group could barely move forward as their muscles tensed up from the cold, but they somehow managed to step into the dark corridor and close the door behind them. “S-sweet Celestia… it’s even c-colder out here than it is in there.” Rainbow Dash stammered as she tried to manually stop her body from shivering to no avail. On top of the decrease in temperature, the entire atmosphere had changed from what the ponies had experienced downstairs. While they were exploring the first floor, the ponies felt apprehensive and nervous, like they were being watched from down the hall. But the dark and cold corridor they currently found themselves sitting in made them feel like they shouldn’t even be there. Every fiber of their bodies told the ponies to turn back and flee to the safety of the lobby. The anxious band dreaded the thought of taking any step further into the darkness, like they were convincing themselves to walk further and further into a foreboding dark tunnel out in a haunted forest. Twilight wanted so badly to turn around and leave the searching up to Tom. She felt like she wasn’t cut out for facing her fears and pressing forward, but then she thought of Spike being just as scared as she was. The images of the baby dragon drifting around in her head gave the unicorn confidence. “Let’s hurry up and get this over with.” Twilight said with false determination as she forced herself to step forward despite her feelings. The group was surprised to see the sudden bravery displayed by the purple pony. Rainbow Dash and Nurse Redheart walked forward, if only to keep up with the unicorn and her sphere of protective light. The group made their way through the hallway for a short way before reaching a set of doors with numbers on them. After quickly inspecting the numbers on one of the doors, the group determined that they had come across a stretch of patient rooms. “Alright, let’s break off into two people per side and search these rooms.” Tom instructed confidently while walking over to the left side of the hallway. “What…? But there are so many.” Rainbow Dash stated pessimistically while observing the pattern of rooms and concluding that it went on for a long distance. “We don’t need to go in and search every inch… we just need to give each room a passing sweep to make sure nobody is hiding in there. Now come over here Rainbow Dash, we’ll need a flashlight on this side to scan the rooms.” The human beckoned for the cyan pegasus to come over to his side of the hallway to join him. Rainbow Dash gripped her flashlight confidently before walking over to the boy. The four made their way down the hallway while methodically opening each room door and sweeping the inside with their flashlights. This pattern continued for what seemed like an eternity until they reached the end of that particular section of rooms. The ponies then pressed forward down another hallway in search of more rooms to search through. “About how many patient rooms are on this floor Redheart?” Rainbow Dash shrugged in annoyance as the group came across another set of rooms. “Around fifty or so…” The white mare replied while opening the first door on her side and looking inside with her flashlight. “Scootaloo is in sixty-two, so with any luck we’ll find Spike and Daisy there as well.” She stated with a hint of optimism while still trying to sound realistic. “I hope so… I can’t imagine what it must be like for them to be in this place by themselves.” Rainbow Dash stated gloomily while taking note of her own sense of nervousness about the dark. She sighed sadly before walking over to another door and looking inside. Much to her surprise, the cyan mare noticed something off in the corner of the room by the window. “Hey… I got a pony over here!” Rainbow announced with excitement while waving her friends over. Cowering in the dim light of the window was a yellow pony with stringy black hair. She wore the usual pink outfit that a nurse would wear, with a heart shaped string of daisies as a cutie mark. “Daisy!” Nurse Redheart exclaimed happily as she rushed into the room. The yellow pony looked up from the floor and gave a joyful smile upon seeing other people coming into the room. “Redheart!” Daisychain squeaked in a mixture of relief and happiness as the white nurse gave her a quick hug before helping her to her feet. “I’m so glad you’re alright! I was starting to get worried that something awful might have happened to you!” Nurse Redheart smiled warmly at her colleague while observing her emotional state. The yellow mare seemed to be shaken up by something and was visibly tensing up from her nerves being strung out so much. “I was on my way to do that checkup you asked me to do… when the lights suddenly went out. I thought nothing of it at the time, until I heard noises and saw things around me in the darkness.” Daisy shuddered as she recalled her terrifying encounter. “I ducked into the first room I could find that had a window and huddled up by the light.” She was almost on the verge of tears as if she was still convincing herself that she was safe now. “You’re going to be ok now… we’ll take you somewhere safe.” Rainbow Dash spoke softly to console the frightened nurse. She gave her a sincere smile and a look of confidence to ease her fears. Daisychain looked around at the group of people smiling at her. Although she was puzzled by the sight of the human amongst the row of ponies around her, she felt much better knowing that she was no longer alone. The group ushered the shaken up nurse along with them as they walked out of the room. After they got back out into the hallway, the ponies took a moment to look at the frightened yellow pony and think about their next course of action. “I think we should take Daisy back downstairs. She seems like she is too frightened to help us out.” Nurse Redheart suggested while observing the jilted pony looking around nervously. “But… what about that filly over in sixty-two? She could be in trouble right now! You shouldn’t delay helping her just because of me.” Daisy exclaimed in a short burst of bravery. Everyone looked at the timid pony sympathetically. They knew that she wanted to help them find the others, but they also knew that she should rest downstairs where it was safe. “Don’t worry… we can do both. You will head downstairs with Redheart and Twilight, while me and Rainbow Dash head over to room sixty-two and find Scootaloo and Spike.” Tom suggested confidently while looking to the cyan pegasus for support. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement while waving her flashlight around. Twilight was a little apprehensive about leaving the search for the two children, even if it was just for a few minutes to deliver another pony to safety. She trusted in Tom and Rainbow Dash, but wanted to be involved herself to give her own personal best effort to find the two. After looking at the yellow mare for a moment, Twilight felt empathetic for the nurse. She was clearly scared out of her wits, but also wanted to help. The unicorn saw a little bit of herself in the frightened pony. She wanted to help her friends no matter the circumstances, even if it meant facing her worst fears. “He’s right… we’ll find them, you can be certain of that. But for now, we need to get you somewhere safe… come on, let’s go.” Twilight stated while walking back towards the stairwell and beckoning for the two to join her, Daisy hesitated for a moment before deciding to walk forward to prevent herself from being enveloped in darkness. Nurse Redheart quickly followed the two, leaving Tom and Rainbow Dash alone to watch the three disappear around a corner. “I guess it’s just us now...” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously as she kept her flashlight trained in front of her. She felt much more uncomfortable now that there were considerably less people around her to make her forget about her surroundings. Tom noticed his companion staring uneasily into the dark void around them. He felt a little uncomfortable himself due to knowing little to nothing about their current situation. “Don’t sweat it… I can handle anything stupid enough to attack us.” The human stated reassuringly. The cyan pony felt a little more at ease upon hearing the slayer’s lighthearted remark, but still had shivers going up and down her spine from their eerie surroundings. “I hope so… otherwise I’m taking this light and leaving you up here.” Rainbow said jokingly. The two laughed jovially as they walked down the dark hallway, the pegasus felt happy to get her mind off of the fear gnawing at her. Twilight led her two companions through the halls on the way back to the stairwell. Having memorized the way back, the unicorn freed Nurse Redheart to comfort her friend as they marched on through the dark corridors. The unicorn was having an internal struggle with her feelings on leaving the second floor. She wanted to come back up and help find the two children herself after she dropped off the yellow nurse, but she knew that it would be pointless to venture back out into the darkness when Tom and Rainbow Dash would have no difficulties in finding the room Scootaloo and Spike would be in. “Why the long face Twilight?” Nurse Redheart’s voice snapped the purple pony out of her thoughts. The unicorn looked back to the white mare to see her with a concerned frown. “I’m fine… why do you ask?” Twilight asked the nurse curiously. “You’ve been looking upset ever since we left the others.” Redheart stated sympathetically while looking at the unicorn with a puzzled expression. Twilight sighed and looked off to the side for a moment. She then looked back to the two ponies behind her. “I just feel a little upset over having to leave finding the kids up to Tom and Rainbow Dash. It’s not that I don’t trust them... I just…” Twilight paused for a moment while thinking of the right words to say. “You want to be there to make sure.” Daisychain spoke up suddenly from beside Nurse Redheart. Twilight was surprised to hear the timid pony speak up. She had been quiet for the entire time they had been walking. “I know the feeling… it’s why I became a nurse. You want to be able to help your friends, and to give your own effort in making sure they’re safe.” The yellow mare sounded very earnest and had a sincere look on her face. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Between everything that’s happened recently, I’m just not sure if I have what it takes. As student under the princess herself, I feel like ponies should be able to rely on me to keep them safe from things they don’t understand.” The unicorn was happy to hear that someone else understood her frustration. She felt that if she couldn’t protect Equestria from some unknown magical threat, then who could? “Well that Tom fellow seems to know what he’s doing. I’m sure that he will find them in no time flat.” Redheart stated while thinking back to the level-headed nature she had seen the boy display. “I hope so…” Twilight sighed while looking down sadly as she thought about the two children being alone somewhere in this dark and cold place. “Are you sure he’s trustworthy?” Daisychain asked quizzically. The yellow mare’s question caught Twilight off guard. “What do you mean?” The purple unicorn retorted with a surprised and confused tone in her voice. “I didn’t mean anything bad by it, but from what I know about humans, they were known to be violent and hateful creatures.” The nurse elaborated in a sincere voice to make her previous question seem less hostile. The unicorn hadn’t given the boy’s motivation much thought. After he had saved her and her friends lives, she had assumed that he had good intentions. And after learning more about his past and personality, Twilight was certain that he was a good person. “Not all humans were bad… sure they sometimes did bad things, and there were a few exceptions… but Tom has proven that he is a kind and caring individual.” Twilight explained confidently to the two behind her. They were surprised that she was so adamant about defending a person she had only met recently. “Then you should relax… he and Rainbow Dash will definitely find them.” Daisy stated reassuringly while offering a friendly smile. The unicorn shrugged her negative thoughts off before returning a soft smile to the two nurses. The three pressed on through the hallway before making a sharp right turn to get to the corridor that led to the stairwell. The ponies were relieved that they were almost out of the overtly cold environment of the second floor. “Whoa!” Nurse Redheart exclaimed in surprise as her foot landed on a loose object on the floor and slipped, causing her to pause for a moment to regain her balance. Twilight and Daisy turned around to see the white mare regaining her composure as she stood on the edge of the sphere of light emanating from the unicorn’s horn. “You alright?” Twilight asked with mild concern as she observed the nurse getting back up from her lowered position from slipping. “Yeah… just tripped on a bottle or something….” Redheart stated while reaffirming her feet to ensure they were planted solidly. Twilight was relieved to see that the white nurse had not fallen on the floor and hurt herself from slipping. She started to turn her head back in front of her when she suddenly noticed something that made her face pale with confusion and fright. “What…the…?” Twilight muttered under her breath while trying to process what she was seeing. Behind Nurse Redheart was a tall blurry figure standing in the darkness. The unicorn couldn’t make out enough shapes of the silhouette to determine its appearance, but she could see the rough outline of what appeared to be a torso and an arm turned sideways as if it were arching towards her. “What are you staring at Twilight…?” Redheart asked in bewilderment as the unicorn stared behind her in shock. Twilight blinked her eyes shut a few times to ensure that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. She grew even more fearful when she moved her head around and realized that the shadowy figure wasn’t just a trick of the light and in fact had depth. Before the unicorn could react and call out to the white nurse, the figure suddenly disappeared from view while jerking forwards into the shadows towards the group. Redheart cried out in surprise as her body was violently pulled backwards, sending her to the floor as her back legs were pulled out from under her. “Redheart!” Twilight and Daisy screamed in unison as the nurse was pulled out of the bubble of light completely. The only thing to alert them to her presence was the sound of her shrieking in fright and struggling to gain a hold on something along the ground with her front legs. As the hapless nurse was yanked down the hallway by her back legs, her flashlight crashed to the ground and flickered on from the button being hit. The beam of light arched at an angle down the hallway, illuminating the terrified white mare with her legs being held together in the air as if they were being grasped. Much to the surprise of the horrified onlookers, as soon as the white pony was lit up by the flash light, they couldn’t see any signs of anything near her as her body suddenly fell to the floor. The nurse sprawled onto the floor from the force of the impact. She scooted her body backwards before pausing and looking around her frantically. “Wh…w…wha…” Redheart stammered fearfully as she darted her head around to search for her attacker. Twilight and Daisy walked forward a few steps cautiously in preparation to help the white mare. “Redheart! You need to get up and run!” Twilight exclaimed frantically to the dazed nurse as she mentally prepared herself to charge forward to pick her up. Before Nurse Redheart had a chance to react to the unicorn’s instructions, one of her legs that had been sticking out of the beam of light was suddenly pulled taught by an unseen force. “AHH!” Redheart screamed loudly as her body was violently yanked towards the edge of the light. She desperately grabbed onto the edge of the wall and held on for dear life as the force pulled on her forcefully. The white mare groaned in pain as her muscles started tearing from her attempts at clinging to the wall. Daisychain suddenly bolted out of the sphere of light provided by Twilight. She ran out into the darkness and hopped over the flashlight in an attempt to get to her coworker. Just before the yellow mare reached the edge of the wall where the nurse was holding on, Redheart cried out in fear as she was pulled off of the wall and down the other hallway into the darkness. The yellow pony skidded to a halt and reached out in vain to make an attempt on grabbing her friend. She backed up in fear as she suddenly heard the noise of feet scuffling on the ground beside her. The nervous nurse backed up into the broader part of the flashlight’s beam and turned around to look to Twilight for advice. “Daisy!” The unicorn cried out before starting to run over to her. She stopped mid stride as she noticed a rather large silhouette in the darkness between her light and the flashlight’s. Twilight and Daisy looked at each other uneasily as they tried to think of a way out of their grim predicament. “What do I do?” Daisy stated while on the verge of a panic attack as she stared pleadingly at the unicorn for help. “I think it doesn’t like the light! Just stay there and…” Twilight trailed her voice off as the flashlight started to flicker. The two ponies looked between the flickering flashlight, the multiple shapes looming in the darkness around the yellow mare, and each other as they felt their nerves tense up. “Twilight…” Daisy stated sadly while giving the unicorn a frightened expression. Before she could say anything further, the flashlight flickered off one last time and submerged the terrified nurse in darkness. The unicorn tried to step forward enough to illuminate her frightened companion, but it was too late. Twilight could only listen in horror as the sounds of the yellow mare screaming and smacking against the wall and floor pierced through the dark corridor. Before the unicorn knew it, the waning noise of the nurse screaming as she was pulled down the hallway died down, leaving Twilight alone. “Daisy?!.... Daisy…?” Twilight noticed her voice cracking from fear as she called out in vain to see if the nurse would somehow call back to her. She almost forgot about the various silhouettes looming around her in the darkness. The purple pony started backing up nervously in an attempt to get to the stairwell, but she was interrupted by the sound of something stepping forward behind her. She turned her head to see a figure standing just outside her sphere of light. It appeared to be staring at her intimidatingly as it stood in the middle of the hallway. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat when the figure in front of her disappeared and the loud noise of something stepping all around her made her back into the wall out of fear.
Chapter 25: The Boogieman ComethRainbow Dash sneezed loudly, causing her human companion to jump in brief fright. The pegasus sniffled while trying to ignore the tickle surging through her nose to prevent another outburst. The cold atmosphere around the pair was starting to get to the cyan pony. “Warn a guy before you do that next time.” Tom stated nervously while trying to lower his skyrocketing heart rate. Rainbow Dash offered him an apologetic expression while rubbing her hair in embarrassment. “Sorry… I think the cold is starting to make me sick.” Rainbow said while shivering occasionally. The boy looked at the freezing pony sympathetically. “It doesn’t feel that bad to me.” Tom stated in a poorly made attempt at getting her mind off the cold. “No wonder… you’re wearing sweats for crying out loud.” Rainbow Dash huffed in annoyance while giving the human a forceful nudge on his side. Deciding against making any further comments, Tom continued down the hallway in silence while looking at the passing room numbers. Noting their progress, the human nodded in satisfaction before turning to his companion. “We’re at fifty now… shouldn’t be much longer.” Tom announced optimistically while offering the pony a hopeful smile to lift her spirits. “I wonder how they’re doing… they must be scared out of their minds.” Rainbow Dash droned sadly while thinking about the filly and dragon being left in this eerie darkness for so long by themselves. “Well so far we haven’t found any ravenous monster that wants to eat us… so they should just be afraid and not in danger.” Tom suggested to try and put a positive spin on the situation. Rainbow Dash could only wonder how he had the capacity to be lighthearted in this dismal and foreboding atmosphere. “You’re just the picture of optimism aren’t you?” Rainbow asked in a jokingly sarcastic way. The boy chuckled at the cynical pony before offering her a smirk. “I like to think of myself as a glass half full kind of guy.” Tom remarked playfully. The pegasus rolled her eyes before focusing back on the darkness around them with her flashlight. The pair walked down the string of doors in the hall while counting the numbers on them to keep track of their progress. They were starting to get used to the creepy feeling they were getting from their surroundings. It was like Rainbow Dash was starting to get the immunity to frightening situations that Tom doubtlessly had built up by that point. The pegasus eagerly glued herself to the side of the hallway to pay attention to the doors. She stared at the passing numbers and started a mental countdown of how long she thought she would be up on the second floor. Just as she passed by door sixty, Rainbow Dash was pulled from her thoughts by a noise coming from behind her. Her ears instinctively perked up and she froze in place. The noise sounded like someone taking a step and shuffling their feet along the ground. The cyan pony whipped the flashlight around and feverishly scanned the beam of light back and forth down the corridor. “What’s wrong?” Tom asked curiously with mild concern. Rainbow Dash gave the hallway one last search before sighing and turning to face the human. “Could have sworn that I just heard something behind us… but I guess not.” Rainbow said uneasily with a paranoid expression. Tom let his senses go off purposefully a few times to check their surroundings. He coughed forcefully a few times before realizing that he was still being overwhelmed by the darkness around them. “I can’t seem to feel anything around us except for this stupid blackness… but Twilight said she heard and saw things earlier before we had an incident out in the hallway, so be on your guard.” Tom instructed in a more serious tone. The pegasus was unnerved by the slayer’s statement, but nodded solemnly. Before the two could employ their meticulous awareness of their surroundings, they found themselves in front of room sixty-two. Rainbow Dash immediately put her ear to the door to listen for any signs of the two children inside. Unsatisfied with her findings, she opened the door and cautiously poked her head and flashlight through the opening. The light immediately caught two colorful shapes on a hospital bed. The pair were surrounded by darkness save for a small patch of light coming in from the window at the far end of the room. “Rainbow Dash!” The orange shape on the bed squeaked in joy upon seeing the pegasus enter the room. The cyan pony needed no further confirmation that the children were in fact on the bed and rushed into the room. “Spike! Scootaloo! I’m so glad you guys are alright!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed joyfully while rushing up to the bedside and wrapping the baby dragon and orange filly in a tight hug. They gladly accepted the hug while forgetting for a moment about their frightful predicament. “Rainbow Dash! I’m so glad you’re here… I thought we were going to die in here!” Scootaloo exclaimed while on the verge of tears. She burrowed her head into the pegasus’s cyan coat and let out a few sobs of relief. Rainbow Dash patted the filly on the back tenderly as she allowed her to vent her emotions for a few minutes. Spike shuddered as he dealt with his own mixture of emotions internally. He knew that everything would be alright now that the two were there to rescue him and his companion. “Don’t worry we’re going to get you out of here.” Tom spoke reassuringly to the two as he walked forward into the room. Scootaloo suddenly pushed herself away from the cyan pegasus and adopted a more concerned expression. “There’s something under the bed!” Scootaloo exclaimed urgently while directing her attention back to the source of her problems. The pegasus seemed confused by the filly’s statement, but given their current situation and how frightened Scootaloo seemed, Rainbow Dash gave the thought consideration. “Something under the bed…? How do you know?” The cyan pony asked with a twinge of nervousness in her voice as she looked to her feet apprehensively. Scootaloo started frantically trying to put words together to explain, when she was interrupted by Spike speaking up from beside her. “I thought the same thing when I came in here… even checked under there to be sure, but then something tried to grab me and pull me under there.” The dragon explained fearfully as he was concerned for the pegasus being so close to the bed. Before anybody could elaborate on their thoughts, a noise suddenly came from the underside of the bed. It sounded like something was scuffling against the floor and frame of the bed, making an eerie noise that sent chills up everyone’s spine. Rainbow Dash gulped nervously as she hesitantly lowered her eyes to the floor. She felt her muscles tensing up defiantly to prevent her from shifting her head downward to examine the source of the noise. “Tom… do you see anything?” Rainbow asked in a fearfully cold tone as her entire body seized up in terror. The pegasus was forced by her stiffness to keep tense eye contact with the two frightened children on the bed. The human carefully knelt down to avoid making any sudden movements. He peered under the bed and tried to scan the darkness for any signs of movement. Failing to see anything amid the black void, Tom shrugged in frustration as he realized what he would need to do. “No, I don’t… it’s pitch black under there. We’re going to need to use the flashlight.” Tom said apprehensively to the nervous pegasus. Rainbow Dash in turn cursed under her breath. She then looked over to the flashlight she had set down on the bed. “Are you serious?! I don’t want to look under there!” The cyan mare yelled quietly as she tried to remain as still as possible. “You won’t have to… I’m going to need you to jump up on the bed and throw me the flashlight.” The boy clarified in a more serious voice while steeling himself for his own task. The noise under the bed was showing no signs of ceasing, giving the pegasus no doubt in her mind that this was a dangerous situation. She looked to her two friends on the bed for support. The children simply scooted aside to give her room and gave Rainbow Dash a frightened stare. “Alright… I’ll do it quick like a band aid.” The cyan pony gave herself a pep talk as she rehearsed the action in her mind. Unfortunately for her, the drawbacks of rehearsing an action in one’s mind allows for one’s imagination to get in the way and also rehearse how every single detail can go wrong. After nervously shaking her head to rid herself of all negative thoughts, Rainbow Dash quickly leapt up and onto the bed all at once. The impact of the adult pony on the mattress created a loud thud that rocked the entire frame. Before the creature under the bed had a chance to react to the new stimulus, the pegasus quickly grabbed the flashlight and chucked it at the waiting human. Tom effortlessly caught the small object and bent down while turning it on in one swift motion. The three on the bed anxiously watched the slayer as he rapidly scanned the flashlight under the bed, but were surprised to see that Tom was taking longer to react than they anticipated. “What the…?” The human exclaimed in bewilderment. The others looked at him with confusion evident on their faces. “What do you see?” Scootaloo asked in a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. The boy merely blinked his eyes a few times to ensure that they were not failing him. “Nothing…. There’s nothing down there.” Tom stated in disbelief as he watched the beam of light from the flashlight come out of the other side of the bed. Nothing but a few dust bunnies sat on the bare floor of the opening. “What?! But we all heard it! Spike didn’t just get grabbed by nothing!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock as she tried to process the situation. Spike and Scootaloo seemed just as confused as the cyan pegasus as their jaws hung open in disbelief. Tom double checked his findings and shrugged in annoyance. He then got up and looked around the room. Taking note of the unnatural amount of darkness in the room, the boy walked over to the window and observed the amount of light coming in. “What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously as she watched the human look back and forth between the various dark areas of the room. He then suddenly turned to face the group with a frustrated expression. “Maybe something about the darkness is causing hallucinations of fear… It does seem to be reacting oddly to the light.” Tom stated while pointing out the strange position of the shadows in the room. The three on the bed tilted their heads curiously as they noticed the unnaturally thick darkness at the front of the room. Spike and Scootaloo had been too preoccupied with their frightening predicament to notice the change, but the light from the windows had been steadily decreasing its reach as the shadows crept closer to the other side of the room. “Wh… why is it so dark in here?” Spike asked in bewilderment as he observed the now eerie far side of the room. Tom walked into the center of the room uneasily as he mulled over all of the information he had to construct his theory. “We had some experience with this before… even before you and Applejack noticed the shadows in the lobby moving. We heard things moving around in the darkness around us, and Twilight’s light went out without her knowing why.” The boy explained while looking back to Rainbow Dash. “Whatever is going on… the shadows seem to be slowly snuffing out every source of light.” He clarified the obvious while contemplating any other theory he might have. “So… there are no monsters?” Scootaloo asked nervously while trying to convince herself that she would be safe. Tom turned around to face the group while standing at the other side of the room. “I don’t think so… I’m pretty sure all of this strange darkness is causing us to see and hear things. We just need to reverse whatever spell is causing this before these hallucinations get worse.” The human said confidently while giving the three a reassuring smile. Rainbow Dash was relieved to see the two children loosening up and regaining their calm demeanor. Suddenly, she remembered something that made her even more confused at the human’s explanation. “Wait… if there are no monsters, then where did Applebloom and that other pony go?” Rainbow asked with a puzzled expression. Scootaloo seemed confused to hear that her friend had returned to the hospital. “Applebloom is here? I thought she was home resting…” The filly turned to Rainbow Dash and waited for an explanation as to why her friend would be in the building. The cyan pony turned to the curious filly and sighed. “She tripped at home and hurt her leg again… she was getting it checked out, but we couldn’t find her or the pony she was with.” Rainbow Dash explained with worry in her voice as she decided to be truthful to the young pegasus. Tom furrowed his brow in frustration as he thought about the complication to his explanation. He was starting to get concerned for the safety of the filly and the pony that was with her. “That is odd… I don’t think hallucinations can make anyone disappear… but I don’t sense any-” The human paused suddenly as he noticed the three on the bed suddenly became very pale and frightened. They were staring at the boy fearfully as they stammered while trying to say something. “What’s with you guys?” Tom asked anxiously as he noted the petrified trio on the bed. Rainbow Dash managed to point her hoof behind the slayer as she tried desperately to form words. “B-behind you!” The cyan mare choked on her own voice as she fought through her fear to warn the human. Standing behind Tom was a large black shape in the dark corner of the room. It was hard to make out any features, but the figure was clearly visible as it loomed towards the human with its body arched. Before the boy could turn around, the figure shot forward in a blur and clamped a gnarled hand down on his shoulder. In one swift motion, the creature shot backwards towards the wall, sending Tom reeling backwards as his legs flew out in front of his body from being flung off balance. “AHH!” Tom yelped in surprise as he was forced to the floor in the corner of the room. The human’s head slammed into the intersection of the two walls, sending him into a daze. The ponies watched fearfully as the figure suddenly reappeared in the darkness in front of the slayer. The dark silhouette glided forward and loomed over the human menacingly. It suddenly bent down and grabbed the boy by his throat. Tom coughed and sputtered as the creature lifted him up and constricted its bony fingers tighter around his neck. “Leave him alone!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a burst of bravery as she hopped down from the bed to assist the human. The shadowy figure turned its blurry body around and seemingly gave the pegasus a stern expression with its obscured face. Before Rainbow Dash had a chance to reach the two struggling in the corner, the creature suddenly jerked sideways as it seemingly disappeared into a blur while moving through the shadows. It took Tom with it as it rushed to the other side of the room. The shadow flung the human against the wall, causing a large hole to be made in the plaster as the boy’s body crashed into it. Tom struggled against the beast while throwing a few punches at it. The shadow seemed to ignore each attack the human managed to send its way. Rainbow Dash was shocked to see the slayer in such distress. The mere sight of the boy being choked against the wall made her bubble up with a severe rage that overrode any sense of fear she felt from the terrifying monster. She leapt forward and jumped onto the creature in an attempt to distract it. The shadow seemed to pay no attention to the pony on its back as it continued to strangle its prey. Frustrated at her lack of success, the pegasus wrapped her arms around what she could loosely identify as the silhouette’s neck and pulled back as hard as she could. Scootaloo and Spike cheered on the brave pegasus as she wrestled with the beast to get it away from Tom. Much to their dismay, the shadow bucked its head backwards to hit the pony, sending her sliding on her back as she flew towards the floor. Rainbow Dash rubbed her forehead as she tried to regain her senses. She looked up in a daze to see how bad she had been knocked around, only to see the shadowy beast had turned around to face her while holding Tom in its other hand. “…!” The pegasus felt her body tense up in fear as she felt the creature staring at her with its unseen eyes. The ghostly shadow stepped forward towards the hapless pony while watching her menacingly. The two children on the bed watched in horror as Rainbow Dash was caught in a petrified trance that left her shivering in fear while staring at her attacker. Before the monster got close enough to touch the cyan pony, Tom lifted his hand in front of him weakly and steadied himself. A ray of bright light suddenly shot out into the shadow’s back, causing it to stumble forward as it recoiled from the pain of the light. Rainbow Dash managed to catch a brief glimpse of what the monster actually looked like amid the short flash of light. The beast appeared very humanoid in nature, being dressed in what seemed to be a very worn and faded looking grey hoodie that covered the top half of its face. Its skin seemed unnaturally pale as it clung tightly to its gaunt body. The creature didn’t appear to have a visible nose, having instead a smooth patch of pale skin above its equally pale mouth which sat in a dull straight line to form a blank expression. The sight of the creature made the pony yelp in fear as she backed up to desperately gain distance from the monster while it adjusted to the darkness once more. The shadow had dropped the human to the floor in its attempt at getting away. Tom lifted his hand up in preparation to attack again. Before the slayer could fire off another beam of light, the creature jerked downwards rapidly as its form disappeared into the thin veil of shadows that covered the front of the room. Tom and Rainbow Dash were left staring at each other in shock through the newly open space between them. Coming to her senses, the cyan pony decided to check up on the human’s health. He appeared to be very short of breath, with a red mark where the creature had clamped down onto his throat. “Are you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked with concern as she looked around the room feverishly to find where the beast had gone. “I’m fine… but where did it go?!” Tom replied in a slight panic as he scanned around them while arching his body in preparation to fight from any angle. The darkness in the room now filled the group with a newfound sense of dread as they had a glimpse of what lurked inside of it. “I don’t know…” Rainbow Dash stated nervously as she darted her eyes around fearfully. She had a nervous knot developing in her stomach. She didn’t feel safe, and by extension she didn’t feel like Spike and Scootaloo were safe, and that was unacceptable to the cyan pony. She steeled her nerves for venturing back out into the dark hallways of the hospital. The pegasus was fed up with waiting for something bad to happen. “Come on… we’re getting out of here!” Rainbow exclaimed urgently to the two children on the bed. They darted their eyes around the room nervously in an attempt to find where the creature would pop out next. Rainbow Dash got up from the floor and walked over to the door before turning and offering a reassuring expression to the two shivering kids. “I know you’re scared… I am too, but it’s ok. Right now we need to focus on getting out of here.” The cyan mare stated in the most comforting tone she could muster while looking to the two earnestly. Spike and Scootaloo gave each other a frightened glance before settling their eyes back on the pegasus. They slowly nodded before getting up and walking over to the edge of the bed. Spike cautiously made his way down the side of the bed and hopped onto the ground. Taking little time to reflect on his anxiety, the dragon rushed away from the dark void of the bed’s underside and joined the two on the other side of the room. The three watched as Scootaloo nervously stared at the ground beneath her. The dark opening to the small space under the bed sent the small filly’s imagination into overdrive as she pictured herself being grabbed and pulled away into the shadows. Steeling herself for the task at hand, the filly slowly climbed over the side of the bed and dangled for a moment while plotting her next move. After regaining her bravery, Scootaloo finally dropped to the floor and cushioned herself from the impact to prevent any injuries. She quickly turned around and made a dash towards the group on the other side of the room. Just before the filly could make it away from the bed, a grimly familiar dark blur shot out from the black void behind her and grabbed her back leg. The orange pegasus yelped in surprise as she felt her body being pulled off balance from the sudden jolt of the creature dragging her backwards. “Ahhhh!” Scootaloo screamed fearfully as she was pulled along the ground towards the underside of the bed. The trio on the far side of the room watched in a horrified state of shock as the filly was knocked against one of the bed posts. Despite her head spinning from the harsh impact, Scootaloo managed to wrap her arms around the post and cling to it as tight as her childish muscles could allow. Not taking a moment to spare, Tom sprang into action and jumped forward to grab the frightened filly. He grabbed onto her hoof just as she was pulled off her tiny stronghold and held on for dear life to prevent the creature from having its way. “Rainbow Dash! Get the flashlight!” The human yelled in a panic as he started to lose the battle with the monster. The pegasus looked slightly confused, but decided not to waste time with her own doubts on the boy’s logic. She dove for the flashlight on the ground and flipped it around to face towards the bed. In a blur of sheer instinct driven motion, Rainbow Dash turned the light on and shone the beam frantically under the bed at an angle to hit behind the two. Scootaloo suddenly felt the tight grip of the creature disappear as the light illuminated the area behind her. The sudden change in balance between forces caused Tom to pull the filly forward rapidly, knocking her head against his. The two grunted from the pain of the impact while taking a brief moment to rub their tender craniums. Tom quickly refrained from comforting his own injury to pull the filly out from under the bed and dragged her to her feet while rushing to the other side of the room. “Come on! We’re getting out of here!” The human exclaimed to the two shocked observers as he rushed passed them with Scootaloo in tow. Rainbow Dash and Spike managed to curtail their sense of fear and shock and rushed forward to join him as he rushed out of the door. The cyan pegasus fumbled with the flashlight as she held it in a way that kept most of the group inside its cone of effect.
Chapter 26: Flashlight TagTwilight shivered fearfully as she clung to the wall behind her while staring into the darkness that filled the corridor she was in. She couldn’t imagine the exact time she had been sitting still while jumping at any noise she had heard, but she wagered that it had been several minutes since she was left alone by her companions being pulled away into the dark. What am I going to do? The unicorn thought to herself as she nervously scanned her head back and forth to catch a glimpse of the shadowy figures she had seen before. She wondered if whatever had taken the two nurses was the same reason why Applebloom and the other pony had gone missing. The more Twilight analyzed the situation, the more fearful she grew as she thought about how she was going to get back to safety. The frightened pony forced herself to get up from her seated position. She then inched her body forward as she fought against her desire to curl up into a ball and wait. Slowly but surely, the unicorn’s sphere of light moved forward as she took baby steps down the eerie hallway while searching for any sign of movement around her. Where are those things…? There were so many of them around me before… but now I can’t see anything. Twilight noted the lack of any shapes in the darkness. She could only wonder if her brief observation of the creatures’ avoidance of light was correct, and what would happen to her if it wasn’t. The unicorn contemplated fleeing to the relative safety of the first floor. She wanted nothing more than to cower in fear under a chair in the lobby while waiting anxiously for her friends to return safely, but then she resolved that the only chance to save the two nurses would be to find Tom and the others. Cursing herself for her sense of valor, Twilight gulped nervously as she removed the false hope of finding the stairs from her mind and replaced it with her new plan of delving further into the second floor. She then looked around her for any signs of a landmark she could use to determine her location. Deducing that she was near one of the stretches of rooms the group had searched earlier, the purple pony turned down a hallway and marched forward while anxiously staring at the ground to avoid making eye contact with the black void in front of her. Twilight slowly made her way through the twists and turns of the dark corridors along what she hoped would be the path to her friends. She would give anything just to have some contact with another living creature, as long as it wasn’t one of those strange monsters. The eerily silent and cold atmosphere was starting to take its toll on the unicorn. She could feel her muscles aching from the combined force of her body tensing up from fear, and shivering intensely from the chilled air. Every ambient noise sent Twilight’s senses into overdrive as she scrutinized every minute groan of the building settling around her to make sure it wasn’t the sound of something trying to kill her. “I hope the others are alright…” Twilight whispered to herself gloomily to make herself feel slightly less alone. Now that she knew what lurked in the darkness, the unicorn worried for not only the two nurses, but Applebloom and Patches as well. She wondered if the creatures had dragged them away the same way they had Redheart and Daisychain. A sudden flicker of her light made Twilight look up from her thoughts and widen her eyes in fear. Another instance of her horn flickering off briefly made the unicorn’s heart sink to her feet. She still did not understand why her light had shut off against her will the last time, so to have it happen again when she was alone filled the purple pony with dread. “Oh no… not here!” The unicorn squeaked in a panic as she tried to channel as much focus and willpower into keeping her light on as possible. Suddenly, a noise behind her made the purple mare jerk her head around fearfully. She scanned her eyes back and forth frantically while simultaneously trying to keep her horn glowing. More noises of feet shuffling and quiet breaths around her made Twilight seize up in terror. She could already picture what the creatures would do to her once they caught her and pulled her away into the darkness. The unicorn slid to the floor and covered her eyes in acceptance. She was nowhere near any alternative source of light, and she had no sway over her progressively worsening flickering horn. Twilight sobbed quietly as she started tearing up from fear. She couldn’t even bring herself to shiver anymore as all of her emotions became internalized. Peeking out through a tiny opening under her arms, the purple pony nervously eyed the area in front of her to prepare herself for when her light went out. As the glow from her horn slowly dimmed each time it flickered back on, Twilight could barely catch a glimpse of shadowy figures approaching her with each flash of darkness. Suddenly, a brighter source of light fell on the area in front of the unicorn. Twilight looked up curiously as the figures in front of her disappeared with the new solid beam of light illuminating the hallway. She then came to the realization that the light was coming from a flashlight somewhere behind her. “Twilight!!” The voice of a familiar purple dragon rang out in excitement from down the hallway. The light bounced up and down as the sounds of tiny feet running down the corridor made Twilight perk up with joy. The unicorn got up and turned around to see Spike and Scootaloo running in her direction. “Spike!” Twilight exclaimed with happy excitement as she caught the running dragon in her arms and held him in a loving embrace. The unicorn and dragon wept into each other’s shoulder as they completely shut out their surroundings to enjoy their reunion. Scootaloo couldn’t help but smile herself from watching the two hug it out. She was just as excited as Spike was to finally have found someone familiar. The filly cautiously made sure to stay within the confines of the flashlight Spike was holding as he remained clutched against Twilight. After taking a moment to collect her emotions, Twilight finally let go of Spike and sat him down. She could see that he had tears of joy running down his face as well. After sniffling once more to rid herself of her fearful feelings from before, the unicorn wiped her own tears and smiled warmly at the two children. “I’m so happy to see you two aren’t hurt!” Twilight stated with elation before slowly taking a minute to process the information being presented to her. The unicorn slowly glanced down to the flashlight the baby dragon was holding and realized that the two were alone. “Wait… isn’t that Rainbow Dash’s flashlight? Where did she and Tom go?” Twilight asked with a growing sense of dread as she watched the two children’s bright expressions shift to gloomy frowns. Scootaloo looked away and closed her eyes sadly as she remembered the events prior to meeting the unicorn. “We were trapped in Scootaloo’s room by a monster hiding under the bed when Tom and Rainbow Dash came in to rescue us.” Spike explained gloomily to save Scootaloo the trouble of expressing her sadness into words. “We ran out of there and started making our way back downstairs. Everything was going fine until…” He paused and looked down sadly as he went over the scene in his head. Twilight could only wonder what horrible things might have happened while Tom was around to protect the group. “Rainbow Dash got grabbed by one of the monsters and dropped her flashlight. Tom ran after her and barely managed to grab onto her… but the thing just dragged both of them away. I grabbed the flashlight and tried to find them… but by the time we made it around the corner they were already gone.” The dragon finished his explanation while still staring at the ground gloomily. Twilight felt her heart sink into her stomach as the story settled into her mind. If Tom couldn’t prevent himself and Rainbow Dash from getting taken away by those creatures, then what sort of miniscule chance did she have at protecting herself and her two young companions? “So you two have been wandering around this place all by yourselves?” The unicorn asked with a sympathetic frown on her face. The two offered a slow nod in response as they progressively lost all hope that they would be able to escape the hospital alive. Twilight sighed sadly as she thought about what to do next. As much as she wanted to search for her friends, she realized that she would have a very slim chance of finding them by herself. Even if the unicorn did manage to fend off the creatures for long enough to search, the missing ponies and the human could be anywhere in the hospital. Making up her mind to follow the most logical solution, Twilight tested her horn to see if the strange effects had worn off as they did last time. Satisfied to see the familiar purple glow envelop her horn with a strong sphere of light surrounding the group, the purple pony turned around and took a few steps forward. “Come on… we’re getting out of here.” Twilight announced with determination to the two children as she waited for them to follow her. The pair was shocked to see the unicorn so confident in her decision to leave the second floor without finding the others. “We can’t just leave everyone to die up here!” Scootaloo exclaimed with surprise as she shook her head defiantly. “We can’t just charge headlong into the dark to get picked off one by one either!” Twilight raised her voice slightly, more so out of frustration than anger towards the filly. Scootaloo seemed taken aback by the sudden outburst of the usually cool headed unicorn. Twilight looked away for a moment after realizing that she just snapped at a helpless child. Taking a moment to calm herself down, the unicorn spoke in a soft yet confident tone to the two in front of her. “Look… I know you want to find the others… I do too, but we won’t do them any good by getting ourselves captured. I’m going to take you two down to the lobby where it’s safe, and then I’m going to work on getting help from Princess Luna.” Twilight explained confidently to the two. Spike and Scootaloo felt slightly safer knowing that the unicorn had a plan in place. Seeing the pair nod compliantly made the unicorn feel even more confident that she could lead them to safety. After giving them a nod in return, Twilight turned her head back in front of her and started making her way back to the stairwell. The group cautiously walked through the dark corridor while being careful to remain in the confines of the sphere of light provided by Twilight. Spike kept his flashlight handy just in case something happened to make it useful once more. After a few minutes of walking, the three found themselves in the hallway that led to the stairs. The anticipation of leaving the eerie atmosphere of the second floor weighed heavy on everyone’s minds. Before long, the group saw the familiar shape of the stairway door come into view. Twilight quickly turned the handle on the door and swung it open. She then made her way inside and waited for the two children to step through before shutting the door behind them. The three instantly noticed a moderate increase in temperature, although it was still freezing cold, the air felt slightly less bone chilling. “Hard to believe how much the simple absence of light can change the atmosphere of a room.” Spike stated while peering over the railing to observe the flights of stairs below. Scootaloo and Twilight nodded in agreement as they nervously shifted their eyes around the eerie looking stairwell. The stairs leading up to the third floor seemed to ascend into darkness as the light from the unicorn’s horn failed to travel up the entirety of the steps, leaving a vast wall of darkness. The shadows cast by the railing and other flights of stairs seemed to create areas of foreboding blackness on the far wall. And to top off the frightening atmosphere of the enclosed space, the entire stairwell was dead quiet save for the low sound of breathing coming from the trio. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here… the faster we get back to the lobby, the better.” Twilight broke away from observing her bleak surroundings long enough to get the group back on track. Spike and Scootaloo nodded eagerly as they tried their hardest to keep their attention focused away from the darkness around them. Without further delay, the trio cautiously descended the stairs on their way to the first floor. After reaching the landing they quickly opened the door and briskly walked out into the hallway. Once they realized that they were out of the oppressive atmosphere of the second floor, the three breathed a collective sigh of relief as they finally managed to stop their bodies from shivering. “We managed to set up a safe area in the lobby… once we get there and send a message to the princess, you two can stay with Applejack while I search for the others.” Twilight explained with a false tone of bravery as she pictured where she could go to look for the others. Spike and Scootaloo seemed shocked upon hearing the unicorn’s plan. “What?! You can’t be serious!” Spike yelled with concern. He couldn’t believe that Twilight was even thinking of going out into the dark alone. The purple pony frowned sympathetically. She felt horrible for having to leave the dragon so soon, but she needed to do something to help her friends. “I’ll be fine Spike… I’m going to take a flashlight with me just in case my light goes out again.” Twilight spoke softly with a reassuring smile while ruffling the baby dragon’s head. Spike put up his hand and shoved away the unicorn’s hoof. Twilight frowned slightly as he started giving her a sterner look. “You won’t be fine Twilight. You can’t just tell me that nothing bad is going to happen to you… Tom and Rainbow Dash got taken away right in front of us! Who knows what those monsters are doing to them!” The dragon started breathing rapidly as he worked himself up into a slight panic. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Spike looked earnestly at the unicorn and tried to convey a sense of seriousness. “I know you want to find the others… but you can’t just go out there and put yourself in danger.” Spike placed his hand on her leg lovingly and gave her a concerned frown. Twilight was impressed to see her young assistant had become so mature in his time with her. She wasn’t sure how she could convince him that she would be safe, even if she herself didn’t know if she would be. “Spike…” The unicorn paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. She then knelt down to be at eye level with the dragon and gave him a tender smile. “I know that you don’t want me to get hurt… but I have to do something. If it were you that had gone missing, I would still go looking for you. I can’t promise you that nothing bad will happen… This is a dangerous situation after all. But I can promise you that I will try my hardest to come back to see you again, no matter what happens.” She spoke softly while trying to sound as confident as possible. Spike was at a loss for words on the matter. He wanted to speak up in protest of the bold pony, but he also knew that she had made up her mind. The dragon had a myriad of thoughts buzzing around in his head. If he had still been trapped on the second floor, he would have wanted Twilight to rescue him, but that would have been just as dangerous as if she were trying to rescue someone else. “Let’s… let’s just get to the lobby first.” Spike finally spoke up to get the group moving again. “But I want you to think about this further before you do anything too hasty… alright?” He looked up to her with a sincere expression of loving concern. The unicorn nodded silently while taking his words to heart. Without any further discussion the trio started their way forward once more, traveling through the quiet corridors of the hospital on their way to the safety of the lobby, each member deep within the confines of their own thoughts. The eerie quiet of the group’s surroundings made them more uneasy than comforted. They couldn’t help but wonder if the cold chill running down their spines was an actual warning of them being watched, or if they were just paranoid. After all, they knew next to nothing about the odd monsters besieging the hospital. For all they knew, the beasts could be silently observing them from every passing dark corner, waiting for their chance to pick off a straggler and pull them away into the shadows. Just as the group thought that they would be wandering the dark corridors forever, a small sign on the wall came into view, giving them a much needed landmark to tell them where they were. “This is great! The lobby should be just down the next hallway.” Twilight exclaimed eagerly. Her two companions shared in her enthusiasm as they were already celebrating escaping the perils of the hospital in one piece. Before the trio could continue towards safety, a new obstacle in their path filled them with anxiety. Twilight’s horn started flickering once again as it signaled that it was about to die out. The constant blinking of the light made the unicorn’s blood run cold. “Oh no… not again.” Twilight stated nervously. Scootaloo joined the purple pony in her terror, while Spike seemed less phased by the ominous flickering of their once comforting source of light. He confidently flipped on his flashlight and held it level to cover the group. “Don’t worry, I got this handled.” Spike remarked assuredly with a smirk on his face. Just as the dragon steadied the beam onto the group, Twilight’s horn puttered out with remarkable timing. The two breathed a sigh of relief at the young dragon’s quick thinking. “Nice save Spike, I thought we were goners for a second there.” Scootaloo chuckled nervously at the groups close brush with certain disaster. The dragon smiled proudly to see that he could contribute to helping the group survive. “Let’s just hurry up and get out of here… we don’t want this flashlight to burn out on us too.” Spike said while crossing his fingers hopefully. The others nodded before turning to walk down the hallway that would lead them to freedom. Just as Twilight and Scootaloo were taking their first step forward, they saw the flashlight beam jerk upwards and away from them, followed by the sound of Spike yelping in surprise. They quickly turned around to see that the dragon had been yanked backwards into the darkness, leaving the flashlight sitting on the ground. “Spike!” Twilight yelled in shock as her heart sank from hearing the dragon cry out while being dragged along the floor. The unicorn quickly jumped forward to grab the flashlight on the ground. She then quickly pointed it forward down the hallway and hoped that she wasn’t too late. Much to her relief, the beam of light illuminated the baby dragon a short distance away. Whatever creature had grabbed him immediately disappeared once the light shone on the dragon, leaving him to slide backwards a short ways from the interrupted force of the pull. “Spike, get up! You have to get over here now!” Twilight yelled fearfully. The unicorn didn’t even try to hide the panic in her voice as her entire body was shaking from terror and dread. She didn’t feel like her mind could process the situation in front of her. Spike darted his head around for a moment before rolling over to get up easier. Before he could get to his feet however, he looked beside him into the opening of the adjacent hallway. Standing right outside the beam of light a little ways into the next hallway, was a tall shadowy figure that seemed to be somehow staring at him despite its hidden face. The dragon froze up in fear upon seeing this. His body started shivering uncontrollably, and his pupils shrank to pin points as he stared at the figure, unable to move his head to look away. Twilight and Scootaloo could see that Spike was terrified by something, but couldn’t do much from where they were standing. “Spike… come on, just get up and walk over here.” Twilight spoke calmly and directly to the dragon in hopes that he would snap out of his trance. He merely kept staring to the side into the hallway obscured from the unicorn’s view by a wall. “T-T-Tw…Twilight.” Spike stammered fearfully without moving his head. Twilight could see that his body was shaking from sheer fright. “They can’t get to you in the light Spike… come on.” The unicorn spoke in a calm tone. She started walking forward slowly to avoid shaking the light. Scootaloo followed her closely as she approached the dragon. “We’re going to walk over there and get you Spike… alright?” Twilight tried her hardest to comfort the petrified dragon. She wanted to rush over and pick him up, but from this distance even the slightest movement of the flashlight could leave a part of his body exposed to the darkness for the creature to grab him. Despite Twilight’s attempts at encouragement, Spike remained still while staring down his attacker. He seemed to be frozen in place from terror. Finally, the dragon started making slow movements to push himself up. Once he was on his feet again, he turned around and prepared to run towards the others. Suddenly, as if to toy with the frightened band of ponies, something pulled on Twilight’s back leg slightly. Not enough to knock her off balance, but just enough to make her inadvertently jostle the flashlight upwards for a brief moment. The unicorn’s nerves kicked into action and she quickly pointed the light back onto the dragon, but by that time it was too late. “AHH!” Spike yelled in terror as he was pulled off of his feet and into the next hallway. “No!” Twilight yelled defiantly and rushed forward to reach the opening of the corridor. She desperately turned the corner and flashed the light down the hallway. Her heart sank when she failed to catch any glimpse of the purple dragon. The corridor was dead silent. The sound of Spike’s screams had died down and were replaced with a deafening quiet that hung around the purple pony like a rope around her neck. She darted the light around in a vain attempt at finding the dragon. Tears started welling up in her eyes as she dropped to her knees. The unicorn stared blankly down the hallway as her mind refused to process what had just happened. “No… no… no, no, no!” Twilight shook her head and let the flashlight drop to the floor, where it rolled slightly to face her and the somber filly beside her. Scootaloo wiped a tear from her own eye as she tried to think of something she could say. Eventually, she just decided to leave the unicorn alone in silence. “Spike… I’m so sorry…” The purple pony spoke under her sobs as she let the wave of sadness surge through her body. She closed her eyes and wept openly for a few minutes, leaving the orange filly to sit beside her and offer her a consoling hoof on the back. “Twilight… we need to go.” Scootaloo finally spoke up to break the somber silence that filled the air. She couldn’t imagine what the loss of the young dragon must have been like for her. After all, Twilight had known Spike for his entire life. Twilight sniffled one last time before wiping her face to rid herself of any tears left on it. She then turned to the filly and gave her a slow nod. Despite her intense feeling of sorrow, she had another child that she had to protect. Even if she had failed to protect Spike, the unicorn was not about to lose Scootaloo. “We’ll find him…” Twilight spoke in a sad sort of monotone. “We’ll find all of them all safe and sound… But for now… let’s just go.” Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for the grieving unicorn. She seemed to move and walk like she didn’t care about life anymore. The two quietly made their way through the last few hallways that would lead them back to the lobby. After a short walk, the filly and unicorn noticed that the area up ahead seemed brighter than the rest of the hallway. They quickly realized that they had reached the junction of hallways directly outside of the lobby. The duo rushed forward eagerly until they came around the corner and stood in the dim light. Sure enough, just in front of them lay the two blue candles on either side of the opening that protected the lobby from intrusion of the creatures. “Twilight!” The sound of Applejack getting up and rushing over to greet her friends filled the unicorn and filly with elation and relief. The farm pony jogged across the room and came to a stop just in front of the candles to see the two travelers. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed happily while giving the orange mare an enthusiastic hug. She thought that she would never see her again when she was upstairs, so to be right outside the warm and friendly atmosphere of the lobby brought tears of joy to the unicorn’s eyes. “Ah was starting to get worried for y’all… what have you been doing up there?” Applejack asked with friendly concern as she stepped back to get a better look at the roughed up pair. Their hair was messed up in several places and their faces looked like they had just been through hell. Twilight shifted her happy expression into a gloomy frown as she remembered how many people she had lost on her rescue mission. She had failed to save Spike, Redheart and Daisychain were now missing, and to top all of that off, she had even lost Tom and Rainbow Dash. “We have had a bad day… let’s just come in and have a seat for now. We’ll tell you about what happened later.” Scootaloo spoke up to save the unicorn the trouble of describing their hardships. Twilight gave the filly a grateful expression. She felt relieved that she didn’t need to explain everything that happened out loud. Applejack nodded silently. She could tell that something horrible must have happened for the two to be in such bad shape. She motioned for the pair to come in and join her in the lobby. Just as they were about to step through the barrier however, something caught the farm pony’s eye off to the side. “What is that thing?” Applejack asked with a hint of fear in her voice as she stared into the hallway to the right of the group. Twilight and Scootaloo turned their heads to see what their friend was talking about. What they saw made their hearts sink to their stomachs. One of the dark figures that had been plaguing them since the power had gone out was just down the dark hallway. Unlike the figures Twilight had seen up until now however, it was slowly walking towards the group. “Oh no! It’s another one of those monsters!” Scootaloo squeaked in a slight panic. Twilight was more annoyed and angry than fearful and nervous to see one of the shadowy silhouettes again. She sighed in frustration as she looked around to see the light filtering into the hallway from the far end of the lobby where the door was. “Don’t worry Scootaloo… It can’t get us with this light coming in from the sun.” Twilight put a hoof on the filly’s shoulder to comfort her. “What is that thing anyway…? Are you sure it can’t hurt us?” Applejack asked with a hint of doubt in her voice. She had a hard time believing that a monster like that could be stopped by a little bit of light. “As long as we stay in the light we’ll be fine. They try to grab you and pull you away, but they can’t stand the light.” The unicorn explained to ease the farmer’s fears. She tapped Scootaloo on the shoulder to get her attention and motioned for her to head into the lobby with her. Just before the two could walk forward, a bright flash of blue light caught them off guard. The barrier made by the candles fully appeared as if something had elicited them to activate. Suddenly, the level of light just outside the barrier seemed to dim to the point where Twilight could barely see. The unicorn instinctively whipped out her flashlight and turned it on again. A loud pop caused Twilight and her two friends to jump. The presence of a brief flash of white light indicated that the bulb had burst inside of the flashlight. “Scootaloo get inside!” The purple pony instructed urgently. She had no time to question why this was happening, so she instead sprang into action according to the situation. The two immediately jumped forward to get their bodies across the barrier as quickly as possible. Just before they could clear their legs from the darkness outside the blue force field however, both the filly and the unicorn were stopped midair as they were pulled backwards. “AAHH!” Both of the ponies cried out in unison as they desperately tried to find something to grab onto along the floor. Twilight closed her eyes and accepted her fate. She had lost. There was nothing more she could do to save either herself, or the filly next to her. Just before she was dragged out into the darkness completely, the unicorn felt something grab one of her hooves. She opened her eyes to see Applejack struggling to pull her back into the light. Taking a quick glance beside her, Twilight realized that the farm pony had also grabbed onto Scootaloo, and was pulling both of them using one arm each. Twilight and Scootaloo tried their best to kick free of their attackers, but quickly realized that both of their back legs had been grabbed by the creatures. They could only watch anxiously as Applejack fought with all of her might to save them. The orange mare dug into the floor with her back legs and gritted her teeth as she used all of her strength to just contend with the creatures. She was starting to slide forwards as the monsters gradually gained ground. “Ah can’t hold on much longer!” Applejack exclaimed to the two grimly. Twilight could see that her friend was racking her mind to find a way to save both of them. “Twilight! Light up your horn!” Scootaloo cried out urgently. The unicorn quickly tried to channel magic to the tip of her horn. Failing every attempt she made at getting her horn to start glowing again, Twilight groaned under the intense strain she was putting on herself. She couldn’t even use different spells if her horn wouldn’t light up at all. “I can’t! It must still be affected by whatever made it go out before!” Twilight replied frantically. She looked at the frightened filly beside her. Scootaloo was justifiably scared out of her mind. Seeing the orange filly in distress reminded her of her failure at saving Spike. Mentally resolving that she would not allow another pony to be taken on her watch, the purple pony raced her mind around to find a possible solution. Suddenly, Twilight had an idea. She hadn’t elaborated on this plan before. It was such a stupid idea after all, but due to the lack of other options, it was the only idea she could come up with that could save Scootaloo. The unicorn glanced behind her nervously. She was so close to the barrier the candles made that she could stick her head through the barrier just by turning. It almost felt like she was being pulled into a deep ocean with nothing but darkness below the surface. The sight of the black void waiting for her made her gulp nervously. Applejack felt an uneasy knot building in her stomach as she watched the purple mare thinking. She seemed to be contemplating something that she didn’t want to do, as if she were building up courage for something. “Take care of Scootaloo.” Twilight suddenly spoke up with apprehension evident in her voice. She turned back to face the orange mare with a nervous look in her eyes. Applejack gasped in shock as she realized what her friend was thinking of doing. “What?! Are you crazy?! Ah’m not letting you go!” The orange mare yelled frantically in defiance while tightening her hold on her purple friend. The unicorn gave her a sad look of defeat before closing her eyes tightly in preparation. “I wasn’t asking!” Twilight exclaimed with a shaky voice as she used her other arm to push herself out of Applejack’s grip. As much as the farm pony tried to hold on to the unicorn, her already strained grasp was no match for the combined pull of the monsters and her friend trying to weasel out of her grip. “No!” Applejack and Scootaloo screamed in unison as the purple pony was yanked backwards into the shadows. “AHHH!” Despite her brave decision, Twilight screamed in a panic as she was quickly pulled down the hallway and out of earshot. Applejack was mortified that she had just witnessed her friend getting pulled away from her by a monster that could very well kill her whenever it felt like it. She looked away sadly before centering herself for the task ahead of her. She couldn’t let Twilight’s sacrifice be meaningless. She had to save Scootaloo. The young pegasus felt Applejack grabbing hold of her other hoof, but she was still staring beside her in the direction that Twilight was abducted with a distraught expression. Realizing that she would be getting no help from the filly, the orange mare heaved as hard as she could to pull her into the lobby. With the decrease in weight for the farm pony to deal with, she started winning the battle against the unseen creatures. Gradually, more and more of Scootaloo’s body was being hoisted free of the blue barrier. The monsters growled in anger as they realized their prey was getting away. Scootaloo whined fearfully as she felt the creatures tightening their grip on her legs to the point of it being painful. Despite all of this, Applejack wasn’t going to let the filly be taken. Finally, Scootaloo’s legs breached the barrier. The monsters howled in pain as their hands touched the barrier. Applejack groaned and clutched the filly in her arms as she fell backwards. Once she made sure that the young pegasus was safe, she let her go. Now that the danger had passed, the pair returned their attention to what they had lost during the struggle. Applejack watched sadly as Scootaloo slowly walked up to the barrier and stared out into the black void in disbelief. The filly started shaking and her breathing became shallow and rapid. Tears started welling up in her eyes and her lip quivered uncontrollably. “TWILIGHT!” Scootaloo shook her head and cried out in a strong wave of emotion before collapsing to her knees and sobbing openly. Applejack walked alongside the filly and started tearing up as well. She could only wonder if that would be the last time she saw Twilight alive.
Chapter 27: The Midnight Men“Ughh…” Rainbow Dash groaned drowsily as her senses flooded back to her. She felt like her mind had a thick haze clouding it, preventing her from making any substantial observations about her situation. Judging from the dull throbbing pain in her head, she came to the conclusion that she must have been knocked out. As the rest of her body slowly woke up along with her, the cyan pegasus felt incredibly sore and uncomfortable. Sore from the pain she was feeling from being knocked around so much, and uncomfortable from the hard floor she was currently laying on. Remembering what had happened before she lost consciousness, Rainbow Dash decided that she needed to get up. Upon opening her eyes however, the cyan pony discovered that a light was present in the room, causing her to blink rapidly to adjust to the unfamiliar shine. Ignoring her aching muscles, the groggy pegasus lifted herself up and leaned against the newly discovered wall that was behind her for support. She then shifted her eyes around to look around the room. The light she had noticed earlier was coming from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling by a thin cord. The bulb was completely bereft of any sort of covering, letting its orange tinted light flow through the room unfettered. The room itself appeared to be a hospital room, but something was eerily off about it. The usual soft carpeted floor had been replaced with an aged, dirty, almost decrepit looking wooden floor. The wallpaper looked like the same that was used in the hospital rooms she had seen before, but it looked incredibly aged and worn, having ripped and torn in several places exposing the inner part of the wall underneath. A large wooden wardrobe sat in the corner of the room with its door slightly ajar, revealing the pitch blackness that covered the inside of the closet. It was hard to tell from where she was sitting, but the cyan pony could barely make out the outline of various clothes inside of the out of place piece of furniture. “Where… where the hay am I?” Rainbow Dash wondered out loud as she rubbed the back of her head. Taking note of the sore spot on her cranium, the pegasus looked beside her where she had been previously laying. She was slightly alarmed to see a patch of dried blood where her head had once been. “Ughh… That thing must have slung us around like we were its suitcase… Wait a minute… us?” The cyan pony suddenly came to the alarming realization that she had not been alone when she was abducted. Taking another scan around the room to locate her human friend, she finally laid eyes on him sprawled out along the floor on top of a broken bed frame. Rushing as much as her sore body would allow, the pegasus got up and walked over to the human. She was extremely relieved to see that she was not alone in this strange environment. Once she got closer to the unconscious boy however, her relief quickly turned to fright. “Oh my gosh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in horror while bringing a hoof to her mouth to cover a gasp. The slayer wasn’t just lying on a broken bed frame; a rather large post from the frame was jutting through his midsection. The pegasus wondered if the creature had thrown him onto the bed, causing it to break and causing the human to be impaled on it. “Tom! Wake up!” Rainbow Dash rushed to his side and slapped him gently on the side of his face to wake him up. “Come on... please don’t be dead.” She muttered as her voice cracked from fear. Although she had not known the human for more than a few days, the cyan mare considered all life to be precious, and would have been horrified to watch anyone die, let alone a new friend. Much to her surprise, the boy slowly stirred as his head rolled side to side. He seemed just as groggy as she had been as he slowly opened his eyes and adjusted them to the light. Noticing the concerned pegasus above him, Tom was relieved to see that she had not been harmed. “Rainbow Dash… it’s good to see you’re still here. I thought that thing would have separated us once it knocked me out… Ow!” Tom yelped in pain as he tried sitting up. Rainbow Dash quickly pressed on his shoulder to prevent him from moving any further. “You’re hurt bad… we need to go get you some help!” Rainbow explained with worry on her face as she pointed to the pole sticking out of the boy. She frowned in concern as she noticed that the human’s attempt at getting up had reopened the wound, causing it to start bleeding rapidly. “Ok… that hurts a lot.” Tom grimaced while repositioning himself. “Hey… could you do me a favor and back up a little bit?” He suddenly turned to the pony beside him and motioned for her to move away. Rainbow Dash was confused at the boy’s request, but nodded in compliance and backed away. “AAGHH!” The cyan pony jumped in fright as the human yelled in pain suddenly. She could see that he had jerked himself to the side, actually managing to break off of the bed frame with the pole still stuck inside of him. “Sweet Celestia, are you crazy?!” The horrified pegasus rushed forward and held the boy steady as he started to falter. She examined the extent of the damage and was shocked to see that the sudden movement had caused the pole to rip further into the human’s chest. “Maybe… but that’s a story for another time… Gahh…” Tom grimaced painfully and gritted his teeth to cope with the undoubtedly mind numbing pain he was dealing with. “Listen… I need you to pull this thing out of me.” He instructed with a sincere expression. “What… why?! If we remove it here we might do more harm than good!” Rainbow Dash shook her head as she frantically tried to think of a way to keep the boy alive. She didn’t want to just watch him die, but she didn’t really know what to do either. “Ok… how is it that I’m the one with a pole sticking out of my chest and you’re the one panicking?” Tom tried to sound as calm as possible to ease the cyan pony’s fears. “Look… I can heal this wound up myself, but I need this pole out of me first.” He tried to stay as still as possible to prevent any undue movements of the foreign object. Rainbow Dash suddenly remembered that the boy could use his powers to heal wounds. She couldn’t help but wonder how anybody could heal such a critical injury so quickly, but she decided to assist him in any way she could. Gripping the pole gently, she looked to him one last time for clarification. “This is probably going to be really painful… are you sure about this?” Rainbow Dash asked with an uncertain tone while glancing down at the object impaling the human. “Just focus on getting it out… don’t stop just because you think you’re hurting me alright?” Tom instructed calmly while steeling himself for the painful experience ahead. Rainbow Dash nodded apprehensively before shuddering nervously at what she was about to do. The pegasus quickly started yanking on the embedded object as hard as she could to get it over fast. Much to her dismay, her initial pull had not loosened the pole as she had planned. Tom shouted in pain while trying to stand his ground to give the cyan pony resistance to pull with. After a few minutes of both individuals cringing and tearing up for decidedly different reasons, the pole was freed from the human, causing him to stumble slightly as he almost fell backwards. Rainbow Dash threw the bloody pole on the ground in mild disgust and rushed over to the boy. “Oh my gosh... I am so sorry!” The cyan mare exclaimed apologetically as she observed the slayer writhing around in pain for a few moments. He took a brief moment to look up at the concerned pony. “It’s alright… you don’t have anything to apologize for… Ow!” Tom groaned as he looked down to the hole in his body. He then started yelping in pain as the wound was enveloped in flames and ashes. The wound being healed seemed to be causing him more pain than the pole had caused as it slowly closed up behind the glow of the embers. Much to the surprise of the cyan pegasus, even the boy’s clothes seemed to regenerate once the flame died down. “Man… that smarts like you wouldn’t believe.” Tom shook his head and sighed in relief that the pain had stopped. Rainbow Dash was horrified that the human had to go through so much pain and suffering on almost a daily basis. “Now that I don’t have anything sticking out of me… where the heck are we?” Tom asked curiously while observing the surrounding room. The human’s question reignited the cyan pony’s curiosity as she too wondered where they had been taken to. “It looks like we’re in a patient room… but it looks totally different from all the other rooms we’ve been to.” Rainbow Dash observed while brushing a patch of dirt along the floor. “That monster must have brought us here… I just hope that Spike and Scootaloo made it to safety.” The pegasus drooped her head as she thought about the two children being alone in this dark hospital. “I wonder why the creature brought us somewhere with a light? It looks like this room has been transformed, but why does it have a light if these things hate lights?” Tom pondered curiously while scratching his head. He then shrugged in defeat and walked over to the door. “We won’t find out by sticking around here will we?” Rainbow Dash stated while sharing the human’s desire to move on. The two stood by the door and opened it slowly. Much to their dismay, the entire hallway outside of the door was steeped in darkness as the others had been. Unlike the other hallways however, this hallway seemed to be less dark. The two could actually make out faint outlines of the hallway and the objects in it. Although they could see where they were going, the hallway seemed to be just as eerie and foreboding as the others on the second floor. “How are we even going to move around here? We don’t have a flashlight or anything…” The cyan pegasus observed nervously while looking out into the far edge of the hallway. The increase in light had not made the atmosphere any less frightening, with every opening into a different corridor chilling Rainbow Dash to her very core. Before Tom could answer the frightened pony, a noise to their left made them jump slightly. They turned to the side to see that the wardrobe had opened slightly, with a small object rolling on the floor just in front of it. The human bent over and picked up the object. He quickly found out that it was a flashlight similar to the one that Rainbow Dash had dropped when she was grabbed. Feeling suspicious of the sudden appearance of the item, Tom opened the wardrobe while preparing himself to fight whatever might have been inside. Rainbow Dash tensed up nervously as the human swung open the door to the pitch black closet without her being prepared. Much to the surprise and relief of the pegasus, the wardrobe was empty save for a few articles of clothing. “Empty…?” Rainbow muttered to herself while observing the clothes sway from the force of the door being opened. Curiously enough, the clothes seemed to be tailored to fit a human rather than a pony. The pegasus was slightly intrigued to see other forms of clothing that humans used. “Ok… now I know they’re messing with us… but why?” Tom observed while apprehensively shifting the flashlight around in his hands. Rainbow Dash shared in his nervous curiosity, but was thankful that they at least had a source of light. The two cautiously made their way out of the door and into the hallway. The walls and floor of the corridor seemed to be just as dingy and faded as the room’s furnishings. The same wooden floor stretched through the entirety of the hallway, and the wallpaper was just as torn and decrepit looking as it was in the room. Tom scanned the light back and forth in an attempt to find any distinguishable landmarks to give them a hint at their location. Eventually the boy’s eye caught a glimpse of a small sign on the wall. Upon closer inspection, the sign turned out to be a directory of all the rooms that were on this floor. “Looks like we’re on the third floor...” The human shared his findings with his companion. The thought of being even further away from the safety of the lobby made Rainbow Dash groan nervously. She could hardly believe that such a seemingly small distance could become so large in a situation like this. “Maybe Applebloom and that guy Patches are up here?” Rainbow Dash stated with careful optimism. Tom shrugged his shoulders as he thought about the likelihood of finding the two unharmed. They had been missing for a long time now, and the boy was severely concerned that they would only find their dead bodies. Slowly moving forward, the duo decided to check every room they passed to see if anyone was brought to the same place they had been. All of the rooms they looked in had a similar appearance to the one they had woken up inside, with wooden floors, a bare light bulb in the center of the room, a bare metal bedframe against the wall, and a wooden wardrobe off in the corner. As the two were searching, they slowly made their way towards the stairwell in order to get back to the lobby to help their friends. If they couldn’t find the others, they could at least put a stop to this nightmare before anything bad happened to them. Suddenly, a muffled noise from one of the rooms caught the duo’s attention. Quickly determining the source of the noise, Tom cautiously opened the door to the room and looked inside. Much to their surprise and relief, the two could see the familiar forms of Spike and Applebloom huddled together in the center of the room. “Tom! Rainbow Dash!” Spike exclaimed in excitement as he jumped up to run to the two he had previously seen getting dragged off into the darkness. Rainbow Dash gave the dragon a friendly hug and waited for Applebloom to hobble over to join the excited dragon. “What are you doing up here Spike? Where’s Scootaloo?” The cyan pegasus asked as she wondered why the dragon had been separated from the orange filly. She hoped that Scootaloo wasn’t alone somewhere else, terrified out of her mind. “After you guys got taken away, we ran into Twilight while we were trying to find a way out. Apparently Nurse Redheart and Daisychain got pulled away a little while after they left for the first floor.” Spike shook his head sadly as he thought about the purple unicorn being left alone. “After that, we decided to head back to the lobby… we almost made it too, but one of those things grabbed me and pulled me away from the others.” He suddenly became very concerned for his two companions. Rainbow Dash put a hoof on his shoulder to ease his fears. “Don’t worry about those two… I’m sure they’re sitting in the lobby worrying about us right now.” Rainbow spoke while trying to be as cheerful as possible. The pegasus couldn’t help but wonder if what she was saying was actually true. “Those stupid things… If I get my hooves on one of them I swear I’m going to beat its sorry pale butt within an inch of its life!” Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth angrily as she resolved to make the creatures pay for all they had done. The pegasus’s remark made Tom perk up with curiosity. “Hold on… pale? You saw what they look like?” The human asked with intrigue while stepping closer to the pegasus. “Yeah… I got a good look at that thing back in Scootaloo’s room when you flashed it with your light. It was pale and it didn’t have a nose.” The cyan pony hadn’t given the creature’s appearance much thought at the time. She just thought that it was another frightening image she would have to block out of her mind later. “Pale skin… Hides in the dark…” Tom thought out loud as he tried to recall a piece of information deep inside his mind. He suddenly became very excited and gave a quick cheer of revelation. “I know what those things are now… They are called the midnight men.” He explained triumphantly. Everyone in the room merely gave him a confused look. “The midnight men…?” Spike asked curiously, not being able to form any other sort of question on the confusing topic. “Yeah, they come from a very old fairy tale that eventually got turned into a game people would play to scare themselves for fun. In the game, there was only one entity that worked off of different principles than these guys.” The human continued explaining. “You mean humans played games with things like those monsters?” Applebloom spoke up curiously. Tom chuckled before turning to the filly for clarification. “No… there wasn’t a real monster in the game…. Humans were stupid, but we weren’t quite that stupid… well most of us.” The boy shrugged upon reflecting on some of the less intelligent things his race did. “Besides… don’t you guys have anything you do to get scared for fun?” He asked the entire group. “Well… there’s nightmare night. Where we dress up in costumes and scare each other and have parties.” Rainbow Dash spoke up to list off some of the things about the holiday. Tom was slightly confused at the description to the oddly familiar celebration. “You mean like Halloween…?” The boy asked quizzically. The others only seemed to be confused by the mention of another human term. “You know what, never mind… let’s focus on the matter at hand.” He sighed in annoyance before getting back on track. “The midnight men are a form of fear based monster. They feed off of fear and try to abduct people to either drain their life energy, or keep them around longer to continually feed off of their fear. They aren’t really affected by light… regular light anyway. They still hate sunlight like any other shadow creature.” Tom explained while holding up the flashlight in his hand for emphasis. The others were shocked to hear the confusing revelation. “What…? But why do the flashlights work on them?” Spike asked in bewilderment while thinking about the subject further in his head. “Why did they give us flashlights? We didn’t have anything when we woke up. We were in a room like this one, but a flashlight fell out of the closet just as we were leaving.” The human took a moment to examine his confused companions before continuing. “To them this is nothing more than a glorified game of flashlight tag… They pretend to be fended off by light so they can give you a safety net to fall back on... which they can easily take away at any time to instill even more fear. They probably brought you guys here because you’re so young. Children can be an excellent source of mind numbing fear when put into the proper situation.” He explained somberly. The group was horrified to learn that the entire time they had been in the hospital they had not been safe. “So they brought us here to mess with our heads and use us as their personal playthings?” Applebloom asked nervously with growing anxiety. Tom nodded silently in response. Rainbow Dash was just as terrified at the discovery as the two children were, but something weighed heavy on her mind. She couldn’t help but wonder why they had not found any of the others in their search. They had been through most of the rooms, and were just a short walk away from the stairwell. “If those things are abducting us to feed off of our fear, then where are the others?” Rainbow asked curiously. Tom’s face paled a little bit as he thought about the matter further. “I think that creature only brought you and me here because I injured it in the struggle we had. Midnight men typically like to only keep children around for extended periods of time. They take adults to a different location to feed on them at their leisure.” The human explained grimly. “What…? But you said that these things drain life energy right?” Rainbow Dash stuttered nervously as she started to understand what the human was getting at. “Exactly… which is why we need to get out of here and find the others.” Tom stated while moving towards the door in a hurry. As the others got up to follow him, he slowly opened the door and stepped out. “We need to be careful. Now that we’re up here, they might try to actually hurt us if we try leaving.” He explained with concern in his voice. The others nodded while swallowing their own senses of fear before stepping out into the darkness. Even though Rainbow Dash knew that the stairwell was relatively close, she couldn’t stop herself from tensing up every time she thought she saw something in the darkness. Every corner the group turned sent shivers up and down the cyan mare’s spine. It also didn’t help that they had to go slow to accommodate Applebloom’s broken leg. Looking beside her to check on her two younger companions, the pegasus could see that they weren’t faring much better. Applebloom clung to Spike like he was the last person she would ever see in her life. Rainbow Dash felt sorry for the yellow filly. The cyan pony didn’t even want to think about how long she was up here all by herself, so to suddenly have the young dragon join her must have been such a relief. Spike didn’t seem to mind the filly slowly strangling his arm by clinging too hard. He must have tried his best to comfort her while they were in that room, but the fear and anxiety on his face was just as evident as anyone else in the group, except for Tom of course. The human walked at the front of the group while cautiously pressing forward with an anxious expression on his face. Rainbow Dash wondered if he felt scared at all, or if he did whether or not he would show it externally. Suddenly without warning, the boy shut off the flashlight and backed away from the junction of hallways the group was about to walk through. He huddled against the wall and crouched down before motioning for the group to do the same. Everyone seemed anxiously confused by the human’s actions, when they suddenly heard the sound of something walking down the other hallway. “Everybody get down and be quiet!” He whispered forcefully to the group while enthusiastically waving his arm to motion towards the wall. Despite their tense muscles and progressively racing hearts, the three managed to quickly duck behind the human while getting as low as possible. Just as everyone got in place, the sound from around the corner got much louder. A shadowy figure stepped out from the hallway and turned off into the center of the hallway where the nervous group was. The figure walked right beside the group without turning its head, as if it didn’t notice them. Suddenly, the creature paused just in front of the huddled mass of intruders. It stood still while facing down the hallway, leaving its pale and gnarled hand inches away from Rainbow Dash’s face. The figure was no longer cloaked by pitch blackness, leaving its frightening appearance to only be hidden by the hoodie it wore. Everyone held their breath as the creature looked around the hallway for a few moments. The midnight man’s gaunt fingers hovered just in front of the cyan pegasus, leaving her staring anxiously at its unnaturally long fingernails. The nails weren’t so long that they could be used as weapons, but they almost seemed to form sickly yellow talons that could dig into the skin of its victims if it so chose. Finally the creature continued walking on its path down the hallway. The group remained in silence as they watched it disappear from sight. They finally let out a collective exhale as they realized they had been holding their breaths. “How did you know it wouldn’t find us?” Rainbow Dash asked the human in between breaths in a relatively quiet voice. “The darkness from downstairs must be part of whatever spell was used to summon them here. It lets them hide better in the shadows and blocks out any source of sunlight.” Tom explained while thinking back to the moving shadows that were slowly reaching into the lobby. “The darkness up here seems to be just average darkness. They are just as blind as we are unless there’s motion to pick up on.” He stated while mentally giving himself a pat on the back that his theory worked. “Isn’t it counter intuitive to let your prey wander around without the ability to keep track of them?” Spike said while thinking about the matter further. “Keep in mind… they are pretty much just playing with us. I’m sure they think slowly hunting us in the dark is a load of fun.” Tom explained with an appalled tone of voice. “They have a strange definition of fun…” Applebloom frowned and gulped nervously as she glanced behind her to see if the creature had doubled back. Tom then looked around the corner and flipped on his flashlight. He exclaimed in excitement before rushing forward into the hallway. The confused group followed him around the wall before suddenly noticing what the human had noticed. “The stairs!” Spike had to catch himself to prevent his excitement from alerting any of the creatures possibly nearby. The others shared in his excitement as they flocked to join the human over by the familiar door that would take them out of this horrible place. Tom yanked on the door to open it before quickly realizing that it was stuck. He pulled on it with all of his might a few times before finally letting go and panting from exhaustion. He then took a closer look at the door and examined it with his senses. “Damn it…” Tom cursed under his breath before turning to the others with a defeated expression. Everyone’s excitement slowly turned to confusion and dread as they wondered why the human couldn’t open the door. “What’s wrong? Is it locked or something?” Rainbow Dash asked with a growing pit in her stomach. The boy shook his head dismally before finally looking up and sighing. “It’s not just locked… It’s being blocked by some kind of magic spell. I can’t even read it let alone try to break it.” Tom spoke with a deflated ego as he watched the group’s frightened frowns return. “So we… we’re stuck up here?” Applebloom asked while trying not to have an emotional breakdown. The human merely nodded silently. Rainbow Dash sighed sadly before looking around at their dark surroundings. “If we’re stuck up here, then we need to get somewhere safer than these dark hallways. Let’s see if we can find a room with a window to let sunlight in.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a hopeful look on her face. Tom was impressed to see the cyan pegasus thinking so rationally in a situation like this. He would never cease to be amazed at the capabilities of a race he thought to be sensitive marshmallows when he first met them. “Good thinking Rainbow Dash… let’s go.” Tom complimented her while walking forward towards another set of rooms. Rainbow Dash smiled upon hearing the slayer’s praise, she then motioned for the two children to hurry up and follow them before walking behind them to make them feel safer. Spike sighed in a depressed tone. He looked at the floor sadly as he followed the human down another hallway. Applebloom and Rainbow Dash shared in his disappointment and fear, so they understood what he was going through. “I hope Twilight and the others are alright.” The dragon spoke up with a hallow sense of hope. Rainbow Dash patted him on the shoulder gently while giving him a sympathetic frown. She then smiled optimistically to cheer the dragon up. “Don’t worry Spike… I’m sure she’s just fine.” The pegasus said in a confident tone. She silently hoped that she was right.
Chapter 29: New ArrivalsTwilight and her friends stared at the group of strange ponies. They seemed to have a sort of professional air about them as they stood in line while examining the hospital. They resembled what the lavender pony would have surmised to be members of the Ponyville branch of the royal guard, but their uniforms were unlike anything the unicorn had seen. Upon closer inspection, Twilight could make out several small vials and other strange items hanging off of the ponies’ vests. The vials were made of glass, with an ornate brown casing on the top and bottom. Some of the vials held oddly colored liquids with unknown objects floating in them, while others seemed to contain lumps of random items like rock or gravel. Among the group of ponies, Twilight identified a white unicorn mare with blue eyes and short red, blue, yellow, and green colored hair tied up into a ponytail at the back. The odd coloring reminded The purple pony of her cyan pegasus friend, however the unicorn’s hair seemed to be more spotted than striped as Rainbow Dash’s was. Taking a look at the mare’s exposed cutie mark, Twilight could see that it was a star made out of shimmering red and blue glitter. Next to the unicorn stood another mare that was a lime green earth pony with short and messy black hair and a slightly darker shade of green for her eyes. She had a black circle with a green lightning bolt running through it as a cutie mark. Further down the line was a young earth pony stallion with white fur and red eyes and hair. He seemed to be a little more timid than the rest of the ponies. He Almost looked like he didn’t belong with them with how weaker he looked by comparison. He had a red cross cutie mark similar to Nurse Redheart with several smaller crosses of a lighter shade hovering around it. Standing next to the stallion was another male earth pony that had dark yellow fur with brown hair and eyes. He had a glistening heart shaped ruby as a cutie mark and he appeared to be of the same age, if not a little older than the white stallion next to him. Then there was the stallion that greeted the ponies as the group entered. He had a more muscular build than the other two stallions, resembling more of what Twilight would expect from a member of the royal guard. He had white fur with dark grey hair and blue eyes. Despite his hair color, he didn’t appear to be much older than the yellow pony next to him, but he still appeared to be the eldest out of the group. His cutie mark resembled a gray shield with two swords crossing over it. He seemed to be the leader of this small group based on the way he carried himself and spoke. As Twilight and the others observed the strange ponies, the oldest stallion looked over to the nurse that was having a hard time standing. He then looked back to Twilight with a more serious expression. “We were sent by Princess Luna to get you all out of here and stop whatever is going on here. Can you tell us a brief description of what you know?” He asked quizzically while observing Twilight and her friends. The unicorn thought for a moment on how best to put all of the information she had into one concise description. “We were checking in on our friend here when the power went out suddenly. We eventually discovered that there are monsters that can hide in the shadows and pop out anywhere. They try to pull you away so they can drain your energy… We don’t know where four of our friends are. Two of them are children and one of them is a human named Tom.” The purple mare explained to the group while still observing them. “Right, the slayer… Princess Luna already informed us about him. We’ll find them as fast as we can.” The stallion spoke with a reassuring tone before turning to his companions. “Pepper, you check out the nurse and make sure she isn’t hurt.” He instructed to the pony with the red hair, who nodded before walking over to Nurse Redheart and sitting her down so he could look at her. The stallion then turned to the two mares with a focused expression. They waited eagerly for him to give them their orders. “Glitter, you and Neon will search the basement with me so we can work our way up.” He instructed while motioning over to the barrier made by the candles. The two nodded before walking over to the other side of the room and waiting for the stallion to join them. “Glimmer, you get Miss Sparkle and her friends out of here.” The stallion finally turned to the yellow pony and instructed clearly. He nodded before walking over to the group. Twilight was shocked to hear that they wanted her to just leave without finding her friends. “What?! You want us to just leave without finding our friends?!” The unicorn huffed angrily at the proposal. “No offense to you guys, but I don’t even know you! I’m not just going to leave finding my friends to complete strangers!” She shook her head defiantly. The yellow pony looked at her sympathetically. “Well if you must know… I’m Glimmer Shine. The guy working on your friend over there is my younger brother Peppermint.” The stallion explained while pointing over to the red haired pony giving Nurse Redheart first aid. “Those two over there are Glitterball and Neon Streak.” He said while pointing to the white unicorn and the green earth pony respectively. “And this is Brimstoke.” He finished his introductions by pointing to the older stallion. The purple mare and her friends looked around at the team of ponies. They weren’t entirely sure what to think about them. Before Twilight could elaborate on her thoughts, Glimmer Shine spoke again. “We’re members of a special forces team put together by Princess Luna to combat the new threat of supernatural beings and forces in Equestria. Once she realized that you guys were stuck at the hospital, she figured something bad happened considering the events at the school, so she sent us out here to rescue you.” The yellow stallion explained with a proud and gallant tone. Twilight was impressed to see that the princess had a backup plan like this in place so soon, but she was not about to leave her friends and run away. She felt responsible for putting a stop to whatever this was, monsters or no monsters. “I’m sorry, but I’m not going to leave with you. I was chosen by the princess to take care of these issues, and I’m going to see it through to the bitter end if necessary. Besides, I can’t just leave my friends here without giving my best effort to save them.” The unicorn stamped her hoof down to accent her feelings. Glimmer Shine looked back to the older stallion for advice on what to do. Brimstoke looked at him and then back to the purple mare. He shook his head and sighed before speaking up again. “Alright… you can stay, but you’re staying with us… understand?” Brimstoke asked to clarify. Twilight nodded eagerly before looking over to her friends. Applejack stepped forward with a confident expression on her face. “Ah want to stay too… Ah ain’t leaving until my sister and the others are safe.” Applejack stated with a resolute smirk on her face. Scootaloo stepped forward with a brave expression on her face as well. “I want to stay too.” The filly spoke with determination. Glimmer Shine walked up to her and gave her a sympathetic frown. “Sorry kid, this is no place for a filly like you to be. We’ll find your friends safe and sound, but for now you need to come with me and my brother while we take your other friend somewhere safer.” Glimmer explained while looking over to check on his brother’s progress. The white pony was helping Nurse Redheart to walk over to the group. “How is she doing?” Glimmer Shine asked with concern in his voice. Pepper smiled cheerfully as he spoke up. “She’s suffering from extreme exhaustion. From what they said, I wager one of those monsters drained her energy… she should be fine once we give her some rest, and maybe an I.V.” Peppermint said with a grateful smile as he observed the strong willed nurse. Glimmer Shine smiled in return. He was thankful that nothing bad happened to the nurse and that she would make a speedy recovery. He then turned to the disappointed filly and shifted his expression to a blank one. “Let’s go.” The yellow stallion instructed to her politely. Scootaloo sighed in annoyance before slowly walking behind them as they escorted Nurse Redheart out of the door. After the four left the building, Twilight took a cursory glance at the outside world. She had been cooped up in a dark, monster infested hospital for so long that the simple sight of grass and trees filled her with hopeful confidence. Taking a last savory breath of the fresh air filtering in through the open door, the unicorn walked back over to the gathering of ponies waiting for her by the candle barrier. She noticed the two mares examining the candles and the barrier they made with intrigue. The white unicorn turned to face Twilight with curiosity burning in her eyes. “Did the human make these?” Glitterball asked with intrigue brimming in her voice. Twilight nodded in response. “He made those to keep this area free from any evil creatures.” The purple mare explained what she knew about the blue candles to the eagerly listening unicorn. “They work astoundingly well for something so simple. There seems to be an atmosphere of altered darkness out there. These candles seem to be holding it back.” Glitterball explained while pointing past the blue barrier into the pitch blackness that lay just beyond. Twilight wondered why it was so dark in the hospital. It never occurred to her that something could create magical darkness until she observed the light canceling properties for herself. “Who am I going with? If we’re splitting up I would like to know where I’m going.” Twilight asked while looking to Applejack, who nodded in agreement. Brimstoke walked up to the two ponies and spoke up. “All of us are searching the basement for clues on how this mess started. From what Princess Luna told us, the event at the school started because some hooded ponies made a pictogram in the basement, so that’s as good a place as any to start.” The white stallion explained before walking back over to the others. “Wait… what if the others are being held upstairs? Something bad could happen before we get to them.” Twilight observed with concern. She didn’t think that searching one area for her friends at a time was a sound idea. The stallion smiled before putting his hoof up to his ear. Much to the surprise of Twilight and Applejack, a blue glow enveloped the tip of his hoof as he touched it to his ear. Almost as if a unicorn was using magic on him. “Sunspot, how are things looking out there?” Brimstoke spoke without directing his question to anyone in the room, as if he was talking to someone that was somewhere else. Much to the confusion of Twilight and her friend, the quiet and muffled voice of another pony started emanating from the general area of Brimstoke’s ear. Twilight couldn’t make out what was being said, but judging from what little audio she could hear, and Brimstoke nodding every once and a while, she gathered that he was talking to a mare through whatever magic was being used on his ear. “Ok good… Circle around and see if you can pin point their location, then see if you can get to them.” The stallion finished speaking before putting his hoof down again. The mysterious magical aura disappeared after he was done. He then looked to the confused ponies confidently. “Don’t worry… we have someone looking into the upper floors for us. Now follow us closely, we don’t want you getting lost.” Brimstoke instructed before motioning for the pair to follow him. He then walked over to his two teammates and nodded to them. Glitterball lit up her horn with a blue glow identical to the one Twilight saw on Brimstoke’s ear, and stepped out of the barrier with her light shining into the dark. Twilight looked over to Applejack with a confused expression. The orange mare shared in her bewilderment, but shrugged and started walking behind the stallion to follow the others. Twilight shook her head and sighed before walking back out into the shadows. Tom and Rainbow Dash tried their best to comfort the two frightened children next to them. They were anxious as well given the terrifying ordeal they were experiencing. They had just ducked into a room on the outer edge of the building after running from several midnight men that spotted them as they searched the hallways. “Do you think they saw where we went?” Applebloom spoke up nervously as she squeezed Spike to relieve her tensions. The young dragon wasn’t sure if he couldn’t breathe due to his intense fear, or the yellow filly constricting his body. “I don’t know… but the sunlight should keep them away.” Tom explained to ease the fears of his companions while looking over to the brightly lit window. It was fortunate that the group managed to find the part of the building closest to the outside when they were found. If they had chosen an interior room without a window, the artificial light created by the lone lightbulb hanging from the ceiling would not be enough to protect them. Just as Rainbow Dash and the two frightened children were starting to calm down, the door handle started turning as something from the outside tried to open it. Tom rushed forward and held the knob tightly to prevent it from opening. “Lock it!” Rainbow Dash yelled frantically as the human struggled to keep the door closed. In between jolts from the creatures bashing into the door, the boy turned and looked at the frightened pegasus. “I can’t! It doesn’t have a lock!” Tom yelled back while observing the barren door. The discovery only made the three onlookers even more anxious and terrified as the creatures bashed into the door relentlessly. Finally, after holding the door shut for as long as possible, Tom was sent flying backwards as the door crashed open. He scooted back into the light and looked out of the newly created opening. The area outside of the door was empty, but the human knew that the creatures were merely hiding in the darkness. “Everybody just stay in the light and they can’t get you.” Tom tried to sound as calm as possible to ease their fears. Everyone immediately backed up a few steps to be closer to the light. Just before the group could start to feel safe, a new threat made their eyes widen in fear. A thick veil of shadows was creeping in from the doorway. It moved slowly into the room, snuffing out the sunlight everywhere it went. Soon enough the group would be engulfed in pitch blackness. “What are we going to do?” Applebloom asked with tears in her eyes as she tried to stop herself from shaking violently. Spike looked to Tom for any sign that he knew what to do. “Tom! Can’t you use your light to stop them?” Spike asked the human nervously. Tom shook his head in defeat. “It doesn’t affect them enough to keep them away.” The human stated grimly while backing his friends into the corner to better protect them. Everyone huddled up together and shook with fear as they helplessly watched their doom approach them. “Can’t we jump out of the window so Rainbow Dash can carry us?” Applebloom asked timidly as she raced her mind to find a possible way out of this grim predicament. “I'm not sure if I would be able to carry all of you at once.” The cyan pegasus explained sadly. “And besides, that window must be hard as a rock.” She said while looking at the slowly fading light of the window. Before the group could say their prayers and give up, a loud crash made them jump in fright. They looked next to them to see a sea of broken glass tumbling to the floor as a pegasus mare crashed into the room. The pegasus had different shades of orange in her fur, making her look like a sky just before sunset. Her hair was a similar mixture of orange, with bright yellow stripes spaced out through her mane and her tail. Her eyes were a slightly darker shade of yellow than the stripes in her hair, but they still looked brilliant when compared to the relatively darker orange fur she had. Judging from appearance, she was wearing what looked like a Wonderbolts suit with its mask missing. The suit appeared to have been modified and re painted at some point, as the typical lightning bolt pattern on the suit was different enough to distinguish it from a standard Wonderbolts uniform. Several straps and pouches had also been sewn into the outfit, all of which stored numerous strange vials and other miscellaneous pieces of equipment. A pair of flight goggles was sitting in her hair with a black strap holding it to the pony’s head. Rainbow Dash almost mistook the pegasus for Spitfire, but quickly realized that this was a completely different pony. The pegasus looked at the broken glass around her and smirked playfully. She then looked over to the group staring at her from the corner. “Don’t worry… I’m here to get you guys to safety.” The pegasus said with a reassuring tone of voice while observing the four. Just before anyone could speak up, a loud noise from the doorway drew everyone’s attention away from the strange newcomer. Several of the creatures walked through the door and into the darkness that now prevailed in the room. They rushed forward and prepared to attack the closest thing they could reach, which at the time happened to be the oddly dressed pegasus in the center of the room. Tom prepared to unsheathe his sword and rescue the pegasus, when she suddenly jumped into action before him. She reached down to her side and grasped a vial that was hanging off of one of the many straps on the modified suit. She then unclipped it from its holder and held it out in front of her. “You guys look like you could use a little tan!” She remarked with a smirk on her face before pressing on an indentation in the top part of the vial. The bottom section of the vial started glowing bright blue as a low hum could be heard coming from the bottle. In an instant, the tip of the vial facing the creatures flashed blue as a beam of energy shot out from the bottle. The bolt of light flew into one of the creatures and exploded on impact. The monster shrieked in pain and recoiled from the attack. The pegasus pressed the indentation several times in rapid succession, causing even more balls of energy to fly at the creatures. Two of the creatures fell to the floor and started evaporating into black smoke. The other creatures fled the room as their bodies smoked and smoldered from the assault. After the creatures were gone, the pegasus chuckled and put the vial back in its place on her side. She then reached down to her chest to what appeared to be a small flashlight mounted on a clip. She flipped the switch on the flashlight, causing a bright beam of light to shoot out in front of her. After the room was safely illuminated, she turned and walked up to the others to talk with them. “Hi, my name’s Sunspot. I was sent by the princess to come and help you guys out.” The pegasus spoke in a cheerfully friendly tone while offering her hoof to shake the human and cyan pony’s hand and hoof respectively. After returning the pegasus’s greeting and thanking her for saving their lives. The group couldn’t help but feel confused as to what was going on. “How did you even find us? Have you been crashing through every window on this floor until you got lucky?” Tom suggested in a joking manner while observing the broken window. Sunspot chuckled nervously as she assessed the damage she had caused. “Hehe… well I guess you could say I like to make an entrance. As for how I found you…” Sunspot paused for a moment while she fumbled around with the many vials and other objects hanging on her suit in various places. “Where is that darn thing…?” She muttered to herself in frustration as she searched through her equipment. “I just had it in my hoof not two minutes- Aha!” She exclaimed in triumph before yanking up a pull cord with two vials attached to it. Unlike the previous vial, these two were clipped together on the cord for easy access. One of them held a strange blue liquid inside of it, while the other held what appeared to be some kind of sand. “These two bad boys are my locators. This one here lets me know if any paranormal entities are in an area.” Sunspot explained while holding up the one filled with liquid. “And this one lets me find heat signatures of living things.” She explained while holding up the sand filled vial. Everyone looked at the strange objects with confusion and curiosity. They must have worked for the pegasus to have found them, but the items were unlike anything any of them had seen before. “Hold on a sec… I need to tell my team that you guys are alright.” The suited pegasus excused herself while turning to look away from the group. She then put a hoof up to her ear, when suddenly a blue glow enveloped the general area of her ear. “This is Sunspot, I found all of them unharmed… Yes, I’m making my way downstairs now… Ok.” Sunspot paused every few sentences, as if she were talking to someone outside of the room. Everyone looked at her with confused expressions as she directed her attention back to them. “What was that all about?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while thinking back to the strange blue glow. Sunspot was a little surprised to have to explain her equipment. She had been so used to it that it didn’t really strike her as odd. “Oh, that’s just a magic spell our resident unicorn whipped up for us. It lets us communicate over long distances.” Sunspot explained with enthusiasm. The group was intrigued to hear more about the strange team of ponies. Before they could think of any more questions to ask the orange pegasus, she turned and started walking out of the room. “Come on. Let’s get you guys out of here.” Sunspot said while beckoning with her hoof for the others to follow. Everyone was still apprehensive about heading back out into the hallways. “You know, these things aren’t affected by regular light.” Tom explained while pointing out Sunspot’s light source hanging from her suit. She looked at it for a moment before giving the slayer a knowing grin. “Don’t worry... I’m sure we’ll be fine. These things use the shadows to move around right?” The pegasus asked to clarify. Tom nodded in response, even though he wasn’t sure where she was going with this line of reasoning. “Well then they shouldn’t be able to do anything to us if we keep them in the light. Think about it… they can’t really hide in the dark if there is no dark to hide in can they?” Sunspot explained with a confident expression. Tom couldn’t believe that the pegasus’s logic was actually sound. “Yeah… that might actually work. They can’t teleport in the light, so they can’t sneak up on us as long as we keep them lit up.” The human stated in an amazed tone. “Heh… you’re not the only one with knowledge on the supernatural anymore Tom.” Sunspot said with a smug and playful smirk. Tom was impressed to see that he was being rivaled in supernatural knowledge by a pony. He couldn’t help but wonder how extensive their knowledge could be considering the lack of occult material in this world. Without wasting any more time, the group followed the pegasus out of the room and down a hallway. Traveling around the hospital was actually void of any stress for the first time for the group. They felt safe in the presence of the suited pony, as if she knew what she was doing. The group made sure to remain close to their strange new companion, while also pointing their own source of light behind them so the creatures couldn’t reach them that way. After a few minutes of walking, the five found themselves standing outside of the stairway door once again. Sunspot walked right up to the door and pulled on it to open it before making the same discovery the others had made earlier. “You can’t open it… there’s some kind of magical seal on it.” Tom shrugged in frustration as he glared at the obstacle in his path with disdain. Sunspot didn’t seem to be phased by the discovery of the blocked door. She instead reached for another vial on her side. This one had a small rod encased inside of it that sat in the middle of the container. The rod seemed to be made of a brown metal, like copper or bronze, and it had several notches in it as well as having a green tinted liquid around it. On the top of the vial, built into the brown section of the casing, a small spike jutted out a short ways. “This should do the trick… It disrupts magical barriers and certain supernatural occurrences.” Sunspot explained while pressing the spiked tip of the vial against the door. The liquid inside the container lit up and a small shockwave of air erupted out of the tip and dispersed across the door. The frame of the door lit up bright crimson for an instant before fading. After placing the vial back in its appropriate place, Sunspot gripped the handle once more and turned it while putting a gentle force on it. The door slid open as if it had never been held shut in the first place, revealing the stairwell inside. The orange mare turned to the group and gave a cheerful smile. She then pointed with her hoof to beckon the astonished group inside. “You got anything else in your bag of tricks?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while eyeing the various vials and other tools hanging off of straps or sitting on clips in the mare’s uniform. Sunspot chuckled while giving a cursory glance to her equipment. “Well, I don’t have a cup holder on here anywhere.” The orange pegasus stated playfully before looking down to give the statement more serious thought. “Actually, that might be a good idea... I’m gonna have to bring that up at the next board meeting.” She scratched her head in thought while walking into the stairwell to lead the others to safety.
Chapter 30: Getting to the Bottom of ThingsTwilight and Applejack paused and turned to watch Brimstoke put his hoof up to his ear to communicate with his other team members. Glitterball and Neon Streak both held their hooves up as well to presumably listen in on whatever conversation was going on. Despite the white unicorn’s best explanation as to the details of the spell, Twilight was still confused as to how they could speak over long distances. Brimstoke nodded a few times as he listened to the pony on the other end speak. Finally he set his hoof back down and walked up to the two with a smile that told them he had something important to tell them. “That was our other member Sunspot. She said that she found your friends safe and sound. She is heading down to the lobby to get them out of the building now.” The stallion explained cheerfully to the pair. Twilight shared a gleeful smile with her orange companion as they heard that their friends were unharmed. For the first time since they became trapped in the hospital, the two mares actually felt happy and hopeful about their situation. “That’s great!” Twilight stated with an excited tone of voice. She was beginning to wonder if she would ever see her friends again, so to hear that they were safely waiting for her upstairs was an amazing turn of events. “You know… since your friends are safe, you could head back upstairs if you want.” Neon Streak spoke up from beside Twilight. The purple unicorn took an apprehensive look into a passing doorway as she thought of leaving this creepy hospital forever. “I would rather stay and help.” Twilight said optimistically while trying to hide the nervous inflexion in her voice. The lime green mare smiled at the bravery of the lavender pony. She knew that it must have been hard for the unicorn to stay in such a terrifying environment by choice. “I figured you would… the princess said you were pretty determined to put a stop to all of this.” Neon Streak smirked while nodding in satisfaction. Twilight was flattered to hear that Luna thought so highly of her. Neon suddenly turned to look at Applejack, who was also eyeing the dark passageways around her nervously. “How about you? You said you wouldn’t leave until we found your sister. I can escort you back if you want.” Neon Streak offered the orange mare with a friendly smile. Applejack thought about it for a minute before shaking her head. “Ah ain’t leaving you guys down here all by yourselves. Ah think Ah’ll stay until we find whatever is causing this mess and we stop it.” Applejack looked to her unicorn friend with false confidence as she tried to look as determined as possible. Before the green mare could reply to the farm pony, a sudden noise from a doorway to their side made everyone whip their heads around to look. “Heads up!” Glitterball yelled to alert everyone to the danger ahead. One of the creatures leapt out of the doorway and made a beeline for the hapless purple unicorn and her friend. Twilight cried out in surprise and shielded her face with her arms as the pale monster lunged at her with its elongated nails. The unicorn was surprised to hear a loud hum followed by what sounded like magic being discharged. The creature cried out in pain and Twilight heard it thud against the ground a short ways to the side. She uncovered her face to see Neon Streak holding a vial in front of her that had a hint of smoke coming from the tip. The creature was a short distance away, writhing on the ground as it disappeared into black smoke as the darklings had. “Thanks… you’re pretty quick on the draw with that… umm…” The purple pony paused as she tried to think of a good word to describe the odd object. “It’s a magic charm… We take some ingredients and put them in these vials to contain them depending on their effects. We call these ones strobes… they fire a pulse of condensed energy that’s magically charged.” Neon explained while holding the vial filled with blue liquid for the two ponies to see. Twilight and Applejack marveled at the strange object. It seemed way too small to be able to cause that much damage to anything. “Wow…” The unicorn exclaimed in wonder. Neon Streak grinned proudly as she re-clipped the vial back on her vest. “Yep… works on most evil creatures we have come across.” Neon stated nonchalantly. Applejack thought about the green mare’s statement for a moment before speaking up to satisfy her curiosity. “What if you come across something that it doesn’t work on?” The farm pony asked quizzically. Before Neon Streak could answer, Brimstoke stepped forward and interjected into the conversation. “We carry equipment to deal with more standard threats as well.” The stallion said while pointing to various items clipped to his vest. The two could see what looked like a collapsible baton, a small taser, and a pair of hoof cuffs that had small inscriptions set into the sides of them. “How do you guys know so much about this stuff? I just recently learned that supernatural things like those creatures even exist.” Twilight asked with clear curiosity as she observed the team of ponies. The white stallion was caught off guard by the sudden question. “A few months ago, some books on occult rituals and other supernatural knowledge were brought to Princess Luna’s attention. She decided to put together a team to deal with paranormal threats to Equestria should any of the things she read about turn out to be real.” Brimstoke finally managed to get out his explanation after thinking about it for a while. “We have been studying all the occult knowledge available to us and researching for ways to combat a lot of it for the past few months.” Glitterball spoke up to add to the conversation. “Me and Neon Streak were in charge of putting together a lot of the toys we have with us now. We almost didn’t get enough time to test any of it out before we came here.” She said with a matter of fact tone in her voice. “Wait… before you came here? You mean you didn’t know if your equipment would work?” Twilight questioned with a raised eyebrow as she clarified what she had just heard. “Technically speaking, this is our first mission in the field.” Neon chuckled awkwardly as she realized how ridiculous it sounded out loud. Twilight and Applejack were shocked to hear that the seemingly professional group of paranormal exterminators were in fact rookies themselves. “Well… you guys must be doing something right Ah guess.” Applejack spoke up to break the uncomfortable silence that suddenly fell over the group. Twilight was still dumbfounded as to how spectacularly unprepared Equestria was to deal with this new threat, but she couldn’t very well blame Brimstoke and the others. They were, after all, just using what knowledge they had to deal with an issue that couldn’t exactly wait. “Yeah… nobody could have known that you would need to put your skills to the test so early.” Twilight said reassuringly to the group. Glitterball in particular seemed very disappointed that they weren’t as impressive as they once thought. She sighed before returning her casual expression to her face. “Enough regretting how much prep we had… we’re here now, and we need to put a stop to this before anyone else gets hurt.” Brimstoke spoke up before walking forward and pausing for the others to follow him. He seemed very determined to get the job done, almost to the point of being a little gruff. Glitter and Neon sighed before motioning for the two civilians to follow them. The group pressed forward through the winding hallways of the basement in search of the source of the problem. After a few minutes of searching, Twilight and Applejack were starting to get frustrated from the lack of progress. It was already stressful to be down in this dark basement with monsters everywhere, but not finding anything was actually more stressful than finding something. “Ughh… this basement must be bigger than the building! It’ll take years to search through every single room if we don’t find what we’re looking for in the main hallway.” The purple unicorn huffed in nervous annoyance while taking note of the numerous rooms they glanced inside and the numerous other hallways they passed. Brimstoke looked to the frustrated unicorn. He then looked to Glitterball and nodded with a knowing smirk. Glitterball nodded before pulling out a vial that was attached to a pull cord alongside another vial. She twisted the cap on the vial, causing the blue liquid inside to light up dimly. The unicorn pointed the vial in a circle around her. As she pointed it in front of her, the liquid started glowing brighter toward the cap. “Looks like we got something this way…” Glitter stated happily while walking forward with the vial still outstretched before her. Twilight and Applejack seemed even more confused by the sudden confidence in the white unicorn. Neon Streak looked to them with an understanding smile. “That’s a locator, it lets us pin point supernatural energy signatures… handy for telling us if an evil creature is in the area, or for finding a highly energized paranormal object… say, a pictogram for example.” Neon smirked to the two as they caught on to what they were doing. It never occurred to Twilight that the group had known where they were going the whole time. “So… it works kind of like Tom’s senses?” Applejack asked curiously. The green mare nodded, she couldn’t deny the similarities between the two. “Well… from what the princess told us, your friend’s senses are a lot more attuned for this kind of stuff. These vials pretty much just tell us what direction something is in, and how relatively strong it is.” Glitterball explained with a slight shrug of disappointment. “Well Tom isn’t here right now, so I’m glad we have something to tell us where to go.” Twilight added with a relieved smile. The others nodded before shifting their eyes forward to follow Glitterball and her locator. Eventually the group found themselves entering into a rather large room. There were numerous pipes littering the ceiling, and several machines of unknown purposes to the sides. The machines opened up a short ways into the room, leaving another large space in its place. In the middle of the room, a large symbol was drawn on the floor in chalk similar to the one Twilight and the others saw at the school. “This must be it then... looks like these are the backup generators to the hospital.” Brimstoke noted while examining the small machines on the wall near the symbol. “That might explain why the power was cut so suddenly.” Twilight said curiously while inspecting the symbol. “The same thing happened at the school… the power went out, and then all the strange changes to the building happened.” She explained her experience to the group. “A lot of summoning spells will change the environment to better suit the creature being summoned if they can’t support themselves… if I remember correctly.” Glitterball explained while taking a mental note to study more about the pertinent information before they went on a mission in the future. While the others studied the symbol on the floor, Twilight decided to explore the rest of the room. Lighting up her horn to illuminate the way, she walked past the odd symbol on the ground and studied the area ahead of it. It appeared as though whoever summoned the creatures also left behind numerous items after they left. Various scraps of paper with things ranging from illegible scribbles to odd symbols and glyphs littering them were strewn around the floor and a few shelves, spent candles lay haphazardly placed along the floor in places, and a few books were placed in a small stack on one of the shelves. The purple unicorn picked one of the books up with her magic and scanned through it curiously. She could see that some of it was written in those strange symbols she had seen earlier, but a good portion of it was written in English. Skimming through the legible sections, Twilight determined that this was some sort of instruction booklet on how to perform various magical spells and rites. “Here we go…” Twilight whispered to herself with an eager smile on her face. She was very excited to finally discover something of worth to the investigation. Just as Twilight was turning around to announce her findings to the group, a soft noise made her pause briefly. It sounded like something shuffling its feet around to walk. The only reason the unicorn picked up on the quiet sound was due to how often the creatures had made it. She turned around and shifted her head around to discover the source of the noise, only to discover the same shelves and dark, open doorway she had seen previously while searching the edge of the room. “You alright over there Twilight?” The voice of Neon Streak broke the unicorn’s train of thought. She turned around to see the green mare standing on the edge of the symbol and looking her way while the rest of the group examined the pictogram. “Yeah, I’m fine… just thought I heard a noise.” Twilight replied while eyeing the open doorway in front of her nervously. She grabbed the other two books and stacked them to carry them away from the edge of the room. “Well, just be careful and don’t wander off ok?” Neon added while observing the unicorn cautiously. Seeing the unicorn so far away from the group made the earth pony concerned for her safety. Twilight nodded while walking back over to join the group with her findings in tow. “So how are things going with the symbol?” The purple pony asked with a hint of giddy excitement in her voice as she tried to shift the subject over to her discovery. Glitterball looked up and walked over to the unicorn to dispense her knowledge. “Looks like a standard summoning pictogram, but there’s something off about it that I can’t quite figure out… Hey wait a minute, what are those?” Glitter asked curiously while observing the smirking pony placing the books she had down on the floor for everyone to see. “I found some books on magic over there on a shelf… I think whoever caused this must have left them behind.” Twilight explained while taking a cursory glance behind her off towards the other side of the room. Hearing about their friend’s discovery, Brimstoke and Applejack walked over from the far edge of the symbol to find out what was going on. Seeing the three books on the ground made Brimstoke nod his head in satisfaction. “Good work Twilight. These should help us find out more about this pictogram after we destroy it.” The stallion commended the purple mare for her findings before looking to Glitterball and Neon Streak with a serious expression. “How about it girls, can we break the spell?” He asked while looking between the two to see who would speak up. “It’s hard to say what most of the symbols inside this outer circle mean, but we should be able to destroy the pictogram just fine.” Neon Streak explained while glancing to the ring of smaller symbols along the outer edge of the pictogram. She hoped that those books might give them an insight about the strange nature of these symbols. “Alright good, how long do you think it will take Glitterball?” Brimstoke asked while glancing over to the white mare. Glitterball lit up her horn and read over the symbol a few times to estimate an answer. “Looks like it might take me around six minutes to do by myself…” Glitter stated with a satisfactory nod while dimming her horn. Brimstoke smirked and nodded in satisfaction as well. “Take your time… we have all the time in the world right n-” The stallion paused suddenly as he was interrupted by a loud noise erupting from outside the room. Everyone spun around to see numerous dark shapes moving into the room from the doorway they came through. The shapes flooded into the room and blended into the pitch black shadows that were just outside the unicorn’s source of light. Although they couldn’t see the creatures, the ponies could hear them as they growled and snarled at their prey with deep, almost demonic sounding voices. The sound of the creatures’ roars and growls made the ponies’ spines tingle as it almost overwhelmed their ears. “Everyone turn on your lights!” Brimstoke instructed to his team while reaching down to his vest and turning on his flashlight. Neon Streak and Glitterball did the same to increase the amount of light in the room. “Wait a minute! I don’t think these things are affected by normal light anymore!” Twilight stated nervously as she recalled her previous experience. “What do you mean Twilight?” Applejack asked curiously. “When Nurse Redheart and I were coming upstairs, one of those things attacked us. I tried using my light on it, but it didn’t seem to even notice it.” Twilight explained in a troubled tone. “What?! But we’ve been walking around this hospital for around an hour with only flashlights to protect us!” Applejack replied with a shocked expression. She couldn’t believe that at any time they could have just been carried off by these monsters when they thought they were safe. “Your friend Tom informed our friend Sunspot about that already. Apparently these things were just toying with you to make you more afraid. They would have eventually just ignored your flashlights entirely and fed off of your fear as they attacked.” Brimstoke explained with a serious expression. This only made the two even more frightened. “I can’t believe these things have just been toying with us!” Twilight exclaimed in frustration. Two ponies died because of the creatures, and they were just playing with them the whole time. “But why have we been using normal light to see down here if you knew?” Applejack asked nervously, she wondered why their only source of light had been the light from Glitterball and Twilight’s horns. “They aren’t hurt by normal light, but they can’t teleport inside normal light either. If we saw one, we would have taken care of it with the strobes, like the one that jumped you.” Neon Streak explained in a softer voice to prevent Brimstoke from adding anything else in his seemingly careless tone. “We have nothing to worry about now, let’s just hurry up and destroy this pictogram so we can get out of…” Brimstoke was suddenly interrupted by a loud shriek from behind him. He turned around just in time to see one of the creatures leaping at him, only to be gunned down in a blaze of light and black smoke by Neon Streak and her strobe. “Damn it!” Brimstoke exclaimed while steadying himself and pointing his light forward. Neon Streak and Glitterball pointed their lights around the group to form a protective circle. Twilight and Glitterball’s horns would provide enough light to protect the area around the symbol, but everywhere else was fair game for the creatures without the assistance of the flashlights. “We need to keep our lights between us and them so they don’t teleport behind us. Glitter, do you think you can handle destroying the pictogram while facing that way?” Neon asked the white unicorn beside her with slight panic in her voice. Glitterball nodded frantically while struggling to remain calm herself. “I can, but it will take six minutes by myself!” Glitter exclaimed nervously while lighting up her horn to begin disrupting the symbol’s magic. Between her nerves, and the fact that she also had to keep projecting her light, the amount of time it would take the white mare to break the spell on the symbol was steadily increasing. “Get Twilight to help you… in the mean time we’ll keep them from charging the front.” Brimstoke stated while pulling out his strobe and holding it steady in front of him. Neon Streak followed his example and held her strobe in front of her anxiously. Suddenly, one of the creatures rushed forward towards the group. Brimstoke immediately shot it down with two bursts of light from his strobe. Two more creatures rushed in behind the first one, causing the two ponies to open fire as they contended with the increasing number of monsters. Twilight looked around fearfully as she listened to the steady sound of the two magical charms firing off mixed in with the beasts’ cries. She could see Applejack was sitting close by, observing the two ponies in front nervously. She could also see Glitterball looking down at the symbol trying to speed up the process every chance she got. “How can I help?” The purple unicorn asked with a squeaky voice as she calmed herself down enough to help the situation. Glitterball looked up suddenly and tripped over her words as she tried to express coherent thought. “Oh! Uh... you destroyed a pictogram like this at the school right?” The white mare asked nervously while glancing at the battle taking place off to the side. Twilight nodded while thinking back to how she went about destroying the symbol at the school. “This one is probably more complex than that one, but it’s the same principle. Just interrupt the flow of energy in as many places as you can until the spell breaks apart.” Glitterball instructed before looking back down to get back to work. Twilight nodded before lighting up her horn to join the white mare in her efforts. More complex than the one at the school was putting it nicely. This spell seemed to be in a league of its own compared to the one at the school. It had numerous safety measures put in place to protect the flow of energy to different parts of the symbol, like a system of redundant failsafe’s. Not to mention most of the symbol couldn’t even be read by the two mares. It was like they were trying to disarm a bomb, and they had no idea how explosives even worked. Despite their confusion as to the purpose of the symbol, Twilight and Glitterball frantically interrupted the inner workings of the pictogram to break the spell. While the two unicorns were rushing to put a stop to the monsters, the monsters were rushing to put a grisly end to the group of ponies. The pale creatures were charging fiercely at the two armed ponies in order to get their weapons away from them. Their mouths were wide open, revealing sharp and jagged teeth jutting out from their black gums. The top portions of their faces were still concealed by their hoods, but the ponies could feel them staring daggers into them as they leapt forward into the light for a shot at ripping into them with their claw like nails. Brimstoke and Neon Streak were struggling to keep up with the increasing number of attacking creatures. Even with the knowledge that none of them could pop up behind them due to the light illuminating the darkness to their rear, the two ponies had sweat dripping off of their faces as they whipped around to shoot the incoming beasts. “Agh!” Neon Streak yelped in pain as one of the beasts managed to cut into her outstretched arm before she blasted it. The wound dripped blood freely onto the floor as the green mare ignored the pain in order to continue firing. “We can’t hold them back much longer! How long do you have left?!” Brimstoke asked while glancing behind him to look at the two frantic unicorns. “We still have around three minutes left!” Glitterball announced while still burying her head into her work. “We don’t have three minutes at this rate!” The green earth pony replied through clenched teeth as she looked at the sizable gash on her arm. She felt a little weak due to blood loss, but toughed through the pain in order to protect herself and her friends. Glitterball looked up and glanced over to the struggling ponies to the side. She then looked over at Applejack, who was still watching the action unfold with dread in her face as she hoped against all odds that the two ponies could hold out. “Applejack!” The white unicorn yelled to get the orange mare’s attention over the bursts of light and the roaring of the creatures. Applejack looked over to her and walked forward to see what she needed. “What is it?” Applejack asked while trying not to sound as afraid as she felt. Glitterball reached to her side and pulled off her strobe from its clip. She then handed the vial over to the confused farm pony. “I need you to go help them while me and Twilight break this thing. Just hold it out, point it at what you want to shoot, and press that button on the top there.” Glitterball explained while pointing to the indentation on the top of the vial. Applejack took the vial and looked at it for a moment before looking over to the battle beside her and gulping nervously. Neon Streak looked beside her to see Applejack trotting up to join her. She started shooting at the numerous creatures charging them with varied accuracy. After a few moments of panic induced learning, the orange mare’s aim improved vastly. “Ah should have taken you up on that offer when I had the chance, Neon.” Applejack stated jokingly while flinching her eyes shut to shoot at each of the terrifying looking creatures. “Don’t worry about that right now… just keep shooting and we’ll make it out of here just fine.” Neon chuckled nervously while trying to appear as confident as possible to ease the orange mare’s fears. Applejack nodded before returning her attention in front of her. Suddenly, one of the creatures leapt out from the side, catching Applejack off guard. The midnight man swiped the vial from the orange mare’s hooves, causing a painful cut in the process. The farm pony yelped from the pain as the beast prepared to take another swipe at her. “Applejack!” Neon cried out as she got in front of the farmer to protect her. The creature paid no heed as to which one of the ponies it struck as it whipped its clawed fingers back across. The creature hit Neon Streak across her chest, causing another painful gash in the already injured pony. The force of the strike sent Neon hurdling backwards, taking Applejack with her as their bodies impacted. “Girls!” Brimstoke was helpless as he watched the events transpire behind him. He was forced to continue firing at the beasts trying to get at him as two of the creatures rushed towards the two on the ground. Twilight looked up from her work to see her two friends lying on the ground just ahead. One of the creatures was preparing to deal the killing blow to the helpless pair on the floor. The purple unicorn took no time to let her fear dictate her actions and leapt forward while charging up her horn to attack the creatures. As she stood in front of her two injured friends, Twilight quickly realized that even if she did manage to complete the spell to shoot a blast at one of the creatures in time, there was another monster winding up for an attack at the same time. Applejack and Neon Streak watched helplessly as their unicorn savior closed her eyes in preparation for the doubtlessly mind numbing pain she would experience from the two creatures mauling her. Just before the closest creature made contact with the flinching unicorn however, it paused suddenly. Twilight heard the scraping sound of something piercing through flesh and muscle. She wondered if the creatures had already struck her, and the pain had just failed to reach her yet. She slowly fluttered her eyes open to see what had happened. The unicorn looked ahead to see one of the creatures had a familiar blue tinted sword sticking through its mid-section. The creature’s wound began emitting black smoke before the blade was forced upwards through its entire body, splitting it in twain from the waist up. As the creature collapsed into smoke, Twilight saw Tom standing behind it, holding his sword in place triumphantly. “Tom!” The purple pony exclaimed happily as she grinned at the human. As she looked over to the other creature, Twilight suddenly saw bright bolts of blue light striking the monster down from the side, followed by an orange pegasus in a suit trotting up to the group with her flashlight on. “You guys need a hand?” Tom asked with a smirk on his face as he put an arm out to pick up Applejack. After the farm pony was on her feet, she quickly helped Neon Streak scoot backwards and out of harm’s way. “Sunspot… I thought you were upstairs with the civvies?” Brimstoke asked curiously as he watched the two line up beside him. “I figured you guys could use some help, so I dropped the pegasus and the kids off with Glimmer and Pepper outside and came down here to rescue your sorry butts.” Sunspot boasted with a smirk on her face while holding up her two locaters for emphasis. Tom chuckled while looking over to the cocky pegasus with a smirk of his own. “Actually, I sensed a lot of those creatures moving towards a single area, so I decided to head down to investigate. She wanted to come with me, so we dropped the others off outside.” The human stated with a smile as he watched Sunspot’s ego deflate. “I… was getting to that.” The orange pegasus mumbled begrudgingly while shooting at the creatures around them. Brimstoke smiled as he watched the two interact. He could tell that they would get along just fine. “Well whoever it was that had the idea, I’m glad you came to bail us out.” The stallion said with a grateful smile before returning his attention to the creatures around them. Sunspot stayed in line with Brimstoke in order to keep a sturdy line of protection, while Tom threw caution to the wind and charged ahead to combat the creatures on the edge of the flashlight’s reach. The slayer spun around and decapitated one of the creatures as he swung his sword back around. He then impaled a creature and ripped the katana sideways to strike another creature beside it. Satisfied at his progress in cutting down the charging beast’s he chuckled in enjoyment as he smiled excitedly. “Not so tough when you can’t sneak up on me are you?” Tom yelled with a little more enthusiasm than necessary as he continued fighting the creatures. With the decrease in numbers of creatures due to the slayer’s rampage; Brimstoke and Sunspot were free to watch the boy dispatch scores of the creatures with relative ease as they charged him from all sides. “Wow… look at him go.” Brimstoke stated with amazement as he watched the slayer pummel the incoming creatures with a mixture of his sword, fists, and feet. “I guess the princess wasn’t kidding when she told us about how he saved the elements of harmony out in the Everfree.” Sunspot spoke while picking off the few stragglers that managed to come in from the sides. “Well, I suppose you don’t get to be slayer unless you can… slay things.” The stallion added while watching the spectacle in front of him like it was a sport. While the three; or rather, mostly one, dealt with the creatures, the two unicorns were racing to dismantle the spell and stop the beasts from appearing at all. Twilight and Glitterball had sweat rolling down their faces as they strained their magic to destroy the protective barriers of the spell. “Aha! I got it!” Glitterball exclaimed suddenly while focusing on a particular part of the symbol. Suddenly the entire symbol lit up and started emitting a loud hum. The glyphs on the symbol pulsed with red light as they blinked in succession. A bright flash of light filled the room as the symbol self-destructed. When the light faded, the pitch blackness of the room was replaced with the average shadows of normal darkness. A loud whirring sound filled the air as the generators kicked back on to restore power to the hospital. The lights flickered on, and the only sign left of the creatures was a few patches of disappearing black smoke on the floor. Tom turned around and twirled his sword in the air for show. He then stuck it back into its holster and looked to the group with fake disappointment in his face. “Awww… I was just getting warmed up.” The human smirked impishly.
Chapter 31: The AftermathTwilight sat still for a moment and processed her thoughts together while breathing heavily. She couldn’t believe that the ordeal was finally over, and that she could finally leave the dark hallways of the hospital forever. She looked over to her fellow unicorn, who shared in her excitement and exhaustion as she communicated with her eyes while panting to catch her breath. The ponies all took a moment to relax before getting up and remembering that their friends had been injured during the fight. “How are you two holding up?” Glitterball asked while observing Neon Streak and Applejack’s wounds. Although they looked horrific on the surface, the gashes on Neon’s chest and arms weren’t very deep, and Applejacks cuts were superficial at best. “I’m good… just need a little fresh air is all… ugh.” Neon Streak cringed while trying to stand up. Although her wounds weren’t very deep, she had lost a considerable amount of blood in a relatively short time. Applejack looked at the green pony sympathetically. On top of her saving her skin, the orange mare could tell that Neon wasn’t trying to make her feel bad for getting her hurt, and that somehow made the farm pony feel even worse. “We need to get you to Pepper… these look too big for me to heal up. Yours however…” Glitter paused to walk over to Applejack. After taking a brief look at the small cuts, the unicorn lit up her horn and used her magic to heal the orange mare. “Thanks sugar cube… You have medical training?” Applejack asked curiously as she rubbed her newly healed arms to see if they felt normal. The unicorn nodded cheerfully in response. “Yep… I help Peppermint with a few minor things from time to time.” Glitter stated modestly before looking back over to her injured friend. “But I don’t think I can do anything to help these.” The white mare frowned sympathetically as she watched Neon force a smile and chuckle. “I’m fine Glitterball… don’t worry about it.” The green pony droned while slowly walking forward to join the others. The others could tell that she was having a hard time standing, let alone walking and trying to seem upbeat and cheerful. “Enough putting on a show for me Neon, you’re hurt and you need to get some help.” Applejack spoke with concern while grabbing the earth pony’s side to help her stand. “Tom, do you think you can help her? Ah don’t think she’s going to make it very far while losing that much blood.” She turned to the human pleadingly to see if he could heal her the way he healed Fluttershy at the school. “I’ll see what I can do.” The boy shrugged while assessing the damage to the green mare. He knelt down and looked at the wounds closely to focus more on healing them specifically rather than just pumping her full of healing light and wasting energy. After a few moments of breathing deeply and steeling himself, Tom put his hands out and concentrated for a moment. Soon enough, bright streams of blue light began emitting from his hands once more. The warm feeling and soothing hum of the strange light amazed Neon Streak and Applejack, who could feel the warmth coming from the light by proximity. The four spectators watched with astonishment as the once gruesome wounds on Neon Streak’s chest and arm began closing up and healing right before their eyes. Even Twilight was still impressed to see the slayer in action, despite her earlier experience with him. Once Tom stopped his light and her wounds were healed, Neon rubbed the area where her skin had once been ripped open and smiled. She stopped smiling and adopted a more humble expression once she saw the boy breathing heavily as if he were exhausted. “Thanks Tom, I’m glad that people like you are around to make our job easier.” Neon Streak said in a gracious tone while watching the boy wheeze with a concerned frown. She lightened up her expression when she saw him smile and nod in between breaths. Applejack felt bad seeing Tom struggle to breathe after fixing her mistake. Although she couldn’t have done much to prevent herself from being attacked, she still felt awful knowing that Neon Streak could have died while protecting her. “Thanks for helping me out back there Neon… Ah don’t know what would have happened if you didn’t step in.” Applejack stated sympathetically while frowning sadly. The green pony smiled and put a hoof on the farm pony’s shoulder. “Don’t sweat it Applejack… I’m just doing my job.” Neon Streak said cheerfully. Applejack felt a little better knowing that everything turned out alright in the end. Seeing the human heal the earth pony made Twilight develop a sad feeling as she remembered the two ponies that had lost their lives. She felt like she had to at least voice her curiosity on the matter to see if Tom could possibly bring them back. “Hey Tom…” Twilight walked up to the boy with a sullen expression. “Are you able to use your healing powers to revive people who have died?” She asked hesitantly. Everyone shifted their expressions to more somber and blank ones upon hearing the grim question. Tom sighed gloomily as he thought about the subject more. He didn’t like where this conversation was going, and he didn’t like how he would have to answer. “I don’t think so… I’m not sure if it’s possible… and the amount of energy needed to even attempt something like that would be enormous. It’s only ever been attempted a few times, and the slayers who tried it didn’t survive the process.” Tom explained somberly before turning to the unicorn and looking at her with apprehension. “Why do you ask?” “…” Twilight paused and looked down sadly before answering. “When I got captured by those things and found Nurse Redheart… we weren’t alone.” The others frowned gloomily as they realized where this conversation was heading. “Daisychain and Patches were with us, but the creatures got to them before I could do anything.” The unicorn explained sadly while trying to keep her fragile hold on her emotions. The news that two ponies had died was devastating to everyone in the room to some degree. Applejack had already known about the tragic news, and despite her previous knowledge, the thought of it still hit the orange mare like a ton of bricks. Neon Streak and Brimstoke seemed to be taking the news more stoically than anything. They hung their heads sadly and sighed while dealing with their emotions. Glitterball and Sunspot were almost destroyed by the revelation that they had failed to save everyone. The two ponies stood motionless as their jaws hung open in shock, and their eyes gave a brief glimpse of how mortified they were. Tom on the other hand was harder to read than any of the others. Twilight was slightly concerned for him as he stared blankly at the floor with a somber expression. The only clue of emotion on his face was his eyes. They seemed to be unfocused and almost sad. The unicorn became even more concerned as she noticed the boy’s hand trembling slightly as he fidgeted with his fingers. “I’m sorry…” Tom finally spoke up in a dull tone. The others were confused as to why the boy would feel any more remorse than they did, but Twilight knew that it must have been killing him to have been unable to do anything to help. “It wasn’t your fault Tom…” The unicorn spoke softly while putting a reassuring hoof on his side. Somehow, seeing the purple pony trying to console him after her terrifying experience didn’t seem to make the boy feel better. “Let’s just move forward for now… we will bring those responsible for this to justice… I promise.” Twilight looked around to her orange friend and the four other ponies in the room. They gave a solemn nod as they all resolved to do anything in their power to prevent something like this from happening in the future. “Alright… I guess there is nothing else for us to do here… let’s head up and meet the others. I think Spike and Applebloom are waiting for you two.” Tom stated while trying to regain his former composure. Twilight wasn’t sure if he was as recovered as he was letting on, but she also knew that staying in this hospital wouldn’t do any of them any good. The group slowly walked towards the door to file out of the now peaceful basement. Glitterball turned around and lit up her horn to pick up the small stack of books Twilight had found earlier. After rushing the books over to her side, the white unicorn trotted to catch up to the others as they solemnly walked out into the hallway. Meanwhile, deep inside the Everfree Forest, Cotton Quill was pacing nervously along the fence line of the old mansion that had practically become his second home. He was muttering to himself as he tried to think of a way to present his findings in a way that wouldn’t get him killed. “I can’t believe those stupid ponies showed up and ruined everything! It’s bad enough that they have a slayer… but now they have an entire squad of supernatural exterminators!” Cotton grew paler as he imagined all of the things Raven Feather could do to him. He shook his head to rid himself of these grim thoughts and turned his attention to the old mansion. Gulping nervously and mentally preparing himself for the worst case scenario, the white unicorn slowly forced his body to move forward towards his inevitable doom. The journey from the edge of the property to the main building was taking him so long that Cotton decided to take a moment to observe his surroundings and get his mind off of his journey. It never occurred to the unicorn that this building was such a historical, and at the same time eerie, picture of human architecture. True, most of the trees and artistic stone sculptures were dead and crumbling, but the brown grass and cracked stone pathways that led around the yard to the various benches and the rundown water fountain were a sight to behold. Just as Cotton turned around from his time admiring the dull surroundings, he came face to frame with the large entryway door of the mansion. Sighing apprehensively, the unicorn opened the door and walked inside. As he walked through the large foyer, Cotton passed by a few of the hooded ponies that had assisted him with the ritual at the hospital. Thankfully the protection charm had actually worked this time, and there were no casualties among his small troop of summoners. Before he started to climb the staircase that would take him to the upper floor, Cotton noticed a familiar colt sitting on the top step. The pale white colt was kicking his legs in the air to occupy himself, as if he were waiting for something to do. “Grimwood? What are you doing here?” Cotton asked curiously while walking up the stairs. Upon noticing the unicorn, Grimwood hopped up and looked at him expectantly. “Ah… Cotton, you’re back a little early aren’t you? Did you screw something up again?” The pale colt’s devious remark was almost lost under his blank exterior, but nonetheless, Cotton felt annoyed in the fact that he was being typecast as a screw up, and that it was slightly true. “No… err… I… that’s beside the point.” The unicorn paused briefly to recollect himself. “Why are you sitting out here? Where’s Miss Raven Feather?” Cotton Quill asked quizzically as he observed the colt. “Raven Feather is down in the basement with the others. She told me to wait up here to tell you if you came back early again… which I’m kind of glad that you did. It was getting rather boring waiting for you.” Grimwood explained with a slight inflection of joy in his voice. Cotton was confused by the colt’s explanation. “Why is she down there? She usually hangs out in the library.” The white unicorn thought out loud as he tried to think of a reason why the dark furred earth pony would change their meeting spot. Grimwood looked at him and prepared to answer his question. “She’s looking for a book down in the archives… some of the more interesting stuff got left in the basement when the owners of the house… left.” The colt’s cold exterior made the statement much more eerie to Cotton as he thought about how the mansion came to be abandoned. “Right… So, would you mind giving me directions? I’ve never been down in the basement before. What’s it even like? I heard there isn’t even electricity down there… not that there is much up here of course… hehe.” The stallion chuckled nervously at the thought of going into a section of the house that probably wasn’t even lit up due to disuse. Grimwood let an imperceptible smirk creep across his face as he discovered an opportunity to mess with the unicorn. “Well… you take the hallway on the right of the foyer just underneath the stairs. You follow that all the way to the edge of the house and take the door at the end of the hall to the right. From there, you follow the basement hallways until you get to an intersection past the old medical examination rooms where that one guy did all of his experiments. Turn right and keep going until you hit the crawl space where they buried the bodies and take the door across from there. And finally, turn right and head into the decrepit archives room. Oh yeah, and it might be too dark to see down there, so be sure to bring a light… wouldn’t want you falling in any open graves in the crawlspace now would we?” The colt explained as slowly and forebodingly as he could manage while still keeping up his dull and innocently stoic appearance. “*Gulp*… Anything else?” Cotton asked apprehensively. Seeing the unicorn shiver nervously as his pupils shrank to tiny dots made the colt chuckle slightly. “Yeah… if you hit the room where one of the owners hung themselves from the rafters, you’ve gone too far.” Grimwood added in a cheery tone, as if his advice would really help Cotton find his way. “Thanks for the tip… I guess.” Cotton said uncomfortably as he tried to shake the frightening thoughts from his head. He then turned around and descended the stairs while trying to reassert his bravery to no avail. As he got off of the steps and walked around to the side, Cotton noticed a door he never acknowledged before set into the side of the staircase. Upon opening the door, the unicorn was greeted by a hallway with numerous doors inside that stretched onwards for as far as he could see. It never occurred to Cotton just how big the mansion actually was. After closing the door behind him, Cotton immediately noticed how dark the ominous hallway before him was. The only sources of light in the hall were small candles that sat on ornate tables that were few and far in between. The flickering orange tinted light bathed the hallway in an eerie sort of atmosphere that perfectly complimented the many voids of darkness in between the candles. “Sweet Celestia… how do these ponies live in these conditions? I for one prefer a little bit more light when traversing through creepy, old, and possibly haunted mansions.” Cotton stated to himself while reaching over to the light switch beside the door. Cotton flipped the switch and watched with satisfaction as the lights hanging from the ceiling flickered on. Just as the white pony was heading away from the light switch however, all of the lights flickered and slowly fizzed out, leaving him standing in the dark hallway once more. “*Sigh* I guess a fuse must have tripped… no wonder they decided to use candles to light this place. I just wish they would have put a few more down.” Cotton shrugged while lighting up his horn. The small sphere of light was barely any better than the candles, but it would have to do. After what felt like several minutes of walking, Cotton finally came to the end of the hallway and looked around. There was a door to his left that was cracked open slightly. Upon taking a look inside this door, Cotton realized that it led into another hallway that was completely void of light. “Ok, this house is officially way too big. We have dozens of ponies at our disposal, and we don’t even use all these rooms… how did only three people live here?” The unicorn wondered while thinking of the limited knowledge of the manor’s previous owners that he had from small conversations with the others. Cotton turned from the door and looked to the right wall where Grimwood said the basement stairs would be. Sure enough, a door with a pale gray hue stood out from the others across from the door to the other hallway. The unicorn walked up to it and opened it to reveal a decrepit wooden stairway leading down into pitch blackness. “I never thought I would say that I missed that dusty old library… but there you go.” Cotton stammered nervously while trying to stop himself from shivering. Suddenly the door behind the unicorn closed gently, just loud enough to distinguish the noise from anything else in the hallway. “Whoa!” Cotton yelped and spun around in fright to face the door. He had left it slightly open when he walked away, but now it was completely closed. Deciding against opening it for research, the nervous pony knelt down and looked through the crack at the bottom of the door to see if anyone was behind it. The crack was just large enough to see a short section of the dark floor behind the door. A cool breeze blew into the unicorn’s face as he scanned his eyes around to see any motion. Satisfied that nobody was around, Cotton quickly turned around and descended the staircase. He reasoned that even if Raven Feather chewed him out all night, it would still be better than being in this creepy mansion alone. After nervously traversing the dark corridors of the basement and looking out for the terrifying landmarks that Grimwood described, Cotton Quill found himself opening the door to the archives and stepping in with the hopes that he would find someone that he knew. Much to his relief, Cotton saw Raven Feather, Dust Kicker, and Raincloud huddled around a crate and talking with each other. Upon noticing the unicorn, the others looked over to him with blank expressions on their faces. “It’s about time you got here Cotton… what, did you fall into an open grave?” The black mare asked with a slight chuckle. The way Raven Feather said that made Cotton feel uncomfortable, as if that were a common occurrence in this place. “As dark and uninviting as that hole in the wall was, no… I did not fall into any open graves.” The unicorn replied while trying to shake the memories of the dark and claustrophobic hole he had to walk through from his head. “Right… well then, let’s get right down to business. How did the plan go?” Raven Feather asked with a hint of false optimism in her voice. The black earth pony’s emerald green eyes burned into Cotton as she stared at him expectantly. Despite his knowledge of what they would be talking about, Cotton still became very nervous as he tried to formulate the right words to say to put it as gently as possible. Judging from their expressions, Raven Feather and the others were unimpressed by the awkward unicorn mumbling to himself. “Unfortunately… the spell at the hospital has been broken, and the creatures are gone.” Finding no better way to put it, Cotton rubbed the back of his neck nervously while avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group. Raven Feather growled through her teeth in frustration, Cotton looked up to see her glaring at him fiercely. “Let me guess… it was the slayer again.” The black mare huffed angrily before taking a moment to calm herself down. “A-actually no… The slayer was there, but a group of ponies sent by Princess Luna did the heavy lifting.” The unicorn stopped talking, as if he had communicated everything he needed to. Raven Feather and the others were sharing a mixture of surprise and anger upon hearing the news. “What?!” Raincloud finally decided to interject into the conversation. She got up and marched over to Cotton angrily. Just as the unicorn flinched in preparation of being strangled, the pegasus merely grabbed ahold of him by his vest collar and held him closer. “You better start explaining Cotton! It was your job to defend that symbol, and just a random group of ponies destroyed it?!” The gray-blue pegasus shook the terrified unicorn back and forth to better hold his attention. “Raincloud… enough.” Raven Feather spoke up while holding out her arm to stop the pegasus assaulting the unicorn. Raincloud gave Cotton one last glare before dropping him, causing him to fall on his back and catch himself with his arms. “Now… Cotton, what was so special about these ponies that you thought it necessary to let them destroy another symbol?” The green eyed pony asked very clearly and concisely while still maintaining a cold exterior. Cotton gulped nervously before mustering the courage to speak up. “They had a lot of magic charms designed to combat the supernatural… I think the princess must have trained them to fight against us.” The unicorn explained while anxiously watching the scowling earth pony in front of him. “You know what Cotton…” The innocent tone of voice that Raven Feather was using caught Cotton off guard. “I think you don’t want us to reach our goal… I think you want to screw up everything you touch.” The earth pony walked forward while glaring at the unicorn menacingly. Cotton backed up nervously as Raven Feather marched towards him. Suddenly, the unicorn hit the back wall and was forced to stop, allowing the livid pony to get right up in his face and pierce his soul with her fiery green eyes. “I don’t understand it Cotton… We offered you a home, offered you a place to grow and master skills and talents that you couldn’t even possibly dream of on your own, and we offered you a place beside us when we bathe this world in everlasting darkness! And you STILL find it NECESSARY…” Suddenly the explosive outburst abruptly ended, leaving Raven Feather staring at the quivering mess in front of her. The earth pony sighed and rubbed her temples before breathing deeply a few times. She then backed up and turned around to face the others. Cotton slowly opened one eye to see if the verbal assault had ended. “Forget this… I have people to get upset for me.” Raven Feather muttered just loud enough to be heard before turning to the two onlookers. “Raincloud.” She spoke directly to the gray pegasus. Raincloud directed her attention to her leader. “Yes Raven Feather?” The pegasus asked with an obedient tone. Raven Feather chuckled to herself while smirking. “Why don’t you give our friend Cotton a little… discipline?” The black earth pony grinned and winked at the pegasus to accentuate her last word. Raincloud perked up eagerly and let a smile creep across her face. “Really?” The excited pegasus asked to clarify what the earth pony meant. Raven Feather nodded before stepping out of the way to give her room. Raincloud laughed deviously while stepping towards Cotton. The unicorn expected her to walk up to him, but instead she stopped a few feet from him and stared at him with an impish smirk. “Shadow…” The pegasus spoke loudly and with steely determination, as if she were giving an order to an army. Cotton was confused by the display. “What…? But Shadow Mist isn’t here…” The unicorn spoke to himself while looking around to find who the mare was talking to. Suddenly, a strange occurrence made Cotton’s blood run cold. Raincloud’s shadow started moving slowly from beneath her. The black silhouette stretched out to the side until it was projecting to a spot beside her, where it stopped. The shadow then started forming into a more solid looking dark circle on the ground. Suddenly a large, amorphous creature started rising up out of the ground where the shadow had been. The creature was pitch black everywhere except for its eyes and mouth, which were glowing a sinister purple that flickered like a candle inside a jack-o-lantern. The ghostly shape was very broad at the top, with the creature’s arms jutting out from the edges of its body. Its head consisted of a small blob on top of its body with its glowing eyes and mouth seemingly carved into it. The shadow’s lower body tapered down to a thin end that resembled a tail. The entire thing looked like some kind of demonic manta ray sprouted arms and learned how to fly. “Wh….w-wha.” Cotton stared at the monster wide eyed as it floated menacingly before him. The creature turned and looked to its master, who was smiling devilishly at it while glancing to the frightened unicorn. The pegasus smiled and admired her minion for a moment before redirecting her attention to the unicorn. “Rough him up!” Raincloud instructed to the creature while pointing at Cotton with her arm. The creature let out a sinister cackle that pierced Cotton’s very being as it seemingly echoed softly through the room. Suddenly the creature swooped down rapidly and disappeared into the floor, leaving nothing to give a hint that something had even been there. Cotton immediately flew into a panic as he looked around him nervously. He backed away from the wall and checked every possible location where the creature could come from. Suddenly, the unicorn looked down, only to be greeted with a small black patch on the floor that resembled a shadow. The creature’s head suddenly popped out of the patch and stared at Cotton with its glowing eyes and jagged smile. “AHHH!” Cotton screamed at the top of his lungs as the creature sprang up from the ground and grabbed him by his back leg. With one swift motion, the shadow lifted him up and let him hang upside down. The unicorn dangled from the creature’s grip and struggled in a vain attempt to get free. “Raven Feather! Please call it off! I’ll do anything, I swear!” Cotton yelled in a terrified panic as he tried to avoid staring at the monster’s disturbing face. The white pony punched his hooves as hard as he could into the creature, but was only met by his arms going through the shadow as if it weren’t really there. Finally, Cotton decided to pull and wriggle his leg to try and pry it out of the creature’s grasp. Raincloud’s laughter did nothing to distract Cotton from the icy stare of the creature. The shadow held its other arm up and slowly moved it toward the unicorn’s face. The spikey claws jutting out from the specter’s hand were an inch away from piercing the frightened pony’s skin. Cotton flinched his eyes shut and prepared for the pain that would follow. Suddenly and abruptly, Cotton was sent crashing to the floor as the shadow released its grip. The force of the impact was mostly placed on the back of the unicorn’s head, causing quite a bit of pain and discomfort. Cotton looked up to see the shadow staring at him as it sat still, the only motion arising from it being the slow rise and fall of its body from floating in the air. Behind the shadow, Raven Feather and Raincloud were standing next to each other and glaring at Cotton. Raincloud motioned for the creature to return to her, causing the shadow to fly into the air and swoop back into the ground at the pegasus’ feet. The creature quickly melded into the shape of an average shadow and turned see-through once more, giving the illusion that it had never been there at all. “Thank you Miss Raven Feather… I promise I won’t fail you on the next plan.” Cotton walked forward and bowed his head respectfully to the earth pony. Raven Feather huffed in annoyance before forcefully lifting the unicorn’s head up with her hoof. “There won’t be a next plan for you to fail Cotton… you’re officially fired from making and performing any spells and rituals on our behalf.” Raven Feather explained to him in an annoyed tone. Cotton was extremely shocked to hear that he was being punished so severely. “In the meantime, Raincloud and Dust Kicker will be my acting agents in the field. Hell, I might step outside myself and help them out on their first mission... I could use some fresh air after all.” Raven Feather stated with a cheerful grin while turning to the two ponies and sharing in a joyful chuckle. “What?!... But… but… but why?! I’m not the only one who screwed up this time! Shadow Mist wasn’t even there to help me, and now he isn’t even here to take blame for it.” Cotton tried to shift the blame to his partner, although the red pony did have some responsibility over the plan due to his orders. “What are you talking about Cotton? Shadow Mist has been here the whole time.” Raven Feather stated with a hint of devilish satisfaction in her voice. Cotton looked around in confusion. The red earth pony was nowhere to be found in the small, dusty room. He wasn’t even hiding behind any of the cobweb ridden shelves. “What…? But… where is h-” Cotton was interrupted by a sudden shroud of darkness appearing in front of him. When the shadows faded from view, the familiar form of the red furred earth pony was left standing a mere inch away from Cotton. “Hi Cotton…” Shadow Mist spoke up on cue with his appearance, causing the unicorn to jump backwards in fright and surprise. “What…? But how did you…” Cotton stammered in between breaths while calming himself down. The red pony merely chuckled and turned to face Raven Feather. “Didn’t I tell you before Cotton…? We all have gifts to contribute to the group.” Raven Feather chuckled to herself while watching the frightened unicorn get up. “I thought you were speaking metaphorically…” Cotton muttered to himself while trying to preserve any shred of dignity he had left. Taking one look at Dust Kicker and Raincloud, who were quietly chuckling and laughing uncontrollably on the floor respectively, it was clear that he had failed to do so. “Now then Shadow Mist… what happened at the hospital?” Raven Feather asked the crimson earth pony and waited expectantly. “Well, I was keeping an eye on Cotton like you asked. Twilight Sparkle and a small group of her friends, including the slayer, got trapped in the building when the spell was complete. Everything was going perfectly fine… the creature’s completely drained two ponies of their life force, and there were three children there as well… so you can imagine that we managed to gather a lot of fear and sadness. But then these ponies in tactical gear busted through the door and rescued everyone. They went down to the basement and found the room where the symbol was, and while Cotton here ran away… they managed to destroy the spell and make off with a few of our books.” Shadow Mist explained while looking to Cotton Quill with disdain. Cotton could see that Raven Feather wasn’t at all impressed with him, even though she had already punished him for messing up. He looked at Shadow Mist with a mixture of shock and scorn on his face. The unicorn couldn’t believe that he could speak as if nothing was wrong when he had fled as well. “But… why did you run away? If you all wanted me to stay and fight, then why didn’t you try to keep them away?” Cotton looked to Raven feather in a last ditch attempt to get her to see his logic. She merely scowled at him further before looking back to Shadow Mist and waiting for his explanation. “They looked like they had royal guard training at some point. And they were packing some fairly advanced magical equipment. I would have ran, but seeing how I can turn invisible, I decided to watch them to find out what we were up against.” Shadow Mist explained to the others and sat down after he was done. Cotton was even more shocked to see that they seemed to except his explanation. “But… why are you only mad at me?!” The unicorn fumed in frustration. Raven Feather sighed in annoyance before looking back to him. “It’s not so much that you ran away Cotton… although I am still mad at you for that. It’s that you disobeyed me to run away, and you left your books behind. Not that they will get much from them… but it is still a considerable mistake, which is why you will be staying here and helping the others with research and other petty chores I would normally reserve for some grunt that I don’t know the name of.” The black mare stated matter-of-factly to the unicorn while walking towards the door and motioning for the others to follow. “But… I’ll still get rewarded when this is all over right?” Cotton asked timidly in order to not set off the earth pony’s temper again. Raven Feather paused at the door and turned around. “After all the complications you caused? Do you know how much fear and negative energy is needed to invoke the eternal night? Not to mention all of the other complex rituals needed… no, you probably have no idea… you haven’t spent most of your life searching for a way to do it.” The earth pony stated with an annoyed tone to the unicorn before walking out of the door with her three companions. Cotton Quill followed the group out into the dark hallway and walked in front of them to stop them. “That didn’t really answer my question Miss Raven Feather.” Cotton said while trying to sound as lighthearted as possible. The black mare sighed in frustration before looking at the unicorn with a defeated expression. “Tell you what Cotton… if you work really hard on whatever odd jobs I give you, and you don’t screw anything else up, I might reconsider feeding you to a pack of darklings after we become this world’s new gods.” Raven Feather said with a slight smile as she envisioned how satisfying it would be to have the unicorn murdered brutally. Cotton was going to say something in return, but he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a door closing down the hall followed by a hiss of air blowing past the group. Everyone else merely looked in the direction of the noise with slight curiosity, while Cotton nearly jumped out of his skin with fright. “I thought we were the only ones down here…” The unicorn stammered nervously while hiding behind the group for protection while staring down the hall at the ominous door at the end. “We are… in a manner of speaking.” Raincloud spoke up with a devious tone as she relished in watching the terrified stallion. “What was that anyway…? That happened to me earlier in the hallway leading down here.” Cotton asked curiously. The white pony finally managed to calm his nerves and limit his fear to a slight tightness of the muscles. “One of the workers was down here on an errand earlier, I think he might have accidentally broken or damaged one of the protective seals on the house. Ever since there have been a few odd occurrences, so I think something might have been woken up… Oh yeah, that reminds me. Cotton, your first job is to go in there and fix the seal.” Raven Feather instructed suddenly while turning to face the unicorn. “What?! You want me to go in there by myself?!” Cotton’s heart skipped a beat as his fears came back to him in full force. “Oh don’t worry. You’ll have that worker down here to help you. At least I think he’s still down here… I don’t remember him coming back upstairs at any rate…” The black mare tried to sound reassuring, but then she scratched her head as she tried to recall whether or not the worker actually made it out of the basement. “Just head in there and use the book near the symbol to find out how to fix the seal… and don’t worry, I’m sure whatever managed to get through the weakened seals is probably harmless.” Raven Feather stated with deceitful confidence while walking away with her group. Raincloud paused and turned around to give the unicorn a devious smirk. “Probably…” The pale mare said with a brief chuckle before turning back around and following Raven Feather and her brother around the corner. Cotton stared at the ominous hallway before him and gulped nervously while forcing himself to step forward. If he remembered correctly, and if Grimwood’s directions were to be trusted, then the room where the door just slammed shut would be the room where one of the human owners hung themselves from the rafters. “You know… I hate this job sometimes.” The unicorn muttered to himself before swallowing his fear and walking down the hall to get started on his job.
Chapter 32: Team SpiritAfter taking a solemn walk through the hospital and reflecting on everything that had happened in the past few hours, Twilight and the others finally walked out into the warm atmosphere of midday Ponyville. The purple unicorn and her orange friend took a deep inhale of fresh air and savored it. Just a few minutes ago, the two ponies thought that they would never see the light of day again. Upon taking a look around, Twilight noticed a wide array of ponies in the area around the group. Some were jogging around with urgent expressions, while others were watching the band of survivors exiting the hospital. “Come on… your friends and the princess are waiting in the medical tent we set up over there.” Brimstoke spoke to the pair while pointing off into the distance. Twilight could just barely see the outline of a beige tent over in the grass away from the hospital. “Thanks… I think we should rest for a while before we find out what to do next.” The purple unicorn said while following the group towards the medical tent. The others nodded in agreement to the suggestion while anticipating taking a moment to relax. Twilight looked over to see Glitterball carrying the books she had found earlier. The lavender pony couldn’t help but wonder what useful secrets could be learned about their enemies from searching through the pages. After a short walk, the group found themselves approaching the medical tent. As they gathered around the door, they could hear the muffled noises of their friends talking inside. Deciding to head in first, Twilight pushed the small flap of canvas aside and stepped in. The inside of the tent was larger than it seemed when looking at it from the front, having several cots and tables inside. Numerous pieces of medical equipment and I.V stands were scattered around the tent and on the various tables. Off to the back of the tent, there was a small gathering of ponies sitting beside another bed that had Nurse Redheart in it. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Princess Luna, and Fluttershy were huddled next to the bed while Glimmer Shine occupied Spike, Scootaloo, and Applebloom with idle conversation. Directly beside the nurse’s bed, Peppermint was fiddling around with an I.V bag that had a line connecting to the resting pony. Upon noticing the entering group, everyone turned their heads and exclaimed cheerfully at seeing their friends return safely. Everyone except for Peppermint and Nurse Redheart, for obvious reasons, rushed over to greet the band of survivors. “Twilight!” Spike exclaimed happily while rushing over to the purple unicorn. He practically jumped into her arms to give her a warm embrace. The lavender pony gladly held the dragon tightly as they both teared up from finally being reunited. “Spike! I’m so glad you’re not hurt!” Twilight’s voice trembled from sheer emotion as she hugged the baby dragon closely. “I thought I would never see you again.” She sniffled once to rid herself of the excess emotion before looking at Spike and smiling happily. “I felt the same way! I thought I would be stuck up there forever!” Spike wiped the tears off of his face before returning the unicorn’s smile. A short ways away, Applejack was running up to her sister and kneeling down to give her a gentle hug. The young filly still had her broken leg to deal with after all. “Applebloom! Are you okay? How is your leg?” The orange mare asked in a soft tone while fighting back a wave of tears. “Well, in all of the commotion I hadn’t paid much attention to it, but it does hurt a little more than it did before… Owch!” Applebloom almost fell as she suddenly felt shooting pain coming from her leg after putting weight on it. Applejack gasped in concern as she helped the filly lay down without hurting herself further. “What’s wrong? Did you hurt your leg again?” The farm pony asked with concern and empathy as she frowned while watching the filly cringe in pain. Peppermint walked over from the occupied bed and knelt down to examine the injured filly. After Applebloom yelped from the slightest touch, the stallion reeled back and left the injury alone. He shook his head sympathetically before looking up to Applejack. “I think she might have full blown broken it back in the hospital. If I can’t set it here and recast it, then she is going to need to have it surgically corrected.” Peppermint explained with a somber frown. The orange mare gasped quietly while looking back to her sister with shock. “How much pain will setting it here cause her?” Applejack asked apprehensively while placing a reassuring hoof on the filly’s shoulder. Peppermint sighed in frustration while observing the casted leg. “Even with local anesthetics it would be… considerably uncomfortable…” The white stallion rubbed his arm anxiously as he delivered the bad news. Applebloom looked to her sister with understandable fear and concern. Before anyone else could speak up, Tom shrugged with resolve and stepped forward to look at the injured filly. He then looked over to Peppermint with a confident expression. “Do you think you can get that cast off without hurting her?” The human asked with an anxious tone, as if he were mentally preparing himself for a challenge. “Yeah… I can just cut it off, but why?” Peppermint asked curiously. He wasn’t sure where the slayer was going with this, but he was willing to do anything to help out an injured filly. Tom shook his head and stretched his shoulders while taking a deep breath. He then held his hands out in front of his face and clenched his fist a few times while getting a feel for his strength level. Finally he looked back to the confused medic and smirked. “I think I might be able to heal her using my powers… but I need to reach her leg to even try to do it.” Tom stated with a hint of doubt and apprehension, but he seemed happy enough to try to help. Everyone looked at the boy with hopeful optimism. They weren’t sure if his claim was true, but they wanted the filly to be healed above all else. “Ok… if you really think you can do this, then we need to put her on a bed. Glitter, could you help us out?” Peppermint asked while looking over to the crowd of onlookers. The rainbow haired unicorn stepped forward and nodded with determination. Everyone stood back as Glitterball lit up her horn and enveloped Applebloom with her magic. She slowly lifted the filly up and carried her over to a bed, being careful not to make any sudden movements. She then gently placed her down on her side so she wouldn’t hit her leg on anything. Once the filly was on solid ground, Peppermint reached onto his vest and grabbed a pair of medical scissors. He then carefully cut the cast on the side so he could slip it off without touching the injured leg too much. “There, that should do.” Pepper stated while discarding the cast on a nearby table and replacing the scissors on his vest. He then took a look at the injured leg and cringed. The filly’s leg had turned blackish blue just below the knee. Her leg also seemed to bend at an unnatural angle that looked like it would be painful in its own right. “Alright, I need to find where the break is first.” Tom said while preparing to examine the filly’s leg. Applebloom cringed instinctively as she watched the human hover his hands near her leg. “It won’t hurt too much… right?” Applebloom asked timidly while staring at her injured leg with a concerned frown. Tom looked at her and smiled lightheartedly. “Don’t worry… a happy side effect of my healing light is that it numbs pain completely. You won’t feel a thing, I promise.” The boy spoke in a cheerful tone. Applebloom felt a little better knowing that Tom was the one helping her. After steeling himself for a moment, Tom’s hands began glowing a soft shade of blue as he channeled his light energy to his palms to remove any pain the filly might experience. He then gently placed his hands on Applebloom’s leg and felt around while following the contour of her bones. Applebloom was surprised to see that no pain resulted from the boy moving her leg. Instead, only a slight warm tingling sensation occurred where Tom’s hands were. After a few moments of searching, he finally discovered the break he had been looking for. “Alright… I need you to hold the bones in their proper alignment while I do this. The break is right here… just press on it gently and wait for it to join back together.” Tom instructed to the medic waiting beside him while holding a finger on the spot where the break was. “Ok…” Peppermint replied while gently putting his hoof on the area to feel the broken bone. “The name’s Peppermint by the way.” He stated formally while observing the human’s next actions. Tom nodded to the medical pony before diverting his attention back to the filly. “Broken bones are harder to heal than cuts and bruises, so bear with me while I concentrate.” Tom explained before taking a few deep breathes and placing his hand in position above the injury. Everyone watched with silent intrigue as they waited for the human to concentrate. Suddenly, the familiar glow of Tom’s healing light softly emanated from his hand and shone down on the filly’s leg. Much to Peppermint’s surprise, he could feel the bones starting to move together as he softly pressed on them. Applebloom let a giggle escape from her mouth as she tried to cope with the strange tingling sensation overcoming her leg. It almost felt like she had been sitting on it for too long and it had fallen asleep. As the process carried on, the group noticed that Tom was straining his muscles as if he were coping with a great discomfort. His hand was shaking slightly and he was gritting his teeth while he tried to maintain the flow of energy to his hand. After a short wait, the leg was completely mended, letting the color return to the skin around it. Tom let out a huff of exhaustion and placed his hands on his knees to support himself while he breathed heavily. Applebloom frowned as she watched the boy recovering from his exhaustion. “Are you okay Tom?” Applebloom asked with a sympathetically sad tone. Tom looked up to her in between breathes and realized that she was concerned for him. Not wanting to worry the filly, the boy took in a large inhale before standing back up and coping with his discomfort internally. “I’m fine… just a little out of breath. How’s your leg?” The human asked, half to find out how good of a job he had done, and half to change the subject off of himself. Applebloom slowly bended her leg to see if it would hurt, she then moved it through its full range of motion a few times before smiling happily. “It feels good as new… thanks Tom!” Applebloom exclaimed happily while jumping off of the bed and landing on all of her legs to safely distribute the force. The filly admired her ability to use all four legs for a moment before walking over to her sister confidently and huddling up next to her. Peppermint marveled at the miraculous recovery of the filly in front of him. He and Glimmer Shine had been informed from Rainbow Dash and the others about what the human was capable of, but he had no idea that it would be so awe inspiring up close. “You’re pretty good as a field medic Tom.” The red haired pony complimented the human with a friendly smile. Tom looked back to the stallion and chuckled to himself while smirking. “You’re not so bad yourself… you took care of our friend there for us.” The boy stated while glancing over to Nurse Redheart. The resting nurse smiled while sitting up in the bed and watching the group in front of her. “Hehe… just doing my job I suppose.” Peppermint said modestly while rubbing the back of his neck. This statement made the more uninformed members of the group burn with curiosity. Rarity and the others had only just arrived a short while ago after hearing about the situation at the hospital, so they weren’t given many details on the origins of the strange team of ponies. “That reminds me… What is your job exactly?” Rarity stepped forward from the circle of onlookers and asked curiously. “I mean… we only learned your names when we first got here and you rushed off to help Twilight and the others.” She explained while looking over to her group of friends. Twilight seemed the most intrigued about learning more about the team. “I think I should explain who they are to all of you.” Luna spoke up and stepped forward before anyone else had a chance. She walked in front of Twilight and the others and looked back to the gathering of suited up ponies beside them. “My sister hadn’t told me about any of the strange black and purple substance that was showing up around Equestria. She wanted to keep it under control herself… I guess so as to not concern me. But when monsters attacked all of you out in the Everfree Forest, she knew that we were dealing with something much bigger than either of us could predict. We originally thought that Tom here would be enough to rid us of the new threat we were facing, but after the incident at the school came to my attention, I knew that something had to be done.” She explained with a serious expression on her face and a determined tone of voice. “You see, I had known about some of these things a few months prior to the first appearance of the dark matter. A few books on the paranormal and occult rituals came to my attention one day. And after reading through the horrific contents of the books, I knew that we would need a safeguard in place if any of it should actually prove to be real. So, I started training a small team of ponies to deal with the possibility of any supernatural threat to Equestria and its inhabitants.” The princess stated while turning to face her team of paranormal exterminators. “We are the Supernatural and Paranormal Intelligence, Reconnaissance, and Intervention Team… or Spirit for short.” Brimstoke explained with a small twinge of excitement as he stated their team name. The acronym impressed and intrigued most of the group, while some just wondered who came up with the odd name. “So who came up with that odd name?” Tom chimed in with curiosity and slight amusement before realizing that they at least looked the part of a team of supernatural enforcers while he was just dressed to go out for a morning jog. “To be fair, Glitterball actually came up with it.” Brimstoke said humbly while looking over to the rainbow haired unicorn. Glitterball blushed with modesty while looking down with an awkward smile. “We didn’t really have a name at first… so I just thought one up and the princess just accepted it.” Glitter stated while shyly looking over to the alicorn standing in front of her. Luna smiled at the embarrassed unicorn knowingly. “Well I for one like it… Go team spirit!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly while raising a hoof to the sky enthusiastically. The others grimaced from the play on words, but couldn’t help but smile at the party pony. “Right… well anyway.” Luna spoke up again to clear the air. “They were trained for three months with all of the occult knowledge we had, before I was forced to send them into the field early. I know that they might not be fully experienced, but I had no choice after the monster at the school popped up.” She explained with a slight frown of concern while observing the group. “They did fine princess… if they hadn’t come in and helped us destroy that symbol down in the basement, it would have only been a matter of time until we all got captured… or worse.” Twilight said with a slight twinge of sadness as she thought back to her ordeal in the basement. Applejack frowned sadly from seeing her friend remember her awful experience. The unicorn and farm pony were surprised to see everyone else looking at Twilight sadly, as if they knew what had happened. Suddenly Princess Luna placed a caring hoof on the lavender pony’s shoulder. “I am sorry about what happened in there Twilight… no pony should have to go through what you did.” The princess stated while sympathetically frowning at the slightly confused unicorn. “But… how do you-” Twilight started to ask a question when she was interrupted by Nurse Redheart speaking up from her bed. “I told them everything Twilight… I figured that they needed to know, and you seemed to be taking it badly… so I told them for you.” The white nurse explained sadly while looking down. “It’s fine Redheart… I just feel bad because I couldn’t do anything more to save the others…” Twilight sighed while lowering her head gloomily. “We were paralyzed Twilight… there wasn’t much you could have done. Just be thankful for what you did do.” Redheart stated with an almost cheerful smile on her face. Twilight softened up her expression for a moment as she remembered the books she had found. The unicorn glanced over to the table where Glitterball had placed the small stack of tomes and walked over to it. “You’re right Redheart… and besides, we’re going to make them answer for everything they have done, and these books should help us a lot.” Twilight said with a hopeful smirk on her face while looking at her band of allies. The unicorn had her fellow element bearers, the princess of the night, a team of ponies trained to combat the supernatural, and a slayer of evil born from a race of creatures long since extinct, all of them eager to help put a stop to the newfound threat to Equestria. “We should head back to your headquarters and study these books… whoever did this might have used these to make that spell.” Twilight explained while looking to Brimstoke and his teammates. “Uhh…” Brimstoke muttered awkwardly while nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “You see, we kind of don’t have a headquarters per say…” He finally explained while looking off to the side. “What…? But you guys are a team of hardened ghostie busters! How do you not have a secret base?!” Pinkie huffed in shock while furrowing her brow at the apparently secret base-less band of novices. While the pink mare was leering at him doubtfully, Brimstoke continued speaking to explain, or perhaps justify their lack of a base of operations. “Most of us are ex royal guard or emergency rescue team… we were trained after hours at the Canterlot guard station. Now that we’re out here, we don’t have anywhere to meet other than our living quarters.” The stallion stated while looking to his teammates for support. “For the moment we can use the library as a meeting place. Once you discharge Nurse Redheart, we should bring those books down there and study them.” Twilight suggested while taking a few steps back towards the entrance to the tent. “She should be alright to head home now, let me just remove the I.V line real quick.” Peppermint stated while walking over to the nurse’s bedside to remove the medical tubing sticking out of her arm. After she was free, Redheart climbed out of the bed and tested her strength for a moment. “I feel much better now… I think I’m going to head on home, so good luck with catching whoever did this.” The nurse waved to the group of ponies before walking out of the tent and starting on her path home. “Alright everyone… we’re heading out. Does anyone want to come help us study these tomes?” Twilight asked her band of friends, hopeful that at least some of them would come. “Ah will, but first me and Applebloom will head back home so Ah can drop her off.” Applejack stepped forward to volunteer. “Same here… I should walk Scootaloo home, but I will definitely drop by once I’m done.” Rainbow Dash suggested while looking down to the orange filly. “Aww… I want to come too! Who knows? I might get my cutie mark by helping you guys out.” Scootaloo pleaded to be included in the research efforts. The cyan pegasus shook her head slowly to convey her disapproval. “Sorry kiddo… I think you and Applebloom have had enough experience with the supernatural to last a life time.” Rainbow Dash spoke firmly with a sense of sympathy to the young pegasus. Scootaloo huffed in annoyance before sighing acceptingly. “I’ll come too…*yawn*” Fluttershy droned tiredly. She had bags under her eyes and numerous other signs of fatigue. Everyone watched the yellow mare with worried frowns as she fought to remain awake on her feet. “You alright sugar cube? You look like Ah did when that polter thingy kept us up all night.” Applejack asked in a concerned tone. Fluttershy had a brief expression of nervousness on her face as she thought about the orange mare’s words. “Oh, it’s fine… err… I’m fine. I’m just a little bit tired is all.” The shy pegasus said while returning a semi cheerful expression to her half asleep face. Despite Fluttershy’s obvious façade, everyone seemed to leave the subject alone for the moment. “I would love to come help Twilight, but I won’t be able to stay for very long tonight. I have things that I need to finish up at home.” Rarity volunteered with a sincere smile on her face. “I’ll come too!” Pinkie Pie suggested eagerly while bouncing forward to join the group. Twilight was very happy to see her friends volunteer to assist with the investigation. She had no doubt in her mind that they would be able to close the case and find those responsible in no time. “Alright then… are you coming with us Princess?” Twilight asked while looking over to the dark blue alicorn. “Sorry Twilight… I’m afraid that I can’t assist you with your research right now. Celestia is planning on making a speech in Ponyville in a few days to inform everyone about what’s going on. She is still a little shaken up from the encounter in the cave, so I need to help her get everything set up.” Luna explained with a slight frown on her face. “That’s fine… I hope Princess Celestia gets better soon. In the meantime I promise that I will get to the bottom of this.” Twilight stated with confidence and determination. Luna was happy to see the unicorn was so adamant about her assignment from Celestia. “I know my sister wouldn’t have picked just any pony to do the job… just be sure to let these guys help you out. Even if they don’t have as much training in the occult as I would like, they still know a thing or two about investigating.” The alicorn stated while looking over to her band of ponies and smiling. The members of team spirit nodded and smiled back confidently. “Will do… now let’s head out everyone. We won’t catch those hooded ponies by standing around here.” Twilight stated to her troop with an inspiring tone before walking out of the tent. Everyone who was going to the library followed the purple mare outside.
Chapter 34: Troubled Sleep*Thump* A loud banging noise suddenly brought Fluttershy to her senses. The yellow pegasus looked around in a fearful daze while trying to scan her surroundings to ascertain any danger. She found herself looking at an eerily familiar room. There was warped and soaked-through wallpaper adorning the walls. Streams and droplets of water fell freely from the ceiling and dripped down onto the floor, making a quiet splashing sound as it hit water. The floor was made out of damp wood that felt cold and wet on the yellow pony’s hooves. And the floor opened up to a large body of water that had two thin sections of broken floorboards serving as a bridge to the other side of the room. “Oh no…” Fluttershy exclaimed in horror as she realized where she was. The loud bang that jolted her to her senses before happened again, shaking the pegasus to her very core as the floorboards vibrated from the force. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie will get us out of here.” The nervous voice of her purple unicorn friend made the yellow mare turn to look beside her. Twilight was standing there giving her a look of fear and concern, while also trying to appear confident to ease her fears. “What’s going on?!” Fluttershy squeaked in a panic as she sank to the back wall to get away from the water. She never imagined that she would be back in the school dealing with this situation again. The pegasus’s mind raced as she tried to retrace her steps up to this point. She was certain that she had already experienced this before, and had since moved on to try and forget it. Yet here she was, reliving the worst experience in her life thus far. “Pinkie! Get on the other side of this and pull!” The muffled voice of Rarity yelling in a panic came from a room across the hall. Fluttershy realized that the two mares must be in there pushing the shelf to rescue her and Twilight. “This can’t be real… This isn’t happening.” Fluttershy muttered as she tried to logically figure out what was going on. Either she was having the worst case of déjà vu ever, or she was actually reliving this nightmare. Twilight walked over to the frightened and confused pegasus and knelt down to be at eye level. She then put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, causing her to look up and face her. “Don’t worry… that thing can’t get us up here. The girls will have us out of here long before the floorboards break.” The unicorn spoke in a comforting tone. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she suddenly remembered what came next. “Oh no!” Fluttershy exclaimed in horror while looking out to the water fearfully. She knew that at any moment now, the bloody creature would cease its assault on the floor and make its way up to get at the ponies on land. “Don’t worry girls! We-” Pinkie exclaimed reassuringly across the hall, but her voice cut off in surprise as she stared in shock into the room Fluttershy and Twilight were in. “What’s wrong with her?” Twilight spoke loud enough for Fluttershy to hear as she puzzled at the shocked pony across the hall. Fluttershy grew pale and started sweating nervously as a thick sense of dread washed over her. She slowly got to her feet and looked down into the water at the far wall. A disturbingly familiar red mass of liquid was slowly bubbling up to the surface. “What’s wrong darling? Why did you stop pulling?” Rarity’s muffled voice became slightly clearer as she walked to the door to inspect her shocked friend. She gasped in shock as she noticed the red mass floating in the water. Twilight followed her friend’s gaze and froze in fear as she played out the rest of Fluttershy’s twisted memory. “Twilight… get back.” Fluttershy spoke in a concerned tone as she tried to protect her friend from the events that would soon unfold. The unicorn either failed to hear the pegasus or was too terrified to comply as she stared at the red liquid. Suddenly, a loud splash of water indicated something breaking the surface. A bloody arm and a half formed hand sprang out of the red mass and twitched in place as it came into existence. More of the liquid ran up the arm and filled into the hand as its fingers slowly formed. The bloody appendage sent a new feeling of horror and dread into Fluttershy. She could feel the whole room spinning around her as every molecule in her body told her to flee. “We need to run!” Fluttershy exclaimed while turning and trotting up to the door to look across the hallway. “Girls! Please hurry and get us out of here!” The pegasus begged nervously to her friends across the hall. Rarity and Pinkie snapped out of their morbid fixation on the bloody appendage and looked at the frightened pegasus. “Alright… come on Pinkie!” Rarity exclaimed before running over to the other side of the shelf. Pinkie gripped the shelf and pulled on it with all of her might, fueled by the intense desire to rescue her friends. Fluttershy smiled in satisfaction with changing the course of her memory. Now that the girls were already working on getting the shelf ready, the creature might not have time to attack. The pegasus turned around only to be greeted with another horrifying sight. The red liquid had already climbed up and out of the water, and was now undulating in a crimson puddle on the floor. The puddle started rising into the air as the creature’s body started taking its basic shape. The process seemed to finish much quicker than the yellow mare remembered, and the creature was already staring at the two ponies with its empty eye sockets. Oh no… It’s already here. Fluttershy thought to herself as she surveyed the situation in front of her. Twilight stood frozen in place as she did the last time while the creature turned its head to focus on her wound. Fluttershy glanced back at the doorway to see her friends’ progress with the shelf. They aren’t going to make it in time… I need to save Twilight so she can snap out of it and fight back. The pegasus gritted her teeth and prepared to jump in front of the unicorn to sacrifice herself like last time. Now that she had to think about her actions, she found it much harder to move her body into harm’s way. Much to Fluttershy’s fear and confusion, she discovered that it wasn’t just apprehension preventing her from acting. She couldn’t move forward, despite her best efforts. “What the…?” Fluttershy muttered in bewilderment as she tried her best to get her body to move. It was like she had been numbed and lost all feeling in her body, so trying to elicit a response from her limbs did nothing more than give the dull sensation of her muscles contracting in her legs. “Oh no… Twilight move!” The yellow mare cried out in a panic to warn her friend. The unicorn shook her head to wake herself from her daze, but she reacted far too late to be able to do anything to change the grim event taking place. The creature had already reeled back its arm and then shot it forward to use its water-like properties to stretch its arm to the ponies. Fluttershy watched in horror as the bloody missile collided with the unicorn head on. Twilight yelped in pain and shock as she was thrown off her feet while the sharp claws of the creature’s hand pierced her body. The monster carried the helpless pony across the room and slammed her into the wall as it had done to Fluttershy before. “Twilight!” Fluttershy reached out a hoof in dismay as she regained feeling in her body. She watched with horror and concern on her face as the creature started siphoning the unicorn’s blood straight out of her body. Twilight was bleeding from the new wounds created by the creature, as well as her old wound. The bandage had been ripped off and the creature was seemingly sucking the blood right out of the gash. “Guh… F-Fluttershy…” Twilight groaned in pain as she struggled against the arm pinning her to the wall. The arm holding her was solid enough to grip her and hold her in the air, yet when the purple pony swiped her hooves at it to fight, they went straight through as if it were made of water. Fluttershy turned and looked at the crimson monster. She gulped nervously as she stared at its deformed face. Despite the overwhelming sense of terror the creature gave her, she needed to rescue her friend. “Leave her alone!” Fluttershy exclaimed while leaping forward. The pegasus hoped that assaulting the monster directly would distract it enough to make it let go of Twilight. The beast jerked its head over to stare at the incoming pony, causing her to widen her eyes fearfully. It let out a garbled roar before swiping its free arm to strike the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy grunted from the impact. The creature’s claws had made a small gash in her chest as they raked against her. The force of the blow sent the yellow mare flying backwards. She smacked into the floor and slid backwards to her original position by the edge of the room. Taking a dazed look up at her friend, Fluttershy gasped in shock as she noticed the unicorn drooping her head down. Twilight’s eyes were halfway closed, and her struggles were getting less prominent by the minute. “Twilight!” Fluttershy cried while getting up and rushing to her friend. She tried desperately to grab the purple mare and pull her down from the wall, but any attempt she made only resulted in minimal movement and a painful yelp from Twilight as the creature’s claws dug further into her body. “Fluttershy… run… s-save yourself.” Twilight muttered in a sleepy tone while struggling to stay awake. Fluttershy noticed that the unicorn’s breathing was slowing down as she fought for every breath she took. Suddenly, Twilight’s painful moans and gasps for air ceased as she progressively grew weaker. The unicorn’s eyes drifted shut and her head drooped down all the way. Her kicking and flailing had ceased, and her limbs fell to the side and hung lifelessly as the creature finished its job. The monster reeled its arm back in, causing the lavender pony to fall to the floor. Twilight’s head rolled to the side like a ragdoll as her body settled from the impact. Fluttershy stared at the motionless pony in front of her with a shocked expression of disbelief. "No…” The pegasus muttered sadly as tears started streaming down her face. She placed her ear to the unicorn’s chest to listen for a heartbeat. Much to Fluttershy’s horror, she discovered that the purple pony was in fact dead. “No! Twilight, wake up!” Fluttershy yelled while picking up the unicorn in her arms and shaking her. After a few moments, the pegasus gave up as the purple mare’s body flopped around limply. Finally, she clutched her friend close and buried her head into her shoulder to cry. “This is wrong… this isn’t what happened!” The pegasus shook her head in refusal as she tried to convince herself that this wasn’t real. She couldn’t accept that her friend had just died in front of her when there was nothing she could have done. But strangely enough, there should have been something she could have done. Fluttershy vividly remembered this experience from before, and she knew that she and her friends had escaped relatively unharmed. As she heard a noise in front of her, Fluttershy darted her head to the side fearfully, expecting the monster to be aiming for her life next. Much to her confusion, she realized that the creature was missing. The pegasus barely caught a glimpse of a trickle of red tinted liquid flowing into the water off the side of the floorboards. Suddenly, the noise of a shelf hitting the water drew her attention away. Much to her surprise, Fluttershy noticed Rarity carefully trotting on the shelf to get over to the classroom. She and Pinkie Pie ran into the room and huddled around Fluttershy protectively. “We’re here darling… where is that horrible creature?” Rarity asked in confusion while looking around at the empty room. “Oh no… Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock and horror as she noticed the lifeless unicorn lying beside Fluttershy. The two ponies knelt down and let fresh tears fall from their faces as they tried to process the tragic image before them. “She can’t be… is she?” Rarity asked no one in particular as she feverishly checked for a pulse on the unicorn. “Oh dear sweet Celestia… she’s dead!” She stated with a squeaky voice as she started weeping mournfully. “We need to get out of here… that thing will come back and kill us too if we stay here. I don’t think Twilight would have wanted that.” Fluttershy stated sadly as she got up from her crouching position. She looked down at the lifeless unicorn and held back another sob before averting her eyes. Rarity and Pinkie sniffled one last time before nodding to the pegasus. “Come on girls, let’s get out of here and put a stop to this… for Twilight.” Rarity spoke with a sullen expression while rushing to the door. Pinkie and Fluttershy quickly followed the white mare and carefully walked across the floating shelf. “Whoa…” Fluttershy whined nervously as the shelf shifted underneath her weight. She had to struggle just to balance herself to avoid being dumped into the icy waters below. “Are you ok, Fluttershy?” Rarity asked with a concerned tone while turning her head to observe the pegasus swaying side to side as the shelf moved underneath her. “Yeah, I’m fine. We just need to be careful on this thing. I have a bad feeling that the monster is still watching us.” Fluttershy replied while nervously glancing to the water that surrounded the group. Suddenly, the sound of something breaking through the water startled the three ponies. Fluttershy cried out in surprised as she felt something grab onto her leg to yank her. Her body slammed into the shelf as she was pulled to the floor. “Fluttershy!” Rarity and pinkie screamed in unison as they turned around to see the pegasus struggling. A bloody red clawed hand was wrapped around the pegasus. The arm was coming from the water just beside the shelf, with the creature’s head jutting out just above the surface. Fluttershy stared at the sinisterly grinning monster as it leered back at her longingly. She could feel its icy stare piercing her very core as it pulled against her weight. Her body slid off of the shelf and into the water. The creature dove down and wrapped its arms around the pegasus’s midsection. Fluttershy yelped and reached her arm out only just in time to be grabbed by her two friends. “Fluttershy, hold on!” Pinkie cried frantically while struggling to keep her friend’s head above the water. She and Rarity strained against the powerful force of the creature in a desperate attempt at saving the pegasus. “Help me! I don’t want to die!” Fluttershy sputtered fearfully as water splashed into her mouth. She could tell that her friends were powerless to help her as she slowly sunk further into the water. Suddenly, a bloody hand slowly reached up out of the water and casually lifted higher into the air next to Fluttershy. All three ponies stared at the arm with fearful expressions as it reached up above the yellow mare and clamped down on her head. Fluttershy screamed in fear as she felt herself being yanked powerfully out of her friends’ grip and into the water. “Fluttershy!” The pegasus could barely hear the muffled sounds of her friends calling her name. She flailed her arms in a desperate attempt at getting away. Suddenly, the creature’s ghastly face shot out at her from the side as it jerked its head in front of her. The sudden flash of the monster’s terrifying appearance sent a jolt of fear and terror through Fluttershy’s body. She could feel herself tense up as everything suddenly went black. “Ack!” Fluttershy yelped in fright as she sat up in bed. She panted heavily and shivered as she slowly regained her wits. She looked around and noticed that she was still in Twilight’s bedroom, safe and sound. “Are you okay?” The soft sound of her friend’s voice made the pegasus turn her head. She was relieved and excited to see Twilight standing next to the bed. Fluttershy leapt forward and wrapped her arms around the unicorn in a joyful hug. Twilight was confused and slightly concerned by the odd behavior of the pegasus, but held her in a friendly embrace to comfort her. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Twilight asked with a worried frown as Fluttershy backed up while keeping her arms around her. The yellow mare had tears streaming down her face and she was shaking fearfully. After taking a moment to calm down, Fluttershy took in a deep breath and tried to think of how to describe her experience. “I’m fine… I just had a really bad dream.” Fluttershy explained while looking down nervously. She rubbed her eyes to ensure that she was awake and alert, and to assure herself that she was safe. Twilight frowned sympathetically as she watched the nervous pegasus trying to calm down. “Do you want to talk about it?” Twilight asked while putting a caring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy instinctively thought back to the events of the nightmare, but shook her head to remove the horrible thoughts from her mind. “No… I… *sigh* It was about what happened back at the school… I’m just glad to see you.” Fluttershy stated sadly while thinking back to her dream. Twilight frowned sympathetically at the pegasus. She had her suspicions that due to her sensitive nature the yellow mare would still be frightened by the events at the school, but the unicorn had no idea that she would be affected this badly. “I’m sorry to hear that… how about you head home and get some rest? I’m sure Tom can sort out your problem for you so you can relax.” Twilight suggested to get Fluttershy’s mind off of her dream. The pegasus looked over to the balcony and was surprised to see that it was almost dark. “Oh my… I must have slept in. I was hoping to just lay down for a little while so I could help you guys with the research.” Fluttershy huffed in disappointment. Twilight smiled at the thoughtful pony. She always put others before herself, no matter the situation. “Don’t worry about that, we finished a while ago. Brimstoke and the others are having the books analyzed to find hoof prints or magic signatures.” Twilight stated happily. “That’s good… I better get going then, Angel is probably worried sick.” Fluttershy said whilst climbing out of bed and stretching to acclimate her body to moving around again. “Thanks for letting me use your bed Twilight. As bad as that nightmare was, I’m still glad to have gotten some sleep.” Fluttershy stared at Twilight happily while still feeling thankful that she was still alive. The unicorn smiled at the cheerful pegasus. She was happy to see her high spirits returning to her. “Not a problem. Now let’s head downstairs. I’m sure the others would like to get home before long.” Twilight suggested while turning towards the door. The two walked out of the room and climbed down the stairs. As the pair reached the bottom, they noticed Applejack was standing with the others while talking idly. “Applejack, it’s good to see you made it.” Twilight greeted the farm pony, causing her and the others to turn around to face her. “Yeah, sorry for getting here so late… Ah guess the others have already packed up and left?” Applejack asked while looking around at the relatively empty room. “Yeah… sorry for the inconvenience, but we finished with the research for tonight. You can come back tomorrow afternoon when the others will hopefully have some news for us.” Twilight frowned slightly at the wasted trip her friend had to make. Applejack nodded with a content expression on her face. “Whatever it takes to end this mess… If there’s anything else Ah can do, you be sure to let me know.” The orange mare replied confidently. Twilight nodded in response before turning to the others. “Alright everyone… thanks for your help with everything so far. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without everyone working together. If anyone wants to help out still, you should come back here tomorrow afternoon so we can discuss what to do next.” Twilight stated happily to her group of friends. Everyone nodded before walking closer to the door. “Goodnight everyone, I will see you all tomorrow.” Rarity said while waving and walking out of the door. Applejack waved goodbye to the group as well and followed the unicorn out of the door. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stood next to Fluttershy and waited for her to head home. “Are you guys still coming with me?” Fluttershy asked unimposingly. The two nodded eagerly before giving her a friendly smile. “Of course we are! We wouldn’t offer to come stay the night with you and then bail on you.” Rainbow Dash stated happily while putting a loving arm around the yellow pegasus. “Yep! If anyone can cheer you up and make you feel comfortable in your home again, I think I can do it!” Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully while giving the shy mare a warm grin. Fluttershy was flattered to see her friends going out of their way to help her. “I’m ready to go whenever you want Fluttershy.” Tom stated while walking up to the three. Fluttershy smiled at the human with appreciation bubbling up inside her. “Thanks Tom, I really appreciate this.” Fluttershy expressed her gratitude with a cheerful expression on her face. The yellow pegasus got up and walked over to the door to wait for her friends. The three walked over to join her and looked back to Twilight and Spike. “Are you sure you will be able to get back here on your own Tom?” Twilight asked courteously to the human while giving him a slightly concerned expression. Tom nodded confidently to the unicorn before turning back to his three companions. “I’m not sure if I will even be back tonight… This might take a while, so I might just spend the night at Fluttershy’s. If I do come back, I’m pretty sure I can find my way… if not, I’ll ask for directions.” Tom stated confidently. Twilight and Spike waved farewell to the four as they walked out of the door and started their journey to Fluttershy’s house. The sun was just barely peeking out from below the horizon. The sky was dark enough to make out the first few patches of stars littering the areas farthest away from the glowing orb. Numerous clouds covered the space around the golden circle, creating a beautiful mosaic of colors and shapes to accent the sunset. The cool breeze from earlier had intensified, creating a chilly blast that rushed past the ponies, making them shiver slightly from the cold. Other than the sound of the wind whistling and their feet clattering against the sidewalk, there was a peaceful silence around the group. “Hey Fluttershy…” Tom spoke up, breaking the veil of silence that hung in the air. Fluttershy looked up from her blank forward stare and turned to face the boy. “Yeah?” The yellow pegasus asked curiously and waited for a response from the human. Tom looked at her while deep in thought and spoke up again. “Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened last night? The more I know about your problem, the easier it will be for me to identify and solve it.” The boy said while observing the yellow mare and waiting for an answer. Fluttershy felt a twinge of uneasiness cloud her mind as she thought about the disturbing noises and sights she had experienced in the middle of the night. “All I know is that whatever it was made this horrible moaning or howling noise. It was so terrifying that I could hardly muster up the courage to look out my window to see what it was. There was also this strange green glow in the tree line of the Everfree Forest. Now that I think about it… it was kind of small, and only appeared in a few places.” Fluttershy explained while trying her best to think of anything useful to assist the human’s investigation. “You said you saw something moving out there as well?” Tom asked while thinking back to when the yellow mare had told the story earlier. Fluttershy exclaimed in revelation as she remembered the fuzzy details of her experience. “Oh yeah… I do remember that. I didn’t get a good enough look to see what it was though… sorry.” The pegasus frowned sadly as she resolved that her story wasn’t very helpful. “Don’t worry. I’m sure that Tom can deal with whatever it is. In the meantime, we should focus on relaxing to get your mind off of it.” Rainbow Dash spoke up while giving the shy mare a reassuring expression. “Yeah, I have some great party games we can play! That should keep you distracted.” Pinkie suggested while trying to smile big enough to cheer up the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy smiled at her friends attempts at making her feel better. She was glad that they were there to spend the night with her. After a few more minutes of walking through the countryside of Ponyville’s outskirts, the group found themselves walking up to Fluttershy’s cottage home. The ponies walked over the bridge before taking a quick glance over to the far away tree line of the forest to scan for any signs of abnormalities. “I don’t see anything right now…” Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes to search for a glimmer of green light. “Depending on what it is, it might not appear until later on.” Tom explained while making his way over to the trees. The ponies reluctantly followed the human as he walked until he was standing just outside of the forest. Staring into the dark and misty woods filled the three ponies with a growing sense of fear and dread. Considering how many terrifying monsters had popped up recently, they only had their vivid imaginations to limit their fearful thoughts about what could be lurking within the pitch black forest. “What are we doing over here?” Pinkie asked nervously. As if on cue to answer the pink mare’s question, the human let loose a puff of blue mist from his mouth to investigate the area. Tom scanned his head back and forth while using his senses to scope out any possible energy signatures. He paused briefly while focusing his search on a particular area of the trees. “I’m picking up some faint ambient energy, but that might just be from the forest itself. I guess we should head inside and wait for something to happen.” Tom stated while turning to walk away. After taking one last anxious glance to the forest, the ponies decided to follow the human before he got any further away from them. The group walked over to the front of the house and stepped up to the door. Fluttershy opened the door and ushered everyone inside before walking in and closing the door tightly for assurance. Everyone walked around the living room of the cottage while finding a place to stand idly, save for Tom, who examined the interior of the house curiously. To say that Fluttershy took care of animals in her spare time was putting it mildly. Nearly every element of her house was designed with animals and nature in mind. There were small enclosures and toys scattered around for all manner of small woodland creatures to use. Perches for birds adorned the ceiling. Beds and feeding dishes for small animals were placed against the walls. Even the furniture looked like it was used for animals. “Make yourself at home guys… I’m going to go check on Angel and get you some pillows and blankets.” Fluttershy said in a friendly manner while walking up a set of stairs to the side of the room. Tom sat down on the couch while taking note of the numerous animal friendly features the house had. “She sure likes nature and animals, doesn’t she?” The boy observed casually. “Yep… I imagine she’s been like that her whole life, but she really discovered her love of nature back in flight school.” Rainbow Dash stated while thinking back to the day she and her friends got their cutie marks. “You have flight school? I would imagine that would be something you just figure out.” Tom scratched his head curiously as he thought about the prospect further. “Well… we get training to fine tune our skills, so we can be prepared to take jobs in weather management or other pegasus related areas of expertise.” The cyan pony explained while thinking of the merit of flight school herself. Just then, Fluttershy walked back into the room. She was carrying a pile of blankets and pillows, managing to traverse her house on memory alone as she struggled with the large bundle. She sat the pile down on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief. “There… I managed to find enough for everyone. If you get tired just grab a blanket and a pillow and find a comfy spot.” Fluttershy said courteously before sitting down on the couch next to the large pile. “Hey, where’s Angel?” Pinkie asked curiously while looking to the side of the room where the rabbit usually slept. “Oh… I moved him to my bedroom after I got back from the school. I thought he would help me feel safer after everything that happened.” Fluttershy explained with a slight frown. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I’m sure that everything is going to be sorted out soon enough.” Rainbow Dash stated in a reassuring tone before turning to the human. “So… how long do you think it will be before this thing shows up?” She asked curiously. “Who knows? It might be a while, so I would get settled in if I were you.” Tom shrugged in a dull tone while getting up and moving over to a chair next to the couch. “*Sigh* I guess we wait now…” Rainbow Dash spoke in a bored tone while resting her elbow on the arm rest of the couch. Everyone settled into a comfortable position and prepared to spend the night.
Chapter 35: Party GamesThe atmosphere was relatively peaceful in Fluttershy’s house. Despite the ominous wind howling through the various holes and openings in the cottage, and the looming shape of the Everfree Forest in the distance, everyone was actually managing to have a pleasant time. Even Fluttershy was able to push her gnawing fear aside to enjoy the time with her friends. Rainbow Dash was sitting on the couch with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie was rocking her leg back and forth while lying on her back and propping her head up against the side of a chair, and Tom was sitting in a chair across from the others while leaning back casually. “Well, it’s official… I’m bored out of my mind.” Rainbow Dash droned tiredly. The group had been waiting for several minutes for something to happen, but the only interesting thing to arise from the night was the wind rustling through the brush on the roof. “Maybe we could play a game of some sort… any ideas Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked the resident partygoer of the group. Pinkie looked away while deep in thought and pondered for a while on the matter. She suddenly looked up and exclaimed in discovery. “Oooh, I know! We can play truth or dare.” Pinkie suggested eagerly. Everyone else seemed open to the idea, but were unsure of whether or not they could come up with anything good. “Alright, I’m game… who goes first?” Tom asked while looking around at the others. The three ponies looked amongst themselves for a moment while deciding who would volunteer. “*sigh* I guess I’ll start us off.” Rainbow Dash stated before thinking about what question to ask which person. She meditated on her thoughts for a while before looking up with a deviously eager grin. “Alright, Pinkie… truth or dare?” Rainbow asked with a sly look on her face. The pegasus’s question excited the pink mare as she giggled with anticipation. She furrowed her brow in thought for a moment. before looking back up with confidence. “Why not make things interesting? I choose dare.” Pinkie spoke with excited resolve. Rainbow Dash smirked as her plan came to fruition. “I was kind of hoping you would say that… now then, let me think.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself for a moment while elaborating on her thoughts. “Aha! I got one… I dare you to try and catch Tom.” The cyan pony’s dare surprised and confused the others in the room, most of all being the human himself. “What…? Why?” Tom asked in a confused tone while looking between the two with a puzzled expression. The cyan mare chuckled to see the expected reaction from the human. “Well, Pinkie is very… energetic, so I was wondering if you could dodge her while she tries to tag you.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing over to Pinkie knowingly. The party pony giggled before looking to the human with a sinister gleam in her eyes. “Oh boy…” Tom gulped nervously as he watched the pink pony starting to get up from her seat while maintaining eye contact. He slowly planted his feet on the ground and prepared to move while observing Pinkie anxiously. Suddenly, the pink mare sprang out of her chair and pounced towards the human with unrivaled speed. “Hyah!” Pinkie yelled fiercely while flying through the air towards the human. Much to everyone’s surprise, the boy quickly leapt into the air backwards and flipped over the chair. He landed on both feet and placed his hands on the top of the chair while he watched Pinkie slam into the now empty space. The pink mare lifted her head out of the cushion from where she had impacted and looked around with a confused expression. “What the…?” Pinkie muttered in a daze while looking around for the missing human. She finally peered over the chair and met his gaze as he smirked at her deviously. “Did you really think it would be that easy? If you want to catch a slayer, you need to earn it.” Tom taunted confidently while tensing his muscles in preparation to dodge out of the way of any assault the pink pony would launch next. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watched with anxious uncertainty as the two leered at each other pensively with the chair serving as a mediator between them. As Tom would make a swift movement to one side of the chair, Pinkie would match his movement before both would settle back in place to try and fake the other out. “Raaaghh!” Pinkie yelled a battle cry as she jumped up and over the chair to get at the human, but by the time she was stepping up on the chair to get a platform to jump from, Tom was already diving to the side and rolling to get back on his feet. As the pink pony landed and followed the human with her head, she turned and started running after him with frightful enthusiasm. “You know, we probably shouldn’t be doing this inside!” Tom stated in between breaths as he ran in circles around the two ponies on the couch to escape his pursuer. “Well just don’t break anything then, it would probably slow you down anyway!” Pinkie retorted as she tried her best to cut the human off in certain places to gain ground on him. The two zigged and zagged around the room as they continued their game of cat and mouse. Eventually the two were on opposite sides of the couch. They leered at each other past the two bystanders on the couch while catching their breath. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were looking between the two while hugging their legs tight against their bodies to prevent someone from knocking into them at high speeds. “Just give up already…*Pant*” Tom spoke up in an attempt at ending the chase. Pinkie shook her head in between pants while trying to catch her breath to speak. “If you think you can tire me out… you’ve got another thing coming mister.” The pink mare spoke with as much determination as her current state of exhaustion could allow while staring down the human with a determined expression. “I may not be able to tire you out… but I can out live you if we keep this up long enough.” Tom retorted jokingly while mustering a smirk. The pink pony chuckled weakly as her body prevented her from producing anything more than a slight laugh. “Well then, I guess I’ll just have to catch you before then huh?” Pinkie replied before bolting out to the side again. Tom huffed in annoyance before running away from the energetic pink blur. The boy jumped into the air backwards in an attempt to backflip over the incoming pink mare. Much to his surprise, he failed to locate the party pony as he was in the air. He looked around in confusion for a moment while trying to find where she went. “Wait what the…?” Tom muttered in bewilderment at the apparent disappearance of the pony. Suddenly, a blurry pink shape slammed into the human’s chest, knocking him off balance. As he slid along the floor and slowly came to a stop, he noticed a familiar pink pony grinning down at him while sitting on his stomach. “Got you!” Pinkie announced in a cheerful tone before hopping off and raising her hooves in celebration. Tom laid on the floor for a moment in confusion at his sudden loss. “But… how did you…? Where did you come from?” The boy stammered in a confused daze as he tried to figure out the logistics of what just happened. “Duh, I came from beside you… you’re not the only one who can move fast you know. I saw that you were trying to flip over me, so I just jumped to the side and hid out of your sight until you landed.” Pinkie explained in a satisfied tone. Tom was understandably upset that he just lost to a pony. “Alright then… fair enough I suppose. Let’s just go sit down and continue the game.” The human groaned tiredly as he plopped into his chair. “And please… no more dares that involve running or jumping.” He sighed while sinking into the chair further to relax. “Good job Pinkie, you get to go next since you won.” Rainbow Dash congratulated the pink pony on her achievement. Pinkie smiled in excitement before giving an eager cheer. “Yay! Now what should I do? Hmmm…” The pink mare rubbed her temples as she thought of something to do. She then looked up and smiled again. “Ok Fluttershy, now it’s your turn. Truth… or dare?” Pinkie spoke while putting devious emphasis on her words. Fluttershy was caught off guard by her sudden inclusion into the game, but was eager to participate, if not a little nervous. “Umm… well umm… I guess I’ll go with… truth?” Fluttershy stated with uncertainty as she wondered whether or not she would regret playing this game. “Hmm… Alright then, if you could trade lives with anyone in this room, who would it be?” Pinkie asked quizzically while watching the pegasus with an intrigued expression. Fluttershy thought about it for a moment as the question peaked her interest. “I guess I would have to say you, Pinkie.” Fluttershy finally looked back up and replied. The yellow pony’s answer surprised the pink mare and made her feel a little flattered. “Really? I would have figured you would pick Rainbow Dash.” Pinkie reasoned while looking over to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash sort of expected the same answer. “Well… you’re always so happy and cheerful no matter what the circumstances are. Anypony would want to be that happy.” Fluttershy explained with a loving tone of admiration. “Aww… Thanks Fluttershy.” Pinkie smiled at her friend while giving her a heartfelt expression. Fluttershy returned the gesture before looking down in thought again. “Alright… I guess it’s my turn now… Tom, truth or dare?” The pegasus asked timidly while trying to get up the courage to ask something of interest. “Truth…” The human replied with slight intrigue. Fluttershy thought for a moment before gulping nervously. “I… don’t feel comfortable asking the only thing I can think of right now.” The yellow mare said while looking down uncomfortably. “Come on… It’s truth or dare, Fluttershy. The whole point is to ask about things that people wouldn’t normally say.” Rainbow Dash spoke in an encouraging tone while trying to get the shy pony to speak. “Out of curiosity, what were you going to ask?” Tom questioned the yellow pegasus in a lighthearted tone. Fluttershy shrugged in dismay before looking up. “I was going to ask what is the most embarrassing thing you would feel comfortable admitting… but I don’t want to impose something like that on you.” Fluttershy explained in a gentle way so the human wouldn’t be offended in any way. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie smiled slightly from hearing the yellow mare’s reason for not saying her question. It was always heartwarming to see how she didn’t want to upset anyone. “Well…” Tom spoke up suddenly to interrupt anyone else speaking. The others looked over to him in curiosity while allowing him to talk. “I’m afraid of the dark… to the point where I slept with a nightlight up until I became a slayer.” The boy explained with slight embarrassment. “Really? You’re afraid of the dark?” Rainbow Dash asked with more intrigued curiosity than anything else. The boy nodded uncomfortably as he owned up to his secret. “Yep… I still feel a case of the heebie-jeebies whenever I have to go into a dark spooky place. Probably the only reason I can sleep in the dark now is because of my senses.” Tom stated while looking around to see how the others would react. “Wow… I thought I was the only nervous one back at the hospital. You looked so brave back there… that was part of the reason why I didn’t panic.” Rainbow Dash said while thinking back to how Tom had made her feel better about journeying through dark, cold, and monster infested hallways of the hospital. “Well I felt like turning around and running away while screaming like a frightened schoolgirl on the inside, but I didn’t want to make you feel any worse.” Tom elaborated in a slightly comical tone while thinking back to his previous hardships. “Alright then, my turn now… truth or dare Rainbow Dash?” Tom spoke up again to interrupt anyone lingering on the slightly depressing thought of him enduring his worst fear to assist them. He didn’t want them to feel bad on his behalf no matter the circumstances. “Umm…” The cyan pony muttered uncomfortably. The sudden change in pace made everyone feel awkward and uneasy. “Dare I guess…? I sort of owe you some payback from that last dare.” Rainbow Dash stated while preparing herself for anything the boy could think of. “Yes… yes you do. Alright then, I dare you to dye your hair pink for an entire day.” Tom announced deviously. The sudden question caught the pegasus off guard. “Wait what?! How did we go from fear of the dark to dying my hair pink?!” Rainbow Dash asked while defensively putting her hooves on her hair. “I guess I’m just that spontaneous.” Tom retorted with a devious smile on his face. He leaned forward in his chair while watching the nervous pegasus squirm as she thought of what to do in her head. “Umm… We can’t do that because we don’t have any hair dye here. I guess you will just have to pick another dare.” Rainbow Dash said with false disappointment as she smiled nervously in an attempt at getting out of the dare. “It doesn’t need to happen right now… we could head down to Rarity’s place tomorrow and I’m sure she would be happy to help you out.” Tom stated with a cool and collected smirk on his face. The cyan pony started sweating nervously as her exits to the situation closed up around her. “I suppose you don’t need to do it… you could always chicken out.” Tom stated while putting emphasis on the word chicken. The boy’s statement made Rainbow Dash cringe with irritation. “Fine… I’ll do it, but we’re not taking pictures.” The cyan mare finally huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms while glaring at the satisfied human. Tom tried his best to hold in his laughter as the pegasus stared daggers into him. “I think we should stop playing truth or dare for the night.” Rainbow Dash said in an upset tone while avoiding eye contact with Tom. Pinkie Pie groaned in disappointed protest of ending the game. “Aww, but I wanted to pick Tom one more time.” The party pony whined while giving Rainbow Dash a devious facial cue. The cyan mare smirked as she caught on to what she was getting at. Tom gulped nervously as he came to the same conclusion. “Alright Pinkie… I guess I could let you have one more turn.” Rainbow Dash said while hiding her excitement behind a blank expression. “Wait, hold on. You can’t just give her the reigns. It’s not her turn, it’s yours.” Tom said uneasily. “Tom, do you really think you want to let me have a turn right now?” Rainbow Dash asked with a raised eyebrow and a serious tone of voice. “I… well… I guess not.” Tom replied with an irritated shrug as he thought about the matter further. “Then it’s settled. Pinkie, go right ahead.” Rainbow Dash said while turning to the pink mare with a pleased smirk. “Yay! Alright Tom, truth or dare?” Pinkie bounced in her seat eagerly as she asked the question. Tom leered at the two apprehensively as he thought of what she could possibly ask him to do. Like hell am I picking dare. The boy thought to himself as he prepared to choose what he thought was the safe option. “Truth…” Tom stated with a smirk as he tried to ruin their plan. Much to the boy’s dismay, Pinkie didn’t appear to be fazed by the decision, in fact she seemed like she was hoping for him to say that. “Ok Tom, who would you rather kiss… me or Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked with a devious smirk and an unwaveringly straight delivery. The sudden question made Tom instinctively pull backwards into his chair. “W-what?!” The human asked with a mixture of nervousness and surprise while looking between the two. Rainbow Dash could hardly contain her joy at watching the boy squirm. She smiled ear to ear as she looked to him for an answer. “You heard her Tom… which of us would you rather kiss?” Rainbow asked with a sly grin. The cyan pegasus was enjoying this a little bit too much, and Tom could tell. He sweated nervously as he subconsciously thought about the question’s answer. He then shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts. “Umm… can I pass?” Tom asked with a nervous smile as he tried to weasel his way out of the situation. The two ponies shook their heads simultaneously as they shot down the boy’s last line of defense. “If you don’t answer me right now, I’m going to keep asking you every day, and tell the others about who you choose when you finally do give up.” Pinkie stated with an almost sinister smirk on her face. Tom was surprised with how devious the party pony could be when she wanted to. He suddenly looked over to Rainbow Dash with a pleading expression. “Rainbow Dash, I’ll call off your dare if you end this.” Tom practically begged for a way out of the situation. Rainbow Dash took a moment to think about the proposal. She of course wanted out of her dare, but she thought that she would let him suffer a while longer. “Well… I don’t know. I don’t want to chicken out of anything.” Rainbow Dash droned sarcastically while looking away from him and crossing her arms. Tom was practically melding into the chair as Pinkie loomed closer to him with each passing second. “Chicken out? Who told you that would be chickening out? That guy sounds like a moron… let’s just let bygones be bygones and call a truce.” The human stammered nervously while trying to avoid the piercing gaze of the pink mare staring at him. “Alright Pinkie, back off… I think he’s had enough.” Rainbow Dash announced to her friend while laughing. Tom breathed a sigh of relief as Pinkie backed away and walked over to her chair. The two ponies gave each other a quick high five before giggling to themselves. After taking a moment to settle down after their rousing game of truth or dare, the group started to notice how late it was getting, and how tired they were. Rainbow Dash yawned while taking a look out of the window to see if anything was happening outside. “We’ve been here for a few hours now, and I don’t see anything weird out there.” The cyan mare stated in a dull tone while trying to stay awake. “Well if you guys want to get some sleep, I can keep an eye on things until morning.” Tom suggested while observing the three tired ponies. Everyone felt like they would fall asleep standing up shortly, so the boy’s proposal sounded like music to their ears. “That sounds like a great idea.” Rainbow Dash said while climbing on the couch and preparing to settle in for the night. “Let me know if you guys need anything… I’m going to bed.” Fluttershy stated while walking up the staircase towards her bedroom. “Night, Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said while digging through the pile of blankets and pillows. She tossed a pair of each to Pinkie and Tom before arranging her blanket on the couch. “Nighty night… sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Pinkie stated while hopping into her position on the other side of the couch across from Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy smiled warmly as she admired her friends settling in for the night. She switched off the light in the room before walking away to get to her bedroom. As she walked through the dark rooms of her house and got further away from her friends in the living room, the shy mare started feeling uneasy as she let her imagination get the better of her in the dark. “I think I’ll feel better once I get in bed… hopefully having Angel in the room with me will make me less edgy.” Fluttershy thought out loud while trying to avoid looking into any of the dark rooms beside her. The mere blurry images of the shapes and silhouettes out of the corner of her eye made the pegasus jumpy and nervous. After a short walk, Fluttershy quickly opened her bedroom door and walked inside while closing it tightly. She tried to give herself the mentality that her room was a comfortable and safe place where she could relax, but the various pitch black areas of the small space made her uneasy as ever. She quickly walked over to her bed and sat down. She then looked over to the floor where Angel usually slept. Seeing the blurry whiteness of her pet and hearing his soft breathing made Fluttershy feel a little more at ease. The yellow mare crawled up her bed and peeled back the covers so she could slip inside them and cozy up. After settling her head onto her pillow, she rested for a while whilst staring up at the ceiling. A slight feeling of morbid curiosity elicited the shy pony to peer downwards into her room. Upon noticing some ominous looking shadowy shapes that were comprised of her furniture and various other knickknacks, Fluttershy quickly averted her eyes and rolled onto her side while pulling the covers closer to her head. A creaking sound made the pegasus sit up nervously to look around again. Deducing the sound to be the rustling of the wind against the cottage, she shrugged uneasily and settled back down. “Ugh… I’ll never get to sleep at this rate.” Fluttershy mumbled to herself while forcing her eyes shut to try and get comfortable enough to sleep. After a few minutes of remaining as still as possible, the pegasus started feeling hazy and blissful. She was finally starting to slip into a state of relaxation and warm comfort that would lead to her drifting off to sleep. Not wanting to compromise this progress, Fluttershy made sure to remain still and allow herself to lose focus of her surroundings. … …… ……… *Boom* A loud crackle of thunder made the pegasus lift her head and upper body in alarm. She opened her eyes just in time to catch the last moments of the blinding flash of lightning as it illuminated her room in a bluish white glow. The constant pitter patter of rain filled her ears as she suddenly realized that it was storming. “I didn’t think it was supposed to storm tonight…” The yellow pony pondered to herself as she tried to remember the weather forecast for the week. “Oh well…” She muttered sleepily while settling back down into her pillow. Suddenly, a different noise barely distinguished itself from the rain. It sounded like a crashing noise was coming from downstairs. The noise continued a few more times before dying down into the ambience of the rain. Fluttershy threw the covers back and sat up in bed. The odd noise had given her a new sense of unease that wouldn’t go away. She couldn’t just chalk the sound up to the rustling of the wind this time. She would have to investigate. “What was that noise…? I thought the others were asleep.” Fluttershy spoke to herself while peering out into her room. She suddenly realized that she could see out of her open door into the dark hallway outside. The realization that she had closed the door before climbing into bed made her heart sink to her stomach. Fluttershy whined fearfully while hugging her legs tight to her body. She darted her eyes around her room to see if some unknown intruder had crept inside with her while she slept. The mere thought of something lurking in the darkness next to her made her heart race. As she drew her attention back to her open door, she realized that nothing was happening. At any rate, nothing was happening right now. If she was going to figure out what was going on, she had to reach her friends. The nervous pegasus slowly inched her way towards the foot of her bed and planted her hooves on the floor. The sudden thought of something waiting for her under her bed made her walk forward a little faster to distance herself. Fluttershy walked forward while defensively staring at the open doorway on the far side of the room. Another flash of lightning illuminated the hallway outside and made her tense up in fright again. She slowly walked forward while looking around her room. She then looked down to the bed where her pet was sleeping. “Angel…?” Fluttershy muttered in confusion as she noticed that the rabbit was nowhere to be found. The frightened pony was completely alone in the pitch black darkness of her room, with only the rain to break the otherwise eerie silence of the house. After cautiously making her way to her door, Fluttershy peered out into the dark hallway and scanned it for possible threats. The hall was masked in a veil of darkness that shrouded the numerous open rooms in a disturbing blanket that could hide any monster that the nervous pony’s mind could conjure up. Not wanting to be alone any further, the pegasus walked through the dark hallway while making her way to the stairs that would lead her to the living room and her friends. “Tom… you still awake? W-what was that noise?” Fluttershy called out with a slight nervous stammer, hoping that the human would be able to hear her from this far away. The loud thunder and rain outside combined with the pitch blackness inside was starting to get to the yellow mare, making her jumpy and anxious. She felt like she was going to have a panic attack if she didn’t find her friends soon. Fluttershy contemplated remaining silent to conceal her location from any threats, but her sense of logic told her that the house was still safe and that her friends would be nearby to explain the sudden noise. “C-calm down Fluttershy… nothing is wrong. I’m sure that this storm was scheduled… I probably just forgot about it with everything that’s been happening.” Fluttershy spoke to herself to break the eerie silence and instill courage in herself. “My door probably opened in the wind… I must have not closed it as tightly as I thought. Y-yeah… I’m sure that’s it. And Angel probably just went downstairs to get a drink or something.” The pegasus said with a nervous chuckle while slowly marching forward through the darkness. She had to do something to get her mind off of the fact that she was alone in the dark, even if that meant reassuring herself. As she walked towards the opening to the stairs, a thick feeling of dread and unease filled the yellow pony’s stomach. It was like she knew that something bad was waiting for her in the dark, and as she slowly walked down the steps, her feeling was confirmed. A shocked gasp escaped Fluttershy’s lips as she observed the room’s condition. Many of her pictures and other decorations were either skewed or broken on the floor. Both chairs had been knocked over, with the one Tom was using covered in what appeared to be claw marks from an animal. And the couch’s cushions were ripped, with the white fluff inside of them being strewn across the room. The front door was open and moving with the wind as the storm raged on outside. Rain was pouring in through the open door, soaking everything in range of the droplets. Another flash of lightning lit up the room, revealing even more claw marks on the walls and floor. Fluttershy looked around feverishly for any sign of her friends. They were nowhere to be seen, with the only indicator of their presence being the blankets and pillows scattered along the sides of the couch and chairs. The pegasus leaned in close to one of the blankets on the couch. She noticed a dark stain of liquid on the fabric of the blanket. “I-is that b-blood?” Fluttershy stammered fearfully as she wondered what had happened to her friends. The fact that the dark stain was tinted red, and the fact that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were preparing to sleep on the couch when she left, made Fluttershy panic stricken for their safety. “What happened in here?!” The yellow pony shook her head in frustration and horror as she tried to think of what could have happened. If the mysterious green light and the noises she had heard were responsible, then she could have very well put her friends in grave danger. Suddenly, a low growling noise made the pegasus freeze in place. It sounded like it was coming from just outside the front door. She slowly turned her head and stared out into the yard outside. Just as a flash of lightning flooded the area with blinding light, a dark shape slowly walked into the door. Fluttershy immediately recognized the dark shape. It belonged to the creatures that had attacked her and her friends at Zecora’s hut. She remembered that Tom had called the creature a darkling when he fought them. The shadowy beast slowly walked into the house while growling and pointing its head at the terrified pony. The darklings didn’t have visible eyes or any other feature besides their gaping mouths, but from the way it was snarling at her and bearing its sharp teeth, the pegasus figured that it was angry. Fluttershy backed up and prepared to run upstairs, when another growl from behind her made her turn around swiftly. Another darkling was stalking down the stairs towards the frightened mare. Fluttershy jumped back in fright and walked backwards until her back hit the wall. She looked around as the two creatures walked towards her. There was no way that she could make a break for the door without one of them pouncing on her. “No… please…” Fluttershy begged in the vain hope that it would somehow spare her. She raised her arms defiantly in an attempt at keeping something between her and the approaching monsters. Suddenly the darkling on the left paused and reared its hind legs in preparation to jump. The beast let out a loud snarl before leaping at the helpless pegasus. “AHHHH!” Fluttershy screamed and shielded her face with her arms as the beast leapt at her. The shadowy monster collided with the yellow pony and sank its teeth into her soft flesh.
Chapter 36: Something Wicked“Agh!” Fluttershy yelped in fright as she jolted up in bed. She could still feel the alarm and fear she had from the creature pouncing on her. After breathing heavily for a few moments and looking around at her surroundings, she realized that she had been having another bad dream. “Ugh… I hate nightmares.” The pegasus stated with slight relief as she placed her head in her hooves. After sitting for a few more moments and touching her face to assure that she was awake, Fluttershy looked over the side of her bed to find out if Angel was still where she had left him. Discovering the white rabbit fast asleep in his bed filled the pegasus with relief and peace of mind. Taking note of her overwhelming sense of fright and discomfort from her dream, Fluttershy decided that she would get up and head into the living room to see if Tom was still awake, and to reassure herself that her friends were safe. The pegasus got out of bed and quietly made her way to the other side of the room. Being careful not to wake her sleeping pet, she opened the door and walked out into the hallway with a lingering sense of hesitation. The house was still dark, but the absence of the thunder and lightning and the general eerie feeling from her nightmare made Fluttershy feel slightly better about traversing the dark cottage. As she approached the opening to the living room, she was relieved to see her human friend sitting in a chair beside the couch. He was leaning back on a pillow while trying to pass the time with his thoughts. Upon noticing the yellow mare entering the room, the boy turned to look at her. “What are you doing up?” Tom whispered quietly with a curious expression. Fluttershy looked over at the couch to see her two friends sleeping peacefully on opposite sides. The couch was just barely big enough for them to have enough space to sleep peacefully with their legs curled up. They were wrapped up in their blankets and were using their respective arm rests to prop up their pillows. “I had a nightmare and can’t sleep now… I was hoping to come sit in here for a while.” Fluttershy whispered back while walking over to the other chair and sitting down. Tom nodded understandingly to the jilted pony as she got settled in. “You know how I deal with nightmares?” The human asked with a sincere expression. Fluttershy was open to the suggestion. “How?” The pegasus replied curiously. Tom leaned forward and rested his arms on the armrests of the chair. “I used to have night terrors when I was younger. They would be so bad that I would wake up crying or screaming at times. When I was younger I would go sleep in my parents’ bed to comfort me, but after I got older, I needed a different way to make myself feel better.” The boy explained while thinking back to his past. “After having a nightmare and waking up, I would head right back to sleep by using this simple trick. I would think of something happy or nostalgic to get my mind off of the dream. It works almost every time.” Tom explained with a slight smirk. The human’s story made Fluttershy think of any happy memories she had that would be good enough to insight a happy feeling. She smiled as she felt her anxiety disappearing. “That’s a pretty good idea… thanks.” The pegasus spoke with a cheerful tone. Suddenly she thought about how the human must have felt about being separated from his family. This made her frown slightly at the thought. “Do you… miss your world?” Fluttershy asked in a somber tone. The sudden question made the boy’s smile fade into a blank expression. “Kind of… I miss aspects of it.” Tom replied while deep in thought. “Like your family?” Fluttershy added with a hint of sadness in her voice. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be robbed of a family like Tom had been. “I haven’t seen my family since the day I died… Being brought here hasn’t changed that. But to answer your question… yeah, I miss them. It was incredibly lonely being a slayer in the human world. I didn’t have any friends or colleagues, my family was who knows where, and as fun as beating the living daylights out of assorted monsters is… it was really lonely.” Tom looked down and sighed in a depressed tone. Fluttershy felt sympathetic for the boy. She wanted to go over and give him a hug, but felt that he needed a moment to his thoughts. “I was actually going to give up you know… the day I came here.” Tom stated with a morbid sense of clarity. The boy’s statement surprised the yellow mare. “What?” Fluttershy asked with shock and dismay on her face. “I was in a forest when I got transported here… I was there to give up and die. I had no reason to keep fighting. I had nobody I felt like I had to protect, and I figured that another slayer could take my place… so I walked into the forest with the intention of finding a lake to drown myself in.” The human chuckled sadly as he remembered what he was doing before he came to Equestria. Fluttershy was mortified that the boy was contemplating killing himself. “Kind of grim now that I think about it… But I couldn’t exactly settle down, find a condo, and watch T.V for the rest of eternity.” Tom explained once he noticed the pegasus’s shocked expression. “What made you change your mind? I mean… you seem like you don’t want to give up now.” Fluttershy stated while noting the boy’s cheerful disposition. Tom thought about it for a moment before replying. “I guess I wanted to keep Twilight and the rest of you safe. I never got to interact with the people I was helping before… I might have talked to one or two people to get information on a monster, but I didn’t feel like anyone would want to get to know me. When I first came here, I killed the darklings that attacked all of you just because I was there… but after you guys asked me about my past and gave me a place to stay, I felt a little attached to you I guess.” Tom explained with an awkward chuckle. He looked away and rubbed his eyes to get rid of a small buildup of tears. The human hadn’t thought about how he felt about being a slayer in a long time, so it was weird for him to finally get everything out in the open. Fluttershy let a few tears roll down her cheek as she listened to the boy’s story. She was happy to hear that she and her friends could have such a positive impact on someone’s life. She smiled warmly and gave the boy a sincerely caring expression. “I know this was kind of implied… but I’m happy to be your friend Tom, and I know the others feel the same way. Even if you hadn’t saved our lives multiple times we would still be your friends. Friendship can have a lot of positive impacts on a person’s life, so I think it’s important to be friendly to everyone you meet.” Fluttershy said with a sincere smile on her face. Tom was glad to hear that the pegasus and her friends cared for him unlike any other random person he met had. “Thanks Fluttershy… that means a lot. I’m glad that I was brought here so I could meet all of you and help you keep this place safe.” Tom stated with a cheerful tone. Fluttershy was happy to see the boy’s spirits were lifted again. “I think I might try and sleep in here for the rest of the night… I would feel better being in a room with more people in it anyway.” The yellow pony yawned as she contemplated going back to sleep. Tom nodded as he watched the pegasus get up to grab a spare blanket and pillow. Suddenly, the human gasped for air as his senses went off involuntarily. The harsh noise accompanied by the blue mist shooting from the boy’s mouth made Fluttershy’s heart fill with dread. As if on cue to follow the slayer’s senses going off, a disturbing moaning sound flooded into the cottage from far away. The horrible noise sounded like it was coming from the far off forest, but it was so loud that it could be heard clear through the walls. “There’s that noise that I heard before!” Fluttershy began shaking nervously as the noise made chills go up and down her spine. “Did you feel anything?” She asked with a squeaky voice to see if the boy felt anything familiar that could ease her fears. “Not anything that I recognize… but there is something coming from the direction of the forest.” Tom explained with a serious tone of voice while getting up and rushing over to the window. He peered outside and searched for anything amiss. “What the hay is going on?” Rainbow Dash said while rubbing her eyes to wake herself up. She and Pinkie Pie looked around nervously as they listened to the soul rending groaning that disturbed their slumber. The two mares quickly got up and walked over to the window where the human and yellow pegasus was looking. “That must be the green glow you mentioned earlier.” Tom stated while glancing over to Fluttershy and pointing towards the distant tree line. Sure enough, there was a faint green glow emanating from behind a few of the distant trees of the forest. The ponies watched the eerie glow in a frightened trance as they shivered with fright. The disturbing groans mixed with the mysterious glow made their minds race with images of whatever horrible creatures could be causing the strange occurrence. Suddenly, Pinkie noticed a silhouette slowly walking off to the side of the yard. It was a four legged shape that seemed to be slightly taller than a regular pony, and it had what appeared to be antlers on its head. “Hey guys, look over there… it looks like some kind of animal.” The pink mare announced while pointing at the shadowy figure. “I think that’s a deer… it looks hurt.” Fluttershy said with slight worry in her voice. “We should go see what’s wrong with it.” She suggested while walking away from the window. The others followed the yellow mare as she went out the front door and into the yard. The eerie moaning had suddenly died down, leaving the group in silence. The moon shone down on the area, leaving just enough light to be able to discern colors against the blue tinted landscape. The silent atmosphere did little to comfort the ponies as they stepped around the house to look for the animal. Upon spotting the slowly moving creature, Fluttershy slowly walked forward while carefully observing the animal. It was staggering forward with its head lowered to the ground. It appeared to be barely able to support its own weight as its legs wobbled with each step. Tom used his senses to survey the area for whatever could have caused the injuries to the creature. He furrowed his brow suspiciously as he tried to make sense of the odd sensations he was feeling. “Fluttershy I think you should back up… something isn’t right here.” The human spoke up in an anxious tone to the pegasus as she approached the animal. Fluttershy was fearful of the far off forest, but she couldn’t imagine how the injured animal could be dangerous. Animals came to her all the time to be cared for and treated for injuries. “It’s just a deer guys… I’m just going to see what’s wrong with it.” Fluttershy spoke back to the anxious onlookers behind her. The yellow mare slowly stepped forward while observing the deer. It was hard to see in the sub-par lighting, but it appeared to be an adolescent male with its antlers coming in. “Hey there little guy… are you hurt?” Fluttershy spoke in a soft tone while walking closer to the animal. The deer stopped in its tracks as it heard the yellow pony speak. Suddenly the woodland creature looked up at the shy mare, causing her to freeze in place from fright. The deer had several dried up cuts and gashes along its face and body, one of which was a large slash to its neck, as if someone had slit its throat. The animal’s eyes were glowing a pale shade of green. Fluttershy could barely see the outline of its pupils and sclera behind the eerie glow. *Raaaghh!* The deer let out a garbled roar as it charged forward. Fluttershy fell backwards in shock as the animal ran for her. She screamed in fright as the creature lunged its head and front legs at her in an attempt at mauling her. Suddenly the beast was sent flying as Tom kicked it in the chest as hard as he could. The animal rolled on the ground several times, letting out a sickening crackle as its neck twisted with each roll. It came to a rest a few feet away and lay motionless on the floor. “Are you okay?” Tom asked while offering the yellow mare a hand up. Fluttershy nodded with widened eyes as she failed to find the ability to speak. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie ran up and huddled around the frightened pegasus. After hearing another garbled moan, the group turned their attention back to the deer. Its head lolled around limply as it slowly got up. After getting to its feet, the deer’s neck creaked and popped as it twisted it back in place. The ponies were horrified to see the sickening display in front of them. “W…w-what is that?!” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully as she stared at the monster. Tom stepped in front of the group protectively and placed a hand on his sword before turning to the group of fearful ponies. “It looks like a zombie.” Tom stated in a casual tone while standing in front of the ponies in a protective stance. “Wait... a zombie?! You mean like, an actual zombie?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone while staring ahead at the undead creature. “Looks that way… Stay here, I’ll take care of this.” Tom said while unsheathing his katana. The boy flipped the sword around in his hands before bringing it down to his side and walking forward cautiously. Fluttershy and the others watched nervously as the human walked towards the horrific beast. They were concerned for his safety, but they hoped that he knew what he was doing. Still, the sight of the gruesome animal still made them shiver from fright even with the human in front of them. The deer growled at the approaching boy before staggering forward. It wobbled slightly as it tried to avoid falling over while running. Tom gripped his sword in preparation for combat as he confidently walked towards the running beast. “Hey there little guy...” The human said in a sarcastically sweet tone while watching the creature charge at him. He stepped to the side and stuck his leg out while grabbing the approaching deer by the neck. He then flipped the undead animal over his leg. The beast’s momentum made it fly head over hooves until it landed on its back with a sickening thud that sounded like someone tossed rotten meat onto the ground from a high place. Tom stepped on the deer’s stomach forcefully to hold it down. He then plunged his sword into the ground through the bottom of the animal’s skull. The creature’s limbs jerked from the sudden attack before falling lifelessly to the ground. The deer’s eyes flickered a few times before the brilliant green glow disappeared completely. After pulling his sword out of the dead animal and wiping the blood off of it, the boy turned to the group of onlookers and smirked. The ponies were impressed to see the slayer in action, but they were still a little bit shaken up from the experience. “That was easy enough.” Tom spoke up so the others could hear him. They started to cheer for him, when suddenly another loud groaning noise silenced them. Tom looked over his shoulder to see three more zombified animals stepping out from the forest. Two of them were wolves, one of which was missing most of the skin on its face, while the other was another deer that had part of its antler snapped off and a bone sticking out of its leg. The three creatures growled before walking out into the field. “Me and my big fat mouth...” Tom sighed in annoyance before turning to face the incoming attackers. He rushed forward in order to keep the fight as far away from the ponies as possible. Fluttershy and the others watched anxiously as the boy charged forward against the horrific creatures. “Go get em’ Tom!” Rainbow Dash cheered the human on as he rushed up to the three charging animals. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shared the cyan mare’s sentiment for cheering the boy on, but they were still too shocked to say any words of encouragement. Tom quickly sidestepped out of the path of the deer as it tried to tackle him. In one fell swoop, the human swung his sword downward and clean through the animal’s neck. As the newly decapitated deer slid to the ground behind him, the boy quickly turned to see one of the wolves jumping at him. “Oof!” Tom grunted in pain as the zombie landed on top of him and knocked him to the ground. He held his sword against the wolf’s throat in an attempt at keeping it away from his face. The animal barked and snarled as it snapped at the human with its jagged teeth. Much to Tom’s surprise, the wolf failed to realize that it was cutting itself on the sword as it tried to get at him. The blade dug its way further and further into the decayed flesh of the creature before stopping at the bone. Tom gave a quick jab upwards, causing the wolf’s spinal cord to snap from the force. The predator’s eyes flickered until the green glow disappeared from them, at which point the animal went limp. After shoving the lifeless corpse off of his body, the boy quickly got up and looked around for the third attacker. “Where the-” Tom’s thought was interrupted by the sound of his friends screaming in terror. He turned to see the final undead creature making a beeline for the hapless ponies. “Heel!” The human yelled before rushing after the wolf. Fluttershy and the others backed up to distance themselves from the undead animal. The ponies contemplated turning to run away, but they wouldn’t be able to outrun the monster. Just before the creature reached the three terrified mares, Tom caught up to it and kicked it to the side. The wolf rolled on the ground a few times before settling on its back. “Hyah!” The human yelled fiercely while jumping up to gain momentum. He crashed down on the animal with his katana pointed downwards, managing to plant the blade into its neck. The wolf’s body offered little resistance as the sword pierced through its spinal cord. The wolf let out an interrupted snarl as it tried to jerk upwards before the sword impaled it. As its spinal cord was severed, its glowing eyes dimmed as the other animals’ had and it fell back to the ground like a limp puppet. Taking a moment to catch his breath and extract his sword from the ground, the boy looked over to his fearful friends and sighed. “Well… at least we know what the problem is now.” Tom stated sarcastically before re-sheathing his sword and walking over to the group. “That was a close one… thanks.” Pinkie Pie said while breathing a sigh of relief. “Yeah… we were almost that thing’s chew toy.” Rainbow Dash added with a nervous chuckle. “At least we’re safe now.” Fluttershy said while calming her racing heartbeat. She was incredibly thankful that the human managed to save her and her friends before anything bad happened. Once the danger had passed, the group looked around at the grisly bodies of the animals. Watching Tom slaughter them was a little bit unsettling, but what bothered the ponies the most was the thought of what made the animals this way. “What happened to these poor things?” Fluttershy asked in disgust while looking over the decayed bodies. Tom sighed while shaking his head in pity as he observed one of the wolves. “Looks like they haven’t been dead very long… all of these wounds probably happened after they became like this, except for this slash on the throat.” The boy explained while pointing out the different injuries. All of the cuts and bites looked like another animal had made them, but the gash on their necks looked like it was made with a knife. “Do you think those hooded ponies did this?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to contain her anger towards the horrible acts committed on the animals. “Well somebody did this to them… these guys don’t look like naturally made zombies, they look like the kind of thing that comes from dabbling in necromancy.” The human stated with a grim expression. The others were mortified to think that another living being could do things like this to innocent animals. “Do you think there are more of them out there?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while watching the woods for any sign of movement. “Most likely… I’m going to go check it out, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow night for that. I don’t want to leave you all here by yourselves.” Tom replied while giving the woods a cursory glance to be safe. “That’s probably for the best… but how are we going to sleep with those things out there?” Fluttershy asked curiously. She couldn’t imagine how they would be able to sleep with the threat of an undead animal being just outside. “Well, I’ll just keep watch until morning. All you guys have to do is try to sleep through whatever noise these things make.” The human suggested in a matter of fact tone. Fluttershy was concerned about the boy staying up all night for their sake. “Until morning… but aren’t you tired at all? I don’t want you losing any sleep over me. We can easily just go somewhere else.” The yellow mare said in a sympathetic tone while frowning at the human. “It’s fine… I don’t need as much sleep as you guys do to stay energetic. And besides, you shouldn’t have to leave your home just because of something like this. I’ll handle everything, you all just head back to bed.” Tom volunteered with a chipper attitude. Fluttershy was still upset that the human would go so much out of his way for her, but she was also grateful for it. “Thanks Tom... you’re the best.” The yellow pegasus smiled warmly at the boy, who returned the gesture as he followed the group inside. -Earlier- After watching Fluttershy leave the room silently, Angel rolled over in bed to get comfortable again. The pegasus had tried her best not to wake the rabbit, but her brief outburst from waking up had stirred him enough to interrupt his sleep. Ever since she got home from yesterday, the yellow mare had been acting very strangely. She seemed more nervous and jumpy than usual, and the incident from last night hadn’t helped at all. The noises had terrified Angel just as much as they did his owner, but he decided to stay in the house to hide. Finally, after much rearranging, the rabbit managed to get in a comfortable position to sleep in. He lay still and let himself drift into a hazy sort of half-sleep, when suddenly, another noise made his head shoot up in alarm. The noises from last night had returned stronger than ever. The horrific moaning made Angel dart his head around nervously. Upon hearing the front door open and close from downstairs, the rabbit deduced that Fluttershy had gone outside with her friends to investigate. Angel was unsure of whether or not he should be concerned for the yellow pegasus. After all, she did have the strange human with her. Angel had not had the opportunity to meet the human for very long. He only caught a glimpse of him when he poked his head into the living room to investigate the commotion caused by the ponies’ game of truth or dare. Unable to sleep, the rabbit decided to get up to head over to the window to investigate what was happening outside. After a short hop up onto the windowsill, Angel peeked outside and strained his eyes to see what was going on. It was hard to see through the reflective window, but he could barely make out the sight of his owner Fluttershy slowly walking towards another animal. The yellow pegasus often allowed other animals into the house, and Angel would often accompany her while she cared for them, so the sight of her going to help a supposedly injured animal was not strange to the rabbit. Suddenly, the animal lifted its head up, revealing its grotesquely decayed and slashed up flesh in the light. The sight of the animal caused Fluttershy to fall backwards in surprise. Angel was horrified to see his owner in such danger. Just before the rabbit could contemplate rushing outside to help the yellow mare, the human leapt forward and kicked the animal off of her. He helped her to her feet before standing in front of her protectively while her friends ran to her side. The human reached onto his back and pulled out a sword. He twirled it around stylishly for a second before lowering it to his side and slowly walking out of the rabbit’s view. Angel was relieved to see the ponies were in capable hands. Suddenly, a strange sound made Angel freeze in place. The odd sound harmonized in his head until it became a high pitched soothing melody. The room spun around and blurred as the rabbit slowly lost touch with his surroundings. He felt compelled to chase after the noise, to bathe further in its relaxing melody. The rabbit turned around and hopped off the windowsill. As the surrounding room disappeared before him, he hopped forward while following the path engrained in his subconscious. After leaving the bedroom, Angel walked through the house until he found his way into the kitchen, and out of the kitchen window. Fluttershy and her friends walked into the living room before plopping down on a chair or the couch. They breathed a collective sigh of relaxation as they took a moment to rest their bodies. It had been a long night, and they wanted nothing more than to curl up to get some sleep. “Man… I kinda wish that I could sleep for like ten minutes. That would at least give me enough rest to feel less tired.” Tom vented his feelings to the air, while mentally acknowledging that he couldn’t sleep while keeping watch. “Tell you what… I’ll stay up for a while to let you sleep. I’ll just wake you up if I see anything.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a helpful smirk. “Nah… I don’t feel comfortable letting you stay up by yourself. You might accidentally fall asleep, or something else horrible might happen… but thanks for the offer.” Tom replied with slight paranoia. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure whether to be impressed by the boy’s excessive spirit, or to be concerned for his lack of self-preservation. “You sure…?” Rainbow asked courteously, to which the boy nodded in reply. “Alright fine, just don’t fall asleep on us yourself.” The cyan pegasus shrugged in defeat before crawling back into her makeshift bed on the couch. “Hey Fluttershy, do you have another spare blanket somewhere? It’s getting a little cold.” Pinkie Pie asked while rubbing her shoulder to generate warmth. “Yeah sure, I think there’s one in my bedroom. Let me take a look.” Fluttershy said in a cheerful tone while walking off towards her room. She walked up the stairs while taking care not to indulge her paranoia by looking into the darkened rooms of her house. As she opened the door to her bedroom and stepped inside, something seemed off to the shy pony. She looked around her room to see if anything was amiss, when she suddenly laid eyes on the empty bed that her pet had been occupying before she left. Fluttershy turned on the light to her room to confirm that she wasn’t seeing things. She walked forward and examined the empty bed before looking around to find the rabbit. Angel usually didn’t go anywhere else in the house during the night, and she hadn’t seen him on her way through the house. “Where’s Angel?” Fluttershy thought out loud as a sense of dread and panic slowly filled her body. As if on cue to answer her question, the moaning and howling noise from before started up again as green light faintly shined in through the window.
Chapter 37: Into the WoodsRushing to the window to inspect the commotion outside, Fluttershy quickly scanned her eyes around to determine the source of the disturbance. She quickly noticed that the eerie green glow had returned in the tree line to the forest. Knowing that the glow belonged to the cold dead eyes of an undead creature sent chills up the pegasus’s spine. Suddenly, a blur of motion caught the yellow pony’s eye. She looked over to see a small white shape bouncing towards the forest slowly. She realized that the small white blur was in fact her rabbit friend Angel. “Angel! What the hay are you doing out there?!” Fluttershy squeaked in a panic as she watched the rabbit hop into the forest. He quickly disappeared into the trees, leaving the yellow pony staring at the forest in a wide eyed stupor. “I need to go after him... Tom!” Fluttershy exclaimed before rushing to her door and out into the hallway. She knew that the only hope she would have of ever seeing her friend again would be the human sitting in her living room. The yellow mare ran through her house in a rush to get to the others. She bolted out into the room and slid to a halt before using the wall to catch herself. The others stared at the exasperated pony with a mixture of confusion and concern on their faces. “Fluttershy what’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked as she watched her friend catch her breath with an alarmed expression. “Angel’s gone!” Fluttershy gasped out in between breaths. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were surprised and shocked by the announcement, while Tom was merely confused. “Who is Angel?” The human asked while waiting for the pegasus to finish catching her breath. “He’s my pet rabbit… I couldn’t find him in his bed when I got back, but I saw him outside. He was heading into the Everfree Forest!” Fluttershy stated with alarm and concern. The others gasped in shock as they realized the danger Angel could be in. “What?! Why would he go into the forest?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a panicked tone as she tried to process the situation. “I don’t know, but we need to go get him!” Fluttershy said before turning to Tom. “Please Tom, we need to go after him!” She pleaded to the human with fearful tears in her eyes. Tom knew that she wanted him to take her into the forest to search for the rabbit. “You want to go out there? Are you crazy?!” The boy said apprehensively while glancing to the window. Fluttershy looked to the human with a mixture of sadness and desperation on her face. “Please Tom! Angel means the world to me. I don’t know what I would do without him. If you won’t help me look for him, then I…” Fluttershy gulped nervously while glancing out of the window. “Then I... I’m going after him by myself!” She stated in a fearfully apprehensive tone. Tom was surprised by the way the shy pony was acting. He could tell that she really didn’t want to go out there without him, but she was willing to go anyway. He wondered just how attached the pegasus was to her pet. The boy shrugged in frustration. He couldn’t just sit by and let the innocent mare head blindly into danger alone. “Alright… I’ll go, but you’re sticking close to me alright?” Tom instructed in a serious tone. Fluttershy nodded in determination. She was excited to hear that the human would help her. “Thank you so much Tom!” The shy mare said with a happy smile while walking forward to hug the gracious slayer. Tom accepted the gesture before letting the pony go so she could prepare herself to leave. “I’m going too.” Rainbow Dash stepped forward confidently to stand by the yellow pegasus. “Me too.” Pinkie volunteered while walking over to her friends. Fluttershy was humbled to see her friends sticking with her in a time of need. “Are you two sure? There’s no telling what kind of danger is waiting for us out there. You can just head home and let me and Fluttershy handle this.” Tom asked the two brave ponies to be certain. He didn’t want them risking their lives blindly without consideration. The two nodded confidently before turning to Fluttershy. “We want to help Fluttershy. And besides, you two can’t just leave without us.” Rainbow Dash stated with determination. Pinkie nodded in agreement with a cheerful smile. “Yeah, we can’t just leave and do nothing.” The pink mare chimed in eagerly. Tom was surprised by the fact that the ponies kept surprising him with their bravery. “Alright, let’s get going. The sooner we find Angel, the better.” The boy stated while getting up and walking out of the door. The ponies quickly followed him outside before closing the door behind them. Just before leaving, Fluttershy quickly rushed to a closet in her hallway. She pulled out three flashlights and tested them before rushing to join her friends outside. The area was eerily quiet once again. The wind had died down, and the noises and glowing from the forest had ceased, leaving only the darkened woods to stand as an ominous doorway to whatever the ponies would encounter. “How are we going to find Angel? The Everfree Forest is so big… like, huge!” Pinkie huffed in frustration as she peered around a tree to view into the forest. Tom stepped forward into the trees before turning to the group. “Well, I’m going to wager that any small animal in their right mind wouldn’t step foot into a forest filled with dangerous monsters willingly. I’m thinking that something lured him out there, so I’m going to try to find the source of these zombies. My guess is that whatever is making these things has something to do with Angel walking into the forest.” Tom explained his idea to the group. Everyone agreed with the boy’s reasoning. “Here, take these.” Fluttershy said while tossing a flashlight to each of her friends. “Sorry I don’t have any more… I guess I’ll just have to go without one.” She sighed at her lack of good fortune before walking forward with the group. The light from the moon that had bathed the landscape in a comforting blue light had all but vanished under the thick canopy of trees. The pitch black forest sent shockwaves of various frightening memories through each of the ponies’ heads. Rainbow Dash remembered the day she and Twilight returned to the forest with the princess. Brief flashes of her time in the cave made the pegasus cringe before mentally forcing the thoughts from her head. While Pinkie and Fluttershy merely remembered the first time they met Tom out at Zecora’s hut. The two ponies could still hear the pounding of the front door ringing in their ears as the darklings fought to break in. On top of their memories of the forest, the dark atmosphere created new feelings of fear and nervousness in the ponies. They swept their flashlights side to side frantically as they caught brief glimpses of shadowy silhouettes in the distance, only to realize that it was a trick being played by their own imaginations. Tom walked ahead of the group to lead them. As he searched the area with his senses, he noticed a faraway spot where all of the energy coming from the zombies seemed to originate from. The human also tried to survey the area for any potential threats. “Do you feel anything around us Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while glancing around through the thicket of trees. “I can’t really tell… The energy that these things give off is so small that it blends in with the trail I’m trying to follow.” Tom replied uneasily as he listened to the many far off moans and groans that carried through the trees. Even if he couldn’t sense them, he knew that there were more undead around somewhere. As Fluttershy ducked under a low hanging branch to get around a tree, she noticed some dark shapes around the group. Upon noticing this, she tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder and pointed in the direction of the shadowy figure. “What is it?” The cyan pegasus asked curiously while fumbling her flashlight around to search for whatever was troubling her friend. Fluttershy gently grabbed her arm and guided the beam of the flashlight onto the distant shape. “Look over there…” The yellow mare said while focusing the light. Once the flashlight settled on the shape, the two realized that it was another animal staggering in place near a tree. Upon closer inspection, the animal appeared to be a fox that had its head down and numerous cuts on its body. “There’s one of those things.” Rainbow Dash whispered nervously while staring at the creature in the distance. “There are more of them over there.” Pinkie stated while pointing to the side. The group looked over to see two more animals off in the distance. As they searched around them, the four realize that they were practically surrounded by the creatures. “What do we do?” Fluttershy squeaked in a panic as she darted her eyes around nervously. She could feel her heart racing as she tensed up her muscles fearfully. Tom looked around to assess the situation before turning to the ponies with a calm expression. “Everyone just stay calm and keep quiet. Hopefully we can sneak by without them noticing.” The human whispered calmly while trying to ease the ponies’ fears. Everyone took a nervous glance at the numerous animals around them before gulping nervously and swallowing their fear. As they slowly crept forward around the trees, the ponies could hear a pin drop over the low groaning sounds around them. They were so conscious of where their feet were landing, that they somehow managed to avoid stepping on anything that would create noise. Fluttershy cringed as a twig broke under her hoof. She peered over at a nearby zombie to see if it noticed, only to watch it lift its head up and look off to the side. After breathing a silent sigh of relief, the yellow mare looked forward to the human leading the group. “Tom, are we getting close?” Fluttershy whispered just barely loud enough to be heard. Tom used his senses again to check on their progress. “We should be getting there soon… as long as nothing happens we should get there in a few m-” The boy stopped mid-sentence and froze in place while staring ahead. The ponies nearly knocked into him as they focused on the ground to walk silently. The three mares looked at the human with puzzled expressions until they looked ahead to where he was staring. Once they noticed what had made their friend freeze up, they widened their eyes in shock and terror. A large bear was slowly walking towards the group. It didn’t seem like it noticed the band of frightened ponies as it stared blankly ahead with its glowing green eyes. The sight of the ferocious animal staggering forward with such gory injuries while still maintaining a vicious look on its half-eaten face struck terror into Fluttershy and her friends. The bear’s nose was partially missing, revealing the hole in its skull that served as the nasal passage. One of its ears was dangling off of the side of its head by a small strip of flesh. There were numerous places on its bulky legs where patches of skin and flesh had been torn. And to top off the already frightening predator’s grizzly appearance, one of its front paws was missing half of its toes, leaving only two sharp claws in place. The bear stopped moving suddenly and stood up on its back legs. It twitched its head and crinkled up the small portion of its nose that remained, as if it were trying to sniff the air with its doubtlessly functionless flap of a nostril. It growled deeply, creating an unearthly sound that pierced the ponies’ very beings as it reverberated out of the dead animal’s throat. “Does it see us?” Rainbow Dash whispered anxiously as the undead predator started walking forward again. It shifted its cold, dead eyes to glare at the group of ponies before groaning and walking a little faster. “Well I don’t think it’s coming over here to tell us about the bear necessities.” Tom replied in a mixture of panic and nervousness. “Wait… what?” Rainbow Dash took a moment to stop staring at the bear to give the human a confused look. Tom realized that his joke fell on deaf ears before returning his attention to the bear that was now sprinting at them. “I’ll tell you about it later!” The boy yelled while running forward to meet the bear before it got closer to his friends. Tom unsheathed his sword and charged at the bear with the blade held straight in front of him. The creature reared up in preparation to strike the human, catching him off guard. The sword went straight into the creature’s mid-section, stopping just above the hilt and leaving Tom staring up at the now incredibly angry zombie bear leering down at him. The bear swiped its injured paw at the boy. Even with the heavily disfigured extremity, the impact of the two claws across Tom’s head sent him flying sideways. “Tom!” Fluttershy cried in shock as she watched the human collide with a tree a short distance away. Tom clutched his face with his hands and yelled in agonizing pain as he felt the huge gash in his face. Blood poured from the open wound as the human struggled to get to his feet. A bright orange light flickered to life as the flames of Tom’s healing abilities kicked in. The horrific wound took a little longer to close up than most other wounds he had suffered due to its size, leaving Tom to deal with the added pain of the burning sensation given on top of the pain from the injury. The ponies were horrified to see their friend in so much pain. They were even more horrified to see the bear charging directly for the wounded human. The undead predator was growling fiercely as it stumbled sideways while running to its prey. “Tom, look out!” All three ponies cried out in unison to warn the human of the impending attack. After the wound finished healing, Tom breathed in heavily a few times to help his body recover from the shock. He then looked up just in time to see the bear careening towards him. The boy jumped out of the way just as the bear slammed into the tree. Seeing an opportunity to attack, Tom reached for his sword to pounce on the bear. After grasping at the air for a brief moment, the boy quickly realized that his katana was still embedded in the bear. Sure enough, the hilt of his sword was sticking out of the animal’s mid-section as it stalked towards him. “Alright big guy… you want to play rough?” Tom asked while readying his arms into a fighting stance. He then brought out his claws and stared down the bear with determination and bravery. “I can play rough!” The human yelled as he charged forward after the bear. The undead creature roared as it bolted forward like a steamroller, ready to plow into the boy. The ponies watched in amazement as Tom leapt over the charging bear and spun around to land on its back. The boy grabbed the bear’s blood soaked fur and held on for dear life. The bear growled in protest while reaching its arms around its back in an attempt at grabbing the annoyance. Tom made sure to steer clear of the sharp claws that were scraping nearby as he hung in place. “Tom!” The sound of his friends calling for him frantically made the human look over to where they were standing. The ponies were backing towards each other as a group of zombified animals surrounded them slowly. “Aw hell… sorry big guy, but play time is over!” Tom yelled with determination as he stabbed his free hand into the back of the bear’s neck. The spinal cord offered little resistance from the sharp blades as they severed it with a satisfying crackle. The bear groaned in pain before falling forward. Tom leapt off the dying animal and grabbed his sword from the bear’s stomach. He then pulled it out in one swift motion while stepping to the side to allow the lifeless corpse to fall to the forest floor with a loud thud. The boy looked over to where his friends were. They were cowering in fear while hugging each other close as the animals snarled and snapped their teeth at them. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were looking around with absolute terror in their eyes as they observed their certain doom, while Fluttershy was cowering close to the floor with her face covered by her hooves. “AHHH!” Pinkie and Rainbow Dash screamed in unison as they watched the animals jump towards them. They averted their eyes and shut them tight to prepare for the horrible pain of being ripped to shreds. Fluttershy listened while crying uncontrollably as the gut wrenching sound of flesh being punctured and torn filled the air. The yellow pegasus strangely felt no pain, but her friends were silent. She feared that they had been devoured alive while she would be next. Gathering up the courage to take a look at the scene taking place around her, Fluttershy slowly lifted her arms to peek out. The shy mare gasped in shock as she looked around her. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were perfectly unharmed, but they were frozen in place with their jaws held open in a shocked expression. Tom was sitting on top of one of the animals with his claws buried in its head. Another one of the animals was lying motionless a few feet away with Tom’s katana sticking out of its neck. The rest of the zombies were all strewn around with four deep gashes in the back of their necks or under their chins. “T-th... th...” Rainbow Dash stammered in shock as she tried to put words together. “T-th… that w-was amazing! I thought we were goners for sure!” She said while laughing hysterically at their close brush with death. The cyan pegasus touched her face and touched her friends’ shoulders to ensure that they were all alive. “You almost were…” Tom spoke up with a grim tone of voice. The ponies were surprised by how gloomy the boy was. They figured that he would be happy and proud that he pulled something like that off just in time to save them. “But… you saved us, so it’s ok.” Pinkie said in an attempt at cheering the human up. Tom got up from the animal and vanished his claws back into the flames they came from. He then walked over and pulled his sword out of the animal it had been planted in. “Barely… I almost didn’t make it.” Tom stated gloomily while turning to face the group. “You all need to be safer if you’re going to be out here. If I can’t get to you in time, then I don’t want to think about what could happen.” He added in a concerned tone. The ponies felt bad for the human. It was clear that he wasn’t chiding them to be more careful, he was worried that he might not be able to save them if something bad would happen again. “We’ll be fine Tom…” Rainbow Dash said sympathetically while walking over to the human. He looked at her with confusion and doubt. “How can you be so sure?” Tom asked curiously. Rainbow Dash smiled at him confidently before putting a hoof on his side. “Because we have each other, and we have you. As long as we stick together, or even keep each other in our hearts, then we will never let anything get in the way of our friendship. And now that you’re here, you’re part of that friendship.” The pegasus replied with an inspiring speech. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy nodded confidently while walking closer to join the others. Tom was touched to hear that the ponies wanted to include him in their inner circle. They seemed to take friendship very seriously, and to have them offer him a place in their friendship was very moving to the human. “That may be true… but I’m still worried for all of you. Your world isn’t ready to mix with the evils that my world is capable of… which is exactly what seems to be happening.” Tom said uneasily while observing the ponies and taking note of how sensitive they were at the end of the day. “We might be sensitive when compared to humans, but we can be brave too.” Pinkie spoke up confidently. Tom was intrigued to hear what the party pony had to say. “There are tons of examples of ponies being brave… even Fluttershy here has a brave streak in her. She stared down a dragon and lived after all!” The pink mare praised while looking over to Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus blushed shyly as she recalled the memory in question. She didn’t think much of her experience with the dragon. It was hurting her friends, and at the end of the day it was just a big animal, so she just dealt with it. “You stared down a dragon?” Tom asked with surprise and curiosity. Fluttershy nodded with a coy smile. The human was impressed and shocked at the same time to hear that such a gentle and sensitive pony could square off with a dragon and live. “Ok… you’ll have to tell me about that one later, but first let’s go find Angel and get out of this forest.” The human suggested while walking forward and using his senses to get back on track. The ponies nodded to each other in agreement before returning to their search. After a few more minutes of walking, the group noticed that the trees were starting to thin out a little bit. The ground was starting to get less grassy and obstacle ridden as well. Before they could question the strange placement of their surroundings, the ponies noticed a light up ahead. As they drew closer to the light, they realized that there was a clearing up ahead that was allowing moonlight to shine through completely. The clearing was full of boxes, tents, tables and other pieces of equipment. And much to the ponies’ surprise, they saw a few hooded figures moving around in the camp. “Everyone get down.” Tom whispered while creeping closer to a tree on the edge of the clearing. The group followed his example by huddling behind the tree next to him. The four peered out from behind their hiding spots to observe the two hooded figures talking around a pen like structure with a door. One of them appeared to be a blue furred unicorn with tufts of white hair poking out from under his hood. While the other one appeared to be a teal earth pony with black hair. Both ponies’ cutie marks were concealed by the hoodies they were wearing. “What are they saying?” Rainbow Dash whispered to her companions curiously. “I can’t hear them.” Pinkie whispered back. Before the group could ponder further about the intentions of the hooded ponies, a small white rabbit hopped into the clearing from off to the side and walked up to the hooded figures. “Angel…” Fluttershy whispered with concern as she observed the rabbit stand idly at the ponies’ feet. He seemed like he was in some sort of trance as he bobbed his head around limply. Suddenly, one of the ponies noticed the rabbit and bent down to pick it up. “Alright, this should be enough for tonight. Go turn off the gathering charm and prep a table.” One of the ponies instructed to the other before opening the door to the pen and placing Angel inside. Through the small opening, the group could see a few other animals trapped inside the pen. The earth pony nodded before walking over to a table and grabbing a book and a scalpel. He set the book and cutting tool down on a small table near what appeared to be a medical examination table with straps on it. While the earth pony was reading through the book and adjusting various other vials and jars of other equipment, the unicorn was opening the pen and leading a small deer out by a leash. He walked the deer over to the table before using his magic to lift it up and place it on its back. The deer offered no resistance as the two ponies strapped it to the table. The animal’s eyes had a strange blankness to them. After tightening the straps so the deer couldn’t move, the ponies turned to the equipment next to them. The unicorn lifted the book off of the table and held it open in front of him, while the earth pony grabbed a scalpel off of the table and examined it. “What are they doing to that poor thing?” Fluttershy asked while looking at the scalpel with a sense of dread in her stomach. As if on cue to answer the yellow mare’s question, the earth pony swiftly drew the scalpel across the deer’s throat, slicing it open. The ponies gasped in shock and looked on with horrified expressions as the deer gargled out a cry of pain while struggling against the straps. The animal slowly stopped moving as the wound gushed out blood like a morbid waterfall. After the deer stopped twitching, the unicorn started reading from the book. While his partner recited a spell from the tome, the earth pony opened a vial of a white powdery substance. He took a hoof-full of the powder before sprinkling it over the deer. After covering the animal in a good amount of the powder, the earth pony blew the rest of the powder into the air above the animal. The powder formed into a cloud of particles floating in the air above the table. Suddenly, a flash of green appeared within the cloud of dust. Soon the green flash formed into an odd, almost fluid-like luminescent green mist. The mist slowly drifted down like a puff of smoke caught in a breeze, until it went inside the dead animal. The two ponies waited silently while observing the corpse. Suddenly, the deer jerked upwards while letting out an unearthly howl that startled Fluttershy and the others. The animal’s eyes had started glowing the same neon green that the other zombies had. The two ponies leaned away from the table as the animal kicked and screamed against the straps. The unicorn read off some more words from the book while staring at the deer with a disciplinary leer. After the pony had finished, the deer relaxed and lay still on the table while silently breathing, or at least going through the motions of breathing as it no longer needed oxygen to thrive. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and her two friends were mortified from watching the scene unfold before their very eyes. The yellow pegasus had tears in her eyes as she let the event sink in. She couldn’t believe that the two ponies had just murdered that deer without so much as a second thought. “Why would they do something like that?” Fluttershy hiccupped as her voice quivered from sadness. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie did their best to comfort the distraught pegasus while dealing with their own emotions. The two hooded ponies released the undead creature from the table and pointed off to the other side of the camp. The deer slowly staggered its way towards where its masters had pointed. After the deer was out of sight, the two walked back over to the pen. “Alright, I think we should do one more for the night. I’m beat…” The unicorn said to his partner, who nodded in agreement. The two then reached into the pen and pulled out another animal. Much to the horror and shock of the ponies, the unicorn had a familiar white rabbit in his hooves. “Oh no… Angel!” Fluttershy gasped in fright as she watched the two walk away with her pet in their clutches.
Chapter 38: Playing With Dead ThingsFluttershy couldn’t believe what she was watching. She didn’t want to believe what she was watching. The two hooded ponies were carrying Angel towards the same table they had just slaughtered a deer on. She could see a brief flash of her beloved pet being killed and brought back to life as a mindless zombie in her mind. The yellow pegasus shook her head defiantly to rid herself of the horrible images. “We can’t let them hurt Angel.” Fluttershy whispered in a concerned tone while looking down to her two friends. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie shared the yellow mare’s sentiment as they watched the two carry the rabbit with dread. “I know… we need to go out there and stop them! Tom…? Tom?!” Rainbow Dash whispered loudly to the tree where the human had been hiding. The cyan pegasus was confused to see the tree empty with the slayer nowhere to be seen. “Where the hay did he go?” Rainbow Dash whispered in a frustrated tone while looking around for the human. The other two ponies shared in the cyan mare’s confusion, until a familiar voice spoke up loudly from inside the camp. “Evening gentlemen…” Tom announced to the two hooded ponies while walking forward with a confident expression. The two swiftly turned around to face the human, before jumping slightly in surprise from seeing the intruder. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?!” The unicorn yelled in a fierce tone. He was obviously trying to sound more threatening than he actually felt as he nervously watched the human staring at him. The earth pony tapped his partner on the shoulder frantically while looking at him with wide eyes. “That’s the guy the others were talking about! That’s the slayer!” The teal stallion said on the verge of a panic attack. The unicorn gulped nervously while shoving his friend slightly to calm him down. He then turned to face the human and put on his best threatening expression. “What do you want?” He asked with a slight twinge of nervousness in his voice. Tom smirked slightly as he watched the blue pony trying to sound brave. “That rabbit you got there is very important to a friend of mine… give him back.” The human instructed with a firm tone while stepping closer to the pair menacingly. While his partner was reduced to a quivering mess, the unicorn tried to be confident in the face of imminent danger. “See… I would, but we need this rabbit for a little science experiment we’re working on. So you will have to come up here and take it.” The blue pony cringed as he realized what just came out of his mouth. Tom chuckled briefly before pulling out his sword and bringing it to his side. “Alright, if you insist.” The human said with a smirk while stepping closer. The two ponies’ eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as they watched the slayer walking towards them slowly. “Wait, wait, wait! We can sort this out peacefully!” The unicorn pleaded while setting Angel down. “Go ahead and take him. The charm he’s under will wear off by morning, just go!” He said frantically while shoving the rabbit forward and backing off. Tom chuckled while stepping forward and picking up the rabbit. He then turned around to face the tree line and spoke up. “Alright girls, you can come out.” The boy said to his friends hiding behind the tree. Fluttershy and the others were hesitant to walk out, but got over their concerns and walked forward. Upon seeing the human holding her pet, the yellow pegasus rushed forward eagerly and happily accepted the rabbit from him. “Angel! I’m so glad you’re ok!” Fluttershy said while hugging the rabbit close. She then looked up to see Tom looking at her thoughtfully. “Go free the other animals and wait around. I’ll deal with these two.” The human said while motioning over to the pen where the other animals were kept. Fluttershy nodded before recruiting her two friends to help her with liberating the trapped animals. The three mares quickly rushed over to the pen and opened it before looking inside. “Oh my…” Fluttershy held her hoof up to her mouth to catch a gasp. All of the animals in the pen were standing around idly with dazed looks on their faces. All of them had glossy and unfocused eyes. There were wolves and foxes, deer and small birds alike. None of the animals seemed like they even knew they were sharing a pen with possible predators or prey. “Come on. Let’s get them out of here.” Rainbow Dash said while grabbing one of the deer and gently nudging it until it started walking forward. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed the cyan mare’s lead and grabbed an animal to escort out into the forest. While Fluttershy and the others were leading animals out of the pen, Tom turned to the hooded ponies and adopted a more serious expression. The unicorn and the earth pony could feel their spines melting into their feet when confronted with the icy glare being given by the slayer. “You two have got a lot to answer for. You’re coming with me, and we’re going to take a little walk.” Tom said suggestively while leering at the two. The two ponies backed away slowly while the human walked forward. “Uh… umm… uh...” The unicorn stammered nervously while back peddling. He suddenly turned around and looked off into the rest of the camp. “Dust Kicker!” The blue stallion yelled as loud as he could before turning back to watch the human nervously. Soon, a brown furred pony walked into view. Judging from the two wings poking out of his hoodie, the pony appeared to be a young pegasus stallion. There was a small dust devil on his side as a cute mark, and his hair was black. The stallion carried himself with a lot of confidence and seemed to have a threatening air about him. “What the hell is going on over h-” Dust Kicker spoke up in annoyance before noticing the human and the other ponies in the camp. He then snickered to himself with a smirk on his face. “You must be the slayer I’ve been hearing so much about.” The brown pegasus said with a confident smile. Tom was surprised to see such a cocky display. “I guess my reputation precedes me… and who might you be?” The human asked curiously while observing the stallion. The two hooded ponies scrambled to get away from the confrontation in front of them. They hid in one of the tents and peeked out to watch the inevitable fight. Fluttershy and her two friends watched the two anxiously as they sized each other up. “Who I am doesn’t matter… what matters is that you need to keep your nose out of our business.” The brown pony replied sternly. “Sorry, but my business is to stop people like you from harming others.” Tom said sarcastically. The pegasus chuckled to himself at the bold statement. “Is that so? Well you must really suck at your job, because from what I hear, things didn’t go so well for a few people down at the hospital.” Dust Kicker mocked in a harsh tone. Tom was slightly upset to be reminded of what happened at the hospital, but he wasn’t about to give the pegasus the satisfaction of affecting him emotionally. “I’m a bit confused as to what you guys are doing… everyone else in this world seems to be relatively nice, whereas you guys seem to be heartless cowards that use monsters to do your dirty work for you.” The human stated casually. This made the pegasus shift his expression into a leer. “We can do a lot more than you think… the monsters are just a means to an end.” The stallion explained with a sour attitude. “And what exactly is that end?” Tom asked with a firm tone. Dust Kicker merely laughed at the human, as if he really expected him to just tell him. “I’m not at liberty to say, but if you stick around long enough, you should figure it out fairly easily.” Dust Kicker chuckled while explaining with a smirk on his face. Tom and the three ponies behind him were unsettled by how sinister the hooded pony’s statement was. It almost sounded like a threat. “Well… If we can’t settle this peacefully, then I guess I’ll just have to beat it out of you like a piñata.” Tom said while gripping his sword and stepping forward, Pinkie Pie giggled quietly at the joke. She was glad to finally hear a reference from the human that she understood. Dust Kicker leered at the approaching human and stood his ground. While his two terrified workers were shaking nervously from watching the action unfold, the brown stallion was unwavering in his resolve that this human posed little to no threat to him. “If you take one more step you’re going to regret it.” The hooded pegasus announced in a threatening tone. Tom chuckled in his mind, allowing a soft smile to come out to express his feelings. How could a pony half his height think that it could harm him? The human paused for a moment for effect. He then lifted one leg and extended it forward to take a single step. The pegasus didn’t like how the boy was smirking at him in provocation. After taking a moment to contain his anger at the pretentious act, Dust Kicker smiled deviously. “Alright, you asked for it.” The stallion said sarcastically while looking down for a moment to concentrate. Fluttershy and the others were uneasy from the pegasus’s threat, but they weren’t sure if Tom was confident because he knew that he could handle the situation, or because he thought that the hooded pony posed no threat. Dust Kicker’s front hoof suddenly started glowing a mixture of dark black and bright purple. The shadowy glow enveloped his hoof like a fire made out of shadows. The pegasus lifted his hoof and stamped it back on the ground forcefully, causing the purple glow to exit his hoof and travel along the ground to a spot in front of him. The purple substance shimmered and shifted in place as it stretched out a short ways. After growing to a suitable size, the shadow-like film rose out of the ground and started taking shape in three dimensional space. The shape being formed seemed a little bit familiar to the human, and as it formed further he recognized the creature taking shape. The monster had a broad frame with four clawed legs sticking out of the large hump that served as its body, and a large mouth filled with sharp teeth dripped a disgusting form of saliva. The creature that stood in front of the slayer was a darkling. “Really…? That’s all you got, a darkling?” Tom asked while trying not to break out into laughter. “I can take care of darklings in my sleep.” He stated confidently while holding his hand out in front of him. He then fired off a blast of bright blue light, causing everyone in its path to shield their eyes from the intensity. After the light died out, Tom smirked in expectance as he saw a few faint puffs of black smoke rising into the air. The human’s smirk quickly faded as he noticed that the creature was still standing. The snarling beast only had a few trails of smoke leading off of it as it stood its ground. The beast stood in place while leering at the slayer with its glowing purple eyes. Tom just noticed that this darkling looked vastly different from the ones he fought earlier. The monster had bright purple stripes and accents all across its body that pulsed and shifted along with the creature’s normal shadowy skin. And the monster’s eyes, which were normally barely noticeable tiny dots above its mouth, were now glowing a sinister bright purple that gave them a chilling sort of emotion. An emotion that screamed of how much the monster wanted to rip any living creature to shreds. “Well that’s bothersome…” Tom muttered nervously under his breath while staring at the shadow creature that just weathered his blessed light like it was a flashlight in its eyes. Dust Kicker laughed as he observed the distraught expression on the human’s face, and the fearful expressions on the three ponies’ faces behind the boy. “I guess you should be more careful with who you act like a smart-ass to. It might be better for you and your friends in the long run.” The hooded pony smirked evilly while lighting up his hoof again with the flaming shadows from before. He raised his leg in the air and paused for a moment while concentrating. He then slammed it down with great force while grunting from exertion. The glowing shadows flowed out of the stallion’s hoof and into the ground. The black substance split off into three streams and traveled forward as the pegasus strained to project it. The streams rushed along the ground past Tom and zipped to Fluttershy and her two friends. The nervous mares moved out of the way of the moving shadows and watched them with a growing sense of alarm. The streams united under the three ponies before splitting off again and traveling to the sides and back of the nervous group. The streams of the substance focused into three spots around the ponies, creating a circle to trap them inside. The spots slowly rose up and formed into three more darklings that stared at the ponies eagerly. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie backed into each other as they tried to get away from the beasts that were waiting eagerly for their master to give them free license over their prey. “Let’s see how Equestria’s hero fares under pressure… Kill them!” Dust Kicker shouted to his minions with a devious smirk on his face. Tom turned around to watch the beasts snarl and growl as they reared up to jump the three ponies. “AHHH!!” Pinkie Pie shrieked in terror as one of the darklings lunged for her. Rainbow Dash grabbed the pink mare and moved her to the side as the monster jumped past them. Fluttershy ran backwards in an attempt at getting away, when another one of the darklings cut her off. “Girls!” Tom exclaimed in a panic as he rushed forward to assist his friends. The boy yelped in pain as the first darkling jumped forward and bit into his leg. The monster shook its head as it wrestled the human to the ground with his leg firmly placed in its mouth. “Agh! I don’t have time for this!” Tom exclaimed through clenched teeth as he coped with the pain of the monster digging into his leg. The slayer grabbed his sword off of the ground and plunged it into the darkling’s head. The blade impaled the creature, causing it to let go of Tom’s leg. The wound poured black smoke as the darkling slowly dissolved around the blade. “I guess you aren’t indestructible.” The human stated with a smirk before returning his attention to the ponies fighting for their lives. Fluttershy backed away nervously while staring at the monster in front of her with wide eyes. The beast was growling and bearing its teeth as it stared down the shy mare with its burning eyes. The yellow mare wasn’t sure what to do. On top of trying to keep herself alive, she had to worry about the entranced bunny that she was carrying with her. As the creature jumped forward in an attempt at catching the pony off guard, Fluttershy yelped in fright and jumped to the side defensively. After barely clearing the darkling’s sharp claws, the yellow mare ran in a desperate attempt at getting away. While running by her two other friends as they stared down their predators, Fluttershy caught the unwanted attention of the other two darklings, which bolted after their friend in order to chase the fleeing pegasus. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash cried after her frightened friend. Fluttershy looked behind her only to see three vicious creatures giving chase to her. While she was slightly glad to have lured the monsters away from her friends, the timid pony was also terrified that she was now being hunted by a pack of horrific beasts. The yellow pegasus could feel her heart pounding out of her chest as she ignored her aching muscles and hyperventilating to continue running. She held on to Angel tightly while trying to motivate herself to run faster. “Ooof!” Fluttershy grunted in surprise as her foot caught a tree root on the edge of the clearing. She tumbled on the ground in a painful roll before slamming into a tree with her back. The force of the impact made the frail pony’s head slam into the side of the tree as her body bent back from the momentum. “Ugh…” The yellow mare lifted her head and tried to make sense of the blurry mess that was now her vision. As she came to her senses, Fluttershy noticed the three darklings slowly approaching their vulnerable prey. “Eeek!” Fluttershy squeaked in fear and grabbed Angel while trying to slink backwards, only to be met by the solid tree blocking her path. The failure of her escape attempt crushed the shy pony’s very being. She knew that she was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Fluttershy tearfully placed Angel behind the tree and hid him amid the brush in an attempt at sparing him from her gruesome fate. She then turned her attention forward and started shaking with fear as the creatures approached. Suddenly, one of the monsters tilted sideways as something impacted it from the side. Fluttershy noticed Tom’s katana was now sticking out of the darkling’s neck, causing a fountain of black smoke to pour from the wound. The creature thrashed its head around and yelled in pain as it tried to remove the sword. The other two darklings watched the loud commotion as their friend screeched and roared in pain. They almost seemed to be expressing confusion through their large mouths as they stared at the spectacle with blank expressions. Just before the other two creatures could return their attention to Fluttershy, Tom leapt over the three monsters while grabbing his sword’s hilt. The human twisted the embedded blade as he flew over the beasts, causing the injured darkling to be decapitated from the blade slicing through its neck. As Fluttershy and the two darklings shifted their glance from the dissolving creature to the slayer, he whipped his sword around and lowered it to a battle stance. The human then charged forward and kicked the two creatures to the side so he could stand between them and the helpless pegasus. Meanwhile on the other side of the camp, Dust Kicker was watching the distant battle unfold with growing frustration. He growled under his breath before looking over to his two awestruck assistants that were glued to the action with unyielding resolve. “Stop standing around and go get the book! We need a diversion so we can pack up and leave.” The pegasus’s sudden outburst made the two hooded ponies jump slightly in fright. They looked over to their angry leader before taking a quick glance around the camp to find where they left the book. “Right away, Dust Kicker!” Both ponies said in unison while scrambling away to get the book. They practically tripped over each other as they tried their hardest to complete their mission quickly. Dust Kicker watched the pair fumble around with an expression of disappointment. As the pair of hooded ponies was racing towards the front of the camp where the book was located, Rainbow Dash turned her attention from Tom’s battle with the darklings to watch the two. She furrowed her eyebrows as she thought about what the ponies’ sudden motivation could be about. “What are those two doing?” The cyan mare thought out loud while glancing over to make sure that the human didn’t require her assistance. She then returned to observing the two ponies frantically run around the camp with an idea forming in her head. “Raaagh!” Tom yelled as he swung his sword downwards towards one of the creatures. The beast barely managed to jump out of the way, catching the blade across its side as it traveled downward. The darkling looked at its smoking wound and growled deeply at the human. Suddenly, the other darkling leapt at Tom in an attempt at knocking him down. Being wise to the monster’s tactic, the boy ducked down to avoid the leaping beast before reaching up and grabbing it by the leg. Tom swung the struggling monster sideways toward its friend. The makeshift club collided with the surprised creature, causing both darklings to tumble sideways from the impact. Seeing a perfect opportunity, Tom quickly plunged his sword through the back of one of the monster’s head. Fluttershy watched the battle with mixed feelings. She was excited, terrified, concerned, and anxious all at the same time as she observed the slayer at work. As the boy finished off the last darkling, the yellow pegasus smiled and trotted up to him to give him a cheer and to thank him for saving her life again. “You did it Tom!” Fluttershy said while brimming with joy and excitement. Tom was happy to see the fruits of his labors as he was pulled in for a joyful hug by the elated mare. It gave him a sense of accomplishment to save the innocent ponies from certain doom. “Thank you so much… Angel and I would be mincemeat without you.” The shy mare stated with a grateful smile as she released the human from her grip. “Aw shucks… I’m just doing my job, no need to thank me every time.” Tom said with a bashful smile while rubbing the back of his head. Fluttershy giggled at the display of humility before giving the slayer a friendly smile. “Well I feel the need to, so thanks again.” The yellow pony said while walking over to the tree to pick up Angel again. “My pleasure… now let’s go have a nice friendly chat with those hooded hooligans. I wonder what they must be thinking now that I beat all of their-” Tom was interrupted by the sound of loud chanting in some strange language. He looked over to see Dust Kicker reciting from the book used to revive the deer. Suddenly, the human and the yellow mare could hear loud moaning and growling. They looked behind them to see numerous dark figures with green eyes emerging from the deep recesses of the forest. The two backed up from the trees before giving each other a nervous expression of agreement and running away from the tree line. “What’s going on?” Pinkie asked in a nervous tone as she watched her friends running up to her. After catching his breath for a moment, Tom started to speak up when he was interrupted by the sound of Dust Kicker laughing sinisterly. “You guys might want to start running. I just gave every undead animal in this forest a command to hunt you down and kill you.” The hooded pegasus said with a joyful snicker while handing the book off to his two underlings. Sure enough, as the group looked around them, they could see several zombified animals stalking out of the woods. They appeared to be much more focused and vicious than before as they snarled and leered at the ponies with their lifeless green eyes. “Uh… girls, I think it’s time for us to go.” Tom stated nervously while watching the animals slowly advance on them. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shared the human’s desire to run, but there was something missing that prevented them from bolting. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked with a sense of dread as she looked around for her cyan friend only to be greeted with more zombies in the distance around her. Before the group could think of where the cyan pegasus would be, they noticed her quickly running towards them. “Come on guys what are you waiting for?!” Rainbow Dash said urgently while rushing past the group and into the woods. The three looked at each other with confused expressions for a second before noticing the disturbing moaning around them and running into the forest after their friend. Dust Kicker watched the animals run after the group and disappear into the woods. He chuckled warmly to himself before sighing happily and catching his breath. He then looked over to his two colleagues with a pleased smirk. “Alright you two, let’s pack up and take our findings back h-” The pegasus paused mid-sentence as he noticed something, or rather the lack of something, amid the two ponies. “Where’s the book?” Dust Kicker asked in an annoyed tone. The two ponies looked beside them to the table where they had placed the book. There was no sign of the tome amid the odds and ends placed on the small table. “What the…? Where’d it go?” The unicorn asked in confusion. The surprise in his voice made Dust Kicker clench his teeth angrily. “I gave it to you, what the hell did you do with it?!” The blue pony asked angrily to his earth pony friend. The teal pony looked shocked from the accusation against him. “I put it on the table like you asked! What did you do with it?!” The other stallion asked defensively while shoving the unicorn. The two ponies started yelling at each other while pushing and shoving violently. Dust Kicker watched the pair argue with progressively increasing annoyance. The pegasus growled under his breath at the display of stupidity. He could almost feel the veins popping out of his neck as he strained his muscles in anger. The brown pony finally sighed while slapping his hoof to his face in defeat. “I’m surrounded by idiots…” Dust Kicker stated while shaking his head slowly. He then turned around and walked away to leave the camp. He could send someone else to deal with the frustration of corralling those two simpletons into being productive and packing up the camp once he got back to the mansion. “Hehe… suckers.” Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself as she clutched the book to her chest while running. She almost couldn’t believe that they just left it out in the open for her to take. It was like taking candy from a bunch of babies. “What do you got there?” Tom asked in between pants as he ran a little faster to catch up with the pegasus. Rainbow Dash shifted her head to look at the boy briefly before returning her attention to the many trees the group was zipping by. “I managed to get this bad boy away from them. I thought it might come in handy.” The pegasus said while waving the book to show it off to her friends. Tom was impressed by the cyan pony’s quick wit. “Good thinking, we might be able to use that to stop these things once and for all.” The human said while ducking around a tree. “You really think so?” Fluttershy asked while trying her hardest to keep up with the others. The last thing she wanted was to be left behind. “Well they used the book to make these things, and they used it to give them commands, so I’m hoping that there is a way to kill them in there too.” The boy replied back to the concerned pegasus. The howling and groaning coming from the woods around them was terrifying to the ponies. Just knowing that there was an army of walking corpses coming after them from all around the forest made them dart their heads around fearfully. Suddenly, the sight of a pair of zombified wolves in front of them made the group slide to a halt. As the two animals rushed forward to attack the group, they instinctively ran to the side. Unfortunately for them, they each chose different paths. Fluttershy looked behind her to check to see if she was still being chased. The yellow mare was shocked to see one of the wolves chasing her, but she was even more shocked to see only Rainbow Dash following her. “Where are the others?” The nervous mare asked her cyan friend with a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash looked around before cursing under her breath at the realization that they were alone. “I don’t know, just keep running!” The cyan pony instructed in a panicked tone while looking at the zombie wolf chasing them. Fluttershy didn’t exactly need any confirmation in order to keep running for her life. The sound of the undead creature howling and growling behind her was enough to keep the yellow pegasus motivated. After making a few twists and turns to try and lose the beast chasing them, the two ponies quickly realized that their pursuer was too persistent to stop his pursuit. Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash fearfully to see if she had any ideas. The worried expression on the cyan mare’s face was very troubling to the timid pony. “What do we do? I can’t keep running for much longer.” Fluttershy said while struggling to catch her breath. It was hard to hear amid the yellow mare’s pants and strained voice, but Rainbow Dash could tell that her voice was trembling in fear. “I don’t know…” Rainbow stated while taking note of her own exhaustion. Suddenly, something ahead caught the cyan pony’s attention. There was a wide gap in the ground, as if a fissure had opened a pit in the earth. Looking at the size of the hole gave the pegasus an idea. “Fluttershy, jump!” Rainbow Dash instructed to her friend as they were coming up to the hole. The yellow mare looked ahead just in time to process the situation and take action. Both ponies leapt into the air and spread their wings. They each gave a single flap to get enough air to clear the hole. Fluttershy held onto Angel tightly to prevent him from sliding out of her grasp as she shifted her weight upwards. After landing on the other side, the two looked behind them just in time to see the undead animal plummeting into the hole after a failed attempt at jumping the gap. It hit the bottom with a sickening thud, eliciting the ponies to peer over the edge to inspect the animal. The wolf was lying at the bottom of the hole with its legs bent at odd angles. The ponies would have thought it was dead had it not been for the gradual movement of its body as it tried to get up. “Come on, we don’t want to be here when that thing climbs out.” Rainbow Dash spoke up to get her friend’s attention while walking away from the pit. Fluttershy gave a cursory glance to the fallen creature before following the cyan pony. Although they weren’t out of the woods in any sense, metaphorically or literally, the ponies felt a sense of relief from their close escape from the undead wolf. They chuckled to themselves as they came down from their adrenaline high. “That was pretty cool don’t you think? We almost did that perfectly in sync.” Rainbow Dash smirked happily at their escape from the creature. Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel joyful as well considering how satisfying it was to evade the zombie. “Yeah, I’m glad you thought of that before we hit that hole. I don’t think I would’ve been able to think of flying over it in the heat of the moment.” The yellow mare chuckled nervously as she thought of what might have happened. “Don’t be so hard on yourself Fluttershy. You did an amazing job back there.” The cyan pegasus praised her friend. Fluttershy looked down and blushed bashfully. She didn’t expect to be given such praise from doing something like that. “Now we just need to find the others so Tom can read this book and stop these things.” Rainbow Dash said while looking at the book she tightly held. “I hope they’re alright…” Fluttershy spoke in a worried tone while thinking about her friends in danger. Rainbow Dash frowned as she thought about what could have happened to the two after they were separated. “I’m sure they will be fine. Tom wouldn’t let anything happen to Pinkie after all.” The cyan pegasus said in an attempt at cheering the timid pony up. Fluttershy felt a little bit better knowing that the pink mare was with the human. Suddenly, a blood curdling scream pierced through the forest. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy paled when they recognized the owner of the high pitched scream. “Pinkie!” They announced in unison with their eyes wide with fear.
Chapter 39: Mind the GapFluttershy and Rainbow Dash ran in the direction of their friend’s scream, or at least they hoped that it was the right direction. It was hard to pinpoint the noise considering that the trees of the forest seemed to meld together into a never ending maze. Despite the danger of getting further lost in the forest, the two ponies had to come to the aid of their pink friend. After all, they had no idea what could have happened to her. Pinkie could have been separated from Tom, or she could have found more of those creatures. The horrific thoughts of what could be happening to their friend sent a rush of urgency and alarm through the pair. “I think it came from over here.” Rainbow Dash announced behind her to give the yellow mare an update. Fluttershy was unsure of where the noise came from, but she hoped that between her and the cyan pony, they could find their pink friend. “What do you think happened?” Fluttershy asked with a growing sense of unease. She hoped that Rainbow Dash’s opinion would somehow calm her down and reassure her. The cyan pony turned her head around and frowned with concern. “I don’t know… but I hope they’re alright.” Rainbow said with a grim tone. Fluttershy hadn’t thought about it much, but if Pinkie was with Tom, then there must have been something bad that happened to elicit such an outburst. Before the pair could dwell on their thoughts any further, they burst out of the trees and into another clearing. On the far side of the clearing, a large pit similar to the one they had used to escape the wolf moments before was opened up into the ground. The pit seemed to be more like a trench however, as it stretched out for the length of the clearing. Hearing muffled noises from the chasm, the two mares rushed forward to the edge of the pit and looked down. Much to their surprise and shock, they could see their two friends hanging off of a root sticking out of the earthen wall of the trench. Tom was clinging to the root with one hand, while he used the other to hold on to a very frightened Pinkie Pie. “Guys, what happened?!” Rainbow Dash yelled down frantically to the pair dangling from the root. Tom looked up to see the two ponies looking down at him fearfully. “We were running from that wolf, when we suddenly came out into this clearing. We didn’t see this hole and fell in.” The human explained in a semi calm tone while struggling to keep a hold of the pink pony. “Don’t worry! We’ll get you out of there in no time.” The cyan pegasus said with a shaky voice. She tried to sound confident for her friends, but the sight of Pinkie Pie and Tom hanging precariously on the precipice of such a large pit made her blood run cold. The pit had no visible bottom, instead having a shroud of pitch blackness that descended down as far as the eye could see. Everyone swiftly realized that a fall from such a height would be fatal to a normal living creature. While Tom would certainly survive the plummet, Pinkie certainly wouldn’t. “We need to get them out somehow.” Fluttershy stated urgently while nervously watching the root bend and strain under the weight of the pair. Rainbow Dash looked around for a moment to survey the situation before coming up with a plan. “I know… back up, I’m going in.” The cyan mare said while rearing up to fly down after the two. Fluttershy was nervous about her friend going down into the pit. It looked like there was barely enough room for a pegasus to fly in the chasm, but she also knew that Rainbow Dash was the best flyer she had ever met. Just before the cyan pony jumped into the pit, a loud snarling sound came from behind the group. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned around only to be greeted with the sight of a vicious looking undead pack of animals staring them down. There were three zombified wolves growling and snarling at the two ponies as they walked forward slowly. The vicious instinct to kill was clearly evident, even in their emotionless glowing green eyes that concealed their pupils. “What’s going on up there?” Tom yelled from down in the pit. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t want to break eye contact with the undead animals leering at them. “That wolf you were running from is back… and he has friends.” Rainbow Dash yelled nervously while facing forward. Tom suddenly felt very uneasy knowing that his friends were in danger with him in such a precarious position. “You two run, I can get us out of here myself.” The human instructed in a serious tone of voice while sizing up the climb he would have to make in order to escape the pit. “We’re not leaving you here with these things. They’ll attack you once you get out!” The cyan pegasus reasoned anxiously. Even if they did run, one or more of the wolves or another zombie animal might attack them before they had a chance to react and send them hurdling backwards into the trench. “Fluttershy, stay here and watch them.” Rainbow Dash said while setting the book she was carrying down and stepping forward anxiously. Fluttershy was confused by her friend’s words. She couldn’t imagine why she would want to get closer to the vicious beasts. “What are you doing?” The yellow mare asked nervously as the cyan pony gulped nervously. Rainbow Dash turned around to give her timid friend one last look of confidence. “I’m buying them some time.” The cyan mare said before turning around and rushing forward. Fluttershy reached out to stop the pegasus, but she was already making a beeline for the undead pack of animals. “Ugh… just try not to die alright!” Tom yelled back nervously before returning his attention to the frightened pony dangling from his grip. Pinkie Pie was understandably panicked considering her current situation. “Pinkie… listen up.” The boy spoke down to the pony to get her attention. Pinkie looked up nervously and tried her best to focus on the human rather than the perilous drop beneath her. “Everything is going to be okay. I’m going to toss you up here so you can grab onto me, then I’m going to climb out of here… but I need you to stay calm for me alright?” Tom spoke softly to the fearful mare. Pinkie nodded slowly while gulping nervously at the mention of being tossed out of the boy’s grip. “On three I’m going to throw you up, and you’re going to wrap your arms around my neck. I don’t want you to worry about hurting me. You just wrap your arms around me and hold on as tight as you can alright?” Tom instructed carefully and waited for Pinkie to nod in return. The nervous pony thought about the action for a moment before nodding apprehensively and preparing herself. “One…” The boy counted up while swinging Pinkie to gain momentum. “Two…” Pinkie cringed nervously as she anticipated the sensation of being thrown upwards. Her mind was filled with images of herself falling into the dark abyss below. “Three!” Tom yelled while pulling his arm upwards as hard as he could. He released the pink pony and flung her slightly above him. Pinkie yelped in surprise before quickly wrapping her arms around the human’s shoulders and interlocking them to hold on tightly. The nervous mare closed her eyes and yelped in fright as she felt herself fall down only to be caught by Tom holding onto the root. The flimsy appendage bent from the sudden jolt to its structure. Pinkie screamed as she heard a loud snap that signified the branch breaking. Just before the pair fell, Tom summoned his claws and pressed the metal blades into the earthen wall as hard as he could. The dirt offered just enough give to allow the claws to anchor into the wall like a makeshift climbing axe. Pinkie noticed that the she was stationary instead of falling. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around nervously, only to find Tom smirking at her with a relieved expression. The boy chuckled nervously, coaxing the pink mare to laugh softly alongside him. The laughing slowly escalated and grew in strength. Soon enough the pair were sharing a hearty and slightly hysterical laugh at their death defying act. “See? I said everything would be ok didn’t I?” Tom said happily while removing one of his claws and raising his arm up to climb. Pinkie was impressed by the slayer’s strength as he used his upper body to pull himself up the cliff with her in tow. Meanwhile, as the human and the pink pony were fighting to climb out of the trench, Rainbow Dash was fighting to stay ahead of the three animals trying to maul her to death. Fluttershy watched anxiously as the cyan mare swiftly dodged the incoming attacks of the undead pack. Even though she was able to fly due to the lack of trees, the bold pegasus still had to stay close to the ground to grab the monsters’ attention away from her friends. “Come on slowpokes, I’m right here!” Rainbow Dash yelled while pulling her legs in to avoid one of the leaping wolves latching onto her. The pegasus was surprised that she felt so confident in facing the hideous animals. Unbeknownst to the cyan mare whipping around back and forth to dodge two of the zombified wolves, the third wolf had decided to locate another means of getting at the annoying pegasus. The animal walked over to a raised hill and backed up. It waited while watching the flying pony for a chance at bringing her down. As Rainbow Dash was looping around to avoid running into the trees, she noticed that only two of the animals were chasing after her. She whipped her head over in a slight panic to see if the third beast was after her friend watching from the side. Failing to see the wolf heading after Fluttershy, the cyan mare was very confused. “Where the hay did that third one go?” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself while looking around. As if on cue to answer her question, she heard a distinct third snarl that was in front of her rather than behind her. The cyan pony looked ahead of her just in time to see the third wolf jumping for her with its jaw wide open. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash yelped in pain as the wolf clamped down on her leg while she tried to pull up. The sudden weight of the animal jerked her frame downwards just enough to send her crashing down to the floor. The cyan pony bounced from the impact, sending the wolf’s teeth even further into her already bleeding leg. Fluttershy gasped in shock as she watched her friend getting pulled out of the sky. The two rolled on the ground until the wolf was on top of the injured mare. The feral creature let go of Rainbow Dash’s leg, only to go straight for her neck. The cyan pegasus quickly shoved her hooves at the beast, catching it on the shoulders and pushing it as hard as she could in a desperate attempt at keeping it from getting close enough to bite. The two other wolves stalked towards the struggling pair slowly with their green eyes focused on their prey. Fluttershy watched the two animals approach her friend with a growing sense of fear and terror. She knew that the cyan pony would be ripped to shreds if she was attacked by all three wolves. “Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy cried out in a panic as she expected to see the two wolves pounce on her friend. Much to her surprise, the two wolves turned their heads to face her direction. The yellow mare’s pupils shrank to pin points as the monsters started walking towards her. Rainbow Dash grunted from the stress on her muscles as she pushed with all of her might to keep the wolf off of her. She slowly turned her head to peer off to the side to look at her frightened friend. Noticing the two wolves walking in her direction, the cyan mare gasped in shock. “Fluttershy! Ack… Run!” Rainbow Dash yelled out as loudly as she could with the weight of the wolf crushing her chest. Fluttershy looked past the two animals approaching her to see her friend giving her an expression that told her to save herself. “I can’t just leave you here, you’ll die!” The yellow pony yelled back while taking a cursory glance to the woods and the air above the clearing. It would be easy enough to either run or fly away to safety without getting caught by the two wolves, but she couldn’t just leave her friend to die. Rainbow Dash could feel the icy cold and foul breath of the undead creature as it inched closer to her throat with its snapping jaw. She knew that her arms couldn’t hold out for much longer, and that she would most likely die, but she didn’t want the timid pegasus to risk her life to save her. “Just go! I’ll be fine!” The cyan mare screamed to her friend while staring at her pleadingly. She could tell that Fluttershy knew that she was lying through her teeth. Fluttershy looked back to the cliff behind her anxiously. She knew that Tom wouldn’t be able to climb up in time to save Rainbow Dash. She then looked to the two vicious animals growling at her while standing in her way. She also knew that the two monsters would doubtlessly attack her if she made any attempt at rescuing her friend. The thought of being mauled by the beasts terrified her so much that she was shaking uncontrollably. When she saved Twilight from that monster in the school, Fluttershy acted on instinct alone. Her friend was in danger, and she just had to move her to rescue her. But here, she had to deal with getting past two horrible looking zombie wolves that could rip her apart in an instant. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash yelled defiantly as she watched the yellow mare gathering the courage to charge forward. Fluttershy could tell that her friend didn’t want her to endanger herself for her sake, but the yellow pegasus didn’t care. Fluttershy looked down to the ground for a moment and gulped nervously. She did her best to block out the vicious growling and snarling of the monsters in front of her, and focused instead on the thought of every moment she had shared with the cyan mare, and saving her life. Setting Angel down on the ground gently, she turned her attention in front of her. The shy pony spread her wings nervously. Her entire frame was still shaking in defiance of her actions, but she had to act now or regret her failures for the rest of her life. Fluttershy jumped forward and flapped her wings hard to gain as much lift as possible. She picked up speed as she sailed past the two wolves snapping at her dangling legs. As she approached her struggling friend, she swiftly flew to the side and started diving towards the pair with fearful determination. Fluttershy closed her eyes nervously as she spun around and kicked her back legs as hard as she could. She felt the bottom of her hooves collide with the mangy and decayed fur of the wolf and heard the sickening crunch of ribs cracking as the force of the impact took effect. The wolf flew off of the injured pegasus and sailed through the air until it hit the ground and bounced a few times while rolling. The animal came to rest several feet away and lay motionless on the ground as its undead body reacted to being jolted so much. Fluttershy opened her eyes as she felt herself touching the ground. She looked around to see Rainbow Dash staring in awe at the wolf as it lay on the floor. The cyan mare then turned her head to look at her yellow friend with her jaw agape in amazement. “You… you actually did it!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed joyfully while lifting herself up a little bit to give the pegasus a cheer of congratulations. Fluttershy accepted the brief gesture before noticing the growling sound in front of them. The pair lifted their heads to see the other two wolves snarling at them a short distance away. “Well… I got one of them at least.” Fluttershy stated nervously before looking over to the unconscious wolf. Much to the yellow mare’s dismay, the animal was already getting up and leering at the two with its lifeless eyes. Rainbow Dash rolled her body to get up from the floor. She cried out in pain and staggered to the ground as she put weight on her front leg. Fluttershy gasped as she saw the extent of the injury. A well-defined row of bite marks was on both sides of the limb. The deep gashes appeared to have been ripped downward as the flesh and muscle was practically shredded from the dead weight of the wolf hanging off of the leg while in the air. “I can’t walk on this, and I think I sprained my wing.” The cyan pegasus said grimly while noting the pain in her left wing as she tried to move it. She then looked to her friend sadly as the three animals circled around them. “Fluttershy… you need to run.” Rainbow Dash instructed pleadingly to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy shook her head defiantly before looking at the surrounding wolves. “I’m not leaving you for anything… even if I have to die with you.” The yellow mare spoke sincerely with tears rolling down her face. Rainbow Dash sniffled slightly as she felt a wave of sadness wash over her. The grim finality of the situation was finally getting to the two. “I thought I was supposed to represent loyalty…” Rainbow Dash said jokingly with a bittersweet smile on her face. The cyan mare reached forward and wrapped her arms around her lifelong friend for one last loving hug. Fluttershy gladly accepted the gesture and held her friend closely. The pair closed their eyes and waited for the end. The two listened as the snarling and growling got louder as the wolves approached them. They squeezed each other tighter as they prepared for the pain that would result from being mauled to death by a pack of wolves. The pair had tears of sadness flowing freely down their face as they resolved to face their demise together. Suddenly, the unnerving sound of the three beasts growling stopped. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy opened their eyes and looked around curiously to see why the wolves had grown silent. They noticed the three zombies were frozen in place as their gaze was blank and unfocused. Their bodies started shaking and convulsing randomly as they stood in silence. Much to the surprise of the confused ponies, the animals’ eyes blinked out as the green glow vanished from view. The three wolves dropped to the ground in unison as their bodies became limp and motionless. The two ponies looked at the three animals around them with shocked expressions, half expecting them to get back up again. “Wh…what?” Fluttershy squeaked out in a mixture of confusion and slight relief. She could still feel the utter sense of terror that was enveloping her and her friend, but she was starting to feel a sense of joy welling up inside her. The two ponies looked at each other in disbelief for a moment before looking forward to see the cause of their salvation. They noticed the faint shapes of Tom and Pinkie Pie standing at the edge of the cliff. The human appeared to be holding something in his hands. Rainbow Dash suddenly realized that she left the book on the ground near the cliff when she ran forward to distract the wolves. “We’re alive!” The cyan mare cheered in elation as she shook the shocked pegasus beside her happily. The two shared a celebratory series of hugs and cheers as they each dealt with the mixture of emotions flowing through them. Pinkie Pie and Tom watched the two celebrating happily. They couldn’t show it due to their shocked nerves and exhaustion respectively, but they felt just as happy as the two ponies that they stopped the zombie animals. Tom closed the book of spells and placed it at his side while trying to catch his breath from the climb. He was thankful to have found the incantation to reverse the revival spell, and he was thankful to have had the lung power to recite the spell. “Wow… they look excited.” The boy stated while observing the two joyful ponies on the other side of the clearing. “I would be too if I thought I was going to die for sure and then someone saved me... kind of like what just happened.” Pinkie giggled happily as she watched her two friends celebrate. Tom took in a big breath before turning to the pink mare and smiling. “You know… you’re a lot heavier than you look.” The human said jokingly while still catching his breath from the climb. Pinkie Pie chuckled before smiling at the boy next to her. “And you’re a lot stronger than you look.” The pink pony replied before getting up to walk over to the others. Tom smiled at the response while gathering the strength to walk forward. “Heh, thanks I… wait a minute, what’s that supposed to mean?” The human said with a suspicious leer to the pink pony. Pinkie chuckled while ignoring the question and walking forward. As the two approached them, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash smiled eagerly at their friends. Fluttershy helped the injured pegasus to her feet and shouldered her weight to help her walk forward to meet the two. Tom and Pinkie Pie were shocked to see that the cyan mare was wounded so severely. “Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash… your leg.” Pinkie gasped while looking at the gruesome injury. Rainbow Dash winced in pain as she felt the sting of the cool night air hitting her exposed flesh and muscles. She frowned as she watched blood trickle out of the gashes on her leg. “Oww… this hurts so much.” Rainbow Dash whined while cradling her leg close to her chest. She tried to move her injured wing before feeling a wave of shooting pain course through the appendage and the entire side it was attached to. Seeing their friend in pain made Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie feel awful. They felt a deep sense of empathy as they watched the cyan pony clench her teeth to cope with the mind numbing suffering she must have been going through. “Ugh… I’m not going to turn into one of them am I?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while glancing over to the three dead animals. “Don’t worry. I don’t think these are that kind of zombie.” Tom stated with a confident tone. “It still looks like it might get infected… just not in the sense you’re thinking of.” Pinkie Pie said in a concerned tone while looking at the gruesome wound with a frown. “Here, let me fix you up.” The human suggested while kneeling down to get a better look at the injury. Rainbow Dash watched the human with an unimposing frown. She could clearly see that he was exhausted from the climb out of the hole and all the fighting he had done. “Are you sure Tom? You look awfully tired…” Rainbow said while pointing out the boy’s pale appearance. Tom felt good knowing that the cyan mare cared for his health, but he wasn’t about to let her suffer like this when he could help her. “I don’t think my exhaustion is more important than a torn up leg. Just hold still and let me do my job.” Tom instructed while holding his hands out and concentrating. The familiar blue light emanated from the human’s hands and enveloped the injured pony in its warm glow. Rainbow Dash felt a large tingling sensation as her wound started closing up. She even felt her wing tingling slightly as the healing effects traveled through her body into the other injuries she had. The violent tingling sensation on her leg was almost unbearable due to the size of the wound. The pegasus giggled as she struggled to keep her leg still with the pins and needles sensation flowing through it. After the light died down, the ponies marveled at the freshly healed limb. Rainbow Dash moved the leg around and put weight on it to test it out. The cyan mare unfolded her wing and flapped it a few times as she tested it for any pain. “Wow, thanks Tom. I feel good as new… Tom?” Rainbow Dash’s smile faded as she noticed the human staring forward blankly. The boy’s face appeared pale and clammy, and his legs were trembling slightly. Just before the ponies could ask him if he was alright, the human fell forward and caught himself with his hands just before he hit the ground. “Tom! Are you ok?!” Fluttershy asked frantically while hovering near the boy to offer him some sort of assistance. Tom breathed heavily while keeping his eyes closed and remaining as still as possible. His entire body was shaking as he struggled to hold himself upright. “What’s wrong with him?!” Rainbow Dash asked fearfully as she watched the ill human. She was worried that he became like this due to him over exerting himself by healing her injuries. Before the ponies could think of something to do, the slayer slowly lifted himself up and staggered slightly as he tried to stay balanced. “I… I’m fine…” Tom muttered with unfocused eyes as he hunched over and stared at the ground. Rainbow Dash helped to steady the human as he weakly wobbled around. “You don’t look fine.” The cyan pegasus observed sadly while watching the pale human. Although he looked slightly better, the ponies were still concerned for his wellbeing. “No… really, I’m fine. I just felt a little dizzy for a second there… sorry to worry you like that.” Tom said in an attempt at easing his friends’ fears. He stepped away from the cyan pony helping him to show that he could stand on his own. The slight wobble in the boy’s legs made the group frown in concern. “Sorry to worry us? You shouldn’t be apologizing for nearly passing out.” Rainbow Dash said sadly while offering an empathetic expression. “Let’s get you home so you can get some rest.” The cyan pegasus added. Everyone shared in her desire to leave the forest. “How are we going to get back home? We have been running for so long, I’m not even sure what direction we’re facing.” Fluttershy said with a worried expression as she looked at the woods around her nervously. Even though all the zombies were gone, the prospect of being lost in the dark forest made the ponies very concerned. Rainbow Dash looked up at the moon above them. The clearing in the trees gave her an idea on how to find their way back home. “Hold on… you guys stay here, I’m going to fly up and take a look around.” Rainbow said while backing up to get some room. The group watched as the cyan pony spread her wings and leapt into the air above them. She flew straight up before disappearing from sight shortly after. The feeling of rising up and out of the cramped and eerie forest felt refreshing to Rainbow Dash. She took a moment to enjoy the cool sensation of wind hitting her face as she flew up to gain a bird’s eye view of the surrounding area. Spinning around in midair to quickly scan the area yielded nothing more than an eyeful of nothing but trees. The cyan pegasus huffed in frustration at the apparent lack of progress in her search. Just before she gave up hope, something caught her eye. “Hmm…” Rainbow hummed with intrigue while floating forward slightly. A blurry thinning of trees was in the distance. The sight of the clearing filled the cyan mare’s heart with joy. That had to be the edge of the forest. “Yes!” Rainbow Dash pumped her arm in the air in excitement while grinning at her discovery. She looked down to the forest below and flapped her wings to start her descent. In a brief moment, the cyan pony landed next to her eagerly waiting friends. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy stood near Tom as they watched the pegasus land. Rainbow Dash was happy to see that the human appeared to be healthier than before. Only a slight paleness was left on his face as an indicator of his brief ailment. “See anything up there?” Tom asked curiously with a slightly uncomfortable tone of voice. Everyone could tell that he was eager to get back home, and they all shared his opinion. “Yeah, I think I saw the edge of the forest.” Rainbow Dash relayed her information with a satisfied smile while stepping towards the woods and pointing in the direction she had seen the clearing. “If we keep walking this way, we should be back in no time.” The cyan mare added happily while turning to her group of friends. Everyone smiled at the realization that they would soon be returning to the warmth and comfort of Fluttershy’s cottage. “Hear that Angel? We’re going home!” Fluttershy announced to the rabbit she held in her arms. She grew slightly concerned when she noticed that the rabbit was still acting strange from before. She found it odd that she had to go retrieve the animal from over by the cliff where she left him, but she figured that he would have snapped out of it by now. “Angel? Are you ok?” The yellow pony asked with a concerned frown as she observed the rabbit’s blank stare and lack of emotion. Before she could work herself into any more of a worry, Tom spoke up to ease her concerns. “He’ll be fine… those two ponies back at the camp said that the charm he’s under will wear off by morning. If it doesn’t, it should be easy enough to reverse.” Tom stated in a reassuring tone. The boy’s confidence in the matter eased Fluttershy’s concerns for her pet. “That reminds me… shouldn’t we head back there and do something about them?” Rainbow Dash suggested while fretting about the hooded ponies and their nefarious actions. Tom shook his head in a tired sort of way in response. “No… they are probably gone by now anyway. We have their book and we freed the animals, everything should be fine for now.” The human explained with a sense of relief at a job well done, however the ponies still felt a sense of uneasiness as they thought about the purpose of the horrible experiments that the ponies conducted on the animals. “Why do you think they did all of this anyway? I can’t think of any reason why hurting animals like this would be useful to anybody.” Fluttershy said while sadly glancing over to the three dead wolves. Although wolves were vicious animals when they weren’t zombified, the yellow mare still felt sorry for them and all the other innocent creatures that had died to become zombies. “I don’t know, but hopefully we can stop them before they finish whatever they’re doing.” Tom replied with a somber expression while putting a hand on the shy pony’s shoulder reassuringly. “For now, let’s just head home. Running for my life and fighting off zombie animals has definitely worn me out for the night.” Rainbow Dash stated while walking towards the woods. Everyone nodded in agreement before joining her as she made her way through the trees. The walk through the woods seemed far less ominous and creepy now that the group knew that there weren’t any undead creatures lurking behind every tree. The eerie darkness and ambiance of the forest still spooked the three ponies, but they could look past their bleak surroundings to enjoy the peaceful and serene silence of nature as they walked. The group let out a collective yawn as they tiredly shambled forward. The only thing keeping them going was the strong desire to not sleep in the forest, and to get back to a warm and safe home. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were practically leaning on each other while walking forward, acting as a pair to prevent themselves from falling. Much to the relief of the exhausted group, a break in the trees revealed a familiar looking landscape that nearly everyone recognized. They only had to walk a short ways up the road to get to Fluttershy’s cottage. The change in scenery and the mentality of leaving the forest gave the ponies the boost they needed to complete their journey home. After a few moments of walking through the outskirts of Ponyville, they finally reached the yellow mare’s home. “Well, we’re here…” Fluttershy said in a dull tone while looking at Tom apprehensively. She knew that it would be better for him if she led him back to the library. While he could probably find his way back alone, she would feel better if she were there to watch him in his weakened condition. “How about I walk you home Tom? I’m sure Pinkie and Rainbow Dash want to head home as well.” The yellow pony tried not to sound negative about taking the human home. As much as she wanted to collapse into a restful coma, she still wanted to appear happy. “You know what? I think I’ll stay the night, if it’s alright with you of course.” Tom said with a content smile on his sleepy face. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay for her, or if he didn’t want to walk across town as badly as she did. “Really?” Fluttershy asked curiously. As the yellow pony asked her question, her two friends stepped forward and smiled warmly alongside the human. “I think I’m gonna stay too.” Rainbow Dash chimed in while trying to emote through her tired exterior. “Me too!” Pinkie Pie started to sound enthusiastic as normal, but her exhaustion caught up with her and her voice tapered off into a dull drone. Despite her blank tone of voice, she flashed a quick smile to express her joy at sleeping over with her friends. Fluttershy was flattered that everyone wanted to stay over with her. Whether they wanted to make sure she felt comfortable while she slept, or they just wanted to have the pleasure of sleeping over with friends, the yellow mare was happy either way. “Of course you all can stay… let’s head inside and get settled in.” Fluttershy smiled gleefully and beckoned for the others to follow her as she opened the door and went inside. Once they were inside, everyone found the nearest place to drop off the items they were carrying; a book for Rainbow Dash, and an entranced rabbit for Fluttershy. They then instinctively wandered over and sat down on either the couch or the chairs. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash barely made time to say goodnight as they climbed under their still made sheets on the couch and practically passed out immediately. Fluttershy chuckled at the sight while taking note of her own sleepiness and sinking into the comfortable chair across from Tom. She intended on staying for a moment and saying goodnight to everyone before going back to her room, but the yellow pegasus found herself staring ahead blankly as her eyes unfocused and her body relaxed. Tom watched as the peaceful mare fought to stay awake for a brief moment before drifting off completely into a deep sleep. The boy looked at his own sheet and pillow thoughtfully as he watched the three ponies breathe slowly and silently. Everyone else had something comfortable to sleep on, but the yellow pony only had a chair. He nodded to himself before grabbing the two items in both hands and walking over to Fluttershy’s chair. He gently placed the pillow behind her head, being surprised that he could move the unconscious pony like a limp puppet freshly cut from its strings. He then spread the blanket over her and covered her up, being careful not to wake the sleeping pegasus. Tom smiled as he watched Fluttershy instinctively grasp the blanket and re-positioned herself to be more comfortable against the pillow in a sleepy daze. He figured that she would need the blanket and pillow more than he would, considering that he needed less sleep to function. The human walked back over and sat down in the chair. He fidgeted around while trying to get comfortable before settling on a position that didn’t make him feel quite so cramped in the small chair. He wasted no time in closing his eyes and resting peacefully while waiting to fall asleep along with the others.
Chapter 40: The Investigative ApproachFluttershy slowly opened her eyes and let them adjust to the morning light streaming into the room. She laid still and observed her surroundings while she slowly woke up. Judging from the feeling of a chair beneath her, and the sight of her living room in front of her, the yellow pony deduced that she fell asleep and spent the whole night in her living room. Feeling something slide off her body as she sat up, Fluttershy looked down to see a warm blanket enveloping her. She also felt a soft pillow wedged between her head and the chair. Remembering that her two pony friends had fallen asleep on the couch before her, the yellow pegasus figured that Tom must have given her his blanket and pillow while she slept. Smiling at the kind act, Fluttershy removed the blanket from on top of her and got out of the chair to stretch and take in the day. She looked to her left to see that her two friends were still asleep on the couch, and she looked over to where she had placed Angel to see him curled up in a ball and sleeping peacefully. “Thank goodness you’re back to normal…” Fluttershy whispered to herself while thinking back to the rabbit’s dazed expression the night before. She was incredibly thankful that Tom had agreed to help her save him. “He fell asleep once morning rolled around.” Hearing the soft whisper of her human friend to the side made Fluttershy spin her head around to greet him. She smiled softly at the boy while he returned the gesture. “Morning…” The yellow mare greeted with serene cheerfulness. Tom nodded while getting up off of the floor where he had been sitting. “Morning… I see you slept well. No nightmares I take it?” The human asked with a playful smirk. Fluttershy thought back to the blurry dreams she had last night. A few feelings of happiness and perhaps a weird dream or two floated through her mind, but she couldn’t recall any nightmares to speak of. “Nope, slept like a rock.” Fluttershy replied happily. She was glad that her sleep wouldn’t be permanently plagued by horrible visions induced by the new terrors in her life. “Good to hear.” Tom added while taking a glance out of the window to observe the morning sun streaming down. “Thanks for giving me the blanket and pillow by the way.” Fluttershy said with a grateful and happy expression. Tom nodded as he remembered placing the blanket and pillow on the sleeping pony. “No problem… thought you might need it more than me.” The human said while returning the mare’s gesture and smiling cheerfully. Fluttershy was a little off put by the fact that she deprived the boy of his blanket, but he seemed unaffected by it, so she pushed the thoughts from her mind and turned her attention forward. “What time is it?” The yellow mare asked quizzically while glancing out of the window. The sun was already clearly visible in the sky, bathing the landscape in light. The human thought back to the last time he saw the sun’s position in the sky and shrugged. “Last time I looked it was almost ten… so I would wager it’s sometime around eleven now.” Tom said casually. Fluttershy was slightly shocked to hear that she slept in so much. She was normally up a long time before eleven. “Oh my gosh! We must have been more tired than I thought.” The yellow pony exclaimed in surprise while thinking about all of the things she had to do that day. She calmed down when she remembered that most of her weekly concerns had already been dealt with. A loud yawn made the two divert their attention to the side. They were greeted with the sight of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stretching as they woke up. Pinkie Pie got up from the couch immediately while Rainbow Dash opted to lay her head back down and rest for a moment longer. “Morning guys…” The cyan mare droned in a dull tone without lifting her head to look at the rest of the group. Pinkie giggled as she watched her sleepy friend closing her eyes and trying to drift back off to sleep. The pink mare walked back over to the couch, grabbed her own pillow, and gently but firmly slapped it onto the peaceful pegasus. Rainbow Dash jumped in surprise and looked around to find out what had hit her. She furrowed her eyebrows into a glare when she found the party pony smirking at her with pillow in hoof. “Come on Rainbow Dash… the early bird gets the worm.” Pinkie said with a cheerful giggle while grinning at her annoyed friend. “Yeah, but the well-rested bird gets the fish.” Rainbow Dash remarked sarcastically. She muttered to herself in an annoyed tone while getting off the couch and waking herself up further. Finally she returned her expression to a more content one while walking over to her other two friends. “So are you coming with us to the library Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked with a curious expression. The yellow mare nodded in response. She wanted to do anything she could to help her friends out. “Of course I’ll go. I want to help put a stop to all of this after all.” Fluttershy replied confidently. Rainbow Dash was pleased to hear that the yellow pegasus wanted to contribute. She smiled with the thought that nothing could keep them from their goal if they worked together. “I’ll come too, but first I need to head down to the corner to check on things. I’ll meet up with you guys later.” Pinkie said while walking to the door. The others waved to her as she walked out and started her way towards her home. “Alright then, let’s get going.” Rainbow Dash suggested while hovering near the door in anticipation. Fluttershy and Tom nodded before joining the cyan pegasus outside and walking off to the library. The journey through town didn’t take very long for the trio to make. The only thing that differentiated the trip for the ponies was the fact that they now had a human following them. As much as they had gotten to know Tom, seeing ponies stop to look at the human as they passed by reminded them of just how strange it was to be traveling with a member of an extinct race. “Don’t you feel weird with all of these people watching you Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked when she noticed the human ignoring the curious onlookers. The human casually looked behind him to face the concerned pegasus. “Eh… kind of I guess. I probably find looking at them to be just as strange as them looking at me. Still getting used to not being among my own people you know?” Tom replied with a slight sense of indifference. Rainbow Dash was glad to see that the boy was starting to feel comfortable around other ponies. “Well at least we seem to share a lot of human customs… that should make it easier for you to settle in.” The cyan pony pointed out with an optimistic smile. Tom raised his eyebrows as he realized just how similar the two societies were. “Yeah, it’s awfully convenient if you ask me. I mean we even speak the same language… could you imagine how things would go if we couldn’t understand each other?” The human asked with a slight chuckle. The two ponies laughed at the notion of such a thing happening. After a few more minutes of walking and general conversing, the three finally arrived at their destination. They looked inside the library to see that several lights were on. Apparently Twilight and Spike were already awake and active. “Looks like they’re already up, let’s head inside.” Rainbow Dash suggested while walking up to the door. She knocked a few times and waited eagerly for someone to come to the door and let them in. After a short wait, the group heard the sound of someone walking up to the door and pausing. The door swung open to reveal Twilight Sparkle standing inside. “Guys! It’s good to see you!” Twilight greeted the three with a welcoming smile. The purple unicorn grinned happily when she noticed how rested and chipper Fluttershy looked. “You look a lot better Fluttershy. I assume Tom got rid of whatever it was then?” Twilight asked with a sense of eager curiosity. The yellow mare could tell that she was dying to find out what happened. “Yeah, we got it sorted out. We should probably talk about it inside though… it’s kind of important.” Tom spoke up while holding out the book he acquired from last night. The purple unicorn looked at the book with a shocked expression, she wasn’t sure what happened last night, but she knew that it was important to the matters at hand. “Where did you get that…?” Twilight muttered out loud with a confused stare. “Alright, come right in.” She said while backing up and inviting the three to come in. After everyone made it inside, Twilight closed the door and walked with them into the living room while glancing at the book in deep thought. Her curiosity for what had happened last night only intensified as she wondered what secrets the tome held. Off to the side of the room, the group could see Spike talking with Rarity and Applejack casually. Upon seeing the three entering the room, they walked over with friendly smiles and greeted their friends with genuine cheerfulness. “Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Tom! It’s good to see you all.” Rarity said happily while looking between the three. “Fluttershy darling, you look much better. Did you sleep well last night?” She asked in a complimentary sort of tone. Fluttershy was flattered to hear that the white unicorn thought she looked healthy. “I slept much better thanks to Tom.” The yellow mare replied with a quick smile before turning her attention to Applejack, who was looking at her curiously. “So what was the problem? It must have been bad from what you said yesterday.” Applejack stated with burning curiosity. Everyone else turned their attention to Fluttershy with similar inquisitive expressions. Before the pegasus could elaborate on her experience, a sudden noise to their rear made the group turn their attention away. Everyone looked over to see that Tom had dropped the book on a table with slight force to get their attention. He looked at the group and sighed before preparing to explain what happened last night out in the forest. “Turns out the problem was caused by those hooded ponies again.” Tom said in a serious tone. He let his words settle in while the group gasped in surprise. The boy’s words hung in the air stiffly while everyone’s mind raced with various concerns. “We heard the same noises Fluttershy described sometime after midnight. We went outside and found a few animals that had glowing green eyes and cuts all over their bodies. Apparently the hooded ponies were killing animals out in the forest and using this book to resurrect them as mindless slaves.” Tom explained with a somber expression on his face. Everyone’s reaction ranged from disgust, to horror, to a mixture of the two as they imagined the horrific animals’ appearances. “Who would do such a terrible thing?” Twilight said in shock as she thought about the motives of the hooded group. Between the school, the hospital, trying to kill her and her friends out in the forest, and now this, the unicorn wasn’t sure of what the sadistic ponies were capable of, and that thought terrified her. “I don’t know… but I do know that we’re not just dealing with average ponies here.” Tom said with a dreadful tone and a heavily concerned expression on his face. The four people who weren’t with him out in the forest were troubled by the human’s anxiousness. “What do you mean?” Spike hesitantly voiced the group’s curiosity. He wasn’t sure if he would like the boy’s answer, but he needed to at least hear it. “We found all of this out because we had to chase Angel out into the woods. They must have used some sort of charm to gather animals to their camp… Anyway, after fighting through a few more undead animals, we found them out in a clearing in the forest. They had a camp set up and everything, so they were probably there for a while.” Tom continued explaining in a low tone as he filled the group in on the four’s experience last night. “Two ponies in hoods were taking animals from a pen and slaughtering them, only to bring them back to life as walking corpses moments later. They were about to do it to Angel, so naturally I stepped in. They were probably just underlings tasked with doing the job, because they flipped when they recognized me… yeah, apparently they know that I’m the one that’s been screwing with their plans.” The human smirked and chuckled slightly as he thought back to the look on the two ponies’ faces. “Makes sense that they would use workers to get things done. Ah would imagine that a set up like that would take a lot of labor.” Applejack commented while trying to make sense of the situation. Tom nodded before continuing. “After I backed them into a corner, they got nervous and called for their boss... a brown pegasus named Dust Kicker.” The human said with an apprehensive tone. “That’s great Tom, you know one of their names! Maybe we can have the princess see what she can find in the royal guards database on him?” Twilight suggested with an optimistic smile. Tom’s disconcerting expression made the unicorn confused and nervous. “What’s wrong…?” The purple mare asked while thinking back to the boy’s earlier statement. She wondered what he could have possibly meant when he said that they weren’t dealing with regular ponies. “This guy was one tough cookie. He didn’t even flinch when he saw me, not even when I threatened him. And to top that off, he knows how to use some kind of shadow magic. He summoned a darkling that shrugged off my holy light like it was nothing, and then he summoned a group of three of them that almost killed Fluttershy and the others… all of this with his bare hands… err, hooves.” The human corrected himself while maintaining his serious exterior. The description of the strange pony’s powers sent a collective chill down everyone’s spine. “This pegasus could summon those things from the woods? And they were stronger than the ones that attacked us?” Spike relayed the information that was given to him in a slight panic. He could practically see all of the damage that could be caused if that pony were to suddenly decide that he wanted everyone in town dead. Twilight put a hoof on the wide-eyed dragon’s shoulder to calm him down. After seeing the unicorn’s reassuring face, Spike made an effort to get his nerves under control long enough to breathe in a few deep breaths. “Don’t worry, Spike. We can beat these guys no problem.” Twilight said with a confident smile. The young drake was unsure of how the unicorn could be so calm and sure of their ability to prevail. “Really?” Spike asked timidly. The purple unicorn nodded with a sense of confidence and resolve that inspired the baby dragon into letting go of some of his fears. “Of course. Between Tom, the princesses, and Brimstoke and the others, those hooded ponies stand no chance against us.” Twilight said with an enthusiastic smile to instill confidence and bravery into the dragon and anyone else among the group that had fears or doubts. Spike looked over to see how the others were reacting. Nearly everyone was smiling as they thought about the strong desire they all had to protect their friends and family. Seeing his friends so confident pushed the last of Spike’s fears out of his head. He knew in his heart that the power of friendship and love would be able to overcome any evil. After all, Equestria had come under threat from many foes before that seemed far too powerful to defeat, and the power of the elements of harmony and their friendship had prevailed each time. Suddenly, a rapid succession of knocks at the front door interrupted everyone’s thoughts. The ponies wondered who the new arrival could have been. The only ones they were expecting were either Pinkie Pie or Brimstoke and the other members of Spirit. “I’ll get it.” Twilight spoke up while walking over to the door. Everyone walked forward slightly to see who was waiting outside. The unicorn opened the door and was surprised to be met with so many people at once. Brimstoke and his entire team of ponies were standing outside of the library. They were all looking at Twilight with a range of friendly expressions and courteous blank acknowledgements. The sight of two alicorns standing beside the group surprised the purple mare. “Princess Celestia, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously as she observed the white princess hover close to her sister. She smiled upon seeing her student once more. “Hello, Twilight. I’m giving a speech in the town square to let everyone know what’s going on. I figured I would come see how things are going with you and the others.” The alicorn explained with a cheerful expression. Twilight was glad to see Celestia was so animated in her movements and expressions. The last time the unicorn had seen her mentor, she was barely recovering from the attack in the caves. “How are you feeling princess? You look a lot less pale than you did…” Twilight pointed out with happiness and relief. Celestia chuckled as she took note of her recovery to health. “Thank you, I feel much better now. Although I still feel a little odd, but I’m sure that will pass.” Celestia stated cheerfully. The white alicorn’s usual regal, cheerful, and peaceful demeanor had returned with her health. Twilight was grateful that the attack hadn’t permanently harmed her mentor. “Good to hear. Please, come in and make yourselves at home.” The purple mare stepped aside and welcomed the large group into her home. Everyone piled into the living room and settled in. Brimstoke and the two alicorns stepped forward while the other members of Spirit stood in a line and waited to be useful. Upon noticing the large gathering of ponies, Rainbow Dash and the others got up and walked over to greet the team of ponies and the princesses. Celestia and Luna gave Spike and the element bearers a friendly greeting before settling their attention on Twilight and Tom. “I assume you know why we’re here?” Luna asked while looking back at the row of ponies waiting for a task. Twilight quickly scanned the group and found that Glitterball was levitating the books from last night in a neat pile beside her. “Find anything useful?” The purple mare asked the group with hopeful curiosity in her voice. Before any of them could answer, Brimstoke spoke up. “Well, we did manage to find out who the books belonged to.” The white stallion explained while looking around at the others. He could tell that they were watching him with baited breath to find out anything they could about the hooded ponies. “We found a rather prominent magic signature belonging to a unicorn by the name of Cotton Quill on all three books.” As Brimstoke relayed his information to the group, everyone seemed intrigued by the news, everyone except for Twilight that is. “Cotton Quill…? No way…” Twilight said with a shocked expression as she processed the name in her head. The name was familiar to the unicorn, but she never expected to hear it in such a context. Everyone seemed confused by the purple mare’s sudden surprise. “You know the guy?” Brimstoke asked curiously. The unicorn could feel everyone’s prying eyes on her as they waited to hear what she had to say. “Yes… well, kind of.” Twilight rolled her eyes as she tried to recall what she remembered about the unicorn. “He owns a book store in town… I’ve met him once or twice while browsing down there, but I would never think that he could be involved in something like this. He seemed like a nice enough guy from what I remember.” The purple pony sighed sadly as she thought of how easy it was for a person to hide their true intentions. She wondered who else could be in on the sinister group of ponies. Twilight noticed Glitterball stepping forward from the group. She slowly walked over to the table next to her and sat the books down before turning to face her. The white unicorn had a sympathetic frown on her face as she spoke up. “We also traced one of the books to a book store in town. Two of them weren’t in circulation at all, but the one about various exotic types of magic was definitely from around here. I think that this Cotton guy must be helping out the hooded ponies in some way.” Glitter shrugged and shook her head as she thought about the poor state of the ponies in Equestria. If a large group of ponies could become so corrupt, then what did that say for the rest of them? Suddenly, Glitterball drew her attention over to the other side of the table she was next to. She noticed another book similar to the ones found at the hospital. Walking over and examining the leather bound tome, she discovered that it held the same odd system of notes and symbols as the other three. “Where did you find this?” Glitter asked to nobody in particular. The white mare’s curious question drew everyone else’s gaze over to her and the book. As the others walked over to view the strange book, Tom remembered that he hadn’t explained it to them just yet. “Found that last night out in the Everfree Forest. Three of those hooded ponies were killing animals and resurrecting them as zombies with that book. And one of them had the ability to use shadow magic to summon darklings apparently at will. I caught his name too… it was Dust Kicker.” The human’s explanation surprised the hardened group of ponies. Even the two princesses gasped in shock as they imagined how horrible the vague story must have actually been. “Shadow Magic…? What is that?” Peppermint spoke up from the group to voice his curiosity. He had a hint of nervousness in his voice that told Tom and the others that the members of Spirit had never come across such a term. “It is what it sounds like… people using the power of shadows for their own devices. Some people can use it better than others, and some can only use it for one specific thing… like summoning shadow creatures out of the ground for instance.” The human explained with a dreadful tone of voice. Everyone could tell by the slayer’s nervousness that this was a serious matter. “That sounds horrible!” Rarity said with a horrified expression. “If one pony could do that… then what on earth are the others capable of?” She asked in a fearful tone. The white unicorn’s fear was making her break out into a cold sweat as she thought about what sort of danger they could be in by going up against such a group of ponies. The others shared in the unicorn’s fear and apprehension. Spike seemed like he was on the verge of a panic attack as he worried that his friends would be eaten alive by monsters that could be summoned by a single pony. Fluttershy already knew about the strange pegasus’s ability, but just thinking about it further made her nervously shiver. Even Twilight felt a knot forming in her stomach from thinking about the logical deduction that more than one of them had this terrifying ability. “Everyone calm down…” Celestia spoke up in a gentle yet firm tone to get everyone’s attention. The nervous ponies all turned to the white alicorn and grew completely silent as they waited for her to speak up again. “I know that you must be nervous about these… hooded ponies, but you need to remain calm. I have full confidence that Brimstoke and his team will be able to stop them, and that Tom will be able to help wherever needed.” Celestia said in a reassuring tone. She looked over to Brimstoke and Tom, who each nodded confidently in return. “You each have been in horrible situations that no pony should ever have to bear, and I am grateful that you all have come out of these situations unharmed.” The white alicorn said in a more somber manner. Celestia’s words made everyone think about their hardships in a different light. They had all survived insurmountable odds and come out on top, and that was something to be proud of. “Just remember… I’m asking you to help out with the investigation, not to help out with fighting these ponies. You all should be safe and sound from now on, and I intend on keeping it that way.” Celestia finished with a determined smile. Everyone felt better now that they had put everything into perspective for themselves. “Thank you princess… we won’t let you down.” Twilight said while looking between her friends. Everyone gave a confident nod to the unicorn, who smiled as she saw her band of troops feeling more inspired. “Now that we all know where things stand… we should get on to business.” Brimstoke spoke up while moving to the side so he could see everyone. “I think it goes without saying that we should check out the book store in town for Cotton Quill… any volunteers?” He asked while looking between the group. “I’ll go.” Tom raised his hand while stepping forward for the task. Luna stepped forward and interrupted the human. “Actually Tom, the mayor of Ponyville wants to see you today.” The blue alicorn said with an expression that told she was being serious. “Wow… really?” Tom asked to clarify, Luna simply nodded. Everyone was intrigued that the mayor would want to meet the human. “We told her about everything in advance so we could set up the speech in the square, and she asked to meet you and the leader of Spirit, so Brimstoke, Celestia and I will head down to town hall with you to meet her.” Luna explained while glancing over to the stallion. Tom was a little bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to help with the investigation, but he was honored to be able to meet so many influential figures in Equestria. “Alright then, I would be happy to oblige.” The human said with a pleased expression. Luna was happy to see that the boy agreed to the meeting. “Then it’s settled. Tom and I are not going to be available for any tasks until we get back, so are there any other volunteers?” Brimstoke asked again while looking to the group. “I’ll go.” Glimmer Shine stepped forward confidently. He was followed by Neon Streak, who had a cheerful smirk on her face that told she was eager to volunteer. “I’ll come too.” The green mare said happily while looking beside her to her partner. Much to the group’s surprise, Applejack stepped forward with a pleading expression on her face. “Can Ah come too? Ah want to help out with something.” The orange pony seemed sincere in her desire to assist the group. Brimstoke couldn’t fault the farm pony for wanting to help. “Alright Applejack, you and the others will go check out the book store. We also need someone to go check out the Ponyville cemetery. Earlier this morning we got reports of couple of ponies digging up a grave, and considering what happened out in the woods last night, I think someone should go take a look out there.” Brimstoke explained in a serious tone. Everyone was surprised to hear that some people were possibly steeling bodies. They wondered what else they could possibly be doing. “I’ll go, but I would like someone to come with me… any takers?” Sunspot asked while looking around at the others. “Sure, I’ll come…” Rainbow Dash volunteered eagerly. “Why don’t you come with us Fluttershy? It would give you something safe to do that doesn’t involve tons of research.” The cyan mare suggested while looking over to her friend. Fluttershy contemplated the offer for a moment. While she was a little nervous to head into a cemetery considering recent events, she was eager to help her friends out. “Alright… I’ll go with you.” The yellow pegasus said with a hesitant smile. Rainbow Dash was excited to hear that her friend would join her. “Hey, leave room for me.” Peppermint stepped forward to volunteer, when he was suddenly interrupted by Glitterball speaking up. “Not so fast Pepper, I need your help here. I’m going to try and tweak the strobes a little bit to improve their performance, so I could use you and Twilight to help me out.” The white unicorn explained while holding up her strobe for reference. “Really, you want my help?” Twilight asked in slight disbelief. She was flattered that the unicorn would ask for her assistance in something having to do with magic. Although she had learned magic under the princess, Twilight was still humbled when people thought she was an expert. “Yeah… you seemed to be able to handle yourself pretty well around advanced magic, so I figured that you could give me a hoof with this. Besides, tinkering with this kind of equipment will be a good experience for you… Rarity can help too if she wants.” Glitterball said while looking over to the purple haired unicorn. The white mare perked up when she heard the invitation to help. Although she was less experienced in magic, she was still eager to assist. “I would love to help darling.” Rarity graciously accepted the offer with a cheerful smile. Twilight nodded her head as she gladly accepted the offer as well. “Me too, I would be glad to help out.” The purple pony said with an eager expression. Glitterball was happy to see the two so willing to volunteer. “Why do you need me here though?” Peppermint asked curiously. The red haired pony seemed more confused than disappointed as to why he needed to stay at the library. Glitterball chuckled before turning to the white earth pony. “Because if we blow ourselves up, you’re the only one here that knows how to treat third degree burns.” Glitter said with a playful smile. Twilight and Rarity laughed with a slight hint of nervousness at the joke. They were unsure of whether or not the unicorn was serious. “Well… I suppose I’ll stick around. But if you’re going to be blowing things up, I’m staying way back.” Peppermint stated while chuckling happily. “Ditto…” Spike added while looking to the stallion understandingly. The dragon was fully prepared to run for his life if things started smoking. “Ok everyone, let’s get going. We have a lot to do today and tomorrow, so let’s try to get all of this out of the way as quick as possible.” Brimstoke spoke up to round off the conversation so everyone could leave for their tasks. Twilight and the others who were staying said their goodbyes to their friends as they all paired off into groups and left the library.
Chapter 41: Meetings and MisdeedsIt was a little past noon in the streets of Ponyville. Tom and his three companions walked towards their destination of town square with a dull air around them. The only ones willing to make small talk seemed to be the princesses, as Brimstoke was unsure of what to talk about casually, only answering questions or subjects given to him. Despite the odd silence of the group, Tom felt occupied in his own thoughts. It wasn’t every day that he got to meet the mayor of a town. After all, the boy was used to staying away from people in towns he would go to, only talking to others to get information on any stray monster or paranormal happening nearby. So even though he had already met the equivalent of this land’s rulers, the human was flattered and somewhat excited to be meeting the mayor of Ponyville. As the four walked down the mostly empty street, Tom began thinking of how little sense having a mayor in a monarchy made. Usually kingdoms that had princesses had lords and ladies, or even dukes and duchesses as their lower forms of governors. But having a mayor made the human incredibly confused as to how their hierarchy of power worked. “So let me get this straight… you are the princess, and yet you rule over most of Equestria as if you were queen?” Tom asked Celestia with a confused expression as he tried to wrap his mind around the strange form of government these ponies had. “Yes… I suppose so.” The white alicorn replied while furrowing her eyebrows at the boy. She thought nothing of her title and how it conflicted with the general definition of Princess at all before. Luna shared in her sister’s confusion as to where the issue was with their method of rule. “And to top that off… you also have mayors for your towns? “ The boy added to the confusing issue. Celestia simply nodded in reply, she still failed to see why the human was confused on the matter. “Is there a problem with that?” Brimstoke asked while raising an eyebrow curiously. Tom realized that his observations fell on deaf ears. The human sighed in defeat as he reminded himself not to discuss the strangeness of something to the intelligent talking ponies. “No… never mind, I guess it's just a human thing.” Tom said with a dull expression. The stallion shared a confused shrug with the princesses as they collectively pondered at what the human was on about. “So what’s the mayor’s name anyway?” Tom asked curiously in an attempt at changing the subject of the conversation to something less confusing for both parties. “Mare.” Luna said casually in reply. Tom was stunned by the simple response, he was unsure of whether or not he heard the alicorn correctly. “I’m sorry, could you say that again?” The human asked while squinting his eyes in confusion. He wanted to hear the name again to process it better. “Mare… you know, Mayor Mare.” Luna said as clearly as possible to clarify. She was still unaware of the mental breakdown she had just caused in the human. Tom had to use every fiber of his being to not bust out laughing like a spastic child. He stared blankly ahead with a face as dull and unexpressive as stone while laughing and repeating the name over and over in his head. He had heard ridiculous names and concepts every day since he arrived, but Mayor Mare was too much for the boy to handle. The ponies looked at the dumbfounded human curiously, being blissfully ignorant of the chaotic outbursts that he was keeping from them. “Tom… are you ok?” Celestia asked with mild concern as she watched the corners of the human’s mouth twitch upwards every once and a while. “Pfft… yeah… I’m fine.” Tom snorted as he opened his mouth to speak. He was struggling to fight the urge to at least smile, but he had to remain silent, or forever feel awkward whenever talking to the princesses. “Ok then…” Celestia said in a confused tone. The white alicorn raised an eyebrow at the strange behavior of the human. Deciding it best to leave the subject alone, the group walked in silence for a while. While Tom got all of the internal laughter out of his system, Celestia was left to her thoughts as they walked. She drew her attention to the previous attacks made by the hooded ponies, and how they could have turned out had things gone differently. She frowned as grim thoughts of what Twilight and the others must have gone through filled her mind. She had not been told all of the details from any of the element bearers, but she knew it must have been terrifying for all of them. “Hey Tom… What was it like back in the hospital?” Celestia asked to further elaborate on the events that transpired yesterday morning. The human was caught off guard by the sudden question. He thought about it for a moment before replying. “It was pretty dark and cold for the most part… why do you ask?” Tom’s somber answer did nothing to ease Celestia’s burdened mind. She sighed sadly as she decided to level with the group. “To be honest, I was thinking about what it was like for the girls to be in those situations. I know they’re tough in their own right, but what happened at the school and hospital must have been traumatizing for them.” Celestia said while looking down sadly. Luna frowned as she listened to her sister’s concerns. She knew that it must have been hard on the white alicorn to hear that such terrible things happened to her student and her closest friends. “They were more afraid in the hospital than in the school.” Tom spoke up with a sobering tone. “I mean, back in the school it wasn’t as bad once we figured out what the monster was like. It was just one thing, and all we had to do for the most part was stay away from water to avoid it. But it was a lot tenser in the hospital for sure. I was with Rainbow Dash for most of our time there, and it was pretty scary with just the two of us there, but I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for Twilight and the others. To wander around in the dark in the middle of a cold and spooky hospital, looking over your shoulder to check behind you every two seconds to make sure that corner you just passed didn’t have any horrifying monster waiting in it, eager to grab you when you aren’t paying attention and dragging you away to certain doom... it must have been pretty harsh for them.” The human’s explanation struck a chord in the two princesses. It affected Celestia the most however. Thinking about the purple unicorn alone and scared in some dark hallway surrounded by monsters made a lump form in the alicorn’s throat. The white alicorn swallowed her dreadful feelings down and regained her composure before speaking again. “I understand that two ponies lost their lives because of those monsters correct?” Celestia asked while trying not to reveal her sadness to the others. Luna read her sister like a book. She frowned sympathetically as she listened to the white alicorn making things worse on herself. “Yeah… Twilight was apparently down there with them. She blames herself you know… I just wish I could have done something myself.” Tom looked down and stared at the sidewalk as he reflected on the grim event. Celestia put a hoof on his shoulder, causing him to look up at her. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault Tom… least of all yours. Bad things happen to good people sometimes, but we just need to live with it and move on with what we have.” The white alicorn’s words made Tom think back to his past briefly. He nodded in agreement while applying Celestia’s advice to both situations. Before the group could dwell on their thoughts any further, they suddenly found themselves standing in the center of town. The circular area was surrounded by numerous houses and other buildings, making a border that lined the oddly circular square nearly perfectly, with only a river with two bridges crossing it on the other side to complete the border. Several colorful tents, statues, and other ornate buildings and decorations were scattered around the square. Most notably of which being a large statue of an earth pony sitting atop a pool of glistening water. The only thing able to take Tom’s gaze away from the many colorful sights was the town hall itself. The oddly circular building sat in the center of the square, making it the literal epicenter of the town. The many columns that spread around the outside of the building held up a second floor balcony that stretched around in a circle. The main building was relatively thin when compared to the outer ring made by the balcony, stretching upwards and tapering off into a red roof with numerous windows laid into it. “Whoa. I must say this place is a lot more… colorful than I imagined.” Tom stated casually while observing the many vibrant sights around the square. “Was your town square not this colorful?” Luna asked while looking at the boy with a quizzical expression. The human subconsciously raised an eyebrow as he thought back to his home town. “We didn’t really have much of a town square in my town… we had a town hall, but it was dull, grey, and boring. And I’m pretty sure it only had like five people working there… counting the mayor.” Tom explained with a passively joking tone as he pictured the small building in his head. Meanwhile, both parties were left to wonder at the architecture of the other, with Tom staring in amazement at the ponies’ architecture and the ponies cringing as they pictured the dullness of the human’s architecture. “Well I can assure you, this place is a lot livelier than what you’re probably used to.” Luna said with a smirk while waving her hoof around to point out the bustling square. Sure enough, several ponies were all rushing about on their daily business, with a few pausing to look at the odd sight of the two princesses conversing with a human. “You got that right…” Tom muttered to himself as the four walked up the steps to the town hall and stepped through the door. Inside, the group found a room that had three hallways that led off into other parts of the building. A wooden desk sat in the corner of the room, with a receptionist pony sitting behind it. The mare looked up from some papers on her desk and smiled at the princesses and their companions. “Hello Princess, I assume you’re here to see Miss Mayor?” The grey furred pony asked politely with a courteous smile. The alicorn nodded in response. “Yes, we’re here to have a meeting with her… could you point us in the right direction please?” Celestia asked in a friendly tone. “She’s in her office, three doors down that hall and to the left.” The receptionist explained as she pointed down the center hallway. The group looked where she was pointing and noticed a double door a little ways down the hall. Celestia thanked the grey mare before joining the group in walking down the hall. After a short journey, they gathered in front of the door to the mayor’s office and paused in preparation. Everyone looked at Tom to see whether or not he was nervous, only to find that he seemed as confident as ever. Giving a quick nod of agreement, the two princesses opened the door and stepped inside while the other two followed behind them. The group quickly noticed the mayor was sitting behind her desk attentively. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. It’s good to see you two.” The light brown mare greeted the two with a jovial laugh. The princesses smiled as they returned the greeting. Tom analyzed the pony’s appearance as he stood beside the two alicorns. Mayor Mare seemed to have a friendly yet professional air about her. She wore a pair of yellow framed glasses and a white collar with an aqua colored tie curled up into an oddly shaped puffball. She had grey and white striped hair, with the stripe pattern alternating between her mane and her tail. “And you must be this Tom fellow I’ve heard about.” The Mayor said in a friendly tone while getting up to walk over to the human. Tom could see that her cutie mark was that of a scroll tied off with a blue ribbon. The grey haired pony walked over to the boy and shook his hand with a welcoming smile. “I must be… not too many humans in blue jump suits with the name Tom walking around Equestria.” Tom said in a jesting way. Mayor Mare smirked at the lighthearted attitude of the newcomer to her town. “Quite so… and none with such heroic prowess as yours either. I see that you have rescued your share of ponies since you’ve been here Mr. Greene, for this I offer you my sincerest gratitude.” The grey haired mare put her hoof to her chest and gave a courteous bow to the human. Tom could tell that the brown pony had a deep concern for the wellbeing of her fellow ponies. She seemed genuinely affected by the mere notion of such grim things happening under her watch. “I don’t know what I would do if any of the citizens of this town were to come to harm in any serious way.” Mayor Mare stated in a sincere tone, hearing this made Tom avert his eyes to the floor. The mere mention of The Mayor having such a deep connection with her town’s citizens made the human think back to the hospital. Knowing the tragic events that happened yesterday made the boy uncomfortable with looking the mare in the eye. Mayor Mare frowned slightly as she noticed the human avert his gaze. Perhaps she knew that he had some form of guilt inside of him for letting such a thing happen. Whether or not she knew his true feelings, the brown pony could definitely tell that something was bothering the human. “Regarding the events that happened yesterday and the day before, I understand that you were there at the school and hospital during these events?” The brown mare asked in a more serious tone. Tom looked up as the question caught him off guard. “Y-yes.” The human replied while keeping his emotions in check. The Mayor looked between him and the others thoughtfully. “Alright Tom, I want you to explain to me and the princesses here everything you know about the two events. What happened, what important information you know on these hooded ponies, and what you think we should do next.” The grey haired mare instructed in a calm yet confident tone. “If I may ask… why?” Tom asked in a confused tone while looking to Brimstoke and the two alicorns. The three were as confused as he was regarding The Mayor’s intentions. Mayor Mare smiled with a determined expression on her face. “Because if we’re going to beat these guys… we need to know what we’re up against, and you’re the one here who knows the most about the supernatural.” The brown mare explained to the human casually. Everyone nodded in realization as they agreed to her reasoning. “Are you sure we’re going the right way Glimmer?” Neon Streak asked her yellow partner uneasily while looking around at her unfamiliar surroundings. The three had been walking through town for a while, and they still had not arrived at the book store. Glimmer Shine shrugged in slight annoyance as he was asked yet again if they were on track. The green pony had been paranoid that he was getting them lost ever since they left the library. He turned his head to face the two mares behind him and tried to sound less annoyed than he felt. “Yes, I’m sure. Just because I’ve never been here before doesn’t mean that I can’t follow directions.” The yellow stallion said with a playful chuckle. Neon Streak raised her eyebrow in doubt at the bold claim, but decided to leave Glimmer alone for a while. “You’ve never been to Ponyville before?” Applejack asked curiously while taking a quick glance around to see what area of town they were actually in. Not that she doubted Glimmer Shine’s ability to navigate, but she at least wanted to know if they were walking in circles. “Nope… can’t say I have. Me and Peppermint grew up in Manehattan and stayed there until we signed up for the academy.” Glimmer Shine replied with a smile to the orange mare. He was happy to get the subject off of where they were going for a change. “How long were you two in the academy for?” Applejack added as she became more intrigued on the subject of the brothers’ training. Glimmer looked away in thought for a moment before replying. “All together we stayed for about two years… one and a half we spent with Brimstoke and the others.” The yellow stallion said while reminiscing back to his time in the academy. Although it seemed like he had just barely graduated, Glimmer was very fond of his time there. “It’s nice to hear that you and your brother went in together. Staying close with family is one of the most important things in life in my opinion.” Applejack stated with a warm smile while thinking of her own brother and sister. The mere fact that Big Mac agreed to do some extra work so she could go help her friends made her think of how close they were. The yellow stallion nodded in agreement to the orange mare’s statement. “Yeah, I’m glad we got the opportunity. Pepper wanted to heal the sick and wounded, and we both wanted to help the greater good, so we agreed to try out for the academy. He struggled a bit with some of the lessons, but I helped him through.” Glimmer Shine said with a cheerful smirk. “No offense to either of you, but you don’t look like the type to be hunting monsters like Tom… Peppermint least of all.” Applejack said with as polite a tone as possible. Although she didn’t want to sound mean, the two brothers, and even some of the other members of the team seemed unlikely for the job they had. Glimmer Shine chuckled briefly in agreement. Applejack was glad to hear that the stallion didn’t take the statement the wrong way. He sighed while thinking of his brother’s sensitive nature. He finally turned to face the orange pony and spoke up. “I guess you’re right there… Pepper does look kind of… timid, doesn’t he?” Glimmer said with an uncertain expression. He seemed to be worried that his brother wouldn’t do well when in the heat of the moment. The stallion remained silent for a short while, leaving Applejack to feel a little sympathetic for him. “Well, I guess we’re as ready for this job as any pony. Luna picked us because she felt we had the skills and teamwork necessary for this kind of stuff.” Neon Streak spoke up with an accepting sigh. Applejack and Glimmer Shine nodded confidently in agreement. They were sure that they would do a great job at stopping the hooded ponies. “Oh hey, would you look at that.” Neon Streak spoke up in surprise and stopped to look off to the side. The other two stopped and wondered why the green mare had ceased walking before they thought to look in the direction she was facing. Sure enough, there was a building that stood out from the rest to the ponies. It was a simple store that would have blended right in had it not been for one identifying feature. The store had a sign above the door that had a large book and a quill dipped into an inkwell on it along with some lettering that read book store. “I guess you did know what you were doing then kid.” Neon chuckled while giving Glimmer Shine a playful punch on the shoulder. “Thank you…” The yellow stallion replied in a relieved tone. After all the constant doubt and questioning he had to go through on the trip, Glimmer was happy to see that they had finally arrived at the right destination. “Ever been here before Applejack?” Neon Streak turned to look at the farm pony curiously as she observed the front of the store. Applejack tried to recall any time she might have seen or been to the store beforehand, but her mind drew a blank. “No… Ah don’t think so. Ah haven’t really needed to anyway… if Ah ever needed to read a book, Ah could just head down to the library.” The orange mare replied. Being friends with the town librarian did have its benefits if the farm pony ever wanted to check out a book. “Let’s head inside then… check the place out.” Glimmer Shine said with a knowing nod to the two mares as he walked up to the door and opened it for the group to walk in. A sharp bell chimed as the door opened and the three ponies walked in. Applejack looked up to see a tiny bell set up above the frame of the door, designed to be rung to let the employees know when a customer entered. The smell of paper and books in general blended in with the red, brown, and green color scheme of the store interior to create a peaceful and warm atmosphere. There were several bookshelves lined up in rows off to the right, with a sitting area with a few more books to the left. Three ponies of varying colors and genders were either sitting and reading a book, or standing and browsing the smaller shelves in the open area to the left. One of the ponies, a blue earth pony mare with black hair turned her head to the three ponies entering and flashed them a passing smile. Applejack smiled back to the friendly mare as the group walked a little ways past the sitting area and up to the front desk. Behind the desk was a red earth pony stallion with medium length black hair that was looking off to the side with a dull expression. Upon noticing the approaching group, he seemed a little surprised to see two ponies in tactical vests traveling with a farm pony. “Hey, I’m Shadow Mist… how can I help you?” The stallion asked with false courtesy and a forced smile. He studied the three in front of him curiously as they stepped up to the desk. “Uh… hi, we’re here to see the owner of the store Cotton Quill. Is he around?” Glimmer Shine decided to speak on behalf of the group. He tried to sound as professional and direct as possible. Shadow Mist looked behind him with a slight hint of unease that the three ponies failed to pick up on. “Uh… sorry… I think Cotton isn’t here right now.” The red furred pony said once he returned his attention to the group in front of him. Glimmer Shine shifted his eyes to his two companions. Applejack and Neon Streak were just as unsure of this pony as he was, but they were uncertain as to what was so off-putting about him. “Well is he going to come back sometime today? We really need to speak with him regarding a request from the princess, so it’s kind of important.” Glimmer said while trying to convey the seriousness of their visit. Shadow Mist seemed surprised to hear that Cotton was sought after by the princess. “The princess huh…? Who did you guys say you were again?” Shadow Mist asked while glancing at Applejack out of the corner of his eye. The orange mare felt oddly uncomfortable with how the red pony was looking at her. It was almost like he recognized her and wanted to make sure that he was looking at the right pony. “I’m afraid that’s on a need to know basis. Sorry, but you know how things are with the princesses and secrecy.” Neon Streak answered for Glimmer Shine while still trying to get a read on this odd pony’s actions. “Yeah… yeah.” Shadow Mist nodded while taking a quick and purposeful glance over to the three ponies in the sitting area, who, unbeknownst to Applejack and her two companions, had been carefully watching the conversation unfold. As the red pony nodded to the three in front of him while glancing behind them, the three ponies in the front of the store acknowledged the signal with a slow nod of their own and slowly put their books away and reached behind various areas on the shelves. Shadow Mist smiled and conversed with the three blissfully unaware ponies in front of him to stall them while secretly watching behind them with his peripheral vision. The three ponies in the sitting area each slowly pulled out small daggers from hidden places behind the shelves. They slowly and silently walked around the sitting area and gradually crept up on the group with their weapons at the ready. Applejack was getting officially creeped out by how the suspicious pony was looking at her. Maybe it was something about how he was obviously faking a smile, or maybe it was how he seemed to be putting on too much happiness for the situation, but the farm pony definitely knew that something was off about this Shadow Mist. The orange mare looked off to the side and pretended to be interested in a few books as an excuse to divert her gaze away from the disturbing pony’s stare. Just as she was reading off a few titles of books to herself, she caught a glimpse of something moving in the corner of her eye. Applejack turned her head just in time to see that the three seemingly harmless ponies they had passed on their way in were now rearing up to attack them with deadly weapons. The farm pony’s eyes widened in shock and backed up slightly as her body recoiled in surprise. “AH!” Applejack cried out loudly to get the others attention. She barely had time to process words into a cry for help, so she just made the loudest and most defined noise of distress that she could. Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak spun around in shock when they heard their companion yell. They saw the incoming attackers just in time to react. The three ponies yelled as they leapt for their targets. Applejack just barely managed to dodge backwards, catching a slight draft as the pony’s downward stab sailed right past her face. Glimmer Shine and his partner raised their arms in front of them and caught the incoming attackers’ arms in an attempt at wrestling their weapon from them. While her friends struggled to keep the ponies from pushing the blades into their skin, Applejack locked eyes with the unoccupied third pony. The blue mare scowled at her with a deep hatred, making the farm pony gulp nervously as she prepared to strike again. Applejack dodged to the side as the black haired pony swung at her again. Seeing no other choice but to retaliate, the orange mare reared up her back legs and kicked as hard as she could at the knife wielding pony. The force of the seasoned apple bucker’s kick went straight into the mare’s side, knocking the knife clean out of her hooves as she sailed into a nearby bookshelf. She grunted in pain as her body collided with the shelf, causing books to fly everywhere as the shelf collapsed under her weight. Now that the blue mare was out of commission, Applejack diverted her attention back to her friends. The orange mare gasped as she noticed that Neon Streak seemed to be losing her struggle with the pink pony on top of her. The purple haired mare was pressing the knife further and further downwards as the green mare strained her muscles to keep it away from her. With a steeled look in her eyes and a determined expression, Applejack reared up and kicked at the pink pony. The mare noticed the farm pony’s attack coming her way and jumped off of Neon Streak to avoid it. She smirked as she noticed the panic in the orange mare’s eyes when her attack failed. “AHH!” Applejack screamed and covered her head as the pink pony lunged for her with the knife much too fast for her to react with an escape. Just as the farm pony was preparing to feel the pain of getting brutally stabbed to death, the pink pony suddenly yelped in surprise and pain as her body felt a jolt of electricity surging through her. The frightened orange mare looked up to see the pink mare convulsing slightly with a painful grimace. She looked down to see that Neon Streak was digging the taser she carried on her vest into the pony’s leg. The pink mare swiftly dropped to the floor and dropped the knife. Applejack shared a quick look of gratitude with the green mare, who smiled in return. The two then looked over when they noticed the sounds of their friend struggling. The two mares were about to jump in to help their yellow friend, when Glimmer Shine suddenly punched his attacker square in the jaw. The punch sent the pony reeling in pain. He growled in anger before raising the knife to run the yellow stallion through. Glimmer Shine reacted to the attack and stepped to the side while reaching to his vest. He quickly pulled out his collapsible baton and extended it while swinging at the knife wielding pony. The slick black baton made a satisfying thunk as it collided with the hostile pony’s head. The knife wielder groaned in pain as he was sent to the floor before slipping out of consciousness. Now that all three attackers had been dealt with, the three ponies took a moment to catch their breaths while giving each other concerned looks. Glimmer Shine observed his two companions to ensure that they weren’t hurt, while Applejack and Neon Streak did the same for him. “*Pant*...*Wheeze*… You two ok?” The exhausted stallion asked in between breaths in a concerned tone. Applejack and Neon Streak nodded while they caught their breaths in order to speak. “Yeah…*Pant*... Ah’m fine.” Applejack stated with relief as she realized that she had come out unscathed from the tense encounter. “Where the…*Wheeze*… where the hay did that red guy run off to?” Neon Streak’s question made the two look over to where Shadow Mist had once been. The desk was empty and barren, indicating that the stallion must have ran when the fight began. “I knew he was acting strange… he must have bolted out the back when those three jumped us.” Glimmer Shine shrugged while looking back to the front entrance. Nobody could recall hearing the chime of the front door opening and ringing the bell on top, so he couldn’t have fled in that direction. “I’ll go after him. You two stay here and keep these guys under control!” Glimmer yelled while rushing behind the desk and into the back room. Before either Applejack or Neon Streak could protest their friend’s decision, the yellow stallion disappeared from sight through the back door. The two mares looked at each other with thankful expressions as they slowed their breathing back to normal. They had survived a surprise attack intended to kill them, and that was cause enough to be proud of their accomplishment. “You ok?” Neon Streak asked with a concerned tone. The orange mare nodded with a slight smile as she realized what just happened. “Yeah… how about you?” Applejack asked the green mare courteously. Neon Streak patted her chest to check if she was still alive, and to see if her heart had exploded from adrenaline. “Yeah, I’m fine… thanks for the save back there.” The green pony said with a grateful smile while pulling out three zip ties from her vest and tying up the three ponies. Applejack smiled warmly as she thought back to her bravery in the face of danger. “Ah’m just glad none of us got hurt.” The orange mare breathed a sigh of relief while leaning back on a shelf to rest. Neon Streak nodded in agreement while offering a sigh of her own while observing the three ponies bound on the floor. “Well… at least we know that the owner of the store is definitely in the hooded pony club… either that or we just got jumped by three ponies with some serious anger management issues.” Neon said with a brief chuckle. Applejack shared in her laughter and smiled. It felt good to the two mares to actually be able to relax and laugh after their tense ordeal. Meanwhile, as the two mares were enjoying their moment of rest and chatting with happy faces, a silent threat was still lurking nearby. Unbeknownst to the pair, a hidden intruder was slowly and methodically creeping through the room to avoid being detected. Shadow Mist had a lot of practice in using his powers to sneak away from or up on unsuspecting ponies, so these two proved to be no different. While Applejack rested against one of the shelves and appeared concerned about how real and serious their situation had gotten, she failed to notice the barely audible sound of one of the knives from the three ponies lifting into the air and catching on the ground as it was picked up. The blade hung in the air and flipped around, as if being held by a murderous ghost that was hell bent on ending the lives of the two ponies. Slowly but surely, the knife floated smoothly through the air until it reached just beside the unaware farm pony. Neon Streak suddenly caught sight of the floating blade. It took her a second to realize that what she was looking at wasn’t a trick of her eyes, but rather her companion in very serious danger. The knife reared up into the air in preparation to strike the orange mare. Neon’s eyes lit up in shock and alarm. “Applejack look out!” The green mare yelled in a frantic tone that made Applejack jump in surprise. Applejack whipped her head around just in time to see the floating blade swinging at her. Her initial reaction of jerking her body backwards wasn’t enough to prevent the blade from digging into her chest as it clipped her on the way down. “Agh!” The orange mare yelped in pain and clutched her newfound injury. She tenderly lifted her hoof from the wound only to find the tip of her hoof stained crimson from her own blood. She could feel a stinging sensation of pain that indicated that she had a sizable gash in her body. Suddenly, the knife made another sideways stab at the wounded pony, but Applejack was wise to the attack. She ducked to the floor, ignoring the pain of her wound hitting the ground forcefully. The knife barely cleared the top of the cow pony’s hat, missing the leather of it by just a sliver. Before the knife could strike again, Applejack heard a grunt of pain and looked up. She saw Neon Streak barging into the area where the knife was with her shoulder, sending the knife sliding across the floor as whatever held it was also knocked away. Neon Streak gave a quick glance to her friend’s wound and frowned sympathetically while hovering near her protectively. The two mares looked around the shop on high alert as they waited for another attack from their seemingly invisible assailant. “What the hay was that?!” Applejack exclaimed in an adrenaline fueled panic as she mentally coped with what just happened. She couldn’t believe that they were being attacked like this in such a seemingly safe place. “I don’t know!” Neon Streak replied while darting her eyes around anxiously. The green mare drew her eyes down to her vest and the numerous vials of charms hanging from it. Spotting a particular vial, an idea popped into her head that made her smirk deviously. “But I think I might have an idea of how we can find out.” The green mare stated while pulling her locators up to her face. She twisted the bottom of the vial filled with the sand like substance. Much to Applejack’s amazement, the sand in the vial lit up a bright red and flashed a few times before fading. After the sand’s light stopped flashing, the entire left side of the bottle of sand glowed solid red. Neon Streak pointed the vial at Applejack, causing the light on the sand to shift to the top section of the vial and grow to the point where most of the sand in the bottle was glowing. “What’s that?” Applejack asked curiously while staring at the strange spectacle. Neon Streak pointed the vial away, causing the glowing portion of the sand to shrink and move to the side, almost as if a red light were shining on the sand and moving across it like a light display. “This is one of our locators. It lets us find heat signatures of living things.” The green mare explained while waving the vial sideways slowly. Suddenly, the sand on the upper right portion of the bottle started glowing. Due to Applejack and the three captive ponies being behind her, Neon Streak knew that this signature was most likely their attacker. The black haired pony followed the signature as best she could with her locator, managing only to get the light to cover a small portion of the top of the bottle. The two anxious ponies looked in the direction where the light was pointing for any signs of movement. Suddenly the pair noticed another knife was being picked up off the floor, but instead of charging straight for them, the attacker seemed to have a different target in mind. The knife zipped straight for one of the bound ponies on the floor. Much to the shock and horror of the two mares, the knife plunged straight into the back of the blue pony’s neck, puncturing her spinal cord with ease. The mare let out a strangled cry of pain and briefly jerked her body, but she only managed to twitch slightly before losing control of her muscles and going limp. “Oh my gosh…” Applejack gasped in shock and clasped her hoof over her mouth in horror. She couldn’t believe that she just witnessed a pony dying right in front of her eyes. The orange mare could feel her legs wobble and a dreadful knot in her stomach that wouldn’t go away. “Hey!” Neon Streak yelled in defiance in an attempt at stopping the invisible assassin. Before she even had time to move, the knife pulled itself out of the dead body of the blue mare with a sickening squelch. The blade zoomed to the side and buried itself into the black pony’s throat. As the black stallion jerked awake and gurgled in pain while convulsing, the knife ripped out and caused a fountain of blood to gush out of the dying pony. Neon Streak eyed over to the last of their prisoners, a hot pink mare with purple and pink striped hair. She knew why their attacker was killing them. He was doing it so they couldn’t interrogate them for answers. Applejack noticed her green companion darting to stand between the hovering knife and the pink mare. She gasped in shock and raised her hoof in protest as the knife zoomed straight for the green pony. Neon Streak flinched her eyes shut as she saw the knife traveling at her with such speed. “Neon!” The orange mare cried out and leapt for the green mare. She tackled Neon Streak and drove her to the ground protectively. The two heard the sound of a pony huffing in exertion and the distinctive noise of hooves leaving the ground in front of them and landing behind them. They looked over just in time to see the knife heading straight for the bounded mare’s neck area. The two horrified pony’s averted their eyes and cringed as they listened to the sound of the blade sticking into and undoubtedly killing the oblivious pony. Applejack slowly forced herself to look forward to see if the knife was returning for them, only to see that the blade was still in the corpse of the pink mare. She noticed a bunch of books jostle as something ran into one of the shelves as it rushed towards the door. The two heard the sound of the bell chiming and watched as something flung the door open hastily and ran out. “Oh… m-my.” Applejack stammered in shock as she surveyed the scene around them while getting up. There were pools of blood slowly forming under the three ponies’ bodies. Some of the shelves and part of the floor and ceiling had blood spatter on them from where the black stallion had his throat sliced open. The entire scene made the orange mare sick to her stomach. The two looked towards the back of the store to see Glimmer Shine rushing out of the back door with an alarmed expression on his face. He began to speak up to ask what was wrong when suddenly he was silenced by the gruesome sight in front of him. “What happened in here?” Glimmer asked with a shocked expression while looking around at the dead bodies and general clutter of books lying on the floor from the struggle. The yellow stallion’s eyes widened when he saw that Applejack had a fresh gash in her chest that was still bleeding profusely. “Applejack, are you alright?!” Glimmer Shine asked with an alarmed tone while rushing up to the orange mare to examine her wound. Applejack winced in pain as she felt the wound sending shooting pains throughout the surrounding area. “We got attacked by some invisible thing… where’s that other pony?” Applejack asked while trying to fight through the pain as Glimmer Shine pressed a cloth he produced from a pocket on his vest against the gash to stop the bleeding. “I don’t know… I found the only other exit, but it was locked from this side. It’s like he just disappeared…” Glimmer stated in utter confusion as he reported his failure to find the red furred pony. “Disappeared…?” Neon Streak repeated the stallion’s words curiously while observing the path to the front door. There were tiny droplets of blood on the floor that seemed to follow a pattern that led towards the door. The blood droplets were too far away from the three dead ponies to warrant Neon to think that they came from them. “I think Tom was right when he said that we aren’t dealing with regular ponies.” The green mare said in a troubled tone while turning to look at her two companions. Applejack and Glimmer Shine shared concerned looks with the black haired pony as they caught on to what she was insinuating.
Chapter 42: The Graveyard Shift“Here we are.” Sunspot announced to her two followers as she stood in front of the gate to Ponyville Cemetery. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took a moment to admire the vast stretch of land that held rows upon rows of gravestones and monuments of many sizes and shapes. Although they knew about the cemetery, the two ponies had not visited there before now. After all, they had no reason to. “Wow… it’s a lot bigger than I expected.” Rainbow Dash said in astonishment as she panned her head around to view the extent of the fenced in area. There was a lot of open space between the fence, and even the gravestones, giving the cemetery a vast and open feel to it. The way the sun cast shadows from the taller statues and gravestones onto the emerald green grass created an almost surreal atmosphere. The two ponies were certainly glad that they weren’t visiting at night to say the least. As they walked into the graveyard, they felt very somber and creeped out while silently walking forward. “Do you know how many graves were robbed?” Fluttershy asked while looking around to inspect the inscriptions on the graves she passed as well as searching for any open graves. “Oddly enough, only one grave was dug up.” Sunspot replied with a puzzled expression on her face. She had no idea why anyone would bother stealing just one body, or why anyone would want to steal a body in the first place. “Do you think it was the hooded ponies that did it?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while thinking about the incident further. “I don’t know… but I would like to think that any respectable pony would leave the dead alone… what has this world come to when people start attacking schools and hospitals and digging up graves?” Sunspot shook her head and sighed sadly as she thought about the atrocities that the group of ponies was performing. “Well I don’t know what the hay is wrong with them, but I sure know that we need to stop them.” Rainbow Dash said with slight anger while thinking about everything the hooded ponies had done to her and her friends. “We will, but for now we just need to find that grave.” Sunspot shrugged in irritation as she looked around for the open grave. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash shared a look of exasperation as they realized just how difficult it was to locate a single open grave in a cemetery. The three pegasus’s slowly walked down the middle of the cemetery while keeping their eyes peeled and scanning the areas to the side in search of the grave. The silence between them gave them time to dwell on the eerie atmosphere around them. Even though it was daytime, it was still mildly disturbing to be walking around a cemetery in utter silence, especially given the ponies’ overactive imaginations that had been given a boost from all of the frightening monsters they had encountered over the past few days. Suddenly, an abnormal color along the ground caught Fluttershy’s eye. She looked closer to discover that the odd color was in fact the dirt that surrounded an open pit in front of a gravestone. Her eyes lit up with excitement as she realized her discovery. “Hey guys, look over here.” The yellow mare exclaimed while trotting over to the open grave and peering into the gaping hole. The other two ponies quickly rushed over to join their companion in front of the pit. “Hmm… whoever was buried here must have been dead for a long time… I can barely read this.” Rainbow Dash stated while squinting as she tried to make out the faded etching on the crumbling gravestone. The cyan mare shrugged in frustration as she gave up on making out the words on the stone. Even without knowing the exact date of the pony’s death, it was obvious that this grave had been around for a long time. “I don’t see anything around here that could tell us anything about what happened.” Fluttershy said while observing the hole for any sign of clues. Sunspot brought a pull cord from her vest up to her face that had her locators on it. “Hey, could you two back up a little? This thing is really sensitive to anything in front of it.” Sunspot asked and waited for the two ponies to move. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash obeyed her instructions and backed up until they were behind the orange mare. Sunspot twisted the bottom of the sand filled vial until it clicked twice. The sand flashed red on and off a few times to indicate that the charm was functional. The suited pony scanned the vial around the open grave while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watched in amazement. “What’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while observing the strangely hypnotic neon red glowing sand as it shifted and pulsed inside the bottle. “It’s one of the locators I told you about when we met. It uses heat signatures and other methods to scan for living things. I set it to pick up the presence of things that have previously been here rather than directly looking for body heat. It might take a minute to pick it up, so bear with me.” Sunspot explained while holding the vial over the ground near the pit. “I get it… so you’re looking for the presence of the ponies that dug up the grave.” Fluttershy said as she figured out what the suited mare was doing. The suited mare nodded to the yellow pony, giving her a small sense of accomplishment that made her smile softly. “That’s the idea… it might not tell us who they were, but it will tell us if it was actually ponies that did this.” Sunspot stated while looking at the vial feverishly for a reading. The sand suddenly flashed red again as she hovered it in the air above the grave. The pegasus smiled before twisting the bottom of the vial once more and letting the pull cord retract. “Well, I’m picking up a relatively fresh signal here. Someone definitely dug this guy up… probably happened a few hours ago too.” She said with a slightly disheartened expression. The other two ponies shared in her disgust at the people who did this. “Man… what kind of depraved individual steals a dead body from a cemetery?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically with a disappointed expression. Fluttershy and Sunspot shared a gloomy frown with the cyan pegasus as they walked away from the grave. Fluttershy turned to look at the open grave one last time and bowed her head in respect to the pony that was buried there. She then turned back and joined her friends in leaving the cemetery. “I cannot believe that I’m stealing a dead body from a cemetery…” Cotton Quill huffed in exhaustion as he struggled to carry the burlap sack on his back. He had been walking for about ten minutes after spending the better part of the pre morning hours digging up the skeletal remains of the pony that was now weighing him down. “Lighten up Cotton… things like this are exactly what you need to build character.” Raincloud said in a jokingly sarcastic tone. She walked just ahead of the struggling unicorn as he carried the body on his back. The two were a far ways into The Everfree Forest. At this pace, they would reach the mansion in a few minutes. That is, if Cotton Quill didn’t pass out from over exertion before they made it there. Although it was relatively cold from the morning forest air, the white pony was building up a great deal of sweat and body heat. “Shouldn’t you be the one carrying this thing? I thought this was your mission anyway.” Cotton said in slight annoyance while trying his hardest not to fall flat to the floor. Raincloud chuckled warmly at the white unicorn’s suggestion. “This is my mission Cotton, but you weren’t busy so I figured that I would give you something to do. Raven Feather did say that we could use you for anything we wanted after all.” The pale blue mare said casually. Cotton was upset that he was being used for cheap labor, but he was also slightly happy to be used as a slave rather than an experiment. “Can’t you have your shadow carry this thing?” Cotton asked with a slight hint of nervousness while thinking back to Raincloud’s ghastly servant. The white pony shuddered as he remembered the creature’s soulless purple eyes staring at him like he was a plaything. Raincloud scoffed in annoyance at the proposal. “He probably could, but my shadow is weakened by direct sunlight.” The pegasus explained while glaring angrily at the orange light streaming down through the faint openings in the trees. “I don’t want to waste that much energy projecting him in daylight just to do what you could easily do with your magic.” Raincloud said in a belittling tone that made Cotton feel like a lazy waste of space. “I can’t use my magic to carry it… it’s actually harder to carry heavy things long distances with magic than it is with my strength.” Cotton explained in an attempt at getting her to lay off of him. The blue mare merely rolled her eyes. “Excuses excuses…” Raincloud droned in annoyance while contemplating how much it would tire her out to have her shadow murder Cotton and bury him out in the forest. The pegasus’s cold tone made Cotton feel uneasy as she looked straight ahead and avoided looking at him. “Not to sound annoying or anything, but are we almost there?” The white unicorn said in as gentle a way as possible. He didn’t want to irritate the pegasus any more than she already was, but he was pretty sure that his legs would snap like twigs if he had to walk much further. “*Sigh*… too late.” Raincloud muttered to herself while glaring her eyes behind her without turning her head. She was about to berate the whining pony, when suddenly the sight of the mansion coming into view in front of her stopped the pale pegasus. “Looks like you’re in luck Cotton. Home sweet home...” Raincloud said with a relieved expression. It seemed like the pegasus actually found the gloomy estate to be comforting, but how she could find the eerie mansion to be anything close to homey was beyond Cotton Quill. “Thank Celestia…” The white unicorn breathed a sigh of relief as he picked up the pace with the knowledge that he could rest soon. Raincloud furrowed her forehead in disdain at the pony’s expression. The two hastily, or rather, as hastily as Cotton could carry the bag on his back, made their way through the yard and up to the entryway to the mansion. Raincloud opened the door and went inside, smirking as she heard the sound of Cotton groaning in pain as the door smacked into his face. After rubbing the red mark on his head, the white unicorn sat the heavy bag down beside him and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Where does Raven Feather want this thing?” Cotton asked while panting from exhaustion. Raincloud casually pointed her hoof up the staircase to the left and looked at the unicorn with a blank expression. “Upstairs.” The pale mare said while trying to hide her enjoyment of seeing Cotton’s face shrink into a frustrated expression. “Screw this…” Cotton huffed in annoyance while lighting up his horn. He would deal with the stress of lifting the body with magic, as long as he didn’t need to carry it upstairs with his physical strength. Raincloud watched as the unicorn grunted from exertion while lifting the bag into the air with his magic. Cotton levitated the body up the stairs and walked up along with it. He waited for the pale blue mare to follow him upstairs so she could lead him to where they had agreed to meet the rest of the group. Cotton growled in exhaustion as he pushed his body to the limit just to carry the bag a little ways off the ground. He thought that his head was going to explode from the strain he was putting on his horn. Just as the white unicorn thought he was going to pass out from how tired he was, Raincloud went to the side of the hallway and opened a door. “Right this way.” Raincloud said while holding the door open and beckoning inside the room like a doorman. Cotton was far too relieved to even care about the snarky pegasus’s act. He quickly made his way inside and looked around. Inside the room, Cotton could see that Raven Feather, Grimwood, and Dust Kicker were standing around a table with a small group of other ponies clad in the greyish black hoodies that the cult wore on most days. Most of them opted to have their hoods down rather than walk around the mansion all day with obscured vision. “Raincloud, it’s so good to see that you’re back.” Raven Feather looked past Cotton Quill in order to greet the Pegasus. Raincloud smiled and closed the door behind her before walking around the sluggish white unicorn to get closer to the group. “I assume that you got a body with the specifics I asked for?” Raven Feather asked without any doubt in her eyes as she smiled at the blue mare walking forward. Raincloud nodded and glanced back to Cotton to point at the bag. “Yep, one complete pony skeleton as you requested Miss Raven Feather.” The pegasus said with a gleeful smile while pointing at the body as if it were her presenting it to Raven Feather herself. “Good… let me take that off your hooves Cotton.” Raven Feather suggested while raising her hoof in the air. An aura of pulsating shadows formed around the tip of her hoof. Cotton suddenly felt a powerful tug on the bag that forced it out of his grip. He would have let go courteously, but the earth pony didn’t give him a chance as she brushed aside his magic like taking something out of the hands of a child. The green eyed pony waved her arm around as she guided the bag over to the table. She opened the bag and slid out the remains of the pony and levitated them in the air while discarding the bag. Raven Feather took a moment to gently set the skeleton down on the table without breaking off any bones. Everyone gathered around to watch the black mare as she inspected the body to ensure that it met her expectations. A small smirk crept across Raven Feather’s face as she nodded in satisfaction. The skeleton was just as complete as Raincloud claimed it to be. The only flaws to be seen were a few cracks along the surface of the bones and the faded and dusty appearance that came with age. “What is this for anyway? Didn’t Dust Kicker already make zombies out in the forest?” Cotton asked curiously while glancing over to the brown pegasus. Raven Feather turned to face the unicorn and gave him a condescending expression. “That was just to see if the spell worked on a small scale… this is to see if it will work on older bodies.” Raven Feather explained before returning her attention to the skeleton in front of her. The black mare channeled energy to her hoof and recited some words from memory. Soon enough, a small wisp of green light appeared from her hoof and started circling into the air. Cotton watched eagerly as the green wisp slowly descended into the body. Even with his experience with human magic, he had never seen anything like this. The white unicorn leaned a little closer to the table and watched in expectation as the wisp disappeared into the body. Everyone watched the body with more or less blank expressions as they observed from afar. Meanwhile, Cotton inched closer to the skeleton curiously as nothing appeared to be happening. He hesitated and watched for anything to happen, before scratching his head in confusion as the body remained motionless. “Did it work…?” Cotton asked while walking right up to the table and observing the skeleton. “I can’t see anything going o-” the unicorn was suddenly interrupted by the alarming sight of the body jolting to life and raising its head up in front of him. The skeleton’s hollow eye sockets lit up and glowed a bright and eerie green that seemed to pierce the white pony’s very being. The undead pony’s jaw articulated and clattered open as an unearthly screech emanated from the monster. “AAAAHHH!” Cotton screamed in terror as the jolt of the body shooting upwards sent a shockwave of fear through his body. As if in response to the petrified pony’s scream, the skeleton screamed again as it lifted its head up further, almost like it was enraged at the unicorn. The white pony could feel his vocal cords straining from how loud he was screaming, yet he felt compelled to continue the frightened outburst as he recoiled from the table in a desperate attempt at getting away. While he pulled away from the table one of Cotton’s arms knocked into the skeleton, causing the undead creature to careen off the table and slam into the floor while the horrified pony crawled backwards to escape. The skeleton’s many bones dislocated from the impact of the fall. The entire body separated and the skull stopped glowing as it bounced along the floor with the rest of the scattered pile of bones. Cotton didn’t even care about the fact that he just destroyed the skeleton. All he cared about was getting away. After reaching a safe distance, Cotton turned his head back to see that nearly everyone in the group was laughing at him. Raincloud was leaning on Dust Kicker as she held her side with one arm while laughing uncontrollably. Dust Kicker was also laughing, but not quite as hard as his sister. Grimwood was quietly snickering with a small grin on his face. Even Raven Feather was chuckling to herself as she watched the panicked unicorn. “What’s so funny? I just broke that thing into pieces…” Cotton couldn’t believe that he was reminding the group of his screw up, but he was so dumbfounded at their lack of anger that he felt it necessary to question them. “First off Cotton… *Snort*” Raven Feather said while catching her breath from laughing so hard. “We’re laughing because you scream like a little girl…*Chortle*” The black mare got the last of her laughter out into the open before clearing her throat and returning a more serious expression to her face. “And secondly…” The green eyed pony started to speak, when she was interrupted by the sound of something sliding on the ground. Cotton turned his head forward and widened his eyes in surprise as he saw the numerous bones of the skeleton sliding on the floor towards the already reforming body. The unicorn watched in amazement as the undead pony’s legs, ribs, and other assorted bones slid to the body as it staggered up on the two legs it already had in place. The bones levitated into the air upon reaching the body, where they flew to their correct anatomical location and clicked into place. Finally, the skull lifted up and reattached itself to its headless body. The eye sockets of the skull flashed green a few times before the eerie glow returned in full. “We’re not angry with you because for once… we made a plan that is idiot proof.” Raven Feather commented with a smirk as the skeletal pony moaned loudly. The guttural noise sounded like some kind of primordial beast was wailing at its prey. Knowing that the disturbing noise was coming from a dead pony, and actually seeing said pony standing in front of him made Cotton extremely nervous. The skeletal pony took a step forward and growled at Cotton before Raven Feather stuck her hoof out and channeled shadow energy to it. The undead creature looked at her for a moment before stepping back and waiting obediently while looking at the black mare for further instructions. “Fascinating… it looks like the spell worked perfectly. It almost tried ripping you to pieces Cotton.” Raven Feather stated with a giddy smile on her face. The green eyed mare almost sounded a little too excited at the prospect of Cotton being used as a skeleton’s chew toy. “Yes… that’s fine and dandy I suppose…” The white unicorn chuckled nervously while watching the animate skeleton in front of him. “But what do you intend on doing with all of this anyway? I might not be performing spells for you anymore, but I would at least like to know what I just brought this heavy… fellow here for.” Cotton spoke in a gentle tone while addressing the skeleton, as if he would understand the unicorn and become enraged again. “Cotton’s got a point Raven Feather… you have been rather secretive lately.” Raincloud stated curiously while turning to look at her leader. “Between me digging up dead bodies in a cemetery, and Dust Kicker playing Dr. Frankenstein out in the woods, we know absolutely nothing about what the plan is.” The pale blue pegasus explained while looking over to her brother for support. Dust Kicker nodded in agreement as he too wondered what the black mare had in mind. Raven Feather giggled sinisterly as she thought of the scope of her plan. She decided that it was about time she filled in her two accomplices as to what her devious intentions were for their labor. She turned to face the group and looked at each of them thoughtfully. “Well… you know how the princesses will be in town tomorrow to make a public appearance to notify everyone in Ponyville about us?” Raven Feather chuckled as she thought about how much attention they were getting from the two alicorns. Everyone nodded in response while waiting eagerly for the green eyed mare to continue. “Wait… you don’t mean-” Raincloud started to ask curiously as she figured out the earth pony’s plan until the black mare spoke up to interrupt her. “Precisely, Raincloud. I intend to show up for the speech and show every pony there just why they should fear us. With the spell I found, we will be able to flood town square with dozens upon dozens of these beauties.” Raven Feather explained while pointing over to the lone skeleton standing idly in front of the group. “Where are you going to get the bodies?” Dust Kicker asked while thinking about the matter further. “I don’t suppose Cotton is going to be able to dig up that many for you in a day.” The pegasus and earth pony glanced over to Cotton suggestively, causing beads of sweat to roll down his face. “Relax Cotton… I have thought ahead. The spell I’m going to use will create a thick cloud that will produce that green mist that brought our friend here back to life. The mist will sink into the ground and create an army of skeletons that will attack everything in sight. And if there aren’t any bodies to work with, then it will just make copies of this guy here.” Raven Feather explained her plan in great detail. The black mare took a lot of pride in her scheme as she went over the sections of the plot with a devious grin on her face. “Wow… that’s pretty impressive.” Raincloud said in an amazed tone. “And that isn’t the bulk of my plot either. We’re going to kill the elements of harmony while we’re at it.” Raven Feather stated with a sinister tone in her voice. The others were shocked to hear that such a drastic measure was being taken. However, one pony was more shocked than anyone else to hear the black mare’s announcement. “Kill the elements… but why? I thought we agreed on letting them live until we unlocked the power of the eternal night.” Grimwood asked with dismay clear on his face. Raven Feather was sad to dash the young colt’s hopes, but she had to do what was necessary for the good of their final goal. “Sorry Grim… I know you were excited to see them suffer, but we need them out of the picture. They are the only ones powerful enough to stop the eternal night once it’s started, so I would much rather get rid of them now rather than risk them interfering later.” The black mare said while walking over and putting a loving hoof on her brother’s shoulder. Grimwood frowned in protest to his older sibling. He finally sighed and returned his usual blank expression. “Can we at least leave most of them alive? Their power only works as long as none of them are dead after all…” The pale colt argued in a passive tone, with only a slight pout to describe his emotions. Raven Feather smiled warmly and patted the younger pony on the head gingerly. “Oh all right… but I get to choose which ones we torture first when all of this is over, deal?” The black mare submitted to the childlike wiles of the younger colt. Grimwood nodded in satisfaction while sitting down and returning his indifferent attitude. Cotton wasn’t used to seeing this side of Raven Feather. Watching the green eyed earth pony smile happily and talk in such a lovey-dovey tone was almost disturbing in a way. “Anyway… Raincloud, you and Dust Kicker will be tasked with eliminating at least one of the elements of harmony, preferably Twilight Sparkle.” Raven Feather cringed in disgust as she thought of how much the princess’s student would interfere if left alive. Raincloud and Dust Kicker looked at the black mare with doubtful expressions. Both of their powers relied on total darkness to be most effective. Before they could think of the plan further, Raven Feather continued. “While the spell is active, the cloud will blot out the sun for several miles. You two will use this opportunity to head down to the library and see if she is there, while I stay at the square and make a pictogram so we can gather fear from the panicking citizens.” As the black pony explained her plan, Dust Kicker and Raincloud progressively started to enjoy their roles in it. “So I get to kill that whiny little brat myself? And it’s not even my birthday? Oh Raven Feather, you shouldn’t have.” Raincloud said while giggling deviously in anticipation. “But won’t the princesses try to stop the spell once they figure out what’s going on? They do still have that team of ponies and the slayer to help them out after all.” Cotton chimed in with a pessimistic tone. Raven Feather rolled her eyes as she listened to the doubtful unicorn voice his concerns. “I’m well aware of that Cotton, but I have another surprise in mind that should slow them down quite a bit. I just need Raincloud and Dust Kicker to… retrieve it for me.” Raven Feather said while looking over at the two siblings thoughtfully. “Both of us? Why can’t we just send Cotton to go get it?” Dust Kicker asked with a perplexed expression. Raincloud shared in her brother’s confusion as to why they had to be the ones to retrieve this mysterious surprise. “Because the surprise is unique in that it will require both of your skills to acquire it.” Raven Feather explained while walking over to a table and looking for a piece of paper and a quill. After finding the two items, she started scribbling away onto the paper. “Here, take this. Travel to this location after sunset, and get it back here before tomorrow.” Raven Feather instructed while handing the paper off to Dust Kicker. Raincloud peered over the brown pegasus’s shoulder and read the note alongside him. As the two read the words on the note, they raised their eyebrows in shock. “You want us to… but why?” Dust Kicker asked with a surprised tone. Raincloud gasped in revelation before letting a sinister grin creep across her face. “I think I get it Dust… I’ll explain on the way. Let’s just make our way down there so we have a head start.” The pale blue pony said with a devious snicker. Raven Feather was pleased to see that the pegasus had figured out the purpose for their trip. The two siblings walked out of the room with the note in hand for reference. After they had exited the room, everyone else sat in silence while thinking to themselves. Cotton Quill was left staring awkwardly at the eerie eyes of the skeleton pony, which hadn’t moved from its spot since Raven Feather halted it. *A few hours later.* Raven Feather and Grimwood were sitting in the mansion’s library idly. Cotton Quill had since parted with the two and gotten as far away as possible from the skeleton pony. Raven Feather was reading over some notes she had drawn on the desk in the middle of the room, while Grimwood was reading over some notes and books of his own off in the corner. Raven Feather looked over to the young colt thoughtfully. She found it curious that he was reading so intently into his small pile of books and notes. Usually the pale colt was content with just skimming through a few of the summoning books to look at the pictures and details of how to summon the monsters, but he seemed to be diligently studying whatever topic he was reading into. “What are you reading Grim?” The black mare asked curiously while trying to ascertain the book’s subject matter by the title. It appeared to be a book on old folklore having to do with human legends and prophecies. Grimwood looked up from his book to meet eyes with his sister. He seemed a little bit apprehensive as he thought about how to answer. “Nothing much… just looking at some old writings about the eternal night… what the humans thought it was, how they thought it could be started and stopped, that sort of stuff.” Grimwood stated with a casual tone before returning to his book. Raven Feather thought it a little odd that he was surrounded by notes that she didn’t recognize, but she figured that he was working on a section of the book that used a language that the group didn’t use in their note writing. “I’m just concerned that we might have gotten something wrong when we deciphered the prophecy…” Grimwood added with a slightly disheartened expression. Raven Feather could tell that he was worried that they might mess up the spell, or even worse. She was pleased to see that her brother shared her strong desire to succeed in the ritual. “Don’t worry about that too much Grim, I have everything under control. We will be this world’s new rulers soon enough, I promise you that.” The black mare said in a reassuring tone. Grimwood sighed while staring into his notes blankly. Before the two could return to their solemn thoughts, they were interrupted by the sound of the library door opening and an exhausted red earth pony bolting through the door. Raven Feather and Grimwood looked over to see Shadow Mist walking into the library while clutching his arm and panting heavily. “Raven Feather!” The red stallion exclaimed in a wheezy tone while breathing rapidly. The black mare stood up from her seated position and walked over to the exhausted earth pony with a concerned expression. “Shadow Mist, what happened to you?” Raven Feather asked with slight alarm while examining the red pony’s injury. It appeared as if he had cut himself on something sharp due to the presence of a small gash in his arm that was still bleeding. “I was keeping an eye on things down at Cotton’s store, when two of those ponies in vests showed up with the element of honesty. They were looking for Cotton and wanted to ask him some questions having something to do with the princess.” Shadow Mist explained his findings as quickly and clearly as he could with his exhaustion. “They know about Cotton’s involvement with us then?” Raven Feather reasoned with a disconcerted expression. “I believe so… I tried to jump them with the three workers that were there, but they got captured so I had to… take care of the problem.” Shadow Mist replied with a stern expression of resolve. He didn’t take pride in eliminating his fellow cult members, but he had to in order to prevent them from talking. “You did well Shadow Mist… how did you get this wound?” Raven Feather frowned sympathetically as she looked at how deep the cut on the pony’s arm was. “They knocked me down while I had a knife. I must have cut myself on the way down with it.” Shadow Mist cringed in pain as he removed his hoof from cradling the injury. Raven Feather returned a more serious expression to her face while backing up from the red pony. “Go get Grimwood to heal you… I’m going to go tell Cotton to stay here from now on.” Raven Feather said in an irritated tone while walking towards the door. The black mare exited the room and stormed down the hallway to go berate the white unicorn on his poor conduct in keeping himself anonymous. After Raven Feather had left the room, Grimwood put his book down and got up while Shadow Mist limped over to him. He examined the injury to determine how much energy it would take to heal it back to normal. “Raven Feather intends to kill the elements of harmony tomorrow.” The young colt said in a dull monotone while healing the wound with his shadow magic. The red furred pony lifted an eyebrow in surprise at the statement. “Did you try to talk her out of it?” Shadow Mist asked quizzically. Grimwood sighed in annoyance before looking at the earth pony with a sour expression. “I couldn’t talk her out of it without making her suspicious…” The pale colt replied in a frustrated tone. Shadow Mist groaned in annoyance while shaking his head. “For goodness sake Grimwood, just explain it to her.” The red stallion stated in a pleading tone. Grimwood shook his head in denial. “I already tried explaining it to her… she just thinks I’m paranoid. She’s read that old legend so many times that it’s engrained into her head that she’s right about it.” Grimwood huffed in defeat. Shadow Mist furrowed his brow and closed his eyes in thought. He finally sighed before looking back at the young colt. “We won’t even have a chance at correcting the ritual unless the elements of harmony are alive.” The red pony said in an annoyed tone. “I know… which is exactly why you will be supervising the action tomorrow. I want you to keep them alive until you have what we need from each of them.” Grimwood explained in a serious tone. Shadow Mist nodded while admiring his newly healed arm. “*Sigh* Grim… I’ve done everything I can to help you out here. It was hard enough keeping those idiots alive back in the woods and at the school when the others weren’t trying to kill them. The human made it so I didn’t have to intervene much, but it’s still hard trying to keep this under Raven Feather’s nose. I really think you should just tell her.” Shadow Mist said in a pleading tone. “Sorry Shadow Mist, but I can’t get her to believe me… you’re going to need to do this if we’re going to succeed.” Grimwood said in a sympathetic tone. “Now… do you think you can handle this?” He asked curiously. “It shouldn’t be too hard to collect the necessary materials… I suppose I should start with Twilight Sparkle seeing how she is the most likely to die first.” Shadow Mist said while thinking about Raven Feather’s deep hatred of the purple mare. The young colt nodded at his colleague as he explained his plan of action. “We need to perform the ritual within a few days of collecting all of the supplies from the elements… I think I know of a way to speed up the process…” Grimwood chuckled briefly while thinking about his plan in detail. Shadow Mist nodded to the young pony before turning and walking away. The red pony had much on his mind. So much to do in so little time, but he had to do it for the sake of the family he had become a part of over the years.
Chapter 43: Making Preparations*POP* A loud snap erupted from the small vial in front of Twilight. The noise, on top of the bottle jumping out of her hooves made her yelp in fright and jump back instinctively. As the unicorn watched smoke rise out of the vial as it rolled back and forth on the table, she noticed Glitterball walking over to her from the other end of the table. “You alright?” Glitter asked with mild concern while watching the frightened unicorn. Twilight slowed her rapid breathing as she realized that no danger was present. She then looked over to the rainbow haired pony with slight embarrassment. “Yeah… I think I just added too much of that blue liquid.” The purple mare huffed in a downcast tone. Glitterball frowned slightly before picking up the smoking vial with her magic and inspecting it. After satisfying that there was no more of the blue liquid, she shook the bottle gently to dump the rest of the smoke out. “Sorry about that. I guess I should have told you that strobes can be a little bit volatile if they’re not prepared right.” Glitterball’s statement didn’t make Twilight feel much better about her failure. She thought she knew enough about magic and potions to at least get her by, but apparently she was mistaken. The purple mare sighed before taking the vial from the other unicorn and picking up the pouch that held the blue liquid she was using. “How did you find out how to make this stuff anyway?” Twilight asked while cautiously eyeing how much and how fast she was pouring the liquid into the vial. Glitterball shrugged her shoulders in indication that she was clueless. “We didn’t make the strobes… those were all Princess Luna’s idea. I haven’t even had a chance to tinker with them up until now.” Glitter explained while looking over to her side of the table where Rarity had been watching her work. There were many more open vials of different shapes and types strewn around, and there were a few more ingredients than Twilight had been given. The purple pony examined the intriguing items from afar with burning curiosity. “I could help you with the experimenting if… you know… you need some help?” Twilight offered with a helpful, and perhaps a little too cheery, smile. It wasn’t hard to tell that the unicorn was eager to get her hooves on some new magical ingredients to tinker with. Glitterball smiled politely at the offer, but shook her head in refusal. “Sorry Twilight, but for now I just want you to focus on the strobes. I will handle tweaking the other charms myself. As you can see, it is hard enough to put together the strobes the way the princess showed us. I don’t want to blow up the library after you’ve been nice enough to let us stay here and work.” Glitter stated while glancing over to the vial Twilight was working on. The lavender pony sighed in disappointment before returning to her work. “Ok… I guess I can live with that.” Twilight said in a deflated manner while fidgeting around with the vial in her hooves and wondering what she could have done with all of the other magical ingredients. She felt the vial nearly slipping out of her hooves in her distracted state and panicked slightly as she fumbled to keep the bottle from falling. Glitter giggled silently while turning to walk away so the purple mare wouldn’t see her snickering at her mishap. As Glitterball was returning to her side of the table, she overheard Spike and Peppermint talking over by the back wall. Rarity and Twilight noticed the two conversing as they started laughing at something that was said. “What are you two talking about?” Rarity asked quizzically. She never figured that Spike would socialize this well with a complete stranger so soon. The two stopped themselves from laughing while turning to face the three curious onlookers. “We were just telling a few stories from our past.” Peppermint spoke up casually. Spike nodded in agreement before speaking himself. “Yeah, we actually have quite a bit in common.” The young dragon added with a smirk. The others smiled at seeing the two interact. Twilight was happy to see that Spike had made a new friend. “That’s good to hear Spike. Maybe after all of this is over we can go hang out with them sometime.” Twilight suggested while looking over to Glitterball. The white unicorn nodded in approval of the idea. Spike was happy to hear that he would be able to stay friends with the group. Suddenly, a knock at the door pulled everyone’s attention away. Being closer to the front of the library, Glitterball decided to volunteer to walk over and open it. As the white unicorn opened the door and looked outside, she was greeted by the sight of Glimmer Shine, Neon Streak, and Applejack standing outside with worried expressions. Glitter’s eyes widened in shock as she noticed that the orange mare had a large and bloodied gauze pad held to her chest by medical tape. “Oh my gosh! What happened to you?!” Glitter asked with an alarmed tone while watching the three walking inside. As Twilight and the others watched the group enter, they gasped in shock as they saw their injured friend. “Oh dearie me! Are you ok Applejack?” Rarity asked with a concerned expression while holding her hoof up to her mouth in horror. Applejack winced in pain as she looked down to the bandage. The gauze pad had already been bled through as the wound underneath continued to pour out the crimson fluid. The sight of the red bandage made everyone feel sick with worry for the orange mare. Everyone in the room turned to Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak for an explanation as to why Applejack had been hurt so badly. The two shared a quick glance to each other before frowning sadly. Glimmer Shine stepped forward and decided to tell the group about what happened. “When we got to the bookstore, Cotton Quill wasn’t there. When we asked the guy at the front desk if he knew where he was, we got jumped by three ponies that were in there. Apparently the pony at the front desk has powers like that other guy out in the forest, because after we dealt with his three cronies he flat out vanished.” The yellow stallion explained with a disheartened expression. Applejack spoke up and interrupted Glimmer Shine to finish the story. “That feller… Ah think he said his name was Shadow Mist, he could turn invisible somehow. After the fight was over, one of the knives the three ponies used to attack us just floated in the air. It swung at me and got me pretty good. He would have done a lot more damage if Neon here didn’t tackle him.” The orange mare said while cringing in pain from her wound. Glitterball gently lowered the bandage enough to see how bad the gash was. The rainbow haired unicorn frowned with worry when she saw that the stab wound was still bleeding. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding by ourselves, so we came back here as fast as we could.” Neon Streak stated while cringing in sympathy at the large gash. Glitterball shook her head sadly as she came to the realization that her magic wouldn’t be able to close this size of a wound. “I don’t think I can heal this myself…” Glitter said with a somber tone. Twilight and the others felt a feeling of dread settle in their stomachs as they realized that the orange mare might bleed to death right in front of them. Spike and Rarity especially felt a sick feeling due to the sight of so much blood coming out of someone they knew. “Tom and the others might not be back for hours… what are we going to do?” Twilight fretted with concern while forcefully shoving the thought of her friend dying out of her mind. Suddenly, Peppermint walked up to the injured mare with a determined expression. Glitterball backed up and let the red haired stallion examine the farm pony. “Twilight, can you go get me a towel please?” Pepper asked with a calm demeanor. Twilight was slightly confused as to why he would need a towel, but she trusted that he knew what he was doing. “Right.” The purple mare said while trotting upstairs to fetch the requested item. Meanwhile, Applejack was left to wonder what the white pony had in mind for her. “What are you going to do with a towel?” The orange mare asked with a slightly nervous tone. Much to her dismay, she noticed Peppermint frown slightly as he turned to face her. The red haired pony reached down to his vest and pulled up another vial that had a strange design traced into the casing. The bottle also had a conical tip that came out of one end with a small hole in the top. “I can use this to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding…” Peppermint paused and looked down apprehensively. “But the thing is, and I’m going to be honest with you here, it is probably going to hurt a lot… like, really a lot.” The white stallion’s explanation made Applejack’s eyes widen in fright. The towel wasn’t to clean anything up, it was for her to bite on so she had something to help her cope with a great deal of pain. She could practically feel the anxiety attack coming on as she started breathing rapidly. The orange mare wasn’t normally scared of pain and medical treatments, but the severity of the situation and her shocked nerves from earlier were starting to get to her. “Well… thanks for being honest Ah guess.” Applejack stated while chuckling nervously. Despite the orange mare’s attempt at humor, everyone could tell that she was extremely nervous about going through with this. “Hey, take it easy… you don’t want to be hyperventilating when you’re already losing blood. How do you feel?” Pepper asked in a gentle tone with a sincerely compassionate expression on his face. “Now that you mention it… Ah feel a little bit light headed.” Applejack replied while taking note of the dizzy sensation she felt. “That’s normal all things considered… don’t worry, I can give you something to deal with the pain, and it should be over really quick.” The red haired pony said in an attempt at calming the anxious mare down. Applejack took in a few deep breaths to regulate her breathing back to normal. She then focused on mentally preparing herself for the pain she would be feeling. “Can’t you just apply pressure to it to stop the bleeding?” Rarity asked with almost as much concern as Applejack was feeling. The sight of blood made her queasy and sick on a normal day, but seeing her friend pouring out the crimson liquid was making the white unicorn’s stomach flip uneasily. “Normally I would, but she’s bleeding pretty badly and I’m not sure if we have enough bandages with us. I would rather stop the bleeding immediately rather than run the risk of her losing too much blood before we could get her to a hospital.” Peppermint explained with relative calmness that impressed Applejack and the others. Judging from his timid nature, the ponies would never peg the white pony to be able to focus so much while someone was injured like this. “Ok, I’m back.” Twilight announced while rushing down the stairs with a sense of urgency. She had a small towel levitating beside her as she trotted up to the group and handed the item off to Peppermint. The white stallion wasted no time and put on some blue rubber gloves he produced from a pouch on his vest. After unfolding the towel and inspecting it to ensure that it would suffice, Peppermint handed the cloth over to Applejack. The orange mare eyed the item apprehensively while her mind raced as to what kind of torment she was about to undertake. Before she could hesitate any longer, the farm pony winced in pain and looked down to see her wound still bleeding through the gauze pad. Not wanting to waste any more time, Applejack shrugged in defeat and placed the towel in her mouth. “Just sit tight and look at me Applejack… Pepper is going to give you a little shot of some local anesthetic before he does anything.” Glitterball explained in a gentle tone while keeping the nervous mare’s attention on her. Applejack knew she was just trying to distract her from the white pony preparing her skin for an injection from a needle. As much as the farm pony hated needles, she knew that the small stick of the syringe would not compare to the pain that would follow. She tried her best to keep her attention on her friends and Glitterball as they gave her compassionate expressions. “Do you feel this?” Peppermint asked while pinching a section of skin near the wound. Applejack felt nothing more than a slight tingly sensation to alert her to the pinch. “N-no…” Applejack stammered nervously while taking a few more breaths through the towel. The experience reminded the orange mare of waiting for a doctor to perform a painful operation. “Alright Applejack, I’m going to just remove your bandage and get my cauterizer ready. I’ll let you know before I do anything else.” The red haired pony explained to inform the nervous mare of his actions as she looked away while he worked. Pepper slowly removed the gauze bandage and placed a new one just below the wound to catch any blood that trickled out before he sealed the wound. As the white stallion unclipped the strange vial from his vest and twisted the bottom, the bottle emitted a monotonous hum while a red light flickered to life at the tip of the vial. He pressed the button on the bottom of the bottle to test it out before applying it to the orange pony’s skin. Everyone watched silently as the very top of the nozzle glowed red hot. “Ok… here we go. I’ll try to get it done as fast as possible.” Peppermint stated while lowering the pointed tip of the vial towards the wound. Applejack tensed up slightly and averted her eyes as she waited for the process to start. “Mmmph!” The orange mare groaned in pain while clenching her teeth down on the towel. Even through the anesthetic she could still feel a sharp burning sensation that made her nerves scream out for mercy. Everyone watched with empathy clear on their faces as their friend tried her hardest to remain still through the pain. Applejack thought it was a little bit odd that she had to put so much effort into helping the person causing her this much suffering, but that was how medicine worked after all. Just before the orange mare thought she could take no more, the flaming hot sensation ceased and a relieving feeling of coolness washed over the area where Peppermint was working on. She looked down to see that her wound had ceased its seemingly endless bleeding. “See? Almost good as new… almost.” Peppermint stated in a jesting manor before realizing that the gash still looked rather gruesome, even without blood pouring from it. Despite her unsightly wound, Applejack chuckled as she gave the white pony a thankful smile. “Thanks Pepper… Ah don’t know what would have happened to me if you didn’t step in.” The orange mare said with a bright expression. Peppermint was happy to see another pony returned to health and happiness. “My pleasure… now let’s get you all fixed up so this can heal on its own.” Pepper said while reaching into a pouch on his vest to fetch another bandage. Suddenly, the group heard another knock on the door. Curious as to which of her friends it might be, Twilight took it upon herself to walk over and answer the door. After opening the door, the purple unicorn was greeted by the sight of Sunspot and her two pegasus friends. What Twilight didn’t expect to see however, was the sight of Pinkie Pie standing behind them. “Girls! It’s good to see you’re back… and, Pinkie?” Twilight asked in surprise as she noticed the pink pony behind the three flyers. Pinkie Pie smiled awkwardly and rubbed her arm as she realized how late she had been to arrive at the library. “Sorry I couldn’t be here earlier… I had some things to work out back at the corner. But now I’m ready to help out.” The party pony stated while returning her cheerful smile. Twilight was always pleased to see her friends and their own uniquely warm personalities. “Come on in everyone.” The purple mare said with a courteous smile while welcoming the four inside. Once inside, everyone walked forward to join the group. The group of ponies was surprised to see Applejack getting patched up by Peppermint. “What happened to you Applejack?” Rainbow Dash asked with slight concern as she watched the orange pony getting bandaged around the chest. She might not have been around for the worst part of it, but the cyan pony could tell that something bad happened. Applejack turned her head to face the pegasus to explain her injury. “We got attacked down at that bookstore… Ah’m fine now though, so it all turned out ok.” Applejack said with a cheery disposition. The cyan mare was still uneasy as to why they would be attacked, but decided to just be happy that her friend wasn’t badly hurt. “Any news from you guys?” Neon Streak asked curiously while looking to Sunspot for answers. The suited mare sighed while thinking of her relative lack of progress. “Well, we pretty much confirmed that someone stole a body. I found a trail from the grave that led out of the cemetery and down to the edge of town where it disappeared.” Sunspot’s news only made everyone feel more upset as to the obscene nature of their opponents. “Man… those guys must be sick in the head if they think doing all of this is alright.” Spike stated with slight disdain. He couldn’t believe that the society he grew up in could produce such despicable individuals. “Don’t worry Spike, we’ll catch them soon enough.” Twilight said in a reassuring voice while looking down at the young dragon. “Once Tom and the princesses get back, we can decide what to do next.” She said with a level of confidence that told Spike that she knew that they could win. Before anyone else could say anything, a knocking sound came from the door again. “That must be them now…” Twilight muttered while walking back over to the door and opening it, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Tom, Brimstoke, and the two alicorns standing outside. The purple mare smiled as she saw the small group. “Guys! It’s good to see you made it back.” Twilight greeted while beckoning the four inside. Now that the four had entered the library, the room was a bit crowded as everyone moved around to find their own spot to stand. After relaying all of the information that they had, Celestia and Luna thought about the matter deeply while trying to figure out the answers to the many questions that were plaguing them. Why were the hooded ponies doing so many experiments with dead bodies? Why did they take a dead body from a cemetery? And possibly the most important question, what would they do next? “So… all we know at this point is that whoever these ponies are, they are doing something that has to do with dead bodies, and we know the names of three of their members.” Celestia thought out loud while looking around to see if anyone had anything to add. “Brimstoke, what do you intend to do next?” The white alicorn asked the stallion quizzically. Brimstoke thought for a moment while everyone looked to him to see what his answer would be. “I say we try to track down those three names we have to see what comes up. In the meantime we should decipher that book that Tom and the others found out in the forest.” Brimstoke finally spoke with a confident tone. Everyone agreed with the white pony’s conclusion. “Then it’s settled. You should probably leave a few people here with Twilight to decipher that book tonight and tomorrow while you take care of that.” Luna suggested while looking over at the book that was lying on the table. “Just be sure to meet up with us by tomorrow Brimstoke. We will need you and most of the team with us when we make the speech.” Luna added while looking over at the white stallion. “Alright then… Pepper and I will stay here overnight while you guys sort all of that out… as long as it’s alright with Twilight of course.” Glitterball said while looking over to the purple unicorn for confirmation. “Right, of course… you two can stay as long as you want.” Twilight stated with a courteous smile. Peppermint nodded in agreement to the rainbow haired unicorn’s proposal. “You should be present at the speech as well Tom… I think it’s about time we properly introduce you to the rest of the town.” Luna suggested while looking at the human thoughtfully. Tom wasn’t sure how to feel about being stared at by a crowd of strange talking ponies, but he nodded in agreement anyway. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie sighed in disappointment. She was already upset that she arrived late, but now she had nothing to do, nothing to help her friends, nothing to contribute to the investigation, just plain nothing to do. This caused a feeling of sorrowful regret in the pink mare. Twilight noticed that her friend was looking down at the floor with a disheartened expression. It was very unusual to see the party pony without a smile on her face. The unicorn wondered what could have been wrong with her. “You ok Pinkie?” The purple mare asked with a tone of friendly concern. Pinkie looked up from her bored reflection and shrugged as she noticed that she had appeared more sullen than she thought. “Yeah… I’m just a little sad that I didn’t get here early enough to help you guys out.” The pink mare explained in a regretful tone. She took a moment to get over her negative feelings before adopting a less depressed expression. The group felt a little bad for the pink pony. After all, she only wanted to help them out with anything she could. They all wondered what it would be like for them if they were unable to contribute. While everyone else shared sympathetic frowns with the party pony, Celestia looked down in thought as an idea came to her. “You know Pinkie… I’m sure that we could use a little help with decorating the square for tomorrow.” The white alicorn’s proposal made the somber pony perk up instantly. “R-really?” Pinkie asked with a hopeful expression. It was clear that she would jump at the opportunity to do something like that. “Yes really… We were going to have to go without any decorations because nobody wanted to do it on such short notice, but if you want to step in and get the job done… I suppose we could-” Before the princess could even finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a cheerful outburst by the pink mare. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!” Pinkie stated with barely containable joy as she bounced up and down happily. Celestia was glad to see that her suggestion had returned the pink pony to her usual cheerful self. “Alright then, I think we should get going now. We have a lot to do in a short amount of time.” Luna said while moving towards the door. Celestia nodded as she decided that it was best to leave sooner rather than later. “Ok Glitterball, you be sure to let us know anything you find in that book.” Brimstoke instructed while everyone but Glitterball and Peppermint followed their leader. The unicorn nodded confidently while turning to her red haired partner for assurance. “What time should I be down there?” Tom asked the two alicorns with a sense of curiosity. Celestia turned to the boy and thought about it for a moment before replying. “We’ll send someone to pick you up. Just be sure to be up early.” Celestia said with a friendly smile. Tom chuckled at the notion that he needed to be reminded to get up early. “Sure thing.” The boy replied while waving to the departing group. Celestia and Luna gave the ponies, dragon, and human one last parting glance before heading out of the door with Pinkie Pie, Brimstoke, and his three teammates in tow. “So… is anyone heading down to the square tomorrow to check out the speech?” Rainbow Dash asked quizzically while turning to the group. Twilight obviously had to stay to help Glitterball and Peppermint with the book, but the others hadn’t really put much thought into whether or not they wanted to attend the speech. “I don’t know Rainbow Dash… Sweetie Belle has been practically begging me to bring her down here to… help out with the investigation as she puts it.” Rarity stated with an unsure tone. “So if it’s alright with Twilight, I think I will bring her down here tomorrow when there isn’t much going on.” She said while looking to the purple mare for confirmation. “Yeah, Applebloom has been bugging me about that too… do you think Ah could bring her down here for a while too?” Applejack asked while also turning to the purple unicorn for an answer. Twilight knew that she would probably be busy with deciphering the book, but the two fillies were usually well behaved enough. “Sure… that sounds like a great idea. Matter of fact, why don’t you go ask Scootaloo if she wants to come Rainbow Dash?” The purple unicorn suggested in an accepting tone. The cyan pegasus smiled at the idea of Scootaloo getting to stay at the library while Twilight and the others worked on the investigation. The orange filly had seemed so disappointed about not being able to assist the group in even the smallest way, so naturally sitting in the library while some crucial case work went on would do wonders for the young pegasus. “That sounds like a good idea… I’ll go by her place later and ask her. I should be able to swing her by here before the speech starts.” Rainbow Dash said happily. Everyone felt a warm sense of joy in knowing that they were doing something good for the three crusaders. “Oh yeah, by the way Rainbow Dash, I think I could go to the speech with you.” Fluttershy volunteered in a cheerful tone. She was pleased to see the cyan mare’s eyes light up with excitement. “Awesome! Maybe we could pick up something from Sugar Cube Corner after we’re done. I haven’t had a cupcake in like a week.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a warm smile as she made plans to hang out with a friend for the better part of the day. Tom was surprised to hear that sweets were such a large part of the ponies’ diets, but then again, he figured that with someone like Pinkie Pie around that there would be a lot of desserts and parties thrown around everywhere. “Well I’ll see you guys either tomorrow or some other time. If you don’t want to come in and wait around for something to do, I could just let you know when we find something of worth.” Twilight said while watching her friends heading towards the door. Everyone nodded and waved to the others as they left the library to carry on their daily business. “Guess it’s just us again.” Spike said while looking over to the book on the table. “Us and a lot of research…” He shrugged his shoulders and sighed in annoyance as he remembered what they would be doing for the rest of the day. Twilight could tell that the dragon was frustrated by the amount of work he would have to do. She didn’t want him to stress himself out so much because of something like this. The unicorn felt that the dragon should take his mind off of everything that had been going on, especially after his involvement with the incident at the hospital. “Don’t worry Spike. You don’t have to help us if you don’t want to. Peppermint and Glitterball will be plenty of help while Tom is at the speech, so you can take some time off to relax.” Twilight said while placing a hoof on Spike’s head and ruffling his scaly hair. The dragon felt a calming sense of peace as he thought about taking a day off to rest, but he also felt conflicted in that he wanted to help the purple unicorn. “Are you sure?” Spike asked with a doubtful expression, to which Twilight nodded in reply. The young dragon sighed in defeat before resolving to at least help a little bit before he went off to relax. “Hey Twilight, are you coming to help or are you going to leave us with all of this?” Glitterball asked in a jesting tone. Twilight pulled her attention away from her assistant to look over at the two ponies waiting by the book. She could tell that they were eager to get the ordeal over with as fast as possible. “Uh… sure thing. Tom, would you mind helping us out? You seem to know a lot about the code these guys use to write.” Twilight asked while looking over to the human pleadingly. Tom shrugged his shoulders in indifference. He might as well offer them his expertise in the matter. “Alright, let’s crack that thing open and see what’s inside.” Tom stated while walking over to the table and rubbing his hands together in anticipation. The four quickly got to work in going over the new contents of the recently discovered book. They had a lot of work ahead of them, and they had to start somewhere.
Chapter 44: Heading to the SquareIt was a little bit after sunset as Twilight and her small troop studied the fourth book. They had spent several hours on studying the contents of the tome and cross referencing it with the other books in their possession. Everyone felt a thick sense of tediousness and boredom that made it all the more harder for them to fight the growing feeling of tiredness between them. And to punctuate all of the effort given by the ponies, baby dragon, and human, the group hadn’t even deciphered much of the tome. “Ughh… why is this so hard? I would compliment them on their thorough encoding skills if I didn’t want to beat them over the head with this stupid thing!” Twilight fumed with frustration as she slapped the open book with her hoof to punish it for causing her so much distress. The lack of progress was clearly starting to eat away at the unicorn’s spirit. Spike was surprised to see the usually cool headed pony so frustrated. “Calm down Twilight… we’ve been at this for a while now. Maybe we should give it a rest for the night?” The dragon suggested in a gentle tone. Hearing Spike voice his concerns made the lavender pony shrug. She didn’t want to let her emotions get the best of her. “*Sigh*… I guess you’re right Spike.” Twilight said in a defeated tone while sinking back into her chair. “If we leave this for tomorrow, then maybe we can make better sense of this stuff with fresh eyes.” She said in a more relaxed manner. Hearing the unicorn accept his proposal made Spike smile. He stretched his arms and yawned tiredly before hopping off of his chair. “I’m heading up to bed… see you whenever you decide to join me.” The dragon stated while walking over to the stairs. “Night Spike…” Tom glanced over from his section of notes to see the dragon off before he went upstairs to turn in. Everyone else gave Spike a quick smile and a gesture to say goodnight to him as well. “You heading to bed? We can handle this for a while longer if you want to get some sleep.” Glitterball asked the purple mare curiously. Peppermint nodded in agreement while looking past the white unicorn sitting beside him. Twilight smiled at the thought of going to bed. She could already feel the welcoming embrace of her soft mattress and pillows as she envisioned herself snuggling under the covers. “You know what… I think I will. Are you guys sure you will be alright down here?” Twilight asked curiously. Although she had provided the two ponies with blankets and pillows, she was still unsure of leaving them to sleep on the floor. “Of course… believe me, this floor is a lot more comfortable than my bunk back at the academy.” Peppermint suggested in a jovial tone. Twilight chuckled at the stallion’s upbeat attitude. Even in the aftermath of hours of tedious research he seemed happy go lucky. “Alright then. Come upstairs whenever you’re ready for bed, Tom. Goodnight.” Twilight said while walking up the stairs. She gave one last glance at the three as they returned to their studies. Satisfied that they would get along just fine, the unicorn smiled before heading up the stairs. As she opened the door to her bedroom and quietly walked in, Twilight noticed that Spike was still getting settled into his own bed. The dragon smiled as he saw the unicorn entering the room and walking up to her loft. Twilight sat on her bed and looked over to her number one assistant lovingly. “So… decided to call it a night?” Spike asked rhetorically with a smirk on his face. Twilight sighed as she knew that the dragon was right after all in his decision to rest. “I guess so.” The purple mare replied with a warm smile as she watched Spike rustle under his blanket to settle in. After positioning himself for a short while, the dragon turned over on his side and looked up at the unicorn. “Hey, Twilight?” Spike asked curiously. The sudden question made the unicorn tilt her head in intrigue before replying. “Yeah?” Twilight asked in a curious tone and waited for the sleepy dragon to continue. “Are you sure you’re alright…? From the hospital I mean.” Spike said while trying to sound as gentle as possible on the touchy subject. Despite the dragon’s friendly and concerned tone, the mere mention of the hospital sent a cold chill down Twilight’s spine. The sight of the unicorn’s pale expression made Spike frown slightly. “Yeah… I guess I am Spike. I’m done blaming myself for what happened… the only thing that really bothers me about the experience now is how you got taken away from me and Scootaloo like that.” Twilight looked down sadly as she remembered the experience. Spike felt a twinge of fear from remembering the ordeal himself. Just before the dragon could speak up, he was interrupted by the unicorn continuing. “I… I thought I lost you for a while there. Seeing those things drag you away like that was the most dreadful experience I have ever had… and as much as I had to keep my emotions in check for Scootaloo’s sake… I thought you were dead.” Twilight’s lip quivered slightly as she thought back to the events at the hospital. This was the first time she had openly thought about what happened to Spike since that day. “Twilight…” Spike said in a caring voice as he watched the unicorn looking down somberly. He noticed a single tear fall down her cheek as she vented her emotions of the horrible memory. “It’s ok now Twilight… all of that is behind us. I’m still here with you, and nothing will ever change th-” The dragon was suddenly interrupted by Twilight looking over and talking a little bit louder than before. “But what if you got hurt? What if… what if those things didn’t just want to feed off of your fear… w-what if they did to you what they did to Diasychain?” Twilight’s voice shook with the last part of her sentence. The sudden thought of what might have happened if the creatures had more sinister intentions for the children sent a wave of sadness through her. The unicorn remained silent as she waited for Spike to speak up for her. She tried calming her nerves down as she fought against the urge to burst into tears. A quiet sobbing noise made Twilight look up in surprise. She noticed that Spike was softly weeping with a fearful expression on his face. Twilight suddenly realized that her painful memory was also painful to the young dragon. “I’m sorry Spike… come here.” The purple pony said in a gentle tone while hopping off of the bed and walking over to the weeping dragon, she then knelt down and wrapped her arms around Spike lovingly to hold him close. “I didn’t mean to upset you…” Twilight placed her head on top of Spike’s and let him bury his face into her chest. She let him vent his short sobs for a while before letting him go and watching him wipe the tears from his eyes. “It’s ok… I just…” Spike took a moment to compose himself before continuing. “I thought I would never see you again too… and that terrified me. I didn’t know what they would do to me, but I somehow knew that I wouldn’t ever see you again.” He explained in a sad and shaky voice. The purple mare felt horrible knowing that she evoked such negative feelings in the dragon. “It’s ok Spike… I’m here now. It’s just like you said… all of that is behind us. We just have to keep each other close and in each other’s hearts. As long as we do that, nobody will be able to separate us.” Twilight said in a confident voice. The unicorn’s speech made Spike feel a lot happier inside. He felt more confident in knowing that the power of friendship would keep them together. “Now let’s get to sleep and not think about anything scary like that… ok?” Twilight suggested with a warm smile. Spike nodded slowly while lowering himself back onto his pillow. Twilight walked back up to her bed and pulled back the covers so she could climb in. After settling in and nestling her head onto her pillow, the unicorn took a moment to stare at her ceiling and reflect on everything that happened in the day. She quietly resolved to try her hardest to protect her friends and her way of life from anyone willing to oppose it. “Twilight?” Spike spoke up while looking up in the general direction of the unicorn’s bed. Twilight trailed her eyes downward while keeping her head still. “Yeah?” The purple mare asked, curious as to what the dragon wanted. A few seconds went by as Spike thought for a moment. “I love you…” Spike said with genuine compassion in his voice. Twilight smiled as she felt a warm tingle of kindheartedness fill her body. “I love you too Spike…” The unicorn replied before closing her eyes and drifting off into an unfocused daze. The two remained silent as they each fell asleep in their warm and cozy beds. The morning light filtered in through the balcony and into the quiet room as it had so many times before. Twilight squinted her eyes tightly as she woke up from her peaceful slumber. Taking a quick peek out of one eye, the unicorn quickly discovered that her drowsiness had not left her as of yet. The room was nothing more than a blurry bright mess as she tried to focus her vision. “*Yawn*” Twilight let out a long groan as she yawned and stretched her stiff body. She had a dopey smile on her face as her drowsy state left her in a content stupor. After rubbing her eyes to remove any crust that had accumulated during the night, the purple pony climbed out of bed and turned to the rest of her room. She immediately spotted Spike a short distance away, still asleep in his bed. He had apparently shrugged his blanket off of his upper half in his sleep. Seeing the peaceful rise and fall of the sleeping dragon’s chest made the unicorn feel a sense of compassion for him. She decided that it was best to let him sleep for a while longer. After gingerly lifting the blanket back up to cover Spike’s body, Twilight walked over to the door and quietly opened it. She then stepped out into the upstairs hallway and closed the door as silently as she had opened it. I wonder if Tom is already up? She thought to herself while descending the stairs. The unicorn looked over to the main room to see that Glitterball and Peppermint were asleep. Glitterball had apparently fallen asleep at the table she was studying at, with a blanket draped over her body from either the stallion or the human placing it there. While Peppermint on the other hand had actually opted to sleep on the floor with his blanket and pillow. Twilight then noticed that Tom was still sitting at a table and working on the book and its notes. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that he had been there all night, refusing to sleep until he found some answers from the encoded tome. “Well I guess that answers my question.” Twilight said to herself while smiling and shaking her head at the sight of the seemingly tireless human. The unicorn quickly but quietly walked down the rest of the stairs and over to the human. Tom seemed to notice her a little bit later than she would have expected, having been absorbed in his work in total silence for so long. “Morning…” Tom said in a dull tone. Even though he wasn’t sleepy, Twilight could tell that he hated doing stuff like this for so long. Despite her love of reading and studying, the unicorn had to agree with the human. “Morning.” The purple pony said with a smile while taking a quick glance at the boy’s work to see what he had done. Much to her surprise, she saw that he had made some serious headway into decoding the notes from the book. “Wow, you did all of this by yourself?” Twilight asked with surprise as she analyzed the extent of the decoding. It seemed like he was making a cipher sheet so the ponies could easier decode the book when he was gone. “Not entirely…” Tom replied while glancing over to the unconscious unicorn slumped over a table on the other side of the room. “Glitterball helped out a lot with teaching me the magical portions of the notes. She and I were working on decoding this thing together until she conked out… I took over from there.” He explained with a healthy respect for the intelligence of the white mare. He had to remind himself constantly that these ponies were as smart as humans were. Twilight looked at the sleeping pony with admiration. Glitterball reminded her of herself in a lot of ways, from her love of studying, to her strong desire to solve problems to help friends. She smiled in knowing that she wasn’t the only one obsessing over the investigation. “So what time do you think you’ll be back from the speech?” The purple unicorn asked with a hint of aspiration. Tom wondered why she was so interested in when he would return. “I don’t know… I was never one for politics in the first place, so I don’t know how long the speech will be. Why do you ask?” The human asked suspiciously. Twilight chuckled nervously as she realized how obvious she had been. She wrapped her arm around her other arm and rubbed it as she awkwardly tried to rationalize a response. “Umm… well uh… I was going to see if the girls wanted to hang out somewhere later on today and uhh… I was wondering if maybe you wanted to join us?” Twilight smiled awkwardly as she made her suggestion. If it wasn’t for the overly friendly nature of this society, and the fact that they were completely different species, Tom would have thought the unicorn was hitting on him. Such a request would definitely have been a hint at affection for a human girl, but the boy knew that she just wanted to hang out with friends, and she considered him a friend. “I think that would be nice… you could use a break from the investigation after all.” Tom said with a sincere tone. The human’s response made the unicorn smile with joy. She was happy to see that he was accepting of her proposal. “Speaking of which, how are the notes coming?” Twilight asked as she returned her attention to the book on the table. Tom glanced down to his own sheets of paper that he was working on as he tallied up his progress in his head. “I haven’t worked on decoding many of the pages… I have been focusing on making a cipher so you guys can understand this thing when I leave, and it’s to the point where you could finish it if you had to… so yeah.” Tom explained while handing the unicorn a page from his notes. Much to her excitement, she could actually comprehend much of it at first glance. “This is great Tom! We can actually read this thing now… and maybe we can decipher the rest of the other books with this too!” Twilight could hardly contain her elation as she smiled from ear to ear. Tom chuckled as the unicorn praised his work. It was always a surprise to him how much he had learned since he gained his status as slayer. Before the human could speak up in reply, a short knocking sound came from the door. The pair turned their attention to the door with a burning sense of curiosity as to who would be here so early in the morning. Twilight glanced to Tom briefly before walking over to the door to let whoever it was inside. She gripped the handle and swung the door open, only to be surprised by the sight of the visitor. Standing outside, was a gray pegasus mare that Twilight knew to be Derpy Hooves. The mare’s eyes were skewed in different directions, a clear indicator as to her unique mentality. Her hair was long and yellow, and she had several bubbles as a cutie mark. “Ditzy Doo?” Twilight addressed the pegasus with her real name. Derpy Hooves was just a moniker that she adopted later on, but the unicorn felt it more formal to call her by actual name. The pegasus offered a stoic salute while looking at the unicorn through her left eye. “Derpy Hooves reporting for duty!” Derpy exclaimed with a smile while returning to a casual stance. Twilight wondered why the gray mare was here, as she normally delivered mail around Ponyville unless otherwise tasked. “What are you doing here… Derpy?” The purple mare asked quizzically while she watched the bubbly pegasus bounce her head around enthusiastically. “The princess gave me an important mission to escort Thomas Greene down to town hall. She said that he was staying here at the library… is he awake?” Ditzy lowered her voice as she realized that someone may still be asleep inside. Twilight turned to fetch the boy, when she noticed that he was walking up to see what was going on. “He is… Thomas Greene at your service milady.” The human said while observing the eccentric pony outside. She seemed to be watching him with one eye while she kept the other focused on Twilight. She also didn’t seem fazed by the fact that he looked nothing like a pony. “Pleased to meet you Thomas… I’m Derpy Hooves.” Ditzy introduced herself while giving a courteous bow. Tom was mystified by the strange pegasus, he looked over to Twilight for some clarification. “Uh… Tom this is Ditzy Doo, or rather, Derpy Hooves. She delivers mail around town… but apparently she’s here to take you down to town hall.” The unicorn explained with a slightly confused tone. She wasn’t used to seeing the pegasus take orders from the princess like this, but apparently Celestia thought she would be handy for the job. “Right… well I’m ready to go if you’re ready to lead Ms’ Hooves.” Tom stated while stepping outside with the pegasus. The gray mare seemed flattered by the kindhearted attitude of the human. “See you later Tom.” Twilight said while waving with her hoof to bid farewell to the boy. Tom returned the gesture while nodding his head. “See ya… try not to have too much fun without me.” Tom stated in a sarcastic tone. Twilight chuckled ironically as she thought of the work ahead of her. Little did the human know that she would actually have fun with reading the magical tome now that she could decipher it. The unicorn waved to the two as they walked off and chatted idly. Twilight could just barely hear the subject of their conversation as she stepped inside. “So why do they call you Derpy Hooves anyway?” Tom asked curiously while looking at the curious pegasus. The gray mare pondered the matter for a moment before responding. “I don’t know… but everyone calls me that, so I just kind of went with it.” Ditzy stated while shrugging her shoulders. Tom chuckled and shook his head as he thought about the odd nickname. “Hey… why do they call you Greene if you’re dressed in blue?” Ditzy asked innocently with genuine curiosity. Tom was about to discredit the statement as another estranged thought by the bubbly mare, until he put more thought into it. As much as he tried, he couldn’t think of a reason why his last name was so unrelated to him, he didn’t even really like the color green. “You know… I don’t really know.” Tom replied while shrugging in defeat. Twilight giggled as she listened to the two conversing as they walked away. She then closed the door and walked inside before heading over to the book on the table. She knew that it would be easier now that she had Tom’s cipher, but it would still take some work to unravel the contents of the book and its notes. Meanwhile over in the town hall, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were in a room with a couch and two windows conversing with the princess and Brimstoke before the speech took place. Luna, Sunspot, Glimmer Shine, and Neon Streak were somewhere out in the square still making preparations and ensuring that everyone was in their proper place. Rainbow Dash peered out of the window out into the square, only to be greeted with the sight of a crowd of ponies walking around as they waited for the announcement to be made. “Wow… It never ceases to amaze me how many ponies actually live in this town.” The cyan mare stated in astonishment as she watched the ponies move around on their daily business. “It seems a lot smaller when you’re just walking through back streets and between houses.” Pinkie Pie said while admiring the colorful square and its lively inhabitants. “You got that right…” Rainbow Dash added while returning her attention to the inside of the room. She noticed that Princess Celestia was looking down with a troubled expression. The alicorn seemed to be lost in her thoughts as she stared at the floor blankly. “You ok Princess?” The cyan pony asked with concern. The pegasus’s sudden question made Celestia look up abruptly as she realized that she had been dwelling in her own mind. She sighed before putting on a less distressed expression for the sake of the concerned ponies. “Yes… I’m fine Rainbow Dash. I was just thinking about everything that’s been happening recently.” The alicorn stated with a somber tone. The ponies could tell that she was incredibly worried about what the hooded ponies would do next. “I’m sure that everything will be fine. I know that Tom and the others will be able to catch them… right girls?” Rainbow Dash stated confidently while looking to her two friends for support. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie nodded immediately in response. “Absolutely.” Fluttershy said with a confident smile. The yellow pegasus had no doubt in her mind that everything would turn out for the best in the end. “You bet! I’m sure that you guys will beat their sorry butts until they feel bad for everything they’ve done!” Pinkie added in an excited tone while playfully hitting Brimstoke on the shoulder for emphasis. The stallion was unsure of how to react to the pink mare’s energetic outburst. Celestia was pleased to see that the element bearers had so much faith and hope. They knew for certain that if it came down to it, that the white alicorn would handle things herself. The princess was unsure of how that made her feel, or even if they were right to trust her in such a crisis. “I’m glad to hear that you all have so much confidence… hold on to that, it’s a good thing to have in times of need.” Celestia said in a stoic tone. The ponies smiled and nodded while taking the alicorn’s words to heart. “As far as those hooded ponies are concerned, I can only hope that we find them before they strike again…” The white alicorn stated with a worried expression. Everyone’s smiles faded to somber expressions as they merely gave a nod in return. It was hard to believe that such a serious threat to Equestria had popped up so suddenly. The sound of the door opening drew the group’s attention over to the back of the room. The sight of a gray pegasus mare being followed by a blue suited human made them perk up with joy. They were beginning to wonder if the human would ever arrive. “Derpy Hooves reporting for duty!” Derpy stated with an accomplished tone and offered a salute to the gathering of ponies. She stepped aside and let Tom walk in to be greeted by Rainbow Dash and the others. “Well done Ditzy, now I need you to do one more thing before I dismiss you.” Celestia said with a friendly tone to the bubbly mare. Derpy Hooves stood at attention and listened eagerly for her next task. “I need you to head outside and help Brimstoke and the others oversee the crowd while I make the speech. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and report it to one of them.” The alicorn instructed in a clear manner. Ditzy saluted once more while nodding in response. “Right away ma’am.” The grey mare said with an enthusiastic smile as she walked back out of the room. Celestia then turned her attention back to the human as he talked with the three cheerful ponies in front of him. “It’s good to see you Tom.” Celestia said while walking forward to greet the slayer. Tom turned around and smiled as he looked up at the regal alicorn. It was an odd experience being surrounded by creatures that only come up to his mid-section, only to meet a princess that was practically taller than him. “Likewise Princess… so I assume you will be starting soon?” Tom asked curiously. Celestia nodded in response as she glanced at the clock on the wall. “Yes… I suppose I will. But before I leave you all to go make preparations, I want you to do one thing for me Tom.” The alicorn adopted a more serious expression as she spoke. The sudden change in tone made Tom and the ponies slightly concerned as to what was bugging the princess. “Sure thing… what do you need?” The human asked with an eager attitude. Celestia smiled as she admired the boy’s seemingly endless spirit. “I didn’t ask you to come here to speak with me or anything… no, I asked you here for a more important reason. I want you to keep an eye on things with your senses while I make the speech.” The princess’s statement made the ponies slightly uneasy as her tone shifted to a very somber one. “I have a really bad feeling that whatever those hooded ponies are planning, they will attack while the speech is happening. I can’t imagine what they could do in such an open space like this with so many ponies in broad daylight, but it worries me all the same.” The alicorn sighed before continuing. “Just keep on your toes, and if you sense anything, just let me or Luna know.” She asked in a sincere tone. Tom nodded as she finished her request. “Alright… I was going to do that anyway, but since you asked I suppose I could try extra hard.” The boy stated in a jesting tone in an attempt at brightening the princess’s mood. Celestia couldn’t help but to smile from the lighthearted statement. “Thank you… now, let’s get out of this cramped room and head outside. I’m sure that everyone here could use some fresh air.” Celestia said while looking around at the ponies for confirmation. Rainbow Dash and her two friends nodded eagerly. There was only so much time they could spend in a tiny room with so much going on outside. The group quickly filtered out of the room and headed through town hall on their way out into the square. Rainbow Dash decided to take a walk around the square before the speech started. She asked Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to join her, who eagerly accepted the offer. While Tom and Brimstoke merely followed the princess as she went to converse with her sister.
Chapter 45: The Speech*Thump* *Thump* *Thump* A soft knocking at the door made Twilight and the others look up from their research curiously. Glitterball and Peppermint were still relatively sleepy, so the jarring noise made them jump slightly. “That must be the girls.” Twilight proposed while getting up from her chair. Rarity and Applejack had said that they would be dropping by with the cutie mark crusaders today, and it was around the time that they would be awake, so it was logical to assume that they were the ones at the door. Wasting no more time on speculation, the unicorn walked over to the front of the room and up to the door. Gripping the handle firmly, she swung the door open and peered outside. As she had guessed, Twilight was greeted by her two friends smiling warmly with a trio of fillies behind them. “Applejack, Rarity! Come on in and get comfortable.” The purple mare welcomed her two friends inside with a friendly motion. She smiled to the passing group of fillies as they headed in a single file line behind the two mares. “Morning y’all.” Applejack greeted Peppermint and Glitterball as she gave them a friendly wave. Rarity waved to the two ponies as well, eliciting them to return the gesture while leaning on the back of their chairs to face the newcomers. “Tom is usually up by now isn’t he? I assume he already left for the speech?” Rarity asked curiously while looking around at the relatively empty room. Not even Spike was out and about, presumably still asleep upstairs. “Yeah, he left like half an hour ago. But thankfully he translated a lot of the notes in that book for us before he left.” Twilight stated with an optimistic tone while motioning over to the book on the table and the numerous sheets of paper beside it. Rarity and Applejack were impressed by the amount of progress they had made. “Good! That means that we can read it right?” The two mares were interrupted by a trio of enthusiastic fillies, headed by Scootaloo, stepping forward and speaking up with eager grins on their faces. Twilight looked down at the three young ponies and frowned slightly, although they were here to help, she wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable allowing them to read from such a grim and dark book. “Umm… well uh…” Twilight stammered awkwardly. Before the purple unicorn could formulate an excuse, Glitterball got up from her chair and walked over to the group. She took a vial off of her vest and twisted the bottom, causing it to shine as the blue liquid inside lit up in a brilliant display. “Hey girls, you want to help me make some adjustments to these? I could use some free hooves to hand me my equipment.” Glitter suggested while dangling the vial in front of the three fillies like a set of jingling keys to an infant. The crusaders looked absolutely awestruck at the brilliant light. They turned to each other and nodded eagerly, barely able to contain their excitement. “Of course we do!” Scootaloo said in a gleeful tone. “We would love to help!” Sweetie Belle added in an enthusiastically friendly manner. “Can Ah hold it?” Applebloom asked with excitement plain on her face. Glitterball chuckled warmly at seeing the three sweet fillies. She could tell that even though they were adventurous, childlike curiosity was still a large part of their personalities. The rainbow haired unicorn turned and glanced over to Peppermint. He was fiddling around with the vials on his vest with a bored expression. A devious smile crept across her face as she chuckled warmly at the thought running through her head. “Why don’t you head over there with my friend Peppermint? I’m sure he can get you started while I talk with the others for a few.” Glitterball said in a casual tone while motioning over to the white stallion. Peppermint paused and looked over to see three fillies simultaneously turn their heads to look at him. “Wait what?” Pepper asked with a confused expression. Scootaloo turned to her fellow crusaders and put on a serious expression. “Alright girls, Cutie Mark Crusaders supernatural equipment technicians!” The young pegasus announced in an enthusiastic tone to her friends. The three fillies let out a cheer as they rushed forward, eager to get started on their task. Peppermint’s eyes widened and his pupils shrank as he watched the trio bolting toward him. The three fillies practically dog piled on the hapless earth pony, sending his body to the floor with a startled cry as they started asking him a thousand questions about what everything on his vest was and how they could help out. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity watched the scene unfold in front of them while cringing sympathetically for the red haired pony. At this point, they were mildly concerned that the three fillies would break something as they bounced around energetically. Meanwhile, Glitterball was smiling at her own diversion for the curious crusaders. “Don’t worry about them. Pepper and I will keep them entertained while you guys read the book.” Glitter said while casually avoiding the distressed stallion trying to keep up with the three fillies. “Uh… thanks.” Twilight said with a slightly unsure tone. She was grateful for her distracting them from wanting to read the book, but she was also slightly unsure as to whether or not she should be concerned for Peppermint. “Alright girls, ease off him. Let’s get started on this equipment already.” Glitterball said while walking over to the group on the other side of the room. Scootaloo and the others quickly stopped pestering the white stallion and walked over to the table on the other side of the room where the unicorn was. “She certainly has a way with kids…” Rarity stated while observing the unicorn explain their equipment to the crusaders. She wasn’t kidding either. Glitterball seemed to be rather good with at least keeping their attention. “Let’s go ahead and get started. There shouldn’t be much left to do other than read the book, but the faster we’re done the better.” Twilight said while walking over to the table with the book and pulling over two chairs to add to the one already present. Rarity and Applejack nodded to each other before walking over to join their purple friend. They sat down at the table and quickly joined the unicorn in reading over the cipher that their human friend had made for them. While the two suited ponies were enjoying teaching the children about their gear, the three mares were finally reading the bizarre contents of the book that had been used to summon the undead creatures out in the woods. Suddenly, the sound of small feet descending the stairs made everyone avert their attention. The ponies turned to see a drowsy Spike slowly climbing down to join them while still trying to wake up. His face was sleepy, his eyes were droopy, and he had the unmistakable disheveled appearance that goes along with waking up after a long sleep. “*Yawn*… morning everyone.” Spike droned while taking a quick tally of the number of ponies in the room, most likely to ensure that he wasn’t hallucinating. “Morning, Darling.” Rarity greeted with a friendly smile. “Morning.” Applejack did the same with a tip of her hat. “Good morning, Spike. I assume you slept well?” Twilight insinuated while taking a glance over to the clock on the wall. Even if she did let him sleep in, he usually woke up earlier than this. The young dragon made no attempt to hide the fact that he had slept in for way longer than was necessary, he instead nodded in reply while enjoying the rested feeling he had from his power nap. “Where’s Tom? Did he already leave or something?” Spike asked, curious as to the whereabouts of the human. “Of course he left… he’s been gone for like half an hour. See what happens when you sleep in?” Twilight shrugged while trying not to painfully state the obvious. Spike sighed before walking over to the table to see what they were working on. Much to his surprise, the odd language that the notes were written in appeared to be translated on a sheet of paper beside the book. He read off a few sentences to test the accuracy of the cipher, only to find that it was in fact correct. “Wow… I can actually read this. How long have you guys been working on this?” The dragon asked in an impressed tone. “Tom made this for us before he left… apparently he was up a lot earlier than you guys.” Rarity explained while looking down at the notes. “Well that’s normal for him I suppose… I don’t know how he stays in a quiet house in the early morning hours with everyone asleep for so long. I would be bored out of my mind if that happened.” Spike stated while picturing what it must be like for the human to be up so early each morning. “We should be thankful that he did, it would probably take us all day to decode this on our own.” Applejack said while shuddering at the thought of putting that much time into such a frustrating task. “Yikes…” Spike exclaimed in an unsettled tone as he thought about the possibility himself. The last thing the young dragon wanted to do was to have a repeat of last night. “Alright, let’s get back to work. You can either join us or head over there with Glitterball and Peppermint to check out their equipment.” Twilight said while picking back up the notes she had. Spike glanced over to watch the two ponies fiddle around with vials and strange ingredients while three excited fillies watched. He felt a little guilty that he wouldn’t be able to help Twilight and the others if he indulged. “You guys sure you don’t need me?” The young dragon asked courteously with a façade as solid as glass. Twilight smiled as she could tell that he was dying to head over there and fulfill his curiosity. “Go ahead.” The purple mare said with a warm smile while motioning over to the other side of the room. Spike smiled and nodded before heading over and taking a spot beside the crusaders as they watched the rainbow haired unicorn work. After they had taken care of all distractions, Twilight and her two partners got back to work. They dug into the pile of papers and notes they had arranged before them as they decoded the grim contents of the book. Although they grew more disturbed with every page, they had to do it for the sake of catching the book’s nefarious owners. Meanwhile, over at the town square, things were just about to get started as the crowd gathered to listen to the speaker at the town hall podium. Mayor Mare was addressing the silent ponies and preparing to introduce the princess. As the mayor spoke, Sunspot, Neon Streak, Glimmer Shine, and Derpy Hooves were on opposite sides of the crowd, watching for any odd activity. Brimstoke was beside the podium, watching the crowd and listening to the gray haired pony speaking. Tom was on the other side of the town hall, leaning up against the wall with Luna and Celestia while they waited for the mayor to call for the princess. “Now then, you have all been brought here to listen to an announcement from Princess Celestia herself. So without further ado, I will hand things off to the princess.” Mayor Mare called the white alicorn over and stepped aside as she walked up. Celestia cleared her throat and observed the silent gathering of ponies in front of her before speaking. “Thank you all for coming out here on such short notice. I would like to bring to your attention a very serious and important matter.” Everyone listened intently as Celestia spoke, becoming heavily invested in the subject that she was bringing up. As the speech went on, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel inspired as they watched the white alicorn from the back of the crowd. Even though they were so far away, it was surprisingly easy to comprehend her words over the silent ponies. “I wonder how everyone will react when she tells them what’s happening.” Rainbow Dash whispered to the yellow mare, so as to not interrupt the speech. Before Fluttershy could respond, Celestia paused and sighed as she came up to the point where she had to explain the two attacks. “As some or probably most of you have heard, there have been two organized attacks on buildings in this town using dark magic. We now believe these attacks to have been perpetrated by a group of unknown ponies in hoods. There were horrific monsters summoned in the schoolhouse, and the hospital that terrorized and attacked many of the occupants. These attacks took place just a few days ago. Nobody was seriously injured in the school; however… there were two casualties at the hospital.” The princess explained in a dreadful tone. The crowd gasped as they listened to the frightful news. Some ponies looked around and made fearful whispers to their friends as they tried to comprehend the attacks. “*Sigh*…” Rainbow Dash looked down sadly upon mention of the two ponies that had died in the hospital. She could still feel a twinge of remorse over what happened. She had only met them briefly, but they seemed to be friendly and cheerful. Even if they weren’t, they didn’t deserve the fate given to them. Fluttershy could only offer a gentle hoof on her friend’s shoulder to comfort her. She had not been at the hospital with them, but she was mortified when she learned about the tragic event. Still, she could only imagine what the cyan pegasus was feeling. “I’m sorry for what happened Rainbow Dash.” The yellow mare stated in a gentle tone. Rainbow Dash frowned as she saw Fluttershy worrying over her mopey attitude. She definitely was the bearer of kindness after all. “Fluttershy… it isn’t anything you need to feel sorry for. You had nothing to do with it, and neither did I… what happened, just happened.” The cyan pony tried to sound happier, but could only manage a somber tone. She then felt herself growing angry as she thought about the hooded ponies. The only things she knew about them were based on the pegasus she met out in the woods, and putting all of the tragic events behind such a smug and heartless person made Rainbow Dash even angrier. “We’ll make them pay for their crimes soon enough…” Rainbow Dash sighed as she released her pent up emotions. Fluttershy nodded slowly in agreement before returning her attention to the speech. Meanwhile on the other end of the crowd, Sunspot and Pinkie Pie had met up and started listening to the princess together. The alicorn was always able to address her subjects with the same level of care and dignity as her own family, and this impressed the two as they thought about how hard it must have been to relay such terrible news to everyone. “Wow… she has a way with words doesn’t she?” Sunspot said with a sense of admiration. The pink mare nodded in agreement. “Yep, you don’t get to be princess unless you can make speeches.” Pinkie stated cheerfully. The earth pony’s statement made the pegasus puzzled as to what she thought a princess needed to do. “I think there’s a bit more to it… but alright.” Sunspot said while deciding not to question the party pony further. Hearing a more detailed explanation might confuse her even more. “Do you think those hooded ponies are here watching?” Pinkie asked curiously. The sudden question caught Sunspot off guard. “Well uh… they could be. I mean, if they wanted to they could just hide in the crowd and listen.” The pegasus reasoned while looking around at the vast rows of ponies. Everyone just sort of blended together into a sea of colors. “I don’t see any hoods, so they must be somewhere else.” Pinkie said while scanning the crowd for suspiciously dressed ponies. “Uh… Pinkie, I don’t think they would wear hoods all the time. Especially not while trying to blend into a crowd…” Sunspot said with a puzzled expression. The pink mare seemed to be more confused by this logic than the pegasus was by her own. “Well why do we call them the hooded ponies then? If they didn’t wear the hoods they would just be the ponies… and that’s not very creative.” Pinkie stated casually. Sunspot could feel her eye twitching slightly in complete shock. Finally, the pegasus sighed while admitting defeat. “No… I suppose it’s not.” Sunspot droned with a hint of sarcasm. Pinkie chuckled as she felt that the pegasus agreed with her. Back up at the town hall, Tom and Luna were passively listening to Celestia while keeping an eye on things from their position. Tom was leaned up against the building while Luna stood next to him and chatted idly while observing the many concerned and fearful ponies that dotted the crowd. “You guys seem to care a lot for your subjects.” Tom observed while listening to the white alicorn speak. Luna nodded as she thought about how much she actually cared for the ponies around them. Even though most of them shunned her after she made her return to the public eye, they warmed up to her after realizing she was no longer Nightmare Moon. “Indeed… I care for every pony here as if they were my blood relative, and I’m certain that my sister feels the same.” Luna said with a genuine smile and a sincere tone. “You know… you guys have a pretty good society all things considered. Most princes and princesses from human society were self-entitled brats that cared more about the dirt under their feet than the people in their kingdom.” The boy said with brutal honesty. Luna was appalled that such people existed at all, even if they were from a distant time in the past. “How awful… a ruler should be fair and just to their subjects… That’s the whole point of governing over them.” The blue alicorn said in abject horror. “Yeah, well… some people figured that out after a while. A long time after princes and princesses were phased out and new forms of government were created. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of unfair idiots that ran a lot of countries in my time, as evidenced by the human race blowing themselves up.” Tom said with surprising acceptance as he talked about the mindset of his time’s governing bodies. “But there were some people that were like you guys… at the end of the day, people will be good, evil, and all sorts of things in between. It just so happens that a lot of bad people crave power, and will do anything they can to get some.” The human’s explanation made Luna think about her own experience with bad people. Between Discord and Queen Chrysalis, she knew for fact that most villains craved power of some sort. “I’m glad that someone as nice as you was sent here from the human world. I know that you’re a slayer, so you kind of have to be a good person, but I’m not sure how an evil person would fit in here.” The alicorn stated in a friendly tone. Tom smiled from hearing such compliments. “I guess a world with so much emphasis on friendship and harmony tends to yield a lot of good people… and apparently a few bad ones.” The boy said while thinking back to the hooded ponies. Luna nodded somberly and sighed as she wondered what could have driven them to such extremes. The two were silent for a while after that, finding nothing else to say on the subject of the hooded ponies. Despite the lack of conversational relevancy for the hooded ponies, neither Tom nor Luna could stop thinking about them. Unbeknownst to anybody present at the square, there were a few spectators that didn’t belong there with the rest of the ponies. Raven Feather and her two assistants were tucked away behind a building, just within ear shot of the square. Raincloud helped put the finishing touches on a large pictogram on the ground, while the black earth pony giggled sinisterly while hovering near a large object covered in a tarp. The two looked up to see Dust Kicker walking around the side of the building and trotting up to them. He waited for Raven Feather to finish what she was doing before speaking up to deliver his findings from the square. “What’s happening out there?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “She sounds like she’s about to wrap things up in a little bit. If we’re going to do this, we need to do it soon.” Dust Kicker stated with a concerned expression. Raven Feather chuckled at the paranoid stallion before walking over to check on Raincloud’s progress. “Oh don’t you worry your pretty little head Dust Kicker, we’re just about finished up here… isn’t that right Raincloud?” Raven Feather asked as the pale blue mare quickly finished her last few scribbles. She finally looked up and smirked. “There you have it… one pictogram ripe and ready for the fear of a hundred terrified ponies.” Raincloud stated with a bit of pride while stepping back to admire her work. “Splendid!” Raven Feather said while rubbing her hooves together in anticipation. Raincloud shared in the black pony’s enthusiasm as she chuckled impishly. “Are you sure you will be alright? I mean, both Celestia and Luna are out there… along with that slayer and like three or four of those special ops ponies.” Dust Kicker said with slight concern as he went over the plan in his head. It seemed crazy to him for Raven Feather to want to be here alone to keep an eye on things. “We’ve been over this Dust… I can handle myself. Besides, I’m only staying here long enough to prepare our surprise.” Raven Feather said while looking over to the large object under the tarp. “I doubt the spell will work with him, so I will need to raise him myself. After that, I could care less about what happens as long as we gather fear… which we will doubtlessly do. And then there’s the delightful possibility that you will succeed in your mission to kill off that pest Twilight and her friends.” She stated with a gleeful smile a she thought about the scenario. “So we will be able to use our powers? I certainly hope that spell works like you said, or else it’s going to be very hard.” Dust Kicker stated while looking up at the sunlight beaming down on them. The golden orb would doubtlessly interfere with each of their abilities if left the way it was. “Yes, yes… the spell will block out sunlight. Not enough to make it completely dark as night, but enough to filter out its harmful properties for your pets… You will only have as long as it takes for Celestia to undo the spell, so try to work fast if you don’t want to strain yourself.” The black mare explained with a casual expression. “Got it.” Dust Kicker stated in reply. “Hehehe… I am so going to enjoy this. Come on Dust, let’s head over there now so we can be ready when things get dark.” Raincloud suggested while tugging on her brother’s arm eagerly. Dust Kicker didn’t really have much choice in the matter, so he gave in and followed the pale pegasus towards the library. Raven Feather watched the two walk down the empty street with a gleeful smile. She knew that they would have little resistance from the purple unicorn and her friends. As powerful as they thought friendship was, the power of darkness was so much more rewarding for the green eyed mare. After taking one last glance in the direction of the square, Raven Feather started preparations for performing the spell she had worked tirelessly on for the last few days. She had no doubt in her mind that this would truly show the white alicorn what she was capable of.
Chapter 46: Dry BonesEveryone was anxious as ever as Celestia continued her speech. She had given the names of all the ponies known to be affiliated with the hooded ponies, and informed everyone about the sudden appearance of Tom. On top of this, she explained why Brimstoke and his team were here, and that they would be capable of handling the situation. The crowd of ponies felt a little more confident knowing that a plan was in place for their protection. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were still listening intently from the back of the crowd, enjoying the relatively free space they had behind the gathering of ponies. It was peaceful to sit in the sun and listen to the princess addressing them while relaxing. “I guess she’s almost done… want to grab Pinkie and head down to Sugar Cube Corner before we check on Twilight and the others?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking at her yellow friend for a response. Fluttershy smiled as she thought of unwinding with a sugary treat. She had been feeling a little stressed from listening to the speech and all of the bad memories it brought up, so she was glad to hear the offer. “Sure… I think she was over there somewhere.” The yellow mare said while pointing over to one side of the crowd. Rainbow Dash sighed as she saw how many ponies were in the crowd. “Well that’s helpful…” The cyan mare stated sarcastically while walking forward to sift through the many ponies to find her friend. Suddenly, something caught the pegasus’s attention that seemed very off to her. A sizable breeze blew through the square. It was cold and refreshing when compared to the warmth of the sun. What confused Rainbow Dash however, was the fact that the wind was a complete surprise to her. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked with mild concern as she noticed her friend pausing to look around. Rainbow Dash tried her best to remember the weather forecast for today, only to find that she had no memory of it being windy today. “Odd… it’s not supposed to be this breezy.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking off into the sky to observe the weather. Oddly enough, the cyan mare caught glimpse of something that caught her off guard. She noticed a thin line of dark clouds rolling in from the distance. “It’s not supposed to be cloudy today either…” The cyan mare stated in an uneasy tone. Fluttershy could hear the growing worry in her friend’s voice as she watched the ominous clouds. The dark blanket made the two ponies feel a sense of foreboding paranoia as it slowly approached the airspace over the square. Over at the town hall building, Celestia looked up curiously as she noticed the approaching clouds. As they noticed the alicorn pause and stare upwards, the crowd turned their heads to view the strange phenomena. “What the…? I thought it was supposed to be sunny today.” Luna stated in confusion as she watched the clouds form. Suddenly, the harsh sound of Tom gasping behind her made the blue alicorn turn around. She saw the boy lurch forward slightly as all of the air was forced out of his lungs. An eerie high pitched rasp erupted from Tom’s mouth as his senses went off unexpectedly. The sight of the blue mist made Luna’s eyes widen in slight panic. “What is it Tom? What do you f- Ah!” Luna cringed in fright as she suddenly felt whatever power was causing the slayer’s senses to go off. Although not as fine-tuned as Tom’s senses, Luna and her sister could feel powerful energies through their bodies. While Luna was still recovering from feeling such a startling sensation, Tom rushed forward and walked over to Celestia with an alarmed expression. The white alicorn was concerned to see the human so unsettled. “What’s wrong Tom?” Celestia asked with a growing sense of unease. “We need to get everyone out of here! I just felt something big coming our way… and I’m pretty sure it has something to do with that.” The human explained with a sense of urgency while pointing at the approaching clouds. As everyone fixed their attention on the dark masses in the sky, they grew rapidly more nervous and started moving backward at an accelerated rate. Everyone in the crowd grew incredibly frightened as a loud burst of wind ripped through the square. The overhead clouds cast a shadow that moved over the entire area in one fell swoop as it continued along its path. Once the sky had been sufficiently covered in the ominous clouds, they started moving around in a pattern unlike any natural weather occurrence. Before anyone could react, they were entranced by the frightful sight of the clouds receding upwards into a cyclone in the sky. The dark masses swirled around in a circle just above the square as the wind picked up. The large gusts blew the various decorations around the square into the air and sent them flying off into the distance, some of which harmlessly hit a few ponies on their path. Not even the trees appeared to be able to weather the storm as they shifted back from the force, their leaves struggling to remain in place as the looser ones were whipped through the air. Suddenly, a loud noise echoed through the square as a flash of green light appeared out of the center of the cyclone. The noise sounded like a rapid whoosh of energy was coming to life around them. The glowing light in the sky slowly formed into a wispy spiral of green energy. It looked as if someone had found a way to color the wind green as it spiraled down in a wavy trail. As the transparent mist formed into a spiral on its way down, the noise changed to something that made everyone’s spines tingle from terror. The noise sounded like a distorted bunch of high pitched screams were echoing through the air as the green arm twisted and jolted on its descent. It was like the souls of the dead had found a way to make their anguish known by blending their cries into the sound of whistling wind. The horrified ponies backed up as fast as they possibly could as the green wisp got closer to the ground. It seemed to be homing in on a singular spot beneath it as it drew closer to the earth. As the spiral of neon green contacted the ground, a soft buzzing sound resonated through the area as it disappeared into the floor. The ground around the impact site glowed green in a spreading circle, as if the light had spread itself through the earth. As suddenly as it had appeared, the light disappeared as the circle faded away along with all noises other than the soft blowing of the wind. Everyone watched the spot where the light had contacted with dead silence and absolute fright. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy found themselves standing on the edge of the crowd as they stood where they had moved to evade the light. The ponies stood in a large half circle around the empty street where the light had disappeared, watching closely, unable to look away from sheer terror. “W-w-what was that?” Fluttershy asked through chattering teeth as she looked on in a frozen panic. None of the ponies around her, least of all her cyan friend, could have possibly answered her question. Suddenly, a barely audible noise came from the spot where the light was. It sounded like something was shifting the dirt around under the cobblestone of the square. The noise grew louder and louder as the crowd noticed small cracks appearing in the stone in several places. Nobody dared get closer to the odd occurrence, and many of the ponies actual walked further backwards into the crowd in fearful anticipation. When in an instant, the loud crack of stone breaking rang out into the eerie silence, jarring the already fearful ponies. When they looked to see what the cause of the noise was, their jaws collectively dropped, and their eyes collectively widened in fright. Sticking out of a newly created hole in the ground was a skeletal hoof. The ponies started shaking in fright as they heard an unearthly groan coming from the spot where the hoof was sticking out. The boney limb planted itself on the street, as if to get leverage to lift itself out. More pieces of the street broke up as the rest of the skeletal body came out. Judging from the size and shape of the skeleton, it looked like it belonged to a pony long ago. When the crowd could see the head of the undead pony, they noticed that its eye sockets were glowing the same shade of green the light from the sky had been. While the ponies were staring in a frozen panic as the skeleton got to its feet, they heard more horrifying groans and moans erupt from under the street. Several more skeletons started breaking their way up through the ground, adding to the ambient choir of terrifying noises. Several of the ponies at the front of the crowd screamed in absolute horror as they turned to escape the undead ponies. The crowd practically ran over itself as everyone tried to back away from the animate skeletons. The undead monsters howled a noise so unsettling that it made all who heard it fear for their lives. The numerous creatures all lurched forward and started to pick up speed as they charged after the hapless ponies. Fluttershy groaned in pain as she was shoved to the ground by the many ponies around her as they ran in blind terror. She looked around her in a frightful panic, only to discover that she had lost sight of Rainbow Dash. The only thing she could hear was a mixture of screams and the unearthly cries of the skeletons, creating a nearly deafening noise that shut out any other sounds. “W-wh...” The yellow mare stammered as she tried to make sense of her surroundings. She was already in a panicked state from seeing the monsters rise out of the ground in front of her, and the sights and sounds of innocent ponies being pounced on and attacked by those things only frightened her more. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and wish that this wasn’t real. “…!” Fluttershy froze as she looked in front of her to see one of the creatures was staring at her with vicious intent. The boney creature clattered around as it slowly stalked forward towards the helpless pegasus. None of the ponies around her seemed to notice or care that she was in danger, they were only focused on running away themselves. “Ah…uhh….” Fluttershy scooted backwards in a desperate attempt at getting distance between her and the approaching monster. Despite her efforts at escaping, the beast marched forward with relentless resolve. The skeleton let out a deep and gravely growl as it reared back to pounce. The yellow pony could only let out a startled shriek as the monster jumped right for her. Fluttershy instinctively closed her eyes and shielded her face with her arms to protect herself from the incoming attack. “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash let out a fierce yell as she collided with the monster attacking her friend. The sound of bones clattering as something impacted them rang out, followed by the sound of the skeleton smacking into the ground and scattering its bones along the floor. Fluttershy looked up to see the cyan mare landing from where she had kicked the pouncing monster. She turned to the shocked pegasus and flashed a smile. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!” Rainbow Dash instructed while motioning for the yellow pony to get to her feet. Fluttershy nodded and quickly complied. Just as she got upright and prepared to follow her friend, Fluttershy gasped in shock as she saw one of the skeletons ready to pounce behind Rainbow Dash. “Look out!” The yellow mare cried frantically while pointing behind the cyan pony. Rainbow Dash turned around and widened her eyes in shock as she saw the monster about to strike at her. “AAH!” The cyan pegasus yelped in fright as she watched the skeleton jump for her. By the time she could react, the creature would already be on top of her. Suddenly, a zapping noise cut into the screams of the skeleton and the frightened pony. A bright pulse of light rapidly shot into the skeleton from the side, knocking it out of the air from the impact. The creature screeched in pain as it was seemingly offended by the blast. Several more blasts subsequently hit the monster, pushing it back until it fled in the other direction to get away from the burning. The two ponies turned to see Glimmer Shine holding his strobe out in front of him. Judging from the smoking tip of the vial, the pair put together that he was the source of their rescue. The yellow stallion looked at the two mares with a friendly smirk. “Thanks for the save…” Rainbow Dash stated with a relieved sigh. Glimmer nodded in response before looking around to observe the scene around him. Most of the crowd had dispersed as they fled, leaving only the ponies trapped by the skeletons in the square. Unfortunately, there were dozens of the undead monsters. Several of them were either cornering innocents or struggling with them on the ground as they pushed to get them off. Much to the shock and horror of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, they saw several ponies getting bitten and mauled by the vicious monsters. “Oh my gosh…” Rainbow Dash stated in alarm as she surveyed the chaotic scene. “We need to help them!” She exclaimed desperately. The cyan mare felt a burning urge to do something to assist her fellow ponies. “I know. Brimstoke and the others are working on it. You two need to get to the town hall, now!” Glimmer Shine instructed to the two in an urgent tone. Rainbow Dash shook her head defiantly. “No way! We need to work together to stop these things from hurting anyone!” Rainbow Dash said while turning to the yellow mare beside her and giving her a pleading expression. “Fluttershy, you with me?” The cyan pony asked while motioning away with her head. Fluttershy seemed very hesitant about confronting any of the monsters, but she didn’t want to leave her friend to face them alone. “Y-yes…” the yellow pegasus stated while putting on the bravest face she could muster. The two flyers spread their wings and prepared to take off, when Glimmer Shine shrugged in frustration before stepping forward to stop them. “Wait! If you’re going to go, at least take these.” Glimmer said while reaching into a pouch on his vest. The yellow stallion rummaged through the pocket until he found what he was looking for. He then brought out two vials and handed them to the two ponies. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked at the items curiously. “What are these?” Fluttershy asked with a puzzled expression while turning the bottle over in her hooves. The strange container looked like the many other charms and trinkets that the team used, so it was hard to identify what purpose it held at first glance. “They’re strobes… just point at something and press the button on the top there. I’m clearly not going to change your mind about going, but please just be careful.” Glimmer Shine instructed with a concerned expression. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gave the stallion a nod of confirmation. They then turned to each other and gave a nod of agreement. Glimmer Shine watched as the two mares flew into the air above the square. After making sure that they were well enough equipped, he turned his attention back to the scene in front of him. Due to him being so close to the origin point of the skeletons, there were far more of the undead creatures around the area than ponies. “Guess it’s time to earn my paycheck…” Glimmer shrugged while steeling himself for the battle ahead. The yellow stallion stepped forward and took aim at a skeleton that was pinning a bleeding pony to the ground. He shot the beast off of the pony before charging forward to assist as many civilians as he could. Meanwhile in the sky, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were surveying the area beneath them to see where to head next. Most of the ponies were still fleeing the square and running between buildings to escape, but many were either trapped or being chased by the undead creatures as more of them were popping up everywhere. Over by town hall, the two could see that Brimstoke was watching over the entrance to the building while several frightened ponies rushed inside. A little ways to the side, Celestia and Luna looked like they were trying to stop whatever was causing the monsters to appear. Their horns were glowing and they had very stressed expressions as they tried to feel out what to do. “Looks like the princesses are trying to stop this.” Rainbow Dash said to her companion, who was hovering just beside her. Fluttershy looked over to the town hall, only to see several of the creatures heading right for the two alicorns. “Oh no… I think they need our help!” The yellow mare said while pointing at the approaching monsters. Rainbow Dash gasped as she watched the skeletons march forward, the two princesses seemed unconcerned about the approaching threat. Suddenly, Tom leapt out of nowhere and cut the offending beasts into a pile of scattered bones. The skeletons offered little more resistance than a growl as the slayer skillfully evaded their lunges, only to knock their bodies apart in retaliation. The two mares smiled as they saw that the princesses were safe. As they looked around for ponies to assist, they suddenly heard a familiar scream through the blend of noises in the square. They both gasped as they realized that their friend Pinkie Pie was the source of the noise. After a quick scan below them to find the origin of the noise, the two ponies’ eyes widened as they spotted their pink friend. The party pony was with Derpy Hooves, who was desperately trying to hold her ground against four approaching skeletons. The gray mare seemed to be mildly intimidated by the monsters, but stood above the quivering pink mare in an attempt at protecting her. “Come on, let’s go!” Rainbow Dash stated while flying downwards. Fluttershy followed the cyan mare’s lead as she darted through the air in a race to reach her friends before they were harmed. Just as the skeletons were about to pounce on the helpless pair, the two pegasus’s aimed their strobes downwards and opened fire. The skeletons screeched in pain and writhed around as the bolts of light struck them. They held their ground until the two ponies landed in front of them and continued shooting to protect their friends. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy anxiously watched as the beasts tried to ignore the blasts to get at them, only to be driven back by the pain. As the monsters ran away, they smiled to each other and turned to their now relieved friends. “You did it!” Derpy Hooves cheered while turning to the shivering pink mare on the ground. Pinkie was still shielding her face with her arms, only peeking out slightly to see that she was still intact. “We’re… alive?” Pinkie asked nervously while looking out to see the two cheerful pegasus’s that rescued her. Suddenly the pink mare returned her happy nature and let out a celebratory cheer. Rainbow Dash was relieved to see the two unharmed, but she had to unfortunately cut their celebration short. “You two head to the town hall, Tom and Brimstoke should keep you safe there.” The cyan pony instructed with a serious expression. Pinkie Pie nodded while the gray mare beside her offered a confident salute. The two quickly turned around and rushed through the square on their way to safety. “Whew…. That was a close one. Nice shooting there, Tex.” Rainbow Dash said with a smile while patting the brave pegasus beside her on the back. Fluttershy giggled as she looked down to the vial she held in her hooves. The tip was still smoking, offering a reminder of how confidently she had attacked the monsters. “Thanks… you did pretty good yourself.” Fluttershy returned the compliment to her friend. Rainbow Dash nodded before shifting her expression to a more serious one as she thought of something grim. “We shot those things up and they just ran away… we need to do something else to put them down for good.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking slightly less confident than she had originally been. Fluttershy was just as disheartened as the cyan pony at their new problem. “Hold on… what if we move those clouds out of the way?” The shy mare suggested while looking up. Rainbow Dash trailed her eyes upwards and gasped in revelation. The light from the sun would surely destroy the creatures, which must have been why the clouds were there in the first place. “Fluttershy you’re a genius!” Rainbow Dash said with excitement while patting the yellow pony on the shoulder as a compliment. “Come on! Let’s hurry and get up there!” She exclaimed eagerly. Fluttershy nodded to the cyan mare as she spread her wings again. The two swiftly leapt into the air and flew up towards the cloud line. The wind blew fiercely in the two ponies’ faces as they neared the dark clouds. The ominous way that they shifted and moved made the two incredibly nervous as they approached. Once they were just beneath the clouds, the pair got into position and prepared to grab onto them. “Here, this looks like a good spot to start.” Fluttershy stated while reaching up to touch the clouds. Suddenly, as the yellow mare made contact with the black shapes, a few bolts of green electricity sparked to life. The miniature light show flowed over the entirety of the cloud that Fluttershy was touching. It grew in intensity, before suddenly jumping to strike the pegasus. “AGH!” Fluttershy screamed in pain and surprise as the sensation of electricity flowed through her. The shock of the event threw the pegasus downward, causing her to free fall as she went unconscious from the jolt. “FLUTTERSHY!” Rainbow Dash yelled in horror as she witnessed her friend being struck out of the air from the sudden spark in the cloud. She watched in abject terror as the pegasus plummeted towards the ground. Rainbow Dash flew downwards as fast as she could to catch the falling pony. Just before they reached the ground, she managed to get a hold of her unconscious friend and pull upwards enough to break her fall. As she landed and cradled the yellow mare in her arms, she checked to see if she was severely injured. She appeared to be slightly burned where the electricity had hit her, and her body felt cold to the touch, but that might have just been from the chilly wind. Either way, the cyan mare was extremely worried for the unconscious pony. “Come on Fluttershy… wake up!” Rainbow Dash shook the pegasus gently to jolt her awake. She feverishly watched with growing concern while her attempts at stirring the yellow pony failed. Fluttershy’s head simply lolled backwards as gravity settled her motionless body. “Wake up Fluttershy… please don’t do this to me!” Rainbow Dash hugged the pegasus close to her and squeezed tightly. She was about to give up hope, when suddenly she heard a soft murmur from the yellow mare and felt her move slightly. Fluttershy groggily opened her eyes and looked around in a daze. She tried to get up, but Rainbow Dash pushed her gently to keep her in a resting position. The yellow mare was slightly confused, but relieved to see the cyan mare holding her. “R…Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy muttered in a sleepy tone. Rainbow Dash was practically crying from joy at seeing her friend unharmed. “Thank Celestia you’re alive! I thought you left me for a second there… don’t scare me like that.” Rainbow playfully chided the pegasus while smiling warmly. Fluttershy smiled in return before looking at the cyan pony with confusion. “Ughh… what happened up there? I was just touching the cloud when... I saw a bright flash of light and felt a shock go through me.” The yellow mare asked in a puzzled tone while looking up. “You got struck by some kind of green lightning… those clouds must have some kind of protection on them to prevent pegasi from touching them.” Rainbow Dash explained while looking up at the sky thoughtfully. Suddenly a large gust of wind broke through the area again as a flash of green light filled the sky. The two ponies watched fearfully while the strange green mist appeared again and rapidly descended from the area they touched. The twisted stream headed for the spot right beside the two shocked mares. They sparsely had time to react before it flowed into the ground, creating another shockwave of faded green light that tinted the ground before vanishing. “Wait… does that mean…?!” Rainbow Dash looked around in a panic as she realized what was going on. The two felt a soft rumble beneath them and looked around as they saw the street cracking up around them. Soon enough, the pair was surrounded as more skeletons rose up around them, blocking any exit route they had. Fluttershy immediately started hyperventilating and shaking in fright. She clung to the cyan mare next to her, who wasn’t faring much better as she tried to offer what little comfort she could to the scared pony. The two could only watch in terror as the undead creatures approached them from all sides. They could hear the deafening groans and moans coming from the former ponies as they eyed their prey with their hollow and glowing eye sockets. Rainbow Dash glanced down to her strobe in a panic before realizing that it was useless against this many enemies. The two mares couldn’t fight off the horde before they reached them, so they decided to just duck their heads down together and wait for their doom. Suddenly the two heard the sound of a pony yelling out a battle cry, followed by the sound of a skeleton exploding into a pile of bones. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked up to see that Sunspot was battling the creatures around them, spinning around and kicking whatever tried to get at her with relative ease. The sound of a strobe firing behind them rang out, followed by the skeletons behind them crying out in pain as they were assaulted by the burning light. Neon Streak stepped forward and assisted the suited pegasus with dispatching the crowd around the two mares. Once the area was clear, Sunspot checked the pair to see if they were injured. “Are you guys ok?” The orange mare asked with sincere concern. “Yeah… yeah we’re fine.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking to Fluttershy sympathetically. The yellow mare offered a reassuring nod to indicate that she was in good health as well. “Are you two crazy?! You shouldn’t be out here, it’s too dangerous.” Neon Streak shook her head in disappointment while chiding the two reckless ponies. Rainbow Dash shrugged and looked down sadly, the green mare was sorry to see that she had upset the two so much. “Look, it’s alright… neither of you were hurt thankfully. Just head to the town hall and stay close to Brimstoke.” Neon instructed in a softer tone while pointing off to the side. The two ponies nodded in defeat before getting up and walking away towards the center of the square. Sunspot and Neon Streak looked at each other and put on their most confident expression before returning their attention to the many creatures roaming around the square. They would have to do their best if they were going to rescue the injured ponies that were being attacked mercilessly by the strange monsters.
Chapter 47: Unwelcomed Guests“Oh my…” Twilight gasped quietly as she read over another disquieting page of the book. Ever since she and her two study buddies had started reading from the tome they had come across many things that had disturbed them, but this page was particularly horrifying to the purple unicorn. The page in question contained an informative process of how to create life, more specifically, how to create a wide array of monstrous creatures from the harvested blood and flesh of other living things. Along with a gory description of how to harvest limbs and organs for use in these rituals that made Twilight’s stomach turn from merely thinking about them, there was a detailed drawing on the opposite page that illustrated a human cutting open a lamb and removing its intestines. Just seeing the stark contrast between the blood red colors and the black ink that made up the rest of the drawing was disgusting and vile. Rarity and Applejack turned away for a moment to collect themselves as they looked to see what their friend was reacting to. They were forced to contain their disgust so as to not incite the curiosity of the children that were just a short distance away. “Good heavens… how could something like this exist?” Rarity asked while trying to stop herself from eyeing over to the drawing. She was clearly appalled by the grim depiction, but she couldn’t stop trying to look at it, almost like a morbid reflex her body had to observe the horrific picture. “I don’t know… and I certainly don’t want to think about how anything in this book could be translated to real life.” Twilight groaned while flipping the page again to hide the drawing. Thankfully the next page was just a wall of text. The text was probably some other horrible description that would make the ponies faces pale, but at least they could choose not to read it rather than staring at a picture half the size of the page. “Ah can’t believe that Tom came from a species that could make stuff like this.” Applejack said while shivering slightly in disgust. Twilight and Rarity also wondered how any sentient creature could be this cruel. “Well… humans aren’t the only ones who are like this. Clearly as long as there is intelligent life, there will be evil individuals that want to hurt others to better themselves.” Twilight shrugged and shook her head sadly as she thought about the hooded ponies. The mere fact that the world she grew up in could produce such hatred and evil almost made her sick. “*Sigh* I guess you’re right… I just wish that more people would uphold the values of love and kindness… I thought that most people did, but I guess I was mistaken.” Rarity droned in a depressed tone. “Hey! Give that back!” The sound of Sweetie Belle arguing behind them made the three turn their heads to see what was causing the filly distress. Apparently she and Scootaloo were fighting over who got to hold a vial that contained a glowing blue liquid. “You had your turn. Let some other ponies have a try!” Scootaloo retorted with an annoyed tone. The hostile remark made Sweetie Belle scowl angrily before forcibly yanking the vial out of the orange filly’s hooves. The two young fillies then proceeded to have a veritable tug of war to see who would claim possession of the bottle. Meanwhile, Applebloom, Glitterball, and Peppermint were watching the scuffle take place with uncertain expressions. “Hey you two, settle down! There are enough of these for all three of you.” Glitterball intervened and took the vial away from the two with her magic. As the two fillies shrugged in defeat and crossed their arms, the white unicorn gave them both vials to keep them content. “Food for thought girls… sharing is caring.” The rainbow haired mare stated with a lighthearted tone. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle gave each other a wary glance before shaking hooves and making a truce. Seeing the fillies making up brought a smile to the unicorn’s face. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others shared a giggle at watching the fillies interact. It was always interesting to see them and their energetic hijinks. Even Spike felt a warm tingle from observing the happiness floating around the room. The young dragon had decided to just hang around and watch rather than get caught in the middle of the fillies’ hectic antics, but it was hard to not admire their energy. As Spike turned his head to look out of the window near him casually, something unexpected caught his eye. The dragon rubbed his eyes to ensure that he wasn’t seeing things. After all, the sight in front of him was bizarre and slightly frightening. “Uhh… guys?” Spike spoke up to get everyone’s attention while hopping up onto the window sill to get a better look. “I think you might want to take a look at this.” The dragon’s nervous tone made everyone else confused and uneasy as they walked over to see what had spooked him. As they drew closer to the window, Twilight and the others realized what was wrong. There was an ominous bank of dark clouds rolling in from the direction of the town square. The clouds had a greenish sort of tint to them, making them seem even more unnatural and off putting. The wind seemed to be roaring outside as well, as any trees the group could see were blowing around from the force. And although it was faint, the ponies could just barely see green flashes of light coming from within the clouds. “What the…?” Twilight tried to find words to rationalize what she was seeing, but failed miserably on that front. She was just as baffled and confused as everyone else was as she watched the clouds spreading across the sky, blotting out the sun’s comforting light so much that it seemed like a rainy day. Glitterball reached down and pulled out the negative energy detector on her vest. The liquid in the vial glowed a faint blue near the top, indicating that there was an evil presence in the direction of the clouds. “Guys… I’m getting a faint reading here. I don’t think those clouds are natural.” Glitter announced to the group with a concerned tone. “I think we gathered that on our own darling.” Rarity said while trying not to sound too cynical. She couldn’t help but feel a little fearful from watching the dark clouds move closer. Although the white mare was just as afraid of storms as the next pony, these clouds seemed to hold a bit more terror to them than regular storm clouds. “Maybe we should see if Brimstoke or someone else is in range and ask them what’s going on?” Peppermint suggested while holding his hoof up to his ear to see if he could contact one of his teammates in the square using the communication spell. Before the red haired stallion could even elicit the aura to form around his ear, a loud knock at the door interrupted him. The knock was so loud and sudden that it made everyone jump from surprise. The aggressive nature of the knock made Twilight wonder who could possibly have been behind the door. “I’ll get it.” The purple mare suggested while walking towards the door. Out of curiosity, Rarity followed the unicorn to see who was there. As the two got to the door and paused in front of it, they couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy. The pair had a suspicious feeling that something bad was outside. With a quick twist of the handle, Twilight decided to get the task over with and see who it was. She creaked the door open slightly, just enough to peer outside. Once she got a look at who it was, the unicorn was a little confused. Standing outside in the dreary and windy weather, was a pale blue pegasus mare with white hair. A pitch black cloud pouring with rain adorned her side to serve as her cutie mark. She seemed to be annoyed and had an irritated scowl on her face, but once she noticed the two opening the door, she shifted her expression to a smile that seemed a little forced. “Umm… can I help you?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while opening the door the rest of the way. The pegasus seemed to struggle to find something to say, as if she were thinking of what she was doing there. “Oh, uh… yeah! I’m here to uh… check out a few books.” The strange pony said while trying to convey as much sincerity as possible. “Sorry… we’re closed for the moment on account of some important business from the princess. Maybe you could come back later?” Twilight said in a friendly tone while closing the door slightly. Normally she would let the mare in no problem, but she had an odd feeling that the pegasus had something strange about her. And besides, she was sort of telling the truth after all. Just before Twilight could close the door, the pegasus quickly put her hoof forward while trying to make up an excuse to stay there. Although she tried to seem friendly, she came off as a bit aggressive, which made Twilight feel uneasy. “Wait! Uh… can’t I just come in for a little while? I mean just look at it out here. I don’t want to get caught out in this weather.” The mare said with an awkward smile and chuckle. Twilight shrugged as she looked at the gloomy clouds. Although she did think that the pegasus was hiding something, she couldn’t rightly kick a pony out in this weather due to how strange they acted. While Twilight was debating whether or not to allow the pale mare inside, Sweetie Belle walked over beside her sister to see who was at the door. As she looked at the color of the pegasus, she had a twinge of déjà vu that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. “Please… you won’t even know I’m here… promise.” The strange pegasus added in an attempt at appealing to Twilight’s sense of morality. As the pony spoke, Sweetie Belle gasped as she remembered where she had last heard her voice. “Hey! That’s one of the ponies we saw down in the school’s basement!” The filly said while shaking her sister to get her attention. Twilight and Rarity widened their eyes at the sudden discovery. Upon noticing the alarmed filly, the pegasus seemed genuinely surprised. “Wow… you must be one of those three fillies from the school. Man, I thought that hunk of blood would have made mincemeat out of you pipsqueaks.” She chuckled in a tone that unsettled the three ponies. The pegasus obviously didn’t care about upholding her rouse any longer. Rarity backed Sweetie Belle away and stood in front of her protectively. She and Twilight shifted their expressions to more serious ones as they lit up their horns and leered at the pale mare with hostile intent. “Get away from us…” Twilight instructed while shifting her weight forward in a threatening manner. Although her nerves were on edge from confronting one of their enemies, she had a room full of friends to protect from the intruding pony. “Really? Are you sure I can’t just-” The gray mare asked in a jesting tone while stepping forward, only to be met by Twilight making her horn glow brighter. As she looked at the two unicorns staring holes into her, Raincloud backed up slightly while maintaining her casual expression. “No, you and your friends have done enough harm. You take one more step in this direction and I will personally make sure you regret it.” Twilight replied sternly. Rarity stepped forward to be in line with her friend as they both held their ground against any possible attacks. “Wow… you’ve got more spine than I originally thought.” Raincloud muttered to herself, slightly impressed by the boldness being displayed by the purple pony. “Ok then… if I can’t come in, do you mind if my friend takes a look around?” Raincloud said in a mischievous tone. She suddenly had a very cocky smile on her face. Twilight and Rarity looked around, but the pale mare was totally alone. There weren’t even any ponies in sight other than her. “What are you-” Twilight started to speak up, when she was interrupted by the mare chuckling devilishly. Raincloud steadied her body and smirked as she observed the confused bunch of ponies. “Shadow…” The pegasus announced in a firm tone to nobody in particular while looking beside her. Twilight, Rarity, and even Sweetie Belle were heavily confused by the strange mare. Suddenly, something happened that silenced the group into a state of shock and unease. The mare’s shadow suddenly started growing out to the side, as if a light were shifting around it and causing it to become longer. Once the shape grew to a sufficient length beside her, the shadow completely detached from the pegasus and formed into a circular blotch on the ground. The spot seemed darker than the transparent shadow it had once been. It perfectly resembled the tone of black that the darklings and dark matter were made of. With a ghastly howl, the black spot rippled as something rose out of it. A black head with two neon purple eyes and a jagged smile of the same glowing color came floating out of the ground. As the shape got higher, its form broadened as its specter like body came into view. The creature had what appeared to be the frilly overhanging fabric of a cloak around its body, as if it were dressed in some sort of ghostly shawl that blended in with its black color. The beast’s form tapered off into a spectral tail that bobbed up and down as it floated. And to complete its ghostly appearance, it had long, reaching arms that were capped off by boney looking black clawed hands. “…!” Twilight and her two companions were frozen in shock and fright. All they could do was to stare wide eyed at the dark specter before them as it hovered menacingly beside the smirking pegasus. The creature’s glowing purple eyes and mouth reminded Twilight of some kind of twisted jack-o-lantern that had no way of indicating where it was looking, yet it seemed to be staring directly into her very being. “Shadow… these are your new playthings. I don’t care what you do to them, as long as they suffer.” Raincloud instructed to her pet. The shadow twisted its head to look at her while keeping its body stationary. The jarring snap that resulted disturbed the three ponies deeply. “Yeah, you heard me right.” The pale mare stated with a grin before turning her attention to the three ponies in front of her. “KILL THEM!” She yelled in excitement while pointing at the three ponies. The ghostly monster snapped its head to stare at the three quivering creatures in the doorway. The three could almost swear they saw the specter’s jagged smile inch upwards slightly in a joyful smirk. The shadow let out an unearthly cackle that echoed through the ponies’ heads as it flew at them with its arms stretched out. The pitch black claws that jutted out of its hands looked like they could easily rip them to shreds. “AAAHHH!” Twilight, Rarity, and Sweetie Belle screamed in unison as the shadow flew at them. Twilight quickly slammed the door shut and locked it before leaping backwards to join her two friends. The door frame jolted as a loud thud sounded against it, followed by an odd sound that the ponies didn’t recognize. As the trio hyperventilated from their close encounter, everyone else in the room walked over to them with concern and alarm evident on their faces. They had heard a little bit of the conversation from inside, and they obviously heard the three screaming in terror, but they were ultimately clueless as to the danger that just presented itself. “What happened?! Are you guys ok?!” Spike asked with an alarmed tone while observing the fear in the three ponies’ eyes. Twilight tried to calm herself down enough to speak to the dragon, but the sound of the shadow's haunting laughter echoing through the room faintly stunned her into silence. As the specter’s laugh shifted around the room, the lights started flickering and dimming and the bookshelves and tables started vibrating on their own. The lights going out and the insane laughter of an unknown threat made all the ponies dart their heads around in a panic as they tried to pin point where the noise was coming from. “W-what in tarnation is that?!” Applejack stammered nervously while keeping Applebloom close to comfort her. The terrified filly was burying her head into the orange mare’s side for protection, although the farm pony wasn’t faring much better. “One of the hooded ponies was outside… apparently she has some kind of shadow monster under her control!” Twilight explained in a fearful voice. “S-s-she told it to k-kill us!” Sweetie Belle’s voice shook almost as much as her knees did. The white filly clung to her sister for comfort, although it did little do quell her gripping terror. “I don’t want to die.” The white filly whimpered quietly with tears welling up in her eyes. Seeing her sister this frightened made Rarity feel sad and helpless. “We’re going to be fine darling… sshh it’s ok… just keep your eyes closed and cover your ears… I’ll keep you safe.” Rarity said in a soft voice while hugging the filly close. It tore her up inside knowing that she might not be able to provide her the protection she promised. “I’m getting readings from all around us… I can’t tell where it is.” Glitterball explained nervously while observing her locator. The vial was completely aglow with blue light, offering little else than the obvious discovery that something evil was all around them. *POP* The loud bursting sound of the lightbulb overhead burning out made everyone jump in fright. They turned their attention upwards just in time to see the bulb bursting into tiny pieces with a flash of electricity. Little did the ponies know that while they were observing the exploded bulb, there was a dark blotch forming on the floor just behind Glitterball. With little more noise than a bizarre whir, the shadow rose out of the floor and set its eyes on its hapless victim. It let out an eerie howl as it rushed into the air like a manta ray swooping down on its prey. As the shadow was preparing its attack, Twilight and the others at the front of the group noticed the monster rushing their friend and gasped in fright. “Glitterball look out!” Twilight yelled in a panic to warn the unicorn to the incoming threat. Glitterball whipped her head around and widened her eyes in shock at the approaching specter. The sight of the pitch black entity with piercing eyes flying straight for her made her nerves explode with fright. The rainbow haired mare reacted in the only way she could think of at the time. She reached onto her vest and went for her strobe to defend herself against the creature. Just as she was bringing the vial up to ready it for combat, the white pony shrieked in pain as the specter swiped the bottle out of her hooves while it clawed at her body. The force of the impact sent the vial flying off to the side, and sent the wounded pony to the floor. “AGHH!” Glitterball yelled in agonizing pain as she clutched her injured arms to the spot where the claws had nicked her chest. The wounds weren’t very deep, but for some strange reason, they stung and throbbed with a shooting pain that was almost unnaturally unbearable considering the limited damage. “Nugh… guh… urrg!” Glitter yelped painfully while rocking her head back and forth to cope with her suffering. Watching the wounded unicorn moaning in distress made everyone feel a sense of horror and shock as they stood on the sidelines helplessly. While the unicorn was writhing in pain on the floor, the horrified ponies looked at the shadow only to see that its claws were glowing the same shade of purple that its facial features were. The strange glow vanished and returned to the shapeless blackness that covered the ghostly monster. “Glitter!” Peppermint exclaimed in terror and shock as he watched his wounded partner on the floor. The creature was looming over her, preparing to strike her again with its claws. The red haired stallion knew that a strike aimed at the helpless mare would either kill her or cause irreparable damage. With nerves shot to oblivion and shaky hooves, Peppermint reached down to his vest and desperately fumbled around for his strobe. He hadn’t had much practice with the weapon, but there was no time to let his lack of experience or fear get in the way. As the vial clattered against the other pieces of equipment on the stallion’s vest, the shadow jerked its head sideways and stared at the medical pony. Seeing the hollow and sinister gaze of the shadow sent a cold chill down Peppermint’s spine. He could feel his body seizing up in terror, preventing him from taking any sort of action other than a startled yelp as the specter glided towards him. “Ooof!” The red haired stallion groaned in pain as the shadow swatted him aside. Although the creature’s claws hadn’t made contact with him, the force of the strike was enough to cause considerable distress as well as sending Pepper careening into the far wall. Now that the stallion was out of the way, the shadow quickly turned its attention to the group of ponies huddled together in front of it. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity were so terrified by the monster that they could barely avert their eyes from it as it grinned at them with its unchanging jagged smile. Spike and the three fillies were cowering behind the three mares, hoping that the monster would just leave them alone somehow. As the monster approached, Applejack gulped nervously as she looked at her terrified friends. Even if Twilight and Rarity snapped out of their state of terror, there was no way they could get all of the children and themselves out of the way of an attack. Steeling herself against the frightening specter in front of her, the orange mare stepped forward bravely. Or at least, as brave as she could manage to make herself appear. The nervous band of ponies noticed their friend stepping forward to get between them and the shadow. Although they admired her sense of bravery, they were shocked to see the farm pony putting herself in harm’s way. “Applejack!” Applebloom cried frantically for her sister to reconsider her decision. “Don’t worry Applebloom… Ah’ll handle this.” Applejack glanced behind her quickly to give her sister a reassuring look before returning her attention to the monster that was floating menacingly in front of her. She hoped that she could deliver on her brave words. The shadow chuckled sinisterly as it stared at the orange pony in front of it with devious intentions. It held its gaunt arm out in front of itself before presenting its clawed hand for Applejack to see. The specter’s claws glowed a menacing purple once more as it inched closer and prepared to strike. The orange mare gulped nervously as she eyed the sharp claws with a feeling of dread building up inside of her. Meanwhile, as peppermint rubbed his head and recuperated from his body slamming into the wall, he looked up to see the shadow preparing to attack the farm pony. Taking a quick glance to his side to find that Glitterball was still out of commission, the white stallion knew that he had to be the one to act. Sitting up against the wall and looking to the nearby table, Pepper saw the remnants of Glitterball’s teaching session with the cutie mark crusaders. There were many uncapped vials, some empty, some filled partially with either liquids or solids, along with the containers for some of the ingredients. After dismissing most of the vials as completely useless, the red haired pony’s eyes settled on one particular vial. It was a bottle without a cap on it that contained a blue tinted liquid. Pepper remembered this to be a strobe that hadn’t been finished by the unicorn. Aha! He thought to himself in revelation. If the white stallion’s memory was to be trusted amid his shocked nerves and aching body, he knew that strobes were highly unstable in their early stages of brewing, with the slightest touch of the primer causing a bright flash of unconcentrated light energy. In one swift motion, Peppermint got up from the floor and dove for the table. He quickly grabbed the vial while being careful not to spill any of the liquid. Once the bottle was pointed in the general direction of the shadow, he pushed the button on the bottom section of the vial and closed his eyes. With a loud noise that sounded like flash powder igniting during a camera flash, the room was filled with a nearly blinding burst of light as the liquid in the vial was totally converted to energy. The violent burst of light elicited a screech from the shadow and made it pause from its attack to recover. The specter had smoke coming from its form, but seemed otherwise unharmed other than its reaction to the pain. Spotting Glitterball’s strobe on the ground a short distance away and seeing her opening, Applejack dove along the floor and grabbed the small vial. With a determined expression on her face, the farm pony whipped the bottle around and opened fire as she pointed it at the shadow. One of the bursts of light exploded into the monster’s shoulder, causing it to recoil from the attack. As the orange mare continued blasting at the specter, it dove backwards into the air and flew into the wall, where it disappeared into another black splotch with a disturbing moan that sounded like a threat to the attacking ponies. After taking a moment to ensure that the danger had passed, the ponies turned their attention to each other to ensure that nobody had been harmed. They were quickly reminded of the white unicorn writhing on the floor a short distance away, and adopted more concerned expressions as they drew closer. “Is she ok?” Rarity asked with a sympathetic frown as she observed the cringing pony attempting to deal with the pain. Peppermint knelt down and surveyed his teammate for injuries, but he couldn’t get very far into his inspection with the mare cradling her wounds like she was. “Glitter, it’s me. How bad are you hurt?” Pepper asked while gently taking ahold of the unicorn’s arms and lifting them. There were small gashes on both of her arms, as well as a slightly larger gash on her chest. Much to everyone’s surprise and dismay, the wounds seemed to be lightly pulsating with a purple glow similar to the shadow’s claws. “Guhh… I don’t think the cuts are too bad… ngh… but it hurts so much I can barely move.” Glitterball explained through clenched teeth. It was clear that the unicorn was in excruciating pain, but it seemed to be unwarranted given the size of her injuries. The ponies wondered if the shadow had somehow done something to the white mare to inflict this kind of pain. The faint sound of moaning slowly shifting into laughter echoed around the room. It sounded far away, but seemed to be getting slightly closer at times. The ponies suddenly realized just how dark and eerie the room was now that the lights were off. The intense atmosphere made them all nervous and uneasy among other emotions. “We need to get somewhere away from that thing before it comes back.” Applejack suggested while darting her eyes around anxiously. The stress from not knowing where the specter was almost overshadowed the fear felt from actually seeing the monster. “Wait a minute… I have an idea!” Twilight stated while rushing into the next room with eager intent. Not wanting to leave the unicorn alone, Spike and Applejack followed the lavender pony as she rushed to a storage closet in the other room. Twilight lit up her horn and fumbled around the small closet as she feverishly searched for a seemingly random item. Applejack and Spike watched the purple mare anxiously as she tossed aside many items in her search. “No… no… ugh, no!” Twilight groaned in frustration while hastening her search. She almost hit her companions behind her with the discarded items she was hastily throwing out. “Aha! Found it!” The unicorn exclaimed in triumph as she held up a small candle. The wax on the candle was a shade of deep blue that seemed to be unnaturally colored into the normally white wax. Applejack and Spike recognized the item to be one of Tom’s blessed candles. “A blessed candle?” Spike asked curiously as Twilight brought the item out of the closet and shut the door. “Yes… yes it is. Tom made this a couple days ago out of a spare candle we had lying around. He told me to use it in an emergency… and I think now is as good a time as any.” The unicorn stated while walking into the other room with her small group. Once she entered the main room with her item and presented it to the others, they all smiled as they realized what it was. “Good thinking Twilight!” Rarity applauded her friend with a cheerful tone. Twilight appreciated the praise, but she also didn’t want to take credit for something before it worked. Without wasting any more time with idle chatter, the unicorn quickly set the candle on the floor in the center of the group and focused her magic on it. As the wick of the candle lit up a brilliant shade of blue, a pulsating aura went out of the candle and formed a small bubble that covered the group and gave them a little room to move around. Although the space of the protective barrier was decent enough, it was still nowhere near the amount of protection that more candles would have provided. “I thought these were supposed to cover the whole room?” Scootaloo asked while stepping to the edge of the barrier and poking the air where the circle on the floor ended. The blue force field rippled around the spot where the filly touched before disappearing from sight once more. “That’s only if we have enough to cover each entrance… I guess we’ll have to work with this for now.” Twilight sighed at their bleak situation while looking at the light given off by the candle. Although the blue light coming off of it was a beautiful sight to behold, it didn’t actually do much more than provide enough light for someone carrying it. The purple unicorn lit up her horn again and projected enough light for everyone to be comfortable in the already eerie room. “Well as long as we’re safe, I could care less about stretching my legs…” Peppermint stated while examining Glitterball’s wounds. The cuts would be easy enough to mend, but the pain the unicorn was feeling would be another matter entirely. “Listen Glitter… I’m going to try to do something about the pain. Just sit tight and go to your happy place.” The stallion’s words did little to comfort the rainbow haired pony as she tried to remain as still as possible. “Gah… I don’t think there is a place happy enough to make me feel better right now Pepper.” Glitterball said with as much humor and wit as she could muster. Her pained smile and attempt at a lighthearted attitude only made everyone else feel bad for the white mare. They watched silently as they hoped that the red haired stallion would be able to do something, anything to make her feel better. Peppermint thought for a moment before reaching into a pouch on his vest and pulling out a hoof full of a fine white powder. The odd substance almost resembled sugar or salt, but it held the strangest odor that didn’t seem to fit it at all. It smelled like someone just picked a bunch of flowers, enough to concentrate the aroma given off by a group of them. “What’s that stuff?” Twilight asked curiously while examining the powder closer. “It’s a powder made by grinding up a rare flower known as dawn’s kiss. It has properties that cancel out certain negative energies, and it can be made into a lot of healing remedies.” Peppermint explained while balling up the powder in his hoof so he could pour it onto the wounds without spilling any. “And… I’m hoping it will get rid of whatever is causing Glitterball this much pain.” The stallion gently took the mare’s arm and poured a little bit of the powder over the length of the gash. After doing the same for her other wounds, he paused and watched to see if it was working. The ponies looked on with mystified expressions as the power glowed a soft shade of white. The granules of the powder seemed to disappear as it reacted with the wound. And along with the powder slowly disappearing, the purple glow of the wounds was getting weaker and weaker. As the last of the powder vanished, all that was left was the empty, albeit still bloody looking, cuts. “Ahh…” Glitterball let out a sigh of relief and laid her head back. Judging from her relaxed face and lack of painful moans and groans, the group gathered that her pain had been relieved. “How do you feel darling?” Rarity asked, hopeful that the powder had worked as well as it appeared. Glitterball smiled as she returned to a more cheerful attitude. “I feel good as new… minus the cuts on my arms and chest of course, but those don’t hurt that much.” Glitter explained with a relieved voice. Everyone smiled as the unicorn was restored to health. Now that their friend had been cured, they all felt like a weight had been lifted from the room. “Now that that’s over, we should get those cuts of yours patched up.” Peppermint said with a smile as he prepared to sew up the unicorn’s injuries. Before he could even get out his equipment however, a loud noise that resembled something bashing on a magical barrier sounded out. The group of ponies looked around in alarm as the blue force field around them lit up and became solid. As a disturbing howl sounded out, the ponies quickly found the source of the disturbance. The shadow had returned, and was frantically banging its fists on the barrier created by the candle. With each blow to the protective bubble, the flame of the candle jolted slightly, as if a light breeze were failing to blow it out. “GAH!” Spike and the three fillies beside him jumped back in fright. They huddled together as close to the center of the bubble as they could and tried their best to ignore the wailing of the monster outside. Even the adult ponies felt disturbed by the alarming sounds of the specter trying to break in, although they merely recoiled slightly from the initial shock of the shadow’s appearance. “I think we should call for help before you patch me up Pepper.” Glitterball suggested with a worried expression. Peppermint nodded in agreement. If the group didn’t get help, then they all might end up like Glitter did, or even worse. “Ok, ok… I’ll see if anyone can hear us over there.” The red haired stallion said while placing his hoof up to his ear. The faster he summoned aid, the faster that they could be truly safe again.
Chapter 48: House ArrestIt was very tense and nerve racking for the better part of the morning down at the Ponyville town square. Although there were considerably fewer undead monsters roaming around, there were still enough to warrant concern for the ponies dotted around the square. Brimstoke and Tom were doing their best to keep the princess safe while she figured out a way to stop the spell that was making the skeletons appear. Princess Luna had since left the town hall and decided to assist Sunspot and the others with rescuing all of the injured or trapped ponies around the square. “What’s your progress, Princess?” Brimstoke asked anxiously while eyeing the three skeletons attempting to shuffle over to him. Most of the ponies from the square had fled to the rest of the town, but a great many of them had taken shelter in the town hall. And as troubling as the notion seemed, the undead creatures seemed to know this and were steadily trying to get past the white stallion and break through the door. Celestia looked up from the floor to observe the two in front of her. While Tom seemed to be having little problems in dispatching whatever came his way, the alicorn was concerned for Brimstoke and his team. “I’m trying as fast as I can. This cloud is unlike anything I have ever seen, and I can barely produce enough energy to even affect it.” The princess responded with a troubled tone. “Well I hope you can get rid of it soon… more and more of those things just keep popping up, almost faster than we can put them down.” Brimstoke stated while looking out into the square to check on his teammates. Suddenly, the three were interrupted by Neon Streak trotting up to them from the side. She appeared exhausted from her efforts at keeping the ponies in the square safe from the undead horde around them. “Neon, what’s the situation out there?” Brimstoke asked with a serious expression. He waited for the green mare to catch her breath before she responded. “*Pant*… we… *wheeze*... we have managed to get all of the civilians away from the creatures. Glimmer, Sunspot, and Princess Luna are guarding them until we can move them up here.” Neon explained while looking behind her at the square bustling with undead life. It was a sorrowful sight to see this much destruction and chaos in the once lively town center. “How many casualties we count?” Brimstoke grew more somber as he brought up the subject of lost lives. Neon Streak looked down sadly before answering. “*Sigh*… non to report so far, but a few ponies are in critical condition. Even if Pepper were here I don’t think he could help all of them… we need external help if we don’t want to lose anyone.” Neon said with a grim tone in her voice. “We have royal guard on the way. I’m sure they have made arrangements to bring in field medics as well.” Brimstoke replied while trying to brighten the situation. “Neon, I need you to head back out there to help them move those civvies to safety. Understood?” He instructed to the mare in a clear voice. “Yes sir.” Neon nodded while putting a little bit more energy into her response. The green mare turned around and quickly darted through the square while avoiding any skeletons that blocked her path. Before Brimstoke could return to his post, his ear started glowing as Glitterball’s communication spell worked its magic. He heard a slightly nervous pony on the other end that he recognized to be Peppermint. “Hello…? Can anyone hear me?” Pepper asked nervously. The way the medical pony sounded conveyed that he was in a stressful situation. Brimstoke was surprised to see that the spell worked over such a long distance. “Peppermint? This is Brimstoke speaking.” The white stallion said to alert the pony to his presence. He put a hoof up to his ear to better focus the sound and waited for the red haired stallion to respond. “Brimstoke…? Oh thank goodness. We’re in serious trouble back at the library and we need help immediately. Is Tom there?” Peppermint asked in a stressed tone of voice. “Yes Tom is here. What’s going on over there?” Brimstoke replied with growing concern. He never figured that the group back at the library would be in any danger from the attack. “One of the hooded ponies showed up… they apparently summoned some kind of shadow creature here. It managed to attack Glitterball before we could fend it off long enough to find a safe place.” The red haired stallion explained his grim situation with a palpable sense of urgency. “What?!” Brimstoke exclaimed in shock upon hearing that one of the hooded ponies had attacked in such a direct way. “Hey, what’s going on?” Tom asked curiously while walking up to the surprised stallion. Although he couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, he could hear himself being mentioned, and the shocked reaction of the white pony. “Twilight and the others are being attacked back at the library by some kind of shadow creature.” Brimstoke relayed the information to the listening human and alicorn while dropping his hoof from his ear to speak outside of the two-way link. “What?!” Tom and Celestia both were shocked and alarmed to hear that their friends were being attacked under their very noses. “Ask them where they are now, and if they’re safe.” Tom practically instructed the stallion on what to say. Although he had a small sense of authority from his days at the academy, Brimstoke figured that the human knew more about what to do in these situations. “Pepper, what are you guys doing right now? Are you safe?” The white pony repeated the human’s request while returning his hoof to his ear. “We’re using one of Tom’s blessed candles to keep it out currently… it seems to have left us alone for the moment, but we have a slight problem here.” Peppermint explained with a growing sense of apprehension in his voice. “What’s wrong?” Brimstoke asked with a growing sense of dread. The mere fact that the others were in such a situation made him nervous already, so to hear that more complications were present only made the white stallion more on edge. “The candle looks like its flickering out… we don’t know how much longer it will last.” Peppermint stated uneasily. His voice was getting more and more unsettled the longer he thought about how much trouble they were in. As Tom noticed the growing sense of unease evident on Brimstoke’s face, he couldn’t help but to worry about the group trapped at the library. He felt a sense of urgency to find out as much about the situation as possible. “What’s happening over there? Talk to me Brimstoke…” The human’s voice broke the white stallion out of his nervous thoughts and made him look forward. “They are using one of your candles to protect themselves, but they think it’s about to burn out.” Brimstoke explained in a dreadful tone. Tom was shocked to hear the news that his friends were in so much danger. “Listen to me… Tell them that they need to get another means of staying safe. If only one candle is used, then it doesn’t last nearly as long as multiple candles linked together.” Tom explained with a sense of urgency while turning to walk away. “I’m going over there to help them. Will you guys be ok here on your own?” He asked while observing the remnants of the skeleton army. “Yeah, we’ll be fine. Just go!” Brimstoke replied while motioning for the human to leave. Tom nodded before sprinting off in the direction that he remembered leading to the library. As the human ran off towards the edge of the square, the white stallion noticed a group of ponies approaching the town hall from the side. It was Neon Streak and the others escorting a group of injured ponies. Princess Luna was levitating a bloodied earth pony mare alongside her. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot were each helping two ponies walk. There was another unicorn mare limping slowly in the middle of the group. And Neon Streak was covering the small troop from the few skeletons that remained in the square as they walked. “Are these the last ponies that were out there?” Brimstoke asked while rushing forward to help the injured unicorn walk up the steps to the main building. “Yeah, everyone else either ran off or they are accounted for.” Glimmer explained before opening the door to the town hall and helping the pony beside him inside. Sunspot and Luna did the same, leaving Neon Streak outside with Princess Celestia and Brimstoke. “Where’d Tom go?” Neon asked curiously while looking around for the absent human. “He ran off to help Twilight and the others back at the library. They are being attacked by one of the hooded ponies as we speak.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. “What?! Are they ok?!” Neon asked in a more concerned tone. “Don’t worry. They found a way to keep themselves safe until Tom gets there.” Brimstoke said in order to ease the green mare’s concerns. Suddenly the moans and groans of the remaining skeletons drew their attention away. “I guess that leaves us to mop things up around here… shouldn’t be too hard with how few of these things are remaining.” Neon stated with a chuckle while looking around at the many bones strewn around. It was a veritable graveyard of scattered skulls and heaps of bones from where each undead creature had collapsed after dismemberment. “Yeah, let’s hurry up and finish these things off so we can go help Tom and the others.” Brimstoke said with a confident nod to his teammate. Suddenly, a loud rattling noise made them dart their heads around nervously. It sounded like all of the bones around the square were vibrating, and sure enough, they were. Every bone left by one of the fallen monsters was shaking violently on the ground. Much to the ponies’ astonishment, a green mist erupted from the skulls and rib cages scattered around. The mist flew out into the area around each skeleton and went inside each of the bones that formally comprised their bodies. The body parts started floating into the air and assembling back into their original composition. As the skeletons were reforming all around the square, the newly formed beasts and the creatures that were left over from before all turned their attention forward. Brimstoke and Neon Streak backed up defensively as they watched the forming horde. “I thought if we knocked their heads off it would kill them?!” Neon asked with an alarmed tone. “I guess not… maybe we should try breaking their bones?” Brimstoke suggested nervously. He then turned behind him and looked at the white alicorn still trying to break the spell. “Uh, Princess? We could really use some sunlight right about now.” Brimstoke said with an anxious tone. Celestia looked up from her work and gasped in shock as she noticed how many of the creatures there were around them. She never imagined that there were this many that had formed since the fighting had begun. “I’m trying Brimstoke… Just be careful alright?” The alicorn said in a concerned tone. Brimstoke nodded confidently. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. Neon, go inside and get the others… we need to fight these things off until the princess can get rid of them for good.” The stallion instructed to his partner. Neon Streak took one more cursory glance at the crowd of approaching skeletons before returning her attention to her leader and nodding. Meanwhile back at the library, the atmosphere was very tense and nerve racking for decidedly different reasons. Ever since the shadow had ceased its assault on the magical barrier, the frightened group of ponies had been left in utter silence. The usually warm and comfortable environment of the library had been shifted into a dark and foreboding one. Every stray noise of the wind rustling the foliage of the library or even the creak of a piece of wood settling made the group jumpy. Twilight and her small band of companions eyed at the red haired stallion anxiously as he tried to summon the aid they so desperately needed. Although they couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, they could put together that Peppermint was explaining their situation to Brimstoke. “W-what..?” The stallion stammered nervously in a frightened voice. Judging from his pale expression, the others figured that something Brimstoke said had given him a dreadful feeling. “What is it Pepper?” Glitterball asked curiously, brimming with just as much anxiety as the others were to know about what was happening. “Oh… ok, we’ll have to make due then I guess… *gulp*” Peppermint continued his conversation while giving the curious ponies around him a signal to be patient while he finished. After another brief moment, the white stallion put his hoof back down from his ear and looked around with a pale expression. “Well? What did they say…? Are they coming to help us?” Rarity asked while trying to quiet her nerves for the sake of the filly beside her. All of the adults were trying to appear as brave as possible for the four children, but everyone could tell that they were just internalizing their fear. “Yes, Tom is on his way as we speak… but we have a slight problem.” Peppermint replied while nervously staring at the diminished flame on the candle that sat in the center of their protective bubble. “What is it Pepper? Is the candle weakening or something?” Twilight speculated while watching the flickering of the blue flame. “Worse… according to Tom, this candle isn’t going to last much longer, especially if that shadow tries breaking in again. We need to get somewhere safe, and fast.” Pepper replied in an anxious tone. The confirmation that the candle was indeed going out filled everyone with a new sense of fear and dread. “What are we going to do? This candle is the only thing keeping that thing from getting us.” Applebloom stated gloomily. Although she was stating the obvious, Applejack still tried her best to reassure her sister that everything would be alright. But the best she could offer the filly was holding her close with one arm. “I think I might have a solution… but it does have a few drawbacks.” Glitterball suggested while getting up from her seated position. Everyone looked to the rainbow haired unicorn with pleading eyes in the hopes that she could deliver them to safety. “Ah think that anything would be better than waiting for that thing to get us. What’s your plan Glitter?” Applejack asked eager to learn about the unicorn’s suggestion. Glitterball was happy to see that someone placed their faith in her, but she hoped that she could deliver on her promise. “I have a warding charm in my repertoire of spells that would keep that shadow out for a while… but it might have a few undesired side effects. For one we need to get into an interior room that has a door.” Glitterball explained while looking around nervously. The only door in sight was the front door. “Will my bedroom work? I know it has a balcony… but it should count as interior right?” Twilight suggested while thinking of a room that would work. Her kitchen and the other section of the library each lacked doors, and her bathroom would be too small for everyone to fit into, so her bedroom was their only option. “Right… that should work. As long as it isn’t the front door the charm will work. But that brings us to the next problem… I’m not sure if the charm will be strong enough to keep that monster out permanently. It should hold us out until help gets here though.” Glitterball stated with doubtful optimism. Even if she did want to view the situation with as much hope as possible, she couldn’t get the negative outcomes out of her head. Even if the unicorn’s plan didn’t work out, the ponies had to do something fast. The flame on the candle was gradually sinking further into the wax. At this rate, the candle would go out on its own in a few minutes. “Well if we want to move without being open to attack then we need to move now. Glitterball, get your charm ready and let’s head upstairs.” Twilight said while lighting up her horn and grabbing the candle with her magic, everyone got ready to follow the unicorn as she carefully inched forward to keep her friends in the circle of protection. With jittery nerves and strong feelings of apprehension and anxiety, the group walked forward through the darkened room. With the thick veil of clouds covering the sky outside, the sun did little to light the room as dim rays of faint light streamed in through the window. Everyone was secretly dreading every step they took. They knew for certain that their ghostly assailant would return for them, it was only a matter of time. Scootaloo and her band of crusaders huddled near Twilight to keep as close to the protective rays of the candle flame as possible. The purple unicorn practically tripped over the three fillies every time she stepped forward. After what seemed like an eternity of walking just a few inches, the group finally reached the stairs. Twilight motioned for Glitterball and Peppermint to step up before her. It only made sense for the lavender mare to remain in the middle of the group. If she went in front, then the entire group would have to keep inside of the small space provided by one half of the circle. “Let’s hurry up guys… this candle is almost used up.” Twilight stated grimly while nervously eyeing the progressively shrinking flame. The group took this as a cue to speed up their progress as much as possible while still being cautious. The purple unicorn could almost swear she could hear the faint sound of the shadow’s maniacal laughter from within the walls. She was almost on the verge of an anxiety attack by the time the group reached her bedroom door. Much to the surprise and dismay of everyone, the two vested ponies paused in front of the door and sighed before turning to the others with troubled expressions. “We need to prepare the charm on both sides of the door for this to work… maybe you guys should head inside and wait for us?” Glitterball suggested in an uneasy voice. Although the ponies appreciated the bold gesture, they could tell that she didn’t exactly want to be left outside to fend for herself. “No way, you guys would be sitting ducks out here without this candle. We can wait a little longer while you get the spell ready… just hurry up ok?” Twilight said with a kind tone. She knew that the two would be at risk if they were to remain outside, and if they were attacked, the rest of the group would be put in danger without the protective charm completed. “Ok… thanks I guess.” Glitterball stated in a grateful tone. She hadn’t thought about the possible outcomes of her plan beforehand, so to hear that someone else was thinking logically made her feel better about their chances. Without wasting any time, Glitterball and her partner reached into their vests to grab the necessary ingredients to complete the charm. Among the items the two produced from their inventory were two pieces of paper in small strips that only seemed big enough to write vertically on. After affixing one of the pieces of paper onto the door, the rainbow haired mare grabbed a feather quill and dabbed it into what appeared to be red ink. The sight of the small piece of paper filled many of the ponies with varying feelings of doubt and curiosity. They wondered how potent a magical spell involving paper could actually be, especially when held against the frightening capabilities of the shadow monster. “How is that going to work? I don’t think a piece of paper is going to do much against that thing.” Scootaloo fretted with worry as she eyed their supposed salvation. Glitterball merely smirked at the narrow minded filly while writing odd symbols on the paper. “And I didn’t think that candles could do much against that thing either… Magic takes many strange and sometimes unlikely forms.” Glitter replied with an understanding tone of voice. As the young pegasus thought back to how the blessed candles had fended off the creatures from the hospital, she resolved that not everything is as it seems when it comes to magic, especially human magic. “Ok, this side is done. Everyone head inside so we can complete the charm.” The white unicorn instructed while opening the door and ushering everyone inside, the group was eager to finally get somewhere safe where they could relax for five seconds without fear of being attacked. As she was heading inside, Twilight paused to view the piece of paper stuck to the door. The symbols on the paper vaguely resembled some of the symbols she had seen in the books procured from the hooded ponies, but only slightly. In truth, the purple unicorn had no idea what any of the seemingly jumbled up mess of shapes even meant. “Are you sure this is going to work, Twilight?” Spike asked from beside the lavender mare. Twilight looked down to see the young dragon admiring the paper himself with a curious expression. “I’m sure that Glitter and Pepper know what they’re doing Spike. They wouldn’t have suggested this if it didn’t even work.” The unicorn replied in a reassuring tone. She could tell that her assistant was trying to rationalize the situation to make himself feel safer. It reminded her a little bit of how she coped with frightful situations. “Hurry up and get inside guys… Ah don’t think that candle is going to last much longer.” The sound of Applejack beckoning them inside made the two turn their attention to the candle flame as it shifted in the air. They nodded in agreement while stepping forward. Suddenly, an eerie noise behind the pair made them turn around. It was hard to tell the source of the noise, but it sounded like the discomforting whoosh that the shadow made when it phased out of an object. Just past the bubble of light provided by Twilight’s horn, and the thin blue line on the floor that indicated the reach of the fading candle, something appeared to be moving in the darkness. Just before Spike and Twilight could react to the black shape, it moved upwards, revealing the neon purple glow of the shadow’s face. The creature’s body seemed to be masked by the darkness in the hallway, leaving only the floating eyes and mouth of the specter to be seen. As it cackled sinisterly, it rushed forward and slammed into the barrier of the candle. Instead of being repelled by the barrier however, the specter crashed through it. The candle flame sputtered out into a puff of blue smoke, and the force field appeared and disappeared as if it had been shattered. “*Gasp*” Twilight was shocked into silence by the ghostly figure in front of her. As it came into the light, it brandished its claws out in front of itself as if to show them off. The claws glowed a deep purple that gave the unicorn flashbacks of how it had attacked Glitterball. The shadow reeled its arm back in preparation to strike while gliding forward, the sight of the monster about to attack her made Twilight recoil backwards, only to hit the frame of the door as she scuttled back. Meanwhile, as the shadow was approaching the frightened unicorn, Spike was watching the scene unfold with abject horror. A part of him wanted to flee into the room and leave the purple mare to fend for herself, but he couldn’t just abandon her. The dragon felt an urge to protect his lifelong friend welling up inside of him, one that was slowly overriding his feeling of terror. “Twilight!” Spike cried out in a fearful tone while stepping in front of the unicorn. As the shadow noticed the dragon getting between him and his original target, he shifted his icy glare downwards and adjusted his trajectory. Twilight was horrified to see her young assistant jump in front of her. She tried to reach forward to get him out of the way of danger, but by the time she reacted it was too late. The unicorn watched in shock and dreadful terror as the shadow slashed its deadly weapons across sideways. A liberal amount of blood sprayed out of the dragon like a bursting water balloon as the claws made contact with his midsection. “AGH!” Spike screamed painfully as the creature’s claws raked across his body. Time seemingly slowed down as Twilight watched the dragon she had lived with for years getting lifted sideways from the force of the strike. The dragon’s blood splashed into the wall, being followed shortly by his body, which let out a sickening thud that mixed in with Spike’s cry of pain. As Spike fell to the floor and clutched his injury, Twilight could see streams of crimson pouring out through his fingers as his wound bled out. The dragon’s initial scream of pain had died out once he hit the wall, and now he seemed to be struggling with breathing as he made rapid shallow breaths. “SPIKE!” Twilight screamed in disbelief while rushing to Spike’s side. As she slid to her knees to cradle the wounded dragon, she turned once she heard the sinister cackle of the shadow. Although she felt a burning anger for what the shadow had just done, the unicorn was still frightened of the ghostly monster. The specter reeled its arm back once more to strike at the helpless pair. Twilight flinched her eyes shut and held Spike against her body so that he would get as little of the attack as possible. Suddenly, a burst of energy followed by a flash of light exploded into the creature, causing it to recoil in pain. Twilight looked up to see Glitterball stepping in front of her while holding out her strobe to fend off the monster. “Twilight! Get up!” The sound of Applejack’s frantic yells made the unicorn turn her head to the side. She was greeted by the sight of the orange mare rushing to her side to assist her with getting Spike to safety. Although she was horrified by the dragon’s bloody wounds, the farm pony wasted no time in picking him up and pulling him inside. Twilight felt that the orange mare would have taken Spike right out of her arms if she hadn’t got up along with her, and she was slightly thankful of that. While the pair rushed the injured dragon inside, Glitterball rushed in and closed the door behind her. She raced to prepare the rest of the charm so that they could be safe. Peppermint attempted to help the unicorn with finishing the spell, but he was rejected when she pushed him away gently. “Go help him! I got this!” Glitter instructed in a panicked tone. Pepper nodded before rushing over to the injured dragon as Twilight and Applejack placed him on the floor gently. “Oh my gosh… Spike! No, no, no…” Twilight was on the verge of tears as she watched her assistant writhing in pain on the floor. The dragon didn’t even open his eyes as he clutched the doubtlessly painful gash on his stomach. “Make some room.” Pepper instructed while pushing his way through the crowd of concerned bystanders to get to the pair tending to the dragon. Twilight quickly scooted over and let the red haired stallion do his job. Peppermint gently moved Spike’s bloody hands away from his wound. The gash was very deep and gory looking. The sight of this much blood would normally make the ponies sick, but instead it only made them more worried. “Is he ok? Is he going to make it?” Twilight’s voice shook as she stared helplessly at her injured companion. Peppermint turned to give the unicorn a statement, when suddenly the dragon cried out in pain again. The group watched with horrified expressions as the lengthy gash on Spike’s midsection pulsed with a purple glow. The already painful injury seemed to be amplified tenfold by the strange glow as the dragon could barely remain still from the agony he was feeling. “I need him to stay still so I can work on him… Glitter?!” Peppermint called out while turning his head to see the unicorn’s progress on the door. She was still scribbling on the paper and treating it with various bottles of strange liquids. “I’m almost done!” Glitterball replied nervously while rushing at every opportunity. The tense atmosphere was wreaking havoc on the unicorn’s nerves, as it was everyone else’s. “Almost isn’t going to cut it…” Pepper huffed in frustration before returning his attention to the dragon in front of him. Suddenly Spike was enveloped by a purple aura that made him remain still against the floor. Everyone looked over to see Twilight with her horn lit up. “I’ll hold him… just save him please!” The purple mare stated anxiously. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and cry, but she had to remain strong if she was going to help her friend. With a solemn nod, Peppermint reached into a pouch on his vest and pulled out more of the powder he had used on Glitterball. Without hesitation he sprinkled the powder over the length of the wound in liberal amounts. Everyone watched anxiously as they waited for the powder to take effect. Before long, the same white glow from earlier enveloped the powder and started reacting with the harmful effects of the purple glow. But as the powder disappeared bit by bit, the ponies made a frightful discovery. The purple glow still remained, even though all of the powder had vanished. “What the…?” Peppermint seemed perplexed by the lack of progress being made by the powder. He sprinkled another hoof full of the substance over the wound with a growing sense of unease that was apparent on his face. “What’s wrong? Is it working?” Rarity asked anxiously. Everyone felt the same sense of fear and dread for the dragon, they were all wracked with worry that he wouldn’t survive his injuries. Peppermint trailed his eyes off to look away from the concerned group. It was hard enough for him to deal with an injured child, but he knew that everyone was looking up to him to save their friend’s life, and that made the stallion all the more nervous. “I think that he caught a larger amount of the negative energy than Glitterball did… I don’t think that I can cure his pain right now.” Pepper explained with a sad tone of voice. Everyone felt their hearts sink upon hearing that Spike would have to suffer for a longer period of time. Suddenly a loud whir followed by a flash of light coming from behind them made everyone turn their attention to the front of the room. “Yes!” Glitterball exclaimed triumphantly. The symbols on the piece of paper were glowing bright red, signifying that whatever spell was in place had been activated. “The spell worked! We should be safe now.” The unicorn explained while trotting over to join the group tending to the young dragon. She lit up her horn and wrapped her aura around Spike, prompting Twilight to release her hold on him. “I got it Twilight… you just rest for a while.” Glitter said in a friendly tone. Twilight was grateful that she no longer had to do anything other than process her emotions. She gave the rainbow haired mare a passing expression of gratitude before scooting backwards and falling to a seated position. Applejack and Rarity sat near the distraught pony to offer her a small sense of comfort. They could tell that she was destroying herself on the inside over what happened, and although they didn’t outright know what had transpired in the hallway, they felt that asking about it would only cause her more pain. “We need to stop the bleeding. We can worry about that purple stuff later.” Peppermint said while reaching onto his vest to grab his cauterizing charm. “Shouldn’t we put him under before we do that? He’s in enough pain as is.” Twilight stated while watching Spike grimace painfully in an attempt at coping with the agony he was experiencing. Even though he was probably dazed from the pain he was feeling, he would doubtlessly notice if someone tried to singe his wounds closed. “We don’t have anything stronger than local anesthetics on hand… it will have to do for now.” Glitterball explained while Peppermint pulled out the syringes necessary to numb the dragon. Before the two could inject the numbing agent, the wound lit up a bright shade of purple that seemed more intense than usual. Glitterball felt Spike push harder against her magical hold as he tried to sit up instinctively from the pain. Along with tightening his muscles in a failed attempt to move, the dragon started screaming in pain again. Judging from how much louder the dragon was crying, the group knew that he must have been feeling some kind of horrific suffering that they could only imagine. Scootaloo and her two fellow crusaders looked away sadly as they couldn’t bear to see their friend like this. Everyone else looked on with their mouths agape in horrified expressions as they silently prayed for whatever pain that Spike was feeling to subside. Suddenly, Spike ceased his cries of agony and relaxed his muscles. It appeared as if he had awakened from a night terror only to pass out again. The sight of the motionless dragon filled Twilight and her friends with dread and panic. “Oh my gosh… is he…?!” Twilight’s voice cracked from how terrified she was. She could feel fresh tears streaming from her eyes uncontrollably as she stared at her number one assistant lying on the floor with a magically glowing bloody gash on his stomach. Peppermint quickly put a hoof to the dragon’s neck to check for a pulse. Although he was calmer than everyone else due to experience, the tense situation was even getting to him, causing his hooves to tremble slightly from his shocked nerves. “He’s alive… he must have just passed out from the shock.” Pepper stated with relief evident in his voice. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that their friend was alive. Although it was horrible that he experienced so much pain that he passed out, they were extremely happy that the dragon wasn’t dead. *BANG* A sudden thump on the door to the bedroom made everyone jump in fright. They turned their heads to the door only to see it shaking slightly from the repeated impacts of something banging on it from the other side. A low and frustrated growl that perfectly fit the eerie voice that the shadow had rang out as it figured out that it couldn’t get at its prey. Although the knowledge that the shadow was just outside made them nervous, the ponies were relieved to find out that the spell on the door was working in keeping out the ghostly monster. “Phew… guess you finished the charm just in time Glitter.” Rarity said in a congratulatory tone while smiling at the unicorn and her quick thinking. Glitterball seemed flattered by the praise being sent her way by the white mare and her friends. “Just doing my job I guess… now let’s get Spike here patched up.” Glitter said while turning to Peppermint, who nodded confidently while pulling out a vial from his vest.
Chapter 49: Pain and MiseryMeanwhile, as Twilight and her group were inside worrying about their injured friend, outside there was a more relaxed and impatient atmosphere. Dust Kicker was leaning against the wall of the building as his sister stood around while waiting for her shadow to return with an update. It had been a solid fifteen minutes since the confrontation with Twilight Sparkle at the front door. Since then, the pair had been standing around idly while waiting for the specter to do its dirty work, and although they could hear the stray scream of fear coming from inside, they didn’t have much to go on in terms of progress. “Are you sure we can’t just go in there ourselves?” The brown pegasus huffed in annoyance while raising his head up to face his sibling. Raincloud rolled her eyes as she tried to contain her sense of frustration at her brother’s impatience. “For the last time Dust… we need to stay out here to watch for anyone coming to rescue them. My shadow has specific instructions to let us know when we can come in to finish the rest of them off.” Raincloud explained with growing agitation. The stallion had no concern for his sister’s annoyance, he just cared whether or not he would be sitting outside and doing nothing for much longer. “I still think it would have gone faster if we rushed in there with darklings like I suggested.” Dust Kicker growled under his breath while laying his head back and closing his eyes. He never understood why his sister wanted her shadow to have all the fun. Even if they were connected, he wondered how much enjoyment she got from just letting her pet do all the work. Suddenly a ghostly moan followed by a dark blotch rapidly coming out of the library and disappearing under Raincloud alerted the two that the shadow had returned. Raincloud perked up and looked down while the shadow made seemingly unintelligible growls and howls at her. “What..? They used a spell to seal themselves in a bedroom?” The pale mare spoke while keeping her attention on the blotch. Dust Kicker was slightly concerned to see his sister talking to nothing but the ground. “You… talk to that thing?” Dust asked with a confused tone. Raincloud sighed in annoyance while shaking her head angrily. “I don’t tell it about my love life if that’s what you’re wondering Dust. I haven’t actually talked to it since I was a filly, you know that.” Raincloud explained in an irritated manner. The blue pegasus’s statement made Dust Kicker roll his eyes and shrug. “Yeah, yeah… whatever.” Dust stated while trying to sound indifferent to drop the subject. Raincloud was unimpressed by her brother’s judgmental question. “I mean hell… do you talk to your minions?” Raincloud asked in an accusing manner. The mare’s question caught the brown pegasus off guard. He briefly thought about what he would talk to his shadow creatures about, and what they might have to say in return if they could speak. The thought made him shiver and shake his head to rid himself of the images that came with it. “Even the more intelligent monsters I can summon would probably give me a headache if I could talk to them… so no.” Dust Kicker stated with a shudder while shaking the last of the disturbing thoughts from his head. Raincloud was pleased to see that she had annoyed her brother in such a way, but she had to get back to business. “Anyway… from what he’s telling me, I can gather that they all turned tail and ran upstairs to lock themselves in a room with a warding spell. But before they could get in there, shadow here managed to get a nice hit in on one of them.” Raincloud explained with a grin on her face. The news made Dust Kicker perk up with intrigue. “Really?” The stallion asked with a devious smile. The pale mare replied with a nod. “Yes really, apparently it was that dragon that hangs around with Twilight. He was nearly split in two from what my shadow tells me.” Raincloud explained cheerfully. As the pegasus relayed the information to her brother, the specter laughed heartily from its unseen position inside of her shadow. “Good, I’m sure that they are all broken up about it as we speak.” Dust Kicker said while returning to his laid back position. “I bet… but for now I’m going to have to fly up there and see if I can’t coax them out of that barrier. Or maybe see if I can’t break it down myself.” Raincloud stated while looking up to see the entrance to the balcony. It would be easy enough to fly up there and see what was going on. “Shouldn’t I come with you?” Dust Kicker asked with a slight hint of eagerness in his voice as he got up to finally see some action with his sister. “Sorry bro… someone needs to be the look out. Besides, my shadow overheard them calling for help. Apparently the slayer in on his way… haven’t you been itching for a rematch with him?” The pale mare asked in an encouraging tone. Although he was upset to be left outside on his own while his sister had all the fun, Dust couldn’t deny the desire he had to go one on one with the human. “Alright I’ll stay… but you leave some of them alive for me alright?” Dust Kicker asked sincerely to his sister, who offered a smile and a nod in return. “You bet.” Raincloud said while flapping her wings and taking off into the air. She flew up towards the balcony with eager intent. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and the three crusaders helplessly watched as Peppermint and Glitterball made every effort to save Spike’s life. Although they couldn’t cure whatever was causing the purple glow, they were trying their hardest to stop the dragon’s wound from pumping out blood. The tense atmosphere in the room was so palpable it could be cut with a knife. Everyone watched on in uneasiness as they hoped against all odds that the dragon would survive. Any member of the crowd wished they could trade places with him. “Oh Spike… I’m so sorry.” Twilight said in a depressed tone while hanging her head sadly. Seeing the pitiful state of their purple friend made Applejack and Rarity frown with sympathy for her. They couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like to have been so close to the dragon when he was attacked. “He’s going to be fine Twilight.” Rarity stated in an attempt at lifting the unicorn’s spirits. Twilight looked up to face the white mare with tears in her eyes. “R-really?” Twilight asked with grief stricken doubt in her voice. Rarity looked down to see the unconscious dragon as he was operated on by the two ponies. It pained her to see her normally happy go lucky admirer in such an injured state, but she had to believe that he would pull through. She couldn’t bear to even think about any other possibility. “Yes… if any of us can bounce back from something like this, it’s him. Spike will be just fine…” Rarity had a slight twinge of sadness in her voice as she tried to cheer up everyone else. The entire experience was wreaking havoc with her emotions. Peppermint and Glitterball stepped back from the dragon and wiped the sweat from their brows. Everyone perked up with anxious anticipation as they waited for them to explain how their young friend was faring. Peppermint was the first to address the group. He had a slight feeling of dread apparent on his face, which made everyone shift their expressions back to ones of concern. “We managed to stop the bleeding, but the wound won’t close no matter what we do. I think it has something to do with whatever that purple glow is. We will keep him sedated so he can’t feel as much of the pain until we can get a more permanent solution.” Pepper explained with slight apprehension in his voice. “*Sigh* Where are you when we need you Tom?” Twilight asked sadly while looking to the floor and closing her eyes. She could hardly prevent herself from breaking down emotionally from the sad situation. “I don’t know… he isn’t anywhere out there, that’s for sure.” The voice of a disturbingly familiar pegasus made everyone turn their attention to the loft where the balcony was. They could see that the pale blue mare had flown up and landed on the platform just outside the room. The sight of the pegasus filled Twilight with anger and contempt. She placed the blame of Spike getting hurt firmly on her shoulders, so to see her just a few feet in front of her made the unicorn boil with a variety of emotions. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked while getting up and walking a little closer to the pegasus. Raincloud laughed as she saw how upset the princess’s student was at her. “I just thought I would come in and check up on your friend there… he looks like he could use so- Oof!” The pale mare was cut off as she tried to enter the room. A translucent wall of energy popped up in front of her, causing her to slam into it like a bird hitting a glass window. As the pegasus rubbed her nose where she had hit the wall abruptly, Twilight smirked slightly as she saw the protection charm also worked against anyone trying to enter the room. “Don’t talk about Spike like that… you don’t even deserve to be within sight of him after what you did.” The purple unicorn said with an icy stare as she walked up to the doorway to the balcony with confidence. Raincloud seemed unfazed by the hateful looks she was getting by everyone in the room. She smirked with a smart-alecky sort of expression that only made Twilight and the others more upset. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do anything to brimstone breath over there… that was all my shadow, and technically he was aiming for you.” The pegasus stated in a snarky tone. The longer she was exposed to the hateful mare, the more agitated Twilight became. “You know, if I were you, I would be getting as far away from here as possible. Tom is on the way, and I would wager a guess that you already know what he is going to do when he finds out that you’re attacking his friends.” Twilight said with a smirk on her face as she expected the pegasus to become nervous at the revelation. Much to her confusion, the pale mare didn’t even flinch from her words. “The slayer huh? Well I’m sure that me and my brother can handle him. In the meantime I would be more concerned for your friend there… I’m not even sure if he is going to last until your human guard dog gets here.” Raincloud explained with a level of unwavering focus that unsettled the ponies. “What are you-” Twilight started to inquire as to what the pegasus meant, but she was interrupted by the sound of Spike screaming in pain again. She quickly turned to see that the dragon was writhing in pain again with his wound aglow with the purple energy from before. Peppermint and Glitterball quickly administered more sedatives into his bloodstream, causing him to slowly calm down and drift back off to sleep despite his still glowing wound. The ponies were horrified to see the dragon in pain, but they were even more horrified to hear Raincloud laughing at his misfortune. Twilight scowled at the pegasus with an angry gleam in her eye. She got up as close as she could to the mare without hitting the invisible barrier and shot her an angry expression that made the pale mare stop chuckling as a slight twinge of unease filled her body. “What did you do to him?!” Twilight asked, or rather, shouted at the pegasus with such sudden ferocity that it made her flinch slightly. Even her friends were surprised to see the unicorn this angry. “My shadow has the ability to cause pain and suffering in a person to the point that it actually becomes harmful to their body. Judging by how much exposure he got, I would say that your friend there only has half an hour before his body kills itself from the shock. So while the slayer is busy fighting my brother, you are going to be forced to watch your friend slowly and painfully die.” Raincloud explained with a devious smile on her face. Twilight gasped from hearing this. “We… we’ll get him the help he needs… even if we have to go through you.” Twilight said in a hesitant tone. She tried to appear as confident and brave as she could to intimidate the pale mare. Raincloud laughed heartily upon hearing the ridiculous proposition. “Hahahhaha…*snort*…. Oh man… I haven’t had a laugh that good in while. Do you really think you can get past me? Or have you already forgotten one crucial detail.” The pegasus explained while waving her hoof to show beside her. Suddenly a black spot on the floor quickly formed and spawned the same ghostly specter that had wounded Spike. The entity cackled in the eerie and echoed voice it had as it stared forward with its unchanging jagged smile. “*gasp*” Twilight and her friends were taken aback as they watched the shadow menacingly float next to its master. The pale blue pony seemed to take great joy in the troublesome situation she had created for the group. “My shadow is waiting for you out here. If you drop this barrier for even a second, your ass is mine… or more specifically, his.” Raincloud said while pointing to her minion. She then turned and started walking to the edge of the balcony. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?!” Applejack said while stepping forward to join her friend. The orange mare had had enough of waiting at the back of the room while the purple unicorn talked with the cold hearted pegasus. Raincloud paused mid stride as she heard the sound of the farm pony coming forward to confront her. Judging from the sound of her voice, she seemed incredibly angered and eager to give a piece of her mind to the pegasus. “You think you can just attack an innocent child and then walk away like it’s no big deal? That is the most spineless thing Ah have ever heard of. ” Applejack stated with a disgusted tone of voice. While the farm pony continued her berating of the pegasus, Raincloud was secretly getting more and more angry with every passing word. “Spike did nothing to you to deserve this… none of us did. You can’t just go around hurting people whenever you just feel like it… life is a valuable thing, and Ah don’t know what you and your hooded friends think, but it’s wrong to hurt others. You are nothing more than a bully with a monster for a pet that lets you pick on whoever y- Ack!” The farm pony was cut off suddenly by Raincloud leaping forwards with her arm stretched out. Much to the group’s surprise, the pegasus’s hoof was aflame with pulsating dark energy. The pale mare punched into the invisible barrier and went clean through, grabbing the orange pony by the neck and squeezing tightly. “*sputter*…*croak*” Applejack could offer little more than strangled sounds of protest as she was held in place by the surprisingly strong pegasus. The barrier seemed to be bending around her arm, as if she had literally punched a hole through it to get at the farm pony. “Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me about who deserves what?” Raincloud said through clenched teeth as she watched the farm pony trying to push out of her grip with her arms. Twilight and the others rushed forward to assist their friend, when suddenly the pegasus pulled Applejack into the barrier and let go, causing her to slam her head into the still solid wall. As she went to the floor, the orange mare gasped for air and clutched at her neck protectively. She could still feel a tight feeling in her throat from having it squeezed so hard. “Applejack! Are you ok?!” Twilight asked frantically while kneeling down beside the recovering earth pony. Applejack reached and tried to feel around for something solid to help pull herself up, settling on Twilight’s outstretched hoof. “*Hack*…*cough*… Yeah… Ah think so.” Applejack’s voice was barely audible as she tried to speak through her still sore throat. She looked forward at the pegasus, only to see that she was still standing outside of the barrier. It was almost like the attack never happened. “You think that just because you haven’t done anything that you don’t deserve to be harmed?” Raincloud continued in a cold tone of voice. “Life isn’t as precious and valuable as you make it out to be. Just because you’re kind or honest to people doesn’t mean that you get to live life scot-free. No matter how hard you work, or how much you care about others, you will always feel pain sooner or later.” The pale mare’s words made everyone listen in shocked silence as she walked away. Just before she reached the edge of the balcony, she turned her head to look at the group out of the corner of her eye. “I hate people like you… people who go around acting like everything is all sunshine and rainbows. You should be thankful that I’m giving you more time to live. I could just break that barrier right now and watch as my shadow rips you apart, but I have other things I could be doing... like watching my brother kicking the crap out of that damn slayer.” The pegasus stated in a hateful tone before spreading her wings and flying down. The shadow sank into the floor and disappeared, but the ponies knew that it wouldn’t stray far from them. “Are you ok sis?” Applejack looked beside her to see her sister rushing up to her with a concerned expression. Applebloom jumped up and hugged the orange mare, being careful not to cause further injury. Applejack was still shaken from the sudden attack, but she still felt bad that the yellow filly had to see her in danger. “Ah’m fine Applebloom… just a little roughed up.” Applejack said while trying to sound as normal as possible despite her still throbbing neck. She shared a concerned glance with Twilight as they took one last look at the outside balcony. The two then returned their attention to the dragon lying on the floor behind them. The pale mare’s words had struck a chord in the ponies. Was Spike really going to die while they just sat idly by? The mere thought made a sickening feeling of dread settle in everyone’s stomach. Still, the possibility remained that the pegasus was telling the truth. “Is… is Spike going to be ok?” Scootaloo asked with a shaky voice as she sat down next to the unconscious dragon. Although they wanted to reassure the filly, Twilight and the others were still dealing with that question themselves. “I don’t know Scootaloo…” Twilight stated somberly while looking at Spike with worry and concern. “We just need to hope that Tom will be able to get to us. He can help him… I’m sure of it.” The unicorn explained in a sincere tone. Everyone sadly watched the gradual rise and fall of the dragon’s chest as he breathed peacefully. They wondered how long it would be before he woke up again and felt the unbearable suffering caused by his wounds. Dust Kicker was sitting his head on his hooves while resting against the wall in a fetal position. He was almost wishing for someone to come along so he could take out his bored frustration on them, even if it would be for only a brief moment. Suddenly, he could hear the flapping of wings above him. He looked up to see Raincloud flying down to the ground. The stallion started to say something, but he noticed that she appeared to be muttering to herself with an agitated expression. “What’s eating you?” Dust Kicker asked with a cautiously gentle tone. He didn’t want to piss her off any further than she already was. Raincloud turned to look at her brother and sighed in frustration. “Nothing… I’m just upset that the barrier they have will take too long to bust down. You got any creatures that are strong enough to help me out?” The pale mare asked while hiding her anger internally. “Well… I’m not sure if darklings would be able to cut it. But I think that I can cook something up… let’s head up there and check it out.” Dust Kicker replied while thinking of what kind of monster to summon from his arsenal. The two pegasi spread their wings and took off. Although Raincloud didn’t want to confront the group of ponies any further, she would take great pleasure in watching them cower in fear as she broke into their safe haven with an army of monsters. As the two landed, Raincloud stayed behind her brother to put as much distance between her and the ponies as possible. Not because she felt threatened by them, but rather because she didn’t want to let her temper get the best of her. Once the two ponies landed on the balcony, the noise they created alerted the group inside to their presence. Twilight and her friends were upset to see the pale mare return, but were surprised to see that she had company. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked with a leery expression while getting up to observe the pair. Raincloud scowled at the approaching mare while her brother merely examined the warding spell. “I decided that I’m done waiting around, so I got my brother here to come up and bust in there for me.” Raincloud explained with an irritated attitude. The ponies looked to the brown stallion and watched him sizing up the barrier. They wondered if he could actually remove the protective charm from the room as his sister had claimed. “Hey… aren’t you the pegasus that attacked our friends out in the woods?” Twilight asked as she recognized the brown pony from the description that Tom and the others had given her. Dust Kicker smirked as he received recognition for his deeds. “Nice to hear that I left such an imprint on them… Well I guess if you already know about me, then you must know that I can do this.” The stallion stated while lifting his leg into the air. The tip of his hoof was suddenly enveloped with the same energy the group had seen the pale mare use to punch through the barrier. Twilight backed up defensively as she watched the pegasus stamp his hoof on the ground. The fiery energy on his hoof traveled into the floor and spread out to three points beside him. The points enlarged into black splotches on the floor that started moving upwards. Twilight expected to see the blotches form into darklings, but she was mistaken. The creatures being formed were much larger than average darklings. They seemed to have the same appearance as darklings, but they had more defined features than the shadowy forms that the group had previously seen. The feral beasts had the appearance of some kind of wild cat, but their eyes were replaced by four red slits. As the three monsters growled at the ponies, everyone backed up anxiously. The ponies saw that the beasts had razor sharp fangs to match with the rest of their vicious appearance. Peppermint and Glitterball reached for their strobes to have them on hand if the creatures should attack. “These guys should be able to work their way through that charm of yours. I wager it should take them about… eh… less than a minute.” Dust Kicker said with a devious smile as he observed his three minions. The shadow creatures crouched low in preparation to charge at the barrier. Their claws appeared as though they could do some serious damage if they were to get through, not to mention their teeth. “Hey!” Before the pegasus could give the order for the beasts to attack, he was interrupted by the sound of Raincloud calling him over to the edge of the balcony. “Ughh… what is it?” Dust Kicker asked with an annoyed expression while turning around. He walked over to the edge of the balcony and looked around. The stallion was surprised to see that a blue suited human was swiftly making his way to the front of the library. “Looks like the slayer just showed up.” Raincloud muttered to her brother, just loud enough for him to hear. “Great… just what we needed.” Dust Kicker shrugged in frustration. He was just starting to have some fun with the trapped ponies, so the human was the last person he wanted to see right now. Twilight and the others couldn’t hear the two siblings as they conversed amongst themselves. The purple unicorn contemplated getting closer so she could hear better, but she didn’t want to go anywhere near the three snarling beasts that stood just outside the barrier. Suddenly the pale mare turned away from the balcony and walked back up to the doorway. The devious smile on her face gave the ponies a bad feeling that she had something horrible in mind. “Good news… your human friend is here. I guess that gives you a little more time before we kill all of you.” Raincloud explained with an unwavering tone of confidence. Her lack of apprehension at the slayer’s arrival made the ponies nervous for their odds of success. “Let’s go give him a warm welcome sis.” Dust Kicker stated while cracking his neck and stretching his muscles. Raincloud smirked and walked up to her brother as he spread his wings. The two hopped off the balcony and flew out of sight. The three shadow creatures offered the ponies one last intimidating growl as they sank into the ground to follow their master. As the monsters disappeared into the floor, the group was left alone once again to sit in their safe haven. “Tom is here! That means we’re saved right?” Sweetie Belle chimed with excitement at the human’s arrival. Although the others felt the same excitement the filly felt, they were also uneasy because they knew that he would have to fight the two pegasi to rescue them. “I certainly hope so Darling…” Rarity stated with careful optimism as she smiled along with the others. They knew that the human would stop at nothing to protect them, but they also knew that the two ponies outside would stop at nothing to keep them trapped. Twilight turned to Spike and returned a concerned expression to her face. She knelt down and lovingly caressed his head while being careful not to wake him. The purple mare was concerned to feel the dragon sweating while his forehead was still cold. “Hang in there Spike… help is on the way.” Twilight muttered in a hopeful tone. The unicorn prayed that Tom would be able to heal the dragon, and that he could reach them in time.
Chapter 51: The Fight For The SquareRainbow Dash sighed in frustration as she paced around the room anxiously. She had been holed up in a small waiting room ever since she was told to go inside by the others. Although she had only been there for around half an hour, it felt like an eternity to the cyan mare. She wanted to do something, anything to help Brimstoke and the others with defeating the skeletons, but all she could do was sit in this room filled with her two friends and four other ponies and watch outside through one of the two windows set into the wall. “This is stupid… we should be out there doing something!” the pegasus huffed in annoyance while throwing her hooves up angrily. She looked over to Fluttershy, who was sitting on a leather couch tucked away on the far side of the room. “You heard Neon Streak… we should stay in here. It’s probably for the best anyway…” The yellow mare shuddered as she thought back to her previous encounters with the skeletons outside. Rainbow Dash felt sorry for the timid pegasus, but she also felt a strong need to take action. “Well, yeah… but…” The cyan pony tried to voice her opinion while also trying to not pressure Fluttershy into joining her. She knew that the yellow pegasus would feel horrible if she stayed behind while her friend endangered herself. “But what?” Pinkie Pie chimed in excitedly from across the room. She had been occupying herself with cheering up the other ponies in the room. “It’s safe in here… besides, I’m trying to play a game of checkers here.” The energetic mare stated while pointing to the ground in front of her. She had apparently created a makeshift checkerboard complete with pieces using whatever odds and ends she could find. The pony across from her appeared to be confused about the basic rules of the game. He kept examining his own pieces, as if he were unsure of which item was even a piece or not. Rainbow Dash sighed as her friends shot down whatever argument she had made. The pegasus sat down against the wall and threw her head back in defeat as she gave up all hope of making herself useful in the battle. Suddenly, she heard a slight commotion outside of the door to the room. Curious as to what could be happening outside, the pegasus got up and walked over to the door. Outside of the small window in the top of the door, she could see that Sunspot was discussing something with Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak. After a brief moment, Glimmer and Neon ran off in a hurry, while Sunspot shrugged and lingered in the hallway for a while. Spotting a chance to possibly do something, Rainbow Dash decided that it would be a good idea to try and talk the suited mare into letting her help. “Hey, I’m going to go talk to Sunspot about heading back out there.” The cyan mare announced while looking around at her friends. Fluttershy immediately hopped up from her seat and looked at the pegasus with a shocked expression. “What…? But why would you want to go back out?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned tone of voice. It was beyond the yellow pony as to why anyone would want to willingly put themselves in danger without good cause. Rainbow Dash sighed as she looked at her friend with an understanding expression. She knew that the yellow mare was scared to go outside, she was probably even scared in the relative safety of this boring room, and Rainbow understood that. But the cyan mare needed to be more active with determining the outcome of the fight, with or without her friends. “Look Fluttershy… you can stay in here if you want, but I’m going back out there. I want to help them, not stay in here while others endanger themselves on my behalf.” The pegasus explained in a lighthearted tone while going to open the door. She was interrupted by Fluttershy quickly walking over to her, but instead of giving her another reason to stay inside, she simply gave her a determined expression. “I’m going with you… If you’re going to charge headlong into danger, I at least want to be there to have your back.” The yellow pony explained with slight apprehension. Rainbow Dash was flattered by her friend’s bravery and concern for her. “Thanks... but neither of us are going out there unless we have someone vouching for us.” The cyan mare stated while returning her attention to the suited pegasus outside. Sunspot shrugged once more before starting to walk away, giving Rainbow Dash a new sense of urgency to carry out her plan. The two ponies waved to the pink mare on the other side of the room before opening the door and stepping outside. Pinkie Pie sighed while shaking her head in concern. She hoped that her friends would keep themselves out of harm’s way while they were gone. “Those two…” Pinkie shrugged understandingly before returning her attention to the game behind her. She looked at the board for a moment before placing a hoof on one of the pieces. Much to the surprise and dismay of the unlucky pony that was playing with her, the pink mare hopped the piece over half of his pieces, making it all the way to his side of the board. “Yay! King me!” The excited mare cheered eagerly at her triumph. Meanwhile the dejected pony across from her sighed and shook his head while begrudgingly grabbing another piece to place on top of Pinkie’s. Once out in the hallway, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy immediately rushed in the direction they last saw Sunspot moving. After a short walk, they found the suited mare trotting down a hallway with a troubled expression on her face. “Hey Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash yelled down the hallway to get her attention. Sunspot turned around and watched the two ponies approach her with a curious expression. “What’s up?” The suited mare asked with a raised eyebrow. Rainbow Dash stammered nervously as she tried to think of a valid argument for her cause. “Umm…well uh… you see…” The cyan pegasus was wracking her mind in an attempt at finding something to say that wouldn't immediately get her tossed back into the other room. “Rainbow Dash and I want to help you guys.” Fluttershy spoke up to save her friend the trouble. “Yeah… what she said… heh.” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously while observing the suited pony for any expressions that would give an insight to her response. “I don’t know girls… it’s pretty dangerous out there right now… especially now actually.” Sunspot replied with an uneasy tone. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were confused by her odd response. “Especially now…? What does that mean?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. The orange mare shrugged uncomfortably as she thought about the declining situation outside. “Neon just came in to call all of us outside again… apparently the skeletons have all reformed themselves.” Sunspot explained with a concerned frown on her face. “What?!” Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exclaimed in unison. They couldn’t believe that such a thing could have happened. “You heard me… Brimstoke wants us to keep them away while the princess works on a more permanent solution… she’s apparently close, but she needs time.” Sunspot explained while looking towards the rest of the hallway with a sense of urgency. “Look girls… I would love to stay and chat, but I need to go help the others.” The suited mare stated in an apologetic tone while turning to walk away. “Wait!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed to get her attention one last time. Sunspot turned back around with a troubled expression. “I know you need to go, but please take us with you. If there’s anything we can do… anything at all, we want to help.” The cyan mare pleaded with the biggest smile she could muster. “Pleeeeaaaase?” “*sigh*” Sunspot shook her head and shrugged in defeat. She could tell that the cyan mare was dying to do something to help. She could see a little bit of herself in the eager pegasus. “Alright… I’ll let you at least come with me. But you stay with the princesses and use these from a distance… ok?” The suited mare instructed while handing the pair two extra strobes. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy accepted the vials and offered an enthusiastic nod. “Ok then… let’s hurry up and get out there!” Sunspot stated while taking off into a sprint down the hallway. The two ponies eagerly followed the suited mare as she urgently rushed through the town hall towards the entrance. After a short run, the three burst through the double doors at the entryway and came out in the circular courtyard area that surrounded the building. They immediately noticed a frightfully large crowd of skeletons in the square in front of them. The only things keeping the skeletons from getting closer were the combined efforts of Brimstoke, Glimmer Shine, Neon Streak, and Princess Luna. The four were either using their strobes to fend off the creatures, bashing the few that got close, or using magic to keep them away. “Where’s Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around for the human. Sunspot turned to her to answer her question. “He left a few minutes ago to go help Twilight and the others back at the library… they were attacked by one of the hooded ponies.” The suited mare explained. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gasped as they learned that their friends were in danger. “Oh my gosh! Are they alright?!” The cyan pegasus asked frantically. Sunspot gave her an unsure expression, which didn’t exactly ease her concerns. “We don’t know, but they were finding a way to stay safe when we last talked with them, so they should be fine until Tom gets there.” Sunspot explained with a hopeful tone of voice. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy shared a concerned glance with each other as they hoped that their friends would be safe. Sunspot then turned her attention to the group in front of her. She was about to run up to the four to assist them, when she suddenly heard the sound of Celestia calling her name from the side. She looked over to see the alicorn beckoning her over urgently. “Sunspot, come over here and bring Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.” The princess instructed while glancing over to the two ponies behind the suited mare. Although they were confused as to why the princess would want their help, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked over along with Sunspot as requested. Once they reached the alicorn, they were half expecting her to send them back inside due to how dangerous it was. “Girls… I found a way to get rid of this cloud, but I need your help.” Celestia explained while looking at all three of the pegasus’s with purpose. “You mean… even us?” Rainbow Dash asked with uncertainty while looking at her friend with a confused expression. “Yes Rainbow Dash… I’m not exactly sure why you would come back out here, but now that you have, I need your assistance.” The princess explained with a sincere tone of voice. Rainbow Dash tried to remain professional and keep her excitement internalized, but she couldn’t prevent herself from smiling giddily. “Happy to help Princess.” The cyan mare stated before waiting eagerly for the alicorn to dispense her orders. “I have found a spell that will allow us to disrupt the clouds enough for them to vanish, but I need someone to fly up there and touch them for it to work… hence why I need you three.” Celestia explained while glancing between the three. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were understandably concerned with touching the clouds again after what happened when they tried before. “But how are we going to touch them? Me and Rainbow Dash tried that before… and I almost got electrocuted.” Fluttershy explained with a nervous shiver upon thinking back to everything she could remember about the experience. “Don’t worry about that happening again. The spell I found will prevent you from getting shocked when you touch the clouds.” Celestia stated while lighting up her horn. Suddenly the three ponies’ hooves started glowing with the same color as the alicorn’s horn. The three mares lifted up their hooves and examined them curiously. Sunspot shook one of her legs to see if the glow was firmly attached, which it was. “Just fly up there and touch the clouds until you see them stop reacting to the spell. Keep doing this in several areas and it should destroy the cloud completely.” The Princess explained while pointing upwards. The ominously shifting clouds above still filled the ponies with dread whenever they looked at them. “Aren’t you coming with us?” Fluttershy asked curiously as she noted that Celestia hadn’t cast the spell on herself. “Sorry Fluttershy, but I will be staying down here. I need to help the others with keeping those creatures at bay until you can let the light from the sun in to destroy them completely.” The alicorn explained sadly. She didn’t want to endanger the three ponies without going with them herself, but she also had to help her sister and the others with their task. There were dozens of innocent ponies in the building behind them that needed to be protected at all costs. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ll make sure they stay out of trouble.” Sunspot said in a confident tone while glancing back at the two. Celestia smiled and nodded as she watched the three taking off into the air. She felt a little better knowing that the two ponies had someone looking out for them. As Sunspot and her two companions ascended through the air, they glanced down to see the dismal state of the once glorious town square. Several tents had been knocked over or destroyed, there were several toppled over statues and other notable decorations strewn along the ground, not to mention the veritable army of skeletons roaming around. “I hope everyone is doing ok down there.” Fluttershy stated in a concerned tone while observing the many undead ponies occupying the square. “Don’t worry about them. If I know Brimstoke, he won’t let anybody get hurt on his watch.” Sunspot explained to reassure the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy smiled a little as she felt a bit more confident in their chances. Now that their concerns for their friends on the ground were mostly dealt with, the three ponies quickly flew up to the bank of clouds to complete their mission. As they got closer, a chilled wind hit their faces, causing their hair to be blown back more so than it already was from the force of gravity. Once they pushed past the threshold of grayness from low hanging wisps of cloud, the three mares finally found themselves just below the main body of clouds. The dark puffs were rolling by at a steady rate as the low rush of wind drowned out any other noises. The only light coming from the area was the soft green flashes of light coming from within the clouds. “Here we are…” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. She glanced down at her still glowing hooves and glanced back up with an apprehensive expression. She wasn’t too thrilled to be touching the clouds, but she decided to be the first one to test out the spell. The cyan pegasus cautiously hovered up to the cloud and stuck her arms out to touch it. She cringed instinctively as she neared the softly glowing haze of blackness. As she felt the familiar soft and puffy texture that came from touching any cloud, she heard the sparking of electricity and tensed up with fright. Mysteriously however, the pegasus felt no indication of pain, or even anything that indicated the presence of electricity. She opened her eyes and looked up, only to freeze in astonishment at what she saw. There were arcs of the same green electricity from earlier flowing into her hooves, but they didn’t seem to be affecting her in any meaningful way. “Cool… hey, check it out!” Rainbow Dash announced excitedly. Her two companions watched the cyan pegasus as she successfully touched the clouds without injury. Suddenly, the cloud stopped emitting electricity. A loud hum sounded out as a small pulse of light surged through the cloud around her hooves before disappearing. “I guess that means that this spot is done…” Sunspot theorized while observing her own glowing hooves. She then smiled as she realized that they were close to ending this nightmare. “Come on! Let’s get to work girls.” The suited mare announced while flying up to another spot and placing her hooves firmly on a cloud. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash followed her example and flew up to other areas and touching the clouds wherever they could. Meanwhile on the ground, Brimstoke and his two teammates were working with Celestia and Luna to keep the approaching skeletons away from the town hall. The undead horde seemed to be very intent on remaining in the square. The group figured that whatever spell was at play was localized to the square. Brimstoke yelled fiercely as he bashed one of the skeletons away with a baton he produced from his vest. The undead creature’s skull cracked open with a sickening snap as the head was separated from its shoulders. Despite this, the body of the skeleton kept walking forward without its head, doubtlessly waiting for it to reattach itself so it could continue attacking. “These things just don’t give up do they?” The stallion shrugged while rearing up and bucking the rest of the skeleton away. “No… I guess they don’t.” Glimmer Shine replied while blasting away at anything that got close. He was starting to get exhausted from holding his strobe out in front of him for so long. Thankfully he had the aid of Neon Streak to pick up the slack. “Don’t worry… Sunspot, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are working on giving us sunlight.” Celestia stated to lift the group’s spirits. “Well I hope they do it soon, at this rate we will be up to our eyes in these freaks in a few minutes.” Neon added in a troubled tone while desperately trying to keep up with the constant inflow of skeletons. “Hey… look at it this way Neon. At least it can’t get any worse.” Glimmer Shine chuckled lightheartedly to brighten the green mare’s spirits. Suddenly a loud buzz emanated from Brimstoke and his team’s vests. Neon glanced down from her defensive firing and shifted her eyes over to her locators. Just before she glanced back up and dismissed the reading, she gasped when she noticed what was wrong. “What the hay?!” The green pony exclaimed in shock as she lifted up the negative energy locator. The entire vial was pulsing off and on with blue light like an alarm. As Brimstoke and the others glanced down to their own locators, they widened their eyes in surprise. “What is that?!” Brimstoke asked in a panic as he tried to think of what could possibly elicit such a response from the locator. The skeletons around him weren’t giving off that much of a reading, even with so many of them being present. Celestia and Luna suddenly paled as they felt an immense surge of energy coming from just outside the square. They had never felt such a negative source of energy before, not even from Discord. The size and scope of the energy was a blur to them due to their vague senses, but they could definitely feel how evil and horrific the magic being used was. “Sister… do you feel that?” Luna asked while recollecting herself from the sudden detection of energy. Celestia nodded while looking off in the rough direction of the energy. “Yes… something or someone must be using powerful magic close by.” The white alicorn replied in a grim tone of voice. Brimstoke and his teammates turned to the two princesses with surprised expressions. They never figured that the surge of energy would be so massive that the pair could detect it. “You can feel it…? What is it?” Glimmer Shine asked nervously while glancing around for any signs of foul play. Celestia tried to refine the overwhelming sensation into some sort of useful bearing for the others, but she couldn’t determine anything other than a vague direction and the magnitude of the energy. Before the alicorn could even try to answer any of the stallion’s questions, a loud rumble suddenly shook the square. The small quake wasn’t large enough to make the ground tremble, but it was enough to create a palpable sense of how large the source must have been. The ponies on the ground could feel it in their feet, and the three pegasus’s in the sky could hear it as it seemingly clattered around randomly. Rainbow Dash and her two companions paused their task of disabling the magical clouds to stop and listen to the loud noise. They watched in shocked silence as the sound seemingly got closer from off in the distance. “W-w-what is that?” Fluttershy stammered nervously as she listened to each successive thud. Rainbow Dash tried to offer a sensible answer, but she couldn’t even determine the source of the frightening noise. Suddenly, Sunspot looked down to her suit as she heard the buzz of her locator. The vial was pulsing with blue light rapidly as whatever was causing it to go off got closer. The knowledge that something evil with that much negative energy was coming towards them made her understandably nervous. “Hey… I think it’s coming from over-” The suited mare tried to pinpoint the source of the noise to behind a set of buildings, when she was suddenly silenced by a bewildering and horrific sight. As the thundering noises got closer, the group of shocked ponies noticed movement coming from behind one of the buildings on the edge of the square. Suddenly, a large skeletal hand with four boney claws came up from behind the building and slammed down on top of it with a deafening crunch. Another large hand came up next to the first one, combined with a loud unearthly growl that sounded like a deeper version of the skeletons in the square. Slowly, as if to further cement the feeling of horror in the ponies’ hearts, a large dragon skull with glowing green eyes lifted itself up from behind the building. The battle with the skeletons had all but ceased as every creature in the square turned to stare at the loud racket. While all of the living ponies were staring with their mouths agape in horror at the giant creature climbing on top of the building, all of the skeletons were simply examining the strange noise coming from the other side of the area. With a flap of its seemingly useless skeletal wings, the undead beast lifted into the air briefly and brought the rest of its titanic form onto the building. The roof of the fragile structure cracked and crumbled as the large creature dug its sharp claws into it while perching up on its hind legs. The colossal beast extended its wings and lifted its head into the air. A deafening roar that shook the very ground and made the ponies flinch in fright erupted from the boney dragon. Midway through its frightening outburst, the dragon’s mouth lit up with green light as an eerily tinted spout of green fire shot out like a flamethrower into the sky. “Brimstoke…” Neon Streak’s voice was quiet and unfocused as she stared at the monster in shock. “Is that what I think that is?” She asked while blinking several times, as if she expected the large beast to go away if she closed her eyes often enough. “A seventy foot tall animate dragon skeleton that can somehow breathe fire despite not having any lungs…” Brimstoke replied in a nervous tone while keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the giant beast. “If that’s what you’re seeing… then yes Neon… that is exactly what you think it is.” The stallion stated while never breaking his stunned tone of voice. As the giant dragon looked around the square in silence, the ponies were all trying to think of a way they could combat the monster. They were also silently hoping that it wouldn’t actually be able to see them amid the hundreds of other pony shaped creatures in the square. “How are we going to fight that thing?! We can barely keep the regular sized skeletons at bay… that is a freaking undead dragon!” Glimmer Shine stated in a slight panic while keeping his voice down for fear of the dragon hearing any loud yelling. “Don’t worry Glimmer… all we have to do is wait until the girls can let the sunlight in. That thing will be destroyed along with the rest of them.” Luna said in an attempt at calming down her frightened companions, although she was slightly terrified herself. Suddenly the dragon snapped its head to look upwards. The confused ponies followed its gaze until they realized what it was looking at. The undead beast was staring at the three sky borne ponies with a frightening transfixion. “Oh no…” Celestia gasped as she watched the creature target the three pegasus’s. The dragon growled fiercely and flapped its skeletal wings. Much to the ponies’ surprise, the monster took off into the air as if its wings were fully functional. Obviously the same magic that had revived the dragon had restored its ability to fly and breathe fire. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Sunspot were having a miniature panic attack as they watched the beast rapidly approaching them. Fluttershy and her cyan friend were barely able to think as they fearfully stared at the monster. “That thing is coming right for us! What do we do?!” Rainbow Dash asked frantically while looking at her two friends. The cyan pegasus took pride in her flying abilities, so she could doubtlessly evade the monster, but the other two mares might not be so lucky. “Umm… uh.” Sunspot rapidly glanced between the two frightened ponies beside her and the approaching monster. “Uhh… I have an idea!” She exclaimed suddenly in revelation. Rainbow Dash was eager to hear what life saving plan the suited pony had in mind. “That’s great! What’s your idea?” The cyan mare asked with a hopeful expression. Sunspot gulped quietly before trying to put on her best confident expression. “I’ll distract it… you two hurry up and finish getting rid of these clouds!” The orange pegasus stated nervously. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were shocked to hear the bold and perhaps careless plan their friend had made. “Are you serious?! You’ll be eaten alive by that thing!” Rainbow Dash stated frantically. Before the cyan mare could protest however, Sunspot took off to head the skeleton off before it reached them. “No!” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy yelled in unison as they watched the pegasus flying towards the dragon bravely. They shared a concerned glance with each other as they thought of a way to help the suited pony. “Quick! We need to get these clouds out of the way before she gets herself killed!” Fluttershy instructed to the cyan mare while flying up to another cloud and grabbing hold of it with her still glowing hooves. “But… but… grr!” Rainbow Dash growled in frustration as she was conflicted with rushing off to save the pegasus and staying up at the clouds to break the spell. She finally shrugged anxiously and followed her friend’s example by flying up to a cloud and touching it so the princess’s spell could work. Meanwhile, Sunspot was rapidly charging towards the undead beast. She wasn’t exactly sure what she would do once she got up to it, but she figured, or rather hoped, that she would find that out once she reached the dragon. The dragon growled and opened its boney jaw as it watched the pegasus approach. Sunspot watched as a ball of green flame slowly formed in the beast’s mouth. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized what the monster was trying to do. “Yikes!” The suited mare exclaimed nervously as she dodged to the side to avoid the column of flame heading her way. She could feel the blast of heat hit her face as the fiery beam whizzed past her body. Once she realized that she had successfully dodged the attack, the orange pony returned a confident smirk to her face. “Heh… it’s going to take a lot more than that to put me down bonehead!” She yelled in a mocking tone to antagonize the monster. Perhaps in response to the pegasus’s remark, the dragon growled once it realized that its attack failed. The undead beast flipped around in the air once it was about to pass the approaching pony. Sunspot intended to fly right past it so she could get it as far away from her two companions as possible. The suited mare gasped once she saw that the monster’s skeletal tail was heading straight for her. “Ooof!” The orange pony grunted as the colossal tail slammed into her. She was sent hurdling through the sky for a short distance before righting herself in midair. She looked up to see the dragon charging for her with its jaw open, revealing its numerous jagged teeth. “Oh boy!” The shocked pegasus squeaked out in a panic while turning herself and bolting downwards to evade the approaching predator. She felt a slight draft on her tail and heard the loud clatter of bones as the dragon snapped its jaws closed behind her. The monster kept stretching its neck out and snapping its jaws shut in an attempt at clipping the escaping pony. While Sunspot zipped around the sky with her pursuer quickly in tow, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy anxiously kept an eye on the pegasus as she evaded the undead monster. The pair of ponies were frantically rushing from cloud to cloud, hoping that each one they paused at would be the last. Rainbow Dash was dealing with an inner conflict of emotions. She was unsure of whether she should continue what she was doing and hope that she could destroy the cloud before Sunspot was killed, or if she should go help her. Although she didn’t want to discredit the suited mare and her skills, the cyan pegasus was incredibly nervous that her evasive skills wouldn’t be enough to outmatch the deadly predator chasing her. “This is taking way too long…” Rainbow Dash muttered uneasily while glancing over to Fluttershy. The yellow mare shared in her concerns, but she was at just as much of a loss as to what they should do. “We need to trust that the princess knows what she’s doing.” Fluttershy stated while trying to ease her friend’s concerns. The timid pony couldn’t help but anxiously stare at the fleeing pegasus as the dragon tried everything in its power to cut her off or strike her. “I just hope that Sunspot can hold out until we’re finished.” Fluttershy stated in a disheartened tone while trying to suppress the feeling of dread building up inside her. The yellow mare felt like something horrible was going to happen before they could remove the thick bank of clouds, but she hoped that she was wrong. “Ugh… I can’t just sit here and watch her risk her life like this. I need to help her!” Rainbow Dash said through gritted teeth. It was killing her on the inside to just stand idly by while the suited mare could very well die in front of her very eyes. Every burst of flame, every snap of the beast’s jaws, every attack that Sunspot narrowly avoided only made the cyan mare more anxious. “I know how you feel Rainbow Dash, but we’re no good to her if we endanger ourselves.” Fluttershy stated as she tried to make her friend listen to reason. “If you go down there… you might inadvertently get her or even yourself hurt or worse. We can help her, but we need to do it from up here. The faster we end the spell, the faster she can be safe.” The yellow mare explained in a soft tone to try and console the anxious pegasus. Rainbow Dash huffed in frustration as she thought about it more logically. She then finally sighed in defeat before nodding slowly. “You’re right Fluttershy… we need to end this sooner rather than later.” The cyan pony replied somberly. Fluttershy nodded in agreement, the two ponies then rushed to continue their task of removing the clouds. Before they could come into contact with their next set of clouds, the pair heard a sharp cry of pain emanate from below them. They quickly glanced down and gasped in shock as they saw what the issue was. Sunspot was flying crookedly in the air with what seemed like a painful grimace on her face. There was a brief spray of crimson fluid coming from her side as she clutched it with her hoof. The dragon was moving its front leg back into place from what the two could only imagine to be a strike. It didn’t take much deduction to realize that the undead monster had hit the suited pegasus on or close to her wing. “Oh no… she’s hurt!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed nervously as she watched the injured mare trying desperately to fly with her wounded wing. Although she was making a valiant effort, the dragon was slowly gaining ground on her as she tried evading it. “I can’t watch this anymore… Fluttershy stay here!” The cyan pony instructed while zipping downwards fast enough to create a small rush of air. Fluttershy was shocked to see her friend flying into danger. She tried to reach out towards the flying pony, but she suddenly realized that she couldn’t move her hooves. “What the…?” The yellow mare looked up to see that her hooves were firmly attached to the cloud she was touching. In all of the commotion, she must have reached up and touched the cloud without realizing it. It never occurred to the pegasus that Celestia’s spell had cemented her hooves to whatever cloud she was touching until the spell was done. She had been too concerned with the events below her to even notice until now. All Fluttershy could do at that point was watch the scene beneath her unfold. She watched anxiously as Rainbow Dash rapidly sped up in the air while flying towards Sunspot. All the while, the dragon was chasing the injured pony closer to the ground. The suspense was making her feel so tense that she thought she was going to pass out. Sunspot noticed that she was rapidly approaching the ground as she fled from her pursuer. She could practically make out how many strands of hay were on the rooftops of the nearby buildings. The nervous pegasus glanced behind her, only to be met with the frightening image of the dauntless dragon as it chased her. Suddenly the monster’s mouth started glowing with green flame. Sunspot could hear the roar of the fire as the dragon prepared its flame breath. The suited mare glanced back at her own wing uneasily. The point where her wing met her body was bleeding badly from where the dragon had clawed it. Sunspot could barely remain airborne, let alone dodge to the side fast enough to evade the fire about to roast her alive. The nervous pegasus looked forward to the rapidly approaching ground for a way out of her situation. She might be able to duck around the side of the building, but there might be innocent ponies inside that would be harmed from the fire, not to mention that she might not even make it in time. Sunspot quickly turned to look behind her when she heard the sound of flame shooting through the air. She was greeted by the sight of a wall of fire rapidly heading her way. There was no chance that she would be able to dodge this attack, all she could do was hope that it would be over quickly. “AHHH!” The suited pegasus screamed in horror and closed her eyes. She could already feel the heat of the approaching fire as it came within inches of her body. “Look out!” Sunspot heard the sound of Rainbow Dash calling out beside her. Before she had a chance to open her eyes to look for the cyan mare, she felt something collide with her from the side. The orange mare heard a cry of pain and felt the slight burn of fire as she was violently shoved from the fire and carried downwards by whatever had crashed into her. Sunspot and her savior crashed into the roof of a nearby building and came to a painful and sudden stop. The orange mare opened her eyes to see Rainbow Dash lying beside her with her eyes closed. The cyan mare appeared to have taken a little more of the fire than Sunspot had, having part of her fur blackened slightly from the flames. “Rainbow Dash…! Are you ok?!” Sunspot asked frantically as she rapidly got up to examine her friend’s injuries. Thankfully the cyan pegasus was still breathing, but she seemed dazed from the impact with the roof. Rainbow Dash slowly lifted her head up and squinted an eye open. She cringed in pain as she tried moving her doubtlessly sore body. “Yeah… I think so… maybe a little crispy, but otherwise I’m good.” The cyan mare chuckled slightly before realizing that her sore ribs throbbed whenever she laughed. Perhaps the fall into the roof had done more damage than she originally thought. Upon hearing a loud growl, the pair looked up and widened their eyes in shock. The skeletal dragon was looming over them while hovering in place. It still had its mouth aglow with green fire as it prepared another strike. Fluttershy gasped in horror as she watched her friends getting cornered by the dragon. There was no way they would be able to dodge an attack from that close in their injured state. She wanted to look away, but she found herself unable to avert her teary eyes as she prepared to watch her friends die. Suddenly the yellow mare felt her hooves coming free. She was surprised by the sudden completion of the spell, but she was even more surprised to see a beam of sunlight hitting her face. Fluttershy squinted her eyes shut from the sudden brightness. She peeked out slowly to see the clouds around her rapidly disappearing. A loud roar sounded out across the area as the dragon cried out in pain. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash looked up to see smoke pouring off the undead monster as it writhed in the sunlight. Soon enough, the light had enveloped the creature, causing it to burst into flames and vanish into a large puff of smoke. All across the square, each and every one of the skeletons were vanishing into the returning daylight as the overhead sun beamed down with brilliant intensity. The ponies had to avert their eyes to adjust to the new light, having been submerged in relative darkness for so long. When they opened their eyes and looked around, there was no trace of the undead horde other than the destruction they had left behind. All that remained in the now well-lit square was a band of surprised ponies. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot blinked their eyes rapidly in shock. Not moments before they were about to be made into deep fried ponies, but now they were safe with only their injuries to remind them of the hardship they had just endured. “We did it!” Rainbow Dash cheered while raising her arms into the air triumphantly. She suddenly yelped in pain as she hastily moved her practically broken body. Sunspot looked to the cyan mare beside her with concern and empathy. She had risked her life to push her out of the way of the dragon’s flame, and she looked like it had clipped her bad enough to warrant a lot of pain. “Thanks for saving my tail back there… are you alright?” the suited pegasus asked with sincere worry evident in her voice. “I think I have a few sore ribs… and I kind of feel like I just got the worst sunburn ever… oww.” Rainbow Dash winced as she gently poked a spot on her fur that was singed. She then looked over to her orange companion to examine her wounds. “How about you…? How’s your wing?” The cyan mare asked while observing the bloodied appendage with a sad expression. “I think it looks worse than it is… I’m sure we can get this patched up whenever backup arrives… speaking of which.” Sunspot stated while looking off in the distance. Rainbow Dash followed her gaze until she saw what the suited pony was looking at. A large group of ponies clad in royal guard outfits were flying towards the square as quickly as they could. The troop landed and surveyed the area for any signs of ponies in need before settling their eyes on the two princesses and their group. “Princess Celestia! We got here as fast as we could once we got your message. Where are those creatures?!” One of the pegasus’s at the head of the group asked as he walked up to the white alicorn. Celestia sighed and smirked at the late arrival of the royal guard. “Sorry lieutenant… you got here a little late. We just got done dealing with those creatures.” The alicorn explained in as gentle a manner as possible. The stallion seemed embarrassed by the fact that he and his troop had missed their opportunity to assist in the fight. “Oh… sorry princess... what are your orders for us ma’am?” He asked while returning his stoic appearance and turning to his comrades. The band of guards was eager to offer any assistance they could. “We have injured ponies in the town hall, and I think some of our people got hurt during the battle. Have some of your men tend to them for us. I also need you to send some people over to the library… we think that part of this attack was to get at Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Lastly, I need you to round up some of your men and search the area for anything suspicious… understood?” Celestia clarified to see if the pegasus had heard all of her instructions. The white stallion saluted while giving a confident nod. “Yes princess, right away.” He replied before turning to his troop and relaying the princess’s orders to them. The group of stallions quickly trotted away to their various assignments.
Chapter 52: ReunionTom ran inside the library as fast as his feet would carry him. After Raincloud had told him about what she had done to Spike, the human was very concerned for the wellbeing of the group of ponies upstairs. He made his way up the stairs while simultaneously trying to recover from the fight. Having been knocked around so much must have done a number on his stamina. Tom quickly rushed to the bedroom door and threw it open. Once inside, he noticed Twilight and the others turning to look at him. As they recognized the new arrival, the ponies smiled excitedly at the return of their friend. “Tom!” Twilight exclaimed while rushing forward and wrapping her arms around the boy’s waist. Tom was almost knocked down from the eager pony trying to hug him. He smiled as he watched Applejack and Rarity walking forward to join the purple unicorn in greeting him. “Sorry I’m late guys… there were a couple of real jerkwads outside, so I had to deal with them first.” Tom explained while still catching his breath. Twilight chuckled happily as she stared at the boy with a wide smile. She almost couldn’t believe that he was here, as if she were imagining things. “I’m so glad to see you… we thought… well, we thought…” the purple mare trailed her eyes off sadly as she thought back to her near death experience. She honestly thought that she was going to die, and she was still uncertain as to why she didn’t. Whatever the cause, Twilight was simply glad to be alive. “It’s ok, I’m here now. Is anyone hurt?” Tom asked while looking around at the group. Everyone frowned as they suddenly remembered the injured dragon behind them. The human was shocked when he finally noticed Spike lying on the floor. “Oh my gosh…” The boy exclaimed as he examined the extensive wound on the dragon’s chest. Although it was no longer bleeding, it still looked horrific enough to warrant a cringe from anyone looking at it. “He got attacked by that shadow thing you fought.” Twilight explained in a sad tone. Tom thought back to how the shadow had inflicted so much pain on him from just a small wound. “I assume he is being affected by that purple glow as well?” The human asked uneasily while mentally sizing up how much energy it would take to heal the dragon. Twilight and the others nodded sadly in response. “You can heal him can’t you…? Like you did with my leg?” Applebloom asked in a concerned tone while watching Spike breathing peacefully. Tom sighed quietly. He could probably heal the dragon’s wounds, but it would be a grueling task. “It’s a little more complicated than that Applebloom… but I should be able to pull it off.” Tom shrugged while walking over to Spike and kneeling down beside him. Everyone watched anxiously as the boy breathed in and out a few times to prepare himself. “Are you sure you’re feeling well enough to be doing this Tom?” Rarity asked as she observed the sickly look on Tom’s face. “I’m fine… I just need to catch my breath before I start. And besides, we don’t really have too many options if I didn’t.” The human replied while cracking his knuckles and stretching his arms in preparation for the physical toll about to be put on him. Tom steadied himself into a less taxing stance as he placed his hand in the air over the dragon’s wound. If he was going to fall over, he didn’t want to add to the already bad day Spike was having by landing on top of him. Twilight and the others waited in silence as Tom projected his healing light from his hand. The soft blue glow traveled into the unconscious dragon and started reacting with his injury. The purple glow from earlier appeared again, as if it were trying to dispel the boy’s efforts at curing Spike. Tom grunted uncomfortably as he had to put more effort into his healing beam to overcome the magical infliction. He had to physically prevent his hand from wavering too much so that the blue light would come into full contact with the dragon. Just when the ponies thought the human was going to pass out from exhaustion, the wound on Spike’s chest started closing up. The purple glow disappeared completely, leaving the grisly injury free to heal up. Once the gash was completely closed up, Tom scooted himself away and rolled over on his back as his arms gave out from underneath him. Twilight frowned as she watched the human recovering on the floor. She felt like it was unfair for him to have to be the one to hurt himself to save everyone else. The unicorn was glad that he had healed Spike, but she still felt bad for him. “Are you ok Tom?” The unicorn asked in a concerned tone while sitting next to the exhausted human. Tom nodded slowly, but his whole body was shaking from how weak he felt. Needless to say, the ponies didn’t believe that he felt as healthy as he wanted them to think. Suddenly, Spike groaned as he started moving slightly. The sight of the dragon stirring made everyone stunned into silence by their joyous surprise. Twilight rushed over to Spike’s side and watched eagerly as he sat up and slowly opened his eyes. “What happened…?” He asked in a groggy daze while looking around in confusion. Twilight suddenly pulled the dragon close and held him in a tight hug. Spike was still confused and felt like a thick fog was filling his mind, but he still gathered that the unicorn was excited to see him. “Spike! You’re alive!” The purple mare was on the verge of tears as she held her number one assistant tightly. Spike was about to ask what was wrong, when he suddenly remembered what had happened before he blacked out. The dragon suddenly understood why Twilight was so elated to see him. “I… I’m ok?” Spike asked in uncertainty while observing his miraculous recovery. He figured that he wasn’t going to wake up again from how severe his injuries were. “You are now darling… we thought we were going to lose you for a minute there.” Rarity stated with a cheerful smile. “Don’t scare us like that again ok?” Scootaloo chimed in happily along with her two fellow crusaders. Spike was happy to be able to see all of his friends in such high spirits, but the presence of a pale human recuperating on the floor next to him troubled the young dragon. He obviously must have been out for a while if Tom had the chance to get to the library and beat the two malicious ponies. “Tom! Are you ok?!” Spike asked in an alarmed tone when he noticed how much trouble the boy was having with catching his breath. “Aww come on, don’t let me rain on your parade… you should be happy to be alive, not concerned for me.” Tom stated while sitting up and trying to appear a little more recovered than he felt. The others were slightly unnerved by the boy’s desire to put their own happiness over his health. Perhaps being a slayer for so long had removed his sense of self preservation. “I for one am just glad that I can take a break before heading back to the square. Although I think I liked fighting the monsters over there more than I did the ones over here.” The human stated lightheartedly while glancing out the window. Although he was obviously trying to get the subject of conversation off of himself, the ponies did feel curious about the situation at the square. “What are things like over there? Brimstoke didn’t really fill us in all that much…” Glitterball asked while nervously observing the darkened clouds outside. “Whatever spell these guys used raised a bunch of pony skeletons from under the ground. A lot of people got hurt in the initial chaos, but nothing too serious from what I saw.” Tom explained while thinking back to the hectic battle he left behind. Everyone seemed mildly alarmed to hear that the square had been attacked. Many of their acquaintances and neighbors had been in attendance, along with the majority of Ponyville’s inhabitants. A more urgent feeling of alarm washed over Twilight and the others as they suddenly remembered that three of their friends were at the speech. “What about Fluttershy and the others?! Are they ok?!” Rarity asked in a concerned panic. She couldn’t take any more of knowing that her friends were in danger. The white mare could practically feel her nerves exploding from stress. “Relax… they are fine. Last I checked they were in town hall along with many of the other civilians that didn’t bolt when everything started… I’m sure that they are safer than you guys were before I got here.” Tom stated to ease the jittery unicorn’s concerns. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief once they learned that Fluttershy and her two companions were safe. “But how is town hall still safe? I would have figured that it would have been broken into a long time ago from how many skeletons you say were there. Brimstoke and the others are good, but they aren’t Daring Doo or anything…” Peppermint wondered out loud. Surely if a horde of monsters had attacked the square they would have broken into the town hall at every window to get at the ponies inside. “Well they didn’t seem very bright… whatever spell was used to bring them here probably gave them a basic command. They might have been trying to get at the princess for all I know… either way they all just kind of came at us from the front, so it was relatively easy to fend them off… Daring Doo or no.” Tom explained as he thought more about the issue himself. “Wait… you know about Daring Doo?” Applejack questioned with a curious expression. Tom smirked and nodded his head in response. “See? I get references.” The human chimed lightheartedly. Everyone chuckled briefly at the display. It felt good to the ponies to be able to laugh again after their ordeal. Once the laughter died down a little bit, Twilight glanced back outside at the ominous clouds overhead. She had been too occupied with her own situation to even think about what spell had caused the clouds. As she put two and two together, she realized that attacking the library was probably a part of the plan as well. While the princess and the others were distracted at the speech, the purple mare and her friends were wide open for attack. Before Twilight could elaborate on any more of her thoughts or feelings towards the malevolent plot, she noticed that the sky seemed to be clearing up. Thin rays of sunlight were bursting through the thick blanket of grayness that had blocked the sky for so long. “Hey guys, lo-” The unicorn started to alert her friends to this odd occurrence, when a sudden flash of sunlight made them all shield their eyes. The ponies had been in relative darkness for so long that the mere presence of normal lighting made their eyes burn. Once the group managed to slowly flutter open their eyes and peek out from under their arms they discovered that the sky was as clear and blue as it had been before the incident. The sight of the bright and sunny landscape outside mixed in with the endless blue sky above was a surprisingly beautiful thing that felt fresh and new to the ponies. “Look at that…” Twilight muttered to finish her previous sentence as she looked around at the quiet buildings outside. If one were to look at the scene objectively, they might not realize that horrible monsters had been roaming around freely not moments ago. “I guess the others have sorted things out over at the square.” Rarity suggested in an optimistic tone. It only made sense that the sudden return of daylight was a direct cause of the efforts of Brimstoke and the others. “Glitter, can you call down there to see if everyone is alright?” Twilight asked in a slightly concerned tone. “Uh… sure, let me see if anyone is free to listen.” Glitterball stated while putting a hoof up to her ear. The communication spell kicked in, enveloping her ear in a magical glow that matched her aura color. “Hello? Is anypony listening down there?” The rainbow haired mare spoke aloud and waited for anyone to respond. After a short wait, she heard the sound of Brimstoke picking up the line. “Glitterball? Is everything ok over there?” The stallion asked with slight concern and curiosity. “Yeah, we’re all safe now… I noticed that you guys must have done something right. I can finally see the sun in the sky… that’s good I suppose.” Glitterball replied while glancing back outside. “Yeah… we managed to take care of things. Hey listen, why don’t you guys take a minute to relax. The princess is going to be there soon to check on you, and from the sound of it she wants to talk about something important... She wants us all to be there once we're done cleaning up here.” Brimstoke explained with a perplexed tone. “What…? Umm… ok, we’ll sit tight and wait for her then. Before I let you go, is everyone ok down there?” The unicorn asked in a sincere manner. Brimstoke paused for a moment before answering, presumably to tally everyone’s health in his head. “Uh… yeah… Sunspot and Rainbow Dash got a little roughed up, but they will be fine.” Brimstoke finally spoke up in a relieved tone. “Phew… that’s good to hear. Alright, see you when you get done over there.” Glitterball stated in a happy tone while bringing her hoof down to end the call. She then turned to her friends with a relieved smile on her face. “Everyone is fine, give or take a few minor injuries.” Glitter explained cheerfully. Everyone was happy to hear that their friends had survived the attack, and in good shape to boot. “Brimstoke said that the princess is on her way over… she wants to talk with us about something important once everyone is present.” The rainbow haired unicorn shifted into a more confused and curious tone as she dispensed the information she received. The others were intrigued and confused about what Celestia would want to discuss. “Hmm… I wonder if it has something to do with the attack?” Twilight pondered out loud. Everyone shrugged their shoulders as the unicorn looked to them for thoughtful input. Her guess was as good as anything anybody else could come up with. “Well… I suppose we have some time to kill before the princess gets here. Why don’t we all head downstairs and relax for a while?” The purple mare suggested with a cheerful smile. Everyone nodded eagerly at the prospect of unwinding their bundled up nerves. The group made their way out of the bedroom and casually walked down the stairs. With the absence of the gray clouds outside, the main room was comfortably lit in warm and inviting sunlight. Despite this abundance of light, Twilight walked over to each of the lanterns around the room and lit them up to completely fill the room with light. Once the room was sufficiently lit, everyone took a look around to assess the damage caused during the fight. Surprisingly enough, very few of the items around the room were disturbed during the struggle with the shadow. Only a few stray books and a few empty vials had been knocked from their respective bookshelves and tables. “At least there isn’t much to pick up.” Twilight stated while levitating a book back into its proper place. Glitterball and Peppermint walked over to the table and gathered up their scattered equipment. They quickly placed all the vials and ingredients back into a small carrying case, which they then placed in their vests. “I guess he wasn’t too occupied with messing the place up while he was throttling me.” Glitterball chimed in sarcastically. The ponies were amazed that the unicorn could be so lighthearted about such a frightful experience. “I’m just glad that we managed to fight that thing off… I thought I was going to mess something up back there… heh.” Peppermint chuckled nervously as he thought back to the initial fight with the shadow. “You did fine Pepper… not bad for your first official run in with a substantial baddy.” Glitterball stated while giving the red haired stallion a pat on the back. “If you say so… I thought Applejack did most of the work though… at this rate we might want to recruit her into the team.” Peppermint said with a chuckle. Applejack smiled at the praise coming from the medical pony. “Aww come on, don’t be so hard on yourself sugar cube… if you didn’t blind that thing, Ah wouldn’t have been able to do anything.” The orange mare replied in a friendly manner. She was surprised to see someone so unconfident about their own acts of bravery. “Thanks…” The stallion replied while rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. The group decided to wait around and get comfortable while waiting for the princess to arrive. Twilight and Spike went into the kitchen to fetch drinks while everyone else chatted idly in the other room. After delivering the various drinks to whoever asked, the two went back into the other room to fix themselves something. “What do you feel like?” Twilight asked while browsing what selection they had in the refrigerator. Spike hummed curiously as he thought about the choice further. “Well… we don’t exactly have a full stock… milk and orange juice seems to be the only options I have.” The dragon stated while eyeing between the two. “I’ll be sure to head down to the store and pick up some groceries in a few days.” Twilight replied with a smile. “Heh… I’ll take orange juice for now thanks.” Spike said while grabbing the pitcher of juice and pouring himself a glass. He offered the unicorn a glass, but she politely declined. While Spike was leaning back and enjoying his drink, Twilight watched him with a loving smile. She couldn’t believe that she almost lost him twice in the span of a few days. She also couldn’t believe that he was so well adjusted all things considered. Thoughts of every moment she had shared with the young dragon flooded into her mind. Twilight could still remember back to his birth like it was just yesterday. So many good things happened to her on that day. She discovered her extraordinary talent for magic, she received her cutie mark, and she became Princess Celestia’s student. But perhaps the most important thing that happened was her receiving custody of the baby dragon she hatched from a mere egg. “Hey… what’s on your mind?” Spike spoke up, interrupting the unicorn’s thoughts. “Uh… just reminiscing.” Twilight replied while smiling warmly. Spike was a little confused by the cheerful nature of the purple mare. “I’m the one who just had a near death experience… shouldn’t I be the one giddy with happiness?” The dragon stated lightheartedly. Although he had tried to say it as gently as possible, the unicorn frowned slightly at the mention of the incident. “Hey… lighten up. Everything turned out alright in the end.” Spike said to brighten up the purple mare’s mood. Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the dragon’s lighthearted nature. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Twilight stated in a more cheerful tone. She was still concerned, but she couldn’t get over her feeling of happiness from learning that Spike would live. Besides, she could worry more about the hooded ponies when the princess arrived. After spending the next ten minutes waiting around, the group finally heard a knock on the door. Twilight got up to answer it, and discovered Princess Celestia waiting outside with two royal guards beside her. “Princess, I’m glad to see you made it.” The unicorn greeted her mentor while stepping outside. Celestia smiled briefly before glancing over to her two companions. “You two can head back to the square to help out with the search… everything seems to be fine here.” The alicorn instructed to the two ponies. The guards nodded before turning around and walking off. Celestia then turned to greet her student. “Twilight, I’m glad to see you’re unharmed… I hope everyone else is the same?” The alicorn asked with a slightly apprehensive tone. “Spike got hurt during the attack… but Tom healed him. Other than that we’re all just a little shaken up.” Twilight replied while shuddering slightly. Celestia nodded understandingly. “*Sigh* this whole ordeal is so horrible… I hope we can rope this in before something really bad happens.” Celestia shook her head sadly as she thought about the situation. “Did you guys find anything over at the square? Was there a pictogram nearby?” The purple mare asked curiously. “Luna is searching the area with Brimstoke and the others… she should be over here later on. In the meantime, I want you to tell me everything you can about what happened here.” Celestia replied in a gentle tone. “Right… maybe we should head inside then?” Twilight suggested while motioning towards the door. Celestia nodded before following the unicorn inside. Once inside, the alicorn greeted the other ponies before settling down next to Twilight. She asked the unicorn and her friends about every detail they could think about. What the two ponies looked like, their names, what abilities they possessed, and the details of the attack. It was a slightly painful experience to think about the stressful event, but the ponies managed to retell what they knew as clearly as possible. Celestia cringed sympathetically as she learned more and more about what happened to her student. The shadow creature that the pale mare summoned, the frightful shadow magic that she and her brother used, all of these things troubled the alicorn deeply. “And this… Raincloud was it? She said that… whoever her leader is has a plan in place?” The princess asked with a dreadful sense of curiosity. “Yeah… she sounded a little too cocky for my liking.” Twilight huffed in an uneasy tone. She wasn’t even sure what the pale mare meant by what she said, and that made her feel nervous. “*Sigh*… I guess we will just have to stop them before they finish their plan.” Celestia tried to sound optimistic, but her attempt at lightening the mood was lost amid her frustrated exterior. Twilight and the others felt bad for the alicorn. They could tell that she was really stressed out over this issue. Even if it was for good reason, it couldn’t be healthy for her. Twilight started to speak up to try and cheer up her mentor, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone knocking at the door. Deciding that it would be best to get a brief moment of fresh air, Celestia got up to answer the door. As she walked over to the door and swung it open, the alicorn was met with the sight of a group of familiar ponies outside. Luna was standing outside along with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Brimstoke and the remaining members of Spirit. “Luna, you’re already done with the search?” Celestia asked curiously. She wasn’t expecting the search to be done for at least half an hour. “Yes… we found another pictogram near the square in a back alley, along with the remnants of some kind of spell.” Luna replied with a puzzled expression. Judging from her attitude, Celestia gathered that her sister hadn’t found anything incriminating on the identity of the caster. “Hmm…” Celestia hummed curiously before settling her eyes on Rainbow Dash and Sunspot. She hadn’t noticed before, but the two ponies had several bandages from where they had been injured during the fight. Sunspot’s wing and the surrounding area was patched up, while the cyan mare only had bandages around her midsection to accommodate some of her sore ribs and burns. “How do you two feel?” The princess asked in a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash smiled and chuckled to make the alicorn feel better about her health. “We’re fine princess… the medics say that I should be able to take these off later on today.” The cyan mare stated cheerfully. “And I should be clear to fly again in a few days.” Sunspot said in a slightly disheartened tone before returning to a more cheerful disposition. “That’s good to hear… I’m sorry that you got hurt like that. I thought you would be safer than us while in the air… I guess I was wrong.” Celestia looked down sadly while speaking. Not wanting the alicorn to worry about her too much, Rainbow Dash walked forward to get inside. “Let’s head inside and get down to business… I want to catch the creeps who did this as soon as possible.” The cyan mare said in a passionate tone. The others nodded while following the pegasus inside. Once inside, Rainbow Dash and her two friends were incredibly happy and relieved to see their friends unharmed. They had figured that nothing bad had happened due to them not being informed of anything, but it was much more exciting to actually see their friends safe in front of them. “Girls!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while rushing forward towards the three ponies. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack were slightly surprised to be gripped into a tight group hug. The pink mare quickly reached out and pulled Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy into her bundle of a hug. Although it was slightly constricting, the ponies were happy to accept the hug from the excited mare. Before anyone lost the ability to breath, Pinkie let go and stepped back with an ear to ear grin on her face. “It’s so good to see all of you! I thought something terrible had happened when I heard you were attacked!” The party pony stated in an anxiously excited tone. Twilight and the others were flattered to see someone so concerned for them, but they didn’t want the pink mare to worry too much. “We’re alright now Pinkie… Tom managed to fix anything those two ponies did.” Twilight said in a friendly tone while glancing over to the human. Pinkie was glad to see her friends unharmed, but she was also upset that they were in danger in the first place. “Grr… I’m so mad at those stupid hooded ponies! They are SO not invited to my next party.” The pink mare huffed angrily while crossing her arms. Although they were a little weirded out by her delivery, her friends shared her opinion. “Yeah! We need to find out who those guys are so we can knock some sense into them!” Rainbow Dash stated in an enthusiastic tone. “They need to answer for everything they have done to us and all of the other ponies they hurt.” Fluttershy voiced her opinion with a determined expression. The more people spoke up, the more everyone else was getting riled up. Every hardship the group had gone through was bubbling to the surface as they resolved to bring the malevolent ponies to justice. While the ponies were cheering in excitement, Celestia felt that she needed to let them know about her plan. “Alright girls, settle down and listen up.” The princess spoke up to get everyone’s attention. The group fell silent as they all shifted their eyes to the white alicorn with curiosity evident in their faces. “In light of recent events… I have made the decision to fully retaliate against these hooded ponies. They have openly attacked us on numerous occasions, but this latest attack was the most directed of all of them. Luna and I will investigate who these ponies are using the names we have. After we have enough information, we will launch a task force against them to bring them in.” Celestia shifted her attention to Twilight and her friends as she continued. “In the meantime… I think it would be for the best if all of you laid low.” She explained with an understanding tone. “Ok… we’re going to be there when you take these guys down right?” Rainbow Dash asked with an unsure leer. Celestia frowned and looked away briefly. “I… think that you all should just sit tight until after all of this blows over. I know you’re probably upset, but-” The alicorn tried to explain her decision, when she was suddenly interrupted by the cyan mare speaking up. “What?! Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow Dash stated in an upset tone while getting up from her seat. “There’s no way we’re just going to sit back while you guys deal with these jerks! We are just as involved in this fight as you are! Right girls?” She asked while looking over to her friends for support. Most of the others shared the cyan mare’s opinion, but they also had mixed feelings about being left out of the action. Fluttershy and Rarity thought that it might be for the best if they didn’t pursue the matter any further. Pinkie Pie wanted to help, but she was also a little scared of the capabilities of the mysterious group. Applejack and Twilight understood the pegasus’s outrage, but they also understood where the princess was coming from. “Rainbow Dash… we uh…” Twilight paused as she tried to think of how to say something without upsetting her friend. “Maybe we should listen to the princess on this one.” The unicorn mumbled while looking away and nervously glancing her eyes back at the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash was more surprised than anything. “Come on Twilight, you want to give these guys a piece of your mind just as bad as I do right?” The cyan mare asked in a disheartened tone. Twilight sighed while glancing over to Spike. She wanted to take action against the ponies, but she also had to think about her own safety as well as her friends’. “I do… but I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Think about it Rainbow Dash… if Tom weren’t here, half of us would either be hospitalized or dead by this point. We shouldn’t be careless enough to rely on his healing abilities to save us… what if he gets to us too late next time?” Twilight said in a sad tone while glancing around at the others. Everyone looked around at their loved ones and frowned as they thought of the worst case scenario. “But… but I thought… they… we…” Rainbow Dash slowly lost her enthusiasm as she looked around at the sad faces of her friends. “*sigh* Ok…” She finally lowered her head in defeat as she decided to comply with her friends’ opinions. “Until it’s time to attack the hooded ponies directly, I’m assigning each of you a protective detail of sorts. I want Brimstoke and his team to stay with each of you to keep an eye on things. You can decide who goes where yourselves.” Celestia explained while glancing over to the white stallion and his team. Twilight and the others looked to the team of ponies with uncertainty. They were unsure of which member of the team they would want to come live with them. All of the suited ponies seemed to be friendly enough, but they hadn’t really met them for more than a couple days. Brimstoke and the others walked over to the group with indifferent expressions. The white stallion stood in front and looked to the six mares with a pensive expression. “Ok… I guess we’re going to have to bunk up with each other for a while. Who do you girls want to go with you?” Brimstoke asked while glancing between the six ponies and his own teammates. Twilight figured that she should pick first, but she was unsure of who to choose. She settled her eyes on Peppermint and smiled, he seemed kind enough for her liking. “I guess Peppermint can stay with us… if that’s ok.” The unicorn stated in a friendly manner. The shy stallion nodded in response. “I’m cool with that.” Pepper added with a smirk. “I want to hang out with you some more!” Pinkie Pie said in a cheerful tone while pointing to Brimstoke. “You look like you could use some fun in your life.” She added with a giggle. The stallion seemed to be a little unsure of whether or not he would enjoy being so close to the energetic mare for so long. “Uh… ok.” Brimstoke rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as the pink pony eagerly bounced beside him. “I guess I kind of have to take Sunspot. She’s the only one who can actually sit in my house without falling out of the sky.” Rainbow Dash reasoned while glancing over to the suited pegasus and smirking. After their brief battle with the dragon, the cyan mare figured that they made a good team. “Sweet, I have no objections to that.” Sunspot stated with a chuckle. She was starting to like the adventurous pegasus. “I would love it if you would come stay with us Glitterball.” Rarity asked in a courteous tone while looking over at the rainbow haired unicorn. “Of course.” Glitterball nodded in response with a friendly smile. “Umm…” Fluttershy eyed between Neon Streak and Glimmer Shine thoughtfully. She wasn’t sure which one she should pick. “Do you want to come with me Glimmer?” The yellow mare asked in an unimposing tone. Glimmer Shine smiled and walked over to the timid pegasus. “Sure thing Fluttershy.” Glimmer stated in a friendly tone. Fluttershy smiled slightly at the lighthearted display. “Guess that leaves you stuck with me Applejack.” Neon stated with a chuckle while looking at the only pony without a pair. Applejack looked around at the others as they stayed near their respective companion. “Ah guess so. You’ve saved my life a few times now, so Ah suppose the neighborly thing to do would be to offer you a place to stay.” The farm pony said while smiling warmly. The green mare smirked and nodded in response. “Right then… now that all of you have someone watching out for you, I suggest you head home for the night. You can still help out with the investigation from the library… there are a lot of things we need researched after all.” Celestia explained in a friendly tone. Everyone sighed quietly as they thought of the prospect of researching without facing the hooded ponies themselves. It felt like they would be working for nothing. “Goodbye everyone… stay safe for me alright?” Twilight said as she watched her friends get up to leave. Everyone turned and waved to each other as they walked to the door. “Bye guys.” Pinkie Pie stated while walking outside with Brimstoke in tow. Before the two made it out of the door, the stallion turned to his teammates. “If any of you see anything suspicious, be sure to call in. Even if you can’t reach all of us from across town, you should be able to reach at least one person.” Brimstoke instructed to the others, putting special emphasis towards Glimmer Shine, who would be the farthest away. “Heh… I would like to see them try something after what happened today. I’ll bet they’re still licking their wounds under whatever rock they crawled out of.” Rainbow Dash stated in a confident tone. She could only imagine how much embarrassment the hooded ponies were feeling from their failure. The group finally said their goodbyes and funneled out the door. Twilight was left with Tom and Spike, along with their new friend Peppermint to keep her company.
Chapter 53: RepercussionsThe slow monotonous ticking of an old and dusty grandfather clock filled the air. Cotton Quill was touching up one of the many magical symbols around the mansion. This particular one happened to be in a small reading room. The unicorn had many odd jobs to do around the ancient manor, but he tried his best to linger around Raven Feather and the others. It made him feel useful, and he could perhaps convince them of his usefulness. Raven Feather was leaning back into a luxurious red leather chair while putting her legs onto the desk in front of her. Compared to most other furnishings in the rooms of the mansion, the chair seemed relatively well kept, being mostly dust free and even structurally sound. The rest of the room was pretty standard fare for all the rooms that the ponies used frequently. There were candles and lanterns placed around for lighting amid the ornate tables scattered around. The red throw rug was faded and frayed at some of the edges, matching the worn carpet it sat on perfectly. There were two dusty bookshelves on each side wall, and two more behind Raven Feather and her desk, the desk itself having an old reading lamp left behind by the human occupants. There were many such devices scattered around the estate, most of which no longer functioned of course. The black mare was waiting around idly while her two colleagues finished their mission. She wondered how much time they would spend enjoying their assignment. The extra time would be worth it in the end however, with the elements of harmony out of the picture. Cotton Quill slowly peeked towards the lounging pony out of the corner of his eye. He was silently hoping that he could find some way to talk her into giving him a mission of some sort. Even if she was royally pissed at him, he felt a need to make it back into her good books. “So uh… Raincloud and Dust Kicker aren’t back yet?” The unicorn asked curiously while putting on a casual expression. Raven Feather rolled her eyes and looked away from the white pony. She hoped that he would just finish the symbol and leave, but he seemed to be stalling to be around her. This annoyed the black mare to no end. “You know uh… I could be doing things other than cleaning the dorms and redrawing symbols. I mean… surely there’s something you have for me to do.” Cotton stated in a soft tone. “You could leave me alone for a start.” Raven Feather groaned under her breath. She turned to see the longing and nervous stare of the needy stallion. She felt like punching him in the nose every time he tried to cling to her. She originally thought it would be cool having someone so fanatical about her, but that thought quickly left her head once she met the awkward unicorn. “What…?” Cotton asked curiously. He hadn’t heard the annoyed mumbling of the black mare. “*sigh* Just keep drawing Cotton… you’re a regular prodigy with the paint brush.” Raven Feather stated in a droll and sarcastic tone. Cotton huffed in defeat before returning to his work, much to the joy of the black mare. The peaceful silence of the room was only interrupted by the constant melody of the clock ticking away at the back of the room. The rhythmic clattering was almost lulling the two ponies into a sense of dreary dullness as they dealt with their own internal emotions. Cotton was dealing with his gnawing desire to be useful, while Raven Feather was trying not to fall asleep while waiting for her two followers to return. “Miss Raven Feather… with all due respect, I believe that you are ignoring me because of my previous mistakes.” Cotton Quill finally shrugged and got up the nerve to confront the green eyed mare. “And what led you to that monumental discovery?” Raven Feather asked sarcastically while squinting her eyes in disbelief at the unicorn. “I know that I messed up, and I’m sorry for that… but I can do so much more than this to help the group out. Let one of those entry level hoods deal with this and give me something meaningful to do… please?” Cotton asked in a pleading tone while giving her his best puppy dog face. Raven Feather growled in frustration as she watched the unicorn beg for a job. “You know what Cotton… fine, you win.” The black mare shrugged while putting on a casual smile. “Really?” The unicorn muttered in surprise. Even he didn’t expect to actually get through to the earth pony. “Yeah… really, I have a very important job for you.” Raven Feather stated while sifting through the desk drawers to find something. While she searched, Cotton Quill was practically giddy with excitement. Finally the black earth pony pulled out a piece of paper and a feather quill. She dipped the feather into an inkwell located on the desk and scribbled away on the paper. “I have a set of very important instructions for Shadow Mist… I need you to deliver this to him. I believe he is upstairs in the library.” Raven Feather explained while walking over to the eager unicorn and handing him the instructions. Cotton quickly skimmed over the paper before squinting in confusion and going back to read it from the top. The paper seemed to be filled with unintelligible gibberish and scribbles. He couldn’t even make heads or tails of what the text was about. “This is just gibberish…” The unicorn stated in slight confusion. Raven Feather chuckled warmly at the perplexed pony. “It’s a code… Shadow will know how to decipher it. Just hurry up and deliver that to him post haste.” Raven Feather instructed while pointing towards the door. The unicorn nodded eagerly while walking over to the door with a new sense of enthusiasm. “Right away Miss Raven Feather, I won’t disappoint you.” Cotton exclaimed while opening the door and walking out. The second the unicorn closed the door, the black mare dropped her fake smile and sighed. “Too late for that one buddy…” Raven Feather shrugged while heading back to her chair and leaning back. Perhaps she could finally get some peace and quiet without the unicorn around. Meanwhile, Cotton Quill was eagerly walking down the halls of the mansion with purpose. The room he had just come from was a short ways from the basement door, sitting in the same hallway he had traveled before. With the knowledge that his destination wasn’t very far, Cotton smirked happily while clutching the piece of paper with confidence. The otherwise dull and creepy atmosphere of the quiet Victorian hallway didn’t even faze the excited unicorn as he traveled down the hall. Cotton was surprised that he was actually getting comfortable in the spooky mansion. The poorly lit lodgings he had were enough to test his courage the first few nights he came to the mansion. Cotton was given a room all to himself, though the room was large enough to be a dorm room all on its own. He was given a room with the bed directly in line with the door. The wooden framed bed had a faded and frayed canopy on it, giving it a more fanciful feel. Next to the already odd feeling bed, there was a single night table with a single lantern on it. This lantern was Cotton’s only source of light in the room. The room stretched out for a long ways beyond his sanctuary of light, with an old vanity mirror and a large wardrobe at the far end of the room, encased in darkness. Cotton didn’t enjoy sleeping in the room, and kept the lantern on at all times during the night. Not even the light from the moon managed to seep into the room, as the only window at the back of the room was blocked by one of the dressers. The unicorn could practically see shapes moving around in the mirror at the back of the room from where he slept. Despite these eerie accommodations, Cotton grew used to his room, although he still didn’t travel past the lighted area at night. So if he could get used to that frightening room, the unicorn resolved that he could get used to anything this old house had to offer. As he came to the end of the hallway, Cotton quickly opened the door and stepped out into the main room. He walked around to the main stairway and headed up to the second floor. From there it was just a short travel through a door to another hallway and a short walk to the library. Once he entered the library, Cotton stepped inside with eager confidence. He quickly surveyed the room for Shadow Mist, but the red furred stallion wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Instead, there was a young and pale earth pony colt sitting at one of the tables positioned off to the side. “Grimwood? What are you doing up here?” Cotton asked in confusion and surprise. The colt turned around and got up from his chair when he saw the white unicorn. “I’m reading Cotton… this is a library. What are you doing here?” Grimwood asked in an accusatory way. Cotton mumbled as he thought about his own reason for a moment. “Um… oh yeah! I’m looking for Shadow Mist. Raven Feather gave me a code for him to decipher, she said it was really important.” The unicorn explained while motioning the paper towards the colt. “Riiiight…” Grimwood nodded slowly while responding. Cotton couldn’t detect the sarcasm in the monotone voice that the pale colt had. “Shadow Mist isn’t here right now… Tell you what Cotton, How about I decipher that for you?” Grimwood suggested while walking over to the white unicorn. “Well… Raven Feather said that this is for Shadow Mist.” Cotton reasoned while debating whether or not to let the colt have the paper. “I’ll be sure to give it to Shadow Mist when he gets back… he’s running an errand for me at the moment, so I will be the first person he sees.” Grimwood explained while motioning for the white stallion to hand over the paper. Cotton shrugged in defeat while placing the paper in his open hoof. Grimwood quickly read over the encoded message and raised an eyebrow curiously. He appeared to be surprised by what he was reading, although Cotton couldn’t tell what he was thinking about the message. “Wow…” Grimwood exclaimed in a surprised tone. “What is it?” Cotton asked curiously. “This entire paper is just her insulting you and cursing you out… I can see why she wanted Shadow Mist to read this. Man… how many different words for annoying and incompetent are in her vocabulary?” Grimwood stated curiously while re-reading a part of the message with intrigue. “What…? But… she said that it was an important message.” Cotton muttered in a sad and disappointed tone. “Think for a second Cotton… has my sister ever given you charge over delivering an important message?” Grimwood asked in a slightly sympathetic tone. Cotton sighed and shook his head sadly. “No… she didn’t do that even when she kind of liked me. She did kind of like me before… right?” Cotton asked with an uncertain sense of doubt. Grimwood just stared at the sulking unicorn with a blank expression to let him come up with his own conclusion. “Ugh… I just want to do something useful to make up for those two flub ups I made before, but she won’t even give me a chance.” Cotton huffed in a depressed tone while hanging his head sadly. Suddenly, an idea popped into Grimwood’s head that made him smile slightly. “Tell you what Cotton, why don’t you let me talk to her?” Grimwood suggested in a lighthearted manner. Cotton looked up in surprise at the colt’s offer. “Really…? You would do that?” The unicorn asked with an uncertain expression. Grimwood nodded with a forced smile, although Cotton figured that every smile that he made looked forced. “Sure… I will see if I can’t put in a few good words for you. Just come see us in the library later on tonight. Maybe she will have a mission ready for you by then eh.” Grimwood said in an encouraging tone while jabbing the unicorn with his elbow playfully. Cotton smiled in a sincere manner. He felt happy and optimistic that he would finally be doing something of use. Maybe Raven Feather would finally see him for what he was actually worth. Grimwood smirked at the uplifted unicorn as he turned to walk out the door. He felt a little twinge of pride inside for what he was about to do. “Thanks for the help Grimwood… I really appreciate it.” Cotton said in a sincere manner while waving to the pale colt. “Don’t mention it Cotton.” Grimwood replied as he watched the stallion close the door and leave. “Really… don’t mention it.” He chuckled to himself while returning to his books. Cotton Quill felt a new sense of satisfaction as he walked through the halls. Although Raven Feather felt annoyed by his very presence, he had faith that she would accept him back into her good graces in due time. The unicorn made his way through the upstairs hallways and came out into the main room. The stairs to the main floor were to his left, while the hallway in front of him extended until it reached another door that exited into the rest of the house. Cotton lingered on the second floor and rested on the balcony that looked down into the foyer. The various paintings and decorative vases that littered the grand room gave it a sense of prosperity, despite the dust and cobwebs that adorned most of them. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was a sight to behold. It wasn’t flashy, relying on candles instead of glistening pieces of glass or crystal to supply its light. Although it was missing several of its candles and holders, it still appeared very grand and made Cotton feel like he was in the house of a royal figure. Even the numerous hooded ponies walking to and fro resembled servants in a medieval castle. It gave the otherwise dead and dreary mansion a contrary feeling of being lived in. Although a quick glance at some of the more broken down pieces of furniture or a shattered window quickly dispelled this illusion. Suddenly, the front doors flew open and a loud racket sounded into the room. Cotton looked down to see that Dust Kicker was urgently walking into the lobby while carrying Raincloud on his back. The pale mare was crying and wailing in distress from some unseen injury, although Cotton couldn’t even tell if there was an injury to be seen. “Cotton! Where is Raven Feather?!” Dust Kicker shouted up to the confused unicorn once he noticed him lounging around. “She’s in the downstairs reading room… what happened?!” Cotton asked in an alarmed tone as he listened to the painful yelps that the pegasus was making. Although Raincloud was usually a jerk to him, Cotton felt like she was part of the only family he had. “Not now! I need to get her to Raven Feather.” Dust Kicker growled in an annoyed tone while rushing behind the stairs to get to the hallway that led to the reading room. Cotton anxiously rushed downstairs so he could follow the pair. The unicorn passed all of the confused ponies in the foyer as he walked around the side of the stairway. He opened the door to the hallway and stepped inside just in time to see the brown pegasus running down the hall far away. Cotton followed the two down the hallway until they turned off into a room. As he got closer to the room, he realized that he could hear the conversation from inside already. Apparently Dust Kicker had left the door open in his hurry. Deciding not to get in the way, Cotton simply listened from outside as the stallion brought his sister to their leader. “Good lord… what happened to her?!” Raven Feather asked in an alarmed tone as Dust Kicker set the distraught pegasus down on the floor. “We were fighting the slayer… He attacked her shadow with his claws, when she suddenly just started screaming in pain. She’s been like this since then.” Dust explained in an uneasy tone. “Can you help her?!” The stallion was practically demanding that the black mare take action. “Ok, ok! I just need to separate her from her shadow temporarily.” Raven Feather explained while setting her hoof on the pained pony. Her hoof glowed with shadow energy as she channeled her magic into Raincloud. Slowly but surely, the pale mare’s screams died down, letting her fall into a gradual sleep from the shock of the pain. Once Raincloud was at peace, Dust Kicker breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you said that it was safe for her to use her powers?” The pegasus asked in an accusatory manner. Raven Feather shrugged before turning to face the concerned stallion. “It was… she must have had a negative reaction to the slayer using his spirit weapon on the shadow. Her link wasn’t prepared for that kind of stress.” The black mare explained in a calm yet uneasy tone. Dust Kicker wasn’t in the mood for such an explanation. “Negative reaction?! She practically screamed so much her lungs are raw!” The pegasus stated while gradually getting more upset. “She never reacted this way when the shadow got hurt before… what the hell happened?” He asked in a demanding tone. “Like I said… I didn’t expect a slayer to come around. His spirit weapons must have packed more punch than I realized. I didn’t think about it too much until now.” Raven Feather tried to calm the pegasus down, but Dust Kicker was still understandably upset. “Damnit Raven… you’re the one who gave her that thing. You said you explained everything that could go wrong.” Dust Kicker leered at the earth pony angrily. “She has had that thing since birth… you of all people should know that. I just taught her how to project it into a more stable form.” Raven Feather said in a more calm tone. “Did you complete the mission?” She asked to see if the pair had eliminated the elements of harmony. “No, the slayer attacked the shadow before Raincloud had a chance to kill any of them.” Dust Kicker shrugged in annoyance. Raven Feather sighed in defeat. She was disappointed that the two hadn’t completed their mission, but the fact that Raincloud was hurt at least made her understand the pegasus’s reason for retreating. “That’s fine Dust… you did the right thing in getting out of there.” Raven Feather stated in an attempt at ending any confrontation that was forming between her and the upset pegasus. “Raven Feather… I’ve been thinking, and I think it would be a good idea to remove the shadow from her.” Dust Kicker said while looking down at the unconscious mare sadly. “Dust… if I take away the spell I used to awaken her potential, she will just go back to how she was before. No control over it, and no way to tell it what to do. Do you really want her to go back to being the girl with the bad luck shadow?” Raven Feather reasoned in a sympathetic tone. The stallion shrugged as he thought about how his life was before he met the black mare. “Besides, I think that is a decision you need to make with her… when she is conscious.” Raven Feather added while glancing at the sleeping mare. “Ugh… she doesn’t see the risk of using shadow magic. I at least try to use my powers in moderation… she just throws her weight around without a care.” Dust Kicker explained in a concerned tone. Raven Feather wasn’t used to seeing the normally harsh and stoic pegasus speak in such a soft manner. “Don’t worry, she knows what she’s doing. I taught her the ramifications of using her shadow and her other abilities, she is just adept at using them is all.” Raven Feather said in a reassuring tone. “I think we should take a break and lay low for a while… we need to rest and rethink how to proceed with the plan. Next time I will be sure to iron out the details with more care.” The black mare explained while giving the stallion some space to be with his sister. “Good… we could use a break. I’ll carry her to our room so we can get some sleep.” Dust Kicker stated in an exhausted tone while walking over to the pale mare and gently picking her up. “You two have earned a rest… enjoy the rest of the night. I’m going to head upstairs to talk with Grimwood.” Raven Feather said while walking to the door and heading outside. She gave a passing glance to the unicorn listening outside before walking down the hall. Cotton Quill glanced inside and watched Dust Kicker as he carried his sister out. The pegasus gave the white stallion a passing glare before returning his attention down the hall. As the two disappeared from sight, Cotton was left by himself to ponder what had happened during the plan. Meanwhile, Grimwood was sitting at his table upstairs. He was reading over one of the summoning books that the group used to choose monsters. The descriptions and instructions on how to summon the creatures intrigued him enough to warrant reading them in his free time. Suddenly he heard the sound of someone walking down the hall towards the library. The door swung open and closed again with nobody seemingly coming inside. Grimwood stared at the air in front of the door and smirked. “Did you get what I asked for?” Grimwood asked while looking forward. Suddenly a puff of dark energy pulsed in midair. The pulse faded as quickly as it arrived, leaving Shadow Mist standing in its place. The red stallion was carrying a bag around his hips, which he promptly reached into to pull out the contents. “It wasn’t easy to get to them… they used a protection spell to keep themselves safe, so I only got to two of them.” Shadow Mist explained while pulling out two vials. The vials were filled with a red liquid that jostled around as their containers shifted. “Which ones?” Grimwood asked curiously while taking hold of one of the vials and staring at it thoughtfully. “I managed to get Twilight and Applejack… the charm you put on this needle is fantastic, they didn’t feel a thing.” Shadow Mist snickered while holding out the syringe he used to extract the blood. “Splendid… now we just need blood from the other four. That shouldn’t be too hard.” The pale colt stated in a casual tone. “But those samples won’t be viable for long… we will need to perform the ritual within a week. Raven Feather probably isn’t planning on making a move for a while, what do we do?” Shadow Mist reasoned with a concerned expression. Grimwood merely chuckled at the worrying pony. “Don’t worry about that Shadow… I have a little something in mind.” Grimwood stated with a slight grin while handing the vial of blood over to the red stallion. Suddenly the two heard the sound of someone walking towards the room. Shadow Mist quickly placed the vial into his bag and nodded to Grimwood. With a quick flash of shadow energy, the stallion disappeared from sight once more. After a brief wait, Raven Feather walked into the room. The black mare appeared to have a troubled expression, but she smiled once she noticed her younger brother. “Hello Grim…” Raven Feather greeted the pale colt in a dull tone before walking over to a table and sitting down. Grimwood was slightly confused by his sister’s depressed mood. “Hey sis… what’s eating you?” Grimwood asked with a curious inflection in his voice. “*Sigh* Raincloud and Dust Kicker failed to kill any of the elements… Raincloud got hurt in the process. Ugh, that damn slayer!” The black mare huffed in annoyance. If it were up to her, she would see to it that the meddling human would be tortured for the remainder of his unnatural life. “Raincloud got hurt…? Is she ok?” Grimwood had a slightly concerned tone, but he barely wavered from his usual blank voice. “She’s fine… her shadow got struck by the slayer’s spirit weapons. I should have seen that coming beforehand… ugh this whole mess is making my hair turn a slightly whiter shade of gray.” Raven Feather stated while rubbing her face in exhaustion. “Maybe nobody will notice… I mean, it still looks gray to me.” Grimwood stated in a joking way. If she didn’t know him better, Raven Feather would have thought that he was being serious. Despite his dull delivery, the joke was enough to elicit a chuckle from the black mare. “You always know how to cheer me up don’t you? *sigh*… I suppose I should just relax for a while. I mean… we are holding off for a few days on our next plan, so there should be some time to rest.” Raven Feather shrugged in defeat as she resolved to stop worrying about everything. “Hey… have you seen Shadow Mist around? He is normally back at the mansion around this time.” Raven Feather asked curiously while noting the odd absence of the red stallion. Grimwood paused for a moment before answering. “Nope… haven’t seen him. Maybe he went straight to bed?” The pale colt suggested in a sincere tone. Raven Feather yawned at the mere mention of going to bed. “*yawn*… I don’t blame him. I’m going to hit the hay for the night… you coming with me Grim?” The black mare asked courteously while heading to the door. “Nah… I’m going to stay up a bit longer.” Grimwood replied. “Ok then… just don’t stay up too late alright?” Raven Feather stated with a smirk while exiting the room. Grimwood chuckled ironically at the statement. Before the colt could return to what he was doing, the door creaked open again, revealing Cotton Quill as he stepped into the room. The unicorn had an anxious expression on his face, giving a clear indication as to what he was there for. “So… what did she say?” Cotton asked in a hopeful tone while walking up to the pale pony. Grimwood had to hide a smile, which was easy considering how little he expressed his emotions outwardly. “Sorry Cotton… she said that she wouldn’t let you near a spell book if you were the last person on earth who could read.” Grimwood explained in a sympathetic tone. Cotton Quill immediately deflated his ego and frowned sadly. “Oh…” The unicorn muttered in defeat. He felt just as useless as everyone made him out to be. “Look Cotton… I’m going to level with you here.” Grimwood spoke up, causing Cotton to lift his head curiously. “What?” The unicorn asked with an uncertain expression. “I don’t know why my sister hates you… but you seem to be a fairly decent spell caster, so I will give you a chance.” The pale colt explained in a sympathetic tone. He then walked over to the table he was at and pulled open one of the drawers. Grimwood pulled out a picture, and a few small bags filled with unknown ingredients. “Here, take these.” The colt said while handing the items over to the unicorn. Cotton looked at the picture curiously. It was a group photo of Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. “A picture of the elements…?” Cotton muttered in a perplexed tone. He had no idea what the young earth pony had in mind. Grimwood then went back over to the table and picked up a book. He brought the book over and opened it to a page, which he then showed to the unicorn. “Whoa!” Cotton exclaimed in shock as he looked at the creature depicted in the book. It never ceased to amaze him just how many horrific monsters were contained in the various books around the library. “Take these ingredients and perform this spell as directed… the monster summoned will hunt down and kill whoever is in the photo you use. Once Raven Feather finds out that you killed the elements of harmony, she will gladly give you your job back.” Grimwood explained while handing the book over to the confused pony. “Really…?” Cotton was surprised that the pale colt would do so much to help him. He wondered how someone so nice and someone like Raven Feather could come from the same bloodline. “Yeah… just find a spot near one of their houses and the spell will take care of the rest. Maybe you should try Sweet Apple Acres? There are a lot of places to hide there, and you shouldn’t need to get too close to them while staying on the property.” Grimwood stated with a smirk. “You… you would do something like this for me…? Thank you Grim, you’re the best.” Cotton said in a cheerful tone while walking towards the door. He would have to study the spell for a few hours before he could cast it. Grimwood smirked as he watched the unicorn walk over to the door. He knew that everything was working out just as he planned, and that made him happy. “Are you sure you won’t tell Raven Feather about this?” Cotton turned and asked in an unsure tone. Grimwood smiled and shook his head. “Oh no Cotton… I want you to take full credit for this.” The colt explained in a sincere tone. Cotton smiled and nodded before walking out of the door and closing it. After a few moments of silence had passed, Shadow Mist appeared again and walked up to the pale colt. He seemed to have a concerned expression on his face as he glanced to the door where the unicorn had just departed. “Are you sure you should be sending a creature to kill the other element bearers?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. “It was the only way to get him to go. Besides, I think I found something else regarding the need for the elements’ blood.” Grimwood said while walking over to one of the desks and pulling out a section of his notes along with a large book. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist seemed to have an unimpressed expression on his face as the colt feverishly flipped through the pages to get to the part he was going to show off. “I thought you had this all figured out Grim…” The stallion said with a flustered tone while holding a hoof up to his face. “I did!” Grimwood whined in a frustrated tone before spotting the impatient expression on his colleague’s face. Even though he didn't emote very often, it was easy to tell that the colt was getting more upset than usual. “Look Grim… I only agreed to help you because I believed you had something real here. You have more experience with this stuff than most of the hoods combined. But if you’re going to tell me that you still haven’t deciphered the entire prophecy, then… *Sigh* I don’t know what to think anymore.” Shadow Mist said in a calmer tone. “I know what I’m doing Shadow Mist. This prophecy is one of the hardest things to decipher in the history of Equestria, so I’m bound to make a few mistakes. Even my sister hasn’t deciphered all of it. Do you really want us to go through so much trouble only to have nothing happen at the end?” Grimwood asked curiously, having returned to a more composed tone as he regained his stoic exterior. “Ugh… no, I guess not. Just… just show me what you have.” Shadow Mist shrugged in defeat while walking behind the colt to look at what he was reading. Finally Grimwood stopped on a page and hummed in revelation. The page was filled with a bizarre picture that took up the entirety of it. In the picture, there were six colored spheres floating in the air. Each of them were dripping what appeared to be blood onto a crude depiction of a sun, staining it red slightly. Next to the page with the picture, there was a lengthy page of strange symbols and glyphs that seemed to form a language of sorts. “I’m fairly certain that this section here that talks about the extraction of the blood needed was mistranslated slightly. I think it actually says that we can extract the blood whether the elements are dead or not, as long as we do it within a few hours.” Grimwood explained while pointing to various sections of the text. Shadow Mist had been through the text several times with the pale colt. Although he understood a good chunk of it, much of it was still a mystery to him, even if Grimwood said he could read it. “Are you sure about this? Because if we collect their blood after they’re dead, and we actually needed them alive, we’re kind of screwed.” Shadow Mist stated in a serious tone. “I would stake my life on it. I rechecked it at least ten times once I found my mistake.” Grimwood explained with a confident tone. “Now, there is the matter of collecting the blood we need. If one of the elements dies tonight, we will need to get there within a few hours. Now, hiding from the creature and getting to them in secret shouldn’t be a problem, but I wanted to ask if you would be comfortable going out to monitor the situation.” Grimwood said in a curious tone, as if he expected the stallion to say yes. “*Sigh*… so much for sleeping I guess. What about Cotton? Won’t he tell Raven Feather about this when he gets back?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. “Oh, don’t worry about Cotton… I have a plan in place to deal with him and speed up the ritual at the same time.” Grimwood explained with a brief chuckle. The red stallion shrugged and shook his head before turning invisible again and walking away. He was going to have a long night ahead of him.
Chapter 54: Rest, Relaxation, and SleepoversAs the sun gradually disappeared from the sky, the last tints of red vanished from the horizon only to be replaced by a dimly lit blue that barely offered any light onto the landscape of Equestria. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot were casually walking the bereft streets of Ponyville’s outskirts. They had since left the larger group behind as they all split off to go to their respective homes. The cool night air and the occasional chirping of a stray cricket created a soothing atmosphere that suited the exhausted ponies well. After everything that had happened that day, both of the pegasus’s were ready to unwind in the comfort of a safe house. “Man… those stars are a sight for sore eyes. For a while there, I thought I would never see the sky again.” Rainbow Dash stated while staring at the night sky in amazement. “Heh… you and me both.” Sunspot chuckled briefly while looking back at her bandaged up side. The suited mare thought she was going to be eaten alive by that undead dragon, so to be able to take in the breath taking views of nature was a pleasant surprise. “I wonder what happened to everyone that ran away. They were scared out of their wits… I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were still running.” The cyan mare pondered out loud while observing the empty streets. Although they were on the outskirts of town, and everyone may very well be sleeping in their homes, she couldn’t help but to wonder if they were made aware that the situation was taken care of. “I’m sure that Celestia made sure to send a patrol around town to check on everyone. She usually puts the safety of the general populous pretty high up on her list.” Sunspot stated in a reassuring tone. She was certain that the princess would do something to keep her subjects informed on dangerous matters such as these. “Yeah… I just wish she would put our safety a tad bit lower on the list.” Rainbow Dash huffed in annoyance while thinking about how she would just have to sit and wait until the hooded ponies have been dealt with. Sunspot frowned sympathetically for the upset mare. She could tell that Rainbow Dash wasn’t upset at her for the fact that she had to watch her. The cyan pony was more upset at the fact that she would be missing out on getting the retribution she so desperately wanted. “She means well… You six are really important to her. Besides, she is kind of freaking out about this whole thing anyway. I’m surprised she hasn’t put Ponyville on lockdown and told everyone to stay indoors.” The suited pegasus explained in a lighthearted tone to cheer up the upset mare. Rather than being cheered up, Rainbow Dash was more confused than anything. “Freaking out…? How do you know that? She seems to be handling this pretty well all things considered.” Rainbow Dash said with a confused expression. The white alicorn always appeared so stoic and brave in times of crisis. “Princess Luna told me about it. Apparently they had a miniature argument, and it was about us no less… Celestia was a little upset that Luna didn’t tell her about the books she found instead of making a secret task force for fighting evil.” Sunspot explained in an uneasy tone. She was so used to seeing the two princesses getting along. Even if it was a small argument based off of Celestia’s concerns, it still troubled the suited mare that it happened. “Really? How did Princess Luna react to that?” Rainbow Dash asked with an intrigued expression. “She said that she didn’t want to worry her about it. Back then it was just a few books full of occult knowledge, she had no way of knowing any of it was even real. The mere fact that she brought us together was strictly supposed to be a precautionary action.” Sunspot added in an understanding tone. “Wow… I never imagined that this was affecting them that much.” Rainbow Dash shrugged in surprise at the alicorn’s actions. She now had a more understanding outlook on why the princess put her and her friends on protective watch. Sunspot added no further comments on her story. She decided that it would be best for the cyan mare to process her feelings about the situation for a moment, so she dropped the conversation unless she was asked more about it. The two walked along in silence for a while after that. In the midst of their discussion, they hadn’t noticed that they were now in the countryside outside of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash’s house wouldn’t be much further of a walk. Sure enough, the pair spotted the cloud home coming into view in the distance. It wasn’t hard to make out due to how much it stood out against the relatively clear sky. The sight of her home getting closer filled the cyan pony with relief. “So that’s your house huh?” Sunspot asked while taking in the view of whatever features she could make out of the house. “Yep… yet ever so humble.” Rainbow Dash replied with a warm smirk. “Wow… that sure brings back memories. I haven’t been to Cloudsdale since my Wonderbolt days.” The suited mare stated while glancing down to her outfit and smiling nostalgically, she clearly harbored many good memories from her brief stint on the team. “Heh… I got you beat there. I haven’t been back there since I moved out here years ago, aside from a few temporary visits.” Rainbow added while chuckling briefly. Sunspot shared in the brief laughter while observing the décor dotted around the cloud home. Nearly every piece of decoration in the outside area one could loosely call a lawn was based off of Cloudsdale architecture, right down to the Greek style columns. Once the pair of ponies reached the edge of the cloud structure, they were eager to get up there and rest. Sunspot instinctively tried to spread her wings to take off when she quickly realized that she was bandaged up under her suit. “Aww hay… how is this going to work out?” The orange mare huffed in frustration while looking down to her injured appendage. Rainbow Dash frowned sympathetically as she watched the suited pony fretting over her injury. She looked up to the base of the cloud home and tried to estimate how high up it was in terms of flying. “Uhh… shoot.” The cyan pegasus cursed under her breath as she found no easy solution. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. “Here, let me help you out.” Rainbow Dash suggested while spreading her wings and lifting into the air slightly. She hovered above Sunspot and wrapped her arms around her waist. The suited mare was surprised by the sudden invasion of her personal bubble, and more surprised that the blue pegasus would attempt such a seemingly excessive task. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you really going to pick me up?!” Sunspot half chuckled and half panicked as the cyan mare started to lift her a little ways off the ground. Rainbow Dash set her back down as she questioned her plan. “Hey, do you have a better idea?” The cyan mare questioned while eyeing at the suited pony sarcastically. Sunspot quickly tried to think of an alternative route, but sighed in defeat when her mind drew a blank. “Alright… but two things before we get airborne; don’t hurt yourself… and don’t drop me. Emphasis on the second one hot shot.” The orange pony instructed in as clear a manner as she could. Rainbow Dash chuckled confidently at the concerned pegasus. “You got it boss.” Rainbow Dash stated jokingly before pulling up to take off. Sunspot was surprised at how easily the cyan mare lifted her up and carried her along midflight. Rainbow Dash decided to take things slow and cautious while flying up to her house. Although she was confident in her ability, she didn’t want to risk dropping the suited mare or causing pain to her already injured wing. Sunspot cringed nervously as she looked down. Being a pegasus, the orange pony wasn’t afraid of heights, but given her impaired wing, she was starting to sweat nervously at the prospect of falling. Despite the vast number of fear inducing thoughts flying through Sunspot’s head, the two finally reached a section of cloud connected to Rainbow Dash’s main house. The cyan mare sat her friend down and landed next to her. “See? That wasn’t so bad huh?” Rainbow Dash said with a lighthearted smirk. The orange mare smiled in return as she couldn’t deny her friend’s good job. “Yeah… I guess not. You’re a pretty good flyer.” Sunspot stated in a congratulatory tone. Rainbow Dash smiled in flattery from the comment. “Thanks… I guess practice makes perfect.” Rainbow chuckled lightheartedly while walking up to her front door. She opened it up and ushered the suited pegasus inside. Once inside the structure, one could forget that they were in the clouds high above Ponyville’s outskirts. The interior of the main building looked much more homey and average than the stark white exterior, while still matching with the theme. Shades ranging from light blue down to dark purple adorned most of the walls and ceilings, some of the floors had a tile theme comprised of light blue and a darker shade of blue, and there were more stone columns inside, though these ones were either dark grey or black. “Nice place you got going here Dash.” Sunspot commented while observing the interior of the house. “Heh… thanks. Go ahead and get comfortable. I’m going to see if I have an air mattress or something.” Rainbow Dash said while walking off towards her storage room. Meanwhile, Sunspot was left to her own devices in the spacious home. The suited mare quickly found a couch and promptly sat on it to rest her weary body. Over on the other side of Ponyville, Applejack, her sister, and her travel companion had already made it back home. The three were walking on the main pathway that led through Sweet Apple Acres. The sight of the apple trees swaying in the soft night breeze off to the side complimented with the moonlight shining down to create the perfect peaceful atmosphere. “So this is the famous Sweet Apple Acres huh?” Neon Streak said while admiring her surroundings. “I’ve heard that these are the most beautiful apple orchards in all of Equestria… I can see where they’re coming from.” She stated in an astounded tone. “Hehe… thanks Neon. If you come around during harvest time, maybe we could treat you to something.” Applejack offered in a friendly way. Neon Streak was intrigued by the farmer’s proposition. “Hmm… sounds like a plan. I’ll have to see about coming back here after all of this is over.” The green mare said with a charmed expression on her face. Applejack was surprised that the tough as nails pony had a soft spot for hometown comforts. “You aren’t sticking around Ponyville?” Applebloom asked curiously from beside the two. The yellow filly figured that the members of Spirit would remain close by after things were wrapped up with the hooded ponies. “Nah… me and the guys will probably just head back to Canterlot until we get another assignment.” Neon replied as she thought about where her team would head after they were done in Ponyville. “Awww… Ah was just starting to get to know you. Me and the girls were even thinking about joining your team!” Applebloom said with an enthusiastic smile. Neon Streak chuckled at the cute little filly. She remembered back when she was that young. “Well… we will be sure to come visit you guys often. How does that sound?” The green mare offered to comfort the disappointed filly. Applebloom’s face brightened up at the proposal. “Great!” Applebloom chimed in excitement. The yellow filly couldn’t wait to learn more about the team of monster hunters. Applejack smiled as she watched her eager sister fantasize about the team of ponies. It was always good to see the young filly being so passionate about something. Not to mention the friendly way that Neon Streak was addressing her. If someone seemingly as rough around the edges as Brimstoke or Neon Streak could be kind, then maybe there was hope for pony kind after all. Soon enough, the trio made their way up to the farm house. The sight of the humble structure immediately filled Applejack and her sister with a sense of comfort and happiness. Neon Streak could understand how living on a farm could be peaceful and rewarding in many ways. “Huh… looks like Big Mac is up.” Applejack stated while observing the light coming through one of the windows beside the door. “He’s probably worried sick about us…” Applebloom said in a disheartened tone. The orange mare frowned slightly as she thought of how much her brother must have been worrying about her. “Let’s head inside then… we better not keep him waiting.” Applejack said while opening the door and ushering everyone inside. Neon Streak and Applebloom quickly went inside while the cow pony closed the door behind them. Once inside, the trio was greeted by the sight of a red stallion sitting on the couch with a concerned expression. As he noticed his family return, Big Mac got up and smiled slightly, although his two sisters knew that his tiny grin was much more intense on the inside. “Applejack! Applebloom!” Big Mac exclaimed while walking up to the two and hugging them. Once the stallion released his sisters from his tight grip, he shifted his expression to a more worried one. “What happened over there? Ah thought that you were just heading down to the library… it’s practically midnight." Big Mac stated while looking out the window at the darkness outside. Applejack frowned as she tried to come up with a valid reason for her delay. It wasn’t exactly easy to tell your older brother that you almost died trying to save your younger sister and her friends. “Sorry about that. There was an… incident… that kind of demanded our attention.” Applejack explained with a hesitant expression. Big Mac paused and frowned as he listened to the distressed mare. He might not have known what happened, but he could tell that the orange mare did not want to bring it up. “Ok… Ah’m just glad that you two are safe.” Big Mac spoke in a calm and sympathetic tone. Now that his attention was freed up, the stallion looked over at the green mare curiously. Upon seeing that her brother had noticed the strange newcomer, Applejack felt it necessary to introduce her. She was going to be staying with them after all. “Oh! Uh… Big Mac, this is our friend Neon Streak. She is one of the ponies that have been helping us out with everything that has been going on. The princess wants someone keeping an eye on us, so she will be staying with us for a while.” The orange mare explained while motioning to the green mare. “Nice to meet you Big Mac.” Neon Streak greeted in a friendly tone while reaching forward to shake the stallion’s hoof. Big Mac accepted the gesture and smiled in return. “Likewise.” Big Mac stated with a warm smile. After introducing their new guest to her brother Applejack intended to head off to bed, but she suddenly felt a pang of hunger that was too severe to warrant ignoring. A sudden rumble beside her told the orange mare that her sister felt the same. “Man… Ah’m starving.” Applebloom stated while holding her empty gut. “Me too… Ah guess in all the commotion we didn’t get anything to eat.” Applejack added while glancing to Neon Streak for confirmation. The green mare nodded in agreement while taking note of her own feeling of hunger. “Ah’ll go fix you guys something to eat.” Big Mac suggested with a helpful attitude while walking towards the kitchen. The others smiled at the prospect of being fed without spending any effort themselves. Neon Streak walked over to the couch and plopped down on it with a groan of tired relief. She remained motionless while staring up at the ceiling with half of her body hanging off the couch. The sight of the green mare lazing around came as a surprise to Applejack. She had to constantly remind herself that even though these were professionals trained by Princess Luna herself, they were still regular ponies underneath their tactical gear. “Ah guess you all had just as rough a day as we did over at the square.” Applejack stated in a sympathetic tone while sitting down on the couch. Neon Streak chuckled slightly at the statement. “Heh… I guess you could say that. Me and the others spent half our time running through crowds of seriously agitated skeletons to rescue ponies, and the other half fending off said crowds of seriously agitated skeletons while the princess found a solution. I feel like my arms are going to fall off from how much I had to use my strobe.” The green mare explained in a lighthearted way while taking a moment to breathe easy. “Wow… that is pretty rough. Me and the girls were in a tense situation too, but at least we didn’t have to run around all day. Ah like exercise as much as the next girl, but Ah think that running for long periods of time doesn’t suit me.” Applejack said in a jesting manner to lighten the mood. Everyone else laughed warmly at the orange mare’s statement. Suddenly, Big Mac came back into the room carrying three plates with sandwiches on them. Neon Streak immediately sat up and righted herself to be sitting upright on the couch as the stallion sat the plates down on the table in front of the three ponies. “Sorry it isn’t anything fancy… Ah’m not what you would call a gourmet chef.” Big Mac said while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Applebloom and the others smirked at the sight of any kind of food, so they could have cared less. “It’s fine Big Mac… Ah don’t think my stomach would care what Ah put into it at this point, so these look delicious in my eyes.” The yellow filly stated to make her brother feel better. The red stallion smiled at the kind words of his little sister. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s eat!” Neon Streak said happily while picking up her plate and cradling it in her lap. Applejack and her sister followed suit and got comfortable while they ate. “Awwww come on Rarity… it will be fun!” Pinkie Pie beamed while pleading with the white unicorn to partake in her party game. While they were walking home, Rarity suggested that Sweetie Belle and the other crusaders have a sleepover at her house. With the mere mention of the word sleepover, Pinkie Pie burst with excitement. She eagerly suggested that she should be a part of the gathering, and even offered for some of the others to come along. Although she was hesitant to allow the energetic mare to come stay with her, Rarity couldn’t turn down her friend. Now the Carousel Boutique was filled with a veritable guest list of ponies. Scootaloo had agreed to come, although Applebloom and her sister politely declined. Fluttershy agreed to come along, so by extension Glimmer Shine had to tag along with the yellow pegasus. And of course, Glitterball and Brimstoke were required to attend the event due to their obligation to remain close to their charges. “I don’t know Pinkie… I had intended to just relax for the rest of the night after what happened at the library.” Rarity stated in an uncertain tone while eyeing around at the eager fillies clutching pillows in their hooves. It wasn’t easy to see how a pillow fight had come about from Rarity’s idea of a peaceful get together, but the party pony worked in mysterious ways. Rarity had gotten out a large number of sleeping bags for everybody, including herself, and now they were all camping out together in a heap of bags just in front of her bed. Rarity had wanted to sleep in her bed with Sweetie Belle, but the filly suggested that they join their friends on the floor to get a better sleepover experience. The unicorn protested of course, but then Sweetie Belle suggested that they use pillows with their sleeping bags. Rarity figured that she would be comfortable enough with the added pillows, so she accepted. Once she had gotten everything together however, Pinkie’s fun loving mind kicked into gear. With the sleepover atmosphere completed with the addition of pillows, she was giddy with excitement. To be able to have a large scale pillow fight with her friends had always been a dream of hers. Even if Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were absent, Pinkie was certain that she and the others would have enough fun for all of their friends that weren’t there. “I’m sorry that you girls had such a scary experience at the library, but you need to unwind. Laughter is the best medicine, fun is the best doctor, and pillow fights are fun! See my point?” The energetic mare asked while looking around at the others for confirmation. Although they were confused by Pinkie’s deduction process, they agreed that they could all use some fun. “But… do we really need to partake in something as barbaric as a pillow fight? I’m sure that there are other less violent and messy ways to have fun.” Rarity reasoned in an attempt to talk her way out of the approaching chaos. “Aww come on Rarity… pleeeaaase?” Sweetie Belle whined in as cute a tone as she could muster. She even batted her eyelashes, knowing full well that her childlike charm would turn the unicorn into putty in her hooves. “Ugh… you know I hate it when you give me the puppy dog eyes Sweetie Belle. It’s not fair!” Rarity attempted to remain steadfast in her decision, but she couldn’t prevent the adorable filly from eating away at her willpower with each passing second. Sweetie Belle remained silent while putting all the effort she had into trying to win her sister over with cuteness. “Well… I guess it wouldn’t hurt that much. I’ll do it for a l-” Rarity’s sentence was cut off by a pillow being smacked across her face. Although the soft weapon didn’t hurt, it was jarring enough to knock her a little ways off balance. The unicorn puffed out a burst of air to get her hair out of her eyes. She then glared at the group in front of her to determine the culprit of the surprise attack. One quick glance at the eager pink mare holding a pillow in a striking stance told Rarity everything she needed to know. “Good to hear! Now let’s get started!” Pinkie stated with an excited giggle. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined the pink mare in swinging their pillows around haphazardly. The sudden battle incited the other reluctant ponies to join in, for fear of getting caught off guard. Pinkie Pie gently slapped her pillow into Fluttershy. Despite the slow approach of the fluffy object, the yellow mare used her arms to shield her face from the blow. After the pink pony was finished with her strike, Fluttershy struck back with a determined smirk. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were both trying to team up on Glimmer Shine. Judging from his expression, the yellow stallion wasn’t exactly prepared to battle against two fillies, even if it was with pillows. The pair of crusaders took advantage of the apprehensive pony’s inaction and pounced on him, sending him to the floor with a barrage of pillow smacks. “I’m not too sure if I want to join in… I think I will wait on the sidelines.” Brimstoke stated while eyeing his pillow with uncertainty. Before the stallion could leave the circle of battling ponies, he was struck across the face with a pillow by Glitterball. “Come on Brimstoke, live a little!” The rainbow haired mare exclaimed with a chuckle as she watched Brimstoke spitting out a stray feather that had been knocked loose from the pillow. The stallion sighed in defeat before gripping his pillow tightly and swinging back at the smirking unicorn. He was surprised by just how fun the seemingly pointless activity was. The fierce and fluffy battle raged on for a full ten minutes without break. One by one, the ponies each bowed out of the fight and sat or laid down on the sidelines to watch the others. Pinkie Pie was unsurprisingly one of the last ones participating in a small duel, but her opponent was seemingly the most unlikely of the group to have lasted so long. Rarity was ducking and weaving around each strike the pink mare threw at her. Everyone else was resting on the floor with their respective sleeping bag while they watched the two mares fight in a circle. Finally Pinkie could take no more as her fatigued body screamed at her to lie down and rest. With a final smack from Rarity’s pillow sending her on her way, the pink mare fell to the floor and landed on her sleeping bag with a soft thud. With her opponent resting on the floor in defeat, the white unicorn lifted her hooves into the air triumphantly before falling to a seated position herself. “I won! Yes!” Rarity exclaimed happily in between breaths. Pinkie chuckled as she watched the excited unicorn try to celebrate her victory while resting. “Good job Rarity…*pant*… I knew you had it in you.” The party pony congratulated her opponent while slightly lifting her head off the floor. She barely had enough drive to get up and move her sleeping bag to a spot better suited for actually sleeping. “Thanks…*pant* Hehe.” Rarity stated with a dumb smile plastered on her face. She couldn’t believe that she enjoyed the game so much, but she didn’t really care. All that mattered was that she was having fun, and the unicorn really needed some after what happened earlier. She hoped that Applejack and Twilight could find a method of cheering themselves up so they could feel good again, especially Twilight. “Well… I’m all tuckered out. I guess we should probably get to sleep.” Pinkie suggested while stretching her body and yawning, most of the group shared her opinion, most of it anyway. “Aww come on! I’m not even tired.” Scootaloo protested in a frustrated tone while looking to her friend for support. “Yeah… isn’t there something else we could do?” Sweetie Belle pleaded innocently while looking around at the group. Most of the others were so tired that they could barely hold themselves up. “Sorry girls, but we’re all exhausted from earlier.” Glimmer Shine said in a sympathetic tone while moving his sleeping bag into place. The sight of all the ponies preparing for bed filled the fillies with a sense of disappointment. “Ugh… fine.” Scootaloo pouted while crossing her arms in defeat. Her fellow crusader shrugged while unzipping her bag and wriggling her lower half into it. Pinkie Pie frowned understandingly as she watched the pair prepare their bags for sleep. She hated to end their fun so abruptly, especially since she was the one who started it in the first place. The pink mare felt the need to help out the bored crusaders build up inside of her. She could sleep later; right now there were ponies in need of some fun. “Alright girls… tell you what. I will stay up a little longer and tell you a bedtime story.” The pink mare stated with a warm smile. The two fillies immediately perked up from the exciting news. “Really…? Awesome! What’s it about?” Scootaloo asked eagerly while sitting up in her sleeping bag. Pinkie thought about it for a moment and hummed curiously. She hadn’t really put much thought into what the story would be when she offered, but she was confident in her creative and spontaneous nature. “I don’t know… what are you two in the mood for? A fairy tale…? An adventure?” Pinkie started naming off story genres to see what would sound appealing to the two crusaders. “Oooo… how about a ghost story?” Scootaloo suggested with a devious grin. Sweetie Belle seemed a little nervous at the mention of a ghost story. “Uh… maybe we should go for something a bit… tamer.” The white filly suggested nervously. “Come on Sweetie Belle… it’s Pinkie. How bad could anything she thinks of be?” Scootaloo stated to convince her friend to let the pink mare tell an actually interesting story. Sweetie Belle shrugged as she watched the pleading expression on her friend’s face. She didn’t want her to miss out just because she was nervous or frightened. Finally the white filly decided to swallow her fear and listen to the story. “Ok fine… ghost story it is then.” Sweetie Bell stated while gulping quietly and steeling her nerves for whatever nightmare fuel was to come. Pinkie Pie smiled at the opportunity to bust out a ghost story from her vast reservoir of tall tales. The pink mare cleared her throat as she watched the two fillies get comfortable to listen intently. “Ok… so, once upon a time…” Pinkie said in an ominous tone to set the mood. While everyone else settled in to bed, the two fillies waited eagerly for the pink mare to delve into an exciting tale of horror.
Chapter 55: Not a Creature was StirringMeanwhile over at the library, Twilight and the others were getting settled in for the night. Tom and Peppermint decided to sleep downstairs to give the jilted unicorn and dragon some much needed rest and relaxation. The entire day had been stressful on everybody, but Twilight and Spike seemed to have caught the worst of the ordeal. Spike was uncomfortably watching as the purple mare remained awake on the edge of her bed. She seemed to be thinking about something deeply, and whatever it was seemed to be troublesome to her. The young dragon wondered if she was thinking about what happened to him. The experience must have been very traumatic for her after all. As the unicorn quietly sighed while staring at the floor with an empty expression, Spike quickly realized that she wasn’t going to reach out to him to talk about her problems. He decided that he needed to be the one to help her cope with whatever mental demons she was battling. “Twilight… are you ok?” The dragon spoke up in a concerned tone while looking up to the sulking pony. Twilight eyed over to him briefly before quickly averting her gaze. She seemed to be having trouble even looking him in the face. “I’m fine Spike.” The purple mare replied in a dismal tone. Spike obviously didn’t believe her words, but he wasn’t even sure if she cared whether or not he did. “No… you’re not fine.” Fed up with his friend dodging her own emotions, Spike got up from his bed and walked over to her. The dragon walked up the stairs to the loft, hopped up to the bed and sat down next to the purple unicorn. Twilight shrugged sadly as she watched her assistant trying to comfort her. “Ok… so I’m a little upset. I just have a lot of things to mull over right now.” Twilight stated in a slightly less sad tone while trying to be understanding. She knew that she had been fussing over a lot of things recently. One might even call her depressed if they just watched her expressions, but she didn’t mean to look so down in the dumps. “You know… you can talk to me about things that are bothering you. Discussing things can make you feel better sometimes.” Spike stated with an uplifting attitude. Twilight smiled slightly from seeing the cheerful dragon’s outlook. “I guess I’m just upset that the princess told us to stand by and watch while she handles things… I want to help put these guys behind bars… probably even more than anyone else does.” The unicorn shrugged as she thought back to everything she had experienced because of the hooded ponies. “I mean… I have been on the receiving end of most of the bad things that have happened in the past few days… The school, the hospital, almost losing you and…” Twilight paused abruptly as she reached the next event in sequence. She figured that it would be best if Spike didn’t know that she almost died while he was unconscious. “And…?” Spike asked curiously. Twilight groaned mentally as she dreaded the dragon’s inquisitive nature. “Nothing… my point is that I feel too much involvement with these attacks to just sit around and do nothing.” The unicorn stated to change the subject. Thankfully Spike didn’t seem to have any desire to pry further at the matter. “*Sigh*… I just wish we had some way of helping the princess catch these guys. But I don’t think poking around town to look for the ponies we know about would be a good idea… not after what happened to Applejack and the others yesterday.” Twilight shuddered at the thought of her friend getting ambushed by ponies with the intent of harming or killing her. “I’m glad that Neon and Glimmer were there to help her out… I don’t even want to think about what could have happened otherwise. I can’t believe that these guys would go to such extremes… and that they could be anywhere.” Spike said uneasily with a sense of paranoid dread slowly filling him. The hooded ponies could be anywhere around town, just waiting for a chance to strike, and that thought terrified the young dragon. Twilight shared in his concerns, but she had to find some way to lighten up the situation. No matter how scared or frustrated she was on the inside, she would always try her best to shield the dragon from anything frightening or dangerous. “Don’t worry Spike… I’m sure that they won’t be trying anything too radical for a while. Besides, Peppermint and Tom will keep us safe, and the others will be fine with Brimstoke and his team looking out for them.” The unicorn said while placing a reassuring hoof on Spike’s head and ruffling his scaly hair. The dragon felt a little calmer knowing that the purple mare was confident in their safety. “Well… I hope that they wait as long as possible before trying anything else. I want them to be caught before they summon any more monsters. Ugh… I hate just knowing that monsters even exist.” Spike stated in an anxious tone. “You and me both Spike… you and me both.” Twilight added in agreement while pulling the dragon closer to her for a side hug. Spike leaned his head on the unicorn’s side and let her wrap her arm around him. The two sat still on the bed while enjoying the feeling of their own body warmth mingling. The pair didn’t often take any time to offer affection to each other, but with recent events weighing heavy on their minds, they felt a strong need to hold one another as close as possible. Twilight was thinking heavily about how close she had come to losing Spike in the previous days. At the hospital she could just keep telling herself that he was fine, but she witnessed his close brush with death at the library first hand. She could see him pouring blood out onto the floor, she could see the color drain from his face from oncoming weakness, and she hated every minute of it. Meanwhile, Spike was thinking about how everything that had happened recently was affecting him and his friends. He was worried that someone he knew was going to get seriously hurt by the hooded ponies. Although he understood their desire to personally bring justice to the malicious ponies, he was also very concerned for their wellbeing. No matter how different their worries might have been, the pair knew that they had each other to count on, and they would fight to keep their bond intact. “*Yawn*… I think I’m ready for bed.” Spike stated drowsily while scooting away from the purple mare and hopping off of the bed. Twilight took a moment to gauge her own level of energy before concluding that she was sleepy as well. “Yeah, me too.” Twilight said while scooting backwards on her bed to reach the front. Once she got past her covers, the unicorn quickly lifted them up and slid her body underneath them. Taking a moment to enjoy the silky coolness of a fresh and soft bed sheet, Twilight smiled happily. “Feels good to be able to climb into bed again… for a while there I thought I wasn’t going to make it, so all the little things really stand out to me.” Spike said with a slight chuckle. Twilight was unsure if she should be concerned with how well the dragon was processing his near death experience. Most people would have been shaken up for at least a few days afterwards, but Spike seemed to be bouncing right back. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.” The purple pony stated with a slightly surprised tone. Considering her own brush with death, she did notice that she appreciated her surroundings a little more. Thankfully Spike didn’t seem to notice the odd way she said that, as if she were speaking from experience. “Well... goodnight Twilight.” Spike said in a friendly manner while climbing into his basket and finding a comfortable position to sleep in. Twilight smiled as she listened to the noises of blankets rustling around. “Night Spike…” The unicorn stated while finally laying down the rest of the way. She pulled her covers closer and nestled her head against her pillow to get comfortable. After staring at the ceiling in thought for a brief moment, Twilight closed her eyes and waited to drift off to sleep. Meanwhile, on the other side of town in the Apple family house, Applejack and her friends were winding down for the night. They had just recently finished their meal, and although it wasn’t exactly a grand dinner, it was enough to keep them satisfied for the night. Everyone was chatting happily, enjoying each others company while they shared stories about their lives and had a fun time. Although she wanted to remain awake for the conversation, Applebloom could barely keep her eyes open. Applejack noticed the drowsy filly as she started to slowly tilt her body sideways onto her. Applebloom would regain her senses midway through her fall and re-adjust her position. Despite her best efforts at staying awake, the filly finally drifted onto her sister’s lap and conked out. “Applebloom… are you asleep sugar cube?” Applejack gently shook the sleeping filly to stir her without an unnecessary jolt to the system. Applebloom groaned as she woke up and groggily lifted herself up. “Sorry… Ah’m just a little tired is all.” The filly stated while rubbing her eyes and shaking herself to further wake up. “Maybe we should be heading to bed… it is late after all.” Big Mac suggested while looking around at the others for their input. Neon Streak and Applejack nodded in agreement as they felt their own varying levels of drowsiness kick in. “Hey Neon… why don’t you go sleep in Granny’s room for now? She won’t be back for a while anyway, and there is no point in you sleeping on the couch with a perfectly good bed available.” Applejack suggested with a helpful smile. “Really…? Thanks.” Neon Streak replied with a grateful tone. She wasn’t going to complain about whatever lodgings she would get, but it would be nice to sleep in an actual bed rather than a couch. “Sure thing, just head straight past Applebloom’s room and it’s on the right. The bathroom is the first door on the left, and if you want a midnight snack, go ahead and help yourself to whatever is in the fridge.” The orange mare added while heading towards the stairs to her room with her sister in tow. She figured it would be a good idea if she made sure that Applebloom at least got into her bed before passing out again. “Night girls…” Big Mac stated with a yawn while heading upstairs himself. It was an odd occurrence seeing the red stallion act so tired. He usually went to bed long before he was so tired as to express it outwardly. “Goodnight everyone.” Neon Streak said as she observed the apple family going upstairs to their respective rooms. The green mare was heart warmed by how close and well knit together their bonds with each other were. She also felt good knowing that she was playing a part in keeping them safe and comfortable in their own home. Even if nothing bad happened during her stay, having her around would doubtlessly put to rest some of their concerns about the hooded ponies. And if something did happen, she would fight for all she was worth to protect the three ponies. Realizing that she would need to know where Applebloom’s bedroom was so she could find her own room, Neon quickly snapped out of her admiration and walked up the stairs after the family. She saw Applebloom lazily opening her door and heading inside while her two siblings walked further down the hall to their own rooms. As she walked down the hall, the green mare looked around at the various pictures adorning the wall. The cheerful memories contained in the snapshots, combined with the quaint decorations and already homey atmosphere made this the perfect place to live and get comfortable in. Compared to her room at the academy, this was a large improvement to comfort and warmth. Stopping at the next door up and gripping the handle, Neon Streak was unsure of what to expect. Her own grandmother was a bit tame as far as elderly folk went, but there was no telling how eccentric Applejack’s grandmother would be, or what her taste in room décor would be. As she opened the door and stepped inside, the green mare was pleasantly surprised. The room didn’t look much different from any other room she would expect to be in the farm house. A warm colored carpet, a stylish wallpaper, and a warm and inviting looking bed with a fluffy cover over it. “Hmm… not bad... I wouldn’t mind living in a place like this myself.” She stated to herself as she stepped inside and shut off the light she had used to examine the room. Despite her knowledge that dark places were generally bad, the green mare felt oddly comfortable strolling up to the bed in pitch blackness. It was like she had become a temporary part of the apple family, and she felt just as welcomed and cared for as any other person they invited into their home. Neon sat down on the bed to test its firmness. The mattress creaked as the green pony settled her weight onto it. The bed had a few worn spots in the padding from age, but it was still soft and comfortable. “Man… what a day.” Neon shrugged to herself as she reached down onto her vest. She undid the clips holding it in place and slid the entire thing off by slipping her arms out of it. Once the black vest hit the bed, the many vials attached to it sounded out a soft click as they bumped into each other. The green mare grabbed the vest and carefully placed it on the floor next to the bed. “Feels good to get that thing off for a while.” She stated while rubbing a spot on her back previously concealed by the vest. Although it wasn’t very heavy due to the nature of their gear, the scratchy material the sleek item was made of did tend to itch occasionally. With her gear off, the green mare could fully enjoy the cool feeling of her body hitting the sheets as she laid down and pulled the covers closer to her. “Hopefully I won’t be too sore in the morning… as long as I get some sleep I should be able to mitigate any aches and pains from earlier.” Neon muttered to herself as she got comfortable. She had been fighting for much of the day, so she would doubtlessly have a few stiff muscles in the morning. But none of that really mattered to her. All that mattered was getting a good night’s sleep. Meanwhile, as most ponies were trying to enjoy a quiet and peaceful environment to sleep in, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot were suffering through the ear-shatteringly loud sound of an air mattress motor as it inflated. Although it wasn’t as deafening as it felt like, it was still ear grating for the orange mare to sit at the bottom of the mattress to test its firmness while it filled. Sunspot would poke the slowly inflating mattress to see if it would hold her weight comfortably. Once it reached a suitable level, she quickly, and with great relief, shut off the howling motor. “Thank Celestia for that… you would think that pumping air wouldn’t make so… much… noise.” Rainbow Dash shrugged as she dealt with the now foreign silence in the room. The sound of her own voice was strangely loud now that everything else had quieted down. “Yeah… well you would think a lot of things wouldn’t be the way they are.” The suited mare replied with a chuckle as she slowly climbed onto the bed. Something about the bare feel of an air mattress was strangely appealing, so the orange pegasus took the opportunity to lay down on it while it didn’t have any sheets. Rainbow Dash giggled as she watched the lounging mare from her own bed. She almost looked like she was going to fall asleep just as she was, no pillows or sheets or anything. Although it would have been nice not to make her house guest’s bed, the cyan pony figured that she would be kinder than lazy. “Hey, you want me to get you some sheets, or are you good like that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a jesting manner while hopping off of her bed to go find some sheets. Sunspot shrugged as she was forced to move from her comfortable position. “Yes please… besides, I think it’s time for me to check my bandages, so I should probably get up anyway.” The orange pony said while slowly sitting up and climbing off the bouncy mattress. “The bathroom is right there… you need some help?” Rainbow Dash asked courteously while pointing off to an open door. Her bedroom was rather big, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that she would have a bathroom inside for convenience. “Nah… I got things handled thanks.” Sunspot replied while walking off to the bathroom. She quickly found the medicine cabinet and rummaged through it until she found some peroxide. She then reached into a pocket on her suit and pulled out some bandages. Rainbow Dash watched curiously as Sunspot undid the zipper to her modified suit. Although it was clearly different from a Wonderbolts’ uniform, the suit and all of the gear hanging off of it still intrigued the cyan mare. “So, you were really a Wonderbolt? Like… the main team and everything?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while examining the suit’s color scheme and comparing it in her head to what a normal outfit looked like. “Yep… the whole nine yards.” Sunspot replied while turning to look at the eager mare. She could tell that Rainbow Dash had a thing for the Wonderbolts, although it didn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out. “So you knew Spitfire and the others? What were they like to work with…? I mean… I have met them a few times, but you were part of their inner circle!” The cyan pegasus grew more excited as she thought more about the fact that she had an official Wonderbolt staying at her house. Sunspot trailed her eyes off in thought as she recalled her previous teammates. Although she had left the team, she didn’t hate them by any means. “Well… If you have met Spitfire, you must know that she can be a little… rough around the edges so to speak.” The orange mare stated while gesturing with her hoof. Rainbow Dash chuckled as she thought about how strict and bossy the lead Wonderbolt was to her during her brief time at the academy. “Yeah… she wasn’t exactly easy going.” Rainbow Dash replied in agreement to the statement while nodding and smiling. “Eh… she just has a thing for doing things right. Once you get past the tough as nails bit… she just wants to improve her own skills and the skills of those that she teaches so they can help people. We didn’t really butt heads too often.” Sunspot added to her explanation with a smirk. As tough as Spitfire was on her, she respected her desire to assist others in her own way. “Wow… you two didn’t argue much? I would have figured she would be all over you… you don’t exactly embody the poster child for rules.” Rainbow Dash commented in a flattering sort of way. She considered herself to be a free spirit, and it was easy to see that the suited mare also fit into that category. “Heh… I guess that is a bit strange.” Sunspot chuckled while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. “I tried to keep in line wherever possible so Spitfire didn’t have to get on my case. We both just wanted to help people out… I know the Wonderbolts are pretty much glorified stunt flyers, but they do get a lot of action when things go south.” She explained with a smile as she thought back to her days on the team. “Soarin was a real sweetheart to work with. When I first met him, I thought he had a thing for me… but as it turns out he is just a little quirky. Fleetfoot was practically my best friend ever… I swear she almost made me stay on the team.” Sunspot was gushing slightly over her nostalgia, but Rainbow Dash didn’t mind. “Why didn’t you? From the sound of it, nothing was bad enough to leave over.” The cyan pegasus asked with a confused expression. She had been dreaming of joining the Wonderbolts since she was a filly, so she had no idea why anyone would want to leave the team. “I didn’t leave because of them… I just felt like I could do more good to ponies elsewhere, so I left. They were really respectful of my wishes… threw me a little going away party, gave me the best of luck… I mean hay, they even let me keep my suit.” Sunspot stated with a cheerful laugh while pointing out her suit. “I could only imagine how they would react if they knew that you were fighting monsters now.” Rainbow Dash smiled at the notion of the orange mare having a get together with her former teammates and telling them what she made of herself. “Hahahah... I don’t know, but I will be sure to rub it in their faces when I see them again.” Sunspot shared a warm laugh with the cyan pegasus over her suggestion. As the orange mare continued removing her suit, she stopped laughing abruptly when a sharp pain shot through her side and wing. Apparently she had carelessly allowed the suit to brush against her wing as she was slowly lifting it free. “Owwwchie!” Sunspot exclaimed in pain as she looked down to her now free appendage. The wing still appeared to be attached, so things were at least looking up for the wounded pegasus. “I will give you this… this suit, for all it’s worth, it does not leave much wiggle room for your wings when taking it off. Although I suppose I probably should have followed their advice and kept it off after they bandaged me.” Sunspot winced slightly while finally removing the suit completely from her body. She let the discarded suit fall to the floor and lie mostly flat, save for all the vials and other pieces of gear clipped to it. “Hey, I don’t blame you. If I had one of those suits I would probably never take it off.” Rainbow Dash stated to make the careless mare feel better about her reckless action. “Still, that looks pretty painful… are you sure you’re alright?” She asked with a concerned and sympathetic frown as she watched the orange mare gently unwrap her injury. Once the wing was fully unwrapped, the cyan mare could see the full extent of her injury. Before now, Rainbow Dash hadn’t seen much of the wound due to Sunspot being whisked away by the medical ponies. But now that her suit was off, she could see the full extent of the orange pony’s wounds. The wing had three claw marks that started on the wing’s base and went down her side. The wound had mostly dried up, but the red stained bandages were enough of a sign to tell how much it was bleeding beforehand. “That flying pile of bones clipped me pretty bad… but like I said earlier, it looks worse than it is.” Sunspot explained while applying peroxide to a cloth and dabbing it on the wing. She had to clench her teeth to prevent a painful outburst from the stinging sensation. “Really…? Because it looks pretty bad.” Rainbow Dash said with a sorrowful expression. Being a pegasus, she could imagine how such an injury would feel in relation to her own body. “Don’t sweat it… that bonehead would have done a lot worse to me if you hadn’t stepped in when you did… How bad are your burns now?” The orange mare asked curiously while examining Rainbow Dash’s fur. Although there weren’t many obvious indicators of the burns left on her body, they could still be causing her considerable pain. Rainbow Dash poked a section of her body that was burned earlier. The slight stinging sensation she got told her that the burn was still there, but it was mostly healed up. All in all, the pair had went head to head with an undead dragon and got away mostly intact. “Well… it still stings a little bit when I touch it… and I’m probably going to smell like sulfur for a week… but other than that I’m doing alright.” Rainbow Dash announced her findings with a cheerful smirk. “That was some grade-a flying you did to save my tail Rainbow Dash. I could definitely see you as a Wonderbolt.” Sunspot stated with a confident smile. Rainbow Dash was elated to hear that an ex Wonderbolt thought she was good enough to be on the team. “Really?” The cyan mare asked to be certain of her opinion. Sunspot nodded confidently, causing Rainbow Dash to giggle in excitement and flattery. “Hehehe… thanks.” Rainbow Dash stated while trying to contain the stupid grin on her face. Sunspot didn’t seem to mind the gushing pegasus as she tried in vain to keep her emotions in check. As Sunspot continued to clean and bandage her wound, Rainbow Dash left to finally grab her guest some sheets and pillows. She found a bottom sheet and carefully placed it over the air mattress, struggling briefly with the frustrating elastic straps on the sheet. She then placed down some pillows and laid out another sheet and comforter on the bed. While she was putting the finishing touches on her guest’s bed, the cyan mare glanced up and noticed something that made her pause to examine it further. It never occurred to her that she had never seen Sunspot out of her uniform before, so she never had the opportunity to see her cutie mark before. The mark wasn’t anything out of the ordinary as far as cutie marks went. It was a fiery comet leaving a long tail behind it. The color of the mark matched the mare’s own fur and hair color, having different shades of orange and yellow throughout. “So that’s what your cutie mark is… I was wondering what it looked like for a while.” Rainbow Dash stated in a complimentary tone. Sunspot paused and turned to the cyan mare before looking down at her cutie mark and smiling in flattery. “Oh, uh… thanks. My parents think it represents my personality… they said that trying to get me under control was like trying to chain yourself to a comet.” The orange mare stated bashfully. Rainbow Dash chuckled at the statement as she thought about her own cutie mark and what it represented. “Heh… I guess we both have cutie marks that suit our sense of adventure. You know, we would make a good team if we tried to take down those hooded ponies together.” Rainbow Dash stated cheerfully before becoming slightly disheartened as she thought about the situation more. She sighed in disappointment as she decided to let bygones be bygones. “Ok… but if we’re a team, I am so totally team captain… you can be my sidekick.” Sunspot stated jokingly while smirking at the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash leered at the orange mare playfully in response. “Hey! If anyone is the sidekick here it’s you… Next time a skeleton dragon tries to make you its crispy snack, you try and pull that team captain thing on it… I’m sure it will get so scared it will just leave you alone.” Rainbow Dash replied sarcastically with a smirk. “Owch… low blow.” Sunspot chuckled at the feisty response from the cyan pony. Before she could think of anything further to add, the orange mare had already finished her bandages. “There we go… almost good as new.” Sunspot stated happily while getting up and discarding her trash in a nearby bin. The freshly bandaged pegasus then walked out of the bathroom and observed her bed with a welcoming smile. “Thanks for making the bed for me… If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to turn in for the night.” Sunspot said while climbing onto the wobbly mattress and sliding under the covers. “Sure thing, I was thinking of going to sleep myself… long day of skeleton fighting and all.” Rainbow Dash replied while walking across the room to turn off the lights. Once the room was sufficiently darkened, the cyan pony walked back to her bed, nearly tripping on the air mattress in the process. “Well… goodnight Rainbow Dash.” Sunspot said while watching the cyan mare climb into bed. Rainbow Dash turned to face the orange mare in the dark and smiled. “Goodnight.” The cyan mare replied while climbing underneath her own covers and getting comfortable. Sunspot turned over and nestled her head into her pillows while stretching her legs. It didn’t take long for both pegasus’s to drift off to sleep in the peaceful quiet of the darkened room. Thoughts of what they would be doing in the morning fluttering through their heads as they slowly lost focus of their surroundings. All across Ponyville, everyone was either sleeping or preparing to sleep. The streets were quiet and peaceful amid the comforting glow of the moon and stars in the sky. The only noise was the quiet whistling of wind and the distant sound of crickets chirping in the night. Every pony was settled in their homes for the night; every pony, except for one. Cotton Quill was walking down the empty cobbled streets of Ponyville, wearing the grey hoodie that most other members of his group used to conceal their identity. The unicorn was carrying a book and several pouches of unknown contents beside him with his magic, along with some candles of various sizes and colors. He was walking quickly, using the shadows of the night as cover for himself. He knew that he must have been a wanted pony around town, especially after the bold stunt that Raven Feather pulled earlier in the morning. Despite the possible dangers, Cotton had a mission that needed to be completed. Once I kill the elements of harmony, Raven Feather will have to give me my old job back. He thought to himself with a sinister grin on his face. He was incredibly thankful that Grimwood believed in him enough to give him such a grand opportunity. As the fenced in area of Sweet Apple Acres came into view, Cotton was relieved that his plan was that much closer to coming to fruition. He walked up to the fence and scanned the area for somewhere suitable for his needs. “Grim said I need to be close to one of their homes… I hope I can stay outside the fence and still be close enough.” The unicorn stated to himself curiously. He wondered why the pale colt had instructed him to get close to one of the elements homes, but he must have known more about the spell than Cotton did. The spell was fairly complex magic after all. Cotton ran along the fence into the open area outside the farmland. The apple family had such a large piece of land under their control that even they didn’t use all of it. The cutie mark crusaders own clubhouse was a fair distance away from the main section of the farm. “Here… this should do.” Cotton stated as he came to a section that was hidden by the sprawling apple trees that sat on the other side of the fence. Surely nobody would be able to find the pictogram he drew there. Without delay, Cotton got to work laying out the necessary items for the spell. He drew up the pictogram and added the section that gathered fear for the group to use. He figured that any fear the monster gathered would only be a bonus to what he was going to accomplish. After a solid five minutes of drawing and hard work, the pictogram was done. Cotton poured the powdery contents of each of the pouches he had out around the symbol. As he finished the circle of powder, the unicorn placed the photo of Twilight and her friends down on it. He then went around the symbol and placed candles at various points, lighting them as he went. He had never performed a spell with such complex rituals to it. Most spells Raven Feather gave to him were relatively simple for convenience. Still, he followed the necessary steps that the instructions called for with diligence. Once he was done pouring out the pouches and making other preparations, the white stallion walked to the center of the pictogram and picked up the book. He read the bookmarked section and his notes intently as he familiarized himself with the final steps of the spell. “I always hated the ones that use incantations… all of these old languages are so primitive and bizarre that I can barely recite them properly.” He muttered to himself while scanning over the spell’s incantation. It was in a language that he barely understood, but all of the words and phonetic pronunciations were in front of him, so he would have little difficulties with performing the spell. Cotton cleared his throat and sat down as he read over the incantation in his mind. After mouthing a few of the more obscure sounding words, he felt comfortable enough to try out the full spell out loud. “O rex magni nubium, oro te ut de caelo descendere in terram, et consumere perdere illud apud ira tuum.” The unicorn spoke in a clear and confident manner, putting emphasis on the pronunciation of each word. As he continued, the wind picked up slightly before growing in magnitude. The flame on each of the candles swayed in the violent breeze, seemingly on the verge of being snuffed out. Cotton’s hair blew back all at once, being forcibly pushed by the sheer power of the wind. The white pony could hardly even hear himself over the sound of the squall, it was frightening him a little bit, but he had to remain calm while performing the spell. The pages of the book he was holding were blowing around violently, causing the unicorn to hold onto them tightly to keep his place in the book. It was a wonder that the powder on the ground didn’t blow away, but perhaps that was part of the spell. “Tenebrescere caelum apud tuum forma, obstrepant autem vulgus apud tuum vox, et occidere omnes quisnam impugnare vos.” As he finished the incantation, Cotton was free to look around at his noisy and windy surroundings. A quick glance upwards revealed the possible source of the sudden tempest. A circle of pitch black storm clouds was looming overhead. The ominous display combined with the ferocious wind instilled a sense of horror and spine chilling fear in the unicorn. He wondered what sort of power he had just called on. A sudden flash of blinding light filled the sky as the deafening crackle of lightning smothered all other sounds. Cotton let out a shriek of terror as he shielded his face with his arms. The unicorn thought that the lightning must have struck the ground somewhere close by, and judging from the deafening noise and blinding light, he figured that he was correct. As Cotton slowly unshielded his face, he noticed that the candles around him had been extinguished. He also noticed the surprising presence of a fiery orange light. After turning his attention forward to investigate, the unicorn realized that the circle of powder was on fire. Seemingly right where the lightning had struck, the powder outside the chalk outline of the pictogram was ablaze. The crackling fire was swiftly spreading around the circle from both sides. Cotton followed the fire as it circled behind him to reach the rest of the powder. Once the fire reached the photograph in the middle of the line of powder, the photo burst into a spectacular display of flames. As the photo slowly burned up and the faces of the purple unicorn and her friends disappeared into charred blackness, Cotton couldn’t help but ponder at the frighteningly curious spell. Suddenly, Cotton heard a noise from far above. It almost blended into the roaring wind, but the unicorn could swear that he heard a low groan coming from the blackened sky. The otherworldly noises made chills go up and down the unicorn’s spine. “I guess that must be the monster… I better get out of here before things get messy.” He stated to himself while urgently gathering the equipment he would take with him. As he stuffed all of his notes into the book and shut it tight, the unicorn walked towards the edge of the pictogram to leave. *Thunk* “Ow!” Cotton recoiled in pain as his head hit something solid. As he rubbed the tender spot on his cranium, the white pony stared ahead in confusion and dismay. “What the…?” He muttered with a perplexed expression as he wondered what had impeded his exit. Cotton got back up and walked forward again, only this time more slowly. The unicorn reached out a hoof, only to be met by a solid wall. As he looked down, he realized that the section of the pictogram directly below where he was contacting the air was glowing bright white. “What the hay?!” As he realized his predicament, Cotton frantically pushed and shoved on the invisible force keeping him prisoner. With no progress being made on the force field, the unicorn proceeded to pound and smack on the invisible wall. “Grr! Let… me… ou- OW!” Cotton recoiled in pain once more as he injured his wrist from banging so hard on a solid object. As he rubbed the stinging sensation out of his sore wrist, the unicorn realized that he wasn’t going anywhere. Not being one to give up, Cotton lit up his horn to try and find a solution with magic. After failing to interact with the barrier in any meaningful way, the unicorn tried to think of a spell he could use to escape. Cotton concentrated for a moment and fired a blast of energy out of his horn. The ray of light zipped into the invisible barrier, and bounced straight off. The beam of energy made a loud and alarming noise as it bounced around the white pony rapidly. The white stallion jumped around to dodge the wayward bolt of energy as it zipped around his invisible cage before finally fizzling out. “Well, that didn’t work… time for a simpler approach.” Cotton stated in determination while preparing himself for a teleportation spell. The unicorn pictured himself outside of the pictogram and concentrated. Soon enough, he blinked out of existence before rapidly blinking back into existence, by slamming into the barrier wall. “Ow! Crap!” Cotton cursed loudly as his entire muzzle throbbed from his sudden impact. He was sent backwards, only to be caught by the harsh ground. As he clutched his aching nose, the unicorn looked around him and slowly came to a frightening conclusion. He was completely and utterly trapped. He couldn’t escape, he couldn’t call for help, and the only person that even knew he was out here was probably asleep. Cotton was screwed, plain and simple. “Oh no… oh no… ohhhh… No.” Cotton’s eyes widened as he looked around him at the progressively worsening weather. The crackle of lightning from before had since returned in a more frequent form in the sky, the wind was loud and frightful as ever, and there was an unseen monster somewhere around the area. The more he thought about his situation, the more his heart started to pound. “Ok… this time I screwed up.” Cotton spoke to himself, trying to find a way to accept his own failure. He was just going to have to wait around and hope that the spell would end when the monster finished its job. He only hoped that his invisible prison would keep him safe from the creature he summoned.
Chapter 56: Storm FrontThe sudden booming sound of distant thunder awoke Neon Streak from her slumber. As the green mare sat up in bed, she could see light fading from the window, indicating some far off crackle of lightning. A constant clamoring sound of rainfall was showering down onto the roof and window, creating a sea of noise. The rain sounded a little too severe to warrant a comfortable ambient noise, it was more like a torrential downpour was happening outside. Still, the presence of thunder and lightning along with a sudden rainstorm confused and puzzled the earth pony. “What the hay…? It was clear when I went to sleep.” Neon Streak stated in a groggy tone while glancing at the window. She could barely see the droplets of water covering the glass amid the darkness of the room. Another flash of lightning appeared in the window, serving as a precursor to the booming thunder that soon approached. The storm seemed to be developed well enough to warrant a lot of work from pegasi, so Neon wondered why it was here. The curious mare got up from her bed and walked over to the window to look outside. As more flashes of lightning illuminated the landscape, she could see that trees and other objects were blowing around with a ferocious amount of wind. Now that she was closer to the window, the green pony could even hear the whistling wind as it pushed on the frame of the house. “Hmm… something doesn’t seem right about this.” Neon Streak muttered in a suspicious tone while eyeing over to the bed where her vest sat. She wondered if her evil detector would give an insight to the origin of the storm. Suddenly, and without warning, a deafening wave of thunder sounded out as a bolt of lightning appeared closer to the house. Judging from how instant the flash of light and the sound of thunder was, the green mare gathered that it was extremely close by. The entire house practically shook from the intensity of the wave of thunder. Neon Streak felt her heart jump in her chest as the rest of her body tensed up from severe shock. Even after the bolt died down, she could still feel a discomforting and tense sensation in her body. Before she could formulate any other thoughts on the matter, and before she could even recover from the jolt of the thunder, the green mare heard a barely audible shriek of fright coming from the next room over. “Applebloom?” She stated in a mildly concerned tone. Although she was certain that the young filly had been frightened by the thunder, Neon decided that she would go and check on her. Besides, she could use some comfort herself from the sudden jolt to her system. The green mare left her room and exited into the hall. As she took a quick look around the darkened house, she deduced that Applejack and her brother were most likely still trying to sleep. Deciding to not keep the terrified filly waiting any longer, Neon walked down the hall to the next room beside hers and opened the door quietly. She was greeted with the sight of a yellow filly sitting up in her bed while nervously looking around with wide eyes. She looked like she had just been awakened from a horrible nightmare, or at least jolted from her sleep by the loud display of thunder and lightning. “Are you ok, Applebloom?” Neon Streak asked while slowly walking further into the room. Once she realized who was speaking, Applebloom calmed down slightly. “Neon… sorry, did Ah wake you up?” The filly asked with a sad tone. “No, you didn’t. This storm probably woke both of us up.” The green mare explained while walking up to the bed. Applebloom was relieved that she didn’t disturb anyone from their sleep. “Why is it raining this hard? Ah don’t think that we’re supposed to even get storms this severe…” The filly stated with a nervous tone while glancing out the window. “I don’t know… I just woke up to the sound of thunder… and then that loud one happened and scared both of us.” Neon Streak explained with a slight chuckle. The yellow filly seemed to be surprised by the fact that she wasn’t the only one scared. “You got scared by it too?” Applebloom asked timidly, still unsure if her frightened outburst was necessary considering the circumstances. The young filly made it a point to try and get braver after everything that had happened recently. “Oh yeah… I didn’t really scream, but I’m pretty sure that’s only because I jumped out of my skin before I could.” Neon said in a reassuring way. She could tell that the filly was a little ashamed by the fact that she was frightened so easily. “Ah woke up to it… so it was really startling to me. Ah never liked thunder in the first place, even when it was scheduled to happen.” Applebloom stated uneasily while looking out the window at the raging tempest outside. Neon Streak shared in the filly’s unease. She wasn’t too big of a fan of storms either, and this storm seemed to be supernaturally created, making it even worse in her books. “I’m going to go back to my room to get my gear. You just sit tight and try to get back to sleep.” The green mare said in a reassuring tone while moving back towards the door. “Wait…!” Applebloom squeaked nervously as she watched the green pony leave. She didn’t want to be left alone in her dark room while a strange storm was raging outside. Neon Streak paused and turned around. The filly tried to think of a reason to make her stay, but her mind drew a blank. “Uh… umm… could you stay here with me… for a little while at least?” Applebloom asked while trying to appear calmer than she felt. She didn’t want to outright say that she was frightened, but she also didn’t want to be left alone. Neon Streak smiled understandingly and walked back up to the filly’s bed. She knew that she must have felt terrified about being in a dark place with such a violent storm being just outside, but she also knew that she had to investigate the cause of the strange storm herself. “Don’t worry… I will be right back. I can find out everything I need to know from in here, after that I can stay for a while until you go back to sleep.” The green mare suggested in a friendly tone. The filly smiled in relief that she wouldn’t have to be alone. “Ok.” Applebloom replied in acceptance of the green pony’s idea. Neon Streak smiled and nodded in response while walking away. Before she made it out of the room however, an odd noise made the green mare stop in her tracks. A bizarre and unnerving howling sound was making itself known from outside of the window on the far side of the room. It almost sounded like the wind, but it could be heard alongside the wind, distinguishing the two from each other. As the sound got slightly louder, Applebloom froze in place and stared at the window with eyes wide with fear. The nervous filly eyed between the window and Neon Streak, trying to communicate her fear through her expression. “W-what is that?” Applebloom stammered quietly, for fear that whatever was making the noise might hear her. Neon Streak cautiously walked forward while motioning for the filly to remain still. As she got close enough to the bed to whisper, the green mare tried to remain as calm as possible in the face of the unknown. “I don’t know… stay where you are.” Neon whispered in a serious tone while slowly walking forward. Applebloom watched the green pony anxiously as she approached the window and looked outside. Neon cautiously peered out of the window while keeping most of her body concealed. If there was a monster outside, she didn’t want it to see her. As a few flashes of lightning illuminated the blackness outside, the green mare didn’t see anything but the wind-blown trees and the torrential downpour of rain. The longer she listened to the eerie noise, the less sure she was that it was anything more than the wind. Perhaps Neon’s imagination had gotten the best of her. It wasn’t too far a stretch of the imagination to fathom that an odd sounding gust of wind could unnerve a strung out filly and an overly suspicious monster hunter. “Do you see anything?” Applebloom asked nervously while watching the green mare. She couldn’t bear the nerve racking silence that was covering the room, especially not with the pounding rain and eerie noise mixing in with the wind and thunder. “No… I don’t… maybe it was the wind?” Neon looked back to the nervous filly and tried to ease her nerves. Applebloom looked back at her with a nervously doubtful and uncertain expression, which the green mare understood perfectly as even she didn’t believe the wishful statement. Before the pair could think about the strange noise any further, they were interrupted by the sound of the bedroom door opening slowly. They turned their heads to see Applejack walking into the room with a curious expression on her face. “Applejack…? What are you doing up?” Neon Streak asked while stepping away from the window. “Ah woke up when Ah heard a lot of thunder… then Ah heard a lot of weird noises coming from outside.” Applejack explained with an uneasy tone of voice. Neon Streak and Applebloom shared a concerned glance with each other at the farm pony’s explanation. There was no way that more than two people would hear the same bizarre noise outside by coincidence. “Weird noises?” Neon asked while glancing back at the window. “Did they sound like this?” She pointed to the window and remained quiet for a moment so the orange mare could hear the odd and disturbing sound. Applejack listened for a moment before concluding that the odd howling coming from outside was the same as the noise she had heard. “Yeah… what is that?” The orange mare asked with a troubled expression. The sound was too eerie and too far distinguished from the wind to be a part of it. And to top off the rising tensions in the room, the noise seemed to be getting louder. Before long, the noise sounded like a raspy growl. Like the wind itself was actually wailing angrily at the ponies. The increased frequency and intensity of the frightful noises almost gave the impression that something was getting closer to the house. As the three ponies anxiously watched the window while the rain pounded into it, they suddenly noticed a dark shape flying around outside of the window. Before anyone could even react, the sound of glass shattering rang out as something crashed through the window. Lightning violently flashed outside, bathing the frightening creature in light, and giving the terrified ponies a snapshot of its appearance. It looked like a floating mass of black swirling clouds had formed into a terrifying monster. The beast didn’t have legs, instead having just a floating torso that tapered off at the end with its head and arms poking out at the top and sides. Its limbs and head were uncovered, but it appeared to have tattered black clothing on that somewhat looked like it was made from the same smoke that was pouring from its body. The monster had a black void that served as a mouth, with several rows of sharp teeth. The teeth appeared to be narrow, like jagged thorns that overlapped the monster’s mouth. The creature had milky white eyes and dirty yellow skin, giving it a more sinister and monstrous appearance. It also had two long and reaching arms, topped with gnarled hands with long and sharp claws. “AHHHH!” Applebloom screamed in terror at the sight of the monster floating in place. As the filly cried out in terror, the monster opened its mouth and let out a deep roar that filled the room and shook the three ponies to their core. Applebloom leapt off of her bed and recoiled backwards as fast as she could to get away from the horrid creature. The monster hovered further into the room while staring at the three ponies menacingly. Neon Streak rushed forward and grabbed the yellow filly to hasten her escape. With the terrified filly in her arms, the green mare turned around and ran as fast as she could towards the door. Meanwhile, Applejack was frantically waiting for the two to get out of the room with her. Once the two were past the door, the orange mare slammed it shut and held onto the handle tightly. A loud bang sounded out as the monster slammed into the door to try and force it open. Applejack and Neon Streak held the door closed while the specter tried to get out of the room. The ponies could hear the horrific sound of the monster growling while clawing at the door violently to escape. “What the hay is going on?!” The group heard Big Mac as he frantically ran up to them, curious as to what was happening. One look at the situation in front of him told the stallion that something alarming was taking place. Neon Streak tried to calm herself down long enough to think rationally. Her mind was racing with what actions she had to take to combat the monster in the other room. Her thoughts suddenly turned to her vest full of gear in the other room. “Hold the door!” The green mare announced while getting up and running down the hall to the other room. Big Mac was unsure of what was going on, but he immediately rushed next to his sister to hold the door closed against the constant assaults against it. Neon Streak quickly ran to her room and threw open the door. She spotted her vest in the same position that it was in when she left it. Not wanting to waste any time, the green pony rushed over and grabbed her vest to put it on. She hadn’t moved so fast since her drills back at the academy, even with her relatively new gear. Neon buckled the clips on her vest while simultaneously running back out of the room. Needless to say, the evil detector was abuzz with blue light and magical hums. Neon Streak paid no attention to this as she reached for her strobe and readied it. By the time she reached the three standing around the door, the green mare was ready for a battle. Applejack and her brother were nervously holding their weight against the door while listening to the wailing monster inside. Meanwhile, Applebloom was backed away as far as she could get from the door while fearfully hoping for the monster to go away. “What is that thing?!” Applejack asked frantically while observing the suited mare. All sense of authority in the situation had since left the farm pony, and although she wasn’t sure if the green mare knew anything more than she did, she had to at least try to learn more about their crisis to rationalize it. “I don’t know! And I don’t think I want to go ask it!” Neon replied anxiously while keeping her weapon drawn in the event that the two ponies couldn’t hold the door. Suddenly the group heard windows shattering downstairs, along with the loud roaring of wind and the buzzing of electricity. As they averted their attention downstairs, the ponies saw two more of the black shapes moving towards them, only these were slightly different. The two monsters currently chasing them had sparks flying off of them, as well as a seemingly fluid aura of electrical arcs around their bodies. The light cast by the brilliantly terrifying display only made the already horrific features of the creatures all the more frightening. “AHHH!” Applebloom and her two siblings screamed at the top of their lungs as they watched the two specters fly towards them with their teeth and claws at the ready. They were already picturing how much it would hurt to touch the electrified creatures. Neon Streak bravely stepped in front of the family and opened fire with her strobe. Although her aim was a little lackluster due to her shot nerves, the green pony managed to land several hits on the advancing monsters. The creatures screamed out as each bolt hit them, but it sounded more like angry outbursts rather than cries of pain as they were slowly but surely repelled by the attacks. The monsters gnashed their teeth and swiped at the air with their claws as they tried in vain to move forward through the barrage of light blasts. “It isn’t hurting them?!” Applebloom asked in a shocked panic as she observed the difficulty the green mare was having in driving off the monsters. Neon Streak looked behind her at the nervous family while also firing her strobe as fast as possible. She could see that they were counting on her to defend them, but that they were also as scared and anxious as she was, they were just expressing it more on the outside. The green mare had to keep her fear internalized, if the family knew she was panicking like them, they might be overcome by fear and make irrational decisions. “We need help! Is there a room without windows anywhere in the house?!” Neon asked frantically. She knew that this was above her skillset to deal with. She needed the assistance of either her team or her human friend, but in order to call for help, she needed to get the three farm ponies and herself to safety. “Umm… uh…” Applejack’s mind raced as she tried to think of a room without windows. It was astonishing how one could forget their own home’s layout in a stressful situation. “What about the bathroom?!” Applebloom chimed in from the back of the group eagerly. Although the room was relatively small, it did have a prominent lack of windows, and it even had a lock on the door. “That’s a great idea Applebloom!” Applejack stated in an excited manner while congratulating her sister for her quick thinking. Applebloom was happy to be able to help in such a dangerous situation. Now that the group had decided on their escape plan, they immediately looked over to where the bathroom actually was and froze with dreadful expressions on their faces. The door to their salvation was right next to the staircase, where two angry monsters were trying to get at them from. “What are we going to do? Those things will rip us to pieces if we get too close.” Big Mac shared his thoughts with the rest of the group, although the grim reminder to them was unnecessary to understand the severity of their crisis. Neon Streak frantically tried thinking of a possible solution to their problem. If she failed to think of something, they would be essentially screwed. Her arms would get tired eventually, the door to Applebloom’s bedroom might break eventually, and more of the monsters might decide to break into the house eventually. “Ok… I have a plan, but you guys are going to have to listen to me and do exactly as I say. Everyone with me?” The green mare asked while looking around at the three ponies. She would need all of them to cooperate if they were going to survive. Applejack looked between her two siblings for a moment to see how they were faring. Big Mac seemed to be holding up well, but the orange mare could tell he was just as terrified as she was. One look at the yellow filly was enough to tell that she was scared out of her wits. Applejack hated seeing her sister in situations like these. “We’ll help in any way we can Neon… what do you have in mind?” Applejack asked in a serious tone while somehow mustering up some confidence. Neon Streak was pleased to hear that the orange mare would help her. “We’re going to make a break for the bathroom. When we do, this guy in here is probably going to be right on our tails, so we need to be quick.” The green pony explained as calm and clearly as she could manage. “How are we going to get over there? Those two aren’t moving very far.” Applejack asked with an anxious expression while looking over to the two monsters at the end of the hall. Even with Neon firing her strobe as fast as she could, the two creatures were just barely kept at bay. “That’s where you come in.” Neon Streak replied while carefully moving closer to the orange mare. “Reach into the pocket on my front left. There should be another strobe in there.” She instructed while keeping her attention on the two monsters. Catching on to what the green mare had in mind, Applejack nodded and carefully reached into her vest while also keeping her back to the door. It took a brief moment to move her arm without moving the rest of her body, but the orange mare finally managed to reach the pocket in question. After undoing the button on the pocket’s clasp, she reached inside and felt around until her hoof came across a small vial shaped object. “Got it.” Applejack announced while pulling the vial out and checking it to ensure that it was a strobe. Sure enough, the vial was filled with a blue liquid, and it had a small button on one of the caps. “Ok good… now try firing at those two. I want to make sure we can push them back before we charge headlong at them.” Neon Streak explained while looking ahead. Applejack would have commended the green pony for her rational thinking in the face of danger, but she decided to instead obey her instructions. Taking aim at the pair of monsters, the farm pony rapidly pressed the trigger on the vial. Several bursts of energy flew out of the tip of the bottle, joining with the blasts fired by the green mare as they traveled towards the two monsters. With the force of two strobes being fired at them constantly, the two creatures were pushed back at a faster rate than before, once the beasts were at such a distance that they started going down the stairs to find cover from the constant onslaught, the ponies smiled triumphantly at their small victory. “Alright! Now we’re in business.” Neon Streak cheered while turning around to face the frightened filly. “Applebloom, you still with us? Are you going to be able to run with us?” She asked in a softer tone while addressing the nervous young pony. Neon wanted to make sure that everyone was capable of running to the bathroom before they started. She wanted to ensure that nothing could go wrong with her plan. Applebloom looked at the green mare with a fearful expression. She nodded slowly as she mustered up the willpower needed to get moving again. The last thing she wanted was to be left behind while the others escaped. “Yes… Ah can do it.” Applebloom said with a slight tremble in her voice while putting on a confident expression. Neon Streak smiled as she watched the filly trying to be brave. “Ok good, now let’s get ready. On the count of three, we’re going to run for the bathroom. Big Mac, I need you to open the door and get inside. Once we’re all in, I need you to close it and lock it.” The green mare explained her plan to her companions. “Ok.” The red stallion replied while nodding confidently. “Alright… Applejack, you and I will be firing these strobes off as fast as we can. We need to be quick, and we need to be careful.” Neon explained while giving the orange mare a sincere expression. Everyone’s survival depended on them working together, so she wanted to be sure that everyone was on the same page. “Ah’m ready when you are.” Applejack replied confidently. She gulped nervously while looking ahead at the barely visible electrical flashes coming from just down the stairs. “Alright… everyone get ready. One…” Neon started counting up, alerting everyone to her plan. The three farm ponies readied themselves for the task at hand. They could feel their tense nerves jittering as fear and stress fought against their concentration. “Two…” The green mare steeled herself as she drew nearer to her plan being executed. She hoped that everyone would make it through the night alive. Applejack and her two siblings shared one last concerned glance with each other before settling their eyes forward. They knew full well that they were about to charge straight into danger. All they could do was perform their part of the plan as efficiently as possible in the hopes that everyone else would be safe. “Three!” As Neon Streak yelled the final number, everyone rushed forward. The two mares in front blasted their strobes rapidly in the hopes that the two creatures ahead of them would be kept at bay. Perhaps in response to the ponies’ charge, the two creatures flew up the stairs again in an attempt at getting at their prey. The monsters howled angrily as they fought against the blasts of energy to make any progress forward they could. About halfway through their sprint, the ponies heard the loud and distinct sound of the bedroom door behind them bursting open. They didn’t dare turn their heads around, but judging from the third growling noise behind them, they knew that the third creature was chasing after them. With tense nerves and gritted teeth, the ponies reached the bathroom door. Big Mac threw open the door and ushered Applebloom inside. Once the two were safely inside, Applejack and Neon Streak moved sideways to get inside. Applejack made it inside and turned around to cover her friend as she rushed forward. Before the green mare could make it through the door however, she suddenly yelled in pain as her hair stood on end. “Neon!” Everyone yelled in a fearful panic as they watched the mare convulse violently. As Applejack rushed forward to assist her, she noticed that one of the electrified creatures was touching her on the leg. “Let her go!” The orange mare yelled angrily while blasting her strobe at the monster. The creature growled and let go as it was driven backwards. Neon Streak immediately collapsed to the floor and remained motionless. Big Mac rushed forward and grabbed the unconscious mare. He quickly pulled her inside while Applejack closed the door and locked it. Once they were safe from the beasts outside, the ponies fully turned their attention to their injured comrade. “Neon!” Applejack called her name frantically while gently shaking her. The green mare offered no response as she remained limp and motionless. “Oh no… please don’t be dead.” The farm pony muttered in a frantic panic while checking the suited pony for a pulse. Thankfully, the unconscious mare seemed to be breathing. “Oh thank Celestia… she’s just knocked out.” The orange mare breathed a sigh of relief. Although her friend was still in danger, she was at least still alive at the moment. As she heard the sounds of the creatures trying to break in, another grim thought occurred to the farm pony. “What are we going to do now? Neon is the only one who can call for help.” Applejack stated uneasily. Her two siblings shared an uneasy glance with her before settling their eyes on the unresponsive mare on the floor. With the strange beasts outside clawing at the door trying to get in, and with their only line to the outside world laying on the floor out cold, they were trapped like rats in a cage.
Chapter 57: Rude AwakeningsMost of the group over at the carousel boutique was fast asleep after their hard day of work, most of them, but not all of them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were wide awake while listening to the story being told by Pinkie Pie. The tall tale was actually more frightening than either of the fillies could have predicted, at least they felt that it was frightening. Scootaloo was gripping her sleeping bag tightly while cowering in fear. She took a quick glance over to her friend, only to see that the white filly wasn’t faring much better. As Sweetie Belle looked over to the orange filly, Scootaloo tried to appear as if she wasn’t fazed by the scary story, although she had no idea if she was doing a good job or not. “And they were never… seen… again!” Pinkie Pie spoke in an ominous tone while using a flashlight to cast a spooky shadow over her face. However effective it might have been, the two fillies weren’t even sure where the pink mare acquired the flashlight. “So… did you like it?” The pink mare asked while returning her cheery disposition. It was astonishing how fast she could switch attitudes on the fly. “Um… yeah.” Scootaloo stated while gulping nervously and putting on a forced smile. “Y-yeah.” Sweetie Belle replied timidly. Her teeth were practically chattering as she tried to smile while holding her sleeping bag close to her body. “Great! Now let’s get some sleep.” Pinkie stated while laying down and relaxing. Before the two fillies could even protest, the pink mare was snoring peacefully. “Oh come on… who goes to sleep that fast?” Scootaloo shrugged nervously while observing her dark surroundings. She was now regretting her decision to insist on a scary story. “Well… I guess we should get to sleep.” Sweetie Belle stated nervously while settling into her sleeping bag. “Yeah… I guess so.” Scootaloo replied while crawling into her own sleeping bag. “Goodnight Sweetie Belle.” She said as she hesitantly accepted going to sleep. “Goodnight Scootaloo.” The white filly replied while finding a comfortable position. Despite both fillies having said their goodnights, neither of them actually managed to get to sleep. Thoughts of the frightening tale they had just listened to combined with the dark atmosphere around them to create a very anxious pair of crusaders. Scootaloo and her friend sat motionless in the darkness of the room. Neither one of them wanted to look around the room for fear that they might see something amid the shadows around them. Despite their best efforts, all the pair could do was close their eyes and hope they could get to sleep. Just as the pair was about to drift off into an uneasy sleep, an unexpected noise made them sit up in their sleeping bags out of surprise. Seemingly out of nowhere, the wind picked up outside, and what sounded like rain started coming down onto the building. Before long, the rain had increased in intensity, causing the two fillies to grow concerned as they listened to the downpour. Usually storms that traveled through town were more controlled and stable than this, and they were typically scheduled days in advance. “Do you hear that?” Sweetie Belle asked to make sure she wasn’t imagining things. “Yeah… what the hay is going on?” Scootaloo replied curiously. After a few minutes, the sound of thunder was added to the storm. It sounded like a severe storm system was moving through the area, but the fillies knew that such a thing should have been impossible without the work of several pegasi. The two crusaders didn’t have to wonder much longer as to the origin of the strange storm as a sudden loud buzz sounded out from across the room. As the pair of fillies looked over to the source of the noise, they realized that it was coming from the three vests left behind by Brimstoke and the others. A lone vial on each of the vests was glowing a bright shade of blue, as well as emanating a magical hum. The sound of the three alarms going off woke up much of the group of sleeping ponies. As they realized what was going on, Brimstoke and his two teammates quickly became awake and alert as they rushed to get out of their sleeping bags. “What’s happening?” Rarity asked in a startled tone as she became aware of the raging tempest outside. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that the strange storm and the violent reactions from the detectors were probably linked. Glitterball managed to get to her vest first. She fumbled around with the blue vial for a moment before unclipping it from its pull cord. After examining the readout further, the unicorn determined that something was moving closer to the group. “It looks like something is moving towards us… maybe it’s this storm?” Glitter stated in an attempt at explaining what was happening. “That just begs the question of why is this storm giving off a reading?” Brimstoke asked while looking out of the window. “Why is this storm even here? It was supposed to be clear for the next few days.” Fluttershy said while uneasily listening to the raging thunder and rain. “The last time we had a storm system move in that wasn’t supposed to be there, we had an army of skeletons pop out of the ground. Something is up… we should probably call the others.” Glimmer Shine suggested while setting his vest back down on the table. “Alright… I’ll call up the others.” Brimstoke stated while putting a hoof up to his ear. He decided to check in on each of his teammates individually to make things easier. Not much was crossing Sunspot’s mind as she slept peacefully. She was just getting to the point where she was in a deep sleep. After the hard day’s work the pegasus had, she was certain that she would sleep like an immovable rock, and it looked like she was right. “Sunspot, you awake?” The sound of Brimstoke’s voice jolted the orange mare awake. "GAH!" Sunspot yelped while lifting a few feet in the air before falling back down to her mattress and nearly bouncing off of it. After her brief outburst of surprise, the orange mare realized what was happening and breathed a frustrated sigh. “What the hay was that about?” Rainbow Dash muttered groggily as she found herself being woken up by Sunspot’s outcry. “Ugh… Brimstoke is calling me… something must be up.” Sunspot replied while still trying to calm her racing heart. She lazily put a hoof up to her ear and tried to prevent herself from chastising the stallion for waking her up so suddenly. “Sunspot here… what’s going on?” Sunspot asked curiously while trying to wake herself up further. “There’s some kind of storm system moving through here. It’s lighting our detectors up like a fireworks display.” Brimstoke explained with a serious tone of voice. Almost on cue to match up with what the stallion was saying, Sunspot heard the far off sound of thunder ringing out. Before long, the sound of a soft drizzle could be heard. “Yeah… I think we’re about to get hit with it too… is there anything off about it?” The pegasus asked with an uncertain expression. She wanted to know ahead of time if some kind of horrible monster was heading her way. “We don’t know… Just check on Neon Streak and get back to me… and stay sharp.” Brimstoke instructed before getting off the line. “What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked while getting out of bed. The noises of thunder and rain approaching were making her uneasy and tense. “There’s some kind of storm system moving our way that is giving off paranormal readings. Brimstoke wants me to check on Neon Streak before getting back to him… hold on a sec.” Sunspot said while concentrating on Neon Streak. Once she felt the connection go through, she took in a breath to speak. “Neon, you there?” The orange pegasus spoke up to wake the most likely sleeping green mare. She hated to be the one to disturb her friend from her slumber, but it was necessary. As she received no response, Sunspot became slightly concerned. “Neon… come in.” Sunspot raised her voice slightly to make sure that she could be heard. After receiving nothing but silence once again, the pegasus was starting to get very alarmed for the safety of her friend. "Neon?" Sunspot asked one last time in a loud voice. When she was once again met by silence, she felt her heart beating slightly faster as several terrifying thoughts about the green pony flooded her mind. “Neon, answer me!” The distress in the orange mare’s voice was clearly apparent. Rainbow Dash could easily tell that something was wrong. “What’s wrong?” the cyan pegasus asked with a concerned expression. She was hoping that nothing bad had happened to the green mare, especially considering she was with Applejack and her family. “Neon isn’t answering me… something must have happened.” Sunspot replied in an uneasy tone. “Maybe we’re out of range… we are pretty far away.” Rainbow Dash reasoned in an uncertain tone. She was eager to accept any other explanation other than her friends being in danger. “No, I can tell that the connection is there. She just isn’t responding… which means she is either busy, unconscious, or…” The orange mare froze mid-sentence as she came to the next logical conclusion. She shook her head to rid herself of such grim thoughts. Deciding not to dwell on her friend being in danger, Sunspot concentrated on Brimstoke again to update him on the green mare’s status. “Brimstoke… I can’t get ahold of Neon. I think she might be in trouble.” Sunspot explained in a concerned tone. It took a moment for the stallion to respond. “That isn’t good… we’re hearing noises outside, it sounds like there might be some kind of creature in the storm.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. The prospect of a monster being present when one of her friends was unresponsive troubled the orange mare. “I should go check on her…” Sunspot stated while getting up. She wasn’t about to stand around while a friend might be in danger. “No, it’s too dangerous to be blindly charging into things. You should stay put and keep yourselves safe.” Brimstoke replied in a stern tone. Sunspot shrugged in annoyance as she was practically ordered to ignore her teammate. “But Brimstoke, she could be in danger! We need to go help her now!” The orange mare protested with a tense attitude. “I know, but right now we need to be smart about things. I’m going to call Peppermint… maybe Tom can-” Before Brimstoke could finish his sentence, Sunspot heard the sound of glass shattering bleed through the call. After this outburst, the pegasus could hear the sounds of high pitched screaming before the stallion disconnected the call abruptly. “Brimstoke?! What happened?!” Sunspot asked frantically, hoping that she would get some kind of a response. After receiving only dead silence on the other side of the line, the pegasus was starting to get very concerned for her teammates. Sunspot threw the rest of her covers off and got up. She then quickly stormed off to the bathroom with a very urgent expression. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure what the orange mare was thinking, but it couldn’t have been good considering the circumstances. “What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned tone. Sunspot merely ignored her while grabbing her suit and putting it on. “Sunspot!” The cyan mare yelled to get the attention of the stubborn pegasus. Sunspot shrugged before turning to face the concerned pony. “Something happened to Brimstoke and the others. I’m going to go help them… Ack!” The orange mare yelped in pain as she tried putting her injured wing through the sleeve of the suit. Rainbow Dash frowned as she watched the determined pegasus injuring herself to go assist her friends. It reminded her of what she would most likely do, but she still had to think logically. “Sunspot… you can barely touch your wing without hurting yourself, let alone fly with it. There is no way I’m letting you go out there.” The cyan pony explained in an understanding tone of voice. Sunspot didn’t appear to be accepting her speech however as she continued putting on her suit. “No offense Rainbow Dash, but I wasn’t asking for your permission. You’re the element of loyalty. You of all ponies should understand how I feel.” The orange pegasus stated in an attempt at getting Rainbow Dash to understand her desire to help her friends. “I do understand how you feel… I mean hay, my friends are out there too. I want to help them as bad as you do, but we aren’t any good to them dead.” The cyan mare explained in a sympathetic tone. Sunspot shrugged as she tried to see things from the other perspective. “What do you suggest we do then?” Sunspot asked with a defeated expression. “I say we call Peppermint and tell Tom what is going on… maybe he can help us out.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a confident tone. Sunspot nodded as she agreed with the cyan pony’s line of reasoning. “Ok… let me see if Pepper will pick up the line.” Sunspot stated hopefully while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating on the red haired stallion. Over at the library, Peppermint was lying awake on the floor while listening to the sounds of rain and thunder outside. He wondered why there was a storm this severe taking place, or how it hadn’t even woken up the human on the other side of the room. Tom might not have slept for very long, but when he did sleep, he must have slept like a rock. Not even the loudest burst of thunder seemed to elicit even the smallest response from the slayer as he remained motionless under his blankets and pillows. “Pepper, are you there?” The sound of Sunspot’s voice suddenly rang through Peppermint’s ears. After jumping slightly from the sudden noise, the white stallion put his hoof up to his ear to communicate with the pegasus. “Yeah, I’m here… what’s wrong?” Pepper asked curiously. Given the circumstances that they were told to call each other, and the slightly tense tone of voice the orange mare had, he figured that something was amiss. “What’s wrong…? Don’t you hear the storm?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone. Peppermint returned his attention to the downpour outside. He hadn’t paid the odd storm that much attention before, even if he did find it a little suspicious. “Yeah… what about it?” Pepper replied with confusion evident in his voice. Judging from her reaction, he could tell that the pegasus was amazed at the fact that he was so calm and oblivious. “Dude! Some kind of monster is using this storm as a cover! Isn’t your detector buzzing?” Sunspot asked in astonishment. Peppermint looked behind him at his vest placed on the table in confusion. He hadn’t heard a single hum from the evil detector all night. Judging from how serious the pegasus sounded, the white pony decided to inspect the vial up close. Pepper got out of his makeshift bed and walked up to the table to pick up his vest. Sure enough, the detector vial was just barely glowing blue. “I’m getting a reading, but just barely. It isn’t even making any noise.” Peppermint stated his findings in a confused tone. He was still unsure of what was even happening to make the orange mare so upset. “What?! Ok... never mind, that doesn’t matter right now. Wake Tom up now. Brimstoke and the others are being attacked, and I can’t even get ahold of Neon Streak.” Sunspot instructed urgently. Peppermint was alarmed by the sudden news that his teammates were in danger. “Wait what?! What are they being attacked by?!” Pepper asked in a panicked tone of voice. “I don’t know, something just broke through a window and then they dropped the call. Just wake Tom up and tell him to head over to check on Neon.” The orange pegasus explained urgently. “What about Brimstoke and the others?” Peppermint asked to clarify why the pegasus didn’t want Tom to go help the white stallion and his group. It made more sense to him to help more people as fast as possible. “I’m going to go help them myself, just hurry up!” The orange mare replied while raising her voice slightly. The sound of the pegasus yelling in his ear made Pepper’s head hurt enough to warrant him paying attention. “Ok, ok!” Pepper stated while turning around to wake up the sleeping human. Before he could even get another word out, another sudden noise made the white pony divert his attention back to the table. The vial on his vest that was glowing a soft blue before was now lighting up like a blazing fire. The vial was also emitting a loud buzz that was so intense that it practically made the vest vibrate on the table. As Pepper went to investigate his detector, a loud and raspy gasp of air filled the room. The white stallion looked over to see Tom arching upwards as a spout of blue mist erupted from his mouth. The human sat up and breathed rapidly with an urgent and surprised expression on his face. “We’ve got company!” The boy stated in an alarmed tone while getting up. While Tom was looking around with a serious expression and using his senses more, Peppermint was merely confused. “What are you talking about? Did you feel something?” The red haired pony asked with a growing sense of concern. Before Tom could reply, a loud crash followed by a pair of blood curdling screams came from upstairs. The pair froze in their tracks as they realized that the outburst belonged to Twilight and Spike. “I felt more than just something, I felt some things!” The human stated while rushing to the stairs. Peppermint grabbed his vest and put it on while trotting to join the boy as he ran to assist the unicorn and dragon. “I’ll call you back Sunspot!” The white stallion said while holding a hoof up to his ear. He didn’t exactly want to leave the pegasus hanging, but he had more pressing matters to deal with. As the two ran up the stairs, they couldn’t remove the alarming thoughts racing through their heads. Every fiber of their bodies told them to move faster, as fast as they possibly could to get to their friends that much quicker. Tom got to the door first and threw it open. Once they stepped inside, the pair saw a hair-raising scene in front of them. Broken glass littered the floor in front of the windows as the wind and rain blew the curtains around violently. Two monstrous figures shrouded in black were floating menacingly in the room. And there was a terrified unicorn and a young dragon cowering against the back wall, trying to get as far away from their attackers as possible. “Tom! Help!” Twilight yelled in fright as she stared at the two in the doorway. It was hard to even hear the purple mare over the sounds of wind and the creatures’ growls, but it was easy to tell how utterly terrified she was. Tom immediately reached for his sword and charged forward bravely. As he reached one of the creatures, it swung its claws around and struck him across the face. Along with receiving a nasty and painful gash, the boy was sent flying into the wall from the sheer force of the strike. While the human was reeling from his botched attack plan, Peppermint instinctively reached for his strobe. Taking aim at the two monsters, the stallion fired off several volleys of blasts. The balls of light flew into the specters and exploded into their forms. The creatures let out an agitated howl while spinning around to face the red haired pony. Despite the bone chilling site of the two monsters staring at him with milky white eyes, Peppermint continued his series of attacks. While the two creatures slowly gained ground on the nervous stallion, Twilight and Spike were watching the scene unfold anxiously. They were still adjusting to suddenly being woken up by two monsters crashing into the room, so they were unsure of anything they could do to help. Meanwhile, Tom was still recovering from his injuries. While the gashes on his face were still healing up, he took a moment to use his senses again to examine the two creatures. Suddenly, the human noticed something about the two monsters that he hadn’t before. Peppermint was sweating nervously as he watched the two advancing beasts. He was firing off his strobe as fast as his hooves could press the button, but the creatures were relentlessly charging forward to get at him. The white stallion could see the evil intent in their cold dead eyes. He could see how ravenously they were going to rip him apart once they caught up to him. He wouldn’t be surprised if they fought each other over who got to kill him. Suddenly, one of the creatures paused in the air and reeled its arms back. With a swift push, a tremendous gust of wind surged into the room from outside. The gale was so intense that it created visible ripples in the air as it crashed towards the red haired pony. Peppermint felt himself getting lifted off his feet as he was shoved backwards from the blast of air. He felt the glass vial that was serving as his weapon getting suddenly and violently ripped from his hooves. The clatter of the strobe as it bounced along the ground mixed into the loud thump of the stallion slamming into the nearby wall. “Ooof!” Pepper grunted painfully as the back of his head met the wall behind him. While still in a hazy mixture of pain and drowsiness, he looked forward to see the two monsters leering at him as they presented their claws menacingly. “Uh… ah… AHH!” The red haired pony screamed in terror as he listened to the two creatures roar as they charged at him. He could see his entire life flashing before his eyes in a single instant. Suddenly, the creatures let out an ear piercing screech of pain. Peppermint opened his eyes and looked up to see them recoiling to the side as they were driven back by something. He then noticed Tom stepping forward with his hand held out in front of him. The creatures seemed to be held at bay by some invisible force, and the human seemed to be the one pulling the strings. As Tom slowly pointed his hand over to the side, the two monsters moved to the side along with him, as if they were compelled against their will by the slayer. Tom seemed to be shaking slightly, as if he were being put under a great strain. “How are you doing that?” Peppermint asked in an astonished tone. As he sent the two beasts against the far wall, Tom seemed to be under too much stress to answer the stallion at the moment. The human gripped his sword with his free hand and flipped it around. With a fierce yell, he charged forward and plunged the luminescent blade through one of the beast’s midsections. As he yanked the sword upwards, the creature screeched in pain and disappeared into a mist of black smoke. Not wasting any time, the slayer shoved the katana through the other monster’s head. The beast didn’t even offer a noise in protest as it was suddenly rendered silent. Once both monsters had disappeared into smoke, Tom let his arms fall to his side to rest. “That was amazing… how did you do that Tom?” Twilight asked in a cheerful manner as she admired her two saviors. “They’re demons…” The boy explained in between breaths. The brief answer perplexed the others, even Peppermint with his knowledge on the paranormal. “What?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “They’re demons… lesser demons, but still demons nonetheless. Slayers can influence demons with their power… make them bend to their will.” Tom clarified while re-holstering his sword and walking over to the group. “It’s a good thing too… those things shrugged off my strobe like it was nothing. How do we beat these guys?” Peppermint thought out loud while frowning with concern. “Ok… listen up.” Tom spoke up with a serious expression. Everyone listened intently as they expected the slayer to dispense some important knowledge to them. “I need you to go down to the kitchen and grab some salt.” The human instructed in a very sincere manner. The ponies hesitated for a moment while they processed what they had just been told. “Salt…? Why do we need salt?” Peppermint asked with a perplexed expression. Tom seemed surprised that the stallion of all people didn’t understand him. “Good lord… just how much information do you guys have on the paranormal?” Tom asked in slight disappointment. Seeing nothing to indicate that the ponies were joking around, the boy sighed to himself before trying to find an explanation. “Salt repels a wide variety of evil creatures… demons included. You guys are going to hole up in the bathroom while I go out and find where these guys are coming from before they hurt anyone else.” Tom explained in a serious tone of voice. “Wait a minute… Sunspot said that Brimstoke and the others were being attacked! We need to help them!” Peppermint stated with a newfound sense of urgency. In all of the commotion, he had almost forgotten that his friends were in danger. “Ah… hell.” Tom muttered to himself uncomfortably. He had a strange feeling that it was going to be a long night.
Chapter 58: Demonic Dilemma-A few minutes earlier- “Alright… I’ll call up the others.” Brimstoke stated while putting a hoof up to his ear. Everyone else waited patiently while the stallion contacted his teammates scattered around town. While he was focusing on getting in touch with the others, everyone else in the room was focusing on the storm raging outside. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were huddling near Fluttershy and Rarity while listening to the harsh pounding of the rain and wind against the windows. They felt tense and nervous during normal storms, but this one was mysterious and frightening to them due to its sinister origins. Every flash of lightning and every increase in the speed of the rain would make them fill up with dread. “Rarity… when is it going to stop?” Sweetie Belle asked timidly. She wasn’t sure if her sister knew the answer, but she had to make some attempt to feel secure. Rarity looked down to the petrified white filly and frowned. She hated seeing her sister so afraid, even if she herself was feeling the same amount of fear. As she looked up to view the steady fall of rain droplets on her bedroom windows, the unicorn was unsure of how to comfort her younger sibling. “I don’t know Sweetie Belle, but I’m sure everything is going to be fine.” Rarity stated in what she hoped would be a soothing tone. “Don’t worry guys… it’s just a little rain and thunder. I’m sure that this storm will be over soon.” Pinkie Pie chimed in with a reassuring tone while walking over to a window. If the pink mare was scared, she was hiding it well. Perhaps she was frightened, but she decided to put on a smile to cheer up her friends. “We don’t know… just check on Neon Streak and get back to me… and stay sharp.” Brimstoke added before dropping his hoof from his ear and turning to face the group. “Sunspot is going to check on the others for us… right now we should just sit tight and see what happens with this storm.” The stallion explained in an uneasy tone while glancing out of the window. “I would rather have nothing happen at all…” Scootaloo said in a jesting manner. Despite her attempt at an upbeat attitude, the orange filly couldn’t prevent herself from feeling nervous and uneasy. “Hey, here’s hoping.” Glitterball stated while offering the young pegasus a supportive hoof on the shoulder. Scootaloo appreciated the unicorn’s attempt at making her feel better, even if it didn’t entirely work. Suddenly, an odd howling noise made itself known as it rose above the constant pounding of the rain. It sounded like a nasty wind was whistling through an old building, but it didn’t seem to be coming from around the ponies as such a noise should have. The disturbing noise made a cold shiver run down everyone’s spine. Even Pinkie Pie was disquieted enough to warrant her moving away from the windows to feel safer. As the ponies stared outside while the noise continued, they wondered what could have been making it. “W-what is that?” Sweetie Belle asked nervously while looking around in an attempt at determining the noise’s origin. “It sounds like the wind…” Glimmer Shine stated with slight uncertainty. Perhaps it was too much wishful thinking on his part, but it did sound a little bit like the wind after all. “I hope it’s the wind… but that sounds a little odd to be just wind.” Fluttershy observed fearfully. She could feel her blood run cold with each change in pitch the noise made as it howled in the darkness. It was eerie in the pitch black bedroom before the noise started. With the lightning constantly flooding the room with white light, casting dark shadows across the room and revealing the scary silhouettes made by the various objects inside, and the constant pounding of the rain against the roof and windows, the ponies were trapped in an extremely frightening environment. Now, with the addition of the shrill noise coming from outside, the group could barely prevent their teeth from chattering in fright. Everyone tried their best to huddle close to Rarity and Glitterball. Being the only capable unicorns in the room, they were the group’s only reliable source of light. “Brimstoke… I can’t get ahold of Neon. I think she might be in trouble.” Brimstoke suddenly heard Sunspot’s voice as she updated him on her progress. The news that the green mare wasn’t responding came as a dreadful surprise to the stallion. Not wanting the more sensitive members of the group to hear him, Brimstoke walked off to the side and lowered his voice as he responded to the pegasus. “That isn’t good… we’re hearing noises outside, it sounds like there might be some kind of creature in the storm.” Brimstoke explained in an uneasy tone. Sunspot groaned anxiously as she became more aware of the bad situation everyone was in. “I should go check on her…” The orange mare stated with determination in her voice. Brimstoke didn’t like how brash and careless the pegasus was being. “No, it’s too dangerous to be blindly charging into things. You should stay put and keep yourselves safe.” The stallion replied in a stern tone. He didn’t want the injured mare to be doing anything dangerous, not to mention the fact that she was supposed to be keeping Rainbow Dash safe. Brimstoke heard Sunspot audibly shrug in annoyance. He could tell that she was eager to assist Neon Streak, and he couldn’t blame her for that, but she needed to think rationally about what she was going to do or she might get hurt. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was on the other side of the room with her sister. The two unicorns were huddling together while trying to keep their spirits up. Although she still felt nervous from the storm outside, the white filly was starting to feel more comfortable with her sister. Suddenly, while Rarity was chatting with Fluttershy, Sweetie Belle noticed movement coming from one of the windows. It was a barely noticeable shadow against the already pitch black night. Perhaps it was a silhouette of a building outside, but then again, buildings didn’t move. Curious as to whether or not she was seeing things, Sweetie Belle separated from her sister and inched closer to the window to get a better look. She flinched slightly when a loud burst of thunder sounded out, but she slowly continued her path to the wall. Once she got to the window, she sat down and observed the rain droplets falling against the glass portal. It was a raging tempest outside, but inside of the boutique, Sweetie Belle was perfectly dry and safe. Perhaps it was her mind trying to help her cope with fear, but the filly found it soothing to watch the rain fall against the window. Still cautious about what she had seen earlier, she looked around once more and squinted her eyes to make out anything bizarre outside. With no further signs of the odd shadow, Sweetie Belle decided to linger a bit longer before heading back over to the crowd of ponies. “But Brimstoke… she could be in danger! We need to go help her now!” Sunspot argued in a tense tone of voice. Brimstoke shrugged uncomfortably as he tried to make the orange mare see reason. He was so focused on his conversation that he failed to notice that his detector was glowing brighter while pointing directly behind him. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine noticed that the quiet buzz of their detectors had returned. They looked down to the vials and became alarmed when they interpreted the reading. “I know, but right now we need to be smart about things. I’m going to call Peppermint… maybe Tom can-” Brimstoke tried to suggest a better plan of action for the pegasus, when he was suddenly interrupted by Glitterball speaking up in an urgent tone. “Uh, guys! We’ve got a prob-” Before the unicorn could finish her sentence, the deafening sound of glass shattering and wind flooding into the room silenced her. “AHHHHH!!!” Sweetie Belle screamed and covered her face to shield herself from the broken glass flying at her. She caught a brief glimpse of the creature that had just broken through the window, one that was enough to make her hair stand on end. The terrifying sight of the white eyed monster shocked her into a fearful retreat as she scooted backwards to escape. Everyone turned their heads in shocked horror as they witnessed the black shrouded beast flying into the room with a fierce growl. The sight of the young unicorn in such close proximity to the horrific monster sent a wave of alarm through everyone’s body, most of all Rarity. “Sweetie Belle!” The white mare yelled in a panic while rushing forward. She might have been terrified of the monster in front of her, but she wasn’t about to let it hurt her little sister. “Rarity!” Pinkie and Fluttershy cried out in unison as they watched their friend running forward to protect her sister. They wanted to help her, but they were cemented in place from their mind numbing fear of the monster before them. As the white unicorn reached her sister and grabbed her, she noticed that the monster was rearing its arm back to attack. Not wanting Sweetie Belle to take any of the impact, Rarity turned sideways to shield the filly from the sharp claws of the beast. Brimstoke and Glitterball, being the only ones that were holding their vests at the time flipped them around and grabbed their strobes with almost perfect execution. While Glimmer Shine raced to pick up his vest from the nearby table, his two teammates opened fire on the monstrous intruder. The bolts of energy collided with the monster, but didn’t seem to deter it to any great effect. As it pushed against the incoming blasts, the creature swiped at the two unicorns with its clawed hand. The strike barely clipped Rarity across the face, but it was just enough to cause some considerable damage. “AGH!” the white mare cried out in pain as she felt the stabbing sensation course through her cheek. The force of the strike, combined with the pain she was feeling, was enough to send the unicorn to the ground as she fell backwards and clutched her injury with her free hoof. Much to her horror, the unicorn could feel three sizable gashes in her cheek. As she pulled her hoof off of her face, Rarity saw that it was stained with blood. She could even feel the warm liquid drip down her wound and onto the rest of her face. The others were horrified that their friend had been injured. They were even more horrified when they saw that the monster was preparing to stab its claws into the two ponies on the ground. Rarity gasped in shock as she saw the vicious beast holding its claws above its head in a threatening manner. She held the frightened filly next to her close and buried her head into her hair to hide both of their eyes from the grisly act about to take place. Rarity suddenly felt a hoof grab her by her back. She then felt someone forcefully sliding her and her sister along the floor. As the unicorn came to a stop by hitting her bedframe, she looked up to see who had rescued her. Glimmer Shine had apparently stopped going after his vest, and instead focused his efforts on getting the two ponies to safety. “Glimmer, lookout!” Rarity yelled fearfully while pointing behind the yellow stallion. Glimmer tried his best to run forward, but he was unable to escape the creature as it slashed its claws across his vest-less back. Although he had expected to be caught in the crossfire when he shoved Rarity and Sweetie Belle out of the way, nothing could have prepared the yellow stallion for the stinging pain that would occur when the beast raked its bladelike claws across his back. “Gah!” Glimmer Shine cringed and gritted his teeth to prevent a painful outburst. With blood running down his back, he rushed forward to escape any possible follow up attack from the monster. As he reached the two unicorns still staring wide eyed on the floor, Glimmer turned around to protect them from any other advances by the creature. Much to his dismay, he saw that the creature had no intentions of leaving out of the window from whence it came. Suddenly, the monster was enveloped in a blue aura. As it realized that it was being moved against its will, the creature howled fiercely while clawing at the force field keeping it at bay. Everyone turned their heads to see Glitterball with her horn lit up and a strained expression on her face. “Guys! Set up a physical barrier on the door! I’ll hold this guy off!” Glitter yelled frantically while using all of her might to push the monster back outside through the window. Glimmer Shine and Brimstoke sprang into action as they ran to the door. The fierce shrieks of the monster as it fought against Glitterball made the two stallions fill up with a sense of urgency. Glimmer Shine quickly scribbled the necessary runes on a piece of paper while it was affixed on the door. After the first piece was done, the two quickly opened the door to prepare the piece on the other side. Brimstoke watched down the hallway with his strobe at the ready while Glimmer Shine prepared the charm. After a few moments of frantically scribbling the proper symbols on the paper, the yellow pony firmly placed it against the door and signaled for his partner to get back inside. As Glimmer shut the door, a bright flash of light emanated from the piece of paper. Once the light died down, the stallion could see the symbols on the paper were glowing bright red. On the other side of the room, Glitterball let go of the monster once she knew it was safe. The creature roared angrily as it flew back into the window, only to be pushed back by the newly created barrier. Once it realized that it was being kept out, the creature pounded on the force field with all of its body weight. The exhausted unicorn sat down and breathed heavily as she recovered from her ordeal. As she rested, she suddenly remembered that she wasn’t the only one in bad shape. After taking a brief look over to Glimmer Shine, she realized that he was being looked over by Brimstoke. Glitterball then turned her attention over to the injured white mare on the other side of the room. Rarity was trying to comfort Sweetie Belle, while also coddling her wounds. The white filly was distraught that her sister was injured while trying to protect her. “Rarity… are you ok?!” The young unicorn asked frantically while trying to get a good look at the injury. Rarity tried her best to hide the extent of the wound from her sister. “I’m fine Sweetie Belle, it’s just a little cut.” The white mare hid the stinging pain from reaching her face. She had to keep a bright appearance to prevent Sweetie Belle from seeing how bad she was actually hurt. The two noticed Glitterball walking up to them slowly. The concern on her face was evident, even through her exhaustion. “Are you two alright?” Glitter asked while examining the ghastly set of slashes on the white mare’s face. Rarity looked back to her sister with a troubled expression. She knew that Glitter wanted to look at her wound, and she also knew that it definitely needed looking at, but she didn’t want her sister to see it. “Umm yeah… Sweetie Belle, why don’t you go talk to Scootaloo?” The unicorn suggested in a reassuring tone. Sweetie Belle was leery about leaving her sister, but she nodded and walked away, deciding to listen to her orders. Now that the two were alone, Glitterball immediately turned her attention to examining Rarity’s injury. “Are you ok…? Really?” Glitter asked while gently pulling the white mare’s hoof away. Rarity cringed in pain as she felt her wound being exposed to the air. Glitterball gasped quietly as she saw the three gashes. “It stings a little, but other than that I’m fine. I would be a lot worse if Glimmer Shine didn’t push us out of the way… is he alright?” Rarity asked with a concerned expression while glancing over to the injured stallion. Brimstoke was already applying bandages to the cuts on his back. “I haven’t checked, but it looks like he’s fine. He’s a tough one… he’ll bounce back.” Glitterball replied with a reassuring smile. “Now, let’s get you patched up.” She stated while reaching for a set of bandages and a small bottle of disinfectant. Rarity cringed in anticipation as she stared at the medical equipment. “Hold still… I’ll be as gentle as possible.” The rainbow haired mare spoke in an understanding tone. Rarity nodded slowly while she watched Glitterball prepare her bandages. As she felt a cotton ball wetted with disinfectant touch her skin, Rarity yelped and jerked her head away slightly. Glitterball hesitated while her patient got comfortable enough to move back into position. While she was sitting still, the white unicorn had time to pay attention to the broken window. Oddly enough, there wasn’t any more rain getting in through the opening, most likely due to the physical barrier. Rarity couldn’t help but wonder when that monster was going to return to make another attempt at breaking in. “Do you think that force field is going to keep that thing out?” Rarity asked with mild concern at the prospect of her safety. Glitterball sighed and looked behind her at the two fillies on the other side of the room. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were conversing with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. The two mares were obviously still shaken from the attack, so they would probably be better off left in the dark about their fragile situation. “It depends… if there’s only one of them, it will hold for about an hour or so. If there’s more…” Glitterball trailed her eyes off uneasily as she thought about the grim possibility. Rarity needed no more explanation to see how much trouble they were in. “Uh, hello?” Suddenly, Glitterball heard Peppermint’s voice coming through in her head. As she looked around, she realized that her two teammates were hearing him too. The red haired stallion must have been contacting all three of them to see who would pick up. “Peppermint…?” Seeing how he was the only one with free hooves, Glimmer Shine decided to speak on behalf of the group. “Glimmer? Oh thank goodness!” Pepper stated in a relieved tone. The last he had heard of his brother and the others he was with they were under attack and unresponsive, so to hear someone pick up his call was uplifting to say the least. “Sunspot called us and said you guys were in trouble. Were you attacked?” Peppermint asked with a concerned sense of curiosity. “Yeah, something came through a window. Looked like a-” Glimmer Shine started to describe the creature, when he was interrupted by his brother speaking up. “A flying thing in black with white eyes, sharp claws, and a mouth full of nasty looking teeth?” Peppermint described the monster with perfect detail. His brother’s sudden knowledge of the monster surprised the yellow stallion. “Yeah… how did you know that?” Glimmer asked while looking around at his two teammates. Glitterball and Brimstoke were just as surprised as he was. “Tom told me after we had a run in with two of them. They’re demons… err, lesser demons.” Peppermint paused before correcting himself, as if he were being told something by someone else present. “Two of them? Are you guys alright?” Glimmer Shine asked in a surprised tone. He hated the thought of his brother or his two charges getting hurt. “Yeah, we’re fine. Twilight and Spike got a little shaken up, but Tom took care of things. What about you guys?” Pepper replied with a more concerned tone. “We’re… hanging in there. Rarity and I got cut up a little bit, and we’re not sure how much longer we can keep those things out… especially now that we know there are more of them out there.” The yellow stallion stated quietly so everyone else couldn’t hear. Peppermint could tell that his brother was troubled by his situation. “Listen, Tom says that you guys should grab some salt… apparently demons are repelled by it. He says you need to pour a line of salt at every door and window to whatever room you’re in… if you’re in a position to do so, you can secure the entire building by doing that.” Pepper explained in as clear a manner as he could manage. Although he was confused by the evil warding properties of common table salt, Glimmer Shine and his group was out of options. “What about Tom? What is he doing?” Glimmer asked curiously. He wondered what the slayer’s next plan of action was. Pepper paused for a moment before replying, perhaps to ask Tom himself about his brother’s question. “He says he is going to go check on Neon and the others. I tried getting ahold of her myself, and she is still not answering.” The red haired stallion explained uneasily. “Yeah… that’s probably for the best. You guys stay safe while he’s gone.” Glimmer replied in a caring manner. “Same goes for you guys… just be careful and grab some salt.” Peppermint said before ending the call. Once he felt the connection between him and his brother cease, Glimmer Shine put his hoof down and turned to his companions with a pressing matter on his mind. “Ok guys… I have some good news and bad news. The good news is we have a way to keep those things out until Tom can sort things out…” Glimmer Shine paused as he thought more about how bad the bad side of his plan actually was. “And the bad news?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned expression. She could tell that something was wrong by the looks on the three ponies’ faces. “Apparently we need salt to keep those things away… Rarity, do you have any salt on hoof?” Glitterball asked with guarded optimism. “Yeah actually, it’s… in a pantry downstairs.” Rarity’s cheerful and uplifting attitude at the revelation that the group was saved was all but removed as she remembered where she kept her salt. Brimstoke and his two teammates could barely hold off one of those creatures in a closed off room, and there could be many more of them in the dark recesses of the building. “Maybe I’m wrong… maybe the barrier will hold up until these things go away.” Glitterball suggested uneasily. The prospect of journeying out of their small dark sanctuary into the small dark hallways and rooms of the boutique wasn’t exactly inviting. “We can’t take that risk… we’re going to need to go out there and get that salt, sooner or later.” Brimstoke reminded the group of their grim situation. His teammates sighed in hesitation as they each mulled over the decision. “Well, then it’s settled… two of us should go while one of us stays here to keep an eye on things. I’ll go… it looks like my magic is more effective on these things than our strobes.” Glitterball volunteered apprehensively. Despite her obvious reluctance to participate in the supply run, she tried to put on a smile for the others. “I’ll go with you.” Glimmer Shine stepped forward while gently putting his vest on over his bandages. Even if his strobe was relatively useless, he would feel better with some sort of weapon. “Glimmer… are you sure? You already got hurt by that thing, and that was just one of them.” Glitterball fretted with concern over her teammate. She didn’t want to go alone, but she felt like she was endangering whoever would go with her. Glimmer Shine smirked confidently at the concerned unicorn. He wasn’t about to let a little paper cut get in the way of helping his friends. “I’m sure… I’m not going to just let you go alone, and Brimstoke needs to stay here to protect the others.” Glimmer explained in a determined tone of voice. Before the rainbow haired pony could even argue, the stallion turned and looked at Rarity thoughtfully. “Rarity, can you give us directions to that pantry? The more precise the better.” Glimmer asked with a slight sense of nervousness. Rarity shrugged as she dealt with her own thoughts and feelings on the matter. “I think that it would be easier if I just went with you to show you the way.” The white mare explained in an apprehensive tone. Everyone was shocked to hear that the unicorn was willing to put herself in so much danger. “What?! You can’t go out there! It’s bad enough that they have to… and they were trained for this!” Sweetie Belle argued frantically for Rarity to stay in the room. Although she was the most vocal about her opinion, one look around told the unicorn that her friends shared the white filly’s view. “Rarity… she has a point. This is going to be dangerous. You should just stay here and let us handle it.” Glitterball explained in a sympathetic manner. “No… I want to help you guys. It will get done faster if I show you the way.” Rarity stated to offer an excuse to head off with the two brave ponies. Everyone in the room could tell that she was scared out of her wits, but she was hiding it for the sake of making them feel better. Glitterball shared a concerned look with Glimmer Shine. The unicorn tried to find out what her colleague’s stance was through facial cues, but the stallion seemed to be unable to convey his opinion through silent expression. “Umm… uh… *sigh*” Glitter finally lowered her head in defeat before adopting an accepting expression. “Rarity… if you want to come with us, I’m not going to stop you… but you need to listen to everything we say, and be careful in general.” Glitterball explained while watching the white mare for a reaction. Rarity nodded understandingly. With their minds made up and their task laid out before them, the three ponies walked across the room and huddled near the door. They took one last look at the group of concerned onlookers that were standing behind them. “Be careful everyone…” Fluttershy said with worry written across her face. “Yeah, stay safe.” Pinkie Pie added with a slight frown while taking a good long look at her unicorn friend. Rarity didn’t like the way her friends and sister were looking at her, it was like they were staring at her like it was the last time they would see her alive. “Don’t worry girls… I’m sure we will be just fine.” The white mare stated in an attempt at lightening the mood. Her friends offered a cursory smile to her as she smiled in return. Once she turned around to join her two companions in opening the door, the group returned a collective expression of concern to their faces. Rarity watched apprehensively as Glitterball opened the door. The barrier formed by the piece of paper on the door seemed to still be in place despite the gaping opening into the dark hallway. The three ponies shared a quick glance with each other before stepping out of the door and closing it behind them. Nobody dared turn on a light for fear that one of the creatures would see it. Instead, the group slowly walked forward while hanging close to the floor. Using a stealthy crawl, the three ponies made their way through the pitch blackness of the house. As they walked through the hallway, they came across a set of two windows. As they felt and heard rain coming in from one of the windows, they quickly realized that it was broken. Rarity glanced down at the broken glass with a fearful sense of dread slowly filling her. “One of those things must have gotten inside.” The white unicorn whispered uneasily while looking between her two companions. “Let’s hurry up and get to the pantry.” Glimmer Shine replied with a confident whisper. Thankfully his quiet tone of voice allowed the stallion to further hide his own sense of fear. It was important that the group have someone that at least sounded brave. Being careful to step around the broken glass, the trio moved past the window as fast as their stealth-walk would allow them. The intense feeling of cold rain being blown into their faces by the raging wind was unpleasant to say the least. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine constantly shifted their eyes around them in search of movement. They also took the occasional glance down to their detectors to see if the blue liquid was glowing in a particular direction. The pair had set the detectors to a setting that prevented it from buzzing, so they had to actually keep an eye on it to make use of its reading. Suddenly, as the trio turned a corner, they came across a stairway leading down. Through a doorway at the bottom of the stairs, the group could see the kitchen floor. Rarity paused and smiled triumphantly as she laid eyes on the simple flooring. It didn’t take much deduction to realize that their journey had come to an end. “Yes! That’s the kitchen there. The salt should be just in a cupboard somewhere.” Rarity whispered in excitement while pointing to the far off kitchen. It was astounding how much a room that she walked through almost every day could fill the white mare with joy. “Let’s get down there then!” Glitterball added while sharing in Rarity’s excitement. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was a bit more careful in his celebration. As the two mares stepped forward, the stallion noticed the glowing portion of the liquid in his detector shift in front of them suddenly. Combined with this phenomenon, the trio heard a noise that stunned them into a silent cold sweat. With the creak of wood and the rustling of a door as it was pushed open without care, the group saw one of the demons flying into view downstairs. With a collective feeling of panic, the three ponies ducked into the room nearest to them as quickly and quietly as they could. Rather than close the door and alert the monster to their presence, Glitterball decided to leave it open and instead motioned for her two companions to hide. Rarity ducked under a table with the rainbow haired mare, while Glimmer Shine ducked behind a piece of furniture. As Rarity heard the ghostly moan of the creature getting closer, she realized that it was coming up the stairs. She could feel her heart racing as she stared out into the darkness of the hallway for any signs of movement. The unicorn had to cover her mouth to stifle a nervous squeak as she saw the outline of the creature pass into view. The monster hovered in place while moving its head around rapidly, as if it were looking for something. The only thing that the ponies could even see of the demon was its milky white eyes as they scanned the surrounding area. Rarity thought she was going to explode into a panic attack, she was certain that the creature was going to find them and kill them. The only thing preventing her from making any noise was the comforting feeling of Glitterball putting a hoof on her shoulder. Thankfully, the creature finally left the doorway and continued down the hallway. After giving it a few moments to see if it would return, the three ponies slowly exited their hiding spots. Glimmer Shine walked up to the door and peered out while keeping his body concealed. After a sweeping pass of both directions, he motioned for his two teammates to join him. “How did that thing not find us?” Rarity asked curiously while still calming her nerves. Although she was thankful that she was still alive, it seemed like the monsters usually knew where they were at all times. “We have charms on our vests that are supposed to conceal our presence from being detected. You were probably so close to me that it worked for you too.” Glitterball explained while jostling another vial on her vest. It was hard to tell in the dark, but this vial was filled with what appeared to be flakes of some unknown substance. “I’m certainly glad that most of your equipment actually works… especially given what little knowledge you guys had.” Rarity replied in an astonished tone. “Yeah, me too… It’s a pleasant surprise actually. We’re just kind of taking what we had and running with it here.” Glitterball stated with a chuckle. Rarity felt extremely uneasy after hearing that her survival was based off of a pleasant surprise. “Don’t celebrate just yet. These charms won’t help us if those things hear or see us.” Glimmer Shine said in a quiet whisper. “Thanks for bursting our bubble Glimmer.” Glitterball chided the stallion with an uneasy shrug. Without any further delay, the three made the slow and painfully quiet trek to the kitchen. The ponies tiptoed through the hallway and down the stairs, being extra careful not to make a sound. Every stray creak of the wood beneath their hooves made the trio pause and look around while gritting their teeth. Much to their relief, the group finally made it downstairs and into the kitchen. After taking a brief moment to get her bearings in the dark, Rarity rushed over to a cupboard and placed a hoof on one of the handles. The white mare slowly opened the cabinet and searched around. Due to the lack of light, the unicorn had to grab something that resembled a salt container and hold it up to her face to read what it actually was. Although this process was inefficient and stressful, the unicorn didn’t dare turn on even the smallest of lights. Glimmer Shine watched the entryways into the room while Glitterball assisted Rarity with finding a container of salt. Every wayward scuffle an object made against the wooden cabinet or its contents made the ponies cringe with suspense. Finally, Rarity came across a familiarly sized and shaped cylindrical container. With careful optimism she held it up to her face and quickly looked around to find any identifying pictures or words. “Yes!” Rarity exclaimed in quiet celebration. Her two companions looked to her with joy on their faces as she held up the salt triumphantly. “Finally… let’s get back to the others. This suspense is getting on my nerves.” Glimmer Shine stated while breathing a comfortable sigh of relief. Glitterball nodded with a smile while closing the cabinet. As she looked behind the stallion into the rest of the kitchen, she was shocked by the sight of two pale eyes floating just in front of them. “*Gasp*” The unicorn let out an alarmed gasp as she realized what she was staring at. Rarity’s face paled and her eyes widened as she also noticed what her friend was looking at. Before anyone could react, the creature let out a fierce and deep growl. Glimmer Shine and his two companions backed away, even though there wasn’t much room for them to back up before hitting a wall. As Glimmer Shine reached for his strobe, the creature swiped sideways at him. The stallion cried out in pain as he was sent to the floor with a slash on his chest. The creature then moved behind the injured pony, standing, or rather floating, between him and the two mares. Glitterball watched as the yellow stallion crawled in an attempt at getting away from the creature. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to use her magic on the demon before it could attack again. Taking a quick glance over to Rarity, the unicorn found a surprising solution that she hoped would work. Rarity was surprised as she felt Glitterball rip the salt container from her hooves. She watched in confusion and shock as the rainbow haired mare opened up the container and shook it towards the beast. A spout of salt came out of the container and flew into the air until it struck the creature. The demon let out a shriek of pain before disappearing into a cloud of black smoke. Although it looked like it was merely disrupted rather than destroyed, the two ponies were thankful that the monster was gone. With nothing left to block it from completing its path, the salt flew downwards until it hit Glimmer Shine in the face. The stallion sputtered to get the excess powder out of his mouth while also wiping it out of his closed eyes. “Could you warn a guy before you throw salt at him? You’re lucky none landed on my chest.” The yellow pony stated with slight agitation while looking down to his chest. Although the wound wasn’t deep, it would have been doubtlessly excruciating if even a single grain of salt landed in it. “You’re welcome.” Glitterball said with a smirk while helping her teammate to his feet. Glimmer Shine brushed the remaining salt out of his hair and off of his shoulders before smiling back at the mare that just saved his life. “Nice thinking using the salt offensively… I guess I owe you one.” Glimmer stated with a chuckle. Glitterball chuckled herself at the prospect of having the stallion in her debt. “You’re darn right you do… now let’s get back to the others. We can discuss how you will repay your debt later.” Glitter said lightheartedly. Everyone nodded before letting Rarity lead the way back. With their newfound weapon in hand, the three felt much safer while traversing the dark hallways. Now that they didn’t have to focus so much on being stealthy, they could actually walk back to the bedroom rather than crawl. Soon enough the trio found their way back to the sanctuary of Rarity’s bedroom. As they opened the door and stepped inside, they were greeted by the cheerful faces of their friends. “Guys! You made it!” Fluttershy cheered happily as she saw her friends return relatively unharmed. Although Glimmer Shine had a small cut along his chest, he seemed to be in one piece still. “Of course we did! I said we would be fine didn’t I? Applejack may be the element of honesty, but my word is my word.” Rarity stated lightheartedly while sharing a group hug with her two friends and her little sister. “All right, let’s hurry up and get some salt around these windows. I’m tired of these things already…” Glitterball spoke up while walking over to the first window in the room and pouring a line of salt on its windowsill. The ponies hoped that the flimsy barrier wasn’t as flimsy as it appeared and would actually keep them safe.
Chapter 59: DownpourMeanwhile, back at the library, Twilight and Spike were watching curiously as Tom and Peppermint prepared the bathroom door with salt. It was a stretch of the imagination to think that mere table salt could fend off such fierce creatures, but then again, just a few days ago the thought of such creatures existing sounded crazy to the unicorn and dragon. “And… you’re sure this will keep them out?” Spike asked nervously while eyeing the thin line of salt with a doubtful expression. “As long as nobody breaks the line of salt, they won’t be able to come inside.” Tom explained reassuringly. Spike still had his concerns about the seemingly flimsy protection system, but he had faith that the human knew what he was doing. As the boy finished laying the line of salt in front of the door, he stepped out and handed the container over to the stallion. “Alright, I’m going to go see what’s causing all of this… but first I’ll drop by Sweet Apple Acres to check on everyone. You should tell Sunspot and Rainbow Dash to grab some salt and head to an interior room.” Tom stated as a reminder. Peppermint suddenly remembered that he had abruptly left the pegasus hanging when they got attacked. “Right, I’ll be sure to let them know.” The red haired pony replied with a friendly smile. “Bye guys… I’ll be back as soon as all of this is dealt with.” Tom said with a quick wave before turning around to leave. “Hey Tom?” Twilight spoke up to get the boy’s attention. The human paused and turned around to see what the purple mare wanted. “Yeah?” Tom asked curiously. “Be careful out there…” Twilight stated with friendly concern evident in her expression. Spike nodded in agreement with her statement. “Yeah, don’t get yourself hurt out there.” The dragon added with a smile while admiring the human. He was still amazed that anyone would be willing to go out in a storm with monsters flying around to help people, but he still wanted the slayer to exercise caution. Tom smirked and gave a lighthearted chuckle while observing the pair. It was still a foreign concept for him to have someone care about him like this, but he welcomed the affection. “I’ll be fine… I would be more worried about those monsters if I were you. Nobody flies into my friends’ house and threatens them on my watch.” The slayer stated confidently while putting on his best intimidating expression. Twilight and Spike smiled at the seeming lack of fear that their human friend displayed in the face of danger. As the human walked away and shut the door, the three were left with only the soft sound of rain and thunder in the distance to break up the silence of the room. They wondered how long they would have to spend in the small bathroom, and what they would do to keep themselves occupied during their time. “So uh... anyone want to play twenty questions?” Peppermint asked awkwardly. Twilight shrugged while reflecting on just how low a point in her life it would be to play twenty questions in a cramped room with a stallion she barely even knew. Meanwhile, Tom was faced with an entirely different annoyance. As he walked down the stairs and got up to the front door, he suddenly realized what conditions he would be walking in all across town. One swift pull of the door was met by a wall of rainwater being blown into his face by the wind. Taking a moment to adjust to the jarring change in environments, the human realized just how much he was going to hate the next several minutes of his life. “Lovely…” Tom muttered sarcastically while stepping outside and closing the door. The cold rain and wind combined with the flashing of lightning and the booming of thunder would be enough to deter anyone from traveling outside, anyone without friends in danger that is. So without delay, the boy ran off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. The sooner he arrived, the sooner he could get out of the rain. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash were uneasily waiting in the bedroom while watching the clock tick away on the wall. The slow and mind numbing metronome was driving the orange mare up a wall. She shifted her weight around and fidgeted anxiously as she waited for Peppermint to call her back. “Maybe I should go help them…” Sunspot muttered while trying to deal with a tough decision in her head. Rainbow Dash shrugged as she watched the suited pegasus beating herself up with anxiety. “It’s only been a few minutes… I’m sure that Tom and Peppermint can handle things… I hope.” The cyan mare muttered to herself uncomfortably. As much as she wanted to instill confidence in Sunspot, she couldn’t shake her own feelings of anxiousness and her desire to help her friends. Still, even with her nagging feeling of being needed, Rainbow Dash was hesitant to leave the safety of her home. Perhaps it was a slowly building sense of fear she was receiving from fighting the dragon and surviving the incident at the hospital, or perhaps it was just paranoia, but the pegasus felt like she almost didn’t want to go rushing out to save her friends like she normally would. However, her bravery was slowly winning over her cowardice. The only thing keeping her at the house now was her anxious companion. Oblivious to the internal struggle that the cyan pony was having, Sunspot was still concerned with her friends’ safety. She wanted nothing more than to go outside and fly to her teammates’ rescue, but she was held back by the progressively waning need to listen to her orders. “Ugh… why isn’t he calling back?” The suited mare shrugged in frustration while eagerly paying attention for any signs of a voice in her head. Suddenly, Sunspot’s ears perked up and her spirits lifted as she heard the sound of Peppermint’s voice sounding out. “You still there Sunspot?” Pepper asked unassumingly. The stallion probably had no idea of how worried he had made her, but she was about to let him know. “Pepper!” The suited mare yelled with elation. Rainbow Dash nearly jumped out of her skin from how sudden and loud the excited pony’s outburst had been, so she could only wonder how Peppermint reacted to having such a noise directly in his head. “Gah!” The white stallion yelped in surprise from the sudden noise. The sound of something falling over and an equally surprised set of yelps from Twilight and Spike bled through the call, Sunspot suddenly felt bad from letting her emotions get the better of her. “Uh… Pepper? You ok?” The orange mare asked with a slight twinge of embarrassment in her voice. “Ow… yeah, I’m good. Just don’t do that again… yeesh.” Peppermint replied in a strained tone. Sunspot chuckled nervously as she listened to the effects of her sudden outburst. “Hehe… sorry.” The pegasus stated with an awkward smile. Although the stallion couldn’t see her expression, he could tell that she at least knew that she did something wrong. “Right… I guess I shouldn’t have kept you waiting like that. We were a little busy trying to get in contact with the others to tell them what to do.” Peppermint explained in a more sympathetic tone. “You called the others? How are they doing?” Sunspot asked curiously. She assumed that he must have been successful in his attempts at calling the others due to how long he took to reply. “They are fine. Apparently the strobes aren’t effective… but salt works to repel these things, so all of us are pouring some in front of all the doors and windows to stay safe while Tom investigates this storm.” Peppermint explained with a slight amount of confusion still in his voice from describing table salt like it was a weapon. The orange mare was more relieved that her teammates were safe than she was curious about the odd defensive choice that they had found. “What about Neon? Did you get in touch with her?” Sunspot asked uneasily. The pegasus grew slightly concerned as she thought about her green friend. She didn’t expect a positive answer from the stallion, after all she knew that something bad must have happened to Neon for her to be unresponsive this long. “No… I’m afraid not. Tom is going to check on her right now though, so for now we should just sit tight.” Peppermint stated with unease apparent in his voice. “Really? Because I was thinking that we should be out there helping Tom deal with this.” Sunspot reasoned with eagerness dripping from her voice. Peppermint was a little off put by the pegasus’s willingness to endanger herself. “Sunspot… the princess told us to watch the girls. Judging from how specific these attacks are, I would say that these things are after them. You and Rainbow Dash need to stick together… just grab some salt and seal yourself in a room… please… for me?” Pepper asked in a concerned tone. Sunspot felt for the red haired pony, she would probably tell him to do the same thing if their roles were reversed. “Don’t worry about us Pepper… I will personally make sure that Rainbow Dash is safe.” Sunspot stated sincerely. Peppermint felt better now that he knew that the orange pegasus would keep herself and her companion safe. “Ok, you two be careful… bye.” Pepper stated before cutting off the call. After finishing with her conversation, Sunspot shifted her expression to a brief smirk as she planned out her next moves. She respected Peppermint’s concerns for her, but she also had her own desires and concerns for the others. “Good news, Brimstoke and the others are safe. Apparently salt repels whatever these things are.” The suited mare said while getting up and walking over to the door. Rainbow Dash was relieved to hear that her friends were safe, and even more relieved that they had the upper hand against the monsters this time. “That’s great! Let’s go get some salt and hunker down.” The cyan mare suggested while getting off of her bed and trotting over to the other side of the room, Sunspot frowned slightly as she watched the eager pegasus walk over to her. “Yeah…” The orange mare stated in an imperceptibly sad tone while trailing her eyes off and opening the door. Rainbow Dash cautiously followed her as she made her way out of the bedroom. Although the two hadn’t even come across any danger, they were leery that the monsters that had come after their friends would find them eventually. With this in mind, the two ponies slowly walked through the darkened house while keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Sunspot kept her strobe at the ready as she scanned every corner they passed. As lightning flashed through the nearby windows, the entire room lit up with a thunderous crackle. The two ponies jumped with fright and scanned their heads back and forth frantically as they tried to secure their surroundings. Discovering no threats anywhere in their immediate vicinity, the pair breathed a sigh of relief and continued on their way. As she ran into a counter, Sunspot realized that they had reached the kitchen area. Taking one last look around her at the pitch black doorways at the edges of the room, the suited mare quickly ran over to the various cabinets dotted around the kitchen. “Where do you keep your salt?” Sunspot asked curiously while glancing back to her cyan companion. Rainbow Dash thought about all the possible places she could have kept salt. After straining her mind to think of the exact location, she shrugged before joining the suited pony in her search through the cabinets. “Not sure… I think it’s in one of these… Aha!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly while holding up a salt container like a trophy. “Good job.” Sunspot said in a congratulatory tone while staring at the unlikely weapon curiously. “Man… who would have thought that salt would be useful as a monster deterrent.” She chuckled slightly as she thought of the irony of a terrifying beast being afraid of a simple table condiment. “Yeah, I would have thought that pepper would be more effective… at least then you could make them sneeze.” Rainbow Dash stated lightheartedly, eliciting a smile from her suited companion. “Hey… you can throw salt in their eyes. That would hurt a lot I bet…” Sunspot added while glancing at the salt suggestively. “Wow… you guys are violent thinkers aren’t you?” The cyan mare stated with a nervous chuckle. Sunspot laughed as she realized how brutal her line of thought was. “Heh… yeah, I guess so.” The orange pony added before taking the salt from her companion. The pair quickly made their way back through the house while clutching their new weapon close to them. Once they made it back to the bedroom, the suited mare quickly got to work placing lines of salt at every window and door. Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as her orange friend secured the bedroom against all attacks. “There we go… this should keep you safe.” Sunspot stated while setting the salt container down on a nearby nightstand. Rainbow Dash was confused by her statement, her confusion slowly turned to suspicion as she watched her suited companion walk over to the door. “You mean keep us safe… right?” Rainbow Dash asked with a leery expression as she watched the orange pony pause at the door. Sunspot sighed sadly while looking back at the uneasy pegasus. She didn’t want to just leave her like this, but she had to do something to help her friends. “Rainbow Dash… I need to go help Tom.” Sunspot explained with an understanding frown on her face as she watched the already upset expression on her friend’s face shift into a shocked and concerned one. “What?! You can’t be serious… you told Pepper you would stay with me!” Rainbow Dash stated in an outrage. She couldn’t believe that the suited mare would even suggest going outside by herself, let alone going to fight by herself. “I told Pepper I would make sure you were safe… and I am. You’re going to stay right here… where you will be perfectly safe.” Sunspot replied while reaching for the door and stepping towards it. “Hey wait a minute!” The cyan mare stated frantically while rushing over to block the suited pony’s progress. As Rainbow Dash grabbed the door handle from her and closed it, Sunspot shrugged in frustration. “You aren’t going anywhere without me!” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. Sunspot wasn’t sure what to say to the riled up pegasus, or if she could even say anything to justify her reckless decision. “Rainbow Dash, it’s too dangerous out there. I’m supposed to keep you safe… Brimstoke will kill me if he finds out I took you with me.” She explained in an attempt at getting through to the stubborn mare. Judging from her expression, Sunspot figured that Rainbow Dash wasn’t budging. “You’re not taking me with you… I’m going with you, there’s a difference.” The cyan mare stated lightheartedly. Sunspot shrugged and rolled her eyes at the determined pegasus. “Look Sunspot… I know how you feel… and I feel the same way. If you’re going to go, then I’m coming with you. Besides… you can barely fly. You need me with you… to watch your back at least.” Rainbow Dash said with a hopeful and pleading smile. Sunspot glanced between her injured wing and the pleading expression the cyan mare was giving her. She knew that if she didn’t take her along now, that she would most likely follow her after she left. The suited mare would rather keep her in sight at all times rather than run the risk of her getting hurt while chasing after her. “Alright… fine, I’ll take you with me. But you are going to stay close to me… got it?” The orange mare instructed with a serious tone. Rainbow Dash wanted to appear serious, but couldn’t hold in a triumphant smile. She was very excited that she finally got the suited pony to cave in and let her accompany her. “Yes! Yes! Haha!” The cyan pegasus cheered happily. Sunspot could tell that she was eager to assist her friends. The suited pony smiled as she observed her cheerful partner. “Ok hotshot, let’s go kick some monster butt.” The orange mare stated confidently. Rainbow Dash smiled as she grabbed the salt and tossed it to her suited companion. Sunspot grabbed the container and shoved it into a holster on her suit. The two ponies confidently made their way through the house towards the front door. The storm raging outside was intimidating from the dryness and safety of the inside of the cloud home, but the two ponies were very apprehensive about heading out into the elements. After slowly putting a hoof on the front door handle, Rainbow Dash opened up the door and flinched her eyes shut as the cold rain blew into her face. Once the initial cold shock of water had passed, the pair slowly walked out into the harsh night. It was hard to walk forward due to the wind and rain constantly blowing around. The pair of ponies huddled together as they walked across the clouds to get over to an edge to take off from. The sky around them practically lit up every other second as lightning constantly flashed and thunder constantly boomed. Once they reached a point close to the edge, the two looked into the air around them to see what they would be flying into. Most of the clouds above them were thick and black, while the air below them was only obscured by heavy rainfall. Rainbow Dash’s house might have been a cloud itself, but it wasn’t exactly high enough to be at level with the rest of them. “We should probably stay low to avoid high winds and low visibility… maybe walking would be better all things considered. How’s your wing?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while glancing over to the suited mare shivering beside her. Sunspot slowly and painfully unfolded her wings, all the while cringing as she dealt with the soreness from her injury. She wasn’t sure if she could fly comfortably, but she was going to fly come hell or high water, whichever was most likely in the raging tempest around her. She certainly didn’t want Rainbow Dash carrying her to the ground. “I’ll manage... let’s just get on the ground so we can get moving. The sooner we reach Sweet Apple Acres, the better.” The orange pony stated while giving her wing a few test flaps. It stung to even move the feathery appendage, but Sunspot didn’t want her companion knowing that. “Ok… just take it slow and easy. I don’t want to have to carry you the whole way if you break a leg...” Rainbow Dash shivered violently while trying to cope with the rain hitting her. The cyan mare was used to being out in rainstorms, but she didn’t prefer it, especially considering this was a lot more severe than a simple spring shower. Without further delay, Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and spread her wings. The cyan pegasus maintained flight relatively easily considering the high winds, but she decided to stop and observe her companion to see if she was alright. Sunspot gulped nervously before taking a few steps back. She wondered how ironic it would be for her to die by falling out of the air considering her race and her previous occupation as a Wonderbolt. Shoving these thoughts from her head, she closed her eyes and cringed in fright as she jumped forward. With a frantic flap of her wounded wing, the suited pegasus slowly managed to support her weight in the air. It was a painful and rough flight, but it was working at any rate. After catching up with her partner, the orange mare nodded to her confidently before descending to the ground. The two pegasus’s walked across town as fast as they could considering the circumstances. The wind was blowing in their faces, the lightning around them looked like it could strike near them at any moment, and they were also terrified of what could be lying in wait in the clouds above. Neither of the two mares had seen the monsters that had attacked their friends, but just knowing that they were out there made them incredibly nervous. Every time the wind changed pitch or a quiet clap of thunder sounded in the distance the pair looked around them frantically, hoping that it was just their imagination. Sunspot anxiously glanced down to her locator every few minutes. As expected the small vial was glowing a soft blue, indicating that nothing was around her except for the storm. Despite this empty comfort, she expected some kind of flesh eating beast to fly out of the darkness and take her head off in one fell swoop. Rainbow Dash wasn’t faring much better from her suited companion. Not only was she frightened by her surroundings, but she also felt confined and tense because of her partner. She knew that the orange mare couldn’t flee from anything chasing her by flying, and she also knew that she couldn’t just leave her to fend for herself. No, the cyan pony had to protect her partner from anything that came their way, and that thought filled her with anxious fear. “Getting anything on your locator?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. Even though she had to yell over the rain and wind, the apprehension in her voice was obvious. “No, nothing yet.” Sunspot replied while taking another cursory glance at her locator. The cyan mare wasn’t exactly comforted by the news that they were alone. Deciding to take a look around to see where they were, Rainbow Dash smiled as she noticed familiar buildings passing by around them. If they continued at this rate, they would be at the farm in no time flat. The news that their journey was that much closer to ending was a pleasant discovery. It almost made the wet and cold feeling worth it. “We’re almost there!” The cyan mare announced happily. “That’s great! The sooner we can get out of this weather the better!” Sunspot replied with a wide smile. She couldn’t wait to get a roof over her head. The pair’s happiness wouldn’t last long however. Suddenly, a loud and echoing howl made its presence known above the roaring wind. The disturbing noise made the two mares freeze in mid stride. They whipped their heads around while trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. “W-what the hay is that?” Rainbow Dash asked in shock while darting her eyes around nervously. The noise sounded like it was all around them. It seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Before Sunspot could offer any insight into their situation, a vibration on her suit followed by a loud buzz drew her attention downwards. Her locator was glowing bright blue on one section, indicating that something was above her. “Heads up… looks like there’s something above us!” The orange mare announced while grabbing her strobe and tossing the salt container to her cyan companion, Rainbow Dash caught the flying cylinder and readied it and herself for battle. The pair scanned their eyes above them into the mass of black clouds. As the lightning illuminated their surroundings, they suddenly noticed a few shapes standing out from the swirling clouds. Two black figures were flying above them, seemingly floating in place while observing their prey. “There, I see them!” Rainbow Dash stated while pointing to the two black shapes. It was hard to make out in the rain, but Sunspot caught sight of the two menacing figures as well. “What are those things…? Do you think those are what have been attacking everyone?” The cyan mare asked while keeping a leery eye on the two possible threats. “I hope so… otherwise we have more than one kind of monster roaming around out here.” Sunspot replied wittily. Despite her attempt at lightening the mood, the orange pegasus had a suspicious feeling about their two guests. “That’s odd… why the hay are they just floating there? Shouldn’t they be…?” Sunspot started to reason why the pair of monsters was just staring at them, when suddenly she directed her attention downward when she heard another buzz from her locator. Midway down from checking the vial, the mare’s eyes caught the alarming sight of something flying towards her at rapid speeds. “Attacking us!” Sunspot yelled in a panic as she noticed the creature flying towards her. By the time she noticed the white eyed demon charging her, it was too late to take any meaningful action towards evading. Rainbow Dash turned her head to see a flying blur slam into her suited companion. Sunspot let out a cry of surprise as she was tackled by the monster and sent hurdling with it. The beast took the orange mare into the air and kept going, all the while holding onto the terrified mare as she struggled against it. Suddenly, the creature flung the pegasus downward and let her fall. “*Gasp* Sunspot!” The cyan mare’s eyes widened as she watched her friend falling to the ground. Although the two weren’t so high up that the fall would be fatal, the orange mare’s impact with the ground let out a cringe worthy thud. Sunspot had the wind knocked out of her from the force of the impact. She sat up to find where the creature had gone, only to find that it was getting ready to slam into her with its sharp looking claws. The demon let out a deep and haunting moan as it plunged its blades downward. The suited mare tried to move out of the way, but she was too fazed by her recent collision to do anything more than hold her arms out defiantly. “AHHH!” The orange pony screamed and closed her eyes as she watched the monster getting closer. About the time she would have expected to be skewered, Sunspot suddenly heard the creature cry out in pain, followed by the sensation of some sort of powder flying onto her. The surprised pegasus looked up to see no sign of the creature previously above her, instead spotting Rainbow Dash directly above her holding the salt container triumphantly. “You ok?” The cyan mare asked with concern while observing her dazed partner. Sunspot smirked as she realized how close she had brushed with death. Her excited smirk quickly turned to a horrified expression as she noticed what was heading towards the cyan pegasus. “Rainbow Dash, lookout!” Sunspot yelled frantically while pointing behind her friend with wide eyes. Rainbow Dash turned around and gasped in shock as she noticed what had alarmed her companion. The two demons they had spotted earlier had moved from their far off position. They had moved so much that they were just in front of the cyan mare, preparing to strike the hapless pony. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise while flapping her wings as hard as she could to evade the strike. She could feel a slight draft over her head as the creature’s claws just barely missed her hair. Not wanting to waste an opportunity for a strike, the cyan pony flicked the salt container towards one of the beasts as it flew past her. Much to her surprise, barely any salt came out of the container, and the salt that did come out quickly blended with the rain and fell to the earth. “What the…?” The confused mare stated while shaking the container more forcibly. Apparently the rain had gotten into the cylinder, making the salt wet, and making it harder to send it flying out in a noticeable clump. “Uh oh…” Rainbow Dash’s ego immediately deflated as she realized that her only means of taking the offense was just rendered useless. She slowly drifted her eyes down to the two agitated creatures below her and felt her heart sink. “I don’t suppose you guys are just misunderstood and you really just want to be loved…?” She asked with a nervous chuckle as she watched the two milky eyed monsters stare at her. One of the beasts growled at the brash pony. They weren’t about to let a cyan flying horse escape them. Rainbow Dash slowly felt her sense of bravery fading as she stared back at the two disturbing demons. “Yeah… I didn’t think so either.” The cyan mare shrugged in defeat, not that she really expected her ploy to work. Suddenly the two creatures shot upwards towards the pegasus. Rainbow Dash immediately started flying upwards to escape her pursuers. She was surprised at just how quickly the two monsters could move. She could barely keep up with them herself without speeding up further than she typically flew. As she felt the pair right on her tail, the cyan mare started zipping around to dodge her two attackers. For every dip and hairpin turn the speedy pegasus made, the creatures were right behind her, making almost perfect maneuvers to keep right on her. Whenever they got close enough to warrant a strike, she would use that as motivation to fly just a little faster. Taking a quick glance behind her, Rainbow Dash was surprised as she only saw one of the beasts behind her. Looking around in a slight panic, the cyan pony couldn’t find the missing monster anywhere she looked. “What the hay? Where’d the other one go?” Rainbow asked herself in utter confusion. The demon had been right behind her just a moment ago. Noticing movement above and in front of her, Rainbow Dash looked up to see something flying out of a nearby cloud bank. Sure enough, the white eyed beast was rushing straight for her. “Oh no you don’t!” The cyan mare gritted her teeth and shot straight upwards. She tensed her body up as she anticipated the creature behind her making some kind of contact with her. Unexpectedly, the pegasus only felt a slight brush on her tail as the monster rushed forward, and slammed into its partner in midair. As she looked down at the two dazed beasts, she felt a twinge of accomplishment well up inside of her. The cyan pony let a smirk creep across her face, she had just outsmarted two demons, and it felt surprisingly good. “Haha! You guys should practice some more before you chase after a pegasus!” Rainbow Dash mocked the two creatures confidently. Suddenly the cyan mare noticed something that made her stop laughing. One of the creatures had an odd discoloring on its chest. The patch almost looked like a burn in the shape of powder spray. The strange mark on the creature perplexed the pegasus, until she thought of something to explain it, something that made a cold chill run down her spine. “But if that’s the guy I hit with salt… then where is…?!” With a newfound sense of panic, Rainbow Dash looked around her frantically. She suddenly heard a growling sound coming from behind her. Swiftly turning around, the cyan mare immediately saw the missing monster right in front of her face. The creature let out a low roar as it reeled its arm back for a strike. “AHHHHH!” Rainbow Dash screamed fearfully as she watched the beast wind up for a strike. At this distance, there was no way she could avoid it. The cyan pegasus shut her eyes and shielded her face, half to protect herself from harm, and half to prevent herself from watching as she was cut to ribbons. “Rainbow Dash!” Sunspot’s voice rang out from somewhere off to the side. Rainbow Dash hesitantly opened her eyes, only to see something in a blue and yellow suit plowing into the monster about to attack her. As the creature went flying from her strike, the suited mare struggled to right herself in the air. She seemed to have been fighting against her painful injury to just try and assist her friend, but she didn’t seem to be able to get back down safely. Finally, after a few moments of desperately trying to push her wing to its limits just to maintain flight, Sunspot plummeted out of the air. She let out a sharp cry as she fell, only to be caught a few seconds later by Rainbow Dash. The cyan mare gently carried her injured companion to the ground and sat her down. “Holy cow… you just saved my tail.” Sunspot stated with her heart pounding in her chest. She could still barely believe that she made it that far with how bad her wing felt. “I could say the same thing to you. How did you even get up to us with your wing like that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while looking to the orange mare’s injured appendage. “It wasn’t exactly easy… you better be thankful you were flying so low. If you were any higher, I wouldn’t have reached you in time… if I could even get that high to begin with.” Sunspot said with a more saddened expression. As much as she tried to play off her injury, it was clear now that it did impede her from flying anything other than short distances at low speeds. “Hey, don’t look so glum about it. You saved me didn’t you?” Rainbow Dash asked with a reassuring smile. Sunspot couldn’t help but to smirk as she thought about it more positively. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. Now let’s get out of here… maybe we can out run those things on foot.” The orange mare suggested in a more urgent tone. As the two ponies looked up to find the creatures that were chasing them, they discovered the trio floating in the clouds a fair distance above them. The beasts seemed to be watching them menacingly, waiting for them to make a move. “No way… they’re too fast. I could barely keep up with them in the air.” Rainbow Dash replied with an uneasy tone. The orange pegasus shrugged anxiously while trying to think of what to do. “Don’t worry, we can find a way out of this.” Sunspot said in a reassuring tone. “But how are we going to lose these guys? The salt is all liquidy, we are too far away for anyone to help, we can’t outrun them, and we can’t out fly them.” Rainbow Dash reasoned nervously. Sunspot immediately thought about using her strobe, but as she reached for it, she suddenly remembered that Peppermint explained that they were useless against these creatures. “Dang it… Pepper said the strobes don’t work on these things. Ugh… what if we-” Sunspot tried to think of something to do, but before she could finish her thought, she heard a loud howl coming from above her. The two ponies looked up to see one of the monsters above them, but it didn’t seem to be charging after them. As the pair was watching the beast, it reeled its arms back slowly. The confusing display seemed pointless to the two mares, but their misguided judgment would soon be disproven. As the creature pushed its arms forward, a strong gust of wing suddenly appeared. The gust slammed into the two ponies, catching them off guard. The pair let out a painful groan as the sheer strength of the gust sent them to their knees. It almost felt like they had been caught in a tornado that was focused only on them. Any attempts they made to flap their wings or move to the side to escape were fruitless. Their entire bodies were pinned from the violent tempest. Suddenly, the direction of the gust changed drastically. Now, instead of coming from above them and pushing them to the ground, the gust seemed to be arcing upwards under them. Before they could even process the new change in direction, the force of the gust increased rapidly and took them with it as it flew into the air. “AH!” The two mares let out a startled cry as they were sent skyward against their will. The intense wave of air seemed to push them in any direction the beasts controlling it wanted. They were starting to feel sick from being jolted around so much. Before either of the two could think of a way to escape, the gust of wind sent them downwards again. They picked up speed as gravity aided the wind in pulling them down to a sudden stop. With a bone crushing thud, the two were slammed into the ground. The force of their bodies hitting the earth combined with the force of the gust of wind hitting them, creating a very painful wave of pressure that knocked all of the air out of their lungs. “Urk!” Rainbow Dash groaned as she tried to move her aching body. She looked over to check on her companion, only to realize that the suited mare was lying motionless beside her. The sight of her chest rising and falling told the concerned pegasus that her friend was still alive, but the fact that she had been knocked out by the blow was troubling. As the cyan mare tried to move her arm over to her friend, she cringed slightly in pain. The height they had just fallen from wasn’t so great that they had broken any bones, but it certainly felt like they did. “Ughh… Sunspot… wake up.” Rainbow Dash slowly managed to position her arm to where she could shake her unconscious friend. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t elicit any sort of response from the orange pony. As she moved her head to look back at the sky, she became very fearful as she noticed three black figures looming just above her. The three creatures were slowly descending while staring at their prey with their unblinking white eyes. Fearing for her life, the cyan mare struggled to escape the imminent danger approaching her. As she tried to move her body, she quickly realized that she was numb with pain and soreness. Managing to roll over and get to her knees, Rainbow Dash looked up to see how close the monsters had gotten. “Oh no…” Rainbow muttered while out of breath. The black figures were hovering just above her, as if they were enjoying watching her struggle for her life. Taking a quick glance over to her unconscious partner, the cyan mare noticed that she was slowly stirring. Despite the pleasant site of the suited pegasus moving around, Rainbow Dash knew that it was probably for the best that she remain unconscious, unconscious and unaware of what was about to happen. The creatures growled and reeled back their arms while spreading their claws. The cyan mare closed her eyes and lowered her head. She felt her body shiver, not only from the wind and rain, but also from the gripping sense of fear she had. A swarm of thoughts flew through Rainbow Dash’s head. She thought back to her friends and what they meant to her. She could practically see the devastation on their faces as they learned that she had perished out in the cold rain. “Sorry girls… I guess I should have been more careful.” Rainbow Dash stated sadly while preparing for the end. Just before she expected to be sliced to ribbons, the cyan pegasus suddenly heard a strange sound. It resembled the familiar swish of a sword splitting through solid materials. Following the metallic sound, an ear splitting shriek of pain made by the monstrous figures rang out. Rainbow Dash looked up curiously to see what was going on. The sight in front of her stunned her into silence. One of the demons was missing, and in its place stood a puff of black smoke that appeared to be split in two. As the black smoke dissipated, the cyan mare looked over to see the remaining two creatures writhing in pain as they sank to the ground. The monsters seemed to be recoiling in agony from some unseen force. They were struggling to move, but they were unable to budge from the ground. Taking a quick look around to determine what was going on, Rainbow Dash was elated to see a familiar figure in blue standing nearby. “Tom!” Rainbow exclaimed happily at the sight of her human friend. She didn’t care if she was a damsel in distress. She was actually excited to be rescued. Rather than answering the cheerful pegasus, the human seemed to be focusing on something else. He had his arm stretched out in front of him with his hand clutched as if he were grasping something. The boy was straining against something, and whatever that something was seemed to be wearing him out. With his free hand, the human flipped his sword around and slowly walked over to the two demons. The creatures tried to back away, but they were rooted in place by his influence. With one fluid swipe, Tom dispatched both monsters into a satisfying cloud of smoke. As the remains of his enemies dispersed into the rain and wind, the human walked over to the two mares with a concerned expression. He still seemed to be catching his breath, but he was more worried about the two ponies than his own fatigue. “You ok?” Tom asked while glancing over to Sunspot. The suited mare seemed to be getting up, but she was taking a long time. “Hey Sunspot, you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while gently putting a hoof on her shoulder. “Ugh… yeah… I think so.” The orange pegasus stated while rubbing the back of her head tenderly. After slowly getting up and turning around, she was surprised to see the slayer standing in front of her. “Tom… when did you get here?” Sunspot asked in a confused tone. The cyan mare next to her was slightly concerned for her health after such a blow to the head. “Just in time from the look of things… You’re lucky I sensed a group of them over here acting weird and came to investigate. What are you two doing out here?” Tom asked while shifting to a more upset tone. Rainbow Dash looked down sadly, with Sunspot following suit once she regained her senses. “Sorry Tom… we wanted to help.” The suited mare spoke up on behalf of the pair. Rainbow Dash could tell that she was trying to shoulder the responsibility. Tom frowned slightly as he stared at the two pouting ponies. He could understand why they would want to help their friends, he just wished that they would be more careful in the process. “Well… you’re out here now, we might as well keep going.” Tom stated in a compromising tone while walking over to the side of the road in preparation to leave. The two mares were dumbfounded that the human was just letting them come along without reprimanding them. “Really…? You’re just going to let us go?” Rainbow Dash asked with a surprised expression while walking up to the blue suited slayer. “I was kind of expecting more… I don’t know… more telling us how stupid we were for coming out here? That’s probably what the others would have done.” She added in a confused tone. “We can sit here and argue over how stupid your decision was all day, or we can go save the others… I vote for the latter.” Tom replied while walking off towards the farm. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot shared a stunned expression before trotting to catch up with the human. As much as they were surprised by their friend’s almost casual line of thinking, they knew he was right. Sweet Apple Acres was a decent distance away on foot, and they had to get there as soon as possible to help their friends.
Chapter 60: EpicenterRainbow Dash and her two traveling companions walked across the rain soaked streets of Ponyville tirelessly on their mission to rescue their friends. Although their pace was slow from the shivering cold they were putting their bodies through, they had to complete their journey at all costs. Besides, after the close call the two mares just had with the monsters of the storm, they felt that it would be best to stay low. The trio walked along what they could loosely identify as the side of a path, taking a few moments to enjoy the reprieve from the rain they would receive by passing under a stray tree. Rainbow Dash slightly regretted leaving the streets of Ponyville, with its buildings and awnings to hide under. Now all she could look forward to was more stinging rain and wind plowing into her already drenched fur. Taking a begrudging glance beside her to her suited companion, she shrugged as she wondered how better off Sunspot was in her Wonderbolt outfit. “Are we almost there? I think I’m pruning up from being out in the rain for so long…” Rainbow Dash whined ahead to the human leading them. “You tell me… I barely know my way around this place when it isn’t covered in a torrential downpour.” Tom stated jokingly while glancing back to his soaked companions. The two mares were outraged by the fact that the person leading them had no idea where they were going. “What?! You mean we could be walking in the completely wrong direction?!” Rainbow Dash asked in an understandably upset tone. Tom could tell that his comment wasn’t exactly achieving the desired effect. “Take it easy, I was kidding… we should be there in a few minutes.” Tom shrugged while looking straight forward. He was afraid that if he turned around to look at the pair they might kill him, or at least try to at any rate. “Funny…” Rainbow Dash spoke sarcastically while staring daggers into the back of Tom’s head. She was a little confused to hear Sunspot chuckling next to her. “Hey, lighten up Rainbow Dash. At least you don’t have to wear a suit while doing this… I swear this thing is so wet that it’s squeaking.” Sunspot said in a jovial tone while shivering slightly. Every time she moved she felt the cold and wet material of the suit come into contact with her already soaked body. It was a wonder how she kept such high spirits. “Really? I would have thought that wearing that thing would keep you warm for at least a few seconds longer.” Rainbow Dash pondered out loud. The cyan mare never really thought about how the rain would affect her friend’s suit. “Heh… yeah, maybe like one. I guess I can call up the old team and tell them that these things aren’t water proofed worth squat.” Sunspot replied while pulling a section of her suit out to test how soaked it was. The piece of fabric felt squishy to the touch and didn’t even snap back into place immediately, instead only sagging slightly before finally going back to its original position. Rainbow Dash was going to say something else to her orange companion, when she suddenly ran into Tom and came to an abrupt stop. She noticed that the human was staring ahead with a surprised expression. “What the hay…? Tom, what’s wrong?” The cyan mare asked while following his gaze forward. It didn’t take long for her and her suited friend to notice what had spooked the slayer. A huge rolling wall of what appeared to be clouds and rain was spinning around the area ahead. The sound of the rain hitting the ground masked the roaring wind of the distant phenomenon, but the two ponies could clearly hear it now that they were aware of its presence. The entire thing resembled a giant tornado that was remaining in place. The two ponies were speechless as they stared at the horrific whether phenomenon. No tornado they had ever witnessed or created was nearly as big or as frightening looking as this beast. It didn’t even look like it could have been created by ponies. Strangely though, it didn’t seem to be doing much damage to the surrounding area. Whatever pull it had must have been incredibly localized for them to not even feel anything from this distance. “W…w-what in the name of Celestia is that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked stupor as she watched the large twister closely. It didn’t seem to be sucking up much debris, further confirming that it wasn’t an average tornado. Tom used his senses a few times to scope out the area ahead. He felt a large amount of energy inside the area concealed by the storm, and an even larger amount of those creatures waiting inside. “I think this is where the storm came from… I’m sensing a lot of activity over there, and correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that thing directly over Sweet Apple Acres?” Tom asked while observing the surrounding area. As Rainbow Dash looked around, she realized that the boy was right. The tornado was so large that she hadn’t noticed that it was covering the entire farm behind a wall of wind and rain. The thought of Applejack and her family being inside of that horrific thing made the cyan mare panic with fear. “Oh my gosh, you’re right! We need to go help them!” Rainbow Dash stated in an alarmed tone. She hoped against all hope that nothing bad had already happened to her orange friend or her family. Rainbow Dash couldn’t imagine her life without the farm pony in it. Applejack was practically family to her and the others. “Hold up… I’m sensing a lot more of those things in there. Even if we could get through that tornado, we would be outnumbered. We should stay low and keep quiet unless we want to be up to our eyes in demons.” Tom said in a cautious tone. “So you’re telling me that the best plan you can come up with is to sneak in there and hope they don’t see us?” Rainbow Dash asked in a leery tone while eyeing the human with a doubtful expression. “Well… yeah, I guess. Do you have any better ideas?” Tom asked curiously while glancing between the two mares. “I have a charm that can hide us from supernatural creatures.” Sunspot suggested in a helpful tone. “Really? That sounds great Sunspot! Why didn’t we use that before?” Rainbow Dash asked in a surprised tone while looking to the suited mare. “Umm… it has a really small range, so it would only work for me and maybe one other person… we would have to be shoulder to shoulder the whole time, and even then it might not completely cover you.” Sunspot deflated slightly as she remembered the limitations to her equipment. “You guys really need to get better stuff… I know you didn’t have much to go on, but this is getting ridiculous. Maybe Tom can show you some tricks of the trade with his monster know-how.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a wry smirk while glancing to the human. “Before we do that we should probably get moving... through the giant tornado.” Tom said with a nervous chuckle while returning his attention forward. Everyone gulped nervously as they thought about how to approach walking through a tornado that was twice the size they were used to. “I’m not sure if I want to try flying into that… even if I could fly straight, I’m not sure if I could stop it.” Rainbow Dash said uneasily. She was confident that she could unravel any tornado that came her way, but that was only when it was a natural occurrence she was dealing with. The rolling wall of wind and rain in front of her now was far from natural. “Don’t worry, I’ll go in first to see if it’s safe.” Tom suggested while stepping forward confidently. The two mares eyed the human with uncertain expressions as he prepared to waltz inside. “But… what if you don’t come back out?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. Not only because she was concerned for the human’s health, but also because she didn’t want to be left without his protection this close to imminent danger. “Well… then you know that it isn’t safe.” Tom replied jokingly. The boy’s answer only made the cyan pony feel even more uncomfortable. “Relax guys, I’m practically immortal remember? If I’m not back out in a few minutes, try to find another way to handle this thing… maybe call Twilight and the others so she can tell the princess.” Tom said reassuringly. The two mares looked at each other for a moment before nodding slowly. With that in mind, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot watched intently as the human walked up to the wall of wind. Tom inched closer to the wall apprehensively. He couldn’t feel anything at the moment, but he knew that whatever force the vortex held was probably inside of it. The boy cautiously held out his hand and inched it closer to the spinning mass. As he felt the tips of his fingers breech the vortex, he had to push forward slightly to prevent his arm from being blown back. Once inside the wall, he felt a constant force pushing against him, trying to carry him sideways with the rest of the wind. Not wanting to waste any more time, Tom stepped forward and shielded his eyes with his other hand. The two ponies watched as their friend disappeared from sight. Several agonizing moments went by without any sign of the slayer’s return. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Rainbow Dash felt more and more anxious with each passing second as she feverishly watched the swirling mass. “Tom…?” Rainbow spoke up over the sound of the roaring wind, hoping to get some sort of response. “Are you ok?” She asked nervously. The cyan mare wasn’t even sure if the boy could hear her, but she couldn’t bear standing still and doing nothing. Just before her nerves were going to explode, Rainbow Dash was relieved to see Tom bursting out of the spinning wall. Judging from first glance, it appeared as if he wasn’t missing anything vital, so perhaps there was hope for the two ponies. “How was it?” Sunspot asked curiously as the human walked back up to them. Tom shrugged while shaking his head and glancing back to the wall with an exhausted expression. “Whew... It’s definitely an experience, that’s for sure. I think you two should be fine crossing through it, just steady yourself and close your eyes… there is a lot of debris in there.” Tom explained while brushing himself off. “Way ahead of you man.” Sunspot stated while tapping her flight goggles on the side. She was thankful that she didn’t have any water blown into her eyes on the trip through town, and now she was thankful that she didn’t have to worry about going blind from having debris blown into her face. “I guess I’ll just hang onto you guys and keep walking forward.” Rainbow Dash shrugged as she realized that she had no other means to protect her eyes other than closing them tightly. She would be blind as a bat while walking through the twister, but she hoped that her two friends were trustworthy enough to not lead her off a cliff. “All right then… let’s get in there.” Tom said eagerly while walking towards the tornado. He appeared to hold more confidence in traveling through the wall than the ponies had, but then again, he had already went through it once. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot shared a nervous glance before walking over to join the human near the wall. The rushing of wind was almost deafening, so the trio had to communicate through gestures. Tom huddled close and kept a hand on the suited mare’s back to keep track of her in the blinding tempest, while Rainbow Dash stood shoulder to shoulder with Sunspot and placed one of her arms around her. The trio wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t lose someone to the swirling wind before they made it through. With a solemn nod, the group stepped forward into the tornado. Rainbow Dash shut her eyes as she shoved her nose into the wall of wind. The force pushing back on her almost felt like a wall of fast moving water, being powerful enough to provide palpable resistance as she walked forward with the rest of her group. The constant force of the wind blowing against them almost knocked the three down. If it weren’t for the fact that she was with her two companions, the cyan mare might have been blown around like a living tumbleweed. On top of the force of the wind, the sound of the wind was overwhelming. It wasn’t quite loud enough to hurt the ponies’ ears, but it was enough to create an all-encompassing atmosphere that drowned out any other noise. If the cyan pegasus were to speak, she wasn’t even sure if she could hear herself in her own head. The only thing Rainbow Dash could do was keep her eyes shut, and keep her friends close as they slowly walked forward. Meanwhile, Sunspot at least had the luxury of a visual experience. Although she couldn’t see much, she could see the flurry of wind blowing past her face. This sensory overload was enough to keep her mildly astonished and entertained as she walked through the tempest. Suddenly, all at once, the group stepped out onto the other side. As quickly as the deafening noise had arrived, it vanished. The three found themselves standing outside of the fence bordering the farmland that Applejack and her family called home. “Whoa… that was kind of cool. I guess I can honestly say I have walked through a giant tornado now…” Rainbow Dash commented in an astonished tone while glancing back at the swirling wall behind her. Although the cyan mare dealt with tornadoes in her duties as a pegasus, she usually just made them by flying. She never walked through them before, and certainly not one so big. “Yeah… that’s a new one for me too. Let’s hurry up and find the others so we can stop those demons.” Tom said to remind the group of their task. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement as she thought back to her earth pony friend. “Right, let’s go save Applejack and the others… I hope they are alright. They have been in here for a really long time.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. The more she thought about her friend’s situation, the more worried she got. “I’m sure they’re fine… but we should hurry every chance we get.” Sunspot added reassuringly. She only hoped that what she was saying was actually true. Without any further delay, the three set out on their way through Sweet Apple Acres. As they passed through the gate, they weren’t greeted with the usual beauty of the luscious farmland. Instead they were greeted with darkness and rain drenched soil. The group had to put in a sizable effort just to not sink into the mud. The usually breath taking orchards of apple trees on either side of them were now in shambles. Most of the apples had been blown off, and the trees themselves were on the verge of being ripped apart by the wind. It pained Rainbow Dash to see her friend’s livelihood in such poor shape. “Oh no… Applejack is going to be devastated when she sees how much damage this storm has done.” Rainbow commented sadly while looking around at the various pieces of wooden tools and other such items blown around by the wind. She almost didn’t want to see how the house and barn looked. “It’s bad enough that they’re trying to kill us… can’t they leave our property alone?” Sunspot asked in a more agitated tone. The more the two mares thought about everything the hooded ponies had done, the more upset they became. “I swear… when I get my hooves on one of those hooded creeps, I’ll make them sorry they were ever born!” Rainbow Dash said angrily while envisioning how satisfying it would be to take her rage out on one of the hooded ponies. Suddenly, Tom paused and used his senses a few times. He seemed to be more confused than concerned by whatever reading he was getting. The two ponies could only stand in place and let him finish whatever he was doing. “What’s wrong Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked anxiously while looking around them. Although she couldn’t see any more of the demons, the pegasus knew that there were probably hundreds of them waiting in the clouds. “It’s faint… but I’m sensing some ambient energy that would indicate some kind of spell… and it feels similar to the ones we have been coming across all over town.” Tom explained while double checking his findings. “You mean there’s a pictogram here?” Sunspot asked curiously. She wondered if they could destroy the pictogram to be rid of the storm and all of the monsters that came with it. “Yeah… and I’m not sure, but I think I can sense a lone pony in the middle of it.” Tom replied in an uncertain tone. The news that one of the hooded ponies could still be here was shocking and slightly intimidating to the two mares. Every hooded pony that their friends had run into had been a super-powered psychopath. “Really? You mean… one of them might still be here?” Rainbow Dash asked with slight apprehension evident in her voice. She could already imagine what frightful capabilities whatever pony it was might have held. “Looks like you will get your chance after all Rainbow Dash… let’s head over there.” Tom suggested while walking forward. The two mares were forced to follow him as he moved off to the side of the farm and up to the fence. Tom quickly jumped over the fence and signaled for the two ponies to join him. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot looked at each other nervously before shrugging and hopping over the wooden structure to join the human. They would rather stay close to him and fight a magically powered pony than be alone in the storm again. After a few moments of walking along the fence, the group started to see something up ahead amid the flashes of lightning. It appeared to be a line on the ground that formed an intricate circle, and in the middle of the circle was a crouched down figure. “There it is… and there is that pony you felt.” Sunspot stated the obvious in a slightly nervous tone. She was still dreading her first encounter with one of the monstrous individuals that were responsible for all of this. “Maybe we should just leave him alone… what if he has powers like the others?” Rainbow Dash reasoned, deciding to no longer hide her apprehensions. “Don’t worry… I can’t feel any shadow energy on him… I don’t think he can even use any shadow magic.” Tom stated before walking over confidently. The two mares weren’t sure if what the human said was true, but they were a little more confident as they walked up to join him. The trio lined up and confidently walked closer to the mysterious pony. As they got closer, they noticed that it was a male unicorn wearing a gray hoodie. He appeared to have a red vest on underneath his hood, but it was hard to tell in the rain. He appeared to be sulking, or at any rate he appeared to be waiting around with a saddened expression. He was sitting in the center of the symbol with his head hung low. Judging from how much his hair and clothes were soaked through, one could gather that he had been out here for a while. “Hey, you there!” Tom spoke up in an intimidating tone while walking up to the edge of the symbol. The unicorn jumped nervously as he realized that he wasn’t alone. Even through the darkness and rain, the group could tell that his eyes were wide in fear. “Ah!” The unicorn stammered nervously before falling silent. He scooted backwards defensively as he stared at his three visitors. “What are you doing here?” Tom asked while keeping up his intimidating tone of voice. The more frightened the pony was of him, the more progress he could make, or at least that was what he hoped. “Uh… umm… I’m just uh… out for a walk…?” The hooded pony muttered in a timid voice. He didn’t even sound like he believed his own answer. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and groaned painfully. She almost felt bad that someone could think up such a pathetic lie. The cyan mare walked up a little closer and glared at the nervous unicorn. “Buddy… you’re a horrible liar.” Rainbow Dash stated with an agitated expression. “Uh… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was just walking around town, when this storm came out of nowhere… I tried to get away, but then that tornado came down and blocked me in!” The unicorn tried to explain in as sincere a manner as possible, which didn’t get him very far. The trio merely looked at him in disbelief. “Dude… you are literally… holding, the book that you used to make this spell.” Rainbow Dash stated while pointing to the leather bound book in the unicorn’s grasp. Although the pages were completely ruined from the rain, the arcane symbols on the cover of the tome clearly painted a picture as to its contents. As he noticed that he was in fact holding damning evidence in front of him, the hooded pony nervously hid the book behind his back and smiled awkwardly with a nervous chuckle. “Book? What book?” The unicorn said with an awkward smile while breaking out into a cold sweat. “Look man, cut it out… we know that you did this.” Tom said while pointing up at the blackened clouds. He walked forward to get closer to the unicorn, when he was suddenly stopped by an invisible barrier. “Ow… what the…?” The boy muttered in confusion while feeling around the force field. Taking a quick look downwards at the glowing symbols beneath him, he quickly realized the purpose of the barrier. “So that’s why you’re still here… Looks like somebody didn’t read the fine print on the spell they were using.” Tom said while giving the barrier a few taps with a closed fist. The unicorn seemed confused by his statement. “What do you mean?” The hooded pony asked curiously. “The spell you used summons a protective barrier to keep the summoner safe from the demons. A rather convenient spell… unless you intend on leaving anytime soon.” Tom said with an amused chuckle. “Sunspot, can you get this thing open with that charm you used back at the hospital?” The human asked curiously while turning to the suited mare. Surely the charm she used to dispel the magical barrier that was holding them on the third floor could undo whatever force field was trapping the unicorn. “Sure thing… just give me a minute.” Sunspot replied while searching through her vials. As the hooded pony realized that the trio was about to break into his accidental sanctuary, he started becoming even more nervous. “Stop! You can’t come in here… I won’t let you!” He yelled in a desperate attempt at stopping their assault on his prison. The unicorn’s threats only elicited a brief chuckle from the group. “Hah… like you could do anything to hurt us. You can’t even perform a spell right if you got trapped in there!” Rainbow Dash mocked the nervous pony with a smirk. Her comment made him even more nervous and even more desperate. “Uh… what’s stopping me from just teleporting away from you once you let me out? Yeah… bet you didn’t think of that did you?!” The unicorn replied with false confidence. In response to his bold statement, the human partially unsheathed his blade and glared at him. “If I so much as see that horn of yours light up… I’ll cut it off. And trust me on this one… I can move faster than you can think.” Tom stated in a threatening tone. The boy’s harsh words made the unicorn squeal fearfully at the mere thought. “Please don’t hurt me!” The stallion stated while cowering with his face hid in his arms. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Cotton Quill would it?” Sunspot asked while preparing her charm for use. The unicorn stopped cowering and looked up in response. “How did you know that?” He asked in a confused tone, confirming the orange mare’s suspicions. “Well… we know that a unicorn named Cotton Quill does most of the legwork for all of the monster summoning’s we have encountered… and you seem to match his description.” The suited pegasus replied while pushing the tip of the vial she was holding against the barrier. A shockwave went through the force field before disappearing in a small flash of light. As the barrier vanished, the trio took a few steps towards the nervous unicorn. “Gah!” Cotton yelped in fright while backpedalling away from the approaching group. As he got up to run, he was suddenly stopped by the human speaking up. “Hold up there hood boy… we just want to talk. Besides, if you run I will give you a reason to keep running.” Tom said in an earnest and surprisingly mellow tone. Cotton paused and turned around for fear that he was being honest. “Look… we can worry about what to do with you later. Right now we have friends that need our help, so you’re coming with us.” The human added in a compromising manner. Rainbow Dash was surprised by the notion of taking one of their enemies with them. “What?! We’re taking him with us?!” The cyan mare asked with a shocked expression. “We need him for information, and we can’t really do anything with him at the moment. We have no choice but to keep him with us as a hostage… I mean, what do you think we should do with him?” Tom asked while turning to face the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash was unsure of how to answer. She didn’t like the prospect of one of their enemies being with them in such a crisis, but she also knew that they needed to get information out of him later. “Well umm… we could… I… *sigh* Alright fine, you win.” Rainbow Dash stated in a defeated tone as she came up with no other answers. “Good… let’s get moving. Applejack and the others need us sooner rather than later.” Tom suggested while walking forward and grabbing ahold of the back of Cotton’s hoodie. The unicorn struggled briefly before going along with the human’s lead. After taking a moment to examine the peculiar symbol on the ground and all of the materials with it, the group headed off on their way to help their friends. With the storm raging overhead, and the ever present fear of the monsters somewhere around them, they were eager to get indoors. Quickly hopping over the fence and ducking under some apple trees, the group took a brief moment to enjoy the decrease of rain hitting them. With a shared nod, the trio decided to linger for a few more minutes to catch their breaths. Rainbow Dash sat down and leaned up against the trunk of a sturdier looking tree. She put her arms behind her head and kicked back to relax for a few moments. She hadn’t realized just how sore and tired she was from all the stress she had recently been through, so it was nice to rest. “Man… I think I never want to see water again.” Rainbow Dash said in a matter of fact tone. If she never saw another rain cloud again, it would be too soon. “Heh… now you know how we felt after getting out of the school. We were wading through ice cold knee high water for like half an hour… not to mention the bloody freak chasing us.” Tom stated lightheartedly. “Well no offense, but I would have much rather went on without knowing what it feels like to be a pair of socks in a washing machine... minus the walking pile of blood” Rainbow Dash replied with a chuckle. “Where did you guys find that ugly customer anyway? Did you pick him out yourself or did your boss just give you an assignment.” The human asked while glancing over to the hooded unicorn nearby. Cotton looked over at the slayer nervously as he brought up the events at the school. Doubtlessly he would be upset over every hardship that had occurred by his hoof. “I-I was just doing what I was T-told… everything was prepared for me beforehand, except for the location.” Cotton explained apprehensively. “Wait… you picked the location? So you were the one that decided to attack the school?!” Rainbow Dash asked angrily. She became more upset as she thought further about the unicorn’s role in the calamities that happened recently. Cotton avoided eye contact with the agitated pegasus as she glared at him. He hoped that she would eventually leave him alone if he was silent. “Some friends of mine got hurt during the attack you caused… three fillies. They don’t even have their cutie marks yet… you don’t feel even a little bit remorseful for that?!” The cyan mare asked while sitting up and intensifying her glare. “I… umm.” Cotton fiddled his hooves together as he searched for an answer to her question. He hadn’t really put much thought into how the plans he carried out affected other ponies. In his duties, pain and suffering were seen as good things to be inflicted on others. “You were the one that picked the hospital too weren’t you…?” Rainbow Dash grew cold and quiet as she thought about the matter further. “I get it… you wanted to take advantage of the ponies hurt at the school. Strike them while they were already hurt and scared… gather more fear up for your hooded pals right? Two ponies died in there… because of what you did… do you even care?!” She yelled at the unresponsive unicorn, making him jump slightly. “Leave him alone Rainbow Dash… we can give him the third degree later.” Tom suggested in an attempt at calming down the upset pegasus. Rainbow Dash leaned back while glaring at the unicorn for a few more moments. She then sighed and looked away. “How could someone be so heartless?” The cyan mare muttered sadly before falling silent. The group sat in silence for a while after that, listening to the rain while they dealt with their inner feelings. As they listened to their surroundings, they started to notice something changing about the storm around them. The wind and rain seemed to be dying down slightly. “What the hay…?” Sunspot asked in confusion while glancing out from under the trees. Barely any rain was falling anymore, and the frequency of thunder and lightning seemed to be mildly decreased. Rainbow Dash perked her ears up and listened for any suspicious changes, when she suddenly heard something hitting the tree next to her. Two more soft crackles sounded out, as if something hard were smacking to the ground. “What the- OW!” The cyan mare cried out in pain as a small round object smacked into the side of her arm. As she rubbed the impact area and looked down, she noticed a decently sized chunk of ice on the ground beside her. As the group looked around, they saw several more chunks of ice falling to the earth with steadily increasing frequency. Before long, the sounds they were making resembled heavy rainfall, creating a thunderous uproar as each chunk smacked into either the ground or one of the ponies. “Hail?!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock. With the way Equestria’s weather was managed, hail was a rare occurrence, and when it did occur, measures were taken to make it as small as possible for safety. However, the chunks of ice currently falling to the ground were anything but safe. Every time a ball slammed into them, the ponies felt a twinge of pain that stung for a long time after the initial impact. Before long, the impacts were so large that it was actually endangering the group physically. If the hailstones got any larger and they hit them in the head, it might cause a skull fracture. “The storm must be getting worse… let’s get out of here!” Tom suggested while covering his head and rushing out into the storm. He didn’t even need to escort the hooded unicorn as everyone was rushing to keep up with him to get to shelter. Although they were relatively close to the farmhouse, the short walk was agonizing in the blistering hailstorm. Every step they took was met with several balls of ice slamming into their frail bodies. “AGH!” Rainbow Dash yelled in pain as a hailstone crashed into her knee. The force of the impact made the joint lock up and pressed it in the wrong direction of motion. The cyan mare fell forwards into the mud before catching herself with her other front leg. Sunspot rushed to her side and picked her up to keep the wounded pegasus moving. They couldn’t risk her being left behind in the storm or she could be severely hurt. With the orange mare helping to carry her weight, Rainbow Dash sucked up the pain and continued onwards. Finally the group reached the porch of the Apple Family home. The roof of the enclosing was battered from the hailstones hitting it, but it remained solid despite the constant assault. The four immediately collapsed to a seated position to recover from their injuries. As the four were resting and tending to the wounded cyan mare, everything suddenly went quiet. The hail stopped, and only the sound of the rustling wind was left to accompany them.
Chapter 61: The Calm BeforeAs the torrent of hail continued to pound on the wooden overhang of the porch, the group of four was still recovering from their brief time out in the storm. All of the bruises and sore spots on them were still aching, even after resting for a few minutes. Tom was keeping a close eye on the hooded unicorn that was recuperating on the floor. Although he was confident that he wouldn’t be able to escape, he still wanted to keep tabs on him. Meanwhile Sunspot was staying by Rainbow Dash as she rested her injured knee. The cyan mare was cradling her front leg while rubbing the pain out of it. Every time she would put a little weight on it, it would send shooting pains through her body. “Tch!” Rainbow Dash cringed while trying yet again to walk on the injured appendage. Realizing that she wasn’t getting anywhere, the cyan mare frowned sadly. “Man… this hurts a lot. I hope I didn’t break a bone or something.” The pegasus fretted with concern while gently pressing around her knee to search for abnormalities. “Here, let me see.” Tom suggested while getting up and moving closer. As the human sat down beside her, Rainbow Dash was a little apprehensive to let him near her injury. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but she felt overly protective of her knee. “Umm… I think I’ll be ok… I can just walk it off.” Rainbow Dash stated with a forced smile and chuckle. She could obviously see that the boy wasn’t buying her act. “Relax… you won’t feel a thing, I promise.” Tom said earnestly. Rainbow Dash thought back to how he had healed Applebloom’s leg back at the hospital. If an actually broken bone could be mended without any pain, then perhaps she would be fine with him healing her injury. “Ok… but please be gentle, I bruise easily… heh.” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously while mentally preparing for whatever pain would come from the human examining her leg. The cyan mare cringed in expectance as Tom slowly placed his hand on her knee and left it there for a moment. Before long, a soft blue glow enveloped his hand and the surrounding area. All sensation of pain was removed as the boy pressed harder onto the leg. The only thing that Rainbow Dash could feel was an incredibly warm sensation washing over the area where she was in contact with the slayer. It wasn’t so warm as to cause discomfort, but it seemed to be just the perfect amount to elicit a blissful feeling in the pegasus. Perhaps sooner than she would have liked, Rainbow Dash felt Tom let go of her knee and immediately felt an equally soothing cool sensation as her knee came into contact with the cool air. As she moved her leg around, she quickly realized that all of the pain had vanished. Anything that had been ailing her knee seemed to be gone. “Wow… that is so cool. It never ceases to amaze me how awesome your powers are Tom… Thanks.” Rainbow Dash stated with an astonished smile. Tom seemed to be pleased that the cyan mare was back in good health. “No problem. Just try to keep yourself from getting too banged up in the future. I know there wasn’t much you could have done back there, but it always pays to be cautious.” The human stated as a reminder for the bold pegasus to watch her back for future reference. “Will do.” Rainbow Dash replied with a cheerful nod. “Ok guys, let’s head inside. The others probably need our help… I’m picking up a few readings inside, probably more of those things.” Sunspot said while holding out her locator. The liquid inside the vial was glowing intensely towards the top as the pegasus pointed it towards the house. The thought of more of those creatures being in her friend’s house made Rainbow Dash feel anxious and concerned. She hoped that the orange mare and those with her would be alright. Despite all of the hope that she could manage, she knew that she needed to assist her friend to increase her chances of survival. “Yeah, let’s go.” Rainbow Dash said with determination welling up inside of her. She was prepared to do whatever it would take to rescue her friends. The three brave soldiers, and one reluctant unicorn, lined up in front of the door and prepared to undertake their rescue mission. Tom opened the door and took a quick look inside to scan for any threats. Satisfied with his search, the human signaled for his group to move inside. Sunspot quickly walked into the house after the slayer. Cotton Quill tried to linger outside for a while longer, until he was given a shove on the back by Rainbow Dash. Looking behind him to see the cyan mare glaring at him, the unicorn shrugged uncomfortably before walking inside. Once everyone was in the house, Rainbow Dash closed the door as quietly as she could. She then took a quick peek around to see what shape the once lively home was in. The living room seemed to be relatively intact. From what she could tell in the dark, everything was in its intended place. “So far so good…” Rainbow muttered quietly while looking to the two at the front of the group. Tom and Sunspot were scanning the area ahead with their respective means of doing so. Judging by how both of them were converging towards the upstairs portion of the house, the cyan pegasus gathered that something must have been up there. “Any sign of Neon and the others?” Rainbow Dash whispered curiously while trying to interpret the reading on Sunspot’s vial from a distance. Despite how much she had seen the detector in action, the cyan mare had no idea what any of its glowing lights meant. “I’m picking up a few heat signatures upstairs… along with a few of those monsters.” Sunspot replied uneasily while holding up both of her locating vials. “Same here… from the looks of it everyone seems to be still alive.” Tom added with a relieved tone of voice. Rainbow Dash was also relieved to hear that everyone was at least alive. “That’s great! Let’s get up there and help them!” Rainbow Dash stated excitedly. Even though there wasn’t much she could probably do to the demons, she was eager for the human to go destroy the monsters and rescue her friends. Thankfully he seemed to be willing to carry out her whims, at least in this case. Without any further delay, Tom slowly made his way towards the nearby stairs. He motioned for the others to be quiet. Everyone gladly obliged as they could already hear the muffled sounds that the creatures were making from above. Somehow, the group managed to not make any noise at all as they slinked up the stairs. Keeping themselves low to the ground to conceal themselves, they slowly climbed up each step while mentally preparing themselves for what they would find at the top. Tom reached the end of the stairs first and peered over them to see into the dark hallway. He was immediately greeted with the sight of three creatures hovering around a door. The door was badly clawed up and seemed to be scorched slightly from some kind of burn. Taking a quick look at the creatures revealed the reason for the mysterious burn. Two of the beasts had an aura of electricity flowing around them. One touch from them must have been enough to power a small village for weeks. “Yikes…” Rainbow Dash exclaimed quietly as she noticed the electrified monsters. She already hated the demons when they were normal, so to find ones that had control over lightning was an unpleasant surprise. As the others looked at the door, they quickly noticed something else amid the claw marks and wood splinters. There was a small piece of paper affixed to the door. The paper had symbols on it that were glowing red. Everyone but Cotton quickly recognized this to be one of the physical barriers that Sunspot’s team used. “Good thinking Neon.” Sunspot said with a warm smile. She was glad that her green friend was a quick thinker in the face of danger. “How are we going to get to them? Those things don’t look like they’re moving…” Rainbow Dash observed uneasily. The three demons seemed to be unmoving in their fixation on the ponies trapped behind the door. “Well then I guess I’m going to have to move them.” Tom stated casually. Before anyone could even process what he meant by that, the boy got up and rushed forward. “Tom wait!” Rainbow Dash tried to get the human to return to the safety of the stairs. She was certain that it was an unwise idea to take on so many of the creatures in such close quarters. Despite her warning the boy charged forward dauntlessly. By the time the three beasts had turned their heads to look at the incoming threat, Tom had already materialized his claws. With a swift cross swipe, the two electrified demons found their forms getting sliced through with relative ease. The lightning surrounding them arced into the slayer as he struck them, but he seemed to pay no more heed to the discharge than a slight yelp of pain. The third creature tried to back up, but it was a pointless effort considering the speed of the human. Tom leapt into the air and brought his claws down into the monster’s head. As the boy paused and rested, the remains of the three creatures faded into smoke which quickly dissipated into the air. “Wow… I guess that’ll show me for thinking that you can’t handle something.” Rainbow Dash said with cheerful amazement. Even though she wasn’t the one performing the deed, it was oddly satisfying to watch the vicious monsters getting destroyed. “Well… it is a lot easier when there aren’t that many of them. I’m just glad Sunspot didn’t have to bail me out there… that would have been kind of awkward.” Tom replied lightheartedly. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot laughed warmly at the boy’s comment. Now that the monsters had been dealt with, the group was free to turn their attention to finding their friends. Sunspot looked at the spell on the door for a moment so she could sync up to it. The only way they were getting in there is if they could either break or get around the ward, luckily getting around it was easy due to her common usage of it. Taking out a quill and dabbing it into an ink well filled with red ink, the orange pegasus quickly scribbled a symbol onto the paper. The symbol vanished into the paper, sending a shockwave out through the door. Sunspot then grabbed the handle and pulled. The door popped open with relative ease. As soon as they peered inside, they were greeted with the sight of Applejack and her two siblings huddling around an injured pony on the ground. Neon Streak had what appeared to be a large gash on her side which she was pressing a few bandages against to stop the bleeding. “Rainbow Dash…? Tom? Sunspot?” Applejack asked in a stunned tone. She seemed surprised to see the trio as they entered the doorway. Once she realized that she wasn’t seeing things and they were really standing in front of her, the orange mare became excited along with the others. “It’s about time you guys got here!” Neon Streak stated happily as she watched the small group flood into the already crowded bathroom. “Neon!” Sunspot exclaimed as she happily rushed to the green mare’s side and picked her up into a hug. The hold was a little too rough on the earth pony for her liking, so she gently pushed the excited pegasus away. “Why didn’t you answer us? You had me and the others worried sick!” Sunspot chided her green friend for causing so much stress. Neon Streak sighed while looking down to her injury. “I got knocked out by one of those things outside… After I came to I tried calling again, but I couldn’t reach anyone. I didn’t know what else to do… so I set up a protective barrier on the door. One of them clipped me before I could get back in.” Neon explained in a disheartened tone. Sunspot put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, causing the green mare to look up. The suited mare had a cheerful smile on her face. “I’m just glad that you’re ok.” Sunspot stated happily. “Hmm… that storm outside must be jamming the signal if you couldn’t reach us.” Tom reasoned while thinking back to the giant tornado circling the area. “Can you call anyone Sunspot?” He asked to be certain that they were cut off from the outside world. Sunspot placed a hoof up to her ear and concentrated. She couldn’t even feel a connection going through, but she felt that she had to try. “Hello…? Can anyone hear me?” Sunspot asked while hoping for an answer. Nothing but dead silence greeted the orange mare. “*Sigh* Looks like we’re on our own…” Sunspot shrugged sadly. The last thing she wanted was to be cut off from the rest of her team. As much as her training had prepared her for times like this, it was an entirely different experience to actually experience the worst case scenario. “We can handle this by ourselves. Between the three of us, I think you, me, and Tom can take care of these things… Ow!” Neon Streak yelped in pain as she felt another twinge of pain going through her chest. Everyone looked to the green mare with concerned expressions as she dealt with her wound. “Here, let me take care of that for you.” Tom suggested while walking up to the earth pony. Neon Streak held her free arm out in protest of the human trying to heal her. “Don’t worry about that right now. I don’t want you using up all of your strength on me before all of these things are gone. I will be fine until you guys take care of everything… I guess I’ll just stay here.” The green pony suggested with a slightly disheartened tone. “Just… don’t die before we get back up here, ok?” Sunspot instructed while observing the cringing mare with a sympathetic frown. “I’ll try my best.” Neon replied with a reassuring chuckle before cringing in pain again. “Hey… who is that guy?” Applebloom spoke up from the side of the room. She had been staring at the hooded unicorn ever since she noticed him. She only just now tried to ask who he was. Tom and the two pegasus’s directed their attention to their prisoner. Cotton Quill had been trying to remain as silent and unnoticed as possible, but now everyone was looking right at him. The looks of suspicion and curiosity he was receiving made him feel nervous and uneasy. “This is Cotton Quill. We found him outside in the middle of a pictogram.” Tom explained while forcibly patting the unicorn on the back. Cotton grunted slightly from the unfriendly gesture. Upon mention of the unicorn’s name, Applejack and Neon Streak shifted their expressions to leers. They looked at each other before returning their attention back to the hooded pony, as if confirming with each other their own thoughts. “Cotton Quill…? As in… we almost died trying to find his sorry hooded butt… that Cotton Quill?” Neon Streak asked while getting up from the floor. Cotton Quill suddenly became that much more nervous as he looked at the two mares staring at him. “Yep… that’s the one.” Tom stated with a smirk while ignoring the pleading facial cues he was getting from the unicorn. “Umm… uh…” Cotton broke out into a cold sweat as he watched Neon Streak walk over to him with a scowl on her face. He tried to back up, only to be met with the wall blocking his path. “Can I h-help you?” The unicorn asked nervously, hoping that the agitated mare would go away if he was polite. “Yeah… actually you can. When you see your red furred buddy again… could you give him this for me?” Neon asked while holding up her bare hoof. Cotton was a little confused by the gesture. “Give him wh- OW!” The unicorn was interrupted by Neon Streak punching him right in the nose. The strike wasn’t anything major, but it definitely stung. As Cotton was rubbing his muzzle tenderly, the green mare smiled in satisfaction. “That feels so much better now.” Neon chuckled while returning to her previous spot on the floor. Applejack also seemed to be pleased that some sort of justice had been dealt for their previous hardship. “I’m glad someone feels good about this…” Cotton muttered to himself while trying to assess if his nose was broken anywhere. “Ok… now that we’re all together we need to start thinking about how to stop these things.” Sunspot stated to get things back on track. She looked to Tom with the hopes that he would have a plan of action for her and her friends. “Tom, do you have any ideas?” Sunspot asked with a hopeful expression. The human paused to think for a moment before answering. “Cotton, what exactly did you summon?” Tom asked while turning to the still recovering unicorn. Cotton Quill looked up in mild confusion at the sudden question. “What?” Cotton asked in an uncertain tone. He was unsure of what the slayer meant, or even if he should answer truthfully. “That spell out there seemed way too complex to just spit out a few lesser demons and some rain. What did you summon?” Tom restated his question in a more direct way with a serious expression on his face. “Umm…” Cotton thought back to the original parameters of his spell. He wasn’t sure if he should divulge the fact that he was trying to assassinate the elements of harmony. Seeing the impatient faces of the group surrounding him, he knew that he needed to find something to tell them. “I’m not sure if I should tell you… you’ll just hit me again.” The unicorn stated nervously, his comment seemed to anger the majority of the ponies. “Look… I promise that I won’t hit you… just tell us the truth.” Tom spoke up before anyone could voice their opinions. The others were surprised that he could appear so sincere to one of their enemies. Cotton mulled over the question in his head for a while before finally sighing in defeat. “I used a spell to summon a storm demon… I gave it a picture of the elements of harmony in the hopes that it would target them.” Cotton explained nervously while avoiding eye contact with anyone. The ponies were amazed at how brutally honest the unicorn was being, but they were even more upset than anything. “You did-” Rainbow Dash began to speak up angrily, when she was suddenly interrupted by a loud outburst from the human beside her. “YOU DID WHAT?!” Tom yelled in shock and anger, making Cotton Quill, and everyone else in the room jump slightly. The boy looked like he was about to strangle the unicorn. “You said you wouldn’t hit me!” Cotton stated frantically while backing further into the corner. Tom paused for a moment while still dealing with his anger. He breathed in and out a few times to regulate himself before turning to the cyan mare beside him. “I said that I wouldn’t hit you… I said nothing about her hitting you. Rainbow Dash, if you would be so kind as to punch him in his stupid face for me.” Tom asked through gritted teeth while still dealing with his own emotions. Rainbow Dash looked at the nervous unicorn and smirked deviously. “With pleasure.” Rainbow Dash stated while getting up and winding up for a punch. Everyone in the room either cringed and looked away or cheered the cyan mare on as she gave the unicorn a punch to the face that made a satisfying thud sound out throughout the room. Cotton Quill was knocked onto the floor from the strike. His head was spinning and his nose was throbbing. He decided that it would be best if he didn’t talk anymore about possibly harmful topics to his captors. “Sunspot, do you have any zip ties or handcuffs?” Tom asked in a slightly urgent tone. “Uh… yeah.” Sunspot replied in slight confusion while reaching for a zip tie. She handed it to the human, who quickly grabbed the still recovering unicorn by the front leg and lifted him up slightly. Cotton tried resisting, but in his dazed state he couldn’t do much but wriggle in the slayer’s grasp. “What are you doing?” Cotton asked in a concerned tone while the human wrapped the zip tie around both of his front legs. He then closed the tie and pulled it tight so the unicorn would be restrained. “I can’t have you walking around while I’m away.” The boy explained while placing the bound pony against the wall in a seated position. The others in the room were starting to get concerned for how he was acting. “Ok… now Ah’m curious. What are you doing Tom?” Applejack asked while observing the urgency in the human’s face. “I’m going downstairs to get some salt, and then I’m going to seal you guys in here while I take care of this thing.” Tom explained while walking out of the door. While the orange mare was confused about why he needed salt, she was more concerned about his sudden desire to take the creatures on alone. “Hold on a second!” Applejack stated while walking out to catch up with him. “You can’t be serious can you? You aren’t doing this alone.” She explained adamantly. “But-” Tom started to speak up when he was interrupted by Rainbow Dash interjecting into the conversation. “But nothing… I don’t care if it’s dangerous. We’re all in this together. If you fail then we’re going to have to do the same thing without you anyway.” Rainbow Dash said with a determined expression. Tom tried to appear as confident in his decision as possible, but it was hard to get past the two mares staring him down with eager expressions. It was like they had a death wish, but they didn’t seem to care as long as they were helping to fight. “Fine… but you’re going to stay inside, and you’re staying together. I think I can keep two of you safe just as long as we keep our numbers low.” The human instructed with a serious tone of voice. While he was giving his speech, he noticed Sunspot walking out to join the other two ponies in front of him. “Neon and Big Mac will stay with Applebloom and Cotton while we’re gone. What are we doing?” The suited mare asked while closing the door. She walked up to the group with an eager expression. “*Sigh*… these ponies are going to be the death of me.” Tom muttered to himself while rubbing his temples. It was hard enough doing his job by himself, but now he had to worry about the safety of three talking ponies. Not only were they sentient cute animals, but they were ladies to boot. He couldn’t exactly allow anything bad to happen to them, it would go against every moral he was ever taught. “We need to grab some salt and seal off all the doors and windows. If we’re going to fight this thing, we need to be as prepared as possible.” The boy explained uneasily. Rainbow Dash and the others could easily tell that he was dreading the coming battle. “Wait, hold on… salt? Why do we need salt?” Applejack asked in a confused tone while looking to her friends for an explanation. “Basically salt repels these things… I wasn’t sure about it myself until we tried it out. I just hope it works on that storm demon… whatever the hay it is.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone. “What is this thing anyway? We have been stuck in a bathroom for a while, so Ah have no idea what’s going on.” Applejack asked curiously. If she was going to risk her life, she at least wanted to know what she was up against. “Well… it’s hard to say. Most demons, even among the same type, differ between individuals. All I know is that whatever this thing is, it’s bad.” Tom replied. The ponies weren’t exactly surprised by his reasoning. “I think we figured that out on our own Tom… can you at least give us a little insight on what you’re expecting?” Rainbow Dash asked to clarify what the human knew about the subject. “Umm… how to put this…?” The human thought out loud while trying to find a way to put his hypothesis into simple terms. “You see all of those flying monsters we have been fighting all night? Well… those things are pretty much this thing’s babies.” He explained uneasily. The thought of something even more powerful than the creatures they were already facing made the ponies’ minds race. They could practically imagine what horrifying monster was about to be created, and thinking back to what Cotton Quill said, they realized that it would be trying to hunt them specifically. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s hurry up and prepare!” Sunspot stated urgently in an attempt to get things moving. The human nodded before heading down the stairs. With the suited pegasus hot on his heels, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were momentarily left upstairs by themselves. “I’m not sure if I can handle all of this…” Rainbow Dash stated nervously. She could tell that her orange friend shared her feelings on the matter just from a glance. “We don’t really have a choice Rainbow Dash.” Applejack replied in an understanding tone. She herself was dealing with an overwhelming sense of fear that made it difficult to move forward. “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine.” Rainbow Dash said in an attempt at instilling courage in both her and her friend. Applejack smirked at the brave exterior that her friend was putting on. She only wished that she could make herself look that confident. “Deal.” Applejack agreed with a firm hoof shake. She felt a little better knowing that she didn’t have to go into battle alone. She had one of her best friends along for the ride. Without any further delay, the two ponies walked downstairs to join their friends up ahead. They rushed through the living room and into the kitchen where the human and the suited mare were searching around for any container of salt they could find. “Here, let me get it.” Applejack suggested while walking over to the correct cabinet. She knew the contents of her kitchen like the back of her own hoof due to how often she assisted with cooking for the family. The orange pony rifled through the cabinet before pulling out two containers of salt. Tom grabbed one of the containers from her, leaving Applejack holding the other. “Go around the house and lay down a line of salt at every door and window. If you find one of those things, scream loud enough for us to hear you and throw some salt at it.” The human explained to the farm pony. Applejack nodded while turning to her cyan friend. “Ok… Rainbow Dash and Ah will take upstairs.” Applejack stated while walking towards the living room. Rainbow Dash swiftly followed the orange mare into the other room and up the stairs. With the constant threat of one of the monstrous intruders breaking in should they falter, the two teams rushed around the house leaving lines of salt wherever they went. The booming thunder outside made everyone on edge as they approached the windows and doors that led out into the darkness. Rainbow Dash stood by with a small hoof full of salt at the ready while Applejack finished laying down lines in front of the upstairs windows. In the event of one of those things flying in, the cyan mare would be the first to react. “So how are the others doing?” Applejack asked with slight concern in her voice. She hadn’t heard anything about her other friends, and judging from how deadly these monsters could be, she wasn’t sure if she would like what she heard. “Everyone is fine. They all have themselves blocked in with salt, so they are probably still waiting for us to stop this thing.” Rainbow Dash explained to ease the farm pony’s concerns. Applejack was relieved that her friends were safe. “That’s good to hear… Who would have thought that those scary critters would be afraid of salt?” Applejack stated with a slight chuckle. The thought of a vicious monster being fended off with something as simple as table salt was somehow amusing. “Tell me about it. If every monster the hooded ponies summoned was as easy to fend off as these guys, we would be in the clear.” Rainbow Dash replied lightheartedly. With this room completed, the two headed back out into the hall and looked around to see which rooms they were missing. The only one they had left to fortify was the only one they had been putting off. As they approached Applebloom’s bedroom, they felt a small feeling of dread welling up inside of them. “So they came right through the window?” Rainbow Dash turned to her partner and asked curiously. “Yeah… it’s a good thing Neon was with us. Ah don’t think we would be as well off as we are if she didn’t react as fast as she did.” Applejack said with a thankful expression. She didn’t even want to think about what could have happened if Applebloom was alone in her room when the monster broke in. “Well… let’s get this over with.” Rainbow Dash suggested while clutching her salt defensively. The chances of another demon flying in from the open window was equal to anywhere else in the house, but for some reason the open window into the raging storm outside seemed more dangerous to the two mares. Applejack nodded slowly while reaching for the handle. With a brief moment of hesitation, the orange pony opened up the door and looked inside with her salt container at the ready. With the silent precision of a pair of ninjas, the two mares walked inside and scanned the area for threats. The only sign of movement was the curtains at the far end of the room flapping in the wind. The lightning flashed constantly, illuminating the entire room and casting deep shadows on the walls and floor. The rain outside hadn’t returned since the hailstorm, leaving only a thunderous uproar outside. Taking note of the broken glass at her feet, Applejack carefully approached the window. The soft crackle of the glass as the farm pony gingerly walked over it was barely audible over the sound of the wind, but the two mares felt that it would be more than enough to alert any vicious beast outside to their presence. Applejack quickly put down a line of salt below the window, hoping that the wind wouldn’t reach it. Rainbow Dash tensed her body in preparation while staring out the window, all the while expecting some sort of monstrosity to come flying in. Just before Applejack finished the line of salt, a loud rustling sound came from outside. It sounded like something was scraping against the walls of the house just below them. Suddenly a deep roar filled the room as a dark shape flew into view. “AH!” Applejack yelped fearfully. Caught by surprise from the sudden alarming sight in front of her, the orange mare fell backwards in a subconscious attempt at gaining distance from the creature. Rainbow Dash quickly reacted and threw her salt at the creature. Perhaps wise to their methods of attack, the monster rapidly ducked down below the window, letting the salt fly past him. Once the way was clear, the demon shot upwards again and started coming through the window. The two mares backed up as fast as they could. In the process of escaping, Applejack rubbed her leg across some glass, slicing it open slightly. Ignoring the mildly painful experience, the orange pony focused all of her attention on backpedaling from the monster. “Go, go, go!” Rainbow Dash yelled frantically while heading for the door. The farm pony needed no further confirmation as she joined her friend in running away from the beast. With the creature howling at their heels, the two mares reached the door and slammed it shut behind them. “Hold it shut!” Applejack exclaimed while laying a line of salt down in front of the door. Rainbow Dash held onto the handle and put her weight into keeping the door shut. The door rattled and shook as the demon clawed and pounded into it. The cyan mare could barely keep it steady as the monster tried opening it from the other side. She strained every muscle in her body to try and get a good foothold to prop herself against. “I can’t hold it much longer!” The pegasus cried out urgently. Applejack took this as incentive to move that much faster. Finally, the orange mare managed to complete the line in front of the door. Almost the exact moment that she did, the pounding stopped and the demon screeched in pain while releasing the door. The two ponies backed up and fell backwards to a seated position. Now that they were safe, they could breathe easy. “*Pant*… *Pant*… Man… I think I’m going to start carrying salt on me at all times.” Rainbow Dash chuckled through her exhaustive breathing. She could still feel her heart beating rapidly, but she was surprisingly calm now that the danger had passed. “Maybe you should ask Sunspot to hook you up with one of their vests… I’m sure you could carry all the salt and other monster deterrents you want with that thing.” Applejack replied with a smirk. The cyan mare chuckled for a moment before considering how cool it would be to have her own tactical vest. “You know… that’s not a bad idea Applejack.” Rainbow Dash stated in a half joking and half serious tone. Applejack laughed at the thought of her friend dressed in monster hunting gear. Her laughter faded suddenly as she felt a stinging pain that drew her attention down to her back right leg. “Ow…” The orange pony cringed as she noticed the cut on her leg. It wasn’t particularly large or deep, but it was bleeding a small amount of crimson liquid that barely managed to form streams down her leg. “You’re hurt…? Did you cut yourself on the glass?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while observing the farm pony’s injury. “Ah think so… Ah was a little focused on running for my life after all.” Applejack replied while coddling her injured leg. Rainbow Dash watched with a sympathetic frown as her friend tried to get up while protecting her injured leg. “Let’s head downstairs and ask Sunspot to patch you up… if you’re lucky Tom might even heal it for you.” Rainbow Dash suggested while gently helping the orange mare get up. “Ah don’t want Tom to waste energy on a little cut. He needs all the strength he can get to fight whatever this thing is. Besides… it’s not that bad.” Applejack stated while ignoring the twinges of pain she was receiving every time she moved her leg. “Well, let’s head downstairs anyway. You should keep your weight off of it until we can get you some first aid. Here, let me help you.” Rainbow Dash said while offering the orange mare her shoulder to help her walk. “Thanks sugar cube.” Applejack said with a warm smile while slowly shuffling forward with the cyan mare’s help. The pair moved relatively slow, but they continued towards the stairs at a steady pace on their way to reunite with their friends.
Chapter 62: The StormMeanwhile, Tom and Sunspot were going around and putting the finishing touches on their makeshift barricades. Every door and window had a neatly placed line of salt in front of them. The pair even had a little salt left over to use offensively on the beasts. If anything tried to get inside of the house, it would meet a lot of resistance trying. “That looks like the last of them.” Sunspot stated while sprinkling the last few grains of salt in front of a window. The pegasus looked around and admired the work they had done. It was nice to see that they had such a large area secured from monsters. “Let’s just hope that everything is going smooth for Applejack and Rainbow Dash upstairs.” Tom replied with a carefully optimistic tone. He wasn’t one to believe in jinxes, but it couldn’t hurt to not say anything stupid to make lady luck upset. “I’ll go check on them.” Sunspot suggested while walking towards the living room. Before she could even get through the door, she noticed Rainbow Dash and Applejack walking into the room. The farm pony was leaning on the cyan pegasus while favoring one of her back legs. The other leg had a decent sized cut on it that looked more painful than it was harmful. “Are you two alright?” Tom asked while looking over the orange mare’s injured leg with a concerned expression. “We ran into some trouble up there, but we managed to secure the area.” Rainbow Dash explained while walking her injured companion over to a chair. “How much trouble did you run into exactly?” Sunspot asked while reaching for a set of bandages to assist the wounded mare. “Just one of them… Ah got this running away from it. Cut myself on some broken glass.” Applejack explained while lifting her leg up to make it easier on the suited pegasus. Sunspot seemed surprised by how little resistance they got while securing the house. “One of them…? Why only one of them? We didn’t even find one down here, but there should be dozens of them around from what I detected earlier.” Sunspot said with a confused expression. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were just as curious now that the orange mare brought up the subject, though they couldn’t readily think of an answer themselves. “I don’t know, I didn’t really think of it that way… any ideas Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking to the slayer, hoping that his senses could offer him an insight into what their enemies were doing. “The one you saw was probably a straggler… They are after the elements of harmony after all, and there were two of you in a close proximity to each other. Most of the others seem to be gathering somewhere up in the sky.” The human explained while looking out of the window. His answer didn’t make the ponies any less confused, if anything it perplexed them further. “What are they doing up there?” Sunspot asked curiously while focusing on wrapping up Applejack’s leg. She quickly glanced between the human and her work as she waited for an answer to make sense of the monsters’ mysterious actions. “They’re trying to summon their boss… the demon that Cotton originally called for. Bringing forth a demon in physical form is too hard for just a simple spell to do… the one Cotton used probably summoned his followers so they could finish the job.” Tom said with a slightly nervous tone. The ponies were already nervous themselves, so to see the human a little pale in the face while discussing a monster was disconcerting to say the least. “What demon? What’s he going to be like?” Rainbow Dash asked apprehensively. Anything that commands the respect of those flying creatures must have been a terrifying thing to behold. Before Tom could answer, a rush of blue mist erupted from his mouth. At the same time, Sunspot’s locator crackled and buzzed as it flashed with blue light. Along with these troubling alarms, the occasional flashing of lightning outside seemed to have increased. The entire room was lighting up with light from outside. The almost strobe like display strangely wasn’t accompanied with thunder for each flash. Thunder was present, but it wasn’t in sequence with the flash of lightning. It was an almost disturbing roar that seemed to happen of its own volition, like a snarling beast trying to loose itself from its prison in the sky. The ponies quickly rushed to the nearest window to investigate the frightening event. They scanned their eyes around outside for a brief moment trying to locate the source of the light, when they suddenly froze in place when they discovered what they were looking for. Up in the sky, there was a large storm cloud. The cloud itself wasn’t what was terrifying, it was more or less what was being displayed on, or perhaps inside of it. Each time the lightning would flash, the source of the light was blatantly apparent to anyone looking outside. Everywhere else in the sky was dark, except for the appearance of a face being projected on the cloud by the lightning. The face wasn’t detailed, only consisting of a gaping mouth with a large grin and two round holes above it that served as eyes. The ponies couldn’t see the arcs of the lightning. Instead the face seemed to be behind the cloud, as if the light that made it up was coming from inside of it. The sight of the unnerving face in the sky combined with the erratic thunder to instill a gripping sense of fear in the ponies. They felt their blood running cold from fright, yet they couldn’t stop looking at the terrifying sight. It was like staring at a bad accident. “Well that isn’t good.” Tom muttered sarcastically. He tried to hide the twinge of nervousness in his voice, but it was easily apparent that he was dreading coming to blows with a full-fledged demon. “Uh… Tom, could you answer Rainbow Dash’s question? I want to know a little bit more about the thing that’s about to come and kill us.” Sunspot stated while gulping nervously. Everyone felt the same way as the suited mare, although they weren’t sure if they really wanted to know more about the monster that was hunting them. “It’s a little hard to say… all we really know for sure is that he’s a storm demon. Demons are so different from each other, and there are so many that the only way you could identify them would be to know their name.” Tom explained while turning to face the small group of nervous ponies. “Well I’m pretty sure that knowing its name won’t do us much good while it’s slaughtering us.” Rainbow Dash said in a nervous tone while trying to ignore the eerie flashes of light filling the room. “Actually it would… Demons fight fiercely to keep their names unknown. Once a demon’s name is given, a trained exorcist or a slayer can use that as a weapon against them. They are kind of like children trying to find a loop hole out of a punishment. If you command a demon to leave, it is a lot more powerful if you direct that command to the specific demon.” Tom explained to offer a little more insight to how battling demons worked. “That’s great! Just use your influence over it to get it to tell you its name. Then you can send it packing to wherever it came from!” Sunspot suggested eagerly. She was relieved to hear that they had a weapon against whatever this thing was. The brief excitement in the room was almost instantly killed as the ponies noticed that the human wasn’t as elated as they were. “Actually… I’m not sure if that will even work.” Tom said while trailing his eyes off apprehensively. The ponies were surprised to hear the distinct lack of confidence in their friend. The boy was usually so determined and sure of himself, but now he seemed to be just as nervous as they were. “Why wouldn’t that work? It sounds pretty simple to me… just get its name and we can beat it.” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. She knew that her faith in such a simple approach was probably misplaced, and that the human was about to explain to her why. “All of this works in theory… but in theory, most demons don’t actually take physical forms. You can command a demon around if you have the right authority because they don’t belong in this world. Demons constantly possess other living creatures to get a foot hold in this realm, which is why you can compel them to leave. But if a demon manifests in its physical body, then things get a bit… complicated.” Tom explained while scratching the back of his neck anxiously. “I’m sure that you can handle it. You have beaten every monster we have come across to a pulp with relative ease, so you can handle this guy.” Rainbow Dash tried to instill confidence in the human. The way he wasn’t reacting to her optimism made her slowly feel a sense of dread overcoming her. “You can handle this… right?” Rainbow Dash added with a nervous tone. The boy looked around at the three fearful ponies in front of him. He felt horrible knowing that he wasn’t being the steady rock of confidence that they needed right now. Despite his lack of knowledge on how to deal with the current situation, he had to try, for their sake. “I will try my best…” Tom stated while regaining a bit of his confidence. The ponies were glad to hear that he was back to normal. “Ok… now what do we do next?” Sunspot asked, eager to do whatever it would take to assist the situation. “We need to be prepared… once all of the lesser demons are done with their ritual they will be coming for us in force. And if we manage to contend with all of them, the storm demon will be manifesting soon after.” Tom explained with a serious tone of voice. The three mares nodded confidently. They were ready to fight to protect themselves and their friends against anything. Deciding that they should stick together, the group came to the conclusion that upstairs would be the best place to stage their defense. Tom watched the stairway, while Sunspot remained between the bathroom where the others were staying and the end of the hall. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sitting in the middle of the two, waiting for when they would be needed. As she was listening to the whistling wind outside of the window at the end of the hall, Sunspot suddenly heard the sound of Neon Streak’s voice in her head. Apparently their communication wasn’t hindered by the storm outside due to them both being on the same side of it. “Sunspot, you guys ok out there?” The green mare asked curiously. Sunspot shrugged as she realized that she had been too caught up with what was happening to even check on her friends. “Yeah… we’re still waiting for things to heat up. We decided to wait for them to come to us rather than the alternative of rushing out blindly and getting ourselves killed.” Sunspot replied while taking a cursory glance to the line of salt by her window for assurance. “Good thinking, just be sure to watch your backs… I do not want to be the one to go out there to check if you’re still alive if it gets quiet.” Neon Streak stated jestingly, although the orange mare could tell that she was being semiserious. “You got it. Just be sure to wait a few minutes if I don’t answer you. It’s kind of hard to talk if you have a lesser demon on top of you trying to eat your face off.” Sunspot replied with a chuckle. She could hear a slight giggle on the other side of the line. It was always nice to cheer up an injured pony stuck inside of a bathroom contending with a prisoner of war, even though it happened so rarely. “Oh yeah… before I let you go, Applebloom wants to see Applejack for a minute. Could you tell her to drop by when she gets a chance?” Neon Streak asked in an overtly sweet tone. Sunspot could tell that the yellow filly was probably begging her to get a chance to see her sister. It must have been terrifying for her to know that her older sibling was in danger while she just sat in a cramped room doing nothing. “Sure thing, we’re right outside anyway.” Sunspot replied understandingly. She then dropped the call and turned to head down the hall. Once she got over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the two ponies turned to look at her curiously. “What’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to ascertain the purpose of the orange pegasus’s visit through her expression. Thankfully she didn’t seem to have an urgent or terrified expression on her face, so it must not have been something negative. “Applebloom wants to see you for a minute.” Sunspot said while looking to the farm pony. Applejack understood why her sister would want to see her. She couldn’t really blame the yellow filly. She was nervous and anxious with the knowledge that she had of the situation, so it must have been horrible to be in the dark about things with your sister in the thick of it. “Thanks Sunspot, Ah’ll go talk to her.” Applejack replied with a soft smile. Sunspot nodded before turning back around to head to the end of the hall again. Applejack then sighed as she prepared to put on a more stable front for her sister. She wasn’t exactly falling apart at the seams, but if she was to convince the filly that she was alright, she needed to appear emotionally flawless. “Poor thing… she must be worried sick in there.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while looking beside her to the bathroom door. “Wouldn’t you be if you were in her position?” Applejack asked curiously. The cyan mare thought for a moment before answering. “To be fair… I’m kind of worried out here myself. I would personally rather not know about the demon coming to kill you and me before moving on to the rest of our friends.” Rainbow Dash shrugged fretfully. “Ah’ll tell you the same thing Ah would tell Applebloom… just sit tight and everything will work out ok in the end.” Applejack replied while placing a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. The cyan mare couldn’t help but to smile at her friend’s confidence. “I really hope so…” Rainbow Dash stated with guarded optimism. Applejack nodded before getting up and walking over to the bathroom door. After gripping the handle and softly swinging the door open, Applejack was greeted with the sight of an eager filly waiting for her near the door. Applebloom smiled as she watched her sister enter the room. She walked over to the orange mare and hugged her as she knelt down. “You holding up ok in here? Cotton isn’t being mean to you or anything is he?” Applejack asked with a passing glare to the bound unicorn leaning against the wall. Cotton Quill averted his eyes and looked away from the pair nervously. “No… he isn’t really talking much.” Applebloom said while glancing over to the odd hooded pony. “That’s good… how about you guys? Everything ok in here?” Applejack asked curiously while glancing up to Big Mac and Neon Streak. The green mare seemed to be holding up alright despite her injury. The sight of the chipper earth pony made her feel better about her chances for a recovery. “We’re doing good… all things considered.” Neon Streak said with a slight smile while glancing to the red stallion to gather his opinion. “Eeyup.” Big Mac said in a sincere tone. He seemed to be relatively well composed given the situation outside and the cramped space he was in. “We’re fine… Ah just wanted to check on you to see if you were alright.” Applebloom said while looking over the orange mare for any signs of distress or injury. She frowned with concern upon noticing one of her sister’s back legs wrapped up in bandages. “What happened to your leg?” Applebloom asked with a concerned tone. The orange mare frowned slightly as she remembered her previous injury. “Ah cut myself on some glass earlier. Its fine anyway… it wasn’t even all that big.” Applejack stated in a sincere manner. Applebloom felt a little bit better about her sister’s injury. After all, the orange pony hated lying, especially to her younger sister. “Ok…” Applebloom shrugged with mild concern. Even if it was a small injury, the fact that it happened at all troubled the filly. “Hey, cheer up.” Applejack said while gently lifting her sister’s head up to face her. “Everything will be fine… Ah have Tom and Sunspot to take care of me. They wouldn’t let anything bad happen to your big sis.” The orange mare stated in a reassuring tone. Applebloom thought back to all of the times that the human had helped her family in the past. She felt a little more confident knowing that he was watching out for her sister. “Alright… just be careful out there ok?” Applebloom said in an understanding tone. She accepted that her sister had a job to do, and that she would probably do it with or without her consent. Applejack nodded with a confident smile. “You know me, Ah will be as careful as p-” Applejack was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a window shattering followed by a surprised yell. Judging from the sound of the scream, the orange mare gathered that it was Sunspot. “Stay here!” Applejack stated urgently while walking out of the door. Being careful not to disturb the line of salt protecting the room full of ponies, the orange mare rushed out and shut the door. She then turned to see what was causing all of the commotion. The window at the end of the hall had been broken violently, so violently that a few shards of glass were thrown far into the hall. Sunspot was backed up from the window with a shocked expression. Thankfully she seemed to have avoided all of the flying shards. Nothing was at the window, but the wind was blowing violently outside and letting the rain into the hallway. “What’s going on?!” Applejack asked frantically while rushing up to the jilted pegasus to ensure that she was alright. The ponies could hear several growls and rustling noises coming from outside and moving rapidly around the house. Along with this frightening display, there were numerous blurred silhouettes of black figures zipping past the window, as if they were circling the area. “They’re trying to get in.” Tom announced over the rushing wind. Thankfully the salt barriers around the house seemed to be still intact despite the raging tempest. Sunspot and Applejack backed away from the window and joined the rest of their group in scanning the area for any signs of intrusion. The four huddled close to each other and darted their heads around to determine which noise was one of the creatures flying around outside, and which noise was one of them coming inside. The sound of glass breaking rang out across the house as several windows from downstairs and the surrounding rooms were shattered forcefully; along with this sudden uproar, several of the doors leading outside started shaking violently as the monsters slammed into them. Rainbow Dash and Applejack could hardly hear themselves think over the deafening racket, yet they could somehow still listen to their hearts pounding away at the inner linings of their chests. The two mares darted their eyes around anxiously, tensing themselves up with every passing second while searching for any signs of the white eyed beasts. “Can they get in?” Rainbow Dash asked in a slight panic while looking around. In her mind, the creatures could get in any time they wished to come after her and her orange companion. “The salt lines seem to be holding up ok, but they will only last us so long. One gust of wind is all it takes to break the line.” Tom stated while using his senses to get a feel for what was going on around the house. His answer didn’t exactly fill the ponies with confidence. Instead it filled them with an even stronger sense of fear and panic. Suddenly, a low growl made its presence known above all of the noises of the storm outside. The group looked down the stairs to see one of the creatures coming in from the kitchen area. One of the protective salt barriers must have been broken by the wind or rain, and the demon was using the opportunity to rush inside. Rainbow Dash and Applejack instinctively backed up while Tom and Sunspot prepared for battle. The human walked in front of the suited pegasus to meet the floating creature before it had a chance to reach her. The beast snarled and gnashed its thorn like teeth at the slayer. It twitched its claws eagerly in expectation of ripping the boy and the ponies he was protecting to bloody shreds. In response to this threatening gesture, Tom made a threatening gesture of his own. Gripping the hilt of his sword firmly, the human flipped it out of its holster and readied it for battle. Deciding to take the first move, Tom lunged forward and struck the blade downwards at the approaching demon. The creature caught the approaching blade in its long and gnarled claws with relative ease. As it skillfully shifted the blade to the side to get it out of the way, the monster stared at the human with its dull white eyes. The power struggle seemed like it could go either way, with the creature growling fiercely, and Tom grunting in exertion, both trying to win leverage over the other in their deadly game of tug of war. Realizing that this was getting him nowhere, Tom jumped backwards and yanked the blade out of the beast’s claws. The demon made an aggressive swipe at him while lunging forward, forcing the boy to move backwards even further. Before he was backed into the group of anxiously on looking ponies, Tom ducked to the side and stabbed his blade forward quickly, catching the monster off guard, and catching its barely resistant form on his katana. The beast howled in pain while trying to grab at the sword impaling it. Deciding to take this chance to finish the creature, Tom whipped the sword upwards, cutting the demon in twain. Taking a quick glance downstairs, the human was met with the sight of two more demons taking the place of the one he had just dispatched. Tom chided himself mentally for having expected the fighting to end right then and there. As the two creatures roared fiercely and charged forward, the boy prepared his sword to meet them in battle. Meanwhile at the other end of the hallway, Sunspot and her two charges were watching the human battle the two monsters anxiously. They had witnessed him taking on greater odds before, but they were still concerned for the outcome of the fight. “Come on Tom! You can do it!” Rainbow Dash cheered the slayer on eagerly. She wanted him to beat the ever livid daylights out of the white eyed beasts for all the trouble they had caused. While the three were anxiously watching their friend fight for them, a loud crash suddenly erupted from behind them. They turned and peered around the corner into the other branch of the hall. The lantern on one of the tables midway down the hallway had been shattered on the floor, swallowing the entire hall in pitch blackness. The only source of light was the occasional bolt of lightning from outside. The bluish white light flooding into the hall revealed the source of the broken lamp. At the end of the hall, one of the windows was broken. This came as no surprise to the ponies seeing how all of the windows in the house had been broken moments before. What did surprise them; or rather, startle them severely, was the sight of a black figure with white eyes floating up and down in front of the window. “How did he get in?!” Applejack asked frantically while eyeing the disturbing beast. “The wind must have blown away the salt in front of that window…” Sunspot explained with a growing pit in her stomach. As she watched the white eyes of the creature move in the darkness, and watched the constant flashing of lightning remind her of its progress down the hall, the suited mare knew that she had to fight the thing in front of her. The demon growled as it approached its two targets. It was prepared to kill anything that got in the way of completing its appointed mission. As if to prove this deadly devotion, it brandished its claws and snarled viciously. Sunspot rushed forward to distance herself from Applejack and Rainbow Dash. She then took her salt container and flicked it in the direction of the monster, sending an arc of white powder flying towards the beast. The demon wailed in pain and disappeared from view briefly, using its temporary invisibility to recoil from the assault on its form. Sunspot took great pleasure and satisfaction from fending off the creatures. One more of the beasts flew in through the unsecured window. It quickly rushed down the hall screaming a high pitched battle cry that almost made the ponies cover their ears. With another flick of her makeshift weapon, Sunspot dispatched the charging beast with relative ease. “That’s right! Back up you freaks!” Sunspot exclaimed with a burning sense of enthusiasm and ferocity. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were surprised to see the suited mare put so much energy into fighting. She almost looked like she enjoyed it, although they couldn’t blame her. Yet another black figure came barreling down the darkened hallway. Sunspot was prepared to dispatch this creature as she had the others. She felt proud in herself that she was actually assisting Tom with holding their ground against the demons. With a triumphant smirk, the pegasus flicked her salt container at the creature. Much to her surprise and dismay, no more of the lifesaving white powder came out of the small cylinder. Sunspot shook the container nervously, hearing and feeling nothing that indicated that more salt remained. She was now holding a very salty paper weight. “Uh oh…” Sunspot muttered in a fearful tone. All bravery immediately vanished from the cocky mare as she laid eyes on the charging beast in front of her. She looked behind her, remembering that Applejack held the other salt container. Before the suited pegasus could retreat to acquire the other salt container, the monster was already upon her. With a growl and a swift swipe of its claws, the demon sent Sunspot to the floor as she barely managed to evade its attack. Spotting an opportunity, the creature reeled its arm back and prepared to stab its claws into the mare, pinning her to the floor as it would doubtlessly impale her. Spotting the danger above her, Sunspot gasped and moved her arms out in front of her reflexively. She just barely managed to grab the monster’s gaunt hand and wrist before its claws made contact with her chest. The monster pushed down with incredible strength, but the pegasus managed to push it back, if only just barely. “Hrrk… Gah!” Sunspot groaned from exertion as she struggled against the creature. The demon seemed to be toying with her, refusing to use its other hand so it could prolong the experience. Despite the monster holding back, the suited mare gradually watched the sharp claws get closer and closer to her body. Applejack and Rainbow Dash widened their eyes in shock as they watched the pegasus fight for her life. They took a quick glance over to Tom before realizing that he had his hands full with fighting off a group of the creatures. If someone was going to save the orange mare, it would have to be them. Applejack clutched her salt container with grit and determination. She was prepared to charge forward and rescue the trapped pegasus, if only preparations were so simply executed. Before she could even react, a large gust of wind blew in through the nearby window, sending the salt container flying from her hooves and nearly knocking her and the cyan mare next to her over. “Dangit… no!” Applejack cursed her misfortune as she watched the small cylinder fly across the hallway. By the time she could retrieve it, Sunspot might already be dead. The farm pony shared a nervous glance with Rainbow Dash before coming up with an idea that she would probably regret later. “Rainbow Dash… go get the salt.” Applejack instructed with a serious tone of voice while looking towards the struggle taking place down the hall. Rainbow Dash was confused by her friend’s statement. She looked over to the salt and wondered what the farm pony was thinking. When she looked back, the cyan mare noticed that her friend wasn’t beside her anymore. Instead she was running down the hallway towards Sunspot. Rainbow Dash was shocked to see the orange pony rushing towards danger, but she must have had a plan, or at least she hoped that she did. Regardless of how well thought out the farm pony’s plan was, she needed help. The pegasus quickly turned and rushed after the salt cylinder at the end of the hallway. Meanwhile, Sunspot was still fighting for her life on the ground. She was trying to avoid looking right at the monster’s unblinking white eyes, but it was staring right at her. It was bad enough that it was trying to kill her, but it could have at least had some common courtesies considering how ugly it was. Deciding that the struggle had gone on for much too long, the demon slowly placed its other hand on the elbow of the arm it was pushing into the suited mare. Sunspot immediately felt all of her efforts becoming useless as the monster put even the slightest amount of force on her. She closed her eyes and cringed as she saw the beast reel back for the final blow. *Thwack* Sunspot suddenly felt the creature pull back violently. She looked up with a confused expression, only to see Applejack recovering from a kick. All of the years of apple bucking had made the orange mare’s back legs into practically deadly weapons, more than enough to send the demon flying with a swift blow to the face. “Come on Sunspot!” Applejack exclaimed frantically while offering a hoof up to the fallen pegasus. Sunspot looked forward to the monster, only to realize that it was extremely enraged at the two ponies. The white eyed figured screeched and roared its disapproval while bearing its teeth viciously. Sunspot grabbed Applejack’s hoof and used her help to move backwards as she was getting up. The earth pony pulled the recovering pegasus along the floor as she was getting to her feet. The pair wanted to cover as much distance as possible to escape the creature. After getting Sunspot to her feet, Applejack looked forward to check on the progress of the monster. She gasped in fright as she saw that the beast had caught up with them, and that it was holding its claws up in preparation to strike. Sunspot looked forward and saw this as well. There wasn’t any time to dodge the attack, so all the two mares could do was turn sideways and hide their faces. The pair suddenly heard movement behind them. They looked up and saw Rainbow Dash rushing beside them with a small cylinder at the ready. The cyan mare flicked the container at the monster, sending a sizable amount of salt flying at the demon. The monster screeched in pain while backing up. The salt caused his body to involuntarily disperse, forcing him to disappear into smoke. Applejack and Sunspot were never happier to see a pile of smoke in front of them. “Nice job Rainbow Dash…” Sunspot stated in a stunned tone while still processing the fact that she was still alive. The cyan pegasus smirked at the praise she was getting. “Thanks for the compliments, but that was all Applejack. She told me to go grab the salt while she charged after you.” Rainbow Dash said while lightheartedly patting the earth pony on the back. “Well… then I guess I should thank both of you. You guys really saved my tail.” Sunspot replied with a warm smile. Applejack was flattered to hear so much praise coming her way, even if it was from someone she just saved. “Come on now Sunspot… you would have done the same for us. At least Ah hope you would, Ah would like to think we’re friends at this point.” Applejack stated while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. Sunspot nodded eagerly at the statement. “Of course we are… now let’s get out of here before more of those things show up.” Sunspot suggested while looking back at the darkened hallway. Rainbow Dash and Applejack agreed wholly with her decision to retreat. Just before they could turn the corner to get back to the other hallway where Tom was, a blurry black figured rushed in through the window in front of them. In all of the commotion, the line of salt on the window must have been broken. The three mares gasped in shock and backed up instinctively. Hearing growling behind them, they turned around to see another monster coming up behind them. Rainbow Dash started to fling some salt at the one in front of them, when it suddenly lunged forward and knocked the container from her hooves. The demon’s claws grazed the cyan mare’s arm as it was knocking the small cylinder away, causing a very painful set of slashes that made the pegasus cry out while recoiling backwards. Applejack and Sunspot caught their injured companion as she fell to the floor while clutching her still stinging injury. There was nothing more they could do aside from watching the monster in front of them preparing to strike them down all at once. Before the white eyed monster could strike, a familiar set of four flaming claws pierced through its midsection. As the claws elongated and formed fully, the flames died out, revealing the unmistakable four blades that belonged to Tom’s spirit weapon. The creature barely had time to screech in pain before the human ripped the claws sideways, sending the beast flying into the nearby wall and vanishing into smoke. “Get down!” Tom instructed while pointing his open palm at the ponies. Knowing what this meant and what he planned to do, the three mares ducked to the floor and closed their eyes to shield them from the inevitably blinding light. A flash sounded out and the ponies felt something rush past them. It was almost like a small yet powerful breeze was blowing past their heads. The creature behind them screamed out in agony as it was enveloped by the blue light sailing towards it. When the light died down and the ponies looked behind them, there was nothing left of the monster other than a puff of smoke escaping into the air. They turned to their savior and smiled in elation at his daring rescue. “Good job Tom!” Rainbow Dash cheered happily while helping her two friends up from the floor. Giving a passing glance to the bleeding cut on her arm, she determined that it was shallow enough to warrant later attention. Besides, she was too happy to let a little scrape dampen her mood. “Don’t thank me just yet. We’re not out of the woods.” Tom stated uneasily while looking around. Sure enough, several more of the creatures were pouring into the house from both ends. “Follow me!” The human instructed frantically while motioning for the ponies to follow him back away from the window. They were about to be cornered, and the last thing they needed was an open window right next to them while they held off the approaching horde. The three mares quickly heeded his instructions and rushed back with him around the corner. There were already several of the creatures flying up the stairs, but they had to gain as much ground as possible. Tom held his hand out and projected a steady beam of his positively charged light. The creatures were repelled, but they seemed to be resisting the intense beam and pushing forward slightly. The ponies huddled together behind the slayer, hoping that he could hold off their impending doom. Rainbow Dash suddenly felt something grab her back leg. She tried to look behind her, but she didn’t even get a chance as she was violently yanked along the floor backwards. “AHH!” The cyan mare yelled fearfully as she was dragged towards the other end of the hallway. One of the monsters had apparently come through the window at the end of the hall and snuck up on the group while their focus was shifted forward. “Rainbow Dash!” Applejack and Sunspot cried out in unison as they watched their friend getting pulled away. The demon was heading back towards the window with the intent of dragging his newfound prey out of it. “Let her go!” Tom commanded while forcefully sending all of his influence into the one beast dragging the cyan mare away with his free hand. The creature screeched in pain as it was compelled to let the pegasus go free. It tried to clench its hand tighter around her leg, but it felt its muscles moving against its own will. As she felt the grip loosen on her leg, Rainbow Dash kicked out of the monster’s grip and ran forward back to her friends. “Are you ok?” Applejack asked with a concerned expression while observing the jilted pegasus. The cyan mare took a moment to steady her shaking body before offering a weak smile to her friend. “I’m good…” Rainbow Dash muttered while nodding sporadically. However good she said she was, it was clear she was shaken up from the experience. The ponies quickly turned their attention back to the demon still writhing in Tom’s invisible grip. The white eyed monster was screaming in protest while it gradually flew against the back wall. The human seemed to be struggling with keeping up a beam of light and simultaneously fending off a demon using his influence, but he remained steadfast in his defense. Suddenly, a veritable wall of the creatures came around the corner and blocked the monster already against the wall. Tom felt his connection with the single demon vanish. He also felt a wave of panic wash over his body as he contemplated how to combat the horde. “Get close to me!” Tom instructed while opening his other palm and holding it steady while pointing it past the ponies. Sunspot and her two companions didn’t even give themselves time to think about the proposal. They merely blindly followed the human’s instructions and huddled close to him. Tom shot out another beam of light to combat the approaching wall of monsters. His legs were shaking and he was already weak and dizzy, but he had to continue. Rainbow Dash observed the pale expression on his face and became very nervous. The last time she saw him with that sickly expression was when he collapsed out in the woods after healing her injuries from the undead wolves. “Tom, are you ok?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned tone of voice while looking around her at the two walls of light keeping the demons at bay. If the human were to let up for even an instant, the group would surely be overrun. “I’ve had better days if that’s what you’re asking.” Tom replied while raising his voice over the sound of screaming demons and the sound of the light bouncing off of their bodies. “No, I mean are you ok to keep doing this? Because I don’t know what else to do, and if you stop doing that… I’m pretty sure we’re going to die.” Rainbow Dash stated nervously while slowly coming to grips with how bleak their situation was. “I’m thinking ok! I’m thinking!” The boy replied with a slightly harsh tone. The cyan mare could tell that he wasn’t snapping at her, he was just venting from how utterly defeated he felt. He was feeling incredibly ill from the effects of using his powers too much, and he was in a life or death situation that was gradually tipping more towards death with each passing second. All the ponies could do was to watch the approaching wall of light. Their safe area rapidly grew smaller and smaller as the monsters pushed through the slayer’s defenses. The three mares huddled close and closed their eyes while holding onto each other to wait for the end. Suddenly, Tom’s light started pushing through to the ends of the hall. All of the creatures seemingly started retreating and flying out of the windows. Weakened to the point of extreme exhaustion, the human collapsed to his knees while shutting off his beams of light. He didn’t even do it willingly, he was simply that exhausted. The group was confused to see the remaining creatures fleeing and disappearing from sight suddenly. They had no idea why they would just let them go after cornering them dead to rights. “What the hay…? Where are they going?” Applejack asked in a confused tone. Although she wasn’t one to complain about good fortunes, she was utterly perplexed as to why she wasn’t currently getting ripped apart. Sunspot cautiously walked down the hall and looked around the corner. Sure enough, all of the monsters were gone. Taking a look out of the window, she couldn’t find any of them outside either. What next caught her eye, and what disturbed her further, was that she couldn’t see or hear any rain or thunder. The only sign of the storm was the clouds over head and the wall of wind that was closing them in off in the distance. “Uh… guys, I think something is up. It stopped raining and thundering… completely. I can’t even see out there from how little light there is.” Sunspot said while walking back over to the group. It was eerily quiet throughout the house and outside. The group couldn’t even hear crickets chirping in the cold night air. “Why did they leave? They had us on a silver platter.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. She never would have thought that not dying could disturb and unsettle her so much. Suddenly, Tom’s senses and Sunspot’s detector went off violently. Tom was almost rendered breathless with how severe the sensation was going through his body, and the suited mare’s vial was buzzing and flashing louder than she had ever seen. She couldn’t even interpret the reading it was giving, it was just going haywire. “What’s going on?! My detector is going crazy!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock while holding up the vial. She could barely hold it steady with how much it was vibrating. A cold chill suddenly ran down the ponies’ spines. They immediately felt uncomfortable and uneasy, but couldn’t determine why. All manner of conflicting and confusion emotions and sensations rushed throughout the ponies’ minds and bodies. They had no idea why they felt this way, but they couldn’t even put their lack of fingers on what they were feeling. The collective realization of what sensation they were getting ran through everyone’s mind. They felt totally and utterly wrong. Like they were standing somewhere they shouldn’t have been standing. Like a group of children uneasily hovering in front of the basement door, waiting to walk into the cold depths. A quiet, barely audible noise started making its presence known above the deafening silence. The ponies could scarcely make it out, but it sounded like a pack of wolves or wild dogs howling and barking. They weren’t even sure if they were just imagining things, or if what they were hearing was actually real. “Guys… do you hear that?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. She wasn’t sure if she wanted confirmation that the noise she was hearing was in fact real. One look at the pale faces of her three companions told everything she needed to know. The eerie noises sent chills up and down the group’s collective spine. They shifted around uneasily, totally uncomfortable and unsure of their safety in the once warm hallways of the apple family home. Applejack huddled close to the wall while nervously staring at the hallway in front of her. Just around that corner was pitch blackness. She didn’t even have to see the darkness to fear it. Her imagination was already kicking into overdrive, telling her about all the possible monsters that could be lurking just out of sight. A loud, almost deafening scraping noise suddenly came from directly beside the farm pony’s head. All Applejack could do was look beside her and watch in abject shock and horror as three small arcs of electricity went down the wall beside her, leaving a claw shaped scorch mark in the wall. The scorch marks appeared to have some kind of depth to them, as if something had actually clawed the wall and just left a burn mark over it. Before anyone could react to the frightening occurrence, another loud scrape sounded out. The group darted their eyes upward as they caught a glimpse of blue light. Three more arcs of electricity formed and rapidly went across the ceiling in vertical lines. It was like an invisible creature was clawing the walls right in front of them, leaving only three arcs of lightning as its visible calling card. *Pop* “Ack!” The three nervous ponies yelped in unison as the lamp on the nearby table shattered into pieces. The rest of the hallway was submerged in complete darkness, leaving nothing to offer the ponies a glimpse at the area around them, or what danger could be lurking in the shadows.
Chapter 63: King of the SkyThe pitch blackness around the small group was making them incredibly uneasy. With everything they had just witnessed, they were still stressed out, so to be submerged into darkness with several terrifying events happening right in front of them wasn’t exactly good on their already tense bodies. Rainbow Dash felt herself jump out of her skin as she collided with something in the dark. She then realized that it was just a section of the wall beside her. Her jumpiness was justifiable, but she still felt bad for being so nervous. Before anyone could speak up in light of their lightless situation, the group heard a soft click followed by a cone of light filling the area around them. Everyone turned to see Sunspot letting go of a small flashlight mounted on the front of her suit. The others were relieved to finally be able to see what was going on around them. “That’s better… if only slightly.” Sunspot stated while observing the cut off of darkness a short distance away. Most of the hallway was still pitch black, and the presence of light actually somehow managed to make things even scarier. The ponies could see gaping voids of shadow to their front and back, and knowing that these led to other open areas played with a sense of primal fear in them. They felt like young fillies wandering out into the pitch black hallways of their homes to go to the bathroom after having a bad nightmare. “What is going on?” Applejack asked nervously while putting a hoof up to the wall to examine the three scorch marks still present on it. The three marks were still slightly warm from whatever had caused them, and they smelled odd to boot. The orange mare sniffed for a few moments to try and determine the source of the odor. “What is that smell?” Applejack muttered to herself while in thought. She didn’t expect anyone to hear her, but apparently she had spoken loud enough for everyone to look over to see what she was doing. “That would probably be sulfur…” Tom spoke while working his way back up to his feet. The ponies looked at the weakened human with confused expressions. “Sulfur…? What is sulfur doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while looking at the odd markings. Before Tom could reply, another scraping noise sounded out. It was like someone was carving directly into the walls and floor. The grating noise, combined with the three flashes of electricity off in the darkness told the ponies that another mark had been created just ahead of them. Sunspot pointed her flashlight to the left slightly, illuminating the claw marks on the wall just in front of the stairs. “The demon must be manifesting. It’s channeling its energy through the area, which must be causing these things to happen.” Tom explained while rubbing his hand across the newly formed scorch marks. Some black charred particles flaked off of his fingers as he rubbed them together. “The demon is coming…? Like… right now?!” Sunspot asked in a nervous panic. It didn’t take much to realize the urgency of what was actually going on. “It looks that way. That is probably why all of the others left… they most likely got called back by their master so he could have us all to himself.” Tom theorized with a slightly nervous tone. The fact that the hardened monster slayer was getting scared was more than enough to terrify the three mares. “Well what do we do? How do we stop it?” Rainbow Dash asked while hoping that there was a way to circumvent a demon coming to kill them. Tom shrugged and looked at the cyan mare with a defeated expression, making her heart sink. “I don’t think we can… the spell Cotton used was very self-contained. Once it was finished, it didn’t have very much of a connection with how things proceeded from there. The only way to make the storm stop and to get rid of these guys… is to beat the big boss behind all of it.” Tom explained with dread evident in his voice. Another scraping noise sounded out, drawing the group’s attention down the stairs. Another set of claw marks formed along the steps leading down. A few feet away from these marks, another set appeared with a bright arc of electricity that sparked into the air above slightly. As the ponies watched with growing senses of fear and dread, the claw marks continued appearing on what seemed to be a path to the front door. A nearby table was knocked over suddenly, spilling the vase on top of it to the floor with a loud crash and making the group jump in fright. Once the scratches got to the door, they stopped momentarily. The group almost expected things to stop right then and there, although they knew that this was just misplaced optimism. Much to their dismay, a loud bang sounded out as the door flew open and slammed into the wall. As the door frame slowly drifted from its momentum, more of the scratches appeared on the deck outside and continued down into the soaked and muddy path. The wind picked up suddenly and lightning started flashing in the sky violently. The thunderous display seemed ominously out of place considering the complete lack of rain. It was almost like a terrifying omen of bad things to come. As the ponies hesitantly gathered around the door to look outside, their attention suddenly drifted to a spot in the mud out in the distance. Some of the mud on the surface seemed to be moving out of the way, as if something were standing on top of it. “What the-” Applejack started to ask a question, but she never got the chance to finish it. A blinding flash of light rang out in front of the group, forcing them to shield their eyes. A deafening boom of thunder followed the flash, louder and more intense than anything they had ever heard in their lives. The thunder was so strong that the ponies could feel it. Their bodies shook from the initial jolt, and many of them were knocked off balance from the sudden fright. The group of four all concluded that lightning just struck in front of them. It was a terrifying experience, and one that they never wanted to experience again in their lifetimes. Looking up and opening their eyes after the earth shaking shockwave, the four noticed that the bright light was still present. The source of the light made the ponies drop their jaws and widen their eyes in shock and horror. There was a single bolt of lightning that seemed to be lingering in the spot that it struck. The lightning seemed to be flowing into the spot in the mud that the ponies noticed earlier. Whatever it was doing there, it seemed to be causing some kind of bizarre reaction with the ground. A bright blob of light formed at the bottom of the bolt and slowly grew larger, covering an area on the ground in blinding light. What was even more concerning and terrifying, was that there seemed to be something taking shape in the aura of light. A black silhouette of a humanoid creature slowly took form in the area obscured by the lightning. It seemed to twitch and convulse, as if it were just now coming into existence and was trying to learn how to move. As the creature formed, a terrifying noise could be heard over the buzzing of the electricity. It reminded the group of the lesser demons’ growl, but this seemed to be even more unnatural and unnerving. The low, almost bestial groans and growls shifted in pitch and tone, creating an unearthly choir of disturbing noises. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sunspot were unable to look away from the horrific images in front of them. They stared at the forming creature with trembling bodies and pounding hearts. They wanted to turn around and run away, to let the slayer deal with the terrible beast about to come and kill them, but they were cemented in place by fear. As the black form of the creature filled out, an outline of a face formed on what the ponies could loosely identify as its head. It reminded the group of the face they had seen on the clouds earlier, just a gaping mouth and two eyes made out of burning light. The creature fell to its knees and the lightning ceased, leaving only smoke coming off of the ground and the body of the monster to indicate that it was there at all. Now that they could actually see what the creature looked like, the ponies noticed that it had grey skin. The entire body of the foreign animal seemed gaunt and thin. It had long, reaching arms with boney fingers on gnarled hands. It seemed to have only three pointed toes on each claw like foot. And it had pointed ears on its bald head. “I-is that him?” Rainbow Dash stammered nervously while breaking her trance like stare with the creature. Now that she wasn’t morbidly fascinated with the beast, she was outright terrified of it. “Yeah… that’s him.” Tom stated grimly while eyeing the crouching monster. “Girls… that is a demon given flesh and blood.” He explained with dread and apprehension clear in his voice. The ponies looked back to the grey creature with fearful anxiety as they waited for it to move. The group noticed a sort of light coming from underneath its bowed head. Something was flickering where its face should have been, and as the creature slowly looked up, the ponies were stunned into silence. The monster didn’t have a face. Or to be more accurate, it had a face, but it didn’t have what one would call physical features on its head. Other than its ears, its head was barren of anything that seemed to be a part of its body. Instead of the sharp teeth or glowing red eyes the ponies expected the monster to have, it had sparking arcs of electricity in the shapes of eyes and a mouth. The lightning on its face perfectly formed a blank yet somehow sinister expression. Despite the constant flowing and occasional shifting of the electricity, it seemed to hold the shape of a mouth rather well. The eyes had electricity on the outer edges, but the center of them seemed to be pits of white light formed by the lightning. The sight was mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time. It was unlike anything the ponies had ever seen before. They would be amazed by the wondrous occurrence if they weren’t petrified by the monster that it belonged to. As the creature slowly got up, the ponies stepped back slightly in preparation to flee if it should jump at them. Once upright, the beast looked around for a moment before settling its eyes on the small group in the doorway. It then started walking forward slowly, at an almost casual pace. Wherever the creature stepped, arcs of electricity were left behind as the ground charred beneath him. Random sparks and miniature bolts of lightning flowed off of its body at odd intervals, but it seemed to pay no mind to this occurrence. Tom and the others started backing up nervously as the monster made its way towards the house without so much as a noise. It kept staring forward with its unblinking luminescent eyes and its closed mouth that only seemed to move when the arc of lightning that formed it moved up and down slightly. “What is your name?” Tom demanded in his best intimidating tone. He didn’t expect the demon to answer without using his influence, but the creature seemed to start moving its mouth to speak. “My name doesn’t concern you.” It spoke with a faint, almost distant sort of whisper. It sounded as if the wind had formed a voice and started speaking. As it spoke, the creature’s mouth opened and moved as a normal mouth would have, but the inside of its mouth was filled with blackness. The void in its head seemed to have depth, but it had no teeth or a tongue. The only thing even keeping up the illusion that it was in fact an operable mouth was the arc of lightning splitting and moving like a pair of electric lips. Tom put his hand out and channeled all of the energy he had left into controlling the demon with his will power. The creature stumbled mid stride and walked backwards for a moment as it felt the force of the slayer’s influence striking its body. “I said… what is your name?” Tom asked in a more commanding tone. The ponies were surprised that the human could try to intimidate such a terrifying creature. The demon smiled, raising the edges of the line that served as its mouth into a curve and creating a devious smirk. It then walked forward, completely overpowering Tom as he tried to keep it back. The human groaned as he struggled to even have the smallest effect on the creature. “You hold no power over me slayer… now move aside so I can perform my duties.” The creature stated in a cold and emotionless tone while its voice deepened slightly. Despite the lack of expression in his voice, the group felt threatened by his statement. “What duties?” Tom asked with hesitant curiosity while backing up slowly. “The one who summoned me here made a request. Once I complete this task, I will be free to roam the earth as I wish. The task I was given is to kill the individuals known as the elements of harmony.” The demon said without batting an eyelash, even if it didn’t have one to bat. Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately felt a nervous pit in their stomachs from hearing the creature address how it was going to systematically hunt them down and kill them. The two mares looked to the slayer for reassurance that he could protect them. Although the boy did have an uneasy expression, he did seem to be thinking of something to do. He suddenly turned to face the ponies with a serious look on his face. “Sunspot… I need you to take them upstairs and protect them.” Tom instructed while glancing back outside to check on the monster’s progress towards the house. “What…?! You seriously can’t be thinking about fighting that thing by yourself can you?” Sunpot asked in a disapproving tone. She wanted to be there to help with the fight, not hiding upstairs and waiting for that thing to get the drop on her. “We humans aren’t exactly the best thinkers… slayer or no slayer.” Tom replied lightheartedly. He didn’t even have to look at the orange pegasus to know that she didn’t like his response. “But I-” Sunspot started to speak up, when she was interrupted by the human speaking up again in a more serious tone. “Look Sunspot, I don’t want them to be anywhere near this thing when we start fighting. I don’t know what it can do, and I don’t want to take that risk. Either you take them upstairs and I will fight him, or I will take them upstairs and leave you down here to fight him yourself.” Tom explained in a non-threatening yet still stern tone. The suited mare was left speechless by the human’s conviction in this situation. “Ok… I’ll keep them safe.” Sunspot finally agreed while turning to the two on looking ponies. “Follow me guys.” She said while heading up the stairs and motioning for the pair to follow her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced between themselves and the human as he stepped forward to face the terrifying creature. They didn’t want to leave him by himself, but they also didn’t want to be anywhere near the demon. “Be careful Tom.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while turning to follow Sunspot. The three mares glanced back at the human with worried expressions of fear plastered on their faces. Despite their concern, they continued moving to safety as they were told. With the two mares hesitantly walking upstairs to follow their suited companion, Tom was left with no one else to keep him company other than the bright eyed beast slowly walking towards him. As the demon stepped up onto the porch, the human could see the smoke forming beneath his feet from where the wood was being charred beneath him. “I’m afraid I can’t let you come in here until you deal with your face. I hate to be the one to tell you this man, but that is a real fire hazard you got going on there.” Tom stated with as much bravado as he could muster with his exhausted body. The demon smirked at the human standing in the doorway to block his path. “Fire hazard… I’ll show you a fire hazard!” He said while adopting a more threatening tone and reeling his arm back. Tom didn’t need much context to know where this was heading. As sparks formed in the creature’s hand, the boy ducked to the side quickly. With a terrifying roar, the demon shot its arm forward and pointed its outstretched hand towards the doorway. A bolt of lightning shot out from his palm, followed by an authentically loud shockwave of thunder. Tom shielded his eyes as the bolt flew into the doorway and whizzed past him and onto the stairs. By the time the bolt died down and he looked back up, he noticed a few dying flames and a large spot on the stairs broken up and charred from the impact. “Hey… dude, that is not cool. Are you going to clean that up or what?” The human stated with a cocky smirk while getting up. His smile almost instantly vanished when he noticed the demon standing in front of him with a piercing blank stare. “Oh, I’m sure that will buff right out. I think it will be harder to get bloodstains out of the carpet however.” The creature said while lunging forward and grabbing the slayer by the throat. Tom hated how he was being out matched and out witted by the same monster. The demon threw Tom up and onto the stairs with a great deal of force. The human hit his head on one of the steps, causing a great deal of pain. As he looked down to see the monster already walking up to him, he realized that he was in a great deal of trouble. With blinding speed, the monster plunged its hand downward into Tom’s leg. The human found it odd that the physical incarnation of a demon didn’t have claws on its hands, when he suddenly realized why this was. The monster applied so much force to his strike that his boney fingers pierced the boy’s skin almost effortlessly. Tom cried out in pain as he felt the beast drag him down the steps and toss him into the air by his impaled leg. As the human sailed out of the still open front door, he tried to tuck and roll on his way to the ground, but the best he could do was to roll sideways to not hit his face as he bounced down the stairs to the porch. The demon looked outside to see the boy in a crumpled heap on the ground. Figuring that the slayer wouldn’t be a problem for at least a few minutes while he recovered, the creature diverted his attention up the stairs to his escaping prey. Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were following Sunspot through the hallways in an attempt at finding shelter. They turned the corner and ducked into a nearby room and closed the door. Applejack recognized the room to be her own bedroom. As Sunspot fiddled with her equipment in an attempt at finding something, the farm pony and her cyan friend were left to deal with the weight of their current situation, which was more hopelessly bleak the more they thought about it. “Oh man! I don’t want to go out from a bald headed freak with a lightshow for a face killing me!” Rainbow Dash said while on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “We’re going to be fine Rainbow Dash… Tom is going to take care of that thing while we sit up here and relax.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone while ushering the nervous pegasus over to her bed and sitting her down. She was just as frightened as her friend was if not more, but she tried her best to internalize it. Perhaps helping the cyan mare to deal with her fear would help her feel calmer. “Right… relax. Sorry if I don’t feel up to playing cards right now Applejack.” Rainbow Dash said while laying back on the bed and letting out an uneasy sigh. While the two ponies tried to ignore the situation downstairs, Sunspot was trying to prevent it from coming upstairs. The suited mare quickly scribbled red ink onto a piece of paper in an attempt at making a physical barrier. Despite her shaky hooves and tense nerves, the orange pegasus somehow managed to get the first piece of paper done. After affixing the first half of the charm onto the door, she quickly got to work on the second half while nervously glancing outside occasionally. “Come on, come on…” Sunspot muttered to herself anxiously. Every passing second she expected the lightning faced monster to burst in and strike her down in one fell swoop. The tension that Sunspot was feeling was palpably clear over at the bed where Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sitting. The two mares watched their companion with progressively worsening anxiety as they waited for her to finish. “Come on… come on… Yes!” Sunspot exclaimed triumphantly while holding up the finished piece of paper. It was astounding that she could draw a steady line with her jittery nerves, let alone a completed symbol, but she somehow managed to best all of the odds to complete the charm. Without any further delay, Sunspot went to step outside to affix the completed charm onto the other side of the door. Before she could even open the door further however, she was interrupted by a frightening image popping up in front of her. “Ah!” Sunspot yelped in fright as she saw the sparking electrical face of the demon jut out from around the corner. As the grey creature violently shoved the door open and stepped forward, Sunspot backpedaled as fast as she could. No matter how fast she was, she was unable to dodge the swipe from the demon’s sharp talon-like fingers. “AGH!” Sunspot yelled in pain as the creature’s claws raked across her chest. The force of the strike sent her tumbling sideways. “Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash and Applejack cried out in horror as they watched the suited mare slam into the wall. She tried to get up briefly, but she wasn’t able to get off of the floor. With the only obstacle out of its way, the demon looked forward at the two wide eyed mares. Taking a few slow steps forward, it seemed to be enjoying the sense of terror it was creating in its hapless prey. The pair of ponies darted their eyes around frantically in an attempt at trying to find a way out. Spotting the nearby window, Applejack rushed to it and pushed it open. She then turned to her cyan friend with a pleading expression. “Rainbow Dash, get out of here!” Applejack instructed in a frantic tone while pointing outside. She obviously wanted the pegasus to fly out of the open window to save herself. Rainbow Dash looked between Applejack and the open window before shaking her head in refusal. “I’m not leaving you here!” Rainbow Dash stated adamantly. The orange mare couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “There’s no sense in both of us dying here. You need to run!” Applejack said in a sincere tone. She was practically begging her friend to leave her. Before the two could continue their argument, they turned to see how close the demon had gotten and gasped once they spotted him. The grey creature had managed to silently approach the orange mare. He had gotten so close that he was practically staring down at her. His sparkling mouth shifted to a devilish grin as he prepared to slash the farm pony. Applejack had no time to dodge the attack. All she could do was yelp in surprise as she watched the creature swipe at her. Just before the impact, the orange mare felt something shove into her from the side and saw a cyan blur in front of her. As she went to the ground, Applejack heard Rainbow Dash scream in pain. She quickly realized that the pegasus had jumped into her to push her to the floor, and caught the monster’s vicious attack across her back. “Rainbow Dash, no!” Applejack yelled frantically as she looked at the wounded pony beside her on the floor. Rainbow Dash had three decently sized gashes on her back that were pouring out blood down her side. The cyan mare writhed in pain, and seemed to be incapable of getting back up on her own. Looking up to see the creature staring down at them with its piercing gaze, the two mares saw that it was preparing to claw at them again. Applejack helped her injured friend scoot backwards, although there wasn’t much room to escape before hitting the solid wooden wall. The pair huddled close together and shut their eyes as they watched the blur of motion that went along with the monster’s attack. The thought of one of them dying in the other’s arms disturbed and terrified the two ponies. They wondered which one of them would go first, or if they would both catch the same attack, and how long it would take them to die. Applejack heard a piercing sound near her. She felt her heart drop as she imagined her cyan friend getting impaled next to her. Rainbow Dash wasn’t making any noise, so she wondered if she had been killed instantly or was simply unable to speak. The farm pony hesitantly peeked open one of her eyes to look. Surprisingly she saw Rainbow Dash doing the same thing. After inspecting their bodies, they each realized that neither of them had been struck. Looking up in slight confusion, the pair was shocked to see the creature holding its claws mere inches away from them. The thing that had made it pause was clearly evident as the pair looked up. They noticed a blue tinted sword sticking through the creature’s mid-section, causing the demon to cease its attack. They then spotted their human friend behind the monster, struggling to get it away from them. “Tom!” The two ponies exclaimed in unison. They were relieved to see that the slayer was coming to their rescue, or at least trying to. Tom grunted as he yanked his sword back out of the demon. The monster seemed unfazed by the attack. If anything it seemed to be further enraged by the interruption to its slaughter. With an agitated growl, the monster spun around and roared at the human. As it opened its mouth to roar, the electricity that made up its mouth arced downwards and upwards to form into two rows of needle like teeth. While these may not have been functional as actual teeth, they were rather effective at putting the fear of death into the young slayer. Before Tom could react, the demon slammed its closed fist into him and sent him flying backwards. After sliding out of the door to the bedroom, the human looked up to see the furious monster stomping towards him. The boy held out his hand and tried once again to use his influence on the demonic creature. He strained with all of his might, eliciting a bigger response than last time. The demon stopped walking forward and seemed to be pushed back slightly. It struggled to move forward to get at the human, barely managing to take steady steps towards him. “What is your name?!” Tom demanded, hoping that asking for the creature’s name would put more stress on it. The monster paused and stared at the slayer for a moment before smiling. It then raised its arms out to the side. Suddenly, the wind picked up outside and the sky was ablaze with lightning. The rain from before came crashing down once again with brutal force. “My name is cyclone, for I am the roaring wind… My name is maelstrom, for I am the rushing waters… My name is tempest… for I, am the coming storm.” The demon spoke over the wind and the thunder with relative ease. It was as if his voice were carried through the uproar like it was part of it. The wind suddenly picked up inside of the room. The strong gusts felt like a whirlwind was flying through the house, picking up small objects with ease and even slightly levitating larger objects with its force. The ponies grabbed onto the nearest solid object and attempted to hold on while their bodies lifted into the air. Applejack and Rainbow Dash strained to keep their hold on the windowsill. They could feel their grips loosening as the wind blew stronger and stronger. The pair let out muffled cries of fear as they imagined themselves getting thrown around the room like dust bunnies in a vacuum. As the grey creature dropped its arms back to its side, all of the wind in the room traveled downwards, carrying everything with it. Rainbow Dash and Applejack hit their upper bodies into the wall as they were unexpectedly slammed downwards from their position at the window. The two mares also smacked their faces into the windowsill as they fell. The blow caused more pain than anything else, making their faces sting from the impact. The orange mare put a hoof up to her lip and discovered that she had busted it open slightly. Disturbed by the monster’s display of power, Tom decided that he would have to defeat it as fast as possible to avoid any casualties among his friends. Pouring whatever energy he had left into his invisible struggle with the beast, he tried to bend it to his will. “I command you to leave this plane of existence and return to where you came from!” Tom commanded in a stern voice. The human’s entire arm was shaking violently, but he had to keep it up to beat the demon. The creature shifted its expression into an angry snarl. It then reeled its arm back and shoved it forward, sending a compressed blast of air at the human. The wall of wind hitting him was so dense and fast moving, that it actually felt solid. Tom’s head was knocked back into the wall, sending him into a dazed stupor. “You do not make demands of me Thomas Greene.” The demon stated in a threatening tone. The ponies watched in shock as Tom drifted in and out of consciousness while sliding to the floor. They knew that without the human to distract it, the creature would be coming for them. “Oh yeah? How about me?!” Sunspot yelled boldly while rushing up behind the creature. She took a collapsible baton from her suit’s equipment and smacked the monster as hard as she could behind the knee of one of its legs. She figured that if she was going to die, she might as well put her all into fighting the thing trying to kill her without fear getting in the way. Much to the amazement of the suited mare and the two stunned ponies watching, the monster’s leg buckled and it went down on bended knee. Before it could react to the attacking pegasus, Sunspot grabbed its head and pulled it back while reaching for the salt container she had handy. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were amazed at the suited mare’s bravery. She almost seemed to have no concern for her own wellbeing as she assaulted the frightful creature. They quickly realized that she was so gung ho because she was quite literally fighting for her life and the lives of everyone else targeted by the demon. With this fiery passion to fight for her friends fueling her actions, Sunspot quickly poured salt onto the creature’s face. The demon howled in pain as its skin started smoking from the white powder touching it. As it opened its seemingly nonphysical mouth to scream, the salt went inside and burned the grey monster further. “Go Sunspot!” Rainbow Dash cheered in elation. It was the first time in the past few hours that she actually felt hopeful of their chances. They were fighting back, and they were actually winning. This made the cyan mare excited, along with her orange friend. Sunspot enjoyed the awesome feeling she was getting from torturing the demon into submission. She wasn’t sure what she would do when she ran out of salt, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now, she was dominating the grey monster. The monster howled and flailed its arms around in agony as it tried to get away from the constant downpour of pain and misery. It could have overpowered the suited pegasus three ways from Sunday, but the excruciating pain it was going through clouded its mind and made it hard to escape the situation by using its powers. Suddenly, the creature stopped flailing one of its arms around and clenched its fist a few times. Ripping free from the suited mare’s grip, the demon managed to twist its body and thrust its clawed fingers towards her. Applejack and Rainbow Dash gasped in shock as all sense of excitement left them instantly. Sunspot felt the creature’s four razor sharp fingers stab into her with a sickening squelch. The orange pegasus croaked out a surprised gasp before falling silent. The shock of the experience forced her to drop the small cylinder in her hoof as she stared forward with wide eyes. “Sunspot!” The two ponies watching on in horror cried out in unison while reaching out to the suited mare. They noticed a large amount of blood pooling over the creature’s hand where it was sticking into her side. Sunspot slowly looked down at her impaled body and trembled slightly. She then looked back up to the angry face of the demon staring at her with contempt evident in his expression. Without so much as a second thought, the monster picked the pegasus up by her injury and threw her across the room. Sunspot slammed into the wall behind Applejack and Rainbow Dash and flopped to the floor with a sizable thud. The two mares rushed to the pegasus’s side and steadied her while staring at her injury with a strong feeling of dread and fear gripping them tightly. The suited mare had four evenly spaced puncture wounds on the left side of her stomach region, along with the superficial slashes across her chest from earlier. Although it was hard to tell due to the pooling blood over the wounds, the ponies knew that they were deep. “Sunspot! Can you hear me?!” Rainbow Dash asked while gently shaking the bleeding mare. Sunspot was barely remaining conscious. The cyan pegasus was unsure of whether she was drowsy from hitting her head, or from losing so much blood. Hearing the sounds of the creature’s feet pounding on the floor as it stepped forward, the two mares diverted their attention away from their wounded companion, and over to their approaching assailant. The demon brushed the salt off of its face and shook its head forcefully to rid itself of the white powder. It then looked forward with an angry scowl. “I’m done playing games with you insignificant ants. Don’t bother saying goodbye to your friends, because they will be meeting you soon.” The monster stated threateningly while holding its clawed hands upward in preparation to strike. The demon’s faint voice only made the statement more unnerving for the ponies. They could see their lives flashing before their eyes. “Hey sparky…” Suddenly the group heard a familiar voice come from behind the grey monster. The beast turned around to see what was behind him, when something miraculous happened. The ponies watched in surprise and shock as an orange blur sliced across the monster’s neck. The demon’s cry of pain was cut short as its head flew off of its body. As the lifeless corpse of the still twitching monster collapsed to the floor and started turning to smoke, the ponies looked ahead to see an exhausted human standing above the fallen monster with his claws still glowing from having freshly come into existence. “When you get back to hell… tell them Tom sent you.” Tom stated with a slight smirk at his satisfying victory.
Chapter 64: RecoveryThe room was almost silent as Rainbow Dash and Applejack blinked rapidly from shock. The only noises around them were the sound of the demon’s remains slowly changing to smoke, the sound of Tom breathing heavily from exhaustion, and their own frantically beating hearts. They couldn’t believe that they were still alive. They felt a mixture of joy and elation welling up inside of them, but they were still too stunned to react. “Is it… dead?” Rainbow Dash asked in a dull tone. She was still processing the situation around her, so it was no surprise that the pegasus was at a loss for words. “Yeah… I think so.” Tom replied in between breaths. As the boy tiredly rested his arms at his side and made his claws disappear, the last wisps of smoke vanished from view. The ponies felt incredibly happy that they were finally safe, but their joy was cut short as they shifted their attention to their wounded comrade. Sunspot was still lying on the floor bleeding to death while the two mares cradled her gently. The only movement the suited pony was making was the erratic and shallow breaths she was taking, otherwise she was unresponsive. “Sunspot, can you hear me? Please wake up…” Rainbow Dash pleaded while staring down sadly at the injured mare’s face. Sunspot had a dazed, almost peaceful look on her face, yet the pain she was feeling still elicited a slight grimace. “Tom… can you please heal her? She doesn’t look like she has much longer.” Applejack asked hesitantly while observing the exhausted human. She knew that it wasn’t a question of conserving energy for Tom. The boy would try to heal her no matter how exhausted he was. But the farm pony could tell that he barely had enough strength to stand, let alone heal a near fatal set of injuries without passing out. “Sure… just give me a minute.” Tom stated in a sort of tired daze. The two ponies shared a concerned look with each other as they watched the slayer stagger forward slowly. Tom sat down next to the bleeding mare and paused for a moment to catch his breath. His entire body was trembling as he moved, and to top all of that off he felt incredibly weak, well past the point of feeling ill. The human reached forward and placed his hand just above the pool of blood on Sunspot’s stomach. After concentrating for a moment, his healing light appeared and flowed into the injured pony. Applejack and Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as Tom struggled and groaned uncomfortably while trying to keep the strenuous action up. Slowly but surely, the slashes on the suited mare’s chest started disappearing from sight. Despite this uplifting sight, the large amount of blood covering her side made it difficult to tell if the more important wounds were closing up. Tom strained himself to keep up the stream of blue light, to the point of needing to steady his hand with his other arm. As much as he wanted to just collapse, he needed to be sure that the pegasus was completely healed. As the blood started running down Sunspot’s side, the relieving sight of undamaged orange fur came into view. Tom groaned heavily while letting his arms fall to his side. While the human recovered, the two mares beside him watched in amazement as the suited pony started to stir. Sunspot fluttered her eyes open and moaned tiredly. Her entire body felt distant and oddly cold, as if she had passed out with a window open in the middle of winter. On top of the strange feeling prevalent throughout her body, she could tell that she was laying in some kind of liquid. As she opened her eyes further, she was greeted with the excited and smiling faces of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “W…wh…wha?” Sunspot muttered while regaining her senses and sitting up slightly. “Sunspot! You’re awake!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed happily while giving the newly revived pegasus an excited hug. Sunspot seemed confused as to why the two ponies were giving her so much attention. “Guys…? What happ- oh… right.” Sunspot said in sudden remembrance of what had just happened. Taking a look down to where her wounds had previously been, the pegasus was amazed by how much blood was on and around her. “Wow… That is a lot of my blood. I don’t feel a thing though… Heh… even my wing feels better. You must be a miracle worker Tom… uh… Tom?” Sunspot asked while looking beside her to find the human that saved her life. She was surprised to see the boy in such bad shape. Tom seemed to be staring off into space while breathing heavily. His face was pale, and he had a general ill appearance about him. The ponies weren’t sure if he was going to throw up or fall over and pass out. Either way they felt bad for him. “Are you ok?” Sunspot asked with a concerned frown. Finding no response in the sickly human, she turned to the two mares for answers. “He must have used a lot of energy while healing you… are you sure you’re ok Tom?” Applejack asked with friendly concern while crouching down and observing the exhausted human. “I’m good… just… just let me catch my breath.” Tom muttered in between breaths. The farm pony gently put a hoof up to his forehead to feel his temperature. She recoiled in shock when she felt how icy cold he was. “Sweet Celestia Tom… you’re freezing cold.” Applejack stated in surprise while eyeing the pale human with a concerned frown. Tom tried to relax his face into a less sickly expression and tried to appear as if he were perfectly fine. “I’m fine Applejack… I can rest after I heal Rainbow Dash’s injuries and-” Tom suggested while motioning towards the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash shook her head in refusal to his statement. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You aren’t doing anything else to put any more stress on yourself.” Rainbow Dash said in a caring manner. She could still feel blood running down her back from the stinging gashes she received just moments ago, but she wasn’t about to let a sick friend harm himself further just to aid her. “Rainbow Dash, your back is practically torn to shreds. You need me to-” Tom stated while trying to get up to get closer to the injured mare. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both gently pushed on the human’s shoulders to keep him in a resting position on the floor. “Tom… you’ve already done more than enough for us. You saved our lives already… I will live with letting these cuts heal on their own… at least until you get your strength back. If you really want to help me, wait until you’re feeling better before you do anything dangerous… ok?” Rainbow Dash asked with a sincerely compassionate tone. The boy could tell that she was resolute in her decision to prevent him from healing her. “Alright… fine.” Tom shrugged before returning to his attempts at catching his breath. The ponies smiled now that they knew their human friend was focusing on recovering from his own health problems. “Hey guys… take a look at this.” The group heard Sunspot beckoning them from off to the side. Applejack and Rainbow Dash turned to see the suited mare leaning against the windowsill while looking outside. As they walked up beside the orange pegasus to see what had caught her attention, they were stunned to see a remarkable sight that they hadn’t seen in what seemed like forever. The sky outside had cleared of any sort of cloud, grey, black, or otherwise. Every trace of the storm, save for the soaked ground and the wind damage, had been erased. In its place was a beautiful starry night sky with an even more breath taking moon shining down on the now peaceful farm. Even the massive wall of wind surrounding the area had vanished, opening up the view from the house all the way to the end of the fenced in area at the front of the house. It resembled just another night in Ponyville after a large rainstorm. The crickets had even started chirping again, creating a one of a kind ambience that the ponies couldn’t help but to marvel at. “Man… that is a sight for sore eyes.” Rainbow Dash stated happily while staring at the clear night sky. Sunspot smirked at how familiar the cyan mare’s statement was. “Seems like we aren’t having a good track record with the weather.” The suited pegasus stated with a chuckle. “Yeah… After I get home, I think I’m going to take a rain check on checking the rain.” Rainbow Dash replied lightheartedly. “Well before we do that, we should probably get ourselves cleaned up. I don’t think the sight of us covered in blood will make the others feel as happy as we are.” Sunspot suggested while pulling at her own suit to examine the bloodstains still prevalent around her former wounds. Although she was no longer bleeding, she was covered in enough of the stuff to turn even the strongest stomachs. Rainbow Dash cringed slightly while glancing behind her. She couldn’t see it, but she knew that she was probably still bleeding from her undoubtedly gruesome injuries. Looking forward and sighing sadly, the cyan pony nodded in agreement. The group all decided to rest while they mended their wounds and cleaned themselves up. Sunspot used the last few bandages she was carrying to wrap around Rainbow Dash’s back. The three slashes stung whenever something touched them, but the cyan mare managed to grit her teeth and bear through the process of bandaging them. Once she was finished patching up her fellow pegasus, Sunspot used the last piece of gauze to wipe up some of the excess blood on her stomach region. Still, no matter how much she scrubbed, the stains wouldn’t lift from her suit. “Ugh, horse feathers… that guy messed up my suit. Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of this fabric?!” Sunspot fumed while observing the poor shape her outfit was in. The sight of her former Wonderbolts’ uniform in such a state almost brought a tear to her eye. “I’m amazed this is the first time it got messed up… especially since you’re putting it through more paces than the Wonderbolts’ ever imagined possible.” Rainbow Dash said understandingly. Just looking at the ruined outfit almost made her cry as well. “Who says this is the first time? The blood I can handle… even if it is a pain. I used to get into accidents every other week back on the team with all of the crazy stuff I tried pulling. It’s the holes I’m more upset about… *Sigh*” Sunspot frowned as she ran her hoof over the slashes on the chest area of her suit. “Hey… maybe you could ask Rarity to take care of that for you.” Applejack suggested in a helpful manner. “Really? You think she could do that?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone. “Yeah… she is amazing with a sewing machine. Just clean it up for her and she can do the rest.” Rainbow Dash replied with a smirk. “Well then I guess I’ll ask her some time. For the moment I guess I’ll have to make due.” Sunspot said with a smile. The fact that she was still alive to worry about her suit getting messed up was a pleasant surprise to the orange pegasus. “I think we should probably get going… we need to drop our new friend off somewhere safe until we can get to know him better, and I think we could all use some sleep after everything that has happened.” Tom stated while getting up from the floor. The unicorn held captive in the other room proved to be an interesting subject of thought for the group of ponies. They wondered what he knew, and what they could get him to talk about. As Tom slowly shuffled along on his way towards the door, the others noticed that he could barely support himself. His legs were wobbling, and his face was still pale. The human looked like he could fall over at any given moment. Applejack and Sunspot ran up beside the sickly slayer and leaned against him as they walked, helping to steady him as he slowly moved forward. Even with this added support, Tom still reached out to the nearby wall and slid along it while pressing his arm against it. He could have easily fit in at a hospital sick bay. Despite the human’s slow pace, the ponies were gladly willing to slow their pace down to help him walk. He had just saved their lives after all, and it was a generally nice thing to do for a friend. After walking down the seemingly endless hallway, the group finally made their way back to the bathroom door. Tom leaned against the far wall and waved the two ponies off, freeing Applejack up to go and open the door. Once the door opened, everyone inside turned to look at their visitors with elated expressions, everyone except for the bound unicorn still sitting against the wall that is. Cotton Quill remained silent and looked on with a troubled expression as Applebloom and Big Mac rushed forward to greet their sister. Even Neon Streak took the time to get up and walk over to the cheerful group. “Guys! You’re ok!” Applebloom cheered excitedly while examining the group. Although Rainbow Dash was bandaged up and Sunspot looked like hell froze over, the filly was glad that nobody had been killed during the attack. “Of course we are sugar cube. Ah told you that we would be fine, now didn’t Ah?” Applejack stated happily while embracing the filly in a warm hug. Once she was done greeting her younger sister, the farm pony looked up and quickly hugged the red stallion eagerly waiting. “We thought you were in trouble… there was a lot of ruckus out there. Are those things gone?” Big Mac asked curiously. He knew that if the four were still alive, then they must have done something right. “Yeah… Tom and Sunspot took care of things. It even stopped storming outside.” Rainbow Dash explained while motioning behind her. “Does that mean we can come out? Ah need to stretch my legs or something… it is cramped in here.” Applebloom chimed in, eager to leave the confined bathroom. Applejack chuckled at the thought that all her sister had to worry about was a tight space. “Yes Applebloom. You can all come out now, just be careful walking around the windows… lot of broken glass out there.” Applejack explained while backing up to let everyone out. Applebloom immediately darted out into the hallway excitedly, while Big Mac stayed behind to help Neon Streak walk. Once everyone was out of the claustrophobia inducing space, they looked around their once proud home and frowned slightly. Most of the windows were broken around the house, letting in the cold night air from outside. The carpet in several places was soaked clean through due to so much rain flying in. There were tables and pictures knocked down everywhere, and there were even claw marks on the walls and ceilings. Seeing the state the hallways were in, the farm ponies shuddered to think about what their rooms looked like. “Oh my gosh…” Applebloom stated in shock while looking around. She expected the house to be in bad shape, but actually seeing all the damage was horrifying to the distraught filly. “Don’t worry about all of this… we can clean this up tomorrow.” Applejack tried to sound reassuring, but everyone could tell that the orange mare was dreading the amount of work that would have to be done as well. While looking around to survey the damage done to her house, Applebloom noticed the pale human off to the side. She was shocked to see how ill he looked. The filly had never seen the boy this way, he was always so animated and cheerful, but now he looked so sick that he was barely aware of his surroundings. “Are you ok Tom?” Applebloom asked with a concerned expression while walking up to the pale human. Now that attention had been brought to him, the others looked over to Tom and gasped from how bad of a shape he was in. “Sweet Celestia Tom! What happened to you guys out here?” Neon Streak asked while glancing back over to the cyan mare next to her. She hadn’t paid much attention to Rainbow Dash’s wounds before, but seeing how Tom was too sick to heal her, something bad must have happened. Tom tried to stand upright without looking like he was about to throw up. The task was a little hard due to his trembling body, but he somehow managed to put on a cheerful persona. “You think we look bad? You should see the other guy…” Tom stated lightheartedly. The ponies were slightly amused by his comment, but their concerned frowns didn’t waver. “We just ran into some trouble while getting rid of these guys… I got cut on my back and Sunspot got hurt pretty badly, but Tom took care of her. He just needs to rest and he will be feeling good as new… right Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked with a slight twinge of concern in her voice. The human claimed that he would be fine, but the pegasus wasn’t entirely sure if she should believe him. He claimed the same thing out in the Everfree Forest when he almost passed out from exhaustion. “Yeah… and then I can take care of you two.” Tom replied while pointing to Neon Streak and Rainbow Dash. “Well for now Ah think we should all get some rest… you guys should probably take that Cotton feller wherever you need to so you can get home and get some sleep.” Applejack suggested while pointing towards the bathroom where the unicorn was still sitting. Everyone nodded eagerly at the prospect of getting sleep. With that said, Sunspot walked into the bathroom and crouched down in front of Cotton Quill. “Come on buddy… it’s time to go.” Sunspot said while pulling out a small collapsible knife from her suit. A little rougher than the unicorn would have liked, the suited mare grabbed his bound hooves and cut the zip tie holding him in place. After rubbing the red marks left behind by the tight bindings, Cotton got up and looked at his captors sadly. He couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. He had put so much work in for Raven Feather in the past, but now he had been captured by the very people he was striving to overthrow. “W-what are you going to do with me?” Cotton Quill asked nervously while looking around at the scornful expressions he was receiving. “Well… if it were up to me, you would be tied to a tree in the Everfree Forest and left for the timberwolves… but luckily for you I’m not the one calling the shots.” Sunspot stated in an agitated tone while shoving the unicorn forward. Cotton reluctantly walked out of the bathroom and followed the suited mare as she escorted him towards the stairs. Rainbow Dash and Tom quickly followed the pegasus as she walked their prisoner forward. “I think I’m going to go see Peppermint to get this looked at… will you guys be ok here by yourselves for a few hours?” Neon Streak asked while glancing down to her injury. “Of course we will Neon. You just focus on getting better.” Applejack stated with a thankful smile while observing the green mare that contributed to saving her and her family. With a nod of agreement, Neon slowly walked over to the group as they waited by the top of the stairs. “Thanks for coming out here to save us, guys… Ah don’t know what would have happened without you here, and Ah don’t think Ah want to know.” Applejack said while offering her rescuers a thankful smile. “Just doing my job Applejack… although technically you weren’t supposed to be the one I was protecting.” Sunspot stated lightheartedly while glancing over to the cyan pegasus beside her. “Ditto.” Tom added with a slight smirk. The apple family waved goodbye to their battered friends, who returned the gesture before walking downstairs with the hooded unicorn in tow. Sunspot kept a close eye on Cotton Quill while helping Tom walk, while Rainbow Dash assisted the green earth pony with walking. The group slowly made their way through the soaked and trashed living room before reaching the door and stepping outside. The fresh after rain smell that hit the ponies was oddly relaxing to them considering their previous experience with weather. It was like the storm had passed them, and the smell along with the calm night atmosphere made the group feel at peace. Walking on the cold and wet muddy ground was the only part of the experience that wasn’t calming or even enjoyable. The ponies could feel their hooves sinking into the ground a little ways before coming back up covered in freezing cold brown sludge. The disgusting feeling might have passed after the first few steps, but it was still unpleasant. As they approached the gate to the farm’s fence, the group noticed an unexpected sight waiting for them on the other side. Several familiar ponies had gathered around outside the farm, waiting around and conversing amongst themselves. Among the crowd outside were Brimstoke and his group, including Rarity, her friends, and even Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Twilight, Spike, and Peppermint were also present. And surprisingly enough, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia were even among the ponies. Noticing the five walking closer to her out of the corner of her eye, Pinkie Pie turned and gasped in excitement at the sight of her friends’ safe return. “Guys!” The pink mare exclaimed eagerly while rushing forward to greet the group. Everyone else turned their heads just in time to see Pinkie plowing into Rainbow Dash and nearly knocking her down. Neon Streak barely had enough time to get out of the way as the cyan pegasus was tackled into a hug by the party pony. While Rainbow Dash was struggling to breathe, she looked up to see the rest of her friends rushing over to greet her. Thankfully they were leaps and bounds more gentle with their group hug as they walked up to join their pink friend. “We were so worried about you! Where’s Applejack? Is she ok?!” Pinkie Pie asked frantically while thinking of every horrible outcome that could have befallen her orange friend. “Pinkie, relax… Applejack and the others are fine. They are just resting back at the house.” Rainbow Dash explained to ease the pink pony’s fears. Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief as she learned that all of her friends were safe and sound. “What are all of you doing out here?” Sunspot asked curiously while observing the large group. Princess Luna stepped forward to explain. “Twilight sent a letter out to us to explain what was going on. By the time we got out here it wasn’t raining anymore, so we gathered everyone up and went to go check on you. When we got out here there was an impassable wall of wind blocking our path.” The blue alicorn explained while glancing around where the massive tornado had been. “Interesting… we were able to get through just fine. The tornado must have intensified once the demon manifested.” Tom hypothesized about the strange properties of the cyclone. “Demon? What demon? I thought you were only dealing with lesser demons… and who is this guy?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing over to the hooded unicorn beside the group. “This is Cotton Quill… we found him inside of a pictogram on the property. Apparently he summoned a storm demon with the intent of killing the elements of harmony.” Tom explained while looking over to the white unicorn with a leery expression. Cotton Quill looked down nervously as he felt the prying eyes of so many ponies staring at him, including Princess Celestia herself. Twilight and her friends were shocked to hear that they were targeted for assassination by demonic monster. They had been attacked by terrifying creatures before, but to learn that someone specifically wanted them dead was unnerving to the four mares. Rainbow Dash was still upset at the fact, even though she already knew beforehand. “You mean those… those things that came after us before were sent to kill us?” Rarity asked in a horrified manner. She didn’t really expect the monsters to have a nice chat with her, but they usually weren’t specifically sent after her either. “Yeah… that’s the gist of it. You guys are just lucky that I found a way to kill that thing before it got to you… it was a lot worse than the lesser demons let me tell you.” Tom stated while thinking back to the brutal fight with the demon. He hadn’t been pushed that far in a single fight since the incident in the cave with the dark matter. Even without the specifics of the creature, Twilight and the others shuddered at the thought of such a terrifying beast. From the state that their friends were in, it must have been a horrible experience. “What was he still doing here? Shouldn’t he have run away once he finished the spell that summoned those things?” Glitterball asked curiously. Cotton Quill shrugged and looked down in disappointment at the mention of his failure. “Well… he probably would have, but it looks like somebody didn’t do a lot of research on the spell they were using. He got stuck inside of a force field… most likely designed to protect the spell caster from whatever they were summoning.” Tom explained while glancing over to the hooded unicorn. Cotton trailed his eyes off as he thought more about the obvious mistake he made. “Regardless of whatever happened to keep him here, he has a lot to answer for.” Celestia spoke in a more serious tone while eyeing Cotton. The alicorn’s gaze filled the nervous unicorn with a sense of dread and anxiety that he didn’t think possible. Somehow the princess was managing to intimidate him more than Raven Feather ever could. After she was done observing the petrified pony in front of her, Celestia turned around and softened her expression as she looked at the four that had performed the most work in getting rid of the creatures. Rainbow Dash, Sunspot, Neon Streak, and Tom looked battered and beaten, but they somehow were able to appear cheerful now that their hardships were over. “You all did incredibly well tonight… you should head home and get some rest after Peppermint checks your injuries.” Celestia suggested with a warm smile. “Will do princess… will do.” Rainbow Dash stated in an exhausted tone. Her lack of sleep was starting to catch up with her now that there wasn’t anything trying to kill her. “What about our hooded friend here? What are we going to do with him?” Sunspot asked curiously while looking over to their prisoner. Celestia looked over to the hooded unicorn for a moment before thinking about what she should do with him. “Luna, take Brimstoke and deliver Mr. Cotton Quill here down to the royal guard station in town. We can hold him there overnight until we can question him further about his involvement with recent events. I will join you once I investigate the pictogram he used to summon those creatures.” Celestia instructed to her sister. The blue alicorn nodded before glancing over to her new prisoner. “Yes sister.” Luna replied before motioning for Brimstoke to follow her. The stallion took Cotton Quill by the arm and escorted him behind the alicorn as she walked away. “Peppermint, you take care of Neon Streak and Rainbow Dash. As for the rest of you, you’re free to head home. Feel free to drop by the station tomorrow… I think you would like to be present when we question our new friend.” Celestia said while looking around at the group of ponies. As Peppermint got to work examining the two injured mares, everyone else prepared to leave with their respective groups. Although Brimstoke and Peppermint would not be present to protect their assigned ponies, luckily most of the group was staying together over at Rarity’s, so Glitterball and Glimmer Shine could pick up the slack. As far as Twilight and Spike were concerned, they had Tom to help them feel safe. “You guys go on ahead… I think I will stay with Rainbow Dash until she is ready to head home.” Sunspot stated as she watched the group walk ahead. Everyone turned and waved at the others before departing on their way home. Eventually, Twilight and her two companions split off from Rarity’s group and said their goodbyes and goodnights. The trio was eager to get back home so they could finally get some sleep after the long day and night they just had. As they walked, Twilight and Spike kept a concerned eye on Tom and observed him closely. He seemed to be winded after every couple steps he would take, slowing down and breathing heavily to catch his breath. This disconcerting behavior combined with the boy’s overall ill appearance made the two very concerned for him. He seemed happy enough back at the farm, but this wouldn’t be the first time that the human hid his true feelings from others. “Tom… are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. “I’m fine… I just had a lot taken out of me today and tonight. A good night’s sleep will fix me up.” Tom replied with a tired voice. It wasn’t hard to see that the human desperately wanted to get some sleep. Despite this explanation, the unicorn was still concerned for him. “You must have used up a lot of energy… you didn’t even heal Rainbow Dash and Neon Streak. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing… but you usually don’t get this tired.” Twilight reasoned while thinking back to her experience in the cave. Tom was all but completely wiped out in terms of strength after his fight to protect them from the dark matter, but back then he acted much differently than he was acting now. Tom thought about why he was getting so exhausted himself. Usually his body would have bounced back more than it has already, sleep or no sleep. He wondered what could have been causing his predicament in the first place. Perhaps he was somehow unsure of himself after his battle with such a strong enemy, the mere thought of being mentally unsound for his duties made the slayer shiver slightly. “It’s just been a long day Twilight. Anyone would be tired after going through half of what Tom did.” Spike chimed in to offer his thoughts. Tom breathed a silent sigh of relief to see the young dragon helping him end the conversation. “*Sigh*… I suppose. I just don’t want you to over work yourself Tom.” Twilight stated in a sincere manner. The human was flattered to hear that the unicorn cared for him so much. “I’ll be alright Twilight. If anyone should be messed up it should be you guys anyway… how are you two doing? I didn’t really get a chance to ask how you were holding up after two of those things came flying into your room.” Tom replied curiously. Not only did he want to shift the conversation off of himself, but he was genuinely concerned for how all of this was affecting the seemingly sensitive pair. “Well… I guess we’re alright. I mean… between getting the living daylights scared out of me in my sleep and spending the next hour locked in a small room playing twenty questions with Peppermint, I would say I’m still mentally stable.” Twilight replied with a shrug. “Hey… at least you didn’t agree to try playing I spy with him. Do you know how short that game was?” Spike asked lightheartedly while thinking back to his time in the cramped bathroom. “I was there Spike… I think you got three turns out before you ran out of things to spy.” Twilight rolled her eyes at the mere thought of the horrifically boring experience. “Yeesh… and I thought I had the roughest time tonight. You guys definitely sound like you could use a few hours of sleep to forget that traumatic experience.” Tom said with a slight chuckle. The two laughed warmly at the human’s comment. “Just remind me to go pick up some cards or something the next time we have to stay in a room to survive.” Twilight added jestingly. Before they even knew it, the three arrived at the library. Twilight quickly walked up to the door and opened it while her two friends walked inside. After wiping their muddy feet and breathing a sigh of relief, the trio decided to immediately head upstairs for the night. Tom struggled to bend down to grab his blanket and pillow off the floor. Spotting her distressed friend struggling to perform the simplest task, Twilight lit up her horn and levitated the items up to carry them for him. “Here, let me get these for you.” The purple mare stated with a helpful tone and a slight smile. “Thanks.” Tom groaned while slowly getting back up. As the unicorn and dragon walked upstairs, the boy used the wall to steady himself as he slowly walked up to join them. Twilight waited for the human to finish his slow climb before opening the door to her bedroom and stepping inside. As she sat the pillows on the floor and laid out the blanket with her magic, the unicorn glanced over to the broken glass on the floor and sighed. Although her room did have a large opening in it for the balcony, the sight of broken windows was still upsetting. “Why can’t there ever be a monster that takes other people’s feelings and worldly possessions into consideration before wrecking everything?” Twilight shrugged while averting her eyes from the damage to her room. “If one exists… I have never met it.” Tom stated while slowly working his way to the floor so he could lay down in his makeshift bed. Twilight and Spike followed his example by climbing into their own beds and getting comfortable. Although their sheets were almost freezing cold due to the night air, it was still relaxing when combined with their levels of exhaustion. They could be sleeping on a bed of nails and they would probably still manage to fall asleep. “Night guys…” Tom muttered tiredly while closing his eyes and relaxing. “Night.” Spike yawned before turning over in his bed and pulling the blankets closer to his head. “Goodnight.” Twilight added with a smile while taking one last look at her two friends. She then laid back and got herself comfortable against the pillow beneath her. Although it had been a long night, the three would definitely sleep like rocks.
Chapter 65: DiscoveryAs the sky turned a soft shade of blue just before the sun came up, all of Ponyville was enjoying their last few hours of slumber before starting their day. After the storm from last night abruptly interrupted them, it was a good feeling to be able to sleep in peace and quiet again. Meanwhile, in the depths of the Everfree Forest, the denizens of the ancient mansion were also mostly asleep. Aside from a stray worker or two, Raven Feather and her colleagues always tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour to give them enough rest for their arduous work. Dust Kicker was laying passed out in his bed. He had spent the majority of the night tending to his unconscious sister, but even he had to sleep sometime. The two pegasi stayed in a room on the second floor of the mansion just to the left of the main stairway. It was a room with two beds in it, so Raven Feather allotted the siblings to use it to stay close to each other. Being the more adventurous types, the brown pegasus and his pale counterpart decided to actually sleep on the beds that were already in the room. Most of the ponies in the mansion either slept in sleeping bags placed on top of the old mattresses or were privileged enough to exchange the mattress for a new one, but Dust Kicker and his sister didn’t much care for how old the beds were. They were fairly luxurious, even with the odd smell and occasional raggedness that accompanied them. “Dust Kicker wake up!” The sound of a loud and alarming voice rang out directly next to Dust Kicker’s head. The shock of being jolted from his sleep so suddenly was enough to make him fall out of bed. When he pushed the blanket off of himself and looked up, the stallion was surprised to see his sister standing above him. “Raincloud…? You’re awake?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. The last time he had seen the pale pegasus, she was still unconscious from when the human attacked her shadow, but now she seemed perfectly fine. “Well duh…” Raincloud stated sarcastically while rolling her eyes. She then returned a more alarmed expression to her face. “What’s wrong?” Dust Kicker asked, unsure as to what would make his sister so distressed. The pale mare mumbled something in a concerned tone while looking around urgently. She seemed to be trying to find a way to explain something, but her words couldn’t come out straight. “Cotton is gone!” Raincloud finally managed to blurt out in a concerned tone. She then waited for a response, as if expecting her brother to understand immediately. “Wait what?” Dust Kicker asked with confusion and slight alarm evident on his face. He could barely understand his sister with how unfocused she was, but he could tell that something was amiss. “Ugh… just follow me!” Raincloud said while throwing her hooves up in frustration. Before Dust Kicker could even formulate a response, the pale mare turned around and rushed out of the already open door. “Raincloud wait up!” Dust Kicker called out to get his sister to slow down. By the time he finished his outburst she was already out of the door and rushing down the hallway. The stallion sighed before getting up and trotting out of the door to follow the pegasus. Just barely catching a glimpse of where she was going around corners, Dust Kicker followed Raincloud through the winding hallways of the mansion. As he passed the various hooded ponies lingering in the hallways, he noticed that they had a more anxious appearance to them than usual. They seemed like they were upset by something they knew. Recognizing the path he was following, Dust Kicker gathered that his sister was leading him to their usual meeting spot in the library. Spotting the pale mare going through the library door, his suspicions were confirmed. Inside of the room were several hooded ponies either sitting at attention or standing off to the side talking amongst themselves. Shadow Mist was leaning against a wall off to the side with a troubled expression. Grimwood was sitting beside his older sister with a troubled expression. And finally, Raven Feather was sitting in the middle of the room with a troubled expression. Everyone seemed to be deeply troubled as if something horrible had happened. Raincloud walked forward and sat down next to a few ponies in front of Raven Feather. The green eyed earth pony was holding one hoof up to her face and looking down in frustration. If anyone was going to be able to answer the stallion’s questions, it would probably be his leader. “Raven Feather, what’s going on?” Dust Kicker asked with a confused expression while walking into the room. Raven Feather shrugged before sliding her hoof off of her face and looking up. She looked like she had just been told her parents died. Although Dust Kicker was fairly certain that the black mare had no positive feelings for her parents. “Cotton Quill wasn’t in his room when we got up this morning… I had a group search the mansion, and he isn’t here. On top of that… our scouts are telling us that a storm appeared over Ponyville last night… one with lesser demons spawning out of it. I had them investigate further, and apparently someone used one of our pictograms to summon the storm over at Sweet Apple Acres.” Raven Feather explained in a dismal tone. “And… you think Cotton did that?” Dust Kicker asked in a shocked tone. He couldn’t believe that the unicorn would even attempt something so bold and careless. “Good heavens I hope not. As much as I berate him, I would like to think there is some semblance of a brain in that empty head of his.” Raven Feather shook her head in disappointment and frustration. She couldn’t believe that something so catastrophic would happen to her to impede her progress. “He’s the only one that could have done it… none of the hoods are missing and I don’t even think they know how to create a complete symbol on their own.” Raincloud reasoned while glancing around her at the various anonymous ponies in hoods. “*Sigh*… Well at any rate, we can’t know for sure until the scout I sent gets back to me with his location.” Raven Feather stated in annoyance. She then got up and looked around the room to the ponies scattered around. “Did anyone see Cotton Quill last night? Anyone talk with him? Did he act strangely…?” The black mare asked loudly while scanning her eyes around for volunteers. Nobody raised their hooves or spoke up. “Well…” Grimwood muttered nervously from beside the green eyed pony. Raven Feather turned to look at her younger sibling and softened up her expression. “Go ahead Grimwood… if you know something you can tell me.” Raven Feather said in a gentle and encouraging tone. The young pony fiddled his hooves together nervously before speaking up. “Cotton came into the library last night looking for you… he said something about trying to impress you. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but right before he left he grabbed a book off of a book shelf. I looked over to see which one he took, and it was one of the summoning tomes… one of the more complicated ones even. I thought he might be on orders from you, so I didn’t say anything… I didn’t think he would do something like this. Please don’t be mad at me...” Grimwood explained while trailing his eyes downward. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Grim…” Raven Feather said while putting a loving hoof on the young earth pony’s shoulder. She then looked away and shifted her expression to a more agitated one. “As for Cotton… I think we need to have a nice long chat with him whenever he gets his sorry tail back here.” The black mare added while contemplating what ways she could punish the unicorn when he finally returned to the mansion. Suddenly, the group heard the library door open. They turned their heads to see a hooded yellow stallion walking into the room with an urgent air about him. The pony wasted no time in walking up to Raven Feather and speaking up. “Miss Raven Feather, we’ve found Cotton Quill.” He stated before waiting for a response from the black mare. By now everyone had turned their heads to watch the conversation take place with anxious expressions. “Go ahead and tell us already. Where is that featherbrained idiot?” Raven Feather demanded eagerly. She couldn’t wait to get her hooves on the white unicorn. Instead of sharing her enthusiasm, the hooded stallion had a more apprehensive expression. “He’s being held in the royal guard station in town by the princess and her team for questioning. Apparently, they caught him last night at Sweet Apple Acres and took him there.” As the scout spoke, whatever good feeling was left in the room completely vanished. Raven Feather stood silently in shock while everyone else in the room quietly chattered to themselves. “Cotton was captured?” A group muttered to themselves just barely loud enough to hear. “What if he squeals on us?!” Another hooded pony stated in a panic to two of his colleagues. While everyone else in the room was having a meltdown, Raven Feather placed a hoof back onto her face and looked down in thought. She couldn’t understand where she had gone wrong. Cotton Quill seemed like such a good addition to her little scheme. He was eager to join, eager to work tireless hours for her, and eager to not screw up, at first anyway. “If he’s down there we need to go get him before he talks!” Raincloud stated while getting up and turning around. “Come on Dust!” She announced to her brother while rushing towards the door. Dust Kicker didn’t have much time to decide, but he nodded and went to follow his sister on her mission. “Wait…” Raven Feather instructed to the two pegasi while still looking down. Raincloud stopped in her tracks and turned around to see what the black mare wanted. “Raven Feather… we need to act on this now! If Cotton tells them anything we’re screwed.” Raincloud reasoned in an urgent tone while hoping that the black mare would allow her to leave. Raven Feather glanced up from the floor and sighed before looking over to the eager pegasus. “I know Raincloud, but think about the situation for a second before you go charging into battle will you? The sun is almost up… so your powers will be limited; the princess and her team of ponies, not to mention the entire Ponyville branch of the royal guard will be there, and you want to go blazing in there with just the two of you and no backup plan? The greatest minds in history did not turn to hysterics when under great stress. Instead, they sat down and came up with a plan… which is exactly what we need to do.” Raven Feather explained in a more calm and composed voice. “But… Raven Feather!” Raincloud protested in a persistent tone. “Don’t argue with me right now Raincloud… if I were a lesser pony I would be taking out my frustration on you. Just give me time to come up with something… then you two can go blow up the town to find him for all I care.” Raven Feather replied in an agitated tone. “*Sigh*… Yes, Raven Feather.” Raincloud muttered in defeat before walking out of the door slowly. She needed to take some time to process all of her emotions before going out on the mission anyway. Dust Kicker shrugged and followed his sister out of the library, leaving everyone else to tend to themselves. “I should have just stayed in bed today…” The brown stallion groaned in annoyance while exiting the room. As the sun climbed progressively higher into the late morning sky, even the most exhausted inhabitants of Ponyville were waking up. Over at the library, Twilight Sparkle even managed to wake up before her two friends. Perhaps she was too eager to sleep in for that long, or perhaps she was anxious. After all, they had made a monumental step towards wrapping up the investigation. They now had one of their enemies in custody, waiting to divulge the secrets that he knew. Twilight knew that it would probably be difficult to get any answers out of their prisoner, but the prospect alone filled her with excitement. Quietly getting out of bed and walking down the steps from her loft, Twilight tried her hardest not to disturb her human friend and the young dragon still peacefully asleep. As much stress as both of them were under last night and the day before, the two definitely needed a lot of rest. The purple mare decided to spend this time sweeping up the broken glass in the bedroom and cleaning up the salt from the bathroom floor. Although she was sure Spike would have done all of this for her, she wanted to lessen the number of chores he had to do. Ugh… now I have to find someone to replace these windows. Greaaat… Twilight thought to herself while rolling her eyes. She was thankful that nobody got hurt last night, but the problem still remained. Being careful not to step on any of the glass, the unicorn used her magic to sweep the numerous pieces into a dustpan. She then quietly went out of the room and swept up the line of salt in the bathroom. After dumping the trash into a nearby trashcan, the unicorn decided to rest for a moment in the kitchen. Hearing the sound of footsteps in the other room, Twilight glanced through the doorway and spotted Spike climbing down the stairs. The dragon seemed to be still waking up, yawning and rubbing his eyes tiredly. “Morning Spike.” Twilight greeted the dragon warmly while walking into the room. “Morning…” Spike replied sleepily while glancing over to the seemingly energetic pony. Knowing how his friend acted after just getting up, he wondered why she wasn’t as sleepy as he was. “How long have you been up?” Spike asked curiously while glancing outside to check the time. “A while… not as long as Tom usually is mind you. How is he anyway? Is he awake?” Twilight asked while looking upstairs. “Last I checked he was still out cold. He must have been really tired last night… I hope he’s ok.” Spike stated with a concerned tone of voice. It wasn’t like the human to sleep in for so long. “I’m sure he just needs a little more rest than usual… he did look exhausted after whatever happened at the farm.” Twilight said with a troubled expression. She didn’t like how often the boy put himself in danger like that. No matter how many times he claimed to be ok, it was obvious that his numerous hardships had been taking a toll on his body. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Spike nodded in agreement. He wanted to feel better and stop worrying about the human, but he still felt just as concerned as before. “I just hope he doesn’t sleep for too much longer. We need to head down to the guard station before they get done interrogating Cotton Quill.” Twilight stated with excitement evident in her voice and expression. “You seem a bit chipper this morning.” Spike observed while noting the giddy smile on the purple mare’s face. “I guess… I’m just glad that we’re finally going to get somewhere with this case. We might even be able to find where the rest of these guys are and put a stop to them then and there.” Twilight replied with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. “Well if we’re going to do that, we should probably get going then shouldn’t we?” The two heard Tom’s voice coming from beside them. They looked over to see the human waiting by the stairs. He seemed to have a lot more color in his face than last night, and he definitely looked healthier. “You’re looking a lot better Tom. Do you feel better?” Twilight asked, hopeful that the human’s weakness was gone. “In comparison to last night, I feel like a million bucks… err… whatever you use as currency.” Tom said to clarify. Twilight and Spike chuckled slightly at the human’s lack of knowledge on their society. “It’s bits for future reference.” Spike said in a helpful tone. “Duly noted…” Tom replied with a nod while committing the knowledge to memory for future use. “Well… I’m glad you’re feeling better. I hate how you keep getting hurt to deal with our problems.” Twilight shrugged sadly while thinking about how often the human saved her and her friends at the cost of his own misfortune. “Don’t sweat it… it’s kind of part of the job description. You don’t get to go very far as a slayer without getting knocked around a lot. And besides… no offense, but I don’t think you guys could handle most of this stuff by yourselves.” Tom said lightheartedly to cheer up the troubled unicorn. “Heh… I guess you’re right about that. Even Brimstoke and the others seem a little undertrained for the situations they encounter.” Twilight replied sincerely. She appreciated the fact that the princess had trained a team to deal with all of the new monsters in Equestria, but she didn’t think they were nearly as prepared as the human was. The somber thought of their own lack of preparedness made the unicorn’s smile vanish as she adopted a more pensive expression. “Speaking of which… shouldn’t we get going? We don’t want to miss anything.” Tom said as a reminder of what they were supposed to be doing. “Yeah we probably should.” Twilight replied while thinking of the time it would take them to walk downtown to the station. With this in mind, the two walked over to the door and stepped outside. They then turned around to face the young dragon still waiting inside. “Bye Spike… we’ll be back later.” Twilight said while taking one last look at her young assistant before departing. “Alright… I’ll try not to burn the place down while you’re gone.” Spike stated lightheartedly while waving to the pair. After waving back and closing the door, Twilight and her human companion set out on their way. Looking around at the water-logged streets of Ponyville was a strange sight for both the slayer and the unicorn. Most storms Twilight had seen weren’t nearly as severe or long lasting as the one from last night. Numerous puddles and streams of water were sitting on all of the sidewalks, and the unpaved ground was so wet that it couldn’t retain any more water, making walking through a dry area nearly impossible. Several awnings and buildings were still dripping onto the ground below, offering an occasional cold drip on the head or back to anyone passing underneath. There were also several bits and pieces of small debris littered around the streets and rooftops from the blowing wind. All of the ponies the two saw while walking around town seemed generally upset as to their current surroundings, and nobody could blame them. The entire atmosphere in town was already tense and eerie with the looming threat of another attack from the hooded ponies, but now they had to deal with the odd contrast of a rain-soaked town underneath a clear and sunny sky. Twilight looked down and sighed sadly at the state of her hometown. It wasn’t just the water or the debris that was bothering her, but the atmosphere in general. On even the worst day in Ponyville, the generally peaceful and carefree attitude of the townspeople remained strong and steady, but now everyone was scared, uneasy, and uncertain of what the future would hold. Tom looked over to the upset unicorn sympathetically. She seemed to be struggling just to remain optimistic about the situation. Over the past few days, everything she had known to be safe and every foundation she had laid for her life was uprooted and turned on its head. “You doing alright over there?” The human spoke up in a friendly tone, causing the purple mare to look up. Twilight shrugged as she tried to find a way to put her feelings into words. “Yeah… I’m just having trouble dealing with everything that’s been happening recently… I know you got here at a bad time for us, but we’re usually a lot more lively and energetic and… happier.” Twilight stated with a disheartened expression. “You guys seemed to be getting along just fine… before yesterday anyway.” Tom said while looking around at the many gloomy faces around him. “Yeah, well the knowledge of monsters and hooded ponies trying to throw everything into chaos only just became available publicly yesterday. Before the princess made her speech, most ponies were happily ignorant about the dangers we’ve been facing. Twilight replied in a dismal tone. It seemed like the more she thought about the reality of what was happening, the more sad and hopeless the unicorn was becoming. “Hey… we’ll get through this just fine. I might not have been a slayer for very long, but I have memories of slayers who have faced evils far greater than the ones we’re facing and coming out on top. I’m sure you’ll have the opportunity to show me what things were like before all of this happened in no time.” Tom stated in a reassuring tone while offering a confident smile to the purple pony. The unicorn felt better knowing that the slayer was so confident in their success. “You know what… you’re right. We can beat these guys… we just need to stick together and keep our heads held high.” Twilight said with a progressively brightening expression. “Besides… we have one of their guys. I’m sure that we can find out where the rest of them are from him, and then it should be easy to wipe these hooded jerks off the face of the planet.” Tom said with a confident smirk. “I hope it will be that simple… we don’t know how much it will take to crack this guy. He could be their toughest member for all we know.” Twilight said with an uncertain expression. Tom laughed from just hearing the unicorn’s statement. “If that guy is their toughest member, then beating them will be easier than I thought.” The boy chuckled while thinking back to the hooded pony he met last night. It was almost pathetic how much of a spineless coward he was. Before long, the two came to a stop as Twilight recognized the guard station ahead of them. It wasn’t too hard picking it out against the other buildings around town. Being a sort of hub for the royal guards in Ponyville, it had a different kind of architecture to it that resembled something you would find in Canterlot. Not to mention the various flags and banners scattered around bearing the royal emblem on them. “Have you ever been down here before?” Tom asked curiously while observing the building and the various ponies coming and going in royal guard attire. “A couple times, yeah… My brother is captain of the royal guard, so I visited him occasionally when he would come to town on duty.” Twilight replied while reminiscing about the time she spent with her older brother in the past. “You have a brother…? And he is captain of the royal guard?” Tom asked in a surprised tone. He never figured the purple unicorn’s family to be so connected to the princess. Twilight was Celestia’s student, and apparently, her brother was captain of the royal guard. Twilight felt a little proud to have elicited such a surprised reaction from the human about her brother. “Yep, his name is Shining Armor. I’m sure he would love to meet you sometime when he is in town.” Twilight stated with a cheerful smile. “I’m looking forward to it,” Tom replied in a sincere manner before redirecting his attention forward. “Well… let’s head in and find our hooded friend.” He said with an eager smirk. Twilight nodded before walking over to the front door of the building. Once inside, the two found themselves in a sort of waiting area. There was a window built into the far wall to serve as a front desk with an earth pony mare behind it waiting to assist any visitors. There were also two doorways on either side that led off into the rest of the station’s interior. Various pictures and other decorative items adorned the walls above the chairs and tables that made up the waiting area. Other than the mare behind the front desk, the room was fairly empty aside from glimpses of other ponies rushing to and from their destinations. Twilight and her human companion walked over to the front desk and waited for the earth pony to notice them. Once she did, the mare put on a friendly smile and moved a little closer to the desk to address her new visitors. “Can I help you?” She asked in a polite, though clearly dulled tone. It must have been hard sitting behind a desk twenty-four-seven while exciting things happened around you. “Uh… we’re here to see Brimstoke and his team. They just brought in a pony for interrogation last night… Are they here?” Twilight asked while glancing behind the mare into the other rooms. The receptionist pointed over to the doorway on the right side of the room in response. “Brimstoke and the princess are still waiting for that guy to talk. Just go to the end of the hall and head through that door, they should be right there.” She explained to the pair while still pointing. Twilight glanced over to the doorway before returning her attention to the earth pony. “Thank you.” The purple mare said while walking over to the doorway. Tom followed her as she rounded the corner and started her way down the hall. After reaching the end of the hall and going through the door, the two came out into an open area with numerous ponies scattered around. Several work areas were off to one side, while other offices were at the far end of the room. Along with the various guards walking around in full uniform, there were several familiar ponies waiting in the center of the room. Princess Celestia and her sister were conversing with Brimstoke and his team, although Neon Streak seemed to be missing. There was also another pony among the group that Twilight didn’t recognize. He was a white stallion that was wearing the same attire that a royal guardsman would wear, although the tuft at the top of his roman styled helmet was a different color than the usual guard outfit. A little off to the side of the vested ponies, Twilight’s friends were all gathered around while talking with each other. Applejack was the only one missing from the group, which explained why Neon Streak wasn’t present. As they noticed the purple mare and the human approaching them, everyone turned to look at them. “Twilight! It’s good to see you made it.” Celestia greeted her student with a warm smile as she walked over to join the group. “Well, we couldn’t resist coming over to hear what Cotton had to say. Have you gotten anything out of him?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing over to the glass window everyone was staring at before. Apparently, the window led through to an interrogation room that held the white unicorn. Cotton was sitting at a table with a gloomy expression on his downcast face. He didn’t have his hoodie on from last night, instead wearing only the vest that he had underneath it. “He hasn’t talked to us since he got here… he barely acknowledges our questions at all.” The white stallion spoke up while glancing over to the captive unicorn. Realizing that the purple mare hadn’t been introduced to him, he suddenly understood the curious look she was giving him. “Oh, I’m sorry… where are my manners? I’m Fireside, I’m the Sargent in charge of this station.” Fireside stated while offering the unicorn a firm hoof shake. “Pleased to meet you, sir.” Twilight replied with a courteous smile. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I’m going to go try to talk to him again.” The stallion said while looking over at the two-way mirror that served as a window into the interrogation room. “I’ll come too… maybe we could play good cop bad cop with him… I’ll be good cop and you be bad cop?” Glimmer Shine offered while walking alongside the white stallion. “Are you trying to say that I don’t look like a good cop?” Fireside asked jestingly. Twilight and the others chuckled as they watched the pair walk into a hallway beside the window that led to the inside of the room. “So how long have you guys been down here? I know we must have slept in a lot… but I didn’t expect all of you to be down here before me.” Twilight said in a surprised tone while looking around at the group of ponies. Suddenly, Sunspot stepped forward from the group to answer the unicorn. Twilight was surprised to see that she wasn’t wearing her signature suit. “Well… me and Rainbow Dash got here a little late. I had to drop off my uniform at a dry cleaner. I can’t exactly get it patched up with blood stains on it…” The orange pegasus explained with a shrug. “When we did get here, only Brimstoke and his group were here. The princesses came a little while after that. All in all… I would say we have been here a few hours.” She stated while thinking about how long she had actually been at the station. “Wow Sunspot… you look so different without your suit on.” Twilight said while noting the pegasus’s appearance and cutie mark. She seemed a little bit disheartened by the unicorn’s comment. “Yeah… I feel weird without it.” Sunspot stated with an awkward expression. “Really? I would imagine those things would get irritating to wear after a while. I guess you were born to be a Wonderbolt… or at least to wear their uniform.” Twilight added with a friendly smirk. “Heh… thanks.” Sunspot said in a bashful tone while looking away with a slight smile. Princess Celestia stepped forward from the group to speak directly with her student. She seemed to have a slightly anxious air about her as if she needed to be somewhere else. “I’m going to head outside for a while to talk with Luna. You should make yourself comfortable if you want to stay here Twilight. I’m not sure if Cotton Quill will be divulging his knowledge to us anytime soon.” Celestia said while glancing behind her to the window. Glimmer Shine and Fireside were already hard at work interrogating the nervous unicorn. “Alright… see you later Princess.” Twilight said while offering the two alicorns a wave as they walked away. After the two departed, everyone else was left to wait in the room while watching the interrogation take place.
Chapter 66: InterrogationDespite the hustle and bustle around the guard station, it was surprisingly dull as the group of ponies watched the interrogation of Cotton Quill taking place. They could only see them, but judging from mouth movements and facial expressions, everyone could tell that the captive unicorn was nervous about the questions he was being asked by the two stallions. Twilight and her four friends watched through the small window anxiously while waiting for something important to happen. As Brimstoke and the others talked about more serious matters further away, the five mares simply chatted with each other to pass the time. “So… where’s Applejack?” Twilight asked curiously. “I would have figured that she would be down here.” She stated while glancing around the station to look at the various guard ponies walking around. “I guess she must be at home resting. I wouldn’t blame her after what happened last night.” Rainbow Dash offered her thoughts on the matter. The only reason she wasn’t at home resting herself was because she wanted to be there in person when the hooded unicorn cracked. “What happened over there anyway? Tom hasn’t given me too many details.” Twilight added while eyeing the cyan pegasus’s bandaged back. She could only wonder what fierce battle took place to give her such an injury. “Well… It was pretty tense. After we almost got overrun by those flying monsters, they all vanished and this other thing appeared in a flash of lightning. It was horrible… it had glowing white eyes and lightning for a mouth… it sounds weird out loud, but trust me it was one of the scariest things I have ever seen.” Rainbow Dash explained everything she could think of about the incident last night. Everyone listened with nervous expressions as they pictured the creature in their heads. “It even talked… sweet Celestia, I don’t think I will ever forget that thing’s creepy voice. It was like the wind came to life and started threatening to kill us.” Rainbow Dash explained with a shudder. She was getting cold chills from just thinking about the monster. “That sounds like it was terrifying.” Fluttershy spoke up nervously. She didn’t even see the creature, but based on how the lesser demons appeared, she could estimate what it looked like well enough to scare herself. “You don’t know the half of it… the thing almost killed us for crying out loud. Sunspot would have died if Tom didn’t get to her in time… that’s why he didn’t have enough strength to heal the rest of us. He offered to heal me at least, but I told him to rest up.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing back at her bandages. “You should go ask him to heal you now darling. Those cuts must still be painful from what you described.” Rarity suggested in a concerned tone. “Yeah… I guess I should.” Rainbow Dash sighed while glancing over to the human as he chatted with Brimstoke and the others. As she was walking over to address the boy, she turned to look at Cotton Quill through the window and shrugged angrily. “I just hope that we can get him talking sooner rather than later. He might have been the one to send that thing after us, but I’m sure he wasn’t the one behind the order.” The cyan mare said in a confident tone. Meanwhile, outside of the station, Celestia and Luna were walking alongside each other pensively. They needed some time to think and to discuss things without the tense atmosphere of the station weighing them down. Ever since she learned that their enemies were plotting to kill the elements of harmony, Celestia had been on edge. It was bad enough that they were summoning monsters and wreaking havoc across Equestria, but to specifically target Twilight and the others was taking things across a very severe line. “I see Tom has recovered since last night.” Luna spoke up to break the silence in the air. “Yes… it’s good to see that he is feeling better.” Celestia replied in a sincere tone. Now that the subject was brought up, she couldn’t help but think of what could have happened had the human not been there to help the ponies at the farm. “I’m glad that he was there to protect them… Last night was just another fine example of how little we actually know what these hooded ponies are capable of.” Celestia shrugged in a disheartened tone. Luna frowned as she listened to her sister’s concern over the topic. “Don’t worry so much sister… we have faced impossible odds before and came out victorious.” Luna said in an attempt at brightening her sister’s spirits. Celestia shrugged at her younger sibling before trailing her eyes off sadly. “I wish I could share in your optimism Luna, but this is a much bigger threat than we have ever faced. The potential for these ponies to take things even further is too great to ignore… we need to do something about this. Perhaps I should contact Cadence and Shining Armor to get their support.” Celestia suggested in a defeated manner. She wasn’t sure of what else she could do other than pool all of her available resources together. “We don’t need to go to war here sister… all we are dealing with is an overzealous group of ponies that have access to ancient magic. Once we get the necessary information out of our prisoner, I will take a team of guards down to their base myself and take care of them if need be.” Luna stated confidently. Celestia could tell that she was trying to prove something to her by being so insistent on handling the situation herself. “Luna… you don’t need to handle this by yourself. Even if we don’t need Cadence’s help, I’m here for you. You shouldn’t feel obligated to take care of this because of what you did as Nightmare Moon.” Celestia said with sisterly concern evident in her voice and face. Luna trailed her eyes off sadly at the mention of her previous mistakes. Although it wasn’t entirely her fault, she still felt responsible for the events that led to her banishment to the moon. Ever since her return and purification, she has felt attached to Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. She felt a strong need to protect them and the rest of her subjects at any cost. “I want to do this sister… I want to prove to myself and everyone else that I am capable of protecting our kingdom. If things get out of hoof you can intervene, but for right now I want to handle this.” Luna explained in a softer tone. Despite her quiet voice, she still had an earnest sense of confidence about her. The white alicorn felt bad for her sister. She must have been feeling awful knowing that everyone looked up to the princess of the sun instead of her. She needed to handle this situation more than anyone else realized. “Ok…” Celestia said while putting a loving hoof on the blue alicorn’s shoulder. Luna looked up in surprise from her sister’s sudden acceptance. “Really?” Luna asked curiously, half expecting her sister to change her mind. “Yes… you can handle this operation yourself. As long as you promise to be careful and stay safe, you can be in charge of the investigation and whatever actions we take against these hooded ponies. Just be sure to come to me if you need any help.” Celestia replied while pulling her sister in for a side hug. “Ok… I Promise to be as careful as possible.” Luna said with a warm smile. She knew that although they were rulers in charge of very important matters that impacted an entire kingdom, they were still family. “Good… you better get back to the station then. Our only lead right now is for Mr. Cotton Quill to spill his guts so to say.” Celestia stated while glancing behind them. “What about you? Aren’t you coming with me?” Luna asked curiously, to which her sister smiled and shook her head. “No… I’m heading into town to see if I can gather materials for more magical equipment. If we’re going to wage a full-scale assault on these hooded ponies, we will need a lot more gear than we currently have. I will be back later to see if you have made any progress.” Celestia explained. It was always interesting to see how far ahead the alicorn planned in times of crisis. “Alright, I will see you later then.” Luna said while waving to her sister. After they said their goodbyes, the two alicorns separated and went off towards their respective destinations. Meanwhile back at the station, everyone was still curiously watching as Glimmer Shine and Fireside tried every trick they knew to get the unicorn to talk. After spending a good fifteen minutes trying to get Cotton Quill to open up, the two stallions shrugged and walked out of the room. Twilight and the others looked to them with hopeful optimism, but judging from their expressions, they could tell that the two had little luck in their endeavor. “Did you get anything?” Twilight asked in spite of the obvious. She thought that maybe if she wished hard enough that she could change the outcome of their response. “Nothing… it’s like talking to a brick wall in there.” Fireside stated with a defeated shake of the head. “Great… we’re back to square one then.” Brimstoke shrugged in annoyance at the lack of headway they were making. “Maybe the princess could talk to him when she gets back?” Fluttershy suggested from the back of the group. “Good idea Fluttershy! I’m sure that he would crack like an egg if the princess had a chat with him.” Rainbow Dash said eagerly. She got a kick out of the idea of the princess trying to force answers out of the timid unicorn. As if in response to the current subject matter, the door at the far end of the room opened and Princess Luna stepped inside. She walked up to the group and glanced at the two stallions that were interrogating the captive unicorn when she left. “Any luck with our friend in there?” Luna asked curiously. “Unfortunately no… we were thinking that maybe you could try talking to him?” Twilight suggested, hopeful that the princess of the night could get some results. Luna shook her head sadly in response to the proposal. “Sorry, but I don’t think that I would be able to persuade him to talk. Celestia and I tried questioning him ourselves when we brought him here last night… he wouldn’t give us anything important.” Luna explained in a disheartened tone. Whatever the unicorn knew, he was afraid enough to keep it a secret under any circumstances. “*Sigh*… well, what do we do now? If we can’t get him to tell us where they are, then we are no better off than when we started this investigation.” Twilight huffed in annoyance. The captive unicorn was the only hope they had at striking back at the hooded ponies before they made another move. “Well… I can use a spell to get the information out of him, but it might not be good for his health... and it might not even work. I wanted to try to get him to talk willingly, but I guess it will be necessary to use more serious measures.” Luna stated while walking towards the hallway leading into the interrogation room. “Wait a minute!” Twilight spoke up while walking in front of the alicorn. Although he was one of their enemies, she sort of felt bad for Cotton Quill. He obviously didn’t start out with evil intentions. He seemed genuinely nice when the purple mare saw him last, even if she did only meet him for a brief moment or two. “Princess, please let me talk to him before you try that spell. Maybe I can get through to him and get him to open up.” Twilight suggested while glancing over to their pathetic prisoner. Luna couldn’t help but admire her desire to assist a fellow pony in need, even if he was in league with several evil individuals. “Go ahead Twilight… but if you can’t get him to talk, then I will have to get answers out of him one way or another.” Luna said while motioning towards the interrogation room. The purple mare smiled as she was given the chance to talk with the captive unicorn. “Thank you, princess. I won’t let you down.” Twilight stated confidently before turning around and walking down the hallway leading to the room Cotton Quill was in. “Here, let me go with you. I think it would be better if there was more than one of us.” Glimmer Shine suggested while trotting alongside the purple mare. Twilight nodded in agreement before grabbing ahold of the handle and stepping inside of the room. As she walked into the room, Twilight noticed Cotton Quill turning to look at her. The unicorn had a shackle attaching him to the table by his leg, as well as a small cap on his horn with magical runes on it to suppress his magic. “What are you doing here?” Cotton asked curiously while observing the purple mare. He had expected them to come question him some more, but he didn’t expect Twilight Sparkle to be among the ones interrogating him. “I’m here to talk…” Twilight said in a soft tone. “I’m not really in the talking mood.” Cotton replied while looking away from the two ponies with a gloomy expression. “Well, you should be. If you don’t tell me what you know, then Princess Luna is going to forcibly probe your mind for the information… and I imagine that won’t be pleasant for you.” Twilight explained in an attempt at compromising with the silent stallion. Cotton gulped nervously as he thought about what it would feel like to have his mind probed for information. “Look Cotton… I’m trying to help you out here. Everyone else is ready to throw you in jail and forget about you, but I know that you’re a good pony at heart… at least I would like to think that.” Twilight stated in a sincere tone. Cotton looked up at the mention of him being good at heart. “I’m not so sure of that… I’ve done a lot of grisly stuff in the past.” Cotton said in a dejected tone. Twilight decided to let him speak some more rather than speak for him. “I mean… I was the one who performed the rituals at the school and the hospital… surely you must hate me for that?” Cotton said in a matter of fact sort of way. The purple mare was almost starting to think that he wanted to go to jail sooner. Despite the fact that she knew the captive pony intended a negative reaction, Twilight couldn’t help but to frown at the mention of the two previous incidents. “What about the incident that happened yesterday at the square?” Twilight asked while still trying to forcibly suppress her negative emotions towards the white stallion. She didn’t want to let him get the better of her so he could weasel out of answering questions. She had to stay on the offensive if she was going to make a dent in his armor. Cotton shrugged and thought for a moment while looking down at the table. It seemed like he was trying to decide whether or not to answer the question rather than actually thinking of the answer. Just when the two ponies thought that he would ignore their question, he looked up and spoke. “No… I wasn’t a part of that. I got kicked off of active duty after leaving my books at the hospital.” Cotton explained in a disappointed tone. The fact that he was removed from future plans made by the hooded ponies intrigued the purple mare. “You mean they fired you for just leaving some books behind? Truth be told, we didn’t actually get that much information out of those books… I don’t see why they were that important.” Twilight said in a sincere manner. The white unicorn shrugged sadly at her comments, much to her confusion. “What’s wrong, Cotton…?” Twilight asked in a genuinely curious manner. Although her friendly way of addressing another pony was genuine, she was hoping that she could lower his defenses by trying a friendly approach to things. “Actually… I got removed from duty for more than just the books. At the school, I was supposed to keep watch to ensure that the pictogram remained untouched. I would have done it of course, but that bloody brute of a monster attacked me and gave me a really nasty wound on my chest. After I went back to base, the scout I left at the school came in and told us that you guys defeated the creature and destroyed the pictogram… when I was within strangling distance of our leader.” Cotton explained with a dismal expression on his already gloomy face. “And how did she take that?” Twilight asked hesitantly while sharing a sympathetic glance with Glimmer Shine. Judging from the other ponies under her rule, their leader must have been brutal and downright evil. “You know that she’s a mare?” Cotton asked curiously. As far as he knew, his leader was unknown to the group. “Yeah… that pale blue pegasus friend of yours, I think her name was Raincloud? Anyway, she told us that your leader was at least female. I’m not sure if she did it on purpose or not.” Twilight explained while shrugging slightly. The white unicorn shuddered at the mere mention of the pale mare. “*Ahem* Well anyway… when she found out about the incident at the school, all she did was yell at me a little bit. After she learned about my second mistake however, she got a bit angrier with me. She actually told Raincloud to use her shadow to… discipline me, as she put it.” Cotton explained uneasily. It wasn’t hard to see that he wasn’t the favorite among the group of hooded ponies. Twilight actually felt kind of bad for the captive unicorn. He had been abused by his so-called colleagues and forced to perform horrible acts of violence against other ponies. She wasn’t sure if he actually enjoyed performing these acts, but she was at least sure he was unhappy currently. The question bouncing around her head right now was what motivations he had for working for the hooded ponies. “Cotton… why did you do all of this in the first place? Surely they must have offered you something to join them. What was it?” Twilight asked curiously. Cotton looked away and remained silent. He seemed to be ignoring the question rather than thinking about it. Twilight shrugged in annoyance as her prisoner clammed up on her suddenly. She was so confident that he was about to open up to her, but now he was being just as stubborn as when he first arrived at the station. “Cotton… please tell me.” Twilight pleaded in a softer tone while leveling with the silent pony. Cotton refused to even make any further eye contact with her as he stared at the table in front of him. “Twilight, I don’t think he’s going to talk anymore. You gave it a good try, but this is what he did to us when we tried asking him anything.” Glimmer Shine spoke up in an attempt at saving the unicorn from having to waste as much time as he did. Ignoring the stallion’s attempts at making her give up, Twilight turned back to the white unicorn and shrugged in annoyance. “Cotton, listen to me. You don’t need to keep protecting them… what they’re doing is evil and wrong. They are trying to hurt thousands of innocent ponies. If they don’t succeed in Ponyville, they will just move on to another town. I know you’re not like them… if you were like them, they would treat you like one of their own.” The purple mare stated in a more sincere tone. Cotton moved his eyes slightly to look up at the unicorn. “You said it yourself… they don’t even let you do the job they signed you up for anymore, and over what? A few small mistakes? That pegasus mare Raincloud told us that she doesn’t trust anyone but family, or those that have earned her respect enough for her to call family. If they considered you a part of their family, they would have forgiven you for the mistakes you made… but they didn’t, and I know why they didn’t.” Twilight paused for a moment as the white stallion fully looked up to her. She could tell that she had his unyielding attention at least. “Why?” Cotton asked curiously. It was painful for him to wait so long for the purple mare to finish her line of thought considering how close to home it hit. “Because they know who you really are Cotton… you aren’t like them. They enjoy harming others for their own personal gain… they enjoy causing chaos and destruction… but you don’t. You might have convinced yourself that you do, but I can tell just by looking at you that you’re a really nice guy at heart. It’s ok that you joined them because they promised to reward you… anyone would want to be a part of a powerful organization. But they are still trying to hurt people… and you don’t have to help them anymore. Just tell me what you know Cotton… you can help us put a stop to them. I mean think about it… do you really think that they care enough for you to try and rescue you?” Twilight asked in a confiding tone. Based on his expression, she could tell that the captive pony was at least thinking about her proposal. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for a response, Cotton sighed and sank back into his chair while looking downwards with a blank expression. He wouldn’t look up to face the unicorn, or even acknowledge that she was there. “*Sigh*…” Twilight looked away and lowered her head in defeat. She had tried her best shot, but her best shot apparently wasn’t enough. “Let’s go Glimmer Shine… he isn’t going to tell us anymore.” She stated while walking over to the yellow stallion in a depressed manner. Glimmer Shine felt bad for the purple mare. She had tried so hard to connect with the white unicorn, only to fail. With heads hung low in defeat, the two ponies turned to walk out of the door. Their only hope would be the princess and her mind probing spell. If the spell didn’t work, then they would be no closer to achieving victory than when they first learned of the hooded ponies. “The eternal night...” Cotton Quill spoke up, causing the two ponies to stop in their tracks. Twilight slowly turned around as she was still getting over the shock of hearing the captive unicorn speak up. “Wh… what?” Twilight asked curiously. Not only did she barely understand what he said, but she didn’t have the slightest clue as to what he meant. “My leader… an earth pony named Raven Feather… she said that she was trying to invoke the eternal night.” Cotton explained while looking up to face the purple unicorn. Twilight had to hide her excitement to properly face the white stallion with an understanding expression. “Can you tell us more?” The purple mare asked with careful optimism. Cotton looked around for a moment before sighing. He then nodded slowly in agreement, eliciting a small smirk from Twilight and Glimmer Shine. True to his word, Cotton told the two ponies about everything he knew. He explained to them how many members they roughly had, the names and powers of all of Raven Feather’s inner circle, and even how to get to their secret base out in the Everfree Forest. Twilight and Glimmer Shine listened carefully while taking note of everything they heard. It was astonishing how much they were finally learning about their enemies. It was actually exciting in a way. “So… this Raven Feather, she had you setting up pictograms across town to gather fear and other sources of negative energy to channel towards the eternal night?” Twilight asked to clarify what she had just heard. “Yes… she would give me a monster to summon, asked me to pick a location, and I would draw a pictogram to summon the monster. The pictogram acted as a kind of magical multi-tool. It would contain the necessary glyphs to summon the monster, protect and conceal the symbol itself, and gather up any energy the creature created. It would then send the energy back to a magical reservoir to be used later when Raven Feather finally decided to try and realize her final plan.” Cotton explained. “What is her final plan anyway? What is the eternal night and why is it so important to her?” Twilight asked curiously. Although the name sounded ominous and straightforward enough, she had no idea what the eternal night actually was. “I don’t know everything about it, but Raven Feather said that once she invokes the eternal night, she will rule Equestria and reward anyone who worked with her to accomplish her goal. All I know is that it’s a really old ritual and that Raven Feather claims that it will make shadow magic users incredibly powerful… along with throwing Equestria into a sea of chaos that only she and other shadow magic users will be able to control.” Cotton explained uneasily. Now that he was out of her good books, he could only dread the thought of Raven Feather actually completing her plan. “And then she would be able to rule without opposition…” Twilight said to finish the unicorn’s train of thought. The mere notion filled the purple mare with unease. “But wouldn’t everyone rebel? Surely she can’t think that she can just make everyone follow her obediently.” Glimmer Shine asked curiously. He could only assume that she planned on killing the princesses and the elements of harmony, but the ponies of Equestria would doubtlessly rise up against her eventually. “It probably wouldn’t matter at that point… she and the others would be so powerful that they could force obedience on anyone who didn’t comply with their rule.” Twilight said uneasily. The mere scope of the devious plan disturbed her greatly. “Exactly… she planned on killing all of you beforehand anyway. According to her, the only thing that can stop the eternal night once it’s started is the elements of harmony.” Cotton explained casually, perhaps a bit more casually than the purple mare felt comfortable with. “But why would she want to do something like that? I know power is a great corruptor, but ponies don’t just wake up one day and plot to rule the world… it’s just not in our nature.” Glimmer Shine said in a confused tone. With the gentle rule of Princess Celestia and the overall sense of peace and harmony throughout Equestria, even the most unhappy ponies didn’t turn to evil intentions. “Raven Feather doesn’t talk in great detail about her past. I’ve heard that she learned about her natural ability to use shadow magic at a young age… and she wasn’t exactly well liked. All I know for sure is that she took her brother and ran one day, and they didn’t stop running until they found somewhere to stay.” Cotton explained what little he knew about his leader. “That sounds awful…” Twilight said in a shocked tone. If it were under any other circumstances, she would feel bad for the black mare. She still kind of did, although she still hated her for everything she had done. “Yeah… that’s what I thought. Maybe if she hadn’t gained her abilities she would have turned out differently.” Cotton said in a slightly sympathetic tone. “Anyway… that’s all I know. If you’re going to throw me in jail, please do it sooner rather than later. I have been sitting here so long that my legs are falling asleep.” He stated in a half-joking, half-serious manner. “We’ll see what we can do… thank you for talking. You were more help to us than you know.” Twilight said in a grateful tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the shackled pony’s foreleg. As Twilight got up to leave and turned to face her yellow companion, a loud buzz erupted from his vest. The sight of a vial glowing bright blue and vibrating made the unicorn’s nerves kick into overdrive. A familiar noise softly echoed through the room. It was barely loud enough to hear, but it sounded like distorted laughter. “That laugh…!” Twilight’s eyes widened in shock as she realized where she had heard the noise before, she felt her blood run cold as she looked around for the source of the noise. Suddenly, a dark circle appeared on the left wall. The circle grew in size until it was bigger than a pony. Just as suddenly as the circle appeared, a dark shape with glowing purple eyes and a jagged glowing smile flew through it and into the room. “AHH!” Twilight and Cotton Quill screamed in unison. It was hard to tell which high pitched scream belonged to which pony. Glimmer Shine ducked and leaped to the side as he noticed the creature rushing forward with its claws brandished. Before anyone could react further, the shadow glided across the table and slashed sideways where Cotton Quill was sitting. When the shadow moved, Twilight, Glimmer Shine, and everyone else watching through the two-way mirror saw a stream of blood spray out from the white unicorn’s throat. Cotton tried to cry out in pain, but his yell was stifled by the bloody gash across his neck. Twilight watched in horror as the captive pony clutched his still bleeding injury. Even with the flow of blood stopped by his hooves, Cotton’s blood was already covering the wall and table in front of him. Even the purple unicorn managed to catch a little bit of the crimson spray. The shadow floated off to the side and watched with a devilish grin as Cotton Quill clung to what was left of his life. After a short and desperate attempt at putting enough pressure on his wound to stop the blood flow, the white unicorn fell sideways out of his chair. The only thing stopping him from going very far was the shackle on his leg, though his body weight was enough to send him to the floor effectively. Twilight and the others watched in abject horror as Cotton Quill gasped out his last few breaths. He convulsed on the ground for a few moments before his struggles became progressively weaker. Soon enough, his pupils dilated and all sense of life left the bleeding unicorn. With its initial target dead on the floor and its claws still covered in his blood, the shadow turned its head to look at the two ponies remaining in the room. Spotting the purple mare and recognizing that its master wanted her dead, the shadow laughed maniacally while brandishing its claws again. Twilight was frozen in fear as she stared at the ghostly monster. The shadow wailed loudly as it flew towards the hapless pony. She tried to move out of the way, but she could barely get her body to move an inch from where she was standing. “Twilight get down!” Glimmer Shine yelled while jumping into the petrified unicorn. Just as the pair went to the floor, they felt a rush of air and saw the shadow flying past them and into the nearby wall. Taking a quick look around, the two couldn’t find any other trace of the shadow. “Are you ok?” Glimmer Shine asked while examining the unicorn. She had a few spots on her that were stained with blood, although the stallion was confident that it wasn’t hers. Twilight was still in shock from what just happened. All she could do to communicate her reply was erratically nod her head while dealing with her jittery nerves. Taking a look down to his locator, Glimmer Shine could see that the glowing portion of the blue liquid inside was moving. He then realized that he could track the shadow back to its master somewhere nearby. Getting up from the shocked mare, he ran to the door and opened it to give chase to the shadow. As he ran into the main room, he could see the shock and horror on everyone’s faces. Pinkie Pie was covering her mouth with her hoof as she stared through the window at the bloody scene before her. Rarity and Fluttershy were quickly rushing out of the room with a sickly look on their already shocked faces, presumably to find a restroom. Glitterball, Rainbow Dash, and Sunspot were speechless with shocked expressions and mouths agape. Even Princess Luna and Tom were mortified by what they just witnessed. “What happened in there?!” Tom asked frantically while observing the urgent expression on Glimmer Shine’s face. “I don’t know! It just came out of nowhere!” The yellow stallion stated while running towards the far door. Everyone was confused by where he was going. “What are you doing Glimmer Shine?!” Brimstoke shouted across the room at the running pony. “I’m chasing it, what does it look like I’m doing?!” Glimmer Shine yelled back without turning his head or even missing a stride. Brimstoke and Tom each checked their own methods of detecting supernatural presences. They quickly realized that the shadow was still detectable, and it was leaving an easily followed trail. Taking a quick glance to each other, the two bolted after the yellow stallion to help him on his chase. Glitterball and Sunspot started to rush after the group when Brimstoke turned his head to yell back to them. “Stay here and take care of them!” The white stallion instructed before turning his attention forward. Glitterball and Sunspot stopped and looked at each other. They then looked behind them at the many horrified ponies around them. They needed to be there for them after what they just saw. Noticing Twilight still on the floor in the interrogation room with a shocked expression, the two decided to go in there and escort her away from the gruesome sight in front of her. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was running through the station to get to the front door. Taking a quick glance beside him, he noticed that the slayer and the white stallion had caught up to him. They didn’t seem to be interested in stopping him. Instead, they seemed more intent on joining him. With his two companions in tow, the yellow pony ran into the lobby of the station and bolted out of the front door. Taking a look at his locator vial, he noticed that the reading was just in front of him. As he scanned the area ahead, he noticed a pale bluish gray pegasus mare standing a short ways away from the station. “There she is!” Glimmer Shine announced to his two partners. With their target in sight, the trio ran forward to catch up with the gray mare. As they were approaching her, they noticed the shadow fly up from the ground in front of her. The specter then flew into the ground at her feet and melded with her shadow. She looked like she had a devious smile on her face until she noticed the trio giving chase to her. “Hold it!” Tom yelled ahead to the startled mare. Despite this instruction, Raincloud turned around and started running. Thanks to all of their physical training, Glimmer Shine and Brimstoke were easily able to gain ground on the pegasus. Tom, of course, had his enhanced stamina due to being a slayer, not to mention his athleticism from when he was alive. As the three slowly caught up to the pegasus, she eventually halted in front of a section of brush and turned around to face her pursuers. She panted heavily to catch her breath from running so much. The group was glad to have caught her, although they were suspicious as to why she chose to run instead of flying away. “Man… *pant* you guys are persistent aren’t you?” Raincloud stated with a slight chuckle. “Do you really think you can just barge into a royal guard station and murder a pony and then just get away scot-free?” Brimstoke said while eyeing the pale mare defensively. He was surprised to see her laughing at his statement. “Heh heh… nope, not really… which is exactly why I have a backup plan.” Raincloud replied in a cocky manner. She then looked behind her into the brush. “Hey, Dust! Now is as good a time as any to do your thing!” She announced loudly in an impatient tone. Suddenly, another pegasus walked out from behind the bushes, a brown stallion that the group recognized to be Dust Kicker. “One backup plan coming right up!” Dust Kicker exclaimed with a confident smile while raising his hoof into the air. The tip of his hoof suddenly became engulfed in pulsating shadow energy as it had so many times before. Brimstoke and his two companions ran forward in an attempt at closing the gap between them and the two ponies before the brown stallion finished his action. They skidded to a halt as he slammed his hoof into the ground and yelled fiercely. The shadow energy that went into the ground from his hoof stretched out into a long horizontal line that went out a great distance to either side. The black line started rising out of the ground and forming a black wall between the two groups. Tom’s senses went off, as well as Brimstoke and Glimmer Shine’s locators. As a loud screeching noise filled the air, the wall of darkness started moving. Small tendrils of the shadowy barrier started wriggling around and moving of their own volition as the wall climbed higher and started arching forward. The dark mass started adopting more smoke like properties as it moved forward. It didn’t take long to realize that the brown pegasus had just summoned a very powerful mass of dark matter like the one Tom and the others found back in the cave. “I am getting the worst case of déjà vu right now…” Tom muttered nervously while slowly stepping backwards. The shadow cast by the large mass of energy slowly reached forward as it blocked their view of the sun. Suddenly, the mass of darkness rushed forward and swept outwards like an ocean of shadows. “Run!” Glimmer Shine yelled to his two companions while turning around and running. They needed no confirmation as they both bolted to join their fleeing comrade. The trio ran as fast as they could as the wall of dark matter followed them. It seemed to be ignoring the sunlight completely. It wasn’t even smoking as it charged forward and stretched out to the side to encompass all of their escape routes. The three finally made it to the station and opened the door to rush inside. After closing the door behind them, the human noticed the window beside the door and cringed nervously. “This room isn’t safe! Let’s go!” Tom exclaimed while running for the door on the right. “What’s going on?” The receptionist pony behind the front desk asked in a concerned tone. She suddenly noticed the large wall of darkness hurdling towards the building through the window. “AHH!” She yelped in fright while falling backwards. “Get to an interior room!” Tom shouted to her while still running. Brimstoke and Glimmer Shine watched the startled mare as she ran through an open doorway in the room she was. Deciding that she was safe, they followed the human as he ran for the room the others were in. As the trio burst back into the room, everyone turned to look at them with concerned expressions. They looked like they had just run from a war zone, and considering the circumstances surrounding their departure, the group wasn’t sure if they wanted to know why they had returned so suddenly. “What’s going on?” Luna asked while observing the out of breath trio. Tom was the first to catch his breath and speak up. “We have problems… big problems.” The human explained uneasily. Suddenly a loud whoosh sounded out from the front of the building. The group heard the sound of what they presumed to be rushing wind, before an eerily familiar screeching noise started bleeding through to the room they were in. Along with this, the lights in the room flickered violently before shutting off. All of the sunlight streaming through the windows was cut off as something black wrapped itself around the building. “Wait a minute… I know that sound.” Rainbow Dash said nervously while glancing over to Twilight. The two mares felt a pit developing in their stomach as they remembered where they were when they last heard that noise. They immediately knew that they were in big trouble.
Chapter 67: EntrapmentRaincloud and her brother watched in amazement as the mass of dark matter swallowed the guard station right before their eyes. The shadowy blob reached upwards to cover the top of the building while the rest of it flowed out around each of the sides. Before long, the entire building was covered in the undulating mass. The screeching noise that accompanied the dark matter still remained, though it appeared to quiet down slightly now that the mass wasn’t moving around too much. If they hadn’t seen it beforehand, the two ponies wouldn’t have been able to tell that there was a building underneath the cloud of darkness. “Wow… that stuff works fast.” Raincloud noted with an impressed chuckle. She turned to her brother to see how he was reacting to the marvelous sight. “It’s supposed to. Raven Feather wanted us to have a quick escape plan, so there you go.” Dust Kicker stated in a dull sort of tone. He didn’t seem at all impressed by the sight in front of him. “You’re no fun… you know that?” Raincloud said with an annoyed shrug and an eye roll. “If your idea of fun is to barge into a royal guard station and kill one of their prisoners, I think I will pass… weren’t we supposed to bring Cotton back alive anyway?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. He seemed more concerned about them getting into trouble than he actually cared for the white unicorn’s wellbeing. “Nah… Raven Feather said that he was a liability at this point. She thought it would be easier for my shadow to just slip in and kill him so we could escape without confronting anyone.” Raincloud explained. “But… if we didn’t want to confront anyone, then why didn’t we just fly away?” Dust Kicker asked with a confused expression. The pale mare merely rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat at her brother’s thought process. “Dust… you really aren’t creative are you?” Raincloud asked in a semi-serious manner. “You know what… just don’t answer that.” She added once she saw that her brother was still trying to figure out what she meant. “Raven Feather gave us that dark matter spell as a backup plan, but she wouldn’t have brought me on the team if I didn’t take some extra initiative every once in a while. I say we draw up a pictogram and summon some shadow creatures to wreak some havoc in there before we go.” Raincloud explained with a devious twinkle in her eye. The brown stallion was a little leery of his sister’s bright idea. “I don’t know Raincloud… I’m a little spent from using that much energy at once. It would take me a while to summon a lot of creatures… what if we get caught?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. He didn’t want to give Raven Feather any more problems than she already had by letting himself get caught. “Who’s going to catch us? We have Twilight Sparkle and her friends, not to mention the majority of the royal guard presence in Ponyville trapped inside of that building. Besides… we don’t need to stay for that long, or use that much energy.” Raincloud stated in a reassuring tone. “What did you have in mind?” Dust Kicker asked curiously. Although he was open to the idea of causing more suffering for the ponies stuck inside the station, he had no idea what his sister could have been planning. “Just follow my lead.” Raincloud said while walking up to the bushes and reaching into them. After digging around for a brief moment, she came back out with a bag in her hooves. Dust Kicker followed his sister behind the bushes to a more secluded area. They were in the middle of downtown Ponyville after all, so hidden areas were hard to come by. The small area they found behind some bushes would have to do. The pale pegasus produced some items from the bag and got to work. Before long she was drawing up the lines and glyphs necessary to form a pictogram. “Do you remember how to make one of those?” Dust Kicker asked while intently watching his sister going to work. “Of course I do… I don’t know why Cotton needed a pile of books to make these. They’re easy as pie… an arcane pie that summons monsters, but pie nonetheless.” Raincloud replied with a smirk. It was astounding how simple she made drawing the various symbols around the pictogram appear. Before long, the gray mare had finished with the outline of the pictogram. All she needed to do now was to add the glyphs around the symbol to give it instructions on how to function. After adding the glyphs that would gather the negative energy and send it to the reservoir, Raincloud started delving into her own knowledge of how to make spells to craft her own unique symbol. “There… it’s finished.” Raincloud said while stepping back to admire her own work. The symbol itself was impressive looking enough to pass for a symbol made with several ponies under close instruction. In fact, the gray mare’s symbol most likely looked more complex and impressive than anything Cotton Quill or any of the workers back at the mansion could create. “So let me get this straight… you want me to put my hoof on the center, and… what?” Dust Kicker asked while going over the bizarre instructions his sister gave him before. “I just need you to channel energy and think of what monster to summon as you would normally.” Raincloud explained while pointing to the ring in the center of the symbol. “How will this help us again?” Dust Kicker asked with a confused expression. Raincloud merely rolled her eyes at her brother’s lack of comprehension. “Clumps of dark matter this large summon darklings and other shadow creatures naturally… like when Twilight Sparkle and the princess went into the cave. All we’re doing is telling the dark matter to summon our monsters instead of just darklings, which is where you come in. Oh… and try to put some variety into it, Dust. I don’t want just stronger darklings in there.” Raincloud stated to clarify. The brown stallion smirked at the thought of being given the freedom to choose what monsters would be used. “I guess I will have to get creative then.” Dust Kicker said with a devilish smile while delving into his repertoire of shadow creatures. Raincloud smirked as she watched her brother place his hoof in the center of the circle and channel energy into it. Meanwhile, on the inside of the station, the ponies scattered around the room were all darting their heads around nervously while trying to figure out what was going on. Several unicorn guards lit up their horns and spread around the room to give it some more light. “What’s going on? Why did it get dark all of a sudden?” Fireside asked while glancing around at the many guard ponies looking to him for answers. As much as he wanted to inform them about what to do, he had no idea what was happening himself. “We found Raincloud and Dust Kicker outside. They summoned a large mass of dark matter, which is what is currently wrapping itself around the building and shrouding us in pitch blackness.” Tom explained in an urgent tone. The shocking news made everyone panic slightly, especially those that knew what dark matter actually was. “Dark matter? You mean like the stuff we found back at the cave?” Twilight asked nervously. Flashbacks of her time in the cave started racing through her mind, making her all the more fearful of her current situation. “Exactly like the stuff we found in the cave… only worse.” Tom replied uneasily. The amount of dread in the human’s face only made Twilight and the others more afraid of what lay just outside. All of the ponies that flocked to the room when the lights went out started chatting nervously amongst themselves. Although they tried to be quiet, the fear in their voices was easy to hear. Even the guards in the room were starting to feel uneasy. All of the training in the world couldn’t have prepared them for a situation like this. They were trained to deal with threats to Equestria, but not supernatural threats. “Ok, nobody needs to panic. We just need to stay calm and everything will be fine.” Fireside announced in an attempt at calming the room down. “Buddy… if you knew as much as I did about the paranormal, you would be cowering in the corner over there. I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but it is broad daylight out there, and there is currently something that is only supposed to exist in dark places circling around the building.” Tom said nervously. The unusual break in the human’s armor of confidence was unsettling to the others. It was like he was more frightened than they were, which was definitely not something they expected. “Why isn’t it coming through the windows? The stuff in the cave tried everything to get at us.” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while glancing out of one of the pitch black windows. Although the vibrating roar of the cloud of darkness whipping by and the unnatural screeching sound that came with it made the cyan mare nervous, she was unsure of whether or not the dark matter would smash through the window to get at her. “Maybe this dark matter isn’t trying to kill us… The cloud in the cave was natural, so it was just trying to absorb our energy… but this mass seems to be just keeping us trapped in here, for the moment at any rate.” Tom hypothesized while taking note of the odd behavior exhibited by the dark matter. “Even so… we need to get out of here as soon as possible. I’m not sure if I know of a way we could escape though.” Luna said while thinking hard about a way out of their current predicament. The lack of options coming to her mind frustrated the alicorn to no end. “Well, right now we should probably gather everyone up and head to a secure interior room.” Tom suggested while looking around the room. As he scanned the various ponies in the room, he was surprised to notice something, or rather, the lack of something. “Wait a minute… where are Fluttershy and Rarity?” Tom asked in a concerned tone. “I think they were going to be sick from watching what happened in there… they probably went to find the nearest bathroom.” Sunspot said while taking a disgusted glance through the still bloody window of the interrogation room. “Ok… we need to go get them and anyone else in the building. We need to secure a room before something bad-” Tom started to speak up when he was suddenly interrupted by a faint noise drifting through the room. The distant sound of windows breaking and ponies screaming could be heard, along with a very unnatural sounding set of screeches and roars. The terrifying noises made everyone in the room on edge with concern for themselves and the others in the building. “Happens…” Tom finished his sentence with a shrug. “What was that?” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone while trying to listen closer to the noises. Only a few far off screams remained, but even they were enough to raise the tension in the room. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” Tom stated while walking over to one of the doors at the side of the room. “What are you doing?” Fireside asked while stepping forward from the group. “Keep this room safe… I’m going to go see what’s going on.” Tom replied while steeling himself for the task ahead of him. However nervous he might have been about their current situation, he clearly didn’t want to stand around while the two missing mares and everyone else in the building could be in danger. “Shouldn’t we go with you? We could cover more ground in groups.” Fireside suggested while glancing over to the various guard ponies in the room ready to take action. “I don’t want to send you guys out there without knowing what we’re up against first. I’m going to go find Fluttershy and Rarity, and then I’ll meet you back here.” Tom explained while returning his attention forward. Before anyone could speak up, he had already opened the door and went out into the rest of the station. -A few minutes earlier- Fluttershy and Rarity rushed through the station to find a bathroom. It was astounding how fast they could move with such sick feelings in their stomachs, but they somehow managed to slink around every concerned and confused pony they came across. Finally, the pair found a set of restrooms across from each other. After quickly opening the door to the little mare’s room, the two bolted inside and each went to where they needed to go. Rarity immediately rushed over to a stall and threw up in disgust. While the white unicorn was heaving and panting while waiting for the sick feeling in her stomach to pass, Fluttershy rushed over to a sink and turned the cold water on full blast. The pegasus felt ill all across her body. She felt like she might throw up, but she was to the point of trying to prevent it rather than rushing to the nearest toilet. With shaky hooves, she splashed water into her face and tried everything in her power to calm her anxiety and sickness. She couldn’t believe what she had just bore witness to. The yellow pony had seen horrible things before. A monster made out of blood, a zombified bear that was missing part of its face, and even a skeletal dragon. But nothing she had seen before could have prepared her for watching a pony getting his throat slashed right in front of her. The terrified look of shock and pain on his face, the crimson liquid gushing out of his neck and painting the window in front of her, the horrific sight of his limp body falling over and dangling from his still shackled leg, all of these things were still firmly planted in the pegasus’s head. Although she hadn’t gotten any blood on her like Twilight did, she might as well have for how ill she felt. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Rarity had finished emptying the contents of her stomach and was slowly standing up. She wanted to ensure that she didn’t look down, as the sight of her own vomit would have probably driven her still sensitive stomach off the deep end. With closed eyes, the unicorn fumbled around for a moment while reaching for the handle. Once the sound of her mess getting flushed away subsided, she finally managed to get up the courage to open her eyes. “Ughh…” Rarity groaned uncomfortably while staggering out of the stall. She quickly rested her upper body on the sink and turned on the faucet to wash any trace of the disgusting substance off her face. After splashing a little extra water in her face to make herself feel better, the white mare lifted a paper towel over from a dispenser on the wall to the side and dried herself. Taking a glance off to the side, Rarity couldn’t help but notice her yellow friend in the same position she was in. Despite the fact that she hadn’t vomited herself, Fluttershy somehow looked even worse than the unicorn. She had a generally pale appearance to her, and her entire body was trembling slightly. “Fluttershy… are you okay darling?” Rarity asked with friendly concern in her still sickly voice. She walked over to the quivering pegasus and put a loving hoof on her shoulder as she tried to make the sick feeling in her body pass. “Y-yeah… I think so.” Fluttershy said in a weak voice while still looking down. Not only was she still shocked by what she saw, but she also was trying to suppress the ill feeling in her stomach the same way the unicorn was. “You don’t look ok… I don’t blame you one bit considering that ghastly scene we just ran from.” Rarity stated with a shudder as she tried to not think back to the horrific scene. “Who would do something like that? He was one of them… and they just… just… murdered him.” Fluttershy could barely get the words out of her mouth with how mortified she was. The yellow mare wasn’t blind to the fact that the hooded ponies always had deadly intentions, but seeing it happen right in front her was an entirely new and horrific experience for her. “I know… but I don’t think I need to remind you of who we’re dealing with here. Raincloud… the owner of that… thing, she threatened to kill Sweetie Belle and the others unless Twilight, Applejack, and I made a decision of which one of us was going to die. She has no regard for the lives of others… I think she actually enjoys harming others.” Rarity explained with a disgusted tone. She couldn’t believe that a pony could be so cruel. “Ugh… I feel so wrong… I wonder if this is how Twilight felt back at the hospital.” Fluttershy wondered out loud. “Oh my goodness, Twilight! The poor thing was actually in the room with that thing when it happened. Oh… she must be a mess if we’re so pale in the face from just watching from outside!” Rarity stated with concern for her purple friend. She wondered if she was curled up into a ball off in the corner while descending into a pit of shock and misery. “Maybe we should go check on her. We should probably be getting back soon anyway… As much as I don’t want to go anywhere near that room again, the others are probably worried about us.” Fluttershy suggested while getting up and stepping away from the sink. She still felt a little wobbly, but she was marginally better from before. “Right… just try not to look at the interrogation room window Fluttershy. The last thing we need right now is another glimpse in there.” Rarity replied while trying not to think about the grisly scene waiting for them. Fluttershy nodded in agreement with the idea of never seeing anything that horrible again. With their stomachs having settled and the color having returned to their faces, the two mares stepped toward the bathroom door to go out and rejoin their friends. Just before they could reach for the handle however, the lights started flickering violently. As the two ponies watched in abject fright, the lights completely fizzled out, leaving them in pitch blackness. Fluttershy squealed nervously before darting her eyes around the room. She wondered what could have possibly cut the power like this. They had just run away from a bloody massacre created by Raincloud’s shadow, which meant that the hooded ponies were nearby. The pegasus had hoped that they would simply stop at killing Cotton Quill, rather than causing any more trouble. “Don’t worry darling, I’m here.” Rarity spoke up in a comforting tone while lighting up her horn. Now that they had light, it was a little less spooky in the bathroom. Although now that they only had a small source of light, the shadows and darkness around the room along with the eerie reflections cast by the wall of mirrors beside them made the two mares all the more nervous. “What happened?” Fluttershy asked while nervously looking around the room. She half expected some sort of monster to leap out of the mirror and scratch her eyes out or some other horrific thing. Entertaining the thought alone was enough to make her avoid looking into any of the mirrors. “I don’t know… Obviously the lights went out, but I can’t imagine why.” Rarity replied in an uneasy tone. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know why the lights had gone out. The unicorn suddenly wished that she was in the other room with her friends. Although the station was full of trained royal guards, she still felt unsafe in the lonesome bathroom. Suddenly, a low noise started making its presence known in the eerily quiet bathroom. It sounded like a high pitched screech that resembled a swarm of bats flying around the station and letting out their combined squeaks into a tumultuous uproar. As the noise got louder and louder, the two ponies started to hear another noise that resembled wind rushing around the building. The low roar was barely audible over the unnerving screeching sound, but it was still just as terrifying. “W-w-what is t-that?” Fluttershy asked through chattering teeth. She could feel every muscle in her body tensing up as her nerves went into overdrive. “I don’t know… and I’m not entirely sure if I want to find out.” Rarity replied with growing concern and terror. She suddenly thought back to her previous desire of being with her friends and quickly realized that it would be best if she was in the other room. “Let’s get out of here… we will probably be safer with the others.” Rarity suggested nervously. Fluttershy nodded slowly at the proposal of relocating to the relative safety of the other room. Just as Rarity was placing her hoof on the door handle, the sound of glass breaking rang out from somewhere nearby. Immediately following this loud crash was the sound of ponies screaming at the top of their lungs. Along with the sounds of ponies screaming, a myriad of unearthly and terrifying growls, roars, and screeches filled the air. The two mares froze in their tracks while listening to the terrifying noises outside. They could hear ponies running away and screaming even more. They could also hear several scuffling and thumping sounds that resembled some kind of foreign creature walking around. Feeling her anxiety and curiosity welling up inside of her, Rarity slowly opened the door up to get a peek at what was going on. Through the slit in the door, she could see several ponies running through the dark hallway outside, along with a few unicorns running by with their lights. One of the unicorn guards passing by paused and turned around to usher everyone else past him. He and everyone else passing through his bubble of light seemed to have a terrified look on their face. “Come on! Everyone move this way!” The guard instructed while motioning for the other ponies to move in the direction behind him. As a couple more ponies ran by the guard, he started using his horn to conjure blasts of energy which he pointed down the hallway. Rarity and Fluttershy couldn’t see what he was firing at, but whatever it was seemed to be the source of all the growls and roars they were hearing. Suddenly a black tendril shot out from the side and quickly wrapped around the guard’s front leg. Before he could even look down at his trapped appendage, the tendril pulled taught and sent the stallion to the floor. “No! No, no, noooo!” He yelled fearfully as the tendril dragged him backwards. He tried to pull away from it, but he didn’t seem to be able to make any progress. Before the two mares in the bathroom could even contemplate how to help the trapped unicorn, he was pulled out of sight and his screams died down. Rarity quickly and quietly closed the door. She looked over to her pegasus friend and shared a silent expression of shock and horror with her. The two listened anxiously as the sounds of ponies screaming grew more and more distant, while the sounds of growling and screeching came closer and closer. “We have to get out of here!” Fluttershy whispered in a panicked tone. “I know!” Rarity whispered back before turning her attention to the door. She quickly shushed the nervous pegasus before cutting off her light and slowly opening the door again, this time to just a crack. It was hard to see in pitch blackness, but the white mare didn’t dare to use her light. All she could do was wait silently and pray that whatever creature was lurking in the shadows couldn’t hear the sound of her heart beating rapidly. Suddenly, one of the sets of growling and footsteps came dangerously close. Before long, Rarity could make out the shape of something walking in front of the door. It was difficult to tell where the creature’s form started and ended, but she could just barely see its features. It appeared to be some kind of bird like creature. It had a long pointed beak and winged arms. It didn’t seem to have feathers like a normal bird, instead having only a large flap of skin attached to its twig-like arms to serve as wings. It had a thin body, with short legs that came to an end at talon clad feet with three toes. The creature appeared to be able to walk upright but instead chose to walk on all fours using its winged arms and similarly talon clad hands to locomote forward. Rarity had to forcibly stifle a fearful gasp by clasping her hoof over her mouth as the creature darted its head toward her and four glowing red slits opened on its head. The slits seemed to be the only thing on its head that looked like they served as eyes, so that was most likely what they were. The beast paused for a moment and looked around as if searching for its next victim. It didn’t seem to notice the unicorn or her friend, despite being mere inches away from their hiding spot. It opened its beak and let out a short and shrill cry that resembled what the two ponies imagined a supernatural bird of prey would sound like. After a few more ear piercing outbursts, the monster turned its head to look in the direction of the room that the two mares were in again. It tilted its head curiously, seemingly paying more attention this time. Rarity closed the door as quickly as she could without making noise and put her back against it. The two mares could practically hear their hearts pounding against the inner walls of their chests. With how loud the thumping seemed in their ears, they were certain that the beast outside could hear it. For the next tensest set of seconds in their lives, the pair listened for any signs that the creature knew where they were. Thankfully, they heard the soft pitter patter of the creature’s small feet as it walked away from the door. Once it had gotten far enough away that they couldn’t hear it anymore, the two let out a quiet sigh of relief. “What was that thing? It looked like a shadow creature... but it wasn’t anything like normal darklings.” Fluttershy stated while thinking back to the stronger variant of the shadow creatures she saw a couple of nights ago. If there were different variants of darklings, then perhaps there were different types of shadow creatures altogether. “It kind of looked like those things that brown pegasus summoned over at the library… Does that mean that they are still here?” Rarity hypothesized while thinking about why the two ponies would stay. “I’ll bet they have a pictogram outside feeding off of our fear right now… and I’m sorry to say, but it is working.” Fluttershy said nervously while taking note of her own feeling of terror. “Well, whatever is going on… we need to get out of here somehow.” Rarity replied anxiously while turning to face the door. Just before she was considering opening it again, she heard another low growl directly outside as another unknown creature passed by the door. The two mares looked at each other nervously. They had both come to the same startling revelation at the same time. They were stuck in a pitch black guard station filled with monsters, and they had no way of exiting the small room they were in without running the risk of getting ripped to shreds by the beasts waiting just outside.
Chapter 68: Running ScaredAfter the growls and shrieks of the mysterious creatures outside had died out, Rarity and Fluttershy were left in utter silence. The two didn’t speak much out of fear, and when they did speak they only raised their voices to a low whisper, forcing them to huddle close together just to communicate with each other. It was a good thing that they were right next to each other anyway. Without the reassuring sound of breathing and the warm feeling of their bodies touching, the two mares might have gone crazy from how stressful the situation was. It was pitch black in the already eerie bathroom. Although the dark and cold atmosphere was wreaking havoc on their imaginations and nerves, the two ponies were deathly afraid to do anything to give away their position. Even the smallest light might have shattered their already fragile bubble of false security. Finally, after waiting in darkness for the longest time, Rarity lit up her horn to cast a dim light into the room. It was small enough to be discreet, but bright enough for the pair to see each other and a little bit of the room around them. “Are you sure you should have a light on?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous whisper. “I can’t stand sitting in the dark any longer… my nerves are tense enough as is. I don’t need any irrational fears adding onto the rational ones I already have.” Rarity replied in a disheartened tone. At this rate, she was wondering if she would ever leave this room alive. “Ok… I can’t blame you there. I just hope that they don’t find us.” Fluttershy fretted with nervous optimism. She was glad that the room wasn’t pitch black anymore, but she also feared that the light would attract unwanted attention. “I’m afraid that it’s only a matter of time before we’re found out… we need to get out of here somehow.” Rarity said anxiously. The thought of leaving their sanctuary terrified the yellow pegasus. “Maybe we should wait here? I’m sure that the others will find us soon…” Fluttershy said with a slight twinge of doubt filling her mind. She hoped that they would be found by their friends before they were found by whatever monsters had broken into the station, but she knew that this was wishful thinking. “M-maybe you’re right…” Rarity replied nervously while reconsidering the idea of going outside. She wanted to be brave enough to just waltz out of the bathroom and sneak through the station, but the white mare lacked the ability to sneak around deadly creatures while remaining calm enough to make rational decisions. Seeing her friend giving up on their only plan of escape made Fluttershy sigh sadly. It wasn’t so much that the unicorn had chickened out. She herself was scared out of her wits after all. It was the fact that neither of them was capable of coming up with a valid exit strategy that didn’t involve them endangering their lives. The more she thought about their lack of a plan, the more the timid pegasus thought about the probability of them dying in this dark bathroom. As she pictured her friends only being able to find her dead body strewn across the floor, Fluttershy began to tear up. “*Sob*… *hic*…” Despite her best efforts to suppress her feelings of sadness, the yellow mare couldn’t stop herself from crying slightly. Rarity glanced over to her weeping friend. She was trying her hardest to stay quiet, but it was almost impossible to stifle her sobbing. Even her breathing was shaking from how distraught she had become. The white unicorn felt bad knowing that her friend was in so much distress. “What’s wrong?” Rarity asked sympathetically. The yellow mare wiped her eyes and tried her best to stop her trembling voice. “What if… *sniff* W-what if we don’t make it out of here?” Fluttershy asked in a distressed tone of voice. The white mare was unsure of how to comfort the sobbing pony. She felt just as hopeless as the pegasus did, she was only handling it slightly better. Still, she had to think of some way to reassure the yellow mare. She wouldn’t feel like a good friend if she didn’t. “Hey… don’t think about things like that.” Rarity said in a soft tone while wrapping a foreleg around the distraught pony and pulling her closer. Fluttershy wept for a while longer before ceasing her outbursts to a few sniffles as she allowed the unicorn to hug her gingerly. “We’re going to be fine. You have me to look out for you, and I’m not going anywhere without you.” Rarity stated with a confident smile. Fluttershy looked up at her friend while getting the last few sobs out of her system. She felt much better knowing that the unicorn was going to be with her during this time of crisis. If she were alone, she would probably break down and cry in the fetal position off in a corner, but she felt a lot more confident with a friend nearby. “T-thanks Rarity… I don’t know what I would do without you here.” Fluttershy said while managing a slight smile. Seeing the yellow mare’s spirits lifting made the white mare happier by extension. “Of course darling... I’m just glad that both of us came here together. I shudder to think of what would have happened if only one of us ran down here and got stuck by themselves.” Rarity added in a relieved tone. Although she would rather the yellow mare be safe and sound with the others, she was glad that she wasn’t alone. “Now all we need to do is wait until the oth-” Rarity started to speak up when she was interrupted by a sizable pounding on the door they were up against. Along with this jarring thud, a few animalistic growls rang out from right outside. The two ponies froze up in fear and became dead silent. Rarity shut off her light and braced herself against the door with her pegasus companion. Although the creature outside seemed to be only curiously slamming against the door rather than fighting to get in, it was still strong enough to warrant the ponies holding the door closed. Soon enough, the growling shifted to sniffing. Whatever was on the other side of the door seemed to be looking for signs of life inside of the closed off room, even if it could probably just barge right in with enough effort. Rarity could feel the cold sensation of the monster’s breath through the seam in the door. She cringed fearfully as she expected the creature to discover their presence through smell alone. The two were clenching their teeth so hard that they were afraid of them breaking. Rarity glanced around nervously, while Fluttershy kept her eyes closed. She couldn’t handle pitch blackness on top of a monster being right outside, so she kept her eyes closed and waited in the relatively more comfortable darkness of her own eyelids. Finally, the creature let out a dissatisfied growl and moved away from the door. The pair could hear loud thuds as whatever monster was just behind the door walked away slowly. Judging from the sound of its footsteps, the two estimated that the beast was large. Letting out a sigh of relief, the ponies leaned back against the door in a more comfortable position. Rarity lit her horn up again while being careful to not make it too bright. Now that the danger had passed, the relatively safe atmosphere they had grown accustomed to returned to the bathroom. Rarity then turned to her yellow partner with a more anxious expression. She knew that they were getting extremely lucky with not being found out and that their luck was most likely going to run out at the worst possible moment. “We need to get out of here… we can’t just stay here and let them come to us. If they get in, we’re goners I’m afraid.” Rarity stated nervously. She hated to be so blunt, especially to the timid pegasus, but it was the truth after all. The bathroom they were in had no windows and no other way out other than the door. Fluttershy gulped nervously. She agreed with the white mare, but the mere thought of going outside sent a series of cold chills up and down her spine. Finally, she nodded slowly in agreement with her friend’s plan of action. “Ok… I’m with you.” Fluttershy said apprehensively. She didn’t like the idea very much, but she didn’t like the fact that she was essentially in a dead end either. If she didn’t leave soon, this dead end would stop being figurative and start being very literal. “Just stay behind me, and keep close and quiet. We don’t want to attract any of them if possible… and we certainly don’t want to attract fifty of them if we’re just running from one.” Rarity said in a calm tone. She wanted to get all of the planning out of the way when she was thinking straight and not terrified out of her mind. “What are we going to do? Are we just going to head back to the others?” Fluttershy asked curiously. She wanted to be sure of what was going to happen when that door opened. “That’s the plan… but if we can’t do that, we’re just going to try to stay hidden from whatever those things are until someone finds us.” Rarity replied. “Ok…” Fluttershy said while mentally and physically preparing herself for what was to come. She took in a few deep breaths while getting up and walking behind the unicorn as she huddled near the door handle. However, the more the yellow mare watched her friend getting ready to open the door, the more anxious she became. The mere thought of wandering around pitch black corridors with terrifying monsters lurking around every corner made her whine softly. “Wait a minute!” Fluttershy stated frantically to halt the unicorn’s progress in opening the door. “What?” Rarity asked curiously while turning to see what had spooked her companion. “What if they can see in the dark…? They are shadow creatures after all… maybe we should just use the light.” Fluttershy suggested anxiously. She hated the idea of the monsters being able to see her when she couldn’t see them. “Good thinking…” Rarity said while thinking further about the issue. The strange bird creature most likely didn’t find them earlier because the white mare only opened the door to a small crack, and even then she recoiled so most of her body was concealed. “Ok, we can use my light. They probably would be able to see us anyway. I’ll just turn it off when we hide… they might be able to see us in the dark, but they can probably still tell if a light is coming from any hiding spot we pick.” Rarity resolved while lighting up her horn. Satisfied that she would be able to see where she was going, Fluttershy patiently waited while the white mare gathered the courage to open the door. Slowly but surely, Rarity pulled down the handle and opened the door. As she expected, the hallway was pitch black and quiet. All of the ponies in the area seemed to have relocated to another location. At least the two mares hoped they made it to another location. The pair quietly exited the bathroom and slowly closed the door behind them. Now that there was no turning back, they moved forward anxiously and hoped that they could avoid any of the creatures roaming around. Darting their eyes around to scan their surroundings, the two inched along the hallway while keeping low to the floor and using the walls as cover. Every open door or intersection they passed made them pause fearfully to look around. They felt so exposed and defenseless, half expecting a monster to be waiting around every corner they came across. “Are we going the right way?” Fluttershy whispered anxiously. They hadn’t made many turns in their rush to the bathroom, but it was almost impossible to find their way around the already foreign building in relative darkness. “Yeah… I think so.” Rarity replied with slight hesitation. She hoped that she hadn’t been leading them astray all of this time, but she was fairly confident in her recollection of the path they took to get to this part of the station. Although they were essentially walking through empty hallways and open areas, they felt as tense and nervous as they did back in the bathroom. The eerie silence around them was what was affecting them the most. The two mares didn’t even hear the distant sound of ponies or the grunts and growls of the creatures they had expected since their journey began. “Where is everyone?” Fluttershy thought out loud while glancing around. They weren’t finding any signs that there had been any struggles in the hallways. As morbid as the thought was, she at least expected to find a few bloodstains, or even a dead body or two. The only indication they could see that ponies had even been through the area was a few chairs spun around and a few papers and cups knocked over on desks and tables. “I think that most of them must have gotten away… they did have a little bit of forewarning after all.” Rarity replied. The unicorn did feel scared and relatively alone with the lack of activity around her, but she was glad that most of the ponies in the building had apparently run to safety. “Good… I hope that the others are alright.” Fluttershy fretted nervously. “I’m sure they’re a lot safer than we are with Tom, the princess, and Brimstoke’s team. Not to mention all the guards that were in the room when we left.” Rarity added in a reassuring tone. With the reaffirmed confidence that their friends were safe, the two ponies continued on their path. They had to reach safety, for their sakes, and the sakes of their friends and family. The thought of being in a safe place drove them onwards, thankfully they didn’t have much farther to go. “We should be there soon… I think the room is just down this hallway.” Rarity announced happily. Fluttershy smiled eagerly at their miraculous progress. At this rate, they wouldn’t have to see any of the horrific creatures waiting in the dark. With spirits raised higher than they had been since the power went out, the two mares hurried as fast as they could while remaining silent. They couldn’t wait to burst through the door and into the room to be greeted by the happy faces of their friends. *Grrrrrrrrrr* Suddenly, a low and guttural growl erupted from the hallway in front of the pair. They slowed down and paused for a moment, unsure of what they had just heard. The noise was so low-pitched and quiet that it was questionable whether it was real or a figment of their imaginations. “D-d-did you hear t-that?” Fluttershy stammered fearfully while scanning the blackness ahead with wide eyes. “I was hoping that I imagined it… but if you heard it too…” Rarity said with a feeling of dread slowly filling her stomach. She started feeling the sickness from before returning due to the stress her body was going through. *Grrrrrrrrrr* The noise came again, only this time it sounded much closer. Along with the growling sound, the ponies could hear the sound of something dragging along the ground. As the terrifying noises drew nearer and nearer, the two could almost swear that they could see something moving low to the ground just past the edge of their bubble of light. Rarity and Fluttershy both cowered with their heads low to the ground. They were trembling slightly as the noise drew closer and closer. They could practically see themselves getting eaten alive by whatever horrific abomination was heading their way. Before the anxious mares could contemplate turning around and running, they suddenly saw a long black shape jutting into the light. As the odd creature moved forward, its entire body came into view. Whatever it was seemed to have a serpent-esc body, but its head was far from belonging to any serpent they had ever seen. Its head and mouth were elongated, tapering off to a slightly thinner snout. Its mouth was full of needle-thin teeth that jutted out around its closed jaw and overlapped in places. The entire thing resembled an alligator without legs, although it wasn’t missing appendages completely. At the front of what the ponies could loosely call the monster’s torso, two arms with clawed hands jutted out to the sides. One resembled a normal alligator leg, while the other was slightly larger and more deformed looking. The only way the creature was able to move was seemingly to use its mismatched arms to pull itself along. It also had the same sheen on its dark skin that other shadow creatures had, although its skin didn’t look like it was shifting around in place. Once it got all the way into the light, six red slits opened up along the creature’s head in two rows. Now that it could see the two animals in front of it, it opened its mouth and growled again. The low noise made the hair on the back of the pair’s necks stand up. Upon opening its mouth, the ponies could see that it had even more needle sized teeth all across the top and bottom of its mouth, even going past the slimy tongue that flickered back and forth at the back of its mouth. The beast seemed to be horribly disfigured as far as nature was concerned. The only purpose for its bizarre body and features seemed to be scaring the living daylights out of whatever came its way. “Gah!” Rarity yelped in fright while recoiling from the vicious looking monster in front of her. Every fiber in her body was telling her to run away screaming, but part of her thought that fleeing would enrage the monster to the point of it defying logic and outrunning her despite its handicapped appearance. “What is that?!” Fluttershy asked in a panic while stepping back to join her friend. The more the two mares stepped back, the more the creature slithered forward. “I don’t know! Maybe… maybe we could slip past it?” Rarity suggested nervously while observing the creature. As horrifying as it looked, it didn’t appear to be able to move fast. However slow it might have been, if it clamped onto one of them on their way past with its hundreds of teeth, there wouldn’t be any chance at breaking free. “I’m not sure if I want to…” Fluttershy stated while anxiously staring at the monster’s six red eyes. She somehow knew that if it was going to bite one of them, it was probably going to be her. “I’m not sure if we have a choice darling… the main room is just down the hall past that… thing.” Rarity replied in mild disgust while pointing past the slithering creature. Before the pair could even contemplate rushing past the beast on the floor, another distinctive growl sounded out from up ahead. Slowly, as if to instill as deep of a sense of terror as possible, several more red eyes of varying shapes and sizes opened up in the darkness ahead. The ponies couldn’t see what shapes the eyes belonged to, but judging from the horrifying choir of feral noises, there were a lot of them. “What the…?! Where did they come from?!” Fluttershy asked while frantically looking around at the wall of eyes staring at her. “Let’s not stick around to ask them… come on!” Rarity said while turning to run down the hallway to their right. Just as she was turning to face the hallway, she skidded to a halt when she saw another hair-raising sight down that way. The bird creature they had seen before was standing in the hallway. It was staring forward with its unblinking red slits while walking at a menacingly slow pace towards the two mares. Seeing that two of their escape routes were blocked off, the pair had no other choice but to pick the hallway on the left. “Run!” Rarity yelled to her yellow companion before rushing down the empty hallway. Fluttershy quickly followed her, making great efforts to outrun the crowd of monsters behind her. The pair could hear a few screeches and roars behind them, indicating that they were being followed by at least a few of the creatures. All hope of finding another way around to their friends had faded, now they were purely focused on escaping with their lives intact. After winding through some twists and turns in the hallway, the sounds of their pursuers started to die down. A quick glance behind her told Rarity that they had at least gained some breathing room in the chase. Spotting a closed door to their right, the unicorn skidded to a halt and turned to her pegasus friend. “Let’s hide in here.” Rarity suggested urgently. The yellow mare nodded in agreement, although the unicorn had already started opening the door without waiting for her opinion. Thankfully the handle turned and the door swung open. After quickly ducking inside, the two ponies closed the door behind them and breathed a sigh of relief. Now that they were relatively safe, they could actually examine their surroundings. The room they had abruptly chosen appeared to be a staff break room. There was a shelved area that held a microwave, a coffee machine, cups, cabinets, and anything else that a pony would need on a lunch break. There were also a few chairs and a couch through a small doorway that led into a slightly larger open area. The style of the room they had found themselves in made no difference to the two ponies. The primary issue to them was whether or not they were safe. With a silent expression of confirmation, the two mares resolved to search the room further before letting their guard down. Rarity locked the door behind her and started looking around behind every dark corner she could find. After a quick search of the small lunch area, the pair started making their way over to the doorway that led into the rest of the room. Nothing suspicious caught their eye as they walked into the rest area. Although it was dark, the room seemed like it could still be comfortable, even with the grim situation just outside. “I think we’re safe…” Fluttershy said in a relieved tone. “Yeah… assuming the door holds.” Rarity added with a nervous smile. Suddenly, the pair noticed a blur of movement come up from behind the couch. “Eek!” The two ponies yelped in fright and jumped back. They were surprised to hear the mysterious figure doing the same. When they took a look at their surprise visitor in the light, they quickly realized that it was another pony. The pony was an aqua blue earth pony mare with dark blue hair. Her cutie mark was a pinwheel comprised of different shades of blue. She seemed to be just as startled by the pair’s sudden outburst as they were by her sudden appearance. “You’re a pony?!” Rarity exclaimed while still recovering from the jolt to her system. “I know!” The blue mare replied while also dealing with the shock of the situation. Once the three had taken a moment to catch their breath and calm their racing hearts, they could address each other properly. “Sweet Celestia… I thought you guys were one of those things.” The mare stated in a relieved tone. Rarity and Fluttershy didn’t know how long she had been stuck in here, but she was certainly glad to see other ponies, and they couldn’t exactly blame her. They themselves were happy to see another living creature that wasn’t hideously deformed and trying to eat them. “Us too… I mean, you did kind of jump out at us.” Fluttershy said with a slight chuckle. She could still feel a slight twinge of lightheadedness from her sudden fight or flight response. “Heheh… sorry about that.” The blue pony said with an embarrassed expression while rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. “I was just too scared to move. I heard the door open and thought for sure that I was a goner, so I hid behind the couch.” She explained nervously. She still seemed to be shaken up from everything that was going on. “It’s ok… we were running from some of those things when we came in here, but I don’t think they know where we are… let’s just forget about scaring each other silly and start over. I’m Rarity, and this is my friend Fluttershy.” Rarity said in an attempt at breaking the ice with their newfound companion. Fluttershy smiled and nodded at the blue mare as her name was called. “Nice to meet you… I’m Cool Breeze.” The aqua pony greeted while offering the two mares a hoof shake. Now that they had been properly introduced, the ponies could return to the business at hand, which in this case was trying to survive the mind-numbing horrors that were waiting just outside their aptly named break room. “So… how long have you been in here Cool Breeze?” Rarity asked curiously while looking around at the room. It must have been terrifying for the earth pony to be without light of any kind in this situation. “Ever since the power went out I guess. I was in here before on my lunch break… I uh, I work here part time. Anyway, after the lights went out, I tried to leave to find out what was going on, but I ran into some of those… monsters I suppose would be the best way to describe them.” Cool Breeze explained with a nervous chuckle. “So you’ve been all by yourself in this place without a light?” Fluttershy asked with a sympathetic expression. She was appalled that anyone would have to go through such a terrible experience. “Yeah… I guess so. I left the door unlocked in case anyone else wanted to hide in here… I kind of figured that if one of those things was going to get in, it wouldn’t care if the door was locked or not.” The aqua mare stated in a sad tone while thinking about how hopeless her situation was. “Well… we thought the same thing essentially. We were in a bathroom for a while, but we decided to try and get somewhere safe rather than staying in a dead end room.” Rarity explained. “I assume that didn’t go as planned considering you ducked inside of a random dead end room.” Cool Breeze inferred. Judging from the frowns on their faces, she figured that she was right about the two mares’ escape plan failing. “You could say that… we were really close to getting into the main room with everyone else, but we ran into a lot of those things at the last minute.” Rarity stated in a disheartened tone. “I’m not even sure if we can get back there anymore Rarity… I think those things will be at every entrance trying to get in themselves.” Fluttershy said with a defeated sigh. “Well if you’re trying to get somewhere safe, I think you should try the equipment room next.” The blue mare suggested in a confident manner. “What…?” Rarity asked in a confused tone. She knew little to nothing about the station, so it was no surprise that she had no idea what her new companion was talking about. “The equipment room… you know, where they keep the equipment. Everything from swords to spare armor is kept in there, and I will wager that that’s where most of the guards and staff would head to in a situation like this. Other than wherever the princess is, it’s probably the safest room in this entire building.” Cool Breeze explained with a hopeful tone. Just thinking about the possibility of safety filled the three ponies’ hearts with joy. “That sounds like a great idea. We should get going right away!” Fluttershy suggested eagerly. Cool Breeze seemed a little unnerved by the yellow mare’s statement. “W-we? What do you mean we?” The aqua pony asked nervously. “We can’t get there by ourselves… you’re the only one who knows where it is. Besides, we can’t stay here for very long… those things will find us eventually.” Rarity explained. Once she figured out what the two ponies meant, the blue mare became very anxious and fearful about the prospect of leaving her sanctuary. “I… I-I can’t go. I’m staying right here.” She said while cowering behind the couch. “What? You can’t be serious! If you stay here and they get in, there will be nowhere to go!” Rarity stated in an attempt at reasoning with the fearful pony. Cool Breeze seemed to be startled by her proposal, but she also seemed unwilling to go outside still. “But… I don’t want to go. I know that it’s safer in here than it is out there… what if we run into one of those things?” She said nervously. Fluttershy walked over to the other side of the couch and leveled with the frightened mare. “Look… I know you’re scared right now. I’m scared too… I’m probably more scared right now than both of you combined, but we can’t just sit here and wait for those things to find us. I would rather try to make a run towards safety rather than waiting and hoping the storm passes over me without incident. Besides, we’ll be with you every step of the way.” Fluttershy stated in a reassuring tone. The yellow mare and her unicorn friend waited anxiously while the aqua pony thought about the issue further. Finally, she shrugged in defeat before nodding slowly. “Alright, I’ll go.” Cool Breeze said with a slight hint of nervousness still in her voice. “Great! I’m sure we’ll be safely waiting for the others to deal with this mess before we know it!” Fluttershy added eagerly. With their newfound friend in tow, the two mares walked back over to the lunch area and gathered by the door. After a quick check to see if any noises could be heard outside, the unicorn unlocked the door and slowly gripped the handle. “You guys ready?” Rarity asked in a more anxious tone. Now that they were actually about to go out into the dark hallways, the two mares’ confidence and bravery both plummeted at the same time. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze nodded slowly with nervous expressions. With their vote of empty confidence, the unicorn opened the door and poked her head outside to check the surrounding area. Satisfied with her search, Rarity walked out and silently motioned for her two friends to follow her. Once everyone was out of the room, she quietly closed the door and turned to the aqua pony. Rarity knew that she would probably not like the idea of being the group leader, but the white mare and her friend knew absolutely nothing about where to go next. “Which way is it?” Rarity whispered quietly while looking around at their choices of travel. There were the obvious choices of the two directions leading down the hallway, but there were also a few open areas and rooms they could cut through if needed. “Follow me… but please stay close.” Cool Breeze pleaded anxiously while stepping off to one side. She then slowly walked through one of the openings into another room. Fluttershy and Rarity stayed right beside her as she snaked through the room and came out into another hallway. The trio followed this hallway while diligently paying attention to their surroundings for odd noises or sights. After following the aqua pony through the station for a good while, the two mares were beginning to wonder if their leader had gotten them lost. The station was fairly large, but it shouldn’t have taken this long to get from one side to the other, even with deadly creatures around every corner. “Are we almost there?” Fluttershy asked while glancing around uneasily. She knew that it was only a matter of time before they ran into another creature of some sort. “Yeah… the equipment room should be at the end of this hall.” Cool Breeze replied. The news that they were close to safety made the two ponies smile cheerfully. Before they could celebrate their near victory, the ponies started to hear a noise up ahead. It sounded like a quiet scuttling noise coming from somewhere above the trio. The closer the noise got, the more concerned the ponies became. “W-what is that?” Cool Breeze asked while darting her eyes around nervously. There wasn’t any indication of movement around them, but that didn’t stop the ponies’ imaginations from taking over and picturing what was making the noise. “I don’t know… keep your eyes open.” Rarity replied. Considering their current situation, nothing good could be making that sound. The three turned around and backed up while looking behind them. It was hard to tell where the noise was coming from now, but they still couldn’t see anything around them. Suddenly, a blur of movement caught Rarity’s eye. As she slowly looked up, the unicorn was greeted with a sight that stunned her into silence. On the ceiling above them, there was a black shape wriggling around. It had a circular body, with four black tendrils coming off of it, anchoring it to the ceiling and giving it a somewhat symmetrical and spider-like appearance. There were small white dots scattered along its body, giving it a little bit of color to contrast against its otherwise black body. “Ack!” Rarity yelped in surprise and jumped back away from the strange creature. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze looked up to see what had startled the unicorn, only to widen their eyes in shock at what they found. “What is that?!” The aqua pony asked in a panic while backing up and staring at the creature hanging above her. Just watching it wriggling its tentacles around gave her a primal feeling of disgust and fear that anyone would associate with a spider or other insect. Suddenly two of the creature’s tentacles unhooked from the ceiling, causing its entire body to hang down and exposing its previously unseen underside. As opposed to its relatively featureless top half, the creature had a gaping hole in its center that most likely served as a mouth. Inside of the mouth was a circular row of sharp teeth that seemed to pulsate up and down excitedly. Outside of its mouth, there were four protruding appendages topped with a sharp end that resembled some horrific combination of a spider’s legs and fangs. The sight of the hideous creature, along with its sudden and erratic movement made the ponies freeze in terror. Every muscle in their bodies tensed up in fright and their pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks. The only thing keeping them from screaming out in terror was the initial shock of the creature hanging down. Just as suddenly as it hung down, the other two tendrils unhooked from the ceiling and the entire creature dropped down onto the floor with a plop. The ponies backed up in a desperate attempt at gaining distance from the terrifying monster. Before anyone could react further, the creature somehow jumped forward and latched one of its tentacles onto Cool Breeze’s front leg. “AHH!” The aqua mare screamed while pulling back as hard as she could. The only thing her pulling accomplished was bringing the rest of the creature closer to her. “Breeze!” Rarity and Fluttershy yelled frantically as they watched the aqua pony struggling to get her leg free of the beast’s tendrils. As she tried to push the monster off of her, it reared upwards and tried to pull the pony’s leg into its gaping mouth. The four appendages on its underside clawed at her leg, scratching her slightly with the sharp points on the ends. Fluttershy and Rarity immediately rushed to her side and grabbed her leg. There wasn’t very much they could do without grabbing the creature and pulling them apart, and there was no way either of them was touching that thing. Finally, Rarity wrapped her magic around the creature and picked it up. She pulled with all of her might in the other direction while Fluttershy pulled on Cool Breeze in an attempt at freeing her. After a lengthy struggle, the creature finally let go of the trapped pony. With the beast wriggling around in her magical aura, Rarity squealed in disgust and fright. Even holding onto it with her magic was making her skin crawl. Finally, the unicorn heaved loudly and tossed it as hard as she could down the hallway. The group heard a loud thud that signified the monster coming to a halt against solid ground. “Let’s get out of here!” Rarity exclaimed to her two companions. “Come on! We can go around through one of the rooms up here!” Cool Breeze stated while turning to run down the hallway to their left. Suddenly the aqua pony skidded to a halt and gasped in shock. Down the very hallway that held their escape, there were several red eyes staring back at them from the distant darkness. With a loud roar, a black shape lunged out into the light and went straight for the ponies. Judging from its furry appearance and large tooth filled mouth, the two ponies guessed the beast to be a darkling. Although it was nice to see a monster they recognized, it was still terrifying as it bolted straight for them with its mouth wide open. Suddenly, a bolt of energy flew at the shadow creature and sent it hurtling backwards. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze looked to Rarity as the source of the blast, but she herself was confused as to where the bolt came from. “This way!” The trio heard a voice come from behind them. They turned to see a unicorn clad in royal guard armor waving them in his direction. Thankful that they had been saved, the mares smiled and immediately ran to follow the guard pony down the hall where they came from. “Where are we going?” Cool Breeze asked while running alongside the brown unicorn. Before the guard could answer, an uproar of growls and roars broke out from the side and up ahead. The ponies looked to their side to see an army of black shapes running at them from every hallway they passed. “We have a safe area set up in the basement! We need to get down there before these things box us in!” The guard stated while keeping his attention forward. Cool Breeze knew that there was a stairway that led to the basement right down this hallway, but she passed it earlier due to her original plan. Suddenly, a loud and rumbling growl rang out from the side. The group turned to see the source of the noise, only to be greeted with one of the largest black shapes they had seen thus far. A hulking bipedal monster with long arms and a single red eye in the center of its torso was standing in the adjacent hall with something in its hand. Before the group could process what the monster was doing, it hurled its arm forward and released its held object. With a blur of movement, what appeared to be a chair flew at the group of fleeing ponies. The four quickly realized that the flying projectile was sailing straight towards them. “AH!” Rarity screamed and tried to move out of the way as she realized the chair was heading straight for her. Despite her efforts at evading the object, the chair flew into her and smacked into her head. The unicorn was knocked off of her feet and rolled until she hit the wall. The others stopped in their tracks and turned around to face their fallen comrade. The white mare seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the strike, as she wasn’t moving by the time everyone turned around. “Rarity!” Fluttershy yelled frantically while staring at her injured friend. She could see a horde of red eyes in the hallway behind her, rapidly approaching the unconscious pony on the floor. Without wasting any time, the unicorn guard lit up his horn and wrapped his magic around the white mare. He then quickly picked her up and placed her on his back. “Come on, let’s go!” He instructed to the two ponies while running forward. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze quickly followed the brown unicorn while he carried their friend on his back. The group ran down the hallway as fast as they could to reach the stairs that would lead them to safety.
Chapter 69: Safety in Numbers-A few minutes earlier- As the ponies watched their human friend leave the room, their minds were racing with questions and fears that they were unsure of how to deal with. What was going on? Why did the hooded ponies kill one of their agents? And the one that was directly at the front of the group’s cloudy minds, what was lurking inside of the station just outside their safe haven? “What do we do now?” Glitterball asked in an uncertain tone while glancing around at her teammates and the various guards scattered around the room. In response to her question, Fireside turned around to face the majority of the group. “You heard the man… let’s get this room secured.” Fireside stated confidently while looking around to tally how many guards he had to work with. His confidence all but disappeared once he realized just how many unicorns he had under his command. Counting the princess, Twilight, and Glitterball, there were only a handful of magic users in the entire room. “*Sigh*… Alright, listen up. We need to get those windows covered right away. I want at least one unicorn to get on those windows and put a magic barrier up. As for the rest of you, go and watch the doors.” Fireside instructed to his band of eagerly listening soldiers. All of the guards offered a quick nod and a salute before rushing off to accomplish their given task. The others watched as the guards scrambled around the room to find their posts. The brown unicorns all rushed up to a vacant window and lit up their horns to place a force field on them. All of the earth ponies rushed over to a door and stood in front of it to watch over it diligently. By the time all of the ponies had settled, there was one unicorn on every window, and two guards watching each of the three doors out of the room. Now that all of the entrances to the room were being protected, the ponies felt a little safer and more comfortable. Many of them relaxed their tense nerves and started walking around a bit more, although nobody went anywhere near the doors or windows still. “Ok, now that we have a temporary safe area we need to think about what we’re going to do.” Fireside stated while turning to face the rest of the group. “What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “I think he means that we need to find a way past the dark matter trapping us here.” Luna spoke up while taking a look out of one of the far off windows at the pitch blackness outside. “Yeah… that is a good question. What are we going to do? Tom barely managed to get us out of that cave, and the stuff that attacked us there was scared off by the sun.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone while glancing over to her two remaining friends. Although their situation was similar to what happened in the cave, the pegasus felt even more concerned now that more people were involved. “I’m sure we can find a spell to fend it off ourselves… but if we can’t do anything from in here, there is still no need to worry.” Luna said confidently. Everyone looked at her with mild confusion as they wondered how she could have such an unwavering spirit in a situation like this. “And why is that? I don’t want to be the negative one in the group, but we’re being held against our will in a building by some ponies with the full intention of killing us. That is a pretty good reason to worry in my books.” Glitterball spoke up to voice the group’s concerns. “My sister said that she was going out to gather supplies. She will be back for us later, and when she sees what is happening, she will get us out of here. And that will only be necessary if we can’t escape by ourselves.” Luna explained with an optimistic smile, hearing that the white alicorn would be returning filled the group with confidence and put their minds at ease. “That’s great! We might get out of here in time for lunch!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly. As the pink mare reveled at the thought of freedom, everyone else in the room smiled at the thought themselves, everyone except for one person that is. While everyone else was chatting with each other happily, Twilight was sitting off to the side with a downcast look on her face. She was still coping with what had happened just a few minutes ago in the interrogation room. Despite her best efforts at wiping it off, she still had numerous droplets of Cotton Quill’s blood splattered across her fur coat and hair. Although the blood had cooled by now, the unicorn could still feel the warm sensation of it splashing onto her as it gushed out of the dying pony’s neck. She had been covered in blood before on numerous occasions, but that blood had been her own up until now. Now she had someone else’s blood covering her, which was an entirely different and more horrific experience, especially considering that she had witnessed the white stallion’s death. It wasn’t just the blood on her that was bothering the purple mare, it was the mere fact that everything happened so quickly. It was almost a cursory thought for the hooded ponies to murder one of their own, like he didn’t even matter to them as a living creature. Twilight had gotten to know Cotton Quill in their brief conversation far more than his colleagues had gotten to know him in his entire involvement with them. After all that had happened, the thing that was bothering her the most was the fact that Cotton had opened up to her. He trusted her, not only to be able to keep him safe but to be able to receive his secrets and to be able to listen to him when he felt that no one else could. There was a reason that the unicorn had divulged his knowledge to the purple mare instead of everyone else. He felt like she had connected with him, and that she truly believed that he was good natured at heart, a connection that he had never felt before, and one that should have been a stepping stone towards a better life rather than the end of his life altogether. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked over to the gloomy unicorn off to the side and immediately shifted their happy smiles into concerned expressions. They had all but forgotten what she had just been through. They were trying to forget the entire experience themselves, but it never occurred to them that their purple friend was too heavily scarred by the experience to forget about it. “Are you ok Twilight?” Pinkie asked in a soft tone while sitting down in front of the unicorn to get at eye level. The purple mare looked up at the concerned ponies around her before shifting her eyes away uncomfortably. “Yeah…” Twilight replied in a dull, almost emotionless tone. It was obvious that she didn’t put any sort of actual meaning into her response. “Are you sure?” Pinkie asked again with a suspicious inflection in her voice. Twilight looked up again to see her friends with understanding expressions of sympathy on their faces. It was killing her to have to come up with a valid response, but she didn’t want to leave her friends in the dark. They were only doing for her what she would do for them if their roles were flipped after all. “*Sigh*… No… I guess not.” Twilight muttered in a gloomy tone. The pink mare placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder while offering a sympathetic expression. “It’s ok to feel the way you do considering what just happened… We’re here for you if you need us.” Pinkie stated in a reassuring manner. Twilight looked up again and glanced between the two mares. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement with the pink pony’s statement while smiling warmly. Seeing her two friends offering so much compassion to her forced the unicorn to smile briefly before shifting back to a more neutral expression. “Thanks, guys… it means a lot to know that you’ve got my back… but I think I just need some time to process my emotions right now.” Twilight said with a genuine smile on her face. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash nodded understandingly before letting the unicorn return to her thoughts. They went back to chatting amongst themselves while keeping an eye on their friend whenever they could. Before the ponies could settle down in their relative safety, they suddenly heard a commotion coming from outside the door off to the side of the room. The two guards backed up and listened closely for any signs of what was coming their way. Just as everyone was getting tensed up, they started to hear the sounds of ponies running and yelling fearfully. “Let us in!” A muffled voice followed by a swift series of knocks all but eliminated the group’s doubts about what was outside. Without further delay, the two guards opened the doors and a small crowd of frantic civilians rushed into the room. A few more ponies rushed in along with them, with a couple of individuals lagging behind and desperately trying to catch up. As one last guard pony walked in while breathing heavily, he paused and turned to the two ponies watching the door. “I’m the last one…*Pant* close it.” He instructed while slowly walking inside. The two guards looked back out into the dark hallway to confirm his statement before closing the door again. Now that everyone was inside, Twilight and the others looked around to see how many ponies had joined their group. The majority of them were civilians, with only a couple of guards sprinkled in with them. All of them looked pale and terrified as if they had just run away from hell itself. “Lieutenant, what’s going on out there?” Fireside asked while walking up to the higher ranked guard that came in last. The stallion took a moment to catch his breath before looking up to the curious group looking at him for answers. “Sir… the entire station has been overrun. We barely got away before they started flooding in.” The guard explained in a frantic tone while still trying to calm himself down. “Overrun…? By what?” Fireside asked with a confused expression. Before the lieutenant could answer, another noise coming from the door at the far side of the room caught everyone’s attention. A loud banging rang out as something started pounding on the door that led to the station’s entrance. It sounded far more violent than anything a pony would be capable of. Following the thundering blows to the door, a number of disturbing growls and animalistic bleats made themselves known from the other side. “What in the name of…?” Fireside stated in shock while still processing what was going on. It didn’t take long to figure out that whatever had overrun the station was trying to break in. “Block that door!” The stallion instructed to the two guards standing by the door. They nodded quickly before turning to put their weight against the door. With a deafening crash, the door flew open and flung the two full grown stallions backwards with ease. All at once, the feral noises grew louder as everyone got a good and terrifying look at what had just barged its way inside. A veritable army of black shapes and red blurs was standing at the door and slowly walking inside. As the ponies glanced around at the horrific creatures, they started to identify several different types of red-eyed monsters as they tried to get in. The two guard ponies scrambled to get up and flee, but just before one of them could, a black shape leapt out from the crowd of monsters and landed on top of his body. The terrified stallion looked up to see a medium sized creature on top of him that resembled a monkey. It had a chimp shaped body, but the similarities to an actual chimp abruptly ended there. The creature had a mouth full of sharpened teeth complete with two longer fangs on the top and bottom rows. It had patches of thick blackened fur across its body, with shifting shadowy skin underneath. Its hands didn’t seem to serve any other function than to cut things, consisting of only a small sickle-shaped edge that was dangerously sharp. And to top off its horrific appearance, it also had the same glowing red eye slits that all of the other monsters had, but in greater number. The glowing lights were scattered all over its body at odd intervals and angles. “AHH!” The pinned guard screamed in terror as the creature on top of him prepared to strike him with its blade like extremities. The beast let out a screech that drowned out the stallion’s outcry as it raised its arm above its head. While everyone else recoiled in shock and terror, Brimstoke and his teammates leapt into action and reached for their weapons. Glitterball and Sunspot readied their strobes first and stepped forward while firing at the creatures trying to get in. As the bolts of light slammed into the monster on top of the guard, it screeched again and flew backwards with black smoke pouring off of its body. Spotting a chance to escape, the stallion quickly got up and rushed to the side to get away from the beasts. Meanwhile, the members of Spirit were charging forward in a desperate counter attack to push back the horde of shadow creatures. Brimstoke and the others frantically blasted at each of the advancing monsters until they fell back in line with the receding crowd. Soon enough, the horde was backing up so far that they went straight out of the room. “Glitter, seal the door!” Brimstoke instructed while rushing up to the door to better fend off the approaching creatures. “On it!” Glitterball replied while ducking to the side and reaching into her vest to prepare a physical barrier. While the remaining four ponies kept firing out of the door, the unicorn frantically scribbled on a slip of paper and placed it on the outside of the door. After a few more tense moments of preparing the second piece of paper, the charm was finally complete. “I got it, get back!” Glitterball stated while slapping the last piece of paper on the inside of the door. Brimstoke and the others backed up and continued firing while Glitterball closed the door. After it was closed, a wave of energy pulsed around the door and the writing on the piece of paper glowed red. A solid thump rang out as the creatures on the other side tried ramming into the door. Despite the jarring sound of their constant assault, the door remained steadfast as the charm protected it against the monsters banging into it. The group of ponies breathed a collective sigh of relief as they stepped away from the door and walked back over to the other side of the room. “Good work everyone.” Luna said while offering a relieved expression to the team of ponies. She was glad that nobody got hurt during the brief break in. The alicorn was just about to rush forward to assist in the counter attack herself before Brimstoke and his team leapt into the fray. “Good enough I suppose… We just put a Band-Aid on a more serious problem. That barrier isn’t going to last forever, and we can’t strengthen it without putting charms on the rest of the doors. We need to find a way out of here before any more of those things try breaking in.” Brimstoke explained uneasily while glancing behind him at the still rattling door. “No need to worry about that. My sister will be here soon enough. And if she can’t do anything, I have a solution in mind as well.” Luna said in a reassuring tone while looking around at some of the more nervous ponies in the room. “What is your idea… out of curiosity?” Twilight spoke up from beside the group. Everyone turned to look at the purple mare as she stood up and walked over to them. She might have still been emotionally affected by her traumatic experience, but she seemed well adjusted enough to function. “After what happened in the cave with all of you, I tried coming up with a few spells to better prepare us for anything the hooded ponies might throw at us. I didn’t have anything else to work off of back then, so I started with thinking of a dark matter repellent.” Luna explained with a confident smile. Hearing that the alicorn had a possible way to save them made everyone in the room brighten up a little bit. “You found a spell that will work on dark matter?” Glitterball chimed in curiously at the prospect of such a spell existing. “Well, not exactly... I had to get a bit creative.” Luna said while trying to think of a way to explain her idea in further detail. “I took an existing spell that can be used to combat negative energies and I amplified its power tenfold. It should work, but… it has a few drawbacks.” She trailed her eyes off apprehensively. The manner in which the alicorn said that made everyone uneasy again. “Drawbacks…? Like what?” Twilight asked nervously. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what kinks her only escape plan had. “It takes a long time to amplify the spell’s existing power… so it will need a lot of charging. And it needs to be cast from out in the open… where the dark matter is.” Luna explained in a disheartened manner. The more she thought about it, the more she doubted her plan and her ability to lead her companions to safety. “Well, it’s better than what we have at the moment… which is nothing.” Fireside spoke up in a reassuring tone. The amount of confidence in his voice and expression told that he absolutely believed in the princess. The blue alicorn was surprised to see someone still had confidence in her. “Alright… if we’re going to do this, there are some things we need to take into consideration.” Luna said in a more serious manner while looking around at the ponies in the room. “We’re going to need a safe place to put everyone who will not be involved in our little escape attempt… It will be dangerous anyway, and on the off chance we fail I don’t want all of us to go down with the ship so to speak.” She explained uneasily. The mere thought of them failing and the grim consequences implied therein gave the princess a knot in her stomach. “We might want to better prepare ourselves as well. If the dark matter here is at all similar to the stuff we found in the cave, it will be spawning more of those shadow creatures.” Twilight interjected her thoughts on the matter. She was terrified when a few darklings came for her in the caves, so she couldn’t imagine what having the creatures she just saw moments ago coming after her would be like. “Aha!” Fireside exclaimed in sudden revelation. “We can go to the equipment room! It has weapons we can use, and it’s easily securable.” He stated eagerly. “Well, that’s one thing out of the way… now we just need to find a way to hold off the dark matter while we prepare the spell.” Luna shrugged uneasily as she thought about the monumental obstacle that the dark matter posed in and of itself. “We could have Tom hold it off like he did in the cave…” Rainbow Dash suggested while thinking back to her experience in the cave. “I’m not sure if that would be a good idea… I don’t want him to put too much strain on himself. He was exhausted after fighting the dark matter in the cave, and this stuff is even stronger.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. She knew that the human would doubtlessly volunteer for the task. She wasn’t sure if humans were usually so reckless, or if it was due to him being a slayer, but the boy was terribly inconsiderate of his own wellbeing. “I’m afraid that we might not have a choice in the matter… but I will try to think of another solution.” Luna said in a reassuring tone while offering a supportive hoof on the shoulder to the concerned unicorn. She didn’t like putting her friends into such harmful positions either, but desperate times did call for desperate measures after all. “In the meantime, we need to head down to this equipment room to prepare ourselves. I suggest that we take a group down there beforehand so that we know it is safe, and then we can come back for the others.” The princess stated while looking around at the various ponies in the room with her. “Well if that’s the plan, then we need to keep some of us here to protect the room while the others are gone.” Brimstoke suggested while glancing to the civilians in the room. They would doubtlessly panic if the situation went bad, so they would have to be watched over by someone capable. “Sargent…” Luna spoke up in a serious tone. Fireside looked over to the princess and waited for her to address him again. “I need you to send one of your men with us while we make our way to the equipment room. We will leave two of Brimstoke’s team members here with you to help you defend the area.” Luna instructed. Fireside looked around to see which one of his men would be qualified to lead the princess and the others around the station. “Lieutenant, I need you to lead the princess down to the equipment room. Can you do that?” Fireside asked the high ranked guard that had entered the room with the civilian ponies before the creatures attacked. “Umm… y-yes sir!” The lieutenant hesitated for a moment before offering a salute and as confident of an answer as he could give. “Ok good…” Luna said in a pleased tone before turning her attention to Brimstoke and his team. “Brimstoke… I need you and Sunspot to stay here with Sargent Fireside to keep things safe.” She instructed while glancing over to the orange pegasus. “Aww… but why me?” Sunspot whined in annoyance. She then remembered who she was talking to and stiffened up. “Sorry… I mean, shouldn’t I be with you guys? You need all of the help you can get.” She suggested with a pleading expression. The princess smirked at the anxious pegasus. She could tell that she wanted to make sure that her friends were safe and to make sure that everyone made it out of this situation alive. “I know… but I also want one of our best people staying behind and watching the others.” Luna said in a complimentary manner. The pegasus couldn’t help but smile at the alicorn’s statement. “Really…? Umm… thanks.” Sunspot said with a bashful chuckle. She then shrugged as she realized that she would still have to stay behind and watch a room while her friends went out into the fray. “The rest of you should get ready to come with us. We will be heading out soon.” Luna said while glancing between the three ponies that would be coming with her. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, and Peppermint all prepared themselves physically and mentally for what they would be facing. “Umm… Princess?” Twilight spoke up hesitantly while walking up to the alicorn. “What is it Twilight?” Luna asked in a friendly manner while looking down at the timid unicorn. “Do you think that I could come with you…? You could use another unicorn with you… and I think it would be better if there were more of us.” Twilight asked coyly. She seemed to be hiding another motive for wanting to go on the dangerous trip. “We can manage with what we have Twilight… why would you want to endanger yourself like that?” Luna asked in a concerned tone. The unicorn shrugged as she was forced to come up with another reason to join the alicorn’s band of troops. “*Sigh*… I’m just worried about Rarity and Fluttershy. I was thinking that maybe we could find them on our way to the equipment room, so I wanted to help search.” Twilight explained with worry evident on her face. “Hmm… they have been missing for quite a while I suppose. I’m sure that Tom has already found them, but I will let you come along if you want.” Luna said with a small smirk. The purple mare smiled upon hearing that she could help in the search for her two friends. “Thank you, Princess.” Twilight said cheerfully. “Hey… you can’t just leave us here can you?” Rainbow Dash chimed in from the side. The two looked over to see the cyan pegasus standing next to Pinkie Pie and offering an eager expression. “If you’re going to look for Rarity and Fluttershy, we want to help.” Rainbow Dash stated while looking to her pink companion for confirmation. Pinkie grinned widely and offered an enthusiastic nod at the proposal. “Yeah, we need to help. I’m not about to leave my friends to wander around a monster-infested building. They must be scared silly… they need someone to cheer them up when we find them.” Pinkie suggested happily. Luna couldn’t help but admire the strength of the bond that Twilight and her friends shared. “Alright… but you have to promise me that you’ll be careful and stay close to us.” Luna said in a serious tone while offering a smirk. “Right.” Rainbow Dash replied with a nod. “Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie added while offering a playful salute. Somehow, the pink mare’s goofy expression removed all seriousness from the gesture. “Alright… head over to Glitterball and the others and grab some strobes. You will need them to protect yourselves.” Luna explained while pointing over to the vested ponies. With a collective nod, Twilight and her two friends walked over to the rainbow-haired unicorn and her two partners. They were still getting ready themselves, with each pony going over their own equipment over and over with somewhat varying degrees of nervousness plastered on each of their faces. The three ponies seemed to be too busy to notice the three eager mares standing in front of them patiently, or perhaps they were too preoccupied with their thoughts. Either way, they didn’t look like they were going to snap out of their daze anytime soon. “Ahem…” Twilight spoke up to get the attention of the three ponies. Glitterball and the others finally looked up and noticed the purple mare and her two friends. “Oh! Sorry… I guess we were a little spaced out there. What are you guys doing here?” Glitterball asked curiously. “The princess said that we can go along with you to the equipment room.” Twilight explained while glancing back at her two eager companions. The three vested ponies seemed surprised by her statement. “Uh… don’t you think that that would be too dangerous?” Glitterball asked while nudging Glimmer Shine for support. She wanted to do anything she could to make the three mares change their mind, even if it meant influencing her partners to back her up. “Yeah… I mean, you saw those things, didn’t you? There are probably a lot more out there.” Glimmer Shine stated in a semi-confident tone. It wasn’t hard to tell what the two ponies were trying to do. “I appreciate that you care for us enough to try and talk us out of this, but we’re going. The princess said that you should give us some of your spare strobes… just in case.” Twilight said while glancing between the three vested ponies. “Uh, let’s see here…” Glitterball muttered while rummaging around through one of her pockets. After coming up empty hooved, the unicorn turned around and forcibly started rifling through one of Glimmer Shine’s pockets. “Hey, what gives?!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in surprise. Glitterball finally grabbed the only strobe that the stallion had and pulled it out. She then turned to face Peppermint. “Here…” Peppermint stated with his spare strobe at the ready. Apparently, he was smart enough to grab it and pull it out before the unicorn invaded his personal bubble. “Aww… shoot. Looks like we only have two spares to go around.” Glitterball shrugged while glancing over to the other members of her team. They only had their main strobes on hand, and they needed them for themselves. “I guess we will have to make do with these.” Twilight stated while taking the two vials from the vested unicorn. “Here guys… I think you should take them.” She said while offering the strobes to her two friends. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were hesitant about accepting the weapons from the purple mare. “I don’t know Twilight… maybe you and Pinkie should take them? I’m sure that I’ll be fine.” Rainbow Dash suggested while holding out her arm for Twilight to take the strobe back. “Don’t worry guys. I have a way that all of you can protect yourselves effectively.” Glitterball explained with a cheerful smile. The others were confused by the unicorn’s statement. They had no idea what she could have thought of. “What did you have in mind?” Twilight asked curiously. In response, Glitterball reached into a pocket on her vest and brought out a slip of paper, and a feather quill and ink. Glitterball scribbled on the piece of paper for a moment before handing it to Twilight. After reading over the symbols on the paper a few times, the purple mare was surprised to see that she could recognize them. “These are…” Twilight muttered in thought while still trying to decipher the symbols in her head. “The instructive symbols for a spell.” Glitterball spoke up to complete the unicorn’s sentence. “I have been trying to find a way to use magic more proactively to fight, and I ran across something recently. I found a spell that projects positive energy into a ball and fires it at high speeds. It should work similarly to a strobe, but you can use it anytime.” She explained while pointing at the paper. Twilight lit up her horn and started reading over the spell to familiarize herself with it. “So… I can use this-” Twilight stated as she caught on to what the white mare’s plan was. “While Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie can use the strobes. That way everybody gets a weapon to use.” Glitterball explained with a smirk. “Alright, that sounds like a plan to me.” Twilight said while smiling widely as she finished reading over the spell and going over how to cast it in her head. With all of their equipment ready, the group had nothing more to do than to gather by the door and prepare themselves mentally for what they were about to face. “Is everyone ready?” The lieutenant asked with mild apprehension as he put a hoof on the door handle and looked back at the group behind him. Glitterball and her two teammates were mostly confident, although it was easy to see that they were slightly nervous, especially Peppermint. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie were all ready to go with their respective weapons at the ready. At the front of the group, Luna stood with a confident expression. “We’re as ready as we will ever be.” Luna stated while glancing back at the others behind her. Everyone gave a solemn nod as they readied themselves to exit the safety of the room. “Ok… everyone stay close and keep your eyes open. The equipment room isn’t that far, but who knows what we might run into out there.” The guard pony said nervously while turning his attention back to the door. With one swift pull, the door swung open, revealing the pitch blackness outside. Twilight, Glitterball, and Luna lit up their horns while Glimmer Shine and Peppermint turned on their flashlights in preparation. The ponies turned and gave a quick wave to their friends that would be staying behind. They then walked forward into the darkened hallways of the station. Although they couldn’t see any sign of the vicious beasts, they knew that they wouldn’t be alone for very long.
Chapter 70: Risky Maneuvers“Ughh…” Rarity groaned softly as she drifted awake once again. Her eyelids felt heavy as if she had stayed up for a whole week. Due to her strong feeling of drowsiness, she could barely open her eyes more than a sliver. Her vision when she did manage to open her eyes was dim and unfocused. Her entire mind was a foggy haze, to the point where she couldn’t even remember where she was or what had happened. “Down here!” A voice rang out from nearby. Rarity could scarcely make out how far away it actually was, let alone what was said or by whom. Every noise around her was just as blurry as the sights she was taking in. She could faintly make out the steady clatter of numerous hooves falling against the floor rapidly. This, combined with the soft feeling of motion coming through her dulled nerves gave the unicorn the sense that she was moving somewhere, despite her inability to walk or even move of her own volition. She tried to lift her head and move her limbs, but she could hardly even elicit a twitch from them. Her entire body felt numb and uncomfortable. And although she was slowly coming to her senses, she could tell that she wouldn’t be getting up for a while. A loud clang rang out behind her, or at least she thought so. It was hard to tell what noises came from where, but Rarity gathered that a door had closed somewhere behind her. She felt the faint sense of movement stop suddenly. She then felt pressure on her back in two places as she was lowered onto what she presumed to be the floor. “Is she ok?!” Another blurry voice rang out from beside her, though this one sounded softer and slightly familiar. Thinking back to where she was beforehand brought only a hazy mess of memories to the unicorn. Rarity remembered running down a hallway with her friends when she was suddenly struck by something. Anything after the impact to her head was a blank. “Ughh…” Rarity groaned again. She was tired of being stuck in a drowsy haze like this. With every ounce of strength left in her, she focused on opening her eyes completely. After fighting the urge to close her eyes and pass out again, Rarity finally managed to make some progress. She still couldn’t fully open her eyes, but the image in front of her was focusing. All of the blurred lines from before were forming an understandable image, and that was enough for the unicorn. She could see four yellow legs in front of her, and two more brown ones off to the side. She figured that the yellow legs belonged to her friend Fluttershy, and the brown ones must have been the guard they were with. “I can’t say for certain right now. Just keep an eye on her for the moment… Hey, keep that door closed!” The male voice from before spoke again in a louder tone as if speaking across the room. The pair of brown legs walked out of view, leaving only Fluttershy in her field of vision. Suddenly, Rarity felt an overwhelming sense of tiredness come over her. She fought just to keep her eyes from closing any further. All of the progress she had made was fading away as her vision faded back into a blurred mess. Before all of the colors and lights melded together, Rarity could make out Fluttershy stepping closer to her. “Rarity…? Can you hear me? Everything’s going to be ok… please be ok.” Fluttershy presumably said in what seemed to be a concerned tone. It was hard to make out what the pegasus was saying as everything faded away. Rarity could practically hear the sound of her friend’s voice getting farther and farther away as her vision faded to black. Rarity became aware of her surroundings once more as she opened her eyes slowly. Her body was still numb, and noticeably colder than before, but she felt less tired than the last time she woke up. Taking a moment to focus her vision, she was greeted with nothing more than a gray cement floor. Feeling the rest of her body waking up along with her, the unicorn tried lifting her head again. This time she was able to get her muscles to contract, although she could still barely move. With some effort however, Rarity slowly moved her front legs beside her head and pushed with all of her might. As she gradually lifted her head up and opened her eyes further, she noticed the sight of her friend Fluttershy sitting in front of her while looking off to the side. She appeared to have a worried expression on her face. Although she was looking away, she was facing towards the unicorn, having apparently decided to watch over her while she was unconscious. “Hrrrk…” Rarity grunted softly as she felt herself over exerting her already numb muscles. Hearing the sound of her friend stirring, the pegasus looked back over and gasped in surprise. “Rarity!” Fluttershy cried out in cheerful excitement. She rushed forward and waited patiently while the unicorn rolled onto her side and sat up slowly. Once her spine could support her, Rarity fell forward into a hunched position and rested her head in her hooves. “Ughh… wh…what happened?” Rarity muttered in a tired stupor. She could barely create an understandable sentence, but she was too exhausted to care. “You got knocked out while we were running. We had to carry you with us.” Fluttershy explained with a worried tone while putting a gentle hoof on her friend’s back and staring at her with a concerned expression. “Where are we…? What about those creatures?” Rarity asked as she remembered what had happened before she was knocked unconscious. As she looked around, she noticed that she was in a fairly large room that appeared to be in the basement. The floor was cold and gray, the walls were cold and brown, and the entire area was generally cold and eerie as any basement usually was. The only lights in the room were a few candles placed around to light up the darkness. There were several dark areas and corners of the room that would doubtlessly offer a safe haven for any shadow creature. Rarity grew nervous as she looked at the darkness around her, but she trusted that her friends had found a safe place to rest in. Cool Breeze stood a ways away along with two other earth ponies, one being a pink mare with white hair, and the other being a tan stallion with brown hair. Both ponies were shivering in fear with a terrified expression on their faces. Cool Breeze herself seemed to be nervous as well, though she wasn’t shivering. Rarity wasn’t sure if the blue mare was braver than she thought, or the other two ponies were just more easily frightened by comparison. “We’re down in the basement. Apparently, that guard that saved us is part of a small group of survivors… they have a safe room set up here.” Fluttershy explained while taking another look at her surroundings. “Relatively safe…” A unicorn guard chimed in while walking over to the two. He walked up to Rarity and started examining her head for injuries. “How safe are we actually?” Rarity asked curiously. Even in her dazed state, she wanted to be as aware of her situation as possible. “We’ve barricaded the doors as best we could, but we can’t stay here forever. Let’s just worry about one thing at a time right now… like your health. How do you feel?” The guard asked while gently brushing back the unicorn’s hair to look for bruises or cuts. “Umm… I feel a little bit drowsy, and I’m pretty sure my head hurts.” Rarity replied while taking note of the slight throbbing feeling she had on one side of her head. “That’s normal… you did get hit pretty hard after all.” The guard explained in a reassuring tone while reaching for a small flashlight. He turned the light on and shined it in the white mare’s eyes one by one. Rarity did her best to keep her eyes open while her pupils shrank from exposure to the brightness. “Is she alright?” Fluttershy asked in a worried tone while watching the guard examining her friend anxiously. “I’m not going to lie… I think you have a concussion. You should try your best to keep still and rest.” The stallion stated in an uneasy tone. He then turned to Fluttershy with a more serious expression. “Keep an eye on her and make sure that she doesn’t fall asleep again.” The guard instructed in a clear yet calm manner. The yellow mare was shocked to hear that her friend was in such poor shape that she had to be monitored, but she was ready to help her in any way possible. “Ok.” Fluttershy said with a firm nod. The white mare couldn’t help but smile as the pegasus turned to her with a loving expression and scooted closer. “Thank you, Fluttershy.” Rarity said in a grateful tone. “Don’t worry about it. You just focus on resting up ok?” Fluttershy replied with a friendly smile. Rarity nodded in return while being careful to go slowly so she didn’t jostle her head too much. Before the guard could walk away, another stallion walked up to the group with a nervous expression. The pony was an earth pony guard in full gear, but he appeared to be much more anxious and uneasy than any guard the two mares had seen before. “Umm, s-sir… I uh… permission to speak sir?” He stammered nervously while trying his best to appear professional in front of the unicorn. “Go ahead.” The brown stallion replied with an understanding smile. “Well… umm, we can’t hear anything out there anymore sir. We think the creatures are gone.” The earth pony explained while glancing back to the door, over by the barricade stood another earth pony guard that was watching the others curiously. “They will be back eventually. We need to pack up and leave as soon as we can. The only place that can be reliably secured is the equipment room, so everyone else will probably be heading there.” The unicorn guard stated while deep in thought. He then looked up to face the other guard once again. “Get back to the door and keep watch. I’ll go make sure everyone is ready to move.” The unicorn instructed while glancing over to the door. The white stallion nodded before giving an eager, if slightly awkward, salute. “Yes, sir!” He said in an enthusiastic tone. He then trotted off to get back to his spot alongside the other guard by the door. The brown unicorn shrugged and shook his head slowly at the thought of leaving the safety of his current location. He then glanced over to Fluttershy and Rarity with a slight expression of concern. “I know it’s a little soon… but do you two think you’re up for moving on?” He asked while keeping a close eye on the white mare and observing her for any signs of her concussion kicking in. “Where are we going? The equipment room is upstairs, and there is probably an army of those things out there.” Rarity stated uneasily while glancing over to the door. She wasn’t conscious when she was brought to the room, but she figured that it wasn’t a good idea to be going back where they came from. “There is another staircase leading up that’s a lot closer to the equipment room. All we need to do is loop around the basement and make our way over to those stairs.” The brown unicorn explained in a reassuring manner. The two mares could tell that he was trying to make his plan sound more fool proof than it actually was. “But… what if we run into more of those monsters on that staircase?” Fluttershy asked nervously. Thoughts of the small group getting boxed in from both sides by hordes of vicious creatures flooded her mind and made her whine in fright. “Glad to hear that you’re thinking about the worst possible scenario. It’s a good thing to take into consideration when making a daring plan.” The guard praised with a lighthearted smirk before returning to a more serious expression. “As far as running into more of those things… sorry to say this, but I’m not a miracle worker. I’m only taking what I think is the best possible chance for our survival, but there are always risks in situations like these. All I can honestly say to you is that I will try my best to keep you safe.” He added in a sincere tone. “I appreciate your bravery, but I just want to make it clear that I don’t want to unnecessarily endanger myself or my friends Lieutenant.” Rarity said with a concerned expression. “Understood.” The stallion replied with a nod. He then turned around and walked off towards the other ponies gathered in the room. Now that the two mares were alone, they took a moment to rest. This was the first time in a while that they had been in a position to relax, even if it was only slightly. Fluttershy had been worrying about Rarity ever since they arrived in the basement, and before that, the two were concerned with running away from monsters. “*Sigh*” Rarity rubbed her temples while trying to shrug off the drowsy feeling she had. She felt like lying down and passing out, but she had to remain awake for fear of her well-being. “How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked while observing the tired unicorn. She could tell that she was having a hard time coping with her tense nerves and exhausted body, not to mention her possible concussion. “I’ve had better days.” Rarity replied with a brief smile. “I’m sure you’ve had worse too.” Fluttershy replied in a lighthearted tone. She wanted so badly to cheer up their situation, not only for her friend but for herself as well. Rarity laughed briefly before trailing off with a disheartened shrug. For a brief moment however, she had a genuine smile on her face. “I’m stuck in a basement surrounded on all sides by monsters, and I might have a concussion. Not to be the glass half empty type, but I can’t think of many experiences worse than this one.” Rarity stated with a sad expression. Probably the only thing keeping her from breaking down and crying is the thought of what effect it might have on her concussion. “Well… I… *Sigh*” Fluttershy muttered while trying to find a silver lining to their situation. “I suppose you’re right… but it could be worse.” She said while forcing a cheerful tone. Rarity looked up curiously at the yellow mare’s statement. “How so?” Rarity asked in a sincere manner. She didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings, but she honestly didn’t expect a good answer. “We still have each other. Imagine what would have happened if only one of us got sick and went to the bathroom. I would probably still be in there shivering in the corner if it was me.” Fluttershy stated lightheartedly. “Hmm… I never thought of it that way. I guess you’re right… I am glad that we’re together.” Rarity said with a warm smile gradually falling across her face. She leaned over and rested her head against the yellow mare’s shoulder, to which Fluttershy responded by placing her foreleg around the unicorn for a partial hug. The two ponies sat still for a moment while enjoying each other’s company. They might have been stranded in a monster-infested basement, but they were okay. Somehow, they knew that they would be alright if they stayed together. Overhearing some of the others talking, Fluttershy looked up. She noticed that the two earth ponies were talking amongst themselves off in the corner with the guards, while Cool Breeze was walking over to her and her friend. “Hey… how are you two doing?” Cool Breeze asked curiously while focusing on Rarity. She hadn’t checked up on the unicorn since she had woken up, but she was still concerned for her. “We’re doing alright. What’s going on over there?” Fluttershy said while looking over at the small crowd of ponies talking in the corner. “They are talking about moving out of this room and heading through the basement to get to the equipment room.” Cool Breeze replied with a hint of apprehension in her voice. It wasn’t hard to tell that she wasn’t a big fan of the idea of moving from the safe room. “How far away is the staircase that guard was talking about? Is it really that close to the equipment room?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “Yeah… it’s like right next to it. It is a fair distance away from where we are, though.” Cool Breeze explained while looking down nervously. She hated the thought of traveling through the basement. “I’m sure we’ll be fine…” Rarity said with a reassuring smile. “I hope…” She then turned away and muttered nervously to herself. She knew where the blue mare was coming from. She didn’t like the thought of moving either, but she had no other options. Cool Breeze frowned slightly at the unicorn’s confidence. She didn’t want to say it out loud for fear of jinxing herself, but she felt like something bad was going to happen if they stepped hoof out of the safety of their current location. Before the three mares could ponder about their situation any further, they noticed the brown unicorn and the other two guards walking over to them along with the other ponies in the room. “Are all of you ready?” The brown stallion asked while glancing between the three. After taking a brief look at each other to confirm their thoughts, the mares nodded hesitantly. “Good, let’s get moving then.” The guard stated confidently before walking over to the other door with his group. He seemed a lot more ready for the hardships ahead than what should have been possible. Rarity groaned as she got up slowly. Fluttershy waited nearby to offer her help, but the unicorn managed to get to her feet without any assistance. The three casually made their way over to the back door of the room and joined the others. “Ok everyone, listen up. We’re going to stay quiet once we get out there, and no matter what happens we stick together.” The lieutenant announced to the whole of the group. He then turned to the two earth pony guards with a serious expression. “I need you two to hang back and keep an eye on our rear and sides. Make sure everyone stays together and that nobody gets separated.” The unicorn instructed. The two stallions nodded anxiously at their given roles. “Y-yes sir!” The more timid guard replied with a quick salute. “At ease soldier… you don’t need to call me sir right now. Those things out there don’t care about what rank we are. We’re just ponies right now, and we will act as equals until we get out of here.” The brown pony said in an inspiring tone. The white stallion nodded once again in response. “Yes, sir… I mean, uh… yes.” He stated with a friendly smile. Now that their plan was in place, the ponies quickly got into formation for their journey. One of the two guards walked to the back of the group, while the other remained in the middle. Rarity and Fluttershy stood between the other three civilian ponies and waited for their leader to open the door. The brown unicorn grabbed the handle and turned to the group before slowly nodding and turning it. The hallway outside was as dark and foreboding as the ponies expected. Although nothing could be heard, that didn’t comfort them in the slightest. After taking a brief look down both sides of the corridor, the brown unicorn lit up his horn and cast his light out as far as it would go. “Everyone stay close.” He whispered while taking one last look at the group for confirmation. Everyone swallowed their fear before nodding slowly and following the guard out of their former safe haven. Everyone darted their eyes around anxiously while they walked out into the hallway. Every open doorway they passed was a possible threat, so everyone was on edge as they checked their surroundings. Once their rear was relatively secured, the ponies turned their attention forward while letting the guard at the back deal with the area behind them. Every time they came across an intersection or an open door, some of the people at the front would check the area, while everyone else kept a nervous eye on it as they passed. Fluttershy made sure to keep a close eye on Rarity as she walked beside her. Although the unicorn seemed to be doing well, she was still concerned for her. She had a certain dazed appearance to her that made the pegasus worry that much more. “Are you ok, Rarity?” Fluttershy whispered in a concerned tone while observing the white mare. She was practically zoning out and nearly falling asleep while walking. Upon hearing her friend speaking up, the unicorn jerked her head up slightly in an attempt at waking herself up. “Wha…? Oh, umm… yeah. I think so.” Rarity stated with a reassuring smile. The yellow mare wasn’t exactly comforted by her answer. “Just stay awake for me ok?” Fluttershy said as a reminder to the unicorn to remain alert. “Ok…” Rarity replied with a brief nod. Although she didn’t want to admit it out loud, she did feel extremely drowsy at times. Despite this, she was making great efforts to remain awake for her own sake. The group paused as the brown stallion stopped at a corner and peeked around. After ensuring that nothing was waiting to surprise them, he motioned for everyone to move again. The ponies quickly followed him down the next hallway while being careful to stay as quiet as possible. “How far away are we?” The pink mare asked nervously while darting her eyes around. She seemed like she was on the verge of a panic attack. “Don’t worry, it’s just up ahead.” The brown unicorn replied while turning his head to face the group. Sure enough, an intersection of hallways came into view with a door in the center of the far wall. The door was gray in color, with a small window set into its frame. These distinctive features would have filled the ponies with hope on their own, but what excited them the most was a small sign next to the door that read “stairs.” “Finally.” Cool Breeze exclaimed in a relieved tone. Everyone quickly rushed up to the door and waited eagerly for the brown stallion to open it up. The lieutenant quickly grabbed the handle and tugged on it. Having expected it to open, he was surprised to discover that the door wouldn’t budge an inch. Frustrated at the sudden obstacle in his path, the stallion tugged on the handle even more. “Grr…” He snarled in annoyance while continuing his efforts. Every rattle of the door as the guard tried in vain to open it made the ponies’ hearts sink lower and lower. “What in the hay is…” The brown unicorn muttered angrily while glancing through the small window in the door. He was surprised to see a small bar blocking the door. Judging from how little the handle turned, he figured that the door was locked as well. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked anxiously. She and the other ponies were deeply concerned as to why their journey was interrupted so close to its end. “Someone must have locked it to keep those things out… I should be able to unlock it from this side, just give me a minute.” The lieutenant replied in a reassuring tone. He quickly focused his magic and searched behind the door for the necessary objects to move. Meanwhile, while everyone else was focused on the brown pony and his efforts in unlocking the door, one of the other guards was shifting his eyes around to scan the area. The last thing he wanted was for one of those monsters to sneak up on his group at such a crucial moment. Suddenly, a soft growl echoed down the hallway. The guard darted his eyes towards the center hallway nervously. He froze up in fear as he noticed several pairs of red eyes moving towards him. “Umm… s-sir?” The guard stuttered nervously while backing up slowly. “I thought I said that you didn’t have to call me sir?” The unicorn said while keeping his attention focused on the door. “It’s k-kind of important sir!” The guard stated more urgently. Everyone turned around as they noticed a louder growling sound approaching them. The red eyes were moving much faster, and whatever creatures they belonged to were snarling and roaring fiercely as they charged after their prey. “AHHH!” Almost all of the ponies screamed at the top of their lungs at the terrifying sight before them. They covered their faces with their forelegs as the monsters entered the light and rushed towards them. *Thump* A loud thump rang out, eliciting everyone to uncover their eyes and look around. They were surprised to see that they were all still alive, and even more surprised to see a force field between them and the numerous creatures ahead. The group looked behind them to see the brown unicorn facing the monsters with his horn glowing fiercely. He seemed to be straining heavily as beads of sweat were already falling down his face. “You saved us…?” Cool Breeze asked in a shocked state. “Not for long… I can’t hold them out forever, and I can’t unlock the door while I’m doing this.” The lieutenant stated through gritted teeth. The ponies looked back to the force field anxiously. Even more of the creatures were gathered outside at each of the three hallways. Although the force field was muffling the noises they were making, it was still disturbing to see their many red eyes staring unwaveringly forward. “What are we going to do?” The pink mare asked nervously. She sank into a seated position and leaned up against the wall in defeat. Everyone stared ahead sullenly as they faced their doom. They were trapped, plain and simple. Anything short of a miracle wasn’t going to be enough to save them. However, instead of sulking, the brown stallion was instead looking for a solution. He shifted his eyes over to Fluttershy and Rarity, and suddenly had an idea. “Rarity…” He spoke up while still putting as much effort on his shield as possible. The white mare looked over to the stallion curiously. “What is it?” Rarity asked, uncertain of what the guard could have needed. “I know now isn’t the best time for you to be using magic… but do you think you can handle unlocking the door?” The lieutenant asked while nudging towards the door. Rarity glanced over to the door with a concerned expression. Using magic was the worst possible thing a unicorn could do with a concussion short of lying down and taking a nap. However, if she didn’t try to unlock the door, she and her friends would doubtlessly be ripped to shreds by the beasts trying to break in. “I can try…” Rarity stated with a determined nod. “But… what about your head? Isn’t that going to be bad for your concussion?” Fluttershy asked with a worried expression. The last thing she wanted was for her friend to drop dead on the spot due to her over exerting herself. “We don’t have a choice right now Fluttershy. Either I die trying to save us, or we all die when those things break in.” Rarity replied apprehensively. She didn’t like the idea any better than the yellow pegasus, but she quite literally had no other choices to take. “B-but…” Fluttershy started to speak up in protest when she started looking around. Almost everyone else in the group was terrified out of their wits. Even the pegasus herself felt like a quivering mess from staring at the horrific monsters outside. “*Sigh*… just… just take it easy alright?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned tone. Rarity nodded slowly in response. Without any further delay, Rarity stepped up to the door and lit up her horn. She immediately felt an odd dizzy sensation in her head, but she ignored it and instead focused on finding the bar that was keeping the door closed. Fluttershy and the others watched anxiously as the white unicorn strained to perform the simplest of magical tasks. She seemed sluggish, and whatever she was doing seemed painful, but she powered through whatever distress she was in and continued. Suddenly, the bar behind the door lit up the same color as Rarity’s horn. Slowly but surely, it lifted up and out of the way of the door before coming to a stop beside it. “Good job Rarity!” Cool Breeze cheered excitedly. Everyone else cheered the white mare on as she completed a large milestone in their escape. Rarity smiled at her success, but underneath her happy exterior, she was starting to feel ill. Her head was spinning, and she felt drowsier than ever. Despite all of this, she still had one thing to do. “I’m almost done… I just need to unlock the door.” Rarity stated while fighting to remain alert. Despite her best efforts, her unfocused stare and drowsy tone of voice wasn’t going unnoticed. “Are you ok?” Fluttershy asked with a concerned tone. Rarity started to speak up when she was suddenly interrupted by the brown stallion speaking up. “I can’t hold them off much longer!” The guard stated urgently. The ponies looked back, only to see several small cracks forming in the force field. Rarity quickly focused her attention on the lock on the door. Although it was difficult to find the small handle, it didn’t take very long with the adrenaline coursing through her body. The ponies watched anxiously as even more cracks formed in their protective barrier. The monsters outside bashed into the shield relentlessly. They were all gnashing their teeth and growling eagerly as they prepared to assault their prey. “They’re breaking in!” The tan stallion yelled fearfully as pieces of the force field started breaking off. The more bipedal monsters started reaching their arms through the holes in the barrier in an attempt at grabbing the ponies. Everyone backed up nervously to try and distance themselves from the terrifying beasts. “I got it!” Rarity exclaimed while pulling the handle down and opening the door. “Everyone inside!” The lieutenant instructed urgently. Everyone quickly went inside of the stairway and waited for the others. Once the last guard made his way inside, the brown unicorn slammed the door shut and locked it. Satisfied that they were safe for the moment, the group breathed a collective sigh of relief. “Good work Rarity… you just saved our lives.” The lieutenant said with a cheerful smile while glancing over to the unicorn. He was surprised to see that she was drooping her head slightly with a dazed look in her eye. “Are you ok?” The brown stallion asked in a concerned tone. Upon noticing the group shifting their attention to her, the white mare tried her best to appear as healthy as possible. “Yeah… I think so. Just a little tired…” Rarity said drowsily while forcing a smile. The others felt bad that she had to worsen her condition just to help them out of a sticky situation. “Well just hang in there a little while longer. The equipment room is just a little further.” The guard said in a reassuring manner. The thought of resting in a safe location made everyone’s spirits lift slightly. “Ok…” Rarity replied with a slow nod. Despite her attempts at appearing cheerful, the unicorn was starting to worry the group. “Let’s get moving… the faster we get there, the faster we can rest.” The brown unicorn stated while walking up the stairs. Everyone nodded in agreement before following him up to the main floor. Once outside of the stairwell, the group scanned the hallway outside for movement. Satisfied that no creatures were lurking around, the ponies walked out into the hall and made their way forward. Their journey didn’t take long however as the brown stallion paused in front of a single door. “Finally… we’re here.” He said in a relieved tone while grabbing the handle and pulling on it. As if to further complicate matters, the ponies discovered that the door was locked yet again. “Dang it… someone must already be in there.” The stallion muttered in frustration. He then knocked on the door loudly to alert anyone inside to their presence. After a brief wait, the group heard the sound of the door unlocking, followed by it swinging open with an earth pony guard standing in the doorway. “Lieutenant…? It’s good to see that you’re still alive.” The guard stated with slight surprise upon seeing the brown unicorn. “I have survivors with me… can we come in?” The lieutenant asked while glancing back to his small group. “Of course, come on in.” The guard replied before stepping back to let everyone in. The ponies started funneling into the room while the guards ushered everyone in. Fluttershy was elated to see that she and her friend were finally safe. She smiled to Rarity, who offered a weak smile in return. The pegasus frowned slightly as she saw the poor shape the white mare was in. She offered her some help with walking as she made her way through the door. Suddenly, the yellow mare heard a cry of alarm behind her. She turned around to see a long black tendril wrapped around Cool Breeze. The tendril had already pulled the aqua pony to the floor and was trying to drag her off into the darkness. “Breeze!” Fluttershy yelled in a panic at the sight of her temporary companion being pulled away. While everyone else merely turned to offer a concerned glance out of the door of the equipment room, the pegasus left her friend to walk inside while she bolted towards the blue mare. Fluttershy slid to the floor and grabbed Cool Breeze’s outstretched hoof. She pulled with all of her might against whatever creature the tendril belonged to, but she wasn’t making much progress. “Help me!” Cool Breeze cried out fearfully as she yanked her leg in an attempt at freeing herself from the grasp of the tendril. In response to the added efforts of the yellow mare, another tendril shot out from the darkness and wrapped around the aqua pony’s other leg. Fluttershy was pulled along with the trapped mare as she desperately tried to halt their movement. She could faintly see the outline of whatever creature was attacking her companion, and what she saw unsettled her deeply. All she could make out was a blob in the darkness with multiple red slits on it, but it had a lot more tentacles than the ones it was currently using. The pegasus yelped in fright as she felt a cold tendril slap onto her foreleg and wrap around it. She tried to move away, but the creature’s grip was more than she could fight against from her weakened position on the floor. Her initial jolt of bravery had all but vanished as she realized that she was trapped. Now that they were close enough to it, the two ponies could see that the monster that was holding them had a maw full of sharp teeth. It let out a feral bleat as it prepared to fling its prey into its eagerly waiting mouth. Just before the beast devoured her and her friend whole, Fluttershy heard a bolt of energy ring out. She saw a small ball of light sail past her and slam right into the shadowy monster with a bright explosion. The creature let out a howl of pain while loosening its grip on the two mares. Fluttershy and Cool Breeze looked up to see the brown stallion racing towards them while rapidly firing at the creature. The monster let go of the two ponies as it tried to retreat from the painful onslaught it was facing. “Come on!” The unicorn exclaimed urgently while rushing Fluttershy to her feet. The instant both mares had regained their footing, they bolted towards the equipment room as fast as they could. Once the three had gotten back to the equipment room and gotten through the door, the stallion turned around and slammed it shut. After taking a moment to replace all of the locks on the hefty door, the unicorn slid to the floor and breathed heavily. “Thanks for saving me back there, Fluttershy.” Cool Breeze said with a grateful smile while glancing over to the yellow pegasus. She thought that she was going to die for certain. “Hey… don’t mention it. I told you everything would be ok when you came with us… besides, you should be thanking him.” Fluttershy stated while looking over to the exhausted unicorn guard. The stallion smiled in return in between breaths. “Well… I did tell you that I would do my best to keep you safe.” He said lightheartedly. Now that they were safe, the two mares took a look around at their surroundings. The equipment room seemed to be relatively small at first glance. However, there was a doorway leading to another part of it where everyone else had apparently gone during the commotion. There were numerous small lanterns placed around on shelves and tables, giving the room a fair amount of light even without the presence of a unicorn. Along the walls and dotted along a few tables were racks and boxes full of weapons, armor, and other pieces of gear that a member of the royal guard would need. Most importantly, the room felt safe. Ever since the lights had gone out and the monsters arrived, Fluttershy had felt terrified and nervous. But now, she felt relatively comfortable for the first time in a long time. “I almost can’t believe we made it… I thought we were going to die back there.” Fluttershy stated with a chuckle of joyful disbelief. She might not have shown it outwardly at the time, but she was scared out of her wits when she saw Cool Breeze getting dragged off. She almost didn’t find the courage necessary to rush after her. “We’re safe now. You two should just kick back and relax until everything-” The brown unicorn spoke up until he was suddenly interrupted by a commotion in the next room. Several surprised and alarmed ponies could be heard through the open doorway. “What’s going on?” Cool Breeze asked nervously. “Let’s go check it out.” The stallion suggested while getting up. The two mares got up from the floor and followed the guard while he trotted into the other room. Once the trio walked through the door, they were greeted by a group of ponies gathered in a circle. They were muttering in shocked and concerned tones while staring at the floor with wide eyes. Fluttershy and her two companions pushed through the crowd to see what was happening and gasped in surprise at what they saw. There was a lone guard pony crouched low to the ground tending to a familiar white unicorn. Fluttershy felt her heart race with panic as she realized that the unconscious mare on the floor was her friend Rarity. The unicorn had a dazed expression frozen on her face. She wasn’t moving an inch. The yellow pegasus wasn’t even sure if she could see her friend breathing. “What happened to her?!” Fluttershy asked frantically while rushing forward to be at her friend’s side. The guard tending to her looked up to the brown unicorn as he gave him an expression that demanded information. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She just collapsed a little while after you guys brought her in here.” The white stallion explained with a confused expression. “She has a concussion. We need to stabilize her now… get an oxygen mask and start bagging her.” The lieutenant instructed urgently. The guard pony nodded before rushing off to the nearby shelves to start searching for the medical equipment. The two guards that were with the group beforehand joined the other stallion in searching for the items needed to save the unicorn. Meanwhile, Fluttershy and the brown unicorn sat by her and watched over her. “Rarity… please wake up.” Fluttershy pleaded with tears welling up in her eyes. She grasped the white mare’s limp hoof and silently prayed for her survival. “Everyone give us some room!” The brown unicorn stated while looking up at the crowd of concerned ponies. Everyone backed away and watched the guards in the room race to save the concussed mare.
Chapter 72: Preparing for BattleThe ponies listened carefully as Princess Luna explained her plan. Although the main audience was Tom and a small circle of guards gathered around the alicorn, the others around the room listened in curiously while she talked. Meanwhile, off to the side of the room, Twilight and her friends watched as Peppermint examined Rarity to ensure that she was healthy again. The stallion shined a small flashlight in her eyes and took note of her pupils’ response to the light. “How do you feel?” Pepper asked curiously while continuing his examination. “I feel perfectly normal now. I don’t even have a headache anymore.” Rarity replied with a smile of gratitude while glancing over to the human on the other side of the room. She had witnessed his healing powers before, but she never experienced them firsthand. The unicorn would have been dead without his assistance, and for that, she was incredibly thankful. “Well… it looks like everything checks out. You have no indications of having a concussion or anything else anymore.” Pepper stated in an impressed tone. “Thank Celestia for that.” Fluttershy said with a relieved shrug. Rarity frowned as she thought about how much she must have worried the yellow mare. “Sorry to scare you like that darling… I was supposed to be the one taking care of you, not the other way around.” The unicorn looked down sadly as she thought back to her speech in the bathroom. She looked up again as she felt the pegasus laying a soft hoof on her shoulder. “I’m just glad that you’re ok.” Fluttershy said with a warm smile. Rarity couldn’t help but smile in return to the yellow mare. “Now that we’re back together, we should start thinking about how we’re going to get out of here.” Twilight suggested while turning her attention to the blue alicorn giving her troops the plan they would be using. “Yeah… and how we’re going to beat the living daylights out of those hooded jerks for doing this to us.” Rainbow Dash added eagerly. Although the others might have had less violent ideas in their mind of how they would bring the hooded ponies to justice, they agreed with the cyan mare. The group got up and walked closer to the circle of guards so they could better hear the speech. They hoped that they would be able to assist in some way, even if it was only a small part. “So… what you’re saying is that we’re going to head up to the roof and… do what exactly?” One of the stallions asked with a confused expression. “We are going to use a spell to dissipate the dark matter surrounding the building. I will cast the spell with the assistance of some of you, while Tom is going to keep the dark matter from swarming us.” Luna explained again to clarify herself. “But won’t those monsters out there try to stop us? If that… dark matter, or whatever the hay it is, is the thing that’s making these creatures, won’t it try to protect itself?” Another guard asked in a doubtful tone. “Precisely what I thought… which is why some of you will be accompanying us to fend off whatever creatures make it through Tom’s barrier.” Luna said while glancing around at the small group of guards. “Uh, Princess Luna… I hate to complicate well thought out plans, but how exactly am I going to hold off the dark matter long enough for you to cast your spell? From what you said, it is going to take a long time to cast, but I barely managed to deal with the dark matter that attacked us in the cave… and that was a lot weaker than the stuff outside right now.” Tom spoke up in a concerned tone. As confident the ponies were in him and his abilities, he did have certain limits to what he could do. Luna merely smirked and glanced over to the unicorn lieutenant sitting at the front of the circle. She seemed to have everything planned out in detail. It was rather impressive watching the alicorn strategize, even if her sister was usually the one in the spotlight. “Lieutenant… could you come here for a moment?” Luna asked while motioning for the stallion to walk over to the table behind her. “Yes, ma’am.” The unicorn agreed, albeit with a hint of confusion in his voice. He wasted no time with questions and simply got up to walk over to the table with the princess. Luna lit up her horn and picked up a quill she had set up on the table. She dipped it into a small inkwell and started scribbling on a piece of paper laid out across the table. Once she was finished, she sat the quill down and levitated the piece of paper over to the brown unicorn. The stallion used his own magic to grab the paper and lowered it to reading level. “This is a…” The guard started to speak up when he was interrupted by the alicorn finishing his thought. “It’s a spell that will allow you to transfer energy. Could you please cast it on Tom for a moment?” Luna asked while turning to face the human. Tom stepped forward and waited for the unicorn to prepare whatever spell the princess had in mind. The stallion quickly read over the spell one more time before setting the piece of paper back down on the table and facing the human. “Alright… I’ll see what I can do.” The unicorn shrugged while lighting up his horn and focusing. Soon enough, a colorful aura surrounded Tom, making him feel slightly tingly. As the boy felt energy surging through him, he held his palm upwards and projected a beam of light to test the spell. Surprisingly enough, he was able to put a lot of strength behind the beam with little to no strain on his body. “Wow… I’m putting a lot of energy behind this, and I hardly notice it.” Tom said with an amazed chuckle. “We can use this spell to enhance your abilities enough to fend off the dark matter.” Luna explained cheerfully. She was pleased to see her efforts coming together to help the group. “Sounds like a plan.” Tom said with a sly smirk. “Precisely… now then, let’s get everything prepared.” Luna stated while glancing over to the others. Everyone else nodded before waiting for the princess to assign their roles to them. Soon enough, there were ponies rushing around the room to gather their equipment up and perform their given tasks. The princess was teaching Glitterball and the other unicorns in the room the spell that she would be using, the earth pony guards were gathering up candles for use up on the roof, and Glimmer Shine and Peppermint were helping with gathering up swords and armor pieces for the guards to use. “Hold up a sec… let me see those.” Tom asked while walking up to the brothers. “What do you want these for? You already have a sword don’t you?” Peppermint asked curiously while glancing to the holster on the human’s back. Despite his confusion as to the boy’s intentions, he handed him one of the swords he was carrying. “It’s not for me. I think I might have an idea that could help out a lot.” Tom replied while gently grasping the blade and concentrating. Soon enough, a soft blue glow emanated from his hand similarly to the beam of light he used so often. The ponies watched curiously as the human ran his hand across the length of the blade. Eventually, the blade started to turn a luminescent shade of blue. The glow on the blade brightened until it matched the tint that the slayer’s own katana held. “Whoa…” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in an impressed tone. “There, I imbued it with positive energy. It should cut through shadow creatures a lot more effectively now.” Tom explained while returning the sword to the two ponies. They examined it curiously and waved it around to see if it still performed normally. “You can just do that?” Peppermint asked with an amazed expression. “Yeah… how do you think I made my sword the way it is?” Tom replied with a sly smirk. “Oh… that makes sense I suppose.” Pepper said in an awkward tone as he realized the obvious connection. “This is great! We can use these to give ourselves a big advantage.” Glimmer Shine stated in excitement. “Exactly what I was thinking… Now hand me the others. We might as well power up all of the swords we’re going to be using.” Tom said while motioning over to the other swords the two were carrying. The pair nodded before handing the boy the rest of the swords so he could start the process of preparing all of them. After a few minutes of prep, all of the guards had their full gear on, complete with their brand new blessed weaponry courtesy of their resident slayer of evil. The stallions all marveled at the brilliantly glowing blades as they all stood in a line in front of the princess. It was high time that they took action and fought to reclaim their stronghold. “Alright everyone, listen up. The princess is going to run us through our battle plan one more time.” The unicorn lieutenant explained to his band of troops before turning his attention to the alicorn. Everyone in the room, civilians and all, listened intently as the princess of the night addressed them. “Thank you, Lieutenant… Now, as you all know this will be a dangerous undertaking. Normally, I would wait for outside assistance before trying anything so brash, but we are in a survival situation right now. We need to do whatever it takes to get out of here alive… and that is just what we’re going to do.” Luna said while looking around at the ponies scattered around the room. “We will be heading up to the roof in order to destroy the dark matter circling the building. Once we’re up there, Tom will use his powers to keep us safe while we cast the spell. I know that we don’t have many unicorns at our disposal, but those of you who are here will be vitally important. Some of you will be tasked with assisting Tom with the energy transfer spell I taught you, while the rest will be assisting me with gathering energy for use in the spell to destroy the dark matter.” Luna explained while glancing around at the small number of unicorn guards in the room. Counting the lieutenant and Glitterball, there would barely be enough to perform all of the necessary parts of the plan. “The rest of you will be with us on protection detail. When we go up there, it will be like a beehive… and we’re pretty much kicking it. Those monsters that are overrunning the station will more than likely try to swarm us. We will be using strobes and swords to make sure that they don’t get very far.” Glimmer Shine spoke up while holding up his strobe for reference. The two guards that received Pinkie and Rainbow Dash’s extra strobes examined the odd vials curiously. They wondered how such a small device could pack such a powerful punch. “That’s pretty much the long and short of it. We need all of the help we can get, but we also need someone to stay here with the civvies in case something goes wrong. Anyone who doesn’t want to go with us needs to speak up now.” The unicorn lieutenant stated while glancing around. Most of the guards remained steadfast and silent; most of them, but not all of them. “Umm… I think I will stay with the civvies.” The lieutenant that led Twilight and the others to the equipment room spoke up nervously. Everyone was surprised to see such a high ranking officer acting so squeamishly in the face of danger. Rather than being surprised, the brown stallion nodded understandingly. “Ok, you can stay here and keep an eye on things. Everyone else get ready. We will be leaving shortly.” The unicorn instructed to his troop. All of the guards saluted in unison before dispersing. Everyone began chatting idly amongst themselves as they waited for the operation to begin. Meanwhile, Twilight and her four friends were waiting at the back of the room and watching the guards anxiously. It was hard to see all of them interacting and saying their goodbyes to friends and coworkers. They knew that this mission might be a one-way trip, and the four mares knew it too. “I can’t believe this…” Twilight shrugged uneasily while observing the commotion going on around the room. “I know… it’s so unfair. They haven’t even been trained for anything like this. We’ve barely managed to survive all of the monsters we came across, and we’ve had help and a lot of luck.” Rainbow Dash stated in agreement with the purple unicorn. “Well… they have the same help we had… just not much of it.” Rarity added in a sad tone while glancing around at the small number of guards that they had at their disposal. In total, counting all of the unicorns and the lieutenant, there were only around seven guards that were going on the mission, and only three of those were unicorns. “Maybe we can fix that.” Twilight spoke with determination in her voice. Her friends looked at her with varying degrees of acceptance and hesitation as they figured out what she intended to do. “Twilight… Maybe you should reconsider before doing anything too hasty.” Rarity said in a concerned manner. “Sorry Rarity, but I need to do something to help. They’re fighting for all of our lives out there…” Twilight replied while shifting her attention forward. “The least I can do is to help them.” Before any of her friends could protest, the purple mare walked off towards the group of ponies at the front of the room. She walked up to Princess Luna and waited for her to take notice. “Is something on your mind Twilight?” Luna asked curiously. She could tell that something was bothering the unicorn. “Princess, I want to come with you up to the roof.” Twilight volunteered confidently. “What?! Are you crazy?!” Glitterball spoke up in a surprised tone. “Glitter…” Twilight tried to protest, but the white unicorn was far too upset to listen to her. “The princess told us to protect you guys. We’re not just going to take you straight into a dangerous situation!” Glitter said while shaking her head. “It’s ok Glitter… she can come.” Luna spoke up to calm the rainbow haired mare, much to her and Twilight’s surprise. “What…?” Glitter asked in a surprised tone. She was more shocked than upset that the princess would allow the purple mare to go. “We’re shorthanded right now. I don’t like the idea of putting her in danger any more than you do, but she is going to be in danger no matter where she is until we deal with the dark matter.” Luna explained. She then turned to Twilight with a softer expression. “Twilight… if you want to come with us you can, but I want you to at least think about it first. We will be in a lot of danger up there… nobody is forcing you to be a part of this.” The alicorn explained in a sincere tone. Twilight shook her head slowly in response. Nothing was going to prevent her from helping her friends. “You said it yourself, we don’t have that many unicorns here. I’ve made up my mind… I’m going.” Twilight stated in a determined tone of voice. “I’m going too.” The group was surprised to hear Rarity chime in as she walked over to them. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were behind the white unicorn with similarly determined expressions on their faces. “Rarity… are you sure?” Twilight asked with a concerned expression on her face. She was perfectly fine with putting herself in danger, but she didn’t like the idea of her friends coming along for the ride. “Of course I am Twilight. I want to help in any way I can.” Rarity replied with a smile. “Yeah! And we’re coming too!” Rainbow Dash volunteered eagerly while glancing back to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. “Sorry girls… but only Twilight and Rarity get to come with us.” Luna explained with a sympathetic expression. “What…? But why?” Rainbow Dash asked in a surprised tone. “The only reason they are going is because we need more unicorns to help out. I don’t want to endanger you three as well without good cause.” Luna said with a concerned expression. “*Sigh*… alright. I guess we’ll stay here then.” Rainbow Dash droned in a sad manner. She seemed to be deeply disappointed that she couldn’t come along to help her friends. “You two be sure to watch yourselves out there.” Fluttershy said with a tone of loving concern while smiling at the two brave unicorns. “Yeah… If I’m not going to be there to keep an eye on you, you need to be extra careful.” Rainbow Dash added with a lighthearted chuckle. “Don’t worry girls. I promise that I won’t let anything bad happen to her.” Twilight stated confidently while glancing over to the white unicorn beside her. “And I won’t let anything happen to her.” Rarity replied with a smile. “Aww… come here you two!” Pinkie said before eagerly pulling the two unicorns in for a quick goodbye hug. She didn’t even wait for their response or willing acceptance as she grabbed both of them in a flash and squeezed them tightly. Not wanting to be left out of the loving embrace, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash joined in while being careful not to put any more pressure on the two unicorns. Knowing their pink friend, she was probably already cutting off their air supply by herself. “You better come back to us in one piece. I am not going to be happy with you if you don’t!” Pinkie reminded while releasing the pair from her grip. From the way she said that it almost sounded like a friendly threat. As if she was going to smother them to death with a hug if they didn’t listen to her. “We’ll be careful Pinkie. We promise.” Twilight said with a cheerful laugh. “Besides… they will have us to watch out for them.” Glitterball stated from beside the group. She glanced behind her to see her two teammates nodding in agreement. Now that Twilight and Rarity were going on the mission with the others, Glitterball taught them the basics of how to use the spell that Princess Luna taught her. And just to be safe, she also taught them the spell used to transfer energy to Tom. Once they learned everything they would need to know, the two mares had a few minutes to themselves before everyone was going to head out. The guards were still discussing the plan amongst themselves, and Tom was preparing a few blessed candles with the princess off in the corner. Suddenly, the two unicorns noticed a certain aqua earth pony approaching them slowly. Twilight had no idea who the strange pony was, but Rarity smiled as she recognized the mare to be Cool Breeze. “Hello, Breeze.” Rarity greeted the blue mare cheerfully. “Hey… I heard that you two were heading out with the others.” Cool Breeze said in a slightly concerned tone. “You heard right.” Rarity replied. The blue mare seemed to be saddened by her decision. She frowned slightly before sighing and speaking up again. “Well if you are going out there again, I just wanted to see you off before you go.” Cool Breeze explained. “If this is the last time we see each other, for… whatever reason.” She hesitated slightly as she thought of the grim implications of her statement. “I just wanted to thank you for saving me again. If it wasn’t for you and Fluttershy, I would probably still be in that break room… or worse.” Cool Breeze said with a small smile. Rarity smiled warmly at the blue mare. In their brief time together, she felt like she had grown slightly attached to her. The unicorn wondered if it really would be the last time they would see each other. She wasn’t sure if she knew her enough to warrant a friendship, but she still felt slightly sad with the thought of bidding goodbye to the aqua pony. “Anytime darling… I’m glad that we managed to bring you here safely. And don’t worry. I’m sure that we’ll meet up sometime in the future. In fact… why don’t you stop by the Carousel Boutique sometime? I’ll even give you a free makeover.” Rarity offered in a friendly manner. The blue mare smiled in response to the proposal. “I would love to.” Cool Breeze replied with a friendly nod. Suddenly, the three mares were interrupted by the sight of the princess walking up to them. She had a certain expression on her face that made it easy to tell what she was about to say. It was time to go, perhaps too soon for the two unicorns’ liking. “We’re all ready to leave… are you two prepared?” Luna asked while glancing to the blue mare chatting with the two. She hated to interrupt a discussion with a new friend. Rarity glanced over to Cool Breeze with a sympathetic expression. The aqua pony smiled and nodded understandingly before turning and walking away. The white mare then looked over to her purple friend. Twilight got up from her seated position and nodded eagerly. “Yes… we’re ready.” Rarity stated while turning to the princess with a determined expression. Without any further delay, the princess nodded to the two mares before motioning for them to follow her. The three walked into the other room to find everyone gathered up in two rows by the door. All of the guard ponies watched the alicorn as she walked by them and up to the door. “Ok, let’s set some ground rules before we step outside. Everyone will be sticking together while we walk to the roof. Just because the stairway is just down the hall doesn’t mean it won’t be dangerous. Strobe users will be on the outside of the group watching our sides and our back.” Luna explained while glancing between Glitterball, her teammates, and the two guards armed with the small vials. “If you see anything moving, shoot it. The strobes can’t hurt ponies, so it is better to be safe than sorry.” Glimmer Shine instructed to the two white stallions. They were still unsure of the usefulness of the small vials, but they nodded in agreement regardless. As the princess opened the door and stepped outside, everyone followed her and arranged into their proper positions. Twilight and Rarity were in the center of the group along with the guards armed with swords. Princess Luna was at the front of the group with Tom and the lieutenant. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, and Peppermint were scattered around the outside of the group and watched to the sides and rear along with the other strobe users. Even though there weren’t that many of them in retrospect, the ponies felt safe within their group. As long as everyone kept their cool and worked together, they could go up against an army of shadow creatures and prevail. “How do you work this thing again?” One of the guards at the back of the group whispered to his companion while examining his strobe curiously. Rarity looked back and recognized the guard to be one of the two she met after the lieutenant brought her and Fluttershy to the safe room down in the basement. “Just push the button there.” The other guard whispered back while pointing to the small button on one end of the vial. “Oh… that makes sense.” The first guard replied with a brief chuckle. He then examined the vial even closer, perhaps a little too close for the comfort of those around him. “Be careful with that thing, will you? You’re going to put out an eye if you keep messing with it.” One of the other guards whispered in annoyance while glancing back to the curious stallion. “Sorry… geez.” The white pony replied and looked down sadly like a child after being reprimanded by an adult. The others rolled their eyes and shrugged at the conversation going on behind them. With nothing more to ask, the guard and everyone else remained silent for the rest of the journey down the hallway. Soon enough, the group was standing outside of the stairway that would lead them upwards to the roof. The lieutenant quickly opened the door and ushered everyone inside. Tom and Luna took the lead and went up the stairs a short ways to make room for everyone. Once everyone was inside, Glimmer Shine covered the lieutenant as they both backed into the room while keeping their eyes forward. “Ok, we’re almost there.” The brown stallion stated while closing the door behind him. “Let’s keep moving.” Luna instructed while glancing upwards. The landing to the roof was already visible. Due to the station only having a few floors, the roof was only a brief climb up a flight of stairs. With a brief nod, everyone followed the alicorn and the human upwards. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and Glitterball stayed behind the group and watched the stairs further down for any signs of movement. As the group got closer to the roof, the constant sound of roaring wind and the screeching of the dark matter that had been ever-present throughout the building intensified. The ponies could hardly hear themselves think as they gathered at the door. Twilight and Rarity stood in the middle of the group and watched as the princess hesitated at the door. The white mare was far too busy keeping her attention forward to notice the purple unicorn shivering in fright. Twilight could practically see the stream of repressed memories from her time in the cave flash before her eyes. She cowered nervously and had to consciously prevent herself from stepping backwards in an instinctive attempt at avoiding danger. The unicorn was ripped from her thoughts when she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder, nearly causing her to jump out of her fur coat. She looked beside her to see Rarity offering her a reassuring smile. The knowledge that she was among friends comforted the purple mare, even if only slightly. “Ok everyone, this is it. Once we get out there, we will be in a constant battle. Always assume that there are enemies nearby, and keep on your guard.” Luna spoke up while looking back to her troop. “Just keep to your assigned roles and stay within Tom’s barrier at all times. Before we get started, everyone will place down and light one of the candles we have provided you. It will be darker than the darkest night you have ever experienced out there, and all of the unicorns here will be too preoccupied to waste energy on providing light.” The unicorn lieutenant stated while holding up one of the blue candles for reference. Twilight and Rarity looked around and noticed that most of the guards had blessed candles in their holsters along with their swords. “Are you ready Tom?” Luna asked while looking to the human to ensure that he was prepared. Tom used his senses and looked to the door to scope out the situation ahead. He shivered instinctively once he felt the raw negative energy that was covering the area. On any normal day, he wouldn’t touch a batch of dark matter this powerful with a ten-foot pole, but this wasn’t just a normal day. None of his days had been normal since becoming a slayer, and especially not since he came to Equestria. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” Tom replied with a semi-confident expression. The princess understood the boy’s nervousness. He was now responsible for her life and the lives of everyone present. She didn’t want to show it outwardly, but she was nervous too. “Please hurry back sister…” Luna whispered to herself before turning to the band of guards behind her. “You there, cast the energy spell on Tom and stick close to him. The rest of you stay close to me and either help me with the spell or help them with defending us from whatever comes our way.” The alicorn instructed while glancing to the unicorns in the group. The guard that she pointed out nodded and lit up his horn to cast the spell on the human. Once Tom was enveloped in a magical aura and gave a nod to signal that he was ready, the princess slowly put her hoof on the door handle and prepared to open it. “One…” Luna announced loudly to prepare her small army. Twilight and the others prepared themselves physically and mentally for whatever they would find beyond the door. They lowered themselves to the ground so they could rush out when the door was open. “Two…” The princess counted up and glanced over to the human. Tom held out his hand and prepared to cast his light to fend off the dark matter. “Three!” Luna announced loudly while turning the handle and opening the door in one fluid motion.
Chapter 73: The Last Stand on the RoofWith a single shove, the door flew open and the ponies rushed outside. Even though it was completely pitch black on the roof, the group could still see the faint outlines of the dark matter swirling around just above them. Tom immediately pointed his hands skyward and projected his light at full force. The beams traveled upwards and met the dark matter head on before exploding outwards and falling back down to the ground, creating a decently sized bubble of protection that encompassed most of the walking space on the roof. Twilight and Rarity watched as every guard scattered around and sat their candles down. After a brief moment of everyone lighting them in sequence, the entire area was filled with blue tinted light that contrasted against the darkness just outside to create a sort of comforting aura. “Ok, let’s get started. Does everyone know the spell?” Luna asked while glancing around at the various unicorns waiting eagerly at her side. “Yes but… Princess, this spell is so massive that it will take ages to gather up the energy needed.” Twilight stated anxiously while thinking back to the spell she had been taught. Now that she was outside with the dark matter roaring and screeching as it fought to get at her, the unicorn was much more nervous about the chances of their plan succeeding. “I know, that’s why there are so many of us working on it. I want you two to focus on helping with the spell for the moment, but if we come under attack you may need to defend yourselves.” Luna explained to the two mares with a concerned expression. Twilight and Rarity gulped nervously as they thought about fighting against the shadow creatures they had seen thus far. Before the pair could ask any more questions, the alicorn closed her eyes and concentrated while lighting up her horn. She tried her best to focus while all of the commotion was going on outside. One by one, all of the unicorn guards gathered around the princess and focused their energy on the same spell she was casting. Glitterball joined in, the lieutenant joined in, soon enough all of the unicorns in the area save for Twilight, Rarity, and the guard assisting Tom were contributing to the spell. “Alright, everyone… keep on your guard. It might be calm right now, but it won’t stay that way forever.” The lieutenant instructed to everyone present. All of the guards nodded before spreading out and settling in. All the while being prepared to jump into action should the need arise. “Hey… if you see something about to eat my face off, do you think you could shoot it for me?” Glitterball asked in a half-joking, half-serious manner while briefly glancing to Glimmer Shine. “Eh… I’m sure I would get around to it eventually.” Glimmer Shine replied with a slight smirk. “Real funny… smart flank.” Glitterball rolled her eyes before closing them and returning her full attention to the spell. She knew that the yellow stallion was joking, but she still felt like hitting him regardless. Meanwhile, Twilight and Rarity were just starting to gather energy for the princess’s spell. They closed their eyes and focused on the alicorn with their magic. They could feel all of the other unicorns present as they funneled their own energy towards the princess. It almost felt empowering to be connected to so many unicorns, kind of like they were doing something grand and important, not that their current task wasn’t important. “I’m not sure if I feel comfortable with closing my eyes and focusing on a spell out here. I feel like something is going to sneak up behind me any minute now.” Twilight stated uneasily while glancing around her. Every time she closed her eyes she could feel her body screaming at her to check her surroundings. “Just relax and try to focus on the spell. The others will protect us, I’m sure of it.” Rarity replied in a reassuring tone. She hoped that the others would at least keep an eye on them, rather than leaving them to the mercy of whatever creatures lurked in the darkness around them. “*Sigh* I hope so.” Twilight muttered while closing her eyes again and trying to block out the eerie screeching that was constantly going on around her. While the princess, the human, and the unicorns were doing their assigned tasks, the rest of the ponies were glancing around uneasily and searching for any signs of danger. Glimmer Shine stood near the edge of the barrier with one of the guards while making sure that nothing would get in from the side he was on. “So uh… do you guys do this normally?” The guard asked nervously while glancing over to the yellow stallion. Glimmer Shine looked to him and immediately realized that he was a lot more nervous than he was letting on. Making small talk was an obvious attempt at distancing himself from the situation around him. “To be honest… we’re almost as new to this as you are. The only difference is that we had a little bit of training beforehand.” Glimmer replied in a reassuring tone. “Oh… well, that’s… comforting.” The guard replied uneasily. He was seriously starting to doubt their chances for success. “Relax, everything will be fine. Just keep your eyes peeled and yell if you see anything.” Glimmer Shine stated confidently, to which the guard gave a hesitant nod in response. “Uh oh… heads up, guys! I’m sensing a lot of movement around us!” Tom announced urgently. The ponies looked over to see the human with a familiar puff of blue mist escaping from his mouth. “Great… hey, keep on your-” Glimmer Shine started to speak to the guard next to him when he suddenly heard a frightened yell arise from the white stallion. Glimmer looked over just in time to see the guard getting dragged along the ground by a tentacle latched around his back leg. “Sweet Celestia!” Glimmer exclaimed in surprise while rushing forward and grabbing the guard before he was pulled out of the barrier. The tentacle that was pulling on him was smoking, most likely as a result of the blessed candles all around the area and Tom’s light, but it paid no heed to whatever distress it was feeling as it pulled harder. Glimmer Shine struggled with all of his strength, but he was only able to slow down the monster’s progress as it pulled the white stallion closer and closer to the edge. “AHH!” The guard yelled in pain as the edge of his hoof breached the barrier. He could feel a cold and numb sensation forcefully overtaking his foot as the dark matter latched onto it and drained his energy. “Help!” Glimmer Shine yelled to anyone behind him who might be able to assist him. While two guards rushed forward and grabbed onto their teammate to help with pulling, Peppermint rushed up to the group of struggling ponies and readied his strobe. The red haired stallion opened fire towards the darkness outside of the barrier, hoping to be able to hit the creature pinning the guard. The bolts of energy from the strobe pushed the dark matter out of the way slightly as they traveled out into the air, but they didn’t appear to hit anything solid as they kept flying. “I can’t hit it!” Pepper yelled nervously as he frantically tried his best to help. “We’re losing him!” Glimmer Shine stated while digging his back legs into the ground to halt his movement. Even with three stallions pulling on the trapped guard, the monster, or perhaps monsters that were pulling on him were winning. “AGH!” The distressed pony screamed in pain as both of his legs sank into the darkness outside. The cold feeling of the monstrous cloud latching onto him and stealing his energy was almost unbearable. Finally, Peppermint angled his shots to hit the stallion’s legs outside of the barrier. The group heard a nearby shriek and suddenly felt the guard being let go by whatever force was pulling him. Glimmer Shine and the others backpedaled as fast as they could and dragged the injured pony along the ground to distance him from the edge of the barrier. Both of his legs from the hip downwards were pale in color. They didn’t even look like they belonged to a living pony. The disturbing sight of the stallion’s legs combined with his cries of distress unsettled all of the ponies in the barrier. Twilight and Rarity were speechless as they watched the guards tending to their teammate with horrified expressions. “What’s wrong with him?!” One of the guards asked while setting the injured stallion down gently. Despite nothing touching his legs anymore, the guard seemed to be in excruciating pain. “I don’t know, let me take a look at h-” Peppermint prepared to examine the injured stallion when a loud growl from behind him made him freeze up. Everyone looked back in the direction they just pulled the guard from, only to see three dark shapes just outside of the barrier. While Glimmer Shine and Peppermint raced to pull out their strobes, three darklings jumped through the barrier and walked towards the ponies. All of the able-bodied guards readied their swords in preparation for battle. They stood in front of the group tending to the injured stallion to keep something between them and the imminent threat. Just before they were about to charge into battle, they noticed black smoke coming off of the three beasts. The darklings snarled in pain while looking around in confusion. They settled their red eyes on the many candles scattered around the floor and growled. Not wanting to be in the burning light any longer, the three creatures turned tail and ran outside of the barrier. Before disappearing into the darkness, one of them turned its head around and growled viciously at the ponies. “What the hay was that all about?” One of the guards asked curiously. “They must not be strong enough to stand near the candles for very long. Don’t let your guard down just yet. I’m sure stronger variants of them will be here shortly.” Tom instructed uneasily. “Well for the moment we have more important things to worry about… I can’t think of any way to help him.” Peppermint stated while examining the injured guard’s hind legs. “The dark matter must have gotten to him… he’ll recover, but it will take a while. Until then, I doubt he will be able to move very much.” Tom explained while quickly glancing to the stallion’s pale and motionless limbs. The injured guard looked around at the others with a nervous expression. He wasn’t sure how he was going to survive without being able to move his legs. “Don’t worry… we’ll keep you safe. For now, take this and hold on to it.” Glimmer Shine said while handing the injured pony his strobe. “But… what about you?” The stallion asked curiously. He didn’t want to take away the yellow pony’s only means of defense. “I’ll take your sword and use it. This way you can still fight without moving… trust me, I went to the academy just like you did.” Glimmer Shine explained while gently removing the guard’s sword from his holster. “Alright… just be careful out there.” The injured stallion shrugged while examining the small vial in his hooves. After moving the disabled guard closer to the princess and the other unicorns, the rest of the guards returned to their previous locations. Now that one of their own had fallen victim to the monsters outside of the barrier, they had a newfound sense of alarm and cautiousness as they darted their eyes around vigilantly. “So, how are your sword fighting skills holding up?” Peppermint asked his brother with mild concern. “Hey… I was top of our class you know.” Glimmer Shine replied while gripping the sword tightly in his mouth. “Yeah, yeah… just making sure you haven’t gotten rusty.” Peppermint said with a smirk. “I guess we’re going to find out.” Glimmer Shine stated while whipping the sword around with a sly expression. While the unicorns continued to gather energy for the princess’s spell, everyone else waited for something to happen. The unnerving sounds that the dark matter was making created a constant ambience of tension. It was like the ponies were in the center of a raging tornado with a swarm of angry bats along for the ride. The screeching wasn’t so bad. After all, there were periods of time where the horrendous screeching would cease for several minutes at a time. But no matter where they were, the sound of the roaring wind was constant. It blared in their ears until they could hardly even think to themselves quietly. Despite the tense atmosphere, the ponies had to wait. They had to wait and sit around while wondering what kind of creature would jump out at them next. The anticipation of fighting was almost enough to make them wish for something to happen to break up the monotony. “Hey…” The unicorn that was helping Tom spoke up to get his attention. The human looked over to him curiously. “Yeah?” Tom asked. “I’m starting to feel light headed… this spell is taking a lot out of me.” The unicorn replied uneasily. He didn’t want to outright say that he had to take a break, but given the importance of the spell he was casting, he thought that he should let the human know that he was tired. “I’m not surprised… the energy I’m using has to come from somewhere I suppose. Ask one of the others to switch with you. Just be sure to wait until they start casting before you stop. I don’t want all of this power to come crashing down on me… and I don’t think you do either.” Tom stated while glancing upwards suggestively, the sight of the dark matter fighting against the barrier to get in made the guard see his point very clearly. “Can someone switch with me? I’m not sure if I can keep this spell up much longer.” The brown stallion asked while glancing over to the small ring of unicorns by the princess. “Sure… I’ll switch with you.” One of the other unicorns spoke up while breaking off of the spell he was using. The guard got up and walked over to the human. He then lit up his horn and started casting the spell that he had been taught. Once the other unicorn felt another magical aura form around the human, he let his horn fizzle out and breathed a sigh of relief. “Take a short break to get your strength back, then head over there and help the others.” Tom suggested while glancing over to the alicorn and her small group. “Thanks.” The unicorn replied before getting up and walking away. As he was walking away, the brown stallion heard a strange noise over the constant background of wind. It was so quiet that it was almost impossible to tell what it was. “What the…?” The unicorn muttered with a confused expression while inching closer to the source of the noise near the edge of the barrier. He strained his ears to be able to pick up the strange sound without venturing close enough to the edge for a monster to jump out and grab him. The noise gradually got louder, until the guard could just barely make out what it sounded like. The odd noise resembled the rapid fluttering of small wings followed by the high pitched squeal of some kind of creature. “What’s that noise?” One of the other guards asked curiously. The unicorn turned his head uneasily as he received validation that the noise was actually real rather than his imagination. Suddenly, a high-pitched screech filled the air as a small black shape darted out from the wall of darkness. The ponies whipped their heads around in an attempt at getting a good look at the creature, but it zipped through the air too fast to be able to see anything other than a blur. The small shape raced around the air for a short moment before darting back outside of the barrier. That wasn’t the last the ponies would see of the strange blur however as another of the black shapes darted out from the other side of the barrier. Before anyone could even react, the shape flew at the unicorn near the edge of the barrier and latched onto his neck. The stallion immediately screamed in pain and raced to grab the small creature to pull it off of him. A small spurt of blood shot out from the guard’s neck as the creature seemingly bit into him. The unicorn fell backwards onto his back from the shock of the experience. “GET IT OFF!” The guard yelled in agony while pulling at the relentless monster. Glimmer Shine raced over to the distressed stallion and struggled to think of how to help him without outright grabbing onto the creature. Glancing down to his glowing sword, an idea popped into his head. Glimmer Shine rushed over to the struggling guard and pressed the flat edge of his sword against the small creature. White smoke immediately started rising off of the creature’s form, eliciting a high pitched squeak of pain. Before the yellow pony could apply more pressure to his blade, the black shape flew off of the unicorn as a wide spray of blood shot out from his neck. The small creature flew at Glimmer Shine in the blink of an eye, sending a wave of alarm through his body. “AH!” Glimmer Shine yelled in surprise and dropped his sword. He held his hooves out to protect himself and felt a strong kickback as the monster flew right into him. The yellow pony barely managed to grab the creature before it zoomed straight for his neck. Now that he was holding onto the monster, Glimmer Shine and everyone else got a good look at it. The beast appeared to be a small winged creature with a round body and four bat wings sprouting from it at odd angles. The tiny monster had two equally tiny red dots above its mouth that served as eyes. The mouth itself was so disturbing that it drew attention away from the rest of the beast. The creature had a gaping circular hole for a mouth. Inside of this hole were multiple rows of razor sharp teeth that wrapped around the entire circumference of the mouth. Glimmer Shine now understood why the unicorn was in so much distress when the creature latched on to him. Judging from its size, one might have estimated that it would be easy to manipulate the creature once held. This couldn’t have been farther from the truth, however. Glimmer Shine felt as if he was holding on to a tornado. No matter how hard he pushed or shoved, he could hardly maintain a grip on the tiny monster. “Help!” Glimmer yelled as the creature sent him falling backwards. The beast screeched and twitched its mouth eagerly as it drew closer and closer to reaching the stallion’s neck. Suddenly, a bright flash of light enveloped the pinned pony. When Glimmer Shine opened his eyes again, he noticed that the creature had been reduced to an escaping puff of black smoke. He looked up to see Tom placing his other hand back up to return to fending off the cloud of dark matter. “Thanks for the-” Glimmer Shine started to speak up when he was interrupted by a clamoring uproar of high-pitched squeaks and screeches. It sounded like a nail being dragged down a chalkboard, only magnified a hundred times over. The ponies looked to the source of the noise, only to see a swarm of the same creatures popping out from the darkness. The monsters flew overhead in a circle while screeching angrily. Suddenly, they swooped down all at once and rushed towards the group around the princess. “Oh no!” Twilight exclaimed with wide eyes as she watched the swarm getting closer. She quickly realized that someone had to act fast before they were engulfed by a flying horde of teeth. “AHHH!” Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs and covered her face in terror. She could already picture the damage that the angry swarm would cause to her and her friends. Just as she was preparing for the end, she heard a magical whir, followed by the sound of dozens of tiny objects slamming into glass. “Wh… what?” Rarity looked up in confusion, only to see that there was a bright purple force field surrounding her and the other unicorns. She looked over to see Twilight concentrating while pointing her horn upwards. “You did it Twilight!” Rarity cheered happily while raising her hooves into the air in excitement. Her joy quickly turned to horror again as she realized what was about to happen. “Oh no… what about the others?!” The white mare exclaimed in shock while turning her attention back to the swarm of monsters outside. Sure enough, the creatures broke off of the purple bubble and flew around rapidly to swarm around any other target they could find. Peppermint and whoever else had a strobe desperately fired into the black mass approaching them. But no matter how fast they fired, the swarm was far too fast and large to destroy. “AHH!” The ponies all yelled in unison as they felt the large numbers of creatures slamming into them. Twilight and the other unicorns inside of the bubble averted their eyes in horror as they expected their friends to be ripped to pieces. Suddenly, the screaming died down. Everyone thought the worst had happened until they actually looked up. Every single one of the tiny carnivores was floating in a blue aura, seemingly against their will. Recognizing the color of the aura, Twilight glanced over to Glitterball. As she had expected, the rainbow-haired unicorn was focusing intensely on keeping some kind of spell active with her horn. The spell she was using seemed to be more than she could handle as beads of sweat rolled down her face while her horn sparked and flashed from over exertion. “Shoot them! Shoot them now!” Glitterball instructed to everyone who could listen. It wasn’t hard to discern the alarm and urgency in her voice as she tried to keep the numerous amounts of creatures under her control. Seemingly the only reason she was able to pull it off was due to the monsters already being in tight clusters. Peppermint and the others wasted no time in heeding their teammate’s instructions. They rapidly fired their strobes at every black mass they saw. All the while keeping a close eye on Glitterball to determine how much time they had. Twilight and Rarity watched anxiously as they tried to gauge the stallions’ progress with destroying the creatures against Glitterball’s exhaustion. The unicorn clenched her eyes shut as she strained every muscle in her body to try and cope with the difficult task she was facing. Twilight had cast many spells for longer than she should have, so she knew just how the unicorn was feeling. Her horn was sparking and sputtering so much that everyone watching thought that her head might explode from the pressure. Even Glimmer Shine and the other guards were helping out with destroying the flying creatures. They swiped at them with their swords, easily ripping through their shadowy forms with their luminescent blue blades. Despite how much progress was being made, everyone was still tense as they raced to eliminate all of the monsters. Finally, Peppermint shot a bolt of energy into the last small cluster of the creatures. The bat-like monsters erupted into a puff of smoke with nothing more than an interrupted shriek to indicate their departure into oblivion. “Got it!” The white stallion exclaimed to alert Glitterball that she could stop. Glitterball’s horn immediately fizzed out in a brief flash of light. She groaned in exhaustion while her legs gave out from underneath her. Twilight and Rarity raced to her side as she fell to the floor. After settling on the ground for a moment, the white mare drifted out of consciousness. “Oh my goodness… she knocked herself out.” Rarity gasped in concern as she examined the unconscious mare. “I’m not surprised. She must have used a lot of energy keeping those things still.” Twilight stated while thinking back to the energetic creatures. She shuddered as she thought about how the unicorn even went about trying what she did. “Is everyone ok?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking around at the other guards. The creatures did manage to swarm several of the ponies before Glitterball incapacitated them. All of the guards briefly examined themselves for cuts before turning to their comrades and doing the same. Suddenly, everyone turned their attention to a brown unicorn stallion lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. He had been the first victim of the savage creatures before they even swarmed the area. Thankfully, he seemed to still be alive as he clutched his still bleeding neck. Peppermint and the others rushed over to him urgently. The guards waited close by to lend their assistance should the need arise while the red-haired stallion examined the unicorn’s injury. The brown stallion’s hooves were stained red as he desperately tried to stem the frightful amount of blood loss he was experiencing. “Hey buddy, can you hear me? Two blinks for yes.” Peppermint asked in a calm tone of voice while looking at the wounded guard. He knew that due to the severity of his injury that talking was out of the question. The unicorn was still clutching his throat and breathing rapidly and shallowly, but he did as instructed and blinked twice in rapid succession. “Ok good… listen up. We’re going to take care of you, ok? Just hang in there and keep pressure on this.” Peppermint instructed while slipping a gauze pad under the unicorn’s hoof and onto his wound. He then looked up and faced the others with a more serious expression. “We need to get him out of here. He’s going to die if we don’t keep on top of this.” Pepper explained in a concerned tone. “Hey Tom, do you think you could heal him?” Glimmer Shine asked while glancing over to the human. If he could quickly blast one of the creatures off of him, then he shouldn’t have had any problems with healing the injured unicorn. “Sorry, I don’t think I could manage that. I’m barely fending this thing off with two hands, and that’s with the added help I’m getting. And since were down one… make that two unicorns, we need to conserve the energy we’re using if we’re going to outlast this thing.” Tom explained while glancing over to Glitterball. If she didn’t wake up and regain her strength, the group would only have four unicorns to work with counting Twilight and Rarity. And the unicorns they did have needed to be spread between helping the princess and giving energy to the human for keeping the dark matter at bay. “Ughh…” Glimmer Shine groaned in frustration as he tried to think of a solution to their problem. He then turned to three of the other guards and sighed. “You three take him down to the equipment room and stabilize him.” Glimmer instructed while pointing to the three white stallions. They nodded before walking over to Peppermint and waiting for him to give them the go ahead. “Ok, easy with him. Try to keep pressure on that for us ok buddy?” Peppermint said while tapping the unicorn on the leg gently. The wounded guard couldn’t nod due to the placement of his injury, but he seemed to be holding onto the gauze pad as tightly as he could. While being as careful and slow as possible, Peppermint and the three guards lifted the unicorn up off the ground. They gently placed him over one of their backs and balanced him. “Be careful when you’re taking him down there. You might run into some resistance.” Glimmer Shine explained to the trio. They nodded in agreement. “Should we try to come back up here?” One of the guards asked. “No… it might be too dangerous to make two trips. We’ll manage without you.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. “Ok… good luck everyone.” The guard said while taking one last glance around at the others. He then rushed to the door to the stairway and opened the door while his companion followed him and steadied the unicorn on his back while the third guard focused on keeping them safe. Now that the three guards were gone, Glimmer Shine looked around at his remaining group and frowned. There was only one other able-bodied guard with him and his brother. The only other one even attacking was the disabled stallion with a strobe sitting near the princess and her small group. “Are you guys going to be ok by yourselves?” The lieutenant asked in a concerned tone while looking at the brothers and the single guard helping them. “How much longer will that spell take Princess?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking over to Luna anxiously. The alicorn grunted under her breath as she looked up from her spell. “It still has a long ways to go. We’re trying as hard as we can.” Luna explained with a concerned frown while looking around at the group’s diminished numbers. She never imagined that so many things would go wrong with her plan. “*Sigh*… I think we can manage. Just as long as there isn’t an army of them coming at us we should be fine.” Glimmer Shine stated while gripping his new strobe tightly. One of the guards that left had given him their strobe to use. The yellow pony looked around to his brother and the lone guard standing next to him for confirmation. The two nodded hesitantly while gripping their own weapons with slight uncertainty. “Hello…? Can anyone hear me out there?” Glimmer Shine and Peppermint suddenly heard Brimstoke’s voice in their ears. “We’re here Brimstoke. What’s going on?” Glimmer Shine spoke up while holding his hoof up to his ear. “Where are you guys?” Sunspot interjected herself into the call. She seemed very eager to learn about what was happening with the others. “We’re on the roof trying to get rid of the dark matter.” Glimmer Shine replied. “Oh… in that case, we have some good news and some bad news for you.” Brimstoke explained uneasily. The two stallions didn’t like the concerned tone that their leader had. “What’s the good news?” Peppermint asked with careful optimism. “Neon Streak is outside. Apparently, she and Applejack saw what was going on from a distance and came running. And that’s not all… Princess Celestia is out there too. Neon says that she is working on a solution from her end.” Sunspot explained eagerly. The news immediately made the two stallions’ faces brighten up. Twilight and Rarity noticed the two ponies smiling from ear to ear. They wondered what could have possibly made them so chipper in a situation like this. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked curiously. “Brimstoke and Sunspot just contacted us. Apparently, Neon Streak is outside with Princess Celestia. She is trying to get us out as we speak!” Peppermint explained cheerfully while dropping his hoof for a moment. “Thank heavens!” Rarity stated with cheerful relief. She and Twilight celebrated happily that the white alicorn was coming to rescue them. “I knew that the princess would come to save us!” Twilight said excitedly. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling ear to ear. She could almost feel her mouth stretching widely, but she didn’t care. Luna simply smiled while still concentrating on the spell. She knew that her sister wouldn’t stand idly by without trying to save her and the others. “Umm… what was the bad news Brimstoke?” Glimmer Shine asked nervously while remembering what the white stallion had said before. “We can’t find any monsters down here.” Brimstoke stated in a concerned tone. “What…?” Glimmer Shine asked with a confused expression. “How is that a bad thing?” Peppermint asked with equal confusion. He immediately regretted his question as he knew that he was about to be given an answer. “We can’t find any readings coming from this floor. They’re all gone! We think that they’re heading up to the roof.” Sunspot explained apprehensively. “But, that means…” Glimmer Shine paused with a shocked expression on his face. “Yeah… we think there is an army of monsters coming your way.” Brimstoke stated uneasily. Before Glimmer Shine could reply, a loud growl came from the darkness outside of the barrier. More growls and screeches joined the first one until there was an uproar of feral noises surrounding the entire area. The joy that the ponies felt was immediately replaced by terror. They darted their eyes around nervously as they spotted several dark shapes moving around just outside their bubble of protection. “Uh… Brimstoke, we’re going to have to get back to you.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily before letting his hoof drop to the floor. He grabbed his strobe and backed closer to the others. “Tom, I don’t suppose you can give us an idea of what’s out there can you?” Peppermint asked uneasily while glancing over to the human. Tom used his senses a few times, when he suddenly shivered forcefully and shook his head in disgust and shock. “I don’t think you want to know.” Tom replied with a hesitant tone. His response didn’t bring the amount of reassurance that the red haired stallion was looking for. If anything, it only made the pit in the ponies’ stomachs grow even deeper. Glimmer Shine, Peppermint, and the lone guard that was helping them backed into a circle and looked around anxiously. They weren’t sure which direction they would be attacked from, but they were certain that they would be attacked. Suddenly, the group noticed a pack of darklings jumping out into the light. The four beasts looked around at the various candles scattered around on the ground. They then roared loudly in anger at the annoying blue objects. “I think they don’t care about the candles anymore.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. As if in response to the stallion’s statement, one of the darklings used its front paw to kick one of the candles over towards the ponies. The candle bounced along the ground a few times before being snuffed out as it settled flame side down. “Ok, scratch that… they definitely don’t care about the candles anymore.” Glimmer Shine added with an expression of dismay plastered on his face. “Heads up!” Peppermint yelled as the darklings started running towards them. As the three monsters rushed forward with their teeth bared, the three ponies prepared for battle. Glimmer Shine and Peppermint opened fire with their strobes. The darklings dodged to the side as the incoming bolts of energy whizzed by their forms. One of the darklings caught a blast right in its mouth. The bolt of light exploded, knocking the beast off balance as its form had a sizable hole punched into it. The two ponies took advantage of the stumbling monster and focused their fire on it. While their comrade exploded into black smoke behind them, the remaining three darklings continued running towards the ponies. Just before they were about to collide with the two stallions, the guard beside them stepped forward and swung his sword sideways. One of the beasts caught the glowing blade in its mouth while the other two prepared to jump the occupied stallion. Before the creatures could even think about leaping on the guard, Glimmer Shine and Peppermint gunned them down in a flash of lights and smoke. They turned to assist the guard with his darkling, when he suddenly ripped the sword out of the monster’s mouth, killing it in the process. “Nicely done.” Glimmer Shine said with a smirk. The guard nodded in satisfaction at his good performance. “Look out!” Twilight yelled while pointing behind the three. Glimmer Shine and the others looked behind them to see two of the monkey creatures leaping towards them with their bladed hands reeled back for a strike. “Ack!” The ponies yelped in surprise while jumping backwards to get out of the way. The two monsters landed and shrieked as they missed their prey. They then jumped forward again to engage the escaping stallions. One of the creatures went after Glimmer Shine and Peppermint. It ducked and weaved around every strobe blast they sent its way as it slowly gained ground on them. Meanwhile, the other creature went after the lone guard. The white stallion backpedaled slowly while sizing the frightful monster up. He watched nervously as the beast snarled and stared at him with its multiple glowing eyes. It swiped its sickle-shaped claws in the air a few times while stepping forward menacingly. “Ragh!” The guard yelled fiercely while swiping his sword sideways at the monster. The blade collided with the creature’s claws, forcing the stallion to pull back and dodge the impending counterattack. The creature screeched with each strike it made. The guard barely managed to maneuver his sword in time to block each blow. The vicious attacks from the beast drove the white stallion backwards as he desperately tried to keep up. Suddenly, the sword went flying out of the guard’s mouth. The blade slid along the ground sideways until it fell out of the barrier. The stallion suddenly realized that he was right next to the edge of the safe area. Looking over to Glimmer Shine and Peppermint for aid, the guard quickly realized that they were busy with their own monster. The creature was still dodging every blast the pair shot at it. “Ack!” The guard yelped in surprise as the monster leapt onto him. He slid backwards and just barely halted inside of the bubble of protection. The top of his helmet was jutting out of the barrier. He could feel the coldness of the dark matter radiating through the metallic headpiece. “AH!” The guard yelled in fright as the beast on top of him reeled its arm back for a strike. He saw his entire life flashing before his eyes. Before the stallion met his end, a burst of light crashed into the shadowy beast. The guard saw bolts of energy burning through the monster, leaving holes in its body that poured out black smoke. Once the creature faded into a cloud of smoke on top of him, the guard looked up to find his savior. Much to his surprise, he still saw Peppermint and Glimmer Shine struggling with their monster. Suddenly, another set of energy blasts slammed into the other beast from the side. Everyone looked over to see the disabled stallion pointing his strobe forward, but they also saw another surprising sight. “Glitter?” Glimmer Shine asked in a surprised tone as he looked over to the unicorn. Not only was she awake and alert, but she was also pointing her strobe forward confidently. “What did I miss?” Glitterball asked with a small smirk while blowing the smoke off of the tip of her strobe. “Not much… we’re up to our eyes in these freaks, though.” Glimmer Shine replied while offering his sword to the guard in place of the one he lost. “Well I would love to help, but I need to get back to work.” Glitterball replied while lighting up her horn and concentrating. Despite her exhaustion, she immediately returned to gathering energy for the princess’s spell. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and his brother returned their attention to the many creatures around them. More and more different monsters were walking through the barrier in an attempt at getting to the ponies. The three stallions did their best to keep on top of all of the creatures coming for them while also trying to dodge any attacks coming their way. The constant firing of the brothers’ strobes filled the air as they dispatched every darkling, every crawling alligator monster, and every screeching primate creature they found. It seemed like what Brimstoke said was true and every monster in the entire building was coming after them in force. Suddenly, a small flying object landed at Glimmer Shine’s feet and embedded itself into the floor. The object resembled a thorn that would come from a plant, but it was the biggest thorn that the stallion had ever seen. “What the…?” Glimmer Shine muttered in confusion. Suddenly, another thorn whizzed by his head. After several more sharp flying spikes sailed past the ponies, they looked forward to find the cause of the assault. A small creature slowly stepped out of the darkness. It resembled a fox, but not any fox that one would find roaming around in the woods. This fox seemed to have been plucked straight from some filly’s worst nightmare. The fox had pitch black fur, just like every other shadow creature the group had fought. It also had a mouth full of gnarled razor sharp teeth and two glowing red slits above its mouth, also like every other shadow creature the group had fought. What set the small monster apart from the rest of the beasts the ponies had come across were its thorns. There were small spikes jutting out of the creature’s body nearly everywhere. To match with its appearance, its tail came to an end at a larger spike that resembled the ones that Glimmer Shine and the others had been dodging. “Sweet Celestia… how many different shadow creatures are there Tom?!” Glimmer Shine asked while dodging another spike launched from the beast’s tail. “I don’t know. How many different animals are there?” Tom replied. The ponies couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not, and they weren’t sure which would be worse. “Hay with this…” Glimmer Shine muttered angrily. He was tired of these monsters. If he ever saw another shadow creature in his life it would be too soon. Deciding that enough was enough, he readied his strobe and pointed it at the disturbing animal. Just as the yellow stallion fired a blast at the creature, it flicked its tail at him and shot out another spike. The blast of light exploded into the monster, killing it instantly. Meanwhile, the thorn whizzed through the air towards the yellow pony. Glimmer Shine prepared to dodge the attack when it suspiciously veered off to the side and completely missed him. Glimmer Shine turned his head just in time to watch the thorn fly at the unicorn guard assisting Tom. Before anyone could react, the spike flew right into the brown stallion’s chest and embedded itself into it. The guard’s armor cracked from the force of the piercing thorn, seemingly impaling him deeply. “Gah!” The unicorn groaned in pain while clutching the already bleeding injury. He stumbled backwards for a moment before collapsing to the floor and going limp. As his horn dimmed, the spell he was casting died out as well. “Agh!” Tom yelled in pain while falling to his knees. The barrier of light that was keeping the ponies safe suddenly dipped downwards a considerable amount as the human struggled to keep up with the immense strength of the cloud by himself. “Tom!” The others yelled fearfully as they realized what was happening. Twilight looked around at the progressively shrinking barrier that separated the darkness outside from their zone of safety. At this rate, they would all be submerged in pitch blackness with a life sucking cloud of evil at their backs within a few short moments. “Hold on, Tom! I’m coming!” Twilight exclaimed while rushing forward. She ran across the roof to where the human was and raced to use the spell to transfer her energy to him. As Twilight made the connection with the boy, she immediately felt the strain he was going through. She now understood why he couldn’t fend off the dark matter by himself. He wasn’t even able to match up with its level of power without her assistance. Tom pushed hard against the encroaching cloud, sending it back to its original position. Now that the group had some breathing room, the human slowly got back to a standing position and breathed a sigh of relief. “Nice save…” Tom stated in an impressed tone while glancing beside him to the unicorn. Twilight chuckled slightly as she let a small smile fall across her face. “Thanks.” Twilight replied with a slight smirk. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine and Peppermint were examining the unicorn guard that got attacked by the fox creature. Peppermint checked the motionless stallion for any signs of life while everyone else watched anxiously. “Is he…” Twilight asked uneasily while staring at the large spike embedded into the unicorn’s chest. “I’m afraid so.” Peppermint replied while shaking his head sadly. He couldn’t find a pulse on the unconscious stallion, and he wasn’t breathing. It wasn’t hard to believe that he was dead considering the scope of his injury. “*Sigh*… We need to be more careful. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.” Twilight lowered her head sadly at the prospect of her companions dying. Her group hadn’t been that large to begin with, but now it felt like she was practically alone on the roof. Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a loud roar that was so low in pitch that it shook their bodies slightly as it reverberated around the roof. The loud noise was followed by what sounded like the footsteps of something large. The group didn’t need to wonder as to the source of the frightening noises for long however, as a large black shape slowly approached the barrier and stepped through. The hulking beast that was revealed seemed more humanoid in shape than animalistic. It had two large arms that seemed to be slightly disproportionate to the rest of its body. It also had one large glowing red eye in the center of its chest. “AHH!” Rarity screamed in terror as she recognized the beast. “That’s the brute that attacked me out in the hallway!” She exclaimed in a nervous panic as memories of what happened before her concussion came flooding back to her. “I’ll handle this guy!” Glimmer Shine stated with a determined expression while readying his strobe. He fired off a bolt of light that sailed right into the hulking monster and exploded into its shadowy skin. When the bright light faded however, the only sign that the monster had taken damage was a small puff of white smoke trailing off its otherwise undamaged body. “Uh oh…” Glimmer Shine felt his blood run cold as he looked down at his strobe. The weight that it once carried all but vanished, leaving him holding the small paperweight that it felt like all along. *Grroaar!* The beast let out a deafening roar while settling its singular eye on the ponies in front of it. The group felt their hearts collectively skip a beat as the noise shook their very beings. “Shoot it!” The lieutenant yelled while uneasily watching the battle about to take place. “I tried that already!” Glimmer Shine yelled back in response. “Well shoot it some more!” The unicorn instructed urgently. While the large creature took a single menacing step forward, Peppermint and Glimmer Shine both readied their strobes. Without so much as a countdown for preparation, the brothers unloaded into the towering beast with their weapons. Blast after blast slammed into the monster and exploded into a shower of brilliant sparks. white smoke poured off of the creature’s body in streams, but it seemed to have only been enraged by the constant assault. Meanwhile, while the two brothers were attacking the beast from the front, the lone guard rushed behind the monster for a sneak attack. He reeled his sword back and swung at the beast’s legs with all of his might. The luminescent blade cut through the monster with relative ease, eliciting a deafening cry of pain from the creature. The monster immediately turned around and pounded its massive fist into the ground where the pony was. The guard barely managed to move out of the way before the thundering strike landed on him. When the creature moved its fist, there was a large indentation in the floor with numerous cracks forming along the sides. The white stallion used this as an opportunity and swung his sword across the monster’s side. The beast whipped its arm around, smacking the fleeing pony and sending him rolling from the impact. It didn’t even seem like the monster put that much effort into the strike, but it was enough to send the guard flying along the ground. While the dazed guard skidded to a halt on the other side of the roof, Twilight and Tom were nervously stepping back to distance themselves from the hulking monster. Finally, Tom lowered one of his hands from fending off the dark matter. With the added energy the purple mare was giving him, it should have been no problem to dispatch a simple shadow creature. “Hey blinky, feast your eye on this!” Tom yelled fiercely while shooting a beam of energy at the creature. The blue stream of light collided with the monster and enveloped it. The ponies smiled as they anticipated victory. As the light died down and the smoke cleared however, their hopes were suddenly dashed as they noticed that the creature was still standing. There was some black smoke trailing off of its body, indicating that the attack at least somewhat hurt the beast. However, it was otherwise unfazed by the human’s attack. “Oh no! What do we do?!” Twilight asked while frantically trying to think of a solution. Meanwhile, the angry beast was now staring at them with its singular eye. “For the moment… We get out of here!” Tom yelled while sidestepping to distance himself from the monster. Twilight followed the human as he awkwardly tried to move while simultaneously trying to fend off the cloud of dark matter. Rarity, Glitterball, and the lieutenant were watching anxiously as the others fought the monster. Nothing they were doing was even making a dent in the hulking beast. It was only a matter of time before the creature actually managed to land a fatal hit on one of them. “Princess, how much longer until the spell is finished?” The brown stallion asked uneasily. Although he was providing energy for the spell, he couldn’t actually tell how much progress was being made on it. Luna glanced up at the battle taking place just a short distance away. She frowned uneasily as she realized that the others were steadily losing the fight. “It’s almost done… we just need a few more minutes.” Luna explained with an anxious tone of voice. She didn’t like the way things were turning out just as much as the others didn’t. “They don’t have a few more minutes…” The lieutenant stated while looking forward with a determined expression. Suddenly, he broke off from the spell and rushed forward into battle. Meanwhile, Glimmer Shine was desperately trying to avoid the attacks coming from the giant monster. He had to put all of his effort into each dodge he made just to prevent himself from contacting the beast’s fist as it whizzed by his head. Suddenly, he fell to the floor as he jumped over one of the monster’s strikes and caught his legs on the hulking fist as it sailed underneath him. After rolling on the ground briefly and recovering, Glimmer Shine looked up to see the monster preparing to pound him into pony dust. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was punched clean through the roof and onto the next floor. “AH!” Glimmer Shine yelled in terror while averting his eyes and cringing tightly. Suddenly, he heard a magical buzz and heard the creature grunting angrily. The yellow stallion looked up to see that the monster was being held by a magical aura. Glimmer Shine and the others looked over to see the lieutenant struggling to keep the monster frozen in place. He seemed to be having a difficult time of even holding on to the hulking beast. The monster strained its muscles to fight against the unicorn’s influence. It managed to move in tiny increments as it slowly won the upper hand. Suddenly, it managed to break free of the aura keeping it in place. The beast threw a heavy punch at the unicorn, knocking him clean off of his feet and through the air. “AHHHHHHHH.” The brown stallion screamed as he was sent flying outside of the barrier. With how fast he was going, it wasn’t too hard to believe that he fell off of the roof entirely. “NO!” Rarity and the others yelled in shock as they watched the lieutenant fly out of view. It was horrifying for everyone, but the white unicorn was affected the most. The stallion was the one who had rescued her and Fluttershy while wandering out in the hallways. If it wasn’t for him, she might not even be alive right now. The loss of their comrade couldn’t be mourned however as the monster turned its attention to the others. It stalked closer to Twilight and Tom while completely ignoring any attempts made by Glimmer Shine and Peppermint to distract it. “Princess, we have to help them!” Rarity stated frantically while darting her head between the alicorn and her friends. “I know… stand back.” Luna instructed as she got up from her seated position. She faced towards the beast with a determined expression before focusing on casting the spell she had been preparing for this whole time. Although it wasn’t quite as charged up as she would have liked, it was close enough for her. Suddenly, a bright wave of energy erupted from the alicorn’s horn. The blinding light radiated out of her horn in all directions, soaring outwards in a sort of dome of effect. The light immediately collided with the hulking creature, blowing it into smoke before continuing on its path. The ponies all covered their eyes and waited as they felt their hair getting blown back from the force. The light collided with the dark matter outside of the barrier and kept going. It seemingly pushed back the wall of darkness that had trapped the ponies inside of the station with relative ease. The group watched eagerly as their plan for freedom was about to bear fruit. “We did it!” Twilight cheered in excitement while grabbing the nearest person, in this case Tom, and pulling him in for a hug. The human was glad that he could finally rest from fighting the dark matter, but it was hard to breathe a sigh of relief with the purple unicorn squeezing him so tightly. “Finally! We can get out of this dreadful place!” Rarity stated with a joyful smile as she watched the wave of energy continuing on its path. Suddenly, the blinding light died down. The ponies expected to be greeted with the clear blue skies of Ponyville, but what actually greeted them made their jaws drop in shock and horror. The pitch black cloud of dark matter was still intact. It didn’t even have any holes punched into it. The only thing that the light did was push the cloud outwards until it vanished. “W…w…wh…” Twilight was at a loss for words as she blinked rapidly. She thought that maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but no matter how many times she blinked, the darkness remained. “How is this possible…? We put so much energy into that spell…” Luna stated in a shocked tone. She couldn’t even fathom how powerful the dark matter must have been to weather such a strong magical spell. The dark matter rapidly closed in around the ponies until it returned to its original position. Tom quickly placed his hands upwards and projected his light again. He struggled to keep the cloud at bay as it continued getting closer and closer. “Cast the spell on me Twilight!” Tom instructed frantically. The cloud felt like it was ignoring his attempts at fending it off, only being barely kept at bay by the blue light. “I am! It isn’t working!” Twilight replied with fear evident in her voice. Tom looked down to his body, only to see that the unicorn was already giving him energy. Despite this, the dark matter continued to press against him more than he could press back. “Did it get stronger?! How is that even possible?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone. Suddenly, Twilight felt something wrapping itself around her leg. She looked down just in time to see a shadowy tendril constricting her front leg and pulling taught. She felt herself getting pulled off balance violently. “AHH!” Twilight screamed as the tendril pulled her off of her feet and dragged her backwards. Without her spell to assist him, the human yelped in pain as the excessive force of the dark matter drove him to his knees. “Twilight!” Tom yelled as he helplessly watched the unicorn getting dragged towards the progressively shrinking wall of darkness. He couldn’t do anything to help her without dropping his hands and allowing the cloud to instantly smother the whole area. “TWILIGHT NO!” Rarity screamed as she saw her friend getting pulled closer to the wall of darkness. The purple unicorn desperately tried to grab onto the floor to prevent her inevitable demise. Suddenly, a bolt of energy flew into the tendril holding her in place. Twilight looked up to see Glitterball racing towards her. Despite her leg now being free, the purple mare was too close to the rapidly approaching edge of safety to be able to do anything. “AH!” Twilight screamed and covered her face with her forelegs as she felt her body crossing the barrier. She immediately heard the sound of roaring wind and the high pitched screeching enveloping her, snuffing out any other noise. “Hold on, Twilight!” Right before her head was enveloped, Twilight heard Glitterball yelling in a panic. She saw the rainbow haired unicorn racing to her and jumping into the darkness after her. Everyone else watched the two unicorns disappear behind the still approaching wall of darkness. Their hearts sunk as they realized that they were most likely dead and that they were about to join them in oblivion. “Girls!” Glimmer Shine yelled in a fearful panic as the still approaching wall of darkness made him back up. Everyone huddled together fearfully as they watched their approaching doom.
Chapter 74: Picking up the PiecesWhere am I…? Twilight thought to herself as she tried to determine what direction she was facing. Between the pitch blackness around her, and the roaring wind in her ears, she was experiencing a sort of sensory deprivation that she couldn’t escape from. The unicorn’s entire body was freezing cold. It wasn’t like she was actually cold. It was more like she couldn’t feel anything. The only thing that even told her what was going on around her was a few scattered feelings of pressure on her numb body that she loosely translated as things touching her. Suddenly, Twilight felt something grab onto her shoulder. She looked over and barely noticed a pony shaped outline next to her. Judging from what she remembered before the dark matter swallowed her, she figured that the person next to her was Glitterball. “Glitter…?” Twilight spoke out loud, though the sound was immediately lost in the white noise surrounding her. As she spoke, the purple mare made a frightening discovery. I can’t breathe…! She became panicked as she clutched her throat. It felt like there was a thick cloud over her mouth that was preventing her from taking in any air. Any effort to take in oxygen was even further hampered by the numbness prevailing in her entire body, making it nearly impossible to fight to breathe. Glitterball pulled on the purple mare’s shoulder, lifting her off the ground slightly. Twilight figured that she was trying to get them out of the cloud of darkness. Deciding that escaping was her only way of surviving, the unicorn tried her best to get to her feet. Twilight quickly realized that she was far too weak to get up. Her entire body already felt numb, but now she felt like she was progressively getting weaker. Oh no, the dark matter must be draining my energy. We have to get out of here! She thought to herself with a sense of urgency taking over her. She turned to her side toward her only companion to see if she could somehow find a way to help her. Twilight suddenly felt Glitterball letting go of her. She noticed the outline of her friend dropping to the floor. The same feeling of numbness that had already taken her over must have been affecting the white mare as well. Twilight could feel a nagging tired sensation overwhelming her. She felt a strong urge to close her eyes and rest, but she knew that this would prove to be her end. Despite the knowledge that she had to fight to stay awake, she couldn’t shake the drowsy feeling she had. Is this it…? Is this how I die? She asked herself in thought. Twilight couldn’t believe that she was going to die like this. She still had so much to do. She couldn’t just die without making sure that the hooded ponies were stopped. It’s so dark… it’s so cold… I’m scared. Twilight’s mind raced at a million miles an hour, perhaps as a defense mechanism to keep herself awake. Regardless of why she was thinking so frantically, she couldn’t help but think about how dire her situation was. I… don’t want to… die... The purple mare could feel her body shutting down. Her mind was slowly filling with a haze similar to the one that was enveloping her form. She couldn’t see, but she could feel her eyes closing against her will. Twilight fought to keep them open, but her eyelids kept drifting downwards. Suddenly, Twilight saw a bright light out of the corner of her eye. The sudden stimulation gave her the energy to open her eyes fully. She watched curiously as the light rapidly washed over her, growing in intensity to the point where she had to shut her eyes to protect them from the light. Thankfully, she no longer felt tired. In fact, the numb feeling in her body was slowly disappearing and being replaced with warmth. When the unicorn opened her eyes, she saw the light dying down. Much to her surprise, she could also see the sky above her in all of its clear blue glory. She slowly moved her head around until she could see the entire roof. Twilight noticed Princess Luna and the others huddled into a pile where she had last seen them. They seemed equally surprised to be alive, so they were most likely not the reason why the dark matter was defeated. As she heard the fluttering of wings, Twilight looked to the side to see a familiar white alicorn flying up to the roof. The sight of the princess landing on the roof and walking up to her was almost too good to be true. “P… princess?” Twilight spoke weakly. Despite her senses returning to her, her body still felt numb and weak. The alicorn smiled as she saw that her student was still alive. She seemed to be relieved that she made it just in time to save the group of ponies. “Conserve your energy, my student. Everything is going to be ok… for now, just lie down and rest.” Celestia explained in a comforting tone of voice. Twilight slowly let a smile creep across her face. She wanted to get up and cheer, or perhaps hug her mentor, but she still felt much too weak. Now that she was safe, she could finally give in to her exhaustion. The unicorn laid her head back and closed her eyes to rest. “Sister!” Celestia turned around as she heard her sister calling for her. She was greeted with the sight of the blue alicorn rushing over to her along with the remaining members of her group. Celestia gladly embraced her younger sibling as she crashed into her. The young princess seemed to be relieved now that she wasn’t struggling to keep herself and the others alive. But more than anything, she seemed to be joyful now that her sister was with her. “I’m so glad to see you. I thought that we were going to die.” Luna stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes. “I’m glad that I made it in time… what happened here?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone as she thought back to how she found the station when she returned. “That pegasus with the shadow and her brother showed up when we were interrogating Cotton Quill. They killed him and summoned that cloud that almost killed us.” Glimmer Shine explained the situation as briefly as he could. “Good heavens…” Celestia muttered with a shocked expression on her face. She never expected the hooded ponies to go to such violent means, especially against one of their own members. “How many people were hurt in the attack?” She asked hesitantly. She didn’t like discussing casualties, and she didn’t like how often she was doing it in recent days either. “We’re not certain. We haven’t been able to search the building due to shadow creatures infesting it.” Luna explained with a saddened expression. She wondered what the body count would be once the entire station was swept. “Shadow creatures…?” Celestia asked in a surprised tone. “Yeah… apparently whatever spell these guys used to summon the dark matter tampered with it somehow. Almost every shadow creature me and several other slayers have seen flooded in through the windows. I’m fairly certain that most of them are still down there… especially in the basement.” Tom explained while gathering the energy needed to hobble over to the princess. Celestia sighed in a disheartened manner. She couldn’t believe how much of an upper hand the hooded ponies had gotten on her and Equestria in general. Still, she couldn’t dwell on the losses received due to the attacks. Not yet, not while there was still a job to do. “Glimmer Shine, call down to Brimstoke and Sunspot. Tell them to gather up a team of guards to go on a search party. I’m going to meet up with them so we can sweep the whole building for survivors and any remaining monsters.” Celestia spoke up with an expression of steely resolve. “Right away, princess.” Glimmer Shine replied with a brief nod. The alicorn smiled before turning her attention to the others. “Alright everyone, head downstairs and find a safe place. I think you have all earned a rest… I’ll take care of tying up loose ends.” Celestia said in a reassuring tone. Everyone smiled and breathed a sigh of relief now that they could relax. While everyone was preparing to relocate to a more comfortable position, Rarity walked over to the two unicorns lying on the floor. Both Glitterball and Twilight were still knocked out from their encounter with the dark matter. Seeing her friend in such a poor state made the white mare frown sadly. “Oh, Twilight…” Rarity muttered to herself in a disheartened tone. She couldn’t believe how close to death the purple mare had come, or how close to death she had come herself for that matter. “Hey, why don’t we take them down to the equipment room?” Peppermint suggested while walking beside the white unicorn. Rarity turned her head to see the red haired stallion looking at her with a small smile. “Of course darling… they need all the rest they can get.” Rarity replied with a nod. She turned her attention to her purple friend and lit up her horn. While Peppermint picked Glitterball up and placed her on his back, the unicorn placed Twilight onto her back gently. The pair joined the others and made their way to the stairway door. They couldn’t wait to get downstairs to see their friends, and more importantly, to get some rest. Meanwhile, out in the Everfree forest, two pegasi were walking along a path uneasily. They walked in silence while avoiding eye contact with each other. There seemed to be an air of frustration about them from some sort of conflict. Dust Kicker glanced to his sister. The pale mare was completely ignoring him with an agitated expression on her face. Finally, the stallion shrugged as he became fed up with the silence between him and his sibling. “Will you stop giving me the silent treatment already?” Dust asked in an annoyed tone. Raincloud briefly glanced at him before turning her nose up and scoffing the pegasus. “Oh come on, Rain… it wasn’t that bad.” He groaned uneasily, eliciting the gray mare to turn to him. “I could have taken them.” Raincloud stated in annoyance. “There were royal guards and civilians pouring in from every angle. One pictogram isn’t worth waging war with Ponyville.” Dust Kicker explained in an irritated manner. He knew he was right by forcing his sister to leave. If it were up to her, they would probably already be in jail, or worse. “It’s the principle of it, Dust. What’s the point of fear mongering if you can’t slaughter a few innocents in broad daylight?” Raincloud replied. “I doubt that Raven Feather would be happy if she found out that we slaughtered much of anything in broad daylight… let alone a few innocents.” Dust Kicker stated while air quoting the gray mare’s words. He had the sneaking suspicion that his sister wouldn’t have stopped anywhere near what most people would call a few. Raincloud rolled her eyes and shrugged in response. “Yeah, yeah… I know. Why do you think I left?” She asked with a slight smirk. The stallion was surprised to hear that she left of her own accord. “You left…? I recall having to practically pull you away from that pictogram.” Dust Kicker said while raising an eyebrow at the pale mare. Raincloud laughed heartily at the brown pony’s line of reasoning. “Oh please, Dust… like you could make me go anywhere I didn’t want to. What are you going to do? Sick your darklings on me? Don’t make me laugh…” Raincloud said with a warm chuckle. Dust Kicker shook his head and shrugged at the blue pegasus. As much as she annoyed him, he knew she was right. Her shadow would turn any mindless creature he could conjure up into mincemeat, and she didn’t even need extensive knowledge of shadow magic to use it. Not wanting to elicit any more frustrating conversations with his sister, the brown stallion walked on in silence. He was hoping that they would get to the mansion without anyone else speaking up, and thankfully he was right. The sprawling property was just starting to come into view through a clearing in the trees. The pair walked up to the iron fence surrounding the property and ducked through a large hole. They quickly made their way past all of the crumbling statues and dead trees to get out of the garden and up to the main house. Raincloud grabbed ahold of one of the large knockers on the door with her mouth and pulled on it until the door creaked open. She stood in front of her brother and motioned towards the inside while smirking. “After you.” Raincloud said while bowing her head to the stallion. “What happened to ladies first?” Dust Kicker asked curiously while stepping inside. “Age before beauty, dear brother.” Raincloud remarked playfully, eliciting a scornful glare from the older pegasus. The pale mare shoved her way past a hooded underling that was walking down the main staircase. The nervous pony backed up as far as he could to let the pair pass. If the ponies around the mansion had learned anything during their brief stay, it was to stay out of the way of Raven Feather and her inner circle, especially the more aggressive Raincloud. Without any further delay, the two made their way through the upstairs hallways until they found themselves in the main library. As expected, they found Raven Feather sitting at the back of the room as she usually did during this time of day. Along with the black earth pony, Grimwood and Shadow Mist were present, sitting at Raven Feather’s side and leaning up against a bookshelf off to the side of the room respectively. Once she noticed the pair entering the room, Raven Feather smiled and stood up to walk over to them. She seemed to have been incredibly confident in the siblings’ ability to complete the mission that they were given. “Raincloud, Dust Kicker, it’s good to see that you made it back. I was starting to worry about you for a minute there.” Raven Feather said while greeting the two with a brief hoof shake. “You know me Raven Feather, I’m all about reliability. Dust here wanted to stay for a while to watch, but I talked him out of it.” Raincloud stated with a smirk while glancing over to her brother. Dust Kicker rolled his eyes and shrugged at the pale mare. “I assume that Cotton Quill is dead?” Raven Feather asked curiously. It was obvious that the white unicorn was no longer a problem, but she felt it necessary to check. “Yes… my shadow snuck in and did the job, and then we used the dark matter as a cover to escape. We even drew up a pictogram to gather some extra energy.” Raincloud explained in a prideful manner. She put extra emphasis on the fact that she had taken the initiative to draw a symbol for gathering energy. Raven Feather smiled joyfully at the news. Not only was Cotton Quill dead, but there was a lot more energy to work with now to make up for his past mistakes. All in all, the day was wrapping up rather nicely for the black mare. “That’s great! Very well done you two… there’s just one more thing I need to ask.” Raven Feather added in a cursory manner. “Anything Raven Feather. I made sure to take care of every detail personally.” Raincloud said in a boastful tone while placing a hoof on her chest. She was clearly enjoying her success a lot more than her brother. “What did Cotton tell them before he died? Did he break under pressure or did he hold up?” Raven Feather asked curiously. The pale mare’s ego immediately deflated as she realized one crucial detail she hadn’t attended to. “Uh… well umm… you see…” Raincloud muttered while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. She looked away as she tried to think of a better way to put the news that she was about to dispense. “We don’t know if Cotton said anything… we didn’t manage to overhear anything before we killed him.” Dust Kicker spoke up in place of his sister. The gray mare glared at him for putting it so bluntly. “Dust! What the hell man? You’re supposed to have my back here.” Raincloud whispered angrily to him while giving him a not so gentle shove with her elbow. “So what you’re telling me is that we have no idea if the princess knows where we are or not…?” Raven Feather asked with a slight hint of agitation in her voice. “Umm… well… *Sigh* No Raven Feather, we don’t.” Raincloud lowered her head in defeat as she found no other way to recap the scenario. “Ugh… it’s just one thing after another this week. Was I cruel to puppies in a previous life? Well… more so than I have been in this life.” Raven Feather said while shifting her eyes to the side pensively. “Sorry, Raven Feather… there wasn’t much we could do. I wanted to take him out as fast as I could, so I didn’t think to listen in on him.” Raincloud said with a noticeable hint of humility in her voice. She didn’t like disappointing the black mare. After all, aside from her brother, Raven Feather was pretty much the only family she had. The hooded workers around the room were surprised to hear the pale mare owning up to her mistake. Usually, she didn’t show any hint of remorse for any action she took, no matter how small. The ponies had to glance in her general direction every once in a while for fear that she might see them looking at her with judging eyes. “Don’t worry, Raincloud. I’m not upset at you… I don’t care if he is dead, I can still direct my anger at Cotton Quill.” Raven Feather said while raising her voice slightly. She took a moment to check her temper before continuing. “Anyway… the fact still remains that you completed your mission without a hitch.” She added in a reassuring tone. “But we still have a major problem on our hooves.” Dust Kicker stated to remind the group of their situation. “I know…” Raven Feather shrugged while looking down in thought. Now that their base of operations was possibly compromised, the group needed to take preemptive action to make sure that they weren’t caught off guard. “Gather everyone up and tell them to gather their things and all of the vital research. We’re packing up and moving out.” Raven Feather instructed in a disheartened yet serious tone. Everyone widened their eyes in shock at what their leader just said. “What?! Are you serious?!” Raincloud asked in disbelief. “I’m very serious Raincloud… The royal guard could beat down our door by tomorrow. We need to make sure that we aren’t here when that happens.” Raven Feather replied. “But… what do we do? It’s not like we can just start over and gather more energy. And all of the equipment and spells we need to maintain the supply we have would take months to make somewhere else… and-” Raincloud spoke up in a concerned tone until she was interrupted by Raven Feather. “And if we don’t maintain our supply within a few days then we will be starting from scratch. I know, Raincloud… I’m well aware of how all of this works.” The black mare droned in an agitated manner. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes to reflect on her frustrating situation. “We’re going to have to improvise somehow… I’ll think of something. Just get everything ready to move.” Raven Feather added in a disheartened tone. All of the stress was starting to get to her as she hung her head sadly. “Sorry, Raven Feather… We’ll get right on it.” Raincloud said while shrugging in defeat. The green eyed pony was having a bad enough day without her arguing to make things worse. The pale pegasus turned to her brother before glancing around at the numerous ponies listening and watching from around the room. “You heard the lady, everyone get off your tails and get moving! We need to get a lot of research packed up by tomorrow!” Raincloud instructed in a commanding tone. All of the hooded ponies around the room jumped in their seats before scrambling to do as they were told. They all rushed out of the room and went to start the process of compiling all of the important supplies around the mansion. Raincloud and Dust Kicker quickly joined the crowd of ponies leaving the room. They knew that they would have to organize the many ponies lest they run around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Raven Feather started to walk towards the door. She had much to do in a short amount of time, so the sooner she started working the better. Grimwood glanced to Shadow Mist as the black mare walked away. He knew that he should at least make another attempt at letting his sister see things his way. “Hey, Raven Feather…” The pale colt spoke up while trotting alongside the older mare. Raven Feather turned to her brother and sighed before putting on a small smile. She didn’t want to ignore her brother, but she had a lot on her mind. “What is it Grim?” Raven Feather asked while trying to muster enough energy to sound interested in what the young pony had to say. “I think I found something you should see about the eternal night. I was looking over some of the older texts and cross referencing them with-” Grimwood explained while holding up one of the books he had been using for reference. Raven Feather suddenly put her hoof up to interrupt the pale colt. “Grim… I’ve told you to stop reading the older works. You know that they are completely falsified by my research.” Raven Feather stated while making every effort to not sound harsh. “But Raven Feather, I-” Grimwood tried to speak up when he was interrupted yet again by his sister. The black mare raised her voice slightly, eliciting the young pony to fall silent. “Grimwood, please don’t do this now. I’ve tried to be nice about humoring your theories, but I have too much to deal with right now. Just let me worry about the eternal night right now, ok?” Raven Feather asked while continuing to walk forward dismissively. “But… but-” Grimwood tried to get the black mare’s attention, but she ignored him and walked out of the room. “But it’s important… *Sigh*” Now that his effort was shot down yet again, the pale colt turned his attention to the one person that followed his beliefs. Shadow Mist walked up to the young pony with a sympathetic expression. Even though the colt seemed to be unaffected by being brushed off by his sister, he still felt bad for him. “See what I mean? She just won’t listen to me.” Grimwood explained while shaking his head slowly in disappointment. “Well to be fair, you are trying to get her to believe in something that flies in the face of years of hard studying… I mean come on, do you even remember how often she was in here reading books when we first found this place?” Shadow Mist stated lightheartedly. “Yeah… and people think I’m not very sociable. She barely came out to eat some days.” The pale colt said while thinking back to how much research his sister put into finding out about the eternal night. He wondered how she could be so wrong about it after so much hard work. “So… you want to share with the class and tell me the rest of your plan? Because right now it looks like you just sent everyone into a blind frenzy.” Shadow Mist asked curiously. He wasn’t sure of the merit of the colt’s plan. From the outside looking in, it seemed like he was working against his sister rather than for her. “That’s why I set up Cotton in the first place,” Grimwood stated with a slight hint of pride in his usual dull tone. “Now that Raven Feather is being forced to pack up and move, her best option will be to perform the ritual early. Once that happens, we can step in and show her that we’re the ones who really know how to start the eternal night.” He fiddled his hooves together eagerly, all the while only managing a small smirk on his otherwise blank face. “You mean that you wanted Cotton to tell them how to find us?” Shadow Mist asked in a surprised tone. He was more intrigued and confused by the startling plan than shocked. “More or less… I suppose there is the chance that he didn’t say anything. If he did, the princess will most likely bring the elements with her when she comes for us as a safety precaution. Then you can collect the rest of the samples we need from each of them. If Cotton didn’t squeal, however, we will just need to collect the samples by going to them. Either way, Raven Feather should push for us to perform the ritual within the next few days.” Grimwood explained his plan in depth to the eagerly listening stallion. Shadow Mist was impressed by how much thought he had put into this. “Wow… That is actually really well thought out. The mansion will be empty by the time they get around to raiding us, so I will just have to sneak up on them and collect the rest of their blood while they search the place.” Shadow Mist said in an intrigued tone. “Precisely… now then, you should probably get going. Raven Feather will be expecting you to help with packing everything up. And you will also need to prepare our own research for travel by tomorrow as well.” Grimwood said while motioning over to the door. Shadow Mist nodded while getting up and walking out of the library. The pale colt smirked slightly as he watched the stallion leave. Soon enough, his sister would praise him for saving the plan that she was too stubborn to realize that she was driving into the ground. Twilight opened her eyes slowly. She felt incredibly tired. So much so that she could barely lift her head or move her body. Deciding that getting up so quickly was a bad idea, the unicorn first focused on opening her eyes all of the way. Blurry images and sounds started coming into focus. Before long, the colorful shapes and muffled voices around her she recognized to be ponies. She quickly noticed the sight of her friends sitting a short distance away chatting amongst themselves. Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and even Applejack were huddled together with concerned expressions on their faces. They seemed to have been watching the purple mare for a while as she slept. Hearing the slight groaning coming from the unicorn, Pinkie Pie turned her attention back to her unconscious friend and gasped in surprise. “Look girls, she’s waking up!” Pinkie exclaimed in excitement. The others turned their heads forward to see Twilight trying to push herself off of the floor. Twilight slowly managed to get herself to a seated position while her friends gathered around her with cheerful smiles. She quickly realized that she was wearing a fuzzy gray blanket. She also realized that she was incredibly cold still from her previous encounter with the dark matter. Before, she had been too numbed out to notice, but now it felt like she had taken a bath in ice water. “W-w-where a-am I?” Twilight asked through chattering teeth while holding the blanket close to her body. “You’re in the equipment room darling. They moved all of the injured ponies in here so they could take care of them better.” Rarity explained while placing a reassuring hoof on the freezing mare’s shoulder. Twilight’s body was so cold that she could feel it through the blanket. It wasn’t much of a surprise that she would be cold once she woke up. Her skin had been turning a bluish shade of purple ever since they had moved her. “Oh…” Twilight muttered in between fits of shivering. She didn’t feel like talking, but she wanted to respond to her friends in even the smallest way. “From what Ah hear, you best be countin’ your lucky stars Twilight. You almost didn’t make it offa’ that roof.” Applejack said in a concerned tone. She was glad that none of her friends had gotten hurt in her absence. “According to Tom, the only reason you did survive was because Glitterball rushed in after you. Apparently, the dark matter had to spread its effort between draining the energy out of the two of you.” Rarity explained in a troubled tone. Twilight suddenly became alarmed at the mention of the white unicorn that had saved her. From what she remembered, she had taken most of the dark matter’s draining capabilities due to her standing up and trying to pull the purple mare out. “W-where’s Glitter? Is she ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking around the room fearfully. “Relax Twilight. She’s in the other room. She’s still knocked out, but according to Peppermint she will be fine.” Rainbow Dash said in a comforting tone while reaching forward and gently pushing the sickly unicorn back to a seated position. “I want to s-see her.” Twilight stated while trying to get up, only to be met by Applejack and Rainbow Dash holding her down. “Now hold on a second sugarcube. You need to stay here and rest until the others get back and give you the ok to leave.” Applejack said in a lovingly firm tone. Twilight glanced at the farm pony and tried to put on her best pleading expression. Judging from the serious look that Applejack was giving her, the unicorn realized that she would probably tie her down to rest if the need arose. “*Sigh* Fine… wait, what do you mean when the others get back?” Twilight asked curiously. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are taking Tom and the others on a sweep through the building. They’re making sure that no more of those horrible monsters are here.” Fluttershy explained nervously. The mere thought of the terrifying beasts she encountered sent a cold chill up her spine that made her shiver with equal intensity to the purple unicorn. “And how long have they been gone?” Twilight asked while glancing up at the clock on the wall to find out what time it was. “Around an hour or so… they said they only had to clear out the basement the last time they checked in.” Rainbow Dash replied. “So… I guess that means we wait?” Twilight droned in an annoyed tone. She wanted to at least get up and move around, but she couldn’t until Peppermint cleared her as healthy. “Yep… but don’t worry, I know some great games we can play to pass the time! We could play I spy, or charades, or twenty questions, or twenty-one questions!” Pinkie Pie listed off all of the games she had in mind in a frantic and energetic tone, all the while getting progressively more excited. “I don’t know Pinkie… I’m not sure if I-” Twilight started to protest until she noticed the pink mare pouting sadly. “Come on… pleeaaase?” Pinkie asked with as wide of a pleading smile as she could manage. Twilight felt slightly bad for the pink mare. She must have felt horrible knowing that her friends were subjected to so many terrifying situations. And now she was trying to help in the only way she knew how, by having fun. “Well… alright, I suppose a few games couldn’t h-” The purple mare started to agree until she was interrupted again by another energetic outburst from the party pony. “Yaaaaay! We’re going to have so much fun! What game do you want to play first? Who wants to go first? Come on, anyone?” Pinkie asked while glancing around at her small group of friends. Everyone smiled awkwardly and glanced between themselves to see who would volunteer first. Five games of I spy, two games of charades, three games of twenty questions, and one game of twenty-one questions later, the ponies finally heard the sound of the door opening. They looked over to see Princess Celestia walking in with Glimmer Shine, Tom, and Peppermint. “Twilight! It’s good to see you’re awake.” Celestia said with a cheerful smile while walking up to the purple unicorn. “Thanks, princess. I feel much better now.” Twilight stated while taking note of her diminished feeling of coldness and her energy returning to her. “You look much better as well. You were almost as blue as Rainbow Dash when we first brought you down here.” Celestia said with a lighthearted tone. “How did the search through the station go? Are the monsters gone?” Twilight asked curiously. “Yep, we took care of all of the stragglers.” Tom explained with a slight smirk. The ponies were excited to hear that their ordeal was finally over. “That’s great! Now we can get back to… oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash frowned sadly as she remembered what the group had been doing before the attack. “I forgot that they killed that Cotton guy before all of this started.” The cyan pegasus droned in a defeated tone. With their prisoner dead, they were essentially back at square one with the investigation. Everyone shared in Rainbow Dash’s sadness. All of the sacrifices that had been made up to this point were for naught if they didn’t catch the ones responsible. “That reminds me… Cotton told us where their hideout is before he died. I think I still remember how to get there.” Glimmer Shine spoke up in an excited tone. “You can tell us how to find their base?” Celestia asked curiously, to which the yellow stallion nodded in response. “Yeah… I think he said that it was out in the Everfree Forest.” Glimmer Shine explained with an intrigued expression. “This is wonderful news. I will tell Luna so we can prepare a team to go down there and end this once and for all.” Celestia said in a relieved tone. She turned around and started to walk towards the door. “Princess…” Twilight spoke up to get the alicorn’s attention. Celestia turned around and looked at her student curiously. “What is it Twilight?” Celestia asked with genuine intrigue in her voice. “Do you know what the eternal night is?” Twilight asked curiously. Her question caught the princess off guard. “The eternal night… what do you mean?” Celestia said with a confused expression. “Cotton said that his leader was trying to invoke the eternal night, and that they were trying to kill us because the elements of harmony were the only things that could stop it. He referred to it like it was a specific thing… like, not just making the night last forever like what Nightmare Moon tried to do.” Twilight explained while trying to think about what Cotton Quill could have meant. “I’ve never heard of anything specifically known as the eternal night… but from the sound of it, it isn’t anything good.” Celestia stated while pondering on the matter further. Suddenly, Tom’s face paled as he dawned on something. The ponies looked at him curiously as they wondered what he had thought of. “Tom…? Are you ok? Do you know something about the eternal night?” Twilight asked hesitantly. It took a lot to make the human even flinch from fright or dread, so she didn’t like the fact that he looked like he had just seen a ghost. “The eternal night…? As in, the… eternal night?” Tom asked in a shocked tone. “Umm… yeah, I guess. We don’t know anything about it, so we aren’t sure what he was referring to.” Twilight replied with an uneasy expression. The human’s reaction was starting to scare her slightly. “What is the eternal night?” The unicorn asked in a pleading tone. She couldn’t take any more of the suspense in the air. “The eternal night is a very old legend… even for my standards. It was around long before the first slayer even came into existence. The legend says if someone were to find a way to invoke the eternal night that the sun would be blotted out of the sky and every evil creature that exists would be free to walk the earth. The only way to stop it once it starts would be to harness the raw elements of good in the world.” Tom explained the legend as closely as he could remember. The more he spoke, the more terrified the ponies became. The thoughts running through their heads made them huddle together and shiver with fright. “T-that sounds awful.” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully. The mere thought of such a terrifying event happening was enough to make her weak in the knees. “Every evil creature that exists… you mean, even the ones from your time?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously. If the few monsters that the hooded ponies had summoned to Equestria filled her with terror, she didn’t want to know what a world full of monsters would be like. “Yes… that’s what the legend says. But in the end, it’s only supposed to be a legend. Nothing is supposed to be able to tip the balance of the world like that, for good or evil. Everything is supposed to exist in relatively equal balance… that’s why slayers were made in the first place.” Tom explained uneasily. He didn’t want to believe that something like the eternal night could exist. “Well, if these hooded ponies are trying to invoke the eternal night, we need to stop them, even if it is only a legend,” Celestia stated with a determined expression. “A threat to the world that large can’t be taken lightly… I need to go discuss this with my sister.” She said before turning and walking to the door. “But… what about us? The legend says that only the raw elements of good in the world can stop the eternal night. That must be referring to the elements of harmony. We need to go with you when you head to their base. It might be the only way we can prevent them from finishing their work!” Twilight reasoned anxiously. “I am aware of the risks Twilight… I will consider letting you go along, but for now, I just need to think things through with Luna.” Celestia explained while turning her head to face the group. Without another word, the alicorn walked to the door and exited the room. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her friends. They had no idea that the hooded ponies had something so catastrophic in store for Equestria. All they could do now was sit and reflect on their grim thoughts.
Chapter 75: Planning AheadMeanwhile, on the other side of the station, things were much more frantic than the relaxed atmosphere of the equipment room. Various guards and other ponies rushed around the room on their assigned tasks. Some were tending to some of the injured ponies that hadn’t been transferred to the other room, some were investigating the still bloodstained interrogation room to gather any information they could, and some were simply taking a moment to be thankful for their miraculous survival. Sunspot and her small team were resting after finishing up their final sweep of the basement. Brimstoke had paired off with Neon Streak, Glimmer Shine, and Princess Luna, leaving the suited pegasus to join a small team of guards headed by Sargent Fireside. Even though she had done most of the work with her strobe, Sunspot didn’t seem to be nearly as exhausted as the guards around her were. She even seemed to be a little bored from the break in action she was having. While the orange mare was leaning up against a wall casually, Fireside and his men were winding down from the encounters they had in the basement and all throughout the building. They had never come up against a threat that was so overwhelming and foreign to them. Most of the guards were visibly shaken up from just seeing the terrifying beasts. “That was some outstanding work you and your team did out there Sunspot.” Fireside stated while giving the suited pony a brief congratulatory pat on the shoulder. Sunspot smirked at the praise and looks of amazement she was receiving from the guards around her. She knew that they were impressed by her entire team, but that didn’t stop her from basking in the spotlight for a moment by herself. “Just doing my job Sargent.” Sunspot replied with a smile. “Well, you must be really good at your job then. You barely even flinched at those things when we were clearing out the basement.” Fireside said in an impressed tone. Sunspot chuckled to herself at the mention of her bravery. Truth be told, she was only brave because she knew that there was a finite number of the monsters to deal with. All she had to do was blow the living daylights out of anything that moved with her strobe, and eventually, she would run out of things to shoot. “Yeah, well… you know how it is. The princess only picks the best of the best, and she asked me personally to join. I thought about turning her down… after all, there are only so many things I can do at once. But in the end, I decided to join her… I mean come on, it was the princess after all.” Sunspot boasted with a smirk while looking around at the impressed faces on the nearby guards. “It is nice to hear that I have the best of the best working for me.” A familiar voice spoke up, causing the group to dart their head to the side. Sunspot jumped slightly when she saw Princess Luna walking up to her with Brimstoke and Neon Streak in tow. “Princess Luna! Umm… I was uh…” Sunspot sweated nervously as she tried to think of a way to answer for her behavior. Luna chuckled and smiled at the pegasus as she tripped over herself trying to save face. “Don’t worry, Sunspot. Even alicorns have a sense of humor.” The princess said in a lighthearted tone. Sunspot chuckled and gave an awkward smile as she lowered herself to the floor. “Now then… we have managed to clear out the rest of the basement. The entire station should be completely monster free now.” Luna explained while turning to Fireside and his men. The guards were relieved to hear that their ordeal was over. “That’s great news!” Fireside exclaimed cheerfully. “Yeah, now all we have to do is lick our wounds and make a plan for dealing with these guys.” Brimstoke stated with a small smile. “I’m all for dealing with those hooded jerks. I’d like to give them a piece of my mind in person.” Sunspot said with eager enthusiasm. She looked like she was preparing to take on all of the hooded ponies by herself. All of the guards in the room nodded and voiced their agreement. They were far past finding a peaceful solution. They had been attacked in their own base, with their friends and coworkers injured or possibly dead. Each and every stallion was willing to wage a war with those responsible for this tragedy. “Don’t worry. I’m certain that my sister and I can find a way to effectively confront the hooded ponies. We will bring them to justice… one way, or another.” Luna said in a sincere tone while glancing around at the ponies around her. They were all willing to fight to protect their fellow Equestrians, and she respected each of them for their valor. Everyone quieted down and nodded in satisfaction. Now that they had finished securing the building, they were free to move around as they pleased. Most of the guards paired off and walked out of the room while chatting with each other. Some of the white stallions seemed a little more urgent in exiting the room, perhaps rushing off to assist some of the civilians around the building. As the last set of guards left the room, the group noticed a familiar white alicorn stepping into the room. Princess Celestia smiled as she noticed that everyone had returned safely from the basement. “Hello everyone.” Celestia greeted with a passing smile. Luna smiled in return and walked up to her sister with a thoughtful expression. “Sister, I think we need to talk. We need to discuss what we’re-” The blue alicorn spoke up until she was interrupted by her sister. “What we’re going to do about the hooded ponies. I was thinking the exact same thing… why don’t we take a walk and discuss this in private?” Celestia suggested while glancing around at the others. Luna glanced around as well before nodding in response. “That sounds like a good idea.” Luna said with a slight smirk. The two sisters gave a passing farewell to Brimstoke and the others before walking out of the room. The three ponies were suddenly left by themselves. There were only a few scattered guards and civilians left in the room, and they seemed to be occupied with their own affairs. Sunspot kicked her leg in the air passively while glancing between her two companions. “So uhh… I guess I’ll go check on the girls.” The orange pegasus suggested awkwardly. She desperately wanted to get away from idly standing around, and she also wanted to see if Glitterball had woken up, so she figured that heading to the equipment room was the best option. “Sounds good… Me and Neon will check up on the rest of the civvies. I’m sure they are still pretty shaken up.” Brimstoke said with a somber expression as he thought about the trauma that most of the innocent ponies around the station must have gone through. “Alright, I’ll be sure to give Glitter your regards.” Sunspot said while rushing out of the room. She barely even waved to her two teammates before exiting out of the door. Neon Streak and Brimstoke could tell that the orange mare was certainly eager to talk with Twilight and the others. Meanwhile, in the equipment room, Twilight and her friends were gathered around Glitterball waiting for her to wake up. The rainbow-haired unicorn was wrapped up in a blanket like Twilight was before she woke up, but unlike the purple mare, Glitterball had a lot more color to her appearance. She seemed to have warmed up a lot since her time up on the roof, much to the relief of those around her. Twilight sat next to the unconscious mare as the others chatted around her. She watched her almost peaceful breathing with a sad expression. Glitter had risked her life by jumping into the dark matter after her. She probably took more of the impact because of it. The purple mare would make sure to make it up to the unicorn for saving her life. She would have to make it up to a lot of people for saving her life after everything blew over. Maybe she could ask Pinkie Pie to throw a big party for everyone once the hooded ponies had been caught. The sound of the far door opening made the group turn their heads to investigate. Everyone noticed Sunspot walking through the door and closing it behind her. The pegasus smiled as she looked over at the group of ponies huddled around Glitterball. “Hey guys, how’s it going?” Sunspot asked in a cheerful manner while walking over to the group. Rainbow Dash walked forward to greet the orange mare, while everyone else remained where they were. “Hey Sunspot!” Rainbow said with a wide smile. “We’ve just been sitting here waiting for you guys. What have you been up to?” She asked in an intrigued tone. Sunspot chuckled and looked back towards the door as she remembered what she had been doing. “We just got done sweeping the basement all the way. We are officially monster free.” Sunspot stated with a pleased expression. Everyone smiled at the news that the building was finally safe. “Yay! We did it!” Pinkie Pie cheered excitedly. Twilight and the others shared in their pink friend’s joy, although at decidedly lower levels. “That’s great news Sunspot!” Twilight said with a relieved smile. She was glad to hear that everything had been successfully dealt with at the station. Now the group could solely focus on resting and recuperating from their experience. “Yeah… the princesses went out to talk about things, so we were left on our own pretty much. I decided to come down here to check on you guys.” Sunspot said while glancing around at the group. Despite her words, she seemed to be fixated on the unconscious unicorn wrapped up in a blanket beside Twilight. It wasn’t hard to tell that the orange mare was worried about her teammate. She was also beating herself up over the fact that she wasn’t there to help the group in their time of need. Before anyone could think of something to say to cheer up the sullen pegasus, the group heard a soft groan coming from behind them. Twilight felt the blanket beside her moving slightly. She looked over and saw Glitterball stirring from her sleep. “Look, everyone, she’s waking up!” The purple mare announced in an excited tone. Everyone quickly gathered around the rainbow haired unicorn and watched as she slowly picked herself up from the floor. Glitter sat up and opened her eyes slowly. “Wh…wha…?” Glitterball muttered in a daze as she looked around with a confused expression. The others waited for a moment as the white mare refocused her vision and started looking between them. “Where am I?” Glitterball asked in a sleepy tone while glancing down at the blanket covering her. “It’s about time you woke up! We were starting to worry about you for a minute there, Glitter.” Sunspot stated with a cheerful smirk while walking up to the white mare. “What happened…? Last thing I remember, I was on the roof trying to get Twilight out of that dark matter stuff.” Glitterball said while piecing together her memories. “You were. The dark matter made both of you pass out. Luckily for you, the princess showed up at the last minute and totally dominated that cloud thing.” Sunspot explained with an excited tone. Even if she hadn’t been there to see it, the pegasus was still amazed that the princess made such short work of the menacing bubble of darkness that had kept the building isolated from the outside world. “We… passed out?” Glitterball asked with a slightly saddened expression. She had hoped to rescue the purple mare when she braved the dark matter. It was supposed to be a quick trip in and out, but apparently, she had failed the unicorn. Spotting the frown on Glitter’s face, Twilight couldn’t help but frown sympathetically. She must have been kicking herself that her stunt didn’t work. The only reason they were still alive was because Celestia intervened. “You saved my life up there Glitter. The only reason either of us survived was because the dark matter couldn’t focus too much on both of us… thank you so much.” Twilight said while putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder and smiling. “I’m glad that things worked out… I didn’t really have a plan when I jumped in after you.” Glitterball admitted with a nervous chuckle while looking down. Despite her obvious disappointment in her actions, she flashed a brief smile from hearing that she had in fact accomplished her mission. Seeing the rainbow haired mare lightening up and smiling made Twilight smile warmly in return. Twilight didn’t care that the unicorn didn’t know what she was doing. She still risked her life to rescue her, and that was enough for the purple mare. “So… now that we’re all together and conscious, why don’t we all get something to eat? I’m sure I could round up something for everybody down at the break room.” Sunspot suggested eagerly. Upon the mention of food, everyone immediately felt their stomachs growling. Even if they could only get a few snacks from the break room, all of the ponies didn’t care as long as they had something to eat after all of their hard work. “Yes! Finally, someone addresses the food problem. Hiding from monsters is hard work. I’m starving!” Pinkie Pie spoke the mind of everyone else present. Twilight and the others nodded eagerly and voiced their agreement. “I’ll go with you. Let’s hurry up and get down there! If I have to wait any longer there isn’t going to be anything to bring back for the rest of you.” Rainbow Dash stated while stepping forward to accompany the orange pegasus. The others weren’t entirely sure if she was joking or not. “There better be something for us when you two get back, or else you will have to face the dire consequences.” Glitterball said with a playful glare directed at the two pegasi. She didn’t know if Rainbow Dash was joking, but she had worked with Sunspot long enough to know that she had a habit of hogging any food for the team that Brimstoke brought to the station back when they were training. “What’s that? I can’t hear you over all of that delicious food calling my name. Maybe you should get up and stop me if you want something yourself.” Sunspot replied with a playful smirk while walking out of the room with Rainbow Dash in tow. Glitterball tried to get up when she quickly realized that she still felt weak from her ordeal. Everyone laughed as the unicorn gave a frustrated shrug before pouting angrily and settling back to her seated position. Glitterball crossed her forelegs and looked at the floor while hoping against all odds that her teammate would bring her something to eat. While the ponies were all waiting for their two friends to bring them some food, some more serious business was going on outside. Princess Celestia was informing her younger sibling about everything that they had learned from Cotton Quill, from telling her where the hooded ponies were supposedly located, to discussing what Tom had told her about the nefarious group’s intentions. “So this… eternal night was it? That is what these ponies are after?” Luna asked to confirm the information she had just been given. Celestia nodded in response. “Yes. According to Twilight, that is what Cotton Quill said before he died.” Celestia explained. The blue alicorn shrugged and looked down with a troubled expression. “If that is the case… and if what Tom says is really true, then we had better pray that the eternal night really is just a legend.” Luna stated in a somber tone. The mere thought of the calamity that would be caused by such an event sent chills down the blue alicorn’s spine. When Luna’s mind was corrupted and she became Nightmare Moon, her intentions were noble, at least from her point of view. All she wanted to do was to make the ponies of Equestria appreciate her beautiful night, even if she did go about it in all the wrong ways. But this legend wasn’t anything like what Nightmare Moon ever dreamed of creating. The eternal night only existed to bring about suffering and death, and whoever would wish that evil upon the world was pure evil themselves. Celestia noticed her sister looking down in thought. Luna was utterly appalled by the sheer magnitude of the threat that they were facing. Of course, Celestia shared in her horror and fear. She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the hooded ponies were successful, she couldn’t. The thought of her kingdom and all of her subjects perishing under such evils tore her up on the inside, but she had to stay strong, if not for her own sake, then for the sake of everyone that looked up to her. “Are you sure you still want to handle this on your own?” Celestia asked while glancing down to her sister. The blue alicorn looked up in surprise at the question. “What do you mean?” Luna asked curiously. “We need to strike them at their base if we are to succeed… I have no doubt that it will be incredibly dangerous. I could help you if you wish.” Celestia suggested in a caring tone. The blue alicorn merely shook her head in response. “No, sister… I will do this on my own.” Luna said with a determined expression. “If the intel Cotton Quill provided us with is to be believed, then I do not think that they are prepared to perform whatever ritual they have been working towards. Besides… if anything happens…” She looked away for a moment and frowned slightly. “It is probably for the best if we don’t go together… so there is still someone left to fight should the worst happen.” Luna explained hesitantly. Celestia was surprised at how mature her sister had gotten. While the thought of losing her sibling was horrible, it was tactically sound to not charge the hooded ponies head on with everything they had. If anything bad did happen, at least Celestia would still be left to deal with the aftermath. Luna suddenly felt her sister wrapping a foreleg around her. She looked up and saw the white alicorn smiling at her slightly. “I’m certain that you can handle yourself… just be safe and get back to me alive… ok?” Celestia said with loving concern evident in her voice. Luna smiled slightly and nodded in response. “Ok… I promise that I will do my best to make you proud.” Luna replied with a determined expression. Celestia chuckled warmly and deepened her smile. “You have already made me proud, Luna.” Celestia said with a sincere tone. Luna couldn’t help but smile at her sister’s words. After staying for a moment to enjoy their warm embrace, the two princesses separated. “I’m going to go gather up the guards and send the call out to get some reinforcements from Canterlot. We’re going to need to plan out our attack before we head out tonight.” Celestia explained. “We will also need to retrieve the elements of harmony for Twilight and the others to use… just in case.” Luna suggested while turning her thoughts to the elements of harmony themselves. The wielders of the elements couldn’t do anything if they didn’t have anything to wield. “Speaking of which… you should probably go ask the girls if they want to be a part of this. I want them to come only if they want to… this is a big mission after all.” Celestia said with a slight shrug. The blue alicorn nodded in response. “Very well, I will go talk to them.” Luna said while turning to walk away. Celestia nodded to her sister before walking off towards her own tasks. Back in the equipment room, everyone was enjoying their downtime by eating and chatting. Thankfully, Sunspot and Rainbow Dash had brought back enough food for everyone. Although it wasn’t exactly a five-star meal, it was satisfying and filling enough to please everyone. Twilight and Rarity sat near Glitterball in the middle of the room and chatted amongst themselves. Although Glitterball was steadily recovering, she had opted to not move from her blanket. Perhaps because she just enjoyed having an excuse for being able to relax under a warm blanket. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were at the back of the room leaning up against a wall and sitting down respectively. The orange mare tried to talk to her pink friend, but she seemed to be far too absorbed in her meal to pay much attention. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sat near Sunspot on the opposite side of the room. Fluttershy merely listened quietly as she ate while the other two mares talked about their own experiences in dealing with the monsters of the station. Suddenly, the group heard the door open at the front of the room. They looked up and saw Brimstoke, Neon Streak, and Tom entering the room. The three seemed happy to see the ponies enjoying themselves. “Hey guys, how is everyone doing?” Neon Streak asked while directing her gaze to Glitterball. She was glad to see that the unicorn was recovering from her injuries. “We’re doing fine now, Neon. How are things going out there?” Glitterball asked curiously. She had been sleeping ever since she passed out on the roof, so she had no idea what was happening outside of the equipment room. “Well, the building is clear. We’ve just been waiting for the princesses to get done discussing what to do next… and for you to wake up of course.” Neon replied while motioning towards the unicorn. “I’m awake now… so I guess that just leaves us to wait around some more.” Glitter said in a bored tone. “At least we have some food. I find waiting a lot easier when I can stuff my face full of junk food.” Sunspot chimed in with a chuckle. “I hope you brought enough for us.” Brimstoke said in a suspicious tone while glancing around at the rest of the group. There clearly was only enough food for the others. Sunspot chuckled nervously and glanced down. “Heh heh… sorry Brimstoke, I guess I didn’t think about getting something for you guys. You want the rest of my hay fries?” Sunspot asked with an awkward smile while holding up a container with barely anything left in it. The white stallion sighed and rolled his eyes. “I think I’ll pass…” Brimstoke replied in a dull tone. “Don’t worry Brimstoke, I’m sure that you can find something to eat after we’re done here.” The group suddenly heard the voice of Princess Luna speaking up. They turned to see the blue alicorn walking into the room by herself. “Princess Luna. What are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously while walking up to the princess. Everyone else dropped what they were doing and looked over to the alicorn to see what she had to say. “I’m here to check in on you all before we start planning. My sister and I have decided to stage an attack on the hooded ponies tonight, so we will need to gather up everyone that wants to go.” Luna explained while glancing around at the group gathered before her. Sunspot rushed to put her containers of food down and got to her feet. She walked forward and looked at the princess with an eager expression. “We’re attacking them tonight?! Count me in!” Sunspot exclaimed cheerfully while pumping her foreleg in the air in excitement. “Count me in too! There’s no way I’m missing out on this!” Rainbow Dash added with equal excitement and determination. “That is actually why I’m here, Rainbow Dash. I came here to see if all of you want to come along.” Luna said while looking between Twilight and her five fellow element bearers. “You mean… all of us?” Fluttershy asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice. “Precisely… I know that most of you want to be there when we strike the hooded ponies, but I wanted to make sure that all of you shared the same opinion. This is a dangerous mission after all.” Luna explained in a serious tone. Twilight and the others glanced at each other to see what everyone was thinking. Of course, Rainbow Dash was excited as usual at the prospect of going on such an adventure, but most of the other ponies wore blank expressions as they thought about if they wanted to go. “I assume that Princess Celestia told you about the eternal night… and how the only way to stop it is to use the elements of harmony. You probably wouldn’t ask us to go otherwise.” Twilight observed while looking around at her friends. Luna nodded in response. “You are correct, Twilight. We don’t think that you will need to use the elements… but we want to be safe. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, and you won’t need to go unless all of you agree.” Luna explained while looking around at the six ponies. She didn’t want to make anyone feel bad, but she knew that such a question would put pressure on those that were unsure of whether or not they wanted to go. Twilight glanced away and thought for a moment. This was it; her hopes had finally come true. They were finally going to take on the hooded ponies and bring them to justice. Everything that had happened in the past week had been boiling down to this day. The purple mare shifted her face to a determined expression. She wanted to finish the job that Princess Celestia had given her, and she would follow it to the bitter end if need be. “I’m going,” Twilight stated confidently. “I want to protect Equestria… these ponies have done enough harm.” She said with a determined tone of voice. Everyone was inspired by the purple unicorn. Once she voiced her opinion, they felt more confident in their decision to stand by her. “Ah’m going too. There is no way that Ah will let these hooded ponies hurt my friends.” Applejack said with a determined expression. “Yeah! We’re going to make these guys pay for what they’ve done!” Rainbow Dash said eagerly. “I’m coming too! Nobody is threatening Equestria on my watch!” Pinkie Pie chimed in confidently. “I’m going as well.” Rarity spoke up. Soon enough, everyone was huddled together cheering and voicing their willingness to come along. Everyone was bound and determined to work together and bring the hooded ponies to justice; everyone, except for one. “Umm…” Fluttershy muttered uncomfortably from the back of the group. Everyone quieted down once they noticed that the yellow mare hadn’t voiced her opinion. “Are you coming, Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked, expecting the timid pegasus to immediately agree. Instead, Fluttershy merely lowered herself slightly with a nervous expression. “Umm… well, I want to help but I’m scared…” Fluttershy mumbled in a low whisper, barely loud enough to be heard. “What…?” Twilight asked curiously while stepping closer to hear the shy mare better. Fluttershy looked away timidly as her friends all looked to her. “I said I want to help but I’m scared…” Fluttershy muttered again even quieter than before. Her words only blended together into a silent garble. “You’re gonna have to speak up sugarcube.” Applejack said in a soft tone. Finally, the yellow mare shrugged in defeat and faced the group. “I’m scared to go!” Fluttershy said out loud. Before anyone could speak up, the yellow mare spoke again. “I know how much you guys want to go fight the hooded ponies… but… I just can’t. I barely managed to get through today without freezing up in fear… and that was just a few monsters. I would just be a hindrance to all of you. I’m sorry…” Fluttershy stated in a sad tone while looking down and closing her eyes. Everyone frowned while looking at the timid pegasus sympathetically. She was beating herself up so much for possibly letting her friends down, but she still felt like she couldn’t go. Whether or not she felt like she would be useless, or if she would be too scared to help out, she was certain that she would only make matters worse if she went. “Fluttershy… you would never be a hindrance to us.” Twilight said in a reassuring manner while walking up to Fluttershy and placing a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “In fact, we can’t do this without you.” She explained with a friendly smile. Fluttershy looked up in surprise as her friend tried to give her a pep talk. “Really?” Fluttershy asked with a sense of uncertainty. Twilight nodded with confidence. “Of course… the elements of harmony rely on our bonds of friendship to work. We need to be together to be at our strongest.” Twilight explained cheerfully while glancing around at the others, who all nodded in agreement. “Ah know that you’re scared Fluttershy, we all are. All Ah can say is that we’ll stick together and keep an eye out for you to keep you safe.” Applejack stated in a sincere tone. “Plus, you’ll have all of us to watch your back.” Sunspot said while looking to her teammates for support. Everyone nodded confidently while smiling at the timid pegasus. Fluttershy looked away in thought for a moment. She still felt nervous about going, but all of her friends looking at her with reassuring smiles made her feel a growing sense of confidence. She couldn’t let her friends down in such an important time of need. “I… I… *Sigh* I’ll go.” Fluttershy said in a defeated tone with a slight smile. “Alright, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly. The others joined in celebrating the yellow mare’s brave decision. Now that all of Twilight’s friends had agreed to go on the mission, she turned to the princess with an even more intense feeling of confidence and determination. “I think the decision is unanimous. We’re all going, princess.” Twilight said happily. The blue alicorn smiled in response. “That’s wonderful, Twilight. I think you should all head home and rest for a while. We will prepare things over here for the attack. You should come back here a little while before sunset.” Luna suggested. The purple mare and the others looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They knew that they would have to talk with their friends and families before going on this mission. “That sounds like a good idea… I’m sure Spike is probably worried about me and Tom.” Twilight said while glancing over to the human. “Oh my! I’m certain that poor Sweetie Belle must be worried sick for me as well! I was supposed to be home hours ago.” Rarity said in a surprised tone while thinking about what time it was and how long she had been at the station. “We have been here a while… we should probably get going. I could definitely use a nap before going to kick some hooded kiester.” Rainbow Dash said while stretching and yawning. With that said, Twilight and the others got up and started walking to the door. They quickly said goodbye to Glitterball and the others before heading outside. Once they were gone, Luna turned to Tom, Brimstoke, and everyone else present. “Let’s get started then…” Luna said while moving over to one of the tables in the room. She lit up her horn and used her magic to clear it off before levitating a rolled up piece of paper onto it and spreading it out.
Chapter 76: A Moment of RestAfter leaving the station and walking back through town, the ponies all went their separate ways. The sun was already well on its way towards the horizon, and the group needed to discuss a lot with their friends and relatives before they set out on their mission. As soon as she left the others, Twilight began thinking of what she was going to say to Spike. Not only did she almost die for the third time in just a few days, but now she needed to tell him that she was purposefully going on a dangerous mission. The unicorn could practically hear the young dragon berating her already. Still, she couldn’t exactly blame him. He was just concerned for her after all. “Poor Spike…” Twilight said to herself in a sad tone. “I’ll have to find a way to make it up to him after all of this is done.” She smiled a little with the resolve that her life would be returning to normal very soon. Before she could think any further about what she would do for her number one assistant, the library came into view. Twilight smiled with a relieved expression. She could finally take a few minutes to relax peacefully without the looming task of researching hanging over her. She walked up to the door and quickly opened it before stepping inside. Taking a quick look around, she noticed that Spike was nowhere to be seen. “Spike…? I’m home.” Twilight announced while looking around for the young dragon. Soon after speaking up, she heard tiny footsteps and noticed Spike walking in from the other room. “Twilight! Where have you been?” Spike asked in a surprised tone while walking up to the unicorn. Twilight looked down and shrugged as she tried to think of an answer to that question that wouldn’t upset the young dragon. “Sorry… there was an incident down at the station that forced me to stay.” Twilight explained in an uneasy tone. “An incident? What kind of… incident?” Spike asked with a suspicious tone. It wasn’t hard to tell that the unicorn was trying to avoid talking about something. “*Sigh*… Those ponies that attacked us yesterday broke into the station. They summoned a giant cloud of darkness that smothered the building and trapped us inside.” Twilight admitted hesitantly. Spike gasped in shock upon hearing the news. “Oh my gosh… You were attacked?! That’s horrible!” Spike exclaimed in a concerned tone. Twilight immediately felt bad that she was making the young dragon feel bad. “Don’t worry, everything is fine now. Not that many ponies got hurt during the attack, and we’re all fine. But that does bring up another thing I need to tell you…” Twilight explained while looking down uneasily. Spike felt a small knot developing in his stomach as he waited for the purple mare to continue speaking. “What? What is it?” Spike asked impatiently while hoping that her news wasn’t of the dire variety. Twilight inhaled and shrugged while trying to find a gentle way to put her next topic. “I’m going on a mission with the others tonight… we found out where the hooded ponies’ base is, so we’re heading there to confront them.” Twilight explained and watched the dragon for a reaction. As expected, Spike widened his eyes in shock. “You mean that you’re going to chase after the people that tried to kill you… on purpose?!” Spike said in while shaking his head in disbelief. “Spike… I need to do this. The princess told me to get to the bottom of this thing, and I’m going to finish what I started.” Twilight said with a determined tone of voice. Spike was still just as confused and shocked as to why the unicorn would want to go anywhere near the hooded ponies. “The princess told you to find out what was going on, and you did. Why don’t you just let Tom and the others handle this?” Spike suggested in a pleading tone. Twilight shrugged at the dragon’s proposal. He obviously didn’t know that the elements of harmony were needed, and even if he did he would probably still beg her to stay. “Sorry Spike, I can’t do that. The others need me right now. I’m going whether or not you want me to.” Twilight said in a firm yet sympathetic tone. The dragon frowned and looked to the floor sadly. “Oh…” Spike muttered with a disheartened tone of voice. It looked like he was trying to fight the urge to break down and cry. Twilight walked up to the young dragon and put a hoof on his shoulder. Once he looked up at her, she smiled warmly. “Hey, don’t worry about me. I’ll have the others watching out for me. Everything will be perfectly fine. For right now, why don’t we relax? We have a while before I need to go back to the station after all.” Twilight suggested in a loving tone. Spike smiled slightly at the proposal. “Ok, I guess if I can’t change your mind... let’s go.” Spike shrugged in defeat before resolving to enjoy what little time he had with the unicorn. Twilight nodded before settling in with the young dragon. She would try to make the most of the time she had with him before she was forced to leave later that evening. Meanwhile over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was sitting in the living room with her two siblings. She had a feeling that they might oppose her decision to go on such a dangerous mission, but she was here to spend time with them, not to justify her choice to them. “So, what happened over at the station?” Big Mac asked curiously while glancing over to Applebloom. The filly shared in her brother’s curiosity at what forced Neon Streak and Applejack to leave so suddenly to head for the station. “Is Neon ok? What about Twilight and the others? Weren’t they supposed to be there too?” Applebloom asked with a concerned tone. “Don’t worry Applebloom, everyone is fine. A few other ponies got hurt, but we’re fine.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone to comfort the nervous filly. She hated the fact that so many innocent lives were lost at the station, but she was thankful that her friends made it out relatively unscathed. “Was it those hooded ponies everyone keeps talking about?” Big Mac asked to clarify. Judging from the troubled expression his sister was giving him, his suspicions were pretty much confirmed. “Yes… it was. That’s actually why Ah asked you guys to come back here with me. We found out where their base is, and we’re heading down there tonight.” Applejack decided to come clean and get everything out into the open. “That’s great!” Applebloom cheered excitedly. Her bright smile shifted to an uneasy expression as she put further thought into her sister’s statement. “Wait… what do you mean we? You aren’t going with them are you?” Applebloom asked in a concerned tone. Applejack looked away from the filly with a troubled expression, further cementing her suspicions. “Ah am actually…” Applejack admitted sadly. The yellow filly gasped in shock upon hearing that her sister was even considering such a dangerous task. “What?! You can’t be serious!” Applebloom exclaimed in a frantic tone while glancing over to her brother. “Big Mac, you have to tell her to stay! You’re older than her, so she has to listen to you… right?” She asked with a pleading expression. “Applebloom Ah-” Applejack started to speak up on her behalf when she was interrupted by her brother. “Nope.” Big Mac stated in an almost stoic tone. Both Applejack and her younger sister were shocked that the stallion wasn’t protesting her decision. “Nope…? What do you mean nope?!” Applebloom asked in utter disbelief. Her voice was almost cracking from how distraught she was. “Even if Ah told her to stay, she would go. Ah can’t tell your sister what to do… you should know by now that once she decides to do something, she is going to do it. Besides… Ah’m fine with her going.” Big Mac explained confidently, much to Applebloom’s dismay and confusion. “What?! But… but she… and you… Ah… huh?” The filly exclaimed in a confused state of disbelief. She muttered incoherent noises of denial before quieting down and looking between her siblings in utter bewilderment. “Ok… Ah’m with Applebloom on this one Big Mac. Ah thought you would be more against me going than she would be.” Applejack said with equal confusion while looking at her brother. “You said it yourself. You wanted to see this through to the end and help the others. Ah’m still worried about you… but as long as you promise to be careful, Ah don’t see a reason to fuss over this.” Big Mac said with a small smirk. The orange mare couldn’t help but to smile at the stallion’s words. “Thanks Big Mac… Ah promise that Ah will be as careful as possible.” Applejack stated in an earnest tone of voice. She then glanced over to her sister, who was still sporting a sad expression. “Cheer up Applebloom, Ah will be fine. How about we go get something to eat? We have all day before Ah need to go.” Applejack suggested with a hopeful smile. Applebloom shrugged and looked down for a moment to deal with her emotions. “*Sigh*… fine.” The filly muttered in defeat. Applejack and Big Mac smiled as their sister lightened up her expression slightly. Over at Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie was helping out Mr. and Mrs. Cake in the kitchen as she normally did. Nothing was out of the ordinary with the pink mare. She was just as cheerful and bubbly as she always was while preparing the ingredients for the next batch of sweets; which made it all the more jarring to the Cakes when she started talking about the dangerous mission she was going on later that evening. “So… you’re going out with your friends to go chase down some ponies in hoods?” Mr. Cake asked in a confused tone as he tried to piece together the bits of information that Pinkie was giving him. “No, no, no, not ponies in hoods, the hooded ponies! There’s a big difference!” Pinkie explained in an almost casual manner while rolling out some dough. The couple was only further confused as they looked at each other to see if they could figure out what she was talking about. “Wait a minute, are you talking about those hooligans that attacked the square the other day?” Mrs. Cake asked with a concerned expression. “Aren’t they the same ponies that attacked the school? And the hospital? And tried to hurt you and the others?” Mr. Cake added with further concern for the pink mare’s decision. Pinkie seemed to be un-phased by the apparent danger in her mission. “Well yeah, but I’ll be fine. The others need me to be there, so I’m going to be there.” Pinkie stated with a sincere smile. “Pinkie dearie, I really think you should reconsider this before you go and do anything too hasty. What if you get hurt?” Mrs. Cake said while trying to level with the pink mare. Pinkie could tell that the couple were worried for her, and she understood why. But at the same time, she understood that her friends needed her. “There’s no way I’m abandoning my friends because I might get hurt. If we don’t stop these guys, a lot more ponies are going to get hurt.” Pinkie said in a determined tone. She paused what she was doing and looked at the two with a serious expression. Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at each other before settling their eyes on the pink mare. She seemed to be dead set on going on this mission, and they knew that they couldn’t change her mind now that it was made up. “Pinkie… if this is what you want to do, then go ahead and do it. Just… be careful ok?” Mr. Cake said with sincere compassion and concern in his face. “Be sure to get back here safe for us alright?” Mrs. Cake added in an equally concerned tone. Pinkie smiled and giggled in response. “Okie dokie lokie.” The pink mare said with a cheerful nod. “Now let’s get back to work. I need to make up for all of the time I’ve been taking off lately!” She added enthusiastically while returning to her previous task. The Cakes looked at each other with confused expressions. Even with how long they had known the pink mare, she still surprised them sometimes with how she acted so strange and spontaneous. Meanwhile, over at The Carousel Boutique, Rarity was preparing herself for the coming mission. She wanted to be sure that she had everything she would need now that she was voluntarily walking into a dangerous situation. She was caught off guard every time that danger had struck before, but no more. Sweetie Belle walked up to the white mare and watched curiously as she used her magic to dig through several dresser drawers. The unicorn had briefly explained what she was doing later that night, but the filly had no idea what she was doing now. “Rarity… what are you doing?” Sweetie Belle asked curiously, eliciting the white mare to glance over to her while still rummaging through every drawer she could get her magical mitts on. “I’m packing Sweetie Belle.” Rarity replied while levitating a tote bag onto her bed and opening it. “Packing? What are you packing? I thought you were going on a mission with the others to stop the hooded ponies?” Sweetie Belle asked in a confused tone. “I am, but I need to be prepared before I go. Let’s see here…” Rarity muttered to herself as she prepared a mental check list of everything she would need. “We’re going out into the Everfree Forest, so I need to pack the bare essentials for such a horrid wilderness. I’ll need to take some boots for the mud, a comb in case my hair gets messed up, a scarf to match the boots in case it gets cold, and a hat to match the scarf.” The unicorn said while grabbing each item from around the room and shoving it into her bag. By the time she was finished, the bag was practically bulging from how much stuff it contained. Sweetie Belle glanced at some of the items that her sister was taking. She couldn’t help but to wonder if she was over packing pointless items that had nothing to do with the mission itself and more to do with her appearance. “Uh… Rarity, don’t you think you’re missing something?” Sweetie Belle spoke up in a concerned tone. The white mare gasped in revelation as she remembered something. “Of course! How could I forget the most important thing?!” Rarity exclaimed in a shocked tone. Sweetie Belle grinned proudly at her accomplishment of helping her sister. “It’s going to be more humid than a swimming pool on a boat out in the ocean during a rainstorm out there! I need to bring my hairspray. Thank you for reminding me darling.” Rarity said happily while levitating a small bottle of hairspray into the bag and cramming it in alongside the other items. The filly shrugged in annoyance. “I was thinking more along the lines of something more important than hairspray.” Sweetie Belle explained suggestively. “What could be more important than hairspray?” Rarity asked with genuine confusion. “What about medicine or water? Maybe having a compass wouldn’t hurt either.” Sweetie Belle suggested with a helpful expression. “Well I would take those, but my bag is full already.” Rarity said while pointing to the bag on the bed. Sure enough, it was full to bursting with all of the items she was already taking. “I want to pack light Sweetie Belle. It is the wilderness after all, and I don’t want to be carrying a lot of things… I’m sure that one of the others will bring anything I can’t carry anyway.” Rarity said in a confident tone. “Whatever you say…” Sweetie Belle shrugged in defeat while shaking her head slowly. All over Ponyville, the elements of harmony were preparing for their mission. Some of them were trying to think of what they should bring along to the mission, while others were simply enjoying their time before they had to leave. However, there was one mare that was unsure of her actions. Fluttershy was sitting in her living room while looking around at the various animals scurrying around. She had so much on her mind that she had scarcely moved since she got home. She was going on the mission tonight, that much she was certain of, but she was scared out of her mind about what would happen once she did. For the past week, she had borne witness to the atrocities committed by the hooded ponies, sometimes a little closer than she would have liked. She knew what they were capable of, and what they wanted. They had made it clearly known that they wanted her and her friends dead. The mere thought made her terrified and mortified all at the same time. “Oh… what am I going to do?” Fluttershy asked herself nervously. “What if something happens to Twilight and the others… and I’m the only one that can help them… and I freeze up!” She could see a hundred scenarios flying through her head about her letting her friends get hurt. She had stood up to the monster at the school to save Twilight, but that was sudden and uncontrolled. What if she hesitated when things got more serious and someone got hurt because of her? “I can’t just stay home… they need me to go. But I just know that I’m going to panic at the worst possible moment.” The pegasus shuddered fearfully at the thoughts she was having. She knew that she was timid, and she knew that if she saw something remotely scary that she would freeze up. “Come on Fluttershy… you can be brave. Your friends need you to be brave, so you need to be brave.” She stated in an attempt at gaining confidence. Suddenly, a series of knocks came at her front door. “Eeek!” Fluttershy jumped in fright at the sudden noise. She looked around for a moment before realizing that someone was at her door. “*Sigh*… I’m hopeless.” She muttered in a disheartened tone while getting up and walking over to the door. “I wonder who could be looking for me at this hour?” Fluttershy thought out loud. Her friends were probably still spending their time off at home, and there wasn’t anyone else she was expecting. After grabbing the door and opening it, she was surprised to see a cyan pegasus standing outside. “Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked curiously. Rainbow Dash smirked as she responded. “Well, I was going to take a powernap before we headed back to the station, but I figured that I should check to see how you were doing.” Rainbow Dash said while stepping inside and walking over to the couch with the confused pegasus in tow. “You came to check on me? Why would you do that?” Fluttershy asked with a puzzled expression. “You seemed pretty nervous back at the station about coming. I wanted to give you some company so you didn’t scare yourself into not coming along.” Rainbow Dash replied in a friendly manner. “I’ll come along… I wouldn’t go back on a promise I made you guys, it’s just…” Fluttershy looked away with a saddened expression as she tried to put to words what she felt. Rainbow Dash could tell that something was bothering her friend. “Just…?” Rainbow asked curiously while pleading with her eyes for the pegasus to elaborate on her words. Fluttershy shrugged and glanced to the cyan mare hesitantly while slowly mustering the courage to answer. “I’m scared that I’ll get scared…” Fluttershy explained in what she thought was a straightforward manner. Needless to say, the cyan mare was just as confused as ever. “You’re scared that you’ll get scared? That sounds ridiculous Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash stated in a puzzled tone. “I mean… what if a monster shows up and I get so scared that I can’t help you guys, or one of you gets hurt trying to save me?” Fluttershy said in a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder before looking at her with a sincere smile. “Fluttershy… you are one of the bravest ponies I know.” Rainbow stated in a confident tone. Fluttershy was nearly stunned into silence by her words. “What? That isn’t true at all… if anything, I’m probably the most cowardly pony you know.” Fluttershy said in a self-pitying sort of way. “As a wise pony once said, bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is the ability to move forward despite the fact that you are afraid… I think. The details are a little fuzzy… I haven’t read that book in a long time… and I’m pretty sure I fell asleep half way through it.” Rainbow Dash explained with an awkward chuckle. “Anyway… the point is you don’t need to be courageous like us to be brave Fluttershy. You are the most timid pony I know, and I love you just the way you are, but you have stood up to a lot of hardcore scary stuff recently. How about back at the school? You saved Twilight’s life if I remember correctly.” The cyan mare said in an impressed tone. Fluttershy swelled with pride a little bit from remembering her brief act of valor, but then she remembered how terrified she actually was at the time. “Back at the school, I moved on impulse alone to save Twilight. If I had time to think, I wouldn’t have been able to move I would have been so scared of that monster.” Fluttershy stated while looking down sadly. “What about when we were out in the Everfree Forest looking for Angel? You jumped over two zombified wolves and saved me from a third one. You had plenty of time to think there.” Rainbow Dash said while thinking back to her near death experience out in the forest. “Yeah… I guess I did.” Fluttershy said with a small smile. “But… I was only trying to save you. If you weren’t in danger, I probably would have either ran away or curled up into a ball and cried.” She shrugged sadly as she further cemented her lack of confidence. Rainbow Dash groaned uneasily. The yellow mare was trying to belittle herself at this point. “And what about earlier today? Rarity says that you didn’t freeze up when you guys were running through the station with all of those monsters around.” The cyan pegasus said in a last ditch effort to cheer up her timid friend. She stared at Fluttershy with a hopeful expression and waited for a response. Fluttershy thought back to her time at the station. While it was true that she was scared out of her mind, she still found the strength to move forward. She even managed to save Cool Breeze, a pony she barely knew at the time. Still, despite the warm feeling of pride she felt, Fluttershy couldn’t shake her apprehension of the future. She could still envision herself freezing up in terror and her friends getting hurt because of it. No matter how many times she was brave before, she didn’t trust herself. In her own eyes, she was unreliable. “Rainbow Dash… I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, I really do… but I just know that I’m only going to put you all in danger. What if I come across one of the hooded ponies and get so scared that I freeze up? I mean… I know I’ve gotten by in scary situations before, but-” Fluttershy’s self-pitying speech was interrupted by Rainbow Dash speaking up. “But nothing Fluttershy! I think you just answered your own question. You have been ok in scary situations before… look, I get where you’re coming from, and it’s ok to be scared. It doesn’t even matter if you freeze up like a statue anyway.” The cyan mare stated in a confident tone. “What…? It doesn’t?” Fluttershy asked in a confused tone. Rainbow Dash smirked and nodded in response. “Nope, it doesn’t matter one bit. I’m going to be there with you, and so are all of the others. Between me and Tom alone, I think we have enough pent up aggression towards those hooded jerks to last the whole night. If one of them gets anywhere near you, I will personally send them flying into next week. And then I’ll come back next week and give them a punch in the face for good measure.” The bold pegasus said while punching into the air to accentuate her words. “Wow Rainbow Dash… you would do that for me?” Fluttershy asked with a heartfelt smile on her face. The fact that the cyan mare would go to such lengths just to make her feel comfortable with her own fear made her feel tingly and warm. “Of course! When I get done with those guys, there won’t be enough of them left to put in prison. I’ll just fly up to the first one I see and KAPOW!” Rainbow Dash shadowboxed in the air excitedly before ending on a solid uppercut. Fluttershy smiled warmly and felt comfortable for the first time since she learned that she was going on this mission. She had been so worried about what she was going to do that she forgot the most important detail. She was going to be surrounded with her best friends in the entire world. They would do anything to keep her safe, and she would do anything in return to keep them safe. The power of the bond she shared with Rainbow Dash and the others was enough to make her realize that she didn’t need to be courageous to conquer her fear. She just needed to be with her friends. Rainbow Dash was surprised slightly when the yellow mare reached forward and hugged her. Fluttershy was resting her head on the cyan pony’s neck while remaining otherwise still. Rainbow Dash looked down at her friend in confusion for a moment before wrapping her own arms around the timid pegasus. “Thank you so much Rainbow Dash. You’ve helped me put things into perspective. I’m not worried about going anymore.” Fluttershy lifted herself up and smiled brightly at her cyan friend. Rainbow Dash was even more confused now than she had been before. “You’re not…? I did…?” Rainbow asked in surprise while recapping everything she had just heard. She meant every word she said to the shy pony, but truth be told, she didn’t expect it to work. “Don’t get me wrong… I’m still scared about what’s going to happen, but I know that everything will be ok. As long as we’re all together, nothing will keep us apart.” Fluttershy said cheerfully. Rainbow Dash smiled at the sudden turnaround in her friend’s outlook. “Glad I could be of service… *Yawn*.” The cyan mare suddenly remembered what she was going to do before she came to see the yellow mare. “I guess I really did need that powernap. Do you mind if I crash here until it’s time to go?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hopeful tone while looking out the window to see how much time was left before sundown. Judging from the sun’s position in the sky, she could still get in a decent nap before it was time to leave. “Not at all.” Fluttershy replied with a smile while getting up from the couch so the cyan pegasus could lay down. “Is there anything I can get you? Maybe some pillows or a blanket?” She asked in a courteous manner while thinking ahead to see where such items would be in her house. “Nah… I’m good. You just be sure to let me know when it’s time to leave. I can’t beat up any ponies, hooded or otherwise, if you leave me here.” Rainbow Dash replied with a slight smirk. Fluttershy smiled at the cyan pony’s statement. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you here… who else am I going to cower behind?” Fluttershy said with a playful smirk. Rainbow Dash laughed cheerfully at the yellow mare’s statement, eliciting her to laugh as well. As the sun moved ever closer to the horizon and the sky turned a bright shade of orange, most ponies in Ponyville were winding down for the night. They were closing up their stores, making last minute trips through town, or enjoying a short moment before heading off to bed. But while most ponies were preparing to end their day, a select few were preparing to begin something a lot more important. Twilight Sparkle and her five friends had all made their last minute preparations for their mission. They had all said their goodbyes to their friends and family and were currently walking through town towards the station. One by one, the girls all joined the purple mare and added to her group until all of them were together. Now that they were united, the elements of harmony were finally prepared to undertake their daunting assignment. Twilight looked around at her small troop of ponies. Everyone was sporting eager or determined expressions. Even Fluttershy seemed to be resolute as she walked in line beside her friends. The lavender pony smiled as she looked forward to the road ahead. Nothing could stop her and her friends now, not even a cult of magically powered ponies hell-bent on world domination. Soon enough, the royal guard station came into view. It was quiet outside, with not a single pony to be seen. Twilight figured that everyone must have been inside preparing for the raid. “Come on, we don’t want to keep them waiting.” Twilight said to the others, who all nodded in response. Without further delay, the group walked up to the front door and went inside. Once the group entered the main lobby, they saw a familiar pony sitting behind the front desk. Apparently the receptionist they had seen earlier in the day had survived the attack. She seemed to be slightly shaken up, but otherwise unharmed. Twilight was glad to see that the mare was unharmed. So many people had died during the attack. The body count was still being determined, but at least five guards and three innocent ponies were confirmed to have died during the attack. “Oh, you’re back.” The receptionist pony stated cheerfully once she noticed the six entering the building. She sounded like she was expecting them. “Yeah, we’re here to see the princess and the others.” Twilight explained while walking up to the front desk. “They told me to keep an eye out for when you guys got here. They’re waiting for you in the equipment room.” The mare behind the counter said while pointing off to the side. “Thanks… I’m glad to see that you made it out ok.” Twilight said with a friendly smile. The receptionist smiled and nodded cheerfully. “You too… Be sure to find the guys who did this and give them some payback for all of us ok?” She said while waving to the group as they walked away. Twilight turned her head and nodded before walking through another doorway. Now that there weren’t monsters everywhere, the walk to the equipment room was much faster and much less stress inducing. The group was almost surprised at how quickly they got there, as if the station were somehow bigger while in the dark. Once they opened the door and stepped inside, they saw Brimstoke and his entire team scattered around the room along with Tom and Princess Luna. Glitterball was leaning on a table while tinkering with some of the team’s equipment, Neon Streak was fitting a spare vest onto Sunspot so she could hold more equipment than just a strobe, Peppermint was going through a medical kit to tally his supplies, and Glimmer Shine was talking with Brimstoke off in the corner. Once they noticed the six mares walking into the room, everyone looked over and smiled. They were excited to see the group had finally made it. “Check it out! The cavalry has arrived!” Sunspot exclaimed eagerly while walking up to greet the six. She gave Rainbow Dash a double high-five before glancing around to the others and smiling. “You know it! I’m ready to kick some hooded tail!” Rainbow Dash replied with an excited chuckle. “It’s nice to see you guys finally made it. We were beginning to wonder if you had second thoughts.” Tom said while walking over to the group. “We wouldn’t dream of missing this. Right girls?” Twilight asked while glancing between her friends. Everyone offered an eager nod and an excited cheer in response. “Now that you’re all here, we can start getting everyone ready to go.” Princess Luna spoke, eliciting everyone to turn to look at her. The alicorn was standing over by a shelf, with a small bag on the shelf next to her with the royal insignia on it. Somehow, the bag exuded an aura of warmth and familiarity as the six mares looked at it. “Is that them?” Twilight asked curiously while walking over to the blue alicorn and looking at the bag with a stoic expression. Luna simply smiled while reaching over and opening the top to the bag. Once they saw what was inside, the purple mare and her five friends were stunned into silence. Inside the bag, there were five golden necklaces and one tiara. The accessories themselves were fairly impressive looking in their own right, but it was what they held that made them so breathtaking. Six brilliant jewels adorned each necklace and the tiara, one to represent each element of harmony. The jewels were shaped to resemble the element wielders’ cutie marks, and each of them felt a sense of completion as they stared at their respective element, almost like they had been reunited with a part of them that was kept separate. “The elements of harmony…” Twilight said in an amazed tone. No matter how many times she had worn or even used the elements, they always took her breath away. “I’m hoping that you won’t need to use these, but I will keep them close by just in case.” Luna stated while closing the bag again and placing it on her back. “I will go tell Sargent Fireside to gather up his men. You should all get acquainted with your equipment and prepare to leave. We will come get you when it’s time to go.” The blue alicorn said before walking to the door and exiting the room. “Ok girls, come here for a moment.” Glitterball asked while beckoning Twilight and the others over to her table. They all looked at each other briefly before walking over to the vested unicorn and gathering around her. On the table beside Glitterball there were numerous vials, some opened, and some closed, along with several pouches filled with strange ingredients. It looked like she had been experimenting with at least a few pieces of their arsenal since the group last saw her. “What is it Glitter?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing down at the various items on the table. The white unicorn turned around and placed a vial into her hooves in response. As Glitterball went around giving five more vials to the others, Twilight examined her vial to see what it was. Judging from first appearance, it wasn’t a strobe, and that was pretty much all the purple mare could deduce. It was filled with a liquid like the strobes were, but the liquid was yellow rather than blue. “Umm… Glitter? What is this?” Rainbow Dash voiced the curiosity of the group while staring at the vial she was holding. “That’s something me and Tom whipped up. It fires a blast of energy that should temporarily cancel out most of the shadow magic that these guys use.” Glitterball explained while pointing to the six vials. “That’s great!” Twilight exclaimed happily. Now that they had a weapon against the hooded ponies, she felt much more confident about their chances. “Hey… I don’t see one on your vest. Where’s yours?” Pinkie Pie asked curiously. Glitterball shrugged and looked disappointed for a moment. “There were only enough ingredients to make six vials. We want you guys to have them… we’ll make due with our other gear.” Glitter explained with a small smile to make the six mares feel better about taking the vials. “Oh… Glitter, we couldn’t possibly take these. I’m sure that you guys could make better use of them.” Twilight said while offering her vial back to the rainbow haired unicorn. “Don’t worry about us. We can handle ourselves… Besides, we have these to help us out.” Brimstoke said while holding up a pair of hoof cuffs with strange looking symbols inscribed into them. “What are those?” Twilight asked curiously. “They’re magic suppressing. If we put these on a unicorn, they won’t be able to use any magic. We even have a few pairs that work on shadow magic.” Brimstoke explained while tossing the cuffs to the purple mare. Twilight caught them and examined them closely. “These don’t look like they could suppress magic.” Twilight muttered while inspecting them for anything suspicious. Other than the markings, they looked like regular hoof cuffs. The notion that mere runes could completely disable a unicorn’s magic baffled her. “Well unless you want to try them on, you’re going to have to take our word for it.” Glimmer Shine said with a small chuckle. Twilight put the cuffs down on the table and looked away awkwardly. She had been contemplating putting the cuffs on before the yellow stallion spoke up. Suddenly the group heard the door opening. Everyone looked over to see Princess Luna and Princess Celestia walking into the room. “Ok everyone… If you’re all ready, we should head out.” Luna stated while looking around at everyone in the room. “Yes!” Sunspot cheered in excitement while eagerly rushing to the front of the room. Soon enough, all of the others joined the orange pegasus and walked over to the two alicorns and stood at attention. “We already have a team of guards waiting to meet you at the edge of the Everfree Forest along with Sargent Fireside. Just follow my sister and she will take you there.” Celestia explained while looking to her younger sibling with a proud expression. “You aren’t coming with us princess?” Twilight asked with a slight twinge of sad disappointment in her voice. Celestia frowned slightly and sighed upon seeing the ponies shift their excited grins to sad frowns. “I’m sorry Twilight. I will be staying here for the duration of your mission. If anything bad happens, one of the guards can come back and tell me about it so I can send the appropriate help... myself included if need be.” Celestia said with a hint of sadness in her voice. It was easy to tell that the princess wanted to go, but the logical option was to have her stay behind to serve as backup should the need arise. “Don’t worry Twilight. I’m sure that Princess Luna can take care of us just fine.” Rarity spoke up to ease her friend’s concerns. Luna smiled slightly from hearing the white unicorn vouching for her. “Thank you Rarity. I will not let you down… you can count on me.” The blue alicorn said in a determined tone. Everyone looked to the princess of the night with confidence and trust. “Ok everyone… let’s move! It’s high time we show those hooded ponies what it means when you try to mess with Equestria.” Luna stated while raising her voice so everyone could hear. Everyone stood at attention and quickly followed as the alicorn walked out of the room. Celestia watched the group of ponies exiting the room. They all had confident smiles on at the moment, but she wondered how they would hold up under pressure. Spotting Twilight glancing back at her, she shifted her worried expression to a smile and waved at the purple mare as she joined her friends in marching towards glory.
Chapter 77: The Lair of the BeastTwilight followed her large group of friends through town as the princess led them to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Being a part of an organized group that was so big was exciting, and they hadn’t even met up with the team of guards coming with them. Everyone was feeling a wide array of emotions as they walked through the empty streets of Ponyville. There was excitement, eagerness, fear, anxiety, and nervousness in every member of the group. The only ones that seemed to be hiding their emotions were Tom and Princess Luna. Twilight was unsure of how they felt, and that made her slightly concerned. “So, where are these guys anyway? Are they really just hiding out in the Everfree Forest?” Applejack asked curiously. “According to Cotton Quill, they use some kind of old mansion out in the forest as a base. I think he said that the mansion was from human times, but that seems like it would be impossible.” Twilight explained in a puzzled tone. She wasn’t sure how such a thing could exist, but she had no reason to believe that Cotton Quill would make something like that up. “It does sound strange, but we have seen a lot of strange things in recent days.” Luna said from the front of the group. “Are you sure Cotton wasn’t lying? I mean come on… a human mansion just so happened to be out in the Everfree Forest, complete with all of the books on human magic that these guys would need to learn everything about taking over the world? That sounds ridiculous.” Rainbow Dash said in a tone of disbelief. As much as she wanted to confront the hooded ponies, she had a hard time believing such a farfetched story. “I don’t think so… he seemed sincere, and I’m not sure if he could make up such a creative story on the spot. Besides… he was killed for what he told us, so I have to believe that it was true.” Twilight explained with a troubled expression. “Don’t worry. We’ll make these guys pay.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring tone while glancing back at the purple mare. “Hey look, there they are!” Pinkie announced while pointing ahead. The group looked forward and saw at least a dozen royal guards gathered around at the edge of the forest. They were all varied races, with a few unicorns and pegasus’s scattered throughout. At the front of the troop, Sargent Fireside was waiting for the princess and her group to reach him. As the two groups merged, all of the guards bowed while Princess Luna walked up to them. She glanced to the small army around her and smiled with a determined expression. “Greetings Sargent… I assume everyone is briefed and ready to go?” Luna asked in an expectant tone. “Yes princess, we’re all set.” Fireside replied while looking between his men confidently. “Good… just to be sure everyone is on the same page, I am going to discuss our plan of action.” Luna explained while turning to face Brimstoke and the others. “Brimstoke and his team are going to lead the charge into the mansion. Our objective is to neutralize any threats we find in there, with non-lethal force if at all possible. You have all been equipped with items that will prove useful in detaining these individuals… if you come across a pony that is able to use supernatural powers or shadow magic, you are to stand down and wait for backup.” She instructed while glancing between the ponies around her to see if they comprehended her. “Umm princess?” Twilight asked hesitantly to get the alicorn’s attention. Luna turned to the purple mare and smiled slightly. “Yes Twilight?” The alicorn asked in a friendly manner. “What are we going to do? I’m all for helping out… but we aren’t trained to handle this kind of stuff.” Twilight said in a nervous tone. She normally took charge in handling assignments due to her leadership and organization, but the sheer amount of danger in this mission was understandably scaring her. “Don’t worry Twilight, we won’t be sending you in to fight these guys. You can come inside once we clear the main room, and you can volunteer to help as much as you are comfortable with from there.” Luna explained with a reassuring expression. Twilight let a relieved smile fall across her face. She was glad to hear that she could choose what to do once she got to the mansion. “Ok… if there aren’t any more questions, I think it’s time we get moving.” Luna said while turning to Sargent Fireside. “You heard the princess, let’s go!” Fireside instructed loudly. All of the guards nodded before turning and heading into the forest. Fireside rushed to get ahead of them so he could make sure they were going in the right direction. Princess Luna turned to Twilight and the others and nodded before walking into the trees. Everyone quickly followed the alicorn into the forest. They were excited to be finally striking back at the hooded ponies. Suddenly, a knocking at the door woke Raven Feather from her already troubled sleep. She almost thought that she was dreaming, but then she realized that this annoyance was really happening. The knocking was frantic and loud, probably somebody who didn’t know just how much the black mare wanted to kill them for making such a disturbance. “Ugh… what is it?” She groaned in a half asleep tone. The mattress creaked underneath her as she sat up in bed. The master bedroom was comfortable, but it didn’t exactly look any better than the rest of the house. The canopy to her bed had so many moth holes in it that it could hardly stay together. “Miss Raven Feather! I’m sorry to wake you, but there’s something you need to know!” A muffled voice on the other side of the door spoke in an urgent tone. Raven Feather didn’t recognize the pony, so it was probably a random worker. “This better be important…” The black mare muttered in a livid tone just loud enough to be heard. The door opened, and a nervous looking mare in a hood hesitantly stepped into the doorway. She could hardly make eye contact with her leader, and she appeared to be frightened. Something must have spooked her if she would willingly disturb Raven Feather this late in the night. “Miss Raven Feather, the detection charms out in the forest have been tripped! It looks like there are multiple unidentified ponies heading our way!” The hooded mare explained frantically. Raven Feather’s heart skipped a beat and her eyes widened in shock at the apparent news. “W-what?!” Raven Feather stammered in disbelief. She got off of her bed and stared at the worker in front of her with a sense of urgency. “They were at the outer markers the last time I checked. They will be here in fifteen minutes!” The hooded mare stated in an alarmed tone. Her adrenaline was obviously pumping because she could hardly stand still. Raven Feather’s mind raced a mile a minute. She knew that the mare wasn’t pulling an extremely sick practical joke, as much as she wanted to believe that. She must have underestimated how fast the princess would react. Right now, she couldn’t afford to idly stand around and think. “Wake the others, right now! I want them in the library five minutes ago!” Raven Feather yelled in a commanding voice that made the hooded mare cringe slightly. She stood at attention and saluted nervously. “Y-yes miss Raven Feather!” The mare stammered fearfully before turning to run away. She was moving so fast that she bumped her head into the doorframe as she rushed to carry out her orders. Raven Feather rushed out of the door and ran down the hallway as fast as she could. As she ran for the library, she tried to think of a way out of the mess she was in. All of the books and items she would need, not to mention all of the ponies needed to help her, needed to get out of the mansion. However, the mansion was about to be raided by a team of Equestria’s finest defenders. More than anything, Raven Feather needed time, time that she didn’t have. Once she reached the library, the black mare spent the next few tensest minutes of her life waiting for her colleagues to arrive. One by one; Dust Kicker, Raincloud, Shadow Mist, and Grimwood ran into the library with confused and shocked expressions shared between them. “What the hell is going on Raven Feather?!” Raincloud asked in a frantic tone. Half of the hoods in the mansion were panicking and running around like there literally was no tomorrow, so naturally the grey pegasus was a little concerned. “The princess sent a team after us sooner than I expected. We have around… twelve minutes before we are up to our eyes in royal guard, that team of featherbrained idiots, the slayer, hell… probably the princess herself, and who knows what else?” Raven Feather explained in an understandably troubled tone. “What?!” Grimwood said in a shocked tone before anyone else could speak up. The group was surprised to see the normally monotonous colt reacting with such emotion, but they perfectly understood his outburst. “Raven Feather, we still have a load of research that we need to pack up. Even if we only take the stuff needed for the ritual, there is no way that we could gather it up and get out of here before they get here.” Dust Kicker stated with a pale expression. “I know…” Raven Feather muttered quietly while rubbing her temples and looking down in thought. While the black mare was frantically searching for an answer, everyone else in the room was losing their minds. “We’re going to die!” One of the hoods in the room yelled fearfully. “Don’t be ridiculous… we’re going to spend the rest of our lives in prison, and then we’re going to die!” Another worker yelled back at the first, who was having a panic attack much like most of the others in the room. The tumultuous uproar in the room was making Raven Feather grit her teeth in frustration. Raincloud and the others were trying to calm everyone down, but the hooded ponies throughout the library and out in the hall wouldn’t shut up. Their entire operation was coming down on top of their heads, and they knew it. Suddenly, Raven Feather raised her hoof in the air and channeled shadow energy to it. She stomped her hoof down and sent a shockwave of air through the room. All of the ponies in the room had their hair blown back. On top of blowing back hair, all of the candles in the room were blown out by the wave, with some of them falling to the floor with a loud clatter. “EVERYBODY QUIET!” Raven Feather screamed at the top of her lungs. The thundering sound of the black mare’s outburst made everyone freeze in their tracks. Raven Feather looked around at the stunned ponies around her before blowing her disheveled hair out of her face and recomposing herself. Now that it was silent and she could hear herself think, Raven Feather thought of something to do. She breathed in a full breath, partly to catch her breath after her outburst, and partly as a sign of relief at her sudden idea. “We need someone to stay behind and gather up what we need for the ritual while the rest of us escape through the hidden passage in the basement.” The black mare said in a calm tone. The rest of the ponies in the room weren’t as calm as she was at the plan she made. “What?! How in the hay is that going to work? That would be a suicide mission!” Raincloud stated with an alarmed tone of voice. “Not if whoever stays behind has a diversion to work with.” Raven Feather replied with a sterner expression. Now that she thought about her plan, she was starting to get worried herself. “And what diversion did you have in mind?” Dust Kicker asked in a concerned tone as he watched the uneasy expression on his leader’s face. “We’ll erase the protective charms around the house… let them deal with our guests.” Raven Feather suggested uneasily. “What?! But… but they will kill whoever is left in the house when they wake up!” Raincloud said in a shocked tone. She couldn’t believe that Raven Feather would even suggest such a dangerous plan. Whoever stayed behind probably wouldn’t live to get out with the research they were retrieving. “Look, Raincloud we don’t have time to argue this. I will stay behind and-” Raven Feather started to volunteer, when someone spoke up and interrupted her. “I’ll go…” Shadow Mist said in a slightly nervous tone. Everyone turned their heads to look at the red stallion as he stepped forward. “Shadow Mist… I-” Raven Feather tried to protest the stallion’s decision, until he put up a hoof to stop her. “Look, I can use my powers to hide from the princess and her team while I gather the research. I can slip in and out before I run into any trouble with… you know who.” Shadow Mist explained confidently, though everyone could detect a hint of fear in his voice. Everyone was shocked to hear their comrade volunteer himself up to go on such a dangerous mission. They had come to know him as family, and they were devastated that they might not see him return to them safely. “Shadow Mist, don’t be stupid! There’s no way you’re walking away from this!” Raincloud protested with a visibly upset expression. “We don’t have time to sit around here arguing over who gets to go. You guys need to move it, now!” Shadow Mist instructed while rushing to the door. He had a daunting task ahead of him, and he would have to get it done fast. “Shadow Mist…” Grimwood spoke up suddenly, causing the red stallion to pause and turn around. “Are you sure you’re going to be ok?” He asked in a concerned tone. Shadow Mist smiled slightly as he caught the colt’s hidden meaning. He knew that Grimwood was genuinely concerned for him, but he also had research of his own that needed to be smuggled out of the building, not to mention the rest of the materials he needed from the elements of harmony. “Don’t worry… I can handle this.” Shadow Mist stated confidently before turning and running out the door. Raven Feather glanced around at the others in the room. The red stallion was right about one thing, they didn’t have time to be sitting around doing nothing. “Let’s get moving everyone! Tell every hood you pass to come with us down to the basement… leave the rest to be sorted out when they get here.” Raven Feather instructed while rushing towards the door. All of the hooded workers in the room rushed to follow the black mare and her group out of the library. They knew that their survival was optional, and they did not want to be left behind. Twilight and her friends followed the princess and her team of guards through the Everfree forest. The constant sound of hooves crushing grass and breaking twigs did wonders to drown out the eerie ambient noises of the forest, but it didn’t do anything to help with the equally eerie atmosphere. The purple unicorn and her five fellow element bearers had been through the forest so much in the past week that it was starting to get scarily familiar to them. “Are you sure we’re going the right way Twilight? We’re going really far out into the forest…” Fluttershy asked in a nervous whisper while eyeing her surroundings. She hated going out into the Everfree forest on a good day, and now she was treading unknown waters by going farther in than she had ever been before. “Don’t worry… It looks like we’re following Cotton’s directions perfectly. Wherever we’re going, we should be there soon.” Twilight replied in a reassuring tone while glancing back at the nervous pegasus. “I just hope we can find our way back. It’s really easy to get lost out here… and there are probably still some monsters out here somewhere.” Fluttershy stated with growing fear and unease. “Lighten up Fluttershy. We’ll make sure that you get home in one piece.” Rainbow Dash said confidently. “Yeah, don’t you worry about nothing sugar cube. Ah brought a compass, so we should have no problems getting back.” Applejack said with a bright smile of reassurance. “I just wish I could have brought all of my things with me… I don’t know what I’m going to do without that hairspray.” Rarity groaned while patting her mane. She could already feel the humid air wreaking havoc on her hair. “At least some of us brought something useful.” Applejack groaned in annoyance while glancing at the white unicorn. “Settle down girls. We’ll be there soon, and we need to stay focused.” Glimmer Shine spoke back to the six mares while walking alongside his teammates. With the looming promise that they would soon arrive at the hooded ponies’ base, the group quieted down and focused on the path ahead. This wasn’t the time or the place to be squabbling on petty differences. Suddenly, the group heard the guards further ahead muttering amongst themselves excitedly. They seemed to be talking about something important due to how many of them were speaking, but the others couldn’t tell what was being said. “What’s going on up there?” Fluttershy asked in an anxious tone. “I don’t know, I can’t tell what they’re saying. All I hear is a bunch of gibberish.” Pinkie said while straining her ears to discern what everyone was talking about. Before the ponies could wonder what was going on any further, one of the guards from up ahead rushed back to the rest of the group. He had an excited expression on his face, and he seemed eager to tell everyone what was going on. “Hey guys! We’re here! We found it!” The guard exclaimed while pointing behind him. Everyone immediately shifted their attention from their thoughts once they heard the news. “What? We’re here…?” Twilight asked curiously while glancing up ahead. She could barely see a few guards through the trees, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary beyond them. “Follow me, it’s just up ahead!” The guard suggested while motioning for everyone to follow him. The ponies glanced at each other with varying degrees of nervousness and excitement as the stallion turned around and went back through the trees. Twilight and the others eagerly rushed through the trees to reach the others. Soon enough, they started to notice fewer trees up ahead. Once there were few enough trees, they started to see something in the distance. There were several guards standing around while staring ahead with awestruck expressions. Once the ponies caught a good glimpse at what the others were staring at, their jaws dropped in amazement. Up ahead, there was a clearing in the trees. In the clearing, there was a large mansion tucked away inside of a sprawling fenced in area. The old house was unlike anything the ponies had ever seen. There was clearly a lot of damage done by age, but the former beauty of the architecture was apparent even underneath the decrepit exterior. There were vines climbing up the walls in a few places, seemingly the only trace of living plant life to be found. All of the trees in the front yard were dead. Their branches were so stiff that they barely swayed in the wind. The dead trees seemed to set the standard for the rest of the property. The iron fence was so rusty that it looked like it could be pushed over in a few places. There was a stone path that led from the front gate through what appeared to be the remains of a large garden and up to the front door, but even the path itself was cracked and falling apart. The house itself looked old, but it seemed to be in remarkably good shape considering how old it apparently was. Most of the windows were damaged in some way, with some being cracked slightly, and some missing their shutters completely. The wood looked to be in good condition, although it was broken in a few places. The ponies stared at the estate for the longest time without saying anything. They had to tear themselves away from staring at the house to be able to notice that there were lights on inside. This was definitely where the hooded ponies were, unless there were two ancient mansions out in the forest. “How… how is this here?” Twilight asked in a dumbfounded tone. She had so many questions about how what she was seeing could be possible. “It looks like it’s from the Victorian era… but it looks like it hasn’t aged past my day and age.” Tom said in amazement while observing the remarkable condition of the house. “We’ll have time to figure out how this place has survived the ages later, right now we need to focus on our mission.” Princess Luna said to remind the group of their goal. “Right… we need to set up a perimeter around this place.” Brimstoke said while turning to Sunspot thoughtfully. “Sunspot, take a team of pegasus’s and fly above the house. I want you to make sure nobody leaves out the back or the sides before we can get in there. Try to keep yourselves unseen.” The white stallion instructed. Sunspot nodded before turning to the small cluster of pegasus guards around her. “Alright guys, follow me and keep quiet. They won’t know what hit them!” The orange mare exclaimed in excitement before spreading her wings and taking off into the air. Four other pegasus’s quickly followed the vested pony and fell into formation beside her as she climbed higher in the sky. “Ok everyone, let’s move. We need to get in there and clear the place out before they figure out we’re here.” Sargent Fireside spoke up while rallying his men. Everyone nodded before following the stallion up to the front gate and heading inside. As the group walked through the outskirts of the front yard, they glanced around at their surroundings as they walked. There were a few trees that had symbols painted on them in white. Tom paused in front of one of them and examined it curiously. “Do you recognize it?” Twilight asked curiously while walking up to the human and examining the symbol herself. It looked similar to the previous symbols that the hooded ponies had used, but it wasn’t a traditional looking pictogram. “I think it’s some kind of masking charm. That might explain why nobody has been able to find this place before, and why I haven’t been able to sense all of the energy these guys must be using.” The boy explained in an intrigued tone. “Do you think that this place is still here because of magic?” Applejack asked while pondering on the issue of how the mansion could even still exist. “I would imagine… if this place really is from human times, it must be millions of years old. Or… however long it took for ponies to evolve… I’m not even sure if I want to wrap my head around that one.” Tom shook his head in confusion while trying not to put too much thought into the subject of how ponies came to be. “Maybe it isn’t from human times? Maybe whoever built it just has weird taste in architecture.” Rainbow Dash suggested while scratching her head. “No… this place is definitely from human times. I can tell that much at least…” Twilight said with a twinge of confidence in her voice. “How can you be sure of that Twilight?” Applejack asked while tilting her head curiously. The purple mare simply pointed ahead with her hoof. The group turned their heads and looked to where she was pointing, only to notice a bunch of decorations for what used to be a garden. There were a few stone benches scattered around what appeared to be the dead remnants of hedges and flower bushes. In the center of one of the smaller areas, there was a statue of a human woman with wings that appeared to be crying with her head hung low. “It might not make much sense… but this place is somehow from human times, which means that this is probably where all of those books on human magic came from.” Twilight explained to her group of curious listeners. Without further delay, the group continued moving forward through the yard. They snaked through dead gardens and branching stone pathways as they continued to move closer to the main house’s front door. Before they knew it, the ponies had arrived at the front steps. Brimstoke and the princess paused and turned around to face the group. “Ok girls, you need to stay out here while we clear out the main room. We will come get you when it’s safe. Glitter, you and Peppermint stay here and keep an eye on them.” Brimstoke instructed to the two while waiting for all of the guards and the rest of his team to climb up the steps. “Be careful in there.” Glitterball said in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” Tom said while reaching around his back and patting the holster to his sword with a confident expression. “I’m sure that we can handle these guys.” Luna chimed in with a reassuring tone. “Good luck princess.” Twilight said with a small smile. She knew that everything would be fine, but she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. “Alright, everyone form up on me and get ready to bust down that door.” Brimstoke said while trotting up the steps and walking to the side of the large door. All of the guards and everyone else that was going inside quickly followed the stallion and waited for his go ahead. “You in position Sunspot?” Brimstoke asked while placing a hoof to his ear. Everyone in front of the house looked up to see the orange mare and her team of pegasus’s hovering above the roof. “Ready when you are chief.” Sunspot replied while waving to the crowd on the ground confidently. “Ok… on my mark, three… two… one… go!” Brimstoke announced while quickly pulling the large door open. Tom and the princess led the charge while being followed by several guards. Once everyone was inside, Brimstoke stepped inside along with Neon Streak and Glimmer Shine. The strike team acted swiftly and mercilessly. They caught every single hooded pony in the foyer off guard. Several ponies tried to run, until they were chased down and tackled by a few guards. Tom rushed up the stairs and ran after a hooded unicorn that tried to escape into the hallway. Before he could get the door open, the human slammed into him and shoved him to the floor. Twilight and the others listened to the shouts and yells from outside. They could only wonder as to what was going on inside the room. Judging from the amount of terrified screams and yells coming from the hooded ponies, they estimated that the guards were winning. “Ok Guys, you can come in now. Sunspot, stay outside and keep an eye on things until further notice.” Brimstoke said over the communication spell. “Alright everyone, we can go inside now. They secured the entryway.” Glitterball announced to the six mares. Twilight and her friends cheered in excitement as they finally prepared to go after their enemies. The unicorn and her teammate led the six mares through the door and into the mansion. As the group looked around to view their surroundings, they saw numerous hooded ponies getting apprehended by either guards or Brimstoke and his two teammates. Everyone was putting the hoods into hoof cuffs while laying them on their stomachs. The unicorns had special hoof cuffs put onto them to suppress their magic. “Wow… you guys work fast.” Rainbow Dash said in an impressed tone. “That’s what happens when you organize a team of a dozen royal guards and a team of highly trained monster hunters together.” Glimmer Shine said with a slight smirk. “Alright, get these guys piled up over by that wall, and get some guys watching all of the doors. This room is now our base of operations. We should split into teams and sweep each of the floors.” Brimstoke instructed to the guards scattered around the room. Everyone nodded before going to complete their assigned task.
Chapter 78: The Best Laid Plans...While the guards were rushing around the room to secure the area, Twilight and the others were taking a look around. The interior of the mansion looked much better than the exterior, at least the room they were currently in did. Still, it was easy to tell that they were in an old mansion. The lights scattered around the room and on the ceiling provided a comfortable amount of light. However, there were unlit candles scattered around the area, giving the impression that the hooded ponies didn’t rely on the electricity staying on for their primary source of light. There was a red carpet covering the wooden floor that stretched through the room, even traveling up the stairs to the second floor balcony. The carpet had a few worn spots in it, but it did a marvelous job of drawing attention away from the aged and filthy wood that it covered. All around the room, there were large picture frames of various landscapes, some of which had broken glass. A few of the paintings were of humans dressed in strange attire that looked nothing like what Tom was wearing. The clothing worn by the faded figures almost resembled something a wealthier pony might wear today. All of the people in the paintings had blank, almost emotionless expressions as they stared ahead. The ponies felt like their eyes were somehow watching them. The room itself wasn’t too large, the high ceiling and open space just made it seem that way. The only things really taking up any space in the room were the staircase leading upstairs set into the right wall, and a few larger tables and some chairs placed in the middle of the room. “Wow… this place is so cool.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in amazement while looking around at the luxurious décor. Even with the age, she felt like she was standing in the home of some royal dignitary. “Ah have to admit… this here is one mighty fine looking house… although it could use a little sprucing up.” Applejack said while examining the thick layer of dust covering one of the darker wooden tables against the wall. There were a few clean spots on a few tables where items had been placed recently, but it was easy to spot which surfaces hadn’t been touched since the hooded ponies arrived. “I’m amazed that you would think that Applejack… usually you don’t mind dirty things.” Rarity said in a surprised tone. “Ah might not mind a little dirt or mud, but even Ah have standards Rarity.” The orange mare replied with a small smirk. “Well I don’t think that the hooded ponies have been focusing too much on renovating the place. It looks like this place stopped aging after only a few centuries worth of wear and tear.” Tom said while leaning against the railing for the staircase. “Alright guys… now that we’ve all settled in, let’s start splitting off into teams and head through the rest of the mansion.” Brimstoke spoke up while looking down at the group from the upstairs balcony. There were around seven doors counting the front door. There were two doors across from each other in the upstairs hallway that went sideways across the room. There was one door set into the staircase wall at the back of the room. There was another door in the center of the back wall. There were two more doors to the left, one closer to the back wall and one closer to the front of the house. The final door was on the upstairs balcony set into the back wall and oriented to the left of the room. Sargent Fireside had at least one pony watching each of the doors, so the amount of guards left to spread out across the mansion was greatly diminished. They would need some help if they were going to spread out while keeping their numbers up. “Ok girls… we’re a little short on people right now, so we could use some volunteers. Anybody that wants to help with the search should step forward so we can form some teams.” Brimstoke said while glancing to Twilight and her five friends. “Oh yeah! Count me in!” Rainbow Dash said while stepping forward eagerly. She was clearly excited to participate as much as she could in this mission. “Ah guess Ah might as well.” Applejack volunteered while stepping forward with a confident expression. “Ooo, pick me! Pick me!” Pinkie Pie bounced over to join her two friends in the lineup. “Well… I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” Rarity said hesitantly while slowly walking forward. “How about you guys? Are you coming?” Rainbow Dash asked while glancing over to Fluttershy and Twilight. “Oh, no… Sorry, but I don’t think I should go with you. I’m feeling uneasy just sitting in this room.” Fluttershy said nervously while politely declining the offer. “Aww…” Rainbow Dash quietly groaned in disappointment. She had hoped that the yellow pegasus would overcome her fears and participate more in the raid. “I think I’ll stay too… you know… to keep Fluttershy company.” Twilight said while hiding the nervousness in her voice. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be exploring the mansion either, especially if that meant possibly running into Raincloud and her brother again. Rainbow Dash and the others frowned slightly as their two friends decided to stay behind. However, they decided to respect their decisions and not pressure them into going. After all, this was the tensest mission that they had ever been a part of. “Alright everyone, listen up.” Brimstoke spoke up to get everyone’s attention. “We’re going to split up and search for their leader and her followers. I want you all to clear any rooms you come across, and tie down anyone wearing a hood that you find.” He explained before turning to his teammates. “Glitterball will be taking Rarity, Applejack, and Sargent Fireside upstairs. Glimmer Shine will take Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie with him through the downstairs area. Me and Neon Streak will take Tom and the princess downstairs as well. Feel free to search wherever you want, just be sure to stick together and meet back here if anything goes wrong.” The white stallion explained while glancing around the room. “Ok people, you heard the man, let’s move!” Sargent Fireside said to rally his troops. “I want five of you to head upstairs with me, and the rest of you to head downstairs with Glimmer Shine. I think that the princess and Tom can handle themselves, so nobody needs to go with them.” He instructed while pointing at each of the groups that he wanted his guards to follow. Before long, all of the teams had been gathered up and were ready to go. “We’ll take this door here... looks like it leads to a hallway.” Brimstoke said while opening the door at the back of the stairs. “I think we’ll head this way first.” Glimmer Shine said while gathering in front of the center door with his small team. There were only two guards accompanying him, but Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie made up for that number. Meanwhile; Glitterball, Rarity, and Applejack were climbing upstairs along with the guards. They all looked around to see which way they would go. There were two doors at each end of the balcony that looked like they went into hallways of their own. “We’ll take the right side… you guys go ahead and take the left.” Glitterball suggested to the Sargent and his team of guards. “Are you sure you can handle yourself?” Fireside asked curiously while looking to the three mares with a concerned expression. “We’ll take one of your men with us… we should be fine with just four of us.” Glitterball replied while looking to Applejack and Rarity for confirmation. The two mares nodded in agreement. “Alright… we’ll be down that hallway if you need us.” The Sargent replied while motioning for one of his men to head over to the others. A unicorn stallion stepped out of the line of guards and trotted over to Glitterball and her two companions. Without any further delay, all of the teams opened their respective doors and went through. Glitterball took the lead and rushed to the door at the end of the hallway to make sure her team didn’t have a slow start. Applejack, Rarity, and the brown stallion all followed the rainbow haired unicorn through the door and into what appeared to be a long hallway. There were lights hanging from the ceiling every few feet. These lights seemed to be connected to the switch near the door; however, none of them were on. The only things giving off light in the hallway were candles that were placed on small night tables against the walls at odd intervals. The yellowish light they provided covered a large area, however there were dark spots in between. The hallway filled with ominous looking patches of light and equally ominous looking patches of darkness wasn’t exactly cozy looking. The ponies were apprehensive about pressing onward, but they had no choice. “Let’s start clearing these rooms… here, you’ll need these.” Glitterball explained while handing Applejack and Rarity a few pairs of hoof cuffs. “What on earth do you want me to use these for?” Rarity asked while eyeing the cuffs as she levitated them in front of her. “Ah think she wants us to use these on any hooded ponies we find.” Applejack suggested with an unimpressed shrug. She figured that the unicorn could figure that out on her own, but apparently she was wrong. “Glad to hear we’re on the same page. The ones with writing on them are for any unicorns we find. Feel free to do whatever you want to get them to put these on… I think that necessary force is a little lenient with these guys.” Glitterball said with a devious smile. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Applejack smirked while putting the cuffs in her bag for easy access. Rarity did the same before organizing the items in her bag for a moment. Even though there was only one other thing in there other than the cuffs, it took her a while to get her inventory sorted to perfection. After the white unicorn finished her organization, much to the relief of her teammates, Glitterball stepped up to the first door on her left and prepared to open it. The vested mare threw open the door and peered inside with her horn at the ready. The room was a small bedroom. It was barren and empty, save for a few sleeping bags placed in rows on the floor and two dressers against the back wall. “This might take a while…” Glitterball shrugged while looking down the hallway to see the large number of doors they had to go through. “Why don’t we split up and two of us take a side to search, and when one of us finds something we just holler for the others.” Applejack suggested. “You’re a genius Applejack! Maybe Neon was right, we really should hire you.” Glitterball said with an impressed smile. “Heh... do you really think so?” Applejack said with a bashful chuckle. “Alright, you two take that side, and we’ll take this side. Let us know before you go charging into a room full of people.” Glitterball said while motioning for the guard to join her on the left side of the hallway. Rarity and Applejack walked to the right side and lined themselves up with their teammates in a searching pattern. With a nod of confirmation from Glitterball, Applejack opened her first door quietly and peered inside. Rarity used her horn to light up the dark room and scanned inside of it. The room looked like another makeshift dorm room with sleeping bags covering the floor, but there was nobody inside. Taking a glance over to the other two on the other side of the hall, the pair noticed that their teammates were having a similar lack of luck. Un-phased by their initial failure to find anyone, the four continued down the hallway. After two more doors turned up no signs of life, Applejack paused in front of the next door. She heard what sounded like panicked voices coming from inside. After taking a moment to confirm what she was hearing with Rarity, the orange mare turned to her teammates. “Hey guys, we got ponies in here!” Applejack whispered anxiously while waving the two over to the door in question. Glitterball put her ear to the door and nodded in agreement. “Ok Applejack, this is your find, so you take the lead.” Glitter suggested while backing up a little bit. “Really?” Applejack asked with a bit of nervousness boiling up inside of her. Now that she was getting ready to make her first assault on a room, she was starting to have second thoughts. “Don’t worry, we’ll be right behind you. Just open the door and try to take down the first pony you see… safely of course.” The guard said in a reassuring tone. The farm pony gulped down her fears before steeling herself for the task at hand and nodding. “Ok guys… on three…” Applejack said while anxiously shaking each of her limbs and loosening up her muscles. Everyone gathered around the orange mare and waited as she started her count. “One… two… three!” Applejack swiftly kicked the door open and rushed inside with her teammates. There were three hooded ponies in the room; one earth pony stallion directly in front of the group, one more earth pony mare off to the side of the room, and a unicorn mare near the other mare. “Oh crap!” The earth pony in front of the group exclaimed fearfully while backing up to distance himself from the others. He looked to his side and found a vase on the table behind him, only to pick it up to defend himself. Applejack quickly rushed for the hooded pony as he scrambled for the vase. She ducked to the side as he threw it at her, causing a loud shatter behind her. Before the frantic stallion could react any further, the farm pony turned around and reeled her back legs in before delivering a swift kick and bucking the hapless pony into the wall. While Applejack was busy neutralizing one of the ponies, Glitterball and her two teammates were rushing to deal with the other two. The earth pony mare screamed fearfully and hid behind the unicorn mare. In an attempt at defending herself and her colleague, the hooded unicorn lit up her horn and stood her ground. Glitterball, the guard, and Rarity lit up their horns as well before coming to a halt. The two groups had a standoff while staring at each other to see who would move first. “Just give up and stand down, and we won’t hurt you.” Glitterball said in an attempt at calming the pair of hoods down. The earth pony mare shivered nervously while hiding behind her unicorn friend. The unicorn was nervous herself, but she tried to appear more threatening and confident than she actually was. “T-there’s no way we’re letting y-you take us! Take one step closer and I swear I will kill you!” The unicorn yelled in an attempt at making herself sound like she wasn’t about to faint. Glitterball glanced to Rarity and the guard behind her. She wasn’t sure if the unicorn knew any spells that could hurt them, but they had to assume that her threats weren’t empty. “There’s only one of you that can fight back against us, and there are three of us. If you hurt one of us, I can assure you that we will make you pay for it. Just calm down and let us detain you, and I promise that nobody will get hu-” Glitterball said with a calm tone of voice while taking a step forward, until she was interrupted by a laser being shot into the floor in front of her. “Stay back! I’m warning you!” The unicorn yelled while charging up her horn for another shot. She was putting so much energy into her horn that it looked like she could barely focus it. Little did the panicked unicorn know, Applejack had already finished putting hoof cuffs on her prisoner. She left him lying face down on the floor with his arms pinned behind his back while she started creeping along the side of the room. She managed to reach a table and hid behind it while inching closer to the other side of the room. Glitterball glanced over and noticed the orange mare eyeing up the hooded unicorn with a pair of magic suppressing hoof cuffs at the ready. Applejack nodded once she noticed that the white mare had noticed her, Glitterball gave a subtle nod in return before settling her eyes on the two hooded ponies in front of her. “This is your last warning. I’m giving you one more chance to settle this peacefully before we-” Glitterball tried once again to get through to the unicorn, but she wasn’t in a negotiating kind of mood. “Before you what?! I have you covered, and if any of you move I’ll-” The hooded pony yelled back at the group until she was interrupted by the sound of someone running towards her. She looked to the side just in time to see Applejack darting after her. The orange mare ducked and slid along the floor as a magical beam whizzed over her head. Before the unicorn could shoot off another bolt, the farm pony popped up and shoved her against the wall. The hooded mare groaned in pain as she caught herself before slamming her stomach into the table against the wall. She tried to turn around, but before she could, Applejack grabbed her arms and forcibly pulled them around her back. By the time the hooded unicorn pulled away from the orange mare, it was too late. Her arms were already in the hoof cuffs, causing her to fall flat on her face as she lost her balance. “Ow!” She yelped in pain as she bounced slightly from the impact. “Why you little… I’ll show you!” She said in a threatening manner while trying to light up her horn. Glitterball and her three companions watched as the pinned mare heaved and groaned while trying to get her horn to light up. Sweat rolled down her face from the strain she was putting on herself. “What the hell? What did you do to me?!” She asked in an angrily frightened tone. “Those cuffs prevent you from using magic. Don’t bother trying to break out, you’ll just hurt yourself.” Glitterball explained while sharing a victorious smirk with Applejack. “Nicely done Applejack! I almost can’t believe you pulled that off!” Rarity said while giving her friend a congratulatory pat on the back. “Thanks Rarity. Ah just did what Ah could at the moment.” The orange mare said while rubbing the back of her neck and smiling awkwardly. The group’s celebration was suddenly interrupted by a frightened squeak coming from behind them. Everyone turned around to see the earth pony mare that was hiding behind the unicorn on the floor. She was cowering against the wall while covering her face with her arms. Her entire body was shaking from fear. “Please don’t hurt me!” She yelped fearfully and tried to back up further into the wall as the group approached her. Glitterball glanced over to her teammates, who offered a nod of agreement to her in response. With a friendly smile, the unicorn slowly walked up to the cowering mare and knelt down in front of her. “We’re not going to hurt you.” The white mare said in a soft voice. The hooded pony stopped cowering for a moment and peeked out from between her arms. “R-really?” She asked nervously. “The only reason why we had to get rough with your friends was because they wouldn’t cooperate. All we need you to do is to put these on. You can even sit where you are now if you want.” Glitterball explained while holding up a pair of cuffs. The earth pony looked at the cuffs for a moment while thinking. She took in a deep breath before nodding and holding out her arms. Glitterball smiled before gently putting on the cuffs. The hooded mare sighed before readjusting herself to get comfortable. “You all just sit tight. We’ll be back for you after we’re done finding the rest of your colleagues.” Glitterball explained before walking back over to her teammates. “Alright guys, let’s get moving. We still have a lot of rooms to clear.” She explained while walking to the door with eager confidence. Applejack and Rarity took one last glance at their prisoners before following their teammates out of the room. Meanwhile in the downstairs hallway behind the stairs, Brimstoke and his three companions were slowly making their way through the area and clearing any rooms they came across. They had already found two rooms that had ponies in them, although one of them just had one straggler that was hiding under a bed. “I’m not sensing any shadow energy around here… well, aside from residual signatures. I don’t think that any of our super powered friends are down here.” Tom said while using his senses to scout the area ahead. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Neon Streak said with a slight hint of concern in her voice. If the shadow magic users weren’t here, then that meant that they were somewhere else. Possibly somewhere that could be dangerous for one of their friends. “Maybe they have charms or wards in place that hide their energy. If there were runes placed on the trees outside, then it would make sense for there to be runes inside as well.” Luna suggested while glancing around at the eerie hallway. “Now that would definitely be a bad thing… the last thing we need is for Raincloud and her pet shadow to be able to sneak up on us.” Tom said with an uncomfortable shudder. He was still getting over his first fight with the living shadow, so he didn’t want to fight it again anytime soon. Eventually, the group made it to the end of the hallway. There were only two more doors to check. The door to the left led into another dark hallway without any candles to light it up, while the door to the right opened up into a staircase leading down into what looked like a basement. “Which way do we go?” Neon Streak asked curiously. “I think maybe we should split up. Me and Neon could take the basement while you guys continue down that hall.” Brimstoke suggested while glancing to the princess and the human. “Are you sure you two will be ok on your own?” Tom asked in a concerned tone while sizing up the ominous looking staircase. “Don’t worry… we’ll be careful.” Neon Streak said with a reassuring expression. “If we run into any trouble, we’ll back up and call for help.” Brimstoke added confidently. Tom glanced to Luna to see what she thought of the matter. Judging from her expression, the alicorn was fine with the pair heading off on their own. “I’m sure that they can handle themselves Tom. We can come check on them later if you want.” The princess said with a confident expression. Tom was hesitant to split up like this, but he knew that he couldn’t exactly stand there and hold their non-existent hands all the time. “Alright… but if you find Raincloud or her brother, don’t go after them by yourselves.” The human said with friendly concern. Brimstoke and Neon Streak nodded in agreement. The two groups said their goodbyes before going on their respective paths. Tom and Luna went down the other hallway, while Brimstoke and Neon Streak slowly descended the stairs to the basement. There weren’t any candles placed anywhere in the basement, so the pair had to switch on the flashlights mounted on their vests. The two beams of light didn’t offer much in the way of comfort, but it did let them see where they were going. Not that seeing where they were going was a good thing. The basement looked entirely different from the rest of the house. There was no warm colored carpet on the floor. There were no intriguing decorations on the walls. The only things that greeted the ponies were barren stone floors and a cold and eerie atmosphere. “Well, it’s official… basements are creepy no matter who builds them, ponies or humans.” Neon Streak said with an uncomfortable chuckle. “Stay close… the last thing we need right now is to get lost down here.” Brimstoke said while walking forward confidently. It amazed the green mare just how unflappable the white stallion could be sometimes. It was almost impossible to search and clear the basement room by room. It seemed like there was a new hallway or series of rooms branching off every few doorways they passed. There weren’t even that many doors down here. Most rooms had just barren entryways that opened up into more darkness. Brimstoke and Neon Streak decided to just stick with the hallway they were currently in. They swept whatever open rooms they came across for any signs of movement, but the basement was just as dead and devoid of life as it appeared. “Do you think they even use this place? I haven’t seen any lanterns, or candles, or even beds for that matter since we got down here.” Neon Streak asked while eyeing the rooms she passed. The only things she was seeing were shelves full of miscellaneous objects and a few boxes. “I think that they use this place for some of the experiments they did.” Brimstoke said while pausing in front of one of the open rooms. “What makes you say that?” Neon asked curiously. Brimstoke merely stepped aside and let the green mare take a look inside the room. Once she saw what the stallion was referring to, she was stunned into silence. There were a few medical tables in the room that were covered in dry blood. There was also a smaller table next to it with a few books and some grisly looking sharp objects on it. The medical tables had a thick leather strap in the middle of them. It seemed like they could have fit someone Tom’s size or larger, giving the impression that the human owners of the mansion had brought them here rather than the hooded ponies. “Yikes… what did the humans do here?” Neon asked with a disturbed tone of voice. “I don’t think we want to know… but it looks like the hooded ponies picked up where they left off.” Brimstoke said uneasily. Suddenly, a noise rang out from somewhere down the hallway. The two ponies froze up and perked their ears up. Once they realized that the noise wasn’t stopping, they silently nodded to each other before slowly walking down the hallway. As they drew closer to the noise, they noticed that it sounded like a single stallion was muttering to himself while causing some sort of ruckus. He sounded frustrated as he scrambled around using various objects. Soon enough, he started speaking louder in a language that the pair didn’t understand. Taking this as a sign to pick up their pace, Brimstoke and Neon Streak drew their strobes and rushed up to the door where the noise was coming from. They peered inside and saw the same red stallion that had attacked Neon and the others at the bookstore standing in the center of a small symbol on the ground. He was facing away from the two, but they could tell that he was holding something in his hoof. Brimstoke slowly nodded to his teammate as a signal to back him up. He quietly stepped forward and pointed his strobe at the red stallion. He knew that the weapon wouldn’t harm a pony, but he was hoping that it looked intimidating enough to make the red pony think that it would. “Hey Shadow Mist, remember me?” Neon Streak spoke up in an intimidating tone while lining up with Brimstoke. Shadow Mist stopped what he was doing and slowly turned around. The pair noticed that he had a small burning piece of paper in his hooves. “Yeah… I remember you. You’re that pony that I almost killed back in Cotton’s bookstore… you know, you should probably thank your orange friend for moving you out of the way.” Shadow Mist said with a devious smirk. “Put the paper down, and put your hooves behind your head.” Brimstoke instructed in a firm tone. Shadow Mist glanced down at the symbol beneath him. It was a small circle with an odd shape in the center of it made with red paint. It was smaller than the pictograms the hooded ponies usually used. It was around the same size as the symbols painted on the trees outside. “You know… I’m not sure if you really want me to do that.” Shadow Mist replied with a slight chuckle. “I said drop it!” Brimstoke yelled in a commanding voice while pointing his strobe at the red stallion. ”Alright… if you insist.” Shadow Mist said with a small smirk. He dropped the burning piece of paper and quickly closed his eyes. Before Brimstoke and Neon Streak could react, the paper contacted the symbol on the floor and a burst of bright light filled the room. The two ponies covered their eyes as the blinding light engulfed them. A loud buzz filled the air and grew in intensity, until everything went silent and the light died down. When the pair looked up, the red stallion was gone. “Where’d he go?!” Brimstoke asked in a shocked tone. “Keep your guard up, he’s probably still in here!” Neon Streak said while darting her eyes around. She knew all too well that the red stallion could turn invisible any time he wanted. Suddenly, a loud rumble filled the air as the entire house shook violently. Neon Streak almost dropped her strobe from how much the ground was shaking. “What the hay is going on?!” Neon asked nervously while steadying herself. The white stallion leaned against the green mare in an attempt at keeping both of them on their feet. “I don’t know, just hold on!” Brimstoke yelled back to carry his voice over the loud rumbling. Just as quickly as the shaking started, it stopped. Before the two could process what was happening, one of the vials on their vests hummed and buzzed loudly. They looked down just in time to see their evil detectors glowing brightly and vibrating violently, right before they both shattered with a loud pop. Neon Streak flinched as the fluid that was once inside the vials sprayed everywhere. “That can’t be good…” Neon stated with an uncomfortable knot developing in her stomach as she held up the broken remnants of the vial on her pull cord. “Definitely not… I’m calling the others.” Brimstoke said before putting a hoof to his ear. -A few minutes ago- Tom and Luna quietly walked down the hallway while clearing out each of the rooms. There weren’t any candles in this hallway, much less any other signs of life. Every room they looked in was completely devoid of pony activity. Much of the old furniture in each of the rooms had scarcely been disturbed. The human followed the alicorn as she lit the way with her horn. After a while, they wondered if it was a sound idea to continue down this path rather than turning around to assist Brimstoke and Neon Streak. “Looks like nobody has been through here in a while… I guess they don’t use every room in this place.” Tom stated while glancing around with an intrigued expression. “Not surprising... this place is rather large. It looked almost as big as the palace back in Canterlot from the outside.” Luna said with an amazed tone while looking around at the strange architecture and décor. “Did all humans live in houses this big? Surely a mansion this size must have been able to fit an entire community.” She asked curiously. “No… not really. Only rich people with money to spare could afford a place like this, and most of them only lived with their family and their servants.” Tom explained while thinking back to the size of his old home. “You must tell me about this wonderful architectural style… what did you call it? Victorian era?” Luna asked curiously as she tried to remember the boy’s description of the mansion. “Well, you see-” Before Tom could explain further, a loud rumble shook the whole building around them. Luna steadied herself on all fours while the human grabbed a nearby door handle to balance himself. Just as quickly as the rumbling started, it stopped. The pair glanced at each other with wide eyes as they waited to see if the shaking would return. “What on earth was that?!” Luna asked in an alarmed tone. Before Tom could answer, a sudden gasp escaped his mouth as his senses went off. The blue puff of mist and the eerie rasp that came with it lasted much longer than any other time he had experienced before. Luna watched with a concerned expression as the boy was driven to his knees by the elongated sensation overwhelming him. She had never heard his senses last for such a long time. It was almost like he had no control over the event whatsoever. The alicorn was about to ask the human what he was feeling, but she suddenly realized that she could feel it too. Her ability to sense energies was far less developed than her sister’s but if it was potent enough, she could feel it. And right now, the princess of the night could feel something incredibly evil and incredibly powerful that she couldn’t identify. It was almost like the entire house felt wrong to her now. “What is that?” Luna asked in a shocked tone as the human gasped for air. After taking a moment to get to his feet, Tom turned to the alicorn with a pale expression on his face. “I can’t tell what it is… but it feels familiar.” Tom said while pondering the sensation he felt. The human wasn’t sure if he wanted to use his senses again to try and analyze the overwhelming energy, but he had to. Taking in a deep breath to prepare himself, he exhaled another puff of blue mist before falling into another fit of uncontrollable coughing. “Don’t over exert yourself Tom.” Luna said with a concerned expression while waiting for the human to recover again. “Whatever it is… it’s extremely powerful. I think we should head back to the others.” Tom suggested while looking down the hallway behind him. “I agree. Let’s regroup with the others and find out what happened.” Luna said with a brief nod before following the human back down the hallway. As soon as they reached the door that would lead them back into the other hallway, Tom quickly grabbed the door handle and turned it. Much to his surprise, the handle didn’t move at all. After trying it a few more times, the boy realized that he wasn’t just imagining things. “What the heck…? This wasn’t locked when we got here.” Tom exclaimed in frustration. “I don’t remember seeing a lock on this door… Are you sure it’s locked?” Luna asked with a growing sense of unease. “I can’t move it… it’s like something is holding it closed. Hey… did the air just get cold all of a sudden?” Tom asked while rubbing his shoulders to create warmth. Luna was surprised by the odd drop in temperature herself, but she nodded in agreement. “Let’s try finding another way around. We need to get to the others.” The alicorn said in an urgent tone. Tom nodded in agreement before quickly following the princess down the hallway.
Chapter 79: Point of No Return-A few minutes ago- While everyone else was searching through the large mansion for the hooded ponies, Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting around idly in the foyer. They sat in two of the more cleanly looking chairs and watched while Peppermint ran a check of his medical supplies on the other side of the room. Fluttershy shrugged and sank back into her chair. She felt very disappointed in herself for not taking Rainbow Dash’s advice. If she wasn’t going to help her friends, why was she even there? Assuming something went horribly wrong and the hooded ponies completed their ritual, they would have to use the elements of harmony, but that was about the only use she had. Still, the bag containing the elements had less grandeur than it did before, especially with it sitting on a dusty table waiting for use. As she glanced over to her unicorn friend, the yellow mare began to wonder about why she chose to stay as well. She claimed to have stayed to keep her company, but Fluttershy doubted that was her true intent. Normally, Twilight would have been incredibly eager to explore the mansion. This was after all the first time a pony had ever set foot into a human building, and she should have been first up to bat to try and analyze as much of it as she could. But instead of being eager and excited to learn more about humans or stop the hooded ponies, the purple mare almost seemed like she was scared. “Hey Twilight…?” Fluttershy asked curiously while leaning forward in her chair. “Yes Fluttershy?” Twilight replied while turning to face the pegasus. Fluttershy looked down nervously as she tried to muster the courage to ask her friend about why she lied to stay with her. She hated any sort of conflict, even if it was something that other people wouldn’t even call conflict. “Sorry to intrude like this… but… umm…” Fluttershy muttered timidly. She grew quieter and quieter as she continued. Twilight knew that her friend took a while to ask questions that were uncomfortable for her, so she waited for her to speak up. “Why did you stay with me? I mean… why did you really stay?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly. The unicorn was taken off guard by the sudden question. “What do you mean Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in return with a confused expression. “I know you said that you wanted to keep me company… and it’s not that I don’t believe you… it’s just, you seemed to be avoiding leaving this room.” Fluttershy explained while hoping that her words wouldn’t offend. “I was that obvious huh?” Twilight shrugged sadly as she thought about why she really stayed behind. Truth be told, she wasn’t even sure why she stayed herself. The thought of exploring the mansion further while the hooded ponies were around triggered some kind of feeling of anxiety that she wanted to avoid. She had almost died numerous times because of the hooded ponies, and she wanted to avoid any situation that might be dangerous to her. After all, she had promised Spike that she would take better care of herself. Still, the fact that such an anxiety was getting in the way of her duties made her feel terrible. “I guess I stayed for the same reason as you Fluttershy…” Twilight sighed as she decided to come clean with her feelings. The yellow pegasus was surprised to hear such a thing from her usually brave friend. “You did?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone. “Yeah… I guess I didn’t want to admit it out loud, but I am scared. I don’t want to search for the hooded ponies… because I’m afraid of what might happen.” Twilight said with a hint of shame in her voice. She looked up in surprise when she felt the yellow mare putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “It’s ok Twilight… I understand perfectly.” Fluttershy said with a warm smile. “You do?” Twilight asked in a surprised tone. “Yes… I’m scared too, and I really did want to help with the search, but I just couldn’t go with the others. I just kept thinking about everything that had happened to us before, and about what might happen to us now.” Fluttershy explained in a sympathetic manner. “That’s how it was for me too… *Sigh*… maybe we can still help out. How about this, when the others get back, let’s both volunteer together.” Twilight suggested while gathering up some courage. “As long as I’m with either you or one of the others, I think I might be able to do that.” Fluttershy said with a small smile. When she was with friends, she felt much braver than she would have if she was alone. Suddenly, the two mares felt their chairs vibrating. Before long, the small vibrations grew until the entire room was shaking. All of the guards in the room looked around anxiously while trying to steady themselves. “What’s going on?!” Fluttershy asked while sinking low into her chair and holding on for dear life. “I don’t know, just hang on!” Twilight replied while trying to weather the shaking. All of the furniture in the room was shifting along the floor as the ground vibrated underneath it. “AH!” Fluttershy screamed in fright as a vase on the table beside her fell to the floor with a loud crash. She shut her eyes and reeled herself as far into the chair as she could go without melding with it. Just before the ponies thought that they were going to get whiplash from the violent shaking, everything grew still and the loud rumbling ceased. One more vase fell off of a table against the wall as the force from everything stopping sent it on its way to the floor. Twilight slowly opened her eyes and peered around the room. Much to her relief, everything and everypony was still relatively intact. Most of the guards, along with Peppermint, were looking around and wondering what just happened. Twilight glanced over to the chair beside her to see Fluttershy shivering with fright. The pegasus was still covering her head as if she expected the roof to cave in on top of her. “Fluttershy, are you ok?” Twilight asked with a concerned tone while gently putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder to reassure her that everything was alright. Fluttershy slowly uncovered her head and looked at the unicorn with tears rolling down her face. She took in a few shallow breaths while darting her eyes around before shakily nodding her head. “What the hay just happened?” Peppermint wondered out loud. Everyone else in the room shared in his nervous curiosity at the cause for the sudden disturbance. Just as the red haired stallion put a hoof up to his ear to check in on the others, he heard a loud buzz coming from his vest. Twilight and Fluttershy watched as Peppermint pulled his detector up to his face and gasped in shock. The vial was glowing a brighter shade of blue than any of them had ever seen before. Along with this glow, the entire vial was practically shaking from how much it was buzzing. *POP* “Ack!” Both Fluttershy and Peppermint jumped in fright as the vial shattered into a million pieces. The liquid that was inside the vial flew in all directions before settling to the floor with a wet splash. “How did that happen? What’s going on?” Twilight asked while staring at the remnants of the broken detector with fear in her eyes. “I don’t know… something must have overloaded the detector… I didn’t even think that could happen.” Peppermint explained nervously. “I’m calling the others… we need to figure out what’s ha-” Before the white stallion could even get his hoof up to his ear, he suddenly heard Brimstoke’s voice in his head. “Everyone listen up! I want everyone to head back to the entryway. Something happened down in the basement with us and we need to regroup.” Brimstoke instructed with a tone of urgency. “Uh… guys, we have a problem out here.” Sunspot suddenly chimed in with a troubled tone in her voice. “What is it Sunspot?” Brimstoke asked uneasily. “It looks like we have a storm rolling in… it just came out of nowhere.” The orange pegasus replied. As if on cue to match up with her statement, everyone in the foyer heard a distant crackle of thunder. “Does it look dangerous?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “It doesn’t look as bad as the one that demon caused last night, but it definitely looks unpleasant to be out in.” Sunspot explained with a slight hint of unease in her voice. “Go ahead and bring everyone inside Sunspot. We should be up there shortly… does everyone else hear me? Everyone check in.” Brimstoke asked to see if the others could hear him. “This is Glitterball… we’re making our way back now.” Glitterball spoke up. “Glimmer Shine here, I hear you loud and clear.” Glimmershine announced. “This is Peppermint… everything is fine over here, we’ll wait for you guys to return.” Peppermint spoke up to announce his presence. “Alright guys, everyone try to make your way back as fast as you can.” Brimstoke said before falling silent. Peppermint looked up to see the two curious mares looking at him for answers. They were waiting for him to get done talking with his teammates. After all, they could only hear quiet murmurs coming from his ear, so they couldn’t understand what was going on. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked anxiously as she watched the stallion dropping his hoof from his ear. “Brimstoke wants everyone to meet back here. Apparently something happened down in the basement, and now there is a storm rolling in.” Peppermint explained. The mere mention of the word storm sent the two mares’ nerves into overdrive. “A storm? Did they summon more of those demons?” Twilight asked nervously while thinking back to her brief experience with the flying monsters. “No… Sunspot says that it’s much tamer than the one from last night, but it is bad enough that she doesn’t want to be out in it. She should be coming in with the others any minute now.” Peppermint explained while glancing to the front door. Sure enough, the group heard the door jostle as someone tried opening it from the outside. Much to the confusion of Twilight and the others, the door didn’t open. They listened as whoever was trying to open it, most likely Sunspot, got frustrated and tried pulling on it with all their might. “Peppermint… I know you must think this is really funny, but could you please unlock the door?” Sunspot spoke up in an understandably irritated tone. “Umm… Sunspot, I didn’t lock the door… nobody did.” Peppermint said while briefly putting his hoof to his ear and walking over to examine the door. “What?! That’s ridiculous! This thing is stuck like someone super glued it!” Sunspot said while giving the door several more tugs. Everyone could hear the pegasus grunting from exertion as she tried to get the door open. Peppermint reached forward and tried to open the door from the inside. Much to his surprise, the attempt yielded the same results. Upon closer inspection, the stallion noticed that the small lock on the door was unchanged from when the group came inside. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously from behind the stallion. Peppermint turned around to see the two mares walking up to him with uneasy expressions. “The door won’t open from either end… it’s like something is holding it closed.” Peppermint explained with a concerned tone. “Can’t you just use whatever you used to break into the hospital when we were stuck in there?” Twilight suggested while thinking back to how the team liberated her and her friends from the hospital. “Good idea.” Peppermint said before turning to the door and putting his hoof to his ear again. “Back up for a second Sunspot, I’m going to try the cutter.” He explained while pulling a vial from a pocket on his vest. “Ok… just hurry it up. I don’t want to stay out here when the sky opens up.” Sunspot said with an annoyed tone. Without further delay, Peppermint readied the vial in his hooves. Taking a quick look at the door, he quickly realized that it was too tall for him to reach up to the top. For the cutter to work, he needed to run it down the entire seam of the door. “Twilight, could you help me out for a second?” The stallion asked while turning to the unicorn. “Umm… sure, what do you need?” Twilight asked while stepping forward. She was glad to be able to help without actually leaving the foyer. “I need you to lift this vial to the top of the door and run it down the seam. Just press it against the door and hold down the button on the cap.” Peppermint explained while holding out the vial in his hoof and pointing to the small button on the top. There was a small point on one end of the vial, presumably the end that would be pressed into the door. “Ok, that sounds simple enough.” Twilight said while lighting up her horn and concentrating on the vial. Peppermint let go of the bottle as he felt the unicorn nudging it upwards. Everyone stood back and watched as the purple mare lifted the vial to the top of the door and pressed it into the middle of the seam. She pressed down the button on the cap of the vial, causing sparks to fly off the tip of the small point. Twilight started to drag the vial down the seam of the door, but something was amiss. No matter how hard the unicorn pushed on the vial, it wouldn’t budge. “Is there a problem?” Peppermint asked curiously. “Hrk! Gah… I can’t move this thing. I think it’s stuck or something.” Twilight groaned as she tried to force the vial to move. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t get the bottle to budge an inch. “Hey, what’s the hold up in there?” Sunspot asked impatiently. “I think whatever is keeping the door closed is messing with the cutter… we can’t get it to work.” Peppermint replied with an uneasy tone. “Well try the spell breaker! Something has to work!” Sunspot replied with distress in her voice. The group could hear the sound of heavy rainfall coming from outside. “*Sigh*… Thanks for the help Twilight, but you can go ahead and give that back. I’m going to try something different… hopefully it works, or Sunspot is going to kill me when she finally does get in here.” Peppermint shrugged while holding his hoof out for the unicorn to return the vial. Twilight levitated the bottle back down and gave it to the stallion before shrugging in defeat. The two mares watched as the red haired pony fished another vial off of his vest. This one had a similar tip on one end of it, but it was filled with a different colored liquid than the one he just used. With a hopeful expression, Peppermint pressed the vial against the door and pushed the button on the top. A small shockwave of air scattered across the door. Just before the ponies could celebrate their small victory however, the shockwave paused and vanished into a small burst of light. Peppermint and the others frowned as their plan unraveled before their very eyes. “That can’t be good…” Peppermint muttered uncomfortably. Suddenly the group heard a door opening behind them. They turned around to see Glimmer Shine and his group entering the foyer. The ponies all had concerned looks on their faces as they walked over to the front door. “What’s going on?” Glimmer Shine asked his brother curiously. “I don’t know… all of a sudden the house just started shaking. Now the front door won’t open and there is a storm outside.” Peppermint explained with a troubled tone. “A storm outside? Are Sunspot and the others still out there?” Rainbow Dash asked with a concerned expression. Ever since the events that happened last night, the cyan mare was leery on the subject of storms. “Unfortunately yes… I tried using the cutter and the spell breaker, but nothing is working.” Peppermint shrugged while shaking his head. Glimmer Shine walked up to the door and examined it curiously. He gave it a brief tug to affirm it was locked for himself. Before the stallion could think of something else to try, another door opened behind the group. Everyone looked over to see Brimstoke and Neon Streak walking up to them alone. The absence of Tom and Princess Luna surprised the ponies. “Where are Tom and the princess?” Twilight asked with a wary expression. “They split off to investigate another hallway while we searched the basement. We tried to go find them, but the door was locked by the time we got back up there.” Neon Streak explained. The troubling news only made the knot in the ponies’ stomachs tighten. “Uh, guys! What’s the hold up in there?!” Sunspot spoke up from outside. The group could hear rain pouring down against the house. Judging from the sound and the amount of rain hitting the windows, the ponies figured that it was raining really hard. “They haven’t made it inside yet?” Brimstoke asked with a surprised expression. “The door is locked… Pepper tried everything we have on it, and it won’t budge.” Glimmer Shine explained. “That isn’t good…*Sigh*” Brimstoke lowered his head in defeat. The stallion thought for a moment before putting his hoof up to his ear to communicate with the pegasus stuck outside. “Sunspot… this is Brimstoke. We can’t get the door open. Something must be keeping it closed.” Brimstoke explained in a troubled tone. “What…? So you guys are stuck in there?” Sunspot asked in a concerned tone. Now she was more concerned with the safety of her friends than getting wet. “Pretty much…” Brimstoke replied with a shrug. “Do you need me to go back to town and get some back up?” Sunspot suggested. “No… I want you to just sit tight and try to stay dry. The storm might make it too dangerous to leave anyway if it appeared magically. We’ll find a way to unstick this door from our end.” Brimstoke explained with determination in his voice. “Ok… you guys be careful in there. I don’t want to have to bust in there and save you guys single hoofedly.” Sunspot stated in a concerned tone. “Will do.” Brimstoke replied before putting his hoof down and glancing around at the others. There was something missing from their small group however. “Where are Glitterball and the others?” The white stallion asked with mild concern while looking around for the unicorn and her group. “They haven’t gotten back yet.” Peppermint explained. “I hope they’re ok.” Fluttershy said in a troubled tone. The thought of her friends being in danger made her feel uneasy. As if on cue to ease the yellow mare’s concerns, a door upstairs opened up. The group looked up the stairs and saw Glitterball, Rarity, Applejack, and one of the unicorn guards walking into the room. They glanced around for a moment before heading downstairs to join the rest of the group. “Sorry we’re late. We had to tie up a few loose ends along the way.” Glitterball explained in an apologetic tone. “It’s good to see you guys are ok… we were starting to worry about you.” Brimstoke stated with a slight smirk. “Well now that we’re all together, will someone please explain what in the hay just happened? It felt like we were having an earthquake.” Applejack said while thinking back to the violent shaking that happened mere minutes ago. “Yeah… I would like to know why my detector just popped like a firecracker.” Glitterball stated in a troubled tone while holding up the remnants of her detector vial. “We had a run in with our old buddy Shadow Mist down in the basement. He did something to a symbol on the floor that caused a bright flash of light… next thing you know, the house starts shaking.” Neon Streak explained. “What?! You saw Shadow Mist?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone. “Please tell me you managed to catch that invisible dirt bag.” Applejack said with false hope written on her face. “Unfortunately not… he scurried off once the light blinded us like the invisible rodent he is.” Neon Streak explained with a disdainful expression. If she had her way, the red stallion would be lying face down with his hooves cuffed behind his back and a broken nose. “Dangit… we really need to find him and the others before they either get away or get the drop on us.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. “We can’t do much of anything without Tom or the princess here to tell us what’s going on. Something tells me that symbol that Shadow Mist activated down in the basement didn’t just make the house shake a little.” Twilight said in a troubled tone. If her previous experiences had taught her anything, it was that the hooded ponies were a force to be reckoned with. Now that the group thought about it more, they became very nervous about what the house shaking actually meant. The exits to the house had been locked, and they were separated from the human and the alicorn. Who knows what other nasty surprise the hooded ponies just unleashed? “Hey… where is Sargent Fireside? Rainbow Dash asked curiously upon noticing the absence of the stallion and his team of guards. “He hasn’t gotten back from upstairs yet?” Glitterball asked in a surprised tone while looking around. Sure enough, there was no sign of the Sargent or his team of guards. “Ok… this is bad.” Glimmer Shine said uneasily while pacing back and forth. The group was supposed to be in control of the situation, but things were rapidly spiraling into chaos. Even the rest of the guards were getting a little uneasy. Twilight and her friends weren’t faring much better than the yellow stallion and his teammates. Most of the element bearers had varying expressions of concern or outright fear on their faces. They were starting to regret their decision to volunteer for this mission. “Alright everyone, let’s calm down for a minute and figure out our next move.” Brimstoke spoke up to ease the group’s fears. “Let’s start with the most pressing issues and move on from there. We have some missing people, and we have no idea what might be happening. We need to send someone to go find Sargent Fireside’s team, as well as Tom and the princess. We also need to figure out what that symbol down in the basement meant.” The stallion explained. “Hey Glitter, didn’t we find a small symbol upstairs?” Rarity asked curiously while thinking back to her time upstairs. “Yeah… I think it was in the library.” Glitterball replied. “There is a library in this place?” Twilight asked with a hint of excitement in her voice. If there was one thing she could do, it was read. If there was a library in the mansion, perhaps she could find out what was going on by reading through any books or notes the hooded ponies might have been using. “Oh definitely, there were probably hundreds of books in there.” Rarity explained to the purple mare, who was getting more eager by the minute at the prospect of a library full of human books. “Maybe we should check through some of the books in there to see if they-” Brimstoke started to speak up, when he was interrupted by an outburst from Twilight. “I’ll go!” The purple mare exclaimed eagerly while staring at the white stallion with pleading eyes. Suddenly, she became aware of the odd looks she was receiving from everyone around her. “Umm… I mean… can I go check out the library please?” Twilight asked in a calmer tone while smiling awkwardly. “Alright… if you insist, but I want someone to go with you… we shouldn’t be alone at any time in this place.” Brimstoke said in agreement. “I’ll go with her.” Rainbow Dash volunteered eagerly. “Umm…” Brimstoke muttered uncomfortably. He didn’t necessarily feel comfortable sending anyone other than one of his teammates with the unicorn. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle anything that comes our way. Besides, we’re just going to be staying in one room that’s just a little ways from you guys.” Rainbow Dash stated confidently. “I’ll go with them to drop them off. We can set up some blessed candles by the door. Someone needs to look for Sargent Fireside anyway.” Glitterball volunteered to make the white stallion feel more comfortable about sending the two mares up to the library. “Alright… but I want you to take someone with you when you look for Sargent Fireside.” Brimstoke shrugged uneasily. “I already have a team set up… assuming you guys still want to stick with me?” Glitterball asked while glancing over to the three that had gone with her before. “Ah would be happy to help.” Applejack stated while stepping forward. “I would love to help as well.” Rarity volunteered alongside the orange mare. “If it means finding the others, I’m in.” The unicorn guard stepped forward with a slight nod. “Ok then… now I just need some people to help us find Tom and the princess.” Brimstoke said while looking around at the others. “Oo! I’ll go!” Pinkie Pie volunteered eagerly while bouncing over and standing by Brimstoke and Neon Streak. “Umm… I…” Fluttershy muttered uncomfortably while trying to find the courage to volunteer. She wanted to help find the human and the alicorn for everything they had done for her, but she was still nervous. “Go on Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said while giving the timid mare a helpful shove in the right direction. Fluttershy started sweating nervously as she watched the three waiting for her to finish her thought. “I’ll go…” The yellow pegasus swallowed the lump in her throat and managed to appear slightly confident. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I promise I’ll keep you safe.” Neon Streak said while putting a reassuring hoof on the nervous mare’s shoulder. Fluttershy felt better knowing that she would have friends looking out for her. She stood by Pinkie Pie defensively and anxiously waited for the group to move. “I’ll come with you guys.” Glimmer Shine volunteered eagerly, until he was halted by Brimstoke stopping him as he passed by. “Sorry Glimmer, I want you to stay here and keep an eye on things.” The white stallion instructed with a sympathetic tone. “What?! But you guys need me out there!” Glimmer Shine protested with a shocked expression. “We need you to stay here. If something goes wrong, or if anyone needs help, you will be free to put together a team and go after them.” Brimstoke explained. The yellow stallion shrugged before offering a begrudging nod. “Alright… but you guys better get back here in one piece.” Glimmer said with a concerned tone. “We always do Glimmer, don’t you worry about us.” Neon Streak said with a confident smile. Glimmer Shine lightened up a bit once he saw how determined the green mare was. “Ok everyone… we meet back here in half an hour. Glitterball and her team will go check on Twilight and Rainbow Dash before coming back. They have a lot of work to do, so they can stay up there.” Brimstoke explained to the groups that were lined up around him. “Let’s get moving!” The white stallion instructed before leading his group to the door at the back of the stairs. Everyone else nodded before scrambling to join their team members in going to their assigned positions. Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed Glitterball and the others upstairs and to the right, while Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed Brimstoke and Neon Streak into the downstairs hallway.
Chapter 80: Around Every CornerWhile everyone was eagerly marching forward to complete their assigned tasks inside the mansion, it was an entirely different story outside of the mansion. Sunspot was standing under the relatively dry overhang of the front steps with her small team of pegasi. The area in front of the front door was large, with four stone columns holding up a stone covering that was arched at the sides. Despite the large overhang, rain still managed to hit the ponies due to the wind blowing it sideways. It was pouring water so hard that the group could hardly hear themselves think over the constant clamor of rain hitting the sides of the house and the stone steps. The air had been chilly before it started raining, but now that they were wet, Sunspot and the others shivered uncontrollably from the cold. All in all, it was fairly miserable to be the orange pegasus right now. “Man I m-miss my s-suit.” Sunspot stated through chattering teeth as she held her arms close to her body. “At l-least it kept m-me a little w-w-warm.” She said while trying to generate as much heat as possible. As stylish as her black vest full of equipment was, it didn’t do much in terms of generating warmth. “You know… we could huddle together to conserve body heat.” One of the guards suggested with a sly smirk. The orange mare furrowed her brow and glared at the stallion with a dirty look in her eye. “Not if you were the last pony on earth, Casanova.” Sunspot said before turning her nose up at the stallion and ignoring him. Deciding to avoid looking at the other ponies around her, she took a moment to look at her surroundings. It was hard to see much of anything in the torrential downpour just outside, but the orange mare could make out a few details. There was a stump with an old red colored axe stuck into it over by the side of the house to her right. There were a few of the stone statues in the dead garden visible from this distance. In the pouring rain, the statue of the winged human woman looked as if she was crying. There appeared to be a small shed off to the side of the garden. It was made from brick and wood, so it wasn’t faring much better than the other areas of the house. A single cracked window in the side of the small structure offered a glimpse into the pitch black void inside. A subtle chill ran down Sunspot’s back as she looked at the window. She wasn’t sure if it was from the cold, or if she thought someone might be watching her from inside the eerie porthole. “So uh… when do you think we’ll get to head inside?” One of the guards asked Sunspot in a nervous tone. He seemed to be out of his element so to speak, so he wanted to know how things were standing from an expert on situations like this. “I don’t know… I just hope those guys get done in there before I catch my death from cold.” Sunspot shrugged before glancing down at her fur. She was already turning a slightly bluer shade of orange from being exposed to water and freezing temperatures for so long. Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed Glitterball and the others through the upstairs hallway on their way to the library. The ponies glanced around uneasily at the flickering light of the candles placed all around them. Even though this hallway had been cleared out the first time Glitter’s group went upstairs, it felt like there could be anything lurking in the dark patches in front and behind them. Suddenly, Glitterball paused in front of a single door. The door looked slightly different from the other doors in the mansion, with an ornate pattern set into it. Twilight felt a sense of excitement building up inside of her. She was about to enter a room full of literature from a period in time she only dreamed about researching so closely. “Here we are.” Glitterball announced while double checking to make sure she had the right area. “Keep in mind Twilight, we’re here on business.” Rainbow Dash said once she noticed the eager expression on her friend’s face. Twilight took a moment to shake the distractions from her mind and adopted an awkward smile. “Umm… right.” The unicorn stated with a slight chuckle. Her friends glanced at her with doubtful expressions. They knew that she couldn’t resist the allure of reading for long. Only Glitterball seemed to put any merit in the purple mare’s abilities. Without further delay, Glitterball opened the door and ushered the group inside. As they walked into the expansive room, Twilight and Rainbow Dash dropped their jaws in amazement. Even Rarity and Applejack, who had seen the room before, were amazed. The room was filled with entire bookshelves full of books. The shelves covered the walls down the entire length of the room, with a few spaces in between for desks or tables. The room was longer than it was wide, with high ceilings to make it feel larger than it already was. The red carpet that prevailed in the foyer and out in the hallways was absent from this room. There were a few ornate rugs spaced out across the room to cover up the worn and dust ridden floors. Although there were lights installed in the ceiling, the room was lit by candles placed along the ground or in stands. There were a few lamps along the tables to the sides that were lit up, but they only provided enough light to read by. “Wow…” Twilight exclaimed in awe while looking around at the numerous bookshelves with a gleam in her eyes. There was a wide selection of books crammed into the shelves. From thick tomes full of doubtlessly horrific black magic, to smaller books of poetry or other literary works. “Are you sure you guys will be ok in here?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone as she watched Glitterball setting up blessed candles at the door. She wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable letting her friends stay by themselves in a place like this. “Don’t worry… I think the biggest obstacle we’re going to face is getting Twilight to keep herself focused.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing over to the purple unicorn. Twilight was already looking through one of the bookshelves and browsing the titles of the books. “Have fun with that.” Applejack said with a small smirk. A soft blue pulse of light surged through the room. The group looked over to see that Glitterball had already placed and lit the two candles at the door. She turned around and smiled at the others as they admired the blue glow of the candles. “Ok guys, if you’re ready we should probably get going.” Glitter suggested while motioning towards the door. Rarity and Applejack took one last look at their friends before walking over to the vested unicorn. Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked over to the group as they started to leave. “We’ll be back to check on you in half an hour. If we don’t get here in that time, stay here until someone comes for you.” Glitterball explained with a tone of friendly concern. “We will be careful.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while waving to her friends. “Stay safe guys.” Rainbow Dash added while glancing at the four. “Same goes for you.” Applejack replied. With a brief nod, Glitterball opened the door and led her group back out into the hallway. If they were going to find Sargent Fireside and his team, they needed to hurry up and start looking so they could be back within the half hour time limit. As the door slid closed, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were left in the quiet solitude of the library. Although the candles at the door assured them that the area was safe, the room still held an eerie quality to it. The ponies felt ever so slightly on edge as they looked around the expansive room. “Well… I guess we should get started.” Rainbow Dash said while looking around the room. “Now, where do we start?” She muttered while trying to find a meaningful title among the shelves of books. “I doubt it would be on one of these shelves… at least I hope not.” Twilight said while raising her eyebrows at the number of books in the room. It would take weeks to go through every single one, and as much as the thought entertained her, she didn’t have time to waste. As she looked around the room, she suddenly laid eyes on the few desks scattered around. Most of the desks were barren of anything other than a reading lamp and a stray book, but some appeared to be better used than others. There were a few desks that had papers and notes placed on top of them, and their drawers were free of dust. Twilight wandered over to a desk to the right of the room. She quickly sifted through the notes on the desk before opening one of the drawers. A slew of other papers on various subjects waited inside. Judging from the topics on the notes, they seemed to have been written by the hooded ponies. “Looks like these are notes about some of their operations… maybe there is something that could help us here?” The unicorn asked with a hint of optimism. “Well there’s only one way to find out. Let’s get to reading.” Rainbow Dash shrugged and stretched her arms before settling down beside the purple mare. Twilight levitated a few papers over to the pegasus and prepared to begin researching. Meanwhile downstairs, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were walking along with Brimstoke and Neon Streak. The four were making their way down the hallway towards the area where Tom and Princess Luna split off from the group. Although the two members of Spirit had a certain air of confidence about them, and Pinkie Pie was far too cheerful to mind her eerie surroundings, it was different for Fluttershy. The yellow mare lagged behind her three companions nervously as they walked through the dimly lit hallway. For all she knew, there could have been anything behind all of the doors they were passing. And knowing her luck, any monster the hooded ponies sent at the group would probably go straight for the timid pegasus. The thoughts floating through her head only further cemented the feeling of dread in Fluttershy’s stomach as she darted her eyes around anxiously. “Alright, here we are.” Brimstoke announced as the group came to the end of the hallway and glanced to the door on the left. “This is where Tom and the princess went when they left us.” He explained while turning to the others. “The door is locked huh?” Pinkie asked to clarify while stepping up to the door and rubbing her hooves together in preparation. “It was the last time we were here… how about now?” Neon asked curiously as she watched the pink mare grip the door handle. Pinkie grunted from exertion as she wrestled with the door in an attempt at forcing it open. “Nope… still locked.” Pinkie stated while wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. “A for effort, Pinkie.” Neon Streak said with an amused smirk. Pinkie Pie huffed in annoyance before stepping away from the door. “But if the only door that leads to that hallway is locked, how are we going to look for them?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “We’re going to head down to the basement to see if we can find a way around to that part of the house.” Brimstoke explained while walking up to the basement door and opening it. The moment she processed what the stallion was saying, Fluttershy froze up nervously. The sound of the door creaking as it opened made for an almost poetic welcoming to the eerie shift in atmosphere that accompanied the basement stairs. Fluttershy’s pupils shrank as she stared down into the black abyss at the bottom of the steps. It seemed like any and all light was being swallowed up by a gaping maw that led into another world. “Uh… uhh…” Fluttershy whined in fright while backing up slowly. No matter how many of her friends were with her, she could probably never bring herself to willingly descend into such a terrifying place. She could practically hear the unearthly moaning of whatever creature doubtlessly called such a place home as it waited for her to step down into the darkness so it could pounce. Pinkie Pie noticed her friend recoiling nervously. The pegasus backpedaled until she was halted by her back hitting the wall. Even then, she stared wide eyed at the opening into the basement. The pink mare frowned with concern while walking up to the timid pony. “Are you ok Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked while sitting down next to the yellow mare. Fluttershy broke her transfixed gaze for a moment to glance at the concerned ponies around her. “You don’t need to go down there if you don’t want to. We could go back and drop you off if you w-” Brimstoke started to offer a reprieve from the tense atmosphere, until he was interrupted by Fluttershy speaking up. “N-no… I can’t just leave. Tom and Princess Luna need our help right now, so I have to go… it’s just…” Fluttershy gulped nervously as her gaze shifted back to the basement door. She felt like she had to help in the efforts to find the human and the alicorn after everything they had done for her, but at the same time she wanted to curl up into a ball as far away from the basement as possible. “Hey… don’t worry about it. I’ll stick right next to you and keep you safe.” Neon Streak stated with a confident smile. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked while glancing over to the green mare. “I promise… and I always keep my promises.” Neon replied while placing a hoof over her heart, as if to swear herself to her word. Fluttershy smiled slightly from seeing the others acting so kind towards her. She couldn’t let them down by letting her fears get the better of her. As much as she wanted to run away and hide, she had to stay with her friends. “Ok… I’ll go with you.” Fluttershy said while managing a small smile. Pinkie and the others smirked joyfully at the timid mare’s acceptance to join them. “Alright, let’s get moving.” Brimstoke said while turning and descending the stairs. Pinkie Pie and Neon Streak hung back and escorted Fluttershy down the steps. Even if she did agree to go, her body still shivered in refusal to her actions as she descended into the darkness. Brimstoke and Neon Streak turned on their flashlights and shined them down the corridor to get their bearings. Even though they had been here once before, they still felt lost and overwhelmed by the seemingly endless corridors. Pinkie Pie tried her best to comfort Fluttershy as they slowly traversed the dark hallways. The timid pegasus would constantly dart her head around nervously to look into every doorway or dark passage that they passed. She felt her heart racing every time she spotted a strange shape in the darkness, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop looking at the shadows. Taking a left turn, the group tried to make their way towards the section of the house that Tom and Luna went to. They wondered how large the house actually was. Surely the basement was only as large as the mansion was, or perhaps it ran underground for miles in an endless maze. Either way, Fluttershy and her pink friend were terrified that they would get lost. “Wow, this place is so big!” Pinkie Pie stated in an enchanted tone. “I wonder what they did down here with all of this space?” She asked innocently while glancing to the rooms beside her. As she caught glimpses of the contents of each room, her wonder suddenly turned to silent horror. Several of the rooms looked like something out of a horror movie. There were tables stained with dried blood in some rooms with sharp looking tools and books placed on nearby trays. When there weren’t gruesome displays like this, there were storerooms full of strange items in jars and clear boxes. Whatever the hooded ponies were doing down here, it wasn’t anything good. Fluttershy nearly gagged and vomited on the spot as she saw a large white sheet draping off of a table at the back of a room with a body shaped object underneath it. The sheet itself was stained in deep red almost from top to bottom. The body underneath seemed to be too large to be a pony, perhaps it was one of the animals that had been taken from the forest. There were flies buzzing around the area, doubtlessly attracted to the rancid smell that was flooding the ponies’ nostrils. It was like someone just forgot that it was down here. “I don’t feel very good…” Fluttershy stated while averting her eyes from the room and taking in a few deep breaths. Her stomach was churning and her face was pale. “Try not to look at it.” Neon Streak suggested with a concerned frown as she watched the yellow mare trying to keep herself from vomiting. “Let’s keep moving.” Brimstoke said while moving down the hallway. The others seemed eager to move away from the gruesome scene. “Yeah… the sooner we get out of here, the better.” Neon stated in agreement while moving to join the stallion. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie reluctantly took one last look at the horrid object on the table before shuddering and walking away to join their two companions. After their last experience with looking into a room, the ponies decided to keep their eyes mostly down the hallway. Brimstoke and Neon Streak quickly swept each room they passed for any signs of the hooded ponies, but even they tried to avoid looking at any contents of the rooms. Fluttershy whined uncomfortably as she looked behind her into the darkness. Without the light from the two flashlights ahead, the pegasus was actually standing in almost pitch blackness. Looking behind her only made the feeling of fear gripping her body worse as she pictured what could be following her quietly, waiting for an opportunity to get her alone and drag her away from her friends. Pinkie Pie gently placed a hoof on the nervous mare’s shoulder. She wanted to try her best to comfort her, but she couldn’t do much more than offer the assurance that she wasn’t alone. Fluttershy glanced over to the pink pony and smiled slightly. Pinkie smiled and giggled happily in an attempt at making some of her happiness rub off on the pegasus. “Cheer up Fluttershy. I’m sure we’ll be out of here in no time.” Pinkie stated cheerfully. “I hope so…” Fluttershy replied nervously while trying her best to keep her eyes on the lit up portions of the hallway. As she followed Neon Streak’s flashlight beam into a room, Fluttershy suddenly noticed a bit of movement. Just as the light was leaving the room, the yellow mare noticed what looked like a silhouette rapidly moving across the room. The strange figure seemingly disappeared into the wall, as there were no other exits to the room. “…!” Fluttershy gasped and started breathing rapidly. She already convinced herself that she was being watched, but now she actually felt like there was someone else nearby. The pegasus could feel her heart racing, but she couldn’t find the courage to look behind her to validate her concerns. Pinkie Pie noticed that her friend was more afraid than usual. She looked like she had just seen a ghost, and considering their surroundings, the idea wasn’t that implausible. The timid pony was practically shaking so much that her teeth were chattering from the movement in her head alone. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone. “I t-think I s-saw something m-move.” Fluttershy replied in a terrified manner. “What…?” Pinkie Pie said in a shocked tone. Judging from the fear in her eyes, the pegasus was definitely being serious. “Hold up.” Brimstoke spoke up, interrupting the yellow mare from her explanation. The group fell silent as they heard voices up ahead. Fluttershy decided to keep her experience to herself, at least until the possible danger had passed. The ponies crept forward as quietly as they could while moving further down the hallway. As they drew closer, they started to make out the voices more clearly. It sounded like two stallions were talking amongst themselves in a room up ahead. Brimstoke and the others slid along the wall and slowly walked up to the doorway where the noise was coming from. Sure enough, there were two ponies in hoods inside the room. One of the ponies was a blue unicorn with white hair, while the other was a teal earth pony with black hair. They seemed to be frantically searching around the room looking through various boxes and books. “Where the hell did the tranquilizers go?” The unicorn asked while rummaging through a box on a shelf. “I don’t know… they were right here earlier.” The earth pony replied in a bewildered tone. “Did they fall off the table when the house shook or something?” The unicorn said while looking around in mild frustration for the items. “I don’t know, probably… why is it so important? We need to hurry up and get out of here before they find us.” The teal stallion stated urgently. “I’m sorry… I guess I would just like to know that a bunch of needles full of stuff that could knock out a dragon aren’t just lying around on the ground somewhere for me to step on!” The blue pony replied in an irritated tone while shoving the teal pony. “Hey, it isn’t my fault they were put on the table like that! We didn’t even use them for crying out loud!” The earth pony replied while shoving the unicorn back. Fluttershy and her group watched the two bickering ponies quietly. They didn’t seem like they would pose much of a threat, but it was clear that they needed to be taken care of. Brimstoke glanced to Neon Streak to come up with a plan of action. “Think we can take these guys?” Brimstoke whispered quietly. “You kidding me? These guys look like they couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag.” Neon Streak replied with a chuckle. “Alright… follow my lead.” Brimstoke stated while stretching his limbs in anticipation. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie stayed back while Neon Streak followed the stallion into the room. Slowly but surely, the pair walked closer and closer to the two unaware hoods. They tried their best to sneak as close as they could before the two turned around and discovered them. Surprisingly, the two ponies seemed to be more concerned with rifling through boxes and books than with turning around to be aware of their surroundings. Suddenly, the unicorn turned around. Before he could notice the intruders in the room, a pair of hoof cuffs was suddenly placed on his wrists. “What the hell?!” The blue pony exclaimed as he was yanked closer by Brimstoke so he could finish putting the cuffs on. As soon as he heard his companion in distress, the teal pony turned around and spotted Neon Streak right behind him. “Ack!” He yelped in fright while turning to run. The earth pony barely managed to get a few feet before he was tackled by the green mare. “Not so fast buddy. You aren’t going anywhere.” Neon stated while struggling to put the hooded pony in cuffs. “Gah! Let me go!” The unicorn exclaimed while struggling against his bonds. Frustrated at his lack of success, he strained as he attempted to use magic. “What the…? Why isn’t my horn working?!” The blue stallion yelled in a panic. “Relax… those cuffs prevent you from using magic. We’ll take them off once we get you guys back to Ponyville.” Brimstoke explained. “Aww man… I told you we should have left!” The teal pony stated fearfully to his partner. The blue pony didn’t seem to be impressed with his only friend in this situation. “I would rather take my chances in here than piss off Raven Feather by leaving without doing what she said and gathering up the research!” The unicorn replied with an annoyed expression. “So, Raven Feather told you to gather up the research eh?” Neon Streak asked with a small smirk. The two ponies instantly became very nervous as they realized that they were divulging information. “We aren’t telling you anything. You can beat it out of us as much as you want, we won’t break.” The unicorn stated with a false sense of bravery. “Hey… I remember you. You were those two cowardly ponies helping out that meanie Dust Kicker out in the Everfree Forest.” Pinkie stated curiously as she recalled the last time she had seen the pair. Fluttershy looked closer to the two and came to the same conclusion as her pink friend. These were the underlings that were helping Dust Kicker with his experiments on the animals of the forest. “You have got to be kidding me… I thought we were done with you when your human friend messed up our experiments!” The unicorn groaned in annoyance as he recognized the two mares. “He isn’t here with you is he?” The teal pony asked nervously. “Yeah actually… he is… and so is Princess Luna, so you better cooperate with us when we ask you a question.” Neon Streak said while leering at the two captives in a threatening manner. Whatever bravery the unicorn was trying to put on, wasn’t being matched by his fearful partner. “Where are Raven Feather and the others?” Brimstoke asked while glancing between the two. “You can’t be serious can you? Do you really think that we would answer that question just like t-” The blue unicorn started to speak in a snarky tone, until he was interrupted by his teal friend speaking up out of fear. “They left the mansion before you got here. They told us to stay behind and gather up some important research before we left.” The earth pony explained, much to the dismay of his partner. “What?! But that’s not possible! We just saw Shadow Mist down here not ten minutes ago!” Neon Streak said in a shocked tone. “He stayed behind for some reason… we don’t know why.” The teal pony explained. “What the hell man?! You can’t just tell them things like that! Raven Feather will kill us if she finds out!” The unicorn said angrily while glaring at his partner. “Actually… she would probably get Raincloud to kill us for her.” The earth pony shrugged uncomfortably. Brimstoke glanced to his companions with a thoughtful expression. The fact that Raven Feather and her colleagues had left the mansion was troubling, but what was more troubling was the reason why Shadow Mist had stayed behind. “You think Shadow Mist stayed behind as a scapegoat to trap us here while the others ran?” Brimstoke asked while looking at Neon Streak to get her input to the subject. “If I were a betting mare… I would put all of my bits on that idea. I’m just a little concerned with what else he might have done. If the past few days have taught me anything, it’s that these guys don’t just stop at trapping people in a mansion and running away.” Neon Streak said uneasily while thinking back to the symbol that Shadow Mist activated. “Well… we won’t know what we’re dealing with until we find Tom and the princess. Let’s get moving.” Brimstoke stated while starting to move towards the door. Before the group could move on, Pinkie Pie paused suddenly as a strange feeling washed over her body and settled in her knee. Before long, her knee was feeling stiff and uncomfortable. The pink mare was barely able to stand on the leg from how much it was shaking. “Uh oh… my knee is pinchy! That means something scary is about to happen!” Pinkie exclaimed while darting her head around anxiously. “Wait… what?” Brimstoke asked with a confused expression. “It’s my Pinkie sense. Different things happen to let me know that something is about to happen, and pinchy knee means that something scary is about to happen! Right, Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked while turning to her pegasus friend to help her explain. Fluttershy nodded in response. Almost everyone in Ponyville was well acquainted with the party pony’s strange ability to seemingly predict the future. “No offense Pinkie… but that sounds ridiculous.” Neon Streak said while shaking her head doubtfully. “Oh no, trust us on this one. Pinkie’s Pinkie senses have never been wrong before. Even Twilight believes in them.” Fluttershy said with a confident tone. “So that means, something scary is about to happen?” Brimstoke said with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, but I don’t know what it is until it happens!” Pinkie stated while looking around the room defensively. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard…” The blue unicorn groaned in utter disbelief. “Do you really think that just because you get a case of restless leg syndrome that something scary is going to-” Before the hooded pony could finish his statement, a large breeze blew through the room. All of the candles in the room were snuffed out at once. As the ponies directed their attention to the candles, they caught a brief glimpse of something darting into the hallway outside. The sight of the odd silhouette vanishing around the corner made Fluttershy and the teal earth pony jump in fright. “Ack! What was that?!” The unicorn asked frantically. “I saw something like that just before we came in here.” Fluttershy stated nervously while cowering behind Pinkie Pie. “It’s the ghosts!” The teal pony exclaimed in a terrified manner while slinking to the floor. “Don’t be ridiculous… you know good and well that they aren’t real.” The unicorn stated while glaring at his companion uncomfortably. Even though he was trying to make the teal pony see reason, he seemed to be unnerved by his statement all the same. “What is he talking about? What ghosts?” Brimstoke asked with a serious expression. “There’s a myth circulating among the hoods that the mansion is haunted by the ghosts of the humans that lived here. There were three owners of the house, two brothers and a sister that all died on the property. Raven Feather must have found the rumors amusing, because she likes to tease us by saying that the ghosts are real and that the only thing keeping them at bay is the protective charms around the house.” The captive unicorn explained with a slight hint of apprehension in his voice. “Protective charms…? You mean like a symbol?” Neon Streak asked while glancing at her friends suspiciously. They had come to the same conclusion that she had. “It’s not supposed to be real… it’s just a story to keep most of us in our rooms after dark so we don’t bother Raven Feather and the others.” The unicorn said uncomfortably while glancing over to his companion. The earth pony still had a genuinely terrified look in his eyes. “Well… I suppose those candles just blew themselves out… and that thing we saw was just a big rat.” Neon Streak pondered sarcastically. “Or it could have been Shadow Mist… I wouldn’t doubt that he is still sneaking around here.” Brimstoke suggested. “Well whatever it is… I don’t want to be down here anymore. C-can we go?” Fluttershy asked nervously while darting her eyes around to search for any signs of danger in the darkness around her. Brimstoke and Neon Streak looked at the timid mare sympathetically. Even they were starting to be creeped out by the basement atmosphere, so she must have been terrified. “Yeah… let’s go. I’m sure we can find a stairway up soon enough.” Neon Streak said while giving the yellow mare a reassuring pat on the back. Fluttershy smiled a little bit at the thought of leaving the eerie basement. Without further delay, the group started moving back out into the hallway. “H-hey! You can’t just leave us down here! What if the ghosts show up?!” The teal earth pony called after the group fearfully. “Well if they do, be sure to say hi for us.” Neon Streak said while turning her head to look at the captive pair. Her remark didn’t exactly comfort the earth pony, and even the unicorn was against the idea of being left alone, but probably for different reasons. Brimstoke glanced back at the pair and shrugged as he realized that leaving them in the dark with their hooves bound together and the unicorn’s magic suppressed would be cruel. He quickly fished a blessed candle out of his vest and lit it before tossing it on the ground near the two ponies. “Don’t worry guys, we’ll be back for you… eventually.” Brimstoke added with a slight chuckle. “You sure you want to use up a blessed candle on these guys?” Neon Streak asked curiously. “Well, if these ghosts are real, then that should keep them safe. If they aren’t real, then it should give them some light. Come on, let’s go.” Brimstoke said while continuing down the hall. Without another word, the four ponies walked back out into the dark hallway. The interaction with other living creatures was a nice reprieve from the silent atmosphere, but they had a job to do, a job that required them to delve deeper into the basement.
Chapter 81: House of HorrorsGlitterball and her diligent search party wasted no time in going through room after room of the hallway that Sargent Fireside’s team went through. There was no sign of the guards out in the hallway, so the group had to go through each room individually to see if they were still searching. Each room they checked was empty, and each empty room they found lowered their spirits and made them feel uneasy. Surely they should have at least found one of the ponies by now. The guards hadn’t been searching for long, so they couldn’t have gotten very far. “Where the hay are they?” Applejack shrugged in frustration as she looked in the second to last door in the hallway. The room was another small makeshift dorm area with sleeping bags strewn along the floor, but it was devoid of life just like all the other rooms. “Maybe they’re still searching further up ahead.” Rarity suggested in a hopeful tone. “I doubt they would have kept searching after the house started shaking. They would have come back to the main room… especially since they don’t have one of us to relay messages.” Glitterball stated uneasily. “Well unless they rushed through here recklessly without checking rooms, they couldn’t have gotten much further.” Applejack said while coming to the last unlocked door in the hallway. She turned to her three companions, who offered a silent nod of confirmation, before opening the door. As expected, the door led into another hallway. Unlike the hallway the ponies were currently in, there were absolutely no sources of light. Any candles that might have been placed on tables were unlit, and there were no windows, so the occasional flash of lightning from outside was out of the question. “Yikes…” Applejack muttered uncomfortably as she stared into the pitch black void. Glitterball moved to the front of the pack and lit up her horn to shine into the darkness. “Don’t worry, I got this.” The unicorn said with a slight smirk while stepping forward into the hallway. Everyone took one last look at the comforting flicker of the relatively well lit hallway they came from before following the mare through the door. While Glitterball took the lead, Rarity lit up her own horn and decided to proactively search a few of the rooms they passed. Opening a door on the left, she walked into what seemed to be a guest bedroom. There were two identical beds in the room, each with decoratively carved bedposts and green sheets with moth holes in them. All of the furniture in the room had a thin layer of dust on it. The entire room looked like it hadn’t been used in years. “No sign of them in here.” The white mare shrugged before closing the door. “It doesn’t look like anypony has been through here for a long time…” Applejack stated while observing the surrounding area. There weren’t even any candles or other recently placed items on the nearby tables. “Well they had to have come through here, and we have about fifteen minutes to find them before we have to head back.” Glitterball said uneasily. With the growing concern for the wellbeing of Sargent Fireside and his team building stronger by the minute, the group continued pressing forward with their search. Room after room turned up as another eerie insight as to what an abandoned mansion looks like on the inside. Another bedroom, a bathroom or two, and a storage closet, all yielding no signs of the team of guards. “Glitter… Ah don’t like this. We should have found them by now.” Applejack said in a troubled tone. The unicorn looked at the orange mare and frowned uncomfortably. The chances that something bad happened were rapidly increasing. “If we don’t find them in this hallway, we’ll turn back and get some help.” Glitterball explained with a troubled sigh. “I just hope they’re alright.” Rarity stated in a concerned tone. “I think they can take care of themselves.” The unicorn guard spoke up from behind the three mares. He seemed to be confident in his fellow guards’ ability to stand up against anything that was thrown at them. “Ah certainly hope so… considering we don’t even know what’s going on anymore, we can’t afford for anyone to get hurt.” Applejack shrugged and shook her head uneasily. As the group continued down the dark hallway, something caught Glitterball’s eye further down the hall. What appeared to be a dark patch on the floor was slowly coming into view beyond the veil of light. As the ponies drew closer to the odd patch, they realized that it was some sort of liquid on the floor in front of a door. Everyone immediately paused and slowed down to an anxious crawl as they looked at the liquid on the floor. The ponies glanced at each other nervously, apprehensive to press forward. Glitterball and Applejack found the nerve to take a few steps forward. Their hearts sank to their feet as the dark stain on the floor showed a red tint when the light fell on it more. Sure enough, the red tint grew in brightness until it was solid red. The ponies gasped as they stared down at the red liquid in front of them. There was no doubt about it anymore. There was blood on the floor. “Oh my…” Rarity covered her mouth to hold back another gasp as she examined the grim sight before her. The blood was still wet, seemingly having been made some time in the last half hour. Instead of lying in a puddle on the ground, the blood was spattered along the ground in streams that pointed to the door. Applejack and Glitterball glanced at each other nervously before observing their two companions. The guard’s face was pale. He had probably never seen blood outside of the body in such a large quantity before. Rarity was far too mortified to even move. She seemed to be frozen in place as she stared at the crimson stains in front of her. If anyone was going to move forward to investigate the source of the blood, it would have to be the orange mare and the rainbow haired unicorn. Figuring that she held some sort of responsibility, Glitterball slowly inched forward towards the door. Being careful not to step in the blood, the unicorn shakily placed her hoof on the doorknob. The metal felt cold in her grasp. Taking a nervous glance beside her, she saw Applejack standing beside her with an equally uneasy expression on her face. Offering a slow nod of reassurance, the orange mare waited for the unicorn to head inside. Glitterball gulped down her apprehensions and forced herself to turn the knob. She cringed as she slowly opened the door and let it glide the rest of the way by itself. “*Gasp*…!” Glitterball felt a startled outcry die out in her throat as she took a frightened step back. Everyone felt their eyes widen and their blood run cold as they saw what was inside of the room. The trail of blood spatters grew into a solid trail that led a short ways into the room before settling into a puddle, a puddle that was rapidly spreading out from a pony on the ground. As their eyes darted around the room, the group saw several more bodies strewn around the area. As much as they didn’t want to believe it, these ponies were definitely the missing guards that they were searching for. All of them were still clad in their armor, but there were numerous gashes and cuts strewn across their bodies. Some of the guards were slumped against walls, while others were strewn across the floor. One body was even lying on top of a broken glass table. “Ah!” Rarity yelped in fright while scrambling backwards. She slid to the floor once her body hit the wall behind her. “Oh my gosh!” Applejack exclaimed in shock while holding back the urge to vomit. The ponies felt sick to their stomachs as they stared at the sight before them. Taking it upon herself to investigate further, Glitterball stepped into the room slowly. The unicorn felt her legs wobbling in refusal of walking forward. She looked around at the bodies of the guards to find out what could have happened to them. “What… what happened?!” Rarity exclaimed in shock while reluctantly stepping into the room with her friends. She felt safer in the disgusting atmosphere of the room than out in the dark hallway by herself. Applejack stood over one of the bodies and started to check for signs of life before stopping herself. As much as she wanted to entertain the idea that some of the guards survived, there was no way that any of them were alive. Some of them had deep gashes in their necks, as if they were stabbed and cut repeatedly by some sharp object. “It looks like they were attacked by something.” Applejack stated uneasily. Glitterball glanced over to the side of the room and lowered her head sadly. She recognized Sargent Fireside’s body slumped up against the wall with several stab wounds in his chest. His eyes were glazed over, much like the other bodies in the room. Shifting her glance away from the death scattered around the room, the vested mare noticed a trail of blood leading away from one of the bodies. The blood trail went along the floor until it traveled up to a table. One look at the table revealed the source of all of this carnage. On top of the table, there was a large pair of scissors drenched in blood. “I think they were… killed… by this.” Glitterball said uncomfortably while pointing to the scissors. She felt herself pause whenever she had to verbally acknowledge the situation around her. “Do you think that one of the hooded ponies did this?” Applejack asked while eyeing the gruesome weapon and cringing slightly at the thoughts drifting through her head. “I doubt that any of the regular hoods could have overpowered an entire group of guards like this.” The unicorn guard stated while shaking his head doubtfully. “Maybe it was Raincloud? Something terrible like this seems right up her alley.” Rarity suggested while contorting her face into an appalled expression. The mere thought of the pale blue pegasus slaughtering the team of guards made her sick. “No… Ah don’t think it was her. If Raincloud killed them, she would have used her shadow to do it.” Applejack stated while shaking her head uneasily. Not knowing what happened was almost as bad as knowing what happened. “And I’m pretty sure that Raven Feather and her followers would have used shadow magic instead of scissors.” Glitterball added while briefly picking up the scissors with her magic. She paled as she further examined the bloody blades, eventually deciding to put the disgusting item back on the table. “Well… who did this?” Rarity asked uncomfortably. “I don’t know… but we should definitely head back and tell the others.” Glitterball suggested while moving to the other side of the room closer to the door. The others nodded somberly while taking one last look at their fallen comrades. They only hoped that they could prevent anyone else from falling to the same fate. As she was turning to leave, Rarity’s ears perked up as she heard the harsh sound of metal briefly scraping against metal. She darted her head in the direction of the noise, only to find that the only metal item in view was the pair of scissors. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she almost thought that the blades were spread apart slightly further than they were before. “What the…?” Rarity muttered in a confused tone while eyeing the scissors with a suspicious leer. The air in the room felt cold and icy, cementing the uncomfortable feeling that the ponies were already feeling. “What’s wrong Rarity?” Glitterball asked from the other side of the room. Rarity turned to see her friends waiting for her over by the door. The white mare thought for a moment before shrugging. “Oh it’s nothing… I just thought I heard something is all.” Rarity explained with a brief chuckle at the ridiculous thoughts she was having just a few moments ago. Meanwhile, the three ponies over by the door noticed something terrifying behind the unicorn. The bloody pair of scissors slowly yet deliberately lifted into the air by themselves and spun around to face Rarity. The blades slowly spread apart and closed together once, causing a bone chilling snip to fill the air before falling into dead silence. Rarity froze up as she heard the noise and saw her friend’s reactions. Even before they started to warn her, she already had an idea that something bad was about to happen. “Rarity look out!” Applejack shouted while rushing forward. “*Gasp*!” Rarity spun around and widened her eyes as she saw the scissors pointing at her in the air. The bloody weapon was floating up and down gently, but it almost had a sinister sort of appearance to it, as if it had a mind of its own. Before she could react, the scissors shot forward and sailed straight for her neck. “AHH!” The white mare screamed and flinched her eyes shut. She suddenly felt Applejack tackling her to the side to get her away from the attacking cutting implement. “AGH!” Applejack yelled in pain as the scissors clipped across her back as she went to the floor with her friend in her arms. The scissors darted through the air until they paused just above the ground. The ponies turned their attention to the weapon still floating in the air. The scissors quickly pointed towards the two ponies standing by the door. Glitterball and the unicorn guard immediately prepared themselves to jump out of the way. The scissors darted forward once again, sailing straight for the vested mare. Glitterball barely managed to duck to the side before the blades impaled themselves into the wall where her body was standing just moments ago. “Let’s get out of here!” Applejack suggested while getting Rarity up from the floor. The orange mare yelped in pain as the wound on her back sent twinges of suffering through her body. Rarity helped the farm pony walk as fast as she could towards the door. The ponies’ hearts sank as the scissors pulled themselves out of the wall and floated in the air again. It was like some unseen force wanted them dead, and it didn’t seem like Shadow Mist was the cause of the assault. The scissors were moving much too fast and fluidly for a pony to be holding them. “Look out!” The unicorn guard yelled as the scissors spun around again to face Applejack and Rarity. The brown stallion quickly lit up his horn and wrapped his magic around the flying weapon in an attempt at restraining it. The others quickly rushed to the door while the stallion struggled to keep the scissors from moving. They could tell that he was having a hard time of it due to the scissors trying to break free. As soon as the others made it out of the door, the guard slowly followed them while keeping his magical grip on the scissors. “Come on!” Glitterball said while frantically motioning for the stallion to hurry. She was going to slam the door closed and leave the scissors to rot in the room where they were found. Suddenly, the scissors stopped jostling around in the air, as if they stopped struggling. The ponies gasped in shock as the bloody blades shot forward, completely ignoring the unicorn’s magic holding it in place. The blades flew forward at a blinding speed, until they slammed straight into the guard’s chest. The gilded armor piece on his chest cracked from the force of the impact, and the guard sputtered in pain as the scissors pierced his body slightly. Glitterball and the others watched in horror as the guard was sent to the floor and landed on his back. He yelled in pain as the blades dug themselves in further. “Oh my gosh!” Glitterball exclaimed while rushing forward to help the stallion. She was forced to recoil when the scissors suddenly pulled themselves out of his body. The ponies watched with wide eyes as the scissors drove themselves back down into the unarmored portion of the stallion’s stomach. “GAH!” The guard’s outcry of pain was shortened by blood spurting from his mouth. He desperately grasped at the scissors in an attempt at preventing them from doing any more damage. The ponies heard the faint sound of female laughter echoing through the room and sending a chill down their spines. The scissors effortlessly lifted themselves out of the stallion again before crashing back down in a stabbing motion. The guard cried out in pain as the blades pierced his body again. The scissors rapidly pulled themselves out and drove themselves back down. It was like someone was sitting on top of the guard holding the scissors and stabbing him with them violently. The force of the stabs sent sprays of blood outwards like a macabre geyser. The wet and gut wrenching sound of blades piercing flesh filled the air as the scissors continued their onslaught. “AGHH!” The guard screamed in pain as the brutal assault continued. Glitterball and the others backed away fearfully as the stallion’s cries diminished. Before long, the brown unicorn rolled his head to the side and ceased all struggles. Despite the death of the stallion, the scissors kept stabbing into his body violently. With one last stab of finality, the scissors paused in the dead pony’s body. There was blood everywhere now, with streams of the crimson liquid freely flowing out of the many gashes in the stallion’s corpse. The three mare’s felt their blood running cold as the scissors slowly lifted into the air and pointed towards them menacingly. “AHH!” Rarity and Applejack screamed in terror while holding each other tightly. Glitterball frantically lit up her horn and wrapped her magic around the door. The unicorn slammed the door shut just as the blades shook in the air. The ponies flinched as they heard the loud sound of the door closing, followed by the solid thud of the scissors slamming into the wooden barrier. “L-let’s get to the others!” Glitterball stammered fearfully. She wanted to get the two mares along with herself to the safety of her teammates. Brimstoke and the others would be able to act without the hindrance of fear getting in the way. The ponies bolted as fast as they could down the hallway. They ran like they were being chased by pure evil itself, which likely wasn’t far off from the danger possibly lurking behind them. Whatever Shadow Mist had unleashed in the basement, it was capable of killing, and it thoroughly enjoyed bloodshed. The faint laughter echoed in the mares’ heads. It sounded like whoever was laughing was genuinely enjoying the suffering that they were causing. The group wondered if it was in their mind, but it was far too real to have been imagined. Finally, the three ponies reached the end of the hallway. Glitterball feverishly reached for the door and turned the handle. Before she could open the door however, the trio heard the laughter from before returning louder than ever. It sounded like it was fading in and out all around them before traveling in front of them. The sound of loud footsteps came from behind the door. The flashlight on Glitterball’s vest switched on by itself and started flickering violently. Judging from the pause between footsteps, the ponies surmised that something with only two feet was walking around, almost like their human friend Tom. Glitterball suddenly felt the door handle jostling as something from the other side tried opening it. The unicorn held the door in place while glancing back to her two companions. “Someone is behind the door…” Glitterball muttered in quiet terror. “Do you think it’s Tom?” Rarity asked with false optimism. “No… Glimmer Shine and the others would have called me if they found him… and I doubt he would have made his way around the long way to that locked door at the end of the hall.” Glitterball explained uneasily. The eerie laughter came again from behind the door, only it sounded much more defined. Before, it had been echoed and distorted, but now it sounded like someone was giggling sinisterly from the other side of the door. The sound of the laughter made the ponies freeze up with fear. Rarity and Applejack started shivering uncontrollably as they listened to the ghostly noise. Suddenly, Glitter felt the door handle shaking violently. The force on the other side of the door was jostling the door with immense strength. The door handle was banging against the rest of the door due to how much it was being knocked around. “Glitter… Ah think we should find another way back to the entrance.” Applejack suggested in a nervous tone. She couldn’t even bring herself to emote from how frightened she was. Glitterball quickly turned the lock on the door and backed away slowly. As if in response to the ponies trying to get away, a loud bang filled the air as the door jolted slightly. The sound made the group jump in fright. Taking this as a hint to leave, the ponies started running as fast as they could down the hallway. They had to keep moving to evade their new unseen foe. They hoped that they could find another way through the mansion to reach their friends. Meanwhile, outside of the house, Sunspot was still waiting patiently for her teammates to finish the mission while trying to stay warm. She at least hoped that they would find a way to open the door so she could head into the warm and dry mansion, but her patience was wearing thin. The rain hadn’t relented one bit since it started, although it hadn’t intensified either. If it wasn’t for the large overhang above the ponies, they would have been much wetter and much more miserable than they already were. Sunspot shrugged and glanced around at the team of pegasi that she was supposed to be leading. They all seemed to be just as irritated as she was. Most of the stallions were looking down at the floor while trying to stay warm, while others stared off into the torrential downpour that surrounded them. “Ugh… this is not how I planned on spending the night.” One of the guards groaned uneasily. “Well maybe if they would hurry up in there, we could head inside.” Another stallion muttered in annoyance while glancing over to Sunspot. It didn’t take much to see that he wasn’t exactly keen on the orange mare’s team taking the lead while he just sat out in the cold. “Hey… if you have any ideas on getting inside, be my guest.” Sunspot stated while returning the glare that the pegasus was giving her. “Have you considered breaking a window?” The guard replied in a condescending tone while pointing to the many windows on the side of the mansion. Sunspot hummed with intrigue as she thought further about the idea. “Well… that might work, but unless you want to volunteer for us to use you as a battering ram, I think we need to find something to break them.” The orange mare said while shifting her eyes around the area to find something to use. Although she had broken into windows more than a couple of times using her own body, the windows here looked a bit too thick to even attempt something like that without the added protection of her suit. “Aha!” Sunspot exclaimed in revelation while turning her attention to the stump at the side of the house. “We can use the… what the…?” She furrowed her brow in confusion as she laid eyes on the stump. There wasn’t anything sticking out of it, even though she had remembered seeing an axe in place earlier. “What is it?” One of the guards asked curiously while noting the mare’s confusion. “I could have sworn that I saw an axe in that stump earlier…” Sunspot muttered while scratching her head in thought. She could barely make out the outline of the notch that the axe would have made in the stump through the rain, but she couldn’t see it clearly enough to confirm her suspicions. Deciding that her mind must have been playing tricks on her, the pegasus shrugged before turning her attention to the old shed on the edge of the garden. If there was something on the property that could be used to break a window, then it would surely be in there. After taking a few steps forward, Sunspot paused as she came to the edge of the overhang. She looked up at the pouring rain as it flew past and exploded into the ground. Her body shivered just from the thought of heading out into the rain. “Ugh… I’m never getting dry am I?” Sunspot asked herself while shaking her head sadly. Steeling her nerves and taking a breath, the orange pegasus walked forward into the rain. “Gah!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock as she froze in place from the cold rain hitting her directly. She waited for a moment until her body adjusted slightly to the drastic change in temperature. She then slowly shambled forward while trying to keep her muscles from locking up. The guards watched the freezing mare as she walked over to the garden shed. They were thankful that she was the one to take the initiative and walk out into the cold rain, rather than one of them having to go. Sunspot paused in front of the wooden structure. The cracked window still offered nothing more than blackness. She shrugged anxiously before rubbing her hooves together and grabbing the door handle. Much to her relief, the door opened immediately. As she stepped inside, the pegasus switched on her flashlight and shook the excess water from her body. She was thankful to be somewhere relatively dry, even if the roof was leaking slightly. There wasn’t much in the old shed. Two racks lay on either side of the building to be used for storing tools, though both of them were empty. The only thing that looked like it could serve the orange mare’s purpose was a broken hoe lying on the ground. “I guess this will do.” Sunspot stated while picking up the wooden handle of the tool. The iron tip had broken off and was lying on the ground beside the handle, but it could only be thrown at the window, so the pegasus decided that the wooden pole would be better. Heading out of the shed and trotting through the rain, Sunspot tried to get back to the dry front steps as fast as possible. She panted heavily as she stopped in front of the group of guards watching her. They were impressed to see that she had found a tool to be used to break into the house. “Not bad kid… now let’s hurry up and get in there.” The guard that suggested the idea of window breaking stated with a smirk. Sunspot paused and held out the pole in front of his face. The stallion seemed confused, until he realized what she was implying. “You can’t be serious…” He muttered in annoyance. “Hey… it was your idea in the first place. Besides, I think I’ve gotten wet enough for tonight.” Sunspot said with a smirk while handing the pole over to the guard. The stallion reluctantly accepted the tool before turning and walking over to the edge of the steps. Everyone watched as the pegasus sighed before walking out into the rain. He spread his wings and hovered in the air a short ways to get easier access to the first window he saw. The stallion cracked his neck and prepared to swing at the window as hard as he could. “Rrrah!” The guard yelled as he swung the pole into the window. A loud crack sounded out as the glass gave way. Much to the surprise of the stallion, the window didn’t completely shatter. A large circular impact zone with many cracks spiraling out from it was clearly visible, but the window held fast. The pegasus prepared to take another swing at the window. Although it hadn’t shattered, the glass felt like it would give way from another strike. Just before he could swing again however, a peculiar sight made the stallion pause. “Huh?” He muttered in confusion while backing away from the window. The cracks in the window suddenly started mending themselves. The large crushed area slowly reformed until a pristine pane of glass was left. It was like nothing had even happened. Frustrated at this strange event, the stallion yelled and smacked the pole into the glass again. Another series of cracks formed around the impact zone, but they immediately started to disappear as well. The group watched anxiously as the pegasus rapidly threw blow after blow at the window in an attempt at breaking it before it could mend. “*Pant*… *Wheeze*…” The guard dropped the pole and descended to the ground. He slowly walked back up the steps with a defeated expression. “What the hay was all that about?” Sunspot asked in a bewildered tone. She could see what happened from where she was, but she wasn’t sure if she believed her eyes. “I don’t know… but that window isn’t going anywhere. It keeps fixing itself… what the heck is going on?” The guard asked with a shocked expression. The revelation that they couldn’t force entry into the mansion made Sunspot extremely nervous. Now, she had to face the fact that her friends were on their own. She couldn’t help them even if she wanted to. “I don’t know… I just hope everyone is alright in there.” The orange mare stated uneasily while shifting her gaze to the front door. She wondered what was happening within the walls of the mansion, and whether or not the others were safe.
Chapter 82: Out of the ShadowsMeanwhile in the basement, Brimstoke and the others were still trying to find a way back upstairs. The basement was so large and convoluted that the ponies were unsure of whether or not they were even going in a new direction rather than running around in circles. It didn’t help that the walls and floors of the dark corridors didn’t have any kind of unique feature to them. The best bet they had of finding a landmark was to find a room that had a certain layout, and even that was hard. All of the rooms down in the basement were either store rooms full of bizarre items and boxes, empty rooms full of nothing but dust and cobwebs, or rooms with examination tables and other forms of disturbing operating and experimenting equipment. “Didn’t we already come through here?” Neon Streak asked in a droning tone. She was getting tired of walking around in a dark and creepy basement. At least when they were upstairs, they could get lost in a mansion filled with interesting human décor, but down in the musty old corridors, it was nothing but stone, wood, and darkness. “I don’t know… everything down here looks the same to me.” Pinkie Pie shrugged while looking around at the surrounding area. “I just hope we don’t get lost in this place.” Neon stated in a half joking, half serious way while glancing at Brimstoke suggestively. She wasn’t entirely sure if she trusted the stallion’s sense of direction enough to be following him for hours. Although Brimstoke was mildly annoyed by the statement, he wasn’t the only one affected by it. Fluttershy whined quietly and lowered her head in fear. The mere thought about being lost in the basement scared her on its own, but she also had other things on her mind. The pegasus couldn’t quite shake what the hooded ponies had said out of her mind. The story about the ghosts of the mansion’s previous owners haunting the endless halls and rooms of the house gave the timid mare a feeling of dread that wouldn’t go away. The teal pony had been scared out of his wits at the subject, and even the unicorn seemed nervous under his attempts at waving the story off as just silly superstition. Not only did the hooded ponies’ genuine fear cement Fluttershy’s concerns, but she still couldn’t get over the eerie things that happened. The candles being blown out suddenly and the strange figure she saw out of the corner of her eye made her terrified at the prospect of going further into the basement. “A-are you sure you k-know where we’re going?” Fluttershy asked nervously. The others frowned sympathetically at the yellow mare’s question. She was trying so hard to make herself feel comfortable, but she was obviously failing. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I can get us out of here if the need arises.” Brimstoke said with a confident smile. Fluttershy wasn’t comforted by the stallion’s response as much as she thought she would be. She still felt incredibly anxious and paranoid about her surroundings. “So… do you guys r-really think this place is… *Gulp*… Haunted?” Fluttershy asked while swallowing a nervous lump in her throat. She wasn’t sure if she actually wanted their opinion on the matter, but she had to keep talking if she was going to feel any better. Neon Streak and Brimstoke glanced at each other for a moment before turning to the timid mare. They looked like they were trying to gather each other’s opinion before sharing a consensus on the topic. Finally, the green mare decided to answer. “Well… something is definitely going on. I’m not sure if I buy the whole ghost story thing though.” Neon stated while pondering the matter further in her head. “Cheer up Fluttershy, if any ghosties come along, I know just how to deal with them.” Pinkie Pie stated confidently while offering a reassuring hoof on the timid mare’s shoulder. Fluttershy felt a little better knowing her friend was with her, even if she knew that the pink mare’s method of laughing in the face of anything scary probably wouldn’t work on real ghosts. “Thanks Pinkie…” Fluttershy said while managing a small smile. Pinkie seemed pleased to have made a change in the yellow pony’s mood, even if it was ever so slight. Suddenly, the group came to the end of the hallway. There were two open doors that looked like they led into other rooms. Perhaps the ponies could find another way through by snaking through the rooms until they found a hallway. “This way.” Brimstoke suggested while turning to the right. The others nodded while following the stallion through the door. Fluttershy suddenly heard something behind her. She darted her head back towards the hallway. Now that both Brimstoke and Neon Streak were facing the other way, the hallway was pitch black. The timid mare’s imagination kicked into overdrive as she saw shapes moving in the dark. Noticing the absence of the yellow pegasus, Neon Streak turned around and walked back out into the hallway. She noticed Fluttershy staring into the shadows fearfully. She seemed to be searching for something in the darkness. “What’s wrong?” Neon asked in a concerned tone. Fluttershy glanced beside her to see the green mare looking at her with a worried expression. “I-I thought I h-heard something down there.” Fluttershy explained while hesitantly pointing her hoof down the hallway. Neon Streak pointed her flashlight where the timid mare was pointing and searched the hallway. “I don’t see anything…” Neon muttered suspiciously. “Hey girls, hurry up.” Brimstoke said while looking behind him and noticing that only Pinkie was following him. Neon Streak and Fluttershy turned to rejoin their companions, but just as they were walking up to the doorway, the door suddenly and violently slammed shut, causing the pair to yelp in surprise. “What the hay?!” Neon Streak exclaimed in surprise as she rushed up to the door and tried opening it. “Are you two ok?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone while trying to open the door from his end. “Yeah, we’re just a little spooked. Can you get the door open?” Neon Streak asked while glancing to Fluttershy and trying her best to reassure her. The pair heard the stallion grunting from exertion as the door jolted several times. Finally, Brimstoke shrugged uncomfortably and wiped the sweat from his brow in defeat. “It won’t budge… I can try the cutter, but if this door is anything like the others, it won’t open.” Brimstoke explained in a frustrated tone. “*Sigh*… Go ahead and try it.” Neon Streak said while shaking her head in defeat. Brimstoke nodded silently while reaching into a pocket on his vest and pulling out the vial in question. Fluttershy waited while trying to contain her growing fear as the stallion tried to get the door open. Any feeling of safety she had built up from being in a group was completely dissolved. She now felt helpless and endangered as she darted her eyes around her. “Are they going to be alright?” Pinkie Pie asked in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry Pinkie, I’ll keep Fluttershy safe.” Neon Streak stated confidently while glancing at the yellow mare. Fluttershy was practically shaking so much that her teeth were chattering. She couldn’t stand the tension of situation. “Ugh… the cutter’s a no go.” Brimstoke shrugged uneasily while giving the door one last tug to be certain. “We should keep moving… we’ll try to find another way around to you. If we can’t, then we’ll turn around and head back to the others.” Neon Streak suggested while looking to Fluttershy for her opinion. Naturally, the pegasus didn’t like the thought of being down in the basement any longer. “Alright, just be careful… radio us if you get into any trouble, ok?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone. “Ok… same goes for you guys.” Neon replied before walking away from the door. Before Fluttershy walked off to join her, she paused in front of the door. “Pinkie…” The timid mare spoke up in a tone she hoped would be loud enough to be heard. It was hard to articulate her voice with how frightened she was. “Yeah?” Pinkie Pie replied while waiting for the pegasus to continue. “S-stay safe for me… ok?” Fluttershy said with friendly concern evident in her voice. Pinkie Pie smiled slightly from hearing the yellow mare taking the time to wish her well. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will be ok.” Pinkie stated in her usual bubbly and energetic manner. “But… you stay safe too.” The pink mare added in a more somber and down to earth tone. Fluttershy nodded silently before walking away to join Neon Streak. The two mares walked back through the hallway to find another door that led in the direction of their lost friends. They hoped that they could find a way to them quickly. Being separated from them like this made the pair fear for their safety, not to mention how much it made Fluttershy nervous. Before, the pegasus at least had three other people with her, one of whom was a close friend of hers. But now, she felt more alone and helpless than ever. Despite Neon Streak’s constant pauses and speeches of reassurance, nothing could quell Fluttershy’s fears now. Finally finding a room that didn’t just end, Neon Streak and her timid companion walked inside and immediately started making their way to the other doorway at the far end of the room. The room itself was another grim example of the frightening uses that the basement had. There were several shackles and chains secured to the left wall, most of which were caked in rust or blood. Scattered throughout the room were any amenities that would be needed for whatever twisted torture experiments went on down here. An entire countertop was full of cutting implements, dirty rags, trays, and surgical tubing. There was a sink that had bloodstains all over it, not to mention cabinets full of Celestia knows what all around the room. And to top it all off, there were several collapsible operating tables on the right side of the room, two of which were set up. “Geez… how many of these rooms are there in this place?” Neon Streak asked rhetorically with a disgusted expression as she examined the macabre quarters. The hooded ponies couldn’t have possible made this room. The sink, the surgical tubing, the gruesome tools, all of them were as old as the rest of the house. The human owners, whoever they were, were responsible for all of it. “What do you think they did here?” The green mare asked with a morbidly curious tone while examining one of the shackles on the wall. Hearing no response from her pegasus friend, Neon Streak turned around, only to find Fluttershy staring at the bloody sink and counter full of sharp cutting implements with a pale expression. “Sorry Fluttershy… I forgot that I wasn’t with Brimstoke and the others for a second there.” Neon Streak said in an apologetic manner while putting a hoof on the timid mare’s shoulder and gently leading her away from the macabre sights around them. She felt horrible for not being more sensitive to the yellow pony’s fears. “I-I’m ok… I think.” Fluttershy gulped uncomfortably as she gave one more passing glance to the room around her. She felt horrified every time she thought about the original purpose of these rooms, but she couldn’t stop thinking about them. “Let’s get out of here. The sooner we find the others and leave this place, the better.” Neon Streak suggested while walking to the door. Fluttershy nodded weakly in silent agreement while following the green mare as she ushered her out of the room. A few more rooms later, the pair managed to find themselves in another hallway. Neon Streak smirked as she looked down the hallway. With any luck, they could meet back up with Brimstoke and Pinkie Pie if they traveled down it. “This should take us right to them. Let’s get going.” The green mare said while turning to her companion. Fluttershy smiled a little as she envisioned being reunited with her pink friend. She quickly followed the vested pony down the hallway while trying to keep her frightening thoughts from returning. Suddenly, Fluttershy’s ears perked up as she heard a noise behind her. Given the amount of times she had heard a noise or seen something moving out of the corner of her eye, the pegasus was wary as to the cause of these events. Surely she wouldn’t hear a random noise behind her this often. No, something was definitely following her. Taking a swift glance behind her immediately filled the timid mare with regret. Neon Streak was the only one with a flashlight, so the hallway behind them was always filled with pitch blackness. Even if there was something watching her from the shadows, Fluttershy wouldn’t be able to see it unless it was an inch away from her face. Noticing that her companion wasn’t following her anymore, Neon paused and turned around to see Fluttershy staring into the darkness with a paranoid expression of fear. “What’s wrong?” The green mare asked in a concerned tone. “I keep hearing things behind me… I really think that something is following us Neon.” Fluttershy stated in a fearful tone. Neon Streak turned around and pointed her flashlight down the hallway in question. There were a few boxes and tables along the wall that someone could hide behind, but otherwise there were no signs that they were being followed. “I don’t see anything Fluttershy.” Neon said while turning to the pegasus with a sympathetic expression. “Let’s just keep moving… if anything we should just keep our wits about u- OW!” The green mare suddenly cried out in pain while clutching the back of her neck. Fluttershy immediately looked to her companion fearfully. “What’s wrong?!” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. Neon Streak rubbed the back of her neck gingerly before bringing her hoof in front of her face to inspect it. “Something just poked me! It felt like a…” Neon hesitated as she spun around to examine the area behind her. There were no signs of her attacker, but there was something on the ground at her feet. What appeared to be a used up syringe was rolling on the ground, as if someone dropped it quickly and ran. “Needle…” Neon finished her sentence with a hollow feeling of dread slowly filling her up. She picked up the syringe casing and examined it. Although there was no name on the syringe to indicate its contents, the needle was covered, as if it had been spent. Whatever had been inside, was now inside of her. “Are you ok?!” Fluttershy asked nervously as she watched the green mare staring at the syringe with a pale expression. Neon Streak turned to the fearful pegasus as if to answer her, when she suddenly stumbled slightly. “I don’t… feel good.” Neon stated in a slurred voice. She sounded and looked like she was about to pass out. Fluttershy tried to steady the wobbly pony, but her condition continued deteriorating as she starting stumbling more and more. Finally, Neon Streak fell over and settled on the ground like a limp puppet. Her eyes closed and her head smacked the ground from the force of the impact. She was still breathing, but for all intents and purposes, she had been rendered unconscious. “Oh no… Neon, wake up!” Fluttershy pleaded as she gently shook the sleeping mare. She darted her head around nervously as she looked for the one responsible for hurting her friend. Now she was alone in an eerie dark hallway, with a friend lying sprawled out on the floor with no easy way of moving her. “Who did this?!” The pegasus asked fearfully while sliding to a seated position and scooting to the wall. She quickly rushed her hooves to her unconscious friend’s vest and unclipped the flashlight from her chest. The yellow pony waved the light around frantically while searching for any signs of movement around her. “S-stay back! Please j-just leave us alone!” Fluttershy tried to sound as loud and brave as she could, but her voice only came out as a quiet squeak of fear. The yellow mare felt her heart pounding in her chest. She had to get out of there, but she couldn’t just leave Neon Streak by herself. No, she had to stay and protect her as best she could. The sound of something brushing up against something else made her dart her head to the side. She could hear herself starting to sob slightly from fear amidst her rapid and shallow breathing. She felt like she might pass out herself if she didn’t get a handle on her panic. “OW!” Fluttershy felt a stabbing pain in the side of her neck. She looked over just in time to see a syringe falling to the floor beside her, similar to the one that Neon found just before she passed out. There was nobody else around her, just the small syringe that was now rolling on the floor. As she clutched the site of her injury, the pegasus started to feel sick. She wasn’t sure if it was due to the contents of the syringe or not, but she felt ill at the thought of what was now coursing through her body. Her hooves started shaking as she brought them back down to her face. She could already feel a slight uncomfortable twinge of whatever was affecting her body. “N-no… please!” The yellow mare pleaded to whoever might have been listening. She started to feel her limbs growing numb and her head growing fuzzy. She tried her best to keep herself awake and alert, but she was growing sleepier by the passing second. “Don’t… d-don’t…” Fluttershy tried to protest to whoever was doing this to her. She didn’t know what would happen once she was rendered unconscious as well, but it couldn’t be anything good. The yellow mare felt herself slumping to the side. She caught herself with her arm before she hit the ground, but the clumsy and sluggish movement of her arms made her drop the flashlight she was carrying. “Don’t… h-hurt u…us” Fluttershy muttered as she felt her eyelids growing heavy. She fought as hard as she could to retain the fleeting feeling in her body, but she was fighting a losing battle. Finally, the strength gave out in her arms and she slid to the floor. She could barely see the area in front of her, not only from the lack of light, but also from her steadily blurring vision. As she fought to keep her eyelids from closing completely, she heard the muffled sound of footsteps in front of her. She saw a brief glimpse of two feet clad in leather shoes stepping in front of her and pausing. Fluttershy barely managed to feel something picking her arms up and pulling. She saw the blurry scene in front of her moving as she was pulled along the floor. Finally, her eyes fluttered closed and didn’t open again. She felt her mind slipping into a calm void as all sounds and feelings faded away. Meanwhile upstairs on the main floor, Tom and Princess Luna were trying their best to navigate the seemingly endless hallways of the mansion to get back to their friends. They had been searching through rooms ever since they discovered the locked door keeping them from returning to the others, but they hadn’t found much of anything. Every room they went to was steadily showing less and less signs of recent life. They stopped coming across dorm rooms full of sleeping bags a while ago, and now there weren’t even any candles placed around the rooms to light the way. Only cobweb ridden and dusty lights on the ceiling, or maybe a lamp placed on a desk remained as a possible source of light. Still, all of the electrical devices weren’t working, and they looked so old and primitive that it was a wonder they worked at all at some point in time. “I’m starting to worry about the others…” Luna stated uneasily as she thought more about the situation. “Whatever locked that door did it on purpose… it meant to separate us from the others.” She reasoned to the human beside her with a concerned tone. “I still can’t get a definitive read on what this thing is… but it feels familiar somehow.” Tom shrugged while giving his senses another try. It was right on the tip of his tongue. He had felt this somewhere before, but he wasn’t sure where. “Whatever it may be, we need to get back to the others somehow.” Luna added with a determined expression. She wasn’t about to allow her subjects to be harmed while she was around to stop it. Eventually, the hallway opened up into a larger intersection that resembled a room of its own more than anything else. There was a couch against the back wall with a few stray books on it covered in dust. There was a window to the right that revealed flashes of lightning and rain pounding against the glass. There were also two doors that led off into other sections of the house. One door off to the left that was open led into another hallway, while the other door at the far end of the room opened into a set of stairs leading down. “Looks like we have a choice… either we try the other hallway, or we head into the basement.” Tom stated while weighing the decision in his mind. Either direction seemed like a poor choice in any other circumstance, but they were out of options. “Brimstoke and Neon Streak were in the basement the last time we saw them… maybe we can find them or find a way back to them if we head down there?” Luna suggested in a hopeful tone. “Well… I guess that’s the best lead we have.” Tom shrugged his shoulders before walking across the room to the basement door. Before the pair could reach the stairs however, a slight chill ran down their spines. The room suddenly felt sinister somehow, like something was watching them. The feeling of unease washing over them was so intense that they paused and looked around them. Suddenly, Tom gasped as blue mist came from his mouth. Along with this, an intense feeling of danger came from directly behind him. “What is it?” Luna asked in a troubled tone while looking around. As if to answer her question, the pair heard the faint sound of laughter coming from down the hallway. As they turned around, the two saw something that made them freeze in place from shock and surprise. Down the darkened hallway they just came from, there was a humanoid figure approaching them. The figure was taller than Tom, and it held a menacing air about it. As a bolt of lightning flashed outside, the pair got a good look at the ghostly figure. Amid the brief flash of blue light, the two could see a human woman in a white dress walking forward slowly. She had long and flowing black hair that covered half of her face. Through the opening in her hair, a sinister smile could be seen, along with a hazel eye that stared at the two with an evil gleam. She kept her arms to her side, but in one hand, she was brandishing a pair of bloody scissors. “What in the…?” Luna muttered in utter bewilderment at the strange sight in front of her. Although she was puzzled as to how such a thing could exist, she was also incredibly nervous. The faint sound of echoed laughter grew louder and closer. Soon enough, it sounded clear enough to have been coming directly from the strange woman in white. The sound of scissors snipping together rang out as the ghostly woman squeezed the bloody blades in her hand. “Tom… what is that?!” The blue alicorn asked in a more alarmed tone while preparing herself to fight the strange figure. “It… it’s a ghost… but that can’t be right. I’m feeling so much power… but ghosts shouldn’t be able to get that powerful.” Tom explained with a pale expression. “What do we do?” Luna asked in a concerned tone while glancing to the human. She was completely out of her element. The princess had never even entertained the possibility that ghosts might be real before, let alone ponder on how to fight one. “Stay back. I’ll handle this…” Tom stated while stepping forward with a serious expression on his face. Luna wasn’t sure if she liked the idea of the human fighting by himself, but she did as he instructed and watched as he walked towards the ghostly figure. Tom readied his hands and summoned his claws in a puff of fire. He paused and waited for the woman in white to come to him. Luna watched as the ghost walked towards the human at a painfully slow rate. Suddenly, her entire form flickered for a moment before vanishing from sight. Luna’s eyes widened as she looked around for the strange woman. She couldn’t even sense where she was. The alicorn was completely blind to the approaching threat, and that made her uneasy. “Where did she go?!” Luna asked while looking around frantically for the specter. Meanwhile, Tom seemed to still be focusing ahead. The human didn’t seem to be phased by the fact that the ghost was now invisible. In fact, he seemed to be looking ahead as if he could still see her. Suddenly, Tom gasped and exclaimed in surprise. The human jerked himself back as fast as he could, much to the confusion of the blue alicorn. Then, out of nowhere, the woman in white reappeared directly in front of the boy and swung her scissors at his face. The tip of the blades barely scraped across his cheek, causing a small trickle of blood to drip down. “Gah…” Tom winced in pain as he wiped the excess blood from his face. Meanwhile, the ghostly woman was smiling deviously at her successful strike. “What the… but how did you…?” Luna asked in bewilderment at the human’s miraculous evasion of the swift attack. She had no idea that the ghost was about to strike. If that had been her, she would have gotten away with a lot more than a bloody cut on her face. “Oh… of course… you can feel where she is can’t you?” The alicorn said in revelation as she remembered the boy’s powers. He could sense evil creatures, so perhaps his sensory abilities gave him more of an edge in combat than the princess realized. “Yes… but it didn’t help much. She’s so fast… she shouldn’t be this fast and unpredictable.” Tom stated while scowling in disbelief at the sinister specter in front of him. The ghostly woman giggled at the human’s frustration. Suddenly, Tom’s healing powers kicked in and the wound on his cheek quickly closed up behind a flash of embers. The scissor woman seemed surprised by this event for a moment, but her surprise quickly and disturbingly turned into a devious smile. “Ehe… ehehehe…. Hehehehehe.” The ghost’s eerie giggles suddenly turned into full blown laughter that even Pinkie Pie would be jealous of. Even with this outburst, she still kept a cold and chilling tone in her constant cackle. She sounded like she was enjoying something an awful lot more than the two observers were comfortable with. “What’s so funny?” Tom asked in as much of a witty tone as he could muster under his unease. The human backed closer to the nervous alicorn behind him and prepared himself for anything the ghost might throw at him. “Hehe… you’re not like the others are you?” The woman asked in a clear voice. There was only a hint of distortion to even make her sound like a supernatural creature. Otherwise, she sounded and looked like a completely solid living being, minus the pale face and cold dead eyes. “W-what?” Tom stammered briefly with mild fright. The blood-craving look in her eye was starting to make him feel extremely uncomfortable. “I figured that you were different when you first came here… we don’t get many humans around here nowadays… not many humans at all.” The ghostly figure sounded almost disappointed as she continued. “These… ponies as you call them? They are fun to play with, and we have been wanting to play with them for a long time… but they don’t last very long.” She stated while fiddling with her scissors idly. Luna and Tom suddenly noticed that the blood on the scissors from before was fresh. The grim realization hit the pair like a ton of bricks. “What… what do you mean?” Luna demanded in a disturbed tone. The only other ponies in the mansion so far were a few hooded workers, and her own team of guards and subjects. She hoped that the ghostly woman wasn’t referring to anyone under her order, not that she wanted anyone to suffer such a cruel fate. “I mean… it’s not like humans lasted much longer than them… but they are especially fragile.” The ghost continued while snipping her scissors playfully and staring at Tom with a sinister glint in her eye. “But you…” *SNIP* “You are different… aren’t you?” *SNIP* “You’re one of those slayers that I have been reading so much about. Ohh… I have been dying to meet one of you ehehehe.” The woman in white giggled joyfully in a maddened tone while slowly closing and opening the blades of the scissors. The aged metal grated against itself and created a spine tingling shrill outburst every time it moved. “Tom… I don’t like this…” Luna whispered uneasily to the human while trying to think of a way to help him destroy this evil creature. The boy glanced back to her with an equally disturbed expression, but he looked just as clueless as to what they should do. “Well… you wanted a slayer? You got one now… just what is it you want with me?” Tom asked in a threatening tone while readying his claws in front of him. If the ghost knew as much about slayers as she claimed, she would doubtlessly know that the slayers’ spirit weapons could wreak havoc on any evil creature, even ghosts. “Heh…” The woman paused and looked down for a moment. “What do I want…?” She said quietly. Suddenly the ghost started shaking slightly. Her smile grew even wider until it seemed unnatural for a human, even a dead human to have. Tom and Luna tensed themselves up in preparation to combat any danger the spirit might pose to them. “I WANT YOU TO BLEED!” The ghostly woman suddenly shot her head up and screamed at the top of her lungs. She lunged forward with a crazed look in her eye before quickly disappearing into a blur of motion. Tom and the alicorn behind him barely had time to react before the ghost reappeared directly in front of the boy. “Oh crap!” Tom exclaimed in genuine surprise. Luna was surprised to hear even the smallest amount of profanity from the usually cool headed human, but she was just as frightened as he was. The ghostly woman ducked to the side and yelled fiercely as she drove her scissors downward. The blades moved in a blur towards the boy’s knee before plunging into the side of the fleshier part of it. “AAGH!” Tom screamed in pain and agony as his mind was racked with suffering. “Tom!” Luna cried in shock while lighting up her horn and racing forward. She didn’t care if the boy asked her to stay out of the fight. She couldn’t stand by and watch this horrific act any longer. Before the alicorn could reach the two humans, the woman raised her other arm with an open palm and shoved it towards the princess. Luna suddenly felt a violent wave of energy slamming into her. She yelped in pain as her body was sent flying backwards before crashing into a table against the far wall. As she crashed to the floor through the now broken table, Luna felt numerous bursts of pain going through her that persisted until she landed. Working against her sore muscles, she looked up to see what was happening between the two. Tom gritted his teeth and tried his best to ignore the scissors still stabbing into his knee. He shot his arm forward in an attempt at stabbing the specter with his blades, only to watch her dart to the side with blinding speed to dodge the attack. Frustrated, the boy spun his body around and brought his arms back towards the ghost to launch a flurry of swipes. In one swift motion, the ghostly woman ducked under the swipes, pulled the scissors out of the slayer’s knee, and spun around to his front. Tom looked up just in time to see the ghost looming over him with her arm stretched out in preparation to strike. He tried his best to dodge the incoming attack, but he was powerless to stop the scissors coming down and stabbing clean through the side of his neck. “NO!” Luna cried out while reaching her hoof towards the boy. Tom’s painful outcry was strangled by the vast amount of blood spurting out of his wound and into his throat. He reached up and grabbed the scissors to pull them out, only to stumble backwards and collapse to a seated position on the floor as the ghostly woman wrenched the blades out herself. Amid the echoing laughter of the woman in white as she clutched the red-stained scissors, Tom clutched his neck instinctively while gasping and gurgling as he tried to breathe despite the fluid in his throat. Suddenly, a few flashes of orange light escaped the sparse breaks in the torrent of blood spraying out from the human’s throat. Despite the grim appearance of the scene, Tom’s healing powers were somehow kicking in to seal up the gaping hole in his neck. After a few moments of writhing in pain from the combined forces of his wound and the burning sensation of his wound healing, Tom stopped choking and gasped for air. As he removed his hand from his neck and wiped away the excess blood, the shocked alicorn observing from the other side of the room was even more shocked to see that the boy’s wound was completely gone. “Oh thank goodness.” Luna breathed a sigh of relief. She thought she was going to watch the human die for a minute there. Although he was still in bad shape, at least he would live. “Hahhahahaha!” The ghost cackled once again as Tom shakily made his way to his feet. “What the hell is so funny?!” The boy yelled angrily while still staring at his now bloodstained hand. “So it’s true… you can’t die! Not like the rest of us anyway…” The woman stated with a joyous grin on her face. “I’ve been waiting for all of my existence to be able to play with someone like you… and now I have my chance!” She said while raising the scissors up in a threatening manner. “That’s enough! Leave him alone!” Luna yelled angrily while getting up from the floor and lighting up her horn. She stepped towards the ghost with a scornful expression on her face. “Luna, don’t… she’s too powerful.” Tom said while still trying to catch his breath. “Get out of here… now!” He instructed in a serious tone. “I’m not leaving you with her!” Luna stated before charging forward with determination in her eyes. She started charging up a spell that she was certain would do some damage to the ethereal menace. The ghostly woman sighed in a bored tone while raising her arm again. Suddenly, Luna went flying through the air again, only this time she sailed clean through the door to the basement and went rolling down the stairs. “Ack!” Luna yelped in pain as she settled midway down the steps. After getting up and shaking her head to rid the pain from her body, she charged forward again. Before she could reach the top step, the door slammed shut and hit her in the face. Luna tried to open the door, but it was locked just like the one they had encountered before. She pounded on the door frantically in an attempt at getting back in the room to reach the human. She had to help him defeat the brutal spirit, or at least help him get away from her. “Tom!” The alicorn’s muffled cries could be heard from behind the door. Tom cursed under his breath as he directed his attention back to his attacker. The woman in white slowly brought the scissors up to her head. She opened her mouth and slowly dragged the blades across her tongue, all the while making disturbing eye contact with the human. She finished dragging the bloody object across her tongue and savored the crimson fluid in her mouth. “It’s been so long since I’ve tasted fresh blood… this should be fun.” She stated with a sinister gleam in her eye as her mouth shifted into a disturbing grin.
Chapter 83: Grave DangerAs the chilling sound of laughter, the scraping of scissors against flesh, the spurting of blood, and the screams of the brown stallion still echoed in their minds, Glitterball and her two companions swiftly ran through the mansion in an attempt at getting away. The three mares were panting heavily due to them running full steam down each hallway and through each room, but they didn’t dare to slow down. Whatever had attacked them in that room was supernatural, and it was downright evil. From the sound of the laughter, the trio figured that it was a female whatever it was, and that it enjoyed hurting others. Finally, Glitterball slowed down to a halt and leaned up against the wall. Her burning lungs and her tired legs could carry her no further, and judging from the state of her two companions, the unicorn figured that they weren’t doing much better. “*Pant*… *Wheeze*… do you… do you think we lost it?” Rarity asked in a fearful tone while catching her breath. Glitterball glanced to the doorway they just came from a little ways down the hall. They hadn’t heard footsteps or laughter since they started running, so she had no idea if their invisible assailant had followed them or not. “I don’t know…*Pant*” Glitter replied in an exhausted tone. The white mare could immediately tell that her answer was less than satisfying to her two friends, but it was all she could give. “What was that thing?! It just… it just killed that poor feller and tried to kill us!” Applejack shuddered coldly as she thought back to the gruesome scene she just ran from. On top of brutally murdering the guard they were with, the invisible force used those scissors to completely slaughter Sargent Fireside and his men. “I don’t know! I just… I just don’t know!” Glitterball replied in a panicked tone. She was way out of her league, and it was starting to show. Applejack and Rarity were concerned that the unicorn might have a panic attack if she kept this up. The orange mare wanted to calm her friend down, but she was scared and uncertain herself. Suddenly, Rarity turned her attention to her orange friend as she cringed in pain. The unicorn gasped as she saw the full extent of her injury. There was a shallow gash across the earth pony’s back from where the scissors glided across it. The wound didn’t look deep, but it was bleeding profusely and staining Applejack’s clean orange fur red. Rarity felt horrible as she looked at her friend coping with the pain of her injury. Applejack had received the horrible wound while saving her life when the scissors tried to kill her. If it wasn’t for the orange mare, Rarity might have fallen to the same fate as their guard companion. “Applejack, are you ok darling?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone while putting a loving hoof on her shoulder and examining her wound further. Applejack tried to hide the pain she was feeling from the two unicorns. She could already tell that Rarity was beating herself up as she frowned at the bloody gash. “Ah’m fine Rarity… it’s nothing but a little scrape.” Applejack said with a forced smile. Rarity was unimpressed by her friend’s attempt at comforting her. “Nonsense! You’re hurt… and it’s all my fault.” Rarity stated while looking down sadly. “I’m so sorry darling… if only I would have reacted faster… then you wouldn’t have gotten this ghastly cut.” She said in a gloomy tone while avoiding eye contact with the orange mare. Applejack softened her expression into a sympathetic frown as she looked at the white mare. “Ah would rather have to deal with this cut than deal with you getting killed while Ah sat back and watched.” Applejack stated in a sincere tone while smiling slightly at the unicorn. “As much as you get on my nerves sometimes… Ah would never forgive myself if Ah let something happen to you.” She added, eliciting Rarity to look over at her with a touched expression. “Applejack… I don’t know what to say. You…” Rarity smiled warmly while gently hugging the farm pony. “You’re one of the best friends a girl like me could ask for.” She said in a sincere tone. Applejack couldn’t help but to smile at the white mare. Even Glitterball was touched by the heartwarming exchange between the two friends. However, there were more important matters to tend to. “Here… let me take a look at your injury Applejack. I might be able to help.” Glitter suggested while maneuvering around the orange mare to get a better look at her wound. Applejack held still while the unicorn examined her back. “How bad is it?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “It looks worse than it is… I think I might be able to patch this up right here.” Glitterball explained while lighting up her horn. She reached into her vest and pulled out some disposable washcloths. After gently wiping the excess blood away, she focused her magic on sealing the gashes. Rarity watched in amazement as the cut on the farm pony’s back started closing up. Before long, Applejack’s back looked no worse than it had before the attack. The only thing remaining to even indicate that there was a gruesome wound was a few dark stains on her fur from all of the blood. “There, how does that feel?” Glitterball asked while patting the orange mare’s newly healed back. Applejack was impressed to see that she couldn’t feel any more stinging pain. “Ah feel good as new… you make one mighty fine medic, Glitter.” Applejack stated happily. “Well… I can’t do much more than close up small scrapes and bruises, but it does come in handy now and again. Now then, we should get back to the matter at hoof.” Glitterball said while looking forward into the hallway. There was a decent amount of distance between them and the next door, but simply continuing down the hallway wasn’t necessarily the best option. “I think we’re looping back around to the side of the house we came from… I hope.” Rarity said with an uncertain tone while thinking back to the path the group took during their escape. In her haste to keep up with her friends, the unicorn didn’t pay much attention to where she was going. “Ah just hope that whatever that thing was is gone by the time we get back there.” Applejack stated uneasily. “That’s it… I’m calling the others. Hopefully they are doing better than we are doing.” Glitterball said while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating on Brimstoke. Once she felt the connection coming through, she took in a breath to speak. “Brimstoke, this is Glitter… are you there?” Glitterball asked with a slight twinge of nervousness in her voice. She couldn’t shake the thought that her friends were attacked by the same thing from her head. “Glitter…? This is Brimstoke. Is everything ok?” The voice of the stallion rang out in her ears, eliciting a smile from the unicorn. Glitterball breathed a sigh of relief before continuing. “We ran into some trouble up here… we found Sargent Fireside and his team.” Glitter explained while looking at her two companions with a dreadful expression. “That’s great! Where are they?” Brimstoke asked eagerly. Glitterball paused as she tried to find the strength in herself to describe what happened. The stallion must have noticed her pause, because she felt him growing uneasy as she silently thought. “Are they alright?” Brimstoke asked hesitantly. “No…” Glitterball finally managed to speak up. “No… they… they aren’t. We found them all together in a room… they’re dead.” She said in a shaky voice. The unicorn had to sit down to ease the sick feeling in her body as she thought about what just happened further. “What happened to them…?” Brimstoke asked in a somber tone. “We didn’t know at first… all we found in there with them was a pair of bloody scissors on a table. We thought that maybe one of the hooded ponies did it… but then the scissors lifted into the air and tried to kill us.” Glitterball explained while looking down at the floor. “Oh my gosh… are you guys ok?!” Brimstoke asked in an alarmed tone. “Yes… we made it out ok… the guard we were with wasn’t so lucky though.” Glitterball said in a gloomy manner. “Was it Shadow Mist? I swear to Celestia if I get my hooves on that spineless coward I-” Brimstoke started to get angry at the thought of the red stallion killing an entire team of guards and trying to kill his friends, until he was interrupted by the unicorn speaking up again. “It wasn’t Shadow Mist… I don’t know what it is… but it wasn’t Shadow Mist.” Glitterball stated uneasily. “How can you be sure?” Brimstoke asked in an understandably sympathetic tone. “The scissors moved too fast and too fluidly for them to be held by a pony… invisible or otherwise. And… we heard someone laughing. A girl from the sound of it… but it was like it was coming from everywhere around us. When we ran, we tried to head back to the foyer, but we heard footsteps outside of the door… it sounded like somebody with two feet walking around.” Glitterball explained in a nervous tone. “Like… like a human?” Brimstoke asked uneasily as he caught on to something that the unicorn was hinting at without even knowing it. “Yes… like a human, but it wasn’t Tom. He is still missing… how is that possible?” Glitterball asked in a bewildered tone. The only human in all of Equestria was Tom, but it couldn’t have been him. “Glitter… listen up. I think I might know what we’re dealing with.” Brimstoke said with a hesitant pause. “You do? Well please share with the class Brimstoke. I’m at my wit’s end here.” Glitterball said with a nervous chuckle. “Some hoods that we caught down here talked about a myth circulating among their group. According to them, the three humans that owned the house still haunt it… as ghosts.” Brimstoke explained, much to the surprise and confusion of the unicorn. “Ghosts? Really…?” Glitter asked with an uncertain tone. “Yeah… I know how it sounds. We didn’t believe them either… but some weird stuff has been happening down here. We saw something moving out of the corner of our eyes, and all of the candles in the room we were in blew out. Also, we got separated from Fluttershy and Neon when a door slammed in our faces and locked by itself.” Brimstoke continued uneasily. “What?! You got separated from them?! Are they ok?!” Glitterball asked in an alarmed tone. “I’m not sure… we told them to call us if they ran into trouble, but we haven’t heard from them since. We’re trying to find them now.” Brimstoke stated in a hopeful tone. The news that two more of her friends were unaccounted for made the unicorn spiral into a nervous panic. She felt herself breaking out into a cold sweat as her body started shivering from unease. She felt a pit developing in her stomach as well, making her sick to her stomach. “Ohhh… what are we going to do?” Glitterball whined fearfully while leaning back against the wall. She didn’t necessarily want the stallion to hear her, but she kept her hoof to her ear, so he doubtlessly did. “Calm down Glitter… everything’s going to be fine. We just need to take things slow and think about how to handle this.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring tone in an attempt at calming the nervous unicorn. “How do we handle this Brimstoke? We’re missing the princess and Tom, Fluttershy and Neon Streak are missing, and now you’re telling me that the bloody massacre we just ran from was caused by one of three homicidal ghosts!” Glitterball said while on the verge of hyperventilating. She suddenly felt a gentle hoof land on her shoulder. The unicorn looked up to see Applejack and Rarity offering her silent expressions of reassurance. Although this wasn’t enough to fully calm her down, she did feel better enough to recompose herself. “For the moment… the only thing I want you to worry about is getting back to the others. Go pick up Twilight and Rainbow Dash, and then hunker down in the foyer with the others.” Brimstoke instructed in a gentle tone. “Ok…” Glitter said after taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Once she managed to compose herself, she got up from the floor and turned to her two companions. “Apparently Fluttershy and Neon Streak got separated from the others… we don’t know where they are.” Glitterball explained uneasily. Applejack and Rarity gasped in shock at the news that their friends were possibly in danger. “Oh my gosh… Ah hope they’re ok.” Applejack stated in a concerned tone. “Brimstoke says that they will call if they get in trouble… so hopefully they are still doing alright. In the meantime, we need to get back to the others.” Glitterball said while turning her attention back down the hallway. Applejack and Rarity shared a concerned glance with each other before following their companion down the hallway. Once they reached the end and opened the door, they came out into a hallway leading in the direction of the foyer. Although it wasn’t the hallway they came from, it was most likely on the other side of the locked door that they saw at the end. They were definitely on the outside edge of the house. There were windows to their right that gave a glimpse outside at the raging storm. Flashes of lightning periodically lit up the entire hallway, providing a snapshot of a door at the far end. “That door down there should lead us back.” Glitterball said in a hopeful tone while pointing at the far off door. “Let’s get going then… Ah don’t like this place.” Applejack stated uneasily while looking around. She was still hoping that whatever attacked her and her friends earlier wasn’t just waiting for them to return up ahead. Slowly and cautiously, the three mares started their way down the hall. The constant sound of rain hitting the windows beside them made them on edge. They could hardly see anything out of the dark water soaked glass, but just knowing that the entire outside world was just behind that wall was unnerving to them, not that knowing that a gigantic eerie mansion was to their left and all around them was any less unnerving. “My goodness… it’s really coming down out there isn’t it?” Rarity said while jumping slightly at a flash of lightning. The others glanced outside, only to see more rain pounding against the windows as thunder boomed in the distance. “Ah just hope poor Sunspot is doing alright out there. She must be soaking wet and cold by now.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while thinking about the pegasus and her team being outside in the storm. “Yeah… we should check on her. Do you think you could see if you can reach her Glitter?” Rarity asked curiously. She wanted to see if the orange pegasus was at least still safe. “Alright… we can tell her what’s been going on anyway.” Glitterball said while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating. “Sunspot, you holding up ok?” Glitter asked while glancing towards the outside. She waited for a moment for the pegasus to respond. One moment quickly turned to two, and the white mare’s confusion quickly turned to unease as her teammate didn’t answer. “Sunspot…?” Glitter asked again in a louder tone. Applejack and Rarity could hear a twinge of nervousness in her voice as she tried to get in contact with the pegasus. “What’s wrong?” Applejack asked uneasily. “She’s not picking up…” Glitterball replied nervously before returning her attention to the unresponsive pegasus. “Sunspot… answer me if you’re there… this isn’t funny.” She said in a pleading tone. By now, all three mares were growing fearful for Sunspot’s safety as they stared at each other with uneasy expressions. “Why isn’t she answering?” Rarity asked nervously while looking at the unicorn with a fearful expression of uncertainty. “I don’t know, but she needs to pick up right now or I’m going to freak out.” Glitterball said uneasily. Her hold on her emotions was tenuous at best after everything that happened, so to learn that another friend had gone missing would send her over the edge. “Sunspot! Answer m-” Glitterball started to yell for the pegasus, when an ear-shattering noise pierced the air. “AHH!” Rarity screamed in fright as the sound of glass breaking filled the hallway. The ponies saw one of the windows down the hall shattering and spraying glass everywhere as something flew through it. When the three mares took a better look, they saw that a pony shaped object was sent through the window and onto the floor. “Oh my gosh!” Glitterball exclaimed fearfully while hesitantly walking forward to get a better look at the situation. She suddenly gasped and her face went pale as she caught a better look at the pony on the ground amid a flash of lightning. “SUNSPOT!” The unicorn yelled in shock while rushing forward. Rarity and Applejack quickly followed the alarmed mare as she ran down the hallway. There was broken glass strewn along the floor everywhere. The gaping hole where the window once was let rain fall into the hallway as the wind blew it inside. The violent flashes of lightning that lit up the sky now freely illuminated the hallway through the hole, shining light down on an orange pegasus in a vest sprawled out along the floor. As they reached their friend, the trio gasped in horror as they examined the scene before them. The pony on the floor was definitely Sunspot. She was lying in a sea of broken glass with blood pouring from several cuts of various sizes. There was a sizable gash in her vest that revealed a shallow wound that looked like it came from some kind of weapon. Her legs were bent at odd angles, with her neck in a strained position from settling after her body sailed through the window. “Oh no… no, no, no!” Glitterball rushed up to her friend, haphazardly ignoring the broken glass as she knelt beside the pegasus. She shakily grabbed the motionless pony and rolled her over. There were shards of broken glass sticking out of her side from where she was lying, and her eyes were closed. Glitterball quickly put an ear to her friend’s chest. Thankfully, she could hear the soft pitter patter of the mare’s heart. However gruesome and shocking her injuries appeared, she was at least alive, if only just barely. “What happened to her?!” Applejack asked while frantically looking around to piece together what could have happened in her head. The ponies looked outside of the now broken window to see if they could find the one who attacked their friend. Only rain and darkness welcomed the three mares as they looked outside. Every so often, they would catch a glimpse of the empty side of the house with dead trees sitting outside of the iron fence a short distance away as lightning lit up the area in white light. Suddenly, while the group was staring outside, a strange event made them look downwards. The hundreds of pieces of glass littering the floor were now lifting into the air and flying back at the window where they would reattach. It was like watching the window getting broken in reverse. Soon enough, every shard of glass that wasn’t sticking into Sunspot was back in its original place. Every crack made by the imperfect pieces rejoining together suddenly closed back up, and even the pieces missing from being impaled in the unconscious mare were restored. Soon enough, the window looked like it did before the incident, much to the confusion of the three ponies. “Wh… w-what… what just happened?” Rarity asked in a bewildered tone. “I don’t know… the window just… fixed itself.” Glitterball stated, as if she was confirming what she just saw with the rest of the group. “Forget about the window… we need to get Sunspot back to Peppermint. She needs medical attention real bad.” Applejack said while returning her attention to the pegasus on the floor. “Sunspot… can you hear me?” Glitterball asked while gently tapping the orange pony on her shoulder. She was afraid that she might have a neck injury, so moving her was going to be tricky. The unicorn felt her heart sink as the pegasus remained motionless and unresponsive to her stimulus. “What did this to her? Where did she get that awful wound on her stomach?” Rarity asked while pointing out the large gash on Sunspot’s chest. The smaller cuts and the possible broken bones were easy to figure out. Sunspot did just fly through a solid glass window at high speeds after all. The larger wound however, that looked far too serious to have been caused accidentally. “I don’t know, but it looks pretty bad. Help me hold her up for a minute… I’m going to try to put a bandage on it to stop the bleeding.” Glitterball said while looking at the wound and frowning. Applejack and Rarity nodded before walking forward and kneeling beside the pegasus. “Careful… we don’t want to move her too much. She might have broken something.” Applejack suggested uneasily while picking the unconscious mare up by her shoulders. “Watch the glass…” Rarity said while narrowly avoiding cutting herself on a piece that was still jutting out of the orange pony. “I’ll need to remove those too… we don’t want to cut ourselves or push them in further when we move her.” Glitterball shrugged while pulling out a roll of gauze from her best. With the aid of the two mares, the unicorn started wrapping the bandage around Sunspot’s body. “Ugh… horsefeathers. I’m out of bandages, and I don’t think this is tight enough to stop the bleeding.” Glitterball frowned as she glanced down at the thin bandage. The clean white material was already getting stained red as the crimson fluid bled through it with ease. “Let’s just get her back to the others… Applejack, help us lift her… Applejack?” Rarity asked while looking around for her friend with a confused expression. She finally found the farm pony standing behind her staring down the hallway where they just came from. “What’s wrong darling?” Rarity asked uneasily while looking at the fearful expression frozen on the orange mare’s face. Applejack only managed to slowly point her hoof in front of her as a response. Rarity and Glitterball followed where she was pointing, until they froze suddenly in fear. Further down the hallway, there was a shadowy figure walking in the darkness. The figure was tall, and it was humanoid in shape. As a flash of lightning flooded the hall with white light, the ponies got a good look at the figure. It was a human, but it wasn’t the human they were expecting to see. The human was a pale man in a brown dress shirt with a white undershirt and white sleeves. He had black pants on with black shoes and a red bow tie. The man himself had dark hair and brown eyes, with a blank and cold expression on his face as he walked forward slowly. He had a ghostly appearance to him, being slightly transparent. The ponies wondered if they were seeing things, but the heavy footsteps that occurred every time he took a step forward told them that he was real. “Is that a… a ghost?!” Rarity asked in a shocked tone. The white mare didn’t really believe in ghosts, even in light of everything that she was exposed to in recent days, but there was no other logical explanation. The human was pale, transparent, and it was there. The only way that a human could be standing in front of the ponies would be for it to travel through time like Tom did, or for it to be a spirit, which was the more likely of the two. “S-stay back! I’m warning you!” Glitterball said in a threatening tone while standing in front of her two companions and pulling out her strobe. The human kept staring forward at the ponies while silently walking towards them. “Ah don’t think he’s listening to you Glitter.” Applejack said uneasily while keeping her attention fixed squarely on the ghostly human. “Stay behind me… he won’t be able to hurt us with me here.” Glitterball said with false courage. She held her strobe tightly in her hooves, as if to assure herself of its power. Suddenly, the group noticed that the human was holding his right hand behind his back. They only just realized this, as he slowly moved it into view and revealed what he was holding. The ponies froze in place as they saw the man carrying a blood stained axe beside him idly, as if he didn’t even care about it. Just as suddenly as the human revealed the axe, he slowly brought it up and held it in both hands while still walking forward menacingly. The cold and blank expression on his face suddenly became incredibly sinister to them. “…!” Rarity and Applejack were frozen in fear as they stared at the bloody weapon. They glanced down to Sunspot’s injury. It occurred to them that the large wound on her chest was the same size as the blade of the axe. Deciding that she had had enough of the ghostly figure, Glitterball pressed the button on her strobe and fired a blast of energy at the ghost. Before the bolt could hit him, he vanished from sight, causing the blast to sail down the hallway until it collided with the door at the far end. Once the bolt had passed, the human reappeared, though he appeared much closer than he was before. “Ack!” Glitterball yelped in surprise while backing up defensively. She turned to her two companions fearfully. “Get Sunspot! We need to get out of here!” Glitter instructed frantically before turning around and opening fire. The ghost disappeared from view again, but the unicorn hoped that she could keep it at bay by continuously firing. Rarity and Applejack wasted no time before they started lifting the unconscious mare up. Even though they were in a hurry, they were still worried about doing more damage to the pegasus. They couldn’t tell if she had any broken bones from first appearances, but if she had a neck injury, they could kill her by moving her the wrong way. Once Rarity lifted Sunspot onto Applejack’s back, the two were ready to leave. They glanced over to see Glitterball still firing her strobe rapidly down the seemingly empty hallway, but they knew that she was fighting an unseen enemy that was drawing ever closer. “Let’s go Glitter!” Applejack announced frantically. Glitterball turned to see that the pair had picked the unconscious pony up and were ready to run. Suddenly, Applejack and Rarity saw the ghostly human appearing just in front of the unicorn. He looked down at her menacingly while gripping his axe tightly. “*Gasp* Glitter look out!” Rarity cried out while pointing behind the white mare. Glitterball turned around just in time to see the human bringing the axe up in preparation to swing at her. “AH!” Glitter screamed as she ducked to the floor desperately. She felt the axe breezing past her head as the human drove it sideways into the wall with a deafening crunch. While the unicorn covered her face with her hooves and shook fearfully, the human pulled the axe out of the wall and brought it up to swing down onto the helpless pony’s head. Glitterball could barely move. Having an axe swung so close to her body made her lock up with fear. She tried her best to get up, but she couldn’t budge an inch. The unicorn suddenly felt Applejack biting down on the tip of her tail. The orange mare pulled as hard as she could, dragging the motionless pony along the floor just as the ghost slammed the axe down in front of her head. “Get up Glitter!” Applejack yelled as she nudged the unicorn with her head. Glitterball scrambled as her legs moved without the rest of her. She awkwardly ran backwards for a moment before correcting herself and bolting down the hallway. Rarity and Applejack followed her and ran as fast as they physically could. They turned to see the human running after them before disappearing from view. Taking this as a cue to run faster, the three mares quickly made a break for the door. Glitterball quickly grabbed the door handle and threw open the door. As expected, it led into the hallway they first came through to get to this section of the house. The foyer was just down the end of the next hall. Once the door was open, Applejack and Rarity rushed in while being closely followed by Glitterball. The rainbow haired unicorn glanced into the doorway as she was about to close the door, only to see an axe flying through the air towards her at rapid speeds. “AH!” Glitter yelped in fright while slamming the door shut. She managed to close it just in time before the axe slammed into it with a crunch. The blade pierced the wood and stuck out the other side slightly, making the ponies’ hearts jump. “Let’s get out of here!” Glitterball exclaimed frantically while running past the two mares. Applejack and Rarity quickly followed the fleeing unicorn on their way back to safety. The sooner they reached their friends, the better. “Ughh…” Fluttershy groaned as she found herself waking up from a hazy slumber. She opened her eyes half way, only to discover that her vision was a blurry mess, along with her mind. Her head felt fuzzy, and she could barely remember what just happened. As she tried to move her arm up to her head, she found that the limb was unable to move. The pegasus was unsure of how to react to this, she wasn’t even sure if she was entirely awake. While her vision gradually focused, she began feeling more clear sensations around her. The first thing she felt clear as day was how cold it was. Her body felt like it was being held up against something freezing cold. With a shake of her head to clear her mind, Fluttershy finally came to her senses. She blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to their surroundings, when she suddenly realized that she was being suspended in the air by something. “What the…?” She exclaimed in confusion while trying again to move her legs. Feeling something tightly restraining her arms, she finally looked over to see what the problem was and gasped as she noticed what was keeping her from moving her limbs. Her arms and legs were tied with leather straps that held them in place. The straps were connected to what appeared to be one of the surgical tables that she had seen in the basement. It was at this moment that Fluttershy realized the severity of her situation. She was tied to a table that was standing at an angle in an unfamiliar part of the basement. “Oh no…” The yellow mare squeaked fearfully as she tried to struggle against her bonds. Her arms and legs were spread apart, leaving her body hanging off of the table by them. The concentrated weight made the straps dig into her skin, causing a stinging pain to surge through her limbs. Fluttershy whined sadly as she failed to budge an inch from her bindings. She darted her eyes around fearfully in an attempt at finding where she was. Although she was staring at the ceiling at an angle by default, she could move her unrestrained neck slightly to view the rest of the room. She was in a room in the basement alright; the dull grey floors and wood walls told the pegasus as much. The only source of light in the room was a lantern placed on a nearby table. There were a few metal trays with various gruesome surgical implements on them nearby. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she looked at the sharp tools and imagined what torture they could bring about. Suddenly, her eyes drifted to the area in front of her, and she gasped in surprise at what she saw. “*Gasp* Neon!” She called out as she saw the green mare. Neon Streak was tied to a table similar to hers. She was leaning at an angle, with her arms and legs bound by leather straps. Her tactical vest was removed, and a quick search revealed that it was sitting on one of the trays next to her table, seemingly missing no equipment. “Ugh…” Suddenly, the green mare started to stir. Fluttershy’s face brightened up as she saw that her friend was ok. Most importantly, she wasn’t alone anymore. She could rely on the green mare to find a way out of this situation. “Neon, are you ok?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. Neon Streak looked up with a dazed expression. It looked like she was trying to figure out what was going on, just like the pegasus was a few moments ago. “Wha…? F… Fluttershy?” Neon Streak asked in a sleepy tone. “Thank goodness you’re awake…” Fluttershy said with a relieved smile. She hated the idea of being stuck in this situation by herself. Neon Streak looked around for a moment while slowly coming to her senses. As she regained her bearings, she suddenly became very alarmed as she realized what was happening. “What’s going on?! Why are we tied up?!” The green mare asked while frantically trying to escape from the leather straps. “I don’t know… I just woke up a little while before you.” Fluttershy explained nervously. The courage boost she received from her companion waking up was quickly removed as she looked around the room with a progressively worsening sense of fear. She could feel her body shivering and her heart racing. Neon Streak heard the pegasus whining uneasily. She could see the timid pony darting her already wide eyes around as she tried to recoil further into the table to no avail. She felt bad for the nervous pegasus, and she also felt responsible for her safety. “Hey… don’t worry. I’m sure Brimstoke and Pinkie Pie will find us in no time.” Neon suggested in a reassuring tone. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked timidly. She could hardly form coherent words around her hyperventilating and shaking muscles. “Yeah… we’re going to be fine.” Neon Streak replied with a sincere smile. Fluttershy could tell that she was just trying to comfort her, but it was working. At any rate, she needed it to work. A sudden noise drew the two ponies’ attention to the side of the room. They heard footsteps coming from a dark doorway, but they weren’t pony footsteps. The light of the lantern didn’t project any further than the door, so the two were unsure of whether they should have been able to see the owner of the footsteps yet, but they were almost certain that they sounded close enough to already be in the room. Without warning, a strange figure flickered into view as it stepped between the two trapped ponies. The figure was a human man with brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. His entire form was slightly transparent, giving him an eerie quality that made a chill run up the pair’s spines. He was wearing a grey vest with a black shirt with long sleeves underneath, along with brown pants and boots. The human was also wearing a pair of thin framed circular glasses. “Eeep!” Fluttershy yelped in surprise while instinctively jumping backwards, even though she couldn’t move her body much. She tried her hardest to distance herself from the terrifying specter, but she did little more than move her neck and body a little ways to the side. Even Neon Streak was a little startled by the sudden appearance of the human, but she was stunned into silence rather than scared silly. She glanced between Fluttershy and the ghostly apparition with an uncertain expression. She seemed like she didn’t know what to do, but for the moment she signaled for the pegasus to be quiet. The human seemed to pay no mind to the timid mare’s outburst. He glanced to her briefly, eyeing her with his cold and calculating blue eyes before shrugging and looking ahead once more. He walked over to one of the metal trays full of cutting implements and deposited what appeared to be a bone saw. The harsh clang the saw made as it fell onto the metal tray and collided with the other tools made Fluttershy cringe uneasily. “N-neon…” Fluttershy whispered fearfully. Neon Streak glanced to the ghostly human for a moment as he started fiddling with all of the tools on the tray. “What is it?” The green mare replied quietly with what she hoped would be a reassuring expression. “W-what is he going to d-do to us?” Fluttershy stammered nervously while staring at the human picking up cutting implements and examining them. Every tool that he picked up forced the pegasus to imagine what he could do to her with it. “I don’t know… just stay calm and we-” Neon Streak started to comfort the timid mare, until she was interrupted by brief laughter coming from the human. The two ponies looked over to see the man’s shoulders shaking slightly from him laughing so much. Although he was laughing quietly, it still sounded cold and menacing, as if he were laughing at them. “You two know that I can hear you right? So… what’s the point of whispering?” The man spoke up while turning around and leaning against the metal tray. He had a deeper voice, but still managed to sound softly outspoken. He had an almost intellectual air about him judging from the inflexions in his voice and his general appearance. Neon Streak and Fluttershy froze up slightly from hearing the human talking to them. His voice sounded real enough. There was a barely audible distortion to it that one wouldn’t even be able to catch if they weren’t looking for it, but otherwise he sounded like a living creature. If it weren’t for his appearance, one would never be able to tell he was a ghost. “And uh… what were you about to tell her?” He asked while glancing over to the green mare. “Just stay calm and we’ll be fine?” The human asked with a mocking smirk and a brief chuckle. The two ponies were unsure of whether or not they wanted to talk to the ghostly figure or not. “What makes you think that you will be fine? Or… better yet… what makes you think you will be fine if you stay calm? Like I’m some kind of unstable bloodthirsty killing machine that will cut your head off if you look at me funny? Pff… don’t make me laugh.” The human said in a jesting tone while holding up a scalpel and flipping it in his hand. Somehow, the presence of a cutting implement and the cold and calculating stare he was giving the two ponies removed any lightheartedness from his statement. “Ah… that would be funny.” He added before turning back around and fiddling with the tools again. “People may describe me as a bloodthirsty killing machine… but I like to think of myself as a sound minded and able bodied gentleman… what? No laughter? Aren’t you ponies supposed to be all about jokes and good times? Or so I’ve been told… that Raven Feather and her band of merry men aren’t exactly the picture of happy go lucky, but they talk an awful lot about how they hate your society… and quite frankly, I can see where they’re coming from.” The man said while returning his gaze to the two ponies. He moved in slightly closer to see if either of them would speak up. Neon Streak glared at the human uneasily, while Fluttershy whined uncomfortably and turned her head while flinching. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue? Because I certainly don’t have it yet.” The human said in a matter of fact tone while glancing between the two. The two mares were unnerved by his statement, but they still decided to remain silent. “Still nothing? You two were so eager to talk before you knew I was here… was it something I said?” He put on a fake frown before returning to a neutral expression and shrugging his shoulders. “Ah well… I guess we can cut the chit-chat and get right down to business then.” The man said in an almost sinister tone while walking up to Fluttershy. He still had the scalpel in his hand, which he held out and brought closer to the timid mare’s face. “Ah!” Fluttershy yelped in fright and tried to move her head away, until the human reached up and steadied her with his other hand. His touch felt cold and icy, like he had been in a freezer for most of his life. The pegasus squealed in protest as the ghostly figure brought the scalpel closer to her face. “Hey! Don’t touch her!” Neon Streak yelled forcefully at the human, making him pause and shift his eyes to the side. Fluttershy breathed heavily as she stared at the scalpel mere inches away from her skin. Suddenly, the man took the scalpel away as he turned around to face the green mare. “Oh I get it… so it’s ok to give me the silent treatment until I’m about to cut up your friend… is that how we’re going to operate?” The man asked with a slight chuckle while stepping closer to Neon Streak. The earth pony gritted her teeth and glared at the ghostly figure as he walked up to her. “You keep your dirty mitts off of her… you hear me?” Neon said in a threatening tone. Fluttershy couldn’t believe that the green mare was acting so brash in the face of danger, and she was doing it to protect her. “Well, well… looks like you got a bit of a spark in you. I like that in a girl… even if we are different species and I am slightly… not living.” The human said with a small smirk before returning a serious expression to his face. He walked around to the side of Neon’s table and leaned against it. He then pointed to Fluttershy with his scalpel, making her gulp nervously. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t carve up your friend. Go on… I’m a homicidal mad man who wants to make you into bloody confetti for my next birthday bash… reason with me.” He said in a serious tone while putting the scalpel down and leaning in closer to the green mare. Neon Streak moved her head to the side to distance herself from the human. She contemplated spitting in his face, but that would probably just go through him and make him angry. Still, she had no idea what she could say to make him leave Fluttershy alone. “Come on… we’re waiting.” The man said while glancing over to Fluttershy and eyeing her menacingly. “I… I…” Neon Streak stammered as her expression shifted to a concerned one. If she didn’t think of something to say, this ghost was going to make her watch as he tortured and killed the innocent pegasus. She glanced over to Fluttershy, who was offering a frightened expression back to her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t put on a reassuring face for her anymore. “Well… I guess you’ve got nothing for me then… oh well.” The human shrugged before picking up the scalpel again and walking back over to Fluttershy. “I must say… I rather wanted to start with her anyway.” He added with a sinister chuckle. Fluttershy’s heart started pounding as she stared wide eyed at her approaching doom. “Hey! If you want to cut someone, cut me you ethereal featherbrain!” Neon Streak yelled fiercely once more, causing the human to pause and think for a moment. Finally, he hummed curiously while turning around and walking back over to the green mare. “I’ll tell you what… I’m in a playful mood tonight… so I think that I’ll play a game with you.” He said with a small smirk. Neon Streak was uneasy about what he meant, but at least he was leaving Fluttershy alone. “What kind of game?” The green mare asked hesitantly. “I’m going to cut something up here… that’s a given fact. But if you’re so intent on me letting your friend live, I have a proposition for you.” The human explained. “See… normally I just cut for enjoyment or to study the body of a living organism… but I very rarely torture my subject for very long unless I’m playing with them. I’m going to give you a choice… as I have with a few of my subjects… I’m going to cut you, and I’m going to keep cutting you. Each time I cut you, it will be more painful. I’m going to cut you a total of one hundred times… and if you can survive one hundred cuts, I’ll let you and your friend, go.” He finished his explanation and watched the earth pony for a response. “What’s the catch?” Neon asked uneasily. “Catch? There is no catch… just a few rules to start us off.” The human stated with a slight chuckle. “First off… and this is more of a rule for me… I will only use my scalpel throughout the course of the game. It allows me to make more precision incisions… get it? Precision incisions… eh, forget it. The second rule, is that at any time, if you do not want me to give you the next cut, she has to take it.” He explained while pointing to Fluttershy. The pegasus squeaked in fright at the implications of his statement. “What?!” Neon Streak asked in a shocked tone. “I thought you said you would leave her alone if I did this!” She stated angrily. “Hold your proverbial horses my little pony… I’m getting to that.” The man said while putting his hand on Neon’s shoulder. The icy cold and disgusting feeling that the green mare was getting made her scowl unhappily at the human. “At any point, you can pass the buck to her so to speak. At that point, I will give her the cut I was about to give you, and I will continue cutting her until she tells me to stop, at which point I will return to you. I will keep passing between you until you have both sustained a combined total of one hundred cuts. If you refuse to receive a cut, I will cut her… but if you take all one hundred cuts… I will not touch her and I will let both of you go.” He explained while motioning out of the door with his hand. Neon Streak glanced over to Fluttershy to get her opinion. The pegasus was looking at her with a fearful expression. She seemed hesitant to agree to let the green mare get hurt, but she didn’t want to be hurt either. “And what happens if we don’t play this game?” Neon Streak asked uneasily. “Well… then I will just do what I was going to do before. Cut both of you and study your insides until I’ve had my fill. The process will take a lot less time, and there is a high chance that both of you will die… but it will be comparatively less painful and there is also the chance that I will get bored with you and let you go anyway… but then again, maybe not. The question is, which option will you pick?” The human asked while staring at Neon Streak and waiting expectantly. “Don’t do it Neon… it’s not worth getting tortured like that.” Fluttershy said with a pleading tone while shaking her head. There wasn’t really a favorable option here, but the less painful route seemed ideal for both of them if they were going to die anyway. Neon Streak looked over to the nervous pegasus and frowned slightly. She thought back to the promise she had made her earlier. Perhaps if she had been more aware of her surroundings when they were captured, the timid pony wouldn’t be in this mess. “I’ll do it… but you better keep your word if I win.” The green mare said while trying to be as threatening as possible. “Oh I will… cross my heart and hope to- Well… maybe that expression isn’t the best choice in this case.” The human chuckled to himself before stepping in front of Neon Streak and leaning in close. Neon tensed her muscles up and started sweating as the ghost brought the scalpel up to her face. She could feel her breathing intensify and her heart beating faster as he slowly and methodically brought it closer to her cheek. “Tch!” The green mare cringed in pain as the human slid the blade of the scalpel down her cheek, leaving a small cut that barely trickled blood onto her face. “That’s one…” The human said, as if to let the fact sink in that the mare had chosen a horrible option for herself. Although the cut was painful, it was relatively tame compared to what she was expecting. Neon figured that it would get much more painful later on, but she at least had a while before that happened. The man looked around her body as he tried to figure out where to cut next. “Let’s see… eenie… meenie … miney… here!” He yelled as he swiftly and abruptly stabbed the scalpel down and into the pony’s arm. “AGGH!” Neon screamed in agony as she felt a mind numbing surge of pain hitting her. The human twisted the scalpel slightly before pulling it out, sending a spurt of blood out of her arm. Even though the cut was small due to the size of the scalpel, it was fairly deep, and incredibly painful. “Neon!” Fluttershy yelled in shock as she watched the earth pony rocking her head around to deal with the pain. Before, she had been against the idea of the green mare getting hurt on her behalf, but now she was downright horrified by what was happening in front of her. “HELP! SOMEPONY HELP US!” The pegasus turned her head and screamed out of the doorway. She hoped that her friends, or even one of the hooded ponies could hear her. She didn’t care who heard her as long as they came and rescued her and Neon from the psychopathic spirit. “Don’t bother screaming for help… we’re far away from anyone who would be able to hear you.” The ghostly human said while pausing and turning to the pegasus with a cold glare. Fluttershy felt herself freezing fearfully as the man stared at her behind his glasses. Her lip was quivering and her eyes were watering, but she couldn’t find it in her to make another outcry. She was too frightened. With the pegasus silenced for the time being, the human returned his attention to Neon Streak. The green mare’s painful whines and cries had died down, and were now mere groans of agony. She looked up to the man and his scalpel, and closed her eyes while looking away. She couldn’t bear to watch as he picked where to cut next. The green mare felt the human placing the scalpel against her left thigh. Before she could react or even brace herself, he pressed into her flesh and dragged the scalpel down. Although it wasn’t very deep, he pulled the scalpel down the length of her leg clear down to her knee, sending a wave of pain through her that made another painful yelp escape her lips. Neon breathed heavily as her shocked body tried to calm itself down. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down. As expected, there was a lengthy cut on her thigh that was bleeding profusely. She looked up to the ghost and scowled as best she could through her pain racked body and frightened exterior. “Well… that’s three. I guess we’ve got a while to go… but don’t worry, I’m sure that we won’t be getting any interruptions.” The man said in a coldly serious tone while wiping the blood off of his scalpel. He then gripped the cutting implement tightly and prepared to continue his gruesome work on the green pony.
Chapter 84: The Long Way Back“*Yawn*” Rainbow Dash yawned tiredly while stretching her arms. She was lying down across one of the rugs in the library with a book laid out across her body. As much as she tried helping out her unicorn friend with her research, there was only so long she could occupy herself in a silent room with reading over random notes and letters from the hooded ponies. Taking a look over to where Twilight was, the pegasus found her in the same position she left her in, reading a stack of papers and notes over by one of the desks in the room. “Any luck over there?” The cyan mare asked in a hopeful tone. She didn’t imagine that assaulting the hooded ponies’ base would be quite so boring when she thought about it before. Twilight glanced up at the lounging pony and sighed. Even though Rainbow Dash had come to love reading as a pastime, she wasn’t acclimated to studying for hours on end like the unicorn was. If anyone was going to get any work done, it would have to be her. Even though she accepted this, she still wished her cyan friend would help out a little bit. “Nothing so far… but I have learned a lot about this place while looking through these notes.” Twilight said in an intrigued tone while reading over some of the more interesting sections she found among the faded scribbles and lengthy scrawls. “Like for instance… Tom was right about this place. Apparently the owners of the mansion were into practicing occult rituals. They put charms and spells on this place before they died to make it last through the years.” The purple pony explained with a fascinated expression while delving deeper into the notes laid out before her. “So this place really could be from human times?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while glancing around her at the décor of the room. “Not only is it from human times, but it’s from ancient human times… it was probably around for thousands of years even before humans went extinct. I see a few accounts here of different people moving in and using it as a base of operations for cults, which probably explains the vast amounts of books on magic.” Twilight replied. “Wow… that is pretty cool. So right now, I am standing in a building that was around when humans ruled the earth.” Rainbow Dash said in an amazed tone while taking in her surroundings. “Actually… right now it looks like you’re lying down in a building that was around when humans ruled the earth.” Twilight said with a wry smile while glancing over to the lazy pegasus. “Hey… if you can think of a better way of occupying my time, I’m all ears.” Rainbow Dash huffed while putting her book aside and getting up to walk around. “I would say helping me with finding a way out of this place, but clearly that’s not an option.” Twilight shook her head with an apathetic smirk before returning to the papers in front of her. Meanwhile, the cyan pegasus decided to occupy herself with taking another look around the room. Finding herself wandering over to the back of the room, Rainbow Dash took another look at the strange symbol painted on the wall in red paint. The pair had found the symbol shortly after starting their research, but they weren’t sure what to make of it. It resembled the symbol that Brimstoke and Neon Streak described, consisting of a circle with a line drawn through it at an angle, along with three odd glyphs drawn in the two sections created by the line. Although it looked similar to the style of symbols used in the pictograms that they had seen before, the two ponies hadn’t found anything describing the symbol in their search for information. “Find anything about this thing yet?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hopeful expression while glancing back at the unicorn. Twilight briefly turned around to see the pegasus standing in front of the odd symbol. She shrugged while taking a cursory glance at the notes in front of her and shuffling through the pages of a book she found. “No… not yet.” Twilight sighed while reading over everything in front of her once more. Suddenly, her eyes ran across a piece of text that stood out to her. “Actually, hold on a second.” Twilight stated with an intrigued tone of voice while flipping the book in front of her to the pages referred to in the note. Rainbow Dash walked back over to the desk the unicorn was at and peered over her shoulder as she shuffled through the pages of the book with refueled vigor. Suddenly, Twilight paused as she came across a page that had a picture on it. The picture was a depiction of the same symbol that was sitting on the wall behind them. There was text on the bottom of the page, and seemingly the next few pages that referred to the same symbol. “Yes! Now we’re in business!” Rainbow Dash cheered in excitement while giving the unicorn an eager pat on the back. Twilight smiled at her fortune before burying herself into the text and reading. She scanned her eyes back and forth across the pages while learning more about the strange symbol. “According to this… that symbol is part of a set of three seals scattered around the mansion.” The purple mare explained as she continued reading. “I guess the one Neon and Brimstoke found in the basement is one of them?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Possibly… it definitely sounds like it.” Twilight said before returning her attention to the book. “It says here that the symbols are used to… what the…? Control and suppress powerful entities?” She raised an eyebrow curiously as she read over the confusing statement. “What the hay is that supposed to mean?” Rainbow Dash thought out loud while leaning closer to be able to read the explanation for herself. “I have no idea… I guess it means that those symbols were used to keep something at bay… and when Shadow Mist broke the one in the basement, he let out whatever that something is.” Twilight pondered while glancing over to the symbol on the wall at the back of the room. There was a break in the red paint that made up the outer circle, so perhaps the red stallion did something to this symbol as well. “Do you think if we can find a way to reverse whatever Shadow Mist did, that we can unlock the doors and get out of here?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hopeful tone. “Hmm… let’s see.” Twilight leaned closer and rapidly scanned her eyes across the pages. She skimmed over the majority of the page, until her eye caught something interesting that made her pause. “Looks like there are two ways to reverse the broken seals... Option one would be to fix the symbols.” Twilight stated while reading further ahead. “That sounds easy enough… what, do we just get some paint and redraw the symbol?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. Twilight’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she read over the rest of the explanation. “I wish it were that simple… according to this, since all three seals were broken we would need to completely reset the spells on them… which would apparently take several hours… and that would be if we had all of the required spells and materials.” Twilight explained with a dismayed tone of voice. “Yikes…” Rainbow Dash cringed at the mere thought of undergoing such a tedious and complex process. “What’s option two?” She asked hesitantly. “Option two… is using my magic to overload the magic in the seal. According to this, the hooded ponies thought that a unicorn could disrupt the seals as a last resort to defend themselves against the entities.” Twilight explained. “I still don’t like the sound of these entities… whatever they are, this last resort sounds like our only choice.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. “Well, the details are a little fuzzy… they weren’t sure themselves about what would happen. I guess they never intended for all three seals to be broken.” Twilight shrugged before putting the book down and getting up. She glanced over to the symbol on the back wall before stretching her limbs and walking over to it. She studied the symbol for a moment before lighting up her horn and leaning closer. As she felt her magic interacting with the magic in the seal, she was surprised to see that she could understand it for the most part. It was certainly easier to wrap her head around than the pictograms the hooded ponies used for summoning monsters. “Do you think you can do it?” Rainbow Dash asked while nervously watching the unicorn from a ways back. She was sure that the symbol was like a bomb that could explode at any moment with the purple mare messing with it like that. “I think so… stand back.” Twilight suggested in a cautionary tone while returning her attention to the symbol. While the unicorn charged up her horn to overload the seal, Rainbow Dash cringed and closed her eyes tightly in preparation for the worst. With a slight buzz, the symbol flashed red once before returning to normal. Twilight let her horn die down as she backed away from the symbol. She turned to her cyan friend, only to find her shielding her face with her arms. Of course, Twilight had expected a much more violent reaction from the symbol herself, so she understood the defensive reaction the pegasus had. “Did it work?” Rainbow Dash asked while hesitantly opening her eyes. She was surprised to see Twilight standing in front of her in one piece. “Apparently… I guess we won’t see much of an effect until we overload all three seals.” Twilight pondered while glancing back at the symbol. “Phew…” Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief while wiping a bead of sweat off of her face. “For a minute there I thought we were going to blow up. I don’t think Glitterball and the others would be happy to find a smoking crater where the library used to be when they got back.” She added with a brief chuckle. “Hey… shouldn’t they already have been back by now?” Twilight asked while thinking about how much time had passed since they arrived at the library. Rainbow Dash grew suspicious herself as she thought more about the strange absence of their friends. “Yeah… they should have been back here a while ago actually. Brimstoke said we should all meet back in the main room in half an hour, and I’m pretty sure we’ve been here for at least half an hour already.” The pegasus said with a slight twinge of uneasiness slowly filling her. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her cyan companion. She highly doubted that the unicorn and her team would be late in picking them up without a good reason, or a bad reason in this case. She feared that something might have happened to her friends that prevented them from coming to the library. Taking heed of the feeling in her gut, the purple mare walked over to the door to the library. Rainbow Dash followed her friend as she walked between the two candles and hovered near the door. Twilight paused for a moment and glanced back to see if her friend was close by. Spotting the pegasus just behind her, she built up the courage to grab the door handle and open the door. Blue ripples appeared in the air as the unicorn reached through the barrier and pushed the door open. Strangely, the hallway was pitch black, but Twilight perfectly remembered it being lit up by candles before. “Do you think we should head back?” Rainbow Dash asked while peering out into the darkness uneasily. She suddenly felt unsafe, despite the two candles burning brightly on either side of her. She wanted nothing more than to head back to the foyer where there was safety in numbers. “I would say we should wait for Glitter and the others… but I’m afraid that they might not show up.” Twilight stated in a concerned tone. “Still… I would rather wait for them in the entrance with the others. Besides… I would like to know what’s going on rather than staying here and worrying all night.” Rainbow Dash suggested while swallowing her fear and stepping forward. Thankfully, Twilight lit up her horn and hesitantly followed her outside. The library doors swung closed with a loud thud of finality. Now the two mares were in a dark hallway by themselves without the protection of the blessed candles to keep them safe from whatever unseen terrors awaited them. Twilight glanced forward towards the door to the foyer. She could barely see the end of the hallway just outside of her light’s reach. Even though it would only be a short walk, it felt like it would take an eternity. Taking a brief glance behind her, the unicorn was greeted with nothing but pitch blackness in the other direction as the hallway continued on beyond the light. “L-let’s get moving…” Rainbow Dash suggested with a nervous chuckle while staring uneasily into the darkness. Twilight nodded in agreement before tearing herself away from the frightening void and heading back towards the foyer. The two mares silently walked down the corridor while darting their eyes around nervously. The only sound they could hear was their own hooves clattering against the wooden floors beneath the carpet. Every object they passed cast a myriad of startling shapes on the walls as the shadows moved along with the unicorn’s light. Thankfully, the door wasn’t far away, and they would be in the safety of the foyer before long. Twilight quickly trotted up to the door and grabbed the handle eagerly. She couldn’t stand being in this dark and eerie hallway any longer, she needed to be in a safe place among friends. The purple pony quickly turned the handle, but something was amiss. Her train of thought was abruptly derailed as the handle refused to turn in her hoof. “What…?” Twilight muttered in an alarmed stupor. The unicorn shifted from gently turning the handle to forcibly pulling on it, but to no avail. “Oh come on! You have got to be kidding me!” Twilight exclaimed nervously while pulling on the door with all of her might. “What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily. Even though she could already surmise the problem from watching the struggling unicorn, she wasn’t ready to acknowledge the fact that the only door to salvation was locked. “The door is stuck… just like the others.” Twilight’s face paled as she suddenly came to the grim realization that they were now separated from the others. Nobody could get to them, and they couldn’t get back to the foyer until the group figured out how to reverse the broken seals, but she was the only one who knew how to do that. “What?! Are you sure?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone while grabbing the handle and pulling on it herself to make sure that the unicorn was right. Sure enough, the door remained steadfast against every attempt the cyan mare made on it. “This isn’t good… this is not good at all.” Twilight suddenly became very nervous as she turned around to look at the only other path they had to take, which was the pitch black hallway they just came from. She could feel her breathing speed up slightly as she started to panic. “Ok… let’s not panic.” Rainbow Dash suggested, even though her tone of voice suggested that she was just as alarmed as the unicorn. “We just need to find another way around… yeah, that’s it! There has to be another way to the foyer from this… hallway.” The pegasus’s voice trailed off nervously as she turned around and stared down the very hallway she was mentioning. “M-maybe we should head back to the library? We can just wait for everyone to come find us.” Twilight almost couldn’t believe that she was hearing herself say such a thing. Normally she would be the first one to suggest pressing forward until another solution presented itself, but she dreaded the very thought of pressing forward when it involved going further into a dark and creepy mansion full of Celestia knows what kind of horrors. “No… we can’t do that. We’re the only ones who know a possible way out of this mess. If the others don’t figure out that we need to break those symbols, then we might be stuck here forever!” Rainbow Dash stated adamantly. She didn’t seem to be any more eager to venture forth into the darkness, but she couldn’t just cower in a corner and wait for someone else to get the job done, not when her friends could be in danger. “You’re right… I don’t know why I even bothered suggesting that… but…” Twilight gulped nervously while glancing between her friend and the rest of the hallway. It wasn’t so much the dark hallway that was scaring her so much, it was the thought of what lay beyond that was getting to the unicorn. “I know… but don’t worry. We can do this together.” Rainbow Dash said while putting a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We just need to take this one step at a- OW!” Suddenly, the cyan mare yelped in pain while clutching the back of her neck. Twilight turned to the pegasus with an alarmed expression as she wondered why she had made such an outburst. “What’s wrong?!” Twilight asked fearfully. She was afraid that something horrible had leapt out of the darkness and assaulted her friend without her even knowing it. “It feels like something sharp just poked me!” Rainbow Dash groaned uncomfortably while rubbing a spot on the back of her neck. “Let me see…” Twilight said while moving to the side and examining the cyan mare’s neck. Rainbow Dash stopped rubbing her neck and pointed with her hoof in the general area before letting the unicorn inspect her freely. “What did it feel like?” Twilight asked while moving the mare’s fur back and forth to look for any marks on her skin. “It felt kind of like a needle, but then it just vanished really quickly.” Rainbow Dash explained in a troubled tone as she waited for the unicorn to complete her analysis. “That’s odd… I don’t see anything. Do you feel ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. If the pegasus was jabbed with a needle, that just begged the question of why and how. “I feel kind of woozy… but I think that’s just from my nerves.” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. Twilight looked around for any signs of movement around them. She couldn’t see anything but shadows, but her friend didn’t just get attacked by nothing. She resolved to keep a close eye on the pegasus while waiting for a few minutes to see if she was alright. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist silently crept down the hallway and opened a door to duck inside. He glanced behind him to see if he was being followed by the two mares, only to see nothing but darkness. Breathing a sigh of relief, he uncloaked and walked further into the room. “Damnit… the charm must be wearing off of the needle if she felt that.” He muttered uneasily while staring down at the needle in his hooves. Thankfully, he had managed to extract the necessary amount of blood from the pegasus before he was forced to pull out the needle and flee. “Doesn’t matter… I need to get the last sample before I leave. I don’t care if Grim said we could use blood extracted after they died. I’m not taking any chances with this.” The stallion stated while reaching into a bag on the table and pulling out an empty vial. He jammed the syringe into the vial and dispensed the red fluid into it before closing the lid and wiping off the needle. He then placed the vial back into the bag and secured it before picking the bag up and slinging it around his back. Suddenly, a noise from behind him made the red pony spin around defensively. He glanced around, only to see nobody outside of the door. Still, the air felt oddly cold and the whole room suddenly had an eerie feeling to it. “Grr… not now.” Shadow Mist growled in frustration while darting his eyes around. He had managed to avoid the three spirits of the mansion thus far, but he knew his luck was going to run out eventually. “Don’t get jumpy now Shadow… you’re almost done. The odds of running into them are very slim as long as I keep moving and I stay low.” He muttered to himself before moving to walk out of the door. *SNIP* The sound of metal grating against metal rang out from behind him, making the stallion pause and turn around. The sight before him made Shadow Mist gasp in surprise. Hovering in the air mere inches away from his face, there was a pair of bloody scissors with their blades pointed directly at him. Realizing what was about to happen, Shadow Mist ducked to the side as fast as he could as the scissors darted forward. No matter how fast he moved, he couldn’t prevent the scissors from flying into the left side of his face. “AGGHH!” He screamed in agony as one of the blades of the scissors stabbed into his left eye. A surge of mind numbing pain rocked his body as flashes of red filled his now broken vision. The stallion clutched the scissors before pulling them out of his skull in one swift yank. He cried out in pain again as blood gushed from his now destroyed eye. “Gah!” While he clutched his eye with one hoof, Shadow Mist stumbled backwards until he tripped over something and fell on his side. He looked up just in time to see two ghostly figures above him. One was a lady in white that was smiling wickedly as she held a blood soaked pair of scissors in one hand. The other specter was a man with a blank expression and black hair that stared down at him menacingly. Shadow Mist looked down to see what he tripped over, only to gasp in shock as he noticed that it was an axe on the floor. The ghostly man held out his open palm as the axe vibrated slightly. Suddenly, the axe shot up into the air and flew right into the human’s open hand. The red stallion scooted towards the door as quickly as he could as the human approached him with the axe clutched in his hands. He stopped clutching his eye for a moment and held out his hoof while channeling shadow energy to it. Before he could do anything meaningful to repel the two spirits, the man with the axe swung his bloody weapon down and hit the stallion’s arm that was on the floor just above the hoof. “AGGH!” Shadow Mist screamed again as he felt his bone cracking from the blunt force of the axe. As he tried to pull away, blood gushed out of his arm in rivers as what little flesh was holding the arm together ripped. When the stallion brought his arm up in front of him, all he saw was a bloody stump with his hoof missing. His head was spinning, his body was screaming at him in pain. The red pony thought that his heart was going to explode from pounding so hard. If he didn’t pass out on the spot, he would be dead from blood loss shortly. As the woman in white laughed at the pony’s misfortune, the man brought his axe up again to strike the stallion down. Shadow Mist used every ounce of strength left in his body to shoot his remaining hoof out and send as much shadow energy as he could through it. The woman in white wailed in pain, while the man silently dealt with his punishment as the pony blasted them with shadow energy. The two humans were sent flying into the back wall, where they vanished from sight. “*Pant*… Gah… *Gasp*” Shadow Mist tried his hardest to get enough air to supply his body, but his breathing was impaired by how exhausted he was, and by how much pain he was experiencing. As he slowly used his remaining front leg to push himself up, he glanced down to the floor to see part of his hoof lying in a puddle of blood. Channeling shadow energy to his arm and his eye, the stallion tried his best to stop the bleeding. Without the experience in using shadow magic to heal, all he could hope to do was to keep himself from bleeding out until he could finish his mission and reach his colleagues for aid. Suddenly, he heard two sets of hoofsteps rapidly approaching from down the hallway. With how loud he screamed, Twilight Sparkle and her friend doubtlessly heard the stallion and were now most likely coming to investigate. “Crap…” Shadow Mist muttered while stumbling slightly. There was no way in his present state of injury that he could fight the two mares, or even run away from them. Finally, the stallion did the only thing he could think to do. He channeled his powers and vanished from sight, all the while trying to keep himself from leaving a trail of blood, and trying to refrain from passing out from shock. -A few moments earlier– Twilight and Rainbow Dash glanced around nervously while trying to find the source of the cyan mare’s sudden injury. Although it was entirely possible that some random pain befell the pegasus, it was highly unlikely in these circumstances. “Does it still hurt?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking at the cyan pony. “No… it only hurt for like a second. I would still like to know what that was.” Rainbow Dash shrugged uneasily while feeling the back of her neck. “Let’s just keep moving… maybe we can get Peppermint to check you out when we get ba-” Twilight was suddenly interrupted by a loud scream coming from down the hall. Judging from how loud the scream was, it sounded relatively close, and it sounded like whoever it was, was in excruciating pain. “What the hay?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in an alarmed tone. “Who is that?!” Twilight asked nervously while looking down the hallway. The scream sounded like a stallion, but it didn’t sound like anyone she knew. Before the pegasus could respond, another scream filled the air. This time, it sounded like the stallion was in even more pain than before. He was screaming so loud that the two mares were certain that he could be heard across the house. “Forget about who it is! We need to go help them!” Rainbow Dash stated anxiously while getting to her feet. Even if it was one of the hooded ponies, she couldn’t idly stand by while another living creature endured that much pain and suffering. Twilight followed the cyan pegasus as she bolted down the hallway in search of the source of the screams. Before long, the two came across an open door on their left. When they turned and walked into the room, they were so shocked and horrified by what awaited them that they paused in mid stride and gasped. There was blood everywhere. Streams and spatters of the red fluid were all along the walls and the floor. The fact that there was so much blood in the room wasn’t even the most alarming thing to the pair. The thing that horrified them the most was the presence of a severed hoof on the floor with a broken bone sticking out of it and blood pouring out of it in spurts. “Sweet Celestia!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock while backpedaling as fast as she could. As she hit the wall, she felt her legs wobbling so much that they gave out, forcing her into a seated position. Meanwhile, Twilight was left in the doorway staring at the gruesome scene before her. She felt sick to her stomach. So much so in fact that she heaved and coughed as her gag reflex was activated. The copper like smell in the air was so thick that the ponies could taste it, which only added to their sickness. As Twilight shakily stumbled out of the doorway and fell to her knees, Rainbow Dash reluctantly glanced back into the room. There was no sign of the pony that was attacked other than the severed limb on the floor and all of the blood, but there was a hint left behind about their attacker. There was a bloodstained axe lying on the floor at the back of the room. The blood on the axe was as fresh as the blood all around the room, leading the pegasus to surmise that it was the weapon used to create this travesty. “*Cough* *Cough* *Sputter*” Twilight tried her best to contain the sick feeling in her stomach, but she couldn’t do anything but heave and cough and try to catch her breath in between outbursts. “Is… is that what I think it is?” The unicorn asked while keeping her eyes closed and remaining on the floor. Judging from how ill she sounded, Rainbow Dash figured that she didn’t want to take another peak inside of the room to investigate. “Yeah… I think it *Gag*… I think it is.” The pegasus covered her mouth to prevent herself from vomiting as she took another glance at the red stub on the floor. At least now she understood why the strange stallion was screaming bloody murder, it was because he was literally being murdered in a bloody fashion. “Ugh… who did this?” Twilight groaned while slowly making her way back to her feet. She still felt dizzy and her face was still pale, but she found it in her to suppress the sick feeling in her stomach to take another glance into the room. Still, she tried her hardest to avoid looking down at the floor for fear of losing her lunch. “I don’t know… and I don’t think I want to know.” Rainbow Dash said while looking around for the injured pony. There wasn’t a trail of blood leading anywhere out of the room, and the room itself was devoid of life. “Where is the pony that got attacked? I don’t see anyone… and surely they couldn’t have gotten very far without…” Twilight hesitated and shuddered nervously as she instinctively looked to the floor at the severed hoof. “Maybe it was Shadow Mist… he did have red fur didn’t he?” Rainbow Dash asked while trying to remember the description that Applejack and the others gave of the red stallion. “You think he’s still in here?” Twilight asked while glancing around the room suspiciously. She couldn’t imagine why the stallion would even try to hide himself in his state. “Well if he is… I hope he has enough sense to leave.” Rainbow Dash shrugged while trying not to look around too much. “Let’s… let’s just get out of here.” The pegasus suggested while waiting for her friend to leave the room with her. “But… shouldn’t we try to help him?” Twilight asked while hesitantly looking around the room for the injured pony. Even if he was one of their enemies, she didn’t feel like leaving him with such severe injuries would be the right thing to do. “If he’s still here, he obviously doesn’t want us to find him. If he isn’t still here… there isn’t much we can do for him anyway. We have more important things to worry about… like what did this to him for instance.” Rainbow Dash said uneasily while staring at the bloody axe at the back of the room with a glint of fear in her eyes. Twilight shrugged before nodding and walking out of the room. As much as she wanted to help the stallion, she couldn’t do anything for him if he was hiding from her. Leaving the gruesome scene behind them, the two mares continued down the hallway. They kept their wits about them to look for any signs of being followed, either by Shadow Mist, or the one who attacked him. Still, the only sounds they heard were their own hoofsteps and their own nervous breathing. As the pair walked on in silence, Twilight started reflecting on her thoughts. Her mind drifted to everything that had happened since they arrived. The group had been in control of the situation before, so much so that the unicorn actually felt confident about their chances of success. But now, so much had happened to complicate matters that the purple mare wasn’t so sure about their odds anymore. The entire house had shaken due to some unseen force, the front door had locked itself, trapping a good portion of their forces outside, and they had lost contact with Princess Luna and Tom, arguably the most powerful members they had. Now that Glitterball, Applejack, and Rarity had apparently gone missing, Twilight was worried that something bad happened. Perhaps they weren’t missing and they were only waiting in the foyer trying to get the door unlocked from their end, but somehow Twilight had a terrible feeling that something bad happened to her friends. Rainbow Dash noticed that the unicorn had a concerned expression on her face. Although their surroundings were disconcerting enough to warrant concern in any pony, she seemed to be troubled by something else entirely. “What’s eating you?” The pegasus asked in a concerned tone. Twilight glanced over to her friend, only to shrug and look away for a moment. “Do you think the others are ok?” Twilight asked in an uneasy tone. The cyan mare was caught off guard by the sudden grim question. “What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked to clarify. She wasn’t sure if she liked where the unicorn was heading with this train of thought. “I just… I’m worried about them.” Twilight admitted while staring at the floor uncomfortably. “First we get locked in here after the whole house shakes… then Tom and the princess go missing… now we’re separated from the others. Not to mention what we just walked away from…” She cringed and shuddered uncomfortably as she thought back to the bloody room. If something like that could happen to one of the hooded ponies, then what did that say for her and her friends? “Twilight… I’m sure the others are fine.” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. Despite her attempt at sounding optimistic, she couldn’t suppress the uneasiness in her voice. The pegasus looked to the side and frowned with concern before gathering up her strength to put on a more hopeful outlook. “I mean come on… there are just two of us in here, and we’re doing fine. Glitter and the others have each other to keep themselves safe… not to mention a highly trained member of the royal guard looking after them. I’m sure that they just got locked out… nothing to worry about.” Rainbow Dash added with her usual confident smirk. Twilight smiled briefly before returning a concerned expression to her face. No matter how much the pegasus tried cheering her up, she couldn’t get rid of her suspicions. “I don’t know Rainbow Dash… I just feel like something bad is going to happen.” Twilight stated while shaking her head uneasily. Suddenly, Twilight heard a loud crack coming from beneath her. She felt the floorboards shifting under her weight. Before she could even react, the floor broke apart with a loud snap, sending her falling through it. “AHHH!” Twilight screamed fearfully as her whole body crashed downwards. Just as abruptly as her fall started, it ended as she slammed into the ground along with all of the debris and wooden splinters from the broken floor. The impact made her entire body throb with pain, but somehow, there was another more severe pain coursing through her body that originated in her leg. “Oh my gosh! Twilight, are you ok?!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully from the floor above. Somehow, she managed to just barely avoid falling through the floor with the unicorn. She stared down into the dark hole, trying to desperately make out any signs that her friend was alright. Twilight’s light had gone out when she fell, most likely from the shock of the fall and the harsh impact of her body hitting the ground. “Ow… Uh… gah…” Twilight whined softly as she slowly came to her senses. “I’m… I’m ok… I think.” She stammered in a stunned tone while managing to light up her horn again. The light revealed the purple mare lying on her stomach amidst a myriad of dust and pieces of wooden flooring varying in size. Taking a brief look around, Rainbow Dash realized that the unicorn had fallen straight into a downstairs hallway. There was a patch of light far off down the hall, seemingly coming from a candle placed on a table. The area visible from the gaping hole in the floor was pitch black before due to the candle nearby being extinguished by the dust and debris falling down with Twilight. “Oh thank goodness… I thought you were a goner for a second there.” Rainbow Dash said in a relieved tone. Although the unicorn was in a state of shock from her sudden fall, she was at least seemingly in one piece. Suddenly, as Twilight tried turning herself over, the cyan mare noticed something that made a shocked gasp escape her mouth. “AGGH!” Twilight screamed in pain again as she tried moving her leg. Just putting a little bit of effort into moving the limb sent shooting pains all throughout her body. As she slowly maneuvered herself up to see what was wrong, her eyes widened as she noticed that a large sliver of wood was sticking into her thigh. Although blood was already pouring out of the injury, the piece of wood was easy to see. It looked like a part of the floorboards that had come crashing down along with her. The purple mare most likely fell on it with all of her weight, making it easy to see how it could have been forced in so deep. “Hold on Twilight, I’m coming down!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a panicked tone while spreading her wings. She hopped into the hole and glided down, being careful not to land on her injured friend. “Owww!” Twilight leaned her head back and wailed painfully as the suffering she was going through prevented her from moving any further. She could feel tears falling onto her cheeks from how much pain she was in. “Oh man… oh my gosh… oh my gosh.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself in a panic as she knelt down and examined her friend’s leg. There was blood pouring down the side of her leg, but it didn’t look severe enough to be an immediate concern. The main problem was the piece of wood sticking out of the injury site. “What should I do?!” The pegasus asked nobody in particular as she frantically tried to think of a way to help her friend. Twilight knew that the situation was bad, and that she had to do something if she was going to walk, or rather, limp away from it in one piece. “Hold my leg steady… OW!” Twilight yelped in pain as she moved her upper body into a position where she could see her leg better. “What…?! Are… are you sure?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while glancing at the unicorn with a concerned expression. Merely moving the rest of her body caused mind numbing pain for her, so the pegasus couldn’t imagine what pressing down on the leg would do. “I need to… I need to pull it out.” Twilight cringed painfully as she prepared herself for what was about to happen. “Are you crazy?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed uneasily while recoiling slightly in shock. She couldn’t believe that the unicorn was going to do something so brash and idiotic. “Just help me! We don’t have another choice here.” Twilight replied while clenching her teeth as another surge of pain flooded her mind. Rainbow Dash cringed while turning away for a moment to take a breather. Twilight was right. The only option they had was to find a way back to the foyer, and they couldn’t do that if the unicorn couldn’t walk. “Ok… I’ll help you.” The cyan mare said with a concerned frown while walking back over to her and kneeling down beside her. She hesitantly placed her hooves on the unicorn’s leg. She barely pressed down, not wanting to hurt her friend. Even with the miniscule amount of pressure Rainbow Dash was putting on her, Twilight whined slightly in pain. “Sorry…” Rainbow Dash said in an apologetic tone. Twilight could tell that it was tearing her up to be doing this to her. “It’s ok… you can press harder.” Twilight said while steeling her nerves and putting on a brave face. Rainbow Dash nodded slowly before pressing slightly harder. The pegasus was barely putting on any more pressure, like her hooves refused to obey her commands. She knew that she had to press harder, but every fiber in her body was telling her to stop. Finally, Rainbow Dash figured that gently pressing harder and harder would cause more pain in the long run for the unicorn, and she pressed down firmly. “Gah!” Twilight yelped slightly before gritting her teeth and focusing. She breathed in and out a few times while preparing herself for the task ahead. Rainbow Dash watched as the piece of wood was wrapped in a softly glowing purple aura. She cringed empathetically as she heard the purple mare whining softly while preparing to pull the piece out. “Twilight… are you sure you want to do t-” The cyan mare started to speak up, until she was interrupted by the unicorn screaming out in pain as she yanked on the piece of wood. “AAAGHH!” Twilight rocked her head back and gritted her teeth as she focused on pulling at the piece of wood. Even though it was moving, it was moving slowly, and every time she touched it another wave of misery surged through her leg. Rainbow Dash tried her best to hold the unicorn’s leg steady as she yanked the piece of wood out. She turned her head away and cringed while her friend worked on removing the foreign object. Twilight took a break every now and then to catch her breath and let the pain die down before returning to her efforts. Finally, the piece of wood was freed from the purple mare’s leg. Twilight flung the large splinter off to the side before laying her head back and panting heavily. “Guh… *Gasp*… *Pant*” The unicorn rested while dealing with the remaining stinging twinges of pain in her leg. She looked up to see that her leg was now bleeding profusely. “Oh no… that isn’t good.” Twilight muttered uneasily while watching the crimson fluid leaving her. “Sweet Celestia, Twilight! You’re going to bleed to death if we don’t fix that up!” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while staring at her friend’s injury with wide eyes. “Oh horsefeathers… I did not think this through as much as I should have. Gah…” Twilight whined while trying to cope with the pain and press on her leg to prevent herself from bleeding out. She was mentally kicking herself for making such a hasty decision. Although to be fair, she could only kick herself mentally due to her leg being so messed up. “We need to stop the bleeding… it’s the only way you’re going anywhere.” Rainbow Dash reasoned as she racked her mind trying to think of how to help the unicorn. “I don’t think… *Pant*… I don’t think there is anything we can use around here.” Twilight said while peering around the area as much as she could from the floor. Meanwhile, the cyan mare was looking at the many doorways around them with an idea brewing in her head. “Wait here… and try to keep pressure on it.” Rainbow Dash suggested in a sympathetic tone. She knew that touching the wound would probably send the unicorn reeling with pain, let alone putting pressure on it. “Ok… don’t go too far by yourself.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. Life or death situation or not, they were still in a possibly dangerous location, and she wanted the cyan mare to be careful. Without wasting any more time, Rainbow Dash went up to the first door on her left and tried the handle. The door popped open with little resistance and slid open with a small creak. The pegasus looked inside and strained her eyes to see among the shadows. The room was almost pitch black, but she could still see the outlines of objects. Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t anything she could use to aid the wounded unicorn inside. There were only a few tables and chairs inside. Shrugging in frustration, Rainbow Dash closed the door and rushed across the hall to the next door. She opened it up, only to find another useless room. Taking a glance over to her friend bleeding on the floor in the middle of the hallway, the pegasus was filled with a sense of urgency as she went to the next door. “Come on… there has to be something I can use.” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself while grabbing the door handle and twisting it. “Aha!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed eagerly as she peered into the next room. It was what appeared to be a small bedroom. There were a few dressers and wardrobes along the walls, and there was a mirror at the back of the room, but the pegasus paid no attention to these things. What interested the cyan mare the most was the bed, more specifically the sheets on the bed. Ignoring the darkness in the room, Rainbow Dash walked in and trotted up to the bed. The sheets were ragged and had many holes in them, but they would work just fine. Gripping the edge of the sheets in her mouth, and gagging slightly at the layer of dust still on them, the pegasus ripped a sizable ribbon of fabric off and brought it with her out of the room. Rainbow Dash rushed back over and knelt down next to Twilight. She sat the long strip of sheet down beside her and smiled slightly. “Well… it might not be the cleanest thing in the world, but it should stop the bleeding. Come on… let’s get you patched up.” Rainbow Dash suggested while picking up the makeshift bandage in her hooves. She started to apply it, until she was stopped by the unicorn getting up slowly. “Here… let me do it. It will probably be easier with my magic.” Twilight suggested while focusing her magic and taking the bandage out of Rainbow Dash’s grasp. “Are you sure you can handle that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. Surely the purple mare must have been feeling weak from all of the blood she was losing. “Don’t worry. I can take care of it. You’ve already done so much to help me.” Twilight said with a grateful expression. Rainbow Dash smiled in return before stepping back and letting the unicorn work. Twilight shakily lifted her leg up and gritted her teeth to deal with the pain. She then started wrapping the bandage around the injury on her thigh and made it as tight as possible while still leaving room for blood flow. After tying off the ends of the bandage, the unicorn took a moment to admire her work. Although the sheets were already getting stained red as the crimson fluid soaked through, it looked like it would prevent her from losing too much blood until she got back to the foyer where Peppermint could give her proper medical attention. “Not bad for an egghead.” Rainbow Dash stated with an impressed smile. More than anything, she was just glad that her friend wasn’t going to die of blood loss while she watched. “Hey… you can learn about a lot of things from books… you should try reading educational things every now and then and not just tales of adventure.” Twilight replied with a slight smirk. “Yeah… I think I might lay off of the tales of adventure for a while. I think I’m getting my fix of adventure right now.” Rainbow Dash said with an amused chuckle. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in pain as she tried to roll over so she could get up. Every time she moved her injured leg, it sent pains up and down the limb, making it almost impossible for her to move very much. Rainbow Dash watched her friend struggling to get up with a sympathetic frown. She knew that the unicorn couldn’t get very far like this, or at least she couldn’t on her own. “Here… let me help you.” Rainbow Dash suggested while letting the purple mare lean up against her. Once she got Twilight to her feet, the pegasus gently put one of her front legs around her to help her walk. “Thanks Rainbow Dash… I don’t know what I would do without you.” Twilight said in a grateful tone while smiling at her friend. “Don’t mention it… now let’s get back to the others. Maybe we can find a way back now that we’re downstairs?” Rainbow Dash asked with a genuine tone of hopeful optimism. It was the first time since they left the library that the two mares felt happy and hopeful about their chances. Slowly but surely, the pair made their way back through the hallway in the direction of the foyer. They hoped that there would be a way back to the entrance from this hallway. They had never been this way before, so they were pretty much running, or rather, limping blind. Twilight winced uncomfortably as her leg jostled around occasionally. Even with Rainbow Dash helping her to take the weight off of it, the limb would still move with the unicorn. The throbbing pain she was receiving was substantially less than before, but it still hurt a considerable amount. “How you holding up?” Rainbow Dash asked while glancing at the purple mare. “I’m doing good all things considered… I’m feeling a little woozy, but other than that I’m fine.” Twilight replied while taking note of her own physical condition. “Hang tight. We’ll be back in no time.” Rainbow Dash said confidently before returning her attention back down the hallway. Suddenly, the pair came to the end of the hallway. From what they remembered, the foyer should have been further up ahead. This door must have led to another room or hallway. As she reached up and turned the handle, Rainbow Dash pushed the door open and helped her friend inside. As expected, the door opened up into a room instead of the foyer. The ponies were in what looked like a living room of sorts. There was a couch in the middle of the room that faced to the left. The couch was positioned in front of a large fireplace and mantle with a painting of a landscape above it. The fire was out, but there was an iron fire poker left to the side. A couple of chairs and potted plants were to the right, though the plants were long dead. There was another door across the room at the back. The ponies smiled as they realized that this door must have led to another hallway. They were getting closer and closer to getting back to their friends in the foyer. “This place must lead closer to the entrance.” Rainbow Dash stated eagerly while helping her friend walk through the room. “Hey… can we rest here a minute? I’m feeling a little light headed.” Twilight said in a sickly tone. Rainbow Dash was concerned to see that the unicorn’s face was a little pale, and she had a generally ill appearance to her. “Yeah… whatever makes you feel better.” Rainbow Dash said in a sincere tone. The pegasus walked the injured mare over to the couch and gently sat her down. Once she managed to find a comfortable position on the couch, Twilight leaned back and rested for a moment. Taking a seat in the spot next to the unicorn, Rainbow Dash briefly got comfortable before turning her attention to her friend. Twilight was breathing at a normal rate, but she was breathing so loudly that she could be heard. It was like she was trying to get as much air into her system as possible. Perhaps this was a good thing. She did look like she was about to pass out after all. “You feeling ok?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… I just need to catch my breath for a minute.” Twilight said while managing a reassuring smile. Rainbow Dash was happy to see the unicorn in such high spirits. Satisfied that her friend would be alright on her own for a moment, Rainbow Dash got back up and walked around the room slowly. She looked around and examined the features of the room with intrigue. Although the fireplace wasn’t lit, there were a few candles placed around that provided sufficient, if not a little eerie, lighting. Rainbow Dash stood in front of the fireplace and shrugged in disappointment. She wished that it would have somehow been lit. It must have been quite the experience to sit in front of the warmth of a fire in such a luxurious atmosphere. “Man… those humans sure knew how to live it up. I want a huge fireplace like this in my house… I’ll even settle for not having the painting.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight sigh. “Heh… I see what you mean. Even with all of the dust and cobwebs, this place still looks better than my old dorm room back at school.” Twilight said with a brief chuckle of amusement while looking around at the fancy décor. *SNIP* Suddenly, a harsh snip filled the air. The noise was so unexpected and jarring that the ponies weren’t even sure if they actually heard it. “What was that?” Twilight asked uneasily while trying her best to look around the room without moving her leg. Rainbow Dash darted her eyes around nervously while trying to find the source of the noise. It sounded like a pair of scissors being used, but why a pair of scissors, or even someone to use them, would be near enough to be heard was beyond the pegasus. Suddenly, a small blur of motion made the cyan mare look straight ahead. Rainbow Dash was stunned into silent surprise as she saw a pair of scissors floating by themselves behind the couch that Twilight was sitting on. It didn’t take long for her to realize the urgency of the situation. “Twilight, look out!” Rainbow Dash shouted frantically while pointing behind the unicorn. Twilight ignored the pain in her leg to turn around fully to see what had startled the pegasus, only to gasp in shock as she saw a pair of scissors pointing at her from in the air. “AH!” Twilight yelped in fright as she recoiled backwards and off the couch. Just as she crashed to the floor and onto her back, the pair of scissors darted forward and sailed over her head, just barely missing a few strands of her hair. “Oof!” Twilight landed on the floor with a sizable thud. The impact made her leg throb with pain, but she had more pressing matters to worry about. Now that the scissors had missed their first lunge, they were hovering directly above the injured mare. As the bloody blades slowly yet deliberately pointed downwards towards her, Twilight could swear that she heard sinister laughter echoing through the air softly. Making an attempt to save herself, the unicorn used her front legs to scoot herself backwards. Much to her dismay, whenever she moved, the scissors moved with her, all the while closing and opening their blades slowly. “No!” Twilight cried out in protest while shielding her body as best she could with one arm and shielding her face with the other as the scissors shot downwards towards her. The blades were moving fast enough to impale themselves straight through her if they made contact. Just before she expected to feel a stabbing pain in her body, Twilight felt something grabbing her and pulling her to the side. As she heard the sound of the scissors hitting the floor, she looked up to see Rainbow Dash holding her by the shoulders. “Rainbow Dash… you saved me.” Twilight said in an amazed tone. “Don’t thank me yet!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed uneasily while staring at the scissors trying to free themselves from the floor. The blades took little time to yank themselves back into the air and slowly point back towards the two mares. “Is it Shadow Mist…?!” Twilight asked in an alarmed tone while glancing to her bag. Perhaps if she hurried she could reach the vial that suppressed shadow magic and hit the red pony to make the fight easier. “There’s no way that thing is Shadow Mist… Those scissors are straight up flying.” Rainbow Dash stated while staring at the floating blades with a fearful glint in her eyes. They seemed to glide through the air effortlessly, almost like they had a will of their own and some bizarre method of locomotion. “But if it isn’t Shadow Mist, then what is it?!” Twilight grew more alarmed as she stared at the bloody instrument floating in the air. Now she was dealing with the unknown, and the unicorn hated that. “I don’t know! Maybe it’s a… HEADS UP!” Rainbow Dash yelled suddenly while pushing the unicorn to the floor. Twilight grunted slightly as she watched the pegasus leaping up in the air. Before she could question what had caused the sudden reaction in her friend, she saw a blur of motion as the scissors whizzed between her and the cyan mare. The two mares looked behind them to see the scissors come to a sudden halt just before slamming into the wall. The blades spun around in the air while opening and closing rapidly, causing a series of shrill snips to ring out. Along with this menacing display, the echoed laughter of a female filled the air clearer than ever before. Taking a quick glance to her injured friend, Rainbow Dash realized that she wouldn’t be able to defend herself in her condition. Returning her attention to the scissors, she gasped in shock as she saw the blades inching closer as they pointed at Twilight. “Hey! Why don’t you pick on someone as fast as you?!” Rainbow Dash yelled in a brash tone while stepping forward and to the side. Thankfully her plan worked, and the scissors pointed away from Twilight to face her. “Rainbow Dash! What are you doing?!” Twilight asked in a shocked tone while watching the cyan pony stare down the scissors like she was having a duel. The pegasus turned her head slightly to face her friend while keeping the scissors in view. “I would rather it come after me than you!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in an adamant tone. Twilight knew that once the cyan mare made up her mind, there was no changing it. She was going to risk her own safety to protect her. As Rainbow Dash returned her attention to the scissors, she was startled to see that they had disappeared from view. Taking a quick look around, she realized the malevolent blades were nowhere to be seen. “What the hay?! But there’s no way it could have moved without me seeing!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a panic while desperately looking around for the scissors. Suddenly, Twilight saw what had happened to the floating blades. She gasped in surprise and alarm as she saw the scissors slowly materializing in front of the pegasus where they had probably been the whole time. “Rainbow Dash, look out!” Twilight yelled frantically while pointing in front of the pegasus. Rainbow Dash spun her head around and widened her eyes in shock as she saw the blades directly in front of her. “Yikes!” The cyan mare exclaimed in a panic while darting her body to the side as fast as she could. Despite her best effort, she couldn’t match the speed of the scissors. The phantom blades sailed through the air, clipping into the side of her face as they whizzed by and leaving a lengthy gash in her cheek that stung like crazy. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash yelped in pain while clutching her new injury. The side of her face was burning so much that even pressing on it gently made it sting more. As she brought her bloodstained hoof back down, she groaned uneasily and turned around to face her attacker. The blades were now floating motionless in front of the fireplace in an open position. The cyan pony’s blood dripped off of the right blade every so often. The two mares heard the laughter again, but this time it sounded clearer and less distorted. Suddenly, the ponies saw something that stunned them into silence. Right before their eyes, a humanoid figure started materializing into existence. Before long, the figure could be identified as a human woman wearing a white dress. She had pale translucent skin, a sinister smile, and she was holding the floating scissors in her right hand. “W…w-what the…?” Rainbow Dash muttered in utter bewilderment. “It’s a… human?” Twilight added with equal confusion to her cyan friend. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “But… does that mean that she’s a… g-ghost?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a fearful panic as she caught on to the only reasonable explanation to there being another human in front of her. “A ghost… I see. It makes sense now… the notes talked about the seals suppressing powerful entities… they must have been talking about literal entities.” Twilight said in a shocked tone. Even if she could make sense of it, she still couldn’t believe it. She was stunned to hear herself making such a conclusion. “But… but I thought ghosts weren’t real?! I mean… I believe in monsters now… I kind of have to, but I thought that ghosts were still fake!” Rainbow Dash stated in utter disbelief. “Tom mentioned clearing out haunted houses in the past… I believed him at the time, but I guess it never clicked in my head that that meant ghosts existed.” Twilight added while thinking back to the talks she had with the boy about his past achievements as a slayer. “Heheheheh.” The ghostly woman giggled under her nonexistent breath as she opened and closed the scissors slowly. She took a step forward while staring directly at Twilight with her cold, dead, evil eyes. “Hey! You leave my friend alone! You want to tussle with someone? I’m right here!” Rainbow Dash said while boldly stepping in front of the unicorn. “Rainbow Dash…” Twilight said in a pleading tone. She knew that the pegasus would get hurt if she fought the spirit. Either she would be badly injured, or worse. “Leave her to me Twilight. You’re in no condition to fight.” Rainbow Dash said while giving her friend a confident expression in an attempt at reassuring her. “You want to protect her do you?” The ghostly woman said with a sinister smile creeping across her face. “We’ll see about that.” She stated in an almost threatening manner. Suddenly, the specter screamed fiercely while rushing forward with her scissors at the ready. Rainbow Dash stood her ground and prepared to attack the incoming threat. As she charged forward with her head lowered in an attempt at head-butting the ghost, she was surprised as she reached the woman and sailed right through her. “What the?!” The cyan mare exclaimed in a panic as she looked behind her. The spirit was now charging straight for the injured unicorn on the floor. “AH!” Twilight screamed and covered her face as the ghost prepared to swing the blades down on her. Just as she saw the woman bringing her arm down, the unicorn gasped in shock as she saw her friend jumping in front of her. “AGGH!” Rainbow Dash yelled in pain as the scissors were driven into her shoulder deeply. Blood sprayed out of the injury as the force of the impact made the crimson fluid fly everywhere before crashing down onto the floor. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried out in shock as she saw her friend getting stabbed in the shoulder. She tried to reach her, but the best she could do was to slowly scoot along the ground. Rainbow Dash cringed in pain as she tried to think of what to do next. She reached up and tried to grab the scissors, but before she could, the woman in white grabbed her by the neck and picked her up with relative ease. She squealed in pain as her throat was constricted, but all that came out was a strangled cry. Just before the pegasus thought she was going to pass out, she felt the spirit flinging her through the air. “Ahh!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully as she sailed across the room. She spread her wings and tried to stop herself in the air, but by the time she flapped them once it was too late. Her body smacked into the stone mantle of the fireplace. Thankfully her back took most of the impact, but that didn’t stop her head from making solid and painful contact with the stone as it flew back. Twilight watched with a horrified expression as her friend grunted in pain as she hit the floor. Judging from the sight of the pegasus writhing in pain, she was at least alive, which was the best thing to come out of this ordeal so far. Taking a glance back to the ghostly woman, the unicorn noticed the scissors still clutched in her right hand. There was also a trail of blood leading across the room to where Rainbow Dash was now. Apparently the ghost ripped the blades out of the cyan pony’s shoulder before she threw her. Twilight wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “Oh no…” Twilight whined fearfully while scooting backwards from the ghostly woman. Now that she was separated from her friend, it would be easy to pick her off. Strangely however, the human paid no attention to the unicorn as she backed into the couch helplessly. Instead, the specter turned her body around to face the pegasus on the other side of the room. Rainbow Dash groaned in pain as she lifted her head off of the floor. She clutched her bleeding shoulder, only to suddenly realize that the scissors were missing from her wound. Feeling alarmed for the safety of her friend, she looked over and gasped as she saw the ghostly woman in front of the unicorn. However, she didn’t seem to care about Twilight at this point. “Hehehe…” The woman chuckled madly as she stepped towards the pegasus with the scissors clutched in her hand. Before Rainbow Dash could even prepare herself, the ghostly figure disappeared from sight, only to reappear directly in front of her. “…!” Rainbow Dash was shocked into silence as a startled outcry failed to make it past her throat. She scooted to the side in an attempt at getting to her feet, but before she could get up, she saw the woman lunge for her with her free hand. “Ack!” The cyan mare groaned painfully as the woman grabbed her by the neck again. This time however, she pressed harder and harder, to the point where she was preventing the pony from breathing. Rainbow Dash sputtered and croaked as she desperately gasped for air to no avail. She tried to grab the woman’s arm to free herself, but her hooves merely passed through her body, leaving her with only a cold feeling and a sense of helplessness. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried fearfully from across the room. She could see that her friend was struggling to survive. Before long, she would be unconscious from lack of oxygen. Deciding that she had to help somehow, the unicorn lurched forward before wincing in pain and looking down at her leg. No matter how hard she tried to suck up the pain, her injury would prevent her body from moving as quickly as she needed it to. Cursing her bad fortune under her breath, she looked up and did the only other thing she could do. Twilight lit up her horn and scowled fiercely at the woman. There was no way she was going to sit by and watch while someone ended her friend’s life. Enough was enough, and it was time she fought back to save the pegasus. “Leave her alone!” The purple mare yelled angrily while firing a blast of magical energy at the spirit, being careful to aim it high enough so it wouldn’t hit Rainbow Dash if she missed. The bolt of purple light flew across the room before reaching the woman, and sailing straight through her and into the stone mantle of the fireplace. “Wh… what?” Twilight felt her heart sinking to her feet as she watched the magical bolt explode on the mantle. Of course, it was at this time that she remembered what she was fighting. Her friend was being attacked by a ghost, and ghosts could walk through walls, so why would a magical bolt of energy pose any threat to such a creature? The unicorn stared in front of her with her jaw quivering and her eyes wide with horror. There was nothing she could do to help her friend. She was going to watch Rainbow Dash getting murdered by a spirit. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was still fighting to stay conscious. She could feel her throat burning as the human’s grip tightened. Her head was spinning, and her vision was getting fuzzy. She could feel a numb sensation prevailing in her limbs. Overall, she was losing this battle. Taking a look beside her, the cyan mare saw the fireplace poker right next to the mantle. It had been knocked over when she flew into the fireplace, and was now sitting on the ground beside her. Using whatever strength she had left, the pegasus reached for the poker. She had no reason to believe that using a different weapon would work seeing how the woman could seemingly pass through solid matter at will, but she had to try and survive. Rainbow Dash fumbled around as she felt for the metal object on the floor. She could feel her body shutting down as she faded in and out of consciousness. Just before she lost all sensation in her body, she felt her hoof settling on the cold metal of the poker. Wasting no time, she grabbed the handle and swung her arm upwards, hoping that she would somehow do something to make the woman let go of her neck. “AGGGHHH!” The ghostly human screamed out in agony as the fireplace poker sailed through her. As the metal pole contacted her, her body violently burst into flaming smoke as her form was disrupted. The woman let go of the pony and flew backwards in retreat. Her entire body was flickering in and out of sight as the fiery trail left by the metal pole continued doing damage. Rainbow Dash took in the largest gasp of air she ever had in her life. She could barely move her body, but at that point all she cared about was catching her breath. After taking a moment to recover, she looked up to see the ghostly woman still flickering in and out of existence. Finally, the human and her scissors vanished from sight, leaving the pegasus staring at her unicorn friend, who had an equally shocked expression on her face. “Ughh…” Rainbow Dash groaned as she rolled over onto her stomach and pushed herself up. She barely made it off of the floor before she was forced to pause and take in another series of deep breaths. “Rainbow Dash! Are you ok?!” Twilight asked in an alarmed while getting up and slowly limping over to her friend. Every step she took made her pause to deal with the pain of her leg, but she didn’t care as long as she reached the cyan mare. “I’m ok…*Cough**Cough*… just… just give me a minute.” Rainbow Dash replied in a weak voice. She was still dealing with the strain that the ghost put on her windpipe. Twilight stood by and watched the pegasus working herself up to her feet with a concerned expression. Once she was standing upright, Rainbow Dash glanced down to the fireplace poker on the floor curiously. “Ok… I’m sure I should be curious about why she is afraid of a piece of metal, but right now I don’t care.” Rainbow Dash stated while picking up the metallic pole and holding it at the ready. She wanted to be prepared if the ghostly woman returned. “Do you think she’s gone?” Twilight asked nervously while darting her eyes around. “I don’t know… but let’s not stick around to find out.” Rainbow Dash said while reaching her other arm around the unicorn to help her walk. “Agh!” She suddenly yelped in pain as she tried moving her injured arm. The wound on her shoulder was still bleeding, serving as a painful reminder of her previous scuffle. “Are you sure you’re ok? I can walk on my own if you’re hurt.” Twilight suggested in a concerned tone while frowning sympathetically at the wounded pegasus. Rainbow Dash cringed for a moment before shaking her head and sucking up the pain to put her arm around the purple mare. “I’m fine… you aren’t going anywhere by yourself on that leg. Let’s just get out of here before she comes back.” The cyan pony suggested while slowly walking forward. Twilight hesitantly accepted her help. If anything, she could help her walk as well. Suddenly, a loud crash beside them made the two mares jump in fright. They looked over to see pieces of a red pot scattered on the ground. The pair didn’t need to wonder for very long as to the source of this confusing event as they looked to their side and saw a vase floating in the air above a table at the back of the room. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise while quickly letting go of her friend. She fought against the pain in her shoulder and swung the fireplace poker defensively as the vase sailed at her at lightning fast speeds. Thankfully, she felt a satisfying crack as the vase shattered against the metal pole rather than against her and her friend. “What the hay is going on?” Twilight asked in a frantic tone while looking around the room. A lamp from a nearby table lifted into the air and flung itself at the two ponies as the vase had done. The lamp smacked into the wall right behind the unicorn, making her yelp in fright as she ducked to the floor. “I think she’s throwing things at us!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed uneasily while readying her weapon to defend herself against any more flying objects. Twilight suddenly thought back to when Applejack and her family were being tormented by the poltergeist. She vividly remembered all of the objects in the room levitating into the air before hurling themselves at anyone nearby. If a poltergeist could do something like that, then perhaps a ghost could do the same thing. “Look out!” Twilight yelled as another vase hurled itself at the pegasus. Rainbow Dash barely managed to hit the flying object out of the air before it crashed into her. The pair darted their eyes around nervously while looking for any more signs of movement. Strangely, the room was still and silent save for the ponies’ own racing hearts. “D-did she leave?” Twilight asked nervously while scanning the room and warily eyeing any loose decoration. As if to answer the unicorn’s question, the same sinister laughter from before echoed through the room before localizing directly in front of the ponies. The two mares looked ahead and saw the ghostly woman appearing with a brief flicker. She had her scissors at the ready, and she looked like she wasn’t happy to see the two that just fought her off with relative ease. Rainbow Dash glanced between Twilight and the human with a concerned expression. There was no way that the unicorn could dodge the ghost’s attacks in her condition. If she was going to effectively protect her, she needed to keep the fight as far away from her as possible. “Wait here… I’ll take care of this.” Rainbow Dash stated with false courage while walking forward to meet the ghost. Twilight couldn’t believe that her friend was being so reckless. “Rainbow Dash, wait!” The purple mare called out while reaching for the pegasus. She winced in pain as she tried stepping forward, only to fall to the floor as her limbs gave out from underneath her. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was walking towards the woman in white with a fierce scowl on her face. She was done being on the defensive and waiting for the ghost to attack. It was about time she showed the spirit how ponies handled themselves in a fight. “Ok you see-through jerk! Let’s see how you like it when you’re the one getting beat up!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while reeling the metal bar in her hooves back for a strike. The ghostly woman merely giggled and held out her open palm. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash felt the poker getting ripped from her hooves. She yelped in pain as the pole was sent flying out of her grip violently. The fireplace poker sailed through the air until it landed behind the couch with a loud clang. Before the pegasus could even react to her sudden lack of a weapon, the woman in white swiped the scissors across her chest. “OW!” Rainbow Dash cried out while clutching her new injury. She tried to walk backwards to get away from the ghost, but she stumbled and tripped as the woman pushed her off balance. The cyan mare landed on her back with a painful thud. She looked up and gasped in horror as she saw the ghostly figure standing over her with the scissors held high above her head, ready to plunge them down into her. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled fearfully while getting to her feet and lighting up her horn. She didn’t care if she couldn’t directly fight the ghost. She had to at least distract it long enough for her friend to escape. Building up as much courage as possible, the unicorn charged forward as fast as her injured leg would allow. “Twilight don’t!” Rainbow Dash yelled in protest as she watched her friend charging forward. She was afraid of what the ghost might do to the unicorn if she provoked her. The ghostly woman merely looked over to the charging pony with a scornful expression. She then raised her free hand and flicked it towards the couch. “AH!” Twilight yelped fearfully as she was sent flying from her feet. The momentum she had from running was multiplied twofold as the ghost sent her whizzing through the air at high speeds. She crashed into the couch, managing to tip it over as her body collided with it. Twilight groaned in pain as her body rolled over several times before coming to a halt. She tried to get up again, only to realize that the pain coming from her leg had gotten worse. The force of the impact must have opened up any clot the wound had formed, because now it was bleeding again. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock as she watched her friend getting tossed like a limp puppet. “Why you little… I’m going t- AGH!” The pegasus screamed in pain as the woman stabbed the scissors into her stomach, sending a spray of blood everywhere. “Agh… GAH!” Rainbow Dash screamed again as the ghost forcibly pulled the scissors out and stabbed them down into her side. She could feel her insides burning as each stab plunged the metal blades into her flesh, doubtlessly piercing several vital parts of her body. Holding her arm out in an attempt at stopping the merciless assault, the pegasus was horrified to see that the woman was ignoring her arm and just continued stabbing her with varying intensity each stab. She even managed to catch the cyan mare’s arm with the scissors a few times as she continued her attack. The purple mare looked up to see the ghost attacking her friend. She was horrified to hear Rainbow Dash screaming at the top of her lungs as blood gushed out of her body like a macabre geyser. “Rainbow Dash, no!” Twilight screamed as her heart jumped in her chest. Her stomach did flips as her body violently reacted to the horrific sight she was seeing. “Guh… *Cough*… *Sputter*” Rainbow Dash coughed, making a disgusting wet sound as red fluid gushed from her mouth. She tried rolling over to get away from the relentless onslaught, but the ghostly woman just pushed her down and kept her in place. Twilight felt herself shaking uncontrollably as tears welled up in her eyes. She was watching one of her best friends getting brutally slaughtered right in front of her, and there was nothing she could do. No, there had to be something. She couldn’t just give up on Rainbow Dash like that. Glancing behind her, the unicorn noticed the fire poker lying on the ground a few feet away. She gasped in revelation as she realized what she could do. Acting as fast as she could, Twilight lit up her horn and wrapped her magic around the metallic object. She looked back to the pair struggling on the ground and lined up her shot, just before flinging the pole at the ghost as hard as she could. The fire poker sailed through the air like a javelin until it struck the specter. The woman screamed in pain as the metal pole impaled her form and caused her body to be disrupted in a puff of fiery smoke. The ghostly human writhed in pain for a few moments before completely disappearing from view in a violent burst of fire. The scissors clattered to the floor loudly, serving as a final outburst before the room was plunged into silence. Twilight looked to her injured friend on the floor, only to see her writhing in pain as she struggled to breathe. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed while frantically trying to get to her feet. Her injury slowed her pace to a stubborn crawl, but she limped as fast as she could to get to the pegasus. As she reached the cyan mare, Twilight widened her eyes in shock. Rainbow Dash had numerous deep and shallow stab wounds on her body. Some were on her arms and side, but most of them were on her chest and on her stomach. Around two deep wounds were on her chest, while three were on her stomach. All of the gashes were bleeding profusely. “Rainbow Dash! Can you hear me?!” Twilight asked while gently putting her hooves on the pegasus’s side where she didn’t have an injury. “*Cough*… *Sputter*…” Rainbow Dash was coughing violently as she rolled onto her side. There was a small trickle of blood coming from her mouth. Her breathing was fast and erratic and her movements were sluggish, but she seemed to be toughing through a lot of the pain she was going through. “Is… she gone?” Rainbow Dash asked while working her way to her knees. “I think so… do you think you can walk?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. Rainbow Dash tried to stand on her own weight, but her legs were shaking so much that she looked like she was going to fall over any minute. “Ughh…” The cyan mare groaned as she fell to the side. She would have hit the floor if it hadn’t been for Twilight catching her. “Don’t worry… I’ve got you.” Twilight said while hiding the painful cringe she was making from the pegasus. The added weight of carrying herself and the pegasus was making her leg explode with pain. “Come on… let’s get you out of here.” Twilight suggested while slowly moving forward. Rainbow Dash tried her best to shuffle forward with her friend. The pegasus relied on the unicorn to guide them as she stared at the floor with a dazed expression of pain plastered on her face. Twilight lit up her horn and picked up the fire place poker. It was the only weapon she knew to be effective against the ghosts at the moment. She didn’t know why, but she wasn’t the questioning type, at least not right now. Right now, she had one thing on her mind, and that was to get her friend some help. “Come on Rainbow Dash… we can do this. Just keep moving.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while holding the pegasus steady. Every few moments, Rainbow Dash would pause and either stumble or clutch her stomach, and every time the pegasus faltered and shifted more of her weight onto her friend, Twilight struggled to keep herself upright. Her injured leg was about to give out, and her other limbs were getting weaker from the blood loss she was experiencing. “Twilight… just leave me. That… *cough* t-that ghost might be back soon… I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.” Rainbow Dash said in a pleading tone. Twilight frowned as she realized her friend was getting weaker by the moment. “I’m not leaving without you… now just keep moving. We’re almost to the door.” Twilight said while looking up and opening the door with her magic. Thankfully, the door wasn’t locked, and it opened with ease. The unicorn smiled hopefully as she saw another hallway. If her memory of the foyer was correct, this hallway should have led to one of the doors downstairs. As she shambled through the door and closed it behind her, Twilight groaned from exertion as Rainbow Dash fell to her knees. She tried her best to lift her back up, but there was no way she could do it with her muscles. Deciding to make things easier for the pegasus, Twilight focused her magic on her and tried to lift her into the air with her horn. After a few moments of grunting from exertion and getting the cyan mare to lift a few inches off the ground, the unicorn realized that she was too weak to lift an adult pony with her magic. “Come on Rainbow Dash… don’t do this to me. I can’t lift you by myself… I need your help if I’m going to get you out of here.” Twilight pleaded with her friend, who was currently on the floor with her eyes closed trying to catch her breath and cope with the doubtlessly mind numbing pain she was going through. “I can’t…” Rainbow Dash said under her breath. “W-what?” Twilight asked with a pale expression. “I can’t go on any further… I’m sorry.” Rainbow Dash droned tiredly. It sounded like she was fading out of consciousness. Twilight saw the pegasus starting to fall the rest of the way to the floor. She realized that if she passed out at this point that she might not wake back up. “Hey, stay awake!” Twilight said while shaking the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash fluttered her eyes open and strained to keep herself alert. She was still breathing heavily and making soft and painful moans, so she was seemingly awake for the moment. “Rainbow Dash… we’re so close. The others are just down this hallway, I know they are. You can’t give up like this… just try for me… please.” Twilight pleaded in a sad tone. She knew that she couldn’t pick the pegasus up by herself, so if she gave up, she might very well die. “Ok… I’ll try.” Rainbow Dash said before taking as deep a breath as she could. She groaned from exhaustion and pain as she tried working herself to her knees. Twilight grabbed her by the arm and gently helped her up. After some work, the pair was on their feet again. Slowly but surely, Twilight managed to lead the injured pegasus down the hallway. She could visibly see the color draining from her face as she stared at the floor in a haze. There was a sizable trail of blood being left behind the cyan mare. The unicorn frowned with concern as she felt her own strength waning away as well. Although she wasn’t nearly as bad off as Rainbow Dash, the wound on her leg was still bleeding. If she didn’t hurry, then both of them might not survive the night. Finally, Twilight could see a door to the left further down the hallway. She smiled brightly as she realized that the foyer was so close within reach. “We’re almost there Rainbow Dash. Just hang in th- oof!” Twilight suddenly groaned as the pegasus became dead weight in her grasp. Rainbow Dash fell to the floor and sprawled out like a lifeless puppet, but her eyes were still open. She was still awake, but all of the strength had left her body. Twilight groaned as she heaved while trying to lift the now motionless pegasus. The increased strain on her body was making her breath faster, but it was also making her lose energy faster. “*Huff*… *Pant*… Rainbow Dash… get up.” Twilight said while out of breath. She fell to her knees and rested for a moment before looking to the side and nudging her friend. “I… I don’t think I’m gonna make it.” Rainbow Dash said before coughing a few times and laying her head back down. “You have to… I can’t do this without you.” Twilight groaned while trying again to lift the cyan mare. She didn’t care about her own exhaustion. She had to try and save her friend. “Just get back to the others… save yourself.” Rainbow Dash said in a drowsy haze. Twilight could see her eyelids drifting closed. “No… no! Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed while frantically trying to pick her friend up. “I’m not going to let you die here! I… I can’t just… just do that.” The unicorn panted heavily as her limbs burned and her body ached. She suddenly felt very light headed, so much so that she stumbled for a moment before falling on her side. Twilight groaned as she tried to get back up. Her body felt oddly heavy, and her head was in a haze that made putting effort into much of anything a challenge. She looked ahead and noticed that Rainbow Dash’s eyes were closed. This filled the unicorn with a sense of urgency. “Rainbow Dash… wake up.” The unicorn pleaded as loudly as she could, which didn’t amount to much more than an exhausted wheeze. She reached over and shook the pegasus, but she didn’t stir. Twilight would have shaken her harder, but her limbs were getting weaker by the minute. Suddenly, she turned and looked ahead at the door a short distance away. If that was the door to the foyer, then maybe someone would hear her if she called for help. “Help! Ughh…” Twilight called out while making every attempt at raising her voice. Her friend’s life and possibly her own depended on it, but she still had trouble making her yells loud enough to carry very far. “Someone… help us!” She yelled once more as loud as she could. Twilight wasn’t sure if anyone even heard her. She was about to call out again, but she suddenly felt very sleepy. Glancing back down to her friend, she tried to look for signs that she was still breathing. Twilight strained her eyes to try and make sense of the image before her as her vision blurred. She didn’t even care if she was passing out anymore. She just had to know that her friend was still alive. Twilight didn’t see the gradual rise and fall of the cyan mare’s chest, but she wasn’t sure if this was just her vision failing her or if Rainbow Dash really wasn’t breathing. She fought hard to stay awake long enough to confirm her suspicions, but the fog in her mind was spreading farther and faster than she could keep up with. Finally, her vision blacked out and she closed her eyes. The last thought that drifted through the unicorn’s mind before she blacked out, was wondering if she and her friend were going to die before they woke back up.
Chapter 85: Endless Torture“GAH!” Fluttershy cringed as Neon Streak cried out in pain. Another harsh cut from the scalpel made the green mare scream in agony, and the timid pegasus recoil in horror. Fluttershy wept silently as she watched the ghostly human torturing her friend. The sight of the many bloody cuts and stab wounds littering Neon’s body made the yellow mare distraught with terror and sadness. “*Pant*…*Huff*… Guh…” Neon Streak’s chest heaved as she fought against the burning pain from her numerous wounds to breathe. She could feel blood trickling out of her body nearly everywhere. There were cuts and stabs all across her body ranging from slight incisions to gruesome gashes. “I must say… you are doing better than I expected.” The ghostly man said in an impressed tone while placing his free hand beside the mare’s head and leaning on it. He twiddled the scalpel around in his hand while looking at the bloody pony and chuckling. “*Pant*… Drop dead you creep.” Neon said while shakily lifting her head up to glare at the specter before her. “Heh… I’m afraid you’re a bit late with that one dearie.” The human stated with a slight smirk. “Now… where were we? I believe we were somewhere around fifty, but I can’t be sure… heheheh.” He added in a humorous tone, though the two ponies found it far from laughable. “Wow… I guess I misjudged you. From how you dress, I would have figured you would be smart enough to count to at least one hundred. I guess I was wro- AHH!” Neon yelped in pain as her sly remark was cut short by the human dragging the scalpel down the side of her stomach. “Ah, now I remember… we were at fifty-five.” The man said while staring at the green pony with a cold expression. Neon Streak tugged at the leather straps binding her to the table. No matter how hard she tried, they held her limbs firmly in place. Still, she continued trying to wear them down. Despite her strong will to escape, there was an obstacle in her path. The pain racking her body was clouding her mind, and making the already hard task of moving her weak body even harder. “Which would make this one fifty-six.” The human said while bringing the scalpel up and then shoving it down into Neon’s thigh. While the green mare screamed in pain, the ghostly man pulled the blade down and out of her leg with a bloody spurt. As Neon Streak cried out in pain and suffering, Fluttershy whined and turned her head away from the scene in front of her. She did just about the only thing she could do. She cried and sobbed while trying her best to distance herself from the blood curdling screams and the chilling and gut wrenching sounds of flesh being sliced open. The pegasus withdrew into her own mind as she tried to deal with her emotions. Her body was shaking, and her heart was pounding. She felt like she was going to pass out. “J-just… *Sob*… Just l-leave her alone.” Fluttershy said in between her sobs. Her voice was trembling so much, and she was so distraught that she could barely get out the words. The human paused for a moment and turned around to face the timid pony. Fluttershy froze up in fear as she felt the man’s cold dead eyes staring at her from behind his glasses. He walked over to her slowly with his scalpel in hand. Fluttershy turned her head away and trembled fearfully as the spirit came closer. Suddenly, she felt his icy cold hand grabbing her by the muzzle and forcibly turning her head to look at him. “You know… I hate it when people cry, and you are no different. If you don’t stop crying… I’m going to give you a damn good reason for it.” The human said while holding the scalpel up to her face and gently pressing it against her skin, not enough to draw blood, but enough to cause a slight amount of pain. Fluttershy squeaked in fear and tried her hardest to stop her body from trembling. If the human wasn’t holding her head still, she would have probably cut herself on the scalpel from shaking so much. “Hey! I thought we had an agreement!” Neon Streak yelled from the other side of the room, causing the man to turn his head to look over at her. “And just what agreement was that?” The man asked curiously. “You said you would leave her alone until I gave up… well I’m still here, so if you want to cut something, get your ethereal butt over here and give me your best shot!” Neon said with as much confidence as she could muster. Despite her strong front, Fluttershy could tell that the green mare was in a lot of pain. Her breathing was fast and shallow, her head was lying back on the table from how exhausted she was, and a steady pool of blood was building on the floor from all of the cuts on her body. “N-Neon… I…” Fluttershy muttered in a sad tone. She couldn’t believe how much suffering the green mare was going through for her. She wanted nothing more than to be able to rush over to her, untie her bonds, and coddle her while she recovered, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. “Well… if you’re so eager for us to continue, then I suppose I shall oblige you.” The human said while walking back over to the green mare’s table and examining her. There were so many wounds on her body that he was starting to run out of untouched skin. “My, my… are you certain that you still want to take these cuts? You’re more than half way there… you could just sit back and rest while crybaby over there takes the other h-” The man’s offer was suddenly interrupted by Neon shouting again. “No!” Neon yelled fiercely while raising her head up. “Keep cutting me…” The green mare said while wincing in pain and laying her head back. The human smiled before turning his attention to the vast amount of blood that she was losing. “Well if we are going to continue, I’m going to need to give you a little something to make sure you don’t bleed out.” The ghost stated while reaching onto one of the trays beside him and grabbing a small needle and a vial of some sort of liquid. The label had worn away over the years, but the odd coloring of the liquid gave the two ponies watching an uneasy pit in their stomachs as they watched the man filling the needle. “What?! What the hay are you… leave me alone! It’s bad enough that you’re cutting me, I don’t want your slimy ghost hands touching me!” Neon protested while struggling against the human’s grip as he walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder. He lined up the needle with her arm for a moment before turning to her and smirking. “You might feel a little bit of a poke.” The man said in a mockingly courteous tone before jamming the needle into the green mare’s arm. “Ow!” Neon yelped as her skin was roughly pierced by the sharp point of the needle. After making extra certain to insert the needle as carelessly as possible, the man injected the fluid into the pony and yanked out the needle. The human chuckled slightly while placing the needle down on a table next to the green mare. “Oh come now… I’ve been cutting you for a while now, surely that didn’t hurt very much by comparison.” The spirit stated while giving the pony a rough pat on her shoulder where one of her cuts was. Neon cringed in pain before glaring at the ghostly human. Ignoring the green mare’s icy stare, the man turned his attention to the odd vest full of equipment that was lying on the table next to her. “Hmm… what are all of these gadgets you have here?” The man asked curiously while reaching forward and picking up a vial from the vest. Neon quickly realized that he was holding her strobe. “Why don’t you press that button there and find out?” Neon said with a hopeful smirk. The human shrugged before putting the vial back down. “I think I’ll pass… now then… fifty-seven.” The man said while slicing across Neon’s chest, causing yet another painful stinging sensation that added to the fifty-six other cuts she had. “Gah!” The green mare yelped in pain while clenching her teeth and rocking her head back against the table. Fluttershy watched helplessly as the human continued torturing the earth pony. Every time Neon screamed as the man drove the scalpel into her body, the timid pegasus felt herself slipping further into a bottomless pit of despair. She tried closing her eyes to prevent herself from watching, but nothing she did could block out the agonizing sounds of pain filling the room. Time ticked by for what seemed like an eternity. Somehow, Neon Streak managed to keep taking the punishment she was given. Fluttershy started to notice the green mare growing drowsier. At this point, she must have lost so much blood that anything the human injected her with wasn’t working. The pegasus was starting to worry that she was going to die. Suddenly, Neon drooped her head down and closed her eyes. Due to the ghostly man standing in front of the earth pony, Fluttershy couldn’t tell if she was still breathing. The yellow mare’s heart started racing even faster than it was before. “N-Neon?” Fluttershy spoke up in a concerned tone. The human tapped the green pony on the side of her face in an attempt at waking her up. “Come on… don’t quit on me. Wake up.” The man said in an irritated tone while shaking her head. “Is she dead?!” Fluttershy asked with wide eyes while trying to see if the green mare was still breathing. Due to all of her bleeding wounds, she appeared dead for all intents and purposes. The man glanced back at the pegasus and sighed. He then put his hand on her neck to feel for a pulse while also listening for the sounds of her breathing. “Nope… she’s still kicking.” The human said while turning around to face the timid mare. He shrugged his shoulders lightheartedly before turning back to the unconscious pony and bringing his scalpel back up. “I guess I’ll just move on without her.” The man said with a brief chuckle while pressing the blade against her skin. “No!” Fluttershy cried out adamantly. She caught herself and froze up as the human paused from her outburst. “What?” He asked while turning around to face her with a serious expression on his face. Fluttershy could feel her spine melting into her feet, but she couldn’t let him hurt her friend any further. “Please… leave her alone.” Fluttershy squeaked nervously. Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, but the human seemed to get the general meaning she was trying to convey, and he didn’t seem to like it. “Really? You want me to leave her alone?” The man asked in a cold tone. “Why should I do that? I haven’t gotten done cutting her yet.” He stated in a matter of fact tone. “P-please… she’s had enough. If you want to cut someone… just… *Gulp*… just give the rest of the cuts to me.” Fluttershy said with false bravery. Her mind was already denying the words she just spoke as she realized what she was asking for. Despite her anxiety, she couldn’t sit idly by any longer while Neon got hurt on her behalf. “Well… I did say that I would only switch to you if she couldn’t take any more pain.” The man said while glancing back at the unconscious pony hanging from the table and bleeding out onto the floor. “But… I suppose I could bend the rules if you want me to. She isn’t exactly in any condition to refuse right now.” He said with a brief chuckle before returning his attention to the yellow mare. Fluttershy’s pupils shrank to the size of pin pricks as the ghostly human approached her with his scalpel in hand. She tried recoiling her body backwards, but the solid table behind her stopped her from doing anything more than wriggling around fearfully. As the scalpel drew closer and closer to her face, Fluttershy froze up fearfully and closed her eyes. She whined nervously as she felt the cold metal object pressing against her cheek. The human took his time and gently pressed the scalpel harder and harder. Eventually, Fluttershy felt a slight twinge of pain as the blade drew a small amount of blood. “H-hey!” The sound of Neon Streak speaking up made the human pause suddenly. Both the man and Fluttershy looked over to see the green mare lifting her head up slowly. She had a dazed look on her face, but she still managed to somehow convey anger towards the ghostly human. “I said… don’t touch her…” Neon said in an exhausted tone. It looked like she was struggling to just stay awake. “Neon, please don’t do this. It’s ok… you can let me get through the rest of this for you.” Fluttershy pleaded with a desperate expression. She didn’t want herself to get hurt, but she wasn’t about to let the earth pony get hurt any more if she had a chance to stop it. “N-no! I said I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you! It’s bad enough I let us get dragged into this mess… the least I can do is to keep you safe.” Neon Streak said in a sincere tone while frowning sadly at the yellow mare. Fluttershy felt herself tearing up from listening to the earth pony. “Neon…” The pegasus said before falling into a somber silence. Her lip was quivering, her eyes were watering, and there was a tingly feeling in the back of her throat as she held back a fit of sobs. “Well, I would hate to break up this touching exchange, but a deal is a deal. I have to keep playing with her until she gives up.” The human said while walking back over to Neon’s table and looking at her menacingly. The man wasted no time in bringing the scalpel up to the green mare’s ear and slicing across it, creating a large cut that made Neon cry out in pain. “AGHHHH!” The green mare screamed loudly. She kept screaming until her lungs were out of air, and then she screamed some more. All of the cuts before had been painful, but slicing her ear open was a whole new level of pain. Neon felt the entire side of her head exploding into painful waves of agony that made her rock her head back and forth just to cope until it stopped hurting. “Wow… that one really hurt then I take it?” The human asked with a slight smirk. “Don’t worry… that was seventy-eight. You should be done in no time.” He added with a sinister chuckle while bringing the scalpel back down and continuing his sadistic game. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie and Brimstoke were still searching the dark corridors of the basement for their friends. Not only did they have to find Tom and Princess Luna, but now they had to recover their missing companions as well. The thought of Fluttershy wandering the lonely hallways without her made Pinkie Pie worried for her. The timid pegasus must have been scared out of her mind. Pinkie wished that she could be there for her to help lift her spirits, but she couldn’t. The pink mare felt like she was letting her friend down. “Are you sure they’re going to be alright?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone while glancing to the white stallion uneasily. Brimstoke looked back to the mare following him and saw a troubled expression on her face. “Don’t worry. Neon knows how to handle herself. She’ll take good care of Fluttershy… I’m sure of it.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring manner. Pinkie smiled, returning her cheerful persona slightly. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the troubling thoughts she had from her head. “Are you really sure?” Pinkie asked in an uncertain tone. “Yes, I’m really sure.” Brimstoke replied with a confident nod. “Are you really, really sure?” Pinkie asked again with while staring at the stallion with a suspicious leer. “Yeah…” Brimstoke replied while raising an eyebrow at the pink mare. “Good, because if you’re really, really sure then I’m sure everything will be fine. It’s just that there are so many things that could happen to them!” Pinkie said while thinking about all of the frightening calamities that could befall her friends. “So many things?” The white stallion asked with a confused expression. The way she said that, he would have thought the pink mare expected the pair to be running a gauntlet of hazards. “Yeah! Like… what if they fall in a hole? Or get lost and starve… *Gasp* or what if they fall in a hole, THEN get lost and starve?!” Pinkie said in a shocked tone. “Somehow I doubt that will happen Pinkie…” Brimstoke sighed while shaking his head. While the pink pony muttered to herself while trying to figure out more hopelessly perilous and implausible situations that her friends could be in, a different sort of inner voice held the stallion’s attention. “Brimstoke, are you there?” The voice of Glitterball suddenly rang out in Brimstoke’s ears. The unicorn sounded anxious and urgent, so she immediately garnered his full attention. “Glitter…? I’m here, what’s wrong?” Brimstoke asked while pausing and putting his hoof up to his ear. Pinkie Pie saw the stallion communicating with his teammate and decided to stop rambling to herself to allow him some silence. This didn’t stop her from trying to lean closer to overhear the conversation however. “I don’t even know where to start…” Glitterball said in a troubled tone before pausing, as she was looking at something that silenced her. “Take a deep breath and start from the beginning… what happened?” Brimstoke said in a calm and clear manner. He could hear the unicorn breathing in and out a few times to center herself before speaking up again. “We were making our way back to the entrance like you said, when we decided to check up on Sunspot. She didn’t respond to us, and we quickly found out why when she crashed in through a window in front of us.” Glitterball explained uneasily. “What?! What happened to her?!” Brimstoke asked in a shocked tone. He had no idea what could have caused the pegasus to fly through a window at the side of the house, especially considering she was supposed to be at the front entrance. “We think she got attacked by another ghost… she had a large gash in her chest and a few broken bones, so we figured that someone threw her through the window. While we were trying to patch her up, we saw a human show up behind us… with an axe.” Glitterball explained with a slight shudder from thinking back to the harrowing experience. “You mean you actually saw one of them?” Brimstoke asked with a stunned tone. To think that someone actually saw one of the ghosts was a chilling turn of events. “Not only did we see it, but the guy almost took my head off with his axe. We barely managed to grab Sunspot and hightail it out of there in one piece.” Glitter stated in a troubled manner. “So you made it back to the foyer? Is everyone ok?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… we’re doing alright. Sunspot is in pretty bad shape though… Pepper looked her over, and she has some broken ribs, not to mention that wound she got from our axe wielding friend.” Glitter explained. “Did she tell you what happened?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “No, she hasn’t woken up since we’ve found her. Pepper is worried about her, and you know how that makes the rest of us feel.” Glitter said uneasily. “Yeah… I can imagine.” Brimstoke shrugged while sitting down and resting his head in his hoof. “Brimstoke… that isn’t all.” Glitterball spoke up in a noticeably sadder tone. “What’s wrong Glitter?” Brimstoke asked in a troubled tone. He had never heard the unicorn sounding so distraught. Whatever she had to tell him next was giving him an empty pit in his stomach. “We tried to go get Twilight and Rainbow Dash once we got back, but the door was locked and we couldn’t get it open.” Glitterball explained uneasily. “So… they’re missing now as well?” Brimstoke deduced in an anxious tone. “No… we found them outside of the foyer on the first floor. They must have found a way back to us by themselves. We heard Twilight calling for help, and when we got out there both of them were unconscious… and injured.” Glitter said in a somber tone. It almost sounded like she was crying. “Glitter… how bad is injured?” Brimstoke asked hesitantly. He looked at the pink mare beside him and frowned as he saw a concerned expression on her face. It didn’t take much deduction to realize he was talking about something bad happening to her friends. “Twilight wasn’t too bad… she must have had something impale itself through her leg, so she lost a lot of blood, but she managed to bandage it enough to slow the bleeding so she could make it to us.” Glitterball paused as she prepared to address the condition of the cyan mare. “What about Rainbow Dash?” Brimstoke asked while bracing himself for the worst. Not only did he have to deal with the news no matter how tragic it was, but he had to relay it to the pink mare afterwards. No matter how much training he had over the years, the stallion wasn’t sure if he could take breaking Pinkie’s heart like that. While the unicorn gathered herself, Brimstoke silently prayed that the pegasus was alright. “She… she’s in bad shape Brimstoke.” Glitterball said while sniffling slightly. “She has stab wounds all over her… it looks like she got attacked by the scissor ghost that killed Sargent Fireside and his team. Peppermint tried his best to patch her up, but he isn’t sure if she’s going to make it.” She said in a distraught tone. Brimstoke could hear the unicorn weeping quietly. “Glitter… I need you to stay strong for me. The others are probably feeling even worse than you right now, so you need to keep a brave face up for them.” Brimstoke explained in a sympathetic tone. “*Sniff*…*Hic*… ok. I think I can do that.” Glitterball said while composing herself enough to speak clearly. “Just sit tight… we’re going to find Neon and Fluttershy, and then we’re coming back.” Brimstoke said in a reassuring tone, hoping to instill some confidence in the upset mare. “Ok… and Brimstoke?” Glitter said before pausing briefly. “Yeah?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “Please find them in one piece… I don’t think I can handle any more bad news tonight.” Glitterball said in a concerned tone. “I’ll do my best.” Brimstoke said in a sincere manner. The stallion dropped his hoof to the floor and shrugged before turning to Pinkie Pie. “What happened? Are Twilight and Rainbow Dash ok?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone. From what little she overheard from the unicorn chatting in Brimstoke’s ear, and his reactions, she figured that something bad must have happened to her two friends. Brimstoke opened his mouth to reply before falling silent. He looked down and shrugged sadly as he tried to find the best way to tell the pink mare that one of her best friends might die. Meanwhile, the feeling of dread slowly building in Pinkie’s gut was getting worse with each passing second as the stallion quietly avoided eye contact with her. “Pinkie… Twilight and Rainbow Dash got hurt while trying to get back to the entrance.” Brimstoke explained hesitantly. The pink mare gasped and widened her eyes in shock as she thought of her friends being injured. “What?! Are they ok?!” Pinkie asked, nay, demanded in a concerned tone. “Twilight is fine… she lost some blood from a leg injury, but right now she is just unconscious. Rainbow Dash however…” Brimstoke paused hesitantly and shifted his eyes downward. He couldn’t take the sad and pleading eyes that the pink pony was staring at him with. Pinkie waited anxiously while the stallion composed himself. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as an uneasy feeling gripped her. “Pinkie… I’m not going to lie to you. She’s hurt bad. Glitter and the others think she was attacked by a ghost using a pair of scissors.” Brimstoke explained while putting a hoof on the mare’s shoulder and giving her a soft expression of sympathy. “But… she’s going to be ok, right? Peppermint can fix her up good as new… can’t he?” Pinkie asked while desperately holding on to the last shred of hope she had. She could understand the severity of the situation. She just didn’t want to accept it. Brimstoke could tell that the party pony was on the verge of tears. Her voice, which usually was filled with cheer and energy, was now a softer tone that conveyed sadness and fear. “Pepper is trying the best he can… but at this point, he isn’t sure if she is going to live.” Brimstoke explained sadly. “Wh…w-what?” Pinkie said in a stunned tone. Her lip started quivering and her eyes started watering. She sniffled a few times as she tried in vain to hold back her emotions. Suddenly, her normally puffy mane and tail drooped and straightened like a deflated balloon. The normally cheerful pink pony now looked gloomy and depressed. It was like someone flipped a switch and made her the opposite of what she normally was. “Pinkie, I…” Brimstoke tried to say something to console the distraught mare, until he was interrupted suddenly by Pinkie reaching forward and wrapping her arms around his body. The stallion allowed the pink mare to cry into his shoulder freely for a few moments. Pinkie’s body shook as she sobbed loudly. After a few moments of crying and squeezing Brimstoke tightly, Pinkie slowly released the stallion and walked back a few steps before falling to a seated position. She sniffled a few times and let out a couple of silent sobs as she wiped her eyes. “*Sniff*… *Hic*” Pinkie sniffled loudly as she tried to clear her nose. Brimstoke reached into his vest and pulled out a small tissue before handing it over to the pink mare. Pinkie smiled slightly before blowing her nose loudly and wiping her face with the clean side of the tissue. “T-thank you.” Pinkie said while discarding the tissue on the floor and wiping her eyes once more. “Anytime.” Brimstoke said with a small nod. Now that the pink mare was emotionally stable, at least for the moment, the stallion turned his attention to what they should do next. They were done searching for Tom and the princess, at least for the moment. Right now they had to find Neon Streak and Fluttershy, and they had to do it fast. Brimstoke looked down to his vest and quickly settled his eyes on the two locator vials he had. He hadn’t gotten any readings when he checked for heat signatures before, but perhaps they had gotten in range of the two mares by now. “Come on… let’s go find Fluttershy and Neon. We can head back to the others once we find them… I’m sure you and Fluttershy will want to see Rainbow Dash.” Brimstoke explained with a somber frown. “But, how are we going to find them?” Pinkie asked with an uncertain expression. The basement was so large that they were still discovering new paths. The two mares could literally be anywhere. “By using this…” Brimstoke explained while holding up one of two vials on a pull cord. He twisted the cap, causing the sand held within to glow red for a moment before a small section of it held a steady glow. “What’s that?” Pinkie asked curiously while examining the odd vial. It occurred to the stallion that the pink mare had never seen him or one of his teammates using the locator. “This is one of our locators. It can detect heat signatures through walls. Hopefully we can narrow our search and find them faster by using this.” Brimstoke said while pointing the vial around in a circle. The red glow moved around as more of the sand started lighting up. The red glow covered the tip of the vial as the stallion pointed it in two directions. One direction was most likely the two hooded ponies they captured earlier, while the other was more than likely the two missing mares. “Come on… I’m getting a reading in this direction.” Brimstoke said while walking through the nearest door on his right. Pinkie followed the stallion as he walked forward with the vial pointed ahead of him. She hoped that she would find her friends unharmed, and that they would get back in time to see Rainbow Dash before the worst happened. Fluttershy watched in quiet horror as the human continued cutting into Neon Streak with his scalpel. The man had slowed his pace drastically as time went on. Now, he hadn’t even cut the green mare in several minutes. Instead, he was off to the side examining his tools on a table. Despite the lack of attention she was getting from the specter, Neon looked like hell frozen over. Most of her older wounds had stopped bleeding over time, but a few of her cuts still dripped slowly onto the floor or onto herself. The green mare’s head drooped forward lazily as she remained relatively motionless save for her breathing. She had a dazed look on her face as she faded in and out of consciousness. Fluttershy wondered how she had lasted this long with so much blood loss, even with the help of the mystery liquid that the human injected her with. Fluttershy watched Neon Streak gazing at the floor in an exhausted stupor. Every so often, she would glance up and slowly look over to see what the ghostly human was doing. Once she saw that the coast was clear, the green mare tugged on her front left hoof and wriggled against the strap holding her in place. Ever since she started playing the human’s twisted game she had been working on freeing her left arm. While the strap was still holding fast, she was making a lot of progress on it. Perhaps if she had more time she could free herself completely. Fluttershy frowned sadly as she watched the exhausted pony fighting for her freedom. She looked like she could barely move her body, and what few movements she could make were shaky at best. The pegasus glanced over to the human nervously. She was afraid that if he caught the earth pony trying to escape that he would punish her, and that her already frail body would give out from the extra punishment. “What are you doing?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly while looking over to the ghost. It was a valid question after all. The man had been muttering to himself while examining the tools on his table for a while now. The human paused and glanced over to the timid mare, eliciting a nervous gulp from her as he turned to face her while holding up a saw. He sat the scalpel he held in his other hand down on the table and walked over to the bound pegasus. “I was just contemplating what I’m going to do after I let you go.” The man said in an almost indifferent tone. Still, the sinister look in his eyes as he examined the saw in his hands was more than enough to unnerve the yellow pony. “And... w-what are you going to do?” Fluttershy asked nervously while avoiding eye contact with the spirit. Due to his body being transparent, the pegasus was able to look through him to check on her friend. She noticed Neon Streak struggling to get her hoof further and further out of the leather strap. From the look of her progress, and how hard she was struggling, she would probably be free in a few minutes. “I don’t really know actually… I promised my brother and my sister that I would stay down here to let them have their fun, and there aren’t that many of you ponies down in the basement. Perhaps I could go and catch your friends after I’m done with you.” The man said with an amused chuckle. Fluttershy shuddered at the thought of Pinkie Pie being exposed to such a horrid creature. She would probably have nightmares for the rest of her life from seeing the ghostly human herself. “But… then again, I have acquired a certain fondness for you two.” The man stated in an ominous tone while eyeing the timid mare with a devilish smirk. “You are the first of your kind that I have laid my hands on… and the first living creatures to grace my table in a long time.” He said while placing his hand on Fluttershy’s cheek and pushing on her slightly before dragging his hand away. The pegasus shuddered as she felt a chill going down her back from the sudden exposure to such a cold and unnatural touch. “That might be true… but you said you would let us go… you promised.” Fluttershy said with a trembling voice. She didn’t like the way that the human was looking at her. It reminded her of the way a predator would look at its trapped prey right before ripping it to pieces. As she glanced over to Neon Streak, Fluttershy noticed that she was working faster to get her arm free. The green mare had an uneasy expression on her face. Even with all of the blood loss she experienced, the earth pony still knew a bad situation when she saw one. “Did I now? Well… I suppose I did. Hmm... what am I to do? On the one hand, I have my reputation as a fine and upstanding gentleman to uphold… but on the other hand.” The man paused and looked down at the saw in his hand. He then looked back up at the nervous pegasus and smirked. Fluttershy widened her eyes fearfully and started hyperventilating as the man approached her again. She felt like she was going to faint as she looked into his haunting gaze bearing down on her. “B-but… what about your word? You said you would let us go!” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully as her voice gave out on her. She wriggled her body around to avoid the man as he tried touching her bare fur with his hand again. He seemed to have a bloodthirsty look in his eyes that told of just how much effort he had been putting into staving off his own desire to indulge in cutting the ponies to pieces for the sake of his word. Suddenly, Fluttershy caught a glimpse of Neon Streak through the man’s transparent body. She watched the green mare clenching her teeth as she pulled on her arm with all of her might. Finally, Neon managed to slip her hoof out of the strap holding her. She barely managed to keep herself from smacking into the table as she pulled down. After catching her breath for a short moment, she looked down and saw her vest on the table. The green mare reached down and picked up her strobe before carefully flipping it around in her hoof and pointing it forward. Meanwhile, Fluttershy saw the human shifting his eyes to the side suspiciously. He smirked for a moment before returning his gaze to the frightened pegasus in front of him. “Ah yes… I suppose I should finish our little game shouldn’t I? Now… what cut were we on?” The man asked while scratching his head in thought. Fluttershy glanced over to Neon Streak fearfully. He was doubtlessly going to turn around any second and see that she had freed herself. Despite her fears, the pegasus had a glint of hope return to her eyes as she saw the green mare pointing her strobe at the ghostly human with a proud smirk on her face. “Got you now you ectoplasmic son of a-“ *SWISH* Neon’s sentence was cut short as the sound of flesh being cut filled the air. Fluttershy gasped in shock and stared forward in silent horror as she watched the green mare dropping the vial from her hooves. The strobe fell to the ground and bounced along the floor with a tiny clatter, serving as a grim punctuation to the rest of the scene. Neon slowly trailed her eyes to the side and noticed a floating scalpel hovering in the air next to her. The blade of the scalpel had fresh blood on it which dripped to the floor. As a sharp burning sensation arose from her throat, she looked down just in time to see blood gushing in front of her from an open wound. “NEON!” Fluttershy screamed in terror as she tried in vain to reach out to the green mare. There was a bloody gash across the earth pony’s throat that was spurting out blood like a geyser. Neon Streak gurgled in pain while bringing her free hoof up to clutch her injury. “There we are… I believe that makes one-hundred.” The human said while stepping to the side and turning to face the green mare. The man’s words didn’t reach Fluttershy. The pegasus was lost by the sight in front of her. She stared ahead with her mouth agape in shock as she watched Neon writhing in pain. The earth pony was trying her best to stifle the blood flowing out of her slashed neck, but no matter how hard she tried, she only had one hoof to work with. Even if she had the use of both her arms, she still wouldn’t be able to undo the damage done to her. “Neon! Hang in there!” Fluttershy yelled fearfully. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say, but she couldn’t let go of the faint hope that her input mattered. Perhaps if she tried hard enough, she could somehow inspire the green mare to press hard enough to keep herself from bleeding out. Neon looked over to the yellow pegasus staring at her with watery eyes. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but the only thing that came out were gargles and incoherent sounds. She looked at the timid mare with a sorrowful expression. It was almost like she was trying to apologize through her eyes for letting something like this happen. Fluttershy watched as the green mare’s eyes lost focus. Neon Streak stared into the distance as her head drooped forward and her eyelids closed half way. The gurgles and assorted noises of pain that she was making faded until they fell silent. Slowly, the earth pony’s arm fell off of her neck and slid downwards until it was hanging at her side limply. Fluttershy felt her eyes flooding with tears as she looked into her companion’s eyes. The twinkle of light that gave her stare a sense of life faded until nothing was left but a cold and blank gaze. Fluttershy felt her whole world crumbling away as she stared at the mare’s limp body hanging from the remaining straps. Her arm swayed back and forth from momentum for a few moments before growing still like the rest of the shell formally known as Neon Streak. “N-Neon…?” Fluttershy spoke in a high pitched and broken tone. She felt her voice dying inside of her as the green mare yielded no response. Suddenly, the grim realization and finality of the situation before her crashed down on her like a tidal wave. The pegasus’s vision was clouded by tears as she felt a mournful sob building in her throat. Finally, the yellow pony let loose a loud wail of despair and sadness as she broke down into a fit of crying. She closed her eyes and lowered her head as she let the violent wave of emotion surge through her body. Her lungs were burning from how strained her muscles were from each involuntary sob and heave. She inhaled slowly as her whole body shook from crying so much, only to fall into another fit of sobs. “Stop crying…” The human said in an annoyed tone. Fluttershy barely heard him over the sound of her own wails and cries. “Stop, crying.” The man said in a louder and more demanding tone. Fluttershy looked up to him and tried to stop herself from crying as instructed, but she couldn’t silence her outburst as quickly as he may have wanted. Suddenly, the man raised his hand and held it open. The scalpel that was floating in the air by Neon Streak flew across the room and into the spirit’s hand. “I said stop crying!” The man yelled while bringing the scalpel up and pressing it roughly against Fluttershy’s neck. “Stop crying or I will split you open just like your friend over there!” He said in a threatening tone while pressing slightly harder. Fluttershy froze up as she desperately tried to keep herself from making a sound. Despite the urgency of the situation, her breathing was still shaky and noisy from crying so much. She closed her eyes and tensed up as she expected the man to slit her throat for making noise. “P-please don’t… *Hic* h-hurt me.” Fluttershy pleaded with more tears running down her cheeks. She was afraid that the movement of her neck from her shaky breathing was going to press against the scalpel enough to cut her. The human watched as the pegasus silently wept and prayed for her life. He sighed in a disappointed tone before lowering the scalpel to his side. Fluttershy peeked her eyes open slowly and saw the man turning around and taking a step away from her. “Is this really the race of beings that evolved after humans died out? So much research… so much stock put into survival of the fittest and natural selection… and this is what it all amounts to.” The human said while shaking his head slowly. He sighed again before turning around and walking back up to the frightened mare. “You know what? I think I will let you go…” The man said with a sincere tone of voice, catching the pegasus off guard. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked in a tone of disbelief. The uneasy feeling in her gut worsened as she saw the man smirk sinisterly. “Yeah… I’ll let you go. I’ll let you go join your friend in the afterlife.” The human said in a cold tone while raising the blade back up to her throat. Fluttershy’s eyes widened fearfully as her heart skipped a beat from what she just heard. “W-what?” Fluttershy asked in a shocked tone. “You ponies are weak… you don’t deserve to live. Once I’m done with you… I’m going to hunt down each of your little friends and I’m going to cut them into teeny tiny pieces. After that, my siblings and I are going to free ourselves from this prison and purge the earth of every single one of you. If Mother Nature wants the earth to be inherited by an abomination like you, then perhaps it would be better if the earth were scorched and left to turn to ashes in the stream of time.” The human explained in a cold tone while tightening his grip on the scalpel. A frightened squeak died in Fluttershy’s throat as she felt the blade putting pressure on her neck. Suddenly, a magical zap followed by a flash of light filled the room. The human and the pegasus looked over just in time to watch a small ball of energy sail through the air and collide with the ghostly man. “AGH!” The spirit yelled in pain while dropping the scalpel. His form flickered and smoked for a moment before vanishing from sight. Fluttershy was left speechless as she stared at the now empty space in front of her. Her shocked expression quickly turned to joy as she looked to the side and saw a familiar pair of ponies trotting into the room. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie Pie cried out joyfully while rushing over to the yellow mare. Fluttershy felt a cheerful smile building on her face as the pink blur jumped up and wrapped her arms around her head. “Pinkie!” Fluttershy exclaimed happily. She looked over and saw Brimstoke aiming his strobe forward. The small vial still had a small waft of smoke coming off of it from its use in dispatching the spirit. As the stallion and the pink mare simultaneously looked over to the earth pony tied to the opposite table, all joy and cheerfulness was immediately destroyed. Brimstoke walked over to the green mare with his mouth open in shock. He paused in front of her for a moment while staring at the bloody gash across her neck with a mortified expression. “N-Neon?” Brimstoke stammered in a distraught tone while reaching up and taking her pulse. As he confirmed what he expected from appearances, the stallion recoiled in shock and fell to a seated position. Pinkie Pie stared at the green mare with a horrified expression. She covered her mouth to catch a gasp as she looked at the lifeless pony in shock. “I’m so sorry Brimstoke… I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy said while looking down and letting fresh tears fall down her face. Brimstoke turned to see the pegasus weeping while Pinkie Pie offered her a shoulder to cry on. He frowned sympathetically as he realized what she must have gone through. “It wasn’t your fault Fluttershy.” Brimstoke said in as best of a reassuring tone as he could manage. Due to the grief he was experiencing himself, his voice sounded hollow and empty. Fluttershy looked up and sniffled again to end her bout of crying to watch the stallion walking up to her slowly. Brimstoke reached onto his vest and grabbed another vial before unclipping it from the vest and holding it up to the leather strap on the yellow mare’s leg. Fluttershy watched as the vial emitted a burning sound and a bit of smoke and light came from the tip while Brimstoke ran it across the strap on her leg. Suddenly, the pegasus felt the strap opening and her leg being freed. Pinkie Pie held her friend steady while the stallion cut the rest of her bonds. Once the yellow mare was free, the pink pony helped her off of the table and onto the floor until she was standing on her own four legs. “Thank you so much for saving me. If you didn’t show up when you did… then he would have…” Fluttershy paused mid-sentence as she looked ahead to Neon Streak still hanging lifelessly from the leather straps on her table. The yellow mare glanced down to the bloody scalpel on the floor and shuddered in a mixture of fear and sadness. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy watched sadly as Brimstoke walked over to his fallen teammate. The stallion somberly and silently used his cutter to slice the straps holding the green mare in place one by one. As the final strap was cut, Neon’s body slid to the floor until it was caught by the white stallion. Brimstoke gently laid the green mare on her back and cradled her head in his lap. Neon’s lifeless eyes stared up at the three ponies as they looked over her with sad expressions and tears welling up in their eyes. “He… he said he would let us go… He said if she could outlast him that he would let us go… why did he do this?” Fluttershy felt tears falling from her eyes and onto the floor as she looked at the many wounds covering Neon’s body. She had watched the human mercilessly inflict each and every one on the green mare as she cried out in pain. Despite the horrible torture she went through, she still tried to keep her promise to the very end. Fluttershy had barely paid any attention to her words before, but now the earth pony’s claim of not letting anything bad happen to her was the only thing she could think of. Fluttershy looked up as she felt Pinkie placing her arm around her. She saw the pink mare offering her a sympathetic expression while fighting back tears of her own. Pinkie hugged the pegasus close as she buried her head into her shoulder and started weeping again. Brimstoke looked at the two grieving mares sadly. He looked back down to Neon Streak and smiled with a bittersweet expression. In the end, the green mare was one of the best ponies he could have asked to serve under his command. She fought to the bitter end to make sure no harm came to an innocent pony, and that was one of the noblest ways to die he could think of. “Rest easy Neon… we’re going to make sure you didn’t die in vain.” The stallion said while reaching forward and closing the earth pony’s eyes the rest of the way. He gently sat her down on the floor and got up. He turned to the two mares watching him and adopted a more confident expression. “Let’s go girls… we should get out of this place. We can give her a proper burial after we find a way out of this mansion.” Brimstoke said in a somber tone. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie nodded slowly while getting up. The three walked to the edge of the room slowly. They hung their heads low as they dealt with their emotions in their own way. Fluttershy paused and turned around to look at the green mare lying on the ground. Neon had an almost peaceful expression on her face. Without the bloody cuts all over her body, she almost looked like she was just sleeping. “I’m sorry Neon… you tried so hard to protect me. If only I had tried to protect you…” The pegasus whispered to herself while closing her eyes and looking down somberly. She gave the departed earth pony a moment of silence before turning and joining her friends down the hallway.
Chapter 87: Descent into HellThe hallway was eerily silent as the group marched forward in a line. The only sound filling the air was the constant clamor of hooves hitting the wooden floors. The red carpet under their feet was so worn and faded that it barely offered any padding. It really felt like they were walking on hardwood floors, and each creak from a loose floorboard reminded them of this fact. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine walked in front of the group. Glimmer had his flashlight on to illuminate the way forward, while Glitter had her horn lit up to provide more light for those behind her. Sunspot was right behind her two teammates, with Peppermint helping her to walk. Although the pegasus was in better shape than before, her ribs were so sore that she could barely move without sending crippling waves of pain throughout her body. Still, she seemed to be toughing through the pain better than everyone had expected. Twilight and her three friends followed close behind the team of monster hunters. Twilight had her horn lit up as well to provide light for herself and for those behind her. The four mares looked around nervously as they passed by each door and intersection. Although they were confident that the others had searched the area beforehand, the ponies were still fearful of what might be watching them from the shadows. Behind the four mares, the two guards were walking in tandem to carry the unconscious human. Twilight glanced behind her to look at the slayer occasionally and frowned sadly. If the foes they now faced could overpower the human and Princess Luna, then what hope did she and her friends have of matching them? Still, the purple unicorn clutched the fire place poker in her magical grip tightly. She only hoped that if the time came for her to use it, the iron pole would be enough to fend off the murderous spirits. “Are you sure the basement is this way?” Glitterball asked nervously while darting her eyes around the dimly lit corridor. There were candles placed on tables at the sides of the hall, but these seemed to have been blown out some time ago, bathing the entire area in an eerie veil of shadows. “Brimstoke said that the stairs were at the end of the hallway. It shouldn’t be much farther.” Glimmer Shine replied in a reassuring tone. “I hope so… this place is starting to get on my nerves.” Glitterball replied with a nervous chuckle while trying to ease her own fears. Meanwhile, while everyone else was worrying about their immediate surroundings, Rainbow Dash had something else to worry about. As she walked along silently, she kept thinking about Fluttershy and how she was missing somewhere down in the basement with only Neon Streak to keep her company. The cyan mare was the one that convinced her to go. Not only that, but she also convinced her to help out with the investigation rather than staying in the foyer where it was safe. “I hope Fluttershy is ok down there… she must be scared out of her mind.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while frowning sadly. If anything happened to the yellow pegasus, she would never forgive herself. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity looked over to their friend sympathetically. She was so worried about Fluttershy that she was beating herself up over it. The three mares were worried about the timid pegasus as well, but they knew that there was no sense in blaming anyone for what happened. “Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash. I’m sure that Fluttershy is just fine.” Twilight said in a comforting tone while huddling closer to the cyan mare and putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight is right sugar cube. She’s with Neon Streak right now, and if anyone can keep her safe, Neon can.” Applejack said in a confident tone. She had no doubt in her mind that the brave earth pony could take care of Fluttershy with no problems. “I hope you’re right… I just can’t stand not knowing where she is or what’s happened to her.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. Despite her best efforts at agreeing with her friends, she couldn’t shake the dreadful feeling building in her gut. “We’re all worried about her, Rainbow. We just have to get down there and trust that she will be safe until we reach her.” Rarity said while sharing a sympathetic frown with the pegasus. Before long, the group suddenly came to a halt as they reached the end of the hallway. Glimmer Shine and Glitterball paused in front of a door on the right side of the hall and stood in front of it anxiously. Everyone gathered around and waited with apprehensive expressions as the pair prepared to open the door and step inside. With a loud creek that pierced the air like a knife, the door slid open, revealing an aged set of stairs leading down into a pitch black void. A cold and stale breeze hit the group as the air from the basement drifted upwards. Somehow, the darkness waiting for the ponies ahead of them looked much more intimidating than the darkness in the hallway they were in. “So… how many creepy basements have we been through lately?” Rainbow Dash asked with a nervous chuckle. “That depends… are you counting the one at the school? Because you weren’t there with us for that one.” Twilight asked with as much wit as she could muster while staring fearfully at the gaping void at the bottom of the rickety looking steps. “Well, looks like you’re going to have to add one more to the list. Let’s get moving… the faster we find the others and overload those seals, the faster we get out of this place.” Glimmer Shine stated while stepping forward and hesitantly taking the lead down the stairs. The ancient wood creaked under the stallion’s weight as he slowly descended into the darkness. Once he was at the bottom step, he turned around to wait for his friends to join him. Glitterball briefly glanced to Twilight and the others before descending the stairs after the stallion. Peppermint and Sunspot carefully walked down after the unicorn as Glimmer Shine walked into the basement itself. Twilight looked to her three friends, who were offering nervous glances back to her. She sighed anxiously before slowly walking down the steps. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash followed the purple mare as she hesitantly continued downwards towards the cold and musty basement. Once everyone reached the bottom of the stairs, they looked around to see where they were. To their rear was a wall that had several small cracks in it. To their right was a doorway that led into pitch blackness. And to their front was one of the darkest and eeriest looking corridors they had ever seen. “Why can’t there ever be a creepy hallway that has lights?” Glimmer Shine shrugged uncomfortably while staring ahead into the pitch black void. His flashlight did little more than reveal a few more doorways down the hall before it ended in darkness a little further away. “Because it wouldn’t be creepy then would it?” Glitterball asked with a nervous tone while trying to muster the energy to chuckle slightly. “Let’s duck into this room here and set up base. I want to have somewhere safe I can run to if something decides to chase me.” Glimmer Shine stated while walking through the doorway on the right. Everyone hesitantly followed the yellow stallion as he walked into the middle of the room and looked around. The room was surprisingly empty considering the cluttered mess of boxes and shelves out in the hallway. Other than a few pipes and a stray shelf on the right wall, the room was barren of anything other than dust on its cold stone floor. There was another doorway across the room that surprisingly actually had a door. Very few of the rooms they saw down the hallway had doors, so it was nice to see something solid blocking the way into the unknown for once. After walking across the room and hesitantly opening the door, Glimmer Shine was relieved to see that it was just a small and empty pantry. He turned to the group as they settled into the room and turned his attention to the two guards carrying Tom. “Set him down and get settled in. We’re making this our temporary safe haven.” Glimmer Shine explained to the pair of stallions, who nodded before gently setting the human down on the ground. Glitterball reached into the bag of blessed candles that the group brought with them. She tossed two of them over to Glimmer Shine before walking over to the doorway. As the two ponies placed and lit the candles, Twilight and the others couldn’t help but to worry about how safe they would actually be. “Are you sure it’s going to be safe here?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “It’s going to be as safe as we can possibly make it… take that for what you will.” Glitterball stated uneasily. Her answer didn’t exactly comfort the others, but there wasn’t anything else she could say about their situation. Glimmer Shine shrugged as he looked around at the group. Twilight and her three friends were equal parts anxious and nervous, and with good reason. Sunspot was injured to the point of being unable to move very fast on her own due to the pain she was feeling. Tom, arguably the most seasoned member of the team, was lying unconscious on the floor. The two guards that came with the group looked like they were way in over their heads. And Glitterball and Peppermint were just as nervous as everyone else. Even the yellow stallion was uneasy about what was going to happen next. “Glitter, I need you to come with me so we can look for the others. Everyone else stay here.” Glimmer Shine instructed while walking over to the door. “You can’t seriously be thinking about going out there by yourselves can you?” Rainbow Dash asked in a tone of disbelief. “You heard Tom up in the foyer. Not even Princess Luna could fight those ghosts.” Twilight stated in a concerned tone. “Girls… I would love to take an army with me, but we don’t have many options here. We need to find the others and regroup before we go after those symbols.” Glimmer Shine said in an attempt at sympathizing with the nervous mares. “I’m with them on this one Glimmer… I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to be splitting up down here.” Peppermint suggested uneasily. The yellow stallion could see the concern in his brother’s face clear as day. Taking a look over to Glitterball, Glimmer Shine noticed that she was uncertain about what to do herself. “Well if anyone else has any ideas, I’m all e-” Glimmer Shine started to speak up, until the floorboards creaked just outside of the room. The yellow stallion immediately spun around while drawing his strobe. Glitterball, Peppermint, and even Sunspot readied their weapons and faced the doorway to battle whatever threat was present. As the light from the ponies’ flashlights fell on the doorway, the group saw a familiar trio of ponies that made them gasp in shock. Brimstoke, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were standing outside of the door with equally shocked expressions on their faces. “Guys!” Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully while rushing forward into the room. Fluttershy followed the pink mare as she ran towards their friends. Twilight and the others gladly accepted a warm hug from the pink pony as she pulled all of them in. “Oh my gosh, Rainbow Dash! We thought you were going to die!” Pinkie stated with tears of joy streaming down her face while directing her attention to the apparently healthy cyan mare. “We all thought I was going to die. Thankfully Tom showed up just in time and healed me.” Rainbow Dash said in a happy tone. “You don’t know how happy I am to see you Brimstoke. Where have you been?” Glimmer Shine asked as he watched the white stallion entering the room with a relieved expression. “We’ve been trying to get back to you guys for a while now. What are you doing down here?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “Twilight found a way to get rid of the ghosts and get us out of here.” Glimmer Shine said with a hopeful tone. “You said Tom was here. Couldn’t he take care of them?” Brimstoke asked while looking around for the human. He was shocked to see the boy unconscious on the floor near Peppermint. “Oh my gosh… what happened to him?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “He tried healing Rainbow Dash, Sunspot, and me with no breaks. I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen.” Twilight explained with a saddened shrug. “I’m glad he healed you… I just wish it didn’t make him sick like that.” Fluttershy added in a sad tone. “Hey, where’s Neon Streak? We were getting worried about you two once we heard you got separated.” Sunspot asked curiously while wondering about the absence of the green mare. Upon mention of the earth pony, Brimstoke, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie fell silent. The three ponies had forlorn and downcast expressions as they looked to the floor sadly. “Neon is dead.” Brimstoke spoke in a hollow tone. His words barely reached the group due to how quiet he was, but everyone was stunned into silence as they heard the stallion’s statement. “W-what?” Sunspot stammered in utter disbelief. The grim realization still hadn’t sunk in for the majority of the group. They thought that maybe they misheard the stallion, or perhaps he was playing some kind of morbid joke. However, the longer Brimstoke and the two distraught mares remained silent, the more the group had to consider the unthinkable possibility that what they were saying was true. “But… but… how? Ah…” Applejack grasped for words as tears began welling up in her eyes. Everyone else began tearing up as well as they realized fully what was happening. “One of the ghosts tortured and killed her. We got to her too late to do anything. I’m sorry…” Brimstoke said while silently directing his gaze at Fluttershy. He wasn’t sure how he could even begin to explain the horrifying ordeal she went through. Still, even without mentioning the rest of the details, the timid pegasus began weeping loudly along with many other members of the group. Sunspot remained speechless and motionless as tears rolled down her face. She seemed to be mentally rejecting the fact that one of her best friends was dead. Finally, she sobbed once before lowering her head and quietly crying into her arms. Glitterball wept openly while nuzzling her face into Glimmer Shine’s shoulder. The yellow stallion was also crying, but he remained composed and silent while the distraught unicorn cried into his shoulder. Peppermint looked unsure of what he should be feeling. His lips quivered as he looked down and tried to process the wave of sadness and despair washing over him. A few outbursts of sobs and shaky breaths escaped the red haired pony as he stared at the floor. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others were each sobbing and bawling their eyes out while using each other as a meager form of comfort. They had finally lost a comrade in the battle against the hooded ponies. All of the guards and innocent lives lost in the past week had pushed and motivated them to give their all in the efforts to put a stop to Raven Feather’s group, but now they had lost one of their own. The group had made friends with the green mare and her team through their short time together. They were all striving to protect Equestria, and that fact made them relate to the vested ponies even more after they welcomed them into their homes. Applejack thought back to the events of last night as she wept while Pinkie Pie held onto her and sobbed uncontrollably. If it wasn’t for Neon Streak being with Applebloom when the terrifying monster flew in through the window, then her little sister, and possibly even her and her brother, would have been dead. She felt like she had just lost an estranged member of her family. After several minutes of openly crying and letting their emotions out, the group finally fell into a gloomy and uncomfortable silence as everyone ceased their outbursts. Only the occasional sniffle and shaky breath interrupted the otherwise calm atmosphere in the room. “W-what do we do now?” Glitterball asked while wiping her eyes with her arm. Despite having apparently calmed down, the unicorn was still breathing rapidly as she processed the loss of her teammate and close friend. “We do the only thing we can do… we get out of here and make those responsible for this pay dearly.” Brimstoke stated in a somber tone, causing everyone to look up. The stallion glanced over to Glimmer Shine with a more serious expression on his face. “Glimmer… you said that you guys found a way to stop these things, right?” Brimstoke asked in a hopeful tone. Glimmer Shine glanced over to Twilight suggestively to get her to further elaborate on her plan. “I found some texts in the library that talk about the ghosts. Apparently the hooded ponies had a backup plan in place in case of an emergency. A unicorn can use their magic on the protective seals used to suppress the ghosts to overload them and permanently disrupt the ghosts.” Twilight explained while glancing between the two stallions. “I’m guessing that you’re talking about that symbol we saw Shadow Mist tampering with?” Brimstoke asked curiously. He sighed sadly as he remembered the other person that was with him when he found the red pony messing with the symbol. “Yes, I’m fairly certain. Counting the one upstairs in the library, there are three seals in total. I already took care of the one in the library, and the other two are supposed to be down here in the basement.” Twilight said in a confident tone. “Well… I still remember where the symbol we found is, so that just leaves one that we don’t know the location of.” Brimstoke shrugged uneasily. “Did the notes tell you where these seals were exactly?” He asked with careful optimism in his voice. “Sorry, but they only vaguely described the location. All I know is that they are in the basement somewhere.” Twilight explained sadly. “*Sigh*… I guess that’s enough for us to work with. Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, come with me. We’re going to go take care of the symbol Shadow Mist was working on. We can look for the other one later.” Brimstoke instructed to the two while walking over to the door. “Wait a minute! You can’t just go out there by yourselves! We don’t even know if the strobes work on those guys. Every time I tried shooting the guy that was chasing me, he just dodged the blasts like they were nothing.” Sunspot said while trying to get up. The pegasus groaned in pain while doing her best to ignore her aching ribs so she could walk. “Relax Sunspot. We found out the strobes do work on the ghosts. If you can manage to hit them, one blast is enough to make them vanish for at least a few minutes.” Brimstoke explained while eyeing the injured pegasus with a concerned expression. “Maybe you should take this with you. Apparently iron works like a ghost repellent… it burns them to the touch.” Twilight suggested while levitating the fire place poker over to the trio. Brimstoke gently pushed the iron rod away. “You guys hold on to that just in case. We’ll be fine with our three strobes.” Brimstoke explained in a confident tone while glancing to his two teammates. Glimmer Shine and Glitterball were slightly anxious to be going out into the basement, but they were glad that they had their leader back to direct them. “I’m coming with you… *Wince*… you need all the help you can get.” Sunspot held her ribs for a moment before walking forward to join the group. “You aren’t going anywhere in your condition Sunspot. Maybe you should stay back with Pepper to watch the others?” Glitterball suggested while glancing to Brimstoke for his opinion. The white stallion eyed the pegasus as she tried to appear healthy despite the pain she was going through. “Glitter is right… I want you and Pepper to stay behind to keep everyone in check. We shouldn’t take too long to find those symbols.” Brimstoke stated in a confident tone. “We should also keep an eye out for Princess Luna… apparently she got separated from Tom when they fought one of the ghosts. She should be down here somewhere.” Glimmer Shine explained while looking to Brimstoke. “Right… Ok everyone, we’re heading out now. Stay here, and stay safe until we get back.” Brimstoke stated to the group before walking out of the protective barrier at the door. Glitterball lit up her horn before following the stallion, and Glimmer Shine followed behind the unicorn. Twilight and the others watched the blue force field ripple before vanishing from sight as the trio exited the room. Once Glitterball’s light moved out of range, the doorway was pitch black once again, leaving the group with the hollow and uncertain fear of what could be lurking in the darkness. The only thing preventing some evil spirit from just waltzing in and murdering everyone in sight was a force field they couldn’t even see made from two candles the size of a small apple. Meanwhile, Brimstoke and his small troop were walking through the seemingly endless corridors of the basement. The three ponies remained silent as they reflected on their own somber thoughts while the white stallion did his best to follow the route he had followed earlier to reach the first symbol. Despite the eerie atmosphere prevalent throughout the area, the ponies were barely focusing on their fears. They couldn’t stop thinking about their fallen friend, no matter how hard they tried. Just a few hours ago they had been talking with the green mare as if nothing was wrong, but now they would never have that opportunity again. “How did it happen?” Glitterball asked in a somber tone. Everyone immediately knew what she was talking about. Brimstoke looked down for a moment and silently thought about the matter. He had a lump in his throat that wouldn’t go away. His entire body was refusing his actions to the point of feeling ill. Still, his team deserved answers. Neon was their friend as well after all. “Apparently Fluttershy and Neon got abducted by a different ghost than the ones you guys have been dealing with. He carried them into a room and strapped them to tables so he could... torture them.” Brimstoke explained sadly. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine listened in a shocked state of silence as the white stallion continued. “Fluttershy didn’t tell us much after that… I don’t blame her considering what happened. Apparently the ghost tried to hurt her, and Neon wouldn’t let him, so he decided to torture her in place of Fluttershy. He said that if she could take it that he would let them go, but… I guess he changed his mind.” Brimstoke said in a somber tone. Glitterball gasped quietly as she stared at the stallion with a shocked expression. “So Fluttershy had to watch all of that?” Glimmer Shine asked in an appalled tone. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be forced to watch a friend die in their place, let alone someone as fragile and kind as Fluttershy. “I think she blames herself for it. Pinkie and I tried to comfort her, but she just shut down and started crying whenever we tried talking to her about it.” Brimstoke said with a sad tone. It pained him to see a gentle mare in so much distress. “Poor thing… I can’t imagine what that must have done to her.” Glitterball said in a disquieted tone. She contemplated going back to offer her support to the yellow mare, but she quickly discarded this thought as she directed her attention forward down the hallway. Somewhere in the basement hallways, there were two very important objects that held the key to freedom for the trapped ponies. If there was anything she could do to help her friends escape alive, Glitterball would do it. Thankfully she wouldn’t have to do it alone. “Are we almost there?” Glitterball asked in a determined tone. It was easy to tell that the unicorn was ready to be done with this nightmare. “Yeah… we found it right through here if memory serves.” Brimstoke announced while looking ahead at the doorway coming up on the left. The endless hallways and rooms of the basement looked so similar that navigating was almost impossible, but the stallion was fairly confident that the room up ahead contained one of the symbols they were seeking. As they reached the doorway and stepped into the room, everyone looked around feverishly in the hopes that they would find the symbol somewhere in the room. Much to the trio’s relief, the red glyph was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room right where Brimstoke remembered it to be. “This looks like it…” Brimstoke stated while walking forward and glancing between the symbol on the floor and the open doorway on the other side of the room. His royal guard training made him antsy around open areas, and that was without the looming threat of a psychotic ghost around every corner. “So… how do we do this?” Glimmer Shine asked while glancing between his two teammates curiously. “Uh… give me a second.” Glitterball said while intertwining her magical influence with the symbol on the floor. “Twilight said that it shouldn’t be too hard to overload these things.” She said in a semi hopeful tone while examining the symbol closely Brimstoke and Glimmer Shine stood watch as the unicorn worked her proverbial magic. After a few moments of concentration, Glitter closed her eyes and put more energy into the symbol. A soft buzz filled the air as the symbol glowed red. Before long, the buzz grew louder and louder, to the point of making the three ponies concerned that something bad was happening. Before anyone could speak up, a loud whoosh sounded out as a blast of air shot outwards through the room from the center of the symbol. The three were nearly blown back a step as they were caught off guard by the sudden outburst. When they looked back down at the symbol, the red glow was gone and the room was silent. “Did it work?” Brimstoke asked curiously. “I think… I don’t remember Twilight describing the reaction as being this violent though.” Glitterball explained in a confused tone while patting her hair to get it back into its normal place. “Maybe it’s different because this is the second one?” Glimmer Shine suggested in an attempt at explaining the odd occurrence. “Well if that’s what the second one did, I would hate to see what the third one does… although, I guess we kind of have to.” Glitterball stated with an uneasy chuckle. As the group drew their attention ahead at the open doorway across the room, they quickly realized a very significant obstacle was in their way. They were now faced with the task of finding a rather small symbol in an entire basement full of similar looking rooms and corridors. The brief boost in spirit that came from overloading the second symbol vanished almost instantaneously as the ponies stared out into the pitch black hallway. “Where do we go now?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking to Brimstoke with a hopeful expression. The white stallion wasn’t sure how to reply to his teammate’s question. He had been down in the basement for at least an hour and a half and he hadn’t found any sign of the other symbol. “I think I can take us through an area where we haven’t been… we just have to hope that we can find the symbol eventually.” Brimstoke said with an uneasy shrug. “I just hope we find it soon. I want out of this place before anything else bad happens.” Glitterball said with a saddened tone while lowering her head slightly. The somber thought of everyone they had lost so far made the group fall into an uncomfortable silence that lasted a few moments. “Let’s get going… we should cover as much ground as we can as soon as possible.” Glimmer Shine suggested while walking forward to get the group moving. The yellow pony paused in front of the dark doorway at the far end of the room and waited for his two companions to join him. Brimstoke and Glitterball shared a gloomy sigh before walking over to join their friend. Back in the makeshift safe haven, Twilight and the others were sitting around in silence while reflecting on their thoughts. Most of the group was still occupied with grieving over the loss of Neon Streak, although they were doing it in different ways. Pinkie Pie was sitting near Fluttershy. While the yellow mare hung her head low to the floor and sniffled quietly, Pinkie was offering her what little comfort she could. Although they expected the timid pegasus to be more greatly affected by Neon’s death due to her sensitivity, Twilight and the others were concerned about her. She seemed to be taking the tragic news with a lot more despair and sorrow than everyone expected. It was almost like she was more involved than everyone else first thought. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was pacing with a frustrated expression over by Twilight. Even though the purple unicorn was more silent about her troubles, she was pondering over the same issue as her pegasus friend. Both ponies were upset that they were just standing around idly while their friends could be in danger. “Ugh… I can’t believe we’re just sitting here doing nothing!” Rainbow Dash groaned in an irritated fashion while glancing towards the doorway with the false hope that Brimstoke and the others would return with the news that they were now free to escape the mansion. The silent darkness outside only further cemented her frustrations. “I know how you feel darling, but we need to listen to Brimstoke’s orders and stay here… it will keep us safe.” Rarity said in an attempt at leveling with her cyan friend. Rainbow Dash seemed to be unwilling to look at things in a different light. “Hay with being safe! We’re only safe for as long as those candles hold out… until we find those symbols and defeat those ghosts, nobody is really safe in this place.” Rainbow stated with an annoyed shrug. “Well we can’t just go wandering around out there. Who knows what might happen?” Applejack said in a concerned tone. As much as she was against the idea of sitting around and doing nothing while others could be in harm’s way, she didn’t really know what else to do. “I know what might happen. One of those ghosts almost killed me and Twilight. For Celestia’s sake… Neon is dead. I don’t want that happening to anyone else!” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. The mere mention of everything that had happened recently made everyone look down sadly. Suddenly, Fluttershy started crying uncontrollably. She tried to keep herself as quiet as possible, but she couldn’t prevent herself from falling into a loud fit of sobbing. Everyone but Pinkie was confused about why the yellow mare was reacting so emotionally at the mention of Neon’s name alone. Granted they felt sad about it themselves, but they had gotten over their initial sobs and cries. “Fluttershy… what’s wrong?” Twilight asked in a soft tone while getting up and walking over to the yellow pegasus with a concerned expression. Fluttershy was too absorbed in her own sadness to even lift her head up to look at her friends as they gathered around her. Pinkie Pie gently placed a hoof on the crying mare’s shoulder for reassurance. She looked over to the others and swallowed uneasily as she realized that she would have to explain why the pegasus was so distraught. “She was with Neon when she died… we found them both tied to tables when we fended off the ghost. Neon was covered in blood… the ghost was about to hurt Fluttershy when we stopped him.” Pinkie explained in a somber tone. Everyone gasped in shock as they glanced down at the crying mare. They suddenly understood what she was going through, and why she was so emotional at the moment. “Good heavens.” Rarity muttered quietly while bringing her hoof up to her mouth. “Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry Fluttershy. I had no idea…” Rainbow Dash walked up to the crying pegasus and knelt down to her level while putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy barely even reacted to the cyan mare’s touch. Instead, she continued crying and sobbing uncontrollably while staring at the floor. “How could something like that happen? I know these ghosts are powerful, but one of them shouldn’t have been able to tie down two ponies against their will.” Twilight said in a troubled tone of confusion while looking to Pinkie in the hopes that she could shed more light onto the pegasus’s situation. She certainly didn’t want to ask Fluttershy to remember any more of her horrific experience. “I don’t know… she hasn’t told us much about what happened. She barely even talked to us at all after we found her.” Pinkie Pie said while looking back at the yellow mare with a concerned frown. Seeing her friend in so much pain and suffering made the pink pony feel horrible. “She… s-she didn’t want me to get hurt.” Fluttershy spoke up in a quiet tone in between sniffles. Everyone looked over as the pegasus wiped her eyes and looked up for the first time since her fit of sobbing began. “Neon wouldn’t let him touch me… she made him cut her instead of me. He said he would let us go after he was done… but then he… he…” Fluttershy began tearing up again as she tried to finish her sentence. Pinkie Pie gently held her as she began sobbing again. Twilight and the others were speechless as they looked at the distraught mare with sympathetic expressions. Twilight glanced away for a moment while deep in thought. She couldn’t believe that something so horrifying could happen to Fluttershy. The yellow mare had been so traumatized by the events at the school that she was stricken by terrible nightmares. The unicorn shuddered to think of how watching Neon getting tortured and killed in her place would affect the timid pony. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. Everything is going to be ok…” Twilight said in a confident tone while walking over to the other side of the room. She faced the doorway and stared out into the blackness with a sense of determination building up inside of her. She was done sitting by and doing nothing while others tried to solve a problem that affected her and her friends as well. “What are you doing Twilight?” Rarity asked with a slight twinge of unease in her voice. She had seen that look in the purple mare’s eyes before, and it usually didn’t mean she was about to make the safest of decisions for herself. “I can’t stand here anymore and wait for the others to find those symbols. The longer we are in here, the more danger we will be in… and it will take a lot less time if we have more ponies searching for the symbols.” Twilight explained while turning to her friends with a renewed sense of vigor. “You can’t seriously be thinking about going out there by yourself can you?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “She won’t have to…” Rainbow Dash said while stepping forward confidently to join the purple mare. “I’m coming with you Twilight. Somepony needs to watch your back for you.” She said with a wry smirk. “And somepony needs to watch your back too.” Applejack said while stepping forward to volunteer. Twilight and Rainbow Dash smiled warmly as the orange mare joined them eagerly. “Hold on just a minute! Nobody is going anywhere until Brimstoke and the others get back!” Sunspot protested from her position on the floor over by Peppermint. “Sunspot, the princess told me to-” Twilight started to speak up before she was interrupted by the injured pegasus speaking again. “I don’t care what the princess told you. The princess told me to keep you guys safe, and I can’t do that if you go wandering off in a dark and scary basement with ponycidal ghosts everywhere!” Sunspot stated in an adamant tone. “Sunspot, I don’t think you’re in a position to argue with us.” Twilight said while turning to her friends confidently. “Yeah… no offense, but what are you going to do? Limp after us?” Rainbow Dash asked while pointing out the orange pegasus’s condition. “I might.” Sunspot glared at the cyan mare and her two companions while trying to get up. Despite her best efforts to keep a serious face, she couldn’t help but to cringe in pain as she lifted herself off the floor. “Oh for pony’s sake… back me up Pepper! You have un-shattered ribs!” Sunspot said while nudging the red haired stallion towards the three mares. “Umm… I have to agree with Sunspot here girls. I really don’t think that going out there is a good idea without protection.” Peppermint said while timidly trying to talk the trio out of leaving. “I have this with me. It should be enough to protect us.” Twilight said while levitating the fire poker over to her side for show. “And if you’re so concerned about us going alone, why don’t you send the guards with us?” She asked while glancing over to the two stallions waiting in the corner. Upon hearing the group mentioning them, the two unicorns turned their attention forward and waited for whatever orders they might receive. Peppermint glanced back to Sunspot and shrugged his shoulders with uncertainty. Sunspot glanced between Twilight and the guards on the other side of the room. The purple mare seemed like her mind was made up. She would most likely go whether or not she had her blessing. “Ugh… I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.” Sunspot muttered to herself quietly before turning to the three mares and offering them a begrudging expression. “Fine… take the guards with you. And here, take this too.” She said while unclipping her strobe from her vest and tossing it to the group. Rainbow Dash caught the small vial and held it in her hooves with a smirk. “Hold on, I think I have one spare on me.” Peppermint said while fishing around the various pouches and pockets of his vest. He finally pulled out another strobe and tossed it over to Applejack. “Thanks guys.” Twilight said with a warm smile. “Don’t thank me yet… if you die out there, Brimstoke is going to kill me, and then I am going to find you in the afterlife and kick your sorry purple keister.” Sunspot said in a sincere manner. “We’ll be careful.” Twilight replied with a smirk before turning to walk out of the doorway with her group. “Wait!” Fluttershy called out, causing the purple unicorn to pause and turn around. Twilight noticed the yellow mare trotting up to her with a resolute expression. “Fluttershy, what is it?” Twilight asked curiously. She thought that perhaps the pegasus wanted to see her friends off before they left on their mission. “I’m coming with you.” Fluttershy said in an anxious tone. Everyone was surprised to hear that the timid pony was volunteering to go on such a dangerous journey. “What…?” Twilight asked in a bewildered tone. “I don’t want anyone else to get hurt while I can do something about it… I don’t think I could live with myself if one of you…” Fluttershy paused and looked down sadly at the mere thought of something horrible happening to one of her close friends. The pegasus looked up suddenly when she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder. She noticed her three friends smiling at her warmly while offering her reassuring expressions. “We’ll be fine sugar cube. You don’t need to come with us if you don’t want to.” Applejack said in a gentle tone. “I want to… I really do.” Fluttershy said while managing to smile for the first time since she had been in the basement. “We’re coming too!” Pinkie Pie announced while stepping forward eagerly with Rarity in tow. Although the white unicorn wasn’t as energetic as her pink friend, she did agree with her opinion. “We want to make sure all of you stay safe as well.” Rarity said with a warm smirk while glancing around at her friends. “Thanks guys.” Twilight said in a grateful tone. She couldn’t believe that all of her friends were volunteering to help her. “Don’t get lost out there. I want you back here in the next half hour, got it?” Sunspot said in a firm yet caring manner. “We won’t be late.” Rainbow Dash replied with a confident nod, to which her friends nodded in agreement. Without further delay, Twilight and her troop walked out of the doorway and into the dark corridor. The pitch blackness just outside of the bubble of light being projected by the unicorns made the group uneasy, but their determination was unfettered by their eerie surroundings. They had to find a way out of the mansion, not only for themselves and their loved ones, but for their sworn duties. It was clear at this point that Raven Feather and the other members of her group had escaped before the mansion was raided, leaving only Shadow Mist and a few uncoordinated underlings behind to spring a trap for the intruders. Twilight had to get out to complete her mission from the princess. She had to bring the hooded ponies to justice, and to put a stop to them once and for all. The purple mare wasn’t alone in her mission however. Every single pony following her was prepared to fight to see the evil’s wrought by Raven Feather’s group put to an end. But before they could focus on the hooded ponies, they had to focus on finding the remaining symbol and escaping with their lives. “Do you recognize where we’re going Pinkie?” Twilight asked while glancing back at the pink mare. She hoped that Pinkie would be able to guide them around the basement to areas she hadn’t been before to make their search easier, and she still felt that Fluttershy was too sensitive at the moment to be remembering her time in the basement. Pinkie Pie took a quick look around to mentally recap where she was in relation to the rest of the areas she visited. She and Brimstoke wandered around for a decent amount of time looking for Fluttershy and Neon Streak, so she had been to a lot of places in the basement. “There should be a branch in the hallway I haven’t been to further down here.” Pinkie stated while pointing ahead into the blackness. “Good… hopefully we can find that last symbol and get back before our time limit is up.” Twilight said with careful optimism brimming in her voice. “I don’t know Twilight… this place is really big. I’m not even sure how much of it we’ve seen.” Fluttershy chimed in with an uncertain and uneasy tone. “Don’t worry. Between us and the others, I’m sure we’ll find it soon.” Twilight said while thinking to Glitterball and her two companions. No matter how big the basement was, their odds of finding the symbol were greatly increased due to them being in two groups. “We should also keep an eye out for Princess Luna.” Rainbow Dash said as a reminder to the group to look for the missing alicorn. “I hope she’s ok…” Fluttershy said in a concerned tone. The thought of Luna being lost in such a dreadful place made everyone uncomfortable and sad. “Ah’m sure she can take care of herself Fluttershy.” Applejack said in a reassuring manner while glancing to the yellow mare sympathetically. Despite her attempt at comforting the pegasus, the farm pony couldn’t help but worry for the alicorn as well. Before long, the group came to a substantial fork in the hallway. To their right and left, another hallway opened up while the current hallway stretched on for as far as the group could see. Twilight and the others looked around to ascertain which direction they should go before finally looking to their pink friend for her insight. “Which way do we go Pinkie?” Twilight asked curiously. “We went down the left path with the others, and they went down the right path when they first came down here… so I say we go straight.” Pinkie suggested while looking down the hall for any signs of familiarity, not that any of the hallways looked familiar to her. It was hard to tell any one section of the basement apart from another, so the pink mare had to go off of memory on how many intersections and rooms she passed in each location, which was harder than she originally thought. “Then straight it is.” Twilight shrugged before returning a determined expression to her face and marching onwards. She hoped that she wasn’t just leading her group on a wild goose chase, because if they spent too much time down in the basement, something would most likely end up chasing them. Now that they were treading new ground, the group became more observant of their surroundings. Everyone searched the rooms they passed while Twilight, Rarity, and the two guards offered their lights to assist with the hunt for the elusive symbol. However, the only things they were finding thus far were more disturbing reminders of where they were. Tables, trays full of various aged cutting implements, and shelves lined with medical equipment and other strange items were in almost every room the ponies looked in. Every once in a while they would find a room filled with only shelves or boxes, but the majority of the rooms held at least one examination table in it. The empty tables lined with faded and dusty white cloth were a chilling sight to behold in such dismal and grim conditions, but they were only the least interesting and disturbing things to be found. Occasionally the group would find a room that had tables without their coverings. Most of them had a single leather strap in the middle and four other straps to presumably hold someone against their will. There were also several faded stains on the tables that looked like discolored blood or perhaps other disgusting fluids. Judging from all of the white sheets placed over the majority of the tables and chairs, it looked like someone had come in and placed them there to cover up and forget about the disturbing objects underneath. Despite the age of whatever objects and tools that were covered in blood, a sickeningly faint and musty smell of copper mixed into the already stale and rotten smelling air of the basement. The ponies could feel their stomachs churning from simply being exposed to this revolting atmosphere. “Ugh… that smell is horrible. What did they do down here?” Rainbow Dash asked in a muffled tone while making an attempt at holding her arm over her nose and mouth to prevent more of the foul air from reaching her. “I don’t know, but from what I read in those notes, I don’t think it was good. The hooded ponies apparently don’t even go too far into the basement themselves, so most of this stuff is how it was when the humans owned the place.” Twilight explained while taking a wary look around at the various rooms she passed. “Did the hooded ponies know anything else about them?” Applejack asked with a morbid sense of curiosity. “Not much… just that they were heavily into the occult and black magic. Apparently they were fascinated by death and the afterlife, which probably explains why their spirits and this house are still here.” Twilight said with an uneasy tone in her voice. Knowing that the items around her belonged to a bunch of murderous psychopaths with knowledge of the occult sent chills down her spine as she looked at the bloodstained medical tables in a new light. Nobody else dared to ask any more questions about their chilling surroundings. The ponies marched forward in an uncomfortable silence as they scanned the rooms for any signs of usefulness. Even the safe feeling that came from being in a decent sized group had vanished as everyone darted their eyes around nervously. Finally, the group came to the end of the hallway. At the pace they were going, they thought they would be walking for miles in the underground corridors. The sign that they were gradually running out of places to search filled the ponies with hope and anxious uncertainty at the same time. Wasting no time with standing around, Twilight took the only path available to her and led her group to the right. “How long has it been?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. The thought of how far they had wandered from the safe haven they had built made her nervous. She wanted to make sure that they could get back in time to meet the deadline imposed by Sunspot, almost as if she were expecting something horrible to pop out of the darkness if they didn’t make it back in time. “I think it’s been about ten minutes… we should have time to search down here.” Twilight replied while thinking about roughly how long they had been walking. Although it already felt like an eternity, it was probably much shorter than their half hour time limit. “Good… I thought we were already running late. I guess time doesn’t fly when you’re scared out of your wits.” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous chuckle. “Don’t worry, we should be fine. Just be sure to keep your eyes peeled.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while subconsciously gripping the iron fire poker tighter in her magical hold. She was prepared to swing the iron pole at anything that moved to protect herself and her friends. “Ow!” Pinkie yelped painfully from the back of the group. Everyone halted and turned around to see the pink mare rubbing the back of her neck. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked with a concerned tone while observing the area around her pink friend for any sign of what could have caused her outburst. “It feels like someone just poked me with a needle.” Pinkie said with an annoyed tone while looking around for her attacker. Although everyone was disconcerted by the pink mare’s statement, a certain yellow mare felt her heart skipping a beat as memories rushed back to her. “Oh no… he’s here!” Fluttershy stated in a terrified tone while darting her eyes around in a panic. Twilight and the others grew concerned for their pegasus friend as she started shivering from fright. “What do you mean Fluttershy? Who’s here?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “That’s how that ghost abducted me and Neon! We both felt a needle in the back of our necks, and then we blacked out!” Fluttershy explained in a fearful tone. The yellow pony’s statement gave everyone an empty feeling in their guts, particularly Pinkie Pie. “Do you feel ok Pinkie?” Rarity asked nervously while eyeing the pink mare for any signs of wooziness. “Uh… my nose itches… *Gasp* and my foot is asleep! What does that mean?!” Pinkie Pie asked with growing concern while looking at herself and picturing what horrible effects the injection was having on her body. “Umm… I think that’s normal Pinkie.” Twilight said while observing the panicking mare curiously. Suddenly, a loud noise behind the group made Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy yelp in surprise. Everyone turned around to see a wooden box clattering to the floor as something knocked it over. “AH! It’s the ghost! Please don’t take me Mr. Ghostie!” Pinkie pleaded while hiding behind Rainbow Dash for protection. The cyan mare realized that her friend must have been incredibly scared if she skipped her usual method of laughing at anything scary to make it go away and went straight to groveling. Meanwhile, Twilight was leering at the box on the floor suspiciously. Although she had no doubt in her mind that Fluttershy was telling the truth about her experience, she wasn’t sure if one of the ghosts was the cause of this disturbance. “I don’t think Mr. Ghostie is going to be taking anyone anywhere…” Twilight paused while reaching into her bag with her magic. She quickly pulled out the vial given to her by Brimstoke and the others back at the guard station and stepped to the front of the group with a determined expression. Twilight pointed the vial down the hallway and pressed the button on the bottom. Much to her surprise, a loud and abrupt bang sounded out as a fiery ball shot out of the small vial. The unicorn jumped slightly while holding the smoking vial steady. The small bottle held much more kick than she expected, especially considering the only point of comparison she had was the strobes and their minimal recoil. Meanwhile, everyone else was watching the orange fireball as it blazed down the corridor at lightning fast speeds. The ball suddenly hit something in midair with a loud thwack before burning out and vanishing from sight. “Ack!” The group heard a stallion grunting in pain before the sound of a body hitting the floor sounded out. Everyone stared ahead with their jaws agape in amazement as a shadowy ripple appeared on the floor. The shadows faded into view before vanishing from sight, leaving a familiar red stallion lying on the ground on his side. “Especially considering he isn’t a ghost at all.” Twilight finished her previous thought while staring ahead with a triumphant smirk. “Shadow Mist?!” Everyone acquainted with the red stallion stated in unison with surprised tones. Shadow Mist groaned in pain while looking up at the group of ponies. He was surprised to hear them mentioning him by name. “What the hell? You can see me?!” Shadow Mist stated in shock while looking down at himself. Much to his dismay, his body was in fact visible for all to see. Twilight blew the smoke off of the tip of the vial before twirling it around in the air for show. “A little surprise our friends whipped up for us. They let us negate the use of shadow magic in anyone affected.” The purple unicorn explained with a slight smirk of pride. The others glanced back to their bags with an amazed expression. They had totally forgotten about the six vials that Brimstoke and his team had given them. To think that they had such powerful weapons on them the whole time made them feel the same thing their purple friend was feeling. “That’s just freaking great… like this day couldn’t get any worse.” Shadow Mist groaned in annoyance while looking to his side where the fireball impacted him. There was a small amount of smoke rising off of a circular scorch mark on his fur. “That’s what you get for causing this mess. Now then… *ahem* Get him boys!” Rainbow Dash said with a playful smirk while looking to the two guards. She had always wanted to say something like that in a situation like this. The two unicorn guards looked ahead at the red stallion and smirked slightly in agreement. They started walking towards Shadow Mist, until they were suddenly interrupted by Applejack barging past them with an even more determined expression on her face. “Oh no… if anyone is getting first licks on this creep, it’s going to be me.” Applejack stated in a resolute tone while marching forward on her own. She felt like she owed the red stallion some payback for what he did back at the book store, and she also felt like she would be doing honors to Neon Streak since she couldn’t get her hooves on the red stallion like she desperately wanted. “You try to kill me and Neon, you let loose a bunch of ghosts that trapped us here and killed innocent ponies, and now you’re attacking my friends?! You’ve got nerve in you boy, Ah’ll give you that.” Applejack said in a livid tone while walking up to the red stallion. Shadow Mist gulped nervously and tried to scoot backwards away from the upset farm pony. “Umm… uh…” Shadow Mist muttered to himself nervously. He started sweating as he watched his doom approaching him with a Stetson hat on. “When Ah’m through with you, you’re gonna wish those ghosts would have killed you t- Sweet apple fritters!” Applejack yelped in shock and recoiled as she saw the state the red stallion was in. Twilight and the others gasped in horror as they noticed what their orange friend had noticed. Shadow Mist’s entire left eye was caked in blood. Although the eye itself was clenched shut, it was easily apparent that it had been damaged irreparably. Not only was one of his eyes bloodied and damaged, but part of one of his front legs was missing. Everything above the wrist on his left arm was completely gone, and in its place was a bloody stump. Strangely, even though the wound was gushing blood, it looked like it had only recently started bleeding. Shadow Mist’s injured eye started seeping blood down his face as well; almost like the injuries had been closed up temporarily but were now open and free to bleed. “Wh… w-what happened to you?!” Applejack asked in a mortified tone while backing up in disgust. Everyone else was reacting to the horrible sight in their own way. Rarity had fainted, only to be caught by one of the unicorn guards. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy looked like they were going to be sick and scream at the same time. Rainbow Dash and Twilight also felt like they were going to be sick, although they managed to quell these feelings while only letting out a few dry heaves. “I think I know what happened…” Twilight said while eyeing the gruesome injuries uneasily. “Rainbow Dash and I heard a scream when we tried coming back to the foyer from the library. We found a room full of blood and a red severed hoof on the floor, along with a bloody axe.” She explained while trying not to vomit from remembering the details. “A bloody axe?” Applejack asked with a chill running up her spine. “He must have been attacked by the same ghost that came after us.” She said while glancing down to the white mare still recovering from her fainting spell. “Actually, I got jumped by two of them… the woman was there too. She was the one who stabbed my eye.” Shadow Mist chimed in with a painful grimace as his wounds started bleeding and throbbing again. “How are you still alive? You should have bled to death from the look of those wounds.” Twilight asked with a cringe as she envisioned the woman in white plunging her bloody scissors into her own eye. “I’ve been keeping my wounds from bleeding with my shadow magic, but now I’m screwed… so thanks for that.” Shadow Mist said with a snarky tone. “As much as I want to say serves you right, I don’t think even you deserve to die like that. Is there anything you can do to help him Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while turning to the purple mare. As much anger as she felt towards the red stallion, she knew that it would be better for him to spend the rest of his life in jail for his crimes rather than to bleed out in a few minutes. “I’ll see what I can do…” Twilight shrugged while stepping towards the red stallion. As she approached Shadow Mist, she noticed a few items lying on the ground next to him. One of the items was a bag, and the other was an odd looking syringe full of blood. “What the…? What the hay is this?” Twilight asked in a confused and slightly disturbed tone while picking up the syringe with her magic. “*Gasp* you drained my blood?! You… you… I don’t even know what to call you!” Pinkie fumed in outrage as she stared at the red fluid inside of the syringe while holding the back of her neck. “Hey… is that what you did to me earlier?! What the hay is wrong with you?!” Rainbow Dash said in a mortified and angry tone while glaring at the red stallion. Shadow Mist watched as Twilight and her outraged friends stepped closer to him with upset expressions. He wasn’t sure which pony he was scared of more. Suddenly, Shadow Mist could feel the familiar presence of shadow energy inside of his body. To test if this was true, he discretely tried to channel the energy to his hoof. Feeling the familiar buildup of shadow magic on his hoof made him smirk imperceptibly as he started coming up with a plan of escape. “Yep… I collected your blood. Not just you two actually… I have all of your blood. The only reason you two felt the needle is because the charm on it wore off.” Shadow Mist explained with a slight chuckle. Twilight and the others were dumbfounded by the stallion’s bold words. “What?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in utter confusion and shock. She wasn’t sure if she was more confused that the stallion just gave away such information, or upset that he had collected all of her friends’ blood for some nefarious purpose. “You… you collected our blood too?!” Twilight asked in a shocked tone. She suddenly felt very ill knowing that the red stallion had gotten close enough to her and her friends to stab a needle into everyone’s necks. What if he had more lethal intentions than just collecting blood? He could have just waltzed up to any one of the six mares and killed them with some kind of poison without them even knowing. “Yeah, that’s the gist of it. I would have gotten away with it too, but you know how charms are… they always wear off a lot sooner than you’d like them too.” Shadow Mist said with a devilish smirk while maneuvering his weight off of his good arm. Twilight glanced down suspiciously at the stallion’s front arm, only to see a faint glow of purple enveloping it. She widened her eyes in shock as she realized why the red pony was suddenly being so cocky. “Everyone get down!” The purple mare yelled urgently while backing up and diving to the floor. As Shadow Mist raised his arm and pointed it forward at the group, the same flaming shadows that all of the other hooded ponies had used fully engulfed his hoof. The ponies acted as quick as they could in their confused and shocked state. Once they processed Twilight’s words and what the red stallion was doing, they dove for the ground and covered their heads with their arms. Shadow Mist quickly grabbed the falling syringe with his shadow magic as Twilight let go of it. He then levitated it down to the floor to get it out of the way of what he was about to do. *BANG* A loud burst of air rang out in the ponies’ ears as a surge of dark purple energy whizzed above their heads. They felt their hair being blown back violently from the force of the apparent explosion. They buried their heads in their arms and tried to dig themselves in to prevent themselves from being blown away. If they had been standing upright, they would have been blown off of their feet just from the impact of the energy, let alone what else the purple wave would have done to them. When the burst of air whizzing over her head died down, Twilight flinched one eye open to look in front of her. Among the dust and debris settling to the floor, she could see the remainder of a cloud of darkness as it vanished from view. Shadow Mist, the bag on the floor, and the syringe were all missing from sight, but the purple mare wasn’t about to give up. “He’s getting away!” Twilight exclaimed while quickly getting to her feet and readied the vial of shadow magic repellent in her magic. She pointed it down the hallway and rapidly pushed the button on the base. Twilight flinched as another loud bang sounded out while fireball after fireball flew down the hallway at odd angles. She could barely shoot straight from the recoil of the weapon, but some of the blasts sailed down the hallway in a straight enough line to hit the fleeing stallion. As she kept firing, the vial started smoking and vibrating in the unicorn’s hooves. It felt like it would break apart at any minute. In fact, small cracks started forming on the glass casing as the volatile liquid inside kept spitting out violent burst after violent burst. Much to everyone’s surprise, the fireballs failed to hit anything as they raced down the hallway before vanishing from sight. Twilight stopped firing the startling weapon and took a few steps forward in a desperate attempt at finding the stallion. “Dangit… he’s gone. We had him!” Twilight fumed angrily while glaring at the vial in front of her. If the charm hadn’t worn off so quickly, or if the vial had functioned correctly, then they would still have their prisoner. “I can’t believe this! And it’s all because of this stupid piece of junk!” Twilight groaned while tossing the vial down the hallway in frustration. The already fractured glass shattered on impact with the floor, causing the liquid inside to splash onto the ground. “Calm down Twilight… Ah know how you feel.” Applejack tried to comfort her upset friend while also staring down the hallway with a frustrated expression herself. “Who cares if the charm is broken?! Let’s go after him!” Rainbow Dash suggested in a determined tone while stepping forward. The pegasus was getting more riled up by the minute as she hoped that her friends would agree with her. “A broken charm is going to be the least of your worries in a few minutes.” The group heard Shadow Mist’s voice calling out from down the hallway, even though they still couldn’t see him. “Stop rubbing it in you coward!” Rainbow Dash yelled down the dark corridor while picking up a small piece of wood off the ground and throwing it down the hallway in the hopes of hitting the stallion. The wood clattered to the floor after sailing out of view into the darkness, creating a hollow feeling of defeat in the cyan mare. “I would stop making noise and start running if I were you. We made a lot of commotion just now, and the walls have ears. I wouldn’t want to be here if he shows up... too bad you can’t turn invisible.” Shadow Mist said with a warm chuckle. The stallion’s laughter grew fainter until it died off, signifying that he was walking away. “Grr…” Rainbow Dash growled angrily while gritting her teeth with rage. She couldn’t believe that she had allowed a crippled prisoner with one eye to escape so easily. “What the hay was he talking about?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while pondering over the stallion’s words. “I don’t know… I don’t see any ears on the wall, so maybe he was just crazy.” Pinkie stated while examining the walls around her suspiciously. Normally the others would at least give a confused look at the eccentric mare’s behavior, but they were far too annoyed to care right now. “Whatever. I don’t think he was doing anything other than trying to freak us out. I’ll bet he’s going to be the one scared stiff when I get my hooves on him.” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone while punching at the air and pretending that it was the red stallion. It was incredibly easy to do so considering he could turn invisible. Meanwhile, while everyone else was calming down for various reasons, Fluttershy was still thinking about Shadow Mist’s words. Perhaps she was still tense and afraid from when he attacked the group, but the pegasus was nervous as she thought about the stallion’s ominous statement. “I wouldn’t want to be here if he shows up… is he talking about that human?” Fluttershy muttered to herself uneasily while turning and walking to the back of the group. She already knew that Shadow Mist was likely referring to one of the ghosts, but she saw Brimstoke eliminating the only ghost she knew to be in the basement. At least, she hoped that the man with the glasses was gone for good. While her friends were unwinding from their brief encounter and talking amongst themselves, Fluttershy sat at the back of the group and tried her best to calm down herself. Ever since she had agreed to come with her friends on their search she had been worried that she would run into another ghost, but Shadow Mist’s words had only served to increase this fear tenfold. More than anything, Fluttershy just wanted to leave the mansion. Suddenly, the faint sound of footsteps started approaching from down the hallway. Fluttershy perked her ears up and stared down the hallway with fearful eyes. She was sitting on the edge of the light being provided by the four unicorns, so she couldn’t see anything in front of her. Fluttershy backed up nervously as she noticed a blurry shape taking form in front of her. The footsteps stopped as the shape started becoming clearer. The yellow pegasus felt her heart stop momentarily as she recognized the figure standing before her. “Girls…” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully while desperately trying to get the attention of her friends. Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard the utter terror of the yellow mare behind them. “What’s wrong Flutter-” Twilight started to ask her friend what was bothering her, until she turned around and froze mid-sentence at what she saw standing down the hallway. Everyone else gasped in shock and stared ahead with fearful expressions as they too noticed what had spooked the yellow mare. A transparent human man with brown hair, blue eyes, and circular framed glasses was standing in the hallway with his arms held behind his back. He had a relatively blank expression on his face, although it still held a certain sinister quality to it. “Hello dearie…” The ghostly man said while looking directly at Fluttershy with his icy stare. “Did you miss me?” He said while letting a devilish smirk creep across his face. “No!” Fluttershy yelped fearfully, more so out of denial than in response to the human’s question. She backpedaled until she ran into Applejack and tried to keep going. Her entire body was shaking and she looked like she was going to break down crying any minute. The others had never seen the yellow mare so terrified before in their years of knowing her. “Leave her alone.” Applejack said while stepping in front of the pegasus defensively. “Yeah, if you want her you’re going to have to get through us.” Rainbow Dash said while joining the orange mare in standing in front of Fluttershy. Twilight and the others followed suit in standing their ground against the ghostly human. “Oh my… I didn’t think that there would be this many of you.” The man stated in a surprised tone. “I guess I’ll just have to take you all with me then.” He added in an almost disturbingly serious tone. “Girls, are you with me?” Twilight asked while readying her fire place poker for battle. She looked beside her to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash readying their strobes while everyone else simply prepared for battle with what they had. “I wouldn’t dream of missing this.” Rainbow Dash said while glancing behind her at the nervous pegasus. She wanted to make sure that this spirit payed for what it did to Fluttershy and Neon Streak. “Fire!” Applejack yelled fiercely while pointing her strobe at the apparition and rapidly pushing the button. Rainbow Dash followed her example by opening fire on the ghost as fast as she could. Before the flurry of energy bolts could hit the human, he flickered and vanished from sight with a devilish smile on his face. Knowing that their enemy was still nearby, everyone backed together and formed a protective circle around each other. Fluttershy looked around nervously while her friends prepared to battle the spirit. Even Pinkie Pie was trying to help fend off the ghost, despite her lack of a weapon or even magic to aid her. The yellow mare got up from the floor and darted her eyes around anxiously. Even if she couldn’t fight, she wanted to help her friends as much as possible. Suddenly, Fluttershy noticed a blur of motion behind one of the guards. She gasped in surprise when she saw the ghostly human appearing out of thin air. “Look out!” Fluttershy exclaimed while pointing behind the brown stallion. The guard spun around just in time to see the man reaching for him quickly. “Ack!” The guard yelped in surprise as the human grabbed him by the throat with surprising strength. Before anyone could react, the ghostly man picked up the full grown stallion by his neck and tossed him behind him like he was a small child. The others watched as the guard flew down the hallway before colliding with the ground and rolling from the impact. Taking matters into her own hooves, Twilight glared at the spirit while clutching the iron pole in her magical grip. The unicorn let out a fierce cry while sending the fire poker sailing through the air towards the human. Just before the iron pole collided with him, the human swiftly ducked to the side. Twilight quickly spun the fire poker around to counter the spirit’s evasion of her first strike, only to watch in dismay as the human dodged her strike again. “Take this!” Rainbow Dash yelled while pointing her strobe at the ghost and firing a few precise shots. The ghostly human vanished from sight again, leaving the bolts of energy to slam into the guard further down the hallway as he tried to get up. Although the bolts of light harmlessly exploded into a shower of sparkles on contact with the stallion, he still flinched and tried to cover his face from the bolts. “Sorry…” Rainbow Dash said while cringing sympathetically at the annoyed guard. However, the two couldn’t dwell on their mishap for very long as they returned their attention to searching for the human. Suddenly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash heard a noise behind them. They turned around only to see the ghostly human standing in front of them with a pensive expression on his pale face. He seemed like he wasn’t even breaking a sweat, not that he could if he wanted to. “Get him!” Applejack said while aiming her strobe forward and firing. “I’m trying!” Rainbow Dash replied while firing her own strobe at the spirit. Despite the amount of shots being fired at the human, he was somehow able to dodge every one. The man moved side to side and ducked out of the way of each bolt of light the two mares sent his way. It was like he was a blur of motion that could be everywhere at once. “Your friend caught me off guard with those toys you’re holding right now. I must say, they pack quite the punch… it’s too bad for you that I’m not going to be so easy to hit now that I know about your tricks.” The human said with a slight chuckle. Before the ponies could think of some other tactic to use, the human reached out his arms towards them. Applejack and Rainbow Dash suddenly felt their bodies being lifted into the air against their will, seemingly by the spirit’s influence. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a nervous tone while trying to steady herself in the air. It felt very strange for her to be flying without the use of her wings. “Put us down!” Applejack said in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. “Heh… why would I want to do that? You’re much easier to fight if you’re floating in the air.” The human said with a devilish snicker. “Uh, guys! We could use some help here!” Rainbow Dash pleaded while turning her head to face her friends. Twilight and the others were watching the two floating mares with shocked expressions. “Hang on girls, we’re coming!” Pinkie announced while racing forward to try and help her friends. The pink mare jumped up and grabbed Rainbow Dash by her legs in an attempt at getting her back on the floor, but the pegasus wouldn’t budge an inch. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you to mind your own business?” The man said in an annoyed tone while watching the pink pony trying to rescue her friends. Before any more of the group could try to help their two incapacitated friends, the human opened his palm and pushed it towards Pinkie Pie, sending a wave of invisible energy hurdling towards her. “Agh!” Pinkie yelped in pain as she was ripped from Rainbow Dash and sent flying backwards. She groaned in pain as she hit the floor and bent at an odd angle while she continued rolling. The pink mare nearly hit the others as she bounced along the ground before skidding to a halt. “Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash cried fearfully as she turned her head to watch the pink mare. Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy raced to their injured friend to check on her. “Pinkie, are you ok?!” Twilight asked in a frantic tone while gently placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. Noticing no response from the pink mare, the unicorn gently rolled her over, only to discover that she had been knocked unconscious from hitting her head against the floor. “Horsefeathers… she’s out cold.” Twilight muttered in an uneasy tone before shifting her attention back to her two friends being suspended in the air. “Put us down!” Applejack yelled while struggling against the human’s invisible grip. The ghostly man simply chuckled to himself while watching the two ponies trying to break free. He was so focused on toying with the two mares that he wasn’t paying attention to the ponies behind the floating pair. “Twilight, we need to do something before that scoundrel hurts Applejack and Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “I know! But we can’t do anything if we can’t hit him!” Twilight replied nervously while watching the two struggling mares uneasily. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were trying to maneuver their arms into a good firing position, but their limbs were being held in place by the spirit. And without the strobes to help the group out, they were running out of options to combat the ghost. “If only you could hit him with that fire poker, but he’s too fast… and we can’t risk missing or he might hurt the others.” Rarity whispered to the purple mare in a distraught tone. Meanwhile, Twilight was thinking of a way to effectively battle the spirit. “I think I might have a plan.” Twilight said while waving the two guards over to her. Once the two stallions joined her, the purple mare huddled her four companions close to discuss her plan of action. “I need you guys to distract him for a minute. I’m going to teleport behind him and use the fire poker on him.” Twilight explained while glancing back at the human anxiously. The longer the malevolent spirit had her friends in his clutches, the more fearful she became. “How do we distract him?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “You can sit this one out Fluttershy… I need unicorns for this plan to work.” Twilight said while looking between Rarity and the two guards. “I need you guys to fire some energy blasts at him. They probably won’t do anything to him, so I need you to not actually hit him… just make it convincing enough to make him think you’re trying to attack him. Oh… and also, don’t shoot at him too quickly. If he starts dodging like he did before, I won’t be able to lay a hoof on him.” She explained her plan and looked over her small band of troops with a hopeful expression of confidence. “I think we can manage that.” Rarity said while turning to the two guards for confirmation. The two stallions nodded in agreement before putting on more serious expressions. “Ok guys… let’s move.” Twilight said before lighting up her horn and channeling her energy into a teleportation spell. Rarity and the others watched as the purple mare disappeared into a flash of light before appearing a ways behind the ghostly man to avoid making noise. Twilight nodded to her friends before clutching the fire pole and waiting for them to act. Deciding to be the first one to attack, Rarity stepped forward and charged up her horn. She might not have been as magically gifted as the purple unicorn, but when her friends were in danger, she would put her all into any magical spell she knew. “Hey! Leave my friends alone you ghastly ghoul!” Rarity yelled fiercely while firing a bolt of energy towards the human. Trying to miss something while also trying to make it close enough to be convincing was a hard task, but thankfully the bolt flew right past the human’s side. The man was slightly surprised to be attacked by the white mare. He looked ahead to see her and the two guards shooting at him with their horns. As he dodged side to side casually, he smirked and laughed at the apparent incompetency of the trio. “Hahahaha… is this really the best you can do? It’s almost like you aren’t even trying.” The ghost stated in an amused tone. Meanwhile, Twilight was slowly creeping up on the human with her weapon at the ready. She was a little nervous to be approaching a ghost as energy blasts flew past her a lot closer than she would have liked, but she had to stay calm and keep moving. Applejack and Rainbow Dash noticed the purple mare approaching the human. Twilight silently brought her hoof up to her lips to signal the pair to be quiet. The two mares didn’t nod for fear of the human catching on, but they did as they were instructed and acted like the unicorn wasn’t there. Rarity and the two guards fired in sporadic bursts in an attempt at holding the human’s attention. Their fire rate had decreased considerably now that they also had to worry about hitting Twilight with a stray beam. They were nervously watching the ghost for any signs that he was on to their rouse, and unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be as convinced as he once was. “Wait a minute… you aren’t trying, are you?” The man asked suspiciously while glancing to his side. Before he could turn around, Twilight jumped forward and swung the fire place poker down at his body. “Hyah!” Twilight yelled fiercely while putting all of her strength into the initial blow. Unfortunately for her, the human dodged to the side before turning around and glaring at her with his icy stare. “Thought you could trick me did you?” The human asked with a snarky tone of voice. Twilight snorted in irritation and narrowed her eyes to match the ghost’s glare before letting out another yell and swinging the iron pole sideways. The others watched as Twilight tried her best to match the human’s speed. No matter how fast she swung or twirled the fire place poker, the spirit seemed to be just one step ahead of her attacks. Still, she continued on with the vigor and ferocity that came with a pony fighting for her own life and the lives of her friends. Suddenly, the human pushed his hand forward and sent the unicorn flying off of her feet backwards. “Ah!” Twilight yelped in fright as she hurdled backwards a short distance before landing on her back. She ignored the throbbing pain in her back and looked ahead to see the human chuckling at her while standing between the two floating mares. “Heh… you really do live up to your reputation Twilight Sparkle. I’ve heard a lot of talk about you and your friends in these past few years, and you are held in high regard throughout the land for your bravery and valor. But down here, you and your pathetic friends are just toys for my amusement.” The human said while raising his arms and holding them out to the side. Suddenly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash started shaking slightly in the air. “Whoa! What’s going on?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a nervous tone while trying to keep herself still in the air. Before anyone could react, the man clapped his hands together and the two floating ponies were sent flying into each other. Applejack and Rainbow Dash offered a brief grunt of pain as their heads smacked together with a cringe worthy thud. Twilight and the others gasped in shock as they watched their friends plummet to the floor like sacks of potatoes. The two mares settled on the ground and remained motionless save for the constant rise and fall of their chests to indicate that they were still alive. “Applejack! Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled in horror as she stared at her two unconscious friends. She was going to glare at the human for hurting the two ponies like that, but she suddenly felt her body lifting into the air slowly. “Whoa… hey! No! Put me down!” Twilight cried fearfully while scrambling to get back to the floor. She managed to turn over in the air and reach the floor with her legs, but she was quickly lifted higher to the point where she couldn’t touch the floor if she tried. “Twilight!” Rarity and Fluttershy yelled in unison while watching the purple mare getting lifted into the air by the sinister human. Before anyone could do anything to try and help the floating unicorn, the human flicked his outstretched arm behind him, sending the unicorn sailing forward at rapid speeds. She didn’t even have time to think of a spell she could use to break her fall amid her panic. Twilight flew directly over the human and past her friends, screaming the whole way until she hit the floor and started rolling. The unicorn groaned in pain with each impact to the floor sending shooting pains around her body. Meanwhile, the human was watching the ponies with a pensive expression on his face. He looked down to the fire place poker at his feet and picked it up with his ghostly influence, being especially careful to not let it make contact with his body. “An iron fire place poker eh? I guess you ponies aren’t hopeless after all.” The human muttered with an amused chuckle. The ponies either didn’t hear him or didn’t care as they were focused on the wounded unicorn. Fluttershy, Rarity, and the two guards rushed over to the injured mare and gasped in shock as they saw the battered state she was in. Her hair was disheveled and her fur was covered in scuff marks, she had a few black and blue areas that would likely form into bruises in the future, and she had a general expression of suffering and exhaustion on her face. “Twilight darling! Are you ok?!” Rarity asked in a concerned tone as she watched Twilight trying to move around. “Ugh… gah…” The purple mare groaned painfully as she tried to sluggishly get up. Every movement she made only brought her more agony as her sore limbs refused to support her weight. Finally she decided to stay on her side to recover for a moment before trying to get up again. While the two mares were worrying about their injured friend, the two guards turned around and glared at the ghostly human. They had witnessed the ghost wiping out the six mares one by one, but they were done standing by and waiting for the others to take action. Now that Twilight was out of action, they were the leading authority on battle tactics. Lighting up their horns, the two stallions charged forward bravely. The human took one look at the approaching guards and sighed in disappointment. Making a swatting motion with his hands, the ghost used his influence to pick up the two stallions and slam them into the walls face first in one swift motion. Twilight and the others looked over to the unconscious guards and gasped in horror. Their numbers were dropping like flies, and their bubble of light was decreasing with each unicorn they lost, decreasing their morale even further. “We have to do something…” Twilight groaned while working her way to a seated position and surveying the situation. She looked at the unconscious bodies of Applejack and Rainbow Dash, only to notice two small vials at their feet. “*Gasp* the strobes!” Twilight exclaimed while pointing forward at the two vials. If they could get the strobes back, then maybe they could stand a chance. “I’m on it!” Rarity said while lighting up her horn with a determined expression. She enveloped the two vials in her magical grip and lifted them into the air. But before the white mare could bring the vials closer to her, she felt them stop dead in their tracks as something powerful tugged in the opposite direction as her. “What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously while staring ahead at the two motionless vials. “I can’t move them… something is… hrk… pulling on them.” Rarity said while straining to make the vials move over to her. “Not so fast dearie. I think it’s time for you to stop playing with your toys for tonight.” The human said while holding out his hand. Much to the horror of the on looking ponies, the man clenched his fist shut, causing the two glass vials to shatter into an explosion of glass pieces and liquid. “But… but…” Twilight stammered in a fearful daze while looking at her two friends. They were even more scared than she was, and were looking to her for what they should do next. Unfortunately, the purple mare couldn’t be the rock of confidence and leadership that they needed right now. “I suppose you’ll want this next, right?” The human asked while pointing at the fire place poker levitating in the air. The three mares grew uneasy as a devilish smirk appeared on his face. “Maybe you should take it if you want it so bad!” The man exclaimed while doing a pitching motion with his arm. The fire place poker shot forward and spun vertically as it sailed across the hallway in the blink of an eye. The iron pole was moving so fast that the ponies barely had time to react before it smacked into Rarity’s head. A small trickle of blood sprayed out as the iron pole made contact with the unicorn. Rarity’s head bent backwards and her legs gave out as the blow instantly knocked her out. Twilight and Fluttershy watched their friend collapse to the floor next to them at the same time as the fire place poker, creating a combined thud and clang that rendered them mortified. “Rarity!” Twilight and Fluttershy yelled while staring at the unconscious pony in shock. Rarity had a small amount of blood trickling out of a cut on her head, but the major concern was that she was now out cold just like the others, possibly even with a concussion. “Twilight… what do we do?” Fluttershy asked while on the verge of tears while clinging to her only remaining friend and the only remaining source of light in the hallway. Everywhere else around them was dark, cementing the fact that they were alone and creating a gripping sense of fear that crippled them. “I don’t know... I’m thinking!” Twilight exclaimed in a panic while trying to come up with a plan. “Don’t leave me! I don’t want to be alone with him.” Fluttershy said while wrapping her arms around the unicorn and clinging to her. Twilight could feel the pegasus shaking fearfully as she shut down and entered into a state of childish terror. “Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head dear...” The human said in a sinister tone while holding out his arm. He made a grabbing motion and moved his hand to the side as if he were moving something, but the purple mare couldn’t tell what he was trying to do, at least until she felt a small prick in the back of her neck. “Ow!” Fluttershy yelped in pain while clutching the back of her own neck. The two mares locked eyes with each other and looked down to the floor as they heard two distinct clinks. Their eyes widened as they saw two spent needles rolling away from them. “You aren’t going to be alone. After all, I have enough tables for all of you.” The human finished his grim sentence with a cold chuckle. “N-no!” Twilight shook her head while scooting backwards. Fluttershy joined the purple mare in trying to distance herself from the human as he started walking forward. “Twilight, I feel drowsy.” Fluttershy said in a fearful tone while fighting the urge to sleep. “Me too…” Twilight said in an empty tone of agreement. She was too scared to try and think of a reassuring sentiment to cheer herself and the pegasus up. She could feel her body shivering as it finally sank in that she had lost. “Don’t try to fight it… you won’t get very far.” The man said while slowing his pace to watch the two mares wriggling on the ground. Twilight and Fluttershy slowly crawled backwards in a vain attempt at escaping the ghost. They could feel their eyes drooping shut as their bodies grew weaker and the world around them grew more distant. “Nugh… guh…” Fluttershy groaned as she used her front legs to scoot herself backwards. She looked to the side to see Twilight struggling to stay awake. As she reached out to try and tell the unicorn to fight harder, she fell backwards and flopped her arms like a limp puppet. “Fluttershy…” Twilight said in a drowsy tone while trying to reach out to her friend. As she stopped to try to make an effort at rescuing the pegasus, she realized that her body was completely shutting down, almost like her movement was the only thing keeping her going. Twilight lowered herself to the floor and rolled her head to the side. She could see that Fluttershy was already unconscious. As she used the last of her energy to roll her head back upwards, she managed to catch a glimpse of the human smiling down at her with his wicked grin before her eyes shut against her will and blackness filled her mind.
Chapter 88: Running out of TimeTwilight groaned drowsily while stirring from what seemed like a long sleep. She wasn’t sure if her senses were messed up, but she felt like she was being suspended off the ground by something. As she tried to move her legs, she felt something holding her in place. “Ugh… what the…?” She muttered in a confused tone while lifting her head up. As gravity kicked in and made her head slump forward, she quickly realized that she was hanging in the air. Ignoring her exhausted state, the unicorn opened her eyes and looked down at her body in a panic. Twilight saw that she was tied to an angled table by four leather straps. Each of her limbs were spread apart and restrained by the tight straps that dug painfully into her skin. Strangely enough, her front legs were also linked together by a pair of steel hoof cuffs. “Twilight?” The sound of Applejack’s voice in front of her made the purple mare look up in surprise. She noticed the farm pony tied to a similar table across from her. “Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed eagerly. “I’m so glad to see you… where are we?” She asked uneasily while examining the room she was in. As she looked around the room, she noticed her other friends around her. Pinkie Pie was on a table next to hers, although she was still unconscious. Rainbow Dash was on a table across from the pink mare and next to Applejack, and she was also unconscious. Fluttershy was on a table to the far left of the room, and Rarity was on the far right of the room next to a doorway. Rarity was the only one in the room that wasn’t tied to a table. In fact, she seemed to have limited use of her limbs. The white mare’s legs were chained together, and the short chain coming off her front legs led to a small pipe on the wall. She also had the same hoof cuffs on her front legs that Twilight had, and she was also unconscious. Other than Applejack and Twilight, everyone else in the room was still knocked out cold. The room itself had only one entrance, which was the open doorway beside Rarity. The majority of the space in the room was taken up by the five tables that Twilight and her friends were tied to, but there were three small trays on wheels. Two of the trays held oil lanterns that were providing light across the room, while the third tray held a selection of cutting implements. “Ah don’t know… Ah came to a few minutes ago and we were already here. Ah’m so glad you’re awake.” Applejack stated in a sincere tone. “What happened? Last thing I remember we were fighting… *Gasp* that ghost! He must have taken us here while we were unconscious!” Twilight stated in an alarmed tone. She grunted from exertion as she pulled against the leather straps holding her in place. After a few moments of getting nowhere with this approach, the unicorn panted heavily and leaned her head back to rest. “If that creep took us, he’s probably going to come back… which means we need to get out of here. Can’t you use your magic to get loose?” Applejack asked in a hopeful tone. “Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Twilight mentally face palmed as she remembered that she was in fact a unicorn. Escaping with magic would be a breeze. She could free herself and her friends and escape before the spirit returned. Twilight looked down at the straps holding her legs in place and concentrated on them. Having expected to have no trouble using her magic, the purple mare was surprised that she couldn’t channel energy to her horn. Putting more effort into it and grunting from exertion, she became more alarmed as she realized that her magic wasn’t working. “What the hay? I can’t use my magic.” Twilight said in a troubled tone while looking up at her horn. As her eyes trailed upwards, she suddenly drew her attention to the hoof cuffs connected to her front legs. Her heart sank as she noticed several strange symbols etched into the metal of the cuffs. “What’s wrong?!” Applejack asked nervously while watching the unicorn growing pale. “Oh no… he must have gotten the magic nullifying cuffs off of the guards. I can’t use my magic while these are on me.” Twilight explained in a dreadful tone. The weight of the situation was finally sinking in. She was trapped, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Suddenly, the pair heard a soft groan coming from beside them. The two mares looked over and noticed that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were starting to wake up. After a few moments, Rarity and Fluttershy started to stir as well. “Ugh… five more minutes mommy.” Pinkie groaned in a sleepy tone while lifting her head up slightly. After a few seconds of looking around in a confused daze, the pink mare became alarmed as she realized that she wasn’t where she first thought she was. “What the…?! Where am I?! How did I get here?!” Pinkie asked frantically while looking around with wide eyes. She tugged at the straps holding her in place in a vain attempt at escaping her table. “Pinkie, calm down… we’re here with you.” Twilight spoke in a soft tone in an attempt at bringing the jilted pony to her senses. The pink mare looked to her side and gasped in excitement as she saw the unicorn next to her. “Twilight! I’m so glad to see you!” Pinkie exclaimed happily before looking around and noticing the others. As she realized that all of her friends were trapped just like her, her initial excitement vanished and was replaced by fear. “Gah… would you keep it down over there? My head is killing me…” Rainbow Dash muttered while cringing painfully and trying to bring her hoof up to her head. Once she noticed that her limbs were restrained, the cyan mare suddenly became very alarmed. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while shaking herself awake and looking down at her tied legs. “What in Celestia’s name is going on here?! I demand to be released this instant!” Rarity stated in a distraught tone while rattling the chain attached to her legs as she tried to get up. Due to the short length of the chain connected to the pipe, the white mare couldn’t get to her feet and instead had to awkwardly lay on her side. “Can somepony please tell me what the hay is going on?” Rainbow Dash asked in a pleading tone while looking to her friends for answers. Twilight and Applejack were about to try and calm their frantic friends down until they were interrupted by another frightened voice speaking up. “Oh no… not this! Anything but this, please!” Fluttershy whined fearfully while looking at her own restraints. The others watched as the yellow pegasus started hyperventilating from fright. She looked like she was either going to break down into tears or pass out from oxygen deprivation at any moment. “Everyone calm down!” Twilight yelled in order to gain everyone’s attention. “I know this looks bad, but we’ve gotten out of worse scrapes before. All we need to do is keep our heads and we can find a way out of this.” She explained in what she hoped would be a reassuring manner. The purple mare herself was feeling nervous and scared, so she was unsure if the others believed her. “Yeah… Twilight is right guys. We can get out of here no problem.” Rainbow Dash stated in her usual confident manner while struggling against her bonds. “Just… hrk! Just give me… hrk! A minute to get out of these… gah! Stupid straps!” She groaned in exhausted annoyance as she put all of her strength into trying to free herself. No matter how hard the pegasus pulled on her straps, they showed no signs of loosening their grip on her. “This can’t be happening… this is just like last time.” Fluttershy muttered in a distraught tone. The yellow mare closed her eyes and looked away as tears began forming from all of the horrific memories that she had of this situation. “Fluttershy, listen to me.” Twilight said in a sincere tone while looking over to the pegasus. Fluttershy reluctantly opened her eyes and looked over to see the unicorn offering her a serious expression. “This is not going to end up like last time, you hear me? We’re all going to get out of here in one piece.” Twilight stated in a calm and sincere manner. The sheer determination in her voice was enough to make all of her friends quiet down and look at her with amazed expressions. Fluttershy looked around at her friends on each of the other tables. She still felt fearful and anxious, but somehow she believed the unicorn’s words. She and her friends had encountered many situations where she thought all was lost, but the power of the bond that she shared with the five mares kept them together through all of the hardships they had faced. “Twilight… I… I…” Fluttershy stammered in an emotional tone. She had so many thoughts and emotions swirling around inside of her that she felt unsure of what to do. Still, she wanted to believe her friend and her promise of safety. “In one piece eh? Well… I’m not so sure of that.” The group heard a disturbingly familiar voice chiming in from the doorway. Everyone turned and widened their eyes in fright as they saw the same ghostly human that captured them walking in through the doorway. His form flickered into view as he walked into the room, as if his existence was merely a twisted spectacle for the ponies to witness. “You...” Rainbow Dash said in a disdainful tone while leering at the man. “You let us go right now, or you’ll be sorry!” She said in a fierce manner while trying her best to be brave in the face of danger. “Ha… don’t make me laugh. No seriously, don’t… I get violent when I get excited.” The human said in a calm manner while shifting his eyes to look at the cyan pegasus. The spirit’s icy cold stare was enough to unnerve even Rainbow Dash. All of the ponies in the room were scared. Everyone remained speechless as they dreadfully anticipated what the human was going to do to them. Everyone, except for one yellow pegasus whining in terror at the back of the room. As the human drew his gaze towards Fluttershy, she began tensing up and breathing rapidly again. Everyone watched nervously as the ghost slowly walked up to the fearful pegasus and stared at her for a moment. Twilight and the others were terrified that he would do something to hurt their timid friend. “So… here we are again. It’s Fluttershy, isn’t it? What a bizarre name… I’ll never understand how you ponies came to be so childish and weak.” The man said while reaching his hand up and placing it on the yellow mare’s cheek. Fluttershy tried to move her head out of the way of the human’s cold and disturbing touch, but her head could only move so much while her body was restrained. “Please… don’t hurt us.” Fluttershy muttered while avoiding eye contact with the man and looking to the floor fearfully. “You know… it may be impolite to stare, but I really think you should look a man in the eye when you ask him not to hurt you.” The human said with a slight smirk. His smile and lighthearted nature quickly shifted to an annoyed expression as the pegasus still stared at the floor while shaking from fright. “I said look at me, and I meant it… now show me those pretty little eyes of yours.” The ghostly man said in a harsh tone while grabbing the pegasus under the chin and roughly moving her head up to look at him. Fluttershy yelped slightly, if not from pain than from sheer terror as she was forced to look at the human’s cold and calculating expression. “Leave her alone you brute!” Rarity yelled in a threatening tone from across the room. The white mare tried to light up her horn to use a spell, but she grunted from exertion as she realized that her magic wasn’t working. “Don’t bother trying anything with that horn of yours. I got those anti magic cuffs courtesy of your two friends, so I assume that they literally work like a charm.” The human said while letting Fluttershy go and turning around to face the rest of the group. “What did you do with the guards?” Twilight asked in a demanding tone while glaring at the human. The two stallions that came with her and her friends were nowhere to be found in the room. The purple mare feared the worst might have happened to them at the hands of this sinister spirit. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about them anymore. I already took care of them before you woke up. I barely had time to clean up the mess before I heard some commotion in here.” The man said with a slight chuckle. The six ponies stared at the human in shock as they processed his words. “You monster…” Applejack muttered in a quiet tone of disbelief at the cruel actions of the man. “Now then… why don’t we just pick up where we left off?” The man said while holding his hand behind him with his palm open. A small scalpel from the tray near Twilight vibrated slightly before shooting across the room and into the ghost’s waiting hand. “I have to admit, I was a little peeved when your friends so rudely interrupted us last time. I was so looking forward to finding you again and continuing our little game, so imagine my surprise when I just stumble upon you and your friends.” The human said while bringing his scalpel up to Fluttershy’s chest. The pegasus froze up in fright and flinched her eyes shut. She whined softly as she prepared to feel her body being sliced into. “Hey! Leave her alone!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely, causing the human to pause. The ghostly man dropped the scalpel to his side and slowly turned his head to face the cyan pegasus. “What was that?” The human asked in a cynical and slightly threatening tone. He didn’t expect that the pony would offer much bravery after he walked up to her while brandishing the scalpel menacingly, but she barely flinched at his approach. “I said don’t touch her… you keep your filthy mitts off of her.” Rainbow Dash said while managing the courage to glare at the specter while hiding her fear under her anger. Suddenly, something triggered inside of Fluttershy’s head. Memories that she had tried her best to forget came flooding back to her. All of the other sounds in the room faded and time slowed down as she pictured Neon Streak on the table in front of her. She could still hear the determination in her voice as she threatened the ghost to protect her. “Really? Because last time I checked I can put my filthy mitts wherever I want.” The human replied while matching the pegasus’s glare in intensity. His icy cold and haunting eyes made the cyan mare uneasy, but she couldn’t let him harm her friend. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size? If you want to cut somebody, cut me.” Rainbow Dash stated in a brave tone. Twilight and the others couldn’t believe that the pegasus was suggesting such a thing, but they couldn’t imagine the possible ramifications of her statement for their yellow friend. Fluttershy felt her heart skip a beat as she heard the cyan mare’s words. They held a chilling place in her mind as she heard a similar statement from another pony strapped to a similar table. Flashes of the green mare getting cut up and screaming in pain filled the pegasus’s head. Fluttershy felt tears streaming down her face as the flashes of Neon Streak getting tortured shifted to images of Rainbow Dash getting cut up. She could see the cyan mare suffering everything that the green mare did, and in one horrific flash that made her already fragile mind scream out in defiance, she saw Rainbow Dash getting her throat sliced open before slowly dying in front of her. “NO!” Fluttershy yelled loudly in refusal to the situation before her. Everyone looked over in shock at the normally timid mare’s outburst. They saw that the pegasus had tears freely flowing down her cheeks as she took in shallow breaths. “Please… cut me.” Fluttershy finally managed to speak again in a distraught tone while averting her eyes to the floor and sobbing quietly. “Fluttershy, what are you doing? I’m not just going to let him hurt you like that!” Rainbow Dash said in a confused tone while looking at the crying pony in a stunned state of disbelief. “I don’t want him to hurt you… I can’t lose you too…” Fluttershy said in a heartbroken tone while breaking down into a fit of crying. The grim realization of the yellow mare’s meaning hit the others like a ton of bricks. The sight of the crying pony made the others look down sadly. Hearing her letting out so much pent up sadness and despair was enough to make them teary eyed as well, and they didn’t even go through the torture she was forced to. “Fluttershy…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a sympathetic tone. She couldn’t believe that her friend was being forced to relive such a tragic moment in her life. “Look… I would hate to interrupt this touching moment, but I have more important things I could be doing than just standing here.” The human said while fidgeting with the scalpel suggestively. He wasted no time in going over to Fluttershy and bringing the cutting tool up to her skin again. “Hey! I’m not done with you!” Rainbow Dash said while trying her best to arch her body sideways to better look at the spirit. “Rainbow Dash, please don’t.” Fluttershy pleaded as she nervously watched the human glaring at the cyan mare out of the corner of his eye. “No Fluttershy, I can’t just let him have his way with you. I don’t want to lose you either!” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. “Neither do I…” Pinkie Pie said with anxious resolve while committing to joining her friends. “If you want to get to her, you’ll need to go through us.” Twilight said confidently while looking to her friends for support. Applejack and Rarity nodded in agreement while joining the others. Fluttershy stared at her five friends with a stunned expression. She couldn’t believe that they were risking their lives for her with such determination in their eyes. She had seen that level of determination before in Neon’s eyes, but there was something else present among the five mares. They all were expressing the love and compassion they held for her by making sure that she wasn’t harmed. “Girls… I… I don’t know what to say.” Fluttershy stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes. She silently allowed them to fall down her face as she looked around at the five ponies. Twilight and the others smiled warmly at the yellow mare in return. Suddenly, the human held up his free arm and opened his palm. He held his fingers together before swiping his arm sideways in a smacking motion. A collective thwack filled the air as Twilight and the others felt an invisible force slapping them on the side of their face so hard it made them turn their heads. “Ow!” Pinkie and Rarity yelped in surprise while trying to clutch to clutch the throbbing area on their cheek instinctively. While the white unicorn barely managed to bring her hoof to her face, the pink mare was totally restrained by the leather straps on her table. “What the hay was that for?!” Rainbow Dash asked in an angry tone while looking around at her friends. Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were still recovering from the shock of the sudden smack to their face, while Applejack joined the cyan pegasus in glaring at the spirit for striking them. “I’m done playing games with you ponies. I tried toying around with you before, and that didn’t end so favorably for me. I’m cutting whoever the hell I want to cut, and there is nothing any of you can say to stop me. Now shut up and let me work before I cut your tongues out.” The human stated in an annoyed manner before turning his attention back to Fluttershy. Before anyone could even say anything else, the man brought the scalpel up to the yellow mare’s side and roughly dragged it down, causing a bloody incision to be made that sent a burning sensation flooding through her body. “Agghhh!” Fluttershy screamed in pain while rocking her head back against the table. The human ignored the screaming pony and brought the scalpel clear down to her hip before pulling it back and admiring the bloody gash he just created. “Fluttershy!” Twilight and the others yelled in unison. They watched the pegasus writhing in pain with shocked and alarmed expressions. “No… please sto- AHH!” Fluttershy’s plead for mercy was cut short as the man sliced across her stomach sideways. Although the cuts weren’t too deep, they sent waves of agony coursing through her body that made her heart pound in her chest and her breathing speed up. “Leave her alone!” Applejack yelled in refusal to the scene before her. The orange mare and several of the others tried struggling against their bonds again in a desperate attempt to free themselves to save their friend from the violent spirit. The human ignored the cries of the ponies behind him and watched the yellow mare crying and whimpering as her new injuries burned and stung. He brought his hand up and grabbed the timid pony under the chin again. Fluttershy struggled to move her head out of his grasp, but he pushed harder to bring her up to eye level with him. “Now that we’re done playing games… I can show you what I can really do.” The man said before roughly letting the terrified pegasus go and walking over to the tray of cutting implements next to Twilight. Everyone stared at the ghostly human fearfully as he put his bloody scalpel down and picked up a corkscrew. “You might as well get settled in girls… everyone will have their turn in due time.” The man said before shifting his blank expression into a devilish smirk. The ponies cowered in fearful uncertainty as the human started laughing like the mad man he already resembled. Meanwhile, back in the safe room, Sunspot and Peppermint were waiting anxiously for the group of ponies to return. Peppermint was waiting next to the human still lying unconscious on the floor, but Sunspot was surprisingly mobile. Despite her injuries and soreness, the pegasus was slowly and anxiously pacing around the room while looking at the doorway every few minutes to see if the group would return. “Come on guys… it’s been a lot longer than thirty minutes.” Sunspot said in a nervous tone while staring out of the door with rapidly fading hope. “They’re only ten minutes late… maybe they are on their way?” Peppermint reasoned nervously. Although he was trying to be optimistic about the others, even he was getting worried about their safety. “I really hope you’re right Pepper…” Sunspot replied in a worried manner. Despite the not so comforting words of the white stallion, she continued slowly pacing around the room while looking out at the door with growing anxiety. After a few more minutes of waiting, still nothing happened. Nobody came through the door, no lights in the distance gave the pair a glimmer of hope, only darkness and silence pervaded the room. Peppermint watched his teammate with growing concern. She might not have been worried about her injuries, but he certainly was. At this rate, she looked like she was about to pace up the walls and along the ceiling, and that would probably be even worse on her sore ribs than just walking around. “Maybe you should sit down, Sunspot? You wearing a hole in the floor isn’t going to bring them back any faster, so you should probably rest.” The red haired pony suggested in a caring manner. “I can’t just rest, Pepper… not while they are out there.” Sunspot said in a frustrated tone. “Ugh… why did I let them go? I knew something like this was going to happen! I should have just put my hoof down and made them stay.” She said while finally shifting to a seated position and holding her head in her hooves in worry. “If you think they’re in danger… we should probably call Brimstoke and tell him.” Peppermint suggested in a concerned tone. He was just as hopeful that the group was fine as the orange pegasus, but even he was getting worried about their safety. Sunspot glanced over to the white stallion as if to say something, when she suddenly paused and thought about the issue further. Normally she would be against telling her leader about a possible screw up of hers, but there were other lives at stake here. The orange mare swallowed nervously before sighing and forming a determined expression on her face. “You’re right… I’ll do it. Maybe Brimstoke and the others can look for them.” Sunspot said while putting a hoof up to her ear and concentrating on the white stallion and his group. Peppermint watched as the pegasus’s ear was enveloped in a magical aura. She swallowed her last remaining twinges of pride before nervously gathering the courage to openly address the lapse in judgement she made. “Brimstoke, are you there?” Sunspot asked before waiting for a response anxiously. Peppermint put a hoof up to his ear as well and concentrated on the others to listen in on the conversation. “Yeah Sunspot, I’m here. What’s the problem?” Brimstoke’s voice piped into the pairs’ heads. He sounded dull and almost bored, most likely due to the lack of progress on his end. “We have a possible situation here… Twilight and the others went out to search for the last symbol, and they haven’t come back.” Sunspot explained and prepared herself for the inevitable fallout. “What?!” Glimmer Shine’s voice rang out in their heads before the white stallion had a chance to speak. Apparently he had been listening into the conversation as well. “Glimmer, calm down for a minute so we can-” Brimstoke tried to reason with the yellow stallion, but he was quickly interrupted by him again. “Why did you let them leave the safe room?!” Glimmer Shine asked in a shocked tone. “I… I…” Sunspot tried to think of a reason to explain herself, but she shook her head in frustration and decided to skip the excuses to get to the matter at hand. “Look, Twilight was going to go whether I let her or not. I told her to take the guards with her, and she brought two strobes and the iron fire poker with her as well… I thought they would be fine, but I told them to check back in half an hour to be safe.” She explained in a serious manner. “And how long ago was that?” Brimstoke asked in a relatively calm manner, although he was clearly upset as well. “That was forty minutes ago… we haven’t seen them yet, and I’m starting to get worried.” Sunspot explained in a concerned tone. “Ok… just calm down and stay there. We’re on our way back to you now.” Brimstoke instructed in a serious tone. “And don’t go running after them Sunspot. The last thing we need is two sets of lost ponies to look for.” Glimmer Shine stated in a frustrated tone. Sunspot shrugged before letting her hoof drop to her side. She could tell that the yellow stallion wasn’t really as upset at her as he seemed, but it still stung regardless considering she was the one that allowed them to go. “I can’t believe I let this happen.” The pegasus sighed in a gloomy tone before sinking to the floor and lying down on her back. Peppermint watched the forlorn mare with a sympathetic expression. He knew how she must have felt. If it wasn’t for her sore ribs, she would have already been out the door to look for the others. Still, if Twilight and the others were in danger, then they might not have time to wait for Brimstoke and the others to return before searching for them. Sunspot looked up to see the red haired stallion getting up from the floor and walking over to the doorway with a determined expression. She had never seen him with such confident resolve before in their time knowing each other. “Pepper, what are you doing?” Sunspot asked in a surprised tone while sitting up slowly and ignoring the pain in her chest. The white stallion paused and shrugged for a moment before turning to face the pegasus. “I’m going to look for them.” Peppermint stated in a matter of fact way. “What?! You can’t be serious!” Sunspot exclaimed in shock while struggling to get up from the floor. “Just stay there Sunspot… someone needs to stay to look after Tom. Besides, you’re in no condition to be looking for them in this place.” Peppermint said while frowning slightly at the injured mare’s efforts at stopping him. “Brimstoke and the others are coming back right now. There is no need for you to go out there and risk your life!” Sunspot pleaded in a desperate manner while trying to reason with the brave stallion. “Twilight and the others might need help right now! If I can find them before something bad happens to them, then you can chew me out all you want.” Peppermint said in a determined tone. He stepped over to the door and glanced out into the darkness with a twinge of nervousness before flicking on his flashlight and patting his strobe to make sure it was there. “Pepper, I…” Sunspot started to speak, until the white stallion turned to face her one more time with a slight smile on his face. “Don’t follow me Sunspot… I’ll just stop you and bring you back here by force.” Peppermint said before turning and running out of the doorway. “Pepper, don’t!” Sunspot called after the stallion while lurching forward in an attempt at chasing after him. She quickly yelped in pain and clutched her ribs before sighing and looking out at the now empty doorway. “Please be safe…” She muttered before turning her attention to the unconscious human lying on the floor. She hoped that he would somehow wake up in time to keep anyone else from getting hurt. “AGH!” Fluttershy screamed painfully as a butcher’s knife was driven down the side of her leg. Her body oozed blood out of four injuries, with the latest laceration only being another agonizing mark on her form. The human smirked and wiped the blood off of the blade with a dirty white cloth. He admired his handiwork while the yellow mare whimpered and cried as twinges of pain filled her mind. “I must say… I really missed the sight of someone on my table. I’m certainly glad my siblings talked me into going along with their plan to bind our spirits here. I don’t know what I would do without the joy of cutting into a live specimen.” The man said with a slight chuckle. “How can you enjoy the suffering of others so much?! You… you freak!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in an appalled tone while sniffling slightly. Watching and hearing the sensitive pegasus getting tortured was driving the others to tears, with the cyan mare included. “Well… I could give you a long and depressing tale about how my father pushed me through medical school despite years of mental trauma at the hands of my mother, not to mention the practical war that went on in our household between my siblings and my parents about their use of the dark arts… but somehow I think that would just bore you to death.” The human said in a dull yet surprisingly lighthearted tone. “Oww… gah!” Fluttershy whimpered and gritted her teeth as the many wounds on her body stung all at once. Her eyes were red from crying so much and her face was wet for the same reason. While Twilight and the others looked to their friend’s suffering with sympathy and concern, the human looked at it with disappointment. “You know, I expected a lot more out of you after getting done with your green friend. She lasted fifty cuts before even shedding a tear. It’s a shame she got too antsy for her own good… I would have liked to play with her for longer.” The spirit said while shaking his head in discontent. “Don’t talk about Neon like that! She was a better person than you could ever hope to become.” Fluttershy said with a surprising amount of disdain towards the human. She leered at him as best she could given her sensitive nature and the pain she was going through. The man looked down at the yellow mare glaring at him and sighed in annoyance. “Shut up…” He said in a droning tone while slapping the pegasus across the face hard. Fluttershy yelped painfully before shifting her confidence to fear and crying while facing away from the human with her eyes closed. “How dare you!” Rarity yelled angrily while watching the pegasus crying with an appalled expression. She couldn’t believe that she just witnessed her friend getting struck in such a violent manner after merely speaking her mind. “Do you really think you can just hurt whoever you want with no consideration for them whatsoever?!” Rarity added while glaring at the human fiercely. The man paused what he was doing and turned to face the unicorn on the far side of the room. Twilight and the others watched anxiously as the ghost started walking across the room towards the white mare. Rarity felt terrified that she had gotten the spirit’s attention, but she kept her fierce glare up as she glanced behind the human at the pegasus still crying on the other side of the room. “What? You want me to start with you early?” The man asked while pointing the knife in his hand at the chained up unicorn. Rarity gulped nervously before looking over to Fluttershy and the others and gaining courage. “If it means you will leave Fluttershy alone, then yes. Do your worst you ruffian.” The white mare said in a resolute tone while glaring at the ghost fiercely. The man looked down at the knife in his hands and flipped it around slowly. He looked away pensively for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and letting out a sigh. “Alright, if you insist…” The human said before reaching forward and swiftly, yet very roughly, grabbing the unicorn by the head and pushing her head back. He held the knife up to her neck and pressed it against her skin. “NO!” Twilight and the others yelled in unison while watching the man with wide eyes. Most of the group flinched their eyes shut and turned away as they expected to hear the sound of the white mare getting her throat slit. Rarity yelped in surprise and fear as the man stared at her fiercely. She fell back to the floor as she tried to push the knife away. She could only place her hooves against the handle, half because she couldn’t touch the human, and half because she was afraid that she might cut herself if she moved the blade. “You still want me to do my worst?! I’ve had a lot of people on my tables before, and I have done a lot worse things than just cutting people!” The human yelled in the unicorn’s face. The white mare closed her eyes and tried her best to hold absolutely still while every muscle in her body tensed up. “No, please! I have a little sister at home, please don’t kill me!” Rarity begged in an attempt at getting the man to show mercy on her. She felt tears streaming down her face as her neck tingled from having a knife pressed so close to it. The human paused for a moment before suddenly and abruptly taking the knife away from the unicorn’s neck. He slammed it into the wall a mere inch away from her face, causing a loud thump that made Rarity squeal in fright. The white mare cowered and covered her face with her hooves for a moment before peeking out with one eye to see the knife blade embedded into the wall next to her. “There’s always someone at home waiting for you isn’t there?” The man said while taking a few steps away and chuckling playfully. “Hey, how old is your sister anyway? I just love the kiddies… after I’m done with you and I break out of this place with my siblings, maybe I’ll pay her a little visit and show her how much fun I had with her big sis.” The human added in a jovial tone while walking away from the unicorn. “Rarity, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking over at the quivering mess on the floor that was her friend. Rarity glanced up at her friends and sniffled before offering a shaky nod and wiping the tears out of her eyes. Twilight growled in frustration under her breath. She couldn’t stand watching her friends getting physically and emotionally attacked like this. As she struggled in vain to break out of her bonds or channel her magic, she quickly confirmed the information that she already had, which was that she couldn’t do anything. “So, now that the peanut gallery is taken care of…” The human said while walking over to Fluttershy and smirking. He held his left hand behind him with his palm open. Suddenly, the knife impaled into the wall by Rarity ripped itself out and zipped across the room into the spirit’s hand, causing the white mare to flinch in shock and look beside her with a stunned expression. “Let’s get back to business shall we?” The man said while walking up to the pegasus and holding the knife up to her chest. Fluttershy closed her eyes and seized up in terror as the tip of the knife just barely touched her. While the yellow mare was whining and whimpering fearfully, the ghost was looking around at the others while thinking for a moment. “Actually…” He said while taking the knife away and turning around. “I think I’ll start on you for the moment.” The human said while pointing the knife at Twilight and walking up to her. Before the stunned unicorn could process a reaction of fear, the man brought the knife down to her leg and pressed it into her skin. “GAHH!” Twilight screamed out in pain as the man slowly pressed the blade further in. Blood squirted out of the wound as the unicorn tried to move out of the way of the knife to no avail. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully while watching the purple mare suffering. The human pulled the knife out in one swift motion, causing Twilight’s outcry to die out into a series of pained squeaks. Everyone watched in horror as the human started doing to the unicorn what he was doing to the pegasus before. Several minutes went by at an agonizingly slow crawl as Peppermint walked along the hallway in search of the missing group. He was using his locator to try and find them through their heat signatures, but the glowing red vial of sand could only get him so close if he couldn’t find the right hallway to go down or the right room to duck into. “Come on… where are you guys?” Pepper muttered to himself while following the largest heat signature he could find. He was walking down a straight hallway at the moment, but the sand was glowing mostly on the right side of the vial, indicating that he would have to turn at some point. “Pepper, what in the hay do you think you’re doing?!” The sound of his brother’s voice in his head made the white stallion jump in fright. After catching his breath for a moment, he put his hoof up to his ear to answer his sibling. “I guess this means you just made it back?” Peppermint asked with a nervous chuckle and cringing while waiting for his brother to respond. “Yeah, we just made it back… and Sunspot has informed us that you went off by yourself to go and find the others.” Brimstoke interjected himself into the call, perhaps to save the stallion the trouble of listening to his enraged brother. “Sorry guys… I had to do something other than just stand around while the others were in trouble.” Peppermint explained in an earnest tone. “You could have at least waited for us!” Glimmer Shine stated loudly. “Pepper, I want you to hightail it back here right now!” He added with frustration clearly evident in his voice. “Glimmer, you know that I can’t do that. Twilight and the others might need help right now, and I have a head start on finding them. I’ll be safe from the ghosts as long as I stay quiet and keep the charm on me.” Peppermint explained with a determined tone of voice. “But… you… gah!” Glimmer Shine muttered in an upset stupor. He sounded like he was about to have an aneurysm. “Look Peppermint… if you think you can find them, do it. We’ll be making our way to you with our locators. If you find them, call us and wait for further orders.” Brimstoke instructed while leveling with the red haired stallion. “Roger that.” Peppermint said with a satisfied nod. “And Pepper…” Glimmer Shine spoke up in a calmer and more concerned tone. “Yeah?” Peppermint replied with a slight smile. The yellow stallion sighed before collecting himself and continuing. “Just be careful ok?” Glimmer Shine stated with an understanding, yet also worried, tone of voice. “You’re talking to the same guy who triple checks his work when pulling out a splinter... don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Peppermint said with a sincere tone of reassurance. Hearing no other responses from his teammates, the white stallion dropped his hoof to the floor and continued down the hallway. As he reached the end of the hallway he was in and turned right, Peppermint noticed that the signal was getting stronger. The entire front portion of the sand inside the vial was glowing red. Although he still had some distance to cover, he was getting closer. Smiling in satisfaction, the white stallion marched forward down the new corridor. After a few solid minutes of walking, the glowing red portion of the sand in the vial was growing. Judging from the amount of red sand in the bottle, Pepper estimated that whatever the reading belonged to was just up ahead. A shrill cry made the stallion’s ears perked up. It sounded like whoever it belonged to was nearby, and in a great deal of pain. Taking this as a sign to hasten his pace, the white pony trotted forward while being careful to remain quiet. As he got closer and closer to the sound, Peppermint noticed a light coming from a doorway up ahead. He quickly switched off his flashlight and crept closer. Now that he was close enough to hear the sounds coming from the room clearly, he gasped in shock as he recognized several voices coming from inside. “Just leave her alone… please.” The sound of Applejack’s voice carried out into the hallway. The orange mare sounded like she was mortified by something. Another painful cry escaped the room, this time Peppermint recognized the scream to belong to Fluttershy. Whatever was happening inside, it couldn’t be good. “Guys! I found them!” Pepper exclaimed urgently while putting a hoof to his ear and focusing on his teammates. “You did?! Where are you?!” Glimmer Shine asked frantically with a slightly relieved tone of voice. “I just took the hallway straight to its end and turned right. It looks like they are in a room just ahead of me.” Peppermint explained with an anxious inflexion in his voice. “Are they ok?” Sunspot chimed in with a concerned tone. “It sounds like they are being tortured by someone… probably that ghost that took Fluttershy and Neon.” Peppermint said uneasily. Bringing up Neon’s killer gave him an unsettling feeling in his stomach as he realized the terrible implications that Twilight and the others were being held captive by a vengeful spirit capable of murder. “Pepper, listen to me very carefully. I want you to stay back and wait for us.” Brimstoke instructed in a serious tone. “What? No way! They might be dead by the time you get here.” Peppermint stated in refusal to the stallion’s orders. “Peppermint, don’t you set hoof in that room. You might be one of the dumbest and bravest ponies I know, but you are still my brother, and I know when you are about to get yourself into some deep trouble!” Glimmer Shine said in an urgent tone while trying to convince his brother to stay put. “Glimmer Shine is right Pepper. Look… Tom just woke up and healed me. He’s in rough shape still, but even he is more likely to beat that ghost alone than you.” Sunspot said in a pleading tone. “Pepper, please listen to the others. You’re going to get yourself hurt if you go in there. Just wait for us, please. We’ll be there in a few minutes… just please wait.” Glitterball practically begged the white stallion to refrain from doing anything rash. Peppermint paused for a moment while thinking about his teammates’ concerns. They were only trying to protect him like they always have, but there were more important things to worry about than his own safety at the moment. “Sorry guys, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to them and I could have stopped it.” Pepper stated with a resolute tone while dropping his hoof to the floor and moving forward. “Pepper!” Glimmer Shine yelled in an urgent tone in a last attempt at stopping the white stallion. Once his brother gave up on trying to reason with him, Peppermint crept down the hallway while hugging the wall. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others were still at the mercy of the sadistic ghost. The human had shifted his attention to the others for long enough to give them a few cuts, but he was mostly focused on Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus wasn’t covered from head to hoof in wounds, but she was in bad shape from the look of the many bloody cuts and stab wounds she had. “Ugh… guh…” Fluttershy groaned in pain as the man made another cut down her front leg. Her body was starting to feel numb from all of the blood she had lost, but the knife still stung as it harshly sliced into her skin. “Hang in there Fluttershy.” Twilight said with a concerned frown while watching the pegasus. She tried her best to offer a reassuring expression as the yellow mare weakly turned her head to look at her. “We’ll get you out of this… Ah promise.” Applejack said in as much of a sincere tone as she could manage. The others weren’t even sure if the orange mare believed her own words. The human paused what he was doing and chuckled before briefly glancing at the ponies behind him. To think that they still had faith in their survival was laughable at best. There was absolutely no hope for them escaping this room alive. “I wouldn’t make promises that you can’t keep… what kind of friend would you be if you got her hopes up that she was going to live and then I killed her?” The man said with a lighthearted smirk that came off as much more sinister as he probably intended. “You hurt her and you’ll have to answer to me.” Rainbow Dash said in a threatening tone while leering at the human. “Heh… you are a funny one aren’t you?” The man said before returning his attention to the yellow mare. Rainbow Dash and the others turned away as the ghost made another cut across the pegasus’s chest. Fluttershy couldn’t even bring herself to scream anymore and instead resorted to a painful whimper and a series of sobs. Suddenly, the ponies caught a blur of movement over by the doorway. Rainbow Dash and Twilight were the first ones to see it, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked to the door as their friends’ eyes widened in surprise. Everyone had to stifle a joyous outcry as they noticed the familiar face of Peppermint poking his head through the door. The stallion looked at the ghostly human at the front of the room before looking around at the captive mares and slowly walking into the room. “I’m gonna help you.” Pepper silently mouthed to the four ponies while creeping through the doorway and into the room. Twilight and the others nervously glanced to the human with his back to them before nodding eagerly at the red haired pony. Rarity turned her head as she noticed someone moving beside her. She had to bring her hoof over her mouth to catch a surprised gasp as she saw the white stallion sneaking into the room. Peppermint silently hushed the unicorn with a nervous expression while glancing to the spirit at the far end of the room. Rarity nodded frantically before controlling her emotions and silently watching the stallion’s next move. Everyone watched as the red haired pony made every effort to be as silent as a ghost. A commendable effort considering he was trying to sneak up on an actual ghost. Taking things one step at a time, Pepper crept closer and closer to the center of the room while eyeing down at his vest where his strobe was kept. Fluttershy suddenly caught a glimpse of the white stallion as he slowly walked through the room. The human seemed to be genuinely unaware of his presence, and he was using this to his advantage. Even though the man cut her again across her side, she had new faith that she would be rescued. All eyes in the room save for the human’s were glued to Peppermint as he inched along. The charm on his vest was apparently working perfectly, because the spirit still hadn’t caught onto his presence. Deciding not to test his luck, Peppermint paused and slowly reached for the clip that he held his strobe on. Twilight and the others sweated nervously as they watched the stallion reaching for the clip and fumbling with the clasp on it. Finally, the clip opened up and Peppermint slid the small vial off of it. A quiet metallic clatter sounded out as the pony brought the vial up into a shooting position. He looked up nervously to see if the human heard him before preparing to fire. Just as suddenly as she heard the disastrous clatter of the stallion’s strobe, Fluttershy saw the human shifting his eyes to the side suspiciously. She looked down to Pepper and pleaded him with her eyes to fire and blast the spirit into oblivion. A loud buzz filled the air as Peppermint fired a blast of energy at the spirit. Twilight and the others watched in stunned silence as the bolt of light flew through the air, and completely missed the ghostly man as he dodged to the side. Fluttershy flinched from surprise as she felt the ball of light softly hit her and burst into sparkles. Peppermint gasped in surprise as the human spun around and glared at him. He raised the strobe again and fired off a volley of rounds at the spirit. The man swiftly dodged each shot fired by the stallion, all the while keeping an irritated expression on his face. Finally, the man swung his hand to the side. Peppermint felt a powerful force slapping the strobe out of his hooves. The vial flew across the room until it landed and rolled to a rest somewhere by Rarity’s feet. Although it was close by, the unicorn could barely move from her position chained to the pipe to reach the vial. Before anyone could react, the human darted forward and grabbed Peppermint by the neck. While the red haired pony choked and grunted while feverishly trying to pull the human’s ethereal hand away, the man lifted the full grown pony into the air and held him at arm’s length. “Did you really think that I would be interrupted a second time?!” The man yelled fiercely while clutching the knife tightly in his hand, and the pony’s neck even tighter in the other. “Hrk… gah…” Peppermint fought for every breath he took as the human’s grip tightened around him. Twilight and the others were shocked to see their savior being held in such a dangerous predicament. “Let him go!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely at the human while pulling on her legs again. “Don’t hurt him!” Pinkie yelled in a terrified manner while watching the scene unfold in front of her with wide eyes. “Hurt him? I’m not gonna hurt him… I’m sure he won’t feel a thing after I choke the life out of his body!” The human stated while putting a lot more effort into squeezing the white pony’s neck. Peppermint croaked in pain as his face started to turn blue. He was kicking his legs and squirming around while trying to fight the spirit, but his struggles were getting weaker by the second. “No! Please leave him alone!” Fluttershy pleaded in a distraught tone. The human temporarily loosened his grip and turned his head to face the bloody pegasus. “And what would you suggest I do with him?” The man asked curiously. “Please… just put him down.” Fluttershy said with tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn’t handle any more stress on her already shattered mind. The human glanced around at the six concerned mares around him. He then glanced to the white stallion gasping for air in his grip. Taking a brief look down at the knife still in his hand, the man smirked and chuckled slightly. “Alright, I’ll put him down.” The ghost said with a sinisterly calm inflexion in his voice. Twilight and the others briefly entertained a small amount of hope that the man had a heart after all, and that they had somehow pleaded to his sense of pity. This assumption was quickly shattered as the unthinkable happened. The man drew his arm back and violently snapped it forward, plunging the knife into Peppermint’s stomach region. A startled cry of pain escaped the stallion’s mouth as he cringed and clutched his new injury. Before anyone could react further, the human pulled the knife out and jammed it back in slightly lower. “AGH!” Peppermint screamed as loud as he could with the man still holding onto his neck. The six ponies stared on in horror as blood sprayed and gushed out of the wounds in the red haired pony. “Peppermint!” Twilight yelled in terror and dismay as she watched the human continuing his bloody onslaught. The man would plunge the knife into the stallion’s chest or stomach, pull it out, and then repeat. Each strike he made only gathered more speed and blood on the floor as the wet sounds of a knife stabbing into flesh filled the air. Peppermint blinked rapidly as he groaned from pain at each strike. A trickle of blood erupted from his mouth as a forced cough made its way to the surface. The white stallion seemed to be in a daze of agony and suffering that numbed him out faster than anyone could have expected. “Stop it!” Everyone in the room cried out at once. Finally, the human ceased his attacks. Blood poured onto the floor, either from the knife or from Peppermint’s shredded body. His entire chest and stomach was a bloody mess of stab wounds and dangling bits of flesh. “I said I would put him down… I didn’t say he would be alright when I did it.” The human said with an amused chuckle. The man glanced at the wounded pony in his grasp. Peppermint’s head was slumped forward and he had a drowsy look in his eyes. A few painful moans escaped his mouth, giving some sort of indication that he was still alive. The human grunted from exertion as he tossed the limp stallion across the room. Peppermint sailed through the air and hit a wall before plopping to the floor in between Rarity and Rainbow Dash. The red haired pony offered little more than a brief whimper of pain as a sign that he even felt the impact. Twilight and the others were speechless as they stared at the stallion with a puddle of blood forming underneath him. Their jaws were quivering and their bodies were shaking as their hearts exploded in their chests. “Pepper! Can you hear me?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a pleading tone while staring at the stallion’s relatively motionless body. “No… no… no!” Fluttershy shook her head and wailed mournfully as another pony got brutally attacked right in front of her. She cried loudly as new tears began forming in her eyes and a series of sobs crowded her throat. “I said stop crying!” The human roared angrily while quickly walking over to the yellow mare. Whatever the reason, the man was visibly upset and angered far more than the ponies had seen him before. “If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to slit every one of your friends’ throats and tape your eyelids open so you have to watch!” The man yelled while pointing with his knife around the room. He got up in the pegasus’s face and watched her as she continued crying. Fluttershy couldn’t control her emotions any longer. The shock of watching Peppermint getting stabbed in front of her, and the human threatening her friends’ lives and screaming at her was too much for her to handle. Even though she realized that she had to stop crying, she couldn’t prevent herself from sobbing and whining further. “Or how about I kill you huh? You’re getting to be a little more trouble than you’re worth, so how about I just jam this knife in your neck and be done with it?” The ghost asked in a serious tone. He grabbed the yellow mare’s chin and raised her head up to eye level while looking straight at her. Somehow, the sight of the bawling pegasus was only making him more upset, and Fluttershy certainly wasn’t calming down with his threatening demands. Suddenly, Rarity looked over to Peppermint as he groaned softly. She was surprised to see the stallion slowly pulling himself along the floor. He was barely making any progress, but he was trying his hardest. The white unicorn glanced to her feet and gasped in revelation as she saw the strobe lying just a few inches away. Rarity’s chains jingled as she struggled to maneuver herself closer to the vial. Her entire front half was fixed in place due to her front legs’ proximity to the pipe she was chained to. Frustrated at her lack of progress, the white mare dropped to the floor and scooted her lower legs closer to the vial. After stretching the limits of the chain and her muscles’ reach, the unicorn finally got into a viable position to reach the vial with her leg. Taking a quick glance over to Fluttershy and realizing the urgency of the situation, Rarity took a deep breath before gently kicking the vial in Peppermint’s direction. The strobe rolled along the ground before miraculously coming to a stop next to the white stallion. Peppermint slowly looked over to the vial next to him. He reached forward with his bloodstained hooves and grabbed the strobe as best he could with his shaking arms. Rolling onto his side, the stallion slowly pointed the weapon at the spirit and panted heavily while fighting against his injuries to function. Another magical burst filled the air as a bolt of light sailed across the room. The human spun around just in time to watch the ball of energy crashing into his body and exploding on contact. The man let out a scream of agony as his form violently flickered and smoked. Finally, the ghost vanished from sight as his voice distorted and faded. The room was deathly silent as the last of the human’s screams echoed and died out. The ponies were left to process what just happened and collect their jumbled emotions into something that they could understand. Finally, their attention turned to the stallion bleeding on the floor as he let out a wet cough. “Pepper... oh my gosh! Peppermint!” Twilight exclaimed in a distraught tone as she stared at the wounded pony on the floor. Peppermint let the bloodstained strobe roll off to the side and groaned painfully as he started dragging himself forward. The six mares watched with concerned expressions as the red haired pony slowly pulled himself along, leaving a trail of blood behind him. “What is it, darling?” Rarity asked in a sorrowful tone as the stallion got close to her. Peppermint fished around in his vest for a moment before pulling out a small key. “H-here… take… take t-this.” Pepper said weakly while trying to reach up to the white unicorn’s hoof cuffs. After failing to keep his arm steady enough to fit the key into the keyhole, the red haired pony let his arm fall to his side as Rarity gently took the key from him. Rarity quickly unlocked the cuffs binding her hooves together and let them clatter to the floor. She channeled energy to her horn and marveled as it lit up a brilliant purple before turning her attention to the task at hand. The chain holding the unicorn in place lit up in a purple aura before shattering into pieces. Rarity wasted no time before levitating the key over to Twilight and unlocking her cuffs. Once her own magic had been restored, the purple mare smiled in relief before freeing herself from her straps. As her friend slid off of the table and rushed over to free the others, Rarity turned her attention to Peppermint. “Don’t worry Pepper, we’re going to fix you up.” The white mare stated in a sincere tone while flashing a smile at the injured pony. Peppermint smiled weakly in return before letting his head fall back limply. Rarity gently lifted the stallion up with her magic and leaned him against the far wall. After setting him down, she began rifling through his vest to find any bandages or medical supplies he might have. “Sweet Celestia… are you ok Pepper?” Applejack asked as she trotted up to the bloody pony on the floor. Rarity looked up to see the rest of her friends walking up to join her. Although Fluttershy needed help walking due to her own blood loss, even she had a concerned expression on her face as she gathered around the red haired pony. “I’m not doing too good… *Cough*” Peppermint coughed as blood dripped down the side of his mouth. The entire front of his vest was covered in the crimson fluid, making it hard for the white unicorn to find any bandages, or anything else for that matter. “Just hang in there Pepper. We’re going to take care of you.” Twilight explained in a sincere tone. She looked over to see how Rarity’s progress was going, only to see the white mare pulling a bundle of bandages out of a pouch on the stallion’s vest. “You lift him, and I’ll wrap the bandages around.” Rarity said while looking to Twilight for assistance. “Right.” Twilight replied with a nod before lighting up her horn and wrapping her magic around the injured pony. Despite the unicorn’s efforts to be gentle, Peppermint groaned painfully as his body was lifted off the ground slightly. He cringed in pain as Rarity tightly wrapped the bandages around his chest and stomach. “I know this hurts darling, but just stay with us and it’ll be over soon.” Rarity said in what she hoped would be a comforting tone. “Heh… Glimmer is going to be so mad at me. He t-told me not to come h-here.” Peppermint stated with a small chuckle before falling into a fit of violent coughing. Rarity used one of the spare cloths to wipe the blood off of the stallion’s mouth after he was done. “Pepper… you saved our lives. I don’t know what to say… how can I thank you enough knowing that you got hurt to save us?” Fluttershy asked in a sad tone. The yellow pegasus had tears in her eyes as she stared at the wounded pony. Twilight and the others felt tears building up as the somber situation got to them as well. “That’s what I became a medic for… to help people. *Cough* I don’t care if I get caught up in the cross fire if I help someone in the end.” Peppermint explained with a slight smile on his face. He almost had a peaceful sort of air about him as he looked around at the six mares. “Hey… could you guys tell the others I said I’m sorry?” Peppermint asked in a sincere tone while struggling to stay awake. “We’ll tell them… but it won’t come to that. You can hold out until the others get here. Maybe Glitterball can patch you up with her magic?” Twilight suggested in a sad tone while trying to hide her building tears. She tried to think of something she could do to help the stallion, but any healing spells she knew weren’t nearly powerful enough to fix wounds like his. “I don’t think so…” Peppermint said in a quiet tone. Twilight and the others gasped as the stallion slowly closed his eyes. The white stallion let out a final sigh as his body heaved and his head drooped to the side. Everyone stood still in shock as they processed the image before them. The quiet sobs that the ponies were holding back were now building as they stared at the stallion with the hope that he would wake up again. “Pepper…?” Twilight asked in a sorrowful tone while reaching forward and checking the stallion’s pulse. As she drew her arm back and started shaking, the unicorn looked down and let out a mournful cry. Everyone else looked away and started crying as well as the purple mare’s reaction confirmed what they didn’t want to accept. “Guh… *Sob*… why?! Why did this have to happen?!” Rainbow Dash walked away from the group and stomped her hoof on the ground before sitting down and looking to the floor. She tried to prevent herself from breaking down into a fit of despair, but no matter how much she didn’t want her friends to see her like this, the cyan mare couldn’t stop crying. Applejack removed her hat and held it against her chest while weeping silently. Even with her tough cow pony exterior, the orange mare was crying from the sight in front of her. She couldn’t stop thinking that she or one of her friends would have taken the red haired pony’s place if he hadn’t shown up. She deeply wished that this didn’t have to happen, but she also felt a strong feeling of gratitude towards the stallion. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was holding onto Rarity tightly for comfort. The white mare could feel her pink friend trembling as she wept loudly into her shoulder, not that she was doing much better. Tears flowed out of the unicorn’s eyes as she sobbed and stared at Peppermint’s body. She had never experienced such grief and sadness before. Hearing about Neon’s death had made the two ponies sad, but watching Peppermint expiring in front of them shattered their worlds. Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting next to each other while staring at the bloody corpse in front of them. Their bodies were shaking as they sobbed openly while trying to process the empty feeling coursing through them. For both mares this was the second death they had witnessed up close. For Twilight, her first had been Daisychain back at the hospital, and for Fluttershy, it was Neon Streak a mere few hours ago. Both of them had twice witnessed someone drawing their last breath, and both of them felt hollow and broken on the inside. After a few minutes had gone by, the loud wails of lament shared by the group had died down, replaced by the occasional sniffle and quiet sob. Everyone had stopped crying enough to get up and walk away if they wanted, but nobody wanted to move. The ponies just remained in a circle around their fallen comrade and either silently let the last few tears out of their system or quietly wept to themselves. “*Sniff*… *Snivel*… *Hic*” Twilight wiped her eyes on her arm and looked down at it. Her fur was soaked from how much she had been crying and rubbing her eyes, but there was also a single cut along her front leg. Seeing the gash made her wince painfully among other things, but it also made her think about what she was up against. If anyone else got caught by the ghosts, they would be tortured and killed in an instant and there was nothing that could be done if they were alone. She had to get her and her friends out of the mansion if it was the last thing she did. “W-what do we… *Hic*… what do we d-do now?” Pinkie asked in a trembling tone of hopelessness. Her normally cheery attitude had died with Peppermint, and only sadness and despair remained. “We need to get out of here and find the others…” Twilight said while stifling her last few sobs to be heard clearly. Her voice was still trembling as well, but she sounded like she had committed to her plan. The purple mare slowly got up and walked over to the door. She then paused before the dark opening and turned to her friends. “But… but w-we can’t just leave him here.” Rainbow Dash said in a sad tone while looking over to Peppermint. She closed her eyes and averted her gaze before she broke down crying again. “I know… I know we can’t, but there is nothing we can do right now.” Twilight explained while putting a reassuring hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We need to get out of here first. After we get rid of the ghosts, we can come back and get him and Neon out of here.” She said while trying her hardest to hold back the sadness still gnawing at her. Rainbow Dash looked down sadly for a moment. She then glanced around to her friends. Although they were still gloomy and wet with tears, their faces expressed how much they wanted to leave. Taking another look to the bloody stallion against the wall, the cyan mare realized how much they really needed to live. If they didn’t escape with their lives, then Peppermint will have died in vain, and she wasn’t about to let that happen. “You’re right… let’s get out of here. We need to find the others and tell…” Rainbow Dash paused as the sight of flashlights bouncing up and down in the doorway and the sound of multiple footsteps coming from down the corridor drew her attention away. Everyone got up and looked to the door as the footsteps got closer. Before long, the familiar forms of their friends burst in through the doorway. Sunspot, Tom, Glitterball, and Brimstoke were present, but Glimmer Shine led the charge into the room as he saw the group of mares. “Girls! We’re here. Where is…” Glimmer Shine’s voice trailed off as he looked around and noticed blood covering the six mares. There was also a trail of blood leading to behind the six ponies. Twilight and the others contemplated blocking, the stallion’s view of the horrible truth that was leaning up against the wall behind them, but the yellow pony quickly walked around them before they could get a chance. Glimmer Shine stopped dead in his tracks as he saw what had made the sad mares so distraught. A startled gasp escaped his mouth as he stared at his brother’s broken and bloody body. Sunspot and the others entered the room and walked forward until they too saw what had frozen their yellow friend. “Oh my gosh…” Glitterball exclaimed in shock while recoiling backwards a few steps. Brimstoke and Sunspot were just as shocked by the sight before them, but they were more concerned with the state of their teammate in front of them. “Glimmer… I-” Sunspot tried to put her arm around the stallion to lead him away from the terrible sight before him, but Glimmer Shine just shoved her arm away before slowly walking forward towards his brother. Everyone watched as Glimmer Shine walked forward with a shocked expression still frozen on his face. His legs were trembling and tears were already welling up in his eyes as he walked over to his brother and sat down. He didn’t even care about the pool of blood beneath him, he just reached forward and grabbed the limp stallion by the shoulders. “Pepper…?” Glimmer Shine spoke in a broken tone. He gently shook the red haired pony in disbelief before lowering his head and choking up. Twilight and the others watched sadly as the yellow stallion pulled Peppermint close and rested his head on his shoulder. “Pepper! Wake up… please!” Glimmer Shine pleaded in between sobs. Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned and walked out into the corridor with Brimstoke and the others. Sunspot stayed behind, either in shock from learning about her friend’s death, or to comfort the grieving stallion. As they walked out of the room, Twilight and Rainbow Dash moaned sadly in an attempt at keeping their emotions in check. They couldn’t handle watching Glimmer Shine mourning over the loss of his sibling. As the two mares looked around, they saw Pinkie Pie, Brimstoke, Glitterball, and Tom. Most of the group had tears running down their face. Glitterball was openly weeping while sitting up against the wall. Brimstoke and Tom weren’t crying, but they had distraught expressions on their face that told of how much they were hurting on the inside. Brimstoke switched between looking at Glitterball and peering inside the room to see the group of ponies trying to offer comfort to Glimmer Shine. It pained him to know that he had lost two of his teammates so suddenly. The white stallion had to physically prevent himself from breaking down like his teammates. “What happened?” Brimstoke asked in a somber tone while looking to Twilight and her two friends. Taking a quick look to the two mares beside her, the unicorn figured that it would be best if she explained. “We were attacked by a ghost while we were searching for the symbol. He somehow dodged everything we threw at him. After he knocked us all out, he took us here and started torturing us.” Twilight explained before taking in a deep breath to gather her emotions. “Peppermint snuck in and tried to shoot the ghost with his strobe. He must of heard him somehow… he dodged the blast and knocked the strobe away. After that…” She paused and looked down sadly. She tried to gather the strength to explain the rest of it, until she heard Tom walking away. Everyone looked over to see the human walking through another of the doorways with an upset expression. He groaned in frustration before making it out of earshot. Even though the area was pitch black outside of the light provided by the group, the human didn’t seem to care that he was walking into darkness. “What’s wrong with him?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone of confusion while looking to the others for their opinion on the matter. Everyone seemed clueless as to the odd behavior of the human, everyone except for Twilight that is. The purple mare had seen that expression on the boy’s face before. It was back at the hospital after he learned that Daisychain and Patches had died. Even so, he seemed to be much more upset this time as he stormed away from the prying eyes of the confused ponies. “I’ll go check on him.” Twilight said while lighting up her horn and walking into the other room after the human. As she entered the room and looked around, Twilight noticed that this room had several shelves and boxes lying around. Hearing a loud clatter in front of her, the unicorn looked ahead to see the human kicking a small box over in frustration. “Damnit!” Tom exclaimed in a distraught tone. He seemed to be venting whatever anger and sadness he felt at the time, but he was doing it a lot more violently than the purple mare had seen before. The human put his hands on his head and walked around while making frustrated and even somewhat sorrowful groans. “Tom…?” Twilight called the boy’s name in a concerned tone. She had never seen him acting so emotionally before. He seemed to be shaking from frustration and despair, almost like he didn’t know how to process the feelings inside of him. Tom turned to see that the unicorn had followed him and growled in frustration before turning away. He seemed to have a strong dislike for her seeing him act like this, but he was too unstable to care at the moment. “Damnit… it’s all my fault!” The human stated in a dreadful and agitated tone while walking over to the far wall of the room to distance himself from the purple pony. “What’s your fault Tom?” Twilight asked in a softer tone while hesitantly stepping forward. She knew that the human probably wouldn’t lash out at her, but she was unsure of what he would do at this point. “Everything… all of this! Luna is missing… Neon died… and now Pepper is dead too, and it’s all my fault!” Tom said while kicking the wall as hard as he could. The loud thud that resulted gave the impression that the strike would have hurt the boy’s foot, but he didn’t seem to care. “Tom… none of that is your fault, why would you think it is?” Twilight asked in a confused tone while walking closer to the human and sitting down next to him. While the boy breathed heavily while sitting on a box, the unicorn put a hoof on his shoulder to try and offer him some comfort. “I should have tried harder to beat that damn ghost… if I didn’t get captured and tortured, I could have saved them and stopped a lot of the other deaths that have happened tonight. Gah!” Tom clenched his fist and shifted around uneasily. Twilight could feel the human tightening his muscles and shaking from either rage or sadness. “You don’t know if you could have done anything… you couldn’t possibly know that. Besides, you tried your best. That’s all anyone could possibly ask of you.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while smiling at the human. She was confused to hear the slayer crying silently while trying to avoid looking at her. “That’s the problem… I did try my best. I fought that ghost with everything I had, and it still beat me. I’m supposed to be strong enough to fight evil so others don’t get hurt, but I couldn’t even beat a stupid ghost!” Tom stated in a distraught tone. Before Twilight could try to comfort him any further, he got up and walked away from her again. “Tom, I…” The purple mare paused as she noticed the human crying louder. Tom leaned up against the wall with his hands. He banged his fist against the wall a few times before lowering his head and weeping silently. “Damnit… why was I chosen?! Why couldn’t my friend have become the slayer?! He would know how to keep you safe right now.” Tom yelled in a distraught tone before turning around and sliding to a seated position. The human hid his head in his hands while trying to prevent the unicorn from seeing him cry. Twilight stared at the weeping boy on the floor with a sad expression of sympathy. She couldn’t imagine how he had shouldered the weight of such important duties at such a young age for so long, but it was all crashing down on him now. “Tom… you need to calm down.” Twilight said in a soft tone while walking over to the human and sitting down next to him. “Why…?” Tom asked while averting his eyes from the unicorn. He was surprised to feel the purple mare gently pulling his arm away to reveal his face. She had a sympathetic expression that told of how much she cared for him on her face. “You said that a slayer needs to stay strong emotionally, or it could negatively affect their health. If willpower is what is keeping you alive, I don’t think this is doing any good for you.” Twilight explained in a compassionate tone. “I don’t want to lose you just because you think everything is your fault… because it’s not. I’ve already told you that you can’t take responsibility for everything. Slayer or not, that is no way to live a healthy life.” She said while putting her hoof on his shoulder gently. “But… what am I going to do? What are we… going to do?” Tom asked in a sad tone. He was still concerned about what he was going to do to help the ponies escape the mansion. If he couldn’t fight the ghosts at full strength, what hope did he have of fighting them in his weakened state? “Right now, you’re going to come with me so we can get back to the others. To be honest… I don’t know what we’re going to do next. Now that we’re all together, we should probably look for Luna and then find that symbol. But I do know this… whatever we’re going to do, we’re going to do it together. We all care about you Tom… Don’t just assume that all of the weight has to go on your shoulders alone.” Twilight said in a sincere tone while smiling at the human. Tom looked down and sniffled for a moment while thinking about the unicorn’s words. He seemingly took a minute to process his thoughts and emotions before looking away briefly. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve and got the last of his sniffles out of his system before standing up. He looked down at the purple mare and managed to flash a weak smile. “Ok… I think I’m better now. Let’s get going… I’m sure that Glimmer Shine is having a worse time than me right now, so we should be there to help him if he needs it.” Tom stated while turning his attention back to the others. “Right.” Twilight replied with a nod of agreement. She got up and walked alongside the human towards the exit to the room. As they stepped out into the hallway, the pair noticed Brimstoke comforting Glitterball. The white unicorn was sitting on the floor with a mournful expression on her face. Taking a quick glance into the room, the two saw that everyone else was standing in front of Peppermint and trying to offer their support to Glimmer Shine. “We’re trying to think of our next move…” Brimstoke explained to the pair while looking at the group in the room. “Maybe we should look for Princess Luna?” Twilight suggested in a concerned tone. She was more worried about the alicorn than ever now that she knew from experience how strong the ghost in the basement was. “That’s what we were thinking… but we can’t do anything until Glimmer Shine is ready to leave.” Brimstoke said with a gloomy sigh while looking to the yellow stallion with a sympathetic expression. “Maybe I should talk to him?” Glitterball suggested while wiping the tears from her eyes. “No, I’ll do it. I think I can get him to move on… at least until we get out of this mansion.” Brimstoke said while getting up and walking into the room. Twilight and the others followed the stallion as he walked up to the others and stood in front of the grieving pony. “Glimmer… we need to get out of here.” Brimstoke said in a sympathetic manner while glancing to the lifeless pony to his right. “I know…” Glimmer Shine said in a sad tone while staring at his brother’s body. “I’m just not sure if I can leave him.” He said while trying to hold himself together. “We’ll be back for him… we can get him out of here once we get rid of those ghosts.” Brimstoke said in an understanding tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the yellow stallion’s shoulder. “Ok… I think I’m ready to go.” Glimmer Shine said while holding his attention on the bloody pony on the floor. Despite his words, it was easy to tell that he didn’t want to leave. “Come on everyone, let’s get going. We need to find the princess and get out of here.” Brimstoke said while ushering everyone out of the room. Twilight and the others glanced at Glimmer Shine with sad expressions as they walked away. Everyone looked to Peppermint one last time before lowering their heads sadly as they exited the room. Glimmer Shine stared at Peppermint mournfully while the others waited for him. He finally managed to tear his gaze away from his brother and walk away. He slowly walked to the others and joined them as they headed down the hallway.
Chapter 89: Searching for a Way OutAn uneasy silence hung in the air as the group marched forward through the darkened corridors. Nobody was able to overcome their feelings of dread and sadness for long enough to start up a conversation. The group merely followed Brimstoke aimlessly as they dwelled on what just happened, and what they were doing. Their goal was clear enough, they had to find Princess Luna and escape, but their odds of succeeding were as shady and unclear as the darkness around them. Following the path that led further into the basement and into the unknown, everyone darted their eyes around anxiously. If not to find a sign of the princess or the elusive red symbol, then to scan for any sign that they were being watched by one of the three spirits. Twilight glanced around at her friends to see how they were holding up. As expected, Glimmer Shine was sullenly walking off to the side. Fluttershy was looking down sadly while trembling slightly, as if she were trying to compose herself. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were walking alongside the yellow mare, trying to offer her comfort in some way. Despite their best efforts at appearing strong, even they were dealing with an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Thankfully however, any wounds they had received from the ghost were healed by either Tom or Glitterball, so the baggage they were carrying was purely emotional. Twilight shrugged sadly before returning her attention forward. She couldn’t believe that things had come to this point. Numerous guards and two of their close friends had died since they came to the mansion. If the purple unicorn and her friends couldn’t find the final symbol to suppress the ghosts, then they might perish as well. “How are you holding up?” Tom asked while glancing back to the purple mare with a concerned expression. Twilight had to take a minute to gather herself to even pretend to smile in response. She had just survived a ghost trying to torture her and her friends, not to mention witnessing Peppermint getting brutally stabbed and slowly dying. “Umm… about as well as can be expected. Heh…” Twilight tried her best to brighten her own spirit. “How about you?” She asked curiously while thinking back to the way the human was acting before. “I’m doing better, but I’ll be really happy once we find the princess and get out of here.” Tom stated while looking around uneasily. Twilight nodded in silent agreement while scanning her head around the area. Meanwhile at the front of the group, Brimstoke and the others were trying to find out where to go next. The white stallion was holding up his locator and scanning it back and forth. The thin line of red light that covered the sand at the side of the vial was barely an indicator of which path to take. “Got anything?” Sunspot asked curiously while leaning closer to look at the stallion’s locator. “I’m picking up something in this direction, but it’s too far away to pinpoint.” Brimstoke explained with an annoyed shrug. Every time he waved the vial to the side, the red light would shift to the other side too fast to determine where the signal was coming from. “Do you think we should turn here?” Glitterball asked while glancing down a fork in the hallway coming up on the right. Sunspot and Brimstoke tried their best to interpret the readings from both of their locators. “Your guess is as good as mine Glitter… I can’t make heads or tails of this. Maybe we can get closer if we head down there?” Sunspot pondered while shining her flashlight down the hallway. There were more open doorways leading into rooms, just like all of the other hallways they had seen. “Let’s see if there is another fork further down. We should make sure we get as close as possible before wandering off.” Brimstoke suggested while turning to look down the corridor in front of the group. “Whatever gets us out of here quicker is fine by me.” Glimmer Shine said in a dull tone while walking down the hallway ahead of the group. The yellow stallion seemed to be uninterested in the outside world. So much so that he didn’t seem to care about walking down a dark hallway on his own with ghosts on the loose. The others shared a concerned glance with each other before walking to catch up with their friend. Twilight and the others watched anxiously as the team of ponies checked their locators feverishly, waiting for the red light to become solid enough to warrant them changing direction. They silently worried that the life signature that they were following wouldn’t even lead them to the princess. A few of the ponies briefly entertained the fear that they would somehow find the ghosts at the end of the trail, but such an idea was just silly paranoia as the locator was designed to find living things. The soft noises of the house creaking around them were enough to make the more sensitive members of the group dart their heads around fearfully, while the others merely looked around uneasily. Everyone felt like they were walking towards some sort of unseen danger that was just waiting to jump out at them from a darkened room. Finally, as the group looked up they noticed another fork in the hallway coming up. Everyone gathered around and peered down the hallway as Brimstoke and the others scrutinized their locators. The red light on the sand was more definable in the direction they were pointing, but whatever the source was still had some distance to the left. “I think we should walk this way now. Whoever this is is probably in a room further down there.” Brimstoke suggested while pointing the vial between the two directions. “I don’t know… maybe it’s down this way. Maybe there’s a room that leads into another room or something.” Sunspot said while walking a little further down the straight path. “This place is pretty confusing… what do you think guys?” Brimstoke asked while looking to Glitterball and Glimmer Shine for their opinions. “I think you’re right… we should probably go right. It looks like we might overshoot it if we go any further straight.” Glitterball said in an uncertain tone. She glanced between her teammates’ vials and compared them to her own reading. “I don’t know guys… I don’t want to make the wrong choice and spend another ten minutes walking in circles.” Sunspot said uneasily while looking to the others. She frowned uncomfortably while thinking about the possibility of Twilight and the others getting hurt if they ran into trouble. “I think we should go right.” Tom spoke up from the back of the group with an uneasy tone that the others failed to pick up on. “Well… maybe Sunspot is right? We could find another way around further ahead if it doesn’t work out.” Rarity suggested in an attempt at getting a compromise. “Thank you Rarity.” Sunspot said with a pleased smirk while glancing between her teammates. “No guys, I don’t think you understand… I really think we should go r- *Gasp*” Tom was interrupted mid-sentence as a puff of blue mist escaped his mouth, filling the air with a harsh and chilling sound. Shortly after the human’s outburst, a collective buzz filled the air as Brimstoke and his teammates’ other locators lit up. The liquid in the vials was glowing in the direction of the straight hallway while buzzing and vibrating against their vests. Everyone quickly went on full alert as they directed their attention down the corridor in front of them. Sunspot backed up a few steps as another set of echoing footsteps started coming down the hall. Fluttershy cowered nervously behind her friends as they all stared into the darkness at the edge of the flashlights’ reach. Twilight and Glitterball lit up their horns in preparation to defend themselves as the others reached for their strobes. “What is it?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while holding onto Applejack for support. The orange mare could feel the pink pony shaking her entire body as she vibrated from fright. “Feels like one of the ghosts, but I haven’t felt this one before.” Tom said while making his way to the front of the group and using his senses a few more times. “So it’s not the scissor lady… that’s good, right?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hopeful tone. “What if it’s that man again?” Fluttershy asked with a growing feeling of fear building in her core. She could feel her legs wobbling as she thought about the ghostly human capturing her and her friends again. “It’s probably not him… it took him a while to come find us again after we found you the first time.” Brimstoke said in an attempt at easing the yellow mare’s fears. “But that means that it’s the guy that chased us… the one with the axe.” Glitterball said in an uneasy tone. Applejack, Rarity, and Sunspot suddenly became a lot more nervous as they thought back to their experience with the axe wielding spirit. “Do you think we can take him?” Sunspot asked while glancing to the others and sizing up how much firepower they had. “I don’t know if fighting him would be a good idea… he dodged every shot Glitter fired at him when we saw him.” Rarity said uneasily. “And I’m not sure if Tom is up for fighting another one of them directly.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking to the human to see how he was doing. He looked better than before, but he still looked a little tired. “I can still fight him… but I’m not sure if I can win if he is as strong as that woman.” Tom said in an attempt at lifting the others’ spirits. “Is he as strong as that woman?” Rainbow Dash asked nervously while listening to the footsteps getting closer. “Yes… definitely yes.” Tom replied in an uneasy tone. The human’s confidence in how powerful the ghost was only made the others even more nervous. Meanwhile, the footsteps were getting louder and louder. The ponies watched the darkness ahead of them for any signs of movement. They could practically see what they imagined to be the dark outline of the ghostly human getting closer to them. They didn’t have to imagine for long however as a dark silhouette actually appeared and slowly approached the light. “We better decide a plan of action fast! We’re out of time guys!” Glitterball said uneasily. “What do we do Brimstoke… run or fight?” Sunspot asked while looking to her leader for advice. Brimstoke looked around the group uneasily. Everyone was nervous or afraid, but most of the ponies seemed to be willing to fight if it came to it. “Run… let’s get out of here!” Brimstoke said while quickly backing towards the hallway on the right and motioning for the others to follow. Twilight and the others ran ahead as Sunspot and Glimmer Shine stayed behind them. The two ponies glanced behind them while running to see if the human was following them. The lack of an axe wielding maniac running behind them at least told the group that the ghost wasn’t rushing to chase them. “Should we duck into a room and hide? Maybe those charms of yours can hide us from the ghost.” Twilight suggested while looking to Brimstoke at the front of the group. “No, that wouldn’t work. The suppression charms only have enough range to protect the wearer and maybe one person that’s really close. There aren’t enough of us to keep all of you hidden… even if we huddle up.” Brimstoke replied while watching his locator to try and determine where they were running to. “Well maybe we won’t have to. It looks like he isn’t following us.” Glitterball said in a hopeful tone. “No, it looks like he isn’t running after us. He’s probably still back there if I know him… that creep chased me and the others all around the outside of the house.” Sunspot said in an uneasy tone. “We need to hurry up and find the princess. How close are we to that signature, Brimstoke?” Glimmer Shine asked urgently while trying to glance at the white stallion’s vial as he ran. Suddenly, the light on the sand in the vial made a sharp shift to the left side. “Everyone turn this way!” Brimstoke yelled while ducking into a room on the left. Everyone skidded to a halt and nearly slid past the room before following the stallion inside. Once everyone made it in, Tom closed the door that was miraculously present. Rainbow Dash walked up to the door and looked for a lock. She would feel a lot better if she had some kind of barrier between her and the spirit. Finding a small lock on the door handle the pegasus started to reach for it, before she was stopped by the human. “Don’t bother… he’s a ghost, remember? He can walk through walls.” Tom explained in an uneasy tone. “Oh that’s just not fair.” Rainbow Dash shrugged in frustration before catching her breath and walking over to the others. Everyone was gathered in the middle of the room while taking a look at their surroundings. The room the ponies found themselves in was another medium sized one full of assorted boxes and a couple of shelves off to the left side. There were pipes running along the ceiling, along with a few cracks that ran all the way down to the right wall. There were two open doorways at the far end of the room on the front wall and the right wall. Both doors led into more darkness that concealed the rooms beyond. “Well… that pretty much confirms that all of the ghosts can come down here. Hopefully we don’t run into that scissor lady down here as well.” Twilight said while silently questioning her belief in bad luck and jinxes. “We might have lost him for now, but he will probably find us soon. Where do we go from here?” Sunspot asked curiously while looking to Brimstoke for advice. The white stallion brought up the vial full of sand and pointed it forward. The red light in the vial was focused on the sand at the front of the bottle, indicating that whatever they were looking for was at least straight ahead of them. “Looks like we go forward… hopefully it isn’t too much further.” Brimstoke said in a hopeful tone. The group crept forward and hesitated at the doorway to the next room. They looked inside and scanned their lights around to get a better look. The room was a larger one full of shelves and medical tables. There was another doorway at the far end of the room which most likely led to whatever the ponies were trying to find. Everyone hoped that they would find a familiar blue alicorn at the end of this wild goose chase. Brimstoke led the others into the open room while holding his locator in front of him. The red light was getting bigger and bigger. By the time the ponies made it half way through the room, the light was filling half of the vial. “I think we’re close… really close.” Brimstoke said while glancing into the open doorway ahead of him. There seemed to be an opening out into another hallway. However, there was another doorway on the far wall that actually had a door, which was closed. “Yeah… but close to what?” Sunspot asked with a twinge of unease in her voice. Everyone walked out into the hallway and scanned their heads left and right to get a better look at their surroundings. Finding no sign of any spirits in the lengthy corridor, the ponies turned their attention to the door ahead of them. “Well, whatever it is, it’s in there.” Glitterball said while looking at her own locator. The sand in the vial was almost fully aglow with red light, indicating that the source of the reading was directly ahead. “Do you think it’s the princess?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “What if it’s one of the hooded ponies?” Pinkie asked nervously while staring at the door with a hesitant expression. “I don’t think the hooded ponies are even here anymore… they left that creep Shadow Mist and a few workers here and ran away with their tails between their legs.” Rainbow Dash said with a clear twinge of disdain in her voice. “Still, we should be careful. Maybe it’s another group of hoods that holed up before everything happened.” Rarity cautioned the group nervously while distancing herself from the door. The last thing she wanted to find was another group of potentially dangerous ponies on edge. …Ugh… Suddenly, a muffled voice came from the room on the other side of the door. The voice was barely loud enough to hear, but it sounded like the owner was in pain. Twilight immediately recognized the voice to be one she had heard many times before. “That’s not one of the hooded ponies!” Twilight exclaimed before rushing forward and grabbing the handle of the door. The door swung open with a brief and loud creak, allowing the unicorn to rush inside before anyone could even realize what she was doing. The purple mare entered the room and frantically looked around with her light illuminating everything in the area. The room was wider than it was long, with the far side of the room extending beyond the reach of the unicorn’s light. At the edge of her sphere of light, Twilight saw a dark silhouette on the floor that seemed familiar to her. She started to rush forward to see who was in the room with her, but she only made it a few steps before she stopped suddenly from shock. Just as the unicorn had suspected, the figure on the floor was in fact Princess Luna, but the state she was in was horrific to say the least. The alicorn was covered from head to hoof in bloody cuts and bruises. Her body was chained to the wall by a rusty looking shackle around her waist, and there was a pair of hoof cuffs around her front legs that had strange symbols inscribed into them. “Princess!” Twilight gasped in shock at the sight of the injured alicorn. She rushed forward and knelt down in front of the princess while she remained on the floor with her eyes closed. Miraculously, Luna groaned as she opened her eyes and started to stir. “Ugh… Twi..light?” Luna spoke in a weak tone while trying to raise her head to look up at the unicorn. Her neck shook as her muscles failed to carry her weight. “Don’t strain yourself… it’s ok princess, you’re safe now.” Twilight said in a comforting tone while assessing the blue mare’s injuries with a concerned expression. “Sweet Celestia…” The sound of Sunspot’s voice, followed by the shocked gasps of her friends alerted Twilight to their presence. She turned around to see the group staring at her and the injured alicorn next to her with their jaws agape in horror. “What happened to her?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone while rushing over to assist the purple mare. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot raced to help their leader to free the princess from her chains while everyone else gathered around and watched fearfully while staring at Luna’s poor state of health. “I don’t know… from the look of it she must have been captured by that ghost just like we were.” Twilight said in a worried tone while looking to the magic suppressing hoof cuffs on the princess’s front legs. Judging from the wounds on her body and the obvious fact that she was held against her will, the symbols on the cuffs must have been powerful enough to suppress even Luna’s magic. “Yes… that is right… guh.” Luna muttered while breathing heavily. She looked like she was fighting just to catch her breath. “Don’t worry Princess, we’ll have you out of here in no time.” Brimstoke said while stepping closer and fishing his cutter out from his vest. Glitterball and Sunspot held the chain still as the white stallion started cutting it free from the wall. Once the sound of the chain breaking free rang out, the blue alicorn started trying to get up. Although she was faltering and cringing in pain, she was slowly making progress on getting to her feet. “You should rest Princess. It looks like you’ve lost a lot of blood.” Twilight suggested with a worried expression. “I’ll be alright…*pant* Can… can you please get these bonds off of me?” Luna asked in a sincere tone while looking over to Brimstoke and his team. Due to her jittery muscles and general weakness, she only managed to slightly turn her head towards the others. “Of course ma’am… Glitter, can you get that shackle off of her? I don’t feel comfortable using the cutter that close to her skin.” Brimstoke asked while bending down and fishing a key off of his vest to open the cuffs. “I’ll try my best.” Glitterball replied with a slight twinge of nervousness in her voice as she lit up her horn and focused her magic on the shackle around Luna’s body. She didn’t want to hurt the alicorn any more than she already was, but she was faced with the task of opening a locked shackle around her waist. “Hold still Princess, I’ll see if I can get this shackle off of you.” Glitter said in a gentle tone while offering the princess a reassuring expression. Luna smiled softly and nodded in response. Despite her attempts at appearing cheerful, the alicorn’s pale appearance and jittery movements made everyone worry for her. Everyone watched as Glitterball strained her magic to unhook the shackle by force. Luna felt the shackle moving slightly as the unicorn pulled on it with all of her might. After a few moments of grunting and heaving, the hefty shackle popped open and clattered to the floor, freeing the blue alicorn. Luna slipped her front legs out of the hoof cuffs as Brimstoke finished unlocking them. She groaned painfully as she stood on trembling legs. Her body was covered in painful looking cuts, which had obviously robbed her of much needed energy through blood loss. “Thank you everyone… I am so glad that you found me before that dreadful spirit returned.” Luna said in a grateful tone while managing a genuine smile despite her tired exterior. “What happened to you Princess? Those wounds look awful.” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “After I got separated from Tom, I tried to find another way to get upstairs. It didn’t take long for this terrible man to find me. He must have knocked me out, because the next thing I remember was waking up here with these shackles on me. He tortured me for what seemed like an eternity until he left me here. I thought I was going to die in here.” Luna explained with an uneasy tone of voice. “Here… let me heal you.” Tom suggested while stepping forward and holding his hand out to the alicorn’s body. The princess pulled away from the human before he could start the process of healing her injuries. “No Tom… I appreciate your concern, but you need all of the energy you can get. You look so weak… I assume that ghost did the same thing to you as this one did to me?” Luna asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… but she could only stuff me into a locked room. I guess there weren’t any chains lying around for her to use. This family is messed up… all three of them.” Tom said with an uneasy shrug. “Three? There are three of them?” Luna asked with a surprised expression. “Yes. The ones that attacked both of you, and one that carries around an axe that attacked me and the others outside.” Sunspot explained uneasily as she recalled her experience with the third spirit. “And what of the guards that were outside with you?” Luna asked in a hesitant tone. Judging from the look on the orange pegasus’s face, she could already gather the answer without a word being said. “They… didn’t make it.” Sunspot explained while looking down somberly. “I’m just glad that you made it out of there with your life Sunspot. If only we had a way to give those spirits the retribution they deserve.” Luna said in a frustrated manner while trying to think of how she would lead the others to victory. Now that they had freed her, she wanted to take responsibility for everything again, but she had no idea what to do. “Don’t worry about that, Princess. We found a way to beat the ghosts using the symbols that Shadow Mist used to summon them.” Twilight stated in a reassuring tone while offering the alicorn a confident expression. Luna seemed surprised by the prospect that the group had discovered a method of disposing of the spirits. “Really?” Luna asked in an amazed tone. She would have to slap herself later for doubting Twilight Sparkle and her group of friends and their ability to persevere through hardships. “Yes! All we have to do is use magic to overload the three seals, and we’ve already finished two of them!” Twilight said with excitement brimming in her voice as the thought of escaping the mansion with her life and her friends intact became closer to reality than it had ever been since the ghosts showed up. “That is wonderful! I knew I could count on you all to find a way out of this terrible mess.” Luna said with newly found enthusiasm. If it weren’t for her many bloody cuts, she would look like nothing was wrong with her for once. “Now that everyone is here, we can start looking for that last symbol. It should be down here in the basement somewhere.” Glimmer Shine explained in a relieved tone. Now that they had found the princess, anything else that came their way would be a cake walk. However, the stallion’s words weren’t uplifting to the blue alicorn. In fact, Luna found them to be rather confusing. “Everyone is here? What about Neon Streak and Peppermint? Where are they?” Luna asked in a curious tone while double checking the room to see if she just hadn’t seen the two among the crowd of ponies. The mere mention of the two names made everyone’s newly gained happiness and excitement vanish, only to be replaced by uneasy silence and somber expressions. Twilight and the others looked to Glimmer Shine to see how he was reacting. The princess obviously didn’t know about anything that had happened since she was captured, but that wouldn’t make hearing about his brother and having to hear a conversation he wanted to forget any easier for the yellow pony. Luna slowly realized what the group was insinuating with their eyes. They looked like they wanted to speak up and explain it to her, but everyone was too pained and uneasy to talk about it. She frowned in disbelief while looking to someone, anyone, to speak up and tell her that it wasn’t as bad as she was thinking. “They’re dead…” Finally, the silence was broken by two somber words. However, they came from a person that the group least expected them to. Glimmer Shine was somehow looking up at the princess with a somber and pained expression. Before, the stallion would look down to the floor at the mere mention of his brother, but now here he was offering the alicorn a blunt and matter of fact statement. “Oh my… I… I…” Luna gasped in shock and covered her mouth as she recoiled slightly from hearing the news. She looked around with panicked eyes to see the others turning away sadly or offering her sad expressions. A solid few seconds passed by as she processed the initial shock of hearing that two of her trusted team members were dead. The princess gasped in shock again as she settled her eyes on Glimmer Shine and realized why everyone was so shocked to see him in such a composed state. Despite his courage, the alicorn could see the yellow stallion fighting back the urge to cry. Losing Neon Streak would have been bad enough, but Glimmer had lost his brother along with a close friend. “I’m so sorry Glimmer Shine. I’m so sorry…” Luna said the only thing she could think of while moving closer to the stallion and placing a hoof on his shoulder. Glimmer Shine could no longer bring himself to face the alicorn, or anyone else for that matter, as he stared at the floor and tried to refrain from crying in front of a princess. “This is all my fault… if I had just listened to my sister when she offered to help, none of this would have happened.” Luna said in a forlorn manner while hanging her head low with a saddened expression. She was surprised to suddenly feel Glimmer Shine gently removing her hoof from his shoulder. As she looked up expecting to see him with a depressed expression, she instead saw that he had a surprisingly relaxed expression. “None of this is anyone’s fault princess… least of all yours.” Glimmer Shine said in a reassuring tone. “We’ll have plenty of time to mourn our losses after we get out of here. I don’t want Shadow Mist and the others to get away with this, and there won’t be many people left to hunt them down if we die in here. Don’t you agree?” He asked while managing a small smile. Luna was completely flabbergasted as she looked at the stallion in front of her. He should have been bereft with grief, but he was somehow putting on a brave face for long enough to console her. It should have been the other way around. The blue alicorn had let her emotions get the better of her in the moment, but she never expected Glimmer Shine to be the one to offer her reassurance. Still, it was easy to see that the yellow pony was still hurting underneath his hollow smile. “Right… you’re absolutely right.” Luna said in a more composed tone. The others were happy to see that the blue alicorn was keeping a relatively cool head. As much as they wanted to sit down and cry over the ones they had lost, they had a more important matter to attend to, escaping the mansion with their lives. “Now, you said that all we need to do to defeat these ghosts is to overload the final seal?” Luna asked curiously while turning to Twilight for an answer. The purple unicorn shrugged as she realized that they were now at another dead end. “Yeah… but we have to find it first. We’ve been through most of the basement by now, and we haven’t found any sign of it.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone while looking around at the others. Everyone else had equally drained expressions on their faces as they slowly gave up hope of finding a way out of the mansion. “Well, I don’t know. We haven’t been looking in all of the rooms… maybe we missed it?” Pinkie Pie suggested in an innocent tone, blissfully unaware of the full implications of her statement. Everyone groaned in dread as they thought of the prospect of searching the basement high and low for a single patch of red paint. “Relax everyone. I think I might have an easier way to find that symbol.” Luna said in a confident manner. “What…? Really?” Twilight asked in a curious tone. The purple mare’s guarded sense of doubt was felt by most everyone in the room. However, they were a little more confident that the princess knew what she was doing. “Yes… I know a locator spell that can detect magical energy signatures. If we are fortunate, I will be able to use it to ascertain the location of the last seal.” Luna explained in a hopeful tone while looking around at the others. Everyone felt their spirits’ lifting slightly from even the proposal of a plan that was sound in design. “That’s great, Princess!” Twilight said in a cheerful manner. She was more hopeful and confident than she had been in a long time. “Here, just give me… ugh… just give me a moment.” Luna cringed painfully as she tried to light up her horn. Just moving around seemed like it was causing her pain, so using her magic was a far stretch given the weakened state she was in. Suddenly, her front legs buckled and she nearly fell to the floor. “Princess!” Twilight exclaimed in a worried tone while racing forward to catch the alicorn as she fell to her knees. Brimstoke rushed forward along with the purple mare to assist the princess. Luna barely managed to keep her back legs steady as she rested on the floor. “Ugh… s-sorry… I… I felt a little lightheaded all of a sudden.” Luna said while working her way back to her feet with the assistance of the two ponies holding onto her. Despite the fact that she was now standing, the alicorn was taking shallow and rapid breaths. “Oh my gosh… you’re shaking so much.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while observing the sickly alicorn. “*Gasp*… and you’re freezing.” She widened her eyes in shock as she reached up to feel the princess’s forehead. Her skin was pale, clammy, and icy cold. “Don’t worry about me… I’ll be fine after we find that symbol and get out of here.” Luna said while trying to put on a strong front for the group. The fact that she had to pause to catch her breath every few words made it so nobody believed the alicorn’s statement. “I’m not sure if you should be using magic right now Princess. I really think you should take a minute to rest.” Twilight suggested in a ginger tone while pleading with her eyes to get the alicorn to conserve her energy. “Maybe you should let Tom heal you Princess? You can barely stand… surely he can spare enough energy to make you feel better.” Rarity suggested while looking to the human for confirmation. Although the boy was still weak from earlier, he looked like a million bits compared to the sickly alicorn. “Yeah, it would be no problem. I can manage healing you at least a little bit.” Tom said in agreement with the others. Everyone looked to the blue mare with concern in the hopes that she would listen to reason. “No… no, I’m fine. I just need to catch my breath.” Luna said while forcing all of her feelings of pain and weakness inside and putting on a smile. “I can do this. Once we get out of here, you can worry about me all you want. But for right now, I’m going to find that symbol.” She said in a sincere manner. Twilight looked around at the others to see their opinions on the matter. Everyone seemed uncertain about what they should do. Twilight herself still felt like the princess should rest, but she couldn’t very well make the decision for her, as much as she wanted to just hold her down and sick Tom on her. “Ok… just take it slow and easy for us.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. Luna nodded silently while flashing a brief smile. Everyone watched anxiously as the princess lowered her head and concentrated. Luna groaned from exertion as she strained to get her horn lit up. Slowly but surely, a brilliant blue glow enveloped the alicorn’s horn as magic started flowing through her. Although her legs were shaky, and she was straining herself heavily, Luna was seemingly succeeding with her spell. A magical buzz filled the air as the glow on the blue mare’s horn grew slightly brighter for a moment. “I think I found it… Ugh… t-this way.” Luna said while letting her horn die down and slowly walking towards the door. Everyone followed the princess at a slow crawl as she led them out of the room. After slowly making their way through the other rooms and back out into the hallway, the group turned left and started trekking into new territory. But now, instead of walking forward without much of a purpose, the group actually knew where they were going. Still, the newfound feeling of confidence that came from having someone to guide them through the dark corridors did little to distract them from the unseen dangers around them. Twilight and the others nervously glanced between Princess Luna and Brimstoke’s team members to see if their locators were glowing. Any one of the three murderous spirits could be following them without them knowing, just waiting for an opportunity to strike. “How are you holding up?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while watching Luna cringe painfully as she moved. “I’m feeling better than before… I should be alright.” Luna said while offering the concerned unicorn a brief smile. “Try not to push yourself too hard. Do you know how close we are?” Applejack asked curiously. She hoped that they didn’t have far to go. Not only for the sake of getting out of the mansion earlier, but also to let the blue alicorn rest. “It’s hard to say where it is exactly. I think there should be a way to get to it up ahead.” Luna said while concentrating for a moment. She groaned silently and shook her head to steel herself against the pain she was feeling. “Any sign that we’re being followed, Tom?” Brimstoke asked curiously while taking a suspicious glance behind the group. Although his locator wasn’t glowing prominently enough to warrant concern, he trusted the human’s senses more. “Hold on a second, let me check.” Tom said while taking in a deep breath. The human closed his eyes for a moment as he let out a controlled puff of blue mist from his mouth. After a few cycles of taking a breath and using his senses, he opened his eyes again and groaned slightly from exertion. “I can barely feel anything outside of a certain distance around us. Either I’m weaker than I thought, or there is some kind of suppression charm keeping my senses at bay. From what I can feel though, the area around us is clear.” Tom explained while shrugging his shoulders in disappointment. “Well… thanks for trying at least. That sort of puts my mind at ease.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while offering the human an uncertain expression. She appreciated the effort the boy was putting into helping in his weakened state, but she wasn’t sure if his diminished senses would be of much use. “Let’s just focus on getting to that symbol for now. We can worry about those ghosts if and when they show up.” Rainbow Dash suggested while hiding an uneasy frown from the group. She was nervous about running into the spirits again, and she wasn’t the only one in the group. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were practically huddling together and darting their eyes around like they were being hunted by a pack of wild animals. Getting their minds off of the ghosts for a while would probably serve the ponies well. After a few minutes of walking, the group noticed a peculiar break in scenery from the usual open doorways and rooms. Coming up on their left, there was a wide hole in the wall that seemed like it opened up into some kind of larger space. The odd nature and sudden appearance of the hole elicited the group to stop and examine it. Twilight bent down and shined her light through the hole. Much to her surprise, the light revealed a larger opening that was big enough to be an entire room in its own right. The floor was completely earthen, with exposed pieces of wood and brick covering the only visible wall and the low hanging ceiling. The floor was rough and uneven, with divots and holes spaced throughout. Save for a mass of darkness outside of the unicorn’s bubble of light, there wasn’t anything visible when looking into the strange space. “What the hay…? It looks like a crawlspace or something along those lines.” Twilight stated while looking to the group with a curious expression. Although the hole to enter the space was only large enough to barely squeeze through, and the space looked big enough to barely walk, it resembled an unfinished portion of a house that people weren’t supposed to venture into. “Looks pretty big too… I can’t see where it ends.” Glitterball stated while kneeling down next to the purple mare and shining her flashlight into the darkness. Even with the added reach of the flashlight, the two ponies could only just see parts of the left wall, while the end of the space remained a mystery shrouded in darkness. “Blech! it smells awful in there.” Rarity said while covering her nose. One whiff of the musty air coming from the opening made her face crinkle up in disgust. While everyone was crowding around the strange opening to get a peek inside of the dark space, Luna was moving her horn around while trying to pinpoint where to go next. The signal she was following led her directly forward and directly into the hole in the wall. “Oh dear… it looks like we may have to go in there. The spell I’m using says this is the only way to get to the symbol.” Luna said in an uneasy tone while looking at the group with an understanding frown of aversion. “What? You mean we actually have to go through there? Don’t be ridiculous! It looks like we can barely walk in there without dragging our heads on the ceiling!” Rainbow Dash argued while recoiling from the dark opening. “I don’t even want to think about how Tom is going to fit in there.” She said while offering the human a sympathetic expression. “Well actually, it looks like it opens up a little further in.” Twilight said while taking a closer look at the room behind the opening. It looked like the cross beams and pipes receded upwards a little ways into the space until they were at the height that the ceiling was out in the halls. “Still… it looks dreadful in there. Walking through this dusty and cobweb ridden hovel was bad enough, but there isn’t even a floor in there!” Rarity said while holding one of her front legs up protectively. She stared at the dirt and mud flooring in the space with a disgusted expression. “I think getting your hooves dirty is going to be the least of your problems if we don’t find that symbol Rarity… Are you sure that this is the only way, Princess?” Tom asked curiously while looking to the alicorn for an answer. The blue mare double checked her spell before replying. “Yes… I’m almost certain that this hole at least leads to the section of the basement where the symbol is.” Luna said in a confident tone. “Well alright then, let’s get moving. We’re not getting anywhere by just standing out here staring at a hole in the wall.” Tom said while stepping up to the opening and crouching low to the floor. Everyone watched with uncertain expressions as the human uncomfortably maneuvered his body into the opening. After crawling on his hands and knees to get through the small opening, he got to his feet and stood up in an awkward hunched over fashion. “Are you guys coming or am I going to have to do this alone?” Tom asked curiously while watching the ponies staring back at him with dumbfounded expressions. Finally, Twilight shook herself out of her awkward stupor and looked to the others in preparation. “Alright… here goes nothing.” The purple mare sighed in anticipation before shrugging her shoulders and stepping up to the opening. Twilight knelt down and crawled through the small hole in the wall, being careful not to scrape her body against the stone bricks on the edge of the opening, or the splintery sides of the wooden wall. After a few moments of grunting uncomfortably and inching forward, Twilight found herself standing, or rather crouching, next to the human. She stood up and nearly bumped her head on the ceiling until she craned her neck at an awkward angle to accommodate. “Come on in guys. It’s a little cramped, but everyone should be able to fit.” Twilight said while motioning for the others to join her. Deciding to step up to the plate, Rainbow Dash popped her legs and her neck and stretched in preparation. The cyan mare stepped forward and knelt down in front of the opening in the wall. While Twilight and Tom maneuvered to the side to make room, the pegasus crawled forward and made her way into the cramped opening. “Gah… this is not what I imagined I would be doing when I volunteered for this.” Rainbow Dash groaned as she struggled to crawl forward. With a little help from Twilight pulling on her, the cyan mare finally managed to make it all the way through. “Wow… there is not much room in here at all.” Rainbow Dash observed in amazement as she failed to stand up all of the way. She was forced to crane her head at an odd angle like the purple unicorn had just to be able to stand. As the three moved back to make room for the others, everyone started lining up to make their way through the small opening. Before long, Sunspot, Glimmer Shine, and Glitterball had made their way through. After Fluttershy finished crawling her way into the waiting arms of her friends, Rarity looked around nervously and realized that her option to stay behind and watch was swiftly disappearing. She looked at the grimy space beyond the hole and saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash offering to help the next person through while the others stood off to the side. “Umm… maybe you should go through next Pinkie?” Rarity suggested with an awkward smile. While everyone else saw through her rouse, the pink mare seemed more than eager to oblige her. “Okie dokie lokie.” Pinkie said in a cheerful tone before bending down and starting her journey into the center of the walls. Once the pink mare had made her way through, Rarity looked to her remaining options. Only Brimstoke, the princess, and Applejack remained on her side of the wall. The hallway seemed much more dark and eerie now that there was only Brimstoke’s flashlight to light it up. Princess Luna was opting to not waste her energy on using her magic to produce a light, so the group outside had to deal with the darkness. “After you, Applejack.” Rarity said while making a brief bow and backing away from the hole. She would have backed up to the other side of the hall if she hadn’t been stopped by the orange mare grabbing her by the shoulder and roughly pulling her back over to the hole in the wall. “You might as well go next Rarity. You’ll have to do it eventually anyway, so why not get it out of the way?” Applejack suggested in a surprisingly understanding tone. “Well I would… but…” Rarity stalled as she stared at the small opening with a twinge of fear in her voice. “What if something happens out here? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you because I went first. I absolutely insist that-” The white unicorn started a commendable effort at weaseling her way out of the situation, until she was interrupted by a cyan hoof reaching out and grabbing her leg. “Oh for crying out loud, just get in here!” Rainbow Dash said in an irritated tone while pulling the white mare just enough to bump her head into the wall gently. “Alright, alright! I’m going… if you wanted me to hurry you could have just said something.” Rarity said in an annoyed tone while sighing in defeat and kneeling down. While the unicorn was preparing herself mentally for the task ahead of her, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were glaring at her silently. Finally, after a few moments of Rarity slowly crawling forward and cringing in disgust, and Applejack shoving the white mare forward at a quicker pace, the opening was clear once more. While the white unicorn was having a slight breakdown off to the side from being in such an appalling location, Applejack was starting her crawl into the opening. “There… now was that so bad?” Applejack said with a slight smirk while putting her arm around Rarity’s shoulder. The white unicorn was practically trying to cling to the ceiling from how much she was shifting between her legs. “So… much… filth… *Shudder*” Rarity said while darting her eyes around and flinching in disgust at her surroundings. Not only were her hooves getting completely covered in dirt and mud, but there were grime covered cobwebs and other such disgusting objects hanging down from the ceiling. It would take her an entire week’s worth of washing and scrubbing to get her mane alone clean. “Are you ok Rarity? Your eye is sort of… twitching.” Fluttershy observed in a concerned tone while watching the white unicorn. Rarity remained unresponsive as she stared into the distance and shivered, presumably trapped in her own thoughts. “Ah think she’ll be alright… maybe.” Applejack said with a slight chuckle. Meanwhile, back outside of the wall, Brimstoke and the princess were still waiting for their turn. After taking a brief look around to ensure that the area was clear, the stallion decided that it would be best for the alicorn to go first. “Ok Princess, you go on ahead.” Brimstoke suggested while motioning towards the opening. “Are you sure?” Luna asked in an uncertain tone. She wasn’t exactly comfortable with leaving the stallion on his own. “I’ll be right behind you. Go on ahead.” Brimstoke said in a confident tone. Luna sighed before nodding silently in response. She knew that the stallion would probably force her to go first if she protested, and the faster she made it through, the faster he could follow. As Brimstoke offered her some assistance with kneeling down, the alicorn slowly crawled forward into the opening. Although her body was still sore enough to warrant a painful cringe or groan with every move she made, Luna was making decent progress. Still, she seemed to be having a hard time with getting her body to move forward. “Here, Princess… let me help you.” Twilight suggested while grabbing one of the alicorn’s arms. Rainbow Dash followed her example and grabbed the princess’s other arm to help. After a few moments of pulling on the blue mare, the two ponies finally managed to get her through. “Ugh… thank you… both of you.” Luna said with a grateful expression while looking to the two mares with a smile. “Don’t mention it.” Rainbow Dash said with a pleased expression. Hearing the sound of someone crawling behind them, the three turned around to see Brimstoke crawling through to join them. “Now then… now that we’re all here, why don’t we see about getting out of this hole?” Brimstoke suggested while taking note of the cold mud under his hooves. Although the others had a higher tolerance for their surroundings than Rarity did, they were still disgusted and unnerved by the fact that they were walking through a crawlspace in the wall. “What is this hole anyway? Why is it even here?” Twilight asked curiously while looking around the area. The space they were in seemed like it was opened up on purpose, but that purpose wasn’t easily determined. “Who knows… all I know is that this is the only way forward. Perhaps all of the other doors leading forward were blocked off or something, but this is the only way to get to the symbol.” Luna said in a puzzled tone. “Hey guys!” Suddenly, the group heard Pinkie Pie calling them from somewhere up ahead. Everyone turned around and shined their lights on the area ahead of them to see the pink mare. The group quickly noticed that the pink pony was actually standing up. Pinkie had apparently walked ahead to find the bigger area that the others had noticed before. “It’s a lot easier to stand over here. Why don’t you all come this way?” Pinkie asked while kneeling down to actually see the group. Twilight and the others looked at each other with confused expressions for a moment before taking note of the cramped feeling in their necks. They quickly came to the consensus that they were tired of hunching over and bumping their heads against the ceiling. The ponies quickly made their way forward until they reached the cut off where the ceiling ascended to a proper level. Once they stepped out of the cramped overhang of pipes and wooden planks, they stretched their necks and let out a sigh of relief. “That’s much better.” Tom said while stretching his legs. The ponies just had to crane their heads a little bit to fit in the tight space, but he practically had to walk in a crouched position to avoid crawling on his hands and knees. “Hey… I think I can see another opening up ahead.” Twilight said while squinting her eyes to see outside of the reach of the lit up area. There seemed to be another wall up ahead with another hole in it similar to the one the group just came through. “That must be where we need to go. Come on guys.” Sunspot motioned for the others to follow her as she started walking forward. The group slowly marched forward across the earthen floor. All the while, they were looking around at the bizarre pits and raised areas of the ground around them and wondering what the purpose for this area was. “Oof!” Rarity groaned in surprise as she stumbled to the floor. One of the raised bumps in the ground caught her leg too quickly for her to react. “Are you ok Rarity?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone as she watched the unicorn sprawled out on the ground after her spectacular trip. “Yes… I just fell and landed in… in…” Rarity glanced down to see what was in front of her, only to widen her eyes in shock. “Eek!” She yelped in shock while scrambling backwards. “What’s wrong?!” Applejack asked while looking to see if the unicorn was hurt. Rarity simply pointed to a spot on the ground with her hoof while stammering fearfully in incoherent gibberish. Everyone looked to where the white mare was pointing, only to widen their eyes and gasp in shock. Poking out of the dirt at an odd angle, there was a yellowish white object in the distinctive shape of a bone. Judging from the shape and the size, it looked like either an arm or a leg bone of a creature larger than a pony. It was hard to tell exactly, but the bone probably belonged to a human. “*Gasp*” Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth while taking a step back. She stared at the small object with a terrified look in her eyes as she shuddered nervously. “Oh my gosh… is that what I think it is?” Rainbow Dash asked in an uneasy tone as she stared at the white object on the ground. “Looks like it’s been here for ages.” Twilight said while taking note of the aged appearance of the bone. “I think we know what this room was used for now.” Tom stated in an uneasy tone. The human’s statement made the others look around the area with horrified expressions. All of the pits and raised areas in the ground now made a disturbing chill go down their spines. The ponies looked to their feet with a knot developing in their stomachs as they wondered just what it was that they were standing on. “I think it would be best if we leave this place.” Luna said in a disturbed tone while coming to her senses for long enough to think rationally. Once the initial shock wore off, everyone silently nodded in agreement with the alicorn. With a newfound sense of urgency, the group made their way towards the opening at the far end of the room. Wherever the opening was going to take them, it had to be better than the vile place they currently found themselves in. As Twilight reached the end of the room, she sized up the hole in the wall to see where it led. Thankfully this hole was larger than the previous one, allowing the unicorn to poke her head out to see where she was. Scanning her eyes around the area outside, the purple mare discovered that the hole led out into yet another hallway. Normally the discovery of another dark and tedious hallway would have made the unicorn cringe in frustration, but the looming goal of getting closer to the symbol and freedom was enough to make her excited. “Looks like we can get out through here.” Twilight stated in a pleased tone. “And we don’t even need to crawl anywhere. That sounds like grounds to celebrate to me… let’s get out of here.” Rainbow Dash suggested eagerly while stepping through the small opening and walking out into the hallway. Twilight and the others quickly followed the cyan pegasus until they were all standing in the corridor. While the others were focused on wiping their hooves to rid them of the buildup of dirt and grime, Twilight was intently focused on the task at hand. She glanced over to the blue alicorn to see her trying to concentrate on her spell. “Which way do we go now, Princess?” Twilight asked in a sympathetic tone as she watched the blue mare cringing painfully. “It should be this way… it feels like we’re getting close.” Luna said while pointing down the left fork in the hallway. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.” Twilight said while offering the princess a reassuring hoof on the shoulder. She knew that the alicorn must have been in a great deal of pain from her wounds, and using her magic wasn’t helping any. Luna smiled softly before pausing for a moment to catch her breath. Without any further delay, the ponies started walking down the hallway. They hoped that their journey would soon come to an end, and that they could finally leave the mansion and go home. The hooded ponies could wait for at least a day for all they cared. They just wanted to go home and see their families and get even a rough night’s sleep. As they continued down the hallway, the ponies noticed that there were a lot more doors in this section of the basement than any they had seen before. Nearly every room had a door to accompany it rather than a gaping entryway where a door once was. Everyone would have felt disheartened with the notion of searching through so many rooms for the symbol without being able to just peer inside with a glance. Thankfully they had Princess Luna to guide them to their destination, as long as her spell was working that is. Although the ponies trusted the alicorn implicitly, the hours spent roaming around the basement looking for the symbols had grinded down their willpower and spirit like a waterfall to a cliff face. They silently looked at the weakened princess with sympathetic expressions, all the while having a thought at the back of their minds ask if the alicorn’s spell was just leading them to yet another dead end. “Princess… are you sure we’re going the right way?” Twilight asked in a hesitant tone. The sudden question caught the blue mare off guard. “Why do you ask?” Luna replied curiously. Even though the princess wasn’t offended in the slightest, the purple mare became very anxious and apologetic. “Well… it’s just… we’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m just worried about what would happen if this turned out to be another dead end. I didn’t mean to imply… umm… that…” Twilight stammered in an awkward tone. The alicorn smiled softly at the unicorn’s attempts at voicing her concerns in a gentle way. “It’s ok to be worried about our situation, Twilight. We are in a dangerous place after all. But I can assure you, the spell I’m using is accurate. I can also assure you that my condition hasn’t hampered my ability to use the spell correctly.” Luna said in an understanding tone. Twilight was surprised that the alicorn took her question so well. “Right… of course.” Twilight said with a slight nod. The others looked to the princess with a newfound sense of humility and confidence. They were amazed that she could still appear so regal and confident despite the situation and her injuries. Suddenly, the group came to the end of the hallway. There was a single door at the far wall that was left slightly ajar. Seeing several more closed doors to either side of the hall, the ponies wondered where they would be going next and turned to the blue alicorn for guidance. “Which way do we go now?” Glitterball asked curiously while looking around at the various doors. Luna groaned slightly as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell. Her head lowered and her legs nearly buckled as she lost the strength in her body. While the others stood by, ready to catch the princess if the need arose, the blue mare managed to stay on her feet. “The symbol is in that room… I’m certain of it.” Luna stated while looking ahead to the door at the end of the hallway. “Really? That’s great!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed cheerfully. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get in there and give those ghosts what’s coming to them!” Sunspot suggested eagerly. “Easy does it guys… we still need to be careful and stick together.” Brimstoke said in a cautious tone. “Brimstoke is right… we still don’t know if those ghosts are nearby.” Twilight added while looking around nervously. The prospect that the murderous spirits were somewhere in the area was enough to immediately kill the excitement in the air. “Still… Sunspot is right. We should get this done and over with as quick as we can.” Luna suggested in an exhausted tone while leaning against the wall for support. The others frowned sadly as they watched the alicorn trying to catch her breath from using her magic too much. Sunspot and the others looked to Brimstoke for their next move. Everyone was nervous and anxious, and they clearly needed someone to lead them onwards with a sound plan of action. If the princess was out of commission, then the white stallion would have to think of a way to press on while keeping everyone as safe as possible. “*Sigh*… alright, let’s get moving. Glitter, keep an eye on your locator and let us know if there are any changes. Everyone else, let’s go give those ghosts a piece of our minds.” Brimstoke said in a confident tone while stepping forward towards the room at the end of the hallway. Everyone paused for a moment before getting the courage to follow the stallion. As they neared the door, the ponies could feel the anticipation building between them. Behind that door was the key to their freedom. They would either break that seal and escape the mansion, or die trying at the hands of the three spirits. A mixed variety of emotions flowed through each of the ponies as they stood in front of the door and waited for Brimstoke to open it the rest of the way. They felt excited, terrified, hesitant, and unsure all at the same time. Their stomachs were practically doing flips as their bodies reacted to the amount of stress they were feeling. Brimstoke glanced between his teammates, the sickly alicorn leaning against Twilight for support, the six nervous civilians, and the lone human watching him as he waited at the door. He placed a single hoof on the edge of the door and took in a deep breath to prepare himself. After doing a brief countdown, he swung the door open and stepped inside. Twilight and the others hesitantly walked into the room behind the team of ponies as they looked around. Brimstoke and his team darted their eyes around while scanning the room with their strobes at the ready. After seeing no signs of the ghosts in the part of the room they could see, and getting no indicators of imminent danger on their locators, the group relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief before turning their attention to the real reason they were there. The room itself was large. Perhaps one of the larger single rooms the ponies had seen in the basement. There were wooden beams and rafters all along the ceiling, with some of them broken or splintering from age. There were a few shelves full of seemingly normal looking boxes and other small items pressed up against the wall. Still, the only thing that the ponies cared about finding was seemingly nowhere to be found. “Hey… look over there!” Pinkie suggested while pointing to a spot on the floor at the edge of the light. Everyone turned their attention to where the pink mare was pointing, only to see a faint tint of red just outside of the reach of their lights. Glitterball stepped forward and illuminated more of the room with her horn. As she got closer and the light revealed more of the object, the group’s eyes collectively widened in shock and awe. Sitting on the floor in front of them, was a symbol similar in every detail to the other two they had found. “We did it… we finally found it!” Twilight exclaimed in an excited tone. “We can finally get out of here!” Glitterball cheered with equal excitement. Everyone shared a celebratory cheer while expressing their excitement by jumping up and down or hugging each other. For the first time in a long time, the group felt genuinely happy and cheerful. “Hold on… what’s that next to the symbol?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while shining his flashlight over the symbol. There was a dark stain on the floor just outside of the light’s reach. As the curious ponies got closer and examined the strange stain under better lighting, they noticed it was a red liquid. The grim realization that they were looking at blood hit everyone at once. They silently watched in abject horror as Glimmer Shine pointed his flashlight upwards. The more the light moved up, the more blood was revealed as a veritable trail of the crimson fluid led across the room. Finally, the ponies settled their eyes on a large puddle of blood leading behind a series of shelves and boxes that appeared to create a makeshift barricade. There was broken glass and blood scattered all around the shelves and boxes. The shelves were slanted at odd angles and all of the items on them were knocked over or missing, indicating that they were moved quickly. Sticking out from behind one of the shelves, was a dark blue leg that looked like it belonged to a mare. Glimmer Shine motioned to Sunspot and Brimstoke for them to follow him. The two ponies nodded silently while joining the yellow stallion in slowly approaching the rest of the room. Tom decided to follow the three as they carefully inched closer with their strobes at the ready. Brimstoke walked ahead of the others and slowly made his way around the line of shelves and boxes. As he caught a glimpse of what was on the other side of the makeshift barrier, he was more than a little unsettled. There were three ponies in hoodies lying on the floor motionless. There was a yellow pegasus stallion with orange hair, a black earth pony mare with red hair, and a dark blue unicorn mare with black hair. They each had pools of blood around them, and they were covered in broken glass and bloody wounds. Some of the gruesome injuries looked like axe wounds, while others resembled something a smaller weapon like a knife or a pair of scissors would leave behind. “Yikes…” Sunspot said in a disquieted tone while staring at the bloody bodies in front of her. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones trying to stop the ghosts… check it out.” Tom said while pointing off to the side. There were three small pieces of piping scattered on the ground a short distance from the bodies that were dark grey in color. “Iron pipes.” Glimmer Shine said as he caught on to what the three ponies must have been trying to accomplish. “They had a unicorn with them… they were probably trying to overload the symbol just like us.” Sunspot suggested in a curious tone. “Hey… maybe they succeeded?” She asked in a hopeful tone while glancing back at the symbol on the floor. “Not likely… if they succeeded in overloading the seal, the ghosts would be gone by now.” Twilight said while shaking her head sadly. Even if they were members of the hooded ponies, she still felt bad for them. The purple mare felt a sickening feeling in her stomach as she glanced at the pale and motionless leg sticking out from behind the shelf. She and her friends couldn’t bear to take a look behind the shelves and boxes. “However far they got in their efforts, the seal is indeed intact.” Luna said while using her magic to inspect the red symbol on the floor. “How about it, Glitter… can you overload it?” Brimstoke asked curiously while glancing to the white unicorn. “Hold on a sec… let me see.” Glitterball said while lighting up her horn and inspecting the symbol. Everyone watched anxiously as the unicorn examined the symbol with a puzzled expression on her face. “Looks like this one will be harder to crack.” Glitter shrugged with a frustrated expression. “That doesn’t make sense… the one I overloaded in the library was really easy to break. It didn’t even do much other than light up a little bit.” Twilight said in a confused tone. “That’s odd… the one we broke earlier made a burst of air.” Glitterball said with equal confusion. “I think whatever spell these symbols are feeding is reliant on them. Whenever one of the seals is broken, all of the energy has to push on the remaining ones in order for the spell to function. Right now, that symbol is the only link left, so all of the energy is held inside of it… like a pressurized vessel ready to burst.” Tom explained as he examined the symbol further. “And we’re about to burst it on purpose… that sounds… fun… and dangerous… really dangerous.” Sunspot said in a nervous tone. “We’ll be safe when the symbol breaks… right?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. Tom could only offer the ponies an uncertain and troubled expression. “Arcane energy can be tricky and hard to predict… there are spells and runes with specific intentions in mind, but it’s harder to predict what will happen when it fails or something unexpected happens. Let’s just keep on our toes… oh, and start running if you see fire.” The human said with a disheartened shrug. “Maybe we should just leave it alone?” Rarity suggested in a nervous tone. “We can’t do that Rarity… the alternative would probably be fighting the ghosts and beating them. Without breaking this symbol, they would still keep all of the exits closed.” Twilight said in an understanding tone. She knew that there was no way that they could defeat the ghosts directly. “We’ll be fine Rarity.” Rainbow Dash said in a reassuring tone. “Before we can worry about what happens when we pop that seal, we have to get there without the ghosts doing to us what they did to them.” Brimstoke said while glancing towards the three dead ponies on the other side of the room. “I’ll start working on the symbol. It’s going to take a while, so I might as well get started.” Glitterball said while shrugging and lighting up her horn and walking over to the symbol. “I might have a few ideas on how we can prepare for the ghosts. We should dig in and get as much of an advantage as we can.” Tom suggested in a hopeful tone. “Good thinking. We’ll keep an eye out for any sign of them.” Brimstoke said while shaking his locator by its pull cord and glancing to his teammates. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot nodded while pulling out their own locators. Twilight and the others watched as Brimstoke’s team prepared themselves for the arrival of the spirits. Glitterball worked on overloading the symbol, Brimstoke and the others focused on scanning the area for the ghosts, and Tom was focusing on making the area safer for them. They were about to destroy the only thing keeping the spirits in this mansion, and somehow the ponies didn't think that their three hosts would like that very much.
Chapter 90: Fighting to SurviveThe atmosphere in the room was tense as Twilight and the others watched Glitterball and Tom get to work. The unicorn was putting all of her effort into overloading the seal, while the human had something else to keep him busy. “There… that should do it.” Tom said while handing the feather quill he received from Sunspot back to its rightful owner. The human stepped back and admired the symbol he had just painted on the wall. The strange glyph was one of four that he had drawn across all of the walls. “So… what exactly are these supposed to do?” Sunspot asked in a confused tone while looking around at the symbols. “They’re spiritual wards. They are the best thing we can make without proper prep work. On a good day, they can repel most weak ghosts and spirits.” Tom explained in a helpful tone. “And what will they do to our super ghosts?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Well… at best they might weaken them. At worst, it might tickle them a little bit.” Tom shrugged in a disheartened tone as he realized just how futile his efforts were. “Ah guess that’s an improvement on how we’ve been faring against them so far.” Applejack said with a slightly more hopeful tone. “It would help an awful lot if we could get done before they got here. Maybe if we step in and help Glitter with the symbol?” Twilight asked with an anxious tone. It was killing her to just be standing off to the side while everyone else worked. “Sorry Twilight, but this is too dangerous for you guys. I’m not so hot on the idea of this thing blowing up when I’m done… for obvious reasons.” Glitterball said while looking down and chuckling nervously. “But I would rather not have you standing right on top of it if it does.” She said in a concerned tone. “Glitter, that’s a horrible way to look at it. I don’t want to think that you’re willing to blow yourself up for us.” Twilight said in an appalled tone. “Well… if it came down to it, I am. We may look different and have a lot more toys, but we’re basically royal guard. The princess told us to protect you, and I won’t let anything get in the way of that.” Glitter said in a confident tone. Twilight and the others somberly glanced around at the unicorn and her teammates. They would each lay their lives down to save them like it was their appointed duty. Even though they were confident that their fledgling friendship had something to do with it, it was a bizarre and humbling thought to picture them as soldiers. “Still, it would be a lot better if one of us helped you. I don’t really care if there’s a risk for blowing up. We’re all in danger here anyway.” Twilight said in an adamant tone. “Allow me to assist Glitterball with the symbol.” Luna suggested while stepping forward. “Umm… Princess, are you sure you’re up to doing something like that?” Twilight asked with a concerned expression while watching the sickly alicorn. “I’ll be fine Twilight. Even in my current state, I would be more resistant to anything that might happen when this symbol breaks than any of you. Besides, I want you all to focus on protecting yourselves.” Luna said in a serious tone while looking around at the purple mare and her five friends. It wasn’t hard to tell that the alicorn was concerned for their safety. “Not that we can do much against those things. We already got our tails kicked by just one of them on multiple occasions. Imagine having all three of them in the same room.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight shudder. “Which is exactly why you need to arm yourselves.” Tom said while walking over to the ponies with something held in his arms. “Think fast.” He said while passing one of the objects to the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash caught the item and looked at it, only to realize that it was one of the iron pipes that the hooded ponies had with them on the other side of the room. “Iron huh?” Rainbow Dash said with a small smirk building on her face. “I like where this is going… I’ve been wanting to smack that woman with the scissors for a while for what she did to us… and that goes double for the creep with the glasses.” She said while swinging the pipe a few times. “And that’s only if you can hit them. In case you forgot, that creep with the glasses dodged everything we threw at him… then he picked us up and knocked our heads together.” Applejack said in a disheartened tone. “Ugh… don’t remind me. I can still feel a bruise from where we bumped skulls.” Rainbow Dash winced while rubbing her forehead gingerly. “Still, it’s better than nothing. Thanks Tom.” Twilight said while levitating the remaining two poles out of the human’s hands. She handed the two iron weapons to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “Uh, Twilight… maybe you should keep one of these for yourself.” Applejack suggested nervously while glancing over to the pink mare trying to examine the iron pipe. “No offense sugar cube, but Ah don’t see you as much of a fighter.” She said in a friendly tone while putting a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “Yeah… maybe you’re right. Here you go Twilight.” Pinkie said while offering the small pipe back to the unicorn. “It’s ok Pinkie, you keep it. I have my magic to help me, so I want you to have something to help keep you safe. I just wish we had enough for everyone.” Twilight said while glancing to Fluttershy sympathetically. “Aww… thanks Twilight.” Pinkie said in a cheerful tone. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll keep you safe.” Rainbow Dash said in a sincere tone while offering the timid mare a hoof on the shoulder. “Thanks guys.” Fluttershy said with a grateful smile. Suddenly, a loud buzz filled the air, followed by a harsh gasp. Everyone turned to see Tom’s senses going off, as well as Brimstoke and the others holding their now glowing locators with alarmed expressions. “Looks like we’ve got company. Everyone get ready.” Brimstoke said in a serious tone while readying his strobe. Everyone suddenly became very alarmed as they looked around frantically for any sign of the ghosts. The constant buzzing from the glowing vials that Brimstoke and his team were carrying made everyone’s nerves go into overdrive. Twilight and the others backed together and readied themselves for anything that could come their way. “I’ve got multiple readings here!” Sunspot announced while pointing her locator around frantically. No matter where she pointed the vial, the liquid inside was completely glowing. “How many of them are there?” Brimstoke asked in a concerned tone. “Where are they coming from?” Twilight asked nervously while darting their eyes around. “I don’t know! I can’t tell where they are exactly… it feels like they’re all around us.” Tom said in a frustrated tone while frantically using his senses and darting his eyes around. “Feels like they’re all around you eh? Well… that would be quite amusing now wouldn’t it?” Suddenly, the group heard an eerily familiar voice coming from the left side of the room. They looked over to see a ghostly man with glasses and a scalpel in hand walking into view. “Wouldn’t you agree, sister?” The man asked while looking behind the group. The ponies swiftly turned around as they heard female laughter coming from behind them. They noticed a woman in a white dress wielding a pair of bloody scissors walking out of the wall. “Heheh… quite so brother… quite so.” The woman chuckled in a sinister manner while closing and opening the pair of scissors slowly. “You don’t scare us. We’re going to beat you.” Twilight said in as much of a threatening tone as she could muster. The purple mare lit up her horn and backed into a tight circle around Luna and Glitterball with her friends while they prepared their own means of defending themselves. Tom, Brimstoke, and the others stood in front of the group of mares to keep something between the ghosts and them. “Ah yes, I suppose we are in a bit of a bind, what with you tampering with that symbol and all.” The man said while pointing at the symbol that Luna and Glitterball were trying to work on in between glaring at the two spirits. “The spell we used to bind our spirits here is fragile. We were going to undo it carefully so we could keep our power and leave this place, but some other people came here and activated the seals before we woke up.” The woman with the scissors explained in a disappointed manner. “We’ve been waiting a very long time to get out and have some fun. Our dear brother here would be laughing it up with us if he could still talk.” The man with the glasses said while looking off to the side. Everyone turned to see the ghost with the axe walking up to them with a stoic and eerily blank expression on his face. “Even if he can’t express it himself, I think he would agree with us when we say that we will not let you spoil our fun prematurely.” The ghostly woman said with a more vicious tone and a bloodthirsty glint in her eyes. Before anyone could think of something to do, Tom stepped forward and raised his arms into a fighting position. Flames briefly crackled to life around his fingertips as he summoned his claws into existence. Once his weapons were fully formed, the human glared at the three spirits around him with an unyielding resolve. “If you want to get to them, you’re going to have to go through me.” Tom said in a serious tone. “Tom, don’t...” Twilight pleaded for the human to rethink his actions. If he kept risking his own life by stepping into the fray alone, then only the worst could come of it. “Heh… you were right about him sister. He does have a bit of a spark in him doesn’t he?” The man with the scalpel said in an amused tone while glancing to his sibling. “You really think you can beat all three of us alone? Have you already forgotten the fun times we had together?” The woman asked while smirking at the bold slayer. She brandished her bloody scissors and snipped the blades together a few times to let the chilling sound unnerve the others. “I hate to agree with a spineless ghost, but she’s right Tom.” Sunspot said in an uneasy tone while stepping forward slightly. “You need our help if you’re going to beat them Tom. None of us have beaten even one of them by ourselves, but we can win if we work together.” Luna said while looking around at the group preparing themselves for battle. Although she had to continue her work on the symbol, she would gladly jump in to help if the need arose. “Everyone stay back. Enough people have gotten hurt by these monsters tonight, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let any more of you down.” Tom said while glancing behind him with a stern expression. “But… but Tom, you could die if you fight them!” Twilight yelled in a concerned tone. She couldn’t believe that the human was stubborn enough to refuse their help. “I don’t really care about that right now. I’m a slayer… I think it’s about time I do my job.” Tom said in a serious tone while directing his attention to the ghost directly in front of him, which just so happened to be the man with the scalpel. The ghostly man chuckled to himself for a moment while looking to the floor. He pushed his glasses back onto his face before looking up and smiling sinisterly. The ponies watched nervously while he flipped the scalpel in his hands a few times. “Alright… if you insist on fighting us, then it’s a fight you will receive.” The man said in a surprisingly calm tone before lowering his arms to his sides and waiting for the slayer to make his move. “Then shut up and fight me!” Tom yelled fiercely while charging forward towards the ghostly human. As he jabbed forward with his claws, the man effortlessly dodged to the side, leading the boy to launch another attack at him. With the spirit ducking under his next swipe, Tom tried to speed up enough to land a hit on him. The ghostly man struck back with his scalpel, making a swift and precise stab towards Tom’s chest. Luckily, the boy managed to maneuver his body out of the way of the strike, putting him in a good position for a counter. As he swiped his claws at the ghost’s head, he was surprised to see the spirit using his small scalpel to clash with his blades to deflect them. “Hyah!” The woman in white squealed in excitement and anger as she leapt forward and stabbed at the slayer with her scissors. Tom quickly used his other clawed hand to catch the scissors in mid strike. The boy suddenly found himself standing between two ghosts with sharp objects that were hell bent on killing him. The two spirits smirked at each other for a moment before yelling fiercely and lashing out at the boy. Twilight and the others watched with anxious expressions as Tom used a mixture of his claws and evasive dodges to escape the two ghosts’ attacks. The clashing of metal against metal rang out as the human tried his best to stay on top of the situation. Despite his best efforts, Tom was reeling to keep up with the two spirits and their swift speed. “Gah!” Tom yelped suddenly as the man with the scalpel caught his hand with a downward slice. Before the two ghosts could capitalize on the break in the human’s defenses, he leapt backwards to distance himself from them and recover. Still, the two spirits followed him dauntlessly and managed to back him all the way to the wall at the left side of the room. “Tom!” Twilight and the others cried fearfully as they watched the human frantically parrying and clashing the two blades striking at him. He seemed like he was struggling to keep up with the pair as the exhaustion and nervousness was clear in his face. “That’s it! I’m done watching from the sidelines!” Sunspot said while stepping forward from the group and readying her strobe. Before anyone could try to stop or assist her, the pegasus opened fire to assist the human. The ghostly man and woman swiftly turned around and saw the incoming barrage of energy blasts. They quickly dodged out of the way of them, but they also had Tom to deal with. As more bolts of light flew at the spirits, they were forced to dodge while also fighting the human and his claws. “Agh!” The woman cried out in pain as Tom’s claws clipped her side. The blades passed right through her and left the area where they impacted a mass of burning smoke. The human couldn’t help but smirk at giving the sadistic spirit a taste of her own medicine. “Alright Tom!” Sunspot cheered in excitement while smiling at her contribution to the fight. She prepared to open fire again, until something big appeared out of the corner of her eye. “Sunspot, lookout!” Glimmer Shine yelled while readying his strobe to shoot behind the pegasus. Sunspot turned to see the ghost with the axe standing right in front of her with his weapon held overhead. By the time Glimmer Shine or anyone else could assist her, she could already have her head rolling on the floor. “Ah!” Sunspot yelped in surprise while diving backwards. The man swung the axe downwards, burying it into the floor mere inches away from the orange mare’s leg. The ghostly man stared at the pegasus silently as splinters from the floor flew in the air. It was like he was engaging her with his eyes due to his apparent inability to speak. Considering the amount of strength the spirit put behind his strike, and the amount of the axe blade stuck into the floor, the ponies would have figured that it would take him at least a few moments to extract the weapon, but they were mistaken. With an unnatural amount of speed, the ghost plucked the blade out of the floor and prepared to strike at Sunspot again. Sunspot looked up and immediately saw that she was right next to Twilight and the others. If she backed up any more, she would be bringing them into the fight whether they wanted it or not. The last thing the pegasus wanted was to put one of them in the swinging path for the psychopathic ghost to kill them as collateral. “Hrg!” Sunspot groaned as she rolled out of the way of the axe flying down at her. After gaining some distance from the ghost, she rolled onto her back and pointed her strobe at him. Glimmer Shine and Brimstoke readied their strobes along with the pegasus. They were prepared to gun the spirit down in a blaze of light. “Fire!” Brimstoke instructed while pressing the button on his vial as fast as he could. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine needed no guidance to join the stallion in firing at the spirit. As the three lines of energy blasts converged and prepared to hit the mute specter, he was forced to react evasively. Leaving his axe embedded in the floor, he vanished into a puff of swirling mist. The many bolts of energy flew in the air, hitting either themselves or the walls and exploding harmlessly into sparks of light. “Dangit! Where’d he go?!” Sunspot growled in frustration while looking around for the spirit. “I don’t know, but I think you made him mad.” Rainbow Dash said while stepping out of the group and helping the vested pegasus to her feet. “Shouldn’t you be staying back with the Princess and Glitter?” Sunspot asked while giving the cyan mare a suggestive expression and motioning towards the others. “Not a chance. We’re all in this now whether you like it or not. Now keep your eyes open and shoot anything that moves.” Rainbow Dash said while looking around and holding her iron pipe defensively. “Why do I always have to watch the stubborn ones?” Sunspot shrugged before backing up against the cyan pegasus and scanning the room with her. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Tom was still facing off against the two spirits. The woman in white was cringing and gritting her teeth while clutching her side. Her form was still unstable from the strike that the slayer landed on her. “Are you alright sister?” The man with the glasses asked, though he seemed more curious than concerned. “Heh… stings doesn’t it? You ghosts think you’re untouchable as long as iron isn’t around. Well I’ve got news for you. The spirit weapons of a slayer are able to cut down a lot worse than you ectoplasmic wastes of space.” Tom said with a wry smirk. Even though he was clearly exhausted, he was taking his small victory for all it was worth. “We know all about you slayers. We stumbled across you in our research on immortality. We figured that all of you had died out with the rest of humanity… but I guess that you are more stubborn than I first thought.” The man explained before turning to his sibling. “Do you want me to take care of him?” He asked curiously while readying his scalpel. “No… I like it when they fight back.” The woman said before returning a smile to her face. “Alright, you want to go for round two? I can promise you this time that when I hit you I won’t just clip you.” Tom said while readying his hands in front of him to counter any incoming attacks. “Hehehe.” The woman laughed sinisterly while letting her armed hand fall to her side and raising her free hand in front of her. She clenched her fist while leveling it with the human. Suddenly, Tom felt something gripping around his neck tightly. As the woman raised her arm upwards, Tom felt himself getting lifted into the air by his neck. He gagged and choked while clutching at the invisible hands wrapping around his neck. “Hrk… gah…” Tom croaked while desperately trying to ignore the pain in his throat. “Right… levitation… I forgot you could do that for a second there.” He said in a strangled voice while trying to break free from her grasp. “Allow me to remind you what else I can do.” The woman said with a sinister grin. She flicked her arm to the side, sending the boy flying through the air with a startled yelp. Just as quickly as he was sent on his way, Tom slammed into the far wall face first, causing him to fall to the floor with a wave of pain coursing through him. As he looked up in a painful daze, he noticed that the woman was nowhere to be seen. Feeling his senses going off as a puff of mist escaped his mouth, Tom looked behind him to see the spirit staring down at him with vicious intent. “AGH!” Tom yelled in pain as the woman sliced across his stomach with the pair of scissors. The cut she made was deep, causing a surge of mind numbing pain to overtake the slayer. “Heheheheh!” The woman laughed maniacally while taking the scissors and stabbing them into the boy once more. She seemed to relish listening to Tom’s screams of agony and the blood spurting from his wounds. “Leave him alone!” Applejack yelled fiercely while charging forward with her iron pipe at the ready. She swung the weapon as hard as she could at the woman, only to have the pipe stopped by the ghost slamming the pair of scissors into it. The orange mare stared at the blades of the scissors nervously as they precariously pressed against the iron pipe, just barely stopped by the force of the two clashing together. One false move from her or one smart move from the spirit, and the blades of the scissors would plunge straight into her face, chest, or even her neck. “Oof!” Applejack groaned as the ghost used her invisible influence to shove her backwards. She landed on her back with a painful thud, the iron pipe still clutched in her mouth. She quickly looked up with fearful eyes as she saw the woman charging for her with her scissors at the ready. “AHH!” The orange mare screamed and held her hooves out to try and catch the scissors before they did any real damage. She realized that due to her attacker being a ghost, she couldn’t just grab her arm to push back against her. Her only hope would be to catch the scissors by its small handle, a task which would be difficult to accomplish without the added challenge that leverage would be against her if she did manage to grab the small target. Suddenly, a muffled thud sounded out as if something struck glass. Applejack looked up to see a purple tinted force field shielding her from the murderous spirit. The woman in white seemed mildly confused as to why she wasn’t currently ripping the earth pony to shreds, and the orange mare was equally confused. “Hey, you remember me?” Rainbow Dash yelled while rushing forward and jumping into the air. She used her wings to glide to the side of the spirit and swung at her with her iron pipe. “I never forget something I kill… or in this case mortally wound.” The woman said while swatting her arm sideways. Rainbow Dash was knocked out of the air with a painful grunt. She landed on her back and slid a few inches before coming to a stop. Applejack watched in horror as the ghostly woman stood over the pegasus with her bloody weapon held high. Suddenly, a magical zap sounded out as a flash of light appeared behind the ghost. The orange mare looked over to see Twilight standing there with a serious expression on her face. “How about me? Do you remember me at all?” Twilight asked with a smug expression. The woman looked behind her to see the smirking pony. She was slightly enraged to be mocked by such a feeble creature. Rainbow Dash glanced down to the iron pipe next to her. She looked up and saw Twilight looking at her and motioning to the pipe with her eyes. The cyan mare smirked as she realized her friend had a plan in place. “Think fast!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while flinging the pipe at the ghostly woman as hard as she could. The spirit dodged to the side to let the pipe barely whiz by her. She smirked sinisterly at the pony’s apparently failed attempt at retaliation, until she saw a purple glow out of the corner of her eye. The woman turned to see the pipe floating in midair with a purple aura around it. She widened her eyes slightly in fear as she realized her mistake. Twilight quickly spun the pipe around, smacking the ghost across her head and forcing it through her intangible form. “AGHH!” The woman screamed in pain while disappearing into a puff of fiery mist. “Nice job girls. You saved my hide.” Applejack said in a grateful tone while accepting the purple mare’s help in getting to her feet. “Anytime.” Rainbow Dash said with a victorious chuckle. “Are you ok Tom?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking over to the human. The three ponies frowned sympathetically as they saw the human trying to cope with the pain he was going through. The wounds on his stomach and chest were still bleeding profusely as he slowly made his way to his feet. “Gah…” Tom winced in pain as flames sparked to life across each of his wounds. The fire worked slowly due to his exhaustion, but eventually his injuries vanished into the fiery aether. “I’m ok… but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep fighting.” The human said while lowering his hands to his sides. Just having his spirit weapons out was making his hands shake. “Don’t worry, we can help you.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. “I don’t know if you’ve forgotten about me or not, but perhaps you should think for a moment before making such bold claims.” The ponies suddenly heard a familiar voice taunting them from the side. They looked over to see the ghostly man with the glasses staring at them menacingly. They felt a cold shudder as they thought back to the last time they fought the man. Even with their superior numbers, he beat them senseless. “Hey you big meanie! Stop hurting my friends!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while charging forward from seemingly out of nowhere. She leapt at the man with the scalpel and swung her iron pipe sideways, nearly catching him off guard. The man swung his small blade to counter the pink mare’s attack, but she kept swinging at him. He was slightly surprised by how much energy she was putting into her speed and stamina. He was almost having a hard time keeping up with her as the clashing of iron against steel rang out. “Why you little… Hold still!” The ghost yelled in an irritated tone while frantically swinging at the energetic pony. Pinkie jumped over or ducked around every strike the spirit sent her way with relative ease and a smile on her face. It was almost like she was playing a game of tag, but her opponent was playing for keeps. “You’re going to have to move faster than that if you want to catch me!” Pinkie exclaimed while sticking her tongue out at the annoyed man. “I don’t need to move fast if you can’t move at all.” The human said with a sinister smirk while stopping his attacks. The pink mare was more than a little confused at his statement. “What are you talking about? I can move just fine.” Pinkie said with a slight chuckle. She prepared to strike the idle spirit with her iron weapon, until he held his arm out in front of his body and clenched his fist. Pinkie suddenly felt an invisible force constricting her body. She was forcefully lifted up into the air, causing her to drop her weapon in surprise. She could offer little more than a startled yelp for resistance as she squirmed in the air. “Hey! That’s cheating!” Pinkie said in a dismayed tone. “I don’t really care…” The ghostly man said with a sinister chuckle while eyeing the trapped pony sinisterly. “Pinkie!” Twilight and the others yelled fearfully as they saw their friend in danger. Rainbow Dash and Applejack gripped their iron pipes tightly and Twilight and Tom prepared their own weapons to charge forward and assist the pink mare. “Tut, tut… no interrupting.” The man said in an irritated tone while shoving his open palm towards the group. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in surprise as her body was flung backwards forcefully. Her three friends were thrown through the air along with her until they all slammed into the far wall. “Gah… I can’t move.” Rainbow Dash groaned while trying to lift herself up. An invisible force was pushing her down and keeping her on the floor. “Me neither…” Applejack said in a strained voice while struggling against the force pushing her down. The orange mare barely managed to make any progress before her muscles gave out. “No… we have to save Pinkie…!” Twilight groaned in exhaustion while turning her attention forward. The ghostly man still held the pink mare in front of him with his invisible grasp. “Now then… I think it’s about time that someone gives you the beating you deserve. All of you have harmed me and my sister, and been a general thorn in our sides for too long. I’m going to kill all of you slowly and painfully, but first I’m going to kill this pink headache.” The man said in a more angry tone while glaring at Pinkie. Before anyone could react, the spirit used his power to forcefully fling the pink mare over his head and onto the floor. “Agh!” Pinkie yelped in pain as she slammed into the floor with her back. Her body throbbed in pain and her head felt like she had just been struck from behind, which by all intents and purposes she was. She clutched the back of her head and looked up hesitantly to see the man standing over her with his scalpel in hand. The sight of the bloodthirsty look in the spirit’s eyes made a fearful silence fall over the pink mare. “You want to find out how fast I can disembowel a pony with just a scalpel and my bare hands?” The man asked with a maddened smirk building on his face. Pinkie felt herself shivering in a terrified state as she stared at the bloody scalpel with wide eyes. “P-please… don’t.” Pinkie said in a quiet stammer while shaking her head in protest. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as her mind screamed at her to try and escape. Even if her body wasn’t frozen in fear, she doubted that the man would let her escape so easily. Twilight and the others gasped as they saw the human raise his arm in preparation to strike. They averted their eyes and shielded their faces to prevent themselves from seeing their friend getting stabbed to death. The last thing they saw before they looked away fearfully was the ghost bringing his arm down towards the helpless mare. “No!” A frightened voice suddenly rang out from behind the spirit, causing him to pause in surprise. Everyone looked over to see Fluttershy standing behind the man with the iron pipe Pinkie dropped clutched in her mouth. “You again? I thought you were cowering off in the corner somewhere?” The ghostly man asked in a surprised tone while eyeing the pegasus curiously. The yellow mare was obviously terrified. Her body was shaking violently, her breathing was rapid and erratic, and the iron pipe in her mouth was practically vibrating against her chattering teeth. And yet here she was, confronting a terrifying opponent about to slaughter one of her friends. “I’m n-not going to let y-you hurt her.” Fluttershy said in a nervous tone. “I won’t let you h-hurt anyone e-else.” She added in what she hoped would be a threatening tone while clutching her iron pipe like it was her only life line. Despite her best intentions, she still looked pale and terrified. “Oh… and you’re going to stop me? Hah… don’t make me laugh. You know what happens when I get excited.” The man said with a suggestive smirk. “Fluttershy, don’t do this! You’ll just get hurt if you fight him!” Pinkie said in a fearful tone while pleading with the pegasus to get her to leave. “You should really listen to your friend dearie. I wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face of yours… yet anyway.” The man said with a sinister chuckle. Fluttershy felt her heart pounding in her chest as she stood her ground against the murderous spirit. She had already watched the man before her steal away two lives right in front of her, and she wasn’t about to let another of her friends die. Still, she felt like she was facing off against her worst nightmare come to life. “Don’t ever… call me dearie again.” Fluttershy said in a surprisingly fierce tone as she felt a great deal of anger building up inside of her. The sheer desire to give the ghost his just deserts was giving her enough of a courage boost to act. “Hyah!” Fluttershy yelled slightly as she charged forward with her weapon at the ready. Her timid demeanor lessened the amount of anger she showed, but it was still a surprising display to her friends and the spirit. The yellow mare swung her head to the side to strike the man with the pipe. She flinched her eyes shut as she saw the man moving the scalpel towards her. The metal blade collided with the iron pipe, causing a harsh sound to ring out and a surprising amount of force to push back against the pegasus. The shock of the sound and the impact made Fluttershy flinch again, but she opened her eyes and steeled herself enough to launch another strike. Everyone watched in anxious surprise as the pegasus launched a flurry of attacks against the spirit. Her form was erratic and hesitant due to the feeling of fear inside of her, but she managed to rapidly swing the pipe around to try and land a hit on the ghost. Every strike the pony sent his way, the man would block with relative ease with his scalpel. Suddenly, the man swiped towards Fluttershy’s face. The yellow mare tensed up and moved her head to the side as fast as she could, but she couldn’t move fast enough to get away unscathed. She whined in a shocked state of pain as she felt the blade of the scalpel scraping across her cheek. The jolt of the attack made the surprised pony back up a step. Fluttershy stammered in shock as she brought a hoof up to her new injury. The wound stung as she put a light amount of pressure on it. She stared at her hoof with wide eyes as blood trickled off of it. She then looked up at the spirit with a newfound sense of fear. The iron pipe that she clung to so fiercely before loosely hung in her mouth as she felt her body locking up in fear again. “Aww… I told you I didn’t want to mess up your face. You look so afraid… why don’t I put you out of your misery?” The man suggested with a faked tone of sympathy that came off as cold and eerie. Fluttershy tried to run away, but her legs were frozen in place along with the rest of her body as she stared at the man with a quivering jaw. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie yelled in dismay at the scene in front of her. She had to act fast if she was going to save her friend. The pink mare quickly got to her feet and looked around frantically. Her eyes settled on the only weapon in reach, the iron pipe still sitting in Fluttershy’s mouth. The only thing between her and her friend was the ghostly man. Suddenly, an idea popped into the pink pony’s head. One that she hoped was crazy enough to work. Fluttershy watched as Pinkie suddenly stepped forward and reached her arm through the ghostly human. The man looked down with a confused expression as his body shifted to smoke around the pink mare’s arm. Before the spirit could react, Pinkie grabbed the iron pipe and pulled it out of her friend’s mouth. “AGH!” The man cried out in pain as the pink mare pulled the iron pipe through his body. Pinkie held the weapon inside of his form, causing it to erupt into a fiery mass of smoke. Despite the man’s best efforts to remain solid, he eventually disappeared as his sister did in a puff of smoke. The two ponies were left staring at each other with shocked expressions. They were both equally surprised to be alive, and even more surprised that they had at least temporarily vanquished a very powerful enemy that had plagued them all night. “You… you saved me?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone. “No… we saved each other.” Pinkie said with a triumphant giggle. Fluttershy couldn’t help but join her friend in laughing cheerfully at their victory. “Nice job you two!” Rainbow Dash said while rushing over to the pair and congratulating them. The two looked over to see the others walking up to join them in their celebration. “We thought you were going to die for a minute there.” Twilight said in a relieved tone. “We’re not out of the woods yet… we still need that symbol to be broken.” Tom said while turning his attention to the other side of the room. Everyone nodded in agreement before collecting their weapons and walking over to join the others. Meanwhile on the other side of the room, Sunspot and her teammates were still looking for the third spirit. Ever since they forced him to flee, they had been scanning their eyes around the area frantically in search of him. His axe was still embedded into the floor a short distance away, so they were also keeping an eye on that just in case he decided to stay invisible when he attacked them. “Glitter, how long do we have on that symbol?” Brimstoke asked in an anxious tone while looking back at the unicorn and the alicorn standing next to the symbol on the floor. “Ugh… I don’t know. This thing is really fighting us. It might be another ten minutes for all I know.” Glitterball replied in an understandably nervous tone. “I’m not sure if we have ten minutes. Those other two will be back eventually.” Twilight said while trotting up to the group with her small band of friends. “Are you guys ok?” Sunspot asked in a concerned tone as she saw the disheveled state that most of the ponies were in. Twilight and the others looked like they had bruises forming in various places, and Fluttershy had a small cut across her cheek. “We fought the other two ghosts. We’re ok all things considered.” Twilight explained while glancing to Fluttershy with a concerned expression. The yellow mare nodded in agreement with a small smile on her face. “Sorry we weren’t with you… I knew we should have intervened.” Sunspot said in a regretful tone while looking down sadly. “You had to watch the Princess and Glitter. We need to work together if we’re going to survive.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. Suddenly, the purple mare noticed the axe in the floor vibrating slightly. The bloody weapon swiftly lifted itself into the air and remained still before pointing towards Sunspot. “*Gasp* Sunspot look out!” Twilight exclaimed while pointing behind the pegasus. Sunspot spun her head around and widened her eyes as she saw the axe pointing towards her. Before she could even process her next move, the floating weapon sailed forward and raised up to strike her at high speeds. “AH!” Sunspot yelped fearfully while trying to move to the side. She could already see that she would be too late to avoid the attack. Suddenly the orange pegasus felt something tackling her to the side. After an uncomfortable landing on the ground, she looked over and saw the axe blade piercing into the floor. She then looked beside her to see Glimmer Shine lying next to her. The pair knew that they didn’t have time for thanks or even to take a breather. With little more than a shared look of frantic agreement, the two reached for their strobes and turned their bodies to face the impending threat. They could see the ghostly man appearing out of thin air and walking up to reclaim his weapon embedded into the floor. “Fire!” Glimmer Shine shouted fiercely, though his partner needed no confirmation. The two ponies fired their strobes in a blinding flurry of light and magical bursts. The man briefly looked at the oncoming barrage of blasts before blinking out of sight with little more than a puff of smoke to signify his former presence. “Where’d he go?!” Sunspot asked while quickly getting to her feet and scanning the area with her strobe. “Heads up!” Brimstoke yelled while pointing his strobe behind the orange pegasus. Sunspot whipped her head around and saw that the spirit was standing behind her with his axe held high above his head. The man was staring down at her with a silent expression of contempt. The orange mare quickly leapt forward to not only get out of the way of the spirit, but to give Brimstoke a clear shot. As the white stallion fired several blasts at the ghostly man, he disappeared before the bolts of light could hit him. One quick look around the room, and the group found the silent spirit appearing behind Twilight and Rainbow Dash. The two mares spun around and gasped as they saw the man raising his axe to strike them. The cyan mare forcefully shoved her iron pipe against the wooden handle of the axe. She managed to hold her own against the spirit’s strength until he pulled back into a defensive stance. “Hyah!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she struck at the ghost with her weapon. The man used his axe to block her attack. The cyan pony ignored her antsy nerves and continued her assault against the spirit. Every attack the pegasus sent his way, the ghost blocked or dodged. When the man finally struck back, Rainbow Dash managed to dodge as well. “Twilight, catch!” Pinkie exclaimed while tossing her iron pipe to the unicorn. Twilight quickly used her magic to grab the flying object, and just as quickly she joined her pegasus friend in attacking the murderous spirit. Somehow, the spirit was able to block and dodge the combined attacks from the two ponies. He seemed to be having some difficulty with keeping up with them. Spotting an opening in the fight, Sunspot fired her strobe at the ghost. The man looked ahead at the incoming blast with a concerned expression. Before the burst of light hit, he vanished again, only this time he left behind his weapon. The axe clattered to the floor near Twilight and Rainbow Dash. “How much longer on that symbol?” Brimstoke asked in an anxious tone. “We’re almost done.” Luna reported in an equally anxious tone. The group was starting to get too tense for their liking. Suddenly, the axe on the floor started shaking violently. It vibrated against the ground for a few moments as if it had a mind of its own. No sooner did the ponies notice it than they watched it fling into the air and sail across the room. “*Gasp* Brimstoke lookout!” Glitterball yelled fearfully as she watched the axe sailing straight towards the white stallion. Everyone in the room followed the axe with their eyes as it flew through the air. Brimstoke saw the incoming threat. He barely had any time to react, but he made a move to the side. However good his reflexes were, they weren’t enough to evade the speeding weapon. The axe crashed into his body at high speeds, burying itself into his upper chest and knocking him from his feet. “Agh!” Brimstoke screamed in pain as he flew across the room. He skidded across the floor a short distance before slamming into the far wall and remaining motionless. “Brimstoke!” Everyone yelled in utter shock as they watched the stallion getting struck with an axe. There was a trail of blood leading over to the other side of the room, and streams of the crimson fluid were already flowing out around the axe embedded in Brimstoke’s chest. To the horror of the helpless onlookers, the axe pulled itself out of the injured stallion, creating a sickening squelch and a gush of blood. The bloodied weapon flew across the room, where it landed in the outstretched palm of the newly appeared ghost. The man was silent and blank faced as ever, but the ponies could swear that they noticed his mouth curving upwards into a sadistic smirk at the corners. “You… you…” Sunspot muttered in an angry stupor. “You bastard!” She yelled fiercely while charging straight for the ghostly human. Much to everyone’s surprise, she didn’t even waver when the man raised his axe up to strike her. “Sunspot, move!” Twilight pleaded desperately as the pegasus seemingly charged straight towards her doom. Sunspot paid no attention to the warnings of her friends and continued on her path. The man with the axe smirked as the orange mare got close enough to him for him to act. He swung his weapon downwards with blinding speed, however, he wasn’t fast enough. Sunspot dodged to the side and arched her body around his. She suddenly shoved her hoof directly into his body, and she was holding a familiar vial full of liquid. “Dodge this you bucking freak!” Sunspot yelled fiercely at the murderous spirit. The man had a surprised look in his eyes as he looked down to see what the orange pony was doing, but he was too late. The pegasus pressed the button on her strobe, causing a small explosion of light and colorful sparks to erupt as the spirit’s body flickered violently. After a short time of trying to remain solid, the ghostly man finally disappeared from sight. Now that all three ghosts had been temporarily dealt with, the group could turn their attention to the most important matter at hand. Everyone turned their heads and stared at the white stallion bleeding on the floor at the edge of the room. Their eyes widened as the weight of the situation became clear. “Brimstoke!” Glitterball exclaimed while racing forward. She didn’t care about working on the symbol anymore. All she cared about was trying to help her friend. Twilight and the others raced forward to join the rainbow haired unicorn as she examined the stallion. Brimstoke was seemingly unconscious, but he was breathing, at least for the moment. There was a deep and gruesome gash in the upper part of his chest. The size and scope of the injury made it reach up to his neck and shoulder area. The ponies were worried that the axe might have severed a vital artery in his neck from appearances alone. “Brimstoke, can you hear me?!” Glitterball asked in a nervous tone while kneeling down in front of the stallion. She seemed to be using her medical training to assess what to do next, but her hooves were shaking and she seemed to be frantic and unfocused. “Is he ok?!” Glimmer Shine asked while observing the amount of blood on the floor in a panic. “Oh no… I think his carotid artery got hit by the axe.” Glitter said in an alarmed tone of despair. “You can help him can’t you? Right, Glitter?” Sunspot asked in a fearful tone. “I… I can’t do anything that would stop the bleeding in time. Even if I could, his brain isn’t getting the oxygen it needs from the blood. I don’t think he’s going to make it.” Glitterball explained with tears welling up in her eyes as she took the stallion’s pulse. She could barely even feel anything to indicate that the white pony was alive. Sunspot could do little more than to put her hooves on her head and let out an assortment of frustrated noises. She was desperate to do something to help the stallion, but she was powerless to do so. She turned to the human in the group as she ran out of options. “Tom, there has to be something you can do! Can’t you heal him or something?!” Sunspot asked in a desperate tone while looking to the human for an answer. Tom seemed to be hesitant to even attempt to heal the stallion. Between his remaining strength and the severity of the wound, he wasn’t sure if he could do anything. “I don’t think I can do anything for him… I’m sorry, but I can’t revive a person after they…” Tom paused sadly while looking down at the stallion. He was clearly on his way out of this world, but the orange pegasus wasn’t willing to accept it yet. “Please, you have to do something! You have to save him! What good are your powers if you can’t use them to help people?!” Sunspot asked in a visibly upset tone. The others were shocked to see the pegasus lashing out in such a way. Even if they knew she wasn’t trying to attack the human, it seemed that way at first glance. Tom looked around at the group of concerned ponies for a moment before settling his eyes on Brimstoke. He grunted in frustration while trying to think of something he could do. Every fiber in his being was telling him to save the stallion, but he wasn’t sure if he could. Finally the boy gave up on debating himself and the orange pegasus and rushed to Brimstoke’s side. Twilight and the others watched with varying expressions of concern and sadness as Tom held his hand over the stallion’s injury and projected his healing light. Much to their surprise, Brimstoke’s wound started closing up. After it closed up a decent amount, the human carefully removed the axe and continued his struggle. “Is it working?” Glitterball asked in a nervous tone. She was clearly shutting down mentally, and she needed someone to tell her that things would be ok. “His wound is healing, but his heart is stopped. I’m not sure if I can get it started again.” Tom explained with a sad tone of voice. Despite his somber news, he was still putting everything he had into reviving the stallion. Twilight watched with concern as the human’s arm started shaking. He had a pale expression, and he was grunting from exertion. Despite his obvious weakness, he was desperately trying to save the pony before him. Tom was gritting his teeth and toughing through whatever fatigue he was feeling, but it was clear to see that he was hurting himself. “Tom, stop it.” Twilight said in a pleading tone. “I can do this Twilight.” Tom replied in a frustrated tone without diverting his attention away. “Tom… you’re only going to hurt yourself at this point.” Twilight explained in a more concerned tone while stepping forward and putting a hoof on the boy’s shoulder. “I’m not going to let anyone else die tonight!” Tom replied in a more upset manner. He tried to push the unicorn away with his free hand, but he wasn’t even strong enough to budge her hoof an inch. Sunspot and the others looked on in shock as they realized what state the human was in. “Tom…” Sunspot said in a somber tone while looking down sadly. On the one hand, she desperately wanted the human to save Brimstoke, but on the other hand she didn’t want him to get hurt while trying. “Tom, that’s enough… you can stop now!” Twilight said in a more stern tone while nudging the human and trying to pull him away. “Damnit Twilight, I can save him!” Tom said while turning to the unicorn and trying to raise his voice. He cringed from fatigue and fell forward slightly, but he still kept his healing light going. Despite the frightful amount of effort the boy was putting into saving the stallion, Brimstoke remained motionless. “You can’t Tom!” Twilight yelled while forcefully pulling the human away. Tom cried out in refusal, but he could do nothing to stop the unicorn from pulling him to the side. The boy fell over as the beam of light projecting from his hand died out. He struggled in the purple mare’s grasp as he tried to get back to the stallion. “I have to save him… I have to!” Tom argued in a weak tone. He had tears building in his eyes as he struggled against the unicorn. Twilight could feel his body shaking as he fought against her. Despite the fact that she had to hold him against his will, she was deeply concerned with the small amount of effort she had to put in restraining him. “You can’t save everyone Tom.” Twilight said in a sad tone while looking around at the others. Glitterball silently walked next to the pair and felt for Brimstoke’s pulse. Shaking her head sadly, the white unicorn turned to inform the group on what they already knew. “He’s gone.” Glitter said in a distraught tone. She sobbed as she felt an overwhelming wave of sadness coursing through her. Everyone else looked down sadly and started weeping over their fallen friend. Meanwhile, Twilight was still holding onto Tom and cradling him against her body while trying to keep him from hurting himself. She cried openly as she listened to the human pleading for her to release him. Everyone had to distance themselves from the tragic scene in order to prevent themselves from breaking down into a fit of crying. “This isn’t right… this isn’t fair.” Sunspot muttered in an upset tone while sitting away from the group. She could feel her entire body tensing up from how many emotions she was feeling. She felt horribly sad, not only that a close friend had just died, but that another friend was having an emotional breakdown from trying to save him. She also felt incredibly angry towards the spirits that caused all of this. Taking a look around at the others, the pegasus deduced that they all felt the same. Although, most of the ponies were stuck in a phase of grief filled wailing and crying rather than dealing with overwhelming anger. “I don’t… *Hic*… I don’t know if I can take this anymore.” Fluttershy said in a shaky voice. The weight of the situation was clearly starting to get to the fragile mare. Her entire body was shaking and she couldn’t stop crying. Feeling some sort of responsibility for cheering her friends up in even the most tragic situations, Pinkie walked over and sat down next to the yellow mare. She put her arm around the weeping pegasus and pulled her in for a side hug. Despite her best intentions, she couldn’t manage to appear cheery herself due to her own grief and sadness. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. We’re going to get out of here.” Pinkie said in what she hoped would be a confident tone. “How can y-you even say that anymore? *Sniff*… Those ghosts are going to kill us… I just know it. We’re never getting out of here.” Fluttershy said before breaking down into another fit of crying. She hid her face in her hooves and wept openly while her friends offered her concerned expressions. All of the fear and sadness she had been feeling seemed to have finally broken her. The once kind and cheery pegasus was now a quivering and disheveled shadow of her former self. Twilight and the others wondered if they would ever see her smile again. “No, Fluttershy… we are getting out of here.” Luna spoke up in a somber tone, causing everyone to look up in surprise. “Princess…?” Fluttershy muttered in a confused manner as she looked up at the alicorn. She seemed to be going through the same amount of grief and sadness as the others were, as evident by the tearstains on her face. “A lot of terrible things have happened tonight. I fully take the blame for all of them happening… it’s my fault you’re all here, and it’s my fault that so many innocents have died tonight. I know that saying sorry will not be enough to atone for my failures tonight…” Luna said in a sad tone while looking down and hiding her eyes from the group. ”But I can make you one promise that I fully intend to keep. I’m going to get you all out of here if it’s the last thing I do.” She said in an adamant manner while finally looking up to face the group. The alicorn’s speech was enough to create a stunned silence among the group. “Princess… you don’t need to blame yourself for what’s happening to us. If anyone deserves the blame for this, it’s Raven Feather. I think we can all agree on that.” Twilight said while looking around at the others for confirmation. Everyone nodded silently in stern agreement as they thought about the mysterious leader of the hooded ponies. Nobody had even seen her before, but they all harbored a hatred for her that they had never felt before in their lives. “And if you want to make us a promise, promise us that you’re going to be there with us when we take that creep down. I don’t want to hear anything from you about if it’s the last thing you do… too many people have died tonight.” Rainbow Dash added with a somber expression. “I… I…” Luna muttered in a stunned tone while looking around at the group. Everyone still had somber expressions, but they were somehow more confident that they would escape now, and they were determined to make sure that everyone got out alive. “Very well, I promise.” Luna said while finally managing a slight smile. Suddenly, the group heard someone clapping slowly on the other side of the room. The sound was faded and echoed, but it was slowly getting clearer and closer to them. When they looked around the area, they couldn’t find any sign of the intruder, until they noticed a familiar man with glasses coming into view. “Very good… very, very good, I must say that I didn’t expect you all to make it this far. Well… not that all of you did.” The man said with a slight chuckle while motioning behind the group towards Brimstoke. The ponies immediately felt a mixed feeling of fear and anger towards the spirit as they stared him down. “Just go away and leave us alone. We beat you before, we can do it again.” Sunspot said while keeping her strobe at the ready. “So you did… and here you are making heartfelt promises to each other that you’ll all get out of here in one piece. I hate to break it to you, but you’re all going to die in here.” The man said in an eerily calm and cold tone. Just as the group was weighing their options to fight the ghostly human, they saw another figure appearing out of thin air. The woman in white was strolling forward with her scissors in hand. She walked forward until she stepped in line with her brother, where she stopped and grinned at the group of ponies. “Can I have those three? They were mean to me…” The woman asked her sibling while pointing to Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. The three mares gulped nervously as they remembered their parts in interrupting the spirit’s battle with Tom. “You can have whoever you like. Just be sure to save some for me and our brother… whenever he gets back.” The man said while looking around for the third spirit, who was probably still recovering from his own defeat. “I’m afraid you two aren’t going to have any more fun tonight, or ever again for that matter.” Luna said with a small smirk building on her face. Everyone including the two ghosts looked over to the alicorn to see that she was still working on the symbol as she had been the entire time. Only now, the symbol beneath the blue mare was glowing red and humming magically. “NO!” Both of the spirits yelled fiercely while rushing forward towards the alicorn. By the time they reached her, it was too late. As Luna finished undoing the spell, the symbol flashed brightly as a loud gust of wind erupted from the center of it. Twilight and the others hugged the floor fearfully as they felt a strong wind blowing around them. Their hair, their clothes, and even loose items around the room were blowing around as a cyclone of wind circled around the symbol. It was almost like they were caught in a tornado. “AHHHHHHH.” The two ghosts screamed as their bodies shifted into smoke. The smoke was pulled towards the symbol until it started swirling down towards the center of it, where it disappeared. Once all of the smoke was gone, one final thunderous burst of air surged out through the room, leaving everything silent. Everyone slowly uncovered their heads and looked around with stunned expressions. They were half expecting the ghosts to reappear and murder them, but the room remained still and quiet. The only sign that the spirits were ever even present was the glowing red symbol on the floor. “Are… are they gone?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “It looks like it.” Glimmer Shine stated while looking around the room. “What about that third one? The guy with the axe… I didn’t see him getting sucked in with the others.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “I doubt he had the energy to become visible so soon after Sunspot blasted him. Don’t worry though. He got sucked up just like the other two.” Tom explained in a confident tone. “So we can leave? We can finally get out of here?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a stunned tone. “Yes Rainbow Dash, I believe we can.” Luna replied with a pleased smirk. Suddenly, the entire area started shaking as a loud rumble rang out through the room. The group steadied themselves and looked around fearfully until the shaking stopped. When they looked around to find the source of the strange occurrence, they noticed that the symbol was flashing white and emitting a strange buzzing sound. “W-what’s happening?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” Glitterball said in an uneasy tone. She walked closer to the symbol to examine it, but when it buzzed more and flashed brighter, she backed away nervously. “Keep away from the symbol.” Glimmer Shine suggested while distancing himself and the others from the glowing symbol. A thick white mist started rising out of the symbol. It didn’t spread out around the room in a way that a gaseous substance should. Instead, it slowly undulated into the air in certain parts, resembling a snake made out of white smoke. Tom used his senses a few times in order to find out what was going on. Once he realized what was happening, he widened his eyes in shock. “Oh no… we need to get out of here!” Tom explained urgently. “What’s wrong Tom? What’s happening?” Luna asked nervously while looking to the human for answers. “The symbol didn’t erase the ghosts and all of their energy immediately. It just converted their energy into its purest form. Apparently the ghosts are still awake in there somewhere, and they have control of the energy until the symbol purges it all.” Tom explained while eyeing the white smoke nervously. The sinister substance seemed to be getting more deliberate with its movements, almost as if it was alive. “What does that mean?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily. “It means that we need to get out of here before they figure out what’s going on!” Tom stated urgently while moving towards the exit of the room. Before the ponies could start moving to join the human, a loud bang sounded out as a burst of air surged out from the symbol. The gust of wind was so strong that it knocked everyone a short distance away, either slamming them into a wall or against the floor. “Everyone run!” Twilight yelled while getting to her feet and rushing to assist Pinkie Pie, who was still on the floor. Once everyone made it to their feet, they rushed towards the door. The group bolted through the hall as fast as they could to exit the room. Just before the purple mare could leave the room however, she heard something that made her heart sink. “Ack!” Luna yelped suddenly as she felt something wrapping around her leg and pulling her backwards. Twilight paused in the doorway and turned around as she heard the alicorn cry out. As she peered back into the room, she gasped fearfully as she noticed the blue mare on the floor over by the symbol. The wispy stream of white smoke had somehow formed into a hand shape that was latched onto the princess and holding her down on the floor. Just in front of Luna, the white smoke was rising into the air and spreading out into the room, all the while it was making a horrific wailing sound. “Princess!” Twilight yelled fearfully while reaching her hoof towards the trapped alicorn. Luna looked up to see the purple mare at the doorway. She looked like she was contemplating rushing in to help her. One look at the rapidly approaching wall of energy told the alicorn that a living creature caught inside of the mass wouldn’t remain living for long. She could already feel the tendril around her leg burning her as the ghosts lashed out angrily through the medium of energy. “Princess, teleport over here! Use your magic!” Twilight pleaded desperately. The alicorn tried focusing her magic and managed to light up her horn, but after a few moments of attempting a teleport spell, she groaned heavily while her horn dimmed. She barely had any energy left from everything that had happened to her. “I… I’m not sure I can.” Luna said in a grim tone as she realized just how bad the situation was now. “T-try again! You can do this Princess… you have to!” Twilight stated while trying to keep her voice from trembling. “Run Twilight!” Luna yelled while struggling to keep the tendril from pulling her in. She lit up her horn again and tried using her magic to interact with the smoke, only to realize that she was too weak to do anything of great importance. Even if she had her strength, the smoke seemed to be fighting against her magic. “I’m not leaving you here… you’ll die!” Twilight yelled back while looking at the smoke as it spread across the room. It was making its way around the alicorn and trying to reach her. She could feel a great deal of raw hatred and anger emanating from the smoke, which made sense considering that the three spirits were somehow inside of it. Luna pulled on her leg with all of her might, but she couldn’t free herself from the energy. She could feel herself getting pulled along the floor towards the mass of energy. The entire room was filled with the distorted moans and wails of the spirits within the smoke, creating an even more disturbing atmosphere than what was already present. “What the hay is going on h…” Sunspot asked while rushing back to see why the two weren’t running with the others. “Oh no…” She exclaimed in a horrified tone as she saw the scene before her. “We have to help her!” Twilight stated while lighting up her horn. Sunspot nodded frantically while drawing her strobe. The pair of ponies desperately used every tool in their arsenal as they tried to push back the smoke trying to envelop the alicorn. As the blasts from Sunspot’s strobe failed to affect the white smoke, and Twilight’s magic failed to work, they both realized that they were powerless to help from where they were. “Don’t worry Princess, I’ll save you!” Twilight exclaimed while stepping forward into the room. She was stopped as another tendril of energy slammed to the floor in front of her, causing a loud crash followed by a deep wail to ring out. “Just go! I don’t want you to die with me!” Luna instructed in an adamant tone. She offered the pair a sad expression as she gradually realized her grim situation. Twilight stared at the scene in front of her with a horrified expression. She desperately wanted to help the alicorn escape, but she didn’t know what to do. She was absolutely helpless, and she knew it. Still, she remained in the doorway, desperately hoping that she could find a way to save the princess. “But… but…!” Twilight stammered fearfully while racking her mind to try and find a solution. The wall of energy was getting closer to the princess, and it was also getting closer to the doorway at the same time. “Sunspot, get her out of here! That is a direct order!” Luna demanded while looking to the pegasus to save the stubborn unicorn. Sunspot groaned in frustration as she realized that there was nothing she could do but to follow her orders. “Twilight, we need to go!” Sunspot said while grabbing the unicorn’s arm and pulling her away. Twilight pulled against the orange mare in an attempt at getting free. Once she realized that the purple mare wouldn’t cooperate, Sunspot grabbed her by the waist and pulled even harder. “No! Let me… grr… let me go!” Twilight yelled as the pegasus pulled her away from the room. She reached towards the trapped alicorn as she was carried away against her will. “Princess Luna!” Twilight yelled mournfully as the wall of energy appeared in the doorway. The animate smoke poured out into the hallway with an angry wail as it tried to chase the escaping ponies. The entire house shook again, causing the two mares to drop to the floor. As she got to her feet, Sunspot noticed that Twilight was still staring ahead with a distraught expression. The unicorn was seemingly in her own world as she sluggishly allowed the pegasus to help her to her feet. “There’s nothing we can do for her now! We need to go Twilight!” Sunspot pleaded while shaking the unicorn. Finally, the purple mare shook herself out of her daze and turned tail to follow the orange pony. As the terrifying sounds of the living energy followed them down the hallway, the two ponies raced to catch up to their friends. Finally they found the others waiting for them just in front of the hole in the wall that led into the crawlspace. “Thank goodness you two made it!” Rarity exclaimed in a relieved tone as she saw her two friends running towards her. “Where is Princess Luna?” Applejack asked in an uneasy tone as she noticed that the two were alone. Twilight and Sunspot looked down sadly, until a distorted roar from down the hallway pulled them from their sad thoughts. “There’s no time to explain. That thing was right behind us when we left!” Twilight stated in an urgent tone. “Then we don’t have much time… everyone into the wall, now!” Glimmer Shine instructed in a stern tone while ushering the others towards the hole in the wall. Everyone looked to the small opening with dread filling their minds. They knew that the first part of the crawlspace was actually rather spacious, but that the second part was barely large enough to fit them. Despite their nerves, the ponies decided that now wasn’t the time for letting their fears get the best of them. While Glimmer Shine and the others watched the hallway for any signs of their supernatural stalker, the group quickly made their way into the hole in the wall. After Twilight ducked into the opening, Glimmer Shine and Tom followed her inside. The group immediately knew what they had to do. They had to run, and they had to run fast. Small streams of the animate smoke were starting to appear in different places on the walls and ceiling. While these streams might not have been connected to the main mass, they would probably pose a similar threat to the ponies if they got too close. “This way!” Glitterball exclaimed while running ahead of the group to light the way. The unicorn looked back to make sure that the others were following her, only to nearly fall into one of the pits in the strange room. Twilight and the others had to constantly avoid tripping or falling over raised portions of earth as they ran. They would probably be disturbed that they were running over forgotten bodies of the dead, but they had bigger problems to contend with. Finally the group made it to the smaller portion of the room. With no time to pause, the ponies started making their way under the low hanging ceiling and funneling towards the opening that would take them to freedom. Everyone was nervous about their friends lagging too far behind, but they had to keep moving or they would eventually get jammed up as everyone paused to make it through the small opening. Pinkie Pie and Glitterball reached the hole in the wall first. After the pink mare urgently crouched to the floor and crawled through, she helped the unicorn to make her way through the small opening. “Come on guys!” Pinkie exclaimed while helping the next person through. She looked ahead, only to notice that the rest of her friends were just now reaching the opening. The occasional rumbling of the house and the eerie howls coming from behind them made the ponies well aware of the fact that they were running from something. After Sunspot hurriedly made her way through the opening, Twilight insisted that Tom be the next one through. The purple mare helped to push the weakened human through the hole in the wall from her end. She looked around her and noticed that there were only four people left including her. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Glimmer Shine were all staring at her with fearful expressions as they waited for her to make her way through. “Come on Fluttershy, you’re next.” Twilight said while gently ushering the yellow mare forward. Fluttershy seemed open to the concept of being next, but she was also worried that her friends would be in danger. “What about you?” Fluttershy asked nervously as the unicorn pushed her through the opening. “We’re right behind you, just follow the others.” Rainbow Dash stated in a reassuring tone. Fluttershy looked to the side to see Sunspot ushering her down the right side of the hallway. The others were probably somewhere up ahead, trying to make as much progress while also staying far enough behind to help if they were needed. “Ok… hurry and get back to us safe.” Fluttershy said in a worried tone before trotting off to join the others. “Alright, you next Twilight.” Rainbow Dash suggested while motioning towards the opening. “No, you go first.” Twilight replied in a firm tone. “What? You can’t be serious.” Rainbow Dash said in a tone of disbelief. A sudden rumble around them drew the ponies’ attention to their rear. Glimmer Shine’s flashlight illuminated the rest of the crawlspace from where he was. The three could see a massive wall of smoke moving in through the other opening and spreading out through the room. “There’s no time for arguing! You go next!” Twilight demanded while shoving the cyan mare towards the opening. Rainbow Dash quickly realized that the unicorn would forcefully cram her into the hole if she didn’t cooperate. “Grr… you better not die. If you die, I’m going to kill you.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while crawling through the hole as fast as she could. “Duly noted, now go with the others.” Twilight said with a brief nod of comprehension to the cyan mare. Finally, the unicorn was left with only one other person in the crawlspace with her. “You go next.” Twilight suggested while motioning for Glimmer Shine to move through the hole. “Not a chance, Twilight.” Glimmer Shine said while gently pushing her towards the opening. “Glimmer… I can’t lose anyone else tonight.” Twilight said in a sad tone while thinking back to Princess Luna. Glimmer Shine offered her a sympathetic expression before thinking back to his brother. “Neither can I.” The yellow stallion stated before forcing the unicorn to move through the opening. Twilight rolled from Glimmer pushing her through to the other side. She groaned before quickly getting up and rushing to assist her companion. “Come on!” Twilight hurried the stallion along as he made his way through the hole. Glimmer Shine quickly pulled his way out into the hallway. He made it almost completely out, until he felt something icy cold wrapping around his back leg. “AH!” Glimmer yelled fearfully as he was pulled back into the hole. Just before he disappeared from view, he felt something else grabbing onto his outstretched hoof. The yellow pony looked up to see Twilight struggling to pull him out. He then looked back to see a tendril of wispy energy reaching out from the now massive wall of white smoke. The wall was slowly making its way past the smaller portion of the crawlspace on its path to get at the escaping ponies. At this rate, it would be upon them in moments. “I can’t pull you out! It’s too strong!” Twilight exclaimed in a dreadful tone as she realized that she was losing the battle. “Let me go!” Glimmer Shine instructed in a desperate tone. “What?!” Twilight replied with a shocked expression, partially because she was so shocked, and partially because she could barely hear the stallion over the wailing of the mass of energy. “Let me go… you’ll only get pulled in with me!” Glimmer stated in a louder tone while trying to wrestle out of the unicorn’s grip. “I’m not going to let you die!” Twilight said in an adamant tone while pulling harder on the stallion. Despite her resolve, she was rapidly losing ground as the tendril pulled both her and the yellow pony further towards their doom. Just before all hope was lost, Twilight noticed a second pair of hooves grabbing onto Glimmer Shine’s free arm. She looked beside her to see a familiar cyan pegasus struggling to help her in her battle against the cloud of smoke. “Rainbow Dash…? I thought you left.” Twilight said in a surprised tone. “Duh… element of loyalty.” Rainbow Dash stated in a sarcastic tone before flashing her friend a smirk. The purple mare smiled in return before returning her attention to the task of saving the yellow stallion. With the combined efforts of two ponies, the pair finally managed to pull Glimmer Shine free of the wispy tendril. The two mares barely let the stallion come to his senses before they yanked him out of the crawlspace and threw him out into the hallway. “Move or die people, those are your choices!” Rainbow Dash stated while rushing down the hallway with her two friends in tow. After running a short distance down the corridor, the three met back up with the rest of the group. The others had apparently slowed down and waited for them to catch up. “What are you guys waiting for?! Move it!” Glimmer Shine yelled while bolting past the group. As another rumble and a faint wail filled the air, the ponies were filled with a sense of urgency that forced them to run after the yellow stallion. After a short run, the group came to a fork in the hallway and paused. They knew that they came from the left fork in the hallway, but another thought was making them hesitate nervously. In all of the commotion, most of the ponies had forgotten exactly where they came from. Twilight and the others didn’t even know where they were to begin with on account of their capture at the hands of the man with the glasses. “Which way do we go from here?!” Twilight asked in a frantic tone. They had to run, and she knew that they wouldn’t have time to backtrack from a mistake once they started running. “Follow me! I remember how to get back to the stairs!” Tom exclaimed while rushing ahead of the group. The others briefly looked at each other with uncertain expressions. They quickly ran to catch up with the human for fear that they would lose track of him in the commotion. The entire house was shaking violently from the amount of energy flowing through the area. Lights were flickering wildly from the rooms to either side of the group as lamps and lightbulbs seemingly came to life without power. It was like the mass of evil that was following them was merging with the house and feeling its way around. “Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise while jumping over a pile of boxes that toppled over in front of her. Everyone behind her was forced to either do the same or kick the boxes to the side and risk losing speed. “It feels like this whole place is coming down!” Fluttershy stated fearfully. “If it makes you feel better, that’s just because the ghosts are using their influence to try to stop us. Everything should be fine once the energy dissipates.” Tom explained from the front of the group. “And just how long is that going to take?” Twilight asked in an uneasy tone while taking note of the hallway shaking around her. “I don’t know… but something tells me that the mass of energy will catch up to us before it does. Just keep running!” Tom replied in a more serious tone. “You don’t need to tell me twice!” Rainbow Dash stated in a nervously joking manner. As another intersection came up, the human at the front of the group skidded to a halt and immediately darted down the new hallway. Everyone made a hard left to keep up with their companion before he got out of sight. “This isn’t good… the energy is catching up with us.” Glitterball said while looking at her locator vial. The glowing portion of the blue liquid in the vial was steadily growing as she pointed it to the side. “I thought we were running away from it?” Applejack asked nervously. “We were, but now we’re facing a different direction. Since it can move through walls, it will be right on top of us before long.” Tom stated in an alarmed tone as he realized what the white unicorn had already realized. “Ok, I just want to point out that the whole moving through walls thing is totally unfair!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a frustrated tone. “Keep going! We need to get out of here before that thing catches up!” Glimmer Shine stated to keep the group moving as fast as possible. Their lungs were burning and their muscles were sore, but they had to keep moving or they would never see the light of day again. “It’s a straight shot to the stairs from here! We’re almost out!” Tom stated to give the group an update on their progress. Everyone was relieved to hear that they were almost out, but they were also alarmed by the fact that they were racing against time. The fact that the white mist could come through the left wall at any time gave the ponies ample motivation to run faster. “Oof!” Fluttershy groaned painfully as she tripped over another fallen box. She fell to the floor and hit her face and upper body against the ground. “Come on Fluttershy, keep going. We’re not going to leave you here.” Applejack stated while pushing the yellow mare to her feet. “Thank you.” Fluttershy said while flashing a brief smile at the cow pony. Another crash from more items falling around them made the two mares snap out of their brief distraction. They returned their attention to running as fast as they could while also avoiding the numerous pieces of debris on the floor. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the group came to the end of the hallway. To their left was the makeshift safe area they had set up when they first arrived in the basement, and to their right were the stairs leading up to the first floor. The ponies could see faint light from the upstairs hallway bleeding through the seam at the bottom of the door. The small glimmer of light was probably nothing more than a nearby candle, but it filled the group with enough hope to make it as significant as a lighthouse on a stormy night. “Come on!” Tom exclaimed while ushering the group up the stairs. Once a few of the ponies made it up, he started up after them while everyone else followed him. Just as Twilight was making her way onto the staircase, she felt something wrapping around her back leg. The sensation given by the thing grabbing her indicated that it wasn’t very solid, but somehow it was icy cold enough to elicit a painful reaction with her skin as it constricted around her leg. “AH!” Twilight yelped in surprise as she was yanked backwards by the thing around her leg. Despite her attempts at catching herself, she banged her chin on one of the steps on her way down. The impact sent her into a painful daze, but she still found the strength to reach forward and grab one of the stairs to hold her ground. As she looked behind her to see what was attacking her, she was confronted by a long and slender tendril of white smoke sticking out of the floor. The sight of the tendril alone would have been disconcerting enough to the unicorn, but she could see an even bigger threat seeping through the far wall. The rest of the mass of energy was slowly making its presence known as it slowly moved out of the wall and moved towards the pinned mare. “Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed fearfully as she noticed the purple unicorn being pulled towards the white mass. Before she could even think about the matter further, the pink pony darted down the stairs and grabbed one of Twilight’s arms to pull her out of the tendril’s grasp. Spotting their friend in danger, Rainbow Dash and Applejack pushed around the terrified onlookers and rushed down the stairs to assist in her rescue. The two mares grabbed the unicorn by the arms and pulled with all of their might. Even with the combined efforts of three adult ponies, they were having a hard time with yanking the purple pony free. “Agh!” Twilight yelped painfully as she felt a burning sensation in her back legs. She looked behind her to see that the cloud of white smoke was close to enveloping her. Using the unicorn’s cries of pain as motivation, Pinkie and her two cohorts pulled one last time with everything they had. They all fell backwards as the purple mare was ripped away from the tendril holding her. All four ponies scrambled to get to their feet and flee from the rapidly approaching cloud. “Run!” Twilight yelled in a panic as she bolted up the stairs. The cloud of energy was catching up to them, and they knew it. Everyone ran out of the stairwell and out into the first floor hallway. The familiar sight of the candle lit tables and warm colored carpet was comforting to the ponies, or at least it would have been if they weren’t running for their lives. “*Gasp* There it is!” Pinkie stated in an excited tone while looking ahead of the group. They had finally reached the end of the hallway. The door to the foyer, and hopefully freedom, was swiftly getting closer to them. Their journey was close to an end, for better or worse. “I just hope that the front doors open.” Glitterball said with a worried expression. “If they don’t, I’m heading through the nearest window!” Sunspot said with an eager chuckle. The excitement of reaching the entrance was clearly getting to the orange pegasus. “That doesn’t sound like the best way to leave in my opinion.” Twilight shrugged uneasily at the prospect of being forced to jump out of a window. “Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it tonight.” Sunspot replied to the cynical unicorn with a surprising amount of wit and cheerfulness. “Yeah, but weren’t you unconscious the last time it happened? And didn’t you have a ghost to send you on your way?” Glitterball interjected in an uncertain tone, eliciting a shrug from the once cheerful pegasus. “Don’t burst my bubble, Glitter!” Sunspot said in an irritated tone. Before anyone else could entertain the thought of jumping out of a window, the group reached the door. Glimmer Shine threw it open and darted out into the foyer along with his frantic group. Even though he knew it wouldn’t do any good, he closed the door behind the group. “Sir, where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you to get back for ages.” The voice of a confused guard drew everyone’s attention to the side. They saw several of the guards making their way down to see their miraculous return. Before anyone could say anything further, another loud wail and an even louder rumble shook the house. “No time to explain! Everyone out!” Glimmer Shine yelled to everyone in the room before rushing to the front doors. While the confused and concerned guards rushed to gather the prisoners and other important items and follow the group, Glimmer grabbed the front doors and silently prayed while pushing on them. Much to the amazement and relief of everyone present, the double doors creaked open. As the doors slid the rest of the way open, the awestruck ponies looked at the outside world with wide eyes and excited expressions. It was pitch black outside, with the light from the foyer illuminating the stone porch and a little of the yard beyond. Although it had stopped storming, there was a thick cover of clouds over the night sky. The entire area was also soaking wet from the torrential downpour, but the ponies didn’t care. “I never thought I would be so happy to see a pair of doors opening.” Rainbow Dash said while enjoying the cool fresh air hitting her face. Most of the others were on the verge of breaking down into tears of joy from looking around outside. A distorted howl drew Twilight’s attention behind her. She gasped as she saw the cloud of white mist pouring into the room from behind the stairs. The mass of energy seemed to be moving much faster, as if the spirits inside were making a last ditch effort at catching the fleeing ponies. “Everyone run!” Twilight exclaimed loudly while bolting outside. Once everyone noticed what had spooked the unicorn, they ran out to follow her. They didn’t even stop at the stone porch, opting instead to flee across the yard. The ponies’ hooves sunk into the deep mud, but none of them cared about that at a time like this. Rarity held a passing thought of disgust in her mind before it was pushed aside by the terror she felt. Everyone was running for their lives as the angry mass of energy reached the front of the house and howled at them. “It isn’t following us.” Pinkie stated as she looked behind her and noticed the cloud of white mist pausing at the threshold of the house. “I would feel safer if we were over the property line to be sure!” Tom said while continuing over the crumbling stone path that lay off to the side. Everyone shared his desire to be as far away as possible, so they kept running. Finally, after everything they had endured inside of the mansion, Twilight and her friends ran outside of the ancient iron fence that they had crossed so many hours ago. They stopped running and fought to catch their breaths as they realized just how tired they were. Noticing that the ground around them was strangely dry, a few of the ponies fell to the ground and rested from their ordeal. “*Pant*… we… we made it.” Twilight said with a smile building on her face as the realization finally sunk in. The ponies were free. They had survived the trap intended to kill them, and they had even defeated the ghosts. Everyone turned and looked to the mansion to watch the white smoke as it howled angrily in the distance. It looked like it was trying to ram against whatever invisible prison was keeping it in the house, but it wasn’t making any progress. Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted from the inside of the mansion. Once the light died down, the white smoke was completely gone, with only a droning wail to mark its departure. “Is it gone? Are they… gone?” Fluttershy asked in an uncertain tone while thinking back to the ghosts. “I think so. With how much effort they put into chasing us, they must have sped up the process of eliminating the rest of their energy.” Tom said in a confident tone. Everyone smiled as they realized that they had won. Meanwhile, towards the back of the group, Glimmer Shine noticed one of the guards trotting up to him. The stallion naturally had many questions to ask, as most of the other guards did. However, the yellow pony was uncertain if he wanted to answer the questions he had. “Glimmer Shine… what in Celestia’s name happened down in the basement? Where are the others? Where is Princess Luna?” The guard asked in an uneasy tone. As the subject of the princess and the others was brought up, everyone’s smile shifted into an expression of sadness. “They’re gone… all of them.” Glimmer Shine explained in a somber tone while looking down sadly. “My word… I… I’m sorry sir.” The guard said in a sympathetic tone. “Shouldn’t we send a team in there to look for survivors and…” One of the guards started to speak, until he hesitated with a somber expression at his next thought. “Retrieve the bodies…” Glimmer Shine said while looking up with a blank expression. Despite his calm exterior, the group could tell that he was dying on the inside. “I think that can wait until later. I want to be sure that the ghosts are gone before sending anyone else in there. Besides… I think we could all use some rest.” Glimmer said while looking around at the others. Everyone offered him sympathetic expressions of sadness as they remembered those that were lost in the mansion. “Of course sir.” The guard said before saluting and waiting at attention. Glimmer Shine merely started walking away slowly. Deciding that there was nothing more they could do, everyone else started to follow the yellow stallion towards the forest. They were sore, tired, and sorrowful, but they still walked slowly while processing their thoughts. Everyone hoped that they could get to sleep once they got home, and they all silently wished that this would all turn out to be a horrible nightmare that they would wake up from.
Chapter 91: RegretElsewhere, deeper into the Everfree Forest, there was a different atmosphere prevailing for a different group of ponies. While Twilight and her friends were feeling despair and sadness, the remaining hooded ponies were experiencing a helpless feeling of uncertainty as they licked their wounds. Raven Feather walked through her makeshift camp of refugees with an irritated expression on her face. Her followers, the only soldiers she had left in her silent rebellion were all standing around the area with forlorn and exhausted expressions on their faces. The only supplies the group managed to get out of the mansion were laying around on tarps or in small boxes as the group rested. “*Sigh*… how did it come to this?” Raven Feather muttered to herself in a depressed tone. Everything she had planned was now crashing down around her, and the only remnants she was clutching onto weren’t guaranteed to succeed. Suddenly, the black mare noticed one of her underlings rushing up to her. The hooded stallion seemed to have an urgent air about him as he trotted up to her and caught his breath. “Miss Raven Feather! We found Shadow Mist.” The messenger reported with a frantic tone of voice. “You did… then he’s alive?!” Raven Feather asked in a shocked tone. As much as she trusted the red stallion to complete his mission, she thought that he would have perished along with the others stuck in the mansion. “He is, but he is badly injured. We found him stumbling around outside of the secret tunnels. They should be bringing him in right now.” The hood explained while looking over to the rest of the camp. Sure enough, there were two ponies assisting a red stallion with walking into the camp in the distance. “Go tell Raincloud and the others… quickly.” Raven Feather instructed in a concerned tone while looking over to the newly arrived stallion. Although she couldn’t see what condition he was in, she could tell that he was limping even with the help of two ponies carrying him. “Right away ma’am.” The hooded pony said with a brief salute before rushing off to complete his appointed task. Satisfied that the others would be notified in due time, Raven Feather rushed towards the red stallion with an urgent expression. As she got close enough to see Shadow Mist better, the black mare gasped in utter shock and horror at what she saw. To say that Shadow Mist was injured would be the understatement of the century. The stallion was almost completely missing one of his front legs, with only a bloody stump remaining in its place. His left eye was flinched closed, with dry blood caked over it. His face was pale, and he looked like he was barely holding onto consciousness. “Good lord… what happened to you Shadow Mist?!” Raven Feather asked while rushing up to the injured stallion and helping to steady him. Before the injured pony could answer, the sound of frantic hoofsteps drew Raven Feather’s attention behind her. She noticed Raincloud, Dust Kicker, and Grimwood trotting up to see the red stallion, only to drop their jaws in shock as they saw the state he was in. “Oh shit!” Raincloud exclaimed in a shocked tone while observing the bloodied pony. She seemed to be taken aback from seeing one of her colleagues injured in such a horrific manner. “What happened to him?!” Grimwood asked in an alarmed tone. The shock apparent in his normally blank expression told much of just how mortified he was. “I don’t know. They found him like this outside of the mansion.” Raven Feather explained in a concerned tone. “Is my face ok?” Shadow Mist asked while managing a slight chuckle. “You look like hell Shadow Mist… what happened back there?” Raincloud asked in a concerned tone. “I ran into some trouble with getting out, but I got everything we need.” Shadow Mist explained while motioning to the bag he had around his shoulder. Raven Feather gently took the satchel and skimmed through its contents. “I knew I should have stayed. *Sigh*… you did a good job for all the hell you caught because of it.” Raven Feather said in a sympathetic tone. “Grimwood, can you see if you can heal his injuries?” She asked curiously while turning to the pale colt. “I don’t know if I can heal anything this severe… but I can try.” Grimwood said while shaking his head sadly. “Good… I’ll go see if I can figure out what we’re going to do next.” Raven Feather said in a frustrated tone. After making sure that Shadow Mist was in good hands, the black mare walked off with the satchel in her possession. Raincloud and Dust Kicker helped to move Shadow Mist over to a less crowded area of the camp. They dragged a tarp over and sat the injured stallion down before looking to Grimwood with concerned expressions. “Let us know if you need any help Grim.” Raincloud said in a sympathetic tone. “Ok… thanks.” Grimwood said with a nod of dismissal while watching the two ponies walking off. Finally he was left alone with the red stallion. “You don’t need to worry… I got everything we need before I got out.” Shadow Mist said while reaching down to his side. He used his powers to produce a smaller hidden satchel from a puff of shadows before handing it to the colt. “You didn’t need to get yourself nearly killed to get these.” Grimwood said while looking at the contents of the satchel. There were four vials filled with red liquid sitting inside, presumably the blood from the remaining elements of harmony. “Well it wasn’t exactly my intention to lose a leg and an eye.” Shadow Mist said with a slight chuckle. He stopped smiling once he noticed the pale colt was being more somber than usual. “I never intended for this to happen… I hope you know that.” Grimwood said in a sad tone while examining the stallion’s wounds. “Of course Grim… I’ve known you and Raven Feather since she ran away from home with you in her arms.” Shadow Mist said in a reassuring tone. “She doesn’t like to talk about our past that much around me. What did she run away from home for?” Grimwood asked curiously while gently examining the stallion’s eye. “She never told you? Ow!” Shadow Mist yelped as the colt touched his eye in a tender area. “No… all she said was that everyone shunned her for her powers, and that we were better off on our own.” Grimwood replied while channeling shadow magic to his hoof. The red stallion looked at the fiery ball of shadows on the colt’s hoof and thought back to the day when he first met him and his sister. “Raven Feather discovered her aptitude for shadow magic at an early age. She had no idea what it was at the time, and she had little control over it. Your parents didn’t understand it either… and most people fear what they don’t understand. For several years, Raven Feather was shunned or bullied by everyone around her. She did her best to suppress her abilities, but eventually they got too strong for her own good. One day she accidentally hurt someone, and just like that she was labeled a threat to society… heh… kind of ironic if you look at her now. Anyway, your parents had just recently had you, so they were probably very nervous about having a bomb of magical energy waiting to go off in their house. They contacted the princess to take Raven Feather away and study her, and she was oddly ok with that. But on the day they came to pick her up, she saw you using shadow magic yourself.” Shadow Mist explained in a somber tone. “So that’s why she ran away…” Grimwood said in an understanding tone. “That’s what I figured. She couldn’t stand the idea of you having her life… being treated like a freak just because you were different from the others. So she took you and ran… she ran and she didn’t stop running. The entire town was trying to catch up to her to take her back… they probably would have caught her too if it wasn’t for me.” Shadow Mist said with a smirk while thinking back to how he helped the black mare. “She told me about that part. You grabbed us and hid us from the others with your powers. What did they used to call you… the ghost of Canterlot?” Grimwood asked curiously. “Yeah... but that was back when I just used my powers to steal and mess with people.” Shadow Mist chuckled warmly at his memories before wincing in pain as Grimwood placed his hoof against his missing limb. “*Sigh*… I’m not sure if I can restore your eye or your leg. All I can do at this point is to seal up your wounds.” Grimwood explained in a somber tone. “Well… I guess I wasn’t expecting anything else to be fair.” Shadow Mist said with a disheartened tone while resting his head against the tree behind him. Suddenly, the pair heard the sound of someone approaching them. Grimwood quickly grabbed the small satchel and used his own shadow magic to hide it. Just after he got done, he looked up to see his sister walking over with a somber expression. “How is he?” Raven Feather asked in a concerned tone while eyeing the wounded pony with a sympathetic frown. “I’m sorry… but I can’t do anything more than making sure that he doesn’t bleed out.” Grimwood explained with a disheartened expression. “It’s not your fault Grim… if anything this is my fault.” Raven Feather said while looking to the floor sadly. She might not have cared for many of the people in her group, but those who shared her gifts were considered to be as close as family to the black mare. “Hey, it’s not your fault either Raven Feather.” Shadow Mist said in a reassuring tone. The black mare smiled slightly as she saw how chipper the stallion was. Her smile shifted to a scornful expression as her thoughts shifted elsewhere. “You’re right… it’s not my fault. If anyone is to blame for all of this, it’s Celestia and her sister.” Raven Feather stated with an angry expression while putting a hoof on Shadow Mist’s shoulder. “I can promise you one thing Shadow Mist… I’m going to make her pay for everything she has done to us.” She said in a confident tone while smiling devilishly. Shadow Mist and Grimwood nodded to the black mare as she resolved to bring about her retribution on the princess. They were confident in one thing. They would be shaping the world as they saw fit, even if they had to help Raven Feather along the way. -An hour later- Outside of the royal guard station, Rainbow Dash and the others were enjoying a moment’s peace as they waited for Twilight and the others to emerge. As they looked up at the clear night sky, they couldn’t help but to think back to everyone they lost at the mansion. “Do you think she’s going to be ok?” Pinkie asked in an uneasy tone. Everyone immediately knew that she was referring to the princess. “Ah don’t know Pinkie… Twilight is telling her that her sister died. That has to be a horrible thing to go through, even for Princess Celestia.” Applejack explained in a somber tone. Everyone frowned sadly as they thought about what the princess must have been feeling right now. As much as they wanted to be inside with the purple unicorn to comfort the princess, they weren’t sure if they could handle being in the same room with her. Even if they had no part in her death, they were all there when Luna was left behind. They all felt some kind of responsibility. What if? That single thought permeated the ponies’ minds and flooded their thoughts. What if they had done this? What if they had said that? If things had gone differently, maybe they could have saved everybody. “It isn’t fair… why is any of this even happening? Things were still simple a week ago… the worst thing I had to deal with was mind numbing boredom.” Rainbow Dash said with a saddened shrug. “Now there are ponies out there trying to throw Equestria into chaos… and as much as I hate saying it, I think they have done a good job of it.” She sighed heavily while sitting down and resting her head against the building behind her. “We’ll find Raven Feather, and all of her followers. Things might seem bad right now, but… we’ll pick up the pieces eventually.” Rarity said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. Despite her good intentions, even the white unicorn was unsure of whether or not her words were true. Everyone looked down and shrugged sadly. They had never felt so utterly hopeless in their lives. The situation at hand was manageable, even if it was a sorrowful time for everyone. But the thing that was uncertain to the ponies was the future. Suddenly, the sound of the front doors opening drew everyone’s attention away. They looked over to see Twilight, Tom, and Glimmer Shine walking outside with a group of guards following behind them. While Twilight walked over to join her friends, Tom and Glimmer Shine continued walking away with the guards joining them. “Where are they going?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “Glimmer Shine is taking a team back to the mansion to search for survivors… Tom volunteered to help him.” Twilight explained while watching the group leave. “That was nice of him.” Rainbow Dash said with a small, empty smirk. “Well, you know him… he wants to make sure that the mansion is safe before anyone else goes in there. Plus… I don’t think Glimmer Shine wants to recover the bodies alone.” Twilight said while looking down sadly. “How is the princess?” Pinkie Pie asked in a hesitant tone. The subject of the princess being brought up made the purple mare frown in a sorrowful manner. “*Sigh*… she held up a lot better than I would have. I suppose she didn’t want to break down in front of me… still, she was on the verge of tears by the time I left.” Twilight explained sadly. “Should we stay with her for a little bit? I mean… is she going to be ok?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “She wants to be alone for tonight at least. She said to tell you that she’s sorry for putting us through all of that.” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone. “I can’t believe she blames herself for all of this… that can’t be healthy for her… especially not right now.” Rarity said in a concerned manner. All of the grief the princess must have been going through was more than any pony should have to bear at one time. “She said she was fine… as fine as she can be at any rate. She just needs some sleep… we all do.” Twilight suggested while taking note of her exhaustion. Even with all of the sadness she was feeling, all of the energy she had used during the raid at the mansion was starting to catch up to her. “So what… we’re just supposed to go home and try to sleep after everything that happened?” Rainbow Dash asked in an uneasy tone. “Yeah, I guess we are. We have a lot to do in the near future. We still need to hunt down Raven Feather and however many of her followers she has left… and then there are the funerals to consider.” Twilight said with a disheartened shrug. “F-funerals?” Fluttershy asked in a surprised tone. She seemed taken aback by the prospect of accepting that some of her friends had died, even though it was obvious. Twilight merely nodded silently in response with a somber expression on her face. “The princess wants to know if you guys will come to Canterlot in the next few days to attend. I think she will wait until Cadence and Shining Armor can get there to hold Luna’s funeral, but the others will be held as soon as they can get everything ready.” Twilight explained sadly. “Of course we will come… we owe Neon and the others that much at least.” Fluttershy said after a brief moment of contemplation. The others nodded in agreement to the yellow pony’s statement. “I’ll see you all tomorrow… I just need to rest for tonight.” Twilight said while walking away slowly. She hung her head sadly as she tried to avoid thinking about all of her troubling memories. “Goodnight Twilight… Try to get some sleep.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while waving at the unicorn. Twilight waved back at her friends before walking towards the rest of town where her home waited for her. After a while, only the sound of her own hooves clattering against the street could be heard. Twilight looked around and saw that she was alone, which was perhaps for the best. She needed time to process her thoughts. So many things were flooding her mind, from sad memories, to horrible revelations, to frustrating thoughts about the hooded ponies and the future. Taking a look up to the night sky, the unicorn noticed the moon hanging low on the horizon. The night would be ending in a few hours, but that wasn’t what was making her sad. Twilight still couldn’t believe what had happened back at the mansion. Luna was gone, and she couldn’t do anything about it. She had watched Luna’s journey as she adjusted to life in Equestria after her banishment. She got to know the blue alicorn as a friend, but now she would never see her alive again. She would be lucky to see her again at all depending on what that cloud of energy did to her body. “Luna… I’m so sorry.” Twilight muttered sadly with tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffled quietly while letting a few tears drop to the street below. Right now she didn’t feel like Celestia’s student. The one that her mentor would trust with important missions, the one that ponies could count on in times of crisis. Right now she just felt like a helpless unicorn that was faced with an insurmountable challenge, one that would determine the fate of Equestria as a whole, and yet one she felt like she couldn’t handle completing. After a few minutes of self-reflection and silent walking, Twilight found herself standing in front of the library once more. The building that served as her home was an almost surreal sight to the purple mare. Several times before now she had wondered if she would ever get to see it again, if she would ever get to walk through that door again, and if she would ever see Spike again. “Oh… Spike…” Twilight said in a sorrowful tone. She didn’t know what she could say to the young dragon, or if she could even say anything in her state. Still, she couldn’t just say nothing. As much as she wanted to just ignore her problems and curl up in bed to cry herself to sleep, she had to at least explain to her assistant what had happened. Taking a deep and shaky breath, the unicorn reached up and grabbed the door handle. Whatever was going to happen, she just wanted to get it over and done with so tonight could end. Still, she could feel the emotions building inside of her as she imagined the young dragon’s reactions to what she would have to tell him. Not only that Princess Luna and several others had died, but that she failed to save them and stop the hooded ponies. The only way she could even convince Spike to let her go with a sound mind was to promise him that she would be in complete control of the situation at all times. Clearly, she had failed miserably at her promise. As she opened the door and took a brief look around, she discovered that there were no lights on anywhere in the library. Of course there weren’t, she thought. It was late in the morning hours after all. Spike was probably asleep upstairs. She hoped that he didn’t spend too long staying up and worrying about her. It must have been horrible for him to go to bed without knowing if she was safe or not. Twilight slowly walked up the stairs toward her bedroom. She stood outside of the door and listened for a moment. There were no sounds coming from inside, and there was no light on inside either. Deciding that it would be best for her to not wake up the young dragon, she opened the door as silently as she could. The room inside was dark and peaceful. As she expected, Spike was sleeping in his bed a few feet away. His blanket was only half way draped over his body, and he had a somewhat troubled expression, as if he had tossed and turned in his sleep. The unicorn briefly wondered if he was troubled because of her absence. The harsh click of the door closing behind her made Twilight cringe uneasily. Hearing a soft rustling in front of her, the unicorn realized that she had disturbed the dragon from his slumber. Spike sat up in bed and looked around in a confused daze for a moment before noticing the purple mare standing in the dark. “Twi…light?” Spike muttered sleepily while rubbing his eyes. Once he realized that he wasn’t just imagining things, he pushed his blanket aside and sat up further. “I’m sorry Spike… did I wake you?” Twilight asked in a friendly tone. She knew full well that she had woken the dragon up, but she needed some sort of emotional buffer to keep herself in check. If she didn’t focus on faking a friendly and cheerful exterior, then she would doubtlessly break down crying. “It’s ok… I’m just glad you’re back. How did the mission go?” Spike asked curiously as he remembered why the unicorn was gone for so long. He paused suddenly as he noticed that Twilight seemed to be hiding her true emotions. “It was… it was…” Twilight muttered while trying to think of something to say. Despite her attempts at sounding happy, a twinge of sadness managed to show through in her voice. “Twilight? Are you ok?” Spike asked in a concerned tone while getting out of bed. “Oh, I’m fine… I-I just…” Twilight stammered while racking her mind to find out how to explain everything that had happened in a gentle way. The more she thought about telling the young dragon about the tragic events at the mansion, and the more she thought about the tragic events themselves, the more her façade started breaking down. “Twilight… are you crying?” Spike asked while noting the soft sound of the unicorn’s voice trembling. She was trying desperately to hold down her building sobs, but she could barely keep herself from thinking about everything that had happened. Finally, Twilight could take it no more. She slid to a seated position against the door and started weeping openly. The sudden shift in the unicorn’s behavior caught Spike off guard. He had no idea why she would suddenly break down like this, but he knew that he had to comfort her. “Hey, what’s wrong?” Spike said in a concerned tone while walking up to the crying pony. He sat down next to her and placed a hand on her knee. Twilight continued crying for a moment before composing herself enough to face the dragon. She still had tears streaming down her face, but somehow seeing her young assistant trying to comfort her made her feel slightly better. “Everything… everything’s gone wrong Spike.” Twilight said while stifling a sob. “What…? Twilight… What happened? I can’t really help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.” Spike explained in a helpful tone. As the purple mare looked to him, he flashed a warm smile. Twilight looked at the young dragon smiling back at her with a sad expression. She knew that he was just itching to help her, to find out what was amiss so he could at least try to make it better. She had always been there for him on his sad days, so he was always eager to repay the favor. Still, she couldn’t bear to say what came next for fear of erasing that smile of his. “Spike… I need to tell you something… something awful.” Twilight said while wiping the tears out of her eyes. Spike stopped smiling and shifted his expression to a more somber one as he realized just how serious the purple mare was being. “Does this have to do with the mission? The hooded ponies… did you find them?” Spike asked in a hesitant tone. “Yes… we found them. But… they left a trap for us.” Twilight explained sadly. “We got trapped inside of their base… and… and…” She muttered while trying to find the best way to explain such terrible events to her young assistant. “It’s ok… you can tell me.” Spike said in a reassuring tone while offering the unicorn a soft expression. “Something bad happened… I’m just not sure if I can tell you.” Twilight explained while shaking her head sadly and hiding her eyes from the dragon. “Twilight… I know you, and I know that whatever happened, we can get through it. We always get through it… now, tell me what happened.” Spike asked in a sympathetic tone. “Spike… I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it. Princess Luna is… she’s dead.” Twilight said with fresh tears falling from her eyes. “W-what…?” Spike backed up with a shocked expression on his face. He hoped that he had somehow misheard the unicorn. “She’s gone… her and Neon Streak… and Peppermint… and Brimstoke. They’re all gone.” Twilight explained in a shaky voice. She had to use every ounce of strength left in her not to break down crying again. Now she had to be at least a little strong for the young dragon. “But… but… h-how did…” Spike muttered with a shocked tone of disbelief. He looked at the purple mare for any signs that she was telling a lie or some messed up practical joke, but she was dead serious. A single tear started falling down his face as he started to comprehend the situation. “How did this happen?” Spike asked in a more distraught tone. Twilight could hear his breathing starting to become more erratic as silent sobs started building in his throat. “I’m so sorry Spike… I’m so sorry.” Twilight said in a despaired tone while reaching forward and wrapping her arms around the young dragon. She held him close as he started weeping openly into her shoulder. She started crying as well as she imagined just how much pain she had caused Spike by telling him about the others. After spending the next few minutes crying and hugging each other tightly, the pair’s embrace was cut short as Spike pulled away. “Did you… *Sniff*… did you catch the hooded ponies?” Spike asked while wiping his face on his arm. “No… they got away. There wasn’t anything I could even do to help.” Twilight said while looking down sadly. She was surprised to feel the dragon walking up to her and hugging her again. The unicorn looked up to see how he was faring. She expected to see him with a distraught expression, but he didn’t. While it was true that he was still sad, he had a small smile on his face. “You’re… you’re not upset that we didn’t catch them?” Twilight asked in a surprised tone. “Upset? Why would I be upset? I’m just glad that you’re ok… What happened to the others was awful, but I don’t know what I would do without you.” Spike said in a surprisingly cheerful tone. “I was so worried that you wouldn’t come back… I stayed up waiting for you for so long. I knew that the mission would take a while, but I just couldn’t sleep without knowing you were safe.” He said in a more concerned tone while looking down sadly. “Oh Spike… I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the hooded ponies do, I’ll always come back home to you.” Twilight said while lovingly putting a hoof on the dragon’s head and ruffling his hair. “Promise?” Spike asked while managing a small smile. “I promise.” Twilight said while mirroring the dragon’s happiness. Suddenly, a stray yawn returned the unicorn’s attention to her exhaustion. “Are you sleepy?” Spike asked curiously. “Definitely… it’s been a long night. Why don’t we get some sleep? We have a lot of things to do in the next few days.” Twilight said in a more drowsy tone while walking up towards her bed. Spike smiled before walking back over to his own bed. As the pair settled in for the rest of the night, their thoughts again shifted to those who had died earlier. Neither one of them could believe that so many people had died, much less that Princess Luna was among the casualties. Despite spending the next few minutes tossing and turning in a sorrowful unrest, the two finally managed to get to sleep. Even if they only got a few more hours of sleep, it would be needed for the long days ahead of them. Meanwhile, all over Ponyville the elements of harmony were settling in for a night of sadness and unrest. Many of them were lying in bed, clutching a pillow close or hiding themselves under a mass of blankets, trying to forget about what they had experienced. Some were just staring up at their ceilings and crying themselves to sleep. They had nearly lost their lives tonight, but they had lost something else in their place. They lost many friends and colleagues, they lost the confidence that they had won the war against the hooded ponies, but most importantly, they lost the hope that things would ever return to normal. Even with all of the things lost in the mansion, some were far more costly than others. For most of the group, they had lost friends and colleagues to the ghosts, but for Princess Celestia, she had lost her younger sister. As the white alicorn sat in a quiet room of the guard station, she looked to the floor and slowly gave in to her grief. The revelation that her sister was dead still hadn’t sunk in fully while Twilight and the others were with her, but now that she was alone with time to think, she started to accept that it might be true. As she stared out of the window at the moon, the sadness she had been hiding was starting to surface. “Luna…” Celestia muttered quietly as tears started building in her eyes. She hadn’t had to face her own mortality or the mortality of her sibling in what seemed like forever. She never thought that by letting her sister go on her own, she would be sending her to her death. The quiet sound of the door opening behind her drew Celestia’s attention away from her lamenting. She turned around to see the door cracked open with a familiar white unicorn peeking inside. Glitterball seemed to be hesitant about entering the room, but she also seemed to be concerned judging from her expression. “Umm… Princess? Are you okay?” Glitter asked while opening the door further and stepping inside. She took a look around at the dark room and noticed that the only light was coming in through the window and bathing the princess in pale moonlight. Celestia sighed in a dejected manner while lowering her head. She managed a small smile as she looked at the unicorn trying to check on her. Everyone in the station must have been worried about her given that she shut herself into a dark room for several minutes. Still, to see Glitterball trying to comfort her given her own trauma from the mansion made the alicorn feel warm inside. “I’ll be fine Glitterball… thanks for asking.” Celestia said while walking away from the window. She looked down at the unicorn and frowned slightly as she thought about what she must have been through. She had lost three friends in the span of a few hours, and yet she seemed to be well adjusted, on the outside at least. “How are you and Sunspot doing?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone. Glitterball looked away for a moment as she thought back to her time at the mansion. “We’re doing ok… all things considered. I think Sunspot is trying to avoid thinking about it too much… and quite frankly I don’t blame her. I don’t even want to think about how Glimmer Shine is doing.” Glitter replied in a sad tone. “I still think that he shouldn’t have gone back to the mansion with the others.” Celestia said with a worried shrug. “Well… I think he wants to get some kind of closure. I just hope he has the sense not to be with them when they find Pepper.” Glitterball said in a sad tone. Celestia frowned as she thought about the stallion and his departed sibling. She became even sadder as she thought about her own situation with her sister. “I should be there with him. If he has the strength to retrieve his brother’s body, then I should be there to bring Luna back home. But… I just can’t bear the thought of seeing her dead body.” Celestia said while hanging her head and closing her eyes sadly. “Don’t beat yourself up, Princess.” Glitterball said in a comforting tone. “It’s ok to be a mess of emotions from time to time… especially at a time like this. You’ve ruled over Equestria fairly and compassionately for centuries. The least that we can do to repay your kindness is to help you through this difficult period.” She added while putting a reassuring hoof on the alicorn’s leg. Celestia looked up to see the unicorn offering her a warm smile. She couldn’t help but to smile herself as she realized that she was right. She had always tried to appear strong in front of her subjects, but right now she needed time to process her emotions. “Thank you, Glitterball. I really appreciate your kind words.” Celestia said in a happier tone. Glitterball was pleased to see that she had a positive impact on the princess. “If you need anything at all, just let me know.” Glitterball said while walking towards the door. “Thank you, but I think I’m going to stay here for a while and think. There is so much that needs to be done… contacting Neon and Brimstoke’s families, preparing for the funerals… and then there is the matter of finding Raven Feather and her remaining cohorts.” Celestia said with an exhausted shrug. “Ok… I’ll take the others and come see you in Canterlot tomorrow. Maybe we can help with at least something.” Glitterball said while nodding in a sympathetic manner and walking out of the room. Celestia shrugged as she was left on her own again. As she looked back to the moon in the sky, she frowned sadly. She would have to raise the sun soon, which now meant that she would have to lower the moon herself. A task she hadn’t done in what seemed like forever.
Chapter 92: RequiemSeveral days passed as the ponies moved on with their lives. Despite the reprieve in activity from the hooded ponies, the group was preoccupied with making preparations for the upcoming funerals. Twilight and the others traveled to Canterlot to attend Neon Streak’s funeral first. The sky was grey and gloomy as the ponies stood in the cemetery. The cloudy day and cold breeze served as a grim accent to the proceedings. Everyone watched with somber expressions as a team of guards lowered the casket into an open grave. Neon’s family, an older couple, wept openly near the front of the group. Twilight, her friends, Princess Celestia, and the remaining members of Spirit looked down sadly as they held back their own tears. An hour came and went as everyone grieved openly for the green mare. Eventually, only Twilight and her group were left in the graveyard while everyone else departed. Glitterball, Sunspot, and Glimmer Shine walked up to the newly filled grave and bowed their heads respectfully. While the three ponies were mourning their loss, Twilight took a look around at her own group of friends. Pinkie Pie was bawling her eyes out while leaning on Rainbow Dash for support. The cyan pegasus was trying to hide her own tears, but her emotions finally got the best of her. Applejack and Rarity were looking at the grieving team of ponies with sad expressions. Fluttershy, who was perhaps taking it the worst of all, was staring off into the distance with a sorrowful expression. “*Sigh*” Twilight shook her head and frowned sadly. She had never seen her friends so sad in her time with them, and she perfectly understood why. Still, she felt like she needed to at least make an attempt at lifting their spirits. “How are you holding up Fluttershy?” Twilight asked curiously while walking over to the yellow mare and sitting down. Fluttershy took a moment to snap out of her sorrowful daze. She looked over to the unicorn next to her and sighed in a dejected manner. “Not too good I’m afraid.” Fluttershy said while looking down sadly. “I don’t think any of us are really…” Twilight said in an understanding tone. “Hey… where’s Tom?” Fluttershy asked in a curious tone while looking around for the human. She hadn’t noticed him during the funeral either, and she was starting to get worried. Twilight looked around with a surprised expression for her human friend. She suddenly noticed the blue suited slayer leaning up against a tree in the distance. He seemed to be looking off in the distance with a gloomy expression just like everyone else was. “There he is.” Twilight said while pointing to the human. Fluttershy looked over at the tree where the boy was standing with a surprised expression. “Is he ok?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “I’m not sure… he kind of had a meltdown back at the mansion. I think he blames himself for everything that happened.” Twilight explained sadly. “That’s awful… I never thought that he would put all of that strain on himself.” Fluttershy said in a concerned tone while looking at the human with soft eyes. “Still, he did volunteer to help recover the bodies. Maybe that’s just his way of coping with something he thinks is his fault.” Twilight said in a sad tone while thinking about Tom’s outburst from the mansion. “I think I’m going to go check on him.” She stated while getting up and walking away. Fluttershy watched the purple mare as she walked across the cemetery to reach the human. As Twilight walked up to the tree that Tom was leaning on, she noticed that he was staring off into the distance. He seemed to be contemplating something, and whatever it was seemed to be troubling to him. “Tom… are you ok? You’ve been back here since the funeral started.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “Well… I never liked funerals, not that anyone does. Besides… I don’t exactly have anything black to wear.” Tom said while flashing an empty smile. “You didn’t answer my question.” The unicorn said with a troubled expression. Tom merely sighed and looked back to the group of ponies over by Neon’s grave. The human spent a few moments in silent contemplation as he watched Glimmer Shine and the others. Twilight was staring to get worried about him. She would have spoken again, until he turned to face her once more. “Do Equestrians believe in the afterlife?” Tom asked in a somberly curious manner. “W-what?” Twilight stammered slightly in surprise. The odd and sudden question caught her off guard to say the least. “You’re a scientific mind, so I doubt that you do… but surely you ponies must have a form of heaven. I heard Neon’s parents praying for her to rest peacefully back at the funeral… what do you pray to?” Tom asked in a somber tone. “I… umm.” Twilight looked away for a moment and tried to think. The only religion in Equestria that she could even think of was focused around Princess Celestia and her sister. A silly notion as far as the purple mare was concerned. She thanked Celestia for every good thing that happened in her life, but she knew it was just an expression. Perhaps some ponies viewed the alicorn as a goddess, but she wasn’t exactly sure about that. After all, gods don’t die, or grieve the loss of siblings. “I don’t know… I guess we just hope that there is some kind of force of good out there in the universe that will answer our prayers. But I’m not so sure that’s true… even less so in the last few days.” Twilight said with a dejected sigh. “The sad thing is… I’m not even sure myself anymore. I have memories of a large number of slayers, even down to the first one. I know our powers… I know our weaknesses… I know our purpose… but I don’t know who or what made us. I originally thought there was some kind of powers that be, and that they were trying to balance the evil in the world by adding a little good… but now I just don’t know.” Tom stated with a sad tone. He slid to a seated position against the tree and looked down in a somber state of contemplation. Twilight looked at the human as he stared at the ground sadly. She couldn’t help but to think about the first time she met him. She was alone and scared, about to be ripped apart by monsters she didn’t yet understand, and she pleaded for someone to save her. And somehow, the universe answered her by sending a boy in a blue suit that would puzzle and confuse her to no end. Something sent her new friend forward in time, and whatever that something was, it sent him to rescue her. Perhaps that wasn’t its primary goal, but it did it anyway. The unicorn was a mare of science, and coincidences were plentiful and explained a lot of quandaries like this, but somehow she doubted that was the case. “I might not be able to answer that for you, but I can say this with utmost confidence.” Twilight said while putting a reassuring hoof on the boy’s shoulder. “Slayers were created for a reason… to help save the world from evil. You were sent forward in time to help save Equestria from evils that we couldn’t understand. You could have been sent forward to any moment in our time, but you were sent just far enough to save me out in the Everfree Forest.” She said with a warm smile. The human looked up and smiled slightly as he recalled his first night in Equestria. “I guess I was.” Tom said with a happier tone. “I don’t know if I’m important enough to have a slayer from the past teleported forward in time to protect, but I’m definitely glad it happened. Whatever powers that be there are out there, I think they are good natured.” Twilight said in a sincere tone. “Heh… maybe you’re right.” Tom said while managing a genuine smile. Twilight smiled in return as she succeeded in raising the human’s spirits. Suddenly the pair noticed footsteps coming from behind them. They looked over to see Glimmer Shine and his two teammates approaching them. The three ponies still had somber expressions, but they looked like they were past their initial stage of grieving. “Hey, where are you guys going?” Twilight asked curiously, causing the trio to pause suddenly. “We’re going to head back to our hotel… After that, I don’t know where we’re going.” Glimmer Shine said with a depressed sigh. “What do you mean? Aren’t you staying in Canterlot?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “Well… we’re staying until all of the funerals are over. After that we’re probably going our separate ways again. Glitter and I might go back to the royal guards, and Sunspot might go back to the Wonderbolts if they will take her.” Glimmer Shine explained sadly. “What?! You can’t be serious!” The voice of Rainbow Dash cut in to the conversation. Everyone looked over to see the cyan mare and the others walking closer to them. “You guys can’t just pack up and go home. You’re a team of monster hunters! Equestria needs you!” Rainbow Dash said in a shocked tone. “Equestria needs the hooded ponies to go away. Most if not all of the monsters that have popped up in the past few weeks have been because of them. The princess is taking over the hunt for the rest of Raven Feather’s bunch, so there isn’t much need for us. Besides… there isn’t much of a team left between the three of us.” Glimmer Shine explained sadly. Everyone was left in a shocked state of silence as they watched the three ponies hanging their heads in a depressed manner. Twilight and the others had been through so much with the team of ponies in the past few weeks. They had saved each other’s lives countless times, learned to call each other friends, and experienced loss together throughout their short career as monster hunters. They couldn’t believe that they were even considering disbanding after everything that had happened. “Hey Tom…” Sunspot spoke up while contemplating something sadly. “Back at the mansion… when I told you to save Brimstoke… I uh… I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, and I really didn’t mean to make you hurt yourself like that. I just wanted to say sorry.” She said while looking to the human with a remorseful expression. Tom thought to himself for a moment before replying. “Don’t worry about it. You were pretty high strung back there… I think we all were.” Tom explained somberly. After a short moment of silence, Glimmer Shine and his two companions somberly walked away. Before they got too far away however, the yellow stallion paused and thought about something. He then turned around and trotted back up to the group. “Oh, and Tom… thanks again for recovering Pepper’s body for me. You have no idea how much you helped me back there.” Glimmer Shine said in a grateful tone. Back at the mansion when the group was recovering bodies and searching for survivors, he couldn’t bear to see his brother in such a bloody state again. The human was more than happy to retrieve the body for him. “Don’t mention it… I just wish we could have gotten Luna and Brimstoke’s bodies as well. Have they given an update on when they will clear that debris to get to them?” Tom asked curiously. When they went back to the crawl space to get to the area of the basement where the third symbol was, they found that it had caved in from the house shaking so much. “Um… not that I know of. I’ll ask the princess whenever we go see her.” Glimmer Shine said while thinking about the matter further. “And hey… don’t be strangers ok? You guys had better come visit us sometime.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight smirk. “We’ll be sure to drop by every now and then. We are still friends after all… right girls?” Glimmer asked while turning to his two companions. The two mares nodded eagerly in agreement. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Sunspot said with a confident smirk. “Of course.” Glitterball said with a friendly smile. “Well… I guess this is goodbye for now. We’ll see you in a few days.” Glimmer Shine said while waving at the group of mares. Twilight and the others waved at the trio while saying their goodbyes as well. Once farewells had been said and everything else was out of the way, the three ponies walked away again. Now that they were left alone, the six mares had nothing but their thoughts and the gloomy atmosphere around them to keep them company. Of course they still had their human friend with them, but he didn’t seem like he was in the mood for chatting, not that any of them were either. “*Sigh*… so what do we do now?” Pinkie asked in a dull tone. “I think I’m going to go check on the princess. She’s been through a lot recently, and she still has a lot to do.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “Mind if we come with you?” Fluttershy asked in a curious tone. Everyone else nodded in agreement to the yellow mare. All of them were concerned for the princess’s wellbeing. “Sure… that sounds like a good idea. I’m sure she’ll want to talk with all of us before we head back to Ponyville anyway.” Twilight suggested while looking around at her group of friends. With a brief nod of agreement, everyone followed the purple mare as she walked out of the cemetery. On any normal day, Canterlot was a shining example of the best Equestria and its people had to offer. There were cheerful ponies everywhere you looked, there were bustling shops and businesses, and there were hundreds of unicorns using their magic to improve everyday life. But this day was far from any normal day. Aside from the fact that the hooded ponies were still at large, the announcement that Princess Luna was killed was just made public. The princess of the night wasn’t exactly the most popular ruler between her and her sister. She was met with mixed responses after her return and purification, ranging from fear, to uncertainty, to outright indifference. But after a while, she had come to be loved for her friendly nature and kind demeanor. So to hear an emotionally drained Princess Celestia explain that her sister was killed during an operation meant to capture the hooded ponies came as a shock to the citizens of Equestria. Everywhere Twilight and the others looked, they saw gloomy faces and heads hanging low as the inhabitants of Canterlot walked around in droves. It was like the hope and happiness had been sucked out of the entire town. “Man… this place is a real mope-fest.” Rainbow Dash said while taking note of her somber surroundings. “Can you blame them? They just heard that Princess Luna is gone… we didn’t exactly take it too well either.” Applejack said with a disheartened shrug. “I’m not entirely sure I’m still taking it too well.” Rarity said while looking down sadly. “You and me both… the only way today could get any worse is if it started r-” Rainbow Dash’s sentence was interrupted as she felt a drop of water hitting her in the face. She looked up, only to see and hear a light and cold drizzle starting to come down. “Oh for crying out loud.” Rainbow Dash said while shaking her head in annoyance. Meanwhile, while everyone else was expressing their silent irritation at the rainfall, Twilight was looking down with a somber expression while dwelling on her thoughts. She still couldn’t get Luna out of her head. Her panicked expression as she tried to escape from the grip of the amorphous cloud of energy, her desperate pleas for the purple mare to save herself, the entire scene played out in her head over and over again. Noticing the unicorn looking down with an expression of hopeless sadness on her face, Rarity suddenly remembered what her friend had gone through. She hadn’t talked openly about her experience, but the white mare knew that Twilight was with the princess when she had to be left behind. “Twilight darling, are you okay?” Rarity asked in a sympathetic tone. Everyone else quickly noticed the gloomy unicorn and remembered why she would be so sad about hearing the princess mentioned. They immediately felt horrible for bringing up the blue alicorn again, which was probably like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound that wasn’t yet healed. “I can’t stop thinking about what happened back at the mansion. Maybe… maybe I could have done something to help her?” Twilight said to nobody in particular while keeping her attention fixed on the ground. “Twilight…” Rainbow Dash said before falling silent. She wasn’t used to seeing the purple mare so upset. Normally Twilight was the one to find a silver lining to a situation to cheer everyone else up, not the other way around. Perhaps noticing her friends’ concerned expressions, Twilight sighed in a dejected manner before looking up. As much as she wanted to dwell on the past, she had more important things to be worrying about. And right now, there were other people that needed to grieve more than she did. “I’m… I’m ok.” Twilight said while softening her expression and glancing behind her. “I shouldn’t be thinking like that anyway. Besides… Princess Celestia needs us to be strong for her right now.” She said in a confident tone. The others were pleased to see the unicorn lifting her spirits slightly. “That’s what Ah like to hear. Now let’s hurry up and get out of this rain before we catch cold.” Applejack suggested while shivering slightly from the water drizzling onto her. Everyone nodded in agreement before picking up their pace slightly. After a few minutes of running through the rain, the group could finally see the palace in the distance. Everyone rushed to close the distance between them and the dry and warm shelter that would come from being inside. Twilight led her small troop up the stairs and through the large front doors into the entryway of Celestia’s castle. “Brrr! It is freezing out there!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while shaking the excess water from her body, much to the annoyance of those around her. Still, the others were inclined to agree with the cyan mare given their own shivering bodies. “Let’s hurry up and find the princess before we get hypothermia.” Twilight suggested while rubbing her shoulders and looking around while thinking where the princess might be. Spotting a guard off to the side of the room, the unicorn decided to ask him for directions. “Umm… excuse me sir. Could you tell us where the princess is?” Twilight asked while walking up to the stoic stallion. “We would like to give her some company and help her cope with her loss.” She said while motioning to her group of friends. The guard smiled slightly as he saw the group of mares and their human friend. It was always nice to see the princess’s student displaying concern for her mentor. After thinking for a moment about where he saw the alicorn last, the stallion pointed towards the staircase at the far end of the room. “Last I checked, she was in her study.” The guard explained in a friendly tone. Twilight smiled as she recognized the location from memory. “Thank you… Come on guys, let’s go.” Twilight said while turning to her troop and motioning for them to follow her. The purple mare led her friends up the stairs and to the left where they found a spacious corridor waiting for them. She seemed to navigate the many rooms and hallways of the palace with ease. Which considering her time spent as the princess’s student, came naturally at this point. Meanwhile, the others in the group couldn’t help but to marvel at the beauty of the castle as they walked along. The many decorative tapestries and stained glass windows adorning the walls were certainly a sight to behold. The experience was fresh and new to Tom, but even the five mares were taken aback by the beautiful sights, and they had visited the castle before. Suddenly, Twilight paused in front of a door on the right side of the hallway. Taking this as a sign that they had arrived, the others looked to their leader apprehensively and waited for her to make her move. The purple mare went up to the door and pensively knocked a few times before waiting for a response. “What is it?” The muffled sound of Celestia’s voice sounded out from behind the door. She still had the friendly tone in her voice that she always had when addressing her subjects, but there was also a twinge of sadness and frustration in her voice. “Princess? It’s me, Twilight. We figured that you could use some company, so we came to see you.” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone while raising her voice slightly to carry through the door. She listened patiently for the princess to reply before barging in with a group of people. “*Sigh*… come in.” Celestia said after a moment of silence. She seemed to have a friendly tone of voice, so she was at least open to the presence of her new visitors. Twilight briefly glanced to her group of friends before opening the door and stepping inside. As she entered the room, she noticed Celestia sitting on a cushion in front of a table. The alicorn was facing away from the group and reading over a few scrolls she had opened in front of her. “Princess, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a gentle tone while walking over to the alicorn to see what she was doing. She seemed to have a sad expression as she read over the scrolls on the table. As the unicorn got close enough to see a few of the scrolls, she realized that they were letters written to Celestia from various ponies including herself. “I’m fine. I’ve just… been thinking about the past a lot recently.” Celestia said while turning away from the letters and managing a slightly happy expression. “I can only imagine what you must be going through right now. If you need anything… anything at all, we’re here for you.” Twilight said while glancing back to her friends for support. Everyone nodded with sincere expressions of sympathy while looking to the alicorn. Celestia smiled slightly as she looked around at the group gathered before her. They were all concerned for her wellbeing. Even Tom, who had only been in Equestria for a week or so, was sympathetic to her loss. “Thank you all. I greatly appreciate your concerns for me. I’m very proud of how you all have grown and matured into kindhearted and strong individuals over these past few years. And I’m sure that if Luna were here right now, she would be proud of you too.” Celestia said in a sincere tone. Everyone felt a twinge of bittersweet happiness from hearing the princess praising them. “Thank you Princess… that means a lot to hear you say that.” Twilight said in a grateful tone while holding back any sadness she felt from thinking about Luna. Still, she looked down with a troubled expression as her thoughts drifted elsewhere. Noticing her student with such an uneasy expression on her face, Celestia wondered what she could be thinking of. Naturally thoughts of Luna and her untimely demise would cause such a reaction, but somehow the alicorn felt that something else was bothering the purple mare. “What’s wrong Twilight?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone. Twilight shrugged uncomfortably before looking up with a hesitant expression. “Do you think Raven Feather and her group are still out there? I know they escaped the mansion… but I can’t stop thinking about what they’re doing now. Maybe they gave up and disbanded.” Twilight suggested in an uncertain manner while shaking her head pensively. “Somehow I don’t think those creeps could give up so easily. They’re out there somewhere… probably struggling to think of what evil scheme they’re going to pull next.” Rainbow Dash said in a disgusted tone from the back of the group. “Whatever they are doing, they need to pay for their crimes. Shining Armor is going to do everything he and the royal guard can to find them when he arrives in the next few days. I only hope it doesn’t take long for them to be found. I dread the thought of them still being at large when we hold Luna’s funeral… I think she deserves to be put to rest with her goal being accomplished.” Celestia said in a somber tone while looking down. “If you need any help finding them, I might be of some use. I might be able to sense their shadow magic if I’m close enough to them.” Tom suggested in a hopeful tone. It was easy to see that the boy was desperate to help in some way. “That’s alright Tom… you have done much more for me and Equestria than we can possibly repay you for. You deserve to have a rest… as do the rest of you.” Celestia said while looking to Twilight and her friends with a concerned expression. Although most of the group was against the idea of just sitting back and letting others deal with the hooded ponies, they were spent mentally and emotionally. They glanced around uneasily while trying to find a good reason to argue that they needed to participate. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t force themselves to want anything further to do with Raven Feather and her band of criminals. “I think I need some time to myself for now. I’m going to go for a walk… why don’t all of you rest here while you wait for the rain to stop?” Celestia suggested while taking note of the faint sound of rainfall against the castle walls. “Ok…” Twilight said in a disheartened tone while sighing and slinking to a seated position. She felt utterly useless with how little she could do. And worst of all, she didn’t care at this point. Everyone shared a dejected shrug as they watched Celestia walking out of the room. They all felt just as sad and depressing as the city outside looked. All they could do right now was to reflect on everything that had happened and wait for the rain to stop. Meanwhile, Celestia was reflecting on something else as she walked through the corridors of the castle alone. She was thinking about all of the time she had spent with her sister since she returned from her banishment. All of the times she could have talked to her, all of the time she could have spent being the big sister she deserved, all of it was gone. “Oh, my dear sister… I only wish I had been there with you.” Celestia muttered while looking around sadly. Everywhere she looked she could see reminders of the time she had shared with her sibling. Stained glass windows bearing stylized images of both her and the blue alicorn were littered around the castle. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop seeing younger versions of Luna and herself running around and playing in the halls like she used to. As she continued recalling memories of her time spent with her sister, the alicorn started tearing up slightly. Not wanting to appear too distressed to anyone passing by, she wiped her eyes and internalized the sadness she was feeling. Eventually, Celestia found herself in the entry hall. She glanced around the room and saw a few guards scattered around. Once they noticed her walking into the room, they stood straight and adopted more serious expressions, a behavior that the princess had gotten used to over the years. Seeing their stern and expressionless faces only reminded her of how much she missed her sister’s smile. “Lieutenant…” Celestia spoke while walking down the stairs and up to one of the guards. “Yes Princess?” The guard asked in an obedient tone. “Has the team at the mansion hideout made any more progress with the excavation?” Celestia asked with a hopeful tone. “No… I’m afraid not ma’am.” The stallion replied. Celestia shrugged sadly upon hearing that her efforts had hit a dead end again. “For what it’s worth ma’am, I’m sorry for your loss.” The guard said in a sympathetic tone. Celestia smiled slightly from hearing that even members of her royal guard cared about her. “Thank you lieutenant… I think I’m going to take a walk around town.” Celestia said in a slightly more upbeat tone. “Should I call for a carriage to take you?” The guard asked curiously, to which the alicorn merely shook her head. “No, that’s fine. I’ll be just fine on my own.” Celestia said in an unimposing tone. The stallion nodded in an understanding manner before stepping back to let the princess go on her way. The sound of the front doors opening and closing rang out through the room. Celestia and the couple of guards in the room turned their heads to see a mare in a cloak walking into the castle. The mare’s cutie mark couldn’t be seen under her cloak, which appeared to be slightly frayed at the edges, but her fur was black in color, and she had tufts of dark gray hair poking out from her cloak. “I’m sorry ma’am, but you can’t be in here right now. The castle is closed to the public to give the princess and company time to mourn.” The guard next to Celestia said while walking closer to the strange mare. “Oh… I’m sorry. I just wanted to pay my respects to the princess and offer her my condolences.” The mare said in a sympathetic tone. Before the guards could further persuade the pony to leave, Celestia stepped forward slightly with a soft expression. “Thank you. I appreciate your concern.” Celestia said in a friendly tone while putting a hoof in front of the guard to stop him from getting any closer. “What’s your name Miss?” The other guard in the room asked curiously while watching the mare from afar. “I’m sorry… I feel like her royal highness wouldn’t want to be bothered by a lonely little mare like myself… especially since her sister died in my home.” The mare said while flashing a sinister smile. The statement sent a grim wave of shock throughout the room that stunned the princess and her two guards into silence. “W-what?” The guard near Celestia stammered slightly in shock. “But if you must know, you can call me Raven Feather.” The mare said while pulling down her cloak and revealing her emerald green eyes and conceited smirk. “You… what are you doing here?!” Celestia asked in an angered tone. “Like I said before… I want to offer you my condolences, not only for your sister, but for every other one of your filthy companions that I kill today.” Raven Feather said in a more irritated tone while glaring at the white alicorn. She didn’t seem to be afraid in the slightest, even considering she was standing right in the middle of Canterlot, with the princess right in front of her. Suddenly, the guard next to Celestia stepped in front of her defensively. He unsheathed the sword from his side and stood with a fiery gleam in his eye. “Princess, you need to get out of here. I’ll handle her.” The guard exclaimed before charging forward towards the black mare. “No, wait!” Celestia yelled frantically as she watched the guard heading straight for the lone intruder. She knew that he was in way over his head. Before the alicorn or the other guard in the room could react, Raven Feather held one of her arms off to the side. As the charging stallion yelled fiercely and prepared to strike her, she channeled shadow energy through her arm, causing it to be enveloped by a fiery aura that shortened to a point. *Shink* Raven Feather swiped her arm sideways across the guard’s neck area. The stallion was sent tumbling sideways with a strangled cry of pain as blood spurted out everywhere. When his body settled off to the side and slightly behind the black mare, the guard was lying motionless in a steadily growing pool of his own blood. “*Gasp*” Celestia widened her eyes in shock at the brutal act in front of her. The black mare just killed one of her own guards without a second thought. Her attack sliced through his armor like it wasn’t even there. Even his sword was broken in two from the stallion attempting to block the attack. “Princess, we need to get you out of here!” The other guard exclaimed urgently while rushing up to the alicorn. She was still in a state of disbelief from watching the green eyed mare in front of her. Raven Feather chuckled as she watched the stallion trying to pull Celestia away. Even if he had gotten her to budge, she wasn’t going to let her dream be spoiled by a single guard. The black mare raised her arm and pointed at the guard. The tip of her hoof lit up with purple energy as she channeled her shadow magic to it. “What the- ACK!” The guard let out a startled croak as a similar purple glow appeared around his neck. He clutched at his throat as he was suddenly lifted into the air. Before the white alicorn could even react, Raven Feather flicked her arm to the side and flung the stallion across the room. “Put him down Raven Feather.” Celestia said in a stern tone while lighting up her horn. She looked over to the guard to try and help him, until she heard him choking as the force squeezing on his neck intensified. “Ah, ah, ah… don’t even think about using any magic on him. If I see so much as a flicker of another color on him I’ll break his neck. Then again… I might just do that anyway.” Raven Feather said with a wry tone and a threatening gleam in her eye. The guard writhed painfully in the air while holding his neck. He gasped for air to no avail as the black mare held him in her invisible grasp. Despite all of the training he had, he was obviously terrified for his life, and rightly so. Celestia gritted her teeth uneasily as she glanced between the guard and the pony in front of her. She had no doubt that she would kill him in an instant, and there was no way she could stop her in time. It pained her to feel so helpless when one of her subjects was in danger. “Look… I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you don’t have to do this. We can get you help.” Celestia said in a calmer tone in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution to the situation. “I don’t want your help. Your help will have me and my colleagues locked away forever. Even without all of our recent activities, our powers would be too much for your sensitive view of life to handle. You have brainwashed all of Equestria into believing there is nothing eviler in the world than a stray timberwolf or a diamond dog, but I know different. There is an inherently darker side to the world that you refuse to believe in. Well… you can’t stay in the light now… not when I blot out your sun and bathe the world in shadow.” Raven Feather explained in a threatening tone. “Just put him down Raven Feather. Put him down and we can talk it out, just you and me.” Celestia said while dimming her horn and backing away slightly. She was relieved to see the black mare lightning up her expression. Her relief quickly turned to unease and concern as Raven Feather smirked sinisterly. “You should be careful with your words…” Raven Feather said while turning to the trapped guard. She twisted her hoof rapidly, causing his neck to perform the same motion. A sickening snap sounded throughout the room. Celestia looked over with a pale expression as she saw the guard floating in the air limply. His neck was positioned at an odd and unnatural angle, and his head was drooping to the side lifelessly. Once she took a moment to appreciate her grim deed, Raven Feather let the stallion’s body drop to the floor. “You said put him down… you didn’t say keep him alive.” Raven Feather said with a wry smile. The sight of the gloating mare infuriated the white alicorn to no end. “You… you are a sick and twisted individual. You deserve every bit of punishment that is owed to you… and I think it’s time that your debt is paid.” Celestia said in an appalled tone. She could feel a deep and seething anger building inside of her as she glared at the black pony with fiery intent. Before the alicorn could lash out at the earth pony, the front doors opened again. This time, two ponies walked in that Celestia recognized to be Dust Kicker and his sister Raincloud. They were wearing gray hoodies that were still wet from the earlier rain. “It’s about time you two caught up.” Raven Feather said in a sarcastic tone. “Sorry about the delay… we had to deal with a few guards outside. Turns out you can’t stroll up to the palace wearing hoods right now without attracting some attention.” Raincloud said with a slight chuckle. She then turned her attention ahead to the alicorn on the other side of the room. “So… I guess you’ve already introduced yourself. You need any help taking her down?” Raincloud asked curiously with a small smirk. She almost seemed eager for a chance to fight the princess. “No... I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. She’s mine and mine alone. Besides… you two have jobs to do.” Raven Feather explained while glancing between the two. “Namely?” Raincloud asked curiously. “Raincloud, I need you to make sure no more guards get in here and interrupt us. Dust Kicker, I need you to cause a distraction to divert their attention away from here.” Raven Feather explained. “I think a small army of darklings sauntering around Canterlot and terrorizing the locals would do the trick.” Dust Kicker said with a small smirk building on his face. “You think you can handle something like that?” Raincloud asked while glancing behind her and thinking about the conditions outside. Although the rain had stopped and there was still cloud cover outside, it was still day. Projecting a small army of darklings with enough resistance to daylight to survive long enough to cause a decent distraction would take a lot of energy. “Aww, sis… I’m hurt that you think so little of me.” Dust Kicker said in a cynical manner. “Well whatever you’re going to do, you had better get to it. Once you’re done, help the others to move the equipment up here. By the time you get back I should have things handled he-” Raven Feather was suddenly interrupted by a magical blast flying into the ground at her feet. She looked forward to see a smoking scorch mark on the floor, and a very angry alicorn with her horn blazing fiercely glaring at her from a few feet away. “That’s enough. I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else. If you won’t listen to reason, then I will have to fight you.” Celestia said while stepping forward in a threatening manner. “Wow, looks like you pissed her off. I think I’m gonna go outside and work on that distraction before things get messy in here.” Dust Kicker said while heading towards the door. Celestia stepped forward while charging up an attack with her horn to stop the pegasus from leaving. “You aren’t going anywhere if I have anything to say abo-” The white alicorn was suddenly interrupted as she heard Raven Feather yelling fiercely. The black mare swung her arm sideways again. Only instead of using the energy on her arm as a weapon, she created a series of small fireballs that erupted from the floor in front of Celestia. Celestia jumped back in shock as the purple flames exploded upwards in front of her. The fireballs appeared in a line going right to left in the same direction the black mare pointed her arm. The alicorn could feel the intense cold from the menacing flames reaching her face and causing a small amount of pain. “In case you forgot, you’re fighting one person here. I would stop worrying about what my colleagues are doing and start worrying about me.” Raven Feather said in a cocky tone. Somehow she appeared to have the skill to back up her bold words. “Very well… but I must warn you, I will not hold back.” Celestia said while steeling herself for battle. Raven Feather smirked as she prepared herself as well. Raincloud stood at the back of the room and watched as the two sized each other up. Her shadow was already watching the room for intruders, so she was free to stand back and watch as the battle took place. Celestia shouted as she lowered her head and pointed her horn directly at the black mare. After a few seconds of charging her attack, she sent a beam of energy shooting out of her horn and directly towards the pony across the room. The brilliant beam of light emitted a shrill magical buzz as it sailed towards the earth pony. Just before it hit, Raven Feather held her arm out and channeled her own magic to it. A wave of solid black energy shot out of her hoof and crashed into the beam. The collision of the two forces sent a small shockwave of sound and light outwards as they clashed. Celestia’s beam made the shadowy energy curve inwards into a semicircle that acted like a shield. Celestia groaned from exertion as she put more energy into her attack. As she put more energy into attacking, Raven Feather put more energy behind her counter. The pulsating black wave started moving forward and shrinking towards a single point as it slowly overtook the beam of light crashing into it. Before long, the ray of shadowy energy was starting to move forward and away from the black mare. Suddenly, Celestia’s beam pushed through the ray of shadows and sailed across the room. For a short moment she thought she had destroyed her opponent, however a dark puff of purple smoke appearing off to the side dispelled her brief celebration. Raven Feather appeared out of the puff of smoke and quickly shot a ball of shadowy flame out of her hoof towards the princess. Celestia raced to project a shield around herself to defend against the incoming attack. Just as she completed her shield, the fireball crashed into her with frightening power. An explosion that seemed far too large considering the original size of the projectile erupted around the alicorn. She yelped painfully as her shield was shattered and she was knocked to the floor from the force of the strike. Once the smoke cleared, Celestia noticed that she had a few singe marks on her body. Her head was also throbbing from having such a strain put on her magic so suddenly. Once she composed herself and got to her feet, she glared at the black mare in front of her with a newfound sense of anger. “I underestimated your power… a mistake I won’t make again.” Celestia said while preparing herself for any more attacks the earth pony could send her way. “We’ll see about that.” Raven Feather said with a wry smirk on her face. “Hya!” Raven Feather yelled fiercely while stomping her hoof down on the ground. A pulse of shadow energy enveloped her hoof as a transparent black shadow started spreading out from it. The shadow rapidly covered the ground between the black mare and the alicorn, all the while making a quiet and unsettling noise. Before Celestia could think further about the strange shadow, a solid black form shot up out of it and headed straight for her. She ducked to the side just in time to see a large spike made out of shadow energy piercing into the air. If she hadn’t moved in time, she would have been skewered on the sharp blob. As the first spike lowered back into the ground, another spike shot up from underneath the princess, forcing her to jump to evade it. Instead of lowering into the ground like the first one, the spike’s form shifted and shot out at the alicorn in an attempt at engulfing her. Celestia frantically lit up her horn and teleported herself away from the mass of shadows. Appearing by the far wall near the door, Celestia looked over to see Raven Feather turning to face her. She suddenly noticed the blob where she just was sinking into the floor and becoming translucent again. The shadow raced across the room at lightning fast speeds to cut her off. As it moved, it thinned out to a spindly ray that resembled a tentacle. Before she could react, the shadow reached the alicorn and went underneath her. Celestia suddenly felt something grabbing onto her legs. She looked down to see four tendrils reaching up and holding her legs tightly while the rest of the shadow spread out around her. Once the shadow spread into a circle around the imprisoned princess, it started rising out of the floor and climbing above her. Realizing that she was about to be engulfed by the rising shadow, Celestia tried struggling against the tendrils with all of her might. Finding no results from trying to forcefully pull her legs out of the tendrils’ grip, the alicorn lit up her horn and tried using her magic on them. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t get them to budge with her magic either. “Hahaha!” Raven Feather cackled maniacally as she watched the princess getting swallowed up by her mass of shadows. After a short wait, the circle of darkness closing around her finally closed into an alicorn sized ball. Moments of silence went by, and the black mare thought she had attained victory, until she noticed streams of light burning holes through the dark blob. With a fierce yell and a blinding explosion of sunlight burning the shadowy mass into oblivion, Celestia was free. The two stood silently while glaring at each other. They panted heavily as they tried to catch their breath from so much exertion. It seemed like they were both surprised by the other’s strength and abilities. “It seems like I have underestimated your power as well.” Raven Feather said in an impressed tone. “No matter… I have only just begun to show you mine.” She stated while flashing an impish smirk. Celestia growled uneasily under her breath. She didn’t want to show it openly, but breaking out of that shadowy prison had taken a lot out of her. If the black mare truly was only toying with her, then she had a long battle ahead of her. Meanwhile, back in the study, Twilight and the others were still waiting around for the rain to stop. Everyone had blank and somber expressions, even though they tried to have brighter thoughts. The prospect that they had just come from one of their friends’ funeral was enough to ensure that even Pinkie Pie was unable to joke around like she normally did. “*Sigh*… so what do we do once the rain stops? Anyone want to get something to eat before we head back to Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash suggested in a dull tone. It was clear that the group wanted to do something to cheer themselves up, but they were too drained to make much of an effort. “I don’t know… I think I might just head home and stay there for a while.” Fluttershy said in a droning tone while looking down sadly. “Yeah… me too.” Pinkie Pie added in agreement. “How about you guys? Come on… it’s my treat.” Rainbow Dash pleaded while looking to Tom and Twilight with a hopeful expression. “Sorry Rainbow Dash… I don’t think I’m in the mood to eat right now.” Twilight said while shrugging sympathetically. Tom merely nodded in agreement with the unicorn. Rainbow Dash huffed in defeat while leaning back against the wall. She had a feeling that her friends wouldn’t agree to join her. After all, she herself felt as dreary and somber as they did, so she understood where they were coming from. “I wish I just had something to get my mind off of last week.” The cyan mare said in a sad tone. “Ah think we could all use something to get our minds off of last week. Ah wouldn’t mind forgetting about it entirely… aside from meeting Tom of course.” Applejack said while glancing to the human and flashing a smile. “Yes, it seems like Tom arriving in Equestria was the only good thing to come out of this whole mess.” Rarity stated in agreement to the orange mare. “Thanks guys… I’m glad I came here too.” Tom said in a friendly tone. “Now that we don’t need to worry about those hooded jerks everywhere we go, we can finally show you a good time. How about we throw Tom a proper welcome to Equestria party after all of this, eh Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash suggested while looking to the pink mare with a warm smirk. Pinkie perked up slightly at the prospect of throwing a party. “Hey, that sounds like a good idea. Ooo, I know just what to do!” Pinkie stated eagerly while bouncing slightly in her seat. “Well how about that… Ah think that’s the first time any of us have smiled all day.” Applejack said with an amused chuckle. “Maybe we should try harder to put the past behind us. I think we should wait until all of the funerals are over so we can get all of our grief out, but a party sounds like a nice way to lift our spirits after all of this.” Twilight said in a cheerful tone. The others let out a collective cheer of agreement as they finally returned some semblance of happiness to the room. As the ponies were celebrating their plans for the future, Tom suddenly felt a slight chill going down his spine. Just as he expected, a puff of blue mist rushed out of his mouth as he exhaled forcefully. The shrill outburst from the human put a grim feeling of horror into everyone in the room as they stared at him with wide eyes. “No… not here, not today of all days!” Twilight said in an upset tone while getting to her feet and looking around nervously. “What did you feel Tom? Was it the hooded ponies?!” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily while looking to the human for answers. Before Tom could speak about what he sensed, a faint screaming erupted from outside the window at the far side of the room. Everyone felt a chill going down their spines as more screams and a series of low roars and growls filled the air. Gathering the courage needed to investigate the noises, Rainbow Dash rushed over to the window and looked outside. She gasped as she noticed a frightening scene unfolding out in the city. Numerous ponies were running for their lives with terrified expressions. There were familiar shadowy creatures chasing after the townspeople and snarling at them with their teeth. A few of the monsters were fighting royal guard members that were trying to contain the chaos to no avail. “Sweet Celestia…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a shocked tone while staring at the disarray outside. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked nervously while looking to the cyan mare for answers. She was far too terrified to look outside herself. “Darklings are running around and terrorizing everyone in sight. There must be dozens of them!” Rainbow Dash said in a mortified tone while turning to her shocked friends with a pale expression. “*Gasp*” Twilight covered her mouth with her hoof as she stared at the pegasus in disbelief. She could hardly keep herself from tensing up from how much shock and fear she was feeling. “That isn’t the only problem we have. I’m feeling some powerful shadow magic signatures coming from the castle. Something tells me that the hooded ponies are done toying around.” Tom explained in an uneasy tone. “We have to do something!” Rainbow Dash suggested anxiously while moving towards the door. She was ready to run up to the hooded ponies and punch their heads off from how much anger she was feeling. “We need to find the princess and warn her!” Twilight said with a fearful glint in her eyes. If the hooded ponies were attacking Canterlot, then Celestia must have been their end goal. The others nodded in agreement and prepared to follow their unicorn leader out the door and into the fray as they usually did, until they were stopped by Tom stepping in their way. “You guys need to get out of here.” Tom instructed in a stern tone. “What?! You can’t be serious! There are shadow creatures roaming the streets! We need to do something!” Twilight said in a shocked tone. She couldn’t believe she was arguing with the human at a time like this. “Look, it’s too dangerous here for you guys right now. The hooded ponies want you dead so the elements of harmony will stop working. If you stay here, you will be putting Equestria as a whole at risk. I need you to go find Glimmer Shine and the others and call for help. Meanwhile, I will go find Celestia and help her deal with Raven Feather and the others.” Tom explained in a serious tone. “But… but…” Twilight stammered in refusal at the boy’s proposal. Every fiber of her being was telling her to stand and fight, not to run away and wait for backup to arrive. “No buts, Twilight! I’m not losing any of you like I lost Neon and the others. I don’t care if you think their deaths weren’t my fault. If you die fighting the hooded ponies, it WILL be my fault!” Tom yelled in a serious tone, silencing the six mares instantly. Twilight and the others stared at the human with mixtures of sympathy and shock in their faces. They couldn’t believe that he was still holding on to so much guilt. However, they also knew he was right in some regard. Everyone looked down uneasily as they thought about what to do. “Ok… we’ll go, but you better not get hurt while I’m gone.” Twilight said in a serious tone. “I’ll try my best… now get going.” Tom stated before turning around and running out of the room. Twilight nodded before turning to her small troop with a determined expression. “You heard him… let’s go get help!” The purple mare instructed before running out of the room and turning down the hall. Everyone nodded in agreement before following the unicorn down the hallway. “Gah!” Celestia yelped in pain as a bolt of shadow energy whizzed by her leg. She felt an intense cold sensation where the energy struck her. The bolt was so cold that it actually burned her skin on contact. Once she looked down to examine her wound, she saw that her fur had been completely singed off in a small area, most likely from the force of the blast instead of the cold. “What’s the matter Princess? Getting a little winded are we?” Raven Feather chuckled in a sadistic manner while watching the alicorn cope with her injury. “You can’t seriously expect to succeed here. Even if you beat me, there are hundreds of guards in the city that are waiting to take you in dead or alive.” Celestia said in an attempt at reasoning with the black mare. “Oh, well since you put it like that… I guess I’ll just pack my bags and go back where I came from.” Raven Feather said in a cynical tone. “Do you really think that I haven’t prepared for this day? The sad thing is… preparing to defeat you and your guards wasn’t even the hard part. The only thing that has kept me from wiping you and your pathetic subjects off the face of the map is finding a way to realize the legend of the eternal night.” Raven Feather stated in a spiteful tone. “Even if you did find a way to summon this eternal night, what will you do then? The world would be flooded with all manner of paranormal creatures, and the sun would be gone, so the safety of daylight wouldn’t be able to protect you or anyone else from them!” Celestia stated in a frustrated tone. “I have spent many hours studying the occult and all of its gifts. When I kill you and blot out the sun, I will be powerful enough to bend any creature to my will, paranormal or not. After I rule Equestria, I might just bring the sun back every once in a while… who knows. All I know is that right now, you are in my way!” Raven Feather yelled while shooting another blast of shadow energy at the alicorn. Celestia grit her teeth and used any energy she could muster to project another shield around herself. This time she didn’t hold back as she stood strong against the incoming projectile. The fireball slammed into her barrier and exploded, causing it to crack and nearly shatter. “Guh… *Huff*… *Pant*” Celestia groaned from exhaustion as she drooped her head weakly. She didn’t know how much longer she could carry on like this. Still, she had to fight the sadistic mare with everything she had. Shaking her head to wake up her tired body, the alicorn lit up her horn again and prepared to strike. With a fierce yell, Celestia charged toward the black mare while channeling her magic to the tip of her horn. If she couldn’t outlast her in a magical duel, then she would have to end things once and for all. As much as she didn’t want to use lethal force, her kingdom and all of her subjects’ lives depended on her winning. Raven Feather stood perfectly still with an almost bored expression while the princess charged at her. Even the pegasus mare watching from the back of the room was starting to get nervous as her leader refused to move. Just before the alicorn crashed horn first into her, Raven Feather channeled a large amount of shadow magic to her hoof. With a spiteful glare and a lifetime of pent up aggression fueling her anger, the black mare punched the princess with everything she had. Celestia felt the energy from Raven Feather’s hoof crashing into her own aura of energy. After a brief struggle between the two powers, the barrier of magic from the alicorn’s horn was shattered with a loud burst of air that sounded like a small explosion. The impact of Raven Feather’s punch landed on the side of Celestia’s jaw. The alicorn was shocked and stunned as she felt a wave of numbing pain hitting her and her body flying backwards at high speeds. “Agh!” Celestia yelled in pain as she hit the stairs on the far side of the room with her back and her head. She felt the stairs cracking underneath her slightly as she was pummeled straight into them. After her body settled from the impact, she found herself unable to move from shock and pain. Finally, after a few moments of recuperation, Celestia shakily lifted her head up to see her attacker. Raven Feather was standing a few feet away with a pleased smile on her face. She looked like she was enjoying this experience far more than the alicorn writhing in pain on the floor. “Ugh… Tch!” Celestia winced in pain while bringing her hoof up to her face. She felt a sticky warm sensation against her face that elicited a feeling of shock in her as she brought her hoof back down. The entire tip of her shoe was stained red with her own blood. “Stings doesn’t it?” Raven Feather asked with a quieter and more calm tone. Celestia looked up to see the black mare walking towards her slowly with an arrogant smile that led her to believe that her opponent had been expecting this outcome the whole time. As she got closer, the alicorn suddenly noticed a small silver object in the black mare’s right hoof. Before she could even try to get up or figure out what was happening, Celestia heard a soft click and felt something cold and metallic being put around her front legs. While Raven Feather relished in the princess’s defeat, Celestia looked down at her hooves while trying to pull them away, only to be met with stiff resistance. She gasped in shock as she noticed that there was a pair of hoof cuffs on her with runic symbols etched into the sides. In a slight panic, the alicorn instinctively tried using her magic, but she suddenly found that her horn wouldn’t light up. She couldn’t even feel the sensation of magic flowing within her anymore. The grim realization that she was trapped hit her like a ton of bricks. “A colleague of mine found those on one of your guards back at our hideout. He thought they might come in handy… and I have to say, he was definitely right.” Raven Feather said with a sinister chuckle as she moved closer to the princess. Celestia tried to move away from the black mare, but her sore and exhausted body and awkward positioning made it nearly impossible to move backwards up the stairs. All she could do was sit and watch nervously as her captor approached her. “Ngh… grr…” Celestia struggled in vain to break out of her chains. She glared at the black mare until she picked her up by the neck roughly. “Look at you… the mighty princess of the sun. From where I’m standing you don’t look mighty at all… you look just as weak as I always imagined you.” Raven Feather said before dropping the alicorn and letting her head hit the stairs. Celestia grunted painfully before raising her head back up to look at the black mare. “Why don’t you just kill me now?” Celestia asked with an irritated glare. “Impatient are we?” Raven Feather asked with a smirk. “Don’t worry… I plan on wringing your neck eventually. But first you get to watch me turn your kingdom on its head.” She said with a more sinister tone. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” A voice from behind the group drew their attention up the stairs. Waiting at the top landing on the right, there was a familiar human in blue attire standing and watching the ponies on the floor below with a serious expression on his face. “Tom…” Celestia muttered in a concerned tone. The last thing she wanted was to see someone get hurt to try and rescue her. “Well if it isn’t Equestria’s finest hero. Have you come to save the princess and thwart my evil plans?” Raven Feather asked in a cynical tone. “If that’s how you want to put it, then yes… I am going to thwart the hell out of your evil plan.” Tom said in a threatening tone while walking down the stairs slowly. “I would choose my next move very carefully if I were you.” Raincloud said while trotting up to stand beside Raven Feather. She stood at the ready to call her shadow into battle, until the black mare next to her put her arm out to stop her. “It’s ok Raincloud. If I can’t beat the princess and her human pet… then I don’t deserve to be the one to destroy Equestria.” Raven Feather said in a confident tone. “Alright… if you insist, I’ll stay with the princess.” Raincloud said in a compliant tone. “Tom… don’t do this. She’s too strong.” Celestia pleaded with the human to get him to stop. “You know I have to try.” Tom said while offering a sympathetic expression of doubt to the alicorn. She wasn’t even sure if he thought he could win. “Ah yes… far be it from a slayer to back down and let an evil tyrant overthrow a peaceful kingdom. Tell you what Tommy boy… if you can beat me, I will let the princess go free.” Raven Feather said with a slight chuckle. “There is only one person in this universe that can call me Tommy… and this is long past her time.” Tom said while making his way down the stairs and glaring at the black mare. Raven Feather backed up to give the human room to descend the steps to the main floor. “Stop this! Tom, I won’t let you fight her! I order you to retreat!” Celestia said in a frantic tone of desperation. The human paused beside the trapped alicorn and frowned slightly as she stared at him with fearful eyes. “Sorry Princess… I’m not under your leadership, so I have to respectfully disobey that order.” Tom said in a serious tone before returning his attention to the green eyed earth pony in front of him. He walked forward a short distance until he was away from the helpless alicorn and only a few feet away from the black mare. “Are you ready to fight me Mr. Greene?” Raven Feather asked with an impish smirk. Tom quickly grabbed his sword and unsheathed it with a shrill and metallic noise. He flipped the luminescent blade around in his hand before bringing it to his side in a battle stance. “It doesn’t matter if I’m ready… all that matters is that I stop you.” Tom said in a livid tone. All of the wrongdoings he had been forced to witness in the past week had been caused by the mare in front of him. He wasn’t about to let her go unpunished. The tension in the room steadily increased as the two stood still and silently watched the other for signs of movement. Each of them was waiting for the other to move first so they could counter, but nobody seemed to be eager to make the first move. Finally, Tom decided to take matters into his own hands and charged forward with a fierce yell. Raven Feather smirked and channeled shadow energy to her hoof in preparation. As the human held his sword up in preparation to strike, the black mare held her arm up to block his strike. With a metallic clash, Tom’s sword crashed down on the mare’s arm. The positive energy of his sword and the negative energy of her shadow magic repelled each other, resulting in Raven Feather’s arm being protected by a sort of shield that allowed her to push back his blade as if she had one of her own. Tom swiped sideways in an attempt at catching her off guard, but she quickly moved her arm to parry his attack. The human swiftly threw a series of attacks at the black mare, forcing her to defend against all of them. “Ow!” Tom yelped in pain as Raven Feather cut across his leg with the energy she had gathered. The green eyed pony chuckled at her small victory. Seeing this opportunity, the boy dodged to the side and swung at her as fast as he could. As she tried to dodge the attack, she caught his blade across the cheek, drawing a small amount of blood and causing a twinge of pain. After stepping away from each other, both combatants used their own methods to heal their wounds. Tom used his powers to heal his leg, while Raven Feather used her shadow magic to close up the cut on her cheek. “You fight like a girl.” Tom remarked in a cynical tone. “You fight like a fossil. I must say, I am not impressed by the capabilities of the human race by watching you.” Raven Feather replied in a mocking tone. “Oh yeah? Well at least I have thumbs.” Tom said with a wry smirk. He quickly regained his composure before charging forward. Raven Feather stood her ground against the charging human. She channeled more energy to her hoof, causing the shadowy aura to grow in intensity. “Hyah!” Raven Feather yelled while slicing sideways at the human’s sword. Much to his surprise, Tom watched as the mare’s makeshift blade sliced clean through his katana. A large portion of the luminescent blade flew off, leaving roughly a quarter of the sword remaining. Not giving her opponent time to process his shock, Raven Feather used the energy on her arm to punch the human and send him flying backwards. Tom was separated from what was left of his once proud weapon and landed on his back a short distance away. He pushed himself up with his hands and groaned painfully from his abrupt flight. “You know… I always wondered what would happen if shadow energy came into contact with a blessed blade. I guess I can’t say I was expecting anything more.” Raven Feather stated with a slight chuckle while kicking aside the handle portion of the sword. “Grr…” Tom growled in frustration as he stared at the two halves of his former weapon. She had broken the blade with relative ease. He thought he was evenly matched with the mare, but apparently she had been holding back. After getting to his feet, the human lowered his arms to his sides and summoned his spirit weapons. The claws appeared out of a puff of fire and rang out a shrill tone as the boy raised his hands into a fighting stance. “I’ve had enough of you!” Tom yelled while charging forward at the black pony. He pulled back his arm and threw a powerful slash at her, but she disappeared into a puff of purple mist before his attack could even scratch her. “What’s the matter? Getting a little scared?” Raven Feather asked in a cynical tone while appearing behind the human. She shot a shadowy flame out of her hoof, forcing the boy to dive to the floor to avoid it. Before Raven Feather could point her beam of shadow energy downwards, Tom turned himself over and held out his hand. He frantically shot out a beam of bright light that met the shadowy flames and pushed them back slightly. The black mare and the human both pushed harder to beat the other, but it was clear who was winning. Suddenly, Raven Feather pushed against the human’s light with more force than he could handle. Just before the flames engulfed him completely, Tom rolled out of the way, but not before catching a painful burn on his right shoulder. “Agh!” The boy yelled as he clutched his new injury. The fabric on his shirt had been completely burned away, leaving nothing more than a charred circle of his own skin. Celestia and Raincloud watched from afar as the frustrated slayer got to his feet. He seemed to be getting more desperate as the fight went on. The alicorn had never seen the human in such a disheveled state before. “Tom…” Celestia muttered in a mortified tone as she watched the human healing his wounds. The restorative flames took longer than usual to heal his shoulder, but after a few moments the damage to both his skin and his shirt were erased. “Out of all of the slayers throughout history, they sent you to save Equestria? Heheheh.” Raven Feather chuckled to herself with a mocking smirk on her face, much to the infuriation of the human across from her. “Just shut up will you?!” Tom yelled in a frustrated tone. “Aww… what’s the matter? Am I hurting your feelings? I know that emotions are important to you slayers, so the last thing I want to do is upset you.” Raven Feather said with a cynical expression. “Rragh!” Tom yelled fiercely while charging straight for the black mare. Raven Feather channeled energy to her arm again and used it like a blade to counter the boy’s strikes. The shadowy aura smoked on contact with the claws on his hands, but she was apparently putting enough energy behind it to keep it stable. After a few tense moments of Tom frantically swiping at the earth pony and having her counter his strikes with ease, Raven Feather swiftly slashed across the boy’s legs again, only this time she directed the energy in her strike to knock him over instead of cutting him. “Gah!” Tom yelped in surprise as he was sent to the floor. As he looked up to counter any strikes the black mare was preparing to send his way, he realized that she was stepping away from him. “Try not to break anything when you hit the ground.” Raven Feather said with a wry smirk. The human was confused by what she meant, until she stamped her hoof on the ground. A transparent shadow raced out of her hoof and flew under Tom in a split second. The shadow solidified under the boy until it was a pitch black blob similar to all of the other attacks based on shadow magic she had used. “What the…?!” Before Tom could even try to get up, two spindly tendrils shot out of the blob underneath him and wrapped around his arms. He suddenly felt a sense of weightlessness as he fell into the floor and disappeared into the shadowy blotch. The world around him was pitch black, but he was falling at an increased velocity towards some unseen destination. The frightening experience reminded him of when he had fought Raincloud’s shadow for the first time, which in turn made him very nervous about where he was falling to. “AHH!” Tom screamed fearfully as a relatively blinding light enveloped him. He looked around, only to realize that he was falling out of the ceiling of the room. Which considering that he was in a castle, was shockingly higher off the ground than he first imagined. Celestia averted her eyes as the human fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. She slowly looked over, and was relieved to see him still alive. Her relief turned to horror as she realized the agony he must have been going through. “See… I tried to warn you. You really should have tucked and rolled instead of going for more of a falling stone approach.” Raven Feather chuckled while walking up to the human on the floor. Tom tried to get up to face the black mare, but he had broken several bones in his body that were vital for basic movements. “Don’t mind me, just pick yourself up and dust yourself off. See, I found a nifty little book on slayers in my basement… Well, not my basement per say, but you get the idea. It had a laundry list of observations on slayers written by several people over the years. It even had a few personal accounts written by a few slayers. I was particularly intrigued by how you heal yourself.” Raven Feather said while roughly pressing down on the boy’s arm as he tried to get up. Tom yelped in pain before going back to the floor. Once the black mare stopped touching him, he tried to get up again so he could strangle her with his bare hands. “You have to spend all of that energy, and for what? Just to cause yourself more agony? Tell me… what’s the point in that?” Raven Feather asked curiously while backing up to give the boy room. After getting to his knees, Tom held himself upright and started healing his injuries. He yelped painfully as his arms, several areas on his chest, his legs, and even his shoulder started glowing orange as his healing abilities worked from within his body. It looked like a fire was raging inside of him, which in all fairness, was probably accurate to what was actually happening. Once his bones were fully healed, Tom let out a final yell of pain and fell forward onto his hands. While he was catching his breath, he looked up and glared at the black mare with a seething hatred that only suffering could bring about. “I… don’t care what the point is. All I care about right now… is taking you down.” Tom muttered in between breaths while getting to his feet. He was exhausted and his legs were wobbling like jelly, but he still managed to strike an impressive, if unsteady, fighting pose. “Still intent on being the hero are we? Why don’t you just accept what all of us already know. Even the princess over there can see how worthless you are right now.” Raven Feather said while glancing over to the white alicorn. “What the hell are you on about now?” Tom asked in an annoyed tone. He didn’t really believe her, but part of him wanted to know what she was talking about. “Don’t listen to her Tom! She’s just trying to get in your head!” Celestia yelled in an attempt at stopping the black mare’s mind games. She yelped in pain as Raincloud smacked her across the face. “Be quiet! You’re spoiling the show…” The pale pegasus said before returning her attention to the fight. “She’s wrong you know. I don’t need to get in your head, I’m already inside. You know you can’t beat me, and it is tearing you up on the inside isn’t it?” Raven Feather asked in a cynical tone. “Shut up!” Tom yelled while stepping forward and making a slash at her with his claws. The black mare summoned her makeshift blade again and clashed with the human before shoving him off balance and watching him stumble with an exhausted expression of anger. “I think I’ll wait to kill the elements of harmony. First I want to make them watch as I gut their friends and family in front of them.” Raven Feather mocked in a sinister tone. “Stop it!” Tom yelled again in a desperate tone. His face was pale and his heart was pounding, but he still slowly charged forward and struck at her with a flurry of attacks. The green eyed pony smirked while blocking each of the strikes coming at her with ease. “If you want me to stop, then just stop me Tom! Your entire purpose is to make sure I don’t win, but I’ve already won! I am going to kill every person you have met in this world, and there is nothing you can do about it!” Raven Feather yelled fiercely while clashing with the human again. She looked at him staring daggers into her, but behind his anger she could see desperation and fear. Taking a look down at his claws, she noticed tiny cracks forming in the metal blades. “I will die before I let you hurt anyone else!” Tom yelled back in an exhausted tone. He breathed heavily to catch his breath, but between the stress he was feeling and the strain of the battle, he couldn’t recover as quickly as he wanted to. “You really think you can make that statement? Look at you! I’m barely even trying to counter your pitiful attacks at this point. You remind me of a child flailing at their parents during a tantrum. I could probably walk over there and slit the princess’s throat without you being able to do a thing!” Raven Feather yelled while staring the human in the eye with a fierce glare. “Stop it Raven Feather! This is sadistic!” Celestia yelled while watching the two struggling. “Tom, please listen to me! Just get out of here… run!” She pleaded to the human to save himself. “I can’t just leave you! I’m a slayer… I have to defend the innocent wherever possible!” Tom yelled back in an exhausted tone. “You’re a slayer? Hah! Don’t make me laugh! I read all manner of tall tales about the slayers in that book. They were the monster hiding in the closet of all the evil creatures of the earth. Demons and monsters all across the world would pale when hearing their names. You couldn’t even save your friends from a couple of ghosts for crying out loud! You aren’t a slayer… you’re a joke!” Raven Feather stated in a cold tone while glaring at the human like he was a piece of trash. Suddenly, the small cracks on Tom’s blades grew in size. The cracks had a sort of orangish glow to them that only grew stronger as they splintered across the claws. The sound of something brittle crumbling accompanied the cracks as they covered the whole of the weapons. Tom and Raven Feather glanced down at the cracks with decidedly different expressions on their faces. Raven Feather smirked as she looked back up at the boy fighting her. She let out a mighty yell as she pushed her arm sideways with as much strength as she could. A loud shattering noise sounded out as Tom’s claws exploded into a flurry of metallic shards. The human was sent backwards a few steps from the force of the black mare pushing him. He fell on his back and stared ahead with a horrified expression as the bits of his spirit weapons fell to the floor. Tom looked down at his shaking hands and saw that the portion that held the claws to his fingers still remained. A flash of fire washed over his fingers as the only remaining parts of his weapons disappeared off his hands. He looked ahead and saw that the hundreds of metallic pieces on the ground were melting into small drops of molten metal that quickly vanished from sight. “*Gasp*” Celestia’s eyes widened and Raincloud’s jaw dropped as they stared at the scene in front of them. Raven Feather stood victoriously across from the human and watched as he processed what had just happened. Tom desperately tried to reform his claws. He could make a brief flash of fire appear on his fingers, but no matter how hard he struggled he couldn’t get his weapons to reappear. Perhaps they had been permanently broken as they seemed to have been from physical appearances. “What’s the matter Tom? You were so eager to fight me before.” Raven Feather asked as she watched the human getting to his feet and stepping backwards fearfully. “S-stay away from me.” Tom stammered nervously while backing away from the green eyed mare. Raven Feather pointed her hoof forward and shot out a burst of shadow energy at the human. The bolt whizzed straight at the boy and pierced clean through his leg, sending a spray of blood out and causing him to yell in pain. Tom fell to his knee and clutched his newfound injury. He tried to heal it, but he could only elicit a slight glow of orange that flickered out just as quickly as it appeared. “What is a slayer without his spirit weapons and his powers? Nothing more than a boy trying to fill shoes that are far too large for him.” Raven Feather said with a devilish smirk while firing another blast at the human. The beam went clean through his shoulder, effectively disabling his left arm. “AGH!” Tom yelled painfully while clutching his arm. He could do little more than remain still while at the black mare’s mercy. “I’ll tell your friends that you died screaming like the pitiful child you are.” Raven Feather said in a grimly sinister tone while pointing her hoof at the boy’s chest. She channeled as much shadow energy as she could before firing a large blast of energy at the human. “Tom!” Celestia yelled in a distraught tone as she watched the human getting blown into the air. Tom screamed in agony as his body flew across the room and smacked into the right wall. After settling into place from his brief flight, the human remained still and lifeless. “Tom?! Tom, are you ok?!” Celestia pleaded desperately while watching the human for any sign of movement. She couldn’t even see any sign that he was breathing. For all intents and purposes, he looked dead. “Hahhaha… looks like Equestria’s hero wasn’t much of a problem after all.” Raven Feather said with an impish smirk. “Holy hell Raven Feather, that was awesome! You wiped the floor with him!” Raincloud said in an impressed tone while watching the black mare walk up to the human. Raven Feather slapped him across the face a few times to ensure that he wasn’t just playing possum. Satisfied that her job was done, she smirked and walked back over to the stairs. “I told you I could handle myself.” Raven Feather said with a joyful chuckle. “I can’t believe you did that... He didn’t deserve that!” Celestia said in a distraught tone while glaring at the black mare. Raven Feather glared back at the alicorn with an expression of contempt on her face. She reached forward and stepped on the burn on the princess’s leg, eliciting a cry of pain from her as she put pressure on it. “Lighten up will you? You should be worrying about yourself right now, not about him.” Raven Feather said in a cold tone. Suddenly, the sound of the door opening drew everyone’s attention to the front of the room. They saw Dust Kicker walking inside with a group of ponies in hoods behind him. The other ponies were all carrying books and bags that were more than likely full of occult supplies. After a small group of assorted workers came through the door, Shadow Mist limped through while being helped along by Grimwood and another worker. The red stallion looked like he was in pain, but otherwise he looked alright considering he was missing a limb and an eye. “Holy crap… what did I miss?” Dust Kicker asked while looking around the room. Between the alicorn in chains and the human slumped against the far wall, it looked like there had been a full scale war in the room since he left. “Nothing much… just Raven Feather kicking ass and taking names.” Raincloud explained with a pleased smirk while looking to her brother. “Ah, Dust Kicker… I assume everything is moving along smoothly then?” Raven Feather asked while walking up to the brown stallion. “There are darklings all over the castle and the town. Any guards in the city will have their hooves full for a long time trying to sort that mess out.” Dust Kicker reported with a confident tone. “Very good… in that case, we can start making preparations for the ritual.” Raven Feather said with a pleased smile before turning to the hooded workers around the entrance. “Start moving the equipment into the throne room. That place should be big enough to let us work.” She instructed while pointing up the stairs. The hooded ponies nodded before making their way across the room. “I’ll go with them to take care of any guards we run into.” Dust Kicker stated while walking to follow the workers up the stairs. “What are we going to do about her?” Raincloud asked while looking to the princess. “You can take her with us… just try not to be too rough. I wouldn’t want the princess to get hurt on my watch after all.” Raven Feather said with a sinister smirk. “Oh trust me. I’ll be as gentle as possible with her.” Raincloud said with a fake tone of sincerity. The pale mare picked up the alicorn, much to her protest, and held her arm roughly while moving her forward up the stairs. Raven Feather turned and walked over to her brother and Shadow Mist. She frowned slightly as she looked at the stallion’s injuries and the young colt tending to him. Grimwood didn’t show it outwardly very often, but he felt concern for those closest to him. “How are you doing Shadow Mist?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “I’ve had better days… I think my wound is starting to hurt less though.” Shadow Mist said in a reassuring tone. Despite his words it was obvious to see that he was in a great deal of pain still. “We can look for a spell to help you out somehow after all of this is done. Just sit tight and try to ignore the pain.” Raven Feather said in a sympathetic tone. “Take care of him for me Grim… ok?” She asked while turning to her sibling. “I’ll do my best.” Grimwood said in a sincere tone while glancing to the red stallion. Raven Feather turned to look at the group at the top of the stairs. Raincloud had paused to wait for Shadow Mist to make it across the room. She held Celestia at arm’s length while watching the black mare escort her brother and the red stallion up the stairs. The black mare walked over to the broken katana on the ground. She paused for a moment before picking up the smaller half that had the handle on it with her shadow magic. After levitating it up to her side, she smiled with a pleased expression. “I think I’ll take this as a souvenir.” Raven Feather said with a slight chuckle. She then walked towards the stairs to join her colleagues in heading to the throne room. Celestia took one last glance over to the lifeless human downstairs with a saddened expression. She only hoped that Raven Feather and her group could be stopped before any more suffering was inflicted on the innocent.
Chapter 93: City Under SiegeTwilight and her small troop rushed through the winding corridors of the castle. The normally quiet and relatively empty halls were hard enough to navigate on a good day, but now that there was panic in the streets outside, monsters roaming freely, and guards running to and fro in an uncoordinated rush, it was much harder to get around. “Are you sure we should just leave while the castle is under attack?” Rainbow Dash asked in an uneasy tone while looking ahead to the purple unicorn leading the group. “We need to go get the others first. We’ll have a better chance with higher numbers.” Twilight replied while looking around to make sure she was running in the right direction. “Ah don’t disagree with you Twilight, but Rainbow Dash has a point. The princess might be in danger. Those jerks have made it clear that they aren’t here for small talk.” Applejack said with a concerned tone. Twilight paused for a moment and looked back at her friends anxiously. She had her doubts about why she wasn’t charging headfirst into battle to assist the princess as well. Still, she had to think logically and do her best to help the human, and right now that meant following his suggestions. “Tom knows what he’s doing. Between him and the princess, they should be able to hold their own until we get back.” Twilight said in what she hoped would be a confident tone. “We still have to worry about getting to the others… they are a fair ways away from us… and there are darklings everywhere… and…” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off nervously as she thought more about what she was getting herself into. Her pupils shrank and she nearly locked up as she pictured encountering more of the vicious creatures. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll be fine.” Twilight said in a reassuring manner. A sudden growling noise from around the corner up ahead made the ponies freeze instantly. The hair on the back of their necks stood on end as they recognized the owner of the feral noise. Twilight silently motioned for everyone to follow her as she crouched down and hugged the wall. Seeing that she would have to make the first move, the purple mare gulped nervously and inched forward to poke her head around the corner. As she had feared, she was greeted with the sight of two darklings slowly walking around the hallway and sniffing their surroundings. Once she saw the two beasts turning in her direction, she frantically ducked back around the corner and covered her mouth to keep herself silent. “How many of them?” Rainbow Dash asked silently. She didn’t need to ask what was around the corner to know that only one creature could make that noise. At least she hoped that only one creature was capable of producing such a frightful sound. “There’s two… I don’t think they know we’re here.” Twilight said nervously while eyeing back towards the corner. “How long will that last? Those things can probably smell our fear.” Rainbow Dash stated in an anxious tone while looking around at her friends. Between the six of them, their combined heartbeats were probably loud enough to be heard by the two monsters. “How did they get in here?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously. “They must have been summoned in here… there’s no way that so many of them could just pop up in the city without outside help.” Rainbow Dash reasoned in an uneasy tone. “Girls… I think we’re avoiding the elephant in the room here. We need to… *gulp*… get past them.” Twilight stated in a fearful manner while glancing behind her nervously. Every stray noise the two creatures made only increased her paranoia and fear that they knew where the group was. “W-what?” Fluttershy asked in a jittery tone. She almost thought she misheard the unicorn, and that she just said that they would have to confront the pair of terrifying monsters, but as she looked around at the shocked expressions of her friends, she realized that she heard her perfectly. “Why don’t we just go find another way out of the castle? We don’t need to go this way… do we?” Rarity asked in an uncertain tone. She looked to the purple mare with a nervous expression as she realized that she wasn’t kidding around. “There are probably more of them out by the front entrance. It will be safer if we go out the back… and to do that we need to deal with these two.” Twilight explained in what she hoped would be a confident tone. Her confidence faded as she mentioned the two deadly creatures that she was trying to ignore. “Yeah, I feel really safe here with the two shadow creatures that are pretty much walking mouths full of sharp teeth.” Rainbow Dash said in a cynical tone while glaring at the purple mare slightly. “Look… I don’t want to do this anymore than you do, but sooner or later we’re going to run into some of them. I would rather deal with a pair that I can see than one that will sneak up on us.” Twilight reasoned in an understanding manner in an attempt at getting the cooperation of her friends. “Ok… so how do we even do this? I left my battle axe at home, and I don’t suppose the princess taught you any spells to combat evil spawns of the netherworld.” Rainbow Dash asked in an anxious tone. “I don’t know… I guess Rarity and I can hold them with our magic and use some kind of spell to destroy them.” Twilight suggested nervously while looking to the white unicorn for support. “You want me to touch that thing? I’ll do anything to help darling, but that is asking a bit much.” Rarity protested in a squeamish tone. “Using your magic is hardly touching it Rarity… Just have my back if things go sour.” Twilight said with a defeated shrug. “Uh… girls?” Pinkie asked in a nervous tone, eliciting a confused response from the others. “What is it Pinkie?” Twilight asked curiously while turning to face the pink mare. “Why did they stop growling?” Pinkie asked with a slightly unnerved expression. The sudden question made everyone turn their attention to the odd silence in the air. They couldn’t hear the creatures growling, breathing, or making any other sort of noise. Twilight moved closer to the corner as silently as she could. After a moment of hesitation, she poked her head out to look for the two creatures. As soon as she looked around the corner, she was met with two gaping mouths full of teeth staring back at her from only a few inches away. “AH!” Twilight screamed fearfully as the creatures roared in unison. Before she could turn to backpedal, one of the beasts leapt forward and tackled her to the ground. The only thing she could do was shove her hooves on the darkling’s chest to keep it from getting within biting range. “Twilight!” Everyone yelled in unison as they saw their friend getting attacked by the vicious creature. Their concern shifted to fear as they noticed the second monster turning to face them. Throwing caution to the wind for the sake of her friend, Applejack rushed forward and turned around. She kicked her back legs out as hard as she could and knocked the darkling off of the pinned unicorn. Once she grabbed the still stunned mare, she simultaneously dragged her away from the monsters and helped her get to her feet. “What do we do?! We have nothing to use!” Rainbow Dash stated in a panic while backing away from the approaching monsters. Before anyone could think of a reply, the darklings jumped forward towards the ponies. “AHH!” Everyone screamed fearfully while scrambling to get away from the airborne creatures. Just before the pair of monsters landed and mauled the helpless group, Rarity lit up her horn and frantically wrapped her magic around one. Twilight quickly followed her example and wrapped her magic around the other one. The two mares barely managed to levitate the darklings and back them away slightly. The two creatures snarled and barked like wild dogs as they struggled to break free of their floating prisons. The white unicorn seemed to be having trouble with keeping her darkling contained with her magic. She had sweat rolling down her forehead and her horn was sparking. Twilight wasn’t faring much better. Even with her years of experience in magic, the shadow creature was proving to be difficult to handle. It was like some unseen force was making the two beasts far stronger than they should have been. Twilight paled as she suddenly realized that these darklings must have been channeling the shadow energy in their bodies to counteract the magical auras they were in. “Twilight, do something! I can’t hold it much longer!” Rarity pleaded in a desperate tone. Twilight’s mind raced as she looked back and forth between Rarity and the two creatures. She had to think of some way to destroy them, but she was running out of time. If the darklings got free again, they might not get a second chance at capturing them. “Uh… uh…” Twilight muttered while trying to think of a spell to use. Finally she settled on the only thing she could really do offensively. She fought through the strain she was feeling and charged up a magical blast of energy which she promptly fired at the first creature. Much to everyone’s joy, the bolt of purple light flew into the darkling and blew a small hole in it. The beast let out a shrill yelp of pain before fading into black smoke. Twilight wasted no time and charged up another blast. After a few moments, she shot at the remaining monster and reduced it to smoke as well. Rarity breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the weight being removed from her magic. She smiled cheerfully as she realized that she and her friends had just survived a run in with a pair of vicious shadow creatures. Not only did they survive, but they destroyed the beasts themselves with no outside assistance. “Way to go guys! I thought we were goners for a second there.” Rainbow Dash cheered in a relieved tone. “I’m glad none of us got hurt… Now let’s get moving before more of them show up.” Twilight suggested while motioning forward with her head. Everyone nodded in agreement before following the purple mare down the corridor. The six ponies continued making their way through the castle. All the while they could hear shouts from guards and the distant roars and growls of more darklings. They only hoped that they could steer clear from any more monsters, and that they could get back with help in time to save as many people as possible. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of sneaking around hallways and fearfully listening for any sign that a bloodthirsty monster was nearby, the group reached one of the side entrances to the castle. Twilight hesitantly opened the door and peered outside. Judging from the lush hedges and flowers that covered everything she could see, the unicorn gathered that she had found a way out into the garden. “Ok… looks like we’re in the garden. We should have a straight shot to the hotel where Glimmer Shine and the others are staying, but we will be out in the open.” Twilight said in a cautious tone. “What happens if we run into more darklings?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously while looking around and listening to the muffled screams and roars coming from the distance. “Just stay low and stick together. Hopefully we won’t need to run into any more of them.” Twilight replied in an uneasy attempt at reassuring her friends. It was hard to appear confident when she was just as terrified as the five mares around her. With a hesitant nod, the group followed their unicorn leader out into the garden. Normally such an opportunity would be awe inspiring for all of the ponies, most of all Fluttershy, but any animals that used to inhabit the garden either scattered when the darklings first showed up or they were in hiding. Twilight and the others kept low to the ground and used cover wherever possible to keep as hidden as they could while they moved across the garden. Every few steps they would pause and dart their heads around. Having six people trying to sneak around had its disadvantages, but they at least had multiple pairs of eyes scanning their surroundings for threats. After clinging to a hedge at the far side of the garden, Twilight slowly poked her head out to see where they were. She smiled slightly as she saw that they were at the edge of the castle grounds. All they had to do was hop over a small wall to get to the city. As she noticed the chaos and peril that waited in the streets beyond however, the unicorn’s smile faded into a shocked and afraid expression. There were darklings dotted around the various streets and buildings as far as the eye could see. Thankfully it seemed that most of the citizens of Canterlot had locked themselves inside the nearest building they could find. However, a few trails and splashes of blood along the ground in places was enough to make an uneasy knot form in the unicorn’s stomach. “How does it look out there?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously, drawing the purple mare’s attention to her friends crouched low to the ground beside her. They seemed eager and anxious to know what was waiting for them beyond the hedge they were clinging to for safety. “They’ve overrun the city from the looks of it.” Twilight reported while lowering herself back down and looking to her five companions uneasily. “What about the guards? Shouldn’t they be taking care of this?” Rarity asked in a nervous tone. “I don’t think they can handle this many darklings… They need someone to tell them what’s going on so they can focus their efforts.” Twilight stated in a frustrated manner. “Isn’t that usually what the princess does?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically. Twilight groaned in a distraught tone before putting a hoof on her face. She couldn’t believe that she was thrust into the middle of such a terrible situation. “The hooded ponies definitely knew what they were doing. The guards wouldn’t have a chance to even interfere with their plans if there weren’t enough of them organized. If only my brother were here… he would know what to do.” Twilight sighed in an upset tone. “That’s why we need to go get Glimmer Shine and the others. They can go and get help while we do what we can here.” Applejack suggested in a reassuring manner. “Right… right.” Twilight nodded while cringing and removing the heavy strain of trying to figure out what to do from her head. She had a plan of action that would make a lot of progress towards beating the hooded ponies, overstressing her mind trying to think of a perfect plan that would take care of everything at once would just hinder her. “We can do this… just take it one step at a time.” Rarity reminded the group to keep cool heads and not let their fear get the best of them. “And our first step is getting to the others… Come on, let’s go.” Twilight instructed while hopping over the hedge. Everyone nodded before cautiously following the purple mare. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Celestia was still at the mercy of her captors. Raven Feather and her band of followers marched through her once secure home and made their way towards the throne room, all the while making the alicorn follow them against her will. Raincloud walked next to the princess and shoved her along every time she paused to try and look around. The hoof cuffs binding her front legs together made it nearly impossible to walk, but the pale pegasus was giving her no other alternatives. All Celestia could do was silently follow her captors while hoping that nobody else would get hurt. Finally, the group arrived in the throne room and headed inside. There were already hooded workers arranging their supplies and preparing the room for whatever twisted purpose Raven Feather had in mind. Celestia gasped in quiet horror as she noticed Dust Kicker overseeing a few darklings that were dragging bloodied corpses of guards out of the room. “Ah… here we are. This will do nicely for the ritual.” Raven Feather said in an impressed tone while looking around. “Should I start working on the symbols?” Raincloud asked curiously while shoving Celestia against a wall and leaving her to take a seated position. “Yes, but get a crew to help you. I want to be finished here before the guards outside stop running around aimlessly and actually start banding together.” Raven Feather said in a serious tone. Raincloud nodded before walking over to a group of hoods to acquire their assistance. While the pale pegasus started work on drawing the symbols needed for the ritual, Raven Feather walked around the throne room and imagined her future as ruler of Equestria. “I wonder what I’ll do with all of the free time I’ll have once I have everyone in Equestria under my hoof.” The black mare pondered out loud while wandering to and fro. “You can fantasize all you want, but you won’t succeed.” Celestia said with a harsh glare at the green eyed pony. “Oh… is that so?” Raven Feather asked with an amused chuckle while walking up to the trapped alicorn. “Even if you somehow found a way to trigger this so called eternal night, you will be stopped.” Celestia said in a confident tone. “And who is going to stop me? Your dear sister and your pet slayer are dead, princess amore and her lover boy are miles away, and there is no way in hell that student of yours and her friends are going to stop us.” Raven Feather said in a mocking tone. “Don’t underestimate the elements of harmony. They have been the downfall of many people like you.” Celestia said in an irritated tone. “Oh trust me… I have no intentions of underestimating the power of the elements… the element wielders however are of no concern to me, especially when I take their precious toys and hide them as far away as I can.” Raven Feather said with a sinister smirk. “What…? You can’t possibly expect to steal the elements. They have enough protective spells placed on them to keep even myself and my sister out if we tried to break in.” Celestia said in a shocked tone. The black mare merely chuckled at the notion that a few magical spells could keep her out. “That’s where you’re mistaken Celestia. I created a spell to get past your defenses a long time ago. I already have some workers going to retrieve the elements as we speak.” Raven Feather said in a pleased tone. While the black mare chuckled with a smirk on her face, two hooded ponies entered the room in a hurry. They had urgent expressions on their faces as they walked across the room to make it to their leader. “Miss Raven Feather!” The two ponies exclaimed in unison. “What is it? Did you hide the elements like I asked?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “No… when we opened the secret panel where the elements are kept, they were gone!” One of the hoods explained in an uneasy tone. “What?! How is that possible?! Did Twilight Sparkle and her friends take them?” Raven Feather asked in an angered tone. “We don’t think so… our scouts saw them leaving the castle, and they didn’t have the elements with them.” The pair explained in a nervous tone while cowering before the black mare. They expected her to lash out at them, but instead she internalized her anger and walked over to the chained alicorn with a livid expression. “Where did you take the elements?!” Raven Feather demanded while grabbing the princess by her chest and pulling her close. “What are you talking about?” Celestia asked in a confused tone. “The elements aren’t in their resting place, and your student doesn’t have them. Did you know we were coming? What did you do?!” Raven Feather asked in an upset tone. “The elements are gone? How is that possible…? There are only a select number of people that can even open that alcove.” Celestia stated in a bewildered tone. “You… didn’t take them?” Raven Feather asked in a confused tone. Judging from the equal confusion on the alicorn’s face, she was telling the truth. “Grr…” Raven Feather growled angrily while letting the princess go. She walked over to the pale pegasus in the middle of the room that was working on drawing a large symbol on the floor. “Raincloud… I need you and Dust Kicker to go in the next room and keep watch for Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The elements of harmony are unaccounted for.” Raven Feather instructed in an uneasy tone. “What… but what about the ritual?” Raincloud asked curiously. Even though there were a lot of hooded workers assigned to working on the symbol and spells needed for the ritual, a more experienced magic user was needed to put the pieces together. “I will make preparations myself. I can’t have them interfering with us now that we don’t have their trump card in check. I want them dead… and I want them dead as soon as they step through that door.” Raven Feather explained while pointing out of the room. “Alright, we can handle it.” Raincloud nodded before turning to her brother across the room. “Come on Dust, we have a new job to do.” She explained while motioning for the brown stallion to follow her. Dust Kicker dropped what he was doing and followed his sibling as she walked out of the room. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist and Grimwood were watching Raven Feather as she rushed to finish preparations. She seemed to have a new sense of urgency about her as she scribbled the large symbol on the floor. They shared a concerned glance with each other as they realized that things just got harder for them as well. With the elements of harmony missing, their plan could very well shrivel up along with Raven Feather’s. Twilight and the others carefully made their way through the streets of Canterlot on their way to get help. They had to stick to back alleys and other detours just to avoid the many darklings that were prowling the streets. Despite how careful they were, they still had several tense moments where one of the beasts looked their way or got too close for comfort. The thought of one of the monsters spotting them and alerting the rest to their presence was enough to terrify the six mares. If they didn’t keep under the radar, they would have been ripped to pieces. As Twilight poked her head around the corner of the building she was leaning against, she finally saw her goal across the next street. The hotel that Glimmer Shine and the others were staying in was just a short walk across the street away. “We’re here!” Twilight exclaimed in an eager yet quiet tone to her friends. Although the others were excited, they were still nervous about their surroundings. “Are there any darklings around?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. Twilight looked back around the corner and scanned her eyes around. As her eyes shifted to the distance, the purple mare noticed two of the creatures further down the street. Although they were far away from the hotel, their mere presence was enough to send a chill down the unicorn’s spine. “There’s two of them, but it looks like they are a ways away.” Twilight stated uneasily. “Ugh… what if they see us?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “Do they even have eyes? All I see on them is that big mouth of theirs.” Rainbow Dash stated curiously. “Well, I don’t think that stopped them from chasing us before. Even if they see by tasting the air, that doesn’t help us in the slightest.” Twilight shrugged in a disheartened tone. “Looks like we’re just going to have to sneak by and hope they don’t notice us. Come on, let’s go.” She said while motioning for the others to follow her. The ponies carefully started walking towards the hotel. They kept as low to the ground as they could while running silently towards their destination. All the while they were darting their eyes to the two creatures in the distance, fearful that they would start bolting towards them at any moment. Much to everyone’s surprise, they made it across the street without being noticed by the two beasts. Twilight quickly threw open the door and ushered her friends inside. Everyone flooded into the lobby of the hotel and closed the door behind them. The room was completely silent other than the muffled sounds coming from outside. There was no one behind the front desk, and nobody up the stairway to the left or in the door to the right. It was like everyone had run away when the darklings started to attack. “Where is everyone?” Fluttershy asked uneasily. “They probably ran or hid when they saw what was going on. I just hope Glimmer Shine and the others are still here.” Twilight stated with a hint of concern in her voice. “Only one way to find out… let’s head upstairs and look for them.” Applejack said while glancing to the stairs. If she remembered correct, the trio was staying on the second floor. Everyone nodded in agreement before heading towards the stairs. They only hoped that they would find the team in the hotel somewhere. If they didn’t, they would be forced to look for them around town with all of the darklings still running rampant. Suddenly, the group heard a deep growl coming from the stairs. They froze up fearfully and started to back away slowly as they realized what the sound belonged to. “What is one of them doing in here?!” Rainbow Dash whispered in a panic. “They must have broken in somehow.” Twilight explained nervously. Before they could think of something to do, the ponies saw a dark shape appearing at the top of the stairs. Before long, the angry growls of the beast got louder as it started walking down towards the six mares. “Twilight… what do we do?” Fluttershy asked in a timid voice while backing away from the frightening creature. “Everyone follow me… we’re going to go in that door, and close it behind us. Just move slowly, and keep facing towards it.” Twilight explained in a calm tone. Suddenly, another distinct growl rose up from the side of the ponies. Everyone looked to the side to see two more of the creatures stalking out of the open door they were looking to for an escape route. With their plan and their odds of survival sinking fast, everyone became much more fearful of their situation. “Which one do we face?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a franticly sarcastic tone. “We can’t hold all three of them with our magic Twilight. I know you’re good, but just holding one of them was unbearable.” Rarity stated in a nervous tone while turning to her purple companion. Twilight could feel herself sweating as she glanced between her friends and the approaching monsters. She looked outside to the only escape route they had left. If they ran out with the other monsters chasing them, every darkling in the city would be on top of them in no time. “We can’t go back out there… if we make too much noise these three will be the least of our problems.” Twilight said uneasily. “Well right now they look like our biggest problem from where I’m standing!” Rainbow Dash stated anxiously. Twilight lit up her horn and stood fast against the three creatures. If she could charge up a powerful enough attack to destroy the first two beasts in time, the third one would be on top of her before she could react. No matter how she sliced it, one of the monsters would be free to attack her or her friends while she and Rarity dealt with the second one. “Ah think we can hold off the third one while you deal with those two.” Applejack said while looking to Rainbow Dash for support. The cyan mare seemed eager to defend her friends, but she was still nervous about fighting the shadow creatures. “No… I can’t let you do that. You two might get hurt before we can help.” Twilight said uneasily. “We’re running out of time Twilight! We need to do something!” Rainbow Dash said in an urgent tone. The ponies were already backed up as far as they could go, and the creatures were getting closer. Finally, the darkling that came from upstairs let out a fierce snarl as it leapt forward. Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed to get in between the leaping monster and their friends. The cyan mare jumped up and used her wings to give her a boost as she knocked into the darkling from the side. As soon as they saw that the fight was starting, the other two darklings rushed forward. They charged straight for the two ponies struggling with their friend. Applejack cringed as she saw the two monsters charging at her. She had her hooves full with making sure the third monster didn’t lash out at Rainbow Dash while she held it down. “Girls!” Twilight exclaimed fearfully while stepping forward. She concentrated on one of the beasts, enveloping it in a magical aura and holding it back. Rarity stepped forward and trapped the other monster. The two unicorns strained to keep the struggling beasts captive. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash screamed as the darkling on the floor used its front leg to swipe across her face. The beast’s claws raked across her face, leaving a deep wound that burned like crazy and spurted out blood. Despite the pegasus’s best efforts at keeping the creature on the ground, it kicked her off with a frightening display of strength. “Rainbow Dash!” Applejack exclaimed fearfully as she saw the cyan pony reeling from her short flight backwards. Now that the creature was free, it sized up the orange mare and stared at her like a fox would stare at a defenseless chicken. Meanwhile, Twilight and Rarity were still struggling with their respective darklings. Twilight glanced over to her two friends fighting the third beast and widened her eyes as she realized they were losing. She quickly charged up her horn and fired a blast at the monster she was holding. Before the blast could hit its mark, the darkling violently jerked itself downward. The sudden strain on the purple mare’s magic made her cry out in pain as the monster was freed from her grasp. Once the beast was free, it went straight for the two unicorns that were causing it so much grief. “AHH!” Twilight and Rarity screamed as they saw the darkling jumping for them. They tried to back up, but it was far too late to be able to do anything. *ZAP* Suddenly, a bolt of light crashed into the darkling jumping for the helpless ponies. The creature roared in agony before vanishing in a puff of black smoke. Another series of magical bursts sounded out as the two remaining darklings were gunned down like the first one. Everyone looked up in a confused state as they examined themselves to check if they were still alive. Rainbow Dash still had her bleeding cuts on her face, and Applejack was a little roughed up by the creature she was fighting, but otherwise the ponies were completely unharmed. “W-what the…?” Twilight muttered in shock while looking around for the source of her rescue. She then noticed Sunspot, Glimmer Shine, and Glitterball standing on the stairs while holding their still smoking strobes out in front of them. “Why do you always have a monster trying to maul you to death every time we see you?” Sunspot asked with a slight smirk while lowering her strobe. “Boy am I glad to see you guys.” Rainbow Dash said in a relieved tone while getting up from the floor. She winced in pain as she clutched her face tenderly. The sight of blood dripping from the cyan mare’s hoof made the others frown with concern. “Are you guys ok?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone while examining the rest of the group for injuries. “We would be a lot worse off if you didn’t show up when you did.” Twilight said with a grateful tone before turning to her injured friend. “Are you ok Rainbow Dash? Those cuts look really bad.” She said in a sympathetic manner while walking up to the pegasus. Rainbow Dash moved her hoof away while the unicorn gently examined her injury in the light. “For what it’s worth, they feel really bad too.” Rainbow Dash said while cringing painfully. “Here, let me see if I can help.” Glitterball said while trotting up to the pegasus and examining her wounds closely. They looked jagged and deeper than they actually were, but she should have had no problems with healing them with her magic. “So what are you girls doing here? I assume it has something to do with the fact that the city is crawling with darklings now.” Glimmer Shine said in a droll tone. “Yes… that’s right.” Twilight said while looking down in a disheartened manner. “The hooded ponies are attacking the castle as we speak. There are even more darklings out in the city… they are probably using them as a distraction.” She explained uneasily. “What?! They’re attacking the castle right now?! Well let’s get over there!” Sunspot said in a frantic tone. “Tom and the princess are handling things right now, but they need help. We need you guys to find a way to signal for reinforcements.” Twilight explained in a desperate tone. “You guys were royal guard at one point… isn’t there some kind of emergency protocol or something for these situations?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. She winced slightly as Glitterball cleaned her wound. “There are some telegraphs and other methods for calling guard stations in other towns, but help would have already arrived if they were used.” Glimmer Shine explained in a confused tone. “The hooded ponies seem to know what they’re doing… maybe they sent darklings or something else to stop guards from calling for help.” Twilight suggested in a disheartened tone. “Well… there is a signal fire in one of the towers on the edge of town.” Glitter said while recalling from memory her training on emergency procedures. “Will that get enough guards here to do anything meaningful?” Twilight asked curiously. “Yeah… all of the nearby towns will see it and call for help using their equipment. We will have enough pony power here to fight an army of darklings in an hour or so.” Glimmer Shine said in a confident tone. “That’s great! You guys can go light the signal fire while we head back to the castle and help the princess.” Twilight stated eagerly. Glimmer Shine and the others frowned slightly as they saw how eager the six mares were to go fight the hooded ponies. “Twilight… I really think you should stay here and wait until things blow over. We can put a protective charm on our room upstairs and you guys can wait until we get back.” Glimmer Shine said in a concerned tone. Twilight frowned slightly as her plans were shot down again by the yellow stallion and his team. She couldn’t really blame them. After all, it was part of their job to worry about her and her friends. Still, she couldn’t just let them argue with her over something like this when they were short enough on time as is. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head about what she could do to avoid a lengthy argument with the three ponies. “Alright… fine. You guys win.” Twilight said while sounding as disappointed as she could. “We do…?” Glimmer Shine asked in a confused tone. He expected more resistance from the purple mare and her friends over staying out of danger. “Yeah… we can’t keep risking our lives like this. We aren’t prepared for fighting like this, so we should just let you guys take care of things.” Twilight said with a disheartened shrug. “What?! Are you out of your mind Twilight?! We can’t just do nothing while they-” Rainbow Dash protested angrily, until she received a forceful nudge on the side from Rarity. Once she took a moment to think, she realized what her friends were doing. “Rainbow Dash… I would normally agree with you, but I have a family to go home to. Sweetie Belle would be heartbroken if she heard that her sister got killed doing something stupid like fighting the hooded ponies by herself.” Rarity said in her best heartfelt tone while secretly giving the pegasus a suggestive look with her eyes. “Grr… fine, you guys win. I’ll stay… but I don’t have to like it.” Rainbow Dash said while folding her arms in an upset manner. “I’m glad to hear that. We should be back with help soon, so you won’t have to wait long. Come on, let’s get you somewhere safe.” Glimmer Shine said while motioning for the group to follow him. Everyone nodded before following the stallion upstairs. After a short walk to the room that the three ponies were sharing, Twilight and the others stepped inside and watched as the trio prepared a protective charm to place on the door. Once the charm was in place, Glimmer Shine and his two teammates stood outside and prepared to leave. “We’ll be back before you know it. Try to stay out of trouble while we’re gone.” Glimmer Shine said in a sincere tone. “We’ll do our best.” Twilight said while flashing a brief smile. Everyone waved to the three ponies as they closed the door and walked away. After waiting a few minutes to ensure the trio was gone, the purple mare turned to her small band of friends with a determined expression. “Alright… now we can go help Tom and the princess.” Twilight said in an eager tone. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Rainbow Dash said in an excited tone. Before the group gathered around the door to leave, something out of the corner of her eye caught Pinkie’s attention. She walked over to one of the three beds in the room and noticed a small leather carrying case with three vials placed in holsters. The vials held blue liquid inside and had a pointed tip on one end of its case, which made it easily identifiable as a strobe. “Hey guys, check this out.” Pinkie said eagerly. Everyone looked over to see the pink mare holding up one of the vials to examine it. “Nice find Pinkie… these must be their spare strobes.” Twilight said in an impressed tone. “Those might come in handy.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a slight smirk. “Are you sure they would want us to take these?” Fluttershy asked in an uneasy tone. “Well… if they knew we were sneaking out to go fight those guys, they would probably want us to be well equipped wouldn’t they?” Rainbow Dash said in a witty tone. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’re only borrowing them. We need all the help we can get, and these should make it easier to get back to the castle.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. She levitated the other two vials out of the satchel and gave them to Applejack and Fluttershy. “Too bad there are only three of them… I wouldn’t mind shooting some holes in those darklings.” Rainbow Dash said in a disappointed tone. “You can take mine if you want.” Pinkie offered while holding her vial out to the pegasus. The cyan mare gently pushed the vial away with a heartfelt expression. “That’s ok Pinkie, I can manage on my own. I want you guys to be as safe as possible.” Rainbow Dash said in a friendly tone. “Yeah, we need to divide our equipment as evenly as possible. Rarity and I have our magic, and Rainbow has her flying skills, so you three should take the strobes.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “Thanks girls, Ah appreciate it. Now, let’s go kick some tail shall we?” Applejack suggested with a smirk. Everyone nodded before heading towards the door. The six mares quickly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. After making their way through the building and keeping an eye out for Glimmer Shine and the others, they headed back out into the streets of Canterlot. They had one clear goal in mind as they started their way towards the castle, and that was to put a stop to the hooded ponies once and for all.
Chapter 94: Fighting BackGlimmer Shine and his two companions diligently scanned their eyes around as they walked down the street. The trio kept their strobes at the ready in preparation to blast anything that wasn’t a pony to smithereens. Aside from the stray howl of a pack of darklings in the distance, the streets were mostly clear. In fact, it was a little bit too clear and devoid of life. “I don’t like this… it’s way too peaceful out here.” Sunspot said in an uneasy tone while slowly looking around in a paranoid state. “It shouldn’t be much further. Let’s just keep moving and stay low for as long as we can.” Glimmer Shine said in a reassuring tone. Despite his attempts at lightening the tension felt by his companions, the yellow stallion was just as paranoid about what could be lurking in the shadows around every corner. “Do you really think they are going to do it?” Glitterball asked nervously. “What, take over Canterlot? I think that ship has sailed already.” Sunspot said in a nervously droll tone while taking note of the distant sounds of screams and snarls around her. “*Sigh* No… I mean the eternal night. Do you really think it exists?” Glitterball said to clarify. “Well if it does exist, I can only hope those nut jobs don’t get the chance to start it.” Sunspot replied uneasily. “Then we better hurry up and light that signal fire. The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can go help the princess and Tom.” Glimmer Shine said in a determined tone. The reminder of their grim situation only made the two mares more anxious to get to the tower and finish their task as soon as possible. Taking a quick glance down to the locator vial secured to her vest, Glitterball saw that the liquid inside was completely aglow with faint blue light. The reading offered little more than the knowledge that there were evil creatures all around her, but the unicorn and her teammates were already well aware of that fact. Suddenly, the group noticed a tower coming into view in the distance. It was hard to tell from the ground, but there seemed to be an open area near the top where a signal fire could be positioned. Regardless, the sight of the tower greatly raised the spirits of the three ponies. “Looks like we made it.” Glimmer Shine said in a relieved tone. “And it looks like we aren’t the only ones.” Sunspot stated uneasily while pointing at the building at the base of the tower. There were numerous black shapes swarming near the entrance to the small building, and they didn’t look like they were leaving any time soon. “Think we can take them?” Glitterball asked curiously while keeping her strobe ready. “I don’t think we have a choice.” Glimmer Shine said in a more alarmed tone while looking behind the group. The two mares beside him were confused about why he was so distracted and alert. “What’s wrong?” Sunspot asked in a puzzled tone while turning around to see what was holding the stallion’s attention. As soon as she turned around, she widened her eyes in shock at what she saw. Darklings were walking out onto the street from around the many buildings and side alleys dotted around. The beasts were snarling and growling viciously while keeping their attention squarely fixed on the three ponies. They were all bearing their teeth and dribbling from their large maws, creating a disconcerting sight to behold. “Oh crud…” Sunspot muttered in shock. “I guess we found out where the rest of them went.” Glimmer Shine said in an uneasy tone while sizing up the many creatures approaching in the distance. “W-what do we do?” Glitterball asked nervously while backing up in fright. “Run for the building down there! There are way less to deal with!” Glimmer Shine yelled before running down the street. Sunspot and Glitterball quickly followed the yellow stallion. A loud collection of roars and barks sounded out behind them, confirming their fear that the pack of monsters was chasing after them. As they drew closer to the building at the end of the street, the darklings at the front of the building turned their heads to look at the ponies and the horde of monsters behind them. Sunspot fired her strobe at the left side of the group before they started running forward, catching two of them in the head and destroying them. Glitterball and Glimmer Shine followed suit and opened fire on the crowd of darklings. Due to the relatively lower numbers of the group in front of the building, the three ponies were able to easily destroy them all in a few moments of continuous fire. Taking a glance behind him to check on the progress of the horde, Glimmer Shine was surprised to see that even more darklings had joined the chase. From appearances, it seemed like every darkling in the city had been attracted by the noise of the army of creatures running after the ponies. Finally, the trio reached the building and rushed up to the door. As they looked behind them to see a wall of shadow creatures barreling towards them, they were overcome by an intense feeling of panic and fear. “Get inside! There is no way we can fight that many of them!” Glitterball said while rushing to the door and grabbing the handle. Much to the unicorn’s relief, the handle turned easily and the door popped open. Once her two teammates rushed inside, the white mare ran in after them and closed it behind her. “That door won’t hold them for long.” Glimmer Shine said nervously. “Crap… What are we going to do?! The protective charm doesn’t work on doors leading outside!” Sunspot stated in a panic. “Ugh… stupid spells and their limitations! Remind me to work on that charm if we make it out of this alive!” Glitterball said in an annoyed tone. “Let’s focus on making it out alive first. Follow me!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed while rushing forward into the building. The two mares wasted no time in following the stallion. The building they were in looked like a guard post of sorts. There were banners with the royal emblem emblazoned on them along with depictions of the three races of ponies scattered along the walls. There was a desk at the back of the room with a door to the right of it. Spotting no other exits aside from a hallway that led further into the building, the trio ran straight for the door and rushed inside. Taking a look around, the three ponies spotted a small gathering of guards in the back of the room. There were two pegasus’s, a unicorn, and an earth pony. Each of them had tense and uneasy expressions on their faces, which was understandable considering the number of monsters outside. “Oh… it’s you monster hunters.” The unicorn guard said with a relieved tone of voice. “We thought you were one of those things breaking in.” One of the pegasus’s added. “Glitter, set up a protective charm before those things actually do break in.” Glimmer Shine instructed while glancing to the door uneasily. “Already on it.” Glitterball stated while scribbling away at a piece of paper. “What are we going to do? Aren’t you guys supposed to be the experts on this kind of thing?” The earth pony guard asked curiously while observing the three. “Even if we wrote the book on the supernatural, taking on an army of those things with just the three of us is kind of impossible. Weren’t you guys supposed to light the signal fire?” Sunspot asked in an annoyed tone. “We tried that. By the time we got up there, there were already two of those things in the tower somehow. We barely made it back here in one piece.” The unicorn stallion replied uneasily. “They were in the tower?” Sunspot asked in a confused tone. “They must be following orders to guard it.” Glimmer Shine suggested in a frustrated manner while shrugging. “Ok… so what do we do?” Sunspot asked curiously. “Well… we have three strobes between us, and an army of those things outside waiting for us.” Glimmer Shine stated uneasily. Suddenly a flash of light surged around the room. The group turned their head to see Glitterball messing with a piece of paper with red symbols drawn on it. “At least we have some breathing room to think out a plan.” Glitter said with a relieved tone. “Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it quick. The more time we spend out here, the longer Raven Feather and her gang have to do what they came here to do.” Glimmer Shine shrugged uneasily. Sunspot and Glitterball sighed in frustration while sitting down and thinking about a possible escape plan. The princess was counting on them, and perhaps all of Equestria depended on their success. Still, the only resources they had were their own strobes, and three of Equestria’s finest. Which considering how little Equestria was prepared to handle the world of the occult, didn’t account for much. Meanwhile, Twilight and her band of friends were making more headway towards their goal. Due to their combined use of strobes, magic, and teamwork, they were able to get through the many creatures prowling the streets of Canterlot. But even with all of the equipment they had, they felt scared and defenseless every time they had to confront one of the monsters. Thankfully they hadn’t come across them in large numbers yet. Twilight took the lead and walked up to the edge of a building to get a look around. Applejack and Pinkie Pie stayed behind her while everyone else watched anxiously from the back. The purple mare slowly peaked around the corner and looked up and down the next street. Spotting only a single darkling off to the left, she motioned for her friends to follow her as she snuck across the street to the next building. “I think the castle is just through here.” Twilight said while walking into an alleyway around the side of the building. Everyone followed while keeping an eye out for any signs that they had been spotted by the creatures around them. As she reached the end of the alley and poked her head out, Twilight was pleased to see the castle just ahead. The sight of a pack of darklings roaming around the front of the castle grounds made the unicorn’s happiness vanish almost instantly. “Are we there yet?” Pinkie asked in a hopeful tone. Twilight shrugged uneasily while ducking back into the alleyway and turning to face her friends. “We are… but there are a lot of them between us and the entrance.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. “How about the side entrance?” Rainbow Dash asked with careful optimism. The unicorn walked back up to the corner and slowly poked her head out again. Taking a look over to the side where the garden was, Twilight saw even more darklings. The vicious beasts were surprisingly calm and focused as they sat still and scanned their heads around. It was almost like they were actively guarding the castle to make sure nobody else got inside. “Horsefeathers…” Twilight muttered to herself while reeling back around the corner and turning to her friends again. “No good… it looks like they are keeping the entrances locked down tight.” She explained in a frustrated tone. “I didn’t think those things were smart enough to strategize.” Rainbow Dash stated uneasily. “It’s probably Dust Kicker… if he can summon those things, maybe he can give them orders too.” Twilight hypothesized with a deflated sigh. She would probably be curious about the connection the creatures had to each other and their master, but she was too busy handling the stressful situation before her. “So what’s our plan? Do you think we can take them?” Applejack asked with a concerned twinge in her voice while eyeing between her friends and the area ahead. The last thing she wanted was for someone to get hurt because they couldn’t handle the situation. “No… if we make too much noise, more of them will just come running.” Twilight said in a frustrated tone while sliding to a seated position and leaning her head against the wall. As she closed her eyes and took a moment to think about a possible plan of action, an idea suddenly popped into her head. “Hold on a second… running…?” Twilight muttered to herself while getting up and heading to the corner with newfound energy. She looked ahead at the front entrance of the castle and took note of how many darklings were in the immediate area. “I know that look. What do you have in mind?” Rainbow Dash asked in a curious tone while walking up to the unicorn and cautiously looking around. “Maybe we can make a run for the front entrance. We would still need to fight some of them, but it would be a lot less distance to go.” Twilight suggested while turning to her small band of troops. “What about making noise? Didn’t you say that there were too many to fight quietly?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous tone while clinging to her strobe. “If we can make it inside, we can just close the doors on them. There could be a hundred of them trying to break in, and they probably wouldn’t be able to bash their way through.” Twilight said in an eager tone. “That sounds like a good plan darling… but there is still the matter of getting past all of those horrid beasts.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. The unicorn’s statement made everyone look to the numerous darklings in their field of view with nervous expressions. “We’ll need to stick together. If all six of us work together to keep them away, we should be able to make it inside.” Twilight explained in a reassuring tone while turning to face her friends. “I’m ready when you guys are.” Rainbow Dash said while stretching her legs eagerly. “Ok Rainbow, you do whatever you can, but be careful. Rarity and I will use our magic to take some of them out and keep them from getting too close. Fluttershy… you, Pinkie, and Applejack can use your strobes to keep our sides clear. Can you handle that?” Twilight asked in a sympathetic tone while looking to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy gulped nervously as she realized that she would play a big part in keeping herself and her friends alive. She felt her knees wobbling as she thought about being rushed by a pack of darklings. She thought she was going to drop her strobe from how much she was shaking, until she felt a hoof being gently placed on her side. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. We’ll have your back.” Applejack said in a sincere tone while glancing to Pinkie. “Right, it’ll be easy as pie.” The pink mare added with a confident nod and a lighthearted giggle. “O-ok… I think I can do this.” Fluttershy said while swallowing her fear and putting on a brave expression. The others were pleased to see the timid pegasus with such confidence, even if it might have been fake. With a silent nod, Twilight and her friends exited the alley and started crossing the street. Once they made it a short distance, they looked around and saw numerous darklings in the distance to either side. The knowledge that they were surrounded by dangerous creatures made the six mares sweat nervously. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Twilight lit up her horn and charged up a magical blast. She shot at one of the darklings ahead, aiming square for its mid-section. Before the creature could even turn to face the approaching ponies, the bolt of light pierced its form and exploded it into black smoke as it careened to the ground. Now that their presence was known, all of the darklings in the immediate area growled and turned to face the group of ponies. Taking this as a sign to jump into action, the others readied their weapons and started firing at the horde in front of them. While the two unicorns picked off stragglers with their magic, Pinkie Pie and Applejack rapidly fired their strobes at as many of the beasts as they could. Fluttershy joined her friends in firing, but her nerves prevented her from having as much speed and precision as them. “Heads up!” Rainbow Dash yelled while leaping forward and kicking at a darkling that was pouncing for Twilight. The creature yelped in surprise and annoyance while sailing backwards and hitting the ground. Before it could get back up to retaliate, a purple bolt of energy slammed into the darkling and destroyed it. “Good work, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight said in passing thanks before returning her attention to the battle. The cyan pegasus barely had time to smirk confidently before she had to return her focus around her as well. As the group ran forward and raced to clear the area ahead, the darkling numbers were steadily decreasing around the front of the castle. However, with all of the noise being made, the ponies were attracting unwanted attention from the sides. “Uh oh… we got incoming!” Applejack exclaimed while turning to the side. A sizable amount of the shadowy creatures were coming in from either side in packs of one or two at a time. While Twilight and Rarity continued finishing off the monsters at the front, the orange mare and her two companions were forced to direct their attention to their sides and rear. “Keep shooting, girls! We’re almost there!” Twilight stated in an urgent tone while dispatching the last of the darklings in the front and turning around to help her friends. “I’m shooting as fast as I can!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed in a concerned tone. Sure enough, the sound of strobes being fired and flashes of light filled the air from all sides. The constant magical discharges were almost enough to drown out the sound of the hungry beasts closing in on all sides, but not quite. “There’s too many of them!” Rainbow Dash said while rushing to kick back a few of the beasts that were too close for comfort. Her friends were trying their best to take care of the darklings she was kicking away while also trying to deal with the rest that were further back. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the group reached the door. Twilight used her magic to grab the door frantically, but when she tried to open it, she was met with sturdy resistance that made her heart sink. “Uh, Twilight… could you do us all a favor and get that door open!” Applejack stated frantically. “I can’t! It’s stuck!” Twilight reported in an urgent tone. Her words were like a punch in the gut to everyone who heard them. “What?!” Everyone exclaimed in fearful shock. “How is it stuck?! Did they lock the door or something?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a frantic tone. “No, I don’t think so. I think there is a magical seal on it that the guards use to keep it closed in times of crisis. The hooded ponies must have activated it.” Twilight explained nervously. “Well that’s just perfect! Can you get it open?” Rainbow Dash asked in a hopeful tone. “Uh… uh… I don’t know!” Twilight said in a distressed tone. The pressure of the situation was starting to make the purple mare panic. “Twilight… Ah hate to be the bearer of bad news and all, but we are going to die if you don’t get that door open!” Applejack said in an urgent tone while directing her attention to the darklings ahead. Although the three mares wielding strobes were able to keep most of them at bay, their numbers were increasing as more darklings arrived from other areas. “Ok… umm… uh… I might be able to get it open. How much time do I have?” Twilight asked in a hesitant tone. “Do you want me to answer that, or do you want someone else to answer?” Applejack asked in an uncertain tone. The purple mare gulped nervously as she caught on to the earth pony’s meaning. The last thing she probably wanted to hear right now was the truth. “Just get that door open Twilight... we’ll buy you as much time as we can.” Rainbow Dash said in a confident tone while turning to the others. “Right.” Pinkie Pie and Applejack stated in unison while stepping away from the others and forming a small perimeter a short distance away. Fluttershy hesitantly followed the two mares and walked over to the right side to follow their example. While the timid pegasus watched the right side, Pinkie watched the front, and Applejack watched the left side. Rainbow Dash walked over to her three companions and hovered near them, ready to do whatever she could to help keep the beasts away. “Please hurry Twilight…” Rarity said in an uneasy tone before rushing away to join the others. Twilight took a brief moment to look at her friends as they worked together to defend the area. She nodded silently with a more determined expression before lighting up her horn and starting her work on the door. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity were all fighting to keep the monsters charging them at bay. Rarity and Rainbow Dash rushed from side to side, helping whoever needed it most at the time while the others used their strobes to protect their small perimeter. Applejack sweated nervously as she whipped her strobe around at lightning fast speed to dispatch darkling after darkling. It seemed like every time she blasted one of the creatures to smoke as it got within pouncing distance of her, another one would just take its place and get even closer. Even with the combined efforts of her and her friends, the orange mare was slowly losing ground. “They just keep coming!” Applejack yelled in a frantic tone. “Watch your left!” Rarity exclaimed in a panicked tone while firing an energy blast at a darkling that was lunging at the farm pony. The sight of the creature erupting into smoke and blowing into her face with the force of a small gust surprised the orange mare. “Sweet molasses, thanks Rarity.” Applejack said in a shocked tone. “Don’t thank me yet, just keep shooting cowgirl! Shoot like your life depends on it!” Rarity stated in a serious tone. “Thanks for the reminder!” Applejack replied nervously while trying to increase her speed in any way possible. Her nerves were such a bundled mess that she was amazed that she could still feel her hooves, let alone push a button in rapid succession and aim at each incoming threat. “Uh… uh… ah…!” Fluttershy squeaked fearfully while pushing through her nerves to keep firing at the terrifying beasts assaulting her. Thankfully there weren’t as many darklings coming from her side, so she was able to help Pinkie Pie with her area from time to time, but she was still about to have a panic attack from how many of the beasts were coming her way. “Twilight, we could use some words of encouragement over here! Preferably something along the lines of I’m almost done!” Rainbow Dash stated anxiously while kicking a pair of darklings to the side. “I’m almost done!” Twilight reported in a nervous tone. She was so wrapped up in unlocking the door that she probably didn’t even realize the comical appeal of her statement. “AHH!” Fluttershy let out a sudden cry of terror. Everyone turned their heads to see the pegasus on the ground with a darkling on top of her. The sight of a few more darklings coming towards the pinned mare made everyone’s heart sink. Their hearts sunk even further when they saw a spray of blood pour out of the darkling’s mouth as it bit into her wing, eliciting a scream of pain from the yellow pony. “Fluttershy!” Everyone yelled in a fearful panic with their eyes wide with terror. Rarity quickly rushed forward and charged up her horn. With every fiber of her being screaming at her to take action, she fired a magical bolt at the beast on top of the pegasus. The darkling yelped while flying backwards off the yellow mare. As the first darkling shifted into smoke, the other darklings turned their sights to the wounded pony like a pack of sharks. Fluttershy crawled backwards while crying fearfully and staring ahead. Her wing sent stabbing pains throughout her side, making her already shocked nerves even more stressed. She tried to reach for her strobe, but the vial had been knocked away when she was tackled to the ground. “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while jumping in front of the injured mare and facing the two darklings. With a swift jump into the air, the pegasus kicked the first creature square in the jaw and sent it flying. Before the other beast could react, she landed and used her front legs to push herself back into a rear kick. With both darklings on the right side sent careening backwards, Pinkie Pie and Applejack stepped back and combined their efforts into defending their friend. While the two mares continued firing at the approaching packs, Rarity rushed forward and grabbed Fluttershy. The unicorn dragged the pegasus back away from any further danger while simultaneously examining her wing. The mere sight of the injury made her cringe from sympathy and disgust. There was a set of well-defined bite marks across the middle of Fluttershy’s wing. The feathers around the injury were stained red as blood poured out of the newly created holes. Rarity realized that the darkling’s teeth punctured clean through the thin layer of flesh that comprised the yellow mare’s wing, leaving an injury that looked equal parts gruesome and agonizing. “Aghh!” Fluttershy yelled while rocking her head back and clutching the side where the injured wing was. She had tears streaming down her face and a pained expression firmly cemented in place from the suffering she was enduring. “Oh my word…” Rarity gasped in shock while briefly averting her eyes. Her aversion to the bloody injury slowly vanished as she realized that her friend desperately needed someone by her side. “Is she ok?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a panicked tone while rushing over to the two. “I don’t know… I’m not a doctor, and I don’t even know anything about wings, but that doesn’t look good.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “Here, let me see.” Rainbow Dash said in a sympathetic tone while kneeling down and offering the injured mare a frown of concern. Considering she had more experience with the physiology of wings given her own race, the pegasus figured that she would have a better idea of what Fluttershy was going through. She gently leaned over and looked at the yellow mare’s wing without touching it. Once she saw the full extent of the injury, the cyan mare recoiled in shock and gasped. “Oh… oh my gosh.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a shocked expression of horror. She cringed with empathy as she imagined what an injury like that would feel like on her own wing. “Guh… nng… how bad is it?” Fluttershy asked in between painful yelps and squeaks. The yellow mare had a terrified expression on her face, which was justifiable given the severity of her injury. In the best case scenario, she might never fly again, and in the worst case scenario she might bleed to death. “You’re going to be fine Fluttershy. We’ll get you fixed up soon enough.” Rainbow Dash said in a reassuring tone. She hoped she could offer her friend at least some comfort. “I hate to break it to you guys, but none of us are going to be fine in a minute!” Pinkie Pie stated in an urgent tone. Everyone looked ahead to see that the darklings were gaining a lot more ground now that there were less people to deal with them. “Got it!” Twilight exclaimed triumphantly before pulling one of the doors open with her magic. “Girls, get inside!” She yelled urgently while rapidly motioning for the five mares to get inside. Applejack and Pinkie Pie covered the others as they hurried towards the door. Rainbow Dash and Rarity helped Fluttershy to walk faster as she coped with her injury. After a tense few moments of trying to beat the approaching horde and escape into the safety of the castle, Pinkie and Applejack backed into the doorway and Twilight rushed in and closed the doors tightly. A loud bang sounded out as the darklings rammed into the door. Although the sound was startling when combined with the muffled sounds of their barks and roars, the beasts outside showed no signs of being able to get in. The six mares silently hoped that these darklings didn’t suddenly realize that as shadow creatures they could probably walk through walls, but thankfully the beasts seemed blissfully ignorant of this fact. Twilight and the others breathed a sigh of relief while stepping away from the door. They felt safe for the first time in the last few minutes, even though their safety was relative given the fact that the hooded ponies could be anywhere. “That was close…” Twilight said in an amazed tone. “Yeah, a little too close for my liking.” Rainbow Dash said with a brief chuckle. “Girls…” Pinkie Pie said in a stunned tone. Everyone turned to see the pink mare staring ahead with a pale look on her face. As they followed her gaze to see the room ahead, they were stunned into silence at what they saw. There was a pool of blood spreading out from the lifeless body of a royal guard on the floor. The stallion had his armor broken and his throat sliced clean through. There were also scorch marks and cracks everywhere, seemingly the aftermath of some intense battle. Further ahead, there was another dead stallion with his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. The sight of the two guards made the six mares’ stomachs churn, but perhaps the most alarming sight before them was the sight of a human slumped against the far wall with a pool of blood under him. “Tom!” Twilight and the others exclaimed fearfully while rushing forward. Even Fluttershy pushed through the pain from her injury to rush across the room to get to her human friend. As they got closer to the motionless human, the ponies noticed that he had three gaping and bloody holes in him. One was in his shoulder, one was in his leg, and the other was in his chest. Twilight rushed up to him and grabbed his hand to feel for a pulse, only to find nothing. He felt cold to the touch and had a pale lifeless look to him. “Tom! Wake up!” Twilight pleaded while shaking the boy gently. The unicorn’s efforts offered no response from the human, but they also made the watching ponies’ hearts sink. “Is he breathing?!” Rarity asked in a fearful panic. “I don’t think so… did he even need to breathe?!” Twilight asked in a panicked tone. She hoped that somehow slayer physiology would allow the human to recover, but she wasn’t even sure if she believed her hope. “Why aren’t his wounds healing? I didn’t think anything could hurt him this bad.” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone. The ponies could only stare with panic filled eyes as their purple friend tried to resuscitate the human. “Tom... Tom!” Twilight yelled in a fearful tone. “Don’t do this to me! You wake up right now and heal so we can go fight Raven Feather!” She said while slapping Tom’s face hard enough to wake him without causing too much pain if he actually stirred. Much to her horror, the human’s body settled in place like a limp puppet in her grasp. “Tom…? Please wake up…” Twilight choked slightly as tears welled up in her eyes. She finally let go of the human and sat back to process the wave of emotions filling her. “Twilight… Ah don’t think he’s waking up from this.” Applejack said in a somber tone while wiping her own tears away. Everyone lowered their heads mournfully while either holding back their tears or letting go and crying sadly. They hadn’t known the human for little more than a week, but they still felt like they lost a dear friend. Several minutes went by as everyone let out their emotions. The thought that they had to find the princess and save her from the hooded ponies was prominent in their minds, but they had to vent for a few moments before they could collect themselves. “We… *hic* we can’t let them get away with this.” Pinkie said while wiping her face and taking a few breaths. “Yeah… I’m going to personally kick their tails for doing this to him.” Rainbow Dash said in an upset tone while sniffling slightly. “If we’re going to find the princess and stop these guys, we need to get going.” Twilight said in a somber tone. She wiped a few tears from her face before getting up and turning away from the human. “Where do we even start? Those creeps could be anywhere.” Rainbow Dash asked with a frustrated groan as she envisioned how many places they could be hiding. “They couldn’t have gotten far. If they were going to just kill the princess and run, they would have bolted already. They must be trying to set up the ritual for the eternal night.” Twilight said while thinking about what the hooded ponies could be doing. “That sounds bad… we better go find them before they even get a chance to see if this thing works.” Applejack suggested in an urgent tone. Everyone nodded in agreement before getting up to leave. “Gah… oww.” Fluttershy cried painfully while clutching her wing. The yellow mare’s outbursts made the others turn to her with concerned expressions of empathy. “Oh Fluttershy…” Twilight muttered in a sad tone while gently placing her hoof on the pegasus’s shoulder. She had been so caught up with Tom and going after the hooded ponies that she almost forgot about the suffering her friend was going through. “I-I’m ok… I think.” Fluttershy said while looking down to her wing with a glint of fear in her eyes. Despite her attempt at a confident façade, she was shaking like a leaf. “Twilight, isn’t there something you can do for her? Some kind of healing spell or something?” Rainbow Dash asked in a desperate tone. Twilight looked to her immense knowledge of magic to see if she had something in her repertoire that could help the suffering mare. “I know healing spells, but most of them require multiple unicorns and a lot of time.” Twilight said in a disheartened tone. “I can’t repair a wound this severe, but I might be able to stop the bleeding and ease some of her pain.” She added in a more optimistic manner. “I think she’ll take whatever she can get at this point Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said while listening to the yellow pegasus whining in agony with a somber expression. Twilight took in a deep breath before walking up to the injured pony. The others cleared some space and watched the unicorn intently as she knelt down and prepared to use her magic on Fluttershy’s injury. “Fluttershy… I need to see your wing. I know it hurts, but it should feel better when I’m done.” Twilight explained in a sympathetic tone. “O-ok… I think I can do that.” Fluttershy said while moving slightly to get into a comfortable position. She cringed hesitantly before slowly unfolding her wing. She yelped as shooting pains forced her to stop for a moment, but she was able to push through the pain and finish stretching the tender appendage. The mere sight of the distressed pegasus was enough to fill the others with a sad feeling of sympathy. As the yellow mare’s wing was unfolded completely, the scope of her injury was made even more apparent. The fragile tissue with holes punched into it almost reminded the group of paper that had been perforated, only there was a lot more blood in this case. Twilight lit up her horn and concentrated for a moment. Once she recalled the instructions to the spells needed, she gently pressed her horn against Fluttershy’s wing. The yellow mare felt an odd tingle among the stabbing pains coming from her injury. Soon enough, the blood spurting from the grisly wound ceased. After a few more moments, Twilight let her horn dim and backed away to see the fruits of her labor. “How does it feel?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone. The yellow mare cringed painfully as she folded her wing back up, but it seemed like she was in less pain than she was before the spell. “It still hurts… but it feels better than it did.” Fluttershy said while managing a more cheerful tone, if only slightly. “Glad to hear. That should hold you over until after we find the princess and stop Raven Feather.” Twilight stated with a genuine smile. “Thanks.” Fluttershy said in a grateful tone. Twilight and the others glanced over to Tom somberly. They resolved that they wouldn’t allow anyone else to be hurt by Raven Feather and her followers. Too many people had died because of them, and they had to be stopped. “Come on… let’s go.” Twilight said in a determined tone while walking away. Everyone quickly followed the unicorn with serious expressions as she walked up the stairs and headed further into the castle. They were all prepared to go to war with the cult of malicious ponies. The stern silence in the air only served to further cement the feeling of determination in the six mares. They marched forward like a troop of soldiers getting ready for a critical mission. For good or for bad, they were going to finish things once and for all. Although they didn’t expect to find the hooded ponies setting up shop in some small space, the group checked all of the rooms they passed to be safe. Between the two remaining strobes they had, and their combined prowess and combat experience, they hoped they could get the jump on Raven Feather and her followers. “I don’t see them… or any guards for that matter.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone while peering into a room and shaking her head. “I’d like to think that they all retreated.” Twilight said anxiously. “What do you actually think?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously. “I’m not sure I want to think of that.” Twilight replied in a dreadful tone. “Well, the fact still stands that we are running blind here.” Rarity said with a disheartened shrug. The sheer scope of the palace would be impressive on any normal day, but today they were looking for a needle in a haystack. “Hmm…” Twilight muttered to herself in thought. “They might be in the throne room.” She suggested in a hopeful tone. “Educated guess, or…?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Elementary my dear Rainbow. If I was a revenge bent mare of questionable mental stability and morals that wanted to evoke an ancient catastrophe and spite the princess at the same time, I would probably choose the throne room as my go to location.” Twilight explained with a surprisingly unwavering delivery. “Boy am I glad you aren’t an evil genius.” Rainbow Dash said with an impressed tone. “I prefer the term intrepid intellectual thank you very much.” Twilight replied with a wry smirk. After several minutes of redundant searches through rooms and walking through corridors, the group noticed a door at the far end of the hall. Twilight smiled cheerfully as she recognized the area around her. The room on the other side of the door ahead of her led into the throne room, and hopefully to the princess. “Keep on your guard guys. The throne room is just up ahead.” Twilight stated while turning to her friends with a more serious expression. “Umm… Twilight?” Fluttershy asked apprehensively. The yellow mare had a nervous expression. Apparently being so close to a possible confrontation with the hooded ponies was making the pegasus uneasy, and she wasn’t the only one. “What is it Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. “Do we have a plan to fight these guys? We don’t exactly have that much to work with here… we have even less than before since I dropped my strobe outside.” Fluttershy explained while looking down with a regretful frown. Twilight looked around at her friends and frowned with concern. They were incredibly unprepared to deal with a threat as big as Raven Feather and her bunch of psychopaths. If the hooded ponies had beaten Tom and possibly even the princess, then what hope did they have of succeeding? Still, she had to do something to stop them, but if she was going to do that, she needed a plan to prevent any of her friends from getting hurt. “I think I know a spell that can render people unconscious, but it takes a few moments to cast and I need to be up close to do it. Let’s just focus on staying alive for the moment.” Twilight said with a concerned expression. “Even with just two strobes, we should be able to handle Dust Kicker and Raincloud’s minions. All that’s left after that would be to deal with their shadow magic.” Rarity stated while gulping uneasily. “Just don’t be afraid to run away if you need to. I don’t want any of you getting hurt today, understand?” Twilight asked in a serious tone. Almost everyone nodded with confidence. “Ow…” Fluttershy muttered while looking down to her wing nervously. Even with the bleeding stopped and the pain reduced, it still presented her with limited mobility due to how much it still hurt. “Here Fluttershy, why don’t you take this?” Applejack asked while handing over her strobe to the yellow mare. “What? But… don’t you need this?” Fluttershy asked in a hesitant tone while eyeing the small vial. “Ah can manage without it. Besides, you should probably hang back and keep from hurting your wing any more.” Applejack said in a concerned tone while putting the strobe in the pegasus’s hoof. Fluttershy couldn’t help but to feel bad for having her friends handicap themselves to help her. “Thank you... Just be careful for me, ok?” Fluttershy asked in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. If I have anything to say about it, we won’t even need to fight them for very long.” Rainbow Dash said with a confident chuckle. The group couldn’t help but to feel more confident as they looked around at their friends. Each was determined to protect everyone else at any cost, as well as to save Equestria from Raven Feather’s twisted plot. “Alright girls… let’s go save the princess.” Twilight said in a determined tone. Everyone nodded as the purple mare walked up to the door and grabbed the handle.
Chapter 95: Holding FastTwilight and the others swiftly opened the door and stepped inside. They made it a few steps into the room before freezing nervously and staring ahead with wide eyes. The room itself was more of an in between room than anything else. It was slightly wider than it was long, and aside from a large red throw rug, there were only a few pedestals adorned with vases along the walls to fill the floor space. The room in front of them wasn’t why the six mares were frozen in place however. Standing at the far side of the room in front of the next door, there was a pair of familiar looking pegasi in gray hoodies. The unmistakable pale blue mare and brown stallion were most definitely Raincloud and Dust Kicker. They appeared to have been guarding the door behind them, which most likely led to the throne room. “Ah, it’s about time you showed up.” Raincloud raised her voice to carry across the room while walking forward slightly. It seemed like the pair were expecting the six mares to show up. “Where is Princess Celestia?!” Twilight swallowed her fear and demanded for the two siblings to explain what they had done with the alicorn. “She’s in the throne room with Raven Feather. Don’t get your horn all bent out of shape, she is fine… relatively speaking.” Dust Kicker replied in a cynical tone. “Which one of you did that to Tom?” Rainbow Dash asked while glaring at the two ponies from across the room. Just thinking about her human friend getting struck down by the hooded ponies filled her with rage. “Hey, in our defense, that was all Raven Feather. I offered to step in, but she wanted to take him for herself.” Raincloud said with a wry smirk. “Grr…” Rainbow Dash growled angrily under her breath. It took Twilight putting a hoof on her shoulder and offering her a serious expression to get her to return to a more cool headed stance. “I’m going to say this once and only once… get out of our way, or we will be forced to fight you.” Twilight stated in a stern tone. Everyone else stepped forward to be in line with the purple unicorn with serious expressions on their faces. “Is… is that an ultimatum or something?” Raincloud asked while holding back a snicker. Finally she gave up on keeping a serious expression and busted out laughing. “We have you outnumbered. Just step aside and this can all be over quickly.” Twilight said in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. “Hehheh… outnumbered? Have you already forgotten who we are?” Raincloud asked while glancing to her brother suggestively. Dust Kicker smirked before channeling shadow energy to his hoof and stamping it on the floor. Three lines of pulsating shadows flowed into the floor and travelled in front of the brown stallion. Before long, three darklings rose out of the floor and stood in front of their master protectively. On cue to match her brother summoning his minions, Raincloud directed her thoughts to her shadow and ordered it to make itself known. With an echoic howl, the specter flew out of the pegasus’s actual shadow and hovered menacingly in front of her. Twilight and the others flinched uneasily as they stared at the four creatures. Raincloud’s shadow was powerful enough to keep up with Tom in combat, and Dust Kicker was capable of summoning even more darklings or possibly other horrific shadow creatures. How could they stand a chance against such monstrosities? “Of course… they couldn’t just fight us on their own could they? That wouldn’t be cowardly enough.” Rainbow Dash stated in a scornful tone. Raincloud glared at the cyan pegasus with an annoyed expression as she overheard her comment. “How do you want to handle this Rain?” Dust Kicker asked curiously while turning to his sibling. “Do whatever you want to the others, but Twilight and that featherhead are mine.” Raincloud stated while motioning towards Rainbow Dash with a sinister gleam in her eyes. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Twilight and her friends were still staring down the two ponies and their monstrous allies with wary expressions. The purple mare glanced to the others uneasily as she started to think about what battle strategy they had. Fluttershy was injured, with her wing damaged beyond the hope of functioning. Even if she weren’t wounded, her skills were decidedly lacking and her timid disposition held her back from fighting. Still, with her strobe she could probably assist with taking out any shadow creatures Dust Kicker might summon. Pinkie Pie held the only other strobe in the group’s possession. She had more than proven her worth with the tiny vial as far as Twilight was concerned, but even with her manic energy, she was just one mare. Still, was she ready to fight a pair of fierce adversaries that were more than capable of killing her? The six mares had two strobes to use, and a possibly limitless amount of shadow creatures that needed to be kept at bay, a fact that was more than troubling to the purple unicorn. One look at the brown stallion standing across the room was enough to tell that he was ready to send his minions to fight once things got started. Any one of the fierce creatures at his disposal could end Twilight and all of her friends without a second thought. Would two strobes be enough? If only Fluttershy hadn’t been injured, then they would at least have three strobes to work with. Rarity was a fellow unicorn. Even without a vast knowledge of spells, she could hold her own against a few creatures and possibly even assist some of the others if they got into trouble. Even if it was a life or death situation, would she be strong enough to fight? Applejack and Rainbow Dash had little more than their natural born attributes and skills to assist them. The orange mare had fought off a few darklings before with her powerful kicks and strong will, and the cyan pegasus was one of the best flyers in Ponyville. Both mares were ready and willing to do anything it would take to protect their friends, but were they enough? “Twilight, what’s our play?” Rainbow Dash asked in a serious tone while staring ahead with a focused expression. She was watching the two ponies on the other side of the room with unwavering intensity, waiting for them or one of their minions to make a move. Twilight felt a cold chill firmly cementing itself into her core as she looked at her friends. They were about to fight two of the most powerful adversaries Equestria had ever seen by themselves. There was nobody to help them or bail them out at the last minute. Princess Luna was gone, Tom was gone, and both Princess Celestia and the remaining members of team spirit were indisposed. Were they ready? The same words floated around her head as she stared forward with a blank expression of morbidity. What if someone died? Twilight felt a dreadful knot developing in her stomach as she calculated the possibility of failure. Before, she had only been looking forward to their future victory. They were going to fight the hooded ponies, stop Raven Feather, and save the day. But now the grim realization was setting in that they were going to fight the hooded ponies, they had to try to stop Raven Feather, and if they didn’t, all of Equestria was doomed. She felt her knees shaking as she stared at her friends with her confidence rapidly vanishing. She had single handedly led them to this point, and they had followed her without doubt, as if they knew she had a plan. But the harsh reality was finally getting to the purple mare, she didn’t have a plan. If someone got hurt, which was a likelihood that was getting more likely by the minute, then it would be her fault for bringing them here. “Twilight!” The sound of a yell brought the unicorn to her senses again. She looked ahead to see her friends staring at her with concerned expressions. “W-what?” Twilight stammered in a confused stupor while shaking her head and redirecting her attention forward. “Don’t lock up on us now. We’ve got your back, but we need someone to tell us our strategy… and you are the smartest one in this room.” Rainbow Dash said with a playful smirk. “Yeah! I want to know which one of them to beat up first!” Pinkie Pie chimed in with an eager expression while tossing her strobe in the air and catching it in an almost impatient fashion. They aren’t afraid? Twilight thought to herself in confusion while looking around at her friends. While it was true that they were nervous and perhaps even frightened by the impending battle, the five mares almost seemed to be happy as they waited for her to guide them into the fray. They seem… confident. Are they confident in each other, or me? The purple mare looked down for a moment to think. Perhaps she was over thinking matters and making them bleaker than they actually were. If she came up with a plan, then maybe they would stand a chance. Filled with more confidence, Twilight adopted a serious expression and cleared her head again for planning, only this time she focused on being objective in her evaluations of her friends’ strengths and weaknesses. Two strobes were enough to handle the darklings, she was sure of it. She had seen only a handful of strobes used to combat entire hordes of fiercer shadow creatures before. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy could handle the darklings by themselves, and they still had Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity to pick up the slack if needed. Dust Kicker himself would be troublesome to deal with if he stopped relying on his shadow creatures. He knew how to manipulate shadow magic, which was a fierce power that was not to be reckoned with. Assuming he didn’t know as much as Raincloud, he could most likely be managed if the five mares worked together. Twilight could cast the spell to knock him out once she had dealt with Raincloud, and she was certain that she would have to deal with Raincloud. The pale pegasus had a fiercesome vendetta against her, whether or not it was warranted was a question for another day. Raincloud and her shadow were going to be the bulk of the fight without a doubt. Perhaps Twilight could deal with the shadow while its master waited on the sidelines, or maybe she could survive a few seconds against both of them at once. Either way, she didn’t want any of her friends to fight the pale mare and the ghostly specter. She had already watched Spike nearly die from the shadow and his abilities, she wasn’t about to let another friend suffer through that. “Ok girls, listen up. I want all of you to keep Dust Kicker and whatever he throws your way occupied. I’ll see if I can take care of Raincloud and her shadow.” Twilight instructed in a confident tone. “Are you seriously trying to convince me to let you handle her on your own? From what you said about the last time you met her, she almost killed you.” Rainbow Dash stated in an uneasy tone. “Yeah, she did… which is why I know that I don’t want you guys fighting her!” Twilight said in an adamant tone. The cyan mare was obviously not giving in to her demands, but they had other problems to deal with. “I’m done waiting. Shadow, kill Twilight Sparkle!” Raincloud instructed while pointing at the purple mare. Twilight and the others looked ahead with surprised expressions as the battle started without them. The shadow let out a sinister chuckle before flying forward. It sailed through the air at breakneck speeds and charged for the purple unicorn with its claws at the ready. The sight of the ghostly specter charging straight at her was more than enough to give Twilight a jolt to the system. “Ah!” Twilight yelped in surprise before lighting up her horn. Before the shadow could reach her, she teleported off to the side and turned to face her attacker. The shadow growled in frustration before veering off to chase after the unicorn. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she felt the shadow whipping past her to get at her friend. The purple mare seemed to be leading the creature away from the others to keep them safe. Although she was dodging every attack sent her way for the moment, everyone was fearful that the unicorn’s luck would run out quickly. “It’s not her you should be worrying about!” Raincloud exclaimed angrily, her voice much closer than Rainbow Dash anticipated. The cyan mare looked ahead to see the pale pegasus flying towards her with her front hoof aflame with shadow energy. “Yikes!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while spreading her wings and leaping out of the way. She barely cleared the pale mare’s trajectory as she sliced her arm downwards like a sword. The pulsating blackness on Raincloud’s hoof sent a cold chill down Rainbow’s side as it barely missed its target. “Grr… Get back here!” Raincloud yelled in an irritated tone while jumping off the floor to get a head start at chasing after the fleeing pegasus. Rainbow Dash flew into the air and darted around the room to get away from the pale pony. “Girls!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed nervously as she watched her two friends fleeing for their lives. Twilight was doing her best to dodge the shadow by running from it, while Rainbow Dash was just trying to out maneuver Raincloud. Pinkie and Fluttershy readied their strobes and pointed at the shadow chasing Twilight. There wasn’t much they could do to assist Rainbow Dash, but at least they could do something to help the purple unicorn. “I guess that’s my cue… go get em’ boys!” Dust Kicker stated while pointing toward the four mares. The darklings briefly looked at their master before snarling and rushing forward towards their prey. “Oh no… looks like we’ve got company girls!” Applejack said in an urgent tone while glancing behind her at her friends. Rarity charged up her horn and stood by Applejack in preparation to keep the creatures away from Pinkie and Fluttershy. Meanwhile, the pink earth pony and timid pegasus were standing behind their two friends and aiming their strobes at the approaching creatures. “Fire!” Pinkie yelled in a determined tone while pressing the button on her strobe. The tip of the vial exploded into a burst of colorful light as a bolt of energy flew out. Fluttershy quickly followed suit and opened fire on the three darklings. The creatures ducked to the side in an attempt at dodging the incoming bolts of energy, but they were no match for the two mares’ quick firing and steady aim. As the three darklings exploded into clouds of black smoke while the bolts of light flew through them, Pinkie and Fluttershy cheered in triumph. “Good job girls!” Applejack cheered with an excited smile while watching the two mares celebrating their victory. Meanwhile, while the four ponies were cheering eagerly and smiling like they had just won the lottery, Dust Kicker was getting more annoyed by the minute. He glared at the group for a moment with an irritated expression before shrugging and raising his leg into the air again. An aura of shadows enveloped his hoof, creating a disquieting noise that just barely carried to the stallion’s ears through all of the commotion in the room. With a devilish smirk, Dust Kicker stamped his hoof down again and projected the shadow out into the floor. The four mares suddenly noticed the thin wisps of shadowy energy flowing across the floor and stopped their premature celebration. The shadow split off into three lines and gathered in three spots a short distance away from the brown stallion. Before long, the three blobs on the ground started rising into the air and taking shape again. “Oh… I kind of forgot he could do that for a minute there.” Pinkie said with a nervous chuckle while glancing to her friends uneasily. As the shadow creatures took shape, the four mares prepared themselves for battle once more. However, something about these creatures was different. The blobs were forming into darklings; that much was apparent from the shape they were taking, but something was off about them. There were bright purple stripes all across their bodies that glowed and shimmered separately from the rest of their skin. Along with the strange markings on their body, the darklings had piercing eyes that were aglow with the same bright shade of purple. “Oh no…” Fluttershy paled as she recognized the creatures currently stalking towards her and her friends. The yellow mare’s terrified expression was more than a little unsettling to the others. They wondered if she knew something they didn’t. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “I’ve seen those darklings before. He used some of them to attack us out in the woods, and they were able to survive Tom using his light on them.” Fluttershy explained in a fearful tone while shivering slightly. “I remember that… oh wait, that’s bad isn’t it?” Pinkie Pie asked in an uneasy tone as she thought back to the difficulty the human had with dispatching the enhanced darklings. “But if they were able to do that… then our strobes might as well be useless.” Applejack said nervously as she slowly realized how much danger they were in. “Only one way to find out.” Pinkie stated with a determined tone while readying her strobe. She fired a shot at the darkling in the middle of the pack. The bolt of light sailed across the room in a flash. As it crashed into the darkling, the shot exploded into a shower of colored sparks. The beast flinched from having something explode in its face, but aside from a small area of its skin smoking, the blast didn’t have any other effect. Although, saying it had no other effect wasn’t entirely accurate. The small explosion was enough to anger the darkling to no end, which it expressed by growling deeply at the four mares. “Ok… this is bad!” Pinkie exclaimed in a panic as she realized that the only weapon she and her friends had was effectively useless. While the four ponies were backing away slightly to distance themselves, the three darklings were steadily growing tired of waiting for their prey. The three beasts let out a series of growls before barking like mad dogs and bounding forward after the mares. Unsure of what to do, Applejack and Rarity stood in front of their two friends in an attempt at keeping them safe. Their bravery practically melted once the three creatures got closer. “AH!” Applejack exclaimed fearfully while jumping out of the way of one of the attacking creatures. Rarity and the others were forced to run as two of the darklings chased after them, while the other one focused its efforts on the orange mare. The darkling growled and snarled as it crept forward at an agonizingly slow pace. Applejack backed up defensively in an attempt at getting distance from the beast. She suddenly found that a wall was blocking her path backwards, forcing her to stand her ground. “Now hold on a minute little fella. Ah know Ah must look mighty tasty, but we can find a way to work this out without anyone getting hurt.” Applejack suggested with an awkwardly nervous smile. The darkling remained unmoved by her attempt at diplomacy, instead opting to rear up for a leap at the defenseless pony. As the creature jumped forward teeth blazing, Applejack felt her heart skyrocket. She leapt to the side as fast as she could, hoping that she would be fast enough to evade her pursuer. The darkling snapped at the fleeing mare’s tail as it continued forward. The beast kept its attention to the side with an annoyed expression as it watched its prey dodge its attack. Unfortunately for the shadowy monster, it was still in midair as it diverted its attention away. A loud thud followed by a crash sounded out as the impact of the darkling slamming into the wall knocked a decorative vase from its pillar. The vase fell on the beast’s already bruised head and shattered, causing it to yelp in pain before settling to the floor. “Ah guess that extra strength was compensating for something.” Applejack said with a slight smirk as she watched the dazed monster with an amused expression of triumph. Her small victory would be short lived however as the darkling shook its head forcefully and started to get up. “Come on buddy, Ah’m right here.” Applejack taunted the creature with a slightly more confident tone. If she could dodge it once, she could hopefully dodge it more times. And if she could keep at least one of the creatures busy, she could help her friends to manage their numbers. “AH!” Fluttershy screamed from the back of the room, drawing the orange mare’s attention away. “*Gasp* Fluttershy!” Applejack yelled in terror as she saw what had caused the yellow pegasus’s outburst. Pinkie and Rarity were dealing with one of the darklings, but the other one was lying on top of Fluttershy, pinning her to the floor. Fluttershy was pushing the terrifying creature away from her as hard as she could, but her arms were shaking from the strain being put on them. “Hold on Fluttershy! Ah’m co- Oof!” Applejack started to rush to her friend’s aid, but she was suddenly tackled from the side by the darkling she had previously incapacitated. The blow knocked her off her feet and sent her rolling, but luckily the beast didn’t land on top of her. As she got to her feet and looked ahead, she noticed that the darkling was standing between her and the others. “Oh no…” Applejack muttered in horror as she looked over to the struggle taking place on the other side of the room. As the darkling near her reared up and prepared to charge, she realized that she would be forced to flee from it instead of helping her friends. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was steadily losing her battle with the darkling on top of her. Her arm muscles were burning intensely, and the snapping jaws of the shadow creature were getting closer to her body. “Guh… h-help!” Fluttershy whined fearfully while straining to keep herself alive. Her eyes were tearing up, and her wing injury’s constant throbbing wasn’t helping the situation. “Fluttershy!” Rarity and Pinkie exclaimed in unison. They looked at each other briefly before turning their attention to the third darkling eyeing them up nearby. If they tried to help the pegasus without dealing with the creature, then it could very well maul them all. “Uh… uh…” Rarity stammered in a panic as she thought of something to do. “Go help her! I’ll deal with this one!” She instructed to the pink mare nearby. “Got it!” Pinkie stated before urgently rushing over to Fluttershy to help get the darkling off of her. Finally Rarity was left alone with her foe, which in this case, was a bloodthirsty beast with a body strong enough to withstand blasts from strobes. She could feel her legs wobbling from staring into the darkling’s sinister glowing eyes. *Grrrrrr* The darkling let out a deep growl that only served to intimidate the white unicorn even more. It stalked forward a few steps before sinking low to the ground in preparation to charge at the hapless pony. Rarity’s mind raced a mile a minute as she watched the creature for signs that it was going to attack. Finally, the darkling let out a loud bark and dashed forward. Rarity squealed fearfully while lighting up her horn and frantically racing to use her magic to save herself. Despite her clumsy attempts, she managed to wrap her magic around the charging beast and picked it up. Meanwhile, Pinkie and Fluttershy were fighting their own darkling. The two mares were pushing and pulling at the creature, but it was fighting back stronger than they could manage. The darkling was still on top of the yellow pegasus, snapping its jaws and fighting to get close enough to bite into her flesh. “Hrrg… gah!” Pinkie groaned while trying to pull the monster off of her friend. Although she had to get over the initial fear of getting so close to a darkling, she managed to use all of her strength in her efforts. But despite all this, she still couldn’t get it to budge. “I can’t hold it much longer! Get it off… please!” Fluttershy pleaded desperately while turning her head sideways to distance herself from the wide jaws of the beast. “I can’t! Hrk...! It won’t… guh… move!” Pinkie stated in a frantic tone. Suddenly the darkling turned its head and snapped at the pink mare, causing her to jump back with a frightened yelp. “Ack!” Fluttershy groaned from the added weight on top of her. Her arms were just about to give out from fighting for so long. Seeing that her friend was about to get mauled, Pinkie raced to her feet and desperately tried to think of something to do. Reaching down for her strobe, she rushed in front of the two. She didn’t care if the strobe wouldn’t work, she had to do something other than sitting idly by and watching her friend die. “Get off her!” Pinkie yelled while jamming the strobe as close to the darkling’s mouth as she could. She aimed for the inside of its mouth and pushed the button on the vial as fast as she could. A flurry of blasts flew into the darkling’s mouth, exploding into a shower of sparks and light. The creature shook from the force of the impacts as black smoke started pouring out of it. Much to the surprise of the two mares, the darkling suddenly collapsed into a cloud of smoke with its final cries being drowned out by the bursting energy bolts. Fluttershy flinched her eyes shut as the cloud of smoke evaporated around her. She crawled backwards a few inches before pausing to breathe. She was practically hyperventilating from the shock and stress she was feeling. Despite her pounding heart and drained strength, she was glad to be alive. “You… you did it.” Fluttershy said in between breaths with a surprised expression. “Yeah, I guess I did.” Pinkie replied with equal surprise while looking at her strobe. Before the two could even contemplate celebrating their small victory, the distressed sounds of their friend drew their attention away. They looked over to see Rarity struggling to hold the other darkling up with her magic. “Hrk… gah…” Rarity groaned nervously while struggling to focus her magic on the squirming monster. The darkling was thrashing around so much that it was threatening to break free of her magical aura. “Hold on Rarity! We found a way to beat them!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly while rushing to the unicorn’s side. She took aim with her strobe and prepared to fire, until something stopped her. As if it were aware of her tactic, the darkling clamped its mouth shut and effectively blocked any shot the pink mare had at its insides. “Um… Pinkie darling… I don’t mean to sound needy, but if you have a way to beat them, could you please take care of this one?!” Rarity asked in an urgent tone while flinching her eyes shut and trying to focus. “I can’t get a shot if its mouth is closed!” Pinkie stated in a troubled tone. The two mares watched uneasily as the unicorn struggled to keep the creature contained. Realizing that she was coming to her limits, Rarity tried to think of something to do. Finally she decided to use the rest of her energy to charge up a magical blast. If she was going to lose control of the beast, she at least wanted to give her best shot at destroying it. Clenching her teeth to cope with the strain, the white mare channeled some energy to the tip of her horn. After a brief moment of charging her spell, she shot it at the side of the beast with a hopeful expression. The bolt of magic flew into the darkling’s side, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from the creature and causing a small amount of smoke to trail off of it. If the darkling was unruly and frantic before, it was even more so now that it was wounded. The creature thrashed and kicked its body around in every direction, all the while making as much angry noise as it could with its mouth closed. “Gah!” Rarity yelped painfully while dropping to her knees. Just before her magic gave out on her, she tossed the monster as far as she could towards the wall. The darkling crashed into the wall and bounced off slightly before hitting the floor. After a few briefly dazed moments, the creature got back to its feet and turned to face the three ponies. It growled deeply while bearing its teeth, all the while being careful to keep its mouth shut. Before Rarity and the others could contemplate fleeing or fighting, something flew through the air and knocked into the darkling. Everyone looked over to see two darklings in a crumpled heap on the floor. As they looked around with confused expressions, they discovered their orange friend recovering from a rear kick. “Woah… nice shot Applejack.” Pinkie said with an amused chuckle. “Thanks.” Applejack replied while trotting up to her friends. The four mares stood together and faced the two darklings as they slowly recovered from their impact. They were confident that they could handle the two creatures with their newfound experience. Meanwhile, while Applejack and her three companions were dealing with the darklings, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had their own set of problems. The cyan pegasus seemed to be keeping ahead of Raincloud with her superior speed and flight skills, but the purple unicorn didn’t have the advantage of wings to evade her ghostly pursuer. “Yikes!” Twilight exclaimed while ducking from a swipe of the shadow’s claws. The familiar cold sensation of a shadow creature’s skin getting close to hers was enough to motivate the unicorn to keep on her toes so to speak. After dodging a few more swipes by the skin of her teeth, she jumped back to get a little distance from her attacker. The shadow growled in an annoyed tone while glaring at the unicorn. Suddenly, its claws started glowing a bright shade of purple. A sinister laugh echoed through the air as the specter grinned slightly. Before Twilight could even react, the shadow flew into the floor and disappeared into a dark blotch. Twilight gasped nervously and looked around in a panic to find the missing specter. She turned around several times, looked beneath her, looked to the sides, but the ghostly shadow was nowhere to be found. “Huh?” Twilight muttered in surprised confusion as she heard the sound of the shadow phasing through something. Hearing soft laughter above her, she looked up and gasped in shock as she saw a glowing purple face staring at her menacingly. “AH!” Twilight screamed as she saw the shadow swiping at her with its claws. Right before the specter could make contact with her, she channeled her magic through herself and focused on another location. With a magical buzz, the unicorn teleported away a few feet and breathed heavily in shock. After taking a moment to appreciate her close call, she collected herself and turned to her foe with a determined expression. “You’re not touching me with those claws.” Twilight stated in a vexed tone while glaring at the shadow. The ghostly specter glared back at her with equal intensity as it fumed over its failed sneak attack. Deciding to take the offensive for the first time in her duel with the shadow, Twilight charged up her horn and fired a laser shot at the creature. As expected, the shadow dodged the attack with relative ease, retracting the center of its shadowy body outwards to form a circle for the bolt to pass through. Once it restored its form, the specter laughed at the purple mare’s failed attack, until it noticed more bolts of energy coming its way. Twilight concentrated as hard as she could, putting as much power behind her blasts as possible while also leaving room to fire at a constant rate. It seemed as though her barrage of magic was sending the shadow reeling, forcing it to evade every attack instead of trying to attack her. Grr… this isn’t working. Even if I hit him with one of these, it probably won’t do much other than distract him for a moment. If only I could find something to hurt this stupid shadow. Twilight thought to herself with a frustrated and anxious expression. Dodging the shadow’s attacks and keeping it busy with a few magical blasts weren’t going to win the fight for her. Wait a minute… stupid shadow? The unicorn paused for a moment as she thought of something promising. Of course… sunlight! That might actually work! But how could I do that effectively? She pondered while trying to think of an appropriate spell to accomplish her desired effect. It was hard to think while also concentrating on her assault on the shadow, but at least she had time on her side with the specter showing no signs of finding a way out of her concentrated fire. “Heads up!” The sound of Rainbow Dash yelling urgently pulled Twilight’s attention away. Before she could question what was going on, the unicorn looked to the side and noticed a cyan blur flying straight for her. “Ack!” Twilight yelped slightly while backing out of the way. Just as she jumped back, the purple mare heard a gust of wind tear past her as the cyan pegasus flew by. Rainbow Dash turned upwards and flew at a right angle to the wall to avoid hitting it, which she followed up by flying back out towards the rest of the room. “Get back here!” Raincloud exclaimed angrily while flying directly past Twilight in her pursuit of the cyan pegasus. Twilight brushed her hair out of her eyes and steadied herself from the sudden bursts of air pushing her to the side. She looked up to see the two pegasus’s flying rapidly across the room. Rainbow Dash was pulling every stop in her arsenal to keep away from the grey mare, but Raincloud was hot on her tail a short distance away. With a passing thought of concern for her friend, Twilight quickly shifted her attention back to her own adversary. She widened her eyes in stunned shock as she saw no signs of the shadow in front of her. No signs that is, except for a fading dark blotch on the wall. “Oh no…” Twilight squeaked nervously as she darted her eyes around her. She didn’t like not knowing where the shadow was. And without fully understanding the breadth of its abilities, she didn’t know where it could pop out next. Meanwhile, up in the air, Rainbow Dash was still fleeing from the grey pegasus. Every attempt she made at getting around to get an attack in herself was met by Raincloud intercepting her and getting a good slice or two in with her shadow energy. “I thought you were supposed to be the brave one, so why are you running scared?!” Raincloud asked in a mocking tone as she tried to outflank the cyan flyer. “I’m not running scared! I just prefer to not be sliced into a million pieces!” Rainbow Dash yelled back while making a sharp turn in an attempt at losing her pursuer. Just as she thought she might have succeeded, she glanced to the side and saw the grey mare right next to her about to strike. “Ah!” The cyan mare yelled in surprise while darting to a lower altitude. She felt the cold energy of Raincloud’s shadowy blade slicing off a few of the hairs in her mane. “You might want to try harder to run away then you coward!” Raincloud exclaimed angrily while darting after the fleeing pony again. What is with this girl? No matter how fast I go, she just keeps catching up to me! I might not be the fastest in Equestria, but there is no way she is keeping up with me this easily! Rainbow Dash thought to herself with an annoyed grimace. Suddenly a thought popped into her mind that almost made her crash into the wall from not paying attention. She couldn’t keep up with me this easily. Unless… As she looked back to see the grey mare behind her, Rainbow Dash noticed something that made her angry and frightened at the same time. There was a blur of glowing shadow energy coming from Raincloud’s arm. This was to be expected as she was using it as a sort of makeshift blade to try and kill the cyan mare. What Rainbow Dash didn’t expect to see however, was a blur of the same glowing energy coming from her wings. “That… little… jerk!” Rainbow Dash huffed angrily at the realization she made. Before she could try to think around her opponent’s strategy, she noticed that she was getting closer, a lot closer in fact. Raincloud was getting so close so fast that she was actually going faster than the cyan mare could handle. “Oof!” Rainbow Dash grunted in pain as Raincloud crashed into her. Thankfully she had temporarily stopped using her shadowy blade, but she seemed to be intent on sending the cyan mare to the ground with her own bare hooves. With a painful crash, some equally painful bounces, and the grey mare being on top of her the whole time, Rainbow Dash skidded to a halt on the floor. Her entire body was throbbing with pain from her impact with the floor, but she couldn’t let her suffering get in the way of her survival. As she quickly tried to get up, she was met by Raincloud forcefully shoving her hooves back down onto her shoulders, effectively pinning her to the ground. “Heh… not so fast after all.” Raincloud smirked in a cocky fashion while enjoying her brief victory. Rainbow Dash looked up and saw that the grey mare’s wings were still unfolded, and they were glowing with shadow energy flowing through them. “You used shadow magic to fly better you cheater!” Rainbow Dash growled angrily at the pegasus’s use of magic to win the fight. “I guess you’re not as hot as you think anymore. Fastest flyer in Ponyville? Give me a break.” Raincloud snickered in a belittling manner, as if she thought that the cyan mare beneath her wasn’t worth the dirt under her hooves. “AHH!” A cry of pain suddenly drew the pair’s attention off to the side. They noticed Twilight still fighting with the shadow, but something was clearly wrong. “*Gasp* Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled fearfully as she saw her friend in distress. The unicorn was clutching a spot on her shoulder that was obviously injured. The shadow was recovering from a strike with its claws held off to the side with a small bit of blood on them. However, the thing that was most troubling was the fact that the specter’s claws were glowing purple. “AGH!” Twilight screamed in pain as she uncovered her injury. The shadow must have only clipped her arm, because the unicorn’s wound was only just bleeding. However, the wound was softly pulsing purple, indicating that whatever agonizing effect the claws had, was now affecting the purple mare. “Well this seems to be wrapping up nicely. Everything is better with a little touch of shadow magic.” Raincloud said with an amused chuckle. “That… hrk! That isn’t fair!” Rainbow Dash stated while struggling to push the grey mare off of her. She kicked and shoved, but Raincloud was standing on her back legs and her shoulders, keeping her limbs in check fairly well. “What’s wrong Rainbow Dash? Can’t get over the fact that there are ponies better than you?” Raincloud asked in a cynical tone while getting close to the cyan mare’s face. “No, I just thought you would have enough spine to not have to use magic to beat me.” Rainbow Dash replied with an irritated glare. “Why you little!” Raincloud growled angrily at the cyan mare’s boldness. She raised her hoof and channeled shadow energy to it once more, creating a short blade that she was prepared to use to destroy the pegasus beneath her. Rainbow Dash cringed and flinched her eyes shut as she resigned to face her doom. Suddenly, a bright flash of light filled the room, followed by a high pitched wail. Rainbow Dash and Raincloud looked over to see the shadow writhing in pain as a beam of light was shot at it by Twilight. Apparently the purple mare managed to fight through whatever pain she was in long enough to cast a spell. “Ow!” Raincloud yelped painfully while clutching her head. Seemingly on cue with the grey mare’s sudden outburst, the beam of light hitting the shadow intensified as Twilight put more energy behind her spell. Seeing an opportunity to escape her dire predicament, Rainbow Dash threw a punch at the grey pegasus’s face as hard as she could. Her hoof made contact with Raincloud’s jaw, creating a satisfying thud and sending the mare reeling. While Rainbow Dash swiftly got to her feet, Raincloud was still recovering from being punched and having a surge of pain course through her from her shadow being violently burned. As her minion finally gave up its attempts at struggling and flew back into the floor underneath her, the grey mare shook her head in a frustrated manner. “Grr… you two are really starting to piss me off!” Raincloud fumed angrily while stamping her hoof on the floor. “Not so tough without your shadow to help you out are you?” Twilight asked with a triumphant smirk while walking over to her cyan friend. She cringed painfully as her shoulder started throbbing again. “Are you ok?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while glancing to the unicorn’s injury. The small wound was still faintly glowing a bright shade of purple, indicating that the shadow’s attack was still having an effect on her. “Yeah, I think so. He must have only clipped me a little bit. I should be fine for the moment.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. Although her shoulder stung a little more than normal for a wound so small, it hurt far less than the agonizing pain Spike and Glitterball went through when they were struck by the shadow. “Good… are you up for putting her in her place?” Rainbow Dash asked with a confident smirk, to which the purple mare nodded. “I’ve been ready ever since I met her.” Twilight said while thinking back to everything the grey mare did when she arrived at the library. Between threatening her friends, badly hurting Spike, and almost killing her, she was ready to show the spiteful pegasus the meaning of the word retribution. While the two mares stood together and glared at their opponent, Raincloud clenched her teeth and growled angrily. Both parties were ready to beat hell out of each other, and now that the odds were slightly more even, perhaps it would be a fair fight. Meanwhile, in the castle throne room, Raven Feather and her followers were still making preparations for the ritual that would make them rulers of Equestria. The black mare and several hooded workers were working tirelessly on drawing a large symbol on the floor. The symbol itself was comprised of a large circle and several smaller circles inside of it that were offset at various points. There was a veritable book’s worth of different magical glyphs and letters written on the outside and inside of all the circles, with some writing even being inscribed on the circles themselves. Celestia watched her captors working with a disdainful expression. Although she was grateful that Raincloud was no longer present to torment her, she was afraid of what the pale mare and her brother could do to Twilight and the others. “Grr…” The alicorn growled under her breath in frustration as she looked down to the metal cuffs keeping her imprisoned. She tried budging them with her strength, but only elicited a few rattles from the infuriating object. As she tried to channel magic to her horn again, it was met with the same numb feeling that she had received before. “You can stop trying to break out. You aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.” Raven Feather said while continuing her work on the symbol. She smirked while looking at the alicorn out of the corner of her eye. “You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t take a liking to your arrangements.” Celestia said in a sarcastic tone while glaring at the black mare. “I’m terribly sorry that your experience has been lacking your majesty. I will have to work on my skills as a competent hostess after I rule the world. I don’t want any visiting dignitaries to think less of me while they grovel at my feet.” Raven Feather replied with an amused chuckle. Celestia sighed in a defeated manner while sitting back down. She was beginning to wonder if anyone could put a stop to the tyrannical earth pony. At any rate, there was nothing she could do to stop her plot in her current state. While the alicorn moped and sulked off to the side, Raven Feather seemed to be having the time of her life. She was swiftly bounding around the symbol, making quick adjustments and drawing glyphs while laughing like a giddy child. She had been waiting for this day to come for years, and it was easy to tell that she was enjoying herself. “Let’s see... put this here, and that there… Ah! There we are.” Raven Feather stated in a pleased tone while stepping back from the symbol. “Is it finished?” Grimwood asked curiously from the side of the room. “The symbol is done. Now all we need to do is finish preparations for the spell itself.” Raven Feather explained before turning to one of the hooded workers off to the side. “How is the pool of energy holding up?” She asked curiously. The hooded pony looked down to a glowing pictogram on the floor near a pile of books. “Everything looks good on this end. The fear we gathered up is stable at the moment.” The worker informed in an obedient tone. “Splendid! Now we just need to wait for Raincloud and Dust Kicker to finish mopping up Twilight Sparkle and her band of weaklings.” Raven Feather said while rubbing her hooves together excitedly. “They’ve been fighting out there for a while… shouldn’t they have been done by now?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. The red stallion’s question made the black mare ponder as to why it was taking so long for the two siblings to fight the element wielders. Surely with their combined skills it would have been an easy task to get rid of them. “Hmm… this isn’t like them to be so sloppy. You there, could you go check to see what is going on out there?” Raven Feather asked while pointing to one of the unoccupied workers. The teal mare looked surprised to have been singled out, but she was quick to nod and get up to perform her given task. Everyone watched as the earth pony walked across the room and over to the doors at the far end. She paused in front of them for a moment, hesitating with a nervous expression before slowly reaching for the handle and cracking the door open. With just a small fraction of an opening in the door, a muffled racket of yells and crashes could be heard from the other room. The teal mare looked through the crack in the door and moved her head around to get as much of a look as she could without anyone in the other room seeing her. “Well? Are they done yet? How many of them are left?” Raven Feather asked curiously. “Actually… it looks like they’re losing.” The hooded pony replied in a surprised tone. “Who?” Raven Feather asked while furrowing her brow in a confused manner. The teal mare looked again to make sure of what she was seeing. She gulped nervously before closing the door and turning and facing the others. “Raincloud and Dust Kicker from the looks of it.” The earth pony explained in an anxious tone. Raven Feather stammered with a stunned expression on her face. She was completely flabbergasted that she was even hearing such a statement. She contemplated whether or not the mare was lying to her, but she probably wasn’t suicidal enough to consider such a prank. “Move aside, let me see this.” Raven Feather stated while trotting over to the door and nudging the teal mare aside. She peered through the crack in the door and watched intently. Not only were all of the element bearers alive and well, but they were in fact holding their own against Raincloud and her brother. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity were all keeping ahead of two empowered darklings while Dust Kicker watched. Raincloud’s shadow was nowhere to be found, and the grey mare herself was fighting Twilight and Rainbow Dash. What’s more, she appeared to be evenly matched with the pair. Raven Feather couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “This can’t be happening. Surely six ordinary ponies shouldn’t be this big of a problem.” Raven Feather muttered uneasily while walking away from the door. “That’s where you’re mistaken Raven Feather. They aren’t just six ordinary ponies.” Celestia said with a pleased smirk. Raven Feather offered a passing glare to the smug alicorn as she thought further about the matter. She had to speed up the ritual so it could be done before the royal guard received reinforcements, but she couldn’t do it without Raincloud and Dust Kicker present. They had worked too hard to achieve her goal for her to just cut them out of their well-deserved victory. Suddenly, Raven Feather’s eyes wandered over to the side of the room as a thought popped into her head. She looked over to the broken Katana blade she had taken from the human after she beat him. The luminescent stub of a blade was calling to her, almost insisting that she indulge in the devious idea that was floating around in her mind. “Grim… I want you to keep an eye on the workers and make sure they are doing things to my specifications.” Raven Feather spoke up to her brother while walking across the room and picking up the broken sword by its handle. “Where are you going?” Grimwood asked curiously while watching the black mare stroll towards the door with her prize in hoof. “I’m going to go give Raincloud and Dust Kicker a helping hoof with disposing of the elements.” Raven Feather replied with a sinister smirk plastered on her face. As she reached the door and stood before it, she took one last look around the room, putting extra focus on the imprisoned alicorn and her horrified expression. “If you want something done right, you might as well do it yourself.” The black mare said while chuckling to herself. She turned back to the door and channeled her shadow magic through her body. Suddenly, a black puff of purple tinted smoke erupted from beneath Raven Feather and swiftly enveloped her. When the smoke cleared, she and her weapon were completely invisible. Celestia gasped quietly as the doors to the other room opened a small way and closed. She looked down to her bonds and struggled to break free again. She had to do something to help Twilight and the others before it was too late, but she was powerless to escape from the runes etched into her cuffs. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist and Grimwood were left alone to themselves as the workers in the room went about doing their assigned tasks. Celestia wasn’t paying much attention to them, and Raven Feather was indeed gone from the room. “Hey Grim… do you think you should make your move now?” Shadow Mist whispered while nudging towards the symbol. The pale colt glanced down to the floor beside him where he was keeping his satchel of supplies hidden behind shadow magic. He smirked for a moment before turning to the red stallion with a confident expression. “Don’t worry, we’ll get our shot. I’ll let her go on with the ritual first. When she fails, the energy will still be useable for our adjustments.” Grimwood explained in a patient tone. “Besides, I don’t want to ruin her fun right now by making adjustments to the symbol behind her back.” He added while glancing towards the door. Shadow Mist smirked as he thought about the black mare and what she would do to the element bearers. “Agh!” Raincloud yelped in pain as a magical blast whizzed past her leg, just barely singeing her skin. She ducked her head, nearly catching another one in the face. Rainbow Dash watched with gleeful anticipation as Twilight fired at the grey mare repeatedly. She was ready to jump in and take action if the pegasus stopped dodging and started attacking again. “Keep it up Twilight! You’ve got her right where you want her!” Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly, much to the frustration of the grey mare dodging fire. “Stop doing that!” Raincloud yelled angrily while hopping over another bolt. “What’s the matter Raincloud? Don’t like it when someone uses magic on you?” Twilight asked with a wry smirk. “Grrr…” Raincloud growled under her breath while shooting the two mares an icy glare. Finally deciding that enough was enough, she channeled shadow energy to her hoof and shoved it forward. A ball of fiery energy shot out and sailed towards the purple unicorn. Twilight yelped in surprise while ducking to the side. She managed to completely dodge the attack, but she was forced to stop firing on the grey mare with her horn. “Heh…” Raincloud smirked triumphantly, until she took a look to the side to discover that Rainbow Dash was missing from her original position beside the purple mare. “Wait, what the…?” She muttered in a confused tone. Before she could look for the missing pegasus, she heard something swooping down from above her. “Hyah!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while spinning around to deliver a kick to the grey mare. Her back leg collided with Raincloud’s side, knocking her off balance and sending her tumbling to the floor with a painful yelp. “Nice one Rainbow!” Twilight cheered in excitement. Rainbow Dash smiled triumphantly while pumping her arm in the air. While the two mares were celebrating, Raincloud was still recovering from the blow to her side. She rolled to a stop a few feet away with a throbbing pain in her side. As she looked up to see her opponents reveling in their small victory, she couldn’t help but to get even more infuriated. “Gah… Dust Kicker, help me out here would you?!” Raincloud yelled across the room to her brother, who was still watching his darklings fighting the other three mares. She hated how often he just sat back and watched his minions toying with people without even using his full strength. Dust Kicker looked over to see the grey mare on the floor. He briefly contemplated laughing at her for her slip up, but quickly realized that she was legitimately in trouble. “Got it.” Dust Kicker stated while starting to make his way to help his sibling. Before he could even get a few steps away, he was interrupted by someone stepping in front of him. “You aren’t going anywhere.” Applejack said in a firm tone while standing her ground against the stallion. The orange mare had apparently noticed the stallion going to help the grey mare and slipped away from the two darklings while the others took care of them. “I’m going to suggest that you get out of my way.” Dust Kicker said while glaring at the orange mare. “And Ah’m going to suggest that you stay away from my friends.” Applejack replied while matching his glare in intensity. Dust Kicker glanced over to his two remaining darklings. The two beasts were occupied with trying to get at Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. If the stallion was going to deal with the orange mare in front of him, he would have to do it himself. With a disquieting crackle, the tip of Dust Kicker’s hoof was enveloped with pulsating shadows. He glared at Applejack with sinister intent, causing the orange mare to sweat nervously. “What’s the matter hotshot… you need magic to handle little old me?” Applejack asked in a cynical tone while putting on the best wry smirk she could, given her fear of the stallion and what he was capable of. Thankfully, her façade seemed to hide her terror rather well, and even seemed to be working. Dust Kicker growled under his breath before relaxing his face. He wasn’t about to let some farm hand insult him. The energy around his hoof vanished, but he still had the same evil intention in his eyes. He cracked his neck to the sides and stretched for a moment before glaring at the orange mare. “I’m going to enjoy this.” Dust Kicker said with a smirk. Applejack was a little nervous to be fighting one on one with such a dangerous foe, but she was confident that she would give him a run for his money. While the two ponies faced off, Raincloud was stuck without the backup she requested. She growled angrily while getting to her feet. As she winced involuntarily from the pain in her side, her frustration only grew towards Twilight and her cyan friend. “Wow... I think she’s about to pop a blood vessel or something.” Rainbow Dash said with an amused chuckle as she watched the frustrated mare. “Um… Rainbow Dash, I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to taunt the highly dangerous magic user.” Twilight said in a cautionary tone. “Don’t worry Twilight, she isn’t even confident in herself anymore. She’s asking big bro over there to bail her out.” Rainbow Dash replied with a confident smirk. “Grrr…” Raincloud growled furiously while glaring at the cyan pegasus. She was practically seeing red from how angry she was. As she thought more about how much she wanted to throttle the cocky mare, she realized that she was going to be alone in her efforts, and she was perfectly ok with that. Channeling shadow energy to her wings, she readied herself for a swift attack to catch her opponent off guard. Rainbow Dash glanced over to the grey mare as she noticed a hint of a purple glow. By the time she looked over to her, Raincloud had vanished into a blur of shadows that was heading straight for her. In an instant, she felt something slam into her, knocking her to the floor and holding her down. “Guh!” Rainbow Dash grunted painfully as the air was knocked from her lungs. She looked up to see the grey mare sitting on top of her with a livid expression on her face. “I don’t need any help to kill you! I just need my bare hooves and natural talent!” Raincloud yelled in the cyan mare’s face. She reeled her arm back and channeled shadow energy to her hoof. The shadowy aura elongated until it shrunk to a point, creating a makeshift blade. Rainbow Dash felt every nerve in her body explode into shock. She could feel the numbing coldness of the shadowy blade mere inches away from her skin. She wondered if she would live for long enough to feel the cold, or if she would die instantly from the strike. Before Raincloud had a chance to complete her attack, she was enveloped by a purple magical aura. The confused mare looked around for the source of the aura, but before she could find anything, she felt herself being sent flying into the air against her will. “AH!” Raincloud yelped as she flew across the room. She tried to spread her wings to break her flight, but the force used to fling her away was too great. The grey mare slammed into a wall on the other side of the room and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Rainbow Dash looked over to see Twilight with her horn still lit up. She couldn’t help but smile at her near death experience, which the unicorn reciprocated. “Nice save Twilight.” Rainbow said in a grateful tone while getting to her feet. “Anytime… just try not to antagonize the bad guy next time?” Twilight asked with a slight chuckle while walking up to the cyan mare. “Raincloud!” Dust Kicker yelled in an alarmed tone. The stallion broke away from his confrontation with Applejack to rush to his sister’s side. The grey mare was moaning in pain as she slowly writhed on the ground and attempted to get up. “See that, Raincloud? I don’t need any special powers to help me when I have friends to pick up the slack.” Rainbow Dash said with a pleased smirk while taking a few steps toward the two siblings. *SHINK* A wet gush suddenly filled the air, followed by a startled cry that died out as quickly as it started. Rainbow Dash felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as a knot slowly developed in her stomach. She immediately recognized the source of the pained outcry. As she turned around slowly, she was faced with a sight that made her face pale instantly. Twilight was standing still with a shocked expression on her face. There was blood dripping to the floor steadily, blood that was coming from a wound on the unicorn’s chest. As the purple mare shakily looked down and put a hoof beside the wound, she and everyone else in the room got a grim idea of how severe it was. Before anyone could react further, a purple tinted mist formed at the edge of Twilight’s wound and traveled out into the air, leaving a short luminescent blade sticking out of her chest. The mist traveled further than the hilt of the broken sword, revealing a black hoof holding onto it and a familiar mare standing in front of the purple unicorn. Judging from the descriptions they had gotten on the hooded ponies from Cotton Quill, this was Raven Feather. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash screamed in utter shock as she watched her friend’s legs wobbling from weakness. Twilight’s eyes were wide and she was whining softly from the pain, almost like she didn’t have the energy to yell. Everyone else in the room paused what they were doing as they heard the cyan mare’s outcry. Once they looked over to see the black mare sticking a sword into their friend, they widened their eyes in shock and froze up with dread. “Agh!” Pinkie yelped as one of the darklings bit into her leg. She shook the beast off before grabbing her strobe in a fit of frustration and adrenaline and shoving it into the darkling’s mouth. Once she fired and dispatched the creature into a pile of smoke, she aimed at the other creature about to maim Fluttershy as she was distracted. Firing a bolt of energy at the beast’s mouth, she successfully dealt with the two creatures that had been troubling her and her friends since they started fighting. Instead of celebrating her victory however, the pink mare was staring ahead at the scene before her with a horrified expression. Raven Feather grinned sadistically while gripping the hilt of the blade tightly. She leaned in close to the stunned unicorn’s ear and whispered to her. “Why don’t you go keep Princess Luna company?” Raven Feather asked with a smirk. Without even moving away from the purple mare, the earth pony shoved on the hilt of the blade, burying the short katana the rest of the way into her chest. A spray of blood gushed out as Twilight lurched forward involuntarily. Her cry of pain was strangled as a trickle of blood fell from her mouth. The burning sensation in her chest was almost enough to send her to her knees, but somehow she remained standing, albeit on shaky legs. “NO!” Rainbow Dash yelled while racing forward to help her friend. Once she got close enough to warrant Raven Feather’s attention, the black mare stuck her hoof out and used her shadow magic to push the pegasus away and onto her back. Now that she was free of distraction, Raven Feather turned to Twilight and smirked victoriously. She placed her free hoof on the unicorn’s chest while still gripping the blade with her other hoof. With a mighty shove, the black mare pushed Twilight backwards while pulling the sword out of her chest. Due to the jagged nature of the blade and its small size, it was relatively easy to separate the two, leaving the purple mare to stumble backwards in a stunned state of pain. Twilight fell backwards and landed on her back, but any other sensations were overshadowed by the stabbing pain in her chest. She could feel her heart racing and her limbs shaking, but most of all, she felt herself steadily getting weaker. “TWILIGHT!” All five mares yelled in unison as they bolted forward towards the purple mare. They didn’t even care about their three enemies watching from the sidelines anymore. All they cared about now was reaching their friend. Raven Feather watched with a pleased smirk as the five mares raced in a clumsy panic to pick the unicorn up to her feet and half walk, half drag her away. Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood on either side of the purple mare and helped her walk, while the others followed the three with fearful expressions. “Shouldn’t we be stopping them?” Dust Kicker asked while walking over to the black mare. Raven Feather looked over to see the brown stallion and his still disoriented sister coming up to her and watching the fleeing ponies. Raven Feather chuckled warmly as she looked over to the blood trail that the purple unicorn was leaving. There were steady droplets and pools of blood leading behind the six mares as they carried their friend to the door at the other end of the room. She looked down to the blood on her own hooves and let a small smile creep across her face. “No… let them go tend to their friend. I wouldn’t want to interrupt their last moments with her. We can go check to see how far they made it with her after she dies.” Raven Feather said in a confident tone. “So we’re waiting here then? Good… I think Raincloud could use a break.” Dust Kicker said with a wry smirk while turning to his sister. The grey mare was holding her head and wincing in pain from her undoubtedly sore body. “You know what Dust? Bite me…” Raincloud stated in an irritated tone before flinching in pain. Raven Feather smiled warmly as her two cohorts sat down on the floor and settled in. She was confident that her plan was going as smoothly as it could have been, especially now that the elements of harmony would be out of play. Twilight whined softly as her chest stung even more. She hung her head in a hazy disoriented state as she tried to keep moving. Her legs were moving along at a sluggish pace, but the only reason she was staying upright was due to the added support from the two mares beside her. “Twilight! Are you ok?!” A muffled voice rang out from beside her. She was certain it was one of her friends, but they sounded so far away. “Ugh…” Twilight groaned painfully as her head drooped lower. She was staring at the floor now, though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to spend the energy to right herself. There was blood steadily dropping to the floor beneath her. She could see the crimson fluid leaving her body, but she couldn’t see the droplets hitting the floor as her friends pushed onwards despite her weakness. Despite her inability to see it, she was sure that she was leaving a sizable trail of blood behind her. “Is she going to be alright?” Another concerned voice rang out from slightly behind her. She determined the owner of the voice to be Fluttershy. Her ears weren’t ringing as much, and the haze she seemed to be in was clearing. Despite her clearer state of mind, her body still felt numb and weak aside from the excruciating pain in her chest. “She’s going to be fine Fluttershy! We just need to get her out of here and find some help!” Rainbow Dash stated in a frantic tone. Her voice was full of genuine fear and dread, two emotions Twilight rarely saw the cyan mare express. Suddenly, her legs gave out from under her, causing Twilight to stumble and fall slightly. She would have face planted onto the floor had the two mares beside her not caught her and pushed her back up to her feet. Although they were practically lifting her up as her legs did the motions of walking, the group was somehow still making progress. Applejack looked down and noticed that her hooves were now covered in blood. She hadn’t even paid much notice to it when she picked the unicorn up, but now the sight of the crimson staining on her hooves made her shudder with dread. “Twilight, can you hear me?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone while leveling her head with the dazed unicorn. Twilight shifted her eyes over to the orange mare and groaned in pain. The pale look on her friend’s face made a cold chill run down Applejack’s spine. “We’re going to get you out of here Twilight. Just hang in there for us ok?” Pinkie Pie asked in what she hoped would be a reassuring tone. Normally she would have been comforting the unicorn and the rest of her friends, but she felt far too afraid and horrified to even put on a smile. As they rushed through the corridors of the castle towards the entrance, it became clearer and clearer to the five mares just how badly injured Twilight was. The unicorn could barely lift her head up or make coordinated movements. Her legs looked like they could give out at any moment. And to add to the poor situation, the purple mare was whining and groaning in pain, painting a terrible picture of how much she was suffering. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the six mares reached the entryway. The sight of the double doors at the far end of the room filled them with enough relief to keep them going. “We’re here! We’re almost out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in excitement while turning to the dazed unicorn beside her. Twilight seemed far too distracted to even hear her. “What about the darklings outside?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous tone. If they couldn’t fight their way through the horde of beasts with healthy numbers and three strobes, then they stood no chance with limited equipment and their best unicorn severely injured. “I will fly her over those things myself if I have to. You guys can stay here and find another way around while I get her to help.” Rainbow Dash explained in a determined tone. The thought of being left alone in the castle with the hooded ponies didn’t even cross the group’s minds. The only objective in their minds was to get Twilight medical attention. As they journeyed down the two sets of stairs, Applejack and Rainbow Dash could feel Twilight’s strength slowly giving out. The purple mare was slowly putting more and more weight on them. Soon enough they would just be carrying her dead weight around, a thought which had far more grim implications than the two mares wanted to think about. Finally, Twilight could take no more. Even though they were down the stairs and halfway to the door, she could go no further. Her legs were completely exhausted, and she felt physically ill from her severe wounds. “S-stop…” Twilight instructed in an exasperated tone as her legs gave out from under her. She groaned in a mixture of tiredness and pain as she let her entire body fall to the floor. Despite Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s attempts at keeping her upright, they couldn’t stop the unicorn from falling to the floor on her side. “Twilight, get up!” Rainbow Dash pleaded while nudging the purple mare. Twilight shook her head while maneuvering herself onto her back. “I can’t.” Twilight explained in a weak tone. “We’re so close! We can get you some help once we make it outside! Maybe the others already signaled for help and the royal guard is already here.” Rainbow Dash suggested in a desperate tone. “No… Rainbow Dash, I-” Twilight started to speak up, until she was interrupted by a fit of intense coughing. With a final wet cough, another trickle of blood shot out of her mouth and fell to the floor. “I can’t go further.” Twilight explained in a sickly tone while pleading with the cyan mare with her eyes. Everyone frowned sadly as they realized that she felt too ill to even move anymore. “Ok… ok… We can… we can get you some help from here! I can go get someone and be back here before you know it!” Rainbow Dash said while starting towards the door. “No!” Twilight cried while trying to get up and reach for the cyan pegasus. She winced in pain while clutching the wound on her chest and going back to the floor. Rainbow Dash walked back over to the circle of mares around the wounded unicorn with a confused expression. “But Twilight, I have to do something to get you help!” Rainbow Dash explained in a distraught tone. “Please don’t leave me… I want you to stay here.” Twilight said in a pleading tone while clenching her eyes shut to deal with the pain she was feeling. Rainbow Dash stared at the purple mare with a fearful expression of sorrow and concern. She wanted to just scoop her up in her arms and carry her to the nearest hospital. She would fly her all the way to Ponyville in a matter of a few minutes if she had to. “Rainbow… If we can’t take her there ourselves, there isn’t much we can do for her other than stay with her. If someone was coming, they would already be on their way. You flying out there to tell them they need to get here faster wouldn’t change anything.” Rarity explained in a saddened tone. “Ok… we can stay here.” Rainbow Dash said while looking down to the injured unicorn with a concerned expression. “But if we’re staying here, then we need to do everything we can to keep her alive.” She said while rushing over to the purple mare’s side. Applejack and the others backed up a little bit to give the cyan pegasus room. Rainbow Dash knelt down beside Twilight and examined her wound further. The mere sight of the bloody gash made her sick with concern and fear. Although she knew next to nothing about first aid, she knew that losing that much blood was probably a bad thing. “Twilight, you need to keep pressure on the wound. Can you do that for us?” Rainbow Dash asked in a pleading tone. Twilight glanced down to the wound on her chest. She slowly moved her arm up and placed it over the length of the gash. As she pressed down on it with all the strength she could muster, she cringed painfully and let a small groan escape her lips. “It hurts so much…” Twilight said in a distraught tone while rocking her head back. There were tears streaming down her face, but it was hard to tell if they were caused by the pain, or her shocked emotions. “I know it hurts Twilight, but you have to stay strong for us. Just keep pressing on that and focus on staying awake.” Rainbow Dash said in a sympathetic tone. “Girls… I think… I think I’m going to die.” Twilight said in a frightened tone while taking note of her current state of health. “You’re not going to die. I don’t think she hit anything too vital… I hope.” Rainbow Dash muttered uneasily. “All we need to do is control the bleeding and you’ll be fine.” She added in a reassuring tone, though the others couldn’t tell if she was trying to reassure the purple mare or herself. “Rarity, is there anything you can do with your magic to help her?” Applejack asked in a hopeful tone. “I’m afraid not. I can’t do anything to even begin to heal a wound this big.” Rarity explained in a sad tone. Rainbow Dash glanced over to her friends with a worried expression. She had never seen such somber expressions on their faces, and earlier in the day they had been to a funeral. She hoped that they could somehow keep Twilight alive long enough for help to arrive. When she looked back at the purple mare, Rainbow Dash gasped in shock as she saw her with her eyes closed and a drowsy expression on her face. “Hey, wake up!” Rainbow Dash said while gently shaking the purple mare. Twilight jolted awake and looked around in a surprised stupor. “Wha…? W-what… happened?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “I need you to stay awake, Twilight. Just keep looking at me and focus on keeping your eyes open.” Rainbow Dash explained while putting a reassuring hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. “Ok… ok…” Twilight replied while nodding slightly. Everyone looked to the unicorn with saddened expressions as she lay on the floor trying to stay alive. Her breathing was heavy and erratic, and she didn’t move aside from gentle fidgets to deal with the pain she was feeling. The hoof she was using to keep pressure on her wound was already stained red from her own blood, and she was shaking weakly any time she tried moving a muscle. “There has to be something we can do to help her. Maybe there are some medical supplies somewhere in the castle.” Pinkie Pie suggested in a troubled tone. “There aren’t any on this side of the castle… and besides, I don’t want any of you running into the hooded ponies.” Twilight explained in a concerned tone. It nearly broke the five mares’ hearts to hear the unicorn expressing concern for them in her current state. “Did they follow us?” Fluttershy asked in a nervous tone while glancing up the stairs behind her. “If they did, they will sorely regret it.” Rainbow Dash said in an angry tone. She was ready to tear Raven Feather’s head off for doing this to her friend. “No… no more fighting.” Twilight said while flinching painfully. “What?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “Look at us Rainbow… we shouldn’t have been fighting them in the first place. We barely got out of there with our lives… and I’m not quite sure if I did just yet.” Twilight explained sadly while looking over to her friends. Pinkie Pie winced in pain while looking down to her leg. She was bleeding slightly from where the darkling bit her, but it wasn’t nearly as severe as Twilight’s injury or Fluttershy’s wing. Everyone looked back to the purple mare with sad expressions as they realized what she meant. “But… we were winning! We had those jerks on the ropes until Raven Feather came in and pulled that stupid invisibility stunt!” Rainbow Dash protested in an upset tone. She couldn’t believe she was hearing Twilight Sparkle having regrets over fighting against bad guys. “Please… just don’t fight them anymore.” Twilight pleaded in a desperate tone. Before she could say anything else, she coughed violently. No more blood came out, but the wet sound suggested that her insides were still in poor shape. “Ok… we won’t fight them.” Rainbow Dash said with a sincere nod. She didn’t care about fighting to justify something, not when the unicorn was wounded so severely. Everyone watched somberly as Twilight breathed in and out. It seemed like she was having trouble breathing from how much air she was sucking in with each inhale. The others wondered if perhaps she had a punctured lung, but it was hard to confirm without medical equipment or training. “Hey… could you do something for me?” Twilight asked in a weak tone. “Sure… anything.” Rainbow Dash said in an eager tone while leaning closer to the exhausted mare. “Can you tell Spike I’m sorry… and that I love him?” Twilight asked in a somber tone. The others were shocked to hear such a request. From how serious she sounded, the unicorn must have thought she was dying. “You can tell him yourself. We’re getting you out of here.” Rainbow Dash said in a reassuring tone. “Ok… but in case I don’t, I just wanted to say that you guys are the best friends I have ever had. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for all of you… I love you so much.” Twilight said while tearing up slightly. Everyone else teared up as well from hearing the unicorn talk like she was about to die. “Stop talking like this Twi… you’re started to make me all sappy.” Rainbow Dash said while sniffling slightly and wiping her eyes. Twilight smiled slightly while looking around at the others. Suddenly she drooped her head to the side and closed her eyes. Her arm slid off her wound slightly, and her breathing stopped. The sudden change in her condition made everyone gasp in shock. “Is she… is she dead?!” Rarity asked in a distraught tone. “Hey, wake up!” Rainbow Dash yelled while shaking the unicorn. When she showed no response, the cyan mare slapped her in the face. Suddenly Twilight gasped and shot upwards in an adrenaline fueled rush. She breathed rapidly for a few moments before Rainbow Dash gently pushed her back to a resting position. “Don’t do that to us again Twilight. You almost gave me a heart attack!” Rainbow Dash said in a relieved tone. “Sorry… I’m just so drowsy.” Twilight said while trying to keep from slipping away again. “Keep pressure on your wound. You need to keep that blood loss in check.” Rainbow Dash said while gently grabbing the unicorn’s arm and placing her hoof back on her injury. She decided to help put pressure on it to compensate for the purple mare’s weakness. Everyone watched sadly as Twilight clung to life. She remained still, breathing heavily and staring up with a glazed look in her eye that told of a great deal of pain. Somehow, even through all of her pain and suffering, the unicorn still managed to have a concerned expression on her face. She seemed to be contemplating something deeply. Perhaps she was thinking of her own mortality, or how her death might affect the ones she loved. “Girls… I really don’t think I’m going to make it.” Twilight said in a weak tone. “Twilight…” Fluttershy muttered sadly while staring at the sickly mare with teary eyes. She could barely stand seeing her friend like this, and the others weren’t faring much better. “You listen to me Twilight Sparkle. You can get those thoughts out of your head and stop talking like you’re going to die. I believe in you… you can get through this.” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. Her voice trembled a little bit, deceiving her sense of confidence in the unicorn’s chances of survival. “I don’t think I can Rainbow Dash… I feel so cold… so tired.” Twilight replied in a somber tone. Suddenly the cyan pegasus started sniffling and tearing up while looking down. “Dangit Twilight… *Sniff* You can’t die here… we… we need you!” Rainbow Dash said in a distraught manner while looking up to face the unicorn. She was barely holding herself together as tears streamed down her face freely and her lips quivered. “Rainbow…” Twilight muttered in a sad tone. “If it wasn’t for you, none of us would be as good friends as we are now! We wouldn’t have had all those adventures… none of those cherished memories would have even happened!” Rainbow Dash said while squeezing the purple mare’s hoof tighter in her own. “You never gave up on any of us. Even when I was dead to rights back at the mansion, you didn’t give up on me. So now, I’m not going to give up on you. You can beat this! We’re all here with you… so don’t you dare die on us!” She said with as much devotion as she could before trailing off into a series of sniffles and sobs. “Rainbow Dash… I’m… I’m… so-” Twilight muttered in a dazed tone. Suddenly the unicorn cut off mid-sentence. Her eyes fluttered for a moment before drooping shut. Rainbow Dash felt her arm going limp in her grasp as her head settled to the floor and rolled to the side. “T…T-Twilight?” Rainbow Dash whimpered softly in a stunned tone. She gently shook the purple mare, only to receive no response. “Talk to me Twilight… say something!” She yelled in a distraught tone while trying everything she could to wake the unicorn up. The four mares watching from the side felt their hearts sink as they watched the unicorn for any signs of motion. Her chest was still, with no indication that she was breathing. The only movements arising from the purple mare were either from Rainbow Dash trying to shake her awake, or from her blood flowing into the steadily growing puddle beneath her. “Twilight…? Twilight?!” Rainbow Dash could barely create legible words amid her shock. She raised a shaky hoof and placed it against the unicorn’s neck. She waited patiently, desperately hoping to feel a pulse. One second, two seconds, ten seconds, all passing by without anything pushing back against her hoof. “N…n-no…” Rainbow Dash muttered in denial while checking again for a pulse. With a distraught feeling of frustration building inside of her, she groaned while putting her ear over the purple mare’s chest to listen directly for her heart. Everyone else was stuck with a silent sob caught in the back of their throats as they watched with teary eyes. “No… no… no, no, no!” Rainbow Dash finally broke down into a fit of crying as she buried her head into Twilight’s chest. She felt the wave of emotion she had been burying inside of her coming to the surface as it finally sank in. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy immediately burst out crying while covering their faces. Rarity and Applejack managed to hold back for a few seconds, but even they began sobbing and had to turn away to prevent themselves from looking at their fallen friend. The five mares wailed and cried like they never had before. Each had felt hardship and tragedy in the past few days, but nothing as heart rending as losing one of their own. They felt like a part of them had just died, and they were inconsolable in their grief. None of them had ever even thought of the possibility of one of them dying to be real when they eagerly stepped forward to fight the hooded ponies. They understood the risks, and they acknowledged the possibility of death, but somehow it never felt like it could actually happen. And now that it had, everything was crashing down on top of them. Memories of the times they shared with the purple unicorn came flooding to the surface as they all wept over her body. She had always been their brave leader, able to find the courage needed to best any evil plot that threatened her home, but now she had lost. She had been struck down in an agonizing display of blood and tears, before she even had a chance to lead them to victory. Not only was she one of Equestria’s greatest protectors, but she had been one of its greatest denizens as well. Throughout her lessons in friendship, she had always strived to be a caring and kind individual, ready and eager to help her friends with any problem they might have. She had touched the hearts of so many in such a short time. Ponyville, and possible the whole of Equestria might have been different if she never came along. After several minutes of openly sobbing and crying, the five mares quieted down slightly. They hadn’t gotten better, far from it in fact. The pain they felt had only gotten worse as they gradually accepted that this was really happening and not just some dream. Truth be told, their cries only died down because their systems couldn’t handle crying any more. Now only broken sobs and sharp hiccups or sniffles filled the air as they all stared at the unicorn on the ground with mournful expressions. Rainbow Dash listened to the steady sobs of her friends as she stared at Twilight’s unmoving face. She was lost amid her own thoughts, blocking out everything else that was going on. She wondered how the unicorn’s family would take the news of her death, or how Princess Celestia would react when she learned that her faithful student had perished. Finally she shuddered as she realized that Spike had to be informed at some point. The young dragon would probably be destroyed by the news. After all, he had lived with the purple mare for all of his life. Twilight might as well have been a big sister to him. Suddenly, the cyan mare’s mind turned to Raven Feather and the hooded ponies. She glanced behind her and stared at the door to the rest of the castle at the top of the stairs. The more she thought about the sadistic smirk on Raven Feather’s face, the more her blood began to boil. She looked back down to Twilight and clenched her teeth angrily. The black mare hadn’t just taken her friend from her, but she reveled in plunging that sword into her chest. She was actually pleased to see the shocked expression of pain on the unicorn’s face as she performed the bloody deed, and that made Rainbow Dash more furious than she had ever been in her life. Now, all the sadness she felt was replaced with anger. “Grr…” The cyan mare growled under her breath while getting up and turning around. She clenched her teeth so hard that her jaw hurt. Her entire head felt like it was vibrating from the sheer force of her rage, but at least she had something to direct it towards. Suddenly the cyan pegasus yelled fiercely while charging forward. She galloped towards the stairs at top speed with a death glare fixed on her face. She probably would have jumped up the stairs in one bound, if she hadn’t been stopped in her tracks by Applejack gripping her tail. “Rainbow Dash, stop!” Applejack stated through clenched teeth as she fought to keep the pegasus from storming off towards danger. “Let me go!” Rainbow Dash yelled angrily while pulling against the orange pony. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop herself from being pulled backwards slightly. “What the devil are you doing Rainbow Dash?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “I’m going to beat Raven Feather within an inch of her life!” Rainbow Dash replied with pure rage evident in her voice. “You can’t do that! If you go back there, it would be suicide!” Pinkie Pie said in a shocked tone while gasping at the cyan mare’s reckless abandon. “I don’t care!” Rainbow Dash yelled while yanking her tail out of Applejack’s grip. The orange mare had to race forward to catch her again, this time putting an even stronger grip on her tail. “Stop hollering like a mad mare and think about this for a minute Rainbow! Twilight wouldn’t have wanted you to throw your life away!” Applejack stated in a concerned tone. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped running, causing the orange mare to fall back from pulling so hard. “Wouldn’t have wanted?!” Rainbow Dash yelled angrily while turning to face the orange mare. “Don’t talk to me about what she wanted Applejack! She didn’t want to die!” She said in a raised voice while glaring at the earth pony. Applejack flinched nervously and prepared to receive a verbal beating from the pegasus. She was surprised to hear the cyan pony sobbing again. Applejack looked up to see Rainbow Dash sitting on the floor and crying into her hooves. She wasn’t expecting to see such an abrupt change in emotion from the pegasus. It certainly caught her off guard to say the least. “What’s wrong Rainbow?” Applejack asked in a sympathetic tone. She had known the cyan mare for long enough to tell that something was bothering her, other than the obvious fact that her friend just died in front of her. “I was right there!” Rainbow Dash stated in a distraught tone. “What?” Applejack asked in a confused tone. “I was just a few feet away from her! I should have done something… it… it should have been me that got stabbed!” Rainbow Dash sobbed openly while hiding her face from the others. Everyone gasped in concern as they heard the shocking statement. “Rainbow… Ah know this hurts… it hurts all of us just as bad as you. There wasn’t anything you could have done to stop it. By the time any of us heard, it was already too late.” Applejack said in a sympathetic tone while scooting closer to the cyan mare and putting a hoof on her shoulder. “I know… I just… I just…” Rainbow Dash sniffled loudly while looking up at the others. “I would do anything to get her back.” She said in a mournful tone while looking over to the purple unicorn. “We all would sugar cube… we all would.” Applejack said while putting her arm around the cyan pegasus. Rainbow Dash lowered her head sadly and sobbed quietly while the orange mare comforted her. Pinkie Pie sniffled sadly while turning to Rarity and Fluttershy. The pink pony sobbed loudly before grabbing the two and pulling them in for a hug to comfort herself. The two mares couldn’t help but to tear up alongside the others as they slowly coped with their loss. After a while, the five ponies could finally turn their attention to what they needed to do next. They were no match for Raven Feather and her group, not without Twilight there to band them together at least. Besides, they had promised the purple mare to not fight them anymore, so the only option they had was to go find help. “Come on girls… lets go. We can make them pay for this when we have numbers on our side.” Applejack said in a determined tone. Everyone nodded somberly while strengthening their resolve to see justice brought to the hooded ponies. Everyone got up and slowly walked to the front of the room. Once at the entrance, they opened the doors and peeked outside to search for darklings. Seeing only the empty grounds of the castle before them, they knew that they could make it through the town once they got a head start. Taking one last look back at Twilight’s lifeless body, the five mares looked down sadly before walking outside and closing the door. They were determined to make sure that nobody else lost their life to the cult of ponies and their sadistic leader.
Chapter 96: ComplicationsAs work continued on preparing for the ritual, the throne room was buzzing with ponies walking to and fro to complete their assigned tasks. Various workers read from books, arranged candles, touched up on magical symbols in and around the main circle on the floor, and other such complex looking duties. Grimwood stood at the sidelines overseeing the progress on the ritual while still tending to Shadow Mist. He smirked slightly as his and his sister’s dream was coming to fruition before his very eyes. Soon enough, the world would be their oyster to do with what they wanted. “Put that candle a little to the left.” Grimwood instructed to an earth pony mare arranging candles by the main symbol. The mare looked at the colt for a moment before observing her work. She nodded in revelation while nudging an askew candle back into line with the others. Meanwhile, Celestia was watching the pale colt overseeing the numerous ponies in the room. She wondered how someone so young could be wrapped up with ponies of Raven Feather’s twisted ilk. Even if the black mare was his older sister, surely he had some form of morals that told him what she was doing was wrong. “You know… you don’t have to do this.” The alicorn said in a sympathetic tone while looking at the colt and leveling with him. “And?” Grimwood asked in a curious tone, as if the princess hadn’t finished her line of reasoning. The odd response confused the alicorn slightly. “I mean, surely you must have doubts about what your sister intends on doing.” Celestia said in a softer tone as she tried to appeal to the colt’s morals. “Well… I suppose her approach is a little bit misguided.” Grimwood said while thinking about his sister’s plan in higher detail. Celestia smiled a little bit, completely unaware of what the colt actually meant. “You can still make things right… just remove my cuffs, and I will make sure that you and your sister get the help you need.” Celestia said in a sincere tone. Although she was dead set on making sure that the hooded ponies received ample punishment for everything they had done, she also felt slightly responsible for allowing them to go so far off the reservation. After she sent them to prison, the princess would make every effort to at least try to help them deal with their psychotic ideals. Grimwood simply looked to the alicorn with a blank expression as she eyed him pleadingly. “But I already have all the help I need to make things right… right after my sister and I start the eternal night.” Grimwood said while smiling slightly. Celestia was horrified to see such sinister desires in the young colt. Suddenly the sound of the door opening on the far side of the room drew everyone’s attention away. The ponies were greeted with the sight of Dust Kicker and Raincloud walking into the room, being closely followed by Raven Feather. “So how did it go?” Shadow Mist asked curiously while looking to the trio with an intrigued expression. “Let’s just say that we don’t need to worry about the elements of harmony anymore.” Raincloud said while hiding a devious smirk. “What?! What did you do?!” Celestia demanded in a shocked tone. The alicorn practically fell over from trying to get up to her feet. “I did what I should have done a long time ago. I took care of the problem.” Raven Feather said while tossing the sword she was carrying over to the surprised princess. The broken blade was almost completely stained red with blood down to the hilt. “Twilight Sparkle is dead. The elements of harmony won’t be a problem anymore.” Raven Feather announced with a pleased expression while looking around to her followers. Most of the room had indifferent or hesitant expressions, but some were genuinely happy with the news. “W-what?” Celestia stammered in a stunned tone. She fell back to a seated position as she stared at the blood soaked sword in front of her with wide eyes. Taking a look back up to the black mare, she saw no signs that she was lying. “I went to check myself after the other element bearers ran away with their tails between their legs. She was practically swimming in a pool of her own blood by the time I got there, and she had been dead for a few minutes at least.” Raven Feather explained with a sadistic smirk while reveling in the distraught expression on the princess’s face. “You… you monster.” Celestia muttered in a shocked tone while looking down. She felt a single tear fall down her face as the grim news sank in. “I’m no monster Celestia. You did this to her yourself by creating ignorance and fear among your subjects. After I start the eternal night and gain control of the dark world instead of hiding from it, I will be twice the ruler you ever were!” Raven Feather said in a spiteful tone while glaring at the alicorn. “Twilight was innocent… she didn’t deserve to die! All she was doing was protecting her home and her friends… and you… you killed her.” Celestia shook her head sadly while fighting to hold back her emotions from the twisted mare. The last thing she wanted to do was to give her the satisfaction of seeing her break down. “I’ll kill many more before we cut out the weakest links of Equestria. All of the ponies too ignorant to see that this is the best way to keep us safe from any who would oppose us need to be taught, or they will die fighting for their own beliefs… beliefs that you forced on them.” Raven Feather explained in a scornful tone. “This is insanity Raven Feather! How do you expect to keep anyone safe once the eternal night begins?! The world will be flooded with evil creatures, and the sunlight that keeps so many of them at bay will be gone forever!” Celestia yelled in a frustrated manner. The black mare merely chuckled in response. “I don’t know why I expected you to appreciate my vision. You see dear princess, the eternal night doesn’t just pop a load of evil creatures into existence. It allows those who summoned it, those with power over shadow magic, the ability to take control of the forces of darkness, and to shape the world how they see fit. I want nothing more than to protect Equestria… but I’m protecting it from you and your weakness. The ease of our takeover should only prove my point to you Celestia… you are not able to protect your subjects from forces you refuse to accept the existence of.” Raven Feather explained before turning away from the imprisoned alicorn. “Start getting the energy ready for transfer. We’re going to go through with the ritual.” The black mare stated with a pleased smirk. Upon hearing Raven Feather’s orders, the various hooded workers in the room scurried about in a rush to get everything ready. Several ponies picked up books and coordinated with their colleagues to complete their assigned tasks. Raincloud sat in the middle of a small group of workers in front of a pictogram that was just on the outside of the primary symbol. She did most of the footwork in overseeing the energy transfer from their reservoir of everything they had gathered in the past. Dust Kicker merely stood near Grimwood and Shadow Mist behind the crowd of hooded ponies watching the events unfold. Celestia was forced to watch uneasily as the group prepared to start the ritual that would doubtlessly be Equestria’s undoing. She hoped against all hope that something would happen to stop the madness being wrought by the black mare and her cult. Meanwhile, Raven Feather herself stood at the front edge of the symbol with a proud smirk on her face. She had been preparing for this moment for as long as she could remember, and it was finally going to happen. She had a whole room full of ponies under her command, and they were all prepared to do their part to bring her dream to life. The various symbols around the room were all drawn and surrounded by lit candles, the books needed and the spells contained within were being held by a designated group of readers off to the side across from Raincloud, and all of the energy needed was within reach. If the eternal night was going to be started in Equestria, then this would be the most likely opportunity for it. “Raincloud, start the energy transfer.” Raven Feather instructed while looking over to the grey pegasus. Raincloud nodded with a pleased expression before looking down to the symbol before her and starting her work. As the grey mare and the few ponies around her started interacting with the symbol, it started shimmering with a bright blue glow. Raincloud channeled shadow energy to her hoof and placed it in the middle of the symbol, which caused it to erupt into a solid purple glow. The light from the glyphs incased inside the symbol seemingly lifted into the air a short ways, creating a three dimensional image of them that was mesmerizing to behold. With a nod of confirmation from the hooded pegasus, Raven Feather looked over to the other side of the symbol. There were around five ponies, two of them reading a grouping of books and notes off the floor, and three of them holding books open to certain pages in their hooves. “Start reciting the secondary incantations.” The black mare instructed to the group of ponies, who all nodded in response before burying their heads into their books. Once they found their places, they all started reciting passages in a bizarre language that not even Celestia recognized. They continued reading the passages, seemingly starting over in loops once they reached the end, creating an unsettling harmony of hushed voices. Suddenly, the outer circle of the main symbol and all of the glyphs contained inside started glowing purple. Another light erupted from the center of the smaller symbol near Raincloud, which started flowing upwards and downwards into the outer circle. Raven Feather smirked as she saw her plan coming to fruition. She then turned around and started walking over to the imprisoned alicorn watching from the sidelines. Celestia thought she was walking over to gloat, but then the black mare produced a small knife and a vial from one of the pockets on her hoodie. “What are you doing?” Celestia asked nervously while eyeing the small blade. She wondered if she was going to die before she even got to see her kingdom fall. “I’m going to need a little more from you than your presence.” Raven Feather said while roughly grabbing the princess’s arm and holding the vial under it. She used the knife and made a small incision in her arm, taking great pleasure in slowing down the process as much as possible. “Tch!” Celestia cringed painfully as the black mare sliced her arm open. Raven Feather held the vial under the incision and let the alicorn’s blood flow into it and fill it up. After she was done, she simply let the princess’s arm go and walked away, almost as if she didn’t care whether or not she bled to death. “Essence of the princess of the sun… the missing ingredient that was lost to humankind. See, even in magical terms, there never existed pure essence of the sun, not until you were born that is. That probably explains why the humans never started the eternal night. They were sorely lacking in the materials they needed.” Raven Feather explained with a chuckle while eyeing the vial full of liquid with a wide grin. “Then how do you know the humans even figured out the right way to perform the ritual?” Celestia asked in a cynical tone. The black mare merely offered a passing glare to her while walking back over to the symbol. “Simply put your highness, they didn’t. I had to sift through studies on magic from the human world and our own, not to mention the dozens of tomes on the eternal night, just to find a workable version of the ritual. Years of my life spent buried in the past… and now, I can finally look forward to the future.” Raven Feather stated with a proud tone while standing at the front of the symbol again. In the time it took the black mare to extract and collect Celestia’s blood, the other two circles within the symbol had started glowing with the same purple light. Now the only portion of the symbol that remained unlit was the smallest circle in the center of the symbol. “Dust Kicker, please come over here and stand on the opposite side of the symbol.” Raven Feather asked while looking back at the brown stallion. Dust Kicker nodded before trotting over and standing across the symbol from the black mare. “Once I pour this into the center circle, the three of us will need to channel as much shadow magic as we can through the symbol.” Raven Feather explained while looking to Raincloud and Dust Kicker. “Got it.” Raincloud said while nodding understandingly. “Alright.” Dust Kicker said while readying himself. With her two colleagues prepared to do their part, Raven Feather directed her attention ahead of her to the symbol. The black mare took a step forward through the glowing outline of the outer circle and planted her hoof down. As expected, nothing worthwhile happened and she was permitted to continue towards the center. As she stood just before the center circle, Raven Feather held the vial of blood in her outstretched arm and tilted it sideways. The crimson fluid poured out and landed in the circle, collecting in a small pool within the confines of the glowing edges. Once all of the blood had been poured, the mass of fluid suddenly erupted into a puff of smoke and light. The symbol emitted a low hum at fixed intervals, seemingly giving an audible clue as to how much energy was contained within. Raven Feather stepped back outside of the symbol and stood at the edge. With a nod of confirmation between them, the three ponies held out a single hoof and channeled shadow energy to the tip. In perfect synchronization, they all placed their hooves down on the outer edge of the symbol and channeled their energy through it. Three streams of a darker shadowy color started creeping across the symbol and into the center. After reaching the inner circle, the three streams traveled into it and seemingly filled it up with energy. Suddenly the glyphs inside the inner circle turned pitch black, offering a sort of visual cue as to the progress being made. Raven Feather smirked as she saw how close she was to finishing the ritual. “Stand back everyone. This could be a little hectic.” Raven Feather instructed while walking over to a symbol on one of the outer circles of the pictogram. Raincloud and Dust Kicker backed up and watched eagerly as the black mare stood before the symbol in preparation for the final step. An anxious hush befell the room as everyone stood by and watched with varying degrees of fear or excitement while Raven Feather looked down at the symbol. The only sound that could be heard was the strange hum coming from the symbol itself. Finally, Raven Feather raised her hoof into the air and placed it down on a particular grouping of glyphs. The entire symbol suddenly lit up a bright shade of purple as the magical hum grew in pitch. Just as suddenly as the black mare stepped on the symbol, a wave of air rushed outwards in a circle, blowing out all of the candles and blowing back everyone’s hair with a loud whoosh. Once everyone opened their eyes and looked around, they noticed the symbol wasn’t glowing anymore. The magical hum had vanished with the rush of air, leaving the room in silence once more. Strangely enough, nothing else seemed to be happening. Everyone looked around curiously for any signs of change around them. They were all confused, having expected more of a display out of the ritual that was meant to bathe the land in everlasting darkness. “Did it work?” One of the hooded workers asked in a confused tone while looking around at the others curiously. Taking a look outside, the group saw the sun still beaming down through the clouds spaced out around the sky as if nothing happened. “Raven Feather… wasn’t that the last step?” Raincloud asked in a confused tone. “Yes, it was…” Raven Feather replied while looking around the symbol to see if anything meaningful was happening. None of the glyphs were glowing, nor were any other part of the large symbol. If it weren’t for the presence of the snuffed out candles, the room would have looked the same as it did before she started. “I imagined the eternal night would be a bit… darker than this.” Dust Kicker said while taking note of the sunlight streaming in through the window. “I don’t understand… we did everything perfectly. All of the necessary spellwork and ingredients were present… we did the ritual right… so what the hell is going on?!” Raven Feather said in an agitated tone while stamping her hoof down on the ground. “Perhaps your plan wasn’t as well thought out as you first thought.” Celestia said with a wry smirk. She hid a sigh of relief behind her smug expression. She was just as pleased that nothing happened as the black mare was frustrated. Ignoring the alicorn and her sarcastic musings, Raven Feather trotted over to the side and snatched a book full of notes from one of the workers near the symbol. She read the checklist of steps and materials needed for each step to see if some mistake was made. As much as she wanted to blame the organizational skills of the appointed scribe, the pony had diligently marked off each step as instructed, and she knew each step by heart anyway. “What went wrong?! We couldn’t have made a mistake… unless… unless…” Raven Feather muttered in an agitated sense of shock. “Unless what, Raven Feather?” Raincloud asked in a concerned tone while walking over to the black mare with a sympathetic expression. Raven Feather slid to a seated position and stared at the floor with a stunned expression. She seemed to be having a mental crisis from the distraught appearance she had. “Unless the ritual itself was never going to work in the first place.” Raven Feather stated in a dull tone as she slowly gained the willpower to speak outwardly. “What?! But that can’t be possible! You did so much research… all of the stuff you ran past me was flawless!” Raincloud said in a shocked tone. “I know… I know… but I just can’t fathom what else could be wrong.” Raven Feather stated in a frustrated manner while rubbing her temples pensively. Meanwhile, Grimwood and Shadow Mist were watching from the sidelines. The pale colt looked to the stallion and gave a brief nod before getting up and walking over to his sister. Grim paused behind the black mare and watched her trying to contain her frustration with a sympathetic expression. For both of their sakes, he hoped that his method would actually work. “Raven Feather, I think I might know what went wrong.” Grimwood said while putting a reassuring hoof on the black mare’s side. Raven Feather turned her head and shrugged before bottling up her agitated nerves to address her sibling without biting his head off. “What is it Grimwood?” Raven Feather asked in a dull tone. It was easy to tell that she wasn’t impressed with whatever solution the colt might suggest. “See, I think you got it mostly right, but you didn’t account for some of the older texts. I have a bag full of some supplies that will-” Grimwood said while turning to look over to Shadow Mist and his supplies. He was suddenly interrupted by Raven Feather groaning softly and shaking her head. “Grim… please don’t start with your theories again. Now is not the right time for this.” Raven Feather said in an agitated tone. She didn’t want to hurt the colt’s feelings, but she was far too emotionally unstable at the moment to be dealing with his nonsense. “What…? But… but I have a fix that will work. I spent a lot of time and effort trying to check my work and gather supplies.” Grimwood explained in a confused tone. He thought that seeing her own plan fail would make the black mare more open to his ideas, but clearly he was mistaken. “Grimwood… I really don’t want to get into it with you right now. I already looked over all of the old texts, and most of them are full of myths and inane gibberish. Just leave me alone and let me process what to do next.” Raven Feather said in a more frustrated tone. “Hey, Raven Feather… maybe you should go easy on him. I’m sure he just wants to help.” Raincloud suggested in a concerned tone. She had never seen the black mare act so restrained with her anger. Still, it looked like she was boiling over on the inside. The pegasus wondered if she was having a mental breakdown from so many failures happening at once. Grimwood frowned slightly as his sibling tossed his efforts in his face again. He normally didn’t let his emotions get the better of him, but seeing such stubbornness in his sister was starting to make him frustrated as well. “Raven Feather, why won’t you just listen to me? I’ve worked on this plan with you ever since we came to the mansion! I helped you fact check most of your work… I did a fair amount of your work! Why can’t you just accept that you messed something up for once?!” Grimwood raised his voice into an upset tone while facing the black mare. “Because I can’t mess this up!” Raven Feather finally turned around and snapped at the colt, catching him off guard. Grimwood took a step back, but she simply stood up and followed him. “I’ve done all of this so we can live in peace with the world instead of hiding from it! I took you with me once they started to treat you like trash… just like they did with me!” Raven Feather yelled angrily while trying to reason with the colt. She wasn’t yelling as loudly as she usually did with someone that upset her, but somehow she seemed to be putting more frustration and emotion behind it despite the fact. “R-Raven Feather... I-” Grimwood stammered slightly while backing up to distance himself from the black mare. He had never seen his sister so upset with him before. “I don’t want to hear it Grim! I worked so hard to make this plan work, but it didn’t ok?! I tried everything that was available to me! The only reason I even rejected your theories was because I had already gone over them! I failed, so there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about that! I’m not even sure if the eternal night exists anymore! This stupid symbol might as well be a piece of useless junk!” Raven Feather yelled while venting her emotions. Everything that had been building inside of her was suddenly let out, and unfortunately for Grimwood, he had been the one that triggered her inevitable meltdown. Grimwood backtracked with a shocked expression on his face. He was on the verge of tears from hearing his sister snap at him. He understood her anger perfectly, but somehow he felt crushed from hearing her discredit him so harshly. “Raven Feather… I… I’m-” Grimwood muttered in a distraught tone while stepping backwards. Suddenly, he found himself smack dab in the center of the symbol on the floor. He inadvertently planted his back leg down inside the center circle, when a sudden burst of light and sound rang out. “AHHHH!” Grimwood screamed out in pain as he was caught in the center of the newly created light. Just as suddenly as the light appeared, several streams of a black smoke-like substance started flowing out of the symbol and traveling into the colt’s body. “*Gasp* Grimwood!” Raven Feather exclaimed in shock while staring at her brother with wide eyes. He was being suspended in the air slightly as the black substance continued flowing into him. There was seemingly nothing the colt could do to free himself from the grasp of whatever was happening. A droning screeching sound accompanied the colt’s screams of pain, seemingly coming from whatever the dark substance flowing into him was. Even with Raven Feather’s knowledge of shadow magic, she knew that whatever was happening to her brother was bad, and she had to do something to save him. Taking a frantic look around, the black mare discovered that the symbol responsible for storing the energy for the ritual was glowing. Whatever was happening must have been drawing power from the symbols themselves. “Break the energy symbol!” Raven Feather yelled frantically to Raincloud, who was still staring in shock at what was happening to Grimwood. The grey pegasus looked to the black mare, and then to the symbol beneath her feet with a panicked expression. “Won’t that dump all of the energy into the air?!” Dust Kicker asked in a concerned tone from the other side of the symbol. Surely having so much energy explode out of a symbol at once wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone standing nearby, let alone the possible consequences after the fact. “Who cares?!” Raincloud yelled while channeling shadow energy to her hoof and raising it. She was more concerned with Grimwood’s safety than whatever might happen from releasing the energy. As the grey mare stomped her hoof down onto the small symbol and channeled her energy into it, a brief flash of light appeared and nearly blinded anyone watching. Along with the light, a loud and powerful wave of energy erupted out in a circle, blowing everyone’s hair back violently and traveling out of the room. As the faint shockwaves hit the edges of the room and escaped into the rest of the castle, what few windows and glass decorations there were shattered and flung shards against the walls. When all of the commotion died down and everyone could open their eyes again, everything was quiet. The symbol was unlit and silent, with Grimwood having dropped to the floor limply after the strange black substance stopped suspending him in the air. “Grim!” Raven Feather exclaimed in a distraught tone while rushing forward. She knelt down beside the motionless colt and picked him up in her arms gently. “Grim, can you hear me? Are you alright?!” Raven Feather asked in a panic while examining her sibling for any signs of life. He felt oddly cold to the touch, and he resembled a corpse for all intents and purposes. The longer the colt remained limp and motionless, the further the black mare’s heart sunk. “Is he breathing?!” Raincloud asked in a concerned tone while walking over to the black mare and watching anxiously for any signs that Grimwood was alive. Raven Feather placed a hoof to Grimwood’s neck to feel for a pulse. Through her frantic and shaky hooves, she couldn’t manage to feel anything, no matter how much she felt around. She nearly felt her heart skip a beat as she desperately hoped that her mind was playing tricks on her. Suddenly and very abruptly, Grimwood shot upwards and gasped for air. He looked around with an expression of shock while trying to calm down and catch his breath. “Grim! You’re alive!” Raven Feather exclaimed with joyous relief while hugging her brother close to her. “What… what happened?” Grimwood asked in a drowsy and confused tone. He looked around slowly with a paler appearance than usual and a tired disposition. “I don’t know Grim, but it doesn’t matter right now. We’re going to take you home so you can rest.” Raven Feather explained while gently setting the colt down and letting him lay on the floor. “Raincloud, start packing up the supplies and gather up all the workers. We’re heading out as soon as possible.” The black mare instructed in a serious tone. Raincloud nodded before turning and walking away to start gathering up all of the vital materials they brought with them. Meanwhile, Celestia was watching Grimwood with an uneasy expression. Ever since the colt inadvertently started the reaction with the symbol, she had felt an odd aura around him, like some kind of puzzling feeling nagging at the back of her mind. Grimwood was laying on the ground and staring up at the ceiling while breathing softly. He had a dazed look about him, as if he weren’t really paying attention to anything and was simply staring into nothingness. Suddenly, Celestia saw a brief flicker of movement on the colt’s side. It looked like a twinge of blackness just appeared and disappeared out of his body, almost like it was emitted by him. The uneasy feeling building in the alicorn’s mind only grew worse with the bizarre and troubling sight. She wasn’t sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her or if she actually wanted them to be or not. “Raven Feather… I feel weird.” Grimwood said in a genuinely frightened tone while shivering violently. Raven Feather turned to see a sickly expression on her brother’s face. She frowned with concern while walking over to him and feeling his forehead to see if he was running a fever. Much to her surprise, she actually felt an icy chill travel into her hoof from simply touching the colt. “Good lord… you’re freezing cold, Grim. Do you feel sick or… different?” Raven Feather asked in a concerned tone while thinking back to what the symbol did to her sibling. She wondered what was actually happening during the sudden and frightening reaction. Grimwood simply remained silent while staring ahead with a sickly expression. He shivered violently while being cradled in his sister’s arms, much to the concern of everyone watching. Even the hooded workers that didn’t personally know the colt were starting to feel bad for him. “Let me see him. Maybe I can do something to help.” Shadow Mist suggested while struggling to get up. The stallion seemed to have lost a fair amount of strength due to his injuries. “Don’t strain yourself Shadow. I appreciate the offer, but I can take care of him. First we need to get out of here before any more guards arrive.” Raven Feather said while glancing behind her to check on the progress of Raincloud and her band of workers. The grey pegasus and several workers were packing up all of the books and materials used in the ritual, but they were taking a bit longer than Raven Feather would have liked. The black mare gently sat her brother down and stood up. Just seeing the pale colt shivering on the floor with a blank expression on his face made her feel terrible inside, after all she was the one who did this to him. “Raven Feather… unlock these cuffs and I will help you… I’ll help him.” Celestia spoke in a concerned tone, eliciting the black mare to turn and look at her. “Why would I want your help?” Raven Feather asked in an irritated tone. She half expected to see no emotion on the alicorn’s face, but she seemed genuinely concerned and empathetic as she looked over at the colt sitting on the floor. “Look… we can sort out differences between us later. If you free me, we can work together to make sure your brother gets all the help he needs. You know a great deal about darker magic, and I know a great deal of light magic, so if we hurry we might be able to do something.” Celestia suggested while making every attempt to level with the black mare. Raven Feather instinctively scoffed in disgust at the princess’s words before looking down and actually considering them. She looked back to Grimwood with a concerned expression before shrugging in frustration and shaking her head. “I don’t need your help Celestia. I can take care of my brother myself… I’m the one who did this to him anyway.” Raven Feather stated in an adamant tone. She wasn’t declining due to her grudge with the alicorn, far from it in fact. She knew that any form of magic the princess knew about was likely less potent than the things she knew herself. And right now, Grimwood needed someone capable and strong. “How are we doing Raincloud? We need to get out of here as soon as possible. Grim isn’t looking too good.” Raven Feather asked while walking over to the grey mare to see how much she had left to pack. “I’m moving as fast as I can.” Raincloud replied in an uneasy tone while glancing over to Grimwood with a concerned expression. She had the help of several workers, but there were still a lot of supplies that needed to be packed up, and not everyone seemed to be as motivated as the black mare and her colleagues were. “Where are we even going after this?” One of the workers asked in a concerned tone. “Yeah… and what are we going to do after we get there? I signed up for taking over the world, not botching a takeover of Canterlot and becoming an enemy of the state.” Another worker stated in an irritated tone. “Just shut up and work will you? We’ll have a plan set up after we get out of here.” Raincloud said in an annoyed tone while shooting a glare towards the unruly ponies. “I thought this was the plan.” A third worker said in a troubled tone. Even with the looming threats coming from Raincloud, most of the hoods in the room were whispering amongst themselves uneasily. Raven Feather could practically feel the distrust and scorn coming her way from the more unsavory members of her following. “Will all of you just be quiet!” Raven Feather yelled in a threatening tone, causing the room to fall silent. “The arrangement I made with all of you was to take over Equestria together. Just because this plan failed doesn’t mean that anything has changed. I will rip the crown from Celestia’s head if I have to, even if the eternal night isn’t real. Whether or not you believe me… you can take this as a fact. If I hear one more person objecting to me getting my brother out of here, I will personally ensure that you get to be Raincloud’s shadow’s new plaything!” The black mare yelled angrily. Everyone in the room, whether they had been quietly whispering or vocalizing their opinions, went deathly quiet. All of the ponies that were stirring up trouble hid their faces and returned to what they were doing. They quickly realized that this organization was not the place to be staging a coup. “You’re wrong…” Grimwood said in a stoic tone. The odd and sudden response from the colt made Raven Feather pause with confusion. “What?” Raven Feather asked in a puzzled tone while looking over to her brother. The colt had stopped shivering, and was simply staring at her with a blank expression. “I said you’re wrong.” Grimwood repeated himself casually while continuing his blank stare. Such emotionless expressions were the norm for the colt, but somehow Raven Feather felt a little uneasy from the particular stare she was getting from her brother. “What was I wrong about?” Raven Feather asked with guarded curiosity while looking around at the others. Raincloud, Dust Kicker, and even Shadow Mist seemed to be just as confused by the colt’s odd behavior as she was. “The eternal night is real… just not in the way you imagined.” Grimwood stated while getting up slowly. He started walking towards the black mare at a casual pace, all the while staring ahead with a passive, almost calm expression. “Grim… you should be resting. We can talk about the eternal night after you get better… and I can go over your theories again with you.” Raven Feather said in a concerned tone. She felt horrible for causing so much pain in the colt. The way he stood up to her and vented his emotions only made the fact that she caused him to get hurt that much more terrible. “I don’t want to go over theories with you. I just want to stay here.” Grimwood said in a calm tone while continuing to walk closer to the black mare. “What…? What do you mean stay here?” Raven Feather asked in a confused tone while taking a step back. She was slightly disturbed by the sudden shift in her brother’s behavior. “I feel weak… I need to rest for a while like you said. But I need to stay here to do it. You all can just go on ahead of me… I’ll catch up eventually.” Grimwood said while continuing to walk forward. Just as Raven Feather thought he was going to passively chase her to the other side of the room, the colt paused at the center of the unlit symbol on the floor and sat down. He waited in the center of the symbol while humming to himself quietly and bobbing his head, as if he actually expected everyone to get up and leave him to his own devices. “Is he ok…?” Raincloud whispered uneasily while sharing a concerned expression with Raven Feather. The black mare glanced between the grey pegasus and her brother, who was still humming quietly to himself while looking ahead pensively. “I don’t know… maybe that reaction with the symbol did something to him?” Raven Feather whispered back in a concerned tone. Grimwood seemed to pay little attention to the others in the room, and his bizarre behavior was seriously creeping out many of the hooded workers, not to mention Raven Feather and the others. “Grim… are you feeling ok? Maybe I should take a look at you with my shadow magic and see if something is wrong.” Raven Feather suggested in a soft tone while slowly walking up to her brother and putting a hoof on his shoulder. The colt still felt icy cold, and not just the type of cold that came from sickness or any other natural occurrence. He felt colder than any living thing should have. “Hmm…. Such an interesting concept isn’t it? Harnessing the power of shadows to do one’s bidding. It’s actually rather humorous to think that such a power can just be tapped into without much effort.” Grimwood said while briefly glancing to the black mare. “That does it… I’m getting you out of here right now. Raincloud and the others can pack up by themselves. I need to get you somewhere to help you.” Raven Feather said while getting up and putting her arms around her brother’s shoulder. She tried lifting him up, but he refused to budge. “Leave me alone.” Grimwood said in a passive tone while the black mare struggled to lift him up. “Grim, you’re not well… you need to… hrk! You need to come with me!” Raven Feather said in a frustrated tone while putting her arms around the colt’s waist and trying to pick him up. Grimwood was fighting to stay in place with great force. It felt like she was trying to pick up a boulder. All the while the colt remained still and passive, albeit with a slight curve to his mouth that suggested annoyance. “Damn Raven Feather… how heavy can he be?” Dust Kicker asked in a concerned tone while watching the black mare struggling. “He isn’t letting me pick him up. Could you come over here and help me?” Raven Feather asked in a frustrated tone. She didn’t even care about gathering her supplies anymore. She was ready to cut her losses as long as she got her brother to a safe location where she could see what was wrong with him. Dust Kicker quickly walked over to the two siblings and gently grabbed Grimwood around the waist. He tried to pick him up, but strangely the colt was able to resist even his efforts. “Stop that.” Grimwood said in a more irritated tone. “hrrg! He’s not… guh… he’s not moving!” Dust Kicker said in a surprised tone while pulling with all his strength. Finally his grip faltered and he fell backwards from trying so hard to move the colt. “Grimwood, you listen to me right now. You are coming with me whether you like it or not so I can figure out what is wrong with you. I…” Raven Feather paused suddenly as she put her hoof on her brother’s chest. She pressed harder and felt around with a stunned and confused expression before looking at her brother in shock. “Grim… your heart isn’t beating.” Raven Feather said in a stunned tone, to which the colt simply smirked. “Well what can I say? Heartbeats aren’t really necessary for me anymore.” Grimwood said with a wry smirk. Suddenly, the colt blinked and his eyes turned pitch black. “You… you’re not Grimwood!” Raven Feather stated while recoiling in shock. “How would you know?” The colt asked while standing up suddenly. In one swift motion, the tip of Grimwood’s hoof was covered in a pitch black pulsating mass as he shoved his arm forward towards the black mare. Grimwood’s hoof stabbed into Raven Feather’s chest, piercing it like a blade. A gush of blood poured out of her chest as the black mare let out a stifled cry of shock and pain. “You barely paid attention to me anyway.” Grimwood said in a cold tone while returning a blank expression to his face. “Raven Feather!” Dust Kicker exclaimed in shock as he watched the black mare stumble backwards. Raven Feather put her hoof up to her chest and looked down with her mouth agape in shock as her own blood poured onto her hoof. Dust Kicker growled with anger and got up again. He channeled shadow energy to his hoof and charged after the colt, fully intent on ripping whatever evil presence had taken him over out of him and beating it senseless with his bare hooves. Grimwood, or rather, whatever was currently using his body, used his still pitch black hoof and slashed sideways at the brown stallion, catching him across the neck. Dust Kicker was sent tumbling sideways from the force of the strike as blood gushed from his throat. He barely had time to let out a grunt of pain before he started clutching his throat choking on his own blood. “Dust!” Raincloud screamed in shock as she watched her brother spurting blood from his neck while writhing on the floor. She ran across the room and knelt down beside him to pick him up and cradle him in her arms. Dust Kicker was unable to talk or even acknowledge his sister other than looking up at her while clutching his injury and coughing. It was easy to see that the stallion was growing weaker by the second as he clung to life. “Dust, don’t you even think about dying you big knucklehead!” Raincloud said in a panicked tone while trying to coax her brother into putting more pressure on his wound. Dust Kicker struggled for a few moments more before gradually growing still and closing his eyes. “Dust…?! Dust Kicker!” Raincloud yelled in a distraught tone while shaking the brown stallion to no avail. Raven Feather watched the grey pegasus holding her brother’s lifeless body while still reeling from her own wound. Raincloud had tears streaming down her face, something that the black mare had never seen before. “I’m sorry… Raincloud.” Raven Feather said in a weak tone. Her legs wobbled slightly before giving out and sending her to the floor. Raincloud turned her head to see the black mare on the floor clutching her injury with a pale expression. “Raven Feather!” Raincloud yelled mournfully while watching the black mare gasping for air. She was gradually losing the strength to even hold her head up or clutch her wound. Raven Feather glanced over to the pale colt still sitting in the center of the symbol. He had a passive expression on his face, though there was a small smirk of accomplishment as he watched his handiwork. “I’m so so..rry…” Raven Feather muttered weakly while lowering her head to the floor. The pain in her chest and the coldness around her were the only feelings she had. Finally her eyes drifted shut and she limply settled on the ground. Raincloud wailed mournfully as she watched the black mare die. She looked down to the stallion still held in her arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Still, the sadness she was feeling was overshadowed by another emotion that she was directing towards the one responsible, pure and unyielding rage. “You…” The grey mare said in a stern tone while glaring at the pale colt. “I don’t know who, or what you are… but you are going to pay for this. I am going to rip you out of Grimwood myself… and when I do, you are dead.” She said in a quiet and scornful tone. “I welcome the challenge.” Grimwood said with a slight smirk while watching the pegasus. An echoed and distorted noise rang out as Raincloud’s shadow rose up behind her. The pegasus glared at the colt before looking around at the others. Everyone, including Shadow Mist and Princess Celestia were watching in stunned and shocked silence as far away from the pair as possible. Raincloud contemplated fighting the colt and delivering on her promise right here and now, but somehow she knew that she wouldn’t win. “I’ll be back for you… mark my words.” Raincloud said with a final passing glare at the black eyed pony. The grey mare set her brother’s body down gently before getting up and walking away. As Raincloud walked over to the door and exited the room with her shadowy minion, the room was left in an eerie silence. Everyone stared at the pale colt with terrified expressions. They all wondered if he was going to slaughter them all or eat them alive. Either way, the black eyes he had didn’t make him any less creepy as he looked around the room with a passive expression. “Well…? What are all of you waiting for? I did say leave earlier didn’t I?” Grimwood asked in a curious tone while looking to the hooded workers. Almost all at once, all of the workers got up and ran towards the door while whining nervously or outright screaming in terror. After a few short moments, the only ones left in the room were Shadow Mist, Celestia, and the pale colt. “Ah… peace and quiet.” Grimwood breathed a relaxed sigh while getting up and walked forward passively. He looked over to see Shadow Mist and Celestia staring at him with shocked expressions. “Mother of mercy Grim… you just… you just killed them.” Shadow Mist stammered in a shocked tone while looking back to Raven Feather and Dust Kicker. “I did…?” Grimwood said in a confused and almost shocked tone. He blinked a few times while looking back at his sister’s body. His black eyes turned normal again as he stared ahead with a stunned expression. Just as suddenly as his confusion arrived, he cringed while clenching his eyes shut and holding his head. After shaking his head for a moment, the colt opened his eyes to reveal nothing but blackness again. “Yes… I guess I did. Sorry… I must be a little out of it. There are so many memories floating around up here… old memories… well, not old for me I suppose.” The colt explained in a confused tone before collecting himself and returning his blank tone of voice. “Look… Grimwood, I don’t know what happened to you, but I can help you.” Shadow Mist said in a concerned tone. “Don’t call me that… I’m not Grimwood… well, mostly anyway. I just woke up inside his head a few moments ago, so he is still rooting around in here… still, as of now I am different enough to warrant my own name.” The colt said in a clarifying tone. “Ok… what do you want me to call you?” Shadow Mist asked in an uncertain tone. He was still trying to figure out how he could help to return his friend to normal. “Hmm… I don’t know. I’ve had a few names before, but nothing that felt really me-ish… it feels so unusual to pick a name for oneself.” The colt said while putting his hoof under his chin and pondering to himself. “What happened to him?” Shadow Mist whispered in a concerned tone to Celestia. The alicorn realized that the red stallion must have been truly terrified to confide in her. “You know more about shadow magic than I do… isn’t there anything that explains what happened?” Celestia asked curiously. “No… nothing like this has ever happened before to our knowledge. None of the texts even refer to something like this.” Shadow Mist said in a troubled tone. “Whatever he is… he isn’t natural. I feel his aura so intensely… it feels like… like…” Celestia muttered as she tried to find a word for what she was feeling. Whatever was currently residing in the colt felt utterly wrong and evil to her. “Shade...” The colt said in a pleased tone. “What?” Shadow Mist asked in a confused tone. The colt smiled slightly as he stared back at the two nervous onlookers with his black eyes. “You can call me Shade.” He said with a genuine smile that the red stallion had never seen the colt produce. The fact that it wasn’t really Grimwood producing the expression only made it more disturbing to behold. Meanwhile, back at the entry hall, a pair of ponies in hoods were walking around and observing their surroundings. One was a yellow earth pony stallion with grey hair, and the other was a green pegasus mare with white hair. The pair were casually standing near the stairs and waiting around for someone to come by. “Ugh… I hate how Raven Feather put us on scout duty… I bet we’re totally missing the ritual.” The mare said with an annoyed sigh. “That would probably explain that wave of energy that came through here.” The stallion replied while looking over to the large windows at the front of the room. The burst of energy ripped through the room, nearly shattering every glass object in sight and leaving a large series of cracks in the windows as it traveled out into Equestria. “What are we even doing here? Keeping an eye on these stiffs?” The pegasus asked while looking over to the purple unicorn in the middle of the room and the human leaned up against the wall off to the side. “Raven Feather said to keep an eye out for any guards coming this way.” The stallion said while trying to get the green mare to be quiet. “Yeah, well I have a few choice words for Raven Feather if she thinks I want to be doing this all day while she and her ring of freaks do all that hocus pocus stuff.” The pegasus muttered in an irritated tone. “Geez… don’t let anyone hear you talk like that. I’ll bet any one of them could turn you into mincemeat by just looking at you.” The stallion said in a concerned manner. “Oh come on, I could at least take the kid on in a fight.” The green mare stated in an unimpressed tone while giving the stallion a shifty look. “Grimwood? No way… have you seen him back at the mansion? He just sits in a corner and reads quietly or watches people. I wouldn’t be surprised if he grew up to be a serial killer. Not to mention the fact that he knows how to do that weird shadow magic shit Raven Feather does… he could probably kill you and still be as emotive as a rock.” The yellow pony said in an uneasy tone. “Remind me why we said yes to this? I wanted to just tell Raven Feather to shove it when she recruited us.” The pegasus asked curiously with an aggravated expression. “Well… she did say she would rule the world and then lit a fire with her bare hooves just in front of us… unholy displays of power like that tend to be attention grabbers.” The stallion replied. “Whatever… let’s just forget about that and get back to this skull grating boredom.” The green mare said while folding her arms and leaning back against a pillar with a dull expression. The stallion simply sighed before returning to his own thoughts as silence returned to the room. Suddenly, the doors at the top of the stairs burst open and a loud uproar rushed into the room while a crowd of hooded ponies ran down the steps. The ponies had terrified expressions as they all made a break for the front door. “What the…? What the hay is going on?” The green pegasus asked in a confused tone while looking to anyone to stop and explain what was happening. “It’s Grimwood! He just snapped and killed Raven Feather and Dust Kicker!” One of the hoods said in an alarmed tone while passing by. “Wait… what?!” The yellow stallion asked in a shocked tone. “It’s true! The ritual went wrong and something got inside of him! He’s psychotic!” Another pony said while running past. “Holy crap… Raven Feather is dead?” The green pegasus said in a stunned tone while looking to her yellow companion with a shocked expression. “Should we… should we go help the others or something?” The yellow stallion asked in a stunned tone. “Screw that noise, let’s cut our losses and get out of here!” The pegasus replied while getting up and grabbing the stallion by the arm. She pulled him along to coax him into running with her. Once the stallion agreed to follow his friend, the pair joined the crowd running out of the castle. “What are we going to do now?” The stallion asked in a concerned tone. “We can worry about that later! Help me get this hoodie off. We don’t want to go down with the ship when the guards show up!” The pegasus replied while trying to take off her shirt. After everyone made it through the doors and out into the streets, the doors closed and the room was silent once more. Several minutes passed by in utter silence. The sound of the panicked crowd slowly died down in the distance as they fled. The room was still and calm, with little to disturb the atmosphere of the castle other than the broken decorations and the two bodies on the floor. Suddenly, an orange light flickered to life as small embers formed in the wounds on Tom’s body. The flames weren’t doing much to heal the gaping wounds in the boy’s body, but they were still burning brilliantly enough to show signs of life. “*Gasp*” Tom sprang up slightly as air rushed into his lungs. He quickly found himself unable to move further than a few inches before settling back to his resting position. As he opened his eyes and looked around, he saw the sorry state he was in. There was a sizable pool of blood under him, and his clothes were soaked and stained red around the three holes in his body, which were still causing him a considerable amount of pain. “Oogh… gah…” Tom groaned painfully and cringed while trying to get up and move. His body was sore and stiff, and he was so weak that even if his muscles could cooperate he probably couldn’t get far. “Where…? What the heck happened?” The human muttered while mulling over the scattered haze of memories he had from before he was knocked out. As the stinging pain from his injuries reminded him of just how badly he was beaten by Raven Feather, he remembered what was happening and what needed to be done. Taking a quick look around the room, Tom noticed a pool of blood over in the middle of the room. It was hard to see with the pillars in front of him blocking his view, but he could just barely see a purple leg sitting in the pool of blood. “What the…?” Tom muttered in an uneasy tone. Fighting through the pain to scoot himself to the side with his good arm, he strained to get a better look at the body ahead of him. When he finally got a clear view, he widened his eyes in shock at what he saw. “T-Twilight…?” Tom asked in a stunned tone. Hearing no response from the unicorn and spotting the bloody wound on her chest, the boy became incredibly terrified for her safety. “Hold on Twilight… I’m coming.” With a painful cringe, the human used his uninjured arm to drag himself forward at a slow crawl. With a little added help from his legs, he managed to move closer to the lifeless mare. Due to the wounds on his body and his weakness, Tom had to pause every few moments to catch his breath and sit through the pain. He wanted to just get up and walk, but he wasn’t sure if he could handle getting upright. Finally, after a painful struggle that lasted a solid few minutes, the boy reached his goal. As he rested next to the purple mare, he saw no signs that she was breathing. Taking his hand and feeling for a pulse yielded no results, leading the human to confirm what he feared when he saw how bad the unicorn looked at a distance. “Damnit Twilight… why couldn’t you just stay away?” Tom muttered in a somber tone. He flinched in pain as his own wounds started mending themselves in a flash of embers. Suddenly, a thought popped into his head. He knew that he shouldn’t even entertain the idea, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t stand to see the innocent mare like this. “I need all the energy I can get for this…” Tom winced uncomfortably as he suppressed his healing powers. His wounds ceased glowing and continued bleeding anew, sending stabbing pains all throughout his battered body. “I know this won’t work… but that hasn’t stopped me before.” Tom said while placing his hand over Twilight’s wound. Against his better judgement, he started projecting his healing light from his hand. He could already feel his remaining energy vanishing, leaving a burning feeling of exhaustion that took every ounce of his will to overcome. After a few moments, the wound on Twilight’s chest started closing up. Just after it closed completely, Tom groaned heavily and ceased his efforts while laying down and trying his best to recover. Taking a break from his attempts at healing the unicorn, he groggily reached his hand up and felt for a pulse again. “Damnit… that’s not enough.” He muttered weakly while letting his arm fall to the floor again. The purple mare was still stone dead, and just healing her physical body wouldn’t change that. The boy knew this, and yet he still rejected the idea of giving up. “Come on… I can do this. I need to do this… it’s all a matter of willpower.” Tom said through gritted teeth. “So what if nobody has ever done this before? There’s always a first for everything.” He stated as a sort of self-pep talk. With shaky limbs and a pale face, the human readied his hand over the unicorn’s body and tried again at projecting his light. The blue glow flowed into her and enveloped her in its aura. Tom strained hard just to maintain the stream of light, and even harder just to keep his hand steady. He practically had to prop his other arm up just so he could use it to steady his shaking. Regardless of how weak he felt, he couldn’t stop. He had to press onward, and he would use every last bit of his willpower and strength to ensure that he didn’t pass out before he could succeed. A solid minute went by with no change as Twilight remained limp and motionless. The only progress being made was Tom’s strength rapidly fading and his exhaustion growing. He felt physically ill from how much energy he was using in his already withered state of health. After a few more moments, the thick haze that his mind was already in grew until the human started relaxing. “Gah!” Tom jerked himself awake after drifting into unconsciousness for a moment. He could hardly keep his eyes open from how tired he felt. If it had been any other circumstance, he would have given up and let himself pass out by now, but he had to keep going, he had to save the unicorn. “Come on Twilight… *Pant* Come on...” Tom said in an exhausted tone while breathing heavily to catch his breath. He continued projecting his light, much to his body’s refusal, as he fought against the urge to pass out. At this point, he was using much needed energy to ensure he didn’t just pass out. Using his powers like this would be catastrophic to his health, even with a healthy state of mind. “You can’t be dead… you and the others are the only ones who can fix this mess. This world needs you… it needs you a hell of a lot more than it needs me.” Tom stated while steeling himself and concentrating. With a frustrated groan, the human pushed himself even harder to put more strength behind his efforts. The light grew in intensity for a few moments before returning to normal. After a few more moments passed, the light started waning in brightness and intensity. “Come on… wake up… please… please just… wake up.” Tom muttered in a tired stupor. Against his will, his head started drifting to the floor. His muscles finally gave out as his arm fell beside him. He closed his eyes and remained as still and motionless as the unicorn next to him. Moments passed by as neither of the two moved an inch. The room was silent once more as time went on without the pair. It was almost like nothing had changed since the hooded ponies left them to rot where they lay. . … ……… “*Gasp*” Twilight suddenly shot upwards and took in a large breath of air. She breathed heavily as she processed the wave of adrenaline coursing through her. It felt like she had just been woken up from a shallow slumber, only to feel tenseness in her body and a jolt to her system. As she slowly came to her senses, she put a hoof to her chest and felt around for her wound, only to find nothing. She could feel her heart racing just from simply touching the area, which made sense given how she felt. After a few moments of touching her chest and her face, the confused unicorn looked down and saw the pool of blood she was lying in, a pool of her own blood. Now that her mind was relatively clear after her initial jolt to the system, she wondered what had happened up to now. “What happened?” Twilight said to herself in a confused tone, still recovering from her rush of adrenaline. “I was… dead? I remember getting stabbed… but why am I alive?” She muttered with a puzzled tone while looking around. Suddenly, she noticed the unconscious human lying next to her. “*Gasp* Tom!” She exclaimed in surprise. The unicorn turned herself over and rushed to check on the boy. As she felt around for a pulse, she recoiled slightly in shock from how cold and pale he was. Taking a look at the wounds still present on his body, Twilight wondered just how difficult it must have been for him to move across the room to get to her, let alone revive her with his powers. “How did you even heal me? You said that no slayer had done it before… and that any who tried died from the attempt. Oh Tom… why did you have to do that?” Twilight muttered in a sad tone. She picked up the human by the shoulders and gently shook him, hopeful that he was still alive. “Come on Tom... wake up please!” Twilight pleaded in a concerned tone. The human was ice cold and had no visible signs of life, but he appeared this way when she and her friends found him before, so she hoped that he could recover. “Where did the others go? How long was I even out?” Twilight pondered while looking around the area for anyone else. She quietly hoped that her friends decided to leave instead of going back to face the hooded ponies alone. Suddenly, the quiet sound of a flame burning to life drew the unicorn’s attention downward. She noticed orange embers forming around Tom’s body. The embers didn’t burn her as she held onto the boy, but they smoldered and glowed just as they would if the human was healing a wound. Twilight smiled a little as she watched the embers spark to life. She hoped that this was a sign that the human was healing himself and that he would wake up any minute now. However, the longer she watched the odd phenomenon, the more concerned she grew. “What’s happening?” She wondered out loud with a confused tone while looking around as the embers started forming all around the human’s body. It was like he was emitting an aura of tiny orange sparks that crackled briefly before disappearing into the air. Suddenly, Twilight noticed that the embers were completely enveloping Tom’s legs. When the orange particles lifted into the air and vanished, they revealed that the boy’s body was vanishing along with them. “No… no! Tom wake up!” Twilight pleaded as she realized what was happening. She shook the human once more in the hopes to revive him somehow, but he didn’t move at all as his body slowly vanished among the dissipating embers. “Don’t do this to me! Don’t leave!” Twilight yelled with tears streaming down her face as she held onto the human desperately. Soon enough, the embers were spreading and causing his entire body to vanish in her arms. With a final crackle of sparks flying into the air, Tom’s body completely vanished, leaving the purple mare speechless as she stared at her own hooves. Twilight remained still in a stunned state of despair as she watched the last few embers flicker out into the air. Tears freely fell to the floor as a wave of emotion built inside of her. Finally she could resist no more and a series of sobs erupted from her while she fell forward and let her head hang low to the floor. “No…” Twilight mumbled in between sobs. She pounded her hoof against the floor in a fit of frustrated despair. “It’s not fair… it’s not fair!” The unicorn yelled mournfully while sobbing into the floor. “I was supposed to show you what it was like to live peacefully again… to not have to worry about fighting or anything else… *Hic* If only I didn’t get stabbed… why… *Sob* … why didn’t you just leave me? You barely knew me… we only met a week ago, but you always went out of your way to protect me and everyone else.” Twilight spoke to thin air while trying to process her sadness. “You didn’t deserve this… I just wish I could make things better… I wish you never became a slayer!” She stated before falling into another fit of sobs and crying. The finality of having her friend vanish right before her eyes was more than the unicorn could take. Minutes went by as the purple mare cried her heart out. The weight of everything that was happening came crashing down on her as she sobbed into the floor. She had recently died, she was covered in her own blood, she just lost a friend, and all of Equestria was falling to pieces from the recent attacks, this was perhaps the lowest moment in her life. Twilight couldn’t even bring herself to entertain the thought that anything would be ok ever again. All she could do was cry until her eyes stung and wait while her emotions poured out. Finally, the distraught mare managed to pick herself up off the ground. She remained still for a few moments while steadying her breathing and letting her last few tears roll down her face. She felt empty inside, like she was still lying dead on the floor. She almost wished she was still dead; then maybe Tom would still be here. The human would certainly be more able to help the others than she would be. “No… I can’t think like this.” Twilight muttered to herself while shaking the gloomy thoughts from her head. “I have to keep going… I can’t let what you did be for nothing. I have to stop all of this.” She said in a determined tone while getting to her feet. Her legs wobbled slightly, either from her weakened state or her shocked emotions, but she managed to stand up tall and turn her thoughts to progress. “First… I need to find the others. I can’t do this alone… I just hope they’re alright.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking towards the front entrance. There was no way she could take Raven Feather and her colleagues on by herself, so turning around and heading further into the castle wasn’t an option. With uncertainty and fear gnawing at her mind, the purple mare walked over to the entrance and paused before the doors. She hesitantly opened the door to provide a small crack for scouting ahead. Finding no darklings or other such unpleasantries anywhere outside, Twilight breathed a brief sigh of relief before opening the door and stepping outside. As much as she hoped to see an army of guards waiting to storm the palace and rescue the princess, Twilight saw no such thing. She was left with only herself and the distant growls and roars of the many darklings that were doubtlessly still plaguing the city. She wished that the clouds would break at least a little bit to let in some sunlight to destroy the beasts, but the grey haze above was solid and unmoving as it had been earlier. “We can’t let them go through with the eternal night… if a few darklings can cause so much trouble with just some clouds overhead, I don’t want to think about what could happen if the sun were to vanish.” The unicorn stated with a nervous shudder. The mere thought of so many monsters running rampant across Equestria made her cringe fearfully. Filled with some reassurance in her goal, Twilight walked away from the palace grounds and out into the barren streets of Canterlot. It was eerily quiet all around, with the only noises being the far off sounds of darklings and Twilight’s own hooves clopping against the pavement. She looked around nervously, wondering if she was being tailed by one of the beasts, or if she would turn a corner and run into a pack of them. She almost missed battling with Raincloud’s shadow. At least the ghostly specter was only one creature, and she knew its relative location at all times. “Hello…? Is anyone around?” Twilight spoke up slightly in a hopeful tone while looking around at the buildings beside her. All of the shops and businesses and even the residences were all locked up tight. A few stores had broken windows and furniture strewn around, as if a few darklings ripped through the place while chasing after some unfortunate pony. Just as she expected, nobody replied to her. The empty silence combined with the eerie noises in the distance served to further cement the knot developing in her stomach. “*Sigh* This place is like a ghost town… I hope everyone is doing ok wherever they are.” The purple mare fretted while thinking about the sheer amount of danger that the citizens of Canterlot must have faced during the initial attack. Everyone was off the streets now, most likely tucked away in their homes, but how many ponies didn’t make it to safety? Turning her thoughts to her own predicament, Twilight wondered where her friends went. Assuming they weren’t fighting the hooded ponies by themselves, and the unicorn really hoped that they wouldn’t do something like that, the five mares most likely went to go find Glimmer Shine and the others. Perhaps they went back to the hotel to see if the team had returned from their escapade. Whatever the case, the hotel was at least somewhere solid to start her search. As she thought ahead to the long journey it would take to get across town to the hotel, Twilight decided that it would be best if she kept a low profile. She was barely able to contend with a crowd of darklings when she had the help of her friends and three strobes with her, but now she only had herself and her own magic. Confident she might have been in her ability to dispatch one or two of the creatures should the need arise, any noise might have attracted more of them, and that was the last thing the unicorn wanted. Taking a quick scan ahead to see what options she had, Twilight laid eyes on the entrance to an alleyway just up ahead. She smirked cheerfully as she started making her way over to the dark path. In any other circumstance she would probably avoid such a shady looking location, but with monsters prowling through the city, shadows were her best and only friend right now. After making sure she wasn’t being followed, Twilight ducked into the alleyway and walked onward. There was barely any light in the cramped passageway, but she didn’t want to draw any attention to herself by lighting up her horn. A loud crash suddenly sounded out as a trashcan was knocked over up ahead. The jarring noise made Twilight jump out of her skin. As she landed and darted her eyes around in an alert panic, she saw the trashcan rolling on its side from an intersection just ahead. Even though it was relatively dark, Twilight could see a large shadow being projected onto the wall in front of her by the brighter light coming from outside of the alley. The intersection probably led out onto the streets, so any number of things could have wandered into the alley with her. The shadow was furry looking, and it was large enough to belong to one of the darklings. As the shadow got closer to the edge of the intersection, the purple mare felt her muscles tensing up in fright. Just before Twilight thought her heart would explode in her chest, a soft meow filled the air. Much to her confusion and relief, a stray cat wandered out into the alley in front of her. The shadow it was casting was still present, although it was easier to see that it belonged to the feline instead of some shadowy beast. “Phew… you scared the living daylights out of me little guy.” Twilight said in a relieved tone. She smiled slightly while kneeling down to further examine the cat. It was a nice distraction from the tenseness around her to be able to see something as cute as a wayward feline. She almost felt like she wasn’t alone anymore, even though it was silly to think that the cat would offer her any meaningful assistance. Suddenly, the cat looked ahead into the other alley and paused. It arched its back and let out a loud hiss before starting to back up. “What is it?” Twilight asked with a confused expression. As if to answer her question, a loud and familiar deep growl made the unicorn freeze in place. The cat wailed in a terrified manner while turning tail and running down the alleyway from whence it came. Just as the cat’s shadow disappeared from sight, another shadow appeared on the other side of the intersection. Twilight backed away slightly as she watched the shadow drawing nearer. Judging from the sounds coming from just around the corner, and the shape of the shadow approaching her, there definitely wasn’t another cat waiting to pop out at her. “Darklings…” Twilight muttered in a slight panic. She could tell that there was more than one of the beasts from just listening to the disturbing growls. From the sound of it, there were more than a couple of the frightening creatures. Deciding that it would be better to run than fight, the purple mare turned around and started running back where she came from. She hardly got to break into a sprint before she skidded to a halt and stared ahead of her with eyes wide with terror. There were two shadows on the ground just outside of the alleyway. Just as the unicorn made the connection with what the shadows were, two darklings walked into view and turned down the alley to see the defenseless pony. “Oh no.” Twilight squeaked fearfully while backpedaling away from the two beasts blocking her path. She turned around to face the other darklings behind her, only to see that there were three of them coming around the corner and stalking towards her. Her options for escape were dwindling quickly. The purple mare’s mind raced as she tried to think of a way to survive for the next few minutes at least. Even if she did manage to get past the vicious pack, then she would probably make them angry enough to chase after her. Spotting the empty alleyway that the cat came through just behind the three beasts, the unicorn knew that she would have to act fast to save herself. Hearing a loud snarl behind her and the sound of the darklings leaping into the air, Twilight lit up her horn and pictured herself behind the creatures in front of her. With a magical buzz, the unicorn blinked out of existence for a moment and reappeared at the intersection just behind the creatures. The darklings looked confused for a moment, until they doubtlessly heard the purple mare behind them and turned around with less than pleased looks on what one could loosely call their faces. Feeling her adrenaline kick in, Twilight turned tail and started to run. Thankfully this alley wasn’t a dead end as there was an opening back out onto the streets just ahead. Seeing the relatively bright opening to freedom lifted the unicorn’s spirits ever so slightly. Hearing a strange noise beneath her, Twilight looked down with a confused expression. She widened her eyes in surprise as she saw two dark blotches racing out from underneath her and travelling ahead of her at rapid speeds. The unicorn skidded to a halt and watched the two blotches as they stopped at the entrance to the alley and started forming upwards into darklings. “What?! Since when can you do that by yourself?!” Twilight exclaimed in a panicked sense of shock. The only time she had seen a shadow creature exhibit the ability to sink into the ground and move around like that was when it was a creature much stronger than a darkling. As if to respond to the stunned mare, the two darklings let out a collective snarl before barking at her wildly. Taking a closer look at their behavior, Twilight realized that these darklings were somehow acting odd. They seemed far more wild and ravenous than the darklings she usually ran across. Sure, any darkling would happily rip her face off and use it as a chew toy, but these ones looked like they would rip each other to pieces just to get the opportunity. The two beasts walked forward, only to snap at each other angrily when one would get closer to the terrified pony than the other. Unfortunately for Twilight, they still seemed to only have one objective in mind, and that was her. Recoiling slightly in terror, the purple mare took a few steps backwards before hearing more growls behind her. She turned and saw the rest of the pack approaching slowly from down the alleyway. The three beasts were snapping at her with their enormous jaws, and they were barking and snarling at her so fiercely that their small bodies could hardly stay still. Taking a frantic look around at her predicament, Twilight felt herself breaking out into a nervous sweat. There were too many of the creatures to fight off in close quarters, and she couldn’t teleport behind them again without them chasing after her. “Stay back… leave me alone!” Twilight said in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. Even if her voice wasn’t trembling from fear, she doubted that the darklings would have cared. Suddenly, the two darklings behind her charged forward. The beasts barked wildly while bounding towards the purple mare at high speeds. By the time Twilight turned around, the pair was already a few inches away and leaping into the air. “AHH!” Twilight screamed fearfully. In her adrenaline fueled panic, she noticed a fire escape behind the two creatures leading upwards. Deciding that anywhere was better than where she was currently standing, she lit up her horn and concentrated on teleporting herself away. The darklings landed where the unicorn was and looked around with irritated expressions. They turned around and looked up, only to see the purple mare blinking into existence up on the fire escape. As they realized their attack failed, the pack of darklings growled angrily and barked while jumping up towards the elusive mare. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to reach up to the platform she was on, and they were unable to climb the ladder leading up to her. Before Twilight could celebrate her victory and leave, she widened her eyes in shock as she watched one of the darklings sink into the ground. The others quickly followed their comrade’s example and flattened out into translucent black spots on the ground. The black spots all scattered before rushing up the walls of the two buildings on either side of the alley and quickly making their way up towards the unicorn. “That’s not fair! Can’t I get a break for once?!” Twilight stated with a frustrated sense of panic filling her. She quickly turned tail and made her way up the fire escape as fast as she could. Her hooves clattered against the metal staircase, almost matching her racing heartbeat as she fled her shadowy pursuers. Hearing a strange noise beside her, Twilight turned her head to see one of the shadowy blotches appearing on the wall next to her. She widened her eyes in shock and let out a startled yelp while dodging backwards. Just as she cleared the blotch, a darkling leapt out of it with its teeth bared. The beast snarled while sailing past the unicorn and over the rails of the fire escape. While the darkling fell to the ground below, Twilight had to catch herself from falling over the rails in her hasty retreat. Spotting another of the blotches on the other building, Twilight realized the darkling must have been trying to jump to her. She steeled her shocked nerves and charged up her horn for a preemptive attack. As the darkling leapt out of the wall with a vicious growl, the purple mare fired a magical blast at it and shot it out of the air. As the darkling erupted into smoke, Twilight returned her attention forward and rushed up the stairway. With a loud clatter, the entire fire escape shook as one of the other darklings leapt onto it. The purple mare looked down to see the beast on the landing below her. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in surprise as she saw the creature heading upwards. She quickly started making her way up the stairs in a panicked rush to escape the predators giving chase. The purple mare could hear the darkling haphazardly making its way up after her in a clumsy rush that made a terrible racket against the metallic stairs. Along with the fear inducing sound of the beast getting closer, she could also hear its constant barking and snarling just beneath her. She hoped that she would be fast enough to climb the staircase before the creature caught up with her. Taking a look up to see the roof of the building rapidly approaching, Twilight quickly realized that she wouldn’t have many places to run to after she made it up there. Deciding to make an attempt at outsmarting the beasts pursuing her, she looked down and tried to find a spot to teleport to. As the sight of the darkling chasing her on the landing below spooked her into acting quickly, she lit up her horn and teleported beneath it. The unicorn popped back into existence and looked around swiftly. She found herself on the second landing a few feet off of the ground. Taking a look up, she noticed the darkling further up looking around in utter confusion, and the other darklings still racing along the side of the building as shadows trying to find her. “Phew…” Twilight breathed a silent sigh of relief while trying to quietly make her way down the fire escape. If she could make it back to the ground without the creatures noticing, then maybe she could escape through the alleyway and lose them. As she looked behind her while rounding the landing, Twilight gasped as she saw another shadowy blotch on the wall directly in front of her. By the time she turned to get out of the way, the hapless pony saw the darkling within leaping out of the wall towards her with its claws outstretched and its teeth bared. “AHH!” Twilight screamed fearfully as she dove to the side of the landing. As hard as she tried to get out of the creature’s path, the limited amount of space she had to deal with and the amount of time she had to react in were both too small. The darkling smashed into her side on its way past, sending the unicorn back against the rails before plummeting off the fire escape. Although the beast didn’t clip her with its claws or its teeth, it did something far worse in its brief flight. Twilight felt herself being pushed back as the creature’s body flew into her. By the time the darkling bounced off of her and did its damage, the unicorn was already halfway over the rails. Twilight yelped in a fearful panic while trying her best to grab the railing on her way over, but her momentum was too great for her to stop herself now. She felt her hooves losing their grip as she fell off the fire escape backwards. The entire experience would be over in a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity to the purple mare. Twilight watched the world spin upside down as her body flipped from her momentum. She would have tried to light up her horn to teleport away, but around that time she smacked into the rail on the landing below, catching it with her jaw. The impact wasn’t nearly as severe as it could have been, although she did put a lot of strain on her neck as her head bent back from the weight of her body continuing to fall. Due to her body only hitting the metal rail with a small area, Twilight flipped again before settling on her back. She barely had time to process the stinging pain in her chin and neck before she finished her brief flight and landed on the harsh ground below. With a heavy thud, Twilight slammed into the ground with her upper back taking most of the impact. Her head smacked against the ground as her body settled into a crumpled heap. The air was knocked out of her lungs as everything around her became an unfocused blur. Even though she had only been a short distance off the ground at the time of her fall, it felt like she just smacked into the pavement from much further up. As she slowly opened her eyes, the purple mare could feel her head ringing and her body screaming out in agony. The back of her head, her entire frame, and even her chin were all throbbing painfully with varying degrees of severity. She let out a painful groan while bringing her hoof up to coddle her aching skull and rolling to her side. The world in front of her was a hazy mess of spinning colors and far off noises. While she slowly writhed on the ground dealing with her pain, Twilight quickly realized that she wasn’t recovering from her daze. In fact, she was gradually feeling more and more drowsy as time went by. “Guh… hrk…” The unicorn moaned as she tried to lift herself off the ground. The one arm she used to try and push herself up quickly faltered and turned to jelly like the rest of her limbs. She felt so weak and she was hurting so much that she wondered if she would ever get back up. Suddenly, Twilight heard a muffled growl in front of her. She would have thought the disturbing noise to be part of her ringing ears, until she looked up and saw blurry shapes in front of her. As the image before her focused ever so slightly, she saw the four remaining darklings all gathered in a row, slowly stalking forward towards her. “N…no! Get… g-get away!” Twilight slurred in an alarmed tone while trying to distance herself from the beasts. She tried pushing herself away with her hooves, but she could barely do anything other than roll onto her back. Feeling her body shutting down and slipping into unconsciousness, Twilight realized she had to do something fast. If she passed out with the four creatures nearby, she wouldn’t wake up to regret it later. Taking a look to the area above her, she tried lighting up her horn to teleport away. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to concentrate her magic through her painful daze. While her vision degraded into a blurry mess again, Twilight thought for sure she was going to die again. She hated herself for letting her second chance go to waste in such an abrupt manner. She couldn’t even make a difference with her new life, getting mauled by a pack of darklings instead of dying at the hooves of Raven Feather and her colleagues while trying to stop them. As she let her head roll over limply to face her doom before drifting into unconsciousness, Twilight felt a bizarre sense of déjà vu building inside of her. She was helpless, her head was hurting from a recent blow, and she was about to be mauled by a group of the monsters that started this whole mess. If she were only out in a freezing cold forest at night, her final twisted trip down memory lane would be complete. Unfortunately for her, there was no slayer appearing out of a flash of light to help her now. Suddenly, a bolt of light sailed into one of the darklings and exploded, causing Twilight’s already unfocused eyes to sting slightly. She heard a series of magical zaps as more bolts flew into the other darklings. While the four creatures turned tail and tried to run before collapsing into smoke, the purple mare felt herself going numb again. Her vision faded, and the sounds around her melded into a single haze. Before she lost her vision completely, Twilight saw a tint of blue and what looked like hooves walking in front of her before blurring into an unrecognizable mess. Whatever pony the hooves belonged to lowered its head to inspect her, but the purple mare couldn’t make out a face. “Twilight? Can you hear me?” A muffled voice spoke to her in a concerned tone, but Twilight was too far gone to tell who it was. Strangely though, the voice sounded oddly familiar even through the muffled and fading sound of it. Before she could gather her foggy thoughts to ponder on her rescuer any further, Twilight felt herself drifting off into a hazy sleep. Her eyes closed and her mind went blank as her body finally slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 97: Together AgainBack in the castle throne room, Princess Celestia and her unlikely companion were both sitting together against a wall while warily watching the pale colt in the center of the room. Grimwood, or rather Shade as the strange entity that possessed the colt called itself, was pensively looking over the large symbol on the floor left over from the botched ritual. The pale colt would occasionally pause to shake his head and scratch out one of the glyphs on the symbol. He seemed to be content with leaving the room in dead silence as he continued his work, but that wasn’t what was concerning to the two captive ponies on the other side of the room. Ever since Shade took over Grimwood’s body and killed Raven Feather and Dust Kicker, his personality had been shifting violently, and he seemed to have something wrong with him on top of that. Every once in a while he would cringe and shake slightly, only to have a small pulse of darkness exit his form before dissipating. He also seemed to have lost much of the color that was present before the ritual. His fur looked like a washed out form of greyish white now instead of the pale white that used to belong to the colt. “Let’s see here… this should go here, and this shouldn’t be there.” The colt muttered to himself while making more changes to the symbol. “What are you doing?” Shadow Mist asked with an uneasy sense of curiosity. The colt paused what he was doing and looked behind him with an annoyed expression. “Don’t interrupt me… I’m trying to think.” Shade said while glaring at the red stallion. His tone of voice had even changed from eerily passive and cheery to cold and stoic, almost like his personality was slowly separating from Grimwood’s and distinguishing itself. Celestia and Shadow Mist shared concerned glances with each other while observing the colt. Neither of them knew what he was capable of, and neither wanted to incur his wrath. But at the same time, they knew that something had to be done to stop him. “Listen to me… Shadow Mist was it? You need to get these cuffs off of me.” Celestia whispered in a concerned tone while eyeing between the red stallion and the pale colt. “Why should I trust you?” Shadow Mist whispered back in a wary tone. “Because, whatever punishment you might receive from me will be much better than what he might do to you. Even if you spend the rest of your life in a jail cell that is still better than losing it isn’t it?” Celestia reasoned while leveling with the stallion. “Maybe you’re right.” Shadow Mist said with a hollow sigh. He looked down to the bag of supplies near his feet and contemplated reaching for the key to the alicorn’s bonds. “So… you are the princess of the sun?” Shade asked in a stoic tone while turning around and facing the pair. Shadow Mist and Celestia froze up as they met the colt’s icy gaze. His eyes were no longer pitch black, but his pupils were a darker shade of their usual color. “I must say, I expected more from the physical embodiment of something so powerful. Yet here you are, confined by mere scratchings into some metal restraints.” Shade said while walking closer to the alicorn. He then shifted his eyes over to the red stallion next to her. “And you… you can use shadow magic, am I correct?” The colt asked in a curious tone. “Y-yes…” Shadow Mist replied in a hesitant manner. “Hmm… perhaps you can be useful to me after all.” Shade stated while scratching his chin pensively. “Why would I help you? You just hijacked my friend’s body and killed his sister. Besides… I can’t do much of anything in my current state” Shadow Mist said while offering the colt a slight glare. Shade looked down to the stallion’s missing limb and his destroyed eye curiously. “I never said your cooperation was a requirement.” The colt said while placing his hoof on the stallion’s forehead. “And as for your impairments…” He paused while concentrating for a moment. Suddenly, a black aura appeared around his hoof and flowed into the red pony. Celestia watched in horror as Shadow Mist grunted in pain. He closed his good eye and struggled against the colt’s grasp, albeit very weakly. Much to the alicorn’s surprise, she saw a pulsating purple aura forming on the stallion’s stump. The aura elongated and solidified until it resembled a hoof. Before long, the stallion had a pulsing purple mass of light where his leg used to be. As he opened his eyes, a purple glow emanated from both of them. Although it was impossible to see his pupils, it seemed like he could use both eyes as he looked around curiously. The stallion looked down to his new appendage and moved it around to get a feel for it. “I think that the immense power I hold can take care of a few missing limbs and eyes. Not to mention a headstrong personality.” Shade stated with a sinister smirk while backing away from the red stallion. Shadow Mist stood up and looked down to his glowing leg before smiling. “Shadow Mist?” Celestia asked in a disturbed tone. The stallion simply turned his head and scoffed at her. “Stow it princess… I have no use for your help anymore.” Shadow Mist said before walking over to the pale colt’s side. “What did you do to him?!” Celestia asked the colt in an angered tone. “All I did was heal his injuries and give him a new point of view… one that let him know how utterly weak this world is in comparison to the power of shadow.” Shade replied with a smirk before returning a blank expression to his face. He then turned to his new colleague with a pensive expression. “I need you to make some changes to the symbol. I’m going to rest and get used to this new body.” The colt said while looking down to his body with a curious expression. Shadow Mist nodded before walking over to the symbol. Celestia was shocked to see such a vulgar display of power. The colt just influenced the stallion’s mind to suit his needs. If he could do that with little effort, then what else was he capable of? The mere thought made the alicorn shudder nervously. She only hoped that the remaining forces Equestria had were enough to stop the sinister colt and the frightful power held within him. Twilight groaned softly as she suddenly came to her senses. Her body was sore and her mind was hazy, but she was slowly waking up from her brief stint of unconsciousness. The ground beneath her felt cold, but there was something warm draped over her body. As she slowly opened her eyes and blinked rapidly to adjust to the light, she noticed that she was inside of a building, an abandoned house from the look of things. She was lying on a couch with a blanket strewn over her. Taking a look around the room she was in, she discovered a pony sitting over by a fire place facing away from her. The pony had a cloak on that concealed most of their body. However, a bit of their legs were visible, revealing dark blue fur. “Are you the one who saved me?” Twilight asked curiously while getting up to a seated position. She cringed softly as her sore body protested her movements. The cloaked pony turned their head to look at the purple mare, though their face was still covered in shadow. It was hard to see from the low level of light in the room, but judging from the shape of the hair poking out from the cloak, Twilight guessed that the pony was a mare. “Thank you… I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t-” Twilight paused suddenly as the strange mare turned around fully and pulled down their hood. The unicorn was stunned into shock from what she was seeing. “P… P… P-Princess Luna…?!” Twilight exclaimed in shock as she stared at the blue mare in front of her. There was no mistaking what she was seeing, but she rubbed her eyes and shook her head to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. The blue alicorn smiled and chuckled softly as she watched the purple mare’s jaw hanging open. She seemed as though she didn’t have a scratch on her, which was surprising considering that she had been declared dead for the past few days. “It is good to see you too Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said in a cheerful tone. “But… but… how…? You… but… you were…” Twilight stammered in a confused stupor. “Dead? I suppose things were looking a bit grim the last time you saw me.” Luna said with an understanding expression. “How did you get away? I tried so hard to free you from that mass of energy, but it wouldn’t let go of you…” Twilight frowned sadly as she thought back to her encounter back at the mansion. At the time, she was tearing herself up from leaving the alicorn to her fate. She felt like she was letting her die by failing to save her. “I almost didn’t get away… I just barely managed to find the energy to teleport away before that cloud could overcome me. But it’s ok now…” Luna put a reassuring hoof on the sulking unicorn’s shoulder, causing her to look up at her. “Where have you been these past few days?” Twilight asked curiously. The blue alicorn frowned slightly as the matter of her absence was brought up. “After I got away from the mass of energy, I passed out in the room I teleported to and didn’t wake up until everything blew over. I made it out of the mansion and wandered through the forest until I reached Ponyville. I was barely functional by the time I made it into town… I actually collapsed and fell unconscious before I could do anything else.” Luna explained sadly. “By the time I woke up, I was inside of a house in a bed. It turns out that a kind couple of ponies saw me collapse in the street and took me in. They were going to notify the royal guard that they found me, but I asked them not to.” “You asked them not to? Why did you do that?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “I knew that everyone thought I was dead… I didn’t want to make any of you go through that, but my situation did have certain advantages. Not only did all of you think I was dead, but Raven Feather and her colleagues most likely did as well. I could have done much to bring them in if they didn’t think I was a threat anymore.” Luna explained with a regretful frown. “After I told the couple to keep my survival a secret, they offered to nurse me back to health. I was barely able to stand on my own, so I wasn’t in a position to refuse. I recovered to my full strength only last night. I thanked the couple for their kindness and left for Canterlot in the morning, but by the time I arrived, Raven Feather and her followers had already sieged the city.” She sighed in a defeated tone while looking down sadly. “It’s ok Princess… we can still win if we work together. Now that you’re here, it should be much easier to free Princess Celestia and take back the city.” Twilight said in a determined tone. The alicorn looked up and smiled once she saw the purple mare’s spirits so high. “You are right Twilight. With the power of the elements of harmony, we can undo whatever Raven Feather has done.” Luna explained cheerfully. “Wait… the elements of harmony? Oh no… they were kept in the castle. Knowing Raven Feather, she probably already found a way to get past the defensive spells over them so she could hide them.” Twilight frowned as her hopes for victory deflated. However, the blue alicorn didn’t seem fazed by the unicorn’s fears. “Don’t worry about that Twilight, the elements are safe.” Luna said in a confident tone. “They are?” Twilight asked in a confused manner. “When I arrived, the town was already full of those terrible creatures. I went to the castle to find my sister, but unfortunately she was already captured by Raven Feather and her followers. I couldn’t do anything to help her by myself, but I was able to do one thing before I left. I took the elements of harmony from their resting place and brought them with me.” Luna explained with a cheerful smirk. Twilight smiled excitedly as she listened to the alicorn’s clever thinking. “That’s great! Where did you put the elements?” Twilight asked curiously. “I ran into the other element bearers as they fled the castle. I left the elements with them while I went to observe Raven Feather’s progress.” Luna said in a confident tone. Suddenly, Twilight frowned as she remembered her friends. “The others… they must be heartbroken. I feel so horrible that they had to watch me when I…” Twilight paused hesitantly while looking down sadly. “How are you alive Twilight? The others were fairly certain you were dead when I found them.” Luna asked curiously as she thought back to the distraught mares and how they described their experience. It was hard to tell what exactly happened through their avoidance of the topic and broken sobs, but it didn’t sound good for the purple mare at any rate. “I was dead, Princess… I bled out right in front of them. The only reason I’m here right now is because Tom sacrificed himself to revive me. I must have traumatized them… I said some pretty crushing stuff toward the end after it sunk in that I was dying. I hope they’re doing ok…” Twilight said in a concerned and forlorn tone. “Maybe we should head back to them. I’m certain that they would be ecstatic to see you.” Luna suggested in a sympathetic tone. “Where are they anyway? Somewhere safe I hope…” Twilight muttered uneasily. The mere thought of her friends being stuck in a city full of darklings made her concerned for their wellbeing. “Don’t worry, they are safe. I left them in a building not too far away from here while I went to investigate Raven Feather’s progress. They have Glimmer Shine and the others with them, so they are fine.” Luna explained in a reassuring manner. “Glimmer Shine and the others? Did they finish their mission already?” Twilight asked curiously. “Apparently so… they ran into some trouble with some darklings, but they eventually managed to light the signal fire and escape.” Luna stated in a thankful tone. “Well that’s a relief... I think it’s time we regrouped with the others, Princess.” Twilight said in an eager tone. The alicorn nodded in response while getting up and walking over to the purple mare. After helping her to her feet, Luna motioned for the unicorn to follow her and walked towards the door to the building. Now that she had Princess Luna with her, Twilight felt an incredible sense of hope and courage flowing through her. She felt like they could actually beat the hooded ponies and save Celestia if they worked together. The constant threat of darklings didn’t even seem all that threatening as she walked through the streets with her new companion. Judging from her surroundings, Twilight inferred that the alicorn had ducked into the nearest abandoned building she could find to let her rest. She could actually see the alleyway where she encountered the darklings and fell off the fire escape as she looked behind her. The unicorn shuddered nervously as she thought about what would have happened if the alicorn hadn’t noticed her on her way to the castle. She made a mental note to start carrying around strobes and any other weapon she could find to deal with the horrible beasts in the future, because somehow she knew that her luck was rotten enough to get chased by darklings by herself for a third time. After a few twists and turns followed by a few minutes of walking through the streets of Canterlot, Luna stopped suddenly and directed her attention to a building on the right. The building seemed to be another abandoned home, though this one had two stories to it. “We have arrived.” Luna announced while looking down to her purple companion. “This is where you left the others?” Twilight asked curiously, to which the alicorn nodded. The purple mare looked ahead with an almost hesitant expression. She wasn’t sure what she could say to her friends after they watched her die. She was certain they would be eager to see her, but she wasn’t sure if she could make up for the soul crushing things she said to them. She basically told them to give up and stop fighting the hooded ponies, and yet now here she was, coming back from the dead and telling them to do exactly the opposite. “You seem troubled by something… are you ok Twilight?” Luna asked in a concerned tone as she picked up on the unicorn’s sadness. “What? Oh… I guess… I guess I’m just afraid of how I affected them when I told them to stop fighting. I just didn’t want them to get hurt trying to avenge me… but maybe it broke their spirits or something?” Twilight pondered in a solemn tone while looking down slightly. She looked back up as she felt the princess putting a hoof on her shoulder. “They were understandably distraught over seeing you die Twilight… but they did not have their spirits broken. If anything, they seem to be more eager to put a stop to all of this now than ever before.” Luna explained in a reassuring tone. “Really…?” Twilight asked in a surprised tone. She looked toward the house while thinking about her friends and how they were faring when she saw them last. Despite everything that had happened, the five mares hadn’t given up hope or their will to keep fighting. In fact, they were more determined to fight on so they could find justice for those responsible for all of their hardships. The purple mare couldn’t help but to smile warmly as thought of the others and their incredible resolve. “Come on… let’s go. I think they’ve been waiting long enough.” Twilight said in an eager tone while looking to the alicorn with a smirk. Luna couldn’t help but to smile as the unicorn’s spirits were lifted immensely. Without further delay, the pair walked up the steps to the front door. Luna grabbed ahold of the handle with her magic and opened the door. Twilight followed the alicorn into a small entryway that opened up into the rest of the house. There was a storage closet to their left, and just ahead of them was a living room with a few doorways that led elsewhere into the home. There was a couch against the wall that looked like it would sit two ponies comfortably, and there was a decorative rug across the floor. “Princess? Is that you?” A voice and the sound of hoofsteps approaching came from one of the other rooms. Twilight and Luna looked over to see Glitterball and Sunspot walking in from a doorway. “Oh good, you’re back. We were starting to get worried about y-” Glitterball paused mid-sentence as she noticed the purple mare next to the alicorn. Both the white unicorn and the pegasus next to her were stunned into shock as they stared ahead with wide eyes. The pair stammered as they looked at each other and the princess to make sure that they weren’t seeing things. “Hey guys… heh…” Twilight chuckled awkwardly while offering the two ponies a slight wave. “What’s wrong with you two? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Applejack asked curiously while walking in from the other room with Glimmer Shine. As the two stopped looking at the shocked ponies and drifted their attention ahead, they both froze up with stunned expressions as they noticed the unicorn standing next to Princess Luna. “Twilight…? Is that you?” Applejack asked in a tone of disbelief. She shook her head to wake herself up and blinked several times to ensure she wasn’t hallucinating. “Yes… it’s me.” Twilight said with a slight smile building on her face. “Girls! Get in here!” Applejack suddenly yelled behind her loud enough to carry her voice through the house. The clamor of several ponies rushing through the house sounded out as the others came running. “What is it?! Did the hooded ponies find us?!” Pinkie Pie asked in a slight panic while rushing through the doorway. The pink mare gasped loudly and dropped her jaw in shock as she settled her eyes on the purple unicorn. While the others slowly caught up with the pink pony, they wondered why she looked like she was going to jump out of her skin with excitement. “Twilight!” Pinkie yelled eagerly while leaping forward and snatching the purple unicorn up in a tight hug. Twilight was nearly sent to the floor until the pink mare grabbed her by the waist and held her close to her. “Oh my gosh… Twilight?!” Fluttershy exclaimed in a shocked tone while walking over to the group gathering around the unicorn. Twilight watched as all of her friends flocked to her side. Strangely, there were only four of the mares present, with Rainbow Dash being the only one missing. “How are you alive?! We… we watched you die!” Rarity asked in a state of excited shock. Much like everyone else in the room, she thought that seeing her friend alive and well again was too good to be true. “Well, Tom must have woken up after you guys left and somehow revived me. I came to and found him unconscious next to me.” Twilight explained her miraculous revival to her friends as best she could. Everyone was relieved to hear that the human was alive as well. “Tom is still alive? Thank goodness… I suppose he is sturdier than we thought.” Rarity said with a relaxed sigh. Twilight suddenly frowned as the white mare brought up the subject of what happened to her human friend. Everyone grew uneasy as they watched the purple pony lower her head sadly. “Actually… Tom is gone. He… he didn’t make it.” Twilight explained in a somber tone. “Hey, cheer up. Maybe you just thought he was dead again. We all thought he was dead when we left the castle… we even thought you were dead! That guy is full of surprises.” Pinkie said with a slight chuckle while thinking back to all of the amazing feats the boy had pulled off in his short time in Equestria. Strangely though, the unicorn wasn’t being affected by the pink mare’s attempts at cheering her up. “No Pinkie, he’s gone… for real this time. He… he disappeared right in front of me. His body just evaporated into embers… I guess that’s how slayers die.” Twilight added while holding back a few stray tears. Everyone fell silent as a wave of surprise and sadness washed over them. The knowledge that the human was dead was enough to bring tears to their eyes. Although they had thought he was dead before, they now had a hollow and empty feeling in their guts that wouldn’t go away. “I’m so sorry Twilight… I can’t believe he risked his own life to save you.” Pinkie said in a somber tone. “That’s what he does Pinkie… ever since he got here he always put others before himself. It got to the point where I wasn’t sure if he cared about himself anymore.” Twilight said with a slight sniffle while rubbing her eyes and collecting herself. “I’m not sure if I should tell you this… but Tom said that before he came to Equestria, he was going to just give up and kill himself.” Fluttershy said in a hesitant tone, much to the surprise of everyone else. “What? That’s awful… why would he do that?” Twilight asked in an uneasy tone while shaking her head. “He told me that after he died and became a slayer that he didn’t have anyone to be friends with or even talk to. He didn’t really specify if people avoided him or if he avoided people… either way, he would just roam around and deal with any monsters plaguing a town, and then he would move on. It must have gotten to him after a while… he must have been so lonely.” Fluttershy explained in a sad tone. Twilight felt horrible knowing the reason why the human was so reckless in his efforts to protect her and the others. She now knew why he always blindly charged into danger. It was because he was protecting the only friends he had had since he was a normal human. Given his age and the harshness of becoming a slayer, he must have been an emotional wreck on the inside. The purple mare looked down sadly and fought against a fresh set of tears and sobs building inside of her. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t realized that her new friend needed help sooner. If only she could have helped him deal with his reckless behavior, then maybe he would still be alive. “I just hope that we can make his sacrifices mean something. But to do that we need to beat Raven Feather.” Twilight said in a determined tone. She wiped her eyes and stiffened up to prevent herself from breaking down again. Right now was not the time for lamenting the past. Right now, she and the others had a job to do. “We’re all with you whenever you’re ready to fight Twilight.” Applejack said while turning to her friends to confer their opinions. Everyone else nodded eagerly at the prospect of beating up the hooded ponies. “Wait… you all want to fight? I thought you would want to stay out of trouble after I… well… you know.” Twilight said in a hesitant tone. “Of course we all want to fight, Twilight! The only reason we didn’t clobber those hooded jerks sooner was because you didn’t want us to. Ah mean hay, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t shut up about how much she wanted to turn around and strangle Raven Feather for what she did to you.” Applejack said in a cheerful tone. Twilight paused suddenly as the absence of her cyan friend was brought to mind. She looked around, only to find that the pegasus was nowhere to be found. “Where is Rainbow Dash? I don’t see her… is she ok?” Twilight asked uneasily. Everyone grew uneasy as the cyan mare was brought up. “She’s upstairs… she wanted to be left alone for a while after we got here.” Rarity explained in a somber tone. “Really? I didn’t think she would be that emotionally unstable after a few minutes… or however long I was out for.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking around at the others. “We were all pretty messed up before you got here… Rainbow just wanted some time alone Ah guess.” Applejack explained somberly. “Yeah… I tried to go cheer her up a little, but she just asked me to go away.” Pinkie said with a concerned sigh. “Where is she? I think I should go see her.” Twilight said in a troubled tone while getting up. “The stairs are through that door at the back of the hallway. Rainbow Dash is holed up in the first room on the right.” Applejack explained while pointing to one of the doorways. “Thanks… I’ll go talk to her. I’m sure she will be happy to see me.” Twilight said while walking over to the door and heading through the house. After making her way through a lengthy hallway, Twilight discovered the stairs opening up to her left. As she climbed the steps, she drew her attention to the door just down the new hallway. The door was closed like many of the other doors she had passed by, but knowing that her friend was most likely sulking behind this one made it somehow different. Twilight walked over to the door and paused in front of it. Taking a quick listen yielded no sounds coming from the other side. At least the cyan mare wasn’t bawling her eyes out anymore. Twilight was unsure if this was a good sign or not. Deciding to waste no more time with her thoughts, the unicorn raised her hoof to the door and gently knocked on it. A slight rustling noise came from inside, though the sound didn’t get closer to the door. Whatever Rainbow Dash was doing in there, she didn’t seem interested in greeting any visitors. Twilight grabbed ahold of the handle and tried to open the door, but she quickly discovered that the pegasus had locked it. Before she could knock again, a muffled voice rang out from within the room. “Go away… I said I want to be alone didn’t I?” Rainbow Dash asked in a clearly gloomy tone. It nearly broke the purple mare’s heart to hear her friend in such distress. “Rainbow Dash…?” Twilight spoke up in a concerned tone. Nothing but silence greeted her for a solid few moments. Suddenly, the sound of hurried feet approaching the door rang out, followed by the sound of the door being unlocked. The door opened to reveal the cyan mare peering out with a shocked expression. Once she laid eyes on the purple unicorn, Rainbow Dash let go of the door and took a step back in surprise. “T…Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked in a stunned tone, to which Twilight nodded. The cyan pegasus rubbed her eyes and shook her head to make sure she was awake, she then continued staring at the unicorn and eyeing her up and down as if she weren’t really there. “Rainbow… I’m so-” Twilight began to speak up in a somber tone, until she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash rushing forward and wrapping her arms around her. The pegasus held her friend close while hiding her face by burying it into her shoulder. Twilight heard the cyan mare weeping softly into her fur for a moment. Rainbow Dash pulled back and let the unicorn go. She sniffled and wiped a few tears from her eyes before smiling warmly at the purple mare. “Don’t you ever do that to us again… you hear me egghead?” Rainbow Dash said with a playful smirk. She still had a few tears welling up in her eyes and an overwhelming expression of joy on her face. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Twilight said while fighting back her own tears. “How are you…? I mean… you were dead.” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “Tom revived me… he didn’t survive the process though.” Twilight said while lowering her head sadly. The cyan mare widened her eyes in shock as she heard that her human friend had survived his encounter with Raven Feather, only to die by bringing the unicorn back to life. “Grr… I’m tired of losing friends to these creeps. We need to head back to the castle and make them pay.” Rainbow Dash said in an upset tone. “I agree… let’s head downstairs and talk strategy with the others.” Twilight said with a determined expression. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement at the prospect of taking the offensive once more. The two mares started back down the hallway and went downstairs. They walked through the house again until they stepped out in the living room where their friends were waiting. The others seemed to occasionally stare at the purple unicorn, as if they expected her to disappear at some point. Still, Twilight didn’t mind. She was half expecting all of this to be some demented dream her mind cooked up as it was dying. “Yay! We’re all together again!” Pinkie Pie cheered while roping all of her friends in for a group hug. Given the circumstances, everyone was eager to participate in the sudden embrace. “And now that we are all together, I was thinking that we should come up with a plan of attack.” Twilight suggested in a determined tone. “There’s the Twilight we know and love.” Applejack said with a pleased smile. The purple mare couldn’t help but to smile warmly as her friends looked at her with cheerful expressions. “Well if we’re going to go after them, we may want to hurry it up. Who knows how far along they are with their ritual after that shockwave.” Glimmer Shine said in a concerned tone. “Wait… shockwave? What shockwave?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. “A little while before I found you, a shockwave of energy passed through town. It looked like it came from the direction of the castle.” Luna explained in a troubled tone. “Yeah, I’ll bet that thing is halfway to Ponyville by now. It didn’t look like it was stopping anytime soon.” Rainbow Dash said with a surprised expression. “That must have happened before Tom revived me. If something they did made a shockwave that powerful…” Twilight paused with concern as she thought about the matter further. “We need to stop them before things get any more out of hand.” She said with a frustrated sigh. “You guys lit the signal fire, so how long would it be before reinforcements get here?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while turning to Glimmer Shine and his two teammates. “It’s hard to say... maybe an hour, maybe more.” Sunspot said with a troubled frown. “We might not have any outside help, but all of the guards left in the city will be gathering over by the guard station.” Glimmer Shine suggested optimistically. “Good… we’ll need all the help we can get. I vote we head over to the station and rally up the guards. We can think of a plan after that.” Twilight said in a confident tone. “Sounds good to me… any objections?” Glimmer Shine asked while looking around at the others. Everyone shook their heads in response. “Very well then, let’s get moving. I will go grab the elements of harmony and meet all of you outside.” Luna stated while getting up from her seated position. Everyone nodded before eagerly walking to the front door and stepping outside. After waiting for a few moments for the blue alicorn to join them, the group embarked on their way towards the guard station. Given the fact that the city was still crawling with darklings, the ponies were still nervous about traveling on the open streets. However, the presence of Princess Luna and the members of Spirit made everyone a little more comfortable and confident in their safety. The walk across town was beginning to wear on the group in more ways than one. Their nerves were strained from the tense atmosphere and the daunting odds they had to overcome, their feet were sore from walking, fighting, and running for most of the day, and their spirits weren’t doing very good either. Even with the uplifting boost from having a plan and having Twilight back, everyone felt tense all around from the upcoming battle with the hooded ponies. Still, despite all their fears and doubts, they were confident that they could persevere by working together. Twilight walked a short way behind Princess Luna, Glimmer Shine, and his teammates. The unicorn had walked around Canterlot many times before, and her brother was captain of the royal guard, so she knew her way over to the guard station by heart. However, she gladly accepted the yellow stallion and his companions taking the lead to better protect the group from the front. Taking a look behind her, Twilight saw her friends bringing up the rear. Rainbow Dash was walking a little to the side directly behind the purple mare, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were walking at the back of the group, and Fluttershy was nervously walking in the middle of the group with Applejack beside her. Everyone was scanning around them for signs of movement. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates were feverishly looking at their locators. If they saw so much as a streak of light pointing around them, their strobes were well within reach. “Are you sure we’re safe out here?” Fluttershy asked timidly while darting her eyes around. “Don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll handle any darklings that come our way.” Sunspot said in a reassuring tone from the front of the group. The yellow mare seemed to be slightly comforted by the statement, but it was clear she was still nervous about her surroundings. “How’s your wing Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while glancing back to the pegasus. The yellow mare looked down to her wing and moved it slightly to see how it felt. “It still hurts a little bit… I don’t think I can use it though.” Fluttershy reported with a slight frown. “I’m just glad that it isn’t bleeding anymore. We can worry about functionality after all of this is over darling.” Rarity said in a reassuring tone. “I hope I can still fly after this...” Fluttershy fretted with a concerned expression. Although she didn’t enjoy flying as much as some other pegasi, it was still a large part of her life. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. I’m sure it’s nothing a little medical attention can’t handle. You’ll be airborne again in no time.” Rainbow Dash said with a confident smirk. Fluttershy smiled slightly as she thought about her situation more positively. A low buzzing followed by a magical hum made everyone look around anxiously. When they discovered the source of the noise to be glowing vials on the three Spirit members’ vests, they all felt a collective lump forming in the pit of their stomachs. “Heads up guys, looks like we have something up ahead.” Glitterball said in a concerned tone while pointing her locator straight ahead. Although the liquid was only glowing on a small portion of the vial, the sight of the reading made everyone as jumpy as if it were totally lit up. Taking a look ahead and hearing a slight noise, the group was alert and on edge as they scanned their eyes around for the source of the noise. They quickly noticed a trash can jostling around in an alleyway down the street. Before they could process any thoughts about what could be causing the can to rattle, a darkling jumped out into the street with an agitated growl. Fluttershy let out a muffled yelp of fright, Twilight and the others readied themselves for battle, and Glimmer Shine and his teammates reached for their strobes. However, the darkling was the only one among them that wasn’t preparing for battle. The shadowy creature was still facing the alleyway and barking like a mad dog. The slightly distorted noise made a slight chill run up the ponies’ spines from hearing it, even if it wasn’t directed at them. Before long, another darkling jumped out of the alley and landed on the first one. The two growled viciously while rolling around on the ground. Each seemed to be biting or clawing at the other, almost like they were fighting. “What are they doing…?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone while watching the spectacle. “It looks like they’re… fighting…?” Glitterball said in an equally confused tone while tilting her head at the odd sight. The unicorn and her teammates lowered their strobes as they continued watching the two beasts fight while trying to think of what would cause such a thing. “I’ve never seen them fight before… they were always focused on finding us.” Fluttershy said in a slightly nervous tone while thinking back to all the other times she had seen darklings. Even in the sleep deprived dreams she had of the monsters, they were exceptionally well coordinated with each other and always worked together towards their goal, which just so happened to be ripping her and her friends to shreds. “They were acting a little weird the last time I saw them. Before Princess Luna found me, I ran into a pack of them in an alleyway… they seemed almost… more feral. They also had better control over their abilities as shadow creatures from the look of it.” Twilight pondered in a curious tone while trying to think of a good explanation for the beasts’ behavior. “Maybe these ones aren’t under Dust Kicker’s control?” Glitterball suggested in a curious tone. “What makes you say that? They were following his orders the last time we ran into them.” Rainbow Dash said with an uncomfortable scoff as she thought about the brown pegasus. “Well… think about it. All of the darklings we have seen thus far have been summoned by either Dust Kicker, the hooded ponies, or some kind of spell or other creature they also summoned. And no matter where we have seen them, they all seemed to work together and focus on whatever objective they had at the time. If they are acting more feral now, then maybe something happened to break their connection with their master… who knows, maybe it was that shockwave of energy earlier?” Glitter reasoned while shaking her head in a confused tone. As helpful as her theory might have been, she didn’t know all of the answers. Suddenly, the two darklings stopped fighting each other and froze in place briefly. The beasts started sniffing the air around them in an almost paranoid fashion until they settled in the direction of the ponies. Much to everyone’s dismay, the darklings growled viciously as they caught wind of their unexpected observers. “Feral or not, it looks like they still want to rip us apart.” Glimmer Shine said in a more serious tone while readying his strobe. The stallion’s teammates followed suit and quickly pointed their strobes at the two monsters. Before the darklings could charge forward and chase after the group, Glitterball fired off two quick shots with her strobe. The bolts of light sailed down the street and slammed into the two creatures in rapid succession, leaving them to explode into puffs of black smoke. “Wow… nice shot Glitter.” Sunspot said in a congratulatory tone. “You’re really getting the hang of these things aren’t you?” Glimmer Shine asked in an impressed tone while offering the unicorn a playful chuckle. “Heh… I guess so.” Glitterball replied with a bashful smirk. Princess Luna offered a congratulatory smile to the unicorn for her swift dispatch of the two darklings. however she also had other things on her mind. The alicorn walked ahead of the group with an anxious expression and looked back to them. “We should keep moving. The longer we take to stop the hooded ponies, the more lives could be in danger.” Luna said while thinking about her sister. She shuddered to imagine what Raven Feather and her group was doing with her right now. Everyone nodded in agreement while returning serious expressions to their faces. Without further delay, the group continued forward while watching for any further threats coming their way. After many tense minutes of walking through town and avoiding the distant sounds of darklings, the group could see the guard station coming into view. The sight of the colorful flags flapping in the distance filled the ponies with a sense of hope, even given their last experience involving a guard station and shadow creatures. Everyone rushed to close the gap between them and the safety of the station. Given their track record, they were half expecting a pack of darklings to come and chase them, but no such thing happened. The group huddled around the front door and smiled triumphantly. “Let’s head inside and see how many guards are here.” Twilight suggested in an eager tone. “I just hope they will leave some for us when we reach the castle.” Rainbow Dash said with an amused chuckle. She was more than eager to level the playing field by adding some more numbers to their ranks. Princess Luna opened the door with her magic and ushered everyone inside. The lobby of the station was devoid of any life. Any staff members were most likely hiding from the darklings outside along with the rest of Canterlot. However, the group was certain that at least a few guards would be waiting to offer their assistance with taking back the city. “I will go look for any guards waiting in the back. You all should wait here and rest before we head to the castle.” Luna said while walking towards a doorway to the right of the lobby. After the alicorn disappeared from sight, the others were left to occupy themselves. Pinkie Pie and Glitterball sat down on a row of chairs lined up against the left wall. The pink mare seemed mildly bored with having to wait in a dull room, however the unicorn seemed to be genuinely resting. Rainbow Dash leaned up against a wall and sighed while looking down wearily. Everyone else simply stood or walked around the room slowly while looking around. The slow and steady rhythm of the clock ticking away behind the front desk only served to further cement the feeling of anxious impatience in the air. “Man… I can’t wait to put these guys behind bars. How long has it been since we could go a whole day without thinking about what’s going to try to kill us next?” Rainbow Dash said in a hopeful tone. “We’re almost there… all we need to do now is stop Raven Feather once and for all.” Twilight added with a pleased smile as she thought about how close they were to victory. The thought of victory made everyone feel better about their situation. Knowing that they were close to finishing their battle made it seem like all of the hardships they were going through were worth it. As long as nobody else got hurt, they were confident that everything would be fine, and they were also confident that they wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt. After a short wait, the group noticed Princess Luna walking through the doorway at the right of the room. Much to everyone’s excitement, there was a group of eight guards following behind the blue alicorn. “Hello everyone, I have returned. There were only a few guards left in the building. Everyone else is scattered around town still from the look of it.” Luna said with a mild shrug of disappointment at the small amount of help they would receive. Despite their small numbers, the guards stood at the ready with determined expressions waiting for their chance to assist the alicorn and her group. “This is good, Princess… we can use all the help we can get.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while getting up and walking over to the blue pony. Everyone else got up as they anticipated leaving to go rescue Princess Celestia. “Are we ready to go or what? I’m itching to give Raven Feather the payback she deserves.” Rainbow Dash said in an eager tone. Perhaps a little left over anger from watching Twilight getting stabbed by the black mare was still present, but the cyan pegasus seemed to be handling her emotions and converting them to useful energy. “In due time Rainbow Dash. But before we go stage an assault against Raven Feather and her colleagues, we should make sure that we are as prepared as possible.” Princess Luna suggested in a more patient tone. “What did you have in mind, Princess?” Glitterball asked curiously from the back of the group. “Given a few minutes, I think I may be able to tweak your strobes a little bit to make them more effective against shadow creatures and shadow magic.” Luna suggested in a hopeful tone. “How are you going to do that?” Glitterball asked while offering up her strobe to the alicorn. Luna levitated the vial out of the unicorn’s hooves and over to her. “I might be able to boost their power against shadows if I use a smaller version of the spell we used to beat the dark matter when we were trapped in the Ponyville guard station. I can’t be sure how well this will work… if it will even work at all, but as Twilight said, we can use all the help we can get.” Luna said while using her horn to interact with the small vial and casting the spell on it. Everyone watched the alicorn work with intrigued expressions. She seemed to handle reworking spells on the fly very well to suit her needs, which was a useful skill considering the circumstances. Meanwhile, while everyone was watching the alicorn working with the strobes, Pinkie Pie was watching something else. A flash of movement outside of the window caught her attention, and when she got up and walked over to investigate, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Uh… guys?” Pinkie asked in a nervous tone. “What is it Pinkie?” Rarity asked in a curious tone while offering the pink mare a stray glance out of the corner of her eye. “I think you should take a look at this… like, right now.” Pinkie replied in a stunned tone of voice. The genuine nervousness in the pink mare’s voice made everyone pause what they were doing to turn around. “What’s wrong P-” Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she looked out of the window where her friend was staring. As everyone caught on to what the unicorn had already noticed, they were stunned into a shocked state of silence. Outside of the station, there were dozens of black shapes moving past the window heading away from the building. Upon closer inspection, each of the shapes was in fact a darkling that was simply walking forward in a mechanical and silent march. The sheer number of the beasts shocked the ponies deeply. It looked like every darkling in the city was walking past the building on their path towards whatever destination they had in mind. “What the hay…?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone as she looked out at the crowds of darklings moving together. She would have thought that a group of the beasts that large would be after her and her friends, but the creatures seemed happily ignorant of the ponies inside the station. “Where are they all going?” Twilight pondered while trying to think of what had gotten into the strange beasts. She was thankful that they weren’t attacking, but their sudden change in behavior made her more concerned than happy. “I think they might be going to the castle… that is the only logical explanation I can find, and they are going in the right direction.” Luna said in a troubled tone. “Why are they doing that? I thought they weren’t under anyone’s control anymore.” Glitterball shrugged in a puzzled tone. “I don’t know… if Dust Kicker were ordering them around, then they wouldn’t have gone feral before.” Twilight added with equal confusion. It seemed like any explanation that involved the hooded ponies didn’t make sense. The darklings were scattered around the city on purpose to serve as a distraction. Why would Raven Feather and her colleagues order them to come to the castle now? The more the ponies thought about it, the more troubled they became. “We should hurry… I have a bad feeling about this.” Luna said in a concerned tone. The alicorn offered an uneasy glance to the darklings outside before returning to her work. The others watched anxiously while the princess raced to finish with the strobes so they could stop whatever was going on before it was too late.
Chapter 98: ConfrontationThe air was still and quiet in the castle throne room. The tense silence persisted not because nothing was happening, but because there was a pervasive lack of verbal communication in the room. The only sounds to be heard were the occasional erratic breaths coming from the colt sitting off in the corner, and the soft scribbling of Shadow Mist making changes to the symbol left on the ground. And sitting in the midst of the two, was Princess Celestia. The alicorn watched her two captors with a wary eye, silently trying to ascertain just how deep in trouble she was. Shadow Mist seemed to be an entirely different pony now. He dauntlessly went around the symbol and made additions to it as if he had trained his whole life to. The stallion didn’t even need to communicate with Grimwood, or rather Shade, to know what he wanted. Doubtlessly the pale colt had implanted the stallion with all the knowledge he needed when he tampered with his mind. The colt himself was an entirely different pony as well, although Celestia wasn’t sure if he was a pony anymore. Ever since he took Shadow Mist under his control and ordered him to change the symbol, he had been silently sitting against one of the other walls. Shade was staring down at the floor, as he had been for the past several minutes while his body shook slightly. It looked like he was struggling to adjust to his new body, and he would groan softly every few moments. What concerned Celestia the most however, was how his physical appearance was changing. On top of the tremors increasing in frequency, the colt’s skin was actually darkening slightly, yet it still somehow appeared pale. It almost looked like an eerie shade of darkness was slowly overcoming the deathly pale color that belonged to Grimwood’s natural body. Along with the strange change in fur color, the same black substance Celestia noticed earlier was being emitted all around his body. The black tendrils of energy had grown in frequency and size, almost resembling something one would expect to see when dealing with a powerful black magic spell. Celestia offered an uneasy glance over to the pale colt. She could feel a cold presence growing stronger within him that made her skin crawl. She had never felt something so powerful or impure in her entire life. Just being in his presence made her uneasy, but there was nothing she could do to escape her current situation. Suddenly, Shadow Mist ceased his work on the symbol. He sat down the materials he was using and turned to face his new master with little more than a slight smile on his face to show any emotion. Despite the strenuous work he had been doing, it seemed as though he was pleased with whatever new goals he had after being taken over by the possessed colt. “I’m finished with the symbol, it’s ready to channel the energy like you wanted.” Shadow Mist announced in a pleased tone. The colt off in the corner looked up for a moment before getting up and turning around. “Very good… you make a fine assistant in a pinch.” Shade said in a distorted voice. With the new change in his voice, it sounded like Grimwood was speaking, but it also sounded like another voice was present behind the colt’s. Shadow Mist stepped aside and allowed the colt to examine his work. Shade walked up to the edge of the symbol and looked it over with steely diligence. He smiled slightly as he touched the outer edge of the circle lightly with his hoof. A few wispy tendrils of the black energy emanated from his hoof and dissipated in the air, however there seemed to be a few tendrils coming up from the symbol and flowing into his body as well. “Are you sure this will work? Raven Feather and the others dumped all of the energy stored in the symbols when they were trying to help you… er… Grimwood.” Shadow Mist asked in a curious tone. Even if he was under the colt’s control, he didn’t seem to be a mindless puppet that was an extension of his master in every way. “Don’t worry about that. The energy I’m going to use isn’t the same that was used before.” Shade explained with a wry smirk. The sinister look in his eyes wasn’t exactly comforting to the alicorn watching nearby. “What do you plan on doing with that symbol?” Celestia asked in what she hoped would be a threatening tone. The colt paused suddenly and slowly glanced over to the bound alicorn with a cold and blank expression. He then started walking over towards the princess, piercing her with his lifeless eyes as he went. Celestia backed against the wall defensively as the colt got up to her and stared at her a few inches from her face. She could feel a cold aura around him sucking out all of the warmth in the air, but the slight cold feeling emanating from the colt wasn’t the reason a shiver went down her spine. “What does anyone plan on doing with an arcane symbol?” Shade asked before falling silent, as if he wanted the alicorn to answer him. Celestia fought the urge to shrivel up and cower so she could stand her ground against the colt’s unnerving stare. “Well…? No thoughts from the mighty Celestia?” Shade asked in an almost disappointed tone. “Hmm… I suppose I wouldn’t expect much more from people like you.” He added while keeping up the blank expression and judging stare that he had since he started talking to the alicorn. “Enough games… tell me what you want.” Celestia asked in a stern tone while glaring at the colt. “I just want one thing, Princess… to get stronger.” Shade said while raising his hoof up and inching it towards the alicorn. Celestia backed her head away until she hit the wall behind her. “And why do you want to get stronger?” Celestia asked hesitantly while maneuvering her head to the side to avoid the colt’s touch. “Life is a funny thing isn’t it? Thousands of complicated biological processes all working together just to let you exist… and what does it all amount to?” The colt asked while placing his hoof on the side of the alicorn’s face. “Tch!” Celestia cringed painfully as she felt a wave of cold instantly hitting the area where the colt was touching her. The sensation was somehow spreading across her face and down into her body, progressively increasing how cold she felt, especially around her cheek. As she looked down to see the colt’s hoof on her cheek, she noticed a soft aura of dark purple was covering it. The aura was barely visible, and more of the darker wisps of energy were coming out of his hoof. Shade sat still and watched as the princess squirmed to try and get away from him. As the cold feeling got worse, it was getting more and more distressful to her. Celestia didn’t feel a lot of the pain that would normally come from extremely cold temperatures, she felt something much different. It felt like her body was growing weaker and weaker, as if she was dying, and her nerves were screaming at her to try and make it stop. She could feel the area around her cheek and the surrounding areas growing number than everything else, as if the colt was sucking the life right out of her. Celestia groaned in distress as the strange feeling intensified to the point that it was causing her actual pain. Still, the pain she felt was numbed and yet somehow overwhelming. It felt like her whole body had fallen asleep, and now it was waking up and causing an unbearable pins and needles sensation. Just before the alicorn felt like she was going to pass out, the colt released his hold on her and let her fall to her side in a shivering mess. While Celestia was recovering on the floor from the brief attack, the colt seemed to be enjoying himself from watching her. “You asked why I wanted to get stronger? Well… I suppose the simple answer would be to kill you and every other living thing on this planet.” Shade said in a calm, almost nonchalant tone. Celestia managed to glance up at the colt with an uneasy expression as the feeling returned to her face. She still felt weak to the point where she wasn’t sure if she could get up, but at least the cold sensation was gone as the colt walked away from her. Shade walked ahead a few paces, seemingly thinking to himself and paying no particular attention to anyone or anything. When the colt stopped, he looked over to Shadow Mist and then to the symbol on the floor, letting a slight smile come over his face. “You… I want you to head outside and watch the door for me. I’m going to absorb the rest of the energy from this symbol and… get more comfortable in this body.” Shade explained while looking down at the shell he was currently inhabiting. “Watch the door…? But, I’m not sure if I can keep that many intruders away from you by myself, even with this new power you’ve given me.” Shadow Mist explained in an uneasy tone. He was never much of a direct fighter, always choosing to sneak up on his enemies or catch them off guard with a sudden attack. “Hmmm… that could be bothersome if anyone comes for us.” Shade said while looking down and thinking. The colt looked around the room, deep within his own thoughts as he tried to come up with a way to ensure his privacy while he completed his plan. Suddenly, the colt laid eyes on the two corpses left in the room. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker’s bodies were lying motionless in their own pools of blood where the colt left them. He hadn’t paid much attention to them after he killed them, but now he figured that he might as well use all the resources at his disposal. “Not to worry, Shadow Mist… A little necromancy should get you the help you need.” Shade said while lifting his hoof into the air and stamping it on the floor. As he made the connection with the ground, a shadowy black substance flowed out of his hoof and into the ground, where it sunk into the floor and became translucent like a shadow. Everyone watched as the shadowy energy traveled across the room and split off into two separate beams that each traveled to one of the two bodies. Once they reached their destination, the shadows on the floor flowed upwards and into the bodies. Celestia watched in horror, and Shadow Mist watched in passive intrigue as Raven Feather and Dust Kicker shook slightly while the shadowy substance traveled into them. After a few moments of the convulsions getting worse, the two ponies suddenly stopped moving. The room was deathly silent as all eyes watched the two bodies for signs of anything strange. Celestia almost thought the colt’s attempts had failed in whatever purpose they had, until her eyes widened as she saw something disturbingly shocking. Raven Feather moved her arm and positioned it to lift herself up off the ground. Dust Kicker followed suit shortly after the black mare. The two ponies slowly got up off the ground. Their eyes were still closed, and their movements were clumsy and lethargic, but they were able to get to their feet. Suddenly, the wounds on Dust Kicker’s neck and Raven Feather’s chest glowed bright purple. The light appeared similar to Shadow Mist’s leg and eyes, and it seemed to pulse softly like a magical aura. In almost perfect unison, the two ponies opened their eyes to reveal a similar purple glow. “Good heavens…” Celestia muttered in a quiet state of shock as she watched the two ponies look around curiously. They settled their eyes on the colt in front of them before remaining still at attention. “You can reanimate dead bodies?” Shadow Mist asked curiously. He seemed far more comfortable with the chilling act than the alicorn was. “It takes a little effort and some creative application of energy, but yes. You would be surprised at how simple things are with enough power.” Shade explained in a pleased tone. Celestia stared at the two undead ponies with a mortified expression. Raven Feather had terrorized Equestria with horrific monsters, ended dozens of innocent lives, and even robbed her faithful student Twilight from her, but somehow the alicorn felt that the black mare didn’t deserve this. “Are they… are they aware?” Celestia asked in a concerned tone. “Their minds left them as soon as their life did. I am merely borrowing their bodies until I finish my work.” Shade explained with a slight chuckle before turning to the two ponies standing at attention. “You two follow Shadow Mist and help him keep others out of this room. You are to prevent anyone from reaching me at any cost.” He instructed in a stern tone. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker nodded slowly before turning to Shadow Mist and waiting for him to move. “Well… I suppose that takes care of that. I will go outside and keep you safe.” Shadow Mist said in a sincere tone while looking to the pale colt. “And take the princess with you… I want to be alone for this.” Shade said while glancing over to the alicorn. Celestia watched as Shadow Mist walked over to her and picked her up roughly. Her legs were wobbling and her body still felt weak from her previous encounter with the colt, but the stallion forced her to stand and move forward. As the red stallion and his two silent companions escorted the princess towards the door at the far side of the room, she looked back to see the possessed colt stepping into the center of the symbol. He chuckled to himself in an amused tone before looking down as more of the black substance flowed out of the symbol and into his body. The process resembled what had happened before when Grimwood stepped on the symbol, though Shade seemed to be welcoming the experience more than the colt did. With a rough shove bringing her attention back to her captors, Celestia begrudgingly walked through the door into the other room. The three ponies followed her closely, fully intent on making sure that she didn’t escape or that anyone else came to rescue her and disturb their master. Meanwhile, Twilight and her small army were walking back through the streets of Canterlot on their way to the castle. Princess Luna and the team of guards were taking up the front while everyone else followed behind them. Although the crowds of darklings had passed them back at the guard station, they were still nervous about what the creatures might do if they did bump into them. The daunting task ahead of them was present on everyone’s mind as they walked forward with pensive expressions. Some were more nervous than others, but everyone could feel the dread and fear that accompanied their mission. They were the last and only line of defense Equestria had left. If they failed today, then all of the citizens of Equestria and beyond would suffer in eternal darkness. They had to succeed, not only for each other’s sake and those who cared for them back in Ponyville, but for the world as a whole. Rainbow Dash noticed a few nervous expressions among her circle of friends. She was a little anxious herself about facing such powerful foes, but the others seemed to be taking it worse than she thought at first. “So Twilight, do you have a plan to fight these guys once we get back there?” Rainbow asked curiously, hoping to have the purple mare instill some confidence in the others. Twilight looked back to see everyone looking to her for what she had to say. The thought of fighting the hooded ponies again was one she was trying to avoid, but she had to plan ahead if she was going to succeed. “Well… we did fairly well against Raincloud and Dust Kicker until Raven Feather showed up and… ahem… snuck up on me.” Twilight said with an uneasy tone before shaking the thoughts of her death from her head. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about Shadow Mist in his current state… so that just leaves whatever workers they have with them, Raven Feather, and her younger brother as unknowns.” She explained while trying to think of a way to approach taking on the black mare and her gang all at once. “If Raven Feather was able to best both Tom and my sister in battle, then she must be a formidable opponent with daunting skills. We should focus on disabling her and her shadow magic as soon as possible… perhaps I can make a pair of shadow magic concealing cuffs when we arrive at the castle.” Luna pondered out loud in a curious tone. “I really hope these upgraded strobes will work… one of us is going to have to put those cuffs on her, and I don’t think she is going to like it very much.” Sunspot said in a concerned tone. She wasn’t too sure if she wanted to rely on the small vial working against shadow magic, especially when it was being used by Raven Feather. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. Just keep an eye on my back and I’ll keep mine on all of yours.” Rainbow Dash stated with a confident smirk. Everyone seemed a little more comfortable with facing the hooded ponies now. As long as they were together, they would try their hardest to protect each other and stop Raven Feather. Suddenly, Princess Luna and the guards stopped at the front of the group. The concerned and surprised expressions shared between them made the others uneasy about what could have made them pause so abruptly. “Everyone stay low.” Luna instructed while ducking low and moving to the corner of one of the buildings off to the side to better conceal herself. Once everyone noticed what had spooked the alicorn, they all gasped in shock. The group had arrived at their destination. The castle laid just down the street from where they were. However, there was a sizable obstacle blocking their path. Standing in front of the castle grounds in droves were dozens if not hundreds of darklings. It was hard to see anything but blackness and teeth in front of the main door and out in the area around the castle. It was like every darkling in the entire city had gathered at the castle. Twilight and the others raced to find cover and hide themselves from view. They all crouched low and stood behind Princess Luna and the guards while staring nervously at the armada of monsters. They had never seen this many of the beasts in one place before. “Look at them all… there must be easily a hundred of them… probably more.” Rainbow Dash stated in a stunned tone. “W-what are they doing here…?” Fluttershy asked while nervously staring at the scene in front of her. She could feel her knees shaking from the flashbacks she was having to earlier. Her wing stung slightly from just thinking about fighting so many darklings again. Twilight looked around at the hordes of beasts gathered ahead. All of the darklings seemed to be sitting or standing in place, staring at the castle as if they were expecting something to happen. None of them were biting or snarling or fighting each other in the slightest. It was almost like they were taking orders again and they had been told to stay in place. “They aren’t moving very much… are they waiting for something?” Twilight pondered in a confused tone. “Perhaps they were drawn here by something.” Luna suggested curiously while observing the shadowy creatures. She expected to have been seen by at least one of the beasts, but all of them were just staring ahead stoically. “If they were drawn here by something, then that can’t be a good sign.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while looking around at her friends. “So how do we handle this? Just because they aren’t doing anything now, that doesn’t mean they will just let us stroll past them.” Glitterball said in a troubled tone while trying to fathom how they would get past the creatures. There were more of them around at the sides going as far as the castle stretched, so entering the castle without dealing with them wasn’t an option. “Well, as good as we are with these strobes, and even if the upgrade works… I don’t think we can fight that many of them.” Glimmer Shine said in a more concerned tone while going through the logistics in his head. Every option he came up with didn’t end well in the long run. “Hmm…” Sunspot muttered curiously while taking a look up to the still cloudy sky. “Maybe we won’t have to fight them. You thinking what I’m thinking Rainbow Dash?” She asked while smirking at the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash looked at the orange pegasus for a moment before glancing up to the sky. A wry smile formed on her face as she slowly came to the same realization that her fellow pegasus came to. She wondered why she hadn’t thought of such a simple solution before. The clouds seemed to have thinned out since it was raining, so it would be incredibly easy to move them now. “I think I know what you mean.” Rainbow said with a wide grin and a confident nod. “What are you two planning?” Twilight asked curiously while looking up to where the two mares were looking. “Oh… ohhh…. You’re going to move the clouds out of the way to let the sun destroy them aren’t you?” She said in an impressed tone as she caught on to the plan. “Yep, we’re gonna give those guys the first and last sunburn they will ever have. Come on Rainbow Dash, let’s get going.” Sunspot said while motioning for the cyan mare to follow her. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and leapt into the air after the orange pegasus as she flew upwards towards the area above the darklings. After taking a few moments to fly over to the castle and size up how big of an area they would need to clear, the two mares nodded to each other before readying themselves to begin. With a brief countdown, Rainbow Dash and Sunspot bolted through the air, kicking and flying through each cloud they saw. The sunlight above immediately poured through the new openings in the clouds, bathing the ground below in a brilliant cone of light. As soon as the rays of light touched the darklings, they all started yelping painfully as they started smoking. The beasts barely had time to react before they were reduced to smoke completely. The other darklings didn’t seem to be reacting much to the sky opening up around them and their friends burning to death, but even if they had, the two ponies in the air wouldn’t have given them much time to flee. Sunspot and her cyan companion were zipping around and clearing the entire area of clouds, effectively wiping out all of the darklings below. Twilight and the others watched silently as the shadowy creatures were wiped out. The disquieting cries of the darklings as they erupted into smoke clashed with the beautiful sight of sunlight returning to view, creating mixed feelings in the group. However they felt, they were all glad that they were progressing towards victory. After a few minutes of work by the two pegasus’s, the entire area around the castle had been cleared of darklings. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot flew back over to their friends and landed with excited smirks on their faces. “Nice job guys!” Twilight said in a congratulatory tone. “Yeah, you really showed them!” Pinkie added with a cheerful smile. “Heh… we did get results, that’s for sure.” Rainbow Dash said while looking behind her with a smirk. The path to the castle had been opened up, and any darklings that remained were far away and unmoving as ever. “Well done you two. I’m glad that we were able to deal with those horrid beasts without anyone getting hurt.” Luna stated while looking to the two mares with a relieved expression. “Looks like we’ve got a clear path… I doubt any of them will be able to chase us now.” Sunspot said while looking over to the front door of the castle. There was now a protective bubble of sunlight standing between them and any darklings that might have decided to chase them. “Let’s not waste any more time. Princess Celestia needs our help. We need to get in there as soon as we can.” Twilight suggested in an anxious tone while looking to the castle. She couldn’t stand thinking about her mentor being held captive by such despicable people. Everyone nodded in agreement at the prospect of moving forward. The group quickly fell in line and followed Princess Luna and the guards toward the castle. Sunspot and her two teammates kept their strobes at the ready and kept their eyes fixed on the darklings sitting off to the side. Although the ponies were confident that the sunlight would keep the beasts at bay, they still felt paranoid about them being in such close proximity. As expected, they managed to get up the steps and over to the front doors without issue. The guards quickly opened the doors and scanned the inside for threats. After they were satisfied that the way was clear, they ushered everyone inside while watching their backs just to be safe. Once everyone made it in, the guards closed the doors behind them and joined the others as they took a look around. Twilight and the others were gathered around a certain spot on the floor that was very familiar to each of them. There was a pool of blood still left on the floor, though most of it was starting to dry. However old or fresh the blood was, it still left an uneasy feeling in the ponies’ stomachs from looking at it. “So this is where…” Princess Luna hesitated uncomfortably as she watched the six mares stare at the bloody puddle with equally uneasy expressions. Twilight nodded silently while trying her best not to think back to the awful experience. “Let’s keep moving. We have a job to do… and I don’t want to think about this too much. I don’t… I don’t want to think about him… too much.” Twilight explained in a saddened tone while glancing to the small trail of blood leading over to the larger puddle of her blood. Everyone went quiet as they pictured their human friend using all of the energy he had left in an attempt at reviving the dead unicorn on the floor where they left her. Twilight looked up suddenly as she felt a hoof being placed on her shoulder. She noticed Princess Luna offering her a compassionate expression of sympathy, and all of her friends were behind her offering her similar looks of reassurance. “We’ll make them pay for this, Twilight… you have my word.” Luna said in a sincere tone. “Thank you Princess. Now then… we should probably get moving.” Twilight said while clearing her throat and recomposing herself. Now that her emotions were relatively settled, the unicorn could focus her attention on the matter at hand. With a unanimous nod of agreement, everyone started walking forward towards the stairs at the back of the room. After making it upstairs and into one of the castle’s hallways, the group followed Twilight and her friends as they led the way back to the hooded ponies. “So where are these guys anyway?” Sunspot asked curiously while looking around at the passing decorations of the hallway. “We ran into Raincloud and Dust Kicker just outside of the throne room. I’m pretty sure that is where they have set up the ritual, and with any luck that will be where we will find Princess Celestia.” Twilight explained as she thought back to how close she and her friends had gotten before. “I just hope they don’t pull anything like they did last time.” Rainbow Dash said in an uneasy tone. Everyone gulped quietly at the mere thought of another one of them dying at the hooves of Raven Feather or her cohorts. “So… Raven Feather just turned invisible and snuck up on you?” Glitterball asked in a hesitant tone, hoping to tread lightly around the subject of how the unicorn died. “Yeah… she must have used Tom’s sword to stab me. I didn’t really know what was happening at the time.” Twilight explained with an uneasy shrug. “How did she turn invisible anyway? I thought Shadow Mist was the one that could do that?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “Maybe you can do just about anything if you know how to use shadow magic enough. Some unicorns are better at certain spells than others, so it wouldn’t be too farfetched to assume that Raincloud and the others have certain abilities that they can do easily, while Raven Feather and anyone else with mastery over shadow magic can just do those things anyway.” Twilight explained while thinking about the matter further. “She would have to be incredibly powerful to defeat both Tom and Princess Celestia.” Rarity said in a concerned tone. “Hopefully we can slap these cuffs on her before things get out of hand.” Glimmer Shine said while glancing back to his shadow magic suppressing cuffs. Sunspot and Glitterball looked to their own pairs with anxious expressions. “Are you sure these will work Princess?” Glitterball asked in an uncertain tone while thinking back to how the alicorn hastily inscribed the runes into the hoof cuffs as they walked. “Well… I suppose we never got the chance to test them out in the field. However, I am confident they will work. After all, the charms you gave Twilight and the others to suppress shadow magic worked back at the mansion… if only briefly.” Luna said in a hesitant tone. “I’m sure it will be fine. Let’s just focus on getting close enough to put these on before we worry about them working or not.” Sunspot suggested in a reassuring tone. The others shared uneasy glances with each other as they wondered whether or not any of the gear they had would even be effective against shadow magic. After a few more minutes of walking, the group neared the end of their journey. The ponies could feel a palpable sense of unease and tension in the air as they got closer and closer to the throne room. They would be fighting the hooded ponies again, and however large their group might have become, they were still horribly under equipped to handle things. Even if they managed to subdue Raincloud and Dust Kicker by the skin of their teeth like last time, what would they do to fight Raven Feather? They didn’t even know how powerful Raven Feather truly was, but she was strong enough to best a slayer and the princess of the sun in rapid succession. Despite any doubts they might have had, the ponies still moved forward. They were willing to fight to protect their home and the ones they loved, even if it meant making the ultimate sacrifice. The thought of death terrified most of the group, but they couldn’t be anywhere other than side by side with their friends as they fought the hooded ponies. Finally, the group stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway they were in. The door was immediately familiar to Twilight and her friends. They were just outside the room they had fought Raincloud and her brother in. Knowing the two ponies, they were probably still standing guard with their minions ready to rip any intruders to shreds. “Are you guys ready?” Twilight asked in a serious tone while looking back to her friends. Everyone looked around for a moment to see how the others were faring, and to process their own feelings. “I’m ready whenever you are.” Rainbow Dash said with a confident smirk. “We’ll do our best, Twilight.” Rarity said while turning to the others for their opinions. Pinkie Pie and Applejack nodded immediately in agreement, and even Fluttershy managed to swallow her fear and put on a determined expression. “We’ve got your backs.” Glimmer Shine said while holding onto his strobe confidently. Sunspot and Glitterball stood by the yellow stallion and smirked while keeping their own weapons close. “Ready and willing… let’s go take back our city.” One of the guards said with a determined tone of voice. The other guards stood at attention and waited for the group to move forward. Twilight looked at the small troop amassed before her. She felt proud knowing that she was fighting alongside some of the best Equestria had to offer. The purple mare looked over to the alicorn standing beside her and pushed all of the hesitation in her body away. “Are you ready Princess?” Twilight asked in a curious tone while putting her hoof on the door handle. “Yes… I am ready.” Luna replied with a confident nod. She slowly placed her own hoof on the door handle along with the purple mare. With a small smile and a look of determination, Twilight counted down from three and opened the door with the alicorn. Everyone quickly rushed into the room and surveyed the area ahead for threats. The group immediately noticed the presence of ponies over at the other end of the room. However, instead of seeing Raincloud and Dust Kicker, or even any of their minions, they saw an entirely different set of ponies. Princess Celestia was sitting against a wall off to the side, and from the look of it she had Dust Kicker, Raven Feather, and Shadow Mist with her. Even from where they were standing, Twilight and the others could see that something was off with the trio. There were purple glowing portions on all three of the ponies, with their eyes completely obscured by the sinister glow. “Princess!” Twilight exclaimed eagerly as she saw her mentor in one piece. The purple mare took a few steps forward and smiled widely as a wave of relief fell over her. Celestia lifted her head up and looked across the room to see the newly arrived gathering of ponies. She gasped in surprise as she noticed the purple unicorn and the blue alicorn among their numbers. “T…Twilight? Luna? You’re alive?!” Celestia asked in a stunned tone. She never thought she would see her faithful student or her sister again, so to see them standing in front of her overwhelmed the alicorn with happiness. The cheerful reunion between the three was interrupted suddenly as Shadow Mist stepped in front of Celestia. The red stallion glared at the princess for a moment before turning his attention to the group on the other side of the room. “I’m only going to say this once. Leave now, or we will kill all of you.” Shadow Mist said in a threatening tone. As if to further cement the stallion’s threat, Raven Feather and Dust Kicker slowly walked over to be in line with him. Twilight and the others watched the three ponies with varying degrees of unease. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker were acting more sluggishly than usual. Although nobody had seen the black mare for extended periods of time, they were confident that the unnatural way she carried herself and looked around wasn’t normal for her. “What is up with their eyes?” Rainbow Dash asked in a confused tone. “That looks so cool! Hey, do you guys think you could use your magic to make my eyes glow like that?” Pinkie Pie asked with an excited tone. “Although… I don’t think purple would be a good color on me.” She added while pondering about the matter further. “Something’s wrong here… why is Raven Feather out here instead of working on their ritual? And where is Raincloud?” Rarity asked in a troubled tone. “Everyone listen to me! Their ritual failed and something got inside Raven Feather’s brother. He killed Raven Feather and Dust Kicker, and did something to influence Shadow Mist’s mind. You need to forget about me and go stop Grimwood before he gets any more pow- Gah!” Celestia yelped in pain as Shadow Mist punched her in the face. The sudden strike against the alicorn made the others gasp in shock. “Quiet… you don’t get to speak unless spoken to.” Shadow Mist said before returning his attention to the ponies ahead. The princess’s warning took a minute to settle in, but once everyone processed what she said, they looked at the three ponies with fearful expressions. “W…what?!” Glitterball exclaimed in a shocked tone as she tried to make sense of the brief statement made by the alicorn. “Wait… Raven Feather and Dust Kicker are dead? But how…” Twilight started to ask the obvious question, until something clicked in her head that made a chill go down her spine. “Shadow magic… whatever got into Grimwood must have… *Gulp* reanimated their bodies with shadow magic.” She stated in a mortified tone. “Good heavens…” Rarity said while looking to the two ponies with a horrified expression. Was she really looking at two walking corpses? “I didn’t think things could get any worse… how are we going to beat something not even Raven Feather could handle?” Sunspot asked uneasily. Everyone shared concerned glances with each other as they thought about what to do next. “The only thing I am worried about right now is getting my sister away from them.” Luna said in an irritated tone. The others looked over to see the blue alicorn staring ahead with a determined expression. Before anyone could react, Luna dashed forward and lit up her horn. “*Gasp* Princess!” Twilight yelled after the alicorn in a concerned tone, but she didn’t seem to care as she continued on her path. “Luna, stop!” Celestia pleaded in an attempt at getting her sibling to turn around. Unfortunately for her the blue mare wasn’t keen on stopping unless she reached her and rescued her. Shadow Mist smirked slightly as he watched the alicorn charging towards him. He stepped ahead of his two minions and lifted his shadowy leg into the air. Luna yelled fiercely as she discharged several bolts of magic towards the three ponies. The red stallion pushed his hoof forward and held it in place. As he concentrated for a moment, the tip of his hoof glowed brighter than the rest of his leg. Suddenly, the bolts of energy sailing towards the three ponies stopped in midair as they hit something. The bolts exploded into particles of light, and a soft glow of purple appeared in the air as if a force field were in place. “Grr…” Luna glared at the red stallion as her attacks failed. She started casting another spell, until something stopped her dead in her tracks. “Hyah!” Shadow Mist yelled fiercely as he stamped his hoof back down on the floor. In one swift motion, a dark shadowy substance flowed out of the stallion’s hoof and into the floor. “Ack!” Luna yelped in surprise as a ray of dark energy shot up in front of her. The force of the shadowy column shooting up blew her hair back and nearly took her head off as it flowed up into the ceiling. As the alicorn moved backwards to prevent herself from flying into the beam head first, she fell onto her side. Shadow Mist smirked with a sinister gleam in his eye as he channeled more energy to his hoof and into the floor. “Princess, you need to get out of there!” Glimmer Shine yelled frantically from the back of the room. Everyone was watching the alicorn on the floor fearfully, unsure of what they could do to help her. Before Luna could move again, another beam of shadowy energy shot up beside her and clipped her shoulder. The alicorn yelped in pain while frantically moving to get to her feet. As she got up and started to run back towards the others, another beam shot up where she just was. Racing to concentrate on another spell, Luna could already feel the ground beneath her growing cold as shadow energy formed under it. Clenching her eyes shut as she felt a painful surge of freezing cold energy on her legs, she teleported off to the side just as another column of shadows shot up where she just was. “Agh!” Luna yelped in pain as her legs gave out from beneath her. The brief exposure to the shadowy energy was enough to sap some energy from her and cause a mind numbing surge of pain in her hooves. “Luna!” Celestia yelled fearfully as she watched her sister trying to get back up. The blue mare’s legs were barely holding her weight, no matter how much she struggled or forced herself through the pain. Shadow Mist chuckled to himself warmly as he watched the princess of the night fumbling around in her attempts to flee from him. The stallion channeled more energy to his hoof and prepared to skewer her on a thinner spike of shadow energy. Suddenly, what sounded like a magical zap filled the air and died out suddenly. “What th- Ow!” Shadow Mist cried in surprise and stumbled backwards as a bolt of light hit his face and exploded into a cascade of sparkles. Luna looked behind her to see where the bolt came from, only to discover a bit of smoke coming off of the tip of a strobe held by Glimmer Shine. “Sunspot, go grab Princess Luna! Everyone else give her some cover!” Glimmer yelled while pointing his strobe ahead with a serious expression. “On it!” Sunspot replied in a determined tone while spreading her wings and leaping into the air. While the orange pegasus picked up speed, the red stallion on the other side of the room was seething angrily from the sudden attack on him. As he looked up to see the rest of the ponies jumping into action, he growled under his breath. “Stop her!” Shadow Mist commanded while looking to his two companions and pointing to the orange mare. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather directed their attention to the pegasus picking up speed in the air and immediately knew what had to be done. Raven Feather channeled shadow magic to her hoof and pointed towards the orange mare. After a brief moment, a beam of fiery shadows shot out of her hoof and carried all the way across the room. Sunspot exclaimed in surprise as she rolled in the air to dodge the beam, which continued on its path and scorched a black mark into the wall above the others. Before the black mare could start another attack, another bolt of light was shot at her feet from across the room. The three ponies looked up to see the three members of spirit opening fire on them with their strobes. “Agh!” Shadow Mist yelped in pain as a bolt sailed into his shadowy leg and exploded. The glowing limb pulsated a few times as its form was disrupted slightly, causing the red stallion to falter. Shadow Mist growled angrily while pushing through the pain and looking up again. He channeled shadow magic through his good leg and sent it into the ground. A dark shadow stretched out on the floor and traveled away from the stallion and towards the spot underneath Sunspot. With a disquieting roar, a series of shadowy balls of energy shot out of the shadow at high speeds and traveled straight up. “Woah!” Sunspot darted sideways as she noticed the energy blasts sailing towards her. The dark orbs shot up past her, barely missing her as she dodged them. The shadow beneath her seemed to follow her as she flew, going wherever she went and firing at her. Over at the front of the room, Twilight and the others watched their friend flying for her life with tense expressions of concern. Suddenly, Glitterball looked over to the three ponies on the other side of the room and noticed something. Shadow Mist seemed to be concentrating and channeling energy through the floor still, and he was watching the pegasus as if he were trying to control the shadow on the floor. Glitterball quickly aimed her strobe at the red stallion and opened fire. She pressed the button on the small vial as fast as she could, sending a barrage of light blasts towards Shadow Mist. Once he saw the wave of projectiles coming his way, Shadow Mist flinched his eyes shut and covered his face. As the red stallion was getting assaulted by miniature explosions, the shadow beneath Sunspot stopped firing out balls of shadow energy and disappeared completely. Seeing an opening for her, the orange pegasus swooped down and quickly closed the distance between her and Princess Luna. “Come on, Princess. We need to get out of here.” Sunspot said while kneeling down and helping the alicorn to her feet. “No, I’m not leaving without Celestia.” Luna said while holding back a painful groan. She looked back to the bound alicorn and gasped as she noticed something else. “Look out!” Luna yelled urgently while using all her strength to push the pegasus away. Sunspot yelped in surprise as the alicorn sent her to the floor before diving to the side herself. Just as the two mares hit the floor, a beam of shadow energy sailed past them, nearly singeing their sides. Sunspot and Luna turned over to see Raven Feather and Dust Kicker with their hooves raised in front of them. The tips of their hooves were engulfed in shadow energy, and they had devilish smirks on their faces. Luna raced to light up her horn to protect herself and the orange pegasus beside her, but she quickly realized that she was too weak and too late to do anything meaningful. Raven Feather shot out another burst of fiery shadows from her hoof. The dark flames sailed through the air and headed straight for the two helpless ponies on the floor. Sunspot and Luna covered their faces and tensed up as they prepared for the worst. They heard the sound of the blast impacting something and exploding, but strangely they felt no pain or any other indication that they were the ones hit. Taking a hesitant look up to see what happened, the two mares were surprised to see a bluish magical barrier being projected around them, shielding them from the shadowy blast and any other attack the two ponies might throw at them. As they looked back to see who was responsible for their rescue, they saw Glitterball with her horn lit up struggling to keep her magic steady in the face of adversity. “I promise we will get Princess Celestia out of here, but for now we need to go!” Sunspot said in an urgent tone while helping the alicorn to her feet again. Luna glanced back at her sister, who was offering her a concerned expression in return, most likely intended for the blue mare to flee instead of rescuing her. “Very well… let’s get to safety.” Luna said in a begrudging tone while turning to the pegasus and giving in. She didn’t just have her own safety to look out for anymore, she had the orange mare and the rest of the ponies in her care to worry about. If she died while rushing blindly to free her sister, then the others might very well follow her to the grave eventually. Using Glitterball’s shield as cover while the three hooded ponies fumed and fired shadowy projectiles at them, the two mares made their way back to the others as quickly as they possibly could. Once they made it back, they were greeted with the concerned faces of their friends as they checked for injuries. “Princess, what were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed out there!” Twilight said in a worried tone while helping the blue alicorn to a resting position. “Guh… I don’t care what happens to me as long as my sister is safe.” Luna said while cringing in an attempt at fighting through the pain. Most of the numbness her legs felt from being in contact with shadow energy was gone, leaving her to feel a burning cold sensation that caused a fair amount of pain in her legs. “Heads up!” Sunspot yelled urgently as she noticed another shadowy fireball sailing towards the group. Glitterball and one of the unicorn guards raced to project a protective barrier around everyone, barely making it in time to shield them from the blast. Glimmer Shine and Sunspot fired back at the three ponies on the other side of the room with their strobes, forcing them to dodge their strikes as they aimed at the glowing portions of their bodies affected by shadow magic. Twilight looked between her side and the three ponies across the room. Whatever had happened in the past few hours, it had changed things drastically. If what Celestia said was true, something even more powerful than Raven Feather had gotten into her younger brother and used his body to kill her and Dust Kicker, as well as making them and Shadow Mist into its slaves. Even if the unicorns of the group used their magic to shoot more damaging projectiles at the trio, they could most likely use their old powers to evade the attacks. The purple mare didn’t even want to think about what they could do now that they had massive amounts of dark power surging through their bodies. “We’ll get Princess Celestia back… we just need a plan to do it. Otherwise we will just be making needless risks and getting nowhere.” Twilight explained in a more level headed tone. Luna shrugged as she looked at the veritable fire fight going on between the hooded ponies and her own group. The strobes they had were barely doing anything to the ponies even if they hit, only causing Shadow Mist to yelp in pain if a blast hit one of the parts of his body restored by shadow magic. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather barely reacted to anything with more than anger, frustration, or sadistic enjoyment. Otherwise the two ponies were as emotionless as zombies, which given their apparent death and resurrection, probably wasn’t such a bad description. “Maybe you are right… but what can we do? Who knows how powerful they are now. We could barely contend with them before, but now they are even stronger.” Luna said in a forlorn tone. Twilight was surprised to see the blue alicorn so defeated. The weight of everything happening along with her sister being captured by the enemy must have been getting to her. As she thought more about what to do, not many options came to the purple mare. As Luna just demonstrated, trying to reach the princess directly would only be met with possible injury or death from the three empowered ponies guarding her. “Hmm…” Twilight pondered as hard as she could ponder given the situation. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. The idea was feasible, but was it practical? Either way, the unicorn cringed with dread as she realized what her plan would entail. “I have an idea. Glimmer Shine, are the keys to the magic suppressing cuffs universal?” Twilight asked while turning to the yellow stallion with a hopeful expression. Glimmer Shine stopped firing briefly as he thought about the matter. “Yes… I believe they are. What th- hey! What are you doing?!” Glimmer asked in surprise as the purple mare walked up to him and reached into one of the pouches on his vest to look for something. When she didn’t find what she was looking for, the unicorn switched to another pouch and tried again, much to the stallion’s discomfort. “Hold on… got them!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while pulling her prize out and holding it up triumphantly. She was holding a small key that looked like the ones used for the hoof cuffs. “You know, I could have gotten that for you.” Glimmer Shine muttered in an annoyed tone, still getting over the sudden invasion of his personal bubble. “No time to waste. Listen, I need you guys to put everything you have into firing at them. Use your strobes, use magic, use whatever you have.” Twilight said while looking around to everyone, ensuring that they were included as well. “But what can we do? If we step hoof out of here they will blow us to kingdom come!” Pinkie Pie said in a concerned tone. The grim reminder of their situation wasn’t needed for the ponies to realize how much trouble they were in. Glitterball and the unicorn guard were trying their hardest to keep the magical barrier intact, although it was clear just how much of a strain they were under with all of the attacks Shadow Mist and the others were shooting at them. Nearly every few seconds another shadowy projectile or beam exploded into the magical shield, causing more strain on everyone inside in more ways than one. “I don’t need you to go out there, I just need a distraction.” Twilight said while looking over to the bound alicorn sitting behind the three ponies. As they caught on to what the unicorn was planning, the others frowned with concern. “You better not try anything stupid Twilight. We already lost you once… we don’t want to lose you again.” Applejack said in a worried tone. The purple mare couldn’t help but to smile as she saw her friends looking at her with loving concern. “I’ll be fine. Hopefully I can get Princess Celestia’s cuffs off and get back here before they notice.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. “You heard her, guys… let’s give them all we’ve got.” Glitterball said while stepping forward and offering her strobe to Applejack. The orange mare hesitantly accepted the small vial and nodded while turning her attention forward. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine returned fire with their strobes, actually managing to catch a few of the shadowy projectiles in midair before they reached the barrier. Applejack aimed her strobe and opened fire as well, shooting for the weak points in the three ponies’ defense. Glitterball, the unicorn guards, and Rarity used whatever magic they knew to fire magical bolts at the trio or to throw various objects around the room at them. Everyone else merely cheered their friends on and allowed the purple unicorn to slip behind them and out of sight. Twilight looked back to her friends with a serious expression. They were all giving their best to fight the hooded ponies, even if it was just for show. She had no doubt in her mind that even though they didn’t have weapons, Rainbow Dash and the others would be up there fighting the trio with their bare hooves if they could. The purple mare looked to Shadow Mist and the others nervously as she prepared to execute her plan. Regardless of whether or not it was because of the influence Grimwood had over them, the trio looked like they would gladly rip her and her friends to shreds given the opportunity. She gulped fearfully as she realized just how close she would be to the three ponies when she teleported behind them to free Celestia. Finally, her attention shifted to the alicorn behind the three ponies. Celestia was watching the fight from the floor with a worried expression on her face. She was clearly weak judging from the way she was laying, doubtlessly from when she fought the hooded ponies and got captured. However, the metallic cuffs around her front legs were the only thing keeping her from escaping. Lighting up her horn and concentrating on the area behind the three ponies across the room, Twilight steeled herself and teleported. As she blinked out of existence and blinked right back near the princess, she quickly raced to her side and started unlocking her cuffs. “Twilight?” Celestia said in a hushed tone of surprise as she looked to the purple mare. “Come on Princess, we’re getting out of here.” Twilight replied while fitting the key into the small lock on the cuffs and sliding them off. The unicorn started helping the alicorn to her feet, until she heard the red stallion behind her exclaim in surprise. “Hey! What the hell are you doing?!” Shadow Mist asked in a stunned tone as he saw what the unicorn was doing. The stallion quickly raced to raise his hoof to the two mares and channeled shadow energy to it. “Ack!” Twilight yelped in fright while recoiling from the sight of the roaring aura of shadows around the stallion’s hoof. She tried to think of a spell to use to defend herself, but by the time she thought of something, Shadow Mist shot a ball of dark flames out of his hoof. Twilight covered her head with her arms and fell backwards in a vain attempt at dodging the strike. Before she could see her life flashing before her eyes, she heard a magical flash and felt herself moving slightly. “Huh…?” Twilight muttered in a confused tone while uncovering her face and looking around. She discovered that she was still lying on the floor, but now she was across the room behind her friends. The unicorn looked up to see Princess Celestia standing above her with her horn still lit up from a spell. “Celestia!” Luna exclaimed in excitement while rushing up to her sister and briefly hugging her. After sharing a tender embrace with her sibling, the white alicorn adopted a more serious expression to her face. “Everyone follow me. We need to retreat and regroup.” Celestia explained while motioning towards the door. The others briefly glanced over to the trio of ponies across the room before silently agreeing that they could all use a moment to recover. “Why you little… Stop right there!” Shadow Mist yelled angrily while firing off a bolt of shadow energy towards the group. The shadowy projectile crashed into the barrier that was still being made by Glitterball and the guards. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker tried a few more attacks of varying strength, only to achieve nothing as the ponies headed to the door and escaped. The last shadow ball thrown by Shadow Mist slammed into the door as it closed behind the ponies, leaving a large scorch mark and a small crack in the door. The red stallion ran across the room to give chase to the fleeing group. He turned around to see if his two companions were following him, only to discover that they were standing in place. “What are you doing?! We need to go after them!” Shadow Mist yelled in a frustrated tone. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker silently stared at the red stallion with indifferent expressions, their glowing eyes fixed on him like they were expecting him to carry on with his day. “Right… you want to stay close to Shade… *Sigh*” Shadow Mist shrugged and looked back to the door while deep in thought. Finally he shook his head and walked back over to the pair. “I guess we can just wait for them to come back… however long that might take.” Shadow Mist droned in an annoyed tone as he sat down and prepared to wait. He had to keep watch over his master in the trophy room, and he would need to stay at his post to do so. Still, he wished that he had someone to keep up a conversation with, and his two undead comrades were silent as the grave. “Ugh…” Tom groaned slightly as he became aware of his surroundings again. The world before him was black, and a myriad of sounds filled the air. As the sounds around him focused more, he realized that there were birds chirping softly nearby. There was also a gentle and cool breeze blowing around him. The strange sensations he was getting confused the human, but he could scarcely piece together his foggy memories to figure out what was going on. He was dead, or at least he thought so. Tom was no stranger to the concept of death, but he was certain that he was going to stay dead this time. Or was he still alive? The hazy feeling in his head and his numb body made it hard to infer whether or not he was actually still living. Was this the afterlife? Once the feeling returned to his body, the boy found that the strange blackness he was stuck in was only because his eyes were closed. Peaking open one eye revealed only a blinding light that forced him to shield his eyes and revisit the calm blackness he had awoken in. After taking a few moments to adjust to the light, the human looked around to see where he was. “Woah…” Tom exclaimed in absolute astonishment as he took in his surroundings. He was sitting on a wooden bench in the middle of what seemed to be a public park. There was a stone path cutting through the grass in front of him, and there were trees all around that rustled with the breeze. “What the heck…? What is this place?” The boy asked in a confused tone. Strangely though, he had the feeling that he had been here before. “Look familiar?” A male voice from beside him rang out suddenly, catching the human off guard. “I suppose it is a beautiful sight.” The voice spoke again. As Tom recognized the voice from distant memory, he froze suddenly with shock. Slowly turning his head to view his strange companion, he saw the last thing he expected to see. There was another human, and not only that, but a human that the slayer knew. The human was a teenage boy around Tom’s age and height. He had medium length black hair that was parted in the middle to keep it out of his eyes, which were brown in color. He was wearing a pair of denim jeans and an orange shirt with short sleeves. “H-Henry?” Tom asked in a stunned tone. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head before looking back at the boy in front of him. There was no doubt about it. This was his friend since childhood. The same one that was with him on the fateful night he died and became a slayer. “Heh… not quite.” The boy said with a slight chuckle while leaning back on the bench. “I’m not Henry. I’m simply… borrowing his image for now. I thought it might be better for you to talk to a familiar face.” He added in a kind tone. “Where am I? And… if you’re not Henry, then who are you?” Tom asked in a slightly uneasy tone. “You don’t recognize this place? I thought it would be perfect for our little chat.” The boy said while looking around at the luscious scenery. As Tom took another look around, he felt fond memories flooding back to him. “Oh yeah… this is the park in my home town. We used to go here all the time after school. Well… me and Henry did anyway.” Tom clarified while turning back to the strange person using his friend’s face. “Ah yes, I suppose you must be curious as to who I am.” The boy stated while noting the confused look on the slayer’s face. Tom waited for him to introduce himself, but he simply sat still and stared ahead with an amused expression for several seconds. “Well…? Who are you?” Tom asked in a bewildered tone. “That is the question isn’t it? Well… I suppose you could say I am an interested party. For the moment however, you can call me Clarence if you want.” The boy said with a slight smirk. Tom nearly cringed so hard that it was audible as he thought about his strange companion’s choice in name. “Really... Clarence? That’s a bit cliché don’t you think? Are you an angel or something?” Tom asked curiously. “Aww… where would the fun in that be if I told you what I am? The grand powers behind all of the universe’s inner workings tend to feel a little less grand if you can put a name and a face to them.” Clarence said in a lighthearted manner. “Fair enough.” Tom nodded in understanding as he thought about the boy’s logic. “Ok… Clarence, what am I doing here?” He asked while looking around at the park and wondering why he was even conscious right now. “You’re here because you failed. You were under too much fatigue, and you didn’t have the will to continue, so you died.” Clarence explained in a more stoic tone. “Oh no… Twilight. Is she...” Tom hesitated as he remembered what he was doing before he died. “She is alive… for the moment. You did a pretty good job with that one Tom. No other slayer has managed something like that.” Clarence said in an impressed tone. “Really? I did it?” Tom asked while raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Well… I might have given you a bit of help towards the end there, but it was mostly you. Not a bad way for a slayer to go out.” Clarence said with a slight chuckle. “What’s going to happen to them now?” Tom asked in a more somber tone. Clarence adopted a more serious expression while leaning forward and resting his clasped hands on his lap. “They are facing terrible powers that their world has never seen before. And as for their future… well, I don’t know what the outcome will be, but their fate looks grim.” Clarence said while looking ahead somberly. “What?! What do you mean grim?!” Tom asked in an agitated tone. “You should help them! They don’t deserve this punishment. Their world is pure and good… at least when compared to mine.” He added while looking down hesitantly. “I can’t do anything to help them. I’ve already interfered more than I should have. You see, I’m not supposed to interact with the mortal world in any way.” Clarence explained with a hint of sadness in his voice. “What about the slayers? I’m assuming that since you brought me here that you’re the one that created them. I would say bringing dead people back to life and giving them otherworldly powers is as much interference as you can get.” Tom stated while controlling his anger and glaring at the strange boy. “You are correct… I did indeed raise you and all of the other slayers.” Clarence said in an understanding tone. He looked over to see Tom looking away from him with a frustrated expression, as if he were dealing with the stress of knowing that there was nothing he could do to help his friends. “Let me tell you something Tom.” Clarence said in a friendly tone, eliciting the slayer to turn and look at him. “I’m not by any means the most powerful being in the universe. In fact, I did not even create the universe. My… well, my boss shall I say, created the world and everything in it. The humans thrived and grew with every other beast of the earth, and strived to learn and create and live.” He continued while thinking about how best to put his explanation. Tom listened intently as his companion went on. “However… as was inevitable, a great many evils thrived along with the rest of the world and spread all across it. Dark magic… monsters… beings from other worlds and dimensions entirely, all seeking to kill and destroy and corrupt. My colleagues and I detested the state the world was in. However, every time I would go to my boss, he would send me away with the same explanation. Boss, I would say… the world is corrupt and evil creatures threaten to destroy all you have created. And he would say, do not interfere, because everything is as it should be.” Clarence explained in a pensive tone. “That sounds a bit stupid in my opinion… wait, your boss isn’t listening is he?” Tom asked in a nervous tone while looking around. Clarence chuckled warmly at the human’s statement. “Don’t worry, he has a good sense of objectivity and humor.” Clarence explained before continuing. “Anyway… the years went by, and man learned to make tools and keep himself sheltered from the harsh world around him. But as humankind advanced and spread across the globe, so too did the forces of evil. Once again I went to my boss, and I pleaded for him to intervene, or even to let us intervene for him.” He said with a sincere sense of emotion in his voice. “Let me guess… that went about as well as the first time?” Tom asked curiously. “Heh, you’re quick on the uptake aren’t you?” Clarence asked with a smirk. “More years went by, and more evils were wrought upon the world of man. The innocent and the unclean alike would be slaughtered by the many evil creatures of the world, and even by the hand of their fellow man. One last time I went to my boss, and I begged him. Please… they are undeserving of this torment. I pray you, let us intervene and save them. And my boss… in all his wisdom, turned to me and said… If you want someone to intervene for them, let them intervene on their own behalf.” He said in a more quiet tone. “The slayers…” Tom said as he caught on to the boy’s meaning, to which he nodded. “And around that time, down on the earth, a young Arthur Redwood was dying to protect the kingdom he loved. I felt for his plight… so I raised him and molded him to fight back against the forces of evil. I even gave him my own personal weapons to fight with.” Clarence said while gently taking ahold of Tom’s hand. Tom watched in amazement as the familiar sight of flames sprouted from his fingertips and formed into his spirit weapon. “My claws…?” Tom asked in a confused tone. Clarence let go of his hand, causing the weapons to vanish against the boy’s will. “Why else do you think that only you and Arthur received claws as your spirit weapons? I gave them to Arthur because he was my first soldier… the first person to fight against all of the evils of the world. And I gave them to you, because you were the first person to be sent to fight all of the evils of a new world.” Clarence explained with a more stoic expression. “So you were the one who sent me to Equestria that night. Out in the woods… the bright light.” Tom said in an intrigued tone. “I must say, none of us expected a new form of life to take the place of humanity, and we certainly didn’t expect it to be ponies of all things. Still, their world was full of love and harmony and they lived in peace, so we let them be. Until that is… some evil from the past lingered through the years and resurfaced in the new world of Equestria. They needed someone to protect them… we needed someone to protect them as we had needed someone to protect humanity.” Clarence said while looking to the boy next to him suggestively. “But… why me? I… I’m not special. I’m certainly not the strongest slayer to exist. I was going to give up and die for crying out loud… why did you pick me?” Tom asked in a confused tone. “Because you were perfect for the role. You distanced yourself from humanity, and you felt like you didn’t have anyone to talk to or be friends with. But at the same time, you still felt the need to protect that most slayers felt, which was why I chose you to become a slayer in the first place. Sending you to Equestria was the best choice… and the only choice we had.” Clarence looked down hesitantly as he continued. “Why pick me though? Why didn’t you choose Henry in the first place? He could have done a much better job.” Tom said with a slight shrug. “Well, you did a fairly decent job yourself. Considering your age, you did better than many other people thrust into the life of a slayer.” Clarence explained in a reassuring tone. “I didn’t exactly do well enough though…” Tom frowned and looked down sadly as he thought about his failure to stop Raven Feather. “Maybe you should go back? Beat the hooded ponies, save the day… be the slayer I made you to be.” Clarence suggested in an optimistic tone. Tom shrugged as he thought about his fight with Raven Feather. He probably wouldn’t be able to do anything to help if he went back. “I don’t think I should go back. I lost… I couldn’t beat Raven Feather if I wanted to. They need someone dependable that can protect them… someone else. Maybe I should just stay here…” Tom sighed in a depressed tone while leaning back on the bench. “Hmm…” Clarence said in a surprised tone while pausing slightly. “Maybe you’re right.” He added with a pensive expression while leaning back as well. He watched the boy as he stared up at the sky and thought to himself. Tom seemed to have had the fight taken out of him, and he was perfectly content with giving up and staying dead. Minutes of silence went by as the two sat on the bench together. Tom looked down at the floor and frowned sadly, while Clarence simply watched him with a curious expression. Neither of them broke the peaceful atmosphere of the park as the wind blew and the birds chirped, a seemingly still picture of a happier time for the slayer. Perhaps he could finally move on and rest after everything he had been through.
Chapter 99: The Battle for Equestria (Part 1)Twilight and her band of friends rushed out into the hallway and panted heavily from the surge of adrenaline they just had. Somehow they had managed to free Princess Celestia from the clutches of their enemies. Everyone looked to the white alicorn with cheerful expressions as they settled down. “I don’t think they’re following us.” Glimmer Shine reported while glancing back to the door behind the group. “That’s a relief… I need a minute to catch my breath.” Twilight said with a slight chuckle. She still felt a little jolt of fear from having yet another near death experience. Meanwhile, Celestia was focusing on something other than the miraculous rescue that was just pulled off. She stared at Twilight and Luna with a stunned expression, almost like she was trying to ascertain whether or not they were actually real. “Twilight… Luna… you’re… you’re alive.” Celestia said in a bewildered tone. The purple unicorn and the blue alicorn looked back at her and smiled softly. “Yes sister… we are. Back at the mansion, I didn’t actually die… I merely hid after narrowly escaping with my life. I’m so sorry for making you worry like that.” Luna said in a somber tone while walking closer to her sister and frowning sadly. Celestia gladly placed an arm around the blue alicorn and let her rest her head on her shoulder. “It’s ok Luna… I am not upset with you. I’m just glad that you’re ok.” Celestia said in a sincere tone before looking up to Twilight with a stunned expression. “But Twilight… how are you here? I saw the blood on that sword… Raven Feather was certain she had killed you.” She said while shuddering slightly at the traumatic memory of hearing about her student’s untimely demise. “She did kill me, Princess. Tom must have woken up after the others left and tried to revive me… he saved me at the cost of his own life.” Twilight explained in a somber tone while looking down at the floor sadly. Celestia was shocked to hear that the human was indeed gone. She had already been eternally grateful for everything that he had done to protect her student and her friends, but now he had sacrificed himself to ensure Twilight’s survival. “Tom… no…” Celestia muttered sadly while shaking her head. “I’m sorry that any of this happened Twilight. I should have done more to stop Raven Feather before things got out of hand.” She added while facing away from the others. “It’s not your fault Princess. At any rate, we can focus on mourning and feeling sorry for ourselves later. Right now we need to put a stop to this once and for all.” Twilight stated in a determined tone. “Well if we’re going to do that, we need to know what’s going on. Princess, you said that something happened during the ritual and Raven Feather’s brother got possessed by something?” Glimmer Shine asked to clarify the short and frantic message the alicorn had given the group in the other room. “Yes… I watched it all happen unfortunately. The ritual went wrong, and nothing happened… until Grimwood stepped in the center of the symbol by accident. Some kind of dark substance flowed into him, and he acted strangely afterwards. When Raven Feather tried to help him, he lashed out at her and killed her. He killed Dust Kicker as well once he tried to intervene. After that, he used his power to control Shadow Mist and raise Raven Feather and Dust Kicker’s bodies into mindless slaves. I’ve never seen such potent displays of power before in my life… and I don’t think that is even half of what he is capable of.” Celestia explained in a troubled tone. “What about Raincloud? Did she die too?” Rainbow Dash asked with a hint of concern in her voice. As much as she despised the grey pegasus for everything she had done, she didn’t think that she deserved to die. “No… she fled after watching her brother die. Perhaps that was for the best… if she had stayed she might have fallen to the same fate.” Celestia shuddered uneasily while trying to suppress the memories of watching the two dead bodies reanimate. She could still feel the piercing purple glow of their eyes on her even now. Suddenly, Celestia groaned softly from exhaustion and wobbled slightly to the side. After steadying herself, the alicorn shook her head to seemingly get rid of whatever weakness she was feeling. The sight of the princess in such distress worried the others immensely. “Princess, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while taking note of the alicorn’s pale appearance. The unicorn hadn’t paid much notice to it before, but she had looked like she was straining to recover after teleporting both herself and her student out of danger ever since the group left the room. “I’m fine… I’m just feeling a little weak. Whatever entity took over Grimwood must share the energy draining properties of dark matter. He only touched my face and it felt like he was sucking my life-force away.” Celestia explained while trying her best to shake off the lingering feeling of weakness she had. Everyone looked to the alicorn with concerned expressions as they thought about how much of a terrible experience she had been through. “So this… thing, just up and manages to kill Raven Feather and Dust Kicker, mind control Shadow Mist, and turn their entire operation on its head in a matter of minutes? What are we dealing with here?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone. “I don’t know… and apparently neither did they. Before he came under the entity’s control, Shadow Mist said that he hadn’t seen or read about anything like it before. Judging from how powerful it was, I would wager that it wasn’t anything they had expected. And unfortunately for us… it’s getting stronger.” Celestia explained with a troubled expression. “Stronger? What do you mean it’s getting stronger?” Glitterball asked nervously. Everyone else in the group had pale and fearful expressions from listening to the princess describe the strange entity. They had never seen it before, or even seen Grimwood to get a vague picture of its appearance, but they were utterly terrified of it. “When Shadow Mist and the others took me in the other room, I saw Grimwood… or Shade as he calls himself now… I saw him going to the center of the symbol again and absorbing more of that strange black substance.” Celestia explained uneasily. “So he’s trying to get stronger. Hmm… whatever this thing is can’t be good. Even if the ritual didn’t go as Raven Feather intended, it was originally meant to summon the eternal night, so maybe it summoned something else that is equally dark and powerful?” Twilight thought out loud in a troubled tone. She and everyone else present was more than a little unsettled from the change to their situation. They almost wished that the hooded ponies were still their main threat to deal with instead of this strange and terrifying new entity. “I don’t care how strong this thing is. We’re going to show it whose boss!” Rainbow Dash stated in an eager tone. “Although… having a plan might be nice… since I have no idea what to do short of punching it in the face.” She added in a slightly deflated tone as she thought more about the matter. “Yeah, I don’t think that would work.” A familiar voice from off to the side made everyone dart their heads in alarm. They saw a grey pegasus mare strolling up to them casually, one they had become acquainted with as Raincloud and learned to call their enemy. “Back up Raincloud, or we’ll singe your face off.” Sunspot said in a threatening tone while moving in front of the group and pointing her strobe at the approaching mare along with her teammates. The pegasus merely chuckled at the sight of the small vials. “Oh please, don’t hurt me with your shiny party poppers. I don’t want to die from laughter.” Raincloud said with a smirk, eliciting the three ponies to share a concerned glance with each other while thinking of whatever equipment they had to combat the grey mare. Everyone else stood behind the team of ponies and stared at the pegasus with varying degrees of fear, unease, and contempt. “We don’t need hollow bluffs to fight you Raincloud.” Luna said with an intimidating tone while lighting up her horn and stepping in front of Sunspot and the others. Princess Celestia joined her sister and lit up her horn while standing in front of the group protectively. “You won’t be able to fight all of us by yourself.” Celestia said with an icy glare pointed squarely at the shady pegasus. “Hold up before you waste time with turning me into a smoking puddle. I didn’t come here to fight you… as much as the thought entertains me.” Raincloud said while holding back a scornful glare. The others looked at each other with confused expressions as they processed the mare’s words. “What do you want if you didn’t come here to fight?” Twilight asked in a curious tone while stepping forward slightly. The two alicorns stood by the purple mare protectively, wary of the pegasus’s sudden desire for diplomacy. “That thing in there took over a colleague of mine and killed almost everyone I have associated with for my whole life… needless to say, I am a tad bit pissed off at it.” Raincloud said while pointing behind the group towards the door at the end of the hall. “What are you proposing, Raincloud?” Celestia asked while letting her horn die out. Luna looked to her sister with an uncertain expression as she used her hoof to gently push her back. With an uncomfortable sigh, the blue alicorn dimmed her horn as well while her sister stepped forward. “*Sigh*… I can’t believe I am about to say this, but… I need… your help.” Raincloud said with a strained voice while cringing painfully. “What?!” Twilight and her friends asked with shocked tones and surprised expressions. “Look… I’ve been having my shadow keep tabs on that thing in there. What does he call himself… Shade? Whatever… he is too strong for me to take on alone, and he is definitely too strong for your sorry asses to take on. I thought that maybe together we could get that thing out of Grimwood and send it back to whatever slimy pit it crawled out of.” Raincloud said while leveling with the group. Everyone was still getting over the shock of hearing the grey mare trying to forge a working team with them, but she seemed genuine enough. “And what’s to stop us from taking you into custody after all of this is over?” Sunspot asked while looking down to her shadow magic suppressing cuffs. Raincloud looked down and made an expression none of the ponies had ever seen on her. Most of the times they met the grey mare she was smiling sadistically as her shadow tormented them, or she was genuinely enjoying almost killing them with her bare hooves. But now she was frowning sadly, and looking to the floor with a downcast expression. “My brother is dead… Raven Feather is dead… there is nothing left for me here. I don’t care what happens to me… whether I go to jail for the rest of my life or die here at the hooves of that freak.” Raincloud said in a somber tone. Everyone was surprised to see such a genuine emotion from the pegasus, and they actually felt sorry for her despite everything she had done. “We will see what happens to you after all is said and done… but for the time being, it would be in both of our interests to form an alliance… however fragile it might be.” Celestia said in a calm tone while stepping forward and offering to shake the grey mare’s hoof. Twilight and the others weren’t surprised to see such a friendly gesture from the princess, but it was still strange to see her offering to shake hooves with the enemy. The pegasus looked up to the alicorn’s outstretched hoof and instinctively scoffed. She seemingly took a moment to contemplate things before scrunching her face in disgust and pushing the princess’s hoof away. “Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, Princess.” Raincloud said in a disdainful tone while walking around the group towards the door. Everyone backed up slightly and watched as the grey mare muttered to herself in an upset tone while avoiding looking at them. Celestia silently watched the pegasus with a wary expression, trying to ignore the fact that she just took her friendly show of peace and shoved it in her face. Still, she didn’t expect much more from the grey mare. Their alliance was one of necessity, and not one of choice. Had the circumstances been different, she was confident that Raincloud would slit her throat, at least if Raven Feather let her. “Alright… we’re going to need something big if we’re going to beat this thing. I don’t suppose any of you have a plan?” Raincloud asked in a dull tone, not really expecting much of a battle plan from the group of ponies. “Well, we could use the elements of harmony. If this thing is part shadow creature, and the elements were supposed to work on the eternal night, then we might have a chance with them.” Twilight suggested in an optimistic tone. Everyone seemed open to the idea of using the elements. After all, they were their strongest weapon against the forces of evil, even if they had never used them against something quite this evil. “As much as the thought of that makes me want to hurl, you might be right.” Raincloud agreed with the unicorn in a begrudging tone. Not only did she detest that she was working with Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but she was actually going to plan on the forces of friendship to vanquish an ancient and evil shadow creature that was more powerful than anything she had ever seen. Luna glanced back to the bag she kept with her thoughtfully. The elements of harmony were a powerful tool that had bested impossible odds before, but it had never been tried on anything so evil or powerful before. Her sister was stronger than her in terms of magical prowess, and she had been beaten by Raven Feather, who was in turn beaten by their current enemy. Still, the elements were the best bet they had at the moment. “I have the elements with me. I will keep them safe until we can use them.” Luna explained in a confident tone. “Hopefully we won’t need them to get by Shadow Mist and the others. Not that I’m even sure they would work against them… they are just ponies using shadow magic… I think.” Twilight pondered uneasily while thinking about whether or not Dust Kicker and Raven Feather were even ponies anymore. At any rate, there was no guarantee that the elements would disable the power inside of them. “Don’t worry about that, I’m sure we can beat them. I’ll take them down myself if I have to.” Rainbow Dash said in a determined tone. She was met suddenly with Raincloud glaring at her. “Are you stupid or something? The elements need their wielders alive to work… all of them. You six need to stay out of this fight. Assuming you don’t get slaughtered in the first few seconds that we fight that thing in Grimwood, we at least need the shot.” Raincloud said in a condescending tone, much to the cyan mare’s annoyance. “Grr…” Rainbow Dash glared back at the grey pegasus as she contemplated punching her in her smug face. Before she could act on her violent thoughts, she was stopped by Princess Celestia placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Settle down Rainbow Dash. I agree with Raincloud on this… I think you and the girls should stay back while we defeat Shadow Mist and the others.” Celestia said in a serious tone. “W-what?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a shocked tone. Most of the others shared in the cyan mare’s surprise. “I know what you’re thinking Rainbow Dash, and I appreciate your willingness to fight this thing with us… but you are too important to take such a large risk. I want you and the others to stay with my sister while she projects a force field around herself. This way we can keep both you and the elements safe, as well as having a safe haven from any of their attacks.” Celestia explained while looking to her sister to confer her opinion. The blue alicorn nodded in agreement with her sibling. As much as she wanted to fight with the others, she knew that someone had to protect their weaker members. “Ugh… fine. I just want to make it clear that I do not like this.” Rainbow Dash said while folding her arms with an upset expression on her face. “If it makes you feel better Rainbow Dash, I can give you my strobe so you can use it while I use my magic.” Glitterball suggested in a friendly tone while offering the vial up to the pegasus. Rainbow Dash smiled softly from the gesture before sighing restlessly. “Thanks Glitter.” Rainbow said while accepting the strobe from the unicorn and examining it in her hooves. “Ok, if you’re all done hugging it out, I would like to kill this thing before it finishes what it’s doing and destroys the whole of Equestria.” Raincloud shrugged in an impatient tone. Everyone glanced to the grey pegasus as she waited over by the door. Her eagerness to go out into the fray wasn’t exactly unanimous among the ponies. However confident some of the stronger members of the group might have been, they all felt at least a little unease in the pit of their stomachs as they thought of the coming battle. With their roles set and all the planning they could do carried out, the group had nothing more to do than offer concerned glances to their friends and march forward. Twilight and the others stayed close to Princess Luna as she walked at the back of the group. Even if some of them could use their magic or other means to help the others from afar, they still felt like they could do more. At the same time, the feelings of dread shared among them only got stronger as they approached the door. Everyone stopped in front of Raincloud and watched as she turned to face the door. She glanced back to the others for a moment before sighing, as if she were thinking of something annoying. Judging from her expression, it most likely had something to do with them. “I can use my shadow magic to do some damage to them… you guys should be able to stay back and shoot whatever you have at them from where you are.” Raincloud suggested with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice as she leveled with the group. They could tell that she was fine with them dying in battle, but their survival was in her best interest, at least for the moment. “I will fight with you. I should be able to handle myself against them.” Celestia volunteered in a confident manner. Her bravery in the face of danger was most likely lost on her gray ally, but she nodded anyway. “What should we do, Princess?” One of the guards at the back of the group asked curiously. Celestia and the others turned to look at the small team of guards that had accompanied them from the station back in town. The white alicorn realized that most of them wouldn’t be able to help without getting close up to their foes, and that would put them at great risk, which was something the princess wanted to avoid if at all possible. “Stay back with the others. Those of you who can use magic can support us from the safety of the barrier. The rest of you can keep watch and keep everyone safe on the off chance that one of them gets through the force field.” Celestia instructed in a serious tone. The guards saluted and nodded in compliance with their new orders. Now that everyone was more or less ready to face the upcoming challenges, the grey pegasus at the front of the group placed her hoof on the door handle and paused. She nodded to the group, who offered silent nods in return, before turning the handle and pushing the door open. Everyone quickly funneled into the room and looked ahead to find their enemies. As expected, they found the three ponies over at the far end of the room like they had never moved. As soon as everyone was inside, Luna lit up her horn and projected a magical barrier around the area that stretched out a few feet to give the group some room. The three ponies across the room looked over and noticed the intruders as they prepared themselves for battle. The red stallion chuckled slightly as he noticed a certain grey pegasus standing among them like she was fighting alongside them. “Well look who decided to come back.” Shadow Mist said in an intrigued tone. Raincloud growled under her breath as she saw what Shade did to her former friends first hand. The sight of her brother looking back at her with glowing eyes and a glowing slit on his neck instilled her with both sorrow and anger. “Look Shadow Mist, I don’t know what that thing did to you, but you’ve got to be in there somewhere. I don’t want to kill you… but I will if it means putting a stop to this.” Raincloud spoke up across the room while stepping out of the barrier with a serious expression. “I didn’t peg you for the heroic type Raincloud. I would say I was impressed if you didn’t decide to side with such weaklings. Even with your shadow magic you are weaker than us.” Shadow Mist said in a confident tone while letting some dark energy pulsate out of his hoof for show. The others watched as Raincloud glanced down to the stallion’s small display of power with a concerned expression. Perhaps she could get a better feel than they could for how powerful his shadow magic was, or maybe she was dreading having to fight her colleagues, but either way she seemed hesitant to jump into battle. Celestia stepped out of the barrier and got in line with the grey pegasus. Along with this show of courage, Twilight and the others readied their own methods of attacking. All of the unicorns lit up their horns and stared ahead with serious expressions, and everyone who had access to a strobe readied it in line with the three ponies in the distance. Raincloud looked over to see the others giving her reassuring expressions. Whether or not she enjoyed fighting with the princess and everyone else on her side, she appreciated that she wouldn’t need to do this alone. “I don’t like how cocky you’ve gotten… Oh well. If you won’t help me get your head on straight again, I guess I’ll just have to knock some sense into you.” Raincloud said while readying herself for battle. A disquieting sound filled the air as the grey mare’s shadow floated up and out of the floor. Twilight and the others looked at the floating specter with wary expressions. They had never seen the shadow any other time than when it was trying to rip them to shreds, so it was a strange turn of events to see it on their side for once. “I’d like to see you try.” Shadow Mist said with a sinister grin before looking to his two companions. “Kill them!” He instructed while pointing at the group ahead with his good leg. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather smirked slightly as they settled their eyes on the group of ponies. The undead pair channeled shadow energy to both their front hooves and started rushing forward. Meanwhile, Shadow Mist stayed behind and prepared to fight from a distance. “Shadow, kill them!” Raincloud commanded to her pet while directing it towards the two ponies with her thoughts. As much as she hated sending her familiar to kill her brother and her mentor, she knew that they were no longer themselves and they had to be put down. The specter’s laughter echoed through the room, sending a slight chill through the group of ponies behind it as it readied its claws. Suddenly, the shadow flew forward with a threatening wail and shot after the two ponies to reach them before they reached its master. “Fire!” Glimmer Shine yelled to everyone while pointing his strobe at the two approaching threats. Everyone discharged either their strobes or their horns, sending a wave of projectiles towards the two. Being careful not to hit Raincloud’s shadow, they fired everything they had at the two ponies and their red colleague. Raven Feather and Dust Kicker ducked and dodged around every bolt of light or magical beam that came their way. Once they reached the shadow sailing towards them with claws at the ready, they both shot their hooves out in front of them and discharged the dark energy they had been focusing. Raincloud’s shadow let out an agitated growl as it was sent flying backwards by a shockwave of purple energy. Once it regained its balance in the air, it looked ahead to see the two ponies firing shadowy fireballs toward it and the others behind it. The only thing the specter could do was dodge the attacks and attempt to get closer. Twilight and the others watched with concern as the fireballs whizzed past Celestia and Raincloud, nearly catching the pair off guard and smacking right into them. While the two ponies narrowly avoided the dark projectiles, the group behind them could only hope that the shield being projected by Princess Luna would hold up. The barrage of fireballs exploded into the shield with a thunderous clamor. The ponies inside cringed and flinched their eyes shut as they felt and heard the shield shaking from each successive hit. A few cracks formed in the magical barrier as Luna strained to keep it solid. “Hyah!” Raincloud yelled suddenly as she charged forward towards the two ponies. She channeled shadow magic to her hoof and swiped it sideways, sending an arc of purple energy towards them. Dust Kicker dove to the ground while Raven Feather jumped to the side, allowing the arc to sail past them and slam into the floor behind them. A small explosion rang out as the band of energy finished its brief flight, leaving a sizable scorch mark in a near perfect outline of itself as a visible calling card. Spotting an opportunity to go from defense to offense, Celestia lit up her horn and fired a series of magical beams at the pair. While the two ponies scrambled to evade or deflect the incoming attacks, Luna had time to recuperate and repair any damage done to her shield. Raincloud and her shadow rushed forward and went for Raven Feather and Dust Kicker respectively, taking them by surprise from the side. While Raincloud and Raven Feather channeled shadow energy to their hooves and had a makeshift sword fight, Dust Kicker tried his best to keep ahead of the shadow as it swiped at him with its claws. The two pairs danced around each other, all the while trying to make a move that would put them at an advantage. Celestia and the others still offered fire support, even if they had to be more careful with their shots. Somehow however, Raven Feather and Dust Kicker seemed to be able to keep up with both their attackers and the incoming shots, using quick speed and agile maneuvers to either block or evade each strike or projectile. “Grr!” Raincloud growled through her teeth as she clashed energies with her former mentor. Raven Feather scowled at the pegasus while pushing back on her with all of her might. The grey mare could feel her arm straining from the unyielding strength of the undead pony. Suddenly, a loud thud sounded out through the room and the ground shook violently. Before anyone could react, a shockwave traveled through the floor and swept underneath the ponies. Celestia managed to keep her footing with little more than a stumble, but Raincloud wasn’t so lucky. “Ah!” Raincloud yelped in surprise as she was sent tumbling to the floor. She rolled over on her back and grunted in pain from the impact. As she rubbed her shoulder and looked over to see what caused the sudden shockwave, she saw Shadow Mist on the other side of the room recovering from stomping his hoof on the ground, doubtlessly having used his shadow magic. “Raincloud, lookout!” Celestia exclaimed urgently while pointing behind the grey mare. Raincloud looked up just in time to see Raven Feather, with her arm still enveloped in shadow energy, about to drive the shadowy spike down into her. Raincloud yelped again while rolling to the side to dodge the strike. She only just cleared the impact zone before Raven Feather planted her makeshift blade into the floor, causing it to crack slightly. The grey pegasus scrambled to distance herself from her opponent and to get to her feet, managing to shoot an agitated glare at the black mare as she regained her composure. “I should probably be thankful that you aren’t in there anymore Raven Feather. You would have already beaten me by now if you were.” Raincloud said with an angry tone while leering at the undead pony. Raven Feather merely kept the same expression of contempt that she had on her face since she was reborn. She let the energy on her arm dissipate, choosing instead to go for a different approach with her shadow magic. Before she could execute whatever plan she had however, she heard a distorted growl behind her. The black mare spun around to see a glowing purple face staring back at her. Raincloud’s shadow had broken away from Dust Kicker and went to deal with the pony that had just assaulted its master. The specter raised its claws and swiped sideways, catching the undead mare on the side of her face. Raven Feather let out a quiet grunt of pain. The black mare turned to stare down the specter with her own equally intense glowing eyes and growled angrily. She ducked under the next swipe the shadow sent after her, which was almost too fast for her to handle. As the shadow used both claws and all of his speed to keep the undead pony on the defensive, Raven Feather could barely do anything other than dodge to stay ahead of her attacker. As Dust Kicker started to move to assist his ally, he was suddenly enveloped by a magical aura and lifted into the air. The stallion looked over to see Celestia with a light smirk on her face and her horn glowing at full force. The pony in her grip struggled to escape, but she restrained his limbs to hamper his usage of shadow magic as much as possible. Meanwhile, Raincloud was focusing on something else while her ghostly minion and her alicorn ally dealt with the two undead ponies. To give her shadow some time to dispatch Raven Feather, and perhaps to give her a distraction so she didn’t have to watch, the grey pegasus trotted across the room towards Shadow Mist. The red stallion noticed his former friend approaching him and adopted a more serious expression on his face. As if to cement the fact that she was here to fight and not to chat, Raincloud channeled shadow energy to her hoof in preparation to battle with Shadow Mist. “Hyah!” Raincloud yelled while pointing her hoof forward and sending a spout of shadowy flames towards the red stallion. Shadow Mist dodged to the side and channeled his own shadow magic to his hoof. As the stallion held his hoof out towards the grey mare, she suddenly felt something gripping her throat tightly. Shadow Mist maneuvered his hoof upwards a little bit, causing the pegasus to let out a stifled cry as she was lifted into the air by her neck. Before she could feel the effects of suffocation, Raincloud was suddenly flung to the side by the stallion. She let out a frightened yelp before slamming into the wall and falling to the floor on her back. “Gah… *Pant*” Raincloud groaned painfully as she forced herself up off the floor on one hoof. She gradually lifted her other front leg and used it to steady herself as she looked to see where her opponent was. She gasped quietly as she saw Shadow Mist strolling towards her with a devilish grin on his face. As the grey mare tried to raise her hoof and channel shadow energy to it, the red stallion hurried his pace slightly to catch up to her and swat her arm away. Before Raincloud could retaliate or flee, Shadow Mist planted his newly restored leg onto her neck and pushed her to the floor. Raincloud croaked in pain while feverishly clawing at the shadowy limb on top of her to no avail. Her weakened state and the stallion’s enhanced power made it nearly impossible for her to fight back. “Heh… I never expected this would be so easy.” Shadow Mist said in a cocky tone while raising his other leg in the air. Raincloud’s eyes widened as the stallion channeled shadow energy to his leg and focused it to a point to create a shadowy blade. He held it above the pegasus, seemingly enjoying the slow experience of watching her squirm. Desperate to escape the red stallion and her impending demise, Raincloud looked up to see what her unconventional allies were doing. As she looked over to the group across the room behind Luna’s barrier, she saw concerned expressions on all of the ponies’ faces. “Oh no, Raincloud’s in trouble!” Twilight exclaimed in a fearful tone. As much as she disliked the grey pegasus, she didn’t want to see her die. “Don’t worry… I’ve got that little rat in my sights.” Sunspot stated while squinting her eyes to aim her strobe across the room. As soon as she got the stallion in her line of fire, she pressed the button on her strobe as fast as she could. Before the bolts of light could get very far, a spout of shadowy flames suddenly shot out from the side and intercepted all of them. The stunned ponies looked over to find the cause of the interruption, only to discover Raven Feather holding one of her hooves up with shadow energy pulsing from the tip. The black mare was still fighting Raincloud’s shadow, but she was now able to keep so far ahead of the specter that she was able to divert her attention to making sure that the others didn’t intervene to save their grey ally. Realizing that nobody else could help her, Raincloud turned to her shadow with a desperate expression. The ghostly creature was too distracted with dodging any attacks that Raven Feather sent its way and trying to get in strikes of his own that it didn’t even notice the dire straits that its master was in. “Guh… s-shadow… help me.” Raincloud pleaded as she turned away from the red stallion on top of her and his piercing gaze. Shadow Mist was enjoying every moment of pressuring the grey mare by inching his blade closer to her. From this distance, she could already feel a slight tingling sensation from foreign shadow energy being close to her. Raincloud’s shadow suddenly stopped what it was doing and darted its head over to the grey pegasus. It let out a surprised sound before shifting to a more furious growl as it prepared to fly over and gut the red stallion for injuring its master. Suddenly, a flash of purple appeared and the shadow let out a wail of pain as a concentrated beam of energy was shot at it by Raven Feather. Everyone watched with shocked expressions as the shadow was sent flying into the far wall by the purple beam. The specter wailed and howled for a moment before fading into the wall weakly. As if to further cement the shadow’s defeat, a translucent black spot darted along the floor and returned itself to Raincloud’s actual shadow. “Damnit!” Raincloud cursed while softly hitting her head against the floor. She could feel that her minion was too exhausted from the attack to reappear, even in such a desperate situation. And due to her own exhaustion, she couldn’t forcibly project it to save herself. Now she was totally powerless to stop the red stallion on her own. Celestia growled under her breath as she looked over to see a smirk on Raven Feather’s face. It seemed that even after her death she enjoyed the suffering of others. Finally, the white alicorn decided that she would have to be the one to save the grey pegasus. Before Raven Feather could notice her, she looked over to the red stallion and charged up a concussive bolt of energy to knock him off of the pegasus, all the while being careful to keep Dust Kicker contained in her magical aura as well. However, the slight nagging feeling of weakness she had left over from when Shade attacked her only served to further complicate things. Hearing the brown pegasus beside her heaving from exertion and feeling a strain on her magic, Celestia looked over to see Dust Kicker channeling shadow energy around his body. Before she could react further, the stallion exploded the buildup of energy outwards, completely overpowering and shattering the alicorn’s magical grip on him. “Gah!” Celestia winced as the immense strain on her horn became too much to handle. She raced to try and contain or at least pacify the stallion again, but Dust Kicker had other plans in mind. The brown pegasus shot his hoof out towards the princess, shooting out a ball of shadow energy at high speeds that Celestia barely had time to even process, let alone dodge. The alicorn yelped in pain as she was sent from her feet and roughly landed on the floor. Before she could get back up again, she felt her limbs being pinned to the floor. Celestia looked down uneasily to see her legs being held in place by a dark purple glow. She looked up to see Dust Kicker holding his hoof out and focusing an aura of shadow energy around it, seemingly controlling the dark bonds that held her in place. As she tried to move her neck to the side to help Raincloud, the princess grunted in pain as her head was roughly pushed to the floor and pinned in the same manner as her limbs. “Heh… looks like your new friends aren’t as much of an insurance policy as you hoped.” Shadow Mist said while turning to look at the grey mare pinned under his hoof. Raincloud’s bravery was slowly fading away as the stallion brought his makeshift blade closer and closer to her face. She tried inching her neck to move away, but there was only so far that her muscles could stretch. She contemplated trying to use shadow magic, but she quickly realized that she would probably be dead the instant the stallion saw her hooves glowing. The ponies were worried about Celestia’s wellbeing from having the brown pegasus overpower her, but right now there was another matter that they were more concerned about. With Celestia and the ghostly specter disabled, and Raven Feather waiting to block any projectiles sent by the others, there was nothing they could do to help Raincloud from where they were. “What do we do?! She’s going to die if we just sit here!” Sunspot stated in an urgent tone. “Maybe we can lift Shadow Mist off of her from here with our magic?” Twilight suggested in a nervously hopeful tone. “No… I don’t think that would work. If we even tried that, I’m sure Shadow Mist could break out as easy as Dust Kicker just did… and I’m pretty sure Princess Celestia is stronger than us.” Glitterball said while watching the scene in front of her uneasily. “Well we have to do something! We can’t just sit here and watch her d… wait a minute.” Twilight said in a confused tone as she looked around at her friends, only to discover that someone was missing. “Where is Rainbow Dash?” She asked in a confused tone. Everyone looked around to see if the cyan mare was behind someone, only to realize that she was nowhere to be found in the area shielded by Princess Luna. “*Gasp* Look! There she is!” Pinkie said in an excited tone while pointing ahead into the room. The others were uncertain about how they felt about the pegasus being outside of the safe area, but sure enough there she was. The cyan mare was in flight near the ceiling, darting her way as fast as she could towards the two ponies struggling at the far end of the room. Raincloud watched with a dreadful expression as Shadow Mist raised his leg up and prepared to impale her with his shadowy blade. The stallion snickered softly before yelling and driving his leg down onto the pegasus with a great amount of force. The grey mare flinched her eyes shut and tensed her body up as one final denial to her imminent demise. *Thwack* Shadow Mist grunted in pain as something slammed into his side at high speed. Raincloud looked up just in time to see the red stallion getting kicked off of her forcibly by non-other than Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus admired the sight of the stallion rolling on the floor from her strike before quickly landing and offering Raincloud her hoof to help her up. “Come on! Get up before he shakes it off and kills both of us!” Rainbow Dash stated urgently. Meanwhile, the grey mare was still in a state of shock from her sudden rescue. “W-what?” Raincloud stammered in a stunned tone as she looked at the cyan pegasus in utter confusion. She couldn’t believe that she was being saved by someone that should have hated her guts. “*Sigh* Hurry up!” Rainbow Dash groaned in disbelief while grabbing the grey mare by the arm and pulling her up. Raincloud followed the cyan pegasus in a shocked state as she ran while dragging her confused companion along behind her. After the initial shock wore off, Raincloud and her unlikely savior spread their wings and took off into the air to distance themselves from the red stallion, who was still recovering from his sudden assault. Shadow Mist grunted in painful annoyance while pushing himself up from the floor. He turned to see the two mares flying back to safety and growled under his breath. Channeling shadow energy to his hooves, the red stallion yelled fiercely while stamping both of his legs on the ground. Rainbow Dash and Raincloud looked down to see a dark shadow on the ground chasing after them. As the shadow beneath them started to glow, they both widened their eyes as they gathered what came next. “Yikes!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed while darting to the side. Just as both mares cleared the area, a spike of shadow energy shot up from the floor and went clear to the ceiling, nearly blowing their hair back from the force it held. As the two ponies dodged the first spike, the shadow on the ground split off into two and followed them. Another set of spikes jutted up to the side of the mares, causing them to flinch in surprise while flying even further to the side. Everyone watched nervously as the two pegasus’s darted around in the air, closely followed by the shadowy blob on the ground and a myriad of spikes ready to impale them if they slipped up even once. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash saw a blur of motion in front of her. She instinctively stopped mid-air, only to have one of the spikes shoot up directly in front of her. The jarring sight was enough to make her yelp in surprise. Raincloud offered a stray glance to the cyan mare before she was forced to keep flying due to her own pursuer. Realizing that the red stallion was still trying to kill her, Rainbow Dash started to fly around the pillar of darkness to get to the safe area. However, something shot up beneath her before she could scarcely make it around the spike. “AGH!” Rainbow Dash cried out in pain as one of the spikes clipped her side. The solid column of energy was strong and fast enough to pierce her skin, sending a spray of blood out and causing the cyan mare to fall slightly from shock. “*Gasp* Rainbow Dash!” Twilight and the others yelled fearfully as they watched their friend being wounded. Rainbow Dash clutched her side as she fell away from the shadowy spike. As she started plummeting to the ground, she flapped her wings a few times to steady herself, but the pain she was in made it nearly impossible to fly correctly. Much to the relief of everyone watching, the cyan pegasus somehow managed to guide her falling to make it through the barrier Luna was maintaining. Rainbow Dash grunted in pain as she landed on the floor harder than she would have liked. The terrified ponies watching raced over to their friend as soon as she landed. “Oh my gosh! Rainbow Dash are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked in a fearful tone while watching the cyan mare writhing on the ground while clutching her side. There was blood pouring out of a straight gash in her side that went clear up and down the length of her ribs. Thankfully the gash didn’t look deep enough to have actually hit her ribcage or anything vital, however it did look incredibly painful. “Gah! … Ack… owwie!” Rainbow Dash groaned in pain as she tried to lift her head up to address her friends. Glitterball gently made the cyan mare stay in a resting position while she examined her wound further. “Rainbow Dash… I know this hurts, but I really need to see your wound.” Glitterball said in a hesitant tone while gently moving Rainbow Dash’s arm away from her side. Everyone watched with sympathetic expressions of worry as the unicorn examined the bloody gash further. The mere sight of such a grizzly looking injury on their friend made the others pale and more than a little bit sick. “*Sigh* I was afraid of this… I don’t think I can do anything to heal this. It might not be deep enough to hit anything other than skin, but it is too deep and too large for my magic to completely close up.” Glitterball said in a troubled tone. “Maybe you should try my magic.” The group heard Raincloud announce from behind them. Everyone turned to see the grey pegasus and Princess Celestia walking back into the barrier. Surprisingly enough, it seemed as though Raincloud had been helping the alicorn to escape from Raven Feather and Dust Kicker. The two undead ponies leered at the group from outside of the barrier as they tried channeling shadow energy through the floor to get to them. Thankfully however, it seemed as though Luna’s barrier was keeping even the translucent shadows on the ground at bay. “What the… why are you helping us all of a sudden? I thought you hated us?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. The unicorn would have thought that maybe Raincloud was offering to help Rainbow Dash because she just saved her life, but the grey mare also assisted Princess Celestia, who was hated intensely by most members of the hooded ponies. The grey pegasus sighed for a moment while looking down at the floor. It looked like she was trying to justify her own reasoning for herself. Finally she returned a stern expression to her face, which was surprisingly more familiar to the ponies than they would have liked. “None of you are good to me dead… least of all you six and the princess. We need the elements if we’re going to beat this thing… and as much as it pains me to admit, she is one of our best fighters besides myself.” Raincloud said while glancing to the princess with a disgusted expression. “Why should we trust you around Rainbow Dash? You might just make things worse for her.” Applejack said in a wary tone while glancing to the cyan mare with a concerned expression. “Like I said… we need the elements to beat that thing in Grimwood. I don’t think she will be able to do much of anything with her side looking like that.” Raincloud said in a cold tone, much to the dismay of the others. “Or you know, you could just leave her like that… some friends you would be in that case.” She added with a muffled scoff while looking at the floor in an irritable manner. Twilight and the others were hesitant to let the grey mare near their friend. Even if she were telling the truth, they weren’t sure if they wanted to put their faith in the power of shadow magic. Who knows what kind of side effects something as evil as that would have? “It’s fine everyone… let her help Rainbow Dash.” Celestia said in a confident tone. “Princess… are you sure about this?” Glimmer Shine asked in an uncertain tone while glancing to the grey mare warily. A sudden yelp of pain drew everyone’s attention back to Rainbow Dash, who was still clutching her injury and writhing on the ground trying to cope with her suffering. “I’m sure that Rainbow Dash is in a lot of pain right now, and I am also sure that Raincloud is telling the truth… at least about needing us to help her defeat shade.” Celestia explained while looking to the grey mare with a slightly thankful expression. Not only had the grey mare offered to heal Rainbow Dash, but she also went back and rescued her from Dust Kicker’s clutches. Best case scenario, perhaps she was having a change of heart. But at any rate, she was clearly doing things that she didn’t like for the betterment of their mission. “Ok fine. Anything is better than letting her suffer like this I suppose.” Glimmer Shine said while backing away from the cyan mare. Everyone watched warily as Raincloud walked up to the injured pegasus and knelt down. She hesitated for a moment and sighed in disappointment before putting on a serious expression and channeling shadow energy to her hoof. Rainbow Dash watched the pulsating aura of darkness around Raincloud’s hoof with a concerned expression. She silently hoped that after risking her own life to save the grey mare that she wouldn’t try to kill her so soon. After a moment of the cyan mare tensing up and Raincloud inching her hoof closer, she finally made contact and held her hoof in place. Rainbow Dash jumped slightly as a cold sensation enveloped her side. She could feel the pain from her wound slowly subsiding, but it definitely wasn’t as pleasant an experience as Tom’s healing light and its warmth. “There… now try not to be so reckless next time?” Raincloud asked in a condescending tone while roughly punching the cyan mare’s newly healed side. “You know, you could at least say thank you considering I just saved your life.” Rainbow Dash replied in an annoyed tone. She couldn’t believe that the grey mare could be so hostile even after being rescued from a certain death situation. Raincloud groaned under her breath and averted her eyes for a moment. She grumbled to herself with an upset scowl on her face, seemingly contemplating something. She finally looked back up at the cyan mare with an unimpressed expression. “Yeah, whatever… thanks I guess.” Raincloud said in an insincere tone while turning away from the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash and the others glanced between each other and the grey pegasus with stunned expressions of disbelief. After getting Rainbow Dash to her feet, everyone turned their attention back to the matter at hand. They were stuck in a magical force field while their enemies watched them and eagerly tried to get in. They had barely done any damage to the three empowered ponies since they arrived and sprung Princess Celestia from their grasp. If they were going to succeed and find a way to stop Shade, they had to neutralize Shadow Mist and his two cohorts. “Ok, listen up everyone. I think I might know how we can stop these guys.” Raincloud said with a hushed whisper while motioning for everyone to huddle closer to her. The others glanced back at the prying eyes of the three ponies outside before simultaneously agreeing that they should hide their strategies from them. “What did you have in mind?” Twilight asked curiously while stepping into the circle being formed by everyone huddling around the grey mare. “Whatever Shade did to them, they are bursting with shadow energy now. I could practically feel it every time I got close to one of them. Even if we managed to land an attack on them, they could probably shake it off and heal with no problem.” Raincloud explained in a troubled tone. “But how are we going to beat them if they can just tank whatever we throw at them and heal?” Sunspot asked in an uneasy tone. Everyone else shared in the orange pegasus’s concerns, and most of them weren’t handling the situation with as much bravery. “Well unless they are like that human friend of yours and they need energy to keep going, I don’t think we can beat them like Raven Feather beat him… and that’s even if we could keep up with them long enough to wear them out.” Raincloud stated in a casual tone. The others pointed wary leers at the grey mare for bringing up Tom’s defeat in such a negative way. “What is your plan Raincloud? Time is of the essence until we defeat the entity in the other room.” Celestia said as a reminder of the urgent situation the group was in. The grey mare sighed before nodding in agreement. “Ok, look… I think I can use my own shadow magic to draw whatever energy Shade used on them out of them. It won’t be easy, and I would need time enough to do it up close to them, but it’s the best chance we have at the moment.” Raincloud explained in an uneasy tone. She was clearly dreading having to get close to the three ponies again. “I suppose you would need our help to restrain whoever you choose to drain first and to keep the others occupied?” Celestia asked while thinking about the grey mare’s plan in more detail. It was obvious that Shadow Mist and his two colleagues wouldn’t just stand by and idly watch while one of them was being detained and drained of their energy. “Yeah, I think there is no other way around it. I hope you’re up to the challenge.” Raincloud shrugged in an uneasy tone while thinking back to the alicorn’s weak behavior. Perhaps she was still recovering from when Shade drained her energy. “You just worry about siphoning their energy… I’ll worry about keeping the others busy.” Celestia replied in a serious tone. As the group decided on their plan, they all had a certain air of determination about them. However, the odd silence in the air started to unsettle the ponies as they noticed it. Shadow Mist and the others should have been fighting to break in, but there was no noise coming from behind the group to even indicate they were under attack. Before anyone could ask about why their enemies weren’t making any noise, a soft knocking sound came from behind the group. It sounded like someone tapping on glass, so the ponies gathered that someone was knocking on Luna’s barrier to get their attention. Everyone turned around in unison, only to be greeted with the sight of Shadow Mist and his two undead underlings standing casually just outside of the barrier. The unexpected sight caught the ponies off guard, causing a wave of dread and unease to wash over them as they thought about what the trio was up to. “What are you doing Shadow Mist?” Raincloud asked in a demanding tone while stepping in front of the group. “I have decided to offer you an olive branch so to say.” Shadow Mist said in a calm tone while glancing to his two companions. Although the two undead ponies weren’t capable of looking unintimidating, they sat by the red stallion silently. “What…? Are you serious? That thing must have scrambled your brain worse than I thought if you expect me to side with you Shadow.” Raincloud scoffed in an unimpressed tone while leering at the stallion. Twilight and the others were surprised to hear the grey mare berating her former friends, but perhaps she was serious about not wanting to join them. “Oh come on Raincloud… I thought you wanted to bathe the world in darkness? Why don’t you just help us take care of these weaklings so we don’t have to kill you along with them?” Shadow Mist asked in a sincere tone while smirking at the grey pegasus. “Hey! Who are you calling weaklings?!” Rainbow Dash chimed in with an upset glare firmly directed towards the red stallion. Ignoring the sudden outburst of her cyan colleague, Raincloud shook her head in disappointment at Shadow Mist’s offer. “No… I never wanted to destroy the world… none of us did. This was never Raven Feather’s dream… she wanted to make the world better, not destroy it entirely.” Raincloud stated in a sincere manner. “Uh… that’s a bit of a stretch if you ask me.” Sunspot said in a hesitant tone, eliciting a glare from the grey pegasus. “Hey, do you want me to fight with you or not?” Raincloud asked with a semi-serious expression before directing her attention back to the red stallion. “Tsk, tsk, tsk… I was so hoping you would come around to our way of thinking. Oh well… I guess we’ll have to kill you then.” Shadow Mist said while adopting a more sinister expression. The sudden statement made the group behind the magical barrier uneasy, even if they weren’t sure if the trio were capable of reaching them. Just to be safe, Celestia motioned to Glitterball and the other unicorns of the group as she lit up her horn. Everyone lit up their horns once they caught on and joined the alicorn as she started channeling her magic into Luna’s barrier. The force field glowed and shimmered brightly as it was charged with an incredible amount of power. “And just how are you going to manage that?” Raincloud asked in a confident tone while stepping closer to the translucent barrier between her and the three ponies. “You’ve already demonstrated that you can’t get in here… and that was before we boosted the power of the barrier. I don’t think even I could bust through this thing now. Shadow magic is powerful, but it has limits… and you’ve reached yours a lot sooner than I thought.” She said with a wry smirk. Although the others weren’t sure if their grey companion should be gloating in the face of their enemy, they were fairly confident that the barrier would hold with how many unicorns were pouring energy into it. Shadow Mist chuckled to himself while glancing to his two undead colleagues. He slowly stepped closer to the force field until he was right next to it, staring face to face with Raincloud and the group behind her. “Oh Raincloud… I only wish you could understand. We are only just beginning to tap into our full scope of power.” Shadow Mist said in a serious tone. Suddenly, the red stallion started channeling shadow energy to his right leg. The normally bright purple aura of darkness that occurred when using shadow magic appeared briefly at the tip of Shadow Mist’s hoof, but it quickly underwent a sinister change. The purple color of the pulsating energy blackened and solidified until the stallion’s hoof wasn’t even visible underneath it. Shadow Mist grunted from exertion while still managing a devilish smirk on his face. Twilight and the others grew more uneasy and concerned by the second as they watched the stallion channeling more and more power to his hoof. Even Raincloud started backing up with a stunned expression as she stared at the glowing ball of darkness around Shadow Mist’s hoof. Given her own knowledge of shadow magic, seeing the grey mare with such a nervous expression made the others nearly panic. It seemed like she was terrified, which was an emotion that the others weren’t even sure the pegasus could feel. Before anyone could try anything to interrupt the red stallion from channeling energy, he lifted his hoof into the air and punched into the barrier. With a mighty yell, Shadow Mist dumped all of the energy he had gathered into the magical force field. Luna, Celestia, Glitterball, and even Twilight and Rarity all groaned from exertion as they felt an immense strain being put on the barrier. All of the unicorns put everything they had into fortifying the barrier, but the red stallion had other plans. The energy from around Shadow Mist’s hoof started to spread out across the force field, blocking out everything from view. The stark black energy clashed with the colorful barrier in every sense imaginable, nearly enveloping it completely and covering the ponies in a shell of darkness. “Guh… g-guys, I don’t think we can hold this back any longer!” Twilight announced in a nervous tone while pushing her magic to its limits. If she was as exhausted as the other unicorns were, then the group was in serious trouble. Everyone backed up further and readied themselves physically and mentally as cracks started forming in the barrier and scattering out. Pieces of the translucent force field started breaking off and vanishing, letting small tendrils of the fluidic darkness to flow through and pour onto the floor. The ponies were uncertain what to think. Would Shadow Mist kill them right here and now with the mass of energy, or would he just use it to break away their barrier and kill them himself? Either way, they were all about to be thrust into battle once again, whether they wanted it or not. “Stay behind us!” Celestia shouted while stepping in front of the others. Raincloud, Luna, Glimmer Shine, Sunspot, Glitterball, and the guards all stepped forward to be in line so they could better protect the six mares. Rainbow Dash and the others anxiously watched as Twilight and Rarity fought to keep the barrier intact. Even with several unicorns and two powerful alicorns charging the shield with their magic, the dark energy was still breaking through with ease. Suddenly, the barrier completely shattered and the dark energy fell to the floor. Everyone that was projecting the shield either yelped painfully or groaned from exertion as their magic was overwhelmed. Shaking off whatever exhaustion they felt, Twilight and the others turned their attention ahead to see what their enemies were doing. Instead of charging ahead with reckless abandon, Shadow Mist and his two colleagues were still standing in place a few feet away, however there was now an undulating mass of dark energy separating the two groups instead of a magical barrier. Shadow Mist channeled more shadow energy to his hoof and yelled fiercely while exerting his influence. Suddenly, the mass of darkness on the floor started raising off the ground and taking shape. The entire blob of energy was forming into several smaller shapes that immediately solidified and morphed into the forms of darklings. There were around ten of the vicious beasts, all of them seemingly enhanced beyond the scope of normal darklings due to the presence of purple highlights on their bodies. “Kill them!” Shadow Mist commanded while pointing to the group of ponies. The red stallion and his two undead teammates channeled shadow energy through their bodies to prepare to fight the others along with the darklings. As the trio prepared for battle and the horde of darklings leapt forward, the ponies raced to prepare themselves for the incoming threats. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates readied their strobes and opened fire on the incoming beasts, but the blasts of light barely did anything other than annoy the creatures. “Shadow, defend!” Raincloud commanded while channeling shadow magic to her hooves and charging forward. On cue with her instructions, her shadow elongated and solidified before her minion floated out of it. The specter remained behind while its master ran into battle, seemingly to protect the six mares behind it from the incoming horde. Twilight and the others were surprised to see an old enemy fighting alongside them for once, but they welcomed the aid nonetheless. “Rrrah!” Shadow Mist yelled while flinging a shadowy fireball at the group. The projectile sailed over the darklings as they clashed with Raincloud and continued towards the others. The sight of a fireball and several monsters made of dark energy hurdling towards her and those around her made Celestia nervous. The white alicorn quickly projected a shield around herself as the fireball got close, erupting it into a small explosion as it crashed into her. Once the projectile had been harmlessly blocked, the princess turned her attention to the darklings that were ignoring Raincloud to go after her and the others. Celestia and Luna lit up their horns and fired two beams of energy at a pair of the creatures. The two bolts exploded into the darklings’ forms, causing the two monsters to screech in pain while they collapsed into smoke. Raincloud channeled the shadow energy on her hoof into the shape of a blade and slashed sideways across a pair of two darklings. Although the two beasts evaded the strike, the grey mare seemed capable enough to dodge any strikes they might have made. Meanwhile, the others were left to deal with the remaining six darklings. Three of the beasts rushed towards Twilight and the others. The six mares scarcely had time to even contemplate screaming fearfully before Raincloud’s shadow leapt into action. The ghostly specter slashed its claws through one of the darklings, effectively reducing it to a cloud of smoke. It then knocked the other two away before digging its claws into them as they tried to jump back towards it. Sunspot and her two teammates concentrated fire on another set of two darklings to prevent them from getting any closer. Although their constant blasts of light did wonders to repel the beasts, they did next to nothing in terms of causing harm to them. “Dangit! The strobes aren’t working on these guys… even with the upgrade!” Sunspot stated in a frustrated tone while trying her best to keep the two creatures occupied. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie stepped forward and reached into the orange pegasus’s vest, much to her confusion and annoyance. Before Sunspot could even ask what she was doing, the pink mare pulled out one of the spare strobes that they had used during their encounter with Raincloud and her brother and took aim with it. Pinkie quickly fired a shot straight at one of the darklings as it opened its mouth. As she expected, the beast yelped painfully before its body faded into smoke. “Aim for their mouths! They’re weak on the inside!” Pinkie exclaimed eagerly while mentally patting herself on the back for remembering how she dispatched the empowered darklings before. “Sounds like a plan to me… heads up Applejack!” Glimmer Shine said while tossing the remaining spare strobe over to the orange mare. Applejack caught the vial in the air and smirked as she joined her pink friend in the fight. As the five ponies collectively opened fire on the remaining darkling, it scarcely had time to close its mouth before it exploded into a shower of sparks and smoke. Satisfied that they could handle any number of the darklings, they scanned their eyes around to look for the remaining beasts. Taking a look over to see Raincloud dispatching the two darklings that she had been fighting with, the ponies found a disturbing lack of the creatures in their immediate area. “Where’s the last one?” Sunspot asked in a concerned tone while looking around. The trio of ponies a few feet away was busy fighting with Celestia and Luna, trading projectiles and dodging each other’s attacks. With Shadow Mist and his two colleagues occupied, the orange pegasus was free to look around in a panic to find the missing darkling. “Didn’t we get all of them?” Pinkie Pie asked curiously while taking a mental count of how many of the beasts were put down versus how many there were to begin with. “No… there were ten of them, and we just got the ninth one.” Glitterball stated while confirming her headcount with the others. “Which brings me back to my previous question… where is the last one?!” Sunspot asked in a more urgent tone. Everyone suddenly started darting their eyes around them to try to find the missing creature. They wondered how a vicious monster that can hardly go five steps without making some sort of frightening noise could sneak away without anyone noticing. “Wait a minute… guys, darklings are shadow creatures… they can turn into shadows!” Twilight said in an urgent tone while recalling her previous experience with the creatures. If the darklings still had the use of the powers she saw them using in the alleyway, then the last one could be anywhere. Everyone swiftly looked behind them and counted the number of shadows on the ground. The group converged their eyes on a single solid black spot on the ground just as it started rising out of the floor. Before anyone could even ready a strobe or charge their magic, the darkling formed its body and barked viciously while leaping forward into the group. “AHH!” Fluttershy screamed fearfully as she watched the darkling heading straight for her with its mouth agape and its teeth bared. Before the creature could pounce on her however, she felt someone pushing her out of the way. “Oof!” Applejack grunted painfully as she was sent to the floor by the darkling landing on top of her. She intended to push Fluttershy out of the way and move with her, but the darkling was already on top of her before she could clear its path. “*Gasp* Applejack!” Fluttershy yelled in shock as she looked up from the floor where she landed to see the orange mare struggling with the vicious beast on top of her. The darkling had its paws on Applejack’s shoulders as it tried to get past her arms to bite her. The sharp claws on the creature’s paws suddenly dug into the mare’s skin as it applied more pressure onto them. “Agh!” Applejack yelped as she felt herself getting punctured by the darkling’s razor sharp claws. Blood ran down her shoulders as stabbing pains shot through her body. She tried her best to push the beast away from her with her arms, but she was quickly losing her battle with the snapping jaws of the shadow creature. “Get it off her!” Sunspot exclaimed urgently while racing to pull the creature off of the farm pony. Rainbow Dash and Glimmer Shine swiftly joined the pegasus in wrenching the beast off of Applejack. The darkling fought with all of its strength to stay on top of the pinned pony, but the combined strength of Sunspot and her two companions was enough to rip it off, perhaps more painfully than Applejack would have liked. Once the darkling was off the orange mare, everyone scrambled to get clear of it before it could get back up. Applejack scooted backwards with the help of Rainbow Dash and managed to point her strobe at the beast despite the pain she was feeling. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine also pointed their strobes at the darkling in anticipation of it leaping at them. The darkling kept its mouth closed while looking around at the ponies. It growled deeply while sizing up who it would strike at next. What the creature didn’t expect to see however, was an agitated shadow creature floating towards it with its claws at the ready. Before anyone could even think about shooting at the darkling, Raincloud’s shadow stabbed its claws down into the beast’s head, killing it instantly. The specter fanned the black smoke out of the air while looking around at the surprised ponies. It chuckled with the same echoic voice that would send chills up the ponies’ spines before, however this time it seemed more lighthearted somehow. Now that all of the darklings were dealt with, the group could put their full focus on Shadow Mist and his two companions. As Twilight and the others looked over to see how their friends were doing, they saw Raincloud, Celestia, and Luna fighting with the trio of ponies a little further away than they were before. The six combatants seemed to be far more focused on themselves and their own battle than the rest of the ponies behind them, seemingly ignoring the group entirely. Raincloud was busy clashing with Raven Feather, using her shadow magic like a sword again. The grey mare seemed to be keeping up with the undead pony, but Raven Feather also looked like she was simply waiting for an opportunity to strike. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna were firing every offensive spell they knew at Dust Kicker and Shadow Mist, all the while deflecting or dodging every attack and projectile the pair sent their way. Luna already had a small cut on her front leg, doubtlessly from where a blast of shadow energy clipped her on its way past. Celestia was faring a little better than her younger sibling, but she looked like she was fighting her exhaustion to just stay in the battle. Deciding to even the odds a little bit, Twilight and her friends leapt into action. Twilight charged up her horn and fired a beam of energy at Dust Kicker, catching the stallion off guard and forcing him to back away from the blue alicorn to dodge the new attack. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and everyone else who had a strobe took aim and opened fire on the three ponies, forcing all of them to switch to a more defensive stance. The strobes themselves weren’t hurting the trio that much, but they were distracting enough to open them up to a more severe attack from either the two alicorns or Raincloud. “Keep it up guys! We’ve got them on the ropes!” Twilight stated while firing off a few more bolts of energy towards Dust Kicker and Shadow Mist. “Twilight! You and the others need to stay out of this!” Celestia instructed while turning to face the group with a concerned expression. The purple mare was shocked to hear that her mentor actually wanted her to stop helping her. “What?! But why? We have a better chance of winning if we work together!” Twilight said in an eager tone. She was ready and willing to put an end to the fight as soon as possible, and all of her friends agreed. “Yeah, we’re only trying to help!” Rainbow Dash said in defense of the group. Although she couldn’t do much from where she was without a strobe or a horn, she would gladly fly up to the three ponies and give them a swift kick if needed. “We don’t need your help right now. If you continue drawing attention to yourselves, you are only putting yourself in more danger!” Luna explained in a concerned tone. Sure enough, Shadow Mist and his two colleagues were certainly aware of the group’s presence now, and they were definitely aware that there were no more darklings to attack them while they focused on more important targets. While Celestia and Luna tried to use concentrated beams of magic to keep their two opponents behind defensive shields, and Raincloud tried her best to keep Raven Feather occupied, it was clear that the three ponies were growing more and more agitated with the continuous fire from Twilight and the others. Shadow Mist growled in frustration as he continued channeling a protective barrier of shadow energy in front of him to keep Celestia from burning him to a crisp. Finally, he decided that he could be spending his time doing more important things than dodging attacks. With a loud yell from the red stallion, a pulse of shadow energy suddenly erupted outwards from his body. Along with pushing Celestia’s beam of magic back, the dark shockwave concealed Shadow Mist from sight. As the barrier shrank back down to size and disappeared, Celestia gasped as she watched her beam of energy travel straight through thin air. Shadow Mist was completely missing from where he once was. Hearing a sudden noise behind them, Twilight and the others turned around to see the red stallion appearing out of a puff of black smoke. The unexpected sight sent a wave of panic through the ponies as they recoiled fearfully. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates rushed towards Shadow Mist along with the guards. The group was fully intent on tackling the stallion to the floor to subdue him, but he had other plans in mind. “Hyah!” Shadow Mist yelled while quickly channeling energy to his hoof and stomping it down. A concussive shockwave of air flew out in a circle around him, knocking everyone who was nearby backwards at least a few feet. Twilight and her friends had to steady themselves from where they were standing as the shockwave blew past them. “Gah!” Sunspot grunted painfully as she rolled along the ground. Her teammates didn’t seem to be faring much better as they strained to recover and stand up. Twilight lit up her horn and stepped in front of her friends defensively. She started to fire a bolt of energy at the stallion, until he fired a blast of shadow energy straight at her. The purple mare yelped and ducked to the floor and her friends dove to the side as the mass of darkness sailed right through where they were all just standing. Taking a look back up to see where the red stallion was, Twilight found that he was rushing straight for her with an aura of shadow energy around his hoof and a rather agitated expression on his face. She quickly realized that he was going to try and kill her directly. “AH!” Twilight yelped in fright while rolling to the side as Shadow Mist plunged his leg into the ground next to her. The concentrated shadow energy on his hoof acted like a spear that cracked the floor as it pierced it. The purple mare scooted backwards in an attempt at getting away. She suddenly felt someone grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her back at a faster pace. Twilight looked up to see Fluttershy and Rarity dragging her along with them as they distanced themselves from the red stallion. While the purple unicorn was retreating from further endangerment, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were going on the offensive. The two mares rushed forward and shot steely glares at the stallion as they prepared to fight. Shadow Mist swiped his front leg sideways across the two ponies as they approached them. The pair could feel the cold air around the makeshift blade as they narrowly avoided getting sliced open by ducking to the side. While Rainbow Dash jumped to the side of the stallion, Applejack readied her strobe and fired off a few bolts into him. The balls of light exploded on contact with Shadow Mist’s body, offering little more than an annoyance and a distraction to keep him from lashing out at the orange mare. While the stallion covered his face with his natural leg, Applejack aimed a shot at the shadowy limb still planted on the ground. “Ack!” Shadow Mist exclaimed while recoiling in pain as the blast from the strobe reacted with his glowing leg. Although it didn’t cause much structural damage to the leg, it did fill the orange mare with satisfaction as she managed to land an effective strike on her foe. “Hyah!” Rainbow Dash yelled fiercely while whipping around in the air to deliver a powerful kick to the red stallion. Shadow Mist grunted in pain as the cyan mare’s leg collided with his side. Frustrated at the lack of progress he was making, Shadow Mist channeled energy through his body to enhance himself further. As his body emanated a slight aura of darkness, he whipped around and slashed his arm towards the floating pegasus at lightning fast speeds. “Agh!” Rainbow Dash screamed out in pain as the stallion’s shadowy blade slashed across her chest. The force of the impact was enough to knock her out of the air and onto her back. She immediately grit her teeth and clutched her injury as blood started dripping out. “*Gasp* Rainbow Dash!” Applejack exclaimed in horror as she watched her friend getting swatted out of the air. She looked back to the red stallion, only to see that his body was still covered in a faint aura. He turned his head to look at her and smirked. Every time he moved it left a blur of motion as his enhanced speed remained. Before Shadow Mist could charge forward and strike the farm pony, he heard an angry yell coming from beside him and felt something crash into his body from the side. Applejack watched with a stunned expression as Sunspot tackled the stallion with reckless abandon. The orange pegasus was using her weight to keep Shadow Mist pinned while she held the arm he had his shadowy blade on down to the floor. Sunspot could feel the stallion’s body vibrating from his enhanced speed. She was afraid he was going to throw her off of him if he got to move enough to pick up speed. Thinking fast, she used her free arm to reach onto her vest and grabbed the shadow magic suppressing hoof cuffs. Without even hesitating, she threw the cuffs onto his glowing leg before placing the other end on his natural leg. As both parts of the cuffs snapped closed, the aura around Shadow Mist’s body disappeared and he slowed down to normal speed. His leg that was restored by Shade dimmed considerably without vanishing completely, and his glowing eyes dimmed as well. “What the hell?!” Shadow Mist exclaimed in anger as he tried to break free from the cuffs. As he tried to channel shadow magic through his body to escape, he quickly realized that he couldn’t elicit even the smallest amount of energy to form. “*Pant*… heh… *Pant*… serves you right you jerk.” Sunspot smirked triumphantly as she succeeded in capturing one of the most powerful enemies in Equestrian history. Now that the stallion was subdued at least temporarily, she got off of him and directed her attention to the injured pegasus off to the side. Twilight and the others were already gathered around the cyan mare. Rainbow Dash was cringing painfully as she clutched her injury with one hoof. She looked like she was trying to get up, and surprisingly enough, she was actually making a fair amount of progress. “Are you ok Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked in a concerned tone while she watched the pegasus trying to get to her feet with only three legs. Although the orange mare was injured herself, the cuts on her shoulder from the darkling’s claws weren’t nearly as severe or painful looking as what the cyan pony was dealing with. “Maybe you should stay on the ground and rest… that looks really bad.” Fluttershy said with a worried frown while examining the slash on her friend’s chest. The amount of blood coming out was relatively small, but it was enough to make the timid mare a little sickly. “No… tch! I’m fine… I don’t think it’s very deep... it just hurts a little.” Rainbow Dash said while toughing through the twinges of pain coming from her chest. She removed her hoof from her injury and stood up straight, revealing that the wound was in fact only superficial, at least in comparison to how it could have been. “Still, we should at least clean that up.” Sunspot said while checking the pockets on her vest for bandages. Noticing that she was out of medical supplies, she suddenly turned her attention to her two teammates, who were still trying to get up from being knocked on their backs from Shadow Mist’s attack. “Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, are you guys ok over there?” Sunspot asked while watching her two friends trying to get up. Glitterball was using Glimmer Shine for support to get herself off the floor while he was recovering from the slight blow to his head. “Yeah… I think we’re alright… relatively speaking.” Glimmer Shine stated while looking over to the guards scattered around. Nobody was really hurt from getting thrown around by the shockwave, but everyone felt like they just fell out of a window. Before Sunspot could ask one of her teammates to assist Rainbow Dash, a fierce yell drew her attention away. Everyone looked over to see Celestia, Luna, and Raincloud still in the midst of their own battles. Dust Kicker and Raven Feather showed no signs of slowing down or slipping up as they fought to gain the advantage over the two alicorns and the grey mare. Raincloud was using her shadow to help her fight with her former mentor. Raven Feather had shadow energy channeled to the very tips of both her front hooves, using them to skillfully counter every strike made by the pegasus or her minion. Every move Raven Feather or Raincloud would make with their arms would leave a slight blur of shadow energy that trailed behind their makeshift weapons, leaving a slight snapshot of where they had been before the energy would fade as they made another strike. Finally, in a fit of frustration and anger, Raincloud managed to land a hit on the black mare with her other leg. With a swift punch to the jaw sending her on her way, Raven Feather stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. Spotting an opportunity, Raincloud leapt forward and pounced on her former mentor. “Shadow, hold her down!” Raincloud commanded her minion frantically while pushing down on Raven Feather’s shoulders. The ghostly specter flew in front of the two struggling mares and grabbed Raven Feather’s front legs to restrain them. While Raven Feather grunted angrily and kicked at the pegasus with her back legs, Raincloud was now free to use her trump card. Trying to ignore the resistance coming from her prisoner, the grey mare placed her hoof in the air above Raven Feather and concentrated. As she felt around with her shadow magic to try and get a hold of the energy inside her former friend, she suddenly felt an overwhelming energy within her invisible grasp. Ignoring the initial sense of shock she felt, Raincloud put all of her effort into siphoning out all of the energy from the black mare. Dust Kicker, Celestia, Luna, and everyone else in the room watched as Raincloud’s hoof glowed with a shadowy aura. As the pegasus drew her hoof back slightly, Raven Feather screamed out in pain while a stream of purple energy flowed out of her chest. Dust Kicker growled under his breath while channeling shadow energy to his hoof. Mindless or not, he wasn’t about to let someone destroy one of his allies. Before the stallion could rush over to help his colleague, he was suddenly enveloped in a magical aura and lifted off the ground. Dust Kicker looked over to see Celestia and Luna with their horns lit up and concentrated expressions on their faces. The brown pegasus growled angrily while channeling shadow energy through his body in an attempt at breaking out of the alicorns’ magical grip. “I’m not sure how much longer I can hold him sister.” Luna said through clenched teeth as she struggled to keep the stallion contained. “Just hold out a little longer Luna… Raincloud needs time to finish draining the energy out of Raven Feather.” Celestia said in an equally strained tone. Even with her younger sibling’s help, the white alicorn could feel Dust Kicker’s dark energies breaking through her magic. Meanwhile, Raincloud was struggling to draw energy out rather than keeping it contained. The grey mare was still siphoning out all of the shadow energy inside of Raven Feather. She could feel the heat in the air in front of her vanishing as the stream of energy flowed into the air. She practically had to move her head to the side to prevent herself from going numb. Despite how strong the energy inside the black pony might have been, it disappeared into nothingness after traveling into the air a short distance. With one final scream, Raven Feather stopped struggling as the stream of darkness stopped coming out of her. Her eyes and the stab wound on her chest stopped glowing, and she limply settled on the ground like a lifeless corpse. The sight of her mentor lying dead underneath her left a somber feeling in the grey pegasus, but she couldn’t linger. Spotting the two alicorns struggling to keep her brother contained, Raincloud jumped up and trotted over to them. “Hold him steady!” Raincloud said in an urgent tone while standing to the side. She held out her hoof and used her shadow magic again to interact with the energy inside the stallion. Dust Kicker struggled to keep the grey mare from yanking his energy out, but there wasn’t much he could do to stop her. Celestia and Luna watched as a stream of purple energy came out of Dust Kicker’s neck area, seemingly from the wound that killed him. The stallion screamed painfully from the experience and kicked in an attempt at breaking loose from his magical prison. Raincloud looked away from the stallion as she siphoned the energy from him, partially to shield herself from the potent shadow energy coming out of him, and partially so she wouldn’t have to watch. Even if it wasn’t really her older brother that she was killing, it still looked and sounded like him. Finally, the stallion’s screams ceased and the energy stopped flowing out of him. Celestia and Luna gently laid Dust Kicker’s body down and let it settle on the floor. Raincloud looked at the lifeless pony on the ground with a somber expression. “I’m sorry Dust…” Raincloud muttered sadly while shaking her head. Celestia and Luna watched with sympathetic expressions as the grey mare dealt with her grief. After a moment of silence for her fallen sibling, Raincloud turned to look at the group of ponies at the back of the room. The grey mare and the two alicorns walked over to the others, all the while looking at the red stallion bound on the floor behind them. There was still one thing to take care of before they could confront Shade. “It’s over Shadow Mist.” Raincloud said in a stern tone while standing over the red stallion, who had a calm expression on his face as he looked up at his captors gathered around him. “Yes… I suppose it is.” Shadow Mist said in an almost bored tone. He didn’t even bother to struggle against his bonds anymore. “Do you think you can undo whatever that thing did to him?” Celestia asked in a hesitant tone while looking to Raincloud. “I’m not sure... I can remove the energy inside of him, but that might not fix his mind. It might even kill him…” Raincloud said while shifting her eyes downward. “Should we just keep him locked up and find a way to change him back to normal later?” Rainbow Dash suggested in an attempt at finding a solution to the problem at hand. Before anyone could answer, the red stallion started chuckling to himself. “Heh… don’t bother. I don’t want to go back to normal.” Shadow Mist stated with a resolute expression. “What…? You can’t be serious… you’re not in your right mind right now Shadow.” Raincloud said in a serious tone. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not… who’s to say what a person’s right mind is? Either way… I know one thing.” Shadow Mist said while smirking slightly. “Even if you beat us… you’re all going to die. You can’t stop what Grimwood has become… what is inside him. No matter what you do… you’re all going to die screaming, and the world is going to be eclipsed in total darkness.” He said while chuckling sinisterly. The somber thought of their failure and deaths at the hands of the strange entity in the next room was enough to send a chill down the ponies’ spines. “You’re wrong… we’re going to win. I won’t let anything destroy the world and hurt my friends.” Rainbow Dash said in a confident tone. “Neither will I.” Rarity added while stepping closer to her cyan friend. “Nobody is hurting my friends on my watch… even if they aren’t natural.” Applejack stated in a determined tone. “None of us are going to let that thing in there win… mark my words.” Raincloud said while joining in with Twilight and her friends. Even if she didn’t like her current company, she would fight with them until the bitter end if it meant getting vengeance on the thing that robbed the few friends in her life from her. “Heh… I wonder if you will eat your words.” Shadow Mist said while looking down to his bound legs. “Maybe I’m not in my right mind… but something tells me I wouldn’t enjoy watching you die anymore.” He added while flashing a hollow smile. The others hadn’t noticed it before, but it looked like the glow around the stallion’s eyes was slowly fading. Perhaps the shadow magic suppressing cuffs were actually working to revert him back to normal. “Shadow…? Are you in there?” Raincloud asked in a surprised tone. The stallion chuckled slightly before growing silent and adopting a calm expression. “Goodbye Raincloud.” Shadow Mist said in a somber tone. Suddenly, the stallion’s shadowy leg started shifting slightly until the tip of it formed a pointed edge. Before anyone could react, Shadow Mist jerked his leg up to his neck and stabbed himself with the still solid energy of his limb. “No!” Raincloud yelled while stepping forward to try and stop the stallion. By the time she reached him, it was already too late. Twilight and the others averted their eyes as Shadow Mist dragged the shadowy blade across his neck. The stallion let out a muffled groan of pain as blood spurted out of his new injury. After writhing on the ground for a few moments, he stopped moving and closed his eyes. After a few more moments, Shadow Mist’s artificial leg disappeared as the energy inside of him dispersed, leaving him with the sealed up stump that he had before Shade restored his leg.
Chapter 99: The Battle for Equestria (Part 2)Everyone looked back to the red stallion with mortified expressions and hollow feelings in their guts. They felt a knot developing in their stomachs from having witnessed such a terrible thing, and some of them even felt ill. Most of all however, the ponies felt bad for their unlikely ally. Raincloud stared at the lifeless body of her former colleague with a shocked expression of sadness. She seemed to be processing her emotions as she remained still and silent. Although she didn’t break down crying, a single set of tears traveled down her face as she stared ahead with her mouth agape. “Raincloud… are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. The grey pegasus turned to see the unicorn and her friends offering her sympathetic expressions. She felt terrible knowing that she must have looked like some kind of emotional wreck despite her best attempts to keep herself composed. “Yeah… I’m… *Sniff*… I’m fine.” Raincloud said while wiping her eyes and turning away from the others. She was surprised to feel a gentle hoof being placed on her shoulder. She looked back to see Pinkie Pie patting her on the back sympathetically. “It’s ok, you can let it out and cry… nobody will think less of you.” Pinkie said in a reassuring tone. The pink mare was surprised to see the pegasus shove her hoof away and take a few steps back. “Don’t push your luck. We’re not friends… we’re just fighting a common enemy.” Raincloud said while returning her prickly exterior in full. The others couldn’t believe that the grey mare was still rejecting them. They didn’t exactly like her either, but at least they were trying to comfort her after such a severe loss. “Hmph… meanie.” Pinkie muttered while offering the pegasus a wary stare while she walked away. “Speaking of common enemy… shouldn’t we hurry up and go stop the big scary monster before it takes over the world?” Glimmer Shine suggested from the back of the group. The others looked over to see the stallion bandaging up Rainbow Dash’s injury while Glitterball took care of Applejack’s wounds. “Yeah, I agree. We shouldn’t just be standing here, we should be- ow!” Rainbow Dash yelped as the yellow stallion finished wrapping the bandages around her wound. Although it wasn’t very severe, the cut on her chest did have stinging pains whenever something touched it. “Well… I guess you’re right. We do need to stop that thing. I would recommend you six getting the elements of harmony ready before we bust in there and piss it off.” Raincloud suggested while glancing over to the door that led into the throne room. “Let me go get the elements.” Luna said while looking to the small bag she placed at the back of the room earlier. Twilight and the others looked over to the small satchel with anxious expressions. Knowing that the bag held something so important made them well up with a mixture of emotions as they thought about using the elements again. “I just hope the elements will work… that thing in there must be really powerful.” Fluttershy said in a nervous tone while eyeing the throne room door uneasily. “Don’t worry Fluttershy. It doesn’t matter how strong that thing in there is. The forces of light will always win against the forces of darkness in the end.” Twilight stated confidently while offering the others a reassuring smile. Everyone felt more confident as they looked around and saw their friends close by. “Wrong…” A hushed and distorted voice suddenly filled the room. The unexpected sound made the hair on everyone’s necks stand on end. “D-did anyone else hear that?” Fluttershy asked while cowering low to the floor and darting her eyes around. The fearful expressions on her friends’ faces told the yellow mare that the strange voice wasn’t just in her imagination. *Bzzt* A sudden and violent vibration coming from their vests made Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and Sunspot look down. Their locator vials were practically shaking against their bodies from how much they were vibrating. The liquid inside the vials were also flashing from dim to bright, which was a phenomenon that none of the three had seen before. “Aw crud, not again!” Glimmer Shine said in a nervously annoyed tone while unclipping the vial from his vest and tossing it on the ground. Before Sunspot and Glitterball could question their friend’s odd behavior, all three of their vials shattered with a loud pop that startled them into jumping. “Yikes!” Sunspot exclaimed while recovering from the jolt to her system. She pulled up the broken remains of her locator on its pull cord and stared at it with an uneasy expression. The last time the vials had failed like this was back at the mansion due to the combined power of the three spirits. “Sister… do you feel that?” Luna asked in a shocked tone while looking towards the throne room door with a horrified expression. The most potent and vile energy she had ever felt in her life was seeping into the room like some kind of invisible gas, and the source of the energy was strong enough to make the blue alicorn physically ill. “Yes sister… I feel that.” Celestia said while adopting a more serious expression as she stared at the throne room door. “I’ve felt that energy once before… just a few minutes before you found me.” She explained while thinking back to her previous experience with the energy she was feeling. It was much stronger, and much more pronounced, but there was no doubt about it. The energy she was feeling right now was coming from Shade. Suddenly, a low noise started making its presence known above the eerie silence in the room. The ponies could only loosely discern the noise to be a mixture of wind blowing and disembodied high pitched whispering. “You are wrong…” The voice from before spoke up again, though this time it sounded like it was coming from the direction of the throne room. Everyone looked ahead with a mixture of frightened and nervous expressions as a sort of black mist started coming out from under the door across the room. The smoke thickened as more of it came out until it resembled the smoke that most shadow creatures emitted when they died. The disquieting sound of wind roaring and low whispering intensified as more of the dark substance filled the area around the door. Soon enough, the ponies couldn’t even see the throne room door anymore. Twilight felt her friends huddling close together. The five mares had varying degrees of fear and unease written on their faces. Even Applejack and Rainbow Dash were trembling slightly as they stared ahead with pale expressions of horror. Glimmer Shine and his two teammates stood near the six mares defensively. Although they weren’t sure if their strobes would even do anything, they held onto them as if they were their last line of defense against whatever terrifying force was making its presence known. Although everyone in the room could feel a pervasive sense of unease in the air, the two alicorns and the grey pegasus could actually feel the power of the unseen force behind the smoke. Celestia and Luna almost had their senses overwhelmed by what they were feeling, and Raincloud had never felt something this strong in her long time knowing Raven Feather and practicing shadow magic. Through the mass of smoke and mist in front of the throne room, the ponies could barely see something moving. It was almost impossible to tell what it was due to the thick darkness around it, but whatever it was seemed to be moving closer. Suddenly, and without much warning, a pair of stark glowing red eyes opened up through the smoke. The eyes weren’t a solid shade of red, although that would have been plenty disturbing on its own. Instead, there were two black pupils in the midst of the crimson glow. “AHH!!” Pinkie Pie screamed fearfully as the two eyes appeared. Perhaps it was the sudden appearance of whatever creature the eyes belonged to, or perhaps it was the overwhelming sense of fear in the air, but the ponies suddenly felt every ounce of courage in their bodies vanish. The thick veil of dark smoke started to fade, revealing more of the shape that the group saw glimpses of before. Along with the silhouette of a body coming into view, the ponies could see light pulses of solid black energy being emanated from whatever terrible monster was standing before them. As more of the smoke cleared, the group could finally make out the full shape of their foe. The thing standing before them wasn’t Grimwood, or at least it wasn’t anymore. The creature looked like a pony, but it was much larger than the colt originally was, standing at around a full grown stallion’s height. The color of its fur was mostly black, although there was a faint tone of pale grey mixed in that distinguished it from the dark smoke around it. On top of being unnaturally dark and slightly transparent, the creature’s fur almost looked like it was moving, though closer inspection revealed this to be more shadow energy erratically crawling along its body. Its hair was of similar length to Grimwood’s short hair, but it looked like it had faint shadows moving around it. “Even the brightest light casts a shadow, Twilight Sparkle…” The creature spoke while directing its disturbing gaze toward the purple unicorn and her friends. Twilight felt her legs shaking beneath her as she tried to stand up tall in the face of her enemy. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t calm her racing heart or her panicked breathing. It was almost like the creature was emanating an aura of fear. “What… what is that?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a terrified tone. “I think that thing is Shade…” Celestia said in a stunned tone while trying to wrap her head around the overwhelming thought of how the monstrosity before her came to be. “That’s Shade?! I thought he was using Grimwood’s body… isn’t he just a colt?!” Glimmer Shine asked while staring at the shadowy creature with a shocked expression. “He must have somehow changed Grimwood’s body as he became stronger… I can’t think of any other explanation.” Celestia replied while trying her best to not sound as nervous as she felt. “S-so much power… how? How did he get that much energy?” Raincloud stammered in a distressed tone. The others looked over to see the pegasus staring ahead with her mouth agape and her legs quivering. Her whole body was shaking from how much she was shivering. Seeing the normally hard headed mare in such a terrified state only further cemented the fear that the group was feeling. “Raincloud, we need you with us if we’re going to win.” Celestia said in a serious tone while looking to the grey mare with a stern expression. While trying to snap herself out of her own fearful stupor, Raincloud’s thoughts drifted to Dust Kicker and all of her other friends that had died because of the creature in front of her. She quickly regained her usual expression of anger as she directed all of her hatred towards Shade. “Right… I’m all for wiping this thing off of the face of the planet.” Raincloud said in a determined tone while staring ahead with a fierce gleam in her eyes. Now that the grey pegasus had cast off all of her fears and doubts about fighting, Celestia turned to look at Twilight and her friends. She quickly glanced to the bag at the back of the room that contained the elements of harmony, only to realize that they were in fact the only way to defeat the monstrous pony. “Twilight, take the others and go get the elements of harmony.” Celestia instructed in an urgent tone. The unicorn seemed willing to obey the princess’s orders, but she was also concerned for what her mentor was planning to do in the meantime. “What about you?” Twilight asked while looking to the white alicorn with a worried expression. “We will keep Shade occupied for as long as we can. We need the power of the elements if we’re going to destroy this thing once and for all… now go!” Celestia said in a more serious tone. Twilight nodded in compliance before turning to her friends with a determined expression. “Come on girls! We’ve got a job to do!” Twilight stated while motioning for the others to follow her. The five mares nodded before following the purple unicorn as she rushed off to gather the elements. Twilight and the others hurried as fast as they could to reach the edge of the room. As they gathered around the small bag on the ground and glanced behind them, they saw their friends squaring off against the shadowy stallion. Celestia and Luna had their horns lit up, Raincloud was completely geared up to head into battle, and Glimmer Shine and his two teammates were aiming their strobes ahead while standing behind the two alicorns. Strangely enough though, the only one not getting ready to fight was Shade himself. The stallion seemed to be standing still and dwelling in his own thoughts as he looked around at the various ponies in the room. He chuckled slightly as he glanced over to the six mares at the back of the room. “Do you really think that your little trinkets will stop me?” Shade asked in a quizzical manner. The almost threatening tone of confidence in his voice made the others more than a little unnerved. “They’ve stopped many powerful beings in your position.” Celestia stated while watching the shadowy pony like a hawk, ready to stand between him and the six mares behind her at any cost. “In my position? Heh… what do you know about my position? You don’t know anything about me… nobody knows about me. Even Raven Feather didn’t know about me, and she was almost a decent example of your species amounting to something… almost.” Shade said with a slight smirk. While the cocky statement didn’t hold much meaning to most of the group, it did strike a chord in a certain grey pegasus. “You little bastard!” Raincloud yelled while rushing forward and channeling shadow energy to her hooves. “Raincloud!” Celestia called after the grey mare. She could only watch as Raincloud ran towards the stallion with an angered expression. Shade stood still and watched casually as the grey mare charged for him with the full intent to kill in her eyes. Without the stallion even moving, a thin shadow shot out from inside of his own shadow and whipped out along the ground before shooting up and out of the floor. The black tendril moved in a blur and slammed into Raincloud. She yelped in pain and got knocked off her feet, only to have the tendril wrap around her waist tightly and suspend her in the air. “GAH! Put me… ack! Put me down you asshole!” Raincloud yelled while clutching the tendril around her waist and trying to pull it off of her. The tendril would squeeze tighter every few moments, sending rough throbs of pain through her body that complimented perfectly with the bone chilling coldness she was feeling from being in contact with such potent shadow energy. “My… how quickly the bravado disappears once things don’t go according to plan.” Shade said while eyeing the imprisoned mare with a sinister gleam in his glowing eyes. “Up yours!” Raincloud yelled while trying to think of a way out of her current situation. Her own shadow magic didn’t seem to have any effect on the tendril around her, and she was getting squeezed so hard that it was getting hard to breathe. “Let go of her, Shade!” Celestia demanded in a stern tone while stepping closer to the stallion. The white alicorn and her sister kept their distance and didn’t try to use their magic on the grey mare for fear of her wellbeing. “And what are you going to do if I don’t? Give me a sunburn or something? I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet or not, but not all things born of shadow need to flee from the sun.” Shade said with a slight chuckle. “Guh… s-shadow… help me!” Raincloud pleaded desperately while calling for her minion to rescue her. On cue with her command, the grey mare’s shadow elongated and solidified until her ghostly pet came flying out of it with an agitated howl. The shadow flew up to its master and used its claws to swipe at the dark tendril holding her in place. Much to the shadow’s frustration and Raincloud’s horror, its claws went straight through the tendril without causing any meaningful damage to it. The specter growled as it watched its master in such distress. Finally, it looked over to the stallion holding the pegasus hostage with murderous intent. With an echoed screech, the shadow flew straight at Shade with its claws blazing with purple light. Shade raised his front leg into the air and pointed it at the approaching specter. Suddenly, a stream of solid black energy shot out of the stallion’s hoof, catching the shadow mid-flight and enveloping its body as it continued on its path. Raincloud and the others watched with shocked expressions as the shadow got blasted into the wall by the continuous beam. The specter screamed out in pain, as if the beam were actually doing meaningful damage to it. Before the grey mare could even think to give her minion an order to retreat, the shadowy beam completely engulfed the ghostly creature and disappeared, leaving nothing behind but thin air. “Shadow?! Shadow!” Raincloud yelled in a shocked tone while looking around. “I can’t feel him anymore… what did you do to him?!” She demanded while looking to the stallion with new anger burning in her eyes. “Did you really think it would be a good idea to attack me with a shadow creature? Maybe you aren’t as skilled as I remembered you to be Raincloud.” Shade said with an almost disappointed expression. “Those aren’t your memories to begin with! Get out of Grimwood’s body!” Raincloud yelled while struggling against the tendril wrapped around her. No matter how hard she tried to push or pull it off, or to slink out of its grip somehow, she remained trapped. “No… I think I’ll be keeping this body. It has grown on me in my short time here.” Shade said while smirking slightly at the grey mare’s anger. “Put her down!” Twilight demanded in a threatening tone. The surprised group looked over to see the purple unicorn and her friends walking forward with determined expressions shared between them. The six mares’ newfound bravery wasn’t the only weapon in their arsenal however. Twilight and the others were each wearing one of the legendary elements of harmony. The golden pieces of jewelry each bore a small gem in their center which was modeled after the cutie mark of its wearer. Applejack had an apple, Rarity had a diamond, Pinkie Pie had a balloon, Fluttershy had a butterfly, Rainbow Dash had a lightning bolt, and Twilight had a sort of star. The five necklaces worn by her friends served to compliment the importance of their unity, while the tiara bearing Twilight’s element served to distinguish her and the element of magic to be their fearless leader. “Whoa… the elements of harmony. I never thought I would get to see them this close.” Glitterball said in an amazed tone while staring at the six mares wielding their respective elements with a glint of wonder in her eyes. Seeing the elements themselves was one thing, but seeing them in use was an entirely different experience. “Ah yes… I was wondering when you would be using those.” Shade said in a dull tone. The distinctive lack of fear or concern in his voice was heard many times by previous enemies the six mares had encountered. “Put Raincloud down and face us. If you want to take over Equestria, you will have to get through us.” Twilight said in a bold tone while looking around at her friends. The five mares all had determined expressions on their faces. They were ready to end this fight once and for all. “Girls… be careful.” Celestia muttered in a concerned tone. She only hoped that the power of the elements would be enough to overtake the frightful amount of energy she knew the stallion possessed. “Alright, fine… if you want me to put her down I will.” Shade said with a sinister smirk building on his face. Before anyone could react, the shadowy tendril holding onto Raincloud whipped around and tossed her towards the group at high speeds. Raincloud screamed and tried to right herself in the air, but her speed was too great for her to do anything. The pegasus grunted in pain as she hit the floor and bounced along it roughly before coming to a stop by hitting the wall behind Glimmer Shine and his team. “Raincloud! Are you ok?!” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while looking over to the motionless grey mare. The guards walked up to the pegasus and examined her for a moment before determining that she was unconscious. Twilight and the others glared at the shadowy stallion as he chuckled at the grey mare’s misery. He truly was one of the most sadistic foes they had faced, and perhaps the most powerful one that the elements had ever faced, but they were confident that the power of their bonds could triumph and win the day. “So now what are you going to do? Kill me with the power of friendship? Heh… don’t make me laugh.” Shade said in a confident tone with a serious expression on his face. He stared at the six mares with his unblinking red eyes, sending a slight wave of unease into them as they readied themselves. “The power of friendship isn’t something to take lightly. No matter what happens here, we will always stick together. If my lessons on friendship have taught me anything, it’s that friendship is worth fighting for!” Twilight stated in an adamant tone before turning to her friends. “Ready girls?” She asked with a determined smile on her face. “Ready!” Everyone exclaimed in unison while steadying themselves. With her friends behind her, Twilight looked forward and lit up her horn. Celestia and Luna moved to the side along with the others as a magical buzz sounded out. A faint magical aura surrounded Twilight and the others. Soon enough, each of their elements started glowing with a similar aura. Everyone else in the room watched in amazement as each of the elements started emitting an outline of light in the shape of their respective jewels. Along with the lights, a magical hum was emitted by each of the elements. Rainbow Dash and the others closed their eyes as their necklaces started moving without them, pulling their bodies along with them as they got closer to Twilight. More solidified rays of light in the shapes of the gems started flying out of the elements and traveling into the air before zipping by and disappearing behind Shade. Celestia and the others could feel the sheer energy in the air, along with a strange feeling of warmth. It was almost like the elements were emitting pure positivity and love. Despite this awe inspiring display of power, Shade was still standing idly while watching the scene ahead unfold with a slight smirk. Suddenly, Twilight and the others opened their eyes only to reveal a shining white glow. Their bodies all lifted into the air and gathered together. As they stopped moving and floated in the air, a shockwave of magical energy erupted out around them and a beam of rainbow colored light shot out from above them. The beam traveled up into the air a short ways before arcing downwards and leveling out to shoot directly into Shade. Before the beam of energy could hit him however, Shade let out a furious roar as he released an aura of energy around him. The same black smoke that arrived when he entered the room appeared and enveloped the stallion before spreading out in a circle. The aura of darkness solidified until the smoke seemed to only serve as a visual flourish. It was like the stallion was standing in the middle of pure darkness despite the fact that the rest of the room was bright and there was a multicolored stream of light careening toward him. The brilliant beam of energy from the elements collided with the aura of darkness and clashed with it, seemingly held back by its power as if it were a shield. The eerie sound of wind roaring and low whispers filled the air again, seemingly fighting with the peaceful humming and buzzing of the power of the elements to fill the room. Twilight and the others could feel the power of the elements struggling to push forward. Despite this slight setback, they focused on their love for each other and their bonds with everyone they had ever met to give the elements strength. The beam of light pushed against the darkness with fierce determination. However, as Shade put more effort into the struggle, the darkness started pushing the light back. Before long, a part of the dark aura could be seen jutting out from the main mass to push the rainbow of light back. It was like Shade was using a beam of his own energy to contend with the elements of harmony, a sight which had never been seen before. “Uh guys… I don’t think it’s working.” Rainbow Dash said in a concerned tone while raising her voice over the sound of the magical hum around her. “Stay strong… we can beat him!” Twilight replied in a determined tone while trying her best to concentrate. The six mares had never had to put this much effort into channeling energy into the elements before. Usually the elements simply annihilated any negative power they came across, but it seemed as though they were actually struggling to handle the stallion’s power. “I see you have much to learn about the power of darkness Twilight Sparkle.” Shade said in an echoed voice that filled the room. Suddenly, the beam of darkness pushing back on the elements actually started gaining ground. The rainbow of light started moving backwards at an alarming rate. As if they realized they were losing, the elements themselves completely straightened out the beam of light so it was being emitted from the front of the six mares. On top of this slight change, the beam intensified to push back against the overwhelming darkness. But as the light pushed back harder, the darkness grew in strength and continued pushing back. “This can’t be happening… the elements of harmony aren’t working?!” Sunspot stated in a shocked tone. Everyone else that was gathered around to watch the struggle seemed to be shocked as well. “Sister… there must be something we can do! We wielded the elements ourselves once… surely our power would be compatible to help them!” Luna said in a desperate tone while turning to her sister with a pleading expression. Celestia looked at Twilight and the others and quickly realized that their power alone wouldn’t be enough. As shocking as it was for her to fathom, Shade seemed to be holding back. “You’re right… Follow my lead Luna. The fate of Equestria and the world as a whole hinges on what we do right here and now.” Celestia said in an uneasy tone while lighting up her horn. The others watched as the white alicorn teleported herself onto the other side of the six mares and stood in line with them a few feet away. Luna quickly trotted over to be roughly in the same spot on her side of the battle before looking ahead and lighting up her horn. The two princesses charged up their magic and fired two beams into the stream of light formed by the elements of harmony; one bright yellow beam to represent Celestia and her sun, and one dark blue beam to represent Luna and her moon. The two beams flowed into the rainbow of light and mingled with it until they started swirling around it in a perfect spiral. With the addition in energy, the beam grew slightly and pushed the darkness back more and more. “We’re doing it!” Pinkie Pie cheered in excitement as she watched the rainbow of lights push its way closer to the shadowy stallion. “Keep it up everyone!” Twilight said in an eager tone while pouring everything she had into the struggle with Shade. All six mares, along with the two alicorns to either side strained as hard as they could to best their foe. With the weight of every living thing on the planet weighing heavily on their shoulders, they had to beat the shadowy stallion, and no other outcome was an option for them. “You fight so hard for your friendship… yet you still do not understand. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly your light shines.” Shade stated in a confident tone. His booming voice practically rang in the ears of everyone in the room. Suddenly, the beam of darkness started pushing back again, only this time it pushed much harder. In a mere moment, the darkness pushed the rainbow of light halfway backwards. It was pushing so hard on the light that it started overtaking it and flowing around it slightly. “W-what?! No!” Rarity exclaimed in a fearful tone as she felt the overbearing power pressing down on her. “This can’t be happening… he can’t be this strong!” Twilight yelled in denial. Her once confident tone of voice shifted slightly as fear crept its way into her mind. “I can’t hold it much longer!” Luna said through gritted teeth as she poured all of her energy into her magical beam. The white alicorn on the other side of the elements wasn’t doing much better. Both of the princesses looked like they were moments away from passing out. “Many things change, but this never will. Before there was light… there was darkness. From darkness everything was born, and to darkness all of you will return!” Shade yelled fiercely, his distorted voice carrying over every other sound in the room. As the stream of darkness continued pushing back the power of the elements, Celestia and Luna groaned from exertion before collapsing to their knees as their horns puttered out. Due to the added strain from the beam of shadows, Twilight and the others yelped painfully as they felt more and more of the power being used against them. “Girls, get out of there!” Glimmer Shine yelled in a fearful tone as he watched the six mares battling to keep the darkness away. Realizing that they had lost, Twilight and her friends switched their efforts to self-preservation. The mares all grasped at their elements in an attempt at taking them off, but to no avail. The necklaces and the tiara weren’t coming off, like they were stuck in place. Before they could try any other method of escape, the beam of darkness surged forward and completely overtook the ponies. As they were enveloped in the shadowy beam, they were kept in the air still by the aura of darkness that now covered them. “AAGHHH!!” Twilight and her friends screamed out in unison as a wave of numbing coldness and pain overtook their bodies. “GIRLS!!” Celestia yelled in a fearful panic as she watched her faithful student and her friends suffering. Well, she couldn’t exactly see them due to the ball of darkness that covered them, but the alicorn and everyone else in the room could definitely hear the six mares screaming at the top of their lungs. Finally, the beam of darkness disappeared, but not before sending Twilight and the others flying backwards into the air. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all slammed into the ground at the back of the room, while Twilight fell to the floor only a few feet from where she was. The purple mare’s tiara fell off, and a few of the others lost their necklaces as well as they slipped off and clattered along the floor. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, Sunspot, and the guards ran across the room to go inspect the five mares that landed near the entrance. All of them had light amounts of black smoke trailing off of their bodies like they had just been set on fire. Their fur was scorched in a few places, though they felt icy cold to the touch. Thankfully though, they were still breathing. “Applejack, are you ok?!” Glimmer Shine asked while inspecting the orange mare for injuries. Applejack seemed to be conscious, but she kept her eyes closed and groaned softly as she tried to move her sore body. “Rarity, Pinkie, how bad are you hurt?!” Glitterball asked in a frantic tone while hovering near the two mares to see if they needed help. Rarity and Pinkie Pie landed next to each other, almost hitting their bodies together as they fell. “Someone say something!” Sunspot said while feverishly looking around to see if anyone was in good enough shape to communicate. Even Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were struggling to move, barely being able to turn their heads over or get their limbs to move. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna were focused on the purple mare at the front of the room. “Twilight, can you hear me?!” Celestia asked while gently shaking the unicorn lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. “P-prin…cess?” Twilight groaned softly while managing to slowly open her eyes. She winced and moaned as she tried to get up, only to have her body refuse her actions. Celestia and Luna looked behind them to the group at the back of the room. The other five mares were slowly managing to stir and get up off the floor, with the added help of Glimmer Shine and his two teammates. “Just rest Twilight… you’re lucky to be alive.” Celestia said in a concerned tone. “Luck had nothing to do with it. They are alive because I didn’t want to kill them… at least not yet.” Shade said with a slight chuckle, bringing the group’s attention back to him. The aura of darkness had faded, leaving the stallion standing right where he was with a devious smirk on his face. “Stay away. You’ve done enough harm.” Celestia said in a threatening tone while standing in front of Twilight and her sister protectively. Although Raincloud was still unconscious off to the side, everyone else in the room that was able marched over to stand behind the princesses as they stood up against the stallion. The five mares at the back of the room stood, sat, or remained on the ground and watched as everyone gathered before their enemy. “We… w-we have to help them.” Rainbow Dash said in a strained tone while fighting through the pains in her body to manage a determined expression. She looked over to see Fluttershy leaning up against her for support as she rested and panted heavily. “Ah don’t think we can help them Rainbow… Ah don’t know if anyone can help us now.” Applejack said in an exhausted tone. Despite the lack of energy she had, it was easy to tell that the orange mare was frightened and uncertain about what to do. “Do you see now? It is pointless to stand against me.” Shade said while observing the meager troop of ponies standing before him. “We can still try.” Sunspot said in a determined tone while readying her strobe. “Everyone… you need to flee. Take Twilight and the others and get out of here. I will buy you as much time as I can.” Celestia said in a resolute tone while stepping forward nervously. The white alicorn felt her body trembling slightly from fear, which was a feeling that she never thought she would experience. Suddenly, she felt a hoof being placed on her side and looked over to see her sister next to her. “We’re not leaving you, sister.” Luna said in a confident tone. “Yeah, if we’re going down… then let’s go down swinging!” Sunspot stated eagerly. Her two teammates and the guards behind her agreed wholly with the orange pegasus. No matter where they ran to, it wouldn’t matter. They had just used their most powerful weapon on the shadowy stallion and failed. But if they were going to die, they would die facing their enemy straight on rather than cowering in a corner. “Such a bold statement… very well then, if you wish to fight me head on, then let’s fight shall we?” Shade asked in an intrigued tone. Sunspot, her team, the two alicorns, and all of the guards looked to each other and the six mares recovering behind them. Everyone nodded with somber expressions on their faces before turning their attention forward and readying their weapons. “Hyah!” Sunspot yelled fiercely while spreading her wings and taking off into the air. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and the guards all followed after her in charging for their enemy. Celestia and Luna used whatever energy they had left and fired off a series of magical bursts towards the shadowy stallion. The few unicorn guards used their horns while the others used their swords as they ran towards Shade bravely. Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, and Sunspot all fired their strobes relentlessly towards the stallion. Shade chuckled slightly as he saw all of the attacks coming his way. He allowed the blasts from the strobes and the unicorns to harmlessly impact his body. Whatever miniscule surface damage was done from the attacks was healed almost instantly as his shadowy body reformed. Finally, he decided to go on the offensive. Two shadowy tendrils shot out along the ground and whipped around. The ponies kept a wary eye on the shadows as they remained translucent and stayed in the floor as natural shadows would have. With little warning, one of the tendrils shot out of the ground and went straight for Sunspot. The orange pegasus darted to the side mid-air, just narrowly dodging the tendril as it whipped past her. She quickly fired a few blasts from her strobe towards the stallion in the hopes of distracting him, but Shade was hardly fazed by the attempt. The other tendril shot up from the floor and coordinated with the other tendril to go after the orange pegasus. While Sunspot ducked under one of the tendrils in the air, the other one reached up and wrapped around her leg. “Hey, what th- AHH!” Sunspot yelped fearfully as she was yanked backwards by her leg. The thin tendril was surprisingly strong, being more than strong enough to counter her momentum and wing power in order to slam her into the ground. While the orange pegasus bounced off the ground and groaned painfully while recovering, the others continued past her on their way towards Shade. Glimmer Shine fired his strobe at the two tendrils, managing to land a hit on both of them and effectively reducing their size as large pieces of them broke off and turned into smoke. Before the yellow pony could get too close, Shade raised his front leg and shoved it towards him. Glimmer Shine widened his eyes in surprise as a shockwave of darkness erupted in front of him. There was little the stallion could do except for bracing for the impact. “Gaaahhh!” Glimmer Shine screamed as he was flung backwards into the air. He traveled several feet until he finally bounced along the ground and settled in a crumpled heap. Ignoring the failure of their colleagues, the small troop of guards readied their swords and ran towards Shade. Among their numbers, Glitterball stayed at the back of the charging group along with the unicorn guards and prepared her magic to attack the shadowy stallion. As the first guard reached the stallion, he yelled fiercely while swinging his sword at him. Before he could even make contact however, Shade punched his hoof into his stomach while channeling shadow energy to it. The guard let out a stifled cry of pain as he faltered while blood poured from his stomach. Much to the horror of everyone watching, a sharp mass of shadow energy pierced clean through the white stallion, effectively impaling him. Shade effortlessly tossed the dying guard to the side and looked ahead to the others. The remaining four sword wielders looked to their fallen friend and glared at their enemy with newfound rage. Glitterball and the three unicorn guards shifted their expressions to more serious ones as they opened fire on the stallion with their magic. As the four earth pony guards got closer, and the bolts of magic sailed towards him, Shade smirked slightly while redirecting his influence. The shadowy tendrils that Glimmer Shine cut down earlier grew back their missing portions. Along with the two tendrils regenerating, several new tendrils shot out from the stallion’s shadow and whipped up out of the ground. One of the tendrils slashed sideways across one of the earth pony guards, catching him across the neck. The guard’s armor cracked and a trickle of blood came out as his neck was cut into slightly. The force of the strike sent the stallion tumbling sideways. The sudden and brutal strike on their ally was enough to make another two guards briefly look to the dying stallion with mortified expressions. However, their brief distraction proved to be a critical error. A pair of the wispy tendrils shot towards them. Instead of impaling them as they had expected and prepared for, the shadows wrapped themselves around the top of their necks. Before they could even react, they were picked up off of the ground and dangled by their throats. Everyone who was able watched with mortified expressions as the two stallions struggled to get free. Just when the group thought that the pair would suffocate, the tendrils holding them jerked to the side quickly and a sickening crack sounded out. Shade quickly tossed the two lifeless guards aside and let their bodies settle in a crumpled heap on the ground. “AGHH!!” The remaining earth pony guard screamed out in pain as two of the other tendrils pierced into his side, going straight through his body and cutting into anything that got into their way. Blood spurted out of the entry and exit wounds, nearly covering the guard and the ground beneath him in the crimson fluid. A third tendril pierced through his chest as he was picked up off the ground. After a brief yelp and a jerk, the stallion went limp in the tendrils’ grasp. Shade quickly used the tendrils to toss the guard’s body aside as he had done with the others. Before any of the projectiles flying through the air could hit him, Shade used the multiple tendrils to swat them out of the air. If the blast was strong enough to destroy a tendril in the collision, it would just regrow a few moments later. Glitterball and her three companions ceased firing and looked at each other as they tried to think of another strategy. Before she could think of anything meaningful, the white mare saw the tendrils heading straight for her and the guards next to her. “Look out!” Glitterball exclaimed while ducking under one of the tendrils as it swiped at her. The guards tried to dodge out of the way, but they weren’t as lucky as she was. Almost in perfect sync, all of the guards got hit with multiple tendrils as they slashed across their bodies. The strikes cut into their bodies around their chest and sides, knocking them down in the process. Before Glitterball could even try to help, the three stallions got impaled by a single tendril coming down into the center of their bodies like a spear. “GAH!” Glitterball screamed in agony as her back leg erupted into pain. She looked back to see one of the tendrils sticking through her limb, with blood pouring out around it. The unicorn tried to light up her horn to shoot the tendril or teleport away, but before she could focus on a spell, she felt herself getting yanked off her feet and suspended in the air by her wounded leg. “Glitterball!!” Sunspot and the others yelled fearfully as they watched the unicorn getting lifted upwards by the shadowy tendril. There were tears streaming off her face and hitting the floor from the unsurmountable amount of pain coursing through her leg, but she still somehow found the strength to try and struggle out of the tendril’s grasp. However, no matter what she did, she couldn’t escape. The tendril was impaled clean through her upper leg, and it wasn’t letting go anytime soon. Glitterball looked up to see all of the other tendrils pausing in the air and pointing at her menacingly. Taking a brief look to the lifeless bodies of the guards, she immediately knew what was going to happen next. “No, no, no! Please!” Glitterball whimpered while shaking her head. When she charged forward to face her death head on, she didn’t expect it to come this soon, and certainly not this brutally. The collection of shadowy tendrils reeled back and shot out toward the dangling unicorn. Glitterball and many of the others in the room averted their eyes and yelped in denial. Just when the white mare thought she was going to die, she heard a strobe being discharged and felt the tendril holding her by the leg release her suddenly. Opening her eyes and looking to the side in surprise, Glitterball saw Sunspot in midflight and the remains of the tendril holding her turning to smoke. The orange pegasus crashed into the unicorn and continued flying to make it out of the path of the piercing spikes about to collide with them. “Agh!” Sunspot yelped as one of the tendrils shot through her lower stomach. Thankfully due to her movement, she was able to roll and prevent the tendril from impaling her too deeply. Unfortunately for her and the white mare clutched in her arms, she wasn’t able to keep flying with the stabbing pain in her side. The two ponies crashed into the floor and bounced once before hitting the wall and stopping. After a brief moment of recovery, Glitterball looked at her friend and smiled softly. She trailed her eyes down and paled as she saw her side pouring blood everywhere. “Sunspot… you’re hurt.” Glitterball said in a stunned tone of concern. The orange pegasus cringed while getting up, seemingly ignoring her injury to the best of her ability. “It’s not as bad as what was going to happen to you. Come on… we need to move.” Sunspot said while trying to walk forward. She immediately faltered and clutched her side with a pained expression, only to have Glitterball rush to her side to help steady her. “And just where do you two think you are going?” Shade asked with a sinister tone of voice. The two mares looked back to see the stallion staring right at them with his glowing red eyes. All of the tendrils were receding back into his own shadow, but he still had a threatening air about him. He could most likely find another way to kill the ponies if he wanted. “Leave them alone.” Celestia said while rushing over to stand in front of the two mares. Shade and the two ponies were surprised to see Luna and Glimmer Shine trotting up behind the white alicorn in a defensive stance. “We won’t let you hurt anyone else.” Luna said in a threatening tone while glaring at the shadowy stallion. “Princess…” Sunspot muttered in a humbled tone. She signed up for the blue alicorn’s team to help her protect Equestria, but now the princess of the night was protecting her. “You two need to rest. Let us handle this.” Glimmer Shine said in a confident tone. Meanwhile, Shade was busy looking around at the ponies scattered around the room. The elements of harmony were still at the back of the room, recuperating from their injuries and watching with concerned expressions. Twilight Sparkle was still on the floor where she landed, doubtlessly trying to recover herself. And now everyone else was standing up strong in the face of certain death. “Enough of this… I grow bored with all of you. Step aside now and I might consider letting you live a while longer.” Shade said in a serious tone. He took a step forward, only to have a magical laser shot at his feet. “We’re not letting you leave this room. You’ve caused enough havoc from just being in here. You will not harm the rest of Equestria, or anyone else for that matter.” Celestia said while standing her ground with her horn lit up and an icy glare thrown in the stallion’s general direction. “I will not be told what to do by someone as weak as you Celestia!” Shade yelled while stamping his hoof down on the ground. Just as it made contact with the floor, a dark shadow raced out of the stallion’s hoof and traveled towards the group of ponies. Celestia and the others widened their eyes in surprise as the floor started breaking up as shockwaves of energy shot out from where the shadow was. Each eruption out of the floor got progressively bigger, until it reached the ponies as the white alicorn placed a shield around them. Celestia felt her shield shattering and her body traveling upwards and backwards. She along with everyone behind her was being flung through the air violently. Everyone screamed as they careened all the way to the back of the room, where they all slammed into the wall full stop. A bone crunching thud accompanied each of them as they simultaneously stopped screaming and grunted in pain before falling to the floor. Sunspot, Glitterball, Glimmer Shine, Luna, and Celestia were all lying in a heap on the floor. They tried moving, but anything remotely close to using effort only reminded them of how much pain they were in. Eventually however, the five managed to move themselves to where they could look up. “Guys! Are you ok?!” A distressed voice called out from the side. The group looked over to see Rainbow Dash slowly hobbling over to them with her friends in tow. The five mares were still weak and battered from their own ordeal, but they had to check on their friends. “I think I just broke every bone in my body… guh… I think… I think I broke bones I didn’t know I had.” Sunspot muttered in a strained tone while trying to move her sore limbs to clutch her previous injury. She was most likely incorrect, but she most likely did have a few broken bones, if not a concussion. “Oh, you poor things… just lay there and rest.” Rarity said with a concerned frown while looking at the heap of ponies. Even the two alicorns were having trouble moving their battered bodies. “I offered you a chance at staying alive longer, and yet still you chose to stand against me.” Shade spoke up from across the room. The group looked over to see the stallion slowly walking towards them from all the way at the front of the room. Despite the distance he had to travel and the pace he was going at, the ponies froze up with terrified expressions as they watched him getting closer. “Surely you must have known that you wouldn’t win… so why did you choose to fight? Well… I suppose it doesn’t matter now. You’re all going to die at my hands… or rather, hooves.” Shade said with a slight chuckle while continuing on his way across the room. “Everyone… l-leave while you can. Just… just go.” Celestia pleaded while managing to turn her head to look at the ponies next to her. “We’re not leaving… no matter what.” Rainbow Dash said with a slightly hesitant tone as she turned to look at the stallion across the room. “Well girls… it looks like it’s the end for us.” Applejack said in a somber tone while looking around at her friends. Everyone was scared out of their minds, but they hadn’t thought that they were going to die for certain until the orange mare made things painfully clear to them. “*Sniff* I love you guys… come here!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while pulling in all her friends for one last group hug. The four mares accepted the gesture and clung to each other while letting fresh tears well up in their eyes. Everyone turned to look at Shade as he made it roughly halfway to them. They never would have thought that they would die when they got up this morning to come to a friend’s funeral. They wondered what would happen to their friends and family after they died and the shadowy stallion was free to roam across Equestria unfettered. No matter what happened, they hoped that they would be together again in whatever waited for them after death. “Stop right there!” The group heard a voice call out in a determined tone from across the room. After looking around for a moment, they saw the source of the voice in the middle of the room. “Twilight…?” Celestia muttered in a surprised tone. Shade stopped in his tracks and looked beside him. Sure enough, there she was. Twilight was on her knees with her eyes closed and her head resting on the floor. After a moment of rest, she pushed herself up with her front legs and stood up to face the stallion. She was shaking almost constantly, and her legs looked like they were just barely supporting her weight, but through all of the pain and exhaustion on her face, there was steely determination. “Are you seriously going to be the one to try and stop me?” Shade asked while rolling his eyes and sighing. “N-no… I can’t stop you. I’m not sure if anyone can.” Twilight said while shaking her head and pausing to catch her breath. “Then why, pray tell, have you so rudely interrupted me when I was in the middle of something?” Shade asked in an unimpressed tone while staring at the unicorn with an expectant expression. “I just need to a-ask you one… t-thing. Please… please don’t kill my friends.” Twilight pleaded in a sincere tone. “Twilight, get away from him!” Rainbow Dash yelled from across the room. “Please Twilight… I can’t watch you die again!” Fluttershy pleaded with a fearful expression. “So… let me get this straight. You want me… to just not kill your friends?” Shade asked in a tone of disbelief. He was half certain that he misheard the unicorn, or that she hit her head a little too hard when he overpowered her and the other elements. “Yes… please. I love them so much… I couldn’t bear watching them die. You are the most powerful being in Equestria… most likely even the world. Please… just don’t kill them. You can do whatever you want to me.” Twilight said in a desperate tone. “Heh… hah… ahaha… ehhahahaha!” Shade suddenly burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Everyone watched the stallion with dreadful expressions as he laughed in the purple mare’s face. Twilight felt her heart deflating as her one request was shot down. Not that she expected the stallion to honor her desire, but it was the last and only thing she could do. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle… dear, sweet, innocent… Twilight Sparkle.” Shade said in a softer, more unnerving tone while walking towards the unicorn. Twilight gulped nervously and tried to walk backward, but her body wouldn’t allow her to move as fast as she wanted. Even though the stallion was walking at a slow pace, he caught up to the purple mare almost effortlessly. “W-what?” Twilight stammered, more so out of fear than exhaustion. “I’m not just going to kill your friends…” Shade stated in a lighthearted tone while placing a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. Twilight jumped slightly as she felt her body coming into contact with the icy cold hoof of the shadowy stallion. “W-w-what are you g-going to do?” Twilight could feel herself trembling like a frightened filly. Her friends watched with fearful expressions as the stallion smiled while slowly shifting his hoof across her body. “I’m going to make your friends watch me kill you… and then I’m going to kill your friends.” Shade said with a devilish smirk while shifting his hoof to grab the unicorn by the neck. Although he was being rough with her, he didn’t seem to be strangling her. Instead, Twilight suddenly felt a numbing coldness start around her neck as the stallion’s hoof glowed with a faint aura. “Gh… guh… alggh…” Twilight groaned while grasping at the stallion’s arm with her hooves. She could feel herself getting weaker while the cold feeling worsened and spread down her neck and into her chest and back. It didn’t just feel cold, it felt like her body was completely going numb, and the pins and needles sensation that came along with it was almost unbearable. “Twilight!!” The others yelled while watching the scene unfold before them with horrified expressions of panic. “Get away from her!” Rainbow Dash demanded while rushing forward as fast as her injuries would allow. Realizing that they couldn’t stop the cyan mare, the others leapt into action along with her. Celestia and Luna lit up their horns and aimed at the stallion, and Glimmer Shine managed to aim his strobe while on the floor. Shade offered a quick glance to the side, only to see the cyan pegasus charging toward him and the rest of the ponies either gearing up to fight or watching with frightened expressions. Rather than stopping what he was doing and devoting more attention to his new attackers, the stallion simply smirked and continued draining the energy out of the purple unicorn. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-stride as she felt something tug on her leg violently. She yelped in surprise while she was pulled to the ground. As she looked down with an agitated expression of confusion, the cyan mare widened her eyes in surprise as she saw what was holding onto her. It looked like a pitch black hoof was reaching out of her shadow and grabbing her by the leg. “Hey, what gives?!” Rainbow Dash fumed in a frustrated tone while tugging against her captor. “Let me… hrrk… let me go!” She raised her voice angrily as she pulled her leg as hard as she could, only to have the shadowy hoof pull harder to keep her on the floor. Just as suddenly as the pegasus was restrained, Celestia and Luna, as well as Rarity and Glitterball felt something shooting up and latching onto their horns. What appeared to be an undulating mass of shadow energy was completely covering their horns, suppressing the four’s ability to channel magic through them. While the two unicorns squealed in fright and disgust while frantically groping their horns in an attempt at ridding themselves of the black substance, Glimmer Shine had his strobe knocked away as yet another shadowy mass reached out of his own shadow and pinned his arm down. “Gah!” Glimmer Shine exclaimed in surprise as he was pulled to the floor and restrained. Sunspot and the others tried to pull him up, but the shadowy appendage was too strong for them to overpower. “Sister, I can’t use my magic! This stuff must be canceling out any energy flowing through it.” Luna stated in a mild panic while racing to free her horn by any means so she could rescue the distressed unicorn across the room. “Twilight!” Celestia yelled in a fearful tone while watching the purple mare struggling to get the stallion’s hoof off of her. “You leave her alone! She doesn’t deserve this… take me instead!” She pleaded desperately with her body trembling and her heart racing. She couldn’t bear the thought of watching her faithful student die. She almost died herself when she merely heard about Raven Feather stabbing her to death. “You will wait your turn!” Shade yelled in an agitated tone while glaring at the group across the room. Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to rush forward to help free Rainbow Dash and make an attempt at saving Twilight, when they too were suddenly pulled to the floor by a dark arm reaching up from their shadows. Twilight fought with every ounce of her being to just take in shallow breaths. Her entire chest was going numb and her muscles were failing her. Her legs faltered and she fell, only to be caught by the stallion applying pressure to his hoof and actually holding her by the neck. The added difficulty of being choked even slightly only made it even more strenuous to breath, let alone fight back. Before she passed out from being suffocated, Shade pushed her onto her back and released pressure from her neck. However, the painful feeling of cold and weakness was still present, and it was spreading further throughout her body. “*Gasp*… *Wheeze* G…guh.” Twilight choked out a mess of frantic breaths and distressed noises. Her lungs were pumping air through her body as fast as she could manage, but it was like the air wasn’t reaching her. No matter how much she breathed, it felt like her body was suffocating and screaming for air, or for energy of any kind. “Twilight! Hang in there! I’m… hrrgh… I’m coming!” Rainbow Dash said in a desperate tone while pulling on her leg as hard as she could. Despite her reassuring statement, it was clear that the cyan mare was panicking, and that she was going nowhere fast. From the look of her situation, her leg would probably be dislocated before she freed herself. With Shade holding her just off the ground, Twilight tilted her head back to look at her friends. They were all watching her with fearful expressions and pale faces. They were all desperately trying to think or do something that would help her, but she was beyond their reach. She could feel her body shutting down more and more by the minute. She didn’t even feel cold anymore, with only numbness and weakness remaining. “E… e-everyone… *Wheeze*… I’m… so..rry.” Twilight muttered in a despairing tone. She could barely see her friends anymore through her blurry vision, but she knew that they would be devastated from watching her die. With a nagging tiredness coaxing her into closing her eyes, Twilight laid her head back and let go of the stallion’s arm with her hooves. Her mind drifted to her friends and all of the happy faces that she would be leaving behind. Spike, her brother, her best friends, she would never see any of them again, and they would most likely die along with her. There was no feeling of peaceful bliss that came with her last death. There was no faint glimmer of hope that her friends would go on without her to victory. She had lost, and she was paying the ultimate price for being conquered by her enemies. “Twilight, no!” Rainbow Dash and the others screamed in denial as they watched their friend lying motionless in the stallion’s grasp. They couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not, but seeing her like this immediately flooded their minds with terrible memories of when they watched her bleed out in front of them. The five mares and several of the others teared up and started weeping uncontrollably while still desperately trying to break free from their bonds. “Hahahah… Do you finally see? The power of darkness holds no equal. There is no light that can extinguish me!” Shade stated in a bold tone while staring down at the unicorn at his feet. As the group of ponies lamented their imminent demise and gave up on anything being able to save them, they were silenced suddenly as a bright light appeared near Shade and Twilight. The light appeared seemingly out of thin air, growing in intensity until it forced everyone in the room to cover their eyes. Shade screamed in painful surprise while stepping back and covering his face with one arm. His form smoked slightly from the burning sensation that the light was giving him. Although it wouldn’t damage him greatly, it was painful enough to warrant him to step back and retreat several feet. Twilight suddenly felt oddly tingly as she stirred her body slightly. She could strangely feel all of her body now, and she felt an intense warmness that was seemingly returning the feeling to her. On top of the feeling returning to her body, she felt less and less of the weakness that plagued her before. As she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted with a bright light that made her shield her face. Oddly enough though, she felt like she had seen that same light somewhere before. “Ugh…” Twilight groaned softly as she lifted her head up off the ground. As she peaked open one of her eyes to see if the light was still there, she discovered that it had vanished. Through her still blurry vision, the unicorn could make out the shape of someone standing in front of her. Although it was improving, her eyesight was only a mess of colors and shapes at the moment. “…!” Rainbow Dash and the others suddenly grew silent as they stared ahead of them. Twilight wondered what had spooked her friends into ceasing their bout of crying almost instantly. Rubbing her eyes slightly and blinking rapidly to restore her vision, Twilight looked ahead of her and squinted to get a better look. As soon as her eyes could make out a clear picture, a surprised gasp escaped her mouth and she shot up slightly. “T…T…T-Tom!” Twilight exclaimed in an utterly bewildered tone. She couldn’t believe her eyes, but there he was standing in front of her, a young human boy in his teenage years with light red hair and a blue track uniform on. Unless the boy had an uncanny twin brother with similar taste in clothing that inexplicably appeared in front of her, the purple mare was certain that it was Tom. Tom turned to look behind him and smiled softly as he saw the room full of ponies with stunned expressions. He looked down to see the unicorn on the floor and held out his hand to offer her some help up. “It’s nice to see you too Twilight… need a hand?” Tom asked curiously while waiting for the purple mare to move. After a few moments of stammering and non-stop staring at the human, Twilight reached out her hoof and grabbed his hand, only to have him pull her up with her still speechless. “But… you… and… but… but… how?!” Twilight asked in a dumbfounded tone while staring at the human with a shocked expression. “There’s no time for questions right now. We’ve got a job to do.” Tom said while looking behind him at the shadowy stallion still recovering from the burning light. “Go grab the elements of harmony and get ready to use them.” He instructed in a calm manner and waited for the unicorn to snap out of her stupor. Twilight glanced behind her at the element of magic lying on the floor where it landed. The sight of the tiara on its side with a slight char mark on it only further cemented her previous failure in the unicorn’s mind. “The elements won’t work on him… we already tried using them and he almost killed us.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. “Giving up so soon Twilight?” Tom asked in a surprised tone. “Look, just trust me on this one… go prepare the elements and use them as soon as you can.” He said in a more serious tone while leveling with the purple mare. “Ok… Ok.” Twilight nodded while turning around and taking a few steps forward while lifting the fallen tiara up with her magic and bringing it next to her. She paused abruptly and turned around with a worried expression, only to see the human turning to face the shadowy stallion. “But… what about you?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. She took a glance back to her friends, only to see them looking back with equally concerned expressions for the human. “Don’t worry. I should be able to handle him… at least for a few minutes.” Tom said in a confident tone while smirking back at the purple mare. Twilight lingered a moment longer before shrugging in defeat and turning to run to her friends. She trotted across the room to the group of ponies waiting for her eagerly. Apparently whatever bonds Shade put on the two alicorns and the others disappeared when the blinding light filled the room. “Twilight… Ah’m so glad you’re ok.” Applejack said in a sincere tone while offering the unicorn a brief hug along with the others. “I’m glad you guys are ok too… now come on, we need to get ready to use the elements again. Tom has a plan.” Twilight explained confidently while looking back at the human. The others nodded before rushing off to pick up the few necklaces that fell off of them when they landed. “Grrr…” Shade growled angrily while looking down to his still smoking skin. After a few more moments to allow the smoldering to stop, he looked up and glared at the human standing in the middle of the room. Tom gasped suddenly as a violent puff of blue mist escaped his mouth. He staggered slightly before steadying himself and standing tall against the shadowy stallion. “I don’t know what you are… but I don’t really care. You will not harm this world any more than you already have.” Tom said with a resolute tone of voice while staring his enemy down. “You dare to interrupt me, slayer?! I will wipe you off the face of the planet along with the rest of your kind and your race!” Shade bellowed in a voice that carried through the room. While the ponies on the far side of the room were deeply unnerved and frightened by the angered stallion, their human friend was still level headed and standing still. “I’ll bet you say that to every slayer you meet… not that you have met any. I think I would definitely remember you if a previous slayer saw that face.” Tom said with a slight smirk. “If you are so eager to die, then I will be happy to oblige you.” Shade said in a cold tone while letting shadow energy pulsate from his body. Tom placed his arms at his sides and left them there. After a moment, a metallic scraping sound filled the air as fire flowed from his outstretched fingers. Before long, the boy had summoned his claws, good as new and ready to dispatch any enemy before him. The sight of the spirit weapons glinting in the light made a silent feeling of awe work its way over the group of ponies. “You wouldn’t be the first person to try that today.” Tom said while shaking his head with a confident smirk. Without much warning, the boy let out a fierce yell while charging forward towards the stallion. Shade yelled as well while running forward to meet the human, channeling shadow energy to his front left hoof as he ran. Before the pair collided, Shade threw his hoof out in front of him and started shooting a beam of darkness toward the human. Tom quickly threw his own hand out and projected a stream of blue light in front of him. The two clashed as they held their arms out while right in each other’s face. Somehow, the two beams of energy seemed to be pushing each other back, with progress only being made on either side as they moved in with their feet to where they were standing only a few inches away from each other. Twilight and the others watched anxiously as Tom fought to keep up with the stallion. The human could tell that his opponent was holding back. Despite the fact that Shade wasn’t using his full scope of power, he was swiftly pouring more energy into his attack. Although he probably couldn’t keep up such a steady increase in power for long, Tom was keeping his beam of light strong enough to push the beam of darkness back to the point where both beams were forming into a large spherical shape as each tried to spread out around the other. The ponies on the other side of the room watched in awe as the human and the stallion clashed. They had never seen such a violent pair of powers meeting in their lives. The intense sound being given off by the two beams was practically making the room shake. After a few moments of shouting while standing completely still and glaring at their respective opponent, Tom and Shade suddenly noticed that the ball of energy between them was growing more unstable by the minute. With the two different streams of light and darkness gradually melding together, a loud bang suddenly sounded out as a small explosion blew the human and the stallion several feet away. Shade and Tom both recovered after skidding their feet on the ground to gradually slow their momentum. Once they were both back on their feet, they rushed at each other again and started trading physical blows. Meanwhile, the ponies on the other side of the room were watching nervously while the six mares in their midst huddled together and tried to hurry in every way possible to help their human friend win the fight. “Come on guys… we can do this.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone while looking around at her small troop. Not all of her friends shared her enthusiasm on the subject of using the elements again. “We’re trying Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said in a troubled tone while looking around at the pale expressions of exhaustion on her friends’ faces. She felt like passing out and slipping into a restful coma herself with how much she had been thrown around recently. “I’m not sure if I can do this again… I don’t feel very good.” Fluttershy said in a weak tone while trying to ignore her sore body. “Don’t worry Fluttershy… we only need to let the elements do the work for us. We’re here because we want to protect Equestria… to protect our friends.” Twilight said while thinking about Spike. The thought of the young dragon waiting for her to go back to Ponyville filled her with a burning desire to stop anything from bringing harm to him, and right now that anything was standing across the room from her fighting yet another friend. The others looked at each other while thinking about those that they cared about, and the ones who cared about them. They smiled softly as they all unanimously decided that in order to protect their friends and family, they would have to be strong for at least a while longer. “Gah!” Tom yelped in pain from across the room, drawing everyone’s attention away. The group turned to see the human reeling back from the stallion with a gash on his arm. Shade also had a wound across his chest from the human’s blades, causing him to growl in frustration and pain. As the boy stopped a few feet from the stallion, he looked down to his still bleeding arm and concentrated for a moment. Right on cue, a flash of orange erupted from his wound as it was slowly enveloped by embers and disappeared. Taking a look up to see Shade still standing ahead, the boy noticed that he was healing his own injury as well, if not with much greater ease. Shade glared at the human as his wounded skin shifted and healed while a small amount of shadow energy pulsed out of him. He was starting to get more and more frustrated and angry at the fact that he actually had to try to fight the slayer. “This is pointless! Surely you must know that even you can’t kill me.” Shade stated in a bold tone while meeting the human’s icy glare in intensity. “Nothing on this planet is immortal in every sense. You can die… and you’re going to right here and now.” Tom said with a confident expression on his face. The stallion felt an overwhelming feeling of anger washing over him as the human refused to be scared away by his threats. “You need to learn a lesson in respect!” Shade yelled while shooting his hoof out in front of him angrily. A localized shockwave of energy shot out of his hoof and traveled toward the boy at lightning speeds. Tom didn’t have time to dodge before he was knocked backwards into the air with a painful smack to his chest. Shade watched as the human flew backwards and into the wall. He let out a grunt of pain before settling onto the floor and trying to recover. The stallion laughed while channeling an aura of dark energy around himself. He reveled in the sheer negative power that was coursing through his body. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you bottomed out. You lasted a great deal longer than these weaklings ever could, but no more!” Shade yelled while stamping his hoof on the ground angrily. “Hey!” A voice shouting at the stallion from across the room made him turn to the side. He looked ahead to see Twilight and her friends standing in front of the others, wearing their elements with determined expressions on their faces once more. “These weaklings would like to have a word with you.” Twilight said in a confident tone while looking around at her friends. The five mares were equally determined and standing strong beside her. They continued staring ahead with steely expressions even as the shadowy stallion started laughing uncontrollably. “Hahah… you can’t be serious. This is the most fun I have had in recent memory… I honestly didn’t think any of you would be stupid enough to stand against me again!” Shade said while shifting his voice to a more amused tone. “The one who underestimates his enemy is a fool no matter how strong he his.” Twilight stated in a resolute tone. She looked to her friends, who offered confident nods in return, before directing her attention forward and steeling herself. Twilight lit up her horn and used her magic to call on the power of the elements. The jewels her and her friends wore glowed with a faint aura as a magical hum filled the air once more. The six mares stood their ground as their elements started emitting rays of light and drawing their bodies into formation. Strangely enough, instead of being lifted into the air, they were pulled into a line with each other, with Twilight being slightly in front. Soon enough, their eyes glowed white and they were enveloped in an aura of light. Celestia and the others backed up as a beam of rainbow colored light suddenly shot out of the area in front of the six mares. The beam traveled straight ahead instead of arcing in the air, meeting the stallion head on. Tired of playing games with the ponies, Shade projected a ray of shadow energy and clashed again with the beam of light from the elements. Instead of waiting to fight back with his full strength, he quickly gained ground as his beam pushed back violently on the ray of light. Twilight and the others groaned softly as they felt a familiar strain on their bodies. Things weren’t exactly going as they had planned. Even though nothing changed from last time, they somehow hoped that the elements would work this time and eradicate the stallion. “Dangit… it’s not working!” Twilight said in a frustrated tone. She and her friends could barely put their full energy into the beam, but it wouldn’t matter either way. “Sorry to put an end to your little ploy, but this time you won’t be getting back up.” Shade stated with a bold chuckle. The ponies started feeling a pervasive sense of panic as the beam pushing back on them had a new sense of grim finality. “*Whistle* Hey ugly, are you forgetting someone?” Tom whistled from off to the side, drawing everyone’s attention to him. They saw the boy standing casually near the beam of light, seemingly watching the struggle unfold. “Ok… I am really starting to get pissed off by you. I don’t care how you popped out of nowhere in a ball of light. You won’t be able to stop me… even if you work with them.” Shade said with an agitated scowl. “That is where you are wrong.” Tom stated in a confident tone while stretching his arm out. The human projected a ray of light out of his palm and directed it towards the end of the rainbow of light formed by the elements. Much to everyone’s surprise, the blue tinted light collided with the light from the elements and actually melded with it. The two beams met with each other and seemed to work together as if they were made for each other. Suddenly, a louder variant of the magical hum being emitted by the elements filled the air. The ponies watched with astonished expressions as the rainbow of light and the human’s positive energy flowed together until they reached a certain point, where they completely fused together. Much to everyone’s surprise, a beam of pure white light shot out from the point where the two lights ended, pushing back the beam of darkness as violently as it had been pushing back the elements. “What…?!” Twilight exclaimed in a shocked tone. “What the hay is happening?!” Rainbow Dash asked with equal confusion and disbelief. “My word… I don’t believe it.” Celestia said while staring ahead in a bewildered manner. She had never seen anything like this in her long life. The ray of pure white light continued pushing back on the beam of darkness, to the point where it was actually causing the shadowy stallion a considerable amount of discomfort. As he poured more and more energy into his beam, Shade quickly realized that he was having a hard time keeping up with the power of the newly formed light. “What the… How is this possible?! The elements of harmony are far too weak to hold this much power… and your power isn’t nearly enough to make this much of a difference! What trickery are you pulling slayer?!” Shade demanded in an angered tone while glaring at the human while fighting against the light with everything he had. “No tricks… just balance.” Tom said in a confident tone, much to the confusion of everyone else in the room, most of all the shadowy stallion. “Balance?! What on earth are you on about?!” Shade asked in a dumbfounded tone while raising his voice again. “You shouldn’t be allowed to exist. There are supposed to be relatively equal amounts of good and evil in the world. Nothing is meant to be able to tip the balance too far to one side or the other. That is why the slayers were created… that is why I am here. The elements of harmony are meant to bring balance to the world, but you are far too pure of a shadow creature to have their powers work on you… without outside help that is.” Tom explained in a resolute tone while staring at the stallion with a disdainful expression. “This isn’t happening… you can’t just do this! I am darkness incarnate! You cannot destroy the power of evil!” Shade yelled in refusal while pouring all of his energy into the beam of darkness in front of him. The ponies could feel the intensity of the evil amassed in the stallion as he pushed his beam to the point where it started slowly repelling the light again. Despite this apparent setback, Tom remained steadfast and confident. “We might not be able to rid the world of evil, but that isn’t why we fight. There will always be justice in this world to counter the darkness. As long as anyone challenges that balance, I will never stop fighting to protect the innocent!” Tom yelled fiercely while intensifying his own ray of light. As the blue light flowed into the power from the elements of harmony and increased the power of the white beam, Twilight and the others poured everything they had into the elements in order to assist the human. The combined power of the elements of harmony and the slayer’s positive energy pushed back hard on Shade and his power, sending the beam of darkness back a considerable amount. As the light got closer and closer to his body, the stallion quickly realized that he wouldn’t be able to withstand its power. Before he could try to escape however, his power finally gave out and the light engulfed him. “Noooo!” Shade screamed painfully as his entire form burned in the light. In a few moments, he disappeared from view as the light intensified and blazed past him. Twilight, her fellow elements, and their human friend felt their power surging ahead unfettered and let a triumphant smile creep across their faces. Finally, the light died down as the elements of harmony ceased emitting their power. Tom let his light die down as well as the white light vanished from view. Instead of seeing a mass of black smoke dispersing into the air as they expected, the group saw a rather sobering sight. A small pony skeleton fell out of the air and settled on the ground. Judging from the size of the skeleton, the ponies wagered it to be around the size of a young colt. As the last few wisps of smoke trailed off the bones, everyone realized what this meant and lowered their heads somberly. “So… that must be…” Twilight muttered uncomfortably as she looked ahead at the skeleton on the floor. “All that’s left of Grimwood…” Celestia finished her student’s sentence in a hesitant tone. Everyone felt an oddly hollow feeling along with the warm happiness of their victory. Many lives had been lost in their long battle with the hooded ponies, and the colt’s skeleton on the floor and the dead bodies of the guards strewn around the room only served as a grim punctuation to this fact. “We should get Raincloud out of here before she wakes up. I don’t think she needs to see that.” Rainbow Dash suggested while turning her attention to the grey mare lying on the floor a few feet away. The pegasus was still where she was when she was rendered unconscious by Shade. “I will take care of Raincloud. You all should go and get some rest.” Celestia said while turning to the group with a concerned expression. Many of the ponies were battered and bruised, and they all felt exhausted beyond belief. “Here princess, you will probably need these.” Glimmer Shine said while tossing a pair of hoof cuffs over to the alicorn. Celestia grabbed the small object out of the air with her magic and examined them. Sure enough, there were inscriptions on the cuffs that distinguished them as shadow magic suppressers. The princess nodded understandingly while bringing the cuffs to her side. As much as they had come to know the grey mare in their brief time fighting together, she wasn’t their ally, and she would need to be restrained for when she woke up. Before the group turned to leave, Tom looked over to the small skeleton across the room with a curious expression. He used his senses once and raised an eyebrow before shaking his head and sighing. “Princess… you may want to take special precautions when burying Grimwood’s bones. He must have been exposed to a potent evil presence if he turned into that… his remains might still be negatively charged. It shouldn’t be much of a problem though… I can help make sure they are properly dealt with.” Tom suggested in a helpful tone. The white alicorn smiled softly as she looked at the human with an expression of disbelief. “Thank you Tom… it is good to have you back. I never had the chance to properly thank you for saving Twilight’s life… but just know that my gratitude is far less than you deserve.” Celestia said in a sincere tone while looking to the purple mare and her friends. Twilight and the others smiled as the human turned to look at them and smiled in return. They were more than bursting with excitement and happiness that the boy and the purple mare were alive again. If their bodies weren’t likely to slip into comas from the use of energy, they would most likely by celebrating much more than simply smiling at them. “Think nothing of it Princess. Twilight and the others have helped me far more than I have helped them.” Tom said in a grateful tone while walking over to the six mares. Twilight and the others immediately felt an overwhelming sense of warmth and happiness welling up inside them. “Aww… *Sniff*… Come here you guys!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while reaching forward and wrapping everyone up in a group hug. Although the others lightly protested to the pink mare being so energetic and rough with them, they enjoyed the embrace just as much. Celestia and Luna, along with Glimmer Shine and his teammates smiled warmly as they watched the six mares and their human friend. Despite everything that happened in the past few hours, not to mention the past week and a half, they were still as cheerful and caring as ever.
Chapter 100: The Journey's EndAs the day went by, Princess Celestia and her sister were very busy with sorting out everything that had happened. The royal guard finally arrived and helped with the relief efforts for all of the citizens of Canterlot that were affected during the attack. Due to the darklings being destroyed now that there wasn’t anything keeping them intact, all the ponies had to worry about was repairing any damage done and resting. After dealing with the bodies of Raven Feather and her followers, Celestia and Luna escorted Raincloud down to the guard station themselves. Once she woke up to find herself in cuffs and her shadow magic suppressed, the grey mare lowered her head sadly and reluctantly agreed to going along peacefully. Although it would take days, perhaps weeks or months even, to repair all of the damage done during the attack, the ponies had finally won. They had claimed victory over the hooded ponies, even though it was in a way that nobody expected. The threat of darker magic and terrible creatures lurking out in the world was still present in the back of everyone’s mind, but now that there was no one harnessing these dark forces in an attempt at harming innocents, the ponies felt at ease. Twilight and her friends sat in the study of the palace and rested. They were sore, their heads hurt, and they barely had the energy to stand, but somehow they managed to be cheerful and content with spending time with each other. While everyone rested and chatted happily about their triumphant victory, Twilight stared at her human friend with a curious expression. Tom had died, that much she was certain of. She watched him fade away into embers before her very eyes. The only reason she had come back from death was because he used all of his energy to resurrect her, but there was nobody to revive him so he could help them beat Shade. Yet there he was, leaning against the wall and talking like everything was normal. Twilight shook her head and smiled softly as she realized that nothing was normal anymore, and she kind of liked it. “You know… I almost can’t believe we’re still alive.” Fluttershy stated in a surprised tone. This was only the most recent time in the past several days that she thought she was going to die. Perhaps the yellow mare needed to reconsider how she spent her waking hours if her life was taking such dangerous turns. “Believe it Fluttershy… we finally did it. We won!” Rainbow Dash cheered eagerly. “Ah have to say… you all did a mighty fine job out there guys… especially you Tom.” Applejack said while offering a congratulatory nod to her friends. “I only wish I was there the whole time to get beat up alongside you. How are your cuts? Are you sure you don’t want me to heal them?” Tom suggested while looking to the cuts on the orange mare’s shoulders. Applejack looked down to see the bandaged up wounds from when the darkling landed on top of her. Although her entire body felt sore, the medical wrappings definitely drew attention to that particular injury and made it look a lot worse than it actually was. “Boy… if you offer to heal me one more time, you’re the one that’s going to need healing.” Applejack retorted with a lighthearted smirk. Everyone chuckled warmly at the exchange, despite the orange mare being semi-serious. A soft knocking at the door drew everyone out of their idle chatter and elicited them to turn to look at the door. The castle had been very busy with many guards rushing to and fro to deal with the many problems that needed tending to, but everyone had generally left the six mares to their own devices. “Who could that be?” Twilight wondered out loud while getting up to go answer the door. As she walked over to the front of the room and opened the door, she was greeted by a white unicorn stallion with blue hair. He was wearing a regal uniform that looked professional enough to belong to the royal guard. Twilight immediately recognized the stallion to be her brother, Shining Armor. “Twily!” Shining Armor exclaimed happily, referring to the purple mare by the nickname he had given her since she was a filly. “Shining Armor!” Twilight exclaimed with equal happiness while rushing forward and hugging her big brother. “I was so worried about you! I overheard some of the guards saying you died… I’m really glad Princess Celestia set me aside and explained everything to me.” Shining Armor said in a relieved tone. Twilight frowned slightly as she thought about what the news of her death must have done to the stallion at first. “I’m fine now Shining… why don’t you come inside and stay a while?” Twilight suggested while adopting a more uplifting tone and backing up to reveal the five mares behind her. “Hello girls, it’s nice to see you.” Shining Armor greeted the others while entering the room as Twilight closed the door and followed him. “It’s nice to see you too, Mr. Shining Armor.” Fluttershy said while bowing her head slightly. As many times as she was introduced to the stallion, it was hard getting over the fact that he was captain of the royal guard. “Fluttershy, come on now… you don’t need to call me that every time we meet.” Shining Armor said with a slight chuckle. “Right… sorry.” Fluttershy replied with an uncomfortable smile. While all of Twilight’s friends came forward and greeted the stallion, he had his attention shifted elsewhere. The human to the side of the room was friendly looking enough, though he opted to remain where he was instead of walking up to greet him. “And you must be this Tom I keep hearing about. You know, the guards will not stop talking about you in particular. From what I hear from the princess, you all saved the day together, but I guess the novelty of being the only human in Equestria hasn’t quite worn off yet.” Shining Armor said in a lighthearted tone while reaching forward to shake the human’s hand. Tom smiled and gladly accepted the gesture while examining the stallion curiously. “It’s nice to meet you. I always wondered who Twilight’s brother would be once I heard her talking about you. You two must be really close… I guess older brothers just can’t help but to get attached to their younger siblings.” Tom said in a cheerful tone, though he paused for a moment to think about his own family before returning his cheerful disposition. “I wouldn’t know what I would do without Twilight.” Shining Armor said in a sincere tone while smiling at the purple mare. “Tom… I know you’ve probably heard this a lot today, but I cannot thank you enough for saving her. I only wish I was here before it happened… I should have been able to protect her.” He added in a slightly somber tone before returning a grateful expression to his face. “Hey… you shouldn’t worry about not being able to be everywhere and save everyone… that’s my job.” Tom said with a reassuring tone and a slight smirk. The white stallion laughed warmly at the boy’s statement. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Cadence would probably go stir crazy if I traveled any more than I usually do.” Shining Armor said with a cheerful smile. “Shining Armor, where is Cadence anyway? Is she here with you?” Twilight asked curiously. She hadn’t seen her former babysitter in a long time. Then again, she hadn’t had much spare time to book a trip to the crystal empire just to see her either. “Sorry Twilight, but Cadence isn’t here. When I left for Canterlot, it was because we got the alert that you guys lit the signal fire. She really wanted to come and help, but I somehow convinced her to stay.” Shining Armor explained in a sympathetic tone as he watched the unicorn frown slightly. “Ok… I guess it would have been pretty dangerous if she came along. Just be sure to tell her that I said hi, ok?” Twilight asked with a smile returning to her face. “Heh… yeah, alright… I think I can manage that.” Shining Armor replied with a slight chuckle. Twilight knew that her brother was putty in her hooves, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “Ooh! Can you tell her I said hi too? I was going to send you guys a postcard, but I couldn’t find one good enough. So then I tried to get a carrier pigeon to give you a letter, but those birds are waaay too hard to train. And then I thought up this thing with balloons-” Pinkie Pie explained in an energetic tone while popping up beside the two unicorns and getting a bit closer than Shining Armor would have liked. The stallion inched away slowly while the pink mare continued talking at a mile a minute with no signs of slowing down. Everyone laughed as they watched the pair interacting. It felt good for them to finally be able to enjoy a moment without any looming threats present in their minds. After several minutes of talking, more than a few of which being spent trying to get Pinkie Pie to settle down, Shining Armor bade goodbye to the group as they left and walked back through the castle. It had been a long day after all, and the only thing the six mares wanted right now was to be safe and comfortable in their own homes. If they hurried, they could catch a train back to Ponyville and be there before sunset. As they walked down the steps toward the front entrance, the group noticed Glimmer Shine and Sunspot standing idly by the doors. The pair looked even worse than they did when they were fighting Shade, but that was only due to the copious amounts of bandages wrapped around their bodies. They both had head wrappings, Sunspot had her side all bandaged up, and Glimmer Shine had a few smaller bandages scattered around his body. “Hey guys… are you on your way out?” Sunspot asked curiously as she watched the group approaching. “Yeah… we’re going to go on ahead and catch a train back to Ponyville. I was hoping to talk to Princess Celestia before I went… is she here?” Twilight asked while thinking to any other place the alicorn could have been. “No, you just missed her. She left to go process Raincloud with Princess Luna. We’ll be sure to let her know you said goodbye.” Glimmer Shine explained. The ponies were surprised to hear that the two alicorns were taking care of Raincloud themselves. Then again, she had contributed a lot to the group’s victory, so it wasn’t too farfetched to think that the princess would want to handle the grey mare personally. “Thanks… how is Glitterball doing? I hope she isn’t in too rough a shape.” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while noting the absence of the rainbow haired unicorn. Usually she stuck by her teammates like glue, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Nah, she’s fine. Tom swung by and healed her leg for her, so right now she is just resting in the infirmary. The worst she has to worry about is a sore body… which isn’t too bad considering we’re up and about.” Sunspot explained in a cheerful tone. Twilight glanced to Tom and offered him a playful leer. She was thankful that he healed Glitterball after she suffered such a gruesome leg injury, but she really wished that after dying, her human friend would be a little more careful with his energy consumption. “So what are you guys going to do now? Are you still thinking about splitting up?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously, with a hint of hesitation in her voice. It pained the group to know that the team of monster hunters was even thinking of breaking up after everything that happened. Sunspot and Glimmer Shine looked at each other pensively for a moment. They smirked slightly and nodded to confirm their thoughts before turning back to the group with cheerful expressions. “I think we might stick together a while longer.” Glimmer Shine stated in a pleased tone, much to the surprise and joy of the others. “Really? That’s great!” Rainbow Dash said in an excited tone. “Yeah… we figured that Equestria might need a team of monster hunters sometime in the future. At any rate, someone needs to take care of the patches of dark matter scattered around the country from Raven Feather’s previous experiments.” Glimmer Shine said while thinking about roughly how much work would need to be done before all of the hooded ponies’ effects on the land were removed. “Oh just go ahead and say it Glimmer… you would be lost without me and Glitter to help you out.” Sunspot said with a wry smirk, eliciting a chuckle out of the yellow stallion and the others. “Something like that I suppose.” Glimmer Shine said with a cheerful smile. “Well, we’re going to head out now. You guys be sure to stop by Ponyville sometime. Don’t be strangers.” Twilight said with a friendly tone while smiling at the two ponies. “We’ll drop in sooner or later. I’ll tell Glitterball you guys said bye. See you around.” Sunspot said while waving to the group as they opened the doors and walked outside. Twilight and the others waved back at the pair before heading out onto the streets of Canterlot. After a few minutes of walking through town, the group waited at the train station for the next ride to Ponyville. Once their train arrived, the six mares and their human companion hopped on and settled in for the next few hours. A few hours went by, and the group was feeling their exhaustion catching up to them. Rainbow Dash had actually managed to fall asleep while everyone else talked, although she did wake up shortly afterwards. Finally, the train slowed to a stop as it arrived in the Ponyville station. “Aww, come on guys! We just beat the hooded ponies! We should be celebrating!” Pinkie Pie carried on her conversation with the others as she hopped off the train and onto the platform. The pink mare whined softly while offering the best puppy dog expression she could muster while her friends stepped out with her. “I’m sorry Pinkie, but it’s too late to throw a party tonight. Besides, we’re all tired. I am going to do good just to stay up long enough to not ruin my sleep pattern.” Twilight said in a sympathetic tone, much to her friend’s dismay. “You know what would keep you awake? A good ol’ Pinkie Pie party!” Pinkie suggested eagerly. The others had to give her props for how persistent she was. “Yeah, I’m with Twilight on this one Pinkie. How about we throw a party tomorrow, or some other time?” Rainbow Dash suggested in an attempt at reaching a compromise. The pink mare shrugged audibly and folded her arms while pouting in an upset manner. “You guys are no fun…” Pinkie muttered in a disappointed tone. The others couldn’t help but to snicker quietly at the pink mare and her antics. “Welp, I think I’m gonna go home and hit the hay. I don’t have a sleep pattern to ruin.” Rainbow Dash said in a lighthearted tone while glancing to Twilight. “Ah think it’s time Ah headed home too. Goodnight ya’ll.” Applejack said while starting to walk away. The orange mare waved to her friends before picking up her pace slightly and heading towards Sweet Apple Acres. “I guess we should all be getting home. It’s been a long day for sure.” Twilight said while holding back a yawn. “Night guys… I’ll see you tomorrow.” She added while smiling warmly at the others. After everything that had happened earlier, she was overjoyed to be heading home. “Take care, guys.” Fluttershy said while waving to Twilight and Tom as they departed. Soon enough, the others departed as well and went their separate ways. As Twilight and Tom walked through the quiet streets of Ponyville, they remained silent and kept to themselves for the most part. The air was pleasantly cool, with a bit of a stronger chill coming over the town as night approached. The sun was low in the sky, but it was still fully visible. It was astonishing to think that everything that happened only took up a few hours of the day. It felt like an eternity several times when the group was fighting Shade. Twilight spent a good few moments taking in the sights and sounds around her. After her untimely death and miraculous revival, the simple charms of everyday occurrences were something that filled her with a content feeling. “Feels good being back home. I almost can’t believe I’m here… even after that stunt you pulled.” Twilight said in a playful tone while nudging into the human. “Hey, I got the job done didn’t I?” Tom replied with a slight chuckle. The purple mare frowned slightly as she thought more about how the human threw all self-preservation out the window just for an attempt at saving her. He didn’t even know that it would work. In fact, he had reasonable knowledge to tell him that it wouldn’t work. “Don’t ever do anything that reckless again ok? I thought you were gone…” Twilight said in a saddened tone. “Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily?” Tom asked in a lighthearted tone to lift the unicorn’s spirits. Twilight smiled softly before looking ahead again and returning to her thoughts. “Hey… how did you know that the elements of harmony and your powers would react like that?” Twilight asked curiously. The human hesitated for a moment before smiling knowingly. “I don’t suppose you would believe me if I told you that it was a lucky guess?” Tom asked in a lighthearted tone. “And I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me how you came back, are you?” Twilight added in a hopeful tone while pausing and turning to face the human again. He hadn’t talked at length about anything that had happened after he died, and the purple mare was itching to know how he was revived. Tom paused for a moment and looked down in thought. He hadn’t paid much attention to the events that happened after his death. His memories of the experience were a bit blurry to boot, but he could still remember the peaceful park and the mysterious stranger bearing his friend’s face. Although he hadn’t wanted to trouble the unicorn with such a bewildering explanation, her questions made him think back to the experience all the same. -Earlier and Elsewhere- As the warm glow of the sun and the birds chirping lulled him into a sense of relaxation, Tom rested his head back on the bench behind him and sighed. Taking a look over to Clarence, and briefly having to remind himself that he wasn’t actually on a park bench with his old friend, the boy saw that his strange host was still sitting quietly with a calm expression. Still, despite the soothing atmosphere of the park around him, Tom couldn’t stop worrying about his friends back in Equestria. If Raven Feather had defeated him and Celestia with such ease, then what chance would Twilight and the others stand? Then there was the troubling implication that the eternal night was real, and the black mare had actually found a way to invoke it. Even if the ponies survived their battle with the hooded cult, what sort of horrible evils would they have to live with after the fact? “So… what are you going to do to help Equestria now?” Tom asked curiously while turning to his companion and leaning back, expecting him to dispense some kind of grand battle plan to save the ponies from Raven Feather and her group. “I don’t know… nothing probably.” Clarence said in a casual tone while leaning back as well and resting his hands behind his head. “What?! What do you mean nothing?!” Tom asked in a shocked tone while getting up and looking at the human on the bench with an angry glare. “You died before you could succeed, so now it is up to the ponies to save Equestria.” Clarence said with a serious expression. “That isn’t fair! They can’t win and you know it!” Tom stated in an outrage. He couldn’t believe that the seemingly compassionate and sympathetic being he just learned about would be so casual about leaving an entire race of innocent and sentient creatures to die. “You resurrected Twilight Sparkle. Perhaps the elements of harmony can win the battle?” Clarence suggested in an optimistic tone. “That might not work… they need someone there who can fight! Send someone to help them!” Tom said in an adamant tone while glaring at the strange boy. “Like who? There aren’t any other human slayers able to be sent to Equestria.” Clarence said in a more serious tone as he realized that his blue suited friend wasn’t on board with his explanation. Tom groaned in a frustrated tone and walked away a few paces before turning back with an even more desperate expression. “What about new slayers? Maybe you could find someone from Equestria worthy enough to be a slayer… hell, try Brimstoke and the others! One of them would be more than willing to come back and save them!” Tom suggested while trying to contain his anger. Despite his attempts at appearing civil, it was clear that he wasn’t going to just sit down and let the strange human do nothing. “Even if one of them was worthy, it normally takes at least a week to create a new slayer. If I were desperate enough, the time could be shortened, but only to a few days at most. The Equestrians need someone now, or they won’t have use for anyone coming to save them.” Clarence explained in an adamant tone while getting up. He met Tom’s burning glare with a stoic, if not a little bit agitated expression of his own. “Send me then.” Tom said in a resolute tone. “No, you aren’t strong enough. Right now, the last thing they need is someone who can’t fight.” Clarence explained with a stern expression. He could see the human in front of him getting more frustrated and upset, but he knew what had to be done. “I can fight. You let me worry about what I do when I get down there, just send me back!” Tom pleaded with a desperate expression. “You said it yourself Tom… you lost. Raven Feather defeated you without even trying. If you went back now, it would only serve to confirm that you have lost the strength to bear the responsibility of a slayer.” Clarence said in a matter of fact tone. Tom turned around and shook his head angrily before turning back and releasing all of his pent up anger. The boy threw a hard punch at his former friend’s face, sending Clarence to the floor with a sizable thud. As the strange human looked up from the ground while holding his jaw, he saw Tom with a steely expression. “You listen to me right now Clarence. I don’t care who or what you are… I don’t care that I lost, and I don’t give a damn about whether or not you think I’m still worthy of being a slayer. I chose to come back… you wouldn’t just pop people back into existence without their consent would you? I might not remember it, but I chose to be a slayer because I wanted to help people. So what if I had self-doubts? So what if I have those same doubts now even? I don’t care if I die again down there… but I will not sit idly by and allow them to come to any more harm. They deserve better than us humans did… and if they need someone to fight for them, then I will stand by them no matter what. You can either send me back down there, or you can smite me or whatever the hell it is you mystical beings do… I don’t really want to be here anymore either way.” Tom said in a confident tone while preparing himself for whatever retribution he would get for his actions. No matter what happened to him, he couldn’t just sit by while Twilight and the others needed help. Clarence looked up at the boy silently for a moment. Instead of being angry however, a small smile crept across his face. Tom was surprised to hear him starting to laugh. As he got up from the floor, Clarence dusted himself off and smiled again as he faced the confused human. “You wanted to know why I chose you instead of Henry… right Tom?” Clarence asked curiously. “Wait… what?” Tom asked in a bewildered tone while watching the strange human approach him slowly. As if to further confuse him, Clarence placed a hand on his shoulder heartily. “Both you and Henry had a burning desire to right the wrongs that Johnathan Pike imposed on you and the other children. Both you and Henry would have made great slayers… but I chose you. I did it, not because I saw something in you that wasn’t there… but because I knew only you would punch your maker in the face to protect those you learned to call your friends.” Clarence explained in a more stoic tone. “So… you’re not mad at me for decking you?” Tom asked with a confused expression still plastered on his face. “Heh… don’t worry about that. You have more important things you could be doing right now. Besides… I can always get you back later.” Clarence said in a lighthearted tone. “I’m going to send you back to Equestria… this will be your last chance Tom. If you die again, I can’t help you or Equestria.” He added in a more serious tone. “Uh… ok.” Tom stated while adopting a more serious tone. “Thanks for letting me do this… is there anything I should know before I go? Maybe some hints for future reference?” He asked curiously, hoping to get some otherworldly advice out of his strange host. “Sorry, but you know that I can’t do that.” Clarence said while shaking his head slowly. “Wouldn’t want to interfere right?” Tom asked with a slight chuckle, to which the strange human smirked in response. “Now you’re catching on.” Clarence said with a friendly nod. “Oh yeah… before I forget, I might not be able to give you any hints per say, but… here’s a friendly word of advice. You might find some nasty stuff down there when you get there… Why don’t you try using your ray of light with the elements of harmony?” Clarence asked in a suggestive tone. “Thanks for the tip…” Tom said in a sincere tone as he prepared to be sent back to Equestria. “Hey, you weren’t being serious when you said you would get me back for that punch, right?” He asked in a hesitant tone. Clarence smirked and chuckled softly without answering. Before Tom could ask him again, he placed his hand on his forehead. The world around him, including Clarence, was engulfed in a bright light. Soon the sounds of the gentle breeze and the birds chirping faded. “Hello? Tom…?” Twilight asked in a curious tone while looking at the human as he was deep in thought. Tom looked up to see the purple mare still awaiting an answer to her previous question. “Oh… sorry, I guess I must have zoned out for a minute there.” Tom said while scratching the back of his head. As he noticed the patient expression on the unicorn’s face, he quickly realized that she wasn’t about to just drop her question and walk away. “I guess the powers that be are good after all.” Tom said with a slight smirk while avoiding having to give an actual explanation. Somehow however, Twilight felt that the boy’s statement was satisfying enough to please her. After a few moments of smiling and taking notice of the silence around them, the pair quickly noticed how late it was getting. “Let’s head home. I think we have both earned a good night’s sleep.” Twilight said in a confident tone, to which Tom nodded. The two started walking again with the comforting thought of being back at the library driving them forward. Several minutes of walking through the streets went by. The more the pair made their way into the denser areas of Ponyville, the more ponies they saw, most likely heading home themselves or doing some last minute errand before settling in for the night. Even though news hadn’t been made public yet about Raven Feather’s defeat, most of the ponies looked somewhat peaceful and happy in comparison to the last few days. Perhaps the relaxing atmosphere was getting to them and easing any fears they had, or perhaps the pervasive atmosphere of fear and uncertainty that prevailed around town was gone somehow. Either way, Twilight was happy to feel like it was a relatively normal day, or at least a normal end to a day. Finally, the golden oak library came into view. As many times in recent days that similar thoughts crossed her mind, Twilight was still glad to be home. Now, instead of having terrible news of some tragedy that happened to report to Spike, the purple mare could actually tell him that something good had happened. Not only had something good happened, but something tremendous and wonderful to boot. They had finally won against the hooded ponies and the evils they brought with them. “Hey, Tom…” Twilight spoke up in a slightly somber tone as she paused before the entrance to the library. “Yeah?” Tom asked curiously, picking up on the unicorn’s slight hesitation. “Could you not tell Spike about what happened to me? I will tell him soon enough, but tonight I just want to tell him some good news for once.” Twilight said with an exhausted shrug as she thought about having to tell the young dragon that not only had she yet again failed her promise to him, but she had actually done it in such a spectacular way that she died as a result. “Alright… I think that would be for the best anyway. You should focus on resting tonight, not explaining to him about how you died and came back to life.” Tom said in an understanding tone. “You know… it sounds so weird to actually hear that out loud.” Twilight replied with a slight giggle. “I’ll bet. With how many times you’ve cheated death figuratively and literally this past week, and with how many monsters you’ve taken on, you could be an honorary slayer.” Tom said with a slight smirk. Twilight laughed warmly at the boy’s statement before briefly entertaining the thought of what she would be like as a slayer. “Let’s head inside. I’m sure Spike can’t wait to hear about what happened today… the good parts at least.” Twilight said while smiling softly. As her human friend nodded in agreement, she opened the door and stepped inside. After making their way straight upstairs and finding the young dragon sitting with his legs hanging off the edge of the loft, Twilight rushed straight to him and picked him up into a tight hug. Spike seemed confused and a little concerned by the strange behavior of the unicorn, so she started explaining everything to him, minus a few details of course. As the purple mare told him about everything that happened, Spike went through a range of emotions. He was concerned that the hooded ponies had attacked Canterlot on such a grand scale, he was terrified as he pictured an enemy so powerful that even the elements of harmony were bested by it, and most of all, he was overjoyed as he learned that it was all over and everyone was ok in the end. However, no matter how excited he was, he felt something else that was overriding his happiness. After listening to the young dragon yawning, and letting out a few yawns themselves, Twilight and Tom decided to prepare for bed. While her number one assistant and her new human friend prepared to head off to sleep upstairs, Twilight decided to walk down to the main room to take care of something. The purple mare grabbed a piece of blank parchment and a feather quill and sat at a table with a content expression. After thinking for a few moments, she started writing and quietly sounding out the words as she scribbled away. “Dear Princess Celestia… I have learned a great many things since the last time I wrote you, most of these things having occurred in the past week. I learned that there are scary things in this world of ours… things that I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams. But I also learned that, despite all of the hardships in the world, I am still just as happy to live in it as I was before. Even though sometimes bad things may happen, and sometimes those bad things happen to good people without much of a good reason, I strongly feel that the friends you make can help to soften the blows you receive. No matter how harsh the world may or may not be, it is always important to remember that friendship is worth the trouble it takes, because one day… you might need your friends a lot more than you ever thought possible. And if I have taken anything away from my experiences these past few days, it is this one simple fact that can seem hard to remember at times. There will always be good in the world to balance out any evil that might be hiding in the shadows.” Twilight muttered with a slight smile on her face while scribbling away with her quill. The soft sound of tiny feet scampering down the stairs made the unicorn turn to look behind her. She noticed Spike standing midway down the steps looking at her with a cheerful, if not a bit curious expression. “Are you coming up to bed Twilight? We’re waiting on you.” Spike asked while glancing upstairs impatiently. “I’ll be right up Spike… I’m just writing a letter to the princess.” Twilight replied while looking back to her letter. “Do you want me to send that now?” Spike asked curiously with a helpful tone of voice, eliciting a smile from the purple mare. “No Spike… you can send it tomorrow after we get some sleep. Thanks though…” Twilight said while looking to the dragon with a proud expression. She was glad that she could finally see him smile again without some looming threat to dim his energy, not that it did in the first place. Despite everything that happened, her number one assistant had always looked to her with a bright smile. “Alright… I’m heading upstairs now. If I want even a chance at waking up before Tom does, I need to get to bed like right away. Try not to stay down here too much longer.” Spike said in a determined tone, as if it were actually a competition now to see who woke up first. “Doesn’t need much sleep to function… we’ll see who gets the last laugh, Mr. hotshot slayer of evil.” He muttered in a confident tone while heading back upstairs. Twilight giggled slightly as she watched the dragon heading upstairs. She heard the bedroom door open and close with a soft click. As she yawned yet again and stretched her limbs, she realized just how tired she was as well. Taking a look out of the window at the progressively darkening sky, the purple mare returned her attention to her letter to add the finishing touch. “Your faithful student… Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight wrote down with a pleased smile before setting the quill aside and rolling up the scroll for later. She got up and walked over to the window to take one last look at the sunset before heading off to bed. The sun and the moon were both visible on opposite ends of the sky, with a near perfect divide between them to separate starry night sky from beautiful sunset and dark blue sky. The unicorn smiled at the metaphorical implications of the sight before turning around and walking up the stairs. She was more than ready to get some sleep so she could start a new day with a fresh mind and body, and she was also confident that tomorrow would be another beautiful day in Ponyville.
Chapter 1: An Unexpected JourneyIt was just another ordinary day in Equestria. The sun came and went on its daily path through the sky as the denizens of Ponyville went about their business. Just as the yellowish-orange glow of the nearly set sun cast its rays onto the Golden Oak Library, Twilight Sparkle sat in the main room looking curiously at the letter that her number one assistant Spike was holding. Twilight hummed with intrigue as the young dragon fiddled with the scroll from the princess. She wondered what Celestia could have possibly wanted this late in the day. “Go ahead and open it, Spike.” She beckoned and moved in closer, looking eagerly to the dragon. Spike nodded and flipped his fingers over the seal on the letter. He jumped in surprise as a small box fell out of the scroll and onto the table in front of him. “Yikes! I hope nothing breakable was in there,” The dragon sighed at his own clumsy mistake. He picked up the box and shook it gently to determine the contents. “Doesn’t feel like anything is moving around… must be secured pretty well,” He said, deflating a bit with relief. Twilight wrinkled her expression in annoyance before she picked up the box herself and contemplated opening it. As she inched her hoof forward to remove the lid of the small container, Spike unrolled the scroll and started reading it, leading her to put the box down and listen intently. “Dearest Twilight Sparkle, I am sorry to trouble you this late in the evening, but there is a matter of great importance that I need you to tend to,” Spike perked up with curiosity as he got further into the letter. ”Enclosed within this letter is a box containing an… interesting item of importance,” He paused and chuckled nervously as he looked at the package on the table. “Can I see the letter, Spike? I want to read this for myself,” Twilight beckoned with her hoof and waited for the dragon to hand her the letter. “Oh… alright, here you go.” Spike reached forward and waited patiently for the unicorn to lift the letter out of his hand with her magic. Twilight concentrated on the scroll for a moment and lit up her horn. A bright purple glow enveloped the scroll around Spike’s hand and he let go as he felt the paper nudge out of his grip. Twilight levitated the paper in front of her eyes and adjusted the scroll to reading level. She then quickly traced over the beginning part of the letter to find where Spike had stopped, and inhaled sharply. “I need you to deliver this box to Zecora and tell her to examine the contents to see what she can find. I also need you to gather up the other element bearers and take them, along with Spike, with you on your journey. Once you arrive at Zecora’s house and she finds anything of note, write me back as soon as you are able. I would like to talk with you all about a pressing matter.” The unicorn furrowed her brow as she finished reading the curious scroll. She had just about as many questions now as she had when she started reading. “Why does the princess want Zecora to examine whatever is in here? It looks too small to have anything that important inside,” Spike mused while fiddling with the strange box curiously. He wondered what could be so important in the small container, and why the princess felt the need to have Zecora examine it. Whatever it was, it must have been serious enough to warrant immediate attention considering how late it was. Twilight trailed her eyes off and thought about the matter herself. “I don’t know, Spike, but it must be pretty important if she wants you to come along to write letters back and forth. Although… I wonder why she wants all of us to go?” She pondered curiously, focusing her attention on the letter and searching it for new text. “Be sure not to open the box before Zecora has a chance to look at it, Twilight.” She read off a small section at the bottom of the letter. Spike stopped abruptly upon hearing this. He was just about to take a peek inside the box before he heard the statement. Twilight sighed and rolled the letter back up. She then gently placed the scroll on the table and looked at the young dragon with a tired expression. “Ugh… I did not need this today,” She droned. Traveling clear across town and out to the Everfree wasn’t exactly in her plans for the day. Struggling to maintain a positive mindset, she tried to perk up and focus on her curiosity as to the contents of the strange package. “We better get going I guess. Could you go and get my bag for me, Spike?” “Sure thing…” Spike groaned, half politely, half begrudgingly. The last thing the young dragon wanted to do was to go out into the Everfree Forest after dark with a mysterious package from the princess. Despite his apprehensions, Spike hopped up from his seat and went to fetch Twilight’s bag from the other room. So, without delay, Twilight went around Ponyville asking her five friends to join her. By the time she had gathered all of her fellow element bearers, the sun was well past the horizon and the night was creeping in. In spite of the late hour, the six mares stood before the entrance to the forest and boldly walked in, ever closer to finding out just what was in that box. “So, what do you think the princess wants Zecora to look at?” Applejack spoke ahead quizzically to Twilight and Spike, who were at the head of the group. “I don’t know, Applejack, but whatever it is it sounded urgent,” Twilight replied back while still trying to figure out the meaning of their late night journey. The unicorn’s horn lit up a bright purple as she used her magic to lift the scroll up out of her bag and in front of her eyes. “I need you to deliver this box to Zecora and tell her to examine the contents to see what she can find.” She spoke loud enough so the entire group could hear her paraphrasing the letter. She had hoped that rereading the scroll would offer her new insights to her quest, but sadly she was still just as clueless as her friends were. Rainbow Dash hovered alongside the group, still hanging onto her initial curiosity about their little quest. “Hmm… I wonder if she wants us to go on a secret mission for her?” She ventured with intrigue brimming in her voice. Her expression quickly fell as her thoughts drifted elsewhere. “I really hope so… nothing exciting has happened for the last three days… and that was just a runaway storm cloud that we had to get under control,” “I’m certain the princess will explain why we are out here when we get to Zecora’s,” Rarity stated confidently. The remark made Rainbow Dash sigh with boredom as she anxiously thought about why they were out here in this cold, bleak forest. Twilight eyed the letter for a while before levitating it back into the bag she had strung around her hips. She then looked at her surroundings to see if they were still on track. Satisfied at the sight of familiar trees and plants, she knew that they were not far off from their destination. “We’re almost there, everyone,” She reported, giving the group an update on their progress. The ponies were relieved to know that their journey was almost over. Even if they were on a marked path in the forest, the eerie noises and dark thicket of plants to either side of them made them feel scared and uneasy every time they came here. Spike leisurely laid his head back so he could lay flat on the unicorn’s body to get some rest before they reached their destination. “Good, I’m getting tired… I’m not used to staying up this late,” He moaned softly and held his hand up to his mouth to catch a yawn. Twilight grunted slightly as she remembered the extra weight on her body. She looked back at the dragon lazing around on top of her with an annoyed expression. “You’re not the one walking for both of us, Spike,” Spike looked up as he heard the agitation in the unicorn’s voice. His eyes met hers, and he immediately sat up. “Oh yeah… Sorry.” He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. He had actually forgotten that he had been riding on his friend’s back for the whole trip. After leering at her freeloading assistant for a moment longer, Twilight turned her attention forward again. As she looked ahead, she stopped abruptly and nearly caused a pile up of ponies behind her. The others looked to their purple leader with mildly confused and annoyed expressions, only to see her staring off into space with a pleased smile on her face. “Hey, what gives, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently. Twilight turned to the others for a moment before stepping aside and pointing a hoof forward. “We’re here everyone… we made it,” She exclaimed excitedly as they came to the clearing where Zecora’s hut lay. The grass in the clearing was much shorter and more up-kept than everywhere else in the forest. Zecora’s hut sat in the center of the clearing. The hut resembled a tree more than anything else, having been made from one that was hollowed out. The five mares marveled at the sight of the wooden hut. The tree home was the only sign of civilization as far as the eye could see, providing one was willing to loosen their definition of civilization, anyway. Still, the hut looked like a safe bastion from the harsh wilderness around them, and that was all that mattered. “I hope she’s still awake,” Fluttershy piped up from the back of the group. It was rather quiet and dark as the moon shone down on the forest floor through the openings in the trees, so there was a very good chance that the zebra was asleep. “I think she is… there are lights on in the window,” Twilight observed, hopeful that her findings were correct. The ponies looked over to see the warm and inviting looking candlelight flickering softly in the windows of the hut. The group walked over to the house and gathered around the entrance. Twilight knocked gently on the door with her front hoof and waited. Soon, the group could hear the muffled noise of Zecora walking to the door. The door creaked open to reveal the friendly zebra standing amid the orange glow of nearby candles. Zecora looked around the group gathered on her doorstep with a puzzled expression before settling her eyes on the purple unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle and friends, at this late hour, what news do you send?” She asked quizzically. Twilight was the first to speak on behalf of the small group. “Princess Celestia sent me a letter requesting that we come see you immediately,” She explained in a friendly tone. Twilight brought the scroll back out and showed it to Zecora, which made her perk up with intrigue. “In that case, come in and sit in the light. You need some shelter from this dark and chilly night,” The zebra motioned with her hoof for the group to come in and sit down. Everyone smiled at the invitation into the warm and cozy hut. They were quick to oblige, and once inside they closed the door and found a comfortable spot to rest while they got down to the business at hand. Wanting to get home at a decent hour, Twilight got out the package and sat it and the letter down on one of Zecora’s tables. “There’s a package that came with the letter. The princess only wanted you to open it,” She explained curiously, eyeing the teasing box and anticipating whatever was inside. “Come on then, child, give me the letter… Let’s see what made the princess think old Zecora would know better,” Zecora asked with a piqued sense of curiosity. Twilight handed off the letter to the zebra, who quickly read the scroll before shifting her attention to the box. After examining the box and making note of its size and shape, Zecora carefully lifted the lid off of it. The contents of the box were hard to make out, as the lit candles that illuminated the entire room did not cast far into the container. From what Zecora could make out, it looked like a glass jar secured to the bottom of the box that had something black and slimy inside of it. “Let’s get a better look at this… thing?” Zecora muttered in a confused tone. She was at such a loss of words that she broke her natural pattern of speaking in rhyme. As she grasped the glass jar and lifted it out of the box and onto the table, the group could just barely make out the sight of the item contained within. The object inside was as puzzling to the zebra as it was to everyone else. A small, black, and amorphous blob sat at the bottom of the jar. It appeared to be organic, but at the same time it failed to look like anything that would come from any plant or animal. It appeared as if its skin, if you could loosely call it that, was covered in a bright sheen that seemed to shift around the stationary blob of its own volition. Twilight squinted while trying to make out the details of the strange object. The bottle was obscured by their shadows, so it was still hard to see it. “Everyone step back a little… We could see it better in the light,” She suggested. Everyone, save for Zecora, took a few steps back, letting the dim light from the candles hit the bottle. *Thump* The object in the jar suddenly shot upwards and smacked against the side of the glass, making Zecora flinch and jump back instinctively. Everyone else was a little more alarmed by the unexpected sight, getting a quick rush of fear that made them recoil in surprise. *Thump* *Thump* *Thump* The black blob kept violently jumping around in the container trying to escape. The ponies looked at the odd creature nervously as it made the jar shake slightly with each impact. Zecora cautiously inched forward and tilted her head as she examined the energetic blob. “Interesting little… thing; I’m curious to see what mysteries it will bring,” She said, regaining the mental acuity needed to start rhyming again. “W… w-what is it?” Fluttershy asked timidly after being startled by the creature’s initial thud into its glass prison. She eyed it fearfully, trying to mentally determine if it could escape from the glass jar to get at her. “I don’t know… but I don’t think it likes the light,” Pinkie said with childlike wonderment in her voice while trying to crane her head at an angle to get a better look at the thing. She poked the jar gently, causing the creature inside to stop hopping around momentarily. The blob wriggled around as if in response to the pink pony disturbing it. Her other friends, mostly Rarity, eyed the blob with mortified expressions expecting it to have been angered by the pink mare toying with it. Zecora looked inside the box, only to find another letter from the princess. Fueled by eager curiosity, the zebra quickly picked up the note and fumbled it around so she could understand and read the contents easily. “Dear Zecora, this black substance has been found in some remote locations out in the countryside. It is repulsed by light and feels extremely cold to the touch. Please exercise caution when examining it, and if it gets out of your control, it can be destroyed by sunlight or anything that can mimic it… Please contact me as soon as you can learn more about it.” The zebra trailed off as she finished the letter. “Hmm… interesting, I may need more supplies to safely examine this thing,” She mumbled while deep in thought. Finally, she looked up and turned to face the purple unicorn. “Twilight…” “Hmm?” Twilight’s head shot up from hearing her name being called. “Could you go out and gather some light emitting plants for me? Out in the woods behind my house is where they should be,” Zecora explained her request to Twilight while still eyeing the energetic blob as it resumed jumping around in its glass home. Twilight glanced toward the windows at the front of the hut uncomfortably as she thought about heading back out into the forest. “Alright…” she said, clearing her throat. “I think I can do that,” She turned to the zebra and nodded, not wanting to leave her waiting. “Does anyone want to come with me? We could get it done faster if there were more of us looking,” She reasoned, turning to the group pleadingly. Her words held some truth to them, but she also felt that she would be less nervous about the dark forest around her if she had someone to talk to. “I’ll help,” Applejack spoke up from the small crowd and stepped forward confidently. “Me too... I’ll come!” Rainbow Dash volunteered excitedly, moving next to the farm pony in front of the group. Twilight was glad to see that she would have two of her best friends accompanying her on her trip. Spotting an opportunity to help out, Spike jumped up from his seat eagerly and walked over to the lineup by the door. “I’ll come too,” He said confidently. Twilight looked down to the eager little dragon sadly. She didn't feel comfortable with taking him to explore an area of the forest she was unfamiliar with. Not wanting to hurt the young drake’s feelings, she tried to think of an excuse to force him to stay. “Sorry Spike, Zecora might need you to send a message to the princess. You will have to stay here for now,” She explained, feeling sorry that she had to leave her number one assistant behind. She patted him on the head and ruffled the green scales that served as his hair. “Oh…” Spike frowned sadly as the unicorn shot him down. Still, even though he understood that the unicorn didn’t want him to go because she was worried about him, he didn’t want to make a big fuss about it. “Ok.” He droned gloomily while walking back to his original position. The three ponies watched the dragon sitting down in the corner frowning sadly. They looked at him with sympathetic expressions before shifting their attention back to their newly appointed mission. Twilight smiled confidently as she looked to her two companions. She turned her head to see the rest of her friends looking her way with varying expressions. “Ok then... Everyone else stay here and help Zecora, we’ll be back soon,” She stated, optimistically waving to the group. The others waved back at the trio as they opened the door and headed outside. The chirps of crickets and the cold night air were an unwelcome change from the warm atmosphere of the hut. The only thing they had to look forward to, both literally and figuratively, was the seemingly endless trees all around that receded into darkness. Applejack and her companions took a moment to silently look around as they pondered their task. The thought of venturing further out into the forest was already daunting and more than a little concerning to the orange mare, and she wasn’t the only one feeling hesitant. “Zecora said we’re lookin’ for light emittin’ plants, right?” She asked, just to be sure they weren’t about to step into the forest without anybody knowing what they were looking for. “Yeah… she said they would be along the path out to the back of the hut,” Twilight replied while looking past the hut to the tree line out back. A short way from the house lay a small clearing in the trees giving way to a roughly laid-out dirt path. The ponies squeezed through the low hanging branches and poked their heads through the opening. The thick covering of trees made it hard for the light to hit the path, which in turn made it difficult to tell the path apart from the rest of the ground. Twilight went in front of the group and used her horn to light the way, paying close attention to the path while also avoiding the vegetation poking up from the forest floor or hanging down from the trees above. After a few minutes of walking along the path, the group started to feel like they would never find the special plants amid the thick vegetation. The faded dirt path barely avoided running into any trees as it winded through the forest. Vines and branches invaded the airspace above the path, occasionally hanging low enough to warrant the ponies ducking underneath them or brushing them aside. Rainbow Dash sighed while feverishly looking through the trees for a hint of light. “At this rate, we aren’t going to find anything out here,” “Are you sure these plants are even out here, Twilight? We’ve been lookin’ for a while now,” Applejack droned pessimistically, brushing some vines out of her face. Twilight sighed in frustration, looking back to her anxious friends. Although she had never heard of the plants herself, she had no reason to doubt the zebra’s instructions. “Zecora said they were out here… so I’m sure we should run into them any m-” She was interrupted by a glow of dark orange light coming from just ahead. The light dimmed after a few seconds, returning the area to darkness, only to light up again a few seconds later. “That must be them! Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed excitedly as she rushed ahead of the group to investigate the light. After walking quickly to catch up with the eager pegasus, the two mares were in sheer awe at the sight that lay before them. A brown plant sat in small bunches beside the path. The top of the plant split off into several branches that resembled the top of a tree that had its leaves removed. Each branch softly glowed a ray of orange light that carried a short distance, enveloping the ponies in their combined brilliance before fading back into darkness. “These are definitely light emitting plants,” Twilight noted while still taking in the beauty of the surroundings as they were bathed in the orange light. Applejack took a moment to look up from the mesmerizing light show and noticed the eerie trees around her. She looked to her two friends, only to see them still silently gawking at the sight of the plant. “As pretty as they are, let’s hurry up and pick ‘em so we can get back. I’m sure the others will worry if we take too long,” She suggested. Twilight snapped out of her transfixed stare and used her magic to pull the plants out of the ground and place them in her bag, where they continued to glow. Once all the plants had been collected, the area was only lit up by the shining light from the purple mare’s horn. “Alright, let’s move on… I think I see more of them up ahead,” She said while walking toward another patch of orange glow further along the path. After spending five or ten minutes picking every glowing plant they could find, the trio was starting to get slightly unnerved from venturing this far into the forest. They had made some turns on the path, and it was getting a lot darker as gray clouds rolled in front of the moon, concealing whatever already dim lighting it was providing through the canopy of trees. To add to the poor situation, the ponies had not run into any light emitting plants for some time to help them see through the thick darkness surrounding them. The wind howled ominously, sending a cold chill down the three mares' spines. Every stray shadow made by the passing trees made the ponies feel even more uneasy. Every fiber of their beings told them that they shouldn't be in this eerie situation. “Twilight, are you sure you can lead us back?” Rainbow Dash asked, eyeing their surroundings with veiled nervousness. “Don’t worry… I can retrace our steps using the path,” Twilight chimed optimistically, lighting up her horn a little brighter. She looked down at the path, which was barely even distinguishable from the ground, and gulped nervously. “If you can even see the path for cryin’ out loud…” Applejack’s eyes narrowed with concern as she also had difficulty in telling the path apart from the rest of the forest floor. The group stopped in their tracks when they heard something rustling in the bushes behind them. The ponies spun around and froze up, listening as intently as they could. They darted their eyes from side to side as they tried to determine if the noise was just part of the natural ambiance of the forest or if it was an actual threat. Just before they deemed the noise to be part of their paranoid delusions of fear so they could turn around and keep going, the rustling happened again. “W-what was that?” Applejack stammered while trying to keep herself calm. Normally the thought of an animal in some bushes wouldn't concern the orange mare, but given their current surroundings, and her already tense nerves, she was scared stiff. Even though she liked to count herself the bravest of the group, even Rainbow Dash’s knees were shaking as the thing in the bushes starting growling. The sound was unlike anything the ponies had heard before in the forest. Even though the Everfree was full of unknown plants and animals, the sound currently coming from the bushes sounded far too menacing for anything natural to be causing it. “I don’t know, Applejack… it’s probably just a Timberwolf,” Twilight explained through chattering teeth in an attempt to rationalize the situation and calm her fears. The other two looked at the unicorn with doubtful expressions before shifting their attention back to the imminent threat. It was low at first, but the growling was rapidly getting louder as the bushes rattled even further. The sound of something stepping on a twig and making it snap under its weight made the ponies jump back in fear. The bushes gave one last rattle as the sound of multiple objects exiting them put the trembling group on high alert. With the circle of light from Twilight’s horn serving as their only source of illumination, the ponies all kept their eyes fixed ahead of them, darting around and trying to find any shapes moving amid the darkness. In the distance, the group could faintly see something large moving in the black void outside of the light’s reach. The ponies started backing up while keeping their wide eyes focused in front of them. Much to their horror, they started to distinguish more than one shape moving independently of each other. However, the shapes all seemed to be moving in unison to get closer and closer to the terrified trio. “Twilight… w-what is that?” Applejack stuttered in mounting horror. Twilight looked over to the farmer and saw that she was tensing up in fear. The group could hear the sound of claws scraping on the ground in front of them. Once their eyes adjusted to the light, they could see three shadowy figures inching closer to their sanctuary of light. The creatures sounded almost unnatural as they made noises that sounded like a mixture of growling and moaning. “I don’t know, Apple-” The unicorn was cut off by the creatures entering the light and finally revealing their true forms. One by one, the creatures stepped a leg into the bubble of light being cast by the unicorn. As the rest of the creatures' bodies came into view, the ponies made a fearful discovery about the predators. Nothingness... Black nothingness was all that could be seen of the creatures. They were merely black masses in the shape of large animals. Their skin seemed to shift around, casting dark shades of black and purple as it moved. Amid the mass of undulating blackness, the ponies could identify shapes that resembled legs, bushy hair, clawed feet, and a mouth that served host to a myriad of sharp and pointed teeth. “What the…?” Twilight was taken aback by shock as she laid eyes on the creatures. They somehow looked similar to the black blob-in-a-jar back at Zecora’s, only a little different. The beasts appeared to be less solid than the blob in the bottle. The light from the unicorn’s horn nearly passed right through them, giving them the appearance of shadows that simply got off the ground and started walking. The beasts looked around for a moment at their surroundings before fixating on Twilight. They seemed almost fascinated at the sight of the brightness coming from the small animal’s head. Twilight squeaked nervously as she noticed the three creatures turn to look at her. *Groooaaarr!!!* The three beasts let out an agitated cry that made the ponies’ ear drums nearly explode. The trio covered their ears with their hooves to block out the terrifying and deafening sound. The creatures snarled viciously, causing the group to back up even further. The three ponies felt something solid hit their backsides as they ran into a tree in their hasty attempt to put distance between themselves and the frightening monsters in front of them. The beasts looked to Twilight once more and started growling fiercely again. Rainbow Dash grew more uneasy at the sight of the monsters focusing on her friend. “I think they don’t like the… light,” The cyan mare paled in nervous revelation. The three ponies looked at each other, and to Twilight’s glowing horn, as they came to the same conclusion. If the blob back at the zebra’s hut bounced around violently when exposed to light, then how would these monsters react? They all unanimously decided that they did not want to stick around and find out. “EVERYPONY RUN!” Applejack exclaimed loudly to her friends, though they needed no confirmation as they all turned tail and ran as fast as possible in the other direction. The ponies could hear the sound of the three creatures breaking into a sprint behind them. The fierce growling and snarling noises swiftly getting closer to them incited enough strength in the three mares to make them run faster. The group took a swift turn once they hit a large tree, hoping that perhaps it would shake the three predators behind them. However, one small glance behind her told Twilight that they were still being followed by the beasts. “Keep running!” The unicorn exclaimed in between breaths to her two friends. The pegasus and farm pony needed no instruction to continue as they fled from the creatures giving chase. After running through a few minutes of twists and turns, Twilight looked to her sides to check on her friends, only to widen her eyes as she saw nothing but empty forest around her. Panicked at the sudden realization that she was alone, she darted her head around feverishly in search of the two mares. “Applejack?! Rainbow Dash?! Where are you guys?!” The unicorn yelled loudly, hopeful that her cries could reach her friends somewhere nearby. Twilight looked behind her to check how close the beasts had gotten. *Crack* When she looked back ahead, the unicorn careened into a low tree branch while running at full sprint. The impact made her neck twist at an odd angle, bending her head back far more than was comfortable for her body. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment and she stumbled to the side dizzily. “Ughh…” The dazed mare shook her head to snap herself out of her stupor before regaining speed. “Gotta… find… help,” She muttered to herself in between breaths. “Where... are the… others?” The purple unicorn panted while looking around her. “I could have sworn the path was this way,” She fretted nervously as she thought back to how many turns she had made since exiting the path. Frustrated at her ill-fated attempts at remembering which way she was facing after all the commotion, Twilight picked up her pace slightly once she heard the beasts growling and snarling behind her. From the sound of it, all three of the creatures had decided to chase after her. While this made her even more terrified, Twilight also felt slightly thankful that her friends were not in any danger. What in Celestia’s name are those things? She wondered to herself while jumping over a fallen tree. Doesn’t matter now, just have to find the others. Twilight looked back to the fallen tree she had just leaped over moments before. Much to her horror, the beasts seemed to ignore the obstacle on the ground. The creatures passed through the object right before Twilight’s eyes, almost as if they were ghosts. The unicorn began to shiver uncontrollably as panic took over. In an attempt to calm herself down, Twilight started to think logically about where she was. She racked her mind, trying to simultaneously retrace her steps and run for her life. However, Twilight could not concentrate due to her burning lungs. She was running on fumes at this point as fatigue and muscle pains rocked her body. “Gah… I can’t keep running much… longer,” Twilight panted, glancing behind her quickly. Although she could scarcely even identify a face on the beasts, let alone the expressions they had, the creatures were showing no signs of slowing down. “Dangit… It looks like those things could go on for miles.” She cursed under her labored breath, turning back around. As she looked forward, she trailed her eyes down just in time to catch the sight of a log careening into her legs. “AH!” Twilight yelped as she sailed through the air. Her brief flight ended with a painful impact into the ground that sent her rolling on the muddy forest floor and caused more trauma to her already sore frame. After a few tumbles, she finally came to a rough stop like a skipping stone. The pony groaned as she struggled to lift her head up. She started to become even more fearful when she realized how difficult it was for her tired and sore body to move. “Oh no… no, no, no!” Twilight quickly realized that even with all of the adrenaline pumping through her body that she could barely turn herself over to face her doom, much less get back up and run away from it. Hearing a growl behind her, Twilight looked up and paled as she saw that the creatures had caught up with her. The sight of the monsters closing in on her made Twilight’s pupils shrink in size. She squeaked out a mess of high-pitched gibberish as her voice got caught in her throat. The beasts were baring their teeth and snarling viciously, causing saliva to drip out of their predominant jaws and onto the ground. They looked like they could rip her apart in an instant, without even giving her a moment to defend herself. Twilight pushed her exhausted body and crawled backwards away from the monstrous creatures. “I… I…” She stammered fearfully, looking around to find something, anything that would save her. Finally, she did the only thing she could think of doing. “Somepony... ANYPONY! HELP ME!” She screamed as loudly as her burned-out lungs would allow. Suddenly, as if on cue to answer her pleas, a bright flash of light erupted from in front of the unicorn. The intense light stabbed her eyes, forcing her to use a foreleg to shield them as it engulfed everything around her. Somehow, the light felt warm and soothing as it flowed past her. Twilight could hear the beasts crying out in pain as they recoiled from the light, rushing behind the trees into the safe blackness. When the light faded, she opened her eyes and looked ahead, only to let her jaw drop from what she saw. A strange, bipedal creature was sitting in front of her, with its hand placed on its bended knee. Twilight noticed that it was wearing a blue jumpsuit, not unlike something one would wear for exercising. And while it was hard to tell in the dark, she could also make out the light blonde hair on its head. The creature had a holster on its back that was holding what appeared to be a sword with an intricate design on its hilt. Twilight recognized the creature to be a human, a species she had read about that had walked the earth and gone extinct many years before pony-kind ever ruled the planet. “Wh… w-w-” Twilight was bewildered at the sight before her as she watched the human turn and look around. He looked confused as he scanned his surroundings for clues as to how he got where he was. He scratched his head before speaking in a dumbfounded tone. “Where the heck am I?”
Chapter 16: Blood in the Water“Ughhh… this is taking so long. We have been all over this school and haven’t found a trace of anyone!” Rarity huffed in frustration as she scanned her eyes from left to right to search any open room they came to. “Not the girls, not Twilight and Fluttershy, not Tom, not even any of the other children!” Pinkie Pie placed a hoof on the stressed unicorn’s shoulder. She smiled at her in a cheerful manner and tried to get Rarity to do the same. “Aww, cheer up Rarity. I mean come on… they have to be in here somewhere, so that must mean that we’re running out of places to not find them!” The pink pony exclaimed in a chipper tone of voice as she tried to lift her friend’s morale. Rarity wanted to be upset at the party pony’s upbeat attitude. After all of this tedious searching, even she should have been a little bit frustrated. But the unicorn couldn’t find it in her to resist Pinkie’s uplifting smile. She sighed in defeat before offering a small smile of her own. “I appreciate the enthusiasm dear, but if we don’t find them soon I think I’m going to break down and cry.” Rarity spoke softly so as to not hurt Pinkie’s feelings. As much as she wanted to cheer up, she was still concerned for the safety of her sister and her troop of friends. Pinkie Pie gave her a sympathetic look. She decided that it would be best to not attempt to bring up the subject any further to remind the worried unicorn of the danger her sister could be in. So the two walked down the hallway in silence as Rarity trailed her eyes off sadly. After a few minutes of walking, the pair came to a stop at the back of the school. They had already been to where the hallway on the left had led, and there had been no sign of the crusaders anywhere they had searched previously. Rarity was prepared to hang her head and sulk at their lack of progress, when she suddenly noticed a door beside them. The door appeared different from the usual wooden doors prevalent throughout the school. It was metallic and had rust all over it with water trickling down from the top of its frame. “Where does this door lead?” Rarity asked quizzically while gripping the handle to open it. She tugged on it with all of her might, but failed to make it budge. “It must lead down into the basement… maybe the girls are down there? They did mention checking out the leaking pipes.” Pinkie stated optimistically while waiting for the unicorn to open the door. “*Sigh* well this door is either stuck or locked… would you mind helping me out darling?” Rarity asked courteously. She moved over to make room for the pink pony as she looked to her pleadingly. “Okie dokey lokie.” Pinkie smiled at the opportunity to help out and gripped the handle beside the unicorn. The two counted down from three and heaved with every ounce of strength they could muster. Despite their combined efforts, the pair couldn’t get the door open. After a few attempts at forcing the door open, the two let go and slid to the floor in exhaustion. Rarity wiped the sweat from her face and panted while leaning on the wall next to her friend. “*Pant*… *Huff*… I don’t think that door is opening anytime soon.” The unicorn wheezed in between breaths. Pinkie Pie looked to her and took a few moments to breathe herself before talking. “Maybe…*Huff*… maybe Tom could get it open?” The pink mare suggested while catching her breath. Rarity nodded to communicate her agreement without talking. She then got up and offered to help her friend up. Once the two had gotten to their feet, they looked back down the hall and contemplated which way to go in order to meet back up with the others. The ponies walked to their right to go to the other side of the school and make their way back. After a few minutes of walking, the two started snaking their way through various rooms in order to avoid the growing number of water pits. Having just nearly drowned, Pinkie did not want to go anywhere near the smallest puddle, and Rarity shared her opinion. Suddenly, the two could hear someone yelling frantically from somewhere up ahead. The sound was muffled and distorted as it carried through the rooms, but the ponies could distinguish the noise as being slightly familiar. “*Gasp* that sounds like Twilight and Fluttershy!” Rarity was shocked to hear her friends in distress. She tried to determine the direction of the noise as quickly as possible. “Come on! They sound like they need help!” Pinkie exclaimed seriously as she tried to curb her sense of worry to think logically. The two rushed through the corridors until they came to a room that had two doors on each side. Through the other door, the pair could see across the hall into a classroom with two fearful looking ponies stuck on a patch of floor. “Girls!” Rarity exclaimed to her friends to alert them to her presence. The trapped mares turned to look at the two across the hall. “Rarity! Pinkie! Help us!” Twilight yelled frantically as she tried to steady herself to stay upright as their patch of floor shook violently. Something from beneath the floor was ramming itself against the bottom of the boards. “We’re coming girls! Hold on!” Pinkie exclaimed with determination before stepping forward. Suddenly Twilight stuck a hoof out to stop her from charging forward. “Wait, don’t go in the water! There’s something down there!” The unicorn cried frantically while pointing to the trench that separated the two groups. The pink pony backed up as she noticed the expanse of water before her. Although the distance between them seemed like a couple of steps, with the invisible force lurking in the water, waiting for something to fall in to drag to the bottom, the small distance seemed much larger. “We know… it tried to drown me earlier.” Pinkie stated grimly while looking to the splashes of water coming from the sides of the floor. The force of the impacts was forcing water out of the sides. Judging from the repeated assaults on the floor, Pinkie figured that whatever was down there did not want to wait for them to slip up and fall in the water by accident again. Rarity frantically racked her mind to find a way to help her friends. With her current state of exhaustion from wrestling Pinkie out of the water, she couldn’t lift the two over the water with her magic. She turned to them and tried to put on a determined expression to reassure them that she was in control of the situation. “Don’t worry! We’ll find something to bridge over the water so you can cross safely!” The white mare shouted with a false sense of confidence, but on the inside she was panicking just as much as the two trapped ponies. She motioned for Pinkie to follow her as she went around the room to find something large enough to bridge the gap. Twilight and Fluttershy waited anxiously as the two left the doorway. They felt just as helpless and alone as they were before, even knowing that their friends were just in the other room. Rarity and Pinkie quickly darted their eyes around the room to find something that was suitable for pushing across the water. After a few seconds of thinking, the unicorn finally glanced to a shelf that seemed like it would do the job. “Pinkie, get on the other side of this and pull!” Rarity instructed enthusiastically while running to the front of the shelf to push. Pinkie Pie nodded and quickly jumped on the other end and started pulling. The two managed to slide the shelf across the floor rapidly. After a few moments, Pinkie was facing the doorway and decided to turn to update her friends on their progress. “Don’t worry girls! We…” The pink pony was cut off suddenly as her face paled and her jaw hung open in shock. Twilight and Fluttershy were just as puzzled at the speechless pony as Rarity was. They had no idea what could have made her freeze up in such a desperate situation. “What’s wrong darling? Why did you stop pulling?” The white unicorn asked in confusion to the pink pony. She didn’t turn to respond and merely kept staring at her two friends. Rarity quickly walked over to the pink pony and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Come on Pinkie, we need to get this thing mo- Oh my!” Rarity gasped in surprise as she looked to where Pinkie was staring. Twilight and Fluttershy looked confused at the two dumbfounded ponies. They were staring past them with pale faces and wide eyes. “What is it…? What’s wr-” Twilight was interrupted by a gurgling noise that sent chills up her spine. Finally the purple pony and yellow pegasus turned around to discover what had silenced their friends in shock. The color drained from their faces as they laid eyes on what the problem was. At the far end of the room near the wall, a red mass was floating at the top of the water. The mass looked like a bloody mess had been spilled into the water, only it was moving. Chunks of gelatinous pulp seemed to be undulating around the red liquid as it floated in place next to the floor. The sight of the meaty blob immediately made the ponies’ stomachs churn uncomfortably. Twilight suddenly realized that the constant banging on the floorboards had ceased. She came to the grim conclusion that the red mass before her was the cause of their problems. The bloody puddle remained motionless save for its constant wriggling. The chunks on top of it seemed to be undulating and melding back into the puddle before resurfacing in a disturbing display. Twilight and Fluttershy contemplated moving closer to investigate the red mass, but they both came to the conclusion that they were better off at a distance. Still, they felt like they had to get a closer look. The pair cautiously walked over to the side of the room that the puddle was on while keeping far away from the water. The two mares leaned slightly closer to get a better look at the disturbing puddle. At this distance, they could smell a foul odor coming off of the gurgling mass that made them crinkle up their faces in disgust. They felt oddly compelled to get closer to the mass by a sense of morbid curiosity. “What is it?” Fluttershy asked nervously while glancing beside her to her more knowledgeable friend. “I don’t know… but it smells horrible.” Twilight stated while covering her mouth with her arm. The air coming off of the puddle was almost thick enough to taste, and the unicorn didn’t want to experience that for herself. “Be careful you two!” Rarity yelled over to the two mares, causing them to look over to the other side of the room to face her. Twilight started to say something, but then realized that she didn’t have anything to say to comfort the white mare. What they were doing was stupid and dangerous, and she knew it. Despite the danger, she at least had to examine the strange puddle. Suddenly, the sound of something breaching the water rang out and an arm shot out of the center of the puddle. Twilight and Fluttershy screamed in terror and recoiled as fast as they could from the horrific sight. The arm seemed to be made out of a slightly more solid looking variety of the red goo. The arm twitched and wriggled around in place, as if it was exploring the world for the first time. The ponies watched with wide eyes and gaping mouths as the bloody appendage shook violently. Every erratic movement it made sent a cold chill down their spines. Their fear only got worse when streams of the crimson liquid started flowing up the arm. The red fluid seemed to flow into the arm and fill it out. Sections of it that were thin and barely formed before were now becoming more solid. Eventually, a hand and five fingers started forming at the top of the arm. The digits articulated and twitched as more of the red puddle flowed over them and up to their tips. Soon enough, sharp claws had formed at the tip of each finger. The claws seemed to be made out of a darker red than the rest of the blood red arm, and they appeared more solid and less fluid like. Before the ponies could think of anything to do, the arm stretched upwards and slapped onto the floor. The loud thump that resulted made the four mares jump in fright. Twilight and Fluttershy backed up a little more from their initial jump. They had recoiled in fear when the hand reached up, but now they had run out of room to run as they hit the edge of the classroom. The sharp claws of the crimson hand dug into the wood and scrapped it as it tried to find a solid hold. The shrill sound of the claws scratching into the floor made the group cringe uncomfortably. The rest of the puddle started flowing upwards and climbing over the arm, moving out of the water and up the side of the ledge onto the floor. The bloody appendage disappeared into the crimson mass as it settled into a deep red puddle on the floor. “W…w..wha….” Twilight stuttered in fear and bewilderment as she tried to form coherent words. She looked over to see Fluttershy trembling in horror as she stared at the moving puddle with widened eyes. The puddle wriggled around while making a strange noise that sounded like a mixture of bubbling and gurgling. It was as if some kind of creature was trapped in the puddle and was trying to escape. Suddenly, the red liquid started climbing upwards into the air. The strange goo rose into the air and formed into a solid blob. The gurgling sound got louder and more pronounced as the red liquid climbed on top of itself to fill in the disturbing mass. Soon enough, two sections of the mass started branching off of the blob and reached out to the sides. The two sections formed into appendage-like shapes as more of the liquid flowed over them and filled them out. The ponies all made a grim discovery about the terrifying mass. It was starting to resemble a humanoid creature. Soon enough, the bloody mass started forming more identifiable features, like a head and hands. All of the features on the creature seemed to be made entirely out of blood, even the claws on its hand and the stringy hair on its head seemed to be made out of a dark shade of red. Strangely enough, the creature didn’t smell like blood, although it still smelled horrific. It almost smelled like a stagnated pool of water that had been sitting out in some misty and murky swamp for years on end. The humanoid figure shifted around in place as it adopted more fluidic movements. The lower half of the creature had not formed legs, although there was what appeared to be the start of two legs underneath its torso. Instead, the rest of the creature was merely a solid blob with a red puddle underneath of it. The ponies stood frozen in fear while staring into the gaunt skull like face of the crimson beast. The empty black holes it used for eyes seemed transfixed on the frightened animals standing on the other side of the room as they trembled at the sight of it. Rarity managed to snap herself out of the horrified trance she had been in while watching the creature form. She shook Pinkie forcefully before running to the other side of the shelf. “Come on Pinkie! We need to get them out of there now!” The unicorn yelled back to her friend to grab her attention. Pinkie grasped for the shelf in a daze as she turned her head to focus on her task. The two slid the shelf sideways across the room to make it fit through the door. While the two ponies across the hall sprang into action, Twilight and Fluttershy were left staring at the creature before them. The beast twitched its head as it suddenly laid eyes on Twilight’s chest wound. It seemed fascinated by the almost healed up opening in the unicorn. It let out a loud growl that sounded garbled and disgusting as the bloody mass vibrated to create the unnatural sound. The beast put one of its legs forward and lurched downward as it tried to walk upright using bipedal movement. While the creature fumbled forward in an attempt to walk, the puddle underneath it started to locomote forward, allowing the creature to move in an awkwardly horrific fashion. As the creature reached forward for the unicorn, Fluttershy looked up and noticed that Twilight was frozen in fear while staring at the approaching monster. She seemed unable to think clearly as the creature paused and shifted its puddle around. Suddenly, the creature’s arm shot out from its body. The arm seemed to return to a more fluid like state as it sprayed forward toward the hapless pony like a geyser of water. “Twilight look out!” Fluttershy exclaimed in surprise. All fear she had of the creature dissolved as she jumped into the unicorn to push her aside. Twilight was pushed to the floor and slid to the wall as she snapped out of her fear induced trance. She watched in horror as the clawed appendage slammed into the pegasus and kept going, pinning the yellow mare to the wall sideways as it landed on her midsection. “Ack!” Fluttershy’s cry of pain and surprise was cut short as she slammed into the wall. She felt the monster’s claws digging in further from the impact. “Fluttershy!” The unicorn cried out frantically as she watched blood start to drip from the pegasus as the claws undoubtedly dug into her side. Fluttershy screamed in pain as she felt the cold liquid of the creature interacting with her open wound. Twilight could faintly see through the arm as it was in a more liquid like state. She could just barely make out an open wound on Fluttershy’s side through the liquid skin of the creature. The creature sat still as its arm stretched thinly across the room, it then shook the liquid of its arm as it started putting some sort of effort into it. Suddenly, the unicorn noticed another red fluid flowing out of Fluttershy’s wound. She quickly realized that the monster was actually somehow draining the blood out of her. Fluttershy started groaning in a sort of painful horror as she felt the blood from her body being siphoned out into the crimson liquid holding her in place. She grew progressively weaker as the creature drained her lifeblood out of her. Twilight got to her feet and stood between them with determination. She wasn’t about to let some kind of living puddle hurt her friend. Not while she had anything to say about the matter. “You leave her alone!” The purple mare yelled angrily while rearing up to kick the arm away from her friend. Twilight heaved and shot her back legs out at the stretchy appendage, but was surprised when they passed right through it. She could feel the cold wet sensation of her legs slowing down and hitting something that felt like water, and then passing out the other side and speeding up as they hit air. “What the…?” Twilight exclaimed in utter confusion. The creature almost seemed to smirk at the unicorn with its deformed mouth as it continued to feed on the pegasus. The unicorn looked horrified at her friend as her head started dipping down from weakness. The lavender pony scowled in anger at the creature. She decided to ignore her own exhaustion and lit up her horn to use a spell on the beast. “Take this you... thing you!” Twilight growled angrily as she shot out a blast of concentrated energy from her horn. The ball flew across the room and collided with the monster. It exploded into the liquid mass of the beast and sprayed the red liquid everywhere, scattering the beast around the room. Fluttershy slid down the wall as the stretchy arm fell to the ground and turned into red fluid. She limply sprawled out across the floor and weakly lifted her head to view the situation. The creature had been reduced to piles of red liquid scattered around the room, ranging from medium sized puddles on the floor, to small droplets of red splattered on the wall that started to drip down. Twilight immediately rushed to the injured pegasus and assessed her wound. A large gash had been opened up into her side, yet the deep wound strangely did not bleed and appeared very dry. Fluttershy had lost a lot of color as her blood had been sucked out of her body. “Come on Fluttershy, I’m going to get you up ok?” Twilight spoke softly to the yellow mare, who offered a weak nod in return as the unicorn started to pick up the sickly pony. After the two had gotten up, they slowly walked over to the doorway and looked across the hallway and into the next room. “Hurry up girls! Fluttershy is hurt badly… we need to get out of here!” Twilight yelled fearfully at the two as they were working on the shelf. They had gotten the shelf lined up with the door, and were quickly pushing it over. Rarity looked over from her spot at the side of the shelf. She gasped when she saw the shape her friend was in. Fluttershy weakly smiled at the two to assure them that she was ok, but the pegasus quickly dipped her head and started to faint from weakness. She would have fallen had Twilight not been supporting her. “We’re almost there Twilight, just hang in there!” the white mare stated as calmly as she could, given the circumstances. Twilight glanced around at the pieces of red liquid around the room. They had all started moving from where they were to head into the water. The droplets and pools of crimson seemed to disappear once they hit the water, as if they could dive underneath the surface. The unicorn was going to make an observation on this occurrence, when the shelf was suddenly pushed forward into the water. Rarity and Pinkie Pie quickly pushed the shelf across the water to reach the other side, they then held onto it firmly to prevent it from moving. “Come on! We’ll steady it while you cross!” Pinkie shouted across the hall to the two ponies trapped in the other room. Twilight looked to Fluttershy and lifted her head up. She then gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up and get her attention. “Fluttershy, I need you to try and climb onto this shelf ok…? Can you do that for me?” Twilight spoke softly and calmly to the pale pegasus. Fluttershy weakly lifted her head and tried to look at her friend with determination. “Y..yeah… I think so.” Fluttershy whispered faintly as she struggled to walk forward. The yellow mare flopped onto the shelf and started crawling across. Rarity and Pinkie waited patiently for her to get within reach for them to help. Slowly but surely, Fluttershy managed to shimmy across the shelf as it bobbed in the water. Pinkie reached forward and helped the pegasus the rest of the way across. She then carried her to the side and laid her down gently. While Pinkie stayed by the injured pegasus’s side, Rarity turned her attention back to Twilight. “Come on darling, your turn to cross!” Rarity eagerly beckoned with her hoof to the unicorn to get her to cross. Twilight nodded and carefully stepped onto the rickety shelf. She placed her entire weight on the shelf and took a few moments to balance herself. She then cautiously walked forward across the makeshift platform. After a few minutes of steady walking, Twilight reached out to Rarity to support herself as she jumped over to the other side. The white mare reached out to grab her friend’s hoof, when she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of something breaching the surface of the water. Twilight cried out in surprise as a crimson red arm shot out from between the rungs of the shelf and grabbed onto her. The appendage quickly pulled the unicorn flat onto the shelf and tried to tip her over. “AHH!” Twilight screamed in fright as she felt herself being yanked sideways. She desperately tried to grab onto the shelf to steady herself and somehow prevent the monster from dragging her into the water. “Twilight!” Rarity yelled frantically as she watched the unicorn struggle against the ghastly blood red arm gripping onto her side. Just as the creature pulled the unicorn sideways off the shelf, Rarity reached out and grabbed her arm firmly. “Pinkie! Help me pull her up!” The white unicorn cried frantically to her friend as she struggled to keep Twilight above the water line. The creature latched onto her legs and sank back down under the water to conceal its appearance. Pinkie Pie quickly ran over to the doorway and grabbed onto Twilight’s other arm. The two pulled hard on the unicorn and wrestled her out of the creature’s grasp. Once firmly on land, the three looked down to the water in a panic. The trio could just barely see a dark shape moving upwards under the surface. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!” Twilight cried frantically before getting to her feet and running over to Fluttershy. Pinkie ran over and helped the unicorn carry their friend. The group then quickly ran out of the room and rapidly made headway down the hall. Once the group felt that they had gotten far enough away from any sizable source of water, they ducked into the nearest room and closed the door. They then took Fluttershy and set her down gently to investigate her wounds more thoroughly. Twilight was filled with dread upon looking at the weak state her friend was in. She was the more sensitive member of the group, and yet she had gotten into harm’s way to prevent her friend from getting hurt. “Are you ok Fluttershy?” The unicorn asked sadly while observing the sickly pegasus moving around weakly. Rarity looked over her wounds closely. As the white mare was inspecting her state of health, Fluttershy looked up to Twilight slowly and smiled weakly. “I think I have seen better days… hehe” Fluttershy laughed before trailing her voice off weakly. The pegasus’s chipper attitude made Twilight feel even worse. “Why did you do that Fluttershy? That thing was after me, not you!” the purple mare stated gingerly with worry. Fluttershy smiled again as she trembled while moving. “I didn’t want you to get hurt… I saw you standing there frozen in fear, and I saw that thing try to attack you, and I just… moved.” The pegasus spoke softly while trying to look less sick than she actually was. Rarity looked up from the pegasus’s side and shook her head sadly. “She has lost a lot of blood… if we don’t get her some serious medical attention soon, she is going to die.” The white mare trailed her eyes off sadly while delivering the grim news. Pinkie and Twilight placed a hoof up to their mouths to catch a gasp. Everyone looked sadly to the pegasus and tried their best to comfort her, when suddenly they heard the noise of something approaching from outside the room.
Chapter 28: Code BlueTwilight opened her eyes slowly, only to be greeted with pitch blackness above her. She felt exhausted and dreary, like she had been sleeping all day and only recently got up. She tried to move her limbs, but failed to even feel them, let alone move them. Frustrated at her inability to move, the groggy unicorn sat still and silent while trying to wake herself up more. Hearing quiet noises around her, and remembering what situation she was in, the purple pony tried once again to move her body. Twilight groaned softly as she tried with all of her might to elicit a response from her numb body, but failed once again. Finally she tried moving her head around to get a better look at her surroundings. It was difficult to say the least. Trying to move her neck felt like trying to move a limb that had fallen asleep to the point of complete sensory deprivation, but the unicorn slowly managed to move her head to the point where gravity kicked in and rolled her the rest of the way on her side. She sat still for a moment while letting her eyes adjust. Eventually, Twilight managed to see the fuzzy outlines of faint colors and shapes in the darkness. She couldn’t surmise where she was, but she could see what was in the room in front of her. The room had grey walls and floors, which from the tiny bit of sensory data the unicorn could gather from her lower body, she knew to be cold. A few miscellaneous boxes and a table sat on the far wall, which Twilight gathered was a decent ways away, giving the impression that the room she was in was rather large in size. Shifting her eyes around, the purple pony could see several brighter shades of color laying in the darkness. After squinting to focus her vision, Twilight was shocked to see that the shapes belonged to ponies. She could faintly make out Daisychain a short ways away from her, Nurse Redheart off to the side, and the missing stallion Patches over by the left wall. A mixture of relief and concern welled up in the unicorn as she tried once again in vain to get up and move. She was starting to realize that it wasn’t just sleep paralysis keeping her from moving her body. It was something outside of the purple pony’s control. Before Twilight could think any further about the strange paralysis, she heard Daisychain moan softly as she started to move her head. She seemed to be in the same condition that the unicorn was. The yellow nurse slowly rolled her head over and looked around before finally noticing Twilight. “T…Twi…light?” Daisychain struggled to even get out a barely audible whisper across to the unicorn. Twilight was relieved to see that the nurse had been unharmed. “Da..isy?” Twilight was surprised to find out that she was having problems speaking as well. It was almost like she was having a nightmare, and her voice couldn’t even leave her throat. The two stared at each other for a while, expressing their terror through their eyes due to the muscles in their faces being frozen in a blank expression. “Wh….w..w” Daisy struggled to raise her voice loud enough to be heard. Twilight surmised that she was asking what was going on, but she wouldn’t have been able to answer her even if the yellow mare had finished her question. Suddenly, a loud noise pierced through the eerie silence of the room. The two ponies tried to lift their heads to look towards the noise, but failed to do anything more than shift their eyes to the limit of their vision. The noise sounded like a door being opened and closed forcefully somewhere off in the distance. The quiet shuffling of feet started growing louder as something approached the room they were in. Twilight tried her best to communicate through her eyes to the pony lying in front of her, but couldn’t do much more than share a frightened stare with the nurse. Finally, the source of the walking made itself known to the two mares. One of the dark figures was standing at Daisy’s feet and watching her menacingly. Twilight had a better view of the creature than Daisy had. The only thing the nurse could see of the figure was a fuzzy outline as she strained her eyes to their limit to see beside her. The creature suddenly bent forward and reached out to grab the hapless pony. Twilight could only watch in horror as the shadow roughly flipped the limp mare’s head around to see it as it held her upper body off of the floor by her shirt. Daisy squeaked in pain as her neck hung backwards at an odd, uncomfortable angle after settling from her head rolling sideways. She stared up at the creature with pupils the size of tiny dots. The terrified mare started gasping for air as her paralyzed chest muscles struggled to pump her lungs fast enough to supply her frightened body. “Ah…eh….pu…” Daisy mumbled fearfully as she tried to communicate to the creature for it to leave her alone. The shadow ignored the barely audible protests of the nurse as it pulled her closer to its face. Twilight could only stare helplessly as a strange yet horrifying scene unfolded before her. Strange wispy lines began coming off of Daisychain and flowed upward into the general area of the creature’s mouth. The pale, dimly luminescent lines reminded Twilight of dust flowing in front of a flashlight. Daisy squeaked in pain and agony, which due to her paralysis sounded like the mumbled groaning of a pony making noises in their sleep due to a bad dream. The yellow nurse twitched and jerked whatever bits of her body that she could feel as she writhed from the sheer distress of the sensation washing over her. Suddenly, the croaks and groans of the yellow mare grew less prominent. It sounded like the nurse was slowly drifting out of consciousness. Twilight could barely see Daisy’s eyes droop up to stare at the ceiling rather than the creature. Her pupils slowly rolled upwards as her eyelids drifted shut. The strange wisps ceased and the mare was silent. The creature let go of the pony, causing her limp body to thud against the floor. Daisy’s head rolled sideways and settled, leaving her facing Twilight. “…!” Twilight could only express her horror internally as she stared at the nurse’s motionless body. Not much had changed from her previous state, she was paralyzed after all. But what filled the unicorn with dread and terror was the fact that she couldn’t see the subtle rise and fall of the yellow mare’s chest to indicate that she was breathing. The creature walked off to the side and picked up Nurse Redheart. The white nurse seemed to still be unconscious as her eyes remained closed. Suddenly, the sleeping pony woke up in a panic as she noticed her body was being lifted up. She darted her eyes around fearfully before finally spotting the menacing shadow holding her up. The same wispy lines from before started flowing from Redheart straight into the figure’s face. Twilight’s mind raced a mile a minute as she processed everything that was happening. She knew that she was going to die here, she knew it in her heart. All that she could think about was her young assistant. She wondered if the creatures would come after them next and do to them what they were currently doing to Nurse Redheart. She wondered if Tom and Rainbow Dash had broken free from the mysterious creatures and had already found the two children. She wondered how Spike would react if he found her cold and dead on the floor. “N…n…no!” Twilight managed to form an average sounding word through her numb throat. The unicorn refused to let the young dragon down like that. She had promised him that she would take better care of herself, and that meant surviving this day. Searching deep within herself, Twilight found the strength to channel a minute amount of energy to her horn. She struggled to get the feeling back to her horn so she could do something, anything to save herself and possibly the other ponies in the room. Although she couldn’t manage to channel enough energy to project light from her horn as she had done so many times before. The unicorn did manage to think of a different spell to use that required less start up energy. Twilight fought the lack of feeling in her muscles to lift her head up slightly. She pointed her horn the best she could to aim at the creature, and she shot out a bolt of energy that was as strong as she could muster. The beam flew in what seemed like slow motion towards the creature. It made impact dead in the center of the figure. The monster shrieked in pain and dropped the nurse to the floor. It writhed around in pain for a while before rushing backwards to get away. After a few short moments, Twilight could no longer hear the creature. The purple unicorn was surprised to feel that she had regained sensation in her body completely. She immediately got up and lit her horn up to get a better look at the room. Spotting Nurse Redheart a short ways away, the purple pony sprang into action and rushed to her side. The white mare groaned weakly and moved her head and legs around. Twilight could tell that she was hurt somehow by the creature. The unicorn knelt down and lifted the nurse’s head up gently to hold her at a stable level. “Nurse Redheart! Are you okay?!” Twilight asked frantically while examining the white mare for any physical injuries. Redheart groggily opened her eyes and looked at the unicorn with an exhausted expression. She then winced in pain and shook her head weakly. “I’m fine for the moment… just really weak… ughh… Where’s Daisy?” The white mare asked sleepily as she remembered that her friend had been with the unicorn. Twilight looked over to the motionless yellow mare with a concerned frown. “I’ll go check on her and Patches… you stay here and don’t move ok?” Twilight said while gently placing the white nurse down. Redheart nodded slowly before resting her head on the hard floor beneath her. Twilight rushed over to Daisychain with a growing pit in her stomach. She put her arms around the mare’s back and lifted her upper body up gently. Daisy’s head rolled over limply before the unicorn put an arm under her neck to support her. Twilight had hoped that her previous observation of the yellow nurse’s lack of breathing was just due to the lack of light. But much to her horror, she discovered that the yellow pony was in fact not breathing. She quickly put her head to Daisy’s chest to listen for her heart. “….No…” The unicorn spoke anxiously as she failed to hear any noise to indicate that the nurse’s heart was beating. She feverishly grabbed the mare’s limp arm and felt for a pulse. Failing to feel anything on her arm, Twilight instinctively felt the nurse’s neck as a last ditch effort. “No...! No, no, no! Daisy, wake up please!” Twilight pleaded while shaking the motionless pony to jolt her awake. The sight of Daisy’s limp body settling in place after it had stopped shaking made her heart drop to the floor. She could feel a horrific sense of despair washing over her body. Tears began forming in her eyes as her mind refused to accept what was in front of her. Daisychain had been chatting happily with the unicorn just half an hour ago, but now she was dead, and it was Twilight’s fault. If she had only realized the situation earlier, and fought to save the yellow mare, she might still be alive. Setting the mare’s body down gently, Twilight got up and walked over to the corner to examine Patches. She found him in the same condition that Daisy was in. Putting a hoof on his arm to check his pulse, the unicorn confirmed that he had also been killed by the creatures. “I’m so sorry…” Twilight spoke sadly to herself. Although she knew in her heart that she was not truly at fault for their deaths, she couldn’t help but feel responsible in some way. Perhaps as a twisted defense mechanism to prevent her from dealing with death that happened without a just cause. The unicorn walked back over to the only surviving member of staff at the hospital with her head hung gloomily. She didn’t know how she would tell the white mare that her friends were dead. Despite her intense desire to crawl under a rock and forget the events of the day, Twilight walked up to the resting nurse and sat down next to her. “Twilight… you’re back.” Redheart stated happily while breathing heavily, as if to catch her breath. Noticing the unicorn’s sad expression, the white mare felt a pang of dread fill her stomach. “Are Daisy and Patches… alright?” She asked with a dull voice, even though she could already guess the answer. Twilight shook her head sadly while letting a few tears stream down her face. “They… they didn’t make it.” Twilight sniffled sadly while looking away from the white mare. Redheart closed her eyes and leaned her head back onto the floor. Twilight could hear the nurse weeping quietly. She turned her head to see Redheart crying her eyes out silently while lying on the floor. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t save them… it’s all my fault.” The unicorn droned in a depressed tone of voice while looking away to cry herself. She suddenly heard the nurse struggling with something. Twilight turned to see Redheart groaning as she ignored her exhausted body to get up to face the unicorn. “Don’t beat yourself up Twilight… you saved me after all.” The white mare shifted her sad voice to a more thankful one while putting a hoof on the purple pony’s shoulder. “If you hadn’t stopped that thing, it would have killed me for sure. I could feel it sucking out my energy, but I couldn’t even move enough to scream.” She shuddered as she recalled the cold feeling of the creature draining her life force straight out of her. “Are you alright? We should probably get back to the lobby, but if you’re hurt…” Twilight asked while looking at the exhausted mare with concern. Redheart got to her feet and wobbled a little as she stood up. As the nurse faltered while trying to walk, the unicorn caught her and helped to support her weight. “I’m so weak… I can barely move.” Redheart groaned as she struggled to stay upright, even with the help of the purple pony. “Don’t worry… I’ve got you. Just try not to over exert yourself ok?” Twilight said while shuffling forward with the nurse in tow. Once they made it to the empty doorway of the large room, the two gave one last somber look to their fallen companions. They then looked at each other and slowly nodded with the resolve that they wouldn’t allow anyone else to be harmed. As the pair slowly walked through the dark hallways, Twilight was at a loss as to where they were going. The surroundings didn’t even look like they were still in the hospital at all. With bleak looking grey walls and hard, cold floors as far as the eye could see. “Where are we? Do you recognize anything?” Twilight asked the white mare beside her. Redheart lifted her head up from its resting position to look at their surroundings. After taking a moment to think, she turned to the unicorn to state her findings. “Looks like we’re in the basement… The stairs should be easy enough to find if you stick to this hallway.” Redheart explained before drooping her head back down to conserve energy. Twilight was concerned that the nurse was in worse shape than she was letting on, but nodded and looked forward to search for the stairs. After an eternity of slowly shuffling through the dark corridors in fearful apprehension, a large door with a placard beside it that read stairs came into view. The unicorn could barely contain her excitement as she poked her companion to alert her to their good fortune. Redheart looked up to see what the unicorn was pointing at, when her face suddenly lit up with joy and relief. “Thank Celestia…” The nurse huffed gleefully before yanking herself away from the surprised unicorn. Twilight looked at her with concern as she unsteadily stood by herself. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help you walk Redheart? You look like you’re about to pass out.” Twilight eyed the nurse with a frown of doubt and worry plastered on her face. “Oh come on Twilight… I’m perfectly fine.” Redheart grinned widely to convince her friend that she was well enough to walk on her own. Twilight raised an eyebrow doubtfully as she watched the nurse teeter around like a newborn fawn trying to walk for the first time. She then decided to keep a careful eye on the white mare to make sure she didn’t fall over. The two walked as quickly as they could over to the stairs and opened the door. Twilight was relieved to walk out into the basement landing and stare up to the railing that was on the first floor. She felt like she could take on an entire army of those creatures as long as it meant she could get out of the dark and into the light. The unicorn walked up the stairs a short way before remembering her handicapped companion. She then turned around to see Redheart struggling to walk up the stairs to keep up. “You alright to climb the stairs alone?” Twilight asked as she observed the nurse breathing heavily while climbing a single step. The white pony looked up and smiled as she panted heavily. “Don’t worry about me… I’ll be fine once we get somewhere we can rest.” Redheart spoke with a slightly cheerful tone. Twilight was happy to see that the nurse was so chipper. Without any further delay, the unicorn walked up the steps to survey the area. She looked behind her to see if the nurse was climbing the stairs without issue, only to see her companion following close behind, or at least as close as she could, given her state of health. “AHH!” As the unicorn turned her head to continue walking forward, she heard the nurse cry out in surprise. Twilight whipped her head back around to see that Redheart was clinging to the railing of the stairs as her back legs were being pulled by one of the creatures. “Oh no you don’t!” The purple mare exclaimed as she leapt forward bravely to save her friend. She grabbed onto the frightened nurse and pulled back hard to counter the force put onto her by the creature. As she looked ahead to spot the creature, Twilight was surprised to see that she could actually spot the creature. The light from her horn fell on the hooded monster completely. It didn’t seem to care about the light at all as it stared back at the unicorn with a scornful expression on its pale face. “What?! Why isn’t it running away from the light?!” Twilight exclaimed in a mixture of panic and confusion. Nurse Redheart looked up to her fearfully. She could feel herself being wrenched out of the unicorn’s grasp more and more every passing second. “Do that thing you did to get it off me before!” The white mare yelled frantically as she felt herself being slowly pulled closer to the frightful beast. Twilight wasted no time on questioning why the light wasn’t working. She charged up her horn and shot another blast at the creature. The bolt of energy collided with the monster and exploded into an array of purple sparks The figure immediately let go of the nurse and recoiled back into the shadows. The two ponies stared at the blackness ahead of them and waited for it to return. Satisfied that the creature was gone, Twilight pulled Nurse Redheart to her feet and yanked her up the stairs. “Come on… we’re getting out of here, now!” The purple mare stated with a stern tone of voice as she didn’t even give the nurse a chance to protest the help she was getting. Redheart didn’t seem to mind the extra help as she rushed up the stairs with the unicorn pulling her along. The two rushed up to the first floor landing and made it out of the door. Knowing that the creatures were no longer affected by light gave the ponies a new sense of fear and urgency as they walked through the halls. Twilight looked behind her every so often to ensure that they were not being followed by one of the shadowy figures. As they got closer to the lobby, the unicorn’s mind raced as she thought about every possible thing that could prevent them from reaching the safe confines of the front room. Every corner they passed gave the purple pony a miniature heart attack as her nerves kicked into gear to prepare her body to run away from any possible hazards. Finally, the familiar bastion of the main hallway that led into the lobby came into view. It was hard to tell due to the lack of light filtering in from the entrance, but the faint blue force field served as a un-miss able landmark that shined like a beacon to the two ponies. Without wasting any time by standing idly outside of the protective barrier, Twilight and Redheart burst through the non-solid wall and into the brightly lit lobby. They immediately noticed Applejack and Scootaloo sitting together off in the corner. Once the pair noticed the two ponies entering the room, they got up from the floor and displayed cheerful smiles on their faces. “Twilight!” Both the orange mare and the young filly screamed gleefully in unison as they rushed over to greet the pair. Twilight gently let Nurse Redheart shift onto her own four legs and prepared herself to catch the two charging ponies in a hug. The two practically crashed into the purple unicorn and held her tightly, as if they were afraid that she might disappear again if they let go. After finally being released from the almost suffocating grip of the two excited ponies, Twilight smiled cheerfully at her two friends. She almost couldn’t believe that she was standing in front of them, considering that she had been forcefully dragged off into the darkness earlier. “I’m so happy to see you guys! I thought I would never make it back here again!” The unicorn wiped a joyful tear from her eye as she beamed at the two in front of her. They seemed to share in her overwhelming happiness as they also had tears of joy welling up in their eyes. “We thought we would never see you again Twilight! Don’t ever scare us like that again!” Applejack playfully chided the unicorn while putting a hoof on her shoulder to assure that she was really there. “What happened to you anyway? Where did they take you?” Scootaloo asked with nervous curiosity brimming in her face. If the unicorn hadn’t sacrificed herself the way she did, then the filly might have been dragged away along with her. Twilight frowned slightly as she instinctively thought about where she had been taken due to the question. She wondered how she could tell them about Daisychain and Patches, if she could even tell them. “They brought me down to the basement. That’s where I found Nurse Redheart and…” Twilight paused briefly as she struggled to think of what to say. Applejack could already tell that the unicorn knew something that she didn’t want to tell out loud. “Did you find Spike? What about Tom and Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. Twilight was slightly relieved to have the conversation derailed. She shook her head somberly as she thought about what the others must be going through. “Sorry, but we didn’t see them down there. Maybe they got taken upstairs or something…” Twilight explained with a sympathetic frown. Scootaloo started to ask another question, when Nurse Redheart suddenly waved her over. “Scootaloo… could you be a dearie and help me up? I don’t feel very good right now.” The white mare asked with a polite smile while glancing to Twilight knowingly. The unicorn was relieved to not have to inform the filly about the horrible things that happened downstairs. “Ok… I’m coming!” Scootaloo chimed, ever eager to help out a pony in need. She then ran over to the other side of the room to assist the fallen nurse. Twilight had to admire the innocent nature of the orange pegasus. She might have been the most likely to cause trouble out of all the crusaders, but she had a heart of gold once you got to know her. Once the filly had left, Twilight glanced back over to Applejack to see her displaying a concerned frown. The unicorn sighed as she realized that the farm pony must have read her like a book. The orange mare placed a loving hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder to console her. “Twilight… what happened?” Applejack asked in a soft voice, both to comfort the gloomy unicorn, and to prevent the filly across the room from hearing. Twilight looked away sadly to avoid eye contact with the concerned farm pony. “We… we found Diasychain and Patches down there as well.” The unicorn spoke with a dull, somber sort of tone. “The creatures must have paralyzed us somehow, because none of us could move very much. I was forced to watch one of those things…” Twilight noticed that she was involuntarily tearing up as she recalled the traumatic experience. Applejack gave her a moment to gather herself before continuing. “They killed Daisy and Patches…” The unicorn finally managed to say with a trembling voice. Applejack gasped and put a hoof up to her mouth in shock. She knew that the creatures were dangerous, but she could never have imagined something so terrible happening to anyone. “They almost killed Redheart too… but I managed to fend them off with my magic…” Twilight sniffled quietly and looked down. “I just wish that I could have at least saved Daisy… Patches was gone before I even woke up, but Daisy was right there!” The purple pony’s voice started giving out as she became even more upset. The sniffling unicorn suddenly felt her friend put a hoof on her shoulder again. She looked over to see that the orange pony had tears in her eyes as well. Twilight had forgotten that Applebloom was also lost in the hospital. She knew that the yellow filly meant as much to Applejack as Spike meant to her, if not more. “Twilight… that sounds horrible! Ah’m so sorry you had to sit through something like that…” Applejack wiped the tears from her eyes before continuing. “Listen… what happened to Daisy was not your fault.” The orange mare stated sympathetically. For the unicorn, hearing the farm pony trying to comfort her was void of the weight it normally would carry. “But I…” Twilight stammered with a guilty frown on her face. Applejack gave her a sympathetic frown before stopping her mid-sentence. “Ah don’t care what you did or didn’t do sugar cube. You were scared… you were even paralyzed fer crying out loud. You had no way of knowing what was going on. The fact that you saved yourself and Redheart is enough to be thankful for.” Applejack said with a brief smile on her face. “We would be devastated if you got hurt… Think of how poor Spike would feel if you wound up dead.” The orange mare’s speech suddenly reminded Twilight of what she was doing before. “We need to find the others… but we need to go get help first.” The unicorn stated while getting up to walk over to the front doors. Just as she grabbed the handle to try to open it, she was stopped by Applejack holding her back gently. “Don’t waste your strength. We tried that a little while after you got pulled away. The dern thing won’t budge.” Applejack said gloomily. Twilight figured that something would prevent them from leaving, but actually hearing that they were trapped made her heart sink. “So… we’re stuck in here?” Twilight asked with anxious fear and dread on her face. Applejack nodded sadly before sighing. “We’re never getting out of this stupid hospital are we?” The unicorn asked rhetorically as she slid to the floor and buried her head into her arms. Suddenly, an unexpected noise made the sullen purple pony lift her head up curiously. The sound of muffled speech and walking softly bled through from outside the front door. It sounded like there were several different voices just outside the door. Twilight got up from her seated position and joined Applejack in curiously listening to the noise. It was hard to see out of the window beside the door due to only sunlight being able to get in, but there were definitely ponies moving around and talking out there. Before they could think of what to do with this new discovery, another odd occurrence made them back away from the door. A beam of blue light projected from the seam of the door and slowly traveled down the length of the wooden frame. A soft buzzing noise was also coming from the source of the light, as if someone were using a blowtorch on the door. Once the light reached the bottom of the door, the ponies were surprised to see the door fly open forcefully. On top of the door flying open, several ponies flooded into the newly open lobby. Five ponies in total walked up to the group of wide eyed observers. All of the strange ponies were wearing almost identical uniforms consisting of black and blue tactical vests with various straps and pockets that held what Twilight could sparsely identify as magical supplies, among other things. A white stallion with grey hair stepped in front of the others and looked around at the three ponies and single filly. He then settled his eyes on Twilight and spoke up with a deep voice. “Twilight Sparkle I presume?” The stallion asked curiously. He tried to sound friendly to counter his tough looking exterior. Twilight was still trying to process the fact that she was now talking to someone that had just waltzed in from the outside. “Y-yeah… Who are you?” The unicorn asked timidly as she examined the strange group. The stallion looked around to his companions before settling his eyes back on the four confused ponies and smiling. “We’re here to help.” He stated in an earnest and sincere tone.
Chapter 33: Getting to Know the TeamThe afternoon sun barely managed to shine through the blanket of clouds down onto the streets of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and her troop of companions walked dauntlessly through the empty street on their way back to the library. The wind had picked up since they had started their journey, creating a pleasant cooling sensation as it whipped past them. The cool temperature of the steady breeze complimented perfectly with the warm atmosphere of mid-summer Equestria to create a pleasing atmosphere. If one were to ignore the events that had taken place at the hospital, they might say that this was a nice day overall. As the group walked along, they chatted with each other and their newfound allies. There was a lot to learn about these new ponies, and if Twilight and the others would be working with them, they wanted to get to know them better as individuals. “So how long have you guys known each other anyway?” The purple unicorn asked Brimstoke and his teammates with an intrigued expression. “Well…” Brimstoke paused for a moment to think of how to reply. “Neon and I worked together in the civil branch of the royal guard for a couple of years. Glimmer Shine joined us as a rookie and worked with us for about a year and a half, which is how we met Peppermint, who was in training to become a field medic. Glitterball and I were old buddies back in the academy, but she went away to study advanced magic…” He explained while pointing to each of his teammates. “And I bet you were lost without me in the exams.” Glitter chimed in with a friendly smirk. “Before he met me, he could barely recite the oath without forgetting the words, let alone study for a test effectively.” She chided the stallion playfully, much to his dismay. “Anyway… we didn’t see each other too much after she left... up until the princess gathered us up to train for this job. As for Sunspot, she’s relatively new to us. We don’t really know her from the academy or anything, but we saw each other a few times before she left to join the Wonderbolts.” Brimstoke stated casually. The stallion’s explanation shocked the ponies slightly. The one who was most surprised however was Rainbow Dash. “You were in The Wonderbolts?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a mixture of shock and intrigue as she looked back to the suited pony. Sunspot chuckled proudly and nodded. “Yep… That’s where I got this suit.” Sunspot said while drawing attention to her full body suit. The similarities between it and a Wonderbolts’ uniform were uncanny. “I thought that looked like a Wonderbolts suit… but I wasn’t sure, what with the missing mask and different pattern.” Rainbow Dash observed the suit curiously to compare it to her idols’ uniforms. “Yeah, well… I had it customized to better fit my likings once I learned that I was going to join a team of monster hunters.” Sunspot explained with a slight sense of joy as she pointed out the various pieces of equipment hanging from her suit “That is so cool!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with excitement while admiring the uniform further. She imagined what it would be like to have her own custom suit like that, and what it would look like. Suddenly, a slight tapping on her leg interrupted the cyan mare’s fantasy and made her look down. She then noticed Scootaloo was poking her leg to get her attention. “This is where I turn off to get home… I’ll see you guys later.” Scootaloo stated while walking away from the group. Rainbow Dash was a little bit confused to see the filly leaving without her. “You sure you want to leave on your own?” The cyan mare asked the young pegasus courteously. Scootaloo turned around to face the group with a slightly disappointed expression. “I’ll be fine on my own, and besides… you should stay to help the others.” Scootaloo said with a slightly gloomy tone in her voice as she abandoned all hope of staying to help. The others were a little upset to see the filly leave on such a sad note. After waving farewell to the orange filly, the troop continued on their way. As she walked behind Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash was starting to get worried for the yellow mare. She had been wobbling to the side slightly from time to time as her head drooped from exhaustion. She practically fell over a few times as she nearly fell asleep while walking. “Are you ok Fluttershy? You’ve been acting like this ever since you arrived at the tent.” The cyan pony’s question made the group pause briefly to check on the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy kept walking for a brief moment until she collided with Pinkie Pie and jolted awake. “Wh...wha? I’m fine, alright? I’m just a little bit tired.” Fluttershy mumbled in a sleepy daze while keeping her eyes halfway open. Seeing the yellow mare so disheveled and drowsy made everyone worried for her. She was normally so upbeat and content with life, but now she was barely aware of her surroundings and looked as if she hadn’t slept all night. “It’s alright if you want me to take you back home Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash offered in a friendly manner. “No!” Fluttershy yelped in a fearful tone. The sudden question made the shy pegasus jerk backwards in surprise and become fully awake for a moment. She then realized her abnormal outburst and nervously tried to regain her usual composure. “I... err… I mean… I don’t want to leave you guys without helping you first.” Fluttershy said in an awkward attempt to put the conversation back on track. “Fluttershy… is there something you aren’t telling us? You seem awfully adamant about not going home, and you look like you haven’t slept in a year.” Twilight reasoned in a caring tone while walking up to the anxious pegasus. “I… I…” Fluttershy stammered nervously while looking around at her concerned friends. She knew that she couldn’t just hide such an important matter from them, but she didn’t want them to worry for her at the same time. “Come on Fluttershy, we’re your friends… you can tell us anything.” Rainbow Dash stated lovingly. Keeping something from her best friends while they were giving her heartfelt speeches was too much for the timid pegasus to handle. “*Sigh*… I’m scared to go home…” Fluttershy finally looked down and caved in. Everyone was surprised and confused to hear about the yellow mare’s issue. “What…? But why are you scared to-” Rarity started to ask, but was interrupted by Fluttershy continuing. “I was just about to go to bed last night… Me and Angel were cozying up in our beds, and everything was going just like an average night.” The timid mare explained with slight unease. “After I had just nodded off, I was woken up by the most terrifying noises I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like some kind of ghostly howling and moaning, and it sounded like it was coming from the Everfree Forest. It was horrible! I tried to ignore it as best I could, but it got so loud and unnerving that I had to check to see what it was. I went to my window and looked outside… normally, I would have some trouble making out the tree line from so far away after dark, but there was this odd green glow coming from behind the trees. I thought I saw things moving around, so I decided to lock my door and hide under my sheets.” Everyone was shocked and uneasy from hearing the yellow mare’s tale. Fluttershy was shivering with fright from merely remembering the experience. “I was too scared to sleep at all last night, even after the noise stopped. At the first sign of daylight, I ran out the door and left… I haven’t been back since.” Fluttershy seemed to be more afraid than sleepy as she finished her story. Rainbow Dash sat down next to the shivering pony and put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy looked beside her to see the cyan pony was giving her a look of confidence. “Don’t worry about it Fluttershy… I’m sure that Tom could help you out.” The blue pegasus volunteered the help of the slayer to the shy mare. Fluttershy was surprised to hear such a proposal. She turned to Tom and gave him an unimposing look. “R-really?” Fluttershy asked to confirm with the human. Although she didn’t want to ask something so large of the slayer, the desperation was clear on her face. Tom nodded reassuringly with a confident smile. “I would be happy to help you out Fluttershy.” The boy stated sincerely. Fluttershy smiled weakly from hearing this and turned back to Rainbow Dash. “And if it makes you feel any better, I could come along with you and stay the night.” The cyan pony offered with a friendly smile. “I can come too! It’ll be like a sleepover!” Pinkie spoke up from the crowd while bouncing eagerly. Fluttershy looked around at her friends with a warm and happy expression. “But… won’t Twilight need us to help her with the research?” Fluttershy asked timidly. Twilight smiled and shook her head. “We have plenty of eyes to help us out while you’re gone. And besides, you can stay at the library and help out until sunset.” The purple unicorn suggested reassuringly. Seeing her friends offer to help her so much made the yellow pegasus feel fuzzy from joy. “Thanks guys… A pony couldn’t ask for better friends.” Fluttershy said with a big smile that deceived her current state of exhaustion. Everyone was happy to see their friend’s cheerful spirits return. After stopping to lift the shy mare’s spirits, the group continued on their path towards the library. After a few more minutes of walking, the familiar shape of the tree-like building came into view. Twilight walked up to the door and opened it up while ushering her large group of friends inside. Once Inside, Everyone got comfortable and attended to their business at hand. Glitterball sat the books she was carrying down on a table, Brimstoke and the other members of Spirit familiarized themselves with the books and layout of the library, while Twilight’s friends waited for a chance to be useful. Fluttershy sat down on a chair and rested her head in her hooves tiredly. Her eyes slowly drifted shut and her head drooped onto the table. After a few moments, the pegasus started snoring softly as she fell asleep. Twilight walked over and gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up. The yellow mare jerked upwards and looked around as she came to her senses again. “Fluttershy… why don’t you head upstairs and take a nap in my bed?” The unicorn suggested in a friendly manner. Fluttershy was excited to hear the word bed in any context relating to herself. “Really?” Fluttershy asked with as much emotion as she could convey to sound courteous, which wasn’t very much. The pegasus was still drowsy, but she didn’t want to impose on her friend. Twilight smiled and nodded to the tired pony and pointed upstairs. “Go on… we’ll wake you up when it’s time for you to head home with the others.” Twilight said in a friendly tone. The purple pony’s offer made the yellow mare smile warmly. “Thank you…” Fluttershy said in a sleepy tone while getting up from her chair. She then slowly walked upstairs and tried to prevent herself from falling asleep on the way up. After hearing her bedroom door open and close, Twilight smiled before returning to business at hand. The unicorn walked over to the nearby table and picked up one of the books stacked neatly on the edge. Unable to decipher the title of the book from the outside, she flipped open the pages and skimmed through them while searching for something to catch her eye. The sight of a bookmarked page made the purple pony stop in her tracks and stop breathing momentarily as her heart jumped in surprise. On the page that was highlighted by a colored in portion of the corner, was a terrifyingly familiar creature that made Twilight’s blood run cold. A blood red humanoid mass of liquid was artistically drawn reaching out of a swampy looking body of water. It was staring forward with its empty eye sockets while its mouth was open in a silent growl as it stretched its fluid arm towards the viewer. Twilight easily identified this creature to be the same one that plagued the school yesterday. “Hey guys… come take a look at this.” Twilight announced to the others after remembering to breathe. The unicorn held the book open and moved it closer so everyone could see it as they gathered around her. Everyone had mixed reactions of fear upon seeing the illustration, from minor gasps of fright, to outright recoiling in horror. “Oh my…” Rarity exclaimed under her breath as she held her hoof up to her mouth to catch a gasp. She immediately recognized the bloody creature staring back at her from the book. Pinkie Pie wasn’t faring any better than the white unicorn. Pinkie’s pupils shrank as memories of being held under water against her will came flooding back to her. She could still practically hear Rarity’s yells as she desperately tried to save her from being drowned in the icy depths. “Whoa! What in the name of Celestia is that?!” Rainbow Dash asked in shock as she studied the drawing closely out of morbid curiosity. “That’s the thing that attacked us at the school…” Twilight spoke with a dull tone as she tried her hardest not to remember her experiences. “You mean that’s the thing that hurt Fluttershy and the crusaders and almost drowned Pinkie?” The cyan pegasus asked in disbelief as she forced herself to look away from the disturbing image. Pinkie Pie started shivering as she had even more fear triggered by mention of the event. Rainbow Dash noticed her friend’s face pale and felt awful for being so blunt about such a traumatic event. “Sorry Pinkie. I didn’t mean to dig up any painful memories.” Rainbow Dash stated in an apologetic tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the pink mare’s shoulder. Pinkie stopped shivering and took a moment to shake the frightful images from her head. “It’s alright… I guess almost drowning shook me up a bit more than I thought. I’m fine though.” The party pony said while slowly returning her casual feeling of happiness. The fact that even Pinkie was being affected by everything that was going on served as a grim reminder to the ponies of the severity of the threat they were facing. As the other members of Spirit were examining the creature’s drawing with the rest of the group, Glitterball was studying the page on the right and analyzing its contents. The white unicorn turned to the others and spoke up to redirect their focus. “This must be a summoning book then… It has instructions on how to find ingredients for a spell to bring this creature forth.” Glitter explained her findings with slight intrigue. Twilight’s curiosity was peaked again as an idea popped into her head. The purple pony flipped through the pages once more and looked for another bookmarked page. Finding what she was looking for, she stopped and looked at the new illustration. “Aha!” Twilight exclaimed triumphantly. The illustration depicted a dark hallway of a rundown building. Standing on the blurry edge of the shaded darkness, was a tall shadowy figure wearing a hood with barely noticeable pale skin. “The midnight men.” Tom stated as he recognized the shadowy silhouette. Rainbow Dash and Spike were filled with a sense of dread and unease just from looking at the drawing. “This is what they used to bring those monsters to the school and hospital. Maybe we can find out what goals they have by studying what spells they are using from these books.” Twilight deduced out loud with slight enthusiasm. “Only one way to find out… everyone, break off into groups and grab a book. We can get more done if we work in numbers.” Brimstoke announced to the group while picking up one of the other books and heading over to the corner of the table. Neon Streak followed the stallion and sat down next to him to see the open book in front of him. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before getting up and joining the two by sitting beside them on the other side of the table. Tom grabbed the last book and walked over to a spot on the floor before kneeling down and sitting cross legged with the book on the floor in front of him. Peppermint and Glimmer Shine walked over and sat down beside the human and began studying the book on the floor. Pinkie Pie decided to join the open spot in the circle and trotted over to sit down next to the three. Twilight was left with the remainder of the group by default as her study aids. Spike stood on a chair and rested his palms on the table while he leaned forward to see the book. Glitterball sat at the end of the table and read over the book with her horn while trying to understand the spells contained within. Rarity was huddled next to Twilight while peering over at the other various pieces of blank paper on the table that they would doubtlessly need for notes. Without further delay, the group got to work studying the books for clues. The group spent the better part of the evening researching the three books. Various bits and pieces of knowledge of varying importance were discovered in the three tomes. Judging from the contents of the other two books, one was a detailed instruction booklet on pentagrams and other magical symbols, and the other one was a book on making different kinds of magic compatible with each other. Each of the books had certain pages that appeared to be tacked on to serve as notes. The paper on these pages was a different color, and was haphazardly glued or grafted into the book on the pertinent page. The notes were mostly written using some sort of strange code or language that was undecipherable to everyone in the room. Over the course of the hours of research, each group had decided to move to a different room to better organize their notes and efforts. Tom had taken his three companions into the kitchen to have more space for papers used to try and decipher the pages using his knowledge on occult symbols and ciphers. Brimstoke brought his group to the small half room of bookshelves that sat in between the main room and the kitchen, while Twilight and her troop had remained in the main room. “Any luck figuring out those notes Glitterball?” Twilight unburied her head from the book she had been reading and looked over to the unicorn analyzing notes copied from all three books at the far end of the table. She looked over to the curious purple pony and frowned slightly. “Not as much as I would like… I can tell that these notes pertain to a section of the pictograms that isn’t covered in the books, but I can’t understand enough of them to make out what they are.” The rainbow haired unicorn sighed in frustration as she racked her mind to crack the code. “That’s better than nothing right?” Twilight added in an optimistic tone. Glitterball flashed a smile and nodded. “Right… I’m sure we can figure this out.” Glitter stated happily before returning to her work. “So Glitter… how long have you known Brimstoke? I know you two know each other from the academy, but he didn’t mention how long for.” Twilight asked curiously while looking up from the book. “Hmm… I guess it’s been… four years since I met him.” Glitterball scratched her chin in thought while trying to recall the first time she met the stallion. “We had bumped into each other a few times before, but we started getting to know each other first year of the academy. We were pretty close around the time I decided to leave for magic classes… I felt like I didn’t want to head down the same path Brim was going, so I left to study magic to become a unicorn guard.” She explained to the curious listeners. “Brimstoke must focus on his job a lot… he seems a little rough around the edges at times.” Twilight stated while thinking back to the unwavering attitude of the stallion. It seemed like he had to force himself to be nice to people at times. “Eh… don’t mind him. He’s really a big softy once you get past the brick wall of an appearance he has. He wants people to think he’s tougher than he is… but sometimes he can try a little too hard.” Glitter chuckled while thinking of how awkward the stallion was back at the academy. He had come a long way since she first met him. “Wait a minute, I think I found something.” Rarity announced while looking up from the pile of notes she had on the table. Everyone gathered around the unicorn and waited for her to elaborate with baited breath. “I think this section of notes here corresponds to a gathering spell of some kind… If I’m reading it correctly that is.” Rarity stated while tilting her head and squinting to try and make sense of the mixture of languages and symbols. “Hold on… these look kind of familiar.” Twilight said while pointing to a few of the symbols on one page. She looked over to the far table and lit up her horn to grab something. The purple unicorn lifted a roll of paper over to the table and set it down beside the section of notes. After a few moments of reading through the roll of paper, she smirked triumphantly as her thoughts were confirmed. “Aha! Some of these symbols match the symbols we found in the cave!” Twilight announced with an excited tone before looking at some of the writing below the symbols on the notes. “If we can find out which symbols are referenced here, then maybe we can reverse engineer some of the other ones too.” She stated optimistically. Spike and Rarity cheered with excitement at the lavender pony’s discovery, while Glitterball frowned slightly as she looked at the section of notes. “Yeah… but first we would need to decipher this strange language. Most of the notes are written in it, and the sections that aren’t don’t mention any of the important stuff.” Glitter huffed in annoyance. The new obstacle in her path made Twilight groan in frustration. “I guess we should go see if Tom and the others have figured it out yet.” Twilight suggested while getting up from her chair. She grabbed the notes and the list of symbols with her magic and walked towards the other room. Everyone got up and followed the unicorn as she entered into the room Brimstoke’s group was in. The four noticed the other group had decided to occupy a small table on the far corner of the room. Rainbow Dash was leaning up against the wall with a book in her lap, Sunspot was lying on her stomach on the floor with her head resting on her hooves while studying another book, while Brimstoke and Neon Streak were sitting at the table researching several sheets of paper with notes on them. Everyone looked up from their books and watched the group walking through the room. “You find something?” Brimstoke asked curiously to the passing troop. Twilight paused for a moment and turned to answer the stallion. “We might have… we’re going to show it to Tom to find out if he can make sense of it.” The purple mare replied. “How about you guys? Find anything interesting?” She asked quizzically while hoping that they would have found something that could help. “Well, we found a few notes depicting the pictograms used at the school and Hospital.” Sunspot replied, optimistic that the discovery would be useful. “Actually… we might be able to use that. Do you have a copy we can take?” Twilight reasoned while thinking of how the pictograms would assist them. “Yeah sure…” The orange pegasus said while getting up from her spot. She then flipped through the pages of her book and took out two pieces of paper clipped to the pages. “Here you go.” Sunspot stated while handing the papers over to the purple unicorn. Twilight looked over them for a moment before adding them to her pile of papers. “Thanks, hopefully we can figure some of this out.” Twilight added optimistically before turning to walk into the other room. The four walked into the kitchen and were greeted by Tom and the others standing around the kitchen counter staring down at several notes and their own book. They looked up to see the approaching group and watched them curiously. “You look like you’ve made some progress…” Tom stated while observing Twilight’s giddy expression. The purple pony walked up to the boy and sat her papers down on the countertop in front of him. She then smiled at him with hopeful excitement. “We think the symbols on these notes correspond to some of the symbols we found in the cave and on the pictograms. We were hoping you could translate some of the writing for us… any luck in that area?” Twilight asked with slight hopefulness in her voice. “Actually yeah… the writing in the notes is a mixture of an ancient language and a code cipher. Here, let me see what you have.” Tom said while scanning over the notes, symbols, and diagrams the unicorn brought him. He picked up the paper with the symbols and the notes to study them closer. “Hmm… interesting.” The boy muttered out loud while checking between the pages and the symbols to decipher their meaning. Everyone watched the human with eager anticipation as he mumbled to himself to better find his way through the jumbled mess of the writing. “From what I can make out… these symbols from the cave are mostly part of a suppression charm to hide negative energy… most likely to cover the presence of that mass of dark matter we fought.” Tom explained while pointing to the majority of the symbols from the cave. “However… this little cluster here appears in both of the pictograms, so they have a different meaning. They look like a smaller version of this section here.” He added while pointing to one of the sections of the pictogram divided by lines. “What does that mean?” Glitterball asked while trying to keep up with the human’s train of thought. Tom looked away for a moment and closed his eyes while deep in thought. He then looked back over the writings. “If I’m reading this right… it says that these symbols are used in a collection spell… designed to gather up negative energy, but more specifically fear.” The human finally looked up and finished his explanation. Everyone was confused by the sudden discovery. “Fear…? Why would they want to gather up fear?” Pinkie asked with an appalled expression. She couldn’t believe that someone would want to induce so much fear in a living creature. “From what I remember of the books the princess made us study, fear and other forms of energy derived from emotion can be used in a plethora of spells and rituals. It’s actually kind of ingenious in a twisted sort of way. They summon a monster, and feed off of the fear that it creates… all in one convenient pictogram.” Glitterball explained with a disgusted expression. Everyone else shared her opinion on the horrible method being used by the hooded ponies. “The question is… what are they gathering energy for? They obviously have a plan figured out… we just need to discover what it is and stop them before they have a chance to complete it.” Tom stated with a determined tone of voice. Everyone nodded with serious expressions as they resolved to put an end to this nightmare. “Hey… you guys find anything in here? We hit a dead end with our book.” Brimstoke interjected while walking into the room with his group. Twilight decided to inform them on their progress. “We found out that the mystery ponies are gathering fear to power some sort of spell or ritual… can we use the spell to trace where they are Tom?” The unicorn asked curiously. Tom looked down and read over the notes a few more times. He then shrugged in frustration and looked back up with a defeated frown. “I can’t tell where the pictograms send the energy once it’s gathered… it’s too vaguely described in the notes.” Tom sighed in annoyance. Before Twilight could react to the disheartening discovery, Brimstoke spoke up again. “Maybe we can help out with that… we can take these books down to the guard station in town and have them dusted for hoof prints or analyzed to see if there are any unique magic signatures from a specific unicorn. We can also see if these books have been in circulation at some point… it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s worth a try.” The stallion suggested with a hopeful attitude. Twilight smiled at the progress being made on the investigation. “Ok then… you guys go and see what you can find on your end. I think it’s time we all headed home and got some rest.” Twilight said while looking around at her friends, who all nodded in agreement. “Alright, we’ll get these checked out and update you when we find the culprits. Goodnight Miss Sparkle.” Brimstoke bade farewell before motioning for his teammates to follow him. Twilight was shocked to hear the way the stallion worded that. “Hold on a second… update us when you find the culprits? We’re going to help you find them!” Twilight stated enthusiastically. Brimstoke was surprised to see such a spark in the unicorn. “I… I thought you would have wanted us to take this case off of your hooves. It is dangerous after all.” The stallion stated with a slight sense of nervousness from confronting the shocked pony. “No… we are seeing this through to the end.” Twilight spoke in a determined tone while looking around to her friends. “These ponies have attacked me and my friends multiple times. They cost two innocent ponies their lives… they attacked a school full of children for crying out loud! Princess Celestia asked me to take care of this… I’m sure she wouldn’t want me endangering myself, but I feel like I need to personally ensure that these ponies are brought to justice.” She spoke in an inspiring tone while looking to the group of awe struck ponies in front of her. “You guys are going to either help us with the investigation, or get out of our way… because we are in this to the bitter end, right guys?” Twilight asked while looking around at her troop of friends. Everyone nodded confidently at the unicorn’s words. “Now, how about you meet us in the library tomorrow afternoon and report your findings so we can make a plan?” Twilight half asked- half instructed to the stallion and his troop. They were impressed by the spirit held by the purple pony. “Yes Ma’am.” Brimstoke said while offering a salute. All the other members of Spirit saluted as well before turning and walking out of the door. “Phew… that felt good.” Twilight remarked while noting how much she enjoyed standing up for her beliefs. “Way to go Twilight… you really sounded sure of yourself there.” Spike praised the unicorn while giving her a proud smile. “Thanks Spike… I just really want to protect those I care for most.” The lavender pony replied with a modest smile of appreciation. She then looked out of the kitchen window and noted the sun setting in the sky. “Huh… it’s getting late. I guess I should go wake Fluttershy up so you guys can get going.” Twilight stated while heading back into the main room to walk upstairs. She hoped that the pegasus was well rested after all of the hours that had passed.
Chapter 50: Slayer Vs. Shadow“Oh good, the library… guess my sense of direction is keener than I thought.” Tom breathed a sigh of relief as he laid eyes on the library. He had run off in such a hurry that he had not questioned how much he actually knew about getting around town. And it would have taken too much time to turn around and run back, so he was pretty much on his own. After catching his breath from the brisk jog he had just taken across town, the human used his senses to get a feel for what he was up against. As he felt his way around the area in his head, he noticed several energy signatures. Some were traces of some kind of creature as it went all over the building, others were current traces of creatures from somewhere up ahead, and there was even an energy signature that seemed to belong to some kind of protection spell. “Good thinking guys.” Tom was pleased to see that the group had found a way to keep themselves safe in his absence. Now all he had to do was deal with whatever monstrosity the hooded ponies had summoned. And just in time to be on cue with his thoughts, the boy noticed two pegasi descending from the air above him. He immediately recognized one of the ponies to be the stallion he saw out in the woods, but he had no idea who the pale mare next to him was. “Well if it isn’t my favorite blue suited wonder.” The blue mare stated with a mocking smile. It was almost like she thought that they were old enemies that had met again on the battlefield. “And… you are? I know who he is, but I don’t think we’ve met.” Tom stated in mild confusion. The mare chuckled as she placed a hoof on her chest to introduce herself. “The name’s Raincloud, that handsome fellow there is my brother Dust Kicker. We were in the neighborhood and figured we would stop by and pay a visit to the local library.” Raincloud said in an impishly playful manner. “Wow… you two make a hell of a pair. He looks like a serial killer and you look like a sociopath.” Tom said while ignoring the death stare he was being given by the brown pegasus. “Heh… I can see why Twilight and all of her buddies like you so much. I’m sure they will be very disappointed when they hear that you got your ass handed to you by us.” Raincloud shifted her weight forward into a more threatening stance as she spoke. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. Where are they?” The human asked in a more serious tone. He wasn’t in the mood to be messing around with the two ponies while his friends could be in danger. Raincloud smirked at the mention of the group of ponies upstairs. She knew that he would be dying to find out what had become of them, and she was counting on it. The pale mare enjoyed having a small amount of power over the human. “Last I checked they were a little busy trying to keep that dragon from bleeding out all over the floor.” The pegasus stated with a gleeful inflection in her voice. “Crap... Spike…” Tom muttered to himself in shock. Although he wouldn’t put it past the two ponies to lie to him, he had a feeling that what she was saying was true. “What did you do to him?” The boy asked with his anger levels gradually increasing. The pale mare seemed to take a certain amount of enjoyment from seeing the human react like this. “To be fair… I was aiming at that bitch Twilight.” Raincloud said while looking over to her brother and chuckling, she had no idea just how much her statement angered the slayer. In the split second it took for the mare to look over to her brother, Tom charged forward in a fit of rage and grabbed for his sword. He might not have had the intent to kill the pegasus, but he was certainly going to cause her some serious damage. “RAAGH!” The boy unsheathed his katana and swung downward at an area that he was certain wouldn’t be fatal. Much to his surprise, his blade stopped dead in its tracks as it caught on something. Tom wondered if he struck a bone for a moment, until he noticed what was actually impeding his sword. A pair of black, gaunt, and clawed hands was firmly holding the edge of the sword in place. As Tom trailed his eyes forward to follow the hands and see their owner, he was slightly taken aback by the shocking sight of a glowing purple face staring at him with a jagged smile. “What the hell?!” Tom stammered in surprise while trying to free his blade from the grip of the shadow. Although the monster’s hands were smoking from being in contact with the blessed blade, it seemed to pay no attention to this fact as it stared at the human with unnerving focus. “Meet my pet shadow… he doesn’t take kindly to people hurting me.” Raincloud explained with a devious grin. Although she wouldn’t admit it, she actually had to take a moment to recover from the shock of seeing the human attack her so suddenly. She was thankful that her minion was paying attention to her surroundings even when she wasn’t. As Tom failed to budge the sword an inch against the shadow’s grasp, he started to regret his hasty decision of charging into battle without a plan. The disturbing laughter of the shadow creature only further cemented this feeling of dread into the human. Suddenly the shadow picked the sword up with great force, causing Tom to lose his connection with the ground as he was lifted up along with his blade. Before the slayer could let go of the katana, the specter threw the sword away with frightfully immense strength. “AHH!” Tom yelled in fright as he was sent flying through the air. He crashed to the ground a short distance from where he had been thrown and rolled a few times from the force of the impact. After coming to a complete stop from his short tumble, the boy quickly reached around to find his sword so he could retaliate. Feeling the hilt of the blade in his grasp, Tom grabbed it and flipped it over in his hand while getting up to face the creature that just attacked him. As he looked over towards the two ponies where he had just been moments ago, the boy was perplexed to see that the shadow was nowhere to be found. “*Gasp*” A sudden feeling of breathlessness surged through Tom as his senses went off defensively. He immediately felt the presence of something behind him which he surmised to be the ghostly shadow. As the specter screamed in rage, the human knew that he was about to attack. Within a split second, Tom managed to roll out of the way of an incoming swipe from the monster’s claws. The shadow growled in frustration at his near miss and leered at the slayer with his icy stare. Tom readied his sword and watched the monster closely for any signs of further attack. “Come on big guy… You scared?” Tom wondered whether or not it was a sound idea to taunt the creature trying to kill him, but it just came natural in these situations. Perhaps in reaction to the boy’s comment, the shadow floated forward and charged straight for him while howling fiercely. Tom smirked as he saw the reckless behavior of the shadow creature. He quickly held out his free hand and opened his palm in preparation to destroy the careless monster. As the area in front of him lit up with blinding white light, the human expected nothing more than the smoking remains of the monster to be left behind. As the light died down, the area in front of the slayer was in fact clear, but not in the way he intended. A black splotch on the ground was swiftly moving towards him. Apparently the creature had swiftly reacted to the attack by seeking shelter in the ground. Before he had time to react, the splotch raced under his feet with blinding speed. The shadow poked its head out and grinned up at the human with a mocking laugh. It then quickly reached its hands up and grabbed ahold of the boy’s feet. “WHOA!” Tom was shocked as he suddenly felt the ground give out underneath him as the shadow pulled on his feet. His body sank down into the shadowy blotch in one swift motion. He couldn’t even grab hold of the ground on his way down for leverage. All he could do was hold onto his sword for dear life as the shadow took him on its twisted ride. As his head sank beneath ground level, Tom noticed that the area around him was obscured in complete blackness. He couldn’t even see his hands above his head as he was forcibly dragged through the pitch black tunnel. The only thing that even told him he was moving was the terrifying feeling of falling endlessly. “AHHHHH!!!” Tom did the only thing he could do at that point. He screamed like he was on some kind of hellish roller coaster, although the comparison wasn’t too farfetched. The human couldn’t even tell which way was up anymore. On top of the force of the shadow pulling him further into the tunnel, it seemed like gravity was shifting around him. One moment he was falling downward, but now it seemed like he was being pulled along horizontally. Much to the human’s joy, a light crashed through the blinding darkness as he finally came back out into the real world. His former suspicions of changing gravity were all but confirmed as he fell out of the air and sailed downward towards the ground. Judging from what blurred imagery the boy could put together before hitting the earth, he gathered that the shadow had just popped him out of the side of the library, precariously near the top from the looks of it. The air was knocked out of his lungs forcefully as he slammed face first into the ground. A fall from that height would probably instantly kill any normal living creature, but Tom was forced to experience the painful stop at the end of his brief flight. “Irk… ulg… tch.” Tom slowly lifted himself off the ground with his arms. He could barely move his legs, and his arms were shaking so much that it was hard to put weight on them. Judging from the crippling pain in his chest that occurred when he tried to breathe or move, the boy guessed that his ribs were broken. “Hahhahahah!” Raincloud laughed heartily as she watched the aftermath of the slayer’s punishing fight. It had already been hilarious to see him fly out of the air like that, but it was even more satisfyingly humorous to see him trying to move his broken body. The pale mare leaned on her brother for support as she ran out of breath from laughing so much. She expected to see him laughing along with her, but the joyful smirk he had on his face was close enough for her. Tom couldn’t really convey his sense of anger through his painful grimace, but he was absolutely livid at the pair of ponies. As he struggled to get to his feet, he glared at the two, and at the shadow that was hovering nearby. “W…what’s so funny?” Tom wheezed heavily as if he couldn’t breathe. The crushing pain in his chest was preventing him from using his full lung power. “Sorry… I can’t hear you. Maybe you should try un-collapsing your lungs first.” Raincloud remarked while wiping a joyous tear from her eye. “That’s not a bad idea actually…*cough*” Tom muttered to himself, although he probably couldn’t produce anything much louder if he tried. When he got injured, the human normally suppressed his healing ability until he could prepare himself more for the pain. The more severe the injury, the longer it would take to heal, and the more pronounced and intense the burning sensation would be. Still, he couldn't exactly fight in his current condition, so it was a necessary evil. “Hrrk… gah.” Tom tried his best to ignore the pain as his injuries started to mend themselves. Although there were a few small cuts and bruises scattered around his body, the most intense pain was coming from his legs and chest. The sensation of bones fusing back together as new matter was created was an odd feeling to say the least. It was like a raging fire was burning inside of him, and any nerves that had been damaged were suddenly screaming to life as they were restored. The two ponies were impressed to see the human healing himself. He had been favoring one leg over the other and stood at an odd angle because of it, but he gradually shifted back into a normal posture as his bones fixed themselves. After the burning stopped and his bones were healed, Tom stretched his muscles and popped his joints. With his newfound feeling of restoration, the human was ready and eager to retaliate against the two hoodlums and their pet shadow. “You two done messing around or what? It’s going to take a lot more than a little fall to put me down.” Tom stated in his best threatening tone. Judging from the expressions on the two ponies’ faces, the slayer could tell that they weren’t exactly shaking in fright at his miraculous recovery. Raincloud looked over to her brother and dropped her smile. She wanted to stay and watch the fight, but there were other things that called for her attention. Namely what the group of ponies trapped in the library were doing. “I’m going to go check on them.” The pale mare said while motioning up with her head. “You going to be alright down here?” She asked curiously. Dust Kicker was impressed to hear a slight inflection of worry in his sister’s voice. He knew that she felt normal emotions behind her psychotic front, but it was always nice to see her expressing concern for something other than herself. “Yeah… I think I can entertain our guest here until you get back. Just leave your shadow down here to help out.” The brown stallion replied while glancing over to the human. He had been waiting for a second chance at fighting the slayer ever since he escaped with the others out in the forest. “You got it… Try not to have too much fun without me alright?” Raincloud added before taking off into the air. After the pale mare disappeared from sight, Dust Kicker returned his attention to the human in front of him. “I guess it’s just us now.” Tom observed while preparing himself for battle. Between the brown pegasus in front of him and the shadow monster beside him, the boy felt good about his odds. That is, until the stallion started chuckling to himself. “Hehheh… no.” Dust Kicker stated with a cocky smile. Suddenly three more dark splotches formed behind him. Three dark blobs rose out of the splotches and quickly formed into monstrous shapes. The creatures resembled some kind of wild cat with four red eyes, which was a bit of an unsettling upgrade from the usual darklings that the pegasus favored. “I brought friends…” The stallion said in a more serious tone. Tom observed the new monsters with a wary eye. He had never seen a shadow creature take a shape like that before. He wondered just how intricate the brown pony’s ability to create shadow creatures was. “Oh joy…” The human muttered sarcastically while reaching for his sword. He would have his work cut out for him today. “What are they doing?” Applebloom asked anxiously as she watched the group gathering around the window. Rarity, Applejack, and Glitterball had all flocked to the window beside the balcony to see if they could catch a glimpse of what was happening outside. “Ah don’t know Applebloom… they’re just standing around.” Applejack replied while looking back at her sister and the other two fillies. The only thing she could see out of the window was Tom Staying in place while presumably confronting the two ponies. “I hope he’s going to be ok…” Sweetie Belle said in a concerned tone. She was horrified that the human was fighting such dangerous opponents. “Hey, this is Tom we’re talking about right? I would be more worried about those two hooded jerks.” Scootaloo chimed in to lift her friend’s spirits. She had no doubt in her mind that the slayer could handle the two ponies. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.” Sweetie Belle said while smiling slightly. She had to remind herself of how the human had saved her and her friends countless times. “Of course I’m right. I bet we’re going to be out of here in no time.” The orange filly stated with a confident smirk. She tried to rub off some of her optimism onto her friends to help get them through this tense situation. Meanwhile, in the back of the room, Twilight and Peppermint were still tending to Spike. Peppermint was just keeping an eye on the dragon’s vital signs, but Twilight was staying by his side for another reason. She couldn’t believe that she let something like that happen to him. The sight of that shadow coming for her made her panic instantly. The unicorn barely even remembered that the young dragon was beside her. She wondered if she could have done something to save Spike if she had thought more clearly. “You ok?” The sound of Peppermint’s voice brought Twilight out of her thoughts. She didn’t realize it until just now, but she had been staring blankly at the floor as she withdrew into her mind. “Umm…” The unicorn tried to find something to say in return to the red haired pony. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t think of an answer that would ease his concerns. She had consciously made the choice that she would switch places with Spike if she was given the opportunity, even if that meant dying. “No… not really.” Twilight finally managed to say something with a forced smile and half chuckle. The only way she could bring herself to even speak at length was to pretend she was cheerful. She shook her head sadly while trying to hide her quivering lips and watery eyes from the stallion. Peppermint wasn’t sure how to respond after that. He could tell that the purple mare was heartbroken by the way she appeared. He wanted so desperately to say something to make her feel better, but he was unsure of anything he could say to ease her pains. “You know…” The white stallion spoke up while still thinking of something meaningful to talk about. Twilight looked over at him quizzically as she waited for him to speak again. “I know what you’re feeling… kind of anyway.” Peppermint tried to sound as sympathetic as possible to comfort the unicorn. “Back before Glimmer and I joined the academy, our mother got sick… really sick. We went to every hospital we could find... but nobody knew what was wrong with her. We weren’t sure if she would make it through the night, every other night. We finally found one doctor that knew what was wrong… some kind of problem with her immune system. Anyway… she finally got better, but for a while there I was feeling something similar to what you’re feeling now.” He explained in a gentle tone. The stallion’s story made Twilight reflect on her situation. “But… you weren’t involved with your mother’s decline in health… I just stood there while Spike got attacked.” Twilight said in a depressed tone. The unicorn didn’t want to undermine the white pony’s story, but she couldn’t do anything to shake the feeling of despair she had. “Well I did say kind of… and it wasn’t your fault to begin with.” Peppermint stated to stop the purple mare from blaming herself. “You can’t blame yourself for what happened… sometimes bad things happen to good people. You just need to tough through it, do what you can, and hope for the best. That’s why I started studying medicine… I wanted to be able to help people in need like my mother.” The stallion’s story combined with his optimistic attitude made Twilight feel a little bit better. If she took anything away from the tale, she knew that she had to have faith that everything would turn out for the best in the end. “Thanks…” The unicorn whispered softly. She smiled briefly while thinking about things in a more positive light. Peppermint was slightly caught off guard by the sudden change in her outlook. He expected the purple mare to be stuck in a depressed state for a long time. “Sure thing…” Pepper replied in a friendly tone. He was happy to see that he had some kind of positive effect on her. Suddenly the noise of wings flapping briefly and the sound of something stepping onto the balcony made everyone look over. Much to their dismay, the ponies were greeted by the sight of Raincloud walking up to the doorway. The pale mare’s return filled Twilight and the others with disgust and contempt. They all wished that she would just leave them alone, as if hurting Spike and trying to kill them wasn’t enough for her. She had to see them suffer to fully enjoy the situation. “What are you doing back here?” Twilight asked in an irritated tone while getting up. She hated the fact that she had to look at the pegasus any further, much less speak to her to see what purpose she had for returning. The unicorn walked over and sat down in front of the balcony while giving the pony outside a scornful leer. She made sure to stay just far enough back to be out of arms reach of the pegasus if she became enraged again. “Hmpf…” Raincloud matched the icy glare that Twilight was giving her with paralleled intensity. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab her only to snap her neck, but she also wanted to see her break emotionally. The pegasus smiled as she resolved to keep her hatred in check for the time being. “I just came up here to have a bird’s eye view of the action.” Raincloud explained in a smart-alecky way that only got on the purple mare’s nerves. Despite their reasons for wanting to smack her across the face every time she spoke, the ponies were confused by her words. “What are you talking about now?” Twilight huffed in annoyance. She was clearly getting tired of playing the sadistic mare’s games. “AAAGH!” Suddenly a loud cry of pain erupted from outside, causing everyone to tense up in alarm as they recognized the owner of the yell. “Tom?!” Twilight exclaimed in an uneasy tone while walking over to look out the window with her friends. As the alarmed ponies went to the window, Raincloud walked to the side of the balcony and peered over. Sure enough, the human was down on the ground with the brown stallion and four monsters as the group had last seen him. But something had clearly happened since they laid eyes off of the situation. It was hard to tell from this high up, but Tom appeared to be clutching his arm from some kind of injury. It didn’t take much research to find the cause of the boy’s injury. The three shadow creatures that Dust Kicker had summoned to bust down the protective charm were all circling around the human in a threatening manner. The low growls and snarls the beasts were making barely managed to carry up to the bedroom, but the few sounds the ponies could make out frightened them as if they were right next to them. Suddenly one of the creatures charged forward with blinding speed after the slayer. Tom managed to dodge the approaching beast, but failed to notice that a second monster was rushing for him. The boy yelled in pain again as the monster dug its claws into his leg as it passed him. While Twilight and the others watched the fight unfold with mouths agape in horror, they suddenly noticed that someone was chuckling with every injury the human would sustain. The outraged group looked back over to the balcony to see that the pale pegasus was smiling as she watched the fierce battle. “What’s so funny? How can you get that much enjoyment from watching another person fighting for their life?!” Twilight was appalled by the coldhearted pony. She still couldn’t believe that the pegasus could actually be so demented as to enjoy the suffering of others. Raincloud stifled the last of her outbursts before turning to face the group. She had a smile on her face that seemed too genuine to be faked. The happiness she was seemingly drawing from the fight made the ponies sick. “Heheh… sorry, I just find it so pathetic is all.” Raincloud stated in a disturbingly cold tone. Everyone was shocked to hear such a thing, even if they were unsure of exactly what she meant. Despite their slight confusion, the ponies were sure that the answer would still be disheartening. “W-what?” Twilight asked with a sense of morbid curiosity. She silently regretted prodding the pegasus for more information on the already grim statement. “I just don’t see the point of a slayer… someone given the power to right all the wrongs in life… what a joke. All the slayers in the world can’t fix every bad thing that happens, and bad things will always happen... no matter what anyone does.” Raincloud explained in a serious tone, as if she were giving the group a lecture about the facts of life. The longer she went on, the more the ponies were disturbed and mortified. Twilight thought about her words for a moment. Even though she strongly disagreed with the pegasus, she had a point. Why was only one person sent to fix the world? Why bother sending a slayer to balance the world if there would just be more evil to fight? Putting these bleak thoughts behind her, Twilight shrugged as she looked at the grim pony. She almost had a little bit of pity for her. Not caring about others the way she did must have been awfully lonely. “But does it matter?” The unicorn spoke up in a passionate tone. “Does it matter that there will always be evil? There will always be good to balance out the evil in life… I think that’s why slayers exist. I've learned a lot about the world in my studies on friendship, and I don't think that it is intrinsically evil.” She tried to persuade the pale mare to see things her way. Much to Twilight’s surprise, the pegasus scoffed in a snobbish sort of way. “Wow… Celestia really has you over a loop for all of that friendship malarkey doesn’t she? I don’t have friends… I don’t want them or need them. Everyone I have met in my life other than my brother and my colleagues have treated me like garbage. There’s no point to fight for the good people of the world… there are no good people in this world, only people with shared interests. The best bet you have is family… or people who have similar enough goals and that earn your respect enough to be called family... other than that it’s on a dog eat dog basis.” Raincloud’s harsh words cut into the ponies deeply. From how serious and genuine she sounded, the group actually started questioning their own beliefs for a brief moment. The sound of Tom screaming again made everyone snap out of their bleak thoughts. They looked down to see what was wrong, and gasped in shock when they saw the problem. Raincloud’s ghostly shadow was floating in front of Tom with its arm curved back in the aftermath of a strike. The claws on its hand were glowing a shade of bright purple, which faded after a moment back into the stark black tone that covered the shadow. “*Gasp* Oh no… Tom!” Rarity placed a hoof up to her mouth in horror as she stared at the grizzly injury across the human’s chest. Even from this distance the group could see the bloody gash, perhaps because it was pulsating with purple light. “AHHGH!” Tom cried out in pain as the effects from the shadow’s power kicked in. He clutched the wound and staggered backwards in an attempt at gaining distance on his attacker. As he let go of the wound to examine it, his healing abilities kicked in. The flames and embers seemed to be having trouble restoring the damaged tissue on the human’s chest. Despite the increased time it took, the wound eventually closed up completely, leaving no trace. “See that? Your friend can barely fight off my shadow… let alone what we have in store for all of you.” The pegasus stated with a sinister chuckle. The ponies felt uneasy about the way she said that. It was almost like she was looking forward to some kind of grand show. “And just what do you have in store?” Glitterball asked in a serious tone while walking up the stairs. The unicorn was done waiting around and doing nothing while Twilight confronted the pale mare. After all, she was representing her team and the princess, so she felt like she had to at least try to get some answers out of the pegasus while she was in a talking position. Raincloud sneered at the rainbow haired pony as she tried to take such a direct approach to getting such an important piece of information. She couldn’t believe that the princess of the night would recruit such amateurs into her secret army of monster hunters. “Like I would tell you… Oh no, our leader wants that to be a… pleasant surprise.” The pegasus air quoted with her hooves, as if she were repeating something she had been told. The vague response only added to the uneasy sense of curiosity that prevailed in the room. Twilight shared a concerned glance with her friends as they all imagined what horrific plan the hooded group had in store. “And who is your leader exactly?” Rarity inquired with a raised eyebrow. She hoped that she could get the pale mare to slip up on something, no matter how small. “You’ll meet her when she wants you to… if she wants you to that is.” Raincloud smirked at the thought of her leader facing off against the meager band of ponies. The knowledge that their leader was a female didn’t feel as satisfying as the ponies thought it would. The fact wasn’t going to be very useful to their cause, perhaps that was why the pegasus decided to tell them. Deciding that she had had her fill of staring at the perplexed group of ponies, Raincloud walked back over to the side of the balcony and continued to watch the fight taking place below. Concerned for how their friend was faring, Twilight and the others decided to look out of the window to spy on the battle as well. The ponies watched anxiously as the human fought off the three shadow creatures around him. The shadow seemed to be watching on the sidelines as the boy used his katana to keep the cat like monsters at bay. Every time one of the creatures would advance on him, he would strike it with his sword to repel the attack. The frustrated monster would growl at him before retreating a few steps back into line with its comrades. This pattern of attacking and defending continued, all the while each combatant was trying to maneuver around the other in such a way that they would gain the advantage. Suddenly one of the beasts sank its form into the ground. Its entire body flattened out as it returned to a black spot on the ground. The shadowy blob moved around the human with lightning fast speed until it was almost behind him and to the side. After getting into position, the blob rose upwards and reformed into the feral beast that it once was. The ponies widened their eyes in shock and let out a collective gasp as they anticipated the worst for the human. While Tom was turning around to find the freshly vanished creature, it lunged at him with a ferocious growl. Spotting the incoming threat, Tom stepped to the left to keep his eye on the other two creatures while this one missed its attack. Much to his surprise, another one of the creatures had disappeared. Little did he know that the monster had done the same thing that its partner had done, choosing to sink into the ground to gain enough speed to evade the human’s sight. “Tom lookout!” Twilight cried out fearfully, though she knew that the slayer wouldn’t be able to hear her. It was terrifying to be able to see everything from a high up view. The nervous unicorn could watch the creature as it moved behind the boy to ambush him. Just as Tom noticed a loud roar behind him, he turned around just in time to catch a faint glimpse of shadowy claws as they sailed straight for his face. Twilight and the others closed their eyes in fright. They couldn’t bear to watch their friend getting mauled in such a gruesome way. As they listened to the roars of the three monsters as they all jumped the human, they only hoped that he could recover fast enough to defeat them. Suddenly they heard a loud shriek, but they were surprised to hear that it wasn’t the human. The group slowly squinted their eyes open to see what had happened. As they focused on the scene below, they were suddenly filled with a sense of joyous surprise. The group could see Tom as he was recovering from the backlash of a strike with his sword. One of the creatures had a sizable gash in its neck, apparently severe enough to be fatal as it collapsed into smoke. The human quickly jumped backwards to gain distance from the other two beasts so he could appreciate his achievement. “Yes!” Twilight cheered in elation as she watched the fight. She could tell by the way he handled himself that the human had recovered his lost confidence from his previous beating. “Ah knew he would pull through!” Applejack stated with an excited smile as she shared in her friends’ celebration. Meanwhile, as the excited bunch of ponies were cheering for the human, Raincloud shook her head and shrugged in disappointment. She could tell that they didn’t know anything about fighting as they celebrated every stray hit in their favor. Ughh… am I really supposed to believe that these are the elements of harmony? The pegasus thought to herself while observing the happy faces of the group. She almost felt a twinge of jealousy for how much joy they felt over the simplest things. Still… I suppose that guy does know a little bit about what he’s doing… a little. Raincloud returned her attention to the battle below. The longer she watched the slayer fight with the shadow creatures, the more agitated she became. “Eh… screw this noise.” The pegasus muttered to herself while shifting focus over to her shadow. As its master started communicating her desires to it, the specter turned its head upwards to face her. “I’m tired of waiting around… kill him or keep him busy.” The pale mare whispered before turning around towards the ponies. The shadow snickered while setting its eyes on the human with a murderous sense of glee. The pegasus approached the doorway with an annoyed expression. The ponies inside stopped cheering once they noticed the pale blue pony watching them with a scowl on her face. “Alright, I’ve had enough waiting… time to actually do what I came here to do.” Raincloud said while sizing up the barrier in front of her. Everyone became nervous once they heard that the pegasus was going to try to break in. They didn’t want to admit it out loud for fear of frightening the others, but most of the group figured out that the pair wasn’t here just to chat with them and fight Tom. Twilight started sweating nervously as the pale mare engulfed her hoof with shadow energy. She looked back to Spike as he lay unconscious on the ground a few feet away. If Raincloud broke in with the intent of harming them, then they would be in a bad position to protect the young dragon and the other children. The purple pony noticed Glitterball stepping beside her and up to the force field. She had a nervous expression on her face just like everyone else, but she tried to appear confident as she addressed the pale pegasus. “Uh… umm… A-are you sure you want to fight us? We outnumber you five to one.” The rainbow haired unicorn stammered slightly while looking behind her at the rest of the group. Applejack and Rarity looked at her with uncertainty. The two would risk themselves to protect their friends and siblings without a second thought, but they were incredibly nervous about facing the magically powered pegasus. “R-right… you wouldn’t stand a chance against all of us.” Applejack added while putting on the bravest face she could and stepping forward. Rarity gulped nervously before walking forward to join her friends. “Certainly… y-you should just leave now while you have the chance.” The white mare stated while trying to contain her hyper nerves. Judging by how she was a little weak in the knees, everyone gathered that she wasn’t doing such a good job. “Oh brother…” Raincloud sighed as she observed the band of ponies trying to appear threatening. She almost felt bad about how she would utterly destroy them, keyword being almost in this scenario. “You guys look like you couldn’t hurt a fly… if you tried. I on the other hand have been trained in the use of magical spells and rituals that you couldn’t even imagine in your worst fever dream.” The pegasus stated while lifting her shadowy hoof up for demonstration. With a brief moment of concentration, Raincloud made the pulsating mass of darkness on her hoof shoot into the air like some sort of growing fire. The ponies stared at the pitch black flames as they made a disquieting roar, almost as if a feral beast was caged within. Once she saw that the group had been silenced by her display of power, Raincloud shrank the dark flames back into the thin veil that pulsed around her hoof. “I hope that you have all said your goodbyes… because playtime is OVER!” The pegasus yelled angrily while quickly reeling back her arm and punching the barrier. Instead of her arm flying through the force field like last time, the shadowy ball of energy around her hoof collided with the barrier and sent a shockwave through the walls of the room. Suddenly, the piece of paper that was attached to the bedroom door burst into flames. Once the paper was gone the force field appeared one last time before shattering with a loud crash that almost hurt the ponies’ ears. “AHHH!” The three fillies shrieked in fright from the sudden jolt. They all scampered backwards to get distance between themselves and the incoming threat. “Girls!” Peppermint rushed forward to assist the four mares in trying to repel the attacking pegasus. As the two members of Spirit reached onto their vests to grab some sort of defensive weapon, Twilight and Rarity lit up their horns in a slight panic while trying to think of a spell to use. The only thing Applejack could do was steel herself to counter any attacks heading her way. “Take this!” Before any of the five ponies could react, Raincloud threw her hoof forward and sent out a shockwave of energy. The invisible wave slammed into the group with unbelievable force. Their fragile bodies offered little resistance as they were sent flying from their feet and sailed across the room. “Ack!” “Oof! “Ow!” “Urk!” “Gah!” All of the ponies yelped in pain as they crashed into the back wall. The force of the impact sent them into a painful daze, causing their vision to blur and their muscles to turn to jelly. Scootaloo and her two fellow crusaders watched their family and friends getting hurled into the wall by a mere flick of the pale mare’s arm. They were horrified that she had so easily disarmed and disoriented their former saviors. “Rarity!” Sweetie Belle cried in terror while rushing to her sister’s side. “Applejack!” Applebloom followed suit by rushing over to the orange mare trying to get off of the floor. The dazed farmer tried to push through her pain to get up, but failed to get much farther than her knees. Raincloud seemed annoyed by the frightened fillies. She suddenly had a great idea of how to torture the ponies before killing them. The pegasus raised her hoof in the air and concentrated her energy onto the three fillies. The confused trio felt a strange tingling sensation around their entire bodies. When they looked down to investigate, they noticed that an aura of pulsating blackness was enveloped around them. “Wha-...! HEY!” Scootaloo yelped as she felt herself being lifted off the ground. “Hey! Put me do-…AIEE!” Sweetie Belle screamed briefly as she was violently yanked upwards and backwards. "AHH!" Applebloom shrieked as she was lifted into the air along with her fellow crusaders. The horrified fillies tried waving their arms and legs to find balance as they had the constant sensation of weightlessness. Twilight and the others looked up in shock as they realized what was going on. “Wait! Leave them alone!” Twilight demanded in a panic while staring wide eyed at the three helpless fillies floating in front of the malicious mare. “Hahahaha!” Raincloud chuckled sinisterly while jostling the three pulsating orbs that contained the panicked crusaders. “Like I would just leave them alone after going through so much trouble to pick them up… do you even know how this works?” The pegasus asked in a mocking tone. The ponies were too busy with their exploding nerves to even care about her snarky attitude. “You put them down right this instant you… you… jerk!” Rarity couldn’t even bring herself to find a more cultured insult through her alarm. She stepped forward in a nervous panic while still maintaining enough distance to not incur the wrath of the sinister pony. “Let them go! If you harm one hair on their heads Ah’ll-” Applejack walked forward boldly, but recoiled in horror as Applebloom yelped in pain. “Ack!” The filly felt a sharp pain course through her side as that particular part of the aura keeping her airborne glowed purple. “You’ll what? If you don’t want me to crush them into dust or rip them apart, I suggest you sit back and don’t do anything you won’t regret later.” Raincloud said in a threatening manner while looking at the yellow filly. Applebloom and her two friends had tears in their eyes as they failed to hide their fear. As she watched her sister fearfully, Applejack was getting flashbacks to when she was attacked by the poltergeist at their house. She could practically hear the sounds of rattling furniture as her sister was floated around against her will. “Alright… just don’t hurt them.” The orange mare stated in a slightly calmer voice while backing up. Rarity seemed to be shocked that the normally bold pony was backing off, but she decided that it was for the best and followed her example. “Good… now that I have your attention, I suppose I should get down to business. As much as I want to beat all of your heads in, I think my brother would appreciate it if I played it safe. Here’s what we’re going to do. I need you three to make a decision amongst yourselves of which one of you wants to die in exchange for the safe return of these three.” Raincloud explained while eyeing towards Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. The ponies were shocked to hear the sudden request from the mare. “What?!” The three stated in alarm while looking at each other. They hoped that they misheard the psychotic pegasus and she didn’t just ask one of them to sacrifice themselves. “What?! Are you crazy?!” Glitterball stepped in front of the three to prevent them from making any rash decisions. “Heh… maybe, but that’s beside the point. To make a long story short, my leader doesn’t want you six element wielders to get in the way of our plans… so at least one of you needs to die before I take my brother and my shadow and hit the road.” The pegasus stated in a nonchalant and cold manner. Twilight and her two friends were shivering in panic from the mere mention of such a thing. They all looked at each other with concerned expressions, each hoping that none of the others would step forward before they could talk things out. “But… b-but…” Twilight stammered fearfully as she eyed the three terrified fillies. They didn’t seem any more in favor for the idea, but they were also scared and unsure of what to do themselves. “But… T-Tom will be up here any minute!” The purple unicorn reasoned in a shaky panic. She wasn’t even sure if she believed her own words, but she needed some other option to exist, any other option other than either her or one of her best friends dying. Raincloud chuckled at the idea of the human coming to their rescue. The way she was laughing combined with the entire situation was stressing the three ponies’ nerves so much that they thought they were going to pass out. “Ha! Tom isn’t getting within a foot of this library! Not while my brother and my shadow are out there anyway.” The pegasus’s harsh words completely shattered the last hope that the ponies had. “Now hurry up and decide… you won’t like me when I’m impatient… and neither will they.” She ordered while making the three fillies yelp in pain as she pricked their sides with her energy. With the looming threat of harm coming to the innocent fillies, Twilight and her two friends turned to each other to discuss how they would go about this grim undertaking. The mere fact that they had to openly talk about which of them was going to die made them sick. “Girls… we can’t let her hurt them.” Applejack said in an uneasy and trembling voice. “I know… but…” Twilight replied while looking to the floor and gulping. “We shouldn’t have to do this… it feels wrong just talking about it.” The unicorn could barely stop her hooves from trembling. She desperately hoped that her friends wouldn’t volunteer, but at the same time she didn’t want to die. The conundrum in her head was practically shoving all other thoughts aside so that it would be the only thing present. “I know darling… b-but…*gulp*… we need to c-choose.” Rarity trailed her eyes off sadly as she tried to think rationally amid her conflicting emotions. “Hey… you aren’t choosing anything!” Glitterball chimed in anxiously. She wasn’t about to just sit by and allow anyone to die. “Shut it… they have a difficult decision to make, the least you could do is give them some space.” Raincloud instructed in a mocking way while jostling around the three captive children. Glitterball growled in frustration before sitting back down in protest. “I… I think that…” Twilight stated in a barely audible tone while trying to think. Unfortunately her two friends didn’t hear her as they each tried to resolve the problem. “Ah’ll go…” Applejack suggested. “No! I’ll go… your family needs you Applejack.” Rarity replied in a sincere tone. “Girls…” Twilight tried to chime in, but her nervousness made her voice die out before it left her throat. “Rarity… Ah appreciate the gesture… but Sweetie Belle would be lost without you.” Applejack added with tears building up in her eyes. She was almost ready to break down and cry while hugging her two friends close to her to keep them from leaving. “I’ll go!” Twilight finally shouted loud enough to be heard. The two mares grew silent and turned their attention to the nervous unicorn beside them. “Twilight…” Rarity protested in a sad tone until she was interrupted by the purple unicorn continuing. “No… it’s ok. If anyone else is going to die because of these ponies… I want it to be me.” Twilight stated with her eyes closed. The others were unsure of what to say, but they desperately wanted to talk her out of her decision. The purple mare finally sighed and got up to walk forward. “Twilight no!” Rarity and Applejack cried out in unison while reaching out to their friend as she somberly walked forward. The unicorn couldn’t bear to turn around and face her friends. There was so much she wanted to say to them, but she had to get this over with for the sake of the crusaders. On her way over to the pegasus, she glanced to the unconscious dragon off to the side. He was still resting peacefully despite all of the commotion around him. She imagined how heartbroken he would be if he woke up and she was gone. “Sorry Spike…” The unicorn stated quietly before returning her glance forward. She looked up at the three trapped fillies as she passed under them. They all had frightened expressions of protest as they watched her somberly march forward. “Twilight! Don’t do this!” Scootaloo shouted in denial while desperately trying to wriggle free of the shadowy bubble she was incased in. “Stop it! Please don’t hurt her!” Sweetie Belle pleaded in a last ditch effort at saving the purple mare. Even with her child like optimism, she had a hard time believing that she could reach through to the sadistic pegasus. “S-sorry girls… I… I have to…” Twilight could hardly keep her eyes from watering and her voice from trembling as she looked down. She couldn’t handle looking at the three fillies, she was already certain that she was scarring them for life with her death. The unicorn came to a stop in front of the pale mare, who had a smirk on her face the entire time as she enjoyed the scene before her. She chuckled as she looked the fearful purple pony in the face. She never figured that she would be the one to come forward, but she was kind of glad. “Heh… I guess you’re braver than I thought.” Raincloud commented cynically. Twilight waited nervously while the pale mare thought about how she would go about her task. Finally she reeled back her arm in preparation to strike. The pegasus focused the energy from her hoof into a point. The shadowy substance on her hoof elongated and thinned out until it was in the shape of a blade. “Any last words?” Raincloud asked while sizing up the strike in her head. The pale mare would aim directly for the unicorn’s throat, killing her quick enough while still leaving some room for suffering. Twilight gulped nervously as she stared at the pulsating weapon that would be her undoing. She felt a cold and hollow feeling in her stomach as every fiber of her being told her to either retaliate or flee. The unicorn slowly took one last glance back at her horrified friends before sighing sadly and looking down. “I’m ready… but you better keep your word.” Twilight instructed in what she thought would have been an intimidating voice, but all sense of authority had been obscured by her fear and dread. Raincloud chuckled at the harsh glare she was receiving from the unicorn. “Oh don’t worry… I am many things, but I take pride in my reputation as an honest pegasus.” The pale mare stated in a joking way. Twilight only hoped that she was at least going to honor their agreement. She would hate to die like this for nothing. The pegasus reeled her arm back and prepared to slash clean across Twilight’s neck. The unicorn instinctively tightened up the muscles in her neck in an attempt at getting away, but she tried her best to hold still. Rarity, Applejack, and everyone else in the room were all horrified by the scene about to take place before them. Rarity closed her eyes and looked away sadly, she couldn’t bear to watch her friend getting executed. Applejack and the others kept their gaze firmly placed on the two ponies, perhaps out of sheer shock and terror. Not even the three fillies could look away from the grim scene. “So long Twilight… hehe.” Raincloud snickered sinisterly while shifting her weight to put more power behind her swing. Twilight shut her eyes and clenched her teeth as she saw the pegasus swinging at her. The entire room seemed to slow down as the group watched the pegasus lash out at their friend. *Swish* The sound of something being cut rang out into the room. Everyone panicked with fright as they all averted their eyes. Twilight remained frozen in place as she tried to process what just happened. Her neck felt oddly tingly, but the sensation felt more like it was in her mind rather than actually being painful. The confused unicorn opened her eyes to see what was going on, only to jump slightly in fright. The pegasus was holding her shadowy blade right next to her throat, but she was frozen in place as if she had stopped mid swing. “Wh…wha?” Twilight muttered in confusion as she looked at the pegasus. Raincloud had her mouth agape in what appeared to be shock. Suddenly the shadowy energy from around her hoof vanished. The three fillies all crashed to the floor with a mildly painful thud as the auras around them disappeared. “AAAAGHHH!” Raincloud screamed out in agony and clutched her chest. The pale mare immediately sank to the floor and curled up in a ball while writhing in pain from a seemingly invisible injury. As they heard the pegasus yelling in pain, the rest of the ponies quickly opened their eyes and rushed over. They immediately trotted over to the purple unicorn and hugged her tightly. “Twilight!” Applejack and Rarity cheered with joy at their friend’s miraculous escape from certain doom. The cheerful moment was short lived however as the ear piercing sound of the pegasus screaming on the floor interrupted them. “What the hay is wrong with her?” Applejack asked curiously. Although she didn’t want to say she was concerned for the sadistic mare, it was disquieting to see anyone in that much pain. “I don’t know… she just froze suddenly and started screaming.” Twilight practically had to shout just to make her words audible. Suddenly the group noticed another grating noise making itself known amid the screaming of the pegasus. It sounded like a tormented soul was wailing outside, creating a high pitched noise that somehow sounded eerie and distressed at the same time. The ponies recognized that the wail sounded like the shadow creature that Raincloud controlled. Everyone rushed to the balcony and looked outside to the area below and searched for the source of the noise. It didn’t take long to find the ghostly specter floating just in front of Tom a short ways away from where they had seen him last. The human had his claws out. And judging from the way he was positioned and the way the shadow was screeching in pain, the group surmised that Tom had just slashed the creature with his spirit weapons. They looked back to the pegasus writhing in agony a short distance away and wondered if there was somehow a connection between the two. Meanwhile on the ground, Tom was admiring the deep gashes he had just made in the shadow. Although the unearthly screech the creature was producing almost made his ears bleed, he still found it satisfying to put the monster in its place. “You’re not the only one with claws that sting buddy…” The boy smirked at his victory while watching the specter writhe in pain. Suddenly the human heard a horrific screaming that was coming from the library. Dust Kicker gasped in shock as he recognized the sound. He had left his sister to her own devices before, so he had never expected her to get into so much trouble, especially not from such weak enemies as Twilight Sparkle and friends. “Raincloud!” The stallion exclaimed in alarm while spreading his wings and flying upwards. He quickly flew up to the balcony and rushed straight past the surprised ponies in his path. He didn’t care about the mission anymore. All he cared about was coming to his sibling’s aid. Twilight and the others watched as the brown pony ran to his sister’s side and knelt down beside her. Glitterball and Peppermint contemplated intervening for a moment to prevent him from taking her away, but a quick glare that sent chills down their spines from how intense it was dissuaded them from getting anywhere close to the two ponies. “Rain! What’s wrong?!” Dust Kicker asked while frantically trying to restrain the writhing mare so he could examine her injuries. “GAHHHH!!” Raincloud seemed to be trying to respond, but the pain she was feeling was so intense that she couldn’t do anything other than roll around in agony. “Screw this… hang on sis, I’m getting you out of here.” Dust Kicker stated confidently while scooping the pale mare up in his arms. He quickly rushed out onto the balcony and jumped into the air to fly away. As the two ponies rapidly disappeared from sight, the only monster left on the premises disappeared into the ground to follow after its injured master despite its own injury. Twilight and her friends were left in a state of confusion and relief as they watched the two vanish from sight. They wondered what had caused the pegasus to become so inconsolably injured, they wondered where they were going, but most of all, they were just glad that the purple unicorn was alive still.
Chapter 71: Searching the DarknessTwilight and the others darted their eyes around nervously as they followed the guard through the darkened hallways of the station. Even with their large group, and the alicorn protecting them, everyone felt anxious and fearful about what lurked in the shadows. Glitterball glanced down to her locator vial apprehensively. As she expected, it was aglow with blue light. Ever since the dark matter had latched onto the building, the locators were reacting strongly, and the presence of monsters around them wasn’t helping. Due to the constant readings, the vial served as nothing more than a glowing reminder of their grim situation. “Are we almost there?” Glimmer Shine asked uneasily while looking ahead to the guard that was leading them. The nervous stallion glanced back to the restless group and shrugged uncomfortably as he thought about how to answer the question. “Almost… we should get there relatively soon.” The guard replied before turning his attention forward again. “Assuming we don’t run into more of those things.” Rainbow Dash stated nervously while darting her eyes around. She was staying near the back with her pink friend while pointing her strobe at whatever minute noise or hint of motion she noticed. “Why did you have to say that…? Now you’ve jinxed us!” Pinkie chided her cyan friend while tensing up in preparation for the horrific monsters she was now expecting to come their way. “I don’t think those things know about jinxes Pinkie… at least I hope not.” Rainbow Dash replied with a hint of doubt. “They don’t need to know about them… that’s how jinxes work!” Pinkie added while getting progressively more worked up. “Settle down guys… we don’t want to make any undue noise. Jinx or no jinx, we will be up to our eyes in those things if we keep shouting.” Twilight said in an attempt at calming her two friends. Pinkie shrugged before nodding in agreement and falling silent. Now that the quiet atmosphere had returned, the group was left to their own thoughts once more. Most of the ponies worried that they would see one of the fierce monsters just behind them or just around a corner, but Twilight was worried about something else. Even though they had taken a relatively straight path through the station, they hadn’t seen any sign of Fluttershy or Rarity, or anybody for that matter. The rooms and halls around them were dead quiet, and aptly devoid of life. If any ponies had been through here, it hadn’t been in a long time. “What is wrong Twilight?” Luna spoke up while glancing back at the troubled unicorn. Twilight looked up and immediately realized that she hadn’t been hiding her worries as well as she thought she was. “Oh, umm… *sigh* I guess I’m just worried about Fluttershy and Rarity. We haven’t seen any sign of them… or anyone else.” Twilight explained in a concerned tone. “I am certain that they are fine. We will find them… you just need to believe that we will.” Luna replied with a reassuring smile. “Right.” Twilight stated while nodding in agreement. She knew in her heart that her friends were still alive and that they were just waiting to be rescued by someone. The unicorn only hoped that she could reach them before it was too late. As they continued on their path, the ponies became tenser by the passing second. Every minute that passed felt like an eternity as they hurried along every chance they got. It didn’t help that the one leading them was just as nervous as they were. The guard darted his eyes around fearfully while walking. He seemed to be dreading every inch of progress that he made as if he were expecting to be snatched up at a moment’s notice by one of the monsters that he thought he had escaped from forever. The stallion wasn’t the only nervous one in the group, however. Peppermint was just as unnerved by the darkness surrounding the ponies. He was almost as nervous as Twilight and her friends, despite his training in combating the supernatural. Apparently, all the training in the world can’t prepare someone for actually facing the things that lurk in the dark. Spotting something up ahead that caught her eye, Twilight slowed down for a moment and looked around. She suddenly realized that they had come across the bathrooms. Two doors sat across from each other with the typical pink and blue pictures beside them denoting which room belonged to which gender. “Hey guys, hold up a minute.” Twilight spoke up, eliciting the group to come to a slow halt. “Please don’t tell me you need to go at a time like this.” The guard at the head of the group groaned nervously. “No, it’s not that. Our friends were on their way to the bathroom before everything happened. Maybe they are still in there?” Twilight replied in an optimistic manner. “Either way, it’s worth a look to see if anyone is in there. I’ll search the men’s room, you guys take a look in there.” Glimmer Shine suggested while pointing to the female restroom. “Alright.” Twilight nodded in agreement. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie stepped forward to join their friend as she approached the door. “We’ll keep watch out here. Be sure to yell if you find anything unpleasant.” Glitterball stated while taking one last glance at the two parties before they opened their respective doors. “Same goes for you… I would rather not come back out here to find all of you missing if you can help it.” Rainbow Dash said with a nervous chuckle while hoping that her words wouldn’t come true. “We’ll try…” Glitterball replied with a lighthearted smile. With caution in mind, Glimmer Shine opened his door and slowly walked inside. Taking this as a hint to move faster, Twilight nodded to her two companions before opening the door and slowly stepping inside. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stepped in ahead of their unicorn friend with their strobes at the ready. The door shut behind them, making them jump slightly in surprise. Once they calmed down, they glanced to their lavender leader and waited for her to make a move. “Fluttershy, Rarity, are you guys in here?” Twilight spoke up softly while walking forward. All of the stalls were open slightly, but the doors were still concealing anything that was inside. “Anyone in here…? We’re not going to hurt you.” Twilight spoke again while approaching one of the stalls. Rainbow Dash and her pink partner pointed their strobes ahead as the unicorn prepared to open the door. With a swift motion, the door swung open. Despite their tense nerves, the two ponies managed to point their weapons inside with rapid synchronization. Nothing was inside but a toilet, some toilet paper, and the stark shadows that lay in wait just outside of the light being cast by the unicorn. With the first stall turning up empty, the trio turned their attention to the next stall. Twilight hovered her hoof near the door hesitantly. Taking a quick glance at her team for confidence, she saw that they nodded as a sign that they were ready. Despite how ready her friends might have been, the unicorn herself wasn’t sure if she was ready to open the door. Swallowing her fear, Twilight quickly pushed the door open. Just as before, the stall was empty and devoid of any movement. The ponies breathed a quick sigh of relief as their search turned up fruitless yet again. They would rather find nothing than find a horrific monster waiting to pounce on them and eat their faces off. Not wanting to waste time, the three mares spread out and stood in front of the three remaining stalls. Looking at each other for confidence, they all held out their hooves and prepared to open their respective doors. Rainbow Dash mouthed a brief countdown for her two friends so they could move in unison. On three, the ponies opened the doors and looked inside with their weapons at the ready. Thankfully, all three of the stalls were just as empty as the first two. Although it was comforting in a way to not see anything in the stalls, it was also equally disheartening. “I guess they must have moved when the monsters came.” Twilight shrugged at the lack of progress on finding her friends. Now she had no idea where they could have been, and that thought made her look down sadly. “Don’t worry, we’ll see them again.” Rainbow Dash said reassuringly while offering a comforting hoof on the purple mare’s shoulder. “Yeah, they are probably looking for us right now. I’ll bet they are just as worried about us as we are about them.” Pinkie added with a confident smile. Seeing her friends with such certain expressions made Twilight’s spirits lift. “Hopefully Tom can find them and lead them back to the others. I’m sure that they found a safe place to hide until then.” Twilight said with a comforted tone. Now that most of her concerns were gone, she could realistically think about how the two mares would try to flee from danger. Knowing Fluttershy, she would have most likely raced to the safest possible location reachable in her position. “Let’s hurry up and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps in the dark.” Rainbow Dash suggested nervously. Twilight and Pinkie nodded in agreement before turning to join their cyan friend in exiting the bathroom. Once they opened the door and stepped out, they found everyone waiting just outside and looking at them. Even Glimmer Shine was present, having finished his search of the other restroom. The disappointed expression on the stallion’s face told that his search was fruitless as well. “Any luck?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously. “Unfortunately no… They must have gone somewhere else after everything turned bad.” Twilight announced their bleak findings to the group. “Probably… they are smart after all. Maybe Tom found them and they’re already back in the safe room with the others.” Glitterball suggested lightheartedly. “Here’s hoping… They have things better than us if they are.” Rainbow Dash said while shrugging and walking to the back of the group. “Maybe we should keep moving… It isn’t safe out here after all.” The lieutenant suggested nervously while peering behind the group. He seemed to be even more anxious than Twilight and her two friends were. Perhaps he wasn’t as accustomed to paranormal events and frightful creatures as they were. The thought of such a tolerance having already been formed made the purple mare shrug in disappointment. “Yeah… I guess it isn’t.” Twilight stated while glancing around at the others to take in their opinion. Nobody objected to the idea of moving forward. After all, it wasn’t safe anywhere in the dark hallways of the station, so the less time they spent wandering around the better. With this thought in mind, the group continued on their way forward. The guard kept them going in the right direction, while everyone else kept their eyes open for anything that might try to ambush them in the dark. Once the group came to an intersection, they made a right turn and continued down another hallway. Without any knowledge of the building they were in, all of the halls blended into a gray blur for Twilight and the others. The only thing keeping their hopes high was the trust they had in the lieutenant to lead them to safety. Twilight and her two friends clung to each other protectively as they brought up the rear. Out of all the fear-inducing positions they could have been in, they decided that the back of the group was the safest. Unless something came from behind them, they wouldn’t be caught off guard. Despite this knowledge, the three mares were still incredibly nervous. Twilight herself was probably the most frightened. Pinkie Pie had her unending happiness and childlike energy to ward off her fears, and Rainbow Dash was braver than most other ponies, but all Twilight had going for her was her wits, and they weren’t doing much in terms of alleviating her fears. Every corner or open door the group passed made the unicorn dart her head sideways to watch them pass by. She would stare at the openings until they were behind her, at which point she would shift her gaze forward to another possible threat that needed surveillance. Noticing her friend acting extremely nervously, Pinkie Pie felt the need to speak up and brighten the mood. Although she was scared herself, she still had to make an effort to lessen her friends’ fears if at all possible. “How are you doing Twilight? You look nervous.” Pinkie pointed out with mild concern. The pink mare hoped that small talk would serve to comfort herself and her two friends. And if it didn’t, she had no idea what would. Twilight glanced beside her to see her two friends staring back. She had been too focused on her surroundings to pay attention to the fact that she wasn’t alone. Had she kept her eyes on her friends, she might have prevented herself from getting so scared. “Oh… umm…” Twilight muttered while trying to think of a valid response. She didn’t exactly want to say that she was about to pass out from shocked nerves, but it was the truth after all. “That’s because she is nervous Pinkie… we all are.” Rainbow Dash spoke up in place of the unicorn. She could recognize the absolute fright in her eyes, mostly because she had seen it before and experienced it herself. “It’s ok Pinkie… we’ll be fine.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. She could tell that the pink pony was just trying to lighten the mood. “Yeah… I know.” Pinkie shrugged in a disheartened manner. Her brief attempt at cheering up her friends was just about as successful as she expected. Suddenly, a faint noise drifted over from an adjacent hallway. Twilight stopped mid stride and perked her ears up. The only thing she could see down the hall was pitch blackness, but she was certain that she heard something. Noticing the purple unicorn pausing, the rest of the group slowly came to a halt. They looked around to see what might have spooked her, only to find nothing out of the ordinary. “What’s wrong?” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone while gripping her strobe tightly and walking over to the halted mare. “I heard something… it came from down there.” Twilight explained while pointing down the dark hallway. Glitterball reached down to the flashlight on her vest and flipped it on. The beam projected farther than her magical light did, revealing more of the hallway. Even with the added light, not much could be seen to reveal the source of the threat. She stepped forward slightly while keeping her strobe trained on the darkness ahead. If anything moved, she was prepared to annihilate it in a flurry of light. “I don’t see anything.” Glitterball reported uneasily while glancing back at the three mares behind her. Twilight and her two friends watched anxiously as they tried to find out what had made the noise. “I’m not getting anything on the locator.” Peppermint said while holding up his glowing vial. Glitter shrugged as she remembered how her own locator had reacted ever since the lights went out. “The locators aren’t doing anything for us right now with so much activity around us. Remind me to tweak them when we get out of here.” Glitterball said in a mildly sarcastic tone. “Guys… can we get going? I don’t want to stick around here any longer than I have to.” The guard suggested nervously from the front of the group. Twilight and the others glanced over to the white stallion and froze in shock at what they saw. Numerous black shapes were waiting in the darkness behind the lieutenant and Princess Luna. The shapes were so blurry that only their silhouettes could be seen, but the shapes themselves weren’t so terrifying on their own. Glowing red slits in varying patterns ran up and down each shape, giving whatever creature they belonged to another layer of mystery and eeriness. “What’s wrong?” The white stallion asked uneasily while looking around at the shocked expressions of the ponies in front of him. “Don’t… make any… sudden… movements.” Glimmer Shine explained in a calm tone while slowly raising his strobe in front of him. Before either the princess or the guard could process what was going on, a soft growl rose up from behind them. The two slowly turned around to see what was going on. Once she saw the creatures standing in the darkness in front of her, Luna gasped quietly but made sure not to move suddenly. The white stallion beside her, however, did not react quite so calmly. “AHH!” The lieutenant yelped in fright and backed up. In response, the creatures howled fiercely and started to rush forward. “Ok, time for plan B!” Glitterball yelled while opening fire on the pack of monsters. With the combined efforts of Glitterball and her small troop, the blasts from the strobes managed to cut down the majority of all of the attacking monsters. Luna lit up her horn and focused her energy. With a concentrated blast, she eradicated the remaining few creatures. As the last few remaining puffs of black smoke disappeared into the air, the ponies breathed a brief sigh of relief. “Let’s hurry up and get to the equipment room.” Glimmer Shine suggested eagerly while scanning the area ahead for any stragglers. “I agree… the less time spent out here, the better.” Glitterball replied while cautiously walking forward. Everyone else nodded in agreement as they slowly regained their senses and allowed their racing hearts to slow. “That was some nice shooting you did back there.” Twilight said while glancing over to Rainbow Dash. She was amazed at just how accurate the cyan mare had been while firing at the approaching monsters. “Thanks… I guess I’m getting used to this thing.” Rainbow Dash replied cheerfully while twirling her strobe around by the small chain on the side of its cap. “If you ask nicely, we might let you keep one when all of this is over.” Glimmer Shine stated playfully while glancing back at the two mares. “It would sure come in handy for dealing with jerks.” Rainbow Dash said with a chuckle. “These don’t work on ponies… you know that right?” Glitterball asked curiously. “Yeah… but they don’t know that.” Rainbow Dash replied with a devilish grin. Just as the group was turning to leave, Twilight heard a low growl beside her. The incredibly short distance of the growl made her nerves tense up. It sounded like it was right next to her face. She quickly darted her head sideways to see what it was, only to see a familiar dark shape with two glowing red slits for eyes standing not two inches from her. The monster in front of her was a darkling. Twilight noticed that the creature was already about to pounce her. There was no way that she could channel her magic to her horn fast enough to defend herself. With a loud snarl, the beast leapt forward at the unicorn. “AHH!” Twilight yelled in fright and shut her eyes tightly. She heard the sounds of footsteps rapidly approaching, followed by the sound of flesh being pierced, and the shrill yelp of the creature in front of her. Once she opened her eyes to see what had happened, she was surprised to see the darkling on the floor with a glowing blue sword sticking through its mid-section. Holding onto the sword, was a familiar blue suited human. “Tom!” Twilight said with a cheerful smile. Her heart was still racing from her near death experience, so she was overjoyed to see the slayer rescue her. “You know… we have got to stop meeting like this. You were almost this thing’s chew toy.” Tom stated lightheartedly. “I’m trying to stay out of trouble… I swear.” Twilight replied with a nervous chuckle. “Did you find Rarity and Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked eagerly while putting a reassuring hoof on her recently endangered friend. “Unfortunately no… I think they might be in the equipment room, though. That seems to be the only other place with people in it.” Tom said with a troubled tone. The news that their friends were still missing made the ponies’ hearts sink. “Let’s hope they are… If they didn’t make it in there, then they are probably-” The lieutenant started to speak when he noticed the three mares frowning sadly. “Umm… I mean… *sigh* I’m sure they’re fine.” The white stallion said in what he hoped would be a comforting tone. Twilight and the others didn’t change their sullen expressions as they thought about what could have happened to their friends. “Well, we aren’t going to find them by staying here. Let’s get moving… they are probably waiting for us right now.” Glitterball suggested in an uplifting tone. “Yeah… let’s go.” Twilight said in agreement. “Umm… now that your human friend is here, do you think that he could… you know.” The guard asked in a nervous tone. In response, Tom smirked and walked to the front of the group. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay in front.” Tom said in an understanding manner. The white stallion breathed a sigh of relief now that he didn’t need to be the first to run into any danger. Now that the slayer was with them, the ponies felt much more at ease while walking down the dark corridors of the station. The passing shadows and the occasional far-off howl of some unseen monster still made them nervous and uneasy, but they knew that their human friend would keep them safe at any cost. Taking a few moments to use his senses to get an idea of what was around him, Tom looked around stoically as he scanned the area for monsters or other surprises. He seemed to be a lot more confident in what he was doing and where he was going than the white guard pony behind him. “Feel anything?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while walking faster to catch up to the human. Tom turned to face the yellow stallion and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a little hard to pinpoint individual creatures with how many there are in this place… not to mention the dark matter outside. All I can feel at the moment is large clusters of them throughout the building, and if I concentrate I might be able to tell if they are near us.” Tom explained with a mildly frustrated tone. “Heh… you’re doing a lot better than we are in that department. All we have are these… and they are doing next to nothing right now.” Glitterball stated in a lighthearted manner while holding up her locator for reference. “Well… if you throw it at one of them it might distract them. Shadow creatures are probably dumb enough to be swayed by pretty lights.” Tom replied jestingly. The ponies laughed warmly at his comment. It felt good for the group to be able to smile and laugh in such a bleak situation. Suddenly, Tom paused and tilted his head curiously. He used his senses a few more times before crouching and moving to the wall. While the ponies watched with confused expressions, the human quickly walked to the nearby corner and peered his head around it. “What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously while observing the human. “Sshh!” Tom turned around and hushed the group of ponies while motioning for them to be quiet. Before anyone could ask any further questions, a series of growls and shrieks rang out from nearby. The ponies immediately froze up and fell silent. They looked at each other nervously before settling their eyes on the human crouching by the wall. Tom jerked his head towards the corner, eliciting the group to cautiously move closer. Luna, Glimmer Shine, Peppermint, and Glitterball slowly crept behind Tom and looked around the corner. Feeling curious, and seeing her two friends’ curious expressions, Twilight decided to take a look on all of their behalves. The unicorn slowly moved around the quiet group looking around the corner and peered around them. She widened her eyes in shock and immediately ducked behind the safety of the corner when she saw what was just down the hallway. Dozens upon dozens of shadowy black figures in all shapes and sizes were crammed into the small hallway. There were glowing red eyes everywhere, all of them moving around and blinking in a disturbing display. It was like a light show at a Nightmare Night party, only the sound effects here were far more spine-tingling than any shabby party Twilight and the others had been to. Every low growl or high pitched screech that the creatures made blended into an all-encompassing ambience that filled the air. Twilight could identify and make out every feral noise she had heard from the monsters she had seen in the station, and several that were strange and terrifyingly new to her. “My word…” Luna exclaimed quietly. She was almost at a loss for words at the situation before her. She had never seen so many evil creatures gathered in one place. “There must be dozens of them…” Twilight stated in a shocked tone while backing away from the wall defensively. From what she saw, the monsters hadn’t noticed them, but that could change at any moment. “Let me guess… the equipment room is that way.” Tom asked while glancing over to the white stallion. He nodded slowly while gulping at the horrific sight just around the corner. “Yes… it’s actually just down that hallway.” The lieutenant explained in a hopeless tone. Tom growled in annoyance at the obstacle in his path. “What are we going to do? I’m not sure if we can take that many of them… even with five strobes.” Peppermint observed anxiously while glancing around at his teammates and Twilight’s small band of friends. “Maybe we can find a way around… surely this isn’t the only way to get to the equipment room.” Twilight reasoned nervously. She hated the idea of being out in the dark hallways any longer, but she could also feel her spine melting to the floor from the unnerving choir of noises coming from just around the corner. Meanwhile, while the ponies were quietly trying to find a way to circumvent the large obstacle in their path, Tom was shrugging and slowly getting to his feet. He casually walked into the middle of the hallway and turned to face the horde of monsters. Pinkie Pie noticed the human standing in harm’s way and froze up in fear. She gasped in shock and felt her blood run cold as she watched the boy doing the worst possible thing that could be done at the moment. “Tom, what are you doing?!” Pinkie asked in a frantic whisper. Everyone else turned their attention to the stoic human and gasped in shock. Tom merely turned his head and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m getting tired of walking around here and doing nothing. I’m going to clear us a path.” Tom stated casually before turning his attention forward. While Twilight and the others desperately tried to wave the human back over to the relative safety of their hallway, he slowly started walking towards the crowd of monsters. “What are we going to do?! There’s no way he can take that many of them on! And once they’re done with him, they will be coming for us!” The guard pony said in a fearful panic, though everyone else was too preoccupied with watching the bold human to notice. Tom approached the monsters with an unwavering blank expression. He seemed to be bored with his current situation, and almost appeared as if he were thinking about something to do later on in the day. One of the beasts paused and turned its head down the hallway. It started growling violently as it noticed the human. With a drastic change in tone, all of the monsters started howling angrily at their approaching prey. Before the horde of monsters could react, Tom raised his arm out in front of him and opened his palm. With a blinding flash of light, the human projected a beam of positive energy towards the monsters. The ponies shielded their eyes and watched in amazement as the beam obscured the crowd of creatures from view. The monster’s terrifying cries and howls immediately turned to cries and howls of a different variety. They all screamed in pain as the slayer’s beam of light cut through them and pushed them back. Tom kept walking forward while putting more effort into projecting his light. With one final push, he yelled fiercely as the light raced down the hallway. Once the light died down, there was nothing left in the quiet hallway other than a few wisps of black smoke. Tom dusted his hands off and smiled in satisfaction. He then turned around and looked to the awestruck ponies watching him. “Are you guys going to get over here? It’s kind of dark here… and you know how I feel about the dark.” Tom exclaimed while glancing over to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. The two mares were too busy processing the amazing feat they had just witnessed to laugh at the boy’s quip. “That was incredible! How did you do that?” The lieutenant asked while walking out along with the rest of the group. “Well… I don’t really think shadow creatures mix well with light… especially positively charged light.” Tom stated lightheartedly. “Ok… let’s ignore the fact that you just erased an entire hallway full of monsters with your bare hand for a minute. We should probably get going now… we need to get on top of this situation before more ponies get hurt.” Glitterball said with an amazed smile on her face. Even though she was trying to get things back on track, she still felt just as impressed as the others did at the human’s amazing feat. “Alright... lead the way. I doubt there are any more of them in the general vicinity of that direction.” Tom said while pointing down the hallway. The white stallion nodded before walking ahead of the group to lead them to safety. After a short walk, the group finally made it to the end of the hallway. The guard smiled and breathed a sigh of relief as he turned to face a door with a small sign beside it. The ponies’ faces lit up once they read what it said. In bright letters, the words ‘equipment room’ were plastered across the sign. “Finally… we’re here.” The guard pony stated happily. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s head inside already!” Rainbow Dash suggested eagerly. With a quick nod, the white stallion swiftly proceeded to knock on the door. After a brief wait, the group could hear movement from the other side. The door finally creaked open slowly to reveal another guard pony peeking out cautiously. Once he saw the group waiting outside, he shifted his curious expression to a surprised one. “Lieutenant…? I’m surprised to see that anyone else made it.” The guard said in a pleased tone. “We have a sort of safe area set up in the main room, but we figured that this would be a better place to set up.” The lieutenant said with a smile. He then turned to his eager group and decided that he had better not keep them waiting any longer. “Can we come in?” The lieutenant asked curiously, although his request was cursory at best. “Of course, right this way.” The guard replied while backing up to let the ponies in. With a collective sigh of relief, the group quickly made their way inside the fortified room. Once inside, Twilight and the others looked around to see a small gathering of other guards and civilian ponies amid the various supplies scattered around. One pony in particular that Twilight and her two friends immediately noticed, was a familiar yellow pegasus with pink hair standing off in the corner. “Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while rushing forward. Fluttershy looked up just in time to see her three friends rushing towards her, and just in time to watch them crash into her to pull her into a group hug. “Girls!” Fluttershy said happily. Although she was being hugged a little too tightly for comfort, she didn’t care at all. All that mattered at that moment in time was embracing three ponies that she never thought she would see again. “We were so worried about you!” Rainbow Dash stated with tears of joy welling up in her eyes. She could hardly contain her excitement as she smiled from ear to ear. “Yeah! When we went to the bathrooms and didn’t find you, we thought something awful must have happened!” Pinkie added cheerfully. The yellow mare couldn’t help but smile at the lengths her friends went to just find her. “Well… me and Rarity stayed there for a while before moving. We met some people along the way and eventually ended up here.” Fluttershy explained while thinking back to her journey from the bathroom to where she was currently. “Where is Rarity anyway?” Twilight asked curiously. Her heart sunk as she watched Fluttershy frown from the mention of the white unicorn. “Fluttershy… what’s wrong?” She asked with a more concerned expression. The pegasus shrugged sadly in response. “She got attacked on the way here. One of those things threw a chair at her and hit her in the head… she got a concussion from it. We thought she was going to be fine, but then she just… she just…” Fluttershy explained sadly. She allowed fresh tears to fall to the floor as she stifled a quiet sob. “Take us to her Fluttershy. Maybe Tom can heal her.” Twilight suggested in a serious tone of voice. The yellow mare looked up in surprise at the mention of the human. “Tom is here?” Fluttershy asked while looking over to the rest of the group. Her face brightened up slightly when she noticed the boy standing in the front of the room. “Yeah, we found him on our way here. I’ll go get him, you guys go see Rarity.” Rainbow Dash suggested while walking towards the other side of the room quickly. Twilight and Pinkie Pie quickly followed Fluttershy through a doorway and into another section of the equipment room. Once inside, the trio could see several other ponies scattered around the room, but they were more focused on what was in the center of the room. Lying on the floor in the middle of the room, Rarity was being tended to by a single guard pony. The white stallion was operating a small oxygen mask that was clasped over the unicorn’s mouth. The guard constantly squeezed the bag over the mask in rhythm to give air to the unconscious pony. “Oh my gosh…” Twilight exclaimed in shock while putting a hoof up to her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The sight of her friend in such poor shape made the purple mare feel horrible. “She’s been like this for the last few minutes… we can’t get any kind of response out of her.” Fluttershy explained sadly. The three turned to see Rainbow Dash rushing into the room with Tom following suit. The cyan mare gasped in shock once she saw the unconscious unicorn lying on the floor a short distance away. “Rarity… no…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a distraught tone while staring at the motionless mare. The sight of another pony having to make constant efforts just to keep her friend alive nearly drove the pegasus to tears. “Can you… can you help her?” Twilight asked hesitantly while glancing over to Tom. She dreaded the thought of him being unable to revive the unicorn. “I’ll see what I can do.” Tom replied in a reassuring tone. He then walked over to the unconscious mare and knelt down. The guard pony looked at the human curiously as he concentrated silently. He decided to leave the boy to his own devices and continued pumping oxygen into the white pony’s lungs. Meanwhile, Tom was focusing on saving her life rather than maintaining it. After a brief moment of concentration, a blue light projected from Tom’s hand and flowed into Rarity’s body. The ponies watched anxiously as the boy focused all of his energy on healing the unicorn. Tom groaned uncomfortably as the stress on his body piled up. His arm felt like it was going to fall off, and the rest of his body felt like it would follow suit. Everyone held their breath as they watched Rarity for signs of life. They felt like they might need that oxygen mask for themselves in a few moments with how much stress they could feel. When suddenly, all at once, the white mare shot up and gasped for air. The guard pony took the oxygen mask off of her and let her sit up. Rarity breathed rapidly while looking around in a shocked and confused state. She looked like somebody had just jammed a syringe full of adrenaline into her chest. “Where am I?” Rarity asked in between breaths. Rather than receiving an answer to her question, the white mare was suddenly smothered by her friends piling onto her in excitement. Although they were eager to see the unicorn, the four tried their best to temper their excitement for fear of harming their friend. “Rarity! I’m so glad to see that you’re awake!” Fluttershy said cheerfully while backing up and offering the white mare some room to breathe. Rarity took a moment to regain her senses before looking to her friends with a shocked expression. “I was… knocked out? The last thing I remember was walking into the equipment room, and then… everything gets a bit fuzzy after that.” Rarity said while mentally trying to ascertain what happened to her. “You blacked out for a while there… we thought you weren’t going to wake back up.” Fluttershy explained. The unicorn glanced over to the human kneeling in front of her and smiled. “I suppose that means you must have healed me? Thank you, Tom… I don’t know how I can possibly repay you.” Rarity said with a warm smile of gratitude. “Seeing you alive and well is payment enough for me.” Tom replied while getting up and taking a moment to rest. The human’s response only made the unicorn smile even more. “Now that we’re all together, what are we going to do? Those things have the station overrun.” A brown unicorn stallion asked while walking up to the group. Fluttershy and Rarity immediately recognized the guard, but Twilight and the others could only identify him through his rank of lieutenant. Before anyone could speak up, Luna walked into the room with a pensive expression. She seemed to have a certain level of confidence about her, so the ponies figured that she had something in mind. “I was just about to get to that, lieutenant. I believe I have something in mind that will help us.” Luna explained with a smirk.
Chapter 86: Critical Condition“Ugh…” Twilight groaned in a tired daze as she suddenly came to her senses. She slowly opened her eyes, only to be greeted by a blurry haze of colors and lights. Her whole body felt cold and numb, but her leg felt sore. Remembering what had happened to her before she passed out, the unicorn quickly realized why her leg was hurting. Trying to think any further ahead was challenging for her however. Anything more recent than a few minutes ago seemed to be just as blurry as her vision. The foggy mess of lights that made up her vision started to clear as the rest of her body started waking up. She could hear what sounded like ponies talking around her. Once her vision cleared completely, she realized that she was lying on the floor staring up at a familiar chandelier. I’m in the foyer? Twilight thought to herself in a daze. The importance of this realization wouldn’t come to her until a few moments later. Once she put two and two together, she shot up in excitement to view her surroundings. Or at least she made a good attempt. “Hrk… gah…” Twilight groaned as she pushed herself up using her arms. Her muscles ached and her head was spinning. She had to remain still for a moment to prevent the dizzy feeling in her head from causing any trouble. “Hey…! She’s waking up!” Twilight heard a stallion she didn’t recognize exclaim eagerly. She looked ahead to see a few guards looking at her while one backed up and waved at others to get their attention. From where she was positioned, she figured that she was downstairs in the foyer lying on one of the couches in the middle of the room. Taking a quick look down at her leg, she noticed that the shabby makeshift bandage that once adorned her injury was now replaced by a clean white cloth. As she turned her body sideways and planted her hooves on the ground while slouching forward, Twilight noticed several ponies walking downstairs and into the room to see her. Among the ponies present were Peppermint, Glimmer Shine, Glitterball, Applejack, and Rarity. “Twilight!” Rarity and Applejack exclaimed in unison before rushing over to the purple mare with excited expressions. Twilight smiled as the pair gently grabbed ahold of her and held her in a warm hug. “Girls! I’m so glad you’re ok.” Twilight stated as her friends released her and stepped back to give Peppermint room to step forward. “How are you feeling?” Peppermint asked while shining a small flashlight in the unicorn’s eyes to examine her pupils. Twilight flinched slightly from the unexpected examination before trying her best to keep her eyes open in cooperation. “My head is a little fuzzy, and my leg still hurts… but I feel a lot better than I did before.” Twilight stated with a grateful smile. “That’s good. You were pretty banged up when we found you out in the hallway.” Peppermint explained with a relieved expression. The stallion’s words suddenly made Twilight remember the rest of what had happened before she passed out. She widened her eyes in shock as she thought about the cyan mare she was with. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked in an alarmed tone while looking to her friends anxiously. Everyone frowned sadly as the pegasus was brought up. The group’s somber reactions only made the purple mare even more fearful. “She’s alive… but she’s in bad shape.” Peppermint said with a sympathetic frown while trying to calm the uneasy unicorn. “I want to see her. Where is she?” Twilight asked again while trying to get up. She winced in pain and sat back down as she tried putting weight on her bad leg. “We have her at the back of the room with Sunspot. I think for now you should just rest and focus on keeping weight off your leg.” Peppermint suggested with a hesitant tone. Twilight could tell that he was trying to indirectly keep her from seeing the pegasus. “I don’t care about my leg! Rainbow Dash got hurt while trying to protect me. I want to see her!” Twilight said while toughing through the pain and shuffling over to the side of the couch. She had to hold on to the piece of furniture for support, but she was determined to see her friend. “Twilight, Ah really think you should-“ Applejack started to speak up to keep the unicorn from moving any further, but she was interrupted by the purple mare gasping in shock once she got around the side of the couch. “Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed while staring ahead with wide eyes. Sure enough, the cyan mare was at the back of the room as the others had claimed, but she looked like she just came from a war zone. Rainbow Dash was lying on a pad on the floor motionless. She was covered from head to hoof in bandages of varying sizes, most of which were stained red. There was a tube leading into her arm that led to an I.V bag placed on a makeshift stand. To top everything off, there was a small box shaped monitor next to the pegasus connected to her via another tube. The monitor had a pulsing line on it that seemed to be keeping track of the cyan mare’s heartrate. A monotonous beep sounded out every few seconds, confirming the unicorn’s suspicions that the odd device was indeed a heart monitor. Twilight felt her legs wobbling as she stared at her friend lying on the floor with so much medical equipment around her. The group didn’t have the luxury of bringing much equipment with them, but the unicorn could tell that they were using everything they had on the pegasus. Applejack and Rarity caught the unicorn as she stumbled backwards. Her face was pale and her legs were trembling as they helped her to a seated position. They perfectly understood what she was going through. After all, they had known the pegasus for a longer period of time than the purple mare had. “Is she… is she ok?” Twilight asked while looking to Peppermint with pleading eyes. The stallion looked down for a moment and frowned sympathetically as he tried to think of a gentle way to put his next statement. “We’re doing our best to keep her alive, but she is losing a lot of blood. We bandaged up everything we could on the surface, but… I think she’s bleeding internally.” Pepper explained sadly. Applejack and Rarity started tearing up as they were faced with the harsh truth of their friend’s condition again. It was painful enough for them to watch the red haired stallion trying to save the pegasus before, but now they had to watch Twilight’s heart getting ripped out along with theirs. “But… but…” Twilight stammered in an exasperated stupor. “She’s going to be ok right? You can help her… right?” She said in a hopeful tone. Everyone frowned sadly as they realized that the unicorn was in denial. “Twilight darling… I think what Pepper is trying to say is… is…” Rarity tried to level with the purple mare, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. Tears formed in her eyes as she tried her hardest to complete her sentence. “I don’t think she is going to survive… I’m sorry.” Peppermint said while looking down sadly. He had to hold back a few tears himself as he started getting choked up from delivering the tragic news. Twilight glanced over to Rainbow Dash and stared at her with a pale expression. All of the sadness she had been holding back exploded as tears welled up in her eyes. The unicorn sniffled and whined uncontrollably as sobs began forming in the back of her throat. Finally, she turned to her friends and buried her face into the nearest shoulder available to her, which just so happened to be Rarity’s. The white mare burst into tears as well as Twilight cried into her fur. Applejack joined her two friends in letting out their emotions as she gave up on holding back a fit of crying. Glitterball turned and walked away while silently crying to herself. Peppermint looked down sadly as he tried to hold himself together. Glimmer Shine and any of the guards watching the distraught mares lowered their heads somberly as Twilight and the others wept openly. Even the few captive ponies in hoods felt an uneasy feeling of somberness as they watched or listened to the group. After a few minutes of crying uncontrollably, Twilight walked over to the cyan mare and sat down next to her. She looked down at the unconscious pegasus’s face while sniffling and quietly sobbing as she worked the last of her emotions out. Rainbow Dash looked so peaceful as she laid there breathing slowly. If she wasn’t covered from head to hoof in bandages, one might not think that she was possibly dying. Applejack and Rarity walked over and sat next to the grieving unicorn. They stared down at their friend, each one dealing with their emotions in their own way. The three mares all thought about everything they had done with the cyan pony, and everything she had done for them. If it hadn’t been for Rainbow Dash, none of them would have gotten their cutie marks as early as they did, and they might not even be living the lives they do now. “How did it happen… if you don’t mind me asking?” Applejack asked while turning to the purple mare with a sympathetic frown. She knew that it must have been a painful experience to recall. “She got stabbed repeatedly with scissors…” Twilight spoke in a cold and hollow tone while staring down at the pegasus sadly. “Scissors? Were they floating by themselves?” Rarity asked uneasily. “No… they were being held by a ghostly woman in a white dress… a human.” Twilight explained while turning to the white unicorn. “You mean you saw the lady with the scissors?” Applejack asked in a surprised tone. “We got attacked by her earlier… we didn’t see her, but we heard her laughing… and her footsteps.” She explained with a nervous shudder while recalling the woman’s chilling laughter. “How could someone enjoy the suffering of others so much that they laugh while murdering someone with a pair of scissors?” Twilight asked in a disgusted tone. She felt sick just thinking about the wicked smile the woman had on her face as she was stabbing Rainbow Dash. The entire bloody scene played out in her head over and over again. She could still hear the cyan mare yelling in pain as the ghostly human brought the scissors down again and again. “If this past week has taught me anything… it’s that there is evil in this world. I suppose there can’t be true good without true evil.” Rarity said with a downcast expression. As she turned to look away from Rainbow Dash, Twilight found herself glancing behind her at the orange pegasus laying a short distance away. Sunspot looked to be far less injured than the cyan mare, but she still looked like she was in bad shape. There was a particularly large bandage on her mid-section that was stained red nearly all the way through. Her left arm was also in a makeshift splint to keep it stationary. “What happened to Sunspot?” Twilight asked curiously while turning back to her friends. “We don’t know for sure… she crashed through a window when we were on our way back here. We think she was attacked by another ghost with an axe.” Applejack explained while glancing back at the orange pegasus and frowning sadly. Almost every one of her friends had either gone missing or gotten injured in some way. The farm pony wanted to cling to her remaining companions as strongly as she could, and she vowed to try her hardest to find her missing friends. “I’m regretting joining this mission.” Twilight said gloomily. “If I hadn’t come, there wouldn’t be a reason for any of you guys to come… and then maybe Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have-” The unicorn’s downward spiral of sadness was suddenly interrupted by Applejack putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight, you need to stop blaming yourself. We all agreed to come so we could help put a stop to the hooded ponies. You aren’t the one responsible for Rainbow Dash getting hurt. If you want to blame someone, blame that Raven Feather and her gang of hooded jerks.” Applejack said in a reassuring tone. Twilight looked down for a moment in thought. She had so much going on in her head that it was hard to calm herself down, but the orange mare was right about one thing. Raven Feather and her cult were the ones behind every bad thing that had happened in the past week. “You’re right Applejack… if anyone deserves to be punished in this situation, it’s definitely Raven Feather.” Twilight said in a serious tone. She couldn’t imagine what kind of pony would head such a sinister organization, but from what she heard from Cotton Quill about the black mare, and from everything she had seen recently, she knew that she was the most evil foe she and her friends had ever faced. Suddenly, the three mares heard a noise coming from in front of them. They looked down and noticed that Rainbow Dash was moving around slightly. The sight of the pegasus stirring filled the ponies with a sense of joy and surprise. “Peppermint! She’s waking up!” Twilight exclaimed cheerfully while waving the white stallion over. Everyone quickly gathered around as the cyan mare shifted in her sleep. Finally, Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened and she looked around in a daze. “Ugh… wh… where am I?” Rainbow Dash asked while attempting to get up. The moment she moved her body upwards a little bit, she yelped in pain and laid back down while clutching her chest. “Stay still Rainbow Dash. You don’t want to hurt yourself any more than you already are.” Twilight said in a concerned tone while watching the pegasus writhe in pain. It looked like she was struggling to breathe on top of dealing with the pain she was in. Peppermint knelt down beside the wounded mare and gave her a checkup. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was looking down at her bandaged body with a concerned frown. As she was looking over her numerous injuries, she felt a hoof being gently placed on her shoulder. The pegasus looked to the side to see three of her friends offering her reassuring expressions. “Don’t worry Rainbow Dash… we’re here for you.” Twilight said in a soft tone. The purple mare and her two companions had tears welling up in their eyes as they looked down at their injured friend. The severity of the situation suddenly dawned on the pegasus as she made the connection with how bad she felt and what was going on. “How bad is it?” Rainbow Dash asked while glancing up at Peppermint. “Because if it’s as bad as it feels… I don’t like my chances.” She stated while managing a slight chuckle. Her brief expression of lightheartedness was immediately met with a fit of coughing overtaking her. Twilight and the others frowned at their friend’s statement. It almost sounded like she had accepted what they were about to tell her. “You’ve sustained numerous stab wounds… a lot of them were deep. You also have some internal bleeding. I wasn’t able to identify the source.” Peppermint explained sadly. “But, that doesn’t mean you’ll die. You can still pull through… right Pepper?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone, as if she were trying to keep the pegasus’s spirits high. Even Rainbow Dash was a little concerned with how much the unicorn was in denial. “Well… I suppose there is a chance she will survive.” Peppermint said in a hesitant tone. Everyone could tell that he was just trying to make the purple mare feel better. “See? A chance is better than nothing. We’ll just stay here until the others get back, then we can go find Tom and he can heal you.” Twilight said in a reassuring tone. “Twilight… Ah don’t think that-” Applejack spoke up in a concerned tone, before she was interrupted by the purple unicorn speaking up again. “Applejack, don’t talk like that. You’re going to scare her…” Twilight said with a sad look in her eyes while trying to keep up a happy and hopeful appearance. The group wasn’t sure if the unicorn believed what she was saying, but they knew that she was at least trying to deflect the issue at hand. “Twilight, darling I really think that you should consider the possibility that Rainbow Dash is-” Rarity attempted to level with her friend, until the purple mare interrupted her as well. “Going to be fine… she is going to be just fine.” Twilight said in a shaky voice. She was trying her best to hold herself together but her efforts were falling short. The unicorn felt tears rolling down her face. Finally, she just lowered her head and took a moment to weep. Suddenly, Twilight felt a hoof being placed on her leg. She looked back to see Rainbow Dash offering her a reassuring expression. “Twilight… it’s ok. I know that I’m dying… I can feel it.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight cough. Her voice was weak and quiet, but she sounded relatively calm given the situation. “But… but…” Twilight stammered as the sadness she had been holding back came out in full force. “It’s not fair... It’s just not fair.” She wept openly while holding the cyan mare’s hoof. “I’m just glad we managed to get away from that ghost lady.” Rainbow Dash said while flashing a small smile. “I didn’t think you could get us back here with how bad your leg was, but I guess you proved me wrong… heh.” The pegasus chuckled briefly before another dry cough interrupted her. The group frowned sympathetically as they watched the sickly mare wince in pain from her fit of coughing. “Rainbow Dash… I… I…” Twilight tried to say something profound and heartwarming to the cyan mare. She wanted to tell her how good of a friend she was, and that she was grateful for all of the time she had spent with her, but whenever she tried to talk about the happy moments of the past, she started tearing up again. To her, it felt like she was giving the pegasus a eulogy before she was even dead. “Hey… don’t cry. You’re going to make me get all sappy if you start crying like that.” Rainbow Dash stated with a lighthearted tone while holding back tears of her own. Finally, Twilight could take no more. The unicorn reached down and gently wrapped her arms around the pegasus’s upper body. Rainbow Dash wrapped her own arms around the purple mare as she cried into her shoulder. Rarity and Applejack joined their friends and both started crying as they joined together in one last group hug. Before long, almost everyone in the room was crying as they watched the four friends. From the toughest guard, to Peppermint and his team, even Rainbow Dash herself couldn’t suppress her emotions anymore. After a few minutes of hugging their friend and letting their emotions out, Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack backed up and wiped the remaining tears from their eyes. They sniffled quietly as they tried to think of something to say to the pegasus. “You guys are the best friends I could have asked for.” Rainbow Dash said in a sincere tone. “I just wish Fluttershy and Pinkie were here so I could tell them how much they mean to me before I go.” She said with a sad expression. “Stop talking like you’re going to die. We still don’t know for sure… you could still pull through. You’re one of the strongest ponies I know Rainbow Dash. If anyone can survive something like this… it’s you.” Twilight said while managing the bravest face she could at the moment and giving the pegasus a sincere expression while holding her hoof. “Just… please promise me something.” Rainbow Dash asked in a softer tone. It sounded like she was losing her voice from how sick she sounded. “Of course… anything you want.” Twilight said while looking to the two mares behind her for support. Applejack and Rarity nodded while getting closer so they could listen to the pegasus. “Promise me… that if I don’t make it, you’ll tell Fluttershy and Pinkie that I love them… just like I love you guys.” Rainbow Dash said with a slight sniffle as another tear rolled down her cheek. Twilight felt the cyan mare’s words smack into her heart like a sledgehammer to the chest. Despite the wave of emotion surging through her, she had to respond to her friend’s request. “You can tell them yourself… you’re going to make it.” Twilight said in an almost pleading tone. “I need you to promise me Twilight…” Rainbow Dash said with a sympathetic frown. She knew that the unicorn must have been dying inside as she came to terms with the situation. Twilight softened her expression up and frowned sadly as her friend pleaded with her. She looked away and closed her eyes for a moment to recompose herself. She then turned back to the pegasus and nodded while sniffling slightly. “Ok… I promise I’ll tell them, but you have to promise me something in return.” Twilight asked with a sad look in her eyes. “I can do that… to the best of my ability anyway.” Rainbow Dash replied while glancing down to her injuries. She was surprised when the unicorn suddenly knelt down beside her and looked at her with a pleading expression. “Please… don’t you dare die on us. I don’t think I can handle writing the princess about losing a friend… that’s not a lesson on friendship I want to learn.” Twilight said in a distraught tone. “You’re the element of loyalty… you can’t leave us like this… not like this.” She added while shaking her head sadly and fighting back another fit of sobs. “Twilight… I…” Rainbow Dash started to say something to comfort the grieving unicorn, until she paused and stared ahead with a dazed look in her eyes. The heart monitor next to the pegasus started beeping erratically as the wavy line on the screen started deviating from its normal path. Twilight and the others watched fearfully as Rainbow Dash gasped for air quietly. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell back onto the mat she was laying on. The erratic beeping stopped, only to be replaced by a solid tone that filled the air and made the observing ponies’ hearts sink. “What’s happening?!” Twilight asked frantically while looking over at the heart monitor. There was now a solid line scrolling onto the screen, replacing the waves that signified that the pegasus’s heart was beating. Peppermint and Glitterball rushed forward and gently moved Twilight out of the way. Peppermint reached down and pressed against the cyan mare’s neck. While the stallion was checking for a pulse, Glitterball was examining her for other signs of life. “I’ve got no air flow… she isn’t breathing.” Glitter announced uneasily. “She’s got no pulse either… we’re losing her. Get me the defibrillator.” Pepper instructed in an urgent tone. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight cried frantically while staring at her motionless friend with wide eyes. Applejack and Rarity helped the unicorn to back away as Peppermint and Glitterball flew into action. Glitterball quickly levitated a bag over to her side and opened it. She pulled a small machine with two paddles connected to it via springy cords out and set it down. Peppermint pulled the two paddles off the devices while his unicorn assistant pressed a button and turned a dial on the machine. “Charging.” Glitterball announced while looking to Peppermint for what to do next. An electrical buzz filled the air as the machine charged up and a green light popped up on the machine. The white stallion rubbed the two paddles together for a moment before placing them on Rainbow Dash’s chest and side. “Clear!” Peppermint exclaimed to tell everyone to get clear of the pegasus. Once nothing was touching the cyan mare, Glitterball pressed a button on the machine, causing a discharge of electricity to flow through the paddles and into Rainbow Dash. The pegasus’s body jerked slightly from the shock before settling back into place. Glitterball reached forward and grabbed one of Rainbow Dash’s arms to check for a pulse while looking over to the heart monitor. The steady tone and flat line on the screen confirmed the lack of blood flow that the unicorn was feeling. “No pulse… charging again.” Glitterball announced while racing back to the machine and pressing the button again. Another buzz filled the air as Peppermint rubbed the paddles together in preparation to shock the pegasus again. Twilight and her two friends watched fearfully as the two vested ponies attempted to save the cyan mare’s life. Their hearts were pounding in their chests and their faces were pale. The hollow and empty feeling in their stomachs was so intense that the trio felt like throwing up. “Come on Rainbow Dash… you can beat this.” Twilight muttered to herself sadly with tears welling up in her eyes. “Clear!” Peppermint announced again as Glitterball pressed the button on the machine once more. After the shock died out, the pegasus remained motionless as the loud tone of the heart monitor dug into the ponies’ souls and clawed at them from the inside out. “Still no pulse…” Glitterball said in a troubled tone. “Try again!” Applejack pleaded to the pair. Peppermint nodded to his unicorn assistant, signaling her to charge the paddles again. “Try turning it up ten percent.” Peppermint instructed as Glitterball was fiddling with the machine. The mare nodded before turning a dial on the machine up slightly. Another buzz filled the air as the stallion prepared to shock the pegasus again. “Clear!” Peppermint announced before delivering another shock to the cyan pony. Rainbow Dash’s body jerked slightly more from the increased voltage, but she still settled back into place and remained motionless. Glitterball feverishly checked for a pulse while watching the heart monitor screen. She silently prayed that she would hear the miraculous beep that would indicate life, or that she would somehow feel a pulse from the pegasus, but nothing came of her wishful thinking. “No pulse… Pepper, what do we do?” Glitter asked in a shaky voice while glancing to Twilight and the others briefly. She couldn’t even bring herself to make eye contact with the three mares. “*Sigh*…” Peppermint looked down sadly as he contemplated what he could do to save the pegasus. Nothing in all of his years of training could help her now, there was nothing he could do if he couldn’t even get her heart started again. “What time is it?” Peppermint asked while looking out into the crowd of guards watching the situation unfold. Twilight gasped in shock as she realized that the stallion was about to declare Rainbow Dash dead. “No!” The purple mare yelled while rushing forward and standing in front of the stallion with tears in her eyes. “Try again… please… please try again.” She begged with every bit of sincerity one pony could convey to another. Peppermint looked at the unicorn’s watery eyes and saw a wide range of emotions. Twilight was radiating fear, sadness, hopelessness, and desperateness, all in the same gaze. She looked like her heart might explode if he declined her request. “Glitter… turn it up another twenty percent.” Peppermint said while turning to his assistant with a serious expression. “But that could be dangerous to her heart!” Glitterball stated fearfully. “It won’t matter if she’s dead Glitter!” Peppermint replied in an urgent tone. The unicorn had never seen the stallion this serious before. For that matter, his brother was even surprised by his sudden spark of urgency. “…” Glitterball paused for a split second before racing to the machine and cranking the dial up again. Another shrill buzz filled the air that lasted marginally longer than the others before it. “Charging.” Glitterball announced in a confident tone. Peppermint nodded before putting the paddles on the cyan mare’s chest once more. Twilight and her two friends watched while holding onto each other tightly. Their entire world was about to be changed for better or worse within the next few seconds. They watched the white stallion with hopeful expressions as they prayed that their friend would live. “Clear!” Peppermint exclaimed as a final shock was administered to the pegasus. The room fell silent as everyone waited with their mouths agape in anticipation for the sound of the heart monitor to change. Seconds went by that felt like years as the shrill tone continued. *Beep* Just as all hope was about to be lost, Twilight and the others perked their ears up as a beep sounded out from the machine. *Beep* *Beep* The shrill tone had ended, and a series of beeps had replaced it as a spike in the line on the screen showed up. Glitterball reached forward and grabbed the cyan mare’s arm as everyone watched the wavy lines pass by the screen with shocked expressions of joy. “I’ve got a pulse!” Glitter announced cheerfully while turning to the others in excitement. Peppermint rushed to the pegasus’s side and listened for the sounds of air flow that would indicate breathing. “She’s breathing!” Pepper announced eagerly. “Yes!” Twilight cheered while bouncing up and down excitedly. She grabbed onto Rarity and jumped for joy with her in tow. Although the white mare was hesitant to join the purple unicorn, she was equally excited that her friend was alive, so she accepted the opportunity to vent her energy. Everyone watching cheered in excitement at the miraculous news that the pegasus would survive a while longer. Almost everything had gone wrong on their mission so far, so it was nice to celebrate a victory, even if it was a relatively small one. “She isn’t out of the woods just yet. She seems to be stable for the moment, but if that happens again, I don’t think we will be able to bring her back. We need to think of another plan of action.” Peppermint explained while looking over the cyan mare to assess her condition. “What are we going to do?” Twilight asked in a fretful tone while watching Rainbow Dash uneasily. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing!” Applejack said with a frustrated expression. The orange mare was tired of waiting around while one of her friends was dying. Surely there had to be something they could do to help the pegasus. Suddenly, the sound of a door opening could be heard from upstairs, followed by the surprised gasps of a few guards. Some frantic chattering could be heard as several of the guards upstairs flocked to one location. “What the hay is going on up there?” Glimmer Shine asked while backing up to see what was going on up on the upstairs hallway. Twilight and her two able bodied friends followed the yellow stallion and his teammates as they trotted upstairs. Once they reached the top step and looked to the left, they gasped in shock at what they saw. “Oh my gosh… Tom!” Twilight cried in a shocked tone. Sure enough, the human was in the middle of the hallway, but he was in far worse shape than the unicorn would have ever imagined. Tom was on his hands and knees in front of the open door that sat in the back wall towards the left end of the hall. There were several guards around him trying to help him up, but even with the many ponies crowding the human it was easy to see his injuries. There were a number of horrific gashes strewn across his body from head to toe. His arms and his face were covered in bloody cuts and stab wounds. His clothes were ripped in several places that revealed even more gruesome looking injuries underneath. Some of the cuts weren’t bleeding as badly as others. They almost looked like they were semi closed up, as if he had started to heal them only to stop suddenly. “What happened to him?!” Twilight asked frantically while rushing up to the human and looking to the nearest guard. “We don’t know! He just stumbled through the door and fell on the ground.” One of the guards explained. The stallion’s words made the unicorn and her friends only that much more concerned. Twilight knelt down and watched Tom breathing heavily with his head lowered to the floor. The sight of the boy in such distress made her frown with concern. She hadn’t seen him this bad before, and the last time he even came close was when he got back from rescuing Applejack’s family from the storm demons. “Tom? Can you hear me?” Twilight asked in a soft tone while gently putting a hoof on the human’s shoulder. She flashed a brief smile as the boy slowly looked up to see her, only to frown once more as she saw that his face was pale and he had a dazed look about him. “*Pant*… *Wheeze*… Twi…Twilight?” Tom asked in an exhausted tone. He looked like he was going to either drop dead on the floor or slip into a coma, whichever was more likely. Twilight turned to the crowd watching behind her. She saw Rarity, Applejack, and the others looking at her with horrified expressions of concern. Rarity had her hoof over her mouth as she stared at the human uneasily. She could barely stand looking at her friend in this condition. “What happened to him?” Rarity asked with a growing sense of concern as she watched the human’s condition deteriorating right in front of her. “That’s not important right now, we need to get him downstairs so he can rest… someone help me lift him up.” Twilight said while getting to the side of the human and pushing him upwards. Applejack and Glimmer Shine rushed forward to help the unicorn with carrying the boy. Tom managed to get to his feet with the help of the three ponies, but he could barely support his own weight. Twilight and the others slowly shuffled forward with the boy in tow. They carefully made their way down the stairs, taking it one step at a time as the human nearly fell several times. After what seemed like several minutes, the group finally made it downstairs and ferried the human over to a chair. Tom sat down and sank back into the chair like a ragdoll. He breathed heavily while trying to sustain the enormous demand put onto him by his injuries. “Tom, are you ok?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone while watching the human. “Ugh… I think I’ve had better days, but I should live.” Tom replied while trying his best to appear cheerful while drooping over the armrest of a chair with bleeding wounds covering his body. Needless to say, his attempts failed miserably. “Who did this to you? Was it Raincloud and the others?” Applejack asked while frowning with concern. It pained her to see anyone injured this much, let alone a friend of hers. “No… I got attacked by a ghost.” Tom explained with a painful cringe while trying to heal one of the more painful looking cuts on his arm. The orange flash of light that came with his healing flames flickered as the human put as much effort into the process as he could. Despite all of the energy he was putting into it, Tom’s wound was barely closing at all. Finally, the boy groaned before setting his arm down and giving up. “A ghost?” Everyone asked in unison while looking at each other uneasily. Applejack and her two companions were well acquainted with what the ghosts inhabiting the mansion were capable of, so they understood what the boy was talking about. “Yeah… a human woman with scissors. She locked me in a room and did all of this to me, about a hundred times.” Tom explained while pointing out the scope of his injuries for emphasis. “Oh my gosh… she did this to you for that long?” Twilight asked in an appalled tone. “Well, I lost count after a while, but yeah… she would leave for several minutes at a time and then come back for me. She has a real thing for cutting people… and apparently meeting a slayer who can’t die from multiple stab wounds has been her dream for quite a while. I just got away from her a little while ago… I’m amazed I made it back here without passing out.” Tom said in between coughs and wheezes. The ponies were shocked to hear that the human was tortured so brutally. “Where is Princess Luna?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone. Everyone gasped quietly as they suddenly remembered that the blue alicorn was with the boy when they last saw her. “I don’t know… she got separated from me when we first encountered the ghost lady. We tried fighting her, but she was too strong for both of us. I think the princess got thrown into the basement… she’s probably still down there.” Tom said in a troubled tone. “Wait… so the ghost managed to overpower both of you?” Rarity asked nervously. She thought the scissor woman was terrifying before, but if she tossed Princess Luna aside like she was a frightened filly, then the white mare was scared of her on a whole new level. “Yeah, she moved so fast that I couldn’t even lay a hand on her. Luna tried to help, but she wasn’t able to do much more… even if she did get a spell completed in time, I doubt it would have done anything. Not many things can touch ghosts, let alone hurt them.” Tom explained while shaking his head uneasily. Twilight suddenly thought back to the struggle she and Rainbow Dash had with the spirit. Perhaps the only reason they survived was because of the metallic fire poker fending the woman off. “That’s odd. When Rainbow Dash and I fought the ghost, she was hurt by a fire poker we found lying around.” Twilight stated in a perplexed tone. “It was probably made of iron. Iron burns ghosts to the touch… it’s probably the best way to fight ghosts if you aren’t a slayer.” Tom explained in as much detail as possible while still keeping things simple. While the ponies were thinking about the possibility of using iron against the ghosts, the human was thinking about something else. “Where is Rainbow Dash anyway? You said you two got attacked? Is she ok?” Tom asked while glancing down at Twilight’s bandaged leg. The thought of the two mares being in danger made the boy uneasy. Twilight and the others fell silent as the cyan mare was brought up. The purple unicorn glanced to the back of room where the pegasus was still lying on the ground. She frowned sadly as she thought about what to do. She thought that the human arriving would solve all of her problems. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot could be healed, they could find the others, and they could get out of the mansion in one piece. But now that she knew how bad the human was injured, Twilight didn’t know what to do. “Tom… Rainbow Dash got hurt… really badly.” Twilight explained in a sorrowful tone. “I know this is asking a lot of you… more than I have the right to in fact, but could you please heal her? She will die if we don’t do something.” She said while suppressing the urge to cry. “What?!” Tom said in a shocked tone while sitting up in the chair. “Where is she?” He asked while trying to get up. Suddenly, the human cringed in pain and fell back into his seat as his legs gave out from under him. The sight of the boy trying so hard to get up only to fail made the ponies feel even worse about asking him to exert himself further. “Are you sure you can handle this?” Rarity asked in a concerned tone. “Ah don’t think he has much of a choice Rarity… Rainbow Dash is dying. She might not have enough time to wait for Tom to rest.” Applejack said in an uneasy tone. She wasn’t any more for worsening the human’s health, but he was the only chance the cyan pegasus had. “But… maybe she can hold out a little while longer, just until Tom gets his strength back?” Twilight suggested in a troubled tone. She was suddenly interrupted by the human getting up out of the chair and standing on his own two legs. He was shaking so much that he looked like he could fall over at any minute, but he had a determined expression on his face. “My health is the least important problem we have right now. If I can do anything to help her, I’m going to do it, no matter how much stress it puts on me.” Tom explained in a serious manner. The group stood back and watched nervously as the human slowly hobbled around the side of his chair. After taking a moment to observe the cyan pegasus’s injuries with a shocked expression, he continued making his way over to the back of the room. Once he made it to the injured mare, Tom knelt, or rather, fell beside her. Twilight and the others gathered around and watched nervously as the human prepared himself to heal the pegasus. As he tried steadying his hand, he realized that it was shaking so badly that he could barely hold still. “Are you sure about this Tom?” Applejack asked nervously while observing the poor state of health the boy was in. “If I use up a lot of energy, I’ll most likely survive… she isn’t going to survive if I don’t do this.” Tom explained before taking in several deep breaths. “What injuries does she have?” Tom asked curiously while turning to Peppermint for an answer. “She’s bleeding internally… why do you ask?” Pepper replied. “It’s easier if I have a rough idea of what I’m healing.” Tom said before returning his focus on the pegasus in front of him. Before anyone else could voice their concerns, a soft blue light projected from the human’s hand as he placed it above Rainbow Dash’s chest. Tom groaned from discomfort as he used his other hand to keep his arm steady. Twilight and the others watched silently as the boy put his all into the task before him. They hoped that he would be able to heal most of the cyan mare’s fatal injuries before he was forced to stop due to exhaustion. Despite violently shaking and breaking out into a cold sweat however, the human showed no signs of willingly stopping. “Please work…” Twilight silently whispered in a sorrowful tone as she watched her friend breathing steadily on the floor. Due to the internal nature of her injuries, any observer would be unable to tell if the human was actually healing her or not. “Guh…” Tom groaned weakly as he fell to the side. He barely caught himself with his hands before he hit the floor. While the boy was breathing heavily on the floor, everyone turned their attention to Rainbow Dash with carefully hopeful expressions. Peppermint walked up to the pegasus and checked her vital signs. While the stallion was giving the cyan mare a checkup, Glitterball examined her heart monitor for any signs of changes. “Her blood pressure is back to normal.” Glitterball announced in a pleased tone. “What does that mean?” Applejack asked in an anxious tone. “It means that there isn’t anywhere where she is losing a lot of blood… at least it seems that way.” Peppermint explained before looking down to Rainbow Dash’s bandages. The stallion glanced over to his unicorn assistant for a moment before eagerly rushing over and removing the bandage around the pegasus’s chest. Glitterball assisted the red haired pony as he started cutting the gauze wrappings around the injured mare. Everyone looked on with anxious expressions as the pair worked to get the bandages off. When they finally removed the last gauze strip, they gasped in surprise at what they saw. There was still blood caked onto Rainbow Dash’s fur, but the gashes that once adorned her chest were gone. As they removed more of the bandages around her body, they realized that none of the injuries on her surface were present anymore. “Is she going to make it?” Twilight asked in a hopeful tone while smiling at the progress made on the cyan mare’s recovery. “Well, there isn’t a reliable way for me to look at her insides to see if the bleeding has stopped… at least not here anyway. But judging from her increased heartrate and blood pressure, I would say that any bleeding she had has stopped.” Peppermint explained with a pleased expression. “She’s… she’s ok now?” Twilight asked with a wide grin building on her face. Peppermint nodded in response, causing tears of joy to form in the unicorn’s eyes. Applejack and Rarity smiled warmly as they started tearing up as well. Finally, the three ponies looked to each other before giving in to their emotions and pulling each other into a group hug. While the group was celebrating Rainbow Dash’s recovery, Tom was still struggling to get up on his own. The human got to his knees before shuffling over to Sunspot and panting heavily. Twilight and the others glanced over to the boy and shifted their bright smiles into concerned expressions as they watched him building up his energy again. “How bad is Sunspot hurt?” Tom asked while turning to face the group. His face was pale, and his eyes were dazed and unfocused. He looked like he would fall over if a slight breeze hit him. “Well… her injuries are far less severe than Rainbow Dash’s were.” Peppermint explained while watching the human uneasily. “She’s still in bad shape though, isn’t she?” Tom asked to clarify. “Tom… you’ve done more than enough to help us. You don’t need to heal her right now… I’m sure Pepper can take care of her, right Pepper?” Twilight asked the white stallion with a suggestive tone. Peppermint could tell that she was trying to dissuade the boy from using up any more energy. “Yes… I think.” Peppermint replied in an unsure tone. The lack of confidence in his voice made the unicorn frown uneasily. “But she’ll be fine Tom. You don’t need to-” Twilight started to speak again, until she was interrupted by a soft hum filling the air. She looked over to see that Tom was already projecting his healing light onto the orange pegasus. “Tom! What are you doing?! You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing this.” Twilight said in a concerned tone. “She has broken ribs Tom… Remember how exhausted you were when you healed Applebloom’s leg? You weren’t even tired beforehand back then.” Applejack explained while walking over to the human with a concerned expression. “Just let me do this… I can’t allow anyone to go on being injured in good conscience.” Tom explained in-between wheezes and pants. Applejack paused and frowned uneasily. She was afraid that the human didn’t care about his own wellbeing anymore. Before anyone could react further, Tom dropped his arms to the side and started hyperventilating. He scooted back from the injured pegasus and laid down on the floor. “Tom, are you alr-OW!” Twilight yelped as she forgot about her injured leg while trying to walk over to the human. Applejack caught the unicorn as she faltered to a seated position and cradled her injured leg. Ignoring the pain she was feeling, the purple mare got back up and hobbled over to the human where she sat down. While Twilight was checking on Tom, Glitterball and Peppermint walked over to check on Sunspot. Glitterball started unwrapping the bandages around her stomach, while Peppermint gently pressed on her ribs to see if they were still broken. “Her cuts are gone.” Glitter announced in an amazed tone while looking down at the spot where a huge gash once sat on the pegasus’s stomach. “Her ribs are fixed too, but I can still feel a little fracture on one of them. She will probably be sore as hay when she wakes up, but she’s fine otherwise.” Peppermint stated in equal amazement before turning to face the human on the floor. He walked over and knelt down across from Twilight to examine the boy. Peppermint placed a hoof on the human’s forehead and gasped quietly as he felt the clammy and cold skin. The stallion gently took the boy’s pulse, only to shake his head and shrug uneasily. “You’re in pretty rough shape Tom. You need to rest or passing out is going to be the least of your worries.” Pepper explained in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry about me… I heal quickly.” Tom stated while forcing a smile. Twilight frowned with concern as she placed a hoof on the human’s arm. “You can’t keep doing this Tom. I’m grateful that you saved Rainbow Dash, but you can’t just risk your own health to heal a non-life threatening injury like that.” Twilight said in a softer tone while fretting over the boy’s reckless behavior. Suddenly, she cringed in pain as she tried moving her leg to a more comfortable position. “Are you ok?” Tom asked in a concerned tone. The unicorn was flattered that even while hyperventilating on the floor and semi-conscious, the human was still concerned for her. “I’m fine, Tom. I just fell and got something stabbed into my leg. It’s nothing too severe… I just won’t be able to walk very fast for a while.” Twilight explained with a small smile while glancing down at the human. Tom looked over to the unicorn’s bandaged leg and stared at it for a moment, as if contemplating something internally. When she noticed the boy starting to get up, she realized what he was trying to do. “No… Tom, don’t even think about it. You need to rest.” Twilight instructed while gently pressing down on the human’s shoulders to get him to lie back down. “But Twilight… you said it yourself, you can barely walk on that thing.” Tom argued in a concerned tone. Twilight sighed and shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t even comprehend how someone could be so very ignorant of their own wellbeing. The human would probably kill himself trying to heal a paper cut if she had one. “Tom… I can’t possibly sit by and let you do that to yourself. Even if my leg was falling off, I wouldn’t want you to heal it in the state you’re in.” Twilight said in a friendly tone of concern while trying to level with the boy. “It’s ok… I’ll be fine. Besides, you’re more important to this group than me right now, and having a limp isn’t going to help you out in the long run in this place.” Tom reasoned while trying to get up again, only to be met by the unicorn pushing him down again. Due to his lack of strength, Twilight barely even had to press on him to halt his attempts at getting up. “I said no, Tom, and I meant it. I don’t want you to get up from that floor, do you hear me?” The purple mare instructed in a lovingly firm tone, as if she were ordering a child to go to their room. The annoyed groan that arose from the boy wasn’t far off from what she would have expected an upset child to produce either. “Fine… I’ll stay here.” Tom shrugged while laying his head back onto the floor and breathing deeply. Twilight smiled as her efforts were successful. Meanwhile, the human looked over to see the unicorn’s bandaged leg in plain sight. As the purple mare looked back to face her friends, the boy smirked slightly as an idea popped into his head. “But technically speaking, you can’t be mad at me if I do this while I’m down here.” Tom explained while reaching forward quickly and grabbing the unicorn’s leg with his hand. Twilight gasped in surprise while turning around, but it was too late to act. She expected the human grabbing her so suddenly to cause pain to her sensitive leg, but he started projecting his healing light beforehand, so his touch only felt warm and pleasant to the purple mare. “Tom!” Twilight protested while trying to push the human’s arm away. The way she moved so suddenly, combined with the fact that the boy was holding one of her legs, caused her to lose balance, and forced her to catch herself instead of fighting against the human. A soft hum filled the air as Tom put all of his energy into healing the unicorn as fast as possible before she could stop him. By the time Twilight regained her balance and grabbed his arm, the job had been mostly done. Due to all of the stress compiled on his body, and his level of exhaustion, the human drifted unconscious before the purple pony could even get out a word. “Tom…? Tom?!” Twilight called the boy’s name while shaking him to get a response. No matter how much she shook him, he remained motionless. Thankfully, he seemed to still be alive. “Ugh… why do you have to be so hard headed?” Twilight muttered while glancing down at her leg. She gently pushed the limb down on the floor and put her full weight on it. After cringing briefly as a dull twinge of pain shot through her leg, she managed to use the leg to its fullest extent, even managing to get off the floor with it. “Dangit Tom…” Applejack cursed under her breath while frowning at the unconscious human. She shrugged in defeat before turning to the purple unicorn getting up from the floor. “How’s your leg, Twilight?” The orange mare asked curiously. If the human had gone through so much trouble to heal her, she at least hoped that it worked. “It still hurts a little, but I can walk on it now. I just wish he would have left well enough alone.” Twilight sighed sadly while glancing down at the human. Suddenly, the group heard two distinct groans coming from either side of them. They looked over to see both Rainbow Dash and Sunspot stirring slightly. The sight of their friends waking up made the ponies gasp in joyous surprise. “They’re waking up!” Rarity announced in an excited tone. Everyone quickly rushed over and gathered around the two pegasus’s while waiting for them to wake up fully. Twilight and her two friends went to see Rainbow Dash, while Peppermint and his two companions went to see Sunspot. As Rainbow Dash started moving her head around more, she groaned while squinting one eye open. Becoming fully aware of her surroundings, the cyan mare opened both of her eyes and looked around with a confused expression. “I’m… alive?” Rainbow Dash asked rhetorically while looking down at her mysteriously injury free body. She was surprised to suddenly feel perfectly normal and pain free. While the pegasus was wondering about her miraculous recovery, she was suddenly pulled into a hug by the purple unicorn sitting next to her. “Rainbow Dash! Thank Celestia you’re ok!” Twilight said while squeezing the cyan mare tightly and burying her head into her shoulder. “Uh… Twilight… can’t breathe.” Rainbow Dash gasped for air as the unicorn got slightly overzealous with her embrace. Twilight released the pegasus and pulled back to look at her. She smiled and let out a joyful chuckle as she stared at her friend with an elated expression on her face. Rainbow Dash could see that the unicorn was crying, although she surmised that these were tears of happiness rather than sadness. “We thought we were going to lose you!” Rarity said while walking up to the pair on the floor to see the cyan mare. “Don’t ever scare us like that again, you hear me?” Applejack said while playfully chiding the pegasus. Rainbow Dash smiled as she looked at her friends gathered in front of her. She thought she wouldn’t be able to wake up to their bright smiles again, so to be alive and well so suddenly was an amazing feeling for her. “I’ll do my best not to get stabbed by a crazy ghost lady in the future… how did you guys save me? I thought for sure I was a goner.” Rainbow Dash asked curiously. “Tom found his way back and healed you. How are you feeling?” Twilight asked while glancing down at the pegasus’s bloodstained fur. Although her injuries were closed up on the outside, she was hoping that her internal bleeding had been healed as well. Even if Peppermint gave her a clean bill of health, they had no way of knowing for sure if she was in fact healed all the way. “I feel good all things considered… wait, Tom healed me? So he’s here?” Rainbow Dash asked while looking around. It didn’t take her long to find the human passed out on the ground a few feet away. The sight of the unconscious boy made the pegasus gasp in shock. “Oh my gosh! Is he ok?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone while getting up from the floor in a panic. “Did… did he pass out after healing me?” She asked uneasily. The thought of the human putting so much strain on himself because of her made the cyan mare feel horrible. “No… not really. He healed Sunspot after he got done with you, and then he tried to heal my leg. I tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen.” Twilight explained with a saddened shrug. “Hold on… he healed Sunspot too? What happened while I was out?” Rainbow Dash asked in a concerned tone. “We don’t know the specifics. We got attacked by the same ghost that went after you, and when we were on our way back, Sunspot crashed in through a window with what we assume to be an axe wound in her stomach.” Applejack explained what little information the group had on the orange pegasus’s injuries. “An axe wound? Yikes… what tipped you off to that lovely little detail?” Rainbow Dash asked while cringing at the thought of what the orange mare’s ordeal must have felt like. “They probably saw the nasty customer that did it to me.” Sunspot spoke up from the other side of the room. Everyone turned to see the pegasus sitting up while Peppermint and Glitterball checked her for injuries. “Let me guess… a pale guy in a brown shirt hefting around an axe like he owns the place? Which… in all likeliness he probably does.” Sunspot said with a brief chuckle. The moment she laughed, she cringed in pain while holding her hoof to her chest. “I’ll say… if Applejack didn’t pull me out of the way, tall pale and manic would have taken my head off.” Glitterball said while taking a closer look at the pegasus’s ribs. “I’m sorry I led that creep your way. I was trying to get away from him when he threw me through that window.” Sunspot said with a saddened sigh. “Don’t be sorry, be thankful. If we weren’t there, that guy would have finished you off.” Applejack said in a matter of fact tone. “Gah!” Sunspot yelped in pain while clutching her ribs. “He didn’t exactly let me off easily.” She said while gritting her teeth to bear through the pain. “Looks like you’ve still got some fractures. I guess Tom couldn’t handle mending your bones all the way.” Glitterball said with a concerned frown. “I’m doing a lot better than I was… I just wish Tom didn’t have to knock himself out trying to help me.” Sunspot replied while glancing over to the human on the floor and shaking her head sadly. “What about the guards that were outside with you? What happened to them?” Glimmer Shine asked uneasily. Sunspot looked down sadly as the subject was brought up. “That ghost guy came out of nowhere… he dodged every shot I fired at him, and the guards had nothing to defend themselves with. We all scattered, but he must have turned invisible and followed us. It all happened so fast… I’m the only one that got away, and only just barely.” Sunspot explained in a somber tone. The shocking news hung in the air as the ponies stared ahead in shock at what they just heard. “Sweet Celestia… these ghosts have killed dozens of royal guards, not to mention taken on Tom and Princess Luna.” Applejack said in a dismal tone. She couldn’t believe how bad the situation had gotten in such a short time. “What are we going to do? We’re going to be stuck in here forever… those ghastly ghouls won’t let us leave, and we have no way to fight them. Oh woe is me!” Rarity whined in a distraught tone, although her dramatic outburst did have merit to it. Even the remaining guards were starting to lose hope that they would live to see the sun again. “Actually, I might have something even better.” Twilight spoke up to get everyone’s attention. “What did you have in mind Twilight?” Glimmer Shine asked with sincere curiosity. “When we were back in the library, we found some notes talking about the ghosts. Apparently Raven Feather and the others used three protective symbols to keep the three spirits suppressed. If we can find the symbols, we can use our magic to overload them. That should disrupt the ghosts enough to effectively destroy them.” Twilight explained in a confident tone. “That’s great Twilight! Do you know where the symbols are?” Glimmer Shine asked in a hopeful tone. “One of them was in the library with us, I already took care of that one. I’m assuming the one that Shadow Mist was working on downstairs was another, so that should be easy to find.” Twilight explained with a pleased smirk. “What about the third one?” Glitterball asked curiously. “That one is in the basement too, but the notes didn’t say where exactly.” Twilight sighed in disappointment as she thought about the logistics of her plan. “Well, we need to head down there anyway. Brimstoke and Pinkie haven’t called back yet, and Neon and Fluttershy are still missing as far as we know.” Glimmer Shine stated in a serious tone. “Wait… Fluttershy and Neon are missing?!” Twilight asked in a shocked tone. Rainbow Dash and Sunspot were equally shocked by the news that their friends were missing. “Apparently they got separated by another locked door. Brimstoke says they would call if they got into trouble, but we haven’t heard from them since then. Brimstoke and Pinkie are probably still looking for them.” Glimmer Shine explained in a sympathetic tone as he realized that not everyone knew about the situation happening downstairs. “We have to go find them!” Rainbow Dash said in an urgent tone while walking over to the door behind the stairs. “Maybe we should call Brimstoke to see if he’s found them?” Peppermint suggested while looking to his brother for advice. “We can call them when we get down there.” Glimmer Shine said while walking over and grabbing one of the bags the group had brought with them. “Get down there? What do you mean?” Glitterball asked with a confused expression. “We need to find the others, and we need to find those symbols. The best way I figure we do that is to take the initiative and head down there.” Glimmer Shine explained while grabbing another bag and handing it to a nearby guard. “Here, take these and set two of them up in front of each door and window in this room. They should keep you safe when you light them.” He said while watching the guard examining the bag and its contents. The bag was full of enough blessed candles to secure the room. The guard nodded stoically while holding the bag to his side. “Well… I’m all for getting some payback on those ghosts.” Sunspot said while slowly getting up. The pegasus cringed painfully every time she moved while holding her side with one arm. Her condition made the others worried for her. “I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea for you to come with us Sunspot.” Glimmer Shine said uneasily while watching the orange mare coping with her pain. “Yeah… I really think you should get some rest.” Peppermint added with a nervous expression of concern. “I’m coming with you and that’s final. If you want me to stay so bad, try and make me. But be warned, I will bite.” Sunspot said with a wry smirk. The others weren’t sure if she was kidding or not. Glimmer Shine glanced to Glitterball and Peppermint. Neither of them seemed willing to hold down the pegasus against her will, or even to get near her to make an attempt at doing so. “Fine… you can come.” Glimmer Shine shrugged in defeat. He then turned to face Twilight and her friends. “And I suppose you guys want to come with us?” He asked as a courtesy. Twilight looked around at her friends. Everyone nodded in agreement without another thought. “The only way we’re getting out of here is if we work together. We’re with you.” Twilight stated with a confident expression. “Alright, let’s get moving. We might want to bring Tom with us too… if he wakes up, he might be able to help us.” Glimmer Shine suggested while glancing back at the human. “You don’t plan on dragging him all through the basement with us do you?” Twilight asked in a concerned tone. “Don’t worry… we’ll make a safe area when we get down there. We can leave him there and have someone stay behind with him.” Glimmer Shine said before turning to two unicorn guards with a serious expression. “You two, come with us and help us carry him. Try to be gentle… he’s been through a lot recently.” Glimmer said with a somber sigh while glancing back at the bloodied human. The two guards nodded before walking over to the human and lighting up their horns. The pair of stallions slowly lifted the boy up and put him on their backs. The two walked together to share the weight as they waited for Glimmer Shine’s next move. Everyone except for the rest of the guards followed Glimmer Shine as he walked through the door at the back of the room. Twilight and her friends followed closely, while Glitterball and Peppermint helped Sunspot to walk. Before she left through the door, Twilight turned around and glanced over to the side of the room. She noticed the fire place poker that she used to save Rainbow Dash from the ghostly woman lying against the wall. Apparently the others brought the metal pole in with her when they brought her in from the hallway. “This might come in handy.” The unicorn muttered to herself while lighting up her horn and grabbing the iron pole. She brought it over to her and carried it with her as she turned and trotted to catch up with her friends. The group walked into the hallway and made their way towards the basement. They were tired of sitting back and waiting for something bad to happen to their friends. The ponies were ready to take matters into their own hooves.
