Chapter 7: Alicorns vs Monster

[Castle Twilight]

Upon returning from their encounter with the monster, Twilight and her friends immediately rushed to the medical wing of the castle. The remaining guard guiding them. Many more guards quickly came to their princess and her friends aid as they arrived. They created a walls around them made of tall standing earth and unicorn ponies, not letting anything get near them. Many of the survivors were still in shock from the incident. Fluttershy was death griping Rainbow Dash's arm, Rarity hadn't spoken since escaping the forest, Pinkie Pies mane had gone flat and her jovial smile had vanished, Applejack was trying to keep herself together but it was obvious she was terrified, finally Twilight was holding onto her daughter for dear life. She didn't want to release Dawn, not ever again. Then, she remembered why this all happened. Twilight suddenly came to halt in the middle of the march, confusing her friends and the guards around them. One of the captains steps forward.

"Princess, is everything alright?" he asks in a deep and mighty voice.

Twilight looked at the guard with a deep sore look on her face.

"Where's Trixie?" she said.

The guard cleared his throat and stood in a strong stance. He's never seen the princess this angry before, heck he never seen her made at all! None the less, the captain held his ground and addressed the princess in the way he was trained.

"She's on the upper level your majesty, in the library as you requested."

Twilight nodded, her friends giving her worried looks. They knew she wasn't stable at the moment, a confrontation with Trixie would only make it worse. Without Twilight's knowledge, Rainbow Dash leaned in to Applejack.

"We need to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

Applejack nods in agreement. Dash was right, Twilight wasn't acting like herself. She needed to watched. The medical ward of the castle was flooded within minutes. Twilight quickly flew over to a doctor, nearly knocking him over when she landed in front of him. The doctor took one look at the princess and her daughter and his heart dropped into his stomach.

"By Faust! What happened!?"

He quickly took the child and rushed her over to a medic table. Dawn just looked at everyone in confusion. One moment, she was riding happily in her mothers arms, now it was like she was being checked for a disease. The doctor went over her eyes and head multiple times with a flashlight. Dawn squinted as the light blinded her for a few seconds. She closed her yes and began to rub them. The filly stopped paying attention to the adults conversation then. She began seeing visions. In her eyes, she could see the point of view of something. The vision of the creature was crimson red and black. Dawn the realized she couldn't hear her own voice, just heavy breathing of a tired animal. She did recognized where the vision was however. It was outside the castle, climbing the crystal building. Dawn opened her eyes in bewilderment. She closed her eyes again but the vision was gone. Dawn scratched her head in confusion. She looked up and saw the rest of the ponies being treated by the doctors, she turned her head and saw her mom standing by one of the guards sitting on a table.

"Mommy!" she called.

Twilight didn't waste a second before she was already front and center. She gently caressed her daughters mane and looked into her eyes. She looked confused about what was going on. For Twilight, it was better she didn't know what happened. She gave Dawn a warm smile and wrapped her in a light hug. Twilight felt her tiny arms go around her neck and squeeze. Dawn broke the hug and gave her mother a curious look.

"What happened?" she asked.

Twilight sat next to her daughter, picking her up and placing her on her lap. Dawn leaned in and placed her head against Twilights stomach. She didn't know what to say or how to explain it. Twilight wasn't great at lying, especially to her own child. Dawn could pick up a lie like she had a sixth-sense for it. Twilight to make this lie seem convincing though, her daughter was fare to young to understand death and neither had she ever seen it before. She signed and looked down at her daughters beautiful sparkling eyes.

"We just...had an accident while walking you back from the Everfree Forest." she said with a fake smile.

The princess prepared herself for the onslaught on questions that would be thrown her way. She waited for Dawn to ask early ten questions in a row and expect a solid answer for each of them. "She's just like her father" Twilight thought at times. A leader who wanted answers. A captain of the guard ordering soldiers. Dawn looked at her mother, shrugged, and placed her head back on her stomach. Twilight knew that was to easy, but right now she didn't care. Dawn was her arms, and not in some monsters. The two sat there in silence, not saying a word. Twilight felt a sense of sleepiness come over her. She looked down and saw Dawn was quietly sleeping. Twilight smiled and gently brushed her daughters mane. She fidgeted a little but didn't wake up. Twilight was about to lay down on the medical bed and nap, with her daughter in her arms, ready to forget this day. However it was short lived when a guard's deep voice awoke her.

"Princess."

Twilight yawned and looked at the guard in her best manner. The dark bags under her eyes clearly going against her.

"Hmm? What is it Captain?"

The guard right faced and pointed toward the entrance to the medical room. Twilight looked and saw Princess Luna looking over the room. Looking for her no less. Twilight signed, picking up her daughter and walking toward Luna. The princess of the night noticed her and the two walked toward the other.

"Greetings Twilight. I am sorry if I'm intruding." Luna said politely.

Twilight reassured the princess.

"N-no way princess! Your never intruding believe me!"

The two bow to each other and Luna notices the sleeping filly in her fellow princesses arms. She was fast asleep, oblivions about what was going on. Luna motioned her head toward the entrance of the door.

"I must speak with her in private."

Twilight nods and follows Luna into the empty hallway. The glass windows shining the night princesses moon like a beautiful pearl. The whole hallway was painted as though it was black and white. Luna about-faced to Twilight and firmly stopped. The lunar princess looking ominous in the lighting.

"I need to ask you a few questions." she bluntly said.

"O-okay." Twilight was hesitant. Luna's attitude changed completely. Once second she was happy, not it looked as though she kicked her pet. The lunar princess reached into a satchel around her waist and pulled out the pulsating dark crystal. Twilight could feel the negative energy coming off the rock, and she didn't like it. Luna shared the same troubled expression.

"Luna...why do you have a black crystal?"

Luna simply answered with reaching into her satchel again and bringing out a small notebook. One Twilight recognized. It was the notebook she destroyed in her library five years prior because of a horrifying vision. She looked at the book with a nervous expression. Not only was she scared to see the cursed thing again, but she wondered how Luna got her hands on it.

"I discovered this small book in front of Jason's memorial statue in PonyVille one night. I felt its strong magic and knew it wasn't safe, but when I looked inside it, I found something interesting."

She flipped open the book and showed Twilight a page with a strange bipedal skeleton on it with strange words flooding the page. Twilight looked at Luna in a way made the princess of the night sign. She snapped the book closed and retreated it to her side.

"That page showed the instructions for a reincarnation spell."

Twilight was shocked.

"What!? How do you-"

"Because I slayed the skeleton of was once a pony coming here." she interrupted.

The two stood there in silence. Twilight was taking in the information given to her. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get her concerned. Undead skeletons walking amongst living and not knowing of they were dangerous or not. Luna didn't give Twilight time to take in the information before giving her more.

"That white beam that shot out of your castle...I have a theory that is the cause for it. Do you know who or what caused it?"

Just then, Twilight felt wheels turning in her head. She knew who had caused that beam. And she still had a bone to pick with that some pony. She looked her fellow princess in the eyes and answered her in a stern voice.

"I do."

Luna nodded. "Very good. We'll go find this pony right no-"

"YOUR MAJESTIES!"

Both princesses snapped their heads to the voice of a guard running toward them. Her armor was ripped through, her helmet missing, and a stream of blood running down her head. The guardsmare stopped and took a moment to catch her breathe.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asks.

The guardsmare looked up at Twilight and she could feel the sense of terror in her eyes. She had seen something terrifying.

"W-we tried to fight it...but it just t-tore all of us to pieces!" the guardsmare shakily said.

Luna stepped closer to the guardsmare and placed a hand to her shoulder.

"What do you mean by "it"?" Luna asked.

Just then, a body was thrown down the hallway, knocking the guardsmare off her hooves and onto the ground. The other guards throat was slashed. A puddle of blood forming on the ground. Then, a ear splitting roar was heard down the hallway. Everyone, even Dawn was who awakened by the sound, looked down the dark hallway. The hall felt as though the temperature had dropped below freezing, the wind outside howled, and thunder moaned outside. A sudden lighting bolts light showed it. A massive creature with long arms and legs. Clawed hands. Massive teeth, and expressionless eyes. The monster stomped down the hallway toward the ponies, a limp body in his right hand. The creature looked at the corpse and snarled at it before throwing it against the wall. Dawn gripped harder onto her mother. Twilight took a few steps back. Luna took in a attack ready stance. The guardsmare crab walked backwards behind the two. Twilight handed her daughter to the guard.

"Get Dawn to a safe place! Alter the entire castle!"

The guard saluted and sprinted back into medical wing, Dawn looking over her shoulder and reaching out for her mother. Twilight took a long look at her daughter and returned to the situation at hand. The monster was closer now, just a few steps away. Luna suddenly used her royal Canterlot voice, freezing the beast in place.

"HALT CREATURE! I DO NOT KNOW WHY THOU HAS CHOOSEN TO ASSAULT THIS CASTLE! BUT THOU AS MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE!"

The monster wasn't moved at Luna's booming voice. In fact, it looked as though it smiled as if it was pathetic. The monster unleashed a rumbling warning growl toward the two princesses. They weren't scared. This monster had infiltrated the castle and has killed. Twilight knew it wouldn't leave this place standing.

Pumpkinhead watched as the two ponies stood there ground against him. They were brave, but naïve about what they were facing. The futile ponies thought they could steal his summoner without punishment. How quaint. However the demon felt a little pity for the two alicorns in front of him. They were interfering with regaining his summoner, a flawed mistake. He knew they would feel his wrath, they just might now like it though. Pumpkinhead let out one last warning growl as it stopped toward the two. He wanted to kill them, but that wasn't his top priority. He needed his summoner, because of something happened to her...

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

A savage kick to the nose sent Pumpkinhead's head toward the sky. Then, a massive blast of magic impacted his chest. It burned, but it didn't knock him down. The demon shielded his eyes from the blast as it pushed him back. Sliding his feet across the floor. He was shocked to discover the ponies were this powerful. Maybe he underestimated them. If that was the case, this should be a worry challenge. Pumpkinhead let a ground rumbling roar and shoulder charged Princess Luna, ramming her through a wall. The pony attempted to fly away from the monster, but Pumpkinhead planted his massive foot on top of her. She screamed In agony with the weight of the monsters foot on top of her, possibly breaking her ribcage. Pumpkinhead was putting all his weight into his foot, crushing the pony below him. The demons head lurched forward and let out a screech. He turned and saw the other pony with a shining horn on her head. He growled, taking his attention away from the pony below his foot and stomped toward her friend.

The purple pony flew high in the air, avoiding close combat with the demon. Smart, he thought. Maybe these ponies weren't completely weak as the demon thought they were. The flying pony shot a blast of energy Pumpkinhead, which felt completely light compared to her friend. Come to think of it, the demon barely even felt that blast. He watched as the energy blast hit his body but the stream brushed over his body. He looked at the pony with an unimpressed expression, his version of it anyways. The pony stopped her blast and gave a nervous laugh. The demon regrets what he thought about them now. These ponies are pathetic. The flying pony was staying In the air, continuously blasting the demon. Pumpkinhead yawned and sat on his hunches, starring at the purple pony. She was clearly giving it her all. The alicorn stopped her blasting and gave out a heavy breathe. She was getting exhausted, slowly falling back toward the ground. Pumpkinhead stood up and stomped toward the pony. As he was about to finish her off, the demon felt his body suddenly fly forward and impact the ground on its stomach. He snarled and looked back to see the other alicorn walking out of the hole in the wall the demon put her through.

She looked pissed off. VERY pissed off. A swirl of blue fire coated the alicorns hooves and her horn. Her eyes were slit like an animals and she growled with a deep voice. It was like she was turning into a different being. The alicorn walked toward the demon with fire in her eyes and a sense of danger surrounding her. However, Pumpkinhead gave a disgusting grin as he witnessed the alicorn was being surrounded by the fire. She then growled through the fire.

"NOW...YOU...WILL...PERISH!"

Author's Note

Good News! For the first time I have made a story arc for Book of Darkness! I have determined, from writing the arc, that this story will be 31 chapters long and you can bet tons of action, adventure, and blood will be shed