Coco was trembling in fright. The others in the room were less prone to hide.

Tabitha was looking around. "The hell?"

Spring hiked a thumb upwards. "It came from above." She paused a moment. "It sounds most unwholesome. We should move."

They moved as one for the elevators to find them unresponsive. That did not make Tabitha happy. The only time they would do that... "Something's gone amazingly wrong." She stomped a hoof as her fingers twined and fidgeted. "We either charge for it or get the hell out and hope the pony cops and emergency--"

Spring put a finger on Tabitha's lips. "My precious beast, do you think that is likely to prove effective?"

Coco sank towards the ground. "I'm not built for this. Would you be terribly disappointed if I waited outside?"

Tabitha brushed Spring's soft finger away. "Go on, Coco. Spring, you're with me."

"With pleasure." With a rush of leaves and a waft of flowers, she drew a bow from nowhere in particular and had an arrow resting in it limply, waiting for her to draw and fire. "Let's hunt, my alpha."

With Coco trotting out the door to hopeful safety, the other two made for the stairs and began climbing towards danger. Inside the stairwell, they could hear something wetly slapping around. Besides where it seemed to slap up against a wall, it wasn't being specifically loud. It wasn't screaming or chittering or whatever it was supposed to be doing. Those sounds were too wet and powerful to make one feel comfortable about them.

Dark felt the headache growing intensely. Harmony was being assaulted. It was even fouler than the presence of the Text. That had came to change destiny, but destiny would remain. Whatever this was, it brought corruption and dissolution. Harmony would not coexist with it.

"We have to fight," she said, but it wasn't her. Paul was speaking through her, but she wasn't in disagreement. They did need to fight.

As one they rose, she was certain he was being less oppressed by the force. He knew as she did that it was foul and terrible, but his psyche was whole, as whole as anything regarding either of them could be called.

Bubbles spat out her gum to the side. "Right, we... uh, handle that, then we need a talk. Shoot, I didn't sign up for this."

"Yes you did." Dark wasn't sure if that was herself or Paul. Perhaps they had agreed.

Bubbles snorted and rolled her eyes. "Guess I did. Come on."

The elevator didn't work, so it was time for the stairs. It had come from just the next floor down. They scrambled down just in time to see the yeti throwing open the door into the breached floor.

"Who's up there?" came Tabitha's shouted voice.

None of them answered immediately, attention captured by the defiled reality before them. Space itself had recoiled at the touch of whatever it was. The hallway refused to run straight, as if the floor, walls, and ceiling were made of hot wax and flowed in sickly patterns. An impossibly huge tendril reached down that tortured hall with frightful speed.

The yeti struck forward with the massive spear and scored a long and bloody line along it, but the blood refused to flow normally. It bubbled and popped fitfully, but did not actually emerge from the wound, and it wasn't red, instead a dark purple and green sludge.

Bubbles' horn flared brightly as she attempted to paralyze the tendril, but her magic slid along and off of it like trying to stick to a greased pan and ultimately fell off without effect. "By Celestia..."

Dark heard herself, internally, like a thought she was having.

~What do you want to do?~

~We have to fight.~

~Of course. You have more experience. I want to help, not get us both killed.~

~Thank you.~ Dark felt herself smiling a little. ~We may yet die, but let us make a passable showing of it. You want to be a hero, worthy of the Warlock name? Assist me. This foulness clearly doesn't hold sway over your heart. I shudder to think what harmony-less world you hail from that isn't sickened by this.~

The tendril lashed around the yeti even as it released its spear and dug into the tendril with jagged claws. Both vanished down the hallway with a speed that didn't match the staggering length of the beast.

Tabitha and Spring approached from below, neither looking winded for charging up several flights. Tabitha's eyes widened at the sight of the defiled hallway. "What the hell?! Seriously, the... What is this?!"

Spring clucked her tongue against her teeth as she approached the door. "The foul presence of those that call the mutable space between spaces home. Beware, my... friends, to be taken by them is as much likely to lead to eternal madness as any swift end. Nothing wholesome lives between stars, where the very laws of the universe are but faint suggestions."

A great eye suddenly filled the doorway as if a creature had pressed its face against it from the other end despite none having seen such a creature moving. It wasn't there, then it was.

Tabitha could hear it, like nails against the chalkboard of her mind.

"Caretaker, we claim this place. Bow your head to us and we will let your thin blood continue to flow." It spoke like sickly oil, bubbling like the wounds that had been scored on it. "This is more than we usually offer."

Spring let loose an arrow, but it sailed through the doorway where the eye was no longer present. The creature had fled, or simply ceased to be there. "Space means nothing to these enemies," Spring hissed.

Tabitha glanced to the side at Spring. "Right, I'm the Caretaker. Can I just tell it to get lost?"

Spring smiled viciously. "I'm afraid power must be proven, or it becomes the muted barking of a powerless dog. Its presence implies it has already breached the walls of this sanctum. It must be ejected."

Dark tensed. "The door."

A roar billowed from the defiled hallway though impossible to tell from what direction it came besides beyond there. The yeti was fighting, they could but assume.

Tabitha wanted to run. That was something to call the damned army about, but the army she knew didn't exist. It would be a bunch of ponies. Magical colorful ponies that'd get pulverized. Damn. "Spring, do you know how to do... something about this?"

She grimaced. "Living magic will have limited effect on it. Arrows will deter it mildly."

A shadowed form came from below before emerging into the form of Horpip. "It sounds as if you may require more... talented assistance."

Spring spun on him. "Horpip! Have you come to befoul our efforts?"

"If you prefer to die, or worse, turn me away, or you can accept a favor and see a happy ending at the end of this."

Bubbles stepped forward with a scowl. "Why should we trust you?"

He shrugged. "I've followed the blasted rules, mare. Ye have not a reason to think I'll do otherwise. Take it or not."

Dark rushed past them all in a blur, horn flaring as she jumped forward. She was in just the right place to catch a lashing tendril on that blazing spire, skewering it. Her horn exploded in pain as that foul blood ate at it like an acid. It withdrew, but she had not won that battle cleanly.

Spring looked between Horpip and the staggering Dark. "I will accept your decision, Tabitha. This is, in the truest sense, your business."

~That hurt!~ complained Dark to Dark internally.

~This is a battle. Pain is to be expected.~

~Right, right... Maybe we shouldn't be standing here.~

She looked down to see her hooves sinking into the floor that refused to support her. With a surprised grunt, she wrenched one hoof free and scrambled back to the stairwell, which was mercifully solid.

Tabitha spotted the yeti's spear, abandoned and sinking in the mire. "Look, if you can help get this under control, do it. This is your home too until you move out, do it for yourself." She strode away from the two fae, daring to enter the chaotic zone. Her entire pony body suddenly began to itch terribly all over but she pressed on, taking slow sticky steps to the spear and grabbing it free. It was heavy, really heavy, but Spring had fashioned her well and her muscles proved sufficient to heft it up in two hands without too much trouble.

Spring raised a brow at Horpip. "She is learning how to negotiate."

Horpip snorted softly. "And is willing to do it with her domain burning. I will give her a small credit for her bravery, if not for a damn shred of sense." He reached into a pocket in his vest and drew out a small pouch. "Let's start by not letting it have the terrain advantage. This isn't the space between stars, damnable creature. Stop pretending." He waved the pouch in a dramatic heave, but never let it go. The contents were not so restricted and sprayed out in an arc of sparkling dust. Where it touched, the walls cried out like stabbed children, but quickly began to harden and straighten.

Tabitha raised each hoof in time with the incoming stability to avoid getting stuck in reforming floor. "Good thinking. You want to lead the way? He's doing all the fighting for us, and I'm not sure he's winning." They could hear the battle going on, presumably between the yeti and the eldritch creature from beyond mortal comprehension.

Horpip shook his head. "I think not. You march on with that horse body of yours. I'll be right behind."

Bubbles marched forward to stand beside Tabitha. "I'm with ya, boss." She shot Dark a glare. "I ain't no common thug."

~Why did you say that?~

~You know... Look, it was a hasty statement. I would blame this corruption, but that would be dodging responsibility.~

"I am sorry." Dark shook her head, the pain in her horn ebbed to a reasonable level. "Let's focus on this task."

Horpip waved Spring away. "Ye best just wander back to your little hidey hole. It's time for real men to get to work." Everyone peered at him. It was a reminder that he was the only male present. "Right right. Suit yourself."

Author's Note

So, I felt bad. Here's the rest of the 2k chapter. :) Extra typos included, just to say I'm sorry.

Written in the dead of night for enhanced reality bending.