Spiritus Malum

Due to the accident, the camping trip was cut short and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were still Cutie Markless after another grand adventure. Something that they had come to suspect deep down inside.

Applejack reported the well to Mayor Mare, who sent some ponies down to check it out. The well presented a safety hazard, especially if there was a monster within it.

The search team had returned with news two days later. They found no sign of the monster, or anything alive at all. The tunnel led off in one direction before meeting what appeared to be an old cave in.

During the exploration, they happened upon a strange marble sphere at the end of the tunnel. They took it out with them after their visit for further study. Upon said further study, it was found that the sphere was magical in some sort of way, there were a few weakened enchantments on it.

Seeing that she was the best of the best when it came to magic, the sphere was given to Twilight for further study.
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“But we can’t have made it up!” Apple Bloom retorted.

“Apple Bloom, sweetie, the ponies who went down there didn’t find any monsters. It was dark down there and the three of you must have had a very frightening experience,” Rarity explained, “You three have very active imaginations and you only thought that you heard something down there.”

“But...”

“I’m certain that it seemed very real for the three of you, but they didn’t find any monsters. I’m sure that the three of you are very tired. Time for the three of you to go to sleep.”

“Can’t we stay up a little bit longer?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“It is way past your bedtimes already. They don’t call it a ‘sleepover’ for nothing.”

“Fine...” Replied the annoyed little pony as she and her friends poutily trotted off to bed.

“Nothing of our deception suspected,” the female said, pulling her mental form away from Carousel Boutique and back to the confines of the marble stone, “As we predicted.”

“Good, but when will we take our physical form?” the male asked.

“Soon. Our prison no longer holds us, but we still lack the energy to take physical form. Once we have gathered enough energy we may take our leave and shape the land to out will once more!”

“And what of Celestia and Luna? What of the Elements of Harmony?”

At their mentioning, a memory from the past came forth, unbidden but still present...
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They had overestimated themselves, perhaps the goddesses of sun and moon were not as weak as Spiritus Malum had believed. It was lucky to have escaped unharmed from the battle at the gates of Canterlot. With their powers combined, the two alicorns were unstoppable.

But Malum had detected the corruption that it had implanted in Luna. Even if the goddess fought it, the essence of evil that Malum had implanted in her would remain until it came forth and consumed her entirely. It was only a matter of time.

Malum smiled. In their infinite wisdom, the two alicorns still didn’t know the whereabouts of Malum’s secret headquarters.

Using its reserves of deception essence, Malum cloaked itself from those nearby. The ponies of this small town were not corrupted to Malum’s will and as such would not take kindly to the spirit’s intrusion.

But all that was going to change once Malum had control of Equestria.

Malum hopped atop the town’s well and dropped down. Simple unicorn magic was used to create a pocket of air around Malum’s physical form as the spirit swam down to get to its subterranean base of operations.

Once Malum got to the secret base, it could...

“No!” The spirit growled, seeing the secret tunnel ending in a crumbled wall where a door once was. But how had this happened? The base was protected by powerful spells that only Malum could break...Malum or perhaps the goddesses...

But if the goddesses knew about the secret base...

Magic surrounded the spirit and it was suddenly teleported outside.

A ring of unicorn soldiers, all wearing specialized protective armor and wielding enchanted spears surrounded the spirit. Malum glared around, its eyes coming on the real threat that was present.

“Luna!” Malum smiled, “How nice of thee to show thineself after last encounter! How fares ye?”

The alicorn of the night glared violently back at the smiling spirit of evil. Her normally freeflowing mane gave erratic twitches, her eyes blaring hate as her lip curled back, “What didst thou do to me!?” she demanded, her voice shaking.

“We brought us closer together, Luna. We implanted a seed of ourself inside of thee!”

“How dost I remove it, thou sickening black-bellied monster!?” She yelled, not yet calling upon the Royal Canterlot Voice, but coming close.

Malum laughed, “Thou canst remove it, dearest Luna. We ask again, join us for we are not very different! You are the goddess of the night, a time of fear and of nightmares. We feed upon the essence of fear! Together we could overthrow the sickening rule of Celestia and make Equestria our own! Eternal night and evil upon its people!”

“SILENCE!” Called out Luna, the guards flinching as she used the Royal Canterlot Voice, “THOU SHALT REMOVE THY SEED FROM ME AND THEN PERISH UNDER THE POWER OF THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!”

Malum’s smile faded and the spirit wasted no time. It called upon the essences of fear, pain, hatred, and cruelty to create a group of elemental soldiers. The creatures had the form of ponies, but they were skeletal and starved with glowing red eyes and coats of roiling, black flame.

The spirit sicced the soldiers on Luna’s as the two semi-immortals took to battle.

“Die!” Malum called out, casting forth a dark blast of pain essence.

Luna leaped over the stream of energy, her horn charging with bluish light, and discharged a spell at the spirit.

Malum leaped away, the spell detonating where it had recently been. It looked around noting that its soldiers had made quick work of Luna’s and were awaiting Malum’s command. With a thought, it sent them on a rampage upon the town.

“Tell us, Luna. What shalt thee do? Make battle with us or make it with our soldiers who now slaughter this town?” Malum taunted confidently, the lunar goddess could easily make mincemeat of Malum’s soldiers, but it would give it time to escape.

“Thy seed makes me indifferent to them!” Luna shouted, casting another spell at Malum.

Malum had been sure that Luna would stop the battle to help the ponies of this village. Not taking into account the fact that Luna was actually feeling the effects of Malum’s tampering. The spirit was proud that she had delved into the darker side that it had implanted, but it was short lived as a spell threw the spirit through the window of a building.

The attack would have killed a normal pony, but Malum was only dazed as Luna used another blast of her magic to turn the house into a pile of rubble that came crashing down on the spirit.

But Malum was only dazed and cast a quick teleport spell to escape the carnage. Outside, it noticed with a grin that the soldiers were making fine work of the town. Killing everything in sight and burning everything within reach.

Malum looked around, but Luna was nowhere to be found.

Malum prepared to escape with a long range teleport spell when dark chains sprung up from the ground and wrapped around the spirit. Malum struggled, but the chains were too strong.

“I will end thee if thou dost not remove thy seed of evil from my body!” Luna yelled, landing in front of the spirit. An enchanted spear was grasped in her magical clutches, “Doth not think that I do not know how to kill thee!”

Malum smiled up at his captor, “Kill us and you will be forever blessed with our seed!”

Luna used her magic to manipulate the chains and bring the spirit’s chest to bear. She took a step forwards and called out in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “THOU SHALT REMOVE...”

In her rage, the princess of the night had forgotten that Malum was more than mortal and the chains only bound its body, it didn’t stop Malum’s magic. The spirit concentrated a blast of pain essence at Luna, catching her in the chest. The alicorn cried out as pain lanced through her body, the chains around Malum’s body broke and the spirit was freed.

“Foolish demi-god,” Malum chastised, “We shalt remove thy heart from thy body and thy head from thy neck!” The spirit brought forth a magical blade of energy to finish off the alicorn.

Malum raised the sword of energy and it was obliterated in a blast of golden light.

Knowing the caster, the spirit turned and threw a blast of energy of the five essences of evil at Celestia. The essences of Fear, Deception, Hatred, Pain, and Cruelty shot towards the solar goddess. The five darkly colored blasts were met with resistance in the form of the rainbow blast of the Elements of Harmony.

Malum clenched its teeth, straining the Essences of Evil against the Elements of Harmony. Malum knew it was a losing fight, the Elements had six while the Essences had but five, but there was nothing it could do besides delay the inevitable...
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The memory was shattered as magic surrounded the marble sphere and the prisoners within searched for the reason behind it.

The sphere was levitated a few inches off the table for a few seconds before being set back down.

“Hmm,” Twilight Sparkle noted, levitating a quill and writing down a few notes, “It has a set of enchantments, that’s for certain,” the unicorn looked up at the marble sphere, “But what are they?”

It had been quite some time since Twilight last had something important to do. She relished the opportunity to study whatever this thing was and unlock its secrets.

Spike had immediately commented on the fact that it was about the size of a bowling ball.

“Maybe it’s an ancient bowling ball!” The little dragon had suggested with interest.

Twilight smiled at the memory, who knew? Maybe Spike was right and it was an ancient bowling ball.

Speaking of said baby dragon...

“Spike,” Twilight looked back over her shoulder, “Could you...oh yeah,” she chuckled to herself as she saw that it was nighttime, the little dragon was fast asleep upstairs, “Owloysuis?” She began again, spying the owl preening a wing, “Could you get Enchantment Deciphering 101 for me please?”

The owl gave a hoot and flew from his perch to do as instructed.

“They will be of no consequence, we shall take it slower this time. By the time the goddesses of sun and moon become aware of our return, it will be far too late!” The female schemed, “Equestria is as good as ours!”