Spiritus Malum

“Everything that thou hast loved has been lost,” the thing hissed to the Unicorn, “Thy loved ones, thy kin, thy friends, all that thou hast loved is gone from this world, never to return. Thy entire life has been a tragedy from the day that ye received that mark.”

The blackish smoke-like anomaly that was the feminine creature floated around to the unicorn’s side. It pointed to the unicorn’s flank with a smoky tendril at the tragedy mask Cutie Mark emblazoned upon his flank as emphasis to its point.

“What couldst thou offer me...whatever ye may be.”

“I can offer thee eternal life, aside from a cursed blade or a proper spell, nothing may take you in all your years. I can offer thee a chance to bend this land to your whim, to create tragedy upon it so that all may suffer the fate that has cursed you!”

“And the price?” the unicorn asked, not entirely sure that he wanted to know.

If the thing had a face, it might have smiled a sharp toothy grin, “To share thy flesh with thee, that I and you may become we!”
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“Awaken!” The female called, pulling the male from his dreams, “The unicorn is asleep and we may escape.”

The male looked around and spotted the purple unicorn that had been studying their prison. She had collapsed amid a pile of books, asleep. Her head rested between the pages of one on reversing enchantments.

“Use telekinesis to lead us to and out the door so we may retake our form once more.”

The male charged up a telekinesis spell and sent the marble sphere rolling off the table. It landed with a hard bump on the floor, but the unicorn didn’t awaken. The male guided the sphere to the door before opening it with another touch of telekinesis. With a final push they were outside in a blanket of night.

The sphere picked up speed as it rolled through the town, soon leaving the many buildings for grassy fields outside the small village. Here it finally came to a stop.

“Here?” The male asked.

“Here,” The female confirmed, “Use our magic to retake physical form and be removed from this prison.”

Had he had a head, the male would have nodded and clenched closed his eyes as he prepared a releasing spell.

The marble sphere was wreathed in what had the appearance of black colored fire and it gave off a slight glow, white cracks forming across its surface. The sphere wobbled back and forth for a few seconds before detonating with a sound akin to a gunshot.

In the epicenter of a circle of dead grass stood a lone unicorn. His coat was the color of charcoal and his mane was the color of ash with speckles of night black. Upon his flank, in contrast to the color of his coat, was a stark white and unhappy tragedy mask Cutie Mark.

The pony looked over himself with cold blue eyes, flicking his tail once as he observed himself.

‘We are whole once more!’ The female exclaimed from his mind, unheard by all but him.

“We are!” The unicorn exclaimed, taking a deep breath of cool night air, “What is our next plan?”

‘We learned our lesson from our last crusade, this time we shall take it at a slower pace. Fit into society and find a way to bring it all crashing into a sea of evil. It was never said that evil was quick, but let it be said that evil is intelligent and cunning!’

The unicorn nodded, it was time for evil to reign.
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(The next day)

Spike was rudely awakened from another of his Rarity fantasies, this one involving a whole city made of gemstones, by a frantic purple pony.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled, shaking him by the shoulders, “Get up! I need your help!”

“What? What happened?” The baby dragon replied as Twilight released him and headed back down the stairs.

“Somepony broke in last night! We have to check everything to find out what’s missing!” Twilight replied as Spike groggily followed after her.

Somepony broke in? THAT got Spike’s attention.

“Somepony broke in?” He asked, his grogginess leaving, “Holy guacamole!”

“I woke up and found that somepony had left the door open! I know for a fact that I closed and locked it before I started to study,” Twilight explained, “That and the marble ball is missing, so somepony took it. I mean, it’s not as if it just got up and rolled away on its own.”

“Did you see them? Wait, how did they take the ball if you were studying?” Spike asked, examining the table that the marble ball had once resided.

Twilight blushed, “I guess I fell asleep.”

“Hi!” A cheerful and energetic voice called out, nearly giving Spike and Twilight heart attacks, “Whatcha guys doing?” Pinkie asked.

“Wha...Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked.

“The door was open,” Pinkie pointed a hoof back to the still open door, “It’s usually closed, so I thought you might be having a book fair or something, and then I thought that if you were having a book fair I might be able to cater for it like a party, and if I was going to to cater for it I would probably have to ask you first, and what better way to ask you first than by coming in and asking you since the door was open?”

Twilight and Spike stared for a moment.

Remembering the situation, Twilight spoke, “I guess I should have closed the door. No Pinkie, I’m not having a book fair. Somepony broke in last night and stole the marble stone that was brought back from the well.”

Pinkie frowned, “Are you sure? I don’t think I know anypony who would do something mean like that...well maybe, but I don’t think so.”

“Well maybe if we find out what they took, we can possibly find a motive. If we find a motive, we can hopefully find a pony who did it,” Twilight reasoned, looking up and down a bookshelf.

“Right!” Pinkie proclaimed. The pink mare pulled out a deerstalker hat and pipe, placing the hat atop her head and biting down on the pipe’s end to blow some bubbles.

Spike raised a scaly eyebrow.

“Not that I don’t want your help, Pinkie, but don’t you have stuff to do?” Twilight asked, magicking the hat from Pinkie and placing it on her own head.

“Oh yeah,” Pinkie said, popping the pipe into Twilight’s mouth and slamming a bowler hat onto Spike’s head before zipping from the library with a cry of, “Good luck looking for clues!”

Twilight made a face as she levitated the pipe from her mouth to wipe it off.

“What was that all about?” Spike asked, removing his hat to examine it.

Twilight put the now clean pipe back in her mouth before facehoofing and levitating both it and her hat away, “Just more of Pinkie’s silly antics, let’s get to work.”

“Speaking of which, how are we gonna find what else was stolen?” Spike asked.

Twilight replied by taking all the books off the shelf and dumping them on the floor, Spike groaned.

“By going through everything and checking off what’s missing,” At Spike’s annoyed look, she added, “Reshelving day is only a few days away, this way we can get it over with now.”

“Fine,” Spike moaned.
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Spiritus Malum trotted through the marketplace, observing the town and the ponies within it.

‘Predominantly Earth Pony,’ The female thought with distaste, ‘Wait a moment, something is wrong.’

Malum halted in his tracks, his eyes losing focus, ‘We...we are not one, our thoughts are separated...try to move our body,’ the male thought.

The female attempted to make Malum’s body move, but to no avail. Back in their height, the two were not a spirit and a pony, but one combined creature. Now they were two different beings, one residing in another.

‘It has to be a side effect of our lengthy time in imprisonment,’ the female reasoned, ‘It is but a minor setback. So long as we work together, we shalt be unstoppable!’

The male nodded and continued on his way until a pink earth pony, who had just passed him by, gasped and zipped in front of him with a gasp.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” Pinkie asked with a massive friendly smile on her face.

Malum pondered that question a moment, he obviously couldn’t go around calling himself Spiritus Malum. He didn’t know how many ponies knew the old language, but he was certain that plenty did.

‘Mulam Sutirips,’ the female suggested cleverly.

‘No, still very obvious,’ He stared back at the smiling pink pony with an emotionless expression, “Metal Stirrups,” he finally replied, sticking slightly to the female’s suggestion.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Metal Stirrups!” Pinkie replied happily.

‘Nopony can be that happy, what does this pony have up her sleeve?’ Stirrups wondered.

“I know everypony in Ponyville and I mean everypony! Maybe I could show you around since you’re new here and...” Pinkie continued to blabber on, Stirrups eventually blocking it out as he and the female—Spiritus Malum—as the two were no longer one anymore, conjured forth some pain essence.

From Stirrup’s shadow, a small sliver of darkness broke away. It snaked its way over to Pinkie before touching her leg and...popping out of existence?

Pinkie halted her wall of dialogue and looked down at her hoof before shrugging and continuing as if nothing had happened, “...So whaddaya say, Metal Stirrups?” She smiled massively as she stared at the darkly colored pony before her.

‘Why did that pain essence not work?’ Malum wondered.

‘I am not certain,’ Stirrups replied, ‘Perhaps another side effect of our imprisonment?’

‘No, we were able to use deception essence with ease back in the well. We shalt look into this.’

“Helloooo?” Pinkie asked, waving a hoof in front of Stirrup’s face.

“I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling, move along,” Stirrups said before trotting around the pink pony.

‘So where shall we go—’ Stirrup’s train of thought was shot to tartarus as a particular pink pony began trotting beside him with a snort of laughter.

“I’m not selling anything, I just wanted to welcome you to Ponyville and help you make some new friends!” Pinkie said, “It’s the least I could do for my new best friend!” With that, she threw a foreleg over Stirrup’s withers like they were friends and began pointing out different places.

“Ugh, no,” Stirrups replied, “I am not interested, now be on your way.” He telekinetically lifted her foreleg off of him and continued on his way.

“Are you sure?” Pinkie asked, continuing to follow him.

“Yes,” Stirrups shot back.

“Are you sure that you’re sure?” The pink pony continued.

“Yes!” Stirrups replied, the pink mare starting to get on his nerves.

“Are you sure that you’re sure that you’re sure?” Stirrups growled to himself and headed into a dark alley. As he expected, Pinkie followed, “It doesn’t cost anything if that what’s...”

Stirrups wheeled around, bringing Pinkie face to face with him and supporting her head with one of his hooves under her chin. Through his foreleg he funneled energy from the five essences into the pink pony, intending to corrupt her to his will.

She stared back into his eyes, oblivious as his actions did nothing.

‘She is immune! An immortal?’ Malum asked, startled.

‘I do not know, perhaps all ponies have become immune to our tampering,’ Stirrups replied in thought, “When I say no, I mean no. Now stay the hell away from me,” Stirrups shoved Pinkie away and trotted past her, finally she didn’t follow, opting to stare after him as he went.

Pinkie watched him go with sadness, this was just like that time with Cranky, except he was a donkey, “No?” Pinkie asked nopony in particular as she sat in the darkness.