The Lulamoon Files

The Lulamoon Files

Chapter Five: Monster Rumble

Written by TheCrimsonDM

I stopped by my apartment to grab a few things before heading out. A metal bracelet that slipped right over my right hoof. An old stave carved from grapewood with several blue-white crystals set along the middle to the top. A wand made from the same wood, only without all the neat little crystals was next to go in my saddlebags. With everything gathered I paused, there was one more thing I could take with me, something that had been very important in the past but I still didn’t know how to feel about taking it everywhere.

My mother’s pocket watch. It was a brass pocket watch, enchanted with simple wards to make it sturdy and work without ever needing to be wound. The back had a picture of six, six pointed stars all of them connected to one another by a blue line of lightning. I never understood what it had symbolized, but it sure looked cool.

I brought it with me, for some reason I felt like I was going to need to know what time it was today. I jumped back into my car and drove off with a pitter patter. My car was doing the shaky thing again already, that was hardly any good.

As I approached the warehouse the smell of sea water and fish assaulted my senses. If there was one thing that I missed about Hoofington it was that it was far away from the ocean. Still I was on the job and I could deal with some dumb fish.

I parked across the street and down the block. Hopefully far enough away that it wouldn’t look suspicious. Carefully I made my way to the dock. It was quiet down here, and no cars were driving by. If that wasn’t odd enough, I also noticed a distinct lack of any homeless ponies. A sinking pit grew in my stomach. Something was wrong here.

The warehouse itself was surrounded by a huge chain link fence. A smirk grew over my lips as I came to the locked gate. A fence and a lock to stop the Great and Skillful Trixie? I think not.

I pulled out a lock pick and looking around to make sure I was really alone. There was not another soul to be seen. I used my telekinesis to lift the lock pick and get to work with my skills as a master wizard. The lock fell to the ground only a few seconds later and I put the lock pick away. Using magic, even the most basic and lowly of spells had a tendency to scare these earth ponies and pegasi. It had been too long since unicorns lived amongst their kind after all.

I walked through the gate and into the warehouse parking lot. It was dead empty. No cars, no ponies, no nothing. Again the mist was blowing in from the sea. I could tell that it was going to be hard to see out here soon, which could work in my advantage in case I had to leave quickly. Until then I simply made my way to the warehouse doors. One of the side doors was unlocked and I opened it without making a sound.

The first thing I saw was a wall of wooden crates. Following this down I kept my ears perked up and listened for any sounds. I could hear a sort of high pitched buzzing sound from somewhere deeper inside. Carefully I made my way around the edge of boxes and saw that the warehouse was filled with large metal crates. In one corner I saw a lion’s paw sticking between the bars of a massive cage, the paw itself was bigger than my head. A few more were filled with crocodiles made of rocks, or giant black plants with pink glowing insides. This place was like a pound but instead of dogs there was an assortment of different magical beasts and constructs. I could hardly believe my eyes.

How did so many of these creatures end up here in Manehattan? Especially without notice? Why were they here?

A few cages had razorwire lining the bars. So much of it in fact that all I could make out was a buzzing sound coming from it, and little round colorful balls on the floor of the cage. Whatever was in there was likely very dangerous. I wasn’t sure what to do with this information. If the Jade House in Canterlot caught wind of this they’d lose their collective minds.

“Who are you?” A cold male voice demanded from behind me.

I spun around, pulled my stave from my side with my magic and aimed it at a cloaked pony. “I am the Great and Powerful Trixie! Now tell me who you are?”

“Heh, like I’d do that,” he said with a cold smile. A pale blue light began shining from within his hood, but it didn’t reveal his face. I could tell he was a white stallion, but that limited it down to anypony I’d never met. “It was brave of you to break in here, Trixie, but I’m afraid I’ll have to put you on ice for your trouble.”

A beam of blue energy shot from his horn. I threw up my right foreleg and pumped my willpower into the bracelet. A transparent orchard shield was thrown up around me. The beam struck my shield and began freezing the air around it. After a moment the beam stopped and I dropped my shield feeling a little tired from the effort. The rounded wall of ice stood in front of me.

“Okay, you want to play, then let’s play!” I snapped as I stepped out of the way of the shield. I saw the stallion standing there, aimed my stave at him, and cried, “Lightning!”

A bolt of lightning shot forth from the end of my stave, zigzagging along its way to my target. It hit the smug stallion. The stallion exploded into a mess of icy pieces. Solid ice carved limbs hit the ground and I stood there, frozen with shock.

What? But how? He was real wasn’t he?

The sound of galloping hooves made me turn around at once. The stallion was wearing his cloak and galloping toward the three cages full of wooden dog like creatures. There was a pale blue light covering the latches to the cages, and before I could react the cage doors were thrown open.

“Go,” he told the dogs. “Sic her.”

Between the growls and the pony sized wooden dogs it was no wonder I reacted the way I did when I saw them. I turned around and galloped away. I heard claws scraping against the concrete floor as the dogs gave chase. I got around the wall of wooden crates just in time to see Applejack opening the door. She gave me one look, one that was a mixture of shock and anger. Of course I knew that those dogs could make easy work of me, and I had magic! To them, Applejack would be nothing more than a chew toy.

I galloped up to Applejack, and before her shock could explode into full blown rage I shoved her back out the door she came in from and jumped out after her. Right behind me I saw one of the wooden dogs sliding past as he tried to turn with me. He was larger still than the door, but I wasn’t sure that would stop him. So I shut the door and drew out my wand.

“Bad dog!” I cried as I waved my wand and cast one of my infamous illusions. The door vanished from sight. Leaving just a brick wall behind.

Applejack was staring open mouthed at the doorway. “W-what was-“

“No time to explain,” I told her as I dragged her back up off the ground with my magic. She had her revolver at her side. Upon seeing it I nodded toward her gun. “You might need that.”

She didn’t hesitate to grab it with her teeth and pull it out. Good thing too because that’s when I heard a loud thud from inside the warehouse. It was quickly followed by another, and another. Each time the sounds grew louder, and dust would come flying off of the bricks.

“Oh yeah,” I said absent mindedly. “There’s three of them.”

Applejack bit her handle. “What do ya mean three?”

Before I could answer the wall came exploding outward along with one of the dogs that hit the ground rolling. I pointed my stave and whispered, “Lighting.”

A bolt of lightning flew out and struck the creature dead center in its chest. It exploded outwardly. Twigs, branches and vines came raining down upon the ground. So they were strong, fast, and deadly, but they couldn’t take a hit. That was good to know.

The other two followed on the first one’s heels. I raised my stave but they were fast. I barely had enough time to jump out of the way as one came barreling on me. Behind I watched as Applejack fired her gun. The bullet bit deep into the dog's head, and the body shattered before my very eyes. Yet its collapsing mass still had momentum enough to crash into her sending her a good ten feet back onto the ground rolling. Her gun slid across the pavement.

“Die!” I cried as I raised my stave and loosed another lightning bolt.

The second one too exploded into bits of forest foliage everywhere.

My side exploded into agony as a heavy wooden paw slammed into it. I was lifted off the ground, flew for a little bit, and then hit the pavement with a crack. As I rolled everything hurt. I felt fire on my cheek where I must’ve scraped it on my fall. My stave was all the way over where I had been hit, I’d lost it when I was smacked.

The wooden dog snarled, showing sharp teeth carved from wood. It didn’t hesitate before it took off in a full fledged charge toward me. I bared my teeth, pumped my willpower into my shield and prayed to all the gods that I could keep him from ripping me to shreds. There was gun fire, once, a leg vanished on the dog, twice, part of the dog’s side exploded outward, thrice, and the dog fell into a pile of twigs and branches.

Applejack stood, gun in mouth, a line of crimson running down the side of her face. I stood up and went for my stave. She was at my side in ten seconds flat.

“What was that? Why was that? Why are you here? What’s going on?” she demanded of me quicker than I knew she could talk.

I picked up my stave, my orchard aura casting a faint light around us as I did. I gave her a frown. “AJ, there’s not enough time to-“

A roar erupted from inside. Memories of a giant star bear destroying a village, large sweeping paws ruining buildings as though they were made from wet paper, flashed through my mind. My heart skipped a beat. There was a terrible thrashing inside and I caught a brief glimpse of a scorpion tail larger than both of us combined stalking around the wooden crates. The manticore.

“We need to leave,” I told her.

She almost looked ready to bite my head off, but followed me as I quickly galloped away. “What is that?”

“A manticore,” I told her calmly.

Her eyes widened, but her speed picked up. “Are you joking? I don’t take kindly to those kinds of-“

“No I’m not.”

“Is it going to hurt ponies?”

We hit the sidewalk. “No, the warlock has it under his control.”

“The what?”

“Ugh, shut up and let’s get out of here already!”

We jumped into my car, me in the driver seat and her in the passenger. It choked and sputtered to life and I quickly reversed, turned around and sped out of there. The truth was that if that manticore was going to hurt ponies that it was likely under its master’s orders. There wasn’t much I could do against a manticore. Sure I’m the best wizard in all of Manehattan, but I’m not stupid.

Right about then there was only one place I could think of to get some rest and think about what I was going to do with a warlock and his monstrous minions. Or even worse, what I was going to do about Applejack, now that she’d seen the monsters and heard about a warlock, there was no way she was going to let this go and allow me to handle it my way. What I really needed was a drink, and only one place around here sold Apple Cider good enough for me.

It was time to hit up Big Mac’s.