A/N: So, this is the new first chapter. Ignore the previous one, it was utter B.S.
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All was normal in the village of Ponyville. Vendors were found at the market, pitching their products to potential customers, fillies and colts were at school being taught, and weather pegasi were found flying about, clearing the sky for today's forecast: sunny skies. All was fine and dandy.
...Except in one particular library. The excitement was palpable as a certain purple unicorn sped about the place, getting ready to test a spell. Books and paper were thrown around, ink was spilled everywhere, and broken quills littered the library. Twilight snorted in frustration as she raced the library.
“Gah! Where is she!? She promised she’d be here thirty minutes ago!” Twilight shouted, stomping her hoof.
The shout echoed against the walls and bookcases. She huffed, and looked towards the door for the umpteenth time that hour. Twilight was beginning to to lose her patience with her would-be guest. “I swear, if Rainbow Dash is out fooling around when I’ve been waiting this whole time...” Twilight walked towards the door, ready to hunt down her friend, only to be thrown back by another force on the other side. The impact sent her flying into a pile of books she had been going through earlier, burying herself in the ‘R–Z’ section of the spell theory shelf. Dash kept flying forward, slamming into the wall above the book pile.
Rainbow Dash slid down from her place on the wall and landed on the floor, shaking her head. “Ow, who put that door in my way?!”
Twilight poked her head from the book pile. “Darn it, Rainbow! Can’t you knock, next time?”
Dash jumped up and posed, rolling her eyes at Twilight, “Bah, doors are for suckers! Why knock when you can fly? Anyway, you said something about a spell that’ll make me even more awesome! What is it?”
Twilight stood up and walked over to Dash, pushing lightly at her, trying to hide the excitement threatening to overcome her. “Come on. As mad as I am that you were this late, I want to try this spell out. I already sent Spike to round up the other girls and get them to Fluttershy's cottage. Now then, I wanted to brief you on what you need to do.”
The pair headed out of the library as Twilight began describing the basics of the spell her friend. It took two fairly simple spells. The first, conventionally used to create a breeze on hot days, would help adjust wind direction, and the second, a light enhancement spell used by miners to increase visibility of their lamps in dark caves, would increase spectrum intensity. What she had in mind applied them to pegasi, mainly Rainbow. The idea had struck Twilight after seeing Trixie use similar techniques in her stage magic. She wanted to see if she could do just as well, if not better, with the same tricks. This experiment with Dash was merely a test. She needed to to see if it would work, and something like that could only be done in the field.
As they arrived at the cottage they found all their friends waiting around. Fluttershy was sitting next to an otter, asking him how his day was. Applejack and Rarity were bickering about life in Manehatten, while Pinkie Pie bounced merrily nearby, humming a small tune to herself.
Pinkie spotted the pair first.“... Hey! They’re here! Hi Twilight, what’d ya need? Spike came over all excited and started telling me that I needed to go to Fluttershy’s cottage, so I came by and Applejack was here, so I started talking to her about this new idea I had that involved apples. Then Fluttershy came out of the cottage and I started talking to both of them about making apple-flavored milk, and then Rarity came by, so I started telling them about this idea about making an edible apple-flavored dress, and now you two are here, so I want to know why we’re here!”
Twilight reeled for a second, before rolling her eyes and answering the last question, “Well, I called you all here to see a spell that I think would be a real sight to see! I need to get it ready first, so please find a nice place to sit.”
Dash and Spike smiled as the others raised their eyebrows, wondering what Twilight had in mind. Spike took a seat as Dash went to go prepare with her.
Twilight activated the wind spell on Dash, and her feathers began ruffling in an unseen breeze as the air around her adjusted itself. Twilight instructed her to begin building up speed up in the air, and Dash took off, her speed from the launch made faster from the spell. As Dash flew around, her speed increasing more rapidly than normal thanks to the wind adjustments made by the spell. Twilight began prepping the light spell, steadying herself as she aimed at her friend. Dash began climbing higher, preparing for the legendary Sonic Rainboom. Reaching the highest point she could stay at while still breathing, she began her descent.
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This is it.
This is the moment.
Everything you had been working towards was about to pay off.
You’d show him.
One does not simply kill the Demon Slayers family and get away with it.
He’d pay.
These thoughts swirl in your head, adding to the anger coursing through your veins. The more you thought of him, the more your desire to end his unending life grew. It doesn’t matter if he’s immortal, you thought to yourself. He may be the Black Mage, but no one, not even one as powerful as him, gets away with toying, fooling, and betraying the Demon Slayer like this!
You arrive at a door that leads into another hallway. This was getting ridiculous! There were too many doors; way too many, for one such as the Black Mage. He may be the master of trickery and deceit, but in matters such as these, he ought to let you go straight to him. That means that someone else was messing with you! But who could gain from this? No one that you knew of... Except for the snake, Arkharium! He thinks he’d gain so much from delaying me. Doesn’t he know that the Black Mage wants to see me? Whatever. If he gets in my way, I’ll just crush him. Nothing will stand in the way of my revenge.
As you push through the next set of doors, there he stands, the traitorous bastard, Arkharium. He stood in front of two gargantuan obsidian doors, dressed in a black robe and holding a scepter in one hand with some unholy book in the other. His eyes glowed darkly with untold power as a winged snake sprouted from his back. This is it.
“A bit late to be taking a patrol around the castle halls, isn’t it, Slayer?” Arkharium said, his voice sounding amused and his face sporting a smug grin. The snake was taunting you! That bastard would learn his place soon enough.
“Shut it, you traitorous cur! Stand aside now, otherwise you’ll be another stain on the door!”
“My, my, so hostile, aren’t we? Here I thought we’d grown to be quite good friends!”
“Friends? With you? I doubt you even know the meaning of the word!”
“Oh, if this is about the Lord’s orders concerning the destruction of Leafre, your hometown, then do simmer down. You know that the halflings there were in favor of the Resistance. They simply had to go!”
That cur! That bastard, he’ll pay! I’ll kill him with my own hands! I’ll end him, right here, right now!
You deal with him easily. Powerful as he is, he just wasn’t powerful enough to stop you. For all of his dark magic, you still had the demonic powers of Hell on your side. Overpowering him was simply a matter of taking all of his attacks and countering with blasts of your own. Now here you stood, about to enter the chamber of the Black Mage. You remember that force made up of the heroes of the Resistance, and summon your one aide, Mastema, and ask her to send warning to them, telling them to expect the Black Mage to be injured soon, and to expect the opportunity to strike to appear soon. Sending her off, you look back to the doors, and enter to meet your doom.
“So, I see you came.” The voice sends shivers down your spine, it’s tone matching the icy temperatures of El Nath. You steel yourself, and face him. He seemed to be looking at you, although it was near impossible to tell with that red robe over his eyes. His skeletal fingers gripping his cross scepter lightly, he floated over an orb containing an image. You try to squint to make it out, but all you see is a colorful image of five necklaces and a crown. They each seemed to have a jewel implanted in them. You ignored this for now. You had revenge to enact.
“So I did. It’s time we discuss exactly why you shouldn’t have killed them.” You try to match his icy tone, but the tremble in your voice is threatening to take over. You know you’re not getting out of this encounter alive. For all your bravado earlier, you know that the Black Mage is infinitely more powerful than you. All you could do now was weaken him enough and hope those heroes could strike quickly and effectively.
“I see. Well then, I think it’s time I made it clear which one of us is the more powerful. You always did say that you had doubts about who was truly the strongest.”
Yep, you weren’t getting out of this alive. Well, you might as well go out with a bang. You turn your head, looking down at the Demon Aegis on your wrist, your trusty shield that had saved you from countless fatal situations. Now, it was going to help you in causing the most damage possible to this parlor magician. You clench your hand, absorbing all the power from the Aegis. All the while, the Black Mage just stood there, as if amused by this action. “That bastard! He still thinks he’s better than me!” You’ll show him! Anger fueling your actions, your energy began increasing, a dark, shadowy aura surrounding you.
You unfurl your wings, their purplish demonic aura already adding to the effect of making you seem scarier than you had any right being. The dark, black aura began mixing with the purplish demon aura, turning a hellish shade of dark maroon. You close your eyes, concentrating on focusing all of your power and magic on your mace. “This is it. He won’t survive this. He won’t!” You begin your charge, releasing your rage in one, long pain-filled battle cry. Your last thought before being lost in the blur of battle is “I really hope those heroes don’t mess this up. I only have one life to waste on this.”
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Dash was feeling it. It was coming. Whatever Twilight had done, it was working way better than they had intended, and she was about to reach that barrier. In fact, she was sure she could overtake it. So sure that she could almost see the barrier appear. In fact, it actually was appearing. She was so close! All she had to do was add that extra little push, and she would be over the barrier and into the realm of the supersonic.
Down on the ground, Twilight was noticing the increase in speed. Dash was fast approaching the Sonic Rainboom barrier. If the spell was to work at all as intended, she had to active her spell now. With that in mind, she began getting the image of her spell, preparing to launch it at Rainbow. Her concentration faltered for a second, a dark, cold, presence disrupting her thoughts. All she could see was a dark bolt of energy being fired are Dash as she shattered the sonic barrier.
The resulting explosion was wide and bright, but affected hardly anything. In fact, the only difference in the scene was that the six mares and dragon were now gone. Disappeared without a trace, swept off to who knows where.
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A/N: Just a small note here, I want to give ALL of my thanks to Ambion and Breath of Plagues. They were GODSENDS, damn it. Give 'em your lurves.
