“Okay, so how are we gonna get back at Twilight?” pondered Cozy Glow as she looked over the lengthy list on the table before her. The filly absentmindedly chewed on the quill as her brain churned spite and imagination into dark scenarios. “I had something in mind about knocking over her castle.”
“Set her library on fire,” suggested Tirek, flashing his teeth in a cruel smile, “You should have seen how the little bookworm sniveled when I vaporized her stupid tree.” Cozy Glow’s candy-colored face lit up in a pearly grin.
“Ooh, I like that!” she chirped while scribbling down on the paper, “We’ll torch all her books and make her watch!”
“And then we’ll lock her up deep beneath Canterlot,” Chrysalis gleefully interjected with the raising of a worm-eaten hoof, “She’ll go completely mad down in the crystal caverns!”
“Perfect!” cried the filly. She looked up at her cohorts with twinkling scarlet eyes, “This is gonna be the best revenge ever!”
“Oh, it will,” Chrysalis snickered through her ghoulish grin, “I can already see the despair in Starlight’s eyes when I rip away everything she holds dear.” She giddily rubbed her hooves together. “We’ll see how friendship helps her when she has no friends left!”
“Can you imagine how hopeless they’ll feel when I’ve absorbed their magic?” chuckled Tirek as he clenched his fists, “It’s one thing to crush everything they love, but to crush their spirits is absolutely priceless!”
“And then they’ll bow down to us,” Cozy giggled snidely, “And we can humiliate them forever!” Her eyes went wide as her fiendish smirk turned into an excited grin, “Oh, oh! Let’s break Rainbow Dash’s wings!” Both her companions agreed in a resounding cheer.
“Brilliant!” Tirek chortled as he mashed his fist against his open palm, “That’ll utterly ruin her.”
“It has to be done just right,” added Chrysalis, “So they heal wrong.” Poisonous laughter oozed its way out of her throat, “Even if she had her magic she’d never fly again.”
“I see you three are getting along…”
Immediately all joy fled the little cave-like room as a vast horned shadow filled the doorway. Dread and despair rushed in like a flood to take its place, washing over the three beings and drowning their smiles. The room darkened as candles flickered and grew dimmer, and the air suddenly bit at their skin with icy teeth. Tirek, Cozy, and Chrysalis slowly turned with somber faces toward the gigantic goat, who leered back at them with his blistering coal fires of eyes and a cavernous mouth drawn into a hateful sneer.
“Oh golly, we sure are, Mr. Grogar,” Cozy finally squeaked through a forced grin. The trio felt the frosty sting of fear claw its way up their spines as the grim-faced caprine snorted noxious steam into the chilly air.
“It is pleasing that you three have finally learned to cooperate,” he murmured, his gravelly voice grinding its way out of his twisted throat, “We are almost ready to proceed with my plan.” His ancient features suddenly contorted like crumbling hide over his boulder skull, and he exposed his great tombstones of teeth in a monstrous grimace, “But as you have failed to retrieve my bell, I must now make several new preparations.” His peers glanced at one another, stifling their worry as best they could.
“What sort of ‘preparations’?” Chrysalis mumbled as she cleared her throat.
“To explain them all now would be more trouble than its worth as they don’t concern you,” growled Grogar, “All I came to say is I must take leave of you all to complete them.” Three sets of eyes stared at him for a moment.
“Where are you going?” inquired Tirek. The centaur drew back at the glowering snarl Grogar shot him.
“As I’ve already said,” rumbled the caprine, “They don’t concern you.” With that he turned and began loping down the hall, glaring over his shoulder. “I will return tomorrow. In the meantime I expect you three to behave yourselves.” The dark blue shadow slowly vanished around a corner while the sudden coldness melted away as quickly as it had come, and the candlelight rose to full power once more. A minute of silence passed before a chorus of relieved sighs went off around the table.
“The old fool,” Chrysalis scoffed with a contemptuous snort, “He thinks he’s so much better than us.”
“I know,” added Tirek as he crossed his brawny arms and scowled, “He looks down on us for losing to ponies as if he wasn’t bested by one.”
“He acts like he’s so smart,” Cozy gagged, rolling her eyes beneath her blue curls, “I bet he doesn’t even have a real plan.”
“Speaking of plans,” said Chrysalis, her eyes narrowing as she spoke in a hushed whisper, “I think now if the perfect opportunity to go ahead with our own.” Her wicked grin slowly spread across the table to the faces of her allies.
The patter of nervous hoofsteps echoed quietly through the stifling air of the main chamber of Grogar’s domain as three figures crept in. Heads turned left and right as they scanned the crags and outcroppings of rough, reddish stone with alert and shifty eyes for anything blue and sinister. They half-expected to find Grogar perched on a precipice high above and leering disdainfully down at them like a living gargoyle.
“You’re sure you know the way to his chamber?” Tirek murmured in Chrysalis’s direction as his eyes jumped back and forth from the tunnels that lined the room. The changeling nodded, her dark teal mane swaying in the near silence.
“Of course,” she hissed, sounding almost offended, “There’s no way he’d notice a fly on the wall. He’s so old and deaf I could have followed him as an elephant and he wouldn’t be the wiser.”
“Did you see anything that might help with this?” whispered Cozy Glow. Chrysalis’s eyes flicked over her shoulder at the filly, who fluttered behind her holding the dreaded bell in her forelegs.
“Nothing concrete,” she said, “He’s gathered eon’s worth of junk in there. But I saw many books that might have something in them we can use.” Dark bliss crept from the changeling’s smile. “Even if we can’t find anything on the bell I’m certain we’ll find something useful.” She trotted lightly as she led them up a staircase of battered stone and turned down a narrow catwalk toward the waiting gloom of a tunnel.
“We’ll have to take care to leave things as they were,” breathed Tirek as his horned head passed beneath the cave’s jagged archway of a mouth, “Let’s only examine one thing at a time.”
“That’ll take forever,” huffed Cozy, “He’s like a million years old, do you really think he’ll notice we didn’t put every single book back the way it was?” Tirek gave the Pegasus a hard frown through the darkness.
“You see how angry he gets,” he grumbled, “Do you really want to find out?” Chrysalis wearily rolled her eyes before glancing over her shoulder.
“I’ve already thought of that,” she sighed, her crooked horn igniting emerald green and lifting a small camera from the recesses of her gossamer mane. Tirek blinked his strange dark eyes and paused.
“Where’d you get that?”
“It’s a long story I’d rather not get into,” growled the changeling as she looked back ahead, “Now come on, we’re wasting time.”
They journeyed deep into the tunnels, and the red rock walls gradually changed their hue to a dark and foreboding gray. Their hoof beats echoed strangely down the honeycomb of tunnels, sometimes sounding nearer, other times sounding farther off, changing pace and tone. A distinct stench invaded their nostrils, the same ancient, moldering, goatish smell that followed Grogar wherever he went, and it grew stronger the further they went. At long last they passed through a jaw-like cave that gradually widened out into a cavern, illuminated by the petering light of a few half-melted candles perched in tarnished holders. Chrysalis’s mouth stretched into a self-righteous smirk as she regarded the awed look on her companion’s faces. Tirek’s jaw dropped wide open. Cozy’s scarlet eyes rivaled dinner plates in size.
Before them was a vast trove of ancient wealth. Books inscribed with dead languages, bound in tattered leather and riveted with flaking metal bands were stacked high on shelves carved into the living rock, sharing their domain with parchment scrolls jumbled together in piles like long, yellowed mummy’s bones. Strange gemstones of every color flickered light over their facets, many of them set into curiously crafted metalwork, ranging from majestic scepters from ancient kingdoms to thuribles that still smelled of the smoke of foreign herbs. Dark glasswork containing darker liquids lined a shelf in the far back of the room; sealed with wax carved with unfamiliar runes. Weapons from forgotten wars were scattered about, swords of unusual make leaned beside spears tipped with strange, gleaming metal and shields patterned with twisting designs. A great stone seal lay centered in the chamber, carved into the floor and covered in scrolling symbols that had been old when the world was young.
“This…is going to be a lot of work,” Tirek breathed as he finally found his voice. Chrysalis began trotting in the room, the camera lifting to her eyes as scanned the moldering library.
“All the more reason to get started,” she retorted as a flash of a crisp white light bulb illuminated the medieval gloom for a brief second. She plucked the picture from the camera as it whirred out, her fangs poking from her lips in a smile as it cleared into a visible image. “We’ll start here. Don’t touch anything past the…” She squinted at something resembling a corkscrewed elephant’s tusk. “…Whatever that thing is.” Tirek and Cozy apprehensively neared the shelf she gestured to. The centaur reached with a careful clawed hand and wrapped his fingers around a book as though it might crumble to pieces at any moment. Cozy set the bell down in the doorway and followed suit, scattering dust with her wings as she hovered over a pile of books. Chrysalis joined them, a mite-eaten scroll being enveloped in the shimmering green of her magic.
“Has anyone found anything yet?” Cozy’s impatient groan was met with dismissive grunts from her peers as they flipped through the flaking, dust-strewn pages of their respective tomes, prompting the Pegasus filly to utter a frustrated sigh.
“I haven’t even found a book I could read,” simmered Chrysalis, eyeing the faded ink scrawling of a dog-eared book with scathing contempt, “We could have found what we needed already and we wouldn’t know it!”
“An unfortunate possibility,” Tirek sighed bitterly, placing a grimoire on the shelf. The centaur squinted and ran his finger along the spines of several moldering volumes. “What’s maddening is that I almost recognized the styling of some of these languages, but they’re just too old to make out.”
“How can you recognize it and not read it?” scoffed Cozy as she set down a stack of scrolls. Tirek snorted irritably and grabbed another book.
“Do you know how to speak Olde Ponish?” he growled as he cracked it open, “What I mean is, some of this looks familiar—I’d almost say this was old Gargoylian script, you can tell by how the curves cross each other—but it’s written in a dialect that’s been dead for two thousand years.” Chrysalis looked up from her tome and raised a brow.
“You know old Gargoylian?” A prideful grin overtook Tirek’s face as he turned to the changeling.
“Of course,” he answered, “Centaurese, Gargoylian, Ponish, and Minotaur.”
“Careful,” Cozy huffed as she scanned the shelves, “Once you get him going he’ll never shut up.” Tirek shot a scowl in the filly’s direction.
“You’re the one who always wanted to talk,” he grumbled before looking down at the yellowed pages of his book. Cozy stuck out her tongue before turning back to the shelves, tilting her head at the black, withered spine of a particularly moldering book. She began pulling it out, watching as its cover revealed itself to be laden with a geometric design like a five pointed star with another star off to the center and crossed again with many lines. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end as she touched it, and a troubled feeling bubbled around in her stomach.
“Not that one…”
Cozy’s small black heart skipped a beat as a tiny voice crept into her ear; a soft whisper like dust scattering over stone. She glanced back at her companions, but even as she did she knew it had come from neither of them. The filly’s curls bounced on her head as she looked around warily; beads of sweat forming on her brow.
“Over here, little one…”
The voice had spoken again in a weak little trembling sound that would have been blown away in the slightest breeze. But it was close enough that Cozy could guess where it was. Pushing aside a mess of scrolls the filly found herself gazing at her reflection, staring back at her from the red-tinted world on the faceted surface of a strange bottle. The vessel looked to have been carved from an enormous ruby, decorated with a thousand angled facets and polished until any bit of light would cause it to sparkle as bright as the sun. It seemed to glow even in the low candlelight, casting a crimson haze about the mess of papers and parchment it was jammed into.
“You don’t want to open that book,” whispered the voice, “Horrible things will befall you…” Cozy slowly blinked and stared dumbfounded at the bottle. She could almost see something drifting around within it like a mote of dust caught in scarlet sunlight.
“Hey guys,” the filly nervously called, “There’s…something over here.” Two heads turned in the direction of her quavering voice. Almost immediately she felt Chrysalis and Tirek behind her, their eyes bright and thirsting for hidden arcane knowledge.
“What?!” Chrysalis cried, “What is it?” The crimson glow brushed Cozy’s hoof as she shakily pointed to the curious bottle.
“Greetings,” the voice breathed, its tone wavering sickly. Both Tirek and Chrysalis froze, joining Cozy in her wide-eyed stare at the glittering vessel.
“What?...” murmured Chrysalis.
“I’m prisoner of Grogar the Terrible,” said the voice, “He trapped me here, thousands of moons ago. Please, release me…” All three beings narrowed their eyes suspiciously and glanced at one another.
“Excuse us a moment,” Tirek said, staring hard at the bottle before he and the others briskly trotted to the other side of the room to huddle in an uneasy circle.
“We’re done for,” Chrysalis hissed through her teeth, glaring out at the glimmering vessel, “That thing knows we’ve been here.”
“Maybe we can get it to help us,” Cozy whispered hopefully.
“Are you insane?” Tirek cried in a hoarse growl, “Why should we trust it? We don’t even know what it is.” Cozy narrowed her eyes at the centaur and scowled.
“I didn’t say we had to trust it, Tirek,” she spat, “We just have to get it to side with us. It said Grogar trapped it, so it probably doesn’t like him either.”
“It did say that,” Chrysalis muttered worriedly as she put a hoof to her chin, “But it’s got leverage over us. It knows we’re here, and could threaten to tell Grogar if we don’t help it.” Tirek ground his clenched teeth in a grimace as he dragged his claws down his crimson face.
“Between Scylla and Charibdis,” he groaned, “Of course it had to play out like this.”
“You’re both assuming everything,” Cozy sighed, “It could be some goody-goody hero Grogar put in there.” She smiled wickedly, eyes swiveling to look back at the bottle. “And if that’s the case, all I gotta do is put on the little kid act and it’ll be putty in our hooves.”
“And if it’s not?” scoffed Tirek as he folded his arms, “What if it’s some dark spirit that’ll kill us all?”
“Then we won’t open the bottle,” sneered Cozy, “You think I’d even consider letting it out before I know what it is?”
“You speak as if it’s going to tell you the truth,” Tirek retorted with a snort, “Which I can guarantee you it won’t.” The centaur’s head drew back some as Cozy flittered into the air to meet his sour face, her deceptively sweet features twisting furiously.
“Would you both cut it out?!” Chrysalis snarled, “You’re giving me a headache.” She sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples, “Now…It seems we’ll have to deal with this one way or another. We can’t leave it here or it’ll talk, and we can’t take it with us or Grogar might know it’s gone.” The changeling paused and gazed out across the cavern. “We’ll have to talk to it. Get it to trust us, and convince it to stay quiet when the old idiot gets back. If we’re lucky maybe we can get some information out of it.”
“If it knows anything it’ll probably only tell us if we release it,” grumbled Tirek, “And I for one do not want to take that risk.”
“Then we’ll just promise we’ll let it out later,” snapped Chrysalis, “And then we don’t. It’s called lying.”
“I got this,” Cozy cut in impatiently, “Grogar’s coming back, and if we don’t do something about this we’ll all be toast.” Before either of her allies could react she wheeled around and started back to the bottle. They hurried after the filly, skidding to a halt right before crashing into her.
“So,” said the filly, eyes twinkling innocently as she gazed into the endless sequences of faceted ruby, “You said Grogar put you in there?” The voice sighed in a nasally little whine like a cold wind whistling through the cracks of a castle wall.
“He did,” it choked miserably, “I have been trapped in this prison of carven stone for millennia as punishment for my betrayal; for refusing to aid him.” Cozy Glow silently gulped under her breath. Chrysalis and Tirek fidgeted uncomfortably.
“That sounds terrible,” Cozy continued, mouth drawing into a little bowed frown, “What did he want you to do?”
“He summoned and bound me with his sorcery to do his bidding,” quavered the voice, “I was to produce whatever my powers allowed me to aid him in his conquests.” The coarse fur of Tirek’s neck bristled and his dark pits of eyes narrowed in distrust.
“You said he summoned you,” the centaur said in a guarded growl, “What exactly are you?” The thing that floated within the bottle flickered; an opaque speck drifting through a deep red ocean.
“I am a jinni,” said the voice, “You may call me Beresu.” Tirek’s golden pupils suddenly widened over their black sclera.
“A jinni…” he echoed, his tone somewhere between awe and fear. Cozy glanced from the centaur to the bottle, muzzle scrunching in confusion.
“Wait, he’s a genie? I thought genies lived in lamps.” Tirek looked down at the filly and rolled his eyes.
“Only in whatever half-remembered folktales made it to Equestria,” he scoffed, “A jinni is a spirit of immense power, and they don’t ‘live’ in lamps; they can be trapped in an enchanted vessel of any shape.”
“You speak truthfully, oh horned one,” Beresu said, his voice forming a weak smile none could see, “I was indeed a mighty spirit. But the fiend Grogar used his dark magic to tear me away from my homeland to this unholy place to serve him.”
Chrysalis’s vibrant green eyes hadn’t left the bottle all this time, and something seemed to be working behind the changeling’s blank face.
“If we let you out,” she finally murmured, “You must grant us wishes, correct?” Tirek stiffened up and turned to the changeling in alarm. His mouth dropped open to reply, but before he could Beresu spoke from his bottle.
“Indeed, my regal lady,” he rasped, “My purpose is to help others. That is why Grogar thought to make me his slave, for he sought to twist my purpose for his own wicked ends. I seek only to fulfill other’s happiness, and nothing would bring me greater pleasure than rewarding those who help me.” Tirek bared his teeth at Chrysalis as he read her intentions behind her eyes. The centaur looked to Cozy for support, but found the same eager glint in her smile.
“You’d do that for us?” the filly gasped, her hooves grabbing her cheery cheeks, “Golly, that’d be wonderful, Mr. Beresu.”
“Indeed it would,” mused Chrysalis, her hungry mouth breaking into a sinister grin, “And I’d certainly appreciate it, but first I think we need to know that we can trust you.”
“How may I prove myself to you?” Beresu cried, his whimpering voice flowing with near ecstatic passion, “Whatever you command; if it lies within my power it is yours.”
“Wait a moment,” cried Tirek, “What are you—” The changing suddenly cut him off, her sparkling green aura slamming the centaur’s mouth shut. She shoved him aside and gazed into the ruby vessel, watching a thousand tiny versions of herself leering back at her.
“Tell us how to use Grogar’s bell.”
A moment passed before the spirit addressed her in a grave murmur.
“The bell’s power is Grogar’s own. To wield it would invoke the sorcery he commands, and few could withstand the burden of its dark magic.” Chrysalis narrowed her gaze into a razor’s edge.
“What do you mean?”
“What he means,” snarled Tirek as he stood back up and glared at the changeling, “Is that it’s so powerful that almost no one can use it!”
“Your red friend is correct,” added Beresu, “The bell comes from Grogar, and like Grogar its will is strong. It will try to destroy whoever uses it just as surely as the fiend himself would.” The perplexed irritation on Chrysalis’s face erupted into full-blown fury.
“Are you telling me we’ve come this far for nothing?!” she screeched, slamming her forelegs down on the shelf to topple scrolls and shake the jinni’s bottle, “That we risked life and limb to retrieve what amounts to a useless scrap of iron?!” The dust mote flew about frantically within its ruby prison.
“Careful!” cried Cozy as she lunged at the bottle. She wrapped her forelegs around it and held it close, tenderly stroking its shimmering surface. The filly shot Chrysalis an ugly scowl. “You might hurt him.”
“A thousand pardons, oh royal one,” Beresu gasped wearily, “I merely answered what you asked of me. But I may be able to help you overcome the bell’s power.” The infernal sneer that split the changeling’s face lessened some, her ears suddenly rising from her oily mane.
“Start talking.”
“I could give you the strength to use it were I at my peak,” began the jinni, “My powers have languished from Grogar’s binding of me. Were I to help you with small things, and build up my strength, I could grant you your desire.”
“Absolutely not!” Tirek roared as he stepped in between Chrysalis and Cozy, eyeing the changeling with disdain, “There’d be nothing keeping her from doing away with us all once she had it.” Chrysalis’s mouth dropped open as she fixed him with an incredulous glare.
“How dare you!” she barked, “You’re the last person to be questioning someone’s honor after what you pulled with Discord.” The changeling tossed her head back imperiously, “I was going to make you a general or something once I’d taken Equestria, but you can forget it now!” Beresu’s phantom whimper somehow rose above their voices.
“I could give power to all three of you,” he said quickly, “To keep you all equal.” Tirek turned to the bottle with a skeptical snort and thrust an accusing finger towards it.
“You’re just looking to get out of there,” he grunted, “You have no reason to be helping us at all.”
“You are mistaken, oh mighty red one,” the jinni retorted, “Ridding the earth of Grogar is cause enough for me to help you.”
“That works for me,” chirped Cozy. The filly fluttered out of Tirek’s reach as he grabbed for the bottle, moving across the room and gazing into the crystal with a saccharine smile, “We’ll take care of that mean old goat for you, Mr. Beresu, I promise.”
“You’d be doing a great service to both me and the world,” came the dusty reply, “And I will reward you with all I am able to.” The bottle was suddenly caught in a sizzling green aura, and the filly yelped as it was violently yanked out of her hooves.
“How long will it take you to recover your strength?” Chrysalis hissed, “We have less than a day before Grogar returns.”
“Not long, oh merciful one,” the jinni answered, “My powers will return as I grant your requests.”
“Don’t you dare open that bottle!”
Chrysalis whirled around to see Tirek storming over to her. Her fangs poked from her mouth in a defiant smirk as the centaur’s hulking figure drew closer and closer. It was only when he was reaching for the bottle that she pulled out the stopper.
Tirek froze at the resounding pop that issued out of the bottle’s neck and echoed about Grogar’s chamber, his claw still spread open. A sickly warm breeze suddenly passed through the cavern, ruffling the stiff pages of ancient books and whistling through cracks in timeless stone like the sigh of some titanic creature. It carried with it strange scents of aged ash from the fire-pits of a far away land; of stale spices left to rot in abandoned palace cellars and pungent soot scraped from the bottom of tarnished oil lamps.
The faintest wisps of smoke began to rise from the open bottle, climbing upward with ghostly white tendrils. Six eyes watched in stunned amazement as the smoke drifted aimlessly around the cavern, probing deep into desolate corners and filtering through books and scrolls to carry dust out into the open. Cozy stared with unblinking eyes as the pale, powdery smoke hovered overhead and obscured the chamber’s ceiling with its undulating clouds. Chrysalis tensed in irritation and flicked her ears as a flittering wisp wove its way through the points of her crown before winding its way around her crooked horn. Tirek grimaced and pulled his arm away as a snaking tendril danced about his vambrace.
“A thousand thanks upon you all…”
The trio found their vision drawn back to the ruby vessel as Beresu’s voice spoke in the tone of sand being blown across distant dunes. A small, serpentine strand of dusty gray smoke slithered out from the bottle’s opening to rock and sway like a strand of seaweed on the floor of a turbulent ocean. Two specks of pale yellow candlelight flickered to life within the mass as its airy particles swirled and whispered amongst themselves.
“Golly…” breathed Cozy, her downy wings breaking through arid tendrils of smoke as she fluttered to Tirek’s side. The centaur stared transfixed at the vaporous cloud with a face creased with apprehension.
“Yes, you’re welcome,” muttered Chrysalis as she set the bottle on the floor looked down at the jinni, “Now, about the wishes…”
“Of course,” spoke Beresu, each mote of dust rustling together to make his phantom voice as the roiling strand of smoke bowed to her, “You need but ask and it is yours.” The changeling regarded him with a wolfish smile as her eyes glittered in a way that unnerved her companions.
“We’ll start out simple,” she began with poisonous glee, “Give me a weapon that can kill Grogar.” The jinni’s yellow eyes gazed up at her toothy smile with a sheepish gleam.
“I cannot give you that yet,” Beresu sighed airily, “It’s more than I can conjure. Please, start smaller.” A condescending scowl darkened Chrysalis’s face and put out the eagerness in her eyes.
“Smaller?” she echoed, thrusting her snarling muzzle towards the cloud, “I don’t want anything ‘smaller’. I want-”
“Can I have an ice-cream sundae?”
Chrysalis looked blankly toward Cozy as there was a sound of shifting sand and a flash of yellow light. The filly gaped at a silver bowl of considerable size that now lay before her, piled high with scoops of a whole spectrum of flavors. Generous rivers of chocolate ran from beneath whipped cream mountains over the frosty hills to mingle with sprinkles of every color. A single cherry topped the tallest peak like a ruby centerpiece to the whole decadent display. Cozy smacked her lips as she took up the spoon and greedily dug into a scoop of chocolate and thrust it into her mouth. There was an apprehensive silence about the cavern as Tirek and Chrysalis watched her mull over the sample before the filly finally gulped it down.
“It’s…perfect,” she breathed. Chrysalis turned to Beresu and wrinkled her nose as the foal began sating her sweet tooth.
“Dessert?” grumbled the changeling, “Is that the extent of your abilities?”
“No, oh merciful lady,” replied the jinni, “Allow me to show you.” His dusty body fluttered and churned with smoke as he slithered into the air, swaying and circling around the former queen. Chrysalis shuddered as the air around her whispered through the strands of her mane with strangely warm breath. Dust gathered through the air, the particles humming and trembling as they danced among each other so intensely they gave off a dull amber glow. The changeling watched as they solidified around her neck into a glittering chain woven from impossibly fine threads of silver, fringed with scores of enormous pearls that shone like miniature moons.
“It’s…impressive, for a bauble,” murmured Chrysalis as she prodded a pearl with a hole-ridden hoof. She cast an aloof glance at the jinni as he hovered nearby. “I don’t suppose you could give me a set of proper royal regalia?”
“To hear is to obey,” Beresu said with a bow. Chrysalis was once again enveloped by the swirling clouds and felt the tingle of the spirit’s magic over her skin. As the dust withdrew she saw a tall mirror standing before her, its borders lined with brilliant scrollwork and inlaid with mother of pearl. A fire ignited in the changeling’s eyes as she looked herself over. Brilliant emeralds gleamed like poison-tinted ice from an elaborate collar made from metal as dark as obsidian. Peridots lined the angular edges of the metal shoes that shod the changeling’s hooves. A towering crown with spires topped with spherical green gems and bound with winding strands of silver now encircled her head.
“How elegant,” said Chrysalis in a haughty chuckle, her face shining as bright as the emeralds that now adorned her. She grinned from ear to ear as she turned in the mirror, eyes running over every inch of her person. “It’s the perfect look for my return to the throne.”
“Indeed it is, oh regal one,” wheezed Beresu as he floated overhead, “It is made all the more splendid by your magnificent beauty.”
“It is, isn’t it?” purred the changeling as she turned her head to one side and admired her profile. “I’d look enchanting in a formal portrait.”
“Do you desire one?” asked the Jinni.
“No, no,” sighed Chrysalis, “I’d much rather force a pony to paint it once I’ve taken…” She paused and looked to Beresu with an innocent smile, “I mean, arrived at Canterlot.”
“Can I get some napkins?” called Cozy through a mouth full of ice-cream. Beresu listed toward the filly, leaving a trail of cindery yellow specks behind him.
“You need but ask, little one,” chuckled the jinni. A stack of neatly folded white silk napkins materialized beside the foal.
“Thanks!” Cozy said with a sweet little smile as she wiped the mess of melted chocolate from her muzzle. She glanced over at Chrysalis and eyed the glittering regalia. “Hey, Mr. Beresu, could make me something like that?” She tilted her head and batted her lashes beneath her mop of curls. “I’d look adorable, don’t you think?”
A crease began forming in the smoke beneath the jinni’s candlelight eyes, opening into a tiny mouth that widened into a smile.
“Of course, my winged friend.”
No sooner had he spoken than Cozy found herself clad in a cape of rich purple velvet, the edges embroidered with gold thread to form patterns of geometric flowers and butterflies. A tiara wrought from bands of gold settled into her curls, set with fiery rubies and icy diamonds the size of marbles. A delighted giggle full of sugar spilled out of Cozy’s mouth as she twirled in her cape.
“Golly,” she laughed, “You sure got an eye for detail.” She beamed up at the jinni with her doll-like face. “You know, no one’s ever done anything like this for me. You’re a real friend.”
“I am friend to all,” replied Beresu, his voice picking up into a light breeze as tendrils of his smoke danced in the air.
“Do you have a best friend?” Cozy grinned, her scarlet eyes and pearly teeth blazing like the rubies and diamonds on her tiara.
“Of course, child,” chortled the jinni as he circled the filly, “I shall be best friends with the three of you.” He paused, turning to Tirek. The centaur had been silent all this time, arms crossed and deep in thought. Beresu took to the air and hovered over his shoulder.
“How may I reward you, oh horned one?” asked the jinni.
“You still wish to reward me even though I was against freeing you?”
“Of course,” answered the spirit, “It is in my nature to help others.” Tirek’s stony indifference melted into a subtle smile as he regarded the spirit.
“I’m afraid I misjudged you,” said the centaur, “I assumed you were merely using us to your own ends.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Oh, just prior experience,” Tirek said as he flashed a grin, “I hope you can accept my humble apology.”
“All is forgiven,” Beresu sighed, smoke seeping from the upturned corners of his smiling mouth.
“Then as part of my reward I ask for my own seer stone,” Tirek said, his pupils glowing like miniature suns, “If it’s not too much trouble.” Beresu’s eyes widened as his serpentine body began to corkscrew in midair.
“I shall try,” he murmured, “But I might not be…” The air hummed and sparked with pale cinders as a puff of smoke floated toward Tirek, a dark sphere forming within it and growing more solid by the second. The centaur’s grin shone with a wicked gleam as he held out his clawed hands. They closed around a glassy black orb marked only by a single yellow spot.
“Well done!” cried Tirek, beaming with joy as he turned the icy sphere over, “A most exquisite gift.”
“You are most welcome, my friend,” came the jinni’s wavering voice.
“Having one of those might come in handy,” mused Chrysalis as she watched Tirek fawn over his prize. Her gaze turned to the hovering cloud. “Beresu, I would also like a seer stone.”
“Me too!” added Cozy, “And could I get something to sit on? Maybe a big pillow?”
“As you wish, so it shall be!” Beresu’s eyes rose to torchlight strength as his dusty form swirled and shimmered with sparks, an arid breeze rolling through the chamber as clouds of smoke drifted towards Chrysalis and Cozy. They deposited their desires at their hooves; two glassy spheres and a very large, plush red pillow sewn and tasseled with golden thread. Cozy grinned and hopped on her cushion as Chrysalis held her seer stone to the light. The jinni’s body began to settle, and when it did something like a cobra’s hood had flared out behind his primitive face.
“You’re so generous, Mr. Beresu,” sighed Cozy as she crossed her forelegs behind her head and settled into the silken pillow, “You know, if there was a nice breeze right now this would be perfect.”
“I shall perfect it for you, then,” chuckled the jinni, cinders shimmering like stars in the swirling gray galaxy of his body. A vibrant green palm frond suddenly flickered into existence beside the filly, hovering in midair as its leaflets rustled up and down to fan her. Chrysalis glanced to the spectacle before turning with thoughtful eyes to the spirit.
“Beresu,” she called curtly, “Can you bring inanimate things to life?”
“It is within my power, my queen,” replied the jinni. The changeling smiled at how he addressed her and began trotting forward, her newly shod hooves ringing over the stone floor.
“Then I have a request,” she said, her inflection dangerously devious, “There are several pieces of wood in my chambers. Fetch them and bring them here.” The words were barely past her teeth before a dusty whirlwind roared over her and vanished down the tunnels in an echoing howl, leaving Chrysalis in wide-eyed surprise. She turned around just in time to be hit in the face once more with the arid gust, coughing and sputtering. She sneered as she heard two voices snickering behind her, shooting a double-bladed glare at Cozy and Tirek before she turned her attention to the whirlwind. The smoke settled into a gentle waver, setting down seven logs at her hooves before taking the shape of the jinni once more. Chrysalis’s eyes glowed brighter than her emeralds as she gazed at the snarling changeling faces carved into six of the logs. The seventh was a strange lavender-hued chunk of wood, which she picked up and tucked beneath a ragged wing before turning to Beresu.
“I want you to place an enchantment on six of these logs to turn them into changelings.” She paused and narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips as a sour memory flittered through her thoughts before adding, “Give them total obedience to me.”
“As you wish,” said Beresu. A cloud filled with sparkling cinders flew out from the jinni and wormed their way into the cracks and grains of the logs. A yellow glow poured from every nook and cranny of their pitted surface as they began to swell and grow, creaking and crackling as branch-like limbs broke through crumbling bark and knobby burls began enlarging into something like heads. Chrysalis watched giddily as knots opened to show pale, glossy blue eyes beneath. Tirek and Cozy looked on in increasing discomfort as the pony-shaped things shakily stood up and twitched in bark-like chitin.
“They’re perfect!” chimed Chrysalis as her eyes shifted from one of the arborous creatures to the next, “The beginnings of my own army!” The makeshift changelings stared dully at her and shuffled to stand next to each other in a line.
“Yes, brilliant,” mused Tirek as he smirked and stroked his beard, “An army that can be brought down by a match.” Chrysalis scowled at the centaur as Cozy snickered into her hoof.
“Beresu, make them fireproof,” snapped the changeling, “And give them some armor while you’re at it.” A swarm of firefly sparks emanated from the jinni and sprinkled over the changelings. Beetle-black metal began to materialize over their grained chitin, becoming sharp and angular armor that was layered in glistening plating and oily chain mail.
“Now we’re talking,” grinned Chrysalis. Beresu’s cloudy form twisted and shifted overhead, the cobra-like hood becoming two hunched shoulders bearing long, gangly arms made of swirling dust. The spirit stretched them and flexed long, misty fingers as he hovered toward Tirek. The centaur had watched the metamorphosis with concern, drawing back as the jinni approached.
“Pardon me, oh horned one,” called Beresu, his gash-like mouth stretching into a smile, “After doing so much for your companions I feel I have neglected you of your reward.” Tirek glanced from the serpentine mass of smoke to the orb tucked under his arm.
“Oh, you’ve done more than enough for me,” he chuckled.
“But surely there is more that you desire,” pressed Beresu, “Just say a word, and untold treasures will be yours.” Tirek’s false smile fell slightly as he glanced around at the cavern behind the spirit.
“I don’t have much interest in material wealth,” Tirek muttered through his teeth, “There’s more to life than just gems and gold, you know.”
“Ah, I believe I understand…”The jinni’s eyes glowed wryly as his snaking arm reached forth and thrust a tapered finger into the corner. Immediately flickering masses of smoke flew forward and swirled in place, shimmering as each mote solidified into a whole. What finally stepped out of the clearing dust made Tirek’s jaw drop. His eyes moved up from glossy hooves along four long, slender legs covered in sleek black fur and onward to rose petal red skin to meet with two smoldering black and yellow eyes set in a heart-shaped face surrounded by tresses of silvery hair.
“I-Impressive,” he choked as the centauress ensnared him with a wink of one smoky eye. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow as his crimson face darkened by several shades. Cozy stared with bug-eyed amazement while Chrysalis leered with what almost looked like envy.
“Does this interest you?” came Beresu’s wheezing voice, “It was a mere guess, but if there is anything you’d wish to change—”
“No, no!” Tirek harrumphed into his fist, “I mean; she’s quite beautiful the way she is.”
“Beauty is subjective,” Chrysalis murmured through her clenched jaws, but the centaur didn’t hear her. He was far too preoccupied with observing the centauress saunter towards him, attention locked on the swishing of the scant gold and jewel trappings that adorned her torso.
“I…appreciate the offer, but…” Tirek struggled to find words as he felt the centauress drape a satin-skinned arm around his shoulders. A rasping chuckle let shimmering specks to fly from from Beresu’s mouth.
“It is no offer, it is a gift, my friend,” laughed the jinni, “It is as you said, there are countless kinds of beauty to appreciate in this life.”
“Beresu,” Chrysalis barked icily, her eyes matching the same cold glare of her emeralds, “How much longer until you can give us the strength to wield the bell?” The spirit slithered through the stagnant cavern air to the changeling and gave her a broad, toothless grin.
“Just one more wish, my queen,” he replied, his voice a breath of hissing desert wind. He laced his long fingers together and bowed, “And I shall be ready to empower you all.” Chrysalis’s sour look sweetened into a hungry smile.
“Then I suppose I could do with a chariot,” the changeling said, “I’ll need something for when we arrive in Canterlot.”
“Very well!” cried the jinni as his outstretched arms surged with sparkling embers, fingers hooked into claws as they wrought sharp and twisting shapes in the air. Midnight metal unfolded itself into existence, forming a sleek, spacious chariot made of bat-winged curves and spider-web lattice work. Great wheels with beetle-legged spokes locked into place on an axel as the cart touched down onto the ground. Silvery chains writhed outward to form harnesses on the six changeling soldiers. Chrysalis beamed at the contraption, prancing giddily from side to side as she admired its dark splendor.
Beresu’s body inverted in on itself as the smoke and clouds of his being twisted and turned, growing larger with bursts of sparks and ash, a sharp wind encircling him and churning every mote of dust in a frenzied cyclone. The primitive face emerged from the serpentine body on a skull-like head crowned with writhing tendrils of smoke, its low, sloping forehead adorned with dark, horn-like eyebrows. Small strands of smoke erupted in the widening mouth to form uneven, ever-changing teeth. The spirit grew larger yet, swelling his snaking coils across the ceiling of the cavern like an ashen shadow. The poisonous yellow-orange flames blazed in their deep pits and shone with ancient cunning at the trio below, who had their attention stolen by the spectacle of the jinni’s transformation. They stared up into the creature’s roiling masses with apprehension that was slowly becoming dread.
“H-Hey, Mr. Beresu,” Cozy finally squeaked, “You gonna make us powerful now?” She gave as sweet a smile as she could muster as the jinni’s great bonfires of eyes turned to her. It withered and died as the spirit’s mouth stretched into a hideous grin. A gust of cruel laughter swept through the filly’s curls with the force of a sandstorm in a low, guttural hiss with all the venom of a desert asp. She cowered into her cape as great tongues of flame lashed their way from the edges of the jinni’s mouth, piercing through every shadow of the cavern and filling it with blinding firelight.
“I told you!”
Chrysalis pulled her eyes away from the spirit and looked to Tirek. The centaur’s face had knotted into furious snarl.
“I told you not to open the bottle!” he roared, “I told you that nothing good would come of it, and now look what’s happened!” Chrysalis’s lips lifted into a sneer.
“I didn’t see you protesting when you got that seer stone!” spat the changeling, “Or that piece of overdone eye-candy either!”
“Silence, you wretched little fleas!” bellowed the jinni, his arid breath breaking over their skins like the crack of a scorching whip. Both centaur and changeling cringed and glanced to the smirking spirit. “You needn’t blame one another,” he continued, “For the three of you never stood a chance against I; Erebus, Ifrit of the Valley of Serpents.”
The color drained from Tirek’s face as his mouth fell open in a horrified grimace.
“Sagittarius preserve us,” he choked, “The Greed-Eater…” A chuckle laced with the ashes of burned palaces and ruined cities wheezed in reply.
“Devourer of Avarice, yes,” hissed Erebus, his face easing into a sardonic grin of his wavering teeth, “And you three have fed me well.” The spirit’s coiled body undid itself as he went slithering around the walls of the cavern, encircling the trio in a ring of darkness that crackled with blistering cinders. Chrysalis grit her teeth as her fury-drenched face swung from side to side through the hazy air, trying to follow the creature’s hollow laughter.
“You miserable pile of soot!” she shrieked as she found her voice, her horn blazing to life in a livid green fire, “For this treachery I’ll cram you back in that bottle myself!”
“You dare speak that way to your master?” replied a disquieting wheeze. Chrysalis balked incredulously as the dark being’s face emerged from the circle of smoke, his arms stretching into twisting cyclones that whipped through the changeling’s mane.
“Chrysalis obeys no one!” The changeling’s indignant scream gave out into a pained gasp, her horn going out like a candle. Four hole-ridden legs trembled beneath her as the beautiful regalia began to double in weight with each passing second. The changeling roared while crackling arcs of green lightning passed over her trembling body in a futile effort to change form. Her bones and muscles strained and fought under the burden, her skull pounded wildly beneath the leaden crown, but at last, with a humiliated whimper Chrysalis was forced to kneel down before Erebus.
“Chrysalis obeys me,” hissed the ifrit as he loomed over the queen.
“Guards!” screeched Chrysalis, “Soldiers! Help me!” The changeling’s eyes swiveled to see the six makeshift changelings march towards her and the fires of hope and vengeance returned to her heart.
“Don’t help her.”
Chrysalis’s ears fell in disbelief as her small army came to a halt.
“I said help me!” she cried hoarsely, “Get over here and tear him to wisps!” The changeling looked to the spirit as he laced his claw-like fingers together.
“I gave them obedience to you, yes, but it is not to you alone they are obedient.” He turned to the six facsimiles. “You are no longer to take orders from Chrysalis. Is that understood?” Chrysalis felt a chill in her bones as each of the soldiers gave a mechanical nod. “Now then; please teach her to obey her new master.” Erebus smiled wickedly as the six changelings moved in on the helpless queen and began pummeling her with metal-shod hooves.
His cavernous mouth suddenly opened in a perplexed snarl as a crackling chain of fiery orange magic struck him dead center in the face. The jinni’s smoky skull gave way around it and let it pass through where it struck the cavern wall before shifting his snaking body towards Tirek. The sizzling orb of magic between the centaur’s horns snuffed itself out as he closed his mouth, sweat rolling down his fretful face as the jinni approached.
“A valiant attempt,” chuckled Erebus, “The art of magic thievery is something I’ve not seen in ages. Alas, I am beyond your power,” the spirit flashed Tirek a fire-laced grin, “Which is not saying much as it was quite easy to surpass.” Offense sparked in Tirek’s eyes and his mouth opened to reply, but the words were never made. At that moment a gauntleted fist crashed into the centaur’s jaw with a metallic crunch. He stumbled away, struggling to remain steady on his hooves as the room danced before him. His vision cleared just enough for him to see the lithe centauress charging him fist first, her sparse jeweled décor gone and replaced with ridged and knurled plate armor. Her voice raised in a grating war cry as her iron-plated knuckles collided with Tirek’s forehead.
Erebus smiled as the centauress fell upon the dazed Tirek with untold fury before turning his attention to the tiny pink shape that was frantically trying to hide in the corner. The ifrit snickered under his ashy breath as his enormous face drifted toward the Pegasus. His eyes burned with sadistic mirth as they drank in the desperation and panic as Cozy whirled around and stared into the inferno of his grinning maw.
“Where are you trying to go, little one?” he said, voice slathered in mock innocence, “Were we not to be the best of friends?” The filly swallowed a lump in her terror-dried throat and parted her lips in a sheepish grin.
“Well…yes!” she choked, her voice cracking in the sweltering heat of the jinni’s presence, “Of course. Absolute besties!”
“Absolute besties?” Erebus rumbled thoughtfully. Cozy pounced on what she thought was curiosity in the spirit’s voice.
“Yup! Best buddies!” the foal prattled, “I bet it was really lonely being in that bottle all those years. A-and you’ll need someone to get you up to date on everything that’s happened since then. Who else but a plucky little filly who’s always there for you?” Her smile lost its hopeful shine as Erebus uttered a throaty laugh
“You forget who you’re dealing with, child,” the ifrit wheezed, “Your duplicity is admirable, but I’ve been deceiving others long enough to know a power-hungry serpent when I see one.” Cozy’s face went pale as death as her smile collapsed like a tower of sugar cubes.
“No, wait!” she sputtered, her back pressing against the wall, “Really, I mean it! I-I could help you! I know stuff about magic! I almost took over Equestria! I CAN MAKE CUPCAKES!” She screamed as her cape suddenly sprang to life and wrapped its velvet-lined folds around her. The makeshift bag began rolling over the floor on its own accord, bumping and slamming into whatever was in its way, the filly within thrashing about in blind terror between terrified squeals.
Erebus grinned broadly as he looked out over the chaos of the cavern. Fire leaped from his mouth as he uttered a dark and terrible laugh.
