Oponi

For the Team

Lechku stayed on it's perch looking down on Celestia and the statues, it's figure grim and twisted through the darkness. It sat on the lip of the alley, the cursed-zone gently sending small licks of darkness over it but otherwise leaving it be. It just continued to stare at Celestia, the gears literally ticking in it's head. "Who."

"What do you want to achieve here?" Asked the princess, hoping to draw it away from the citizens.

It's head spun around twice comically before settling back into place. It lifted a stone that sat near it into one of it's claws and, with hardly a pause, smashed it into dozens of small pieces. It gently drifted down into the alley, stopping behind the ponies, still safely in the cursed-zone. It drew one of it's claws forward again, resting it on the head of a stone pony. It turned it's head sideways, like a child.

"Don't!" Urged Celestia. "What do you want?"

It extended it's other claw forward, sticking one of the sharp protrusions into the ground between it and the princess before dragging it towards itself. It repeated the gesture a few times for effect.

"You want... me, correct?"

The claw clicked against the ground, signalling agreement.

"And you will not harm them?"

The claw laid still.

"I want you to promise."

Instead of signaling with the extended claw, Lechku began tightening it's other, causing cracks to slowly stem from it's other claw through the pony.

"I understand! Stop that!"

It lessened it's grip, the cracks had only reached the mane of the hostage, hopefully they were unharmed.

"What is it you plan on doing with me?"

Lechku just continued to stare, it's head continuing to randomly angle from side to side. It was clear that it didn't plan on telling.

"Is Blight here?"

It waved it's finger into the ground, digging thin lines into the stone with it's claw.

"Is that no?"

It repeated the gesture. It seemed to be getting impatient. It lifted a brick from the alley and gently touched it to another pony's head. It repeated the gesture, growing faster with each swing. Question time was over.

Celestia readied herself, she slowly began advancing toward the alley.

"If you go in there, you can forget either of us coming to save you."

She turned and found Ammy and Waka both on the roof behind her, both standing side-by-side. Amaterasu didn't look much worse-for-wear, Waka on the other hand looked like he had been inside a washing machine filled with bricks for an hour.

Lechku's gears just continued to grind at the new witnesses, it had placed it's hand back on the pony again.

"Lechku, this is really quite sad. I know you're basically just a machine for killing but you really couldn't have just forced her into that alley? Maybe you have confidence issues after your last defeat."

The only response was a whirling noise from some of Lechku's various parts.

"You're right Amaterasu, no banter at all."

Ammy just released a sigh.

Lechku had raised the brick again, intent on putting things in a little perspective.

*Wwwhock!*

There was a noise of rushing wind and a hard collision. Celestia and Waka turned toward Lechku and found it gripping it's right claw, which now had a very thick gash in the metal.

"Haaaaaahh! Hissed Lechku, making rare use of it's voice outside the general who. It went back to it's neutral staring, but this time only maintaining eye-contact with Amaterasu. It slowly receded back into the darkness of the alley. Celestia lit her horn once more and searched, but the golden twin was gone.

"We can't stay here." Said Waka. "There is honestly no worse place to face demons of their caliber than in cursed lands.

"We can't leave the citizens here." Spoke Celestia.

"They will be fine, the demons have no use for those already cursed, no use besides hostages of course but they will not be able to move them without removing the curse. In short, they are only going to be in danger if we stay here and force the demon's hand."

"Is there any way to remove the curse?"

"Yes, but without any information on the town, removing it is guesswork."

Celestia raised herself to her full height, once-more recovering her aura of control. "Tell me what you need to know."

"Is there anything special about this town? Something old, not a person, an object or thing."

"Not really, the town isn't actually that old."

"Was it built around anything? A cave, a tree?"

"Oh! The town library is inside of a large, living tree! Is that good?"

"Perfect." Waka released a breath he had been holding, in all honesty, he wasn't expecting something so simple.

A scraping was heard from the entrance of the alley.

Waka placed his hand on his sword. "Celestia, go with Amaterasu, show her where the tree is."

"And you?"

"I just need to keep them anywhere but where you are for a minute, after that I'll have a town garrison to back me up, don't worry."

"Teleport if anything happens."

"Mon amie, please... it's me."

Celestia flew-off with Amaterasu keeping-pace behind her.

Waka drew his blades. "Nechku and Lechku don't make noise when they move, and Blight wouldn't have hesitated to strike from behind... who is there?"

Celestia looked back for a moment and saw a bright light envelop the alley they had left. She didn't turn-around, she had confidence in Waka, even if he hadn't done much to earn it. She could already see the tree that marked the center of town, there was something odd about it.

As they approached, it became clear, the tree was completely dead, the branches spindly and weak.

"What do we do?" She asked Amaterasu.

Ammy twisted her tail, using it to draw into the dirt. She drew a picture of the dead tree, dark clouds swirling above it. She then drew a second tree, this one with a picture of the sun above it, casing rays onto a living tree.

"We need sun, correct?"

A nod.

Celestia had begun the process of moving the sun but was bumped by Amaterasu. She drew another picture, this one showing Ammy in front of the healed tree with Celestia behind her. Celestia seemed to be holding a rope around the sun.

"I... don't quite understand."

Ammy just stared. She pointed toward the sky.

Celestia looked up. "Arooooo!" Howled Amaterasu. On cue, the sun appeared out of thin-air, casting bright light across the town before the dark clouds covered it up.

"That... didn't make any sense whatsoever." She stated. "I think I get it though, you want me to hold the sun in place, correct?"

A nod.

"Okay, but then we are going to talk about what you just did."

Amaterasu readied herself to produce the sun once-more.

"Stop where you are." Wheezed a voice from the direction of the tree.

A figure stepped from the front door, looking toward the two.

"Are you Blight?"

"Silence mule." He demanded. "I don't need to waste my time with you, I need the real goddess."

Ammy bared her fangs, but stayed in place.

"I have something you might like, I certainly think it's nice." He drew his hands from the doorway, producing Waka, completely unconscious. "You know, with all the pink, he could actually be a good accessory."

Ammy growled at him.

"Are you wondering why he isn't cursed? That would be me, I want him to stay with us for awhile, air our grievances on more even ground. Do you want to talk to him? You probably do, I'll get him up for you."

He began beating Waka with the handle of his sword. Waka stirred after the first few hits. He looked around himself. "Not good for me, mon am-hurrgh!"

He started coughing and convulsing in Bilght's grip, choking on his own air.

"What are you doing prophet?" Asked Blight. "I thought you were better than this little curse, don't you have divine favor? You go on about it enough, maybe the gods are punishing you." He turned to Amaterasu. "Is that right mutt? Have you gotten tired of dragging this tribal around, having him act cool all the time? I guess you chose a good time to ditch him then."

"Amaterasu... he's gone completely mad, I'm not sure what... caused it. You have to get the princess away from here... It's much worse than we thought."

"Quiet!" Yelled Blight. "The first thing I'll take is your tongue if you don't shut-it!"

"Amaterasu, they are weak, but there are many... If you restore this town... they'll flee everywhere, take everything. Get to Canterlot, find someone good-enough to help.

"Silence!" Blight accented this outburst with another slam from his sword. "I would let the curse have you right now if I didn't know you wanted that!"

"What do we do?" Celestia turned to Amaterasu, her expression a stone. She watched Waka, dangling from Blight's smoky grip.

She regretted what she was about to do, but it was for the long-run. She bloomed a small portion of the tree, the leaves turning green for a split-second, the curse already beginning to devour them.

In that split-second, a vine shot from the green, wrapping-around Waka's waist, pulling at him with all it's might. Blight held his grip, effectively beginning to hang Waka from his own arm, when another invisible slash, similar to the one from earlier, cut across his arm, breaking the grip.

Waka was pulled a few measly feet from Blight, but that was all it took, the connection was broken. He didn't resist at all, letting the curse get to him like a wave, his already mostly cursed body turned to stone almost instantly, leaving him as a lump on the ground.

"Dammit! You will pay for this!"

Celestia teleported them away, back to the safety of Canterlot.

Blight was left with a stone Waka, Waka's face wearing a shit-eating grin, despite his status. Blight tried bringing a sword down on Waka, but had his blade bounce off of a green shield that appeared right before the strike.

Frustrated, disappointed, and needing to plan the next move, Blight went back to the library.