S1 Chapter 8: The Inevitable Pinkie & An Old Enemy

“Does anypony else hear a bunch of crying and yelling ahead of us?” Xephers inquires prompting Spike and Twilight to listen closely, “I think your friends are here Twilight, and they might be in trouble,” Xephers speeds up making Spike bounce a little and hold on tighter. Twilight nods,

“I think you may be right Xephers, I do hear my friends, let’s hope there’s nothing dangerous with them,” She speeds up too, and they gallop for the lobby where the crying and yelling is coming from. After a minute of galloping they reach the lobby and see all of Twilight’s friends minus Pinkie Screaming and crying over seemingly nothing. “I don’t see anything attacking them, just them running around in hysterics,” She looks at Xephers, “We need to stop them and access the situation, correct?” Xephers looks at her and nods, he springs into action stopping Applejack from running around screaming by tackling her to the ground lightly,

“Applejack, calm down, there’s no reason to be panicking!” He looks her in the eye with determination and she calms down, they stand up as Twilight stops Rainbow, from playing pinball with her body and the walls, with her magic. Angel runs up to Fluttershy to stop her from crying over a pillar and she hugs him tightly. Spike hops off Xephers and consoles Rarity, stopping her from crying, then they all group up in the center of the room.

“Well, that went better than expected,” Twilight pauses, “Have you guys been running around scaring each other?” They think for a moment then Applejack speaks up.

“That depends, who’s making that creepy noise,” The Organ is still playing, “If we’re here, then who’s playing that?” Xephers steps up,

“There’s only one way to find out... Everypony on me, time to see who’s the creep playing the Music, Leaf Blade!” His sword appears and he grabs it and heads toward the area the Music is coming from. Rainbow, Twilight, and Applejack nod and catch up to him with the rest following slowly behind.

They reach the Organ chamber and see a cloaked figure playing the Organ, Xephers casts his Light spell to illuminate the room and the figure stops playing. It turns around revealing a twisted Theater mask under the cloak. It slowly reaches for the mask, stopping once it touches the mask. Xephers, Rainbow, Applejack, and Twilight ready themselves with the others hiding behind the door opening. The figure speaks up in a low Femaleish voice.

“I’m glad everypony decided to attend...” It takes its mask off and throws it across the room hitting a target causing a chain reaction in the room, “It’s time for...” Smoke covers the room then quickly dissipates to reveal... A party. “Xephers’ Welcome to Ponyville party!” The cloaked Figure throws the cloak into the air revealing Pinkie pie! “Were you surprised?” When she said this several dozen Posters and balloons appeared out of nowhere. “Jesse it took you guys so long to get here I was about to run out of material for the Organ, but now you’re here!” She moves extremely fast to grab Fluttershy and the others and push them into the room for the Party.

“Wait, you set up a party here?” Twilight pauses then looks at Pinkie, “For Xephers?” She pauses again, “Without telling us?” Pinkie smiles and happily answers,

“Yes, I did this all for him and I hope he likes it so we can be the best of friends.” She bounces over to Xephers to gauge his reaction, “So, Xephy, Do you like it?” Xephers cringes at the bad nickname and looks at her, he drops his sword and steps on it.

“#1, Disperse,” He un-summons his Sword. “#2, don’t do that again,” Pinkie deflates a little and stops bouncing. “#3, I love it, thanks Pinkie.” Pinkie cheers up instantly and shoots up into the air and Yells ‘YAY!!!’ then bounces around the room. After a few minutes of food and comradery things calm down a little with the party starting to head toward the entrance.

“*Maniacal Laughter* This is going to be so much fun, I just hope they survive...” An invisible being with a visible pair of red demonic-looking eyes says quietly then snaps something on its body almost silently. “Time to show you’re real... Hero...the eyes close and disappear.

“So, anypony want to go back to the library with me to keep looking for any clues on the chest?” Twilight asks everypony present. Before anyone can respond the Organ begins to play again, making everypony look at it. “Pinkie, knock it off already,” Twilight shouts but she notices Pinkie standing right behind her. “Wait, if you’re here then who...” She gets interrupted by Ghostly Laughter that makes Xephers jump in fright.

“No... It can’t be...” Everypony looks to Xephers, he looks pale and has sweat dripping down his face. “I thought we defeated you in the Temple!” Xephers is slowly backing away towards the door.

“*Chuckle* Where do you think you’re going?” A very low growling voice asks from behind the entire group making them turn around and face a Ghostly figure of a human with Pale white skin, long boney claws for fingers, yellow Jagged teeth, Blood Red eyes, baggy clothes that show his malnourished body, Sharp Black horns growing in his thin white hair, Chains around his wrists, and nothing from the knees down floating in the door opening.

“Thozzal, you were sealed into a light crystal, how did you escape!” Xephers barks out still slightly freaked out. “You were meant to be sealed permanently!” Thozzal floated closer to him making everypony else back away from the demon.

“Let’s just say, I had a little help from a friend so I could exact my revenge once and for all.” Thozzal waves a glowing red hand behind him and the doors slam shut and lock. “It’s time we had a rematch without all your pathetic friends...” He looks around the room spotting the others, and laughs, “Or your new ones,” He raises his hand and summons black holes below Everypony except Xephers.

“Leave them alone Thozzal, It’s me you want!” Xephers stands straight, winning over his fear. “Let them go and we’ll have our rematch.” Thozzal hesitates for a moment then sucks the others into the Black holes and drops them outside the castle.

“Your friends are safely outside the castle... But as for you...” Thozzal grows in size to fill about half the room. “This is where you meet your end! *Maniacal Laughter*” A giant black hole opens under both of them transporting them to Somewhere unknown.

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“Is everypony ok?” Twilight stands up from the cold ground and looks around, “It looks like we were teleported outside the castle,” Applejack gets up and dusts herself off with her hat.

“I’m ok Twi but, what was that thing, it looked unnatural,” Rainbow gets up and helps everypony else onto their hooves and feet. “Alright, we need a headcount, Rainbow check if everypony’s here.” Rainbow salutes and looks around carefully.

“We have everypony but Xephers,” Rainbow lands next to Twilight. “If he’s not here then that means he’s still with that monster,” Twilight nods and tries to find him with a spell.

“Oh no... I can’t find him anywhere in the castle...” She searches around the castle as well but, finds nothing. “He’s not around it either...” Suddenly a strange magical force starts emanating from the Organ room alerting Twilight. “Wait... I feel strange magic coming from the Organ room, come on we need to help Xephers!” Twilight charges back into the castle with the girls following behind while angel and Spike wait safely by the door.

After a few moments of full-speed galloping, they reach the doors to the Organ room still shut. Rainbow tries to open the door to no avail, Twilight tried to teleport into the room but something blocks her. All hope seems lost until the doors disappear before their very eyes, looking into the room they see Xephers lying there on the ground in a pool of blood.

“Xephers!” Fluttershy flies to assist her fallen friend followed by the others, when she lands next to him she notices he isn’t breathing. “Oh no he’s not breathing Twilight can you do anything?” Twilight thinks frantically, but before she can do or say anything the body of Xephers stands up, half of his coat, mane, and tail stained red. Fluttershy starts shivering as he opens his eyes revealing the whites of his eyes have turned black and his pupils are now Red and much like a cat’s eye.

“Uhh, anypony else getting a bad feeling about Xephers here?” Applejack starts backpedaling, making Xephers slowly look in her direction, once his eyes lock onto hers, his eyes go full red and he gallops at her full speed making everypony jump in fright except Rainbow, she flew into the air and tackled Xephers to the ground easily seemingly knocking him out.

“What in the hay was that about?” Rainbow looked closely at Xephers, His eyes reopen and lock onto Rainbows making her jump and letting him get off the ground and look at Rainbow tracking her every move, the longer he stares the more he starts drooling bloody saliva, soon opening his mouth revealing razor-sharp teeth and a forked tongue.

“Wait, I don’t think that’s Xephers,” once Twilight started talking ‘Xephers’ stopped staring at Rainbow and slowly turned his head toward her. “I think it’s an imposter, his teeth aren’t normal, they’re shard and pointed!” Once ‘Xephers’ locked eyes with Twilight he started speeding towards her. “*Gasp* Freeze!” She grabs him with her magic and lifts him into the air, ‘Xephers’ Is still attempting to gallop at her in the air, mouth open and tongue hanging out one side. “Let’s see what you really are,” She concentrates her magic on her captive, he glows oranges before exploding into smoke making everypony cough, after the smoke dissipates everything looks normal. No blood, no corpse, but also no Xephers.

“*Maniacal Laughter* It seems you sniffed out my trap, but Xephers is still with the real me,” A Thozzal clone appears out of the floor in front of the girls. “If you really want to join him, we’re at the spot where you defeated Nightmare Moon,” He floats into the ceiling, “But don’t expect to get there without any roadblocks *Chuckle*,”

“Really, where we defeated Nightmare Moon, that’s on the other side of the Castle,” Rainbow yells in anger. Twilight looks at Rainbow with a determined look.

“You’re right Rainbow, but we can make it, we just have to try our best to make it there before anything happens to Xephers,” She turns toward the entrance, “Come on everypony we have a friend to help!” They all nod and start galloping towards their destination.