A Tale of Sparkles and Black Magic

The city of Canterlot was abuzz with activity. Packed like sardines, some carnivorous creatures would say. A particularly large group of ponies’ attention was fixated on the decapitated statue head of the Storm King, the air filled with the bright flashes of dozens of cameras. One couldn’t take a step without someone’s eyes tracking you, so it stood to reason that one pair of lovers took it upon themselves to escape through the city gate and venture down the trail a little way, hiding behind a tree.

“Think we’ll be safe here?” the mare asked, giving her lover bedroom eyes.

“Don’t worry about that,” the stallion replied, leaning his face closer to hers. “This is the only place we can go for a chance at alone time.”

They nuzzled each other passionately, closing their eyes as they willingly lost themselves to the comforting warmth of each other’s hormonal-induced infatuation. The sounds of the festival were gradually lost, their focus solely on each other. Time itself became irrelevant, as did their surroundings.

Suddenly, the stallion went rigid, breaking his muzzle from hers.

“Oh, Sticks, don’t stop,” the mare said, nuzzling him with increased fervor. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

The stallion said nothing. The mare’s senses gradually drew into sharper focus, bringing with them an odd rhythm of desperate, choked cries from her lover.

“Sticks?”

The choking stopped. The mare opened her eyes. A hideous, monstrous parody of her lover stood before her, its grotesque visage mere inches from her own. She didn’t have any time to scream before she felt teeth sink into her flesh, followed by something being injected into her bloodstream in brief, continuous shots. With each shot, an overwhelming thirst clouded her mind. All she could think about was blood and flesh, and how much she craved both. This feeling remained even as a giant chunk of her neck was ripped away, followed by wet, chewing sounds. The injections stopped. She fell to the ground, stayed limp for a while, then rose up on her hooves. The front gate of Canterlot stood up the trail, beyond which the sounds of the festival continued. So many frolicking, delicious ponies to feast upon…

“Turn them all as quick as you can, both of you,” a charming, charismatic voice said behind her. “This world will be mine to rule before the sun rises again.”

“Of course,” the stallion droned.

“As you wish,” the mare droned as well.

Princess Celestia stepped out onto her balcony, followed shortly by her sister, Princess Luna, the latter of whom visibly tired as a result of just waking up. The setting of the sun and the rising of the moon was scheduled to begin soon, but both sisters first wished to glimpse the festivities. The spirit of the populace was bright, a recovery that they’d feared would be slow to make after the incidents of the past few weeks, but their little ponies had proven their strength. Their ability to push through the sadness to the light of dawn spoke to the true power of Harmony and Friendship.

The crowded streets below the castle were filled with swarms of ponies and other creatures enjoying the festival. Excited cries and friendly chatter mixed together, music to their ears. It made her happy to have passed out earplugs to all citizens not wishing to participate; the idea of sleep in this state was as impossible as all the things Discord often created on a regular basis. Thinking about the draconequus, it was a shame he was still on vacation through the Singularity. What kinds of worlds was he visiting, she wondered?

“Sister, what is that?” Luna asked, pointing with her hoof.

Celestia followed where she was pointing. Out in the distant sky, she spotted a colorful dot high above the Equestrian Plains. It grew bigger and bigger, flying closer to Canterlot. The colors became more pronounced, showcasing purple, blue, pink, and blonde-yellow. The object took on a definitive shape, striking a lance of concern through Celestia upon realizing what it was. Or, rather, who they were.

“Why would Twilight and Black Magician Girl be flying up here?” she asked, more to herself than to Luna.

“I do not know, Sister,” Luna replied. “But surely something is not right if they’re traveling here by flight rather than by train.”

“It must be something urgent,” Celestia said. “But then why wouldn’t Twilight have Spike send a letter?”

They watched as the two sped through the skies on a straight course to Canterlot. The closer they got, the more clear the worry and desperation in their faces were. A couple of pegasus guards shot up to intercept them as they attempted to cross into the palace’s airspace. A brief conversation between Twilight and the guards ensued after which the latter escorted them towards the balcony Celestia and Luna were standing on.

“Twilight!” Celestia said cheerfully, trying to hide her concern so as not to share it with her former student. “What is the meaning of this surprise and unusual visit along with our newest guest?”

“Princess Celestia, that monster from last week is still alive!”

The answer didn’t register to Celestia immediately, the joyous atmosphere of the festivities on the streets below still a comfort to her conscience. That comfort was shattered a moment later. Week-old memories resurfaced in her mind. She had stood upon the balcony of her ancient home, the place she’d both banished her sister and gained her back a thousand years later, standing across from a monster hailing from another world. A monster that she hadn’t known about for more than a minute beforehoof and who certainly hadn’t looked the part, but she trusted Twilight’s word when her former student said that the blood-sucking creature posing as a human man was pure evil. An evil beyond the likes of anything their world had ever seen.

But that evil had a weakness: The light of her sun. A single blast of sunlight from her horn was all it took to send him tumbling over the edge of the balcony to the ravine below, his body disintegrating before her eyes. How did he manage to survive?

“He’s coming here, isn’t he?” she asked, deathly serious.

Both Twilight and Black Magician Girl nodded.

“My knowledge of this monster is only secondhoof,” Luna admitted. “Would I only be a hindrance to your efforts to combat it?”

“We need all the help we can get,” Black Magician Girl stated. “But this is a vampire that can only die by sunlight. Can you two bring the sun back up? Please?”

Celestia bit her lip. “Certainly, but I fear evacuating everyone while also explaining the situation will take time we do not have.”

“Let us focus on keeping our subjects safe,” Luna said.

“Right.”

They lit their horns, beginning to reverse the coming of night, but a shift in the sounds of the festivities caught everyone’s attention. Peering down to the streets below, at first glance, there didn’t appear to be anything different in the disposition of the crowds. Still lots of loud noises and wild movements. Then Celestia got a closer look at the faces of several of the ponies. Confusion colored their faces as they stared in the direction of the city gate. Tracking her eyes over the crowd closer to the gate, the disposition of everyone began to change. More frantic stares and attempts to push through the crowd, trampling over each other in their haste. Then her eyes reached the area close to the gate and her heart caught in her throat.

Blood flew everywhere. Ponies with wide-eyed, dead expressions and sharp teeth ripped into the flesh of their fellows. The screams of pain from the victims were, mercifully, drowned out by the noise of the crowd. Celestia could only stare, wide-eyed with shock and horror, as her little ponies turned to cannibalism. Then her eyes caught sight of a particular group of ponies situated away from the larger crowd. Several deep gashes and missing chunks of flesh covered their bodies, the wounds gushing blood. But what caught her attention was their faces, contorting and twisting, losing the light of life. Their expressions turned blank, mindless with hunger, and rose to their hooves, joining the other cannibals in attacking the unturned trying to push through the crowd. Celestia tore her gaze away when a pair of adults, one stallion and one mare, fell upon a young filly that might very well have been their child and began devouring her.

“Sister, what is this!?” Luna cried in horror, panic, and confusion.

Celestia gulped. Fear settled over her. “He’s back.” She turned to her sister. “We must hurry, Luna!”

“Right.”

They lit their horns, closing their eyes as they reached for their respective celestial bodies.

“CELESTIA! WATCH OUT!”

Celestia opened her eyes. Before she could speak or make a move, she felt a sharp impact hit the side of her head. Darkness overtook her before she could form a thought.

Everyone stared, mouths agape with horror, as Celestia’s and Luna’s bodies fell to the balcony. Two medium-sized holes ran through both their heads, the result of a familiar set of laser eye vision. The guards were left speechless, tears ran from Twilight’s eyes, but Black Magician Girl kept her composure. She strode to the side of the balcony and peered down, sighting Dio Brando in the castle gardens, meeting her gaze with his evil, sadistic own. The necks on either side of him no longer hung limp, now wrapped around and grafted onto the center one.

“Get the princesses’ bodies back inside and put a barrier around the palace,” she instructed Twilight and the guards. “Leave Dio to me.” She hopped onto her staff, floating in midair.

Even without turning around, she knew Twilight was too emotionally distraught to act. “I promise my mentor will revive them, Twilight,” she said with conviction. “Them, and everyone else dead because of that monster.”

There was a short few moments of silence, all the while she never tore her gaze away from Dio. The monster was waiting for her to come down to face off with him, she knew. With the princesses gone, she was Equestria’s best line of defense against him. As far as she was concerned, this would be a walk in the park compared to her battle against the Vampire Genesis and his undead armies. At the same time, Dio had already proven to have some tactical prowess; he wasn’t to be underestimated.

“I trust you,” Twilight said, sniffling.

“We’ll have the barrier up right away,” one of the guards said.

“If you need reinforcements, don’t hesitate to signal for us,” the other said.

Black Magician Girl nodded. She gently rode her staff down into the gardens. Dio tracked her descent, but never once attempted to blast her out of the air. She landed on the ground about ten meters away from him. Stone statues and hedges decorated the gardens on either side of them, but the space in between was clear. A giant hedge wall sat about fifteen meters to her right, likely a barrier between the gardens and the city proper. She took note of that especially.

Before they could exchange any words, the atmosphere began to darken. Confusion rang through her for a brief moment before a glance toward the horizon clarified what was happening. The sun gradually dipped below its place above the horizon, sinking and leaving the land enveloped in night in a matter of seconds. The moon, however, didn’t raise to replace it. The only sources of light remaining were a few lit oil lamps and the stars above. Dio removed the hood covering him and promptly shredded it with his tiger’s paw, letting the scraps fall to the ground.

“I hated having to wear that horrid thing,” he said, lips split into a satisfied, dark grin. “Finally, my domain is cleansed of impurities.”

“You need the sun to keep the world from dying,” Black Magician Girl pointed out. “If I hadn’t promised to revive the princesses, you would’ve just doomed this world.”

“You’re fighting for a group of people you don’t know much about,” Dio said snidely. “These ponies had the means to raise and lower the sun and moon long before the princesses existed. They can do so again under my rule.”

Black Magician Girl twirled her staff and pointed it at him. “Not gonna happen, stupid.”

Dio quirked an eyebrow, bemused. “It’s a pity that the greatest obstacle to my rule must be one so childish. I would much prefer to fight someone I can at least respect as a fellow intellectual.”

Black Magician Girl felt a vein threaten to pop in her forehead. This guy was going down hard!

“Preparing to activate the shield!” called a voice from above and behind her.

“Wait, let us in first!”

Black Magician Girl turned her head, spying a green pegasus mare with an entourage of other ponies holding oddly-shaped crystals bolting through the air towards the palace, a group of zombified pegasi chasing them with manic eyes and snapping, hungry jaws. They dashed forward with wide, panicking eyes, landing upon the balcony next to a small group of unicorn guards.

“Drop it! Drop it! Hurry!”

The guards’ horns lit up in a shared golden nimbus. An identically-colored shield sprouted overtop the palace, quickly spreading out like a water fountain to cover the entire perimeter. The zombie pegasi crashed into it one after another just as it dropped in front of their path of flight. Each impact sent a ripple through the shield, but, thankfully, none were strong enough to break through.

“Quick, get the camera crystal rolling!” the green pegasus mare quickly said to her fellows. She rushed to the side of the balcony, staring down at the gardens, eyes filled with anxious excitement. “We need to broadcast this! Our world’s hope rests on the shoulders of that girl!”

She and one of her fellows floated off the balcony. They pointed one of the strange devices they carried down towards the gardens while she began talking excitedly. Black Magician Girl just huffed and turned back to Dio. He was smiling up at their newfound audience.

“Now all of Equestria will get to see the downfall of their final savior,” he said.

Black Magician Girl ignored his statement, replying with, “I look forward to being able to undo all the death and pain you’ve caused for these poor ponies.”

“Oho? Will you now? But you’ll be causing more death and pain than me.”

“What do you me—?”

“Zombies, come to me!”

At that moment, a great roar sounded from beyond the palace perimeter— the combined cries of several hundred perverted souls, a vow to obey their master. A stampede of hooves sounded, drawing closer in a short time. The hedges parted in several places, spilling forth zombie ponies in single files. They gathered around the palace gardens in organized formation, their blank, dead stares fixated on Black Magician Girl. She grimaced, shifting her staff to point between them and Dio, shifting her eyes between them.

“Attack my minions!”