I hear a feminine groan of pain and look back to see Nightmare standing up, shaking her head to clear the mental haze. Twilight is still unmoving but I can see that she’s breathing. Slowly moving over to the unicorn I hover a hand over her and cast Cure Wounds at 3rd level.

6d8 + 2 = 32 Hit Points.

A sigh of relief floats out of me when I see her eyes flutter open. “What happened? Did we get it?”

“No, one of them perished but the one that did whatever this is to me got away. How are you feeling? Can you move?”

“I feel fine, just a bit dazed. What about you? You look very pale.”

“I’m most definitely not fine, but I also don’t know what’s wrong.” Turning my gaze and shifting my attention to my companion I continue. “Nightmare you need to get out of here.”

“Excuse me? I know in a conflict I’m not of much use in this form, but to send me away entirely is just disrespectful!”

“No you don’t understand, Nightmare. If this thing simply drained the divine energy from me I wouldn’t be this…affected. Divine energy replenishes just like mana. It’s almost like it robbed me of the literal connection or maybe even… a piece of my soul? I shouldn’t be on the verge of collapse just from what it did, but my entire body is cold. It feels more like I’ve been drained of my blood. That means you specifically are in danger. If it had gotten ahold of you instead of me? I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been able to do. You have to get out of here!”

The pegasus looks a bit pensive for a moment until she clicks her tongue in annoyance. “You’re right. I know you’re right, but I hate this feeling of being useless.” Moonie turns towards the exit and before she leaves she gives her first ever order. “Just remember. You’re the Nights’ Chosen, not Lunas Chosen, so I expect you to listen when I order you to stay alive.”

She takes off down the hall with a frustrated look before I can even acknowledge what just happened. I guess she’s technically right. The connection only truly established once she and Luna acknowledged me. Looking back towards Twilight I’m surprised to see her ears are pinned back and she has a look I can’t quite figure out.

“I suppose you’re going to try and tell me to escape too?”

“No, Twilight. I’m not foolish enough to pretend I can do this alone. I was going to ask if you felt comfortable pursuing this thing with me. If you don’t think you can handle it then I won’t pressure you, but I could really use the assist.”

“Why do we have to pursue it? Shouldn’t we regroup and come back with reinforcements? We still don’t even know what we’re truly dealing with here. What if there’s more of those things?”

“I don’t think I have time to retreat and come back. I don’t know for sure, but I really feel like I’m dying right now. I need to track that thing down and get back what it stole from me. Are you in or not?”

She seems very hesitant as she thinks for several seconds. I’m just about ready to tell her she can go, but suddenly her face hardens to a look of resolve. “I can’t turn away from a friend in need. I’ll admit that that creature terrifies me, but I managed to blast it once. I can do it again.”

We all ascended into alicorns through one way or another. Twilight will do the same, assuming does not get led astray from the path she’s on. Twilight is my successor. Hmph, guess ole Sunbutt really does have a way to sniff out talent. Not bad, Celly.

“Atta girl. Alright now I need to figure out how to temporarily fix whatever is happening to me. My body won’t move the way I want it to.”

In the fight against Chrysalis I was able to move faster than I’ve ever moved before and even to this day I haven’t surpassed that. How did I do it? I forcefully channeled all of my mana into my muscles and veins. I remember the pressure, it felt like I was a tube of toothpaste getting squeezed.

I should be able to do that again, but to a much lesser degree. Closing my eyes I completely stop suppressing my mana. I need it to run wild. Observe how it circulates and flows, expand the pathways just a bit and force a higher volume through. I don’t need to break the sound barrier I just need. TO. MOVE!

I watch and Twilight gasps in surprise as an extremely soft and dim silver glow starts to emit from my body. Ever so slowly I can feel my body coming back online as I stand up properly and stop leaning against my staff. Clenching and releasing my hand a few times to get a feel for how my body responds in this state, my confidence returns. “Alright, let’s go kill this thing.”

“What’s happening to you? The way you’re glowing it’s almost like…a horn?” The unicorn moves and bit closer and inspects my arm.

“I’m forcibly expanding my mana circuits and imbuing a bit of mana into my muscles. I did something similar at the Summit, but back then I overdid it completely and it tore my body apart. My circuits were apparently quite damaged as well. Right now though I think this is the only way I can move normally. I might actually be a smidge stronger and faster than normal.”

“That’s so interesting! That’s the same thing Earth Ponies do to augment their strength and vitality, but for them it’s always happening to a certain degree. They simply just “turn up the intensity” as it were. You might be more similar to us than anypony realizes.”

“I appreciate scientific discoveries just as much as the next guy, but we gotta focus up here Twilight. Let’s move. I don’t know how long I can maintain this.”

“Right. You’re right. Focus Twilight Sparkle, this is a dangerous situation, you can do this.” That’s an adorable pep talk.

Once she finishes her little pep talk she gives me a serious look and small nod. I take that to mean “lead the way” and start to move in the direction the wraith went. Nightmare said west so we’ll go west. Maybe Luna wasn’t being paranoid…

Eventually the ominous feeling was almost suffocating and around that same time we spotted blotches of black ink on the ground, almost like the wraith is bleeding. Turning the corner we spot the thing a few feet away from a doorway that seems to lead into the library Nightmare was talking about. Unfortunately, maintaining this mana flow to allow my body to move normally also means my mana is unsuppressed. The wraith notices us before I can even start to formulate a plan to sneak up on it.

Bladesong. Haste.

A series of notes ring out from a piano that sound almost as ominous as the feeling of this place. Wasting not even a second as soon as the buffs are on I launch myself at the monster. The same instant my feet push off the ground Twilight’s horn ignites. The monster holds up its inky clawed hand and fires another beam of silver light at me. Attacking me with my own power, what a joke.

Unfortunately for the monster Twilight is seemingly much more creative with magic than the other spellcasters I’ve fought with. As soon as the beam leaves the monster a dark pink orb forms around the creature's arm and the wraiths own magic attack explodes before it can even fly through the air. The thing screeches in pain and yanks itself backwards revealing half of its arm is just gone.

I am deeply impressed by that move. The creature stops looking at its stumpy arm that’s dripping ink everywhere and raises its other arm as if it’s going to make a slash at me. Sucks for it though because I’m already on it. As soon as its head tilts up to focus on the fight again the first thing it sees is an emerald edge inches away from it. Haste don’t fuck around.

Divine Smite. Level 6.

I dump everything I have on this first swing hoping to end this as quickly as possible. The blade flashes with an intense bright light and the air seems to scream as the blade cuts through it on the way to the intended target.

My attack connects perfectly as I slash down vertically. The edge of the sword slices through the top of the wraiths head and almost completely bisects the creature in half. The two halves of the monster's head and torso fall in opposite directions and inky tendrils start to shoot out from the bisected areas. It’s attempting to pull itself back together?!

That’s when the Smite hits. The sword, still embedded about 3/4th's of the way down the monster, starts to let off smoke as a sizzling noise rings out in the air. An instant later a ball of blinding light shoots out beams of radiant energy in every direction, it's almost like the monster has a holy disco ball embedded in it. It sounds as if space itself is being torn as the ball detonates and the ink-like substance is splattered everywhere.

Wiping the goop off my face I’m shocked to see that the wraith has managed to start putting itself back together. It’s much smaller than it was previously, but it still has the thick pulsing silver lines of divine energy all over its body. The creature is pitiful as it slowly moves across the ground towards the library doorway. The screeches of intimidation and pain it was releasing is now more akin to a whimper.

I start to slowly walk towards the retreating monster as it reaches the doorway and pushes the doors open. The sight of this supposed library causes me to pause. There’s small, thin, black vines with a very light shade of blue colored spikes protruding all over. The vines are coming in through the floor on the far side of the room and they’ve covered the walls, bookcases, and ceiling of nearly half the room.

The wraith reaches out towards the vines with an inky tendril and my eyes widen as all of the silver divine energy retreats from the monster's body, and emerges from the tendril. The energy is slowly moving through the air towards the collection of vines.

“Oh no you don’t!” I’m not sure if it’s trying to connect with the vines to regenerate its body or if it's going to give my energy to the vines. Either way I don’t intend to find out. Casting Misty Step I teleport directly in front of the glowing silver energy moving through the air. Before anything can react I move my hand like lightning and grab the glowing energy.

Almost instantly I can feel power surging back into me. The wraith's whimpers turn into one last screeching cry as steam starts to rise from its body, and it slowly melts. The more energy I take back the more it melts. I let out a sigh of relief as the monster finally turns into a puddle and my body feels like everything has returned to normal. My Lunar Blessing and my Nights’ Chosen subclass are no longer crossed out.

Before I can celebrate though my focus snaps towards Twilight as I hear her yell out my name. “IGNIS! Behind you!”

Glancing behind myself I panic as several vines have started squirming and moving and now they’re darting through the air at me. Thankfully that wraith died so fast I still have around 36 seconds left on my Bladesong and Haste. Turning around to face the vines while dashing away from them I raise the Moonblade into the air and start to spin the blade in front of me like an airplane propeller. “Green-Flame Blade.”

All the vines that were dashing towards me are shredded into nothingness as they attempt to pass through the whirling blade of fiery death I’ve put between them and me. Finally the attacking vines retreat and seem to calm down, but every other vine in the room is still slightly squirming in place.

Ceasing the spinning blade technique I continue to slowly step backwards, away from the vines and back towards Twilight. It’s only then that I notice in the middle of the wall on the far side of the room, there’s a dark black ball of shadowy smoke. It looks like it’s being held against the wall by the vines. As soon as I eviscerated the vines that were attacking me that shadowy ball started to shake and bounce around.

My first thought is that the ball must be the heart of the magical vines, but the more I look at it… the more I realize it’s a prisoner. It’s trapped in place between the vines and the wall and it’s trying to escape. I bite my lip as I consider helping the strange shadow core.

After a few seconds I decide to not judge a book by its cover, and elect to free the core. I point my empty hand towards the vines and flex my hand wide open. I send out a small gathering of mana to grab the vines and as soon as the mana is close enough I squeeze my hand into a fist and clench, hard. The vines glow silver for a second and I wrench my hand through the air as if I’m grabbing a fistful of the vines and tearing them away from the wall.

With much less resistance than I was expecting, the vines are torn away from the wall via telekinesis. It creates a hole in the wall of vines just big enough for the shadowy ball to dart out and away from its prison cell. I watch with an abundance of caution as the ball of black smoke flies through the air towards me.

It stops just a foot or so away and bobs up and down for a second, as if it’s eyeing me up. After that it flies around my body a few times in different diagonal patterns, and I just awkwardly shift around and look over my shoulders to track it as it continues to flit about. Eventually it stops in front of me and for a few seconds nothing happens.

“What the heck is that thing? Are you sure freeing it was a good idea?” Twilight breaks the silence and questions my decision from the hallway.

Half way turning around so I can look at Twilight. “I have no clue, and no I’m not sure. I know from first hand experience though how it feels to be immediately written off as a monster or some kind of evil creature. I felt like if I just assumed its true nature from my first glance at it that I’d be a huge hypocrite, so I freed it.”

Turning back towards the shadowy ball I’m a bit startled to see it just inches from my face. It seems to have reacted in some way to my words. Before I can even think about what to say or do next the shadow core zips through the air a few feet away from me, and flies back towards me at a speed much faster than I can react to.

All I can do is let a tiny gasp in surprise at the sudden turn of events before the orb flies into my chest and sinks into me, disappearing. “Woah! What the fuck?! Get out get out get out!”

After a few seconds of panic I realize nothing has happened. No saving throw, no status changes. In response to my panic there’s a warmth in my chest. It’s almost…comforting? Is this thing trying to say it’s friendly? “Listen you might be chill, but you still gotta get consent before you just go inside someone!”

“Ew! Ignis, phrasing, please!”

“Oh please, what are you, 12? Get your scientific method lookin head-ass out of the gutter.” I totally phrased it like that on purpose. I didn’t think she’d have such a sheltered reaction to it though. In hindsight I should’ve expected her to be somewhat sheltered. “Seriously though, shadow ball thing, can you at least communicate with me here? What the fuck is going on?”

That same comforting warmth radiates throughout my chest and I just sigh and slouch over. “Alright whatever, just don’t do anything weird.” If the thing acts up I’ll just cast Dispel Evil and Good and force the thing to be expelled.

After a few minutes of talking with Twilight about what we should do from here I decide to go ahead and tell Nightmare she can come back down if she wants.

Yo Moonie, you’re clear to come back down. Wraith is taken care of. I’d stay away from the library though there’s these weird spiky vines the wraith was trying to give my divine energy to.

And what of your condition? Has your body returned to normal?

Yeah I’m good. I teleported between my energy and the vines and intercepted that shit back to where it belongs. Twilight and I will start heading back your way, we can meet halfway and keep exploring.

Why? It sounds like those vines are the source of the ominous feeling, and if you don’t want to interact with them then our mission here is done. I’d rather just go back to Canterlot and get some sleep.

Well Twilight did kinda save me, so I couldn’t really say no when she asked if we could keep exploring for artifacts.

I just chuckle as I hear a telepathic sigh. “Okay yeah she’s coming down, let’s head back towards the exit and we can meet her halfway.”

While we’re walking Twilight says something that seems slightly concerning. “Ignis, did you notice that the ominous feeling is completely gone now?”

“Now that you mention it, yeah. You think the presence went away since we killed all the wraiths? Maybe without any defenders it’s choosing to conceal its presence now?”

“Plausible, but it’s hard to say.”

“What’s plausible?” Nightmare joins the conversation from around the corner.

“We’re wondering if the ominous fee-” Twilight suddenly stops speaking and her eyes widen in fear. “I have to go, the Princess is summoning the elements to Canterlot.”

Before either Nightmare or I can ask for more information the unicorn teleports away, cause me and my companion to just look at each other in confusion. “Let me contact Luna. If something has happened in Canterlot I think it’d be we-”

This time I’m the one suddenly interrupted.

Ignis! I’ve been trying to contact you for nearly 10 minutes! Place a hand on Nightmare, now. I’m teleporting both of you back, something terrible has happened.

“What?!” I put my hand on Nightmare as I reply out loud and in my head. “What’s going on Luna?” It seems like that wraith really did steal more than just divine energy from me if Luna couldn't contact me.

Luna’s reply is the last thing I hear as everything flashes white and we’re pulled through space back to Canterlot.

Discord has returned.

Author's Note

Aw shiet it's time for the chaos monster to turn the world upside down. Hopefully now it's a bit more obvious what was going on with those wraiths, but I still left a decent bit up in the air for now. Well up in the air for you guys, I know what's gunna happen of course. If someone presses me in the comments about it or speculates something that ends up being pretty accurate I might spoil a bit of the near future in my reply. I aint saying shit about the shadow core though, that one needs to stew properly.

I realized this chapter that a lot of my Equestria magic fights are just beam attacks and really fancy beam attacks, so I tried to let Twilight be more creative with her applications of mana.

Thanks for reading! <3