A War on Two Fronts

Even before coming here, finding myself in this strange world without warning, I'd always been a bit of a paranoid fellow. For a brief stint during my teenage years I'd even become one of those conspiracy theorists you hear about on the news, seeing intricate government plots everywhere when, usually, there was really nothing of interest.

But here and now, in this most unusual of positions, I could be forgiven if I took Twilight's admission of fealty with a grain of salt.

"What are you doing?" She asked fearfully, ears splayed back and tail tucked between her legs. The rest of the eggheads and those guards not loyal to me watched on with morbid fascination, not one of them lifting a hoof or voice in protest.

I ignored Twilight's question. She wouldn't like the answer anyway. With one massive hand cupped under her chin and the other resting on her crown, just above her horn, I allowed my dark power to leech into her mind. Twilight whimpered in pain and though I would normally prefer the procedure to be painless and swift, I was not yet versed in this particular form of magic.

In breaking Sombra's hold over his victims, I'd managed to glean the intricacies of his curse and with each added recruit, my understanding of his spell grew. Even so, Sombra's curse was astoundingly complex and the brief understanding of it I now possessed was not nearly enough to successfully replicate it. I could, however, create a variant of it.

I planted a portion of my will on Twilight's mind, anchoring it much the same way as Sombra's curse dug itself into the recesses of its victims' minds. That part was easy. To engender complete and utter loyalty from her? Well, I wasn't there yet.

With the procedure done, I allowed Twilight her freedom. The little mare barely registered this and remained rooted to the spot. "What have you done to me?" she whispered in mute horror.

"I've implanted a portion of my magic within you. Know that I now hold the power to end your life as I see fit, no matter where, no matter when. It doesn't matter now how far you go. If you attempt escape or conspire against me..." I willed my magic within her to flare, and with a gasp of pain, Twilight sank to her knees. "Your life is forfeit. This is the price you must pay if you are to become mine. I can kill you with a thought. I can inflict the most horrendous pain imaginable should you give me a reason," I calmly told the shaken pony. "But I am fair as well. Serve me faithfully and you will be rewarded. You will want for nothing and your enemies will become mine. Consider your options carefully."

I left the little mare with that and moved on, eyeing the rest of the eggheads. I approached a nervous looking stallion, thin and gangly and wearing a pair of oversized square spectacles.

"And you? Will you swear fealty to me? Do you pledge to serve and di..."

"Yes! Yes, please!" He burst out in tears. "I will do anything you want, Your Evilness. It would be an honor to serve under you and..."

My hand wrapped around his thin neck and squeezed. "Don't lie to me," I said lowly. "I will know if you do. Know that where you all are concerned, honesty is the best policy. I have little time or patience for honeyed words."

He bawled like a baby, blubbering and snot dribbling down his nostrils. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." He babbled. "I'll do whatever you want. Just, please... I don't want to die."

I nodded stiffly. "Very well." I repeated the same procedure as with Twilight. The stallion whimpered in pain as my dark power invaded his mind. When the deed was done, I allowed him freedom. His hooves freed, the stallion scuttled away, hiding behind Twilight.

I stepped in front of the next pony, a unicorn mare. Approaching middle age, if I guessed correctly, around Quantum Point's age. I met her steady amber gaze with my own dispassionate one. Unlike Twilight and the blubbering stallion, she remained composed. A slight, unconcealed hint of defiance adorned her features, her poise proud and rigid.

"Your name?" I asked.

"Astral Drift," she said.

"Astral Drift. You have heard my terms and the consequences that come from breaking them. Will you enter into my service and swear fealty to me? Do so and be assured that I will reward your loyalty accordingly."

"No."

"No?"

"I won't," the defiant mare said.

I took a step closer. The proud mare was forced to crane her neck to match my gaze.

"Why?"

This seemed to throw her off.

"You have many years left to live," I clarified. "Are you willing to throw them away just to deny me?"

Astral Drift's mouth twitched. Her chest heaved as she took long, deep breaths.

"You," she said, poison in her words. "Are a blight, Ganondorf. The world is better off without you in it, and I will not taint my soul by doing evil's will. You may have cowed my colleagues with your barbaric actions and crude ways, but know that your immature threats mean little to me. I've lived a good life and am ready to move on from from this world. As for you... I hope that you and the rest of your wretched kind burn under Celestia's light."

The mare had sealed her fate.

I looked across the room, to Permafrost. "Your dagger, Lieutenant." I held out my hand and the pony dutily handed it to me. Steel, nothing special about it. That would have to be rectified in the future.

I circled back around Astral Drift, grabbed her mane and pulled her head back. A swift motion on my part and the dagger sliced the tender skin of her neck.

"No!" Twilight wailed, reaching out a hoof to the elder mare. The other lab ponies made similar actions of distress, but knew better than to intervene.

As Astral Drift choked on her own blood, I placed a palm on her chest, unheeding the hot liquid that soaked my hand. My mouth worked to form words, an incantation in a cursed language lost to the mists of time; first spoken in the ancient past by a lineage of heretical lizard kings. As the defiant mare's life gave way, my speech quickened as I called forth the foulest magics into being.

My hand sank into Astral Drift's chest, bypassing muscle, skin and bone entirely. I concentrated, the profane words still flowing from my lips and with a mighty pull, I extracted my hand from the mare's lifeless body.

The ponies cried out in exclamation and horror at the sight before them. In my hand, eyes wide and uncomprehending, was the spectral form of Astral Drift. I released the newly birthed shade and allowed her to examine her discarded mortal shell.

"This... how can this be?" She whispered, eyes wide in disbelief. "This can't be what comes next. This feels... wrong. This," She turned to face me. "You. Monster! What have you done to me?!" The spectral pony launched herself at me while I stood my ground, not batting an eye. She flailed her hooves in a mad attempt to strike me, wrapped her forelegs around my throat in a futile hope of strangulation and other such pitiable efforts to try and exact a modicum of revenge. I allowed her to do so, knowing her efforts were for naught.

Eventually, she lost heart and settled on the floor, weeping and stewing in misery over her failed gambit.

"You have seen now what I can do," I said to the rest of the ponies. "I have a hundred ways to kill you and a thousand more to torture you. Even in death you are not safe from me. This wretched soul dared to defy me and now her spirit is bound to me, cursed to wander this mortal plane until I see it fit to release her into the next life. Now," I said and approached yet another terrified egghead. "Will you serve me, or die?"