Wicked Temptation

The White Tail Woods were even more quiet that night, as if the forest itself was watching apprehensively. In the darkest, densest depths, ominous lights glowed from the windows of a cottage in a clearing.

Inside, a dark-coloured unicorn loomed over a cauldron. Her lavender mane flowed from beneath her wide-brimmed hat, its point crooked at the tip. Her cutie mark, a cauldron with a lollipop sticking out of the pink liquid within, adjourned her thick flanks. Her horn glowed with a similar purple as she carried tomes and sheets of paper in her magical grip. She wrote with her quill and flipped through pages, rubbing her hoof on her chin.

Then her brow softened. “Yes, I think I’ve cracked it,” she said, a wicked smile growing across her face. Her magic floated a small jar toward her, and she looked at the pulsating black entity inside. “You’re going to be quite a help, my dear.”

The entity tapped against the glass, like it was angrily fighting its way out. The mare found it quite endearing. She was a lot older than she looked, and she knew a lot more about magic than most. Especially dark magic.

“In you go, little one,” she said softly, opening the jar lid and forcing the dark magic into the cauldron. “Don’t be shy.”

The moment the entity touched the bubbling surface, the green liquid darkened ominously, before starting to boil. She stepped back, and with a violent puff of magical smoke, the cauldron returned to boiling as normal. Ignoring the mess of books and quills around her, she approached and peered inside, seeing the liquid was still a menacing inky black.

“Yes, I think this is it,” she said with a satisfied smile. “But only one way to be sure. Who would be the best fit to test this on, I wonder?”

Her horn glowed and a small beam of lavender magic into the dark liquid. It began to swirl, and a shimmering image was projected to her in the centre, bright enough to light the room.

She nodded, a wicked gleam in her eye as her smile turned into a smirk. “Ahh, who better? And I know just how to do it.”

With a swing of her horn, a slender stream of dark energy, like a translucent tendril, slithered out of the window and through the trees beyond the clearing. She peered into her cauldron, eager to watch the events unfold.