- - -
(4)
- - -

Before leaving Ponyville, Twilight had brought a few books on traditional Equestria fighting and one or two on leadership. She’d planned to at least take some private notes for herself before getting into any sort of serious dustup. Normally, she’d have done much of it last night, but, as usual, archaeology had gotten in the way. It was too late now; the Royal Guards down below were under attack and study guides (and crib notes) would have to wait for later.

‘We’ll just have to wing it!’

Up above, Rainbow Dash was already flying at top speed to introduce herself to the “Fiendish Pegasi” who were circling in the sky. She seemed to be enjoying herself, given the loud and somewhat inappropriate battle cry she unleashed as she switched battle auras. Fluttershy couldn’t keep pace, but she did hover at a safe distance and rear up, her forelegs glowing green. A tumbling figure of gold and white was her target, and it quickly righted itself and stopped its fall as the rejuvenation spell took effect.

Trusting in those two to keep the air safe, Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes, concentrated on the mass of ponies up ahead. She pointedly ignored the melee of Earth ponies, looking, looking – there! There was a reddish glow coming from a pony in black robes. She wasn’t sure, but it seemed likely to be one of the unicorns suppressing the nearby defense wards.

A skull appeared over the Dark Unicorn’s head. Oblivious to the marking (visible only to Twilight’s party anyway), the magic user focused on suppressing the nearby wards. It was her job, after all. She didn’t pay much attention to the ragtag bunch of ponies that ran in from the Everfree forest. That was someone else’s problem anyway, right? Right!

Twilight Sparkle braced herself, horn glowing a fearsome shade of amethyst, and unleashed her first wave of Arcane Missiles. Violet projectiles erupted from her horn like shooting stars, crossing the distance of roughly forty yards in les than a second. A hoof-full of them slammed home into the distracted Dark Unicorn, blasting away bits of cloak and hood and kicking up dust from the force of the impact.

Concentration unbroken, the evil pony craned her neck to look over in the direction of the attack.

“Mage armor! Mage armor!” Spike’s yelling was frantic.

‘Oh nuts. I knew I forgot something!’

Her body jerked as the Dark Unicorn cursed her. It felt like a knife being wedged between her ribs, going deeper and deeper, the agony intensifying as it separated and pushed back bone. Twilight blinked in pain, stumbling back, and then saw a dark mass of vile power filling her vision. Oddly, it was something she recognized. This was the spell Trixie had used on her. A “shadowbolt” she had called it.

It broke against a bubble-like shield of light.

“Just a moment, darling.” She heard Rarity say, and a healing energy helped to counteract the Dark Unicorn’s curse. It didn’t dispel it, however, meaning it was still sending lances of agony into its victim. Remembering something from her spellbook, Twilight forced her eyes open.

“I can dispel curses,” she muttered. She and Fluttershy both could.

Focusing on the incantation taught to her, Twilight felt it form and then shoot out from her forehead. The energy washed away the curse of Agony before it could reach its full duration and she breathed a sigh of relief. She knew the spells, and the spell mechanics, but knowledge was clearly only part of what made an effective mage. Experience and real life combat would have to fill in the gaps.

The Dark Unicorn, meanwhile, was facing the three ponies at range, an ugly sneer on her muzzle. Her horn was still glowing red as she suppressed the nearby magical sentries, but there was apparently energy to spare when it came to her casting. Black tainted the red glow a second before another Shadowbolt Volley vomited forth, the coils of black energy zeroing in on Twilight and her friends.

There was no avoiding them – the shadowbolts would home in on their targets – so they just had to be taken and healed through. Rarity raised another beautiful shield of light, but not to protect herself. Instead, it covered Applejack’s flank. There was a crazed Earth pony in tattered robes heading towards her, a wicked blade between his teeth.

Applejack didn’t shirk from the sight, or the confrontation. Instead, she charged forward with a rebel yell of “Ye-haw!” slamming right into the Twilight Zealot and stunning him. She then grappled with the madpony, snout to snout, ignoring the shadowbolt that tried to come in and hit her from behind.

Twilight quickly cast another set of arcane missiles, and saw Pinkie Pie drop a new totem out of the corner of her eye. With Rarity handling backup healing, his totem glowed a wild and untamed blue, fizzling like a roman candle and filling everyone with magical and spiritual energy. Charged by the sight and feel of it, Twilight built up power for a larger and more powerful spell. The air around her crackled and split as she fired off an Arcane Barrage.

The lance of energetic purple magic slammed into the side of the Dark Unicorn, for the first time causing her to stumble.

“Twilight! Mage Armor!”

‘Oh. Oh yeah.’

She quickly corrected her earlier oversight, but not before getting tagged with another Curse of Agony. She felt it “tick” once, but sheathed in an invisible, protective cocoon of Mage Armor it was much easier to deal with. Rarity was keeping them all up, despite the damage, and Twilight quickly dispelled the Curse on herself. About to attack again, she paused, feeling a similar energy clinging to her friends. Fltutershy had to be out of range supporting Dash.

Twilight realized, then, that Pinkie Pie and Rarity had been hit by Curses of Agony, too. The thought of her friends in pain angered Twilight far more than when she, herself, had been the target of the evil spellwork. Summoning up her Remove Curse counterspell, Twilight burned the vile magic from her friends.

To her left, Pinkie Pie stamped her hooves, and an arc of lightning reached out like an ethereal bridge, hitting the Dark Unicorn square in the chest. This proved to be the final blow, as she finally fell back and to the side, kicking with her legs and then becoming briefly engulfed in a cloud of noxious smoke. Twilight could see traces of the pony the Dark Unicorn may once have been: a teal color beneath the cloud of black, dyed by her willing partnership with evil powers.

There was little time to think about it. One of the magical wards, formerly suppressed, lit up like a Winter Solstice charm. It began to pulse and crackle. Moving forward, Twilight identified and marked another Dark Unicorn. She had been watching the fight before, and quickly started casting curses and shadowbolts. It seemed the act of suppressing the Royal Guard’s wards also kept the casters from moving, since she could do little more than pivot slightly and face her attackers. An enraged yell came from Twilight’s right, where Applejack was struggling with the Twilight Pony Zealot she had engaged.

He was wounded from the dust up with her and the Royal Guard, and whether it was pure adrenalin or dark magic, he was actually growing larger! To say nothing of angrier! Lost in a battle fury, the speed of his attacks increased, forcing Rarity to divert more attention to keeping Applejack up and in his hooves. Twilight could see Pinkie Pie, her blue eyes shooting form the Unicorn they had just engaged over to where Applejack was fighting. She looked torn about what to do.

“My target!” Twilight yelled. “Pinkie! MY target!”

“Oh!” The bubbly shaman quickly narrowed her eyes at the Dark Unicorn barraging them with shadow magic. “Okey dokey!”

She puckered her lips, as if to blow the evil unicorn a kiss –

And the Shadowbolt Volley the unicorn had been casting was interrupted by a shearing blast of wind. Twilight followed the interrupt up with a series of Arcane Missiles, a whole half dozen of them. The Dark Unicorn snarled and tried to attack again, but between Pinkie’s interrupts and Twilight’s curse dispels, there was little she could do to turn the tide of battle. Soon the Enraged Twilight Zealot was down, and Rarity joined in. The three quickly burned the unicorn down, and she collapsed softly under the barrage.

Instantly, the two Royal Guard wards blazed bright as bonfires, linking themselves together with a yellowish beam of light and then discharging it upwards into the air. A Fiendish Pegasus fell from the sky, shortly afterward, struck down by the bolt of yellow lightning. With their air cover rapidly dwindling, the Twilight ponies on the ground started to fear for their lives more than they feared the displeasure of their leaders. Despite one remaining Dark Unicorn urging them on, the wounded Zealots who had yet to Enrage started to break off and fall back. Seeing their partners do so, others fled outright.

A few, the most badly wounded, roared in fury and enraged, growing larger and angrier as they kicked and slashed at anyone close by. The Royal Guards quickly brought the berserkers down, and armored pegasi gave chase as the Twilight Cultists routed. Rarity, breathing heavily, nonetheless managed to spend the rest of her energy on healing spells, mending the worst of the wounded guardsponies. She was soon completely exhausted, and fall back on her rear, not even sparing the breath to express her dislike of sitting on the dusty ground.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy soon landed, along with another white pegasus in Royal Guard barding. The chromatic flyer had a big smile on her face, and a few scuff marks to show for her trouble, but her spirits were clearly high. Fluttershy, like Rarity, looked much more tired, and the pink maned pegasus let out a weary sigh as she relaxed down onto the ground.

“Everyone okay?” Twilight asked.

“I just need a moment,” Rarity said, slowly nodding her head.

Fluttershy just gave a quiet sigh.

“Hey, Pinkie,” Dash spoke up, poking her friend with a hoof. “Let’s check the bodies; see if anything good dropped.”

If either of them showed concern for what they’d done, taking out the Cultist ponies, they didn’t show it.

“Wait for me!” Pinkie sounded enthusiastic, even, but then she sounded enthusiastic about almost everything. The pair immediately started towards the first fallen Dark Unicorn. Twilight frowned a bit, but recognized the practicality. These were enemies of Equestria, after all, and the Royal Guard wouldn’t have treated them any differently, especially given that they were in the middle of attacking Celestia’s hand picked stallions. Either Dash and Pinkie would loot them, or the Royal Guard would.

Speaking of the Guard…

“Nice of you to mares drop by!” A voice called out, and a pair of waterskins floated over to Rarity and Fluttershy. Both quickly recognized the water as enchanted, and started drinking. The source was a unicorn Guardpony wearing the Household Gold.

Princess Celestia, many believed, had certain tastes in stallions, and she required uniformity within her Personal Guard. They were the only standing, professional force within Equestria, though some towns had police and militias. Their colors and dress were instantly recognizable.

The various legs of the Household were color coded. All of Her Majesty’s pegasus and earth pony guards had uniform antique-white coats, regulation cut manes, and blue eyes. Her unicorn guards were all slate gray. Each was the finest male specimen, recruited from the best stock, of impeccable breeding and from the most prominent families in Equestria. They were magically altered to uniform colors and appearance, given training as a secret facility beneath Canterlot, and assigned to the Royal Household. Those who desired advancement traditionally forsook family and friends, devoting themselves entirely to the Princess. Some proved their commitment by undergoing voluntary gelding.

Privately, Twilight did consider it a little… peculiar, but the organization of the Royal Household was a relic of ancient times. Many ponies took great comfort in its conformity, and many families were proud to have their sons serve Her Majesty. They had been more than busy since the Cataclysm, fanning out to secure the borders and interests of Equestria as a whole.

The gray pegasus approached Twilight, identifying her as the leader of her little group. He inclined his head politely. “Twilight Sparkle,” he said, pronouncing her first name Twai-Light. “This is a surprise!”

Twilight blinked, as she tried to remember if she had met this pony before, and then noticed Spike near her side. She’d almost forgotten about him, but it was safe enough now to come out.

“I didn’t catch your name,” she replied. “But you seem to know me?”

“All Guards have been briefed on the Elements of Harmony,” he primly informed her, straight laced and humorless. “I was also one of your guards back in Canterlot.”

Not that she would recognize them, since they all looked alike… but she didn’t say so.

“Captain Morning Star,” he introduced himself, and wasted no further time on pleasantries. “Are you here to have a go at these Cultist bastards?”

Twilight nodded. “We have some things we’d like to do in the castle ruins, too.”

“The whole place is crawling with the vilest ponies I’ve ever had the displeasure to run into.” He glanced back at the castle, separated from the armed camp by the gorge and broken bridge. “Twilight Ponies aren’t the worst of it, either. They cut the bridge when we first arrived, and they’ve got enough pegasi to run a damned airshow. There’s no easy way to cross unless we thin their numbers.”

It sounded like he had an idea of what needed to be done, but…

“So you’ve got a quest or something you need us to do?” Spike asked, before Twilight could phrase her response. It was blunt, but it got the point across.

Morning Star nodded, eyes moving to the dragon and then back to the librarian. “If you can thin the numbers of Twilight ponies on this side, I can free up enough of my colts to escort you across. The old bridge is out of commission, but we can set up a new one.”

That made sense. And it would get them across. “How much is ‘thinning their numbers?’”

“All the Twilight ponies carry marks of station on them. Since I doubt you’d be fine with collecting ears…” And here he saw the grimace on her face at the barbaric practice. “If you can bring me ten Marks of any type, I’ll divert some of my colts to set up a new bridge. I’ll throw in some gold as well.”

“I guess that’s reasonable,” Twilight agreed. She felt a rustle in her saddle, and levitated out her interactive map. It had helpfully recorded the new quest.

~

[34] Rites of Passage

Objectives:

Bring 10 Marks of Twilight to Captain Morning Star at Morning Star’s Camp

You will need:

[Mark of Twilight] x10

Notes:

“If you can bring me ten Marks of any type, I’ll divert some of my colts to set up a new bridge.”

~

“Wow,” Spike couldn’t help but remark. “That is one handy map, huh, Twilight?”

“Yes. It is very convenient,” she admitted, and coughed. Best not to think too much about that. She faced the Royal Guard Captain. “We’ll be back with the Marks.”

“Looking forward to it, Miss Sparkle.” He smiled, though it was a sharp, soldier’s smile. “You and your friends are free to use our camp as a base of operations.”

He then dipped his head to her with a “ma’am” and headed back to his brothers in arms. There were a few wounded laid out on mats, looked over by a unicorn priest, distinguishable from his comrades only by a vestment that fell forward around his shoulders. While she’d been talking to the Captain, it looked like the rest of her group had headed off to do their own things.

Fluttershy and Rarity were both talking to a guard pony near a pair of large crates. It soon became clear that they were stocking up on enchanted water. They had burned through their mana pretty quickly before, even with Pinkie Pie’s mana replenishing totem out. The pink pony and Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, were a short distance away selling vendor trash for gold. Applejack was at the far end of the camp, looking across the gorge at the castle beyond.

It wasn’t too different than when they’d come here before. The biggest change was that it was far from deserted. Fires and lights burned within the ruins, accompanied by ghostly shapes flitting about. A flock of evil pegasi perched in the nearby trees and on top of crumbling parapets. There had to be at least a dozen of them out in the open. It was a pretty major commitment of forces, actually. Twilight also sort of wondered just where all these cultist ponies came from. Not Ponyville, as far as she knew.

Before long, her friends started to converge back around her.

“Oh! Oh! Twilight! I just picked up a super easy quest!” Pinkie Pie took that moment to appear, plopping down in front of them with Rainbow Dash a few hooves behind. “All we have to do is come back here with three pristine manticore tails and maybe one other little thing and we’ll get our pick of some super cool make-you-drool rare gear!”

“Three ‘pristine manticore tails?’” Twilight made sure she sounded as skeptical as she felt. “Why would you need those?”

“Oh, it’s terrible,” Fluttershy answered, peeking out from behind her pink mane. “Some of those mean ponies have been corrupting and enslaving local manticores. Some of the Guardponies were poisoned.”

“They need the tails to make an antidote,” Rarity added in. “I also accepted the quest,” she informed the party lead. “It would be rude to not help out, especially since we were in the area anyway. And it is only three manticore tails. How long could it possibly take for all six of us to gather three tails?”

“Oh boy,” Dash groaned for some reason. “I know where this is going.”

“I guess it doesn’t sound too hard,” Twilight conceded. “Share the quest?”

- - -

Three pristine manticore tails. Just three.

Rainbow Dash wanted to scream as they searched the tenth dead ‘Corrupted Manticore’ and, mysteriously, failed to find a “pristine manticore tail.” Instead the tail was, like so many others, imperfect in some minor, stupid way. In this case, it was a “twisted manticore tail.” So far they had four twisted tails, three warped tails, two blighted tails, and only one Celestia damned pristine manticore tail.

And it was starting to piss her off!!

“Oh dear. Another bad one?” Fluttershy muttered, standing in contrast to Dash’s seething form. Her entire body was vibrating and she had to stamp the ground to keep from flying into a tirade of invectives.

“This.” Dash growled. “Is why. I hate. PVE!!”

…

“Finally!! FINALLY!!”

Dash gave a sigh of relief as she bent down to examine the last manticore’s tail. Sure enough it wasn’t just in good condition, or even mint condition, it was in pristine condition! Like more than a dozen times before, Fluttershy cringed and closed her eyes as Dash cut the tail off at the base.

The dead manticore jerked slightly, but it was a relatively small specimen. They all were. Probably a juvenile or something. It was easy to pick them out from the normal manticore population that stayed in the woods. These had been driven mad by some kind of dark magic and hungrily prowled around just out of sight of the Royal Guard encampment. They were beyond even Fluttershy’s attempts to tame or console (or stare down) and attacked ferociously on sight. It didn’t make it any easier for the poor druid pegasus to see them killed, though.

“What kind of awful ponies would use such terrible magic on poor, defenseless creatures?” Fluttershy was staring at the corpse now, her indignation rising. Not that most ponies would notice that fact given her quiet, serene tone of voice.

“Defenseless creatures? You kiddin’ me?” Dash draped the heavy manticore tail over her back and spat a few times to get the taste out of her mouth. Even the juvenile ones were as big as a pony and not possessed of the most pleasant temperament.

“They’re defenseless against magic,” Fluttershy argued and transformed quickly into her kitty form.

Dash watched her go with something akin to shock. Was it just her imagination, or was Fluttershy genuinely pissed? Cutting off a conversation like that? She wasn’t raging, but she sure wasn’t amused by the quest they’d undertaken. Dash quickly followed her friend, and corrected herself: it wasn’t the quest. It was the people who had made these animals so hostile in the first place.

They caught up with the rest of the group nearby. The area was basically strewn with corrupt manticores that they’d put down. There was a single “pristine tail” on Pinkie’s back and another on Twilight’s. Rarity had outright refused to carry “a bloody trophy” (in her own words) and they’d kept Applejack free since she was the only thing between the softer mares and the angry monsters. They’d split up into two smaller teams when it became clear that the simple task of collecting “three tails” was going to be a lot harder than expected. Or at least a lot more tedious.

Only “three pristine tails” her perfect, rainbow covered flank!

At least it was over.

Back at the camp, the medical pony examined one of the tails. “Hrm.” He didn’t sound too happy with the selection. “This manticore tail, here. Are you mares sure this is pristine enough?”

“YES!!” Dash growled. Her friends all gave her a look that seemed to say, ‘thank you.’

“Well, I guess I can make antivenom from these,” the Guardpony decided after a few picky seconds. His horn glowed, and he floated out a not insubstantial amount of gold. Not bits. Gold coins. Twilight took it from him and put the reward in one of her bags, to divide up later.

“Now, just one last thing…” the medic began.

Dash groaned, pawing agitatedly at the ground.

“Our scouts have identified the source of the Corrupted Manticores,” he explained, nervously backing away from the angry pegasus filly. “One of the cultists, of course. We believe she’s using some sort of alchemy to enslave and enrage the local wildlife, probably to weaken us here for another attack. We overheard a name, too.”

The Royal Guardpony narrowed his eyes, repeating the name with equal measures contempt and dread.

“Catnip,” he said.

“Catnip?” Twilight repeated.

“Catnip,” the medic repeated, completely serious. “You should be able to find her in the Twilight Camp to the south. She also has a pet manticore named Sniffles.”

“Sniffles.”

“…Sniffles.”

Twilight tilted her head in distaste. “This quest sounds kind of-”

Before she could finish that sentence, however, the Guardpony retrieved a pair of golden bracers. These weren’t plain old metal, or even enchanted uncommon bracers. These were rares, identified as “blue.” He had ones for spellcasting that thrummed with Intelligence-enhancing spells and some plate ones that greatly boosted strength and stamina.

It raised a good counterargument. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but eye them. No resilience, of course, but they would be good for battlegrounds, too. Better than what she currently had. AND they did still have that quest to retrieve ten Marks of Twilight…

The Royal Guard raised an eyebrow, knowing he had the fillies hooked.

“Catnip and Sniffles it is,” Twilight decided.

- - -

“Ah can’t believe we keep getting’ sent on these side quests,” Applejack said, peeking out from the thick bushes to spy on the Twilight encampment.

“I can’t believe these quests keep sending us to the same places,” Twilight popped her head out of the bushes nearby.

“I can’t believe none of you have played an RPG before!” Pinkie appeared next, jack-in-the-box-like.

“This isn’t a game, you know,” Rarity slowly stuck her head out of the bushes, careful not to get twigs and leaves and other nastiness in her perfect mane.

“I think I see her,” Fluttershy’s voice was quiet, but determined, and they all looked down at where she, too, had stuck her head out from the brush. The pegasus had been in her own particular sort of bad mood the entire trek south as they followed the tracks left behind by the routing Cultists. Twilight was a little unnerved by the intensity in her demure friend, but she’d been using her cat-form to avoid any sort of conversation. The book loving unicorn figured it was convenient in that respect.

“There.” Fluttershy pointed.

Near the rear of the camp was a large non-pony form. It was another manticore, an adult, kept leashed and prowling back and forth next to a large tent made of animal hides. A smaller cloaked shape was close by, but swiftly ducked into the crude shelter. Black braziers burned with unnatural green fire all around the compound, feeding an otherworldly haze that blanketed the area, even in the middle of the afternoon. All around the camp were more of the wild trees and bushes of Everfree forest.

Twilight counted at least ten ponies in the enemy camp. There were also a couple cages set up near one of the tents. It was hard to be sure, but it looked like there were ponies trapped inside. The only upside of the situation was that there were only two “Fiendish Pegasi” on watch. They were currently sitting on a black cloud over the camp, but only half heartedly paying attention to their surroundings.

“Thoughts, anypony?”

“How about I round ‘em up and you guys aoe?”

A half dozen faces graced Rainbow Dash with a hooded stare.

“I was kidding!” she protested. “Really? Mostly kidding!” Shrinking back into the bush, she rolled her eyes. “I guess we need some crowd control or something lame like that.”

“We can not fight all of them at once,” Rarity was the first to leave Dash and refocus on the challenge ahead. “But perhaps we can lure a group away and deal with them separately from the rest?”

“How do you know we won’t end up alerting-”

“Aggroing,” Spike corrected.

“-the entire group?” Twilight finished.

“I – I can pull the two pegasi with faerie fire,” Fluttershy suggested, giving her leader a determined stare.

“And after you pull them, you,” Dash pointed to Twilight. “Can knock one of them out of the air with polymorph. I’ll get the other one.”

“And if we pull the whole group?” Twilight asked, still a bit unsure of the merits of the plan as proposed.

“Then everyone run for your lives!” Pinkie giggled, and gave the studious unicorn a hug. “Don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll rez you if you die!”

“That is SO reassuring.” She sighed, having no other real options. “Okay. We’ll give it a try. Marking them now.”

“CC target should be a green triangle,” Dash suggested.

“I thought CC was the blue square?” Rarity asked.

“Um. I believe the kill order is usually skull, X, and CC is the yellow star. But anything is fine, really.”

“No! Use the orange nipple!”

Dash flushed and shook her head fiercely. “D-don’t call it that! It’s a circle!”

“It’s a nipple! Look at it!”

“Oh my, it does look a little like-”

“Star is first CC, then square,” Twilight informed them, hurriedly cutting off that little debate before it went too far. Spike was present, after all. Not that… well, not that dragons had nipples or anything. Argh! Just where were her thoughts taking her now?!

Pinkie sounded disappointed, but agreed, “Okey dokey lokey. We’ll save the nipple for later.”

“The circle!”

“Dash,” Twilight raised her voice slightly. It was time to get this started. “You take skull.”

“Will do.” The pegasus paladin put her game face back on.

Twilight nodded, and her eyes fell on their druid.

“Whenever you’re ready, Fluttershy.”

- - -

“Faerie Fire! What the Pony Hell?! I hate Faerie Fire!”

“It was that druid over there! Get ‘er!!”

Sunflower was her name, and she was a Fiendish Pegasus.

Now, she didn’t really think of herself as Fiendish, per-say. As a filly, she had enjoyed playing pranks and having harmless fun like that. There was nothing remarkably ‘fiendish’ about her childhood or her upbringing. She had two normal parents who had moved from Cloudsdale to Fillydelphia and then to a small hamlet called, ironically, Hamlet. Unlike most towns, it wasn’t important enough to be a pun.

She’d grown up, gotten her cutie mark, and started working in a flower shop. Flowers were her love and her special skill, after all. She and her brother, Wildflower, had grown a large field of them behind the house after father died and mother retired. They were both adequate flyers, but didn’t have much in the way of many pegasi’s natural brashness and aggression. They didn’t really want to chase clouds for a living or manipulate weather or take up traditional fields of pegasus employ. The flower shop was plenty. At some point, which she kept putting off, Sunflower had expected to find a nice stallion and raise a standard 2.7 foals.

Then a fire elemental had come through town, burning her flowers and her shop.

Insurance didn’t cover fire elementals, since they weren’t “naturally occurring fires” and basically no one had even heard of them before the Cataclysm. She and her brother lost everything. Even the townspeople in Hamlet couldn’t help, since their livelihoods had gone up in smoke, too. Wildflower moved back to Cloudsdale to work in a cloud factory. Sunflower had drifted.

A few sordid parties (and a couple less than reputable stallions) later, she’d ended up as part of what was once the Twilight Hammer Clan, now the Twilight Cult. You kind of knew a religious organization wasn’t on the up-and-up when it called itself a damn cult. Sunflower didn’t care. Society had screwed her over. She had nothing. Why didn’t she deserve a little payback? One thing about the Twilight Cult… it certainly had plans for payback! Against the Elementals that had ruined her life, against the world as a whole, against everyone and everything everywhere!

And, wow – that did sound like of Fiendish.

‘Maybe I am a Fiendish Pegasus?’

Oh well. There’d be time to think about that later. First, they’d squash the stupid little druid that had tagged her. Freakin Faerie Fire. Stupid druids! Maybe she had some money on her. She’d have to distract her partner so she got dibs on whatever the tree-hugger dropped. The less competition for loot, the better!

Swooping down, Sunflower was only a few hooves from her prey when suddenly her hooves turned into, well, they turned into hooves. But the wrong kind! And why was she so fluffy? Where were her wings? What the F-

‘Celestia’s glowing shits!’ Polymorph! She hated Polymorph, too!!

Her angry cry came out as a pitiful “bbbbbaaaaa!!” and then Sunflower tumbled helplessly into the bushes.

- - -

Rainbow Dash slammed the shield strapped to her left foreleg into the side of the dizzy Fiendish Pegasus stallion. She’d hit him with Hammer of Justice, the holy spell stunning him for a precious few seconds, but long enough to let her get an easy bead on him. She was a much more offense minded pony than most prot paladins, but she had enough training to do the job if need be. Mostly, it was a matter of smashing someone with a big piece of metal called a shield, occasionally smiting them, and building up stacks for various Holy Power abilities. You also hit the guy with something heavy from time to time, like a mace. It did the job, but it wasn’t as much fun as chasing someone down with a huge sword.

Dash’s body shook as she slammed the Fiendish Pegasus into a tree, branches shaking and leaves falling all around them. A normal pegasus would have been smeared by the impact, but these Twilight Cultponies were a lot stronger than they looked. They were all elite, and this pegasus was no exception. He tucked in his hind legs and tried to kick her off, barely hurt by the impact she’d delivered.

‘So annoying!’ Dash couldn’t help but think, shifting her position. One of his hooves missed, and the other just managed to graze her midsection. It wasn’t enough to dislodge her.

With the mace strapped to her other hoof, she slammed it into the Fiendish pegasus’s side and followed up with another shield slam. Wings flapping, she pushed him into the tree again and them forced him down towards the ground. His own wings flared out, resisting her. He was a strong guy, but she was already going at full speed, her tail slashing back and forth in a rainbow colored blur. He couldn’t stop her from forcing him down to the forest floor.

As soon as he was down, roots reached up from the base of the tree, entangling his hindlegs.

Snarling and cursing, the Fiendish Pegasus redoubled his efforts to either get free or shake off the filly attacking him. Bladed hooves battered down on Dash’s shield and one struck her soundly on the head, mitigated by her coifed mail helm. Still, she felt a cut and a bruise form, only to quickly vanish as a familiar nature-based healing spell suffused her body. Driving home another Crusader Strike with her mace, Dash ducked, charged her shield with Holy Power… and unleashed it all in one full power Shield of the Righteous.

The metal hit home, fortified and enhanced by a cascade of Celestia’s Fury given form. Thin lances of light projected from where the shield hit the Fiendish Pegasus, directing Her Power into the evil pony. This clearly hurt him far more than any traditional bludgeoning. Perhaps it even reminded him of the land and people he had betrayed? Evil, nasty pony. It sickened Dash to see a fellow pegasus fall so far from Celestia’s blue sky.

Not that Rainbow was particularly religious, despite being a paladin. She wasn’t particularly fervent or zealous, and she sure as Heck didn’t have any plans to proselytize. What she did have was a strong sense of justice and right and wrong: there was good and there was evil. They were those who flew alongside their friends and family, no matter what came, and then there were those loyal to only themselves. Hence why she was no Holy Paladin and only went Prot when she had to. She was Retribution. At heart, she wanted to show the cruel and nasty bad guys of the world just how wrong they were.

And how awesome she was, of course. That too!

Besides, Paladins with Crusader Aura got a 20% increase to speed!

Blasts of lightning and arcane energy arched around Dash’s sides, hitting her dazed opponent. He continued to struggle, kicking and cursing and slashing at her, and she hammered him with her shield again. Fire was already starting to consume his cultist’s cloak from Pinkie Pie’s Flame Shock, and as a focused arcane barrage hit, an Earth Shock finished the job. Slammed back and into the tree behind him, bark splintered and a crack raced up along the old oak’s side, testament to the amount of damage inflicted on the Cultist pegasus.

All that was left now was to deal with the polymorphed enemy.

Without waiting for permission to break the crowd control, Dash summoned up more of her inner light. A multi-colored glow enveloped her shield, and as she held it up, she released it to bring justice down on the heads of the wicked. The Avenger’s Shield needed only to be let free. The rainbow colored shield of holy power shot out, zeroing in on the sheep that was spinning around in circles, trying to find some way to escape the forest. Rarity and Pinkie Pie had it cornered, and Twilight was cutting off the way it had come. The holy shield could bounce to multiple targets worthy of righteous punishment, but it struck only the polymorphed pegasus.

The damage dispelled the transformative magic, much to one pony’s surprise.

“Hey!” Twilight yelled.

“Gotta keep up!” Dash yelled, charging the stunned pegasus. She knew she had to keep the other mare from getting airborne.

“AH! Wait! I surrender!”

Dash’s shield stopped, inches from the cringing cultist. Likewise, Pinkie and Rarity stopped casting. Notably, Fluttershy didn’t. Roots uncoiled from within the earth, wrapping around the Fiendish Pegasus and ensnaring her. All eyes turned to Twilight.

“They can do that?” the bookish unicorn asked, a bit thrown. She blinked, composing herself and walking up to the trapped pegasus. “Ah. Of course they can. So, you surrender?”

“It doesn’t look like I have much choice,” Sunflower growled.

Twilight smirked, looming over the cultist. “Okay. Since you’re our prisoner, then you won’t mind answering some questions?”

“Ha! To Pony Hell with that!”

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked, calmly. “I guess she’s all yours.”

Sunflower shivered as a pair of pink colored forelegs draped over her shoulders. Dark eyes turned to see an impossibly puffed pink mane attached to an impossibly widely grinning pony with an impossibly unhinged look in her bright blue eyes. The crazy pony giggled like a schoolfilly, nuzzling the cultist’s face.

The Fiendish Pegasus sneered. “I’m not afraid of…!”

Pinkie Pie cut her short by whispering in her ear.

“What?” Sunflower gasped, recoiling. “You wouldn’t!” Pinkie Pie just smiled and whispered more. “No! No! That’s disgusting! Not my cutie mark! Aw. AWWW. AWWWWWW!!!!”

Pinkie Pie just giggled again. “And that’s how you make my super special brand of Cupc…”

“Don’t even say it!!” Sunflower yelled, shaking her head, tears in her eyes. “I’ll talk! Just get this psycho away from me!”

She scrambled away, all but cowering at Twilight’s hooves.

“Y-you’re not right in the head, lady!” Sunflower pointed at the shaman, Pinkie’s head now cutely tilted to the side. “I’ve met a lot of crazy ponies, but you’re just plain nuts!”

Pinkie gave a dismissive wave. “You need to grow some thicker skin, you silly cult filly.”

“You just keep your crazy recipes to yourself!” Sunflower cowered, slipping behind Twilight’s legs.

“What the hay did you tell her?” Rainbow Dash gave the pink one a strange look.

“Nothing much!” Pinkie replied. “Just a little something I read in a fanfic!”

“What.” The pegasus deadpanned.

“Anyway,” Twilight interrupted. “You!” she poked the cultist. “Tell us what you know.”

“About what?” Sunflower asked, still eyeing the crazy pink shammy only a few yards away.

“You can start with what your leaders are doing here…”

- - -

Sunflower had spilled more than just the beans. She’d kicked over the whole dinner spread. Twilight Sparkle had no idea what on Equestria Pinkie had said to spook the cultist, but she’d answered every question posed to her and then fled, screaming, into the forest. Every time she seemed to consider lying or just not answering, Pinkie had mouthed an unspoken word that quickly sent fresh terrors into the evil pegasus.

Bolstered by the new information, they continued their attack on the Cultist Encampment. Amazingly, no one seemed to care or notice that their pegasus scouts were gone. With no air cover, they’d used Fluttershy’s “bait and switch” Faerie Fire trick a second time to lure out a small group of four that was out of sight of the others. They predictably and helpfully charged into the forest to cut down or capture the “cute pegasus” (as one of them had said) and ran right into the Elements of Harmony.

“It’s a TRAP!!” One of them yelled. Twilight privately labeled him Captain Obvious.

They didn’t know it, but they’d all been marked for targets. The Unicorn, aka Captain Obvious, was the most dangerous of the bunch. With Applejack and Rainbow Dash keeping the three Zealots occupied, along with a fourth earth pony identified as a “Twilight Torturer,” she, Pinkie and Rarity were free to burn down the Dark Unicorn. He used the same spells as the ones attacking the Royal Guard base: A party-wide Curse of Agony and a Shadowbolt Volley. Since his spells hurt everyone nearby, he had to be taken out first.

This was complicated by the fact that the ‘Twilight Torturer’ would occasionally stop beating on Applejack and raise his hooves to cast a spell. Since he was an earth pony, this in and of itself was a bit strange, but it quickly became clear just what he was doing. A flash of dirty black light hit the Dark Unicorn, for the second time in the engagement, healing him and keeping him up and casting.

“Whahahaa!” the Dark Unicorn chortled, casting another Shadowbolt Volley. “I am invincible!!”

“Oh, you’re invincible?” the Twilight Torturer asked, ducking Applejack’s hoof. “I guess I can stop healing you, then?”

“Y-you know what I meant.” The evil cultist spared a glance over at his comrade. “Please don’t stop healing me.”

“Can SOMEONE please CC this guy?!” Dash yelled.

“CC?” the Dark Unicorn asked, and squeaked as he turned into a sheep.

“Aw, crap!” The Twilight Torturer cursed as everyone’s attention suddenly turned to him. Arcane missiles curved over Applejack’s head, buffeting him.

“WHAHAHA!” Another shadowbolt volley. “I’m BACK!”

“What the hay!!”

“Who broke my poly?”

“It wasn’t me…”

“Of course it wasn’t you, darling.”

“Oops. Sorry. Accidentally used Consecrate.”

The glowing rainbow circle of holy fire at Dash’s feet was proof enough. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Twilight used polymorph again, but this time on the Twilight Torturer. He got off one last curse before turning into a harmless sheep. They then went back to burning the Dark Unicorn.

“I need healssss!!” the villainous caster roared, finally collapsing, evil black smoke escaping from within his cursed robes.

“So much for the invincible Captain Obvious,” Twilight quipped, remarking their targets. There was still about thirty seconds left on her polymorph, and Applejack was going a good job not hitting it. This was important, since even a little bit of damage would break the spell and free the Twilight Torturer. The transformed pony in question wasn’t making the job any easier, either, since he was all but begging to be kicked in the face the way he was rubbing up against Applejack’s leg.

They switched to the “X” target, focusing their magic to take the Zealot down. He predictably enraged near death, but hardly got to do much before falling. Dash only had one more Earth pony fighting her, and he was the next to get taken down. Near falling, he did manage to get in a nasty hit that split Dash’s lip, but Fluttershy’s healing kept the Pegasus up and the wound stitched closed in seconds. By then the second Zealot had also fallen.

Twilight’s polymorph expired, but just as quickly she re-cast, turning the Torturer back into a sheep.

“FFFUUUUUU-”

He didn’t seem happy about it, either.

The third Zealot came next, falling just like his two cultist brothers. Rarity and Fltutershy topped Dash and Applejack off, keeping them in near perfect fighting condition, and then without warning – again – Dash used her Avenger Shield to break the sheep. Unlike with Sunflower the ‘fiendish Pegasus,’ the Twilight Torturer didn’t even try to surrender. He snarled in inarticulate fury and switched targets to the colorful paladin, trying to stab at her with poison tipped hooves. It wasn’t long before a torrent of arcane energy, elemental lightning, and a few well timed physical blows took him down, too.

Finally, the six mares stood alone, breathing heavily, but victorious.

“WHO-HOO!!” Pinkie Pie was the first to speak, bouncing around madly and cheering. “Our first serious big group pull! We should have a party to celebrate!”

“Wow.” Spike peeked out from the bushes, looking genuinely impressed. “You guys did it.” He coughed into his hand. “I mean, I never doubted you for a second!”

“I wish we didn’t have to hurt them, but…” Fluttershy didn’t finish that thought. Instead she and Rarity both sat down to drink and replenish their mana again.

“All this fighting is most unladylike,” the pretty unicorn muttered but left it at that.

“Heh. That was pretty cool, actually,” Dash commented. “Let’s see what dropped!”

Twilight agreed, lowering herself to check the nearest body. “Just don’t alert-”

“Aggro,” Spike corrected. Again.

“-any nearby enemies,” she finished.

It turned out the Twilight Cultists were pretty well off. Each one carried a small purse of foreign gold on them, along with a stock of mageweave cloth. They’d agreed to pool the cloth they recovered and give it to Rarity later, and Twilight was keeping track of the gold they picked up to divide it up evenly later.

“Hey, Twilight!” Dash tossed her head, throwing a small object through the air. “Catch.”

She did so, seizing the shape in a telekinetic field. It hovered closer, and she saw it was a wand of some sort, colored a metallic dark red. Shadows danced across its surface.

“Meteorite Wand of the Fireflash,” she identified it. She didn’t have a wand currently, so really anything would be better than nothing. It appeared that this one not only increased intellect and spellpower, it also boosted the speed with which she could cast and the change to cause extra damage. All she had to do was wear it, though if actively invoked it could also fire small bolts of shadow magic. Twilight tucked it into her belt, under her saddlebags.

“We found a key on the Torturer pony, too,” Dash added. “Probably for one of the cages.”

While her friends finished cleaning up, Twilight took a moment to examine the Dark Unicom, aka Captain Obvious. The darkness that had been etched into his body had mostly started drifting away, leaving patches of brown, his natural color, underneath. According to what they’d heard from Sunflower, all the “anointed” were blessed with the “dark skin,” granting them power. It could never be removed. It was a symbol of devotion to the Twilight Cult in Equestria.

Twilight wondered why this particular unicorn had ended up here, deep in Everfree, and now – not to mince words – dead. What could have compelled him to turn to dark and evil powers? She wondered if he had ever attended the Magic Academy at Canterlot, or in any other major city. If this had been a year ago, would she have run into him at a library or seminar somewhere?

It wasn’t that she felt guilty for doing what she did… the Twilight Cult were enemies of Equestria. Enemies of the very land itself. They would kill and torture her if given the chance, she was sure of it. Even Sunflower, cowed as she had been, was tainted by evil. So it wasn’t guilt. It was just sadness and curiosity for a life wasted.

“Twilight?” Spike asked, brushing by her back leg.

“Oh, Spike?” she turned around and, on impulse, hugged him. He squirmed, annoyed and uncomfortable. “You shouldn’t have to see this.”

He looked up at her, confused. “See what?”

A bit struck by the question, she wasn’t even sure how to respond.

“Hey, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash’s brash voice cut short any introspection. “Mark for the next pull!”

“Okay!” Keeping Spike back, Twilight Sparkle steeled herself and trotted ahead. There was another group of Cultists on the other wised of the camp. Remarkably, they hadn’t noticed the furious battle (or looting) of their fellows. Twilight easily identified and marked the two Twilight Torturers in that group. There was no unicorn, but the healers would have to be taken out first now that everyone knew what they could do. She put a star on one, her polymorph target, and a skull on the other. “X” went up on a zealot, and so did the blue square.

The six mares pulled, just like before. Fluttershy used Faerie Fire on the skull target, Dash used Avenger’s Shield to get their attention when they ran in. Twilight polymorphed the second healer. Applejack charged, rushing headlong into melee. This fight went much smoother than the one before. The Torturer got off two flash heals on himself, using some sort of dark mending, but couldn’t keep up with Twilight and Pinkie’s barrage.

He went down, and the Zealots followed, unable to get healing while Dash and Applejack were constantly backed up by Rarity and Fluttershy. It went like clockwork. When the last Enraged Zealot fell, Dash tagged the sheep and they burned down the remaining Torturer. It all went very smoothly. Just as Planned. She was proud of that fact, too. It had been more than a year since they worked together against Nightmare Moon, but their individual skills were all starting mesh again.

While the others went over the fallen, her interactive map chimed; taking it out, Twilight saw it indicating a quest was complete.

[34] Rites of Passage (COMPLETE)

[Mark of Twilight] x10 (10/10)

That was good. They could technically head back, but there was one other thing to take care of.

Actually, make that two things. Twilight turned over the key she’d lifted from the fallen Twilight Torturer. Like Dash had guessed before, it probably opened one of the cages with ponies inside. Freeing any captives definitely had priority, but all the cages were near the large manticore by the central tent. That just left -

“They’re all dead? How disappointing!” Catnip trotted out of the tent, unconcerned by the defeat of her guards and fellow cultists outside. She was a proud looking unicorn mare, and by the look of her she had to be maybe a decade older than anyone of Twilight’s friends. Like the other cultponies, her coat was stained with black but she had bright orange eyes, slitted, like a feline’s. Her attire was also finer than that of the others, with backward curling flares over her shoulders and haunches. Seeing the six fillies who had dared to attack her, she smiled a mouth full of sharpened teeth.

“Sniffles!” she commanded, her horn burning with black and green fire. “Attend to mommy!”

With a roar, the chained Manticore was released. It ran up to the evil mare and snarled at her.

“Them, baby,” she admonished the huge predator, and pointed over in Twilight’s direction. “You want to eat them.”

A dark pall shrouded the manticore’s face and it whirled to bear its teeth. Claws extended and it crept forward, trying to pick out a victim from among the Elements of Harmony. It was no exaggeration to note that “Sniffles” was at least twice the size of the manticores they had fought before. It was even larger than the one that they had encountered a year ago, and there was no thorn to remove from its paw to pacify it. Foam built up in the corners of its mouth and its eyes glazed over.

Fluttershy stepped forward, standing tall and unbowed.

“Why are you doing this?” she yelled, though no one would call it very loud. It was yelling by Fluttershy standards.

“Doing what?” Catnip asked, and her horn glowed, commanding her pet to hold back a moment. “I happen to be doing quite a few things.”

“Why did you corrupt all those poor animals?” Fluttershy asked, though it sounded more like a demand for some - any - rational answer. Anything to make sense of what she had seen and been forced to do. “What did they ever do to you?”

Catnip lowered her head and laughed, brazenly. “What did they do?” she repeated, between chuckles. “What kind of a stupid question is that?” She fixed the druid with a frenzied look. “They were there! Isn’t that enough! The Master said: ‘do something bout those Royal Guards, why don’t you, Catnip?’ I saw all those precious little kitties in the forest, and I thought: Aren’t I lucky? Isn’t this lucky? I can serve the master AND find a new pet or two!’”

She patted the thrashing, scorpion-tail of the manticore.

“Oos-a-woosie-boozy? You’re a woosie-boosie!” she cooed, eyes glowing. “I sent the smaller ones to nibble on those nosy Royal Guard, but I kept my widdo Sniffles for myself. Isn’t he precious? Ooo wuv your mama, don’t you, baby? Yes, ooo do!”

Her grin widened as she glared at Fluttershy. “You’re just jealous I have one and you don’t! Manticores are such great pets! My last one lived a whole three weeks! That’s a record for me!”

Fluttershy’s left eye twitched.

“That’s…” The timid pegasus pawed the ground with a hoof and shook her head, unable to hold herself back any longer. “That’s all I can stand.” A greenish glow wrapped, wreath-like around her hooves. “I just can’t stand any more.”

Her eyes snapped back up, and a veritable forest of thorny roots blasted out of the ground, creating a helix around Catnip. The dark pony reared in surprise, looking left to right, and then the whole mass constricted, engulfing her.

“Holy…!” Dash muttered.

“Sorry,” Fluttershy whispered, eyes narrowed in concentration. “I think I lost my temper.”

An angry scream split the air and dark magic immediately started to try and burn out through the entangling roots. Catnip was still trapped, but Sniffles was not so hindered. With his “mommy” unable to hold him back, he charged forward. There could have been an army of ponies led by Celestia herself and the enraged beast would have still charged right for the thick of them. Spittle fell from its jaws as it opened its mouth wide.

The manticore plowed face first into the wall that was a charging Applejack. The tough farmpony reared up herself, slamming both of her front hooves into the leonine chest of the manticore. She angled one foreleg up and into the creature’s neck to keep it from biting her, and deftly snaked a rope around the beast’s snout to try and muzzle it. Applejack had otherworldly skill with a lasso, but she was too close, all but wrestling with the creature, and it bit down on the rope instead, getting it tangled in between its daggerlike teeth.

“Ah little help?” she asked, and a second later Dash also hit home, right behind her Avenger’s Shield.

The rainbow colored blur nearly knocked the huge beast back, but thickly muscled back legs dug into the ground. A head-sized paw reached around, batting at Dash’s head and then trying to rake with blood red claws. The paladin’s shield came up, deflecting the attack. She was forced back a step soon after, as the manticore’s huge tail struck, a stinger as long as a pony’s ear trying to find the pegasus pony’s eye.

“Wo-ho-ho!” Dash laughed, and delivered a Crusader Strike to the manticore’s face. “That was pretty close!”

Pinkie Pie’s totems were already down, and her shocks were striking home. Fire lit up the manticore’s fur and it snarled in ever deepening alchemical fury. This was followed by a bolt of elemental lightning that singed flesh and convulsed muscle. Still, the creature fought without a care. It reared, barely feeling Twilight’s trio of Arcane Missiles, and Pounced. Just like that, Dash found herself on her back. Luckily, Applejack was quick to see her friend in trouble.

“Over here, ya mangy furball!” she yelled, slamming into its side.

Amazingly, the Taunt worked on the savage manticore, and it turned its attention from the prone pegasus to the tasty looking Applejack. More lightly armored than Dash, Applejack had to rely on her speed, and that only served her for so long. She backed up, avoided a strike from the creature’s tail, and was too slow to prevent it from biting into her left foreleg. She hissed loudly in pain and tried to shake the creature off, but it lifted her off her hooves.

“I’ve got you!” Rarity yelled, and a plane of light formed to Applejack’s right, deflecting the tail again, and that deadly stinger. The Power word: Shield quickly expanded into a bubble, forcing the manticore to release its prey. The magnolia colored unicorn clapped her hooves together and braced herself on all fours, horn blazing a pure, celestial white. With Fluttershy still stuck ensnaring Catnip, all the group’s healing fell on her flanks.

Applejack fell, but stopped short of the ground, caught in a levitate spell.

Sniffles roared again, and sensing a moment’s weakness, Twilight tried to cast polymorph. The spell hit, but the power of the beast was too much, and it repulsed the magic before it could force a transformation. The manticore whirled around in a circle, found Applejack again, and Pounced. The levitate spell was broken by the force of the jump, and the apple farmer was immediately knocked down.

Rainbow Dash repaid her friend, taunting the creature a second time, this time with Hand of Reckoning. A hoof shaped mark, cut of pure light, burned into the muscled shoulder of the manticore forcing it to divert its attention back to the once pinned pegasus. With a warcry, Dash slammed her shield into its face, sending a lone canine tooth spinning through the air.

“You can not keep me constrained forever!” Catnip bellowed from within Fluttershy’s thorny prison. “Sniffles! Free mommy! Come!”

Against the monster’s better judgment, it quickly abandoned its fight with the light blue paladin pony and turned to free its master. Black wings extended, to propel it forward.

“Hand of Justice!” Dash yelled from behind it, summoning down a hammer of light that stunned the beast. “Twilight! Slow!”

“Right!” the brilliant unicorn concentrated, and cast the requested spell. The stunned manticore, forced to head towards the cocooned Catnip, also became slowed. Its wings were unable to lift it into the air as they ineffectually flapped, and what would have been a run was reduced to a slow power-walk.

“Weee! Time for an Earthbind totem!” Pinkie bounced, end over end, somehow managing to drop a solid totem in the path of the manticore. It looked like three rocks with a party hat on top, and four streamers on the sides. It pulsed, and the ground below the manticore’s feet turned soft and sticky, like tar.

Twilight, meanwhile, kept casting.

Her Arcane Barrage slammed into the side of the distracted beast, and then Pinkie Pie detonated her Flame Shocks with an Earth spell. Nature damage rippled along the manticore’s hide, and it snarled angrily. Still, it obeyed Catnip’s command and slowly continued towards her.

“RRRAAAH!” The trapped unicorn finally screamed. “Sniffles! Kill them and be quick about it!

Freed from the compulsion to head towards its master, notably when it was just a few yards away, the manticore experienced just a brief moment of lucidity. Just enough to gave a half-lidded “are you kidding me? I was almost there” look. Then, reverting back to its maddened state, it turned around to find Fluttershy and ran right back into Rainbow Dash.

By the time it Pounced on her a second time, it was bleeding and burning. Applejack taunted it again before it could impale the pinned pegasus, and finally the cumulative injuries, physical and magical, started to take its toll. It had been bombarded by enough magic to kill half a dozen smaller manticores, and even the dark alchemical energies that coursed through its veins had a limit.

Of course, Catnip took that as her cue to finally break free.

“ENOUGH!!” she roared, even louder than her pet. Fluttershy fell back, tumbling, and her prison of thorns disintegrated. In its place, Catnip hovered off the ground, her eyes completely lost in a bonfire of bright orange.

And then Sniffles Enraged.

“Dash!” Twilight yelled, frantic.

The pegasus didn’t even need to be told what to do. “On it!”

“Everyone else with me!” she ordered, and hammered the enraged manticore monstrosity with arcane blasts. Applejack held firm throughout it all, holding the beast in place while the rest of her group finished it off. A Regrowth spell from Fluttershy hit just after the creature’s stinger finally found flesh, opening a cut on her side. It saved her life, and Rarity used another Power Word to keep her up long enough for the wounds to close up.

“Sparky!” Pinkie Pie thrust a hoof forward, dropping a different fire totem. “I choose you!”

From the tiny, sparking firecracker emerged a being of fire twice the height of a pony. It briefly took on a humanoid shape before falling forward and morphing into a huge stallion of pure elemental flame. It charged right into the Enraged Manticore, and then, topping herself, Pinkie Pie did something even crazier.

“I’ve been waiting to use this!” She giggled and pumped her hoof at the sky. “PARTY TIME!!”

Abruptly, Twilight lurched; was it her imagination, or was she growing larger? It wasn’t just her, either. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie herself, even Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, they all grew a few sizes. And, Twilight realized, she felt stronger, too! Her spells became clearer and easier to cast. A blastwave of heat and magic shot away from Twilight’s hooves as she unleashed a blast of arcane energy larger than any before. Under this Heroism-enhanced assault, the Enraged Manticore, the terrifying Beast known only as “Sniffles,” finally succumbed. It gave one last parting roar, reared up on its hind legs, and toppled like a hewn tree.

“What? Sniffles?! Noooooooo!”

It seemed Catnip had noticed the death of her beloved feline.

“You’re all terrible ponies!!” she howled from behind Dash’s shield. “I’ll kill you and make you into kitty litter!!”

“Now that!” Pinkie summoned up a new lightning bolt. “Is a crazy cat lady!”

Knocking the paladin away with an inferno of shadow and fire, Catnip closed her eyes and started to cast a spell. The ground around her burned with runes that slowly lifted off the ground and started to move. Lines swirled around her and connected into an arcane array.

“She’s going to resurrect that stupid cat!” Dash yelled, hooves cutting into the ground as she stopped herself.

“Using Counterspell!” Twilight announced, even as she made the proper arcane incantation.

Catnip winced as the interrupt hit, forcibly breaking her train of thought faster than a herd of rampaging buffalo. She held her head in her hooves, dizzy and blinded by the attack. Dash hit her again, and she hurled an angry curse at the Paladin. Despite being a caster, and having no armor to speak of, Catnip was a lot tougher than she looked, as befitted an elite boss. Twilight doubted she would have lasted more than a second or two with Rainbow Dash hammering her, Applejack wailing on her from behind, and two other ponies blasting away at range.

Catnip tried to cast a Shadowbolt Volley, but Applejack pummeled her on her horn.

“Get away from me!” she snarled, using her knockback spell again to blast Dash away. Applejack, standing behind her, was less affected. Still, there was enough space for Catnip to try her resurrection spell again.

This time, both Wind Shear and Counterspell hit, interrupting her.

“I’ve had just about enough of you little ponies!” Catnip levitated out two vials of some sort of potion and threw it at whoever caught her eye. Seeing the projectiles heading their way, Fluttershy and Pinkie jumped to the side. The vials cracked open, all but exploded, when they hit the ground, releasing noxious clouds of black gas.

“Stand still! Don’t avoid them!” The insane unicorn screamed, pushing Applejack away with one foreleg while levitating out more poison vials. “Don’t you know how hard these were to make!? Aren’t you curious what’ll happen if they hit you?!”

She managed to toss two more before the unending attacks finally knocked her off her hooves.

They had the added benefit of causing her poison vials to break open on the ground below her. Applejack hastily backed off, covering her mouth, and Dash did the same. The pool of vile poison spread around the evil unicorn as she thrashed and cursed, and soon Catnip vanished within the dark cloud… only to emerge moments later, stumbling and shambling, her horn sputtering as she tried to cast some last second, life saving spell.

“Confound you… little… ponies…” She fell forward, barely able to hold herself up with her front legs. “Master… I…” Catnip glared up at Twilight, her orange eyes growing dim. “I can’t think of any… good last words!”

And then, with a gurgle, she fell, face first into the dirt.

- - -
x
- - -

Catnip & Sniffles (unicorn; Alchemist and Chief Huntard of the Equestrian Twilight Cult)

(All Phases)
Sniffles the Manticore

Savage Pounce (Sniffles pounces on current tank, knocking them down and stunning them. A stunned target takes 50% more damage) - heal through Pounce or have two tanks trade aggro
Free Catnip (Sniffles can free Catnip; don't let him reach her or you'll have an early phase two) - Sniffles can't be CCd or stunned, but he can be slowed
Manticore Sting (Sniffles can and will poison a target, causing damage with a delayed paralysis effect) - healers just need to cleanse poisons as appropriate
Enrage (Sniffles will enrage at 10% health, increasing attack speed by 20%)

Phase 1
Catnip

Call Sniffles (Catnip orders her pet to free her) - Sniffles will ignore all threat while forced to head towards Catnip and take extra damage
Escape Artist (Catnip will escape her prison when Sniffles reaches 15% health)
Resurrect Pet (Catnip will try to resurrect Sniffles. If successful, the manticore will rez with 50% health) - this will also cause a brief knock back in melee. Interrupt the spellcast anyway.
Shadowbolt Volley (Catnip periodically causes party-wide shadow damage) - this can also be interrupted

Phase 2 (when Catnip reaches 20% health)

Black Vials (Catnip throws a vial at a random target, clearing aggro table)
Noxious Cloud (Poison from the black vials causes damage per second, even to Catnip herself) - avoid the vials

Achievement: [Cat in the Bag!]
Defeat Catnip with Sniffles still alive.