Some of Chocolate's mana darted from his horn and all around the room. It went bouncing from apricot crystal to apricot crystal like a demented pinball before it smacked Katie between the wings and sent her tumbling out of the air. She screamed as she crashed into Armin, sending him careening as well—Accelerator and all—and both sprawled onto the floor. They shook their heads and made to move, before orange gems sprang up from the floor and snagged them by their hooves, keeping them pinned on the spot.

"Now that's just playing dirty," Aquamarine chastised, a tight frown forming on his face as NoLegs conjured the spears in flashes of light and handed them to him and his fellow guards. His frown softened as he took the spear with his aura as soon as his horn began glowing, and it faded into a small, almost invisible pursing of the lips as the other guardsponies eagerly took their spears in hooves and magic.

"Says the guard who evidently started trusting changelings!" Chocolate shot back, sidestepping away from Fenrir before another downward strike courtesy of a clenched fist could land on him. His horn still glowed brightly, and began crackling as if in warning.

Fenrir saw the sparks dancing around the coiled spire and dropped to all fours, his fur bristling all across his back like he was a porcupine. "Just what arcane sorcery have you been partaking in?" he asked. The protrusions of his tail began jutting out like spikes on a mace, only further accentuated by bushy, bristling fur that trembled at the roots.

Chocolate smiled wryly, as if the bristling canine went and made an utter fool of himself. His gathered magic flared again, now akin to a ball of flame that didn't scorch him or give off any heat. "Just performing my special talent—something you cannot grasp, mutt," he shot before letting loose the energy from his horn, watching with glee as it hit Fenrir in the chest as he attempted to dodge it a moment too late.

Fenrir yelped as the attack sent him staggering back, pain flaring from his chest that burned like the strike of a lightning bolt. His muscles stiffened momentarily, and as he landed on all fours in an attempt to stop himself from crashing into the floor, gems sprung up with another flare of orange mana that seized his paws and grew all the way to his hips and shoulders. He realized he'd been snagged seconds later, and pulled with all of his might in an attempt to disentangle himself from the gemstones.

Chocolate let off a chuckle before sending another bolt to strike at his trapped quarry again, orbs brightening in glee as that managed to hit him in the nose and get another series of yelps of pain that were mixed with a frantic whimpering. "I just love the sound of dog whimpering in the night," he chortled before turning to the guards, Spike, and NoLegs. He grinned as the cat hissed and waved his sword threateningly with his tail. "And what are you gonna do to me, you little furbag?" he taunted.

NoLegs responded by letting magic flare around his tail, and with a yowl and the tip of his sword moving to point at Chocolate like an accusing finger, he vanished in an explosion of blue light. Chocolate's orbs widened, and his smile fell in that instant. "Wh-what?" he sputtered, as though Celestia herself slapped him across his rotting face with a hoof. His eyes fell onto Armin and Katie, before the Accelerator also vanished in a similar flare of illumination.

Armin turned to Chocolate and donned a smile that still kept his fangs bared. "You done fucked up," he chirped in an amused tone.

"Silence, bug!" Chocolate snapped, turning to Armin and casting him a narrow-eyed glare. Despite the warning look, Armin kept his grin—and in seconds, the reason why he kept it appeared in a flash of light before Chocolate, hovering in the air and pointing the Accelerator right at his face. The muzzle of the gun glowed a bright purple, and NoLegs hissed as his tail glowed in a similar color.

Next thing the decaying unicorn knew, violet completely took over his vision as jolt after jolt of electricity ran rampant through him, inside and out without pause nor a modicum of mercy. He screamed as another shot of lightning sent him scrambling ass-first into one of the crystal columns and then sprawling out upon the floor. Yet even his landing did not deter the pain that the attack still kept hammering into him.

It felt like minutes—or even hours—passed when he was struck, yet in reality it lasted for but a few seconds. When it was over, he languidly shook his head to clear the purple haze out of his sight, though he barely heard another hiss come from the cat. Chocolate tried to move his dangling hoof, gritting his teeth as he found that moving the leg attached to said dangling hoof felt stiffer than a plank of wood.

"You… little bastard!" he hissed through clenched teeth, his orbs zeroing in on his small attacker and his borrowed, oversized weapon. NoLegs threateningly cocked the Accelerator in his direction again, and this time the weapon's muzzle glowed with a fiery red aura that gave off a sweltering heat which quickly circulated around the room. His orbs widened, and a flash of horror paired with realization swept over him.

As if on autopilot, his horn glowed again before it sent another volley at NoLegs. The cat simply vanished from sight in a flare of light after firing a blast of flame from the Accelerator, and when he vanished he took the weapon with him. The volley of flame connected with the magical onslaught, though that didn't entirely stop it in its tracks as it exploded on impact. This wound up leaving a weakened, smouldering magical attack that lazily careened over Armin and Katie before it hit a column behind them and caused another swell of crystals to erupt from the site of impact.

The latter turned to it, her neck cracking and revealing some small Adam's-apple-like object protruding from her throat that tightly stretched the already-taut skin as her head turned all the way back to zero in on the new addition to the battleground. Her eyes narrowed as the new crystals burst into flame and disintegrated, adding another dose of sweltering heat in the room, albeit one that came and then quickly went.

Chocolate watched her, and so did the guards and Spike. All of them raised brows at the display. "How'd you… do that?" Zephyr asked, his eyes wide as saucers.

Katie turned to him, neck once more cracking. "There's a sort of… special joint in my neck somewhere. Lets me turn my head without my skin tearing or my neck breaking," she answered, prior to turning her head the rest of the way as her gaze fell onto Chocolate. "You jealous?" she taunted, a bit of mockery in her tone.

Chocolate scowled, his eyes narrowing. "Hardly," he scoffed, all previous traces of his amusement gone like a puff of wind. His horn lit up again, and he languidly pushed himself on his three functioning hooves as he added, "Because I will tear that pretty little head off and use it—"

"As a cocksleeve?" Katie finished for him, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Sorry, your twig's too small for even my liking. You couldn't even please a filly with it."

Chocolate let off a furious, almost bestial howl at that utterance, and his magic flew from his horn and zeroed in on the hapless changeling. Zircon stepped in and conjured a shield, and though the onslaught broke clean through his barrier and hit him right in the barrel, he stood firm and the attack fizzled out before it could go any further. "You mean to tell me you've seen his fifth leg?" Zircon asked, shooting Katie a quick glance.

Katie nodded in confirmation. "Yep, and when I did, it had claw marks deep enough to tear it into even thirds," she added, her tone still holding its slight amusement.

Zircon shuddered at that rather disturbing mental image, but shrugged it off and turned to Chocolate. "Cease and desist, and remove the gemstones and come quietly," he warned, only to receive a glare paired with a death rictus in return.

"I'd much rather go down, with my muzzle pointing high," Chocolate hissed, his right cheek tearing just a little as he strained its muscles. "And you can go blow your superiors."

Zircon shrugged and turned to the other guards. "I tried," he sighed in resignation before Zephyr spread his wings and positioned his spear in his forelegs, shifting to stand upright.

"At least it'll be easier for us," Zephyr chirped, a slight grin on his face as his wings began flapping and lifting him off the ground. He took to the air, his grin widening as the group's decaying adversary continued to scowl and grimace.

"How so? I just took out two changelings and a bloody dog able to look Celestia in the eye," Chocolate retorted, his still-intact corner of the lip twitching in tandem with an eye. He warily added, "And I could take you five guards out just the same…" He took a cursory glance around the room before finishing, "And that damned cat, if it decides to show its face again."

Zephyr shrugged, his smirk taking on a bit of a wicked cast. "Maybe," he began coolly, shifting his spear to point its gleaming tip at his adversary. "But you haven't focused on us yet," he pointed out, using a back hoof to gesture to the other guards as they readied their spears. Flash flapped his wings and took to the air, spear also poised to strike.

"And a couple of nights ago, you went and attacked me," Flash added, eyes narrowing as a spark of anger danced across his irises. He watched as Chocolate flinched for the barest of seconds, and he decided to speak up on it. "What's the matter, tough colt? A guard too much for ya? I thought you could take us out—you have us trapped! Why're you chickening out now?" he taunted.

Chocolate's horn flared once more, and one of his back legs shook slightly. He fired a magic blast at Zircon that sent him flying backwards, though he did not smile even as he landed against a wall and then solidly fell to the floor after that. Then, he heard another series of bones popping and cracking, and his orbs fell onto Katie as her head rotated once more to look at one of the orange crystal formations behind her.

His orbs followed where he assumed her to be looking, and immediately his jaw dropped as mana pulsed in warbling, thin lines. It was orange at first, before a blinding teal that came in bands as thick as his hipbones took over, all the while a formation cracked and disintegrated slowly.

Spike, still perched on Aquamarine's back, turned to look at the phenomenon as a hole began to widen in the crystals that let a chilly breeze waft into the room. "What's happening?" he asked, prompting those who hadn't turned yet to do so in that moment. Zircon shifted and then stood up and also turned, before a small grin crept on his face as he turned back to Chocolate.

Fenrir let himself smile a bit, his eyes turning from the breaking formation to the crystals that had his paws pinned. He heard a series of hissing laughs, and glanced at Katie and Armin, both of whom were also catching on as the former turned her head the rest of the way to look at Chocolate again. "It seems somepony's arcane tamperings are starting to weaken," he growled in an amused tone.

Chocolate responded by sending another bolt of magic at Fenrir, aiming for the nose again, though this time his quarry simply ducked low enough for it to merely graze his left ear. "My spell's not faltering!" he retorted, to no avail as another column of ugly umber began breaking away into nothingness. He sent another bolt at Flash and Zephyr, and both pegasi danced out of the way to let the attack hit yet another column that began breaking as soon as it was struck.

"Then why are your blockades starting to shrink, like Godcat decided to make them into cosmic bricks?" Katie rebuked with a snort, earning herself another blast of magic that she barely deflected by simply pointing the stump of her horn at the oncoming attack and letting loose some irregularly-flashing blue mana from it. She reeled when it collided with her stump as well as her brief sparks of magic, and her head snapped back as if her neck was broken, yet nothing more had happened other than the opposing mana blasts fizzling out above her head.

Chocolate's orbs widened again. "It… it should have… it should have knocked your head clean off your withers!" he cried as Katie lowered her head and leveled her gaze at him. His ears fell back as orange mana pulsed across her body, before it turned as blue as her eyes and subsequently dissipated.

Then something very strange, and peculiar, happened to Katie once the glow died from her form. Tanzanite turned to her and blinked, seeing her chest move for a second before her stomach gained no more than an inch in diameter. Then it grew another inch, as if a water hose had just started filling her up. He turned to Aquamarine and Spike, seeing them also turning to glance at Katie as she began to convulse on the spot, her movements turning more and more violent as the crystals of apricot continued to break.

Mana pulsed back to her horn's remnants now, at first blue before turning orange and then growing in intensity. Chocolate's orbs became so wide that the black of his eyes was completely overtaken, and a little color drained from his face as a big ball started forming and sparking to life with the aid of a protrusion that didn't look all that functional. The orb grew and grew, until it was as large as a vase. "What… what is…" he spluttered again, only stopping his blubbering as the orb catapulted from the horn stump and homed right in on him.

He awkwardly fumbled out of the way, barely avoiding snapping his bad hoof the rest of the way off before falling flat on his stomach as a deafening crack rang through the air. Everyone reeled from the sharp noise, and Zephyr and Flash both landed with spears clattering to the floor and hooves racing to cover their ears as the blast smashed clean through artificial gemstones before dissipating with them. Katie let off a wail of pain, one sounding like claws on a chalkboard, as mana pulsed across her again. Before long, her horn stump was sending out another, smaller orb of apricot that then rapidly sailed right towards Chocolate.

Again, Chocolate scrambled away, his good hooves flailing like they were suddenly thrust upon ice. The second onslaught barely grazed him clean across the back of the neck as he ducked out of the way, causing another umber formation to crumble into nothingness and taking away a good chunk of mane in one go. A third burst of mana came from Katie's horn and made her cry out again, though it was no bigger than a bullet and it flickered sporadically and fizzed out before it could even reach him.

For several minutes, only the sound of breaking gemstones and a few pained groans from Katie filled the tense air. Half of those present were still reeling from the since-then-faded deafening cracks alone, trying their best to make the ringing in their ears cease to no avail. The other half went wide-eyed and slack-jawed, dumbfounded beyond compare. Chocolate was the most shaken of all, the revelation that he'd unwittingly started a chain reaction bouncing in his skull without truly sinking in.

Finally, though, someone spoke as the crystals covering the stairs and keeping Fenrir, Armin, and Katie all pinned started to break away and fade into nothingness. "What in Tartarus just happened?" Spike asked, sporting pinprick pupils and eyes so wide a gryphon could easily compare them to a balled talon.

Through the haze of lingering pain and vestiges of fleeting orange mana that danced around her in spots, Katie spoke with pained hisses, "His mana… entered my body through… what was left of my horn. And my mana… rejected it. Sent it back to him…" Half-dazedly, she turned to Chocolate and let her eyes narrow slightly. "Fucker… is paying my hospital bill…"

"Me? Pay your bill?" Chocolate mused aloud, a brow raising as he spoke in a tone laced with layers of disbelief and a note of sarcasm. "And how are the doctors going to patch you up, hrrm? Simple stitches won't be enough for that hackjob you call a face!"

Katie dryly laughed as the crystals finished disintegrating altogether, and she felt Armin shift beneath her. She climbed onto his back with no resistance, but decided to play it safe and move no more than necessary to keep herself steady as he rose to stand on shaky hooves. "Says the unicorn… who himself also has a tearing face," she retorted, her tone less pained.

Chocolate's eye began twitching. "Excuse you?" he hissed.

"Feel the right side of... your face, or find a damned mirror," Katie shot back with a giggle.

Chocolate's eye continued to twitch, and his horn started glowing once more in vibrant orange. Unfortunately for him, whatever spell he made to channel was disrupted as Fenrir barreled towards him like the caboose of a runaway freight train, one fist raised and then coming down on his head. The attack came so fast he simply couldn't react to it; in fact, all he could do was turn to Fenrir right before the fist in question met with his cranium.

Chocolate yelped and was sent careening, his own mana jolting him once the fist connected with his face and sent him clean into a column, and in such a way his horn landed first and subsequently broke off upon impact. After that, his orbs dimmed to blackness and he crumpled to the floor, all the while his broken horn went rolling out of a window before it dropped to the streets below. Once he was still, the mana faded from his body until it was a muted sizzle, and a silence fell—but it didn't last for long.

Katie's wings buzzed as soon as the undead stallion sprawled onto the floor, and her orbs twinkled as the bad hoof landed in a way that ensured it stood up—in fact, besides the remnants of horn that stubbornly clung to his head, it was the only thing of Chocolate that remained standing. She slowly pried herself off of Armin's back, letting her wings take care of the rest as she ascended languidly into the air. Her orbs were darting this way and that as she ascended, surveying the scene for a few seconds before stopping.

She turned to Zephyr and Flash as they let their forehooves drop from their ears. "You two okay?" she questioned.

"Got a headache, but I'll live," Flash replied with a nod. He turned to Chocolate as Fenrir approached him, grappled his rear hooves and then lifted him by both of his back legs like he was a turkey. "I take it he's been dealt with?"

"His horn is… no longer functional, to put it mildly," Fenrir replied with a nod. He shot a look at Chocolate and added, "I'd personally apply a modified inhibitor on what's left, if only to err on the side of caution."

"And maybe saw the broken hoof the rest of the way off," Armin chimed in, immediately finding himself getting looks from the guards and Spike for that comment alone. He turned to them and frowned. "What? It's only gonna hinder him, and you could just stick a peg on what's left."

"Wouldn't do him much good. Bastard's a Celestia-damned, Luna-forsaken wraith," Tanzanite pointed out, spreading a wing and using that to gesture to Chocolate for emphasis. "No matter what we do, he'll just keep on rotting until he's a pile of bones."

Armin pursed his lips together, chewing on the lower one thoughtfully. Then he shot a glance at Katie, before his eyes fell onto Chocolate and back to the guards. "Then… how do you explain her?" he asked, lifting a holey hoof and using that to gesture to Katie.

The guards turned to look at her, all sets of eyes glinting. She gestured to Chocolate with an armored hoof and chirped, "Watch him for a minute."

The lot exchanged glances, then Zircon piped up, "Why?"

Katie's hoof dropped, her shoulders slumped, and she groaned in annoyance. "Really?" she queried, watching as the guards turned to her and gave a series of hesitant nods. She shook her head and flew to Chocolate, legs dangling like lead weights as she went. When she reached him, she lifted a hoof and tapped at his horn stump with her clawed armament, grimacing as it crackled with traces of orange mana in response. "Anypony home?"

Chocolate continued to dangle like dead poultry, at least for a few minutes before the sizzling mana fizzed out entirely. Then, his good leg twitched, followed by an ear. Fenrir eyed him with a suspicious gaze as orange mana pulsed across his body, much like it had done Katie earlier. The pulses were steady and rhythmic, like the beating of a heart that washed over him at seemingly-set intervals.

The exposed muscles started forming black scab-like things as the mana darted across them, which caused Fenrir's brow to furrow as bits of fur also begun falling out of Chocolate's form in stringy clumps. Katie watched with an impassive gaze, her nose wrinkling as the spontaneous shedding revealed sickeningly pale skin in patches.

"What's happening to him?" Flash asked, picking up his spear with a hoof before approaching the three. His eyes warily stayed on Chocolate, and he frowned as he came closer.

Katie didn't answer until Chocolate's coat had gone completely some minutes later, complete with black blemishes that were once opened wounds. "He's… cursed," she said tersely.

That caused Flash to halt before he could even get halfway there. "Cursed?" he parroted, his eyes widening.

Spike hopped off of Aquamarine's back and rushed over, pausing to exhale fire on the heap of used clothes and turning those to ashes before resuming and subsequently stopping once he found himself in front of Fenrir's back paws. He turned to Chocolate and gaped. "He's… he's like the other wraiths I first saw in Fantasia…"

Katie turned to Spike and glumly nodded. Then she flew around, before pausing to stare at the undead stallion's hips. Her glare eased up upon seeing he still had his cutie mark. She turned to the guards. "You see where tissue and sinew and such was exposed?" she queried, gesturing to a black mass on his side for emphasis.

"Plain as day," Zephyr piped up, picking up his spear and likewise trotting forwards. He passed Flash and homed straight in on Chocolate, a brow raised as Katie's gaze fell on him. "Why do you ask?"

"His innate mana's the cause," Katie replied, her orbs shrinking to pinpricks as she made the utterance.

"His… innate mana?" Zircon queried, garnering a hesitant nod from the still-airborne changeling.

"Ask yourself this: how was he able to make crystals grow out of thin air? Furthermore…" A chilly wind blew into the opened observatory, and it caused everyone to shudder. Blue mana pulsed across the horseshoes, and then up Katie's legs before thin frost formed in its wake. "... how am I able to use my hooves to form ice?"

The guards exchanged glances again, and before long all five sets of eyes widened to the size of saucers. They turned to Katie and made several attempts to speak, but not a sound left their mouths no matter how much their gums flapped.

"And I do believe one of you said something about innate magics, right? Specific colors of such?" Katie pressed, eyes narrowing slightly.

Aquamarine's pupils shrank. "... p-p-pegasus... " he stuttered as a revelation sank in. "You… you have… p-p-pegasus magic… and your h-hooves are a medium through wh-which..."

Katie nodded slowly. "Hence why my mana rejected his when his magic hit me," she replied. She went on, "And since our Wise Guy here grew what looks to be crystals, I have reason to believe he is cursed."

"You're still alive and kicking when you shouldn't be, and you grew ice on your hooves," Spike interjected with a frown, walking around Chocolate to look at Katie as he spoke. "Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"

"Difference between him and I is that I willed it. It happened to him, and he's still out cold," Katie snorted, crossing her forelegs.

"Aaaand what's that got to do with him possibly being cursed?" Spike shot back, crossing his arms across his chest.

Katie's forelegs dropped again. "Watch," she stated, and without any further warning she positioned herself before Chocolate's exposed barrel and jammed her claws into it. A sickening squelch and some black blood escaped the still-out-cold stallion's form as Katie started to fervently slash about with reckless abandon. The attack started dislodging rib bones and tearing the heart and lungs into ribbons.

"Why are you stabbing him?" Spike asked.

Katie paused, brow furrowing. "He did what I'm doing to him to a mare named Silk Fabric. You could say he's getting some more… overdue punishment," she answered. "That, and he's out cold—fucker won't feel a thing until his brain turns back on."

"He cut a mare up?" Aquamarine asked, gulping loudly as his pupils shrank.

"Yes. And skinned her bare. Not one hair was left on her, and maggots were eating her innards… yet she was still alive," Katie answered with a nod, eyes narrowing until her orbs were slits. "Your Emperor saw the aftermath. You can ask him about it."

Then she began anew, this time going for the stomach and likewise shredding it, and she made extra-sure to hack his gonads into pieces as she kept at it. Afterwards, she started on the inner thighs, but didn't get much work done before more black crystals formed in the resulting cavities and filled them in like one would do to a pothole using cement.

She pulled back, with black blood staining her legs and barrel. She turned to Fenrir. "Try and tear his head off for me," she instructed coolly.

Fenrir turned to Katie, an incredulous brow raised. "And why would I decapitate him?" he asked.

"Just try it," Katie replied with a nod and nothing more. "We can claim Armin stabbed him with the gun or something."

Fenrir groaned and turned to the guards, who yet again exchanged glances. Finally, they turned to him and nodded, eliciting another groan as he grappled Chocolate by the remnants of his mane and started to pull on the sod like he was a doll.

Mana pulsed as flesh began tearing, and black crystals formed before Fenrir could get much further than that, cementing both halves together like spontaneous superglue. He frowned. "So that's what you were getting at…" he murmured, letting go of Chocolate's head before turning to Katie again. "You were trying to inform us that this bastard is immortal?"

"In a way, yes," Katie replied with another nod. "So long as he has innate mana that's going haywire, he'll stay immortal, as well."

"And how do you know this?" Tanzanite queried. His wings spread reflexively when mana pulsed all across Katie's form, starting from her horn stump and ending at the few locks left of her tail hair.

"Because I myself am also cursed," she answered, eyes narrowing.

A groan left Chocolate, though now it was raspy and dry. His good leg twitched, followed by the bad one, before his head started swaying as if he were delirious. Katie flew to him and prodded at him with a shoe, making sure not to stab him or poke at black crystals this time. "Anypony home?" she tried again.

"Go… suck a donkey's cock," Chocolate hissed in a barely-audible but snappish tone. He started feebly flailing his bad leg at Katie in an attempt to swat her away, though he only succeeded in hitting a smacking leg and breaking away some frost.

"I'll take that as a 'no.' And I'd have little luck finding a donkey that desperate," Katie scoffed, rolling her orbs before backing off to give the sod a bit of space. She turned to the guards again. "So, what do we do now?"

For several tense minutes, nopony answered, though their eyes flickered in a way that Katie got the impression that they were likely turning over some ideas in their heads. When the silence persisted, Armin decided to throw in his two bits, "I say just toss him in the dungeons with Napkin Dickbags and let him sort out the rest."

All eyes fell onto Armin in that moment. "That… might be the best course of action. But who should inform Emperor Shining of his… condition?" Zephyr retorted, frowning and with ears folding back.

Katie waved a forehoof dismissively. "Tell Shining we found him like this, black crystals and all," she replied, before dropping the hoof and turning to the stairs as multiple sets of hoofsteps started echoing from below.

A loud meow pierced the air, echoing into the observatory. "How're you gonna explain the blood on your hooves and chest, though? I doubt Emperor Shining would be stupid enough to think that you didn't use our Wise Guy as a scratching post. And you didn't clean the blood off of your body… or the floor, for that matter, as of yet," Zephyr pointed out, his frown deepening.

Katie's orbs shrank to pinpricks. "Oh, shit," she murmured in a horrified tone as the hoofsteps became louder.