The group hastily made their way to come to the aid of the young filly. Applejack led the charge in a panicked sprint up the stairs. The orange mare was focused on one thing only as she fought through the pins and needles sensation taking over her body, she had to get to her sister. The cowpony was closely followed by Tom as he struggled to keep up with the fearful pony. Twilight was left to bring up the rear and steady Big Mac as he tried to dauntlessly climb up the stairs after his sister.

Applejack skidded to a halt to prevent herself from overshooting her little sister’s room entirely. The orange pony threw open the door and charged in with determination. The farm pony widened her eyes and gasped in shock as she had not been prepared for what she would see inside.

All of the furniture in the room was being lifted through the air and spun in place or shook violently as they hovered menacingly. The curtains to the window were even dancing around as if they were caught in a windstorm. And in the midst of all of this chaos, a terrified yellow filly was being lifted into the air against her will. Applebloom looked at her sister with a sort of fear that the farm pony had never seen before. Her eyes were red as tears streamed off of her face from being shaken around so much.

“A…a..a.Applejack! Help me!” The terrified filly cried out in desperation and fear while reaching out a tiny hoof to her sister. She could hardly speak from how much she was being jostled around. The farm pony looked at the scene with a pale sense of dread slowly filling her body.

“Hold on Applebloom, Ah’m comin’!” Applejack exclaimed urgently. She furrowed her face into the most impressive look of determination she could muster over her fear and prepared to charge forward to rescue her sister.

The cowpony heaved as she felt her body being pulled back a little ways. She turned to see Tom looking at her with a serious expression. The farm pony looked at him with confusion and disdain, she was about to snap at him angrily before he spoke up to stop her from talking.

“Hold on! I know you want to help her, but you’re not going to be any use to her if you get picked up and flung out of the window.” Tom stated while pointing to the far wall. Applejack looked on nervously as she watched several objects jerk around in the air.

The windows themselves were opening and closing rapidly as the entity exercised its power on them. If she charged in there without a plan, there was no way of knowing if the entity would throw either her or her sister out of the window to a painful and possibly deadly fall.

Applejack grunted in frustration. She looked back to the human with a mixture of urgency, doubt, and slight anger plastered on her face.

“Well, you better think of something fast! I’m goin’ in there myself if you won’t help her!” The orange mare glared at him with anger and determination. All of the fear had left her body by that point as she stared at her sister being jerked around in the air. The sound of the filly yelping in surprise as she was violently shifted in different directions made the farm pony boil with the need to come to her aid.

Tom sighed and looked back to the scene. He stepped forward a ways and studied the pattern of objects moving around the room. The frightful amount of power the poltergeist was capable of made the human nervous for the filly’s health.

“Ok, ok! Just let me find the best way to do this without getting yourself killed first alright?!” Tom looked back to the unimpressed pony behind him and reasoned for her to think rationally before getting herself killed in front of her sister.

Tom quickly allowed his senses to go off a few times. He scanned his head from left to right across the room as the blue mist repeatedly came from his mouth. Satisfied with his findings, he backed up and turned to the anxious pony in the doorway.

“Alright listen up, I’m going to need you to run in there and grab her when I say. I’m going to see if I can distract it enough to prevent it from picking you up, but you will need to be fast. After I flash it with my light, you run in and grab Applebloom from out of the air… I don’t care how much it pulls on her, you get her out of this room understand?” The human looked her in the eyes seriously and calmly informed her of his plan.

The orange pony looked to her frightened sister briefly. Her face softened up when she saw the filly was closing her eyes tightly while trying to find a happy place in her mind. She then looked back to Tom with newfound spirit and shot him a look of determination.

“Ah’m ready whenever you are.” Applejack nodded confidently while answering him with a serious tone of voice. The human nodded back before getting up and breathing deeply. He looked back at her as she watched him diligently to await his command. He stuck out his hand and pointed up one of his fingers.

“One…” Tom counted up to alert her to his plan. Applejack reeled back as she prepared to charge in. Tom stuck up another finger and looked forward to the flying objects around them.

“Two…” The human slowly stepped to the side to provide her more room to maneuver. He raised his other hand and pointed it to the epicenter of the room. Applejack tensed her muscles and sweated nervously as she looked ahead to plan out her route. Twilight and Big Mac watched anxiously from the hallway as they prepared themselves for whatever would happen once the two kicked into gear.

“Three!” Tom yelled loudly signaling Applejack to close her eyes tightly for a moment. The room turned bright white with a hint of blue for a second as the human blasted his light at the mass of floating objects.

After she heard the noise of the flash of light die down, Applejack opened her eyes up and darted forward into the room. The objects had not stopped floating, but all spinning and jerky movement had ceased as the blast interrupted the entity’s normal flow of energy. Suddenly, a few of the objects around her started shaking as Applejack quickly made a beeline for her sister.

She dodged to the side as she saw a dresser being flung at her from the left wall. Confident at her successful evasion of the object, she heaved loudly as she jumped up onto the floating bed to use it as a platform to leap for her sister. The filly floated high up in the air near the ceiling, forcing the farm pony to reach up to her on her way down from a jump.

Applejack ran to the end of the bed and jumped as high as she could. She reached for the small filly and wrapped her arms around her before turning her body in midair to protect her from any harm. The two slammed against the wall and floor as they descended. Applejack grunted in pain from taking most of the impact. She shook her head to rid herself of the dazed feeling before getting up and running for the door with her sister placed firmly against her chest.

The room shook violently as the entity realized that its prey was escaping. Applebloom screamed as a lamp post slammed into her sister, causing the orange mare to fall to the floor and release her. Twilight quickly ran forward and grabbed Applebloom as she slid along the floor towards the door. She then looked to Applejack as she lay on the ground. The orange pony held her ribs as she writhed in pain from the impact. She squinted one eye open and looked up to see around her.

She suddenly felt something pulling on her back legs. The invisible force yanked hard on the hapless pony, pulling her backwards slightly. Applejack looked in a panic to her feet as she felt them being picked up into the air. She suddenly felt something grabbing onto the upper section of her body to lift her up easier.

“AH!” Applejack yelped in surprise as she felt herself getting lifted into the air. With as much strength as she could muster, the orange mare flung herself downwards and clung to the floor in an attempt at escaping the invisible threat.

To the horror of the group of ponies watching on from the doorway, the far window jerked open as something pulled Applejack’s back legs toward it. The cowpony dug into the floor desperately with her front hooves as she felt herself being yanked toward the open window. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for the worst as she felt the invisible force envelope her entire body to fling it out the window in one swift motion.

Suddenly, Tom grabbed hold of her arm. He grunted as he threw the farm pony behind him and out the door. Applejack slid along the ground and turned her body to watch the human as he looked to the objects floating in the air.

“Time for a bit of spring cleaning up in here!” Unfazed by the cheesy one liner he just made, Tom let his arms fall to his sides casually. Suddenly, fire sprang from his fingertips as he summoned his claws. The blades made the sound of metal scraping against metal as the flames quickly sputtered out once the claws had formed fully. Tom yelled as he ran forward and jumped into the air. He landed on the bed and continued along his war path. He then jumped off of the bed and reeled his arm back to strike something in the air.

The ponies looked on with puzzled expressions at the human. He seemed to be fighting something they couldn’t see. They watched as Tom suddenly thrust his arm forward to stab the air with his claws, and paused in the air as his arm collided with something solid.

Everyone’s jaw dropped as Tom swung from hitting the seemingly invisible object. He hung in the air for a moment dangling from his claws when suddenly the object started to take shape. It looked like a mass of colorful wisps was slowly forming in a cloud around where Tom had struck. The human suddenly plummeted to the floor along with the strange mass.

Tom grunted as he forced his other claw into the mass right next to where his other hand had struck. He lifted the thing into the air in front of him and ripped his hands to the side. The odd mass tore into two pieces, which quickly disappeared after being sent on their way.

Everything in the room suddenly stopped hovering around in the air and grew still. The ponies flinched as the furniture made a loud crash as it fell to the floor all at once. They then looked up to see Tom brushing his claws off on his leg before making them disappear in a puff of fire.

He stood and stared at the group of awe-struck onlookers. He then chuckled and smirked in his usual lighthearted manner. “And that is how you perform extreme housekeeping with Thomas Greene.” Tom stated lightheartedly while giving the group a confident smile.

The ponies blinked their eyes in disbelief. They then looked at each other and suddenly became very elated. They cheered happily for the slayer and gathered around him while expressing their gratitude. The orange mare looked up to the human and smiled warmly.

“Thank you so much, Tom! Ah’m so happy, Ah could just hug you to death right now!” Applejack exclaimed joyfully while wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing tightly. He grunted from the tight grip of the farm pony, he could feel the air escape his lungs as he was nearly snapped in two by the cheerful mare.

“That’s nice and all Applejack, but… could you not?” Tom managed to croak out timidly in an attempt to get the pony to temper her strength.

The orange mare loosened up her grip and chuckled nervously. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly as she watched the human gasping for air.

“Hehe… sorry about that sugarcube.” Applejack stated in slight embarrassment.

Elsewhere, while the apple family was rejoicing at their well-earned peace being restored, a hooded figure ran through the trees of the Everfree forest nervously. The figure appeared to be a male unicorn with white fur, brown eyes, and a book and feather as a cutie mark. He ran through the thicket of vegetation and panted heavily. Soon, he found himself standing in a clearing before a large structure.

The building looked to be an old mansion that seemed like it was plucked straight out of time. Various windows on multiple floors of the building had broken shutters that dangled by sheer imagination. The stone pillars at the front door matched the rest of the wooden structure and crumbled with age. The old wrought iron fence around the property creaked as the pony placed a hoof up to glide along it.

“*Huff* I hope Ms. Raven Feather isn’t upset with me when I tell her about this…” The stallion spoke to himself with apprehension evident in his voice. He looked to the seemingly abandoned structure and sighed nervously while walking towards it.

He turned to glance at the few trees that were scattered around the yard of the property. All the leaves had long since gone from the wooden husks as their branches swayed ominously in the wind. He paused for a moment to admire the symbol written on the nearest tree. The white glyph seemed haphazardly placed on the bark of the tree with paint, being smeared in numerous places. Despite the shoddy design of the symbol, it looked complete enough to serve whatever purpose it held.

“Guess those things have a bit of artistic freedom with how exact they need to be.” The unicorn chuckled before moving on towards the house. He walked through the spacious yard and up the crumbling steps. He then walked up to the large front door and opened it. The hooded pony gritted his teeth while the frame made an unearthly squeal as it slowly opened, revealing the gloomy interior of the mansion.

The door came out into a large and aged foyer area. There was a set of almost decrepit looking stairs placed along the right wall directly in front of the front door. The guard rail on the side of the stairs was broken in various places. The wood that made up the steps was faded and cracked. The various pictures adorning the wall next to the stairs were either tilted or shattered in places, revealing faded black and white pictures of various humans underneath the glass.

The only thing that made the stairs even remotely appealing to the eye was the red carpet that covered the first floor and traveled up the steps to the upper floor, and even that was faded and torn with age. Despite its dusty and gloomy appearance, the decor of the mansion created an almost warm and fanciful atmosphere. At least it would have in its prime. Now the atmosphere prevailing the room was an eerie sense of silence and gloom.

Scattered around the first floor of the room, various other ponies in similar gray hoods were tending to their own business. They either chatted quietly amongst themselves while performing some sort of task or walked through the room and exited through one of the numerous doors to the rest of the manor.

The unicorn quickly closed the door and traveled up the stairs. He grew more nervous as he listened to his echoing footsteps ring out across the house. He started to break out into a cold sweat while he drew closer to his destination.

After traveling through the twists and turns of the manor, the unicorn suddenly turned into a doorway, only to come out into a rather large library. Dust and cobwebs seemed to cover the entirety of the shelves in the room. On each of the shelves was a myriad of books and tomes on various subjects. There were numerous decorative rugs on the floor, although most of them had many holes in them. The rugs along with the green wallpaper would have given the room a warm comfortable feeling, had they not been faded and decayed along with the rest of the house.

The only light in the room was coming from a set of flickering candles placed in intervals along the floor, and a few stands with larger candles held inside of them which remained unlit save for one. Waiting in the glow of the flames, was a small gathering of ponies of various races wearing the same gray hooded shirts that the unicorn was. Upon hearing him enter the room, one of the ponies looked up to greet the unicorn.

“Ah yes, Cotton Quill… please do come in and sit down.” The pony was a female earth pony with a slight inflection of grandeur and class in her voice. The hood cast a stark shadow over her face, only revealing a few tufts of dark gray hair, a glimpse of black fur, and her bright emerald green eyes looking at Cotton Quill with an expression of tolerance. She beckoned with her hoof for the unicorn to join her circle and talk.

“Y-yes Ms. Raven Feather, right away ma’am.” Cotton stuttered nervously while gulping. He felt intimidated by the odd welcoming expression he was being given, she almost sounded like she was expecting him. He slowly made his way over to the group and sat down next to a rather stern looking brown furred teenage pegasus stallion. The unicorn smiled nervously at the pegasus, who offered a harsh glare in return, forcing Cotton to avert his eyes quickly.

Raven Feather cleared her throat loudly, causing everyone to turn to her and listen intently. She looked straight through the unicorn, sending a cold shiver down his spine.

“Now then Cotton Quill… what news do you have for me?” Raven Feather asked quizzically while tilting her head. Cotton Quill stammered nervously as he tried to put his words together to form a sensible sentence.

“Umm… well uh…” Cotton fiddled his hooves together nervously. The other members of the circle sighed in annoyance as they watched the unicorn awkwardly address their leader. “Twilight Sparkle entered the cave out in the forest as you said she would… she brought the element of loyalty and the princess with her.” The unicorn explained hesitantly. Raven Feather hummed with curiosity at the mention of the princess. She stared at him and waited, eager to hear more. The timid pony swallowed uncomfortably and spoke again.

“The spell worked exactly as you planned. The dark matter swarmed them and incapacitated the princess without any trouble.” Cotton explained with a slight tone of fear in his voice. He was caught off guard by the hooded earth pony chuckling warmly.

“Hehehe… So the princess and her student are dead then. Tell me Cotton, how long did they last?” Raven Feather perked her head up excitedly to hear what the unicorn had to say. Cotton Quill started sweating as he looked away from her piercing gaze.

“Well, that’s why I’m here actually your ladyship. You see, they… survived.” Cotton clenched his eyes shut in preparation for her to snap at him. She gasped in surprise and stammered in shock.

Suddenly, one of the members of the group looked around in surprise. It was a female pegasus that sat next to the male beside Cotton Quill. She had blue eyes, white hair, pale and grayish blue fur, and a pitch black storm cloud with rain pouring from it as a cutie mark. She looked at the unicorn with confusion and dismay.

“What...? but... but how? There’s no way those two could have lived without the aid of the princess. Those darklings and the mass of dark matter should have ripped them to pieces!” She became very upset and animated as she waved her head around and growled in frustration. Cotton Quill waited for her to be silent for a moment to interject the rest of his tale.

“Well, they had someone else with them… a human.” Everyone became silent and looked to the unicorn intently as he explained. “Not just any human mind you… he appeared to fit the description of a… umm… well.” He looked down nervously and stuttered.

The female pegasus grew more agitated by the second as she listened to the unicorn babbling incoherently from fear at what the others might do to him. “Out with it then Cotton! What did the bucking thing look like?!” She yelled angrily at the unicorn, causing him to jump in fright.

“W-well he looked like a s-slayer!” Cotton rapidly spit out the last words and flinched instinctively at the enraged pegasus. She shook violently as she tensed her muscles and clenched her teeth. Just as Cotton Quill thought she was going to strangle the nearest living thing, most likely being him, Raven Feather put her hoof out and signaled for the pegasus to sit down and be silent.

“Calm yourself Raincloud… there are more important things to do than to kill the messenger of bad tidings.” The green eyed mare nonchalantly glanced over to Cotton Quill while speaking. This made him gulp nervously. The earth pony then let her gaze linger and stared at Cotton intently. It was like she was trying to make sure he would tell the truth by shattering his psyche with a soul-crushing glare.

“Now Cotton, are you certain that it was a slayer? There haven’t been any slayers since the humans died out.” Raven Feather asked calmly and made herself very clear. The unicorn nodded slowly while glancing over to see Raincloud shooting him death glares. The black mare then placed her hoof up to her face and rubbed her temples.

“*Sigh* this could complicate things quite a bit… Okay then, new plan… we move ahead of schedule and prepare for the next phase.” Raven Feather announced in a troubled tone, everyone looked up in surprise at the news. The male pegasus beside Cotton looked at the earth pony in shock.

“The next phase? But Raven Feather, we don’t even have a plan for the next phase. We don’t have any safety measures planned out, we don’t have a location picked, and hell… we don’t even have a creature picked out for crying out loud.” He looked annoyed at the rest of the group before focusing back on the earth pony in front of him.

Raven Feather returned a devious smile to her face and chuckled warmly. She seemed unfazed by the negative implications of her plan.

“You’re right Dust Kicker. I had not anticipated taking such a large step forward. But we have our friend Cotton Quill over here to figure all of that stuff out.” Raven Feather got up and walked over to the nervous unicorn. She got really close to his face and gave him a playful look as she tapped his head with her hoof in rhythm with her words.

“I’m sure he can use that big… smart… brain of his to figure out all of that for us… Except for picking the monster, that’s really fun, so I think I will do that myself. Grimwood?” The black mare turned and spoke softly to the younger earth pony that sat beside her spot. The pale white colt appeared to be no older than eight years of age and had short, black hair, but suspiciously seemed to be missing a cutie mark. The young pony looked over to Raven Feather quizzically.

“Yes, sister...?” Grimwood spoke in a blank sort of tone, with only a slight inflection of childlike innocence in his voice to express that he showed any sort of interest. Raven Feather smiled at her younger brother. Although he was slightly smaller than her due to his age, she knew for a fact that he was as skilled as she was in the dark arts.

“Would you be a dear and bring me a book on summoning. Go ahead and surprise me as to which one.” Raven Feather chuckled lightly at the thought. The young colt merely looked toward a bookshelf and started walking over to it.

“Alright, if you insist...” Grimwood spoke innocently while still maintaining his cold tone of voice. The colt stopped at a row of books on the shelf, he then covered his eyes with one hoof while he used the other to switch back and forth between the tomes. He stopped his hoof and touched one of the books by the spine. He then uncovered his eyes and pulled the book out to bring to his sister.

Raven Feather smiled cheerfully at the young pony as he placed the book in front of her and went back to his seat. She picked up the book and flipped through the pages to look at the various illustrations of the creatures contained within.

“Let’s see here… too small… too slimy… too big.” Raven Feather sighed in annoyance with every page she found that did not catch her eye. “No... no... no… Oooo, what have we here?” She hummed with intrigue and buried her face into the page, reading further about the creature she stopped on. She put the book down and started giggling to herself.

Soon, her giggling turned into full blown laughter as she pictured the potential havoc the creature might cause. The mare then picked the book up and held it open on the page she chose. She carried it over and shoved it into Cotton Quill’s face. He grabbed the book and scooted it away from his nose to read the page she selected. After skimming over the basics of the spell, he took a glance over to the illustration of the creature and gagged in disgust and fright.

“Yikes… You want me to summon this… thing?” Cotton looked back up to the earth pony, who nodded eagerly while smiling at him.

“Okay then… But where should I summon it? What time? Who will you send with me?” The unicorn suddenly fired a list of questions at the hooded pony. She shrugged and grabbed Cotton Quill with her arm to pull him in close. He dropped the book in surprise, causing it to land on the floor. He then watched nervously as Raven Feather waved her hoof around in front of him to inspire him.

“Don’t focus so much on asking yourself, where do I put this? Cotton Quill… instead, you should be asking yourself, where can I put this to insight as much fear and chaos as possible? I’m sure you can figure out a suitable location yourself, and once you do we can start putting together the setup.” Raven Feather released the unicorn and walked toward the door while chuckling. She motioned for the others to follow her. Soon everyone got up and started to follow the earth pony as she left the room.

Raven Feather paused at the door and looked back to Cotton Quill, who was sitting on the floor by the book. She shot him a coy look and smiled. “Make sure you pick a good spot for our little friend there to call home. I want him to cause as much panic and terror as he can.” The black mare laughed heartily and exited the room with the others, leaving Cotton Quill staring blankly at the door by himself.

The unicorn got up from the floor and dusted himself off. He then looked down to the book lying on the floor. It had fallen onto the ground open on the page Raven Feather had selected. Cotton shuddered as he looked at the page on the left, which held a very detailed artistic illustration that took up the whole page. He could feel chills going up his spine as he looked at the depiction of the monster.

“I certainly hope I don’t have to stick around long enough to see this thing in person.” Cotton stated uneasily. He then picked up the book and walked out of the door.