Disaster Anon: G1; D17; Nightmare Night ACT THREE

Nightmare Night What a Fright Give me a Flippin’ Conclusion Already Before I Break Your Neck ACT 3

Previously on Disaster Anon

>As the mysterious green mare Dustflower continues pointing her katana to your Adam’s apple, Paul concludes his monologue of apparently wanting to celebrate, “his holiday” and he puts the skeleton mask from his costume back on with his magic.
>Paul puts his mask back on and tells Anon, “I’ve got some work to take care of.”
---
>From the sky the amber mare announces to her friend, “There’s the mare that brought our boss in. I’ve been dreaming about pounding her sorry pink butt!”
>The guard pony then yells out, “It’s Paul Pumpkin! He’s escaped from prison!”
---
>Firefly tells herself, “He’s probably one of the skeletons so that he can blend in with the crowd. That would explain why Anon disappeared after the cart ride.”
---
>“Don’t worry Anon, I’ll save you!”

>To think, this is how Anon gets to spend his first major holiday in Dream Valley.
>Who knows what kind of sick and cruel torture he’s been put through…I can’t really imagine anything. I’m not as edgy as Anon, but I’m sure they’ve done something!
>I wish I could leave right now to handle this. I really want to, but seeing that poor guard mare crawling through the dirt with her broken hind legs; I couldn’t sleep at night knowing I left her behind.
>She needs medical attention immediately.
>As the mare struggles to rise, I swoop over her back, lifting her by her forelegs.
>“W-what are you doing you dumb horse?! Get out of here and go help your town!”
It’ll only be a little while.
>“I’m not important. Get out of here!”
Everypony’s important. I’m taking you to our clinic whether you want to or not.
>As fast as my wings can take me, I fly us into Dream Valley. It really takes a lot out of me with the extra weight, but I don’t care.
>I fly her to the Helping Hoof Clinic; former home of Ms. Meadowsweet (the pink earth mare, with the rainbow mane and cutie mark of three daisies). It still feels a lot more like a home then a clinic, considering the simple wood and tile structure, but Ms. Meadowsweet’s a great doctor, and she’s super reliable in a pinch. It’s better than having to go to the normal hospital and wait through a bunch of paperwork.
>We arrive, but not wanting to drop her to the ground because of her hind legs, I ask her, “Could you please push the door for me.”
>She does so, and upon hearing the sound of the door’s bell ring, Ms. Meadosweet (who’s dressed as a bee) hurries from the front counter to our aid.
>“Oh goodness gracious!” she says with her pupils shirking in surprise at the battered mare.
Her hind legs are broken. Please do something.
>“No need to worry.”
>She scurries into a hall, before popping back out with a stretcher.
>“I’ll have you taken care of in a jiff dearie.”
>I carefully place the lady onto the stretcher.
>She groans quietly, trying to suppress her pain, but I can tell this must be hard on her.
>Safely placed, she looks to me with a very apologetic expression, and tells me, “Thank you.”
Not a problem ma’am.
>“…My name is Equinty.”
I’m Firefly II.
>“Okay then. Enough formalities, you’ve still got a town to save.”
>“A town to save?” asks Meadosweet in a worried tone.
Don’t worry about it, Ms. Meadosweet. The girls and I will have it taken care of.
>Equinty smiles at me, and with a touch of confidence she tells me, “Show em’ what you’ve got.”
>I blush before heading to the door.
Thanks.
>I exit the clinic and immediately fly to the building closest to the center of town, Forge Welding’s Metal Crafts, grabbing the attention of the many ponies below me as I stand on its roof.
>With a breath so deep it feels like my chest will burst if I try harder, I scream to the streets,
ATTENTION, CITIZENS OF DREAM VALLEY! I INSIST THAT EVERYPONY REMAIN CALM, BUT JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW, PAUL PUMPKIN HAS ESCAPED PRISON, AND THERE ARE AN UNKNOWN NUMBER OF POTENTIALLY DEADLY ASSASSIN’S WALKING THE STREETS RIGHT NOW! ONCE AGAIN I INSIST YOU REMAIN CALM.
>The streets release a roar of worried wallas, rabbles, and rutabagas.
I JUST SAID CALM DOWN! Jeepers. I THINK I AT LEAST KNOW WHO PAUL PUMPKIN IS. HE’S HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT, DRESSED AS ONE OF THE SKELETONS.
>The wallas continue, and I can see ponies in skeleton outfits throwing their mask to the ground fearfully. The noise slowly begins to quiet down however, as the attention of many ponies focus on a single pony that has yet to take his mask off.
>Unsurprisingly, he’s by the pumpkin shop, and if I remember correctly, I saw him dancing with a few fillies before I left.
>They back away as if he’s poison, and from the now forming circle I fly down, to see him face to face.
It’s over Paul.
>His head lowers, but not shamefully.
>He begins emitting a low toned chuckle.
>“Hehehehehehe. HahaHAAHAAA-”
>His body is suddenly frozen in a thick layer of ice, by a magical beam fired from my left.
>I look towards the source, who is no one else but our icy mistress of Dreamland, Frostbite, who’s wearing a skin tight, powder blue, ballerina leotard and ballet slippers.
>“Your mask is frozen, but not the face. Tell us where Anon is, or so help me your skin’s going to have frost blisters for a month!”
That’s a little dark, Frostbite. You might want to chill out.
>There’s a long pause that’s eventually broken by the sound of Brightly going, “Boooooo.”
What? What’d I say?
>Out of nowhere, the colt’s eyes begin to glow a piercing red, that’s clearly noticeable, even through the ice, and his bone fabric covered horn turns into a strange purplish mess of magic.
>The ground begins to rumble under his hooves until suddenly, the earth rends upward, creating a blinding field of flying dirt and stone.
>There’s a loud rumbling akin to an earthquake that can be heard, and I fly up to try and see what just happened.
>When my eyes finally set on him, I see his ice prison broken into a fine mist of crystals, and there’s a massive stretch of ruined ground reaching to Frostbite.
>She’s now pinned to Mrs. Dazzlecake’s Bakery in a pile of rubble.
>The rabbles quickly turn into screaming, confused yelling, and I can distinctly here some mare yell, “He animated the ground!”
>He looks up to me, and in a voice confirming his identity tells me, “All, I wanted was to do was enjoy Nightmare Night. Was that so much to ask?”
>Minty loudly shoves her way through the crowd from the background and jumps out for Paul.
>“You’re going down!”
>A yellow pegasus filly with pink drill hair flies out, kicking her in the shoulder and sending her to the ground by his side.
>There’s a loud gasp from the crowd, and aware things are going to escalate quick, many begin scattering to get away from the scene.
>Not even phased, Paul looks to a green earth mare dressed as a scarecrow and tells her, “Goldenhoof, be a dear and plant me a ride.”
>The scarecrow spits a seed into the ground, and it begins to glow green, immediately producing a leaf. No time for staring though, as a large blue pegasus colt with a spikey red Mohawk flies towards me from the crowd, causing the crowd to get all the more unruly.
>Looks like it’s time to get serious.

---

>Trapped in a chair, monitored by two assassins in a mausoleum tomb with nothing to do can get boring pretty quick. Yeah, you’re probably going to die, but you refuse to show any sign of weakness. Not until the whole “you dying” part at least.
>You’re biggest concern right now, is actually the fact that you have to pee. Really badly at that.
>With the two mares just as bored as yourself, small talk and personality peering questions have slowly begin to grow into more substantial discussion topics.
>Eventually, Jade begin giving further information on what happened to Paul.
>“You’ve told me of your knowledge in sorcery, but tell me, are you aware of alchemy?”
As a matter of fact, a project I’ve been working on uses a bit of alchemy in its formula. What does this have to do with Paul?
>“Well…there exist a form of gem; forged from the blood and magic of several unicorns, it forms a dark red gem, that can cause a unicorn’s magic to spike significantly.”
Sounds like a Philosopher’s Stone.
>Dustflower asks, “A what?”
Uh…nevermind. My ex-girlfiriend had a thing with…just go on with what you were saying Jade.
>“Very well. This gem was created even before the Celestial Lunar reign of Equestria, as a desperate measure to create alicorns at a time where they were slowly becoming extinct, and the sun was becoming increasingly difficult to manage.”
I still don’t get how the sun lacks a gravitational pull. That’s middle school science being thrown out the window.
>Dustflower tells me, “I doubt it’s always been that way. There had to have been a point where unicorns did not control it.”
>Jade continues.
>“The Gem of the Alicorn is very expensive and near taboo due to the many deaths needed to create one. My associates traveled many moons to Gallopiana, and it cost many gold coins, but the results are more than satisfactory.”
Fascinating. I’ll need to remember that when the guards confiscate that from him. It’d be a great piece for my research.
>Dustflower tells me, “Your confidence shall only make your defeat all the more pathetic.”
That’s funny; I was just about to say the same thing to you. You must be a mind reader along with a mindless sheep of an assistant.
>“I WILL BREAK YOUR FAMILY!”

---

>What is up with this guy?!
>I thought Paul was just some old timer business pony, but there’s this horrible vibe he’s giving, as if he doesn’t care about anypony or anything around him.
>When Anon and I first found out about his plan, and went to his home, he didn’t seem like the type to start anything; I mean, he tried to escape with as little conflict as possible, but now…I dunno.
>None of that’s important though. What is important is not choking out.
>Amongst the many ponies screaming and scrampering, a yellow unicorn mare in a red spandex devil costume came out of nowhere with a whip at least twenty hooves long.
>Thanks to all the ponies that were around, I couldn’t even tell she was out to get me until the moment she magically wrapped my neck in her whip, and began slowly dragging me from the air to the ground.
>“Your suffering has only just begun,” she says loudly.
>Brightly thankfully appears out of nowhere though, and head-butts the daylights out of her, only to get tackled by the scarecrow mare.
>As the streets clear of civilians leaving only my friends, myself, the assassins, and a handful of town guards and civilians both conscious and unconscious, I notice the spot where the seed was planted earlier.
>In its place, is a small pumpkin no bigger than my own head, that’s beginning to get larger by the second.
“Holy cowbells,” I quietly say to myself as I dodge an incoming wagon that’s chucked through the air by what I hope is magic.
>An orange pegasus colt darts from the air, striking my left chin, and ending me tumbling through the ground.
>I spring back up though, ready to fight, but I notice Ember’s getting double teamed by a clown and a mime.
>I bolt forward, tackling the mime into a nearby cabbage stand, and Ember bucks the clown with her powerful hind legs as it’s caught off guard.
Are you okay?
>“I’m fine. Thank you for the assistance.”
>I’ll admit, seeing as Ember was friends with my mom before I was even born, her difference in age is a little concerning, but she’s got spirit to sp-
>“WATCH OUT FIREFLY!”
>I leap back in a millisecond, as a massive wave of dirt and stone comes roaring past us.
>Sure who it came from, I follow the trail, and see Paul Pumpkin, now ascending a stairway of earth he created, that circles the continually growing pumpkin, that is now the size of a small shack.
I don’t like the look of this!
>I try to fly in and stop whatever he’s planning, but the orange pegasus tackles me, stopping my advance.
>In a thick Saddle Arabian accent, he tells me, “Don’t even think of harming our boss!”
>A faint rumbling is heard, and though I’m a bit high from the ground from the other ponies, I can tell the earth is shaking.
Get out of my way!
>He flies in for a hook, but I curve out of the way and buck him in the rump.
>I ignore fighting though, and head straight for Paul who’s now on top of his still growing pumpkin.
>His eyes glow an even brighter red, as the pumpkin begins to envelop in his dense purple magic.
>With my wings fluttering their hardest, I go from fast to superfast in an instant, but before I can even get close, he strikes me with a dark beam of his magic, causing me to wail in horrible pain.
>His magic stings and burns at my fur, and its pure force sends me hurtling back to the ground with a trail of smoke following.
>With my body on the ground, I realize the rumbling’s gotten even worse.
>My mind is in a boggle as I slowly work my way up, only to get body slammed by the orange pegasus.
>“Give it up pink horse lady.”
>Minty tries to leap in and help, but that drill haired filly flies in taking her to the ground in a chokehold. A could of guards follow from behind, trying to help.
>A powerful tremor suddenly cracks the ground, and I can see a couple of large thorny vine grow out near the pumpkin.
>It’s only for a moment though, as Paul unleashes another wave of earth towards us.
>The colt on me yells fearfully, “WAIT, BOSS?!” before letting go to escape out of fear of being crushed.
>In this brief moment, I only barely escapes, as the rubble destroys an orange cart and ruins the front of somepony’s home.
>Not wanting to be stopped again, I fly into the pegasus and push him as hard as I can from the air into a watermelon stand.
>It collapses burying him under a mess of heavy melons.
Now don’t let me catch you trying to stop me again!
>I turn; ready to fly back to Pumpkin, only to see myself faced with a giant vine as thick as a tree coming down from the air.
Oh jeepers.
>In a swift motion, it crushes me, him—pretty much everything, and craters the ground.
>Things go dark from there.

---

And I just thought to myself, I don’t have three days’ worth of time to waste on some stupid ego stroking event. Thankfully, she never found out about the invitation.
>Dustflower tells me, “Time is too precious to waste.”
Exactly! I’ve got responsibilities and-
>A distorted noise begins emitting from Jade’s horn. It’s a weird mix of whistling, static and humming.
>Her horn then begins to glow a dim green, and the noise turns into the sound of Paul speaking.
>“Jade?” asks Paul. “How is Anon doing?”
>“Anonymous still remains tied as when you left him.”
Hi, Paul.
>“Any attempts at escaping?” he asks.
>“Some effort, but to no evail. I believe he is trapped.”
>“Perfect! So uh…there’s been a slight change in plans, so I’m coming for Anon a bit early. God news for you and Dustflower I suppose. Now you won’t need to keep waiting.”
I’m guessing this has something to do with my friends.
>There’s a pause from Paul’s end.
>“…Anon, I am going to kill you so dead when I get there. You and Dustflower wait outside the door for me.”
>Her horn stops glowing, and the transmission ends.
>Jade begins walking to the door, and tells Dustflower, “Well, you heard the boss. Let’s go outside.”
>“I’m not comfortable having Anon left alone,” says Dustflower.
>“It matters not. The commands of our leader are the commands of our leader.”
>She exits, and though Dustflower’s a bit hesitant, she follows from behind closing the door on me.
>Well, looks like this is it.
>I take a deep and remorseful breath.
I think I’m beginning to miss the farm.

---

>…
>Uugh…
>Oh sweet peas and crackers, my head feels like it’s gonna split in two.
>I slowly enter consciousness on my back, as I feel the light smacking of a hoof on my cheek, and a damp sensation across my entire left side, from what I can only assume by smell, is watermelon juice that drained into the small trench I’ve been asleep in.
Uuuugh.
>My eyes slowly open, revealing Brightly, who’s right above me.
>Her forehead’s stained with blood, but her dress surprisingly isn’t as messed up as I’d expect. She even still has that glittery sparkle in her cheeks from her makeup.
“Are you okay Brightly?” I weakly ask.
>“Are you kidding? You almost got crushed like a pancake, and you’re asking me if I’M okay.
>She chuckles a little.
>“Good to know you’re head’s still okay.”
>I slowly turn onto my hooves, and as I get up, I take in my surroundings. The town civilians that weren’t fighting are finally returning into the streets. Most are just observing the aftermath, and a few are helping out the non-bad guy ponies that litter the ground.
>The rest are being loaded into a paddy wagon to eventually be transported to Campolianna.
>I thankfully notice the others are okay. Minty is limping a little, and as Ember approaches, I notice her Viking helmet's badly dented.
>Brightly wraps a hoof around my neck and tells me, “It’s good to know you’re okay buddy.”
>Ember adds, “You’re lucky you were next to that watermelon stand.”
>With the mention, I look behind me to see the watermelon stand, completely flattened, with every melon mashed.
>Ember tells me, “If it wasn’t for the height and density of that stand, you would’ve had a lot more pressure than just that.”
What about the pony I fought. He was in the stand when it got crushed…Did he-
>Brightly begins hacking uncomfortably loud.
>“Oh-Sorry. Had something caught in my throat there. Anyways, we have no time for chatting; Paul needs to be dealt with.”
>Minty adds, “He’s heading to the Cesseta Conclurium!”
The cemetery?
>I look far into the east, where the cemetery is located.
>The darkened sky makes it difficult, but sure enough, I can see that house sized pumpkin. It has now sprouted several gigantic vines, and three lift the pumpkin high into the air forming legs to allow it to walk.
>On its top, is a small figure that I can only assume is Paul.
That son of a gun!
>I try to take to the air, only for my wings to give a horrible stinging sensation before I can even give a full swing.
>I give a sharp screech, and the others come closer in concern.
>Brightly says, “Don’t push yourself!”
But we need to get to him as fast as possible. Anon could be in major trouble.
>We’re interrupted as a male voice yells “HEY” from the background.
>The voice came from a tall, brown ox, who’s pulling a taxi carriage with his partner, a male, lavender ox with short spikey hair.
>The lavender ox tells us, “Hop in. We’ll get you there in a split.”
>There’s a brief pause.
>Minty whispers to Ember, “I’ve never ridden a taxi with ox drivers before.”
>“I didn’t even know we had those around these parts,” Ember whispers back.
>I shush them.
Thank you so much for the offer, but you guys better be crazy fast if we want to catch up.
>The lavender ox tells us, “Lady, you’ll have a hard time finding a better alternative to ox power.”
>I hope they’re right.

---

>As I sit, a loud rumbling is heard from the outside of the mausoleum.
>I can feel sweat slowly forming across my brow from the inside of my banana suit.
>Why the heck do I need to be wearing a banana suit of all things? This is going to be so undignified.
>The tremors begin to grow louder and louder, and I can hear Dustflower from out the door quietly say, “His power is a touch concerning.”
>The tremors eventually stop as they gather to the left of the mausoleum. It then grows silent for what feels like an eternity from my own anticipation.
>Sadly, this pause ends, as the door slowly opens, revealing Paul, whose eyes have now become nothing but an unsettling crimson that unnaturally shines in the dimness.
>“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
>He begins to slowly walk forward, with a horribly blank expression. Yet when I look at him, I can only get a feeling of hunger, as if he were some wild beast ready to tear a small animal apart.
Paul, I know you want to kill me, but I seriously think something’s wrong with you. I’ve read about corruptive magic and it’s highly damaging to the psyche.
>He smacks me across the left cheek with his hoof, practically giving my neck whiplash from the impact.
>“I am sick and tired of all of your prowling into my personal life.”
>He gives me an even stronger hook across the right.
>“Half of me wants to take Dustflower’s sword and vitrify you right now!...You’re lucky though. I’m a gentlemen, and I’d never let someone die in such a horrible manner…Death has never been an interest of mine.”
Yet you let dozens of innocent ponies die because of your greed. How can you look at yourself and not realize you’re a hypocrite!
>His voice distorts slightly, and he yells, “QUIET!” in a thundering roar that sounds like not just his voice, but a second I can’t even recognize.
>It’s absolutely terrifying, but I can’t let him know that.
Th-the fact that you’re still wearing that skeleton mask made that a little less intimidating.
>Another hook. I deserved that one though.
>His horn glows an unusually dark and bubbling violet color, causing the ground to tremor once more.
>“I’m not a hypocrite, but business is business Anon.”
>I soon begin to feel something, liquid like, almost serpent in movement, wrap around my tied up ankles and the front legs of the chair that they are tied on.
>“Tell me Anon. During all of this time, did you ever realize you were sitting over a concrete floor?”
>His horn stops glowing, and my ankles are overcome with a heavy weight that I can only guess is concrete he had just animated.
>“Just a precaution. Last I want is you getting out of your /royal throne/,” he says with a sarcastic emphasis.
>“JADE! DUSTFLOWER!”
>His two unicorns immediately enter.
>“Help me levitate this guy to the boggy brink lake.”
>Dear god, there’s going to drown me!
>The three of them blast me in an envelopment of magic that alternates in swirls and streaks of purple, green, and red, as I slowly lift from the ground.
>With a slight struggle in his voice he tells me, “If you worship any gods, you might wanna start praying to em’.”
Yeah, I worship the ancient Aztec God of Go F#?k Yourself.
>He chuckles slightly.
>“You’re a very spirited boy.”

---

>In a matter of minutes, we’re already out of Dream Valley, and approaching the cemetery faster than we ever could have at full sprint. These guys are fast with a capital F…but they are a little chatty.
>The brown ox continues to drone on and on about topic after topic.
>“And the little baby Giddyup, she doesn’t eat even though we have 100 fruit in Dram Valley, 100 vegetable in Dream Valley, and I ask her, I ask her, “Little baby Giddyup, why you no eat food,” and then I realize, she had a stomach virus! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
>His brother begins laughing with him and we all uncomfortably laugh along.
>“HAHAHAHA YES!”
>He takes a deep breath.
>“…We should really see my daughter when we get to cemetery, ey’ brother?”
>It gets dead silent, and I begin to sink back into my seat.
>“…JUST KIDDING!!! GHAGHAGHAGHAGHA!”
>His brother joins back in.
>“KYOKYOKYO Vladdenhorn, you have the best stories!”
>“Thank you Yoddenhorn! GHAKHEK!”
>Finally, we make it to the cemetery, and sure enough, we can see that giant pumpkin, past a few dozen rows of tombstones, hanging over a building with its vines wrapping the walls.
>The taxi stops, letting us off.
Come on girls.
>We quickly get off of the taxi.
>Yoddenhorn tells us, “You lovely ladies are always welcome to return anytime on taxi!”
>We won’t.
>We thank them though as we begin galloping as fast as possible to the building.
>It’s then that we see Anon, being levitated in a chair by Paul and two other ponies.
>We begin yelling out for him, “ANON WE’RE COMING,” “ANON WE’LL SAVE YOU!” Anything reassuring to make him feel safe.
>He begins laughing and announces, “Way to NOT let me down guys.”
>The taller, green unicorn quickly leaves the two, causing Anon to drop slightly, and the act of carrying him to become harder.
>The mare begins charging forward with a large sword levitating, ready to slice us apart.
>“Get ready for a world of pain you fools!”
>Brightly tells us, “Close your eyes girls,” and in a flash, emits a powerful, blinding light from her horn that immediately ruins the sight of the mare.
>“AH! How dare you insolent wretch!” she says swingy wildly at nothing. “I’ll slice your neck off, and wear your skin as a coat!”
>Ember charges in, and gives the mare an uppercut that sends her straight on her back.
>She doesn’t get back up.
>Paul gives a frustrated groan.
>“You train over a dozen ponies, and they can’t even handle a bunch of pansy mares,” he says to himself. “Very well then.”
>Minty tells Paul, “Gives us back Anon, or this is gonna get ugly. Guards are going to catch up on this any minute now.”
>Paul gives a bewildered sigh.
>“I didn’t think I’d have to resort to this. But you pesky ponies have forced my hoof.”
>His horn begins to glow, and his entire body soon begins to emit the thick aura that is his magic. It then releases, in what’s practically an explosion of magic, that’s surprisingly isn’t physically harming.
>That wasn’t the point though.
>The dirt begins to slowly part and rumble, but he’s not animating the ground anymore. No, it’s far, far worse than what I could’ve anticipated.
>From a grave site a…a decrepit…and decomposed hoof actually punches its way out of the dirt.
Oh my Celestia.
>I hold back the immediate urge to vomit, as seven ponies, each practically skeletal from age, are reanimated, and forced out of their graves. Even worse, the pumpkin is once again brought to life, and begins moving towards us.
>“Well ain’t this a spooky situation,” says Paul.
>He continues walking away with the other mare and Anon.
>I’m so sickened I can barely moves, but Minty tries to stop them, only for a giant vine from the pumpkin to drop between them. A corpse pony in a tattered red dress then lunges at her, driving its teeth deep into her neck.
>She snaps me out of my state as she gives a high wail of pain before pushing it off. Now’s not the time for being a scaredy cat.
>A pair of corpses turns to me with an odd glow of purple in their barren eye sockets, and begins to charge towards me as more corpses begin to slowly rise from their grave.
I’m so sorry for you ponies.
>One lunges at me, snapping at the teeth with its disgusting corroded and gnawed away face, but I duck and launch it backwards as it lands on top of its back. The other I give a stern punch to the jaw, before pounding down the top of its head.
>From the background, a large vine drags across the ground to strike me, but I manage to jump out of the way, only getting hit with the flying dirt it leaves behind.
>I look up to the giant walking pumpkin that towers above us and ask aloud,
What do we do about that?!
>Brightly yells back, “It’s linked by magic! We’ve gotta get Paul if we wanna stop it!”
>She magically grabs the blade of that green pony and uses it to mow her way through several corpses before being lifted in the air by a thinner vine. She cuts it, only to be wrapped by two more, and thrown hard into the ground. A corpse then leaps on her, and she gives a high pitched scream that I’ve never heard from her.
>“Guy’s it’s touching me!” she says in a tone that sounds contrastingly weak to the tough ponesona I give to her.
>Minty yells out for Brightly, and bucks through a pair of zombies to get to her, but a hoof comes out of a grave to grab her leg, and force her down before several more come out of the woodwork to pile onto her; burying her face into the soft dirt, assaulting her with their sharp and cracked hooves, and pulling her back by the hooves and tail with their teeth. She tries to kick them away, but these skeletons are relentless.
>I run over, knocking a few off of Minty allowing her to throw the rest off on her own, only for another vine to come down nearly crushing us both.
>“We’re not getting anywhere at this rate,” says Minty as she runs from the vines with me.
I know.
>I buck a suit wearing corpse that springs at us.
>A vine grab my hoof mid run, sending me face first to the ground.
Minty help!
>She warps her hooves around mine to try and keep me grounded, but more vines come and lift us both.
>Minty yells out, “Ember help!” but she’s already buried under a pile of skeletal ponies.
Dang it, dang it, DANG IT!
>The vines begin to slowly wrap around my body, until making it to my neck, and slowly close in, strangling, and shaking me throughout the air.
>I begin gasping desperately for breath, thinking I’m going to suffocate.
>It’s all I can do at this point aside from flail helplessly.
>This goes on for nearly half a minute, until the most unexpected thing happens.
>A beam of magic is fired at the base of the vines, encasing them in a thick layer of ice, causing them to become brittle.
>I think to myself, “It can’t be,” before looking to the ground to confirming my thoughts.
>Sure enough, Frostbite is there still in her now torn and ruined powder blue ballerina outfit, and approaching behind her, are six guards, including a deep blue pegasus colt that flies to our aid.
>He tears some of the brittle vines apart with his teeth, before pulling me out in his big, strong forelegs.
>Despite my wings, I at least glide to the ground, giving him the freedom to take care of Minty.
>A trio of unicorns then begin firing at the pumpkin with a series of orange white and yellow lasers and blast, cracking it’s thick body, but not necessarily harming it.
>I’m not sure if it’s that easy.
>I come to the ground and Minty tells me, “Go get Anon. We’ll take it from here.”
Of course, and thank you.
>I charge forward, crashing through at least three or four skeletons, but I don’t stop. I continue as fast as my legs can take me, desperate to reach them before it’s too late.
>Finally, I can see them again, approaching a lake, ready to drop Anon into it.
>Forcing myself to use my wings, I propel forward, faster than I’ve flown in a long time, and let my hooves out to slam into them as hard as possible.
>Paul sees me approaching, and in a second, produces a massive wall of earth for me to crash in but…it’s hard to explain. It seemed almost like a twitch reflex, but I suddenly found myself around his wall, and I somehow tackled into him from the other side, pushing him through his own structure, reducing it to a rubble.
>I didn’t realize what I had done up until he was actually grinding back through the dirt.
>The reddish orange mare tries to fire at me with that same burning blast that ruined my wing a few months ago, but I summon evade each shot fired, and buck her into submission.
>When I finally feel able to stop, I realize I’m in a thick sweat, exhausted beyond belief, as if I had just flown a marathon in maybe seven…eight seconds tops. It doesn’t matter though, as I see Anon, lying on the ground, still trapped in the chair, but safe.
>Through my heavy breathing I tell him,
Don’t worry Anon; I’ll have you out in a minute.
>“Firefly, you are the best number two I could ask for. I mean that.”
>I want to untie him right now, but as I approach his chair, I can hear the sound of Paul, groaning as he gets up.
Oh no you don’t!
>I tackle him, keeping his face to the ground so that he can’t blast me with his magic, and I begin beating his horn in an attempt to break it in half.
>It glows that burning purple though, and despite my strongest blows, it just won’t break. It doesn’t even crack.
Come on! Come on all ready!
>Paul begins to slowly chuckle, as his horn began glowing stronger, and stronger.
>His magic begins to actually deflect my fist, and I continue desperately, until I hear Anon yells from the background, “FIREFLY WATCH OUT!”
>Before I knew what hit me, I feel a powerful, burning force collide with the back of my head with the speed of a dull arrow.
>I scream in shock and pain, before I feel a hoof drive deep into my left ribcage.
>My head turns to the sight as I roll backwards, and I see that cold expression from the girl I had just attacked. It’s a strong blow though, and I can’t seem to just get up and shake it off like the others.
>I’m in a lot of pain, worn out, and I’m in a struggle just to move.
>She slowly comes to me, and places her hoof to my neck before I could even muster the will to try and get up.
>Looking me dead in the eyes with her horn glowing red, I know there’s not much I can do.
>In a whisper as if she doesn’t want Paul to hear her, she tells me, “I’m sorry.”
>She then fires at my forehead, and in a matter of seconds I lose consciousness.
>The last thing I hear is the sound of Anon yelling for me.
Firefly! FIREFLY!!! YOU HAVE TO GET UP! PLEASE?! PLEASE?!!!
>I black out, with only the regret of not saving Anon filling my mind, as my fate is left to Paul and his assassin.
>I am a failure.