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Post by Luna on Apr 12, 2014 11:53:35 GMT -5
Some would call Diamond Dancer a hero. Others (Many others) would consider her a fool. Also kind of smelly, since it's hard to know when to bathe when you can't smell yourself. But that's besides the point. The point is, many, many ponies consider Diamond a fool. Wait, no. Ok. So, the point is, Diamond is sitting in the last cell, in the darkest, dankest corner of the Canterlot Dungeons. So yeah, probably a little ripe. Her eyes glint a dark and sinister red, and she slowly, slowly, reaches out to draw a horrific glyph upon the stone carved flooring. A dreadful, ominious marking only the most depraved of souls and deviants would dare place onto the world. A letter X; which is directly adjacent to a small letter O in a criss crossed pattern marked on the floor. "...Your Move." Crimson Maiden hisses darkly to herself.
Clara has come to the Canterlot Dungeon to petition and to sit vigil. She carries only a small leather pouch, her favored pickaxe as unwelcome as any other weapon in a place like this. So far, the guards have been wary around her, referring her to the Master of the Shift for her inquiries. The Diamond Dog, accompanied by the playwright Bardigan, approaches this uniformed stallion with a meek but unyielding expression, walking on all fours. "HelLLoO, GuaArRdpoNy. I have coOMe to inQuIIre as to the PriSsoOneR known as DIiiaMond DaanNcer."
The Guardpony regards the two visitors with a measure of suspicion before turning and walking towards the rearmost cells, "Alright, but keep your distance, I hear she's already broken one unicorn's horn off. Who knows what you might end up missing if you get within her reach..."
Bardigan is just behind Clara, looking around the great hall with something less than awe. He's not here for pleasure, though he might once have been. It seems like he can't get anything resembling pleasure in these days amidst the chaos and the possessions and... everything else. "We'll see," he grumbles at the guard, making a point to walk alongside him and a little ahead of Clara. He looks haggard and tired. Resigned more than depressed.
Clara seems a little stunned at this news, but she doesn't let it faze her. "I do nOt KeEep any HoORns," she remarks, falling in behind. She's been walking two-legged without her support for much of the day, and doesn't have the energy left for it now, so she lopes along, taking in each cell block as they pass it. "SheE has no MaAgic, CorRect?"
Red_Velvet comes striding into the dungeons, her coat a mess, a thick bandage wrapped around her head, with an ugly bloodstain in the center of her forehead. She does limp, seeming to favor her left side, but she doesn't let this slow her, much less stop her, she has come to check up on her daughter. Her expression is one of grim determination. She has placed this matter in the hooves of her diarchs. But Red Velvet plans for every contigency, and should everypony's efforts today fail. She has something already in place, and no matter what the cost, or how dire her methods. Red Velvet will not see her daughter swallowed by this evil that by all rights should be eating -her- from the inside.
The guardpony nods to the Diamond Dog, "That's right, she hasn't so much as moved since she was put in the cell, and she refuses to eat as well."
"Diamond doesn't," Bardigan grumbles to Clara. "This Maiden? I have no idea. I'm here to help, that's all I know." He turns around at the clatter of Red's entry, and his eyes widen. No matter how he feels, seeing a pony in that kind of shape is enough to awaken his empathy. "Red?" he gasps, all his previous anger to her forgotten, or at least suppressed. "What happ..." But then his jaws clamp shut as he eyes the bloody bandages, and he sighs heavily.
Luna is just far enough behind Red Velvet to be out of sight. Of course, guards do not block her way. This one gets her horn pointed at his face along with the order, "Gold, iron, silver, and lead. Fetch them. Keep fetching them. A pony's-weight of each shall be sufficient." Blue light plays over her horn, and the dungeon gate tears off its hinges. "This shall do to begin." She heads down the hall into the dungeon, walking slowly, but her power runs before her. An already dark and dank place sinks into shadows. Cold air suddenly smells, not of inside mold and filth, but of mist and grass and spring rot. Crickets begin chirping, every little bit of mold or mushroom glowing in a crack glows white, and metal reflects light that isn't there, like a field of stars slowly fading into view in the evening.
Diamond_Dancer's ears perk when she hears the scuffling of hooves trotting down the stairs and down the halls of the castle's dungeons. No no no! Are they coming to let her out?! No! They can't free the Crimson Maiden! But the creature inside of her jumps at the chance to taste freedom again, and Diamond oddly, awkwardly, tries to wobble to her hooves- only to fall over onto her face. "I hate you." Mumbles the creature deep in her soul. "Likewise." She mumbles. Her ears perk at the voices of Red, and Bardigan and...is that Clara? Diamond is excited and happy, and sad all rolled into one. The Crimson Maiden just wants to taste blood.
Clara senses converging forces as well. Hr ears cant to the creak of another door opening, and as the wounded pony comes into view, limping and... and mutilated.. Clara finds a second wind and surges forward. "No. PoOny. UuniCornn." She breathes raggedly and steps past the sighing Bardigan toward Red Velvet, whom she has never met. "ForGiIve me if I my InstIincTs are fAailing me. But you ArRe a uNiiCorn, yes? And You... you have beeEn BroOoken." She seems ready to offer compassion, or something like it, when the signs of high magic approach like an invasion of night. They are within earshot of Diamond's cell.
The guard blinks and sort of looks at that long, rather sharpe horn a bit warily, he's not normally afraid of his princess, but the steel in her voice leaves him painfully aware that he'd better not press his luck by doing anything other then exactly as she says and as quickly as his hooves may carry him. He nods and turns to dash down the hall, he's not needed here, that much is clear.
It turns out Bardigan's sigh is for Luna as well. He can sense the tingle of purpose in the air. He turns around, away from Red and Clara, and trots into the dark ahead of the Princess. He looks into the cage holding the Maiden, and his breath seizes up in his throat when he gets a look at his little sister. "Diamond," he croaks. "Don't hurt her," he says to Luna, as if that might make some effect on her inexorable progress. His voice is stuck between a command and a plea.
Red_Velvet fixes her eyes on both Bardigan and The Diamond Dog beside him, in spite of her condition she smiles and nods at Clara's question. reaching up to very gingerly touch her hoof to her forehead, wincing as she does, "I am, yes darling. I am a unicorn, or was...depending upon how one sees things now. All that is left is splinters of bone, some small torn fibers of skin, and the soft tissue that used to bring blood to my horn. What I have allowed to happen to my little filly, is far more painful than any loss of blood on my part." She turns when she hears the princess coming just behind her, biting her lower lip in nervous hope to see her daughter restored to her.
Diamond_Dancer Gives a sharp little quivering hiss, and scuttles herself into the far corners of the dungeon- into the darkness again, glaring out at the ponies and Diamond Dog outside of her cell. She's hardly visable- but you can feel that hateful, spiteful glare razing through the air. If she could properly express her words, The Maiden would make mention of Diamond's emotions surging when the creature spots Bardigan, and then Red...and then Clara. Three of Diamond's closests- but all of this pales in comparison when she feels the familiar tell-tale tingles of magic dancing across the air. That's Princess Luna. The Princess of the Night. Mistress of Dreams. Boss with that great pension plan AND casual Fridays! Somewhere, deep down inside, Diamond knew this was coming. She would die the way she lived- Housing the blood thristy spirit of an ancient warlord. She hopes Bardigan will write a play about this, or maybe, at lease secure the movie rights.
Clara's eyes widen at the wounded unicorn's candid description of her condition, but she doesn't quail, being used to such descriptions. She maintains eye contact with the blue unicorn for a couple of seconds before turning her attention, perforce, to the bluer alicorn behind her. She faces the night princess on fisted paws, and while her shoulders forcibly relax, she does not bow.
Luna is not interested in Bardigan or Red Velvet. She walks up to the cell carrying the door above her, bluegreen eyes entirely on Diamond Dancer. At least, it starts out that way. Before she reaches the bars, the floating iron door has gone liquid and globby, flowing down towards the tip of Luna's horn. Aquamarine irises disappear in white light, glowing eyes that shine like spotlights on Diamond Dancer. "It has been a long time, Aura." Luna's head lowers, and a blaring noise like a drill accompanies the silvery blast from her horn that engraves a circle of iron symbols along the walls and floor around the foal. As loud as it is, Luna keeps talking calmly, although not emotionlessly. There is definitely a thread of hate in there. "Coincidences are remarkable things. We did see Menoetious but a month agone. Any pony would think that burning him to ashes and scattering those ashes in the sea would be sufficient, but that fool Drakul spent decades combing enough ashes from the water to regenerate him. Worry not. That lapse was fixed. The Princess of the Night takes putting thy kind down quite seriously."
It does not take long at all for the castle guard to put prompt action to Princess Luna's orders, and soon enough whole carts of materials are being pulled up to the dungeon gate and wedged through.
Bardigan is coltfriend to another Princess and tried to woo the one right in front of him. He knows when he's outclassed, and in spite of his fluttering heart he takes several heavy steps back. His breathing sounds ragged and wet, and his eyes are ever on Diamond Dancer. One hoof touches a saddlebag he's wearing, clutching... something inside. He licks dry lips with a parched tongue, apparently waiting for something. "Thank you for coming," he whispers sidelong to Clara.
Red_Velvet stands just behind Bardigan and Clara, having stepped back to give the night Princess room to do what needed to be done. Although her head still throbbed what caused Red's eyes to shimmer with tears was seeing her daughter in this way, knowing that Diamond had taken the spirit of the evil titan into her in order to pull the demon out of Red herself. As Luna addresses the titan inside the filly a dry, hissing laugh reverberates throughout the hall, "Fools, do what you like. I am bound to this world in a way neither Menoetious or Drakul ever were. My progeny, Red Velvet. Unless you are willing to burn her along with me, my power will always bloom."
Luna finishes the circle of iron symbols. She gives a nod to Diamond Dancer and the thing possessing her before moving on to suck liquid gold out of a cart. This is shot out as concentric circles, inside and outside the iron glyphs. The glyphs have already started to glow, pale white like starlight. "Quite so. We had to lock up poor Prometheus for a similar reason. It does seem that as long as thy blood befouls ponykind, thy spirit will lurk in the world, attached to host after host." The gold circles were quick. Now silver is drawn from the cart. This is drawn into elegant curls, linking the golden circles and the iron symbols. She clearly enjoys drawing this, because she laughs a long, malicious, downright Nightmare Moon sort of laugh.
Diamond_Dancer stands there in hushed silence, glaring daggers at the princess of the night with those red tinted pupils. "Quiet." She snarls- but it's not a snarl directed at the princess. No, it seems Diamond is exuberantly cheering the Princess on, even while under the vile control of this -thing.- Thats right, Diamond isn't trapped with the Crimson Maiden- The Crimson Maiden is trapped with Diamond! OH yeah, Diamond's squeaky little preteen voice is echoing endlessly off the inner walls of her own head, which leads to the occasional eye twitch and grunt from the Crimson Maiden. (This is the fourth round of 9999 bottles of Cider on the wall. for Diamond.)
Clara shifts her head and floppy ears Bardigan's way. She spent an hour or two at her cottage before they set out, much of it in silence. But she hopes she made it clear that she appreciates his companionship with regard to their mutual loved one just as much. Any attempt she would have made to converse with the poor victim of the manifestation is superceded by Luna's efforts. "WhAt is she doOoing?" asks the Diamond Dog softly. She shifts her position so that she can see Diamond Dancer... and gasps. A lump moves down her hefty throat.
"Something that I'm sure she hasn't had to very often. Something done when the world was still being made," Bardigan whispers, and all the reasons he loved Luna before come rushing back to the forefront of his mind. He scoots back until he's pressed against the wall, and the thing he's clutching inside the bag is probably being crushed by his grip. "She was mine before she was ever yours," he murmurs, looking straight at Diamond. "You won't take her from me." But he may be speaking to Luna or the Maiden or even something else. His breathing is definitely getting heavier, and his hoof leaves the bag, searching for Red or Clara to latch onto.
Red_Velvet gently brushes Bardigan's hoof with her own, then guiding his hoof to Clara's paw before she steps into a distant corner, glaring teary-eyed murder at the Crimson Maiden, "You witch, I have the utmost faith that the Princess can deal with you. But you listen to me now, you -mark- me and what I have to say. And don't you for an instant think I am bluffing. If it truly is my blood that lets you return again and again, you just better remember this. You have taken over my filly, you tried to make me -hurt- her, make me hurt my special somepony, make me hurt everypony I care about." Red's whole body is trembling and her blood pressure seems to have risen high enough then her forehead has once against begun bleeding, "I -swear- if I ever even suspect that you are trying to return, I will personally build a bonfire with my own two hooves, and throw myself bodily into it. You will -never- EVER use me or my loved ones like this again, EVEN IF IT COST ME MY LIFE!" Red's moment of passion may be underwhelming because of her lack of magic, her injuries, and her mortality in the face of all that her ancestor Aura may be. But her dedication and fury are unquestionable. She turns away and clutches her head as her wounds cause a stab of pain through her skull. The Maiden is certainly unimpressed with Red Velvet's bravado, and while Luna's actions do indeed cause an upwelling of fear in Aura, one that Diamond would be able to feel mingling with the irritation she caused. Red Velvet just gets mocked for her efforts, the sibalant hiss giving a low chuckle, "You really should calm down granddaughter, you'll bleed to death that way." It's clear Aura is attempting to distract herself from her own apprehension of the Night Princess.
Clara holds Bardigan's hoof firmly. When the wounded unicorn starts to bleed, though, she leaves one hand holding Bardigan while the other roots through her bag. She extracts a kerchief and moistens a packet of herbs, preparing a poultice. When the wounded pony steps back--the invader's granddaughter?--Clara steps forward silently and touches the poultice to her forehead. She asks no permission, but goes gently, firming her grip but ready to pull away if the injured pony protests.
Luna finishes carving in the silver, and lifts her head. "Yes, do, Red Velvet. Calm thy blood. She needs it, after all. She is drawn to it, like an anchor." Now Luna twists her shoulders, extending one wing, withdrawing it, then the other, stretching out knots in her back - or perhaps limbering up. "Well, then. We owe thee all an explanation. This pretty mess is a magical seal. It blocks large amounts of magic. The more magic, the more resistant. This one focuses particularly strongly on the living magic of Earth Ponies. Now that the shield is raised, we are not certain we ourself could pass it. Aura and her host are locked in by the same potency that makes her so hard to destroy. It would feel like a wall, if a breakable one, to the Elements of Laughter or Honesty. Lesser ponies would merely be discomfited." She smiles, her eyes still glowing, her elegant eyebrows turned down in delighted malice. "Sitting in there forever would surely get boring, however, so we have brought thee a pet." A sparkle of blue, and a snail is plucked off of a damp stone, floating through the bars to hover in front of Luna's face. The smile fades just for a few seconds, long enough for Luna to whisper to the snail, "I regret what comes next, night child." The blue around the snail turns to purple, and black and purple flickers up Luna's horn. It's a flash, gone before a pony could blink an eye, yanking a tiny streak of pale mist from the snail. With a snail ghost circling her mane, Luna steps into the cell, walking through bars that melt and run like water at her touch. As the snail floats ahead of her into the elaborate circle, Luna's jovial tone returns. "Worry not. It shall need no care or keeping. It takes its tiny home with it, just big enough to be packed into tightly. Is that not a wonder?"
Meanwhile, in Diamond's Head: "You will watch your mother perish. I swear you- "You will watch your mother perish, I swear you- "..." "..." "Stop mimicing me! I'm going to END HER." "Stop Mimicing me, I'm going to END HER." "I SWEAR YOU WILL SUFFER AND ENDLESS MISERY IF-" "I SWEAR YOU WILL SUFFER AN ENDLESS MISERY IF-" OK? YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M DONE. I'M DONE WITH THIS." "OK? YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M DONE. I'M DONE WITH THIS." And Diamond just sits there, with her facial expression slowly getting madder and madder in silence.
Bardigan's eyes widen as he seems to realize Luna's intent. He sits up straighter, tugging Clara's hand forward as he leans towards the cage. His lips quiver, as if on the verge of crying out, waiting on a hair trigger. One of his free hooves stamps the ground like an eager racer. He seems on the verge of a smile, teetering back and forth on the precipice.
Red_Velvet allows Clara to help her, not resisting the caring touch. First her ears cant backward to listen to Princess Luna's advice, and it seems her head turns slightly in Clara's direction, to aid in the Diamond Dog's efforts, while also allowing Red's eyes to follow the action. Her fury for the moment spent, Red simply watches, making no real effort to clean her face of blood or of tears. One hoof does come up to gently stroke Clara's arm and a softly spoken, "Thank you..." may be heard.
Diamond_Dancer's eyes watch and flicker with malice at the Princess's smug, and superior speech. Her muzzle twists to disgust and hatred, and it looks like she is about to spit the most vile of poisons in a vicious retort before her eyes lock onto that snail. "...My vengence on thee will not be merciful." She hisses. "To you, This I swear."
Clara lets Bardigan pull her closer, and her ears and eyes show that she listens to Luna's narrative, setting forth her intentions. She straightens, standing erect once more, and her teeth show for a moment to Diamond Dancer, or rather, to her occupier. But rather than watch the confrontation, she turns back to Red Velvet, stroking the side of her head with a gentle touch. The Healthkeeper carefully loosens the unicorn's bandage, slips a pinch of her healing herbs beneath, and refastens it as well as she can. She removes a length of leather cord from her pouch and ties the kerchief on as an additional layer, should the blood seep further. "If yOu would taalk laAter, I shaLl lissteN." For now, she lowers herself from the invalid and looks again to the cell, where grim and hopeful things are transpiring.
Luna's face twists suddenly, her grin leeringly evil, her teeth not quite flat, just a little pointed. "It shall also not be any time soon," she answers with cruel glee. Her eyes widen, manically playful, and her voice changes tone to faux shock. "Ah, but wait. This looks like just any snail. We want thee to know it is THY snail. Thou should be drawn to it. It should feel like home to thee. A touch of color should do the trick." Drops of blood float out of the mess Clara is busy bandaging, whirling through the air like snowflakes on the breeze, and coalescing to cover the snail's shell in a bloody stain. "Thou did always like the color red, Aura. Ah, and Night's Errant? We shall owe thee dear for this." The snail floats into the circle, and is set down on the floor next to Diamond Dancer. The snail just sits there, not dead, but... empty. DD, and the thing inside her, aren't given any time to do anything about it. Luna's shining eyes blaze, retina-scalding, while starlight burns as brightly up and down her horn. The magic doesn't pass through the circle - it erupts instead from the silver crescent moon that Diamond Dancer bears printed on one hoof. Power shoots through her, scouring, purifying, forcing out thought and dirt and disease and alien contaminants of all kind, physical and magical. It also hurts, with a pain that comes from the inside, and needs no nerve endings - the kind of torture that might incline a pony to abandon her body for another, even if she weren't being given the boot.
That searing white hot blaze of pain can't be squelched. It can't be hidden, or muted or buried by any stretch of effort The Crimson Maiden would put forth. There is no words to describe it- no sensation to akin to it, nor is there anything like it in the realm of Equestria. It hurts. It hurts in a way a regular pony can't even comprehend, and the Titan inside of this little pony can only bearly grasp the true extent of this agony rippling through her frame. There is no other choice. This maddening torture erupts from Diamond in the form of her eyes turning from scarlet to turquoise and her body slumps forward. There was no other choice. There is no doubt. That Snail now houses the spirit of the Crimson Maiden.
And as the magic begins, at last Bardigan speaks under his breath. Just for the barest moment. And then it is over. Or at least, it's as over as Bardigan wants it to be. He's through waiting, and the moment the lightshow is finished, Bardigan pushes through the invisible barrier, shuddering as it reacts to his small gift of pegasus magic, and he falls upon Diamond Dancer to gather her up in his hooves, wordlessly clutching her to himself.
In the next moment, once she is securely against Bardigan's chest, the playwright drags Diamond out of the circle, away from the dark magic and fell spirits and back where she belongs.
Bardigan collapses against Clara and buries himself and Diamond against her chest, and goes silent.
Clara too hustles forward once the magic is done, now that the unicorn's bleeding has ceased. She doesn't seem to feel the strength of the barrier at all. "DaanNCer," she murrs. She Helps Bardigan remove her from the circle and then kneels beside him, supporting his head against her side. Her lap is reserved for Diamond.
The instant Diamond clears the inner ring of gold, it collapses. Springing up off the floor and walls, it shrinks in to become a golden shell around the possessed snail. Then the iron glyphs are passed, and they spring up and print themselves in the gold. Silver traceries, another gold shell... with a sound like a half dozen doors slammed shut one after the other, the snail is turned into a tiny metal snail statue. Finally, the blazing white light of Luna's magic fades, and a gentler blue pulls liquid lead out of the cart, and more drops of blood from Red Velvet's bandages. They mix together, and form a final, gleaming red metal layer atop all the others. Trotting forward, Luna scoops the statue up in one wing, and remarks cheerfully, "Well, we shall have to find a nice mantelpiece to display thee on."
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