Zecora managed to get Sherclop Pones and the filly out of the cave. Some of the cult members had escaped, while others were trapped inside when the cave collapsed. Nobody shed a tear for them. Zecora walked as far as she could and then stumbled to the ground. Pones fell off of her.
Behind her was the deafening sound of the cave imploding. The ground shook under her for a minute, then quieted. They were safe.
Zecora first checked the filly, who was uninjured but still unconscious. Then she checked the inspector. He was badly burned on his back where the lightning bolt had hit him, but he was conscious and alert. "Relax, Inspector. I have a salve that should ease the pain." She applied a paste to his injury.
Pones relaxed a bit and managed to say, "The child, the ceremony?"
"The child is safe. The ceremony was stopped."
He shook his head. "No, you don't understand. The child was an offering, but the Smooze needed any offering. The cult leader, I saw Fluttershy push her into the bowl. Smooze," and he grimaced in pain, "Smooze got his offering."
Zecora processed this for a few minutes. If that was true, then the ceremony was completed after all. But what did that mean? The cult was destroyed and the leader killed. Surely that counted for something.
There was a rustling in the bushes. A group of ponies, who must have heard the cave collapse, were coming this way. Even the curfew could not stop the curiosity of the town. Among the group were the parents of the child. They rushed out ahead when they saw their daughter. The child awoke and began to cry. Her parents took her and consoled her.
The crowd was asking a dozen questions a second. The mayor along with the police chief came forward. "Everyone, please," said the mayor. To the police chief she said, "Get them to the clinic, hurry." The chief, along with a few other volunteers, took Zecora and Pones.
While recovering, Pones had debriefed the mayor and the police chief on what had happened. Zecora corroborated the story.
"So will the cult be back?" asked the mayor.
"The cult is spread all across Equestria," answered Pones. "No doubt this will be a blow to them. But Smooze had his offering. That is bad. What we must do now is prepare."
Zecora spoke up, "But it was a dark offering, Inspector. Smooze was expecting the offering of an innocent child. There must be a reason for that. Otherwise they would have sacrificed one of their own and saved the trouble of ponynapping. I may not know the cult, but I do know magic. I think that factor is significant."
Pones considered this. "I believe you may be right, Zecora. The Smooze prophecies talk about offering the pure to the Smooze, as a symbol of his assimilating the world. I don't know what a corrupted offering would mean."
"What about this Fluttershy?" asked the police chief. "Where is she?"
Zecora looked at Pones. He shook his head. Zecora then looked at the chief, "The last I saw her, she went to get someone. I assume they escaped."
"Get who?" asked the mayor.
"Me." All heads turned to the pony who had entered the room.
"Rarity!" said the mayor. "What were you doing there? Where is Fluttershy?"
Rarity found a chair to sit in. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally. It took her a minute to compose herself. "Fluttershy told me about the cult." She related to the group how she had come to know Fluttershy, and how she had gotten to the cult. "We escaped from another tunnel before the cave collapsed. Fluttershy ran off. I tried to stop her, but she insisted that she had to go. But she told me to tell you something." Every pony was hanging on her every word. "She said the offering to Smooze was bad. She acted before she thought, and that may have doomed us all. She said she doesn't know what Smooze will do now. But she said she must go find the solution, and she ran away."
The ponies present looked at each other. Zecora was the first to speak. "Then it is as I suspected. Smooze got his dark offering. I think, however, that it means Smooze will not be at full strength. He would need a pure soul for that. I think we can deal with this situation. I will research the magic, with the help of the Inspector's knowledge of the cult," she nodded toward Sherclop.
"Yes," he agreed. "but there is also another matter. What of the demon? They were driven out of Equestria more than twenty years ago. If they are back, and have joined forces with the Smooze cult, then we are in trouble."
"Demons we know how to fight," said the police chief. "We fought them once, we can do it again."
"Perhaps, but when-" the mayor tried to say, but before she could finish, a pony burst into the room, breathless.
"Mayor...chief," he said between breaths, "ponies are acting crazy."
"What are you talking about?" asked the mayor
"It's like they are under some kind of spell. Dozens of ponies are wondering the streets and leaving town."
The group, except for Pones, left the clinic as quickly as they could and went outside. It was true. Ponies were walking the streets in a daze. Not every pony, only about one in every four. But what was chilling was what they were saying.
"Smooze..." they would mumble. Whenever another pony would try to help them, the affected pony would snarl and push him away, then trot off.
Zecora and her companions watched as these ponies trotted out of town, off into the woods. The mayor looked to her and Rarity for answers. "What's going on?"
Zecora shook her head. "It looks like the cult has had a bigger impact than we thought."
"You're right," said Pones from behind her. Every pony turned to him. He had managed to crawl out of bed and was supporting himself against the door. Zecora went to help him. "My investigations led me to the theory that the cult could brainwash a pony, but only with the help of the Smooze. That is what the Smooze does. It distorts reality. With the dark sacrifice, as you call it, Zecora, the affects are limited. But still, some ponies have been affected."
"What do we do?" asked the mayor.
"Nothing, for now," he said. "Zecora will have to research a counter spell."
"It will be very difficult. I won't be able to do it alone," Zecora said. "What about you, Inspector?"
"I will go to the princess and tell her that Equestria must prepare."
"Prepare for what," asked the mayor.
Sherclop Pones watched the last of the affected ponies run off. "War."
