Chapter Ten: Battle at Midnight Castle
The details of our journey to Midnight Castle are mercifully blurred in my mind. Even as we sought that foul bastion, I remained unaware of the lands we passed through. It suffices to say that a menace far surpassing that of Tambelon pressed on me from all sides as though I were submerged in deep water.
Before we set out, Chichi gave us globular lanterns made of red paper. Had dawn been a certainty, the sight of these gently glowing lights in these small suns would have made for a cozy evening. The bleak reality of our situation heightened my sense of how fragile our guiding lights were, how, like our very lives, the Night could engulf them in black oblivion, never to be found again.
At last we arrived at the place that would decide our destinies. Firefly slowed and peered over the top of a dark boulder. "There it is," she whispered. "Midnight Castle."
I joined her, resting my front legs on that grave-cold rock. For many minutes, I could not make sense of the shape before me. In color, Midnight Castle was darkness given form, but a malleable shape, wily and ever-changing. One moment, I thought I saw the shadow of a great tree. But then I blinked, and the tree became a jagged stalagmite, then a completely nonsensical structure crowned with cruel spires. Perhaps this was to be expected. I wondered if creatures of the dark had such trouble making sense of things wrought by we light dwellers.
The wind had grown stronger the closer we drew to Midnight Castle. At the base, the gusts buffeted us with such strength that I marveled that the castle itself did not fall, for surely the wind became stronger higher up. Down these wind currents, ripe and moist with the lurking storm's unspent fury, a dark message came to me.
"Paradise, help me!"
That unmistakable voice raised a shudder through my entire body. "Sweet Stuff! Where are you?" I yelled against the very wind that had brought me her plea, though I had no real hope that she would hear and answer. I tossed my head, squinted through my thick hair, which the wind pushed against my eyes. The sky was vacant, however, and there were no other ponies within shouting distance, save the three with whom I had come to Midnight Castle. There were many rock faces from which Sweet Stuff's voice might have resounded, too many for me to discern from the ground. Were I to fly, however… Suddenly I found myself in the air, struggling to right myself. Not far below me, Firefly braced against the stony ground, my tail clenched between her teeth.
"What are you doing, Paradise?" Bowtie said.
"I heard Sweet Stuff calling for help." But they could not hear me over the howling gale, so I was forced to land and repeat myself, nearly shouting to be heard.
"I didn't hear anything!" Firefly said. Bowtie glanced from Firefly to me in alarm, then darted toward the flowing rapids.
"Bowtie! Wait!" Firefly called.
The blue pony did not return; she must have been out of earshot.
"Wait," Firefly breathed. "Wait. She'll come back."
In short time, my concern for Bowtie became another: Shady was also missing.
"Look!" Firefly said.
A light orb, backed by two nearly-invisible pony figures, started back for us. When Shady and Bowtie were close enough to hear, they reported a story similar to mine. Shady had wandered toward Midnight Castle in search of a phantom voice. Unlike me, however, she had heard Gusty.
"We cannot trust this wind," Firefly said after I related once more how I had heard Sweet Stuff. "I think it works together with the moat to keep intruders out."
I had to admit she was right, especially remembering how little control I had over my flight once I had started looking for Sweet Stuff.
"You both seemed hypnotized," Bowtie added.
"Does anyone else see those flashes at the top of the castle?" Shady said. "What could those be?"
I looked beyond concentric clouds to what must have been the pinnacle of towers, or a walkway shared between them, where, intermittent flashes, made tiny from our vantage point, flickered. "I do. But what are they?"
"Perhaps from Scorpan and Tirek's fight," Bowtie said.
"How will we reach the top?" Firefly said. "Paradise is the only one who can fly. And we'll never get across the moat, between the current and the rocks."
"Allow me," a disembodied, strangely familiar voice said.
The four of us looked around, seeing no one. "What was that?" Shady said.
"It is I, the Moochick. I am diverting my magic from the barrier to speak to you through Chichi's scry ball. Casting our spell with the unicorns, my sister and I realized that Midnight Castle has grown during the Night that Never Ends. Chichi thinks that if it continues to expand, it will soon engulf the Mushromp and all of Dream Valley!"
"What can we do?" Shady shouted.
"Let me help you to the roof," the Moochick said. Green-gold light, the hue of a forest canopy in the afternoon, jumped from the paper lanterns Chichi had given us and formed a staircase of similar color in the Night. Inspecting the first stairs from overhead, I found that they were slightly transparent. Then I gazed up, higher and higher until the path he had laid for us vanished in the dark. I could only hope that it would, in fact, lead to the roof.
"Please hurry," the Moochick urged. "I haven't much power remaining. Midnight Castle has become too vast to navigate in weeks, let alone the brief time you have."
Bowtie and Firefly went rigid with fear and indecision. "What if it's a trick?" Bowtie said.
The Moochick gave no answer. The path he had laid for us remained inscrutable.
"He's right. It's our only chance!" Shady leaped onto the faintly green and gold stair from the side; Bowtie and Firefly had obstructed the front way. The stair held firm. Her golden mane and tail whipped around her like a banner in a hurricane.
I thought for a minute, then joined Shady on the stairs. "Come on!" I called, raising one hoof to beckon to Firefly and Bowtie. "The voices Shady and I heard never answered back."
"There is no other way," Firefly said at last, coming behind us. Bowtie followed shortly after, and we began our trek upwards.
The Moochick's stair proved longer than I had ever thought possible. As formidable as Tirek's stronghold appeared from the ground, the intimidating sight amounted to little compared to galloping somewhat above it from the roots to the pinnacle. I realized before long that Midnight Castle was less of a castle and more of a mountain. And if the Moochick was right, given enough time, this dreadful place would expand into a mountain chain, the fetters of which would bind all Ponyland.
Despite their resemblance to delicate colored glass, for now, the stairs were as solid as stone. However, there was no knowing how long they would keep their solidarity. Our hooves rang out on them as though they were marble. This sound was enhanced by an invisible shield the Moochick had raised around the stairs to keep the wind from knocking us over the edge. It was rather like running through a tunnel while the storm, darkness lost in darkness, wailed its wrath around us. On and on we ran. I began to wonder if the summit of this evil mountain were attainable.
Suddenly Shady's flanks ahead of me descended. Alarm jolted through my already-frayed nerves before I understood that we had reached the top of Midnight Castle. The stairs, I soon discovered, ended on the bulwarks. Shady had merely jumped from bulwarks to the roof. I followed, then turned with her to encourage Firefly and Bowtie. Not a moment too soon, they were at our side on the roof. Dizziness surged through me as the stairs flickered and faded. What might be the last words I ever spoke to my companions flickered to my mind. Before I could utter them, I sighted Spike's body, run through upon a wickedly-serrated blade of night-dark steel.
"Pathetic!" Tirek shouted from above. Scorpan and Tirek's clash brought them so near to us that I heard the whistle as their blades cut the air.
"Is this all the power the Dayblade can muster? Or is the wielder lacking?" Tirek mocked Scorpan.
I shuddered, remembering a similar, though indescribable, quality that had filled Grogar's voice.
Scorpan had no retort for Tirek's insult; he needed all his strength to fly after his enemy's chariot, pulled by four swift dragons. Snarling, cursing, straining like two blood-hungry beasts, Scorpan and Tirek never noticed as they passed right by us. In Scorpan's hands, the Dayblade shone with pale, spectral light, when before, the metal had been as that of any other sword.
"That monster!" Firefly seethed. At first I did not understand her anger as she glared with gritted teeth from Spike to Tirek. Then I recognized the sword with which the centaur fought as the twin to the one that had felled Spike.
"Look at the Rainbow of Light," Shady said.
Tiny rays of prismatic light shone around the locket's periphery, at least as strong as the wavering illumination of the Dayblade.
"It must be reacting to the Rainbow of Darkness," Firefly said in wonder.
"I will fly at the edge of their battle - I don't think they have noticed us yet – and get the Rainbow of Darkness from Tirek," I said.
"But didn't Chichi say the Rainbow of Darkness might be powerful enough to obliterate the Rainbow of Light?" Bowtie said.
"It is our only way to help Scorpan," I pointed out.
"She also said bringing the two rainbows together was the only hope of restoring the Rainbow of Light's power," Shady said. "And there's no other way we can help Scorpan. They're battling in the sky!"
At a roar from Scorpan, all heads turned to the fight. Tirek drew back his blood-stained blade with a menacing grin. Scorpan pressed his free hand against his shoulder but could not stop the red from running through his fingers.
"Shady and Paradise are right," Firefly said.
"I understand," Bowtie said. "It may be risky, but all that's left to us is hope."
Although every nerve in my body screamed for me to rush to Scorpan's aid, I did not fly directly into the fray. Instead I hid behind a tower and waited for them to pass close to me. As a formidable foe for Scorpan, Tirek would certainly be impossible for me to contend with. And if I should perish, our chances of seizing the Rainbow of Darkness would be lost.
To my alarm, Scorpan could barely parry the centaur's blows. Before long, the once-prince's back was pressed against the very wall I had hidden behind. The eyes of Tirek's dragons reddened with bloodlust. Their growls hummed through the air, a vibration like thunder. The Dayblade's light wavered.
I could spare no more time! I dived toward Tirek and seized the leather thong that kept the Rainbow of Darkness around his neck. I had thought to pull it over his head, but I had underestimated the width of his horns.
"Gurragh!" Tirek slashed overheard.
I only dodged by letting myself fall. The thong held fast against my entire body weight and the grip of my teeth; the strain on my neck and jaws was incredible.
"You!" Scorpan said with grim incredulity when he saw me.
Light flared in my eyes, and suddenly I was tumbling away from Tirek and Scorpan, the Rainbow of Darkness dangling from my mouth by its severed thong.
The pouch was so light, one might have thought it contained nothing. I wanted to shout encouragement to Scorpan, but I did not dare drop the rainbow that had darkened Ponyland.
"Come back here!" Tirek shouted.
Behind me, a radiance arose, all the sunrises this Ponyland had forgotten remembered in a single instant. I turned back, and through the brilliance, I saw Scorpan's Dayblade clash with Tirek's, obstructing the centaur from pursuing. I imagined Scorpan saying something like, "Your battle is with me, Tirek."
By the time I reached my friends on the ground, Tirek was roaring for the guards Chichi and the unicorns had sealed. I hoped their spell remained intact.
"Paradise!" Firefly whispered in admiration. "How I wish I might have helped you wrestle the rainbow from him."
"Never mind," I said, depositing the Rainbow of Darkness between us. "Come, let me open the locket." With some difficulty – how I wished Megan, the Moochick, anyone with hands might have come with us – I pried the heart halves apart. The sliver of rainbow emerged and perched by Firefly's shoulder as though waiting for something.
"It's not doing anything," Bowtie said.
"Maybe it won't work unless the Rainbow of Darkness is free, too," Firefly suggested.
"Then I'll free it," Shady said.
"Shady, it's dangerous," I said. My protest sounded weak and defeated after her tenacious resolve.
"I know, Paradise, but for Gusty and Sweet Stuff's sakes, I have to try." Shady began wrestling with the drawstrings. Raw-nerved, I alternated between glancing skyward, then at Shady. There was no sign of the Dayblade's light, which I took to mean the battle had moved farther off.
In this I was mistaken. Too late, Firefly and I sighted Tirek's chariot zooming ground-ward, Scorpan draped over Tirek's shoulder.
"Shady, look out!" I screamed.
But Tirek was not aiming for her or his rainbow. Instead he brought dragons and chariot crashing to the rooftop. The force of the dragons' landing knocked Shady and the Rainbow of Darkness to the opposite side of the roof from Firefly, Bowtie, and me. The Rainbow of Light followed us, hovering uselessly while we tried to regain our feet.
"Feeble little pony!" Tirek reached toward Shady as though he beckoned to her. "Join the forces of darkness!" Then he raised his sword skyward. I thought of a conductor commanding a select few instruments to play.
Firefly, Bowtie, and I gasped as the clouds unleashed their dark rain. At the same instant, Shady freed the Rainbow of Darkness. Her triumph drowned in the storm of dark rain conjured exclusively for her. Tirek's grimace twisted his face like a gnarled tree trunk wrapped in its own roots.
At the rain's first touch, Shady's back arched, and a scream rose from her throat, first in the voice I knew, then the wild screech of a dragon.
Shady. It's Shady, I tried to think as the beast tossed its head and gouged chunks of stone loose with its claws. I couldn't help it, however; the primal fear overcame me, and I cowered at what my friend had become.
Around the dragon swirled a sinuous, snake-like shadow that could only be the Rainbow of Darkness. The Rainbow of Light glided toward it as though hypnotized.
"Behold the power of darkness!" Tirek shouted triumphantly. As though these words were a command, the Rainbow of Darkness passed over that of light, obliterating it as though it had never been.
"Our rainbow! It's gone!" Firefly shouted.
"We're finished!" Bowtie moaned.
The Rainbow of Darkness arced over us. I huddled in a helpless ball with Firefly and Bowtie at its feet. Then a glimmer of prismatic light caught my eye. "No, look!" I shouted in realization. "Our rainbow is fighting back!"
"It can't be!" Tirek said.
The sight of the rainbow gave Firefly, Bowtie, and me the courage to stand.
Shady's sacrifice would not be pointless! Even as I made the vow, Tirek turned to the dragon Shady had become. "Destroy them!" he commanded her. Dimly I was aware that our rainbow's colors had transformed nearly half of its dark counterpart. With a deafening roar, the dragon threw its head back.
"What are you waiting for? Kill them!" Tirek commanded. But even then, the beast would not budge.
"Shady," I whispered, the tears stinging my eyes.
"Fine then. You shall have your companions!" The centaur flung Scorpan to the ground and spread his arms full-length. An ominous prelude of drops pattered across the roof, and I knew the storm was coming for us. "Change!" Tirek said in a voice resounding and terrible.
Bowtie, Firefly, and I gazed skyward, unable to avert our eyes from our imminent defeat. Above us, the Rainbow of Light completed its merge with that of the dark just before the first of the deluge fell. To my amazement, the drops never reached us, but slid past as though a window stood between us.
Firefly realized what was happening first. "The rainbow – it's protecting us!" she said in amazement.
I dared to look away and discovered, sure enough, that the ground was completely dry. Above, our rainbow had expanded into a dome. Shady and the dragons that had pulled the Chariot of Midnight hid their faces from its light at the far side of the roof.
Tirek let out a guttural growl. Behind him, a light winked into being. I drew as near to the rainbow dome's edge as I dared, trying to determine what it was. It was nearly on top of Tirek before I understood. "Scorpan!" I breathed a sign of relief. He was alright!
Looking back, I often reflect on the irony that Scorpan's rally against Tirek was foiled by the Dayblade. If not for the sword's shine alerting Tirek to Scorpan's charge, he might have continued his efforts against the Rainbow of Light until it was too late. As matters transpired, Tirek threw one arm over his face against the light that blazed white in the unchallenged Night. With his other hand, he thrust at Scorpan; electricity arced from the centaur's palm. However, it was a blind strike, and Scorpan easily dodged the blue lightning. Yet Tirek's counter-attack succeeded in delaying Scorpan's rush and prevented the Dayblade from striking home; it only grazed the centaur's arm.
Scorpan turned back to his enemy and raised the Dayblade before him. "By this blade, I swear this land shall see another dawn!" Scorpan roared.
"You utter vain hopes, you fool!" From his grounded chariot, Tirek took up his serrated blade. "The Night will devour you and your resistance! Day and light itself shall be forgotten!"
Now that Scorpan did not have to fly after Tirek in his four-dragon chariot, the two fighters were nearly equal in strength and agility. Sparks leaped from their swords as they clashed, light and dark ringing, circling, closing in, then falling back.
During their battle, the rain ceased, I assumed because Tirek was occupied with Scorpan. I flew near the fight to see if I might help Scorpan somehow.
Many times the fighters brought their swords clashing together in contests of raw strength. At one point, it seemed Scorpan had finally gained the upper hand by flinging Tirek backwards. The centaur dropped to his knees and let his sword fall. As Scorpan abandoned caution for a full-on charge, Tirek spread his arms wide with a scream that ripped across the roof like storm surge.
I had been flying overhead. After Tirek's scream, an invisible force jerked me to the ground. Scorpan, likewise, fell. Before I hit the stone and lost my breath, I glimpsed my friends watching in horror from behind the protection of the rainbow dome. Unable to move, I lay helpless on the ground and watched as Tirek rose with a chuckle.
"Well, Scorpan," the centaur said as he approached his immobilized opponent, "You grovel to me again." His kick sent Scorpan rolling toward one of the bulwarks that lined the roof.
My gasp was heavy in my throat, I felt I was suffocating. A clank alerted me that Tirek had kicked something else. It skittered to a stop just at the periphery of my vision. My entire body turned cold at the sight: the Dayblade. A white aura flickered briefly around it, then died.
"No matter where you run, no matter who your allies are, you will always be my servant," Tirek said. "I will teach you, Scorpan, so you never forget your place again."
I imagined Scorpan's features, proud though bestial, contorting in pain. Rage gave me strength to raise myself with agonizing slowness, first my right front leg, followed by left, then my hindquarters. I stumbled a few steps, as awkward as a new fawn of spring and, with a tiny hop of tremendous effort, I flew again.
I will never forget that flight. Despite being airborne, I still felt as though an immense stone hand were crushing me to the ground. I could barely fly straight, and each moment seemed to increase the danger of my losing altitude. Fortunately, in the end, that did not matter; Tirek was beating Scorpan with deliberate, slow pleasure. I came up behind the centaur marveling that he could not hear my heart thudding in my ears. When I was even with his head, I drew back my hind legs and kicked so hard my hoofs came away bloody.
Immediately after, the heaviness left my limbs. I found myself propelled higher as my body was suddenly released from the spell.
Tirek stumbled backwards, clutching his head; however, he did not remain stunned for long. Scorpan had just reached the Dayblade when Tirek took up his serrated blade again. The Dayblade flared to life, increasing its illumination as Scorpan drew nearer to Tirek. Dismay threatened to ground my flight as surely as Tirek's gravity spell had; Scorpan's wounds were far worse than I had thought. The blue lightning had seared his shoulder, charring the hair away and leaving a raw patch of mottled red and yellow. Dark shadows of bruises dappled his flesh. Because of these, he could move only stiffly. Tirek must have noticed, too, for he hacked wildly at Scorpan. Rage fouled his aim, however, that and the Dayblade which occasionally emitted a pulse of light, forcing Tirek to battle squinting.
Had Scorpan not been injured, this battle would have ended shortly, and in his victory. As it was, the fight was strangely slow, as though it had been staged that way for dramatic effect. Again and again, Tirek and Scorpan came together, struck, then stumbled apart, only to reunite their blades.
I longed to help Scorpan, yet I did not dare interfere again. I could not have him hurt because I had distracted him. Furthermore, I had no desire to be caught between their swords; the Dayblade would be just as sharp to me as Tirek's. As I hovered on the periphery, my strength ebbed with theirs.
But then, Tirek succeeded in landing a blow, sinking his blade so far into Scorpan's chest that it protruded from his shoulder blade. "Join your dragon," Tirek said with a cruel smirk.
"Scorpan!" I tried to shout, but my voice failed.
"Gladly." To my amazement, Scorpan was smiling, though pain twisted his face. "I will die with the dawn."
Tirek looked down at the inky vitality spilling from his own wound, rushing down the Dayblade. "No! No!" he said, hoarsely. "I am the lord of the Night that Never…" He toppled then and lay still.