Author's Note: Finally, a new part! This was done for the writing prompt at
http://www.atlanticrealm.com/rubiegal2001/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=140. Onto
the fic!:
It was a dark and stormy night.
Well, it wasn't so much stormy and just out and out freezing. The year- round snow that surrounded Icestorm Point whipped through the chilly air, enveloping the trio surrounding an iron cauldron bubbling atop a large pile of firewood. All were outfitted in tattered, pointed hats and capes that had seen better days. The shadows from the fire and their hat brims obscured their faces. Brushing her forelock out of her eyes with a hoof, the first figure spoke.
"Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.."
The second stared into the fire, her eyes momentarily reflecting the fire's light and going from pale blue to a bright orange.
"Fire burn and cauldron bubble.."
The third witch sounded distinctly unhappy, not to mention masculine.
"Eye of newt-Riptide, may I inquire why, exactly, I am helping the two of you with this ritual? I am aware of my duties as high priest, but as far as I know my job description mentioned nothing of dressing in drag. And forgive me if I do not understand the symbolic meanings of the mutilated fruits.."
Riptide, a dark blue unipeg, pushed the hat's brim out of her eyes and sighed.
"Horus, don't tell me this is the first time you've ever been to a Halloween party. Don't you guys celebrate back in the desert? You know, ghosts and witches and demons?"
The gold unipeg tilted his head to the side, brushing off the witch hat with a forehoof.
"Well, there was that one incident where my brother accidently activated a curse that allowed the palace mummies to rise from the dead..and when I summoned that intoxiciated genie."
With a groan, the mare simply shook her head. Spitfire grinned at the the pair, taking to the air with a hum of wings that sounded like it came from an overgrown hummingbird.
"Hey, Horus-maybe there's some other costumes back in the caverns. I'll go look!"
The unipeg took off in a blur of white and orange, buzzing over the assorted crowd of ponies in the woods, all of which were dressed in various costumes. A unipeg clad in a Batman costume sat next to a blue pegasus in a Superman outfit, ears laid flat.
"I swear, Wraith..one thing..just [i]one[/i] more bizarre thing happens, and I'm going to snap."
"Again, you mean?"
Nova gave Wraith a baleful look.
"I'm not kidding. I can't take this anymore. Chipmunks..zombies..flesh- eating ponies..Horus' damn falcon..just one. More. Thing."
Wraith flapped his wings in a shrug.
"It hasn't been so bad lately. Quiet, even. I can't even remember the last time something landed on my he-"
WHAM!
"Ain't I a stinker?"
Vesper hovered above the now-brained Wraith with a grin on her muzzle for a moment before flitting back into a plot hole. Nova narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the spot where the author avatar had been.
"That, or I'm going to mail her third class to Dream Valley. That would solve a lot of problems.."
Meanwhile..
Lord Fluffypants eyed the ponies below with a disdainful glare, idly snapping his mandible. How he despised tiny horses. But this, time, he had a plan! He was sure this would work, unlike his five minute seige, or the chipmunk hordes, or the gigantic mechapony, or the [i]undead [/i] chipmunks..it was perfect. He looked towards Icestorm Point, its shape drak against the moon, and rubbed his tiny paws together.
Sure, it wasn't firey, and had very little to do with chipmunks. But death's death.
Elsewhere..
"It lives! IT LIVESSS-wait. Let me try and poke this-*ZZZIT* Okay, or maybe th-*BLAM*.....or maybe..*ZOT*. Eh. IGOR!"
An animate desk lamp, with a small burlap sack and a rock duct taped to it, hopped onto the table.
"I think you pronounced it wrong."
"Mm?"
"You said 'EYE-gor'. I think it's 'EE-gor'."
"No, it's 'EYE-gor."
"Nuhuh."
Stormbringer looked up from her work, taking off the eye-protection goggles and glancing down at Lampy with a tilt of her head.
"You want to check? C'mon, I managed to hook a VCR up. We can check the movies. Assuming we managed to avoid Nova. He's gonna kill me when he sees what I did to the library to hook it up.."
While the pegasus and lamp left the cavern, Lord Fluffypants climbed atop the table, panting. He was going to find some mode of transportation besides his own stumpy legs, come hell or high water. Gathering up bits and pieces of machinery littering the table, he grinned in the only the way the skull-headed can when he set his optics on a pair of rusted, pointy iron teeth.
"FIREY CHIMPMUNK..uh, I mean, POINTY IRON DEATH!"
Two hours later..
Spitfire hovered over her fellow unipeg with a curious expression, the witch hat drooping over her eyes.
"Um, Nova?"
"What."
It wasn't a question; it was a statement.
"Why's your head stuck to that tree?"
"I was beating my head against it to try and keep from hurting somebody."
"How about some candy corn? Candy corn cheers everybody up!"
Before Nova could respond, the brush began to rattle loudly and crash to the ground by the large, rust covered creature haphazardly heading for the party. The ponies stared in silence for a moment, then quickly scattered out of the path of Lord Fluffypant's latest ill-fated plan. The party regrouped, the chatter starting again while the chipmunk warlord continued to ride along in the shoddly-made 'monster', screaming "BOOGA-BOOGA!" as loudly as his scratchy vocal chords would allow.
Of course, the iron figure was headed directly for the tree Nova's horn was still lodged in. One eye twitched ever-so slightly as he saw the construct come barreling towards him. With one hard backwards flap of his wings and a warcry that would've made an orge stop in its track, Nova freed himself from tree and flew at the figure with a luck of pure homicidal rage.
Riptide and Horus, the latter now outfitted in a wizard costume, watched as the fellow unipeg flew past. Horus sipped his drink.
"It appears that our foul-tempered librarian friend has finally gone psychotic once more.."
"Therapy. That's all I'm saying."
Vesper poked her head in through a plot hole.
"He should've dressed like the Hulk."
The fight was surprisingly quick-with the shoddy construction of the iron figure and Nova's legendary bad temper backing him up, the unipeg managed to dismantle Lord Fluffypant's creation in a matter of seconds. Lord Fluffypants himself went sailing through the air. Various partygoers glanced up, pointing hooves at the sky.
"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
"It's-"
"Superman!" An attractive unicorn mare smiled at the once more concious blue pegasus. "Enjoying the party, Wraith?"
"Yeah, until I got hit on the he-"
THUNK!
Lord Fluffypants ricocheted off of Wraith's head, causing him to drop once more. The chipmunk warlord continued to sail through the air, howling various curses as Riptide once more attempted to explain the purpose of carving pumpkins to a still rather confused Horus.
"Might you care to explain to me who, exactly, thought it was a good idea to mangle and set fire to a perfectly good piece of fruit?"
Riptide side, shaking her head once more.
"It's going to be a long night.."
It was a dark and stormy night.
Well, it wasn't so much stormy and just out and out freezing. The year- round snow that surrounded Icestorm Point whipped through the chilly air, enveloping the trio surrounding an iron cauldron bubbling atop a large pile of firewood. All were outfitted in tattered, pointed hats and capes that had seen better days. The shadows from the fire and their hat brims obscured their faces. Brushing her forelock out of her eyes with a hoof, the first figure spoke.
"Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.."
The second stared into the fire, her eyes momentarily reflecting the fire's light and going from pale blue to a bright orange.
"Fire burn and cauldron bubble.."
The third witch sounded distinctly unhappy, not to mention masculine.
"Eye of newt-Riptide, may I inquire why, exactly, I am helping the two of you with this ritual? I am aware of my duties as high priest, but as far as I know my job description mentioned nothing of dressing in drag. And forgive me if I do not understand the symbolic meanings of the mutilated fruits.."
Riptide, a dark blue unipeg, pushed the hat's brim out of her eyes and sighed.
"Horus, don't tell me this is the first time you've ever been to a Halloween party. Don't you guys celebrate back in the desert? You know, ghosts and witches and demons?"
The gold unipeg tilted his head to the side, brushing off the witch hat with a forehoof.
"Well, there was that one incident where my brother accidently activated a curse that allowed the palace mummies to rise from the dead..and when I summoned that intoxiciated genie."
With a groan, the mare simply shook her head. Spitfire grinned at the the pair, taking to the air with a hum of wings that sounded like it came from an overgrown hummingbird.
"Hey, Horus-maybe there's some other costumes back in the caverns. I'll go look!"
The unipeg took off in a blur of white and orange, buzzing over the assorted crowd of ponies in the woods, all of which were dressed in various costumes. A unipeg clad in a Batman costume sat next to a blue pegasus in a Superman outfit, ears laid flat.
"I swear, Wraith..one thing..just [i]one[/i] more bizarre thing happens, and I'm going to snap."
"Again, you mean?"
Nova gave Wraith a baleful look.
"I'm not kidding. I can't take this anymore. Chipmunks..zombies..flesh- eating ponies..Horus' damn falcon..just one. More. Thing."
Wraith flapped his wings in a shrug.
"It hasn't been so bad lately. Quiet, even. I can't even remember the last time something landed on my he-"
WHAM!
"Ain't I a stinker?"
Vesper hovered above the now-brained Wraith with a grin on her muzzle for a moment before flitting back into a plot hole. Nova narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the spot where the author avatar had been.
"That, or I'm going to mail her third class to Dream Valley. That would solve a lot of problems.."
Meanwhile..
Lord Fluffypants eyed the ponies below with a disdainful glare, idly snapping his mandible. How he despised tiny horses. But this, time, he had a plan! He was sure this would work, unlike his five minute seige, or the chipmunk hordes, or the gigantic mechapony, or the [i]undead [/i] chipmunks..it was perfect. He looked towards Icestorm Point, its shape drak against the moon, and rubbed his tiny paws together.
Sure, it wasn't firey, and had very little to do with chipmunks. But death's death.
Elsewhere..
"It lives! IT LIVESSS-wait. Let me try and poke this-*ZZZIT* Okay, or maybe th-*BLAM*.....or maybe..*ZOT*. Eh. IGOR!"
An animate desk lamp, with a small burlap sack and a rock duct taped to it, hopped onto the table.
"I think you pronounced it wrong."
"Mm?"
"You said 'EYE-gor'. I think it's 'EE-gor'."
"No, it's 'EYE-gor."
"Nuhuh."
Stormbringer looked up from her work, taking off the eye-protection goggles and glancing down at Lampy with a tilt of her head.
"You want to check? C'mon, I managed to hook a VCR up. We can check the movies. Assuming we managed to avoid Nova. He's gonna kill me when he sees what I did to the library to hook it up.."
While the pegasus and lamp left the cavern, Lord Fluffypants climbed atop the table, panting. He was going to find some mode of transportation besides his own stumpy legs, come hell or high water. Gathering up bits and pieces of machinery littering the table, he grinned in the only the way the skull-headed can when he set his optics on a pair of rusted, pointy iron teeth.
"FIREY CHIMPMUNK..uh, I mean, POINTY IRON DEATH!"
Two hours later..
Spitfire hovered over her fellow unipeg with a curious expression, the witch hat drooping over her eyes.
"Um, Nova?"
"What."
It wasn't a question; it was a statement.
"Why's your head stuck to that tree?"
"I was beating my head against it to try and keep from hurting somebody."
"How about some candy corn? Candy corn cheers everybody up!"
Before Nova could respond, the brush began to rattle loudly and crash to the ground by the large, rust covered creature haphazardly heading for the party. The ponies stared in silence for a moment, then quickly scattered out of the path of Lord Fluffypant's latest ill-fated plan. The party regrouped, the chatter starting again while the chipmunk warlord continued to ride along in the shoddly-made 'monster', screaming "BOOGA-BOOGA!" as loudly as his scratchy vocal chords would allow.
Of course, the iron figure was headed directly for the tree Nova's horn was still lodged in. One eye twitched ever-so slightly as he saw the construct come barreling towards him. With one hard backwards flap of his wings and a warcry that would've made an orge stop in its track, Nova freed himself from tree and flew at the figure with a luck of pure homicidal rage.
Riptide and Horus, the latter now outfitted in a wizard costume, watched as the fellow unipeg flew past. Horus sipped his drink.
"It appears that our foul-tempered librarian friend has finally gone psychotic once more.."
"Therapy. That's all I'm saying."
Vesper poked her head in through a plot hole.
"He should've dressed like the Hulk."
The fight was surprisingly quick-with the shoddy construction of the iron figure and Nova's legendary bad temper backing him up, the unipeg managed to dismantle Lord Fluffypant's creation in a matter of seconds. Lord Fluffypants himself went sailing through the air. Various partygoers glanced up, pointing hooves at the sky.
"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
"It's-"
"Superman!" An attractive unicorn mare smiled at the once more concious blue pegasus. "Enjoying the party, Wraith?"
"Yeah, until I got hit on the he-"
THUNK!
Lord Fluffypants ricocheted off of Wraith's head, causing him to drop once more. The chipmunk warlord continued to sail through the air, howling various curses as Riptide once more attempted to explain the purpose of carving pumpkins to a still rather confused Horus.
"Might you care to explain to me who, exactly, thought it was a good idea to mangle and set fire to a perfectly good piece of fruit?"
Riptide side, shaking her head once more.
"It's going to be a long night.."