The Immortal Game

The Plan

Nihilus frowned as the light she had been reading by was obscured. She looked up, through a hole she had made in the ceiling, to find that a cloud had passed over the sun. She was temporarily living in Ponyville's town hall as she gathered forces, and the building had suffered substantial damage during her fight with Luna. A benefit of all the collapsed ceilings and walls was that there was lots of natural light to work by. As the cloud darkened her reading light, Nihilus grew irritated.

"I thought I told those stupid townsponies to resume their regular duties," she said. "It's the middle of the afternoon and the sky is still filled with clouds. Where is the weather pony?" She looked around the room, her eyes coming to rest on its only other occupant. Her pegasus plaything was huddled in a corner, shivering, her eyes wild. A trickle of drool ran from her mouth to the floor beneath her.

"Oh," Nihilus said delicately, "right."

The pegasus was faring much better than she had been during the sack of Ponyville. The spell was slowly doing its work, and her pet was finding herself less and less able to resist. Soon, she would be able to act at full capacity, making her much more useful in a fight. At least, Nihilus hoped she would be. She had corrupted Rainbow Dash first because she thought she was the strongest of Twilight's friends. Hopefully the next time they encountered Luna and the others her pet would be able to do more than getting kicked in the face.

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Wait, what?!" Twilight Sparkle's voice sounded sharply within her mind.

Her passenger consciousness rarely ever spoke to her, and never initiated a conversation herself. Truth be told, Nihilus didn't like having nopony to talk to. Her only other intelligent companion was drooling in the corner and did not count for much of a conversationalist. Nihilus was puzzled at Twilight's sudden outburst.

"I didn't say anything..."

"No, but you thought it. You said that the book was boring and useless!"

"It is boring and useless. I'm looking for ways to quickly defeat Luna, not enchanted cuff-links."

"That book details exactly the topic you are looking for. And it was enchantment cuffles, not enchanted cuff-links."

"I knew that!" Nihilus shot back at her indignantly. "I just don't care. None of this interests me." She tossed the book onto the floor with her magic to emphasize her point. "My only goal is to get the Elements of Harmony."

For the first time ever, she felt her passenger consciousness project something other than her voice into Nihilus's mind. It was an emotion, a feeling. It was curiosity. Twilight Sparkle was studying her and wanted Nihilus to know it.

The feeling made Nihilus uncomfortable, to say the least. How was Twilight able to show Nihilus her feelings at will, and read Nihilus's thoughts? Certainly, Nihilus had more power- she was, after all, in complete control of their body and magic. Still, Twilight's strange ability made her angry.

The feeling of curiosity lingered as Twilight spoke. "You can't actually understand anything written on that page, can you? You don't have it."

"Have what?" Nihilus snapped back. She was quickly growing tired of their conversation.

"My talent. You can learn spells through magical formula like any unicorn, but you don't understand the theory at all. You can use my magic to teleport or force mind magic on anypony, and you know everything I knew. But you can't put the pieces together for yourself. That book is the key to taking the elements for yourself, and you can't use it."