Sacrifice

  ( Winterwish )

  Grotesque geysers spewed baneful blood. Hel rained upon Candy Town.

  It took every scrap of courage Winterwish could find not to cower on the spot. The many shrieking eruptions were more distant than the first, but left unchecked their taint would undoubtedly spread.

  "What do we do?"

  Analytical emeralds darted behind glass lenses. "Get Sunshine on her feet." Merrymint retrieved the twinned faefire from her hat. "I'll buy you time."

  Winterwish didn't question her Mentor. She broke into an immediate sprint, leaping over piteous puddles that reached for her ankles, their cries curdling the air. The moment she skidded to the feathered fairy's side, she offered her hand. "Sunshine, we have to go!"

  Yet Sunshine flinched away, as if trying to shrink into the sugary wall at her back. Golden saucers twitched erratically, their surfaces reflecting stygian jets.

  "Snap out of it! This isn't like you!” pleaded Winterwish.

  Petrified limbs quivered. Trembling lips formed wordless whispers.

  "Hurry!" Merrymint cracked her first vial.

  A tide of screaming slurry surged into the courtyard, only to be bathed in cleansing flame.

  When Winterwish tried to shield Sunshine's wide eyes, her stricken sister lashed out. The swing almost knocked Winterwish to the ground.

  She's going to get us killed!

  "Dammit, Sunshine!" shouted Winterwish. "Didn't you want to prove yourself? I thought you wanted to best Splishsplash!"

  Finally, Sunshine's contracted pupils met with her, and the fight faded.

  Winterwish hauled the pacified fairy onto her back. "Let's go!"

  Merrymint scanned their surroundings. Most of the area already festered with the undulating unborn. She motioned for Winterwish to wait, before bending her knees and jumping high to land atop the soda tavern. The next instant, a bombardment of mutagenic gore forced her to retreat back down.

  That was deliberate! The ichor is definitely capable of thought!

  Walls withered and windows waned. Buildings collapsed. The fetal flood was taking over, contaminating everything in its path. The rituals had called up the end of all things. Ruin incarnate.

  Winterwish spotted the one route that remained untouched. "That way!"

  Together they raced through the sagging street, dodging sprays and splatter. Ahead, a caramelised cottage began to bloat with infection. A second later, the structure burst like an overripe bubo. Lumpy, wailing waves rolled towards them. Tiny, fragile bodies smushed one another, each of them a part of a frightful force they had no control over.

  Merrymint threw forth a palm and readied her magic. "Together!"

  "Together!" Winterwish mirrored her stance.

  Side by side, the pair combined their power. Frost flowed from Winterwish's fingers and spiralled into Merrymint's cyclone. A vortex of frozen leaves shredded and sliced. It took but a moment for the babbling broth to turn glassy. They rushed by before the straining sprogs could shatter their prison.

  Past bawling lawns and through melting markets they raced, only to discover deadly end after deadly end. Worse still, the more ichor that spilled from the earth, the larger the clumsy creatures became.

  Some took emaciated, near-skeletal shape, their see-through skin sinking between delicate ribs. Others bore horrific injuries, hosting wounds no living thing could endure, as if battle-scarred before birth. Then there were the most unfortunate of all. Those too weak to maintain independence, their bodies bleeding into hopeless fusions. Failing fingers slapped and smudged at their partners, struggling to tear themselves apart. Whatever mournful form they took, their gooey mouths howled ceaselessly.

  Soon the Fairy Princesses wouldn't just be outnumbered, but outsized too.

  Winterwish didn't truly understand the nature of their enemy, and she didn't want to. The only thing she did know was that if she had enough time and faefire, she'd put each and every one of them out of their endless misery. The thought that there could be thousands upon thousands more of them still trapped and suffering in the world's bowels was too much to bear.

  They unleashed boreal breezes whenever they could, and flung faefire when they couldn't. With each subsequent encounter, both options and vials diminished.

  The last of their butterflies banished the biggest horror yet, only to reveal an expanse of entropy beyond. There was no way out.

  Winterwish whimpered. They could only freeze so much at a time.

  Not like this! Please!

  Rich rays pierced the horizon. The night team would soon return, if only they could hold out just a little longer.

  "Come on, Sunshine! We need you!" begged Merrymint.

  The feathered fairy only shivered upon Winterwish's back, her wings clamped tight.

  Winterwish was starting to believe the coming dawn nothing but one final irony, when something glinted in the morning lustre. A shimmer of hope. An answer to their prayers. The shining figure swung to unleash purging purple upon the discharge, twice, clearing a path.

  "Cutiehorn!" Winterwish was sure her voice betrayed a blend of appreciation and trepidation. As thankful as she was for the unicorn knight's presence, she couldn't help but fret that they too were now in peril.

  "To the bell tower!" roared Cutiehorn.

  Winterwish understood immediately. Even if the thick cookie walls gave way like everything else, they could at least sound the alarm.

  Frigid flurries slowed yearning grasps so Cutiehorn could lead the way, slashing and severing anything that threatened her allies. Yet no normal weapon could cleave ichor for long. With each cut, the sword softened, leaving molten streaks in its wake. The blunt, bending blade's final hack failed to decapitate a blubbering beast. Its misshapen, loosely-connected skull fell back. Steaming stew spurted from its gurgling throat. Viscous globules struck silver.

  Merrymint finished the foe by blasting its floppy head clean off, whilst Winterwish rushed for the buckles of Cutiehorn's shoulder plate. At first, the knight tried to pull away in panic, not realising the danger she was in. That was until she too spotted the stain. Together, they snapped the straps and flung the pauldron before it corroded.

  Cutiehorn tossed what little remained of her weapon's handle, yet continued to rush out in front. Only after kicking the tower door open did she relent, practically throwing the others inside first.

  "I got the bell!" Merrymint clenched at the hanging rope and began to pull.

  Winterwish winced at the thunderous clanging, but couldn't afford to hesitate.

  Every second counts!

  The walls were fortified with the chunkiest of chips, yet were already starting to groan. Cadaverous crimson seeped through soggy biscuit.

  Winterwish ran a loop, her frosty glove skimming whatever surfaces remained safe, hoping ice might hinder the rot.

  Cutiehorn braced the door, even as it began to disintegrate. Anguished faces and damaged hands pushed through, desperate to seize the knight. She yanked a chocolate nugget free from the nearby wall, before using it to batter a fat-cheeked, sobbing visage. "Up!" she ordered. "Start climbing, now!"

  Merrymint grimaced and gave one last tug of the bell's rope, before grabbing her saint-straddled Mentee and hauling them both up the stairs.

  Still holding the rear, Cutiehorn's sabatons mounted the first step just as embryonic sludge swallowed the floor.

  With foundations deteriorating, the tower started to tilt. Cookie crumbled, exposing the fairies long before they reached the top. Only from this higher perspective did Winterwish realise just how much of Candy Town was already lost. The wonky spire leaned alone amidst a melancholic mire.

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  There's no escape...

  As they neared the apex, the cries reached a crescendo. The swamp was stirring. It dragged the helpless spawn into a rising whirlpool, forcing them to coalesce. Thousands of flailing weans were sucked and pulped into an amalgamated mush, merging them into a single mess of broken, weeping bodies. A blasphemous bairn beyond all hope and reason, its size rivalling the swaying structure.

  Winterwish felt violated just beholding such a thing.

  The yawning chasm of its maw stretched impossibly wide, unleashing a dirge of mismatched torment. A torrent of churned guts bubbled up from the gaping pit of its throat. Volatile viscera hurled high. A downpour of death descended upon the Fairy Princesses.

  Merrymint redirected all that she could, but not enough. Winterwish dodged the first splattering, and ducked beneath the second, but the third caught her off balance.

  Something slammed into her side. She crashed down upon the hard, rough sugar. Sunshine fell from her back. They'd been pushed. They'd been saved.

  Cutiehorn stood over them, her shield raised. Liquefying silver sizzled. Hissing droplets rained.

  Winterwish tried to scramble to her feet and help, only for Cutiehorn to shove her back down.

  A second spray finished the shield for good. Molten metal sputtered across the knight's shaking arm. She growled through gritted teeth, unyielding even as mutagenic toxins penetrated perishing plate.

  The combined colossus gargled. Rising puke bulged its neck. With no aegis left to protect her sisters, and one forearm already drenched, Cutiehorn made a shield of herself. Limbs spread wide as she stood ready to block the ichor with her own body.

  "Cutiehorn, no!" cried Winterwish.

  Fwump!

  Raging fire punched through the atrocity like a cannonball. A radiant meteor that soared across Candy Town, scorching any hostile that dared rise. Its flames burned so hot that naught could touch it. Titania had arrived to battle in their stead, and the rest of the night team would not be far behind.

  Merrymint's gusts blew the Fairy Queen's conflagration forth, spreading firestorms. Searing maelstroms enveloped the drooling dread, and their sorrowful song began to quieten at last.

  It should've been a relief. A time to celebrate. But cheering was the furthest thing from Winterwish's mind.

  Cutiehorn forced a weak smile for her sisters, then collapsed.

  "Help!" called Winterwish. "We need help!" She lunged to channel frost into the infected limb.

  Silver melted away to reveal mangling meat. Fingers crunched back on themselves. Knuckle segments rotated with the sound of grinding stone, ripping spurting skin. Forearm bones twisted, coiling around one another with repeated cracks, their splintered shards sprouting through flesh like spines. Tendons strained until they snapped with sickening chords. Arteries burst. Every cell was rebelling in the cruelest possible way. Worse yet, the corruption was spreading.

  Cutiehorn spasmed and convulsed. "Stay... back!" she ordered through gnashing teeth.

  Winterwish disobeyed, yet no matter how hard she tried to stop the sadistic advance, her magic couldn't compete. Even when she iced the knight's elbow entirely, the skin just thawed with pox-like blisters. Squelching tissues swelled with hideous hues until they split from the pressure. The chain reaction was almost done with the arm, and would soon begin devouring Cutiehorn's torso.

  "I can't stop it!" cried Winterwish.

  Merrymint tried to pull her away, but she refused to let go. Not until the knight's shoulder was frozen throughout. Not until the skeletal structure ceased squirming in her cold hands.

  "It won't stop! It won't stop!" A ghastly thought crossed Winterwish's mind.

  She's done. She'll mutate. She'll kill us. ...We have to throw her off, now!

  "Move!" roared Sunshine.

  Merrymint yanked Winterwish clear as the feathered fairy swung her mace. Truth's flanges struck frigid flesh, but the impact was more akin to chipping rock than smashing glass. Sunshine's crazed, breaking-point orbs bulged at the realisation a single blow wasn't enough.

  Winterwish clasped her hands to her mouth as the hammer came down again and again. Each strike spread fractures through iced muscle and forced yelps from Cutiehorn's frothing lips.

  "One more!" snarled Sunshine.

  Finally, the mace hit brittle bone. Ornamental gold flaked and marrow shattered, scattering fragments across the precarious platform. With a flap of her wings, Sunshine blew the once-arm from the tower. Still it twitched and clawed, even as it sank into the flaming fluid below.

  Winterwish returned to knight's side to watch silver eyes close and lips pale ashen. With unsteady fingers, she checked Cutiehorn's pulse and breathing, before allowing a sigh of relief.

  She's alive...

  At the sight of a giant flying cherry carrying the night team, Merrymint pushed the bell by hand, then raised her arms high to signal their location.

  "Merry'! Wintywish!" shouted Cherrychomp on approach.

  The little red fairy had her Muncher pull up to the tower's edge. Both she and Splishsplash held out their hands to help the stranded party climb aboard, but Bubblebun practiced less restraint.

  She sprung from the flying fruit, pushing others aside to reach Cutiehorn. "What happened? What the hel happened?"

  Winterwish stepped away to give them space. "I... I'm sorry. She saved me. Saved us. And then..."

  Bubblebun looked around whilst cradling Cutiehorn's unresponsive body. "The arm," she choked, barbed words sticking in her throat. "W-where is it?"

  Winterwish could only croak.

  "We couldn't save it," said Merrymint. "I'm sorry."

  The ballerina folded, clinging to Cutiehorn like she were a raft upon a hungry ocean. The whine of an abused animal escaped her lips. Her hand juddered as she brushed silver strands free from the sleeping knight's ghostly complexion.

  "Bubble'..." said Merrymint as softly as she could. "We have to move. It's not safe here."

  Bubblebun didn't react at first. Only when Merrymint and Winterwish tried to help her up did she jerk away with a loud sniff. "I get it!" she snapped. "We're coming."

  Winterwish and Merrymint stayed close, even though Bubblebun insisted on carrying her closest friend alone. Yet when they neared the Muncher, one of the extended hands retreated, and a three sharp prongs took its place.

  "...Splishy?" asked Merrymint.

  The light of the surrounding inferno danced across the merprincess' faesteel. "Are you certain she is uninfected?"

  "She's fine!" shouted Merrymint.

  "Do not be impulsive," said Splishsplash. "We cannot risk all for the sake of one. We must carry the others to safety first, then return for her."

  The tower gave a mighty groan. Its structure quaked.

  Winterwish stumbled for balance. "There's no time!"

  "Do not let emotion cloud your judgement," said Splishsplash. "Cutiehorn would not want -"

  Bubblebun stamped forth, still supporting Cutiehorn solo. She pressed her forehead to the central tip of the trident until scarlet snaked. Her words emerged a feral growl. "Do not test me, bitch."

  Cherrychomp joined the protest by biting down on Loyalty's shaft, then strained to pull it aside, like a dog with a toy. "All come!" she muffled with a mouthful of faesteel. "My Muncher. My rules!"

  Of course, Sunshine was also as ready as ever to face her rival.

  Outnumbered, and with danger increasing by the second, Splishsplash reluctantly withdrew her weapon.

  With all aboard, the Muncher headed for the refuge of the palace. Some of the passengers wept. Others were shaken. One was grievously wounded. But against the odds, the Fairy Princesses had survived.

  Candy Town's bell rang out one final time as its tower finally broke.