What Lies Within

"Honey? Where are you?" Sapphire Weaver called from the bottom of the stairs. "It's almost time for you to go!"

Silence met the mare, who sighed tiredly. " I'm not going to wake you up twice!"

"I'm coming!" called the muffled voice of her daughter, who had obviously not moved from her bed.

Sapphire groaned in irritation, lifting her hoof to ascend the stairs. Suddenly, a loud pop behind her halted her in her tracks.

"Boo!" Marra cried, sending Sapphire into a moment of panic as she whipped around to find the source of the voice. Marra giggled as her mother sat dumfounded in front of her.

"I learned how to teleport!" Marra cried, while Sapphire let out a long breath.

"That's... That's great honey." She forced a smile over her fading shock. "You should hurry, you're going to be late."

"Okay!" Marra giggled, and teleported into the kitchen with another loud pop. "Hey, do we have any cereal left?"

Sapphire rolled her eyes. Making a mental note to set some rules around teleporting in the house, she trotted into the kitchen

Marra had already settled down at the table with a bowl of oats and was wolfing it down as fast as she could. "Dun!" She cried, her mouth full of food, and was halfway out the door before Sapphire Weaver called after her.

"Don't forget to be home on time!"

Sapphire shook her head, but couldn't help smiling at her daughter's energy. She always rushed to her lessons, and was eager to show what she learned. Sapphire almost thought that she was taking too much of a liking to it. After all, she wasn't really going to be using magic for practical purposes very often...

Who would you rather bury?

The memory of those words sent a shiver down the blue-grey mare's spine. She closed her eyes to steady herself as the memory faded. Those words had shaken her badly, but only because she knew deep down that they were true. She always hoped in a small corner of her heart that if she ignored the danger, it would cease to exist. Now she could not deny that she would never be able to protect her child from everything. Her daughter had to learn how to survive on her own, with the world against her.

Sapphire's head drooped at her thoughts. Subconsciously, she walked over and put a hoof on the plaque that her husband stared out from.

"I wish I could protect her." She rested her head against the cold stone, hoping the memory of her beloved could bring her warmth. "I wish I could have protected you."

Marra trotted down the familiar path to the lower caves, whistling as she went. In the year after she had started taking lessons down in the Reflecting Pool's cave she had come to memorize the twisting paths that branched and spiraled around themselves. She knew them so well, she could nearly walk the path blindfolded.

Or so she thought, until her whistling was abruptly interrupted by her face colliding with a wall of stone.

"Ow..." Marra groaned, rubbing her muzzle in annoyance and glaring at the wall of the cave. This particular wall seemed to be in quite a state of disrepair, with smaller rocks strewn around it and shifting rubble thrown about the floor and piled high against it. In fact, the longer Marra looked at it, the more it didn't resemble a cave wall at all. The rocks were too rough and loose to be any sort of support. Also considering the pile of rubble and the smaller rocks about, Marra could only find one explanation.

"A cave in?" she groaned. "Now I'll be late and Deimos-" Her eyes widened as a terrible thought struck her. Deimos was always at the cave before she got there.

"Deimos!" she called, digging into the rubble to see if there was a gap that she could see through. "Deimos, are you in there?"

A groaning sound sent Marra galloping backwards as the loose rubble above the hole she had dug fell in upon itself, covering up her efforts.

"Oh, come on!" Gritting her teeth, she pushed her frustration out through her horn and into the rocks. With a small grunt, she shifted the rocks slightly out from the pile. A loud crack from above her forced her to run back again as more stones tumbled down from the ceiling of the cave, a web of fractures spreading out from the top of the pile.

"Okay, bad idea!" she panted, wondering if there was some kind of spell that could fix the cracks in the cave roof.

"I should just teleport to the other side." She thought, closing her eyes to gather her energy. Just as she had gathered her magic, she stopped.

She didn't know how far back the debris went. If she teleported in too short, she would get stuck inside the rocks. But if she teleported in too far, she could end up inside a wall. Even worse, she could only miss slightly and get stuck halfway into solid stone.

Marra shivered at the thought of being halfway melded with a wall. She would have to risk it, though. She wasn't good enough yet to both move the rubble and secure the roof. To do that, she would have to cast two different spells at the same time!

Two spells...

"I could always get Midnight Aria to help me." Marra eyed the rocks warily. "I guess it's worth a shot."

"Hang on, Deimos! You know, if you're in there!" she called, turning to gallop down the tunnel while looking back. "I'm gonna go get help!"

She had just turned forward again when she galloped headlong into what felt like a mildly squishy boulder. The impact flung her back and she landed sprawling in the dirt and reeling from a headache.

"Hey!" an unfamiliar voice cried. Marra froze, her head snapping up to face the direction of the voice. A dark orange unicorn also lay in the dirt, and he turned to glare at her. "Watch where you're go-" Marra felt her stomach drop into her hooves as the unicorn's eyes widened in fear. "-ing."

In seconds, the unicorn was on his hooves and speeding off down the tunnel, screaming out mixed pleas and obscenities as he went.

"No, wait!" Marra yelled, scrambling to her hooves, and tore off down the tunnel after him.

Rarity sighed and passed Fluttershy a teacup, which was graciously accepted. Night Wing sat across from them in the clearing, drinking strong coffee out of a tin cup while the rest of the group lounged about on the forest floor, twirling blades of grass or dozing slightly as they watched a certain purple unicorn frantically waving her horn about and shouting curses into the trees.

"Work, Celestia damnit!" Twilight screamed hoarsely, her voice raw from constant yelling. With a popping noise, her horn lit up brilliantly, pointing in yet another different direction.

Rarity noticed this and cringed at the look on her friend's face. "Fluttershy, dear." she said, cringing. "You may want to cover your ears."

Fluttershy sighed tiredly, curling up into a ball with her head covered by hooves and wings.

"GAAHH!" Twilight shrieked, sending birds flying from the trees around them. The echoes of her voice were still bouncing through the forest when she swung herself around to face a large stone behind her. Her head pounded out waves of agony through her body, her thoughts shattered into enraged whispers. Her face contorted in pain, she sliced her horn through the air, black and green dappled magic shooting from her and shattering the stone into thousands of tiny shards.

"Twilight, maybe you should take a break." Rainbow Dash said, concern in her voice. She flinched when Twilight whipped around to face her, pure venom in her glare.

"Take a break?" The unicorn cackled, her voice cracking. "Take a bucking BREAK?"

"Look here, Twi." Applejack said slowly, edging herself between Rainbow and the enraged mare. "You've been castin' that spell for hours! Yah need to rest up."

"I will not rest until I figure out what is wrong with this spell!" Twilight growled, stamping her hoof for emphasis.

"Um, Twilight? You really should stop." Fluttershy said, then shrunk down when she noticed the eyes of her friends on her.

"And why is that, Fluttershy? Hmm? Do tell." Twilight snapped.

"You're using too much magic." Fluttershy mumbled. "You shouldn't be using so much magic this deep in the forest."

"I think I'm just a little more qualified to be the judge of that than you are." Twilight snorted.

Fluttershy's eyes hardened, and Rarity stepped back from her.

"No, you aren't. You need to stop throwing your magic around." she said, her friends marveling at the confidence in her tone.

Twilight's crazed glare narrowed further. "I-"

Shunk

The guardponies whipped around as Night Wing's neck burst open, throwing a fine red mist across the clearing that speckled everypony's coat. A long, thin spine protruded from the oozing rift in his neck, serrated muscle hanging out of the gash and dangling ripped veins across his chest. Fluttershy stared, frozen in horror, as blood bubbled up around the spine, forced out by Night Wing's frenzied breaths that left him as only a soft gargle. The black pegasus fell to the dirt, his body writhing and twisting as he fought for air that would never come against the blood pouring out of his wound and gaping mouth.

The dying stallion had not yet fallen silent when a low growl resonated over the clearing. Fluttershy's head jerked upwards and into the trees, following the noise. A dark, hulking shape balanced carefully on a thick branch, it's eyes glaring at her.

With a sudden, fluid movement, the shape dropped to the ground. Here Fluttershy could clearly make out sharp, white fangs peaking out from the muzzle of a great wolf, it's body a deep violet hue with white glyph-like markings across it's hide and a form that towered twice as tall as she was. Rising from where the wolf's tail should have been was a scaly, reptilian tail with thin but wickedly sharp spines spreading out in a fan shape from its tip.

Gulping, the yellow pegasus couldn't help but notice that one of the spines was missing.

"Form a line!" Silver Spear roared. "Weapons and shields up!" The guardponies rushed to created a defensive wall between the monster and the Elements of Harmony.

"Run, Miss Sparkle!" Spear shouted. "We can handle this!"

"No y'all can't!" Applejack cried, her voice soft from fear. "We... We can help you!"

"What is that thing?" Rarity cried, already stepping back out of the clearing and away from the beast.

Fluttershy turned to her friends with hollow eyes. She had only ever seen this beast in stories, and even those failed to capture the fluid grace and rippling strength of the creature. Her voice merely a whisper, she called out to Twilight.

"I told you." She gulped. "Now... you've gone and a-attracted a d-d-dire wolf!"

The dire wolf, as if in recognition of it's name, roared out a shrill and piercing wail to the line of guards before it, it's thorned tail scoring the trees around it as it slashed to and fro.

The color drained from Twilight's face, her eyes immediately darting to the now still body of Night Wing resting in a pool of his own blood on the ground.

"I-I-I didn't-"

"RUN." Spear yelled to the stunned unicorn, raising his weapon in his wing to level with the monster's neck. "Charge!"

The six mares bolted out of the clearing, Silver Spear's commanding voice throwing them into action as the guardponies charged the dire wolf.

However hard Twilight's hooves fell against the ground below her, no sound could drown out the dying, desperate wails of the ponies she sped away from.

The ponies she had caused the deaths of.

Panting, Marra tore down the tunnel. The unicorn wailed helplessly as he noticed that she was gaining on him, and threw himself forward as fast as he could gallop.

"I just... wanna talk to you!" Marra called breathlessly, but the stallion didn't slow down.

After what felt like years but could just as well have been a few minutes of sprinting, Marra closed in on the fleeing stallion. Lunging forwards, she caught his tail in her teeth in an effort to slow him down. The unicorn did slow down, but only because the sudden pain in his tail had caused his fatigued legs to tangle with each other, sending both Marra and the stallion crashing once more to the hard stone below.

Marra lay on the ground, her head spinning wildly from the many impacts she had taken that day. The yawning expanse of the cavern stretched shakily above her, the space filled with the echoing groans of both ponies.

It took Marra's confused brain a few moments to realize that the tunnel should not have a ceiling that high. By that point, the hoofsteps and shocked whispers of other ponies were filling her ears.

"Spring Stone!" A mare cried out from somewhere behind her. "I thought you were checking to see what that noise down the tunnels was, what happened?"

The unicorn, who Marra now knew was called Spring Stone, pulled himself shakily to his hooves. "I was, but I found it by the cave-in."

"It?" The mare asked, confused. Marra's brain chose this moment to clear, and she stood up cautiously, trying to keep attention away from her as she slowly backed away from the growing crowd of ponies.

"The monster!" Spring Stone pointed with his hoof at the slowly retreating young mare. Her ears fell flat against her head as the ponies all turned to look more closely at her, their eyes widening at the wings and horn she possessed.

"It must have caused the cave-in!" A pony in the crowd shouted, and the crowd's eyes changed swiftly from fear to rage.

Marra tried to back up further, but felt her hindquarters hit cold stone. A sense of depressing déjà vu falling over her. Hadn't she backed away from an angry mob before? A few days after she was born, her parents had been in this situation, and now she was in it a second time. That, in her opinion, was at least two times too many.

This time, however, there was no more fear in her eyes. The young mare watched the ponies with eyes full of death stalk slowly towards her with no emotion in her own. There would be no more fear for her, now she had magic on her side.

While a year's worth of basic magic training was not that much, it was at least enough to cast a shield spell. Her horn lit up with a grey glow, and the world around her fell into a darker shade as the shield came over her. The mob of ponies rushed forwards, but the shield was already in place. Now all she needed to do was teleport away...

Which would require dropping the shield.

"By the great Above!" Marra swore, cursing her stupidity. She was stuck in the shield, and her magic wouldn't hold forever.

I wish I had some extra power right about now. Marra thought, wincing as the shield rippled from the spells and hooves impacting it. Just a little extra emotion could keep this shield up longer.

More hooves impacted the shield. Why are they so mad anyways? Marra asked herself. It didn't take long for her to realize the meaning of what she had thought.

Oh, wait. Mad. That's as good an emotion as any.

Marra closed her eyes, lights immediately swarming her vision. The ponies around her were all but filled with emotion, hate and anger abounding in them, but the strongest emotion confused Marra.

Fear. The ponies fighting to dismantle her shield were terribly afraid. Their bodies glowed brightly with terror, radiating from them and spilling into the air to swirl in little bright clouds nearby.

For a second, Marra was shocked. How can they be afraid? They're the ones attacking me! She reached out with her mind, pushing into the fear and pulling it back to herself. Immediately the magic flowing in the shields stopped rippling, the magical light from them growing stronger by the second as the fear ran through her and into her spell.

It took Marra a moment to realize that the impacts on the shield had stopped too. Curious, she opened her eyes.

Or, she tried too.

What the... Marra thought, her initial confusion shifting to anger. She reached up a hoof to rub her eyes, but that wouldn't move either. Her hooves, eyes, mouth, ears, even her tail, all refused to budge.

Alright, calm down. Marra thought, trying to decrease her growing panic. There's obviously a reason for this.

The magic still flowed from her horn, and Marra was growing more tired every second from the effort of funneling power through herself, but she couldn't stop it. The glow had stopped getting brighter, but by now it was giving her a headache. The fear, no longer flowing into the overcharged shield, instead welled up inside her like air in a balloon, growing greater every second.

A strangely cold feeling tickled her nose, making Marra wish she could sneeze. The chill crept slowly down her muzzle, spreading over the rest of her head and gaining speed as it traveled. Panic seized the young mare in full force now, her voice calling silently through her mind.

Help! Somepony help! She screamed uselessly in her head. I can't die here, I'm only six!

When the chill hit her front hooves, a strange pressure forced it's way into her thoughts, bearing down on her head with frightening force.

Even her thoughts grew silent now, her body falling as cold as stone as the pressure over took her, her consciousness pushed into an icy silence.

By the time her eyes flew open, Marra was gone.

"You could have saved them!" Fluttershy bawled, her muzzle stained with heavily falling tears. "I told you to stop! I told you! I told you!"

"What would you have me do, just sit there uselessly like you were?" Twilight raged, Fluttershy still repeating the words 'I told you so' as if they had some kind of answer hidden within them. The forest around them was silent except for their panting as they rested at the base of a large tree, struggling to regain their breath.

"He was... I was..." Pinkie whispered, her eyes staring blankly at her blood-specked coat. "I was right next to him. He... He was just right there." Applejack tried to pull Pinkie into a hug, but the pink mare was frozen in place.

"I can't believe he's just... Just gone."

"Dash, help me out here." Applejack nervously called to the pegasus, but Rainbow Dash was laying with her hooves over her ears watching Twilight yell nonsense at Fluttershy, who had since degraded into silently weeping.

"Stop fighting." She moaned weakly, her wings twitching in irritation as she observed the group falling to pieces.

"Rarity?" Applejack struggled to keep her voice from cracking. "Pinkie and ah need some help here."

The now slightly pink mare stumbled forwards on shaking legs, eventually plopping down on the ground by Pinkie.

"C-c-come on now, darling." Rarity stammered, a forced smile on her face that twitched treacherously downwards. "They'll be here any minute now. T-they'll find us."

Pinkie's hollow eyes swiveled to stare through Rarity. "Not Night Wing." She murmured, tears forming in her eyes as the truth hit her through the shock. "Night Wing's dead. They're all dead. We... we're alone."

"Now that ain't true, we got each other." Applejack glanced over her friends, all fighting or weeping apart. "We've always got each other." She finished, but she wasn't even convincing herself.

Rarity forced her own tears down further as she saw the despair enter Applejack's eyes. What is happening to us? She thought, cringing as her headache returned stronger that ever. We have to band together, but how to convince Twilight? She's been acting strange for days now!

All of a sudden, Rarity's eyes lit up. "Idea!" She cried, though nopony was listening to her. Pursing her lips, she rummaged with her magic through Twilight's saddlebag until she found what she was searching for. Slowly, she lifted the Elements of Harmony up into the air, sending them towards her friends.

She had only managed to send them a few feet when her headache grew to migraine proportions, her magic sputtering out and dropping the Elements to the forest floor.

"No!" Rarity cried angrily. "I will not fail my friends! We must remember that we are in this together." Determination in her eyes, the white unicorn threw all of her strength into the levitation spell, the Elements resuming their flight.

The pain pounded against her like waves of pure agony crashing against her mind. After what felt like an eternity of endless pain, the cool metal of her Element pressed against her neck, the other Elements coming to rest on their bearers.

As soon as her magic cut off, her vision filled with blinding light. Strange popping noises resonated through her body, her headache growing further until she felt it would simply kill her. Finally, as she opened her mouth to scream out in agony, the light faded, the pain ebbing away with it. In place of the pain was a soothing calm, almost like a breeze in her mind, that washed away all of her fear and sadness.

"Applejack?" Rarity called out, looking up through eyes lit with happiness. "You are absolutely right. We have each other, and we can make it through this."

Applejack smiled at her friend, but the smile quickly turned to a frown as a green aura oozed outwards from the white mare.

"Uhhh, Rarity?" The orange mare slowly stepped backwards. "That green stuff you?"

Rarity's eyes snapped down to look at her body just as she gasped in fear. Her frightened look only increased when she turned back to Applejack.

"It's on you too!" The alabaster mare cried dramatically, her gaze flying over her other friends who stood dumbstruck in their own growing clouds.

"Rarity?" Rainbow Dash cried nervously. "Are you doing this?"

Before anypony could answer, the Elements shot out brilliant beams of color that tore through the clouds surrounding them and arced in the sky, forming the familiar rainbow. The rainbow suddenly curved downwards again, rushing at ever-growing speeds to an inevitable impact with a wide eyed purple unicorn.

The rainbow hit Twilight with a wave of power, knocking the other Element bearers off of their hooves. Black shreds of magic ripped outwards from the blast, tearing away from the pony stuck within the blinding ray as waves of rainbow burst from the impact, tearing through and ripping dark hunks of power from the disheveled ponies scattered around. In mere seconds, the rainbow was gone, the only proof of its presence being the six frazzled mares.

Twilight's eyes went even wider, as if some terrible truth had just dawned upon her. "I... I'm so sorry, I-"

"Well damn!" The six mares jumped at the new voice behind them, Fluttershy whimpering and hiding behind Twilight.

A woody brown unicorn stallion sat clapping his hooves rapidly, his sandy blonde mane falling in haphazard strands over his eccentric turquoise eyes.

"I dunno how you did it, but what in the buck was that pretty rainbow thing?"