What Lies Within

by 8542Madness

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Dark, Adventure
Length: 26082

The Everfree forest has come to be feared by all ponies, and for good reason. But when Celestia sends Twilight to investigate a strange power within the trees, will Twilight be able to face her fears, and the horror that lies within?

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

For many centuries, the citizens of Ponyville have regarded the Everfree forest as a place of brutal beasts and unrestrained magic, and not without reason. From the deadly cockatrice to the horrible hydra, no shortage of terrors roam those woods. Twilight Sparkle has come against these beasts firsthand, escaping just barely with help from her friends, and regards the forest with caution.

One day, Princess Celestia sends Twilight an urgent letter, deliverd by Royal Guards. Celestia has felt the stirrings of a deep and powerful magic, and wants Twilight to investigate right away. Twilight, proud to have been chosen for such an important task, soon wilts when she reads the rest of the letter. The power is within the Everfree Forest.

Even with the power of friendship and a patrol of Royal Guards, will Twilight have the strength to face Fear?

Previously written by Shinygiratinaz, now written by yours truly. I'll do my best to keep true to the original intentions of the story.
This story happens before the events of Magical Mystery Cure (aka before Twilight sprouts wings) but after Discord's reformation.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-08 00:16:08 UTC

1: Picnics, Letters, and Flashbacks

It was the beginning of a wonderful day in Ponyville. The birds chirped overhead, the sun shone warmly, and the ponies couldn't help but feel relaxed. Applejack's hooves sank into the soft soil outside of the library as she lifted a hoof to knock on the door. Suddenly a loud crash from inside of the library startled her, and she heard Twilight Sparkle scream from inside.

"Twilight!" Applejack yelled and pushed at the door. To her dismay the door didn't budge. "Hold on Twi!" Applejack turned around, preparing her famous buck for the door. Suddenly the door swung forwards and knocked her to the ground.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry Applejack!" Spike gasped from the doorway as Applejack picked herself up.

"Is Twilight alright? Ah heard her scream, and there was a loud crash..."

"Oh, that?" Spike chuckled. "Twilight's just reorganizing the shelves in the library again."

"Oh," Applejack sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. Does she have a moment to talk? Or maybe ah should come back later."

"No." A muffled voice sounded from inside of the library. "Come on in."

The inside of the library, usually clean and tidy, was littered with books of all kinds. Dictionaries and bedtime stories alike covered the floor and a veritable mountain of books sat in the center of the room.

"Twilight? Where are yah?" Applejack scanned the loft above but found nopony there.

"Under here." Twilight groaned from under the mountain of books.Twilight's horn protruded from the bottom of the pile.

"Twilight, what in the hay are yah doing under all those books?" Applejack sighed.

"It's not on purpose, trust me." Twilight said as she directed her magic into moving the pile of books off of her body. "There were just more books on that shelf than I expected." She sat up, brushing a stray tome off of her head. "Now, what can I do for you, Applejack? Are you looking for a book of some kind? It's a little messy but I'm sure we can find what you need."

"No, sugar cube." Applejack said, pulling out a slip of paper from her saddlebag." Pinkie's gonna throw a picnic party palooza at the park and she wanted me tah invite ya'll. Ya'll should come, it'll be heaps of fun!"

"Oh, but we are already having heaps of fun." Spike replied, rolling his eyes.

"Sure we'll come. It'll be a nice break from sorting. Just let me finish this section..." Twilight channeled her magic to float the books and put them into seemingly random shelves. Applejack just sighed.

"You be sure she remembers to come, Spike." She said. "That girl could sit there for a week 'nd not notice any time'd gone by. It'll be good for her to take a break anyway."

"Will do!" Spike said, and led Applejack out of the door. Twilight, consumed in her sorting, didn't even notice them leave. Just as she was inspecting a particularly old book to determine the shelf it belonged to her horn flared with a bright burst of magic, sending the many tomes she was levitating flying in every direction.

"Ow!" Twilight exclaimed as the old book crashed into her face and impaled itself on her horn. Sighing in frustration, Twilight worked to remove the book with her hooves as her magic fizzled out with an audible pop. As soon as the book was out of her vision, she groaned at the mess the flying books had made. Spike walked in on the mess and giggled.

"Wow Twilight, did the books insult you or something?" He picked up a book and held it like a mouth, speaking in an overly gruff voice. "Twilight can't sort books at all without you, Mister Spike! She's being mean to us!" Twilight merely rolled her eyes.

"No Spike. My magic has been acting very weirdly today." She put a hoof on her head as a strong migraine hit her. "First, I go to remove some books from the shelf, and I accidentally pull the whole shelf down on me! Now I just randomly threw all the books against the walls!" Her eyes widened in panic as she whipped around to face Spike head on. "Spike, do you know what this means?"

Spike, slightly concerned for Twilight's mental well-being, shook his head. "No, what does this mean?"

Twilight pulled her mane and collapsed on the floor. "It means that my magic is leaving me!" Springing up, she rushed to the books around her while frantically searching for a certain writing on the nature of unicorn magic. "I wonder if any cases have been documented of this before? I wonder if I am the only one this has ever happened to! Spike, what if I lose my magic altogether!"

Spiraling into a panic, Twilight ran around the library aimlessly. "What if Celestia won't want me as her student anymore? What if she sends me all the way back to magic kindergarten?" The thought itself stopped her in her tracks. "I'm going to lose EVERYTHING!" Twilight bawled.

Spike, who had been silently witnessing Twilight's descent into panic, grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Get a hold of yourself Twi!" He yelled at the now dizzy unicorn. "You aren't losing your magic!"

Twilight stared at him, and sniffled. "How do you know?"

Spike just sighed. "So your magic is kinda off today. Have you stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, you are just tired?"

Twilight looked at Spike, confused. "But this has never happened before when I was just tired, Spike! This is an emergen-"

Spike glared at Twilight, cutting her off. "Your magic is acting up because you have been overworking yourself! There is no way that your magic could just disappear. You are the most talented unicorn in Ponyville, that isn't going to change. Maybe it's like..." Spike wracked his mind for a good example. "Oh! Like a muscle! If you overwork a muscle, it will be sore and could tear and stuff. Maybe your magic is just sore?"

Twilight was silent as she pondered this option. She had studied the nature of magic intensively, and could absolutely refute Spike's explanation. It had been enough to calm her back down into thinking clearly though, and her headache was subsiding. For Spike's sake, she stopped, then began to smile. "I think you might just be right Spike."

"Really!" He exclaimed, thrilled that Twilight had admitted that he was correct.

"But I am going to keep a close eye on this." Twilight bolted downstairs, Spike following closely behind, and hooked herself up to a strange machine that looked almost like a seismograph. "I will have to monitor my magical state at all times, to see if I am going to flare up again." Saying this, she stared at the results pouring out from the machine while nodding and gasping occasionally. Spike sighed and grabbed Twilight by the hoof.

"Wait! I have to monitor my magic levels!" She protested as Spike pulled her out of the door.

"Come on, Twi. We're going to a picnic."

Far away in Canterlot, a worried Princess rose from her throne. Celestia frowned towards the direction of Ponyville and the Everfree forest, her thoughts racing despite her calm appearance. Her usually regal manner was broken by the waves of pain radiating from her head. She had tried all manner of spells, but no magic could heal the strange headache she suffered under. The guards outside of the throne room doors began to speak with someone, then the great doors swung wide. Princess Luna strode up to her sister as the door boomed shut.

"Sister, have you felt it?" Celestia asked, unable to keep a worried tone out of her voice.

"I have." Was Luna's only reply. Sighing, Celestia turned to face her. Both ponies remained silent for a short while, gathering their thoughts.

"Magic; a new, unknown, and powerful magic, no less." Luna spoke, breaking the silence. "Even before my... absence... I had never experienced a power quite so unique."

"What should I do sister?" Celestia asked, rubbing her head as if she hoped that action could somehow clear it, "This force could be dangerous, but neither of us has the time to go stomping around in the Everfree, searching for the source of this magic."

Luna was silent in thought for a moment. "Twilight Sparkle." She smiled. "You always have said that you could trust her with anything. Send her and her friends on a quest to find this magic. She would probably be enchanted at the prospect of documenting this abnormality."

"What if she is hurt?" Celestia worried.

"You can send a detachment of guards to help her with the monsters. I do not  believe that anything in that forest could stand up to both the Elements of Harmony and the Guard."

Celestia nodded. "Very well. I shall send Twilight a note with her instructions, along with a patrol of guards." Celestia walked back to her throne, levitating a paper and quill with her magic. Before she got to it, she stopped. "Thank you for your advice, Luna."

Luna simply smiled.

Many years before...

The caverns echoed forlornly with the wails of a mare in the midst of a hard childbirth, and the cries of nurses around her. Two unicorns, a stallion and a little filly, sat complacently in the cavern outside of the room where the mother languished.

"Stone Teller?" The midnight-black filly spoke softly and nervously, "Is Sapphire Weaver going to be okay?"

The stallion smiled reassuringly, his clear grey eyes staring blindly at her, "Yes Midnight Aria. It sounds like the birth is troubled, but I feel that the baby will be just fine." The foal sighed in relief at her mentor's assurance. The Shaman had never been wrong before, and Midnight Aria was not about to start doubting him.

"I am troubled about the filly itself though." Stone Teller confessed, "I can feel the waves of its being, but they are confused. I do not think that this young one's fate will be easy to determine."

"Oh." Midnight Aria scuffed her hoof against the stone floor. It seemed that her hopes of finally being able to try to read a fate were dashed. Well, she thought to herself, there will be other births to supervise... someday.

Stone Teller smiled knowingly at the far wall. "It would seem that I am becoming old."

Midnight Aria tilted her head, confused. "Huh?"

"It would seem that at my older age, I might just need a certain younger, more energetic filly to read this fate for me."

Though he could not see the great smile that spread across the filly's face, Stone Teller could feel her happiness just as well. He groaned slightly as his ribs contracted under the little filly's fierce hug.

"Thank you." she whispered, just as the cries of a newborn resounded from the chamber.

"It seems... That we are needed..." Stone Teller gasped over the hug crushing his diaphragm.

"Oh! Sorry." Midnight Aria squeaked, letting him go as he breathed a huge gasp. She then put her flank up against his and began to lead Stone Teller into the small cavern where Sapphire Weaver and her new child were waiting. Midnight Aria gasped slightly when she saw the little pony. It's eyes were wide open, their dark red irises gleaming with tears as the young pony cried. Stone Teller gasped also, but for a much different reason.

Ever since he could remember, he had 'seen' by feeling the flow of magic around him, a special talent that had led him to become a Shaman. Never, though, in all of his long years, had he felt so much magic in a single pony before, and he stepped forward in the direction of the tangling magic he felt.

The filly stopped crying at the sound of the ponies entering. Midnight Aria stepped next to him and gazed down at the little filly wrapped in blankets in her mother's lap. As she looked into the filly's eyes she thought that she could feel something strange emanating from the child. She looked over to see Stone Teller smiling expectantly in her general direction.

"Well? Go head."

Midnight Aria stifled an anxious sigh and looked up at Sapphire Weaver, who turned her nervous gaze to the older stallion. Sensing her maternal anxiety to give this young mare her child, who was not much bigger than her, he smiled reassuringly.

Cautiously, Midnight Aria took the little filly in her bundle in her arms. Focusing her magic, she closed her eyes. Slowly, she began to 'see' magic flowing around her. She had to stop herself from flinching back from the child, and instead simply stood awestruck at the raw magical power vested inside its body.

"Stone Teller?" She asked nervously, "Can you-"

"Go ahead and do your job Aria." He answered sternly, his tone voicing no way of opposition to his words.

Taking a deep breath, Midnight Aria began to reach out to the magic of the filly.

It was midday, she knew, but the world was tinted a deep red, as if a strange light was shining from above. She looked down from her place above the ground, and quickly put her hooves over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. Ponies of every kind littered to ground below her, their anguished and dying moans sounding as a horrible song in her ears. Among the corpses, sat two glittering crowns, one golden and one silver. It was all too much to bear.

"Aria! MIDNIGHT ARIA!"

Strange dark shapes began to swirl around her, and she had to beat her wings ever harder to remain aloft. They began to form into the shape of a gigantic black alicorn stallion, with teeth like razors and eyes that reflected no light from their dark depths. Darkness flowed freely from its mane and fetlocks, with red light flashing intermittently within. Upon its flank, its cutie mark bore the symbol of a blood-red eclipse. Upon his head, to the side of his horn, two other small horns grew on each side, with dark energy frequently surging between them.

"What is wrong? What is she seeing?"

"Snap out of it girl!"

The monstrosity began to laugh, slowly at first, then rising in tone and speed until it was nearly hysterical. It spoke without it's mouth moving, and it's voice ripped through her mind as great blasts of pure fear and rage.

"Oh, my apprentice! Do you not like the new Equestria that you have made? I am of the mind to enjoy it. In fact I love it so much I think I'll keep it this way."

A horrible smile split its face from ear to ear, its bloodied fangs gleaming horribly. Midnight Aria tried to move, to escape, to do anything, but she could only cower beneath the gruesome grin of the great monster. It lunged forward, it's mouth opening in a terrifying laugh, as it screamed out at her.

"WELCOME TO YOUR DESTINY!"

Midnight Aria jolted upright, her lungs spasming as she attempted to calm down. Tears flowed freely from her face, and she buried her muzzle into the light brown fur of her mentor. When she had calmed down enough to where she merely hiccuped infrequently, she turned to Sapphire Weaver and her husband, Steel Horn, who were looking at her in horror. The little filly rested in her bundle upon the ground, seeming perfectly content.

What, what was that? Midnight Aria thought, Could that... Could that really have been that little filly's future?

"Did you discover this little filly's name?" Stone Teller queried softly. Midnight Aria nodded, then remembering that he couldn't see, softly whispered.

"Yes." She stood shakily, and turned to face the parents on trembling hooves.

"Your daughter... Her name is Fear Sower."

2: Unexpected News with Expected Results

Twilight sat on the grass at the picnic, concentrating on a cup she had in front of her. Carefully, she began to feed magic into the task of lifting the cup. It was surrounded by a magical glow, then slowly lifted off of the saucer it was resting on, wobbling in the air. Twilight was about to take a sip of the tea contained within when her horn abruptly flared again. Steaming tea splashed all over her, and she let out a small yelp of pain.

"You too, darling?" Twilight looked up from her mess to see Rarity standing before her. Twilight blinked at her a few times, then snickered. Rarity seemed to be finding a way to look embarrassed and indignant at the same time.

"What happened to your mane?" Twilight giggled. Indeed, Rarity's usually pristine and styled mane was a tangled mess. Small strands stuck out everywhere and she was constantly pushing them out of her eyes.

"Only the most positively horrible thing!" Rarity wailed. "I went this morning to pick up my styling equipment, but my magic was all over the place! I couldn't even levitate a curling iron! Now I'm forced to use my hooves for everything. Can you imagine, trying to style a mane with only your hooves? It is simply tragic! Twilight, are you even listening?" Twilight was listening, but with an increasingly detached expression.

Your magic is acting up also?" Twilight pondered.

"Well what in heaven's name did you think I was just ranting about?" Rarity snapped.

"Rarity, this could be worse than I thought." Twilight said, and glanced around at the large amount of ponies who had showed up for Pinkie's Picnic Party Palooza. "If everyone is having problems with their magic, that could be a sign of something terrible coming! We need to ask other ponies if they have noticed anything off."

"Why don't you ask the Royal Guard!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, knocking both unicorns over with her sudden presence.

"Pinkie, the Guard is in Canterlot." Twilight sighed, picking herself up.

"Someone needs to tell them that." Pinkie pointed to the sky.

Sure enough, a small contingent of Guards and a small coach were descending from the mid-morning sky, heading in the direction of the park where the picnic was being held.

"Rainbow Dash! Applejack! Fluttershy! Visitors!" Pinkie squealed, then bounced away.

"What in tarnation is the Royal Guard doing here?" Applejack wondered aloud, and Twilight felt the gaze of her friends rest upon her.

"I don't know anything about this." She said, "Maybe the magic is off in Canterlot too?"

"And the Princesses need us Elements of Harmony to go on another awesome quest to save Equestria!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, doing a loop-de-loop in the air above Rarity's head and further tangling her mane.

"That's quite an assumption to make, Rainbow." Rarity scoffed and futilely attempted to fix her mane. "They probably just need Twilight's help on a spell of some kind."

"Yeah." Fluttershy whispered from her hiding spot behind Rainbow Dash. "No scary adventures today, please."

The Guard slowly circled the area from above before landing, using their vantage point to search for suspicious or threatening ponies before they swooped to a spotless landing in the park. The leading pony, a dark grey stallion with a blue mane and a cutie mark resembling a spear and shield approached Twilight stiffly.

"Miss Twilight Sparkle." He spoke in a gruff and formal voice. "Princess Celestia sends her dearest regards and warmest greetings to you, and regrets her inability to be present at this time."

"Thank you very much, sir...?"

The stallion's demeanor brightened slightly at Twilight's politeness, and he spoke in a more relaxed tone. "If you please Miss Sparkle, my name is Silver Spear."

"Thank you Silver Spear, but why are you here?"

The brightness faded from the stallion. "We have been sent for two purposes. The first is to be sure that you receive and understand the implications of this missive. The second, is to ensure your safety on the carrying out of the task within." At his words, another Guardpony grabbed a sealed letter from his saddlebag and handed it to Twilight.

"I wonder why Celestia didn't just send this message through Spike?" Twilight pondered aloud.

"Maybe it's because it's...dangerous." Fluttershy said, eying the Guardponies nervously.

Using her magic to unseal and unroll the scroll, Twilight's eyes scanned the letter. It started off as all of Celestia's letters did, and Twilight was about to simply skim through it's contents when she noticed the words printed after the greeting. She began to read aloud: My dearest student, I need you to take up the Elements of Harmony once again.

Rainbow Dash cried out in triumph. "See! I told you guys the Princess needed our awesomeness again!"

"Oh, yay." Fluttershy sighed softly.

"Would you let me finish reading, Rainbow?" Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Sorry."

"Alright, now, once again..."

You and you friends are needed to find and document a new sort of magic was has been felt originating near Ponyville. This is an important and possibly dangerous task, which is why I have sent this patrol of Royal Guards to help you find the source of this magic.

"Wait, Celestia is sending us on an adventure just to document something? Way uncool! That's not even a real adventure! That's like, an egghead adventure!"

"Are yah done there, Rainbow? Twilight ain't finished with the letter just yet."

Rainbow dash settled to the ground with Applejack's reprimand. "Worst adventure ever." She grumbled.

The location of this magic is only approximate, but it most likely is coming from...

"The Everfree forest?"

"By my hide, what do you think you're doing?"

The little filly froze at the sound of her mother's voice, and turned her head warily.

"Going outside?" She squeaked. Her mother's silence was almost more painful than yelling.

Finally, a sigh came from the mare.

"You know what I said about that before, it's too dangerous for you out there." Sapphire Weaver gently nudged her child back within the section of the tunnel that they called home. "The other ponies don't understand your special qualities like I do."

The brick red filly huffed disappointingly, kicking at the rocks on the cave floor. "But Midnight Aria was gonna meet me, and we were gonna go play together by the spring..."

The mare could hear the loneliness in her daughter's voice, and felt her will begin to cave. She knew that Midnight Aria was a good pony and that the others wouldn't attack her daughter if she went with her, and that the spring was far enough away from the main caverns that there would be no other problems with the local ponies. Even with those assurances, she was still nervous about her child. Something could happen to her or she could get hurt or...

"I don't want to hear that you went anywhere else, okay?" Sapphire Weaver's heart filled with warmth at the rare smile that filled the little filly's face.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" She bounced in circles around her mother as she laughed gleefully, then zipped off down the tunnels to find her friend.

Sapphire Weaver giggled, remembering the days when she was that energetic. Re-entering the cavern she called home, she settled down at a certain stone that hung on the wall. It was carved with a name, a date, an effigy of a painfully familiar steel-grey unicorn stallion, and the words "Killed in Action".

"Oh, Steel Horn, you would be so proud of her. She's just as adventurous as you were."

"Come on! The spring is this way!" Midnight Aria called, jumping down the piled rocks to the lower caverns. The sound of trickling water was growing greater by the second, and she couldn't wait to take a drink of the cool, clear liquid.

"I’m coming! Boy, is it hot down here." The brick red filly said and wiped sweat from her brow as she trotted along, following the sound of Aria's voice through the caverns. The twisting tunnels and branching caves were unfamiliar to her, but Midnight Aria seemed to know just where everything was. Lost in thought, the filly didn't see the end of the path just in front of her, and stepped off into open air. "Waaaah!"

Unable to regain her balance, she tumbled down the steep rocks, colliding with Aria on the way down. Dust rose from the old stones as the two bounced down the steep path, their groans and yelps echoing off of the cavern walls. Eventually they came to a rest at the bottom of the stone hill, all a tangle of hooves and limbs.

"Owwww." Midnight Aria complained, "Watch your step next time!"

"Sorry." Feeling as if she had ruined her only chance at knowing a pony who didn't hate her, the filly ducked her head and waited for the inevitable hatred.

"It's a good thing we've got this water to wash off with. And boy, am I thirsty!" Surprised, the filly followed Aira to the spring, only a short distance away after their 'shortcut' down the rocks.

"You aren't... Mad at me? You still wanna hang out with me?"

Midnight Aria turned to face the younger filly with a confused look. "Well duh. Just because you tripped on a rock doesn't mean I'm just gonna not hang out with you anymore. I mean, that would be a sucky thing for a best friend to do"

"Wait, we're, uh, 'best friends'?"

"Uh huh. Why, do you not wanna be best friends?"

"Oh, no no! Uh, I mean yes! I mean-"

Aria's laugh echoed around the cavern. "You silly filly! I gotcha, though. Best friends, you and me!"

The little filly turned redder than usual. "I've never had a best friend. I, uh, actually don't think I've ever heard of one..."

"Well, there's a first time for everything!" Aria chirped, and promptly splashed her best friend with a spray of water.

"Hey!" The now soaked filly yelled, and ran to splash her back. Soon they had entered an all out splash war, using magic and their hooves to soak one another until both collapsed in giggling, dripping heaps.

"You're the best best friend ever, Aria."

"Oh don't get all mushy on me now, we still gotta walk all the way back home."

The sun had reached the point in its arc where the long shadows had formed and the sky was showing signs of the reds and pinks that would signal its setting. After the Royal Guard had arrived Twilight and the other Elements, along with the guardponies, had gone back to the library to clear up the situation in peace and privacy. As the day had worn on though, all ponies involved had become more frustrated than anything else.

"So, let me get this straight." Twilight said wearily. "You are here to protect us on this quest to find and document an ancient power which is not only of an unknown power but also of an unknown location, except for the fact that it has a possibility of being somewhere in the Everfree forest. The same Everfree forest that just so happens to be one of the most dangerous places in Equestria that we know of. Did I get that right?"

"Well, yes. But I think you have a very negative outlook on this situation Miss Sparkle." Silver Spear sighed.

"Negative outlook? Negative outlook!" Twilight raged, stamping her hoof in frustration. "Where in this conversation is there a positive outlook! Why did Celestia ever send such a crazy idea out here? What could she have been thinking?" Groaning in frustration and pain, Twilight settled with glaring at Silver Spear through the haze that her migraine seemed to be causing.

"I’m not sure, Twilight." Spike shook his head, then widened his eyes as an idea struck him. "Maybe it's a test, like solving the problem at the Crystal Empire? Maybe Celestia wants to see if you can figure this out on your own?"

"Yes, maybe it's just a little test for us to solve. Or maybe she left some other information in there?" Rarity picked up the letter with her magic and began to read the letter for what Twilight felt was the umpteenth time.

"No! That's all there is to the letter, everypony! If this is a test though, I have to say I'm feeling pretty stumped. I don't have any details at all about this 'strange power'. It could be anything! And aside from that, how do we even find it?"

"If I may interject, Miss Sparkle." Silver Spear motioned for a grey and orange unicorn to stand beside him. "I have had my magic expert working on that since we arrived and discovered the predicament that we are in." Silver Spear continued. The grey and orange unicorn snapped a salute to Silver Spear, then bowed his head to Twilight. "Star Gazer, brief Miss Sparkle and her companions on your findings so far."

"Well, I am sure that you are familiar with the nature of a simple finding spell." Star Gazer began.

"Is that that spell that Rarity uses to find those gems and things?" Pinkie asked. "Because I don't know how that will help us to find this magic whozit-whatzit. Unless the magicky thingy is made of gems, of course!"

"Uh, valid question. I guess." Star Gazer furrowed his brow as he tried to find a good explanation for how the spell worked that this pony would understand. "Uh, well all magic works because of current of magical energy that exist between and throughout all things. Influencing these current is how all ponies work their respective magics, and the magic is different depending on how the influence occurs. For example, take the levitation spell. It works by-"

"Blah blah blah blah magical sciency stuff. It just works, OK?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you eggheads speak, like, a different language or something."

"Well then." Star Gazer huffed, offended. "I have been working on a spell that would allow the caster to be able to discern the location of a certain magic, as long as the influence of the magic is in fact discernible."

"Well aren't you a perfect plot device. I mean really, we need to get going already! All this exposition is getting boooring." Pinkie sighed dramatically.

"Uh, say what now?" Applejack asked, confused.

"I have no idea." Fluttershy whispered.

Silence held for a long while as Pinkie sat staring contently at the far wall, entirely oblivious to the gaze of every pony in the room resting heavily on her.

"Aaanyways." Twilight pulled the confused gazes of the ponies back to her. "This spell is only useful if the magic is discernible, so we're back to square one."

"Actually, I think you'll find that whatever magic this may be is actually quite apparent." Star Gazer smiled grimly. "I assume that you are currently experiencing a strange and persistent migraine, accompanied by a loss of control of certain spells?"

"Yes, both me and Rarity. Are you trying to say that whatever magic we are looking for is causing this?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"I am saying that it is our best and only option at this point in time." Star Gazer confirmed. "These headaches have been afflicting Canterlot ponies as well, but it seems to be stronger here. That could mean that this power is causing them, and would allow the spell to trace it from that influence. The only question left is, what do we do when we find this anomaly? And what could it be?"

"If it can affect ponies at as wide of a radius as this, it's no doubt powerful." Twilight pondered, then grabbed her head as another wave of pain hit. "And really annoying." She added.

"Well whatever it is, it'll be no match for the Elements of Harmony!" Rainbow Dash cried, standing triumphantly and stamping her hoof. "This thing is going DOWN!"

"We actually haven't even confirmed if it is something we are going to even need to fight." Twilight said. "It could just be that somepony accidentally activated an ancient artifact or spell of some kind. It would be good to be prepared for anything though."

"Man, you guys are no fun at all." Rainbow grumbled, sitting back down dejectedly.

"How about I explain this spell to you, Miss Sparkle," Star Gazer said, yawning. "And we can set out tomorrow on our search."

The sun was already setting, and a long day of arguing had worn everypony out. Star Gazer and Twilight discussed the workings of the spell as her friends left the library for their own homes. It seemed to all involved that this 'quest' would turn out to be quite uneventful, to the chagrin of a certain colorful pegasus. Fate, it seems, is always ready to prove ponies wrong.

"Get up, you freak!"

Midnight Aria groaned from under the stallion who had tackled her to the ground. She could barely see her friend cowering a few paces away, but she knew exactly what was happening. She worked hard to suppress a growl of frustration. They had almost made it home.

"Can't take it anymore, demon? What are you gonna do, huh?"

"Leave her alone!" Midnight Aria cried from underneath the bigger pony, but he put a hoof over her mouth.

The little red filly in the center of a crowd of jeering faces seemed to be trying to simply disappear. Her trembling only strengthened the insults coming from the other ponies.

"Monster!" A mare behind her yelled, and threw a stone squarely at her head. The filly dodged in time, but another rock landed against her flank, leaving a long gash on her side.

"The beast bleeds!" A dusty purple pegasus screamed in dark satisfaction, and kicked another stone at the defenseless child. Soon rocks were being thrown from every direction, and the filly could not evade them all. Her vision narrowed to a tunnel as a particularly heavy stone collided with her head, and she stumbled to the ground.

"Please! Stop!" Midnight Aria screeched beneath her captor, but the others paid no heed to her muffled pleads.

All the little red filly could feel was pain. Pain from the rocks, pain from the ponies' jeers, and pain from her heart. She didn't know what she had done to deserve this, but she brought her battered wings up over her head in a last effort to protect herself from the barrage of stones and shouts.

"Murderer!" a stallion raged, as he prepared to lob a final rock at the bruised and battered child's head, but the rock suddenly disappeared from his hoof. The crowd parted as a single black unicorn stallion pushed his way through, and came to stand beside the broken filly, his steely glare freezing the mob in place. He then turned to glare down at the filly he stood above, and she returned his gaze with a stare that expected nothing from him except more condemnation.

Midnight Aria's horn suddenly burst forth light, blinding the stallion holding her down and allowing her to dash forward to the filly's side. The unicorn didn't move as Midnight Aria tried to help her friend to her hooves.

"What are you doing?" A voice yelled from the crowd. "That thing is a demon!" Other voices joined in, yelling until it seemed that their anger would boil over again. The unicorn whipped around to the source of the voice, and his dark black eyes betrayed no emotion. An unnerved silence fell over the ponies.

"You." The voice of the unicorn was harsh, deep, and commanding, and the ponies swiftly parted to reveal the mare who had shouted before. She was the one who now seemed to be attempting to disappear.

"You would kill a child. A child who has done absolutely nothing to any of you, here or absent." His voice was filling with seething rage with each word he spoke, until it felt as if his words were tearing right into the mob of ponies as their stones had done to their victim only moments ago. "You have the gall, the audacity, to stone a mere child to death. To death, all for the sake of a Fate that may or may not be?"

"The Shamans have never been wrong!" The mare defended weakly, then immediately wished she hadn't spoken as the unicorn's eyes seem to glow in hatred.

"Then did they predict your death for this day?" He growled softly, before a flickering dark black void surrounded his horn. The mare barely had time to scream before the magic enveloped her body, raising her from the ground. She writhed in the spell's embrace, before the magic tightened around her, holding her still. With a roar, the unicorn's horn flared again, and Midnight Aria ducked her head away as a sickly crack resounded around the cavern.

The only sound now was the thud of the mare's broken body impacting the floor.

The unicorn's menacing glare shifted to the stunned ponies, their jaws agape as what had just occurred sank in. Some began to back away slowly, while others whimpered softly to themselves.

"Well, cowards. RUN!" The unicorn lunged forward, and what had once been a mob was now a screaming mass of ponies all struggling to get away the fastest. Soon, the only ones left were Midnight Aria, the strange unicorn, and the battered and bleeding filly.

"Are... Are you okay?" Midnight Aria whispered to her bruised friend.

"Ill... be fine. Thanks to... you, mister." She groaned, getting shakily to her feet. Leaning on Aria for support, she walked slowly over to the body of the mare. Aria turned her head away, unable to look at the corpse, but her friend glared intently at it.

"I do not require thanks, child." The unicorn shook his head. "I could not in good conscious let them assault you."

"What you did with your magic..." The filly trailed off, her attention captured by the contorted mare.

"I am sorry that you had to see that." He sighed. "The only language those ponies speak is death, it was the only way to stop their rage." The filly turned her gaze intently upon him.

"No, you saved my life. And she deserved it. I'm not afraid of magic." The unicorn turned, surprised, and returned the filly's stare.

"I probably wouldn't have ever been in that situation if I could use magic like you can."

There was something cold within the filly's voice, and Midnight Aria closed her eyes to steel herself for what was to be said. The darkness within her eyelids was brightened by the 'light' of the magic she sensed flooding out of her friend. It had been ever increasing, and was one of the reasons that Sapphire Weaver had never allowed her child to learn magic. Aria had always felt bad for her friend for her lack of even basic spell knowledge, but she also felt as if learning magic would only take her one step closer to...

The young Shaman took a deep breath. She couldn't afford such thoughts. Her reading was wrong, it had to be, it was the only way. Aria had already caused enough damage in her friend's life, a pain that she would never be able to make up for no matter how hard she tried. Besides, it would be good for her friend to learn to stand up for herself.

"Do you think... do you think that you could teach me?"

Silence. Once again the little filly felt as if the lack of sound was more powerful than shouting, and she felt her ears start to droop.

"Yes." Her ears zipped upright as the words reached them, and she looked up at the black unicorn in near-disbelief.

"Really?" She gasped, and her eyes lit up.

"First, there is one rule of all magic that you should know." The grave tone of the stallion sobered the filly, but she listened intently.

"It is incredibly dangerous. Spells are the use of the power within oneself to alter the very world around the caster.  To cast one requires both extensive knowledge, planning out the specific spell, and using the correct amount of energy. All of these steps are equally important. Without knowledge of a spell, a deadly miscast could occur. Without planning of the spell, you could make an error while casting it and catastrophically destroy the spell. If you use the wrong amount of energy, you could cast a spell too powerful for you to control."

"So, the spell just could get away from you?" The red filly asked.

"No. Casting a spell that is too powerful for the caster would either strain the caster until no magic is left within them, simply exhausting them, or for a spell that is far beyond the caster's strength it would consume them entirely."

Both fillies gulped. "Oh."

"That is why it is important to be careful when using magic. It is a powerful and still mostly mysterious force, and it can prove to be deadly." The unicorn's dark eyes drifted back to the corpse of his victim. "Even if it is not meant to be."

The little filly nodded, then frowned slightly. "Mister, if I'm gonna be learning magic from you, can I know your name?"

"Of course." The unicorn smiled slightly. "I am Deimos. What may I call you, little one?"

Aria felt her friend stiffen. Her name had always been a touchy subject. "Uhm. My name is..." Midnight Aria winced in sympathy for her friend, and wondered what she would say. "...Marra. My name is Marra."

Slightly surprised, Aria turned to her friend. The look on her face showed that she had indeed just made that name up. While Aria wasn't that thrilled about dishonesty, she had to admit that Marra sounded like a pretty interesting name. Besides, it wasn't like her name was a life or death matter.

"Well then, Marra, I get the feeling that you might have a very worried parent. It is becoming quite late." Marra's eyes widened in worry.

"Oh no!" As she looked herself over, she found that she looked about as bruised and battered as she felt. "Mom's gonna never let me outside again!

Deimos chuckled slightly. "I could speak to her if you wish. I may be able to calm her down."

"You've never met Sapphire Weaver, have you?" Midnight Aria asked sceptically, and she and Deimos chuckled. They had already begun walking when they realized that Marra wasn't following.

"Marra? You all right?" Aria asked, and walked back to her friend. She hadn't moved and was simply staring at the ground.

"Why did this even happen?" Marra looked up to see Aria with a confused look. "Why does my mom have to worry so much about me simply going outside? Why do we have to explain to her why I'm all bruised up, and why am I all bruised up anyways? Why do the other ponies hate me?" She kicked at the ground dejectedly as Aria came up beside her.

"I dunno for sure, but I think that their jealous." Aria said.

"Jealous? Why the hay would they be jealous of me?" Marra snapped.

"Well, not everyone gets to be an alicorn you know." Aria explained, "You're different from them, and that's a good thing. They just don't understand that."

"Sure, being a completely useless 'hybrid' is a really good thing." Marra rolled her eyes.

"Hush, you! I'm just trying to help."

"I know, sorry. I just don't understand how any of this makes sense."

"In which case, standing here and bickering will not help anything." Deimos nudged the two fillies forward. "Come. We are in danger if those ponies decide to return here."

Aria took the lead, due to her being the only one who knew they way back, and they walked in silence the entire way. Never once did they look back at the cold, agony filled eyes of the nameless corpse behind them.

3: On the Road Again

"So, you're sure that you are gonna be safe?" Twilight smiled as Spike shifted nervously. "I could come with you to help protect you!"

"It's alright Spike, I need you here to look after the library." Twilight pulled her friend into a hug. "I know that you're brave enough, I just need you here."

"Oh. Well, uh, good. Because, I.. I really didn't want to go anyways you know. I knew I could protect you." Spike puffed out his chest in fake bravery and Twilight rolled her eyes. The little dragon could be so irritatingly adorable. Letting him go, she grabbed her saddlebags and walked to the door. She had just pushed the door open to meet the rest of the ponies waiting for her outside when Spike called out again.

"Wait, Twilight! You can't go! You'll miss the eclipse that you wanted to document!"

"Spike, that's a full week from now. I'll be back by then."

"Well what if you aren't?"

"I will be, and we'll observe it together." Twilight assured, then stepped out into the crisp early morning air.

Not very many ponies were walking around at this time of day, as most of them were still asleep just after sunrise. Despite this, a large group of mostly bleary-eyed ponies stood outside of the library. Twilight noticed her friends immediately; Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all leaned wearily against each other as Pinkie Pie bounced happily around them. Next to them stood the seven Guardponies, in a square formation with Silver Spear in front. They immediately snapped into attention and saluted Twilight as she trotted up to her friends, then turned back and listened intently to something Silver Spear was saying.

"Well aren't we all bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning." Twilight snickered, and Rainbow Dash slowly shifted to face her.

"It. Is way to early for this." She mumbled. "How are you. And Pinkie. So awake?"

"All of my early morning study sessions have really paid off, I guess. And Pinkie is just, Pinkie."

"Morning is my favorite time of day!" Pinkie squealed as she bounced by. "You know, along with afternoon, midday, night, lunchtime, dinnertime, snacktime,"

"Pinkie, that's pretty much all day." Dash groaned, rubbing her eyes.

Silver Spear and the other guards strode up to the group, and Twilight and her friends turned to face him.

"If we are all ready, then we should proceed with the plan." He beckoned to Star Gazer, who stepped out of the ranks and joined him.

"Miss Sparkle, I do believe that you understand what needs to be accomplished here. Am I correct in that assumption?" Star Gazer's look of mild concern annoyed Twilight. She was Celestia's personal protege! Of course she knew how to perform a basic searching spell, albeit a slightly altered one.

"I think that I will be just fine, thank you." Twilight affirmed, and closed her eyes.

Tightening her focus, she drew in all of the magic that she could. Suddenly, some of the magic she was absorbing shuddered and sparked slightly. Before the strange shudder could leave her horn, she cast the spell. Her horn was struck with a twitching feeling, almost as if it was shuddering along with the magic. Opening her eyes, she saw a bright ray of light coming from her horn and pointing straight for the Everfree. She tilted her head in all directions, but the light remained pointing like a compass to it's goal.

"Woohoo Twilight!" Applejack whooped. "Nice work there!"

"Don't get so excited yet, this was the easy part." Twilight said, but still felt warmed by her friend's praise. Orienting herself in the direction of the light, she started to walk with the others following closely behind.

Then sun was bearing down brightly on the forest from the center of the sky, but barely any of the light could reach the group of ponies trudging frustratedly through the undergrowth. Twilight and Rainbow Dash both walked and flew in front, with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie behind them. Applejack followed slowly behind, burdened by the weight of Rarity upon her back. The white unicorn had absolutely refused to walk in the mud, and Applejack had begrudgingly offered to carry her. Making up the rear were the Guardponies, marching in perfect formation.

"Are we there yet?" Rainbow Dash sighed.

"No." Twilight groaned. The spell may have been simple, but it was getting harder to maintain the growing thrum of the magic in her horn. This probably meant that their destination was getting closer, but Twilight could barely handle both her magical headache and the headache from Rainbow's nagging.

"Are you sure? That light thing is getting brighter."

"Yes, Rainbow. I'm quite sure." Twilight tried to focus on the mud beneath her feet as they forged deeper in to the Everfree, but it provided no relief from the complaints or her ever growing headache.

"Maybe we passed it already and we didn't know?"

"Wow, Rainbow, you're a genius." Twilight snapped. "We probably did pass it and I never noticed. It's a good thing you're in charge of the spell getting us there, or else we would be totally lost by now. Oh wait, you aren't. So stop bugging me."

"Soorry." Rainbow huffed.

"Um, hey guys?" Fluttershy whispered.

"Do you have a problem with my navigating too, Fluttershy?" Twilight groaned, rubbing her head.

"Oh, no. I just noticed and I though you should know that-"

"Why are you picking on Fluttershy now? Maybe I should be in charge of this magic thing if it's gonna make you all grumpy like this."

"Oh, please don't fight. I just thought that I should point out the-"

"Rainbow, you can't even use magic! If you're so confident, why don't you just fly ahead and find it yourself!"

"I really should mention the-"

"Fine! Maybe I will! I'll get there long before you stumble your way there!"

"Please, this is importa-"

"You'll fly back here within five minutes of your silly little-"

"LISTEN TO ME!" Everypony stopped dead in their tracks at the sheer ferocity of Fluttershy's voice, and both Twilight and Rainbow cowered beneath her glare. Just as quickly as it had came, Fluttershy's anger was replaced by her usual timidness.

"If that's okay with you, I mean."

"Okay Fluttershy." Twilight said nervously. "What were you trying to say?"

Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy shakily pointed beneath them. Among the mud that Twilight had been trying to distract herself with earlier were holes, rocks, and the occasional paw print.

"Okay, what about the mud?" Twilight sighed.

"Not the mud, the tracks." Fluttershy corrected gently. "See how they are bigger than the tracks of the animals that we've seen so far, and how the print curves into points at the top?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it." Twilight looked closer at the tracks, noting the pointed prints and the strange pattern they created. "What tracks are they?"

"T-t-timberwolf." Fluttershy whispered.

Silver Spear's eyes widened. Though he was at the back of the group, he had still heard the conversation. "Miss Fluttershy, did you not think that this information was important enough to explain earlier?"

"I tried to." Fluttershy whimpered, and both Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at each other guiltily.

"We can't smell them, so that means they aren't close by." Silver Spear said, looking into the shadowy forest around them. "We will have to keep an especially sharp eye out for them."

Nodding, the group resumed their long trek.

Twilight's eyes drooped as she trudged further through the continually deepening mud. Her horn was glowing brighter than ever before, and it illuminated the forest around them clearly. The setting sun painted the sky a brilliant array of colors, but nopony was admiring the beautiful display. The group shuffled miserably forward, and even Rarity had gingerly begun to walk after Applejack nearly collapsed from carrying her all day.

They were muddy, cold, tired, and hungry when they finally broke into a clearing in the forest. An enormous flat stone took up much of the space in the area, and the ponies all rushed forward and onto it to escape from the mud. Panting and groaning, the Elements of Harmony flopped unceremoniously down onto the stone with the Guardponies following behind less hurriedly.

"This seems as good a place as any to camp for the night." Silver Spear commented, then turned a bemused glance to the 6 disheveled ponies on the ground. "We'll set up camp."  He had to strain to remain from laughing as the six mares simply nodded gratefully from their spots on the rock.

The other Guardponies quickly went to work unpacking their saddlebags and the tents and tools within them, setting up the camp with practiced precision. By the time a few of the ponies came back with firewood, the six mares were already sound asleep.

"Wow, they sure knock out quick." A green-colored Guardpony named Swift Blade chuckled, and Silver Spear nudged him with his hoof.

"Reminds me of a certain recruit I trained." He joked, and Swift Blade's face flushed. "it's been a long day, and civilians aren't used to marching like this."

Silver Spear's eyes fell on Twilight. "That light was getting much larger. We should be getting close. I hope Gazer got that spell right."

"Gazer? Sir, with all due respect, that fussy pony probably instructed that girl on every possible problem or outcome with that spell. I'm not worried."

Silver Spear's smile was a slight grimace as he found Star Gazer appraising his tent with yard stick. "He is quite... Specific."

Swift Blade laughed. "Specific is far from it, sir. I swear, that pony probably took that yard stick straight out from his ass."

An amused but stern look from Silver Spear silenced the Guardpony, who instead shrugged and went to help with building a fire. With a last glance at the snoring mares, Silver Spear turned to help with setting up tents as sparks ignited the wood piled in the center of the large, flat stone on which they stood. A few short minutes later, the Guardponies sat around the roaring fire, stretching as they removed their armor.

"Silver Spear, sir, should we wake the civilians and get them a tent?" A younger hazel-colored stallion asked.

"No, Light Burst, let them sleep. Besides, the tents won't be any more comfortable. We can use them if it rains." Silver Spear remarked dryly. "And just call me Spear, kid. You keep regarding me like I'm a prince or something."

"Yes, Princess Spear!" One of the guards called out, but Silver Spear couldn't distinguish who it was by the flickering firelight. He simply rolled his eyes.

Light Burst sat down a few paces away from Silver Spear and awkwardly fumbled with the straps on his armor. Spear ignored him until he nearly dropped his helmet in the fire, then nudged the black pegasus to his right.

"Private, please tell me you can take your armor off correctly." The pegasus snapped at Light Burst.

"Yes, Night Wing, I just... gotta get the right strap here..." Burst struggled for a few more minutes before hanging his head dejectedly. "This armor is different from the one I learned how to use." He mumbled.

Night Wing's eyes softened slightly. "Well you should've just said so, kid. You would've looked a whole lot less stupid just there." Burst cringed slightly at the comment, and Night Wing laughed.

He got up to help Light Burst out of his armor, muttering something about the Royal Armory switching armor types around without notice, and Silver Spear turned his attention back to the other ponies around the fire. Gazer and Blade were both pouring water into an MRE and waving away the steam it gave off, while Wing was setting Burst's armor down and explaining about the unfamiliar armor's workings. Two other pegasi, one orange and one white, were staring tiredly into the fire. Silver Spear chuckled at the sight of the two ponies zoning out; Thunder Crash and Winter Gale had both returned from a holiday and were not re-accustomed to the marching yet.

"You two look like you've been in a stampede." Spear joked, addressing the two pegasi. They both looked up blearily, and Winter Gale yawned.

"Sorry Sarge." She murmured. "We just gotta get used to the armor again. Then we'll be fine..." Crash noticed her leaning forward after she trailed off, and pushed her upright again.

"Sir, If you don't mind, we should probably hit the hay. Could we take the last watch?" Crash asked, still trying to hold Gale upright with one hoof.

"I'm not tired, I'll take watch now." Gale murmured incomprehensibly. "Somepony needs to keep all you stallions from doing something stupid." Immediately after speaking, her head lolled forward: she was fast asleep. Spear rolled his eyes.

"Sure, you can take the dawn watch. I don't think you would be very useful right now anyways." Spear remarked, poking Gale and receiving only a few muttered phrases.

"Thanks Sarge." Thunder Crash smiled in relief as he dragged his friend to a nearby tent.

"Get away... from my cereal..." Gale mumbled, turning in her sleep. Crash simply rolled his eyes, and both ponies vanished into the tent.

"Aw, Sarge. I wanted the dawn shift!" Swift Blade sighed dramatically from across the campfire. "If only I was an attractive mare, I could have made that watch too!"

"Blade?" Silver Spear sighed.

"Yeah Sarge?"

"Shut up."

"Will do." Blade smirked, and went back to eating his MRE. Night Wing, apparently satisfied that Light Burst understood how to care for his armor, sat back down at the fire to polish his own armor. Gazer simply continued to eat quietly, while reading a spell book that he had brought along. The sound of the fire popping was the only noise for a long time, before Burst spoke.

"Silver Spear, sir?"

"What did I say about just calling me Spear, Private?"

"Sorry Sil... Sorry Spear." Burst trailed off awkwardly.

"Well?" Spear prompted. "What is it?"

"I was just... well, I thought maybe I could ask... You know, if it's alright with you..." Burst stammered.

"Get to the point." Wing snapped, causing Burst to jump slightly.

"Is it true that you fought off a whole patrol of changelings during the invasion?" Burst asked, then immediately shrank down as if expecting reprimand. Across the fire, Swift Blade was doing his best to look innocent.

"Blade, are you spreading stories about me again?" Spear sighed, giving him a disappointed glare. Blade seemed to not even notice.

"Oh, why shouldn't I tell about the glorious exploits of the great Master Sergeant Silver Spear?" Blade exclaimed in a sing-song tone. "There's just so much to tell!"

Once again, Spear's best glare didn't seem to phase the green pegasus as he waved his hooves dramatically in the air. Light Burst leaned in further, seemingly awestruck.

"Our magnificent leader over here -" Blade waved a hoof at Spear, who had given up glaring at this point and merely listened with a sarcastic look. "- was on patrol in Lower Canterlot when the changeling army broke the shield. A swarm of them fell around him, and were about to start devouring innocent ponies when BAM!" Light Burst jumped at the exclamation, and Blade whipped around on his back legs to face him with hooves flying in the air.

"There was Silver Spear, weapon in hoof, fending off the changelings so that the civilians could escape! All of the other guardponies in the area were either fighting changelings themselves or too dead to help him, so he faced the swarm alone." Night Wing rolled his eyes as Blade paused for dramatic effect, then continued slowly.

"When the battle was finally over, and Princess Cadence and Captain Shining cast the spell to expel the monsters, Spear had slain at least a hundred of the bastards. He saved nearly all of the civilians in the area, and Princess Celestia herself awarded him and some of the other guardponies a medal of valor."

Blade sat back, evidently pleased with his storytelling, while Burst looked at Spear with awe and respect.

"That's amazing!" Pinkie burst out from her spot on the other side of the fire next to Blade, and everypony jumped at her sudden appearance and outburst.

"When did you get here?" Wing exclaimed, smoothing down his ruffled feathers.

"Oh, like a few minutes ago." Pinkie nonchalantly stuck a marshmallow on the end of a stick and held it over the fire. "But I heard all of the story! That's super-duper-rific! 'Cause they were like GRR! and you were like RAWR! and then they were like EEP! and it was absolutivily amazing!"

Spear, not knowing how to respond to the outburst, simply nodded.

"What about you guys?" Pinkie asked the other guardponies around the fire." Don't you have some cool adventure stories?"

Wing laughed at this, and shook his head. "Not all of us get to be action heroes like Spear." He joked, receiving a glare from Spear that he ignored. "I'm just an armorer who decided to serve my country. And that cheeky bastard-" Wing motioned to Blade, who grinned slyly in reply. "- joined after his home got burned down by some lawless types."

"The East Fillydelphia Rollers." Blade growled. "They burnt down our homes as part of their revenge against a rival gang. If I ever find those bucking fools I'll show 'em revenge..."

"What about you?" Pinkie asked Light Burst, who shied away from the energetic mare. "Why'd you join the guard?"

"Well. Uh." Burst stammered. "Spear used to be part of the patrol in the section of the city that I lived. I was getting by living in the alleys, but he found me after I tried to rob a store for some food. He told me that he could help me out, but that I would have to not go around breaking the law anymore. I felt like I owed him for helping me turn my life around, so I joined the guard to make it up to him when I got old enough." Burst spoke without looking at either Pinkie or Spear, but Pinkie smiled and walked over to sit by him.

"That's a great story." She said, and Burst looked at her, surprised.

"Really?" He asked.

"Absoooolutly!" Pinkie pulled the pegasus into a hug, and he blushed a bright red. His blush only got deeper when Blade caught his eye and winked.

"Wh-What about you, Gazer?" Burst asked lamely to fill the awkward silence.

"Yeah!" Pinkie said and let go of Burst, who sighed in both relief and disappointment. "What's your story?"

Gazer barely even looked up from his book. "I joined the guard to practice combat magic legally."

"Okie-dokie-lokie." Pinkie smiled, unphased by his response. Everypony once again fell silent until Burst let out a huge yawn. Embarrassed, he looked over to see Spear glancing at him.

"You should probably all hit the hay now." Spear said, getting up and stretching. "I'll wake Blade up when the next watch rolls around."

"Aw, horsefeathers." Blade sighed under his breath, but still retreated to one of the tents. Likewise, the other guardponies all found a tent while Silver Spear settled himself on the far side of the fire, looking out into the forest. Pinkie Pie, however, came and sat down by Spear.

"I hope you don't mind the company." Pinkie chirped, settling herself down near him. Spear simply shrugged in response, and both ponies fell into silence as the night wore on.

"WHAT!" Twilight growled, enraged. It was morning, and the group had packed up camp and was ready to set out again. They had run into a problem, however. Twilight's eyes were locked on her horn, the glowing light of the spell guiding them fixated at a point leading back the way they came. "That's not even possible!"

"Maybe yah cast it wrong?" Applejack immediately regretted speaking as Twilight whipped around to face her, her left eye twitching.

"Cast it wrong?" Twilight snapped. "There is no way to cast this wrong and still get this result!"

"Calm down, darling." Rarity comforted. "We just need to figure out how this is happening, and then we'll be back on track."

Twilight took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Alright." She began more calmly. "This spell has the exact purpose of locating the source of the magical anomaly that I detected."

"And...?" Rainbow Dash prompted.

"It creates a visible beam that points directly to the source of the magical anomaly, like a more visible variation of Rarity's gem finding spell."

"And?"

"That's just it! That's all the spell does! That's it's only purpose!" Twilight exclaimed. "The only way this could be happening is if... Is if... Oh no."

"What? What is it?" Rarity gasped.

Twilight simply stopped the finding spell, letting the light fade. She concentrated, waited until she felt the magical disruption, and cast it again. To her dismay, the light was pointing in a different direction entirely. Casting it again and again got the same result, with the light pointing in various different directions. She felt her heart drop into her stomach, and swallowed hard.

"The only way that's possible is if there's more than one source of the disruption." Twilight let the news sink in as her friends gasped. "And from what it seems, this magic has at least a hundred sources."

4: Winds Of Change

The little filly's eyes fluttered open, and she immediately sat up in her bed. A quick sniff of the air told her all she needed to know. Racing out of the stone hallow that was her room, she lept out over the staircase and snapped open her wings to quickly descend the rock stairs that led to the rest of her home. Hooves skittering on the hard stone, she galloped to the kitchen area. Her mother heard the screech of her child's hooves attempting to halt the young pony's momentum, along with the thud and grunt that accompanied their failure to do so.

"Slow down before you hurt yourself. Again." Sapphire Weaver chuckled, turning from her cooking to face her disheveled and dizzy daughter. "I made pancakes, so sit down at the counter."

Marra, snapping out of her dizziness at the smell of her mother's cooking, sat herself down at their makeshift table. It was a stone slab with a few spots worn down into bowl-like shapes that they used as plates. It wasn't much, but it was the perfect height and length for a counter.

"Wow, mom. You'd think this was a special occasion or something." Marra said sweetly, and Sapphire Weaver tried to hide her doubts behind a smile. It almost worked.

"Now, I had a long talk with the stallion who helped you last month." Sapphire Weaver began slowly, knowing that her daughter was hanging on every word she said. "I was more calm this time-"

A memory came to Marra of her mother's reaction when they had arrived at her house on that night when Deimos had saved her. She didn't think she had ever learned so many creatively worded expletives in one sitting before.

"-and more willing to listen to what he had to say. He made some very good points about the usefulness of magic." Sapphire Weaver paused to flip the pancakes with her magic.

"And?" Marra nearly squealed.

"And... And I've decided to let you learn magic from him."

"YAY!" Marra screamed, rearing up and flapping her wings so hard in excitement that her pancakes flew off of the counter and impacted the far wall. The filly barely noticed amid her excitement.

"I love you I love you I loveyouloveyouLOVEYOU!" She leaned across the space her pancakes had previously occupied to wrap her hooves around her mother, who smiled somewhat nervously. When Marra turned her head to smile at her, Sapphire Weaver felt warmed by the sheer joy and hope in her daughter's eyes. At this, her nervousness faded away into a joy of her own at the pure happiness she never thought she would see in them.

"Eat up. You've got a big day ahead!"

The cavern was situated deeper than any of the others, and was carved out of stone as dark as a solid shadow. Within the yawning expanse sat a crystal clear pool fed by a small, quiet trickle of water from the western wall. Plants of all sorts grew here, but none were  like any able to be found anywhere else. Their leaves glistened in the darkness with a luminescence of their own, and their flowers filled the shadows of the cavern with soft and fickle light. The walls of the cavern were worn, but a close inspection would reveal ancient runes from a time long passed, an age possibly even before the higher caverns themselves. This place was unknown to all but a certain black unicorn who came here to meditate amid the strange and ancient magic, and the filly whom he'd told to meet him there.

Deimos breathed deeply and calmly, the clear spring water circling in its pool as if swirled by an outside force. His breathing fell into time with the swirls of the water, and with a final breath, Deimos released a cloud of dark magic from his horn. It fell silently to the water below, which became still as glass. The black unicorn's eyes flew open at the sound of rocks sliding behind him.

"Mr. Deimos, Mr. Deimos!" Marra called, sliding down the rock passage to the cavern. "Mr. Deimos I finally found... Woah."

Marra's jaw dropped as she took in the sight of the strange rocks, plants, and pool. Deimos smiled ever so slightly at her expression, beckoning her over. The filly trotted over and sat down at the edge of the water, almost unnerved by the absolute silence of the cavern. The water of the pool was so still and clear it seemed like a mirror, and Marra's curiosity led her to lean out over the pool. Her curiosity shifted to surprise when the reflection shown to her was not her own, but of an ancient-looking castle surrounded by wild trees taller and denser than any she had ever seen.

"What cave system is that in?" She asked, but Deimos simply chuckled. Marra frowned at the lack of an answer, but brightened when another question came to mind. "What exactly is this pool if it can show things that aren't there?"

"A good question." Deimos began. "This is a Reflecting Pool, one of many found around these systems of tunnels in which we live. They show not what is around them, but what is above them."

"Above them?" Marra queried, confused. "So, like, in a cave above this one?"

"No little one. It shows a place that isn't within the caves at all. It shows a place Above the Ground."

A small gasp escaped the filly before she could stop it. No adult had ever spoken to her of the place Above the Ground before, and she gazed at the Reflecting Pool with renewed intensity, as if trying to absorb every detail of the place reflected from within. The trees of the forest around were much more vibrant and large than the trees scattered underground, and the castle seemed to be on a scale much larger then any structure that Marra had ever seen.

"What's it called?" She asked breathlessly.

"It is called the Castle of the Everfree. It was once a sprawling city, but now it lies ruined within the wild forest."

"What's it like?"

Deimos chuckled again, but this time his voice seemed sad. "It was a truly beautiful place, a city of grand stone monoliths and ornate gardens. But it hasn't been that way for a long time."

"You've been there? You've been Above Ground! But, that's not possible, right?" Marra's head felt light at this startling information, and Deimos' hoof on her shoulder calmed her slightly.

"It is quite possible for those who know where to look. And yes, I have been there." Deimos' eyes seemed to darken further than their usual shade of black. "A lifetime ago, I have gone there." With a wave of his hoof over its surface, the Reflecting Pool's surface rippled, and it showed only the reflection of the ceiling of the cavern. "This pool is not the reason I asked you to meet me here." Deimos said, ignoring the look of disappointment on the young pony's face. "This place is full of magic; a good place to begin working on harnessing magical energies."

Marra perked up again at the prospect of learning magic, and listened attentively.

"Now," Deimos began. "Aside from what I have previously told you, what do you know about using magic?"

"Uhh." Marra wracked her brain for any information, but she had never learned anything else about magic aside from the fact of its existence. Embarrassed, she simply shook her head.

"Good."

"Sorry... Wait, what?" Marra tilted her head to the side, thoroughly confused.

"I said, good." Deimos repeated. "I am glad that no other pony has introduced you to magic, because this would be more difficult for you to switch over to a different kind of magic."

"Different... kind?"

"Yes. The other ponies practice a new and weaker magic. I wish to show you an ancient magic, far more powerful and versatile than the one used by the others. If you already knew this new magic, it would be harder for you to switch to the magic I will be teaching you."

Marra felt simultaneously solemn and excited at the idea of Deimos teaching her a strange magic, especially one that was virtually unknown. "Uh, ok. So, what do I do?"

"Close your eyes. Good. Now, I want you to focus on the space around you. Try to find something strange about it."

"Mr. Deimos, how am I supposed to notice something about my surroundings if I can't see them?"

Deimos smirked. "That's the challenge."

"How does that make any sense?"

"Just try. And no peeking!"

Grumbling, but complying, Marra settled herself for trying to find something within the darkness behind her eyelids. This is pointless. She thought grumpily, and a small spark momentarily lit up the dark. Her eyes immediately flew open.

"Did you see that?"

"No." Deimos said. "Keep your eyes closed."

Marra once again scanned the darkness of her closed eyes with a more optimistic feeling, but no other lights appeared. "Nothing's happening."

"Then make something happen."

Frustrated, Marra sighed. She was about to give up when a thought occurred to her. Maybe I should just stop trying to see something. Maybe I'm supposed to be focusing on something else? Shrugging, Marra turned her focus to her sense of hearing. Only the silence met her, so she focused on smell. When the only smell was the crisp smell of the Reflecting Pool, she turned to touch. After this also proved useless, she growled in frustration. Suddenly, another spark lit up the darkness.

"There it is again!" Marra cried, keeping her eyes closed this time.

"Try to make it happen again." Deimos urged, so Marra focused on what had happened both times she had seen the light. After a few more minutes with no answer to what was causing the light, Marra's frustration boiled over.

"What is the point of this!" She yelled, and her vision exploded in bursts of light, forming into the shapes of the plants and rocks around her before fading again. Shocked, Marra simply sat down.

"What did you see?" Deimos asked.

"I saw a bunch of bright lights. They kinda looked like they were in the shape of the plants and stuff around here."

"Perfect!" Deimos congratulated, and met Marra's look of confusion with a smile.

"But... I still don't understand. Was that using magic? And how did that happen?"

"No, that was not using magic. It was an important step in that direction, though; and you achieved it impressively swiftly."

Marra felt warmed slightly by the praise, but was still confused. "Well, what was that then?"

"That was sensing magic." Deimos explained. "Magic resides in everything, though in some things it resides in a greater quantity. This cavern is filed with latent magic, and that which resides here is easier to sense because of it. When you saw the 'lights', you were sensing the magic within your surroundings, which is an important skill to master."

"Cool." Marra breathed, awed by the idea that she had just 'seen' magic. "How do I do it again?"

"Well, what were you doing at each of those times that you sensed the magic?"

Marra thought hard to each of those instances. "... I guess that each of those times... I was irritated." Marra frowned. "Do you have to be angry to use magic?"

"Oh, no." Deimos chuckled. "Not always. A spell starts within the mind and body and leaves them through either the horn, wings, or hooves. This magic has to come from a source, and the magic I am teaching you harnesses the magical energies inherent in emotions. Feelings of anger and sadness are the most powerful, and unfortunately the most common, so they are the basis for the magic."

"Oh." Marra sighed in relief. She couldn't imagine having to always be angry to use magic. "Well, can you use other emotions?"

"You can use any emotion." Deimos explained. "But the magic created is far less powerful. If you are going to use this magic for self defense, you need as much power as you can get while you are still learning. Once you get better, you can even use other creatures' emotions to cast your magic, but we will just start with the basics."

"Cool! But, how am I going to get enough frustration to learn all this magic?" Marra asked warily.

Deimos simply smiled mischievously. "Close your eyes and try to describe what's around you."

"Ughhh..."

Sapphire Weaver sat anxiously at the entrance to her home, waiting for her daughter to return. "Is she okay?" The blue mare fretted. "What if she got hurt? What if learning magic was too much for her? What if that unicorn wasn't as trustworthy as I thought? Oh, I never should've let her go!"

She checked the clock that hung above the fireplace. 6:01. Marra was supposed to be back by six.

"I should've sent Midnight Aria with her." Sapphire groaned, pacing around the entrance.  After a few paces, she whipped her head around to the clock again. 6:02. The mare bit her lip nervously, her body shaking with the urge to run and find her child. There was too much danger out there, her baby wasn't safe. She couldn't handle it alone, her daughter needed her!

All of a sudden, Sapphire Weaver found herself galloping down the caverns at full speed. She didn't even remember beginning to run, but it didn't matter. She wasn't stopping now.

"I'm coming! Oh, I'm coming!" The blue-grey mare whispered to herself. "I'm coming! Please be safe!"

Marra trotted happily up the tunnels, replaying Deimos' lessons in her head. After a few hours, she had figured out how to easily gather enough emotional energy to sense the magic in the plants around her. Deimos had also instructed her in a few basic spells such as levitation and a small stun spell. It almost didn't matter to the young filly what kind of magic she had learned, though; the fact that she knew magic at all filled her with joy. Every once in a while, she stopped to levitate a rock just because she could, squealing with happiness when the pebble slowly but surely lifted.

After a while, the filly came to her doorway. Trotting in through the opening, she immediately noticed that something was wrong.

"Mom?" Marra called, but only her own slight echo answered her. Looking around in confusion, her gaze rested on the clock. It read 6:03.

"Oh, horsefeathers."

Midnight Aria strolled casually through the tunnels, a basket of bread and vegetables floating beside her. She always enjoyed her errand days at the market, where she could talk to the other ponies. As a Shaman, she loved talking out the problems of the market ponies as she gathered up the week's supplies, and she liked to think that their smiles meant they appreciated her too. She was just about to turn a corner in the tunnel when a blue pony rounded the bend and sped by her, blowing her hair to one side and wobbling the grocery basket she carried.

"What in the blazes..." She muttered, before she sensed the aura that the pony gave off.

"Sapphire Weaver?" The confused filly yelled at the now distant figure. "What the hay are you-"

It was then that a terrible thought hit Aria. There was only one reason for Sapphire to be that upset. Her goods forgotten, Aria sped as fast as her little hooves could carry her, following the residual magic that Sapphire was releasing in her panic.

"Oh, Marra, what's happened now?"

"Oh, no." Marra cried, her wings flapping unconsciously in distress. "Mom, you don't even know what caverns I was in! Where could you have gone?" The only place that Marra could think of that her mother would look was the spring, but her mom knew she wouldn't be there.

A simple thought struck Marra. Her mother had said that she had talked to Deimos again, but both ponies had previously seemed to never wish to speak to the other again. If Sapphire Weaver had talked to Deimos after that, it must mean that she knew at least something about him, such as-

"She knows where he lives." Marra gasped. "She's gonna get herself hurt! I gotta find her."

How, though? Marra wracked her brain for an answer, and her thoughts went back to her lessons attempting to sense the emotional energy around her.

"Well,"  Marra commented dryly. "I'm positive that mom had plenty of negative emotion. It's worth a shot."

Taking a steadying stance, Marra closed her eyes. The stone around her started to outline dimly in magic, and Marra pressed forward through the process using her worry as fuel. Light instantly flooded her vision like the sudden catching of a flame, and Marra would have squinted if her eyes weren't already closed. A brilliant trail of emotion led down the tunnels, growing brighter as it went on. There was no question as to what it led to.

"Please don't have done something stupid." Marra grumbled to herself as she took off down the tunnel with a swift flap of her wings.

Deimos sensed the anger and fear of the pony from nearly a mile away. He sighed as he felt the source get closer at surprisingly rapid speeds, and simply stepped outside of his home. Rolling his eyes, he sat down to wait for Sapphire Weaver to arrive.

"This should be fun."

Soon enough, a blue streak rounded the bend in the tunnel that led straight to his door. It seemed to increase in speed as it came closer, and Deimos realized that Sapphire meant to ram straight through him. In only a moment, the sweating and swearing mare was close enough that Deimos could see the dilated pupils in her eyes. With a simple flick of his irritation, the charging mare froze mid-gallop, her eyes contorting into a glare of pure and unfiltered malice as she found that she was unable to move.

"Stop! Please-*gasp*-for-*gasp*-the-*gasp*-love-*gasp*-of-" Deimos looked up in surprise as Midnight Aria skittered to a halt beside the suspended mare. The filly simply sat gasping for a good minute before she spoke.

"Is Marra alright?"

"Of course." Deimos replied casually. "She left on her way home a short time ago. I had actually just returned here when I was apparently chosen for a surprise bullfighting match." His eyes met Sapphire's, whose glare had shifted from one of anger to one of confusion, and then to one of panic.

"So, Marra's just sitting at home. Completely alone." Aria groaned, turning to meet Sapphire's eye. "No offense, but that wasn't very well thought out."

"I very much agree with-" Deimos' sarcasm was cut off when he sensed another pony approaching rapidly. "Hmm. Marra may not be as completely alone as you thought."

As he finished speaking, the red filly soared around the corner up to where the other ponies were standing and touched down a few paces away.

"Oh, good. You found her." Marra panted, rubbing her now sore wings. Sapphire Weaver, frozen as she was, simply turned her eyes towards the sound of her daughter's voice. As soon as she caught sight of the filly, her eyes faded to a tired and relieved look. Noting the change, Deimos set her down from the spell.

The instant that Sapphire's hooves touched the ground, she wrapped Marra in a tight embrace.

"Oh, honey I was so worried!" Sapphire cried, tears of relief running down her muzzle.

"How did you find us?" Midnight Aria queried, realizing that Marra didn't know where Deimos lived.

Marra wormed her way out of Sapphire's hug and beamed at Aria. "I sensed and followed mom's anger."

Aria seemed shocked to hear this, so Marra continued.

"Deimos taught me how. I also learned a couple basic spells today-"

"Deimos taught you hate magic?" Aria exclaimed, throwing him a questioning and mildly accusatory glance.

"Hate magic?"

"Yes." Deimos answered for Marra. "And before you accuse me, let me explain myself. You see-"

"You are teaching my daughter hate mhhmph!" Sapphire was cut off by her mouth suddenly sealing shut. She glared at Deimos as he calmly resumed speaking.

"As I was saying, the magic that fuels itself from emotions -particularly levels of anger- is of far greater power than regular magic. If Marra is going to be learning to defend herself against ignorant and violent ponies, than she needs all the strength she can get."

As neither Aria nor Sapphire could come up with a counter for this, Aria simply nodded. Sapphire, however, was still searching for anything to pin her anger on Deimos with.

"You could have at least cared enough to send her home in time." Sapphire huffed after Deimos released his silence spell.

"I was three minutes late, mom." Marra rolled her eyes.

"But you were supposed to be home by six! Something could have happened to you!"

"Something could also have happened to me when you hastily ran off! Please, can you just trust me?"

"I do not think that it is her trust in you that is unstable." Deimos cut in, his eyes hard. "Sapphire, I wish to speak with you. Privately."

The dark unicorn curtly turned and strode into his home. Seeing the expectant looks of the two fillies, Sapphire reluctantly followed. Deimos was waiting for her in a side room.

"I realize that most of what I am going to say, you will not agree with. However, do not interrupt me until I am finished." He began, his cold eyes unflinching and unblinking.

"Your daughter is incredibly gifted in magic, enough that I would not be surprised if she eventually found her cutie mark in it. However, the odds that she faces against those too ignorant to understand the strength and importance of an alicorn are staggering. If you are going to let me teach your daughter how to use magic, than you are going to have to trust me.

"Hate magic is not evil like the ignorant falsely assume. Hate is merely an emotion felt by all, and its form of magic turns a destructive force into a useful one. Its extreme power will also give your child a further advantage against the world she faces."

With this, Deimos drew closer until his black eyes were merely inches from Sapphire. The mare had to force herself not to shrink downwards under his intense stare as he began to speak again.

"Both you and I know exactly what those ponies will do to her; but if you aren't going to trust me, I am not going to teach your daughter to defend herself. Therefore, ask yourself," Deimos' voice turned to a snarl. "Next time they attack her, who would you rather bury? A foolish stranger?"

Deimos turned his back to Sapphire. "Or your daughter?"

The dark unicorn strode back further into the house, leaving the downcast mare to exit alone.

5: Bloodied Doves

"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?"

6: Fear Itself

The Reflecting Pool shimmered as the dark unicorn strode up to it, his horn obscured by a black cloud. The cloud fell slowly, passing through the surface of the water as if it did not exist. Taking a seat at the edge of the water, Deimos calmly pushed the water with his magic. The ripples that spread across the surface left behind a scene very different from the ceiling of the cave.

The castle of the Everfree lay in ruins, but tonight it was not abandoned. Deimos tilted his head in surprise at the midnight blue alicorn laughing in the center of the ruined tower. It was unmistakeable, he had seen this mare in the Pool before. The alicorn's laughter stopped, her head turning to snarl with serrated teeth down at a ridiculously purple unicorn who stood dumbstruck and staring at shards of stone that lay around the floor. Deimos felt a smile tug at his lips as rage flooded through the alicorn, swirling through her mind in torrents of madness. It was quite a familiar emotion for things that were so distant from him now.

A sudden movement at the entrance yielded five other ponies, all of mixed races, who galloped up to stand around the purple unicorn. All of them sported garishly bright hues like their companion; neon colors that almost hurt Deimos' eyes. The bright-coated ponies engaged in a brief, unexciting shouting round with the now quite amused alicorn, before the purple unicorn interjected. The shattered stones around their feet pulled upwards into rings as the unicorn continued to speak, a powerful magic running within them.

"No." Deimos breathed, his eyes widening as the blue alicorn's fear grew. He forced himself not to back up from the pool as the ponies were lifted up within the stone and light, until only the purple unicorn stood on the ground. The blue alicorn recoiled as the purple one was finally lifted up, her eyes aglow with white light.

Deimos was frozen in place, his eyes glued to the pool as streams of rainbow light surrounded the six ponies. The alicorn mare only had time to shriek in horror before the rainbow flew at her with deadly precision, taking her up in a screaming vortex of color and magic, tearing the rage and the fear to pieces and flinging them out in a violent storm.

The pool rippled, it's image fading as the rock that had been thrown sunk to the bottom of its shallow depths, fading into the water. The only thing it reflected now was the horror in Deimos' eyes, and the cave resounded with the echoes of his labored breaths.

Deimos stood there for what felt like hours, his terror slowly fading into calmer, more rational thought. Just as his breathing had settled, a wave of magical energy set his hair on end, the raw power passing straight through his body. Deimos scrambled to his hooves, but it was a different fear that drove him to action.

The dark unicorn poured all of his speed into his gallop, his eyes set in determination as he raced on through the tunnels. The walls seemed to blur as he forced himself faster, willing his magic to push him ever further. At the speed he had achieved, he only had a second to see the rock slide barring his path.

Spring Stone groaned, rubbing his eyes to try to ease his headache. Tentatively, he cracked open one eye to try to see what had happened. His eye quickly closed again when all he could see was a faded starburst of light.

"Cool Waters?" He called out, hoping his mare-friend could hear him. "Honey, are you alright?"

"I'm here, I'm okay." Spring Stone relaxed when he heard her voice, and pushed himself up onto his hooves. His muscles ached dully as he stood, but the mild pain from them was overshadowed by a more immediate concern. His horn twinged and itched, feeling as if somepony was rubbing sandpaper lightly over it. He reached up to rub it with his hoof, hoping that it wasn't damaged in any way.

"Spring Stone." His hoof froze as he noticed the fear in Cool Waters' voice. "Spring Stone, open your eyes."

Unable to prevent a twinge of fear, he obeyed, trying not to squint over the dark spots in his vision. The cave walls were stained in a grey burst pattern out from where the monster had raised its shield, as if the light released when the shield had collapsed had burned the stone as well as his eyes. His observations were cut short when he noticed movement at the center of the burn. The monster was still there.

Spring Stone was about to step towards the creature when he noticed it freeze on its hooves as if it had suddenly become a statue. It had its eyes closed, which would have been the perfect opportunity to attack it if it hadn't suddenly twitched violently. The monster convulsed, its wings shaking as if in an earthquake while its body trembled in waves of motion.

Spring Stone stepped back. "Honey, we need to get out of here." He looked around wildly, seeing that the other ponies had already backed away from the monster, leaving him the closest to the danger. "Cool Waters? Where are you?" He cried, his hooves carrying him backwards ever faster.

With a final convulsion, the monster's eyes flew open. Instead of the red irises that it had before, it's eyes were dark voids within its skull, piercing but emotionless. Spring Stone's hooves trembled as he worked to get as far back from the beast as possible, away from those terrible eyes. He could barely keep himself from whimpering when the monster's mouth twisted into a silent scream of agony, it's hooves curling up against it's body as it tumbled to the ground.

As soon as it had fallen, it rose from the ground in a swirl of darkness, as if the shadows of the cave's edge were bearing it up into the air. The shadows swirled ever higher, engulfing the monster in a column of darkness. The shadows whirled in a mad frenzy, but the cave stayed in suffocating silence, as if the world simply refused to recognize the evil it held. Spring Stone chanced a look behind him, almost weeping in happiness when he saw he was almost backed up to cover within a branching tunnel. He saw Cool Waters beckoning frantically at him with her hoof, and he turned to make a mad dash for the tunnel.

And then it screamed.

The darkness let out a terrible screech, like the sound of metal grinding against metal combined with the terrified cry of a foal. It shook the cavern, sending dust falling from the ceiling high above and causing the rocks to tremble. The darkness screamed, and screamed, until Spring Stone simply collapsed in mid stride, holding his hooves over his ears and wailing in pain.

He tried to run, or even to move, but he was immobilized by pain. He could only scream, his voice drowned out by the incessant wail of the monster within the darkness. Slowly, other voices joined him, their owners falling to the stone beneath their hooves in fear and agony, their minds filled with the terrible howl of the monster.

Just as suddenly as the wail had begun, it ended, leaving only the cries of the ponies who had fallen. The darkness froze, it's strange movements halting until the column looked to be made of an unnatural, black stone. Spring Stone gasped for air, his cry of pain receding into shuddering gulps and moans. His sides heaving, he reached out his hooves to the tunnel, planting them firmly on the ground and using them to scoot himself forward. Every movement was agonizing, but safety was so close, just within his reach.

A sound like cracking stone resonated through the cavern like a canon blast, and beams of light glared outwards from behind Spring Stone.

"Don't look." He gasped aloud. "You're so close now, just don't look."

Why not? A mare's voice, as cold and calm as the underground springs, whispered from behind him.

"Come on. Just put your hooves forwards, and pull. Hooves forwards, pull. Almost there."

No, you aren't.

"Cool Waters?" Spring Stone called. He couldn't see anypony in the tunnel anymore. "I'm coming!"

I'm behind you, Spring Stone.

"Honey, I'm almost there!" Spring Stone cried, his voice cracking.

You are so far away.

The light was growing, casting dancing shadows on the back wall of the cavern as more cracks echoed behind him. Finally, he was at the mouth of the tunnel, where a blue pegasus mare stood. Spring Stone was about to cry out in relief when he noticed where she was looking. Light filled her eyes as they stared blankly behind him, her body relaxed as if under a trance.

Help me.

"Cool Waters?" He gasped, his voice as fragile as glass. "Honey, look at me. Can you hear me?"

You are both going to die.

"Shut up!" Spring Stone roared, his voice twisted with desperate anger.

Come and make me.

He whirled around, his mouth open in a defiant cry, and froze. A cold, harsh light filled the cavern, but it didn't burn his eyes. The light felt like a blanket of ice, encasing his body in numbing waves. His horn twinged even more as the light fell upon him, but he could barely feel it anymore. All he could feel was cold.

Out of the light, he heard hoofsteps coming closer. A figure moved through the harsh rays, it's eyes like cold voids among the light. Just above the eyes, a wave of red cascaded down like a mane, crossed through with what looked to be veins of blood. Those were the only features of the figure that Spring Stone could see, for it seemed to be radiating the same fierce light that shone all around. It moved without moving, the only evidence of its motion being the clack of hooves on stone and the eyes growing closer.

Little one. It purred, it's voice as piercing and cold as ice.

"You. Y-you're the monster." Spring Stone stammered, terror gripping him as the figure came ever closer. The figure flashed brighter than ever, and Spring Stone felt his fear leaving him and exhaustion replacing it. The figure's eyes remained emotionless, even as it came to a stop in front of him.

What do you fear most?

Spring Stone felt his eyes start to close, and forced them open.

"Why am I so tired." He mumbled, feeling his hooves sway dangerously beneath him. "Cool Waters, can you hear me?"

Are you afraid that she cannot hear you?

"No. She hears me. She has to hear me. I'm gonna... I'm gonna be there for her."

"Spring Stone?"

Spring Stone perked up at the voice of his mare-friend, and he looked happily up at the blue mare before him. He rushed forwards to hug her, but he fell straight through her.

"C-Cool Waters? Where did you go?" He cried, his vision spinning slightly from exhaustion. The light was all around him now, pushing in on him from every side. "Honey? Where are you?"

I'm over here.

Spring Stone whipped around to see Cool Waters behind him, but she looked different. Her eyes had darker circles under them, and her face had lines of age that hadn't been there before.

"Oh, darling. I haven't seen you in so long." She cooed, stepping forwards.

"But I've been right here." Spring Stone's brow furrowed in confusion. "You disappeared."

Cool Waters' face grew sad, her expression almost pleading. "Come here, I've been waiting for you."

He stepped forwards, but again his mare-friend disappeared into the light.

"Where are you?" He called, spinning about to try and catch a glimpse of her through the light. "Come back!"

Why do you keep leaving me?

Cool Waters was old, he could see. Her wings were frail and her hooves shaky, but her expression was still as vibrant as it always had been. Her emerald green eyes were filled to the brim with tears, and she reached out a hoof to him.

"I've been so lonely without you."

"I never left you!" Spring Stone cried desperately, running unsteadily forwards. "I would never leave you!"

But you did.

Cool Waters' skin wrinkled further, her eyes growing duller with every stride that he took towards her. He ran faster, but she fell forwards, her body crumbling into ash, until all that was left was a pile of dust in his hooves.

I've been so lonely.

"No."

It's so cold here.

"No no NO!"

I'm scared. I thought you would never leave me.

"I didn't... I didn't... I never left you!"

The light wrapped around him, those dark, emotionless eyes boring into his own. It's mane curled over him, encircling him in what felt like a blanket of pure chill, pulling him closer to the figure he could not see. His eyelids felt like lead weights, and his body was as tired as if he had run a day of marathons. The cold was just so empty, so easy to slide into. He felt a twitching sensation, and the light was suddenly passing through him, leaving behind nothing. All of the fear, all of the pain, all of the sadness, it was absorbed from him as the light engulfed him.

Rest, little one. You will never be afraid again.

"Uh, who are you?" Rainbow Dash was the first to speak as the strange pony kept on clapping.

"Who, me?" The pony suddenly whirled around, seeming to chase it's own tail in a circle before sitting down again. "Well, you certainly aren't talking to Timothy, so that must mean you are talking to me."

"Timothy?" Rainbow asked, her voice flat.

"I believe we are speaking on the subject of names, yes." The stallion responded, looking quite pleased with his response.

"So, uh, Timothy's yer name?" Applejack tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Oh, no no no!" The stallion shook his head so violently that it seemed he would shake it right off.

"But you just said that you were Timothy." Rainbow said, giving the stallion a sideways look.

"No, I didn't, I said Timothy was a name." The stallion insisted, before bowing low to the ground and sweeping a hoof in front of him. "Ladies and gentlecolts, foals of all ages, I am Mad!"

"Yeah, we guessed." Rainbow snorted. "What's your name."

"Mad. That is my name, my name is that. Mad." Mad stamped a hoof in finality as he finished his statement.

"Your name is Mad?" Rarity asked, her face scrunching up into a look of distaste. "Surely that is your nickname? What is your real name?"

"It's Mad. Mad is it." Mad said bouncing happily up and down in place before abruptly coming to a stop, his disheveled mane falling over his eyes. "What, don't you like my name, Rarity?"

Rarity's eyes widened. "How... How do you know my name! I demand an answer!"

"Oh, I heard it from the sarcastic blue pegasus." Mad waved his hoof as if what he said was unimportant. "I've been sitting here since you ran at my tree, listening to you guys freak out. I know all of your names now, I just don't like Rainbow that much." Mad flipped his mane back out of his eyes, and a giddy smile crossed his muzzle. "She's crazy!"

The six mares staring at Mad sat dumbfounded at the idea that he could call somepony else crazy.

"Why did you ladies come running at my tree anyways?" Mad asked, his head tilted so far to the side that it seemed he would fall over. "It's a nice tree, but not that nice."

Mad seemed oblivious to the looks of sadness that returned to the other ponies, his smile still wide when Twilight spoke.

"We... We were chased here by a monster." She said, her ears flat against her head. "A monster that I attracted to us."

"While I don't deny that you all are attractive, how exactly did you get a monster to come to you, and why did you run away if you were attracting it?" Mad asked bluntly.

Twilight blinked in momentary confusion. "No no, not like that. I think it sensed all the magic I was using and came after us."

"Ah, you got some magical monster mishap madness?" Mad said, his look now sympathetic. "Where's the monster menace now?"

"We were traveling with a group of Royal Guards, and they stayed behind to hold it off." Twilight looked as if she was about to break down, with tears forming at the edges of her eyes.

Something changed in Mad's look at those words, and the spark of energy in his eyes lessened. He brought himself upright again, and nodded his head respectfully.

"They sounded like brave ponies." He said, his voice soft with sympathy. "I'm sure that you will use their sacrifice well."

"What... What do you mean?" Rarity asked, sniffling slightly as she pulled herself out of the memory of what had happened with the guardponies.

"They gave all they had to protect you six, as was their job." Mad smiled slightly, warmth and caring in the expression. "I would advise you hasten to your destination. They presented to you the priceless gift of time, and it's not something so easily gathered again once expended. Use it wisely."

Twilight nodded gratefully, albeit still confusedly, at the kind words from the possibly insane pony.

"You're right, we just have one problem." She sighed, irritation evident in her expression. "We have no idea were we are going."

The energy immediately popped back into Mad's eyes, a giddy smile on his face as he leaned against the large tree. "Oh, cool! I could be your guide then!"

"We just said we have no idea where we are going." Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Are you going to lead us to nowhere?"

"Well, at least I'll be going somewhere, if I'm leading you to nowhere. It's better than standing here, or going everywhere." Mad explained.

Applejack blinked, her face expressionless. "Anypony else not know what the buck he just said?" She asked. ""Cause I'm lost."

"Well of course you're lost!" Mad said, sounding like he was explaining something to a foal. "You just said you don't know where you're going. That's lost."

"That makes so much sense!" Pinkie said, smiling back at Mad. "Could you help us get un-lost by getting us where we need to go?"

"Pinkie, we don't know where we are going!" Twilight groaned. "I thought I just explained this."

"Oh, but we do know where we are going." Pinkie pointed to Twilight's horn. "We were following a spell that was leading us to a magic thingy, but the spell kept on pointing us in different directions, so now everypony assumes we're lost."

Mad snorted. "That's not lost," He said, walking up to Twilight. "Just slightly misguided. What kind of spell were you using?"

"Just a basic modification to a search spell that Rarity uses to locate gems." Twilight said, her irritation at being called misguided obvious in her tone. "It should have worked, but it just keeps pointing in different directions."

"Well, there's your problem." Mad said. "If the spell is based off of a basic gem detecting spell, then it senses the miniscule magic of the gems to find and signal out their location. Since it sounds as if you modified this to instead signal out a specific magical signature, then the spell in theory would seek out only the magic you were looking for, but in actuality it would still seek out other sources of the same magical signature. This means that every time you cast the spell it would seek out one of the magical signatures and point to it, whether or not it was the same source as the one found before.

"In short, your compass doesn't work because there is more than one north in this scenario."

There was a short pause, before Applejack shook her head. "Now ah'm really lost."

"So you're saying that this specific magical signature, which you happen to not know the nature of, isn't working because there is more than one of it?"  Twilight scoffed. "You don't even know the magical signature we are looking for, and while the theory could be sound, the very nature of the spell was changed to a specific signature, thus rendering your explanation invalid."

"Ah," Mad smirked, "but what if it was the same source of magic, simply being sent out to different locations? Then the spell wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the locations, since they were all stemming from the same source. Oh, and I think I do know what magic you are searching for, if it is the same magical source that causes headaches and mood changes in creatures with magic intrinsic in their bodies. There are really no known sources of magic this far into the Everfree that would warrant a search by ponies with not only guards but powerful magic artifacts."

Mad shook a hoof at the Elements of Harmony, then inspected it casually. "So to solve your problem, just keep going in the direction of the spell when it is cast, and try to keep it cast as long as possible so you don't have to start over."

Twilight's mouth opened and closed a couple times, as if she was attempting to formulate an argument, before finally grunting in irritation. "Who are you?" She asked, perplexed at this insane, yet knowledgeable, pony.

"Me?" Mad's face lit up with joy. "Well, I'm Mad!"

Twilight simply slapped her muzzle with her hoof.

"You know, shouldn't we be moving by now?" Rainbow asked impatiently. "That... Oh, what did you say it was called, Fluttershy?"

"Dire Wolf." Fluttershy whispered, looking around as if simply saying its name would cause it to appear.

"Yeah, that. I don't want to meet that ugly again." Rainbow snorted, her eyes widening quickly after. "Not that I was scared or anything, I'm never scared."

Mad rolled his eyes, but they stopped halfway up his vision. "Wait." He said, his hooves shaking slightly and his eyes still rolled up. "Did you say dire wolf?"

"That was the ferocious beast that chased us." Rarity explained, nervously patting her mane with a hoof.

"Oh, we best be runnin'!" Mad yelped, before running behind Twilight and pushing her forwards. "Get that spell fired up and get us a direction to gallop in!"

"Why are dire wolves worse than any of them other monsters? It sure was a nasty feller, but ah'm sure a manticore or somethin' would've attacked the same way." Applejack asked, using a hoof to pry Mad off of Twilight.

"You released a whole metric buck-ton of magic with that big rainbow thing." Mad's eyes twitched wildly around in his head as he spoke. "Dire wolves are always after magic, they eat it you know, and that thing's probably still comin' after yah!"

"They... Eat magic?" Twilight questioned doubtfully.

"Why the hay are we still standing here?" Mad growled. "Lets go go go!"

Twilight concentrated, once again casting the spell across the disturbance in her magic, and the familiar yet infuriating light appeared pointing in the direction she was facing.

"Alright girls." She said, her tone nervous. "Lets find this magic and get home!"

A low growl from the bushes behind was all that was needed to get the group running, but Mad groaned inwardly.

"Damnit, Timothy!" He cursed, galloping after the panicking mares.

7: Down the Rabbit Hole

Midnight Aria jolted up out of bed, her eyes wide. A strange magic stifled the very air, sending shivers down her spine. Leaping out of her room, she galloped as fast as she could to the main room of her home, where Stone Teller would be meditating.

When she skidded to a stop by her home's entrance, she blinked in surprise at the absence of her teacher.

"Stone Teller?" she called out, "What is going on? Have you felt the strange magic too?"

Her voice echoed slightly in the doorway and down the passage beyond it, but that was the only sound she heard in response. The strange magic felt harsher near the entrance to her home, and she felt with a sinking feeling that it's source was close.

"Stone Teller, are you here?" Aria called, concern coloring her voice. "Where are you?"

He has probably already gone to investigate this strange magic. She thought, turning to look down the tunnel outside of her doorway. I should go find him before he gets himself hurt.

Hesitating for a second more, Aria shook her head. She wasn't going to get anything done by just standing around. She set off at a mild canter down the tunnel, unsuccessfully trying to push down the anxiety welling up in her throat. As she walked, the magic seemed to solidify around her, making her feel as if the simple act of moving was a great task.

Forcing herself through the influence of the strange magic, Aria slowed her pace to a trot. Struggling against the oppressive feel and force of the strange power, she barely noticed the tunnel beginning to open up. Aria finally came to an exhausted halt before a final sharp bend in the tunnel, panting and wheezing from the crushing feeling she fought.

As she stood there catching her breath, she noticed something off. It seemed to be just in the corner of her eye, shifting every time she turned to face it. It could have been a trick of the light, but the crystals providing light to the tunnels were few and far between in this area, and they never seemed to move.

"Is anything there?" Aria called carefully, shifting her hooves to prepare to run in case something hostile really was there. "Hello? I'm not going to hurt you."

Not going to hurt me?

Midnight Aria swiveled her ears around wildly, trying to find where the mumbling noise was coming from.

Not going to hurt *me*?

"Where are you?" Aria called, suppressing her urge to flee as an unexplained terror filled her. With a gasp, she turned to face the bend in the tunnel. What seemed to be pillars of light condensed into whip-like appendages grasped out from the tunnel beyond, reaching towards her with frightening speed.

Panicked, she tried to run, but found that her hooves wouldn't obey. She twisted and jerked, but her hooves stayed grounded to the stone below as if they had simply fused with the rock. With the strange light growing ever closer, Aria lit up her horn for a last-ditch teleportation spell.

As if sensing her attempt, one of the tendrils of light rocketed forwards, wrapping itself around her horn. She gasped in pain as her head filled with a strange buzzing feeling, as if the light had driven through her horn and into her skull.

From the light suddenly appeared a set of cold, black eyes, surrounded by what looked to be a mane of blood, coming closer to her as the light wound around the tunnel. Aria could only watch as the eyes glared down at her, coming to a stop merely inches from her muzzle. The light spoke, it's voice sounding as if it was echoing up from the depths of the Earth.

I make no such promises.

Her eyes widening in fear, Aria cried out in desperation.

"Stone Teller! Help me!"

With a feral snarl, the light engulfed Aria entirely.

"Do yah think... We lost it?" Applejack panted as she slowed her pace, her friends slowing behind her.

"I hope so." Rainbow Dash huffed in exhaustion, before she replaced her tired look with a forced smirk. "Not that I was afraid or anything."

Applejack rolled her eyes, before turning back to face the rest of the group. Everyone had made it through their mad dash, including their new addition to the team, and Twilight's horn was glowing brighter than before.

"Well, I think that went better than it could have gone." Rarity commented, brushing a loose strand of her mane out of her eyes with a disdained sweep of her hoof. "I would say that anything is better than being eaten, but my poor mane seems to disagree with me at this moment."

"Well that's silly, manes can't talk! Right, Timothy?" Mad said cheerfully as he once again seemed to turn in a full circle. "Huh, has anyone seen Timothy? He was right here a second ago..."

"...Right." Twilight deadpanned, before looking up again at the light coming from her horn. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she noticed that the light seemed to have tilted slightly downwards in it's direction.

I don't remember going over any hills. She though warily, making a mental note to keep an eye on the light. I could ask Spike to help me with that.

Just as she had finished her thought, it hit her that she had left Spike behind. A small pang of sadness hit her at the memory of her assistant's offer to come with her. I hope he's doing alright back in Ponyville.

The group's slowed pace picked up again as the seven ponies fell silent, resuming their trek through the forest following the possibly faulty spell. Twilight wouldn't have noticed it if she had not been looking for it, but the light did seem to tilt further down the longer they walked where it was pointing. After what she judged by the sun's movement to be three hours, the light was pointing well below the horizon, and moving ever further down, getting continually brighter as it moved.

"I think we're close." Twilight announced in relief. "Whatever we are looking for should be not too far from here."

"Finally, we can be done with this little adventure." Rarity sighed, looking over her matted coat and mane with a deep grimace. "I'll need an emergency spa treatment after this."

"I think I'll need to throw an extra-huge party once we get home, with all the crazy spots that we've run into." Pinkie said, her mane deflating slightly. "This hasn't been much of a special adventure at all. More like a 'specially horrifying one."

The darkening trees around them cast strange shadows on the group of seven ponies as they continued to follow their light, it's magical glow throwing distorted patches of bright and dark across their surroundings. The sun had reached the point in it's arc where it had yet to begin its fade below the horizon, but its light could no longer shine between the closely packed trees of the Everfree canopy.

By the time the sky had gained its first streaks of evening amber light, the light from Twilight's spell was bright enough to illuminate the forest all around them. As the group of ponies emerged into a rocky clearing, the spell was shooting off wayward sparks of energy.

"It's here. It has to be." Twilight announced confidently, adjusting her element upon her head. "Now let's end this crazy journey."

She had only taken a few more steps forwards when she stopped, a look of confusion etched across her features. A strange purple glow seemed to outline a circle of rocks nearby, its shape twisted in places with unrecognizable glyphs.

Overcome by her curiosity, Twilight trotted over to the strange circle, her friends following suit. The light seemed to glow brighter as the approached, until it shone in harmony with her tracking spell. With a beaming smile, Twilight let her tracking spell fade. Her smile turned into a look of confusion when the magic circle remained as bright as ever instead of fading with the spell.

"Well, looks like we found it. But what is it?" Rainbow asked, eying the light suspiciously. "Some strange Everfree magic?"

"It doesn't seem like it." Mad said, scratching his head in confusion. "Or at least, it's not like any that I've seen. Most of the time it looks more... Poofy."

"Poofy?" Rarity rolled her eyes. "How does magic look 'poofy'?"

"It just looks more... poofed." Mad clarified, causing Rarity to simply shake her head in defeat.

Ignoring them, Twilight stopped just outside of the magic ring. Carefully, she levitated a rock up and moved it slowly into the circle.

"That some kinda magical test?" Applejack asked, her eyes following the rock's path.

"Well, it should tell me if the magic is volatile or is activated by movement over it." Twilight said absently, her focus dominated by her search for changes in the magic circle as the rock drifted over it.

"So, it'll tell yah if it's a trap?"

"Basically."

A few moments went by as Twilight passed the rock in and out of the field, placed the rock inside the field and picked it back up again, and finally placed the rock directly on the ring of magic. An astounding amount of nothing occurred.

"Soo." Applejack rocked on her hooves slightly. "What'd yah find?"

Twilight nodded, her horn slowly lighting up. "It seems safe enough, but I'll have to perform a few more intensive tests to determine the nature of the magic and why it persisted after the spell should have faded. If you could stand back a little bit then I can get to-"

"Whee!" Pinkie yelled as she dove headfirst into the magic circle. "Come on guys, we just found what we were looking for! Don't just stand there!"

"Pinkie, no! It could be... dangerous..." Twilight trailed off as the magic circle didn't respond to Pinkie's presence. With a shrug, Applejack and the others all stepped in to the circle to join their friend, leaving only Mad and Twilight still standing outside it.

"Well, what now?" Rainbow asked, pushing over a few of the rocks and looking beneath them. "Where is this... whatever we're looking for?"

"Maybe it's inside the rocks? Or underground? Or high above us?" Pinkie tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Or none of those!"

"Thank you for narrowing it down, dear." Rarity huffed. "I'd rather not chip a hoof trying to break open a few rocks."

"What do you think, Fluttershy?" Pinkie asked, startling her out of her thoughts. "You've been awfully quiet."

"Oh, I think it's somewhere here." Fluttershy said, lightly tapping one of the rocks. "Why else would this magic circle be here?"

"Why else, indeed." Twilight mused. "It doesn't seem to do anything. Why is this even here?"

"Well, you won't find anything by just standing there." Mad said, poking at the glowing magic with his horn. "Do some science-y magic-y stuff."

"I don't think that's how that works." Twilight sighed, stepping into the magic circle to push Mad back. "Why don't you go help out over there?"

"Woah, sheesh, okay!" Mad cried, his shaggy mane falling in his eyes as he waved his hooves wildly. "You don't have to threaten me with the glowy rainbow thing, I'm moving!"

"Threaten you with the... What?" Twilight cocked an eyebrow, confused by Mad's sudden outburst.

"Isn't that what happens when your crown gets a-glowing?" Mad asked, his panic suddenly gone in place of curiosity.

"But it's not glowing." Twilight frowned, before turning to face Fluttershy. "Is it?"

"Yes it is!" Fluttershy gasped, shrinking down under her mane. "Are you sure you aren't doing that?"

"I-" Twilight's eyes widened as she saw the light pink glow shining from behind Fluttershy's concealing mane. "Yours is glowing too!"

"Twi, ah don't think ah can do this twice today." Applejack said nervously, backing up to the edge of the circle, her element glowing its characteristic orange.

Twilight whirled around to look at all of her friends in turn, her heart sinking as she saw each of their elements lighting up along with her own, their glow increasing until it was as bright as the circle of magic that surrounded them. The circle bent and twisted with the glow of the elements, forming into a twisting mass of magical leylines, glyphs, and images.

Twilight simply couldn't believe the complexity of the magic being performed in front of her. I seemed not just to be a spell, but a work of art, with magical wards and complex writings amid a scene that could have been at home among Canterlot Castle's stained glass windows. The scene it showed was actually quite similar to those of the windows depicting the banishing of evil, showing the three races of ponies cowering beneath the sun, which seemed to be eclipsed by two winged shadows.

Instantly, something clicked in Twilight's mind. A great spell had been found depicting an unknown evil that was apparently giving off the magical disturbance, and she had been the one to find it.

"Girls! help me read these glyphs, quickly!" Twilight shouted, rushing to follow the shifting patterns of the spell. "This could be an incredible discovery!"

"I don't think the rest of us can read glyphs, Twilight." Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not that much of an egghead."

"Well, could you at least get off of the glyphs please?" Twilight huffed, pushing Rainbow's hoof to one side in an attempt to read the glyph she was sitting on.

"Fine, fine, sheesh." Rainbow grumbled, before spreading her wings and pushing down hard to get a good take-off. She cocked an eyebrow as she stayed firmly glued to the ground, and tried her take-off again. With her hooves still not leaving the earth and her panic at her inability to fly rising, she simply stood flapping her wings as fast as she could, sending a fierce wind over her friends.

"Rainbow, what's gotten into yah?" Applejack yelled through gritted teeth as she struggled against the wind, her hooves being forced back to the edge of the magic field.

"I can't fly! Twilight, what the hey is going on?" Rainbow cried, struggling with all her might to get off the ground. Twilight, still focused on the glyphs, didn't seem to hear her. As she continued to follow the glyphs, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"What?" She snapped, "Can't you see I'm doing something important here... uh..."

Applejack was floating directly next to her, seeming to be pressed against a solid object at the edge of the magic field, and with a very unamused expression.

"Ah think ah'm done with your magic circle now. Could'ja let me out?"

"I'm not doing that!" Twilight exclaimed, turning back to look at Rainbow still futility attempting to fly out of the magic.

We can't leave. She thought, a sinking feeling overcoming her. With renewed intensity, she sought out the next glyph, translating it as fast as she could past her growing panic.

Bind

Bind what, us? I think I found that out already. Twilight grunted in frustration, seeking out the next glyph.

Evil

Bind evil? Why is it trapping us then? Her confusion mounting amid a swirling tide of emotions, she moved on again.

Seal

Below

Tartarus

Tartarus? Twilight froze, her frenzy shattered into a single cold feeling as the meaning of the magic field dawned on her. After the Discordian era, monsters of terrible power had roamed the world. The Princesses had used the Elements of Harmony to lock away the beasts into Tartarus, placing powerful seals over the entrances to that realm of punishment. The seals could only be opened again by the Elements themselves.

All six of which were currently upon the seal.

"No. No no no, no!" Twilight screamed, running straight at the edge of the seal. "We have to get out of this!"

Applejack huffed in anger as Twilight bounced harmlessly off the boundary of the seal. "Thanks for the tip, sugarcube."

"No, you don't understand!" Twilight yelled, grabbing Fluttershy and pulling her up from where she had been cowering under Rainbow's wind. "This is a Tartarian Seal, and we're breaking it just by being here!"

"Tartarian? How do you know?" Rarity gasped, holding her hooves over her mane so that it wouldn't become messier than it already was.

"It's in the glyphs. We have to get our Elements out of this seal before it breaks!" Twilight wrenched her Element off of her head, before turning to face Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, calm down!" Twilight growled, before yanking Rainbow's Element off of her neck.

"Hey!" she yelled, rubbing her neck as her wings slowed down in their frenzy. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to solve this instead of making it worse, now stop with that wind!" Twilight barked, before turning to grab Rarity and Fluttershy's Elements.

"How are you going to do that?" Pinkie asked, jumping up and down on the seal's barrier.

"If we can't leave, then we need to get the Elements out before this gets any worse." Twilight explained, grabbing Pinkie and Applejack's Elements and gathering them all in one hoof.

"Hey Mad!"

Mad turned around from building a house of rocks at the edge of the clearing, and walked over to the seal. "Wow, how'd you do this?" he chuckled.

"It doesn't matter. Here, take these!" Twilight yelled, thrusting the Elements at him.

Shrugging, Mad grabbed the Elements and pulled them back towards him. The barrier at the edge of the seal made an audible groaning noise as the Elements passed halfway through it, before it shimmered in a bright array of colors. With a sharp snap, the barrier popped back into place, flinging the Elements from Mad's grip and into the seal again and flinging Mad back across the clearing.

The Elements skidded against the rock for a few feet, before stopping suddenly in the center of the seal. The glyphs seemed to reach upwards and over them, joining the Elements with the seal.

The seal and ground below it simply shattered into millions of pieces, opening the rock below into a seemingly endless, yawning drop. In an instant, the sky receded away as Twilight fell down the tunnel, her friends dropping around her.

Before Twilight even had time to process that she was falling, Rainbow sprung into action, grabbing a hold of Twilight and Fluttershy, whose wings had snapped shut in fear, and angling her body to guide them over to where Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity were falling.

"Come on guys, join together!" Rainbow shouted, swinging her back hooves out towards Rarity and flaring her wings to try to slow them down.

Just as Rarity reached out to grab on to Rainbow, the air crackled and distorted with power. In an instant, the space between Rainbow and Rarity was suddenly replaced by a booming explosion of confetti, cotton candy, and small rodents, flinging Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie back up and out of the tunnel.

Rainbow's grip on Twilight and Fluttershy was broken by the force of the explosion, breaking the three apart and slamming them against the tunnel walls. Rainbow extended her wings to try and right herself just before she collided with the stone wall, her right wing collapsing beneath her body weight with a sharp crack.

"Agh!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled as Rainbow fell limply down away from her and Fluttershy, the three of them now descending uncontrollably through the Earth.

In panic, Twilight flung out her hoof to try and reach Fluttershy, but she had simply curled up in a ball, paralyzed by fear. Just as Twilight thought she could reach her friend the tunnel split between them, bouncing Twilight away and down a branching path and causing  Fluttershy to disappear behind a wall of stone.

"Fluttershy!"

Twilight, spinning out of control, didn't see the tunnel branching once again beneath her until she collided with the tip of the divide, her hooves slipping to find a grip against the stone as the air was forced out of her lungs beneath cracked ribs. As Rainbow Dash fell down the opposite side of the divide, Twilight struggled with all her strength the pull herself up and to where Rainbow had gone. The rock beneath her hooves cracked away, leaving her hanging for a single moment, her eyes full of fear and loss, before she too plummeted into the darkness alone.