The Lost Alicorn City

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Trixie all sat around inside the cave tunnel while Twilight paced back and forth in front of the wall of fire that was blocking their path, trying to figure out away to get passed it. The heat from the fire had quickly dried their previously drenched coats.

“There has got to be a way through,” said Twilight as she paced. “The Princess wouldn’t have sent us all this way for nothing. I just have to figure it out.”

The flames were so intense that you couldn’t even see what was on the other side of them. The group of ponies had no water they could throw on the flames, ironic since they had been soaking wet only minutes before. Both Twilight and Trixie had attempted to snuff out the flames with their magic, but this had no effect, which led Twilight to conclude that it was magical fire.

“Well, at least I’m getting a good tan,” Rarity said.

“Twilight, maybe you should take a break from pacing. You’ll ware a trench in the floor,” Pinkie Pie said with a grin.

Twilight gave her a look, then she groaned and sat down on her haunches in frustration. She rubbed her forehead with her hoof.

“I don’t get it,” she muttered. “We demonstrated patients by getting through the invisible wall, generosity in escaping the treasure chest trap, kindness by helping the little colt, wisdom in solving the riddles, and humility in bowing to the statue of Princess Faust. The only one left is faith. But how does faith help us get through a wall of fire…” Twilight trailed off as she stared over at the wall of flames just a few feet away from her.

Her friends stared at her in confusion.

“What is it, Twilight?” asked Rarity.

“Did you figure something out?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight didn’t answer them. She got up onto all fours and stood facing the flames.

Could it really be that simple? she thought to herself.

“Twilight, what are you doing?” asked Rainbow Dash as she and the rest of the mares all got up on their hooves. “Twi?”

Twilight stared at the flames for a few moments longer. Then she took a deep breath… and stepped forward into them.

“TWILIGHT!!!” everypony screamed in horror, including Trixie.

Just then, the wall of fire vanished in a flash, reveling a completely unharmed Twilight standing smiling at them.

The six other mares stood stunned in amazement as they stared blinking at the purple unicorn.

“The fire was harmless all along,” said Twilight. “All it took was a little faith.”

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy all smiled happily and ran to their purple friend, embracing her with relief and congratulating her on figuring out the solution.

“Don’t ever scare us like that again,” said Applejack.

Trixie stood staring a few moments longer. Then she regained her composure with a toss of her mane, and walked up next to the six embracing friends. Then Trixie noticed something the others obviously hadn’t yet, and her eyes grew wide as she saw what was behind the group of hugging mares.

A moments later, Twilight and her friends noticed Trixie off to the side, staring at something off in the distance. They all looked up in the direction she was looking and their eyes widened as they saw what she saw.

They were at the top of a giant golden staircase, overlooking an entire underground golden city, illuminated by a large glowing crystal hanging from the top of the cavern overhead. There were buildings, temples, and right in the center of the city was a giant pyramid, all made out of solid gold.

“WE FOUND IT!” cheered Twilight. “THE LOST ALICORN CITY! IT DOES EXIST!”

Trixie grinned to herself. At last, she thought.

The group trotted down the long staircase and passed under a golden archway into the underground city.

They walked down one of the streets, taking in everything around them. The buildings that lined the streets were old and some were falling apart. Time had not been kind to the city. But the gold it was made of still glimmered in the light coming from the crystal above.

“Look at all this!” said Rainbow Dash. “There’s so much stuff to explore!”

“I wonder if we can find the ancient Allicorn library,” said Twilight in excitement.

“The Princess is sure gonna be happy about this,” said Pinkie Pie.

As they walked, Trixie stayed behind the group of friends, focusing on her own goal. All the gold and ancient artifacts were fascinating, but she had her own agenda to keep, and she couldn’t become distracted. Not now that she was so close.

The seven ponies walked into one of the crumbling buildings. Their eyes widened as they found they were in a large room filled with to the ceiling with treasure. Gold and jewels and statues and priceless artifacts from every era in Equestrian history.

Rarity squealed in delight and jumped into a nearby pile of gold coins, rolling in it happily.

Her friends all stared at her.

“What? Just because I’m a generous pony doesn’t mean I don’t like nice things,” said Rarity as she picked up a nearby golden queen’s crown with her magic and placed it on top of her head. Her friends just rolled their eyes.

While the others were all looking at Rarity, Trixie, who had been hanging around near the back, silently slipped out the door they had come in through, and trotted away.

While Rarity was still going through the gold and jewels in the room with Fluttershy helping her, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash walked through another door at the other end of the room into another room. This room was filled with rows and rows of old book shelves and tables, each one containing hundreds of ancient books and scrolls.

Twilight squealed in delight as she ran up to a pile of books on a golden table and began going through them, picking them all up at once with her magic and opening them.

“I think we found it! I think this is the library!” Twilight exclaimed. “Oh, there’s just so many books to go through, so much knowledge to discover.”

Rainbow Dash lightly elbowed Applejack. “Well, Twilight is in egghead heaven,” she muttered to her friend with a smirk.

Applejack chuckled, then she looked around and frowned. “Hey, were did that slippery little snake Trixie get off to?” she asked the others.

Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight glanced around, suddenly noticing the absence of the blue showmare.

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Awe, who cares? We got way too much exploring to do to worry about her.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, Trixie walked into a large, round building. The inside of this building was completely empty, and there was no roof. It reminded Trixie of an ancient coliseum or stadium. It occurred to her that perhaps that’s what it had been at one time in the past.

She smiled as she spotted what she was looking for. In the very center of the stadium, if that’s what it was, was a large, pitch-black statue of a dragon sitting atop a nonfunctioning fountain.

She walked to the center of the stadium to the base of the statue. As she looked up at it, she had to admit, it was an impressive piece of art. But she knew what lay in side it, and there was only one way to get it out.

Her horn glowed with purple energy, and the statue began to glow with the same purple energy. Trixie gritted her teeth as she concentrated on the spell.

A crack appeared on the chest of the statue. Trixie grinned and continued to concentrate as hard as she could.

The crack in the statue continued to grow bigger, and bigger, until finally, the whole statue burst apart, sending thousands of tiny pieces flying in every direction, and creating a thick cloud of back dust in the room.

“Did y’all just hear somethin’?” asked Applejack while she and her friends were exploring the inside of a different building together.

“Sounded like an explosion!” said Pinkie Pie.

“I think we better go and see what it was,” Twilight said, immediately suspecting it had something to do with Trixie.

“Indeed. That stuck up showmare might have destroyed some valuable artifact,” said Rarity, apparently thinking the same thing as Twilight.

When the cloud of dust cleared, Trixie finally saw the object she desired lying in the rubble of the statue. A large, brown, ugly-looking book. But Trixie knew this was no ordinary book.

“At last!” she said to no one in particular. “The ultimate power! It’s finally mine!” Trixie picked up the book with her magic and levitated it over to her. She held it in her hooves, looking down at it. It was bound shut with iron chains wrapped around it, and there was a piece of parchment attached to the chains with an inscription written on it.  Trixie began translating it.

‘Do not open this book or you will unleash an evil that will destroy the world,’ the parchment read. Yeah, right, Trixie thought to herself as she used her magic to quickly pull off the chains that were wrapped around the book. She tossed the chains to the floor and gazed down at her prize, savoring her moment of victory.

You’re so close, Trixie told herself. Soon the ultimate power will be yours, and you will be the most powerful Unicorn in all of Equestria. Then you will finally get the respect and admiration you truly deserve. And all you have to do is open this book.

She was about to open it when suddenly she heard hoof steps behind her. She turned her head and saw Twilight Sparkle come trotting into the building.

“Trixie!” the purple unicorn said, looking around at the stadium and the rubble of the statue. “What happened here? What’s that you got there?”

Trixie grinned. “The key to Trixie’s victory, Sparkle,” she responded.

With a spark of her magic, Trixie flipped open the book to a random page… and then a blast of black wind burst up out of the book into the air.

Trixie screamed in surprise and fear, and dropped the book onto the dirt-covered floor.

The black wind continued to pour out of the book’s pages, forming a black clowd over head that was getting bigger and bigger by the second. Twilight and Trixie watched in horror as the cloud began to take shape, morphing into the form of some sort of creature.

Right at that moment, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie showed up, running into the stadium right beside Twilight. They looked at the giant black cloud in horror and then looked at Trixie down below it.

“TRIXIE, WHAT DID YOU DO?” shouted Applejack angrily.

“I DON’T KNOW!” Trixie shouted back, once again too terrified to bother speaking in the third person. This was not what she had been expecting when she had opened the book.

The black mass continued to take shape. It grew long and huge, it grew arms and legs, and a pair of large, bat-like wings grew out the back of it. Horns and spikes sprouted on its head and all down its back to the tip of its tail. Soon the cloud grew solid, and standing there, in the middle of the stadium, was an enormous, pitch-black dragon.

The dragon opened its yellow eyes and let out a defining roar that echoed throughout the cavern.