Equestrian Souls: Fires of War

EQUSTRIAN SOULS
Written by TheCrimsonDm
Chapter three: into the depths

The three of us sat around the Altar, its light cast upon us, creating dancing shadows behind us. This night was a little chilly making the Altar’s fire more attractive. Although the fire emitting from the blade did not give off any actual heat, there was a warm feeling spreading through me as I sat in front of it. The warm feeling was most likely due to the healing magic that these Altars gave off, but it was keeping me warm, and that’s what mattered.

I looked at Moon Shadow sitting across from me, he looked tired but I would catch him smiling at me every now and then. It was nice being with somepony who actually knew who I was, somepony who had been my friend before my amnesia, and who was still my friend. I had so many questions for him, but I needed to focus on finding Reed first. My questions could wait until after we found him.

For now I needed to know where the second bell was, I yawned as I asked. “So where is this second bell?”

Moon Shadow, my unicorn friend studied me for a few moments before saying simply. “It’s in the Malignant Mire”.

That name sounded simply horrid, and I really didn’t want to know more about this place, but if I was going to trot into some place called the Malignant Mire, then I was going to be as prepared as I could possibly be before hoof. I began to ask what that place was like, when a wave of exhaustion crashed into me. I wobbled to my side and fell against Storm Feathers shoulder. His plate mail armor was not very comfortable, but to was something to lean against. I found myself yawning again. A few moments passed with me nodding off against the griffon’s shoulder, before I heard Moon Shadow say my name.

I looked over to my side to see my saddle bags laid out like a pillow next to me, it looked much more comfortable then Storm Feather’s shoulder. After I laid my head down on top of the bags, I closed my eyes feeling sleep come closer to me. Even with sleep coming down upon me I managed to ask. “Is it safe to sleep here?”

I heard Moon Shadow reply softly. “The Altar has been lit. We do not have to worry about any monsters attacking. Besides, you have two body guards now. You will be fine.”

I nodded off to sleep listening to my friends talk to each other in soft tones. I was really happy to have them here with me.

***

The ground beneath me became smooth, there was a slight chill to the wind around me, and my head was feeling…fluffy. I opened my eyes to find myself in a completely new location. The sky was pure white with no sign of blue anywhere; there weren’t clouds in the sky though. The sky was simply white. The ground had become smooth green marbled glass, with strands of darker green in it. There were a set of ruins made of the same material behind me. Lastly I noticed that although it was bright, there was no sign of the sun anywhere. To say the least, I had no idea where I was.

I searched around the ruins a little bit trying to figure out where I was, after finding no clues I decided to sit down with my back against one of the marble walls. I let out a sigh of frustration, why did this place have to be so strange. I wondered about where my friends could be and remembered that they had been by the Altar as I fell asleep. ‘Could I be asleep,’ I wondered to myself. The answer seemed to be instinctive then, and I knew for certain that I was asleep.

This place I sat in was a dream, a lonely, strange dream, but a dream none the less. That made me smile to myself, knowing that this was a dream eased my confusion, and worry. There were no signs of life anywhere though, and the only thing I could see in any direction around me was the ruins I was standing in.

An adolescent mare’s voice began speaking to me as I sat there. “So,” she began speaking, “this is where you were”. I looked around for the voice, and found a teenage mare sitting next to me. She was an earth pony with deep blue fur, and a glowing green mane and tail. She looked at me with her luminescent green eyes and smiled worriedly. “Are you okay Light,” she asked me?

I nodded feeling very confused, I did not recognize this mare at all. Was she somepony I knew in real life, or just a dream apparition? She began to frown in worry, which prompted me to explain. “I am feeling okay; I just don’t know who you are. I have amnesia.” I felt that my explanation was somewhat lacking.

She shook her head saying. “I told you that something like this might happen. I am simply glad you’re alive.”

“What Happened?” I asked without hesitation.

She looked sternly at me with her glowing eyes, and I felt a little intimidated from her. “You got into a fight, a bad one. You’re still alive, and that means that I can still help you achieve our goal.”

“And what exactly is our goal, does it involve finding Reed?” I asked hoping to find out more about Reed.

She looked at me her eyes softened, and started to become sad before she looked away saying simply. “We are going to stop the demons, once and for all…and you will meet up with Reed again, I promise.”

I wanted to ask her why she looked sad, did it have something to do with Reed, or was there something else to this stopping the demons thing? I began to ask her when she cut me off by saying. “I know you want answers, but I can’t be the one to give them to you. I can only give you choices on what to do next. I am the Dream Weaver, this is my task.”

Dream Weaver is an odd title, maybe she had something to do with talking to ponies in their dreams. And if she can only give me choices; then I only had only one question I could ask her. “Okay Dreamer, what can I do next?”

She quickly turned her head to look at me she tilted her head to the side looking very confused. She then asked me. “What did you call me?”

A smile grew on my face as I explained. “Dreamer, it’s your new nick name. After all what kind of friends would we be without nick names for each other”

Her bottom lip began to quiver as she asked me dumbfounded. “You want to be my friend, but why?”

My smile grew wider as I answered her question with another question. “Why not?”

She smiled a little as a tear began to roll down her face as she explained. “We didn’t used to be friends, in fact you hated me. We had to work together to stop the demons, but that didn’t stop you from hating my guts,” she paused for a second seeming to ponder something before saying, “I don’t think that term actually applies to me anymore.”

I was a little more than confused by what she meant by that last part, but I decided to let that go for now. I wrapped a leg around Dreamer, and hugged her close to me saying. “I can’t remember any of that, in fact I scarcely remember anything at all. So even if the old me didn’t like you, I don’t see any reason the new me can’t be your friend.”

I found her smiling at me, with any luck I just made a new friend. She then cuddled into me before saying. “It’s been so long since I have had any friends. Even if your friendship only last a little while, I will cherish it for an eternity.”

We sat there just enjoying the breeze that was in the air, it seemed to be getting slightly warmer, turning the once chilly breeze into something pleasant. She then began to speak again. “I know your trying to get back into The Grays, and that you have already rung one of the bell towers. Now you need to ring the other one, but it’s located in a very dangerous spot. You will need to travel to the Malignant Mire, and there are only two…decent options for that.”

I nodded to let her know I was paying attention before she continued explaining. “Option one, you can go all the way down to Dark Town, and travel through the Everfree forest, but that would take a long time a few days at best, more likely it would take a week…probably. The second option is for you to travel through the Sewer system in Clippers called The Labyrinth, it leads to the Mire, but it’s filled with danger. It would only take a few hours at most to get through that place though, and if you can’t survive the sewers, then there would be no chance for you to survive the Mire.”

I sat there and thought about the two options she had just given me, neither one sounded very good, but this Malignant Mire sounded far worse. I would love to have more information on this place, but I knew that those questions could wait for Moon Shadow in the morning. I looked up at the white sky, and I asked. “Is this place your home?”

She took a moment to answer me. “No not usually. This is actually your mental plane. We all have one, and each one is unique to their owner. It’s beautiful here though. Although it used to be a much nicer place, back when you were stronger.”

“What do you mean by stronger?” I asked, I did not think that getting weaker sounded like a good thing.

She took a moment to answer me, I felt like she was trying to find a way to explain it to me, without telling me too much about my past. That was a little infuriating, but I imagine she may not have a choice in that matter.

She finally began explaining, although she sounded sad as she did so. “You…have forgotten a lot of your training, right now you are functioning on muscle memory for your fights. I am surprised you’re doing so well actually. Eventually you should gain some of those memories back, hopefully you will regain all of your memories and your mental plane will be whole again…even if you stop being my friend after words. I don’t like seeing broken ponies.”

She sounded so sad and lonely, that I didn’t give much thought to her calling me a broken pony. Although I agreed with her, not remembering sucked, and it made me feel broken. I could identify with her sadness, I felt lonely when I first woke up in asylum, and I felt like I have may have been lonely even before that.

I held her a little tighter, hoping that somehow I could make her loneliness go away. If I only I knew how to make her happy, I would. Sadly I could feel that my time here was drawing to a close.

I kissed Dreamer on the forehead before promising. “No matter what I remember about you, I promise I will always be your friend.” I gave it second before adding. “Please come visit me again, I would love to talk with you some more”. She looked up at me, and smiled with tears rolling down her face, I really hope that she felt at least a little less lonely now. My vision began being filled with a blinding light, it soon got so bright that I tried to close my eyes, to no avail.

***

I woke up with my back feeling a little bit sore from where I was laying on it, and half of my face was wet from where I had been drooling in my sleep, eww. Moon Shadow was standing by the doorway looking outside at the sunlight, he looked a lot older then he did in my memories. Although he did look pretty cool in his new brown leather jacket, actually that jacket looked awfully familiar to one I had been rummaging through yesterday to find the key to his cell. I found myself a little appalled by the fact that he stole it, but I couldn’t really blame him for it. After all he had been tortured here for years, he was well within his rights.

My eyes traveled towards the right, away from the doorway. I saw there were now two packs full of canned food, and a few canteens lying against the wall. I also saw a suit of platemail that had been set neatly in the corner stained with dry blood, along with it was some cloth underlining.

I continued panning right until my eyes fell upon the sleeping form of Storm Feather, and he was naked. I began blushing wildly as I found myself enamored with his powerful physique; he was in great shape, probably from wearing that armor all the dang time. My eyes began to wander from athletic arms down to his chest, and stopped there at the sight of a tattoo of the sun on his chest. I had to say normally tattoos did not appeal to me, but in this case I could make an exception. My eyes continued to wander a little lower before a coughing noise snapped me to my attention. I realized then that Moon Shadow had been staring at me, with a slightly agitated expression. I felt like my checks were on fire, with how intense my blushing had been right then.

I decided to change the subject before said subject even came up. “I, uh, need to use the little fillies room.” I stood up, and began trotting towards the staircase going up to the bell.

“I wouldn’t go up there if I was you.” He said.
I looked back about to ask why, when he answered me by saying. “The ceiling here might be leaky. You should just go out on the roof of the cathedral.”
I began to imagine the worst possible thing happen, with a leaky ceiling and ponies right below it. Then I stopped thinking before I became too embarrassed, and began heading outside the door. I looked back at Moon Shadow who looked very serious, and I said. “No Peeking”. He rolled his eyes, and shut the door to the bell tower after me.

It was absolutely beautiful out here; the sun was shining down upon the town with warm rays of protection. Even if the sun didn’t stop Hollows I had it on good belief it stopped the worst things out there. There were no signs of Hollows down bellow in the town, and that made me happy. I did not want to have to fight any more before deciding our next course of action. I was also pleased to hear the sounds of birds chirping off in the distance.

After my business was concluded outside I walked back inside and found that Moon Shadow had begun cooking some food. He had started a tiny fire near the corner of the room, near a window. The fact that the Altar’s fire was merely an illusion forced him to make a new fire for cooking. When he had gotten done cooking he handed a bowl of white mush to both me, and Storm Feather. I looked at it for a few seconds wondering what he had just made for us, and then I looked at Storm Feather who had not yet touched his food. I was pretty sure that this food was from downstairs, ironic that I was going to have to be the first one to try it.

I really hadn’t wanted to eat this food because it was probably more than a few years out of date. After a few more moments it was plainly obvious that Storm was not going to take the first bite, and I think Moon Shadow was snickering in the corner. I finally bucked up, and took a sample bite from the food. It was tasteless; I guess that was okay, it could have been a whole lot worse than just being tasteless.

After I took a few more bites Storm Feather began to dig in as well, he however seemed to really enjoy the food we were eating. Moon Shadow was eating very quietly in the corner, I suppose he did not want to bother us, or maybe he was having a hard time adjusting to the company.

I begun to wonder about how hard it must have been for him to be free now, he had been locked up for a couple of years, perhaps longer. Now that he was free, he was following me in my quest to find Reed. He might be worried about getting close to anypony after having been alone for so long, I really hoped he would get over that soon.

While we ate I decided to bring up the topic of what we were going to do next. “So we need to head to The Mire, how should we go about getting there?”

Storm Feather sat quietly eating while looking at Moon Shadow over in the corner. Moon Shadow then walks over to where we were sitting and joins us. He then explains. “I was talking with Storm Feather last night about this, there are two ways to get there, one of them takes far too long, and the other one is more dangerous. We can take the Clippers sewer system to get there although that is the dangerous one, and it should only take a few hours or so. That was the path we had taken last time after all.”

“Did I go with you last time?” I asked with a little bit of hesitance to hear about what might have occurred.

He let out a sigh before shaking his head and explaining. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you had gone with us. You and dust were busy up here. Reed decided to take only his strongest fighters down into the Mire. Blackout, Snowflake, Valiant Hart, and I. Together we descended into the sewers.”

I wish I could remember who those ponies were, I had remembered hearing the name Blackout but the other four were a complete mystery to me. “Who were all those ponies?” I asked feeling a little guilty for not remembering them when they had been friends to both Reed and Moon Shadow.

Moon Shadow looked a little confused for a moment, and then he seemed to remember the fact that I had amnesia. Thankfully he decided to explain who they were to me. “I will try to keep this short; it would take hours to explain who they were individually in great detail. Dust is an earth pony mechanic; he used to build all sorts of cool things. Blackout’s a Pegasus who loves flying fast, faster than any other pony. I still remember all the times she would challenge Rainbow Dash, determined to be faster than even her, I can’t recall her ever winning against her though.” He stopped speaking for a moment, his gaze drifted upwards as though he was lost in thought. He continued after a moment, looking a little embarrassed at him losing his train of thought. “Snowflake was probably the most powerful unicorn I ever became close friends with, she is also a beauty beyond words. And finally we have Valiant Hart, she was the innocent one of the bunch, she should never have been brought with us to the Mire…it changed her, but without her help we would have died. Reed was our leader, our guild captain. Together the six of us were the Elements of nature, we would have died for Equestria…instead we lost everything, save for our lives. At least Reed managed to save you, without you he would have gone crazy.”

They had all fought bravely in the war, while I was useless. After losing the war we were left in a world full of undeath, and demons. I wish I could remember how much had been lost, how much we were fighting for now, or how long ago this all was. If I could only remember it all, maybe then this world would make sense. I sighed at the uselessness of it all, trying to remember things would only hurt me and probably wouldn’t do as much good as I wanted it too anyway.

“So,” I began asking, “What should we expect in the sewers, and in the Mire?”

Moon Shadow just sat there for a moment thinking to himself, I gave him time to answer but he sat still for several more seconds, and an awkward silence began filling the room. Finally he decided to answer me saying. “I can’t remember what happened in the sewers, I remember the blue prints I had memorized, but what events unfolded in there is a mystery to me.”

“What about in the Mire?” I asked hoping to keep him talking.

“The Mire I remember, although I wish that I didn’t. The place is dark, and filled with death. But more then all it is filled with creatures that make The Black Knights feel like kittens. Nopony that entered the Mire came back out the same. Even Reed had changed down there. We got lost and fought tooth and hoof every step of the way. When we go back, I will bring you guys directly to Quelaag’s domain, that way we can go in and out within hours rather than days.”
“It took days to get out?” I exclaimed!
He looked at me with his tired eyes, they almost looked broken. “Like I said, the place is dark, and we got lost. It could have taken a mere few hours…”
I wasn’t going to push him for any more details right now, whatever happened down there had broke him, and yet he was still willing to take us down there to keep us safe. He was a good pony. We talked some more about the sewers, Moon Shadow had explained that there was a door, which lead to the sewers. He knew where it was, and soon enough we would be going there.

A few minutes later we packed up, Storm Feather finally decided to get dressed in his armor again, thank Celestia, I don’t think I could keep my composer around him a moment longer. Moon Shadow lead us out of the cathedral, on our way out I glanced over at the graveyard where I had tossed Void Runner yesterday. I found it worrisome when I realized her body was no longer there, but then again maybe something had decided to eat her in the middle of the night…or at least I really hoped that was what happened. I don’t think I could handle another fight with her.

It took some time to get to the sewer entrance, but at least we didn’t have any trouble on our way. The entrance he spoke about was actually a giant sewer tunnel that was blocked off by a thick metal grate; there was a door next to the tunnel which would lead us inside the sewers. There was some water pooling at the base of the tunnel, it was black and offered us a glimpse at how badly the sewer was going to smell. I was really beginning to hate black stagnant water now. Moon Shadow spent some time lock picking the door, but eventually he managed to get us inside, and so we made our first steps into the depths of the Clippers sewer system.

***

The Clippers sewer system is apt described as a maze of stone worked hallways, and foot high black smelly water. The only sources of light came from both mine and Moon Shadow’s telekinesis, and also from a torch that Storm Chaser had light up. The reek of the sewers was terrible. The smell of mold, waste, and rot built up the further we went in. I know that sewers weren’t supposed to smell nice, but this was horrible. As we traveled deeper into the sewers the walls became more damaged, it took us nearly an hour before we hit what Moon Shadow had called the Labyrinth.

According to the maps he had memorized, the Labyrinth was the place that connected the town of Clippers, to the horrible place called the Mire. If we can survive the Labyrinth we will make it to the second bell. I just hope that we did not have any trouble down here, but so far I have not been given a single sign that this would be the case.

We found ourselves being forced into ever smaller corridors, until we finally were funneled into walking in a single file. Moon Shadow stalked ahead of us, making sure to stay in our line of sight, but being just far enough to scout ahead in case there was danger. I was in the middle with Storm Feather at my rear, if not for my cloak covering my tail I might have gotten embarrassed. Our heavy armored friend would protect us from behind in case we were to draw unwanted attention.

There were far too many intersecting corridors, causing a sense of dread as we approached each one. Without Moon Shadow we would have gotten lost in here, and far worse I felt like there was something watching me from around every corner.

We walked past yet another corridor intersection, and that was my first experience with the most disgusting creature I had seen so far. A giant Rat. The Rat stood half my size with mangy fur, and open sores all over its body. The creature was standing in the corridor to my right. It simply stood there staring at me, its eyes were completely white, and if not for the light from Storms torch I would never have known the creature was there.

I was about to scream, and probably shoot it full of bolts, if not for Moon Shadow using his magic to keep my mouth shut, I would have. I looked at him feeling both scared and angry at him for having stopped me. He shook his head saying very quietly. “Rats don’t usually attack living pray. They prefer to feed on carrion. Although if desperate enough, they might try to bite you. If that happens tell me right away.”

I looked at him feeling a little worried, I tried to ask him to explain further but his magic was still keeping me quiet. He did go further into what he meant though. “They eat dead flesh; these creatures are filled with sickness, and disease. So if you get bitten, tell me so I can take care of it.” he finally let my muzzle go free from his telekinesis, and I worked my mouth back and forth making sure I could move it again. We continued onward.

We finally found ourselves entering a larger corridor, where we could all move about freely again. This hallway was long and open. The end of the hall turned left. About half way through we began hearing Somepony coming towards us from around the end of the hallway. I looked around for some place to hide, but there weren’t any hiding spots in here. It looked as though we were going to have to fight. Storm Feather brought his favored battle axe to bear, Moon Shadow slid out his daggers, and I brought my sword to the show. Together we stood firm, and ready for anything this place could throw at us.

The first thing to come around the corner was a single hollow wearing no armor, and holding a broken sword in his mouth. That hollow went down from one of Moon Shadows magical shuriken. That must have been the trigger though because suddenly we found ourselves watching as a much larger group of Hollows came rushing towards us from around the corner.

Moon Shadow began firing his magical shuriken at the advancing hollows, meanwhile Storm Feather charged up meeting them in melee, his oppressive form bearing down on them. Meanwhile I pulled out my crossbow, now dual wielding my sword and crossbow. Of course I could only concentrate at aiming one of them at a time. I took aim and fired at one of the hollows who were getting too close for comfort. I took him down with a single shot to the head. I seemed to be pretty good with this crossbow. The battle continued only for a few moments, Storm took out most of the enemies by himself, while me, and Moon took out enemies from range.

After the battle we took a little rest, this place was filled with hollows from my understanding, and worse things resided here as well. While we sat down on an area raised just higher than the water level, Moon Shadow decided he would speak with me some more. Storm was on look out for the moment, making sure we don’t get ambushed. My fellow unicorn was looking worn down with his tired eyes and messy hair. When he spoke his voice did not sound tired, rather it sounded a little dull.

He began speaking and even though he sounded drab I could also make out some regret in his voice. “I should have been able to take those hollows out with ease, and you used to charge head first into combat like that. Or at least that’s how it used to be.”

I sighed; I didn’t like not remembering my past. I wondered if I used to be like Storm Feather, charging in with a full suit of armor slaying hollows with giant swords. I lamented about memories I no longer owned before saying. “I don’t remember hardly anything, especially anything about fighting. And you’re still recovering yourself. Yet we have come this far, we have to continue.”

He looked at me with regret in his eyes, I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I wanted to help him. Putting a hoof on his shoulder I smiled softly, saying. “We will be okay, there are three of us, and we are pretty darn tough.”

He smiled a little before pushing my hoof away with his own. He sighed and said with a little more energy. “Okay, but if we are going to do this, we need your magic. I am going to teach you something.”

I grinned with excitement; I really liked the idea of shooting magic shuriken at my opponents. He then led me out into the hall facing me towards the far wall. “I guess we can start at the beginning. Magic is unique to everypony, and to ponies like me, and you. It’s both easier and harder at the same time. Now I want you to take all the anger that you have inside of you, and force it into a ball.”

I closed my eyes, and focused on everything I could that made me angry. It was hard to be angry when I couldn’t remember anything, and that got on my nerves. So I took that and shoved it into a mental ball, then I took my anger towards being useless and shoved that in there as well. I took the anger I felt at the ponies who locked up Moon Shadow, and the Zebra who hurt my friends, and shoved it all into that ball of hate. “Open your eyes.” Moon Shadow instructed me.

When I opened them, I found myself staring at a ball of fire floating just a few inches from my muzzle. The heat off it was burning me a little, I moved my head back from it, but the ball of fire followed me.

“Okay, now grab the Fireball with your telekinesis and toss it at the wall far away from us.” Moon Shadow explained carefully.

I grabbed it with my magic, and although it didn’t have an aura around it, I found that I could move it around freely. I gave it a toss at the far wall, and watched as it collided with the wall. And exploded!

The explosion was not huge, but it did take out a chunk of the stone wall, sending bits and pieces into the water around it. I wondered just how many times I could do this before becoming exhausted, or if I could just keep doing this without worry. I found myself smiling I looked at Moon Shadow who was smiling along with me; I began bouncing on my hooves in a circle around him, chanting to myself. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
I only stopped after Storm Feather began laughing. I began blushing at the realization that I was acting like a filly, and tried to regain my composer. Striking a hard stance along with as stern a face as I could while saying. “It was just a fireball, anypony can do that. Humph.” I made sure to pout for emphasis. Storm began laughing even harder at me, and I couldn’t help but join in with him at this point.

After our laughing was over I thanked Moon Shadow, and asked him. “So where did you learn to make fire balls.”

He smiled before saying. “I don’t. When I was younger I didn’t know how to control my magic. I actually exploded once…from sneezing too hard. Twilight broke out laughing at me so hard I thought she would pass out.”

Tilting my head to one side in confusion I asked. “Wait, you exploded?” after second I added. “And twilight laughed at you?”

He was smiling a little more and even blushed a little as he explained. “Well I was getting angry at a certain pink Somepony over something silly they had done. Then I sneezed, and exploded with fire. Apparently my mane and tail actually caught on fire for a second. I bet I looked ridiculous. After that though I learned how to begin controlling my magic, and the reason why Twilight found it so hilarious.”

“Oh yeah why was she laughing at you?” I asked feeling a mixture of curiosity and a little protective over her, although I couldn’t explain why.

He sighed and continued explaining. “Apparently when she was younger, she did something similar once. So I guess she never realized what she looked like when exploding like that. Although thanks to that event I learned that my emotions were a huge part of my magic, specifically passion.”

“Oh,” I began saying feeling less protective, but still very curious, “So Twilight taught you how to use your magic.”

He shook his head before saying. “Nope, Twilight was unfortunately too busy that day, so she had Somepony else teach me… that pony was you”.

I sat down hard in shock, and instantly regretted it as my entire rump splashed in the disgusting water. I was going to smell bad for a long time wasn’t I? I stood back up, giving a shake while Storm snickered at me. Then I said. “Wait, so I taught you how to use your magic?”

He nodded saying. “Yeah, Reed had introduced us once before, although we didn’t become close friends for a long time. I still admired you for tutoring me; you spent at least a week teaching me basic things to do with magic. I guess you could say that you became my teacher for a while.”

I found my checks warming up from all this praise. I guess I wasn’t really used to being praised like this. I would have loved to continue this dialog about my past, but we needed to continue moving forward. Time was of the essence, or at least I got this feeling deep inside of me, like I was running out of it. Maybe it was my paranoia about the Zebra girl Void Runner, or perhaps the Labyrinth was making me feel this way. Either way I found myself wanting to leave here more and more by the second.

After a little while of walking, Moon Feather pointed a hoof forward while saying. “Okay, there should be another Altar just a few halls downward. We should rest there, and make sure we have all the stuff we need for entering The Mire”.

We continued deeper into the Labyrinth, my two companions walked a few paces ahead of me. To my sudden surprise Moon Shadow fell to his knees without warning. He started looking very ill, and Storm Feather was looking almost as bad, but the griffon managed to stand his ground. I dragged Moon Shadow back by yanking on his tail with my teeth, while Storm Feather walked with me. We moved backwards about 3 meters before the two started looking any better. I had no idea what had just happened and that was making me feel a little scared. Seeing my friends become sick like that without warning worried me. Moon Shadow looked towards the hall where he fell with a scowl saying. “Not here, not now. We aren’t supposed to be facing these yet.”

I looked at him still worried asking. “What do you mean; do you know what that was?”

He sighed before looking up at me and explaining. “The Altar over there is corrupted by Pestilence. It was something that only happened inside the Mire. Only Valiant Hart was able to cast the spell that protected us from its effects. Although this is another reason why I wanted to bring you along the first time we went down there. Altar, you are immune to these things. And I am afraid you will need to go ahead of us alone. You need to find the Altar, if you can use your magic to light it, then we can proceed unharmed.”

He must have been joking, how could he actually want me to go through this maze of tunnels by myself. I was bound to get lost, and eaten down here without him to guide me. I also really disliked the idea of leaving my friends alone, that Zebra mare had nearly killed them. I couldn’t handle losing them down here. This was crazy, and I did not want to do it. “There has to be another way around, maybe we can go some other way to the Mire.”

He looked at me his eyes filled with sorrow shaking his head as he said. “I wish there was, but you have to do this for us Altar.”

I bit my lip, and looked down the hallway, it was dark and scary. There were giant rats, and a whole lot more hollows down here than expected. Worse yet I felt as though something even more terrible was waiting for me in the depths. I backed up away from Moon Shadow shaking my head back and forth saying fearfully. “I don’t want to go, there are giant rats, and hollows, and, and I don’t want to go.”

His eyes turned hard, and he looked at me with a stern gaze while asking me in very even tones. “That is not why you don’t want to go is it; tell me what the real reason is?”

Clenching my eyes shut I thought about this for a few seconds. The rats didn’t bother me that much, even the hollows I could probably take care of by myself now, and my friends could take care of themselves while I was gone I knew this much too be true. The last time I was in a place like this alone though, I was in Asylum facing down a demon. A hot tear streaked down my cheek as I admitted. “It’s just like Asylum down here. What if there is a demon down here, I don’t want to face that alone.”

Moon Shadow moved next to me before talking to me in a soft caring tone. “I…don’t want you to do this, it is not fair. I finally got you back, after all this time I finally meet up with the only friend I know to still be alive. But Alt- I mean Light. We need you to do this. Even if we did choose to head back now, I may be too sick from the poison to get back to another Altar in time.”

I opened my eyes and looked at him; I could feel hot tears running down my face. He was poisoned, from that little time he spent in the corrupted Altar’s effect radius. These things were extremely dangerous, and on top of that he needed my help or he could die. I won’t lose him again, I won’t lose anypony.

I sucked in a breath before saying in a tiny voice just above a whisper. “Okay, I’ll do it.” I then raised my voice a little, attempting to sound more confident as I said. “But I don’t want you to wait for me, if the Altar gets fixed before I come back for you guys, I want you to get to it as fast as you can. That means both of you guys.”

I made sure I had Storm Feather’s attention as I said that last bit. I knew he would listen to my orders, but I was still afraid that he might do something silly, and heroic. This had to be hard for him though. Letting the mare he swore to defend run off alone into the scary dark tunnels to save him. That was of course assuming he was poisoned as well, and from his expression earlier it was safe to assume he was. He was acting tough now that he was away from the corrupted Altar’s effect, but Moon Shadow was still looking in bad shape. That led me to believe that this corrupted Altar’s effect wasn’t temporary. Moon Shadows weakened body probably couldn’t endure the poisonous effect as well as Storm’s could. I walked down the hall a little before turning to face them. I nodded at them, letting them know I would be okay.

I continued walking until I was out of sight of my friends, and that was when the troubling thought came to me. This might be the last time I see them for a long time. I wanted to run back, I wanted to give them both a hug before going onward alone, but I knew that if I did, I would not be able to continue onward by myself. Besides time was of the essence now, my friends were sick and I was their only chance at survival.

Taking a deep breath I readied myself for whatever dangers I was about to face down here in the Labyrinth. At the very least I did not feel weak or sick yet. With great care I continued onward into the dark tunnels ahead. I was going to save my friends, and I would allow nothing to stand in my way, not even my own fears.