The Golden Key

It was yet another normal day inside of the guild hall of the well known Fairy Tail, that is to say normal for them. Once again a fight had broken out between three of the guild's most powerful wizards, resulting in a large amount of broken furniture. "Will you three be quiet!" Erza shouted at the two dragon slayers and one ice wizard.

"Aye!" responded Natsu and Gray, doing a good imitation of Happy.

"Tch." Gajeel vocalized, looking away. With a satisfied 'hmm' Erza walked back over to the request board specifically used for S-rank jobs and scanned the few pieces of paper hanging there. As her eyes locked onto a specific one they widened in shock. "T-This is-" she managed to get out. She ripped the paper from the board before running over to the railing and calling out, "Natsu! Come look at this!"

"Eh?" Natsu questioned as he leapt up to the second floor and scanned the paper in Erza's hand. "Woah!" he exclaimed upon reading it.

"Wow." Gray said, having followed Natsu upstairs to get a look at the job request.

"Lucy's gonna freak out when she sees this." added Happy.

"Mhm," agreed Erza, nodding her head, "I want you two to come along."

"Of course!" answered Gray

"Leave it to me!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Gajeel, Wendy," Erza called out to them, "I'll be needing your help as well."

"Mmph!" Wendy agreed with a nod of her head.

"What's in it for me?" Gajeel questioned.

"A six of this reward." Erza answered, turning the paper to face him.

"That! No way!" Gajeel exclaimed, his eyes widening in surprise.

--

Lucy let out a sigh of relief as she opened the door to her apartment and walked in, dropping her bag on the floor. "Geez, I can't wait to- Why are you guys in my home?!" Lucy's expression changed from one of relief to one of annoyance as she noticed the grouping of people occupying her house.

"Sorry." Wendy apologized.

"Oh, Lucy!" Natsu greeted while doing pushups.

"We found a job we think you'd like," Erza said from her position on Lucy's bed, pulling out a piece of paper.

"A job huh?" Lucy questioned, walking over and taking the paper out of Erza's hand to look at it. "Looking for a celestial spirit wizard to activate a gate key? S rank mission?! Reward: 6 million jewel?!!! Bonus reward: Gate key?! This is perfect!"

"Yeah," agreed Gajeel, currently sitting in her writing desk chair, "But it's an S rank mission for a reason, that's why all of us are going. We'll split the reward, 1 million jewel each.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" said Gray, "Let's get going!"

"Yeah!"

--

The group was walking down a worn dirt path on their way to the client's house, chatting as they went. "Why do you suppose that it's an S rank job?" Carla questioned.

"I don't know," Pantherlily answered, "But we better keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"Aye sir!"

"He's right," Erza said, "There's got to be more to this than we know."

"I don't care!" Lucy exclaimed, "I'm going to get that 1 million jewel and that gate key!"

"Alright! I'm all fired up!"

"Looks like we're here." Gajeel pointed out, bringing everyone's attention to the huge mansion not too far away. As they walked over to the large gateway they were greeted by a servant in a maid's outfit.

"Greetings," she said, bowing, "My lord has been waiting for you. This way please." The group passed through the gates and allowed themselves to be lead into the mansion and through several corridors before finally stopping. "My lord will meet you in here." she said, motioning towards a door. The group walked into the room to see it was a study of sorts, decorated with several pieces of expensive looking furniture.

Near the middle of the room was a wooden table with a sofa seated on either side and on one of the sofas sat a young man in a casual suit, round glasses sitting on his face. "Hello there," he greeted, "Please take a seat." The group obliged and sat down on the sofa across from the client. "So you're here because of my job request are you not?" he asked.

"Yes sir." Erza answered.

"And I presume that you brought a celestial spirit wizard with you am I right?" he questioned.

"Um, that would be me," Lucy said, raising her hand, "Speaking of which where's the key?"

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you all about," he said, "You see I don't actually have the key.

"So then where is it?" questioned Gajeel.

"That's the thing," he said, pulling out a book and putting it onto the table," I've recently been studying into celestial spirit magic and I found something interesting. I found information about a celestial spirit key that's one of a kind, and it's said to be even stronger than the 12 zodiac keys."

"Stronger than the zodiacs?!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Exactly," he said, "I've been looking around for information and I believe I have found where it's supposed to be located. Go and fetch the key and allow me to see what it summons. In return I will reward you heavily and even allow you to keep the key for yourself."

"Right!" Natsu exclaimed, "Don't worry, we'll get that key and be back before you know it!"

"So, um, where is the key?" asked Wendy.

"If I'm correct then it should be located within some ruins located in a forest north of here," he said, "Let me get a map and I'll show you." He went ahead and rummaged around a bit until he found a map and spread it out on the table. "See, we're here," he said, pointing to a portion of the map, "And it should be located somewhere up here."

"Wow, that's pretty close." Lucy noted.

"Yeah, that's why I went ahead and bought this property." he explained.

"Just how rich is this guy?" they wondered at the same time.

"Don't worry, we'll get that key no matter what." Erza told him," Let's go!'

"Be careful," he said, "The forest there is filled with monsters."

--

"That was a pretty good work out." Gajeel said, stretching. Behind the group laid several unconscious monsters that had tried to ambush them a few minutes earlier.

"We've gone pretty far into the forest," Lucy pointed out, "If what he said was right then the ruins should be a little further ahead."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Natsu exclaimed, "Let's go!" With that Natsu charged forwards, leaving the others behind.

"Geez, that guy." Gray said.

"Come on, let's catch up with him." Erza told them. With that she took off, closely followed by the other four. Eventually they caught up to Natsu who had stopped a little ways inside of a large clearing. As they entered the open area their eyes were drawn towards the large stone ruins sitting in the middle of the clearing.

"We found it!" Lucy exclaimed, "Now we just have to get the key and bring it back."

"But how are we going to get in?" Carla asked, "I don't exactly see an entrance."

"Then I'll make one." Natsu said, walking towards the ruins with his hand wrapped in flames.

"Natsu wait-" Lucy's plea was drowned out by the sound of an explosion as Natsu drove his fist into the wall of the ruins. When the smoke from the blast cleared they were able to see the gaping hole that now lay in the ruins.

"See!" Natsu told them. Lucy merely let out a sigh and followed the group as they walked into the ruins.

"Right everyone, let's spread out and look for the key." Erza said.

"Yeah!" they all agreed before splitting up to search the ruins. After a while of searching futilely the group ended up coming back together.

"Did anyone find anything?" Erza questioned.

"Nope!" Natsu answered.

"No." Wendy said, shaking her head.

"Not a thing." Lucy sighed.

"Nothing for me." Gray told her.

"We found some stairs." Gajeel told them.

"Well then, it looks like our goal is further down," Erza said, "Show us where the stairs are." Gajeel nodded and walked off, the group following behind him. Eventually they reached the stairs and stopped.

"Here we are." Gajeel announced.

"Right," Erza said, "We don't know what we may find down there, so everybody be on guard. Let's go!" With that the group took off down the stairs. After a few minutes the group finally reached the bottom of the stairs and walked into a room with a small pillar in the center. On the pillar, illuminated by what appeared to be a beam of moonlight and sunlight merged together, was a golden key.

"We found it!" exclaimed Lucy.

"Yeah, but what's with the light?" Gajeel questioned.

"Who cares!" Natsu said, running up and snatching the key. "Lucy catch!" he warned, throwing the key to her. Lucy caught it and studied it. At the top of the key was an engraved carving of the sun, and when she flipped it over a carving of a crescent moon was etched on the other side. The strangest part, however, was the bottom of the key which was shaped like a circle, but inside the circle the figures of two winged unicorns seemed to be chasing around each other.

"Woah, that's one interesting key." noted Gajeel.

"Indeed." agreed Erza.

"Who cares!" exclaimed Natsu, "Lucy summon it, I wanna see what kind of spirit it is!"

"I'll admit, I'm interested in knowing as well," Erza admitted.

"Aye!"

"Alright," agreed Lucy, sticking her arm straight out. "I am linked to the path to the world of celestial spirits," she chanted, "Now, o spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate!" With that a bright light burst out, blinding everyone. "What's going on?" Lucy questioned as she collapsed, her consciousness fading. Before darkness consumed her she was able to see that the others had also collapsed.

--

"Ugh, my head," Lucy moaned as she felt herself waking, "What happened?" Lucy opened her eyes and found herself staring at a wooden ceiling. She was tempted to lay there, but remembered the others. With a grunt she pushed herself into sitting position before noticing that she was being watched. Standing in front of her with a confused look on it's face was what appeared to be a purple unicorn with a set of wings. Lucy did the only logical thing and took a deep breath, "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The purple winged unicorn winced before opening it's mouth and speaking, "Calm down!"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I said calm down!"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Finally Lucy ran out of breath and stopped screaming.

"Good, now that you're calm let's introduce ourselves, my name is Twilight Sparkle, what's yours?" the winged unicorn asked.

"L-Lucy." she managed to get out.

"Good, now could you please explain why a bunch of ponies are asleep on the library floor?" Twilight questioned.

"Ponies?" Lucy asked, raising a hand to her face only to find a tan colored hoof.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

*End of chapter 1*